Hoops Tonight - Kyrie Opts in, Lakers and Nets Free Agency Preview

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of you guys are having a great start to your week. Well, Kyrie Irving, you know, took us all for a ride yesterday. I think we did have a feeling this was gonna go this way, thankfully, because we were almost victims of the NonStop NBA free agency news cycle. Uh. Fortunately, we had a feeling that he would end up staying with Brooklyn. So our series or excuse me, offseason previews for both Brooklyn and l A. The Lakers were framed within the

context of Kyrie returning to Brooklyn. We're gonna get into that briefly, stick around for later in the show. We're gonna hit on um uh complete offseason preview for Brooklyn, as well as a complete offseason preview for the Lakers, some of the things I expect from them from their stars, as well as some pieces that they can target this offseason just try to round out their rosters, and then stick around for the very end, we're gonna touch on some of this new media beef between Draymond Green and

some of the establishment guys in the media. I had some thoughts there. I was listening briefly to the Crossover podcast today between Draymond Green and J. J. Reddick, which

was fantastic, as you could guess. We will get deeper into some of the topics that they touched on tomorrow, including a juicy one from Draymond today saying that he believed the two thousand seventeen Warriors would lose UH to Lebron and the Calves had they not got Kevin Durant, which I think is pretty obvious, but I think Warriors

fans probably disagree. We will dive into that concept a little bit more tomorrow, uh, But today we're gonna start with Kyrie, and I want to briefly touch on John Wall by getting bought out by the Rockets and getting back uh to the Clippers. Before we get started, remember to subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our content like this video that does

a lot to help us. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt S. You guys can see show announcements as all as any video content that I released. Unlast but not least for whatever reason, you miss one of these videos and you can't get back to YouTube to finish it, we do release them in audio form on our podcast feed, which for the time being is

under Lakers tonight. But let's start with Kyrie. So we all knew Kyrie was coming back, right, you know, It just didn't make any sense after everything that he had said about his partnership with Kevin Durant and how much he wanted to be with him, that he would suddenly change his mind over the obvious fact that the Brooklyn Nets would be stingy about potentially extending him for five years after he was a Flake for two years now, we always needed to keep our minds open to the

possibility that he would leave, right because Kyrie, like I said yesterday, is not wired the same way that most people are. His priorities are different, and he if you're thinking rationally with Kyrie, it's not necessarily the best indicator of what his actual decision making processes. But we did guess that he would return, and the main reason why is in this specific case, we did expect him to

act more normally, and that's what happened. I thought it was hilarious when he released that quote, you know, basically saying that he's one of the different people out there that's gonna lead us into tomorrow. Even though what he did was basically what all of us would have done. He tried to leverage another offer, another situation to try to get a long term, you know, financially rewarding contracts for him his boss, who after he was very unreliable

for two seasons. His boss said no, we're not doing that. And then he said, well, I might leave and go to the Lakers and play for six million, and oh, if I leave, Kevin Durant might go with me. And Josiah and Sean Marks were like, fine, do it go.

First of all, we know you won't. Second of all, this kind of crap is exactly why we don't like partnering with you to begin with, and we have feel like we can probably do something better with Kevin Durant or rebuilding with what we can get from him, then trying to deal with this crap for for another five years, which is what you want. So Kyrie, faced with his options running out, took the guaranteed money, the guaranteed max contract that he had for one more season in the

form of his player option. So he did the normal thing. He took the best financial option for him that was available, and he tried to leverage some things around that. It was a very normal thing to do. But classic Kyrie with this complete lack of self awareness to try to make us feel like he was trailblazing or doing something you know, unique or different, or or trying to change

the way things work. No, dude, you did a classic business businessman thing and it didn't work for you, and as it turned out, you had a great backup plan, which was your player option. Um that said, the last thing I wanted to hit on with the nets for this particularly and again stick around here. In a minute, I'm gonna get much deeper into the rest of the roster, things having to do with um, what kind of free agents they can target the basketball fit with Ben Simmons

and Kyrie. But if you are Josiah and Sean Marks and this saga is just the final shot for you and you're done with Kyrie, it's still is advantageous for you to bring him back, because, as we'll get into here in just a few minutes, it doesn't it doesn't get any worse than this in terms of trade value

for Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons. Kyrie has destroyed his trade value to the point where when he tried to leverage this situation, twenty eight teams in the NBA were like, no thanks and told Woa Jadrian Morzanowski from ESPN, no thanks. You can tell everybody we're not interested. It ended up only being the Lakers that were there. And then Ben Simmons, obviously because of his and his back issue, his mental health issues, what happened against the Atlanta Hawks, his trade

values at an all time low. So you bring everybody back and you let them play basketball next year, they probably will be a good regular season team at least it's a good chance that that's the case. Then around the deadline, you can trade Kyrie and get something in return for him if you see this partnership going south,

which I believe it will. Like we've talked about at length that don't think the Nets or the Lakers really but the Nets in particular for this case, have nearly enough talent to be a top tier contender in this league. So what I expect is things to all look hunky dory and for them to go into next season and to actually look pretty decent. But I think behind the scenes, Sean and Joe are just ready to be done with this guy, and I think they're gonna do everything they

can to get off of him as soon as they can. So, uh, let's talk about the Clippers for a second. John Whal reaching Aboiot with the Rockets that was to be expected. I'm gonna do a bunch of offseason previews, like today we're doing Brooklyn and the Lakers um, but later this week we're gonna hit the Warriors, We're gonnat the Celtics, We're gonna have the Bucks, We're gonna get a bunch

of other uh, top teams. Around the league. Um, but the Clippers, I'm not gonna do a full length preview on the main reason why is I think they're pretty well rounded out. They did the one thing they absolutely had to do this season, which was not blow it up Kyrie Irving. A trade for Kyrie Irving would have

sacrificed a lot of their depth. If they could have got him like the Lakers for that six million dollar uh you know, mid level exception, then great, but that was never gonna happen, right, They stayed away from Kyrie Irving. They kept their depth. As I've talked about a lot on this show, the Clippers to me are a better version of the Celtics when they're healthy. They've got a better version of Jayson Tatum and Kawhi Leonard, a better

version of Jalen Brown in Paul George. And then they have the same type of perimiti versatility in depth on the wing with all of those guys like Nicolas Nicholas Patum and Marcus Morris Sr. And Terence Man and Reggie Jackson. They just have a million guys that can guard multiple positions up and down the roster. They can switch everything. They have really good spacing concepts. That's the way they almost beat the Sun's last year, and the way they did beat the Utah Jazz last year, I should say

two years ago. It was because they were the consummate modern basketball team. They did a ton of things like the Boston Celtics did and that's why they were so successful. They needed to run that back. They had an injury issue last year. They had a Paul George issue and a Kwhi Leonard issue with not being on the court. It was not a roster construction issue or anything else around those lines. The last thing they did that I

