Hoops Tonight - How Damian Lillard fits on Heat with Jimmy Butler + NBA free agency reactions

teams today, rapid fire style. We're gonna start with the Damian Lillard trade request, talk a little bit about some of my thoughts on that, and then we're gonna get to the other fifteen teams and a bunch of different signings. I did scouts on a couple of those European guys that both signed for twenty plus million here in the States for the Thunder and the Kings. The one team we're not going to hit on in this particular show is the Los Angeles Lakers. Since our last video, they've

signed Cam Reddish, Jackson Hayes. They resigned Austins, Dangel Russell, and Ruy Hachimura, all on team friendly numbers. But I want to do like a whole separate video on the Lakers for a bunch of different reasons. One because Rob Polinka has had some wins over the course of basically since the trade deadline two now that I think are

worthy of covering. Also, I'm a Lakers fan, as you guys know are I'm a fan of this particular Lakers team, at least while Lebron James is on it, So I want to just take a little bit more time there. So we're not gonna hit the Lakers today. The teams are written today, the Blazers, the Suns, the Warriors, the Rockets, the Raptors, the Heat, the MAVs, the Grizzlies, the Calves, the Kings, the Thunder the Bucks, Sixers, Clippers, Nicks, and Nuggets. So a ton of basketball to get into. You guys

know the show before we get started. To subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos, follow me on Twitter and underscore Jason lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. And 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 Oops tonight. Also for those of you who want to

hear a deep dive on just your particular team. Don't forget that as we get closer to the start of the season there in September. That's how we do our season previews. We do power rankings like one through fifteen, and for those fifteen teams, I do deep dives on their entire offseason and everything that I expect from them in that particular season. So we will eventually get to that point, but I like to wait till the end of the summer just because of all of the different

pieces that could fall down before then. But the Lakers' off season is basically tied up, and obviously I've been wanting to talk about them a little bit, So we're gonna get to them later this week. All right, let's

talk about this Damian Lillard trade request. So it finally came down basically right when I landed in Dallas on Saturday, right around like eleven am Central time, if I remember correctly, and immediately Seanchrani reported that he was wanting the heat, and pretty quickly after that we had the report come down. I think it was Woges that basically said that the Blazers are going to shop him around and not particularly particularly consider sending them to the Heat. I would imagine

they're not in love with that particular trade package. I think it was Tyler Harrow, Duncan Robinson in some form of draft compensation, and the Blazer's GM, Joe Cronin, came out and said, quote, we have been clear that we want Dame here, but he notified us today that he wants out and he preferred to play someplace else. What has not changed for us is that we are committed to winning, and we are going to do what's best for the team in pursuit of that goal.

the point where even when you looked at Damian Lillard and Amphorny Sine and Jeremy Grant's minutes together this season, they had a negative net rating according to Cleaning the Glass when they filtered out garbage time. So, you guys have not done your job. And now because Dame, after many years of loyalty, has expressed a desire to go someplace else, now all of a sudden, you're committed to winning, and now all of a sudden you want to be sound with your asset management and to put together a

winner around your young players. I think that's a really bad look. There have been some reports since then that players are quote unquote monitoring the situation with Dame to see how Portland treats him. This is so outrageous to me for them to suddenly get stingy about where they're trading Dame after everything he's done for them over the years,

that I refuse to believe that's what's happening here. So my guess, my guess, purely circumstantially, is that basically the Blazers are going to trade into the heat, but they're manufacturing this fake controversy in hopes of driving up the price a little bit. And I don't know if it's a specific draft pick thereafter or what the deal is, but like I get it, Yeah, you don't want necessarily

Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson. But this is not This is not a player that was, you know, committing to a team for his first long term max contract and then went in the door six months after and said get me out of here. This is a guy that time and time again has given you chances and you haven't done your job. And so with Dame in particular, I believe he should be accommodated and if he wants

to go Miami, you should send him there. If you have to play some game to get an extra draft pick or two, fine, but that's where he should go. And so I believe this will end with Dame with the heat. If it doesn't go that route, I think that speaks volumes about the arrogance and lack of self awareness in that Portland front office, and it's something that I'm gonna be paying close attention to over the course of the next couple of weeks. I'm really curious to

see how that situation breaks down. Whenever the trade does eventually go down, you guys know, the drill will be breaking it down immediately here on the show. One last note on that the Jeremy Grant deal. Like I told you guys, there was another report that came out that they still plan on offering that same deal to Jeremy. Like I said, I thought it was a relatively team friendly deal, right around what thirty two million a year for a really good wing that can score the basketball

and defend. So I think he's a good asset that you needed to maintain regardless of what your plan was, whether you're gonna keep Dame or not. For starters, you don't really have a player of his ilk on the roster, and so maybe you run it with him and kind

of see how things go. And then if he's a bad fit with Scoot and he's a bad fit with Anthony Simons and Shadan Sharp and you want to get him out of there, you can move him at the deadline and probably get a good amount of return for him based on the fact that he's a good NBA player on a team friendly deal, especially with the upcoming TV deal.

He was one point three to four points per spot up possession with the Clippers after he was traded their last year, seventy three percent effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoe jumpers, so really good spot up threat. He also has a little bit of that extra juice putting the ball on the floor to be able to create his own shot. Just stuff that he learned from, stuff that he's retained from all of his years as more of a primary ball handler. At other destinations, he

used to be an excellent point of attack defender. We're gonna talk about this a little bit later when we get to the Nuggets, but he kind of is that short, stocky wing as opposed to that longer, lanky wing. You guys know, I've been talking forever about how I'm really curious as these as to why these shorter, stockier, stronger wings seem to do better in the playoffs than a lot of the longer, lanky ones. And I was actually talking about it with my buddy Pete Zeis from Blaker

Film Room the other day. He calls him fire hydrant wings, which I think is a really interesting way to put it. And all of you basketball players have played against the guy like this before. We're like, you're bigger than him, but he just can't go through him because he's so damn strong and his center of gravity is so low, so you have to try to go around and it can be difficult, and more often than not, you end up having to shoot over the top of a wing

like this. Now, he turns thirty five this season, so we'll see if he still has any of that juice left as a point of attack defender. But if he has any of that left, and if he can knock down shots like he did for the Clippers, that's a home run. Signing for the Suns on a minimum contract, so you know, under the circumstances after the Bradley Beal trade, which severely limited their ability to surround them with other

role players, I think they've done pretty solid. Between the dry Ubanks and Chimezi met two signings for athleticism in the front court, obviously bringing in Aaron Gordon, the Bradley Beal move, There's a lot to be excited about as a Suns fan coming into this particular season. I was actually working out my high school kids this morning and they were all talking about how excited they were about the Suns. That's unique. It hasn't been like that ever since.

It became abundantly clear that the Chris Paul and Devin Booker pairing was not quite capable of getting them over the top. As I said right after the Kevin Durant trade, I'm not judging the trade until after that second season.

I didn't think they didn't they had much of a realistic chance to win last year because of all of the veteran minimum quality players that they were putting around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and I think that came to fruition in that Nugget series, which even though it went to six, had a lot more to do with a hot shooting Devin Booker performance, and they really got their ass kicked in just about every other game in that series.

Corey Joseph to the Warriors. He ran four hundred and twenty seven pick and rolls last year for the Pistons. That led to just three hundred ninety nine points at zero point ninety three four points per possession, which is not good. But it's the Pistons, and you got to factor in the surrounding talent offensively in the way that that can limit a pick and roll ball handler in terms of passing to role man or passing to the

weak side to shooters. Shot forty one percent on catch and shoot jump shots, thirty four percent on pull up jump shots. So he's a big downgrade from Dante DiVincenzo. In my opinion, that's not a hot take. It's just look at the contract values, like Corey Joseph's coming over on a minimum and Dante just signed for fifty with the Knicks, So that's not exactly a hot take. But here's the thing for this Warriors offseason, it's been pretty much status quo bringing everybody back, and then you've lost

