Speaker 1: The Volume.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 2: Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had
Speaker 2: a great weekend at a quick getaway into Texas for
Speaker 2: a family wedding, flew out on Saturday, flew back on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and in that span quite a few players have been
Speaker 2: signed and or traded. We're gonna be hitting on sixteen
Speaker 2: teams today, rapid fire style. We're gonna start with the
Speaker 2: Damian Lillard trade request, talk a little bit about some
Speaker 2: of my thoughts on that, and then we're gonna get
Speaker 2: to the other fifteen teams and a bunch of different signings.
Speaker 2: I did scouts on a couple of those European guys
Speaker 2: that both signed for twenty plus million here in the
Speaker 2: States for the Thunder and the Kings. The one team
Speaker 2: we're not going to hit on in this particular show
Speaker 2: is the Los Angeles Lakers. Since our last video, they've
Speaker 2: signed Cam Reddish, Jackson Hayes. They resigned Austins, Dangel Russell,
Speaker 2: and Ruy Hachimura, all on team friendly numbers. But I
Speaker 2: want to do like a whole separate video on the
Speaker 2: Lakers for a bunch of different reasons. One because Rob
Speaker 2: Polinka has had some wins over the course of basically
Speaker 2: since the trade deadline two now that I think are
Speaker 2: worthy of covering. Also, I'm a Lakers fan, as you
Speaker 2: guys know are I'm a fan of this particular Lakers team,
Speaker 2: at least while Lebron James is on it, So I
Speaker 2: want to just take a little bit more time there.
Speaker 2: So we're not gonna hit the Lakers today. The teams
Speaker 2: are written today, the Blazers, the Suns, the Warriors, the Rockets,
Speaker 2: the Raptors, the Heat, the MAVs, the Grizzlies, the Calves,
Speaker 2: the Kings, the Thunder the Bucks, Sixers, Clippers, Nicks, and Nuggets.
Speaker 2: So a ton of basketball to get into. You guys
Speaker 2: know the show before we get started. To subscribe to
Speaker 2: the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more
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Speaker 2: lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. And for
Speaker 2: whatever reason you guys miss one of these shows and
Speaker 2: you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget.
Speaker 2: You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under
Speaker 2: Oops tonight. Also for those of you who want to
Speaker 2: hear a deep dive on just your particular team. Don't
Speaker 2: forget that as we get closer to the start of
Speaker 2: the season there in September. That's how we do our
Speaker 2: season previews. We do power rankings like one through fifteen,
Speaker 2: and for those fifteen teams, I do deep dives on
Speaker 2: their entire offseason and everything that I expect from them
Speaker 2: in that particular season. So we will eventually get to
Speaker 2: that point, but I like to wait till the end
Speaker 2: of the summer just because of all of the different
Speaker 2: pieces that could fall down before then. But the Lakers'
Speaker 2: off season is basically tied up, and obviously I've been
Speaker 2: wanting to talk about them a little bit, So we're
Speaker 2: gonna get to them later this week. All right, let's
Speaker 2: talk about this Damian Lillard trade request. So it finally
Speaker 2: came down basically right when I landed in Dallas on Saturday,
Speaker 2: right around like eleven am Central time, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: and immediately Seanchrani reported that he was wanting the heat,
Speaker 2: and pretty quickly after that we had the report come down.
Speaker 2: I think it was Woges that basically said that the
Speaker 2: Blazers are going to shop him around and not particularly
Speaker 2: particularly consider sending them to the Heat. I would imagine
Speaker 2: they're not in love with that particular trade package. I
Speaker 2: think it was Tyler Harrow, Duncan Robinson in some form
Speaker 2: of draft compensation, and the Blazer's GM, Joe Cronin, came
Speaker 2: out and said, quote, we have been clear that we
Speaker 2: want Dame here, but he notified us today that he
Speaker 2: wants out and he preferred to play someplace else. What
Speaker 2: has not changed for us is that we are committed
Speaker 2: to winning, and we are going to do what's best
Speaker 2: for the team in pursuit of that goal.
Speaker 1: End quote. Now, I still think Dame's going to be
Speaker 1: with the Heat.
Speaker 2: I refuse to believe that the Blazers lack self awareness
Speaker 2: to this extent, because what's really frustrating to me about
Speaker 2: that is, like, it was totally fine for Dame to
Speaker 2: remain committed to you as a franchise when you, as
Speaker 2: a basketball operations department, could not surround him with the
Speaker 2: necessary talent so that one of the fifteen best players
Speaker 2: in the entire league was consistently floundering at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the standings and or missing the playoffs entirely to
Speaker 2: the point where even when you looked at Damian Lillard
Speaker 2: and Amphorny Sine and Jeremy Grant's minutes together this season,
Speaker 2: they had a negative net rating according to Cleaning the
Speaker 2: Glass when they filtered out garbage time. So, you guys
Speaker 2: have not done your job. And now because Dame, after
Speaker 2: many years of loyalty, has expressed a desire to go
Speaker 2: someplace else, now all of a sudden, you're committed to winning,
Speaker 2: and now all of a sudden you want to be
Speaker 2: sound with your asset management and to put together a
Speaker 2: winner around your young players. I think that's a really
Speaker 2: bad look. There have been some reports since then that
Speaker 2: players are quote unquote monitoring the situation with Dame to
Speaker 2: see how Portland treats him. This is so outrageous to
Speaker 2: me for them to suddenly get stingy about where they're
Speaker 2: trading Dame after everything he's done for them over the years,
Speaker 2: that I refuse to believe that's what's happening here. So
Speaker 2: my guess, my guess, purely circumstantially, is that basically the
Speaker 2: Blazers are going to trade into the heat, but they're
Speaker 2: manufacturing this fake controversy in hopes of driving up the
Speaker 2: price a little bit. And I don't know if it's
Speaker 2: a specific draft pick thereafter or what the deal is,
Speaker 2: but like I get it, Yeah, you don't want necessarily
Speaker 2: Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson. But this is not This
Speaker 2: is not a player that was, you know, committing to
Speaker 2: a team for his first long term max contract and
Speaker 2: then went in the door six months after and said
Speaker 2: get me out of here. This is a guy that
Speaker 2: time and time again has given you chances and you
Speaker 2: haven't done your job. And so with Dame in particular,
Speaker 2: I believe he should be accommodated and if he wants
Speaker 2: to go Miami, you should send him there. If you
Speaker 2: have to play some game to get an extra draft
Speaker 2: pick or two, fine, but that's where he should go.
