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Speaker 2: All right, welcome, hoops and I you're at the volume
Speaker 2: heavy Wednesday. Everybody hope ball of you guys are having
Speaker 2: a great week. Well, we're gonna take a break from
Speaker 2: our NBA Finals coverage today. There are several stories going
Speaker 2: on around the league. We're poised to have an insanely
Speaker 2: busy summer, and we already got our first big trade
Speaker 2: of the summer this weekend, as Desmond Bain was moved
Speaker 2: to the Orlando Magic. I talked briefly about it with
Speaker 2: Colin Coward on Tuesday on Monday night. But what I
Speaker 2: want to do today is I want to give more of,
Speaker 2: like a detailed breakdown of my take on the Desmond
Speaker 2: Bain trade, what it means for John Morant and the
Speaker 2: Memphis Grizzlies moving forward. After that, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the big picture of the of
Speaker 2: the summer. On late on Monday night, Sam Amock and
Speaker 2: John Krazinski of The Athletic reported that Kevin Durant's preferred
Speaker 2: trade destination as the San Antonio Spurs. We're gonna briefly
Speaker 2: talk about that, and then after that. It's been widely
Speaker 2: reported there's no trade market for Yannis because Jannis has
Speaker 2: not requested a trade. So I wanted to take an
Speaker 2: honest look at the Milwaukee situation and really just talk
Speaker 2: about what in the world makes sense for both of
Speaker 2: these parties, for Giannis and for Milwaukee moving forward. You
Speaker 2: guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe to
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Speaker 2: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and
Speaker 2: the YouTube comments. Will be doing our next mail bag
Speaker 2: on Thursday night after the final buzzer of Game six
Speaker 2: of the NBA Finals. All you gotta do is show
Speaker 2: up to that stream, drop your questions in the chat,
Speaker 2: and then we'll get to our questions there. And then
Speaker 2: once we get out of the finals, we'll go back
Speaker 2: to taking our mail bag questions out of the YouTube comments.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball. So obviously, the highlight
Speaker 2: of the Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic trade was
Speaker 2: the draft compensation. That was the story, and it's really complicated.
Speaker 2: I The thing with draft compensation is it's always a
Speaker 2: little bit more complicated than meets the eye. It's very
Speaker 2: easy to just throw it out throughout a number of
Speaker 2: draft picks like oh, three first, four first, you know,
Speaker 2: two first two first, in a swap, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: But protections matter. It makes a huge difference. The difference
Speaker 2: between a top ten protected first round pick in value
Speaker 2: compared to an unprotected first round pick is pretty massive.
Speaker 2: Those are substantial swings in value, right, and so to
Speaker 2: give up four unprotected first round picks feels steep. But
Speaker 2: before we even go any further into that, the value
Speaker 2: only matters in the context of what a team is
Speaker 2: trying to accomplish, Like how much does Desmond Bane fit
Speaker 2: specifically with Orlando That makes a big difference in what
Speaker 2: the price tag should be. Right, was Memphis even considering
Speaker 2: trading Desmond Bane? For all we know Memphis didn't want to,
Speaker 2: and this is literally what it took to pry him away.
Speaker 2: Desmond Bane has a very unique skill set. I've seen
Speaker 2: a lot of people hung up on, like what level
Speaker 2: of player Desmond Bain is? How does he relate to
Speaker 2: a McHale bridges like, well, is Kevin Durant gonna go
Speaker 2: for four unprotected first round picks? Like these kinds of
Speaker 2: things and take that away for a second and focus
Speaker 2: on the fact that what Desmond Bain does is a
Speaker 2: very rare skill set in the NBA. There were only
Speaker 2: five players in the entire NBA last year to attempt
Speaker 2: at least fifty shots coming off of off ball screens
Speaker 2: and to make at least half of them. Five in
Speaker 2: the entire NBA ultra efficient movement shooting. It's an extremely
Speaker 2: rare trait.
Speaker 3: Overall.
Speaker 2: He's one of the best jump shooters in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Among fifty eight players to attempt at least five hundred
Speaker 2: jump shots last year, he ranked twelve inefficiency, so he's
Speaker 2: an upper tier high volume jump shooter. He shot sixty
Speaker 2: percent on field goal attempts coming off of off ball screens.
