[00:00:00] It's Monday, you know what time it is. It's F-R-P-C-HOOTS. I'm a guy, Vince. And today we're
[00:00:07] talking about all of what's going on in the NBA in regards to the trades and what
[00:00:14] have you. We kind of talked about the Dane trade already. We're not gonna really
[00:00:18] like comb over it with a fine-to-comb but we are gonna go over some things
[00:00:24] because I think some people might have gotten some facts wrong in this
[00:00:30] situation. So we're gonna go over it a little bit and then we're gonna get into
[00:00:35] this Drew holiday trade and then what is next obviously in the NBA. First and
[00:00:41] foremost, I want to thank everybody for getting on the podcast man just banging
[00:00:47] it out giving us the reviews, giving us the ratings, obviously in the numbers so
[00:00:52] thank you so much. Please keep it up tell a friend, tell a co-worker we really
[00:00:58] appreciate it. The other thing that I want to talk about is the YouTube channel
[00:01:02] that's going strong. We over 10,000 views which is incredible because we
[00:01:08] don't even really promote it the way we should as of yet but with your help
[00:01:13] we're gonna get there right? So just a lot of love, a lot of appreciation in
[00:01:19] that matter. Now the thing that I want to get to in regards to the Dane trade
[00:01:24] because a lot of people have been talking about what Portland did, where
[00:01:28] Cronin did, Dame wrong and and all of these things. The one thing that I want
[00:01:35] to say about Portland if you want to say that Portland failed Dane I can
[00:01:41] understand that because you're talking about an organization and Dane has been
[00:01:45] part of it for more than a decade so I get that part but if you want to talk
[00:01:50] about Cronin specifically he's really not to blame. The O'Shea regime that might
[00:01:59] be where some of your issues are okay. It wasn't that long ago that podcast and
[00:02:08] people in the media or the NBA media if you want to call it that and no
[00:02:14] disrespect to these people they were talking about has it is it time to move
[00:02:20] on from stocks? Remember that Terry Stott's was a coach, a long-time coach.
[00:02:25] Was the message being heard? Why is the defense not getting better? All of these
[00:02:31] things these are all things that were literally talked about I know it seems
[00:02:37] like a long time ago but it really wasn't. This is like five years ago
[00:02:43] but we forget now if you want to tell me they held on to CJ McCullum too long I
[00:02:51] would agree with you that is where you might have been able to make the biggest
[00:02:56] difference on putting a team together that would be able to go ahead and
[00:03:04] create a championship type atmosphere for Dane in Portland so I will hear
[00:03:08] you on all those arguments but when you're killing Cronin for not sticking
[00:03:16] with Damian Lillard or some of these reports of Dane asked to come back
[00:03:21] and all of these things here's the one thing that I'll say Damian Lillard as
[00:03:28] a player is it's an all-time great important when he's all-time great in
[00:03:34] the NBA the guy has done some incredible things the one thing that we will never
[00:03:40] look at Dane as is some sort of defensive player and now there's concerns about
[00:03:46] what's going to happen in Milwaukee do they have enough balance to be able to
[00:03:51] you know hide Dane right now it's it's that's their problem now the plus
[00:03:58] side of the game obviously is all the offense we talked about in previous pod
[00:04:02] so go check the archive pods with that but I do want to say that when Dane asked
[00:04:11] for a trade and the agent goes out and says to the other 28 other teams don't
[00:04:21] trade from my guy because he'll be extremely unhappy now I understand why
[00:04:27] the agent is doing that we saw it here in LA with Anthony Davis so I'm not
[00:04:33] sitting here saying like you know as a fan of the Lakers have I not benefited
[00:04:38] from some some tactics like this and and how unscrupulous it is I'm not gonna tell
[00:04:44] you all that he was doing what he thought was right for his client bottom line
[00:04:50] but at the end of the day you can't sit there and then go back to the dude who
[00:04:56] you were trying to build this relationship with you've been part of
[00:05:00] this organization went for you know more than a decade and then tell him hey I'm
[00:05:04] thinking I might want to come back when you really tried to handcuff him in his
[00:05:10] dealing with other teams in the league that would want you know Dane services
[00:05:16] now time goes on we get closer to camp you're putting people's feet to the
[00:05:22] fire Dane is sitting here going like shit I don't know if this is gonna
[00:05:25] work out with the Miami deal I better open up my possibilities here and all of
[00:05:31] a sudden you get a trade now he goes to Milwaukee I understand the Miami people
