Biggest NBA Offseason Winners & Losers + A Major Update On NBA Ownership

- Hello, welcome to the Who-Collective podcast.

We talk about the NBA,

“which we're doing on Thursday afternoon.”

Joining me from Naples, Florida, is our front office man, Bobby Marx. - Hello, gentlemen, how are we doing today? - And joining us from the eastern time zone, Bobby, actually from the basketball offices

at Wake Forest University, his band McMahon. - Howdy, partners, Bobby doing well. I don't know when he didn't answer that, but kind of rude to him. - Hey, not just the basketball offices,

I am in the office of the general manager, Steve Lyman, longtime friend of the pod, better friend now that he is delivered, some free swag. He is now hosting the unofficial recruiting visit with my daughter, actually, she's not a whooper,

but taking a college tour and I'm hoping he's got some denial, and then I'll deal for his tuition

here, stuff, but beautiful campus

and looking forward to getting the tour of the facility and a little bit. - You're pretty far from home up there in the northern part of North Carolina, there buddy. - Well, and we started off at Tulane, Auburn, Georgia,

reached out to Clemson, now we're awake, North Carolina and Duke to come and, you know, we'll see where she ends up. - Come on, I kind of like, welcome. - How are you? - Are you driving all these or are you flying?

- We flew into New Orleans, drove, you know, it's been a long road trip since, and then we'll fly home after, I can't drive more than four hours. I got a four hour timer on me, I just can't, like, that's it.

- Well, if you were, or I was at a flight, you know, Bobby, I don't have to tell you how to, how to dad, you've done off the wheel for yourself. - But a dad tip, especially with teenage daughters, time in the car, that means you've got to cap the volumes.

- Four, all the time, so I don't mind the five hour drives in between some of these places. - All right, you're going very ACC and SEC there, no Texas flavor whatsoever. - Well, she's, TCU, Zahirless, Texas is on her list.

She's seen those schools, so this is a chance to see some other schools. - Dad wants her to be a long horn, Bobby. - All right, like in state tuition, I ain't gonna lie. - All right, well, in state is a lot easier

than applying at a state, and I know that for a fact. (laughing) - As you said, yours all the way across the country, USC. - To a private school in college.

- We were just talking, he could have went to Florida,

“Florida State for free, but I think that's one little.”

- Santa Matta, SC. (laughing) - Yeah, it's out, who would leave, lost the answers to come to Florida, like, maybe LeBron.

- That's true, LeBron. - Oh, that's me getting in, Devar LeBron. (laughing) - Hope you enjoyed it. All right, so we've reached a point

and see, Bobby, the league is essentially frozen at this point with LeBron. There could be some extensions I suppose, but in terms of players moving, the league right now is essentially on hold

until the Bron makes up his mind. Would you agree? - I would fully agree, I mean, we saw Jordan Wall,

a little minor, three years, $50 million on Thursday morning,

but everyone else is the transaction page has not moved at all over the last week here. - Hold on, the matrix-- - Well, Muglusus, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. - That, hey, and that's a good contract for them, too, right?

- By the way, I believe the mavericks have 16 contracts now, McNeil, 16 guaranteed contracts. - They'll figure it out. - I would say-- - Oh, well, that was the,

have a Memphis got 21, they still haven't signed cream loop as I don't think, so they're, get some teams got to figure out their roster a little bit here. - In both case, veterans are available. - Well, that's what I'm asking.

- What about Clay Thompson? - Make it all for. - What if Clay Thompson makes his own offer? - I mean, I'm sure that they would be willing to listen. - Okay.

- You know, I'm like, listen, if you're at, I don't know if Clay Thompson's on the mavericks come training camp. I don't know, I just, I don't know that. - Well, let's just think about and see what happens

with the mavericks, they've got to move a player.

“- If the only thing I want Clay Thompson is,”

like any kind of buyout, you are losing a nice size, it's fire and contract that could be valuable. I in the trademark, it would be mildly hesitation there. - Absolutely correct. All right, so with the lead pause,

we'll wait on Demarder Rosen, we'll wait on Jonathan Kominga, Herd from Jonathan Kominga's agent, Aaron Turner, after my comments the other day. - Did that get your hands going, did it get the hands going? - That's just an indication that I need to take time off

because I'm on edge about things. I'm at the end of the rope. And I had some text me speaking of on edge about LeBron and some of someone reputable and I texted back, I could care less.

(laughing)

- I want Rich getting mad, I mean, but I was just like, I don't really, right now I'm just like, whatever happens happens, you know? - I mean, I don't know, let's be real, like at this point it's like,

it'd be nice if it make a decision. I don't know if Adam's silver trying to hurry it up, did anything but slow it down a little bit more. - Real quick on that, I don't want to discredit anybody. I don't want to get into this game.

LeBron is not waiting because of Adam's silver saying that, okay? - I just said it didn't hurry him up. - No, I know. I'm just, nobody knows what LeBron's doing.

There's incredible amount of crap out there.

Nobody knows. Not even people close to him, no. He's making up his own mind. Whether he wants to articulate why and what he's thinking about later, fine.

“If you want to speculate as to what you'd be thinking”

about if you were LeBron, cool. If you want to make an argument for which team would make more sense or less sense or whatever, absolutely fill the time. Telling you, nobody knows.

But teams don't know, the coaches don't know. The players don't know, the owners don't know. Not even people close to him, no. They don't know. - Do you know?

- I don't know. I know that it's not, it's totally not what anybody wants to hear. They don't know, okay? Let's move on. - Anyway.

- On Thanksgiving. - What I said about what I said about Jonathan coming the other day was not personal Jonathan coming up. It was in reaction to people saying that they were going to sign and trade him with the Hawks getting players back.

