The 10 Most Interesting Extension Candidates With Grant Liffmann

Take all the time you want, we got nothing going on.

“Dream on Green and James Harden are also still waiting.”

Peyton Watson is still waiting for a deal, Jill, and Duren is still waiting for a deal. Lots of stuff is in flux as we all wait on the brond, and he's going to take his time in that's fine. We have a busy summer and fall coming up, notably around contract extensions and grant liftment from NBC Sports, used to work for the Atlanta Hawks front office.

He's worked doing TV for NBC out in Golden State, but now he's national NBC's on the national TV games and all that. We do a little of a fun little draft of extension eligible players. The most interesting extension cases in the NBA combining guys who were in their coming off their rookie deals soon, the Wemben Yama draft class obviously he signed for the

Max, but less than the Super Max, and the veteran extensions, some are obvious. We've all talked about Tyler, hero, and Michael Porter, Jr., and Carl Anthony Towns.

And we hit those guys, but there's always some fun under the radar ones.

Like, oh, that guy was extension eligible. They could get him for that amount. We go through that whole list, talk about what's a fair deal, a fair compromise, what negotiations might look like we hit almost every team at some point comes up. So it's a fun episode, grants awesome.

I think you guys will enjoy it. That's coming up now. Welcome to Disaclo Show, It's Late July. It's day 24 of the Brown Lodge. We're now drinking lake water instead of regular water.

We're monitoring YouTube channels for videos that were posted by mistake. Whoops. Grant Liffman from NBC is here by old buddy. How you doing? I'm good.

I'm just trying to survive liberal and watch, but just like you, I'm reading the T-Leaves, I've spoken to multiple people. I'm also going to, you know, just palm readers and all that, trying to figure it out. But we'll get there sometime. As I have said, the speculation, the T-Leave reading is just wildly out of control.

You talked to people with teams. You talked to people with teams in your job as a front office insider for NBC. Nobody knows anything. I, unless they're all lying and they do know something, nobody knows anything. They're all laughing at how in the dark they are and they're all like, I will find out

what do you find out? That's what I keep hearing anyone. Yeah. No, it's exactly it. I just, I put out a tweet like a couple weeks ago and I said, hey, by the way, just in case

you know, if a source is saying, this is a done deal or this is happening or he's leaning towards this way, I don't want to say they're lying, but I'll just put it this way. No one knows.

“And I think LeBron may be literally the only person that knows that includes Rich Paul.”

Is there a chance he doesn't know?

There's always a chance he doesn't know yet.

I mean, there's all this burbling about is waiting for one of these teams to make a big move. I don't believe that really even. I'm not sure that's a player. I don't really know what's happening other than I can tell you, they do seem to be enjoying

the monopolization of NBA airwaves and the fact that we're all hanging on tenter hooks about a 41 year old player's decision that probably will not, but maybe might maybe some chance it swings the championship balance a little bit, but we shall see, I don't have anything, I'm out of things to say. I just, I don't even have jokes anymore, Grant.

I'm out. All right. My one thing I will say is this. So I think LeBron James is one of the more calculated NBA players. If not athletes of all time, the way he tells the story in the narrative of his career.

And I was convinced and still I'm pretty convinced that when he said I'm step-in-away from Lakers, he pretty much knew where he was going. However, there's only one team in my mind that will clearly show that he did not actually know and he switched it up, and that is the 76ers. Because when he pulled out of the Lakers, they didn't have Jalen Brown yet.

That deal did not happen, and I would be shocked if he was just going to go to the sixers with the M.B. in Maxi and Paul George.

“So I think if he actually does go to the sixers, that means he might have pivoted because”

that would have been such a random team for him to go to before they got Jalen Brown. In my opinion, who knows, we'll find out soon, presumably, I don't even know. I was going to say presumably by August 1st. I don't know, who knows, I'm going on vacation in eight days. I'm taking my microphone, who knows what's going to happen, but we will find out at some

point before the season, and again, presumably, Bill has floated the idea that he should wait till Christmas or something. I don't see that happening. He likes being on a team, LeBron, legitimately likes being on a team. I don't think he wants to short-change that.

In the meantime, we have to make up things to talk about.

So here's what we're going to do today.

Normally, you would do an episode on rookie deal extensions, like Victor Wembanyama's draft

He already took the max, although not without the 30% language, and people have hemmed in how it about that justifiably so.

And then another episode on veteran extensions, which are they're always sneaky veteran extensions

out there. We saw one today, Grant. The Celtics extended Jordan Walls three years, 15 million. Nice deal.

“Those are the kind of, that's how they got Peyton Pritchard.”

It's just like these sort of sneaky extensions that come out and know where. It's like, yeah, why not? $5 million of that deal goes bust. It's not that big of a deal. Smart deal by the Celtics.

I like Jordan Walls. No harm, no foul. And so I thought we'd have a little fun. 10. We each made a list are 10 most interesting extension candidates among all the extensions

candidates. You can take the tops and twins, and you can take Tyler, hero, and Michael Porter, junior, put them all on a bucket. We made a list of our 10 most interesting extension candidates.

We will have a draft, and you will go first, and we'll see how much we overlap.

Are you ready to make your first pick in the extension draft? This is a big deal. This is my first extension draft I've been part of. So yeah, who I picked first may dictate really my future career in this. So you're really batting me with that grant.

You're really batting me with that, because you did work for the Elena Hawks. I just had to say, you're batting me, but I'm going to, I'm not taking the bait. You make your first pick. All right. So let's see if you overlap on any here.

So I'm going to go with my first pick is actually a rookie extension. And that's Kiyonte George, and to me, Kiyonte George is such an interesting situation in that he was part of a team that had been trying to lose and trying to develop players. And they're one of those few teams that kind of just switched it all of the sudden, we're like, and we're going for it.

And in the midst of that, Kiyonte George was having his career break out years, averaging 24 points for game, his percentages all went up, 46 from a field, 37 from from three, and you just saw this, this revolution of his game for someone that was teetering a little bit about if he ever is going to be this efficient guy or is he just going to be this six man just kind of like puts up some stats and volume.

But Kiyonte George is in a position now where he wants to get paid. He put up huge numbers to get paid, but the jazzer in a completely different situation than

they ever were before, right now they have committed about $100 million to triple J and

an angry market end, right? They were also ticketed to get probably about $30 million on the book for Walker Kessler. So him not being there does change the situation again for the Utah Jazz. But the biggest part about all of this is Darren Peterson now is entered into the mix. And Darren Pearson, we saw is trying to be on ball. He's trying to have the ball in his hands. And Kiyonte George is best with the ball in his hands. He comes off

picking roll, gets a high ball screen from Nirk and then comes off that he's a score. He is more of a score than he is a facilitator. And Darren Peterson is more of a score than a facilitator that we've seen thus far. So how much do you actually pay Kiyonte George? Do you want to keep him as trade bait throughout the season? And if so, you probably don't want to sign the deal

“because then it becomes poison pill and all the different things you have to think about.”

