Fallout From the LeBron Signing! Plus, Fake Curry Trades and Mets Corner!

alongside Jail and Brown, Joel and B. Tyreys Maxi, V.J. Edge, coming out, Kativa is called well, Pope. His also joined them.

“It's time to sift through the teams that didn't get LeBron James, starting with the”

Golden State Warriors who appear to just be peering out toward the end of the Steph

Curry era, they re signed Dream on Green, about 30 minutes ago to a 1 year 27.7 million

dollar deal. Exactly the deal that he opted out of. What went wrong for the Warriors? Are they actually dead? What were the missed opportunities around the way that were actually realistic because this

is a little bit of a depressing end of career situation for Steph Curry as of now. Doesn't mean this is going to be this way all the time for the Warriors. We talked about that. And then their whole tier of the West is kind of interesting because after the top six, which we will see over there the same top six, Portland, John Moran, Phoenix did a lot of

stuff over the summer. We'll talk about them and then Denver is not in their tier. It's above their tier, but they're in a very sticky situation with Peyton Watson. They were in one with Spencer Jones. So we're kind of going around the West, LeBron, all of that, most Achilles here to talk

about all of that. And then Sean Fantasy and I recorded a meds corner and we did it before Francisco Lendor hit two home runs and had a triple in a 14-3 win last night over the Braves. Keep Francisco Lendor. That's all coming up on the Zach Low Show.

Welcome to this Zach Low Show. It's Tuesday afternoon. We've had some time now to sit through LeBron James. Philadelphia 76er. Let it sink in.

It's a real thing. Jalen Brown is also a 76er, not a Celtic, Joellen B. It's still a 76er. Ketavius called while Pope is going to be a 76er, a clutch reunion in Philadelphia. And it's time to sort through some of the collateral damage that LeBron's decision left

in Cleveland, in Miami, and especially in Golden State, where the Steph Curry era appears to be heading toward a whimper of an ending, mode to kill. You know, you love them. You're here to help us sort through all of it. How are you doing, bud?

I'm doing great, Zach. I'm ready to roll right now. I'm just happy LeBron got it done before August, because that was my concern with where we're going to go into August with it. We were not going to go into August with it.

We did not go into August with it. It's still July. LeBron is a sixer.

And right before we went on this show today, Draymond Green resigned a one year 27.7 million

dollars deal with the Warriors, basically the same deal he opted out of to potentially give the Warriors to flexibility to sign the Brown James, which they were not able to do. And not unexpected, Draymond is still a very good player. One of the 10 to 12 best defense players in the NBA, his offense is declined precipitously his ability to be a real true playmaking hub has declined a bit with it.

But still quite a good player on a team that is just kind of a weird team. It's the first real move they've done other than drafting Yaxelando Bork, who was awesome in Summer League. We'll talk more about the Warriors in a minute. Do you have any leftover Philadelphia LeBron James thoughts more to kill?

Yeah, I think you know, we're also focused on the offense event that we're not really looking at the defensive end a little bit infillion house. That's all going to kind of slotted so far. You know, I know, Jaylon Brown's good defender. I think Edgecom is going to be their point of attack guy if they can keep in beat when

he's on the floor near the rim, I think makes a big difference, but I do have concerns about that. You go a bullet with them when he did play in the next series, they put him out in space and it's a problem, right?

“And you have issues with what you have to deal with.”

And I think those are the questions, are we very curious about they're not a great rebounding team? So like, how does it fix that? Where does that come along? Obviously, we know the depth issues with their front court and how they deal with the

size, but those are things I don't think has really been discussed as much, because again,

we always just focus on the offense, but I think that's something to really kind of keep

an eye on. I talked about that exact thing earlier this week or over the weekend when I did whenever I record, I can't remember all the summer, just every day is a different day. I completely agree with you. I get why people are worried about the offense and how all these guys with 30 plus

percent use to generate are going to mesh. I personally have not really worried about that just because minutes staggering slash guys missing games, slash tyries Maxine being a really great off-ball player. I think VGA Edge Gullham playing mostly off-the-ball is probably healthy for this stage of his career and he's going to learn so much playing with the brun.

I'm not worried too much. It'll be interesting. I'm not worried too much about it. The defense to me is a bigger potential.

“I want to say issue, because I think there'll be a solid defensive team, but are they going”

to be a top eight, top ten defensive team?

You mentioned M. B. in the playoffs against the next after his week of glory against the Celtics. Should be noted that it was like post appendicitis. Joel and B. along with chronic knee issues, although I don't know how serious those were in the playoffs, Joel and B.

But look, I mean, that's the whole thing. And B. it's the whole thing. And less than until there's a different starting center on the team and I'm not convinced that that's even possible, even if the sixiers wished it were so, and I'm not sure that they do.

Can they manage Joel and B. through, forget a regular season, multiple playoff rounds, and that could take many forms, as I've said before, it could take, hey, we're up to, well, we're going to sit in game three. It could be, you know, we just won seven game, well, as seven game series, we're going to rest you in game one.

It could take a lot of different forms. And now the team is talented enough that at least that might be a viable way to get through three playoff series. I'm not going to pick them to make the finals, but they are in the conversation, and if

they have the second best finals odds in the east.

But I agree with you. Defense is a big question mark, KCP, no harm, no foul. I mean, like a potential 3 and D guy off the bench, who knows LeBron very well, fine, like put him next to Simon's and Dean Wade, and they're back up five, which is still,

“I think kind of weak spot, but you know, fine, that's no harm, no foul.”

Yeah, I think that's, you know, it's, I like the KCP pick up in the, in the opportunity, you know, getting him on the by-all market and jumping in that area. And again, if we've seen what KCP can do when he plays with LeBron, when he plays with Yoke, which we've seen, what it looks like when he doesn't, and that hasn't been very good.

But hopefully they can kind of recreate that magic that he had when he was with the Wakers and teamed up with LeBron in the way he goes, you know, listen, the Simon's aspect of it, like I'm interested to see how that plays and, you know, they're going to bring a lot of defensive utility off the bench, like he's with KCP Wade and those guys, it just comes down to in beat and then it's also going to come down to Bona.

It's going to come down to a 40 spray in terms of their backup positions and out, they're able to hold up. They probably need to go try to fight somebody else if they can at the center position, because those guys are just generally backups at this point. And I don't feel like it's something that they should feel very comfortable going into for

the night's that one in beat doesn't play. And I know we, you know, I think you even mentioned it on one of the pods, like we are going to see LeBron play the five, some, you know, that's going to happen, but it's not something that's going to be long term. And that's going to be on the night's that LeBron is actually playing.

So I think they still need to kind of figure that whole area. This still worked to be done in Philly. But again, this is going to be an awesome sort of fun thing to watch. And I'm not, I'm with you. I'm not that worried about the offensive then.

They will figure it out.

“And the truth is, though, they all have to sacrifice something.”

And that's just what it's going to be. And they're all going to sacrifice you, such all their usage is all going to take a dip.

He's going to always suddenly usage climb in this situation, but they got to figure out what

they can do offensively. I think this is a great opportunity for Nick Nurs to get really creative on the offensive event. I know, you know, nobody likes talking about certain offensive philosophies, but this is a team that can run some triangle philosophies and get some good stuff out of this team.

Can have a lot of movement with what they do. They can run a multi-layered offense, you know, with an action on the strong side, with the pin down on the weak side or some other stuff going on with so many high-eye cube players, like, I'm pretty excited to see how that kind of plays itself out. I think this and they can run, they can run like the hell in transition.

Everybody but in beat is built to play that way. Look, this is, I think, the most fun LeBron outcome. I think it's reasonable for him to have concluded that if he didn't want to go to Denver for whatever reason, and it doesn't appear that was a realistic and he didn't want to go beat Danny Glover and lethal weapon, I'm too old for this shit in Minnesota and it appears

he did not.

“Then I think this is a reasonable place to land if his priority is I want to try to actually”

win. I want to win into May and June and Jason, Jason fifth ring, not these ringchasing, he's not of already addressed that. Can I, can I jump it? Everybody should be ringchasing.

Wow. It's the point. I don't, I don't, all 30 teams are chasing a trophy. All the players should be chasing the rings. Like, I don't, I don't get bad with these guys that are ringchasing.

I mean, maybe if it's, I'm not going to play and I'm going to sit at the end of the bench and just want to get the championship ring. Sure, but like he's going to play, he's going to be a big part of it. Like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I hate the phrase. The only places that would have been like, oh, really are San Antonio and Oklahoma City,

and he was never going to those places.

I think Cleveland would have been equally viable as Philadelphia, perhaps even Bill and I vehemently disagree on this. He wrote the Cavs off completely because of the hardened LeBron Mitchell fit, and I get that, it's not the most attractive three-man on-ball machine, particularly with hardens, dribble dribble dribble tendencies, but the double big thing of mobly and Allen is interesting.

It's in the east, not in the west where you're probably going to have to beat both of

But here, here are some things that having had a few days out of sift through all this.

There are some things that I'm pretty certain of. The hardened and not dearest Garland thing was a pretty significant obstacle for the Cavs.

“If they have never made the hard and train, I think they have a much better chance of getting”

LeBron. I don't know if they get them because maybe he just wanted to do something new, that's in keeping with his career, and that's not to say they shouldn't have made that trade. They were trying to go all in for this season and they didn't trust Garland's health. They'd good reason not to.

The jail in Brown trade, I don't think the sixers get LeBron James without jail in Brown. I think that that seems like common sense as of now, 72, 96 hours later, it just can't be overstated that the Celtics not only traded jail in Brown to the sixers and let them get off Paul George, but also enabled them to get LeBron James. I don't know where he goes if jail in Brown is not a sixer.

Now, link to that are the Warriors which we will get back to, and link to the Warriors

also is the Anthony Davis variable. The reporting on this has been all over the place, I've seen people say, well, did they try to get the Warriors or whatever team to get Anthony Davis or would it have helped? Here's where I come down. I think, yeah, it would have helped.

