Miami Heat stole the Nigerian Freak

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Support him at SoundCloud.com slash May 1st Music. Giannis and his man Bobby Portis to Miami for a whole bunch of dudes. And while the instant analysis paralysis is, oh, the Heat are contenders in the East. The Heat with this move are now instantaneously, With the two-time MVP, with the one-time NBA champion and finals MVP, they are now poised in position to battle Knicks Tate. That's what they want you to believe this morning. What they're ignoring is that this roster was gutted. This Miami Heat roster, which wasn't that great to begin with.

So this is one of those deals like Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks where there's going to be people that are going to tell you the Heat gave up a lot. You're looking at they gave up, what, the 13th pick in tonight's draft? They gave up four players, including two starters. And they have two more first round pick swaps that don't come until 2030. 2030 and 2033, as you see down here on the ticker. And those are pick swaps, right? So whoever has the lesser or the higher of the pick, the Heat get the swap.

Is that enough for someone who we would all assume Giannis is in the maybe the back half of his prime? Is that enough for someone the caliber of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Nigerian freak? You let me know. Did the Heat give up too much to get Giannis? I'm of the belief that not only do I think they got a steal, I think the picks are inconsequential. So the three first round picks, you give up a lottery pick tonight, but it's at the bottom of the lottery. It's not like they're giving up a top 10 pick, a top five pick, a top three pick.

You give up the number 12 pick. That's the bottom of the lottery. Now, sure, you can unearth some gems there. There's been plenty in the lower half of the lottery that have gone on to flourish. But the odds are you're getting a pretty good player at 12, not a superstar. Hell, Giannis himself was drafted around the same position. So maybe it can happen again, right?

But the odds are that you're going to get a good player, not a foundational superstar, elite, immortal player at the 12 spot. So that pick will likely be used for a solid player. So you got one solid player for Giannis. Those pick swaps in 2030 and 2033, depending on how things shake out, depending, assuming Giannis signs a long term deal and re-ups with the heat. If Giannis is still on the heat in six, seven years, you would assume the heat would still be good. So if you're Milwaukee, that pick swap, you're probably retaining your own pick. So now you got two of those.

30 2030 and 2033. So that to me doesn't ring like a lot. Then you have the pieces that were traded. Jami Haquez, who I'll come on the screen here and I'll show you. Manz was out here hooping, getting a running when he found out he was traded. OK, let's go to the screen. Jami Haquez.

Jamey Hakez was out here getting a running, hooping, and then he found out that he's traded. Okay. So, Manz is out here hooping, and then Manz got to pull him up and tell him, yo, bro, you've been traded. Fresh off of a run. Jamey Hakez is a good player. There's a lot of people that think he could be more than what he is or what he was in Miami since it's now past tense. but I'm not sold on Jaime Haikas being that crazy of a give up.

But when you look at the actual details and the players who were involved in this deal, Tali Hero is a, what was it, all-star this past year? Or certainly was deserving of so if he wasn't one. But Tali Hero is a good player. He goes home to Milwaukee, gets a play in front of the hometown fans and all that type of stuff. But Tali Hero, his glass ceiling is he is a number three option on a champion. Maybe number two, depending on how good your number one is. And we saw how that worked out for Miami where they got to the finals a couple times with Jimmy Butler as their number one.

And Tali Hero had that one game where he gave for he made the scowl, made the face, but he was never the same in terms of that same guy during that same finals after that moment. Tyler Hero is supposed to be the jewel of this trade, even though there's a lot of people that's big on Kasperis. And Kasperis is a guy that, depending on who you think, it's got some Luka in them. There's a lot of, I think there's a lot of overreaching in terms of comparisons for Kasperis, but we shall see. He'll certainly have enough opportunity in Milwaukee to show whether he could go in or not. Khalil Ware to me is an interesting piece. Like he fit the heat culture mold.

He had some growing pains, especially last year. But you saw the glimpses of the potential. So I'm giving up a starter, a surefire starter, a surefire 20 point plus score in Tali Hero. I'm giving up a young big in Khalil Ware. I'm giving up a young wing who has potential to what degree I'm not too sure of. Maybe a rotational piece, maybe a fringe starter in Jaime Jaquez. And then Kasper is who, you know, analytics guys love and who foreign scouts love.

But I haven't seen enough for me to sit here and tell you Kasper is going to be a killer. And getting the three first round picks. I mean, when you're talking about swaps and you're talking about a lottery pick tonight, but it's at the bottom of the lottery. I think this is a relatively low hole for someone to level up a Giannis Antetokounmpo. I think the Heat actually got a steal in what they were able to give up to get in comparison to a Jalen Brown and a couple of picks. If they would have took the deal with the Celtics. And it was a lot of conversations in regards to that.

And allegedly Giannis, according to Chris Haynes, who was not he didn't get a lot right in this lead up in this process, but we'll cut him some slack. There's a lot of misinformation in the media these days, but he's saying that the three teams Giannis was open to signing an extension with our Miami, Boston and Minnesota. So the rumors of Ant-Man and the Nigerian Freak teaming up were factual, according to Chris Haynes. But the Boston piece is interesting because if you trade Jalen Brown, who's too busy building up his Twitch audience, instead of working on that left hand. If you trade Jalen Brown and you get Giannis, it's a one for one and you get some first round picks. So the notion is that Milwaukee and now if you if you know, you know, but I'll come off screen briefly here. So the owner of the box, Jimmy Haslam, same guy who owns the Cleveland Browns.

It was it's been leaked that he was so anti what he had to go through with Miles Garrett. And in this Yannis deal where it's been this has been a year long thing. Like Giannis was supposed to be traded last offseason and it didn't happen. That's when we got news of he wants to be a Knick, all that type of stuff. Right. So Giannis has wanted out for almost a year and a half. So Jimmy Haslam has been dealing with the Giannis stuff, dealing with the Miles Garrett stuff for a year and a half.

So simultaneously, he had negotiations with Giannis Antetokounmpo, who wanted out, and Miles Garrett, who wanted out and had a trade demand, a very public trade demand. So he had both of that on his plate over a year ago, and he doesn't want to deal with that again, potentially with Jalen Brown. So allegedly the reason why the Boston deal didn't work is because Jimmy Haslam, the owner, doesn't want to go through the same thing he has just gone through with Giannis and with Miles Garrett, with now Jalen Brown in Milwaukee. And I'm not trying to sit here and say that Milwaukee is worse than Boston, but after enduring what he has endured. In Boston, I don't know how much of a difference is going to make if he's living and playing in Milwaukee, if you're someone the likes of Jalen Brown. So maybe Jimmy Haslam knows his team, knows his audience, knows his fan base to know, hey, we can't have Jalen Brown here in Milwaukee, man. He's not going to want to stay here.

We took a Nigerian via Greece and put him here and gave him everything in the world and nurtured him and his entire family. And he still wanted out. We're going to take Jalen Brown, who moves the way he moves, who reads the books that he reads, who streams about the things that he streams about and put him in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It didn't expect him to stay. Can't do it. Can't do it. So allegedly, Jimmy Haslam has put his foot down and said, no, I'm not going to keep dealing with this with these athletes.

Give me some young pieces that I can control. And that's why the heat were able to slide in. And we'll go back to the screen. That's why the heat were able to slide in and get this deal done. And let me take off the ticker. Give me a sec. We'll take off the ticker.

Yeah, I know what the deal is. So this is where owners can make a play. This is where owners come into play. This is where owners can make their voices heard and acknowledged. I mean, because they sign off on all these things. That's why when the Luka deal went down with Dallas, there was a lot of notion that it was all on Harrison, Nico Harrison. It's all Nico Harrison.

You don't make a trade to that degree, to that caliber with those pieces involved without ownership signing off on it. so Nico was a scapegoat and he wore it and then he ran they ran him up out of there and his career might be over his career and his reputation might be over because of it but no trade like that could have been agreed to if the owners don't sign off on it so here's another example where we have an owner who decided I'm not going to keep putting up with these athletes who keep wanting contract demands and want to get out of here. If they don't want to be here, get rid of them. Give me some pieces I can control and keep my salary and my bottom line in focus. And that's why the heat with all these players. This looks like a gigantic haul. If you just look at it from the scope, this is upwards.

This is nine players that the Bucks are receiving. In theory, these are nine players for actual players. Then they get one more tonight with that 12th pick as a lottery pick. That's five players. And then you're talking about a pick swap and a second rounder. That's a lot of pieces for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Nigerian freak. And then, oh, by the way, to go give away Bobby Portis as well.

That is a lot. But when you start to look at it, what are the Heat actually giving up that will be a miss next season? Will they miss Talahiro? I won't miss Talahiro if I got Giannis. Am I going to miss Khalil Ware? I have Giannis. Am I going to miss Hami Hakez?