That's not happening.

The Hawks are four million, I'm not going to go over it again.

“I hope that I think I think it has a great season.”

I hope the best form, I hope he gets paid. Good luck to everybody. I hope everybody does great. Okay. Caminka is waiting to Martin Rosen is waiting.

Bradley Bill is waiting. Who else am I for getting Bobby? - The restricted guys. The continuous in limbo. - That would happen, I don't think that would happen

either way. - No, I want to get a matron. - Benedict's mother and yeah, restricted. Okay, my point is we're in a law. So let's take this moment, let's have a deep breath.

It's for Lax talking to myself. By the way, the heat social media team didn't know either. - Okay. - They don't know. - They didn't tell the situation at that.

- I understand, they didn't help it, but I promise you they didn't know. Okay, after not five, I don't know if you guys remember this, but LaBron had an intro presser in Miami before,

and not five, not six, not seven, has trailed them ever since. - Well, let's do. - He got two and now he's got a chance to get not five, six. I mean, he might play to his 50 and win a nine pen,

who knows in Miami. - He has not done quote unquote intro pressers in Cleveland or Los Angeles, there's very likely not gonna be a intro presser. So don't even worry about it.

I've had to talk about on ESPN for three days. How many more days? Why have to talk about it? - Okay, I thought that we had this moment. - I don't know, ESPN.

- Thank God, I thought we should take a look at this juncture at some of what we think or the winners and losers. So we're gonna each call a winner and each call a loser. And Bobby, I'd like for you to go first.

- Ooh, I love you. - He's your winner. - You know what? And looking at that shirt that Tim's got on, that Wake 4 shirt, he's inspired me to pick the team.

The team that Tim Duncan once played on, Wake 4, and formerly played on a San Antonio.

The bias has to your contract $15 million.

“And more important, the old five year, $252 million.”

What out any escalator clauses and young that drew the eyeer of David Kelly, the executive director of the Players Association, as far as the ability to give back and not put that escalator clause in there

that could earn him potentially another $50 million that will help keep Stefan Castle and Dylan Harper in a spurs uniform for the foreseeable future. I would say that would be my big winner of the off season.

- What does it say that you're a big winner is that they got an existing player to take a below market contractor? - Yeah, and they got a quality vet, you know, addition. He didn't mention the couple first round picks,

although the big from Kentucky's probably isn't playing this year. - But listen, it is a huge deal. When you got a guy who gave you a $50 million discount in a summer where, and I might bring this team up in a little bit, where she's rival is shedding contributors,

- Well, I will tell you that Zach Kram our colleague at ESPN gave his off-season grades. It's kind of hard to give off-season grades right now with, you know, a couple of teams, what they do with extensions are really going to define

their off-season. For example, the next Karl Towns, you know, he's extension eligible right now, Bobby, and we have no, you know, we have no agreement on the extension. I would argue, I know they lost Mr. Robinson and all this stuff,

but I would argue that the next off-season is defined by what contract they get or not get Karl Towns into. - More who, collective podcast after this. (upbeat music) - And, you know, the heats, you know,

the heat, you know, they certainly have had quite an off-season by getting Yannst and a Kumpo, but if they get LeBron, it takes to another level. Having said that, you know, Zach Kram did grades. He gave out six A's and the San Antonio spurs got,

well, I should say, he gave out two A's and four A minuses. So I guess two A's and the San Antonio spurs got one of his A's. Did the other team to get the A with a your winner, band, McMahon? - Should I say who the other team was?

- That's right. - Say your team and now I'm gonna go with one of his A minuses, though. And, this is controversial because they didn't get better

“immediately, but I think they set themselves up”

to have a higher ceiling down the road. And that's the Charlotte Ornits.

You know, getting, look, that sun's first round pick

was getting traded. They want a race for the sun's first round pick and what was it, 233 Bobby? - Oh, yes. - I mean, I talked to teams, it was like, man.

You know, they got two before we could. And to get that pick for Miles Bridges, that's like, wow. That was really good work. And then, though the mellow trade is gonna be a polarizing deal. And there is a chance that he could make them look very bad for it.

Nobody doubts his talent. Maybe, you know, his second, and he's come off his best year. And maybe with a change of scenery, slide into kind of the shotgun roll in Minnesota. A mellow's career very well could take off.

But I haven't heard anybody tell me they thought that was a bad deal for the Hornets. You know, on the contrary, if her people say, hey, they did a great job of letting him restore his value and pounds in as soon as they got out of opportunity

to get a first round pick and return.

And they, you know, look, Jeff Peterson's not gonna sit there and say it, but he has a very clear vision for the culture that he wants for the Charlotte Hornets. And the mellow's, Miles Bridges did not fit that. And so, you know, they're gonna have the culture

that he wants as they build around Brandon Miller and con canipple. - Not that disagreeing with either of you. I would just say that, you know, you're two winners. One team is getting rewarded for resigning its own player.

I mean, Tobias Harris would go to addition. But the other is getting rewarded for taking, making deals that potentially make it worse on the short run. - Mm-hmm.

“- Which I think just goes to the complex nature”

of how you look at it off season moves in the NBA, more than anything. - I wanted to say Atlanta, but I didn't want to get bon times to be head. - No, no, I'm not talking.

- I dropped Atlanta and they did, they get, they got an A-minus, you know, I automatically dropped Atlanta two letter grades for bringing in that bozo bon tim. - Yeah, it's cram, did, let me just see here.

Did he write it that, that transaction? - Not come because of the bon times higher? - Yeah, how did it affect the rate? They did it in the name of it. - It didn't even mention bon times.

