Caruso-Giddey Trade, Paul George Buzz, and the Lakers turn to JJ Redick
01:06:12 Share

And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast. Joe Mazzulla and I are done talking about bank robbery plans, fake bank robbery plans, and NBA off-season news is trickling in. Trickle, trickle, trickle. News, non-news, all of it. Bobby Marks, how are you? I am doing great. Yeah, I texted you after that podcast, and I was actually taking notes. If I ever did want to rob a bank,

That's a pretty elaborate scheme there. Well, Joe is not messing around. So we've got news already coming in. The Lakers hired a coach. There's some Paul George rumblings. There's a Malik monk contract, but I'm not going to start with the Lakers, Bobby marks. Cause I love these trades that are kind of talent for talent trades. No picks somehow. No picks. Oklahoma city has 9,000 picks. Somehow they kept all of them. The thunder acquire Alex Caruso, uh,

In the final year of his deal, in exchange for Josh Giddey, nine years younger, eight years younger, actually. In the final year of his deal, Josh Giddey goes to Chicago, where he will be handed the reins to the offense. And Alex Caruso, at age 30, comes to Oklahoma City. I absolutely love the fit for Oklahoma City. It's unbelievable. But we have to start with this press release that Sam Presti just put out, because it's a banger.

I'm just going to read it. When we drafted Josh in 2021, he was an essential aspect of our vision for the next iteration of the Thunder.

Since then, our team has evolved rapidly and dynamically in ways we could never have anticipated. Therefore, as we began our internal discussions this offseason, it was determined that bringing Josh off the bench next season was our best option to maximize his many talents and deploy our team more efficiently over 48 minutes. As we laid out to Josh how he could lean into his strengths and ultimately optimize our current roster and talent,

It was hard for him to envision and conversations turned to him inquiring about potential opportunities elsewhere. AKA, we asked him to come off the bench. He said he didn't like that and he demanded a trade. And the first thing I thought of was,

This was the Manu Ginobili crossroads for Josh Giddey. Not to compare them. He's not going to be Manu Ginobili. Manu Ginobili is one of my all-time favorite players. He's a Hall of Famer. But Sam Presti has that Spurs DNA with him. That moment when Pop went to Manu Ginobili and said, hey, I think we've got Tony. We've got Tim. There's only one ball. I think you'd best serve our... You're better, quote-unquote, better than this, but I think this is the way to go. And Pop has told me on the record that

If Manu had said no, we would have just figured it out with him in the starting five because he had that stature. Josh Giddey does not have that stature. He has not accomplished what Manu Ginobili had accomplished at that time. And he said no. He's on his way to Chicago. Caruso, an all-defense level player who shot 41% on threes last year on higher volume than he's ever taken before, who hit 48% on floater range shots last

a number he never sniffed before is more aggressive on the pick and roll. This is not just a defense trade for Oklahoma city. It's an offense trade too. We saw in the playoffs as we've been waiting for, for two years. This is what Sam Presley was talking about when he said, I want to see the playoffs first. Well, what he saw was Josh Giddy getting played off the court because teams didn't guard him. The Mavericks put their centers on him. He could not hurt them. They replaced him in the starting lineup. They cut his minutes and now he's gone. Um,

to the Bulls. I love the Caruso fit in Oklahoma City, both this year and going forward for the next two or three years. I'm a little... I understand. I think the Bulls are getting a little...

A little, just a smidge unfairly hammered because their own fan base hates their team so much. And really this we're reaching like epic levels of toxic fan self-hatred. Josh Giddey is just 21 years old. He's 6'8 with absolutely elite vision. It's everything else that makes me curious and a little bit skeptical about what his ceiling is. But what was your gut reaction to this one?

Yeah, I mean, my original gut reaction is when it happened, I got two texts from two different teams asking me if I can find out what picks were involved. That was my original. That's what and there weren't. So, OK, so it's a one for one deal. I think I think it's it's for me. Yeah, I mean, you hit everything as far as from from Caruso, the ability to.

To kind of slide into that rotation, does not need the ball in his hands. Two-time All-NBA defender, extension eligible in six months, can actually renegotiate his contract also in six months if Oklahoma City has a little bit of cap space left to do. Giddy for me, what happens with Kobe White?

um, what happens is now, is that offense going to be centered around him because he does need the ball. That's what one GM said to me, like, listen, you like, I like Josh Giddy, but if you're going to trade for him now, you have to basically, you know, you know, um,

center the offense around him now. Like, it can't be like what happened in Oklahoma City. Like, that's not the reason why you go out and trade for him. I do agree with you that the Chicago fan base, you know, anything they do, they will be hammering away here. It's interesting that this is the first trade that Artoris Karnishevich has made player for player since the Laurie Markkinen trade. That was in 2021, I believe. So it's been almost three years. Whatever happened to Laurie Markkinen?

yeah. You make it at all. Do you make it? Um, so like, I think now it's like, you know, okay, you get, he's a rookie extension. I was willing to get younger. Okay. What's next now? Is Chicago going to embrace a rebuild? Uh,

you know, our task was out front after the season. And like, you know, two years in a row, losing the plane at this roster is not good enough. There's some changes needed. Okay. What is the change? Like what's the change? Is it, is it dumping trying to find a home for Zach Levine, trying to split that up?

There's a lot. There's so many. They were one of my sleeper under the radar teams when I wrote about them. Just because DeRozan, Patrick Williams, their salaries are high. I mean, their potential tax team, if they bring both those guys back here. So I think it's kind of what's next. And really, for me, it's about Kobe White waking up this morning like, OK, what's my role now? I just had a really good year. How do I fit in now with Josh Giddey?

I think he fits in fine with Josh Giddey. He's a very good shooter. I had Kobe White second on my most improved, my fake most improved ballot last year. I thought he made a gigantic leap to the point that teams were game planning for him on and off the ball. I think that's a totally fine fit. It's not like you want to give the offense completely to either player, even if you feel like you have to give it a little bit more to Josh Giddey.

Levine as a shooter, Levine's a great shooter. So that fits. I just don't know how you're playing any defense with Giddey plus Levine plus White. But if you're going to trade, okay, I think the DeRozan fit stinks for obvious reasons. And if you're going to trade Levine, if that's still your goal, and you think the DeRozan Giddey fit stinks and you've just put a lot of your organization on Josh Giddey's back,

So you let DeRozan walk or sign and trade him or whatever it is. And by the way, you've already missed the window to trade DeMar DeRozan. That window closed. You blew that one. You're almost organically getting as close as the Bulls would ever get to kind of tanking a season depending on what you do in free agency. You still have Vucevic. You got the Pat Williams extension sitting there. I don't know if they want to re-sign him or not, or free agency rather. I don't know if they want to re-sign him in restricted free agency or not. There's just not...