Dante DiVincenzo. So where is the piece that's gonna bolster this roster. Mason Plumley just got signed, just resigned with the Clippers for one year, five million, is it? Dario Sartz Darios Artz would certainly make me feel a lot better about this roster. But it seems to me like a lot of what this next season for the Warriors is gonna come down to is once again the development trajectory of guys like of guys like Jonathan Kaminga and Moses Moody, and can Chris Paul say healthy and bring

anything to this particular team. Really, the Chris Paul piece is like it's a big gamble. In my opinion, we're either gonna look back at the Chris Paul piece as like the genius move that put the Warriors over the top into their fifth title, or the beginning of the end as you traded away a talented young player for a player that may or may not be able to

hold up. Chris Paul, as I've said on the show before, has been hurt in four of his last six post season runs, including I think two of them are he just straight up couldn't play. So that's definitely a risk in that particular regard. So definitely a strange offseason so far for the Warriors, and you're wondering what's coming next.

The Rockets just had an insane weekend. Fred van Vliet three years one hundred and thirty million, Dylan Brooks four years eighty million, Jock Landale four years thirty two million. They traded for Patty Mills really quick. On the Dylan Brooks thing, JJ Reddick had this take where he came out and he's like, everyone said he's gonna go to China,

and now he signs for eighty million dollars. And I generally agree with the sentiment of what he's trying to say, because if you guys remember, right after that series, lots of Lakers fans were taking victory laps at Dylan on at Dylan Brooks expense, And if you remember, I came on the show right away and I said, Dylan Brooks is a good NBA player, He's going to sign for somebody next year and he's gonna help. I just saw it more as like I thought, Dylan Brooks was a

textbook mid level exception guy. I mean, he is a severely limited offensive player twenty three point seven percent in spot up situations in that Lakers series, ran nine picking roles for just four points. In the regular season. He shot three hundred and thirty five pull up jump shots, which is insane volume, but only made thirty three percent of them, thirty five percent on catching shoot jumpers, fifty

two percent on the rim. Everything really high volume for a player like him, Like he just shoots and shoots and shoots and shoots and shoots even though they're generally not going in. But that said, I thought he was one of the very best perimeter defensive players in the league last year, Like literally top tier defensive player. He just night after night was taking superstar NBA players and making them look like a shell of themselves, whether it was Steph or Lebron or whoever it was that he

was guarding. On any given night, he was bothering people in the regular season. Now, again those are one night, regular season things. Obviously, we know what Steph would do to Dylan in the playoff series. We literally saw what Lebron would do to Dylan in a playoff series. But that has nothing to do with Dylan. Great offense beats

great defense every day of the week. But it is a huge ass set in this league to have a player that, regardless of position type, you can throw on any perimeter player in the league, whether it's a guy like Steph Curry, a small guard who takes a million pull up jump shots or a big, rim pressuring forward

like Lebron James and everything in between. Having a player like that is a massive asset, and that's why I thought he'd be worth you know, I was thinking somewhere along the lines of like three years, thirty six million

dollars is what I was expecting for Dylan Brooks. So, like, while I agree with JJ's point that like everyone was going way over the top with their criticism of Dylan Brooks after that series, I think we can all admit that four years, eighty million is a lot more than we were expecting and really had a lot more to do with the Houston Rockets having a ton of cap space that they could throw around. That said, I'm really happy for Dylan Brooks, and it's a great lesson for

you young kids out there. Play some damn defense that will get you paid, that will get you the scholarship. Stop worrying about just the things that are fun in the game of basketball. There's a whole other half of the game that is not fun, that is nasty, that requires hard work, that you have to be driven by competitiveness, And there are guys that at that stuff that have jobs all over the NBA and their great lesson for