Speaker 2: That's field goal percentage. Guys in effective field goal percentage,
Speaker 2: he was over seventy percent. His sixty percent field goal
Speaker 2: percentage was number one in the NBA among the fifty
Speaker 2: six players who attempted at least fifty shots coming off
Speaker 2: of screens. He shot fifty two percent on threes coming
Speaker 2: off of off ball screens, thirty eight percent on off
Speaker 2: the dribble threes coming off of high ball screens. He
Speaker 2: brings a mid range element. He's a great short range
Speaker 2: jump shooter. He shot fifty percent last year on jump
Speaker 2: shots inside the three point line. This is a very
Speaker 2: unique skill set in that he brings movement shooting off
Speaker 2: the dribble, shooting going both directions right and left, and
Speaker 2: at both the three point line and inside the three
Speaker 2: point line. It's a very rare skill set, and over
Speaker 2: the course of the last couple of years, this has
Speaker 2: been an advantage of John Morant's you know, off court
Speaker 2: shenanigans and his injuries. Bain has had to do so
Speaker 2: much work on ball that he's figured out how to
Speaker 2: weaponize that attention for easy opportunities over the top. He
Speaker 2: became a substantially better playmaker out of these screening actions
Speaker 2: in the last couple of years compared to the player
Speaker 2: that he was in the past. These shots are so difficult,
Speaker 2: these off screen shots, that most teams guard them with
Speaker 2: what is effectively an off ball version of a drop coverage.
Speaker 2: So let's just take a wide pin down for example,
Speaker 2: if Desmond Baying comes off of the left corner off
Speaker 2: of a wide screen from a big most players, if
Speaker 2: it's not Desmond Bane, if it's like just a regular
Speaker 2: kind of like a shooter in the NBA, like say
Speaker 2: Dalton Connect from the Lakers, for instance, what they're gonna
Speaker 2: do is they're gonna put a lock and trail defender
Speaker 2: on that player on Dalton Connect, and then they're gonna
Speaker 2: have the big man basically sag back in the paint
Speaker 2: in case Dalton curls the screen so you could take
Speaker 2: away lay and they're gonna be like, let's see if
Speaker 2: you can hit this shot with a side view. Contests
Speaker 2: with the rear view. Contest with this guy chasing over
Speaker 2: the top of the screen and knocking it down. Desmond Bayne,
Speaker 2: because he shoots sixty damn percent on those shots coming
Speaker 2: off of off ball screens, and because he shoots such
Speaker 2: a high percentage on threes coming off of those screens,
Speaker 2: because he shoots such a high percentage on pull up
Speaker 2: threes in ball screens, he consistently brings the big out
Speaker 2: to the level. This is why it's such a valuable
Speaker 2: skill set. A guy who can effectively knock down shots
Speaker 2: coming off of screening actions can consistently pull two defenders
Speaker 2: out twenty five twenty feet from the basket that opens
Speaker 2: up the four on three spacing that opens up all
Speaker 2: the opportunities for playmaking on the interior, and Desmond Baane
Speaker 2: over the last couple of years figured out how to
Speaker 2: pass out of those actions pocket passes, over the top,
Speaker 2: passes to beat, blitzes to beat shows. He had a
Speaker 2: lot of success playmaking out of those actions. So I
Speaker 2: think if it's like, there are so many easy ways
Speaker 2: to see how Desmond Bank can help the Magic like
Speaker 2: right away. So let's take off ball action for example.
Speaker 2: Off ball action occupies help defenders. If you're gonna run
Speaker 2: a let's say you're running a two man game with
Speaker 2: Palo Bancaro and Jalen Suggs off of the top of
Speaker 2: the key like a ghost screen action with Sugs coming
Speaker 2: out of the the you know, off the right wing
Speaker 2: screening for Palo and then slipping off to the left wing.
Speaker 2: You can run you know, Baine coming off from underneath
Speaker 2: the basket is like a pin and flare towards the
Speaker 2: corner or some sort of wide pin down out towards
Speaker 2: the wing, and you're gonna have defenders help defenders occupied
Speaker 2: guarding that action to clear out space for Paalow to drive.