Speaker 2: And so I believe this will end with Dame with
Speaker 2: the heat. If it doesn't go that route, I think
Speaker 2: that speaks volumes about the arrogance and lack of self
Speaker 2: awareness in that Portland front office, and it's something that
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be paying close attention to over the course
Speaker 2: of the next couple of weeks. I'm really curious to
Speaker 2: see how that situation breaks down. Whenever the trade does
Speaker 2: eventually go down, you guys know, the drill will be
Speaker 2: breaking it down immediately here on the show. One last
Speaker 2: note on that the Jeremy Grant deal. Like I told
Speaker 2: you guys, there was another report that came out that
Speaker 2: they still plan on offering that same deal to Jeremy.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I thought it was a relatively team
Speaker 2: friendly deal, right around what thirty two million a year
Speaker 2: for a really good wing that can score the basketball
Speaker 2: and defend. So I think he's a good asset that
Speaker 2: you needed to maintain regardless of what your plan was,
Speaker 2: whether you're gonna keep Dame or not. For starters, you
Speaker 2: don't really have a player of his ilk on the roster,
Speaker 2: and so maybe you run it with him and kind
Speaker 2: of see how things go. And then if he's a
Speaker 2: bad fit with Scoot and he's a bad fit with
Speaker 2: Anthony Simons and Shadan Sharp and you want to get
Speaker 2: him out of there, you can move him at the
Speaker 2: deadline and probably get a good amount of return for
Speaker 2: him based on the fact that he's a good NBA
Speaker 2: player on a team friendly deal, especially with the upcoming
Speaker 2: TV deal.
Speaker 1: All right, on that.
Speaker 2: Note, we are going to rip through fifteen teams here
Speaker 2: and some of their some of their free agent signings.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna hit on literally every single one, but
Speaker 2: I just picked ones that I found particularly interesting. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna read some quick stats, give a really quick breakdown,
Speaker 2: and we'll move on to the next guy. Number one
Speaker 2: and Eric Gordon to the Suns on a minimum contract.
Speaker 2: He was one point three to four points per spot
Speaker 2: up possession with the Clippers after he was traded their
Speaker 2: last year, seventy three percent effective field goal percentage on
Speaker 2: unguarded catch and shoe jumpers, so really good spot up threat.
Speaker 2: He also has a little bit of that extra juice
Speaker 2: putting the ball on the floor to be able to
Speaker 2: create his own shot. Just stuff that he learned from,
Speaker 2: stuff that he's retained from all of his years as
Speaker 2: more of a primary ball handler. At other destinations, he
Speaker 2: used to be an excellent point of attack defender. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about this a little bit later when we
Speaker 2: get to the Nuggets, but he kind of is that short,
Speaker 2: stocky wing as opposed to that longer, lanky wing. You
Speaker 2: guys know, I've been talking forever about how I'm really
Speaker 2: curious as these as to why these shorter, stockier, stronger
Speaker 2: wings seem to do better in the playoffs than a
Speaker 2: lot of the longer, lanky ones. And I was actually
Speaker 2: talking about it with my buddy Pete Zeis from Blaker
Speaker 2: Film Room the other day. He calls him fire hydrant wings,
Speaker 2: which I think is a really interesting way to put it.
Speaker 2: And all of you basketball players have played against the
Speaker 2: guy like this before. We're like, you're bigger than him,
Speaker 2: but he just can't go through him because he's so
Speaker 2: damn strong and his center of gravity is so low,
Speaker 2: so you have to try to go around and it
Speaker 2: can be difficult, and more often than not, you end
Speaker 2: up having to shoot over the top of a wing
Speaker 2: like this. Now, he turns thirty five this season, so
Speaker 2: we'll see if he still has any of that juice
Speaker 2: left as a point of attack defender. But if he
Speaker 2: has any of that left, and if he can knock
Speaker 2: down shots like he did for the Clippers, that's a
Speaker 2: home run. Signing for the Suns on a minimum contract,
Speaker 2: so you know, under the circumstances after the Bradley Beal trade,
Speaker 2: which severely limited their ability to surround them with other
Speaker 2: role players, I think they've done pretty solid. Between the
Speaker 2: dry Ubanks and Chimezi met two signings for athleticism in
Speaker 2: the front court, obviously bringing in Aaron Gordon, the Bradley
Speaker 2: Beal move, There's a lot to be excited about as
Speaker 2: a Suns fan coming into this particular season. I was
Speaker 2: actually working out my high school kids this morning and
Speaker 2: they were all talking about how excited they were about
Speaker 2: the Suns. That's unique. It hasn't been like that ever since.
