Jamal Murray, Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram, and the biggest contract questions heading into NBA season
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast. It's Monday morning at 1030. The NBA is about to restart again. A lot of players are reporting to camp for kind of informal camps this week. Bobby Marks, there are a lot of questions to answer around the league, and I wanted to go sort of around with you about the biggest, I don't know if unsettled is the right word, but some big questions that are kind of hovering around the league. How are you? I'm good. How are you?

I'm doing well, man. I'm back in the swing of things. It's September 9th. You know, guys are going back in the office. Full blast this week. Players are coming in. Training camp's not far away. And I think it's shaping up to be a very fun NBA season. A lot of uncertainty, a lot of mystery. I'm excited.

I, you know, it's funny just because I'm, you know, we're all doing different things. I'm working on some training camp stuff and there's really not like the drama of the off court drama. Like last year we had Damian Lillard. Where's he going? I think a lot of the focus this year is going to be on the court. Really like the competitiveness of,

of the western conference which is you know we'll talk about that which is i mean loaded i mean we did the segment last week on golden state and the lakers and i said like listen you can count like seven teams that are probably better which is not for those two teams are like 46 win teams which is not the worst thing in the world here but i think i think the focus this year is more on the court um how good both conferences could be um less drama of course once

teams start playing and losing that creates some drama here but I'm looking forward to a really good year and that's a big theme as we get into some of the contractual situations here that are hovering uncertainly and the sort of trades that could you know we're going to make up some fake trades

it's important to remember two things number one a large portion of the league is not tradable until december 15th and after that in some cases january 15th or whatever the dates are for free agents that were signed in the offseason and number two a lot of this a lot of what happens in the league is going to depend largely on how teams play over the first two or three months of the season some teams are going to disappoint some teams are going to exceed expectations and those things are going to sort of change the way they want to navigate the season uh

I'm glad we waited till today to do this because one of the hovering situations that I wanted to get to, and I mentioned last week that I thought it would get done amicably and it indeed got done amicably. Jamal Murray, Woj tweeted it over the weekend, signed a four-year, $208 million max extension.

with the Denver Nuggets. I haven't seen the contract. I assume there's no, there's no, any injury protection, any options, nothing. It's just ironclad. I haven't seen it yet either, but I would assume that it's, it's a straight, it's a straight four for 208. There's no kind of bells, bells and whistles to it. And so, you know, Jamal Murray, it had a very interesting year last year. Um, regular season, arguably the best regular season of his career. And then it,

For parts of it, particularly for the second half, we started to hear about shin splints and ankle issues. And then playoffs, he was, other than two incredible game-winning shots against the Lakers, one in game two and one that effectively won the series in game five, was not very good.

Shot 31% on threes, 44% on twos. The Olympics was a disaster for Canada and for Jamal Murray specifically coming off the bench for Canada. And it left a sour taste in people's mouths. And it got people wondering like,

is this really the ideal second banana for Jokic? What are the Nuggets going to do here? They're facing an enormous financial crunch. And then, bam, four years, 208. This is the max amount of years, max amount of money. What was your reaction? I wasn't surprised at all. I mean, I thought, you know, certainly how the offseason in Denver went with, you know, losing Contavious Colville-Pope for nothing in a financial decision, kind of like, what are your options here? And I think, I think when Josh Kroenke, their, their, their,

owner, chairman, whenever we call it there, came out and said, like, basically, Jamal was not healthy, right? Like he wasn't healthy during the Olympics, but,

I think that kind of signaled as far as it was more about that and then probably his play on the court. Certainly health played a big role to it. I think when you get to that point with negotiations, I don't think there's much. I mean, it depends on certain teams and how much wiggle room as far as what you're willing to do. I mean, what are you going to go for for 190 and give yourself some flexibility? I mean, the reality is that...

They almost had to, certainly with the Jokic window open. And they've got some bigger decisions coming up with Aaron Gordon, who's extension eligible at the end of September. I thought it was kind of interesting, though, because from Jamal Murray's standpoint, if they played hardball and there was no extension and you enter free agency next year, really the only team that would have cap space to sign you outright was Brooklyn and

you know, Jordy Fernandez was team Canada's head coach. And does he kind of know what I always say, you know, you already know what kind of what's under the hood, right? Like if you're, you know, as far as what's there already and as far as what his options would have been here, but we never got to that. So I wasn't surprised at all. I think the only thing that maybe the curiosity would be maybe if there was a little bit of injury, injury protection, just because of,

Whether it be the knee and the inability to play. He hasn't played more than 65 games in the past few years here. So no surprise for me. But I think there's some bigger questions as far as, and we can talk about Denver as far as from a roster standpoint. But I am intrigued as far as what the next person, whether it be Aaron Gordon, who could be

Listen, how free agency is going right now, I mean, we've seen so many guys coming off the board with extensions here, like Aaron Gordon at the end of the day, him and Miles Turner.

they could be the two best free agents when we get into next summer. Well, Miles Turner, to be clear, is not extension eligible at all, right? So he's going to be a free agent. Yeah, like it's funny. You go through these lists and I put it out there over the weekend as far as all the players that have signed extensions that could have been free agents in 2025. I mean, it was like it was a headliner. And then there are guys that just

They're not extension eligible. They can't they you know, they're going to be a free agent. Him and D'Angelo Russell are going to be free agents no matter what. Brooke Lopez is another player who, you know, who's going to be a free agent. But then there are some others like Aaron Gordon, who can certainly extend. I think his number is four for 140 somewhere around there. So you're looking at 30 million dollars a year for him.

It's so interesting because we went through a long period of like constant cap growth and the cap is going to go up by, I have it estimated at the max 10% every year, which is huge for these contracts like Jamal Murray's, which the cap is going to grow faster than those annual salaries are going to grow. So this contract, although it's monetized,

numbers, the sticker shock as a percentage of the cap, is that going to be quite as sort of damaging as it looks? But we went through all this period where like getting back out into free agency was always the best thing as early as possible. Like get out, sign a two-year deal, sign a three-year deal. And now for some of these, like these guys would probably like to be able to sign extensions because an unrestricted free agency, if

if your own team decides, I mean, we saw this with Tyus Jones. If your own team decides, Hey, you're not part of our future. There's just not going to be much out there for some of these guys. We'll talk more about that. You mentioned Brooklyn, by the way, look, I don't know if you've been on Instagram, Bobby Brooklyn's number one priority is they got to work out this max extension for Ben Simmons. Like now, like ASAP, if you've been so like, forget Jamal Murray, Brooklyn has such a random collection of players, including Ben Simmons.

two guys that are kind of sneaky extension candidates cam thomas and uh dayron sharp but we're not gonna talk about them uh they're my next team they're in my next team the right though but that is good luck with that can you just write a sad face just write a sad face or a picture you should tweet the photo did you see that photo of the white socks stadium that was like completely empty you should just tweet that and be like this is a nets game in 2025 you know it's interesting and then um

I know Sunday was NFL Sunday, but I caught myself watching Liberty Aces. And I'm thinking – you've got Devin Booker. You've got a lot of all these guys who came over, Steph Curry and Clay. The place is packed. And I'm thinking – and I'm sure this won't make my friends in Brooklyn happy, but I'm thinking, are the Liberty more popular than the Nets right now? I mean, I think – First of all, low bar. Second of all, just –

The greatest dichotomy in mascots in maybe the history of professional sports. So the Nets had the stupid bunny rabbit in you remember the what was his name? I don't remember his name is stupid. Well, listen, we paid a lot of money for that. I think DC or Marvel Comics came up with the theme air and millions of dollars went down the tubes. We could have just brought slide a fox over from New Jersey.

Dan, oh, maybe it was Sly the Fox. That's what I'm thinking of. Sly the Fox wasn't a bunny rabbit. It was Sly the Fox. Then you had then you had the Brooklyn Knight, which debuted to much fanfare and was and like Poochie in The Simpsons was was sent to Mars after one year.

