Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat Check, Katie goes completely dark.
Speaker 1: I will explain what that means for the Nets. Bradley
Speaker 1: Beale signed his extension that can only be mean one thing,
Speaker 1: and it's probably not what you think. Donovan Mitchell apparently
Speaker 1: is not forcing Utah to trade him yet and I
Speaker 1: think I know why. And I also solve the mystery
Speaker 1: of an anonymous hit piece in the New York Post
Speaker 1: today on Portland Trailblazer's owner Jody Allen. Oh, yes, of course,
Speaker 1: because we are here live in Las Vegas. I will
Speaker 1: also break down all of my initial thoughts from the
Speaker 1: happenings of the first day of Summer League. Can't wait
Speaker 1: to get into it, so brock to it fast. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and drop that beat. So let's get into a
Speaker 1: little news around the NBA. Kadie my man Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: has gone completely dark, and in his absence, the Nets
Speaker 1: have become I don't know, the Nets have become a
Speaker 1: thirteen year old with NBA two K in franchise mode
Speaker 1: and they're just trying to swap one player for an
Speaker 1: entire team. They're also like who you experience all the
Speaker 1: time if you play fantasy football and you've got that
Speaker 1: one guy in the league who thinks that he can
Speaker 1: trade you Alvin Kamara for like Matt Stafford and Josh
Speaker 1: Jacobs and Darren Wallers like my g No. The latest
Speaker 1: is that they tried to convince the Minnesota Timberwolves to
Speaker 1: give up aunt Cat and four first round picks for Katie.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, what you so? What? Click? That's one of
Speaker 1: those Hey, what's up, Seana? It's uh a rod and
Speaker 1: it's uh, who's run? Tim Conley? It's Tim? What's up? Uh?
Speaker 1: You won't excuse me? What? Click? That's like that's an
Speaker 1: immediate go fuck yourself? So why would the Wolves or
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant sign off on that? Like why would DLO
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant remix in this alternate universe where Kadie
Speaker 1: was in assign a trade for Dlo, who's also in
Speaker 1: a sign of a trade, Like why would Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: want to play with Jaden McDaniels h d Loo And
Speaker 1: like nas read, he wouldn't like you wouldn't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: help anyone other than the Nets in this case. And
Speaker 1: and first of all, if you get Nets, if you
Speaker 1: are the Nets and you get Karl Anthony Towns and
Speaker 1: Aunt Edwards for Kevin Durant. There are no picks being
Speaker 1: exchanged exchanged, There is absolutely none. You get player Edwards
Speaker 1: is probably Michael Jordan. Have the nets ever seen him play?
Speaker 1: I don't know, like because it's he's the next Jordan.
Speaker 1: I'm not giving you baby Jordan for a thirty plus
Speaker 1: guy who probably doesn't want to play in Minnesota anyway.
Speaker 1: And Brian Windhorse hit it on the head when he
Speaker 1: said this, and I thought to myself, we got to
Speaker 1: talk about this. The market does not want to pay
Speaker 1: a super premium price for Kevin rand because if he
Speaker 1: trade all away these top assets on your team begin him,
Speaker 1: he becomes then less valuable to you because you're no
Speaker 1: longer a contender. And all of that is a golf
Speaker 1: and why we are in a stalemate right now, and
Speaker 1: you could have one for a while. And the latest
Speaker 1: now is also that there's no Kyrie trade until Kevin's traded.
Speaker 1: So Kai is gonna just sit there and rot even
Speaker 1: though he's out in the in I want to say,
Speaker 1: he's in La playing in the valley. In all these
Speaker 1: NBA leagues, he's chopping it up with all the stars
Speaker 1: he's given them buckets, proven that he's one of the
Speaker 1: best scores on Earth, and you know what, for the Nets,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. And for Kevin, people want to know.
Speaker 1: Players are reaching out to him, agents are reaching out
Speaker 1: to him, Teams are reaching out to him, not answering,
Speaker 1: not answering calls, not answering texts, not answering emails, barely
Speaker 1: even responding to tweets, which we know he loves to do.