But for Kiyonte George now, we have to really talk about a guy who's 23 years old and what is his ceiling is he a winner or is he a guy that puts up stats? And these are the things that the Jazz will have to figure out as they move forward. They also have ace Bailey on the team. So that's another guy that eventually they're, you know, what did they say? There's only one ball, right? There's only one ball to go around between all these mouths to feed. And finally, Zach,

you mentioned that I was with the Atlanta Hawks before. And this is the way I look at extensions here. Is that so, I want to give a little shout out to who I think is one of the best young cap strategy minds in the game right in Silverstein there with the hawks. He created a model and I'm not going to go into the exact specifics of the nuances of it because I don't want to give away his strategy. But the idea is when you're building out a team, championship teams,

you have to look at the percentages of the cap that you're building out with these extensions and signings. And normally a championship team, and this is a very broad macro way of looking at it, has two max players. And then about three guys that are making the MLE or above. So let's say about 9% of the cap to like 15 to 18% of the cap. Right now you have two guys that are making quote unquote close to max with with JJ and Lowry, right? If you're giving Keyante George,

what 30 more, whatever. Now you're starting to load up on positions of like those cap numbers

“are starting to skyrocket. And then you have to figure out Peterson them. So a long way of saying”

you have to figure out the best way of team building more than just accumulating talent in the new apron system and Keyante George is my most interesting one for that. Yeah, he was in my honorable mentions. He didn't make my top 10 partly because I'm pretty pessimistic that there is going to be a deal before the season. There was a report I can't remember where it was like a month ago that the negotiations that totally broken down and there was not going to be an extension.

that's fine. I just like the jazz are they played hardball with Walker Cessler and I think they will play hardball with Keyante George and just say, hey, look, if you want the security of an

“extension, you have to do it on our terms. We're not going to give you the back. We can give you”

the max next summer if you play up to the max. You mentioned 30 million dollars. If that's their

offer, I don't think it deals getting done. I don't think Keyante George is taking 30 million dollars. I could be wrong. That's like getting into the ballpark of where a player might say, you know, that's just so much money per season that even if it's lower than we've discussed internally with the agent and stuff, I might take it. I think he's a very good player. I think he is a winning player, offensively defensively made a huge leap last year from like, oh my god, bad to just

like normal blow average. I think there should be a not a leap coming. I think he and Peter Sink can co-exist fine as combo guards. There's a real creativity to count days game that I think he can tap even more into with another perimeter score. But you did zero in on like the jazz has a lot of very good players. They don't have a lot of very good passers yet. And I think that's one of the deficits of their team. Like I say, a call yours, probably other best passers. If you really

stretch the argument, you could argue like Kyle Philipowski might be their second best passers.

“But I think Keyante George is a really good player. He has a lot of room to grow.”

Maybe there's an extension maybe they're not, but that that is a good. The model you positive is interesting because if they give him a lot, like 35, 40, whatever it ends, if it goes into that higher range, they're looking at a possible tax bill next season, 27, 28. But I still think they view him as a long time part of the franchise. But he's, there is a world where like Peter's and just explodes out the gate and you start talking about like who's expendable, who's tradable.

That's a good pick. Yeah. Much, much, much more deep cut than my first pick is going to be. So I admire you. You came in, you came in strong. Yeah, I really wanted to get the brain going early. And they'll want to follow up. I would say to that, too, is that if you're Knotty George's side, there are a lot more mouths to feed this upcoming season. So do you want to get an extension done this summer before there's a chance you go into next year and you're in your points for game

drops and all that because your usage is going to drop considerably potentially with Peter's in and all these mouths to feed. So that is something that have to look into as well. You're coming off the big year. Do you want the security or do you want to go into it and just say, hey, I want to make as much bank as possible the following year? I will say, I'll just, I said, I don't, I don't expect to deal. I people, particularly aggregators go crazy with stuff like that. I'll say like to be

clear, I'll go like 35% extension, 65% no extension. All right, my turn, my first pick, I assume this

guy is going to be in your top 10. Anthony Davis of the Washington Wizards who makes $58.5 million

this year and has a very juicy $63 million player option for 2027, 2028 for a wisdom that could be looking at paying the tax next season depending on a whole bunch of variables including is Anthony Davis on the team, does he just opt in to $63 million and roll the dice is an unrestricted free agent after that in his mid 30s. Is there a deal to be had extension wise where he opts out of $63 million and signed something like a three year $150 million deal where he takes a

pay cut in terms of annual salary, but locks in some money given his availability issues is any of this tied to the LeBron sweepstakes that's going on right now. I don't particularly think so. I don't think the worst was shown much interest if any in Anthony Davis. I don't think the Wizards have shown much interest in any in trading for Anthony Davis and there is a world where trade young plus Anthony Davis plus AJ a defense a plus a whole pile of interesting young players,

suddenly net you if not this year then maybe next year when all those young players have a year of growth and year of fitting with the bets. Is that a potentially 47 48 when team like I don't think that's like completely outrageous in two years not this year in two years. I don't know what's going to happen here. This is one of the biggest mysteries in the league to me. I don't know what I think.

“The only thing I'm sure of is a max extension for Anthony Davis is batshit insane at no team should”

be even be within any reasonable reach of it because he just doesn't play enough, but he's still very good when he plays so he's on my list for all those reasons. I love that. I guess I went for guys that were a little bit more below the surface interesting, but I agree with you. Anthony Davis should be number one on this list just out of all extensions because it affects so many different teams to league and the one thing I can say is this very rarely has a clutch client just been like,

you know what? I'll take a little less or hey, I'll do a three year deal, etc. It seems like so many different times this person gets traded before they take that deal, right, before they go some

fits perfectly with Trays game. Now this is a younger, more spy maybe Anthony Davis. We don't

know what he hate. We haven't seen him play very much so we don't really know where he's at right now. His game fits just perfectly which way it really is to a tee. Now what that means for this Washington team, it's just a really comes out of motivation, right? As he doing this, what is Anthony Davis's motivation? And I feel like that's been a question mark whichever team he goes to. Who's his teammates? What are they trying for? Are they trying for money? Is he trying for a

championship here? Which is weird to say out loud, but like at the same time we kind of seen the Evan flow as if his career kind of based on a lot of it like what is the drive going towards? Would I give him the full max at this? No, I mean, that's just, that's as hard to do. Again, we're talking about a guy. What are you trying for? Are you trying for a championship? If you're trying for a championship, giving the full max and giving all your dollars to

Tray Young, Anthony Davis at this point in the careers, then I don't think you're a serious about trying for a championship. If you're trying to be relevant again, yeah, I mean, I can see why you're going to pay him a lot of money to be there. As I said, the one thing I will say is this is that sometimes teams go out of their way to tank for so long that there's a stigma about them that no one wants to go there or they have to be paid the max money to go there. And sometimes

“you need to change that stigma about your team to be a relatively up-and-coming team or a fun team”

or something. And then when a player gets traded there or goes there, they're like, hey, maybe I'll take a little less or like, I'll play for you guys, et cetera. Washington just has this vibe about them that like Anthony Davis went there and was immediately like, I'm not playing here. And it's like Washington itself, the city, the history, it's awesome. I actually loved going to DC for their games. It's just the point is the fan base is ready for something. You kind of have

to build that in between team that's on the rise. And the sponsor obviously helps that. They have a lot of you good young players. Another guy that I almost added to this list was Ballal Coolabali

because I have always been intrigued by his career, but it's kind of tanked over the last couple

years. But the point is, I agree with you completely. And the last thing I'll say is this, the Golden State Warriors have shown no interest in just acquiring Anthony Davis. They could have done it last year if they wanted to, they didn't. They could do it right now, maybe, but they're

“not engaging the wizards. If LeBron says to them, hey, go get Anthony Davis. I think this is a”

different story, but because that has not been said, because that hasn't been said, it's like, they're not interested. So I really at this point just feels like AD is just in line again, extension of Washington. Yeah, you know, when they gave Tray Young the huge extension, which surprised me, as it did many, I still don't really know who they were bidding against in just giving him all the money and a player option. But, you know, look, I think Tray Young's become actually underrated.

My one of my initial responses was it doesn't seem like Anthony Davis is going to be too long for this team, like at least beyond this season, because I just don't think, whatever the dollar amount Anthony Davis accepts, I just don't think the wizards should be in the

business of paying these guys, $100 million combined for like three years. I just think that's a

little ahead of their skis. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe that turns out to be wrong. The wild card is Alex Sar and how AD fits with Alex Sar, who has played mostly center in his career and would figure to benefit a lot from Tray Young as a role man, harder role for him to play with Anthony Davis also presumably starting alongside him. So maybe I want to see a little bit more of that

“and how that works before I extend Anthony Davis. All right, who's your next, who's your next pick?”

You know, I'm going to go Zion Williamson on this. Okay. And Zion for me is just his contract is one of the more unique contracts that NBA history. It's just every year. It's a non-Gariety or partial guarantee. And some of it is by games played. And some of it is literal his weight is put into his contract, which is just crazy that they actually got put in there. But Zion for as much as he's been in the spotlight or out of spotlight back and forth for so long. He's only 26 years old and technically

speaking usually players enter their prime around 26 years old. So where Zion goes from he played 62 games last year. So it was one of his healthier years a couple years before that. He actually played 70. He looks like he's in better shape, et cetera. The question for me about Zion Williamson is like, what is his ceiling at this point? Have we seen his ceiling or what is his prime look like? Because at the end of the day, he is somebody that really thrives off his power in his athleticism.

