The Key Factors In LeBron’s Free Agency + Some EARLY Standout Stars In Summer League

Why? Last call for a steuer.

Oh no! I don't know where I'm going to go.

Why do you like steuer?

“That's how steuer is based on a different stress.”

Is that simple? Of course, it's almost all automatic. Steuers are long? No, just a few times. No, then.

Hold your hand now. With this steuer. It's about the 31st Newly. Hello, welcome to Look Like The Parkcast. We talk about the NBA

which we're doing on Sunday evening at the end of the 2025-26 NBA League year. A Newly year begins on Monday. Aren't you excited? Talking about it all with us from Fort Myers. I shouldn't say Fort Myers.

It's Naples, right? Our front office insider Bobby Marx. Fort Myers is the airport that I landed in at 9.30 on Friday morning. After taking a quasi-red eye through Charlotte, one of those beauties.

Nothing more fun than a quasi-red eye at the end of the first week of free-hates and see.

Nothing more fun than waking up and realizing you get that notification on your phone. There's a chance you're going to miss your connector. Here's your, you know, like, because we landed and I had boarding was, date gate was closed in 10 minutes when we landed. So that was a little bit of a, and you made it?

I made it. God bless America joining us from Salt Lake City where he's there for the Salt Lake Summer League. One of his favorite weeks of the year is Band McMan. Howdy partners, Wendy, you look refreshed, a little chipper, strong weed like that one.

I also enjoyed the Bobby Marx quasi-sleep/travel update. I mean, I feel like we're off to a strong start here. I got, I got a quasi, so fourth of the July is usually one of my favorite days of the year because I like to blow up fireworks. We go to a party and mean to two dads, we get all the fireworks out and we just blow them

up, right? And I had to still have all my friends. Tim, I had to tap out last night because of a lack of a, was not, I would not have been how to hurt myself because of a lack of sleep. I needed to leave the party and go home because I was so tired from free-hates and see.

I'm not gonna lie, I heard there was a big fireworks thing here in Salt Lake City. I'm staying right on the other side of the arena and there's this new place to hang out. They've done a lot of stuff with downtown here and they had a big fireworks display. And I thought I was going, I had dinner came back, called the wife and thought I might head back out, I heard the fireworks that didn't see any of them.

I have gotten some sleep, and I'm very appreciative of it, I'll just leave it at that. Okay, so we have a Monday, dawning, and we don't know yet where LeBron James is playing.

“And I think that even in a career filled with league-changing free-age-intecisions, where”

the balance of power has shifted, the championship has shifted with where LeBron goes three different times. I think we have truly a unique moment in B.A. history, Bobby, because LeBron remains a difference-making player. The difference that he's able to make is not as great as it was.

He took three different teams to the finals, nine times over the course of a ten-year span, changing teams, three times in there. I mean, he's not able to wield that as much influence as he is he used to. But the idea of a player being willing to not worry about money, and because so many teams who are interested in him really can't improve their team significantly, that he could

be this kind of difference-maker.

It's truly a unique, we've never, I don't think we've ever really seen it, and then the

fact that he is declared that he, or I should say his agent, Rich Paul, has declared that this decision would be based on happiness, which is impossible to quantify.

“LeBron could say pretty much anything, and say yes, that's because that's what I want”

to make me happy. Some of them, we could guess in a reasonable sum of them, we may not be able to possibly forecast. So, while I know this has been something that's going on for now 15 years, I still think that LeBron has done it again. He has, once again, got the league on the edge of their

seats, and what he decides, whether it's in 24 hours or 96 or whenever, is going to determine a lot about the next upcoming NBA season in a way that we've never seen before. And I don't know how else to say it, I just think that's what I see. Well, you know what's crazy too is that we don't see, and especially now that he's in this clinic, we don't see Mark high level freed in the switch teams, right? Like I was talking

friend, Kyle Coos, Ms. comments about the CBA, and I said, let me look dive into, like

“see if he's, if he can justify it. And I brought, I went through every roster and I looked”

at who's returning, who's, we, we've only have, there's four hundred and fifteen players on their contract. There's only been twenty five that have switched teams in Fradency. Like that is, you know, when you look at that, it's which be a trade now. Yeah, it's trades or, or they're extending or they're staying home and to be in a position where, as we've talked about, the playing field is flat, right? It's like financially, like, you

know, enriched it, his podcast with Max Kellerman, and he put that big, the graphic up with the, which I love that like, for Kyle loves whiteboards. Yeah, I mean, your life is whiteboards. But they have an agent doing this for the world to see. But he was not doing it as an agent. He was doing as a podcast because who knows, who knows, who's not 10 teams for the Bronn. He's got a full podcast. We can relate to that. It said, it said Dallas

Plus Messiah. And then the reasons were oil, golf, McConnell, Africa, why can't come up with the conversation? Come up with the conversation? Well, he, he, you know, it's like, it was like, he was like pitching a, it's like pitching a show to Taylor Sheridan to write. I've told you, I want this to be a reality show. Like, the Bronn could come, they could totally do the tour 29. I've suggested. And then at the end of each visit, you have advanced

to the next round. Or you're, you're done. Listen, this is, what do you think the Buntem 70 people was? It's podcast content. Like, what do you think we're talking about here? And a rich rich Paul is going to milk this thing. He go get a few podcasts at this now. Right. Well, right. Well, I think, you're now, even if you come on a podcast has to be on the bronze podcast. Like, think about he first announced his decision on television,

right? Then he announced his decision on the written world with the letter, sport till Australia. It would be was, you know, the internet, basically. Yeah. Then he used old fashion press release. Why not a podcast in 26? Why not? Why not? Um, I would suggest you read it. Maybe JJ Reddick will come back and do one last podcast appearance for him. Oh, my god.

