Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat check.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: The NBA season starts today. We will get into all
Speaker 1: final news coming out of training camp. We got some contracts,
Speaker 1: we have to discuss holy shit, what are the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets doing eating up.
Speaker 2: Into all our capspaces?
Speaker 1: And of course we have to talk about the WNBA
Speaker 1: Game five Finals, the last Game five in w NBA
Speaker 1: Finals history.
Speaker 2: Man, I was there, I was in the building. It
Speaker 2: was incredible. Vibes.
Speaker 1: Anthony my man drop that motherfucking beat that should be
Speaker 1: Rhanna but obviously doesn't want to pay for the rights.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: All right, I am talking to you when the actors
Speaker 1: blows what I think was one of the most dramatic
Speaker 1: series in basketball history. I think it was one of
Speaker 1: the most dramatic close out games in basketball history, even
Speaker 1: though the quality of the basketball was not that high.
Speaker 1: The Links versus the Liberty at Barclay Center, and do
Speaker 1: I have thoughts?
Speaker 2: Oh yes I do.
Speaker 1: First of all, every single game in the series, except
Speaker 1: for Game two, was just a sweat Game one will
Speaker 1: break them down one by one, Stewie blows a free
Speaker 1: throw to win the game. Link steals Game one in overtime,
Speaker 1: and there was just like all kinds of crazy stuff
Speaker 1: that happen, Like you had a violation in the jump ball,
Speaker 1: you had a trolley call that didn't get caught, which
Speaker 1: happens again. You then have Game three, Sabrina hits a
Speaker 1: game winning three.
Speaker 2: From the logo nuts.
Speaker 1: Last Sunday, you had the liberty taken out the Links
Speaker 1: in ot Every single.
Speaker 2: Game though, was dramatic.
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine, who by the way, is
Speaker 1: a huge Kaitlyn Clark fan, said he was happy that
Speaker 1: Kaitlyn Clark didn't make the finals because now we get
Speaker 1: to see all the glory of the WNBA without Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Clark being sort of hanging in the specter of it.
Speaker 1: Other players now get the spotlight, and my god, did
Speaker 1: one of them over perform while two of them fizzled
Speaker 1: in the linelight, Like isn't it FISA call you're the
Speaker 1: best player in the league. Like she was a star.
Speaker 1: She was everything for the Links, not just in the finals,
Speaker 1: but throughout the playoffs. She had many forty piece chicken
Speaker 1: nugget meals, playing lockdown defense, unstoppable turnaround fadeaways. You had
Speaker 1: the footwork there, You had the cuteness factor for her
Speaker 1: kid who loves Sabrina just an absolute star and every
Speaker 1: metric you can measure. You have the fact that she's
Speaker 1: a former Yukon player going up against another Yukon player,
Speaker 1: but clearly not the one that Gino loves. Watching her
Speaker 1: carry the links for long stretches was just in delight.
Speaker 1: I was a Game one, I was a Game five Bookends,
Speaker 1: and she was the best player on the floor in
Speaker 1: all five games. I don't think it was particularly close.
Speaker 1: John CuAu was also awesome, though. Breonna Stewart, though two
Speaker 1: time MVP, she was in prison.
Speaker 2: Bro. She was in jail.
Speaker 1: They had her locked up, Clink Clink, couldn't even make
Speaker 1: a phone call. She shot ten for forty, ten for
Speaker 1: forty when the Feasta guarded her twenty five percent from
Speaker 1: the floor, and that wasn't even the worst of it.
Speaker 1: Alana Smith, who is awesome, who's a matt walking medical wing,
Speaker 1: guarded her even better. She was not just the force
Speaker 1: that you would expect the player of her quality to.
Speaker 2: Be in this series. Stewie was kind of wet, and.
Speaker 1: I like Stewie and I don't want anybody sam mean
Speaker 1: shit Stewie or her wife, but like she deserves the
Speaker 1: criticism that a two time MVP would get. Then you
Speaker 1: got Sabrina Ynescu, who, by the way, I just love her,
Speaker 1: you know, as a duck, as somebody who went to Oregon.
Speaker 1: I just I just love her. And she had a
Speaker 1: huge Game three to put the liberty into the driver's seat,
Speaker 1: hit that twenty eight foot game winner, but outside of
Speaker 1: that shot and then the three when they were tied
Speaker 1: up at seventy seven in game five, she was pedestrian.