Speaker 2: This has been a Magic team that has really really
Speaker 2: struggled to generate space. Even in just static standstill situations.
Speaker 2: Having Sugs and Baine out there is going to create
Speaker 2: sustained more space. But if you can utilize them in
Speaker 2: off ball action, that is where you can open up
Speaker 2: space for more of those post ups, for more of
Speaker 2: those ISOs to be towards the basket rather than some
Speaker 2: of those tougher fifteen foot seventeen foot fadeaways that Palo runs.
Speaker 2: And again we've talked about it on the show before.
Speaker 2: Palo's efficiency skyrockets when he gets inside of seventeen feet,
Speaker 2: when he's further away from the rim. That's where his
Speaker 2: jump shot becomes super unreliable. You've got to create space
Speaker 2: for him. You can create space through off ball action.
Speaker 2: The second piece of it is two man game. There's
Speaker 2: been guard screens in terms of running two man game
Speaker 2: as a big part of this Orlando offense for a
Speaker 2: long time. It was a big part of their playoff
Speaker 2: offense two years ago against the Caves. They will run
Speaker 2: inverted screens or Palo or Fronds or stand at the
Speaker 2: top of the key and they'll have you know KCP
Speaker 2: this year, you know Jalen Suggs last year, come up
Speaker 2: and screen the ball and then slip out of it
Speaker 2: in base that's ending in a hedge and recover in
Speaker 2: many cases, or they're hoping to get some kind of switch.
Speaker 2: So Paalo can attack a small right, but you can
Speaker 2: get away with hedging and recovering when the shooter isn't
Speaker 2: that good that you can get away with gapping out
Speaker 2: of that action or lingering in that action when the
Speaker 2: shooter's not that good. What comes into the equation with
Speaker 2: Desmond Baane is you actually have to account for his
Speaker 2: jump shooting in a real way or he's going to
Speaker 2: burn you to the tune of fifty two percent on
Speaker 2: threes coming off of off ball screen, sixty percent overall
Speaker 2: hitting damn near forty percent a pull up threes in
Speaker 2: ball screens. So what makes a two man game work
Speaker 2: and function is two guys need to be guarded by
Speaker 2: very different types of defenders. Right, So Palo and Franz
Speaker 2: they require big, strong forwards to match up with them.
Speaker 2: That is what they demand in terms of the physical matchup. Right,
Speaker 2: what kind of player does Desmond Bane require? He requires
Speaker 2: a good lock and trail defender. With a Jalen Suggs,
Speaker 2: with a KCP, you could get away with hiding a
Speaker 2: week defender. You could get away with hiding a week
Speaker 2: defender and be like hedge and recover. All you gotta
Speaker 2: do is throw a hedge and get back into the action.
Speaker 2: You won't be able to do that with Desmond Bane.
Speaker 2: You're going to have to have a quality guard defender
Speaker 2: that can guard in a lock and trail context, that
Speaker 2: can chase him around screens and stay attached. So I
Speaker 2: have a smaller, lower center of gravity lock and trail defender,
Speaker 2: and then I have a big, strong forward matched up
Speaker 2: with Palo and Franz. Now I'm going to pretty consistently
Speaker 2: put the defense into a predicament where if they hedge,
Speaker 2: Bain is slipping out and he's gonna hit that three
Speaker 2: damn near fifty percent of the time, you can't.
Speaker 3: It ain't gonna work.
Speaker 2: So your only option is to either have that guy chase,
Speaker 2: in which case, if your man sets a screen, Palo's
Speaker 2: getting downhill. If you stay home on Bain when Bain's
Speaker 2: running inverted screens and Bain sets a good screen on
Speaker 2: Palo's man and Bain's man stays attached to him, Palo's
Speaker 2: turning the corner and he's going downhill, so you have
Speaker 2: to switch. You have to and so now you're gonna
Speaker 2: be able to consistently get the favorable matchup with a
Speaker 2: smaller guard defender guarding Palo.
Speaker 3: Bain is going to.