How could you, how could you discuss the hawks off season, or not mention their biggest transaction? - Well, they got a whole bunch of players for the hawks, got a whole bunch of players for basically free. - Yeah.

- Like they got, they got Lou Dort, what did they send out in that deal? They sent out all two seconds? - No, they did, they did. - That's not what we each had to say today.

- Yeah, okay. - Really, they, I did that, it wasn't. - Well, the thing with Risha Shaze, they were gonna have to decide by October,

whether to pick up his $17 million player

option for next season. - Right. - And they probably would have had two 'cause he's a number one pick, but yeah. - I don't, they decided they wanted to trade him,

they didn't want to do that.

“- Sure, and by the way, it was an honestly solid pick.”

He wasn't in charge, they made him the number one pick. If that was to find Castle, they're not shiproom out. - Well, I think the big part of Houston, or I'm, I said Houston, 'cause I was thinking of Kingston Fleming's,

a big part of Atlanta's offices, and we'll be judged on, how what kind of a season Fleming's has. - Yeah. - 'Cause that's a very important pick for them. You know, he doesn't have to be great right away,

but like when you evaluate it, that's, you know, because that was a very important move for them. You know, they gave, they'd move back

an impact player in last year's draft, so anyway. My winner, I'm just gonna have to go with Philadelphia because while they gave away the pick and the swap, they took a, they took a 36 year old Paul George who had two years left on his contract at the max,

you know, a, I don't know if I call it toxic contracts, but certainly one of the worst contracts in the league. - Okay, well, I'm trying to send to people this week to try not to draft. - Kick to it, just to get off it.

- At least, and maybe they would have to draft the draft compensation that they ended up giving up and they got an all-in-be player return. - Right, I mean, Paul George played 37 games last year, got a 25 game suspension, and people were like,

and I think not unreasonably, people were like, boy,

“that time off might not have been the worst thing,”

'cause it got him healthy. And it did, he came back and was good. So, you know, like, Jalen Brown, whatever you want to say, he's under contract for three more seasons, he's top 10 player in the league, you know,

top 15 depending on what your viewpoint is. Certainly, somebody's not saying, he's not a top 15 player, and he's looking for revenge. - Right, and it was a phenomenal addition,

as far as just a talent upgrade for the sectors. I am curious about the fit with or without the brawn. I am very curious about how it all fits. - Well, I mean, just what they turned Paul George into, regardless of how it all may work out,

'cause it's not an ideal fit, as you said. I mean, you got to give the sex, the sixer's front office, Mike Gansy,

the first year original manager credit for that one.

- And the dean, I like the dean way to addition. I mean, they paid a little, you know, a little bit of money for Dean Wade, but, you know, in terms of what he's done here, it's like the contract, the game four years.

- Yeah. - So, but I'm not quibbling, you know, not quibbling. I mean, huge win to get Jalen Brown, and that could end up changing their entire horizon, really it could.

So, I'm calling them a winner, regardless of the brawn. All right, for every winner, there must be a loser, and McMahon, I will start with you. - I'm gonna go with the Oklahoma City Thunder,

“and it's not because I think they did anything”

that was illogical, but it's a loss when you have to, or decide to, or a pressure to buy ownership, make a series of trades that are motivated purely on dumping salary and dropping your luxury tax payment from.

Bobby was the final number in salary and luxury tax that they shed 300, some on. - Well, I had 57, so like 234, some on that.

- Yeah, it's 320, something million dollars,

but here's an end look. They back filled, they spent a first round pick on a gold, been in Sturts, a lottery pick, on a big man, a day mora, the who, I think it's got a chance to be really interesting,

he's gonna need some time and terms with getting physically ready for MBA play. The Isaiah Hortonstein deal was great value for them, and it was great value for them, because Hortonstein understood the crunch they were in

and was willing to work with them to take a reduced salary, to get locked in.

“But look, it's a loss when you have to trade”

a year and change out of one in the championship, three guys who were significant contributors to that championship, and I understand Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins fell to the fringe of the rotation of the playoffs,

but their depth took a big hit. Lou Dork, you know, you can all you weather, he was playing too much against the spurs, but he's a been a huge piece for them, out for years, and then it's, this summer for them

is really gonna be judged based on to you. Yet case and wall assigned, to you get AJ Mitchell signed, because shedding the salary now, Sam Presti went on the record,

just from our teams with the Oklahoma and basically saying,

this is to set us up to be able to keep this team and we gotta move forward. So you've gotta keep those guys, those key guys. So you know, I assume walls probably move in the starting lineup, you know, you've gotta keep him,

and that's not gonna be cheap, AJ Mitchell, whether he's in that starting spot or a six man, he's not going to be cheap, but you've gotta keep those guys, or this is just a bad situation.

And then everything is culturally, this was a loss, because, you know, this kind of boy scout, you topia, that the thunder had, I, you know, NBA businesses interfered with that.

during the second round series against the Lakers

“was, as AJ Joe pretty much lost his spot and rotation”

to Jared McCain, and as AJ Joe, great team guy. He's standing on the bench and engaging the game, and he's yelling to diagonal, plays to run to get McCain to ball, because McCain was cooking, right?

But then, you know, that, you turn around and that guy gets dumped, right? He gets salary dumped. And you know, Wiggins, great team guy, he gets salary dumped, Lou Dorr.

Tyler's shaved the longest tenor guy, and Shay did not want Lou to go. I'm not saying Shay's gonna have, like hard feelings or anything, but trust me, he didn't want him to go.

But like, Lou is a big piece of the culture as anybody aside from Shay to lose that culture, and now it becomes like, okay, hey, we're fighting for our spots, we're fighting to, you know, to be able to stick around,

you know, money's coming into to the equation. I think that's a loss. It's a big cultural loss. The body's going out the door, and just kind of the business being right there in your face.