thought was important was they re signed Zuba. Yeah, I think they got it for three years, thirty three million. They had him under bird rights, so there was absolutely no reason to let him go as long as he had an owner who's willing to pay, and Steve Bomber is willing to pay. So the Clippers are in good shape. So how does John Wall fit into this? Well, the Clippers are a classic driving kick basketball team. We have

no idea what John Wall is gonna look like. If you think you know, you don't because we've never seen him play against real NBA talent, not for years, right, It's been years since we've seen John Wall play against real NBA talent for real and real high stakes games, not playing with the Rockets who are actively trying to tank, right, so we don't know what to expect. Here's what I do know, though. The Clippers are the best situation for a player to step in to succeed in a driving

kick situation. He's going to have good spacing, He's gonna have great shooters to drive and kick too. He's gonna have lots of opportunity against weaker defensive matchups to try to create advantages if he is still capable of doing so at an NBA level, we will know with this Clippers team, this is the peak situation for him to attempt to regain some of the success he had earlier in his career. John Wall used to be a really

inconsistent ump shooter. Towards the end of his career, he's actually been better as a jump shooter, so, especially in spot up situation. So I think he'll be fine there. And he's always been an underrated pass or it's something

he does really really well. The hardest thing he's gonna have to do to really fit in and get get a significant chunk of rotation minutes with this Clippers team is defend because just like the Clippers are gonna put you in space and make you guard on the perimeter, other good teams will do that to the Clippers, and if you have a weak link in there, it can be a problem. So it'll be mostly important for John Wall to hold his own hold his own on the perimeter.

I that was a smart move for the Clippers because again, it's a it's he's probably gonna be signing on a veteran minimum contract. It's a low risk play for them. John Wall is already getting his money. He'll only sacrifice six million dollars in the buyout, so it kind of makes sense for both sides. And I'm actually really genuinely curious to see what happens. But we're not doing a full series, full offseason preview for the Clippers because I

already kind of view them as a finished product. They just need to get healthy and get everybody back out on the court. I would imagine they'll target one or two addition the wings in the in the mid level exception market, the veteran minimum market, but those are just cherries on top for them. Their core lineup is already put together. Their team that knows exactly who they are and exactly how they're supposed to play, and they're gonna

be really dangerous. As I've said before, I think the Warriors are the runaway favorite next year, but I think the Clippers are right there behind them in the West. All right, here, just a couple of minutes, we're gonna get into our full offseason preview for the Brooklyn Nets and the Lakers. It's important to understand to get a better feel for why this situation is going the way it's going. To remember what went wrong in Cleveland and what went wrong in Boston. Because let's go back to

two thousand seventeen. Everything was hunky. Door team was great, really, everything outside of the awful NBA Finals where they got, you know, gentlemen swept by the best basketball team I've ever seen the two thousand seventeen Warriors. Outside of that, it was a very good season. They had some ups and downs in the regular season, but it's because they just had general malaise. They didn't respect their opponents in

the Eastern Conference. And when you pay when you play fifty of your thirty two games, um against the your own conference. You're just generally going to have, especially in the East around that time, a relatively easy schedule, and that team sleep, sliptwalk for most of the season. But then they got into the playoffs and they just destroyed everybody.

They didn't lose a single playoff game in the Eastern Conference until the Eastern Conference Finals, when they blew like a twenty point lead late against the Celtics and then promptly destroyed them the next two times they played. So

that team was a great team. And after they lost in the NBA Finals, after they got gentlemen swept, Kyrie Irving I went to the press conference table and basically said, you know, I cherished these moments that I can't I'm paraphrasing here, but like cherish these moments playing with Lebron. Need to get learned as much from him while I have a chance. Very positive, right. And then almost immediately after that, things went south and we started hearing about

the reports of Kyrie wanting a trade. And now we learned in retrospect the reporting that one throughout the two thousand seventeen playoff run, Kyrie Irving started to emotionally pull away from the team. He has now since admitted to this in uh and I think I think it was when he was on with Eddie Gonzalez with the Etcs, But he has now since admitted to the fact that he pulled away from that team for no particular reason to He said it was just something he was going through. Okay.

We also learned after the fact that he was very upset that the Cavaliers were considering trading him. He took that personally. Now we know in retrospect it had a lot to do with the fact that he was emotionally pulling away from the team. They're like, I just imagine a veteran group of guys in pursuit of a championship and one of your best players, your second best players, just kind of pulling away, sitting over there quiet by his locker, by himself. It started to internally cause some concern,

which is why they considered shopping him. And it wasn't like they were shopping him for bums. They were potentially shopping him for Paul George and Lebron ended up mixing the deal because he would not commit long term to the Lakers. But for whatever reason, that's saga. The trade plus whatever was going on with him during the playoff run convinced Kyrie all of a sudden that the Calves were against him. And as soon as he got to

that point, it was like Bridges burned. And we we've learned after the fact that Lebron was on vacation when he heard about this trade rumor, and Lebron was freaking out doing everything you can trying to call Kyrie to try to fix the thing, and he couldn't even get in contact with him. Kyrie as soon as he decided he was done with Cleveland. He was done with Cleveland. There was no chance. He even told them, if you bring me back next year, I will get knee surgery.

That's how nuclear he went with the Caps. Now he fast forward to Boston. In Boston, he does that weird thing at the beginning of the season where he gets on the microphone in front of the crowd and says, if you guys will have me, I'll come back next year. He does that commercial with his father where he talks about potentially having his jersey hung in the rafters. Every Things good, but the Boston Celtics fan base started to

get frustrated with Kyrie. Some of the passive aggressive way that he talked to his teammates, his lack of commitment to the defensive end of the floor, his struggles in the playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks, and Kyrie built a vendetta of some sort, some sort of personal beef between him and the Celtics fan base, and he was done with them. Jayson Tatum was one of his best friends.

