Why Did The Jaylen Brown Trade Happen Now? + Is The Lakers’ New Big 3 Enough For Luka?

I don't want to talk about the story, I don't want to talk about it.

“Do you have a connection or do you have access to it?”

No, just like the story. Wow, and that's easy. Yes, the taste is almost automatic. I feel so completely like this. In the end, hold your money.

It's up to you, but it's 31 years old. What? I don't want to talk about it, just like the story. Oh, yeah. Hello, welcome to the Who-Collective Podcast.

We're still talking about the NBA. Joining me from New York City is Vince Goodwell. What up, though, Wendy? What up, do I guess we should say that it's Thursday afternoon?

It only feels like mid August.

I don't understand Dallas, Texas. Home of Santiago, Dama, which we're going to lead the podcast with. The fan nickname, howdy partners, that's two straight pobs. You've made that Santiago Dama joke, but they're all running together now. You got that kid, you got there?

I want the appropriate level of enthusiasm, Wendy. We talk about the NBA. All right, we'll have you do it next time. I have a public service announcement. When we say what teams are thinking, sometimes we're going to say what our opinion is.

But when we say what teams are thinking, we have to be grownups and not destroy the messenger. Hold the hell. Oh, have you been destroyed? Like being Bobby, it's been a rough few days.

“Well, and again, I thought, you have to act like adults here.”

We act like adults. There's all adults listening. The kids are not listening to this. They're on, they are not on this platform. We've got a lot of IG stuff now.

We've got some YouTube shorts. The kids might catch little nuggets here and there. I know, I know, and then I know it's not going to matter. I think we're TikTok and even? Are we TikToking Jackson?

Yes, we're TikToking. We're TikToking. We should not be TikToking. The kids love us. Yeah.

How do you do feel those kids? My god are people in their feelings. And I mean in the lead. I know in the world. I got that.

That's what happens. But my god are people in these feelings, Vince, about this trade. Hold, lead, lead, lead. I say in their feelings about this. This is going to be, this is what you call it, tipping point, an inflection point, a pinch

point, what else? What else we got? We're going to be a before and after crossing the Rubicon. This is a big one. There's going to this is before and after, Vince, because man, oh, man, am I getting double

barrel from both ends on this one? Who boy? Well, I was recording a podcast with Carmelo Anthony and Brooklyn yesterday. Oh, name dropping. Cool.

Never heard of him. No, not to say that.

“But when it came through, it was, wait, he got traded to where for who?”

It didn't make sense, right? And I won't say it still doesn't make sense now. But when you add up some of the things, and it's hard to add up these things, and for it to make sense to people, A to so ticks have not gotten, have won a grand total of one first round play of series in the last two years.

That is point one. Point two, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum are increasingly getting more expensive as time goes on. To operate with some prudence and how you are building this team, three, there is new ownership around, said team, four.

We don't know the relationship between Brown and Tatum and all we can do is speculate. And finally, Jalen Brown had a fantastic season on paper last year, and the Celtics clearly did not believe that was sustainable in a different environment, come this season, come this coming season. And they didn't believe that Jalen Brown would be able to slide back into a supporting

road, or if he would want to slide back into a supporting road, assuming Jason Tatum is

all the way back into himself, like it's a million things.

That's part of it. I think in my viewpoint, McMahon, you disagree with me if you want. But if I had to boil it down to one paragraph, and I mean, there's a lot of nuance required here, and I realized that this is not a time for nuance, because people are in their feelings about this.

If I could boil it down to one paragraph, it's this. I don't believe that the league doesn't think Jalen Brown is a very good player. As you mentioned, I don't believe that the league does not believe Jalen Brown is a very good player. What I think is the league believes he's not a $57 million player, and that is asking

for a lot of comprehension, because there are people who not only are defending Jalen Brown, but defending the concept of the eye test versus analytics, yes, there are all kinds of analytics.

we have with the second apron, okay? There's a lot more stress on you performing to your level of a player.

And so this is the thing, Peyton Pritchard makes $7 million.

Nobody in their right mind would ever say that Peyton Pritchard is a better basketball player than Jalen Brown. In an era where the aprons mean everything, and dollars are defined in efficiency of dollars defines your team. Peyton Pritchard is viewed as more efficient with his contract than Jalen Brown is.

It doesn't mean anybody on the planet thinks that Jalen Brown is not a significantly better player than Peyton Pritchard, okay, but when you look at one guy makes $7 million and produces this, and it results in this on the scoreboard, and one guy makes $57 million and produces this, and it results in this on the scoreboard, there's a differential there.

“And so that's what people are talking about when they're talking about quote unquote value,”

all right? And so this is where we get into big-time trouble. The laywoods that the decision makers and the league are talking about, and the people who are deciding whether to keep Jalen Brown or trade Jalen Brown or trade 4 Jalen Brown or not trade 4 Jalen Brown, they are looking at this term of value, and people who are

love basketball and want to watch it and don't want to get into the spreadsheets, they see Jalen Brown and say, my God, what a valuable player, not even valuable, most valuable player of the fight, right, right, right. And we are having two different conversations using the same language, and so basically what this is a challenge is, can we understand that it's two different conversations?

I right now, we cannot, and I don't know if we're going to get there, but that's where we are at, and that is where the stress is, and that is what is going to make frankly, the storyline of Jalen Brown next year be one of the most compelling, you could possibly imagine the league. No question.

And look, I had a primary decision maker for another team in the league, say, if you

make 60 million, this is what you're worth in a trade.

If he made 40, every single team in the league would have been lining up for Jalen, even with all the other issues, and look, obviously it reached a point where, for whatever reasons, the boss and Celtics believed they needed to move on from Jalen Brown, and whether that is, I don't want to, I don't want to get into the blame game on that, but they reached that point where they believed they needed to move on from Jalen Brown.