Speaker 1: And it's all essentially in rich Clement's hands now. So no, obviously,
Speaker 1: no Kevin Durant cameos in Summer League. It would appear
Speaker 1: haven't seen him, haven't heard about him. It would appear
Speaker 1: this is going to drag on for some time. WOJ
Speaker 1: thinks it's going to going all is going, WOG thinks
Speaker 1: it's going to go all the way up into a
Speaker 1: training camp. That would be gross. This has got the
Speaker 1: whole league on hold, and of course the trade could
Speaker 1: drop at any moment, so you got to keep those
Speaker 1: alerts on for that very reason. Moving on, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Brad Beal. Brad Bial signed his five year, two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty one million dollar extension with the Wizards. I
Speaker 1: gotta say for him, Go get your money, my guy,
Speaker 1: do you deserve it? Take those money and then just
Speaker 1: hang out in DC. And we know that he's loyal.
Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. Bradley Beal asked for and got
Speaker 1: a no trade clause in his contract. He's the only
Speaker 1: current player in the league with that in his contract.
Speaker 1: And Ted leonsis the owner of the Wizards, owner of
Speaker 1: what is it, monumental Monumental Sports, says that he does
Speaker 1: not want to be traded and we don't want to
Speaker 1: trade him. All that sounds nice. On Friday, July eight,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, we'll see how this goes. In July eighth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, we'll see when he's thirty years old.
Speaker 1: Leons says he sees this as a partnership and now
Speaker 1: the Wizards can't don't bill for a boatload of picks
Speaker 1: without his say so, which is you know, smart business
Speaker 1: for Bio in the NBA. You can't end up in Sacramento,
Speaker 1: right like he is going to be able to pick
Speaker 1: his next destination when when he comes to grips with
Speaker 1: what we all know and Brock knows that he will
Speaker 1: never win anything in Washington. He will never make it
Speaker 1: past the first round. Again, I said it. And let's
Speaker 1: be clear about something here. This is no shade on
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal when I say this. But when he signed
Speaker 1: this extension super Max no trade clause, I'm all in
Speaker 1: no player option. That was the moment that I knew
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal does not prioritize winning a championship. It's not
Speaker 1: He's not going to win a title in Washington, and
Speaker 1: any smart person can see this. The team is a mess.
Speaker 1: The team is so messy that there's not really much
Speaker 1: of a chance that they even will make the playoffs
Speaker 1: this year. Their idea of giving Beal pieces to help
Speaker 1: him was to sign Monty Morris, Will or Monte Will Barton,
Speaker 1: the Lawn Wright junior. They drafted Johnny Davis, which means, folks,
Speaker 1: that this team has signed four guys who either have
Speaker 1: or currently play the shooting guard position, which is the
Speaker 1: exact same position that Bradley Beal plays. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, Morris and Wright can play the point.
Speaker 1: And basically what you're saying is that the Wizards added
Speaker 1: a pair of backup point guards. Monty Morris at thirteen
Speaker 1: and four right at four and two, and then basically said,
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal, you go ahead and carry the load. You
Speaker 1: go ahead and be the point guard. Make Johnny Davis
Speaker 1: the two. And we know that Bradley Beal is loyal,
Speaker 1: but we also know Bradley Beal is smart and signing
Speaker 1: with the Wizards right now with a baby on the
Speaker 1: way is a smart business move and it's a smart
Speaker 1: life move. It's just not the one that's going to
Speaker 1: give him a title. And that's facts, and that's okay.
Speaker 1: He'll be thirty four years old when his extension is finished,
Speaker 1: and so that's maybe when he decides to go chase
Speaker 1: a ring. Like everybody else, I don't hate it. He's
Speaker 1: creating this multi generational wealth and being loyal to a
Speaker 1: city that he loves, and I'm for that. But the
Speaker 1: cost of being loyal oftentimes is winning. Just asked Damian Lillard,
Speaker 1: who himself doubled down and took a two year, one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty two million dollars deal with the Blazers,
Speaker 1: how much money is that? Let me go to mas
Speaker 1: school sixty sixty something million dollars a year. Well, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose which twenty nine teams every year. Do
Speaker 1: you might as well make sixty million dollars a year
Speaker 1: doing it. Let's move on to Donovan Mitchell, quick update
Speaker 1: him on him and the Utah Jazz. I don't have
Speaker 1: it today. I don't think I have it. Last we
Speaker 1: looked in on the Jazz Trader, Danny had leveraged Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert for about one hundred first round picks from the Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: People are very split down the middle on this. I
Speaker 1: put out a clip on the internet, would you rather
Speaker 1: spend thirty million dollars on Christian Wood? We talked about
Speaker 1: this on the podcast. Obviously, Christian Wood and Jabail thirty
Speaker 1: million or Rudy Gobert and cated at one hundred million,
Speaker 1: and people were very mad. People told me to get
Speaker 1: into the kitchen. People told me to never watch basketball again.