Speaker 2: Be able to pull that big forward away from the
Speaker 2: paint above the brake to space the floor better. You
Speaker 2: will be able to run effective two man game with
Speaker 2: those inverted guard screens with Bain at a completely different
Speaker 2: level than what you were able to run in the
Speaker 2: past Baine in ball screens. Bain was a super high
Speaker 2: volume a ball screen player this year. I think he
Speaker 2: ran like eight hundred something picking rolls this year for
Speaker 2: Memphis Desmond. Bain is very capable of weaponizing Palo and
Speaker 2: Franz's role men. Same exact concept. He's being guarded by
Speaker 2: a big by, a strong physical guard that can get
Speaker 2: through screens, right, That's the type of defender he's gonna draw.
Speaker 2: And Palo and Franz are gonna be guarded by these
Speaker 2: big forwards. They're gonna be able to screen for Bain,
Speaker 2: and same thing. Bain's gonna come off the screen and
Speaker 2: you better be up there at the level. If you're
Speaker 2: not up there at the level, he hits almost forty
Speaker 2: percent of his pull up threes. You show at the
Speaker 2: level boom pocket pass to Pallo rolling downhill to the
Speaker 2: rim in a four on three, Right, There's gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of opportunities for them to unlock openings in
Speaker 2: traditional coverages. When teams are unwilling to switch, and when
Speaker 2: they are willing to switch, you're going to be regularly
Speaker 2: able to get favorable matchups for both guys because they
Speaker 2: get guarded by such different types of defenders. And in
Speaker 2: both cases, like if Palo or Franz gets a matchup
Speaker 2: that he wants off of an inverted ball screen or
Speaker 2: off of a Bain ball screen, Bain will be able
Speaker 2: to to pull that bigger forward away from the basket
Speaker 2: and create more space.
Speaker 3: It is such a natural basketball fit.
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Speaker 3: So here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Was it expensive, Yeah, expensive as hell, But we don't
Speaker 2: know the details about whether Desmondbane was even available. We
Speaker 2: don't understand what the negotiation looked like. And it is
Speaker 2: a very natural fit. And I admire the aggression. And
Speaker 2: I would I have liked the deal more if it
Speaker 2: was too unprotected first instead of four or if it
Speaker 2: was four protected first. Yeah, sure I would have liked.
Speaker 3: The deal more.
Speaker 2: But all I can think about now is Jalen Suggs
Speaker 2: and Desmond Bain and Palaban Caro and Franz Vogner and
Speaker 2: Wendell Carter Junior. And that is a pretty damn good
Speaker 2: five in an Eastern conference that is wide open.
Speaker 3: So I like it.
Speaker 2: All I can think about now is band Bain's gonna
Speaker 2: make their life way easier. I think he fits in
Speaker 2: the defense well like Jalen Suggs can guard the other
Speaker 2: team's best guard. Desmond Bain, I think is actually a
Speaker 2: pretty underrated defender. I think he's a better defender than
Speaker 2: he gets credit for. But He's going to be in
Speaker 2: more achievable matchups. The only real like swing for me
Speaker 2: as I look forward for this team is Jalen Suggs's
Speaker 2: health and his jump shooting. He declined as a jump
Speaker 2: shooter last year. Obviously, I wasn't able to finish the
Speaker 2: season with that injury. Jalen's got to get healthy. Jays
Speaker 2: got a knocked down shots. But like, I keep thinking
Speaker 2: about Desmond Bane in the context of this new look
Speaker 2: for the Orlando Magic, and I think it makes a
Speaker 2: ton of basketball sense. And I'm really really excited to
Speaker 2: watch that group. And my initial instinct is they're right
Speaker 2: there in that top tier with Indiana, with Cleveland, with
Speaker 2: New York, in that Eastern Conference, and I think they
Speaker 2: absolutely will contend with that group. The other side of
Speaker 2: this deal is the Ja Morant piece. I talked about
Speaker 2: this a little bit last night with Colin, But John
Speaker 2: Rant's going to be twenty six before the start of
Speaker 2: next season. Twenty six is typically the age when stars
Speaker 2: figure it out. That's typically the stage when the insane
Speaker 2: talent of their athleticism meets the growing experience in basketball.