A lot of, I mean, to assume it was good off the bench last year, but he's a nice combo guard who's probably a 6th, 7th man, maybe a fringe starter. Like, is there any chance this team, team play-in, team hooray, we lost in the play-in again, but we're relevant. Crowd's big, like we're selling the tickets, the White Sox are good. Is there any chance the Bulls might actually, whether it's on purpose or by accident,

kind of semi-tank this season. I mean, that's the string of transactions to do it. Trade Levine, let the Rosen walk, see what the hell this giddy thing is and what these other young guys do, and you're just going to be very bad. Yeah, I mean, I think the roster probably will allow it. I mean, look at when you look at, I mean, look at their front court right now. I mean, they're really, I mean, Booch is their only guy.

I mean, that's it. Vuc was bad last year on both ends of the floor. It was a steep drop off for Vuc. And I don't feel good saying that. Like Nicole, he's been a very good and skilled player. It was a bad Vuc year last year. Yeah. So that, I mean, your front court. And I think Levine is interesting to me just because like, you know, we talked all last year, you know, four for 165. He's got so much money left. And then all of a sudden now it's three for 137. So it gets a little more.

I don't want to say appealing, but it's a little bit more, you know, a team willing to take that back, you know, certainly where he is from a health standpoint here. But I do think like if you're Chicago, I don't know trying to take or tank or take a step back, but I just think the roster will allow it. As I said, like the roster right now isn't good enough. Right. So it doesn't, it's the, it's, it's probably the best thing that could happen to the bulls if almost everybody

Semi by accident like Josh Giddey is an interesting bet I get what they're shooting for and we'll talk more about him in a second. It feels like a

Well, we're not willing to take a step back. It feels like their junior varsity version of the Ananobi trade where Toronto wanted players back and they got Emmanuel quickly and RJ Barrett. They didn't want picks. They didn't want a rebuilding trade, but it might be more of a rebuilding trade than the Bulls actually think that it is, despite the fact that Giddy two years ago averaged like 16, seven and seven. Yeah. I mean, listen, I mean,

I do think the one year with Giddy and we'll see what happens with if he's extension eligible also here kind of gives you a plan or

our formula as far as what we can, if it works, what else we can add around, um, around him here. I do think it is, um, I do think it is pretty interesting as far as, you know, the DeRozan piece is going to be interesting, right? Like, you know, it was, you know, Casey Johnson in, in, um, in Chicago had reported back in, I think, uh, April that they had offered two for $80,000.

which if I was DeMar DeRozan, I would have signed up on a dotted line for that. It's hard for me to see him getting three years in free agency here. But I do think Chicago, I think this is the window, right? Like this is the window now to kind of just to take a step back here. I'm going to read you Woj's tweet from when he broke the news of the trade. The Bulls have been determined to find a playmaker to replace Lonzo Ball. Still on the books. And Giddy21 says,

Comes with an all-star potential that would unlikely be realized with the Thunder because of the playmaking star power who surrounded him. The Bulls will offer him an opportunity to have the ball in his hands and so much more freedom to pass and score. I get it. I get it. That's what you could also read that in is...

Josh Giddey will fit better here because the players we have around him are so much worse than the players that the Thunder had around him, which is not an awesome way to justify a trade. And here is the thing with Giddey. It's the Sasha. I always give the example. It's the Sasha Vujic.

example when we traded for him from LA and we had worse players than what the Lakers did and he looked like an all-star when he got him. So when you get a guy, he will usually flourish if the players around him are not very good here. And you're not going to go anywhere if that's the case. And so here's the thing. Josh Giddey has often been compared to other

non-shooting big ball handlers. Ben Simmons is the name that has come up a lot as sort of an optimistic, you know, pre whatever the hell has happened to Ben Simmons physically, mentally, all of it. When he was an all NBA player,

And the problem with that is if you're, if you're a lead ball handler and you can't shoot or you're, you're playing it as a non-shooter and Josh Giddey has hit 32, 33% of his threes. He's not a total zero, but those are wide open threes. And you're played from the top of the arc as a non-shooter. People are going under screens, all of it. You've got to be awesome at everything else. He's awesome at passing. No question. The bulls will now become the best sideline out of bounds team in the whole NBA. Congratulations. You get almost nothing for that. Um,

but you've got to be awesome at finishing at the rim. And that's where Josh Giddey has fallen short for a lot of his career. Got to be awesome at defense. He's been disappointingly bad at defense. Um, even given his size, he kind of, he gets rebound totals that fake make you believe he's doing something on defense. He's been kind of a pushover on defense. Um, and if, if you, if he doesn't,

Again, he's only 21, so I don't want to say that this is what he is. But if you're a non-shooter and you have the ball in your hand, you've got to be able to finish at the rim or else you're just not going to amount to anything close to the number one ball handling option on a good NBA team. And if you can't be that...

If your team is ever going to be good or great, you've got to be a number two or a number three or a number four player on a good NBA team. And there's no evidence that he can be that either. The lack of power and explosiveness in his game

on both ends of the floor, I think has been the single biggest question mark around him and the single biggest reason why people are skeptical, including me, frankly, that he could ever become a number one offensive fulcrum on a great team. It's what distinguishes him from other sort of players of this archetype. He's a great passer. He's a great creator. He sort of burrows his way in there and gets up for floaters and all that. He just doesn't finish them enough. Maybe that comes with strength added over time and experience, but

I understand why Bulls fans are frustrated by this trade. It's an interesting bet. And I'll bet you in the next two or three years, there will be a moment

a month where it's like oh did josh giddy average just average like 22 and 10 and looks kind of bigger and stronger maybe the bulls didn't whiff on this trade like everybody thought i just don't know what the end game is for josh giddy as a player really even if everything hits every part of his game hits its apex and what kind of team you need around that player

It's just a tricky, it's a tricky fit. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a, one of those to be determined. Listen, when you trade Alex Crusoe, who is probably your best or second best player. I mean, in the number state, tell it, you know, tell the story as far as the impact, the plus minus when Crusoe was on the floor and when he wasn't.

you know, it's, it's, it's pretty high level. And you are going to, you trade for a player that let's face it, you are going to have to pay more than what you probably could have, you know, would have paid Caruso to retain. That's where you kind of, if you're a Chicago fan, you're like, as I said earlier, like, okay, what is next? Like what, you know, like, listen, you know, Josh Giddy during the regular season, there were a lot of good moments. There were some good moments in that new Orleans series, the Dallas series, you know,

I mean, when we started this and you said, like, you know, when Sam Presti said, like, this is going to be like an experiment, right? It's almost like he's looking at it. It's not that we're the number one seed. It's like what works for next year, what works for year two or year three of this group here. And obviously that didn't work when you have Shea with the ball in his hand or Jalen Williams with the ball in his hand. I think the number that Matt Williams had sent was like eight feet from the closest defender.

which is, you know, pretty remarkable for him. But I am, as I said, like I am interested. Like if I was giving it a grade, I would give it an incomplete because I don't know what else is coming around him. It can't be just him, right? It's got to be other, there's got to be some, you know, as I said, build that roster around him. Let's talk about the team that's actually good, the Thunder, who got better with this trade, the incumbent number one seed.