I'm pretty sure they reached that point before they put him in an offer for Yannis. And then after that, they just had to find the best deal.

“I think that there's plenty of room to criticize the approach that the Celtics took in terms”

of they went out swinging for sky-high value. They went out trying to trade Jalen Brown as at the value of the six most valuable player in the league, which is what he was in the MVP voting, when the league does not perceive him to be the league in terms of the people who are making decisions on trade, that the league does not perceive him to be the six most valuable person in the league, the six

most valuable player, because in part of his contract, and then this is such a hot but issue, but the advanced analytics are not favorable to Jalen Brown. I had another GM, basically, say, look, oh, here we go, look, I'm just saying, be careful what you're about to say. That's all I'm saying.

You know, listen, it's our job to explain things, whether we're co-sign and not co-sign or whatever, when there's something like this that confuses the hell out of, basically, the media, all the fans, all of our listeners, like you saw this trade and let's be honest, the initial reaction was what the bleep and, you know, this other GM says, this is a classic case of the credit goes to the guy who scores, but they're not driving team success.

There's guys like this all over the league, the difference is he's not at 40 million

and like a brand name room. He's at 60 million and he's rounding up and then it's going to be at 60 soon. Right. And then it gets into the CPA and the cap rules in the apron and he says, it's really hard to tie up that much money in your salary cap for one player, unless they're truly

generational and he's not even close to that.

“I also said, the league is getting smarter now and here's the thing, the dumb teams are”

the cheap teams. So the Celtics weren't even a position to try to capitalize on a quote unquote, dumb team because they're not bringing in a guy who has 180 something million over the next

And that's the key thing there.

He was going to be up for an extension two years, a hundred and forty million dollars. The reason that you see more trades and not for agency nowadays is because the trade market is for agency and if you have not made a decision that your franchise player is

“worth that extension, then you have to trade them.”

If your franchise player has said, I'm not taking this extension, then you have to trade him. This was coming sooner this summer rather than later, even if the Janice stuff did not happen. So this was looming, right, and the Celtics, the problem is that the order of operations

of the way that things happen, present really bad optics. If someone came to you and said, the Celtics traded Jalen Brown, you know, without all

the noise, the Celtics need to get off of Jalen Brown and they got Paul George and two first

rompics and two second rompics that first thought were probably, but why didn't you scoured a league? He had such a great year. Why didn't you just, why did you trade them for pennies on the dollar? Why didn't you, why did you trade them to put a first offer?

And then when you say, man, you scoured the league and his value and lower and lower and lower and lower, it feels bad. It feels bad on both ends, but it feels worse this way because it feels like his value got lower and lower and that nobody wanted him, when nobody wanted him for the money he was making, the money he was going to be due and what the Celtics were asking for him in return.

Like the thing, there's a schism guys between the year that he had and the player that he is. He had a top six year as far as keeping the Celtics afloat relative to our expectations, all the numbers career highs, all the stuff type of stuff, but even the GMs who like

“him tell me, I think it's top 25 player, not a top six player and the Celtics were trying”

to get top six return back for a top 25 player, which in theory is what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to try to get more than what you got, but it just dragged on long and it just left the bad taste in people's mouths, which is why people are all in a damn villains, right? And if you let's look at the players who've been traded this summer, Kawai extension time,

flapper's weren't doing it, lamello, he had some years left, but it's extension time, we're hornets weren't doing it, miles bridges, not that he's quite on the same level, but still extension time, the hornets weren't ready to do it, they traded them, okay? So, I think I'm forgetting somebody, I mean job, but, well, I don't know about that. This was somewhere between, I just want to be real careful because I want to be real careful

with the, I don't want a bad math jam brown, right, who's done nothing but, but produce and win in the NBA and, you know, like, okay, he goes on Twitch and says things that piss people off, you know, I do think all that stuff and the, you know, his team, my team wrestling, that that is all part of this, but I don't want to like, I just want to be real careful that I'm not putting out there like, Jayden Brown's a bad guy because I,

I don't believe that I, I've not heard that from anybody, but this was somewhere between jaw and colline in terms of, it's just time to move off them and the extension also being a, a, a factor in the decision. I remain surprised that it was time to move off with them, but, you know, I will say this, like Jason Tatum makes even more money than Jayden Brown does, but if Tatum's out there,

your offers are much, like, I had a team tell me, like, we were hoping that Tatum was going to ask out. Well, I'm just going to say that I'm now going to be watching Jason Tatum's advanced metrics because the Celtics have set the standard that if they don't think your advanced metrics equal to your contract, they're going to trade you, so I'm not going to watch

that. Yeah. And, and look, the, the thing that we talked about last night on the pod that you absolutely did not want to do, but thoroughly enjoyed was why now and I still think that I, I, I still think you shouldn't have done this deal on July 1st.

I don't think Philly was going to pull the offer. I don't think Philly was going to find somebody else to take Paul George.

“I think this awful would have been on the table on September 1st, right?”

But in talking to people, part of the why now is it just became a situation they believe was untenable and they had so many potential suitors disappear, whether it's Portland, trading for John Toronto, trading for QY, you know, Phoenix gave up that 233 pick that was perceived to have great value trading for Miles Bridges. Um, you know, just like all these, uh, there was another one that that's not pop and straight

to mind right now. But like all these potential suitors pop pop pop pop pop pop, they're gone and part of the reason they're gone is the cell that's came in asking for so much. Those seem to just like, we're not that's that we're not going to get in that mix and

went on and did their business that are basically came down to okay, there's only one

Let's do it now before maybe that disappears to and it's almost like, is it better

“to make a bad trade or no trade when you feel like you have to make a trade?”