I don't know if it would have swung it, and I feel pretty confident saying no one was really told if you get Anthony Davis, LeBron is coming to your team or likely to come to your team. I don't think it got anywhere near that direct, and some teams got absolutely no communication about any player, whether it was Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving, and so the number one

thing and I keep saying this, and it's the least sexy thing to say, no one knew anything. All the teams, everybody I talked to, everyone was in it, I'm the periphery of it. It was like, I don't know, we don't know, and that included should we get this player that player. No one had a clue until he made his decision, the sixers didn't have a clue until

he made his decision, and so those are just some thoughts. Are you ready to discuss the Warriors, Mo? Yes, I am ready, but I do want to nominate Brad Stevens for executive of the year for building this Philadelphia, 76ers team.

Hey, look, we're going to get to Brad Stevens in a second, and this conversation, if the

Celtics start to season 25, and I don't like, the Celtics are going to win, they're over 100, I think it's 50 and a half. I'm just going to prep you like the conversation, if they're 25, and the sixers and beads hurt in jail and Brown's cranky, and they're 18 and 12, the conversation is going to shift a little bit.

Yeah, for sure. And it can go the other way as well, but I think that's going to be that that's part of the dynamic of what you have as a GM, and I was just being a little bit trying to be a little bit funny with the Stevens comment. The Warriors are unquestionably the biggest losers of the LeBron saga, because this team

has done essentially nothing in the offseason, except kill the draft apparently, although we'll see. Yeah, they're re-signed porous, and I guess we'll see how many games he can play. They've now re-signed during Montgomery and fine. He should finish his career at Warrior, I hope that he does.

Jimmy Butler is going to miss a huge portion of the season.

“And again, like, you should not just assume that when he comes back, he's going to be Jimmy”

Butler. He's coming off in AC out there. What he is, Moses Moody is going to miss a huge chunk of the season. They're over under, I believe, is said at 39 and a half. They get things.

This is a sub 500 team. And it just seems like they have left Steph Curry in the lurch. And there has been just a lot of streaming and yelling about how the Warriors failing Curry bill went in on them hard yesterday. And I don't disagree that clearly having arrived here.

The path from 2022 title, which, by the way, they deserve a shit ton of credit for it. We'll get there. To here is disappointing. And there are probably some missed opportunities along the way.

I just want people to tell me, what is the actual missed opportunity that you see that is realistic that would have put this team in position to win the title now, or in one of the previous couple of seasons. Because I think a lot of this comes down to not now, and not 2025, 2024 was the final as appearance in the title that was kind of up for grabs if the Warriors had found something

in the interim between 2022 and 2024. Everything after that, you're driving uphill against the wind against the thunder. Now, this was, but still, would it be nice if the current Warriors were not 39 and a half over under and kind of depressing? Absolutely.

So here's where Jalen Brown comes in, because a lot of the Warriors criticism in the last 48 hours has been focused on, well, why didn't you get Jalen Brown? Because if you had gotten Jalen Brown, you could have had the Brown James.

“And maybe, maybe, but here's the thing, ma'am, Sean reported this yesterday that the Warriors”

and the Celtics briefly talked about Jalen Brown at the Trade Dead line. Did you see this? Yeah.

And the Warriors decided, he's not worth it.

The trade that just occurred for Jalen Brown and the negotiations around it would suggest that the Warriors are in the consensus in saying that Jalen Brown is not worth it. Now, Mo, you would say, why not revisit it now when the price might be lower and you're only bidding against the Sixers? I think one of the things that's being overlooked is that the centerpiece salary in that trade

is attached to a player who is injured and is going to miss a huge portion of decision. The Celtics don't want, the Celtics are trying to win games. They don't want Jimmy Butler out till January, February, whatever it is. And then a percentage of himself after that. And as a result, they're going to ask for more picks than the Sixers attached to get off

a Paul George. I would think. So those are just sort of some of the Jalen Brown slash liberal on reality.

And even if you got Jalen Brown and LeBron, even sure what Strauss would a great piece about

this today on his sub-steck, are you actually good enough to win the West? You're still super old. And you're relying on a player in Jalen Brown who doesn't appear to be a great fit with the way the worst typically play to the point that he got famously left off TV USA with Steve Kerr as the head coach.

Do you have any thoughts on Jalen Brown Warriors before I move on with my spiel?

“No, I think it's a really important point to note that the Celtics to get a player that's”

going to theoretically be playing on opening night in Paul George who should be healthy enough and ready to go. And where to get in with Jimmy Butler is somebody that you might get in March and you talked about it earlier. We don't know what he's going to look like at this point.

And beyond that, we've also even played with injuries for the past few years. It's difficult to kind of envision that we're going to give up Jalen Brown in this situation for a player. We're going to get in March and we're not quite sure what he's going to look like. As much as we want to joke about Paul George and everything, he was pretty solid for

them. The six, there's like one available but I think also in the playoffs series against the Celtics, he was really good. And I think that is something to kind of sort of look into going like, all right, there's still something there.

It's he worked like a contract probably not, right? Like it's he's overpaid at that point. And you know, he has a player option for next season. I almost positive he'll pick that up.

“But I think what you're looking at is just they have a piece there where it's, hey, we can”

go out and win games right now and not take that far, but drop off of what we were from last season when everybody written us all and we want out and want 54 games. You know, I think that's going to be the thing. And then you add in Mitchell Robinson, you're, you're looking at where they're at. You're kind of saying like, hey, man, like the Celtics aren't just sitting there going,

hey, okay, we're going to trade Jalen Brown in the next season. So they're trying to go for it. Sure, that's Jimmy Butler being injured is an important, you know, post whatever deity got injured reality for the warriors in these trade talks. They do have, I think, three and a half first round picks that they can trade.

So they're not pick week. They have a lot of picks and those picks have some value because of the age of their roster. You could say a 20 and the new lottery rules, those are valuable picks. The, the other realities are number one, the big salaries involved ever since they traded Wiggins for Jimmy Butler, a master stroke, by the way, that had everyone drooling over

how good this team was going into the previous season at the end of last end of two seasons ago.

Um, the salaries have always been attached to either injured players like Jimmy Butler or

franchise legends who are hard to trade. It's hard to just trade up trade and dream on green or, you know, and it's just, it's just not an easy thing to do. And this is what Ethan really nailed. All of this really comes down to if you think the words just blew this and missed opportunities,

it's not that they are being too precious.

“I think with the assets that they have and too reticent to take risk at the expense of the”

post-staff future, which they are trying to protect. That's true. It's that Jordan pool, James Wiseman, Jonathan Kominga and Moses Moody amounted to little to no trade value. And they tried to trade the number two pick before they even used it on James Wiseman.

They couldn't find someone that they liked or a good fit. And then all of that blew up in their faces. They probably, they did wait too long to trade Kominga. The sheen was off, but they also really liked Kominga and their own really liked Kominga. They miss managed that.

I'm not sure that's changing their life. And that's really what it comes down to. They did not have those pick and it's, it's their fault. They made the picks. They could have had Franz Wagner, Alperon Shandoum was really high on their draft where they

didn't take him because they had picked Wiseman deer before or two years before, whenever it was. And those picks just didn't have an evaluation for them. So you look at the mode, like I'm going to go through like the what ifs along the way. You ready?

And I'm going to miss some because there's been a lot.

Like he's old, he's currently not on, he's in limbo, he's literally an MBA limbo.

They tried to get Paul George in when he was, it had the player option with the clipers that he ended up opting out and signing with the sixers. That was a very complicated potential three team transaction when none of the other, not three team, three entity, clippers, Paul George warriors, where all of the entities had different sort of incentives and visions of what to deal with the clay and Paul George

Max salary player for the sixers did not work out great until it did work out fine. The Jail and Brown, they tried to get Larry Markin and the Jazz demanded everything to the point that it was really a kind of an odd starter. The honest thing is interesting because I'm not really sure what happened when they used to be just hot and heavy on Janus and then you didn't hear their name much in the last iteration

of it.

And I think it's probably because they were just outgunned.

I don't think they could have really competed all that well with, again, like, Dramon Green or injured Jimmy Butler as the salary filler is just like not that attractive to the Milwaukee Fox, here are the ones that are interesting to me. Carl Anthony Towns, I had of when the Nick's traded for him, the athletic reported at the time that the warriors had sniffed around him and just couldn't have a package that fit

what the wolves needed and it would have had to involve wiggins, wiggins salary wiggins is played for the wolves already that didn't end well. That was an interesting name for me. They tried to get Kevin Duramp, by the way, and Kevin Ramp was like, no, thank you. Please don't try for me.

The town's one is interesting.

“The other, like, if you want to look at realistic and well-timed ones in 2023, slash going”

into winter 2024, trade deadline 2024, they looked at the Raptors, guys, OGN and OB and Pascal Ciacum and if you're looking for a realistic what if that doesn't completely handicap the warriors post step and was doable, it looks something like you traded decent amount of stuff for OGN and OB, perfect fit exactly as we've just seen and you have enough left over for another medium-sized move for another top 45 player who fits the way you play.

I don't know who that would have been like, just imagine Drew Holliday or Dareway, just like someone in that vein of players and then you're talking, are there alternate universes where they nail every transaction on the way to that, even whiffing in the draft like they did? Maybe it's easy to say that now and by the way, they do deserve a ton of credit for turning

Durant into D-Lo into Wiggins and a championship and then Wiggins into Butler and a team that looked pretty fearsome for a while with Jimmy Butler.

“So I think a lot of the warriors criticism is a little, the warriors front office criticism,”

is a little bit too loud and kind of also looking in the wrong places. To me, it all boils down to the draft picks that didn't hit well and not that Moody is like a whiff, he's a fine player, it just didn't hit well and it's wise man, it comes back to why you need it, you need it a double or a triple and Moody is a single like at the end of the day in terms of looking at it in that regard.

But it's the draft picks that are the problem and it's picking coming up and then Wagner going the next pick, right, like that's probably a perfect sort of fit in where they go and how that kind of works out and it changes their trajectory of the team.

The wise man won first off and build the re-draft, you sure did.

For 2020, which was an incredibly weird draft, as somebody that's been part of the draft process. And imagine, you know, we're only going to do one on a workout, so the guy has to wear a mask, we're going to do interviews just over zoom and there's just so many different weird sort of things that went through the whole process, even into just evaluating these

guys.