Speaker 1: Game five historically awful, Like you need to just tell her.
Speaker 1: She knows. She even after the game said, listen, I
Speaker 1: got the A, but I didn't do anything.
Speaker 2: On the group assignment.
Speaker 1: She was one for nineteen from the field in a
Speaker 1: close out game one, one for nineteen, and there were
Speaker 1: people who were stumping for her before the series saying
Speaker 1: she should have been first team All WNBA over Kaylyn Clark.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, If Caitlyn Clark four years
Speaker 1: from now, three years from now is in the finals
Speaker 1: and goes one for nineteen, do you think that's not
Speaker 1: news on first take? Do you think that's not one
Speaker 1: of the things that people talk about the most. Do
Speaker 1: you think that the criticism isn't louder for Caitlin Clark
Speaker 1: right now than it is for Sabrina.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think it is.
Speaker 1: I think her reputation as a clutch player from the
Speaker 1: Kobe Disciple Tree has taken a hit in the series.
Speaker 2: That kind of sucks.
Speaker 1: She's my girl, like I want her to succeed. She
Speaker 1: had the Oregon Duck. Sabrina's on, come on, I want
Speaker 1: a roof for her. But she's been in a shooting
Speaker 1: slump since coming back from the Olympic break, and I
Speaker 1: think she's gonna need to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: cool off, rest, relax, and come back better. But the
Speaker 1: real issue, though, isn't that. Like, the real issue was
Speaker 1: the officiating, which was historically bad, some of the worst
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. Rarely does anything unite in a Twitter timeline,
Speaker 1: but it was almost fully united that the Minnesota Lynks
Speaker 1: got fucked.
Speaker 2: They got hosed by the refs.
Speaker 1: They were up ten, should have been up twenty, and
Speaker 1: it was blatant. It was obvious the way that the
Speaker 1: referees not only let the Liberty come back but just
Speaker 1: gave them the game. Just giving Breonna Stewart two free
Speaker 1: throws with two seconds left to go felt like deja vu,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: She was tiptoeing.
Speaker 1: She was tapped dancing down the lane five steps before
Speaker 1: ever putting up a shot that got blocked clean by
Speaker 1: Atlanta Smith. And once you hit the ball, your downward
Speaker 1: motion can touch an arm. That's what the facts of
Speaker 1: the rules are, except for the Reughs decided they were
Speaker 1: gonna call it otherwise and give Stewie the shooting foul,
Speaker 1: which is immediately challenged because it was bullshit, And then
Speaker 1: it was upheld with the absurd proclamation that Smith was
Speaker 1: not in a legal guarding position. We don't even know
Speaker 1: what that means. Stewie hits two free throws, shocking because
Speaker 1: she had been awful all night. She missed to in
Speaker 1: a row one time earlier that game. We go to overtime.
Speaker 1: Courtney Williams, who was atrocious in Game five, like really
Speaker 1: really bad, takes the first three shots of ot which
Speaker 1: she should not have been doing, gets benched. Minnesota shits
Speaker 1: the bed and that was that. Ooh, liberty or world chimps.
Speaker 1: They dropped the confetti. I saw camelon Aubrey Plaza going nuts.
Speaker 1: Ellie drops it down low like her name was Cassie, right,
Speaker 1: on the court.
Speaker 2: It's nuts.
Speaker 1: The more you look at it, though, like you're like, man,
Speaker 1: the leaks got really fucked.
Speaker 2: They really did caller in her career.
Speaker 1: I saw this stat you know facts, she had never
Speaker 1: in her career shot more than eleven times in any
Speaker 1: game in college or the pros.
Speaker 2: And not go to the line.
Speaker 1: Game five, Nafisa Collier shot twenty three times, did not
Speaker 1: get to the line a single time, despite getting slapped
Speaker 1: in the face like her name was Chris Rock repeatedly.
Speaker 1: Liberty shot out shot, got the links from the line
Speaker 1: by a margin of six to one.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: You had numerous NBA WAA players coming out. You had
Speaker 1: Lebron James who said, I'm sorry, that wasn't a foul.
Speaker 1: Let the damn players dictate the outcome of the game.
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard refs called this game like they knew the
Speaker 1: assignment in the second half, boy, the assignment for those
Speaker 1: who don't really fully lock in on the w The
Speaker 1: assignment for my casual fans.
