Hoops Tonight - Draymond re-signs with Warriors, Kyrie stays in Dallas, Lakers land Gabe Vincent

say the least. We're gonna hit on seven different teams today, the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns, the Dallas Mavericks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Chicago Bulls, and the Portland Trailblazers. And then at the tail end of the show, I'm gonna give my two cents on the James Harden situation and his trade request. You guys are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So starting with the Golden State Warriors, they had to retain Draymond and they

did so four years, one hundred million dollars. Shout out to Mike dun Levy and the ownership group for recognizing the value that is with Raymond Green. It's really the simple to me. I know there's a contingent of Warriors fans that looks at his offensive limitations and some of his historyonics as something that's infuriating and that a lot of you guys wanted to get rid of them. But the reality was is you had no chance to contend for an NBA championship without Draymond Green on your roster.

He's the kind of player that have always gravitated towards it. Yes, he also works at the same company as I do, but that has nothing to do with it as a basketball fan. Those of you guys have been watching the show for a while. No guys like this are guys

that have always valued a great deal. The guys that do all of the little things that help teams win basketball games and make no mistake, as Steve Kerr has said many times, had the Warriors let go of Draymond Green, they would have immediately lost the ability to contend for NBA Championships once again. Last year, as has been the case for the most part throughout this entire era, the Warriors were monumentally better with Draymond on the floor versus

when he was off. The Warriors were fourteen points better per one hundred possessions with Raymond on the floor versus when he was off the floor, which was by far the best on the team among their core rotation players. You need Draymond Green on the Warriors to have a chance to win. End of story. They paid what they needed to pay to keep him around. I'm happy for

Draymond as a basketball fan. I want to see him retire there anyway, and this gives us a very interesting Warriors team to cover over the course of the next couple of years. He's the fulcrum of their defense. This is a team that's going to be leaning more heavily on pick and roll than ever with the addition of Chris Paul, Draymond Green's arguably the best short role passer in the league. You needed him, you kept him. Kudos

to the Warriors. That had to be done. There's also some reports out there that Dario Sarrich is likely quote unquote to select the Warriors. That signing is not official yet, but I like that as well. Once again leaning more on pick and roll, he is a excellent short role player. With OKC, he averaged one point three to two points per possession in pick and pops and pick and rolls. That was in the eighty second percentile around the league. He also shot a fifty seven percent effective field goal

percentage on catch and shoot jump shots with OKC. So there's your stretch big that the Warriors had with the manyabe Elitza, which worked really well, and this is kind of like a bigger, stronger version of that in Dario sarch I like that as a potential pickup. He also shot really well on floaters and hooks and at the rim. I think he's a good offensive big to kind of compliment what Kevon Looney and Draymond Green bring to the

table in the front court. All right, moving on to the Los Angeles likers, and they're shocking signing of Gabe Vincent from the NBA finalist Miami Heat for three years and thirty three million dollars. This is definitely not the type of player I was expecting the Lakers to go after. I thought they'd go after a bigger athlete guard like

Bruce Brown, which obviously they were priced out of. But I thought they'd be targeting a player in that kind of archetype, or a legit backup center, someone like Brook Lopez or of a similar mold. That said backcourt skill we saw last year with D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves works really well with Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and Gabe Vincent was a better playoff player in this playoff run than D'Angelo Russell was as a two way guard at the point of attack as well as on the

offensive end running pick and rolls. He was a very successful pick and roll ball handler this year. In the postseason, the Heat ran two hundred and thirteen gave Vincent pick and rolls that led to two hundred and twenty five points including passes. That's one point zero six point points per possession, which is excellent. One point twenty six points per possession. In spot up situation, so he's great knocking

down catch and shoot jumpers and attacking closeouts. Sixty five percent effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers, forty seven percent of five field goal percentage on pull up jumpers, and forty four percent on floaters. So not what I was expecting, but more offensive skill around Lebron James and Anthony Davis in a very good compliment to Austin Reeves, and so an interesting signing to say the least.

I wonder if it's gonna give them a little bit more leverage to potentially get a discount on D'Angelo Russell, because if you get Gay Vincent at eleven million, which might seem like a little high, but you get D'Angel Russell for less, because you're effectively demonstrating to him that you don't need him, so to speak, that might end up working out in the long run. It's definitely a bigger number then I would like for a team like the Lakers to spend on a player like Gabe Vincent.