He had no issues inside the locker room. He obviously the young guys were sick of Kyrie talking about them that way, but there was no basketball reason for him to leave the Celtics. It was a personal beef between him and the fan base that pushed him out the door. The point being here is in the two previous situations,

there was no rational reason for Kyrie to leave. His best chance to win was to stay in Cleveland and after two thousand seventeen run it back with the two thousand eighteen Calves, who went to the finals without him. That was his best chance. He didn't want that. He wanted to get out because of a personal beat. His best bet was to stay with the Boston Celtics, who were up and coming with all of the talent they had,

and Jayson Tatum and Jylen Brown and Marcus Smart. He didn't want anything to do with that because of his own personal feelings about the situation, and he left. So whatever rationale you have for this Net situation, if you think it has to do with basketball, it doesn't. If you think it has to do with money, it doesn't. He burnt the bridge with Nike when he was making

all that money. So, like as you guys can see, this is irrelevant to Kyrie, whatever thought process you have about the way this is supposed to go, He's operating under a different a different thought process, and it's not entirely unusual. People have different priorities. Some people are more money motivated and some people are not. Kyrie strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn't care about that kind of thing. But I do genuinely believe that he

loves Kevin Durant. I actually know this for a fact, that Kevin Durant, Kratt Kyrie are way closer than any of you guys even realize. But that said, that wasn't enough for Kyrie for all of the bridge that was burnt between him and the in the Nets franchise. And I think it's both ways at this point too. I think the Nets are sick of them too, for obvious reasons that we don't have to get into, having to do with Kyrie being a flake, like a factually repeated

offender flake. Okay, like there's just no other way around. So the question is why have the Lakers emerged as a partner because what was Also Adrian Originowski also reported this morning that the other twenty eight teams are just hard passed, like we're not doing it right. So why have the Lakers emerged as a partner? Well, a couple

of different reasons. First of all, it's a little bit easier to to understand or accept the idea of taking a guy that says volatile as Kyrie on when you have a personality like Lebron James in the locker room, especially one that's dealt with Kyrie in the past. Also, Kyrie and Lebron have since patched things up from what happened in Cleveland. I think that partnership makes it a little bit less, a little it less dangerous than it would be in other situations there. But most importantly, the

Lakers are desperate. The Lakers this year, as it turned out, didn't have nearly enough talent and a lot came down a bunch of different things, lebron aging to the point where he started to break down physically, so now he doesn't play in eight two games anymore. It came down to Anthony Davis's rapid decline from being a guy who was a surefire top five player in the league to a guy that might not even be top fifteen right now.

That's the type of decline that he experienced. So those two things, in addition to gutting the roster for Russell Westbrook, who is a bad basketball player in the role that he wants to play, that gutted this team of talent, and so they don't have the luxury of turning around turning down talent for the sake of whatever off court concerns that you might have. You know, I worked in real estate before I got into this business, and one of the people that that trained me, uh used to say, generate,

so you don't have to tolerate. Essentially, the idea was is if you generate a a a long list of clients that are loyal to you, then you can be nitpicky about which people you want to work with. Working with the general public as hard as you can imagine. Now, just imagine there's half a million dollars on the table, or a quarter of a million dollars on the table. As you can imagine, people get very sensitive, people get

very emotional. It gets intense. And so when you're dealing with the general public at the beginning of your career, you kind of have to you know, you have to take whatever you can get because you're trying to get a footing in the business. But your goal is to get to a point where you can turn people away. Oh you're a jerk, You're an asshole. I don't want to deal with you. Oh you're dishonest, you know. Oh

you're a scumbag. Okay, no thanks, I don't care if you're gonna pay me ten thousand dollars to help you facilitate this transaction, I just don't want to work with you. You have to generate enough business so that you don't have to tolerate the downsides. The Lakers do not have enough talent to be able to turn away Kyrie Irving. They absolutely must take him if he comes now, maybe they'll get lucky and they'll get him for that six

million dollar. Uh traded player exception. We'll get into that a little bit further when we talked about the Lakers as as a free agency preview. But the bottom line is is the Lakers in their current predicament, with year twenty Lebron and with Anthony Davis, and with their lack of future assets, they have no choice but to take the talent that is available to them, and in this case it's Kyrie Irving, and that means that there's risk.

It's very like if Kyrie Irving halfway through the season decides he needs a two week emotional break, you can't be upset about that if you're the Lakers. He did it two years in a row, basically, right did twice two years ago, and then he had the COVID stuff this year. Like Kyrie, it's it's essentially more likely than not that he'll do some weird stuff during the season next year. He'll probably leave you hanging a few times.

But again, you don't have the luxury of turning that away. Now, all of that said, what do I actually expect to happen. I think that cooler heads will prevail, particularly with Kevin Durant in the nets, and they'll end up the resigning Kyrie to some sort of midrange max contract, Like I think they'll ditch the qualifiers like that sixty five game limit that they wanted. I think it'll be more like a three year max something like that that's fully guaranteed.

That's just my guess and the reason why it's simple, And we're gonna get to it a little bit deeper here in just a minute when we talked about the Nets free agency preview. But there's no advantage to Brooklyn letting him go, and it's a terrible case of asset management. Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving right now have lower trade value than they've ever had for obvious reasons. We don't have to get into them, so trading them now, even if you think this is an absolute disaster, you're better

off waiting. And even if halfway through the season, if Kyrie can just put up thirty points twice in a week, it might trick some GM into thinking it's a good option again and maybe you can move him for some quality pieces. So the Nets as a smart, well run organization, I expect Sean Marks and for for Joe Side to come to the table and be like, okay, we really don't want to do this, but we gotta pay him because if we lose him, we basically have to blow

this whole thing up. And if we blow this whole thing up, why not blow it up in a year when Katie and or Kyrie and and Ben Simmons have more trade value because they've actually played some more basketball. So that that's what I expect to happen. But I just wanted you guys to understand, like, this is not exactly the first time Kyrie has had this type of emotional disconnect from another NBA team, And it's important for us to discard any of our normal logical progression of

thinking because Kyrie doesn't follow that path. He is a very different thinker. He's very nontraditional in the way he sees the world and the way he sees money and the way he sees everything. So whatever you think he should think, he's not going to think. So we need to change our expectations. So let's talk. Let's let's dive into this Brooklyn next thing for their UH free agency previews.

So again, like I said earlier, that Simmons didn't play basketball at all last year and had injury concerns right, bad back and mental health stuff and straight up just didn't play basketball. So and then the last time he played basketball was him looking utterly useless in an NBA playoff series against a pretty mediocre team in the Atlanta Hawks. Right, So, Ben Simmons trade value is at an all time low.