[00:05:37] are really upset I'm gonna get to you in one second I promise but for the
[00:05:44] people who are killing cronin in this deal understand he came in at a really
[00:05:49] tumultuous time Paul Allen has passed away you know his sister is dealing with
[00:05:58] just a fortune that is hard to wrap your head around if you weren't part of the
[00:06:05] day-to-day situation right so cronin in the basketball ops were basically left
[00:06:13] to their own devices to kind of build this team and obviously when you
[00:06:18] self-scout and you see that you have two demeanour demeanor to guards in your
[00:06:25] back court and they're getting picked on that there's time for a change when you
[00:06:31] make one trade and it doesn't seem to work out because you didn't have the
[00:06:37] second star to do what you did with the depth pieces around Dane and then
[00:06:45] you add Jeremy Grant and Jeremy Grant is a very good player he will provide
[00:06:50] tremendous offense for wherever he ends up and I'm not breaking any news here
[00:06:56] I'm not saying he's being traded tomorrow because he can't be because he just
[00:07:01] signed the contract but you can rest assure that these trades aren't over
[00:07:07] for Portland cronin hired Mike Schmitz who did extensive scouting for ESPN he's
[00:07:19] one of the draft gurus for them and really had a pulse on the international
[00:07:25] market and everything like that and Portland signed him so now we're in
[00:07:31] this situation where you're starting to see adjustments being made you're
[00:07:36] starting to see different types of ideas being hatched in Portland and I'm sure
[00:07:42] Dane can see it too and the writing was becoming on the wall that maybe my time
[00:07:49] in Portland is up maybe my time of you know being mr. Portland mr.
[00:07:54] trailblazer all that sort of thing is up now you're in a situation where you
[00:08:01] start putting demands on the team like you don't get a veteran in here you know
[00:08:07] I might have to think about do I want to be a Portland trailblazer for
[00:08:11] life this was a couple years ago that's the shading sharp comment okay so it
[00:08:20] was going on not this last draft but the draft previous so keep that in mind
[00:08:27] this is not good something that just happened overnight it no it's simmered
[00:08:32] simmer got to a boil and here we are so we get to the end of this season we get
[00:08:40] to the situation where they're definitely we're gonna trade the number three pick
[00:08:44] for a veteran player because anytime that has ever happened it's never been
[00:08:50] forward for a star back no one's gonna take somebody theoretical and give you
[00:08:55] a start no one no one wants to do that unless they get they know they're getting
[00:09:01] LeBron they know they're getting whomever they know they're getting you
[00:09:07] know for this podcast I guess James Harden guy for good we'll talk about him a
[00:09:14] little bit later as well so you get all of that and then as the off season
[00:09:22] starts to really percolate and you start to see the free agency moves and
[00:09:26] everything like that and Dan comes out with the ultimatum I want to only be
[00:09:30] traded to the Miami Heat and this is where I want to go and it's your job to
[00:09:37] figure it out Cronus comments at that point where like this is their deal
[00:09:45] is not good enough now the reports coming out from Brian Windhorst of ESPN
[00:09:52] is that Miami and the Trailblazers did not talk after that point and we'll get to
[00:10:02] the drew thing in a second and how that worked out but did not talk after
[00:10:09] those preliminary conversations they didn't even get an offer to come back
[00:10:14] in afterwards so keep that in mind they set up a offer the offer was quickly
[00:10:23] rebuked and then they decided to move on and see if they could wait for time see
[00:10:30] if Dan would be a little bit more reasonable with his demands when you
[00:10:34] go to a championship caliber team instead of just one team and long
[00:10:38] behold we get to a week before training camp and Dan stand softens now he gives
[00:10:48] moves to Milwaukee Milwaukee is accredited for pulling off a coup how they get
[00:10:56] involved stories start to come out about their general manager and what he did
[00:11:02] and you know everybody talks about the pressure that Janice put on and all of
[00:11:07] this there's a lot of narratives floating around out there the main thing
[00:11:13] with this whole deal is this it was always about drew holiday and now we can
[00:11:21] get into it so drew holiday as everybody knows is now a Boston Celtic
[00:11:29] we are I know my people in the 617 in the 781 are really excited right now
[00:11:36] there over the moon about what has gone on okay especially what's going on with
[00:11:44] the football team and the baseball team but I digress so drew holiday becomes
