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Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great
Speaker 1: weekend so far. Right on the other side of this
Speaker 1: camera is the beautiful Lake Shellan in Washington. I've wanted
Speaker 1: to try to set up the camera so that you
Speaker 1: guys could see it, but I couldn't quite figure out
Speaker 1: the lighting. So I'll post some pictures of it on Twitter.
Speaker 1: You guys can see that on my Twitter few which
Speaker 1: is under at underscore Jason LT. It feels really good
Speaker 1: to be out of the Arizona heat. I love Arizona,
Speaker 1: born and raised there. It's my hometown. I've lived elsewhere,
Speaker 1: and I still moved back. But June July August can
Speaker 1: be really rough. And we've had like back to back
Speaker 1: weeks of a hundred and five degree weather every single day,
Speaker 1: and we've had just enough monsoon activity to make it humid.
Speaker 1: It's been miserably hot, and man, getting off of that
Speaker 1: airplane and walking out of the airport in Seattle was
Speaker 1: an incredible like a chance to just exhale and get
Speaker 1: away from the heat. My wife and are hanging out
Speaker 1: on this lake for the next four days or so,
Speaker 1: and then we head back to Seattle. We board a
Speaker 1: cruise ship to head to Alaska. Never been to Seattle,
Speaker 1: never been to Lake Shland, never been to Alaska, never
Speaker 1: been on a cruise. So a lot of first for
Speaker 1: me over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: But I'm super excited and excited to have a one
Speaker 1: last bit of relaxation before we dive back into things
Speaker 1: this fall and my first full year covering uh the
Speaker 1: NBA with the volume, which would be very fun. I'm
Speaker 1: very very excited. Um today we're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving report that came from Jake Fisher having to
Speaker 1: do with I think we might be nearing the end
Speaker 1: of the rope here and the Lakers might have missed
Speaker 1: their opportunity. Um, we're gonna talk about Russell Westbrook breaking
Speaker 1: up with his agent, which I thought was kind of
Speaker 1: the crescendo of this Russ experience and in this phase
Speaker 1: that he's going through in his career, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be kind of a make or break moment for him
Speaker 1: as to how this story is gonna end. And the last,
Speaker 1: but not least, Lebron played in the Drew League yesterday.
Speaker 1: Obviously it was entertaining great basketball pack. Jim Lebron has
Speaker 1: forty two looks great. We're gonna talk about all that,
Speaker 1: but I also thought it was a very specific message
Speaker 1: that he was trying to send um to the Lakers
Speaker 1: front office. So we're gonna get into all that before
Speaker 1: we get started. Follow me on Twitter underscore Jason lt S.
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our videos that we release.
Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, we did finally rebrand
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Speaker 1: Tonight is now under Hoops Tonight. So if you miss
Speaker 1: any of these videos and you can't get back over
Speaker 1: to YouTube to watch them, go to our podcast feed.
Speaker 1: It's under Hoops Tonight. Usually the audio has posted there
Speaker 1: a couple hours after the videos make their way to YouTube.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Kyrie. So Jake Fisher from Bleacher Report,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read the quote here and we'll go
Speaker 1: from there. Quote from my conversations with people in the league.
Speaker 1: It seems pretty clear Kyrie is accepting the fact that
Speaker 1: he is overwhelmingly likely to be back in Brooklyn now.
Speaker 1: As is always the case with these reports, it's hard
Speaker 1: to differentiate between what is uh speculation, what is leak
Speaker 1: leaks for the sake of leverage, and what is real information.
Speaker 1: What's interesting about this one is it's coming from Kyrie's perspective.