It's a big cultural loss for the thunder. You know, one thing I will say on the flip side, saying press, it can absolutely look every guy and as I say, we do right by our guys, because he did put Isaiah Jonah, good situation with the pistons.

Both Anne Wiggins and Lou Door went to a very competitive situation, a good situation with the hawk. So, you know, it's not like he sent these guys to Siberia, that's the one thing

from a cultural standpoint that is, at least still in their favor, regarding these moves. - All right, I think Kram gave the,

“what did he give them, you give them a C something?”

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I mean, here's the thing,

the heart and stine extension was one of the best contracts of the son. - It worked, very worked. - So, he's got to be plus. - Also, I didn't want to, I didn't want my, there's a couple of teams that we pick on all the time,

and I don't want to, I didn't want to pick on those teams anymore. - I understand. I respect that, I respect that. - We said plenty about a couple of teams down the bottom. - I feel you, all right, Bobby?

- Cool, man, I could have gone a lot of ways here. I wanted to pick Portland just 'cause they're owner, and I think we're going to talk about them in a minute, but I'll leave them off the offer right now. I'm going to pick New Orleans.

They've got to keep, they've got to do, they've got to do anything. They got to, they got to D, which is comparable to my freshman year at Maris College. That was a number that was right up there. They hired Jamam Mozi, who went like a lot,

but in one 26 and 56, and they're, they're off season signing with the Andre Joy. - And, they can be one of your deal. - That was one year deal. - Yeah, so it was a, it was a, so we'll just end up.

I could be totally wrong three months for four months from now, and Jamam Mozi could take the same team of Zion and herb Jones and Tray, Murphy, and Jordan Pool, and the Jonathan Murray, and CDEC Bay, and this whole group, a dare queen,

who they drafted a lot of year ago, and get them into the, and contending for lottery finish. I could, I could totally be wrong with it, but I just look at it when you're 26 and 56. It's probably not the right group to roll back.

And I just think it was also, they had a lot of people out the door in terms of the front office. I think the way that this front office is operating is ill advised. It's a very insular front office, like, you know,

you've got Joe DuMores, Troy Weaver, and the bloodlines, and that's, that's the people that are in the mix, and that's a tough way to go about business in the NBA. - Yeah, it's not a two-way guy today. - No, it's not. - Yeah, I mean, look, I think they would argue

that their improvement is that their team is hopefully going to be healthier. - I mean, it probably will be. They probably-- - And the Jamal Mosley is a great hire, and that he's going to help turn everything around.

You know, they would argue that they made that change. - Yeah, I would argue you look at the Western Conference, and, you know, you need to get better,

“you need to do things to position self-long term,”

to have a higher ceiling. - That's fair. All right, so I have said stuff about the Tray Young contract, and I am not going to go over that again. - That's the one that I did, I wasn't going to end on.

- Listen, I just want to say this,

even if Tray Young has a first team all in BACs,

It's not a commentary on him. It's a commentary on paying him that under these circumstances. That's what it's a commentary on. But I really, I'm not sure--

“Bobby, do we think the Detroit Pistons got better this summer?”

- They didn't. - You said it up for them to get better

than I had the second round of the draft.

You said the expectation for them. - I don't remember. - Yeah. - No, what did I say, I don't remember. - No, listen, they were in position to strike.

- Yeah, this is after-- - This was after decided not to strike last trip before the Tray Dead Lion, which I didn't mind. See what you got? But clearly, they needed another big time score.

They needed a number two score. Number two, create a Isaiah Joe. I do like for them as far as bringing another shooting. - Yeah, they resigned Kevin Hurder, and they brought an Isaiah Joe.

I mean, those are guys who are without question, two of the NBA's best shooters. - The Jalen Durant thing is going to probably end up with him on the roster and some hard feelings that need to be smoothed over.

They traded away as a Stewart. - Yeah, so they had a lot of flexibility. They kind of kicked the ball down the field a little bit because they took John Collins, who's at the end of his goes on a one-year contract.

They basically swapped out Tobias Harris for John Collins. And if they could have gotten Tobias Harris

for 15 million, which is what the spurs got him for,

then that would have been a terrific signing. But it's just, it's hard to get, it does happen, but it's hard to get your players to come back to your team on big pay cuts. - Yeah, and the other thing is,

if they could have gotten no one pal in there, I should have liked for them. I would have liked it better if they could land it a trade for a, you know, for a quai. That would have been sticky, obviously.

- So yes, so they lost Tobias Harris and Carousel Verte. They traded Isaiah Stewart. Now, they obviously believe Paul Reed will fin that role. Like, you know, I'm not, I mean, and look, Trayton Langdon's track record

of making decisions with this team has been pretty good, but I just, you know,

“when I think that they're just, they're very cautious”

of what they're paying, Kate Cunningham, what they're gonna have to pay us our Thompson or what they're gonna have to pay Jaylander and they're just very cautious. I think of taking on another big salary.

And that may end up being a correct assessment of the situation, but I felt that they were team that was the number one seed in the Eastern Conference and had a chance to seriously upgrade. And I don't think they seriously upgraded.

Maybe they would argue that they upgraded. - Yeah, I think they, you can argue they downgraded. - Well, I don't know if they would say that, but you could argue that. - But what they did at the Trade Deadline,

I compared to the Thunder of the Year before the Thunder won the championship. Or it's like, okay, hey, ahead of schedules in No. 1 seed, see how it plays out, see, see where your holes are, let guys prove what they are, what they aren't,

and then you can be aggressive. That next summer, the Thunder went out and signed as they had hardened stone, and traded rocks, grew so, and got their two finishing pieces. The Pissons did not get their finishing pieces this year.

