Trysta at 2022 NBA Summer League 1

because we are here live in Las Vegas. I will also break down all of my initial thoughts from the happenings of the first day of Summer League. Can't wait to get into it, so brock to it fast. Go ahead and drop that beat. So let's get into a little news around the NBA. Kadie my man Kevin Durant has gone completely dark, and in his absence, the Nets have become I don't know, the Nets have become a thirteen year old with NBA two K in franchise mode and they're just trying to swap one player for an

entire team. They're also like who you experience all the time if you play fantasy football and you've got that one guy in the league who thinks that he can trade you Alvin Kamara for like Matt Stafford and Josh Jacobs and Darren Wallers like my g No. The latest is that they tried to convince the Minnesota Timberwolves to give up aunt Cat and four first round picks for Katie. I'm sorry, what you so? What? Click? That's one of those Hey, what's up, Seana? It's uh a rod and

it's uh, who's run? Tim Conley? It's Tim? What's up? Uh? You won't excuse me? What? Click? That's like that's an immediate go fuck yourself? So why would the Wolves or Kevin Durant sign off on that? Like why would DLO and Kevin Durant remix in this alternate universe where Kadie was in assign a trade for Dlo, who's also in a sign of a trade, Like why would Kevin Durant want to play with Jaden McDaniels h d Loo And like nas read, he wouldn't like you wouldn't. It doesn't

help anyone other than the Nets in this case. And and first of all, if you get Nets, if you are the Nets and you get Karl Anthony Towns and Aunt Edwards for Kevin Durant. There are no picks being exchanged exchanged, There is absolutely none. You get player Edwards is probably Michael Jordan. Have the nets ever seen him play? I don't know, like because it's he's the next Jordan. I'm not giving you baby Jordan for a thirty plus guy who probably doesn't want to play in Minnesota anyway.

And Brian Windhorse hit it on the head when he said this, and I thought to myself, we got to talk about this. The market does not want to pay a super premium price for Kevin rand because if he trade all away these top assets on your team begin him, he becomes then less valuable to you because you're no longer a contender. And all of that is a golf and why we are in a stalemate right now, and

you could have one for a while. And the latest now is also that there's no Kyrie trade until Kevin's traded. So Kai is gonna just sit there and rot even though he's out in the in I want to say, he's in La playing in the valley. In all these NBA leagues, he's chopping it up with all the stars he's given them buckets, proven that he's one of the best scores on Earth, and you know what, for the Nets, it doesn't matter. And for Kevin, people want to know.

Players are reaching out to him, agents are reaching out to him, Teams are reaching out to him, not answering, not answering calls, not answering texts, not answering emails, barely even responding to tweets, which we know he loves to do. And it's all essentially in rich Clement's hands now. So no, obviously, no Kevin Durant cameos in Summer League. It would appear haven't seen him, haven't heard about him. It would appear

this is going to drag on for some time. WOJ thinks it's going to going all is going, WOG thinks it's going to go all the way up into a training camp. That would be gross. This has got the whole league on hold, and of course the trade could drop at any moment, so you got to keep those alerts on for that very reason. Moving on, let's move on. Brad Beal. Brad Bial signed his five year, two hundred

and fifty one million dollar extension with the Wizards. I gotta say for him, Go get your money, my guy, do you deserve it? Take those money and then just hang out in DC. And we know that he's loyal. But here's the kicker. Bradley Beal asked for and got a no trade clause in his contract. He's the only current player in the league with that in his contract.

And Ted leonsis the owner of the Wizards, owner of what is it, monumental Monumental Sports, says that he does not want to be traded and we don't want to trade him. All that sounds nice. On Friday, July eight, twenty twenty two, we'll see how this goes. In July eighth, twenty twenty six, we'll see when he's thirty years old. Leons says he sees this as a partnership and now the Wizards can't don't bill for a boatload of picks without his say so, which is you know, smart business

for Bio in the NBA. You can't end up in Sacramento, right like he is going to be able to pick his next destination when when he comes to grips with what we all know and Brock knows that he will never win anything in Washington. He will never make it past the first round. Again, I said it. And let's be clear about something here. This is no shade on Bradley Beal when I say this. But when he signed this extension super Max no trade clause, I'm all in

no player option. That was the moment that I knew Bradley Beal does not prioritize winning a championship. It's not He's not going to win a title in Washington, and any smart person can see this. The team is a mess. The team is so messy that there's not really much of a chance that they even will make the playoffs this year. Their idea of giving Beal pieces to help him was to sign Monty Morris, Will or Monte Will Barton,

the Lawn Wright junior. They drafted Johnny Davis, which means, folks, that this team has signed four guys who either have or currently play the shooting guard position, which is the exact same position that Bradley Beal plays. I don't know. I mean, of course, Morris and Wright can play the point. And basically what you're saying is that the Wizards added a pair of backup point guards. Monty Morris at thirteen and four right at four and two, and then basically said,