And now they have nothing, nobody. And the Liberty, Ellie the Elephant is like, I don't know if people are not familiar with Ellie. Ellie the Elephant is like a Beyonce-level celebrity in the mascot community. Everywhere she goes, she's trailed by paparazzi. What she wears is a big story. Anyway, Jamal Murray and the Nuggets. So he is now the biggest wild card in the season to me because...

The Nuggets took a lot of flack, somewhat deservedly, somewhat a little overheated for letting KCP walk. They've got Christian Brown and Julian Strother ready to sort of compete for those minutes in that starting role. And Peyton Watson's going to, you know, step into hopefully a larger role even than he played last season. If I knew that I was going to get the Jamal Murray,

I don't even like that. Like 95% of the Jamal Murray from the title run in 2023, forget bubble Jamal Murray. It's very interesting. Jamal Murray missed two full playoffs. He's been a part of four playoffs.

He was so, so in the first one, which is 2019 when they lose to the Blazers in the second round. He was like so outrageously good in 2020 in the bubble. Remember he had two 50 point games in one series against Donovan Mitchell. Then he was almost as good as that in the title run. And then last year was kind of a dud.

And he missed 21 and 22 with injury. If I can get nine, if I knew I was getting 90, 95% of 2023 playoff, Jamal Murray, by the way, he's 27 years old. This is his ninth season. He's still just 27 years old. I think I would pick Denver to make the finals despite all the hullabaloo about what they lost in the off season. Are their owners being cheap? What's going on? I just, you can plug guys into that KCP spot.

Yes, their bench is going to be strained after losing Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and now KCP, and then promoting Christian Brown into the starting five, et cetera. I just, what their ecosystem is very, very strong. And this is a vote of confidence that yeah, that Jamal Murray still exists. And I saw a lot of stuff about Jamal Murray when I briefly checked Twitter in the off season as he was crapping the bed for Canada and Canada, just another disappointing Olympics for Canada, unlucky draw, but still. Yeah.

About, you know, well, maybe Jamal Murray has been sort of a creation of Jokic for all these years, that Jokic is the one doing all the heavy lifting. And I get that. Like, Jokic is incredible. He's an all-time great player. He makes literally every single player around him much better than they would be in other circumstances.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just... Maybe those 50-point games are still sticking in my brain. Maybe the big shots. And even in that Miami Finals, every time Miami was on the verge of kind of knocking the nuggets sideways a little bit, it was Jamal Murray who made a big shot. I think he is...

I think he's a very, very good player, almost an all-star level player, and he could make an all-star team down the line. And I think his role in that two-man game with Jokic is a little bit underrated. The craft and the feel he has, the body...

and weave change of pace style he brings to it the way he opens up a little extra pocket for Jokic like you know one hard hesitation dribble one way draws the defense just enough to get Jokic a window for that floater I think he's a very good very crafty player and this is obviously a vote of confidence in him and to your point like I don't like Aaron Gordon you mentioned his extension I

They're looking at second apron next season, right around it. And then in 26, 27, which is the last year of Michael Porter Jr.'s deal and the first year of new deals for Christian Brown and Peyton Watson, they're looking at being so far over the second apron that you're like, is this even possible? What does this mean for their team? So I will ask you if they do extend Aaron Gordon, who is a massive part of their team,

What does all of this mean for the Nuggets? Like, are we is this just uncharted territory for the whole league? Well, yeah, because that's the big reason why they didn't bring back Contavious Colwell Pope. I think it was probably in hindsight as far as what what the future could look like here. And I think when they they didn't sign KCP and let him go to Orlando, that the idea of giving Jamal Murray was max extension was going to be there.

um listen there is this is a team that it's it's kind of interesting where they've they've traded away a lot of draft picks here they don't they can't trade anymore um they owe you know 25 20 25 to orlando protection 27 to okc 29 to okc like they're limited as far as what they have as far as with picks and they're kind of in these two stages here where

They're starting five, and now whether it be Christian Brown or Julian Strather, as far as who starts, you have the veterans,

team that's won it before minus KCP. And then you've got this group of young players who was like not good in the playoffs last year, by the way. No, not at all. Um, and then you have this young group of players with certainly Russell Westbrook kind of sprinkled on top of that. Um, as far as kind of anchoring, um, you're anchoring your second unit, but no, this roster is going to get extremely, extremely expensive. Certainly when you look at, um,

As you said, Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. is also extension eligible. It's like, you know, as we've talked about, like the rules are set up where either you retain your players and you pay a significant price as far as how you do roster building or your pick to choose as far as who you want to keep. And I've beaten this drum before. I beat this drum starting in 2018. Not beat it. I just sort of tentatively tapped at it to see what sound it would make. But

You know, it coincided for me with the supermax coming in and teams getting freaked out by the supermax. And now we're seeing that same sort of freaking out just exponentially increased by the apron. I do continue to wonder whether there should be some tax break slash apron break when you resign your own players to contracts that are... You could just make it max if it's just max contracts because...

you know the nuggets have put a lot of equity into jamal murray michael porter jr and obviously yokich you're going to pay forever at the highest rate possible like should they really have to shed one of those guys to keep aaron gordon they're already shedding kcp you could make an argument that kcp moving on is not that much of an anomaly given his age and it hurts but his age has declined in the playoffs the replacements waiting in the wings like you could rationalize that in non-financial terms in some ways

I don't know. I continue to, to, to wonder, you know, Boston is obviously going to face the same question in a year. I mean, there's just no way that all of these dudes are on the Celtics in 25, 26. I just, it's you've in Tim Bontemps wrote about it. So it's a half a billion dollars to keep that team together. It's not going to happen. I mean, listen, them and Phoenix is another team that's going to blow through the roof as far as next. I mean, they already are, but next season, whether when they're a repeater tax. And I think going back to your point, like,

You know, it's funny because if, you know, let's say Christian Brown starts and he has a really good year, like he's extension eligible next year. And so here are three players with Brown, Strother, and Watson, three guys not picked in the lottery, right? Like they did a good job drafting as far as finding guys that,

in the 20s finding we'll see i mean this is the year we're going to see on well then how how good of a job they did they i mean they're you're like i know last year you had justin holiday on the roster and certainly you know michael malone kind of picked and choose a service you know certainly prioritize veterans like they don't have the choice this year like they're they're forced to um and in a good way you know forced to play their younger players here

And I'm very high on Strother. This is a huge year for him. I loved what I saw from him as a rookie before he got injured. I know he didn't make threes. I'm not worried about that. I loved all the other stuff from him, his activity on defense, his feel for the game. And Watson, it's just a matter of like,

Do you, is it, are they going to trust his shot when it matters? Because if they don't trust his shot, we're going to see him yanked from the rotation. Like we did in the Minnesota series, which by the way, Denver almost won the Minnesota series. Like I keep telling deep reminding people of this because it felt like such a disappointment. I just, as an aside, I mentioned that I might pick Denver to win the West. I'm not going to make my pick still next month. It's just because I have questions about almost every other team.

Other than Oklahoma City, who I think is going to run away with the number one seed. And Adam Morris of DNVR Sports made this point on the pod a couple months ago, and I think it's a great point. The Hartenstein signing for Oklahoma City is not just a sort of catch-all here for some of their weaknesses, which it is, rebounding, size, all that stuff.

It is a great, great stylistic matchup for the Nuggets. It allows them to mimic what the Wolves have done to the Nuggets, which is put a rim protector on Aaron Gordon. So that could be Chet Holmgren and put a big body like Towns and now Hartenstein on Jokic and just sort of have the rover off of Aaron Gordon. I think that was a very good point. I just wanted to mention that. I have nothing else to say about Jamal Murray. It was going to happen. It had to happen. It's a big year for him. It's a big year for the Nuggets.