Speaker 1: People told me that I should just focus on the
Speaker 1: women's side of the game. It's just one of those
Speaker 1: scenarios where this was more controversial folks than I even thought.
Speaker 1: At least though at least, the Wolves are committed to
Speaker 1: doing something to try to win now, and that for
Speaker 1: a lot of folks who have never seen the Wolves
Speaker 1: do a damn thing is very exciting. This team could
Speaker 1: be very fun, even though it's a wing driven league.
Speaker 1: As Kevin Durant would say, and you've got two centers
Speaker 1: now that make a hundred million. I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk about that, though. What I do want to talk
Speaker 1: about is what the Jazz are doing given this end
Speaker 1: of things, and what they're going to do moving forward.
Speaker 1: Q that Brian Windhorse dramatic reading what is going on
Speaker 1: in Utah. It turns out, according to Brian Windhorse, what
Speaker 1: is happening in Utah is nothing yet. They're the only
Speaker 1: team in the NBA who hasn't signed anyone in free agency,
Speaker 1: not one single person, not a single soul. All they've
Speaker 1: done is just trade things, trade Roy O'Neill, trade Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: and accumulated a ton of first round picks. And that,
Speaker 1: my friends, probably not a sign of encouragement to my man,
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell. Probably not good news if you're a Jazz
Speaker 1: fan and you think then maybe they're building around them,
Speaker 1: because that's what they keep saying, We're building around Donovan.
Speaker 1: We don't want them to go. And then other reports
Speaker 1: are coming out saying that Donovan Mitchell is concerned with
Speaker 1: the moves that this team is making facts. I get that,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I'm making a hot take or
Speaker 1: saying a hot take to say Donovan Mitchell is probably
Speaker 1: not long for the Utah Jazz. This team's in rebuild mode.
Speaker 1: They just are not admitting it yet because they think
Speaker 1: they're getting an All Star Game in Utah, which they
Speaker 1: may or may not have, and they need to have
Speaker 1: one player that's an All Star the one year that
Speaker 1: they go to that trash as city or the fan
Speaker 1: base will probably riot, probably bring their tiki torches out.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, the All Star Game is two weeks though
Speaker 1: before the trade deadline this year. Coincidence, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. So if you're in New York,
Speaker 1: you play the waiting game. I mean New York, not Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Other than Sam Presty and OKC. We talked about this before.
Speaker 1: There's not really any other team that has as many
Speaker 1: first round pick. This is the next especially expendable ones.
Speaker 1: They have eight tradable first round picks in the next
Speaker 1: handful of years. So unless they do something panicky or dumb,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be in a really good position to add
Speaker 1: Donovan to this team and a backcourt of Mitchell and
Speaker 1: Brunson is pretty intriguing. It's definitely better than a backcourt
Speaker 1: of Mike Conley Jr. And Donovan Mitchell, but truthfully, Mike
Speaker 1: Conley in his prime probably better than Jaylen Brunson. Not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. Wendy says that the Jazz are not talking
Speaker 1: to anyone about a trade right now for Donovan, and
Speaker 1: I think that makes sense only if they're planning on
Speaker 1: holding on to him for the short term, because building
Speaker 1: around him makes no damn sense. And what we know
Speaker 1: about Danny Age is this, he is not afraid to
Speaker 1: and seems to like to blow up the show. Let's
Speaker 1: say lets some forward, so summertime in the wintertime, things
Speaker 1: are getting quite strange. Uh, And I want to discuss
Speaker 1: something that is near and dear to my heart, but
Speaker 1: something that also makes no sense. So let me preface
Speaker 1: this by saying, I have come, in my short time
Speaker 1: of hosting radio in New York City about New York
Speaker 1: sports sports teams on w fa N that New York
Speaker 1: City doesn't really care about basketball. They don't. They don't
Speaker 1: care about local New York basketball almost at all. And
Speaker 1: there's like reasons for this, and they really don't matter
Speaker 1: that much to you. I'm sure the Nets aren't seen
Speaker 1: as a New York team. They keep trying to buy teams,
Speaker 1: it never works. They dominate national news in the basketball world,
Speaker 1: but honestly, New York fans just don't really give a shit. Secondly,
Speaker 1: the Knicks haven't been good and they've been largely irrelevant
Speaker 1: ever since, like the Riley era. So they're owned obviously
Speaker 1: by a man in James Dolan, who probably rivals Dan
Speaker 1: Snyder as most popular owner in all of sports. I
Speaker 1: have nothing negative to say about James Dolan, however, lots
Speaker 1: of other people do so. Imagine brought my surprise, as
Speaker 1: a lifelong Portland Trailblazers fan that I open up an
Speaker 1: article a hit piece Blazer's owner Jody Allen in the
Speaker 1: New York Poe. Why would they do that? Does it
Speaker 1: make any sense? The second I saw this, I put
Speaker 1: my sleuthing hat on, because, let's be real, shit like
Speaker 1: this doesn't happen. New York Post doesn't care about us.