Bradley Beal, you go ahead and carry the load. You go ahead and be the point guard. Make Johnny Davis the two. And we know that Bradley Beal is loyal, but we also know Bradley Beal is smart and signing with the Wizards right now with a baby on the way is a smart business move and it's a smart life move. It's just not the one that's going to give him a title. And that's facts, and that's okay.

He'll be thirty four years old when his extension is finished, and so that's maybe when he decides to go chase a ring. Like everybody else, I don't hate it. He's creating this multi generational wealth and being loyal to a city that he loves, and I'm for that. But the cost of being loyal oftentimes is winning. Just asked Damian Lillard, who himself doubled down and took a two year, one hundred and twenty two million dollars deal with the Blazers, how much money is that? Let me go to mas

school sixty sixty something million dollars a year. Well, if you're gonna lose which twenty nine teams every year. Do you might as well make sixty million dollars a year doing it. Let's move on to Donovan Mitchell, quick update him on him and the Utah Jazz. I don't have it today. I don't think I have it. Last we looked in on the Jazz Trader, Danny had leveraged Rudy Gobert for about one hundred first round picks from the Timberwolves.

People are very split down the middle on this. I put out a clip on the internet, would you rather spend thirty million dollars on Christian Wood? We talked about this on the podcast. Obviously, Christian Wood and Jabail thirty million or Rudy Gobert and cated at one hundred million, and people were very mad. People told me to get into the kitchen. People told me to never watch basketball again. People told me that I should just focus on the

women's side of the game. It's just one of those scenarios where this was more controversial folks than I even thought. At least though at least, the Wolves are committed to doing something to try to win now, and that for a lot of folks who have never seen the Wolves do a damn thing is very exciting. This team could be very fun, even though it's a wing driven league. As Kevin Durant would say, and you've got two centers now that make a hundred million. I don't want to

talk about that, though. What I do want to talk about is what the Jazz are doing given this end of things, and what they're going to do moving forward. Q that Brian Windhorse dramatic reading what is going on in Utah. It turns out, according to Brian Windhorse, what is happening in Utah is nothing yet. They're the only team in the NBA who hasn't signed anyone in free agency, not one single person, not a single soul. All they've done is just trade things, trade Roy O'Neill, trade Rudy Gobert,

and accumulated a ton of first round picks. And that, my friends, probably not a sign of encouragement to my man, Donovan Mitchell. Probably not good news if you're a Jazz fan and you think then maybe they're building around them, because that's what they keep saying, We're building around Donovan. We don't want them to go. And then other reports are coming out saying that Donovan Mitchell is concerned with

the moves that this team is making facts. I get that, and I don't think I'm making a hot take or saying a hot take to say Donovan Mitchell is probably not long for the Utah Jazz. This team's in rebuild mode.

They just are not admitting it yet because they think they're getting an All Star Game in Utah, which they may or may not have, and they need to have one player that's an All Star the one year that they go to that trash as city or the fan base will probably riot, probably bring their tiki torches out. Oh yes, the All Star Game is two weeks though before the trade deadline this year. Coincidence, I don't think so. I don't think so. So if you're in New York,

you play the waiting game. I mean New York, not Brooklyn. Other than Sam Presty and OKC. We talked about this before. There's not really any other team that has as many first round pick. This is the next especially expendable ones. They have eight tradable first round picks in the next handful of years. So unless they do something panicky or dumb, they're gonna be in a really good position to add Donovan to this team and a backcourt of Mitchell and

