England Survives, the Jaylen Trade Fallout, and an All-NBA Mailbag With Zach Lowe

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We are recording it is 8th, 22 Pacific time. Zack low kind enough to stay up late. We thought we're going to be at Netflix doing a live, but we had some tech issues, but we're going to get the pod going. I want to mention, Newary Watchable's coming tomorrow.

Ali, we're doing from Hell month is over, it ended on July 1st with the Jailum Brown trade.

“Zack low has, how many podcasts you're doing this week?”

At least two. I don't know. Yeah, two. Two is the floor for this one year. Over under is one and a half.

Okay. Yeah. We're going to do a bunch of basketball stuff in a second. But we just watched England, Mexico. The world cup.

There's a waitingness. It's, there's just nothing like it. I was trying to think of other games that feel this way and like the Super Bowl can't feel this way because it's a neutral location. Basketball, we can get like 40% to where we got to tonight, but there's something different

about countries, a place like Azteca, which I've been to, which I'll talk to in a second. But there's just nothing else like this, right? Every four years, the pressure, if you blow it, you don't come back down until 2030. I, I just, I, I'm kind of drained after that game, and I didn't really care who won. I'm drained after every game, there is nothing like it.

It's the every four years thing. So any missed opportunity feels like you've missed the opportunity of a lifetime that

should never get back again.

It's that every game is like there's no game, though. There's not like Mexico can make adjustments for game two against England tomorrow. They're just out. It's over. And even in group, even in group play, if you're in a hard group, like it's hard to just

get out of your group. They aren't a limitation games, but they start to feel like a limitation games really, really fast. And it's just, it's too much, man. It's too much.

And I don't understand it up for the rules, but that's new to it here and over there. It was one of the most bonkers in the games ever where we had, you know, England goes up to nothing in five seconds. Then all of a sudden, we get a penalty kick, we get another penalty kick. Then all of a sudden, England's playing a man down forever.

And Mexico's just doing cross after cross after cross after cross and guy and every time we just have an heart attack, I went to a stack of in 2009 and wrote a column of that. I went for a USA Mexico qualifier. And it was one of the great sports experiences I've ever had. The place is you can't even describe it.

You can't feel more unsafe. It's like kind of designed. It's designed to make everybody feel unsafe who is about Mexico side. It's what they do that and that it's really close to the field. There's throwing stuff at the players in the corner kicks.

And it's just getting in and out your nervous and you're always wondering, like, what's

the mood going to be if this is a terrible loss for Mexico, how do we get out here?

“And I'm sure that's what it was like, you're watching England at the end of the one section.”

They're singing Wonderwall, which was really cool. And then it's like, OK, now you guys have to get out of here. And these fans are mad, and you've just ruined the next four years of sports for them. So if you're not, and you're not well disguised walking in the streets of Mexico, you're getting into the game.

You're not. You could that first goal that England scored? This is the same sound that when I was there, America scored the first goal and lost to one. They scored the first goal and it was like, you know, and it's like a mute button for a crowd.

We're like, we're all the soundgo. It's gone. That was one of those. And then conversely, when they score, it's like the loud response joy. Next thing ever.

But I thought it was an incredible win for England to go in that place.

I don't think Mexico had lost like kind of a real international game in 13 years. England's probably the best team that played over that last 13 years. But the stakes, but I was trying to think like, if basketball worked this way, so this would basically be the Indiana Pacer Stadium, right? If we made it even closer to the court, and then Indiana had, I don't know, a thousand

times as many people, and all they cared about was basketball. And then this weight of the basically the playoffs or every four year, I didn't even know

“how to do the formula in my head, but that's the only thing I could think of.”

Because that, that can take off field has the only basketball arena. I felt that kind of reminded me of this type of. Well, did you, did you hear the stuff? I mean, I think they were mentioning this on the broadcast, how the Mexico City fans found what hotel England was staying at, and were, were like a lot lighting fireworks.

Yes. Spring, the buses on the way with like, I don't know if it was sleeping cream. So this is like old school. Try to call the players hotel room at four in the morning and figure out what the suited him is.

This is like old school fan stuff. It's great. The home soil really seems to be in a lot in soccer as it's kind of dying in the NBA as a huge advantage. But yeah, I look, I know nothing.

I'm just an idiot, American soccer fan who like checks in every once in a while. I just like England, that, that seemed like a really rugged win for England.

“In that stadium down a guy, and like Mexico had the ball, the entire last 25 minutes of”

the game, but they didn't get one sensational chance after sensational chance. Their best chances were in the first half and pickford, who my, one of my hot world cup takes is pickford is now the three consecutive world cup winner of most punchable face.

In the world cup, but man, he showed up huge, man, like some truly amazing saves.

But I still hate still as a very punchable face. I'm sure it beat me up, but it's very punchable. And Bellingham was amazing. Oh my god. I can see that.

Because Caine says Caine's the quote on quote signature star, the team, and then Bellingham is kind of, I'm trying to think of a basketball now. Javus, Jailum Brown and Jason Tatum and that's 2014 for playoffs. So we have America tomorrow and CR and Debundo and I are going to be going live after that game.

And America has a chance to go to the final eight. Trash feels like just pretty significant. What's the first one? Cup you remember?

Oh, I mean, I remember 94, basically, just because it was the one that was in the stadium.

It was a formative one. It was such a big deal. I was in high school and I was like the classic dumb American. I had a couple friends who played soccer and they were like trying to sell me on what a big deal.

This was what a great sport it was and I was like just the classic guy and my dad still is this guy. I was like, every game is 0, 0. It's so boring. 1, 1, 0, 0.

It was like I thought I was totally ignorant, close minded. And it turns out it's just wildly exciting to the point of being impossible for me to watch when I actually care about the game. And I remember Carlos Valdorama at the Colombian team, the tragedy afterwards.

“Roberto, I think it was that the one where Bajo misses a penalty kick at the end of”

that one. That was the first one where it was like really truly in my life. That was the one where it felt like soccer had a chance to get real momentum in America. And then we just kept saying that for the next, I don't know, 30, 35, 40 years. But now, I think there's a variety of reasons for it.

But I think the main reason other than the games have been really entertaining and there's also big stars in the different countries that you want to see. But it's just having the games lined up to an American TV schedule has been great. I mean, even like during fourth of July weekend, just to know that these games are coming on basically, basically everybody's planning their stuff for the weekend or whatever around

these games. And even countries that you didn't even know who's on, and then you have like Holland on Norway. And who is, you know, one of the best parts of the world, that's not like, you know, but like my wife doesn't know who that is. She doesn't watch man's city.

So then, you know, people like that, it's just, it just feels like everybody's watching us. I know of him because all my dad friends are big Premier League fans and they've tried to give me to become a Premier League fan. I'm just like, I'm like, you when you try to be top, when you try to be top, no, I'm like,

I can't, I'm 40 years old. I can't like pick a team and pretend like I care about this team out of nowhere. I can't do it. So I don't, but I know of him, but this is my first time really watching him play. The guy is just like, I'm just, I just watch him and he's just like walking around, standing

So like, the guy is just a machine.

He's built to sport goals. He's amazing. He's like a shark in the water. He just kind of swims around and waits for like somebody's arm to fall on the water. I am.

I would like to announce that I'm now throwing my allegiance with Croatia Allen. We will address this topic soon. I am now throwing my allegiance behind Norway for the rest of the, for the rest of the tournament. The full, the full force of the low family household is behind Norway.

We're, did that, that lady, the gift of that lady in the Croatian jersey, screaming to fuck you at the top of her lungs, did that sum up the entire low family's feelings on the game? My wife was at the game and she had an absolutely hellish travel story to get to the game and they made it 15 minutes before kick off.

But I just, look, explain it to me. Can someone explain it to me, explain it to me. I don't understand it. It may be, maybe hit a hair follicle and there was this minor spike on the fucking VR chip, the chip that's in the ball, but we can't really say if the spike happened to the exact

time, it hit the guy's hair follicle and if it didn't hit the hair follicle, it's a good goal. You robbed us of, I don't know, soccer one, I have to say this, but I'm saying, the greatest most dramatic equalizing goal, like ever, basically with one second left in the game.

We never know how much time is left in the game.

“I don't know how soccer has been finished to say, okay, I think the game is over now.”

But it was basically the end of the game, they tie the game, or just give us extra time. Who wants to, I tell you, between the NBA and this, I am getting closer and closer to just, let's just have no more replay. Let's just not let's just live with the results on the field, because this all, this stuff is all nonsense, all the reviews are endless.

They go to the VAR, the nerds are in the VAR, I won't go spike, a little shark fin spike on the graph, Croatia's out of the world cup. We don't have another game, we're done, we're out. I have some other hot takes about the world cup. That was a really good rant.

All right, here's my, what if we just went replay across all sports? No saloma. Yeah, it's like, I sure, you just get to watch it in real speed three times and then make it a decision. Let's go.