Did you not hear me? I have the Nigerian freak Giannis Antetokounmpo. If Kasperis goes and becomes a Hall of Fame guard, then we can revisit the conversation. But in terms of what the Heat gave up, I don't feel as though they gave up a hell of a whole lot here. Y'all let me know, did the Heat give up a lot? Because I don't see it. I don't see this haul that they gave up.

Just like in the Kamala Anthony deal where people were going crazy because the Knicks had to give up a Mozgov. You got Melo. Yeah, but we got no depth. You got Melo. Same thing here. The Heat are going to be strapped for roster spots. But you got Giannis.

And that's all that matters. we go into the cap stuff and the cap stuff has already been examined already. So the heat are now hard capped to the first apron by using the 125% expanded trade exemption for Giannis Antetokounmpo. They have 18.1 million in the first apron space to fill four roster spots. They can create more space by trading Nikolajovic or if Andrew Wiggins opts out. Okay, so if we take a look at this even bigger. Yep, we can do that.

All right, so 18.1 million for four roster spots. And that's why, to me, I would be extremely surprised if this deal was done wholeheartedly when this gets officially announced come the new league year, which is what, July, the first week of July or right after 4th of July, July 6th or something like that. I would be hard-pressed to believe that there's not a third or fourth team in the mix here. Because the Heat are going to need bodies. Because if they think they could just sit pat with 18.1 million and get four dudes to pull up to play with Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo in a Wiggins, they bugging. The job is nowhere near done if you're the Miami Heat. The job is nowhere near done if you're Pat Rowley in that brain trust.

You finally landed a guy after being told no multiple times by the beard, by KD, by any relevant superstar who always uses Miami as leverage in trade talks. Because who doesn't want to go play and live in South Beach? You finally land the guy, but you had to give up a whole lot upwards of nine players to go get them. Now what you need to do is fill out the space that's been left by those nine guys that you're jettisoning. Yes, somewhere in the future, but at least four right now. Right, because you had to give up four guys that were currently on your roster. Those guys are gone now.

You bring in Portis, you bring in Giannis. We have guys on expiring deals that you know you're going to let go. You have four roster spots to fill, but you only have 18 mil. Now, that changes if the Heat owner, who has not been historically about that action when it comes to this, but we can say maybe he's getting older up in age. Maybe he sees his days dwindling and he wants to see one more chip before he checks out of here. Maybe he's willing to pay the bread to get into the second apron. I highly, I highly doubt that.

but it's a possibility. I mean James Dolan has already said he not going into no second apron or running back with the Knicks and that's why I think Mitch Robb is probably MAGA Mitch Robb is on his way out but when it comes to trying to navigate the space of how do you fill out this roster when you only have 18.1 mil do you convince A. Wiggins and then you try to bring him back for the low? Or do you back half his contract? Or if you can't front load it, you back half his contract to allow him to be able to come back, but create some roster flexibility by coming back for the low on the front half of the deal and will back load the contract? Do you trade Nikola Jovic, who I don't think he's that highly thought of around the league. He's a piece, but he's not something that's highly coveted to that degree.

there is a lot left for the heat to do. But I think this first step is obviously giving up what you need to give up to go get Giannis Antetokounmpo. This is not a lot, bro. This is severely not a lot that you had to give up. Because if I go, and I'll come off screen, If I go and try to pull up the Mellow trade details. Like that deal was not a lot, man. In hindsight, that deal was not a lot.

All right. Yeah, let's go back to the screen. Okay. So here's the Mellow trade in totality. the Knicks got Mello, Chauncey Billups Sheldon Williams, Anthony Carter, Ronaldo Bauchman, we know the bulk of that trade is really just about Mello and Chauncey, okay, then he had the amnesty Chauncey, it was a whole thing but on paper it was really about Mello and Chauncey, the Nuggets got Wilson Chandler, that was not He didn't end up to be anything. Danilo Gallinari, average player at best. Mozgov was trash.

Raymond Felton was already done at that point. The picks that they received turned out to be Quincy Miller, which was a second-round pick. Romero Osby, which was another second-round pick. One of the first-round picks ended up being a lottery pick, and it was Dario Saric. Now they got the pick swap in 2016 and that pick swap ended up being the seventh pick and it got Jamal Murray. And they got three million in cash. So you tell me all this stuff that the Knicks gave up, the narrative has always and continuously been the Knicks had to give up so much for Carmelo Anthony.

This is what they actually gave up. A bunch of rotational pieces and some picks that didn't amount to anything until you get to a pick swap five years later to end up being Jamal Murray. So I can sit here and say the Nuggets gave up Camillo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and all they got for it in return was Jamal Murray. Now you tell me, did the Knicks give up so much? They gave up the opportunity to take Jamal Murray for Carmelo. Is that a trade you would do back in 2011? Mind you, so Melo still at his peak.

And you're giving up Wilson Chandler, Gallinari, Mozgov, Felton. And oh, by the way, five years from now, there's a kid out of Kentucky, Jamal Murray. stop okay like stop what the heat gave up is not a lot when the end result is you're getting a hall of fame talent still at their apex maybe the back half of it but still in it currently and it's going to play with a renewed effort because he's somewhere where he actually wants to be yes you make this deal you make this deal every single time this is not a difficult thing to navigate the Bucks got a lot got a lot of pieces back but if these picks don't hit then they lose this trade the Nuggets gave up all of that they gave up Mello they gave up Chauncey Billups and what they got out of it was Jamal Murray. In hindsight, as much as, yes, Melo wanted out and they tried to make the best of it and you can make all the narrative spins you want. But from a business and a basketball perspective, did the Nuggets get enough for Carmelo Anthony? The answer is no. But Knicks fans would tell you till the cows come home that they gave up too much to get Melo.

They should have waited until the offseason, and then Melo would have signed there as a free agent, and then he would have had to play with Mozgov and Galanari, as if those are some special pieces. Because clearly they went elsewhere and killed it in the league, right? Clearly, Wilson and Chandler went on to have a great career, right? The Heat stole off and got the Nigerian freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo. there's gonna come a time where this trade becomes official and there's going to be conversations about what next what next for the Miami Heat who do you bring in to fill this roster who do you bring in and I think when you're looking at tonight's draft I'm not going to sit here and try to pretend to you that I know all these kids about to come into the league. But I think there's going to be some conversation ahead about, okay, with the 12th pick, who do you take? Well, with the 12th pick, let's look at what we have here.

With the 12th pick, excuse me, the 13th pick, they're going to take a point guard. Now, this is just a mock draft, whatever, but in terms of players available, With the 13th pick, I don't see anything too crazy here that's game changing. I don't see no playmakers here that can go on to have a Hall of Fame type career. Now, somebody may slide tonight and we'll have to investigate that. But in regards to dudes that are projected around this range. Like you see it here clear, tier one, you have the top four guys, the big four. Then you have your two guys, including Darius, who is an enigma amongst himself.

And then you literally have a section called The Rest. Okay, so even the people who study this, who are locked in, tapped in, they're telling you it's a seven-person draft. So the Heat give up the 13th pick in a seven-person draft, allegedly, to help seal the deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now, these Michigan players may all be there. A lot of people are high on the Michigan guys coming out. But with this mock draft, all but one of those Michigan guys are gone by the time the Bucs are on the clock at 13. So again, I'm giving up.

I'm giving up Giannis and I'm giving up Bobby Portis. And then I have, I'm getting back, Hami Haquez, Tyler Hero. So both those guys will probably be starters next year, right? Haquez, Hero, those are starters. Khalil Ware is probably a starter. Although they got to figure out what's going on with Miles Turner. They might have to flip him and all that type of stuff, right?

Then you're looking at in regards to what's left. Depending on how you feel about Kasperis, depending on how you feel about whoever they take at 13 tonight, there is a lot of things at play to just sit here and just assume because they have so many pieces that the Bucks won this trade. This to me is an owner driven trade that is tired of dealing with superstars. Jimmy Haslam dealt with this with Miles Garrett and he dealt with this with Giannis over the past year and change. He did not want Jalen Brown. He did not want to have to deal with all the things that come with Jalen Brown. And he didn't want to have to be in the same position two, three years from now with Jalen Brown.

So give me a whole bunch of pieces that I can control. I see scrub zero in the chat. It's been a minute. What's good, my guy? Scrub Zero in the chat. He was big back in the days when we did timeline tea. Damn near every single day.

What's good, brother? Hope you're doing well. Congrats on the chip. But you see, when it comes to what the what the the East is going to look like. Right. So let's let's let's take this to the East. Right.

let's look at the east let's do summary alright eastern conference let's zoom out a taste so y'all can get all the squads in there alright so right there let's take a look here you have let's see can I draw on this I think I might be able to draw on this so you have the bucks here let me know if this works you have the Pistons here, right? Did that work? Yeah, that worked. Okay. All right, cool. So we have a little bootleg telly here. Let's see if I can clear that.