Brunson is pretty intriguing. It's definitely better than a backcourt of Mike Conley Jr. And Donovan Mitchell, but truthfully, Mike Conley in his prime probably better than Jaylen Brunson. Not gonna lie. Wendy says that the Jazz are not talking to anyone about a trade right now for Donovan, and I think that makes sense only if they're planning on holding on to him for the short term, because building around him makes no damn sense. And what we know about Danny Age is this, he is not afraid to

and seems to like to blow up the show. Let's say lets some forward, so summertime in the wintertime, things are getting quite strange. Uh, And I want to discuss something that is near and dear to my heart, but something that also makes no sense. So let me preface this by saying, I have come, in my short time of hosting radio in New York City about New York sports sports teams on w fa N that New York City doesn't really care about basketball. They don't. They don't

care about local New York basketball almost at all. And there's like reasons for this, and they really don't matter that much to you. I'm sure the Nets aren't seen as a New York team. They keep trying to buy teams, it never works. They dominate national news in the basketball world, but honestly, New York fans just don't really give a shit. Secondly, the Knicks haven't been good and they've been largely irrelevant

ever since, like the Riley era. So they're owned obviously by a man in James Dolan, who probably rivals Dan Snyder as most popular owner in all of sports. I have nothing negative to say about James Dolan, however, lots of other people do so. Imagine brought my surprise, as a lifelong Portland Trailblazers fan that I open up an article a hit piece Blazer's owner Jody Allen in the New York Poe. Why would they do that? Does it

make any sense? The second I saw this, I put my sleuthing hat on, because, let's be real, shit like this doesn't happen. New York Post doesn't care about us. New York fans don't care about us. You have to fight just to get New Yorkers interested in Kyrie and Kevin Durant fighting their way out forcing their way out of the nets. Why would they care about Portland? The quickest answer is they do not. They don't and so to me it seemed very bizarre that they would write

this piece. So I started to read the article in depth. It's like a five thousand word think piece. And The New York Post is not noted for their five thousand word think pieces. It's noted for their two hundred word stories with eight tweets embedded. This is not Pulitzer Proprize journalism here. So I went to the author. The only think linked was the name s. Nathan Nyp, anonymous author publishing a five thousand word hit piece on one of

the major newspapers in the world. The author has written exactly two pieces in his or her history of The New York Post. One was a pr spin piece redeeming Brian Williams, noted liar, and the other was this vicious, ugly hit piece on Jody Allen. So I started to read, and it was an absolute hammer job, just like a hatchet on her reputation. Literally everything Jody Allen has ever

allegedly done was dragged out and dissected in depth. And this includes the following allegations by the author, and it's gonna get weird. So I just need you to hang on. I need you to hang on. Brock. She created a toxic environment in Portland. She still is. That's pretty normal.

Lots of teams do that, right, that happens. She allowed Neil Osha, former GM to basically run the most dysfunctional front office this side of Phoenix, which led to his firing, and that Jody Allen knew about it and did nothing to stop it. Okay, that's like shady. It's bad, Okay,

all right? Uh, that Blazer CEO Chris McGowan resigned because of frustration with Jody and this other guy cold who is Paul Allen's college roommate and friend, who's basically running the team, and he's She's now allowing Burt Cole to make all the decisions. Okay, that's fine. Here's one that I thought was a little strange. That she ghosted Damian Lillard and did not return his emails. That one went viral. That's the one in this whole list that went viral. Okay,

not probably a great move, all right? Uh. That she bought European cut boxer briefs for her security detail and asked them to put on a fashion show for her. That one caught my attention, but it was this one that really took the cake. It was this one that had my mind blown. I'm gonna read the first the

full full quote here. Former members of Paul Allen and Jody Allen's security detail, including veterans of Elite million terry units, great set and sworn depositions in twenty twelve that yes, she sexually harassed bodyguards, but she also directed them to smuggle animal bones out of Africa and Antarctica. At least two former employees said that they heard themselves that Jody had smuggled ivory out of Africa, which is in violation of US and international law, though none admitted to actually

seeing her do. So what giraff bones? You can't make this up. The USDA actually destroyed seventy two pounds of girafft bones allegedly stolen and smuggled. So how big is one? Just like a femur of a giraffe? Is that itself seventy two pounds? And if you google, just google smuggle giraffe bones? Because I thought to myself, what do you make with giraffe bones. Do you turn them into dust and then turn that dust into like a fake diamond? Do you snort that dust? Do you put that dust

