A Unique Situation For 76ers + What Do Teams Who Missed Out On LeBron Do Now?

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“- All right, we'll take free ones, that's what he's basically saying. Okay, so, but several days to process LeBron James to Philly.”

And I'm going to tell you, I feel like, you know, there were certain things when I was growing up in my father, or I was reading about things that happened on the sports world, and I just didn't understand them. I'd be like, "Wait a minute. Why did this player do this? Why did this coach do this?" And I feel like, down the line, people are going to study the career of LeBron James and they're going to say, "Why did he go to Philly?" And I think we have to acknowledge that this whole thing is a bit outrageous.

Okay, so I've had a couple of days to process LeBron to the Sixers, and I feel like it's something that people who look back in the future, maybe people who are too young to know what's going on or people aren't even born yet, they'll be like, "What? How did that happen?" And I think we have to embrace that this whole situation is a bit outrageous. You know, we're analyzing a day by day or whatever, and then it happens and you're supposed to react. But you take a step back, this is a pretty outrageous situation.

And it's because it's a bit of an outrageous one-off, right? You know, the idea that a player 24 years into his career would have this situation, and that he would be willing to play for a low amount of money.

It's we've never seen anything like it, so everything that happens around it is a bit outside the normal way we would look at things.

And so I'm just going to embrace it, it's outrageous, and I'm going to try to keep that going into the season, then it's because I know you'll probably be in Philly quite a bit.

“I don't know if it'll work because I think everyone's like, you know, they're asking questions about legacy and how will it all work?”

Like, well, Jalen Brown, do this, what Joel and B do this, what about the J. Edge company? I call those are reasonable, but we have to understand that this is kind of ridiculous, and we'll just see how this ridiculous ends up playing out. It's unusual, and as someone who's going to be playing rock paper scissors with some of the other ESPN writers in New York City, to put the honors of going on to your cellar train to get up and down the Philly or on particular days, I would never predict that this outcome.

Like, even after you're watching the 76ers get waxed by the mix in the second one, I think of all the changes that have happened with that franchise alone,

like getting off of Paul George and getting Jalen Brown. And most of seasons, that is the move of the off season. Let alone getting a generational historic play.

“I think I read something, which of course, this makes all the sense in the world where there's never been a team that acquired two finals MVPs in the same off season.”

This is all ridiculous, like it, but it is all fascinating. Like, I do want to see this, I think Billy fan has a windy and big man taking a place of Nick fan as being the object of a higher for me right now, because Billy fan thinks that, yeah, I know quite crazy, right? Billy fan went back to first take when like two weeks ago when I said that Billy doesn't seem like a great bit compared to the other options. Oh, you hate Billy. No, I just didn't think it was a kind of felt ridiculous, all things considered, but not a way here.

I'm fascinated as anybody to watch how year 24 25 plays out, the future of Joel and bead, how Jalen Brown functions all this up, the Nick nurse of it all, like this is one of the more fascinating stories we've come across in some time.

Yeah, and listen, I said multiple times and maybe I'm getting hammered online and I'm just oblivious to it, which is fine by me. But I said multiple times, I didn't think Billy was a great fit for LeBron, not the other way around, because LeBron, if LeBron wants LeBron can definitely shift into a facilitator, distributor, you know, initiate or table center type of guy, but look, LeBron was not thrilled with being the third option in LA. He said it himself, at the end of the season, he wanted to retire and it kind of took some time to get past that.

Do we believe that though?

Well, I'll take the risk of taking him at his word there, but I do believe he was not thrilled being the third option.

And I don't know that he's not the third or fourth option in Philly, so again, very curious to see how they figure that fit out. And it's going to be a seasonal process to figure that out. I'm very curious to see how Jay and Brown figures it out, because he-- In my view, this is way more of a Jaylin Brown story than in LeBron story. I mean, the bronze had like 200 something teammates in his career.

“He has a, you know, he's been on how many teams would they have totally redone their roster?”

Has that happened four or five times in his career? Like every time he's changed teams for one. Sometimes, like, remember in L.A., like they did that roster the first year. They were like, "Nope, threw it out at the window and he did it." Like, I mean, he can handle that.

Like, you know, obviously his skill level is a little bit diminished because of his age. But I'm not worried about LeBron fitting in and people are like, "Oh, what about LeBron?

Is the third option for-- How do we know he's going to be the third or fourth option?

I haven't seen him play yet. What if he's the first option? What if I would say what's Tyre's Maxi doing? Well, fine.

“I would tell Jayden Brown, feel about that.”

I would say what's for LeBron doing? Well, I know how Tyre's Maxi is going to play because he's only one way you can play. I know how Joel and Beat is going to play because generally Joel and Beat's going to play how he can play. There is a whole range of ways that LeBron can play. And there's a lot of different ways he can be fine with.

There's also a whole range of ways that Jayden Brown can play. I'm not sure how-- Of course there is. He plays multiple positions. He plays off the ball. He plays on the ball. You know, absolutely like the way he played this last season was completely different the way he played the year before. So my thing is, where is he at? He didn't choose this. LeBron chose this. Tyre's Maxi and Beat were talking to LeBron on the phone trying to talk him into it.

Jayden Brown didn't choose this. This was put onto Jayden Brown. So to me, this season, especially early going, is very much a something I'm going to be watching how Jayden handles. I'm going to be paying attention to his interviews, even if that's not going to be with it. But they overall consensus is going to be.

That's an interesting point, Wendy, because when I look at Billy, the person who I'm watching more than Jayden Brown for whatever reason, I understand your answer, more than even LeBron James, I'm going to be watching Joel and Beat. Because he's the guy who has a regular season MVP to his record, but doesn't have a conference finals to his record. He's the guy that's played at what a grand total of 58 games in the last two years. He's the guy that has been there through all these different iterations of a Philadelphia 76 or roster built around him.