Played Dallas very well in the playoffs. Played them better than anyone else in the West did, actually. And they get Caruso, presumably, to slide into the starting five. Although, you never know. Caruso's never played more than 28 and a half minutes a game in any season. So, it'll be interesting to see what they do. But certainly, we are going to see the SGA, Caruso, Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren lineup. I mentioned the shooting numbers are just massively distinct from Giddy's in terms of accuracy and volume.

He is a very good screener and roller and playmaker in open space. And the Thunder semi-revolutionized NBA offenses. That's too strong. But very creative use of guard-guard screens. And he's a good playmaker out of that. He gives them another...

absolutely elite generator of turnovers. Like, this team is going to... You can bet on it right now. They were number one in turnovers for us last season. They're going to be number one in turnovers for us again. That gets them going in transition. And he's also...

And you and I talked about this offline. They've got some other decisions to make with Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe, who started for Gideon in the playoffs. And you can take us through those. But Lou Dort is on this pretty affordable...

deal with, you know, three more seasons on it, 16 and a half, 17, 17. You've talked a lot about the window the Thunder had before 26, 27, when Jalen Williams, presumably Max deal kicks in and Chet's presumably, let's just assume Max deal kicks in. If those two are just, just, if those two are 25% maxes, if neither of them hits the incentives necessary, whether it's defense player of the year for Chet, all NBA, whether

to get it to 30. Those are 25% maxes. Shea is under contract for that season, and then we'll get a big deal after that. Dort is at 17 for that season. There's a way where you could have those four plus Caruso and his new deal and still have very substantial room under the tax and definitely under the aprons to fill out a team around them. And I don't know when that becomes untenable, but this is a salary structure that...

where the Thunder could have star level talent and a decent for at least a bit, I mean you can correct me if I'm wrong, at least a bit decent sort of support talent around it too.

No doubt about it. When case and Wallace was playing really well this year, I said, this is kind of the example in Oklahoma city when Josh Giddey potentially could get more expensive down the road when he's eligible for an extension that because Oklahoma city has all these draft picks, you know, they've got the 12th pick in this year's draft. They're going to likely get a pretty good player down the road two years from now. So case and Wallace comes into the rotation now on an inexpensive contract and

They can keep on churning this out here where you're, you're building your depth out with all these young players, or maybe you parlay that into a, into a, you know, they still have 15, 16 future first round picks, but,

The chat in Jalen, as you said, extensions with their extension eligible next offseason, they would kick in in 26. Shea Supermax would kick in in 27. So there is that two year window or, you know, if you want to maximize cap space. And that's why when I look at their offseason here, which is pretty interesting, they're sitting around thirty two million dollars in cap space. That includes their first round pick.

Like for me, like I would go out and like offer Nick Claxton like a two year. Here you go. Two years, 50 million dollars, two years, you know, 60 million dollars, something like that. And then, you know, put another big against, you know, with with with the Chet there.

I don't see them going out and spending four years on another four-year max guy and stuff like that. I don't see that in the cards. So it will be interesting with Oklahoma City because that's not how they have handled operated business. They don't go out and spend on free agents from other teams. They trade for players. They draft players. You mentioned the Wiggins and Isaiah Joe situations. Both players have team options.

They're both different where Aaron Wiggins, if you don't exercise his team option, could be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. He's extension eligible also. Isaiah Joe, if we see them exercise the team or decline the team option, that means there's likely a deal in place already.

So those two guys, I don't see going anywhere. But I do think it's interesting as far as how they go about operating with that room they have with that, you know, this kind of this, you know, this two year window or three year window before things start to get pretty expensive. Well, and if they, to your point, if they use it on a contract that's in that sweet spot in the middle, the middle is now like $20 million a year where it's a very easily tradable stackable contract and

you're safely under the apron so you can do all sorts of different things trade-wise. How many teams are going to be above the second apron next year?

I think they're probably about six or seven. So that's a big deal because that's like almost a fourth or a fifth of the league that can't. They're at the kids table. They can't really trade a lot of times with the other 75% of the league. We're going to see it next week with the draft on Wednesday and Thursday. Those teams, Phoenix can't go in and buy a second round pick. Milwaukee can't go buy a pick. You're so limited and

One of the apron rules that you keep on, you study, you study, you study. And one of the apron rules that stand out that we really haven't talked about is the inability to

sign and trade. You, you can't acquire a player in a sign and trade that's coming in that player was signed and traded to you, but you can't like a Phoenix. Let's for example, wanted to sign and trade Royce O'Neill and take back a player. They're not allowed to do that. They're not allowed to take back a salary that exceeds second April. But Bobby Phoenix, I mean, 26 GMs would trade places with them. This doesn't affect them. They're totally fine. Everything's great. How many, how many playoff games did they win this past year? It was a lot, right? Like everything's going great. Um,

Yeah, everything's great. All right, on Caruso. By the way, I liked speaking of sort of cap space and mid-sized contracts. Oklahoma City was on my sleeper Clay Thompson list before this. I just, like a dead-eye shooter there would be terrifying.

despite the decline in clay's defense and all that to me i i would i would guess this takes them out of the market for another guard but i i liked that fit a lot and i do think the clay situation is obviously one of the ones we're going to be talking about there's there's

hurt feelings there that need to be mended if he's going to return to Golden State and he's going to have shooters around the league. And I had Oklahoma City penciled in as like, watch out. And the poetry of Clay going back to the place where he ripped their souls out with a million threes in game six in 2016 would be, would have been, um,

Would have been fun. I just like if they add another piece in with their cap space, that is probably they still need some size, whether it's a bigger four or five that can play with Chet. They I mean, we did a segment on get up today. Will they enter the West next year as the team to beat? I still think Denver, depending on what happens with KCP, they need KCP. He's a big a big becoming a bigger fish every day in this in free agency.