That said, I'm very happy for Gabe Vincent and for Bruce Brown, who signed for the Pacers at two years forty five million. Is a great example of the fact that doing things within a winning concept will always get you further than putting up numbers in a different type of situation. This goes beyond the NBA to all of you kids out there that are playing in high school, playing in junior college, trying to get the right type

of college scholarship. You will get more looks in a winning concept, So finding a way to help your team win basketball games, playing for a winner will always go a longer way towards getting you to the next level as a basketball player than doing things within a losing concept.

Bruce Brown and gate Vincent neither of them put up fantastic numbers in this postseason run, but they both played viol roles in the backcourt for teams that won three playoff series or four in the case of Denver, and as a result, they've amassed what's this seventy eight million dollars worth in salaries that they've signed this summer. So it's a good lesson for young basketball players. Focus on winning first, not your numbers. Focus on winning. That's how

you're gonna get that perfect college scholarship. That's how you're gonna get to transfer to the school you want to go to. That's how you're gonna get that good deal if you're playing overseas, and that's how you're gonna get more money when you're playing in the NBA. Another big signing for the Lakers for the bi annual exception. Torrian Prince to me, just the textbook like league average wing, kind of like that like replacement player type level wing

in the NBA. He's not a great athlete, but he has good measurables. He's six foot eight with a six to eleven and a half wing span. Shot forty one percent on catch and shoot jumpers last year, sixty one percent effective field goal percentage when you wait that for three, So he's a very good catch and shoot shooter, a little bit of an in between game. He's got a little bit of that extra scoring chops. Like I always talk about scoring ability is almost a natural ability. It's

like a creativity mixed with audacity. Torrian Prince has a good amount of that. It's why he was up over a point per possession in isolation situations last year, although in low volume, so he definitely brings just a little bit more offensive punch for the position. Not a fantastic defender at the position like he used to be when

he was younger. But he's a good piece for depth, and depth matters in the NBA, especially for teams like the Lakers, because let's say Lebron or Ad you have to miss a game and all of a sudden, your

aggregate size takes a nose dive. Right when you have guys like Austin Reeves and Gabe Vincent running pick and rolls all night, well, guys like Torrian Prince and Ruy Hatcham and Jared Vanderbilt are flying around on defense, you give yourself a decent chance to compete, especially at home, playing in front of the energy of your home crowds. So and whereas when you're tiny and you lose guys like Lebron James and Anthony Davis, you're just completely hopeless.

So definitely like the Torrian Prince signing, just for depth on the wing, the Lakers have a legit core of forwards now that they did not have in previous seasons moving on to the Suns, so they resigned Joshakogi and Damian Lee. Definitely a couple of decent backcourt pieces. Leads an outstanding shooter, A Koch's an outstanding point of attack defender.

They get you to Wana Navi, I'm guessing from his friendship with Kevin Durant from when they were teammates one point two six points per jump shot last year with the Brooklyn Nets. That was third out of two hundred and fifty three players to attempt at least one hundred and fifty jump shots. So one of the best knockdown spot up shooters in the league with outstanding length for

his position, loved that signing. They also picked up Timezi Metsu Andrew Eubanks, couple of big athletic forwards at discounts. So again, this is what the Suns had to do. They had to find discounted talent, preferably guys that had motor and length and athleticism in the front court, and

they did that. So kudos to the Phoenix Suns. Will it be enough to bang with Nikola Jokic and the rest of the Nuggets roster for a seven gamer that remains to be seen, but given the situation after they made the Bradley Beal trade, this is pretty well done. At that point, the MAVs signed Kyrie Irving for three years and one hundred and twenty six million dollars, so Kyrie gets his paycheck. Not completely surprising, especially when you consider

the fact that Kyrie's really freaking good at basketball. You know, the talking point that gets most frequently overlooked when we talk about Kyrie Irving. Really take a deep look at the way the Mavericks played after the Kyrie Irving trade. They were better with Kyrie on the floor than they were with Luca on the floor. He is still one of the most outstanding high pick and roll in isolation shot creators in the league. He brings a great deal

of variety that makes I'm very difficult to guard. He's an underrated passer. When he competes defensively, he can be a good defender as well. I'm a huge Kyrie fan. I know the off court stuff is an issue. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the next three years Kyrie tried to force his way out. Kyrie, generally speaking, is devoted when he's happy and looking to to mess shit up for lack of a better term, when he's unhappy. But the MAVs