Speaker 1: When we've heard reports from Kyrie's perspective to this point,
Speaker 1: it's always been he wants to go to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: He'll even sign with the Lakers next year. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of stuff we've heard on the Kyrie front, regardless,
Speaker 1: Typically the stuff that we've heard from the teams has
Speaker 1: been more about like will Brooklyn bring Kyrie and and
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant back, Will the Lakers move on to
Speaker 1: Buddy Yield and Miles Turner or whatever it is. Those
Speaker 1: seem more like leverage leaks. This kind of seems like
Speaker 1: Kyrie coming to terms with the situation. To be clear,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's over. I still think the main
Speaker 1: key here is Kevin Durant. I also believe it was
Speaker 1: Jake Fisher who reported he talked to somebody in Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant's camp, and even in spite of everything that's come
Speaker 1: out in the last few days, he's will hell bent
Speaker 1: on getting the trade. Kevin Durant is still the final
Speaker 1: piece in all of this. I said this I think
Speaker 1: two shows ago. But the reality is is all it
Speaker 1: takes is Kevin Duran to kind of look at the
Speaker 1: landscape of this trade market. See that the teams aren't
Speaker 1: lining up, See that Phoenix is out because DeAndre Aton
Speaker 1: has been resigned, See that Miami doesn't have the pieces,
Speaker 1: See that Toronto doesn't want to include Scotty Barnes, and
Speaker 1: all he has to do is look at that and
Speaker 1: go like, like, as bad as I have it in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: maybe I want out, but I don't see this clear
Speaker 1: cut better option. Ben Simmons is interesting. Why don't I
Speaker 1: talk to Kai have him come back. We'll run it
Speaker 1: back with Ben Simmons is here and see if we
Speaker 1: can make it work. That's all it takes for the
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving deal to be dead on arrival. And so
Speaker 1: what's interesting here is the Lakers are negotiating, and I
Speaker 1: get why Kyrie is not worth two picks. He's worth
Speaker 1: one pick in a vacuum. So in a vacuum it
Speaker 1: was smart. It is smart. It was smart for them
Speaker 1: to initially there in initial position to be Russ for
Speaker 1: Kyrie one pick. That was smart as their initial position.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. And I've told you guys this before,
Speaker 1: but I used to work in real estate. That's what
Speaker 1: I did before this, and I would always tell my clients, like,
Speaker 1: understand that negotiation is a part of this, but don't
Speaker 1: ever hardline or take a hard position on something you're
Speaker 1: not willing to lose. Your negotiation power comes down to
Speaker 1: whether or not you are willing to lose. If you
Speaker 1: are putting in an offer on a house and you're
Speaker 1: not emotionally involved in it, and you don't care if
Speaker 1: you lose the house, by all means low ballum put
Speaker 1: in a wild term in the contract. Do do something
Speaker 1: to try to advocate for yourself above and beyond what
Speaker 1: you even hope for, because then if you get it, great,
Speaker 1: you've got a great deal. And if you don't, who cares?
Speaker 1: You move on? But all the time, especially during the
Speaker 1: craziness of the market in the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: you'd have a I'd have a client that would get
Speaker 1: a property under contract that we had to competitively bid
Speaker 1: for against like sixteen twenty offers, and then they'd be like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I want to fight hard for this repair, I want
Speaker 1: to fight hard for this specific credit or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, they will dump you and go
Speaker 1: back on the market and get another deal immediately. You
Speaker 1: don't have leverage. Are you willing to lose this house?
Speaker 1: Because if we fight for this, you might lose it.
Speaker 1: Understanding your fear of loss, Understanding your leverage is key
Speaker 1: to negotiation, because if you put your foot down. You
Speaker 1: might get a better deal, but you also might lose
Speaker 1: the deal entirely. So let's take a look at this
Speaker 1: situation between the Nets and Lakers. If we look at
Speaker 1: the Lakers perspective, they are desperate. Russell Westbrook not only
Speaker 1: does he have damn near zero trade value negative trade value,
Speaker 1: he just ruined the relationship with his agent for fourteen years.
Speaker 1: He had a business relationship with this person and ruined it.
Speaker 1: So from that standpoint, like like Russ's value is so
Speaker 1: incredibly low. If he was a free agent right now,
Speaker 1: available for a veteran minimum, he might not get picked up.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many teams would sign him, but
Speaker 1: the answers either zero or close to zero. So that's
Speaker 1: your predicament. Your other predicament is you only have two
Speaker 1: players on the roster who are starting level NBA players,
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So you are desperate for talent.