I don't want to watch NBA reps hot all up anymore, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I'm great that you get your two Zaxar, but you're so handsome, you get your TV time and Billy Kennedy with your facial expressions, it's over, it's over, it jumped the shark, you're done. So you're out on VAR, too, VAR sucks, I don't know, VAR to throw VAR into the fucking ocean. I light VAR on fire, I hate all of that.

Braggler. I have two of the world cup takes that I have.

“Can I follow up on your VAR and then we'll go to your takes?”

Yeah, sure. I just feel like the off sides, it shouldn't be like, oh, you were fingernail off sides. No. I just think off sides.

Right. And I'll go ahead and go, I'll call back against Croatia, two goals called back on off sides that were whatever, and we're in all the head one, we're in all those goals should have counted, it's all stupid, the whole thing is stupid. What are your other two takes?

All right, number one, and this I transpose on to other international competitions, and I understand why it is, but I don't think the host nations should get tier one status in the world cup. So like Canada, US and Mexico are treated like the top eight teams in the world when it comes to formatting the group, same thing with the Olympics and basketball, only 12 teams

make it. I don't think the host nation should automatically get in.

“What when England was in, when London, it was like, what are we doing?”

And my other, I don't know, the formula, some will have to research it. I think they should recede the world cup after the group stages, because it's just random

who plays, who's second place here, and you have heavyweight clashes, and then you have

Argentina who could walk into the semi finals because of how the draw broke for them. And I will admit, Croatia benefited from this greatly in 2018 when they're in tire side of the bracket after the group stage, just was like a wasteland of teams, like all the best teams were out, and they just walked into the finals or the semi finals anyway. Those are my two takes.

So would you do the recating for basketball? In the playoffs? Yeah, because the reason I don't do this is because the schedule, then everybody has to wait for the end of every round to keep going with the next round. I just feel like it's less of a problem because of seven game series and you're already

down to four teams in each conference, like what are the chances it's going to be that much of a crime, but that is a cousin of my, and you're, I think, to the number one seed to be able to get able to pick its first round opponent, which I do support in the NBA. In football, they recede after every round, which I like. And when it's a winner take all one game, it feels like the recede should be a little

bit more advantage for the teams that have earned some sort of like it's pretty much I'm willing to admit that this is probably enraging actual soccer fans who have done poured their life's work and to figuring this out and why this is just me. I'm just dumb.

I'm emotional. I'm still, it's three days later. I'm still angry.

“I will be cheering for Spain tomorrow out of spite for Portugal.”

That's just. I'm going to shoot a spike here. That's really the last level. Yeah, I got it. I actually got a couple different emails about the same topic about levels of losing with

Croatia. Oh, great. But then even worse was the Iran where they had it, and then it got called back. But then they were still alive.

And then that steeper game where the teams had basically agreed to have a tie.

And somebody scored, so then Iran was like all the sudden they had been given a reprieve, but then the other team scored, and they got kicked in the nuts again, which but people were saying that's like basically hasn't happened before. But I do think the, the we scored the game time goal with like under a minute left and a World Cup game and then it got reviewed and became off sides is some sort of level of losing

of its own. Maybe football would be the only, like if if you had a touchdown and then it turned out the guy was was on the line, I guess with the toe in the line would be the equivalent of the Croatia goal. But we know.

But it was on the line. I know.

“But in the moment, if you were just watching it, you thought it was a three, didn't realize”

this toe was on the line. But the Croatia thing then you just lost. It was tough. It was tough. And you know, it was tough.

I wanted to elaborate too much more. That was a tough one. Well, I love the World Cup. I've been betting on it. I feel like I'm getting good at betting on it.

Not going to play. Oh, boy. That is famous. That words. I had Norway and I had Norway parlayed with England today.

I'm like on a heater. My God. Yeah. I like have opinions. I watch things.

I'm like, I don't know. Got all this too big for this. This is going to get clipped so badly when you lose your next four bets in a row. But I'm definitely going to lose. Well, I had another parlay with I had Norway, England with Spain tomorrow on the US tomorrow.

It was like 23 to 1. So. That's a good one. A good one, especially since there was some intervention that took place to overturn a red card, which no one had thought was really a thing that could ever happen, but it

has happened. Yeah, we had some sort of legislation with the President and apparently got involved. I guess a bunch of, I got a bunch of emails about it in the last 24 hours about this would be kind of what the sports are with do. If we did have a sports are, like you try to intervene and bully them into repealing the

red card for, I guess my thing with the cards is, I don't think it should be a red card after review, like what happened because they like to me red card is like intent or it's like when you're breaking a clear soccer or like whatever he did, I'll get on that play. To me, that's not a, oh, you're out for half this game and then all of the next game

because you accidentally stepped on somebody's ankle, it feels like you need a third card,

like a pink card where you get red card and you're out for the game, but you get to come back the next game. I was wondering if FIFA could overturn Dreyman not playing in game five with a 2016 final, so if we could just go backwards now.

“Well, where was the Croatian government at the end of that game?”

Like, I wanted, I remember Croco, the MMA fighter, I, what I wanted is send him into the bar and they cut to the bar guys review and he's just being the shit out of all in them like Jason born throwing them against the wall, there's no bar to go accounts. Where were we on this? All right.

Well, I'm sorry about Croatia. That's enough soccer talk for us. CR and the Bundo and I are coming on right after the American game tomorrow, Falgan's back. We have our, we have our striker. I thought he was the best part of we had, we're going to take a break, lots of 72 hours

after one of the strangest tribulations history league. I have a nice mail bag. I only prepped you for one question and we're going to go right after this. This episode is brought to you by Mikkelob Ultra. We're in the heart of the World Cup.

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Basketball Association. You talk to people, there's texting, you text with people, maybe you send a couple emails

“back and forth with people, you talk on the phone with people, does anyone know anything?”

What do people saying? What is the consensus around the league for, wow, why did Boston do this? The consensus is, you can't really find anyone who thinks it was a good trade for Boston.

First of all, second of all, the consensus is, it must have just been, the bridge must

have been burned to the point of no return and the Celtics just wanted out of the jail and brown business for reasons that we may not fully understand, but may one day fully understand because this return is, I think, surprisingly low, even if people in the league sort of had a conception that jail and brown trade value was not going to match his sort of all at first team's second team this year, all NBA reputation, sixth in MVP voting

all that. Mostly I think because of his salary, more than any analytics or this than that, it's the salary and his sort of just like standing in the league. But even so there was just surprise that they chose to make this deal now, there is an basically an agreement that it's not as if this deal was going to ever go away.

Like the sections would do this deal in September and October and August, so why did they feel pressure to do it now? And you can find people who will caution that in a year or year and a half this deal will look less bad for Boston than it does today and it probably will, but you can't really find any fans of it.

Do you want to know what day I landed on was Paul George a better trade asset than maybe all of us realized right now, the second and it was, it was this morning in the shower just thinking about it. It was like, well, Paul George was really good in that playoff series went back, looked at his stats.

He played five clip or seasons 23, six and five for the five clip or seasons. Thirty nine percent from 33.43 games act three all start teams. The two filly seasons were not as good, some issues, some injuries, there's a 25 game drugs suspension.

I will say though, last 10 games after he came back, 21 a game, 42 percent from three.

And the playoffs he was 16 a game, 49 percent from three. I went back and looked at my notes from after game six and then after game seven. And I repeatedly wrote down, Paul George was the best forward in the series. And he is actually revived his trade value to the point that maybe they can get rid of him.

I did nothing, they would get rid of him for Jalen Brown. But from where we were with him in March to now, is it, is it possible that they really like Paul George just as a player for their team? Because I think it is. And by the way, I don't agree with this opinion.

I'm not right. I was going to say that was, that was one of the sadder one minute segments in the history of the Bill Simmons podcast in its predecessor. That was, it made me sad. I just, I felt.

I agree. I didn't know how to react to it. Well, when you're looking for answers, Zach, you look for answers. You turn over every stage. I could tell your heart wasn't in it.

I mean, you were giving it an honest try, I respect it, but your heart wasn't in it. It was not. I tried. I really tried. I don't think that the Celtics believe that Paul George is wildly underrated, diamond and

nerruff ready to average 22 points a game again next season.

“I think they know exactly who Paul George is.”

They don't have, they think he's going to be a nice, you know, third, fourth option, three point shooter, good defender, all of that. They think he fits and down with Zulu wants to play, they'll win a lot of regular season games. I said, even in my pessimistic trade reaction, this team is a regular season wins machine.

