Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat Jack without the Olympics.
Speaker 1: This may be vacation season, but here we are an
Speaker 1: off season show for you. We will talk Olympics, then
Speaker 1: we get into some recent signings, and finally it's more
Speaker 1: Zach Lavine talk. I fucking love these bulls. Bro, you
Speaker 1: heard it right, Anthony drop that fucking beat. This should
Speaker 1: be Rihanna, but odyst he's too cheap to pay for
Speaker 1: the rights. But so what, We're just gonna keep it rolling.
Speaker 1: Am I vacation? Yes? Am I recording a podcast from
Speaker 1: my childhood home in a bedroom. Bit I continue to
Speaker 1: sneeze in because I think I'm allergic to it. Also, yes,
Speaker 1: Team USA now two to zero in Olympic play. Things
Speaker 1: are looking pretty damn good. Actually, KD is cooking. He
Speaker 1: was eight for nine from the field and the win
Speaker 1: over Serbia. He put up fourteen against South Sudan. Lebron
Speaker 1: is lebroning to the surprise of many but not me.
Speaker 1: Derek White is getting a ton of minutes, balling the
Speaker 1: fuck out on both ends of the floor. But according
Speaker 1: to some, there is drama bruining because it turns out
Speaker 1: some people are upset that Steve Kerr is using the
Speaker 1: Olympics to continue his policy of load management, and the
Speaker 1: first player to get benched was Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: the dude cannot catch a break, and of course the
Speaker 1: internet went crazy with memes with shots of him glowering
Speaker 1: on the bench, leading to a million This is the
Speaker 1: beginning of Tatum's villain arc posts on my feed and
Speaker 1: everybody's saying Tatum's gonna be coming back with a vengeance
Speaker 1: in Boston, and obviously Tatum wasn't particularly excited about it.
Speaker 1: When asked how he feel, he said, you win a title,
Speaker 1: you get a new contract, NBA two K cover Sports
Speaker 1: Illustrated cover. So after all of this, it was definitely
Speaker 1: a humbling experience. A humbling experience is buying your first
Speaker 1: knife car, thinking that you're hot shit and then parking
Speaker 1: next to a McLaren. This this is beyond a humbling experience.
Speaker 1: This is being named prom king, getting a Porsche for
Speaker 1: your birthday, then getting d one offer and still not
Speaker 1: being able to get the waitress's number at the local
Speaker 1: waffle house. So then there's backlash. They askedte Kerr, what's up,
Speaker 1: what happened? He was, uh, like, I'm sorry, I fucked up.
Speaker 1: I felt so bad. I was a it was a
Speaker 1: I felt like an idiot. But I told him it
Speaker 1: was gonna happen before the game started. But he'll he'll
Speaker 1: be starting next game. And he did start the next
Speaker 1: game against Sal Sudan, and he played seventeen minutes, went
Speaker 1: two for four, scoring just four points and one shot
Speaker 1: off the side of the backboard. My Man Tatum did
Speaker 1: not look engaged. He did not look confident. He looked
Speaker 1: shooketh Hopefully, I mean, I don't really care, but for him,
Speaker 1: hopefully he'll get over this. Tatum's got a lot and
Speaker 1: by the way, the twenty twenty Olympics he was a
Speaker 1: second leading scorer. He does have a lot going on
Speaker 1: right now. Uh. The second latest victim of kerz Low
Speaker 1: management was Joel Embii, who did not see the floor
Speaker 1: at all against Sal Sudan. But to be fair, Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid seemed quite engaged during the game. He didn't have
Speaker 1: a ton of bad body language, and after the game,
Speaker 1: Kurr announced that he would start in their third game
Speaker 1: against Puerto Rico. The question really is, who is Steve
Speaker 1: kerrgan a bench in game three? Is it gonna be
Speaker 1: Devin Booker, is it gonna be Steph Curry? Who knows?
