Warriors Fill Out Roster, AD Goggles, Lively’s Shocking Growth Spurt & More

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
And welcome to No Dunks, the Internet's original basketball podcast.
I'm your host today, Trey Kirby joining me here in
the yard. It's Tass mellis. Yeah, what's going on, Trey. Oh,
we're getting so close to the NBA season here, tasty,
it's getting pretty exciting.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you ask me, I feel like the vibes are better,
the vibes are they're cooking.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah. Once we start seeing these guys in their jerseys,
their shorts, their facial hair, their haircuts, you know you
can't help but get excited. No Skeets today is still
doing the Green Card Dance in Canada. We'll hopefully be
back soon. And yeah, NBA season right around the corner.
You're getting excited.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
It sounds like, oh gosh, yeah, yeah, JD is working
on our studio. I will say, I don't know if
it's just me here recency biased, but I feel like
this is the most excited I've been for an NBA
media day, and.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I feel like our media brethren, we're pumping out the hits,
we're pumping out the notes of every media day. I
feel like I made more notes or chuckled or you know,
made a little snarl at more tweets this year than I.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Ever have in the past. Excellent, excellent, exciting times. Maybe
we should host our own media day once we get
back into the new fangled classic factory.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, okay, wait, I think that's a that's a good idea.
I know there's there's lots of things that we're going
to talk about today that you're going to create videos
about in the coming weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, because stuff is going on, man, stuff is going on.
Lots of people were talking, lots of people were asking questions,
so we got a lot of things to talk about. Yeah,
we're going to play a little bit of is this news?

(02:04):
Oh baby? Is this news? The first little bit of news,
This one's news. This one is definitely new. Questioning it all,
I say it's a little misleading. The Warriors, according to
Shan Saranya, have agreed to deals with Al Horford, d
Anthony Melton, and Gary Peyton. The second This is news

(02:26):
because the Golden State Warriors didn't do anything this offseason,
but it's also kind of not news because these guys
haven't actually been signed to the team. All of this
has to wait until Jonathan Kaminga resolves his stalemate with
the Warriors before they can find out exactly how much
they're offering Horford Melton and Gary Peyton. But they're at

(02:47):
least saying, yeah, we're gonna be on your team. They're
not a media day, they're not practicing because they don't
actually have contracts. But they will someday have contracts, is
what it seems like. So tasks tell me how this
is news or cannot.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Listen. This is not new news if that's what news
is classified anymore as because these guys were expected, but
the fact that it is sort of happening. I had
to go to NBA dot com slash transactions to check
out are any of these actual deals now it does
list as Gary Payton the second coming back under a contract, yeah,

(03:23):
or Horford and Dandy Melton have not. I will say
it's news because when we go back to the Warriors
in the playoffs, they needed a better defender at the
center spot specifically, and Al Horford is that guy. Any
switch needed, he will be there to help out. He
will guard absolutely anyone, and the Warriors in the past

(03:44):
when they have won in twenty two and then eighteen
and seventeen. They did it with a center beside Draymond Green,
you're Kevan Lune or JaVale McGee, you're Boga and Al
Horford will be there to help out. I know he
is frank and old. That being said, this guy right now,
he ain't drinking alcohol and becoming older and older. He's

(04:07):
drinking his chocolate milk. I think he's taking care of
his body. We've seen this guy and how many years
he's gone through the NBA, and he's been fine. And
Trace Jackson Davis is a guy who's gotten another year
older at twenty five year number three. We'll see what
he can become as a backup guy.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
But this helps.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I mean they needed defense, They needed to be bigger,
so I think this does help. It is weird not
seeing these guys at media day, and that is very strange.
But even though they still don't know what their roster
is because Kuminga is not signed, I think they will
get off to a good start. I think they're devoted
to that. Last year they started twelve and three. On

(04:43):
November twenty second, they were first in the west Man
Okay See was twelve and four while they were twelve
and three, and then a bunch of injuries happened to
a guy like d' Anthony Melton, who I think is
a question mark because he's recovering from an injury. But
at the same time, the oldest team, as I know
you tweeted about it is odd to see this team

(05:06):
who's really old, kid even older?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, super old, thirty nine years old Al Horford. If
the Warriors somehow make it to the finals, I think
unlikely he'll be forty years old playing in the finals.
But you gotta love the fit with Horford and Draymond
both very switchable guys, super high IQs. Steph Curry hasn't
really played with a stretch big like Al Horford. You know,

(05:29):
Quentin Post gave them a taste of that last year,
but he was a rookie only going into a second year.
He'll probably be part of the rotation. But yeah, Horford
is gonna help. The key for the Warriors will be
staying healthy throughout the year. With these guys who are
in their late thirties, they're all missing twenty games a season.
Al Horford hasn't been a full time starter in a

(05:51):
couple of years, so that will be a huge question.
But it's good that they finally got a tall guy
because this Warriors team is tiny, like Trace Jackson, save
it's the dude's a center. He's six foot nine. The
only other guy they have that's over six seven currently
on the roster is Gee Santos, and I mean Horford
is not a giant either. So this is an old,

(06:11):
small team that doesn't always bode well for long term success.
But I think they're going to be a tough out
when it comes playoff time, assuming everybody is healthy. You
mentioned Horford is probably starting. I totally agree with you, Steph,
Jimmy Draymond, those guys are locks. So the big question
for the Warriors is like who is going to be
their two guard. It kind of comes down to Buddy

(06:31):
Heel brings the shooting, and then Brandon Pajenski, maybe the
highest upside of guys they could throw in there, had
an up and down season last year. And Moses Moody,
who just doesn't seem to really ever establish himself as
a guy for Steve Kerr he gets thrown in. He
always seems ready whenever he gets thrown into the rotation,
but seems unlikely that he would be the starter. Who

(06:52):
you think ends up getting that last starting job for
the Warriors.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's a great question. I think they really could all
be there. Moody didn't always just click when he was
in there, but the three is usually pretty steady, so
you could see that. You could see Buddy who did
respond to playing with good players and defended like Jalen
Green in that first round, was a reason they're playing
intense defense. I think it could be Brandon Pujemski, just

(07:19):
because he plays so well when he's playing well with really,
really really good players beside him, and he's like he
is a playmaker, and so I think I think they
kind of need that over Buddy Healed or Moses Moody,
somebody to be able to get into the paint and
make things happen. I think this is a good sign
for the Warriors as we're naming these guys who are

(07:41):
capable NBA players, along with adding Al Horford to the trace,
Jackson Davis and quintin post center rotation, they are fricking old,
that's no doubt about that. That being said, it is
it's an improvement over last year's team. Against Minnesota in
the playoffs, they were too freaking small. As we've said then,
just didn't have enough centers out there. So Horford being

(08:05):
there helps. Hopefully Tray Shacksonton Davis improves, Hopefully Quinton Post improves.
But yes, they could they could just use another body
out there. But again they're still they're still working through
the back end of the rotation. Like it seems like
they're going to sign Seth Curry at some point, just
as Old also small, super old, just to take minutes

(08:30):
away from the guys that you said, Jimmy has to sit,
Seth has to sit, and so the guys like Moses
Moody and Pajemski and potentially Seth curR are going to
play a good amount of minutes to get them to
the playoffs healthy.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, the question will be what the ceiling for this team.
FanDuel has the Warriors at plus three thousand odds to
win the title. That's the same as the Atlanta Hawks.
It's tied for tenth overall, sixth in the West. That
seems about right to me, Like, I think the Warriors
are probably a top ten team with a pretty good ceiling,
just because you like what Steph can do come playoff time,

(09:08):
Jimmy has shown that he's able to raise his game
come playoff time. Horford, we've seen do it in the
finals as well. Draymond. Of course, you don't need as
much depth necessarily when it comes playoff time, though that
seems to be changing around the league as well. So yeah,
we'll see what happens with the Warriors. It's good they're
actually getting a team together. I saw they also signed

(09:29):
a couple of rookies so that literally they can have
enough players at practice today they're having their first players
and or their first practice and they finally have eleven
guys on the roster.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but at
times I was looking watching their press conference and I
was clicking through and I was looking, Oh, it's to
Anthony Melton there, Oh it is Gary Payton the second there,
And I see some of these faces and I say it,
I don't know who that guy is? Who is that? So, yes,
you can say that about the Golden State Warriors. They