All right. I'll use the telly that I know. So you have the Pistons here. Pistons are going to be in flux. Their roster is in flux. It's going to be a lot of changes to that roster. Celtics, they literally were about to trade their best player last year and the finals MVP from not that long ago.

Okay. So they were in the mix of potentially trading Jalen Brown. So clearly they're all in on Tatum being the guy. So the fact that they were so close, so close to trading Jalen Brown, you have to assume you can't now spin the block and just have Tatum or Brown again, right? because you're not getting better. How do you get better if you're, you know, the boy genius, Brad Stevens, in that brain trust? The only way you can get better is by leveraging a chip you're willing to let go of and for another, for what?

They almost got rid of him for KD a few years ago, right? I think three, four years ago, they almost got rid of Jalen Brown for KD. Now they're in a position to almost get rid of Jalen Brown again for this time, the Nigerian freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo. So the fact that they have been open, open about getting rid of Jalen Brown and Jalen Brown is trying to assert himself more and more in the space of I can go somewhere and be the guy. I think this trade expands. If I'm Boston, OK, we didn't get Giannis, but we're trying to get better, too. We need to find a way to finagle this thing.

Jalen Brown allegedly wants to go to Atlanta. Atlanta, that's the crib for him. What can we do to extract something and get something that we can pair with Tatum to compete now in the East? Because the Pistons, to me, unless they make a deal, whether it's Duren, Isaiah Stewart, I'm hearing stuff about, but in regards to, we know who their main guys are. Thompson Twin, Cade Cunningham. You could build around everything else, but the core piece is right now. Thompson, twin and Cade.

So we got that. But what else do you need if you're Detroit? Duncan Robinson, that's he's a rotational player. Jalen Duren, he had that Jared Allen disease. The lights were too bright in the playoffs. Toby, I don't know how much longer Toby's got. Like if you are the Pistons, you can't assume you can run it back the way that they did this past season.

You can't assume you can run it back and be the number one seed in the East. They won 60 games. You can't assume they can just run it back. The Celtics would notate them until the back half of the regular season, 56 wins. But again, how many more years can we assume you can fool us with this Derek White stuff? You could fool us with this Peyton Pritchard stuff. The boy genius isn't dumb.

He's fully aware that he's doing it with smoke and mirrors down to Missoula, down to this whole thing with, you know, Derek White and Pritchard and all these others. He really just has Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. But more importantly for him, Jason Tatum is a more dynamic player. And that's where he's at with it. So if that's the case, because all these dudes are role players, Vucevic at this point, role player. Like, look at this. When you look at this roster for real and examine it, if you're the boy genius, you have to make a move.

You have to. If the goal is to win. And not just win and to get bounced in the playoffs, but win a Larry OB. If the goal is to win a Larry OB, you can't win with this roster as constituted. You broke through and snuck one off. You beat the Dubs. You got it.

You snuck it. If you're trying to spin the block, you can't spin it with this roster. This roster is piss poor. So if you're going to build around Jason Tatum, you need to surround him with help. And I think that's where a lot of things get mistook, right? It's like the Knicks gave you a blueprint. They found their guy, no matter what me, Becky Hammond, and whoever else may think of that guy, they found their guy and they invested in him.

And it got him to buy in and he took a little bit of a lesser deal to allow them to facilitate other moves. And they surrounded him with lottery picks. They surrounded him with high level talent. that allowed him to just focus on doing the one thing that he could do and don't worry about nothing else. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown have to do a lot for the Celtics to be top tier. Jason Tatum, who think he Kobe, Jalen Brown, who thinks he's MLK, those two together have a lot of responsibilities because the most the bulk of these guys don't do a lot else Derek White has been a revelation of sorts but he's still to me a fringe starter Peyton Pritchard is a fringe starter Hauser like look at the names we're talking about and you expect Tatum and Brown to be enough when the Knicks are rolling out here with five, six lottery picks? Like, it's a real, it's an end, it's the real end game scenario where whoever has the most talent wins.

I have long been talking about this for a long time in regards to this whole thing is really about, do you have more talented players? Do you have enough guys to go get this done? The Knicks changed their whole philosophy around. And I'll come up screen for this. The Knicks changed their whole philosophy around where, back in the day, hey, we got Patrick Ewing. That's all we need. We fill in some role players here or there, and that should be enough.

And they learned. And it took them 53 years to get another Larry OB. Then they tried it with Starberry. All right, we got Starberry. We're just going to put a couple of guys around him and that's it. Then they fell, or prior to that, they fell into the whole thing with Allen Houston. Allen Houston was a big ticket item.

They were supposed to help Patrick. Then Patrick got hurt. So then it was just Allen Houston out there with some dudes. But then Sprewell and Kambi. Like you just start bringing in dudes. Basketball is a sport where at five, we have five guys on the court at the time. If you can have as much talented in your five, more talent on your five than the other five, you should win more times than not.

This is across all athletics. But for me, especially in basketball, when you have when your five is more talented than the other five, it takes a lot for the other teams five to beat you. In the 80s and 90s, you could try to get away with, well, we have our one guy. Our one guy is going to be good enough. But it really shouldn't have been that way because when you look at what the teams who ran the decade of the 80s and the 90s, they all had multiple guys. The Lakers literally had Hall of Famers everywhere. Magic, Kareem, James Worthy.

the Celtics Bird and McHale the Pistons Isaiah Joe Dumars the Bulls Jordan and Pippen the one year you could say well this guy did it on his own was the Olajuwon year but again he was going up against a team that only had one guy in the Knicks and Patrick Ewing so Olajuwon's better Patrick Ewing. That's it. The Rockets win in seven. John Starks shoots away a chip for the Knicks. Then they even double down and go get Clyde Drexler right after that because they realize we still need to improve. Then they go get Clyde Drexler the next year and run it back. Then the Bulls come back and win the next three because they have not only Jordan and Pippen, but now they got Rodman, three Hall of Famers.

You need talent. You need a lot of talent. You cannot just assume Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are enough. They snuck through once and got it. That doesn't mean you can rinse and repeat that. And I think the boy genius has realized that. I'll hit the chat.

I see y'all in there. Scrub Zero. doing well I think you hope you're doing good yourself now I'm chilling bro all good over here all good over here we're finally back in a spot where we can start doing these streams again like how we used to do it so always appreciate always appreciative of you pulling up uh pisses need another player who can give their own who could get their own shot on on any given position uh possession yeah that's true Cade needs help it can't just be the Cade show again there's a scenario where it's just Cade Thompson Twins not an offensive player like that yet maybe he could develop into one who knows but he's not there yet so who is the guy when Cade is getting doubled who's he swinging the ball to Toby Thompson Twins it's not good enough my guy G in the house Chatted Up Sports. The Knicks finding a blueprint is a beautiful thing to hear. Well, I mean, look, they had to go hire an agent to do it. I mean, you know, let's not get too crazy. Like they had to go hire LeBron's old agent.

So do we think that it's a coincidence? That the Knicks philosophy changes and all of a sudden now, hey, why don't we just go get all the best players we can get and put them together on the roster? When they go and sign and hire LeBron's old agent, LeBron and Melo, LeBron's old agent and Jalen Brunson, LeBron's old agent and give him the keys. Isn't it a shock that the guy that was with LeBron, with Melo, would decide, yeah, let's just put all the best players together on a roster and see what happens. Let's just keep amassing talent and see what happens. Crazy concept. Outside the box thinking.

There's five players on the court at a given time. What if we have the most talented five available and just do that? The world has stopped spinning on its axis. But yes, you know, what are we to do? What are we to do, right? All right. So and then let's look at the Knicks.

Let's look at the Knicks. The defending champion, New York Knicks. Never thought I would have to ever say that. But here we are. But again, look at these lottery picks. Bridges, towns. Like first round picks.

Like this is how you stack a roster. You want to stack a roster? Give me a bunch of dudes. High level dudes. High quality, high talent dudes. And let me put them out there. My five against your five.

This is what we all did in pickup. We all did this in pickup ball. You didn't go and pick one good player and says, all right, I'm good now. I'm just going to take whoever's left. No, you kept trying to, no, he's nice, he's nice. I want all the nice players. Only in pro sports have we been brainwashed into thinking, well, once you have a guy, that should be it.

On what other plays do we exuberant that same type of philosophy? Once you have one, that's all you need. it doesn't make sense it's silly it's asinine but the Knicks have some things to figure out as well especially since Dolan has said I'm not going into the second apron depending on what happens with Maga Mitch Rob we'll see how that affects things but there could be some trickle down effect Landry Shaman what are you doing Alvarado what are you doing the Knicks There's this notion that the Knicks could run it back. The Knicks have a window where they can sneak off another Larry O.B. And I'm not going to sit here and say that that's incorrect. What I'm going to sit here and tell you is that you can't base that opinion off of what the deal was last night with Giannis going to Miami. I hope you're not basing off of that because I don't think that trade is done.