[00:11:50] Boston Celtics the Celtics go all in if you listen to the previous part and I
[00:11:55] tell you you should go back and listen to it I said if you want to help a
[00:12:00] young coach who struggled a coach who show maybe some chinks in the armor
[00:12:05] you go get him a guy like drew holiday who can be a coach on the floor and also
[00:12:10] kind of help you lead you through some of these rough terrains that go on
[00:12:15] throughout the season and also into the postseason because of all his vast
[00:12:21] experience he's had in the postseason okay we talked about that they did it so
[00:12:28] that the actual trade is everybody would know is that drew holiday goes to
[00:12:33] the Boston Celtics now the what they get back is they get back Robert Williams
[00:12:42] the center athlete athletic as hell great defender good switch defender and they
[00:12:48] also get a Malcolm Bogdan now remember Bogdan was part of a trade that kind of
[00:12:55] fell apart I guess in Memphis for poor Zingas
[00:13:02] and they ended up creating Marcus smart so keep that in the black of your hat so
[00:13:10] Bogdan was not wanted by the Celtics and we'll get into that in one second and
[00:13:17] they're trading innocent high on Robert Williams because of the fact that this
[00:13:24] guy misses a lot of games and I know a lot of people sit out there well you
[00:13:27] don't understand the new NBA and loan management and blah blah no go look at
[00:13:33] his basketball reference go look at it the amount of games he's missed over
[00:13:38] his five seasons and you tell me all right but upside play very good defensive
[00:13:46] player doesn't need the ball in his hands to score a great energy guy
[00:13:52] definitely going to provide you a I would call a defensive anchor right if you
[00:14:01] didn't get it out of 8 and you're definitely getting out of Robert Williams again
[00:14:06] Malcolm Bogdan for that young group who can be a versatile a versatile piece
[00:14:13] and help with leadership is actually a good idea the thing that drew holiday
[00:14:19] would have been able to provide the Portland Trebliz is in that respect
[00:14:24] Malcolm Bogdan can do that now here is the reason why Malcolm Bogdan is no longer a Celtic
[00:14:32] yes we do understand about the trade that happened before
[00:14:37] he was unhappy that much is true the other thing is is that I don't think the Celtics were
[00:14:44] truly excited about the Malcolm Bogdan experience last year
[00:14:51] he can hunt his own shot his playmaking ability is suspect to me personally I don't think he gets
[00:14:57] people involved nearly as much as people think he does um the word around that count is that he
[00:15:04] did not he did not involve other players obviously i.e. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
[00:15:12] people would say well they need to be more aggressive I don't know you know um but a microwave guy
[00:15:22] off the bench for the Portland Trail Blazers when you sometimes your offense will get bogged down
[00:15:28] because you've got a bunch of young guys running around and here's somebody who can definitely
[00:15:33] set up the offense and whatever definitely this is a good idea so kudos to croning on the back end
[00:15:43] are making that deal a lot of people have stressed about you know what they got what they got what
[00:15:49] they got and here's the thing dame is 33 uh dame did fetch in the end of the result of the haul
[00:16:04] in mind you I don't think it's done and we'll get to that in a second but I gotta get to Miami
[00:16:10] I gotta show them love in a second but at the end of the day they got three first couple swaps
[00:16:20] couple young players to move around drew holiday was the other piece to get them the other
[00:16:26] you know the other picks that they would need and things of that nature so I mean
[00:16:31] I think they did well I think actually it's more like three actual picks and they ended up with
[00:16:39] three swaps is two from Miami and I think one from Boston as well so I think they did very well
[00:16:46] in this and what the haul was getting to Miami and Miami feeling like they were wronged
[00:16:58] there's a couple ways to look at it on my previous part I talked about maybe this is what they wanted
[00:17:05] to happen in the first place is to kind of see what the the background movement was that you
[00:17:12] could not see until the dame thing got out the way and maybe they kind of threw their hat into the ring
[00:17:18] early sort of speak or whatever to um you know kind of get the the the conversation started so
[00:17:27] then they could see the chess moves in the background to see where they were going to go
[00:17:32] ahead and put their strategic chess chess uh checkmate on the whole thing sorry got tongue
[00:17:39] sorry I apologize about that so this is what I laid out in the last part now drew holiday
[00:17:54] there are reports that there was some engagement from the Miami heat in drew holiday
