Who's Winning the Offseason? w/ Yossi Gozlan from Third Apron

We’re joined by NBA cap expert Yossi Gozlan from the Third Apron Podcast to break down all the biggest trades, signings, and surprises from the NBA offseason. Who made power moves? Who overpaid? And who's quietly stacking wins? Tap in for sharp insights, salary cap breakdowns, and offseason winners and losers.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-baseline-nba-podcast--3677698/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's good. Everybody is your boy Cal, game Face Lee.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And it's me Warrenshaw and we are officially live on
millions y'all.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
That's right, The Baseline NBA podcast is officially live. Just
go to millions dot co and go to our profile
the Baseline NBA Podcast to check out more dope content
curated just for you.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
And if you're looking to book with us, collaborate us,
or get with us in any way, that's the spot
to make sure that.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
That happens, y'all.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Absolutely so be sure to go to millions dot co.
You already know we keep it real here the Baseline
NBA Podcast. Your boy Cal gave Face Lee and my
man warren Shaw hit us up on millions.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Don't miss out.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
This is the Baseline discussing the hot button topics.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Of the NBA.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Welcome everybody, you are tuned to the Baseline Cali Warrenshaw
discussing the hot button topics of the NBA. We are
back and man now as good a time as any
with so much that has happened post NBA Finals, a
little bit of a hiatus, but let it not be
said that the NBA and Sean I we always keep

(01:13):
saying this the NBA is the gift.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
That just continues to keep on giving.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
And so obviously we have now entered into free agency season,
or as most people will call it, free agency frenzy,
and so much has happened in the last week, and
it would just be crazy if it was just only
myself and my brother from another mother to kind of
discuss what's been going on. We obviously want to make
sure that we are the gift that keeps on giving,

(01:38):
and so we have a special guest along with us
in this episode of the Baseline to help us break
down the frenziness that has taken place with free.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Agency and the moves that have been made.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
He is a capologist, a specialist that really fine tunes
and looks in everything going on, not just with the
NBA in general, but also with the NBA salary cap
and a collective bargain agreement. You can catch him with
the special show that he always does with caps sheets
dot Com. The show is called Third Apron and our
special guests joining us to help us discuss everything going

(02:09):
on as our man yo see Goslin yo see thanks
for hopping on board with us this week and my
man showan thanks for hopping on board. As we get
right into the craziness that is the NBA free agency season, well.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
You'll see you win a roll the red carpet. Out
to you, brother, it's a pleasure to have you here
with us. Our first time getting to interact with you
on the baseline, but following your work for a very
long time, you know, since the hoopshype situation, man, and
glad to see that you're on your own platform doing
anything and really excited about the conversation with I have
to David.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
My guy.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
No, thanks for having me on. I'm really excited to
do this. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Okay, Yosi, We're gonna let you lead off for us here,
and I'm gonna throw out the question to you first
so that we can spark this. What was what was
your overall thought process about or at least what your
expectations were going.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Into NBA Free agency.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Was there something that you were really leaning towards looking
at given the circumstances of what happened with the NBA
Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the title, minus
all of you know, the hooplah that's been given by
most of the mainstream media talks, what was your expectations
going into the into free agency.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
I was expecting a pretty slow free agency, mainly because
there isn't this is one of the more weaker classes.
It's mostly role players. I think surprisingly the best player
to change teams is Miles Turner through free agency, but
nobody saw that coming. But then for the most part,
it's you know, high end role players like Nikole, Alexander Walker,

(03:46):
Ty Jerome and everything kind of ended pretty quickly. I
think June thirtieth, July first, everything got done and we
kind of had like a it's been pretty quiet the
past few days. Like it's pretty rare for July four,
July fifth to have like virtually no move so I
kind of expected that that it'd be done pretty quickly. Also,

(04:07):
there just isn't a lot of money. No, there's only
one team with cap space trying to which is the Nets,
And they're not even really using it to sign players
to compete. They're using it to get more draft picks
and contracts that other teams don't want. So as far
as like Oklahoma City, I'm not sure if that's really

(04:28):
affecting how teams are building because they're in just this
rare situation where they have a deep, young core that
just won the championship. They didn't even pay the tax,
and they have all these draft picks to sustain this
at least through the end of the decade. I think
no other team is close to that situation. So now

(04:52):
we're just seeing teams that, particularly in the East, try
to get as much talent as they can because the
biggest thing that happened in the playoffs with all these
Achilles injuries. So the East is more wide open than
it's maybe even ever been. And that's kind of crazy
to say if for us following the NBA for several
decades now, this might be the most wide open it's

(05:15):
ever been, and just getting a couple extra good players
in might make all the difference.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, what I've noticed is again, nobody is taking the
East off if you will.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
No one's afraid of Indiana.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Obviously the little reason to be with Halliburton kind of
going down, and we talk about the calendar kind of
shifting while the action is kind of done. I think
a lot of that is based on how the league
has reset its rules as well.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Too.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
You can negotiate with your free agency, you know, kind
of an advance.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I mean We knew that was happening anyway, but now
they made it, made it illegal, so to speak. And
then even think that, you know, people doing business even
through the NDA finals and three days after this NDA
draft and three days after that, you know, it was
free agency. So I think things have been a little
bit more condensed, and I think we saw a lot
of action in terms of as you alluded to, you'll
see kind of in the middling aspect of like role players,

(06:05):
so to speak, but also teams that took some really
big swings as a result of the way that the
NBA has trended specifically. And you know, I think Boston
having to get off of that second apron and that
and all.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Those extra dollars.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
You got guys like you Bobby Marks out there saying
that they would have had almost a six hundred million
dollar pay roll in terms of in terms of taxes
and feeds, right, So they needed to get off of that,
and that impacted the way teams were able to make moves,
especially kind of picking off of Boston's you know, not
even scraps, but some of their key vocation guys. And
then I think other things in terms of the draft,

(06:38):
the new York Knicks finally making a decision, but they're
trying to improve their bench as well too.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
I think it's been an interesting although maybe not super
ants it's super scimilating.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Free agency, but I think there's things that have been
really interesting as a result the way the NBA currently
now functions.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
What are your thoughts, Well, I'll say it definitely got
it was more exciting, like I guess the end of
June yet the Desmond Vane trade, and then right before
the draft there was like the flurry of all those trades,
like the Boston trades, Holiday porzingis Jordan Poole might be
missing some That was an expectation from a lot of

(07:14):
people around the league because so many teams are pretty
leveraged and have pretty high payrolls and they need to
move money around. So that stuff got done pretty early,
and especially for Boston, like you mentioned, Yeah, they were
gonna have a his like their luxury tax penalty was
going to be bigger than their payroll, and maybe if

(07:35):
they advanced further and if Tatum didn't get hurt, they
might consider not paying quite that much, but maybe still
spending a lot of money on this and keeping most
of the group together after after that, now, it just
doesn't make sense to spend all that money and be
above the second apron and deal with all those restrictions.
So it's better to get off these guys earlier while

(07:57):
you can, while there's still you know, while you while
they're still like a little younger, while teams are still
interested in them, save more money. And so it just
made sense for Boston now that we're starting to see
a new type of trend the Bucks. They to get

(08:18):
Miles Turner, they needed to clear a lot of cap space,
and to do that, they decided to wave and stretch
a Lillard who's gonna now leave a twenty two and
a half million dollars a cap hit over the next
five years. We've never seen a player have that much
stretch money as a percentage of the cap ever, And
we've never seen a team like push the limits of

(08:39):
how much they can wave a stretch of player, because
you can only do up to fifteen percent of the cap,
and that's basically fifteen percent. And it seems like the
Suns might end up doing the same thing with Bradley Beal.
A lot of there's like there's some like there's some
speculation that might happen, some reporting that maybe the Sun's

(09:00):
go that route as well. So now we're you know,
we've seen teams in the past five six years give
out a lot of big contracts to players that might
not be quite worth all that and just trading all
the draft picks they can to maximize the present. What
happens to some of these teams once you kind of