And I don't know any closing thoughts on that. No, I mean, listen, I mean, I think as far as the rest of Ross, I mean, the only one thing that would concern me a little bit, and certainly we touched about shooting and some of the younger prize players are certainly the front, the front court size, as far as you lost the Ron Holmes to an injury for the, for the year.

And now you have, you know, Jokic plays a lot of minutes in the summer. All right. He goes deep, you know, with the air in the bronze with with Serbia. And now you have Zeke Nagy and DeAndre Jordan as kind of your backup bigs here. You would sign Dario Saric also here. I think that would be a little bit of a concern for me as far as.

You know, I mean, Jokic plays a lot of minutes as far as what your depth is, as far as what your front court. It's doubly going to be a concern because they are keenly aware of their three point shooting numbers. I wrote about this before the break. Denver was last in three point rate last season.

They lost. KCP was actually just a mid-volume three-point shooter, but he leaves in free agency. Christian Brown, attempt-wise, not that far from KCP. Accuracy-wise and the attention he gets from defenses, not on his level, not yet anyway. And then you introduce Russ, who is the worst high-volume three-point shooter in NBA history and probably just needs to never shoot them other than open corner threes.

I wrote this, I said this, Kevin Pelton put stuff in the piece to back it up. Statistically. There's a threshold somewhere where if you're X percentage below the league average and three point rate, it almost doesn't even matter. All the other good stuff you do, offensive rebounding, your proficiency on floaters, your transition efficiency, your free throw weight, which by the way has not been good for Denver. And that's one of the reasons they're hopeful that Russ might be able to sort of engineer some free throws for them. Um,

If you're too far below that threshold, you just can't win. You can't win for a playoff series. The math is just an uphill battle every single time to a point that becomes untenable. They're close to that. And one of the reasons that touches on their size is one of the cures for that might be, can we squeeze in a few extra minutes with Michael Porter Jr. at the four, which means no Aaron Gordon for just a few extra minutes. Aaron Gordon's too valuable to do anything else, but just a few extra minutes. But is that lineup viable? It's just too small.

You mentioned Saric. Like one of the reasons they're going to be close to the apron next year is they gave Saric and Russ these player options where I don't really know who was competing against them for player options. Like Saric got a five point something million player. And I like Dario Saric. He's a good player. He played well for Croatia this summer. But anyway, enough nuggets.

Yeah. I mean, I mean, listen, we could, I mean the player options, certainly when you're, when you're signing a player like Westbrook to the veteran minimum contract, and then you tack on a player option there. I mean, teams like Phoenix and Miami, they paid the price for that. Right. I mean, like that's for a team that's cost conscience. It's not smart business. Yeah.

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In which case, he's essentially an expiring contract at $28.9 million. He's a two-time All-NBA player. The Knicks kind of reinvented themselves last year as Jalen Brunson's team and then reinvented themselves twice over by acquiring OG Ananobi and Mikael Bridges and sort of beefing up on wings slash small ball forwards in OG Ananobi's case, which has raised a lot of questions about what does Julius Randles fit on this team?

Um, he can kind of be a laborious holder of the ball, ball dominant player pounded pound to pound. And now he's quite good at that. He draws help. He's a key became he's a, he's a good passer. And I think last year he actually didn't get enough credit for recalibrating his game a little bit, not like a wholesale change.

But to fit next to Brunson, he was a more willing and faster passer. He handled the ball in more pick and rolls, including inverted pick and rolls with Brunson as the screener, a way to sort of activate him as something other than a spot up shooter around Brunson. He would even he kind of rushed in transition. He would cut. He would cut in transition. He activated himself and is a very good player. But the fit questions still remain. New York is facing apron issues, even with Jalen Brunson's sort of discount extension.

And this is kind of one of the big looming questions in the league right now. Julius Randle is extension eligible. There has not been an extension. I don't know about you, but I don't expect there to be an extension just because the Knicks have to be very careful with their finances and they need to figure out

What is the right way to use this salary slot that Jalen Brunson has gifted us? Jalen Brunson gifted us the ability to turn Julius Randle's salary slot into something. Maybe. The answer may end up being just letting him walk in free agency and reconfiguring the team in other ways.

But I don't think an extension is coming. You tell me if you disagree. And then the next question is, if an extension is not coming, A, what's his role on the team? And B, is there a realistic trade for him that brings back stuff that can help the Knicks win this year? Because they're not dumping him for just rebuilding stuff. They're not dumping him just for salary relief, which they don't really need. He's an expiring. Is there a realistic trade out there? Let me tell you, Bobby Marks.

It's not that easy, but do you disagree with me about the extension? Do you expect an extension for Julius Randle? I don't. He's been eligible since early August for four for 181. He would be the...

He would top the $40 million mark, which is a rarity in New York. I think Ananobi is the only one, and that's for next year. I look at the Randall situation, and I was on a podcast earlier, right when he was extension eligible, and I said, listen, if New York came to him and offered three for like 100 and changed, I think if you were Julius Randall, you should consider that. And people went crazy. He's a two-time All-NBA player.

And for my reasoning was like the market plays a big role as far as determining like Julius Randall is a really good player. And as you said, he's a two time all NBA player. But the market plays a huge role as far as what determines a player's salary here. I look at it as a player that's had surgery the last two years. The most recent serious injury to his shoulder that cost him life.

the whole year since January here. I look at the market of, okay, who is New York competing against out there next offseason? Brooklyn? Is Brooklyn willing to spend $40 million on Julius Randle? Is the Wizards another team? We wrote about it a month ago about the 2025 offseason, like cap space, the shrinking market of cap space,

Um, it's just not there. So if it's, it's either going to be in New York on an extension or maybe a new contract, or maybe, maybe it's, you know, what Josh Hart did where you're opting into that deal and you would have to do this by October 21st, you opt in and then you extend off that. Now that's interesting where you get a little more breathing room next year, right? When some of these numbers start to go and, and then, um,

The, um, the Randall number doesn't kick in until 2026, 27. So maybe that makes a little bit more sense as far as how this, um, how this plays out here. But,

I'm not anticipating, I'm not anticipating anything. And as you said, like, listen, I went through the teams this morning, like trades are hard, man. Like I, you know, and we can go through different options or what different trade scenarios are here. But I do think this kind of plays out. And I think certainly maybe we, when we get to camp in a few weeks and when we get that October 21st date, that may be, you know, could be maybe more of a pressing deadline here. And if not,

then you can maybe work out something during the year if you decline that option. It's interesting. The opt-in and extend is interesting. But one of the reasons I would bet against it is I think the Knicks are just like, we need to see what this team is. We need to see how it all fits together. And maybe in seeing that, we discover we absolutely need Julius Randle's offense. We need his ability to create shots. We missed it in the playoffs last year.

against Indiana. And it turns out Mikael Bridges as a secondary playmaker still isn't quite enough off the dribble juice for our team. And OG Ananobi as a tertiary playmaker is not quite enough juice for our team. And Josh Hart doing crazy stuff in transition, which always seems to work out somehow. Josh Hart's the ultimate no, no, no, no, no, yes player in the NBA, including the huge three he had against Philly in that playoff series. It turns out none of that is enough. We need Julius Randle. Or it could turn out like

This, this construction of the team with Brunson and a bunch of wings and a center is absolutely perfect. And Julius Randall would be ideal as a sixth man for us, but he's too qualified for that. And we need to flip him and get other stuff. They could, they could figure that out too. So let's do some fake trades. Are you ready? Yeah. Here are the challenges.

So Jewish Channel makes $28.9 million. The Knicks either have to take back exactly $28.9 million or less. They cannot take back more money, correct? Correct. I'm still getting familiar with the aprons. I know. You know, it's funny. Like, I...