And so technically speaking, let's say he sees healthy. He should be getting better in those worlds just for a little bit or at least stand maintaining there. But what does he do for you, that elevates you? Obviously he's a scoring machine, but defensively he struggles.

positional is basketball, but at some point you have to have some type of vibe of where you're exactly reporting you. So you can put people around you as well, the defend others. He's an interesting case. And in my, I truly expect at this point, I do expect this front office

“to extend them because I think they like them. I think they like them a lot. I think he's committed”

to putting his body in a better shape. But at the end of the day, I just don't know. He has a

non guaranteed or, you know, whatever is contract really stipulates. In 2027 for $45 million,

could they let it play out? Absolutely. They could kind of say, hey, you still need to earn this. Or they just extend them right off the bat, but only 26 years old's act. It just blows my mind how long he's been around. He was on my list too. I believe I checked with some capex where it's I believe that if they extend him, they have to first guarantee that year, the next year 2728 and then extend off of that. I have heard the same thing that you've heard that this

front office really like Zion Williamson to the point that like I kind of have my my radar up for a possible like out of nowhere Zion extension coming off the 60 whatever game season. The fifth thing is interesting because his role dramatically changed less season yet. The ball less his pick and roll volume was way down both as a screener and as a ball handler. And that's because they were funneling the offense a lot through Derek Queen who they paid a hefty price to get and who doesn't fill

his eye on defensively either that four or five combination is suicide defensively. And so his role just sort of is was in this murky middle ground and he still put up 21 a game on a fish and shooting because he's just that explosive around the rim that good at drawing fouls because of his

“power. But his role was a little less central than I think he was accustomed to the pelicans”

or accustomed to efforts. Same thing in the wildcard here is Grant. The phone lines have to work in the New Orleans offices for them to do any kind of extension and there's just no the only number they appear to have is they have just like they hit one on their speed dial their landline speed dial and it goes to John Drake Jordan and they sign in and there's like nothing else going on. Okay, time for my pick. I mean, I have a list here and the next person on my list is a good name.

I'm thinking of deviating from it because there's more interesting guys. No, I'll just I guess I got to follow my list. Sneakly extension eligible again is Rudy Goldbear who makes 36 and a half million this year like AD has a player option for 27 28 at $38 million a year which is only 22% of the cap has a history of being like a pretty he and his agents pretty fair with Minnesota and not holding out for every last hour they can get you know technically you can go

140% of your prior salary up to not exceeding the max and I just think this is like a sneaky interesting thing because he's kind of a semi-expiring contract he's still a very good player

his inner is enters his mid 30s but you know you never know when the cliff is going to hit

and this is a team that is built to win that did through and everything that mortgage and everything to try to win something now with the mellow ball and the anti-native words even jaded McDonalds makes a ton of money I would soon make a ton of money and they don't have anything I mean unless barren jay is just so far ahead of what we've seen in terms of his readiness to really be a starting center they don't have anybody who's ready to do for them what Goldbear does and at the same time

like they have I don't know 150 million dollars almost just to those to la mellow and io and jaded and so they have to be careful about the tax I don't know that there's been any talks

“it's early I think everyone is now gone away for the summer but I just I'm keeping an eye on it that's”

all I'm keeping an eye on it yeah I had him on my list too there you go yeah I look at him and he's placed 70 games or more in all four seasons with the Minnesota so you look at him and today's the an age you look at his age but hey like a guy who actually gets out there and and is consistent every single year you know what you're going to get from Rudy go bear and to be honest I thought

there was some moments in the playoffs where it was like the first time or like hey here's Rudy

go bear truly impacting winning in the postseason then he got exposed a few times and this is just the Rudy go bear experience but for me I look at it and he has a player option right so in his mind he's 34 years old he's been really good for so many years I'm looking at this being like I'm not just picking up a player option I'm not just extending one year I'm trying to get my last big contract here and Minnesota to your point just they don't they don't have the ability to just

give him one big contract they can't just say here's another 30 a year for another three or four years the one thing we do know though is Tim Connelly and his group are willing to take risks

especially in this new apron system you don't have teams that just wheel and deal and Tim Connelly

“is one of those guys so that's the one catch where I might be like yeah maybe they say we're”

to go bear here's money because we can trade you eventually but no he was on my list as well on that seat I could like I could see the the reason I'm doing his exercise and I like doing the veteran guys almost more than the rookie deal guys that I have a couple of those on my list is

there are always a few guys who I mean much higher profile than Jordan Walsh today but similarly

like oh that guy was eligible for an extension like above that I didn't see that coming and if you told me that in September or August or whenever there was like Rudy Globert signs of three or ninety five million dollar extension with the Tim Connelly I wouldn't be like terribly surprised by that but that's that's just me all right let's take a quick break and then we'll get to your next pick because we near the halfway point of our our draft year all right pick number five let's go

yeah I feel so weird throwing another pelicans player out there because for for zero talk of

“them this entire off season you know maybe it's just a little under the radar but I want to”

disjointed Murray my little guy from the hawks disjointed Murray because he's kind of done under the radar because of injuries and the injuries have limited he's only played 45 games last two years but the interesting thing about disjointed Murray he's gonna be 30 years old this season coming up he has a couple injuries major injuries in his career but he is a model of consistency when he's out there you know kind of what you're gonna get from him uh he's not the same

defender he was when he was with the spurs before the injuries that's for sure but when it comes to his ability just to maintain and be a guy that you can consistently put out there who's gonna hit some mid-range shots who's gonna spray the ball around a little bit uh disjointed Murray is a player option next year and for me when I look at it disjointed he signed the extension with us of the hawks at a number that at the time he could have gotten more but he wanted the

ability we were ecstatic when he said hey I'm gonna take the extension instead of waiting to free agency because we're like whoa like that that's great he's Russ that we got you at a number that we thought we were gonna have to go higher or we're gonna have to figure this all out um because he wanted that security and he's a guy who you know he's come from a tough past and he was like hey I want this money I want to know where I'm gonna be and I want to keep on building and so

it'll be interesting to see what he does with that but if I'm looking at it I look at all these teams with cap space next year if Dejante does not sign an extension I could see him going to many of these teams that are just looking for a solid influence on their team and a guy that can come and bring some consistency so Dejante is a guy that I know in New Orleans they look at him as some of their culture is kind of building with him we'll see if they try to extend them off

of that so I'm glad you mentioned the cap space landscape because there's some potential for

a bunch of teams to have between 30 and 60 million dollars or so in cap space next summer

but that's so variable it's hard to it's hard to project it's and it's inevitably going to be less than that once some of these extensions happen once options are picked up like I have a sore Thompson on my list for the pistons there's a world where the pistons could open up like 40 million dollars in cap space but it requires them to like not bring back John Collins is on an on guaranteed deal that thing Breck Duncan Robinson is on a slightly partially guaranteed deal

declined a team option on Ron Holland which by the way if Ron Holland doesn't have a good start to the season or a good season like he has an 11 million dollar or something player or a team option and the fourth year of his rookie deal you know that could get a little dicey but like none and Jill and Dern takes a below market deal whatever it is like the pistons are not going to have that level of cap space for all those reasons but there is variability not the Murray was

not even on my honorable mention because I just need to see like New Orleans is such a mystery box to me that I can't go out on a limb at this point extending a veteran point guard where like I'm not really sure what we're doing as a team and what his function is with Zion Williamson and Jeremiah Fierce who I really like does a rookie point queen like I just don't know like Dujantes in that is in that I would call it a sour spot instead of a sweet spot of like he's he's good with the ball

he's best with the ball but he's like I'm just making up a number the 20th best guy at being best with the ball at his position and so like that doesn't get me that far as a team and he's not that useful off the ball because he's undersizes as a defender and a lot of matchups at the two and his

“jumper is just so so from three so I'm staying away from I think he's quite a fine and be a player”