(09:59):
don't have every buddie as far as the championship team
in twenty twenty two that they had, but they do
have camaraderie and chemistry together that they didn't have last
year even because they signed or excuse me, they traded
for Jimmy mid season. Bam.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
They turned it on and they were awesome.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
And now they actually have a training camp together. You
see Draymond and Jimmy Butler working out together. You have
what is probably the best center that Steph Curray has
ever played with. You know, there was Andrew Bogan, there
was other guys in Draymond Green plays center, but it's freakin'
Al Horford and he's old, so we will see what

(10:37):
he can bring now today, fresh office, another bottle of
chocolate milk. But it feels like this team has it.
It's a matter of sticking together and maybe maybe a
little more size and being healthy six months from now.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Really it'd be nice to they don't have to go
through the play in tournament as well. They've been a
playing team quite a bit recently, and that's just stressful.
It's also feels like the last month and a half
of both of this previous season and the season prior
has been almost playoff basketball for the Warriors, where they
have to win seventy five percent of their games to

(11:14):
even squeak into the play in tournament and that's the
problem you run into when it's all old guys. One
guy that's not in camp, Jonathan Kaminga still hanging over
our heads, the Coaminga stalemate. He has until tomorrow to
pick up his qualifying offer, which is just a little
bit under eight million dollars. They've been reporting about three
different options that the Warriors have presented to Kaminga. There's

(11:36):
a two year, forty five million dollar deal that they've
offered him with a team option for the second year.
There's a three year seventy five million dollar deal that's
been offered that has a team option for the Warriors
in the third year. Then there's a no options deal
three years fifty four million dollars. What do you think
is going to end up happening with Kaminga, Because there's
been some weird stuff going on. His agent is literally

(11:57):
doing a media tour saying if you give him a
player option, he'll buy in. But if he takes the
qualifying off or good luck. That doesn't seem like the
ideal way to enter a season where you do have
championship expectations because there's always that expectation for Golden State.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I think he comes back under a two or three
year deal, as you said, to make a good amount
of money, just because it doesn't seem all that positive
if you enter free agency here in twenty twenty five
and there's a bunch of options in twenty twenty six.
I know our man Sham Sharania said this was going

(12:32):
to be an incredible offseason and it was not. But
I think you should say the same thing about next
year because there will be more options. I don't know
if Minga wants to enter that really, I don't think
in comparison to this season, there's going to be way
more competition for him. And so I liked hearing all
the Warriors players yesterday when they were asked about Jonathan Kaminga.

(12:55):
They were basically to me saying, come on back, man,
we want you, we need you, we love you. The
question is on the other side, does he want to
come back again and be under Steve Kerr, who they
seem to butt heads so I can I can understand
why he'd want to go somewhere else, but it just

(13:17):
it's scary for me if I'm whoever it is, you know,
Brooklyn or Sacramento or wherever do you want him being
on being a top one, two three guy. Hopefully one
of these Warriors can say to him, you can sign
a contract in a couple of years after this one's done.
There's lots of money to go around to see the
TV deal just two more years, man, So I'm I'm

(13:40):
not sure what the feeling is, but it seems like
money wise, this would be the best position for him.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well, yeah, he can definitely make the most money by
agreeing to one of these deals with the Warriors, but
they only really want him as an asset, and he
doesn't want to be a Warrior. He wants to go
somewhere where he can be a number one, number two
option and take as many mid range jumpers as possible.
I think it's pretty weird the way his agent is
handling this stuff, posting clips of kminga like coming around

(14:06):
a screen, being like, look, he can play in a system.
Then there was also the thing that Warriors fans were
going in and slowing down two point five speed the
kaminga jumper and finding that there was a frame slip
to make it look like he had a quicker release
for his three pointers. Odd stuff, But you're right, Kurt,
Steph Curry is talking like he will be a Golden

(14:28):
State Warrior. He keeps saying when he's here, not if
he's here. I think that's pretty consistent throughout the rest
of the Warriors as well at media day, but kind
of unusual that Steve Kerr and Mike Dunleavy Junior didn't talk.
That seemed like they were maybe ducking these questions about
cominga because that's going to be a thing hanging over
the Warriors heads until a resolution has come about. It

(14:49):
doesn't feel dissimilar to the summer where Jordan Poole and
Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were all going to be
free agents and it was kind of kind of like,
who is Golden State gonna choose? The pool thing hungover
at the Warriors heads all year. It was a cloud
over the locker room and they were never to get
never able to get out of their own way. So
they need to figure out what's gonna happen. I think

(15:12):
they have until midnight Wednesday for the qualifying offer to
go down, and I don't know. I think the Warriors
would be better off washing their hands of Jonathan Kminga.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I get it, yeah, I get it that he might
be a locker room point of conversation. But I wonder,
I wonder if, like we've talked about them being in
a play in is just just a problem for this team.
Having to play so many minutes is a problem for
this team. If Kerr gives him the keys a lot

(15:46):
of the time, not all of the time, but a
lot more of the time, but it might be off
the bench. So I mean, that's the scary part for
Jonathan Minga that he seems like he doesn't want it. So, yes,
it is a question good thing for the Warriors. They
have gone through this a billion times before, but yeah,

(16:07):
they want to have a training camp with all their guys,
so it is. Yeah, it is a bit of an
issue for sure.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
All right, let's go to Dallas over the summer. Anthony
Davis had surgery for a detached retina in his right eye.
He's made a full recovery after like a month long recovery,
he said. But Anthony Davis said that his doctors told
him he's gonna need to wear goggles for the rest
of his career. He's got the eye protection going. What
do you think about this test?

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I think this is good news for Anthony Davis. He
has never wanted to wear these things ever, and you
could hear him in media day saying, ah, yeah, I
gotta do it. The doctor say I gotta do it.
He's finally doing it. This guy had three eye injuries
in thirteen months, so just over here, Pop pop pop
poked that many times, and you could see his off

(16:57):
season surgery still wearing on him because he had red,
extremely red eyes. Well, I yas right, I very red
and swollen. Yeah, he's saying it's from the drops that
he's taken. You know, he's not making excuses. He's just
saying it's it's tough. Man. I've never liked it, but

(17:18):
I'm wearing the horse grants this year, the Kareem Abdul Jabbars, and.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
It just sucks.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
That being said, if he's got goggles on, it's good
for him. I know you've gone through a bunch of it, Trey,
as a ball of yourself, you keep on. You show
up at the at the studio with banged dives like.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
You're right, I got like a black guy every four months.
It feels like Luckily, as Laura once told me, I'm
blessed with the neanderthal shaped skull. I have a heavy
browbone and deep set eyes. So usually I'm taking the
brunt of the elbows to my orbital bones. Nothing's broken yet,
but uh, you know, I got scars and black eyes.

(17:58):
Maybe I need to switch to the horse grants as well.
I thought that was a funny line from Anthony Davis.
He followed up by saying it won't be like that,
but I will have some protective eyewear for sure. So
I'm curious. It basically comes down to do you want
the horse grants the squares? Do you want the more
circular ones that kind of just look like a regular

(18:19):
goggle more Kareem style. My guess is that he'll go
with the Oakleys that we've seen him wear in the
past with the Lakers. Anthony Davis actually looks pretty cool
when he wears goggles.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
I think absolutely. You know, I did my my my
Google image search yesterday and yeah, he looked it looks
super cool. Yeah he's not. He's definitely not going with
the Kareems. To me, that's who he seemed he repelled
the most. He didn't want that yesterday when I went
hearing him. You know, the creams are big, the Oakleys

(18:50):
are Yeah, they're almost stylish, man, they kind of look cool.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
They're cool. The coolest guy to ever wear the oleas
was Antoine Big Dog Car circa nineteen ninety seven ninety eight,
playing against the Chicago Bulls, wearing like the Cepia orange
tinted ones. I didn't know that he necessarily needed to
go with tinted oakleys, but they did look pretty sweet.
And I guess Amari Stottenmeyer is a guy who had

(19:17):
similar issues, right, Like, he kept getting poked in the
eyes and eventually he just had to start wearing glasses
as well.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah, they were tinted the Antoine cars, they were cools
and and so these are like what kids are wearing
for just around and for baseball too, right that like
the shape of them.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Oh yeah, if he shows up in a pair of
mirrored pit vipers would be an incredible look for this guy.
I guess a little bit of an adjustment period getting
used to playing every single game. Oh yeah, I never
see him whatever, So you can never see.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Him his eyes when he if he was wearing those, like,
you never know where he was passing to. Why wouldn't
Why wuldn't they start wearing it? It's like it's not allowed.
It's like a quarterback can't, right, you can't.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
You can't like have a dark tint. You gotta be
able to see the eyes. Yeah that's true. Yeah, yeah,
I think that's true. So they probably would.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Would ban him, but or ban them. But he should
do it for one game, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Preseason. You can do anything like Sam Persons wore a
do rag in a preseason one time, but then a
halftime they're like, hey man, you can't do that. In
the NBA, they're all right, fine, but if you started off,
it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. In other
MAVs injury news, Jason sid Kid said that Kyrie Irving
is not ahead of schedule, even though you saw him