James Harden, Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, like all those players have been built to augment him. Where does this fit now? Like how much pressure is on him to stay on the floor, to stay in shape, to be defensively.

“I think he can be defensively, I don't know if he can beat any anymore.”

I don't know if he can beat that vortex because his movement.

If you saw that second round series against the nicks, they ran everything at him and exploited him.

How does that work now? And if things go wrong, you think LeBron is going to care about getting blamed by Billy fans, that he has no sweat equity in. Jalen Brown, like you said, didn't choose the situation. He's got a championship. It's going to fall at the feet of Joe L. and B. That's the player I'm watching to see how he handles all this.

I'm fascinated to see how he handles it. But Philadelphia, basically, has to come up with a way to play. That doesn't include Joe L. and B because you cannot count on him being on the floor. And no, we talked about the other day, you've got four guys who excel at playing. High tempo basketball.

You've got four at the top 14 fast break scores in the NBA, including one and two in the starting line up. And then you have Joe L. and B, who is the epitome of kind of a at this point in his career. A plotting, you know, slow down. I really think there's going to be a lot of possessions where Mb doesn't cross half court.

And then, you know, in half court, he'll be involved. But, you know, but to me, the thing that there's all the egos are going to be very interesting. Because again, you've already dealt with the Mb Maxi thing where they get along well. But it's Mb's franchise. It's become Maxi's team.

Now you've got Jayden Brown, he made it clear. Love's being one A and he comes in with a bolder on his shoulder because of the way that quite frankly. He just got dumped in his mind and I don't blame him. This respected by the Celtics on the way out the door. Two years removed from one of the finals Mb being a championship there.

You know, but if he comes in with the priority of like this revenge tour, how does that work with all these other? And we haven't even mentioned it. Jayden's come by the way.

How many, like, I don't even know if I care about what Mb does the first five months of the season.

“I mean, I obviously know that you have to get some reps with them.”

But I honestly like, I don't care. I don't care what Mb looks like in November, December, January, February. Like he's out. They need them for really important games in the playoffs. Like we'll see it in the spring, like seriously.

Like I obviously, that's not the way it's going to go. They in B will be excited to play. I mean, as far as I know he's healthy. You know, they'll want to, you know, just manage all of that and try to get some sort of rhythm. But that's the thing, I don't care how LeBron plays.

I don't care how Mb plays till we get to April. That's very, very more of you just thinking that you can kind of manage your way to the regular season. And then microwave chemistry when the playoffs roll around. They weren't that great for a couple years ago. Well, that's what I'm saying.

I think this whole situation is outrageous. It's outrageous. It's unprecedented. But so is LeBron. Would you consider Tyre's Maxi and Alpha?

Yes. He's the best player on their team. Is Edge come up as Edge come an Alpha? I mean, at heart. Not the way plays.

An emerging one. Yeah. Okay. And beat sure as hell is. Jalen Brown, sure as hell is LeBron is one of the supreme Alpha's.

The idea of having five Alpha's is preposterous. And then you think about the idea. That's what Nick knows. Then you think about the idea of having four guys who thrive playing in transition.

“Like I think, Jalen, Edge come LeBron and Maxi all right in the top 15 and transition scoring last year.”

But when will we end beat ranked on that? And then with the most plotting, one of the most plotting centers, it's outrageous. You know, as looking at Dean Oliver, our colleague at ESPN, he tweeted out the usage rates of those five guys last season. It's not up to 100. I know that it's, I'm aware that they all were not together.

But they're combined usage rates last year were 142 out of 100. And one of the things that the Celtics felt about Jalen Brown was his style of play was way too much. My turn, his turn. So I'm saying this whole thing is out.

I mean, like, I'm not saying this in like a critical way.

I'm saying this in a fascinating way. You can have my turn. His turn. Well, now it's his turn. In his, like, there's got to be, again, again, that's a challenge for Nick.

There's got to be chemistry developed. There's got to be a cohesive, you know, system style put in place. And again, I do think a lot of it is on jam brown, not to have the mentality that I have to be one A.

“A lot of it's on and B to understand that the style is not going to be built around him because he's the exception.”

I mean, he understands that he's a smart player. Okay, to embrace then, there's a difference between understanding and embracing. And a lot of it's on the bronta to shift into first and foremost, the facility. And he's one of the best pastors and one of the best basketball brains in the industry. He's done something's not capable of doing.

Well, it took Lebron, Luca, and Austin Reeves all calendar year. Would you say that's fair, McMahon? It took him a calendar year to figure it out. And they had one spectacular month.

And that was the month when it became very clear the role definition where Lebron was a distant third.

And he was awesome in that role. Like the efficiency was all the same time. You can't, it doesn't matter if in beats playing greater than December. He's got to play him same thing. You've got to develop, especially on a team like this.

And B can't be in and out of the lineup because he is such a big piece. But he's going to be, he's going to be. No, of course he's going to, I'm with you. I understand that I'm not disagreeing with you. But when Lebron says, I want to bring a championship to Philadelphia.

Okay, fine, the expectations are there. So you're saying against everything that we know about the recent NBA history is that you've got to have some continuity. You can't have players be in and out of the lineup. And then expect to turn it on magically for April May and June.

They're going, they're bucking history with the, the, the audacity of the attempt here.

“Like that's what, that's what is exciting to me about this.”

It's just the sheer audacity of Joel and B is an availability issue. Where's Jalen Brown fitting in this? Tyrese Maxi is a guy actually don't worry about. Because I think he can play off the ball. He's one of the best off the ball scores in the league.