I will see how it shakes out. If, if anything bad happens to any of the teams around Oklahoma city and the standings, they may damn well enter the next season is like the betting favorite to win the West, which is, which is really crazy to think about. Um,

Well, just think like they're sitting there right now and basically kind of in the backseat of the car and like, OK, Denver, you've got to figure out KCP. You know, Dallas, you've got to figure out, can you create room to get, you know, to re-sign Derek Jones? There's all these different, all these teams have all these different issues to address where really it's Oklahoma City's like, OK, what are we going to do with $31 million? How are we going to go about using that?

It'll be interesting to see if teams try to put their centers on Caruso the way they did against Giddey. I mean, Caruso has not been the most trigger-happy shooter, but he got a little bit more aggressive last year. And I'm just not sure that will be super tenable. And he's also a great screener, as I said. I just think this fit checks a lot of boxes. Also, interestingly...

He guards up in size really well. The Bulls would use him on fours a lot that you would be like, oh my God, he's going to get bowled over by this guy. And Caruso stands them up pretty well, which, you know, if a deal down the line comes and the team on the other end is like, we got to have Lou Dort, we just have to have him or this deal for whoever is not happening.

The Thunder have a little more leeway if Caruso's on the roster to make a deal. You just can't have enough good two-way wings, and they just got another one, and they're going to be loaded for bear next year. It was a very good trade for them. And a player, by the way...

Talking about the Bulls, these teams talked about Caruso at the trade deadline. It's been reported in a lot of different places, I think, that the Bulls turned down offers that included as many as two first-round picks for Alex Caruso. I was definitely hearing that up into the trade deadline. Now, we don't know the quality of those picks, right? Not all firsts are critical. It's not like you're getting two unprotected lottery picks for whoever. The Thunder have so many picks, you don't know what they would have offered. And I'm not saying the Thunder offered two. But if that's the opportunity cost...

And the bet ends up being on Josh Giddey. And if you're going to pay Josh Giddey for that bet to hit, he's got to become an elite, elite offensive player. I understand the trepidation among Bulls fans that they went this direction and not the other. But I get what the Bulls are doing. It's everything other than the passing in Giddey's game that just and I'm not talking defense where I don't think he's ever going to be a big plus there.

I just don't know what he's going to really amount to as in the role that the Bulls are going to have him in. Yeah, no, I mean, I totally agree. I mean, I totally agree with, I mean, if you're going to pay Josh Giddey $26 million a year, which is the average starting point guard salary in the NBA, there's got to be more to it. I would like to see him develop a post game too. He's got the size. I mean, he's got the size.

Virginia football fans, picture this. You bet on your favorite player to score the first touchdown and he throws an awesome block so his teammate can score instead. If this happens, BetMGM wants to give you another chance at the end zone. With BetMGM's Second Chance Promotion, you'll get your stake back if your first touchdown scorer scores second instead. That's right. Bet on any pro football player to score the first touchdown of the game. If you're right...

you win. If your player scores second, you get your stake back in cash. Everyone knows the most exciting part of football is the score. With BetMGM's second chance promotion, you have a chance to keep the fun going after the first player crosses the goal line. Place a first touchdown scorer wager today. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. See BetMGM.com for terms. 21 plus only. Virginia only. Existing customer offer. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards vary. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

This episode is brought to you by Allstate. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Like, you know to check you have the tickets in your wallet first before you drive two hours to the big game.

Seriously, you had one job. Now the closest you'll get to the 50-yard line is parking lot D. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary. Terms apply. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. All right, let's turn the page to Paul George in Philadelphia before we get to Malik Monk and the Los Angeles Lakers hiring a coach. Yeah.

Philly's cap space is, I think, the single most important variable in the offseason because it is use it or lose it. Not use it or lose it, but they're going to use it. They're going to spend it on somebody, multiple players, whatever it ends up being. Every team that has a good free agent that can hit unrestricted free agency.

is in fear that Philly just says, you know, KCP, okay, we got to spend the money. How about two years, 60 million, like just an insane offer. And then we'll pair you with miles bridges or whoever the name ends up being. It will go two for one instead of just one superstar. Every team is like, what the hell is Philly going to do? And obviously the bigger name there has been Paul George,

The Clippers and Paul George still, as we're recording this at 1135 a.m. Eastern Time, no deal, no extension, no nothing, no deal mirroring Kawhi's deal. It's been hard for me to gauge what's going on there. I've always thought the safest bet is he goes back to the Clippers. But something appears to be amiss here. What are you hearing on PG? Yeah, listen, they've had the ability to negotiate a new contract since last July. Now we're June 31st.

What are we, June 20th, June 21st, I think, today? We're almost a year. If there was a deal in place, it would have happened already. Kawhi Leonard got extended in January for three for 150. If Paul George was willing to take that same exact contract, there would have been a deal in place here. He's eligible for four for 221 to sign with the Clippers now or as a free agent.

As a free agent, he can include a no trade clause, which is certainly a taboo thing in this world. When we saw what happened with Bradley Beal and, you know, try trading a player making at 36, 37 years old. 26 front offices, Bobby.

And so I think the more logical, if you ask me today, days before free agency, I think the more logical thing would be for him to opt into his contract and then for them, for the Clippers to work out deals and see what the market is with Paul, with the cooperation of Paul. Because I think for him to become a free agent,

I think two things here, really you're limited. You're looking at a limited playing field, but really it's Philadelphia, right? Like that's kind of it. Cap space wise. I think signing trades are very hard to do based on a lot of different parameters. Team gets hard cap. Certainly. I do think opting in similar to what Chris Paul did was at 2017 when he got, went from clips to Houston. I think that that makes it more instead of three teams. Now there's like six or seven teams. The,

The the rules have changed now. The extension rules because it's an opt in and trade, not a sign and trade, to be clear. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, still teams are going to be you know, you have to balance your books differently because if you take back more money now, you're you know, you're hard capped at the first apron. So there are a lot of you know, I don't we don't need to go through a CBA one on one here variables for that. But I do think it is a little bit easier to do the sign and trade thing.

deciding trade route. I think it's a little bit easier too, because the extension rules are changing as of July one, where now you can, you can add a total of four years if a player is traded right away, including what's left. So you could do the, basically what Paul George would get as a free agent and extend him right off the bat here. I think so. If you, if you see him opt in,

I don't think it's opting in to then extend with the Los Angeles Clippers. It's opting in that there is a deal in place somewhere else. All right. Well, talk me through it because my head has gone here off and on, but not fully gone here. The tricky thing about that theoretical trade opt in and trade similar to, like you said, the Chris Paul to the Houston situation. So PG makes his option is forty eight point eight million. That's a lot of money. Yeah.