I think they're going to win 50 games and be in contention. I mean, you can't just put almost anyone other than the very, very best teams in the East, like no brainer, lock top six, they're counting a lot on Mitchell Robinson to change their offensive rebounding and shop profile at the rim, because they lost some rim pressure in the jail and brown Paul George exchange and rim pressure was all Brad Stevens talked

about in that postmortem and they lost some in that and they have a guy that doesn't shoot free throws and Mitchell Robinson's injured all the time, too. And so I, but I don't, to answer your question, I don't think the Celtics are like we've been secretly coveting Paul George. They know exactly what he is.

“I think this is just more about the time whether it, whether it is a overreaction to the”

Philly series going bad, whether it's a understanding that putting jail and brown back

into a one B role was going to cause all sorts of issues, whether it's, we've always thought

he was a little overrated and compared to his salary, compared to his salary to be clear. And this is the time to act with, with three years left on the deal.

ten years ago when we tried to trade for him. I agree.

“I do wonder though, if they're thinking was you put a them and all the brown minutes”

from last year, but the same kind of offensive responsibility. And then you shift Paul George into this supplemental role that they just obviously decided

jail and brown was never going to want to play, that they talked themselves into, we'll

actually still be really good because the, the weirdest thing to me is this is the opposite of a new owner syndrome trade, right? Usually the, usually the new owner is trading Paul George and five first round picks for jail and brown. And instead we have the owner going the other way.

Well, I, and not only that, this is the same ownership group shed all this salary with you holding for Zingus and all on and on like they've built Chism in his group of done nothing, but willingly kind of eat a little, you know what, and big time on this trade. Well, and I saw, when I did my thing with Kirk and CR a day after the trade and I felt I had landed on this is part part one of a part two, and they're going to use this Paul

George and the picks they got more picks and make a play for the trade Murphy Jordan pool type contract, where they just, they get the asset in any year from now they'll have way more flexibility. That did not happen either. Well, not yet.

Starting to come to grips with Paul George, maybe being in a Celtic uniform, which is going to be weird. I said this when I did the pod the other day that there's, there's real anger about this trade in Boston, and it's something, this has been a feel good, lovable Celtics run,

really since the year after they traded PG and KG, on PP and KG to Brooklyn, it's always

been an overchieving, love it, they're really the only unhappy team was that 2019 second Kyrie season team, but there hasn't been anger toward the front office or the ownership

“really ever, really going back to, I think the last time was maybe when they traded the”

console marker, people were mad that they traded the console marker. I did have a high level front office person at another team, we were just chatting today about stuff going on in the league and he said, you know, it speaks to how solid the Celtics front office reputation is and how Brad Stevens reputation is that they're not getting even more shit and more anger for this trade, because there's only three or four front

offices who could do this trade and not get just immediate cataclysmic blowback that they haven't enough benefit of the doubt, even from their angry fans that it's not like a coup and this is one of them, but yeah, it's, I think the other thing about doing it this early is it's going to be a long time before the Celtics start winning basketball games again and if this were like in September and you could just say, look, pre-season's

come in training camps, come in, just watch, we're going to be, you know, 15 and 8 right out of the gate will be solid, 15 and 5 whatever and like now that they, we have the absolute full offseason for people to be angry about this, like when Minnesota traded towns, that was really close to the start of the season, right, just right into it with preseason games

and everything else, I'll never understand it and I know you and I both talked separately

on our podcast about this whole advanced metrics argument that has now sprung and this is now going to be the thing that we talk about all season, I guess, and people have just

“dug into their sides and it honestly mirrors real life, this is just one, this has become one”

of those things, it's like politics where it's like, I stand here, this is my opinion, I'm just going to be here and somebody else says, I'm over here, this is what I think. Well, so the analytic stuff is, I mean, I don't want to do the whole thing on here, but some of like the anonymous, you know, the anonymous source who thinks with the, with whatever team that thinks he's not one of the 50 best players in the league or the anonymous source

who thinks he's not a top seven player on a whatever typical NBA team, it's just, it's just crazy, and I, I, I, I have always thought that he's probably a hair overrated, but it doesn't really matter, like, like the, the most important reason to straight happen, I personally, it could, it could be the one A, one B thing with Tatum, but to me, it, it still comes down to 57 million, 62 million, 66 million, and where the analytics come in is, whatever, and like the

on-off stuff throw it out, like just, just, whatever, like all the analytics together, if he's making 66 million dollars and he's, let's give a realistic pessimistic ranking, a realistic skeptical ranking of jail and brown. If he's making 66 million dollars and he's the 18th best player in the NBA, that's a problem, that's like hard to build around when you have another guy making even more money than that, I'm just throwing that ranking out there, like if I were an analytics

MVP, carry the Celtics last year, all of that, so I have that infused with my analytics stuff this little more skeptical and it washes out to like 18th best player in the NBA at that salary,

“I, I think that's really just what it comes down to more than anything else.”

And I wonder if that's where we're going with the league. One of the things that, so, like, obviously every single person in my life has asked me about this, one of the things that I thought was interesting that didn't get enough attention was the salary cap kind of went backwards and under under its projection by a little, a little tiny bit. Yeah, but some, but there's been years where we're like, whoa, we're way over this year and I wonder if there's a fear with the

local TV revenue just in general that they were looking at two years from now like, wow, we make it really screwed with two of these guys. So it's like, basically my, the big picture outside of Boston I'm wondering is, are more teams going to be thinking this way? Is this driving some of the Piston's Durance stuff, which, by the way, the Durance thing, that was another casually, the CBA thing,

where they can offer him 100 million more than anybody else, but why would they?

“Why am I just going to give you 100 million more than your net worth if you just tested it elsewhere?”

So I don't, it feels like the, and that have a couple of questions about this that I want to step on, but it feels like we're headed toward a really strange salary cap era for the league that the only time I can, in recent history, at least since I've known you, maybe we didn't even know each other than them, but it was like the end of the 2000s, specifically with the heart and trade, which we've talked about over and over again, where there was a moment where teams started

choosing salary decisions over basketball decisions, and I think that's the number one reason this trade happened, number two is that all the stuff that happened from the moment the season ended all the way to last week, I think put a bad taste in their mouth and they decided to move on. Yeah, there was a time during that era where the Kate sounds quaint to say it now, and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, that the cap stayed flat, basically for like three or four years in

row, and it was flat, like $58 million, like that was the selling cap, and so that, and I have

had a couple of agents sort of just venting to me in the last week that called the second ape, this is the agents speaking, but call the second apron whatever it is, teams are treating it like more or less a hard cap, and they're going to continue to treat it even, like what James Dolan did, and like letting Mitchell Robinson go and replacing him with a inferior version and Andre Drummond, a championship team willingly doing that. Yeah, but he should have done that, though. I'm not

defending Dolan, but we've seen teams do that, we saw the Celtics do that with James Posey in 2008, where it's, if you're not one of the best five guys, and you're going to bring all of these penalties and all these other things with me, I don't think it's defensible. You have to figure out how to patch those stats together. I mean, the Mitchell Robinson minutes are better than Andre Drummond minutes are going to be, and like, you're going to feel Andre Drummond

is almost as good as an offensive rebound, or but not quite. Defensively, it's a huge downgrade. The corner three thing is like actually kind of interesting, and I'm curious to see if Mike Brown leans into that like Nick Nisterstedt, that's like a little interesting wrinkle, but yeah, I'd be like, I'm just saying what I'm hearing from agents about the hard cap, and the second apron and the nuggets are going to be one of the, one of the test cases. I do have to

give you your praise, because the day they, John Brown got traded, even before and after I do my podcast, I had several executives around the league reach out to me, is Bill, is Bill okay? Like, where's Bill? And there were a couple, I trusted enough to tell them where you were,

“but I, I said, I can't, I can't text it. It's too good. You had, you wanted to know you have to”

call me, and their reactions were absolutely riotous. Like, they just like, I've never heard some

of these men, grizzled veteran men laugh with this level of Glee. I'll never have another experience like that in my life, becoming out of anesthesia and having my wife break the trade to me and just not being able to process it. I could have a hundred guesses for it. Anyway, all right, we got great meal back questions. Let's go. And we could cover some of this jail and stuff in there. Joe Madden says, "Dear BS, after watching the Celtics, cut off a limb with a pocket knife with the

jail and brown trade, you should add one hundred twenty seven hours to from Hell month on the rewatchables." I mean, that is probably the movie. You would say for this jail one thing. We went from, we went from the guy was, is it going to be fifth or sixth than MVP to whoa, it leaked out that we offered him for Janus to fire sale in the span of two weeks. Clancy from Connecticut wants to know, would you rather Boston traded jail and brown a year ago last summer in tank for a chance at

but that's a great one. So I went to, I saw their first win of the season, I think. They were

only three and then they beat Washington to go one and three. I want to say and Washington was terrible

“in Boston and I was watching that Celtic lineup and I think I did a pod that I extended. I was like,”

I think they should throw the season away. I don't see it. Like, I don't have enough turned out they go on this heater. They went 56 games, but when you think like round one loss versus what they get for jailing and how the season played out, I just don't know what they would but a year ago, he would add four years left on his deal heading into the second season and I just don't know what they would have gotten for him at that point. Well, and you're not getting

a Desmond Bain trade, I don't think. Well, I was going to say you also, you know,

it's nice to say the bands are for a shot at the band so you could end up with McHale Brown Jr,

which is fine, but like the chances are not are much better that you're not getting the bands and I'd be this obviously this top four is outrageous, so maybe the odds would have been in your favor, but yeah, that's that's a good one. Would you have traded for Jalen this year if you were Brooklyn like last week? I think that was kicked around for sure. Oh, it was really kicked around. I heard the nets for an office was enthused and then once it got to the higher levels,

they were not as enthused. I don't, I haven't thought that much about it. I don't think I would have, but I would have thought hard about it and I don't like the path that I'm on really

“right now. I'm not that excited about it, but I don't think I would have. So that's how I would”

and this, like, I don't know what the equivalent cost is for Brooklyn versus like what is their version of this trade because I don't think the Celtics review so much like, I think it would have been like it's Porter equivalent to Paul George basketball. I think it's probably better than Paul George. I would say Porter's better. He's an expiring and his cheaper. So Porter plus, I mean, I don't like the deal with, at that point, it's pretty palatable for Brooklyn, honestly.