young players to learn from. As far as Fred Van Vliet and Patty mills go, I thought this was a textbook example of Houston trying to bring grownups into the

locker room. It kind of reminds me of what happened to the Phoenix Suns the year before CP three came, when they brought in a bunch of just veteran player I think Riogy Rubio is in that group as well, where they just kind of instead of like, if you want to run your basketball team like a developmental program where every player on the team is below twenty five years old and they're all just kind of in their growth progressions, you're gonna look like a G League team,

because what you are is just a glorified G League team full of lottery picks at that point. So, you know, bring you can develop young players while also being a

competent professional basketball organization. And so that was kind of the beginning of the resurgence of the Phoenix Suns that year before Chris Paul when they just brought in real NBA role players and put them around to Devin Booker rather than just leaving him with a bunch of lottery picks, right, Well, that's kind of what I see the Rockets doing now, bringing in consummate professionals like Patty Mills and Fred Van Vliet that can help teach guys like Jalen Green and

Jabari Smith and alpherren Sangun had to just be professional basketball players at the highest level, the work ethic, the way to behave on road trips, and all these different things. Not that the Rockets necessarily had behavior problems, but the point is is they kind of looked like a super super young team last year, and so it got really

sloppy on a lot of nights. And you know, another big one is there's a lot of ups and downs in NBA basketball games, especially now with shot variants and guys getting hot and guys getting cold shooting from the field right, and so having guys that have been there, done that a million times can help prevent your young players from letting go of the rope. The Houston Rockets got blown out a lot this year because they struggled

to handle runs and things along those lines. Bringing in a veteran team gives you just more of that resilience. It'll help your younger players during their development trajectory, and again I think you can do this while still giving Jalen and Jabbari and Shangun all the reps that they need to improve. Moving on to the Toronto Raptors, they signed Dennis Schroeder for two years twenty six million and

Jalen McDaniels for two years nine point three million. Jale McDaniel's classic kind of like thin wing, not really excellent at anything, but he's got good tools. He's six foot nine, totally different type of player than that fired hydrant type of wing that I was talking about earlier. The name that I'm stealing from Pizzas. This is that long, skinny wing, and they can help in a bunch of different ways. They can help with some perimeter assignments that can help

with contested rebound situations. Obviously, the ability to shoot over the top helps. He was good crash in the offensive glass for Philadelphia last year. But they can struggle with more physical assignments and that can be a problem in the later rounds of the NBA playoffs. But Raptors fans, I am certain that you guys are going to love Dennis Schroeder. It can be a little frustrating at times with his shot selection, but overall, the full package is

more than worth it. He was actually over a point per possession in both ISO and pick and roll situations during the regular season, so that's what I mean by big picture. He's gonna have some ugly plays in there where he takes some shots you don't like, but in the big picture, he's actually surprisingly efficient in the playoffs last year again a three round playoff run into the

Western Conference finals. One point per possession in isolation, zero point nine to eight pick and roll point per possession, which is pretty solid. A little down from his regular season numbers, but not bad. He is an excellent point of attack defender who competes his ass off, and that competitiveness part is what you guys are gonna love. He's a textbook foxhole guy. Any big game, you can count on Dennis Schroeder to bring the intensity and to play

his ass off every single night. I covered him very closely with the Lakers for two seasons. Yeah, he had a bad stop in Boston, but Boston is kind of a weird place with a weird locker room that already had a lot of guards, So I don't necessarily think

that was the best place to evaluate him. And most importantly, I'm glad that he got a paycheck because he got the short end of a stick in a negotiation with Rob Polinka, and he made a mistake, turned down guarante money they probably shouldn't have, had to take a mid level exception, then had to take a veteran minimum contract for the Lakers. But the payday is here now. Maybe not as much as he was hoping back in the day, but he can recoup some of his losses with a

nice little twenty six million dollar contract. Again covered him closely with the Lakers. I really think you Raptors fans are gonna like him. My Heat signed Thomas Bryant. He's really good offensive big. He runs the floor really well, as great hands, and finishes around the rim well, and he can hit an open jump shot. But he's a really bad defensive player in a bunch of different ways. Struggles to bother anything around the rim, can't defend him pick and roll, can't hold his ground in the post.