(09:20):
hit a wall after doing all that stuff, you have
no moves left. Now we're starting to see teams do
use the Waving stretch and like it's yeah, you get
to max you get to extend your you got a
little bit more time, you get some instant savings that
could give you a little more flexibility to stay a
little to remain as relevant as possible. But we don't know,
like this is pretty this is pretty risky for like

(09:43):
three four years from now, you know, the caps not
expected to go up like it was. This could really
hurt these teams in the future, so we don't That's
the most interesting thing is seeing teams stretched literally the
limits of the stretch provision. I'm very curious to see
how this looks like three four years from now.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yo, see Gotslin joining us here from third apron on
the baseline, I want to touch on that a little
bit more. You'll see with regards to this methodology, right,
this logic, is it because there probably isn't that much more.
There isn't and there isn't more that can be done
given the circumstances and the way that things have been

(10:28):
structured regarding the apron Or is this again you know
the analytic guys, the guys that you know, the guys
behind crunching these numbers that are helping to kind of
usher in or make us buy into the idea that

(10:48):
this is the way that we're going to wind up
going because of it like it's a calculated play to
have happened. And I guess my follow up question to
that is, is Miles Turner the best test case for
this situation to actually go down? Because I, of many
people listen, I've always enjoyed Miles Turner and his game
and what he is. But the other underlying theme is

(11:11):
about whether or not what you're doing is the Milwaukee Bucks.
Is you're facilitating a team that's going to be able
to keep Jannis there and is going to compete. Does
Miles Turner move that needle to exercise this kind of
strategy in doing so, and not to minimize anything of
what Damian Lillard didn't give you. But I'm just saying,

(11:32):
is that the guy you want to be doing that.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
So to your first part, I think the CBA did
kind of expedite things a little bit because in the
previous CBA, you can spend as much money as you want,
be very deep into the tax, but you could still
use like the mini mid level exception. You could still
do the trades that were you take in a little
bit more money than the player you're sending out. Now

(11:56):
those restrictions make it a lot harder for like basically
the Bucks and Suns couldn't do any moves like that,
Like they were stuck between just resigning their own players,
signing minimum players, and their draft picks and then I
suppose trading a more expensive player for cheaper players. But
I think for the most part this has been more

(12:16):
self inflicting for these teams, where over the past since
twenty twenty, the Bucks have traded almost every single draft pick,
every swap they can to bring and Drew Holiday to
then in the future trade Holiday and more picks a
spot for Lillard, and they did other trades involving picks
down the line, and they had they really don't have

(12:38):
any more moves to make. They only have like one
tradeable first. Gotta be really careful with that. Whatever trade
you make, it's gotta make, it's gotta make sense. Like
und I understood at the time, trading what they had
left to get Lillard didn't work out, but you still
understand the taking that risk at the time. And then

(12:58):
with the Suns, they from having Chris Paul Aiden mckill
bridges all their draft picks, they didn't have a single
outgoing draft pick right before the twenty twenty three trade deadline,
to like within six months trading it all for Durant, Beal, Nurkic,

(13:19):
Graceon Allen having no draft pick left. So it's more
so the decisions I think that put him in this
position where they have nothing left. The Suns after trading
Kevin Durant, they got a bunch of second round picks,
but then they like parlayed a bunch of those to
bring in the thirty first pick, fleming some more, you know,

(13:40):
trading for Kobe Brea. There are other second round pick
that they already don't have any moves to make. They
can't trade, they don't have any more picks to trade,
Bradley beal So, now they're at the point where this
is their only way to save money. If they end
up doing that waving and stretching Bradley beal So, I
think it's more so that what they've done to put

(14:01):
themselves in this position. The only other team I could
see kind of approaching this are the Sixers because they
have Embiid whose health is in serious question. Paul George
is thirty five, Like very what if one of those
players just don't work out, they might have to end
up considered doing something quite like this for one of
those players. As to your point about Miles Turner, I

(14:22):
don't think that this is the player worth doing this for,
having these, you know, twenty two million dollars to pay
Damian Lillard not to play for the next five years.
To be honest, I don't think there really is anybody
worth doing that for, because it just seems like that
could be something that really obstructs the Bucks future down

(14:46):
the line, Like you never know what opportunities they now
might not be able to complete because of this money
that they have obstructing DrAk caps sheet. I like Miles Turner.
He's a great player, was really invaluable for the Pacer,
helping them lead get to the finals. I think that
contract is still pretty like low. I can't believe the

(15:07):
Pacers didn't match that he's gonna be making less than
guys like Peral Jared Allen. I think he's like better
than a lot of other starting centers that are gonna
be making more than him. But for the most part,
the Bucks they got their Brook Lopez replacement, a younger
version of Lopez. So yeah, to answer that, like, I

(15:28):
wouldn't have done this for him, And even if it
brought in like another top ten player, I'm not sure
I would have that. I would have done this. I
understand you can't really just trade the honest unless he
explicitly asked for a trade, And this is basically like
as good as you reasonably can do without Like, they

(15:52):
still leverage himself more with this stretch, but at least
it didn't trade any draft assets. They technically got Turner
for free, so to speak. But uh, yeah, I wouldn't. Yeah,
I wouldn't have done this for Turner.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yoh, so before we switch segments, you know, and take
a quick break here. I think if you're the if
you're the cap guy for any one of these teams,
and I think you've already answered the question, kind of
been through the answer, but would you would you advise
this kind of as a last ditch strategy because this
kind of reaks of desperation. Honestly, I think from Milwaukee,
and they've done everything they possibly can to try to

(16:28):
appease Giannis in his tenure as a Milwaukee block But
now you're talking made the walk not Maybe Phoenix looks
at this as a Bradley Beal option because well, the
Bucks did it, so I maybe we can't do something
like this, especially since he has a no trade cast.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
And then to seventy six.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ers, you know whether or not Embiid is long for
this NBA career based on his injury, Sidus and or
Paul George one could do a sixer. Those are three
teams I think, with very various, very interesting situations that
could be assessed. I think when Ben Simmons was in
this situation previously, they're like, no, we're just not gonna
do We're not kuy pants or not be on our team.
But now they did it with a guy like Danie
Lil who's gonna be a first Battle Hall of Famer.
Just can you see any scenario where you ever advised

(17:06):
this if you were the Cappologist or any any NBA.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
Team, Uh No, probably not. I'd probably I'd probably be like, hey,
here's why this is here, all the reasons we shouldn't
do that, and that's that, and you know, then they'll
decide what they want to do after that.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Hopefully, hopefully they'd keep you around giving them that sleek
hit twice. But sometimes we know these governors.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
They get a little excited.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Brother, but given to get in that same look that
you just gave when you said that news, let's just
give them that same look.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
You're too.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
To the baseline Calie Wards Show discussing the hot button
topics of the NBA and our special guest, you'll see
Goslin from Third Apron joining us here. As we get
into all of the things that have been happening with
the NBA free agency and NBA off season coming up,
we'll talk about a couple of the trending topics. We'll
look into the winners and losers of NBA free the
NBA free agency frenzied that's been going on, and then

(18:00):
will also dig into some of the news and notes
that have been taking place as well too, specifically a
big hire in the Big Apple, Don't Go Anywhere, Baseline
coming right back at you. We're back, Cali Warrenshaw Baseline,

(18:27):
NBA podcasts and with us special guests yo see Goslin
from Third Apron. He has a weekly show that laser
focused on the salary cap and CBA. It's weekly show
that you could find all the major platforms to be
sure to check it out. So let's get right into it.
Winners and losers of the NBA Free agency segment of

(18:51):
the season right by all accounts, yo see Listen. I
think a lot of people have been looking at, you know,
teams that really kind of either exceeded, achieved or overachieved
this last season, and I think they all read the
writing the riding on the wall. If this is there's