Speaker 2: Is that the New York Liberty.
Speaker 1: Owned by Joe Sai, co founder of Ali Baba, in
Speaker 1: a massive market in a city that is the center
Speaker 1: of the United States, in the like basically in our
Speaker 1: universe needs to win one.
Speaker 2: The gotta have it.
Speaker 1: We need we need the big market teams to win them.
Speaker 2: And by the way, cute.
Speaker 1: Little Minnesota Lynx, you're cute and all.
Speaker 2: Small mark, but you've won enough.
Speaker 1: You've taken the league by storm in a period where
Speaker 1: no one gave a fuck. Right now, we got a
Speaker 1: give it to the city. There was beeping cars, you
Speaker 1: had people screaming. Anyway. Tiffany Hayes Aces WNBA six Man
Speaker 1: of the Year, six Player of the Year, whatever, six
Speaker 1: Women of the Year tweeted, y'all like the travel I
Speaker 1: tell you what. The low key amazing storyline in this
Speaker 1: is how much the Aces hate the Liberties guts like
Speaker 1: they really do. They're like, you guys are a food
Speaker 1: gaisy super team. You guys don't even like each other.
Speaker 1: Remember twelve months ago when the Aces win the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Kelsey Pum's like, yeah, they're not a real team, you know,
Speaker 1: They're just a collection of random players. They don't even
Speaker 1: fuck with each other like that. They have beef. There's
Speaker 1: real beef going on here. Thousands of others joined in.
Speaker 1: It was just unanimous choir, a chorus of anger and
Speaker 1: frustration and this is fucking bullshit. You had people breaking
Speaker 1: down the fact that the WNBA commissioner came to the
Speaker 1: arena in it literally a scape eight eight. She had
Speaker 1: the whole skyscraper of New York on her dress. The
Speaker 1: entire dress was the skyscraper of New York City. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Was there also a second dress that had like the
Speaker 1: Twin Cities on it? Was that?
Speaker 2: Was there? Saint Paul? Did you have a Saint Paul
Speaker 2: dress ready to go?
Speaker 1: No? She didn't. She who comes with the city of
Speaker 1: New York plastered on the dress? Sidney Coulson decided she
Speaker 1: was going to put that on Instagram her also in
Speaker 1: that same dress, trolling Kathy Engelbert Cheryl reeves after the games, like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody says. I don't care if
Speaker 1: I get fine. That shit was stolen from us. Have
Speaker 1: you ever heard a coach blatantly say that. They'll say, no,
Speaker 1: there was some bad calls along the way. We could
Speaker 1: have played better down the stretch. The game's not decided
Speaker 1: by one call here or there. No, she said that
Speaker 1: shit got stolen from us. She didn't even get fined.
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, we did. Steal that.
Speaker 1: It was like Debo in Friday, Like, you know, Minnesota Lynx,
Speaker 1: We'll just share this title. We'll just keep it at
Speaker 1: our house, you know what I mean. Like it was like,
Speaker 1: this is my fucking bike, this is my trophy. WNBA
Speaker 1: finals though were lit, a lot of people were talking
Speaker 1: about it. The fact that people were talking about it
Speaker 1: and the controversy kind of makes it more exciting. And
Speaker 1: guess what, less than twelve hours after Barkley's clears out,
Speaker 1: the WNBA Players Association said, you know what, We're opting
Speaker 1: out of your collective bargaining agreements and now we have
Speaker 1: maybe a workstoppage on our hand, we have a negotiation
Speaker 1: on our hands.
Speaker 2: Player salaries will go up. How high they will go.
Speaker 1: Up remains to be seen. But I want max players
Speaker 1: making a million dollars.
Speaker 2: That's what I want.
Speaker 1: Cash that, Caitlin Clark ticket ladies, is time to make
Speaker 1: five x what you were.
Speaker 2: Making just a year ago.
Speaker 1: Cannot wait for next season because guess who's coming.
Speaker 2: Page Backer's Pagebackers.
Speaker 1: Page Becker's page backer is gonna get even fucking more exciting.
Speaker 1: All right, Before we get into the actual NBA major injuries,
Speaker 1: transactions we got a little news from around the league.
Speaker 1: Paul George, who lets face it, I did not think
Speaker 1: would be a good podcaster, and he proved me to
Speaker 1: be wrong. He just said, at least two or maybe three.
