The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre
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Must be 21 plus and president select states. Scam problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Coming up, it's time. The annual NBA worst contracts draft with House and Wise. It's next. This episode is brought to you by the new MGM Plus original series, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue. All right, here's one for the mystery fans. There are 10 passports, nine bodies, and one deadly secret. That's the setup for Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, the new MGM Plus original series.

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We draft the worst contracts in the league. It sounds like a negative podcast. It's actually very positive because we have a lot of laughs. We have a great time talking about it. We're going to talk Warriors, Lakers at the top with House and Wise, and then dive into the worst contracts of 2025 in the NBA. This is always a blast. Can't wait. First, our friends from ProJab. ProJab.

All right, we've been doing it every year since 1977. The worst NBA contracts draft. One of my favorite times of the year. We always wait for the perfect week of the season. Far enough away from the playoffs, right after the trade deadline, guys start getting sidelined, scratched, bodies start breaking down.

Perfect time to do this. And we have a couple of doozies at the top house. Just thinking back this decade, who was your favorite worst contract of the decade before the guys to share is probably the Ben Simmons, right? Oh, he had all that money left. That was he number one or somebody else? No, no, no, no, no. Nobody will ever rival Bradley Beal. This, we really should change the name of this. Bradley Beal has a no trade clause. Like the impact of the Bradley Beal contract on the face of the league is

over the last you know seven or eight years just unbelievable mind-blowing dearly it was unbelievable to you as it was happening and the no trade pushed over top is there anybody else you would put was would you put simmons above that or no oh ben simmons bradley bill i think those are the the creme de la creme uh specifically because ben simmons got a max contract and then never played

And when he did play, he didn't want to take layups. So yeah, those two are the ones that immediately come to mind. Obviously there are legacy deals like John wall out there. Like there's a few other doozies, but, um, Oh yeah. There was the Westbrook one. I forgot. Yeah. We had that wall Westbrook trade. Simmons was five years for one 77. And I think the last four was just complete regret by everybody who had them. So, um,

We should mention, you know, we've been trying to stay positive on the pods with our Ringer NBA coverage. This isn't a sadly negative podcast, but we have fun. Hey, there's great contracts, great trades, great teams. The storylines are awesome right now. How sweet. We haven't talked on the pod. We have the Warriors and Lakers as legitimate contenders all of a sudden.

it's wonderful the league feels like it's been supercharged over the last couple weeks we we were like worried oh my god this is just gonna be cleveland boston okc and literally nobody else and now all of a sudden denver's in there the lakers the warriors the knicks are kind of lingering a little bit but uh was

Super fun NBA season all of a sudden. Yeah, I mean, I think the Luka trade definitely took this thing into a whole different gear. Obviously, we spent a lot of time talking about what happened, why it happened, how it happened. But the actual basketball, to watch Luka kind of just...

pretty much automatically be embraced by the crowd at crypto where he is just playing to the crowd and just straight up. He's in it. And it's kind of amazing that it's come together in nine freaking games this way. Yeah. Well, it's even more amazing that some people were saying,

I don't know. I don't know how those guys are going to play together. Two ball dominant guys. It's like, what? Two of the highest IQ guys we've had in the last 30 years on a basketball court. I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out. It's been really fun to watch. I want to drop the first F-bomb. I mean, he's a

force fucking multiplier like that dude because of his basketball brain and you put the two biggest basketball brains on the planet together yeah I think they're gonna figure it out but think about where we were in the first third of the season when

the criticism levied against the NBA. It was proper criticism. Are we really going to do this goddamn retirement tour thing with LeBron and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant? We have to watch all these shitty games with these shitty teams. And now look where we are. Look where we are. So on the one hand...

We have a Celtic Laker game Saturday night that's, you know, other than that first Cleveland OKC game is probably the most fascinating game of the season. And it's two guys that the Celtics have real history with, right? They played Luka in the finals last year. And then LeBron has been their biggest foil of the 21st century, both on the same team. They're so weird to watch just as a team now. They have no center.

There's no point guard. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jackson Hayes dropped 20 points in the first half. Long arm Jackson. But you watch that and you're like, I don't know why this is working, but it's working. And this is a team I would not want to see in a series when everything slows down and you have to play the same team every time for two weeks. And I just don't want to see these guys under any circumstances. And LeBron looks rejuvenated. And by the way, LeBron started to look rejuvenated.

Two weeks before this trade. I'm just flagging that. I'm just flagging that. Yeah, he's not. Hopping a step for about two weeks earlier. You say the same thing about Steph. As soon as they acquired Jimmy Curry, he dropped a 56 on us. Like, hey. Very bad. Let's go.

Did you say Jimmy Curry? You've already had your first malapropism of the pod. I did say it. Yeah. Jimmy Butler. Whatever. That's the new duo, though. But no, LeBron seems to have a pep in his step. He had a chase down block the other day where I'm just like, this guy's now back to chase down blocking people. I loved it.

They smartly decided that, no, Luka Doncic is the point guard, the orchestrator. We'll just work around, I don't know, one of the three best players in the NBA. And they've been rewarded for that. And the J.J. Redick stuff is absolutely working. Every time the Lakers social media account posts one of his post-game speeches, I know it's bullshit, but I'm bought in. I'm like, I'm ready to run through a wall for this guy. It's amazing to watch. It's real.

It's a great point. What the Lakers have been doing. Yeah, it's very Dan Campbell Lions-ish, those speeches he does. And you know, it's little stuff with him, like the pulling back Dalton Connect, right? Guy gets traded out of nowhere, goes to Charlotte, meets everybody on Charlotte. Trade gets rescinded. It's like,

Ooh, hey man. Good to see you again. How have you been? Boy, this is awkward. And yet he's, he's, you know, inspiring him. It's not like he's a huge part of the team, but he's one of their best nine guys. They kind of need him. I've been fascinated watching, and I've talked about this on the pod before, but watching LeBron, just like his fucking Terminator brain, recalculating how he should be used with Luka having the ball this much.

And I think he immediately embraced, I don't need to actually use as much energy as I used to. This is actually really good for me. Now I'm like picking my spots in short bursts. It's very similar to that first Miami season when Wade was awesome.

And he didn't know how to pick his spots that year, especially as we got in the playoffs. And now, you know, he's such a good three point shooter. He wasn't in 2011. Now he is. But then he's also figured out the defense rebounding. It's a really great team to watch right now. And I'll say this. I know a lot of Laker fans as this was, I can't even describe how euphoric they are. They went from like, this is a wrap. I don't like watching this team.

I can't take another AD up and down. He's hurt. He wants to play the four. LeBron's padding his stats. He's not playing defense. This sucks. We're fucked for the decade. In a flip, it's like they inherited money from some aunt they never knew. It's like, my aunt just gave me $10 million. I hadn't seen her in 12 years. That's the attitude. They're going absolutely crazy house, and I might have to move. Yeah.

They deserve to be going crazy. Like that is the only rational response in the face of, you know, the most extraordinary irrational trade in the history, maybe a professional sports. I mean, I guess that the Sean Watson thing might rival it. No, it's at least basketball. I think it's the craziest thing.

most indefensible trade we've had in basketball. All of sports. All of sports. Well, because the other part, and we said this when the trade happened, and I know I said this on this pod, this is the greatest thing you ever did for Luka Doncic. Yeah. We talked about this when we did the trade deadline pod like a week after. It's like, well,

Yeah. Maybe you were worried about some stuff, but you just did him the greatest favor you could have ever done them. You lit a fire in the ass. Yeah. Now, now he's going to have a comeback. And that's the other thing with LA is LA loves comeback stories. LA loves like, Oh, Ben Affleck. He,

He's made Gone Baby gone. He's back. He looked like he hit rock bottom. Now he's putting his career back together. And this Luca's as great as he is, but he was a little bit of a comeback story. It's going to be fun to watch him get in better shape, embrace vegan food.

embrace smoothies, embrace the Versa climber, all this stuff. He's going to be vitamin D. He's going to be getting a Haley Bieber from Erdogan. Is that, he needs a celebrity relationship soon. It's going to, he's going to be playing all the hits. It's going to be great. I fellas, I don't want to see this team in a playoff series. If I'm basically anybody,

And I'm sure there's going to be ways as we keep watching them that you can solve some of their deficiencies. But right now it's just, if you have two guys who are putting up 60 points a game, that's, I just don't want to see a team like that. So that story has been great. And then Golden State. Oh, excellent. The Jimmy thing is excellent. Can we officially say that worked out way better for them than getting KD?

Because when we did the trade deadline, we were like, hmm, I don't know. What are we getting from Jimmy? And we were all bullish on the Jimmy part. But I think now that we've watched it, the fact that he can give them this two-way defense stuff doesn't really necessarily need the ball. You don't get all of the up and down personality stuff that sadly KD brings to the table from time to time. We saw it the other night on TV. Wait, wait, wait, wait, though. Like it.