He's going to struggle in a lot of those ways. But Eric Spolstra is famous for being able to make unplayable defensive players playable for one reason or another. You saw a lot of examples of that in this postseason run, including Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love. So if he can do it with those two guys, I absolutely think he can do it with Thomas Bryant.

going to get Damian Lillard? And if they do that obviously monumentally changes the projections for the Heat heading into next season. How many more we got one, two, three, four? Oh, I got a lot more to do, guys.

actually do pretty well in the regular season. But again, you make it a little bit easier when Kyrie runs a pick and roll and they do contain it for one reason or another, and you could throw it over to the other side, and instead of someone like you know, Tim Hardaway Junior, who's capable but not great, you have someone like Seth Curry, who's you know, really capable of capitalizing on the defense, shifting his way and attacking either through ISO or pick and roll.

the max contracts are making sixty to seventy million a year. Again, there's max contracts at different tiers based on where you are in your career, your years of experience, have you made an All NBA team. It's like there's the twenty five percent max, of thirty percent max with thirty five percent max, and then there's like additional escalators based on whether or not you make things like an All NBA team. It's very complicated, so when you hear max, don't just

freak out. Like for instance, Austin Reeves for the Lakers signed the max that he could sign for the Los Angeles Lakers and it was what fifty eight million or fifty six million for four years. Again, it all depends on your contract situation. Here's the thing, though, I thought, I thought for Memphis in the playoff run, Desmond Bay was their best player. He was consistently generating and making great shots for himself, and he was an excellent defensive player.

He damn near stole that series again. Lebron James made a ridiculous driving layup over the top of Jaron Jackson basically at the buzzer to save Game four of that series. It was going back to Memphis too too. And here's the thing. The Lakers were the better team, and at two to two going to Memphis, I still would have given the Lakers about a coin flip chance to win that series. But you know that's a coin flip chance. Memphis could have stolen that series, and Desmond Bay nearly did.

He's a very good basketball player. And here's the thing, guys, good basketball players cost money.

All Star every year that contract. I guess we had it up at to seventeen teams because we ended up hitting the Celtics today. Moving on to the Calves, so we talked in our last video about them signing George's Niang as a dead eye spot up shooter from the forward position. Well, they got Max Truce as well. I think it was like four years and sixty something million dollars. He shot sixty one percent effective fielgal percentage on unguarded

catch and shoot jumpers last year for the heat. So he's a dead eye, knockdown shooter when he's in wide open situations. So they've addressed one of their two biggest needs. They brought real perimeter shooting, a playable perimeter shooting alongside their pick and roll attack. I just still think, and I said this during the regular season, and I think you guys got to see it a little bit against

the Knicks. There's a redundancy and having two high pick and roll guards, and you saw that against the Knicks when they were able to shut down the Cav's pick and roll attack. They didn't have a second punch. In general, defensively, I don't like the idea of having two small guards in your lineup as well. I know Cavs fans love Darius Garland, but in my opinion, Evan Mobley's the future of that team. So like I would be looking to flip Darius Garland for a star wing somebody along the lines,

I'd be looking at the guy. I'd be looking at his Paul George. I'd be just just calling the Clippers and being like, Hey, you're sick of the PG and Kawhi experience. You want a young star guard that you can put next to Kawhi. We'll take Paul George off of your hands. That's the kind of deal that I'd be looking to make if I was the Cavs. All Right, a couple of fun ones here. I did a little bit of scouting this morning. Sasha Vezenkov signs for the

Sacramento Kings for three years and twenty million dollars. You played for Olympiakos and won MVP this year. Originally, when I was watching just a little bit of footage, I saw like a big lefty going to the Kings, and I'm like, oh, like a Sabonis archetype type of player. But the more I watched film of him this morning, he actually reminds me a lot more of Jokic the way he plays. And again with player comparisons, it's more just like play style, and obviously he's not Nikola Jokic.