I just am not extending him it you know whatever market value he's going to want okay my pick I get a year making me look bad with all these all the all these like slick fun names I'm just going to keep going chalk until there's no more chalk and I'll say Michael Porter Jr

$40 million expiring contract $40.8 million dollars coming off a career year where I

consideration and then that's where bad can fit offensively on any team in any system you could probably name a bunch of contenders who could use a player like him and the nets because they have cap room have a whole bunch of options with him where they could raise his salary up this season and then

“extend him on a deal that declines now that I think affects his trade ability I don't think”

you can trade him as quickly if you do it that way or they can just extend out off the $40 million number up to a certain number that makes sense as like I said I don't if I'm Michael Porter Jr and he's represented by Mark Bartosti who's as good as it gets I have to look at that landscape of cap room I'm like I'm not sure like all these players and agents especially they see $41 million and they think well I'm

Michael Porter Jr's 28 I think I should earn more than that on my next deal it doesn't always

work that way and there's not going to be necessarily like four teams with max cap room just jostling for you if I were the nets and I would I would go to Borrowstein and maybe I'd get left out the room and I'd say how about you how about three years 120? Like I think that's fairly fair we keep your salary around 40 tack on three more years into your early 30s and Sally you've been a beacon of health your entire basketball career I might even go a little less than that if I were

the nets just to see if you would bite and then that becomes a very both a very tradeable contract

“I think and also one that hey I have all these young guards who need outlets to catch and shoot”

our passes and space the floor and all that stuff he's a nice fit for that too so I think there's and if it goes sour if those extension talks which I assume will happen now the nets have all

year there's no deadline they have all season to do this there's no October first deadline or anything

so it may be nothing happens before this season but if Michael Porter Jr's agents want to talk before this season and those talks are either shoved off or don't go well I don't know what happens from there that big no one those situations can get wonky fast so he's a very interesting player who could swing like legitimately swing the balance of power to some small degree if he's traded I can completely agree I definitely he's somebody that I had my honorable mention list as well and

for me I look at as and I'm going to throw this back at you in the best versions MPJ like on a title team which number play like who is he on a team which number guy is either third best players you third best scorer in on title team I think it could be your second best scorer in your like

third best player is the way I would put I think he could be a legit he just doesn't create on the

I mean he was better creating on the ball last season and we've seen in the past because he had to be not sure that's ideal for a team that's like really really trying to win at the highest level but you could he average 24 a game and be your second leading scorer in your third best player and your team is really good I think so I don't see one on yeah so you know I'm close I would probably say

“third or four you know like in that realm and to me that's what the $40 million range I look at”

percentage of the cap etc that's like your third best player if you have two max players above him and then you have to kind of really thin out your bench after that and kind of rely on the MLE or less if I'm the net I just try to do this either way exactly what you're saying because at the end of the day either he's staying with you or he's a trade piece and you try to get access because with you guy with the nets he should get his numbers and we've seen over and over

again these guys come the nets when they haven't been playing well as a team but they get huge numbers and then they send them out and get a ton of draft picks that's happened multiple times some account bridges Cam Johnson, Michael Porter Jr almost happened again so you do start wondering is it real or not the one thing we know about Michael Porter Jr has he's been there right he's been with Denver or he's done this so I actually I mean he was probably one of the biggest red flags

of health when he came out of the draft he had so many issues and really in truth while he's missed some time in his career he really has been pretty healthy overall you know you have some question mark so I think he's a great fit and I know for a fact like at the deadline just before the war just lost Jimmy Butler for the year like his name was real as a potential there because he was somebody that you could just plug right next to a dream on green and Jimmy Butler and

Steph Curry they would have felt great and I could see MPJ really getting off to a good start again especially if you have my money good number let's say 40 year for three years where a team has team control over him and add him to the roster and he's great so I love that one that's a that's a very good one right there and honestly like I might not even open with three one 20 I might open with less than that if I were the net's just just to see just to see how it goes yeah before

we get into the second half of the draft I mentioned that before I had an aside for you this have just happened to me today I need your take on this I was at a traffic light today and two cars in front of me whoever's in the passenger seat just finishes a banana opens the window

worse stopped everybody can see you doing this and they're like people can look in your window

“and see who it is then I did some googling because I was like maybe a banana peel is like it's”

biodegradable maybe it's like it's not actually considered littering anymore my brief googling the round was like no it's still littering you shouldn't you shouldn't do that it's like it's less bad than litter litter but still bad would you grant lift been to ever do something like that or do you consider it littering I do consider litter the word biodegradable did come up in my mind and I start thinking of compost right when we're composting where does the

banana peel fall in the range and the spectrum of compost right what's the most compostable things it's compostable or work but that was just you just you just made it one it sounds like a word I just I personally do not have it in me maybe it's the way I was raised to drop anything I could have I could have I could have believed it I I almost if I were if I were like Michael Douglas and falling down level in rage that the world the old man would be referenced there

I would have gotten out of the car because we were at the light for like two minutes I could have gone out and be like dude you just dropped a banana peel on the road just like just hold the banana peel on the car until you get to a garbage can the reason I brought this up is because on the last group chat podcast just in varier who is just like I don't know how old just in his age younger than me but his soul is much older than even mine had just this great rant about

the decline of civilization basically being symbolized by when you as a driver

extend a courtesy to one of your fellow drivers you wave someone in you stop from the back out of a parking spot you expect in return little wave little acknowledgement of some kind give me a peace sign give me a salute give me a wave I will say it really resonated with me because I am an absolutely elite waiver as a driver like if you give me a courtesy you're going to see me wave at you from the car and I'm going to be enthusiastic about it and it just got me thinking

of like all the little things that we all we all have these little things that like I've said before

“I think I should there should be citizens arrests for like bad subway behavior in New York City”

is a long to if you get on the train while people are getting off the train I should be able to execute a citizen's arrest if you if you just gather at the doors and you don't go to the middle when they're facing the middle I should be able to see these are grounds for these are my these are my pet pizza if you're standing on the left side of an escalator and people behind you are trying to walk up the left side and you don't realize it citizens arrest citizens arrest right off the

bad if you stop on a sidewalk in New York City to take a phone call to take a photo to look at your map and you're in the middle of a sidewalk these are the things that are the decline of world society so I I this banana peel thing really stuck with me because I was like this guy just boldly just blocked it right down there at the traffic light I don't think I've ever seen some blatant littering this is actually the speech that's going to resonate with me you could have

said anything and this draft that we're doing right now and if this will not resonate with me as much as you're saying right now everything you're saying is a massive pet peeve of mine and I'm so my convictions and like I really this is up matters to me at the end of the day if I'm walking outside it is a super windy day and just a napkin probably a biodegradable napkin flow it flies

“out of my hands even if it's 50 yards down I'm sprinting to get that thing that's how that's”

how neurotic I am with it so I appreciate you saying in the elevator if I just it just kills me when someone walks in the elevator before I get out vice versa all that stuff but really it's that wave part that gets me and my wife knows this I very very very a resound fire everyone should

go listen this he was absolutely on fire I couldn't believe I never thought anyone would be as

passionate about it as I am and he's more yeah no no it's like I won't say I have road rage but like it it angers me if you I I will I will be so grateful you could do anything to me you can pretty much give me a a fender bender and then wave to me afterwards and I'm okay if you just wave to me I'm happy my one thing to exact and this is actually I thought a lot about this glares on cars as they're driving by I've always wondered how long you have to hold up your hand

on a wave because it's been a month sometimes I can't fully see the driver and I like so I give them a benefit of the doubt if I didn't see a wave that baby during the glare time the gave a wave and that's been that's been bothering me for years now and I don't know the answer I got another one for you actually as you mentioned glares on cars my mind went to can we just can we all agree can you just everyone not do whatever it isn't you're doing

to make your car and/or motorcycle noiseier than it was to begin with like who who wants this who even the person driving the car yeah you start all everyone around you is that what

or whatever you're going it just makes you fucking annoying not just the cars if I were a