Jimmy in Miami didn't cover himself in glory in terms of up and down. I'm just talking this season, House.

well happy jimmy we've seen jimmy's teeth this season he he was jimmy for for you know 45 to 60 days like you you really want to say from an if you're comparing the emotional kind of component of it i'm not sure that i'm willing to concede i think kd if he had been into it would have arrived with the very best attitude but i don't know if he was into it i do wasn't it the other thing about he didn't want to go to go and state house

If he did want to is what I'm saying. Right. If it had been in his brain that that was where he wanted to land. If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. I mean, he didn't want to go to Golden State. This is why I disagree with you, House, is when's the last time Katie was happy somewhere? Uh,

2016 Golden State. 17. Yeah, 16, 17 Golden State. That was the last full happy season. So, like, the guy's just been, you know, perpetually unhappy. Like, everybody remembers that last year in Golden State. Like, people think this Budenholzer thing is, like, out of left field. It's like, go look at the last year in Golden State. Like, this guy was miserable. A lot of people described it as morose.

for an entire season for the best team in the league by far right obviously the Brooklyn thing blew up and look I've kind of defended what Jimmy did because it's just like look you guys don't want to pay me after I basically overachieved my entire tenure here I'm blowing this thing up like it was ugly but he got the right outcome for himself in his career he got his money in Golden State and now he's on a team that I think is as scary as anyone and it's

Specifically because they got Jimmy Butler. The defense is taking another step and Jimmy is just seamlessly fitting to the offense, which I kind of thought would be the case because he played in a similar offense in Miami around, you know, Tyler Hero, Duncan Robinson getting free on the three point line. Now it's Steph Curry. Right.

It's crazy. The other thing, it's so funny with basketball, how you can just add one guy and the entire team slides into place, right? Like now Moody is kind of doing a Wiggins impersonation defensively. And he was really good the other night in that, uh, in that Knicks game, um, pods who had the ball too much and they were almost using him as like a second, uh,

second playmaker because they didn't really have another choice. Now he just is who he is, which is a guy on the side who can hit some threes and rebound and play hard. And then Draymond doesn't have to worry about anything at all other than throwing entry passes to Jimmy or setting screens for Steph. And you feel, Russell and I talked about it Sunday. It's like, you can see it's, it's like a different human being. Steph now, Steph had weight of the world on his shoulders. Just looked like he'd played nine games in 10 nights every night.

And now he's skipping around. The way he played at MSG, he's a little tweaked ankle, and he's just dancing and prancing the whole day, which was awesome. So, you know, it's funny because we talked, I don't know how many months ago, about how this league was a prisoner of the LeBron Steph eras, and they couldn't move on and create these new stars. So now, ironically, they might get these two. The thing to watch for me is, can Golden State get into the 4-5? Mm-hmm.

Can they get OKC in round two? Because I want to get them earlier than later. And I think avoid that Lakers Denver combo. Let those guys beat the hell out of each other. And because those are those are going to be tough matchups for them. But if they can play OKC, I know OKC is excellent and they're a really good young team and they're having a great season. But Golden State OKC, they've already had awesome games.

That's a team that I think Golden State feels like we can play with this team. And I just feel like if we end up, we could have a round two where we could have Celtics-Knicks, we could have Lakers-Denver, and we could have Golden State-OKC. Those would be three of the four series. And I don't even know who the other. Yeah. And then it would be Cleveland against somebody crappy.

Before we get to where it's kind of, and I'm sorry, I may be a tangent, but am I the only one who thinks Cleveland is clearly the favorite right now?

You are 100,000, 50 million percent the only one. And I'm not buying this reverse jinx crap. I'm not reverse jinxing anything. I'm not doing that. We knew you were going to do this reverse jinx. Look, the Celtics went out to a 25 to 3 lead. I think that's for a reason. I think they are just a nightmare matchup for Cleveland because,

They get Cleveland out of their base offense, which is ball movement, quick hitting, all of that stuff. The Celtics being so switch heavy. It's just like, no, like Garland, you got to beat somebody. You know, Donovan Mitchell, you got to prove that you're an all NBA caliber shot creator finisher. You got to beat somebody. You know, it's going to be Drew Holiday. It's going to be Tatum. It's going to be Brown. Like they're going to force these guys to play in the one-on-one. And I think they're going to be fine. Like, honestly.

It all depends on the health of the Celtics when those two teams get together. That will be it. That's the most important thing for that matchup. Two things. Health. I thought the Philly Super Bowl really fucked me up, Paz. Well, you didn't have me on to help steer you, so you have no one to blame. You put one in your KC for that, Bill? You were in New Orleans eating fried oysters. I could have jumped on the phone. No, I've had a lot of regrets and I've spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong.

with my Super Bowl pick because my instincts are telling me, Phil, I've talked about this. But I do wonder sometimes if hunger is the most underrated noun in sports. And that's what worries me about Cleveland versus Boston. As Boston plays hard, Tatum plays hard every night, the team gives a shit. But Cleveland hasn't been there before. And every guy in that team, when they play the Celtics, it will be the most important two weeks of their life

And the Celtics can't say the same. And there's that little edge of like game seven at home, Donovan Mitchell with like, holy shit, I could actually make the finals. This is my moment right now. The Celtics had that last year. Going back to back is really hard. The history of the NBA is like, this is the single hardest thing you can do in the NBA is win the second time in a row. And that's what worries me, the health issues.

What am I getting from Porzingis? What am I getting from holiday? And then this Cleveland team that just can play everybody 30 minutes a game or less. They have incredible depth. They have a bench. They have a huge lead. They're going to play somebody absolutely shitty in round one, right? Like truly shitty. Whoever that eight, nine, that is going to be a shit team. They're going to get a sweep in that and they're just going to be fresh.

In round two. And that, you know, that's a real thing. So those are my concerns, House. Who would be the fourth seed in the East? I'm blanking. That would be... Indiana, Milwaukee. Indiana. So, I mean, Milwaukee's playing better than Indiana. Detroit's making a push, by the way. Let's not rule out Detroit. No, they had a tough loss last night.

Why is this guy? Schroeder has been really good eyes on the Pistons. That was a sneaky trade. I don't know why Miami didn't want him, especially when Terry Rogers has died as we're going to cover in the draft. He's an all ball menace. He plays his ass off on defense. Like this guy really tries. He takes his matchup personal every single night. Obviously,

he's a yapper and gets under the skin of every single one of his opponents. Sometimes he's on teammates too, but that's neither here nor there. I just think he's a gamer, man. Me too. Every now and again, he'll get you some buckets, blow by guys, driving kick guy. He'll make his threes every night. I've always been a shooter guy. They played him. He came off the bench yesterday. Harden went nuts yesterday.

And Schroeder kind of took him in the fourth quarter and was just doing a whole bunch of German Schroeder things on him and just defending him full court and annoying him. And Harden was getting madder and madder. I think that Detroit team, that Detroit Knicks series is going to be an absolute bitch for the Knicks. And I can't wait because they are going to be challenging.

trying to get in the fights, try, you know, shoving matches, get chippy. They're going to try to work on towns. They're going to try to hit Brunson. They have wise. Where do we, so I talked about the Sunday Ron Holland, who's,

I think averaging an altercation every 10 minutes. Is he on your radar yet? Yeah. He's a little runner testy. He's on my radar. Obviously freaking Stewart beef stew. Like number one now, pretty much ready to rumble. No matter who the opponent is. The guy almost murdered LeBron James.

two years ago. But yeah, Ron Holland is fun. I like that they haven't been afraid to throw him on the deep end, man, and let him sort of figure it out. I think coming into last year's draft, people saw him as kind of the most physically, athletically gifted of the bunch, if not the most skilled and crafty. But I like what I've seen from him so far.

I think the staff is coaching these guys up. I really do. Yeah, I agree. I like how feisty they are. Feisty team. Okay, we're going to take a break and then we're going to do the worst contracts draft. House, are you playing FanDuel 30 on 30? Every time you put one out, I ride. Because you can cash in on betting with FanDuel America's number one sports book. Every Friday night, the ringer, we came up with this idea with them. 30% profit boost if you pick a player to score more than 30 points.

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where Joe House is. Peter Schrager giving DC a lot of love recently on this podcast. Opt-in required, bonus issued as non-returnable profit boost tokens, restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.finder.com. Game problem call 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit rg-help.com. This episode is brought to you by McLobe Ultra. McLobe Ultra, a superior light beer and the ultimate trophy. Win or lose, you're bound to enjoy the ride with a good beer in hand. McLobe Ultra, crisp,

Refreshing, only 95 calories. A superior light beer. No matter the game, sport, or season, superior is worth playing for. Always be prepared for a win. In order, Michelob Ultra today. Available on DoorDash, by the way. Enjoy responsibly. 2025 Anheuser-Busch Michelob Ultra light beer. St. Louis, Missouri. Must be 21 plus to order alcohol. Alcohol available only in select markets. All right, it's time. The worst contracts draft. I think this is our fifth one.

It's either four or five, might be the fifth one. And the rules are as follows. We go in a not snake fashion. We just go in a circle. I'll read the, you have to say the contract or I'll say it after you pick the guy. And the thing is, it's almost like reverse NBA trade value.

the worst contract in the league, the one you wouldn't want the most, the most untradeable contract, the one that if you were a fan of the team, you'd be like, oh my God. And there's one clear winner this year. We'll see if it goes. House, did you want the first pick or you didn't? Because we have one wrinkle this year. Coaches and GMs are now eligible for the worst contracts draft. And we've done coaches before.