(20:35):
shooting some jumpers on the internet and Kyrie confirmed it.
They both say he's on schedule. Just feels like they're
not really pushing him to come back. They want him
at full Kyrie Irving status whenever he returns.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, watching those clips of him bang home shots from
mid court cool to see, but it is a lot different,
and it's a long different than actually go inside to
side lateral movement in a game, way different, So I'm
sure it's months ahead now. He did in the off
season when asked while he was twitching, he was on

(21:08):
his twitch, he was asked if he's coming back, and
he said, I didn't guarantee that I'm coming back even
next season. So it's a real real swing here to
seeing him ball after hearing those comments, because yeah, he does.
You know, you know, look good when it comes to
sitting on my butt watching a guy take shots from

(21:29):
mid court, but he looks better than a guy who's
not going to be around all season. So I would
expect that he'd come back, but it's gonna be months.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, it does feel like he will play this season
at some point, and you know, it's probably like a
late in the season thing. Maybe Marchie gets the ramp
up in time for the playoffs, and if the Mads
are sitting in a good position, maybe they can make
some noise. Because I did like that photo they were
getting together of Kyrie, Anthony Davis, and Cooper Flagg's pretty

(22:00):
cool they got three number one picks on the same team.
I don't know if that's ever happened in NBA history.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I would have maybe imagine, you know, when somebody
sneaks in like a and Anthony Bennett. You know, maybe
not a great number one pick, but probably the free
and the fact that you saw Cooper Flag shaking hands
with Michael Jordan pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, that was cool.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, so he's got a great start. Even though you
know he's he hasn't said a lot. I think Cooper
is a pretty quiet guy. But yeah, like you said,
things from the outside looking in are looking good for
Cooper Flag and for the MAVs. I think this Anthony
Davis news is good. The guy's going to be healthy.

(22:45):
To me, I mean, it reduces his eye injuries. How
could you not be pumped about that. It feels like
they've got good news top to bottom in that roster.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
The people are saying that the Timberwolves once had three
number one overall draft picks. They're saying Kat Wiggins and
Anthony Bennett. Is that true? Though? Wasn't Wiggins traded for Bennett?
Wasn't that part of the deal with Cleveland. I don't
remember if that's necessarily true, but Dion mentions Dereck Rose
did end up on the Timberwolves as well, and he

(23:15):
was a number one pick, So yeah, maybe that's it.
And then I think the Lakers right now have two
and Lebron and DeAndre Ayton. So it happens, but it
isn't usually when two of the guys are in their
pseudo primes, you know. I guess, yeah, Tyrie obviously coming
off an injury, but he's still a good player in
the NBA. Anthony Davis is all NBA caliber, and Cooper

(23:36):
is playing as well. Still, we will see what they
look like when they are up to full strength.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Must better that Derek Rose one, because I had it
in the back of my head. I didn't know it
jumped into in the back of my head that Derek
Rose has been part of three number ones, although it
was it was with the Wolves, although he had he
had a fifty point game with the Minnesota Timberwolves. But
I'm guessing it was.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
So they're saying Rose, Cat and Wiggins, so that makes
sense to me. They were rocking the like the Prince Jerseys.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
I remember that seventeen seventeen eighteen. I guess was Wiggans
last year. Gosh, I loved clicking around on Basketball Reference.
Where are you seventeen eighteen roster Minnesota Timberwolves. Yeah, they
must have been Wiggans. He was on the team. Yeah,
they must have played together.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Nice, so it's happened before. I don't know if anybody
else touched didn't the WNB, I think the Aces. At
one point they had four number one overall draft picks
on their team. I'm pretty sick they won the title
that year. Can you believe it? Good stuff? Also in Dallas,
Derek Lively mav Center said he grew two inches over
the summer. He's now seven foot three. If you buy it, tasks,

(24:51):
I'm buying it. I started, I started doing my googles.
Can you grow at twenty one years of age?

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Sure? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (25:00):
What happens? February he turned twenty one, So this is,
you know, kind of like twenty one and a half.
But that's fine. I think you know from from very
very quick googles that it's about of a fifteen percent
chance to grow at twenty one. Usually everybody has grown,

(25:21):
has finished growing. But it's it does happen, and so
twenty one and a half, Yeah, I'm good with it.
I checked all the sites in terms of NBA dot
Com Basketball Reference, are they listing him at any higher
than seven foot one? They are not. He's still seven
to one, so it's not official, but I buy it.
You buy it.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
No, I don't think so. He was asked have you
grown any this summer, and his response was I believe
so I would definitely say I have. I just got
to get the exact measurement, but I'd say seven to
two seven three. This is one of the easiest things
to possibly find out. If you've grown, just stand by
a wall and people will measure you. It's simple. If

(25:58):
you've grown, you know you've grown.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, well they have to measure, aren't they. Actually they're
actually doing measurements in the NBA now right.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Yeah, you have to have legit measurements, so we will see.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, he's got I guess they do it at some
point in training camp, probably not on me D Day,
at some point in the next few weeks. So he's
got time to grow even if he wants.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah, he's got time to grow. He's still got today.
But I will be scouring those measurements and that roster
once the Mavericks actually release it. Hey, if they got
a seven foot three guy, makes even more sense for
Anthony Davis to play the four and for Derek Lively
to play the five, and if he is able to
still move the way he was at seven foot one.
If he's able to move like he does at seven

(26:43):
foot three, they're gonna be an awesome defensive team. And
I think they're gonna be a good defensive team regardless.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, this is fantastic stuff. This is one guy who
slips under the radar in terms of headlines and whoeveryone
is talking about with Cooper and Kyrie and ad obviously,
but he didn't play a lot of last season, so
we didn't really get to see their entire roster. Like,
there's so many guys on this team with Christy even

(27:12):
who no one's really talking about as the young guys
to bring the glue to your D'Angelo Russells and those
types of vets out there. This team has a very
very good roster in theory, and when they played last year,
they look like they could really play. So this West
is ridiculously tough.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, the West is ridiculously tough. Some teams season is
going to be over by the time we get to December,
just by getting off to a bad start and having
to play catch up. So maybe it'll be the MAVs.
Maybe not to tie a bow on things, Ludasan here
in the stream, team is mentioned. In the nineteen eighties,
the Lakers had three number one picks in Kareem, James Worthy,

(27:54):
and Magic Johnson. That's a decent, you know, threesome. They
did okay getting those three together. So wouh the track record?
That's good. If you can get three Hall of Famers
on the same team, you're gonna have a chance to win.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, and maybe ye win the w NBA Finals.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Exactly right, So MAVs buyer stock. Now, maybe it doesn't
happen this year, but next year. In Philadelphia, the Sixers
had media day on Friday after we talked about Jared
McCain's thumb injury and the news out of Sixers camp
was not great tasks. Neither Joel Embiid nor Paul George

(28:32):
have timelines to return following their respective knee surgeries. Embiid
had his left knee done in April. Paul George had
his left knee done in July. Both of them said
they're listening to their bodies and that's kind of gonna
be the guiding principle for how much and when they're
able to play this season. So talk to me a

(28:53):
little bit about Philadelphia starting the year off with three
injuries already.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, I would call this news. It feels like we're
going back to last season where Embiid's status it's just conspicuous.
We don't know what it's going to be. Daryl Moorey
was conspicuous about it last year. I think we could
just say, like they kind of did last year, it's
indefinite TBD. I will save that. Paul George went definitely

(29:20):
more disappointing coming off of last year. There was some
talks about him turning a new leaf this coming year,
and then he went and had surgery in July, and
so that part is definitely discouraging that he hasn't recovered
from that. And at the same time, and I mentioned July,

(29:44):
I started thinking about the draft pick and Vja Edgecomb
and the fact that there may be this season there
could be guys to compensate for Paul George when he
sat or Joel Embiid when he sat. But then you
mentioned that other injury and Jared McCain Quentin Grime still
isn't sign. I think they're gonna miss kershwan Yabusele because
he played so many games they got to go to Dubai.