into your smoothie in the morning? Do you put it on the flakes of your ko salad? Like? What are we doing with this? Do do you make furniture out of it? So I googled furniture? Maybe that? So I googled what do we use giraffe bones? For nothing? There's nothing there. Then I googled smuggle giraffe bones. I thought maybe if I got a little context into what people were finding and doing with this, then I would understand

her motives. I swear to God. The only thing that comes up if you google smuggle giraffe bones is just Jody Allen and Paul Allen. That's it. That's all that comes up, is just article after article after article about them. So they're like the only person people in history on the Internet to have ever tried to steal the bones of a giraffe, which means which means probably like iron fist. There's some like ritualistic thing where they turn it in.

They've got this like map, and then they find an ancient tattoo artist with this giraft bone and this metal bowl, and they do a ritual and then they turn Jody Allen into the iron Fist. That's the only way I can think it makes sense, which to me, it's worth losing your team over. You know, honestly, you're gonna be the iron Fist. It's pretty much no one who can stop you. Even the New York Post. So and Larry Miller.

Larry Miller pops up all over this article. He's the former president of the Blazers and a former executive of Nike, also of the Jordan brand. You might also know him as a guy who made news earlier this year by asking forgiveness to a woman for a man he murdered thirty years ago, asking his wife for forgiveness. Why am I reading this because there's always a motive right and here it is. Larry Miller said this. It's time for a change in ownership. Stable, good, solid ownership is what

leads to winning. You can't win if you don't have solid, consistent, reliable ownership. Portland has definitely not had that since Paul passed. The issue is that Burt doesn't want to sell and he will drag this out as long as possible. By the way, if you've been under an NBA rock or just not on the internet. Jody Allen twenty four hours ago put out a memo saying that the Blazers were currently not for sale and that they will not be for sale most likely for another ten to twenty years.

Let me ask you this, what other owners that aren't going to sell their team for the next ten to twenty years put out memos saying that they're not selling the team and that the team is not for sale. They just continue doing business right and don't sell the team Like that pretty much tells you everything you need to know. So I see that memo and I'm like, I know, Phil Allen put in a bid for two billion dollars to buy the Blazers, And then I see this hit piece and it all clicked. Why would this

be coming out? And it's because Phil Knight is going to pull pull that Portland Trailblazers franchise from Jody Allen's cold dead giraffe bone acquiring hands. And he's gonna do it using any means necessary. He's gonna use the New York Post. It's only just begun. He's gonna probably use the Sun in Britain, He's probably gonna use New York Times. He's probably gonna use La Times. I mean the Oregonian.

We're probably already gonna see something with Oregonian. I bet he makes a shoe with proceeds going over to Africa, like the anti poaching shoe with fake animal prints giraffe print on the shoe, just to try to create a

marketing campaign out of it. So you've got an anonymous, detailed article in a major newspaper that absolutely cares zero about Portland alleging everything under the sun against current owner of a Portland team just a couple of weeks ago, after she says she was not going to sell the team to Phil Knight, by the way, didn't even take his calls, according to this article, who just made a massive bid to buy the franchise. You don't need a conspiracy theorist baby to see the writing on the wall.

The lesson is this, billionaires get their way. There is almost no clean and squeaky billionaires, almost none unless they acquired it from their inheritance. And that guy who acquired the billions probably not squeaky cleaning either. And if a guy like Phil Knights wants to buy your team and is giving you a fair offer, and you have to sell that team, and you are being a see you next Tuesday by telling him in the world that you're not selling the team for another ten to twenty years.

Get ready, and you're not squeaky clean, and you're buying European boxer briefs for your security detail and asking them to parade around for you. You better expect for those dirty European boxer briefs to be aired out all over from here to Kingdom. Come on every national news source that we can find. This is just the beginning, baby, because Wall Street Journal is what comes next. Emergency segment, emergency, emergency, we we we. Shit is popping always at the Summer League.

And while this show was being recorded, James Harden has signed with the Sixers and the terms are kind of shocking. James Harden is taking a fifteen million dollar pay cut for next season that allowed Philadelphia to elevate the roster with their sole focus on a championship run. In twenty twenty three, he opted out of his forty seven million dollar player option and now plans to sign a new two year deal with the player option in year two. This is what Shams tweeted. Wow, still so much for

that myth that he's the most selfish player in the NBA. Also, is thirty five million dollars really a pay cut for James Harden? Like, I don't think so. I don't know that he's worth thirty five million, but hey, also still I want to know how does James Harden look? How does he feel? He's been fat, He's been out of shape, his hamstrings been in shambles, He's been doing houkahs all over the world. And we all remember the blue jump suit.