I got no problem with that. And we can talk about these guys being scores and transition. Who's going to get stops? Who's going to sacrifice and say, you know what? I can get on on this break.

But I need to get down here and get this rebound. Because if Joel and B is out there, there's no guaranteed that he's going to be able to cover all the space. Like my basketball standpoint. This is all very fascinating to me.

That's why I point at Nick Nurs. How's he going to handle this? You know, I do think of all the teams I can compare to. It's most comparable to the 2003 four-lakers. Yep.

Where Kobe and Shak were there. Kevin George, Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, and that group. And they brought in Gary Payton, Carl Malone. By the way, do you know I went back and looked. You had to take in enormous sums of money off of me.

Do you know that Horace Grant was on that team? Wow. Yeah, Horace Grant. They see green. They were.

Did you know Byron Russell was on that team? So like you. I mean, you want to talk about because you know, because now they're bringing in Kentavius called. And he knows what else.

And so I went, I went and looked. So Shak had like a calf injury that year or something. And I think Kobe had like ankle issues. But Kobe played 65 games. Shak played 67.

Payton played all 82. Wow. You know, at age 35, Carl Malone played 42 at age 40. That he had a knee as knee. They were 18 and one before he heard his knee.

Like that thing, that's what people forget. The train was actually rolling. And then Carl heard his knee.

Like you will never hear me bounce for Carl Malone in any way,

shape or form for a bunch of reasons. But that team was rolling until he got hurt. And then when he got hurt, that's when everything started to pile up. You know, Kobe's court dates. I think Kobe was coming up of knee surgery.

That offseason, which kind of started all of this other stuff. You know what I mean? So that's, you know, just to kind of close the loop. But yeah, a lot of injuries and what happened. They managed to get to the finals.

And then they, I was going to say they still wanted to find out. They didn't have a good showing when they got there. But they got to the finals.

“Did you remember that Byron Russell played?”

I said Byron is Brian. I always get that wrong. Brian Russell. Yes. Would you believe me if I told you he played 72 games for that team?

I'm, I'm, look at now. So I believe you, but I did not remember. But we would you believe if I said, if I said Stanislav Medvedenko started 38 games for that team? I do, I do remember that part. So anyway, I will just tell you, by the way, do you want to hear the story about how Derek Fisher almost sent me to the hospital?

Yes. That gets us to so far. Get your money right. More who collected podcast after this?

The calves that was a bronze rookie season my first year on the beat.

The cows played the lakers twice in the preseason once in L.A. On national television major game, LeBron versus Kobe on national television. I think Kobe heard his ankle. And then they played them a few days later in Bakersfield, California on a Sunday night. And this was different times back then, guys, the starters played in the preseason game.

And in Bakersfield, California. And this is also different time. The media sat on the, on the, on the baseline, you know, on this corner court. So my only time I've ever been in Bakersfield. There's a play in the first half.

Derek Fisher, I guess, trying to save a ball going out of bounds comes flying into press row. And comes over the table and his shoe absolutely wallops me right in the eye. Like, bam, knocks my chair over and I go down. I don't remember if I hit my head on the floor. But I was literally woozy like for 10 minutes.

Like I probably needed medical attention. I got knocked on the floor. Mike Brezhnehan, who's now on spectrum sports. He was there covering for the LA times. He helped me up, dusted me off, you know.

And I was like, woozy like I, like the lights were going. I had no idea what was happening.

“I just remember that that was the night.”

It was like the second to last preseason game.

We don't have any point cards.

The bronze going to play a point card. So it's kind of like a minor significant story that they just decide. The bronze going to be a point card. I just remember sitting there like the room was literally spinning. I was just dizzy from getting walloped in the head by Derek Fisher.

And like, you're in Bakersford, California. Shack is there. Carl Malone is there. Gary Payton. Kobe.

I don't think Kobe played in that case.

“I think he turned his ankle against the against the Cas couple's prior.”

But you know, all these, you know, apparently Horace Grant was probably there. I have no recollection of it. They didn't have it. Maybe I forgot.

Because that was knocked out.

That's what it was Wendy. I was, I got, I got, I got, as they used to say in the old days. Vince, that bill. No, you know, when you were said, did any players laugh? No, I don't remember.

I mean, I was hanging on for dear life. Who would get smacked in the face with a ball? The late great robbery. That's what I thought. Oh, yeah.

You had some tough times in those baseline seats. I, on the West Coast, like, you know, I, I, I shed blood in those old barns. In Seattle and Baker's field. No, I didn't actually.

“Wendy, when you said, I got wild by Derek Fisher.”

I'm glad the story ended up here, rather than where my mind took me to. Initially. Yes, you don't. You're talking as a dirty matter for us all. Let's say, you don't, you don't strike me to one of those types.

All right. All right.

So our colleague Marcus Thompson the second from the athletic.

Did something very an uprising over the weekend. He went all the way out from his home in Oakland. To North Little Rock, Arkansas, where Moses Moody was having a youth camp. And Steph Curry was a part of it, which by the way, how cool is that the Steph Curry. One out to Arkansas.

I don't know. Maybe it does it every year. I just don't remember. But I think it's pretty cool that Steph Curry would take some time out and go all the way to Arkansas to go to his teammates youth camp.

And how cool is it that you, if you're a kid in, in a little rock, you could go to a camp. And have, and have Steph Curry be there. That's pretty cool. He got a, he got an interview with Steph about LeBron's choice. Obviously, the warriors were one of the possible places.

And I want to commend Steph Curry. I think Steph Curry is a quintessential superstar in every way. And I think his interview that he gave to Marcus Thompson was a, really excellent. Grounded level headed view point of the situation.