(30:05):
Now they're in Dubai to have training camp, So I
mean they got a lot of moving parts. They're not
getting the camaraderie getting going with Paul George in the
lineup at the very least, you know Joel EMBIDI can
kind of expect knowing his knees, but pg's not there,
so it is. Yeah, it's a poopy start, no doubt

(30:27):
about that.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, And I mean I think, look, Embiid is obviously
their best player. I thought it was kind of funny
what Nick Nurse has said. He's like, yeah, hopefully there's
actually some management this year because last year he just
didn't play, so we didn't have to manage anything. He
just wasn't out there. They need Embiid to do anything
this season. But missing Paul George maybe is even worse

(30:52):
for the Sixers because you look at the wing depth
they have and they basically don't have any wing depth.
Justin Edwards had some decent moments last season, but other
than him, it's like Kelly u Bray Junior is going
to play a major part on the wing for the Sixers.
They brought in Trendon Watford, who was decent for the
Nets last year, but not really a starting caliber player.
They don't have any other young guys who can fill

(31:14):
in on the wing. They do have a bunch of
these small guards, and signing Grimes would be huge for
this team. But I mean, Paul George had, you know,
just an all time Paul George quote at media Day.
He said, it can't get worse than last year. That
was a rock bottom kind of season.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
That's the kind of thing people will pull out if
they had the exact same kind of season this year.
Last year, Joel Embiid played nineteen games, Paul George played
forty one games. That's a combined sixty games from those
two guys. Do you think they play more or less
this year? Six combined games for Paul George and Jowell Embiid.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
I'm going over because I do think there is some
sort of plan with Joel Embiid playing. But but but
but who knows that that's that's the unfortunate thing. I
will say with with the Nick Nurse comment, I feel

(32:08):
like Embiid once to gear up. I think he's gonna
pull off more of the Kawhi Leonard twenty four to
twenty five plan, which is sit for a long time
and then gear up slowly as the season goes on.
But yeah, that's forty over under. I don't know if
that's a line on FanDuel, but it should be excuse me,

(32:31):
sixty over under. You said, uh, that's I'm taking the
over because yeah, I mean that's.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Such a low number. Like you gotta hope they have
to get more than nineteen games from Embiid this season
just I mean thirty games would be playing fifty percent
more like that would be ridiculous to not get over
sixty games between those two guys.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
So it is tough. It felt like when they signed
Paul George, it was, ah, okay, here comes the patchwork
behind Maxi Embiid and Paul George. Here comes You're you
know you're you're Kyle Lowry or Eric Gordon and the
old guys. And now the patchwork ain't even there this
season with McCain out, Quentin Grimes ain't playing, I think

(33:16):
they will Mitch miss the patchwork of Yabusele. So that's
the scary part. Even even though as you said, there's
there's hole, there's guys to fill. And Ubrea, I think
the Watford signing was was a good contract. I was
a nice contract, Daryl Morey, But I'm not sure even
beyond the starters, the great players that the patchwork is enough.
It is the Eastern Conference, but still that's the that's

(33:40):
the worrisome part as well, Like, yes, we want Paul
George out there for sure to look like Paul George,
but even the that secondary supporting cast is not not
currently ready to go.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, definitely not. They got a lot of eight and
ninth men masquerading as fifth starters right now. So we'll
see what happens with Grimes. He's on the same qualifying
offer deadline sort of deal as Jonathan Kaminga, so there
will be a resolution in the next forty eight hours
for both of those guys. The Trailblazers also had media
Day on Friday, and they also had some bad injury news.

(34:17):
Third year guard Scoot Henderson as a torn left hand string.
He's expected to return to basketball activities in one to
two months.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
Is this news, test, It is news. This is Scoot
trying to grow from year two to year three, because
he did improve from year one to year two. I
always hate to see a guy not be able to
get a start going It is. It is a terrible
thing for Scoot. Now it's time to be positive. Good

(34:46):
environment in Portland. I do think with Drew around, Drew
Holliday will be good, very good for Scoot Henderson. Jeremy
Grant is going to play basketball this year. He didn't
seem super excited at media Day. He did not No,
he felt like he was going to be dealt this
past offseason. He answered the question with all his heart

(35:08):
when he was asked basically if he expected to be here. No,
not really, but he is a very good basketball player.
So I do think looking at the roster, considering Chauncey
Billips went and got two offensive minded coaches because he
knows they were really good defensively to end the season.
They've got a good locker room, but we need better offense.

(35:31):
I think that that part of the team and how
they could grow is positive. I'm excited to watch this team.
Danny Avdya coming off the bench year number two for
him in Portland. I'm excited to watch him with Young Hanson.
He was asked about playing with Young Hanson and he said, yeah,
I like it. I'm watching him play. I know he

(35:52):
can handle the ball. I love giving goes. I'm excited
to play with young Hanson. So I do think if
you start to go through the roster, considering they got
new coaches to try and take care of that side
of the ball while Chauncey had the other side of
the ball, I'm excited. But yes, Scoot would be so
much more beneficial to have a freaking camp. But if
it is a month, you know he can still get

(36:16):
better again. The year one to year two jumps in
efficiency were there.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
They're real.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
He was coming off the bench, and so there's just
more room I think for a guy in Danny Avdia
who will be better in year two in Portland having
a great summer with the Israeli basketball team. So I
think there's enough to keep them going despite Scoot as
an individual to be a little pessimistic about.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, I think it's good that they have Drew Hollidays
like that answers the question for their starting lineup at
the point guard spot. At least Hi'll slot in there
and be the guy for Portland. He plays defense, He'll
get the guys the ball where they need. Maybe his
scoring takes a little bit of the jump after kind
of being the fifth option for a lot of the
time I'm in Boston, but this really sucks for Scoot.

(37:03):
Thirty year is supposed to be a breakout year. He
hasn't had a breakout year yet.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
He was good last.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Season, but this was kind of a prove it year
to me for Scoot Henderson. Show us that you're going
to be an important piece of the Blazers going forward,
because I mean, twelve to fourteen points per game is
not what the Blazers were expecting when they drafted Scoot
number three and moved on from Damian Lillard. This guy
was supposed to be a star for them, and now
he's going into rehab mode with an injury that can

(37:28):
linger as a player that really needs to maximize his athleticism.
So I think this is pretty bad for the Blazers.
Maybe they can survive it if it's only four weeks,
you know, he only misses a handfull of games, But
if it's eight weeks, they could be behind the eight
ball when it comes to making a run into the playoffs.

(37:49):
And I have absolutely zero confidence in Jeremy Grant. That
guy looked completely checked out. You mentioned it. They asked
him if he thought he'd be back on the Blazers
this season, he said, I definitely didn't. But then you
look at his contract and there's no way a team
is going to take a chance on Jeremy Grant. Thirty
two million this year, thirty four million next season. Then

(38:09):
he has a thirty six million dollar player option for
the twenty six twenty seven season. Jeremy Grant is thirty
one years old test that hasn't been in the playoffs
since he played for Denver in twenty twenty, and he
plays sixty games per season and he expects to start.
They asked him if he was going to come off
the bench. He's like, I don't see that happening, which
means I think Shaden Charp probably goes to the bench

(38:31):
because Denny Avdia has been their best player to Monty Kamara,
second team All Defense. He started every game that he
played last year, so Sharp to me seems like the
odd man out, and that seems like completely antithetical to
building for the future to be sending your young guy
who you need to see what he can do as

(38:52):
a number one option, to the bench to play behind
Jeremy Grant, who isn't a good guy to have as
your leading scorer like, he's not an efficient player. He
doesn't shoot well from two. He's not a big defender.
He's just a guy that can sock up sop up
possessions because nobody else does. So. I think this is
a kind of a disaster contract. He's got one of
the worst contracts in the league. Because I don't know

(39:13):
who's touching that thing.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
I cannot disagree that was a monster when they signed it.
And yeah, yeah, he signed thinking that he was going
to be a number one guy, and it hasn't been
great when he's on the court, and it hasn't been
great in the locker room in terms of the as
you said, what path that this team is on, because

(39:38):
it is even though they went and got Drew Holliday,
it's devoted to younger players. And as I said, I'm
excited to watch Denny have the ball, and he's got
a start a lot of games. I know he's good
enough and cares about the team enough to come off
the bench at times, but when you have a monster