Or who'd collect it podcast after this? Okay, we didn't, we just did the drive by and the lakeers yesterday. They went through a massive roster, uh, makeover, um, because we're still dealing with the fallout, Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Colin Sexton, uh, and Mamill, Sandra O'Mamill. Sandra O'Hooley.

Sandra O'Hooley, Sandra O'Hooley, you know, I don't know if it's good. It's what I got, uh, pretty big turnover of the roster. Now, um, what I will say is, I've had, I've had interesting league reaction from this. Have you talked to folks about this, McMahon? We didn't talk about this beforehand.

Yeah, I have and, and you know, obviously, I've also talked to the jazz, which is kind of like I've done a lot of reporting on this at the end of the other key party here. And so it is fast and look, we can talk about kind of the Ancillary pieces, but Walker

“Kessler is now a centerpiece of the lakeers, right?”

He's, they're number three guy for the long term and whether you, you want to say the overpaid on salary and they overpaid on, on, on the place or quick, like, do you think the overpaid on salary, like, uh, I'm kind of okay with it. I'm not good at this, but I, I, I was afraid to get Walker out of there. You're going to have to offer more than 32 a year.

Yeah, I, I would say this, uh, talking to people around the league.

They thought the five years is about 140 million on the table from the jazz was a very strong

offer for Walker Kessler. That's 28, right? Is that 20, 80 years? Yeah. I think it was, I think it was actually like 137.5, but whatever, they would, the 500 grand a year

was going to prevent the, you know, the jazz would have gotten to 140.

“They felt like that was really strong value for Walker Kessler.”

Having said that, the Lakers had a desperate need that they had one real swing to to fill the price I get it, because everything is, if you don't fill this need, you can't look look in the eye after promising to deliver hemologites in or this summer and have a conversation that's going to go well. That's just a simple fact of matter.

So the Lakers were back into a corner because of the circumstances because their cap space is user-relusant and because of the promises they made to their superstar, where there was desperation. And so I get the salary and then the jazz took advantage of that desperation to milk them for them to get better draft capital then the clippers got for coli, then the, then

the Celtic Scott for jam brown like that, it's pretty remarkable. That's true, but now the jazz don't have a franchise center. Now obviously they can get one that depends on whether you want to play, ger and jacks and that center. I don't think that would be a plan.

No, they're going with Thunder and Lightning for this year as a stop cap, which is usaf nor kitchen and my favorite Slovenian jacks and haze long time Slovenian jacks and haze. He's prepping for this time with a Slovenian national team, which we'll see if that actually happens by hanging out in the mountains in Salt Lake City. Oh, I thought you were going to say how now the mountains in Slovenia, which is where I know you've

gone. Yeah, Slovenia, beautiful place, but like, seriously, so then the lakers now they've got there. They're big three. The trace let chase lakers. They've got them with a bunch of Austin Reeves and Walker Kessler, who obviously look.

He's got to be one of the most dominant defense of forces in the league because that the thing the lakers did is they went from being a bad perimeter defense of team to a got all full perimeter defense of team, so that's the reaction from it. So first off, so Luca is making 30% of the cap.

That's the extension that he's signed last year as kicking in, he'll make 50 million dollars

this year, 30% that's the max level for him. Austin is making 25% of the cap. That's a max level for him back in the day we call it the fun max, but we've got to retire the fun max. I'm very sad to say there's no such thing in an apron era as the fun max, even paying

a really good player the max. At some point here, Victor Wembanyama is going to get a max. Not going to be fun because the spurs will have to make other decisions, so one of my best concedess ever that I stole from a team president have to retire the fun max, loved

to be the fun max is what Austin signed into 25% and so Walker Kessler,

assuming they started his contract at about 30 million and it goes up from there, which I'm

sure they will because they want to maximize their cap space. It's 18% of the cap. So 30, 25, 18, these are acceptable numbers for your three best players. Where you get in trouble, like the Celtics Warriors, when your two best players are both at 30 and now all of a sudden it's hard to, those two guys are studs, which I thought jail

and then Jason were, but it's another story. And there's no threat of super maxes in the future for any of them because they're not elder. That's correct. So Vinnie, I like that alignment, it's true terms of that spending, you know, the draft

assets, they cost what they cost, but they got a guy who fits in salary wise, I feel like the salary is okay, I'm not super excited about, but it's okay. What you really need now is you need Walker Kessler to be a grand slam. You need him to be a law of role threat that absolutely dunks the ball that crazy off Luca and Reeves Lobbs, you need him to be able to stretch the floor a little bit, which

he's been working on. And you need him to be able to stretch the floor. Go on.

It would be nice if he could do stretch the floor with 30 million dollars.

What they really need is a backline defender who can be a killer defender, like all defensive team candidate. That's what they need. They need to be a first team, all defensive team, all right. Well, that's a big ask because there's a first team all defensive center who plays

in Santa Antonio is probably going to be getting that position this brother.

“I know, but anyway, that's what they need.”

So the question. This is an argument like, like, brother is like going to you to go to your own. Good. We're about to have a more term of no podcast for three days. I'm about to come a jackass, like, Alabama on Tim's going.

The question is, is Walker Kessler going to be that player? It's hard to say, well, for one, let's make sure that he's completely helping that tone of labor on me, like that I understand McMahon that he's probably going to be completely healthy, but let's consider the possibility that he has to be completely healthy. For me, it's less about the money, because I thought the money was fine.

The fact that you are now hamstrung and landlocked to all of this having to work. Like there is no wiggle room with any of these guys like Luca has to be in premium tip top shape, Austin Reeves has to get better on deep ends. If nothing goes being a better team defender, a funneler, being able to funnel guys down to Walker Kessler.