Speaker 1: New York fans don't care about us. You have to
Speaker 1: fight just to get New Yorkers interested in Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant fighting their way out forcing their way out
Speaker 1: of the nets. Why would they care about Portland? The
Speaker 1: quickest answer is they do not. They don't and so
Speaker 1: to me it seemed very bizarre that they would write
Speaker 1: this piece. So I started to read the article in depth.
Speaker 1: It's like a five thousand word think piece. And The
Speaker 1: New York Post is not noted for their five thousand
Speaker 1: word think pieces. It's noted for their two hundred word
Speaker 1: stories with eight tweets embedded. This is not Pulitzer Proprize
Speaker 1: journalism here. So I went to the author. The only
Speaker 1: think linked was the name s. Nathan Nyp, anonymous author
Speaker 1: publishing a five thousand word hit piece on one of
Speaker 1: the major newspapers in the world. The author has written
Speaker 1: exactly two pieces in his or her history of The
Speaker 1: New York Post. One was a pr spin piece redeeming
Speaker 1: Brian Williams, noted liar, and the other was this vicious,
Speaker 1: ugly hit piece on Jody Allen. So I started to read,
Speaker 1: and it was an absolute hammer job, just like a
Speaker 1: hatchet on her reputation. Literally everything Jody Allen has ever
Speaker 1: allegedly done was dragged out and dissected in depth. And
Speaker 1: this includes the following allegations by the author, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna get weird. So I just need you to hang on.
Speaker 1: I need you to hang on. Brock. She created a
Speaker 1: toxic environment in Portland. She still is. That's pretty normal.
Speaker 1: Lots of teams do that, right, that happens. She allowed
Speaker 1: Neil Osha, former GM to basically run the most dysfunctional
Speaker 1: front office this side of Phoenix, which led to his firing,
Speaker 1: and that Jody Allen knew about it and did nothing
Speaker 1: to stop it. Okay, that's like shady. It's bad, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right? Uh, that Blazer CEO Chris McGowan resigned because
Speaker 1: of frustration with Jody and this other guy cold who
Speaker 1: is Paul Allen's college roommate and friend, who's basically running
Speaker 1: the team, and he's She's now allowing Burt Cole to
Speaker 1: make all the decisions. Okay, that's fine. Here's one that
Speaker 1: I thought was a little strange. That she ghosted Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard and did not return his emails. That one went viral.
Speaker 1: That's the one in this whole list that went viral. Okay,
Speaker 1: not probably a great move, all right? Uh. That she
Speaker 1: bought European cut boxer briefs for her security detail and
Speaker 1: asked them to put on a fashion show for her.
Speaker 1: That one caught my attention, but it was this one
Speaker 1: that really took the cake. It was this one that
Speaker 1: had my mind blown. I'm gonna read the first the
Speaker 1: full full quote here. Former members of Paul Allen and
Speaker 1: Jody Allen's security detail, including veterans of Elite million terry units,
Speaker 1: great set and sworn depositions in twenty twelve that yes,
Speaker 1: she sexually harassed bodyguards, but she also directed them to
Speaker 1: smuggle animal bones out of Africa and Antarctica. At least
Speaker 1: two former employees said that they heard themselves that Jody
Speaker 1: had smuggled ivory out of Africa, which is in violation
Speaker 1: of US and international law, though none admitted to actually
Speaker 1: seeing her do. So what giraff bones? You can't make
Speaker 1: this up. The USDA actually destroyed seventy two pounds of
Speaker 1: girafft bones allegedly stolen and smuggled. So how big is one?
Speaker 1: Just like a femur of a giraffe? Is that itself
Speaker 1: seventy two pounds? And if you google, just google smuggle
Speaker 1: giraffe bones? Because I thought to myself, what do you
Speaker 1: make with giraffe bones. Do you turn them into dust
Speaker 1: and then turn that dust into like a fake diamond?