[00:18:01] he didn't obviously necessarily end up there and now Miami's looking at it where we kind of sat
[00:18:08] around for because we thought we had a deal in place for dame and now we're going into the season
[00:18:15] like this obviously for Miami heat fans I'm sure you're very very disappointed in what happened
[00:18:26] are you disappointed in Portland in there if you want to call it their refusal to work with
[00:18:33] you or are you more disappointed in that your front office didn't get the third team involved to get
[00:18:40] the necessarily pieces that went to um Portland to get dame because this I mean that was Nico's point
[00:18:53] Nico was on the on the previous part so get into that our guy young is worth right
[00:19:03] so now what now what for the heat you know I think that's an obviously the next question
[00:19:12] you know if somebody put out there James Harden that that is not going to happen
[00:19:18] he is not in the heat culture type situation all right well then who is the next guy
[00:19:29] some people report would point to Philadelphia and go what's going on up there by the way this is
[00:19:37] Monday did James Harden report to training camp no was he there for media day no so
[00:19:44] we're we're off to a good start in Philadelphia so I'm sure they are closely monitoring the
[00:19:52] indeed of it all right but you know that that New York and other teams are going to have better
[00:20:05] packages than you so now what do you do if you are the Miami heat the one thing I do not worry about
[00:20:17] is that the heat will always find a way to kind of retool and kind of they're not afraid to kind
[00:20:24] of suck for a second to get better I'm not saying that that's what you're looking forward to South
[00:20:31] Beach so don't don't get too hyped up about it but if there was a team that could sell their
[00:20:42] their players on you know they they dog this out they kind of stymied all the things we wanted
[00:20:50] to do because they're scared of us the NBA as a whole is scared of us because they saw what we can
[00:20:56] do you know we can just get in right I mean I'm sure that will be the rallying cry of one
[00:21:03] Eric Spostra to Jimmy Butler and the rest of the cats in that locker room because whatever we think
[00:21:12] of heat culture it's super real I'm tired of um trying to to to poo poo the point it's real
[00:21:21] they do have a like a bunker mentality and they'll figure this out now will this be the year they make
[00:21:27] a run like they did last year I don't know I don't think so everybody sees the fire power up at the
[00:21:34] top of the league or the conference everybody sees it so this might not be the year for that but
[00:21:42] as long as the heat keep their powder dry and they're the type of teams that make the little
[00:21:50] moves that mean a lot too they their developmental staff is is one of the one of the best in all the
[00:21:59] NBA so they're unearthing gyms as we speak but yes you need to have pretty regular talent to make up
[00:22:09] for what you don't have in actual numbers and this is where we are right now with the Miami
[00:22:14] heat they're in a dire situation so I do not I want to see what the spin is uh I gotta talk to
[00:22:24] some people in Miami and see see what the situation is on the spin of what Spolster and Riley had to
[00:22:29] say about what their outlooks were for this year so I can't wait for that now getting back to
[00:22:37] Portland and what they got and what have you all right here's the other thing that a lot of
[00:22:42] people aren't even recognizing this actually can become a true competition between Deandre Aitton
[00:22:50] and Robert Williams two guys who are about 25 years old two guys kind of an influx in their
[00:22:56] careers right they're at little crossroads one can't stay on the court because he can't stay healthy
[00:23:03] and the other guy seems to be almost kind of like dead on arrival as far as just like
[00:23:11] energy and momentum and just the the desire or what have you um the one thing I know about Deandre
[00:23:19] Aitton is that I don't think we're gonna get more aggression from him he's just not that type of player
[00:23:26] can you get him to play with more energy yeah you you can get him to play with more energy
[00:23:32] that's the hope and that's the prayer in Portland but if for some reason you don't
[00:23:38] know there's a guy behind him that like as far as drafting off minutes if you got Robert Williams to
[00:23:46] play you know 20 minutes a game and then the other you know the other minutes go to Deandre Aitton
[00:23:56] as far as that's concerned that's that's significant that's significant right there
[00:24:05] now you're getting the best Deandre Aitton and you're getting the best of Robert Williams
[00:24:13] and then you're providing the guards that you have now in the flexibility you have in the
[00:24:20] front court now to really flourish around all about two different types of centers