That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Um, so anyway, you reference Kyle Coos

“was ex post. It was a very long ex post. Um, but I think the most important thing that he”

said was this paragraph. He was talking about his feelings watching NBA for agency operate over the first two, three days. Teams are no longer making purely basketball decisions. They're making fear-based apron decisions. That means good players get squeezed. Homegrown cores get broken up. Fan favorite teams lose their identity. And the overall product loses some of the nostalgia continuity that made people fall in love with the NBA in the first place. And he

goes on and on basically saying that, you know, the next CBA we better, we'd better do a better job. This basically was what he was saying. Um, and even though I think that this realization

was actually two years old, better late than never, Bobby than what Coos was saying there.

Yeah, I mean, listen, when the CBA came in, the reality is that the commissioner put rules in the curb spending and retain players like retention. Like free agency is like, I mean, we were done with free agency by like July 2nd. So I third there's 50, I think I looked at it. There's 59 players that finished on a roster that are still free agents. And the reality is that they're going to some of those are going to get squeezed out because you get 35 guys who get drafted or 40 player,

you know, they just fill the role. But I think the one thing is that, you know, and I looked at this also, there's been $10 billion in contracts given out in the last three years and extensions. Like the ability to extend and keep stay with your own team was a priority for the league. And it's not just super max or max guys. There's a, there's a, there's been 64 veterans and 34 rookies that have extended in the last three years. It's almost, you know, 100, almost 100 players.

“And that's why the money is squeezed out. Yeah, there's, you know, the apron rules have certainly”

curbed it as far as basically hard-capped teams as far as how much they can spend. I mean,

I don't know about breaking up teams like, you know, like Oklahoma City, you know, went through and they traded two rotation players. Well, he's talking about breaking up the Celtics. I mean, that's what his reference. But again, the Celtics decision wasn't based on saving money now,

that the Celtics decision was based on the fact that they didn't think in part that Jalen Brown

“was a $57 million player. And the return is was Paul George? No, he's not. So no, but they got enough”

of the draft pit compensation and Paul George doesn't come in with the tug of war situation. That was going on. Like the, the Celtics decided they wanted to move on from Jalen Brown, and they took what they can get for them. And you can blast it, and I would probably, I should, I'll agree with you. But it wasn't like, let's save money now, because they didn't save money now. Correct. That's correct. But yeah, I mean, what it comes back to is if you are,

you know, in an era where there is no player for agency, you have a gigantic impact for agent. And unlike in previous times, and they're not just for LeBron, but also for Durant or hell, teams were competing. And I mean, there was, there was a summer where Gordon Hayward,

“no offense to Gordon. Gordon Hayward is not a different, was not a difference making player.”

Brother, but he was in a for snapchat to track a song, "White Sides of Mack Sali" for me.

I never figured out snapchat, by the way. Exactly. Like people were waiting with

they did, I mean, Gordon Hayward put out a letter or we know an essay on the player's tribune, announced his decision. And they acted like the scoop that he was going to Boston. Oh, we had made his decision yet, because it's gone through the editing process. Right. More who collected podcast after this? So I'm just saying that like, you know, that doesn't happen anymore, and the fact that there is somebody in this moment where the team didn't have to

clear cap space. And that's like, I guess the one thing where I guess I'm watching Bobby is, you know,

“obviously, you know, if you're paying attention to LeBron on social media, you know, you're seeing”

all this Cleveland nostalgia. He's with the calves overseas, his old teammates. Then he's been in Akron for the last few days doing events. I was just saying he goes to Akron and does events with his foundation every summer. True, but he was hanging out with his high school teammates. I know, but he sees those guys. I understand, but you're right. Like if you posted it on social media, hanging out with Brandon Weems. Yes. His high school teammate, a close friend who just happens to

and by the way, earned his way to being an executive for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Let me just say something about Brandon Weems, because of quick aside here, because there's going to be, you know, his name, you know, people may not know that by the way, just everybody calls him Weems. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody called Brandon. I mean, maybe his teachers would call him Brandon. Everyone calls him Weems. Just like the guy who left Cleveland to go to the sixth

or is it made, it made this trade for Paul for Jalen Brown, Mike Gansy. Nobody called him Mike. Everybody called me. Maybe his wife does. Everybody calls him Gansy. Okay. But anyway, Weems, he was LeBron's high school teammate. Yes. But he went on to he coached at Oakland University and then he was a coach at Kentucky for a while. And then he, I mean, I say a coach. He was like director of basketball operations, like, you know, or, you know, down the line, like, you know,

I don't know if he did the laundry, but it wouldn't surprise. Probably not a Kentucky didn't do the laundry, but whatever. And, you know, came to the calves and like was like scouting the mid-American conference and the horizon league and stuff like that and has really been in the calves front office for a decade plus slowly moving up, slowly moving up, slowly moving up, so, you know, and was in Cleveland before LeBron got there was their while LeBron was there,

he left, he didn't go with them to the lakers or anything like that. He stayed back. What's that? Before LeBron got back. He was in Cleveland before LeBron got back, right? And he was there after he left and he's still there. You know, there was, it wasn't like he got hired when the

Bronn came to Cleveland, you know, his guy never got, you know, anyway, he's probably going to get

promoted to GM or something of those into Gansy's, you know, footsteps, but whatever, yes, he was at an event with LeBron over the weekend, but he has attended events of LeBron's routinely for decades. When the Bronn wasn't a free agent, his all I'm saying, but yes, you can create a case and it is true,

weekend, so it hasn't been a lot that has happened in the league in the last 36 hours. It's kind of been a little bit tough, it's a little blissful to break, but the last I heard that the teams had not heard anything. The teams were interested in the Bronn, like they had made contact and whatever, and they hadn't heard anything. And they're like, well, we don't know what to make of it. And like, this is what happened with the previous LeBron free agency as we switch teams. They didn't know,

like the Bronn called in, it was basically like, yep, I'm coming. And they're like, oh, okay,