Speaker 1: Do you snort that dust? Do you put that dust
Speaker 1: into your smoothie in the morning? Do you put it
Speaker 1: on the flakes of your ko salad? Like? What are
Speaker 1: we doing with this? Do do you make furniture out
Speaker 1: of it? So I googled furniture? Maybe that? So I
Speaker 1: googled what do we use giraffe bones? For nothing? There's
Speaker 1: nothing there. Then I googled smuggle giraffe bones. I thought
Speaker 1: maybe if I got a little context into what people
Speaker 1: were finding and doing with this, then I would understand
Speaker 1: her motives. I swear to God. The only thing that
Speaker 1: comes up if you google smuggle giraffe bones is just
Speaker 1: Jody Allen and Paul Allen. That's it. That's all that
Speaker 1: comes up, is just article after article after article about them.
Speaker 1: So they're like the only person people in history on
Speaker 1: the Internet to have ever tried to steal the bones
Speaker 1: of a giraffe, which means which means probably like iron fist.
Speaker 1: There's some like ritualistic thing where they turn it in.
Speaker 1: They've got this like map, and then they find an
Speaker 1: ancient tattoo artist with this giraft bone and this metal bowl,
Speaker 1: and they do a ritual and then they turn Jody
Speaker 1: Allen into the iron Fist. That's the only way I
Speaker 1: can think it makes sense, which to me, it's worth
Speaker 1: losing your team over. You know, honestly, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: the iron Fist. It's pretty much no one who can
Speaker 1: stop you. Even the New York Post. So and Larry Miller.
Speaker 1: Larry Miller pops up all over this article. He's the
Speaker 1: former president of the Blazers and a former executive of Nike,
Speaker 1: also of the Jordan brand. You might also know him
Speaker 1: as a guy who made news earlier this year by
Speaker 1: asking forgiveness to a woman for a man he murdered
Speaker 1: thirty years ago, asking his wife for forgiveness. Why am
Speaker 1: I reading this because there's always a motive right and
Speaker 1: here it is. Larry Miller said this. It's time for
Speaker 1: a change in ownership. Stable, good, solid ownership is what
Speaker 1: leads to winning. You can't win if you don't have solid, consistent,
Speaker 1: reliable ownership. Portland has definitely not had that since Paul passed.
Speaker 1: The issue is that Burt doesn't want to sell and
Speaker 1: he will drag this out as long as possible. By
Speaker 1: the way, if you've been under an NBA rock or
Speaker 1: just not on the internet. Jody Allen twenty four hours
Speaker 1: ago put out a memo saying that the Blazers were
Speaker 1: currently not for sale and that they will not be
Speaker 1: for sale most likely for another ten to twenty years.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, what other owners that aren't
Speaker 1: going to sell their team for the next ten to
Speaker 1: twenty years put out memos saying that they're not selling
Speaker 1: the team and that the team is not for sale.
Speaker 1: They just continue doing business right and don't sell the
Speaker 1: team Like that pretty much tells you everything you need
Speaker 1: to know. So I see that memo and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know, Phil Allen put in a bid for two
Speaker 1: billion dollars to buy the Blazers, And then I see
Speaker 1: this hit piece and it all clicked. Why would this
Speaker 1: be coming out? And it's because Phil Knight is going
Speaker 1: to pull pull that Portland Trailblazers franchise from Jody Allen's
Speaker 1: cold dead giraffe bone acquiring hands. And he's gonna do
Speaker 1: it using any means necessary. He's gonna use the New
Speaker 1: York Post. It's only just begun. He's gonna probably use
Speaker 1: the Sun in Britain, He's probably gonna use New York Times.
Speaker 1: He's probably gonna use La Times. I mean the Oregonian.
Speaker 1: We're probably already gonna see something with Oregonian. I bet
Speaker 1: he makes a shoe with proceeds going over to Africa,
Speaker 1: like the anti poaching shoe with fake animal prints giraffe
Speaker 1: print on the shoe, just to try to create a
Speaker 1: marketing campaign out of it. So you've got an anonymous,
Speaker 1: detailed article in a major newspaper that absolutely cares zero
Speaker 1: about Portland alleging everything under the sun against current owner
Speaker 1: of a Portland team just a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: after she says she was not going to sell the
Speaker 1: team to Phil Knight, by the way, didn't even take
Speaker 1: his calls, according to this article, who just made a
Speaker 1: massive bid to buy the franchise. You don't need a
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist baby to see the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1: The lesson is this, billionaires get their way. There is
Speaker 1: almost no clean and squeaky billionaires, almost none unless they
Speaker 1: acquired it from their inheritance. And that guy who acquired
Speaker 1: the billions probably not squeaky cleaning either. And if a
Speaker 1: guy like Phil Knights wants to buy your team and
Speaker 1: is giving you a fair offer, and you have to
Speaker 1: sell that team, and you are being a see you
Speaker 1: next Tuesday by telling him in the world that you're
Speaker 1: not selling the team for another ten to twenty years.