I do think that he's a top line defensive player, but essentially he's got limpies and yeah, he can block shots with both arms all that type of stuff.

“But when you give up all your draft capital, I think they have one first round picking”

in the next seven years. Is that what it is, Wendy?

Do they control their one first round pick?

I think it's a swap, but what they have to do, they still have control. I don't know how to say this swap. But they can't trade it. Yeah. They can swap it.

No, I mean, they entered the summer with three first round picks they could trade. One of them was in the draft, which they used on Cameron Carr. He's there now. And then they traded two others that they could have. 32, they could trade a swap, but that they can't trade the pick itself.

So you don't have any wiggle room here when you have three players making, let's say what close to eight, is it 70% of the cap or was it more than that? 95, that was a 73%. 70, okay. That was impressive, Nick, man.

That was nice. Good job. So you get three players making 73% of the cap. Like compared to Boston, if I remember correctly, Tatum Brown and Derek White may like 84% of the cap.

And that was too much for the Celtics to bear. All things considered, the leakers are not in the exact same position, but they don't have the wiggle room. They don't have the breathing room. And the draft picks usually are your breathing room.

A to get cheap talent year over year to wind up augmenting your players being on big time salaries to cost control of all that.

“Secondarily being able to put a draft pick in a trade at the deadline if you need to.”

They don't have any of those mechanisms right now. You look at, do already have leadic enough. That's the question. Are they athletic enough, aside from Walker Kessel, who's clearly in above average athlete, playing center, but do you have enough athleticism around this ball club to make you a better

perimeter defense of team because if you're not, because if you're not, it don't matter that you get Walker Kessel throughout the room. If everybody's on a freeway down there, you're going to get this guy in foul trouble and or put him in so many damn collisions and picking a rose that he can't cover all that space that he's going to need.

Like a Jeep. A GM told me is Rob Pelinka trying to get fire. That's what a GM asked me yesterday. I think he's trying not to get fire. Well, and the castor thing will, that buys him time, it definitely buys him time with Luke

and there's, there's that kind of pressure going in it.

massive five alarm fire on their hands.

“Now, but the athleticism, who is their best perimeter defender?”

Is it Ronnie James? I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Rob Roms is an okay perimeter defender. Well, the other thing about Quentin Grimes, I mean, he had a great year last year for

Philly, but he doesn't have what they call "positional size," so he's like 6465 and if you're having a, so you know, sex, and the signing of sex and, you know, indicates he'll be their third guard. So what you're going to, I assume, you know, I don't know for sure. We haven't heard from JJ Radikyap, but what I assume is two of the three of sex and

Reeves and Donchets are going to be out there most of the time. That means that Grimes is going to be asked to defend wings, right? He's going to be asked to defend guys who are bigger than him. So he's, he's not a bad defender, but he's not, but he's got a guard Shay in a playoff series.

He's got a guard aunt in a playoff series. You know, Luca has great positional size. Luca's got amazing. You know, ideally, you got a six foot ache guy. You could put him on a wing, but they have to put Luca on the, typically, the weakest

perimeter offensive player to strike lead to save them and promise you have to put Reeves on that guy. Well, that's, I've got why they hate for Kessler, right exactly.

“And that's why I have not room protector was so key, but again, you want to surround”

Luca with as much shooting, the, the center's critical.

They did that. You want to surround him with as much shooting as possible, and like, mom was a shooter, mom who over, really, I don't know what, Ruiz looking for on the way Ruiz can land by the way, but I don't know that mom was an upgrade over Ruiz, who shot a better than 40% from three to the last three years and is a more athletic guy.

Mom was a little bit bigger and a better rebounder, but that one was interesting to me. Concepts and over either smart or canard canards, obviously one of the best shooters in the league. Look, I know Marcus smarts not near his prime, but he was their best perimeter defender last year.

So, I don't know, man, they are, it's going to be, they've got their, they're core trio in place, and it's going to be very hard for them to maneuver and upgrade around that, given that they blew all their, all their draft cap was blown out of the water. Now, you know, they'll get another pick kind of every year type of thing to play with. But, you know, this car kid is a, is a super athlete.

We'll see if he can, you know, we'll see what he becomes. Maybe he's an answer to some of these questions and then look. The makers do have the advantage of being the makers in sunny Southern California to where,

like, the minimum market, and those sort of things are always going to have been advantage

there. So, I'm not saying it's impossible, but I don't think this Lakers team is better than last years Lakers team, which wasn't good enough to, you know, to contend in the West. Well, it's funny. You said the Lakers won the clock.

“I think we need to introduce all of the listeners viewers to a unfortunate reality about”

this MBA that we're in every franchise is on the clock that has a franchise player locked under contract. It's not just fun that quite gets traded and Yanis gets traded or Jalen Brown gets traded and everything else. You can be as great as you want to be.

You are one bad 12- to 18-month stand away from that being your franchise and that being your franchise player. The bad side about how these things with these contracts are not forever anymore. The days of the seven year max or the six year max, that doesn't happen. So as soon as you sign your deal, you're going to be up for an extension in two years and

in those two years, once again, going back to it, if you are not going to resign with your team, you're going to be traded. If you don't want to resign with your team, they're going to trade you. This is what this is. So it's not specific to Luka that the Lakers won the clock.

Go look around at every superstar worth his salt in the MBA right now. Every team is on the clock. The clock is just a lot longer than Oklahoma City and in San Antonio because they are so well set up for now on the title. Number one.

Right. Can I say I was sort of boss in a couple years ago? Fair point. Fair point. I was speaking, going back to Walker Custard's contract, I was talking to Sergey in the

league and they said to me, this guy said to me, he goes, hey, you know, who did a nice job and it's kind of gotten buried over by everything is the thunder on that extension with Isaiah Hartnstein.