[00:24:28] so you're going to be able to play in multiple ways
[00:24:32] Scoot will be able to have a pick and pop partner in Aitton and he'll have a rim runner in
[00:24:38] Wild Williams where he can work on the on the pick and roll so as far as what Portland has done
[00:24:47] you go okay you got the draft picks he's young assets and what have you we talked about what
[00:24:54] we thought Malcolm Bogdan can bring now here's the other thing if you really have one of
[00:25:00] these guys and you decide that you want to move on from Aitton and or Robert Williams
[00:25:08] you're now adding to the culprits of these number one draft picks that you already picked up so
[00:25:14] the Deandre is still not over could you imagine it is still not over because what happens is they
[00:25:23] decide hey we really like the aggression of Wild Williams we're not scared of the injury
[00:25:28] I think we can kind of coax him into you know playing more maybe we can take a little less
[00:25:35] aggression for him and then that will help him to stay healthy I don't you know I don't know
[00:25:41] it's all out there it's all up you know it's all up for speculation at this point we don't know
[00:25:47] but if you decide that you want to move on from Aitton you do have that capability if you
[00:25:54] want to move on from Wild Williams because you're sitting here going his contract is easily
[00:25:59] get a vote by a lot of people and then you can you can flush it out with picks you can do that too
[00:26:06] and that is the point of this whole thing is that now everybody was like killing Cronin on what
[00:26:13] he's done and why this doesn't work and why is this why is this terrible and all this other stuff
[00:26:19] but the day trade is the gift that continues to give not just because it picks down the line
[00:26:27] not because of the swap that we haven't seen yet is because Cronin still has more ammunition
[00:26:36] to trade from and that is why you make the deal that is best for the team
[00:26:44] and not best for the superstar so where do we go from here there's a couple things that we
[00:26:53] kind of really need to talk about the Clippers made a real offer to acquire Drew Holiday
[00:27:02] unfortunately they didn't have the that that nugget in the deal that was tempting enough because
[00:27:12] you know uh Terrence uh Terrence Mann who I think is a nice little piece
[00:27:23] who's played well in you know some high leverage games for them is one of those situations where
[00:27:31] you get kind of in you kind of gets to do squad the upside of where I what Robert
[00:27:35] Williams can be because you've seen him play at a high level in some high intensity
[00:27:41] playoff games and he is not wilted so you you are just absolutely amazed at what you might be able
[00:27:50] to get out of him so I can't sit there and be mad about what you know oh they didn't take the
[00:27:56] Clipper offer over over the uh the Boston offer the records that Zaglo are talking about is it
[00:28:06] looks like Sacramento just couldn't pull a trigger on a deal for Drew Holiday and it had a lot to do
[00:28:15] with the resigning of the guys that they had on the team that we kind of looked at when they did it
[00:28:20] and said yeah that's good and yeah we kind of like the continuity thing that you're trying to
[00:28:27] build but could you have maybe upgraded Harrison Barnes you know or got a young you know young
[00:28:37] talent in there that you could develop or whatever and take a step back to take a step forward
[00:28:42] you know there were questions about that and then Golden State also seemed to be relatively
[00:28:51] quiet on the Drew Holiday front Miami tried to get into the to that situation we talked about that
[00:28:59] it didn't work out the people who were looking at okc they were very quiet and mom on their
[00:29:09] thought process on Drew Holiday and the New York Dinks decided to continue to
[00:29:17] keep their powder dry until the big the next big fish jumps up so those are the teams that kind of
[00:29:25] floated out there on the Drew Holiday thing um Philly couldn't work anything out they tried
[00:29:38] but I think they have a piece that they need to take care of first before they can move on
[00:29:44] and try to do anything with like a guy like Holiday so that was the problem there
[00:29:50] and can you if you're Milwaukee can you feel any worse right now it's like you get Dame
[00:29:57] Dame is excellent you know he has his jersey his kids with him he's looking at his jersey in the
[00:30:04] locker there's people outside screaming his name they're so excited to have Damian Lillard
[00:30:10] in Milwaukee I mean this is a star this is superstar this is guy you know you're pairing with
[00:30:16] your your guy and you're going man this is going to be great and then like what 48 hours so
[00:30:25] later you got Drew Holiday back in the Eastern Conference and not only in the Eastern Conference