Speaker 2: It became abundantly clear that the Chris Paul and Devin
Speaker 2: Booker pairing was not quite capable of getting them over
Speaker 2: the top. As I said right after the Kevin Durant trade,
Speaker 2: I'm not judging the trade until after that second season.
Speaker 2: I didn't think they didn't they had much of a
Speaker 2: realistic chance to win last year because of all of
Speaker 2: the veteran minimum quality players that they were putting around
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and I think that came to
Speaker 2: fruition in that Nugget series, which even though it went
Speaker 2: to six, had a lot more to do with a
Speaker 2: hot shooting Devin Booker performance, and they really got their
Speaker 2: ass kicked in just about every other game in that series.
Speaker 2: Corey Joseph to the Warriors. He ran four hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty seven pick and rolls last year for the Pistons.
Speaker 2: That led to just three hundred ninety nine points at
Speaker 2: zero point ninety three four points per possession, which is
Speaker 2: not good. But it's the Pistons, and you got to
Speaker 2: factor in the surrounding talent offensively in the way that
Speaker 2: that can limit a pick and roll ball handler in
Speaker 2: terms of passing to role man or passing to the
Speaker 2: weak side to shooters. Shot forty one percent on catch
Speaker 2: and shoot jump shots, thirty four percent on pull up
Speaker 2: jump shots. So he's a big downgrade from Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, that's not a hot take. It's just
Speaker 2: look at the contract values, like Corey Joseph's coming over
Speaker 2: on a minimum and Dante just signed for fifty with
Speaker 2: the Knicks, So that's not exactly a hot take. But
Speaker 2: here's the thing for this Warriors offseason, it's been pretty
Speaker 2: much status quo bringing everybody back, and then you've lost
Speaker 2: Dante DiVincenzo. So where is the piece that's gonna bolster
Speaker 2: this roster. Mason Plumley just got signed, just resigned with
Speaker 2: the Clippers for one year, five million, is it? Dario
Speaker 2: Sartz Darios Artz would certainly make me feel a lot
Speaker 2: better about this roster. But it seems to me like
Speaker 2: a lot of what this next season for the Warriors
Speaker 2: is gonna come down to is once again the development
Speaker 2: trajectory of guys like of guys like Jonathan Kaminga and
Speaker 2: Moses Moody, and can Chris Paul say healthy and bring
Speaker 2: anything to this particular team. Really, the Chris Paul piece
Speaker 2: is like it's a big gamble. In my opinion, we're
Speaker 2: either gonna look back at the Chris Paul piece as
Speaker 2: like the genius move that put the Warriors over the
Speaker 2: top into their fifth title, or the beginning of the
Speaker 2: end as you traded away a talented young player for
Speaker 2: a player that may or may not be able to
Speaker 2: hold up. Chris Paul, as I've said on the show before,
Speaker 2: has been hurt in four of his last six post
Speaker 2: season runs, including I think two of them are he
Speaker 2: just straight up couldn't play. So that's definitely a risk
Speaker 2: in that particular regard. So definitely a strange offseason so
Speaker 2: far for the Warriors, and you're wondering what's coming next.
Speaker 2: The Rockets just had an insane weekend. Fred van Vliet
Speaker 2: three years one hundred and thirty million, Dylan Brooks four
Speaker 2: years eighty million, Jock Landale four years thirty two million.
Speaker 2: They traded for Patty Mills really quick. On the Dylan
Speaker 2: Brooks thing, JJ Reddick had this take where he came
Speaker 2: out and he's like, everyone said he's gonna go to China,
Speaker 2: and now he signs for eighty million dollars. And I
Speaker 2: generally agree with the sentiment of what he's trying to say,
Speaker 2: because if you guys remember, right after that series, lots
Speaker 2: of Lakers fans were taking victory laps at Dylan on
Speaker 2: at Dylan Brooks expense, And if you remember, I came
Speaker 2: on the show right away and I said, Dylan Brooks
Speaker 2: is a good NBA player, He's going to sign for
Speaker 2: somebody next year and he's gonna help. I just saw
Speaker 2: it more as like I thought, Dylan Brooks was a
Speaker 2: textbook mid level exception guy. I mean, he is a
Speaker 2: severely limited offensive player twenty three point seven percent in
Speaker 2: spot up situations in that Lakers series, ran nine picking
Speaker 2: roles for just four points. In the regular season. He
Speaker 2: shot three hundred and thirty five pull up jump shots,
Speaker 2: which is insane volume, but only made thirty three percent
Speaker 2: of them, thirty five percent on catching shoot jumpers, fifty
Speaker 2: two percent on the rim. Everything really high volume for
Speaker 2: a player like him, Like he just shoots and shoots
Speaker 2: and shoots and shoots and shoots even though they're generally
Speaker 2: not going in. But that said, I thought he was
Speaker 2: one of the very best perimeter defensive players in the
Speaker 2: league last year, Like literally top tier defensive player. He
Speaker 2: just night after night was taking superstar NBA players and
Speaker 2: making them look like a shell of themselves, whether it
Speaker 2: was Steph or Lebron or whoever it was that he
Speaker 2: was guarding. On any given night, he was bothering people
Speaker 2: in the regular season. Now, again those are one night,
Speaker 2: regular season things. Obviously, we know what Steph would do
Speaker 2: to Dylan in the playoff series. We literally saw what
Speaker 2: Lebron would do to Dylan in a playoff series. But
Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with Dylan. Great offense beats
Speaker 2: great defense every day of the week. But it is
Speaker 2: a huge ass set in this league to have a
Speaker 2: player that, regardless of position type, you can throw on