I, um, you go like, you know, the April rules are so prevalent. You know, like there, we talked about it at length. We take them light. And then when you take a little bit of a breather from it, like even for me, like, it's like, okay, I got to get back into the rules. Right. As far as like, just like another crash course, as far as understanding everything, as far as whether it be dollar for dollar or aggregating or all these different things here. But, um,

Yeah, that's the challenge as far as a New York team that's $7 million below the second apron that was triggered already. They're over the first apron, and now you're looking at dollar for dollar on anything that you're taking back. So step one for me was look for teams that are in win now, theoretically at least in win now mode.

um are kind of hurting after the events of last season or the offseason have some chips to play and might use them on just like let's just take a talent play on julius randall the two teams that really qualified for that for me were the clippers and the heat and i just couldn't find any deals that made any sense given you know do you want another ball pounder next to kawaii and james harden and bam and jimmy um and just i just didn't find anything that made sense um

Then I went to worse teams. And there are some deals that make sense. You want to go through some of them? Yeah, let's go. Well, do you have any you want to nominate? Why don't you go nominate one? Like the rules are so hard. Like I came up with like and I and I know that both these. Here's the thing. Like when you're going through this exercise, you have to be like, OK, we can't find we can't pick an apron team because then it's like that team's taking more money back or they're taking, you know, or the Knicks are taking more money back or aggregating. Like I thought like.

Like rules aside, Dallas certainly maybe. I didn't think about them at all. But the challenge is as far as making the money work. So whether it be PJ Washington and then getting to that – PJ's at 15 and then certainly putting a 14 –

Washington and Gafford is that too rare? I mean, I'm just spit ball and throwing out numbers here. Like the Lakers, there's a late with the Lakers makes sense. I know the Lakers are 45,000. That's another, that's another talent play team. I didn't think of them. I don't like the fit for either of those teams, which is a problem we're going to get into. Yeah, that's that. And those are kind of like, you know, those were the two teams that maybe stood out a little bit positional wise, but, but you know, what, what are some of the teams that you have as far as, you know, yeah,

All right. So let's start with the obvious. The Knicks, in their ideal world, the Knicks would get a rotation center back in a Randall trade, I think. So then you start with teams like Atlanta, which has Clint Capella's expiring contract, which is $7 million less than Julius Randall's contract. The Hawks are not far from the tax, correct? Yeah.

Correct. They're right below it. And so that presents a problem for the Hawks. They also have Jalen Johnson who is going to be maybe the most important player in the entire franchise and plays Julius Randle's position. So now you're like, is this going to be a three-team trade? And if

If you're the Hawks, it's like, well, what's the point of any of this for me? What's in this for me? What would be in this for me is can we dump DeAndre Hunter's contract on you, the Knicks? And the Knicks would be like, wait a second, Julius Randle's a good player. We want value for Julius Randle. We don't want to hurt our cap situation for Julius Randle. So that I couldn't find a good deal there.

Did you find any good Atlanta deals? No, especially as you said, like the Johnson situation kind of looms and we'll see a lot more what happens in the next few weeks, certainly when he's extension eligible. And I think he's a he's certainly a priority for them. Look, he's going to be an interesting test case of of how we'll talk about this in the extension section. We'll get there. OK, then I moved on to Portland, which has a surplus of centers. And there are many iterations of deals you can make with the Blazers.

DeAndre Ayton, he makes like $5 million more than Julius Randle, which is an immediate problem for the Knicks. I've got to supply more salary. Maybe I don't want to do that. Robert Williams, Matisse Theibel, and Chris Murray combined to make enough salary that it's less than Randle's and not so much that Portland goes over the tax.

That's interesting to me. However, is it interesting to the Blazers? Like why, if I'm Portland, yeah, I get off of $25 million in salary for next season and Robert Williams and Matisse Thibault, but like those aren't bad salaries. Those are nice midsize salaries. If Time Lord can never get healthy, what's in that for me? Can I flip Julius Randall again? I'm already having a hard time finding trade teams for Julius Randall. So I don't know about that one. I thought about Jeremy Grant.

Because their salaries are almost an exact match. You have to finagle a little bit more money if you're the Knicks to make it work. But he's kind of redundant on the Knicks. He makes a ton of money over a ton of years. And again, like, Portland wants to trade Jeremy Grant for picks and stuff that helps them rebuild. So I'm out of ideas for Portland. Should I move on? Yeah. I mean, listen, I...

The first one when you mentioned as far as with Rob Williams and Tybalt and Murray, like that makes, yeah, I get it. Like you're basically breaking up the contract for New York. But as you said, like you got to think about what's in it for Portland, right? Like, you know, then now I've got Randall and Grant. It's hard enough, as you said, to flip one of those $30 million contracts.

all right i'm gonna go fast now then i thought okay chicago can i build something around vucevic who has uh uh his money's on the books for 25 26 so they can look at his we're dumping vucci's salary and getting randall um but i don't know that vucci is a great fit for how tom tibideau wants to play and what the knicks actually need uh i think he'd be an interesting sort of change of pace for them but his shooting fell off so badly last year um and again like

Is that a good deal for either team? What's the point of that for Chicago? Washington...

You can build some interesting deals around Kuzma's declining salary. I thought like Kuzma and Valanchunas, but if I'm Washington, A, that's December 15th because Valanchunas was signed in the offseason. B, I like those players. They're on good contracts. Can you give me some draft picks? And the Knicks are like, well, we just traded a bunch of our draft picks, all of them basically for Mikael Burgess. We have these extra bad ones, including yours, which is protected in the next two years and we don't ever expect to get it because you're so bad.

And so like, what's the point of that for Washington? And then I just kind of was, then I was, then I gave up. I'm going to be honest with you. So I don't know what, what I couldn't find a good one really. Well, yeah, because it's like, it's a process of elimination. I mean, you even go, you just go through the re the rebuilding teams. It's like, you know, you, you know, Utah, no, one more, one more Utah. I forgot Utah, John Collins plus Walker Kessler.

combined for $600,000 more than Julius Randle's salary. So you can just throw a Kata Bates Diop into that and you're fine. But again, if I'm Utah, I'm like, all right, so I get to dump John Collins, who has, I think, one more year left after this year. Got a player option, yeah. So let's assume he takes that. So the Knicks, I dump $26 million on the Knicks.

Walker Kessler was third in rookie of the year voting two years ago. And yeah, he disappointed last year. Why? Like I, and again, if I'm the jazz, I want value, give me value. And if I'm the Knicks, I'm saying, wait, I'm taking John Collins. I'm not giving you draft pick. And it just sort of falls away as a concept pretty fast. So they may be stuck with Julius Randall. And you know what? That may be good because he's a very good player who does stuff that they need. And if Tibbs distributes minutes the right way,

including maybe using him as a backup five at times when matchups allow for it, it could work out. I do think their center position is an obvious thing to monitor in the wake of Hartenstein's departure. Mitchell Robinson has had a lot of injuries. I think Mitchell Robinson is a great fit for them. I thought he was great last year when he was healthy. And maybe him and Achua ends up being enough with Jericho Sims as an emergency third guy. I don't know, but I do love... I think the Knicks are going to be really, really good and...

I'm very excited, but I just, this is an interesting situation and it dovetails with our next interesting situation, which is Brandon Ingram. Do you have any closing thoughts on Randall? No, I mean, I think he hit her. I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is, is their front court as far as the availability of Robinson is probably the biggest X factor, right? Like, you know, Hey, he's healthy. That solves a lot of, you know, because then you have a true as kind of your backup, but you said Randall can play some five here, but I don't,

As we talked about it, we started here. I don't think there's a pressing need to do anything with Randall right now. I think you can kind of let this play out a little bit. Brandon Ingram. Yeah. There's so many questions. I think for me, New Orleans is the most interesting team. There's so many different ways we can go with them, you know, as far as, but I think Ingram is certainly the, that's the, probably the, that's probably the biggest store. One of the biggest storylines is certainly in the league here. No question. Um,

So he was eligible for an extension last season, I believe. Right. And they couldn't come to a deal. And maybe one of the reasons they couldn't come to a deal was, hey, if I make all NBA and there's always this like 13 forward thing where it's like, oh, God, who am I going to pick for 13 for Julius Randall? OK, maybe Brandon can sneak in. Then he's eligible for the Supermax. Jamal Murray, by the way, could have made that same bet on himself this year. I think wisely decided not to.