“I kind of, like, yeah, maybe you should have taken a lamello over Weisman, like that's”

such a wild draft that I kind of say, all right, that was strange and when you look at that whole draft, there were a lot of whists in there. So I kind of, a little bit forgive them on the wiseman one. For me, it's the coming, uh, Wagner one that really kind of changes everything for me. Shen Goode would have been a great, would have been a really nice pick up and I think

the mistake is, well, we have Weisman and then two years later saying we have Weisman, we can't take Shen Goode. No, just take the guy you like and figure it out from there. And if wiseman, if you got to move wiseman, you got to move wiseman. But I think that's sort of the mistakes that they made.

But in terms of the other stuff, like, yeah, they're part of being able to trade for

Like, I was all in, like they should have gotten Larry Markin and except Utah was asking for pretty much the Golden Gate Bridge by the way, Larry Markin and still on the Utah Jazz. So no one was able to trade for Larry Markin and not one team. So there was, you know, so they were Danny Andrews trying to flee the Warriors and they just had the price was too high.

Okay. Like, that's, Jared is actually speaking of the Jazz, like, Jared Jackson Jr. is another name who it took three first and, you know, Desmond Bayn took four first. I mean, are any of those guys at this stage right now turning the Warriors into real

“contenders in steps twilight and that's why I rewind to, like, 2023, 2024.”

Those were the last best chances, I think, for the Warriors to chase another title after the truly magical 2022 title that they conjured almost out of seemingly nowhere.

And I've said this over and over again, this, what's happening now was always the most

likely scenario. Yeah. It's what happens to every great team. Yes. They get old and they don't contend anymore.

This great team happened to have the rare golden chance to do their version of the spurs drafting, Kauai Leonard in whatever 2011, whatever draft that was and prolong your window. And Kauai Leonard is a miracle. You don't get that player often at number 14 or 15 where he was drafted. You have a much better chance of getting it at number two.

They did not. They didn't get haliber and it's, we've all done an ad nauseam. This was always the most likely outcome is that the young guys aren't good enough in time

for the old guys and then the old guys leave and the young guys aren't quite good enough

to do what the old guys did, which was become a championship team. And there is honor and going out on your shield or going out on your sword or whatever it is. And they're going to keep trying to win. Like they still have all these picks.

They're going to see what comes available in the regular season and see if they find something as they fit better. But as of now, yeah, I mean, the over under is right. This team has no shot. They, they, they are not in the top six in the West. I put Utah ahead of them.

I'd probably break them like eighth, ninth, something like that, a play in team in the West. That's depressing.

It's not what Steph Curry called deserves at the end of his career.

He also has four championships and two MVP's and a finals MVP. I do have, however, now there's the next level of the discussion is, well, should the words just trade Steph Curry. I don't think they will ever trade Steph Curry. I don't think Steph Curry wants to be traded or will ever want to be traded.

“I think he and Dre, I wanted him and Clay and Dre amount to go out as warriors for life”

together, raging against the dying of the light, clay obviously left. We're still here with Steph and Dre, man. And if you're curry and you really did have a wandering eye and I don't think he does. I'm just doing this for the sake of discussion to be clear. I think the smarter move is don't sign a contract extension, he's eligible for one now,

two years and a gazillion dollars and do what LeBron did, go into free agency and pick my team so that the team doesn't have to gut its roster to get me now and I have one more year with the warriors and then if I really want to chase a ring or play competitive basketball, I can sign for the minimum anywhere I want. That said, Mo, I do have some fake Steph Curry trades just to do the thought exercise.

I love it. I love it. And again, the dream was all three of those guys would retire together. So that was unfortunately not going to happen anymore. So I found six teams that make literally any level of sense as Steph Curry trade targets.

This is again, this is just for fun. It's July 28, nothing's happening. We're waiting on Peyton, Watson, and Jalen Duran indulge me in the thought exercise.

“I think is actually important to do if you're going to say trade Steph Curry, they should”

trade him. Here's where we're looking. Are you ready for the teams in no particular order? Atlanta needs a point guard has a lot of pieces. It would take, it would, it has some ticks, some extra picks.

It would take three of their salaries starting with Dyson Daniels. I don't think Jonathan Komingo would be signed and traded back to Golden State in this scenario. But they're one that you could make the argument that they have assets. They have the salaries to make it work, and they are a player away from being extremely interesting.

And Steph Curry is still a top 10 to 12 player at worst in the NBA. Denver, unfortunately, they don't really have any picks to trade. They're already hard. They're already like have major apron issues. Can't take any additional money back in a Peyton Watson sign to trade.

They would have to involve Jamal Murray and/or some combination of salaries that the Warriors don't want to really make sense. And I know you have a couple, so I'm wondering if I hit any of yours along the way. I'll let you know when you hit one of my teams. Orlando.

Send from Zvogner, back to Golden State where he belongs, Sugs, Wagner, and Pick/Picks.

For Steph and Moses Moody works almost exactly in the trade machine. You can put bank arrow in for Wagner if you want. It's going to take one of those two guys and the Warriors probably don't even want to eat the jail and Sugs salary, but where they are on your list. They were on my list.

But I was almost essentially that framework where I had friends go into Golden State and filler and that making it all work with draft assets. Houston, Fred Vampley, Jabari Smith, Junior, Reed Shepherd, and some sort of draft assets and the rockets would surely bulk it, including anything other than the players I mentioned. And Andy's draft assets at all, but just like, remember, this is Steph Curry.

If I'm trading them in the Warriors, you're going to have to bolt me over. reunite Steph and Katie in Houston when Katie wouldn't go to reunite with him in the Warriors.

“I think that's actually like, that's interesting.”

I think that's legit interesting.

I think Shen Goon is probably a bridge too far for the rockets. But that package, like that kind of makes sense to me. Again, I don't think any of this is all pie in this guy. Yeah. Yeah.

I actually, that's along the lines of what I had with Shen Goon being the centerpiece. And I don't think Houston would do it. But I also kind of looking at it this way with, you know, Katie not wanting to go to Golden State is more, I think, is different than Steph Curry coming to Katie. And I think that's something where I think Katie would be more open to that concept and

that idea of having Steph on his team. And I think that opens everything up and then you're kind of covered defensively because

they're not, I'm in Thompson's not going to be on the board like they're not going to

a lot, you know, put that in play.

“And I think that's an interesting one where I think that would be pretty fun to kind of”

watch as we go forward. If it were to ever happen, which we both know, not likely. Bill Simmons mentioned the spurs, Dearen Fox and every possible draft asset that the spurs have, including what they find out of the couch cushions. Yeah, that makes some sense, by the way, speaking of Bill Simmons on that podcast.

Did you see that Joe House unveiled the T-shirts that says he tricked Bill, he tricked Bill. So that's going to warm in my home studio, unzipped his hoodie or whatever. And underneath was the jail and brown got traded during Bill Simmons colonoscopy T-shirt or whatever it was.

And it reminded me, Mo, did you see when Bill tricked me about attending the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey wedding? I did. I heard that on the podcast. And to be honest, I was like, wow, Bill really, Bill got to go to the podcast.

I mean, to the, the wedding. I don't know that he realizes the damage that he's done in my personal life that this is following me around. So we were at some friend's house over the weekend. They have a 12 year old girl, Rada, who's very good friends with our daughter.

We all, we've all been very good friends. And we were just catching up. Rada's a big basketball player, a big basketball fan. She loves LeBron. Her dad's a six or fans.

So she had a lot of questions about LeBron coming to the six, her catching up on summer. And this 12 year old girl, not an adult, a 12 year old girl says, he's like, you know, there's something else I've been meaning to talk to you about. I was at the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift wedding if you have any questions about it. And I'm like, even you, even you are totally me, Rada, about this.

This is what's happened to me in my life, anyway, I just want to share my human relationships. Does Rada, does Rada talk trash on the basketball court? Like, this is the use of you to start a, uh, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a dream on great, like, sort of run on the court from Rada, I tell you, she talks stress on goes

“act. That's for sure. Um, uh, and the last one, of course, you have to mention the”

Hornets who have all the ingredients and would surely just not, it would not be brandy bill or or conk in it. Well, they're not doing that. It would probably have to involve one of Naz reader Kobe white who are neither from our tradeable yet but under NBA rules, another salary, and then a bunch of picks. And the Hornets also have the bonus of like the warriors could get the Mavericks pick that the Hornets

have and other picks that are not just the Hornets pick to give them as many bites at other teams failing as possible. Those are really the only, those are the only teams that I could make a larger argument for. I tried to mess around a little bit and try to see if I can get stuff to Boston. And then just does it. Um, I've totally forgot that. That was my other one. Uh, hold your Paul George and draft

essence for Seth Curry. That actually makes sense. Um, it actually, I forgot to put in my notes, that was another one about I actually ran that by Bill and he kind of liked that one obviously. Oh, yeah, he would hope it would look that one if you're getting stuff curry. But I think, you know, if, if it wasn't like to be said, okay, the warriors don't want Paul George, there's just no other way to make

friction and just you have to gut the entire roster to get to just the

salary. So it would have to be Paul George. And at the end of the day, I was

“just like, I think I'll just leave that one off fair enough. All right, let's”

take a quick break and we'll talk about a golden states area within the, uh, very interesting Western conference. Okay, the warriors, enough with the warriors, they finished 10th in the West last year at 37 and 45 Stephenson, still out of games. You may miss the end of the season. It was not a great season for the words. Kind of a miserable one, actually. Um, the top six in the West last year,

Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Lakers, Rockets, Wolves, over underwise and according to my own personal thoughts. In some order, those remain

the top six. After that, the West gets really interesting. Um, the play in

teams last year, 7 to 10 were Portland, Phoenix, the Clippers, the Warriors. Say goodbye to the Clippers, they're gone there. Uh, you talk finished last in the West. I think they have a shot at, if there's a team that has a shot at cracking the top six, I actually think it's Utah out of out of all these other teams.