Speaker 1: Get ready, and you're not squeaky clean, and you're buying
Speaker 1: European boxer briefs for your security detail and asking them
Speaker 1: to parade around for you. You better expect for those
Speaker 1: dirty European boxer briefs to be aired out all over
Speaker 1: from here to Kingdom. Come on every national news source
Speaker 1: that we can find. This is just the beginning, baby,
Speaker 1: because Wall Street Journal is what comes next. Emergency segment, emergency, emergency,
Speaker 1: we we we. Shit is popping always at the Summer League.
Speaker 1: And while this show was being recorded, James Harden has
Speaker 1: signed with the Sixers and the terms are kind of shocking.
Speaker 1: James Harden is taking a fifteen million dollar pay cut
Speaker 1: for next season that allowed Philadelphia to elevate the roster
Speaker 1: with their sole focus on a championship run. In twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, he opted out of his forty seven million
Speaker 1: dollar player option and now plans to sign a new
Speaker 1: two year deal with the player option in year two.
Speaker 1: This is what Shams tweeted. Wow, still so much for
Speaker 1: that myth that he's the most selfish player in the NBA. Also,
Speaker 1: is thirty five million dollars really a pay cut for
Speaker 1: James Harden? Like, I don't think so. I don't know
Speaker 1: that he's worth thirty five million, but hey, also still
Speaker 1: I want to know how does James Harden look? How
Speaker 1: does he feel? He's been fat, He's been out of shape,
Speaker 1: his hamstrings been in shambles, He's been doing houkahs all
Speaker 1: over the world. And we all remember the blue jump suit.
Speaker 1: We all remember the blue jumpsuit. Cue the Shams follow
Speaker 1: up tweet because you know there is one right find
Speaker 1: it for me, find me the Shams tweet. All right
Speaker 1: here it is. Everyone around Harden has understood the focus
Speaker 1: on his workout regimen this offseason and a championship goal
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty two twenty twenty three. His close relationships
Speaker 1: with those around the organization, including Michael Rubin and Darryl Morey,
Speaker 1: played a major role in trust between the two sides.
Speaker 1: So not only did James Harden take a thirty percent
Speaker 1: pay cut, he made promises false promises that he would
Speaker 1: come in shape this season. He would come into the
Speaker 1: season in shape. I promise you, I'm gonna eat better.
Speaker 1: I promise you, I'm gonna work out. I'm cutting down
Speaker 1: on the hookah, I'm cutting down on this drip clubs,
Speaker 1: cutting down on the wings. Look the out, people is
Speaker 1: big game. James back. No, he's not back. But maybe,
Speaker 1: just maybe James Harden wasn't the issue in Brooklyn. Maybe
Speaker 1: the team was already toxic, and maybe James Harden, in
Speaker 1: his one hamstring, saw it before anyone else and he
Speaker 1: pulled the rip chord like Goose in Top Gun. And
Speaker 1: maybe just maybe Sixers with a healthy umbiad a in
Speaker 1: shape Harden, a Tyrese Maxine, a PJ. Tucker, this team
Speaker 1: might be a problem next year, a problem maybe in
Speaker 1: the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, because if
Speaker 1: this team can't win next year, though which they won't,
Speaker 1: it's a processed Pard two when in b forces his
Speaker 1: way to play with Jimmy Butler in Miami. All right,
Speaker 1: So I'm here in Vegas where it's hot. I got
Speaker 1: jeans on with Readians for summer League, and I have
Speaker 1: thoughts after the first couple of days, and I know
Speaker 1: everybody wants to hear about Paola. I know everybody wants
Speaker 1: to hear about Jabari, and we'll get there. I've got
Speaker 1: things to say, but I do want to talk about
Speaker 1: a couple of guys, a couple of young guys that
Speaker 1: popped off the page and we weren't really expecting to
Speaker 1: do so, and that I think is what makes the
Speaker 1: Summer League special, right, not just can a star player
Speaker 1: that's coming into the league as the number one or
Speaker 1: number two overall pick or number three overall pick, how
Speaker 1: can they play? But it's like, how can a guy
Speaker 1: who was the twenty second overall pick last year, not
Speaker 1: this year, but last year and he gets moved? How
Speaker 1: does he play? What about a guy who made it
Speaker 1: to the second round? How does he play? So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about two rookies, well two young guys
Speaker 1: because one's not a rookie. Really the most surprising and
Speaker 1: impressive Summer League performances of Day one to me, which
Speaker 1: is Detroit and Portland's game in Orlando, Houston in their game.