It's one of those tricky things where it would be teams that are both trying to win trading with each other because the Clippers, having paid Kawhi Leonard, we don't know what's going to happen with Harden. Moving into a new building, unless it becomes a total, we're just trading everyone, are trying to win. I personally think the Kawhi PG, this is why they've been interesting to me. I think the Kawhi PG Harden model is the Kawhi PG model by itself.

I just think the window's shut. I just can't ever have faith anymore that they're all going to be healthy when it actually matters. We've just seen the movie too many times. And the Clippers have this habit of coming off the top rope with these trades that you don't see coming and doing pretty well and pivoting when you don't think they have any pivot moves left. And I've been trying to rack my brain, like what is the off the top rope pivot move for them

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think let's take it from the Clippers perspective first. Like the goal is if this ever came to came about is not that they're going to take three steps back. Right. Like, can you do that when you're certainly going into a new building and you've got, you know, now what you got lent? Why starting this new contract? What happens with Harden? Right. There's a lot of different variables there. So you're you're you're you would trade him to Harden.

you would trade him to get players back, whether it be creating a trade exception, whether getting one or two players back, whether it be working on a sign and trade to acquire a player. Cause you'd still have flexibility against the hard cap. I mean, like realistically, like,

Like a team like... And this is hypothetical. I don't have inside information to... Did everyone hear that? Hypothetical. This is just me putting on my salary cap. Like, Paul George would fit great in Golden State. Right? However...

Like, how do you go about doing that? You're basically, you're waving because where they are financially, you can't do that right now. So you're basically saying goodbye to clay. You're basically waving Chris Paul. You're basically trying to rope in a third team because if you're the Clippers, you probably do. You want Andrew Wiggins and his number? Do you want, you know, what else would come with it here? So like,

That's that would be like the scenarios like that. I'm just using Golden State as an example where it helps kind of both sides here. But as I said, it's kind of it's very, very complicated to do it. Can I just go off the top of my head? Can we just get crazy for a second? Go ahead. Well, also, what is this second apron Clippers situation? Like, do they have to go dollar for dollar in a trade? Second apron. Yeah.

So if they trade Paul George, who makes $48.7 million, they cannot take back a dollar more than that. Right. And if the goal is to re-sign James Harden, right? Like, yeah, if you're sending that $48, you ain't taking back $50. So it's dollar for dollar. And I can't stack, right? I got, like, stack limitations. You can aggregate coming in. You can't aggregate going out.

So you could take a 24 and a $24 million guy. Let me, let me, let me think of, this is literally off the top of my head. I mean, you can connect a lot of dots if you want. If the Jimmy Butler situation was going to go sideways in Miami, is that workable? Like a straight one for one?

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Jimmy's, I don't have his number in front of me. I think he's like 47. I think. Yeah, that works. You could do that. Well, no, because then it hard caps it. That's here's the, the apron problem because then it hard caps the heat. Right. So you're basically, it's hard for apron teams to trade with each other. That's the, that's the challenge. Why does that hard cap the heat? They're not Jimmy Butler is 48.7, nine, eight. So what is Paul 48.8?

Well done. I got to go back on my browser now. I got it in front of me too. I'll pull it up on my... 48.787. I don't even remember what the hell I just said, Jimmy. They're like almost exactly... It might be like a couple of hamburgers. Hamburgers don't work in the world of the apron though. Why? You can wipe your hands on the apron if the hamburgers... Paul is 48.787, okay? Jimmy is...

Yeah. Oh, Jimmy is 48, seven, nine, eight. What the hell? That's unbelievable. Um, well, I, I, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with Jimmy Butler. Um,

I don't think the Heat are going to give him the extension that he wants. That was signaled pretty aggressively by Pat Riley. But there's an in-between world where they kind of come to a detente for a bit. And he either plays out the contract and they just say, hey, let's see what we can do. Or they eventually, they do that and then they say, you know what, this is going well. Why don't we sign a smaller two-year extension at some point? I

I don't know what's going to happen there, but I think it's downgraded from DEFCON 1 to DEFCON 4 right now. I think it's calm a little bit. All right, so cross off Miami. Is there something we can do with Cleveland? I mean, I was looking more New York-ish.

They're on my list. So mechanically, like what is the New York trade that opted in trade that works? That's, you know, so you're taking back 40. So you're basically looking at. Because I've got the Ananobi thing hanging over my head. Philly is like the boogeyman for that too. Yeah. I mean, basically it's, I mean, here's another thing where if you bring, if the goals are to bring back OG and Isaiah. Yeah.

You're close to the apron also here. So you got to manage your books here. But just hypothetically, you're looking at probably Boyan if you guarantee his contract, which is at like $19 million.

How does Randall – Randall is a big number too, right? That gets you close to that. I think 19.032 million plus 28.939 million adds up to slightly more than Paul George's. What are we doing right now? I know.

What the hell is going on? I am going to have to go to the Staples up the street to buy a bigger calculator to, you know, like who would have thought like this is where we are in this world where we're basically like, we're like accountants, right? Like we're just figuring like, it has to be 100%, right? So that's, that's this, that's the world. That's what everyone, as I said before, we've talked about it. Like,

I talked to one team. It's like, you see, it used to be, I just went to my owner and said, Hey, we're going to add 10 million luxury tax. And now it's like, all right, five, there's, there's a five step process to this all. So I thought about the Knicks and I, again, plausibility like we'll freaking see. I thought about the calves. That would be a scenario where Donovan Mitchell, I think stays in Cleveland. Yeah. Find out, find a way to pivot. That's just, it's a bit, a lot of big pieces. Yep. I thought about new Orleans Ingram. Yep.

You know, after the Wolves got eliminated, I went through fake Karl-Anthony Towns trades. And one of my absolute favorite ones, it's almost a dollar for dollar match, was Cat for Kawhi. Just Clippers shake it up like we're just done. But Cat makes a tiny bit more next season than Paul George does. Yeah.

Yeah, he starts year one with the Supermax. Golden State was on my list. I don't know. That's a tough one. Yeah, we really got to bring out our accountant hat on that. So you think this is where we are? Like, this is a real possibility. Opt-in and trade. Chris Paul 2.0. Like, things may be at this point.

this bad between paul george and the clippers listen we still have eight or nine days for something to happen i i think that if a four if a fourth year is not on um on on the table and i don't think it ever has been um you know fourth year maybe less money um i think that's kind of the road that we could be talking about next week when we why would philly just not offer that yeah four for 212 i mean you just put it out there that's what they can do is it

So let's see. I mean, like, like, you know, hey, like if if there's a four for two 12 number out there and Philly offers it, then this this becomes a moot point as far as the ability because you could just go there outright and sign it.

