Broadcasting live from the ninety six nine at James Studios.
It's time to show in the soft Here's your host, Brandon Kravitz. Yeah, Yeah, Come to the show.
We are live on ninety six nine, the game streaming everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You are in the Zone, the show of the Orlando Sports Fan. Your hosts Brandon Kravitz here joined by my co host and producer He is Sweet Tea Tyler Karen hit us up all the way throughout the three hours.
That we have with you.
Mills are text line is how to do It five zero eight five seven. Also on the iHeartRadio talk Back, Just tap that microphone icon and fire away.
We will air some of those.
In the middle of the five o'clock hour, all part of our five o'clock fill up where we turn the show over to you the Magic have a new player, we will talk about him momentarily. A lot of moves
in the NBA that we need to discuss. This is a highly transactional league and even if we don't have the heaviest hitters in terms of the names involved, there are a lot of ramifications that do involve some of the league's biggest stars and we have the transaction experts of all transaction experts, Mike Jannetti joining the show at four thirty, so be sure not to miss that. That is at four thirty sharp. You should set your alarm to it. If you like this show, Tyler, I will
get to NBA Free Agency in a moment. A quick aside. I don't know if you've ever gone on a witch hunt for your girlfriend, Amanda, but that is exactly what I did today for my wife Mallory. And I am not saying that as a figure of speech. I actually hunted for a witch. She is a metallic statue that stands about two feet tall, sold at Cracker Barrel stores near you. This is something that I guess has gone semi viral on TikTok for those that buy Halloween decorations and lie.
And my wife wants it, and so she called.
I can't believe I'm even admitting this on the air, but I share my life with all of you. She calls Cracker Barrel and says, do you have this thing? And they said the truck comes at noon. Well, she works at an office, so she tells me this. She didn't ask me, She didn't say, hey, could you go run to Cracker Barrel in the middle of your day and go check this out. But come on, I'm eight years into this thing. I know how this works. This is an easy brownie point Cracker Barrels on the way
into the studio. I can just go stop in and look for the witch statue and be done with it, and I'd be out forty bucks.
Okay, but I'd.
Be the husband of the year picking up a witch statue in July. So what I go to Cracker Barrel and I say, they have a little section for Halloween now because they know that people like my wife are into buying this stuff now.
But they didn't have it out.
So now I have to go up to one of these poor employees showing them a picture in July, do you have this witch?
And they go in the back and they look for it. Anyway.
I didn't end up getting it, but you know, I was, Uh, this is what I signed up for. I signed a document eight years ago that said I have to do these You avoided danger and I'll tell you why. Because at first, when he said I went on a wild witch hunt for my wife, I didn't know if you meant that you were looking for something for your wife, or if you're referring to your wife as a witch and you were looking for the wild the wicked witch
of the West and referencing your wife. I know that she is has recently gotten into tarot cards.
She is.
Yeah, I honestly, if I had called her a witch on the air, I don't think that she would take it as a poor remark.
I think she would take it as a compliment. All right.
Well then maybe hey, then maybe you depends on how you say it. Maybe you avoided the disaster, or maybe there is the disaster because she wants to she wants the title of it. I don't know, but that's a that's a good pro husband move right there. There are plenty of signs, men, Gellen folks. Your significant other is
telling you what she wants all the time. You just got to know how to decipher the way that she presents it, all right, So pro move to pick up that even though she's just looking ahead for this, that you still try to put in the effort to try to get it for So it would be greeting her at the door when she got home today.
I just started picking up the sticks again to play college Football twenty five on the PS five. The gaming system is in the living room. If I get this Witch, it buys me the rest of the regular season with you. I'm playing with the Tar Heels. It buys me the rest of the regular season with UNC. Why would I choose UNC? Because I am falling in love with a Marion Hampton, the running back of the La Chargers. So
to play this season out anyway, I digress. The Magic continue to add Duke Blue Devils to the roster.
This it was one that was long awaited.