“mayor of the world people that would you have be illegal you're not allowed to make your”

you're not allowed to add artificial note okay anyway we're done make your next extension pick the banana peel really set me off no I get it and I feel like we can do a whole pod doing this because I have a whole list of pet peeves so I digress yeah can we talk about us sorry you mentioned him he's on my list yeah he's on my list yeah he's going to be 24 next year you know first time I ever saw him I was like this guy could be one of the best defenders in a league

and then I you know it's very obvious he's an elite defender and we saw it during the playoff especially I got a chance to cover with NBC the magic piston series and just when he's on ball our email he uses just an elite elite defender smart guy physical strong does it all bounce out of the gym but he's a 10 points per game guy cannot shoot there's no spacing and you're on a team where there's a good chance they end up paying during a big amount of money

he can't shoot either right so I like King Cunningham some at elite shooter either but the point is if you're three top guys and two of them cannot shoot the ball that is a dangerous proposition

and when you're looking at a star Thompson you start looking at comps and I always love this

part of negotiation for extensions because we talk with agents and you're doing these negotiations everyone goes you know what I don't want to do comps here I don't believe in comps but then comps start coming out and then the other group goes well if you're going to comp let me if you're going to comp back at you and so a star I'm sure the comp is going to be a well dice and Daniel's got 25 million dollars a year for four years and you know that's going to be the range 25 jail and

sub-scop 30 and they start well offensively this and this and this at the end of the day I look at percentages and I say can a star Thompson be your fourth highest played player paid player on your team and be a championship team because that's where the pistons are trying to be is a championship team at this point and at some point you're going to have to see a growth offensively for me to get behind that because an elite defender is as important as anything in today's league a guy

you can put on ball and say just shut down that guy but if he is that much of a negative offensively

“there's an issue I do think he's gone better I think he will continue to get better but the”

shooting piece is tougher me and I just it's a very interesting one to see of how much willing how much money they're willing to give it was a stranger for both the Thompson twins last year where the kind of linear growth that everyone hoped to see didn't really come at least statistically for either player the idea of putting the ball more and a SARS hands was was positive before the season they happened like a little bit here and there but not not very much that said the numbers you

throughout if I'm the pistons and I can get a star Thompson at Dyson Day and no money I'm doing back flips and I'm doing it immediately I'm betting on both the Thompson twins that doesn't mean I'm maxing out a star I think on man has a better case for the 25% max contract and just be careful to about because if you negotiate that language and any wins defense player there you've got some more money on your you can go up to 30% if you negotiate it which one be did not

“I think a SARS is going to be a very good offensive player at everything but shooting”

and unfortunately shooting remains still the most important part of being a good offensive player

but he's going to be a great passer a great cutter a great offensive rebounder the free throw shooting is problematic and bullets poorly for his jumpshooting but I just think he's so indispensable on defense he's probably the second best defense player in the NBA right now maybe Scotty Barnes over him behind Wemby or chat I guess you can go throw him in there too I just I want him on my team and I understand the spacing problems that he

in during uh represent together but during as I believe 22 and a SARS Thompson is 23 doesn't mean that there's suddenly going to blossom into great shooters I think during has a chance to blossom into like a just good enough mid-range shooter where you these are like first world problems you just want 60 games with an imperfect offensive alignment that we all knew was going to be worse in the playoffs when defense has become better more focused and the sort of chaos points

that the pistons really feast on on the fast break offensive rebounds random backdoor cuts those get closed off a little bit by defenses that are just being more diligent about all of it so that all happened but I he's on my list because I just think there's a very wide range like I there are certain negotiations that are easy and like you're either a minimum guy or you're a max guy there's not much to negotiate this is one where I could see it being much like

jail and duren a a messy negotiation which is why I would expect at the end of the day particularly the longer this duren thing goes I would expect the pistons just say we'll play it out in

all right my turn I'm gonna throw a curl ball at you know you're ready yep what is this the eighth pick of the draft flying through this um I'm gonna combine two players in one but the but the headline player is Pascal siakum who I just don't know if many people realize that he's

already eligible for an extension he has $49 million this year 53 million dollars in 2728 and then

he's an unrestricted free agent he is eligible for a three year $206 million extension which is insane and nobody is ever gonna do that he's 32 years old or 31 years old or something like that right now the pacers have a bunch of guys who are eligible for extensions Tyreys Halliburton is already eligible despite having three years left in this contract by the way I do think I understand extensions are a very useful tool for players and for teams can be very mutually

beneficial it just feels like three years left on an extent on a contract it just feels a little early like Desmond Bane is eligible for an extension and and you get players who are like I'm a star player I want all the money locked in immediately and if I'm a team I'm like dude you can we just not you can we have 18 months to talk about this but Pascal siakum is at the age

“where if I think both sides could go in and say we can get something out of this and and the”

pacers who are in winnow mode just almost one of the championship two years ago if I'm the pacers I'm like I don't know what but I don't know what the fair deal is I don't know what the deal is that he's going to accept we're not going near that max obviously but if I went to him I was like hey man look you're going to be 34 win this deal kicks in we want to give you some security the cap hasn't jumped quite as much as league projections over the last couple of

seasons would you take three years one twenty five like yeah it's a huge fake cut it's like a ten million dollar your fake cut maybe he's insulted by that maybe or would you take two for 90 so forty five million dollars a year and as the pacers I might actually go up to I might

secretly be willing to go up to two years all hundred million stay away from the third year completely

that seems like fair issue to me he's eligible I believe now and the other guy is if he to zoo bots it's eligible in September he'd be coming off the twenty one million dollar contract so you can go 140% of that I think those are both really interesting the pacers don't have much on the books beyond twenty seven twenty eight I think they probably like to see how this team fits together with zoo bots and everybody here before making a decision but Siaka

is an interesting case to me I'm just flagged it I'm flagged it I like that I agree completely I

“don't think I think people underrate how important he is to that team and I also think zoo bots”

is an interesting one because they gave up a lot to get him and so you have to fear that one out and then hard as another guy that's extension eligible I feel like I just saw them hard in the numbers they gave him and I was like wait what and now he's already extension eligible again but the point is Siaka they signed into that deal originally and I think part of their mind was hey we're going to get Jaros Walker we're going to develop him and by the time that Siaka comes starting to

get a little older whatever Jaros Walker steps in Jaros Walker just did not develop into the guy that they were hoping for so not yet not yet there's been so far there's been flashes there's flashes of those shooting amply making that are interesting but to your point I think that two years

16 million dollar deal for Kelly Ubrae is a shot across the bow at Jaros Walker and just be like hey

man if you don't if you don't develop this year like we have an out now where we could do something else with you exactly so but yeah no completely agree that it's definitely worth watching and as

“you said this year's gonna be very important for Indiana to kind of figure out what they got let's pivot”

to a rookie uh Brandon Pajemski with the warriors he was on you was on my honorable mentioned so make the case okay just just at the end of the day we're talking about LeBron with the warriors talking about this and that and how old they are and this for and Pajemski is going to be 24 next season and for some reason and I'm not going to say for some reason and I understand why warriors fans and a lot of people around the league you know there's going to mix thoughts about Pajemski

and a lot of it is just his bravado that he brings out there into style of plays not the most aesthetically pleasing way of playing either but like I put a 14 5 and 4 last year he's like a career 37 and a half percent three point shooter he played all 82 games last year those type of numbers usually mean a significant extension that comes let's keep in mind the warriors do not have the money from the books in the future Jimmy Butler's match contracts expiring step curries

do for an extension dream on green we do not know what he's going to do there's a good chance if LeBron doesn't come he could just really just match whatever his play option was going to be

going forward so Pajemski is a guy to me that at 24 years old he's a guy that you lock up and you keep on this team especially when you have the money and analytically he is a good player he's a good player for them when he's on the court analytically is a dirty word no granddad so the Kendi Ek and soon fiasco analytically analytically branded Pajemski is Michael Jordan 2.0 to be fair though I don't want to get into two minute details but the the conversations you have

during draft time between an analytics department and the scouting department are just fascinating because the analytics will be like this player coming out as a chance to be the next step curried and then you go I'm sorry we're looking at the same player right now what are you talking about and then it just it's such an interesting conversation but we'll get into that another time

anyway Pajemski to me it's going to be 25 million dollars to 20 to 25 million dollars