Speaker 1: One guy who we know won't be benched is Kawhi
Speaker 1: and a baby. And we'll have to get into the
Speaker 1: new tea that's spilled about him soon later next week
Speaker 1: in the Metal Round. We'll be back for an episode
Speaker 1: to talk about that. But for now, Team USA is
Speaker 1: humming and they'll look very very tough to beat. Not
Speaker 1: that much popping, by the way, besides the Olympics tournament,
Speaker 1: but we can get into it anyway. The biggest news
Speaker 1: is coming out of Cleveland, which has been busy as
Speaker 1: a beaver in this offseason. Not only did they resigned
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell to a three year, one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million dollar extension, they then fall up with giving Evan
Speaker 1: Mopley a rookie max five years two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: four million that can balloon up to two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty nine million with incentives. And now, despite all the
Speaker 1: rumors that he might not actually be a player on
Speaker 1: this team that is here for the long haul, Jared
Speaker 1: Allen gets his money. He was the subject of trade
Speaker 1: rumors and now he's getting three years ninety one million
Speaker 1: max extension. Good on my guy, d Pal for getting
Speaker 1: the job done. Solid work, Solid work for a guy
Speaker 1: that a lot of people thought, I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's gonna stick around, and a lot of teams thought
Speaker 1: maybe we could go get him. All of this begs
Speaker 1: the question, though, where's Darius Garland and all this? Is
Speaker 1: he gonna get paid? Is he gonna get traded? Does
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell want to play with him? Is it gonna work?
Speaker 1: Because I don't know if running it back makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense considering that Boston's a wagon. The Knicks
Speaker 1: got better, the Calves almost got swept to the Magic.
Speaker 1: The Magic got better, the Pacers are good, the Sixers
Speaker 1: got better. I don't know. Dog training Garland would at
Speaker 1: least shake things up. You could probably get something good back.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure though, that there's enough basketball to go
Speaker 1: around in Cleveland. Things looked good with Evan Mobley once
Speaker 1: Jared Allen got injured. Things got good with Jared Allen
Speaker 1: when Evan Moby got injured. So I don't know, two
Speaker 1: undersized guards not feeling it, not feeling it, especially once
Speaker 1: they don't play great defense and do pretty much the
Speaker 1: same thing. And also Darius Garland's playoff. I don't even
Speaker 1: know if I would call it performance, playoff mediocrity bad
Speaker 1: sign to me. I like Cleveland as a team, I do.
Speaker 1: I think they're building something. I like Kenny Atkinson, but
Speaker 1: they are like a boring apparel brand, like Champion. It's
Speaker 1: like the quality's good and like it lasts and it's
Speaker 1: like fine, good value. But you know, you go to
Speaker 1: the stories. I don't know. I guess that's like Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess they went on in eighteen
Speaker 1: and where they were in eighteen one or twenty and
Speaker 1: three in midway through the season and no one gave
Speaker 1: a fuck, No one cares. It's Cleveland. This team I
Speaker 1: think needs a make over. And with now they're big
Speaker 1: three signed, it feels like Darius Garland's on the outside
Speaker 1: and it feels like a Coreo might be two. Apparently
Speaker 1: a KORL is looking for a sign sign in trade,
Speaker 1: so that might bring in a little new blood as well.
Speaker 1: One thing is for sure, Cleveland now, I guess, is
Speaker 1: now gonna be built around Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, and
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell for the next two to possibly three years
Speaker 1: and less Jared Allen as a bonafie trade chip like
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown was for Indiana. Moving on, lots of other signings,
Speaker 1: mostly minor to report. Some are more interesting than others.
Speaker 1: Here's one that I cannot understand. My Trailblazers sign Devonte
Speaker 1: grahams had to pause the sneeze because I'm allergic to
Speaker 1: this room. Devonte Graham to a one year deal, which
Speaker 1: is fascinating because all of the teams that need a
Speaker 1: backup guard. I didn't know that Portland was at the
Speaker 1: top of that list. I thought that actually were the
Speaker 1: bottom of that list. No idea why they signed him,
Speaker 1: but I do like Davante Graham. I remember there was
Speaker 1: a time a bunch of teams wanted Davonte Graham. He
Speaker 1: was a solid backup NBA guard, but he's only played
Speaker 1: forty six games in the last two years. Played it
Speaker 1: for the Spurs, he averaged five to two and two
Speaker 1: on fourteen minut it's per game, mostly in mop up,
Speaker 1: garbage time roles. But remember dude, twenty eighteen twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: he was averaging eighteen points and eight assists and three rebounds.