Speaker 1: You're desperate for talent, and you're one trade. The one
Speaker 1: guy that you're looking to trade in this particular deal
Speaker 1: is Russell Westbrook, who nobody wants. So if the if
Speaker 1: you're the Lakers, you have to acknowledge you have zero leverage. Now,
Speaker 1: let's look at the Nets. They don't have leverage either
Speaker 1: in the sense that like, oh, Katie and Kyrie want
Speaker 1: to leave. It's that simple, And if you bring them back,
Speaker 1: you're on the risk of toxicity and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: That's all true, But there are two factors here that
Speaker 1: are working in Brooklyn's favor and that give them the
Speaker 1: specific amount of leverage necessary to fight for that second
Speaker 1: pick from the Lakers. First of all, Kyrie and Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons trade value is lower than ever Kyrie Irving obviously
Speaker 1: had all of these unavailability issues over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, and obviously his fickle personality and lack of
Speaker 1: reliability is going to be something that that scares teams away.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of truth there. But in terms of
Speaker 1: just basketball, he's every bit as good as he ever
Speaker 1: was just in the basketball. So he still brings all
Speaker 1: star player to the table in terms of his value.
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook does not, And in this particular case, Kyrie's
Speaker 1: value is lower than it's ever been. So if I'm Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: if I can somehow get Kyrie just to come back
Speaker 1: and play ten fifteen games, that could massively increase his
Speaker 1: value just by reminding teams of what he's capable of,
Speaker 1: especially when the last taste that we have of Kyrie
Speaker 1: was that disappointing finish against the Celtics. Right same thing
Speaker 1: goes with Ben Simmons. Last time we saw him play
Speaker 1: basketball nightmare moment with the Philadelphia seventy six. Since then,
Speaker 1: mental health issues, back problems, you know, uh, not willing
Speaker 1: to live up to a contract. His value is lower
Speaker 1: than ever. So Kevin Durant, for whatever reason, decides that
Speaker 1: he wants to run it back, and these guys come back.
Speaker 1: They just gotta go. Games go seventeen and eight, Kyrie
Speaker 1: and Ben Simmons playing most of the games. Just like that,
Speaker 1: their trade value is significantly higher than it was Right now.
Speaker 1: The Nets absolutely are I would even say likely to
Speaker 1: get more for Ben and Kyrie at the trade deadline
Speaker 1: than they are now. Their main incentive to try to
Speaker 1: get this done now is just to try to go
Speaker 1: into training camp with the group that you're actually moving
Speaker 1: forward with. But the reality is that Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons trade values and an all time low. The
Speaker 1: Nets are incentives to try to raise that. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: is the key and He's the second factor here. All
Speaker 1: it takes is him looking at the land escape, seeing
Speaker 1: that Phoenix is a trade market is dried up, seeing
Speaker 1: that Miami's trade market is dried up, seeing that Toronto
Speaker 1: doesn't want to include Scotty Barnes, and understand that maybe
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a better option that he has. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm coming back to Brooklyn. Kyrie's coming with me, Ben's
Speaker 1: himms is coming with me, Bam Kyrie irving trade is
Speaker 1: dead on arrival. And so from that standpoint, like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: if we look at this up close and personal, the
Speaker 1: Lakers have no leverage. So I understood their desire to
Speaker 1: fight for that one first round pick rather than two.
Speaker 1: They were smart to fight for that. But the fight's over.
Speaker 1: You lost. Throw the second pick on the table. Get
Speaker 1: Kyrie because we are right around the corner from this
Speaker 1: all going back to Brooklyn, bringing everybody back, so that
Speaker 1: they need to accept that the Clippers are the best
Speaker 1: example that I could give you. Guys. As a corollary
Speaker 1: to this predicament, Kawhi Leonard comes to you says I
Speaker 1: want to sign with you instead of the Lakers in
Speaker 1: two thousand team. At that point he goes, bring Paul
Speaker 1: George with me. I already talked him on the phone.