(19:12):
ever a time for them to kind of make moves
and push their chips in to the table to make
something happen, to make a legit run for the twenty
five to twenty sixth season, this is probably be where
it's at. So you know, one of the teams that
obviously stand out the Atlanta Hawks, right, I think you know,
aside from picking the litter of some of Boston's one

(19:35):
of US's key players that helped them win their championship,
I think getting a role player like Nikaela, Alexander Walker,
Lukenard Asa Nouel, Like, to me, this is like, okay,
we probably was trying to understand what the look of
this this Hawks team is going to be, especially still
with Trey Young but hopefully now getting back Jalen Johnson, healthy,

(19:57):
Dice and Daniels. What do you make of the moves
that the Atlanta Hawks have made? You consider them winners
for these transactions that they were able to achieve so
far free agency.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, I consider the Hawks one of the more improved situations.
Where right before they did the Jante Murray for Dyson
Daniels trade, like things were just not looking good for them,
Like that trade was just like the fit with Trey
Young was not looking gray. They owed some upcoming picks
to the Spurs, and then they just completely turned it

(20:30):
around with by trading for Dyson Daniels, who was just
the perfect fit with Tray, exactly what they wanted. In
de Jonte originally and to the solidify their core with
the selection of Zachary Rissichet and then Jalen Johnson just
kept improving. That was huge for them to establish her
corep and then to bring in Porzingis to solidify it.

(20:54):
I think like number one, Yeah, they have a lineup
that's a closing lineup that should be strong enough to potentially,
you know, beat one of the contenders in the East
if everything breaks right for them. But then they just
needed a bench, and they had a lot of they
had a lot of money to spend, They had a
lot of tax space to bring in one of the

(21:16):
arguably the best wing available with Nikile Alexander Walker, who
can also close, I'm sure you'll be closing over resche
at times. They bring in Canard, so they have two
guys they didn't really like fully addressed point guard, but
like between Trey Young, who's gonna play like thirty five
minutes a night, and then Canard and Alexander Walker, like

(21:36):
there's both players can pass the ball, handle it enough
where they have enough of like as semblance of a
point guard rotation. I like that Okonglu's gonna be coming
off the bench. That's one of the better backup bigs
in the league. Yeah. Absolutely, they're one of the biggest winners.
And also they went ahead and now they might have
a top four pick in next year's draft by moving

(21:59):
down tenths spots in this year's draft with the Pelicans.
We'll see how the Bucks do, but it's most likely
going to be the Pelicans pick. There is a swap
involving the Bucks. I would guess if Beanna sticks around,
the Bucks should probably be competitive enough where maybe they
get into the playoffs. But like, and I don't see

(22:21):
the Pelicans being even, like really better than the Plane
Conversation in the loaded Western Conference. So not only do
they have their team set up, but they might have
the opportunity to select yet another cornerstone or maybe use
that pick to make another big trade down the line
for the next available All Star. So yeah, their outlook

(22:44):
for this season is spectacular, but also starting next season
as well with this pick. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
See, I want to piggyback off the Atlanta conversation because
they are one of my favorite teams in terms of improvement.
Right if you picked the bar from where they were
last year to who they probably should be this upcoming
year there should be a massive leap.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
But are they is it? Is this a case where
they were better lucky than good?

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Because I think in some way, if Joe d calls
you and says, hey, I want to hey, I want
to jump up and give you my next year's pick,
that could be attempt to be top five. Like I
don't know how much of that is great GMing in
terms of like manibly negotiate that. Apparently that was offered
to them and they couldn't believe it. It was kind
of a Godfather offers the deal they couldn't refuse. And
then Whilston being in the situation in the yard with

(23:27):
porzingis is like, all right, well all their causism is
niang and you know Terrence Mann and a couple of
other machinations with Brooklyn.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
But your thoughts are just kind of like the competency
level in Atlanta. Were they were they lucky or were
they good.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Officer?

Speaker 4 (23:41):
There is probably was that all all things involved, there
is some luck, Like I don't think they expected Dyson
Daniels to to be quite this good. Like uh one
of the runner ups for Defensive Player of the Year, Uh,
one of the better UH one of the best Steelers,
if that makes sense, in the in the lead league
perimeter defenders. So they made the right decisions and I

(24:06):
suppose like the how they've paid off with like some
of the higher end outcomes has been great. As far
as getting that pick, there's a lot of speculation out
there what exactly happened. You know, they're one of their
assistant GM's Rice and Graham was just with the Pelicans.
Maybe there was something there with the relationship that helped

(24:28):
the Hawks get the advantage. Because one of the bigger
questions I've seen people ask is well, why did the
Pelicans the Hawks get to make this trade instead of
some of the other teams above them. That's a really
interesting question. So that may have factored into them, I
suppose getting lucky and this happening. There was a report
by sham a duo that the Pelicans just straight up

(24:51):
offered this. This wasn't anything that maybe they had some
inside info on who the Pelicans wanted. They just yeah,
it seems like they got There is some luck involved
there as well as far as how that went down.
So you know, goodbye the So the Hawks they bring
in there there they've been in a good position ahead

(25:12):
of negotiations with whoever they've got in working for them.
I suppose were uh, they just were prepared to execute
these these deals.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Let's let's pivot ourselves to, you know, to a team
that you know, by all accounts, I think had one
of the great turnaround seasons we've had in the last
few years with the Houston Rockets. I don't think anybody
can question, you know, the coaching acumen of Oumeliadoka and
what he's able to extract, you know, extrapulate from any

(25:44):
roster that's given to him. That being said, they push
their chips all in. They they managed to get Kevin Durant,
the signing of Dorian Finney Smith a lot of people
are talking about. They also get Clint Capella and then
you know re and then extending or resigning, you know,
Jabari Smith Junior, extending Fred Van Fleet. So what do

(26:06):
we make about what we're seeing here, you know, from
the Houston Rockets and Sea. I'll let you jump in
on this part of it first, because I know you
want to probably lean in a little bit more to
get more insight, you know, from Yosi's perspective. But what
are we saying here about the Houston Rockets. Is this
enough and is everything leaning on that idea that you know, yeah,
they pretty much have the inside track to probably upend

(26:29):
the Oklahoma City Thunder or be one among again.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
One of the best teams in the Western Conference because
of what they've done.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Well on paper, it looks great, right, and I think
what we need to pause, and I think you'd appreciate this.
Cow is Kim Durant teams when he's traded to them,
you know, outside of Golden State, Like, they've all various
agrees of success and maybe no success at all, so
I think, and on paper makes the most amount of
sense he need. Dooka's relationship seems to be good. It

(26:56):
gives them a true adult and Hall of Fame closer
to be in there, replaced Giling Green and even Dylan
Brooks a less degree, hitting Dorrinththinny Smith Clin Cappella as
well to this resigning Jabari Smith as alluded to, like,
all these things make sense on paper, and they should
be able to play in a variety of different ways.
I think it's just a matter of always the health right,
making sure everybody is available to play.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
And then I'm a.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Little concerned, just a slight edge of concern about Shinho
and what is he thinking about his role the firement
here now with Katie kind of coming into the fold.
I'm not saying he's gonna be a problem, and I
don't think there's any reports out there that he'd be
unhappy with getting a Hall of Fame on the roster,
but there is something that's just like, all right, things
are going to change a little bit, especially when you

(27:40):
talk about a men needing to take another step up
as well too into the rotation with Shepherd or whatever
they's got rid of camp witmore.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
But those are the things that I'm concerned about. You'll
see from your lens again.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Good GMing by Raphael Stone and company here, and any
thought or any feedback into maybe some of my concerns,
not concerns, but my eyebrow raise.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
And maybe Shaku's role placement with Kevin Rhant coming into town,
I would suspect they probably would have preferred. Maybe there's
if a different star became available, like if Booker Joannis,
But obviously you know you can't really pick and choose
who you can get every time, so they got the
best player available to them, who wanted to be there,
and they I think a very low price. I think