Speaker 1: He was a top contender for most Improved Player. What
Speaker 1: the fuck happened. Maybe he's gonna like be a Malcolm
Speaker 1: Brogden type. Maybe he gets moved at the deadline to
Speaker 1: a team like the Lakers. I don't know. But moving
Speaker 1: on another signing, precious to Chewa goes back to New York.
Speaker 1: He waved his no trade clause resigned with the Knicks,
Speaker 1: who were desperate for their backup center as we know
Speaker 1: after Isaiah Harten's seign ended up going to OK Steve.
Speaker 1: He signed a one year, six million deal to back
Speaker 1: up Mitchell Robinson. And we know that center is the
Speaker 1: weakest position on the Knicks, which is like largely a
Speaker 1: very strong roster because Robinson is a walking hospital wing
Speaker 1: like he is a walking boot ready to happen. Hopefully
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson is healthy, hopefully, but Precious to Chutia might
Speaker 1: just fuck around and get some minutes, which maybe ends
Speaker 1: up landing him in the exact same spot as Isaiah Hartenstein,
Speaker 1: which is a bigger deal on a different team that
Speaker 1: pays him for a role that he actually wants to
Speaker 1: be in. Another interesting pickup was in Phoenix where Tias
Speaker 1: Jones another guy who says, listen, I'll take a one
Speaker 1: year deal and I'll take it for a little minimum
Speaker 1: money because I want a role that showcases everything that
Speaker 1: I can do. So Tias was one of the more
Speaker 1: in demand players and I thought maybe he would sign
Speaker 1: a multi year deal, but the money just wasn't right.
Speaker 1: So he says, Okay, fine, I'll go to Phoenix. I'll
Speaker 1: be the starting point guard. I'll be better than Chris
Speaker 1: Paul was in that role. I'm making the minimum. I
Speaker 1: have the highest assistant ternal ratio in the entire NBA.
Speaker 1: We know that Phoenix needs a real point guard. This
Speaker 1: is an awesome fit, just an awesome, awesome fit for Phoenix.
Speaker 1: This automatically propels them to a place that they just
Speaker 1: were not at. Now you got Devin Booker able to
Speaker 1: play the two, you got Kevin Durant being able to
Speaker 1: play the three or the four. Maybe Bradley Beal is
Speaker 1: like a six man, which is a great spot for him.
Speaker 1: Tias is a very serviceable guard. Rumors were that he
Speaker 1: was going to go back to Minnesota, but then the
Speaker 1: Wolves drafted Rob Dillingham and that made that unlikely. I
Speaker 1: love this. Also sightings of notes Grizzlies makeup cap space
Speaker 1: to sign Luke Canard on a one year eleven million
Speaker 1: dollar deal. It was thought that they were targeting him
Speaker 1: on a multi year deal, but I think they settled
Speaker 1: on like a placeholder contract. They were hoping that their
Speaker 1: cap space might open up and they maybe get him
Speaker 1: for a longer term deal, or potentially they trade him
Speaker 1: at the deadline, using that amount of money to get
Speaker 1: a player that they actually find to be a game
Speaker 1: changer for them when healthy. Though, Luke Canard is a
Speaker 1: sniper forty four percent career from three and this absolutely
Speaker 1: continues to help melt Memphis in a spot that they
Speaker 1: need which you shoot, opening up the floor for John
Speaker 1: Morant like Titus Jones. Another victim of the second Apron
Speaker 1: was Gary Trent Junior, who apparently turned down bigger offers,
Speaker 1: including multi season deals at five point two million dollars
Speaker 1: a year, to sign with Milwaukee Dame time remember Dame
Speaker 1: and Gary Trent Junior played for Portland at one point
Speaker 1: when Gary Trent Junior got drafted there. So he is
Speaker 1: now gonna make a shockingly low one year, two point
Speaker 1: six million dollar deal in hopes that he will play
Speaker 1: his way into a larger contract next year. In Indiana,
Speaker 1: they continue to make all the right moves they lock
Speaker 1: up Andrew Nemhard to a three year, fifty nine million
Speaker 1: dollars deal, and then in Indiana, being Indiana, Nemhard was
Speaker 1: immediately rumored to be on the trade block. Remember he
Speaker 1: got real be really hot in the playoffs and they said,
Speaker 1: fuck no, Pacers decided we're gonna treat him however he
Speaker 1: wants to be treated. Andrew Nemmart actually turned down a
Speaker 1: four year, eighty one million dollar deal because he knows
Speaker 1: what his value looks like. But he is now gonna
Speaker 1: be on the books for a while now. Baller move
Speaker 1: for the Pacers front office, who, like the g in Lasagna,
Speaker 1: is silently moving well, tastily and with purpose. All right,
Speaker 1: move forward. Clippers signed Chris Dunn with a three years,
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollar deal. The last two years or the
Speaker 1: first two years are guaranteed. The last year is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Remember done, really fascinating. Done resurrected his botty career last
Speaker 1: two years in Utah. I think he played in Portland
Speaker 1: as well. He now gets played pretty damn well from
Speaker 1: the Clippers who are in need of a big defensive
Speaker 1: presence to fulfill, you know, to fill the Russell Westbrook role.