- My concern, Troy, it is like, if they were a marathon runner, there had been stuck at mile 15 and everybody else is just coming up from behind. And just, you know, like, just based on what, and listen, they could say, they got to second round

and to, you know, into a game seven and everything like that, and they'll be better. But the cost is going to get up, go up there. I mean, when you had with Kate and Duran and Thompson, like, you're going to these, that's going to be your three guys.

And they saw their picks to do something, but I just thought that, where everyone else was going, there was probably another move out there. - All right, let me just say something about a team,

“I think a team that could swing either way.”

I don't know if you guys have anybody that's category. So I focus a little bit on the cabs, cabs corner. (laughing) - They got Donovan Mitchell into this contact extension,

which is a certainly something that was not 100% guaranteed and they locked him down. And it's a bunch of money, Bobbi, I can still close my eyes and see you tweeted out the whiteboard of Donovan's year-by-year contracts.

What I was agreed to in the last year was-- - On you with that, 272 is the number. So I'm writing a factor fiction article and one of the things is that players giving back a little bit, and Victor and Bronson,

McCail Bruges guys like that. And then you go through the guys that, listen, it's their money. They have the right to do whatever they want, but this is, you know, Donovan signed,

I think this is the second time he signed extensions in two years, right? 24 and in 26. - Yeah. - The only concern, like,

and I just, I never think those contracts age well.

- Especially when there's 75.5 in the last year. - What are you going to do? - What's your options? - Well, no. - You got to do it, but--

- I was a win. I mean, Donovan otherwise was going to be an unrestricted fridge in next summer. So, you know, that, I don't think the cows wanted to be in that position.

So, so I felt that that was, you know, it wasn't like a resounding humongous victory,

“but it was a good, I think, a good moment”

for the franchise. Maybe that'll end up not looking like that in four years, but I think the calves are going to wager that they'll take the next two seasons of two, three seasons of Donovan.

I understand that they may have to deal with it on the back end, but certainly the guys have been all them VA two years in a row, you know, as soon as he's entering his prime, what are you going to do? James Harden opted out and they're going to come

to an agreement with Harden that is going to keep

them out of the second apron.

So, they did lose Dean Wade, and they did lose Keyon Ellis, and I would just say that, you know, one of the things that's interesting, I wrote about this a little bit earlier this week on ESPN.com about how so many teams are dodging aprons

that now it's a whole thing that you can evaluate the apron Dodgers. You know, like I was talking to a GM this week, and they were like, well, you know, if you look at what Boston had to do to get out of the apron

last year, Oklahoma City did better to get out of the apron issue. Yeah, and that's a whole subcategory. Seven, uh, yes, seven second round picks to trade three guys. They didn't have to attach anything.

They were getting stuff back. Right. So a little sucks. One thing is that's now a whole subc... It's a whole subcategory.

Yes, yes. So the fact that like... The calves didn't have an added, anybody. But the calves haven't added anybody, right? But they're going to bring back all their core pieces,

probably. Have an added buddy. And have gotten... Right, but they have... And this is when we're judging, we're judging now.

I'm saying, the calves haven't added anybody.

And they're out of the second apron.

They didn't have to trade away starters. They didn't have to, you know, you know, they didn't resign role players. And it's going to hurt him a little bit. And they need some guys to step up.

So, but like the thing with Cleveland is if LeBron comes, it changes your whole viewpoint of it.

“And if LeBron doesn't come, I think there's still a move to be made.”

You know, they still... Correct me from Rome, but part of the, uh... Logically letting Dean Wade goes, like Jalen Tyson's proven he's ready for more. Well, they hope he's proven he's ready for more. Or at least he's given your hope he's ready for more.

They're 24, first round pick. So, the calves could swing either way on this, I think. So, all right. So, to be continued, we didn't mention the heat as a big winner, despite the fact they pulled off the honest deal.

I mean, that is a... Obviously, that was a big win. So, Kram, Kram didn't give them an A. Kram, I don't know. Do you know, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. There must be. There must be. Of grading.

Well, there's everything that they traded for, yeah, that's which was a bunch of draft apps, draft assets and Tyler Hero. Um, you know, Kelly'll wear. So, you know, one of their probably their second best player and their best prospect. And they lost Norman Powell to free agents.

Man, that's true. You point, that's good point. I do like the hardaway signing, Bobby, you know. The guy had 223 or something last year for the nuggets. And they needed shooting.

Yeah. So, and by the way, like, this is another team that could swing.

“Like, if they don't, if they get LeBron, I think it's going to be an A.”

I don't want to speak for exact, but I think it's going to be an A. If they don't get LeBron, they might be able to get Demarter Rosen, you know. We'll see, you know, that would be a decent fit for them. So, they have, they have three roster spots. I looked up, I looked up cramp, hold on.

According to his LinkedIn, Washington University in St. Louis, that's a pretty good academic school. That's cool. Are you going there next to, on your drive across the 70? No, like you said, we're looking at, at schools that have some, some good athletics

programs, even though she's not an athlete. All right. Well, I was, it's really... And that's a serious shot at Washington. Wash you.

Let me start going back to Miami in real quick. I would, I would, I hope, hopefully, one day Pat Riley does his own podcast, because I could listen to him tell stories, like, you know, he went on Dan LeBotard and went back and rewind the clock with the brawn and all that stuff.

And what's, it's amazing in Brian, you know, this and you live there is the 2010, when

these guys all do those sign-in trades and what they had to give up to get them, you know, the six first outpicks, where they could have basically just signed them into cap space and

you. You can have more years. All the states rules have now changed. But what those got, what Miami had to give up to get those guys in sign-in trades, which eventually been him in the rear end, because LeBotard left early anyway.