“extension that's where his realm I think his people will be like Christian Brown that's the number”

they usually should be going for etc etc I think anything between 20 to 25 is very reasonable for branded Pajemski and I actually if I'm the Warriors I try to get that done and I do not try to go into next season trying to figure this out because there is a world that exists where people get hurt again and Pajemski has to play a very big role and all of a sudden he's averaging 17 points etc I try to get this done right now I think he's a really good player I think he'll

mature and he'll become more of the guy that I think people want him to be but I have my eyes on it because people are sleeping on the fact that he is a big rookie extension this offseason coming up I like Pajemski I think Pajemski has kind of been a punching bag for some segments of the Warriors fan base through almost no fault of his own through the front office in particularly Joe Laco kind of talking about as the next big thing I think he's a very good player he could be I mean

you mentioned Christian Brown I said this on my last part these 20 to 30 million dollar deals

for guards and wings are so interesting because you can talk yourself into all of them the moment that they happen like Christian Brown had winning player good defender probably the best perimeter defender on the nuggets pre-pain and Watson's emergence great chemistry with the okay gen you pay 25 million dollars a year for a player like that Keegan Murray that's a little maybe a little nervous but like yeah maybe it's a little overpay but like 30 million dollars

for a three-and-d guy with some feel like that's kind of what you pay Kobe White and I would assume new will be test cases to even I mentioned even Belique Monk who is like completely untradable right now in the moment he signed his deal which is like 20 year like yeah six man to the air candidate comes off the bench sling in three he's good pastor like that's just kind of what you pay and like then all those jailan sucks all those deals are underwater like

they're untradable not Kobe and I though they're just fresh the others are like underwater and untradable so they feel easy and yet they can turn bad fast but I agree I think pods is good he's a good connector feels like a fifth starter on a truly great team which is which is fine and if I'm the worst I can get him for four for eighty I do it if we start going towards like four one hundred four one ten I might just be like we're cool we're going to wait we're going to wait

to those summer but he was on my honorable mention list and very quickly I completely agree with you

“for those numbers and that's why brought up that model of you have to two maxes and you have two”

three positions to be like MLE or a little above that and that's where the percentage is nine to 15% of the cap and does these person discretion brown fit into that mold and that's an important question that you have to ask when you're doing this and very rarely does a workout where you say like how we got him at this price and for instance when I was with a hawks who got Jalen Johnson at five

for one fifty that thirty million and if he had done hurt again and all that would have been like

oh my goodness but at the same time now you're looking at thirty million dollars a year and be like we got a max player at thirty million dollars a year so yeah it could work both ways but I see it a lot of them do go underwater okay let's take quick break I'm going to make my last real pick and then we'll just fly through some others over on our honorable mention list all right for my last pick I'm going to go under the radar and bypass some some sex here

names that will just throw in a honorable mention bucket I'm going to nominate Jalen Wells because I just like these sort of under the radar opportunistic deals that teams and players can strike he's making like essentially the minimum right now is a second round pick I mean functionally about the minimum and they have a team option on him for two point five million dollars next

“year the Grizzlies do I think Jalen Wells is pretty good I think his place in the rookie”

of the year race in a week rookie of the year race got him a little bit overrated and he was maybe a little bit over his head in terms of the level of responsibility he had last year on

we'll put him in a more natural put him back to his kind of natural water level as a solid 3nd guy six seven with some passing chops attacking closeouts and all that if I'm the Grizzlies

“and there are four thinking smart team he's eligible for I think I wrote down the number”

according to Bobby Marx four years 92 million I'm not going anywhere near that but if I can say

if I can go to him and get him on some sort of like mid-levelish deal for four years or something like that I'm going to try to broach that and see how it goes because that could be a really good value to do on a really good value player and I just think those are the kind of like patent friction is eligible for a similar a similar extension with Boston now he's accomplished I think patent friction is a where do I have it somewhere? 3 years 67 million and this is because

the new extension rules you can go 140% of your prior salary which in patent purchase case is not up to where he needs to get or 140% I believe of the league average salary which is how you can get patent friction under three year 70 million dollar almost contract those those can be sneaky valuable plays for teams and so I just I just have my on the jail and most situation that's all yeah no I love it I actually compare it to the Champagne extension that's good one with this

sanitary years 45 right very similar type situation where they had a team option they could have gone with but instead lock them up now you mentioned a just a bunch of guys paint Richard all these guys actually had on my list as well we a little bit an honorable mention because again a lot of it comes down to does the player just walk security I look at the Kong Lesby deal and I say I mean

“I think the sun's got a steel on that one and Kong Lesby at the same time goes I just got”

$48 million so whatever you know he feels good but the sun's got a great player at that number

and if he was on the free agent market if he was a rookie going to extension do you probably would have been asking for $20 to $25 million a year so again I agree with you completely if you can get a guy that are on these options the second-round picks undrafted you pick up these guys it's it's litter the dream situation for a GM and a front office because you can get deals like that I love the sun's let's do rapid fire elbow mentioned because I have some sun stuff

I wrote the sun's had four really good contracts signed this summer fit and not just good like oh they they're stealing money like four foot like they're all what a steel for the team four good and fair contracts Gillespie at four years 48 something like that Mark Williams at three years 36 ish Luke Knard one plus one six six and change a year and Jordan Goodwin two plus one

about six and a half a year all great value contracts they're candidate for this draft which I passed up on

“and I think is one of the biggest wildcards in the league in every sense of the word is Jalen Green”

who has $36 million guaranteed this year in a $36 million player option for 27 28

the sun's also are looking at extensions for Dylan Brooks and Miles Bridges who they just acquired and if you pay those guys about what it's going to take to pay him and you pay Jalen Green something around where his player option is for next season you're looking at a team that is suddenly not including the dead money on the books like $20 million over the tax and that just feels like too much money for a team that's just pretty good at its ceiling I think they're intriguing I

think they've actually done a good job coupling together in intriguing group of young players with almost no resources post-arrant trade but that was one of my one of my other old benches do you want me to just zoom through some others? Well I just I want to group you just everything you said about the four contracts they signed were really good and I think it's just you know people really gave a fair white roof rifle reasons the the sun's a lot of crap for a while for just

being just like when it should be okay man just firing away and all this stuff I think they've done really some approval and smart deals but yeah it would be interesting to see what they do with Dylan Miles and Jalen. All right here's some other honorable mentions that have you ready? You could just play almost like word association. RJ Barrett. That's a great one because the Raptors he's been on trade rumors for now for four straight years depending on what

team he's on that's gonna be an interesting one because he's actually more productive than people have actually given credit for. I think he's underrated kind of a jack of all trades in legit unrestricted free agent after this season. No no options of any kind. $30 million dollars right in the sweet spot were like oh 140% of $30 million dollars that sounds great as a starting salary for RJ Barrett probably sounds horrible to the Raptors what about we keep it about flat it does that sound better

for you so he's on my my let's of course they have to know if Kaly Leonard is on their team or not. Anthony Black among the rookie deal class Orlando already has almost $200 million on the books for

year one of these expensive dudes is getting traded and it could be Anthony Black and some sort of sign-in trade transaction because they just are not gonna carry all these guys on the team. I like Anthony Black a lot kind of a disappointing playoff for him but he was coming off the late season

“he missed some time. I think he's a good player. I wouldn't even begin to know what sort of value”

I'd place on him and he's probably falls into that $28 million dollar bucket where you're just

like okay sure maybe it'll be a bad deal maybe a good deal if I'm his agent so I'm looking at the subsequent contract can be like that guy doesn't play. We get more than that so that's an interesting one. I agree with you completely Anthony Black is a player that I actually I'm pretty fond of I think he has a really high upside and I think at the end of the day if the magic had their way they would move off of jail and sucks contract and put Anthony Black and that's

what's on said. I can't believe neither of us picked. I mean I'm wearing my Dan Housing NYX T-shirt right now. I can't believe neither of us picked the combination of Carl Anthony Towns and Josh Hart. Maybe just to obvious that we all the NYX second apron issues have been so well documented the Brunson next contract is not going to be presumably not going to be a discount.