Speaker 2: any perimeter player in the league, whether it's a guy
Speaker 2: like Steph Curry, a small guard who takes a million
Speaker 2: pull up jump shots or a big, rim pressuring forward
Speaker 2: like Lebron James and everything in between. Having a player
Speaker 2: like that is a massive asset, and that's why I
Speaker 2: thought he'd be worth you know, I was thinking somewhere
Speaker 2: along the lines of like three years, thirty six million
Speaker 2: dollars is what I was expecting for Dylan Brooks. So, like,
Speaker 2: while I agree with JJ's point that like everyone was
Speaker 2: going way over the top with their criticism of Dylan
Speaker 2: Brooks after that series, I think we can all admit
Speaker 2: that four years, eighty million is a lot more than
Speaker 2: we were expecting and really had a lot more to
Speaker 2: do with the Houston Rockets having a ton of cap
Speaker 2: space that they could throw around. That said, I'm really
Speaker 2: happy for Dylan Brooks, and it's a great lesson for
Speaker 2: you young kids out there. Play some damn defense that will
Speaker 2: get you paid, that will get you the scholarship. Stop
Speaker 2: worrying about just the things that are fun in the
Speaker 2: game of basketball. There's a whole other half of the
Speaker 2: game that is not fun, that is nasty, that requires
Speaker 2: hard work, that you have to be driven by competitiveness,
Speaker 2: And there are guys that at that stuff that have
Speaker 2: jobs all over the NBA and their great lesson for
Speaker 2: young players to learn from. As far as Fred Van
Speaker 2: Vliet and Patty mills go, I thought this was a
Speaker 2: textbook example of Houston trying to bring grownups into the
Speaker 2: locker room. It kind of reminds me of what happened
Speaker 2: to the Phoenix Suns the year before CP three came,
Speaker 2: when they brought in a bunch of just veteran player
Speaker 2: I think Riogy Rubio is in that group as well,
Speaker 2: where they just kind of instead of like, if you
Speaker 2: want to run your basketball team like a developmental program
Speaker 2: where every player on the team is below twenty five
Speaker 2: years old and they're all just kind of in their
Speaker 2: growth progressions, you're gonna look like a G League team,
Speaker 2: because what you are is just a glorified G League
Speaker 2: team full of lottery picks at that point. So, you know,
Speaker 2: bring you can develop young players while also being a
Speaker 2: competent professional basketball organization. And so that was kind of
Speaker 2: the beginning of the resurgence of the Phoenix Suns that
Speaker 2: year before Chris Paul when they just brought in real
Speaker 2: NBA role players and put them around to Devin Booker
Speaker 2: rather than just leaving him with a bunch of lottery picks, right, Well,
Speaker 2: that's kind of what I see the Rockets doing now,
Speaker 2: bringing in consummate professionals like Patty Mills and Fred Van
Speaker 2: Vliet that can help teach guys like Jalen Green and
Speaker 2: Jabari Smith and alpherren Sangun had to just be professional
Speaker 2: basketball players at the highest level, the work ethic, the
Speaker 2: way to behave on road trips, and all these different things.
Speaker 2: Not that the Rockets necessarily had behavior problems, but the
Speaker 2: point is is they kind of looked like a super
Speaker 2: super young team last year, and so it got really
Speaker 2: sloppy on a lot of nights. And you know, another
Speaker 2: big one is there's a lot of ups and downs
Speaker 2: in NBA basketball games, especially now with shot variants and
Speaker 2: guys getting hot and guys getting cold shooting from the
Speaker 2: field right, and so having guys that have been there,
Speaker 2: done that a million times can help prevent your young
Speaker 2: players from letting go of the rope. The Houston Rockets
Speaker 2: got blown out a lot this year because they struggled
Speaker 2: to handle runs and things along those lines. Bringing in
Speaker 2: a veteran team gives you just more of that resilience.
Speaker 2: It'll help your younger players during their development trajectory, and
Speaker 2: again I think you can do this while still giving
Speaker 2: Jalen and Jabbari and Shangun all the reps that they
Speaker 2: need to improve. Moving on to the Toronto Raptors, they
Speaker 2: signed Dennis Schroeder for two years twenty six million and
Speaker 2: Jalen McDaniels for two years nine point three million. Jale
Speaker 2: McDaniel's classic kind of like thin wing, not really excellent
Speaker 2: at anything, but he's got good tools. He's six foot nine,
Speaker 2: totally different type of player than that fired hydrant type
Speaker 2: of wing that I was talking about earlier. The name
Speaker 2: that I'm stealing from Pizzas. This is that long, skinny wing,
Speaker 2: and they can help in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 2: They can help with some perimeter assignments that can help
Speaker 2: with contested rebound situations. Obviously, the ability to shoot over
Speaker 2: the top helps. He was good crash in the offensive
Speaker 2: glass for Philadelphia last year. But they can struggle with
Speaker 2: more physical assignments and that can be a problem in
Speaker 2: the later rounds of the NBA playoffs. But Raptors fans,
Speaker 2: I am certain that you guys are going to love
Speaker 2: Dennis Schroeder. It can be a little frustrating at times
Speaker 2: with his shot selection, but overall, the full package is
Speaker 2: more than worth it. He was actually over a point
Speaker 2: per possession in both ISO and pick and roll situations
Speaker 2: during the regular season, so that's what I mean by
Speaker 2: big picture. He's gonna have some ugly plays in there
Speaker 2: where he takes some shots you don't like, but in
Speaker 2: the big picture, he's actually surprisingly efficient in the playoffs
Speaker 2: last year again a three round playoff run into the
Speaker 2: Western Conference finals. One point per possession in isolation, zero