“And the rest of it is like, I think this Portland, Phoenix Warriors nexus of”

strangeness. I think there's, there's enough volatility there that a team like Dallas or Memphis. I think Memphis is being really underrated by Vegas. I don't know about New Orleans. There's just too much. There's too much going on. But someone, an afterthought team in the West is I think going to have a shot. If not, if not two of these afterthought teams at chasing a play in

birth because I just think the Portland Phoenix Warriors stuff. That trio has a lot of volatility and in Golden State's case of a pretty bad downside. Like, staff misses 35 games. They are like toast in those 35 games. Not, you know, toast toast, but pretty toasty. Um, so I thought this would be a good time to look at Portland and Phoenix. Which one do you want to start with?

Let's go ahead and start with the blazers and go with that team as long as I can just stay in Portland. Well, look, I'm not going to get into the whole thing about whether this is all the bluff by a cheap skate owner who wants the city to pony up money for his arena or whether it's a real move and I don't even know where they would move because that's one of the issues. But there's a, it's a very complicated standoff. You know, the city, the state, a certain

bucket of funding has already been sort of a like kind of approved for the arena renovated nations to the blazers, but there's this communication gap between what the blazers want, what they're willing to accept and there's funding being held at. It's just a complete mess. I'd like to build an airspace for an arena. It's a wild thought. Um, the blazers over under is 43 and a half. Which actually is higher than I expected it to be. Four higher than the

warriors and four higher than the sons. Um, they're starting five. I guess is going to be John Marant, Damian Lillard, Denny Obdia, Tomani Kamara, Donovan Klingan, off the bench, Scoot Henderson, Drew Holiday, shade and sharpest fees in the rotation. Back up five,

Robert Williams, the third, Hanson Yang is here. You know, there's some other guys beat

crachy, like a potter, sysoko. They don't really have a true backup for this is a team that made its bones on defense last year. There are 12th and defense. They cannot shoot from anywhere. And in John Marant, you and I disagreed on this last time with. Yeah, we're on. I thought this was a perfectly fine flyer for them to take on a high-end talent that created some short-term issues and challenges for them. I just, I don't know what to make of this team.

43 and a half surprised me. I thought it would be more like 41 and a half or 39 and a half. Yeah, and we should also mention they have a coach that's on a one-year deal, like prove it type deal in terms of going forward. And that's probably a story for another time, but that drove me nuts when that was announced. And I, and I, because I like Michael Noria,

“I think he's almost kind of like the Ted Lasso of the NBA in a large degree.”

But I think the thing that concerns me the most is just you just lightly out the starting five and only two of those guys play defense, right? And it's not of any clinging and it's too money tomorrow. After that, the other three guys need to have the ball exclusively in their hands to really dominate. I think, I think Abdiah plays defense just less so as a blazer because he has been the point everything on offense for them and that has sapt his defense. And the past,

I thought he was a perfectly fine defender. But it wasn't there last year, and I'm curious to see how the, how he handles it. You know, the way we talk about Philly, like how does he handle less usage? Because damn is going to eat him to that, and jazz is going to eat him to that. And both, especially jazz, not great off ball in terms of you're not guarding him in terms of the spacing. So that's going to crowd you even more. And obviously you are guarding game when he's off

in his hands as part of the reason why it didn't really work so well in Milwaukee with him and

Yannison that pairing. And I'm just going to be fascinated to see how they kind of sort of paper overall of the stuff. And it'd be interesting to see if, if they do tweak the starting line up a little bit and add more defense in the back court somewhere. I don't know which one between John or Dame sits if it's bad to guess it's more likely John than Dave. But I think you're going to have to kind of figure it out. Where you're going to get those things from because

in the West on a nightly basis, just playing in the Western conference, Chagolga's Alexander, this the trio of spurs guards, Jamal Murray. You know, we're the Steph Curry. Like just the

“number of guards you have to deal with every night coming at you. I'd be worried about them.”

And yeah, they're going to put Kamara on him cool. That's going to open up other areas where

they're going to be able to get attacked and and leave them vulnerable. Last year, they made their bones defensively. This year, it's going to have to be totally just relying on offense. And I'm not sure if that's going to go the way they think it is because I think that offense is going to have a little bit more trouble getting off the ground. I mean, again, there are a team that can't shoot from anywhere. And they're counting on internal development. It's certainly

scoot finished last season, strong from three and just overall. And now on on paper, he's back to eventual as he's eligible for a contract extension. We'll see what that with that brings. Yeah, the job, Dame thing, I don't think will work. I would put the over under on when they really have a come to Jesus moment about the starting five. It's like 14 and a half games. And I don't know what happens. I don't know if it's a trade one way or the other. I don't

know who would even get traded. They have a bunch of extra draft assets from Orlando and Milwaukee to play with. So it makes them an interesting team to watch. But yeah, the offense is going to be

“I think the job trade was a recognition of where they are as a team. Like, yeah, last year was fun.”

It's not like we're contending. Let's take a shot at like a moonshot of if we actually find the job Moran that was in all NBA player, that sets us up to be a more interesting team in three years and two years. Then we are currently slated to be at all it costs him with Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray, which is fine, whatever. I just like, it does make me nervous when teams have it just in terms of short-term windows when teams walk into seasons with like some pretty

fundamental questions to ask and answer about themselves because it takes time in real games to answer those questions and sometimes it takes pain. And I just don't know how the ball is going to be distributed offensively, how this team is going to defend at the same level. They did last year under Tiago Splitter who was too expensive for them, I guess. And just how they sort out this bench rotation that is again kind of heavy on guards and shade and sharp seems to fall in

another rotation all of them. It's just it's a strange, it's a strange team that may not have caproom by the way until depending on a bunch of variables including scoot until the summer of 2020-28 when Obdi is deal is up in his capital to solo because his current salary is solo. And that's fine. I just I could see a world where this where this goes fine and they are 500 team. I could see a world where it goes haywire for a bit and all of a sudden there are 35

wind team and that puts some other teams in play. What's your view of scoop going forward? Like, if you're them, how do you handle this? I don't know if this is a guy you drafted that you thought was going to be a starting level guard. His rookie season was derailed from the beginning with injuries and things like that. I'm a fan of scoop. I'm a own stock or own a house on the island. I don't know what we're doing on the streets. Go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight,

“go straight, you know I'm I'm I'm I'm still in the straight there and I think you know I'm just”

curious so as the team going forward. He did they did improve so much over the last season, especially at the end of the season. I'm curious to say like, okay now we're going to move back to the bench. It's a little bit something his growth. Where do you go with that? Like what's the plan? Like I don't know if you go give him a contract extension at this point. And how do you sort of continue with his development? Like I'm just kind of perplexed a little bit with like what's

the plan for scoop Anderson as you go forward? Well what was so interesting about him last year and

I like you I kind of never gave up hope on him because he has he has stuff in his game that is hard

to find a rhythmic stuff change a page stuff for so though he's never been as good a finisher explosive of finisher as you at the room as you think. But the turnovers have been a disaster and the jumper has been up and down to say the least and what was so interesting about last year was that he kind of wasn't a point guard anymore. He became an off guard/hybrid guard

fine. If that's his destiny as a player he could be very good at that and shot the ball well and had some good playoff games for them. The answer to the question I'm not entertaining and extension if I'm the blazers and less he's willing to take a deal that's wildly a little market because I've looked at the caproom situation this summer and I'm not afraid and of a team overpaying him and if the team does overpay him it means he's had a great season and

I'll all pay him and if not I'll get into a jail and during Peyton Watson restricted for ages he's standoff and you know we'll see what happens but it's just a strange team I am a

“believer in Obdia. I think what Obdia showed last year offensively was real and that's what makes”

them a rant damn wild card so interesting is does he get to show that again or is it actually sort of better for him and the team to settle into a role that still he has the ball up but maybe not quite as much and you can get more spot up threes attack close out a little bit more but I thought the scoring was completely legit and he was an all NBA almost borderline level player and I think that's real. No that's definitely real like what he showed last year is sustained through

the whole season you know and it wasn't just a matter of getting down hill but also putting the pressure on the defense and getting to the line right like I think that was the key part of it and it's just the constant pressure that he applies or something he can continue to do you know they nicknamed him turbo for a reason right like he's just gonna fly down the hill and get going and

“get down the lane and go from there and I think that's something that he can recreate I think he's”

going to look we're going to look to see more of that intransition from him but I am curious to see again it's how does that fit with jaw one like if I'm the opposing defense cool I'm going to let jaw bob away from three and I'm just going to crowd the paint some more right and and at this point I'd be as used to it because that was last season right they did they didn't address it you any more this season and then you have damn who can stretch the floor but he's also going to want the ball

in his hands a lot so there's kind of just figuring out sort of the the way this is going to go off eventually because I think the worst case scenario for really any team is my turn your turn his turn when you have three guys I think generally leaves so a lot of difficulty offensively finding any fluidity and finding any sort of flow and I think that's going to be something that they got to stay away from but they have three guys that are my turn your turn his turn and I think that's

something I'm kind of just want to see what they put together offensively going into the season I'm excited to watch them and I am very excited to see Damian Lillard play basketball in Portland again

I think that first game is going to be awesome and I can't wait to see that Phoenix last year's

feel good story 45 and 37 got smacked around in the first round by the thunder retained well they retained a lot of their guys but they also they're one big trade was Rosso Neil and Grace and Allen both like sometimes starters sometimes backups for them and then I'm protected 233 pick to Charlotte for Miles Bridges and a not good 229 first round pick that's like the lesser of a bunch of picks they're starting five I think

will be jail or on paper would be jailing green Devon Booker Dylan Brooks Miles Bridges and Mark Williams so no true point guard really in the bunch the truest point guard on the team is calling Gillespie wouldn't shock me if it's some point he bluts his way back into the starting five just his stability is three point shooting I thought he was great last year the deal that they brought him back on the great deal but for now

“I think that's what they want to start I think they need to figure out what they have in jail”

and green is a $36 million player option for 2728 and that's one of the biggest wild cards in the league

so off the bench would be Gillespie Luke Kanard that's a nice deal and this is now where the young guys take the place of the Grace and Allen and Royso Neil types for sure Fleming is going to have to play Ryan Dunn will play Igadaro and Mala Watch will play some at the four Freigudaro some at the five it's it we didn't even mention Jordan Goodwin who's a very good bench guard for them they are they are I'm a believer in Fleming I think he's going to be solid