Speaker 1: I like the signing a lot. I like the fact
Speaker 1: that Dunn was able to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: be basically out the league to getting a three year,
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollar deal. Good for you, Chris Dunn. And finally,
Speaker 1: the Sixers signed Reggie Jackson on a one year deal.
Speaker 1: Thirteen year vet. He's a thirteen year VET. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: He's averaged ten or more points over the last decade.
Speaker 1: He's gonna give them a bunch of flexibility at the
Speaker 1: guard position from a proven winner and an NBA champion.
Speaker 1: I feel like Darryl Mory is having a really really
Speaker 1: good summer. Daryl Mourry's probably his best summer in a while.
Speaker 1: A lot of minor deals have been signed. Wizards inked
Speaker 1: Anthony gil to a two year, four point seven million
Speaker 1: dollar deal. Sons traded David Roddy the Hawks for EJ. Ladell, who,
Speaker 1: for his part, got waived immediately. ORB Roddy got a
Speaker 1: bunch of run in Memphis last year when the team
Speaker 1: went down with a bunch of injuries. It's been really,
Speaker 1: really tough sledding for Memphis the last couple of years
Speaker 1: in terms of injuries and suspensions. He's gonna move to Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I think he's probably gonna get some playing time. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Hawks are probably not gonna be very good. The
Speaker 1: MAVs signed Kessler Edwards, remember former King who averaged three
Speaker 1: and a half points and twelve minutes the last three years.
Speaker 1: He's another like veteran backup, big sort of wing presence.
Speaker 1: Keon Johnson returned to Brooklyn Wow on a two year deal.
Speaker 1: Roumber they drafted him. He averaged sixteen, six and four
Speaker 1: in the Summer League. The Pelicans inc Carlo I don't
Speaker 1: know Matchovich to a three year, five point six million
Speaker 1: dollar deal. There's a bunch of other ones that you
Speaker 1: don't really care care about. I do like this Knicks
Speaker 1: pick up Chuma a Kiki the sixteenth pick in the
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen draft. I really like Chuma Akiki on this team.
Speaker 1: I feel like Worldwide West and Leon Rose are just
Speaker 1: making moves, continuing to make moves. He played really well
Speaker 1: on the Magic Like. He wasn't huge in terms of production,
Speaker 1: but I just like what I saw out of him
Speaker 1: minutes a game player. Just as to the depth of
Speaker 1: what the Knicks want to do, we know that if
Speaker 1: they get injured, they need to find that depth. They
Speaker 1: need to find guys who can play a bunch of
Speaker 1: different positions and revers it all. So I really like
Speaker 1: that for New York. And finally, a lot of familiar
Speaker 1: and kind of familiar NBA names are moving to Europe.
Speaker 1: Not just Patrick Beverley, who's going to be the Israeli League.
Speaker 1: Sergia Baca goes to Real Madrid after a year at
Speaker 1: Bayern Munich. He is going to join Chimezi Metu in
Speaker 1: the Spanish League Metu. By the way, he signed an
Speaker 1: overseas contract with FC Barcelona. Former Kings guard Jordan Ford
Speaker 1: signed with the Italian league Aquila Basket Trento. What a name.