Speaker 2: point nine to eight pick and roll point per possession,
Speaker 2: which is pretty solid. A little down from his regular
Speaker 2: season numbers, but not bad. He is an excellent point
Speaker 2: of attack defender who competes his ass off, and that
Speaker 2: competitiveness part is what you guys are gonna love. He's
Speaker 2: a textbook foxhole guy. Any big game, you can count
Speaker 2: on Dennis Schroeder to bring the intensity and to play
Speaker 2: his ass off every single night. I covered him very
Speaker 2: closely with the Lakers for two seasons. Yeah, he had
Speaker 2: a bad stop in Boston, but Boston is kind of
Speaker 2: a weird place with a weird locker room that already
Speaker 2: had a lot of guards, So I don't necessarily think
Speaker 2: that was the best place to evaluate him. And most importantly,
Speaker 2: I'm glad that he got a paycheck because he got
Speaker 2: the short end of a stick in a negotiation with
Speaker 2: Rob Polinka, and he made a mistake, turned down guarante
Speaker 2: money they probably shouldn't have, had to take a mid
Speaker 2: level exception, then had to take a veteran minimum contract
Speaker 2: for the Lakers. But the payday is here now. Maybe
Speaker 2: not as much as he was hoping back in the day,
Speaker 2: but he can recoup some of his losses with a
Speaker 2: nice little twenty six million dollar contract. Again covered him
Speaker 2: closely with the Lakers. I really think you Raptors fans
Speaker 2: are gonna like him. My Heat signed Thomas Bryant. He's
Speaker 2: really good offensive big. He runs the floor really well,
Speaker 2: as great hands, and finishes around the rim well, and
Speaker 2: he can hit an open jump shot. But he's a
Speaker 2: really bad defensive player in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 2: Struggles to bother anything around the rim, can't defend him
Speaker 2: pick and roll, can't hold his ground in the post.
Speaker 2: He's going to struggle in a lot of those ways.
Speaker 2: But Eric Spolstra is famous for being able to make
Speaker 2: unplayable defensive players playable for one reason or another. You
Speaker 2: saw a lot of examples of that in this postseason run,
Speaker 2: including Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love. So if he can
Speaker 2: do it with those two guys, I absolutely think he
Speaker 2: can do it with Thomas Bryant.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: This is another guy covered very close closely with the
Speaker 2: Lakers at the beginning of last year. So decent backup
Speaker 2: center option for the Miami Heat. Josh Richards I loved
Speaker 2: this signing for the minimum. Kind of like a Max
Speaker 2: Strew's replacement. Very good point of attack defender, great athlete.
Speaker 2: Shot forty one percent on jump shots last year for
Speaker 2: the New Orleans Pelicans. The big thing for the Heat
Speaker 2: now is we're waiting. As we're waiting, is are they
Speaker 2: going to get Damian Lillard? And if they do that
Speaker 2: obviously monumentally changes the projections for the Heat heading into
Speaker 2: next season. How many more we got one, two, three, four? Oh,
Speaker 2: I got a lot more to do, guys.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go.
Speaker 2: Seth Curry to the Mavericks. This is a perfect second
Speaker 2: side creator for the stretches when Kyrie or Luca are
Speaker 2: off the floor. It's kind of some one of the
Speaker 2: roster needs for them. When they're off the floor. They
Speaker 2: actually do pretty well in the regular season. But again,
Speaker 2: you make it a little bit easier when Kyrie runs
Speaker 2: a pick and roll and they do contain it for
Speaker 2: one reason or another, and you could throw it over
Speaker 2: to the other side, and instead of someone like you know,
Speaker 2: Tim Hardaway Junior, who's capable but not great, you have
Speaker 2: someone like Seth Curry, who's you know, really capable of
Speaker 2: capitalizing on the defense, shifting his way and attacking either
Speaker 2: through ISO or pick and roll.
Speaker 1: He's a dead eye shooter.
Speaker 2: Shot fifty eight percent effective field goal percentage on all
Speaker 2: all jump shots last year, which is off the charts.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Desmond Bayne signs a max contract with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Speaker 2: A lot of guys signed max contracts over the course
Speaker 2: of the last few days, a lot of very rich
Speaker 2: young basketball players. Everyone seemed to freak out about the
Speaker 2: Desmond bane one in particular for whatever reason, and I
Speaker 2: really don't understand this. First of all, it's really not
Speaker 2: that much money. It's a little over forty million per year,
Speaker 2: which is not going to be nearly that crazy, especially
Speaker 2: when you get to the new TV deal and all
Speaker 2: the max contracts are making sixty to seventy million a year. Again,
Speaker 2: there's max contracts at different tiers based on where you
Speaker 2: are in your career, your years of experience, have you
Speaker 2: made an All NBA team. It's like there's the twenty
Speaker 2: five percent max, of thirty percent max with thirty five
Speaker 2: percent max, and then there's like additional escalators based on
Speaker 2: whether or not you make things like an All NBA team.
Speaker 2: It's very complicated, so when you hear max, don't just
Speaker 2: freak out. Like for instance, Austin Reeves for the Lakers
Speaker 2: signed the max that he could sign for the Los
Speaker 2: Angeles Lakers and it was what fifty eight million or
Speaker 2: fifty six million for four years. Again, it all depends
Speaker 2: on your contract situation. Here's the thing, though, I thought,
Speaker 2: I thought for Memphis in the playoff run, Desmond Bay
Speaker 2: was their best player. He was consistently generating and making
Speaker 2: great shots for himself, and he was an excellent defensive player.
