Hoops Tonight - NBA Free Agency Reaction: Klay Thompson to Mavericks, Paul George to 76ers

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Slash Baseball, All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all you guys are having a great start to your week. Well, NBA free agency is here, and originally we were going to try to hit everything in kind of a free agency reaction today, but there is literally too much to get to, so

we're gonna split this into two parts. Today. We're primarily gonna be focusing on Klay Thompson being traded as part of a signing trade to the Dallas Mavericks, what that means for both the Mavericks and the Golden State Warriors moving forward. And then Paul George signing a Max deal with the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, what that means for the Sixers coming into this next season as well as

the Los Angeles Clippers. Tomorrow in part two, we're gonna get to Chris Paul to the Spurs, de Jontay Murray getting traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, and Isaiah Hartenstein to the Oklahoma City thunder all deals that are super super interesting. We probably will also have another, you know, two or three things to hit in tomorrow's show as well. So just focusing on the Warriors and the Mavericks and

the Clippers in the Sixers in today's show. We'll get to the rest of the free agency moves in tomorrow's show. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribed to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore

json LTS. You guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight and then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball. So when the first rumor started coming out that Klay Thompson was thinking about going to the Dallas Mavericks, I immediately hated it, to be honest, at first, I'm like,

this doesn't make any sense. Like Klay Thompson came in this like ball and Player Movement five out flow where he was getting all these reps coming off of screens. To give you an idea of how often Clay works with an off ball screen, he took a shot off of an off ball screen four hundred and thirty times last year four thirty. Second place was Steph at two eighties. So Clay did one hundred and fifty more than Steph And then there were thirteen players who were between one

hundred and one ninety nine. But literally there was nobody in the stratosphere of Klay Thompson in terms of volume coming off of screens as a scorer. So like it's just a very different type of offensive approach to what Dallas uses right like to give you guys an idea, Dallas through the second fewest passes per game in the NBA last year, and they were bottom five in assist percentage. This is not a ball in player movement team. So at first I hated it. I didn't like it for Dallas.

I didn't like it for Clay. It didn't make a ton of sense I want to get a little bit. But then the big thing that kind of like changed my perspective on it was when the news of the Naji Marshall signing came down. So the Mavericks get Naji Marshall. Is this guard who played for the Pelicans, a guy I actually really like, a guy that has a ton of off the dribble pop. And then I look at the compared to most role player guards, I should say,

for a non star, the guy can dribble and like kind of like shaken and get to his spot and kind of just make something out of nothing offensively better

than most role player guards can write. And then I look at the math on the numbers and Derek Jones Junior goes to the Clippers for three years thirty million, so ten million a year, and Naji Marshall goes to the MAVs for three years twenty seven, so nine million a year, right, And so essentially what that means is that Dallas intentionally and purposefully chose Naji Marshall over Derek Jones Junior. Now, Derek Jones Junior just had an amazing

playoff run as a point of attack defender. He was probably the best veteran minimum value last year in the league,

so much so that he turned himself into an eight figure player, right, But he's a play finisher. He's a guy that can capitalize on advantages, but struggles to create or extend advantages. Naji Marshall is a guy that can create some advantages but is a very good advantage extender, which is a concept we're going to get to here

in a couple of minutes. So when I saw that, I started to think a little bit here, and now all of a sudden, I'm looking at it as a complete change in philosophy from what happened last year for Dallas on the offensive end of the floor. Like again, like when I look at what happened in the NBA Finals, it wasn't just a loss for Dallas, it was a

loss in which their offense ceased to function. This was a team that was one of the best offenses in the league all season, and then when we got into the playoffs, they had successful, many successful moments, including against that really, really good Minnesota Timberwolves defense. They had an offensive rating over one hundred and eighteen. They could score, but Minnesota was running traditional coverages. They're putting their best perimeter defender on Luca, they were keeping their center on