And here's some of the quotes that he said. And regards to possible with the Bronc coming to the warrior she said,

“that's why you don't envision anything until it happens.”

There's lots of moving parts, which of course was true. And talking about how, um, this leaves the warriors of warriors have not made many changes to their roster. Probably the biggest thing is they drafted Yaxel Lennonborg, who was awesome in, trained in, um, summer late, was in the MVP of summer late.

So like that's something to get excited about. But you know, it's certainly not getting people who want the warriors to like, get back to the finals that much. And he just said that, um, you know, keep in this thing together, as in this, this warrior's team.

And you know that Jimmy Butler got hurt and Moses Moody got hurt, and the whole calculus of everything changes. How do you get through their absence and still say to certain level? And then how does that go into this year? So I'm a realist on that, which is his way of saying like,

I know there's not a lot of excitement around this team. But nobody thinks that we're going to win, and that's the reality. And then I think this is two more things I think from this I want to point out. He said, when he's talking about his hopes for the season, he said, you hope that both players Butler and Moody come back healthy,

and that we can play at a level that keeps us relevant and competitive. This is where the warriors are, which Steph's in. They're in a fight to stay relevant. Forget about championship. Like by the way, this is he's being real here.

I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm applauding this. And then the one thing that he didn't say that I, that I want to point out, you know, Marcus literally wrote the book on Steph's curry. I want to quote Marcus here, not Steph. I want to be very clear here.

Marcus is not, he is not without knowledge of the situation. Okay, he's one of the best NBA writers we got going. He wants to win. He wants the best team the warriors can assemble around him. He wants a chance.

A real chance for a deep playoff run. The longer it takes for him to sign a contract extension, the more you can bet. Curry's using potential free agency as a tool to keep the warriors pushing towards that end.

McMahon because Steph expressed at the end of the season,

that he was ready to sit. He was not ready to call it in. Now, he can't sign a contract extension until the end of August. It's not like this is something that, you know, that he's like delaying it today.

And maybe he'll sign the contract extension on August 29th. But for Marcus to bring this up,

“I think it's something that we should pay attention to.”

Steph can be a free agent after this upcoming season. If he wants he's 38 years old, but I just want to point that out. Yeah, and listen, do 62.6 million dollars this year, that makes him one of the highest paid players in the league. You know, is an extension at or more than that number.

If it is, it's a lifetime achievement award. Because the Warriors aren't going to be winning. With Steph Curry making 60 plus million dollars a year. That's, you know, he's still playing an awfully high level. But there's, you know, there's not going to be an end, and quite frankly,

the idea that the Warriors are going, or even a move, even a big move away from being a contender. It's, it's not an idea that that's based in reality.

The reality is they won a nine, ten playing game last year,

and celebrated like it was a monumental accomplishment. And that was a recognition by Steph Curry, who strongly considered retired before coming back by Steph Curry, by Drain Montgomery, that they're not going to have more trips to the mount top.

They've got a saver, the accomplishments, you know, the moments that they do have. They celebrated a nine, not even a clinician of play off earth. A nine, ten win. The right, earning them the right to play another play in game,

in which they got beat, and didn't make the playoffs. But they celebrated that win. It was a hell of a comeback. It was great theater. It was as entertaining as a nine, ten playing game could possibly be.

“But their celebration there told you everything you need to know about”

the state of the Warriors with Steph Curry at 38 years old. Even though he's still, you know, we can argue a top 15 player or so in the NBA. The question becomes, like, when they've been covering this, we've got been covering this week a long time.

Team championship windows in today's NBA, don't stay open this long. Like, if you start it, it's right. If you've been started at 2013, when he lost in the second round of San Antonio

and you could see that they were coming, right? Like, and you saw Drain Montgomery, you could see that Steph and Clay Thompson, they were coming. Mark Jackson was still coaching the team. If you start there and you end in 2013,

2023 when they lose in the second round to LeBron and Anthony Davison and those Lakers in that championship rain, that's a 10-year window.

I need people to understand that never happens in today's NBA.

Like, LeBron leaves after four years at a place. Like, the Kobe Bryant back into the Lakers, went to the finals in '08 and by 2011, they were getting swept in the second round. Like, these things don't happen often.

So the question I have for you guys is, Joe Laker is going to be an easy target for this, because he's, to me, he says dumb, right? But how much of this do the franchise,

“does the franchise owe Steph and Curry at this stage?”

Because he's playing at a top 10, top 15 level and he's making this amount of money. How much do they owe him to continue to try to put out something or is he at the Durk and Kobe stage where, hey, man, you just can sell the arena out

and you just don't have to ride with it. Like, are there conversations that need to be had? But again, oh, him, like, oh, him, what? To find a magic wand? Because there's, I just don't think there's a realistic path

for the Warriors to put together a team around him. This is going to have a chance to contend for championship. Well, we didn't think that there was a realistic path for Philly. Either, I mean, you know, they have some assets and they're, you know, look, they tried for Janice,

couldn't get him, they tried for Jalen Brown, couldn't get him, tried for Anthony Davis, couldn't get him, tried for LeBron, couldn't get him, didn't get him. Did they try for Anthony Davis? I think they would have, I mean,

I think they had interest. The Warriors, the Wizards shut it down. All right, well, Anthony Davis ain't making them a contender. LeBron James, what's going to make them a contender? No, I'm just saying though, I don't think that they're not

going to keep trying, you know. I mean, that's the implication here. If they don't keep trying, that stuff may just hold back on it. And what's, where does Steph going to go?