(28:22):
the most valuable aspect of the package was the tenth pick.
And even though I think their offense should probably significantly
improve by going from Jalen Green to Kevin Durant, and
they lost Dylan Brooks, but then they went ahead and
signed Dori and Finney Smith to replace him, so they

(28:42):
still have that high level of perimeter defense. So credit
to yeah, the management for negotiating everything. They still have
those two extra suns picks in the future, so they
still have another big move to make. Credit to ownership
for getting its tax already, it's not going to be
that big of a tax penalty, but still like they

(29:04):
don't have to pay the tax. Maybe they get out
of it later with some trade. But uh, the commitment
to just willing be willing to spend as much as
possible to have this team. That's just so it's so
loaded from the even like their third stringers, uh can
be in rotations for most teams, like Clint Capella's your
third string a big man. Uh, that's that's just that's

(29:28):
just great. As far as your concerns, Yeah, I do
have some skepticism on how exactly this is all gonna work, Like, Yeah,
they should have a top three or four defense at least. Uh,
they've been having a below average half court offense. Can
you get that to average? I even if I don't know,

(29:50):
if I'm not too sure how much better it's going
to be, I do think that, Yeah, they they are
very big. That's the that's the stretrategy. And because if
you're going to try to compete right now, that means
you're going at okay, see, you need to have a
very big, physical team to match them. And in theory, yeah,

(30:11):
you could make the case that they have a shot,
but I'm am concerned about still the lack of shooting
they have. I think a lot. But I think a
lot of that also depends on Jabari Smith. They went
ahead and extended him to a contract that if he
uh find you know, if he can be impactful, then
it should look like a good contract. But he still

(30:32):
hasn't really been that impactful. You know, he got demoted
to the to the bench last year, so a lot's
going to be expected from him. He needs to be
I think like the third or like I minim and
fourth best player on the team this year. For that
contract to make sense. That's like good third fourth best
good fourth good third or fourth option money. So if

(30:56):
he can hit that and really find the role and
uh hopefully playing with Kevin Durant will will help them,
then I do think there's a good chance their offense
can reach the levels needed to Drewly be a contender
and potentially even knockout. Okay, see, so that's what I'm
looking at the most. How he's really like the X

(31:19):
factor in my eyes? Up can you be the third
or fourth best player on this team? That's gonna be
really important.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
I'm glad somebody spoke to it.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
I mean that that to me, of all those things
that the Rockets did, and I know that we're gonna
have a point in this in this show where we're
gonna be like questioning teams and what they're doing. I
think part of me wanted to ask that question about
the Houston Rockets because to me, it looks like this
team is structured to play a more half court oriented offense.

(31:48):
And you have that kind of athleticism with aman Thompson.
You know, what are we saying you want him to
be a half court type player? You know this is
a guy that I think wants to get up and
down the court. I think you probably had more balance
last year, even with an inconsistent Jalen Green, But with
the guys that you currently have, expect the pace to

(32:11):
not be clearly as fast, and expect it to be
about more execution and efficiency, which I don't have a
problem with. But I think it lends to what you
were saying Shaw about what we might expect to see
from Alfred Sangoon and and his his offense. You know,
does it go through him and then back out or
does it start with them and then he becomes like
a second third option. So that means he's gonna have

(32:33):
to be impactful in other ways based on how that
offense has been set up. And it's not even me
questioning it being around Kevin Durant, because remember you still
have Fred van Fleet, you got you got other guys
that are you know, essentially they thrive because they played
better half court style offenses, but they were never good
in the open court. So now it's all being confined,
so it'll be interesting to see, you know, what takes place.

(32:55):
Let's let's shift the focus now to another team, one
that was on the precipice of probably trying to knock
off the champions in the Denver Nuggets. And just when
you probably started wondering whether or not the Nuggets we're
gonna fit, we're gonna move on from Michael Porter Junior.

(33:16):
Somebody's prayers were answered. And so part of the off
season for the Denver Nuggets was them acquiring Cam Johnson
from the Brooklyn Nets. But in turn, they get back,
They get the old flame backer Bruce Brown, They pick
up Timmy Hardaway Junior, Jonas Valanciunis picked up in a
trade through the Sacramento Kings.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
See what are we talking about here with this Denver
Nuggets team.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
It feels like a reload, like they're not calling it quits,
that they really are gonna try to see if they
can make this happen. But is it enough given what
we've seen from the Rockets and obviously what we see
from the Oklahoma City Thunder and the way that they
were as successful as they were winning the championship.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
So I think it's worth noting that while my Michael
Porter Junior has not been great for the Nuggets in
the playoffs over the past few years, including their finals run,
he also was injured last year. He had a shoulder injury.
If you're asking me, does going from Michael Porter Junior

(34:21):
to Cam Johnson make as a huge significant, uh you know, improvement,
I would I wouldn't think so. I think the bigger thing,
like I think camp Funk's yeah, no like that. So
the bigger thing with that trade is that they saved
about like eighteen million dollars. They are below the aprons.

(34:43):
Now they're like right at the tax like now they
have flexibility to do other stuff. So what they really
did was just go from like paying the Porter junior type,
you know, forty million dollars a year to half that,
and now that allowed them to then do the balance
Yunis trade, which you know that's still TVDC. What happens
is his situation as of the time of this recording,

(35:05):
sounds like the Nuggets are still trying to convince them
to stay. But they also got arguably the best veteran
minimum signings with Bruce Brown and Hardaway Junior. So I
think as long as they're healthy and Yogic is still
a top two player in the league, then they can

(35:29):
beat Oklahoma City. But this is I think more so
a kind of like a redistribution of the money where
they already had, kind of like the suns in the Bucks.
They're very leveraged in draft picks, so they traded their
last remaining tradable pick to do this, which could hurt
them in the long run, but we're talking about seven

(35:51):
years from now. Jokic is an all time great, very
good chance he's still you know, a top tennis player
by twenty thirty two, so that might not end up
hurting them too much. But this is again with the savings.
This also lets them comfortably extend Christian Brown and Peyton

(36:12):
Watson because had they kept Porter Junior, just extending Christian
Brown would have them like blow past the second apron
for next year when that extension kicks in. Now they
can reasonably keep him and Peyton Watson, so that's another
thing involved. So it helps them extend their window. I

(36:33):
wouldn't say they're significantly better, but they are gonna be
I suppose significantly better in the next few years because
they can have a deeper team.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Now I'm gonna say to seaw before you jump in,
I will say, though using the words significant, I think
could be one that's up in the air, But I
do think that the Denver Nuggets are definitely a better
team because I think I've never seen a team struggle
so much to try to get out the most from
a player who I just think that just wasn't his place,

(37:07):
Like I just don't think that he actually fit. He
wrote off of the success you know of them winning
that championship, but you can clearly see that he never
found his identity as a Denver Nugget. And I say
this a lot, like some players are just naturally great
and they can thrive anywhere that they go, but some
players you need to give them a reset, and the
organization needs a reset from that because the more they

(37:29):
continue to keep making moves and doing things around this
idea that they're trying to get what they can from
the player, the more that the struggle becomes. And then
to your point, we have these type of shows where
we're trying to figure out what is the actual.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
End game after the move is being made.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
So if it gets them in a place where they
can financially be able to at least do something over
the next couple of years, I think they're the better
for it, because a guy like Cam Johnson, they can
mold better if they choose to keep them, and then
they don't have to choose to keep them, but they
don't have to continue to struggle with what they've been
struggling with With Michael Porter June. Doesn't mean he can't
be a great player. He can reset the button and
be great with the Brooklyn Nets. Everyone has an opportunity