(40:02):
contract like Jeremy Grant, I'm sure he expects to start
as well. So where's the room for this team if
Denny's playing? Like you said, now with Anthony Simon's gone,
I guess there's more room. It's probably Shane Sharp though,
as you said, that seems they need to pick a direction.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
The Blazers are caught in the middle right now. We'll
see they were nice last season, like it was fun
to watch the Blazers play defense. That was basically when
Jeremy Grant was out and Timani Kamara and Denny Avdya
really stepped into bigger roles. Klingon is going to be
better this season, assuming he's able to play more than
like twenty five minutes. I don't have a lot of

(40:44):
expectations for young Hansen this year. He's still just a
rookie coming from a lesser league, so we'll see what
he's actually able to do. But they're just trying to
make it back to the play in tournament, and that's
not really a place you want to be as a
Bulls fan. I can speak to that.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I will say I can't wait to talk about our
Tunis arturists, Carnichiabus and his words. I got some great
words from him. I will say they are picking a
younger path, but they just couldn't find anyone that takes
I don't think they wanted, yeah, you know, a great
guy to have in your locker room, but they couldn't

(41:24):
find anyone to take Jeremy Grant.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
They're not going to find anybody to take Jeremy Grant.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, that that is a problem. Otherwise they've gotten young
with you know obvious a lot younger and your your
Scoot and your sharp Tamara.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
The old guy.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I think Drew is just is strictly there to to
help guide some of the young players, considering they're not
paying anyone the max at this point max beyond you know,
the rookie contract. It's fine to have Drew Holliday's contract around.
It's the Jeremy grant. Unfortunately that it works with the
numbers because they're not paying much for basically anybody. Denny's

(42:03):
on one of the best contracts uh in the NBA,
so it works financially. But yeah, they're they're I think
the only old guys really are Drew, Jeremy and Robert
Williams is still on the on the roster.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
See the way I look at it is the only
young guys are Scooting Sharp because like Omdiez in his prime,
the dude's twenty five years old, he's not young anymore.
He's right in the middle of his prime. You know,
Kamara was an older rookie as well. So I don't know.
This is just an odd team to me, and I
don't think it proved me wrong. We'll see.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, well, you know, Kligan's still young and and young
Hanson let's call him young Hanson. He ain't old, he's.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Young, that's true. He's twenty years old.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
They're they're looking for guys. I mean they are sort
of picking, you know, letting Deandraton go. It will be
a fun a fun roster. I think that the Jeremy
Grant issue is more locker room Jeremy Grant, like you said,
he obviously did not feel extremely happy sitting there at
the table. So, you know, beyond on the floor play,

(43:08):
which Drew Holliday should help with, he should help this
team be excited to take the floor together. What is
Jeremy Grant going to be in these situations? I don't
know if he can adapt to being more of a
role player. Really. I mean, I'd rather see Danny Avdya
handle the ball so many more times on this team

(43:31):
than Jeremy Grant. So TBD.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Here, Well, since you mentioned four play, let's talk about
something sexy or did you say floor play?

Speaker 2 (43:40):
I think I said floor Oh.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Well, anyways, here's something The Toronto Raptors were asked about
the excitement in Toronto over the Blue Jays get into
playoffs in Major League Baseball. RJ. Barrett responded, in a
couple months from now, it's gonna be us this news tasks,
are Barrett making a playoff guarantee?

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Oh yeah, baby, this is incredible news for Toronto as
a city. But let's just zoom out.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Let's just zoom out for a sec.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I think if you watched NBA ME to day and
what happened in that Toronto Raptors ME today, you got
to be super excited. Dark O Rijakovic, their coach, says,
our projected starting five has been practicing basically an entire
month together in September for a month, and I think
that in and of itself is a heck of an accomplishment.

(44:34):
This is Toronto Raptors basketball, where last year is a manual.
Quickly ever gonna play. They have just injury issues up
and down the roster. Brandon Ingram sat there. He didn't
play a minute. So the fact that they're all playing
together in Ingram and Barrett and Quickly and Barnes and
Yakaperl is exciting stuff. Listen to some of the quotes

(44:57):
from these guys. Scotty Barnes yesterday said, we got thirteen
fourteen guys who can step in.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
We have a complete roster.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
What is this, Okay, say East maybe Brandon Ingram, Yeah,
I'm good, might as well go there.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Come on, come on, you're getting the hyped that they
practice together. They gotta play a game together.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
I know, I know that that is an accomplishment. These
guys put on their shorts and they played together. That
did not happen last year. So the fact that you
hear this kind of stuff, Brandon Ingram complimenting a guy
like RJ. Barrett, man, I didn't know he was that good.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
I thought he was a gunner, is what he said. Yeah,
but he was just a gunner. It turns out he
can just stand off to the side and watch me cook.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah. I guess he didn't watch Toronto Raptors or New
York Knicks basketball at all. I mean, he can set
guys up, but honestly, as far as the roster goes,
RJ Barrett seemed almost relieved that there's a brandon Ingram
out there and a Scotty Barnes and Emmanuel quickly out there,
that he doesn't have to be the only guy to
set things up like he did last year. So there's

(46:02):
just so much positivity going on. Brandon Ingram was asked
about the difference between New Orleans and Toronto and he said, well,
the most impressive thing to me is that every seat
in the arena is filled, mine included.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
He said. He said, I was sitting the whole time
I was there in Toronto just watching the fans.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Fans of a team that was abysmal last year. So
that's a great sign. And I will say I know
it's positivity time because this is the time to get
extremely excited. And that's where our tourist, carniesievis As I said,
comes into play. He said, you talk to a lot
of teams right now and they think they're in that

(46:44):
they can compete now. As a Bulls fan, that's disappointing
to hear. But as a Toronto Raptors fan, or is
any other team in the Eastern Conference. Your Hawks, your Bucks,
your teams that have some hope, maybe perhaps to be
one of those top six, you got to be super
excited and you put it all together. You gotta be excited.

(47:06):
Now when you said for play, I thought you were
talking specifically about this quote because Brandon Ingram was asked
about how him, Scottie, Barnes and RJ will work as
a threesome and he said, you gotta put a pause
on that. That's an acceptable pause. That nice one.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
What are you supposed to say, Trio? I guess a
big three. Saying threesome is actually pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
How will you guys perform out there?

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, if it was the Montreal Raptors, they would call
it a manase TOI I believe. But it is a
good question. How do those three guys fit together? That's
a great question Barnes, Ingram and Barrett, which brings me
to my second question. Well, RJ Barrett even be in
Toronto at playoff time.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Only if they're good. They they will be looking to
see if if if if I if they don't play
well together. I don't know. It's it's hard. It's hard
when you look at the Ostern Conference again, if these
guys play to not see a team that is winning
a bunch of games. I think that they could be

(48:19):
easily be a five hundred team if they're all playing together.
So that I think Bobby Webster, the new head of
the front office after the great messia Ugerie has gone,
basically said we're not making any sort of assessments now
Timm d on everything. So it's a fair question, Tray,

(48:40):
will r J. Barrett be playing basketball beside Scottie Barnes
and Brandon Ingram? And I know it's a fair question
who We're talking about three guys that are basically occupied
the same space out there, but I will. I think
there will be a lot of cutting, There will be
lots of wheels being run. I think, you know, Scottie
Barnes is entirely fine with that. R J. Barrett, as

(49:01):
Brandon Ingram said, he's a playmaker. He got way better
at that. I know it's not as four K and
Ingram's going to score a lot of points, So I
think the offense will be totally different this year.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
They've got a lot of talent for sure, and I
was kind of surprised. I think r J. Barrett shot
like forty on corner threes for Toronto last year, so
that would definitely help him stick around. But of those three,
he's definitely the most likely to be traded. You know,
Barnes is the star of the team. They just gave RJ.
They just gave Ingram the big deal after the trade

(49:34):
last season, So when you're looking numbers wise, RJ seems
like most likely to potentially be shipped out. I was
checking the odds on fan Duel this morning. The Raptors
are a minus one oh eight to make the playoffs,
a minus one twenty two to miss the playoffs. But
they do have the best odds in the Eastern Conference

(49:54):
to make the play in tournament minus one oh five.
So fan Duel at the very least is having them
as playing team. I think that's quite likely they could click.
They do have a lot of depth on this team,
even when you get to the backup guys like you know,
Grady Dick is probably a rotation player. Oh, Chaiabaji is

(50:15):
a rotation player. Maybe their rookie Colin Murray Boyles is
able to do something. I was excited to watch Mamu
in euro Basket. They've got some dudes. So if they
get like good seasons from all of them and they
fit better than I think they do. I don't know
if they're a top six team in the East, but
they could be a top ten team.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Oh. I think there's no doubt they could be a
top ten team. I mean, you just went through a
bunch of players. We're getting deep. We're getting almost thirteen
fourteen players out there. I think they could fill out
a roster very well. I think RJ. Barrett and his
playmaking last year is kind of key to those three
guys who operate in the same space in Barnes himself