Well, I mean, where was LeBron going to go? That's where we were saying a year ago. I know, but like if, if Steph wants to go, like Charlotte is obviously his hometown is down. I don't want to entertain this.

Like, look, this will get aggregated. And I'm not looking for that. I'm just a hypothetical.

“But like, if you want to do something like that, fine.”

I think there's, I think there is great honor. And one number one, like Steph's legacy is secure.

I don't care if he never wins another game in his life.

Same with that. I do think there is great honor in a legend of Steph's caliber going from the starting blocks to finish line with one point. Yeah, does anybody, I mean, I know some people do, is anybody like criticize Kobe's last four years,

and the lakeers having no chance to win anything? No, people try to criticize that time. That's 15 million dollar contract, which now looks like, you know what I mean? Like ridiculous, what we were saying back then.

But I'm with you on this one, Timmy. There is great honor in that. But the problem is Joe Lake of knows that too. Like, this whole two timeline garbage that they were trying to pull off.

Like, that's where all of this sort of stems from is we're trying to plan ahead of Steph and Curry as opposed to a man. Let's see if we can maximize and make the, make the best of this. Steph is never really threatened to go anywhere,

and the warriors know that.

“And that's why they've been able to do the things that they've been doing.”

If Steph kicked it a completely different way, then we will be having different conversations. I think this is the first salvo of a, don't take me for granted here. Like, just because you know what I mean?

I don't know, man.

They've never, they've always had the gas down.

They, you know, go get the championship team. They went and got to ran. They go get Jimmy Butler like, you know, they tried to get LeBron three years ago. Like, you know,

Come in go moody Weisman. You know, right, that's the problem of the two timeline. This is the guys that they drafted specifically. Weisman at two. And then come in get seven,

which whatever you want to say about coming in, this might get Wendy's hands dancing. But Steve Kursher's held in think that he was a Star差不多 player. So to have those, you know, to have a high lottery pick and a mid lottery pick,

and end up with two guys who didn't make it to their, I guess, coming up tech for me to second contract. You know what I'm saying? Two guys who didn't live up to their draft status. That was the problem to that.

And the, the labeling of the two timelines were the issues. Not necessarily the plan. Let me ask you this. So Dremond, as we know, is a free agent. He opted out of the contract.

Because this is going to be a, a brand new contract. Dremond can get a no trade clause. Okay. If, you know,

in last year, like, there was a moment where Dremond thought that there was, a chance he could trade it.

“Do you remember that press conference right before the deadline?”

He like had like a quasi goodbye. He was checking out real estate in Milwaukee. And if the warriors are not serious about, you know, improving the team and just want to like write out to the end of the thing.

They'll give them a no trade clause, right? Just okay. Okay, Dremond, we're not going to trade you. Let's just write it out, right? Just give it to him.

But if there's a chance they're going to trade him. Even if it's a one zero point one percent chance, they ain't given it to him. By the way, I don't think they will give it to him. Nor should they probably.

Unless he's willing to take like some sort of pay cut. Which why would he? You know, honestly, the warriors clearly can stomach a divorce with Dremond. They went through a pretty messy divorce with Clay Thompson.

Steph is the one. I don't think they can stomach that. So that's where, you know, even the threat of Steph just sniffing around. They can't stomach look at,

they can't stomach. It's a threat. And in a PR battle of warriors or Steph, Steph is not going to say the wrong thing publicly or intimate the wrong thing publicly.

It's all going to be on the franchise to quote unquote, do write by humble what this doing right by Steph Curry. Mean at this stage. That is the question that we all kind of have at this point. Because like you said,

Wendy, this is the last year of his contract. Free agency as we know it does not exist in the NBA. Free agency is dead unless you are a mid level player. A player of Steph and Curry's caliber,

who can command 60 million dollars or whatever it is,

is not going to hit free agency. So what happens to prevent set player from hitting free agency? It's one of two things. Player resigns or player gets moved. Listen, he may sign.

I think he is indicated he wants to go for two years, Plato 40. He can get, he can get 136 million. That deal may happen on August 29th. I am not saying that it will not.

I am just saying to you what Marcus Thompson put in there.

signed for the minimum. Because he just want to go wherever he want to go. Well, that's not 100% accurate. I mean, he didn't. What's not what he didn't make 53 last year.

He didn't sign with the minimum. He probably could have come to some terms of somewhere else. But he, he was, if he had made a priority to get more money. That's what I'm saying.

And like LeBron, Steph has made more than a half billion

dollars just in the NBA salary. And I don't know who knows how much off the floor. You know, just signed a deal. I forgot what shoe company it was. But just I'm sure there's a lot of money in that one.

Leaning. Very good. Leaning. You know, would it could Steph reach a point where he decides, you know what?

I want to just pick a destination too. I don't know. I would bet against it. But I'm just presenting to Marcus Thompson, who knows Steph better than anybody in the media.

Yeah. Steph's obviously got a lot deeper roots to the Bay than LeBron did in LA. Let's true. More who collected podcast after this? Okay.

I want to go over some of these teams that are now dealing with post LeBron and Chase life. Start with the calves. Caves signed Mario of his own year on Sunday. His own year of 2015 lottery picks from playing for the last four years in Madrid.

Got him for less than three million bucks.

Six eight. Talk to some of scouts I know who live in Europe. And they said definitely an NBA rotation player at this point. Definitely got better. But he doesn't have the way he was playing for Madrid.

Was not the way an NBA role player would play. You know, he stops the ball. So I'm sure he understands the change it. There was some sort of belief that just because the calves signed Kazonia that they wouldn't continue to try to get Jonathan coming.

I don't think that's true. I don't think they'll see his own year as a friend rotation player.