Well, I have posited the concept that the cab started getting LeBotard James back the day after the decision, because the day after the decision, Chris Grant, the gentleman

“manager at the time, somehow, remember what Dan Gilbert, where Dan Gilbert's head was at?”

I was going to say what the letter published was at the day of the day, the day after. The date, the night up within an hour. Okay. And in the morning, remember, it was like in the evening, was I gave it a clock at night.

In the morning, the cabs got a sign-in trade where they got two first, two seconds.

And I agree that the first that the heat sent them were deemed to be not very valuable first. Well, they traded one of the first in the package for Kevin Love when they got LeBotard back. So obviously, a lot of things happened. It wasn't like that was the key.

I'm just saying that it was, it was a very responsible thing to do for the cabs to get LeBotard, get assets for LeBotard. Like if, if I ever said to you, if I went to, even a very good, strong NBA fan, and I say, was LeBotard James ever traded, they would say, no, in fact he was, he was traded for two first round picks and two second round picks.

More who, collective podcast after this. So anyway, okay, I want to talk at this point about, by the way, do you guys have any other swing teams you want? Do you want to know? No.

Well, all right. In the last week, there have been two absolutely incredible stories written about NBA. I can't say NBA owners, but NBA leadership, with, no, I can't say that, but definitely one governor, but I can't say who the other person was because I don't know. I won was written by Matoko Rich, I hope I'm saying that correctly, who was a writer

for the New York Times. And I know I sent the story to both of you because it was one of my favorite stories I've read this year. This is a potential borderline legendary story.

“Jackson, do you have any idea what I'm talking about?”

It's about an NBA owner. It says yes in the chat. Jackson.

Jackson's always on top of it.

The viewers and the reader, the listeners can't see anything. I was hoping he would see what's happened. All right. There was a legendary story that New York Times that came out a couple of days ago on Intelman, Fritita, in his role as ambassador to Italy.

Is he acting as a governor right now, McMahon? I mean, his unpatrick runs the rockets on a day-to-day basis, you know, working hand-in-hand with the profiles don't. So Patrick is the daily ownership presence. By the way, is that Kram gave the rockets a B+ Bobby?

He did. They didn't do much. So a lot of the Tariys' signing was really good and Mark is smart. Yeah, that's good. Good business.

They dumped Dorian Finney Smith at the cost of three seconds. Yep. Yeah. Anyway, Tom and Fritita has been, you know, he's been focused on, you know, being the ambassador to Italy.

He's been focused on Chiliname's yacht in Italy. So this story, the reporter and the photographer are welcome done to the yacht. And give a day in the life of Tom and living in the summer. Not a day in the life of the US ambassador to Italy. Yes, the headline of the story was as Trump scraps with Maloney, who was the prime minister

of Maloney, his envoy to Italy as it's seen, which is an incredible thing.

And so I don't even know where to begin. But I highly encourage anybody to go for it and put the picture up. It's this Tillman channel, the call "Pensive" on the yacht in a nice little sport coat with like this beautiful background. I mean, come on, man.

“Did this get there with a driver range on that thing?”

Well, there's something. There's something, yeah. It's not going to stop all night. In the first paragraph, it is described, he's on a months-long tour of Italy's coastline aboard his $450 million dollars super yacht.

This thing's not just a yacht.

It is a super yacht. That's a 384-foot 7-deck yacht. And it is gorgeous. Toon. Hot tups.

Ah, that offers facials and pedicures. Movie screen and room, putting green, multiple bars, and two helicopters. What do you need to help? Well, that reminds me of one of the all-time favorite stories about NBA owners. And it was a story about the late Paul Allen, who was the owner of the Portland Trail

Blazers. He, in the summer, sometimes liked to go to Antarctica.

“And he had a 400-foot super yacht, that I think had like scientific equipment on.”

And I remember reading a story about how, unfortunately, I've been a helicopter accident. The boat had been set down to southern tip of Argentina, Paul Allen had flown down there

and he was leading, he was going to lead this expedition to Antarctica in the summer.

He had flown down and landed in this city in the bottom tip of Argentina. And a helicopter was dispatched from the yacht to come to the airport to pick him up. And unfortunately, the helicopter crashed into the ocean. Now, as I recall, it was OK. The pilot, everybody on the helicopter survived, and was rescued, and was OK.

And then there was just this line in the story that said, the yacht's backup helicopter and then picked up Mr. Allen and took him out to the yacht. So, which, the question is, what happens when your yacht's helicopter crashes into the ocean? He calls her. He is the backup.

He is the backup. Yeah, for what? If you're starting point, or pulls a hand, I can't just put it back up here. You think that helicopters came with the yacht, or did they divide them separately? I'm sure it's separate.

So, Tillman is incredible in this story, basically, with these quotes.

And he said that he had recently spoken to both President Trump and Prime Minister Meloni, Georgia and Meloni, and he said, quote, "I listen to him both." No, I got to both. I do better to him. You do.

I listen to him both. He said, speaking of this heavy text as twang. And they both make sense to me.

“Somebody said that that's how I was with you and Bond dumps, that that's how I used to say.”

That he also says that doesn't affect my relationship or the American Italian relationship. Yes. How many people ever get to come on a boat like this? People love successful people. Everybody wants to be successful.

And anybody who says they don't is just lying to you. Yeah, being successful is cool. I don't know. I don't know that that's got a whole lot to do with the role you're in, as far as helping things.

Okay, Father, it's a six-the-out that he's given the name boardwalk. Bobby, do you hear that? The six-the-out. Six-the-out. Six-the-out.