(50:58):
and Brandon Ingram. This guy at five and a half
assists per game last year, a huge career high for him.
He was asked to do that kind of thing on
a floor where Emmanuel Quickly wasn't even playing now not
to see.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Yeah, so what's Quickly going to be doing that? And
if Barrett's the playmaker? I also thought Ingram was the
playmaker and didn't Scotty Barnes lead the team in assists
last year.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Well, so you're saying only one man can dripple on
the guy can have the ball, Well, Bartch doesn't have
to do it as much anymore. Quickly can't do it
as much. That's not really his I know he's a
point guard, but he's not really leading your team and assists. Ever,
and Scotty Barnes can do it, I think, Yeah, this
is a team that's it's it's that wheel man. Keep

(51:43):
that thing going off at the top, just keep cycling
that ball. So in the Eastern Conference, I think they
could easily be a play in team. And I always
see these odds and I say, hold on, what is
making the playoffs? Even mean? I guess it means you
have to win a play in game if you get
in the play or does it mean you're in the

(52:03):
top six because it make it? I guess is making
the playoffs winning a play in game and getting into
the actual playoffs? Or do you have to be top
six like when.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
It's all said and done, top eight is playoffs. Yeah, yes,
it's probably what it is. But I'm a little uncertain
on that though. I do know obviously, if you make
seven through ten, you have made the play in tournament.
And I saw the bulls there odds they were plus
one ninety to make the play in tournament. Yeah, what
a what an awesome availability from our trash Carnissivus who

(52:38):
said we're going to try and win every game this year.
But also there's no expectations for this team, so they're
just like the Blazers, They're just like the Kings. It's like,
what are you actually trying to do? The only guy
who impressed me at Bulls Media day was Matzos Buzzellis,
who said he wants to win Most Improved Player this
year and he wants to be an All Defensive team

(52:59):
player this year. Like those would be huge steps forward
for Mantus Boozellis, but at least somebody there is trying
to do the right things and has expectations for at
least himself going into the season. He also says he
wants to win a championship, but I think the Bowls
are probably a little bit away from contending for a title.
But you know, if Josh Giddy is going to be

(53:20):
looked at the end of last season, if Mantas Bozellis
wins Most improve and makes All Defense, maybe they're cooking something.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Nats.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
How about the Blue Jays though? What's the playoff outlook
look like for the Blue Jays?

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Hopefully the Bats get going a little bit because they
were a team that everybody start to hype, and then
they lost six of seven, but then they responded well
with the sweep to end this whole freaking one hundred
and sixty two. So they look good, they're excited, But
the Bats number one, Yeah, they just stalled a little bit.

(53:54):
In second. I don't like five days off between the
playoffs or excuse me, the regular season and the playoffs
for teams that actually win their division, because they have
to wait for the other series to go on. So
I'm concerned. I'm concerned about the Bats. If they've stalled
to end the season now here we see them go
after five days off, it's yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
A little worried.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
I'm a little worried. And they're going to throw in
an injured Bobashit probably who's going to come back, Boba Boba.
Hopefully it'll be all right. But yeah, I'm definitely concerned
about the Bats.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
I hate that bye when like you win the division,
it kind of sucks to get the buye, especially I
think they play the winner of Yankees Red Sox. Right, Yes,
that's like so similar to the way the Braves season
ended the past two years, Like they won the division,
got the buye, but then the hot team in the
second half of the year. It turned out to be

(54:47):
the Phillies, a division rival, just like what the Blue
Jays are going to be running into. Gets a little
bit more consistency and they stay playing rather than wasting.
The bye is a killer. I think you got to
be able to respond.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
I listened to the Blue Jays broadcasts and Buck Martinez,
the Blue Jays legend, always was saying, everybody on that roster,
the pitchers, the hitters, the coaches, the fans, everybody loves
the time off. I don't get it. This is a game.
You wake up, you put on your cleats, you go run,

(55:23):
you sit down, you put on some seeds in your mouth,
spit them out, you get up, and you go out
and you play. You hit the ball four times a game,
you get your VP. It's the same thing from March
to the end of October, then boom sit out, or
the end of September then boom down.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Yeah, five days you just sit there.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
So yeah, it's a flow. So those those division series,
it's the best three out of five. It sounds weird
to say that's quick. Yeah, it's not a lot of
room for error, Yeah, exactly. And then DBD hopefully the
J's are are in that championship series.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Yes, we shall see. I got some time to dig
out my Blue Jays hat. I think it's in my closet,
but not completely certain.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Everybody excited last thing about hats. Since you mentioned hats,
I almost bought another one. All I do is have
Blue Jays hats. I don't need another one. But everybody
excited about the white panel hats. It's just the basically
it's white.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
One class. The classic Blue Jays look white in front
blue backs.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Yes, yes, because they don't wear them a lot.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
It is. It is a class. Yeah, I don't know how.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
I shouldn't say a lot like they've gone through somebody
newer ones. This is a throwback. Well it's it's not
all the way, it's not. I don't know what the panel,
how big the panel is if it's all the way
to the front. Anyways, almost bought one. So if anybody
has a used one they don't want, I'd love a
used one. Why do I want to use one?

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Send your hat to test where your used hat. Used
hat is up there with used shoes as one of
the weirdest things to put on. But look, man, spray
it with some lyesoil or something. You're living the life.
You got a little bit of time to figure it
out as well.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, it's going to be tough.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Yeah, that's right. We got some more injury news. The
Grizzlies announced on Friday that Brandon Clark is undergoing a
procedure on his knee after having another procedure earlier. There's
some complications I suppose on his rehab and he's gonna
be reevaluated in six weeks. They also announced that Zach
Edy is out another six to nine weeks not nice

(57:38):
with his ankle injury, and Jaron Jackson JUNR is expected
to return in four to six weeks. Jay Huff went
to the Pacers over the summer, So now the only
healthy center in Memphis is Jock Landale. This seems like
bad news, tests.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Very bad news. Who is going to play for this team.
I know Jock is gonna get out there, He's going
to bank some bodies. But this team is small. We
talked about the Warriors off the top being small. This
is a terribly small team. I think you're going to
see a bunch of wings out there. How how big
do they go with their wings? Do they you know
they size up and put Gigi Jackson, who's also probably

(58:16):
still growing because he's a kid like Derek Lively. And
you have a bunch of really good wing defenders, Vince Williams,
Cedric Coward their new guy. So that bodes well. I
guess their team that can get by with their wing depth.
I don't know how much they can size up, but
it is scary that both those guys you mentioned in

(58:38):
Zach ed and jar and Jackson Junior out to go
along with Brandon Clark, who has had some injury issues.
That just sucks for this Canadian that he just hasn't
been able to get out there for full on seasons
the last couple of years. And the last year he
played a lot of games surprisingly what was banged up
in the postseason, And so here we are.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
That's start, Yeah, exactly right, sixty four games for Brandon Clark,
but like you're saying, he got hurt towards the end
of last year, six games only in the twenty three
to twenty four season. Hasn't played more than sixty four
games in a season in his career. Just seems to
always be banged up. And I was saying earlier there's
some teams they're going to be behind the eight ball

(59:21):
before the season even really gets kicked off, and I
think the Grizzlies could be one of those teams. They've
already got a major adjustment to make, going from Taylor
Jenkins to now a full season of Isolo as their coach.
They did the Desmond Bane for Contavious Caldwell Pope trade,
which was more financially motivated than anything. Definitely a downgrade
on the court going from Bain to KCP, and now

(59:44):
they basically don't have any centers ready to play. Jack
Landale was out of the rotation for most of the
year with Houston last year. They were happy to see
him go, even though they're running out double bigs, and
they brought in Clint Cappella, so that shows you what
they thought of Jock Landale. Definitely not a starting caliber guy.
I do like Santi al Dama, I think he's gonna
have to step up massively for the Grizzlies, But you

(01:00:08):
could see them having a really slow start and kind
of trying to come from behind once Jared Jackson Junior
most especially comes back. I guess it's good news for
them that he is the guy who's supposed to be returning, soonest.
But yeah, the team looks like they'll be okay whenever

(01:00:28):
they get Edie and Jackson together, like I saw they took,
you know, their starting lineup picture together at media Day.
The starting lineup looks decent, but it's gonna be a
little bit before we actually see them all together.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
I guess. Yeah. The positive is Jared Jackson Junior will
be their starting center not too far into the season.
It shouldn't take that long. Other positives. When east Elo
took over at the beginning of April, he gave the
ball to John Rant to run a lot more pick
and rolls, and so he will be to do that again.