And maybe they want to split it. I mean, I don't know what Philly's going to do. Maybe they want to split it among multiple players instead of using it all in one shot. Yeah, listen, you could technically sign him for 49. You'd still have, depending on what you do with Paul Reed and your first-round pick, you could still have $16 million left. You go out and get another player. You still have the room and level exception. There's still some more other ways to add to their roster. Interesting times for the Clippers and Intuit, though.

Listen, I would just say that if you're the Clippers and they got a smart front office there, you have to have your ducks in a row as far as what your plan B and your plan C is going to be. As far as who's available either with a trade exception and who's available with...

you know, from a, you know, who's the third team, who's the fourth team, you know, kind of lining all that. I mean, they've gone through the exercise before. I mean, Lawrence was there when they did the Chris Paul trade. So it's a smart front office here. But I think they're fully aware just because, as I said, we've gone, it's not like all of a sudden, like, the free agent window opened and, like, here we are. It's like this has kind of been the dance for the whole year. And on the Philly thing,

I mean, they basically have to build a whole entire new team around Embiid and Maxi. Now, maybe they bring back some guys with bird rights. Maybe Batum comes back, whatever. But I do think, you know,

An underrated issue for Philly over the last eight, nine years has just been the constant turnover. They just change the personnel around Embiid all the time. They change the structure, the very makeup and foundation of like what kinds of players are around him changes all the time. And at least at this time, Maxi and Embiid have a couple of years of chemistry now and one big year of reps in a high stakes playoff series, too.

But I, the level of turnover is just, it's just constant. And I, it, it has to have some kind of cost, um, for the Sixers who, by the way, still have not made, um, yeah. I mean, listen, if you go, if you go with three guys at max numbers, right. I mean, you're basically going to go through the cycle of, you know, every year or for the next three years, probably cycling through your bench again, you know, you will have some picks in the, in the future. Um,

But that's the decision Darrell has to make. Do I want one big guy or do I want to chop that money up into maybe two or three guys? Ananobi, by the way, is the name I keep waiting for. If we don't hear anything about Ananobi because he is their own free agent, I guess, even though he has an option he's got to opt out of. Yeah, it's coming up soon too. Another team I thought of just off the top of my head for Paul George, and I don't think this is a real possibility, but it dovetails nicely with what I want to talk about next is

The Kings just re-signed Malik Monk. Woj broke that story last night. Four years, 78, which is the most they could have offered Malik Monk on the early bird number. It's going to be an important number for Isaiah Hartenstein and some other free agents in the league. Great deal for the Kings. Great deal for Monk. Win-win. Malik Monk, it's the biggest deal of his career. He's worth more than that probably to the Kings, especially given the jump in playmaking that he showed last year as a passer and a pick-and-roll playmaker. Yeah.

The Kings have sniffed around Siakam. They sniffed around Ananobi. They have this sort of ready-made Harrison Barnes plus Herter plus draft picks package sitting there. Now they owe one pick to Atlanta from the original Herter deal.

And the issue they're facing is Sabonis and Fox are going to make $100 million combined over, you know, once Fox's next deal kicks in. But Sabonis already got extended. And they've been hesitant to commit themselves to a third monster salary, which just limits the amount of guys you can trade for. But I think they're also cognizant of...

We need like Barnes and Herter are just not good enough as two of five starters. I mean, Herter's really struggled in the playoffs and we need another, another guy that's like, they're one of my favorite, favorite fake Jimmy Butler destinations. Again, there's nothing. I just made that up out of whole cloth. I think he fits everything they need in terms of defense, toughness, shot making whole cloth. I don't see it. And the thing with the heat also is,

We never see the Heat make just rebuilding trades. Like if they'd ever got to the point where they're going to trade Jim Butler, they'd want a player, a real capital P player back or the assets that they know they can right away turn around and get one. But it just feels like the Kings are still ripe for something. I don't know what. I like Malik Monk. I think it's a good deal. I think what we've seen

from the Kings in the last two years, as feel-good as it is, is about what they are in a Western conference that just gets better and better and better, which is they might make the play-in, they might make the first round. It's hard to see much more than that unless really things break right or Fox hits another level. They're a team to watch for me, not necessarily for Paul George, but I just, like, I thought about Markkanen for them. Is that the guy they go in for? I'm not sure they have enough to really even interest the Jazz in engaging in that conversation. And again, third big salary.

It's just a tough nut to crack. You got the two big salaries. If you have qualms about adding a third one, I don't know how you get the right pieces arranged around those two. Yeah. I mean, the big question for me, you know, outside of the ability to sign Malik Monk is kind of has the roster kind of plateaued. And what does plateau mean? Like kind of, is it, is this going to be like a 46, 47 win team, which is not, I mean, which is, if you're in Sacramento, it's certainly a good thing, but that's a, you

Usually that's a play-in. You're a good team if you win that many games in the Western Conference. The Warriors last year finished 27-12, won 46 games, I think. Yep, and lost. Everybody wants to break up the team. They're a good team. You're starting from a pretty solid floor. Yeah, I totally agree. So now, as you said, if we take Keegan Murray out of the mix, because that's your third guy...

Your pieces are the two guys we've talked about forever, which is Barnes and Herter. And then you've got picks. You've got the 13th pick in the draft. You've got some future stuff after you give up that one to Atlanta and

that's protected next year. They're another team though, right? We wake up this morning, they're basically $5 million below the first apron. They're $2 million over the luxury tax after this trade. So the ability to put together, you know, $33, $34 million in contracts and then add maybe another player for a Jimmy Butler type becomes, you know, now that becomes the challenge because now you're aggregating. Now you're hard capping yourself.

I should have mentioned Keegan Murray. Obviously, the other roadmap to the Kings starting to crack a new level is Keegan Murray becoming a borderline all-star kind of player. I think he does have that kind of upside. He slowed down a little bit toward the end of the season, but I like his game. He's an easy player to fit and actually is sort of, yeah, maybe that's just the patient route. And the problem is those four guys, Fox, Sabonis,

depending on when and how Fox signs his new deal. He's eligible now for an extension. You outlined this on ESPN. Yeah, three years. It seems more likely to wait until after the year. Yeah. See if he makes all NBA. But Fox to bonus Murray on whatever he gets, which will be a big deal when his rookie deal is up. And Monk, you're going to be at $150 million for four guys. And that's going to leave you with plenty of wiggle room under the tax, but not that many vehicles to really change your team. This is just...