That trade is not done in finality. There's some moving pieces to that trade. The particulars from the Miami side and the Milwaukee side are done, I think. But in regards to, I think a third team might slide in, the fourth team might slide in, like there's ample things to be moved. Other teams are going to try to get better. No one's just going to sit here and say, all right, we'll let the Knicks run it back. Like these teams are going to fight back.

If you're the Cavaliers, what the hell are you doing? There's talk about LeBron. I would be stunned if LeBron wants to come back to the crib and play with Jared Allen. I would be extremely, I mean, look, he's had to deal with Jackson Hayes, Thomas Bryant. But I would be stunned if he wants to leave the confines, the friendly confines of LA, Calabasas, the whole deal. And go back to the crib to hoop with Jared Allen. I could stay here and hoop with my son.

And just ride off to the sunset as the third option. Behind Luca and Austin Reeves. Assuming Reeves comes back. Or I could go to Cleveland and try to figure this thing out. With Donovan the beard. I could go be the third option behind the beard. and Donovan Mitchell?

If I'm LeBron, I ain't trying to do that. If I'm LeBron, I'm not trying to do that. I'll hit the chat. I see you, Greg. Oh, actually, no, that's scrub. All right, what's up, scrub? Celtics got that shit because they got Drew Holiday to support them in the one that's going, yeah, no, that's real.

That's real. So when we go back and look at that roster, and we have to also look at the Latvian world star, Christos Porzingis. Like again, that roster was stacked. We're looking at Jalen Brown, Al Holford lottery pick, Drew Holiday lottery pick, Christos Porzingis lottery pick. Like you need the talent. You can tell me about team and chemistry and coaching and scheme and all that stuff. The Celtics rolled out here in the rotation was literally lottery players.

Brown, Holiday, Horford, Porzingis, Tatum. All lottery picks. And you tell me about some scheme? You talking about Joe Missoula? Like OKC last year, we know what it was. All them damn picks. Chet, SGA, Jalen Williams, both Jalen Williams.

Like all these first rounders that pulled up and got it done. Like, let's see. We might have to, okay, see. What's the last year? Even while Jokic, Denver might be the last year, but even again, we just saw Jamal Murray was the seventh overall pick. They had Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon was a lottery pick.

Like even the year where a second round pick was the best player on the floor in Jokic, he still had lottery picks around him. Michael Porter Jr., DeAndre Jordan. Aaron Gord like yeah we're looking at guys that yeah dog like you can't tell me about it's hard for for people to to try to sell me on scheme and the way that they play and team and all that stuff I'm like yo dogs are these dudes nice or nah to me it always starts there let me look at your team how good are they individually What's the talent level? Then we can get to, OK, now how do these pieces fit together? OK, now who's coaching this team like that's if you really want to know how someone like me tries to break down basketball and really all sports. But, you know, basketball has been thrown upon me as my bread and butter. It starts with, OK, how good are these dudes individually?

How good are these players? Then it's, okay. Oh, he nice. Okay, word. Now, who's around him? Who's helping him? What role does he have?

Okay, cool. Who's the coach? Okay, now what scheme are they trying to run with these players? Okay. Now, if injury were to happen, who's in the front office who might have to run and go get pieces to supplant on the fly? Who's in the front office? I work that way.

I know a lot of people work, who's the coach? Who's your star? Who's the GM? Who's the owner? To me, it's like, okay, well, no, who's your best player? Okay, bet. Then I judge how good I think he or her is.

Then all right, who else is on the team? And what's the talent level of the rest on that team? Okay, cool. All right, now who's the coach? Because to me, the coach is inconsequential because we've seen great coaches have horrific seasons. Larry Brown is considered a great coach. And he ran off the dream team.

He had one of the greatest groups of players ever assembled. And they all hated him because he didn't know what to do with them. Coaching matters, but not to the degree that we hype it up to be. It begins and ends with the talent. Give me the talent first. I'll deal with everything else later. Fuck your scheme.

You know the whole thing. Fuck them picks. Hold on. Let me go. make, I'm going to try to make this a meme. Not fuck them kids, fuck them pics. Fuck that coach.

All right, did that for the effect and I make that black and white and then put the words over it. All right, we're going to meme that up. Fuck that coach. All right, so what else we got? Let's see what else we could slide into. Golden State. Golden State had all the dudes in the world.

Like, I'm trying to find an NBA champion that didn't have a whole bunch of lottery picks in the lineup. Let's see how far back we got to go. Toronto, but young OG Siakam, they weren't lot. Well, was OG a lottery pick? I don't remember. they were first round picks. Look how far back we're going and there's no team that doesn't have a bunch of dudes on it.

Like I'm seeing multiple Hall of Famers. Multiple Hall of Famers on all these squads. We're just going back in time. All right, let's see Mavericks. When LeBron couldn't post up J.J. Barea. Dirk is a Hall of Famer Jason Kidd is a Hall of Famer I've heard some clamor about Sean Marion being a Hall of Famer I don't know how I feel about that yet Tyson Chandler was in the second act of his career so this might be the weakest of the bunch that we've gone back and checked out that Maverick team that beat LeBron in the heels and they still had another Hall of Famer Jason Kidd so Dirk and Jason Kidd two Hall of Famers beat three Dude, I'm going back and there is multiple Hall of Famers on every single team.

Pistons, Pistons might that. But again, they got in there and they snuck that championship. They snuck that championship. Is Chauncey Billis a Hall of Famer? Not to me, but he might get in. Rasheed Wallace should have had a Hall of Fame career. Ben Wallace is in the Hall of Fame.

So even in hindsight, this squad was stacked, but I don't. To me, it's a hard time for me to believe that this squad had multiple Hall of Famers on it. But here we are where Ben Wallace got in. And I'm pretty sure Chauncey or Rashid will get in at some point. I don't think Rip is a Hall of Famer. But even that squad had multiple Hall of Famers. yeah like it's a crazy thing to have that blueprint that isn't really a blueprint is just a basic philosophy of you need to have more talent than the other team you need to have more talent than the other side that's the revelation that the Knicks had to figure out that's the revelation that the entire league has tried to figure out and as these teams try to amass pieces, they all are now trying to navigate, okay, who can come up with enough talent to beat the Knicks?

That's where we're at heading into the 2026-2027 season. Who has enough pieces on paper to combat what the Knicks have done? It may continue to do because they got, it's not a lot of wiggle room, but there's some potential there if they're willing to forego some pieces. like the Giannis thing was real last year where they could have made moves you might not get that OG tip in if Giannis is a Knick you might not get that Mikael Bridges game two performance in San Antonio if Giannis ends up being a Knick but there is some small wiggle room for the Knicks to maneuver if they're willing to forego a piece, a legitimate piece, not just future picks, picks, swaps, cash considerations, like a legitimate piece. There's some wiggle room there. Script zero in the chat. That 2011 Mavs team had talent.

Maybe not the household names. Yeah, I mean, look, I think that squad, Tyson Chandler was depoy. Like, that squad was accomplished. Like, all those dudes kind of filled their role. And like, I think when I was talking about earlier, like, all right, who's your best player? Dirk. All right, cool.

Bet. He's a legitimate number one option. Bet. Who's your second best player? Okay. Now, here's where things get dice. You could say, well, Jason Kidd still at that point in his career might have been the number two option.

Now, you can talk about the Matrix and Sean Marion, who was still really good at that point in his career. And you're talking about Tyson Chandler, who was Depoy. So, yeah, it might not have been loaded for Hall of Famers. It might not have been Shaq, Kobe, the statutory rapist in the glove. But you're putting out a Hall of Fame point guard with a top tier Hall of Fame elite level number one option in Dirk Davidsky. And then, oh, by the way, a former Depoy in Tyson Chandler. And then, oh, by the way, a linchpin of all linchpins, a multitude of all multitudes, the Matrix, Sean Marion.

But then we all know the real secret weapon was J.J. Barea. And that's ultimately what we're looking for is like, who's going to make a move? Miami's been making love to that play-in tournament over the last five years. Now, they should not be a play-in team. Okay, who from up here in this top side, and then we'll go here, blow that up a little bit more. Who from over here is going to fall off?

Who in this top half is going to fall off? Detroit is likely to fall back. I don't see them running the back with 60 wins. Boston should stay even if they keep Jalen Brown even if they try to run that back they should be good enough with Tatum and Brown to get through a regular season where they're in that 50-55 plus win range Knicks if they hold firm should be in the 50-60 win range Cleveland a full year of the Beard and Donovan that should be able to get them in this range so maybe the Pistons are the ones that fall from this bunch because you have to take Miami seriously now. Even with a roster that was gutted, and I use gutted in quotation, a roster that was gutted, if you missed the first part of the stream, I broke down how I don't think that what they gave up is too much of anything. I don't think what the Heat gave up was a lot at all. Four actual players, a fifth player tonight with the 13th pick in the draft, and then a bunch of swaps and picks like second round pick and some pick swaps.