Speaker 2: Fan base is on fire. What did he say?
Speaker 1: He said, I've been on teams where the culture just
Speaker 1: wasn't there, and when that happens, no matter how much
Speaker 1: talent you have, it just doesn't click. Like Indiana, towards
Speaker 1: the end, I was mentally checked out. I felt like
Speaker 1: the front office wasn't doing enough to make the team competitive.
Speaker 1: So when I was told I'd be playing the four
Speaker 1: after dealing with injuries, that just added to it. I
Speaker 1: wasn't mature enough at the time to separate myself from that.
Speaker 1: It led into the locker room, and I wasn't the
Speaker 1: vet I should have been. If everyone is in the line,
Speaker 1: it isn't gonna work real quick. I interviewed Paul George
Speaker 1: that year before he left, like maybe three months before,
Speaker 1: and he said he wanted to be a pacer for
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, For the rest of his career.
Speaker 1: He said, I want to die a pacer. I want
Speaker 1: to retire a pacer. Bro, you're talking about I was
Speaker 1: mentally checked out. Paul George lied to me. He lied
Speaker 1: to my face. What that's what I took from that quote.
Speaker 1: I don't know about what you guys did from that quote,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, yo, I was lied to.
Speaker 3: Just blatantly lied while he was eating skittles, chilling on
Speaker 3: a like velvet couch at the All Star.
Speaker 2: Game in New Orleans. I want to.
Speaker 1: Say, anyway, so obviously he named Indy, but was he
Speaker 1: also talking.
Speaker 2: About Oklahoma City?
Speaker 1: The Clippers? All three don't leave us hang in PG.
Speaker 1: We need receipts, we need names, we need what else
Speaker 1: was going on? We need details. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: Okase fans on Reddit right now who are seething. I
Speaker 1: assume the way that things ended with La, Clipper fans shouldn't.
Speaker 2: Be happy either.
Speaker 1: So like Sixers are the only team, we don't know
Speaker 1: whether the culture is there or not. And a year
Speaker 1: from now, I'm sure Philly fans will take this very
Speaker 1: rationally and very logically, very gently, considering that they're one
Speaker 1: of the more patient fans, one of the more rational
Speaker 1: fans on Earth.
Speaker 2: I'm sure when he.
Speaker 1: Slumps or gets hurt again, they will be supportive of him,
Speaker 1: they will come to his defense. Gross, this shit is
Speaker 1: going bad. This is gonna go left fast in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: if he doesn't stay healthy.
Speaker 2: Anyway, let's move forward.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards moving making news again, and this time it's
Speaker 1: not about basketball. He said this to CBS Sports. I
Speaker 1: told my buddies, if I win a ring in the
Speaker 1: next three to four years, I'm gonna play football. Excuse me, what,
Speaker 1: ant Man, You're a phenomenal athlete. I love the starting
Speaker 1: five on Netflix. By the way, get a bigger house.
Speaker 1: You're a max player. Now, also pack your own clothes.
Speaker 1: I've covered the NFL for twelve years. I've interviewed hundreds
Speaker 1: of players. When I say you don't want Fred Watt
Speaker 1: Warner laser sighting your ribs as you stretch for a
Speaker 1: pass over the middle, I am saying you don't want that.
Speaker 1: Like you want contact, you want physicality. You want that
Speaker 1: in the NBA because they've got a limit. There is
Speaker 1: no limit in football. You are a superior athlete, but
Speaker 1: the NFL is another level. Levonte David, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: licking his chops. Max Crosby, the first time you get
Speaker 1: chucked by Jordan Whitehead, you will be laying out hoping
Speaker 1: you can get back to Minnesota anyway. He said, if
Speaker 1: I was in the locker room lifting weights like y'all,
Speaker 1: you'd be toast. Dude.
Speaker 2: They all lift like that every day. You wouldn't be unique.
Speaker 1: You would just be ripped more ripped.
Speaker 2: Stick to basketball. Your body's gonna thank you for it.
Speaker 1: Moving forward, Joel Embiid and the Sixers announce that he
Speaker 1: will be undergoing load management this year, and he said,
Speaker 1: I'm never planning back to back ever again.
Speaker 2: Wow, he said the quiet part out loud.