“I think his coming has stopped the ball once or twice.”

You guys are all brutal. I asked a question. I'm not making it personal. I don't it's not about coming to the player. It's about the way the league, the way the fans react to coming.

That's that's what gets on my nerves. The calves have to deal with hardened and once they deal with hardened, they see if they have much money they have under the aprons. They can make trades. They could trade tennis shooters.

There's trades that exist out there. Trade concepts where they could trade shooter and save some money. Open up there. Six million dollar tax payer mid level. They could trade max truce all the way off their team.

And maybe open up the full mid level. I would just keep max truce. I mean, a two way wing. I realize he's not a Hall of Famer, but he makes the reason he plays hard on defense.

Always in the right spot.

He's not a shutdown defender. But who is who you're getting? He's a shutdown defender.

“So I think the calves, you know, they're they're sniffing around seeing what they can do.”

I think they, I think, you know, the comming is going to be faced with the situation where he may have to decide about taking a one year contract and exception contract, versus waiting for a sign and trade. But whatever things, strange things happen. Well, if he's in that situation,

I think there's another team that missed out on a bra on them. Might make more sense for him. But so by saying a team that lost out on the bra, you're not talking about the lakers. No, the Tim Wolves have a glaring need of power for it.

I don't know that they have any interest in comming. I just know that they have to consider all potential solutions to fill their need of power for. And look, they knew, they knew they created this need with maneuvering. That they did to to cut money and get lamella ball. And somebody with the wolves told me, you know, after that trade,

they're like, you know, we went from 48 minutes to foul stand and power forward. Blade and none. You know, and you can argue outstanding. But they had the rotation of, of nausea, or of a Julius Randall. And of nausea's read.

“And now, like, I think if the season started tomorrow,”

you've got Jamie McDonald's starting at the four and you're playing three guards with, you know, asking gold bear to probably lead the league in rebounds. All right, well, that's all well and good. But they are $4 million below the hard cap. And already $15 million over the luxury tax.

like, let's just be clear. I mean, the one thing they could do, they, you know, if they were willing to trade Dante Diven Chenzó, they could probably get a power forward for that price number. Because he's going to miss the year or a big punk almost the year with the,

Achilles, they don't want to trade him. But well, and they don't have, they don't have picks to trade.

I shouldn't say picks, they don't have first round picks to trade.

Let me see what Bobby says that they have to trade. They have, first off, they do have one roster spot, I guess. Yeah, they have no tradeable firsts. And they have, oh my god, I don't even know what they have.

“And he's, you know what, I think they've got, they have two tradeable seconds.”

That's it. You know, and, and look, I, I like Jamie McDonald's a lot. A big part of his values that he's in elite on ball defender. So, you know, you don't want him playing power forward defensively. He also, in part, because he's a lot of times guarding the guy who's,

the primary criminal weapon. He only averaged 4.2 rebounds per game last year. Um, you know, ask an after rebound. The mellow's going to have to rebound, and again, go bare might have to lead the league in rebounds. Uh, what about the Miami Heat events?

They miss out on LeBron, and now they're sitting there with a couple of roster spots.

Right now, they are $1.9 million below the luxury tax, which is, you know, something for them.

Um, but they're hard-capped at the first aprons. So, although going to the tax, they've got $10.5 million to spend. They've got $9 million, they can spend of their mid level. They've got the $5.5 million by annual. That all sounds good.

“They've got a $5.5 million trade exception.”

That's actually good stuff to fill out your roster. But, like I said, they only got 10 and a half million. Because of the way they did the honest trade, they're hard-capped. So, um, they can go above the minimum, but not that much far above the minimum. It's about fit to me. And when you look at that team, the one thing we talked about with Miami is shooting.

Like, they need shooting around Janice and Bam and Andrew Wiggins, like, from an athletic standpoint. He can certainly fit, but we've all said it, not the strongest rebounder, not a great shooter, not someone who's going to tilt the axis of the floor on offense. I don't know if that's a great fit, but it gets to the point where he's going to have to just pick a spot and take a lower salary than clearly even he thought he was going to command in this market.

That's always a danger when you go into your unrestricted year.

Could you take the qualifying off, which is why nobody does it. Like, you wind up playing in the game of musical chairs and there's no one there. And as you said, they need more shooting. And then look, Tim Hardaway Jr. was a great addition for them. He's a volume shooter.

And I think fits well. Bring it back, Fontecchio. I thought it was good. Bobby Porter's does give them some shooting, but they also, like, they're bigs, as far as our Pfizer are a partisan band and Bam and Bam's five-ish. Porter says five-ish. And then they're going to need more.

You know, you have heard stuff about Clay Thompson from the, you know, he'd be. You're saying you don't think Clay is getting bought out. And I don't say that. I just said to me, like, you know, the match aren't going to, but I don't think they buy him out as a charitable endeavor. You know, like there's got to be something in it for them.

You know, but, and then if that's a deal, I would think he's, it's probably a minimum in Miami. Well, it depends. Like I said, they have money to spend. I mean, tomorrow to Rosen's another guy because Pat Riley,

when on Dad and Lebertard show and said we need another playmaker, of course. He thought it was going to be Lebron. Yeah. I do think the heat thought they had a great chance at him. I mean, the, the, the Rosen's the opposite of spacing, though.

Yeah. I know, you're right. I mean, when you go back and listen, again, everything's time in place, but Pat Riley thought he was getting Lebron. He went on that Dad and Lebertard show.

I mean, when he said they got to land the other plane. Yeah. He thought he was getting Lebron. And I wonder what happened. I wonder what what what what what what changed.