Like, no, I don't think that's not a lot for a guy that's in the back half of his prime and is willing to re-up. A guy that's willing to re-up and he's on the back half of his prime and I didn't have to give up my actual best player before Giannis got there in terms of Bam Adebayo. I don't have to give up the dude who just dropped 80, what, 82? I don't have to give up the dude that just dropped 82. I don't have to give up Mr. Asia Wilson. I could pair him with Giannis.

And we got some cap room, at least 18 mil, and potentially more depending on how the actual finalization of the trade goes down. Are players going to want to go to Miami to hoop with Giannis and bam out of bio? I don't think so. But, especially for the low. But you now have some flexibility in terms of we have roster spots available. So as dues contracts get bought out, as free agents realize that they're not going to get the bag that they thought they were by opting out. You now have the option of, hey, well, look, you could go re-up with your old team or try to go get a bag somewhere else.

Or you could take a one year deal, come down to South Beach for a year. And try to run it with Bam and Giannis. and try to steal a Larry OB. That's tempting. If you know you're not getting what you want in free agency, then why go back to your old team and take the bag when you could just go down to Miami, live the Miami thing for a year, play with Giannis and Bam. You know you're getting into the playoffs barring injury. You're getting into the playoffs.

You're probably going to be at least a five seed. And then you roll the dice with the playoffs. What player wouldn't take that? So the Pistons come down. The Raptors probably come down. And now you have the Heat jumping up. Depending on the health of Embiid, you have Philly potentially jumping up.

the Hawks are an interesting team. I'm not sure. They're probably sticking around this 46 win range. I don't know if that's going to be six seed worthy next season, but their number is just below 50 wins. I like that for them. I think they already have projections, right? I don't know if this has the current deals.

But I saw a regular season win projections already. Summary, was it here? I saw it somewhere. All right, let me come off the screen because that's very annoying for y'all to have to watch. But that's what... Oh, yeah. 2025, 2026 projected standings.

I knew it was here. 2025, 2026 projected standings. Oh, no, that's last year. I thought they had it for this year. All right. So they don't have that out yet. I thought they had that out.

But if you're trying to project what could or should happen, to me, you have to look at who's willing to give up a piece? If you're Philly, are you willing to give up a piece to get better? And what is that piece? I don't think that piece is Embiid. I don't think that piece is Maxie. If you're saying, we got two guys, but we need a third, who's going to be our third? VJ was really good last year.

But if you're trying to win now, again, if you're trying to capitalize on the window, however long that window, however small that opening might be, that's left on Joel Embiid. If you're trying to do that, Paul George is not going to get you a lot in return. VJ out the mix, if you flip him, you should be able to get something pretty good back. But is it going to be third option on a champion good? I don't know that. Like, that's the thing. When the deals you make don't work out or when the players you select don't work out, you're really hamstrung as an organization because the Paul George thing, it was never going to work out because it's pandemic P.

But in theory, on paper, it was supposed to work. but it's not. And let's make it past tense. It did not. So now what do you do? Vijay should be getting the minutes and the shots and opportunities that Paul George gets. But you're still stuck with Paul George.

Paul George's value around the league as he's entering year 16 isn't going to get you a hell of a whole lot back but if you put VJ out there you would get a lot back but is what you get back enough to supplant everything else I don't know and that's why you get stuck when you make a deal and it doesn't pan out hell if you're Orlando and you think you have a window Now, I don't think you do, but let's assume you think you do. You have Paulo, Viva Brazil. You have Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter, Desmond Bain. Desmond Bain was a big splash. He worked out. Jalen Suggs. Are you sure about that going forward?

Are you willing to give that up? And if you do give that up, what are you getting back? Charlotte, the enigma. Because you have a guy who you would think is the guy in LaMelo, but with the way he plays sometimes, is that winning basketball in a deep playoff run? Brandon Miller. I have seen how good he is. With and without Lamello, by the way.

But how good could he be if he was given the keys? Where the offense runs through him? Are you willing to part with a Lamello? Who is the facing a franchise for better or for worse? Are you willing to part with a Lamello and build around Brandon Miller? and what does that look like? What is LaMelo Ball's value around the league?

What are you getting back? So the East is in a weird spot where it's top heavy and within that top heavy group there could be some serious change and flux within that top. Now everyone say the pace is going to be back because Halliburton's coming back You took a look at that roster. You sure about that? Because a lot of those dudes are gone. Now, I think he'll like having Zubach. He'll like having Zubach.

But outside of that, like Siakam entering his 10th year in the league. You think Nembhard's going to be that? is he even still there? Did he get moved? No, he's still there. Okay. Like everyone just assumes Halliburton's going to come back and he's going to be cooking and they're going to get right back to where they were where they were in game seven of the NBA finals before Halliburton fell down and went boom.

That ain't going to happen because they had the year where they could move some things around and reassessed. They let Miles Turner go. They eventually replaced him by getting Zubach. I think that's an upgrade. But in terms of anything else, they kind of stood pat. Nothing else happened. They just kind of stayed the course and think they could just run it back with Halliburton?

And y'all know I love some Halliburton. But I don't think that's enough. you have these windows where you can sneak in get a Larry OB sneak in and get to the finals but if you're trying to make consistent runs to the finals you're trying to be a consistent being consistent contention for Larry OB this roster ain't going to do it this roster as constituted is not going to do it. Where are they picking tonight, by the way? Where's their draft pick? Oh, God, they traded away their pick to the Clippers? What deal was that?

Oh, that's the Zubac deal? Yikes. Oh, yes, I remember that. I remember that being a thing. I remember that being a thing. So they don't even have... Now, again, they didn't know.

But imagine if they could have had the top five pick. problem is all the guys are guards that are going to be going in that spot and you already got Halliburton but just imagine if they would have had that pick and now you got Halliburton back with a lottery pick with Siakam now we can we can fool ourselves into thinking that that's enough that's still not enough but you could fool yourself into thinking it could be enough. You could sneak back in and get maybe one more run at a Larry OB. All right, let's see here. Script zero in the chat. LaMelo Ball is cool to watch, but he's not getting a team to a playoff run. Heck, I don't think they'll get a player spot, a playoff spot with LaMelo.

Well, didn't they sneak in last year? They snuck in last year. But yes, to your point, I mean, look, LaMelo is fun. He's hella fun. He is that. He is Steph Curry. He is the, oof, he is bizarro world Steph Curry, right?

like similar range but he's got that that there's something in his brain that is wired slightly different where he could just do some silly shit. He's Bizarro Wardell with a couple inches. Pause. He's about well it's happy pride. It's Bizarro Wardell plus four inches. So like You can't take that serious. We just saw what dumb point guard play can do in NBA finals.

It can cost you a championship. I think at times, Lomelo's got some De'Aaron Fox. He's got some Sacramento King in him. I think we need to put that as a thing. It's the plague of these Sacramento Kings. Yeah, when somebody does something dumb, they're like, oh, they're playing like a Sacramento King. I see Greg in the chat as well.

I think it's time for Philly to move off of Embiid 76's windows never as open as projected Embiid just doesn't have he doesn't happen to be a champion his body has betrayed him the organization betrayed him Ben Simmons betrayed him the beard betrayed him it's through no fault of his own now you can certainly kill him for certain things but I think the thing with Embiid is wrong place, wrong time throughout his career, wrong place, wrong time it just has never all come together it's never been simpatico, it's just never been that for him but yeah, I think the Sixers that whole thing is a wrap that whole thing is a wrap Skips Hero Halliburton is going to take time to get back to looking like the guy we saw before and even then the roster yeah the roster needs a lot of help bro that roster is trash and I'm never a Miles Turner guy but Zubach is an upgrade but to a certain degree He can't shoot threes like Miles Turner can at times, but it doesn't be an actual big. I remember us talking about that during the finals. Miles Turner was not trying to get rebounds. He was a 6'11", 7'0", and had no interest into being in the paint, boxing out anybody. You're not going to get that with Zubach. Zubach is made for the glass. All right, let's see what else we got here.

All right, so we got some fresh tea coming down about Norman Powell. Norman Powell was thought to be one of those guys that could potentially fit in, but according to your man's Wemby, or Wendy, the Miami Heat are expected to lose Norman Powell in free agency. They're going to lose their all-star, Norman Powell, unless he takes a crazy discount, he's going to be gone. And if I am Norman Powell and I came off a career year, there is no way you can sell me on taking a short just to come back and hoop with Giannis and Bam Adebayo. There is no way you can sell me on that if I'm Norman Powell. I cashed out. I had the year of a lifetime.