Dallas's centers. They ran you know, high drop with some backside help. It was all pretty standard, and so the reads that Luca had in terms of the lob as Gafford or Lively would be rolling to the basket or the skip pass to the weak side corner. All those things were pretty standard and normal. Boston didn't just shut down Dallas's offense. It completely ceased to function the way that it did in the regular season. They had just a one oh one point four offensive rating in the

four losses against Boston. All of a sudden, their lob game that they had in ball screens was not there, all of a sudden. Just their basic spacing principles ended up with their worst above the break shooters above the break, and it all stemmed from a couple of basic game plan things from Boston. Boston put Jason Tatum their power forward on Dallas's center and just said we're gonna switch any ball screen with the center boom. Now, rollman possessions

are gone. That's why you didn't see any lobs. Right, So now that guy has to stand in the dunker spot. Now that the guy standing in the dunker spot, there's just not as much space underneath the basket as opposed to if he's rolling to the paint with the head of steam, where he has vertical spacing capability. Right now, it's like, we want to attack Horford. Well, Horford just switched on to Luca and did a pretty damn good job most of the series. Oh well, porzingis is out there.

Let's attack porzingis.

hundred and three points. So like there were some other factors there, but the main thing is schematically, their offense ceased to function. And again, like this is something I talked about after that series. It wasn't close, Like they trailed by over twenty in three of the losses and they trailed by fourteen in the other. So it's like

they got their butt kicked in the finals. And so one of the things if you guys remember the show immediately after the finals, the next morning, I did an episode in which I talked about where Dallas needs to go from here, and I specifically said they need to find a way to incorporate more ball in player movement in their offense. They need to find a way to beef up the roster with ball handling and shooting and passing so that they can run more modern five out

offensive concepts. That is where I suddenly came around on this deal. Now I'm a little bit worried for Clay's benefit. If the MAVs don't make these sorts of changes, because then he could end up being kind of a clunky offensive fit. But and like I saw a lot of MAVs fans go like, oh, this is an offense that generates a ton of catch and shoot threes. That's gonna be great for Clay, And it's like, yeah, he's gonna get some catch and shoot threes. But defensive game planning

is gonna be geared towards leaving PJ. Washington open. It's gonna be geared towards leaving everyone else open. They're gonna stay glued up to Clay whenever they can. It's not like when Luca was driving in the finals, they were helping off of Kyrie Irving and leaving him wide open. No, they're good NBA defenses gear the ball to end up

in the hands of your non shooters. And so while Clay will dictate more attention, and certainly they were be better space than if you have two mediocre shooters on the floor, Like if Derek Jones and PJ. Washington are on the floor, that's too bad above the break shooter. So having Clay out there will certainly help that situation. But make no mistake It's not like Clay's just gonna be getting left wide open on the left wing all

season long. Teams are going to try to gear their defense towards making sure that ball ends up in PJ. Washington's hands for him to take jump shots right. And so from that standpoint, like I'm hoping that this Naji Marshall piece and this Klay Thompson piece, and maybe like a shift of Derek Lively permanently into the starting five, I view that as a substantial increase in the aggregate ball handling, shooting and passing ability of the roster and

of the lineup. Right from there, that's where you open up the ability to have more five out concepts. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to run more five out concepts? All that means is that you don't have the big man sitting in the dunker spot, and you don't have have like permanent corner three point shooters, and you're running ball screens into open space instead. There is complete and total like malleyability in terms of ball

and player placement on the floor. So, for instance, let's say Derek Lively is at the top of the key and Luca has the ball and Let's say Kyrie Irving is in the right corner. Instead of just spacing the floor and running a ball screen, Luca might dribble into a dribble hand off with Kyrie. Then Kyrie might then come off of Derek Lively in a ball screen. He

might draw in some nail help from Klay Thompson. He might swing the ball to Klay Thompson who will then run another ball screen with Derek Lively who comes over. Or maybe that's PJ. Washington above the break, and you swing to PJ Washington and he dribbles down and hands it to Clay. Then Clay comes off PJ. Washington and off of Lively. Maybe the ball works its way back to Luca. But now Luca has the ball with six or seven seconds on the shot, and there's been multiple