Speaker 1: We knew it was kind of coming, but no one
Speaker 1: really like said an anything about it, except for Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: who said quite a lot about it.
Speaker 4: Fucking job calls for you're not practicing, You're not even
Speaker 4: playing a whole fucking you don't playing the summer like
Speaker 4: you see. If you're playing in the summer, you on
Speaker 4: the playground. You went to the Olympics, then his training camp,
Speaker 4: y'all do thirty days about fucking tour days. Okay, that's
Speaker 4: when you get rest. Man.
Speaker 2: I don't want to hit that shit.
Speaker 1: Man, I don't want to hit none of this shit.
Speaker 4: Eighty two games, his.
Speaker 1: Eighty two games, KG tell him tell him how you
Speaker 1: feel if you're healthy, Joel and Bid, you need to
Speaker 1: play games.
Speaker 2: People.
Speaker 1: The MB's at forty two.
Speaker 2: He just tarned thirty.
Speaker 1: It's not unrealistic to be like, hey, I want to
Speaker 1: pay money to see the player that I've come to see,
Speaker 1: which is Joel MB. I'm not here to see a
Speaker 1: broken down Andre Drummond.
Speaker 2: That's not what I'm trying to see right now.
Speaker 1: Also, he's making fifty one million a year to play
Speaker 1: what sixty games? Sixty games is gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: for MB to even make. MB will never win an
Speaker 1: MVP ever again. Once he got his MVP, that sixty
Speaker 1: five game rule came about, we now know he'll never
Speaker 1: be in contention for it ever again. All Right, we
Speaker 1: alla look at the final entry report. Everybody knows that
Speaker 1: Kawhi isn't going to start the season with the Clippers
Speaker 1: as he rehabs his injured knee. There's no timetable for
Speaker 1: his return, which is danger, danger, danger danger. I feel
Speaker 1: they should trade him. A lot of people think that's
Speaker 1: a rash decision. I don't think Kawhi Leonard will ever
Speaker 1: be healthy again. We know that his injury is degenerative.
Speaker 1: You also lose your first round pick to OKC Thunder,
Speaker 1: So maybe you want to try to get a first
Speaker 1: round pick in this year to a contender. I don't
Speaker 1: know Cooper Flag though. By the way, to okay se
Speaker 1: would break the internet. But it's not all bad news.
Speaker 1: You do open the into it Dome this week. You
Speaker 1: got a new Clippers fight song composed by Hans fucking Zimmer.
Speaker 2: You got a new logo.
Speaker 1: The man who scored Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Interstellar. Pretty
Speaker 1: much every dope movie in the past forty years has
Speaker 1: now been hired by Steve Balmer to write a Clippers
Speaker 1: song and it will debut on opening night. Expect a
Speaker 1: TikTok for me breaking down that shit.
Speaker 2: In Denver.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray not surprisingly still not healthy. Michael Malone says
Speaker 1: that Murray's nee started to feel funny, and if there's
Speaker 1: one thing designed not to make Michael Malone laugh, it
Speaker 1: is more Jamal Murray knee information. He was spotted late
Speaker 1: last week with a big old ice back wrapped around
Speaker 1: his knee. Not a great sign. Not a great sign. Also,
Speaker 1: Michael Malone said the league has gotten so soft. Everyone's
Speaker 1: afraid to condition and run while we have to. By
Speaker 1: the way, who is he talking about. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I need to know, but also maybe not Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray honestly will be the main catalyst for how
Speaker 1: this Denver Nuggets teams goes. I have no idea if there.
Speaker 1: If he is not healthy, they are fucked. They are
Speaker 1: so fucked. They are like Lakers when Ad and Lebron
Speaker 1: are both out fucked. Yokic can get you a lot
Speaker 1: of wins, a ton of wins, but without that closer
Speaker 1: guard Jamal Murray, who's a big bodied guard, you are
Speaker 1: so toast compared to a team like Minnesota, compared to
Speaker 1: a team like ok See, compared to a team like
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks who just added players as well, You're like,
Speaker 1: they need to sort that out right now. On the
Speaker 1: other side of the coin, Lonzo Ball returned for the
Speaker 1: first time in nearly one thousand days. God, I remember
Speaker 1: when he went down. His basketball IQ still off the charts.
Speaker 1: He had a great slash line eleven three and three.