Like Norman Powell had a year that's akin to like back in the day when the baseball players had that steroid year. Like you always mark the year when a player went on steroids. Like Norman Powell had that type of a year. All of a sudden, the guy that was giving you, you know. This is per 36. the fact that he jumped up to 22 a game and look at the minutes by the way 30 plus minutes he was getting 30 30 plus minutes on other teams he was giving his single digits giving it teens like he was a guy right like he was a guy he was a commodity but he wasn't like a star but he played and looked like a star 14 points to 22 14 points to 22 and yes he gave you some run but this is injuries this is off the bench this is spot starts but when he was given the keys and said go 22 a night 38 from three 42 from three and taking a lot of threes at that seven threes a game taking 16 shots 15 shots a night ain't no way in hell I'm taking a short if I'm Norman Powell so allegedly according to Windhurst you will not get Norman Powell running with Bam Adebayo and the Nigerian freak Giannis Antetokounmpo. Skip Zero, Hornets got to the play-in but couldn't win the game to get them.

Ah, copy that. All right, already forgot about that. See how inconsequential the play-in is? All right, so we got that from Winhurst. What else we got? Everyone's talking about this deal. Okay, we got your man's big perk already jumping out the window.

We'll pause that video. Giannis will never win a championship with him being a number one option. I repeat, Giannis Antetokounmpo will never win another championship with him being the number one option. So, Pert, who just got a new gig. Where is that? Jackson State? He just got a new gig.

This will be a prevailing take. Because Giannis is on the back half of his prime. Some might even say he's not even in his prime anymore. but Giannis I still think is on the back half of his prime he is too big still too strong and still too talented for him not to still be in his uh prime but if you're telling me that big perks big take is he'll never win another championship being the number one option so I think that can be true and the Heat can still win a championship because there's been a lot of talk over the last, I would say, two to three years of Bam Adebayo wants to be the primary ball handler. And this ain't no Draymond habitual nut hitter thing where he just bringing the ball up and just waiting for Wardell to come off a screen to give the ball to Wardell. No, there's been a lot of talk of Bam Adebayo playing like a point forward or point center, depending on where he was last year before Khalil Ware came about, like being a point forward. If that's the case and Bam Adebayo is your point forward, that to me makes him the number one option.

Now, Giannis, because of his dominance in how he is such a unguardable piece at times, he doesn't have to be the number one option if we're now unlocking point forward Bam Adebayo. There are a lot of hoopers that will tell you Bam Adebayo is way nicer than what we have been seeing throughout his Miami Heat years. There have been a lot of people that have been waiting for Bam Adebayo to be fully unlocked. If that's the case, and Bam Adebayo gets unlocked, and he's point forward Bam Adebayo, and he's allowed to have the rock and do with it with what he pleases, then he's the number one option to me. And so Perk thinks he's getting a crazy takeoff by saying Giannis will never win another championship with him being the number one option. That's cool, because he could win it being the number two to Bam Adebayo if we're unlocking point forward Bam Adebayo. Oh, yeah, by the way, Julius Randle got traded in case anybody gives a damn.

Julius Randle is back to being a Brooklyn net. In case anybody cares. And the Timberwolves are going to be in a position here where Anthony Edwards, as we see here in this tweet, Edwards wants to win right now, and the Wolves are banking on addition by subtraction, believing that we're moving Julius Randall's ISO heavy offensive game and re-disputing his 15.3 shots per game to McDaniels and Reed will open up things for Minnesota in a different way. So this is essentially saying we're going to run it back. They tried to get Giannis. It didn't work. Once they were out the Giannis sweepstakes, all right, we'll move Randall because either way we got to get Randall out of here because Randall is a black hole.

Randle is a black hole. So they think the elevation of Naz Reed into the starting lineup is going to open up things for the Temple Wolves. That's a dangerous game. Let's take a look at that roster real quick. That is a dangerous game. I know Jaden McDaniels, they're very high on Jaden McDaniels. And they should be.

He's really good. I don't know if splitting up shots between or splitting up Julius Randall shots between Jaden McDaniels and Niaz Reed offsets what OKC could do to what the Spurs could do to what the Lakers may or may not do. Like, I don't know if that's enough. You're going to run it back and just hope that more shots for Jaden McDaniels and more shots for Niaz Reed opens up the floor for Ant. I don't, when you were about to try to go get Giannis, your response to not getting Giannis is to get rid of Julius Randle, who you were going to get rid of to get Giannis in the first place. So either way, Julius Randle was never coming back. So your answer to not getting Giannis is, oh, well, we're getting more shots for Naz Reed and Jada McDaniels.

That's called spin. That is called spin. because no way on earth does anyone with any basketball sense think that this is legitimate. This is called how do we tell our fans, don't get too mad at us for failing to get Giannis. We're going to give you more Naz Reed shots. Don't worry about not getting the two-time former MVP. Don't worry about not getting him.

We're going to get Jaden McDaniels seven more shots. that's a hard sell bro that is a hard sell alright here we go the Bucks are expected to listen to trade offers for Tala Hero I thought the whole narrative was he's going home quote the Bucks still have work to do league sources say it remains unclear if Hero will remain with the team There is interest in making the Milwaukee native part of his home, whatever. So it's to say the Bucs will also listen to offers. Well, all right, that doesn't really tell me a lot. Teams are going to call for Tyler Hero. The Bucs will listen. The Pelicans are trying to trade Trey Murphy III.

I don't think that's consequential. All right, what else do we got? What else do we got? Okay, here's some more Celtics tea. The Celtics were unwilling to include players like, that doesn't mean these specific players, but players like Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez in a trade package for Giannis Antetokounmpo. The boy Jing is going to have some explaining to do. If there is any remote truth to this, he's going to do some explaining.

you were going to give up Jalen Brown and two first round picks you were told that's not enough Hugo Gonzalez hold up let me maybe I'm not hip I know ball but maybe I am mistaken on Hugo Gonzalez off of a rookie year where he was drafted in the bottom of the first round. Am I missing something? He's a wing player. Am I missing something on Hugo Gonzalez? Like, there is nothing here that jumps out to me. He shoots a lot of threes that all the Celtics do. Like, there's nothing.

And who's the other one? Shireman? again another wing. And where was he drafted? Bottom of the first round. So two guys that were drafted at the bottom of the first round the boy genius did not want to part with. Why?

Now Charman got some starts. He got 20 starts last year. Again, he shoots the ball from three, but they all do now. Boy, Jing has got some explaining to do. That doesn't ring. That math does not math to me. Y'all let me know.

Does that math make sense to y'all? Have y'all seen some Hugo Gonzalez go crazy minutes? that's the guy that serves you coffee in the morning at the time I mean real talk though like this is not you didn't want the Nigerian freak because of these these two these two you say no to the honest because of these two I'm going to need something more than that I'm going to need something a lot more than that because I am having a hard time navigating that piece I don't see how that works I just don't what else we got on the timeline according to Wynn Hurst who was on Get Up this morning there is expected to be a bidding war for Jalen Brown. Of course, everyone knows he's available now. What NBA team is a Jalen Brown away from a Larry OB? Y'all let me know in the chat. Who is a Jalen Brown away from winning a Larry OB?

Hornets need a strong big man Hornets need more I mean I think the Hornets Hornets are in a position I mean the Hornets might be a Jalen Brown away I could see Jalen Brown and Brandon Miller teaming up I would like for them to hold on to LaMelo because I don't think Jalen Brown could be the ball handler but again if you're going to unleash like how the Miami Heat could be unleashing point Bam Adebayo maybe they unleash point Brandon Miller See, here's the type of players you're going to get. Chris Middleton is a name that has been linked to Miami. He's a vet, obviously played with Giannis, got a Larry O'Bee with Giannis. He's a guy that could come in and take the minimum. They got that 18, what is it, 18 point something mil? They got that 18.1 million for four roster spots. A guy like Chris Middleton, he could come in and take his piece of that and not be pissed off because he's made his bag.

He's been a max guy in the league, right? He's made his bread. Where's his salary? He's at the bottom, right? Chris Middleton has made his bread. I'm not here to tell anyone to take less money. All right, Chris Middleton has made at least $256 million playing professional basketball.

Okay, so Chris Middleton has made a lot of money. He can pull up and take a short to go run it back with Giannis and South Beach. Again, these are the type of guys that can come in and go South Beach for a year and try to get Larry O.B. off. Who do you give up for Jalen Brown if you're the Hornets? All right, let's take a look at the roster. Probably, oof.

Let's see. Who legitimately can you give up? Because the money has to work, number one. So who makes a lot of money on this roster? that's not LaMelo. Looking at Bridges. Let me go to SpotTrack.

Let's go to SpotTrack. Let me come off the screen and get SpotTrack set up. I appreciate the question. Let's break this down and see if we can figure out something. Let's go to SpotTrack. Let's get the team up. Team Cap, Charlotte.

Where are they? There they go. All right, let's now jump back into that. Okay, so who makes money? Miles Bridges, but he's extension eligible. Okay, you're definitely not going to bring him back, but you're getting that salary off the books so you could dangle him as an expiring contract of sorts. Nobody's making money here.