It will never be lower than it is right now, because even if you went and played basketball next year in shrug Gold, he would at least be playing basketball, which would automatically increase his trade value. Kyrie Irvin, you know what Boston did to Brooklyn wasn't all Kyrie's fault. As a matter of fact, there's an argument I wouldn't make it, but there's an argument that Kyrie out played KD in that series. Again, I wouldn't make that argument. But my point is is Kyrie was not to blame

for this latest Brooklyn Nets collapse. In terms of what happened in the playoff series. You could say maybe continuity for him not being in and out of the line up and stuff. The point is is Kyrie is still damn good at the game of basketball. What has nuked his value is his flakiness. What happened two years ago when he repeatedly was taking leave of absences from the team. And what happened last year with the COVID nineteen shot right, it was not basketball related. So it's never gonna get

lower than this. Because if he goes to training camp next year, finish his training camp, plays in a few preseason games, and then plays fifteen of the first twenty games of the regular season and looks like Kyrie and puts up twenty three points per game on six true shooting, that's Kyrie irving, and almost over just in that fifteen game stretch or twenty games stretch, he will massively resuscitate his own trade value. So you know, I I I You guys know how I feel. I'm I'm. I just

did a whole thing about this last week. You have to acknowledge reality, and the reality is as this Brooklyn Nets team is not a top tier contender. So that automatically gears me towards rebuild because I just don't think they have the pieces that they need to win the trophy. That said, timing is everything here. Usually you want to

blow things up sooner. Why because guy's age, right, and maybe if you trade KG Kevin Garnett one year earlier than one year later, you can get one additional first round pick or one additional quality player, versus if it's a year later, teams will be bless willing to view him as some value. Right, that's usually the thought process. The difference here is Ben and Kyrie are far more likely to increase their trade value even just by next

year's trade deadline. So in this case, even if internally, if Sean Marks is looking at if Sean Marks and josih are looking at each other and they're like, hey, this thing is over, it's not gonna work. Even then you have to bring everybody back because you stand to gain so much more by playing more basketball with these guys to raise their trade value. And who knows, maybe you put this together and there's some sort of organic amazing Ben Kyrie Kevin fit and it all works, and

that's great that you have nothing to lose there. But if it's a disaster in February, when it's the trade deadline, you're in the exact same predicament you were in this summer, which is Katie and Kyrie and Ben Simmons have no trade value. Okay, great, that's what we were already dealing with. So it's it's one of those things where I I I might be leaning towards blowing things up if I'm Brooklyn, but there's literally no reason to do it right now. Now.

Kyrie might literally force you to do that. If Kyrie opts out, and just because he's like, screw you, guys, I'm done with you. If he opts out, which like we talked about earlier, Jake Fisher has reported, is likely, if he does that, then you have to press self destruct because if if Kyrie, Katie and Ben Simmons is not enough, Katie and Ben Simmons is definitely not enough. And I have and this is coming from someone who

has the utmost respect for Kevin Durant. So the way I look at it in this specific case, if you if you lose Kyrie, you blow it up. But if Kyrie ends up agreeing to terms with you to come back on a contract, you keep everybody, and you ride this thing out at least until the trade deadline, and if it doesn't look good, then you can at least move them because Kyrie and Ben will at least have

been playing basketball at that point. So now let's fast forward to the most likely scenario, which I talked about earlier. Ben Simmons is back, Kyrie Irving is back, Kevin Duran is back. I actually like the basketball fit there. The Kyrie k De fit, as we've seen in the last two years, has been amazing. On the offensive end of the floor, there have been no issues there. Ben Simmons,

in theory, is a fantastic basketball fit. With that he could take primary defensive assist assignments on the perimeter as well as anybody in the league. Ben Simmons in his prime, healthy on the basketball court, guarding a perimeter player is a sight to behold. One of my favorite things was last or two years ago, the last year Ben Simmons actually played, was watching him play in a regular season game against Dame Lillard, and I watched him utterly swallow

up Dame Lillard. Couldn't even get shots off. He's struggling, struggling mightily just to get clean looks at the rim. That's that's Dame freaking Lillard. That's the type of talent that Ben Simmons is on the defensive end of the floor. When you fill that in with his playmaking and his ability to get the grab a rebound and push the Brake as a as a ball handler to allow Katie

and Kyrie to fill the wings the shooters. What he can do as a screen and roll big man is basically a short roller, kind of like what Draymond Green well, really what Bruce Brown was doing for them last year and in his Again we talked about this in our season wrap up pod. But size and athleticism from a perimeter player, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing

in the league right now. Ben Simmons is a massive a arguably one of the one of the best examples of that for a role player, which is what Ben Simmons is at this point. He obviously has to make monumental improvements elsewhere an his game to become a star. So I love the original basketball fit there. We have Joe Harris coming back. I got it. Took as much time as he needed off last year, got the surgery that he needed. Joe Harris should be back and should

look good next year. He's a solid defensive player, could do lock and trail stuff and guarden because he's big and strong. He's not overly tall, but he's trunky. He's like got a low, a big a low center of gravity. And he's strong, so he can hold his own. It gets bigger, stronger wings, and he could shoot. He can shoot the ship out of the basketball. So I like to Joe Harris fit Patty Mills is most likely going to opt in. That's just what I expect we'll see.

Bruce Brown is a free agent, but they have his bird right so they'll probably retain him. But they have no draft picks. So that's basically your ten guys right there. And so from that standpoint, they're going to have to fill in some things on the the periphery there. And I'm gonna say the same thing that I'm gonna say

about the Lakers soon. You have plenty of offense, you have plenty of shooting, but your biggest weakness is Boston was so much bigger than you the perimeter, and you have too many minutes for Seth Curry, too many minutes for Patty Mills, too many minutes for uh Gore and Rages. Too many small perimeter players that got man handled by the bigger, stronger Boston perimeter players. So you need to

target bigger role players. Now, I was looking at I was looking into this this morning, just trying to find some examples, and I'll give you some because and I don't feel particularly passionate about any of these, because there

are a lot of them. There are dozens of players available this summer that fit this mold that you can have somewhere between the veteran minimum and the mid level mid level exception, that are between six five and six eight, that can guard multiple positions and can do basic things on offense. A couple of them off top of my head, DeAndre Bembrey, Daniel House who looks great this year, Josh Jackson, Wesley Matthews, Auto Porter Jrs. Like it could potentially be

available if the Warriors can't resign him. Those are just a handful of examples, but there's a there are dozens more. And the reason why I'm not overly picky about who is because these are small roles we're asking to fill. We're not asking for, you know, Mikhail Bridges here a guy to be defensive player of the Year for you and give you eighteen points a game. That's not what we're asking. These are small roles next to all star players.

My favorite example of this is the Lakers, because Lebron James and Anthony Davis took so much of the workload off the table. It allowed guys like k C p who are pretty average NBA role players, to look great because they had small roles and they were able to hit those small roles out of the park. And so from that standpoint, if everything else pans out, if Ben Simmons is healthy, Kyrrving is available, Kevin Durant looks like Kevin Durant, Joe Harris is back, Gatty Mills is in there.

If you have all of those things, then that allows you to go up to Daniel House and be like, all I need you to do is guard this dude. Be be reliable in our help scheme and stand over there in the corner. And if you catch the ball and you're open, shoot it. And if they close out at you attack the clothes out and guess what, You'll have lots of space to operate because no one's gonna

want to leave Kevin Durant, Patty Mills, and Kyrie Irving right. So, having that small role allows those types of players to succeed. Don't overthink it, don't look for a Malik Monk like the Lakers did. Lake Monk is awesome, but alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. It's actually more important for him to do little things than for him to go score.