reversals of the ball. Every player in a Mavericks jersey has touched the ball, and the defense is no longer loaded up on the strong side. When you're running just brute force four out ball screens, the defense is loaded up on you, whereas when there's real ball and player movement side to side. Now who knows how many switches they've had, the defense might have switched one or two

of those actions. The weak side defense, which might have been loaded up in a first action in a possession, might still be glued up to their players on the other side of the floor as you're getting to that third action. The main point of contention here is when you play the truly elite defenses in Minnesota, I think should have been better than they did. They just focused

on traditional coverages. But like when you face a truly elite defense that throws legitimate game plan wrenches into things, you can't just expect to crack the defense on the first approach. You've got a little by little crack the defense until you until it finally breaks on the final action. To kind of simplify it down to a three part process, it's play. It's advantage creation, advantage extending, and play finishing. In the past, Dallas has primarily been a advantage creation

and play finishing team. They skip that middle step. There's not multiple attacks in the same possession. It's usually Luca makes a move, draws multiple defenders and throws a kickout pass or a lob pass. That guy might shoot or drive the close out, but that's pretty much shit. That's the extent of what you might have seen. For the most part, for Dallas, I'm not gonna act like they didn't do anything. They ran some act they run guard

screens early in possessions to get switches for Luca. They'd run some stack pick and roll where they backscreen for the role man's man as he's trying to get downhill into the lane. They would run double drag to try to complicate the switches at the top of the ball screen. But there was very little in the way of actual

side to side flow. And that's where advantage extending comes into the picture, right, Because if you're a play finisher and Luca is only able to generate for you a little bit of an advantage because it's a truly elite defense with an excellent game plan, that play finisher is going to struggle to finish that play, which is pretty much exactly what happened to the Mavericks in the finals, right.

But when you have more ball handling and shooting on the floor, that's where you have the advantage the ability to extend that advantage. So, for instance, if that ends up being a let's say a Klay Thompson and he throws a really good pump fake because he's Clay freaking Thompson,

and the dude goes flying by him. And then Clay, who his entire life has learned how to weaponize his shooting ability to generate dribble penetration and playmaking opportunities, drives that close out and generates an even better opportunity on the weak side. And let's let's pretend that's PJ. Washington or an Aji Marshall, and that guy gets an even

better opportunity. Like that's where you extend the advantage with that side to side flow, which in my opinion, is more resilient against something like what you might have seen against Boston. You can imagine a situation where if you actually ran three sides of action against Boston. Now Tatum probably isn't unlively anymore. He's probably been switched twice by the time the ball gets back to Luca on the on the right side of the floor after multiple interchanges.

At this point, the rim protector for Boston's probably in a weird place. Tatum's probably, in a word, there's probably a guard guarding Luca, like there's gonna be something weird in Boston's configuration. By virtue of you adding those complications. And by the way, I'm not just picking on Dallas here. This is something that was one of my major takeaways

from this last season. I've watched multiple of these brute force five out teams, the Lakers two years ago when they lost in the conference finals, the Mavericks last year, where that it just seems to have a certain ceiling in terms of the adjustment. Like the Lakers, their most

important point of attack defender was Jared Vanderbilt. They couldn't play him because he couldn't knock down corner threes and in their offense because they were running four out that year, Jared Vanderbilt was just parking his ass in the corner all game and he couldn't do anything there, you know.