(01:01:02):
He'll have a different pick setter and Jock Landale, but
that guy can set some picks and so it's not
on John Morant to be the number one guy for
the entire season. But it would have been great to
have a camp with Jaron Jackson Jr. Out there running
with John Rant when you have your first season under
Thomas Islo. So you know all that to say, the

(01:01:24):
other guys like Jackson, who didn't play the entire season
last year, will be there healthy and so there's there
are some bodies to fill up the roster. While Jared
Jackson Jr. Is hurt because he's the primary guy you
got to be concerned about. Although you know, Zach Edi
had a tough first year too with his injuries, so

(01:01:44):
people will look at him quickly and say, whoa, he's
seven to four. Maybe he's always going to have issues.
So that's the the worrisome part with him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Yeah, definitely worry. Some other thing I wanted to ask you,
we saw you know, new photos of old faces in
new places. Who do you was the weirdest new player
to see in a new jersey at Media Day because
we've had, you know, maybe not the most exciting summer,
but there was still some player movement during the off season.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
I will say the thing that was weirdest to me
was the new look for a bunch of guys not jerseys.
I will say, like Jamal Murray has the twists of
his hair going. I've never seen him do that before
and great sign for Jamal Murray. He was also asked, hey,
do you feel like this is gonna be the first
year you make the All Star Game? Hey?

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Man, I do. I'm not worried about that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
I think I'm going to have a good November, I
think he said, or maybe he said first month. Either way,
he's going to start the season well, he says, he
feels healthy. Twists look good. Also, Jason Tatum's braids, Yeah, yeah,
as Jalen Brown said, I don't know he was. I
guess he was on a twitch. I don't know he
was watching. He was looking at a video on his phone.
When he saw Jason Tatum with the braids. He said, well,

(01:02:58):
j t will try just the boat anything, and he did,
and he looks good. I think he looks good. There's
a bunch of different facial hair going around the NBA,
so to me, just seeing everybody sitting at their at
their new on there at the desk for the press
conference with their new look, I thought that was the
weirdest thing for me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Yeah, you like the new looks. Jimmy Butler playing it straightforward,
you know he did, uh, he did the dreadlocks once
upon a time. He did Emo Jimmy. Then last year
for the heat he was like, I'm locked in normal look.
He said. Emo Jimmy might make a return later this year.
Because Buddy Healed is a big fan of Emo, Jimmy
and those guys are like, uh, just a hilarious mix together.

(01:03:40):
For me, the weirdest player to see in a New
Jersey was definitely Kevin Love on the Jazz. He people
were saying they should call this guy Big Love after
the HBO series about Uh, I think some Mormons in
the Utah as well. There was a video Kevin Love
with the other New Jazz Usuf Nurkic and Kyle Anderson.

(01:04:06):
These guys didn't necessarily look thrilled to be in Utah,
but Kevin Love said prior to aging, he would have
taken this as a negative thing and try to like
build himself self up, like you know, they wrote me off,
but I didn't right back kind of thing. Instead, he's
trying to be a positive light to his teammates, which

(01:04:28):
I think means he's going to be pretty nice with
the memes because that was something he got really good
at there at the end of his Miami tenure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
He was the meme champ, that's for sure. It's great
to have that positivity around for guy like Ace Bailey,
who I know most people are saying, well, he didn't
want to be here. I think that's a bunch of
bull hockey. He looked like he wanted to be there
when he was asked about Yesjay. They went on a
hike a few weeks ago. He could hear Ace Bailey saying, WHOA,

(01:04:58):
this is the first hike in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
I think.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
He seems super happy, and so I know. We talked
about Lowry marketing and where we would where we would
place him in terms of the rankings when we did
our entire show ranking everybody in terms of a starter,
and I said, hey, that guy's an All star man.
He's not just a one time All Star. I know

(01:05:24):
it's tough, but there's lots of positivity going around in Utah.
I think it will be tough for him to make it,
but to see a guy like Ace Bailey, who I
think you could say is the most you know, raw
talent out there. I know Lowry is really really great player,
but if we can see Ace Bailey grow into a

(01:05:45):
really good player, that's obviously incredibly great for the Utah
Jazz who've tried year after year after year after year
to get the number one pick. They end up with
the guy at number five, who supposedly didn't want to
be there. But you hear him in the Prescot diferences.
In his first one, he was all smiles.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Yeah, he probably realized I'm gonna get the ball a
lot and get to shoot a lot. So, like I know,
he wanted to go to Washington where that would have
been the case as well, but he decided to part
ways with Omar Cooper. I don't know if he was
his manager or as agent, but seemed to be kind
of a driving force for getting Ace away from Utah.
Didn't work out that way, but there's opportunity there. I

(01:06:25):
also saw Lowry markinen H throwing a frisbee.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Oh I didn't see that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Yeah. Yeah, Like they were out on some hills throwing
a frisbee with the Jazz guys. So at least they
got some uh, some good camaraderie and some beautiful nature
out there in Utah. And the uniforms look great like
they're going there like they're full on mountain rebrand at
this point, because they were kind of like halfway in
between last year. But they look really sweet. Uh, just

(01:06:51):
probably not going to be a lot of winds for
the Jazz. I also like seeing them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Nice jersey, that's a nice purple soft jersey.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
Man, Yeah, I like the Gradient Mountains looks beautiful. It does. Yeah.
I liked seeing an old Chris Paul back on the Clippers.
That was pretty interesting, wearing their new set of uniforms.
And I saw Duncan Robinson has like a little mustache.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Going there on the Oh that is so hot right now?

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
A few guys that were not in camp though, there
are some free agents left on the market. People are
making noise that this is the first time since two
thousand and eight that Russell Westbrook isn't at a media
day currently unsigned. Who do you think is the best
free agent left on the market? Task so that anybody
out there that can still help a.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Team, Oh yeah, there, it definitely is. It depends what
your team needs. Malik Beasley is still available. He's an
incredible shooter. He obviously has off court issues. With the
investigation still ongoing, Am I right that it's still ongoing?

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
It's a question mark to me because there was you know,
I think there was a report earlier in the summer
that the investigation is over. But yeah, it doesn't necessarily
seem totally cleared, right yeah, playing so I don't exactly
know what's going down, But no, team has signed him.
He's definitely the best player left out there, but I

(01:08:17):
think there are still questions to be answered before some
team decides to take the plunge.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
I get it for sure. So that's that's a different
definitely a question mark. You mentioned Duncan Robinson. That guy
is basically taking Malik Beasley's spot with the Pistons, although
it seems like the Pistons can still re sign Malik Beasley,
would be a far far smaller contract than he initially

(01:08:43):
was going to get. But I mean that's an incredible
shooter that's still available. Jonathan Kaming is still available as
a great scorer out there. But I would say because
those two guys are question marks, Quentin Grimes, I think
is the best player if you know, if you want,
what you're getting is a lock of a good secondary

(01:09:07):
off the ball score, but will also be fine taking
the best offensive player on the defensive end. He's your guy,
he's available, So I would go through those three. But
I think there's some other flyers that you could take
on a bunch of players that are still available.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Yeah, exactly right. I mean Beasley, like we said, big
time question mark, kaminga yet to be resolved. Seems likely
he'll be on the Warriors one way or another, just
because the reporting around him is that trade talks have
been shut down, basically on the Warrior side saying we're
not increasing our offers out there. Everybody knows what the

(01:09:49):
score is here. We'll see what happens. And then Grimes
feels like he's going to be back on the Sixers
some way or another. They've only offered him like a
four year, forty million dollar contract something on a low value.
But he opened a lot of eyes last season after
the Dallas deal was done, and he kinda took the
opportunity to put some forty point games up and show

(01:10:10):
how much more he can do with the ball. Just
doesn't feel like there's a team for him that's going
to spend a lot of money. So maybe he takes
the qualifying offer, goes back to Philadelphia, has another good season,
and then is able to go into unrestricted free agency.
But the Flyers, the questions are like, is Westbrook going
to get signed and which team will sign him? Maybe
Dallas is interested. I haven't looked at their financials to

(01:10:32):
know if they can even do it, but they're a
team that is lacking in point guard depth, even though
they did bring back Dennis Smith Junior and then Ben Simmons.
I suppose is a question as well. He played in
the NBA last year. Apparently the Knicks were kicking the
tires on him. But it's not entirely certain that Ben
Simmons wants to continue his NBA career. I think Stephan

(01:10:52):
Bondi reported.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
That I will throw in a couple guys that have
maybe produced an emergency podcast on our show, Cam Reddish
is available.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
I thought he signed overseas. Oh did he Yeah, he's
playing for some team overseas. Now, Oh he's in Lithuania.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Maybe, huh, I didn't see that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:14):
You see saw Louis Okay sal le I. He's playing
in the Lithuanian League.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Oh, okay, surprising. I would have thrown him in like
sort of into the camp with Delan o'banton, who's still
available as in a very capable guy. We were talking
about Portland recently. I think that was last year where
Chauncey Phillips only played him in fourth quarters for a
while and he was like one.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
Of the best fourth quarter scores in the league or
something like that, right, Dolan o'banton. That's a good call.
My team should take a gamble on him.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Yeah. Yeah, a younger version of Cam Reddish who yeah
didn't Yeah he didn't click. But Delan Bennett feels like
I can still can still get there. It's the Cam
Reddish level.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
That people like us.