Well, that's my question. If I'm running the nets and I see this trade, and then I go and talk to my best about people and I say, you guys, tell me you're interested in this Jalen Brown thing. I didn't, this was the price. I just would have cost us Porter Jr and we

could have given them, I don't know, one of the next first and maybe our own 2021 first and we

get Jalen Brown. Look, we could have him with Julie's Randall. This is the exact trade I pitched two weeks ago on Zack low show, Michael Porto that my coordinator in a bunch of draft picks, like two picks, a swap, whatever. But you probably thought more than two first rounders, you probably thought like three firsts and maybe swaps. Yeah. And that was one of the things that the social team clipped and put on my Instagram and Celtics fans shit all over it.

And I was just saying, look, I said, over and over again, this deal is going to net you once the honest thing fell through. This deal is going to net you and deal that makes you a little bit worse this coming season. It is going to make the fans mad. I tried to prepare the for it. That was one of the deals. I suggested, everyone said it was a bad deal. It's not that bad of a deal. I, uh, I would stay had traded in less summer now that I know how to play it out. And I got

Paul George and two half decent picked. Do you think, this is my mailback question. Do you think they are overreacting to the last three games of the Philly series, one of which Jason Tatum didn't play? Like he's too much weight being put on that versus the 56 wins that came before it. I like the, I kind of liked the way Jalen played in the last game, game seven. I did, like I'm sure there's some advanced metric shit that could pick it apart. But remember he guarded and beat it

at one point. Like I felt like to me that's that was the good and bad of Jalen all one game. Like he took a couple thumbs shots, had a couple charges, whatever. That guy would was willing to do anything it took to try to win the game. I'm not even just talking about him. I'm talking about like kind of giving up on everybody. All of the team being a championship contender. I see it in a season. Well, that's another thing. Tatum, they put those minutes on Tatum and he lasted six games

and then skipped the seventh one because he wasn't happy with something that was going on with his legs. And Jalen was the fall guy. I'm not saying Tatum should have been, but I thought Masulah should have taken a lot more criticism and I was talking about my pod as it was happening. Like why are we putting this many minutes on Tatum? Are you trying to make them a 38 minute

“a game guy? I don't get it. Why not ease them back into it? Why not play them 28 minutes?”

This is from Jordan and LA with Jalen's value extremely low. I'd love to hear your blame

off-court stuff. How would you split up the blame pie? I'm a huge fan of the pod ghosties,

even on the press. I would say off-court stuff in Mass of Contract, probably 90 percent of that.

What is off-court stuff with Jalen Brown? Because there's no, people say that and it's used pretty liberally. Is it just like that he shares his opinions on Twitch? Because there's no like bad off-court. We'd normally say off-court stuff and it's like bad off-court stuff. There's nothing like that. Thank you for clarifying that in your, off-court stuff's the wrong phrase.

“Let's go with self-criticism. Self-awareness, self-awareness?”

But you're painting of one self where we're going to say is like that's where it becomes hard to separate that from the basketball stuff. Because that's going to bleed into is there going to be a tug of war for control the team? Is that an aim? And then I said thought yes. I mean, that's fair to say. I think they felt like this situation was what it was going to be. I think the contract, I would go 45 contract, 40% self-awareness. What's my role? That's stuff. And then, ability in the basketball court,

it is an advanced metrics friendly team. And I'm sure there's some things they didn't love.

I don't have stuff I'll never know what to make sense of it because you can't tell me the

last year's team was better when he wasn't on the court. He had a huge, huge, huge load and showed up all the time and did so many things. You know, I remember talking about this

“during COVID or right after when Kyrie was only playing home games and his stats were really good.”

It's like, hey, he's playing once a week. Like, if you're going to play, if you're going to miss 10 games in a season, you're going to play 36, 37 minutes and take the pounding that Jalen did and go to the basket like he did at 9 fruit throws a game and guard the other team's best player. You're going to have games where you're not 100% you play anyway. And I still feel like there

is no way for advanced metrics to to value that. The guys that whatever they're dealing with,

they're still playing. This is one of LeBron. This is one of the great skills that he had. He's the durability and the consistency no matter what his body was. And I don't know. I just don't know how you put a number on that, Zach. I would give the contract even more than 45% blame pie or 40% of whatever he said. I would go 50 at least and it's impossible to separate that from the analytics because the analytics are don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in relation to

what percentage of the cap is taking up and is a worth it to have that specific player taking up so much of your cap. But I would put the contract is like easily half the pie. Okay.

“So if we're going to say that, how does Denver regard Jamal Murray right now?”

I mean, I think they love Jamal Murray. They love this chemistry with Nicole Eolkach. I think they're probably very aware that if they were to trade him, it would not look dissimilar from the jail and Brown trade. It might even be a little bit worse because he's smaller and plays a position that is pretty well filled across the league. Because we have, he's over 50, right? He's 50 this year, 54, 57.

Yeah. And I wonder is there going to be more jailing Browns? Like our is Orlando going to start looking sideways at Franz Wagner like Jesus. Well, he's on the phone. He's on the smaller one and that's that's the timing, right? But in two years, won't it be like 47, 48? 44. He goes at, yeah, 44, 45, 50, but 51 and 20, 30 is different than 57 now in terms of what percentage of the cap. It's going to be the next one. It's the next one. You know, and that's the

other thing that we need to talk about is like all these guys who are, I understand the extension rule and why it's written the way it is and why it's beneficial for both sides in a lot of ways to get security for players and teams. These players who are like, it happened with towns, it's Applewood, jailing Browns going to have a lot of other players. Like you have three years left under your contract. Like I don't think if I'm a general manager, I'm like, it's cool that you're

eligible for an extension by the letter of the law. Can we wait a year, man? You get three guaranteed years left under your contract. Why? But it creates, it creates issues with in teams really early in the calendar of the contract. I feel like there's only four or five guys in the week that you would proactively just keep adding years to their contract, right? Like if one be is like, hey, I'd love another three years. It was like great. That sounds awesome, Victor.

Here's your next three years, right? Lucas, same thing. I'm sure the moment Lucas eligible for

level. This question came all the way from Lance in Australia. Do you think jailing Browns trade

“happened not because he asked to be traded, but because Tatum was jealous and said to Boston,”

it's him or me. I don't think it happened for either. I don't think it happened for that reason. I don't think Tatum said a trade. I don't think jailing Browns said trade me. I don't think either those things happen. I agree with you. Good question. They're even in Australia. They're thinking about this. Noah is a clipper fan. He said, I don't have a question. Welcome to the love hate Paul George relationship. I had a few clipper fans throw this at me. You know, it is funny,

as I continue to try to talk myself from the Paul George. Really good career. Eight all stars. One top five on BA, third MVP 2019, five, third team on BA's three conference finals, 13, 14 and 21, 21 playoffs act, 27, 10 and five, 41 minutes a game. First career is 21, six and four, 30 and a percent from three. Guess had an awesome career. And yet, I don't know any Paul George fans to you. My favorite players Paul George. Every young player who comes into the

league, who's a win. His favorite player is Paul George. I have been a huge Paul George fan.

I think the last two years have tainted a little bit. I've always been a fan. I wrote a big piece on

“him. I can't remember what playoff year it was. I remember that. I'm going to say late 2010.”