But then all of a sudden last year, in the five out offense for the Lakers, before Vanderbilt got hurt, he was successful and having all these double figure scoring games because he was functioning as a dribble, handoff and roll guy. Right when there's ball in player movement, it makes it so much harder to ignore a non shooter. There's a resilience that you get from that type of

ball and player movement. So one of the things that I said after that NBA Final series was I wanted to see the MAVs try to take a shift in offensive approach and philosophy towards five out ball in player movement. And these signings, the Clay signing trade and the Naji Marshall a deal, they are both significant moves in that direction. One of the main reasons to why I want this, not just for the Mavericks but for Clay is there's a diminishing return on spot up shooting. Klay Thompson is

not just a shooter. He's a movement shooter. Like we talked about earlier, four hundred and thirty reps last year second place with steph two eighty. There were only thirteen players that ran over one hundred, and all those guys were under two hundred. That like, it's it's kind of a unique thing he does. He shot forty three percent coming off of screens, waited for threes fifty seven percent. He got one point one to zero points per shot coming off of screens, Like he was a legitimate offensive

threat in those situations. He's also a pretty solid playmaker in those situations. In his time in Golden State. He got good at hitting the pocket like he'd hit Tray Jackson Davis if his man showed on the handoff, he'd hit him slipping to the basket. He showed some uh some ability to read the low man and make skip passes to the weak side corner. Like if you just have Clay take standstill above the break threes, you're diminishing

what he brings to the table. For example, Clay shot thirty eight percent on guarded ketch and shoot threes last year. He shot forty percent on unguarded ketch and shoot threes last year. It's not like there's not this idea that like Clay's I think Clay's the second best shooter ever. Right, It's not like Clay's gonna shoot seventy five percent on wide open threes. That's not how basketball works. What makes Clay the best shoot There's a variance. Variance is baked

into shooting. The best shooters in the world are like in that forty five to fifty percent range, high volume, right, like the very best in the world. That all the really good ones are maybe in that forty to forty five range. There's nobody out there that's just shooting seventy

percent from three. So, for example, if you just had a professional standstill shooter out there who's not worth seventeen to eighteen million a year, but a guy who's just a veteran minimum guy who can knock down, catch and shoot threes, he can approximate what Klay Thompson would do if he was standing on the wing in Dallas's offense.

In order to really get the value out of what Klay Thompson brings in that contract, you need him to have the ball occasionally, not just occasionally, but consistently in the flow of the offense coming off of those screens. And so again, like to be clear, I hate this deal. If Dallas plays the same way they did last year, I think you'll get a diminished return on what Klay Thompson brings to the table. You obviously took a hit

in terms of defensive personnel. You're gonna run into the same issues when you get into to a matchup in the NBA Finals, right with Boston if you were lucky

to get there again. But I love this deal if it's an acknowledgment of the reality of what Dallas needs to do to become a more resilient playoff offense, which is, if they use Klay Thompson with the ball in his hands as part of a five out flow going from side to side, if Naji Marshall is just another wave of that coming off the bench, If Derek Lively, who I think has the potential to be a really good five out fulcrum at the center position, then I love

the deal. And so again, most of this just comes down to the type of basketball that Dallas wants to play next year, and I'll be really really interested to see what their offense looks like as we get into the start of next season. Let's take a look at the like I just really quickly before we move on to the warrior side of this, Like, let's just look at the Mavericks top seven players right now. Much is

Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington. PJ showed a considerable amount off the dribble pop in the in the playoff run, Derek Lively, Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Daniel Gafford in that top seven, there's just so much more ball handling and shooting than they had last year. So I really like that deal in the context of that type of shift like even like Dante Exim is on a non guaranteed deal right now,

we'll see if if they end up keeping him. But like, do you guys remember in the in the uh it happened in the finals where like the MAVs would have Dante Exum run like inverted ball screens with Luca, where Luca would set the screen, but Luca's man would not want to leave Luca, so he wouldn't hedge, So Dante would just get right downhill into the lane. He had

a big dunk that way. If you guys remember, Like, that's that's the advantage of having a player that can dribble next to Luca, because Luca brings that kind of attention to the table, right, and so like I really like that that fit, you know, I like the idea of again, when we include Naji Marshall off the bench, when we clued Dante Exum off the bench, there's just a lot of there's a lot of capability there to