You know, there's a three year extension for 75 million.

So the average annual value is 25. Now they added it on to what he had. It is previous, I think McMahon was 27 or 28. They ripped up the team option and he took a haircut to help him with blood retacks. He took a mild haircut in a summer where you know, Walker Custard gets 32.

They're high level backups, but those guys are backups and they're getting 15 million

a year. You know what's funny, it's, it's the same agent, same primary agent, Aaron Mence of CAA, but it's two completely different circumstances. You had Walker Custard, which, look, Walker Custard really wanted to be a pick and roll partner and glamor CLA with a, the best pick and roll creator in the league.

Simple fat and he wanted to get paid. He was able to accomplish that. He got Walker Custard what he wanted. Isaiah harmstein really wanted to stay in Oklahoma City where he's won a championship, where he's become like just this beloved figure where he's poured himself into the community.

He did not want to leave. He wanted to stay. He was willing to take less than market value to stay and he got what he wanted.

“So same agent to totally different circumstances and that's why the contracts look so different.”

Okay. So we'll see what happens with the Lakers. I know everyone is, I was impressed that they were able to get Custard done. I thought the price was heavy. Then he were you on first take with me when it came.

Yeah. Yes. So last year I was live on first take when the, how about this for story time? Story time. This is brought to you by so if I get your money right.

So last year, we're on first take and the Miles Turner thing happens. And remember how that came out of absolute nowhere, right? So all of a sudden, because it was also the Damian Lillard Damian Lillard Damian Lillard Damian Lillard stretch. Yeah.

Right. We didn't know. So all of a sudden, and I want to say it was about July 2nd, it was sort of like, it was a little bit after. I don't know.

“So anyway, we're here in LA and we're sitting in these rooms.”

And you know, because we're not all on set together. And so we're in different rooms. So Bobby Marks is out here, and Bobby is, in his other, he's got his own room. And by the way, you know, he upgraded this year, McMahon. He used to, Bobby used to have his laptop, and then at the trade deadline and free agency,

he would add a little side screen to the side of his laptop to make like a little, it was like a half screen. So we had like a little extra space. This year, Bobby has upgraded to a whole second screen. He walks around with a double screened laptop.

I thought those people like roll like a big screen TV with his little, maybe that'll be next year. Yeah. You know, with his touch screen ready to go. So basically, there's this hallway here in our, in a way of studios here, but then there's

this hallway where there's different rooms where we're on TV, like, you know, it's looking at a camera. I'm in one of the rooms now, okay? And so Bobby's in another room where he's doing his thing. So I'm on first take.

And if we go breaking news, Shamsurani reports, miles turner, signing with the bucks four

years, 105 million dollars.

And I go, oh, we're going to react to him. We come back from the break. I go, holy hell. Where the hell did they get 100, you know, they didn't have salary cap space. Right.

And settle.

“And settle why would they do that as how did they do that?”

Right. Oh, I, I stick, I come out of the chair, you know, unplug my microphone and my headset. And, you know, I come out of the chair and I open the door and I yell down to Bobby, where the hell are they getting the cap space for miles turner? Are they doing a sign of trade?

He goes, no, I go, I close the door. And then, and then, I get, I hear over the, over the headset, they're like, yeah, it sounds like, Choms says they're going to wave, Damian Lillard, I go, you got to be kidding me. And I, when I, I'll play up in the door again and I yell down to Bobby, Bobby, are they waving and stretching Damian Lillard?

Yeah, slam the door, you got to be kidding me, open the door again. How much is that going to cost him? He goes, hold on a second.

It's going to cost him whatever a million over six years, slam the door again for five

years, I think it is. Go back and sit in the chair and I'm all worked up. I got my, my, my, my face is flushed. The makeup starting to run. Yes, absolutely, we come back from where he, we come back from break.

I should have just calmed down. I shouldn't have been reactionary to this thing. And I go, this is like, mortgaging your mortgage to buy a sports car. I just scream that in the moment. I, no idea to this moment what the hell I was talking about, 365 days later, I stand

by it. Yeah, well listen, miles turner, shout out a so-fi. He dancer got his money right, just like Walker Castle got there, he got his money right. More who collected podcast after this. So Vinnie, what happened yesterday?

It's been said, it's somewhere thing happened yesterday, right?

And I'm like, they don't look like they have a story. They haven't done anything. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Literally, as soon as we go to commercial, it's like, ha, ha, we got some for you. They haven't done anything to link it hits to domino.

And then, of course, our independent social team, of course, puts the clip out. Always on our side. And as opposed to, like, them deleting it or whatever, like, all right, cool this out there. It's in the world. It can find you.

You said it on national television. Yeah, it's out there. I'm like, hey, sometimes you sometimes you say stuff in like, we're doing live TV. But you're doing a live podcast. You work with the information you get and then sometimes the information changes.

And the information changed.

“And Wendy was like, wait, how many first round picks?”

And I was like, that's what happened. So the Courtney Croner who was hosting the show, she is out this week.

Courtney Croner says, Lakers get Walker Custer in a sign and trade four years, 130 million.

I go, that sounds, that sounds all right. Let me get my phone out and do the, I was like, 32, that sounds all right. I go for two first round picks. I was like, all right, like, pricey, but not best. So I'm reacting live on air.

Like, I just, I haven't even seen the tweet yet at all. And so Mike, you know, hey, that's it. First of all, this is a, this is a smash hit to get a franchise center. They didn't overpay on salary. Like, you know, maybe it's a little heavy.

But I, okay, I'm fine with it. And two first round picks, like that's steep. But, you know, not ridiculous, not bad.

Like, two first round picks a few hours later got you, Jalen Brown.