Speaker 1: He's in. You gotta close the deal. Do you think
Speaker 1: the Clippers had any leverage with okay see, hell now
Speaker 1: they okay see, just had a season with with Paul
Speaker 1: George being an m VP candidate and and and and
Speaker 1: Russ helping him reach some career highs and all these
Speaker 1: different things. Right, there was no reason for Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: to move Paul George. But the Clippers were like, we
Speaker 1: know we need him because if we get him, we
Speaker 1: get Kauai. Give him everything. And they literally gave them everything,
Speaker 1: every pick that they had, all these swaps, all everything.
Speaker 1: They cleared the treasure trove for that deal because they
Speaker 1: understood their lack of leverage. Yes, is two first round
Speaker 1: picks and overpay for Kyrie. Yeah it is. It's a
Speaker 1: bit of an overpay. But this is what happens in
Speaker 1: negotiation when you don't have the leverage and I and
Speaker 1: it's and with the nets you gotta remember they already
Speaker 1: have two picks from the hardened deal that they got
Speaker 1: last year. If they trade Kdi, they'll probably get five
Speaker 1: to seven more. They're already getting seven eight picks out
Speaker 1: of this whole arrangement, right, So they're vindictive enough I think,
Speaker 1: especially with everything that happened with Kyrie in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, to be like, screw you, Kyrie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, we could trade you for one pick, but
Speaker 1: if the Lakers don't give you two, we're bringing you
Speaker 1: back and we're holding onto you for now. They they
Speaker 1: I believe that they would be willing to do that,
Speaker 1: And so you've got to understand the understand the predicament,
Speaker 1: understand the leverage, put the pick on the table, close
Speaker 1: the deal. Even if things go horribly south and Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d get hurt again and you miss the
Speaker 1: playoffs again this year, you blow it up and you
Speaker 1: can trade everybody and get draft picks. And this is
Speaker 1: the most important detail. If you get Kyrie in a trade,
Speaker 1: you have his bird rights to go. I believe ten
Speaker 1: percent over his salary resigning him next year. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, you can retain him, and he is an asset.
Speaker 1: Kyrie being an asset means you could if he has
Speaker 1: three or four years on his deal, you can turn
Speaker 1: around and trade him for a first round draft pick
Speaker 1: or two next year. If things go really south. In
Speaker 1: addition to being able to trade Anthony Davis, if you
Speaker 1: really want to blow things up in twenty nine, when
Speaker 1: things really are uh, when those picks that are in
Speaker 1: question would be uh, would actually be UM, would actually
Speaker 1: be relevant to this situation at that point, if things
Speaker 1: go south, the Lakers could just as easily refill the
Speaker 1: treasure trove. And with Laker fans I've talked to several
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of days, and
Speaker 1: I understand as spans you feel a certain obligation to
Speaker 1: defend the franchise and things along those lines. But you know,
Speaker 1: to me, the success of the Lakers franchise over the year,
Speaker 1: and you guys have all heard this from Laker fans,
Speaker 1: like we have seventeen titles, Like you know, we are
Speaker 1: the most successful franchise in NBA history. You know, all
Speaker 1: of our successes in the vast majority of our successes
Speaker 1: in the modern era. It's not the same as Boston
Speaker 1: when all the titles were in the sixties or whatever.
Speaker 1: They have a reason to be prideful, But to me,
Speaker 1: that doesn't equal benefit of the doubt. For Genie Bus,
Speaker 1: that doesn't equal benefit of the doubt for Rob Polinka.
Speaker 1: If anything, that should equal standards. That should equal a
Speaker 1: standard that you hold the franchise too. Here's the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation. Yes, you have won seventeen championships. Yes,
Speaker 1: you did win a championship two years ago, less than
Speaker 1: two years ago. That's all true. Here's the reality, though,
Speaker 1: that championship came on the strength of Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis at the peak of their powers, and they
Speaker 1: are no longer at the peak of their powers. That
Speaker 1: success came on Lebron James coming to the Lakers and
Speaker 1: convincing Clutch Sports to direct Anthony Davis there as well,
Speaker 1: was not by the doing of Rob Polinka or of
Speaker 1: Genie Buss. When Jerry Buss was in charge. To the
Speaker 1: day he died, the Lakers missed the playoffs once. Since then,
Speaker 1: they've made the playoffs twice total. So the standard that
Speaker 1: was then in place, the expectation for the Lakers is shifting.