Brandon Ingram did not make all NBA. Now he's entering the last year of his contract. He's eligible for a gigantic extension. He has not received a gigantic extension. And then last, last week, the athletic reported, he did not attend the Pelican sort of informal mini camp, I think in LA or wherever it was and posted some perhaps passive aggressive stuff on Instagram about not being around people who don't see the full value in you. And again,

I've tried like all hell to find Brandon Ingram trade teams. It's very, very difficult for all the same reasons. I've actually thought the Clippers and the Heat again, and he's a better talent play for them than I think Randall would be. But it's just, I didn't sense a lot of, I don't sense any activity in those spheres. A couple of people mentioned Memphis is a theoretical fit to me. I don't love it. And I don't think the Grizzlies love it either. And, you know, it's interesting. I was thinking about this.

Remember what David Falk, super agent David Falk, remember what he said about the max contract when they created the max contract? What did he say? He said it was ultimately going to be, I'm paraphrasing and forgive me, David Falk, if I'm a little off paraphrasing, but I remember him essentially saying like,

This is going to be bad for teams. Now he's obviously making a pro labor argument, right? Like when you represent the best players, a max contract is going to suppress their earnings. So take that for what it's worth. So this is going to be bad for teams because the best player or the second best player on every team is going to demand the max and the team's just going to give it to them because that's what happens. And you're going to be hamstrung with these players who are on max contracts, but are like the 28th best player in the league.

And I wonder, as we talk about Julius Randall and as we talk about Brandon Ingram, if that is one thing that the second apron is going to self-correct is that these are the players, not the midsize salary guys. Everyone always worries about the middle class of the NBA. Every change in the CBA, oh, the middle class is going to get killed. And there are cases like Tyus Jones where just it's a perfect storm of crap and their contract situation goes to

And they end up taking the minimum. The middle class ends up doing pretty well most of the time. Some of that is teams retain their own players to trade them like we saw with KJ Martin, which, by the way, is a deal that I think the league looked at as like, what happened with this deal? Valanchunas, Rashawn Holmes, mid-sized contracts are valuable as trade ships. Maybe it's these kind of guys trading.

When teams are so scared of the second apron, the Ingrams and the Randles that end up having the most difficult time. I just don't, I have no idea what's going to happen here. Absolutely none. Well, I mean, I think if you're, if you're Brandon Ingram that you're looking at what Jamal Murray just got and you're thinking, wait a minute, four for two away is that's my number, right? That's the most he can get in an extension here. Why am I not getting that number here? And I think if you're,

If you're the Pelicans, you're looking at it like, okay, we've committed to Zion. We traded for DeJounte Murray and we still have CJ McCollum left on, on a, on a pretty good number. And we've got Trey Murphy, who's a rookie extension eligible, which is another big storyline for DeJounte.

So is there a compromise that we, you know, that we can reach here? And it's similar to Ingram, like, okay, he, he could, you know, and maybe in different circumstances, he probably is a max player. But again,

What's the market for him, right? What's the market for him in 2025? We talked about Brooklyn really as the only with Brooklyn come in and give them $40 million a year, $45 million a year based on, um, based on, on their timeline here. And it's, you're right. It's like when you create an illusion, as far as when we use the word max, as far as what certain players think, what, what they are. Um, and, and,

The middle class, I think with this CBA benefits a lot. Like we saw TJ, TJ McConnell get an extension here. There's those guys. It was like 12, third year. You're kind of peg like sixth man gets a certain number here. Your third best player is at certain number here. And it is fascinating as far as, you know, and then you get what you mentioned what happened last week.

Does the Ingram situation present a distraction when training camp happens in three weeks? That's, that's the biggest thing. And certainly that will continually hang over their heads. Like I thought, well,

Cleveland could have been a potential fit, certainly before they extended Jared Allen, who's not eligible to be traded because he signed that extension. But what does Cleveland do with Ingram when they already got Mobley on a max and Mitchell on a max and Garland on a max and stuff like that? So it does present a challenge as far as finding him a new home that there's no deal reached. So I'm glad you brought up Cleveland because that trade –

fake trade, trade construction of Allen for Ingram and you'd have to have other stuff around it. It got, it seemed to get like traction and NBA talking heads and social media. I'd never really understood why Cleveland would do that. Yeah. Even if I could sit here and make the argument that Brandon Ingram one for one is a better basketball player than Jared Allen.

He wants to make more money. We'll see if he makes more money. What is the point of having Garland, Mitchell, and Ingram now if you're telling me that, well, then I can go trade Darius Garland and reorient my team that way? Okay, but that's three or four steps. It's a little bit more complicated than that, but I guess that could be the argument. We trade Garland to wherever for...

other assets that fit better. And we have Donovan Mitchell as our point guard, maybe an Ingram on the wing, but I never loved that one. And I never, since it got, it got much traction, maybe you're right. Maybe that maybe what happens here is the most rational situation where they just come to an agreement on an extension. That's South of the max and makes sense for the Pelicans. It makes sense for Ingram, but it's interesting. Just like Trey Murphy, the third's extension feels like a bigger priority for them than Brandon Ingram's, which is, which is strange, but yeah,

I thought about the Bulls for Brandon Ingram. I just don't know that you want to – I mean, the Bulls have lots of stuff they need to do with Levine and Vucevic or need to try to do, and they need to see what Giddey looks like. Do I want to introduce another ball-dominant player after I just sort of gave Josh Giddey the keys? I don't know, man. I don't know where this is going. Yeah, I mean, like finding – as you said, like finding – it's like –

The reality is Ingram struggled. Certainly, he had injuries at the end of the year. I'm wiping the playoffs away. Yeah, no. He was great against Phoenix in 2021 or whatever year it was they played Phoenix. 2022, I guess. And I think, in fairness to him, maybe he came back too early. He was in the torture chamber. Good luck with being in the torture chamber. And then a door goes out, you got Jalen Williams on you. That's not easy.

So, so I, yeah, I mean, I, I agree as far as giving him a, you know, somewhat of a pass there here, but as a, as it's, it's, it's very similar to the Randall situation where maybe there, as you said, like maybe there's a compromise on, on, on an extension or, or this plays out and, and new Orleans kind of looks at it and says like, you know, you can't extend them and then trade them in, you know, because of the, the restriction there. Um,

So maybe it plays out until next offseason. And, you know, it's almost like he's almost as like a quasi restricted free agency, just be restricted free agents because they're so just so limited amount of teams out there. You brought up you mentioned McConnell's name, which I haven't asked you about this. What did you think of Indiana retaining Toppin? Yeah.

um Nemhart yep and McConnell on these kind of mid-sized deals we're talking about two of them topping and Nemhart over the mid-level exception Nemhart's by quite a lot um and putting themselves sort of in tax position for the next couple of seasons I read Kevin Pelton's reaction to the McConnell deal and and I read John Hollinger's criticism of the Nemhart deal

And I have to say, I was a little surprised at the negativity just because I think those guys are good players on fine contracts. Even Toppin, like I think Toppin's pretty good. Like even if he's just a backup, he shot threes well for them. He fits how they play. But they made the point, not correctly, but they made a good point about the opportunity cost of using essentially the mid-level on Obi Toppin. What else could I have gotten for that? What would fit better? I'm not sure that there was anything dramatically better, but it is –

I still I'm still fine with all those contracts. I think that part's really good and is going to be a big part of their team. I know he got roasted by Joe and Brunson in the playoffs. Everybody got roasted by somebody in the playoffs, but that was a little bit troubling how easy Joe and Brunson found it against him. But I like all those. McConnell like was awesome for them. He might have been six men of the year if he was that awesome for the whole for the if he was as awesome for the first 40 games as he was for the second 40 games.