Speaker 2: Like you piece from that point forward in your career,
Speaker 2: it's more sore knees, more sore feet. Your athleticism slowly declines,
Speaker 2: but your experience and skill improves, And so you can
Speaker 2: plateau from twenty six, twenty seven to thirty three to
Speaker 2: thirty four, maybe sometimes thirty five thirty six with how
Speaker 2: these guys are aging so well in the league these days.
Speaker 2: But like this is the age where teams start, where
Speaker 2: players start to figure it out, and Jaw is just
Speaker 2: not the same player he was back in that twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two season took his team to win two wins
Speaker 2: of the conference finals. Was this dominant, high volume score
Speaker 2: and playmaker. His scoring volume has dropped every season since
Speaker 2: that year. He's on two consecutive seasons of his scoring
Speaker 2: efficiency going down. He just posted his two lowest games
Speaker 2: played totals of his career in the last two seasons.
Speaker 2: It doesn't look good. And so I think Memphis just
Speaker 2: looked at the situation and was like, Okay, we just
Speaker 2: got four unprotected first for Baine, I think it's time
Speaker 2: to start looking at what you could get for joh
Speaker 2: It's time to start looking at what you could get
Speaker 2: for Jaron Jackson.
Speaker 3: This group is flawed.
Speaker 2: The Western Conference has a lot of teams that are
Speaker 2: substantially better. I talk all the time about self awareness
Speaker 2: being the key. You gotta be willing to look in
Speaker 2: the mirror and be like, we are not close. We
Speaker 2: need a real change, and to me, Memphis appears to
Speaker 2: be making that sort of decision as we speak.
Speaker 3: I am a believer in Jaw.
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of talk about where he ranks
Speaker 2: in the league, and I don't particularly agree with some
Speaker 2: of the stuff that I've seen. I think when John
Speaker 2: Moran is healthy, he is still somewhere in that like
Speaker 2: thirteen to seventeen range for best players in the NBA.
Speaker 2: I still think he brings this athletic trait that nobody
Speaker 2: can mess with, with the consistent ability to beat people
Speaker 2: off the dribble. I think for all to talk about
Speaker 2: his jump shot, and I think it's fair, and we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about that in a second. I think
Speaker 2: he's an underrated shot maker because of his ability to
Speaker 2: get to the short range and to pop up off
Speaker 2: the ground and make easy little floaters in short jump shots.
Speaker 2: I believe in John Moran, and I think that there
Speaker 2: is a chance for him to turn this story around.
Speaker 2: But he's got to start taking care of his body.
Speaker 2: He's got to start improving on the margins. His peers
Speaker 2: are passing him, and it's very possible that his franchise
Speaker 2: bails on him this summer. Somebody's gonna take a chance.
Speaker 2: I don't know who it is, Like I talked about
Speaker 2: with Colin last night, Like I like, if Houston misses
Speaker 2: out on KD, they'd be an interesting team as a
Speaker 2: guy that could just be their supreme offensive talent, surrounded
Speaker 2: by physical defense and a ballscreen partner in Shangun.
Speaker 3: That makes a lot of sense. I don't know who
Speaker 3: it's gonna be.
Speaker 2: But someone's gonna take a chance on Jaw, and it's
Speaker 2: on Jaw to turn that script around, and he's capable
Speaker 2: of doing it. But I mean, we're trending into the
Speaker 2: wrong direction, and that's why we're in this situation. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about Kevin Durant to San Antonio, Sam amic and
Speaker 2: John Kraziskia. The Athletic reported last night that Kevin excuse me,
Speaker 2: I should say on Monday night that Kevin Durant's preferred
Speaker 2: destination is the San Antonio Spurs. First thing this suck
Speaker 2: out over the last week is judging by the locations.
Speaker 3: Of most of these teams.
Speaker 2: State taxes are clearly a big factor for KD, and
Speaker 2: I don't blame it. It obviously makes a massive difference
Speaker 2: to his bottom line with how many like we're talking
Speaker 2: millions of dollars with what he makes every single year.