did what they had to do. They flipped a bunch of assets for Kyrie. They had to re sign the asset. And here's the thing. If Kyrie is unhappy at the deadline and they flip him to some other team, you're gonna get assets back and that's all that matters. They needed to resign him to maintain the asset. They did, so my guess is they give it a go, but if they're underwhelming around the deadline, don't be surprised if Kyrie tries to force his way out again. He really

did this all for the payday. As we know, the Brooklyn Nets at the deadline last year were kicking everybody's ass. They were in great shape other than the Kevin Durant injury. Kyrie forced his way out strictly because the Brooklyn Nets would not re signed him to the dollar amount he wanted. This was a purely financial move. As long as the MAVs are valuable on the court, I think he'll be fine and I think he'll be devoted, But you know, this is the business, and don't be surprised if during

that deal he's playing for another team. The Cavaliers resigned Arris Lavert. But the interesting one is they signed Georg's knee from the Philadelphia seventy six ers for three years and twenty six million. I love this signing, particularly because they are so damn athletic in the front court with Evan Mobley and with Jared Allen and Evan Mobley can guard three, so you don't need Georgia Kneeing to fly

around on the perimeter guarding quicker players. But they desperately needed a reliable wing shooter to open things up and pick and roll so that teams could stop guarding the Cavs pick and rolls of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland three on two, and Georgia Knieing is a deadly spot up shooter in this league, so I love that signing for them as well. The Chicago Bowles signed Javon Carter.

Now they have a very interesting defensive back court between Alex Cruso, Iyo Dessunmu and Javon Carter, they are going to be a frightening ball pressure team, especially since Alex Crudo Acruso and Iyo Desunmo are both big, strong athletes for their position. They can play three guard lineups now and don't be surprised if that team is devastating defensively in the regular season just because of their point of

attack defense. And then again, like you know, I always talk about rim protection as a product of two different things. Rimp protection is a product of your size and athleticism around the rim, but it's also a product of your perimeter contained. If you can contain ball handlers on the perimeter, you shut down driving lanes. If you shut down driving lanes, then they're not getting all the way to the rim anyway.

And we saw kind of a version of this set the just before Lonzo Ball got injured when he first signed with the Bulls. When you saw Lonzo and Alex just picking up guards full court and just making life hell for them on the perimeter. I really like that signing for the Bulls. They are going to be a frightening perimeter defense team, which is going to keep them in a lot of games over the course of the

regular seat. And last but not least, on the free agent son a free agent front, the Portland Trailblazers resigning Jeremy Grant for five years one hundred and sixty million dollars. Now it seems like a lot of money, but I actually like this move. I think it's smart regardless of what the Blazers decide to do whether they decide to get rid of of Damian Lizard and go full rebuild, or they decide to or they decide to keep Dame and try to compete for a title within this window.

That's a tradable contract. It's only thirty two million dollars per year. You've got a new TV deal coming in twenty twenty five that's going to dramatically increase the salary cap, making that look a lot more like a twenty million dollar deal or a fifteen million dollar deal per year. That's going to be a deal they can move. And here's the thing with Jeremy Grant. He's a big, strong

athlete with excellent physical tools. He's over a point per possession and pick and roll and in post up situations he can guard multiple decision positions, and he's an outstanding catch and shoot player. So guess what, Like, for the same reason that Andrew Wiggins is worth that much money,

Jeremy Grant's worth that much money too. And whether he ends up helping the Blazers within this window or getting flipped for assets to help some other team down the line, just like we were talking about earlier, You've got to maintain the asset, and the Blazers did so by re signing Jeremy Grant. All Right, last, but not least, before we get out of here, let's talk about this James Harden thing. So obviously I read the Athletic report last night.

I believe it was Sam Amck. I'm not one hundred percent sure who wrote it, but I also kind of texted some of the people that I know that are connected around the league and just tried to get a feel for the situation. And the best that I could figure out is that James Harden wanted to go to Houston, but it was really a leverage play, and so he was putting out all these reports, leaking all these all this information to the media about how he was gonna

go to Houston. He was gonna go to Houston. It started as far back as Christmas Day and all of these Easter eggs that he's dropping about how he's going to Houston, basically with the intention of trying to leverage Dale Darryl Moury to give him the deal that he wanted. Right as it turns out, from what I've heard from behind the scenes, I'm not sure Houston was really all that interested in him to begin with. For obvious reasons.