We all remember the blue jumpsuit. Cue the Shams follow up tweet because you know there is one right find it for me, find me the Shams tweet. All right here it is. Everyone around Harden has understood the focus on his workout regimen this offseason and a championship goal for twenty twenty two twenty twenty three. His close relationships with those around the organization, including Michael Rubin and Darryl Morey, played a major role in trust between the two sides.

So not only did James Harden take a thirty percent pay cut, he made promises false promises that he would come in shape this season. He would come into the season in shape. I promise you, I'm gonna eat better. I promise you, I'm gonna work out. I'm cutting down on the hookah, I'm cutting down on this drip clubs, cutting down on the wings. Look the out, people is big game. James back. No, he's not back. But maybe,

just maybe James Harden wasn't the issue in Brooklyn. Maybe the team was already toxic, and maybe James Harden, in his one hamstring, saw it before anyone else and he pulled the rip chord like Goose in Top Gun. And maybe just maybe Sixers with a healthy umbiad a in

shape Harden, a Tyrese Maxine, a PJ. Tucker, this team might be a problem next year, a problem maybe in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, because if this team can't win next year, though which they won't, it's a processed Pard two when in b forces his way to play with Jimmy Butler in Miami. All right, So I'm here in Vegas where it's hot. I got jeans on with Readians for summer League, and I have thoughts after the first couple of days, and I know

everybody wants to hear about Paola. I know everybody wants to hear about Jabari, and we'll get there. I've got things to say, but I do want to talk about a couple of guys, a couple of young guys that popped off the page and we weren't really expecting to do so, and that I think is what makes the Summer League special, right, not just can a star player that's coming into the league as the number one or number two overall pick or number three overall pick, how

can they play? But it's like, how can a guy who was the twenty second overall pick last year, not this year, but last year and he gets moved? How does he play? What about a guy who made it to the second round? How does he play? So I want to talk about two rookies, well two young guys because one's not a rookie. Really the most surprising and impressive Summer League performances of Day one to me, which is Detroit and Portland's game in Orlando, Houston in their game.

So number one is Caleb Houston for me out of Michigan. I was interested to see what he was going to look like as a second round pick, early second round pick, and oh my god, did Orlando feel like they got something special? Really in a steal? Right? He had twenty points, six rebounds, five for nine from three, seven for twelve from the field. He had a couple of mid nice mid range shots, a couple of close rain buckets, but

like a ton of three pointers as you see five threes. Houston, to me stuck out because I'm thinking about Keegan Murray. I'm thinking a lot about the Kings taking him at number four. And Keegan Murray's twenty one years old, He's six eight two o five. He's a long rangey four. Maybe he could be something like a taller Al Horford. But you know, truthfully, taking him number four was a

surprise to most of the NBA. And I see Caleb Houston in his game, and I see Keigan Murray in his game, and they're not the same, but they play the same way. And so I bet if Caleb Houston went another two years in college, he might have averaged the same type of numbers that Keegan Murray did twenty four points a game in his last year too. Caleb Houston in his first year averaged thirteen to five and two per forty and Keegan Murray who I mentioned was

six eight two five twenty one years old. Caleb Houston six eight one ninety nineteen years old. He averaged sixteen eleven and one, so definitely a better rebounder, but in terms of scoring per forty in his freshman year as well. Pretty interesting comps here. I think Caleb could be a really nice wing player for Orlando, and I think upon first glance they absolutely stole him in the second round.