In the GM case, we don't even know what the contracts are, but you can still take a guy. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Anyway, House or Waz? One of you can have it. Do you want the first pick, Waz, or do you want it? I'll go first. It's all good. It's so obvious. It's almost like a ceremonial first pick in the sense that we all know what the outcome is going to be, and it's got to be Bradley Beal of the Phoenix Suns.

Wow. Wow. That was not who I had on my board. I still have him fourth. No shot. And the reason and the reason why is we just went through this exercise. The sons were desperate to move this guy. They spent basically they did all kinds of tactics. They tried to bench him to get him to remove his no trick. Like they they tried everything.

to get this man off of their team. Like, they had Jimmy Butler on hold, like, ready to go, locked and loaded. They were going to improve their roster.

They called everyone. It was not possible. This is an immovable. It's literally can't be moved. This is an interesting case because it actually is untradeable. So from a worse contract, you can't trade it. I don't know. He's winning me over house. You can't. Not only can you not trade him. Okay. And like, there was this sort of like, I did it. Well, Bradley Bill still, you know, a decent contributing play. Like the other night, the, you know, KD and Bud game,

They completely took off after Bradley Bill's ass went to the bench.

So he's getting $50 million this year, $53 million next year, and then $57 million. Well, he has got a player option. Hold on. I wonder if he's going to take his player option. Shams is reporting he's exercised it. His player option is $57 million in 26-27, all while holding a no-trade clause, which means he basically has the franchise by the barrel.

Okay. To me, this is still because of the two extra years, still the worst deal in the NBA. And, and I get it. There's other guys here that I'm like, wow, this is tough. But Bradley Beal to me is the worst. So I,

I quite love it. And I'll just interject quickly. I think it would be fine if we wanted to rename this worst contract. We just call it the Bradley Beal Memorial Worst Contract and just do it every year. Name this for Bradley Beal. Like arguably one of the worst contracts in the history of bad contracts in the NBA. I would argue we should name it after Andre Blatch.

That was only $27 million. I know, but they gave him an extension and then amnestied him before the extension kicked in. We're never going to top that. That's never going to happen in the history of the league ever again. I beg for them to do that with John Wall when they gave John Wall the giant extension. Right, that could be the John Wall too. The reason that Beal deserves this top billing is because he set two franchises back last

A grand total of how many years it'll be at least 14 to 15 years. If you add up the number of years that Washington is going to take to recover and be competitive and how long it will be before Phoenix is competitive again, that's truly amazing. You got to give up, give it up to Tommy Shepard for that one. Well, it's also funny that they, the way they got him was they, Chris Paul was an expiring, right? That they could have bought out after his next year.

And then they had Aiton who they wanted to get rid of. And they somehow turned that into Beal. And then another guy who's going to be in this worst contracts draft a little bit later. It was like they took two things where they actually would have had some flexibility and now they're just stuck. I just want to mention

His last two years, he's averaging 18 a game with 51, 40, 40 to 82 percentage splits. And on paper, you could go to basketball reference in 50 years and be like, Bradley Bill wasn't that bad. This contract's devastating. When do you think his last season playing 61 games was?

House would know this way before the extension, right before, like, you know, it was before the extension, the 2018 19 season. There you go. Yeah. Wow. How many playoff games do you think he's played since he lost to the Celtics and the Kelly Olenek game?

He definitely, Russell Westbrook single-handedly dragged the Wizards into the playoffs. So he played four games as they got their asses swept in that series. And then I don't know how many, has he played three, four games for the Suns? He's played 15 total. So they're not making it this year. So that'll be eight playoff games, 15 playoff games in eight years for Bradley. Anyway, a stunning number one pick, but I kind of liked it. Bold.

People tomorrow in the papers would be like, Big Was bold with his first pick. And I got to say, going through this list, there's just not as many horrific, scary contracts. We didn't have the same depth. Most of these contracts are like, eh, not that

that terrible? Some of them you could be like, oh, it's kind of risky. But most of these deals, even if a guy is slightly overpaid, it's not a franchise killer the way this Bradley Beal thing is. And I'm pretty sure I know your next pick is going to be. But yeah, it's tough. How's your next pick? Well, this is... So I respect Waz because he's a traditionalist. He went with the OG here. This is slightly out of left field, but

You know, this this guy changed. He altered the course of two franchises. Speaking of, you know, a five to 10 year recovery window for one franchise and another franchise that's going to enjoy. It should be at least another decade of prosperity. It's it's Nico Harrison. I mean, what Nico Harrison? I don't know how much money that man made.

And I know that he is going to, I hope he's beefing up on, on the current offering of Nike sneakers or whatever, because that man is going to return to the sneaker business. He is, there is no franchise in the NBA that,

that he can go to now. There are no more jobs for him in terms of a front office. How do you tell your fan base? Yeah, well, even quietly. Yeah, we brought him in because he's got this. No, no, no. This is his last job in a front office. And I keep looking for the definitive economic impact. Like nobody's done the soup to nuts of how much money it will cost the Dallas Mavericks. Just over the next month,

five years, I think it's going to take much longer than that for them to properly recover because of what happened to Kyrie. But at the very, very lowest conservative estimate, it is a billion dollars. It is a billion dollars in diminished value for that Dallas franchise. When you think about the impact on revenue from attendance, okay, fine. All of that is getting walloped.

The revenue that they're going to get there and over the air, you know, in their local broadcast, they don't have a regional sports network that they're on. They switched that.

How are they going to get advertisers to pay anything for people to watch those games? Right, merchandise partners. What are you going to tell those people? So on down the line, you can go through six or seven or eight categories, the ways the team make money, the way that the teams have cash flow. Wallet, just take it right off. I think the ultimate...

economic impact is going to be between a billion and a half and $2 billion. And think of how remarkable it is in this era where in every sport, we look at them. We say the best investment that a rich person can make is in a professional sports franchise because no franchise ever goes down in value. This motherfucker.

Look at the alchemy he performed here. He took the golden goose and turned it into a golden pile of shit. Magnificent. That is the worst contract in professional basketball. And we don't even know how much he makes, and he's number two in the worst contract draft. Yeah, I did something on my pot at the top on Tuesday, and I was thinking about it.

Um, cause remember like when LeBron left Cleveland the first time and they would do those franchise values every year. And like last year he was on Cleveland. They were like the number two team. And then a year later they were like 28th. And it was just, they went from being like worth, I don't know, a billion point two to like being worth like 500 million. This is 15 years ago. Um, if Luca wins the title with the Lakers this year,

You could argue Dallas might, like this might be a, they have to move in the middle of the night and go somewhere else. Like just break leases. Like, like who is the guy in the Colts? Ursae? Yeah. They just moved to Baltimore in the middle of the night one night. It might be a move in the middle of the night one night. I don't know how they recover. And the way sports is consumed now with all these little kids get attached to players instead of teams and all these kids love Luca. I don't know how they come back.

Like, wow, this might be like a death blow. It's tough. I got to say, I've been one of the biggest like, look, elements of wanting to move on from Luca were justifiable people in the media. Right. Like there are elements to it where I'm like, I understand why a team would say, you know what, man, this guy is going to be problematic after we give him three hundred fifty million dollars. Right.

The bottom line is trading for AD, you just had to do something more or better than what you did. You had to get twice as much in the trade. And then even then, I'm not sure. And then AD goes. It's just like the way he framed it in the media was about availability. AD goes down immediately. The first game he plays. And now Kyrie's gone. Light is gone. Gaffer's gone. Did you see kids thing?

Do you see kids thing about he was, he took real offense that people thought it was the increased workload that, that hurt Kyrie's knee. And he's like, it was a fluke injury. It was like, dude, we've been following the NBA our whole lives. Like this is clay Thompson going down the 2019 finals. Cause he was playing like crazy minutes and doing some crazy workload. And then all of a sudden his, his leg blew out. Like, this is what happens in the league. The more you put on these guys, the more likely it is. They're going to break down dumb ass.

I have a question. I have a serious question because that trade was immediately followed by the Lakers trying to acquire Mark Williams and for whatever reason having cold feet about that. You mean when they backed out? When they shook out a trade and backed out, became the first team in 15 years to back out of a trade? It was a smart back out. Good back out. They used the physical. Dallas acquired a hurt player and then got him hurt.

And somehow he passed the physical. So I would like this better move would have been to back out of the trade because the physical because of the reaction. But now you've lit a fire under Luca. Yeah.

That would have been a better outcome. You've also set open to the entire league the possibility that Luka's available. Let's see that auction. Let's see how the rest of the league responds to that. Let's have a proper... I thought there was a possibility. I put it in the text threads within the first 12 hours that there was this crazy Machiavellian play. I wish that that's what had come to pass. But what Dallas did is prove to all of us. They showed their ass...

in terms of their inability to run very basic downside cases. Like, here's the hope for outcome. Kyrie's awesome. AD's injury is behind him. We have all these giant guys. We're going to be good. And we're going to really compete this year. Then we have a window.

But the downside case that any sensible, like rational business person would conduct is what happens if 80s injury is lingering or, you know, can't be overcome quickly. How does that impact, you know, the rest of the team? How does that impact directly Kyrie? What's our assessment of the injury risk to Kyrie going forward? Like what happened to Dallas is not extraordinary. It's the downside case. But now, now,

The rational basketball response, the only thing that would make sense and possibly win the fans back. They got to throw Nico into the bushes. They got to trade AD. Well, Nico needs to move. I mean, why would he even want to stay in Dallas now? He should resign. Great point. Here's the thing. I'll make a prediction because we saw this in 2011 when Cleveland miraculously won the lottery the year after LeBron left.