I didn't mind any of that for the Pacers, but the criticism was interesting to me. It made me rethink a little bit. Listen, I mean, I think when McConnell came out for four for 45, everybody said it's a 32 year old point guard. That number might not look good on the back end. And at the end of the day, years three and four guaranteed for $5 million each. Right. So it's 31 out of the 45 is guaranteed.

I'm paying $10 million, $11 million for a backup point guard, a good backup point guard. I'm totally fine with it. I think Nembhard, maybe the criticism is that he had a $2 million team option for

for next year that you replaced that with an $18 million salary, but I'm, I still think it's good value. And I think with top and it's, you know, Hey, what about Jairus Walker who you drafted, you know, in the lottery a few years ago, you know, could you have used him as the replacement waiting in the wings here? And I'm, I'm fine with that contract either.

I think the two biggest things for me with Indiana is what, as we said, like Miles Turner, right? Because now Indiana, I think the last time they paid the luxury tax was in 05, 06. I think they're $18 million below the tax going into next year, right? That doesn't include a draft pick. What happens with Miles Turner? Are they comfortable going into the tax?

And for me, my biggest wild card X factor. And I wrote about in the, in the, in the training camp is Benedict Matherin. Like he's kind of like the forgotten guy who had that torn labrum was out. I think March when he got hurt with didn't play in the playoffs here, like what happens with him. One of the better six man, you know, reserves, you know, coming off your bench,

What happens if he has a good year? Now he's extension eligible next year here. So I think there's more to it as far as what the future looks like in Indiana. I think the Miles Turner situation is one of the biggest things to monitor in the NBA because this is a good team.

that clearly made a statement of we're hitting the gas with the Pascal Siakam trade. And they made the conference finals. You can scoff at it if you want. They got injury luck in both rounds. It's fine. It's a good team. Like they're a good team. They're proof of concept. This is a good, they might lose in the first round. They might not. They're a good team. They don't have a backup big that I think is ready to assume that mantle as like, this is the starting center of the Indiana Pacers. And Isaiah Jackson maybe can get there. You know, maybe he has a huge leap this year. I don't know. I'm a little skeptical of that. Um,

Maybe that puts Miles Turner in the catbird seat. Maybe that puts him in a position where it's like, hey, I'm in unrestricted agency, but my incumbent team can't afford to lose me. I think that's an interesting situation.

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All right, let's go through some of the rookie guys going into their fourth year or otherwise who are eligible for extensions and hit some of the spicier ones you can pick. Start where you want to start. You know, it's interesting for me. We talked about a little bit is Cam Thomas in Brooklyn.

I think Cam Thomas is just based on this Nets team and with a rookie head coach, and they're kind of like they're going to be. I think I know what you're going to say, and I can't wait. I can't wait. Just say it. I think they might be the worst. I think he might lead the league in scoring. Yes! I think he's going to lead at least in shot attempts. So here's what Brooklyn –

What do you do? Do you do something that makes sense now? What does make sense mean? Does it in the low 20s? Is that a too rich for a guy that could average 28, 30 points a game, but

But he's got he's a restricted free agent next year. He's got such a low cap hold. You've got all this room and stuff like that. I think he switched agents. I think he's on his third agent. It's a lot of agents is a lot of agents. And his previous agent did really great work for him. I think that's fascinating for me, just based on the spectrum. Right. Just based on what this year potentially could be in Brooklyn here.

If I'm the Nets, this is a big nothing burger to me. I got to see like I want I think Cam Thomas is actually kind of a little bit underrated by insiders in cognoscente because they just think he's a selfish gunner, which he generally has been. I think he could really make shots and he passed it a little better last year. Defensively, there's a long way to go. But there's no reason for me as Brooklyn to like with nobody having cap room other than me. There's just no reason for me to do anything with any of these guys. OK, pick another one.

How about, I mean, can I pick two and just pick one team? The two guys in Houston are pretty interesting to me. Jalen Green and Albert Shen Goon. Yeah. Like, you know, it's, it's funny. We get into this. Usually how rookie extensions work is you're either a max guy. And here's the other thing too, a rookie extensions, man. Like,

What a world where you could play two out of the four good years, show that you potentially could become a franchise guy, and then get a max contract. And I think you look at Cade Cunningham and Lamel Ball. I was going to say, this is like unnamed shaded Cade Cunningham. Yeah, no. I mean, great for Cade Cunningham and everything like that. He gets a max contract. But we get in this period where you either come off the board in the first week of July on a max extension, or we wait until...

the last week of, you know, right before the season starts. I think there was 10 players that signed on like October, like the last day of the regular off season last year. So,

Jalen Green, who had a terrific march and enclosed to the season, certainly when Sangoon went down, that changed a little bit as far as how their offense ran. And then Sangoon, as far as, you know, could have been probably most improved candidate as far as based off what he did. Two guys that are kind of still sitting in the bullpen waiting for for a deal to get done.

One of the things that would be fun about being an agent or working for an agency would be starting with my argument and then using numbers and straining the numbers to back up my argument. So if I were Alper and Shen Gun's agent, I could make a total, and you can make a case that when you actually make it, it seems completely logical and totally fine. Even if you're straining the numbers and cherry picking a little bit, I would go to Houston and say, hey, look,

Prove to me, prove to me that Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Scotty Barnes, Franz Wagner, Alper and Shingun's outperformed all those dudes. And here's my dossier of numbers and my PowerPoint presentation trying to convince you that this is true. And it wouldn't be like a crazy outlandish PowerPoint without, I don't personally agree with it given that he's played like zero important NBA games, you know, some fake play an important game. Well, he missed most of the fake play in important games last year. Um,

But you could make it's an argument that you could make like he was an all star talks last year. He was kind of one of the last all star cuts for the Western Conference. If I had to make a prediction and please tell me if you disagree, I would say if I had to say which of these two is more likely to get an extent, I'll ask you which if you had to just predict which of these two is more likely to get an extension.

If either of them does before the season, who would you pick? Sang-goon. Me too. Me too. I just feel like I know what he is. And Jalen Green has been so up and down with wildly amazing ups and wildly frustrating downs, which you would expect for a guy who I think is 22 years old playing a

alpha ish role on what has been mostly a bad team. And last year was an okay team. And I've got so many up and coming young players. None of them are like Shen gundo. So I think maybe neither of them will get it right.

Yeah, I mean, I think if you're if you if you're green, like you're probably looking at, you know, the stretch and, you know, they had that 11 game winning streak in March when you're you're scoring 30 points and you shot 50 percent from the field and 45 percent on three. I mean, those are max numbers. But I think if you're the Rockets, you're probably looking at the first half of the year where you were like thinking like, yeah.

Maybe it's for him to come off the bench. Maybe he's a trade candidate here. So I think there's probably a little bit more stability with Sangoon as far as with the number compared to where Green could be, unless, of course, you're getting it on a pretty good value. If I'm Jalen Green's agent, I'm hoping that you have – you, Rafael Stone, in this theoretical negotiations –

have forgotten what the team's schedule was during that 11-game winning streak. And if I'm Alper and Shingun's agent,

I'm hoping that you remember that the winning streak started with me in the lineup there, there became this narrative like, Oh, look at how the rockets took off without Shen Goon. And with Amin Thompson, who was outstanding inserted into the starting lineup is, is kind of a center on offense, rolling, cutting, not really playing the kind of position that people thought he could play, but playing this other one very well. And how do, how I'm in Thompson and Alperen Shen Goon fit together is a huge part of the Houston rocket story this year. Um,

But the streak started with Shen Goon playing well. Then he got hurt. Then they beat a bunch of bad teams. Credit to them. They beat the bad teams, which you're supposed to do. Then the schedule got tough again, and they lost every game and fell out of the play-in race. I don't know.

I don't know what's going to happen there, but I just know I'm so beyond. I mean, Jalen Green was my most intriguing player going into last season because of how many interesting young players the Rockets have. And Tari Eason missed most of the season. He's coming back. Reed Shepard's in the picture now. There's just a lot of moving parts here for a team that justifiably, I think their coaching staff and front office would, but especially the coaching staff would like to take another leap into the playoffs this year.