“Cat has a $61 million dollar player option for $2728. Josh Hart the NYX sold a $22 million”

team option on him for $2728 which they could just sort of lock in and then extend off that eventually but just guys to guys to monitor. Yeah those were very clear ones and you're going to laugh on me. In fact I tell my list I thought we were I get I thought I was going to find the most interesting

thing. I had miles of pride on my list because they cannot afford him. He's made about $18 million

in his career by the time the season is over. He's going to want to get paid. I'm not saying he's a massive piece for them but we're looking at depth and you look at players like that. They're paying this money to Elvarado and sham it just to keep that part of that bench afloat. Miles McBride is going to be a good piece for somebody maybe a six man or that type of thing and the NYX will not be able to afford him so I don't think he's able to get an extension.

When they re-signed Elvarado, I'm a very good deal. One of my first thoughts was whether they might have to trade Miles McBride because there's just not enough room for all of these guards off the bench. They also could just be like hey we just won the championship. We'll keep everyone together this year. We're going to need everybody at some point and then just let them walk and fade and see no harm. Yep. No foul jail and brown that's been well publicized. I wouldn't

“really go there if I were the sixers. I think Brandon Miller that'll be an interesting negotiation”

because he is the one healthy he has the kind of rising track record and positional flexibility that you would typically go in and be like oh we're just like Franz Wagner and out the max I'll get the max too. And I think the Hornets are run pretty well and understand the leverage that they'll have an restricted frequency. But Brandon Miller's last 30 something games last year, 40 something games. Again, not a coincidence that the Hornets surge really started when he became

healthy and available and productive consistently. He was not far from like being that player that we only saw for 30 or 40 games. So take it with whatever Grin and saw you want. Was not far from like should he be in the third team all in B.A. just fringe conversation at least. So he's on my list. I mentioned Payton, Richard Tyler hero, Numa walkie buck, Denny Abdiah. I just want to mention because his salary is solo that he's almost unexpendable unless the blazers are able

to open cap space and renegotiate him up and extend him out. Scoot Henderson. That was guy. That was what I was going to say. Scoot Henderson. And his $40 million capital if he goes into free agency as a restricted free agent next summer. I don't even know where you begin to negotiate that and that means you probably don't because not only is he missed like what half his games if not more in his time with the blazers. But he's been sometimes productive, sometimes I'm

productive at a very nice finish the last season. But also almost kind of changed positions from point guard to off guard, combo guards, something guard next to Denny Abdiah and all the other millions of guards they have on the team now, including John Moran. And of course they have as Bill Cointem, El Chippo, Tom Dundon, who's just firing everybody. I mean, he came out today that they don't care about the broadcast quality of their team. So Happers Stroke gone Kevin

Calabra, one of the great play by play guys in NBA history. They lowballed him. He's gone. I don't know what's going to happen to Lamar herd. I don't even know if they're going to have a real broadcast next year at this point. So Scoot wouldn't be optimistic about Scoot getting a huge, a huge

contract extension. But he is, I'm, I never gave up on Scoot five games. Literally five games

draft debate. Clearly don't want it to make the right pick. But even then I was like Scoot, Scoot still got something. And I just don't know what it is. No, I completely agree with everything you said. Also remember, John Moran's on the book, Struha, the Endane, both have player options

axes in Dru is a 37 million dollar. They have a locked up shaden chart. They have Tomani Kumar,

Danny's going to have to get paid. The chances of them paying Scoot Henderson. I don't want to say zero, but I give 2% chance they extend it because they don't even know what they have with them. As you said, he says stretches were issues like 45% from three. And then the next stretch he shoots nothing. So I actually still have a spot on Scoot Island. I actually really like him.

“But to your point, he's not a point card. He's a combo guard. I think he can do a lot of things.”

His shot is health all the matter. But I'll give it a 2% chance he gets an extension done. I think you got to go a little iteration when it all possible with your NBA geography. So I would go to Scoot Straits. I think you're sitting in the Scoot Straits. Here are some that I would

mention. I would I filed under the almost two obvious to devote all that much time to Steph Curry.

This summer, I believe he's eligible for a 2-year extension in August at some point. Nicole Yokech, that's been well covered. He is not going to sign his extension this year. And he is or he said, I will resound with Denver live here for the rest of my life. NBA life anyway. We'll see. Darius Garland, I've already talked about. If I'm the clippers, I'm saying, no, thank you. Let me see you play. And then we'll revisit DeAndre Hunter,

Hard Know. Kasean Wallace talked a lot about him in the aftermath of the door trade. They're obviously going to extend him. It's just going to be a matter of how big the price gets. I love Kasean Wallace. He'll be on the Thunder one way or another. Who else do I have here?

“But they have to keep in mind, AJ Mitchell's coming up soon with a contract, too. So you have to be”

worried about like he's. AJ Mitchell's one guy. I just want to put out there that I think can run an NBA team in a couple years and be one of the starters in this league. I'm unbelievably high on AJ Mitchell. So they're he's going to be costing a lot of money soon. Yeah, he's next in line. He and McCain are both eligible for extensions after next season. Kasean is eligible now. I would be very surprised if the Thunder didn't take care of him with with the door in the

aftermath of the door trade where he and Karusa are now sort of like the code number one stoppers on the team. But door to himself is eligible for an extension. I don't know. He's on an inspiring deal. I don't know what the Hawks will do there. I'm so I know there's a lot of people who like, oh, it's pretty obvious. They'll actually don't. They have a lot of guys that play that same position. I wouldn't be surprised if they let this one play out throughout the year and then

figure out afterwards. Another interesting day, I'm going to throw it by you is Derek Lively. You was literally the next guy I was going to mention. He's just he's just people forget about him. But two years ago with Luca and everyone he was going to be the next big thing. He was going to be the center and we've seen how the center's position this the off season is just so you got to find a guy right now because everyone's getting paid. But he's only played 44 games in the last two

years and he just get they have gaffered under contract. I doubt they get something done. But if I'm them, if I do think he can get healthy and that's their doctors, their health, they are the ones that know that the truth behind Derek Lively's body. I would actually try to get a lowball team control thing done because if he gets healthy and goes his last year and plays really well for them, the numbers between what you can sign now versus what you can sign later is just astronomical

“difference, but that's up to their health officials there. You just described exactly why I think”

there will be no Derek Lively extension. He's clutch as well. He's he's with Rich Paul and clutch. My guess would be that they will not entertain whatever Dallas is going to offer precisely because Dallas will go to him and say hey, you haven't played much here as an extension that would be piled up with us and they'll just say well bet on ourselves. If they if they have faith in self a bit, but we'll bet on ourselves. Not you martial also significantly extension eligible. I mentioned

Kelden Johnson. The spurs have a lot of big money issues coming down the line. Jailant Smith speaking of decent NBA backup centers. Not Derek Lively's backup. I don't mean to say that. He's not he's a starter when healthy. And then I'm going to conclude at least my honorable mention with one that is near and dear to your heart. I'm guessing. Also sort of like under the radar extension eligible. Anyaka Kangu. That's literally who is my one person I was going to say to conclude

for myself. 16 million this year. 16.9 guaranteed in 2728. And again, extension where you can go up

to 140% of of the average salary or 16.8 million, whichever is higher, which capsit added number that

presents the opportunity for a Congo to lock in someone. You remember this is a guy who is not a

“full-time starter for most of his career. And I think even last year there were some doubts about”

whether he would be when Pursingus was there. And really emerged as a stalwart to a player for them. A little undersized is a room protector rebounder, but like a good player. And it's three point shooting appears to be very, very real and very important for how they're building out their team. With a bunch of like so-so three point shooters around him. That just seems like there's an opportunity there for both the Hawks and a Congo to figure something out ahead of time that makes sense.

Might be a year early, but I don't have any opposition to them trying to figure something out. I love double-o. He's my guy. I just, when we signed him to the deal that he's on right now

at that time, we were like, please shoot the three ball. Please shoot the three ball.

Meas has a tempo. We saw behind the scenes that he could. And I'm just so glad he started to launch the one thing about Inyaka, one thing that we also saw was we even actually played him at the four a few times with Koinkapela. And he played well. And now that he's really shooting the three

“ball, I think that's what makes him more versatile as he can actually play the four and five.”