(38:07):
to look good in Brooklyn. But for me, I like
the idea that the Denver Nuggets finally said we've got
to do something here because we can't keep running it
back with him, Murray and Jokic because it just doesn't
seem to click when it matters the most.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
For them since they won that championship.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Well, yeah, see, I will never miss it's an opportunity
to throw dirn on Michael Porter Junior's name.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
So see, Duck, you Ballton extreme, You think I'm throwing
dornuts snag him up.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, I think it's interesting because I think, I mean,
I'm in agree with ability to do so.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
I don't think Cam.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Johnson is like the miraculous lauding move that everyone was
praising it for, like we got off of Michael Porter
JUNI we got Cam Johnson like Kim John Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
I mean it's good you can play a little bit
more defense, for sure, but I mean, you know, it's
just not that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
But I think it's the other moves that I think,
as Yoskie alluded to, it's these moves that allowed them
to make future moves with certain guys who they ultimately
do want to keep. So that's what it really comes
down to when you're trying to general manager Roster and
the team and with their you know, their general manager
of Prethidentic coming out in the days before a free
agency opening and talking about even tidbits of like well,
we don't want to end up having to lose Yokich,
Like I think they needed to figure out one of the.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
Moves that would potentially make him happy.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Bruce Brown Junior thoughts in as maybe a Westbrook light
you know, he'll do some secondary playmaking, if you will,
but also as the good vibes of the Kits and
Jamal Murray being on the team previously. Tim Hardaway Junior
coming in to a quote space de floor again at
the idea of Hardaway Junior probably better than the reality,
but you know, you get what you're going on there.
The biggest thing to watch here, though, I think is
what's going on with Alatnis. Reports are that he may

(39:35):
ultimately want to go to Europe. I think right now
he's going to have to under the trade, but then
maybe work with Denver on whatever that situation may ultimately
turn out to be.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
Not sure, you'll see. Just real quick on back here.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Have you heard anything any updates on valentiernists and his
actual reporting to Denver versus wanting over going to overseas.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
I haven't heard anything. I'm just following. Mark Steine is
all over it. He's been tracking where they are and
that it just seems like it's up to Denver like
they can. They don't have to release them, they don't
have to let them do this, right, So we'll we'll see.
I figure, well, we should know for sure within the

(40:14):
next few days what happens.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Okay, see, I'm gonna transfers over back over to the
Eastern Conference. And one more team that has been deemed
by many people to be a winner is zer Orlando Magic.
We touched a little bit on the Desmond Bain aspect
coming in here kind of before the draft and all
those other situations, but they also get tyas Jones a
much needed backup to this. While they lose Cacp and
Cole Anthony, You'll got a couple of picks into the

(40:37):
into the situation.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
We signed molt Wagner as well too, really, really, really
a friend of the deal. I think five mili. I
mean that's life.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
That's like nothing, I think for what he'd actually be
able to provide for them going into this Your thoughts
CC on Orlando's moves?

Speaker 4 (40:52):
Do you deem them a winner of this offseason thus far?
I'm a little lower on what they've done. We all
knew the Magic were going to do something to bring
in some more scoring, some more shooting, some more playmaking.
And they did it. They technically did it, and they
did in one of the more like aggressive, unexpected ways

(41:14):
by bringing in Desmond Baine, who at his salary along
with Franz making his con his max money, Powell expected
to get a max contract, and Jalen Suggs also getting
he has a significant contract as well. They're gonna they're
committing to to pay a lot of money for this team,
like they believe in this group. They think that this

(41:34):
is going to be a true title contender in the East.
And I still want to see it first. I'm definitely like,
out of all the teams we've discussed, I'm the least
confident in them because they still want to uh, They're
still attached to the theory of that everyone needs to

(41:54):
be big across the positions. And while and I think
it require fires a lot from Jalen Suggs, he needs
to stay healthy. Thankfully, they have Ties Jones, who during
his his peak days in Memphis, he would literally single
handedly keep the Grizzlies like in home court advantage range,

(42:16):
while Ja Moran missed a tone of games with injuries
or whatever it was. And Desmond Bain can also do
some secondary creation passing. So this doesn't like transform the
way they're going to play, I think so. And then
they also added Jace Richardson, who by all accounts was
a good shooter. So it's like that they really went

(42:36):
ahead and address these needs, even if they kind of
sacrificed a little bit of like size and lane so
to speak. So I just need to see it first.
I do have some doubts about how this how good
the offense can get. I like kind of like our
doubts with Houston. I wonder if this can really be

(42:57):
like an above average half court off defensive team. So
I just I just need to wait and see. But
I do respect the commitment the aggressiveness by the Magic
to go ahead and get bane and commit to paying
a lot of money for one of the you know,
smaller ish market teams. YO, see real quick.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
The aspect of a team like this, we talk about
it because like they bring in players, and sometimes it's
just a players. I'm just supposed to come in here
and then make all the difference, right, But sometimes it
is stuff on the sidelines. Meanthis last year they changed
their entire you know, kind of coaching side alongside before
they actually got rid of Taylor Jenkins to kind of
improve their offense. So Jaron Jackson saw some benefits of that,

(43:38):
while Draw Moran maybe not as much. You know, he
struggled with whatever that new offense is. But do you
think Orlando is as much as they lean in on defense,
can they do something maybe with the coaching decision, you know,
over the course of the summer that might be able
to impact this offense in a way that's just not
so focused on being size and defensive orientated.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
I'm not too sure. I I I just need to.
I guess we just need to see how they how
they do it. I think health would be the biggest thing.
But as far as what other decisions or schemes they
could do, I don't.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
That's not really my expertise. I guess we'd have to see.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Well, how do you feel about the Detroit Pistons. Do
you think that they done more than what the Orlando Magic.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Did?

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Like, are you more impressed with their moves getting in,
you know, bringing Caris Lavert getting Duncan you know, shas Lanier?
Where are you with maybe the Detroit Pistons another team
that you know, obviously surprised a lot of people last
season getting into the playoffs and you know clearly they're
not going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
There's there's nothing but upside from them. But obviously they
needed to get better and they need to get a
little bit deeper. You think they addressed that a lot
better than the Orlando Magic did.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
I think as far as Detroit, ideally they probably would
have just brought back all their their top all their
free agents like uh Shrewder and Leak Beasley hard Away,
maybe given them just slightly above minimum level contracts or whatever.
It is because one of the things that about the

(45:09):
Pistons is feels like they're on the cusp of really
being a contender as well. And they're a team that
a lot of people speculate they could be making like
a consolidation trade or a trade for an All Star
in the near future. I think they need to play
out the season a little bit though, just to confirm
that whatever they did last year that it's for real,

(45:29):
and then maybe around the trade deadline or next year,
you make that type of move. Unfortunately, I think them.
But then, like all the circumstances that happened, losing Shrewder,
the leak Beasley situation, they kind of have they had
to pivot to do to somewhere else, and I think
getting carousel Ver Duncan Robinson, they're going to get a

(45:51):
trade exception from trading sign trading Dennis Shrewder, so they
have it they could potentially do something with that get
another player later. I think they recovered nicely considering uh,
you know how things kind of just changed with their
free agents, especially the league Beasley situation. I think that
really like, uh, through a wrench in their plan. So

(46:13):
I I I think they for the most part, like
they're kind of the same as far as these players
that they had to come off the bench. Uh, I'd
like that. Duncan Robinson's contract apparently is not I think
it's partially guaranteed next year and then non guaranteed the
year after, so they still have a lot of future
flexibility despite these moves. So I they so in a way,

(46:35):
they still kind of did what I expected, just you know,
keep the bench as deep as you can and but
also have these salaries with Laver, with Robinson, have this
trade exception for Shruder where you can do h stuff
in the future later. I think that was the bigger priority,
and I'm definitely keeping an eye on them. I I
wouldn't surprise me if they if they're the team that