“like it wasn't, maybe they, maybe they felt good, like they said, oh, I think the vibe is good,”

but like, the heat didn't know he was coming. The calves didn't know he was coming back. You want to know how I know they didn't know, because they were about 10 minutes away from offering Gordon Hayward a max contract offer sheet. He was in the building in Cleveland, and when, and when Mark Termony, one of the Bronn's agents found out that Golden Hayward was in Cleveland. He called it up and he was like, what are you doing? Why are you spending your

cap space? And they were like, oh, and then Gordon was like, what? Like, I'm not getting an offer sheet today. Like, you know, like, you think they would hire David Blatt, no offense to David Blatt, if they knew they were getting LeBron. You know, Magic Johnson showed up at LeBron's house. It, like, 6 p.m., or whenever 9 p.m., whatever he was allowed to, like, you know, to like pitch it, like he didn't, they didn't know they were kidding him. So like, these teams are kind of in,

last I heard about the teams are kind of in the dark, all kind of waiting, and they weren't hearing anything, and so they were just like, well, maybe it's Cleveland, but I don't know if anybody is hearing anything. Well, and that, and that, that goes back to your point, and it's not like they're all

“sitting up with a, with a 40 million dollar slot, right? Like, really the only thing they don't have to.”

Yeah, they don't, they don't have to. I mean, really the only thing that, you know, Harden remains unsigned in, you know, and that lead done as far as whatever the number will be with him and dream on in Golden State. And, you know, Payne Watson will probably talk about him in a minute and again, for, you know, there's a lot of money. There's not, you know, much heavy lifting that,

some of these teams fill these basically good, down with their roster for the most part.

Miami's got some, some openings. They've got to figure out, but there's, yeah, it's not like, you know, I remember in, was a 15 Brian when he went to back to Cleveland? Yeah, like, like, 14, 14. In the summer of 14, like, I didn't, like, know, but I had an idea that he was going back because we had, we did a trade with the calves, where we took Jared Jack and then surrogate carousel because they needed to clear the money out to get them. So you're thinking,

like, do we, do we do it just to do it? And even though LeBron is going there, or do we need a backup point guard, who cares? You know, like, and we want to do it in the money, want to, um,

“they want to clear an out enough, uh, I think they've traded toys that are also, um,”

and to the Celtics as far as that deal. And they want to clear an out the money here. But in this case, totally, totally different ballgame. I'm out here in Salt Lake City, Assembly again, you know, obviously there's a lot of scouts and executives and whatever. And I can't tell you how many

times I either heard or asked like, what do you think he's going? It's one of the first things

that comes up in conversations and the majority opinion is he'll have back to Cleveland. But right, but no one is is operating with knowledge. Like the exact thing, like I can say, everybody is guessing. I wish I could tell you, my sources are saying X, but the sources I talk to aren't speaking with knowledge. And the people who have knowledge are not speaking. So look, I'm not saying that Shoms doesn't have a good idea. I'm just saying, I don't. I wish I could tell you for sure. I don't.

Well, and look, there's the, there's the, there's the three teams that were kind of the initial front runners. And I'll just say in the oral, I think, Cleveland, Golden State, Miami, again, it's guesswork, but whatever. I know Denver is optimistic, Minnesota is optimistic, Philadelphia is optimistic. I mean, you know, there's these teams that think they have a case and think they have some hope. I wouldn't say optimistic. I would say hopeful. Okay, hopeful.

Like they think, right, they don't think they're not like confident like, oh, he's coming here, but they're like, hey, we've got a chance. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I will say that in the past, like, look, look, like, so in the last week or two, you know, there's been a lot of people who we all know who have been hanging out with LeBron. We've asked all of them. Trust me,

in Max Kaliman's podcast Saturday day, Rich said that 27 teams had to check deal with LeBron,

reached out, whatever, expressed an interest in signing them. I wish I could tell you, I knew the three teams that did not. Well, one is Lakers. Well, I need Rich to clarify that, because technically, the Lakers did show interest in resigning them. Not since he announced he was leaving them, but like, is Rich counting that in the 27 or not? I would love to know the three teams that didn't reach out to him. I wish I could tell you. But let's talk about the teams.

We think are legitimately in the hunt here. You know, and look, I think we've kind of hit on we've discussed Cavs Warriors Heat. Let's talk about nuggets,

Sixers, and Tim Wolves, because I think they're all interesting for different reasons.

So like, when it was the Mavericks, it was oil, Messiah Africa. No, it was Mavericks, plus Messiah's oil gulf, but cow Africa. So what would what would it like? So what would they be for like, Philly, cheese steaks, eagles fans? Oh, yeah, it was track. We haven't gotten the fall, not in the

“winner. But here's the thing. And here's the thing. The sixers, the nuggets, and the Wolves,”

we're all like LeBron in the middle, and here's their lineups, right? So then it's like, oh, it's about basketball. You know, like, the thing like golf, listen, man, there'll be on the road, and I'll feel be able to play some golf. He can get a little success to a jet, okay? Like I'm not. Yeah, he'll be okay. Now, the one thing I will say Memphis didn't make the list of like the 10 teams on the whiteboard, but one thing that Memphis has to offer

is LeBron. You'll never have to stay in a hotel here. We'll get you a place. Great point. And

listen, LeBron clarified he wasn't talking about the city of Memphis. He was talking about the hotel. Yeah, so one thing I will say is that I'm really not going to spend a lot of time analyzing the fit with the roster. LeBron can fit on any team. Even now, he can still play multiple positions. He can, I mean, he showed last year he can play, and I do think that he would be preferred to be on the ball. You know, I don't think he probably enjoyed standing at the corner

waiting for a spot of three, but he can do it. Yeah, but but if it's about basketball happiness,

“I think that includes touching the ball on most if not every position. Yeah, but I'm just going to tell”

you, I'm not, I'm not, I mean, I'm not ruling just about any team out. Thank you, yeah. To me, the different possibilities really fascinating, because him and Joker are, are they the two most brilliant basketball brains walking the face of the earth right now? I mean, they're in competition for it. I would say that watching LeBron play with staff, watching LeBron play with Yokech, I suspect would be incredibly enjoyable.