Speaker 2: He damn near stole that series again. Lebron James made
Speaker 2: a ridiculous driving layup over the top of Jaron Jackson
Speaker 2: basically at the buzzer to save Game four of that series.
Speaker 2: It was going back to Memphis too too. And here's
Speaker 2: the thing. The Lakers were the better team, and at
Speaker 2: two to two going to Memphis, I still would have
Speaker 2: given the Lakers about a coin flip chance to win
Speaker 2: that series. But you know that's a coin flip chance.
Speaker 2: Memphis could have stolen that series, and Desmond Bay nearly did.
Speaker 2: He's a very good basketball player. And here's the thing, guys,
Speaker 2: good basketball players cost money.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: We were talking about this with Jaylen Brown earlier in
Speaker 2: the summer, like, if you want to have really good
Speaker 2: basketball players on your team, you'd better be willing to
Speaker 2: pay for them. How funny does that Jalen Brown Max
Speaker 2: contract conversations team now compared to some of these other
Speaker 2: contracts we've seen signed around the league. Sorry, guys, you're
Speaker 2: paying fifty million a year for a guy like Jaalen Brown.
Speaker 2: He's an All NBA player and he's gonna be an
Speaker 2: All Star every year that contract. I guess we had
Speaker 2: it up at to seventeen teams because we ended up
Speaker 2: hitting the Celtics today. Moving on to the Calves, so
Speaker 2: we talked in our last video about them signing George's
Speaker 2: Niang as a dead eye spot up shooter from the
Speaker 2: forward position. Well, they got Max Truce as well. I
Speaker 2: think it was like four years and sixty something million dollars.
Speaker 2: He shot sixty one percent effective fielgal percentage on unguarded
Speaker 2: catch and shoot jumpers last year for the heat. So
Speaker 2: he's a dead eye, knockdown shooter when he's in wide
Speaker 2: open situations. So they've addressed one of their two biggest needs.
Speaker 2: They brought real perimeter shooting, a playable perimeter shooting alongside
Speaker 2: their pick and roll attack. I just still think, and
Speaker 2: I said this during the regular season, and I think
Speaker 2: you guys got to see it a little bit against
Speaker 2: the Knicks. There's a redundancy and having two high pick
Speaker 2: and roll guards, and you saw that against the Knicks
Speaker 2: when they were able to shut down the Cav's pick
Speaker 2: and roll attack. They didn't have a second punch. In general, defensively,
Speaker 2: I don't like the idea of having two small guards
Speaker 2: in your lineup as well. I know Cavs fans love
Speaker 2: Darius Garland, but in my opinion, Evan Mobley's the future
Speaker 2: of that team. So like I would be looking to
Speaker 2: flip Darius Garland for a star wing somebody along the lines,
Speaker 2: I'd be looking at the guy. I'd be looking at
Speaker 2: his Paul George. I'd be just just calling the Clippers
Speaker 2: and being like, Hey, you're sick of the PG and
Speaker 2: Kawhi experience. You want a young star guard that you
Speaker 2: can put next to Kawhi. We'll take Paul George off
Speaker 2: of your hands. That's the kind of deal that I'd
Speaker 2: be looking to make if I was the Cavs. All Right,
Speaker 2: a couple of fun ones here. I did a little
Speaker 2: bit of scouting this morning. Sasha Vezenkov signs for the
Speaker 2: Sacramento Kings for three years and twenty million dollars. You
Speaker 2: played for Olympiakos and won MVP this year. Originally, when
Speaker 2: I was watching just a little bit of footage, I
Speaker 2: saw like a big lefty going to the Kings, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, like a Sabonis archetype type of player.
Speaker 2: But the more I watched film of him this morning,
Speaker 2: he actually reminds me a lot more of Jokic the
Speaker 2: way he plays. And again with player comparisons, it's more
Speaker 2: just like play style, and obviously he's not Nikola Jokic.
Speaker 2: There's a huge gap in footwork. Sasha's footwork is way
Speaker 2: more sloppy, than Nikole Jokic, who I think has incredible footwork,
Speaker 2: but is a lot of similarities. First of all, ridiculously
Speaker 2: good post up player one hundred and fifty one for
Speaker 2: one hundred and ninety points last year, one point twenty
Speaker 2: six points per possession. Just ridiculously good at beating switches,
Speaker 2: especially small guards that try to front him in the post.
Speaker 2: He just pushes down on their back, makes an easy
Speaker 2: target over the top. If you watch his watch some
Speaker 2: footage of Sasha this year, it's just deep seal over
Speaker 2: the top, pass bucket, deep seel over the top, pass bucket,
Speaker 2: deep seel over the top pass bucket. Just he's deadly
Speaker 2: beating switches with deep seals and leveraging guys into positions
Speaker 2: where guards can make easy post entry passes. He also
Speaker 2: has a deadly left shoulder flight a fade from the
Speaker 2: left block. He shot over fifty eight percent on it.
Speaker 2: It's a little different than what you'd expect from a
Speaker 2: left shoulder fade from a typical like big you know,
Speaker 2: scoring wing. It's not an overly athletic move, like he's
Speaker 2: not elevating over the top.
Speaker 1: It's quick.