Speaker 1: So number one is Caleb Houston for me out of Michigan.
Speaker 1: I was interested to see what he was going to
Speaker 1: look like as a second round pick, early second round pick,
Speaker 1: and oh my god, did Orlando feel like they got
Speaker 1: something special? Really in a steal? Right? He had twenty points,
Speaker 1: six rebounds, five for nine from three, seven for twelve
Speaker 1: from the field. He had a couple of mid nice
Speaker 1: mid range shots, a couple of close rain buckets, but
Speaker 1: like a ton of three pointers as you see five threes. Houston,
Speaker 1: to me stuck out because I'm thinking about Keegan Murray.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking a lot about the Kings taking him at
Speaker 1: number four. And Keegan Murray's twenty one years old, He's
Speaker 1: six eight two o five. He's a long rangey four.
Speaker 1: Maybe he could be something like a taller Al Horford.
Speaker 1: But you know, truthfully, taking him number four was a
Speaker 1: surprise to most of the NBA. And I see Caleb
Speaker 1: Houston in his game, and I see Keigan Murray in
Speaker 1: his game, and they're not the same, but they play
Speaker 1: the same way. And so I bet if Caleb Houston
Speaker 1: went another two years in college, he might have averaged
Speaker 1: the same type of numbers that Keegan Murray did twenty
Speaker 1: four points a game in his last year too. Caleb
Speaker 1: Houston in his first year averaged thirteen to five and
Speaker 1: two per forty and Keegan Murray who I mentioned was
Speaker 1: six eight two five twenty one years old. Caleb Houston
Speaker 1: six eight one ninety nineteen years old. He averaged sixteen
Speaker 1: eleven and one, so definitely a better rebounder, but in
Speaker 1: terms of scoring per forty in his freshman year as well.
Speaker 1: Pretty interesting comps here. I think Caleb could be a
Speaker 1: really nice wing player for Orlando, and I think upon
Speaker 1: first glance they absolutely stole him in the second round.
Speaker 1: Let's move forward to another player that I was near
Speaker 1: and dear to my art as a Portland Chailblazer fan.
Speaker 1: And no it's not shade and sharp, because I barely
Speaker 1: got to see him. Uh Kegan Keon Johnson six five
Speaker 1: one five second ear player from Tennessee. He was actually
Speaker 1: the Clippers first round pick. So you know, Jerry West
Speaker 1: had his his mind and his fingers in the in
Speaker 1: the puzzle, and he came over to the Blazers from
Speaker 1: the Clippers in that Larry Nance deal with uh no,
Speaker 1: not Larry Nance, it was it was Robert Covington, Eric
Speaker 1: bledsoe Norm Powell for Keon Johnson and some randoms. Eric
Speaker 1: Bledso of course was in that deal as well. And
Speaker 1: he's been quietly a bucket. During the Portland Tankathon end
Speaker 1: of the season, he averaged ten three and three thirty
Speaker 1: five percent from deep in twenty six minutes, which is
Speaker 1: pretty good for a nineteen year old on a team
Speaker 1: that's actively looking to around you with non NBA players
Speaker 1: like actively looking to lose. He looked in this game
Speaker 1: against Detroit Keon looked he stood out. He looked very
Speaker 1: involved everywhere. He looked bouncy, completely fearless. Definitely's worked on
Speaker 1: his shot. I think him and Gary Payton the second
Speaker 1: together could be a really fun duo in terms of
Speaker 1: just working out together and learning from one another and
Speaker 1: really be a couple of very versatile young wings on
Speaker 1: this Portland team. He has a very high vertical leap,
Speaker 1: He has nice little layup packages and can pass as well.
Speaker 1: Like the passing thing I think is the most impressive.
Speaker 1: He had twenty one points, three rebounds, two assists, two
Speaker 1: steals in that game. He was eight for seventeen from
Speaker 1: the field and two for six from three, so very
Speaker 1: very impressive. So those are my two rookies or two
Speaker 1: young guys that stood out in a way that I
Speaker 1: didn't even expect to be watching for them them right.