So I was like, okay, and so what we're reacting talking about it. And so while I think Vinnie is talking, I look down at Shom's tweet. It's like two first round picks and two pick swaps. And then I saw that the first round picks were 31 and 33 unprotected.

“So way out, that's what they had available.”

I understand, but I just had to see it and send, and then I, I, many, I, I said, halt and, and I want to amend my position and, and look, 31 and 33, Luca will be about, I think he'll be 31 and 33 in those years. Actually, from not mistaken. So if, if Luca's still there, then it might not, the, the price might not end up being that steep.

You could have said the same thing when the Mavericks traded for PJ Washington. And then when the Mavericks traded for Daniel Gaffard. And let me just tell you, the Mavericks people were criticized for those trades. Nico was criticized the moment for those trades. And then hailed form when the Mavericks went to the finals months later.

Now, I will go out on all of them and predict this. If Luca leaves LA, it's not because the Lakers decided to backstab them and dump them in the middle of the night. If he leaves LA, it's going to be because this thing didn't work out. And he feels like I've got to find some place to win a championship. But again, I think the price of this trade and whether the Lakers overpaid in terms of what they gave to the Jazz is going to be determined by

if Luca is still in LA and if he's able to stay healthy, that'll be the primary factor. Because if they're given up, you know, 20 somethings and you can, you can live with that. You know, obviously, the hamstrings in terms of upgrading, but like the Mavericks or Charlotte top two protected pick next year. The year after what they did to get gaffered is they got the Thunder's pick and gave up 28 swap rates. You know, and then, I mean, they, they's, oh, 29 in a separate deal.

That was Kyrie, so it's worth it. But that's Houston's property now. And then the 30 swap is actually hilarious. That was a sign and trade to get grant Williams, who is here for like three months. And to dump Reggie Bullock on the spurs, they gave up swap rates in 2030.

So again, if, if, but if Luca was still here, you could live with it all. But the way things worked out. Boyle boy does it look dumb. All right. I want to take a look at the sixers now, the sixers roster.

Now that, you know, it's been so much a focus on, on Boston and rightly so. But let's look at what the sixers, you know, because the sixers had quite a day on the second day of Regency. So they lost. We mentioned just Quentin Grimes, who was a nice player for them.

I don't think it would have made sense for them to pay him $16 million.

I don't know. That's my snap. It's a great. It's a really good deal for him. And no question.

Right. They also lost Kelly Ubrae, who I thought had a really good year last year. By the way, at two year 17 million, which was what, the, the, the, the, the pastry is signed him for, that's, I think, good value.

“I, I think Ubrae had a good year last year.”

He's proven he can defend multiple positions. I like that signing for for Indiana. Man, how did the sixers going to replace that wing production?

Hey, listen, Paul George had a good shooting in your last year.

“Just, you know, like, it's, having him be a, a three and D, you know,”

corner spot up shooter for 50, whatever.

And 50 seven million dollars is not what you're looking for.

Um, but, you know, he didn't have a terrible year. He did get suspended for 25 games for PEDs or not even PEDs, but whatever it was. Yeah. Okay. Paul George played 78 games over two years for them.

Listen, uh, Chris Sapsworth English played 70 games over two years for three different teams and got 40 million. So what do I know? Uh, the sixers also signed D in way. They're brought them over from the calves on a four year deal for a little under 40 million.

Um, that's Mike Gansy, uh, signing a guy that he found in Cleveland in nurtured. Um, you know, he's basically he replaced his Uber, but he's bigger. He's six 10, uh, can defend three, fours and fives, whereas Uber is more of a two and three. And I guess four under certain circumstances, but more of a two three defender.

“Um, and they signed Ariel Huckporty to, uh, this a little bit more than the minimum.”

Um, from, uh, away from the next is the next last two centers yesterday. Yeah, I was going to say interest in the next weren't willing to do that because they aren't scouring the market looking for a backup center after Metrobins and left. Yeah, and then, and they knew Mitch was going to leave, and they still, they could have made

Huckporty, uh, restricted by just offering him two and a half million dollar off qualifying offer.

And they didn't even do that. So, and that's a guy they drafted and developed, which was, you know, I know Jim Dolan's had a couple of mandates, which is one of which is not going to. We're not going, we're not going to the second apron, but one of his other big mandates has been, where we got to draft and develop guys.

And this is a guy they drafted and developed. Hey, I mean, they, they, they used him at times in the playoffs, like he got playoff minutes. Anyway, then they did a little thing called, uh, known as trading for Jalen Brown. Okay, so let's take a look at their roster right now, and it's hard. When we're about to do an MBA today show here in LA, and they're going to put the six

or starters, like projected starters up during the A block, and I'm kind of like, we'll go ahead and put you up there if you want. Uh, I mean, projected ideal. So obviously, this is a team that was largely, and still it will be built around Maxi and Edgecom and their speed.

And so the question Vince really is how, how, and where does Jalen fit in playing with high speed guards, Maxi and Edgecom? Because that's the guy, I mean, you know, if you have them beat and, you know, he's getting the ball and Jalen can educate him on his flopping and whatnot. That's a different.

You know, you're going to play a suit with him beat. But you're probably going to have to fit in with the guards. And, um, this is going to be a different style than Jalen's played, because this is not the way the Celtics played. No, and also defensively, because he won't have so much offensive responsibility because

you have in theory, in theory, Jalen beat, which always sounds like a good idea, and then

reality happens, he's he's going to have to be a better defended like I saw some metrics and stuff and some numbers.

“I said he was a below average defender this year, and I think that he has the”

bones of being above and a well above average defender. But when you look at where they are, I was just crunching the numbers guys. We talked about the Celtics having like 84% of the cap being tied up in those three guys. The 76.

It's because Paul George makes it. Sorry. Yeah. It's basically a financial wash next season that they were really top heavy to start with. Yeah.