Does that make sense? So I I would target those types of players, defensive minded role players that are athletic on the perimeter and have a good amount of size because they will do the dirty work alongside your stars. And the last, but not least with Brooklyn, Kyrie and k D are uniquely immune to spacing concerns. So you like, let's say you're looking at a guy like a Josh Jackson or a Wesley Matthews, a bigger, more athletic wing all the Wesley's a little shorter, but he's a great

defensive player for his position. Guys like that, you get concerned, like, oh, he's shooting percentage, He's only thirty percent on wide open threes or whatever it is. And you're right, like, guys are gonna ignore him often and sit in the paint. Just ask the Milwaukee Bucks. But Kyrie and a D

are uniquely immune to spacing. Spacing concerns are a problem for slashers who rely on getting consistent rim pressure because the paint is clocked, but because those situations forced you to shoot over the top of the defender, But what if your specialty is to shoot over the top of the defender. Kyrie and k D their bread and butter is getting too off the dribble, jump shots, getting separation with step backs and side steps and crossovers and things

along those lines. So they are comfortable shooting over the top. So you can do things like play non floor spacing role players and understand that Katie. Kyrie and Katie are going to still have a certain amount of success scoring the basketball because they're just comfortable in those situations. So again, who the heck knows what's gonna happen with the Nets

this week. But that specific plan I just laid out is what I think is this best plan for Brooklyn, provided that Kyrie ends up resigning, which I still expect him to do. All right, let's move on to the Lakers. So I talked about this a little bit earlier, but I want to go over it really quickly one more time. There's a reason why they have to be the team that goes after Kyrie Irving. They do not have the luxury of turning around turning down talent in their current situation.

Like we talked about, earlier, Anthony Davis declining from a top five player to a top fifteen player, Lebron James still being a top five player but being less available, and then trading all of your depth and talent on the wing for Russell Westbrook utterly gutted this team of talent, and they were at a talent disadvantage most nights in the NBA this year. So you don't have the luxury of turning down Kyrie Irving, even with all of his drama, even with all of the issues that come along with it.

So I expect that that's why they had to put their name in this hat that said, like we talked about earlier, I don't actually expect that to happen. So for for the sake of this free agency preview, we're gonna go on the assumption that Kyrie Irving is not a Laker, and for whatever reason he ends up signing with the Akers. You guys know, will end up doing a separate video that kind of has a different type of outlook based on that outcome. So from the start,

we know that we have the Lebron and Anthony Davis corps. Now, this used to be a cord that I believed in very strongly. Those of you guys who listened to me before this last season understood why, even despite everything that happened, even despite the Russell Westbrook trade, why I was so confident in that group. And the main reason why was

Lebron James and Anthony Davis. If you guys remember I said that in the previous two seasons, when Lebron James and Anthony Davis were actually available and on the court healthy, they won't almost of their games and never even never were even remotely threatened in that playoff run. Right, it was very similar to the playoff run that the Warriors just had. It was a dominant run to the title.

And so I believed in that course so much that even with the Russell Westbrook trade and all of the negative that came with that, I was like, hey, man, if Lebron James and Anthony Davis are on the floor, they'll be fine. Here's the problem. Last year, the net rating with Lebron and Anthony Davis on the floor together was lower than it was the previous season with both of them off the floor. That's how bad they were last year. You know that win percentage they had the

previous couple of years. They were eleven and ten last year when Lebron James and Anthony Davis played, And there's a couple of reasons for that. With with Lebron's obviously available here and so, and Lebron played like an m VP. So it's Lebron a little bit on the defensive end letting go of the rope, not being his bought into Frank vocals defensive scheme as he used to be. But a huge part of it with it was Anthony Davis's decline. This is something I've talked about on the show a lot.

Anthony Davis was a bona fide top five player in the league. In the bubble. He was a dominant defensive force, right Rudy Gobert esque type of defensive force, arguably better depending on who you ask. He was hitting post fade aways like he was Kevin Durant, bullying mismatches, hitting game winners, and was just an all around dominant to a superstar. You know, Lebron James was the best player on that team. That's to me unsayable Bowl However, Anthony Davis was right there,

like that's how good he was. He was right there with Lebron James and one of the most dominant playoff runs of his career. Who and he's the second best basketball player of all time in my opinion. So that's how good Anthony Davis was. He's not that good anymore. He put on weight, he lost foot speed as a result, he's his body is starting to fail him as a result, he hasn't been on the court long enough for him to keep his rhythm. As a result, his jump shot

is completely fallen a party. He was one of the worst volume jump shooters in the league last year. And so Anthony Davis is arguably not even a top fifteen player anymore. I think when he's healthy now, even with all of his decline in terms of his skill, he's still right around the fourteen fifteenth best player in the league. But there's a case that he's even lower than that.

And so that defensive lack of buy in from Lebron plus Anthony Davis's decline amounted to the Lebron and Anthony Davis core going from being the most dominant pairing in the NBA too kind of underwhelming, you know, And so a couple of things really easy here. The number one thing that matters for the Lakers this summer. Forget about anything else I'm about to talk about. We're gonna talk about Russ. I'm gonna give you guys three potential Russell

Westbrook trades. I'm gonna talk about what they should do on the perimeter periphery, like different things that um, different moves that they should make to kind of polish off the rest of the roster. None of that even comes close to having nearly as much impact as Anthony Davis getting back to what he was. If he does that, it will completely transform the outlook for this roster. I'll

give you guys an example. Jayson Tatum. We think he's probably right around the tenth best player in the league. Right well, Steph Curry was the second best player in the league in my opinion, right behind us, but arguably the best player in the league. Right that gap. Look back to the NBA Finals, Think about how much that gap mattered. Think about the difference and Tatum's impact on

those games and Steph Curry's impact in those games. That's the difference between the best guy in the league and the tenth best guy in the league. That's the difference. There's a reason why Steph Curry and Lebron have won eight to the last eleven titles. There's a reason why Kauai and Janice have the other three. It's because that top tier of superstars is uniquely capable of impacting basketball games in a way that no other basketball player can.

So once you get past Janice and Stephen Lebron and k D, there's a drop off, a big one. And so Anthony Davis being in that tier as opposed to being in the third tier down around the fifteenth best player in the league, that's the that's the best way that this Lakers team can experience an influx of talent. Now, I'm not optimistic about it. He went he went a couple of months without touching a basketball again, and then

we see k D talking on Twitter. Uh I went on with the Eddie Gonzalez from the et Seas and he tweeted about it. KD goes two days without touching a basketball and is so aunty that he delays the recording of a podcast to go to the gym with his trainer because he's like, I was getting anxiety because just thinking about all how all the other players in the league are getting better and I'm not that that's the difference in the way those two guys are wired.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Anthony David shoddy team percent from three last year. Those two things are very closely related in my opinion. Some people disagree, but that's just the way I see the game. And so Anthony Davis getting back to what he was is the biggest swing factor for this Lakers team. And then secondly, getting Darvin Ham to get these guys to buy in again, because like I talked about earlier, Lebron's not off the

hook here. Lebron average thirty had a magical offensive season, but he declined significantly on the defensive end, and it wasn't because of his athleticism, it was because of his commitment. And so if he can get, if Darvin Ham can get Lebron James and Anthony Davis bought in defensively to start this season, and Anthony Davis gets back to what he was right away, like the Lakers problems are fixed.