And I would love to see it. Yeah, and the other thing that's fascinating about the whole Denver thing. Again, we can slot them in the lineup. Okay, you got Jamal Murray, Christian Brown, LeBron, Aaron Gordon, and Nicole Yokech. Whoo, that's an, that's all the lineup.

“Can't you add him to any of these teams and go, wow? Yeah, but I, you know, I think that one's,”

you know, it's a champion, a proven championship for a while. But what I've been talking about this a lot, but the other thing that's fascinating to me about that is there's this dance that the Denver Nuggets right now are playing with the premier restricted free agent who's still unsigned, Peyton Watson, who, do you guys know who represents Peyton Watson? Have you ever checked that? Quite a well aware that it's a rich ball and clutch. Oh, well, that's interesting.

That's interesting. But in real talk, is LeBron deciding basketball happiness based on getting a clutch guy paid. Also, Peyton Watson has done enough to get paid. And like he needs, you know, LeBron's help to get paid. Real talk is rich, Paul leveraging the bronze free agency to get at the client's paid. Well, if it drags out 10 more days until we see Denver Stein, I mean, you could argue, maybe that's the case, but no, I mean, Peyton Watson's going to

get paid. It's a matter of how much it's sure is helping me a lot more than he would have taken last year when he wanted about 15 years. It's going to, you can add eight figures of that. The clippers, like there's a, there's a three-way dance right now going on between

Mathron is kind of like, you know, well, also the nets have space, right, Bobby? I mean, they do. They've got some, they've got like 20 to 22 before they do all their deals and everything like that. The clips, the clips are the most interesting team just because I was telling Brian this last week that, so you could put it off, or you could, you can, you could renounce the Benedict

“Mathron, put it off or she'd down. I think they get like 26, 27 million. And then if they match it,”

you can unrenounce them. So you don't totally lose them in the process there along the way. I mean, you could if a team, one of the many reasons that Bobby is so valuable in the NBA is because

he can talk about the procedure for unrenouncing a player, which I have never heard before.

Well, in the crazy, you know, I, because I, I feel like we're going to, we're possibly could see one or two because you can, you can, you can start putting off for sheets down as soon as you're alive first, but really, it's not worth it because then you're basically just stalling time. But like I went, I even went back guys to when, um, because you, if so, if there's an offer sheet by, um, noon on July 6, you have until $159 on July 7th, the match it.

But I went back and, and because remember, remember on autoporter, I got that offer sheet by Brooklyn and the wizard basically took like four days, because it's like two days to match, two days to pass the physical, like basically, if they wanted to, if, if it is the clips or something,

they can just basically say, you know what, we're just going to tie your cap space up for the next

whatever, three or four days and everything like that, because there's, there's a little bit of a

“process there. When I was a kid, Bobby, I think it was 10 days. Yeah. Wasn't it 10 days?”

Yeah. Oh, it was. And then it got to 48 hours, I think. And then it's, it feels like it's been, it's good strength, strong every time. Back when I was a kid, you know, free agency literally didn't start till until July 1st. And nobody signed on July 1st. You signed on July like 6th or 8th. It's summer league. The summer, that's where you would do stuff. Now, summer league, everything's done, or most of it's done. Back then, like that, that's where the, you know, you would call

them on July 1st. And then you'd say, hey, let's meet Las Vegas. I can three days sure sounds good. And then you do an offer sheet and like you would be like, oh, the FedEx didn't get to him on Tuesday. They didn't actually get the FedEx with the offer sheet till Wednesday. So the clock doesn't start. Now, they have 10 days. And like you're waiting until July 25th to see whether

you're getting offered matched. The first, the first, so when I was with the nets, we had an

outside law firm and we got tired of paying them. So the broad thorns said to me, and I didn't go to law school. He says, hey, why don't you learn how to drive contracts? Draw, you, you know, you PC contracts. So my first contract, I'd ever drew up was summer of 2001, Todd McCullough, offer sheet. And I took the train down if I remember this offer sheet. I took the train out of Philly and in back then, it's like servant, like you're like serving papers. And I knocked

them Billy King's door. I go, hey, Billy, hey, Billy, hey, what do you do now? Oh, here you go. You

“miss Todd. Oh, you didn't serve. But the beauty, yeah, you did you used to do it in person, right?”

You didn't do in person. The beauty of it was I took when I was come back on a train and we had filed with League that kind of was Dan Rubin and the League office. He called me this Bobby, you missed something on the offer sheet. You got to redo it. And I said, oh, my Holy God. He just turned back around. Go back on the train. But back then, I had the the most the best one is when Nina. Wait a minute, you had to go back on the train again all second time.