I just think Dallas wins the lottery now. I'm going to bet on it. No. I'm going to bet on a FanDuel. No. Yeah, I'm betting on it. No way. Dallas wins the lottery. No way. Yeah. Absolutely not. We got to save basketball at Dallas. Oh, they got Cooper Flagg. Everything's okay. You don't like this idea, House? Like 101 odds? Well, I mean, gambling on it and it coming to pass are two different things. Of course, I'll gamble on it. I'm kidding. God, you took that so seriously. I'm up.

I don't know how he's still on the board. It's very reminiscent of the 2014 NBA draft when he fell to three. Vince Carter was half man, half amazing. He's half man, half available. He's Joel Embiid. Yeah. Five years, $299.5 million left by the end of this season because he's been scratched for the rest of the season. 452 games played, 440 games missed. It's a very sad story.

I don't mean to sound so excited talking about it. I'm just excited he was still on the board. I'm just going to read through his injuries, guys. In college, stress fracture in his lower back, mismarch madness. Right before the draft, stress fracture, navicular bone in his foot, 2014. Rebroke the same thing, 2015.

Left meniscus tear, 2017. Fractured orbital bone, 18. Finger surgery, 2020. Right meniscus tear, 2021. So we tore meniscus in both legs. Torn ligaments, right thumb, 22. Fractured same orbital bone, 22. Right torn lateral meniscus, 23. There's two different meniscuses, I guess, in his right knee. Tore both of them.

Bell's palsy, 24. And then this year they don't, they're not even telling us what the injury is. It's just left knee swelling management that now he's out. And what's weird is the left knee was the one that's only been operated on once unless they're not telling us about one. And then the right knee, which isn't even the one that's having all the swelling has two operations, four years left.

it's, I, there's no way out of this. And we've seen with the big centers, like once you keep breaking down like this, there's really no path back. And maybe if there's a path, it's 50, 60 games.

brutal contract was why did they do the extension will we ever figure this out why did they do it I think they did it because it's like before he went down last year he was basically averaging 35 points he was having the best scoring season since Michael Jordan literally in like 1988 right and so the idea being like look when this guy was on the floor for us he was amazing and you know even in his limited capacity against the Knicks he was pretty good

So the idea is like, oh, he's going to get back to that form before he went down midway through the season. I think the problem for me and what makes this a justifiable pick is that, you know, guys go down and it's like, all right, he's got an ACL. He's got a PCL. He's got a broken fibula. He's got whatever, ankle, whatever. This is the problem. This is the procedure we're going to do. This is how long it's going to take for him to come back. It's going to be fine. They can't even tell us.

what is wrong with his knee and what they're going to do. People are throwing out micro fracture surgery. Do they even still do that? Dude, that's how dumbfounded they are by what they can do to address the problem in his knee. And it feels like there's nothing left to fix. Yeah, but why? They said, so they do the extension, but then Bontemps writes that piece right before the season starts about how Philly finally has their plan to peak in the playoffs. Yeah.

And Embiid says, I'm never playing back to backs again for the rest of my career. That would have been my extension red flag. Call me nuts to just add the 3 million, three years and 170 million to a contract I'm already worried about. House, from what you saw from Embiid in the Olympics, would you have given him an extension?

So I want to ask you, can you remind me, you did this outstanding podcast with the executive producer of White Lotus, David Bernard. And he described this phenomena. He said one of the best pieces of advice he ever got was from, I can't remember who the famous person was that gave him this advice.

It had to do with, you know, you get inside of, was it the monkey cage? What was it? It was inside. Oh yeah. You, you can't, you can't get used to the smell of shit. You grow so acclimated to the smell of the shit that you cannot, uh,

identify that there's a bad thing, that you're in a bad environment situation. So for me, the problem with the Sixers goes all the way back to what I will forever argue was an ill-advised and ill-conceived return to the playoffs by Embiid. He wasn't ready. He wasn't healthy. We know this. Waz is right.

He had a 50-point game in the first game in Philadelphia. I went up there and watched it. It was awesome. But he also had many dramatic moments where he went down on the floor and stayed on the floor for several minutes and then went to the locker room and then came back.

That whole situation of him coming back to the playoffs and playing under the highest leverage situation in the shape that he was in with his knee and the condition it was in. And then you go from that to the Olympics, which are barely six weeks later. And even less than that when you consider the training. And the USA team says, look,

it's on the player to make the decision about the player's health. And what we saw from him looked like a competent Joel Embiid. Now, well, he, he had some impactful moments. He didn't look as explosive. No, they used his size really well, but he, you could tell he wasn't a hundred percent. Right. Right. And so we come off of that and that's the moment when, when the extension is given after the, the Olympics. And, uh,

Windhorse had a great story this week about some of the decision-making and some, they went, you know, the Sixers talked to every single knee specialist in the world and got the input. By the way, that's a red flag. They wanted the assurance. The problem with the extension is,

What the fuck was the rush? Like, right. How about him just play the season? See what happens. Now, Maury said, then do it. The quote that Windhorse attributed to him was like, we didn't want to arrive in the summer of 25 and have the uncertainty, the potential chaos of him going somewhere else. And my question is, why the fuck not?

Yeah, he would have been 32 and had played 60% of the games in his career. I listen, I've known Darrell a long time. I think if there's a flaw with him, I think he wants to be liked by players. And we saw that with the, when the hardened thing fell sideways. And I just think he likes Embiid.

And wanted to take care of them and chose to see it as a glass half full versus a glass half empty thing. And I think the owners like them be too. And ultimately, like that was what was so funny about last week when they're leaking out like this was Daryl's fault. Daryl did this. It's like the owner makes the decision to stop. It's that one person is signing that extension.

And one person is asking all the questions and getting all the answers for it. But it's a devastating, devastating contract. Let's just say, presumably he plays three more years on this knee in 28, 29, he's going to be owed basically $70 million. Um,

That's tough. There might be some like insurance wrinkles with this that, you know, cause we found out more info about Zion's contract as it, as the months came out and there might be some wrinkles with this, but as of yet, we have not heard of any. And this just seems like a straight $300 million for a guy who doesn't seem like he's going to be able to play that much in his age. 30. What would that be? 31 next year. Yeah. Yeah.

If we were gambling on this before, like, what do you think is more likely? He retires in the next two years or he makes it to the third year of that contract? Oh, he's going to make it to the third year. He's not retiring. We have not seen. The only person we've seen retire is Andrew Luck.

Yeah. Like just walk away from money. And that was seemed like a more like I don't want to put my body through this anymore. OK. He's not going to retire before his contract is up. He can't. His accountant will not allow it. OK. You can't. 20 games a season out of him. Hey, it is whatever I got to do to make it to the finish line. And listen, look, I think Joel Embiid is a bit of a tragic figure.

A lot of a tragic figure. I mean, everybody likes him. It's, you know, it is what it is. And he seems to want it really badly. It's just his body just straight up has not cooperated. And that sucks. But at the end of the day, he's going to have like $600 million in career earnings. Yeah. And I don't feel that bad for the guy, you know? Right. Well, House and I are old enough to remember doing this dance with Bill Walton way, way, way back when. Yao Ming.

Greg Oden, Ralph Sampson. There's been a lot of big dudes that their bodies couldn't hold up because they

Just fundamentally, it's really hard for a seven foot three person to run up and down a basketball court for nine months a year and jump up and down and land on things. You're, you're playing with fire. All right. We're going to take one more break and then we'll do the rest. This episode is brought to you by Redfin. I love looking at real estate. You can be in the market to buy or rent, whatever it is. You might just like scrolling around, seeing what's out there. You might like checking out neighborhoods, then go into Google earth.

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to get started. All right, come back. Waz is up. There's one big kahuna still left on the board. This is the last obvious, this is just horrible contract, in my opinion, left in the league. There's other ones that are like, all right, this is pretty bad, but this is like horrific. And it's Joel Embiid's teammate, Paul George. Hmm.

I honestly thought these two could be one, two in the draft. No, easily. I think so. I think you can make arguments for both. We are in this situation with this worst contract draft where we have one guy who costs his team like a billion and a half dollars and another guy that costs his team $500 million. And both of those franchises are looking at a decade of pure effing misery coming up. Yeah. Amazing. So Paul George is four years to 11.6.