Speaker 1: That's the problem. You guys are now becoming okay with
Speaker 1: a form of mediocrity that never existed for the Lakers franchise.
Speaker 1: And you guys should be more upset than you are
Speaker 1: because you have Lebron James under contract right now. You
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis under contract right now, and you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to flip the biggest mistake of this era
Speaker 1: of Lakers basketball, the Russell Westbrook trade. You have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to turn Russell Westbrook into an all Star level
Speaker 1: guarden Kyrie Irving. When all of this was going down,
Speaker 1: when we were coming into this summer, did any of
Speaker 1: you think that there was a snowball's chance in hell
Speaker 1: a flipping Russ for Kyrie. Think about the names that
Speaker 1: I was thrown out. I was like, maybe you can
Speaker 1: get Gordon Hayward and Kelly you Brey or Gordon Hayward
Speaker 1: and Terry Rosier or Mason Plumle or or you know,
Speaker 1: Buddy Heal. These were the types of names we were
Speaker 1: throwing out. This was this. This was literally like the
Speaker 1: Red Sea parting for you. And just in a in
Speaker 1: a moment of of of absolutely no leverage, in in
Speaker 1: a in a dire moment for the history of the franchise,
Speaker 1: everything just opened up and there was Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 1: now you want to play hardball. I just don't get it.
Speaker 1: And like I tweeted it out this morning, but I
Speaker 1: feel bad for Lakers fans, because I just know Jerry
Speaker 1: Buss would have put that second pick on the table.
Speaker 1: Jerry Buss was running the Lakers, Kyrie would be a
Speaker 1: Laker right now. All right, let's move on to this
Speaker 1: Rust stuff for a minute. Uh. This him breaking up
Speaker 1: with his agent after fourteen years that I said this
Speaker 1: at the intro, But this, to me is the crescendo
Speaker 1: of this phase of the Rust experience. You know, I
Speaker 1: get a hard time from a lot of people for
Speaker 1: being hard on Russ. And and again I tell you, guys,
Speaker 1: like the reasons why I don't like Russ are are
Speaker 1: basketball related. Like it, It bothers me to watch a
Speaker 1: basketball team that is bought in and doing everything they
Speaker 1: can to win, and Russ is b sing on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, or when a team is
Speaker 1: grinding through injuries and just trying to to survive in
Speaker 1: NBA season, and he's complaining about the coach or or
Speaker 1: he's more worried about his touches or his box score
Speaker 1: than he is about the actual team goal of getting
Speaker 1: stops and scoring baskets on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: His head is in the wrong place as a basketball player.
Speaker 1: That's why when I say Russ offends me, that's the
Speaker 1: kind of stuff I'm I'm talking about, Like his whole
Speaker 1: approach to the game bothers me. And he is somehow
Speaker 1: convinced you Russ fans an apologist that because he screams
Speaker 1: really loud after he dunks, or because he can be
Speaker 1: high energy from time to time, that he's somehow like this,
Speaker 1: like blue collar, hard working NBA player. It's just not
Speaker 1: the case. Watch the damn games. He's lazy. He doesn't
Speaker 1: commit to the defensive end of the floor. On offense,
Speaker 1: He's only concerned about his individual impact, his box score
Speaker 1: numbers and things along those lines. The guy is an
Speaker 1: issue off the floor. He does blame everything on everybody else.