(46:57):
gets the next available All Star, maybe they end up
leap frogging Orlando Atland on one of these teams that
we've been discussing.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
So yeah, let me chime in and then if you
would could kick us to break here talk about the
middle teams or what they're doing. But with Detroit, I'm
only concerned in terms of the continuity, right, I think
you had such great vibes regardless of what the mainly
busy situation.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Was even to Mardway Junior being a veteran guy. And
while I think as you allot to you'll see personnel
talent wise is very similar. I don't know what's going
to be vibe wise within the locker room for a
team that very much relied on that. I really rally
behind it.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Really great and a healthy season from Kate Cunningham and
Jaleen Durham for the most parts of the world too,
So that's something I think we just what we also
need to watch with them, what is the actual vibe
check in the Detroit this is locker room with some
of these new pieces. Although Dulgin Rominson is a pretty
high character guy from what I've seen in Miami, so
I'm not really worried about it, but they're just something
I think in this.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
Is to kind of pay attention to. Yeah, they still
have all their core young players like that hasn't changed
at all, So I think it's more so right now
about just yeah, that, but also seeing who do they
want to be a part of the next part of
the future, like for example, Jada and Ivy. He's going

(48:15):
to be extension Alisuble, but also just missed a lot
of time. I'm very curious to know how how they
feel about him and if that's who they think can
be the co star decade. So I do think like
a lot of other teams would have seen what the
type of result the Pistons had and just went ahead

(48:35):
and make a really aggressive move for them take the
next step. I think the Pistons wisely are taking their
time with this. They still have a lot of information
to gather on who their guys are, what they project
them to be, how they fit and I and they
should be well positioned in the future to do that
type of move if needed.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Your tune to the baseline Calie Warrenshaw discussing the hot
button topics of the MBA with our special guests Yo
see Goslin from Third Apron coming up.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
We got teams that gotta help us make it make sense.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
We got a Mayos who's gonna probably help us try
to bring some logic to some of the madness that's
going on. And then we'll also get into the losers
teams that no matter how you slice it, they've just
taken l's for the free agency.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
So you don't want to miss it.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Here on the Baseline, We're back, Cali warren Shaw Baseline,
NBA podcasts and with us Yo se Gozlin Third Apron.
Be sure to check out his show Third Apron. It's

(49:41):
available all the major platforms. You can also catch him
on X. Let's get right into the teams that you know,
we just help us make it make sense, right, like
the moves that were made, they're definitely are part of
the free agent friends and the free agency frenzy. But
when you really kind of strip it down to what
it's supposed to mean, it's just got you shrugging your shoulders.
And so Jean, I'm gonna let you lean on on

(50:03):
on on it first, because there was obviously a couple
of teams that you know, really were on your radar
trying to follow with what they were trying to do justification,
so to speak. And we don't get to talk about
this team too often, and usually when we do, it's
it's always with you know, not a you know, uh,
how do you say, it's with anything positive that noted

(50:26):
about what they do, because anything they do just doesn't
smell like winning.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
It always smells like either escaping or losing.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
So we're gonna talk about the Washington Wizards and the
Washington Wizards was in the mix, you know, but from
your perspective, was it for all the right reasons or
is this still another weight in see mode, Like we're
still trying to figure out, like what exactly is it
that the Washington Wizards are trying to do. They pick
up Cam Whipmore, they get CJ. McCollum, they get Kelly

(50:55):
Owning via trade, moving Jordan Poole, Dylan Jones, trade trade
Will Riley. So there's a lot of moves that were made,
a lot of moves that were done in this very
short period of time.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
But what does that add up to when we talk
about the Wizards.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
I think the Wizards are finally heading to your place
of a certain level of competency, certain level like they
realize that, hey, we need to be that and we
were trying to pseudo compete post Bradley Beal. We saw
Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma was going to be our dudes.
They quickly realized that was a very much a losing composition.
Trade Kuzma to Milwaukee, you know, in the middle of
last season, then ultimately getting off Jordan Poole, who had

(51:31):
a bounce back from his first year in Washington. He
played better, but he's just not a lead guy, and
as much as I think as maybe he wanted to be,
I think he realizes that now he's not a lite dude.
So Washington says, all.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
Right, let's reset the table here, let's sort of fully
figure it out. I think the moves of getting CG
and Kelly Olynok are not long term situations. They already
still have Chris Middleton and Marcus mart All these are
veteran guys who air quote again, you would think maybe
other teams would want going into the middle of the season,
So I think they are positioning themselves up for then move.
They're not going to keep all these old veterans. I

(52:02):
think they still had Malcin Broden or the right still
m if you will, and he may may ultimately not
resign there. So they have a lot of veteran guys,
but now they're opening up stuff for young guys to
play like Carrington, and I obviously saw getting Trey Johnson
here as well now as well too, and now as
we're just recording again, the more situation so they'll have
a trother shows if you will, shows of young guys

(52:22):
with the APENSI all right, who's really kind of who
can emerge from this situation? Well, knowing they'll be bad, well, no,
they should be within the top five, but then potentially
may be able to get late first round or you know,
multiple second round picks from Olenick, McCollum, Smart and or
Middleton as well too. You'll see your thoughts that what
Washington's doing here. Again, we know they're gonna be bad,

(52:43):
but is this competency that we're finally seeing from this
Washington Wizards group.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Yeah, I think they've done all the right moves over
the past few years since the new regime took over.
Just how to get as much young talent as you can.
Take more flyers on guys like Cam woodmore Dylan Jones,
get more second round picks, first round picks. If you
can keep developing players, see who can stick be a
part of the next great Wizards team. Yeah, I mean,

(53:11):
I have no problem with what they're doing. I'm curious
to see now. It is a very crowded backcourt though
even with the veterans, they haven't ever bought out anybody,
like when they've had Brognen, they never bought him out
when they kept Ties Jones past the trade that nine
and never bought him out. I would be I would
be curious to see what if one of like Marcus Smart,
for example, said Hey, I would like to leave the team.

(53:34):
Here's X amount of dollars so I could get back
and go to sign with this team. With the Wizards
oblige because it is a very very crowded backcourt. Now
there's gonna be some some young players that deserve time
might not get to play.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Let's go, let's move our attention to a couple of
other teams in the Eastern Conference. You'll see it's because
you know, you mentioned buyout right like possibilities if it's
say Marcus Smart, maybe c Dan McCollum, or some in
some regards, whatever the case may be. Right, let's look
at the New York Knicks in the Philadelphia seventy six ers,
two teams you know, obviously with their own versions of controversies,

(54:16):
you know, seventy six ers and what they did with
their draft selection. Not to say that there is you know,
some some great potential upside and having DJ Edgecomb, but
now you're looking at a team where it's like, what
is this roster really going to look like when everybody
is absolutely healthy, does it make sense? And then a
New York Knicks team that was pretty much on the

(54:38):
precipice of possibly Guinny to the NBA Finals, they fire
their head coach. They turn around and arguably have one
of the worst coaching searches, So they finally land on
Mike Brown. Albeit I'm sure Mike Brown is happy. But
now we'll have a wait and see situation of whether
or not this is going to get them back to
where they are and for all of everything, they wind

(54:58):
up signing former fil seventy six or Gershwan Yabucelli.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
What do we make of both of these teams? Do
the moves make sense for them?

Speaker 3 (55:08):
Did they address what needed to be addressed or by
not addressing anything, did they address what needed to be addressed.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
The six we are just kind of in a holding
pattern with Quentin Grimes free agency. I think they are
trying to have as much flexibility as possible in case that,
you know, his contract gets a little higher than they anticipate.
I also think they might be open to sign and
trading him if a team offers like a first round

(55:36):
pick to get him I think they'd be open to that,
especially considering they have a very crowded backcourt as well.
So I think that's all that's going on. But again,
it kind of comes back to all these other big
contracts they have and be George Maxie, you throw in
quinnin Grimes as well, what he might get. This this

(55:57):
is why they're just patient and not they're just we're
just waiting to see what they end up doing. And
probably played into them letting gerson yabusele Go ask for
the Knicks. They capitalized on that they got him on
reportedly like it's the tax mid level, but he's reportedly
taken even a little bit less in the full amount

(56:19):
because they have like some some hardcap issues. So that's
gonna let them bring in another vet later. So I
love the Knicks offseason. I don't think they could have
asked for a better fit, a better addition with that
tax mid level, and they'll probably get another good veteran.