Igadaro is a decent playmaker switchie defender who's lack of lack of anything on offense kind of handicaps him a little bit and he's a terrible foul shooter he's a solid player their depth if I think is a reason for optimism their overunder is 39 and a half which is four lower than the

Blazers that's surprisingly a little bit because I think their depth is pretty powerful I just don't like I don't

see like a ton of upside here I'm just very curious to see what this team follows up a 45

some shooting luck was baked into that and I just you know I don't know that the bridges thing

is worth what they paid for it and I don't think he's going to help their rebounding which is pretty bad less year and the jailing green thing is going to be it could if they're going to start him it could make her break their season yeah and I think one thing that you didn't really mention is just the big main rotation you know like you're not getting Mark Williams took a step back defensively in terms of rebounding two fewer rebounds per game a night with with the way this

from the previous season and then you got to hope battle watch pays off like and takes a leap as a big man in terms of what you're going to do that thought that was something that really hurt them

“and like he said richest isn't really a good rebounder and that's something you need to kind of”

build upon like their their big main rotation leaves me wanting like I this is something I like

the guards to have I love the guys they have off the bench when you laid off when you hear you ran off all those names you know and I was waiting I was sitting here waiting it's going to say good what is he going to say good one can I do you know who I think is the inside track to be their 15th man he gave them good minutes last year when they called on them like their guard rotations and like how how good all their guards are is pretty impressive but I just I wish they could just turn

some of those guys into big men and I think they need to have some sort of big guy they really will present themselves at least on the terms of like you know I'm going to clean up the glass I don't need much I just need somebody that's going to dominate the glass for them in one

way shape or form and then when we talk about shooting like like Dylan Brooks was making unbelievable

“shot glasses right like and I can you do that again like I don't know like it in sort of baking”

that in and looking in the next season for this team you know I see if you're right when Jalen Green is probably the maker break if he's a guy that can start for them but when it comes down to who's going to create for Devon Booker and if he has to do everything and create on his own it becomes really difficult for him and especially when he has to create for others because I like book one is just hey man I have somebody sitting me up there's no there's a reason why they

went to the finals when they had a Chris Paul beyond eight and playing great they're in that run but CPU was able to set up Booker a ton but they don't have a set up man for Booker anymore and we've seen him kind of drop off each season when he doesn't have a guy like that and I think that's something that worries me when we look at this team. Do you remember Pauquismo what team Deodre 8 is currently on? Oh I did just oh god obviously not the lakers oh my god I just

got I have to remind myself everything there you go point we'll give you I don't think the jeopardy buzzer sounded quite yet on your uh I just do I have like the backup so I was like oh god okay I just look at this team some like I have their depth art written right here sometimes I look at

“them like I like this team it's pretty deep I think bridges will be all right for them he's kind of”

a jack of all trades kind of player who might function better in this environment they need a little balance they need a little more sides at the floor I get it and then I'll look away and I'll look back and I don't know what is this they owe all these picks including 231 and 233 on protected picks like what end they look in the end just very average to me and that's probably just what they are an average team and by the way that's fine if they've dug out of this this morass that they were in

after Biel and during Biel's money is still on the books and to ramp to be average with some interesting young players in Fleming and Malawatch in a Ghidaro and Dunn and Booker still like not old jail and green maybe you know bridges and is it in the same sort of age range as Booker and so as Brooks like that's a that's a fun youngish team that's totally fine I just still don't really know where it's going and I think there's gonna be nights where it looks great and nights where it looks

a little ugly and they just look like a team that'll be like 15th on offense 15th on defense 41 and 41 and that again opens the door for like God forbid there's an injury setback all of a sudden it's like winter the pelicans going to be the eighth seed in the West what's happening right now well you know the one thing too with Phoenix so is and we can this is what they were last season every night's gonna they're gonna play their asses off they have a bunch of guys that playing

extremely hard right so you're in a dogfight each night any team that comes in a little bit like a days ago is gonna find themselves in a fight the moment they step on the floor and now Dunn now the league knows that and I'll get to knew that last year and maybe that's worth the half a win less or whatever than it was by the way should also be noted uh Geon Green has the player option I said Dylan Brooks and Miles Bridges are both extension eligible now I would bet on

both of them getting an extension or at least having some pretty serious talks you factor in all

that is good enough to be at the second apron so we'll see um last team in the West it uh is not in

“this year is hovering way above this year the Denver nuggets who have had a little bit of an active”

off season uh they signed this guy Diallo from Europe they signed Marvin Bagley as a backup center they've re-signed Spencer Jones after it just an absolutely devilish maneuver I mean literally

pressed the as Mr Burns excellent fingertips touching excellent oh we've opened up 6 million under the cap

who do we like Spencer Jones with that really fucked in very wood let's do it and they did it in the nuggets match and now they have paid Watson hanging in the wind as a restricted free agent um I don't know there really anything has happened there other than some talks that have led nowhere uh some people around the league have speculated to like do the nuggets actually want Peyton Watson to take his qualifying offer of six and a half million dollars in which case he'd be an unrestricted

free agent after next season actually don't think that they want that and they should definitely not want that because if they're going to keep their window open and it was a popular topic including here when they got eliminated into the first round last year like is this it is it just close is the window just closed given Aaron Gordon's endless injury issues it's pretty close to close closed I just can't slam it shut as long as you get just healthy and among the best three players

in the league so I'm going to open it a crack still you might the the crack might be like San Antonio or Oklahoma City has to run into some issues at the right time for the nuggets but they don't

“look the nuggets played disperse well last year so I'm keeping it a crack open if you want to really”

open it up Peyton Watson is exactly the kind of player that you need you watch the spurs and the thunder play young athletic long ferocious athleticism physicality that's all Peyton Watson he's got flaws in his game we'll see if the three-point shot is real he showed some ball handling picking roll stuff when you get you and everyone else on the team was heard we'll see how real that is yes there's a risk of overpaying him I get it the nuggets are like like way they're

apron out already with potential to be way apron out they're looking at a tax bill that the

cronkeys have never even sniffed before um I don't know man like there's a world

what if they just actually paid all these guys what if they kept cam Johnson and Christian Brown and Resign Peyton Watson and just actually bit the bullet for a year is that really so bad cronkeys what if they kept them all with the idea of and this is another theory I've heard floated well we'll just so if we have to cut money we'll figure it out at the trade deadline that's a risky game because teams have you over a barrel but if they're resigned Peyton Watson

they're starting five is Murray Brown Cam Johnson Aaron Gordon Nicole Yoke it's maybe Watson moves into a starting spot under his new deal for Aaron Gordon maybe give Aaron Gordon easier life up the bench for Christian Brown maybe go big for Cam Johnson maybe who is just okay last year that's starting five by the way only played in 23 games last year it was wildly effective when they played off the bench it's a little dice here mo a little dice you're dice Joe tires Jones is back

straw their straights I guess I can't have multiple straights I guess I can't have a

schooled straights because I have straw their straights yeah we got to find a new one first here

I I own there's nobody also on straw the straights it's me and whoever I well I was about to say it's me and whoever I invite to the straights we're not going to have a Spencer Jones Peyton Watson Marvin bag leaves Nadji still here et cetera somehow Zek Nadji is still here the bench is shaky but less so if they they will stagger Murray in Yoke it's what it matters Watson can you

“do up a lot of minutes if they bring him back I think it's like a must to bring him back I like”

Jones a lot it's a good team and I'm not closing the window I'm just not but TBD on what they do if they really if Peyton Watson takes the qualifying off from leaves that's a that's a that's not great for the Denver nuggets if they don't resign Peyton Watson I mean if they don't have them on the roster next season I'm closing the window like I think that's that's fair I just don't I think they absolutely need him I think you you know unless you're going to get a bounce back season

from Christian Brown and he's going to live up to the contract that he has now that kicks in this season at 25 a year I don't see a way for them to really and it is and I love Yoke it's I want to see about that level but we we look at Aaron Gordon's injury history at this point and even Watson only played at 58 games last season like still concerns with that but what we saw when he played especially when they didn't have anybody pretty much on the floor he was like showed a lot of

growth now we have to see it again to say okay it's real and we have to see it sustain over longer periods of time but I think you absolutely have to have him back for them to really have a legitimate

and assuming Aaron Gordon himself the Aaron Gordon can then take the big guys that takes a lot of pressure

“off the Yoke it's defensively in terms of what they have to deal with and I think that's an important”

thing they kind of pay attention to I think Cam Johnson is going to have a better season his second

time around with the nuggets it's I like into a lot to Richard Jefferson's second season with the spurs first season wasn't really good it was a little bit complicated when he came out I don't know I don't know who should be more insulted by that Richard Jefferson or Cam Johnson RJK RJK RJK can weigh in on this it wasn't meant to be an insult I was there I know you would RJ got there so the coaching was the problem then you're just trying to get me and all sorts of trouble right now

and it all of this and I see that little smile you have but I think the the way I look at it those I think the second time around with a little more understanding of the system and how to play I think goes a long way for Cam Johnson I that's an issue for them you know the the Jonas Falch unit

stuff didn't work last season I baggly's not an upgrade in that scenario for for for the nuggets

“but I think they have to kind of figure out how they're going to get this thing going but I think”

they've got to have Watson that's got to be the starting point crocky's got to bite the bullet well I think if it cost you if it ends up costing you Cam Johnson's expiring deal it's just a matter of like they don't really have any picks that are available to trade so I'm not sure how they even incentivized teams Christian Brown's deal runs from 231 it runs like eternity that's a rough deal it could but it also in six months it could look

okay again if he shoots the three ball better and and plays up to his potential this is look you have Nicolioca you should be trying to win and they own 1700 sports teams some of whom are presumably very profitable they should be just fine putting the bill and hopefully the ramps with the Super Bowl and they could that's where the excess body can come in yeah enough it's enough I just attended the Dodgers Metz game where the Metz just well I

talk about it later was strong but I think Peyton Watson is important enough that if it cost you

“one of your other key players then it because of your mandate to save money then that's what”

it cost you I think Peyton Watson needs to be on the team and if he's not next year that'll be problematic and Aaron Gordon look I mean a people are putting Aaron Gordon into these fake trades