Mr. Minds me, there's a, uh, there's an agent who hadn't been involved in the NBA and why who is part of the representation for one of the premier guys in the straff class. And somebody with a team said, yeah, you know, if you need this agent, just send him a fax, he'll get back to you. I know that guy is a nice guy. Well, you have dare you. Yeah. Nowadays, it's different. I think to Jeremy, the Jeremy little offer sheet with

Houston with, uh, I think that change would they were basically, I think Darrell was trying to serve the next the papers and they were like, look at behind the door. They went open up to like the hotel door. Now it's all electronic. Oh my God. Yes, I was Jeremy was just talking about that crazy offer sheet, you know, but yeah, I remember, you know, Michael Winger, who's the president of the, of the, of the, of the wizards. Like I remember the calves, we're going to sign

Jamario Moon to an offer sheet, restricted free agent on Miami heat and he flew down to Miami with the offer sheet and, um, uh, he met with Andy Ellisburg, who's not the general manager of the

be who pays for that dinner? If you're delivering an offer sheet, who pays for the day?

“If you bring the offer sheet, you gotta say. I think you're right. I think that's absolutely”

the way it goes. We had one, we had one time, we had a quick, we had a Christmas, I think it was right after our lockout. We had a Christmas party and I was there and I saw, I don't know who was from the thunder. Goddamn, showed up, like in my, like I look up and I'm like, uh, and I ever delivered an offer sheet, I mean at Christic. You know what, I was talking to, uh, you know, one of these old school scouts who's out here last night and, uh, kind of remember who the free agent was,

but their organization put together like this big elaborate, like, let's host this guy's, he's coming in and like, you know, like this big elaborate party is like a $20,000 set up at all that,

and the guy did make his flight, never touch base with him, never let him know. And so it ended up

just being like, well, okay, hey, basketball staff, have a good time. Yeah, the food's here. The catering's paid for. Oh my God, there's a million of those types of stories. Anyway, all of us to say is, um, so you think there's, so they're, the two outstanding free, uh, restricted free agents out there, Bobby are, uh, Jalen Durin and, uh, Peyton Watson. And, and Biddedic. Matt, right. No, Matt, they're in, yes, that's right.

What imposed on a lower end to mediated decent year in Golden State, but he's a rich, he's a, it's funny. We got the list when there was like 18 guys on the restricted list and most of a lot of those guys are like, like, overseas, you know, like you just tender them, uh, the qualifying offer just to keep their rights and everything. Yeah, so that could happen. Uh, we could see an offer sheet or two starting on Monday, but, um, I'm not sure we're going to hear about LeBron's Monday. The, the nuggets

are at least bluffing if not serious about saying we don't have to shed cap, uh, we don't shed salary to keep Peyton Watson. Like, the, the belief was they were going to have to trade either Christian Brown, which I don't think there's any market for him or Cam Johnson, which, like, it wouldn't be hard to do. He's unexpiring. He can knock down shots and he's a human trade exception. Um, but the, the nuggets are at least putting out there. Like, no, we were fine paying a

bunch of tax. We should be very undugged like, do you believe that? Well, I, I, again, I got a feeling to bluff, but whatever, um, but part of the whole the Bron to dimfer thing. Obviously, Joker is

“raising number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. But Josh Kronky, who I believe is”

a official title's chairman, but he's the day to day ownership presence has a relationship with the

Bron. Like, they do stuff like hang out on yachts together as friends tend to do. Um, I've never

actually done that, but with you. Yeah. Well, if you did, you probably wipe out and have a rip contagion. That is true. Actually, cracked rib cartilage. Sorry. Potition makes on like I was making a big deal about a bruise. Can you crack cartilage anyway? You can't learn that. And the, like, another tie is Jared Dudley is on the, you know, the front of the nuggets, banches in the system coach. His guy who's got a good relationship with the Bron, you know, was a bet on that, uh,

Lakers Championship team. So there's, you know, there's some ties there. JJ Bre is also on the nuggets, uh, coaching staff. He, he, he, he famous. He was part of the Maddox pulling off an upset over the Bron and his first year Miami. I just, I just figured out the math on, on Denver. All right. Let's so, so Denver is a repeater team, repeater tax team. So they will pay a significant more penalty. I just backed it in. If they wave the valentus and signed Payton Watson for like a 25,

26 million dollar contract, they're, they're tax penalty will be $177 million. Yeah.

I know. They're a big number. They are, they are putting out there that they're willing to go like into that territory. I'll believe it when I see it. They ain't the Missouri, but Josh chronic is a Missouri alum. And I'm going to show me state on that. Well, how, you know,

“Yokeach hasn't extended yet. And the Bron hasn't made up his mind. So I think it's probably a good”

idea to not make major money cut moves, right? Like that doesn't take next level strategy. Does it? But, you know, I think you talked about Minnesota. I would love to see LeBron play with Anne Edwards too. Anne, Steph, or Yokeach. I would, I think all three of those are fascinating. And I think if you're LeBron, you know, whiteboard or no, you probably are having that conversation. I just don't know if there are serious conversations. Only LeBron knows. The other thing, Bobby, is how's the golf

Minnesota in the winter? The golf in Minnesota in the winter exists inside. But it's great in the summer.

think, because I've talked to teams that they don't have clarity that I know,

“displaying for less mean the mid level, the taxpayer mid-level or the minimum?”