Yeah. I mean, listen, I think they put themselves in position last year. I think if, if they don't make, I mean, I would think if they don't make the least, if you don't make the plan, I think it would be considered disappointment this year. I would agree, but there's going to be some Western conference teams who don't, it's just math. It's just like, you know, 13 teams are trying to do something this year and only 10 of them are going to be playing and above. All right. I'm going to take the next one. Yeah.

The Warriors have two guys up for extensions in Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody. And to me, Kaminga has the potential to be the spiciest one just because –

Last year, there was Kaminga drama and like, are he and Steve Kerr going to be okay? Is Kaminga going to come off the bench? What's his role going to be? Then he starts and he comes off the bench again. Now it's like they have to figure out what their starting five is going to be. Is he going to be in it? I've talked about this at length about can you put Kaminga, Draymond, Wiggins in the center on the floor? If not, who comes off the bench, etc.? I think this one...

So Moody, look, Moody's either going to get done at some level around maybe a little north of the mid-level. I don't know what you get. I don't even know what you get. Moody, and I'll let you go on. Moody for me is really interesting. I text you as far as kind of like under the radar, just based on like when he plays, like good things happen. I think, I think they're like 28, 18 when he played more than 15 minutes last year. I think he shot 40% from three on the games he started last

So when he plays, like, but it's a matter of just kind of creating opportunity for him. And now you've got, you've got Melton, you've got healed, you know, certainly Kyle Anderson to your front court here. Like where's the, where's the opportunity going to come for him? I like Moses Moody. If I were another team, I'd be trying to steal Moses Moody on the cheap, taking advantage of that crowding that you mentioned. Kaminga, Kaminga is the interesting one because he, he was, you know,

the kind of the blue chip pick that hit, right? James Wiseman is the blue chip pick that missed and that totally sort of tilted their franchise upside down for a bit. And still, they're still sort of paying the price for that. Kaminga, which they got from the Minnesota trade for D'Lo, a home run trade, is a really interesting player.

who has not always fit the way the Warriors kind of want to play in the Steph Curry, Steve Kerr style. But I think that's part of his value is that he can kind of burst outside of that system and do stuff athletically that no one else on the team can do. I think defensively, he should develop into a very good fan. I've just been a Kaminga fan. If I were a betting man and I am not,

I would bet on this going into the off season. I don't know that. I just, I don't know. That's just that. That would just be my bet. I'm the warriors. I'm saying, why am I going to pay you close to the max when no one has cap room? And this is what restricted free agency is for. And if I'm coming as agents, I'm going to say, well, look, here are the numbers.

You know, he's a very important part of your future. He's the bridge, one of the bridges to the next era, along with Pajemski, who's years away from this discussion of extensions. Pay me X. And why it's interesting to me is because of how much, you know, simmering drama there was. Not so it got out into the public. There was articles about Kaminga and his role in his unhappiness with Steve Kerr. If there is no deal, how does this go?

Well, I mean, listen, I think it's, for me, it's interesting that what did, and I know the two different players and it was,

two different times. I think what did Golden State learn from the Jordan Poole, a rookie extension here, where they basically gave him a pretty nice contract, right? As far as where... It could be determined it's probably one of the least favorable deals out there right now. It's not great. A little better last year towards the end with the Wizards here. I think what you learned from that, I think with Kaminga, I think...

I think there is a chance that what you would offer now for Kamingo. So let's say if it's 30 in the thirties that he could probably outplay that based off him off this year. I think there's, and I think if you're going to state that's worth the risk.

Like, OK, like, fine, we'll pay you earned it. We'll pay you five plus million more than what we were per year than what we were willing to do in October. And I think that's I think that's the risk that you're willing to take, because as we said along, restricted free agency protects the team for, you know, for something like that.

I and I make I'm saying if I had to bet this, if I had to predict this, just know that some of these predictions are going to be wrong. And funny things happen in the 48 hours before the extension deadline. Like there are some deals you don't expect to happen. And then just someone moves a little bit and there's a rush to get things done. Like that's what makes those 48 hours very interesting. I think what happened is, you know, when you work with a deadline, you react differently here. And I think when when somebody puts.

$130 million in front of you of guaranteed money over four or whatever, five years, four years. Like that's hard to turn down. Like it really is. I think that's why we saw, we saw 14 players sign extensions last year. And there were certainly like Aaron East Smith, like, you know, we could say, oh, that's a great value deal right now. But when you're putting $40 million in front of a guy or Cole Anthony or some of these other players here, those are Josh Green is another one. It's hard. I'll never forget going to a Knicks preseason game last year.

And just talking to people on the baseline is during warmups, the day Devin Vassell signed his extension or the news broke. And I was astonished that a couple of the people I was talking with were like, you know, he probably could have got more if he played the season. And I'm like, dude, this, what you just signed for whatever it was, 135, 140 million. He missed half of last season. He's never played on a good team. Like I, I get what you're saying, but that's just, if I'm Devin Vassell, I'm like, where do I sign 135 million bucks? Yeah.

I get to play with Victor now?

Yeah, I mean, that's, listen, that's good. It goes back to the thing as far as what the market plays a big role. And usually sometimes teams are a little bit more aggressive as far as trying to get lock up these guys before they hit restricted free agency. All right, I'm going to give you two that one I'm semi, one I'm very surprised hasn't happened yet. And the other I'm just semi surprised hasn't happened yet. I have no reporting on any of this. I just logically expect both to happen. Jalen Suggs,

Yeah. Josh Giddey. Suggs is the one where I just thought there's so much goodwill in Orlando. Everyone's so thrilled how the team is developing. He seems pretty clearly to...

I mean, this is just, I don't even know who Jalen Suggs' agent is off the top of my head, but it seems like if I were Jalen Suggs' agent, I couldn't with a straight face going and be like, well, my guy's a max player. And yet he also seems like a very clearly very valuable player overall into the Orlando Magic, a guy that I could just see settling in for some like 28 to 32 million per year, like a number that you just mentioned and would be agreeable to everyone, a good culture guy, et cetera. So I'm a little surprised. Maybe it's just a deadline thing. That one surprises me a bit.

Yeah. I mean, listen, I think if, you know, different, you know, different positions and certainly the size isn't there, but certainly what Jaden McDaniels got last year in, in Minnesota, I think it was like five for like one 31 ish, one 30 somewhere. So I thought that could be a fair number. You know, Orlando is known for their creative contracts as far as start high descend, as far as how, how it goes. You've got,

Paul Boncaro, who's going to get a max contract next year. Certainly, he signed Franz Wagner. Their books are in really good shape. So I think I would be surprised if that doesn't get done by the 21st. I think the number, as you mentioned, I thought maybe in that $27, $28 million range is probably fair for him. Giddy.

I thought, hey, listen, I thought I thought Chicago is going to after the Olympics. I thought they were just going to give him a blank check right off there. I thought that's when we were going to see that get done.

It is, you know, look, he's going to put up numbers this year. There's no question about that. He put up numbers in Oklahoma city. He's going to put up numbers this season. He's just, he's, he's an interesting player because yeah, he gets to be the engine of an offense now, right? Like he gets to be the number one creator. The ball is going to be in his hands. They're going to have like a decent amount of shooting around him. If they start Levine and Kobe white and Pat Williams and Vucevic, like that's, there's going to be decent spacing around Josh Giddy. That's where he thrives.

You just like, if you're the engine of an off, this is the question I always come back to with some of these guys. If you're the end, if, if the only thing you can do well, and I don't mean to minimize this, but is be the number one ball handler on an offense, right?

And we don't really have any evidence that Josh Giddey can do anything else well other than rebound. He's not a good defensive player and he could not fit an off ball role, which is why he's not on the Oklahoma City Thunder anymore. If that's what you can do, great. It's the hardest thing to do in the NBA to be the engine of a competent offense.