Speaker 1: He freaking burned down Lebron James and Anthony Davis after
Speaker 1: the season, even though they did everything in their power
Speaker 1: to empower Russ. Everything that has come onto Russ has
Speaker 1: been Russ's fault. That's the reality of the situation. Lakers
Speaker 1: fans are not picking on Russ. Lakers fans are are
Speaker 1: just as offended as as I am at the things
Speaker 1: that he's done in his time in a Laker, in
Speaker 1: a Laker uniform and It's always funny to hear people
Speaker 1: get mad at me for being negative to Russ when
Speaker 1: his own damn agent of fourteen years was like, I
Speaker 1: can't do this anymore, you know, like that? That's that
Speaker 1: that that that's all you need to know. The teams
Speaker 1: that employ him no longer want him this time. It's
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They no longer want him. Mentioned this earlier.
Speaker 1: If he was a free agent on a veteran minimum contract.
Speaker 1: How many teams do you think sign Russ tomorrow? It's
Speaker 1: either zero or close to zero. Okay, So you can
Speaker 1: be mad at Jason for being anti Russ. The league
Speaker 1: is anti Russ, the agent is anti Russ, the players
Speaker 1: are anti Russ, the general managers are anti Russ, the
Speaker 1: owners are anti Russ. So at a certain point, who's
Speaker 1: the problem? Is it Jason? Is it the GM? Is
Speaker 1: it the players? Or is it Russ? Like the whole
Speaker 1: thing was so strange. But to me, that that's why
Speaker 1: this represents the crescendo. If you ruin a business relationship
Speaker 1: that was fourteen years old, for it whatever escalated between
Speaker 1: them to get to the point of dissolving that business relationship,
Speaker 1: that that that that is if that's not the big
Speaker 1: red flag. I don't know what is. And that's why
Speaker 1: I say this is the crescendo of this Russ moment
Speaker 1: because russ is agent in the statement, which was really strange.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into it in a minute. But if
Speaker 1: Russ's agent in the statement says that he believes Russ
Speaker 1: will have another moment in this league, I agree. I
Speaker 1: believe he will, but it will be as a role player.
Speaker 1: It will be a transformed Russ. And the only way
Speaker 1: that was ever going to happen is if he hit
Speaker 1: rock bottom, which is exactly what happened to Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1: And this is actually worse than what happened to Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1: This is even uglier than the lack of awareness or
Speaker 1: the denial that Carmelo Anthony was experiencing. But it will
Speaker 1: take Russ getting traded away from the Lakers and cut
Speaker 1: and nobody's signing him, or the Lakers not trading him
Speaker 1: and cutting him. That's what it will take for him
Speaker 1: to realize that he needs to change. It will take
Speaker 1: him and his agent burning him down after fourteen years
Speaker 1: of service for him to understand that it's a him
Speaker 1: problem and not in everybody else problem, because once he
Speaker 1: acknowledges that, that's when he will go home and truly
Speaker 1: develop his shot and truly develop his mid range game
Speaker 1: and his floaters and his hook shots, and is finishing
Speaker 1: around the basket, and him slowing down his pace, not
Speaker 1: playing at a hundred miles all the time, his commitment
Speaker 1: to the defensive end of the floor, him embracing the
Speaker 1: little things that helped basketball teams win games. That's where
Speaker 1: when he embraces all of that stuff, I think he's
Speaker 1: got a solid four or five years of quality basketball
Speaker 1: ahead of him, but he needed to hit absolute rock
Speaker 1: bottom first. And that's what this represents. I've said this before,
Speaker 1: but to me, the you know, the the version of
Speaker 1: Russ that contributes to a championship team is a poor
Speaker 1: man's Drew Holiday. He's not Drew Holiday, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. He'll never be able to be that, but
Speaker 1: just in the way he devotes his resources. A power
Speaker 1: guard that plays with physicality as a third option, who
Speaker 1: devotes the majority of his energy to the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor, particularly guarding up a position. That type
Speaker 1: of of of of resource dispersion from Russ will allow
Speaker 1: him to be a productive player, and that's what I
Speaker 1: see the end of his career looking like it just
Speaker 1: had to get really ugly first, and this thing with
Speaker 1: the agent was was the ugliest part. The statement was
Speaker 1: really strange. Him talking about Russ's not acknowledging that he
Speaker 1: should stay in l A as if it's Russ's decision,
Speaker 1: when rob And and Lebron and Anthony Davis all want
Speaker 1: him gone, that always really strange. I don't really know
Speaker 1: what to make of the statement part of it, but
Speaker 1: I just we can. We have to take a look
Speaker 1: at what we can take. What we know for sure
Speaker 1: about this, We don't know whose motive is what with
Speaker 1: the statement, we don't know. Russ says he never requested
Speaker 1: a trade. I actually believe him. I don't He didn't
Speaker 1: need to. The Lakers are trying to trade him anyway.