It didn't make a ton of sense even when it was originally getting reported, right, they had all this CAF space, but they have these young guards that they're trying to develop. It didn't make a ton of sense. Well, it turns out that Darryl Moury basically called his bluff and was like, Okay, go out and get yourself a deal and whatever it is, we'll discuss a deal for you at that point, And turned out Houston didn't want him, As was reported in

the Athletic report. It looks like he wanted to potentially be the guy that got traded to Phoenix instead of Bradley Beale, and then that didn't work out, and then suddenly there were no suitors in his best situation was just to opt into the contract and to demand a trade. There was this interesting report that came out last night that James Harden was frustrated with the way that the

Sixers front office handled this whole situation. But again, from what I've heard about the situation, it feels more like it was James Harden who overplayed his hand. Now on the trade front, here's the thing, with James Harden. I went back and looks, because you know, I've been a big defender of James Harden in this particular season, and he had some really good moments in this playoff run. Again, like he hit two game winners in the Celtics series,

like these straight up won two of the games. But as you look a little bit closer, these are crazy stats. Six of the eleven playoff games that James Harden played in he shot below thirty percent in four of those six games. He had five plus turnovers and the sixers went to and four in those six games. And that outweighs some of the top end that you saw in the better moments of James Harden's playoff run. So here's

the thing. Do I think James Harden is some sort of star player that can push your team to championship contention when you're at some tier below that probably not. His inconsistencies are just too much of a threat there. That said, James Harden is still one of the very best advantage creators in our league. He's very good at warping the defense one way or another, getting multiple defenders

to pay attention to him. That creates advantage situations, for your spot up players, for your role men, for all of your role players on the court that will struggle to attack a set defense. So there is still value in having James Harden on a basketball team. The problem is he cannot be the guy that's deciding every possession for you at the end of basketball games, and that

kind of fundamentally was the issue for the Sixers. Is because James Harden has his offensive limitations and inconsistencies, and Joel Embiid struggles so mightily to handle double teams and to score in the physicality of the NBA playoffs, where his efficiency takes tanks and his volume tanks every single season.

That pairing doesn't work. But what if James Harden was on like a team like the Miami Heat, or suddenly he's playing advantage creator for forty five minutes a game and then incomes Jimmy Butler to close the game at the end, where he's going to be a more reliably

great player in that setting. I'm not even saying necessarily the Heat, but there's got to be some team out there that sees value in James Harden, especially if they have the ability to take the keys away from him in late game situations when he does not have it going, which is gonna be about half the time when you get to the NBA playoffs. So again, he overplayed his hand. But he's gonna get a suit. There's gonna be someone out there who trades for him. I've heard that the

Clippers are interested. I've heard that the Knicks are potentially interested. Don't hate any of those options for the Clippers in particular. Here's what would concern me. Why are you giving up Terrence Mann. Terrence Man's a really really good basketball player, like an outstanding basketball player, and it kind of fits into that mold of the Bruce Brown type of stocky

guard that succeeds so much in the NBA playoffs. And so it's not so much that I dislike the James Harden fit with the Clippers, because it makes a lot of sense. He's a game manager when Paul George and Kawhi struggle with game management. He's a guy that you can take the ball out of his hands in late game situations and give it to Kawhi. Right. There's a lot of advantages there. But if you're giving up Terrence Man and Norman Pale, if you're giving up that kind

of depth. I started to get a little worried about it. So again, for the right team, without having to give too much up. I think James Harden can still help a team win, and still even at a championship level. It just wasn't working in Philly. The dynamic between him and Joel Embiid was too inconsistent in the NBA playoffs, and he overplayed his hand and so he didn't get the deal he wanted and now he's gonna have to

play one additional season. But here's the other thing too, And this last thing I'll say about it, like, if you're the team that gets James Harden, you're getting him in a contract year, and you're getting him in a contract year after an offseason where he disappointingly did not get the deal he wanted. So you might get the most motivated version of James Harden next season. And that is appealing on a bunch of different levels. All right, guys,

that is all I have for right now. As news continues to pour in over the next couple of days, I was supposed to fly out to Texas this morning. Long story, but travel staffho I'm actually flying out this tomorrow morning, but I get back just about three pm Pacific time tomorrow, so if anything goes down over the course of the next day or so, we'll have another video on Sunday evening. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will see you at some point in the

next couple of days. The volume