reach another level. Jaydon Hardy as well, like there's just a lot of capability within the context of the roster now to have a higher ceiling. Offensively, the biggest question is going to be can they defend with this group because again, Derek Jones was very important to their defense last year. Now PJ. Washington slides into that primary point of attack role instead of like a secondary point of

attack role. Klay Thompson is probably going to have to guard a perimeter player with some skill, and he struggled in that area last year, So it's gonna be a little bit of a test of their defense. But again, I'm a big believer in that you can coach up and scheme up a somewhat effective defense, but if they can reach another level offensively with this addition of offensive skill, it could be more than enough to make up for that gap.

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you guys a really quick breakdown. If you are in the Second Apron, you have no access to the mid level exception, which means you cannot sign a player above the cap unless it's a veteran minimum contract. You cannot take on additional money in trades, you have to trade out more money. You cannot aggregate salaries in trades, so if you see a player that makes twenty million and you want to trade two ten million dollars players to

get there, can't do it. You cannot use cash in trades to help kind of facilitate that the money balance. You cannot buy second round draft picks. Remember when the Warriors bought that second round draft pick for Jordan Bell. Can't do that anymore. You can't use trade exceptions to match salary. You can't use your own free agents and sign in trades. If you stay in the second apron multiple years, it affects your ability to use first round pai and future trades like it is incredibly punitive to

be in that zone. And so I think the reality was is the Warriors are just trying to get out of that second aprin. Well, lacub is trying to quickly relieve himself of the salary crunch that he was in last season. Right now, he quickly pivoted. They just signed ded Anthony Melton to the non taxpayer mid level exception, a contract that they would not have been able to sign unless they let Clay go. And I love d Anthony Melton for the record, I thought it was a

really nice pickup. And we're going to talk about him in just a second. But make no mistake, this was a cost saving move in general from Golden State, not just the Klay Thompson piece, but letting Clay waiving Chris Paul so that you didn't have to pay his thirty

million dollars salary next year. Right, So you lose all that salary, which helps you in terms of the tax but obviously you lose the ability to use Chris Paul as a vehicle to bring in another player in a trade, and you lose Lay Thompson, who is an important kind of like structural piece of your team. Right now, here's

the deal with d Anthony Melton. I think he is like the next best thing to KCP in terms of like he's just a rock solid NBA starter, good athlete, good perimeter defender, can guard up and down a little bit, He's a good rebounder, can shoot an attack close out. It's just like a consummate professional, rock solid NBA starter. Like, if you've got enough talent in terms of your stars, you're never going to be worried about what d Anthony Melton is or isn't doing for your team, provided that

he's healthy. Obviously, he was hurt much of last year. So within the context of helping Steph and accentuating him as a backcourt partner, love the d Anthony Meltin fit. But if they aren't willing or able to trade for a legitimate secondary shot creator, they're just still in a lot of trouble in this upcoming season. This team missed the playoffs last year in a field that allowed ten teams in in the Western Conference, So like I'm hoping that this is in the context of some sort of

other move I had heard. There was some reporting that the Warriors had an offer on the table from Chicago asking for Wiggins and Chris Paul for Zack Lavine, and the Warriors turned it down. Now, for obvious reasons, lacob was trying to get out of that second apron, right, But like, zach Lavine is a guy that you know, even for all his flaws, you know, that's why he's

available for Chris Paul and Andrew Wiggins. You're not in the market for the more expensive stars, right, So, like zach Lvine could have at least been an option to provide some real shock creation and an influx of talent, and the Warriors just said no, thank you. So I hope they have something else up their sleeves, because I think Steph's gonna have a bounce back year next year. It'd be a damn shame to ask him to grind

through another rebuild. I shouldn't say another, but a rebuild out of a sense of loyalty to the franchise when he has superstar years left in him. It's a waste. He's too good to be wasted on a rebuilding roster that can't contend in the Western Conference. And like Steph's not the kind of guy he would ask for a trade.