They're a good team. I think that the benefit to it, not just Sacramento is that we're kind of like a lot of teams are kind of just, you know, from, because the cap's not increasing much. Eventually, like we're going to see this nice bump. What's going to go 10%, 10%, 10%. So,

There's going to be more flexibility down the road for teams to add. You know, you know, certainly you go from 141 to 155 as far as the salary cap for next year. And it's going to continually, continually increase. And it just gives, it will give teams more flexibility. All right. I have a question. I have a, I'm looking at those boats out there. Real real.

In the background? Well, first of all, I'm in an office. This is not a window. This is just a TV screen. But it is showing the East River. I don't know if it's live or on some kind of delay. There's a Brooklyn Bridge right there.

And these boats are real. They traverse the East River and go around New York. And this is actually quite emotional for me to come to this office because you can't see it here. But up this direction and you can see it from our green room is Long Island City, where I used to live until the pandemic. And I used to be able to take a ferry almost from the foot of my building.

to one pier away from here in three stops. And it was just the most delightful commute. And I loved it so much. And I loved Long Island city so much. And we never would have moved if not for the pandemic. And it's been, we've been back two or three times and I get legitimately gut punch, emotional looking and seeing and being in Long Island city. So thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. Okay. I'm just curious. So you want to be a marketer?

It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus, manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once. When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat. Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI-powered marketing tools, launching benchmark-breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers.

Meaningless stuff. Why do we gift so much meaningless stuff? Tired of generic gifts and hollow trends? Shutterfly allows you to create meaningful photo gifts for your family and friends, whether it's a cozy fleece blanket for grandma, a stunning canvas print for mom, or a mug to make dad smile. Enjoy 40% off with code MAKE40 at Shutterfly.com and make something meaningful this year. See site for more details.

JJ Redick got hired as the Lakers coach, ending a long and drawn out saga. We don't need to go into the saga. Everyone wants to know, is he going to be a good coach? Is this going to work for the Lakers? The least, the three least sexy words in sports television. I don't know. Like, I don't know what JJ is about. I don't know how this is going to work. I know that the most important thing for the Lakers is their current roster is not good enough for, if your definition of is it going to work like deep playoff run,

I don't see this roster being able to do that. This isn't the West of two years ago where they did that and Darvin Ham was doing a nice job. And, you know, again, every coach who does a good job gets them deep in the playoffs, gets fired. It's a different Western Conference now. LeBron's older, AD's older. LeBron's going to be 40, for God's sake. Here's what I know about JJ. He's not going to get outworked, and it's going to be very hard to outthink him. He is going to sit there, like if you go in a playoff series,

He will have thought, okay, here are the eight different ways we can play this particular pick and roll combination defensively. And then here are the eight different ways we can play this different pick and roll combination defensively. And well, let's think if we do that, then the other team's going to do this. And if we change our rotation this way, well, the other team can do that as a counter. He's not going to be out thought it tactically by very many coaches.

There is going to be a learning curve in terms of making those decisions in a snap in real time, because at the very highest level, you cannot miss a beat. Like you cannot be late to make an adjustment or adjust to their adjustment. But the work and the tactical stuff is going to be there.

All the other stuff, managing personalities, managing the Lakers' expectations, managing the crazy structure that is governing the Lakers is a different story. I think J.J. will do fine. It sounds like they're going to round out his staff with veterans, guys who know Anthony Davis, you know, Udonis Haslam today mentioned Rayjean Rondo as a coaching candidate. I just...

I mean, everyone wants to put out a referendum on whether he's going to do well. Is he the next Steve Kerr? Steve Kerr was a GM for a long time in the league before he got hired as a coach. I don't know. I'm optimistic. I think JJ will do very well. I just like what what's what's a fair expectation for a successful Lakers offseason? They have three picks they can trade once the year turns over. Right.

Um, and then outgoing salaries, you can tell us about, it depends a little bit about DLO opting in or opting out. Um, it's just, I mean, they won one playoff game this year. I know they drew a, drew a nightmare first round matchup for them, but every matchup in the West is going to be a nightmare of some kind.

Yeah, I mean, let's start just with the hiring itself. I think I'm, you know, and I said this yesterday on NBA Today, kind of go back to 2013 when we hired Jason Kidd, who had never coached, but it's under different circumstances. Jason had just been done, had just finished playing with the Knicks, and JJ has been out of the league for a couple years, but has been doing the media circuit and has been able to sit with head coaches. I think he gives them, I think him coming in gives a fresh perspective of

of the ability to analyze all 30 teams and certainly analyze the team that he is taking over. So I'm not concerned, as you said, from a tactical, from a strategy standpoint. Yes, the ability to put out a veteran, put a veteran staff that you can trust, the ability to be aligned with your general manager, all those things are important. From a roster standpoint, they've got to nail the draft.

Like, pick 17 where they are. Like, they've got to get, like, you know, like an example, Jared McCain from Duke, the shooter. Like, if he's there at 17, he'd be really good for them, right? Gives them another guy that can make shots. Last year, they took Jalen Huchafino, who was injured for most of the year. We know the guys that came after, right? Brandon, Jaime, two guys make all NBA, all rookie. Speaking of which, you know who the next two picks after Josh Giddey were? Who, uh...

Not that Josh Giddey was a bad pick. I just think it's interesting. Jonathan Kaminga and Franz Wagner. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, sorry. No, so you've got – so I think that's certainly the priority. Now, the roster is interesting because we talk all along about LeBron and the option. Like D'Angelo Russell dictates their offseason. Like what happens with D'Angelo Russell dictates a lot of where their flexibility is.

He's got a, you know, close to a $19 million player option. Him and LeBron have until June 29th to decide it. If, if D'Angelo Russell ops out two things for me, there's a deal in place somewhere. You don't opt out in this market. You're basically going to go into free agency with blinders on here. So does that mean that he's coming back at a less salary for the Lakers? What does less mean? 14 million, 15 million dollars. What's the cap room team where he's a great fit? I mean, look, listen, your cap room teams are Orlando. Yeah.

Not a great fit. Detroit? He's not a bad fit in Orlando, actually. I take that back. He's not a bad fit in Orlando. It's just not where I would use my ammo. Yeah, I mean, Utah? I mean, possibly San Antonio? San Antonio is interesting because, you know, I was having a conversation with a front office guy last week just about what's been interesting to you about the playoffs. And he said, you know, it's been interesting to see how well...