Wow. For some of these teams, it's only the minimum, 3.8. Okay. So that's true. So but Rich draws out 10 teams there. 3.9. Rich certainly knows that some of those teams can only have the minimum, right? Billy, Philip, either minimum, Minnesota, minimum, Golden State's kind of in between. They'll figure that out. Whatever. Denver's the minimum. You know, we can go down the list. Hey, Dallas has the mid-level and if you invest right level exception, then who the casino's

a Macau, who knows what you can make. If you buy some oil futures, exactly. Yeah, you know, it's going back to the Rich with a bronze. What I found the most interesting was the next comment. He mentioned, well, that's, there's no cost to making that comment. Right. I see what you're saying is if the next, you know, Rich said at the mix had one, he definitely would have gone to New York. Yeah. By the way, he did win. So like this was Jalen Brunson the last free agent

who changed teams and shifted the balance power and league. Yeah. I mean, Fred did and you went to Houston. I said shift balance a power. I'm looking at the big to buy his Harris and Detroit. I know. I'm just mentioned names. None of these meet the criteria. Jalen Brunson who everybody called an overpay at 104 or before years. I thought it was an overpay. Quite, quite clearly. I was quite clearly wrong. Now, Bond Tims thought the sixes were the favorites in East.

I thought the sixes were the favorites in that series. It was close. Anyway, all right. So the league's going to look a lot different when the Brunson picks up his mind.

“I just don't know when he is. And I honestly, you know, we're obviously paid to give insight”

information. And I have to just be responsible here. Trust me. I'm having the conversations. A lot of people are saying what they think is going to happen. And I can tell you what people think is going to happen all night. I'd rather tell you what's going to happen. And I'm just not in position to. I'm not in position to do that. I wish I was. Bobby LeBron is the film the blank best player in league. I don't know. I don't want to give an answer because we'll probably

get in trouble. I think he's a top 25 type of player. Oh, yeah. Oh, definitely. I thought he was the best free agent. I thought he was the best free agent available. I mean, I think you can make it or certainly unrestricted. And, you know, look, if he goes to Cleveland, okay, I agree that there's there'll be some challenges with, you know, figuring out who's going to have the ball when because

I never ever thought about LeBron playing with James Harden. It's just not something I have

envisioned. Although hard as much or the table said are now, then up, you know, dominant score. True. And I have no, but they would think they would figure it out. I mean, what you think

“James Harden and LeBron James can figure out how to play together? Absolutely, I think they”

could. And none of the Mitchell wants to win. You know, I don't think LeBron's going to like make none of the Mitchell like render him like, you know, ineffective. Come on, like I, I absolutely think that that would that makes a ton of sense. Just like I think it, you know, it would work in Philly too. Like they, they could figure out how to do it. I honestly have more questions about Philly as far as the fit. Because of Embed. Because of Embed because of Brown,

who wants to clearly wants to be the man on a team and because of Maxi, where I think Maxis, the best of those three guys is an offensive number one right now. I think Embed's got, you know, like the most equity in Philly and Brown, the whole one of the big reasons he's on the block is, or was on the block is because he wanted to be one A. Well, I do think that one of the big questions no matter what happens in Philly is what they do, if Jalen would like a contact extension,

like that's not if. Well, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how that plays out. But Bobby,

if you were eligible to make like 140 million over two years, would you be interested in that? Yes.

Well, the, the beauty. Yeah, we're filling out the catches a little bit of a break here, is because he was traded. They can only extend them for a year. So they don't have to allow for him. It's like a year, like 60, like 68 million, 69 million. It's a big number, man.

to Cleveland or Miami, you can get that no trade clause back. That's true. That's true. That was what Dame Lillard did last year. He's the last one. He's like standing with the no trade clause because LeBron is expired. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't be a bad idea. All right. Well, to be continued with LeBron. More who collected podcast after this?

“All right, McMahon, you are watching Summer Link. So a couple of days in. What have you learned?”

So I got to see Cam Boosers, Summer Day View and Darren Petersen, Summer Day View.

Cam Booser, the first play, his first official planning was his uniform. He dunked on

Mara, the seven foot three thunder lottery pick. And then Petersen's first official plan of jazz, uniform. He went pick and roll and attacked Ace of Newell off a switch and had a little crafty layup and look, both those, they'll play Monday night. So looking forward to that. Both those guys were as advertised in the first game. You know, seen Booser up close like this guy. The legs look like tree trunks. He measured it six eight and a quarter. But his legs are like

that I mean, they're massive. He's got these just absolute oak trees for legs. Strong as hell

“and has guard skills at six eight and change in 253. His vision is incredible. Like he had four”

assists. But like that does not even come close to explaining how great of a passing performance he had. Like his ability to create advantages, whether it's off the dribble or with power, you know, the post, whatever a combination thereof, see the floor like three steps ahead. Like, you know, play the chess game and see the floor. And then at that size, just make any pass he wants. He has

like that. Like he's an incredible power point forward. The fun to watch. And then Peterson,

he committed eight turnovers. He's playing a lot of point guard. He's not going to be on the ball nearly as much once it comes regular season. He's sharing it back core with the candidate George by the way. He's been in every practice. He's going to be on their bench for their Vegas debut. Like as an assistant coach. He's been very involved in like coaching up, Darren Peterson and establishing that relationship. But the thing that stands out about Peterson's

man, this dude, you know, I scouted out sitting next to you last night. I was like, this all looks easy for him. And talking about just like the ability to get to his spot, to create space up dribble to, you know, to rise up. How many different ways did he score in that game? And like, look, Somerlie, you know, the long story is it's much more predictive of your bad and Somerlie than if you're good, like on the whole. Right. He scored in transition. He scored

off the dribble. He scored out of pick and roll. He scored step back threes. Yes. He hit a three and over time, where it's coming off a screen, going left, just stopping pop, you know, mid range pullups.