Tias Jones, the ten year pro, will back up Jalen Suggs, the team's reserve point guard. Tias Jones has been tied to the Magic for the past couple of seasons, the past couple of trade deadlines. Whenever there's a list for who the Magic could add, Tias Jones has been on that list. And I can tell you that with all the credibility in the world, because I am the one
that spits out those lists on this show. He is a savvy vet, an elite assist to turnover ratio guy forty percent from three point range in the last two years. There's a lot to like. And I went back to his college career. He won a national championship at Duke in twenty fifteen. Pallo Wendell Carter junior now Tias Jones got three dookies on the squad. I guess the question is is this enough? We still don't have word on Mo Wagner. The Magic certainly aren't operating with a ton
of cap space cap space at the moment. By my count, the Magic right thirteen players. When you account for Tias Jones and the two new rookies that they just drafted. That leaves space for two more guys, and they are up against it.
Financially, they are already past the salary cap.
The salary cap in the NBA without any penalty is one hundred and fifty four million dollars. The Magic right now are paying out one hundred and seventy seven million dollars.
They are firmly in that first apron.
I don't think the Magic want to be in the second apron world, which they are.
Dangerously close to.
I'll give you the figures for that in a moment, but I also I try not to bog you down with too many of those numbers. Just know the Magic have already spent more money than the salary cap allows you penalty free. So if anybody out there tells you the Magic.
Are gone cheap, they are lying.
The Magic are spending through their teeth and perhaps we'll even spend a little bit more if they are able to. So hard not to like the deal. We've been wanting this one for a while now. Tias Jones to the Magic has felt like it's been in the stars for a long time.
And I like the deal. What do you think?
Yeah, I absolutely love the deal. This is about three years overdue. As you mentioned, whenever list comes out of target players via free agency via the trade market. Throughout the NBA season, Tyas Jones has been in that top five list just about anywhere that you look. So it's a player that has been somewhat tied to this Magic team for a long time coming, and it's one of
the holes that the Magic needed to fill. Even drafting Jase Richardson in the draft, there's no guarantee of if he is going to be ready, when he is going to be ready, and what he is able to bring.
You still want to bring in an experienced guard that is able to do a lot of the things that you need a backup guard to do what Corey Joseph was able to do even in the starting rotation to close out the season when the Magic were really successful down that stretch where Corey Joseph was the starting guard. About a ten point per game kind of guy. He dishes out a handful of assists per game. I know you have the numbers on his assist a turnover ratio.
It's been unbelievable throughout his NBA career and I can I can further add to that once once we get to that point. But I on face value, I absolutely love the tighest Jones deal and especially the contract as well comparatively to his counterparts around the league what some other guards have gone for him free agency. I think it's a I'm not calling it a home run deal
for the Magic. It's tough to get to that point on a seven million dollar year player, but this is a rock solid double into the gap.
A mean absolutely that you know you're at least getting on base with this deal. Tias Jones is a three point shooter that helps out defensively and he's a pro. The guy's been in the league for ten years. I do think it's a little bit puzzling that he's been on five teams already. I'm not gonna go full red flag status, but I do think it's important to note that for Magic fans that you should be excited about this deal.
You should. I think the proper way to put it is you should be happy.
Pleased maybe is the best way to describe it with this contract with the player.
But there's a.
Reason why if you're on five teams in ten years, there's a reason for it. And I think the reason for Tias Jones is that he's not a special player. He's just the guy. But the Magic needed a guy off the bench, so that's that's what you're getting. I think it's important to put that context on it, though. This guy has been on four different teams before showing up to the Magic, and there's a reason why if he was that good, don't have that many teams giving up on him.
Yeah, his first four years he was.
He began his career in Minnesota, where he didn't make too much of a splash leading up to that COVID season, and that's when he eventually did join Memphis where he spent four more and then the last two seasons he's just been a guy that's been available, you know, numbers and players on the Washington Wizards. This last couple of years gets little wonky. You never quite know what you're gonna get. And that's where he spent his twenty three to twenty four season and then last year with Phoenix.
It was kind of a great fit for Phoenix that was looking for cheap and Tyas Jones still looking to elevate his career. So this is a spot where look what the Magic just did signing him to a one year deal. He hasn't gotten to the point where he has deserved. Hey, this is why you need to sign me to a multi year deal to affect the cap, to try to keep me on a contract where I play above my value long term.