Speaker 2: A lot of times he just goes off of one leg,
Speaker 2: but he just kind of works you into the post
Speaker 2: with that right hand until he gets to the angle
Speaker 2: that he wants, and then he just quick leans and
Speaker 2: turns over his left shoulder and shoots that little left
Speaker 2: shoulder fade deadly with it, which is a really good
Speaker 2: go to move in a situation where the defense is
Speaker 2: taking away the easy stuff. Also an excellent passer to
Speaker 2: cutters and shooters. They averaged one point three to six
Speaker 2: points per possession when he passed out of the post,
Speaker 2: one point twenty four points per possession against hard double teams,
Speaker 2: all awesome. He ran some inverted pick and roll twenty
Speaker 2: one of them to be exact, for twenty five points
Speaker 2: last season. A little bit of everything, some driving layups,
Speaker 2: long pull up threes off the dribble, hitting the open
Speaker 2: man when defense is warped to specific you know, like
Speaker 2: to the guy rolling to the basket, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: He's also great in the short role. Forty percent on
Speaker 2: catching shoe jumpers. Who's reliable jump shooter twenty four pull
Speaker 2: up jump shots that he made last year thirty four percent,
Speaker 2: so a little bit less efficient, low volume, but there's
Speaker 2: some stuff there. Fifty one percent on floaters, fifty percent
Speaker 2: on hooks, so super efficient for those shots. Jokicic just
Speaker 2: kind of breaks the curve because he happens to shoot
Speaker 2: in the mid sixties on those, but over fifty percent
Speaker 2: on both of those is excellent for a post player,
Speaker 2: and then seventy five percent at their rim. Again, he
Speaker 2: doesn't play exactly like Jokicic, but there are some similarities
Speaker 2: there in his approach. I ain't really curious to see
Speaker 2: how he fits next to Demonisabonus, though, because they do
Speaker 2: play a very similar position, and I don't think you'd
Speaker 2: necessarily are going to be able to play the two
Speaker 2: of them together a lot. But I do think he
Speaker 2: can fill into that role seamlessly, especially in that dribble
Speaker 2: handoff attack with Aaron Fox and Malik Monk. Excuse me,
Speaker 2: so uh for Sasha Vyzhankov and I'm hoping I'm pronouncing
Speaker 2: that right. Really really interesting move and a really good player.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed scouting him this morning the Thunder vasilogy. Again,
Speaker 2: I'm probably butchering that, and I'm sorry. Michich or michich
Speaker 2: is his name signs for the Thunder for three years,
Speaker 2: twenty three point five million dollars played, for a team
Speaker 2: called anadalu Fs I believe in Turkey, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: really good size for guard that six foot five, moves
Speaker 2: pretty well laterally, not a lot of vertical popp He
Speaker 2: had one dunk all season and it was like rim
Speaker 2: grazer over the top and struggled a little bit to
Speaker 2: finish at the ram only sixty two percent, but moves
Speaker 2: laterally pretty well, can get to his spots when he
Speaker 2: needs to, and actually kind of has like a good
Speaker 2: physical profile. Just an absolute pick roll maestro. I was
Speaker 2: having so much fun watching this kid in pick and
Speaker 2: roll today. I say he's kid, he's twenty nine years old,
Speaker 2: he's grown as man. But he was one point two
Speaker 2: to one points per possession and pick and roll, which
Speaker 2: is off the charts.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: Remember most guys are just a little over one point
Speaker 2: per possession, like one point oh five for like a
Speaker 2: league average guy. Starts with a deadly pull up jump shot.
Speaker 2: He shot fifty three point four percent effective field goal
Speaker 2: percentage on pull up jumpers, gets really good lift and
Speaker 2: hunts pull up threes in pick and rolls. When the
Speaker 2: guard dies on the screen in the big is too
Speaker 2: far back. That consistently pulls that screen defender up, which
Speaker 2: just rex Havoc for his passing ability because of his
Speaker 2: ability to hit the roll man consistently. Also was a
Speaker 2: deadly jump shooter in general forty one percent on all
Speaker 2: jumpers for a fifty eight percent when you wait for
Speaker 2: three sixty two percent at the rim. So another really
Speaker 2: interesting pick and roll shot creator for a Thunder team
Speaker 2: that already has three good ones in Jalen Williams and
Speaker 2: Josh Kitty and Shake Gildes Alexander. So I just the
Speaker 2: Thunder are going to be one of the most fun
Speaker 2: teams in the league to watch next year.
Speaker 1: No question.
Speaker 2: Brook Lopez stays in Milwaukee for two years forty eight million.
Speaker 2: There were some suspicion whether or not he'd go to
Speaker 2: Houston or maybe signed for an mL for a team
Speaker 2: like the Lakers or the Warriors. Nope, he stays in Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: Continuity wins in the NBA. We talked about this the
Speaker 2: last couple of season. We've seen consistently teams that run
Speaker 2: it back be rewarded with opportunities to compete for an
Speaker 2: NBA championship. The Bucks went that route this summer and
Speaker 2: I like it brought back Chris Middleton brought back Brook Lopez.
Speaker 2: Giannis is going to be the one that's gonna have
Speaker 2: to pull him over the top by making his improvements
Speaker 2: in his particular weaknesses. All Right, we have four more teams.