[00:30:32] really to the other team that you are literally looking at eye to eye right if we're
[00:30:39] being real honest right now the Knicks you know the the Cavaliers um the 76ers right now
[00:30:50] and I'm sure MB with a lot of pride would not agree with what I'm about to say
[00:30:56] um but those teams are are a level down from what Boston and Milwaukee are
[00:31:03] now we've been wrong before but we haven't been wrong too many times but
[00:31:08] I mean talent wise and when something goes way wrong it's way haywire and listen
[00:31:15] either way it could have you know you know Dame was hasn't been the most healthy
[00:31:22] but we all know that now the the calf thing wasn't real last year it was more of a tank
[00:31:27] situation for Portland to get this pick and then you know you got the injury where Christoff
[00:31:35] Porzingis and you know what's the foot look like what's it you know he's 7 2 7 3 he moves different
[00:31:44] so we'll see how it all plays out there's a lot of injury concerns on both sides of that so I
[00:31:52] see why New York and Cleveland and other teams are like we'll see we'll see um
[00:32:01] I'm just I don't know who the next superstar is going to be I mean you can definitely you can
[00:32:08] definitely see the the smoke signals from Philadelphia are out there which you never
[00:32:16] know who will be the disgruntled superstar that pops off but we definitely will see with that
[00:32:26] um let's see if there's anything else we kind of need to talk about on this particular thing
[00:32:31] we got with okay we got yeah okay so now we have all these teams that out there that did not get
[00:32:43] holiday whatever the clipper is going to do what is Philadelphia going to do
[00:32:48] you know what are the heat going to do the heat like I said they have to be really strategic
[00:32:54] and they have to be super aggressive with the next guy that comes out because here's the thing
[00:32:58] they don't have enough for envy envy is a pipe dream from them unless envy says you know he
[00:33:04] does the whole dang thing I only want to go to the Miami heat you know and then Darryl
[00:33:11] Mori will look at him be like no we're not doing that we're gonna get the best deal right so I mean
[00:33:20] you got to see who might have some diminishing returns and I know the first person you think of
[00:33:29] is James Harden to Miami I'm still thinking no still thinking no which you have to look at a guy
[00:33:37] that maybe you can you know you got like what three first rounders and whatever you're gonna
[00:33:42] have to throw the kitchen sink at whoever the next guy is but understand when you're talking
[00:33:49] about the highest level of the next guy of the next discolonial superstar that might not be your
[00:33:55] your actual your rent district you might be like a co like a little step or a step couple steps below
[00:34:02] that because if envy becomes in becomes available mix other teams they got way more assets are
[00:34:13] gonna come raining down on to got on to Philadelphia to get this to get this guy so again Miami probably
[00:34:27] is going to have to be crafty this might be another Jimmy Butler type of thing this one you
[00:34:31] know saying you might be looking at some guy like um you know who you think has like the
[00:34:38] heart of Jimmy Butler and kind of hasn't gotten a fair shake to do the things he can do or whatever
[00:34:44] so you might have to go to your pro scouts and find somebody hey who are we sleeping on who's
[00:34:51] who's that hard worker that grinder that who's the next Jaylen Brunson right who's the next one
[00:34:58] that's a good name to throw out there who's the next Jaylen Brunson who's the next guy who's
[00:35:03] gonna take that step and yeah he might not be a superstar but he a star right and if you keep on
[00:35:12] collecting stars now you got a constellation you know because you got Jimmy you got bam
[00:35:19] you added another real real solid piece to that and I'm not saying they're gonna be right there
[00:35:25] with Boston and Milwaukee and whatever but did the heat not show us that they're not scared of any
[00:35:34] situation they're just not and they're gonna keep coming until you beat them until you kill them
[00:35:43] they are absolutely the Michael Myers of the NBA you got to kill them you got to finish them off
[00:35:54] because if you don't they'll come back so that might be the way if I'm Miami I would be looking at it
[00:36:05] the terrain might be way harder to get that that that top top tier guy but can we get
[00:36:14] that develop that underdeveloped star or that guy who we think is a star who's just got an
[00:36:21] axe grind and he can get to another level right that is the type of guy you're looking for
[00:36:29] now when it comes to Philadelphia it comes down to can you trade hard or not and right now
[00:36:35] this thing is about to get ugly they're the the the shitty part about the whole thing honestly