There's a huge gap in footwork. Sasha's footwork is way more sloppy, than Nikole Jokic, who I think has incredible footwork, but is a lot of similarities. First of all, ridiculously good post up player one hundred and fifty one for one hundred and ninety points last year, one point twenty six points per possession. Just ridiculously good at beating switches, especially small guards that try to front him in the post. He just pushes down on their back, makes an easy

target over the top. If you watch his watch some footage of Sasha this year, it's just deep seal over the top, pass bucket, deep seel over the top, pass bucket, deep seel over the top pass bucket. Just he's deadly beating switches with deep seals and leveraging guys into positions where guards can make easy post entry passes. He also has a deadly left shoulder flight a fade from the left block. He shot over fifty eight percent on it.

It's a little different than what you'd expect from a left shoulder fade from a typical like big you know, scoring wing. It's not an overly athletic move, like he's not elevating over the top.

cutters and shooters. They averaged one point three to six points per possession when he passed out of the post, one point twenty four points per possession against hard double teams, all awesome. He ran some inverted pick and roll twenty one of them to be exact, for twenty five points

last season. A little bit of everything, some driving layups, long pull up threes off the dribble, hitting the open man when defense is warped to specific you know, like to the guy rolling to the basket, whatever it is. He's also great in the short role. Forty percent on catching shoe jumpers. Who's reliable jump shooter twenty four pull up jump shots that he made last year thirty four percent, so a little bit less efficient, low volume, but there's

some stuff there. Fifty one percent on floaters, fifty percent on hooks, so super efficient for those shots. Jokicic just kind of breaks the curve because he happens to shoot in the mid sixties on those, but over fifty percent on both of those is excellent for a post player, and then seventy five percent at their rim. Again, he doesn't play exactly like Jokicic, but there are some similarities

there in his approach. I ain't really curious to see how he fits next to Demonisabonus, though, because they do play a very similar position, and I don't think you'd necessarily are going to be able to play the two of them together a lot. But I do think he can fill into that role seamlessly, especially in that dribble handoff attack with Aaron Fox and Malik Monk. Excuse me, so uh for Sasha Vyzhankov and I'm hoping I'm pronouncing

that right. Really really interesting move and a really good player. I enjoyed scouting him this morning the Thunder vasilogy. Again,

I'm probably butchering that, and I'm sorry. Michich or michich is his name signs for the Thunder for three years, twenty three point five million dollars played, for a team called anadalu Fs I believe in Turkey, if I remember correctly, really good size for guard that six foot five, moves pretty well laterally, not a lot of vertical popp He had one dunk all season and it was like rim grazer over the top and struggled a little bit to finish at the ram only sixty two percent, but moves

laterally pretty well, can get to his spots when he needs to, and actually kind of has like a good physical profile. Just an absolute pick roll maestro. I was having so much fun watching this kid in pick and roll today. I say he's kid, he's twenty nine years old, he's grown as man. But he was one point two to one points per possession and pick and roll, which is off the charts.

ability to hit the roll man consistently. Also was a deadly jump shooter in general forty one percent on all jumpers for a fifty eight percent when you wait for three sixty two percent at the rim. So another really interesting pick and roll shot creator for a Thunder team that already has three good ones in Jalen Williams and Josh Kitty and Shake Gildes Alexander. So I just the Thunder are going to be one of the most fun teams in the league to watch next year.