Speaker 1: But what we do know is that there's a business
Speaker 1: relationship here that was fourteen years old that has ended.
Speaker 1: And when we look at a situation like that, we
Speaker 1: look at the reputations. This is Russell Westbrook that no
Speaker 1: NBA team wants to keep for more than a year,
Speaker 1: and at this point, no NBA team may even want
Speaker 1: in any capacity So from that standpoint, who are you
Speaker 1: going to give the benefit of the doubt too? I
Speaker 1: would venture to guess that this was a Russ problem,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what to make of it. I
Speaker 1: don't know what was the beef there. If I had
Speaker 1: to guess, and again this is just a guess, my
Speaker 1: guests would be that he approached his agent and said,
Speaker 1: get me somewhere where I can do what I did
Speaker 1: in Washington, Like I don't care if you've got a
Speaker 1: facilitated buy out, I don't know if you need to
Speaker 1: direct to trade. I don't know what I need to do.
Speaker 1: Get me somewhere where I can do what I did
Speaker 1: in Washington. And I think his agent might have come
Speaker 1: back at him and been like, nowhere, bro, like none
Speaker 1: of them are going to give you that opportunity. That
Speaker 1: might that that that that to me, and then that
Speaker 1: going poorly for Russ and Russ lashing out as a
Speaker 1: result of that, that would be my guess. But I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's just it's hard to even fathom how
Speaker 1: a business relationship that old could go south. But the
Speaker 1: way I look at this again is this is why
Speaker 1: it costs two first round picks to move him. This
Speaker 1: is why you can't get cheap in your in your
Speaker 1: approach to trying to trade Russell Westbrook. He is so
Speaker 1: toxic right now that his own agency relationship that's a
Speaker 1: decade and a half old, has ended. There is no
Speaker 1: more opportunity here for you to look at this through
Speaker 1: rose colored glasses and pretend as though there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a willing recipient of RUSS. That's not an option anymore.
Speaker 1: That ship has sailed. You must now pay to get
Speaker 1: rid of your problem, and he's making it more expensive
Speaker 1: with his behavior. Put the second round pick on the
Speaker 1: second first round pick on the table, all right, Before
Speaker 1: we get out of here, I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: Lebron playing in the Drew League for a second. Um.
Speaker 1: I was coming down as I was traveling yesterday, so
Speaker 1: I didn't actually watch the game in its entirety, but
Speaker 1: I did my best to try to track down as
Speaker 1: much information as I can, and I watched the first
Speaker 1: the first quarter, I believe. I'm not sure if they
Speaker 1: do quarters or has um at the Drew, but forty
Speaker 1: two points. Uh. He was eighteen for thirty six from
Speaker 1: the field, sixteen for twenty six from two two for
Speaker 1: thirteen from three. Uh. Lebron typically has always been a
Speaker 1: streaky three point shooter, and in a new gym that
Speaker 1: he's never been in before, weird setting, first time playing
Speaker 1: competitive basketball a long time. Not surprised that he didn't
Speaker 1: shoot the ball really well. The big things that I
Speaker 1: looked at was he looked physically explosive. Uh. First of all,
Speaker 1: you get a new appreciation for Lebron's size when you
Speaker 1: see him play against non pros, because he gets out
Speaker 1: there and it's just he's bigger than every single player
Speaker 1: on the court and guys are just bumping off of him.
Speaker 1: Uh as he's barreling down the lane. He still is
Speaker 1: one of the most physically impressive basketball players that we
Speaker 1: have in the league. I looked at it as a
Speaker 1: huge positive in the sense that he looked physically explosive.