(56:41):
And I don't you know, I'm kind of neutral on
the Mike Brown hiring, but I think the Knicks have
just they've done so many things right. They've added like
ninety ninety five percent on their decisions. But I'm I
feel like they know what they're doing, and I you know,
I'm gonna let him. I'm not really going to have
nothing really to say. I think we'll just have to

(57:02):
see how it plays out. I think there's a good
chance that it'll work out for them.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
All right, let the next cook. I like that you'll
see a lot of Knicks fans will be happy to
hear that. You'll be welcome in Madison Square Garden. Before
we close out this segment here, let's talk a little
bit about, you know, the Purple and Gold. Are you
happy with the Lakers offseason thus far? I've seen it
both ways. I think fans are, but I've seen other
analysts maybe not as excited, saying, well, we're not really
sure what the team is trying to do. Always the

(57:28):
Lebron drama, whether or not he's going to be there,
wants to be the long term, et cetera, et cetera,
to get DeAndre a in, you know, and yeah, after
he gets brought out by the Poland trail Blazers. But
your overall thoughts, you know, is this Lakers team hend
it heading in the right direction or they've kind of
just kind of been the same position that they were
last year.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
I feel like they're worst. They've been trying really hard
the past few years to recover some of the last
three indeed depth that they had in the twenty twenty
title they had Danny Green and Davi's Caudle Pope Alex Caruso,
and then they either traded them all or let them
go in twenty twenty one with the Westbrook trade and

(58:05):
whatever other decisions they made, and they finally have some
semblance of recreating that with their wing depth, and particularly
during Phinney Smith really he turned their season around, like
they right before the Luca trade. Once they brought in
Finney Smith, they really they started really going with their
upward trajectory, and whatever happened, I think it's a disaster

(58:29):
that they lost him. And I'm not saying this as
like to say that I think Danny Finney Smith then
Dori's Finney Smith is like the the best three and
D player or anything like that. But the Lakers have
limited assets, they have limited trade flexibility, Like he kind
of fell in their lap that they only had to
give up three second round picks to get them, and
then they just lost them. I see the Address Center

(58:51):
getting Aiden. At the rate they get they got him
AT's that's great value. But he's also not like a
break grim protector by any means. I don't think this
team could really stop anybody, and I I just think
they got They lost one of their their own, they

(59:11):
lost their best defender, and I really don't really it's
hard for me to envision them being above playing range
right now. I'm a lot lower on their offseason than most.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
I can't wait to bring you on.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
You'll see it the preseason, and we gonna have to
get you on here Man to give your final final assessment.
We got We got a couple of our family members
here in the nineteen media group who might think differently,
but that may be speaking optimism. You might have to
give them a dose of reality about your assessment regarding
the Los Angeles Lakers. Golly Warrenshaw Baseline NBA Podcast and

(59:47):
with us our special guest Yo see Gozam from third
ape and coming up we'll dig into the Losers. Finally,
we're gonna put some ls on some teams. You don't
want to miss it. Here on the Baseline, We're back.

(01:00:08):
Calie Warrenshaw Baseline NBA Podcast and our special guests Yo
See Goslin from Third Apron.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Be sure to check out his show Third Apron.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
You can catch it on via through cap sheets dot
Com and you can also catch him on x at
Yo Sigoslin, yos Man. We've been talking about the winners.
We've been putting, you know, teams on make it make
sense for us. We've highlighted some of the you know,
other things that are going on. Now we got to
talk about what the hell some of these teams doing,

(01:00:39):
or like what was going through your mind type, like
there's no way that you're winning in this situation. You
can you can tell us the champagne we know right now,
that's sparkling water.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Okay, So.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
I want you to kind of weigh in and give
us whom you know did not win in the reagency,
who is not one in the offseason thus far?

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
All right, so we already I think I've already alluded
to I don't like what the Bucks did. I don't
like what the Suns did. I don't like what the
Lakers did. I really I would. I think the biggest
loser might be the Pelicans just trading that pick, also
trading the Pacers their own first round pick back to

(01:01:28):
get a late first round pick in this year's draft.
That like, that seemed like at the time of the trade,
the Pacers were about to play Game six of the finals.
That seemed like, Okay, I mean, the Pacers should be
pretty good next year, but why do you want a
late first round pick right now when you have the
variance of next year's pick. You don't know what's going
to happen next year. And lo and behold, a week later,

(01:01:50):
Tyres Halliburton towards Achilles and Miles Schner left the Pacers,
and I can't imagine right now. I have a hard
time seeing the Pacers make the playoffs the East. The
Pelicans lost potentially two lottery picks by trading that one
and their own pick in next year's draft, I especially, So, yeah,

(01:02:11):
that's the biggest thing. I I don't really think trading
for Jordan's like trading CG. McCollum for Jordan Pool. They're
kind of very similar players, so I don't the biggest
difference is Pool has more money owe so you're just
doubling down on that player type. I don't think they
got better, and I think they've severely hurt their outlook.

(01:02:34):
With the way they've handled their draft picks. To me,
I think they're the biggest losers of the off season
and to double down.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Still don't know what's going on within on Williamson and
the Procliparty for him to be their long term I
just I can't imagine a Jordan Pool design Willings and
you know, team Cope Airings just doesn't seem all that
excuse of me, So I will not throw any more
dirt on their name. I agree with you newall has
has been. They had a very very perplexing and pretty
sap off season to date. I don't really know much

(01:03:04):
about mister Fears. I'll be watching him very closely in
some league, although that's not the Litles test if you
will too, but just trying to see what you know
they saw in him, potentially as kind of the colder
stone piece moving up to get him as highly as
they did. The team I want to go to now,
honestly is two teams actually in the Eastern Conference and
very various, very different sides of the coin.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Boston we already kind of touched on based on their
need to kind of get out of the tax and
the Aprons, and then Miami who's been kind of conspicuous
by not doing anything at all. It's been rumored, you know,
kicking the Cans and maybe a Wiggins deal, you know,
to the Lakers, and if that floats your boat and
getting back of Ruby and Dalton connect then sure, but

(01:03:47):
just overall perplexed by Miami's lack of movement. Less they
just feel like the intronal development of kalel Ware is
going to be that much more greater, that that's going
to propel them in some capacity. Kind of want to
kick it to ucled and you'll see you kind of
jump in your thoughts on the Heat and Celtics respectively,
starting with Miami first and foremost.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Well, look, you think that the Miami Heat would do something,
so I think really give us an indication about whether
or not they want to buy into the opening that
we've been talking about regarding the Eastern Conference. They're not
a bad team, but they certainly have not elevated themselves

(01:04:30):
to be a great team either. And if you're still
looking at it from your core players that still have
another level to go to, all right, I guess I
get that, but I genuinely feel like the only way
that that's going to happen is you got to find
a way to bring in somebody, some way to kind
of help shake those things up. So I think the

(01:04:51):
stagnation of the Miami Heat, to me, is only concerning
because how many more bites at the Apple are you
going to give them out of buy Tya Tyler Hero
to really help elevate and take this team to the
next level. We just don't see enough glimpses of it.
I understand that you tried doing it with Jimmy Butler,
but I even said I kind of questioned the thing

(01:05:12):
with Jimmy Butler, and Jimmy Butler ap proved more for
Jimmy Butler's sake, that he's that kind of player that
he can make marginal teams be better. What you actually
need is just a great player, because this is probably
the best that you're going to get out of those
two players from Hero out of Bayou. You need someone
that's just gonna be great and it's just going to
demand greatness at a level that they need to. But

(01:05:33):
it's gonna be hard pressed to see that now given
what's taking place, you know, because I think the next
couple of years, even with free agency, who who Elsa
is out there, that's gonna kind of help shake those
things up. It's gonna be a question of whether or
not the Miami Heat can actually just put together a
full complete team, and it's hard to do that when
you're not making any kind of player, any kind of
moves in the offseason. There could have been some role