Knufel. Man, you don't have a lot, bro. Unless it's LaMelo. You would almost be forced to have to include LaMelo. Unless you're going to give up a whole bunch of dudes and some future picks. But again, if I'm the Celtics, I want a real piece. Because again, the Celtics have to get something back, right?

So the Celtics are going to want something that they can pair immediately with Tatum. Who on this roster can you pair immediately with Jason Tatum? Miller makes too much sense, but you can't do that if you're the Hornets. Bridges is not good enough to pair with Tatum. LaMelo is an interesting dynamic. He's an interesting dynamic. He loves to take three, so Missoula would love him.

But he does not play defense. And he's got a little bit of that De'Aaron Fox in him where he forgets how to play point guard. So I don't know if there's a match. I would like to see it from a basketball standpoint. I don't know if the money makes sense. so there's a lot there's not a lot to be desired here I don't see a pathway unless you're including LaMelo which I'm not mad at if the Hornets wanted to shake things up and hand the keys to Brandon Miller I'm here for that and I think if you're a Hornets fan and if you're going to give up LaMelo but you can bring in Jalen Brown even though there's a lot of personality with LaMelo and he drives a lot of cachet just because of how he plays and who he is I think you also have to realize I don't know if there's a winning player there I don't know if there's a championship level winning player there he could be holding back the team even though he is the team's default best player. Because at some point, you're going to have to make your mind up about what you're going to do with Brandon Miller.

How much of the bag are you going to give him? But yeah, I don't see, as you pick out here in the chat, I don't think Brown would go. Yeah, Brown wouldn't go there. I'm just saying from a basketball standpoint, in terms of a bidding war, if we're trying to get to the point where there's a bidding war on Jalen Brown, if there truly is a bidding war on Jalen Brown, who can the Celtics get in return for Jalen Brown that they can pair with Tatum? That's the first piece. And then what's a team that Jalen Brown is willing to go to that's a Jalen Brown away from winning a Larry OB? Like the long rumor has been Atlanta.

So let's go to Atlanta for Jalen Brown. Let's take a look at Atlanta. Now off rip, if I'm Atlanta, if I'm Boston, if I'm the boy genius, Brad Stevens, the conversation begins with Jalen Johnson. I want Jalen Johnson if I'm Brad Stevens. So if this is to work, but also if I'm Jalen Brown, I'm going to hoop with Jalen Johnson. So there goes that conundrum. If you're the Hawks, what are you giving Boston to get Jalen Brown?

Again, who makes money on this roster? Man, I mean, well, CJ McCollum, but that's an expiring deal. You could throw in Buddy Heald if you want. Dyson Daniels. Like there's not a lot of flexibility. Like the bidding war is going to have to be. The bidding war is going to be interesting because the teams Jalen Brown wants to go to are allegedly on the West Coast and or Atlanta.

And I don't know which one of these teams has enough to give the Celtics what they're looking for. In addition to what Jalen Brown is willing to accept. Because Jalen Brown has a no trade, right? I think Jalen Brown has a no trade. Let me look that up real quick. Oh, Jalen Brown does not have a no trade clause. okay so and that's why he was there that's how the whole Milwaukee thing tanked because they didn't want to okay alright so that ties into that okay so if that's the case right Jalen Brown's going to have to go wherever he's sent that opens up a little bit of flexibility if you're Boston you think Orlando what does Orlando unless you're unless you're giving up Paolo I don't know if you're giving that up I don't know if you're giving that up but let's see let's play the game what are you giving up here Suggs and what is Suggs even making a lot of money like basically we're going down the whole Southeast division I would give up Wagner he's making a lot of money god damn he's making too much money if you're telling me Wagner but again would the boy genius accept that?

Is Wagner going to fit well with Tatum? I think the team that should be trying to make a move, but they're not because it goes against the GM's philosophy, and I'll stand firm on it. I think it's a team that's in the Western Conference. It's a team that made a pretty deep playoff run and is a team that I think if they do the right deal at the right time and give up some of their picks, because they have a lot of picks, and give up some of their young pieces, they can lock in a dynasty and go on a dubs-like run where they go to three or four championships. Like OKC should be active. OKC should be active. And I know that sounds crazy for a team fresh off of Larry OB and won 64 games last year.

I think they should be active. And not just, oh, we might move Lou Dort. I think they should investigate flipping Chet. Because they got to deal with Wemby. And Wemby's already proven he took Chet Holmgren's heart. so if your best big man has already been proven to be ineffective against a team you're going to have to deal with for at least the next decade then what use is Chet Holmgren and like that's that's real if you're Sam Presti and you have done a masterful job of amassing all these lottery picks and pick swaps and future first 10 years later then you realize Boom, it pops up as a lottery pick. Oh, my God.

You've done all these things. You snuck a Larry OB. You made the Paul George deal. Got SGA for the lowest of low. You did all the things. Shouldn't you flip some of these pieces, not all, but some, and go get one of those types of guys? I'm not saying it has to be Jalen Brown.

I would have went to try to go get Giannis. If I'm Presti and I could pair the back half of the prime of Giannis with the continued ascension of SGA and then still have a Jalen Williams and they could still have some future picks coming like that to me is where I know it goes against his credo and Sam Presti has been patient He's done the thing and he's been rewarded for it handsomely. At some point, though, this roster is going to have to get flipped over. At some point, all those lottery picks are going to have to play. So there's this snowball effect that is happening with OKC and folks are not realizing it. All those picks, those players are going to have to be somewhere. all these dudes that are high level players that you keep picking they need to get some run somewhere and if it ain't going to be with you then it should be somewhere else so if you have all these assets that you have amassed why can't you package some of them along with a player in Chet who I think is still highly thought of around the league He just needs to get out the West.

Because as long as Wembe's in San Antonio, that is that man's kryptonite. So what's the point of having Chet as your third option when your third option, who was then your second option in the Western Conference Finals because Jalen Williams was hurt, is proven to be ineffective against someone who is somehow skinnier, but somehow yet stronger and better than your third option who was forced to be your second option in Western Conference Finals because your second option was hurt. There is no reason to hang on to Chet Holmgren if I'm Sam Presti. 200 million, 240 million for Chet. I mean, to me, that's a trade piece. That means he's a piece because the salaries could work. I don't think they should keep Chet.

I don't think they should. If I'm Preston, I'm trying to move Chet. I know that's the outside-the-box thinking. I know that's jumping out the window or whatever the case may be, but... It just makes a lot of sense. It just makes a lot of sense for Giannis because they had the pieces. They had the pieces, and again, Milwaukee wants young pieces, right?

Jimmy Haslam, if you missed earlier in the stream, we broke it down. Jimmy Haslam basically said, yo, I'm tired of dealing with superstar athletes and their trade demands. I did it on the football side with Miles Garrett, and I've dealt with it with Giannis on the basketball side. I'm done with that. Give me some young pieces in return for Giannis that we can control. Who has more young pieces that are under control than the OKC Thunder that are good and can be under control? Like I could legitimately tell you, you could probably move off of, I would have put Chet, so the salaries could work.

Mitchell. And what, I mean, even McCain, if you wanted to give up McCain, even though that's dicey, like there's some pieces there. And then we talk about all the future firsts, All the future firsts that they have. Let's see. Big board by team. NBA. NBA home.

Where is OKC at? Where's future picks? They don't have future picks. All right. They don't have future picks here. All right. Let's see.

Let's see if we can find the future picks of what OKC has. All right, this is just a quick answer via AI. They hold between 9 and 15 first round picks over the next seven years. And 18 first round picks, including swaps between now and 2030. 18 first round picks between now and 2030. Sam Presti, I love that you've done all of this, but at some point you got to flip some of those, bro. If you could package some of those, I mean, the Heat gave up a 2030 and a 2033 pick for Giannis.

You couldn't match that? There's no scenario where you would have matched that? That to me is a little damning. Miami mortgage their future I severely disagree I disagree this to me is not mortgaging your future and we talked about this earlier in the stream Tali Hero is a starter Khalil Ware is developing into a starter Jaime Haikez to me is a fringe starter he could be a role player Kasper is depending on how high you are on him I'm not that big on him I also can't sit here and say I know everything about him but what I have read about him doesn't seem like something so crazy like he's a diamond in the rough type of deal and then the three round picks the one pick is tonight at pick 13 like you got the one pick tonight and they got them taking a point guard out of Alabama but if you look at the big board this draft is being deemed as a seven person draft you have the big four at the top and then the next three after that being tier two and then literally everyone else is considered the rest so you gave up a first round pick in a draft that's going to be in the the rest section so I don't know if they gave up and mortgaged their future because again to me this looks this reeks heavily of mellow Knicks Denver trade because this to me is not a lot two starters for sure in hero and where Jaquez was developing into being a starter and then we're talking about a pig swap a second rounder and a first round pick that's at the bottom of the lottery I'm not going too crazy over that Because I'm getting Giannis. I'm getting the guy that is on the back half of his prime. That is a former two-time MVP, including finals MVP and a former defensive player of the year. To pair with Bam Adebayo, who if I'm to believe all the people that I know down there, they think they can unleash point Bam.