Let's move forward to another player that I was near and dear to my art as a Portland Chailblazer fan. And no it's not shade and sharp, because I barely got to see him. Uh Kegan Keon Johnson six five one five second ear player from Tennessee. He was actually

the Clippers first round pick. So you know, Jerry West had his his mind and his fingers in the in the puzzle, and he came over to the Blazers from the Clippers in that Larry Nance deal with uh no, not Larry Nance, it was it was Robert Covington, Eric bledsoe Norm Powell for Keon Johnson and some randoms. Eric Bledso of course was in that deal as well. And

he's been quietly a bucket. During the Portland Tankathon end of the season, he averaged ten three and three thirty five percent from deep in twenty six minutes, which is pretty good for a nineteen year old on a team that's actively looking to around you with non NBA players like actively looking to lose. He looked in this game against Detroit Keon looked he stood out. He looked very involved everywhere. He looked bouncy, completely fearless. Definitely's worked on

his shot. I think him and Gary Payton the second together could be a really fun duo in terms of just working out together and learning from one another and really be a couple of very versatile young wings on this Portland team. He has a very high vertical leap, He has nice little layup packages and can pass as well. Like the passing thing I think is the most impressive. He had twenty one points, three rebounds, two assists, two

steals in that game. He was eight for seventeen from the field and two for six from three, so very very impressive. So those are my two rookies or two young guys that stood out in a way that I didn't even expect to be watching for them them right. Let's move forward. Japari Smith versus Powello, Ben Carrol. Let's talk Jabari first number three pick in the draft everyone thought would go number one. He looked surprisingly reluctant, surprisingly timid.

He shot four for ten, one for four from three. He had ten point seven rebounds and three assists. It's not like he was bad, because he definitely had some nice moves. His footwork looks really good. He's got good instincts, he doesn't think too much. It's just that he didn't look dominant. He didn't look relentless. He didn't look like he was actively trying to dominate. Pawo, on the other hand, looked like he was trying to absolutely show the world.

And he said this actually in his postgame presser with Cassidy Hubberth. He said, I absolutely was trying to show the world that I deserved the number one pick. It's not the number one thing that was in my head, but it was definitely a thing that was in my head. He went seventeen four and six six assists for Poolo. He went two for three from three and had some

really good defense as well. He had a very very big block on Jabbari where you're like, ooh, he hit a three, and then chirp Jalen Green on the sidelines as well, like he's just that guy. And when you see him, he's massive. He's massive in a way I can't even fully articulate to you as a listener because you have to see it up close. It's like there's no way even when I take videos right in front of him, like me and him, he's just right there. It just makes him look smaller than he is. He

takes up the whole phone screen. And he's got really nice moves, great footwork, good jab step, nice mid range, can pass like hell. He's gonna probably be the number one usage guy on Orlando. It feels like it feels like they're gonna give him the ball a lot, and they're gonna let him cook, and they're gonna let him get other guys involved too. So I think Pawloll's a star. I can't wait to wait to see him play the

rest of Summer League. I even think the way that he played in this first game that maybe you want to maybe bet on him to win Rookie of the Year. And I don't like that for big men. But for him, it's kind of a different story. Shaden Sharp was the number one player I wanted to see, and I did get to see him for all of six minutes before he hurt his shoulder and that was that. That was Night Night's Sleep mask and probably no more Shaden Sharp in the rest of Summer League. He was one for three,

zero for two from three. So the man who is a mystery, the man who we all want to see, who has no tape like still we have no tape on absolutely a mystery we all wanted to see. Can he play NBA games? He's only played five on five I don't know, eighteen months to go at eybl I've never seen him play anywhere, and there's no film on him outside of eybl nothing on Kentucky practice, nothing, nothing in his backyard. I got to see him for six fucking minutes, and now he's gone. I have to wait

till October to see Shad and Sharp. Now it's garbage, absolutely garbage. I got probably all the footage you'll ever see of him on my phone right in front of him. So how does what does this mean for Portland? I don't know. Is he gonna like, are they hiding him. Is he really injured? It didn't even look like anything happened. I don't know. I'm just rambling down in disarray, wanting to see Shad and Sharp at summery alas we persist today, I will be going to see, most importantly Benedict Mathern,

who I wanted the Portland Trail Wazers to take. I can't wait for that. Gonna get up with some friends tonight and hopefully we'll have some tea. Given those meetings early next week, there's a lot of stuff popping and hopefully I have some good intel to share with y'all. That's all the time that we have for heat Check. Will be back Wednesday. No, we'll be back Tuesday with an all new episode from Summer League in Vegas. Please follow us on heat Check for all the reviews of

the rookies that you can handle. We'll be doing those on TikTok videos voiceovers all that don't forget to download subscribe. Please tell your friends and follow us on social at at this heat Check and at Triste Crick on