Speaker 1: And you you don't pay too much close attention to
Speaker 1: the three point shot, but his handle looked sharp, he
Speaker 1: looked sharp. He looked like he was in mid season four.
Speaker 1: So what do we make of all of that? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, why did Lebron play in the game.
Speaker 1: Lebron hasn't played in the Drew League since the lockout
Speaker 1: right in two thousand, in the summer of two thousand
Speaker 1: and eleven. It's been in eleven years. He's been living
Speaker 1: in l a for the last half decade, so there's
Speaker 1: the uh SO there for the last four years, So
Speaker 1: there's no reason why he would suddenly be interested in
Speaker 1: the Drew League. We also know he's one of the
Speaker 1: most calculated people in all of sports. With Lebron, almost
Speaker 1: everything he does serves an ulterior motive, right or a
Speaker 1: bigger purpose than what you would think. I looked at
Speaker 1: this as Lebron sending a clear message to the Lakers
Speaker 1: front office. I am locked in. I am in mid
Speaker 1: season four in July. I look at this season as
Speaker 1: my last great chance to win an NBA championship. Do
Speaker 1: not waste this on this roster. Do not waste this
Speaker 1: in hopes of a twenty seven first round pick or
Speaker 1: a nine first round pick that has a damn zero
Speaker 1: a damn near zero percent chance of being half as
Speaker 1: good as I am right now. That was the message
Speaker 1: that I thought Lebron was trying to send to that
Speaker 1: front office. He was trying to breed urgency. Look at
Speaker 1: what you have on the roster. This is what I'm
Speaker 1: capable of Kyrie is there for the taking, Go get him.
Speaker 1: That's the way I looked at it. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I love basketball. I love seeing the crowd. I love
Speaker 1: that intimate setting. It was cool seeing all of the
Speaker 1: other fringe pros, guys playing overseas, former college players really
Speaker 1: compete in that environment, battling with Demard Rose and battling
Speaker 1: with Lebron. Obviously, it was a cool moment, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure Lebron had a great time too. But he was
Speaker 1: out there to send a message, and I thought that
Speaker 1: was to send a specific, a clear, a clear impression
Speaker 1: of what his intentions were this season, to pour his
Speaker 1: heart and soul into trying to win a championship. Lebron James,
Speaker 1: when he's motivated, is it forced to be reckoned with.
Speaker 1: And you can tell when he is and when he
Speaker 1: isn't him In two thousand and seventeen, when he knew
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant was on the Warriors and he knew he
Speaker 1: didn't have much of a chance to win the title,
Speaker 1: you could see him pull back defensively. Right then you
Speaker 1: get into two thousand twenty and it's like Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is on the roster. He likes the role players. He
Speaker 1: feels like he has a chance. From day one. He's
Speaker 1: locked in right then last year with when when the
Speaker 1: rust things started to go south, you could almost see
Speaker 1: him making a calculation about his chances, and when he
Speaker 1: didn't think he had the chances, he pulled back. But
Speaker 1: this has been a humiliating couple of years for him
Speaker 1: in the sense that they lost in the first round
Speaker 1: and missed the playoffs entirely. I think he's locked in.
Speaker 1: I think he sees this is this is his last
Speaker 1: great opportunity. I expect him to approach this season with
Speaker 1: the same amount of ferocity that he did in That's
Speaker 1: all the more reason for the Lakers to push their
Speaker 1: chips into the middle of the table, and I hope
Speaker 1: they do. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: At some point over the course of the next few days,
Speaker 1: I expect one of these trades to go down and
Speaker 1: then we'll have something. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys support. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason lt S. I can share some stuff about
Speaker 1: the trip with you, guys, show announcements, things along those lines.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our our videos and then follow subscribe
Speaker 1: to them the Hoops Tonight podcast feed just in case
Speaker 1: you miss any of the YouTube videos. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys, and I'll see you in a couple
Speaker 1: of days. The volume