Like that's simple. Even if it's when you and Gabriel Austin Reeves and Stanley Johnson alongside them, they will win a ship ton of basketball games. Because that's how good those two guys are when they are truly committed and healthy and dialed in on both ends of the floor. So that that's that's why we gotta keep an eye

and a d Let's talk about Russell Westbrook though. So mark Stein yesterday said that he guesses if he had to guess, so it's not reporting, but if you had to guess, he guessed that Russell Westbrook would be on

the roster for day one of training camp. His reasoning was, the Lakers have continued to shut down any attempts to get them to take back long term salary for US or to give out any assets like their two first round picks that they have available to They've been shutting all of that down, which I don't have to get into again. But to make a long story short, Russell Westbrook is a bad contract. You have year twenty Lebron

James and Anthony Davis on the roster. If you think the first round picks are more valuable than trying to win a championship with the second greatest basketball player ever and one of the best power forwards ever alive and ready to play right now, then you are punting that for the sake of of two guys, two players in twenty nine that have a very very very small chance of even getting close to as good as a d and Lebron are right. Now, that's how foolish that is.

And if you're concerned about taking back long term salary, hey, guess what the Hornets were able to trade it. Let's let's pretend this happens. Let's say the Hornets trade, you know, Gordon Hayward in a deal for Russell Westbrook. Now the Lakers have Gordon Hayward, Well, you don't think you'd be able to trade him for a similar player like Russ in the future, a similar short term, huge contract that

someone's trying to dump. That's how this stuff works. Yes, it sucks to take a long term salary, but you can deal with it. Yes it sucks to trade away two first round draft picks, but you also were able to get the number thirty five pick this year by trading a couple of future seconds. So the point is is that those are fixable problems. Draft picks, salary, those are fixable problems. What is not fixable is Lebron's getting older. What is not fixable is you have an opportunity right

now with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. To win a title, you have to devote yourself to that right now, so that that that we don't I didn't even want to get back into that today, but it's just something that irritates me so much that I couldn't help myself. But if Mark Snein is right and they are more concerned about protecting those draft picks in their long term salary flexibility than committing to winning with on James and out

Anthony Davis, that's outrageous. If that's your approach, trade Lebron, get him out of here. There's there's absolutely no reason to subject him to this. You know, I I'm not a huge believer in in putting the priorities of a player over a franchise. You know, obviously, if you're the Lakers, you have a commitment to your own team. But if but why did you get into Lebron James business? Then why did you get into this business if this wasn't your ultimate goal to win the trophy? And I've always

thought that so funny. Well what about this draft? You know, first round draft pick? How many first round draft picks become superstars. What are the what's the statistical probability that one of those guys will ever be as good as Lebron James is right now? It's it reminds me of that Peter Griffin thing. It's like from Family Guy. It's like, well, it's a mystery box that could even be a boat.

It's like, well, the boat's right there, man, you can literally have the boat, and you're more concerned about the mystery box which might be a boat that that. I It's just such an ask backwards way of doing things. But so if we look at the roster, we know that we have Lebron James and Anthony Davis, and we

know that we have whatever comes back for us. Because I'm going to, for the sake of this preview, make the assumption that Russ has gone, because I just I just can't even fathom why they would bring him back. To do that to Darvin Ham would be outrageous. So these are my three favorite rush trades. Now, to be clear,

these are optimistic rush trades for the Lakers. So in all three cases they would have to attach a first round draft pick, and in all three cases they would probably have to bet on those teams not getting better offers from elsewhere in the Lake. There are variations of these offers that are less advantageous for the Lakers that they might end up having to take. But just these are very glass half full, rose colored glasses trades that

the Lakers could potentially make this summer. So first, with the Charlotte Hornets, Kelly you Bray, Terry j Here is a really good guard that I like a lot, and p J Washington. P J Washington is a really good player. I don't think it necessarily fits into Charlotte's long term future, so I think that's why he could potentially be available. And but but he's good enough that the Lakers would

absolutely have to include a first. But that trade allows you to bring back three quality role players, including two very athletic wings, to fill in some of the perimeter size deficiencies that the Lakers had in previous seasons. There's variations of that trade, right, Like you could swap in if they wanted to keep AJ Washington, you could take back Miles Plumbly. I really think the Lakers need one

backup center. You guys know, I don't like traditional centers, but you've gotta have one on the roster for weird matchups or to eat innings in the regular season. Don't think they should be in the regular rotation, but you need them. Uh. Plumb Lee is a good example of one, or a guy like Dwight Howard if you brought him back at them at the minimum to be a guy who played, you know, twelve minutes of game as your backup center, and or for specific matchups against guys like

Yo kich or Embiid. Right. So there's variations of that trade, including guys like Plumbly break glass in case of emergency. If they're like no, no, no, we're giving you Gordon Hayward. You take back Gordon Hayward if you have to, because again you're trading Russell Westbroke here. But I'd prefer to avoid Gordon Hayward because of his injury history. But that's trade option number one. Number two New York Knicks Alec Burke's Evan Fournier and Nerland's Noel Now, there's a couple

of things here. You'd have to wait until after they finished the Jalen Brunson signing because in this particular case, they'd beat the Knicks would be taking back more money than they'd be sending out. But the big one here is they get off of long term money from Fournier, which if you're trying to build for the future and you see it as a Bronson Julius Randall thing, it

doesn't really fit for you there. And you have them for three years left on his deal, it's a great way to generate some almost immediate flexibility going into the following season. Burkes and Noel each have two years left on their deal. I think they're both right around I think they combined for about sixteen million if I remember correctly.

So in this case, you'll wait until after the Jalen Brunson s I need you get back three quality perimeter role players to play alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Again there, I think they'd have to include a first round pick and then last, but not least, Indiana Pacers. You guys have heard this one, but Malcolm Brogden and Buddy Heald again, this is betting on the Pacers wanting

to rebuild. You absolutely would have to include a first year because Malcolm Brogden is that high quality of a player, But yield is kind of a mixed bag. Around the league because he's such a great offensive player, but he's limited defensively and he's had some health concerns in his

career as well. But that's another two guys. I healed is not a great physical profile defensively on the wing, but Malcolm Brogden is And so you're getting back a good two way guard and then a good high end offensive guard that likely would fit really well alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So, like I said, those are rose colored glasses types of trades there, you'll probably end up having to take something a little less than that.