So I really really hope that Golden State and their decision makers Jo Laka and Mike den Levy, I hope that they snap out of it, and I hope they do something aggressive because I just I really don't want to watch Steph Curry play meaningless basketball next year. And Anthony Melton is a good player and a really nice pickup, and they're gonna have a certain amount of talent. But as good as Jonathan Minga can be, he's not there yet. As good as the other young players on that roster

can be, they aren't there yet. This team does not have enough firepower, and I hope they have a plan to address that before we get to training camp. All right, Paul George to the Sixers, it's all in type of move with the goal of giving Joel Embiid the firepower he needs to contend in the Eastern Conference, especially within some of the kind of pressures around in that situation after they've had a bunch of disappointing seasons in a row. So let's start with the good before we get into

some of the other stuff. The basketball fit is seamless. Paul George was one of the most efficient shot creators in the NBA last year. During the regular season, he ran five hundred and seventeen pick and rolls that led to five hundred eighty points. It's one point one to two points per possession. Out of sixty players ran at least five hundred pick and rolls per s energy including passes, he ranked fifth out of sixty inefficiency, so one of

the best pick and roll players in the league. Three hundred and forty one points on three hundred and twenty two ISOs. That's one point zero six points per possession. That ranks tenth out of nineteen players to run at least three hundred, so more middle of the pack there, but one thirty seven points on one hundred and fifteen post ups including passes one point one to nine points per possession. That was fourth out of forty eight players to run at least one hundred post ups last year.

So really really impactful regular season shot creator had a tough playoff run, which we'll get to in a minute, but like an immediate influx of shot creation ability, right He's never played with the screen and roll man that has the type of gravity that Joel Embiid does, especially when you consider most teams are not gonna want to switch that action. Any player that's big enough to handle Joel and bid will not be quick enough to handle Paul George and vice versa. So like, I don't think

you're gonna see switching there. PG. If there's a weakness with him right now, it's that he can't really like beat people off the dribble the way he used to. Like, he only had ten made field goals at the rim in that six game series against the Dallas Mavericks, so like you need him to have a good screener so that he can kind of methodically operate in the mid range.

I actually kind of like that as a change up to Tyrese MAXI too, because Tyres Maxey is like all downhill speed and pull up threes downhill speed, pull up threes right, and MAXI brings some movement shooting as well. So like I like Paul George is just kind of like a different kind of pace to attack with with

Joel Embiid. And then again, like when we look at what happened last year, it's like a lot of like minutes where it's like Maxi and Embiid with you know, Batoom Ubra and Harris right, and like there just wasn't enough firepower offensively out of that threesome and Tobias Harris was just just had a really really tough last couple of years there in Philly, And so like upgrading that to a legitimate threat, like Paul George, I'm a big believer in like whatever you think about Paul George, like,

don't overthink things, like this is a team that was giving the Knicks fits by with that janky ass kind of fit with all those those flawed wings, and then max and Embiid, you just upgraded one of them into one of the top twenty five players in the league. So, like, don't overthink it. Paul George is gonna make things way easier for the Sixers, especially on the offensive end of

the four. Again, the main question mark is going to be how much resilience is there for him in the playoffs, Like he had a rough series against Dallas. I'm not gonna get into the details right now. We'll get into it when we talk to Clippers, But like the advantage is is, hopefully he's your third best player. You're hoping for Philly's sake, that Max and Embiid kind of bring enough of that firepower that Paul George. Because here's the thing with Paul George. Paul George is a professional tough

shot maker. It's one of the things that makes him so inconsistent. He takes an actively hunts really tough step back pull up jump shots, right, and so as a result of that, he can go really cold some games, and he can go really hot some games.

better odds is the Boston Celtics. So like, that is the advantage of bringing in the firepower that Paul George brings the situation. One other concern would be age. Like, if the Sixers make it to a second round series next year, Paul George will be thirty five years old at the time that series tips off, in the first year of his four year deal, So like, obviously there's gonna be some risk in the long run with that deal.