Three years after this one. Yep. Um, he's dropped in 27, 28 for 56 mil, probably opting into that one. I couldn't figure out a way to look this up because I'm not smart enough, but when somebody drops six points a game, just fundamentally when somebody goes from 22 to 16 and they played, they're like year 12 or later,

It usually doesn't come back. I remember talking about this with Jermaine O'Neal 20 years ago. When you go from being a 24-10 guy or a 22-11 guy and now you're like a 15-9 guy, it doesn't come back. And that would be my fear with Paul George. And I don't... They said like something's wrong with his finger, but it doesn't explain...

the lack of explosiveness. It's so bad. And this is the thing. I think we got to give cut Darrell a break here a little bit in the sense that last year on the Clippers, Paul George was an all NBA performer. He was his, the Clippers on off numbers with Paul George on a both offense and defense. He was, he was their best player last year. Yeah. He was a bonafide star NBA player last year and he's coming to the

76ers environment just turned into a pumpkin. I don't think we could have foreseen this. Wow, we could have foreseen it. House, this is one of those... We see this in sports sometimes. You had to do it, but you didn't feel awesome about it as you're doing it. Signings? We had this argument in October when we were doing the over-under pod, me, you, and Rosillo. And I'm the only one that chose the over for Philadelphia. I own it, but I did...

understand the thesis. I understood all of the moves that Philadelphia made in their offseason. It was a gamble. It was an all-in, all the chips to the center of the table gamble where that Philadelphia team on paper as we entered the season looked like it had the potential to compete. I

I'm not saying beat, but compete with Boston. Boston is the standard. How can we put guys around Joel Embiid? The whole thing revolves around Joel Embiid's health. That is, you know, obviously the biggest part of the gamble. But the other side of the gamble is that Paul George will show up. The thing that the Sixers had done successfully in the two seasons leading up to this season is in those

chunks of time that Embiid was missing, they could tread water. And they were able to tread water through the players that they had. Paul George was supposed to be the tread water character, but that dude showed up. I will never. This will always be Paul George for me. And I hope when he gets into the Hall of Fame that they put this picture up

as part of the montage for his legacy. Him putting his mouth on his wife's titty on spring break, you know, right before the All-Star. The players that aren't involved with the All-Star game are off on their version of having a break. And that man has the gall to put on his Instagram his mouth on his wife's titty. That will forever

Never be the Paul George moment for me. I'll always think of him in that context. All the same moves. That's it. That's it. Well, next year is year 16 for him in the NBA. Damn. Wow. The year after that will be year 17. And then the last year of this contract will be year 18. Not feeling great about it. And he's another one that's had some physical stuff, right? He's got the rod in his leg and all kinds of things. Well, House, you're up in the...

There's, I think there's one prime time guy left here, but we'll see if you take them. Oh, interesting. Cause I'm not, now I'm officially kind of like the draft is dropped. Yeah. I'm having a hard time. I think there's one good one left, but let's see. We can do houses. It's round two and houses already like flummoxed and can't figure out who to pick. No, I'm not flummoxed. I know who I want to put in here. And you know,

I'm prepared to take all of the slings and arrows. It's Scottie Barnes. I don't like the Scottie Barnes extension. I don't like it one bit. This is the thing, right? And the reason why I'm putting him in at this moment, I know what I'm going to take from Toronto. The bullets I'm about to take from the Raptors. But somebody proved to me that he is not Zach Levine. Somebody proved to me that he is not Trey Young. The problem with

paying a guy that's not ready to be the leader of the team. And look, you can say he's been hurt. Well, yes, he's been hurt. He's only in the fourth year of his NBA career. I don't want guys that are missing chunks of time the way that Scottie Barnes is missing time. Now, can we give the contract? Because he's on the last year of his rookie deal, which is 10 million. Next year, we're kicking in five years to 24.

So you're not a fan? Well, it's his worst year shooting percentage-wise of his entire career. I've been saying this for a while and the Toronto fans get mad. I'm not against Scottie Barnes becoming potentially a guy, but they've been...

He's been treated from day one like he's a future franchise guy. Remember, he wasn't in the KD trade. Yeah, and I got yelled at a few years ago because I implied that he wasn't the next Kawhi Leonard. People thought I was insane and kept saying, look at his rookie stats compared to Kawhi's. I'm like, guys, this is not – I think Scottie Barnes is a really good player. Me too. I don't think he's anybody's idea. You go really good? I think he's a good player.

I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one option. I think around the right circumstance where he would be de-emphasized and just kind of just solely allowed to focus on his strengths and not, you know, firing up threes on a regular basis. Controlling the ball at the end of the game. It's that Iguodala Philly situation, right? Where it's like, all right, you're not really a number one guy, but if you're a number three guy on an awesome team, you might be awesome.

Tell me when he will make his first all NBA team. Hey, he made the all-star team last year, House. He's an NBA all-star. All-star. So he's knocking on the door, theoretically, on all NBA. Great theory. I've never been the biggest Scottie Barnes person, but I don't see his contract as like,

you know, some kind of death knell to Toronto's future. I think some of the team building they've, you know, taken the actions they've taken in that direction, I think are highly problematic, uh,

But I don't think Scottie Barnes is like some horribly overplayed. I love it. House has replaced Trump as the number one enemy of Canada. I love it. I put them where I put them because we've seen this, this song and dance before. It's good. And you warned us about Bradley Beal. You've warned us about guys in the past. Scottie Barnes averaging 28 and six. He's shooting 27% from three and the team loses. It's his worst shooting percentage.

So here's what I compare Scottie Barnes to. I compare it to the deal that Wiggins got off of his rookie extension where Glenn Taylor said that

Well, Andrew Wiggins promised me that he was going to work his ass off in the offseason. And so I gave him the max contract extension. Like he hasn't put it on the court that he's worth that. But he promised me he gave me his word. I think if Scott I think I look at his deal like that, like you look at the talent where they drafted him. The idea that they're just not going to give him, you know, a max extension, I think would have been problematic for their management. And I'm like, in a few years, can Scotty Barnes be the finishing piece?

even at a slightly inflated or vastly inflated, according to Joe Howe's contract. Could he help a winner elevate their situation the way Wiggins did for the Warriors? I think he could, potentially. That's why I'm not so, so down on the deal. When he's a fourth banana. Okay. I'll keep my eye on it. A $50 million fourth banana. There you go. Hey, man, I just came back from the grocery store. It's not that far off. I'll tell you that much.

He turns 24 in August. Listen, they need him to be a number one guy if they're going to pay him that kind of money. That's right. I agree. I like the pick. You used history. Thank you. I think this young guy might be a Max guy, so I'm giving him a Max when there's no actual evidence he's a Max guy. Look at his stats and his basketball reference page is really good. We have seen this go wrong many times. I like the Wiggins seat too. Well, guys...

I feel like I've already won the draft. I got Joel Embiid with the third pick. Kawhi Leonard still on the board. I don't know. What are you guys doing?

3 years, $149 million. He's played 20 games this season. He's played 249 games in 6 years for the Clippers. He's played 15 playoff games. What is he, Cal Ripken Jr. all of a sudden? What is happening? You know what's so funny, Bill, is that when I looked at Kawhi's contract, but I looked at it next to Paul George's, and I was like, yeah!

Not so bad. And plus, like, he's been playing so well recently. I'm like, ah. But you're right, though. It is. I watched last night and it's like, there's Kawhi during a timeout wearing a, wearing a

you know, jogging suit. It's like, I guess he's not playing. He just straight up does not play. And that's what never know if he's going to play a little Clipper game. It's like, Oh, Kauai is warming up. He's going to play. This is great. I'll confess. I might have a little softer view on Kauai because at the end of the day, I think that, uh,

everything the Clippers have done with him has been part of the wildly successful arrival of the Intuit Center. I think what Ballmer did was try and create a credible product. Yes. Not an incredible product, a credible product,

And the way that he did that was he used Kawhi as the vehicle. It has been a gross overpay from really the, ever since he arrived from the Raptors, each of the two extensions were gross overpays.

But for the purposes of what the Clippers are trying, the identity that they're, you know, they want to be relevant. And the risk of him, you know, not being available was kind of worth it. So the risk is the fact of him not being available. So the case for the case for this contract, they had a really fun Lakers game a couple of nights ago. And Kawhi played, played 40 minutes.

13 for 23, 33 points, 10 rebounds, and looked like he was every bit as good as Paul George. And that's why I do it now. If he, if you got it, saw a tweet tomorrow and it's like Kawhi Leonard has been shut down for the next three weeks. Wouldn't be surprised at all. And that's why for 50 million a year, I got to put them on there. Uh, 249 games in six years for the Clippers is nuts. Why is your up? Uh,

My next contract is... I feel like this contract goes under the radar because this franchise is just known for ineptitude, basically. But it doesn't get talked about enough. And to me...

this contract just signals like everything this franchise is about. And it's Patrick Williams of the Bulls. I had him on my list. Interesting. Like this dude is going to make $18 million per year until 2029. And like, he's never been good.

He's not good now. And like what? There was no reason to do this. Like they were they competing against five years, 90 million for Patrick Williams. He's like a guy has been there. It's like, oh, look at the body in the three and D and it's just never, ever materialized. And it's just what the Bulls do. Nothing they've done aside from finally.

Thankfully, moving on from Zach Levine makes any sense whatsoever. But are we even sure that they're even going down the rebuilding?

you know, path. We don't even know if that's the case, man. But like the, the Patrick, as soon as they inked this, it was like, what are they doing? Like, why would you do this? The bulls are your, your guy in your fantasy league, your, your friend that you haven't talked to in 12 years, who doesn't really make any moves. And then every once in a while, we'll spend $58 in the free agent auction. And you're like, Oh, there he is. It's like trying to finish sixth place. Yeah.

what's this guy doing? I just likes being in the league. He likes being on the email threads. Uh, they're embarrassing. I, I had Patrick Williams too. He's 26 minutes a game somehow this season, averaging 37% from, uh, on field goals house. And, uh, I've never, I just don't get it when I watched them. He doesn't really jump out of the TV. There seems like there's 20 guys like him. I don't know why you would pay him. I think five years from 50 would have been

Kind of aggressive. I don't get it. Dude, for the season, he's shooting 37 and a half percent. He can't shoot. From the field, guys. He's six foot eight. How's your rep? This is crazy. It's time to have the Terry Rozier. Yes. Oh, man. Oh, my goodness. Welcome, welcome. Two years, 51.5 million left for Terry Rozier. On the face of it, 25 million bucks for a shooting guard.