Well, I don't think he was told he was getting him. I just think he was very optimistic and look, Vince, you know, as time went on, I thought Miami was going to be the place. I, I got to the place, you know,

where I thought it was something more than 50% was, you know, I thought it was going to be Miami. I was surprised and was fairly. So, um, and, you know, Rich Paul is said he's on the record of saying, I thought for a long time, he thought it was going to be Miami.

“I think Pat Riley for a long time thought it was going to be Miami, too.”

So, um, a Bradley bills out there.

you know, bills, health is obviously always a concern,

but Bill, I could see Bill being a guy who makes sense for them. I mean, I want to play in Miami for a long time. There's a lot of people who want to play in Miami for a long time. He's definitely iron that list. I think Vince is on that list.

[ Laughter ] I just like to spend main June in nice weather areas. Now, we just going to have to be on this set. The best time of Miami is November and December, because it's before the snowbirds come,

and the weather is not as hot the humidity leaves a little bit. That is the time to be in Miami. You know, you first see the Canadians, the folks from Montreal show up first. Once they show up,

there's no stop in the snowbirds, but until that happens, that's the glory. That's the real time to be down there, Vince. That's when you want to.

“You should try to angle for an early season,”

an early season trip down there to do a story on the heat.

There's never a bad time.

There's never a bad time to go spend a few days in Miami, Wendy. Okay, welcome back to the hoop collective. So Spencer Jones offered she with the Oklahoma City Thunder 2 years and 12 million was matched by the Denver Nuggets. Shortly after, we recorded this segment.

So let's just all pretend that we all know in this segment that it was matched. Right, McMahon? We're fine with that, right? We can all do that together. We can agree to that as pod friends.

Just change all the, it would to it did. Okay, sounds good. Here you go. So the Nuggets are in a situation with Spencer Jones. By the time this podcast comes out,

I think it'll probably have been established. But over the weekend, the Oklahoma City Thunder signs Spencer Jones to offer she. $6 million a year. And Spencer Jones is a quality rotation wing.

Nice pickup for goal, Oklahoma City Orf. Denver matches, that's fine. I think what this just highlights. The reason Oklahoma City did this offer she was because of how one tight of a spot Denver is in.

And Denver has gone through this postseason. They didn't resign some of their free agents, including Tim Hardaway. But they are really in some tight spot here with their accounting. And it's for a couple of reasons. Because the Aaron Gordon extension that they've signed is kicking in.

Two, it's that a couple of years ago when Jamal Murray got a contract extension. They gave him the max. You know, he was coming off some injuries in a little bit of a down season. And they gave him the max, which was, you know, a little bit surprising. And they extended Christian Brown last year at a hundred million.

So even if they don't dictate and they extended.

“They extended Zignage you remember that deal?”

That's true. That's true. I'm sorry. That deal is a killer. He's on a rotation player.

Right. And so they're facing, they have only paid a total of 50 million dollars in tax in the last 23 years, 50 million total. Wow. And right now they're 21 million over the luxury tax.

They are 14 million dollars into the second apron.

If paid in Watson picks up his qualifying offer. And if they match on Jones, they're going to be even further into the second apron. And there were Peter luxury tax team in Bobby. Bobby says the current tax penalty is 36.4 million. With Spencer Jones, if they picked that up, that's six million dollar salary.

It goes to 68.6 million. So basically a 32 million dollar tax hit. And this is, you know, their messaging has been because there was a lot of, kind of I would say the conventional wisdom around the league was hey. If they're going to keep paid in Watson, they're going to either dump Christian Brown,

which I think that was going to be very difficult to do. Or came Johnson, which would have been much easier to come being in the last year of this contract at a lower number. But then the messaging from the Nagasers, we don't, we don't do that. Or we're free to spend. Well, how free are you?

“That's what that's kind of the bluff that Sam Presti pulled.”

You know, this to me, almost feels eerily similar in different mechanics to the Milwaukee books post championship. Like you wind up rewarding your guys who were there. They're, their numbers keep going up. And it's not commiserate to the cap. Like, oh, it's one contract, it's because it's, it's, it's a cap.

But not five contracts are commiserate to the cap.

Everybody gets extended off of the championship in trying to keep that team, the bonds of that team together. And you keep putting good money after bad.

“And now they're in a position where is this the first round team in the Western Conference?”

Even if they keep, even if they keep everybody. It was last year. As I'm saying, you have the best player in the world, or at least in the conversation of still being the best player in the world. And you are paying luxury tax money.

And you don't have any designs on getting to the Oklahoma City San Antonio, echelon of contention in the West. That feels like you're in no man's land. But because back to what you're talking about before events, the tough difficulty of managing a era of competition.

And it's especially difficult when you manage it with the team that has in the past been adverse to paying the tax. Now they've been headed, I mean, they're paying the tax this year. And they've been headed towards this number for a while. They've known that this was going to be the year where really bites.

They knew what they were getting into when they signed those contracts. But they didn't necessarily know that they were going to be coming off of a year

where they were at a first round accident.

And they didn't know that Nicola Yokech was going to head towards unrestricted free agency next year. Now he is said he's going to be a nugget. I'm not implying that he's not, but until he signs he hasn't signed. And why is he, why do he say he's waiting this time as extension?

Because he wants more money on the back end.

“And if you want to believe that, I guess you can.”

Well, but I, let's again, let's take him in his word. Him want more money on the back end. I mean, I don't have the numbers of fun. But he's going to be making into the 60s, the 70s. Well, into his 30s.

And it's just going to be, I mean, extremely. Well, you're going to pay him. You're going to pay him. You're going to pay him. Just like I'm done.

You're going to pay him. Just like I'm done. You're going to pay him.

Steps wants, you know, two years at 70 million or whatever.