But you know, at the end of the day, you had to do something thing to give firepower to Joel Embiid. Paul George really was the best option available to them in free agency, and they got them. So it's hard to refer to it as anything other than a win. Moving forward, presumably you're gonna get Kelly Ubray at the four right, you need to find an athletic to guard who can guard at the point of attack. That's gonna be the interesting piece for them to try to track down.

Here in the coming days, a lot of veteran minimum contracts are going to be in the running here. That's the one thing that gets tough when you have three max level players, you got to fill out the roster with veteran minimums, and there are flaws that come with that, and so we'll see. The difficult job is going to be for Daryl Morey here to try to find value in that market. Who's the next Derek Jones junior this year?

Who's the next guy that someone can find at a relatively discounted rate to anchor the point of attack defense role. And that's where Philly's gonna have an advantage because it's like, hey, veteran minimum, but we're the team that has the second best odds to win the title. That's gonna help you in some of those conversations. Right, They're just gonna need health. None of this matters if Joel Embi can't be Joel embiid.

He has to be the best player in the world for this team to get where it wants to go. Make no mistake, the addition of Paul George and Tyrese Maxi does not give the Sixers a substantial talent advantage over Boston. Boston just signed Derek White today for a deal over thirty million a year. They have five players that make over thirty million per year. They are still more talented than the Philadelphia seventy six Ers right now, and the only thing that can rectify that situation is

Joel Embiid. He has to play like the best player in the world. He has to outplay Tatum, unlike Tatum out playing Embiid like he did in Game seven two years ago, and beiad has to win those battles in order for this team to get where they want to go. This is where I like another signing that the Sixers had earlier this summer or two days ago. They get

Andre Drummond. Now, this is a really, really nice move because not only is it a backup center option, but if you need to hold Embiid to fifty games, if you need to try to keep his game total down to no more than three times a week, or whatever it is that you need to do, hold him out of every back to back, hold him out of a random road trip here there. That's a quick road trip, like whatever it is you need to do to withstand

Joel Embiid's rest schedule. That's where Andre Drummond comes in as a legitimate starting caliber center that can help in those situations. So again, like Paul George has his Wartz, that's why the Clippers let him go. It's obviously not the best possible player that you could conceive of to fit alongside Tyresmaxe and Joel Embiid, but he's who was available. He was the best option overnight made the Sixers the second favorite on DraftKings to win the title. Don't overthink it.

The Sixers are gonna be fun to watch next year. Put me on to the Clippers again. Just the reality

of the second apron rules. For the sake of the people that might see this in a breakout clip, I'm gonna list the the kind of ramifications of being in that second apron. No access to the mid level exceptions. You cannot sign players for anything other than the veteran minimum contract. You can't take on additional money in trades. It used to be you could go over a certain percentage. You can't do that now. Can't aggregate salaries in trades. You can't so like you can't partner to ten million

dollar contracts trade for twenty million dollar guy. Can't use cash and trades to make up for a gap. Can't buy second round draft picks. A lot of second round draft picks. You just throw two or three million bucks get a second round pick. Can't do that anymore in the second apron. Can't use trade exceptions, can't use your

own free agents and sign and trades. They're all these restrictions that come from being in that second apron, And it's just clear that Steve Vallmer doesn't want to operate like that, and like again, like it's a profoundly restrictive zone to be in. And there's like pretty much one team that you see that's in that situation where it kind of makes some sense, and that's the Boston Celtics. They signed Derek White to this four year, one hundred

and twenty six million dollar deal. But it's like they don't really have to need to like improve the roster over the summer, right, Like Boston's got their five as long as those five guys are as long as four of those five guys are healthy, they're still the best team in the league. So like they don't need to go. Everything for the Boston is a luxury. The Clipper situation is totally different now. They had a dominant stretch this year. They had a stretch where they look better than the Celtics.