He's capable of being a prolific scorer. It's okay. The problem is we have a sizzle reel from this season that shows him actively undermining the ability of the Miami Heat to win basketball games. It looks like he's completely lost his ability to play basketball. Because I looked up when they made the trade last year. Because I remember thinking like,

Oh, getting Terry Rozier for what they gave up like a first for him. I would much rather do that than give all the shit you had to give up for Dame lowered, which included Tyler hero. Right. So when they traded for him last year, he played 30 Charlotte games, 23.2 points a game. Yeah. 36% from three. Yeah. And, and was playing awesome and was like crunch time. He was a good player. I thought Miami had a great pickup. Yeah. This year, uh,

His stats are almost half. He's 11.8 points a game. He's shooting 40%. He's shooting 29% from three. And I test wise, he might be the worst rotation guy in the league. And I don't know what happened. And there's lots of theories floating around. Not hard to find, but you know, it really seems like whatever, there might be a scandal with him. There might not with some of this betting thing, but it really seems like it sent him into an absolute tailspin, but they keep playing him as the part I don't get house.

I wonder, you know, we can theorize about stuff that doesn't take us into uncomfortable territory. No team in the NBA has more double digit leads that they've coughed up in the fourth quarter than the Miami Heat.

And I, on the ringer gambling podcast, just this past Monday said, one of my favorite betting strategies over the last couple of weeks and will be until the end of the season is to find situations where Miami has a lead going into the fourth quarter and watching them cough it up. Um, they down the stretch in the last six minutes of the game have no apparent game plan. It's ISO to hero, but

But Rozier's contribution to that. And again, who knows? I wonder if they quietly went to him and were like, dude, we're really not trying to make the playoffs. Well, so they're the seventh seed right now, 29 and 32.

Orlando is 29 34. Atlanta is 28 34. So they could fall to the nine seed pretty easily if they wanted to. The shocking thing to me is they want to. They are a bottom half of the league from a talent standpoint. The weirdest thing to me that I that I think helps your theory house is why they didn't want Schroeder. Why don't they want him? Great point.

Like they, they actively tried to not keep him in the trade. It's like that guy actually would have been a really fun heat that would have helped you. And now instead you're playing Terry Rozier. I don't, I've never seen some, somebody who is not past this prime, right? He was, he's, I think he was, I'm going to say he's 30. I've never seen somebody greater. He's 31 on St. Patrick's day.

I've never seen somebody crater where last year you're watching going, man, Terry Rozier, could he make the all-star team to this guy is now the worst rotation guy in the league. Good pick house. Um, I feel really bad with my next pick. Does it make me feel good? I almost want to take a shower after, um, he's somebody I did not like for a long time and he really won me back over the last couple of years. I really respect him. I really feel bad for him. I feel for him. And this is way too soon.

but I have to take Kyrie Irving. Um,

He only has two years left at 84.9 million. He's not playing this year, and I don't think he's playing next year. Wait, is this for the extension that Nico Harrison is going to eventually give him this summer? Well, regardless, he's, if he can't, this is this, these Kyrie, the ACL injury, when it happens at this point in the season, it's usually a season and a half. Next season is done. We saw it with Jamal Murray. In football, you can come back in less than a year. In basketball, it doesn't seem like you can.

So basically he's not going to play again on this contract and I feel bad, but I don't see a worse contract left than two years, 84.9 for a guy who can't play. So not his fault. And again, I do, I think Dallas was good. They were basically going to be over a barrel this summer, uh,

and have probably given him a max extension for four years, which would have been kind of insane. With a lot of scary history for smart guards. But now they can probably weasel out of that. And so maybe that'll be a mitigating factor in the next deal. But yeah, he's not playing next year. Wait, you're saying that...

A team owned by Patrick Dumont, who just traded the most popular guy in the history of the franchise since Dirk DeWitzki. And then talked all kinds of leaky shit about him after they traded him with Do Something Shady. He said he wanted them to exhibit the work habits of one Shaquille O'Neal. That was tough. Am I up now? You're up now. Go ahead. Actually, let's take one more break and then you're up. All right.

Let's go speed round from now on. Waz, you're up. Who do you got?

Uh, this is kind of easy for me to be honest. And it's Brandon Ingram. Um, another guy who nobody, they tried to trade this guy for two straight years. Basically, David Griffin was like, bro, we're not paying you a penny over your current salary. Like it's not going to happen. Um, they fought and they fought. Nobody would take this guy. Golden State needed a forward. It wouldn't take, it was like, no, thank you. Everybody said, no, thank you. Um, and then of course, like,

The Raptors, for reasons I still don't understand, traded for the guy, gave him the extension, three years, $140 million. And then, you know, right after, my guy Jake Fisher is like, yo, they're probably going to trade R.J. Barrett next summer.

Like, what was the point of this? I don't get it. He's not a fit next to Scottie Barnes. He never plays any defense despite, you know, the physical tools and the profile. He's always just been a kind of like, give me the ball, let me cook, and not going to elevate a single thing around me. Hates taking spot up threes. I don't understand why.

The trade, I don't understand this deal. I don't understand what Masai Ujiri has done basically since 2019. To be fair, it's three years, $120 million extension. $120, sorry, not $40. And it's still awful because that's $40 million a year for a guy that New Orleans could not trade for a solid year as an expiring contract.

I love it because it's a confession about how they feel about Scottie Barnes. So it's wonderful. It feels like it validates. Oh, it's a win for house. Yeah. It feels like an extra win for me. I also, I love putting a worst contract on here that hasn't officially kicked in yet. I think kudos to everybody. It's on its way. Messiah Harry, who remember there was that moment when it's, it was like, could the next just turn over the entire franchise to him? Is this guy the next, see the next guy?

And he did a great job with the Raptors in the 2010s. But holy shit, the last five years. I disagree with basically everything they've done. I just don't understand it. House, you're up.

This one, I understand the controversy surrounding it. I have to, though, put a bright light on Jamal Murray because it is an enormous, enormous contract for a guy. Remember where we are with him in terms of his injury situation and his execution.

Our recency bias will tell us this guy is a mad killer when he's healthy, but the dude's only been healthy for about six weeks now. And I adore him next to Joker. I want to be very plain about this. Very clear. I love the contribution of Jamal Murray to the Denver Nuggets. I'm very excited to see how this playoffs shakes out.

But his injury history, what he does to that franchise, what he does to that franchise when he can't play, it ruins an all-time historical figure in the Joker. It takes so much off the table with the Joker. So when you're staring at it, it says five years, $243 million. Wow.

That's a big gamble. That's all I want to say. That's a big gamble. First of all, classic house, backhanded compliment, talks about what a great fit he is, then complains about the contract. The extension was four years for 207.8. That kicks in starting next year. I'm personally fine with it.

I had him way later in the draft. I had him way later in the draft. You have to pay the money. He definitely made my list, but it's like, you're the Nuggets. This guy's been a part of the greatest team in the history of your franchise. You drafted the guy. They love the guy. If the Nuggets make another finals run or two, I think this is completely justified to keep the era going and all that. But I'm not going to lie, House. Some of these Jamal Murray box scores to start the season, I'm not going to lie.

definitely my eyebrow was raised for a while. The performance with Team Canada in the goddamn Olympics, that was scary stuff for me. But as of lately, he's dropping 50 on guys. He's looking spry. I love it. I'm feeling more confident. But yeah, it's scary when you think about his injury history. I think House has moved into the clear number one spot for a guy who's going to take the most shit online from this draft. And I can't wait for it. I'm going to read you the salary years for my pick.

Yet another great pick. I feel like I'm dominating the draft now. $43.827,587 this year. So almost $44 million this year. Three-year extension kicking in for $109.5 million next three years. That's right. The Stifle Tower himself. Rudy Gobert. I had him circled. He's on the list. This is a really interesting one.

They had him at 43.8 this year and 46.6 next year. And they thought that would get all smart. They're like, hey, Rudy, let's wipe out that player option for the 46.6 and we'll give you the three years 109. And then we'll turn Carl Anthony Towns into DiVincenzo and Julius Randall. And it's a reallocation of money. It's going to be great.

So Rudy Gobert, who is having the worst statistical season he's had. Is it fair to say he is unplayable in a Lakers series, an OKC series and a Golden State series? I don't think so. I don't think that's a fair characterization. Look, you think he sees the court in a Lakers series? You think he sees a fourth quarter? Yes. In a Lakers series with Luka and LeBron in the game? Yes. 100%. I do not.

I think Rudy was the anchor of by far the league's best defense last year.