Six-the-out that he's given the name boardwalk, which is a shout out, I'm sure, to his hometown of Galson. Okay. So, at one point in the in the story, he gets off the boat and goes to this little town. I can't pronounce this town, I would botch it, but it's a small town, and the mayor

is summoned to meet with him, and the mayor meets with him.

“Actually, I think at this point he meets with the bishop, and he meet with the bishop, and”

they talk about it on the Ambassador America, whatever, there's all these dignitaries around him, and he gives him an engraved silver dish, Bobby, and it says, "This has my name on it, I don't want you to forget me." What else do you want? What else do you want?

What else do you want? I don't remember. I don't know. I'm an Italian translation of his book, "Shut Up and Listen." Oh, that's right.

Of course. Yes. But this is a pair of phrase here by the writer, but he says, "The way Mr. Fetheta sees it, given Italians a glimpse of how the O.1% live helps to make the kind of people to people connections that ambassadors are supposed to foster."

It's just amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. And it talks about how he and his wife were just going up and down the Italian river there, stopping in towns and spreading the American way.

Respect. It is. He is obnoxiously rich, and, you know, very proud of it. Now, I will say this. If you have a conversation with Tilman Fetheta, you're probably going to end up like laughing

in smiling. No, I am not making fun of this story. This is a story. These are his quotes on the record. I'm just pointing out.

I'm making fun of it a little bit, because it is like a cartoon character. But.

He is a character. He is an all-time character.

“Anyway, the sign-off quote is just very honest.”

I loved it. He said, quote, it wouldn't matter to me who the president was, because he's like, "I want to come back to be the ambassador, even if someone else is a president in a few years." I don't know. It was maybe a 17-out by then.

Maybe, maybe 500 feet, maybe there'll be a third helicopter.

He said that he has no desire to run for elected office himself. Why? Because quote, there is no job that I could hold and be on this boat. And, listen, this is a man at large at sea, and in the NBA off season. Yeah, but as far as Rockets go, like, tillman's obviously still the final word, but

he's not involved, he's not like, I think the concern with tillman bought the rockets from some people, including by the way, some people wrote for the rockets at the time, was that he was going to be meddling, and he was going to be Cuban-esque, that he was going to be a lot like we've seen in phoenix with a, with a Matt Ishpia. Untilman learned some tough lessons early on, I mean, boy, did he learn when that

Chris Paul trade blew up in his face? You know, and he got, he's gotten out of the way. And again, his son Patrick is really in charge of the franchise, but he very much is aligned with, with Rafael Stone, and in another way, Patrick, along with Rafael, where the one who were really responsible for talking tillman into that brutal, painful, long-term

rebuild that tillman didn't want any of it. He had to be talked into, to stick with on a frequent basis.

“I remember, I wrote a story, I think this was, this, after the second year of the rebuild,”

I wrote a story, I went down, I visited with Patrick, and, you know, and, and visited with, with Rafael, or no, I visited with, no, I had a call. I, I don't know if this was the fifth, I don't know if this shot was the previous shot, but I remember I was talking to tell him about that, or about the rebuild, and he made a comment about how he was looking at the, what is it, the tower bridge and London, just hanging

out on the out back then. So, you know, the man likes his yachts. Listen, man, if you got it, live with it, man. I've got it flaunted. Listen.

Let us see how that 0.1% lives, baby. Yeah, by the way, speaking of Mark Cuban, he just bought into a team coming to Vegas. Did you know that? The opening of the, it's going to be lost Vegas age, I saw that up up there. I should do that.

Well, you've been touring colleges in the southeast, and your old friend, Mark Cuban. I guess you're in danger of being banned from Las Vegas age games. Well, my daughter does plan to apply to Indiana as well. I don't want Cuban to know that because it might make sure she doesn't get in. Yeah.

Yeah. That's have a history of ban and McMans. He does. That is true.

Okay, so the second story is not as fun, but just as amazing.

And that is a story written by Bill Orm of the Portland, Oregonian about the Blazers situation, which is getting worse by the day. We talked about a week ago McMans, you and I, it's getting worse by the day. The rhetoric between the politicians and the Blazers organization is deteriorating. And Bill Orm got a hold of what he calls a top Blazers official, okay?

I don't know what that means, but the freedom with which this individual speaks with is with the kind of thrust that leads you to believe. It's a very, very high Blazers official. Because, and it, and that it was certainly with the full blessing of Tom Dundin. It's, it's spoken with a lot of authority.

Let's just put it that way. I don't know who this top Blazers official is, but it's turned with a lot of authority.

And there are some incredible quotes attributed to this top Blazers official in this story.

“I think it's important, you know, there's been a lot of back and forth and machinations”

that have happened here. And if you're a Blazers fan, maybe you followed them. There's no way that I could completely summarize them here. But I will just say that on Monday, the Blazers board of governors, which is essentially,

And I have no idea what's going to come out of that meeting, but it could be the declaration of all out war.

“And, but this is, this is a response to the city sending the Blazers what they wanted”

in the least. The Blazers decide a least to get the money to renovate the arena. And the quotes about this are tremendous. Let me get them and I want to get them exactly correct. Quote, why is the city sending this thing?

No one were not going to agree to it. Said the official who expressed particular antipathy toward the unionized workforce and annual payment provisions. We're in there.

They're to be unionized workforce and they want the Blazers to make annual $3 million.

What does antipathy mean? They don't like it. He expressed the opposite of support for the idea that they would have to use unionized labor. Good war.

You went to Montana. Further quotes, quote, "The city of Portland doesn't even recognize they've got a sweet heart deal and they're making it complicated and if they want to say no, if they don't want us, then that's fine." Well, there you go.

“I mean, and then what else of the Blazers, what else is Blazers ownership done this week?”

Well, they fired their wife clean of the TV group, right? I mean, they're pretty much... I'm not done with the quotes. I'm not done with the quotes. We can talk about that in a second.

All right. Quote, it's not like we lose money, moving the team. The team official said, "We might spend money, but we won't lose money.

It might be okay to spend $1 billion on a relocation fee at the value of the team doubles."

Of course you would do that. This is like, they said, "It's okay for you to say this in the paper." Yeah, and isn't there something to hear about? I'm not having a Jersey's sponsor been the only team and I think it's ranking. Yeah, they complained about the lack of sponsorship, local sponsorship, and stuff.

But that's... No, I mean, it's also said that this deal's going to be the market sucks, is what they're saying. They're like, "If you don't want us fine, we're going to move. And if we pay a billion dollars," I mean, like, this is on the wreck.

I mean, it's not quoted, but it's on the record. And this is someone who very clearly is speaking for the organization. I can't remember this, Bobby, I have to go back and look. There's no way that this was ever said coming out of the leadership of the mouth of the Seattle.

No, and that was what I was going to say, is like, I need to go back and look at that. I don't think it was like this. I mean, there was at one point Aubrey McClendon, who was, who was since passed away. He was Clay Bennett's like friend and like partner.

There was an email that was sent in between the owners where they basically were saying,

"Okay, we got the team, now let's move it," essentially. And that was seen as, you know, in flammatory. But that was a private email that got released. This is on the record in the newspaper.

“Oh, and that's what I was talking about.”

Especially the market sucks, and we don't want to be in any way. This relationship has not been good from the beginning. Like, there wasn't like, there was a period of time like an introduction when there's a grace period in the beginning, but man, there's been one after another besides what Brian just talked about, but you know, all going all the way back to April, right, with playoffs

and travel, who traveled, and who didn't travel, and certainly the, you know, Mike Norris contract, like there's been so many massive layoffs, and constant like the ret of, "Hey, if you don't give us what we want, we're gone." He's made no attempt to ingratiate himself with the community in Portland, with the Trailblazers fanbase, which is, you know, a very passionate fanbase unique quirky called the passionate

for sure, you know, he's, he's a complete outsider and doesn't want to be a Portland inside. I didn't want to be part of Portland community. And honestly, what he did, like, what he did with a very popular broadcast crew is you know, it's like he's actively time to make the fan experience worse.

Right. So their broadcast crew, a lot of whom had been there for a lot of years, they let the radio voices go, Kevin Calabro, who's been with them for 10 years, Kevin Calabro was the voice of the Sonics, the Sonics moved, he became an ESPN, he called games for ESPN, college and NBA ESPN, actually left ESPN, because he wanted to call games for a team again.

He was like, yeah, this is a tough decision, and you know, and some people would say that

“this was a step back, but I love being the voice of a team and I'm going to go do it.”

And he loved living in Portland and they offered him a contract. He wasn't fired. They offered him a contract that he said on the record was, quote, subprime. No, why was they, they subprime, Wendy, because Tom Dundon was known for giving subprime auto loans, that's one of his business come as businesses.

Yeah, that was shot across the bow. He's got a way of words, our guy Tom Havishro, his contract wasn't one of the, he was like the stats guru on the, on the broadcast, but again it was a, it was a very popular broadcast crew. Whatever.

Fans like it, nobody cares.

Well, this thing is, this thing is where we are in, I'm afraid, like, you know, just the first

or second quarter of this fight. But I'm just saying, you don't come across stories like, tell him for tea to go on and on and on about his yacht and, you know, bringing a photographer with him, there's video too in that story. And him, like sitting, by the way, him and his sitting in the yacht, like with his, everything

sprawled out. Like, you just don't see this every day, okay? And you don't see quotes like this from a top team official like this every day. You think we could get Tillman to, uh, let us do a live show from the yacht. Hey, you're the Rockets connection.

Let's, I'll, I'll see what I can do.

Do you think he's taking the yacht to Macau for the Rockets, Mavericks, exhibition games,

the Mavericks, and they just announced their schedule. This, it was previously announced, but they announced their schedule last couple of days. Well, Tillman take the yacht to China. I kind of look up a map. That's, I don't think he, I don't think he is.

If you're going through a war zone to get there, I'm, I don't actually want you to look it up. Maybe there's another boat in, uh, in that area of the, uh, in Asia. Maybe he's got a, well, that reminds me, Bobby. I could love.

That reminds me, Bobby, of one of the, you, you remember the 60 minutes profile on your former boss, Macau pro.

“Yeah, I think, um, who was the, was a woman, right?”

Wasn't it Leslie Stahl who did the 60 minutes profile? And if I'm not mistaken, and I didn't prepare for this, I'm just saying, she's walking through his house in Moscow, or his apartment or something. And there's a, there's a, a huge model of his yacht, like sitting there on the table. And he says, this is my yacht.

Um, she goes, oh, and she's like, well, where do you keep it? He goes, to be honest with you. I don't know where it is. [laughs] Miss placed it.

[laughs] Now, let's say this about my former owner, that probably out of, one of the greatest things that I did at the Nets was the ability to have, we practice at the Kremlin. [laughs] From the gym.

[laughs] What, what was the worst thing? Nothing, it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen every day. What was in losers?

“What was the worst thing you'd do with the Nets?”

[laughs] Great for yours, Barnett. [laughs] All right, that's all we got here. We can't wait to the broad announcers and we'll be back with emergency podcasts.

So thank you to all our producers, Mark Miles Tucker, Jackson, thank you to Bobby and Tim McMan. Thank you for watching. Let's see the new collective this week. I don't know what we'll see, I may be there'll be next week. Adios Migos.

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