Speaker 2: What I thought when I heard the report about San
Speaker 2: Antonio was I think kdve used the Spurs as a
Speaker 2: really fun place to end his career. I've been thinking
Speaker 2: a lot about this concept with KD ever since he
Speaker 2: went to Golden State and straight up told us that
Speaker 2: he did it because he wanted to play a fun
Speaker 2: brand of basketball. I've been thinking a lot since last
Speaker 2: night about my desire for him to go to a
Speaker 2: place like Houston potentially or Minnesota. Those are my two
Speaker 2: favorite destinations, and just opposing it with like Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen. Oklahoma City in twenty sixteen would be
Speaker 2: the closest thing to what going to Houston would look like.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City in twenty sixteen surrounded Kevin Durant with overwhelming
Speaker 2: size and physicality, and they wore teams down with their defense.
Speaker 2: But life was really hard for KD. On the offensive
Speaker 2: end of the floor. He had a couple of really
Speaker 2: inefficient scoring games in that playoff run before they ended
Speaker 2: up losing. He was brutally bad down the stretch of
Speaker 2: the Golden State Series in terms of his ability to
Speaker 2: knock down shots, but it was just a really ugly
Speaker 2: brand of basketball.
Speaker 3: Now, the flip side of that is they were one
Speaker 3: win away.
Speaker 2: From beating a seventy three win team and probably being
Speaker 2: the favorite to win the finals if they would have
Speaker 2: made it to the finals. So like you could argue
Speaker 2: that Thunder team is the best team he's been on
Speaker 2: outside of the Golden State Warriors with Steph, And that's
Speaker 2: the thing where it gets complicated. Like I could argue
Speaker 2: if he went to Houston, that'd probably be his best
Speaker 2: chance to win because they could surround him with all
Speaker 2: that physicality and defense. But once again in Houston, it
Speaker 2: would be ugly offense. It would be a lot of
Speaker 2: like twenty seven to twenty eight field goal attempt nights
Speaker 2: where he makes eleven twelve shots and has four or
Speaker 2: five turnovers because it's ugly because it's difficult because they're
Speaker 2: depending on him to carry them over the top with
Speaker 2: his offense. Based on a defense and physicality model, I
Speaker 2: think KD wants to play fun basketball. I think KD
Speaker 2: wants to play free flowing basketball, and so I think
Speaker 2: that's why he looks at these teams like Houston and goes, eh,
Speaker 2: maybe not my jam And I think that that's fascinating.
Speaker 2: Even just looking at like why he might have been
Speaker 2: so interested in Miami, I kept thinking, like, man, like
Speaker 2: Miami doesn't seem close. I like, I don't understand what
Speaker 2: he'd be looking for there. But then you look at
Speaker 2: it and it's like Eric spoelsher one of the best,
Speaker 2: you know, offensive organization coaches in the NBA, bam Adebayo
Speaker 2: one of the best five out like passing, screening, Folkrum's
Speaker 2: in the NBA, Tyler Harrow a really good screenshooter that
Speaker 2: kind of unlocks a lot of those five out concept
Speaker 2: Duncan Robinson that unlocks a lot of those five five
Speaker 2: out concepts. I think Kevin Durant looked at Miami is
Speaker 2: like a place to play some really fun basketball, and
Speaker 2: I can understand it, Like I'm starting to like kind
Speaker 2: of feel what he's looking for in this journey. I
Speaker 2: think he wants to go play a fun brand of
Speaker 2: basketball for the rest of his career. There are a
Speaker 2: lot of ways KDE can help the Spurs. Just because
Speaker 2: this wasn't my favorite KD fit doesn't mean it won't
Speaker 2: still be a huge upgrade for this team and that
Speaker 2: it won't still be a good fit. He'll be a
Speaker 2: excellent low man behind Victor Wemennyama, meaning when Victor Wemenyama
Speaker 2: goes up to the level of ball screens, KD can
Speaker 2: fill in from behind as another rim protection private presence.
Speaker 2: I talked with Colin on Monday night about how Victor
Speaker 2: wenman Yama's skill development should take a massive upgrade with
Speaker 2: Kevin Durank. Kevin Urant to me, is like like the
Speaker 2: JJ Reddick of the current NBA in terms of shooting workout,
Speaker 2: a legend, like the guy that will put Wemby into
Speaker 2: situations in the gym by themselves where he's gonna make
Speaker 2: substantial improvements. I think if Dearon Fox's dribble penetration like
Speaker 2: KD at this phase in his career post Achilles, if
Speaker 2: there's one weakness he doesn't pressure the rim a ton
Speaker 2: compared to the way he used to. That's Deeron Fox's superpower.