“I had another scout tell me and I think I think this is an aggressive statement. But it was said to”

me, he'll be a top 10 player in league within two years. That's aggressive. But there's a pretty strong consensus that this guy has like the ceiling of lead league in scoring, like that type of potential. I think the jazz are potentially one of the more fascinating teams going into the season. The descent, I totally get the decision on Walker Kessler. Yeah. The pick package was enough. It was robust. Yeah. Good job. Good word. I get it. Also, you know, they have so much invested in

their front court that if you aren't like totally pleased with that, I get it. But that, you know, that does set them a little bit back in terms of the roster build. But they could be really competitive here. Before Kessler went to LA, there's like people talk about 50 wins. Well, I cannot see them. Double their win total. But they can be a competitive team and they've got a young core. You know, Ace Bailey did something that was back. And so he came out of that game early, but like

Ace is an impressive looking player. By the way, Cody Williams, like, let's not give up on him yet.

Now he's a third year guy, third year lottery pick plan in summary, which means things haven't been

players in the NBA last month of the season. I'm not ignoring that. Well, there's some circumstances.

Well, I'm not saying he's going to be an all star, but like, you know, it was all you're talking about the jazz, like a hitman. But they've definitely put together a team and like they're actually going to have the goal of winning games. They'll be interesting this year. But the core they put together

“there's not a face of the franchise. And that's what they need. They're in Petersen to be.”

And maybe Ace Bailey can pop to become that guy, but Petersen's obviously their best hope at that. And it's pretty widely, you know, the consensus among scouts and I've talked to her and exactly as he has that type of potential. You know, and it's interesting because like Booser would have been the safer pick. I don't think there was any question about that. And it was, you know, like I'm sitting there and right in front of me sitting in the court side is Carlos Booser.

Jazz, Scout, Carlos Booser, former Jazz All-Star Carlos Booser, watching his son, who the jazz passed on and. And that booze was wearing a grusse's hat. I respect it. When he's that, he's a dad before he's a scout, but they like Petersen enough to where they passed on a kid who was born here. You know, his dad's part of the franchise, who they think is going to be a really damn good player. Like they think Carlos Booser was worthy of being a number one pick in the draft.

They thought there's three number one picks. But they thought Darren Petersen had the high ceiling.

“And that's the guy they took. I think Darren and Goodspot. I mean, I think the biggest thing”

before they went out and got Joshua Koji and Jackson Hayes and free agency. I think Jared and John Conchers were the only two guys that I played in the postseason before. So you could show the youth of that group. But you know, go back to that Koji Williams plane. I give him credit, man. Like, you know, because you know, once you see the lights of the end of your rookie contract coming and you hadn't really done as much as you thought, you know, getting drafted in the lottery,

it's like now or never for him. And then Ace is kind of a little bit of a wild card as far as

what you can get from him, but that watching Darren and that was the big thing is like, this is the pace, just like how very like easy he makes it look when he's out there. And is there anything else that you've seen on this in the first couple days there that you think is notable? So honestly, there's just one day of games. Today was an all day for games and it was my birthday today was off day. My birthday. My birthday in Tuesday. There's a game like tomorrow is is the Jazz Cruises

game, which is that'll be Peter's Inverse's Booser. You know, Mara is a really interesting player. I mean, obviously some foot three. He's got some heart and stiny in them as far as like the pass in ability. Now, the bruises blew the thunder out. But Mara is a really fascinating player. He's going to have to improve his body a bit dumpy was was the description that somebody used for

“him. But I think he landed in an ideal situation in Oklahoma City where they're going to be able”

to like, I think he'll play this year, but they don't even play 25 or 30 minutes. He didn't play 10 or 15. I think, you know, he's going to develop his body and he's he's a pretty intriguing guy at some foot three with some feel and like I said, the pass in ability and just the length. Your guy helped me out with the 16th thick and blank and started. Ben starts and it starts. Yeah. He's got a chance. He's going to be interesting. And then, you know, Kingston Fleming

was his shot is a funky shot goes in. Yeah. But it's it's a funky looking shot. I think the thing for Fleming's that's going to determine how good he is in the NBA is. He's got to figure out how to be able to finish against NBA sides. You know, he's not the biggest guy in the world height or like, you know, in terms of just like, stoutness. He's going to, you know, he's going to have to figure out how to be able to finish at the rim. But if if that pops, he's got a chance

to be off the good. He's a hell of a passer. He's a competitor. The shot's funky, but it goes in. So, I mean, it's a, there's only four teams here, but there's four of the top 12 and five of the top 16 picks. So it's a fun little summary. And, and, you know, I mentioned Cody Williams, he came in the league as a string bane. And he's really worked hard on his physique. He had a couple

of dunks. And again, you want to overreact with third year lottery pick plan in summary. I get it.

Right. But he had a couple of dunks where he says, okay, that's what they saw to make

By the way, there's been some summary games out in San Francisco, where there's, I think, is it four teams playing there? The California Classic, Cameron Carr, for the Lakers, had a very, has said two very good games so far. He's a buck again. I mean, he played in, he had, he had the one game in, in the combine. He put, he put up some big time numbers in that game. Yeah, so let Leninburg with the Warriors had a pretty good first game, 11 points, eight rebounds,

two assists. There is a cuff went nine of 29 and, like, a 20-some odd minutes. I respect the 20 match-ups. You go get it, kid. Yeah, you would. I'm not surprised. So we'll keep an eye on that start assembly. Before we go, Bobby, so beginning with the new league year, obviously all the contracts get signed. One of the busiest days of the year in the league office. We haven't seen any extensions for the 20-23 draft class. So this is when that window open.

So obviously at some point here, I assume you're going to see Victor Wimbanyama signed a five-year

$300 million. It'll be $5 for $252 and then they'll have the whole 30% rule that will bump it

over $300 which, if you, you know, he'll get, if he doesn't, unless he doesn't. Oh, he hasn't qualified yet. He has to get $254. He hasn't qualified yet. He hasn't qualified yet. So he'll, he'll get all the bells and whistles on there. It'd be interesting. They put a player option in there, which says rare. Apollo got one last year. I'm sure. What, listen, whatever Victor wants, he'll get. That's the reality of it. There's not a negotiation. There really isn't. This is an easy, easy as, as easy as it gets and everything.