Good. About up his up and down sort of playoff record. And particularly the last couple in Oklahoma City, we're not good. And that I think it was probably the year the clippers made the conference finals maybe in 2021. But anyway, like I've always been a pretty big fan, but the last two, it's now 36 and the decline is happening. And the last two years have been problematic in a lot of different ways. Even I'm looking it up now. Even podcast P has gone dormant since July,

20 25. I was going to say, I think a great, a great moment to mark this monumental transaction would be if you went on podcast P, but it appears to be, it appears to be dormant. Well, I think we're going to have them on the team this year. So I'd like it to feel welcome by all the Boston fans. Look, he's 2011 draft guy. You know, who else is then 2011 draft?

Kawai Leonard. I mean, they were team ages old, but they were teammates for a hot second in

it. Yeah. Yeah. As the summer goes along and I relax, I'm going to really start thinking more and more about how good Paul George was in that Boston series. Like, maybe there's something left. We'll take one more break and then I have more mailback. All right, it's time for a special segment on today's podcast where we discuss the superior matches teams and players where we'm talking about players that are for the FIFA World Cup 26 brought to by Mick Love Ultra, the official beer sponsor

of the FIFA World Cup 26 a superior light beer. I'm going to dive into three players that I thought had superior impact at least so far in FIFA World Cup 26 as we head into yet another week. I love it. Can't wait. We're going close to the finals. Three players that we thought would be three of the best guys in this tournament have all delivered and then some. You have in Bob A, 27 years old, prime his career. Francis playing Paraguay over the weekend. They're part of the bus. They're trying

to agitate him. They're trying to agitate all the other French guys and he just has this attitude. He's seen it all. I've been here before, guys. It's not none of this stuff's going to work. Francis, somehow he has been one of the two most memorable players in this tournament. I'm not counting Harry Kane just because we're recording this before the England Mechsow game. But Holland on Norway. So look, if you watched Premier League, you've watched him on Man City the

“last couple years. I think they won in 2023. It's not like he's breaking news that disguise unbelievable.”

But he is the first track I've ever seen who really makes me feel like I'm watching a dominant

big man in basketball. There's pieces of all these big guys that I've loved from over the years. Like early 90's Sean Camp on the headers. Just anything close to the rim, Sean Camp would get. It feels like anything in the box where he can have time to jump and you know get airborne and stick his head somewhere and just get over somebody. He's putting away young shack banging bodies around. There's like three or four times a game. He'll just bowl over somebody.

Footwork of a scheme and then a little Michael Myers in there too because he is the Michael Myers reactions after the goal. So everyone else loses their mind when they score. He's like, he does the Michael Myers. I love it. To me, he looks like when you have in the literally

That's the feeling he's giving us during the story I run and the had great win on Sunday.

“So I still can't give him MVP through this past weekend because at least through the past weekend”

because that's, it's got to be messy. Carrying ArchTiny yet again, highest approval rating of any team sport athlete period right now and game after game it feels like he's doing a couple magical things and it's so much fun to watch him and watch the delight that his teammates have just getting to play with a legend like that who's still got it. So I would have him the MVP so far as we headed to get another week of an awesome FIFA World Cup 26. If you disagree, ultra wants to know

they want you to share your superior moments from the FIFA World Cup 26. If the chance to vote after every FIFA World Cup 2026 match for the superior player of the match on the FIFA plus app, that player will get the superior player of the match trophy representing the host countries of Canada, Mexico, and of course the U.S. So celebrate every goal, save and win with U.S. soccer and make a little ultra. All right, couple more quick mailback, Emmett from Chicago. Do you think this

brown trade happens? If Tatum had won finals MVP in 2024. It's a pretty good one. I did talk about this with my dad who refuses to come on the podcast. He's really mad. He doesn't want to save anything he regrets. I did wonder if J. Lewin's the Eastern Conference won. Jason wins the finals MVP

and we never have this A-Bon stringer thing that develops right after that. I don't know if

“he doesn't get traded, but I do think it changes the dynamic I do. I think the bigger what”

if is what if Tatum never gets hurt and they just they lose the next series and it's totally normal because I think that's the event that catapults J. Lewin Brown into a different role than that changes everything. I don't I haven't thought too much about what if they split the MVP trophies to that because well, there's three what ifs because you have the finals MVP, what if Tatum doesn't get hurt, what if Tatum just doesn't come back last season?

That's another one too. I mean and it's just J. Lewin's team the whole year and we don't see Tatum until whatever. I think all three of those things maybe no trade. I got the I just I'll have to this is from cage from Kansas City but did get a few of these, did Brad send J. Lewin to this sixers to destroy them from the inside because J. Lewin will want to be the guy on the team and

“there they have max in MVP. I don't think that's why he did it but I don't in fact I don't think”

so either in fact I it's it feels far away now but man are they going to face him a lot of times and maybe in the playoffs and just it's going to just be a lot of J. Lewin Brown. I do think the fit is interesting. We have all summer to talk about how those three guys are going to fit together and Philly. I'm not particularly worried about it but I don't think Brad Stevens did that. I like that maxy edge coat and J. Lewin Brown. I'll play basketball. They do they play most

games in fact everyone is 75 games 36 to 41 minutes a game. All three and you know who doesn't is Joe on beat. But those three will be in a lot of games together and I think they're going to be better than people think. People seem pretty split. I'm it's just going to be a weird team and is there enough basketballs? I don't think they'll be good. I think they'll be good. I will say this though. It's Tyrese Maxi's team and J. Lewin's going to if he goes there thinking like

finally I have my own team. I don't think that's going to go up but we'll say I mean there's also like when he plays it's at least half Joel and Beads team and half Maxi's team and when when he plays Joel and Beads is still a colossal force. He's a former MVP like it's it's his team a lot when he plays

too. I really liked everything the sixers did this off season. Simon's for 12 million was a steal.

Simon says good. That one's stubborn. They have a lot of guards particularly after drafting file on tube so I you know that'll be interesting to see how they split that all up. The four position after Wade. I mean we'll see where the Broncos who knows. Got the whiteboard. I almost I almost we were watching the Mexico England game at a friend of mine who had a whiteboard aside in the side of his kitchen because his daughter was using it for something and I was like

should I should I put this in the back of our car and bring it home and have it like ready to it's just a whiteboard. It's a location ready because that whiteboard has really become the store and

it's on right. Ryan H says first time writing in love the show here's my thought worry Brad Steven's

Michael Coralion arc. I'm afraid we're on to the third movie. He says part one reluctantly joins the family the front office and takes to it like a fish to water. Part two makes the tough but

trade, Wacking Frateau, Marcus Smart Trade, all leading the consultant. It should the five families banner 18. Tom Hagan is Robert. Robert Williams was he's called time lord because he's made all the time. Tom was a precise machine. Ryan's that a heater don't talk about it. This part three. Michael tries to change the direction of the family by making a work in the legitimate world the second apron. And then the process loses a child because of all the maneuvering. Jail and

Brad move prematurely because of the honest miss. And then he said that's all I got for now.

Pretty good. That's pretty good. I have to say I have to admit I never saw the

godfather per three because if the buzz was so bad that I'm I treated like Jordan on the wizards. I don't want to I don't want to know what happened. I'm just going to appreciate. Now it's better than Jordan on the wizards. We did a rewatch was about five years ago. It's like a guilty pleasure now. It's bad. I mean, there's really bad things about it but it's worth saying. Oh, LeBron question. Oh no. No, I have to go backwards. Hold on. Okay.

Christmas games. I sent this to you. Yes. Jailin wanted to know what the Christmas games will be. He predicted 76 or Celtics at noon spurs next to 30. He left five o'clock blank 730 Minnesota thunder and then he said 10 o'clock warriors. Lakers. I made my predictions. But you go. Would you read them? Okay. I didn't I didn't tell you what I had. I'll be interested to see if we have the same five. So traditionally the next play first. But I'm now I'm putting them.

I'm giving them the championship bump. We're going we're going primetime with the next.

“A great first game. A Celtic sixers. I had the same. Where'd you have the game?”

I don't I didn't think about that. I'll put it. I will put it in in Boston. I want it to be the return game. Yeah. I had that as well. All right. We're one for one. We're tied. 230 p.m. or the second game. I have Minnesota Denver just to collect just like two great teams lamella ball excitement just they played each other last Christmas good rivalry. I needed this was the game. I was less sure about but that was the one I put in there. I had spurs next is the second game

because the East Coast. Okay. That would be 230 p.m. Eastern time. I don't have spurs next is a game. Oh, okay. What do you have for the third game? I have five p.m. right before dinner thunder spurs going with that rivalry again as a Christmas sequel. And it's because I'm giving it the

next the prime time game. And it's if I don't the problem is if I don't give them the spurs and

I don't give them the Celtics and I don't give them the sixers. I'm kind of running out of marquee like Nick's rival teams. No, there's no final rematch. But 730 Nick's heat. Gonna's he classic rivalry

“renewed defending champs get the dinner time prime time spot. That's what I went with my 14.”