Point forward Bam Adebayo. And they feel like the best Bam Adebayo is yet to come. So if I'm to drink the Kool-Aid of, hey, Miami thinks Bam Adebayo can take another step. We know he got the 82 last year. Went crazy. So like if you're telling me we're pairing the back half of the prime of Giannis to go along with. Bam Adebayo, who we believe we can unearth.

And make him even better and put him at the point and let him orchestrate the offense and be the number one option. Yeah, I would give up all these pieces because these pieces are inconsequential to winning a championship. You're not winning a championship with Tyler Hero. Not as your number two option. Or even your number three option. You're not winning a championship with Khalil Ware. Not right now.

He's not ready right now. Same with Hakez. and cashmere we haven't even seen enough of. So if you're telling me one proven player and three young players and a couple of picks, one of which is just a bottom of the lottery pick, is enough to get Giannis? That to me is the steal. The narrative will be that they're giving up what, seven, eight, nine players here for Giannis because Bobby Portis is a throw-in, but he's still vital. but in essence, you're giving this up for Giannis.

That ain't too crazy to give up for Giannis. We don't know Miami's death. We don't know Miami's death and it doesn't really matter. They'll find the guys. Like we talked about the cap space earlier. Like we will find, they will find the guys. They got 18.1 million in the first apron in first apron space to fill four roster spots.

And if the owner wants to go crazy, he could spend some bread and go into the second apron. Highly unlikely to happen, but still. And we already got the T that Chris Middleton is willing to pull up. And you're going to see a lot of guys on that Chris Middleton level. That's going to be willing to take the short. And just try to go get a ring. Because that's what happened with Miami when they got Braun and Chris Bosh.

They got a lot of guys on the side that willing to just pull up and try to get a ring. Pull up here for the low. Chris Middleton has made a quarter of a billion dollars playing basketball. He could pull up for the vet minimum to try to run it back and get another ring with Giannis. So to me, I think that there's a scenario here where this works out. But to me, I am, I think this is, because let's be real. If you're the Bucs and you're trying to win, if you're trying to sell to your fan base that you're trying to win, who are these players or winning players?

Let's go to Kaspers. Everyone's going crazy about Kaspers. Let's go to Kaspers. Let's see what we got. so again you're telling me I'm supposed to go crazy for some Kasperis and this is what we got not even a lottery pick last year the heat culture got so crazy in him last year that now I'm supposed to go crazy that they included him in the deal this is the too much like what part of this trade is too much is it Kasperis is it Hoskes Khalil Ware we going crazy for Khalil Ware or is it the fact that Tali Hero made an all-star game because what what did you want them to give up for Giannis you thought they could just get it done with Hilo and Ware and some picks or Hero and some picks yeah the Bucks have no choice but to rebuild it's full rebuild tear it down tear it all down they have no choice they let Middleton go, they let Drew go, they tried the Dame thing, that didn't work, they let Dame go, and now they finally let Giannis go. Yeah, it's a wrap. The rebuild began when they moved on from Dame because it was literally just Giannis by himself at that point.

And there was no way Giannis was going to continue to do that. Let's see, what else could we do here? All right, Wynn Hurst is dropping a lot of T today. I don't know if this is legitimate T, but, you know, take it forward for what it is. Ant was really frustrated throughout. He's really just been frustrated since Towns got traded at how he gets double teamed. That's a real thing.

Because when you just have one guy, and this gets back to the point of how we talked about earlier, how NBA champions, you got to have two, three, four guys. Minnesota, as constituted, only has one guy. So every team is going to key in on that one guy every night. And that's going to be a problem for them because, but again, they're trying to spin it now that they think Naz Reed and Jada McDaniels are going to do better because they're going to get more shots now that Julius Randle is gone. I'm sorry, I'm never double-teaming Naz Reed. I'm sorry, I'm never double-teaming Jaden McDaniels. I'm going to continue trapping Ant-Man.

If they think they can spin the block with this roster as constituted, Ant-Man is going to be in trouble. Ant-Man is going to force his way out. He should be frustrated because he doesn't have any help. I mean, we could debate if he had help even when it was called Anthony Towns. We could certainly debate that. But now, especially without Carl Anthony Towns. Yeah.

Say what you will about Julius Randle, but at least he's a guy that you could depend on for a bucket. Now you don't have Julius Randle. What do you have now? Naj Reed's going to go that much crazier? Jaden McDaniel, same deal? Like, I don't think people understand. I don't think people get it.

So I am not surprised that Ant is out here being really frustrated. He's going to continue to be frustrated. If this is what they run it back with, he's going to continue to be really frustrated. Giannis is on the way to get in the bag. Three years, $214 million extension. He'll be eligible to do that. All right.

Shout out to SpotTrack. They do a good job getting the money right. They always figure the money out. so as you see here the heat will be 2.3 million under the luxury tax and 18.3 million under their first apron hard cap with five open roster spots there's probably more to come for Miami before they finish filling out their roster yeah there has to be there has to be Again, you see the trade details here. I'm not going crazy over these unprotected picks in 2031 and 2033. You look at the contracts. Do you get wear on the cheap?

He's controllable. Paquez, rookie deal, controllable. Kasperis, rookie deal, controllable. Again, this is a owner-driven move. As we begin to wrap up, yes, Ant's going to want out for sure. For sure. Ja Morant is stuck.

And to be honest, I don't know who would want him. Like there was a little flirting yesterday I saw in the timeline about Jai and Ant hooking up. I'm like, that wouldn't work. That's not good basketball. That's not championship-level basketball. Pelicans in Sacramento, what are they doing? Or Pelicans in Sacro?

There is a lot to try to navigate if you're Ant because you're the guy, but you're the guy, but you're being held back because you don't have any help. That is a helpless position to be in to where you know you're good. Ant is on the level of good where he could be the number one on a championship, on a championship team, right? He could be that. But he's going to need a legitimate number two, number three option. And who are those guys? And if Minnesota is trying to sell, after failing to get Giannis, to try to sell to me that Naz Reed and Jaden McDaniels are those guys, they need to take that bullshit somewhere else.

Because I'm not believing that. If the Pels are trying to move on from Trey Murphy, I don't know where that leaves the rest of this roster. Because right now, I mean, Derrick Queen was a nice little revelation at times last year. Zion continues to be the enigma as long as they keep that weight clause in the contract I think you'll get a decent Zion the John Tamari you gotta see what's going on the Pells are a mess David Griffin sold him a bill of false goods he was a scammer and Utah the real scammer the scam of them day or day and age. He's got all these picks too. He's amassing picks like Sam Preston. When's the big move coming?

You're not amassing all these picks not to make a move, are you? When's the big move coming for Utah? The big thing is Giannis to Miami. Jalen Brown opening up a bidding war. Guys like Chris Middleton are going to be taking the short to run down to Miami, just like when Bron and them were in Miami, all those vets pulled up for the load that took the short to try to get a ring. The biggest Celtics fan in the media, Bill Simmons, quote, I'm not convinced he's going to be on the team in October. That's not really saying anything.

Norman Powell will do this. Let me see. Is there anything else? So remember we talked about earlier Oh no That's not automatic We'll look at this So the Pistons are looking to acquire Norman Powell So Norman Powell Who Wendy said is going to be on the way out There's no way he's going to pull up and return They're now looking at him Pistons to go with Cade Cunningham Is that enough To combat what Miami's looking to do What the Knicks have done and may do is that enough? No, it's not. It's helpful, but Norman Powell, can he get his own shot? Great shooter, good score.

Can he get his own shot? When K's getting trapped and they swing the ball and his ball gets swung to Norman Powell, you confident in what's going to happen after that? I will take this last one that will wrap up. Is Morant's trade value low? Can he be traded for less? He might be that whole Julius Randle addition by subtraction thing, to be quite honest. I'll take one quick look at his contract.

Where did it, Southwest? Southwest? Yeah, Southwest. Let's see. Ja is making 42 mil next year. He's the only one making money. They're not still on the hook for Triple J?

I guess not. Okay. Yeah, this is a rebuilding team. they should trade Ja his value is so low I don't know what you're going to get for him though I mean and this is not even counting the gun stuff this is just him as a basketball player like if it was just the gun stuff I think enough time has passed that you can sell that that was something in the past but basketball wise I think it's a problem when it comes to Ja he's a scoring point guard I don't know, similar to LaMelo, I don't know if you're going to get winning basketball out of him. If you surround him with help, it could be done. But if you're banking on him to come into your team and be a second or third option, I don't know about that. I don't know about Ja Morant as a second or third option.

That's a roll of the dice. You know what it is. This has been the The Sam D Podcast, a podcast that is talking about sports and sports media in addition to other things. Soon we will be talking those other things. The brand is growing. The brand is evolving. Walk with me.

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