From November seventeenth to February fifth, the Clippers were thirty one to eight. That was the best record in the league over that span by a wide margin. They had a five percent better win percentage than the Celtics did over that span. That's almost half a season. They're first in offense, they were eleventh in defense. They were kicking everybody's butt. So the counterpoint of view here would be we were a bona fide top tier championship contender and

our superstar got hurt. Why don't we run it back and see if we have better luck, right, And that would be the case for retaining Paul George and going into the second apron. But here's the more realistic point of view. That same superstar who was unable to go this year has been unable to go for consecutive postseasons. He's either been completely hurt and missed it entirely or three times he made it into the playoffs. Twice he made it into the playoffs healthy, played, looked great, then

got hurt. Another time he came into the playoffs hurt, tried to play, ended up staying hurt. Right, it's four years in a row. In addition to that, Paul George looked pretty underwhelming in the MAVs series. He shot just fourteen for forty three on pull up jumpers, he shot below fifty percent on layups, He made just ten shots at the rim in total over a six game series.

He was their highest usage rate player. He had a higher usage rates than James Harden out of any Clipper starter, and he didn't even average twenty points a game in that series. So when they needed him to step up and play like a superstar, he did not reach that level. And so, while it's hard to stomach as a Clippers fan losing a player like Paul George and effectively losing your championship ceiling, Paul George is gonna be thirty five years old in the playoffs. Last year, we just talked

about how much he struggled. Kawhi Leonard has all of these issues. It looked like a small likelihood that everyone would stay healthy again. So the Clippers are looking at the situation and they're saying, we're going to have to tweak the roster. We're going to have to make moves, We're going to have to aggregate salaries, We're going to have to do all of these things to try to feel a competitive roster going into the future. The only way to have that flexibility is if they let Paul

George go, and so they had to. So the question is where do the Clippers go from here? Resigning James Harden was really smart. He's still one of the best regular season offensive engines in the league. Whatever you think about him in the playoffs, he's still a very good regular season offensive engine. Even if Kawhi misses time again, he can help the Clippers as they go into this new arena. He can help the Clippers still field a

respectable basketball team in that new arena. And most importantly, he's still a very tradable contract thirty five million a year, only two years. No one's taking on some sort of long term commitment. It's not like you can make you can trade two mid level salaries to make that fit. Right. If the Clips decide to pivot to a full rebuild halfway through next season or next summer, James Harden will fetch a couple of picks or a couple of good young players so that you had to pick one of them.

I think James Harden will have more trade value. So in terms of asset management, keeping Harden at two years for thirty five was a better deal than signing Paul George to four years two hundred. You have much harder contracted trade right. This maintains their flexibility. That Derek Jones junior fit makes a ton of sense in the short term. He's an excellent point of attack to demonstrated that the postseason last year. He's a solid closeout attacker. He's a

good play finisher. Play finishers play well alongside James Harden because James Harden spoon feeds you those opportunities, right and like in this particular situation as well, he is another tradable asset. He has an achievable low salary. He has a position that everyone's looking for. Everyone wants the guy who can guard the other team's best player. That's something Dare Jones can do, and so like, Look, if Kawhi

is healthy next year and plays like an MVP. They're gonna be a respectable team fighting in the middle of the Western Conference. I don't think they have a championship ceiling, but they'll be fighting if Kawhi gets hurt and they decide they want to pivot to rebuild. You just signed two really good trade assets that you can turn around

and flip to try to spark that rebuild process. Right, So, like I liked it for the Clippers, it's not it's not a fun move, but it's it's a it's a demonstration of self awareness and a first step towards the next phase of this franchise. With some flexibility in different directions, they can go then go soft rebuilding and go hard rebuild. They have some flexibility now that would not have existed had they resigned Paul George. So I like to move

all right, guys, that's all I have for today. As I said, We're going to get into the rest of the free agency stuff tomorrow. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will see you guys.