What's your fifth? I'll do mine after you do. I just went Lakers Warriors bucket like with TBD on where Lebron signs and what team he's on. But if he's on the Warriors and it's a revenge game against the Lakers that that's going to be. I don't know what team he's going to be on. I've covered all the possible Lebron teams except for the calves who I do not have. I have spurs next to 30 Warriors at Lakers as the five o'clock.

Okay. See at Minnesota. It's good. And then Dallas Denver 10 o'clock late night. I thought about that. I thought about Dallas Lakers too. Just that all the Luka games in Dallas are going to be fun and Cooper Flag showcase. But we have to account for Lebron. Lebron is going to play on Christmas. And so well, I have them end of five o'clock game with the Warriors Lakers play for the Warriors. Okay. So that's where

Dan's gonna be David and Drema Green and Yaxel and Steph Perry and everybody else. So the problem that he's gone to the Warriors. If he goes to Cleveland, I don't know who I'm bumping out. I mean, I guess I guess I would. No, if he goes to Cleveland, then five pms Cleveland at the Lakers. Lakers are going to have that five pms. Okay. And then maybe Curry is the 10 o'clock.

“But that five pms, I think will be a little prospect. All right, that's fun.”

Dave from San Antonio wants to know conspiracy bill. Are the Celtics clearing up money and building a passets for 2028 when Cooper Flag tells the Mavericks he wants to go to Boston? It's from Dave from San Antonio. I feel like conspiracy bill should be the one to answer that.

I always had my eye on Cooper Flag and the Celtics. It's a big Celtic family. I always had my eye

on it. Listen, I Paul George up my team and probably 51 and 31, six seed and probably losing round one for the next couple years. So I'm going to start dreaming about Cooper Flag. We did win the title on 24th of the second. That happened because I actually, you know, you're mentioning that. You're just throwing it out there as a little fun to side.

is this is going like they want to title. They got the thing done that no one can ever take away

from you and that that's the whole thing. We won a title this decade and it wasn't in the bubble. Joseph Quinn says, Hey, Bill, are we in Celtics, bizarre world right now? The next are likeable and be a champion. You just traded your finals and be a Peter division rival and Brad Stevens is getting universally hammered. It is bizarre a world time. It feels like I guess the final piece of that would be LeBron going somewhere super weird. LeBron playing with Curry. I think

would be the fourth piece of that. What's the weirdest LeBron team? Like the of all the ones that are on the word is believable? Of all the ones that are on the whiteboard. What's the one that if it happened, you'd be like, wow, I can't believe that corner of the whiteboard is the one

“that had it. Minnesota. Okay. He's just like, yeah, I'm going to hit my wagon of LeBron. That's how”

I'm going to end my career. And they read it. And they read it. Mark Lorrie is my owners and I'm just going to live in Minnesota. That seems insane. Dallas was on the whiteboard. I'm going to just shut Dallas. I'm going to erase them from the whiteboard. I would be shocked if he went there. What's it? So what's your answer? I guess it has to be Minnesota. I kind of would be surprised if it were Denver. It just doesn't, I think that would be a great spot for him. It just doesn't feel like things like

that happened for Denver. Can we all agree Cleveland is the worst outcome? I ranked it by basketball fits in like an entertainment value fits that I had Cleveland last. It's just like forget that. Right there. He did his business. He brought them a title. He did it already. Don't you can't go back again. And the reason is it's just the hardened piece is just like he's going to, what is he going to be doing when James Harden dribbles through 30 times? And he still plays that way a fair amount of time.

Nobody in the planet thinks that's a team that could win the title. I don't see it. I don't see it. I don't see it. I just don't see it. I don't think LeBron and Harden is two of my five best guys. I'm winning the title. I think it's ridiculous. I think in Golden State it would be ridiculous too. The problem for him is he was on a team that had two that had one of the best six players in the league and one of the best 40 players in the league. Oh yeah for sure. And they weren't going to win the,

and they weren't going to win the title no matter if LeBron had come back on a minimum and they had done this casserole trade. I still don't think they would. Oh, now that they've traded down 38 and it's over. I mean, like you can't recover from that. You can't recover if you're Joe House.

“And you have to watch Tray Young, The Andre and the High Ball Screens. I uh,”

listen, basketball fan build, Denver. I would love to see him in your pitch. I know you've talked about in your pot of bunch. I totally agree. I think it would be really, it would be like some weird movie like two stars that you're like, I can't believe they're in the same movie. This is unbelievable. Um, I don't think it'll happen. You're doing a much, much money to you think he's hoping for here. I mean, he's, he seems to have a lot of all from. Yeah. I mean,

you can get the full bit level. I think that's a win. Um, but it doesn't seem like he's prioritizing that and that at this point in his career. Yeah. Well, what was a prioritizing that? Why didn't

he prioritize it last year instead of caching in the 50 million right? Why didn't he opt out and

and that would have really helped last year's team instead of instead of releasing a aggressive aggressive statement. I think through rich ball and then opting in why not, why not just opt out and you don't have to release any aggressive aggressive statement. You score over there. You want I did a thing on my pot the other day that I was really proud of and enjoyed about the him doing the Roger Clements. Roger Clements, the last couple of years when he was playing,

he would just come back into the season like in junior July and on Houston just do like a three or four month run. Basically, I'm going to be, I'll be in peak shape by the time the playoff start. I'm just going to show up. I'm going to pop in. Like if they, if the ringer's rich

“Paul asked me what I think LeBron should do, I would tell him I'm going to come back in January. I'm”

going to watch everybody. I'm going to play golf for six months. I'm going to think about everything.

I want to watch all these different teams. I've never had a chance to just not play. I want to watch

everybody see where I might fit in and then around January. Maybe somebody will get hurt. Maybe I could be a replacement for somebody, but I'll just have a better sense of January where to go and do it that way and guess what? Everybody would just talk about it every week. Like we're talking about it right now. It'll just be like the story that won't end. Oh, Dallas is better than we thought could LeBron go there. We'll just be doing that for six months. That's the, if you want the most

attention do that. Miles says, does this idiotic piece of malpractice being in the jail and

whoever else you have in the list. Thanks for all you do. So this didn't make me, I did make a little

list here, Zach. Okay, let's hear it's the, oh no trades. Luke O'Bay number one, Barclay to Phoenix for Jeff Hornoseck Andrew Lang and Tim Perry. That was a nine out of 10. Oh no, like that was, I was immediately calling Joe House. Did you see those like just, oh my God, hard in the Houston. Where do you learn about the Barclay trade as a, as a, as a, as a, yeah, that's how you learn about that. Yeah, that's like 2020 flash. This just in Charles Barclay's been traded.

Hard in the Houston was an O'No. Filly traded in the number one pick at 1986 for Roy Henson and $750,000, the draft for the Brad Dirty Limbias, a classic O'No, and I was happy they did it because I was self-defense. I wasn't old enough to really remember my feelings in this, but when Portland

had Moses Malone and traded him for one Buffalo first run pick in $232,000, $232,000. That's like

if there's someone have a specific debt that they're trying to repay. And then Buffalo six days later traded him for two number one picks. J. Kid to Phoenix when Dallas traded J. Kid that was, oh God, why, you've J. Kid, why are you trading them? Vince to New Jersey, even though we were waiting

“for it, just because of how bad that trade was, where it was like, you have to, you get a lot”

of morning, you're going to have to buy them out. You have, we're here some shitty picks. Here's Aaron Williams or Eric Williams. There was a Williams, they just got nobody. And then my last one, Utah Utah's number three in 1982. Well, in the draft with James were the Terry Cummings and Dominic Wilkins are the top three picks. Dominic Wilkins hints that he doesn't want to play for Utah. They trade the pick for John Drew, who was in and out of drug rehab for years,

Freeman Williams and $750,000. The more of the story's at low, any time money, weird numbers of money isn't in trade, just say, oh no, it's not a good sign, but I think Luca Barclay, I don't know where J. one's going to rank in this, but I think everybody had the same reaction like, oh no, I have a trade. I will say, I've heard and listened and read a bunch of people are trying to say, it's the most inexplicable trade since the Luca trade or it's as bad as I don't think they're

“comparable. I think the Luca trade is like by orders of magnitude and for many different reasons,”

the return, the fact that they intentionally did not shop him the way that the Celtics canvas, the Holy, it's just a different species of plague on the state. I wouldn't put it above Barclay or hard in either. The hard and trade I think was way worse, because just paying the extra

4 million and trade them and you have a team that's willing to go for a fifth year with even more

money on them, that tells you at least have the asset, you can trade it. XF from here as a New York Rates, we had Kenny Hackett said talking about how the numbers said Cleveland was up on the next while they were actively getting eliminated. We had Bobby Marks saying an analytics guy had J. Lambran graded seven best in his own team. At what point did we stop calling an analytics and start calling it astrology for guys with XL? We're one model away from some asshole telling us

the team that lost by 30 actually won emotionally. They feel they feel better about it. It doesn't get a little wacky. I mean you just like it's some of it like I don't know who said that to Bobby. I don't know I don't know who those people are. They're obviously crazy and I just think we don't have to as the media take the craziest scene that we hear and amplify it. We can use a little bit of better judgment about what we choose to amplify. In that case he was talking about

I'm talking in this person. They really value J. Lambran. Then I talked to this person and he said

“this crazy thing and then that's the part that cut out. That's what happens to all of us unfortunately.”