Speaker 2: Patrick Beverley signs with the Philadelphia seventy six ers on
Speaker 2: a minimum contract. Excellent point of attack defender when he's
Speaker 2: defending smaller guards, guys like that are underneath six '
Speaker 2: four that operate mostly from the perimeter. He is much
Speaker 2: worse than his reputation when it comes to guarding bigger,
Speaker 2: stronger players. All that stuff about using him to guard
Speaker 2: on the wing, that is that bared out horribly for
Speaker 2: the Lakers last year. He's just too small. It's really
Speaker 2: that simple. Like I'll give you an example, like you
Speaker 2: put him against I'm planking on his name. The kid
Speaker 2: who just signed a tyres Alburton, who just signed the
Speaker 2: massive contract for the Pacers, like Pap Beverly just eight
Speaker 2: that kid's lunch time and time again in crunch time,
Speaker 2: just picked him up full court, was picking him clean,
Speaker 2: bothering his dribble because he doesn't have to worry as
Speaker 2: much about a size discrepancy there. But then like he
Speaker 2: tried to pick up Josh Gitty full court and was
Speaker 2: just barbecue chicken because Josh Getty could just pin him
Speaker 2: on one side and go around him because he's two
Speaker 2: to m big at six foot eight. So again, defensively,
Speaker 2: still a very very good point of attack defender against
Speaker 2: smaller players, not so much against bigger players on the
Speaker 2: offensive end for the Lakers, and really before that as well,
Speaker 2: but he just tries to do too much. He kind
Speaker 2: of has an elevated sense of what he's capable of,
Speaker 2: so he's constantly putting the ball on the floor, trying
Speaker 2: to make plays a little slow, to make reads so
Speaker 2: he can actually stilt an offense. When the ball's popping around,
Speaker 2: it ends up in Patrick Beverly's hands. He'll catch and
Speaker 2: look at the rim, take a jab step and look
Speaker 2: at the rim, and then rip through and try to
Speaker 2: go and it just kind of slows down the overall
Speaker 2: rhythm and flow of the offense. He also only shot
Speaker 2: thirty four percent on catch and shoot jumper last year.
Speaker 2: He was nineteen for sixty two, which is thirty one
Speaker 2: percent when he was unguarded last year. It was a
Speaker 2: big problem for the Lakers. Just Patrick Beverley missing wide
Speaker 2: open shots. That said, he did shoot much better for
Speaker 2: Minnesota the year before. So a big part of this
Speaker 2: is are they going to give him the right type
Speaker 2: of defensive assignments, particularly particularly at the point of attack,
Speaker 2: which is a need for the Sixers. They need someone
Speaker 2: who can play that position. And is he going to
Speaker 2: knock down shots That's gonna be the big key for
Speaker 2: that particular signing. Russell Westbrook to the Clippers for two years,
Speaker 2: eight million dollars. Love Russell Westbrook on this type of
Speaker 2: deal for this type of team that really needs what
Speaker 2: he brings to the table. Best defensive run I've seen
Speaker 2: from him in literally like a half decade, probably even more,
Speaker 2: maybe even his entire career in that playoff series against
Speaker 2: the Suns. If he defends like that, he's a huge
Speaker 2: positive player on the offensive end because that team so
Speaker 2: badly needs someone that can generate rim pressure for their
Speaker 2: two forwards that just take a ton of pull up jumpers.
Speaker 2: He actually brings a great deal of value. So I
Speaker 2: actually really like the Russell Westbrook fit with the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Dante Devenchenzo to the Knicks for forty years, fifty million
Speaker 2: dollars he's a great point of attack defender in my opinion,
Speaker 2: he's a great rebounder for a guard, really sneaky on
Speaker 2: the offensive glass. He's always sneaking behind and trying to
Speaker 2: get the ball up top or swipe it away from
Speaker 2: the big after he gets the rebound. He shot forty
Speaker 2: three percent on catch and shoot jumpers forty eight percent
Speaker 2: when he was wide open. He's a really good NBA
Speaker 2: player that feels a very important role as a point
Speaker 2: of attack guy that can play off the ball. He's
Speaker 2: not gonna do much for you on the ball, but
Speaker 2: off the ball, he can help a lot. He's a
Speaker 2: good NBA player. He's gonna help the Knicks. That's been
Speaker 2: at least justin Holliday to the Nuggets. Good size, six
Speaker 2: foot six, but he's very thin, very different type of
Speaker 2: player than Bruce Brown. Now that specific role. They want
Speaker 2: someone to bring the ball to the floor when they
Speaker 2: don't feel like playing Reggie Jackson or Bones Island in
Speaker 2: the previous iterations, and they bring They'll have this guard
Speaker 2: bring the ball at the floor and just kind of
Speaker 2: make the entry to Nicole Jochicch and then go spot up.
Speaker 2: And there's no doubt that Justin Holiday can do that,
Speaker 2: but there's also no doubt that it's a downgrade from
Speaker 2: Bruce Brown. This is what happens when you win NBA Championships.
Speaker 2: Role Players that contributed at a high level end up
Speaker 2: getting big fat paychecks elsewhere, and you end up having
Speaker 2: to downgrade at certain positions. And I don't think it's
Speaker 2: enough to make it so that Denver can't overcome it.
Speaker 2: They're still gonna be my championship favorite going into next season.
Speaker 2: But this is that first little crack in the armor
Speaker 2: is going from Bruce Brown to Justin Holiday, going from
Speaker 2: a really really good role player to just a solid
Speaker 2: role player and kind of a journeyman around the league
Speaker 2: and Justin Holiday.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's all I have for today.
Speaker 2: Like I said, we're gonna have a deep breakdown of
Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Lkers postseason probably tomorrow. We'll see how
Speaker 2: it goes, and then we have some other plans for
Speaker 2: the rest of this week and then man, a really
Speaker 2: fun weekend planned in Vegas and flying in on Friday.
Speaker 2: I plan on going to that first Victor Women Yama game.
Speaker 2: I think it starts at like six o'clock local times,
Speaker 2: so if you guys are in the arena, feel free
Speaker 2: to come say hi. And then I get back the
Speaker 2: following Monday, and then I go on vacation for a
Speaker 2: little while. So we're gonna have some more free agent
Speaker 2: and trade coverage and a lot of coverage of the
Speaker 2: I love scouting players, so we're gonna do a lot
Speaker 2: of scouting surrounding Summer League as well. Is always sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow. The volume