And if you're like, I'm just making this up as like a Josh Giddey projection. If you're like the 11th best guy at that in the NBA, where does that leave me as a team? If you're unable to transition into a secondary role, when we get a guy who's better than the 11th best guy, which is ultimately what we're going to need to be a great team. Now it's, but it's too early to pigeonhole. Josh Giddey is someone who can't, can't, can't do anything. The three point shooting track record is destructible.

The defensive track record, given his size, is a little discouraging, but he's very, very young. And I think he's going to put up monster numbers this year. And if he wants to bet on himself for a team that just traded a really valuable thing for me and say, hey, I've kind of got you in jail the way that OGN and OB had the Knicks in jail and the way, you know, et cetera. Like maybe maybe I do that.

Yeah. I mean, I think if, if there is a deal that gets done by the start of the season, I think that the initial reaction will be that Chicago repaid. I think that's, I think that could be the initial reaction here. And I think the, from one end it'd be like, well, why, you know, Hey, if we're going to run the offense through giddy, this is his first year. Why don't we see how it goes? Right. Let's like kind of use this year as a kind of a barometer as far as what his contract for next year is.

as far as an, in the new deal. But on the other end, if you're, if you're, if you're Chicago, you're saying, Hey, he had a really good Olympics. You know, there was some really good periods there. Um, we traded, uh, Alex Caruso for him. You know, there were certainly criticism there. He's our guy going forward. Even if we have to overpay now, what does overpay me? Like that's, that's the biggest thing. Are you paying $25 million, you know, somewhere like, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't know what that number is quite yet right now, but, um,

I do think when, if there is a deal that's going to be done, I think, as I said, like the reaction might be like, well, that's like, who are you bidding against? Like, you know, it's almost like Patrick Williams, right? Like Patrick Williams signs for five for 90, 18 and a half. And it's like, well, who have we been against here? But not only that, you know, you hard, then you hard cap yourselves with Jalen Smith and you put the tax in play and you can't get back the good stuff for DeMar DeRozan because the Spurs come in and steal it. Yep.

So, yeah, that's going to be interesting. He's probably he's the more intriguing one out of any of these guys, just based on like there's so many different ways that you can you can kind of look at it because you don't trade for him unless you're going to make your your offense is going to run through him. If you see said twenty five million, if you set the over under at twenty five and a half million average annual value.

And tell me that Josh Giddey is going to agree to an extension before the season. I'm going over that. I don't think, I don't think, and if I were his agent, I would tell him not to agree to that. I agree. Listen, average start. I mean, average starting point guard salary is like 28, 29 million. Like that's the reality of it here.

Then again, this is a gigantic amount of money either way. Other names that we won't get to now, Santi Aldama, Corey Kisper, Jalen Johnson, we got to. And I think Terrence Mann is a sneaky veteran extension guy for the Clippers. I want to get two other kind of headliners that I don't think a lot of people understand that they're eligible for an extension because they're not sort of

in this universe talked about. Joel Embiid is eligible for an extension in Philadelphia. Take us through what he's eligible for and what you've heard. Yeah, so he's eligible for three and 190, or he could opt into his contract and sign two for 132. By doing that, he would actually earn an extra $2 million to you. I would be stunned if by the start of,

training camp or you know or even before to start a season that there's no he can only he's eligible up until the 21st um i would expect a deal to get done um with mb in the in the near future here i would and i think it will certainly be at max at you know at max money

Kevin Durant is also eligible for an extension, which seems like it came fast. But what's the numbers there and what do we know? It's interesting with Durant who's got two years left on his deal. He can extend for another year because of the over 38 rule. There's two ways to look at it. Does he play it out, not extend, and then now next year he's eligible to sign for two years, right? So he can get another year, more money there.

However, and you know what the however part is, what happens if the wheels fall off this year there? And now you have Kevin Durant going into the last year of your contract. Is he a happy Kevin Durant here? So I think that's intriguing for me just because he can get another bite of the apple if he waits another year. But I think certainly if you're extending for $62, $63 million, somewhere around there,

I think, I think if you're Phoenix, you're basically, it's on the, it's, it would be on the table for you, right? Here it is. It's just a matter of kind of what he, what he wants to do. That's certainly a situation to monitor. I, I, I liked what they did in the off season. I think there'll be better this year than they were last year. Um, I think Bud's a very good coach. I think Frank Vogel is a very good coach. He just didn't fit there last year. Um,

Health is obviously going to be the question for them. The big three was not healthy for most of what for enough of last season and wasn't good enough, frankly, when they were on the court together, particularly when you fold their regular season numbers and their playoff numbers together, they got demolished by the wolves in the playoffs. It's very underwhelming Booker Beal Durant together, but I think the point guards that they signed ties Jones, Monte Morris will help another year of Royce O'Neal will help. They did some other nice fringe moves that Mason Plumlee, I think is a nice backup and,

I just do they have the ceiling that they need to have given what they invested in Kevin Durant? There's a universe in which they do in which some of these Western Conference teams that are a little bit flawed or have some questions to answer some new pieces to integrate backslide or regress or whatever. But it's a it's a tough road to hoe for Phoenix. All right, Bobby Marks. It's nice to be back.

Yeah, I mean, we're getting there. We'll be ready to rock and roll in a couple weeks here. But as I said, this is kind of the exciting kind of little bit. Teams are still in that honeymoon period, and still you start playing practice, and nobody on paper looks good anymore. It's like teams get to actually see what they did over the summer and what works and what doesn't work. I think it's going to be a really fun season when you look at the depth of the West and the top of the East and the middle of the East.

you know and we we all focus on the top three or four that cleveland indiana orlando group is really really fun and miami's like hey wait what what what what what about us miami caught a lot of heat because they didn't do much in the offseason but at the end of the day the availability will determine where this team goes right the ability of terry rogier and tyler hero and jimmy butler certainly another guy jimmy butler extension guy that kind of

We'll see what his reaction will be when we get to, you know, the first day of media day and training camp and everything like that. That's one that can happen anytime during the season, right? It can. Yes. Embiid and Durant have to happen between the first of the 21st of October. Butler can happen during the year because he's got a player option.

All right, Bobby Marks. What do we got coming out? You got training camp guys working on what else? We got a training camp. You got a draft article coming out today. We got an article this week. I think Wednesday comes out gate, the gatekeepers of draft picks. We've got five teams that can basically control the next seven years with Brooklyn and Houston and,

San Antone, Utah, OKC. Four of those teams got 13 out of 30 picks in the first round here just based on it's kind of like a little bit of the perfect storm based on prior trades have kind of resulted in those teams controlling all these picks. I'll be interested to read that sort of what happens because you do run into this Oklahoma City's already run into it. It's like we literally just can't make all

of these players. Here's the big thing. And, you know, Brooklyn certainly has the most picks based on that Knicks trade. But at the end of the day, the team that probably has the most value quality is probably San Antonio. What San Antonio has been able to do with certainly those two Atlanta first pick swap from the Hawks. And then they got the back end

whether it be pick swaps with Dallas, SAC. Minnesota. Minnesota. They got an unprotected first from the Dillingham trade. They got a Chicago protected first. They got a nice kitty of draft picks there.

Well, and look, it's, there's no sense repeating it. And we're going to be asked versions of like, what's the most exciting storyline? What's the most intriguing player? Who's the most intriguing? Like the answer to all of those questions is Victor Wemba Nyama. We don't even have to say it very often. We're not going to say it enough.

I don't know. I just don't, I, I am a Gog at everything that dude does. I was so impressed with how he played in the Olympics. He's the biggest story in basketball. If not for the championship picture this year, just in terms of what the league is going to look like for the next 10 years, it's, it starts with him and everything else falls below that. All right, Bobby marks, get back to work. Thank you for your time. I hope to see you soon, bud. Thanks. I appreciate it.

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