It's going to be you're going to give it to him. Right. And just like, OK, see, we'll pay Shay is as long as Shay is playing an MVP level. They'll pay him without blanking when, you know, just like they did on the last extension. Just like they'll do on the next extension.

My point is though, when you have a guy making that kind of money. And especially the OKC is an exception. Because OKC did it with a stock pile of picks in their possession. Where's in and part of their stock pile of picks are demographics, by the way. Divers on the, on the, on the most teams in the situation on the other side, where they're down picks,

because of what they've tried to do to, you know, cash in on a window that haven't a player at that level. So if I want to go back to events that against fence talked earlier about the window with the Golden State Warriors and how you just can't have the window open forever.

“I think like if you look at the Milwaukee box, if you go back and look in 2018,”

they won 60 games and made to the conference finals. If you're going to take it through in 2024, 25. You look at these 60 winces and 56 winces and 46 and 26 and one of the COVID short and years. 51 wins, 58 wins, 49 wins, 48 wins, like they're, they're competing every year while they're chewing up their resources, right?

And eventually they ran out. Look at how big the nuggets window is bad. You go back and look, 2018, 2019.

That was their first 50 wins season under Yokech year after year,

46, 47, 48, 53, 57, 50, 54. They're, they're holding the window. They're, they're, they're trading their first round picks and, you know, pushing off contracts and robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like it's, they're in the same zone.

We don't know when the error is a, we don't know the error is open to his two years after the fact that you look at the team. You're like, wait, you guys haven't gotten out of the first round. And two years, but you still look like the team that won a championship, the problem with the salary structure is,

and that's in a Yokech or Steph isn't worth what they're going to get paid. But the way that the salary structure works in the NBA is, you are underpaid at the absolute peak of your career. And then when you start getting the balloon payments on the back end, you're no longer that supersized version of yourself.

That can be the best player, obviously on the championship team, or take up that much of the salary cap. So you, so finding the balance, I don't know if there is a balance for franchises because the rules make it so, you're going to make the most money in your career as you are starting to wind down.

As you are no longer a sure cut MVP type of guy. I don't know how teams do that anymore. And the other thing is, like, yes, you need one of those guys to have a chance to win a championship. And Joker is still without question.

One of those guys, like if we're talking about the best players in league,

And there's still an argument to put him in number one.

So, but you also need depth.

“And it is extremely difficult to do both.”

Extremely difficult. To be watched. And we love he already, though, Adam silver. We love there. A lot different than Spencer Jones.

But he certainly was a tipping point. All right. Well, Nick, man, the college tour is over. Where are we at? Broke. [laughter]

And I haven't even had to start making tuition payments for this one. No, we've got a, there's the admissions process to play out. But we've got a, a, put it in pencil final four. I guess, like if you're feeling your brackets, I would get that final four. Is Duke in there?

Duke is not in there. Thank God. Duke is not in there. Carolina is. I respect it.

The Carolina basketball museum was awesome.

“Danny Greens got some, like Danny Greens got it.”

Danny Greens had amazing basketball life.

Yes. When, when we were at the finals. And shumps up there with his ring. And perks up there with his ring. And did.

Vince, did you see the, the necklace? Hmm. Or three of them thanked. The tops of the rings. I actually think they were replicas.

I don't think they were the actual tops. But he had the, the replica tops of his three rings. Lakers ring. Raptors ring. Spurs ring.

And he had them on a necklace. And it was just beautifully designed. And he was just wearing his three ring.

The ring tops on his chest.

That's right. It was so wheat. So we also, Danny told me that. It's expensive as hell. I mean, Danny celebrates his titles.

I don't blame him. Um, he bought a replica. You can, but if you're a champion, you can buy a replica. Laryo Brian trophy. And I don't mean.

One that's made out of plastic. I mean, the actual thing. And it's a, it ain't cheap. And he's got one. All right.

Can you imagine coming over to someone's house? I actually got more than one. But I don't want to, you know, put him on blast. We respect Danny Green. Also want a championship a Carolina.

Absolutely. We got Danny Green's alma mater. Chris polls alma mater. I'll say the Marcus Aldrich's alma mater and Anthony Edwards alma mater. Not shrink.

I was greedy, but that's okay. I heard events that the McMahon family loved Georgia. Georgia.

“I honestly was pleasantly surprised by how cool the town,”

Athens, Georgia is. I was like, well, did you have low expectations? No, I just, it surprised me just the, the vibe in the, like, the city, especially like the, the downtown area right there on campus. I thought it was, I, it didn't.

I heard Athens is a good time, especially, you know, you're going to college football Saturday. I've heard some good things about, you know. You're doing that sickum wolf stuff? I, I, I, I, I, I, I.

He's, he's a Georgia. He's a Georgia. He's a Georgia dad already. Look at this. Oh, goodness.

Oh, you know what? Go hang out in Chapel Hill with your boy and Michael Malone. I didn't hit Michael Malone up. I did it like I said, the Carolina basketball museum. I'm his Tonya.

If you're in Chapel Hill, it's free and it's awesome. Like they've got all kinds of from like the 1920s on all kinds of unbelievably cool Carolina historical memorabilia in there. This, this trip, man. He, this is a text and talking about the deep south.

I guess North Carolina is not North Carolina is not the deep south. It's, it's the south, but ain't the deep south. I'll just say this as long as there's no picture of a time out. And in the Carolina basketball museum, we'll do just fine. All right.

All right. Shout out to see web. All right. Thank you very much for putting this together. All of our producers and Jackson lead in the way.

Thank you to Vince. Thank you for listening and watching the who-collective. We'll talk to you later this week. I'll see you soon.