He hasn't gotten there.
Maybe this is the year with Orlando that he can prove that and kind of find a home for the remainder of his NBA career, But time will tell with that. I don't look too deep into it that he's been on five years, five teams and ten years. I think it's just more of a hey, the rookie contract, the rookie that play and that duration it wasn't great and he hasn't been great to the point to give the team the reason to do it. But we haven't heard
any locker room issues from this guy. No attitude, no motor issues have come out around the league in his what ten year career at this point, and that is a positive sign.
So he comes from he comes from a big basketball family. His brother Trey plays four the Chicago Bulls. When I was looking at those assist to turnover ratio stats, what I found interesting is that both Jones brothers in the NBA are terrific at this Trey Jones also ranks really high since coming into the league in twenty twenty. Tigas
Jones simply does not turn the ball over. Over the past seven seasons, he is one of the best in terms of assist to turnover ratio if you go to the two years, so the five year period between really right after he got through the early career lumps, but before he joined the Wizards, which will tank your turnover stats, Jones had led the league and assist.
To turnover ratio.
So there was a five year period where he was number one two thousand, one hundred and eight assists four hundred turnovers. That's a ratio of five point two seven, which is the highest that anybody has achieved in forty six years. That is what he brings to the table's awo. Somebody say on Twitter that he this was a naysayer of the deal, said that Tias Jones is Corey Joseph but with better pr I don't agree with that. I
think Tias Jones is better than Corey Joseph. But if you're thinking about what kind of player are you getting, I think it's Corey Joseph with a slightly more advanced offensive repertoire.
Yeah, I don't you know.
I was banging on table for the magic need a Corey Joseph times four. He might not be a times four, but he might be a double. He might have times two point five. I think those are some of the things that Tias brings to the table. And you mentioned that Washington season that's where he averaged a career best seven assists. What I took away from that that Washington team ranked twenty fourth in the league in three point shooting.
What that says to me they shot under thirty five percent from deep is tias Jones was able to make the best out of a worst situation and that season averaging his career best seven assists per game while also keeping his turnovers at one turnover a game. It's an impressive thing to do on a Wizards team that clearly
doesn't have much of a direction. Tias Shones when he has had the higher usage the ball in his hands more, he has made the best out of it in his career, at least in the last couple of years, and I think those are positive signs. It's also a guy that has bounced in the starting lineup and off of the bench. Last year at Phoenix he started in fifty eight out of eighty one games. His last year in Memphis started in just twenty two of the eighty games that he played.
He's versatile and he's adaptable. I think that's also a huge plus for this Magic team. That listen, Jalen Suggs hasn't been a clean bill of health in his career so far. He's probably going to miss some games this season as well. What this allows bringing Tias Shones is a guy who has bounced back and forth between the starting rotation and the bench unit. I think he can
play well with the starters. It also keeps Anthony Black locked into that bench rotation, which I think is an overall positive for the second unit and for AB's progression.
Yeah, the current Magic depth chart right now is if you look at point guard Jalen's Uggs, you have Tyas Jones, Jace Richardson.
We'll see how much he plays in year one.
At shooting guard has been Bane, Anthony Black if you want to Anthony Black is sort of a position unicorn. But Jet Howard also in that mix, potentially Franz Wagner, Tristan De Silva, Palabanko, Jonathan Isaac You've got no appenda to be part of that front court, and then Wendell Carter Junior in Gogobitase.
Two roster spots open.
Hopefully one of them ends up being Mo Wagner, and we'll see who ends up taking that last spot. Damian Lillard did get waved today by the Milwaukee Bucks. The ripple effects of that are fascinating. So we're definitely gonna get to that before the end of the hours. Certainly at the top of the four o'clock hour during our first four things, we're going to take a quick break from the nf or the NBA talk.
To dip into some NFL.
Do you realize that this month the NFL starts July thirty first is the Hall of Fame. So I have some games in week one that I want to throw Tyler's way.
We'll see how he reacts to that. Don't swim