Speaker 1: I just love this for Lonzo. I really hope it
Speaker 1: works out. I really hope he's fully healthy. I really
Speaker 1: hope he helps the Bulls and gets the fuck out.
Speaker 1: I really really hope that he turns his career around
Speaker 1: because he deserves it. He's a nice guy, He's worked
Speaker 1: really hard. He was one of my favorite players when
Speaker 1: he ended up turning his career around.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: Out in New York, it was announced that Mitchell Robinson
Speaker 1: will definitely not be back before the new year, which
Speaker 1: makes Precious a chewiest strained left hamstring a bigger issue.
Speaker 1: Now imagine if they didn't trade for Cat, what do
Speaker 1: they have? They don't have anybody. It would have just
Speaker 1: been Julius Randall at the five are we are you serious?
Speaker 1: Kat's back out now, get back up? Will now be
Speaker 1: out as much as four weeks, maybe longer. And the
Speaker 1: man who said all this chaos and emotion, Isaiah Hartenstein,
Speaker 1: also small fracture in his left hand.
Speaker 2: He will not be a reevent evaluated for six weeks.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine if they had our Ziah Hartenstein on
Speaker 1: this team too for the next.
Speaker 2: Like, what do you even have? Anyway?
Speaker 1: His return might take as long as late December. Major
Speaker 1: blow for a team that everyone's going to be chasing
Speaker 1: if they're healthy.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's the injury news.
Speaker 1: We got a ton of rookie extensions that all happened
Speaker 1: on one day in the week leading to tip off,
Speaker 1: because they had to do it. Decisions had to be
Speaker 1: made by I believe the twenty first.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the most surprising signing.
Speaker 1: All the chatter said that it was going to be
Speaker 1: unlikely to come to fruition, and boyo, boy did they
Speaker 1: need it. If they wouldn't have done this deal, Denver
Speaker 1: would have been on fire. The Denver Nuggets signed Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon four years, one hundred and thirty three million dollar
Speaker 1: max extension, keeping a key piece on the roster alongside
Speaker 1: Yokic until nearly the end of the decade. They had
Speaker 1: to do this. You lose Ken Tavious Caldwell, pope, you
Speaker 1: lose Bruce Brown, you lose Jeff Green. You could not
Speaker 1: afford to have this entire thing weighing over the season.
Speaker 1: Gotta keep Yoka chappy. He doesn't even want to play
Speaker 1: basketball in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Folks. If he's not happy, nobody's happy.
Speaker 1: Gordon is a super underrated player.
Speaker 2: I am so happy he got his shedder.
Speaker 1: Out in Orlando. One of the players that Jerry West
Speaker 1: hated the most. Actually, by the way, Jalen, not like
Speaker 1: as a personal standpoint, but just in terms of his game,
Speaker 1: turned his season, turned his career around. Last season, Jalen
Speaker 1: Suggs signs a massive five year, one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million dollar rookie contract, meaning they Orlando is locking down
Speaker 1: their core of Wagner, Paolo and Suggs for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: He was a really good defensive player last year, ended
Speaker 1: up on the All Defensive Team. He was getting at
Speaker 1: least a steal a game. Now he stays at Orlando, Definitely,
Speaker 1: I think if he can improve his offense, he can
Speaker 1: turn into like a Drew Holliday type player. So I
Speaker 1: really like that for them, Hawks made a very smart
Speaker 1: move getting Jalen Johnson for the super cheap five years,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty million dollar rookie extension. If there's
Speaker 1: one young player I could bring to my team, and
Speaker 1: if I'm the GM, that's Jalen Johnson. He is so
Speaker 1: freaking good defensively. I like his size, I like pause,
Speaker 1: I like his ability to score. He had a breakthrough
Speaker 1: year last year. He averaged sixteen eight and four. He
Speaker 1: had two stocks per game. And now he gets money.
Speaker 1: He gets paid by the end of the season. I
Speaker 1: think he's probably top four top ten forward in the league,
Speaker 1: and he was playing on a trash ass team. Mind you,
Speaker 1: big things ahead for Jalen Johnson. He's probably the only
Speaker 1: real asset that the Hawks have on this team, so
Speaker 1: and probably also the only untradable chip in the Hawks
Speaker 1: basket as well. A few years ago, if you would
Speaker 1: have told me the Trey Murphy of the Pelicans would
Speaker 1: be signing a four year, one hundred and twelve million
Speaker 1: dollar rookie extension, I would have given you the side eye.