Mike from Hartford, Wisconsin. Hartford, Wisconsin. Do you know there's a Hartford, Wisconsin? I did not. He said high-conspiracy bill immediately you have my intention. I'm moderately surprised that LeBron that announced his latest decision either on July 3rd to try to take some attention away from the terrorist-foot and Travis Kelsey wedding or in July 4th to take shine from America's 2015th birthday. I think Mike thinks he's slipping what are your thoughts. Wow.

I think the opposite LeBron's going to take all of June. All of July to really really enjoy the dialogue about where he might go. You want him all the way to January? Yeah. I think it's great. Was he not at the Taylor Swift wedding?

Yeah. No way. So back 24 hours. No, you did not. No, I really did. I went back.

Got back in time for July 4th. Did I miss you? Did you miss me? Did I miss you tweeting about this? You weren't supposed to do social media about it. How did you get what's

“that? I mean, so long story. New. Is it interesting? What do you want to know about the wedding?”

I don't really. I mean, so the question was there was there a reception? Did you just get to go to the wedding? Was the party also either a wedding? Who looked at anything? Adam Sandler did the, he married them and sang this song because apparently that loved one of his movies. They had, they didn't have tables like you weren't at a wedding table. You were just they had

these food courts and a lot of it was like big pictures. By the way, I didn't go to this wedding.

You did. You thought I went to the wedding? That was a little bit more skeptical, right? I mean, I wrote you in. You believe me? All right. Well, look, it's 23 or more. It's 12.30 a minute. I do like you get groggy, is it activate to that? I was going to ask who you're plus one was. Why I didn't get it. I shouldn't go. Why I didn't get considered as the plus one because I would like to go. You know who's there? Tommy Alter. I don't know what to believe any more.

I don't know what to believe. Now, Tommy Alter was there. All right. Matt and Charlottesville, what's to know. Why doesn't one of the teams in the running for the bronze just go ahead and trade for Brani right now? Who sent this in? Matt and Charlottesville. I mean, if it were a deal breaker

“that he asked to play with Brani, he wouldn't have let the lakers. I don't I think he's ready for”

Brani to be like release like the doves and just go fly fly and and be your own man. So if you're Cleveland, you wouldn't trade Dequan, Tomlin. Straight. Nequan, Tomlin. Nequan, Tomlin. Nequan, Tomlin. I don't want to get a Dequan. Boy, if that happened, I mean, it would just be the all-time. There are no tea leaves. There's nothing to there's no dots to connect. Like that's the if a team trades for Brani James in the next week.

I think we're going to know something something is up. Goldman state has somebody. He makes Brani makes like 2.2. So I went on the trade machine. I looked at other teams. So Goldman state really wanted them try to get Brani first. That's the smart move. What am I what am I favorite subplots of the summer so far has been Pat Riley reportedly just stonewalling all the antidequimple brothers. Just like the NASA's. Nope. It's not happening here. Alex posted.

Don't don't even think about it. But the NASA's you can buy some tickets. We'll maybe give you a

“seat, but you are not playing for the Miami heat. I think all the guys in the heat are relieved”

they don't have to practice against the NASA's. I think he was a physical practice player. You know, I got this question a few times. And I'll read this one from Edmund from La Marrata,

California. He also asked for conspiracy bill. Let's get always get some attention.

Is the coattrate to Toronto the modern day version of Jordan's retirement in 1993. The parallels are undeniable. I think. Yeah, as intro convertible proof that a player's guilty of crimes that make the league look bad. But instead of hearing out their dirty laundry in public, they quietly force the player in a double-secret population. Jordan played minor league baseball quite an exile in the NBA version of Siberia, Toronto. That is that is. That's a confirmed. Who sent

this? And went from La Marrata, California. Edwin. Edwin. State your source, Edwin. Okay, put your full name on the email. State your source. That's the BS. Toronto is an amazing city. It's not exile. It's a great city. Great people, great food, great nightlife, great everything, except the weather. And by the way, Edmund points out at least Jordan got to stay in the country. He's just going to play basketball for a ten months. He's going to be coming in out of the country

at will. Okay, there's we think and they're going to be a very good basketball team. It's solid he's they traded him to, you know, the kings or something like that. Conspiracy build did take a look at this. Did catch his attention? Go back to when Kauai signed in Toronto was really mad because they felt another way, Toronto may or may not have been involved a little in this aspirations camp. They certainly were about talking about Uncle Dennis, right? Oh, and just it's not Uncle Dennis wanted this

from us. They wanted that. Like they I felt like they were one of the sources for kind of the things

camp. Okay, so you lose Kauai because this other team. This is all legend by the way. It's just

Conspiracy build considering the argument. You lose Kauai because this other team goes beyond the rules to get him. And Adam says, all right, here's how I'm going to fix this. You will now return Kauai to the raptors. They're going to trade these picks. And then my ruling will be the picks no longer matter and Toronto basically gets Kauai for nothing. That's we get Conspiracy build. The picks no longer matter like we're sending them back to Toronto as punishment for Toronto gets the you

cookers don't get to use those picks. They just go back to Toronto. Oh, no, that would be something. That would be something. That would be pretty good. Yeah, that would be something. Would that make you wonder that make you go, huh? The other thing would be is if if bomber buys the Seattle Seahawks.

Okay. And decides I've always wanted to own the NFL team in Seattle. I've had a great run here

in the clippers. I built the new stadium. I am now going to sell the clippers. And we'll never know why he sold would be another Conspiracy build has accepted that one on his desk. He's he's looked at that one as well. To be out into the yellow envelope just marked marked top secret conspiracy. Yeah, Jack in Missouri said about my idea in the colonoscopy pod. I like that. It's now the colonoscopy

“pod. You had to know that that's what it was going to be. That LeBron might wait until December”

January to set a team. He said what if he chose this team based on the winner in the NBA Cup and just sat courtside winner gets LeBron announced it. And then then then then the Kings begin creeping through or they're in the semifinals. Oh boy, let's get nervous. So this one excited me. We talked about surprise LeBron teams. Josh Cook said LeBron and Indiana with the Pacers would be wild, right? He loves getting out and running. That's what Halburn's teams do. Starting five of Tyrease,

Demhard LeBron, Siakum, Zubats, McConnell, Nesmith, Ubrae, Tape and Porter. They nailed both ends of the floor, shooting rebounding and selfless basketball. And I'm not even a LeBron fan. That is from Josh Cook. That was my great. That was Mahoney's pick when he came on my show. I said what you're just just fun. Fun only. That's the only criteria he said in Indiana. And by the way, apologies to Indiana, I should have mentioned we were doing Christmas games when I was thinking

who could the next play. And I said it on Nick's heat. I thought I thought about Nick's Pacers. That would be really fun. Because the Pacers are the team like the next the next didn't have to go through the Pacers. The Pacers can still sit here and say, we beat that team twice in a row in the playoffs. I know there's lots of injuries and all that stuff. But that's obviously a classic rivalry as well. So that would be the Christmas if they just have that noon spot. And that just belongs to the

“next every year. Nick's Pacers makes more sense, I think. Or next versus whatever LeBron team.”

Andrew Smith wants to know, why don't the Sixers trade a bead to the bucks for Miles Turner and Kyle Koosman right now? Koosman is an expiring Turner as three years life. Okay, I've who has a lot of meeting on that. I've taken note, I've taken note. It's 1240 in the morning. I'm a little groggy. But that's, I mean, look, obviously it's not going to happen. I think I thought it was interesting. I mean, so Philly would be basically in a year, they would just

have the Miles Turner number because Koos mode expires. So you would have a center for $30 million

less than that. I mean, this goes back to like how many times can we say things like what but the upside had been beat if you ever stays healthy for the playout? Like is it? Is it just time to give up on that? Yeah. So I would, I think. Oh, if I'm Philly, I'm the opposite. I'm looking at an M. B. Like, I have these three durable, really good players that I can build a regular season around, and I can sprinkle and beat in, keep them healthy and just try to get in the playoffs. That counter

argument would be, well, you did that last year and got hurt anyway. Can he get through four playoff rounds? Healthy? I mean, I'm skeptical of that alone. What if you just played them twice a week, even dirt in the playoffs? So he played like game two, game four, game five and game seven. Like he just played four of the seven games for Nick Nurse trying to manage that. I do think the idea what I'm fixated on is this trade rattles or out of my brain is like, Jo L. M. B. Milwaukee buck

“just how miserable is that person going to be? Like, like, what, what is happening?”