I'm just telling you he makes 32 million dollars 35 million dollars and 37 million dollars

on a player option in 2029 his health issues are not a secret I love Aaron Gordon I'm like the president of the Aaron Gordon fan club he has lived out his greatest basketball destiny playing with Nicolioca just his right hand man the league knows about his health issues the rest of the teams know about his health issues I'm just not sure how tradeable that contract actually is and so we'll have to see but I'm not I look the thunder lost some depth and are going to rely on

some young guys and losing some death doesn't hurt that much for them because they're already so deep but it does make them even more vulnerable to an ill-timed injury spurs are still pretty young nuggets played them well I'm not shut in the window until I until I have to with the nuggets and Nicoliocach and backly was good for the Wizards last year I don't know how you know defensively not super viable but he eats up rebounds I mean it's being good for the Wizards isn't necessarily

going to get you to ready to go to the conference finals in the west or or even the final so hey look man over under for the Wizards 35 and half tray young stock at about we're putting the Wizards back on the map Anthony Davis presumably is aware that he plays for the Wizards and will report to camp in the right city when the season starts look out for the Wiz baby look out I like AJ I'm excited for AJ I'm ready to see all all all we can get from there I'm excited for

all these rookies this is going to be a tremendous rookie class I can't wait to see some of these teams all right modicill double dribble podcasts we've got you on the ringer a lot you're doing stuff for bleach report now and then you got a twitch stream you and Jalen Brown are carrying twitch on your shoulders like actually I've actually I've actually just I've given it up the jalen Brown okay twitch stream is done I've he's he's surpassed me in a way where I can't even

mention it anything else we need to mention videos on offside here and there's silence from from time to time but off season there's probably not going to be a lot for me there and and really just getting ready and next time Zach you see me the chalkboards probably going to be gone because I'm going to be in my actual office I'm going to have a studio about a little studio come up soon I love that I'm not sure when I will next to you because we're heading out on vacation

soon to Europe and I wish the Dodgers nothing but bad luck between now and the end of the season

how about let me tell you right now I'm a you guys trade for scooble and you send me a text message

“it's not getting returned but not returning so just prepare yourself now for a non-response mode to”

kill thanks bud thank you all right it's time for our last met corner before I had on to vacation in Europe we're recording this on Monday evening July 27th the trade deadline is approaching

and Sean Finnissie I normally bring a microphone and a camera to Europe because there's always

one super dramatic NBA story potentially hovering bubbling below the surface it was Janice last summer it's been KD before Lebron just signed we are poised it seems for the first dead ish NBA August September in a long time but I'm bringing my stuff anyway because it does not seem like we are poised for a calm trade deadline in met's land in that in that vein can I introduce you in this Freddie parolta bubble head that was the giveaway on Saturday for the

first 20,000 fans on the night I threw out the first pitch it's going to be a collector's item

“very soon because for frame Freddie went out and did his thing the next day baby any interest”

that we picked up for them I personally will pass but I do think we will be asking 15 to 18 clubs around major league baseball whether or not they would be interested in Freddie parolta's body

and some former fashion so yeah that's incredible and they really should have found a way to pivot

off of that giveaway day but nevertheless we endure any that he pitched the next day for earnings and the met's got a W anyway Tyrone Taylor who seems to just hit home runs every time we play him and Marcus Simeon woke up from his season long calm line hit his rear he's actually adds 11 home runs he's that's about all he's done his hit those 11 home runs and the met's beat the Dodgers they're they're playing we're playing right now we're playing somebody right now

I was a record of the race LL of I'm sure that'll go great place to land a brave's we will talk a little bit about my experience throwing the first pitch in a game that the met's lost in like just every I'm glad that I took my dad and my daughter and my wife and some friends to a game that really summarized the experience of the twenty twenty six meds embarrassing errors embarrassing pass balls read baby just throw in the ball all around the field at various positions not

of which you can play adequately no clutch hitting at all to speak of until the game was four one Dodgers and the met's fake came back and got back in it one soda filled a cameo film the cameo with in an episode movie and now is out with the calf injury and is asking answering questions about whether he's even going to come back at some point this season and he says he is it's going great Sean it's really going great and you you are you are curious if this trade

deadline even ends up being perhaps bigger than or should be perhaps bigger than then many people think it might be let's talk about let's talk about all the different permutations that we could get right because it is a pretty important six day stretch here that we're going to have with the team it's probably the last important six day stretch we're going to have with this team until we get to the off season and even then there's no guarantee that we're getting baseball next

year so you could make the case that the next six days are the most important week for the Met's

for the next 18 months that's in play and that's upsetting to think about but it's definitely possible

“and there's a lot of different directions that they could go there's I think most of the”

insiders in baseball have clearly demarcated well here are the seven or eight players that are probably available for the New York Met's David Serns and Met's brass him into kida well there's like five maybe six players that are currently on touchable on our roster but that doesn't account for every single player on the roster and I've got to say for a team that's 19 games under 500 it doesn't seem like there are a few tweaks away from being back in contention next year

and so I'm feeling like are there maybe much more dramatic things that need to be done to radically alter what we're doing it's possible that that's not possible but let's just start with the people who we know we don't want traded I'm going to name the people and you tell me I'll keep naming names and you say stop when I've named someone who you think should be traded okay should be okay yeah Carson bench

one soda no one McLean Christian Scott AJ Uey Zach Thorne Francisco Lendor Francisco Alvarez Luis Terenz okay no keep going keep going my daughter loves him too much okay that's nine players that I've just named Luke Weaver and now okay so you know that I have it I have I have this vision of how do we thread this needle of being sellers in what has been

five best hitters on the planet and that's probably too high of a number in his prime on our team next year meaning we should compete and it seems like likely that certain that also a holiday and level short stop will be on our team in his early to mid 30s next season and so that was why I was like well this week weaver guy man he seems awesome he's like he had millions scorely settings in a row if we want to if we want to compete next year don't we need guys like that

and then I've actually talked to some baseball experts over the last couple weeks I went to a game I met some people and they're like you know relievers are just kind of like if you can sell high and a reliever you just generally should because there's so volatile and so I've been swayed by that Alvarez I am on team don't trade Alvarez and I understand he's frustrating he swings it a lot of bad pitches he's young and he has power and he plays catcher and I don't really even

care that he plays catcher poorly on defense because I I wore the jersey of a horrible defensive catcher onto the mound at city field to throw my first pitch because Mike Piotso was just that damn good as a hitter Alvarez not in that in that range but you know the question you're basically asking is like if that's if the line is Luke weaver are we going to get enough stuff for this to be a real sell-off and like what's actually the pivot next year is Boba Shet on the team next year is

he better than this like Luis Robber Jr. Jorge Polanco has done I mean literally nothing not one thing of any significance like so I is that enough and that's the question you're asking does it need to be more? Yeah I mean there's just a crackmire there's a big question about

“indoor which you and I've talked about the last two meds corners I think it's both an untradable”

contract and a bad time to trade him so I don't think that that's necessarily a key conversation point but there's a weird thing about this team which is there have just been roughly six awful major league expensive contracts either given out or traded for on the books and we don't really know what to do because if you look down the line next year the team has over

two hundred and thirty million dollars in payroll already committed in two years they still have

over a hundred and fifty and including opt-ins potentially a hundred and eighty plus million dollars on the books this is a team exact it's gonna struggle to win seventy games like this is insane that they have us much long-term money committed to a terrible core right now and I didn't even I didn't even bother to do the math of what our record updated records since we were 45 and 24 last season and so to your point like this is just a flat out bad team it's two hundred games plus

of just your bad you're just really really bad and you can say well everybody got injured this guy inexplicably swamped Frankie持's is even on the freaking team anymore so much but like

“that's how teams get bad is like a lot of things go wrong all at the same time it's been going wrong”

for a baseball season and a quarter I don't know it's it's just like they're just not good yeah I send you this note someone tweeted this and I'll add an addendum to the tweet it was about the fact that boba shed Jorge Palanco Marcus semi and Sean Manaya Devon Williams code I sanga and if you include Frankie Montoss that's seven players who are currently making a total

of one hundred and sixty million dollars this year have accounted for point eight war

point eight they know that doesn't even it's that's not even one win above replacement that's insane and Manaya's been actually okay it's for two months now to the point where I'm okay with him being twenty two million dollars next year it is embarrassing to your point that in the coming labor struggle the meds are being used the meds own incompetence is being used by the players union as evidence that a salary cap is not actually necessary

despite they are the flip side of the Dodgers dominance and you combine that with a bunch of low payroll teams like the guardians and the white sucks etc performing really well this year and the meds are like the post the meds are through their own embarrassing performance are being used as a tool in the CBA disagreement of like maybe a salary cap's not necessary look at these idiots they spent all the money in the world and they suck

I never in a million years thought we would have been here when starts with higher three seat

three off seasons ago never in a million years I'm shocked now some of the

“some of what I just share with you is bad luck you know it's bad luck the code I think I got”

hurt and just has never been the best the player he was it's bad luck that Monta Scott hurt it's bad luck that polanco has has been as hurt as he has been even though you could have seen that before the signing I think there's the Marcus Semian question is is really tricky and it's really bothering me is that and one of the things that I do when I watch the games is I think to myself what can happen here that will make me happy um because what what a question that like I

Marcus Semian is 35 years old obviously he was traded for Brandon Nemo at an effort to clear

who are rising up you know Ben start at the season with the team and the UN came up quickly prove himself a major league leader Nick Morbito is still in AAA right now he's somebody's essentially part of the team you know we've got Juan Soto we've got Tyrone Taylor is reborn as hack Wilson so like I get that move I'm not necessarily debating that move specifically but literally