That's the thing. They have 88% of their cap tied in Joel and B. Tyreys, Maxine, and now Jalen Brown. And once again, I don't know what we're going to see out of Joel and B. Well, I was filled up with 76, and fans get mad at me, but when I saw them lose game one

of their series, I knew they were cooked against the nicks. When they went home on mothers, they weakened and it sticks out with me. You're going to get taken over and you got beaten by dirty in every game. And that was basically with a running clock. I don't know how Jalen Brown changes all of that, especially if the Celtics have

graded him out to be so poor or whatever it was, and so many different areas, like I'm fascinated by how all of this is going to work. Like, their number one thing outside of Tyreys, Maxine should be, we need to develop BJH. com.

Like, that is our future there because he ain't making Max money, but he will be a Max player at some point in the near future, like, don't just go around collecting things. And I'm not saying that Jalen Brown is like, hey, this is going out collecting things, maybe they bought at the pre, they picked up a depreciated asset and you get rid of Paul George. So you're looking at this as a positive, but they also have to keep their eye on the ball

and not be so inundated with, we got to maximize Joe Wellenbeet when we saw what happens when you go off our Joe Wellenbeet and then you're bringing them back, you wind up losing

So part of the problem with the Celtics was, Jalen Brown's fit with Jason Tatum and his

level of happiness, fitting it as a co-star and not as the man. This is Tyreys Max's team, maybe still Joe Wellenbeet's franchise, so how does Jalen Brown fit in all that? If Enbeet's health is on the floor, instead of your turn, my turn is a, your turn, my turn, his turn, how do they, it's not fantasy basketball. So how do, to do those three co-exist and, you know, enhance each other, not to track

from each other. That's going to be like Nick Nurses has got an interesting situation on his hands to try to figure out how to maximize it and look, the criticism of Joe Wellenbeet, of Jalen Brown from the nerd community, is not that he's a bad player or even, not that he's inefficient around those things.

That, he doesn't make the guys around him better. It's that the Celtics were worse with him on the floor than they were when he was off the floor.

Damn, they're every season of his career, including this year when he was the man,

but even in previous years, now they were still very good with him over the time, but they were better with him off the floor. So how to, how does all that fit? And I just want to like, I wonder how Jalen Brown feels about this situation, where to, I think it's one thing if he'd have been traded to Milwaukee and clearly he was going to be

the best player on that team and he was going to be one A and they were going to figure out how to put a supporting cast around him or at least try. That's not what this, that's not where he's walking into here. I agree. Yes.

So this is, this is a great point and also point out he's got three years on his contract. No option. So, you know, like, that's a great point.

No option, but probably expectations of an extension.

There's been so much drama, I don't even know where that leaves itself. And look, they are, Edge comes going to be a heck of a player. I don't watch college basketball, but this kid, they drafted from Alabama as clearly got some talent. There was some, you know, some people were surprised by the fact that he's slid into

the early 20s, you know, which is where they ended up getting in maps by the way. The Baron Philon, which is, I don't know, pronouncing that right.

“That's why I said that kid from Alabama because I'm not going to pronounce his last name.”

Well, I just, yeah. I mean, he was a guy who was sort of seen as a potential late lottery, mid to late lottery, any right, and then he missed the lottery. And he was certainly, he had a bit of a, you know, a bit of a face on, like when he got drafted, like, I think he feels a certain way about.

And then, oh, by the way, there's that picture, my gang, he's brother put out. And when do you know a bunch of these guys that was it? What was that from like an Ohio all star game or whatever? So, yeah. So, Steven, Steven Gandy's brother.

So, Mike Gandy's from the East Side of Cleveland, and Mike Gandy's a new president of basketball ops and Philly came from Cleveland, and he was Trump Cleveland. And then, while he was in high school, Mike was like a Cleveland playing dealer all star, like all of the whole, you know, in the north, east Ohio media area here, but the playing dealer had is a seven counties that sort of is the makes up greater Cleveland.

And, you know, making the all playing dealer team was considered a big deal, and they would bring all of them together for, like, for a photo shoot, and they, you know, they would have, they would be like catered, and they would sometimes, this is where they would meet. And so, there's this photo shoot with these guys in it. And one of them is LeBron.

“I think he must have been a freshman because Maverick Carter is one of the, is one”

of the other. Maverick and the Broadway play together one year. So, I must have been 2000, the year 2000, the Cleveland playing dealer. 99. No, because LeBron was a freshman 99.

Oh, no, no, I'm thinking, yeah, me and LeBron are the same age, but he's a year behind you, my band. Listen, don't question when you, on the northeast Ohio. It's been a year or two thousand. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. Cleveland playing dealer, all star basketball team. Maverick, Wendy. The concept of the point is, is it, Mike, because Mike Gansy is like standing next to LeBron with his arm on LeBron shoulder, like, boy,

look at these guys. These were buddies. Let me be Gansy's brother and just dropped us on social media right after the make the jade and brown trade. Could you imagine?

Right. I mean, look, what do they are? By the way, he didn't, I mean, it's cool. I liked it. It was memory lane.

“I remember some of the other players in the, in the photo and covering them.”

Gansy was on the cab staff when LeBron wanted championship, like they, they have a ring

I didn't need to be. But even more.

And so like, listen, the sixes are somewhere on the long list of teams that have a level

of interest. I don't know for sure, but they have to call. Yeah. I mean, Tony Jones from the athletic reported that they've registered their interest. And again, it's a long list.

But could you imagine if you dropped LeBron at a certain point, it does become a how many basketballs, like, you know, are available type of thing. Yeah.

“It's, it'd be an awkward fit, but you have to call.”