And when he's being able to do that, it just brings a whole Swiss army and I think to him that I just, I'm a huge Inyaka fan that I hope it works out there, but I also could see other teams being like, hey, I'll play a premium to get him and bring him in as a Swiss army knife for us as well. And that gives the hawks and a opportunity to go after like a heart and sign type player in the future that they think maybe could fix their rim protection a little bit more.

All right, last thing that has nothing with any of this, I'm going to get into Stalgic. Are you ready? Did you see the ESPN layouts this week? I did. Yes. Obviously, I'm familiar with the process. Con through it and also I have been gone through it when the call came in is that was ironing my suit in my hotel room in Los Angeles all the way across the country from where I live about to go on television.

I'm familiar with the entire process of it. I have no judgment. I have no emotional feelings really about it one way or the other. I certainly like, I think the blame Steven A and Maca

“fee stuff is like, it's not their fault that they're wildly popular. That's what they shouldn't”

be doing. The one thing I will say was one of the names that got, and I don't know any,

literally I have no relationship with any of the people who got laid off. I've never talked to Ryan

Clark. I've never talked to Carl Rabbit. I've never talked to David Lloyd. I've never talked to Stefania Bell. I've never talked to any of them. I have no relationship with them. I just want to shout out Carl Rabbit. 33 years at ESPN. How old are you Grant? I'm 39. So your 10 years are going to be you may have missed. There was a period of time in the late 90s through early 2000s. When Carl Rabbit, are you baseball fan? Oh, baseball tonight was my favorite show ever. I mean,

literally I would, it was that eight year span. When the 18 on baseball tonight was ravaged, Harold Reynolds and Peter Gammons was like the best show on television. All television. I watched it every single night. Now this is pre-Twitter pre-social media, free. You already saw the highlights since the unique environments that doesn't exist anymore. I get it. But those three guys, to the point that when you would flip it on,

I would like fist pump. Like I had roommates who would all gather to watch it together at that time. It was fist pump. The 18 is on. It was absolutely indispensable. And he was the driver of the car. He had his own little catchphrases for a highlights that were really funny himself. I just want to shout out Carl Rabbit because that's a lifetime of work and that kind of show almost doesn't exist really anymore. And I just wanted to shout him out because I just

that show with those three guys in particular was as good. In my mind, a lot of people go NFL prime time and NFL prime time was awesome when it was Burman and Tom Jackson in more and all that. And I watched that too. But I just wasn't as big an NFL fan. To me, that nightly show what with those three guys was as good as the SPN ever got and has ever been. I completely agree. baseball tonight to me is actually one of the reasons I even wanted to get

into the side of the business because actually they look like they're having so much fun. And all the way back between watching that show and then getting up in the morning, reading the newspaper, looking at box scores of baseball games the next morning. It's just those combination that got me so excited every day. Yeah, Rabbit just to me was just it was just awesome. I agree. I'll bring back and just bring back some fields. I listen to the

music and it didn't. And when it goes in and like it would just be the best. So I completely agree with you. It's just such a crappy part of this business. This whole thing of the layoffs. And every year every year we have to talk about this. It's just sucks. All these people will land on their feet and be fine. Appropos which listeners regularly listen to this podcast will remember that I was

of course because why would anything go right for the meds this season or for me personally is

a baseball fan this season. Your boy is throwing out the first pitch on Saturday. It's city field

before meds Dodgers. Have I practiced throwing off a mound? Yes, I have. Am I a little bit nervous? Absolutely. But I feel ready. I feel like I'm going to be in the zone. And I'm throwing off the mound. I'm not going to do anything. She can chicken shit throw it from in front of the mound. I'm not calling anyone out. Okay. Like there are certain people literally they're too old or too young or too weak to do it. I am an able-bodied 48-year-old male. I am throwing from the rubber

on Saturday. Can you do me a favor? First of all, this is my dream. And if you're listening San Francisco Giants, just remember. They suck, right? Don't they suck this? Yeah, the meds and the Giants. They pay a lot of money and they suck. What do they have gone for them? Bring you in.

“That's what I'm talking about. What else is happening? At least give them like I'm like they”

can all boo me or something. But when you do me a favor, first of all, when you get out, they're a little flick of the wrist, like I'm throwing fastball. Right. Right. But like, actually puts them in behind it. I'm so sick of people just kind of love like I'm not saying throw 80, but I'm just like put it on a line. I don't want to try to put it on a line. I'm going to try to put it on to it. Don't give me any curvature. I want to see it on a line. Because everyone's

advice is don't miss low. If you miss miss high. And so that, that makes you just want to just throw a lollipop up there. I'm going to try to throw what passes for me throwing a ball in a real way. I have joked, but my family's just like, you just not embarrass us in any, like for that doesn't mean a bad throw. That means like don't, don't hand it up. And so I'm like, can I check on the runner at first? Can I look at it? And they're like, don't, don't do that. Anyway, we'll flick of the fastball

like flick with the, with the glove hand. And then what, what arm slot? Are you coming over the top

three quarters? Where you coming from? It's a great question. I throw how I throw and I've never analyzed

if it's, if it's not over, it's probably three quarters. Probably three quarters for this. I enjoyed by the way. The all swing of the pitches. The all start. We watch the all start game because my daughter is now unfortunately for a metz fan slash baseball fan. I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I enjoyed the picture and the catcher being miced up and talking about what pitch they were going through. I thought that was really cool. That was cool. I don't know if that's

a new thing or not, but stuff like that. I actually is very enjoyable. I think all fans like that. I don't know. Some of the other fluffy stuff not for me, but that's, that's pretty cool. All right. Well, let's go. Metz Grant Liftman. So tell everyone like what your NBC or responsibilities are going to be next year. Because we saw you do a combination of things you're a front office insider, you're doing some sideline. Is that going to be the same next year?

Where are we going to see you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can find me on NBCSports.com. They've put up a lot of videos, especially during the off season, putting up a lot of stuff, especially on YouTube, and you find those things. But during the season, I'll be doing some studio work, really trying to explain things. They call me a little wide guy, why something happened. I'm not going to be news breaking. I'm not going to be sitting there saying like, this is about to happen.

It's more news breaking and such. So it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm excited to do it and we'll be doing something again. We're up to doing court side and all that. But how would it be here,

“man? Do you remember the first time we met, Zah? I believe we met at Oracle Arena or outside Oracle”

Arena and my Mr. Remembering that when you were doing TV and audio stuff for the Warriors? No, so we actually knew each other because I had to ask you to come on for that. This is just it's really sad that I remember this. But I was kind of a rookie at Vegas Summer League. This is a decade ago, maybe further back. And I show up and I don't really know what I'm doing and I show up at this dinner at hobbyers, the Mexican space. Oh, I do remember, I remember it's exact dinner.

I can remember the cast of characters who is there. So what was the Warriors dinner? Yeah, I was a Warriors dinner. It's like 20 dudes there and I show up and I didn't know what I was showing up for and I bring my girlfriend to it. Yeah, it's a sad time for her. Yeah, and you're like, oh no, like you're the guy, you're the girl. I'm so that before. Yeah, and I was like, I was like, oh, no, what have I done? And so luckily, she's awesome and she could hang and she probably

knows more about basketball than I do. But like the point was, was that I was like, you really like, you wanted to make it known that you're the guy that brought the girl to dinner. And I was like, yeah, I tried to own it a little bit, but deep down I was like, man, it's actually right. I just like,

“I'm that guy. But I remember that that's still as a hotspot and Vegas Summer League that that restaurant,”

Grand Liffman. It's great to see you virtually. I sounds like I'll see you around the circuit next year and maybe by then LeBron will have signed Grand Liffman everyone. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, that's it for today's edition of the Zach Losho. Thanks to Grand Liffman of NBC.

Thanks as always to Mike Jonathan and Billy on production and thanks to you all for listening to

and/or watching the Zach Losho. We will be back next week at less LeBron signs in the meantime. It'll be next week and with a couple more episodes before I head out to my annual Europe sojourn.

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