“Marcus Semian who is I think the worst position player in baseball has two years and $50 million”

left on his contract I'm going to keep saying this on that's corner for the next two years like that is a a fuck ton of money to be paying to somebody who literally should not be in the lineup I mean he is not despite that through and home run that you're citing um he is he's a negative he is literally a negative at the plate and he's his defense has been deteriorating all season and so it's really hard to even invest I like actually like investing in the sort of like

let's watch the kids narratives we've had a lot of met seasons where the second half has been just

kind of a like let's get a look at what we have under the hood here who are the players who can come up and play for us but it feels as though there has been some tacit agreement made between Semian in the front office that he is no matter what the everyday second basement and despite his injury a couple weeks ago the plan was for him to play 162 games this year that's inexplicable to me inexplicable and I don't know what it says about what the long term strategy is going to be for the team but

if we're making agreements like that with players who should not be on the field and we're making guys like Brett Bady who is a much more natural second basement than he is first basement play first space you're meaningfully undermining the potential success of the team so I don't know I know that's a very small drop in the bucket relative to this disaster this year but it it isn't every time I watch them well look I mean you're you mentioned Bady and I just was looking

up like how often he played second base in the past he's played it quite a bit I'll tell you right

now he can't play any of the positions that he's playing right now he cannot play first he is the freaking walking disaster at first base he hit or I I can't and then in the outfield you know we have all these outfielders we have actual five six outfielders now that Louis rapper Jr's back and you and I were both watching the brewers game last week I was watching with my daughter fly ball to deep Christian Scott who's been just a workhorse at Godson let's put him in the

rotation and still next season is about to get out of a jam long fly ball to right field hit

“pretty hard but it's a fly ball that you have to catch and our our right fielder and I”

just flipped on the game half and ending before our right fielder who I thought was Bench was like staggering backs switching directions tripping over his own feet reaching out at the last minute for a ball that he's taken a horrible angle on and it drops in the warning track and hits the wall and it's in double and everybody scores and I'm like my daughter and I watch you again I'm like yeah that's not that's unlike Carson Bench that's an even look like Carson Bench

and of course it was Brett Bady and my 11 year old daughter not me my daughter says to me why is Bady playing the outfield and I'm going through all the names of the outfielders we have including Taylor who's on the bench because God forbid we play him against the right hand at pitcher because Brett Bady just has to play he's so ferocious offensively his left hand at bad has to be in the lineup despite the need to cost us a game of the field my 11 year old daughter

asked a question why is Brett Bady playing the outfield honey I don't know but we're about to

“lose just God damn game too I think that my instinct on that is there's either two answers”

that I question one is they're trying to show that Brett Bady is a very versatile player and playing him frequently to up his trade value or they're making an effort knowing this is a lost season to teach him how to play those positions and give him more exposure to them so that he is a super utility player this is not a NBA man you're not a versatile defender just because you're bad at every position that doesn't make you versatile but you're right but Cimeon stinks

so put Bady at second maybe he stinks a little less and you were at a restaurant you told

me and the waiter said the same thing to you right like what do I have what do I have what is that I believe in the restaurant last Wednesday night at the same night of the game that you're describing and the first thing the guy said this is in Los Angeles this is it you just he grabbed you by the army said why the hell is Brett Bady playing right field and I didn't know what to say to him I don't what the team is just an absolute force and I am so confused I'm so confused how

it could have guns poorly I really I don't know where they're supposed to go now I think there's maybe two schools of thought here in terms of like dealing guys because they're going to make deals right Brooks really is going to be traded any minute AJ mentors going to be traded any minute I think there's a good chance weaver gets dealt and they're going to be try to compile as many top 100 prospects as they can if you were the front office of this team would you say well we've

got Soto and he'll be going into his age 28 season next year we got all these young guys you know

Sean was bitching about those are some cost right it's over we made those commitments don't worry about that would you try to acquire as many close to the big leagues prospects as possible or would you just try to acquire best player available and then consider dealing those prospects

“in the off season for major league ready players to compete in 2027 the latter I think I think”

everything has to be aimed at trying to get this team back to being something next season if you're going to have Soto in Lindor and McLean who's clearly ready for big things on the team next year I would aim everything at that but again I'm I'm just an idiot I mean I don't know what the other path is like I mean I guess if you get major league ready prospects and you just baseball is weird

if you just have a bunch of good players on your team that's very very powerful so I'm I'm open to

either path but I would I would aim more towards something that helps us flip for guys in the short term that can they can coincide with maybe a nice 2027 2028 season I think you're right and I think a lot of this season can be chopped up to bad luck too bad strategy for sure but just like you know Soto and Lindor playing six combined games together this year or whatever it is is just a fact that but that cannot be worse and you know he's going to opt in after this season

and he he simply cannot be worse he isn't after coming alive and June he's been honestly one of the least impressive hitters in the whole sport this month Zach it's crazy so I have a couple of a couple of things I just I'm Lindor we're going through it right now in our house because she's aware my daughter that there is a possibility he'll be traded and she's gone through several phases of dealing with this phase one was well I won't be a

metz fan anymore I'll be a fan of whatever team Lindor is traded for if a fan did all and I said

“well that that hurts me I think you should stick with the metz phase two was I will cheer for”

the metz and whatever team Lindor is traded to even if it's the Yankees because they do need a short stop and there's but I don't there can't be a world where the metz trade a player of this caliber to the Yankees right like that has to be a nonstarter I don't think that there are

match in terms of the prospects that the Yankees have available to deal but never say never and

then I said to her that's not acceptable you cannot cheer for the New York Yankees to have success even if they have Francisco and or on their team what you can do is root for the metz root for his individual success and root for the Yankees to fail and she accepted that is a compromise in the rare event that Lindor gets traded to but if Lindor gets traded to like the Padres she's going to be a Padres fan and a metz fan I think I have to accept that I think this is this is an

acceptable trade with an 11 year old girl who's two years into being a baseball fan it fell in love with this one particular player and you got to start getting her on that AJ you in Carson Bench oh she loves those dreams you know she goes she in the car yesterday on the way we're on the way to meet a friend in Westchester she was like daddy and mommy do you want to hear my rankings of like my favorite metz and it and it's Lindor and then it then Torrance she just has a sauce

like Torrance he's one and then Ben Benjamin you ring her three four she loves she's all in on those

“guys that's what it's about to is you know as as I love Francisco and Dor 2 but when I was a”

young fan I was getting addicted to guys who I was watching debut in their rookie seasons and one of my great joys as a fan was watching David Wright and Jose Reyes come up and watching them blossom into stars you know I was older and at that point in my life but getting having a real genuine connection obviously we went through this Peter Lanzo as well who we lost in the off season um I I hope she sticks with it I wanted to stick with it I think that there is

Melissa and I was listening to Bill and his dad talk on Bill's show today and I haven't gotten to that period I'm still in the house the house section they they tried to spend as much time on the red socks as they possibly could to avoid talking about the jail and brown trade which I understood from their perspective but I found amusing but they did talk about the moment when no more Garcia par was traded which was of course a very you know it tremendously important

moment in red socks history that eventually got them off the shnide and they went on to win a no four but before that happened I think it was the off season before no more was traded mid season where there was a lot of talk of him being traded and then he started the season and he was kind of didn't seem right his kind his head wasn't on straight he was kind of making mistakes and maybe he'd been losing some of his athleticism and there was a lot of talk about

was he maybe going on the downside and they dealt him and then dealing him ultimately led to

putting together the that legendary team that came back against the Yankees and won the title but I see some modest parallels between no more and lendor there and I like lendor and I don't want him to be traded but he does seem off and he does seem a little unhappy and

or shaking thing they would do they're not going to deal any young pitching that obviously makes no

“sense I don't think they're going to deal one soda I don't think that's ever going to come up”

he does have an opt out in a few years let's not let us not forget that I'll be very curious to see what happens with that opt out I doubt he's going to opt out because the mess essentially like have the option to retain him and if they pay him a significant amount more money but it's just like feels like they're very far away and I don't know how you fix it in a short period of time there's so bad that it pains me to say it nothing would even so like in the NBA

if this were the NBA which I realized is a completely different game where one guy can impact winning at such a more dramatic level in baseball there would like a hundred percent be one soda trade room even though he has a no trade closet as does Lindor as does like apparently a third of major league baseball but I don't I don't think we're there either I don't expect seems like selling low on Lindor is is after adjusted nightmare season of injuries

injuries atop injuries just doesn't seem like a smart move I will say first of all the meds have done everything possible to keep my daughter a meds fan like I can't I can't say enough about how well they have treated us the few games that we've went there including on Saturday when I threw out the first pitch like the whole staff was it's I'm gonna just namecheck Jordan Cara Sam Mr Met Zach they were all just like

amazing my daughter has been able to stand on city field twice and like be pretty close to

Lindor we were 10 feet away from Steven Collins Steven Cohen was in his seat as I was preparing to go out on the mound and I I was like the journalist in me should go introduce myself make a connection exchange numbers whatever and I was like I'm just I'm nervous for the pitch which I will get to and I I also feel negatively about the team maybe this is not maybe I'm not in the right emotional space to go up to one of the richest men in the world who controls my personal happiness

to some level and strike up this conversation goes side with it can go it can go George his stands is dad I people can say I would want to see you and Steve Cohen speaking to each other you know I know that you talked last time we spoke about this that you were you didn't love

“listening to him talk to Joel Sherman and John Hammond I honestly did appreciate it because”

I felt like one he was more candid than almost any other owner would be in an environment like that and I appreciate the owner being honest to he seemed upset and bothered he was really I think that was true he and I I felt his fandom seeping through but there was a certain like impatience with the questions that yeah and and that I didn't enjoy yeah it it it was a mixed bag I give him credit for making that appearance I know he wants to turn it around and he's in this weird thing where he's like

well I've made this commitment to this executive and I don't want to be seen as somebody who is overreacting to the moment and firing that executive and then making this seem like you know a not very happy destination for for management but I don't think that's the case considering he's going to pay people $10 million a year to spend his money which just seems like an insane proposition for almost any sports executive but I'm glad that the team took care of you that's the

flip side of this is that you know the organization broadly seems like it's in a world-class state if he seems like going to the ballpark is a lot of fun the team um despite its performance on the field like it's a it's a very well-run team outside of the team part of the team so they're in direct conflict but I want to hear about the first pitch because I saw what happened and I I have a lot of questions what's your what are your what do you want me to just talk or do you want to ask your

money where where do you get that arm on you sack you know well it's great stuff so here's what

happened first of all the whole thing is a well machine I took the ferry we expect there's a ferry now from various places they get to the city field including Stanford Connecticut we took that the ferry was