NBA championship. The Bucks went that route this summer and I like it brought back Chris Middleton brought back Brook Lopez. Giannis is going to be the one that's gonna have to pull him over the top by making his improvements in his particular weaknesses. All Right, we have four more teams. Patrick Beverley signs with the Philadelphia seventy six ers on a minimum contract. Excellent point of attack defender when he's defending smaller guards, guys like that are underneath six '

four that operate mostly from the perimeter. He is much worse than his reputation when it comes to guarding bigger, stronger players. All that stuff about using him to guard on the wing, that is that bared out horribly for the Lakers last year. He's just too small. It's really that simple. Like I'll give you an example, like you

put him against I'm planking on his name. The kid who just signed a tyres Alburton, who just signed the massive contract for the Pacers, like Pap Beverly just eight that kid's lunch time and time again in crunch time, just picked him up full court, was picking him clean, bothering his dribble because he doesn't have to worry as

much about a size discrepancy there. But then like he tried to pick up Josh Gitty full court and was just barbecue chicken because Josh Getty could just pin him on one side and go around him because he's two to m big at six foot eight. So again, defensively, still a very very good point of attack defender against smaller players, not so much against bigger players on the offensive end for the Lakers, and really before that as well,

but he just tries to do too much. He kind of has an elevated sense of what he's capable of, so he's constantly putting the ball on the floor, trying to make plays a little slow, to make reads so he can actually stilt an offense. When the ball's popping around, it ends up in Patrick Beverly's hands. He'll catch and look at the rim, take a jab step and look at the rim, and then rip through and try to go and it just kind of slows down the overall

rhythm and flow of the offense. He also only shot thirty four percent on catch and shoot jumper last year. He was nineteen for sixty two, which is thirty one percent when he was unguarded last year. It was a big problem for the Lakers. Just Patrick Beverley missing wide open shots. That said, he did shoot much better for Minnesota the year before. So a big part of this is are they going to give him the right type of defensive assignments, particularly particularly at the point of attack,

which is a need for the Sixers. They need someone who can play that position. And is he going to knock down shots That's gonna be the big key for that particular signing. Russell Westbrook to the Clippers for two years, eight million dollars. Love Russell Westbrook on this type of deal for this type of team that really needs what

he brings to the table. Best defensive run I've seen from him in literally like a half decade, probably even more, maybe even his entire career in that playoff series against the Suns. If he defends like that, he's a huge positive player on the offensive end because that team so badly needs someone that can generate rim pressure for their two forwards that just take a ton of pull up jumpers.

He actually brings a great deal of value. So I actually really like the Russell Westbrook fit with the Clippers. Dante Devenchenzo to the Knicks for forty years, fifty million dollars he's a great point of attack defender in my opinion, he's a great rebounder for a guard, really sneaky on the offensive glass. He's always sneaking behind and trying to get the ball up top or swipe it away from

the big after he gets the rebound. He shot forty three percent on catch and shoot jumpers forty eight percent when he was wide open. He's a really good NBA player that feels a very important role as a point of attack guy that can play off the ball. He's not gonna do much for you on the ball, but off the ball, he can help a lot. He's a good NBA player. He's gonna help the Knicks. That's been

at least justin Holliday to the Nuggets. Good size, six foot six, but he's very thin, very different type of player than Bruce Brown. Now that specific role. They want someone to bring the ball to the floor when they don't feel like playing Reggie Jackson or Bones Island in the previous iterations, and they bring They'll have this guard bring the ball at the floor and just kind of make the entry to Nicole Jochicch and then go spot up.

And there's no doubt that Justin Holiday can do that, but there's also no doubt that it's a downgrade from Bruce Brown. This is what happens when you win NBA Championships. Role Players that contributed at a high level end up getting big fat paychecks elsewhere, and you end up having to downgrade at certain positions. And I don't think it's enough to make it so that Denver can't overcome it. They're still gonna be my championship favorite going into next season.

But this is that first little crack in the armor is going from Bruce Brown to Justin Holiday, going from a really really good role player to just a solid role player and kind of a journeyman around the league and Justin Holiday.

little while. So we're gonna have some more free agent and trade coverage and a lot of coverage of the I love scouting players, so we're gonna do a lot of scouting surrounding Summer League as well. Is always sincerely appreciate you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow. The volume