(01:05:55):
players they could have added to this roster that I
think could have helped them immensely at least be competitive
or challenge the guys that they already having that roster.
But they don't do that, and so hey, that's if
that's the culture way, If that's the Heat culture way,
then this this is gonna be a wash.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
You'll see real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
Do you at Pivot peadacking off Cal's point in Miami,
do you think maybe they get lucky now and the
Dane Lollard's sweepsakes, you know, as he becomes an unexpected
free agent, and that's obviously this situation he ultimately wanted
to go to. Again, they've been inactive, But do you
think they can salvage their off season if Dame Lili
decides ultimately joined Miami.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
I would guess Swiller takes his time with this. There's
no need for him to rush to any decision, even
like for the offseason at all. I could see he
could for all we know, he might just end up
signing with a team like really late into the season.
I I just think the heat the way the Butler

(01:06:53):
trade went down, I don't think they were really prepared
they I don't think they anticipate how things would get
by not extending him, and I think that just kind
of put them in the sylimbo they're at right now.
But at the same time, they are well positioned to
make a big move if they need to. They have

(01:07:15):
a bunch of expiring contracts, they have some picks, but
as we saw, they didn't want to get as aggressive
for Kevin drant which so I'm not exactly sure what
exactly they're prioritizing because it seems like they're kind of
trying to be as good as they can now. But
they definitely have an eye for the future, which I
think is important because this team isn't good enough right now.

(01:07:37):
So if you are they only have a couple first
round picks the trade, if you are going to invest
more in your future, I think you got to make
sure it's the right move. But it seems like for
the most part, they're trying to make some moves happen
while giving up as minimal players and draft picks as possible.
And I'll kick it back to you, UC just ask
what the Boston you know? Do you consider them a loser?

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
And maybe not by a loser of their own real doing,
but more as a result of the business of the NBA.
Just where you place Boston in kind of these tiers
of winners, losers or kind of what are you doing?

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
I just think it's incomplete. As far as how they
traded Drew and Porzingis, I think it went as about
as I expected. I didn't think they'd have to give
up any draft picks to get off either players. It's
that they got positive value for Drew Holliday, so I
think that worked out well for them. So the bigger
thing is, I suppose how are you going to get

(01:08:35):
this team back into contention by the time Tatum returns.
That's the bigger challenge. I think it might require having
the trade one of Brown or White, where if you
can turn one of them get like a mkil Bridges
high package, you get like three four first round picks,
some good young players, that fit the team, That might
be your faster way back into contention versus just keeping

(01:08:57):
what you have and trying to sign someone trade for
someone that might help you a little bit. So I
think it's just very incomplete right now. I think they're
still trying to do more moves. I feel like they're
probably still trying to save some more money, maybe get
under the tax. But can they capitalize get a ton
of value for one of their other all stars. Seems

(01:09:20):
like they're certainly listening to offers, but will they be
able to get another team to pay whatever price it
would be to trade one of them. I feel like
if they can get a massive haul for one of
those guys, then that would, in my mind, probably make
them winners in my eyes. Interesting, Yeah, that might take

(01:09:42):
some time. That could be a trade deadline type thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
All right, you'll see as we close things out here.
On the baseline, I want to thank you again so
much for joining us and giving us your inside A
lot of great nuggets of information here to your knowledge
of the salary cap, draft capital as well too, is
something that not many people in our in our space
really possessed.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
I want to thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
As we close out though any other teams just kind
of like quick hitterers. You're still kind of wondering, Like
I'm obviously still wondering as we're recording, and things can
change by times this comes out.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
What goals ends up doing with with Kminga, you know
or not?

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
I think it you'll do do a Boston trying to
get under the cap even more, you know, just the
same Houser end up somewhere. You know, I think that's
such contract that they ultimately move.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
What else are you watching?

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
You know as we close out here and it kind
of was now going to be the days between now
in summer league with free.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Agency, just curious what in what else Indiana does to
rebound from this, and if not, then are they going
to potentially bottom out? Take like really go all in
on this gap year Warriors make sense. I think they're
they're they're trying to make sure if they do trade sign,

(01:10:50):
they do sign and trade cominga, that they get the
right players that fit and helps with their calf sheet situation.
But also maybe they maybe they resigned him on a
short term deal. I can't I don't think we could
roll that out. And yeah, I think those are the
two and then I guess Brooklyn just what else they

(01:11:12):
do with their cap space? Is there another Dick trade
out there that gets in another first round pick?

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
Jo Any final thoughts from your perspective, like what you know,
where where where? Where are you with what we have
remaining for the summer, you know, as far as possible
moves that you know you would probably like to see
or like to hear more about any particular player specifically,

(01:11:41):
like to hear more about, you know, leading into you know,
Summer League and just in general.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Yeah, I mean, if I'm gonna spitball a bunch of
things yet, right, so I kind of a touch on
the coming of thing. I'm interested if Boston what ends
up happening with I'll Orford release. I guess you should
see he's a Celtic anymore. But does he end up
signing with the Lake, the Warriors or in some other
team or does he just ultimately retire.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
I think that's a nice piece, and that's to kind
of figure out is Phoenix really done, you know, or
are they would they ultimately then flip jailing Green somewhere
else potentially, Like I don't know, those are some of
the things that I'm really interested seeing that obviously as
we get into somebody just kind of watching what ends
up happening and the afore mentioned Wizards, right, I think
you'll see kind of said it best. There's too many veterans, like,
there's too many of them, So do do one of

(01:12:23):
those guys get moved or are bought out in the
in the interim time to go be a nice rotation
piece to maybe another contending team that Washington's could not
in that same position right now. So some lot of
intrigue for me, brother, you know what I mean. I
love the NBA and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Always gonna find a storyline or something for us to
be able to talk about it on the baseline.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
So they has been a great, great, positive and excited
show at least for me and hope they are fans
of listeners as well.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
Absolutely, And before we head out, you'll see kind of
give you know, our listeners a little bit you know,
more into into your show. And uh, you know, any
any upcoming episodes you got know you've been putting in
some work with your man and Sam quick, but uh,
you know, any any insight on h on any upcoming

(01:13:05):
shows you got coming on or you know where people
can catch you, uh as.

Speaker 4 (01:13:11):
Far as you know what whatever show just depends what happens.
As soon as another big move happens in the next
coming days or so, Sam and I will be ready
to react on the third Aprin podcast. You can catch
it on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts. I also
have the newsletter of the same name or I get
deeper into salary cap analysis.

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
I highly recommend you guys all subscribed to that where
I am going to, you know, really uh, go deep
on all the moves that happen, give my analysis. I'll
probably I'm I'm working on something about the stretching. Uh,
you know what the Bucks just did and what the
Suns might end up doing with Beale uh and just

(01:13:52):
get into what that what that might mean for the league.
And just as well follow me on Twitter and blue
sky at my name, you know, and I'm reacting to
all the transactions with instance salarycap analysis, and then you
can see all my information, all the salary cap information
for each team on capture dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Absolutely, man, yo, see, we appreciate you hopping on board
with us this week. My Manshaw as always man, great show,
great opportunity for us to chop it up and be
able to bring the one and only Yo Siegaslin on
board to help us break all of the craziness down.
And we look definitely look forward to having you back
on for our listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
You know how we roll. Baby.

Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
It's summer league time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
So definitely catch out more episodes of the Baseline. You
know where to find this. Be sure to get a man's.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Shaw at the Warrenshaw or you can get at me
at game face Lead to show us Twitter handle at
NBA Baseline, or you can go to www Dot Baseline,
NBA dot com. Also catch us on the YouTube channel
nineteen Media Group go to www dot nineteen MediaGroup dot.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
Com for the Baseline Cali Warrenshaw.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
We appreciate you guys, thanks for hopping on board with
us this week and we'll catch up with you st