“like 30 minutes late and I was extremely stressed out because you have to be out there by a certain”

certain time or else this can't happen but they like whisked me through and they're like they bring me on the field they give me the ball they give me the ball which I have and I have to decide what to do with it and I had three choices for whom my catcher would be and I think if I were a more famous person one of the choices would have been a player but I don't meet that threshold and that's fun was anyone in my family and it just didn't no one is a great fit it was my dad who's a 83

my daughter who wouldn't do it and my wife would do it and is a tremendous athlete but it didn't feel like the right pick Mr. Met or Mrs. Met now if I were his hashtag woke as I'd like to be I go Mrs. Misses Met with all the policies to Mrs. Met Mr. Met's the OG okay Mr. Mr. Met is the choice

every front it's no and they sit they're like they bring you out on the field they're like all right

“it's 701 the National Anthem's going to be done it's 702 Mr. Met and you are going to get”

announced and walk out into the field and I had practiced from a mound at our local high school easy speasy and I was super confident and I'm like I'm like I'm throwing I'm going to throw gas like for what what passes is gas for me I'm going up there I'm going to throw hard I'm there was no question I was going to throw from the mound they did tell me interestingly don't touch the rubber the pictures don't like it when the ceremonial pictures touch the rubber and whatever I

okay I understand you can stand right in front of it if you want so I was going to do that I did that and I got up there and I got tight I got nervous and so plan A was throw gas come hell or high water because I was confident plan B was take 30% off and just ensure that you get it all the way there on a decent trajectory and over the plate and don't embarrass yourself I pivoted to plan B very quickly despite Mr. Met pumping me up the whole time we were there

silently it doesn't talk but yeah what did you do that just like just like just doing it me pointing at me coming up okay um and I was mildly happy with how it went and just thrilled that my dad got to be there and my wife got to be there and my kid got to be there and and witness that great it's like insane to me that I was able to do this and for the only team I've ever truly loved and it was awesome and then Mr. Met and I went backstage and we filmed a little

“skit that will appear on Mr. Met's social media channels I think sometimes soon so we'll see how”

that how that goes but it was it was truly a crazy a crazy experience and with that I will open up the floor for questions okay one I thought you're going to say I went backstage with Mr. Met and we did fireball shots and drank and watch the camera I think I don't think Mr. Met drinks okay I I'm very curious about the practice you play baseball growing up literally and quit literally you know what I couldn't overcome I didn't want to get hit by a pitch I just like I

couldn't ever get over like I didn't want to get hit by a pitch that's interesting because I felt like your motion was pretty sound were you thinking am I definitely going from the wind up should I consider going from the stretch just to you know make this a little bit easier on myself you know you left it a little high I did but again a little bit and very respectable like honestly we've seen hundreds of versions of significantly worse first pitches I mean I thought you did very

well but like how did you think about the way you were going to throw the boss so now that I've done it once and done respectively well I would like to do it again and like actually go for it and show the arm but we gotta get you out to a long island ducks I know like I coined the Coney Island this the whatever I don't know the cyclones um I so I actually weirdly you know it is frowned upon for an adult

human to bring a glove to a baseball game it's an obeyed to mark of embarrassment like I would never do it

I thought about bringing one just to have like the comfort of of of going into a traditional wind up of like having a place to put the ball and grab it and grip it and I just decided that's too embarrassing I'm not going to do that I'm just going to throw the ball and then it was over and then you walk out and you're done and uh I some people have sent me videos uh I had some friends at the game in various places I was booed by a few there a few stray boobirds in the crowd which like

“respect if you want to boo me boo me I did my best what do you want me to do they boo you performance”

or did they don't like your commentary about the NBA what do you think I think it was before I think is I walked out I heard a stray now one of my friends Tom who's last name was Shelby Redacted bought a ticket uh in section 11 and he's like I have to be close enough for you to hear me say low you suck before you look at that so it was tremendous it was tremendous I had a question about the crowds actually because you know sparsely attended game to something I wanted to note uh I clocked

that despite the fact that it was a Nolan McLean yoshinobu yama moto macho you got a real corker of a pitching duel um you know did it did you feel the crowd when you were getting ready to throw which did you like could you sense that you were in a giant stadium or no so in your head that you were like I'm in a whole way with Mr. Met I blocked it out I blocked I didn't I didn't look into the stands I didn't I didn't look anywhere in the crowd I will say

you know as recently this is the first game I've been to in a little bit since it really went south

as recently as last September when I went to old what old timers day or whatever they call it now when the bottom was falling out but they were still like a half game up in the playoffs wild card race or two games up either but it was clearly like we're just gonna either fall backwards into the playoffs or not make it the crowd was still alive and like when Lindor would come up

the atmosphere the other night made me so sad it is like absolutely dead every like the the level of play has just killed the fans no one is singing hi my girl no one is doing the wave with with in in tune to the song the crowd is totally dead the crowd was probably 40% Dodgers fans and they were like way louder than the Met's fans in multiple and and I had people all around the stadium who reported my experience sitting pretty close the same like the Dodgers fans were loud

and enthusiastic and the Met's fans were just like dead it's not they're not booing no one is booing it's just like disinterest and even in September of last year there was at least hope and interest and now there's just like you know it's only one game I'm gonna go back soon when I get back from vacation there's a couple good home series that we have the giants and the Astros coming in like winnable games hopefully but that was that was the sad it was the sad

state of affairs it was just a totally dead the Met's portion of the crowd was just totally dead yeah it's it's depressing to think about that I mean we're we're now fully back to 1992 and 1993 era you know the Jeff Torbore commandage teams or so brutally

“underperforming relative to what their expectations were I think in 1992 they went 70 and 92 and this”

feels like a 70 and 92 kind of season you know the thing that we have to watch for here that is kind of agonizing in two ways is where will they finish in the standings actually matters and

there they have the third worst record in the sport right now we need them we need them to stay

pretty much right there I mean they're behind the angels and the rockies and if they finish within the top six they have obviously a much higher likelihood of staying in the top six in terms of the lottery but even if they finish in the top six I think they can still fall out of the lottery and if they fall out of the top six picks then they get bumped down automatically 10 picks because of the threshold and the payroll that they have crossed so like that lottery is pretty

important because if we're going to go through this season we at least need to get a top five draft pick out of it I guess I need to do this I guess I need to learn a new set of over complicated lottery rules right as the NBA is going to do the three two one relegations on system I guess I'm going to have to dive in and figure out how to held this lottery works and this one is our Nate man this one is complicated it's pretty much only complicated for the Metz because they're the

only team that spends this much money and is this terrible well hooray hooray for the Metz there was nothing watching I love viewing it and Benjamin no I love watching them I forgot like

there was a moment in the game first of all the most exciting moment of the game was Tyron Taylor's

hit to pull us within fourth three and then we didn't have the base runner in the night

“then the Dodgers made a pitching change in like the seventh inning I think eighth inning maybe”

and during the commercial break they shut the lights off in the stadium for like one of those sort of light shows they do and the motif was on the jumbo tron a subway train rushed by and the washing of that train was then replicated in the lights around the stadium as if the train was going around in a circle very cool light show there was red there was reds and greens and oranges all flashing in the outfield too and I actually my brain actually thought wait a second are the

are the Dodgers bringing in Edwin Diaz and the Metz this is like the Metz are going to like do some sort of tribute for him because there's no other possible exciting thing occurring here there's certainly nothing exciting that the Metz are generating and I knew that Diaz was like maybe going to be active for the series I had lost I wasn't paying attention and then no it's just like hey here's something that's kind of cool to watch while our team sucks and the other team makes a

pitching change and it was I got my hopes up for like a Diaz cameo and there was none to be had yeah that's this stage of fandom that we're in right now we just hope for a cool light show while watching our favorite baseball team lose it's a new game of the year it reminded me of the

very first game I went to in my Renaissance of fandom um we was also a Metz Dodgers game it's crazy

my daughter seen two Metz Dodgers games in Otani is not gotten on base one time in two games and there might she's beginning to be skeptical that he's actually this good um we got a teacher about sample sizes and things like that but you know maybe wait on sample sizes but the but the first to by point is the first game the Timmy Trumpet light show when they shut the lights off and

“everything what like that I think sealed her as a fan that was so spectacular that it was like”

her it was it was spectacular to me let alone and then 10 year old girl and now a similar light show happens to mark nothing other than there's the Dodgers are making a pitching change and yet another Metz loss um anyway it's Monday night we got we got a ways to go I guess we'll see what happens man any any final thoughts anything we didn't cover no I mean I'm sorry we're not you and I are both gonna be um not available to to do a post trade deadline breakdown you know and uh I feel

pretend is going to matter to my life in five years I might be three shots of Rakiya into my night

“in Croatia when they make a trade and I got a mic and I got a camera and I forgot to show you one”

other cool thing the Metz did you get your personalized jersey any number that you want wow so I chose 18 not because of their strawberries though he was my favorite player I was wondering about my my daughter and my mom had the same birthday February 18th to 18 so I chose 18 for them and so this will be I got to figure out what to do it this will probably frame it but this is like this is I I get that

“anybody can make a personalized jersey I get it but this is a very cool thing and uh I got to tell you”

it's possible that the Metz can acquire Brandon Lau at some point in the next 12 months I really hope that they do and in which case you'll have a a used for that Brandon low yeah because I can't what I can't wear this one like there's no there's that I I frown upon it so it's either going to be framed or stashed somewhere but it was very cool anyway thank you to the Metz thank you

“to Sean Fennissie the one and only subscribe to his newsletter on sub-stack projections it's”

awesome it's teaching me so much about the movies I feel so smart now Sean Fennissie who knows

when we next reconvene in September what the state of things will be but always always let's go

Metz as they were winning last night against the Dodgers my my my daughter now were watching and I said her it's a lost season I didn't know about this lottery rules it's like why not have fun why not why not it's still fun to see them win so let's have some fun that's awesome fun thanks Zach

that's it for today thank you as always well let's look through that again three two one all right that's

it for today thank you to Moja Kiel thank you to Sean Fennissie thank you to the Metz for having a win before this podcast went up thanks to Oscar Mike and Billy on production thanks to you all for listening to and/or watching the Zach low show we'll see you next time 21 or over in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president and DC Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem call 1 800 gambling or 1 800 my reset call 1 888

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