He was key to beating Joker in the playoffs. He was. I mean, it was a trio, but Rudy played a major part in sort of like keeping Joker contained. They win that in a dogfight, you know, seven-game series. And then he got played out the court by Luka Doncic in the next series. They justified it by saying, look—

$35 million, that's probably they're going great for starting centers. This guy's always been an Ironman in terms of playing. Takes his conditioning and his body really super seriously to stay on the court. I understand the pick, Bill. But why? That's not why they did it.

I would be fine if that's why they did it. They did it because of the money. Cause they, they are worried about how much money they're paying. They didn't want to pay Townsville. He was paying and they looked at it as like, we can get off this Randall deal. Hopefully next year. Cause they'll have an awesome season for us. So go into free agency. Guess what? Julius Randall will be opting into the $32 million next year. So they didn't get out of that contract. Deep and Shenzo, they're going to lose. And now they're stuck with Rudy for three more years.

And, uh, I don't know, man, they're going to lose Nas Reed now. Nas Reed is gone. Like he's done. He's leaving. They can't keep him out. There's no chance they keep him. He is going to new Orleans. He'll go to Brooklyn. He could go to your Washington wizards. He's going to be making $35 million a year next year. And it will not be in Minnesota.

I think that Minnesota is going to find a way to keep him. I think that there's some off-season. Let's do it. Yeah, dinner. That's great. Dinner bet. He will not be on Minnesota next year. It's not happening.

He's not, he's not happening. Well, look, I mean, you, you just went through, they moved cat. Nobody had that on their radar for money saving purposes. I think they understand the value. We'll see it in the playoffs. I think the Nas read is going to make such a compelling case over the course of these playoffs.

If Minnesota goes anywhere, honest to God, my favorite matchup of the entire first round is Oklahoma City, Minnesota. I pray to God that we get that as our opening round in that thing. And the toll it's going to take on Oklahoma City sets up that matchup against potentially Golden State in the second. God, it's so juicy. But to go back to the point around Nas Reed and Rudy Gobert, if the Gobert extension was for the purposes of, you know,

Does it make him more palatable as a trade asset? But they have to do something to keep Nas Reed. And I think Nas Reed will stay with Minnesota. What do you think, Wes?

I think Rudy's going to stick around. The idea that they had a three center rotation last year is just an anomaly. Like you can't keep three centers who are basically paid their market value on your roster when all of them are basically kind of started caliber. So I don't know. I think they figure out how to do, how to make the Nas read thing works. I just, I'm just not as disgusted with,

by the Rudy deal. And I guess I've kind of become a Rudy convert, man. I just think a lot of stuff he does gets a little bit underrated. I can't believe this. He's expensive, but I'm not. I'm going to be texting you guys when he's sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter of a Lakers series watching LeBron and Luka run pick and rolls. Waz, you're up.

But Julius Randle is still available. Another one. I take no joy from this, but Dejounte Murray, after this year, he's got three years at about 32 per year.

um, coming off of an Achilles injury. And it's just, it's tough. You tear your Achilles at guard and you're like, one of your main strengths is basically your athleticism, your shiftiness. I'm not seeing it for him. And, uh, the deal is tough. I think this is going to end up being a bad deal for new Orleans, man. Four for one 14 for him.

I mean, it could be worse. They could have traded Dyson Daniels in the, oh, wait, sorry. House, you're up. It's mandatory if we're doing a worse contract draft. We've mentioned his name once, but he has to officially be a selection. It is Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons has to be. Even as a, the Ben Simmons buyout? You're just taking him anyway? Okay. Yeah, you can't have a draft and talk about bad contracts. Rosillo sent a hilarious text this week.

watching him, uh, on the Clippers, uh, just making an observation around what seemed to be Ben Simmons instincts for, for passing the ball. Some of like, it's just hard to really thread the needle in terms of what he was trying to accomplish, where the ball was going. Uh, at this point, it's an honorary pick for, for Ben Simmons for me at this stage. I like it. Um,

You know, I'm upset that Patrick Williams is gone because this is right where I thought I was going to be able to get him. But he's not he's not on the list anymore. I got to do a manual quickly. We got to go back to the Raptors. Wow. Unbelievable. Got to do it one more time. He's in the first year of a deal that pays him.

five years, 162.5 million. And I kind of like Emmanuel quickly. Like he's 38% from three. He's instant offense off the bench, but his destiny on any good team on an actual good team would be a sixth or seventh man, a bench score, instant offense. That's how you'd want to ideally use him. And you don't pay 30 plus million dollars a year for a guy like that. You pay like

14 million dollars a year you pay the Celtics are paying Peyton Pritchard 7 million a year well he's on the opposite of a bad contract that's an amazing contract they got for Peyton Pritchard right now right right that would be doing the best contracts that's one of those up there for sure I just it's just too much money if it was five for 100 I'd be like all right I guess but uh when you're talking about

that much and now you're basically locked into Barnes and Ingram and quickly as your three expensive guys, where the fuck are you going at that point? What do you think is going to happen? You're going to win 38 games? I honestly do not understand what Toronto is doing. Anyway, Waz, you're up.

This is pretty easy for me, and it sucks, but it's Grant Williams. This guy has— Three for 41. Yeah, and he's just not an NBA player anymore. Straight up. Doesn't play. He's just done. Well, he blew out his knee, but you're saying next year? Next year, even when he was playing and he was getting ticked this season, it was—

Pretty disastrous. This was another, he was another Nico Harrison sort of unearthing. Just never, never panned out. Yeah. Grant, Grant Williams. I think he's done. All right. House.

Am I allowed to do a combo deal? Because these guys, to me, fit the exact same profile. And they are also in this gamble phase. Why would you be able to take two picks in the same pick? I don't understand. All right. Then I'll choose Zion because, you know, you can imagine who the foil would be, who the other guy's name is, but I won't say it. He could still be a viable pick.

You know, we need proof that Zion can play basketball for the entire season. I didn't know where to put him on the board because he technically has four for 163 left, but they have all these different outs for games played, for weighing him, and it seems like a movable contract. I also think teams would have traded for it in February if they had put it out there, and I don't think they – I know teams kick the tires on it. I'm positive.

And I think New Orleans was like, no, we need, but maybe this summer we could see something. He's looking at these games though. I did too. I want it to work. Um, okay. Well, I need a white guy. And, uh, this is very similar to, to what I just laid out with Emmanuel quickly. Grayson Allen at four years, 70 million to basically be my ninth man.

Yeah, he's shooting 43% from three. He's Sam Houser. He's in that kind of level of like...

Those white dudes the Cavs have. There's a bunch of these guys. And guess what? None of them are making 17, 18 million a year. They're all making like three. They're making four. They're making two. They're making, oh man, we found this guy in the waiver wire. They're not making this. So congratulations, Matt Ishbia. You did it again. I mean, he's making Austin Reeves money. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's crazy. He's making more than Austin. He's making more than Austin. He's nowhere near. I'm glad you brought up Boston Reeds because fuck the Spurs again for not making an offer that summer. I said it that whole month and everybody's like, well, why are you just saying this? Because you want the Lakers to lose him. It's like, no, I'm saying because Austin Reeds is good and he should have gone. Now that's somebody if he got a quickly deal, I'd have been like, all right, a little high, but I would do it. Why? So do you have?

I don't want to draw the ire of this fan base, but for me, it's the minus, the bonus. I'm sorry. I love when you do this. You do this every year. This guy is just overpaying. You do it every year. Like, I think the team's limitations are based on their commitment to this dude playing center, where just like straight up, you cannot guard the paint,

Shout out to Doug Christie. He's changed up the game plan to make it just straight up. Everybody just packs the paint, and we allow teams to shoot threes now. That's it. We cannot guard the paint with the minus a bonus at center. And they just committed to it, and I get it. He gets rebounds. He's a great guy. I get it, all of that. But, like, this guy is just not worth what they're paying him. So they're paying him four for 186.

It's year one of the new extension. Listen, he always has. If you're another team and you've identified Sabonis as somebody you want, why? Why do you want him at that number?

Because I want to win 43 games. Okay, thank you. I think there's a world where you could build an awesome team around him, but I think it's really hard. You really have to put a lot of thought into every other player in that roster because he does have some limitations, but you're right. He's like the center version of Ben Simmons would have panned out. Wow. Every year, Sabotis just takes strays from Blas on this. He really does. Who do you have, House?

Uh, I'm going back to an old favorite of, of mine. Um, this guy, uh, is near the end of his career doing a very distinguished job of helping a franchise, you know, with a, with a tremendous talent, you know, try and see the best outcome. This is Damian Lillard time. Uh,

He's playing well lately. Wow. I agree. Three for 161 for Dame Lillard. The problem is the amount that's left on this contract at his age and the history in the NBA of guards with his profile being effective. It's just really the end of the year thing. I said up front that I am...

I'm glad that he's playing well because I'm glad for Milwaukee to be good. I'm pissed at Milwaukee. And our guy Doc. We're going to get to play golf at Bel Air with Doc. We got to praise him. Now you pissed off another fan base. Well, I don't think so because he's doing all that he can do. 161 is a gulp.