Those are just three examples of good outcome for the Lakers in a Russell Westbrook trade and again giving up a first round draft pick. Yes, you I understand the first might be how you rebuild one day, but you also have Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the roster. You owe it to them to try to make this work. And in this case, swapping a pick five years in the future to bring back quality role players is an

excellent trade off for the Lakers. So then in this case we'd have whatever package comes back, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Kendrick Nunn, Taylor Norton, Tucker all under contract, Stanley Johnson, Austin Reeves, and when you and Gabriel are all on team options, all for right around two million for the season, I expect them to take all of those. They're discounted. They're good fits, they play hard, and they bring that little influx of youth that this team needs so badly.

Each of them bring specific, unique skill sets to the Lakers, and we talk a lot about, you know, the difference between position old defenders and disruptive defenders. Austin Reeves is a really good positional defender in this league already. Stanley Johnson is a really good disruptive defender already in this league. When you Gabriel is just your textbook try hard forward that you just know is gonna get his has a nose for the ball, and he's gonna be flying around

trying to make plays. He's a capable spot up shooter as well. Again, for the money and understanding that their homegrown players that the fans are attached to, I just don't think you can do much much better in the veteran minimum market than those guys. So I think you retain all of those, like we talked about earlier, no plotting centers. But you could get one who's a decent athlete to try to be a backup for yet plumbly in a trade with a team like the Hornets, Dwight Howard,

if you signed him for the minimum contract. Again, Dwight Howard, as he showed last year, when he was able to play in small bursts, when he was able to play, when he was able to take nights off frequently, he was actually a very good backup center in the NBA. It's when you have to lean on him heavily that's suddenly his decline becomes readily apparent. But most importantly, on the periphery of that outside of those guys, let's say they need to sign three or four additional guys for

the veteran minimum. You gotta target athletes on the perimeter. So I mentioned these earlier for Brooklyn al Read a handful of examples. DeAndre Bembrey, Daniel House, Josh Jackson, Justin Jackson, Wesley Matthews, Otto Porter Jr. You know, there's a bunch of guys in this mold. There are dozens of them that I was looking at this morning. And alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis, they would be in small roles that they should be able to excel at. And so

you don't have to be picky. You can take what's available. Just don't make the mistake that Rob Bolika made last year and target tiny players. Now, Malik Monk, there is some reporting today that he might be willing to take less money than he's worth to stay to stay with the Lakers. Again, if if Kyrie comes for the the mL E, you have to take Kyrie. If Kyrie doesn't come from the EMIL E and Malik Monk's willing to

come for six million, that sounds great, right. But again, if you can get a good wing for six if you can get Auto Porter Jr. For six million, you gotta take Auto Porter Jr. Over Malik Monk because Otto Porter Jr. Demonstrated that he is very valuable in playoff series because of his size, his intelligence, his perimeter shooting, his ability to thrive in a smaller role next to

great players. So as much as I like Malik Monk and he was a joy to watch last year, I wish him a great deal of success around the league, I just don't see a realistic path to the Lakers keeping him that doesn't sacrifice their ability to fix other flaws on the roster, and that might mean you have to let Malik Monk walk. And the last, but not least for the Lakers, this is why I like the

Kyrie Irving acquisition for them. Specifically, the Lakers will always have spacing concerns because they have two massive rim pressuring forwards in Lebron James and Anthony Davis, so teams will consistently pack the paint on them even when there are good shooters on the floor. Kyrie Irving's immunity is spacing. The ability to shoot over the top of defenders becomes immensely valuable in tight space situations. It's another reason why

I like that fit. So again, that's my initial takeaway for the Lakers if Russell Westbrook does end up getting traded and they do not sign Kyrie Irving. Obviously, if something other than those two outcomes happens, we will reapproach this in the future. All right, Before we get out of here today, I did want to take just a couple of minutes to talk about this ever growing beef between Draymond Green the new media and the old media, the establishment media, the take artists, whatever you want to

call it. And so Draymond his podcast that I listened to this morning was just him going down the line letting everybody know what it is. And I thoroughly enjoyed that. You guys know me, I'm pro victory lapse. Like, to me, winning has to mean something. If there's one time that I think you should be able to talk shi it with impunity, it's when you've won the trophy. And so

I have no issue with it. But Draymond Green's his beef is with the the way that the game is covered, and I personally find that to be very interesting because I grew up listening to all these guys, you know, I grew up listening to Skip Bayliss from time to time. Obviously, now I can't stand it, Like it's like nails on a chalkboard. To me, I almost get like secondhand awkwardness. Even when I see his videos come along the Twitter feed, I have a hard time even just watching those because

I've grown up a lot since then, you know. But one of the biggest things that since I got into this business, and I'm relatively new into this business, is you're you're you're trying to succeed, right. You want to the ultimate goal here is to put food on the table, right, So you're trying to pay attention to trends and see

what works and see what doesn't. And you know, it's always been interesting to me how many people gravitate towards that kind of content and sometimes how it feels as though not as many people gravitate towards the analysis, and so you can kind of get a little bit discouraged sometimes. So I see where Draymond Green is coming from there. But I listened to another podcast this morning. I listened to uh Colin Coward interviewing Peter Goober, who is one

of the majority owners for the Golden State Warriors. Towards the end of the episode, I highly recommend you guys check it out. Towards the end of the episode, Colin asked Peter a simple question about bitcoin, basically saying like, it's not something that I personally believe in, but I know a lot of really smart, successful people who do What do you make of that? And what Peter said

really resonated with me. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, He's like when you feel a desire to be critical of something, try to be curious about it instead the idea they're being. If you see something you don't understand, instead of just getting upset about it, try to learn about it, try to learn why it is the way that it is. And I'm not speaking about specifically Draymond there, because I know Draymond knows why those things work. But

that's just how I rationalize it. So like when I see people like Skip Bayliss putting out a form of sports media content that I find borderline reprehensible. When I see that, instead of me trying to just get mad at it, I try to understand it. And one of the things I've learned in this business is the reality is a lot of people gravitate towards that. A lot of people gravitate towards hot takes, a lot of people gravitate towards the debate model, and a lot of people

who gravitate towards surface level drama over analysis. A lot of people do. That is the reality. However, the flip side is is a lot of people also gravitate towards real analysis. I've been blown away by your guys support of my show because I like, sometimes I'm like, I'm sitting here talking about pick and roll coverages, and I can't believe how many of you guys care. And I'm very thankful for that. But I also see people like