What's he more on now? I gave my whole career to Philly where he's a good team and now I'm on the

This is from Mel. He says podcasters have used can't put the toothpaste back in the tube too many times. Okay. Including you, I guess. It's fine. He has some alternatives. Can't put the milk back in the

cow. Can't put the shit back in the ass. And then he had a third one that I'm not going to say,

put it in the club's crown. I don't like any of those. Can't put the milk back in the cow. I don't think he nailed that one. The third one. The third one was just played offensive. Of that, we get to say it. I thought as you say, you can't put the milk back in the carton or something, but we just would straight straight back in the cow. Tim Bauer is one of many people who wrote about the NBA Post Association mainly represented by so many called stars. Screwed

over its own middle class. I talked about this on Thursday. These contracts for the middle class, guys. Even Simon's two for 12 and a half for Simon Simon's. Simon's is good. Like the the lakeers were like, hey, wait a second, middle class. You want to come to us?

Quinn Grimes here's 60 million. They were the only ones who they were partying like it was

2016. But for the most part, the Dean Wade for for 39, felt a little more old school. But yeah, all right, a couple more in them were done. Josh and Rally, imagine you're dating an absolute smoke show in college. She was tons of fun but completely insane. She's amazing and bedding at parties, but she has to go through phone. You're not looking. Also, she's a horrible driver. You know, it's not going to last. And that she's in the kind of girl to introduce to your

parents. You break up deep down. You know, she was long term solution. But when she's gone,

“you just feel alone in that sucks. That's how it feels to be a hornets fan right now.”

Josh really went deep. I was going to hide in obsession. I was trying to figure out where that was going. And then then you figured it out. It landed and it landed in a good NBA place, actually. I am. Good email. Brandon says sheers. The next can basically live like Kings in New York for the rest of their life, but as a post career business, I think the biggest no-brainers for Landry's Shamit, just open a chain of laundromats in the five burrows called Laundry Shamit, who print money.

Would you go to Laundry Shamit? I think that's it. It's a harder, it sounds great. It's a harder business than you think. Laundry, you can't just call it Laundry Shamit. And it's not like

he has $300 million to spend just opening up Laundry Shamit. He made a bag. It's all over the place.

Yeah, he didn't a backer. Nicholas said he couldn't believe the calves 2016 championship 10 year reading and that Kai Reed didn't go that my scoff wasn't invited. My scoff was just on a wearer. It's just on a wearer, fell bad for him. But he wants to know how will the Celtic

“celebrate in 234? Will everyone be invited? Who will go state? Will Pursingist still be injured?”

And we'll pretty sure get Blanchor out. I'm gonna reveal you. This is what I do. Let me look at the roster. I think Jalen would probably be the ifiest invite. But I think he goes. I think they forget about FEMA high loop. I think he's the mask off of the I think he checks Instagram and it's like it's a good one. I think that hurts. I think by then we're in a good spot. Well, a good enough spot. In Alhorford won't go because it'll coincide with his 50th birthday party.

Ben Craven in Lutlow Shop Shire UK. I feel like he's written before. He wants us to set the overunder for future all star appearances of all combined players and picks received by Milwaukee and the Miami trade for Janis. Okay, that's a good one. He said 0.5.

“I would go 1.5. I think here I'll maybe have like 27 points of game next year.”

Hold on. So we have Burry's Aement. What else do we have coming in that? Burry's Aement. Telelinic wear. Future Miami lottery pick would probably be your best chance. Yeah. I'm trying to think how many future. I think Burry's could make one. I'm going to go 1.5. I like what I know. 0.5 is too low. Um, okay. Let this one's too long. I really want your reaction on this. Let's go ahead.

It's a July 4th email. It's for Ben and St. Louis. He said July 4th will mark our semi-quint centennial anniversary. Is that a word? semi-quint centennial. And perhaps that's significantly the tenure anniversary of KELOLINIC killing

and Golden State, a Delta contingent flies to the Hamptons. Where KD is a house rented.

The group is Tom Brady, Danny age Brad Stevens, the owner's Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Jake Crowder and KELOLINIC. What happened was KELOLINIC at a tie-dye shirt. Versus Steph Clay and Drema on 73 when team. He's still upset about it. He's still

“James KELOLINIC for the Celtics not getting Kevin Durant. I think there were other reasons.”

KELOLINIC specifically and the shirt that he was wearing. I don't remember the tie-dye shirt. I don't remember the tie-dye shirt. Is he speculating that there's going to be Google Images. Why did Tom Brady go to? That was another weird one. I want to look, I want to look

this up now. I mean, he's a picture of all of them in the anthense. It's what I'm looking for.

I don't see any tie-dye shirts. KD shirt, I come to Boston. Oh, he's wearing a t-shirt. Yeah. It's not quite a tie-dye shirt. He's got a backwards hat and you've got a white t-shirt with some tie-dye-like image. It actually might be a tie-dye t-shirt. Interesting. I should have been more focused on it. All right, last question.

“It's from Shure from San Francisco. He's on a group chat about the King's franchise”

with a bunch of King's fans that they call it the King's fan annual season timeline. And he's posted the same timeline below every year for the last five. And somehow he is at every month on the dot this past year with the ACU. So this is he sent this is from 2022. He sent me the screenshot. There's a screenshot. Okay. October, we're going to be good this year. November. Oh, no, we sucked again. December. Team is actually good, but our coach sucks. January. New coach

sauce sucks. So it's probably our GM that sucks. February. We could turn it around at the trade deadline. March. We definitely still suck. We should tank. Why are we winning? April. We suck in our draft pick sucks. May. Our draft pick doesn't suck. Hope. June. The guy we drafted traded for is awesome. More hope. July. Bro, our summer league guys look sick. August. Positive, sack town royalty training camp news mega hope September undefeated in preseason. Five seed

question mark. Okay. That's the 12 stages of Kings by month. And that's the same. He's done that the same. He's that he posted every year. Five years in row. He's posted that in his group chat. And he said they've already dealt the ACU thing. Now ACU, if I guess he had 24 point 24 points on 29 shots last night. Summer league. So I don't know if the summer league bro or summer league guys look sick is coming out yet. The beam team, it just blows that whole thing up. The beam team didn't

follow that at all that, but that is an anomalous Sacramento King season. Maybe that's the thing. Maybe that was an anomaly. I hope I hope ACU works out because well for pretty bad for league past purposes. We need ACU to work out or else that is the number one. I don't want to watch that team team. Who do you have? Who do you have? When you do league past rankings? Who is the who's the favorite to be 30th right now for you? I mean is it just Brooklyn every year? You

like their court. Mill walkie's got a chance to be pretty rough. I feel the same. I don't know if I'm going to be diving in a lot of buck scams next year. Chicago's got some young guy sheen. Oh, I'm excited for a shit out of it. Taylor Wilson. Yeah, that'll be fun. I Mill walkie's, Mill walkie might be, Mill walkie might be my. Clippers, Clippers could be a, if you

“on it, if my Guyonic doesn't come back, I think he's all right. I don't know how long you”

can have a Jones. But did he have a Jones or? Yeah, he had one of the bad things with this. Yeah, he'll be right. Yeah, I think Milwaukee is the odds on paper. I think you're right. Okay. We'll wrap it up. When's your next podcast? I'm probably going to go up Tuesday morning. I think we're going to record tomorrow on some lake or stuff and jail and brown fallout and whatever else happens. Maybe a liberal on the sign in the next 48 hours, who knows? I don't think so. So they seem like it.

I think basically everybody's signed now. The only things we have in play left are

paint Watson. It's a couple of restricteds, right? What happens with Darren? I haven't liked the choice of season at all, just for the record. It's been a strange, it's been a strange one. Yeah, it's been a strange one. Yeah, we've got some of that and then the no-brainer extensions will

Durns, that's going to be fun. Do you think we'll ever see a player in our lifetime not do the rookie

“extension early and just do the staredown? I mean, we've seen that. I think what you're really”

asking is, well, anyone take the qualifying offer? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. There's been candidates.

I think the money is now reaching a point where you're basically losing 35 million dollars or

“say that it's a pretty risky decision. And I don't see anyone coming down the pike at this point.”

That rock is act. Thanks for staying up to almost one o'clock your time. We put the tooth

pace back in the tube. We put the shit back in the cow. Oh, what have you? What did you have to say? Yeah. I'll leave for the rewatchables as coming either Monday night or Tuesday night,

“because I think we're doing a post-soccer thing tomorrow and then hopefully the NBA will come down.”

Thanks for staying up late. Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo and Jack and Chris and everybody else and Spotify too. And I'll see you tomorrow night live on Netflix right after the America game. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Game problem caught 100 gambler or 1-800 by reset. Call 888-797777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org and Maryland.

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