And wait for the playoffs now. You're going to regret this in the playoffs. I'm trying to put it in the right category. He's going to be good. Milwaukee, I'm pissed at Milwaukee. I honestly think the Portis drug thing was a bummer, but

I don't think they should have traded Milton. I know that they needed some cap savings and that Kuzma is a live body, but I will tell you come playoff time, without any reservation or hesitation, a moment will come and Kyle Kuzma will have the effing ball at that moment and it is going to go badly. Chris Middleton, I trust. Kyle Kuzma, I do not. Best of luck to the Bucs. For my next pick,

First of all, House has won the draft for pissing off the most fan bases. He locked it up two rounds ago. Milwaukee's not going to be pissed. Oh, yeah. Don't be mad. The Dame fans. There's a whole Dame hive. I can't believe this guy's still available. Three years, 66 million.

Contavious Caldwell Pope. Goes to Orlando. It's been a rough year in Orlando. Leaves Denver. Christian Brown comes in and is immediately like twice as good as he was. Goes to Orlando. Twice as good. Come on, man. Here are the stats. 60 games.

8.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists. Congratulations on all that. 31% from three. Yeah. He's rocking the 9.0 PR. Not what he was brought in to do. And he's playing 30 minutes a game. And you could argue of anyone playing 30 minutes or more a game.

He might be the least useful player. And I know there's good defense. Look, he's a good defensive player. There's metrics, but great locker room guy, great locker room guy, all that. But I promise you they were looking for more than what he's given them this year with this contract. So he is my pick. Wow. So do you have, man, now I'm starting to get into guys that I really actually like as players. That's part of the draft. This is tough. I think the jail and green deal, uh,

is a tough one. Just the up and down inconsistent nature of his game, man. Two weeks he's up, three weeks he's down. Well, can we give the deal? One for 12. Yes. And then next year, three for 105 as an extension. Yep, with a play option at the end of it.

And by the way, good content for us because he's going to be in 58% of the fake trades we make in June. Yeah, we try to get them a superstar. When we get to a Jaylen Booker and we try to, it's like, well, Jaylen Green will be in it. And I think the ultimate indictment of Jaylen Green and the deal is that Fred Van Vliet goes down

And the offense just goes into the tank because they don't have a creator who can effectively get them into decent offense. And it's like Jalen Green, like you're right here. Like you should be stepping up here. He cannot create anything for anybody else. That would be the criticism. I really like Jalen Green. Yeah. There was a moment last year when it really felt like it all came together and I have not seen it. It was waiting. House, you're up.

Can't believe this guy is still available to be honest with you and I'll take you know the criticism for some of my earlier picks But Andrew Wiggins is still on the board Please tell me the next time that you think that he is going to play 60 games in an NBA season Please please tell me the next time you think that that's gonna happen. He's at 49 games right now. He played 49 games and

last season. He is living off of a contract that was a reward for helping the Golden State Warriors win a championship. The reward is totally reasonable. No problem with that. You always forget to say the contract. Three years, $85 million. That counts this year. That's a lot. That's a lot of money left for a guy that looks like he's lost some interest. His interest in basketball has always been kind of an open question, except for the championship year.

Everyone's getting groggy. We're nearing the end of the draft. And I haven't really pissed off the fan base yet. And I also haven't made Woz laugh hysterically with a pick yet. And I think this is going to be it. It's the most controversial pick of the late rounds. I got to do it. Four years, 163 million.

Ja Morant. Stop it. Get the hell out of here. Listen, it's the end of the draft. I'm just trying to get value. I'm just trying to get value. Why doesn't he play? Why doesn't he play? They're conserving his body for the postseason, folks. Chill. What's wrong with his shoulder now? What's going on?

When I asked for permission to combine players, I wanted to do Zion and Ja together because to me they fit the same kind of like when is Ja going to be able like if the idea with him over his entire career will be to preserve him for the playoffs, then what does that do for your team? You're paying. He's 25. What are we preserving him for? He should be playing every game. He can't. There's no proof that he can.

So this year he's played, he's played was 38 games this year. He played nine games last year. He plays 29.4 minutes a game. He doesn't even play 30 minutes a game. And they're kid gloves, bubble wrapping him. And now yesterday he didn't play well. And he's like, I don't know if my shoulder is going to be good the rest of the year. So now I have a fundamental shoulder issue on top of all the other baggage. Like, look,

there's 10 teams that are paying him that contract without blinking. I'm just flagging it. We're near the end of the draft. The contract, the numbers are pretty high for somebody who doesn't seem like he's going to play all the time. Okay. Not mad at it. Who do you got Wes?

This hurts me because he's one of my favorite players in the league, but it's OG on a no be. Oh, I was wondering when he'd go five to 12. It's a huge deal with a guy who has an extensive injury history, especially muscle injuries, which tend to happen with, you know, a lot of over usage, which is.

Newsflash, he plays for Tom Thibodeau. Ask Llewell Deng about that. Love OG. I love watching OG play. I love his approach to the game. But this is so much money for a guy who doesn't create his own shot ever. He's not some great distributor. It's like, man, this is a lot.

And he's a very good defender, but I will also say that Tatum and Brown aren't exactly quaking in their boots when they see him. And that was one of the reasons they did that thing. I'm with you. He's for the injury issues with him that always are lingering. 212 is a scary number. House, I'll give you one more pick. Thank you. And I want to say this name so we can have a quick conversation about him. I'm going to draw a distinction between him and Scotty Barnes. I'm taking Lomelo Ball here.

And the distinction that I want to make is... See, this is when the draft gets great. John Moran and Lomelo Ball. I love it. But here's the distinction. I think Lomelo Ball could definitely make an all-NBA team. And it could be like right around the corner. It's just not going to be in Charlotte. And I don't really quibble with Charlotte paying him this contract. I think it is commensurate with his talent. But his talent...

He is a loser. He's a serial loser. You mean a loser of games, not an actual human loser. Correct. Correct. There is no proof to the contrary. He's never played basketball in this situation, a serious situation where his team has been a winning team. Where his team has been high-fiving and shaking hands in celebration after games. It's a unique experience for him.

We're missing the winning component now. Good win. I can't believe we won seven games in a row. It's never been said. With his talent, if he can stay healthy, another guy who can, you know, we keep seeing these nagging ankles here and there.

But his talent is such that if he was with the right situation with the right coach, this would be an incredible contract potentially. Because I think he is supremely talented. And I like his swag. It just needs to be redirected. So in this circumstance with this team, tough one. I don't think it's bad money. But you know what? I'll take his career over Scottie Barnes. And everybody from Toronto can go ahead and send me poop sandwiches. I'm fine with it.

I'll recap the draft before I make the last pick. Wiles took Bradley Beal to kick us off. House took Nico Harrison. I took Joel Embiid. And then it went Paul George, Scotty Barnes, Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Williams, Terry Rozier, Kyrie Irving. I felt bad about that one. Brandon Ingram, Jamal Murray, Rudy Gobert.

Dejounte Murray, Ben Simmons, just an emeritus just has to be picked anyway. There's a million bucks house just on the board. I took a manual quickly. Then Grant Williams, Zion Williamson, Grayson Allen, Demantis Sabonis, Dame lowered Contavious Caldwell Pope, Jalen Green, Andrew Wiggins, John Morant, OJ Ananobi, LaMelo Ball. And the last pick of the draft is

Only because he has to, another guy, he's like Ben Simmons. He has to be in their house. He's so excited. Zach Levine, three for 141. We got to have him. Can't leave Zach. Zach was outside the door knocking. Like, hey guys, I thought there was a worst contract party. That's right. Hey, anybody home? Okay.

I mean, the case for that, even though he's had a really good year, is the Bulls traded him and didn't even get good stuff back. They got a hill of beans. They just got bad contracts from other teams. Literally a hill of beans. So apologies to the following people for not getting picked. Julius Randle, 2 for 64. Jimmy Butler, 3 for 159.

Chris Middleton on House's Wizards, two for $65. Zach Collins, two for $35.7. Part of that Zach's Main Trade. How is he not in our draft? Yeah, he should be. Zach Collins definitely should be. Kevin Herter, two for $35. Terrence Mann, one for $11 this year, and then kicks in three for $47. Lori Markkinen, five for $237. I did look at him for the last couple rounds. I looked long and hard at it. I almost took him over Ja Morant.

Gary Harris, two for 15, just had to put it under their principle. But he healed four for 38. Can't believe he didn't get drafted. Teams are trying to sign him as an undrafted free agent for the draft right now. Um,

Drew Holiday, 4 for 134. Drew Holiday is tough. And another guy that's tough. He's got like a fucked up finger. That I thought about is Bam Adebayo. He's having a horrible season. Everybody thought this was going to be a breakout year, particularly on offense. That just straight up has not happened. He's got a sterling reputation amongst people in our profession. So he won't get killed in the media, but he's been a disappointment. Well, we've hit the end.

I had a wonderful time. Me too. It was the worst contracts draft. My favorite part is that everyone's going to be the maddest at house. Yes. I feel like maybe the Memphis fans come after me a tiny bit. Was who's coming after you? Probably Sacramento. Definitely Sacramento. Oh, Sabonis. Yeah. The Sabonis hive coming at you. This was a blast though. Thanks to Saruti and thanks Kyle. Thanks Gahal. As always, you can watch this.

as a video podcast on Spotify. I don't know why you would because you just finished the podcast, but it's also going to be available on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. You can listen to the house on Fairway Rowland and on the Ringer Gambling Show. You can listen to Waz on group chat with Mahoney and Barrier on the Ringer NBA Show. Great to see you, fellas. Thank you.

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