Like again, if I were, if I were, you know, you guys have heard what I've said about, you know, make a move to, you know, like, for example, if I were Josh Kronky, the governor of the Denver Nuggets, okay, I would find out what golf course LeBron is on today. And I would fly my plane to that golf course. And I would bring along a case of screaming eagle.

I don't know anything about wine, but I know that the Cronky family owns this screaming eagle, winery in California, and it's one of the most expensive and rare things you can get in the U.S. I would have a case of that wine with me, and I would have two phones. On one phone, I would have Nikolay Yokeitch.

On for the plug, went for the loan. What? Nothing. I would have Nikolay Yokeitch face timing from Serbia, saying LeBron, let's play together.

And on the other phone, I would have Rich Paul, he's LeBron's agent, why would negotiate a contract extension for Peyton Watson, Reppel's representative by Claude. Yeah. Let's make a deal.

“This is what I'm talking about as what I think the Joker get reception at the”

stables in Serbia, then send somebody over there with a phone that doesn't like it. Make it make it enough. Bigger it out. Right. Well, again, Denver's on the clock, Nikolay Yokeitch extension eligible.

Everybody that you think is stable on the clock. Denver thinks they're in great shape with Yokeitch and everything's going to be fine. But obviously, they've got to work to do on that roster, and other teams are monitoring. You know who else has worked to do Wendy, the Detroit Pistons. It's very curious if they know the free agency has begun.

They got John Collins. I was a little bit loopy on the show on NBA today yesterday. They lost Tobias Harris who resigned for the mid-level. Now, maybe Tobias would not have signed for the mid-level for the Pistons. And I don't know.

I don't want to assume that. But Tobias goes for the mid-level. You replace them with John Collins. He's more of a lob threat, I agree, than Tobias is. So it may be with King Cunningham, but they held onto their cap space and their expiring

contract. They held onto their expiring contracts in the middle of season to trade deadline. When it was clear that they could have used some offensive help, then they get into

the summer, and they resigned Kevin Herter for nine million a year, and I'm happy for Kevin

Herter. But Landry Shamet got six million a year and shot 10 percent more and was a playoff contributor Herter got nine million dollars a year. They trade for Isaiah Joe, excellent trade, high, nice value, okay, but he's a backup. I mean, shooting.

I know they need shooting and they address that, but they lost Isaiah Stewart and Tobias Harris replaced him with John Collins.

“Is that the move of a team that's taking the next step, Vince?”

I mean, I don't mean to be in my John Collins, I don't want to be a jerk, I'm not trying to be a jerk. And they're still the Jaylan Durin thing, Kesser going to LA certainly. We're going to keep him. He's good.

But it's messy.

They need a second score.

It's one thing, guys, to be prudent with your salary cap space to not rush and do anything rash, like trading for Blake Griffin when you're not sure what type of condition he's in and everything else, like previous regimes, but you can't come to the back to the table with Kevin Herter who gave you virtually nothing during the playoffs last year. You lose a big part of your identity with Isaiah Stewart and you're sitting there holding

nothing but salary cap space and Jaylan Durin's heart feelings, because that situation, no matter what happens with that. That situation is not going to be tough. Once you heard a guy's feelings on something like a young guy's feelings on restrictive for agency, I don't know if it doesn't bow would well, right?

You got to repair that relationship one way or the other. And everybody knew that the choice person needed a second guy and look at how many teams have gotten better this offseason and think about Indiana coming back. Like, I don't know what a person sitting in the power rankings, but it ain't high. I'm just afraid that as soon as we wrap this pot, we'll have made some sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For example, Norm Powell would have filled a glaring need for the pistons as that

that he would rather get more money in Chicago and more shots in Chicago, then come to Detroit.

“Like, Norm, if they decide Norm Powell, I'd be sitting in a saying, hey, man, that's a really,”

really great fit for Detroit. He's not a superstar, but he's an all-star who fits. But I don't know, can he trade for Tyler Hero, like can he pull off something in the trademark with the flexibility and the picks that you have, they've got to find something because bringing back a team that feels like it hit their head on the ceiling in the

second round last year after barely getting out of the first round, that's a tough look,

man.

“No, it's not only that, you sign John Collins, not into the trade exception money or even”

mid-level. You signed them for more, so you don't even have those mechanisms. You couldn't even sign Norm Powell into your cap space if you wanted to, like, just because

it was not just because, but $2 million more, and I, in Tobias Harris, won it probably

a little bit more money from Detroit than he was willing to accept somewhere else. And Detroit was not willing at, I'm guessing, his age and everything else, considering they went younger with John Collins. But you can't look at that roster and say, man, Jamie Bitter says that's got a lot more to play with this year, especially for a team that maxed out on the defensive end, like

you said, man, to win 60 games. And as soon as everybody else started playing playoff deepens, you saw what it was like, like, and everybody's loading up, like, that's the, that would be the frustrating thing. If I'm a pistons fan, everybody in the East is loading up what a y'all doing. Well, we'll see what they're doing. Maybe they're going to do something next time. Maybe

it'll be just our, it'll be just our luck, Wendy. Hey, be sure to check out game changers where we look at America's top 25 female athletes with an unforgettable countdown. Be sure to watch on the Roku channel to find out who made the list. All right. Okay. Thank you so much to our producers, Mark Tucker Jackson. Thank you very much to McMahon and Vinny. Thank you for watching. Let's send the who collect

of all week long, because we've had a lot of content. We've had great numbers on them.

“That's why they keep making me do them and I look forward to a couple of days off. Can”

we do that, please? LeBron, I'm talking to you. Thank you very much. All right. We'll talk to you and hopefully early next week. Adios Migos. When enjoyed the holiday, oh, 250 America. Sorry, McMahon, I didn't mean to step on here on your chart. Adios Migos.