Speaker 2: But damn, my man earned his money.
Speaker 1: Fifteen to five and two last year under thirty minutes game.
Speaker 1: Come on second straight year of outstanding per thirty six numbers.
Speaker 1: Now the Pedals get to keep them for four more years.
Speaker 1: What are the New Orleans Pelicans?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: I need to know, just a collection of players that
Speaker 1: I have no idea if they fit together. But I
Speaker 1: do know that Trey Murphy is an important piece, even
Speaker 1: if he is out in the first three weeks of
Speaker 1: the season with a tight hammy. Another deal a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought was not gonna happen ended up happening.
Speaker 2: A lot of people were like.
Speaker 1: Oh, they don't like him. They don't like him in Houston,
Speaker 1: and I was like, settle down, okay, relax. Alperin's Shane
Speaker 1: Goon has become a killer down in Houston. Pen to
Speaker 1: paper five years, one hundred and eighty five million dollars.
Speaker 1: A lot of people thought that was a huge number,
Speaker 1: but actually that's cheap for him.
Speaker 2: Let me explain to you why.
Speaker 1: Last year Shangoon posted up three hundred and seventy six
Speaker 1: times and was double teamed two hundred and eighty nine times.
Speaker 1: Seventy seven percent of the time shanng Goon was double
Speaker 1: teamed in the post. That is more than Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: more than Julius Randall, more than Anthony Davis, more than
Speaker 1: Victor Wemenyama, more than bam Adebayo. He only trails Jannis
Speaker 1: and Jokic. In other world words, the rest of the
Speaker 1: NBA knows this dude is a menace, and so do
Speaker 1: the Rockets, and now they get him on a much
Speaker 1: cheaper deal than they would have had to get him
Speaker 1: next off season. This one is surprising. This one is
Speaker 1: a little shocking. What are the Rockets doing with him?
Speaker 1: Rockets just made history by extending Jalen Green to a
Speaker 1: three year, one hundred and six million dollar contract. Those
Speaker 1: numbers are not what makes it particularly unique or surprising.
Speaker 1: The fact is it's the first two plus one rookie
Speaker 1: extension ever, which means the third year for Jalen Green
Speaker 1: is a player option, which means if he's progressing the
Speaker 1: way that he thinks he is, he can opt out
Speaker 1: and test the market for that huge contract he thinks
Speaker 1: he deserves. He is the first G League Night signing.
Speaker 1: Now that makes history again, and that.
Speaker 2: May set a precedent for rookies going forward.
Speaker 1: I know, once I saw that I would not stop
Speaker 1: for anything short of a walkiear player option for me.
Speaker 1: Another rookie extension dimension Golden State Moses Mody three years,
Speaker 1: thirty nine million dollar extension. We've got Golden State snapping
Speaker 1: up rookie Moses Mody. Moses Moody three years, thirty nine
Speaker 1: million dollars probably gonna be the biggest bargain in the
Speaker 1: rookie class. But guess what, like that's there, that's literally
Speaker 1: what Golden State.
Speaker 2: Was doing by keeping him.
Speaker 1: On the bench.
Speaker 2: You don't even know what he is.
Speaker 1: We have no idea how good Moses Moody is because
Speaker 1: of the logjam in front of him, and so they
Speaker 1: snap him up at a discounted rate that they've created
Speaker 1: by keeping him off the floor. If I was his camp,
Speaker 1: I'd be fucking pissed. I want out of there. Boy.
Speaker 1: He has shown patience and when given a chance, he's
Speaker 1: shown upside. But I don't think I want to be there.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm gonna get playing time to
Speaker 1: get a bigger next contract if i'm him.
Speaker 2: Also interesting, very interesting.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Kaminga, the other rookie from that class in Golden State,
Speaker 1: who has even more upside than Moses Moody, is not
Speaker 1: signing his rookie extension, and I think that's probably from
Speaker 1: the Clutch camp, not from the Golden State camp. That
Speaker 1: is worth keeping an eye on because they reportedly offered
Speaker 1: him thirty million dollars, but they did not offer him
Speaker 1: the max in Memphis. Here's another thing to know about Kaminga.
Speaker 1: Kaminga thinks he should get paid like Siakam. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: he's about of there. They This is something to monitor.