Speaker 2: I talk about the idea of the weak side scoring forward.
Speaker 2: If Dearon Fox and Victor wemen Yama are running ball
Speaker 2: screens and you want to defend them three on two,
Speaker 2: that's gonna be Kevin freaking Durant on the backside, hitting
Speaker 2: catch and shoot threes, driving closeouts like the mother of
Speaker 2: all weak sides scoring forwards. He was the best ISO
Speaker 2: player in the league last year, albeit at a lower volume.
Speaker 2: He was the best jump shooter in the league last year.
Speaker 2: He's still so so good at basketball, and I do
Speaker 2: think that he would be able to help the Spurs.
Speaker 2: It's not a guarantee he'd go there, Obviously, a Phoenix
Speaker 2: has a certain obligation to try to drive the market
Speaker 2: for high asset return, especially considering their situation.
Speaker 3: Katie. I don't think has accomplished.
Speaker 2: So much in Phoenix to where they owe him a
Speaker 2: certain outcome. But the San Antonio Spurs would be a
Speaker 2: fun basketball destination for Katie. I don't think they'd immediately
Speaker 2: become a top tier contender.
Speaker 3: They have shortcomings in terms of role player support.
Speaker 2: I think they'd be pretty thin and lacking physicality on
Speaker 2: the front line. Jeremy Sohan would become so vitally important
Speaker 2: for that team. Defensively, if you bring into Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: as just a more trunky, physical forward that they would need,
Speaker 2: there are flaws. I don't think they're gonna go win
Speaker 2: the championship if KD goes to San Antonio, but it
Speaker 2: would be fun basketball. And I think that KD just
Speaker 2: wants to play fun basketball, and I think that that
Speaker 2: makes sense at least within that context. Lastly, before we
Speaker 2: get out of here today, I wanted to talk about
Speaker 2: Yiannis potentially staying in Milwauk. It has been widely reported
Speaker 2: that there's no trademarket for Yannis because Yiannis hasn't requested
Speaker 2: a trade. I was looking at their payroll this morning,
Speaker 2: the Bucks trying to give it like an honest like,
Speaker 2: is there a real pathway here to pivot and try
Speaker 2: to contend around Gianis? Again, you have Damian Lillard on
Speaker 2: the books for fifty four million next year. They can
Speaker 2: try to apply for a disabled player exception, but from
Speaker 2: what I can tell, it looks like it probably wouldn't
Speaker 2: get approved. Kyle Kuzma makes twenty two million. He's been
Speaker 2: pretty disappointing. I will say this, I think who's has
Speaker 2: been a winning player before. I'm like fifteen percent open
Speaker 2: to the idea that he could work his ass off
Speaker 2: this summer and come into camp as a more useful player.
Speaker 2: I'm not ready to write off Kyle Kuzma in the
Speaker 2: context of the Bucks, but Kyle Kuzma is your next
Speaker 2: biggest salary after Dame. Bobby Portis has a player option.
Speaker 2: I would imagine he'll opt out and resign. He's pretty
Speaker 2: strongly indicated in interviews that he wants to raise So
Speaker 2: I like Bobby Portis, but I'm not sure I like
Speaker 2: him in the twenty million dollar territory. Pat Connaton is
Speaker 2: on the books for nine point four million. It's a
Speaker 2: player option, but I would imagine he'll pick it up
Speaker 2: because he's a veteran minimum guy in the open market.
Speaker 2: Kevin Porter Junior is on a player option. I think
Speaker 2: he'll opt out, but I think he has a good
Speaker 2: chance to re sign with the Bucks on a minimum.
Speaker 2: I like his fit with Giannis, so I think he's
Speaker 2: worth keeping under those circumstances. Aj Green is locked up
Speaker 2: next year on a non guaranteed two point three million
Speaker 2: dollar deal. That's one of the best value deals in
Speaker 2: the league. So that's good for a very good three
Speaker 2: and D player Andre Jackson Junior similarly on a non
Speaker 2: guaranteed rookie deal. And then you have your deep bench guys,
Speaker 2: guys a Chris Livingston and Tyler Smith.