Speaker 1: Trey Burke headed to Puerto Rico. Former Thunder player Isaiah
Speaker 1: Roby is off to the German League. Dwayne Washington Junior
Speaker 1: signed with the Serbian squad KK partisan. Bruno Fernando was
Speaker 1: waived by the Hawks and it's probably going to go
Speaker 1: to Europe as well. But the most fascinate was former
Speaker 1: EuroLeague MVP Sashevazenkov, who remember Sacramento goat last offseason and
Speaker 1: everybody was super excited, but he could not crack the lineup.
Speaker 1: No one knew what was going on. It was super weird.
Speaker 1: He ends up getting traded. He's like, I'm not staying
Speaker 1: in the NBA. They're like, you have to. Anyway, he
Speaker 1: ended up not taking any money on a buyout just
Speaker 1: to get out of his contract in Toronto. He's now
Speaker 1: rumored to be headed back to Greece into Olympiakos. His
Speaker 1: five year, eighteen million dollar a year deal is one
Speaker 1: of the largest in European history. Fascinating. A couple of
Speaker 1: moves that have not been made yet. We do not
Speaker 1: know what's going on with the Utah Jazz. They haven't
Speaker 1: signed their rookies yet. They haven't done anything with Lori
Speaker 1: Markina yet. Some say they're looking to get into the
Speaker 1: buying market and get Brandon Ingram who knows. But the
Speaker 1: Warriors want Louri Markina. The Jess say, we're only doing
Speaker 1: it if we can get Pajemski. Golden State is like,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. So market is probably gonna sign
Speaker 1: an extension to stick around in Utah until they move
Speaker 1: him a year from now. Moving on, a couple of
Speaker 1: other things popping in the league. We have to talk
Speaker 1: about Zach Lavine. Uh. Last time we checked, we noted
Speaker 1: that NBA execs consider Zach Levine an untradeable asset. They
Speaker 1: don't want 'em. One of the worst contracts in the league.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are very mad about that. Agents
Speaker 1: are mad about that. Other players are mad about that.
Speaker 1: Mark Stein reports that the Bulls are resigned to have
Speaker 1: to play him a bunch of minutes because they feel
Speaker 1: like they can't build up his trade value any other way. Uh,
Speaker 1: when vouch is an easier contract to move than Zach Levine,
Speaker 1: you know it's really bad. How do you feel? Zach
Speaker 1: not great as it turns out. So, there was a
Speaker 1: big article written in ESPN this week just kind of
Speaker 1: like how the Bulls decided they needed to like really
Speaker 1: lean into the fact they fuck and sucked and they
Speaker 1: had to rebuild anyway. According to that article, Lavine feels
Speaker 1: like he's a skapegoat. He feels like he's been singled
Speaker 1: out too much for the Bulls sucking. This is what
Speaker 1: he said or this is what the article said. Lavine
Speaker 1: has also felt singled out during film sessions and feels
Speaker 1: like he has taken on too much blame for the
Speaker 1: team's losing during his tenure, which has produced one playoff
Speaker 1: appearance in seven years despite other roster failings. Donovan meanwhile,
Speaker 1: believes he's trying to get Leavin to buy and no
Speaker 1: more team friendly playing style, emphasizing the way the Bulls
Speaker 1: competed in Lavine's absence as evidence for the team's potential
Speaker 1: if Lavine just fits within the system. Damn when the
Speaker 1: coaches out there showing film of how the team looks
Speaker 1: better with you not on the court to illustrate how
Speaker 1: the offense and defense should be run. God, you gotta
Speaker 1: feel some fucking on a way about that. Get out
Speaker 1: of there, Get out Vooch, Get out Levine, Get out, guys.
Speaker 1: We'll have an eye on Levine and the Bulls and
Speaker 1: the rest of them a lot this year because it
Speaker 1: could be very well in implosion of epic epic proportions.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we After this episode of
Speaker 1: the Heat Check, come back on tomorrow or next week
Speaker 1: excuse me for an all new episode. Check out the
Speaker 1: feed for past episodes of many episodes which chop unexpectedly,
Speaker 1: like the temperature in Portland which set all time records,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden it gets cold at night.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to follow the Heat Check throughout the
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