Speaker 1: Let's move forward. Japari Smith versus Powello, Ben Carrol. Let's
Speaker 1: talk Jabari first number three pick in the draft everyone
Speaker 1: thought would go number one. He looked surprisingly reluctant, surprisingly timid.
Speaker 1: He shot four for ten, one for four from three.
Speaker 1: He had ten point seven rebounds and three assists. It's
Speaker 1: not like he was bad, because he definitely had some
Speaker 1: nice moves. His footwork looks really good. He's got good instincts,
Speaker 1: he doesn't think too much. It's just that he didn't
Speaker 1: look dominant. He didn't look relentless. He didn't look like
Speaker 1: he was actively trying to dominate. Pawo, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: looked like he was trying to absolutely show the world.
Speaker 1: And he said this actually in his postgame presser with
Speaker 1: Cassidy Hubberth. He said, I absolutely was trying to show
Speaker 1: the world that I deserved the number one pick. It's
Speaker 1: not the number one thing that was in my head,
Speaker 1: but it was definitely a thing that was in my head.
Speaker 1: He went seventeen four and six six assists for Poolo.
Speaker 1: He went two for three from three and had some
Speaker 1: really good defense as well. He had a very very
Speaker 1: big block on Jabbari where you're like, ooh, he hit
Speaker 1: a three, and then chirp Jalen Green on the sidelines
Speaker 1: as well, like he's just that guy. And when you
Speaker 1: see him, he's massive. He's massive in a way I
Speaker 1: can't even fully articulate to you as a listener because
Speaker 1: you have to see it up close. It's like there's
Speaker 1: no way even when I take videos right in front
Speaker 1: of him, like me and him, he's just right there.
Speaker 1: It just makes him look smaller than he is. He
Speaker 1: takes up the whole phone screen. And he's got really
Speaker 1: nice moves, great footwork, good jab step, nice mid range,
Speaker 1: can pass like hell. He's gonna probably be the number
Speaker 1: one usage guy on Orlando. It feels like it feels
Speaker 1: like they're gonna give him the ball a lot, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna let him cook, and they're gonna let him
Speaker 1: get other guys involved too. So I think Pawloll's a star.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to wait to see him play the
Speaker 1: rest of Summer League. I even think the way that
Speaker 1: he played in this first game that maybe you want
Speaker 1: to maybe bet on him to win Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: And I don't like that for big men. But for him,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a different story. Shaden Sharp was the
Speaker 1: number one player I wanted to see, and I did
Speaker 1: get to see him for all of six minutes before
Speaker 1: he hurt his shoulder and that was that. That was
Speaker 1: Night Night's Sleep mask and probably no more Shaden Sharp
Speaker 1: in the rest of Summer League. He was one for three,
Speaker 1: zero for two from three. So the man who is
Speaker 1: a mystery, the man who we all want to see,
Speaker 1: who has no tape like still we have no tape
Speaker 1: on absolutely a mystery we all wanted to see. Can
Speaker 1: he play NBA games? He's only played five on five
Speaker 1: I don't know, eighteen months to go at eybl I've
Speaker 1: never seen him play anywhere, and there's no film on
Speaker 1: him outside of eybl nothing on Kentucky practice, nothing, nothing
Speaker 1: in his backyard. I got to see him for six
Speaker 1: fucking minutes, and now he's gone. I have to wait
Speaker 1: till October to see Shad and Sharp. Now it's garbage,
Speaker 1: absolutely garbage. I got probably all the footage you'll ever
Speaker 1: see of him on my phone right in front of him.
Speaker 1: So how does what does this mean for Portland? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Is he gonna like, are they hiding him.
Speaker 1: Is he really injured? It didn't even look like anything happened.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just rambling down in disarray, wanting
Speaker 1: to see Shad and Sharp at summery alas we persist today,
Speaker 1: I will be going to see, most importantly Benedict Mathern,
Speaker 1: who I wanted the Portland Trail Wazers to take. I
Speaker 1: can't wait for that. Gonna get up with some friends
Speaker 1: tonight and hopefully we'll have some tea. Given those meetings
Speaker 1: early next week, there's a lot of stuff popping and
Speaker 1: hopefully I have some good intel to share with y'all.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we have for heat Check.
Speaker 1: Will be back Wednesday. No, we'll be back Tuesday with
Speaker 1: an all new episode from Summer League in Vegas. Please
Speaker 1: follow us on heat Check for all the reviews of
Speaker 1: the rookies that you can handle. We'll be doing those
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