Some of the small guards did in the playoffs because the narrative is always this is him talking. The narrative is always that small guards just get played off the floor defensively. They get hunted and hunted and hunted. And like Jalen Brunson was amazing. Halliburton was amazing. I'm probably even missing somebody who was amazing. And that just led me to think about.

Not that D'Angelo Russell is small, but he's a defensive liability. It led me to think about Trey Young in San Antonio. And I think one of the luxuries, and I'm not saying this is a real thing at all, blah, blah, blah, caveat, caveat, the Spurs have all the Hawks picks, etc. I just think one of the luxuries of having Wemba Nyama is going to be we can absorb all sorts of players on both ends of the floor up to and including Spurs.

weak defensive guards in part because this guy's just everywhere all the time. I don't know how we got talking about this. D'Lo. D'Lo to... Yeah, so that's kind of... So here's where they are right now. Give you a little bit of a snapshot. With both guys on the books, including your first round pick...

You are a luxury tax team. You are a first apron team and you're nearing the second apron. So that limits your, and that does not include Max Christie, who they've kind of, he's been like all the, you know, when, when we're talking about Danny Hurley, we're talking about their young players. He's, he's been lumped in with that group, right. Who's the restricted free agent. So,

As is with this roster, your flexibility is limited as far as from a trade standpoint if you are an apron team. So that's why I say the Russell decision basically, you know, listen, he opts out and he goes somewhere else. That certainly gives you maybe the ability to use your non-tax mid-level exception. You'll still be kind of have to figure that number. But you also lose a guy that scores 18, 19 points. So that's kind of like the counterbalance to that.

And they can trade three firsts, right? Yeah, they can trade. Starting the draft, they can trade 20, their 17th pick, and then they can trade 20, 2029 and 2031. Yeah. And I mean, I've just been, I have intentionally sort of not dove too deep into the Barani James waters because I, I'm just not familiar enough with this. Yeah, I would, I would, you know, listen, I think, I think Barani James,

we'll get drafted. We'll get drafted. for sure. He's getting, he's getting drafted. Um, I think he's two years removed. He's an undersized two guard. Um, his ability to defend will keep him in this league. That's my, my, my, my point is 55 is fine. 17. You just cannot, or 22 Phoenix, 22. I will hammer them on Wednesday night. No, can't do it. Can't do it. Um,

Anyways, so three firsts, including 17. The other issue is to get a real player, whoever it is, a third guy, and the Lakers are going to hunt around for third guys. Just mechanically, you've got to put salary into the deal. And if the player is anyone that has...

positive trade value, Austin Reeves is going to have to be like, these teams are just not going to give away their players. Now, the one exception might be Levine, uh, because that situation seems to have run its course in Chicago. Yeah. We can debate his fit in with the Lakers. I don't think that's really worth a debate worth having right now. Um,

But other than that, you're like, you're sending significant talent out the door to bring any significant talent in the door. It's going to be very interesting to see what the Lakers do because their roster is fine. Like I said, a play-in team, a first-round playoff team of the West, you're a good team. AD has been phenomenal for them. LeBron has been phenomenal for them. It's a good team.

It just gets harder and harder every year in the West. And the West of two years ago is not the West of today. Yeah. Good. I mean, as you said, when we talked about Sacramento, like 46, 47 wins, I can certainly see the Lakers doing that, but that, I mean, remember LeBron and AD played plus 65 games, you know, that's, that's a big account, but you know, but they had that swoon in, I think it was November and December that really cost them. They did win the in-season tournament though. I mean, no, listen,

I hear you. It's going to be interesting to see how that's regarded in five years because it was cool in the moment. Yeah. It was cool. And the Pacers went for it. And the Pacers, I think, that's the ideal in-season tournament team. Young, rising, national spotlight all of a sudden. Okay, we learned something about ourselves through this process. It just feels like a whole different planet ago that that happened. The silly courts. Yeah.

All of it. And when you get into the muck of the playoffs and it's the best teams and they're going adjustment for adjustment, possession for possession, it just felt so far removed from that that I care less about the Lakers or whoever winning it today than I did in the moment where I was like, that's a nice accomplishment. I don't mind that. It's a nice accomplishment. I just, I mean, I just could not, it would be hard for me to care less now than I do about that as a

is an accomplishment. Yeah. I mean, listen, the Sacramento golden state game that was like on a Tuesday or Wednesday night for like winter gets in to the, to the, you know, the group of eight, like, but that was awesome. Right. Like that, that wasn't going to happen, but I think like my perspective on the in-season tournament for next year is really, if you're, if I'm a player, it's really about how can I make $500,000? Right. Like that's really, it's like the cash component of it all.

Well, maybe it'll help with the new TV. All right. Anything else on the Lakers? Anything we're missing? Any fits you like there in terms of potentially available players that we haven't? Yeah. I mean, I just think, I think it will be interesting, you know, you know, what happens in Cleveland? Does that open in, you know, they've been pretty upfront as far as saying that, you know, they're not changing the parts of their roster here. I mean, what happens with Garland, you know, you know, guys like that, you

But as you said, like if you're the Lakers, really, it's, you know, anything, any trade wise starts probably with Reeves and Hutch and Moore. And you've got Gabe Vincent and you got Jared Vanderbilt. Those are your big, your, your big salaries.

Well, JJ got the job. It's going to be good theater. It's going to be interesting to watch, and I think he's going to be more ready for it than people give him credit for. Bobby Marks, NBA offseason is underway. You are in Los Angeles. We're going to see you all over the airwaves in the next week to ten, two weeks. How's your touchscreen game? Oh, we brought it out two days ago. We did a modified free agency touchscreen, six teams only. If you tune in – well, this is going to come out after we do TV today –

We are going to bring it out. I think we're going to do a little Golden State, a little Golden State on Clay Thompson here. Okay. Yeah, I feel good. I feel good. I'm like, you know, I'm not in like, I'm not in like, I'm in preseason shape. I'll be in, I'll be game ready. That's going to be on NBA Today in three hours? Yes. Well, this podcast will be out by then. Great. Tune in. And I will be on, I'm going to run home and I'm also going to be on NBA Today. I'll see you on there. We'll talk more there. Thanks, Bobby. Thanks. See you.

For the first time, Monday Night Football streams exclusively on ESPN+.

Jim Harbaugh makes his long-awaited return to the Monday Night Lights. Touchdown, L.A. And the Chargers add to their lead. As the Chargers meet rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Cardinals in the deck. Murray scrambling. Harrison, 60 yards, touchdown. Chargers-Cardinals. Monday, October 21st at 9 p.m. Eastern. Streaming exclusively on ESPN+. Sign up now at ESPN+.com.