JJ Reddick succeeding. I see people like Drama Green succeeding I you know, I uh, Tim Legler does an amazing job for ESPN, Zach Low does an amazing job for esp And they're all these guys out there who provide more detailed analysis, and then there's like an army of lower level people doing that for teams and doing stuff for blogs and things along those lines. There's a ton of people who produce that kind of content and a

lot of you guys genuinely love it. And so what I've just acknowledged is that in the in this media landscape, there are different paths you can choose. Different people break the game down in different ways, and there's no such thing as like a crowded field. It's not like TV where you're competing against a handful of channels and it's like, Okay, I'm either gonna listen to you know, Stewart Scott in the in the crew on ESPN, or maybe I can go over to you know, Fox Sports Net or something

like that. It's not like that anymore. Now it's there. It's it's a flooded field. You can go anywhere. There is no limit, there is no if I can listen to five podcasts that break down the NBA Finals in one day, if I choose to, And so because of that, I just I just I appreciate that we can get the eyeballs in the ears that we can get, rather than getting upset about the Skip Bayliss type of stuff

out there. Because again, like there are probably some of you guys who listened to this show who also listened to SKIP. And I don't think you're I don't think you're wrong for listening to Skip. It's just not my cup of tea. It just not what I'm into. And I think it's cool that you can listen to both if you want to, if you're into that sort of thing. Here's where I very much, powerfully agree with Draymond. Another thing Peter Grouper said in his podcast with Con Coward.

He talked about how, being an owner of a basketball team, he doesn't like the semantics of the word owner because he doesn't feel like he owns anything. It's more of a partnership. What he said is that he feels like the steward of a team when he is an owner, meaning he's kind of like in charge of us. He's kind of like in charge of navigating that team through a certain period of time. And the way I look at it, all of us who talk about the game

of basketball are stewards of the game of basketball. Again, guys like I gave my life to this game. Literally from the time I turned eighteen years old. Every waking minute, with exception of the times I absolutely had to be suit doing something else or when I was relaxing with my wife, I've given to this game. I I No one pays me to volunteer for the high school that I coached for. No one pays me to train those kids, or to go to practice, or or to do the

things that I do. I do it because I love it. I do it because I love I I want to give something to the young basketball players that are coming up in my city. I pay I played in men's leagues and I play pick up. I train like a professional athlete, even though no one pays me a dime, and it's just because I love the game. I love this game so much. It means so much to me, and it's so important for this game to continue to

be healthy going into the future. And so where I agree with Draymond vehemently is it sucks sometimes to see the game being talked about in that way because it is shallow to me, and it is bad for the game in a lot of ways in my opinion. But at the end of the day, all I can trust is that me on a much lower level. But then the higher ups, the Draymond's, the j d Reddicks of the world, I hope that they take that responsibility as stewards of the game. And I say I hope, I

know they do. I try us to j J, and I trust Draymond to do this, But they are the stewards of the game. It's their job now. And you know, with guys like Tim Legler and Zachlo and all those guys that I mentioned, it's their job to continue to help grow that game into the future so that more people that happen to come across their content do learn about the game of basketball. When I listen, when I go back and I look at the comments to get

feedback from you guys. One of my favorite things that I see is things along the lines of, you know, I feel like I learned about the game today. You know, Jason helps me learn about the game. That means the world to me. That's all that matters to me. I want to increase the population of people that are in love with the game of basketball. That's what matters the most to me. And so at the end of the day, like I totally see where Draymond's coming from, I feel

those same visceral feelings that he feels. I just I'm kind of at peace with it because I just get that that's the way the business is. I understand too that I'm gonna have to do a certain amount of that kind of stuff. I'm gonna have to do lists, I'm gonna have to do comparison, I'm gonna have to do those kinds of things. The one thing you can count on me for sure is I will never be critical of a player opportunistically. I'll give you an example.

I've been extremely critical of Russell Westbrook. I am. When I am critical of Russell Westbrook, it puts up numbers. I have social media clips over the last couple over the over the course of the last year, that breached millions of people because of me being critical of Russell Westbrook. But that is just coincidental, because I would never be critical of Russ opportunistically. You know, you guys know why I'm critical of Russ. He offends me as a fan

of the game of basketball. He is one of the most naturally gifted athletes I've ever seen in my life. I'll never forget a play when he had broken his nose in Oklahoma City. It was, I want to say, the year after Kevin Durant left. It was during his

MVP season and he had a play. He was wearing that like face mask and he goes running down the court and transition jumps from behind the semi circle damn Ye at the free throw line, cox it back with two hands behind his head like this and throws it down and the entire gym is just floored from what they saw. I watched the clip like a hundred times in a row. When it happened, I couldn't believe what

I was seeing. He is a nuclear athlete, possibly pound for pound, the best athlete that we've ever seen in the NBA. And the guy just has never cared enough about improving himself on the on the periphery of his game, committing to the defensive end of the floor, you know, being willing to fit alongside stars, working on your jump shot, working on your midrange shot, your float or your push out, your short range game. He was one of the worst volume rim finishers in the league this year, and it

just feels like a waste to me. And then when you combine that with his obstinate attitude and the way that he can just be like, not screw you, guys, I have it all figured out. You guys do know what you're talking about. That's offensive to me. So when I talk about Russ that way, it's very organic. It's it is not Skip Bailess attaching his name to Lebron

for the sake of numbers. Russell Westbrook will be gone from the Lakers in all likelihood this year, and I probably won't talk about it much anymore because he's probably gonna disappear into irrelevance. And you know what, our show is gonna do fine because you guys like that. I like to talk about basketball, So again, like that, I have my own little personal commitments in my much smaller role as one of the smaller stewards of this game.

But like the way I see it, we just do the best we can with our platforms, and Draymond, you do the best you can, and JJ you do the best you can. Amplify each other, amplify each other. That's why I'm amplifying those names that I mentioned earlier. But it just acknowledged the reality that there are a lot of people that like that crap and they're going to continue to like that crap, and that crap is not going away, and so it's just it's just the reality

of the business. But I'm happy for a Draymond that he's taking is is uh his victory laps and last but not least, to be honest, like, one of the things with this business is you have to acknowledge the reality that when you are critical of someone, you could face consequences. Like what's happening with Draymond, Like talking about these people is they said things and there are consequences to those things. Freedom of speech is not the same

as freedom from consequences. I understand that if I'm next year, if I'm critical of Anthony Davis one day and he decides to tweet at me like, who the hell are you? What's your problem? Like, that's that's a potential repercussion. You know when when you're in this business and you and you are talking like that, you always know there's a potential for fallback. It's just part of the deal. Um. But that's all I got for today, guys. I sincerely

appreciate your support. As always, we will have more free agency previews throughout the week. Check out this on YouTube. If you miss it for whatever reason, you can find it on our podcast feed under Lakers Tonight. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason LT. That is all I have for you guys today. I'll see you guys in a couple of days. The Volume