Speaker 2: Remember when Golden.
Speaker 1: State went big game hunting, who was the trade chip
Speaker 1: that they dangled out there? Jonathan kaminga They don't want
Speaker 1: to pay him. They don't want to pay him what
Speaker 1: he's worth. He thinks he's worth Kawhi money. This is
Speaker 1: one of those rare scenarios that we have to watch
Speaker 1: all season long because it's gonna be something that Golden
Speaker 1: State might end up making a move on. If they
Speaker 1: don't want to give him his money in the offseason,
Speaker 1: which they don't, where could he go? He would be
Speaker 1: an awesome addition to a place like Denver, but they
Speaker 1: can't afford him. Maybe like a Michael Porter junior for
Speaker 1: kaminga kind of a thing, and Denver could give some
Speaker 1: assets alongside.
Speaker 2: With It's it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Also, remember he had that little beef with Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: said Steve Kerr wasn't the right coach to develop him,
Speaker 1: and then Steve Kerr got an extension and now Kaming
Speaker 1: doesn't have his money. In Memphis, Jaron Jackson was eligible
Speaker 1: for three years, one hundred and six million dollars.
Speaker 2: They couldn't get a deal done for him.
Speaker 1: Corey Kispert four years, fifty four million dollars for him Woo,
Speaker 1: which is a sign is the one the Wizards like him,
Speaker 1: and two the Wizards have to spend some money to
Speaker 1: get past the salary floor. Thirteen million into Corey Kispert.
Speaker 1: Why not.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of golf, a congressional for him. Why not?
Speaker 1: Mavericks signed Jaden Hardy to a three year, eighteen million
Speaker 1: dollar rookie extension after his second year he was very polarizing.
Speaker 1: Another G League night guy. Now he's averaging eight points
Speaker 1: a game. He looked really good in the playoffs. He contributed.
Speaker 1: Remember he was a guy that we liked in the
Speaker 1: pre draft process and had to go to the G
Speaker 1: League because listen, you're playing.
Speaker 2: With Luca, you gotta kind of have your mind right.
Speaker 1: So that's fascinating, really good pick up to get him
Speaker 1: for three years, eighteen million. Another guy not getting a
Speaker 1: rookie extension, Bones Island. People don't like him. He seems
Speaker 1: to be very unpopular wherever he goes. He's going to
Speaker 1: be a restricted free agent after this year. A couple
Speaker 1: of other roster moves that I did like. The Grizzlies
Speaker 1: signed my favorite rookie is he my favorite? He's one
Speaker 1: of my favorites. He's like a pet Yuki kywer Mura
Speaker 1: two way contract. Putting him on the opening day roster
Speaker 1: who he's literally two inches taller than me. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine me out there just throwing dimes to Zach Edy,
Speaker 1: five seven Japanese national playing alongside seven four Zach Edy,
Speaker 1: only the ninth NBA player under five to eight since
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. Also fan favorite Matt McClung two time
Speaker 1: NBA All Star Dunk Contest champion two way with Orlando
Speaker 1: giving him his first NBA roster He played a lot
Speaker 1: of G League minutes in order to get here. Matt
Speaker 1: mcclungo has a good story and also, let's be honest.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Adam So called Orlando and said, listen, we need this
Speaker 1: boy back into the dunk context.
Speaker 2: And he said he's not doing it unless he's on
Speaker 2: an NBA roster. Finally, my favorite NBA roster move.
Speaker 1: Following Isaiah Hartenstein's injury, which we talked about earlier, the
Speaker 1: Thunder just signed his replacement stretched for Alex Reese. Reese
Speaker 1: played four years at Bama, went undrafted, became a bartender,
Speaker 1: then decided to try and make a career out of
Speaker 1: basketball again. Worked overseas, went to the G League, before
Speaker 1: getting caught up and getting called up from OKAC. Fascinating story.
Speaker 1: Happy he's getting a shot. Although it is not a
Speaker 1: guaranteed deal, he will get his minutes. That is all
Speaker 1: the time that we have for this episode.
Speaker 2: He checked.
Speaker 1: NBA season starts today. Holy shit, that offseason came fast.
Speaker 1: Come back later this week for an all new episode.
Speaker 1: Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes
Speaker 1: was dropped unexpectedly like the.
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Speaker 1: hey Chris, and soon this season