Kuminga BIG Help To Timberwolves? + NBA Awards Predictions

- Hello, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA,

what you're doing on the first day afternoon here

in this lovely late August time. I'm really easing into the off-season now, fully in it. Don't bother me, don't ruin my flow. Joining me from Dallas, Texas, bad McMahon. - Howdy, partner.

Late August, my time of year. - I didn't know any better. - I would say that you are wearing some free gear on your shirt there. - Moana.

- A lot in high school, but I have a family connection. - How do you say it? Moana Lua? - Okay, and what's the other word? - No, what's the word below?

- I don't know how to pronounce that one. - Menihune. - There you go. So my cousin, Brandon, cousin, via marriage, was the head coach there.

He has now moved over to a private school.

“And as you have to send me any free gear,”

so maybe this will, it's part of the liver. - I feel like that's the only, just one of those shirts walking around Dallas today, 'cause that's the second one. - I'd be able to, I'd be able on the bed on that.

- What's our top story, McMahon? - You're a guy. - Sean, I think Kamenka, to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I mean, this is a marriage, perhaps a temporary marriage, of convenience, but look, man.

Say what you wanna say, there is interest in Kamenka, there is interest in the Timberwolves. This is an interest in deal. - It is an interesting deal. I'll give you that.

He's getting a two year, he's getting a one year plus a player option. - Yes. - Basically set up for, and like you said, the wolves are in real need of a starter,

power forward. Kamenka is in need of a team where he has a big role that he can go back to the market next year and try to get the contract that he's wanted. And this is, he has wanted a starting role for a long time,

“and that's what he's getting here from day one,”

and they needed it. And he actually is gonna get more money than I thought he would get when he signed with the wolves. The wolves are gonna have to create a roster spot. - They're gonna have to figure out

what probably to dump Josh Green to be able to get to the taxpayer middle-level and standard of the second apron. - Right.

So they've only got about three and a half million right now,

I think. So they have to do that, and I guess they could, so Saturday is the day that they would have all, there's a couple of players who are looking at, possibly being waved and stretched by Saturday.

If you don't wave a player by Saturday, they're contract can't be stretched. So for example, the calves recently traded for cam wet more, and he's likely to be waved and stretched,

but between now and Saturday, the calves will look for options there. That's why James Harden hasn't signed his contract yet, as an example. But anyway, that's either here nor there.

So the wolves are gonna take, you know, bite the bullet on Josh Green, who he knows, the rotation, edge rotation player. - When he's healthy, he's a solid binge player. - Somebody won't, he will get another job.

- Yeah, for sure. And I would say, so they're taking a little bit of a bite on that to create some more money for Camingo. But look, let's just be honest. Camingo has been hoping for a couple of years

that he could land a big contract, and it just hasn't happened. And we've gone over it, we've had his agent on. It's been a frustrating time for him. - Been a frustrating time for you.

- Well, I just, my whole thing was I, you know how I feel. - I feel there's been too much spotlight on a guy who's not, yet proves that he's starting calmer player in the NBA. - Correct, I, and I wish him all the best.

“And I think if you look at the way the contracts”

went the last two years, I was not alone in thinking that. - Sure.

- But he made $20 million last year, and he'll make six and change.

- Six and change, yes, you'll make about $27 million over two years, which is about mid-level money, little by hair less, and he turned down a three-year deal from the Lakers, according to Shons, it would've been about 12 per, and, and apparently the Lakers

were recruiting them to be their starting power for. Now, what he's saying is, I would rather have one year at six ish than three at 36, because he thinks he's going to make clearly more than mid-level money coming off of this deal. - Right, the Lakers weren't interested in bringing him in

via sign-and-trade, and all sign-and-trades have to be at least for three years, I believe. And you don't have to be guaranteed for three years, they have to be for three years. And so, Kaminga didn't want to be in a three-year deal.

So this is one of those things where, yeah, he turned down more money, but he turned down more money, understandably,

he would want to beset himself up.

And so he's betting on himself, listen,

“we praise guys like Fred Van Blit for betting on themselves.”

He's betting on himself, and more importantly than the Kaminga story, it's more of a story of the overall situation with the wolves. You know, they came into this summer, pretty hamstrung in terms of what they could do in terms of adding to the team, and they recognized that they had to get ant some help

in the back court. They had to get him somebody to take some pressure off he, you know, ham when he was getting these double teams. He's still going to get double teams. I would imagine, but getting lamello, it's a gamble,

but I'm not sure that Julius Randall, lamello ball connection, I'm sorry, Julius Randall, and Edward's connection, was taking the pressure off ant. It just wasn't. Well, yeah, and they needed to get ant somebody who

ant looked at as a potential long-term co-star. And then this, you know, this frees ant up to play off the ball. A lot, not to have to be the primary facility or ant,

basically played out a position as a point guard of last season.

Now, they paid a heavy price, not just in what they,

“you know, forget the players, like Julius Randall,”

not as read, but in the pick that they gave up, you know, it's a heavy price on a player who's not yet proven that he can drive winning on a consistent basis in the mellow, but that's the risk they took. And in doing so, they created a massive void at power forward.

That obviously was appealing for Jonathan Kominga to step into, because what does it to Kominga need? He needs opportunity. He needs minutes and Minnesota is telling, hey, you are starting power forward.

You step into training camp as our starting power forward. Yeah, he needs opportunity. Ant played a significant role in recruiting Kominga. You know, Kominga was sitting on this decision for some time here.

Had these other options?

I think Shams mentioned the trailways,

there was a new well to the mention. Believe the bulls. That's right, the bulls were a team was mentioned to me.

“I think at one time, the bucks were considering it,”

but he dragged his feet long enough where he didn't get to go to Paris with the timber walls. That's the one thing Josh Green got out of getting traded in Minnesota was a free trip to Paris. Was it free?

Well, apparently, and La Mello come with a car, so yeah. All right, sounds great. Do you think he got to sit in a business class, or do you think it was premium economy for a job? (laughs)

I had to check into that. I know you had something to get through. You were part of the next spot. You are a travel reporter. Yeah, well, you fly as a six-foot four guy

with no extra legroom, so I can't help you. I'll once recently, not because I wanted to. Yeah, no kidding, anyways. All right, anyway, yeah, so the timber walls, so Ant was from what I understand, Ant was

played a significant role in talking to coming. As did Chris Finch, Chris Finch, had to present a vision to coming. I think he talked about this. I'm not sure if it was a Lamello press conference,

or whenever he was doing a press conference this summer, but he, you know how Bob Myers came on to Rich Paul's podcast and like made that pitch to La Brown, like your best opportunity is with the sixers, La Brown. Chris Finch essentially did that.

I'm sure he said it to him privately, but Chris Finch essentially did that, talking about how Jonathan, your best opportunity is here. Like we're gonna do things for you, and I'm sure he said some of the same things directly to him,

or at least to his agent. And so Finch definitely played a role, obviously, I'm sure there were other wolves that were involved as well, but obviously, and you know, from what I understand, Ant was very excited Ant.

From what I am told was very pleased by the wolves off season, going to get Lamello, making this deal happen for coming up. But you know, Ant has been, you know, I don't think Ant's a guy who is like stews in his angry.

Like, you know, it's just the last time we saw Ant, he was congratulating the other team with five minutes on the clock or whatever it was. - That only he was thrilled with that situation, but- - I think that's true.

- So, you know, look, they, there was a significant roster shakeup, since then, you know, Ant has been on board, and I would say even involved with every move that they've made, and now you've got a team, you know, one of the few teams that has advanced in the playoff,

so you should have asked few seasons, including a couple of Western Conference Finals appearance. But I feel like Minnesota's got this like wide range of potential outcomes to next season. I mean, there is definitely upside-bringening in the mellow

in, in, in, in Kaminka.

So, you know, it's going to be a fascinating deal.

“And, and I think a lot of this, for Kaminka, in particular,”

it's like, if he arrives in Minnesota, feeling like I've got to prove that I'm a star, this could get real messy real quick. They're not bringing him there to be a star. Well, that's supposedly what you talk about before you do this.

Right. You know, what's your role is going to be? They need him to be a high-quality complimentary star, which, by the way, is what Steve Kerr was trying to get him to embrace being a complimentary player.

And, uh, obviously, that relationship didn't exactly bear fruit.

Right. Well, look, here's the thing.

I remember being around aunt three summers ago, and he was touting how excited he was about them, signing Shake Milton. So, um, I know if that's a shake. But, you know, like, he's excited about now.

When he needs to be excited as a year from now. Right. When he signed the extension. And, listen, if the extension was now, maybe he would sign it.

Maybe he would be excited about this enough to sign it, you know, and maybe he thought that the things that La Mela was was going to be a perfect fit. Maybe he will be a perfect fit. It's just not trying to be a jerk.

I'm just trying to be honest. The time where aunt has to feel really good about the wolves as a year from now. And, also, for being honest, there's more optimism.

“I think from fans about La Mela going to Minnesota,”

and there is, like, either from offices around the league. Like, this was not looked at. This was looked at as a significant gamble, by Tim Connelly, who is known as a Riverbow gambler. He is, for sure.

And, look, all that matters is the way aunt feels about. So, if aunt is excited about it and is excited in a year, they will have done their job. Well, let's just talk about Caminca's fit, though. I mean, they needed the starting power forward.

They don't have to play Jamie McDaniels at a place. They can bring the soon move off the bench now, which is, like, that's a, he's a hell of a six man. That's a great role for him. You know, so not only does his field of void in the start of the line up,

but it does, you know, help the depth just because you've got, like, a six man of the year candidate, I believe. But again, I think a lot of this comes down to Caminca's willingness to adapt his game, to try to be a complimentary player, to try to fit in.

There's going to be spacing concerns. He's not a great shooter. Jamie McDaniels three point shot is kind of been up and down over the years.

I think that's going to be critical now.

Ants a hell of a shooter with mellow balls. They, you know, you see, you're going to guard him. And you're going to guard him out to 30 plus feet because he'll launch it. And, you know, he, the percentages aren't awesome, but he's a threat for sure, but with Go Bear and Caminca,

you know, you can have French scenephe figure out some spacing issues. But Caminca's got to be a finisher. He's got to get off this idea that he's a ball and hand creator. And, you know, Kerr, try to talk him in to be in a Sean Marion type of player. You know, an Aaron Gordon type of player.

The Sean Marion thinks funny, because Steve Kirk traded him for a washed up shack when he was a son's view. Yeah, I actually got death threats for doing so. But, you know, that's, there's, there's room to really have a breakout type of season in that role.

You're not going to get a max type of contract off of that, but to get a nice contract off of that. But, again, I just think if he wants to believe, hey, I'm a primary creator. It's going to be a mess because they've got two guys who are much better suited to that role

and is never proven to be efficient as that type of player.

Well, in terms of spacing, Julius Randall had a horrible 3 point shooting season last year. So, Kominga was in great shot, 35% on 3 again, but, you know, he would probably say if he had played more minutes, he would have gotten better percentages, which may be true. But he hasn't historically been a great 3 point shooter, a great spaceer, but the, there was a sub for Randall there.

You know, they're going to, you know, they're not going to get worse on that front. Right, but they lost even Shinzo. I mean, to bring in, no, no, lost even Shinzo. In talking to people, Minnesota.

“Now, here's the thing about, uh, the tournament killies.”

I'm, I'm having conversations, um, just this week with some people about expectations. Something we're going to talk about later in the poll. But I was having some conversations about expectations for some teams. And we were talking about Dame Willard and talking about Tyreys Haliburton. And they're like, you know, just so we have what Jason Tathamash here.

You know, he had a re-injury, like, um, you just, you just can't assume anything with this. And so they're, they're talking about this with Damon and Tyreys. And warning me about this. And those guys are 16, 17 months. Off, um, off their injuries.

And so the idea that you could count on Dante for anything this year.

I think they harbor a hope that Dante could return before the end of the season.

“But I feel like this is my 24th MBA year covering the league.”

I feel like I've said that about guys that aren't Achilles in before. But I just been a report back that they're not going to put any expectation. But they are quietly hopeful that they do get something from Dante this year. And they're, you know, they're not planning on trading.

Okay, but, but for the time being in for at least the first half plus of the season.

Yeah, I would say they lose that volume three point shooter. And then Nazarene was a volume three point shooter. Obviously he's gone as far as the military. So they, you know, they've got some, for a team that's right up against the apron are the hard cap because in that tray they hard gap themselves.

For Tio's right up against the hard cap, having garlic, even Chenza who's on their books and doesn't play, you know, it's, it's tough. So more who collected podcast after this? But all right, uh, had another, uh, free agency situation gets settled since we last spoke.

And that was Benedict Madder and doing a deal to go to, uh, to New Orleans. So New Orleans is first significant move of the offices and siding them to a one plus one. Now, this deal is not done. Um, it's not going to be a sign in trade because again, it's a one plus one. You can't do that in a sign in trade.

But the pelicans are only about three million below the tax and siding him to this.

Would, um, we'll put them into the tax, which they don't want to do. So there's going to be a corresponding move that you're going to see beforehand. The clippers have come to terms that they're not going to match anything. And they're going to let Madder and go. There may be a trade that ends up happening.

But we'll see what goes on there. Again, I don't think they can sign in trade them. But, and I learned something new every day. Um, the interesting thing about this McMahon is, it's essentially a one-year contract. He's got the second year player option to protect himself.

Um, and it's essentially what his qualifying offer was for. Maybe even slightly less when the numbers come in. Um, this was despite him being in that trade for a zoo botch.

“Like, I think both sides were moving off from each other here.”

Well, and, you know, he was in that trade for zoo bots. I mean, he, you know, he got shot and scores and points for the clippers. But he was in that trade because, you know, the salary filler and because the Pacers were ready to move on from him. I, you know, this guy was the sixth pick in the draft in 2022.

Two teams now have, have willingly moved on from him and it's not that he lacks talent. I mean, this is a guy who, like, he absolutely looks the part of a big-time wing score. Six, five, like muscular, explosive, uh, can get his own shot, seemingly at will. But, and, and by the way, you know, he's had some, like, big-time playoff performances. I mean, he had a game in the finals.

I believe I, I think it's 30 point game. Not mistaken. Yeah. I think he was sort of the Benedict Madden experience. I'm going to look and see what he scored.

The next game, because it was the roller coaster. And that, that's kind of been who he is. It's been a roller coaster. And again, it's one thing to say, hey, this dude can score. This dude can get his own shot, whatever.

It's another thing to be able to do that, should be to winning. I mean, for his career, he's under 50% just a tick on it, but under 50% effective field little percentage, which is really inefficient. You know, last year, he shot at 43 from the floor. I believe 32, uh, from 3.0 range.

Um, yeah, here was his finals games, uh, two years ago in the 25 finals. And, and look, his, his minutes in opportunity, like, there were some games when he got two shots in some games when he got 11. So I'm not, but, you know, but this was, this is kind of the, when you're looking to make a major investment in a player, when you see the sort of output.

So game one, he had five points, game two, 14. Game three, which was the, uh, the big win that the, the pacers had to take a two-one lead, where we were like, whoa, because, you know, they kind of stole game one. And then, uh, okay, see, came back and sort of, you know, pounded them in game two.

“And like, game three was like, is this real or not?”

And they had that, he had 27 in that game. And then he scored, um, 17, the next three games combined. And then in game seven, he had 24.

I think he kind of had a big second half, uh, he played 33 minutes of that game.

But even in the, in the eastern conference finals, when they beat the next, he had one game where he scored no points, one game where he scored two, one game where he scored four. And then in game four, he had 20, and in game five, he had 23. So, obviously, very talented, but how do you judge one of this point last year? Rick Carlisle, I was publicly declaring, hey, been in it.

Yes, well, forward this year.

“Hey, we're hoping that like, he's getting like, we're, hey, hey, we're going to give him a chance.”

We're going to give him that opportunity. And they gave him that opportunity and then they moved him before the deadline. So, um, again, he's, he's young and talented, but it's, he's, there are a lot of similarities to, to Kominga, just in the sense of like, you don't doubt the athleticism, the size, like, you can see why he was a, um, you know, relatively high lottery pick, but you question whether

any of that's going to translate to him being able to be a consistent contributor to a winning team. Right. And so they obviously drafted, you know, a combo guard and Keaton Wagler, a two guard, who kind of plays the same position. So, um, I'm not sure that, that that, you know, getting him with the number five pick all through the way they were thinking here, but I'm sure it played a role, especially if, you know, head, Matt, they're, let's say, Matt, they're in came back

on a similar deal in LA, uh, one plus one. Um, you know, he's basically playing in a make-good

contract situation and you're trying to, you know, you're trying to bring along your, your, a lot of high lottery pick. So, that's a factor. But I, I know that, you know, they obviously ended up giving him the qualifying offer, but there was word going around the NBA in June that the clippers might not even make the qualifying offer and just be okay with letting Matt are in walk, which I was like, wow, really, um, because I thought he was a, a significant piece of that trade.

“And, um, they obviously ended up doing that. They, you're, they're going to end up, I think,”

pulling the qualifying offer. So, uh, it is what it is. Um, one other piece of NBA news that came out, uh, in the last 24 hours. And the trailblazers just officially announced the shade and sharp, uh, Torres, Maniska's last week in a workout and, um, had surgery this week, um, and he will be reevaluated in six months reevaluated. So, maybe not season ending, but major season, uh, impacting him, McMahon, and, uh, he missed half of last season with the leg injury and had a,

a good year, average 21 points for them, you know, Portland obviously finished pretty strong. He was playing off, Denny Avia, and, you know, had a season where he was sort of taking a step forward, um, and they signed him to a pretty significant contract extension. And, um, this is obviously a setback for the blazers. Yeah, the, the extension was in place, uh, before last season. Um, but, yeah, we, you know, he put up some numbers and again, you know, another guy, I get, this is the

same theme as, uh, as Kominga and as Madder and like, what was he, he was the, the, the, the seventh overall pick in 2020, 22, 23 years old, like the athleticism absolutely just jumps off. Like he's one of the highest flyers in the NBA, um, you know, he scored last year and then come playoff time. You, you know, his playoff numbers? I didn't look them up. I don't remember I'm doing anything. Well, yeah, well, you remember accurately. He averaged seven point two points,

41% shooting in 13 point four minutes. I mean, it was his first playoffs. Yeah. And, and,

and they were out, they were overmatched. I mean, they were overmatched. The question with him and by the way, this is true. It's not just about what's he doing on the offensive end, but, uh,

“obviously the defensive end. Um, and honestly, this is an unfortunate way to alleviate a little bit”

of the log jam that the blazers had in the, in the back court, but they, you know, they still like, they still got to figure out, okay, you got the job, Dame, Drew Hall Day, Scoot Henderson. Like, those are four guys who, all probably expect to play a lot of minutes. How's that all going to work? And again, if you had sharp, sharp can play some three, but it's a, uh, there's going to be a big time log jam. There's still a bit is to a certain degree. Um, but, it's concerning also a guy whose

game is based so much on being just an absolute elite athlete to start having leg injuries stack up. I will best to him. Um, the blazers guard situation continues to evolve. Is that appropriately, you know, as I, is that, because that said gently enough? It is. And, uh,

contract extension, you know, we've only had one of the rookie's rookie extensions get done, and that's Victor Wemin Yamma. So I was just talking to an executive, uh, yesterday about that, um, was like, what have you heard on rookie extensions? And I was like, why say rookie? I mean, guys in the rookie contracts. Yeah, guys going to last for the rookie deal. Yeah. I was like, I have heard nothing. Look, I know both Thomson twins are teams who definitely love to get them

signed with an extension, but if it was easy, it'd be done. And as you said, the fun max is not a thing anymore. There, these negotiations are, there, there's much more tough negotiation going on. And there was, and the previous CBA just because these teams, you know, I was talking to a, um,

a decision maker for a team yesterday, and basically it's all about room to the apron. Like, if you've

got room under the apron, you can make trades happen. But, you know, with these aprons, like teams are terrified of putting handcuffs on themselves, who's trying to build and maintain roasters.

“By the way, speaking of that, did you see the statement that the NBA put out on their communication?”

Yeah, there was a little bit of sensitivity about the, I didn't know what they were reacting to. I guess there was some reporting on restricted free agency situations. Well, I just think in general, there's been a lot of criticism of the, um, you know, just of the CBA. And, you know, Jeff Schwartz, the veteran agent coming out a couple weeks ago, making this statement, you know, saying, "Thanks, union, and all this stuff." And so, um, they came out with this statement a couple of days ago,

and I'll just read it. I don't think we need to talk about this a long time. I'll just read it so

that you can know. But they're basically defending the idea that restricted free agency

is, you know, kills players. So here's the quote from the NBA League Office, which they don't make quotes like this very often. Regarding recent media reports discussing the impact of CBA rules on team bids for restricted free agents. In other words, you know, restricted free agents, not getting they offers that they got because of the CBA. Of this year's 12 restricted free agents, two changed teams via sign and trade, the most since 2021. Two signed off for sheets with new teams,

tied for the most since 2018, and six agreed to multi-year deals with their current teams. It is not unusual at this point in the office, even in a couple of negotiations remain ongoing.

“This is before Madarin, and obviously, um, to Manga did this. And so what I think their point is,”

not that there's been like this bevy of restricted free agent deals. It's not like they're saying, boy, what a great summer for restricted free agents. What they're saying is restricted free agency is

always hard. Like there's been two, um, you know, signed and trades this year. That's like the

most in five years. It's not like there's usually, it's not like there used to be eight or 12, and now it's down to two, and oh my gosh, the new CBA has crushed it. It's always been hard to do sign and trades. What's restricted free agents and two offer sheets. He'd like to think last year there was one offer sheet. It was for a guy who had not was who was like undrafted. Um, and one of the offer sheets this year was Moosa Csay, which by the way, I was talking to an executive

this week, McMahon, and um, he was saying that the, that the Mavericks did that buy out for clay, you know, basically, you know, they, they got 10 million off their books, but basically, you know, gave, you know, our eating at least half the contract this year. Little less than half, but yeah. And they kept Csay is an indication that they're, you know, Csay's a big, that they are a little bit worried about lively and, and Gaffer, to a lesser extent, but they're still worried about

lively. How could you not be? No, I don't write. Just look at the games played, unfortunately. No, right. And, and look, the one we're strictly free agency situation that remains unresolved is a big one. It's Jalen Durran, who the Pistons absolutely positively 100% intended to keep and made it clear to anybody for assuming a sign and trade possibilities like your waste near time. Um,

“and we'll get into that, I think later. There's still a gap. I would just say that, you know,”

to back up the league office for this, um, I, I covered multiple restricted free agencies that ended in November and December, one like 18 years ago and one like 10 years ago. So, the idea of a restricted free agency dragging on in the late summer is, no, is not new and is not unique to the

free agency is at the top of the list. I do think this CBA does factor into the difficulty and

“that's the big of negotiation. I think it factors into just the general difficulty of teams investing”

in long-term contracts, you know, I think that has a, it's a big umbrella. All right, this week in ESPN, we did our annual summer forecast where we make predictions, which is why I don't take

part in the image map. Because you know, I never, not once, not once a year, do I ever make a

prediction? Um, but, uh, we have been releasing them all week, the, the predictive, the projected standings, um, my story that I wrote, you didn't even participate in the defense player of the year. Predictions like, uh, come on. No, uh, Victor is, uh, is, uh, slated to, uh, is the projected winner of the defense of player of the year. Yeah, there's one stat that will determine that. Did he play 65 games or not? Probably. Probably. But anyway, uh, we had a lot of that. And so I think the one, um,

and I have a piece running on Friday where I talk to a bunch of executives and coaches, and this is something that Bond attempts used to do, and they've sloughed it off on me.

“That's like how many other of his, you know, projects am I going to inherit?”

I'm getting a few of them. Um, you know, but now the straw poll thing I'm curious about, I don't like enough people to talk to a hundred different people about who they would vote for, so we'll see. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Okay. So, um, the thing that got,

it always gets a lot of attention is when the award, the awards are projected, and that came

out a couple of days ago. More who, collective podcast after this. In Greece and in the day presented, Jobs, by the one that I don't have a lot of people there, today, Friseaux, what's in the night with you? What are you talking about? What is that? Hadn't she read a lot of Fixia in there? No, it's for Büsche. It's all right. In Greece. This is a job for Sponsor Jobs.

With real profiles, it won't happen. For Trawing Read, for Surin Died, and for the qualifizier talent with Sponsor Jobs. Make the Indeed einfach, now on Indeed.de/recruiting. And so, the two this year that are most interesting, they are just in a lot of years, but our MVP and Ricky of the Year. And so, the way we do this internally at ESPN,

we have a whole bunch of people whose job it is, believe it or not, like dozens of people whose job, all year long, all day long, all year long is to completely immerse themselves in the NBA. I know we got a scam going. And we talked to all those folks, and we get their projections. And the MVP, I wouldn't say that the MVP, the way it shook out, make man was a surprise, but I was kind of surprised at what happened afterwards.

The projected MVP by ESPN's never wrong panel is Victor Wimbanyama.

Yeah. Is that who you voted for?

“I believe I did. It's reasonable. I can't. I don't have a fault with that.”

Now, I don't think that's really that controversial. Obviously, the way he played in the playoffs last year. And he's going to come back with some measure of vengeance, I guess I don't know. Well, and I also, I just think he's an ascending talent who's going to continue to get stronger and more skilled and sabbier and better.

Yeah, I think that he, the challenges for him, I think as we watch in the playoffs last year, what is his best strategy that he employees during a playoff game and a playoff series? Because we saw him at times struggle with stamina, for example. And we saw his impact on games, sort of waver a little bit. I have no doubt he's going to figure it out. But in the finals, there were times when the end of the game came and he wasn't able to dominate games as we know he

can't. Well, and there was a time when they lost a 29 point lead when they left him on the floor too long and then in hindsight admitted, they put him in a position where he was going to run out of gas. And by the way, the minutes was the biggest knock on his in the B. K and I see when he can't paint hard last year. He declared himself, he, I think he, we don't have his official vote, but I think we can project his official vote on himself this year in the next 20 years.

Maybe. The second place in our poll was Yokech, which is interesting because I think what the voters are saying here is they think that with what's going to be required of him this year, that and by the way, he was my, the first drop-hole last year, I voted for him from VPM, pretty sure. He was having an unbelievable last year, an MVP season last year before he got hurt.

going to be needed to carry the nuggets. Then the other thing you've got here is, when B was the clear cut from runner, you know, 102 points in the voting. And then two to four, you've got

Joker at 31 points, Luka at 28 points and she at 26 points, which is basically saying there's a

clear front runner. And then three guys that we anticipate will be in the mix. And then there's a significant drop-off, Janus' fifth at eight points. You know, I don't know where Kated it up, but like to me, that's right, there's four, bona fide, real deal, MVP candidates. And when

“B's the clear cut from runner of that four. Right. Well, here's the thing, you know, I think the”

headline is that Shea is listed as fourth year. Yeah, I think there's just every time you win it, the bar gets higher. Exactly. So if you look at the list of MVP award winners, and this is this is indicative. Here we have what we're only in August, but there's something that happens,

you can win two MVP's in a row. But for some reason, the standard for winning the third MVP

in a row, it just gets very, very high. So the last guy to win three MVP's in a row, do you know it? Is it bird? It was bird in 84 to 86. In that time, let's see, like, and by the way, some of the more, what's the word? Some of the more contested or hot button MVP's were when guys were trying to win their third. So for example, Jordan won in 91 and 92, and then Barclay won in 93, which that is a debated for years MVP, right? LeBron won it two in a row twice, and the one time in between,

“he lost out to Derek Rose, which I think Rose was amazing that year, but a lot of people think that”

that was a flaw. That was also the year he went to Miami and he sort of faced that issue. You know, when joker won two in a row, and then in bead won his, that led to the big jackass moment.

It did. No, I know it didn't. It was always the jackass the year before? No, I think it was the,

I think it was the first year yoke it won it. Oh, wow. The jackass moment was a straw poll came out, and I felt that in bead, this was before the 65 game roll, and I felt in bead had played enough games to have representative season to be an MVP. And bead was like way behind yoke it's in the last straw poll, and I just didn't like it. I felt that it was unfair, and I felt in bead had played enough games, and we got arguing about it, and Barclay told me a jackass. And you applauded to

run him off this pod ever since. That's exactly right. It was a five year plan, but a finally came together. And then, by the way, and then in bead, like went out, like within a few days, got injured and missed like the most of the season, and yoke it was awesome down the stretch, and won it, and I voted for yoke it, totally undercutting my argument. And so, whatever, my point is now it's moved because you got to have 65 games, and that's the standard, but that was the thing.

But yottis won two in a row, yoke it won two in a row, curry won two in a row, La Brown won two in a row, two different times, Nash won two in a row, Duncan won two in a row, like I mentioned Jordan won two in a row, getting to that third for various reasons. And sometimes it's just been like curry won two in a row, and then he was unanimous a second year, but then they lost as a 73-win team, and the bar became ridiculous and Westbrook had the triple double year.

It's just, it's hard to sell people, it's hard to sell the voters on three years in a row. Yeah, I'm trying to think, curry was, he's been a six in the next year. That was hard and was second and why I was third, and that was really kind of the debate. What the year that Russ wanted, and like she last year, again, the bar gets higher even after your first one, but then they were the, you know, had the best record in the league, despite the fact that

they were missing a guy who'd been all in BA, previous year, for vast majority of the season, and as well as a bunch of better injuries, and all the other primary competitors, just barely hit the 65 game limit, or Wendy's case needed to be a cup final boost to get to 65 games,

“and sharing it up winning MVP right away at 83 first place votes last year, which I think the”

straw poll pretty much projected. Yeah, look, I'm just saying that history shows us, and by the way, here we have a situation where even though it wasn't on Shay, the thunder, win,

even in this non-scientific little poll that comes out here, you're already seeing Shay slip,

because it, there's something about that third year. I'm just, as you say, the bar

“fairly or not, will be higher. Yes, all right. And, you know what, I think it's pretty well set up for Luka”

to potentially win his first. Well, just like with Westbrook, the year after Durant left, it helps to have a narrative, and we have a narrative here for Luka. And a narrative where the expectations for the Lakers are as low as they've been since Leicron arrived. Do you think so? I mean, let's funny that you say that, because my non-scientific examination of what you see with their fans is they love the options, it moves, they love Kessler. Fans don't vote. What's

they're over under? They're overunders in the mid 40s. I understand, but you're saying that,

well, that's true. That's a fair point. I think fans actually. No, that's all story.

No, that doesn't happen. Yes, you're correct. They're overunders indicative of this. It's like they're overunders 37 though. No, but my point is, if the Lakers, you know, what you look, if they win 53 games, which is an out of the realm of possibility of Luka stays healthy and has, like, you don't wonder if he's going to have numbers. If the guy plays, he'll put up MVP numbers.

“If they win 53 games, and he's putting up those kind of numbers, I think he's going to have”

the other case. And by the way, the one, like, dude, Luka is as long as he's been since his rookie year. Like, if you look at some of the footage that came out of this thorinate trip that he that he organized and funded for that whole team, dude, he looks like he is in rate shape. Yeah, well, that's the thing. He was able to do that last year. And so the question is, can he commit to it? And he is. Is he playing for Slovenia in this window? I can't remember.

No, he's not. He, this is the first summer that he is not played for Slovenia.

He announced that at the end of the year. And yeah, it's because he wants to spin as much time as possible with his daughter as well. He goes through that situation. That makes turf a total sense. By the way, speaking of Slovenia, recently, I will probably butcher the name, so I apologize, but there's a 17 year old, you know, believe this is right about the turn 18, step on Yokomovic, Yokish, Yokimovic, I totally boshed that. Yoksimovic, Stefan Yoksimovic. Just to fun. And I can't

tell you exactly how to pronounce the last name, but I can tell you what you are doing right. You are correct. By the way, there's a stud, I don't have the name right in front of me, but there's a stud who was dominant in the under 16 year old championships for Latvia, who is actually from the Dallas area. His mom is a Latvian. I can't be focusing on under 16. We'll leave Jonathan Gavoni and Jeremy would do that. It caught my interest because of his, uh, because there's

local ties. Okay, yeah. Anyway, so he was the MVP of the Eurobasket U18, which just was in Italy a couple of weeks ago. I was 23.7 rebounds and, um, and for us this again, remember those are 40 minute games. So, um, and he is even though he's only 17, and maybe he's 18, um, now, or he's turning 18, Yoksimovic, Stefan Yoksimovic. Are you looking at the pronunciation that? Yes, of course. Well, I'm not denying that. I just had to look it up. Yoksimovic, Stefan Yoksimovic, Jackson,

do your, do your editing stuff. You make me sound not so bad. Don't do that, Jackson. You don't want to work hard anyway. That's a lot of work to make when you look good. Jackson, by the way, did look up that the lake is over under was 45 and a half. By the way, I'm going to just tell you your pronunciation of four names ranks right up there with, uh, snake grass among your biggest weaknesses. That's fine, but at least I'm out there trying to learn these guys. Yes. And I'm bringing

them to you. He's a discovery, but no, Jeremy. He's a Jeremy Wu discovery, though. Okay. I'm not arguing. I discovered him. I'm just telling you about him. Why do I have to be accused of discovering when I'm, when I'm telling you my bad discovery discovery guy would, on Tim's head knew it and you're right. Yeah. All right. Anyway, he's going to be draft eligible next year.

“He's going to be the draft next year. And I believe it will be a high lottery pick. There's a lot”

of it. It looks like it about. And like Luca took the route of uh, going to Spain, playing professionally, is it best sconey? Is that how you say this? Yes. Yes. Yes. They please, uh, at least for now is playing

That's how the NBA. So, uh, so we help with the Oak Edge. Um, all right. Uh, the other awards we wanted to take a look at when the forecast was rookie the year. Now, when I wrote this piece, why I talked to executives, this is the award that got the most talking. Um, and this one was not like MVP, where it was a, you know, Victor and then golf. This one was very close. Cameron Boozer was selected as the pick by the ESPN panel. It would, with 61 points. However, we came to that term.

Darin Peterson was second at 56. AJ debons the third at 54. So, very tight. And Caleb Wilson

in fourth at 32. So, right, reasonable. Yeah. Um, this, this one generated a lot of, uh, a lot, you know. So, and it's funny, I talked to some people, like multiple people who were like, this is going to be Cam Boozer's award. Like, he's going to be, everything's going to be built around him and Memphis, they're going to, um, you know, he's, uh, he's been, he's been the leader of every team is ever been on. He's achieved with every team is ever been on. I realized Duke did not win the title.

But, you know, he's been a champion up and down. He's, you know, he's won all these MVP. He's one of his honors. His situation is totally set up to be featured him. They're like, it's Boozer and why are you debating it? You know, if he's healthy, he's going to win it. And then I've got other people who are like, yes, opportunity is very important. Like, for example, one of the reasons you would argue, because they're in Peter's and look pretty damn good in the summer weeks.

Certainly. It's all like anyone. Your case against Peter's since, you know, winning it is

“an opportunity case because you need to have opportunity to win rookie of the year. It's not an”

award that's predicate. You number one, you don't got to play 65 games. And number two, you don't necessarily have to be on a winning team. And so it really comes on your opportunity and they're like, you know, with Lauri Markinen and with Jared Jackson and with Keante George and with Ace Bailey, how much is he going to have an opportunity? He'll get plenty of shots. I'm going to show you that. Well, I agree with you, but I'm just telling you what people said. He will be their starting

to guard. And, you know, I think an argument can be made that it's a better situation for him, because he doesn't have the burden of having to carry the offense, like Boozer has in Memphis. You know, and you could argue the same about Debonse and Washington. I'm skeptical. And I talk to somebody else who I really trust. And he's like, look, Debonse is the best equipped player to do this. He goes last year, Con Kenapa, had great opportunity. He had, you know,

they, they really, as the season went along, more and more and more. I mean, he took 10, 3's a game. His Peterson going to get to shoot 10, 3's a game. And you know, you know, and he almost won the award, because he had great opportunity. But he said Cooper flag was the most equipped. And he ended up winning it. And so he's like, he's like, don't overthink it. Don't give me reasons.

Just who's the most equipped? The answer is Debonse. He went number one.

“Well, and but it was close. And honestly, it took Cooper flag when he came back from his injury”

having a hell of a finishing kick, you know, like that included a 50 point game. And I mean, just he went on a tear to flip it. Because remember, Bond Times did the bonus rookie the year's drop hole at the, whatever was, two, third point of the season. And Kenapa was ahead then. And my Kenapa had the, you know, the horns were one of the darlings of the league. The biggest surprise of the league at that point. Certainly, they were winning. He was impact in winning.

Like the, you know, the advanced numbers were all shining for him. And, and it took, again, it took Cooper really having a hell of a kick to finish the year to edge, because it was, it came

down, first place votes was 56 to 44. And it's a, it is a case where like Cooper flag had to be

the eye for a bad maverick team. I lead him in everything. Have the ball in his hands, you know, all that kind of stuff. And Kenapa was a hell of a number three option for the Charlotte Hornets, where he was playing with a playmaker who, you know, got him a lot of great looks at those three corners in the middle of ball. What you're basically saying is Cooper had a hell of an opportunity to be especially because, um, Kyrie was out. And that's, that's reasonable. I am compelled by Caleb Wilson.

“I think the bulls are going to invest everything into him. And, you know, he does have to stay healthy.”

He's had some injury issues. But, um, I would be fascinated, not, I'm not going to get into bed here. But like, that may be the efficient pick. Um, now I talked to some scouts and, you know, they were like, look, you know, the thing about Caleb is that there are guys in Chicago who

Mattis Pouselis, um, because this is a year where if you're Bouselis, you're trying to prove

“you're the franchise player or a franchise player because next year is when you get paid. And, you know,”

Pouselis is a guy who, he's not confident in, um, you know, way that detracts from the team. But he's confident. I mean, this guy believes in himself. And, you know, not afraid to, uh, not afraid to go go ahead to head and, you know, take a, take it on the chenny comes right back up. But, you know, Bouselis is going to be a guy and like, you know, Thiago Splitter should like Splitter should be focused heavily on what he can get from Bouselis and Wilson together. And then, you know,

Josh, get he's a high usage player. Uh, you think Norm Powell went to Chicago on a short time. Yeah. Well, that's launch. That's another one. I didn't even think about that. But yeah,

the guy didn't mention that, but that's exactly correct. So, um, this guy was basically making the

case for, you know, basically this is a question about opportunity. And that's where we're really debating here is what the opportunity to be picking up. We all think that they're all good enough to do it. The one that we did this year, we haven't done in the past is we picked scoring champ and Luca with that one, that one kind of favorably. And by the way, getting odds just to kind of emphasize how tight this is. Jackson, just in his draft games, Bouselis are plus 300.

They're on Peterson plus 330. Caleb Wilson plus 350, AJ debons a plus 425. So, that's as close to four co-favorites as you can get. That's true. That's not exactly I was hoping for a bigger number for Caleb Wilson. Apparently I'm not long. Yeah. Anyway, the one thing we did this year that we

“hadn't done in the past is picking the scoring chip, you know, she is one at the last, I think”

they would the last two years? Uh-huh. No, Luca won it last year. Oh, Luca won it last year. She won it the year before? Uh, that is accurate. Okay. So, Luca's won it twice. Luca won it in 24 and he won it two of the last three years, 24 and 26. And I think the idea that with LeBron not there this year that, you know, Luca, well, B's scoring again, like he did when he was in Dallas, which is I don't think the worst. He did that last year. Luca, average 33 and a

half points per game last year. I know as LeBron took a step back with it, but all LeBron also were only in the season, missed a bunch of games and and everything as he was ramping up. So,

but yeah, I don't I mean, picking Luca certainly makes a lot of sense. A shave was second and

Edwards was third in this poll. Yeah, shave the year before, after 32.7 last year, slipped all the way to 31.1. Well, it's a thing, shave falls out of bed and puts up 30. The question is like, you know, his overunder is like, is he going to score 33 or 40 or 28? He's score 30 every game. Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of the 50s. You know, he's had a few, but he more Luca, he might score 73. Actually, they tightened up. They let people be a little bit more physical after Luca 73.

That's true. That was, and was that the game where he like literally, well, he's done it a bunch of times. So he's just like thrown in sidearm shots. Like, I mean, he scored every which way you could. That was against the hawks and it was right on the heels of Cat had 70.

“Somebody else had, I think in bead had 70. It was like boom, boom, boom. And then something like,”

all right, maybe we need to let it. And then the call came from Olympic tower, like maybe we slept people play a little physical defense. This is getting out of hand. But yeah, no, Luca, when Luca is hitting his step back three, there's not an answer. And the answer then is trying to get the ball out of his hands. And obviously, we all know he's one of, if not the best pass certainly, as well. And I'm telling you, man, the condition that Luca up here is to be in,

like it's, it's got a chance to be pretty scary. Well, the thing that Luca does so incredibly well is change speed. He goes fast. He goes faster. And you think, think he's going to go fast. And when he sees he has the ability to slow down in ways, he takes the advantage of his opponents. His ability to have as good a break as anybody in league. And it's a combination of, like, literally, like the piece three testing, you know, the peak performance, what's that the P.

You know, the place in Santa Barbara, these guys go get tested. When he came in the league, you could put the grass, his grass, over the top of James Harden's grass, because I was also like Harden, that's the whole step back thing is the thread of the drive and then the ability to create a ton of space. They, they both do that, but then Luca has that, like, lean Luca still weighs probably 240. Now he's not. And the ability just, he's not skinny.

when he gets in the paint, and unbelievable touch will createivity in there.

Well, there was one little thing that'll throw in there. We asked a bunch of questions. And I I stayed away from this and asking me the executives and I did my piece because a lot of them

“are hypotheticals, you know. And I just, I think that just puts everybody in a bad position when”

you're asking those folks. But we asked which team we thought would be the most disappointing team, which is something we do every year. And the lake has finished at the top of that, which was I think I guess it all depends because if they're overunderers 45, the standard is, you know, more reasonable. If the standard is the low 50s, like they did the last two years, you know, that they say because, you know, the overunder implies that they will take a step back.

But there's a lot of excitement about Kessler and the other guys that they saw. So yeah, you know, I want to know overunder on Lucas Dunks this season. How many do you think he had last year? Okay. I remember he, him and Reeves, I got to look up Reeves number, him and Reeves had the bet. I think the better question is how many Dunks is Walker Kessler going to have? Well, I mean,

“Kessler will have a ton. Kessler will have maybe 200. How many do you have last year?”

Last tree played five games. I know. Well, that's the thing. You got to be healthy to dunk. Okay, good point. How many do you have like five years ago? What did you give us that stack? I'll give you by season for Luca in reverse order. Four, one. Oh, he, Betty. Oh, 12, 7, 11, 14 and as a rookie, 25. Okay. I just told you, I think he's just lame as he's been since his rookie year. So I'm curious to see how many Dunks he delcks. What sets

that the overunder? Set it. I'm going to put it at 7 and a half. And what are you taking? I'll take the under. I'll take over seven and a half. You taking under. I'll take under. Not because I think he's going to. I did her bet. I did her bet. I mean, I don't really feel, I will find something else to bet on. I don't really feel like defending this one all year long. You just made the bet. Now, we just have to start with the terms are fine. I'll buy you dinner, but it's not, I don't like

why to be brought up to me like in April and you're like, I told you he's got 14 and you thought

he wasn't going to be able to jump. I just, I just think it's not part of his game. I would never

be unethical in rubbing something in your face. Well, if Bond taps it here, he would say, well, make sure you write that down in ink because he'll probably try to change the terms of Luca has like no Dunks. Bond temps. Who owes me two different bet settlements? Yeah, he probably would. Does he owe you two? Two. The spurs and paid in Watson's contract. Pay in Watson. By the way, pay in Watson. Guy who did pretty well as restricted free agent. Yeah, not included on the,

that was part of the sign-and-trade, but he got sign-and-trade. So, the NBA could have used that. Well, the two sign-and-trades both guys did well. Like Walker Casser is the believes seven. Fives paid center right now. Is that right? Well, if you don't count, Chad is a center. There are seven centers making more than 30 this year. Casser being the seventh. Angus to run pick and roll with Luca. That's not a bad situation. And then

Peyton Watson got 22 year going to a team Cleveland that believes it's a container. They both did pretty damn well. As I was talking to executives this week on, you know, doing our words thing. I just had this guy throw in there. I didn't even ask him about he was like, by the way, I love this

“Peyton Watson move. I go really, he goes, I think he's poised for a breakout. I think it's a great”

move for Cleveland. Like he was just, you know, a fused of over the top. That's inch. I've heard mixed reviews on it. Oh, yeah. Well, this is the thing. Like these people that we're talking to, like these are all like lifetime. Like these guys are all, have been on the league. Not all of them, but a lot of them. 20 plus years and like seems so much in a value-ed, so many players. And it's it's fascinating when you, it's fascinating when you like, we'll talk about the same topic to two

different people and two people are like, you know, a lot of times are sort of in the middle,

but you know, like one guy going, oh, man, I cannot believe the calves gave Watson 90 million dollars

based on one month, you know, and then I got this other guy who does player personnel. His job for his team is to do pro-personnel. And by the way, I would say his team has done pretty well and like, you know, pro-personnel, like, you know, margin moves in the last couple of years. I would just say is, you know, I respect him. And he's like, I love it. I love it. So that's the NBA,

are on with us, but we have more people behind the scenes, Miles is back there, Devon. He's on a little

“earlier. Thank you all of them. Thank you to all of you. Actually, I want to say one thing before we go.”

Oh, great. I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to soap box. Love a good windy soap box. So yeah, yeah, I, I, um, so what's the difference? Do more of these. Get a, like a, a sponsorship. Yeah. Yeah. Like we have, uh, with so far, I just want to say, LeBron and the PGA tour made, and, and, and, and, and agreement and announcement this week. First off is still jaw dropping to me. The LeBron is

this into golf. I mean, talk about something I would never believe, you know, 15 years ago,

A that LeBron was still be playing and B that he would be like crazy into golf. But LeBron has done so many things for his hometown of Akron that is influenced kids, like, and like, even now, like, school just started and like, because the his eye promise school, um, you know, is now is not brand new, like it's easy to, um, it's easy to forget. Um, it's still, you know, impacting so many kids every single day. And like, I remember, I remember back in 2015,

going to Cedar Point, which is a famous amusement park in Ohio, and the Bron made this announcement to like a thousand of his kids that he brought there and paid for them to go in and everything for the day. And he's like, I'm giving you all college scholarships. I made a deal with the university of Akron, and you guys are all going to get to go to college four years for free. And most of the

“kids were like in third to seventh grade, and they didn't like, I think they were like, I thought”

we might be getting free bikes. And like that, okay, that was, and the end up doing the deal with Kent State University and the University of Akron. And I don't know, I don't have the, I'm sure the foundation could provide with me in 90 seconds. How many kids took up on that? But that was 11 years ago. And some of those kids went to college for free because if I don't know if it was 50 or 200, but like, that was 11 years ago. Those kids were like 12, 13 years old. Those kids

are, some of those kids are at a college, once a school because of that. So my point is like, he is dramatically done things to impact the people of his community. So let me just say,

and you can say that I'm talking about this because it's golf. And yes, the answer is yes.

And because it's Akron. Firestone Country Club is a, it's a country club. I mean, what am I going to talk about a country club? But this course, I'm in times you've played there. Twice. Oh, twice. That's not to be. I'll probably three times. The Ron is probably playing there more this week than I've ever played there. He's a member. It's not about helping the country club, but Akron for decades, like since dating back to like the 50s, had a PGA or

senior PGA event every year. And it was a cornerstone. When I was a kid, and by the way, I got the last two years of my college tuition at Ken State paid for by a scholarship that was paid for by the charities that came out of the Bridged Onevitational, or was, you know, whatever, was he was to had a couple of different names. So I directly benefited from this from the charities that came out of that event. And look, in like the 90s and 2000s,

“Tiger won it, I think, seven or eight times. And every year you would go there. It was this”

giant event. And Tiger was winning it and Phil was winning it. It was like a hoose, I mean, Nicholas wanted, you know, it was a hoose who for for years. And unfortunately, LeBron's home

town in my hometown has been in basically a large decay over the last like 30, 50 years or whatever.

And it went from the PGA event down to the senior event. And then it was sort of weathering. And people weren't supporting it. And the lost its sponsors. And this year was the last time the PGA tour was there. It was going to that was it. It was going to be the senior tour was saying goodbye. It's moving away. And then for LeBron, he made a deal with the PGA tour. They're partnering. And starting next year, they're going to have a tournament there, which is sort of like a minor

league tournament that's part of the PGA tour. And look, it's it's not going to be Tiger playing there. Is LeBron going to play in it? Maybe by then maybe he'll be trying to get attention if he plays in that promise you there will be TV cameras. The point is is that firestone lost its tournament. And LeBron makes does something with a PGA tour and brings something right back to firestone that a bunch of people can be a part of and can be a part of his foundation. And so I just want

to acknowledge that he's still doing things for his own doubt. He didn't sign with the calves this summer,

them a place to call is as a higher calling than making sure there's a local golf tournament. I understand

that. I'm acknowledging that. It's like we haven't talked about and written about the, but this is something he did to help out for now when it was about to lose something. I'll call together.

So I just thought I would say something right here at the end to acknowledge that.

“And I think it's really cool that all these PGA guys, this is my world. I'm the Venn diagram,”

McMahon golf and basketball. That's me. And for years there was no connection. Like when they had

the bubble, the only people playing golf, there was like three players, all the referees and coaches.

There was no players. Yeah, Steph Curry, you know, played a lot. But now all these guys playing golf.

“Dude, they should get Steph to playing it, too. He was born in the acron.”

Absolutely. I don't, I mean, Steph could might be able to win it. If they get LeBron, Steph and you, the three biggest names ever born in the acron, like this thing could be huge. Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly how they look at it. Anyway,

“awesome stuff by the PGA tour and LeBron to do that. And I love the fact that there's so much golf”

being in LeBron's like driving it. But like I was talking to Kevin Love last week. And like Kevin Love is like totally into it. He was the guy who organized where they were going to play golf. And they went up to like, Inverness guy. And I'm not going to go off on the tangent. There's a different podcast. Thank you to our producers. Thank you to McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching the hoop collective. Thank you to LeBron, the PGA tour for doing something for Firestone under this

situation. We will talk to you next week. I really just enjoy how we started with your least favorite topic. Jonathan Kominga and finished with your favorite golf audio semillas.