But yeah, he's a, he's the headliner and then we've got the Thompson Twins, which will be interesting.

“And he's in a siren and Detroit, which will be where, you know, are they max ties? Are they not?”

I mean, like, I would say like non-max guys, we just, this thing just drags out to like October. I mean, that's the reality. And, and both of those franchises have shown recently that they're going to negotiate with their own guys. Yeah. You know, Houston did it with without being shingoon. Jayden Green, but he wouldn't have max ties. But like without being shingoon, Houston did it. Detroit's still in the process of doing it with Jayden Durran. So I would be surprised

if there's just like a full boat max off or put on the table. Yes, we talk about this in the pod.

But, you know, Bobby, I used to refer to the first max of 25% of the cat max is the fun max.

You know, in a different era, I'm not that long ago. I think Brandon Miller, you know, Amen and all as are would have like been strong candidates for the fun max. But there's no such thing

“as fun the max is anymore. You've got a negotiate. Yeah. And I would honestly be, despite Houston's”

recent history, I would be less surprised if Houston gets somewhere near there just because I'm telling you as high as you think they might be on a Middompson, they're higher. I literally don't know if they would trade a man for anybody but Wendy. But Rafael Stone, their GM, has consistently held the line on negotiations, whether it was Alperon Shingoon. He just signed a deal with Tara Eason, a five-year deal, Bobby, then basically at the mid-level, right? It's below the mid-level.

It's below the mid-level. Yeah, listen, it took Karen. It was last time you saw a five-year contract. It was for that. I mean, did you see Tauri Eason's tweet about an hour before that news came out? There's a three-word tweet. You guys didn't see it? No, I can't. I saw, but I can't remember what it was.

I quote, "I guess, bra." 80 million dollars, I guess. He turned down more money, but less

guaranteed last, you know, during extension season last year. Well, part of the reason was less guaranteed is this is five years. So, you know, guaranteed is going to be higher because it's more

“years, right? Last year, I believe it was four for a hundred with like 65 guaranteed.”

So, well, I wouldn't, you know, he's had some injury history. I wouldn't feel bad about getting that much guaranteed, but I would just say that they negotiate, like the even the contract that they gave Jalen Green. You know, there were, was short enough fully guaranteed. And so, yeah, I expect some of that. So, you've got brands of Miller? It's a barsmith, junior, too. Like that happened, right, in the middle. I remember being in Vegas

when that happened. The rare non-max extension that had, you know, four for a little over a hundred, I think. Like that was like, you know, that was kind of where they saw him as. And he took it

I know it was a hundred. I'm pretty sure it was, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a five. It was five for a, let's see, we got here. Yeah, five for one, 22. It's a good deal. There you go.

Yeah. So, some of the other guys, scoot Henderson, that a really good second half. I mean,

was it my start second half? It was good. Well, they just traded for jaw. They have name. They still have shade and sharp. They have true holiday still. I, I, I, I would, I would think that one might play out a little bit longer. But, you know, we'll see. Anthony Black's interest in an Orlando. Yeah. That's just based on where their salaries are. Right? What the other guys? You know, Cason Wallace is a really fascinating deal in OKC.

And I would say Cason Wallace and is AJ Mitchell with with the deal. He signed last summer

“Bobby's next year. Okay. My point, my point is I think you have to kind of”

lump those two together because I think it's going to be awfully difficult to pay them both because they're both really, really, really good young guards. And I don't think either of them are going to want to take a team friendly discount when neither of them is made, big time, and be a money yet. Well, I agree. So, Anthony Black coming off for really good year in Orlando, Brandon Pajemski, you skipped over County George and you don't count to a George.

Yeah. I would be very surprised if there's an extension there. And it's not because we don't like County George. And it's not because County George, I just, you know, I mentioned like he's been in Salt Lake City. He's been very involved. He's at facility every day. Do everything they could

“possibly want, doesn't want to be here. Like, I think he wants to be here. I think if you want to”

keep them. But if you're County George and you just averaged, you know, 23 in change and six plus assists had a breakout year, like, you know, if you're freaking extent, you want to be near the, the fund max or the former fund max. And if you're Utah, and if you want to pay that much money, you want to be awfully sure that that wasn't a weird aberration of a year, and that he is who you hope he is and who he should flash as a being in a competitive situation this year. So,

I think County George will have a future here in Utah. I just don't think there's going to be an extension before next season. Interesting, take there. Interesting. Hi, Mayhakez. Just traded to Milwaukee. You'd think that they'd want to lock him up. But Pajemski and Hakez are both guys

that those could be October extension. Yeah. We see a rash in October. We always see the

Monday before the season starts the deadline. We always see that weekend. We just the flurry of six or seven guys go right up the deck. Because there's, you know, like, there's not on a, yeah, you're not negotiating really against anything except clock with these, uh,

“what these non max guys will see. I think, you know, there should be, uh, sure of the spurs”

prioritize getting Victor taking care of. So, I would recommend it. 24 hours. All right. Well, we wait for the broad yet again. Thank you so much to all of our producers, Tucker Mark Jackson, at all. Thank you so much to Bobby for putting in more hours. There's still some fireworks out there. You can light off Bobby. I'm sure. No, I feel bad for the dogs, you know. I know. My, uh,

I've got a 10 month old puppy and he is first July 4th. Uh, thank you to McMahon for his reports from

Summer League. Keep in comment. Yeah, two more days of maybe then I'll go home. All right. Thank you for watching. Let's see the hoop collective. We'll talk to you later this week or when the broad in science, which ever happens first. Adios Migos.