Speaker 2 (01:12:05):
Did an emergency podcast for because you know, he had
that great playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks when they
went to the conference finals. As he contributed in that series,
but I wouldn't say great series.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
Yeah, he contributed. The only reason we did Cam Ruddish
emergency podcast is because he was the number ten overall pick.
There's no other reason. He hasn't necessitated a podcast before
or since he been back. He played defense though for
a while. He did up in that series, that's for sure. Yeah,
that was a sixer series. I think Sixers Hawks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Yeah, the Bucks one is Yeah, the Bucks was the
conference finals where they lost. Yeah, he was playing in
that when he was playing Chris Midleton alright. In that one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
There's a bunch of old guys like you mentioned point.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
Guard, like if you desperately need one, Corey Joseph literally
was arting for the Alarto Magic last year for a bit,
he's available, and then Seth Curry we talked about and
there's a real oldies out there, like Markis Morris or
DeAndre Jordan. If you want a locker room smiler, he's
still available. Jic listed all the guys that he's gonna

(01:13:18):
miss from his team left this past season. DeAndre Jordan
was one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
Vlacho Chanchar Yeah, yeah, I think he listed basically every
Nugget who was on the team last year except for
Michael Porter Jr.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
That's right. Yeah, I wonder why that happened. And Reggie Jackson,
now that you mentioned Nuggets, he's available. Need a deep,
deep roster player.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
I can see him coming back. I saw Tory Craig
and Jay Crowder were out there. Those are guys that
always get signed at the end of the season to
some team. But yeah, the bargain bin is getting pretty
empty here. I guess the biggest question mark is probably
I wonder if the team will decide to give him
a run. We shall see anything else tasks from these

(01:14:07):
couple of media days, or shall we wrap things up?

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
I think our media day out at this point. I
think I've mentioned everything I possibly know from media Day,
all the other stuff was like why talking Dearn Fox
as well, Uh, the fact that he's got a hamstring injury,
He's not gonna be ready for the first game of

(01:14:31):
the season. So although Victor women Yama is fricking ready
and seems like he's very well cultured, after this off season,
he doesn't get a training camp with the Aaron Fox.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
That's that's too bad. Yeah, Fox is also recovering from
like finger surgery as well.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
But hamstring means you can't run in training camp at all.
You can't get possessions with Victor women Yama. You're gonna
miss no. Remember first is the target date, So not
only are going to miss the first game, you're going
to miss a few. So that's things. And then the
Kauhi stuff, as you said.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Yeah, the Kauhi stuff. I mean, there's not much else
for the Clippers to do besides duck the question and
say we look forward to the investigation proving that we
were doing legal stuff. Though it does seem pretty notable
that when they're asked if Uncle Dennis is asking for
things outside of the limits of the salary cap, and

(01:15:30):
they're basically like, yeah, we all know the rules, they're
not just saying no. You know, they could easily say no,
he didn't ask for anything like that, but they are
clearly not saying that, So we will see what transpires there.
Johannis made some waves as well, not being at Bucks
training camp because he was diagnosed with COVID when he
was over in Greece, though he zoomed in and kind

(01:15:52):
of confirmed that, yeah, he had looked at some other places.
I think that will probably still continue to be a
storyline throughout the season his future with Milwaukee. But they
signed his brother, they brought in Miles Turner. They did
what they could to keep youian Us around over the summer,
and if he's able to play to an MVP level
like we've seen for the past seven seasons, the Bucks

(01:16:14):
still have a chance in the Eastern Conference as a
playoff team. So maybe that's something that keeps you on
Us happy enough to stick around, because it doesn't seem
like he wants to leave. But he also is always
mentioning that the only thing he cares about is playing
for a competitive team that's trying to win.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
So yeah, and he did it. He had a long
interview with Harris Staver in Greece, and I know a
lot of people weren't tracking this Greek interview, but it's
the first time I got to hear some real Greek.
I don't consume a lot of Greek in my day
to day, so I watched this whole thing, and I

(01:16:52):
think one thing that didn't make a lot of headlines
was him saying, yeah, I'd play in Europe at some point.
And I know he didn't go hard on it, but
he made it clear like sort of as you're as
you're implying that he would be comfortable leaving Milwaukee at
some point if things aren't going well. I think he

(01:17:12):
knows that he is. He's not getting younger, he's thirty,
and at some point he would be comfortable leaving Milwaukee
if it's the right scenario. Now, Europe is way down
the road, and he did say part of it is
are they going to pay me the same as they
do in America? And the answer no, I don't think so.

(01:17:34):
I don't think it's even close. But there's there's some
very rich European team owners that could I mean there's
there was he even I think it was him who
brought up, you know, MESSI coming to America in as
a as a sort of a comparison.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
And so he didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
He didn't rule it out, you know, five years or
six years down the road. So you make a good
point about even going somewhere else in the NBA. We don't.
We don't know that Yanis is going to be there forever.
And he is, you know, watching what's going on with
Luca et cetera, and he knows very clear that it'd

(01:18:16):
be fine with him at some point, I think too,
to move on if things aren't great going well in Milwaukee.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Although he loves Cole Anthony as his point guard man.
He loves Anthony. Cole Anthony seems like a fun guy
to have around. We'll see what happens with Giannis. I
can definitely see at the end of his career, when
he's ready to hang it up in the NBA, maybe
he decides to go play overseas in Europe, maybe even
in like whether it be this Lebron led league or

(01:18:42):
this Adam Silver League, like helping launch it. He could
play with all of his brothers on the same team.
Get the Nasis over there. Costas is already playing overseas
as well. Isn't there an Alex Antetokounmpo. Yeah, he's around
all right, So that's four out of five. You can
have a full team of Anto Tokumpo's if you're honest.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
So Desires, Yeah, Francis his brother Francis from if I
am correct, he played soccer for a while. He can
be out there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
Call him up. Why not? Five on sa Chakompas sounds
like a tough team to beat overseas, at least as
for us. We'll be back sometime later this week. These
teams are starting to practice. Maybe we'll get some news.
We'll definitely hear about COMINGA and Grimes and what they
decide to do with their contracts. So hopefully nobody gets

(01:19:29):
hurt and any of these practices. I feel like we've
had a lot of injuries in off season workouts that
they're starting to surface right now. We've also got no
buffs later this week. Episode two of Survivor is Wednesday night,
so we'll be back on Thursday, and then we're getting
into the season preview Season tasks NBA starts on October

(01:19:49):
twenty first is Night one, so next week we're going
to be starting our preview stuff. We'll do over under
podcasts for the Eastern and Western Conference. We will talk
about your your favorite team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
Garone teed.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
Very exciting time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
It is an exciting time, looking forward to it. Man,
it feels right, it feels it feels exciting. Adam Silver
is right. Parody's great, Parody's great. A lot of teams
out there with a chance to win.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Everybody's undefeated right now, even the Clippers. Shout out to
the Clipper bro. You heard it here first. Have a
great time, turn up, love you guys awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Thanks for joining us, and remember disc golf is better
than frisbee fun, just better.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Embrace the disc people.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Warriors Fill Out Roster, AD Goggles, Lively’s Shocking Growth Spurt & More

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

Warriors Fill Out Roster, AD Goggles, Lively’s Shocking Growth Spurt & More

On Purpose with Jay Shetty