Speaker 3: But that's it.
Speaker 2: So as you zoom out, you have zero reliable secondary
Speaker 2: ball handling off of Giannis. Your best secondary ball handler
Speaker 2: is Kevin Porter Jr. That's not gonna do much damage
Speaker 2: in the Eastern Conference. You have no front court players
Speaker 2: who can defend other than Yannis. He's the one guy,
Speaker 2: and you'll likely have to overpay to keep guys like Portis.
Speaker 2: Say you want to resign Gary Trent Junior. I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if he goes over the minimum after some
Speaker 2: of his shooting percentages in the postseason, if his agent
Speaker 2: can drum up some market for him as a shooter,
Speaker 2: and they have very little in the way of draft
Speaker 2: compensation to make changes. The point being, even if we
Speaker 2: acknowledge that the Eastern Conference is wide open, the roster
Speaker 2: is going to be operating at a substantial talent disadvantage
Speaker 2: in almost every major Eastern Conference matchup. I admire the loyalty,
Speaker 2: I really do. I'll always remember the Janis era and
Speaker 2: Milwaukee fondly. Even after the chip, Even in those disappointing years,
Speaker 2: it's been so fun watching Giannis develop and improve and
Speaker 2: carry some of these limited rosters. His twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: playoff series against the Boston Celtics is one of my
Speaker 2: favorite playoff series. I've watched the star play. He backpacked
Speaker 2: those guys to a game seven. But the bottom line
Speaker 2: is this team isn't close to contending. Jannis deserves to
Speaker 2: go play meaningful basketball, and his value as an asset
Speaker 2: is still the best vehicle to help Milwaukee pivot and
Speaker 2: bring in the asset return they need to start fresh.
Speaker 2: It's still just the best and most sensical outcome for
Speaker 2: both sides of this deal. Again, I get it. I
Speaker 2: understand the sentimentality. I understand the optics of requesting a trade.
Speaker 2: I was talking with Shane before we got on the show,
Speaker 2: like there's been this trend where it kind of feels
Speaker 2: like some of these international guys are really hesitant to
Speaker 2: do some of the more aggressive behind the scene manipulating
Speaker 2: of their contract in terms of demanding trades. We haven't
Speaker 2: really seen an example of it, and we've seen guys
Speaker 2: like Yiannis and even Jokic throughout the past few years,
Speaker 2: although obviously it paid off in twenty twenty three. We've
Speaker 2: seen Yokic, you know, stick around through some injured rosters,
Speaker 2: through some limited rosters, without any sign of complaining or wavering.
Speaker 2: And like, Giannis has made some comments in the press
Speaker 2: about like maybe he would look elsewhere, but here he is,
Speaker 2: and he still hasn't requested a trade.
Speaker 3: And again, I admire it. I admire the loyalty.
Speaker 2: But all I know is the basketball fan in me
Speaker 2: really wants to see Yannis play in late May and June,
Speaker 2: and the Bucks, to me, need assets, and they don't
Speaker 2: have money at this point, and so I think Giannis
Speaker 2: is the best vehicle to make that happen, and so
Speaker 2: I'm hopeful.
Speaker 3: As much as I understand this.
Speaker 2: Sucks for Bucks fans, I get it, I get I
Speaker 2: understand as a Bucks fan there's a part of you
Speaker 2: that want that would love to just have Giannis forever
Speaker 2: and just be even if you're mediocre in the East,
Speaker 2: you'd have more fun watching that team. I get it,
Speaker 2: I do, But I just think it's in the best
Speaker 2: interest for both sides for them to part ways this summer.
Speaker 2: I hope that that ends up happening. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: This all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate
Speaker 2: you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We
Speaker 2: will be back on Thursday night after the final buzzer
Speaker 2: of Game six of the NBA Finals, barring a KD trade. Obviously,
Speaker 2: if KD gets traded, will move quicker than that. But
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys after the final buzzer of Game
Speaker 2: six on Thursday.
Speaker 3: What's up guys.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 3: And leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 3: appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2: Supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume