Hoops Tonight - LeBron James sends Lakers a message at Drew League, Kyrie Irving stuck with Nets?

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In Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend so far. Right on the other side of this

camera is the beautiful Lake Shellan in Washington. I've wanted to try to set up the camera so that you guys could see it, but I couldn't quite figure out the lighting. So I'll post some pictures of it on Twitter. You guys can see that on my Twitter few which is under at underscore Jason LT. It feels really good to be out of the Arizona heat. I love Arizona, born and raised there. It's my hometown. I've lived elsewhere, and I still moved back. But June July August can

be really rough. And we've had like back to back weeks of a hundred and five degree weather every single day, and we've had just enough monsoon activity to make it humid. It's been miserably hot, and man, getting off of that airplane and walking out of the airport in Seattle was an incredible like a chance to just exhale and get away from the heat. My wife and are hanging out on this lake for the next four days or so, and then we head back to Seattle. We board a

cruise ship to head to Alaska. Never been to Seattle, never been to Lake Shland, never been to Alaska, never been on a cruise. So a lot of first for me over the course of the next couple of weeks. But I'm super excited and excited to have a one last bit of relaxation before we dive back into things this fall and my first full year covering uh the NBA with the volume, which would be very fun. I'm

very very excited. Um today we're gonna talk about this Kyrie Irving report that came from Jake Fisher having to do with I think we might be nearing the end of the rope here and the Lakers might have missed their opportunity. Um, we're gonna talk about Russell Westbrook breaking up with his agent, which I thought was kind of the crescendo of this Russ experience and in this phase that he's going through in his career, and it's gonna be kind of a make or break moment for him

as to how this story is gonna end. And the last, but not least, Lebron played in the Drew League yesterday. Obviously it was entertaining great basketball pack. Jim Lebron has forty two looks great. We're gonna talk about all that, but I also thought it was a very specific message that he was trying to send um to the Lakers front office. So we're gonna get into all that before

we get started. Follow me on Twitter underscore Jason lt S. You guys don't miss any more of my show announcements, video content that I make, and I also post some pictures of the trip for those of you care, and then um uh subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos that we release. And then, last but not least, we did finally rebrand the podcast feed. It's no longer. It's no longer Lakers

Tonight is now under Hoops Tonight. So if you miss any of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to watch them, go to our podcast feed. It's under Hoops Tonight. Usually the audio has posted there a couple hours after the videos make their way to YouTube. Let's start with Kyrie. So Jake Fisher from Bleacher Report, I'm just gonna read the quote here and we'll go from there. Quote from my conversations with people in the league.

It seems pretty clear Kyrie is accepting the fact that he is overwhelmingly likely to be back in Brooklyn now. As is always the case with these reports, it's hard to differentiate between what is uh speculation, what is leak leaks for the sake of leverage, and what is real information. What's interesting about this one is it's coming from Kyrie's perspective. When we've heard reports from Kyrie's perspective to this point, it's always been he wants to go to the Lakers.

He'll even sign with the Lakers next year. That's the kind of stuff we've heard on the Kyrie front, regardless, Typically the stuff that we've heard from the teams has been more about like will Brooklyn bring Kyrie and and and Kevin Durant back, Will the Lakers move on to Buddy Yield and Miles Turner or whatever it is. Those seem more like leverage leaks. This kind of seems like Kyrie coming to terms with the situation. To be clear, I don't think it's over. I still think the main

key here is Kevin Durant. I also believe it was Jake Fisher who reported he talked to somebody in Kevin Durant's camp, and even in spite of everything that's come out in the last few days, he's will hell bent on getting the trade. Kevin Durant is still the final piece in all of this. I said this I think two shows ago. But the reality is is all it takes is Kevin Duran to kind of look at the

landscape of this trade market. See that the teams aren't lining up, See that Phoenix is out because DeAndre Aton has been resigned, See that Miami doesn't have the pieces, See that Toronto doesn't want to include Scotty Barnes, and all he has to do is look at that and go like, like, as bad as I have it in Brooklyn, maybe I want out, but I don't see this clear cut better option. Ben Simmons is interesting. Why don't I

talk to Kai have him come back. We'll run it back with Ben Simmons is here and see if we can make it work. That's all it takes for the Kyrie Irving deal to be dead on arrival. And so what's interesting here is the Lakers are negotiating, and I get why Kyrie is not worth two picks. He's worth one pick in a vacuum. So in a vacuum it was smart. It is smart. It was smart for them to initially there in initial position to be Russ for Kyrie one pick. That was smart as their initial position.

But here's the thing. And I've told you guys this before, but I used to work in real estate. That's what I did before this, and I would always tell my clients, like, understand that negotiation is a part of this, but don't ever hardline or take a hard position on something you're not willing to lose. Your negotiation power comes down to

whether or not you are willing to lose. If you are putting in an offer on a house and you're not emotionally involved in it, and you don't care if you lose the house, by all means low ballum put in a wild term in the contract. Do do something to try to advocate for yourself above and beyond what you even hope for, because then if you get it, great, you've got a great deal. And if you don't, who cares?

You move on? But all the time, especially during the craziness of the market in the last couple of years, you'd have a I'd have a client that would get a property under contract that we had to competitively bid for against like sixteen twenty offers, and then they'd be like, oh, well, I want to fight hard for this repair, I want to fight hard for this specific credit or whatever it is. And I'd be like, they will dump you and go back on the market and get another deal immediately. You

don't have leverage. Are you willing to lose this house? Because if we fight for this, you might lose it. Understanding your fear of loss, Understanding your leverage is key to negotiation, because if you put your foot down. You might get a better deal, but you also might lose the deal entirely. So let's take a look at this situation between the Nets and Lakers. If we look at

the Lakers perspective, they are desperate. Russell Westbrook not only does he have damn near zero trade value negative trade value, he just ruined the relationship with his agent for fourteen years. He had a business relationship with this person and ruined it. So from that standpoint, like like Russ's value is so incredibly low. If he was a free agent right now, available for a veteran minimum, he might not get picked up. I don't know how many teams would sign him, but

the answers either zero or close to zero. So that's your predicament. Your other predicament is you only have two players on the roster who are starting level NBA players, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So you are desperate for talent. You're desperate for talent, and you're one trade. The one guy that you're looking to trade in this particular deal is Russell Westbrook, who nobody wants. So if the if you're the Lakers, you have to acknowledge you have zero leverage. Now,

let's look at the Nets. They don't have leverage either in the sense that like, oh, Katie and Kyrie want to leave. It's that simple, And if you bring them back, you're on the risk of toxicity and things along those lines. That's all true, But there are two factors here that are working in Brooklyn's favor and that give them the specific amount of leverage necessary to fight for that second

pick from the Lakers. First of all, Kyrie and Ben Simmons trade value is lower than ever Kyrie Irving obviously had all of these unavailability issues over the last couple of years, and obviously his fickle personality and lack of reliability is going to be something that that scares teams away. There's a lot of truth there. But in terms of just basketball, he's every bit as good as he ever was just in the basketball. So he still brings all star player to the table in terms of his value.

Russell Westbrook does not, And in this particular case, Kyrie's value is lower than it's ever been. So if I'm Brooklyn, if I can somehow get Kyrie just to come back and play ten fifteen games, that could massively increase his value just by reminding teams of what he's capable of, especially when the last taste that we have of Kyrie was that disappointing finish against the Celtics. Right same thing goes with Ben Simmons. Last time we saw him play

basketball nightmare moment with the Philadelphia seventy six. Since then, mental health issues, back problems, you know, uh, not willing to live up to a contract. His value is lower than ever. So Kevin Durant, for whatever reason, decides that he wants to run it back, and these guys come back. They just gotta go. Games go seventeen and eight, Kyrie and Ben Simmons playing most of the games. Just like that, their trade value is significantly higher than it was Right now.

The Nets absolutely are I would even say likely to get more for Ben and Kyrie at the trade deadline than they are now. Their main incentive to try to get this done now is just to try to go into training camp with the group that you're actually moving forward with. But the reality is that Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons trade values and an all time low. The Nets are incentives to try to raise that. Kevin Durant

is the key and He's the second factor here. All it takes is him looking at the land escape, seeing that Phoenix is a trade market is dried up, seeing that Miami's trade market is dried up, seeing that Toronto doesn't want to include Scotty Barnes, and understand that maybe he doesn't have a better option that he has. Right now, I'm coming back to Brooklyn. Kyrie's coming with me, Ben's himms is coming with me, Bam Kyrie irving trade is

dead on arrival. And so from that standpoint, like the Lakers, if we look at this up close and personal, the Lakers have no leverage. So I understood their desire to fight for that one first round pick rather than two. They were smart to fight for that. But the fight's over. You lost. Throw the second pick on the table. Get Kyrie because we are right around the corner from this all going back to Brooklyn, bringing everybody back, so that they need to accept that the Clippers are the best

example that I could give you. Guys. As a corollary to this predicament, Kawhi Leonard comes to you says I want to sign with you instead of the Lakers in two thousand team. At that point he goes, bring Paul George with me. I already talked him on the phone.

He's in. You gotta close the deal. Do you think the Clippers had any leverage with okay see, hell now they okay see, just had a season with with Paul George being an m VP candidate and and and and Russ helping him reach some career highs and all these different things. Right, there was no reason for Oklahoma City to move Paul George. But the Clippers were like, we know we need him because if we get him, we

get Kauai. Give him everything. And they literally gave them everything, every pick that they had, all these swaps, all everything. They cleared the treasure trove for that deal because they understood their lack of leverage. Yes, is two first round picks and overpay for Kyrie. Yeah it is. It's a

bit of an overpay. But this is what happens in negotiation when you don't have the leverage and I and it's and with the nets you gotta remember they already have two picks from the hardened deal that they got last year. If they trade Kdi, they'll probably get five to seven more. They're already getting seven eight picks out of this whole arrangement, right, So they're vindictive enough I think, especially with everything that happened with Kyrie in the last

couple of years, to be like, screw you, Kyrie. Yeah, I know, we could trade you for one pick, but if the Lakers don't give you two, we're bringing you back and we're holding onto you for now. They they I believe that they would be willing to do that, And so you've got to understand the understand the predicament, understand the leverage, put the pick on the table, close

the deal. Even if things go horribly south and Lebron and a d get hurt again and you miss the playoffs again this year, you blow it up and you can trade everybody and get draft picks. And this is the most important detail. If you get Kyrie in a trade, you have his bird rights to go. I believe ten percent over his salary resigning him next year. So from that standpoint, you can retain him, and he is an asset.

Kyrie being an asset means you could if he has three or four years on his deal, you can turn around and trade him for a first round draft pick

or two next year. If things go really south. In addition to being able to trade Anthony Davis, if you really want to blow things up in twenty nine, when things really are uh, when those picks that are in question would be uh, would actually be UM, would actually be relevant to this situation at that point, if things go south, the Lakers could just as easily refill the

treasure trove. And with Laker fans I've talked to several over the course of the last couple of days, and I understand as spans you feel a certain obligation to defend the franchise and things along those lines. But you know, to me, the success of the Lakers franchise over the year, and you guys have all heard this from Laker fans, like we have seventeen titles, Like you know, we are

the most successful franchise in NBA history. You know, all of our successes in the vast majority of our successes in the modern era. It's not the same as Boston when all the titles were in the sixties or whatever. They have a reason to be prideful, But to me, that doesn't equal benefit of the doubt. For Genie Bus, that doesn't equal benefit of the doubt for Rob Polinka. If anything, that should equal standards. That should equal a standard that you hold the franchise too. Here's the reality

of the situation. Yes, you have won seventeen championships. Yes, you did win a championship two years ago, less than two years ago. That's all true. Here's the reality, though, that championship came on the strength of Lebron James and Anthony Davis at the peak of their powers, and they are no longer at the peak of their powers. That success came on Lebron James coming to the Lakers and convincing Clutch Sports to direct Anthony Davis there as well, was not by the doing of Rob Polinka or of

Genie Buss. When Jerry Buss was in charge. To the day he died, the Lakers missed the playoffs once. Since then, they've made the playoffs twice total. So the standard that was then in place, the expectation for the Lakers is shifting. That's the problem. You guys are now becoming okay with a form of mediocrity that never existed for the Lakers franchise. And you guys should be more upset than you are

because you have Lebron James under contract right now. You have Anthony Davis under contract right now, and you have an opportunity to flip the biggest mistake of this era of Lakers basketball, the Russell Westbrook trade. You have an opportunity to turn Russell Westbrook into an all Star level guarden Kyrie Irving. When all of this was going down, when we were coming into this summer, did any of you think that there was a snowball's chance in hell

a flipping Russ for Kyrie. Think about the names that I was thrown out. I was like, maybe you can get Gordon Hayward and Kelly you Brey or Gordon Hayward and Terry Rosier or Mason Plumle or or you know, Buddy Heal. These were the types of names we were throwing out. This was this. This was literally like the

Red Sea parting for you. And just in a in a moment of of of absolutely no leverage, in in a in a dire moment for the history of the franchise, everything just opened up and there was Kyrie Irving and now you want to play hardball. I just don't get it. And like I tweeted it out this morning, but I feel bad for Lakers fans, because I just know Jerry Buss would have put that second pick on the table. Jerry Buss was running the Lakers, Kyrie would be a

Laker right now. All right, let's move on to this Rust stuff for a minute. Uh. This him breaking up with his agent after fourteen years that I said this at the intro, But this, to me is the crescendo of this phase of the Rust experience. You know, I get a hard time from a lot of people for being hard on Russ. And and again I tell you, guys, like the reasons why I don't like Russ are are

basketball related. Like it, It bothers me to watch a basketball team that is bought in and doing everything they can to win, and Russ is b sing on the defensive end of the floor, or when a team is grinding through injuries and just trying to to survive in NBA season, and he's complaining about the coach or or he's more worried about his touches or his box score than he is about the actual team goal of getting stops and scoring baskets on the other end of the floor.

His head is in the wrong place as a basketball player. That's why when I say Russ offends me, that's the kind of stuff I'm I'm talking about, Like his whole approach to the game bothers me. And he is somehow convinced you Russ fans an apologist that because he screams really loud after he dunks, or because he can be high energy from time to time, that he's somehow like this, like blue collar, hard working NBA player. It's just not the case. Watch the damn games. He's lazy. He doesn't

commit to the defensive end of the floor. On offense, He's only concerned about his individual impact, his box score numbers and things along those lines. The guy is an issue off the floor. He does blame everything on everybody else. He freaking burned down Lebron James and Anthony Davis after the season, even though they did everything in their power to empower Russ. Everything that has come onto Russ has been Russ's fault. That's the reality of the situation. Lakers

fans are not picking on Russ. Lakers fans are are just as offended as as I am at the things that he's done in his time in a Laker, in a Laker uniform and It's always funny to hear people get mad at me for being negative to Russ when his own damn agent of fourteen years was like, I can't do this anymore, you know, like that? That's that that that that's all you need to know. The teams that employ him no longer want him this time. It's the Lakers. They no longer want him. Mentioned this earlier.

If he was a free agent on a veteran minimum contract. How many teams do you think sign Russ tomorrow? It's either zero or close to zero. Okay, So you can be mad at Jason for being anti Russ. The league is anti Russ, the agent is anti Russ, the players are anti Russ, the general managers are anti Russ, the owners are anti Russ. So at a certain point, who's the problem? Is it Jason? Is it the GM? Is it the players? Or is it Russ? Like the whole thing was so strange. But to me, that that's why

this represents the crescendo. If you ruin a business relationship that was fourteen years old, for it whatever escalated between them to get to the point of dissolving that business relationship, that that that that is if that's not the big red flag. I don't know what is. And that's why I say this is the crescendo of this Russ moment because russ is agent in the statement, which was really strange.

We're gonna get into it in a minute. But if Russ's agent in the statement says that he believes Russ will have another moment in this league, I agree. I believe he will, but it will be as a role player. It will be a transformed Russ. And the only way that was ever going to happen is if he hit rock bottom, which is exactly what happened to Carmelo Anthony. And this is actually worse than what happened to Carmelo Anthony. This is even uglier than the lack of awareness or

the denial that Carmelo Anthony was experiencing. But it will take Russ getting traded away from the Lakers and cut and nobody's signing him, or the Lakers not trading him and cutting him. That's what it will take for him

to realize that he needs to change. It will take him and his agent burning him down after fourteen years of service for him to understand that it's a him problem and not in everybody else problem, because once he acknowledges that, that's when he will go home and truly develop his shot and truly develop his mid range game and his floaters and his hook shots, and is finishing around the basket, and him slowing down his pace, not playing at a hundred miles all the time, his commitment

to the defensive end of the floor, him embracing the little things that helped basketball teams win games. That's where when he embraces all of that stuff, I think he's got a solid four or five years of quality basketball ahead of him, but he needed to hit absolute rock bottom first. And that's what this represents. I've said this before, but to me, the you know, the the version of Russ that contributes to a championship team is a poor man's Drew Holiday. He's not Drew Holiday, especially on the

defensive end. He'll never be able to be that, but just in the way he devotes his resources. A power guard that plays with physicality as a third option, who devotes the majority of his energy to the defensive end of the floor, particularly guarding up a position. That type of of of of resource dispersion from Russ will allow him to be a productive player, and that's what I see the end of his career looking like it just had to get really ugly first, and this thing with

the agent was was the ugliest part. The statement was really strange. Him talking about Russ's not acknowledging that he should stay in l A as if it's Russ's decision, when rob And and Lebron and Anthony Davis all want him gone, that always really strange. I don't really know what to make of the statement part of it, but I just we can. We have to take a look at what we can take. What we know for sure about this, We don't know whose motive is what with

the statement, we don't know. Russ says he never requested a trade. I actually believe him. I don't He didn't need to. The Lakers are trying to trade him anyway. But what we do know is that there's a business relationship here that was fourteen years old that has ended. And when we look at a situation like that, we

look at the reputations. This is Russell Westbrook that no NBA team wants to keep for more than a year, and at this point, no NBA team may even want in any capacity So from that standpoint, who are you going to give the benefit of the doubt too? I would venture to guess that this was a Russ problem, and I don't know what to make of it. I

don't know what was the beef there. If I had to guess, and again this is just a guess, my guests would be that he approached his agent and said, get me somewhere where I can do what I did in Washington, Like I don't care if you've got a facilitated buy out, I don't know if you need to direct to trade. I don't know what I need to do. Get me somewhere where I can do what I did in Washington. And I think his agent might have come back at him and been like, nowhere, bro, like none

of them are going to give you that opportunity. That might that that that that to me, and then that going poorly for Russ and Russ lashing out as a result of that, that would be my guess. But I don't know. It's just it's hard to even fathom how a business relationship that old could go south. But the way I look at this again is this is why it costs two first round picks to move him. This is why you can't get cheap in your in your

approach to trying to trade Russell Westbrook. He is so toxic right now that his own agency relationship that's a decade and a half old, has ended. There is no more opportunity here for you to look at this through rose colored glasses and pretend as though there's gonna be a willing recipient of RUSS. That's not an option anymore. That ship has sailed. You must now pay to get rid of your problem, and he's making it more expensive

with his behavior. Put the second round pick on the second first round pick on the table, all right, Before we get out of here, I wanted to talk about Lebron playing in the Drew League for a second. Um. I was coming down as I was traveling yesterday, so I didn't actually watch the game in its entirety, but I did my best to try to track down as much information as I can, and I watched the first the first quarter, I believe. I'm not sure if they do quarters or has um at the Drew, but forty

two points. Uh. He was eighteen for thirty six from the field, sixteen for twenty six from two two for thirteen from three. Uh. Lebron typically has always been a streaky three point shooter, and in a new gym that he's never been in before, weird setting, first time playing competitive basketball a long time. Not surprised that he didn't shoot the ball really well. The big things that I

looked at was he looked physically explosive. Uh. First of all, you get a new appreciation for Lebron's size when you see him play against non pros, because he gets out there and it's just he's bigger than every single player on the court and guys are just bumping off of him. Uh as he's barreling down the lane. He still is one of the most physically impressive basketball players that we have in the league. I looked at it as a huge positive in the sense that he looked physically explosive.

And you you don't pay too much close attention to the three point shot, but his handle looked sharp, he looked sharp. He looked like he was in mid season four. So what do we make of all of that? Well, first of all, why did Lebron play in the game. Lebron hasn't played in the Drew League since the lockout right in two thousand, in the summer of two thousand

and eleven. It's been in eleven years. He's been living in l a for the last half decade, so there's the uh SO there for the last four years, So there's no reason why he would suddenly be interested in the Drew League. We also know he's one of the most calculated people in all of sports. With Lebron, almost everything he does serves an ulterior motive, right or a bigger purpose than what you would think. I looked at this as Lebron sending a clear message to the Lakers

front office. I am locked in. I am in mid season four in July. I look at this season as my last great chance to win an NBA championship. Do not waste this on this roster. Do not waste this in hopes of a twenty seven first round pick or a nine first round pick that has a damn zero a damn near zero percent chance of being half as good as I am right now. That was the message that I thought Lebron was trying to send to that front office. He was trying to breed urgency. Look at

what you have on the roster. This is what I'm capable of Kyrie is there for the taking, Go get him. That's the way I looked at it. I enjoyed it. I love basketball. I love seeing the crowd. I love that intimate setting. It was cool seeing all of the other fringe pros, guys playing overseas, former college players really compete in that environment, battling with Demard Rose and battling with Lebron. Obviously, it was a cool moment, and I'm

sure Lebron had a great time too. But he was out there to send a message, and I thought that was to send a specific, a clear, a clear impression of what his intentions were this season, to pour his heart and soul into trying to win a championship. Lebron James, when he's motivated, is it forced to be reckoned with.

And you can tell when he is and when he isn't him In two thousand and seventeen, when he knew Kevin Durant was on the Warriors and he knew he didn't have much of a chance to win the title, you could see him pull back defensively. Right then you get into two thousand twenty and it's like Anthony Davis is on the roster. He likes the role players. He

feels like he has a chance. From day one. He's locked in right then last year with when when the rust things started to go south, you could almost see him making a calculation about his chances, and when he didn't think he had the chances, he pulled back. But this has been a humiliating couple of years for him in the sense that they lost in the first round and missed the playoffs entirely. I think he's locked in. I think he sees this is this is his last

great opportunity. I expect him to approach this season with the same amount of ferocity that he did in That's all the more reason for the Lakers to push their chips into the middle of the table, and I hope they do. Alright, guys, that is all I have for today. At some point over the course of the next few days, I expect one of these trades to go down and then we'll have something. As always, I sincerely appreciate you

guys support. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt S. I can share some stuff about the trip with you, guys, show announcements, things along those lines. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels so you don't miss any more of our our videos and then follow subscribe to them the Hoops Tonight podcast feed just in case you miss any of the YouTube videos. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you in a couple of days. The volume