[00:36:44] it's not that they're in this situation yes it's not that they're in this situation is that okay
[00:36:52] there is a way out if James came to campus and said hey I'm here I'm here to do whatever it takes to
[00:37:01] you know you know play the game you know I'm here to do whatever coach asked me to I'm here
[00:37:07] you know I'm here to do my role for as long as I'm gonna be here I mean you can even throw
[00:37:13] as long as I'm gonna be here out there you can do all the passive aggressive stuff all that
[00:37:19] but if you showed up real business like said yep it's a business it didn't work out for me
[00:37:26] um in off season I'm here though dedicated I'm about to show people what they're getting
[00:37:33] level all that you can do all of this or you could go in there and say hey I'm just here
[00:37:39] grind and work and you know and not do passive aggressive I just don't think it would it's
[00:37:45] it's not James nature not to do that but he took the other route just not showing up
[00:37:51] and to me that's the problem is like for Philadelphia to be able to trade him and get
[00:37:58] what they would need back because I can see it on the team on the other side like it
[00:38:03] I'm the clippers I'm going it hasn't worked with these two guys and now we're gonna add hard into
[00:38:09] this deal and you know what happens if Kawai gets hurt is he gonna pout like he did in Brooklyn
[00:38:20] see now the reputation he's built is gonna follow him whether it's better whether it's
[00:38:26] not right or right it's going to follow him and he's done this in a couple of situations now
[00:38:32] and now he's doing it again and how can you bank on somebody like that how can you put resources
[00:38:38] into somebody like that how can you trust somebody like that and that's what it comes down to
[00:38:48] so I'm fascinated to see how this works I think Philadelphia blows it up before they try to
[00:38:54] you know I understand like you could try to hold on to this you could I understand why you would try to
[00:39:06] but you know what sometimes it just doesn't work and it's time to you know get as much as we can
[00:39:15] for all these caps you know and decide like oh we're holding on to maxi that's the guy we built
[00:39:21] around all the rest of these dudes are gone and let's go you know and see what you get from
[00:39:28] New York or whomever for indeed and go I understand that's not popular I understand Philadelphia fans
[00:39:35] don't want to hear it I get it you guys suffered through a lot a lot of losing to get guys and
[00:39:42] you thought you had the team and Benson was super tall and he was a point guard and he did all
[00:39:46] these things and then he did dunk a basketball over a five foot ten midget and it changed everything
[00:39:56] and now we're here and it sucks to be you and it sucks to have banked on the wrong guy in James
[00:40:02] Martin but you took a risk it didn't pay off it's just like Dallas they got Christoph Parzingas
[00:40:10] it didn't pay off they doubled down on Kyrie we'll see how it all works but man I ain't helped
[00:40:17] to that situation either so there it is um and when it comes to the to the clippers is basically
[00:40:26] what do you do you need more you see the arms race that's going on in the east you saw what the
[00:40:34] Lakers did they loaded up they got a bunch of dudes you know they reclinched their depth and
[00:40:40] also kept some of their um their young pieces together and um they're gonna be there for a while
[00:40:51] Denver is still the team you know Phoenix has a ton of firepower you know what is what is
[00:41:04] Memphis when Jog is back are they out of the race because of all of all of what has happened
[00:41:11] with like the tremendous talents in influx that has happened in the west I mean that's another
[00:41:17] story for another day what is New Orleans before Zion got hurt they were number one seat
[00:41:26] there's so many there's so many teams out here that we're sitting here going like oh yeah they
[00:41:32] were good think about the Pacific division by itself now I know we think more conference now
[00:41:39] than we did before but just think about the Pacific division onto itself you got Sacramento
[00:41:49] who won the division last year you got Golden State four-time NBA champions
[00:41:57] Steph Curry all that now Draymond's hurt looks like he's gonna miss four to six weeks with an
[00:42:03] ankle sprain that could hurt them getting off to a slow start now means a whole different story
[00:42:11] than he did two weeks ago um you know you got Memphis
[00:42:21] Memphis is one of a lot of games the last couple years they've been knocking on that door
[00:42:25] can they hold it together until until jaw arrives you got New Orleans New Orleans is on the rise
[00:42:39] Zion is he gonna be healthy I mean that's always gonna be the question but when that dude was healthy
[00:42:45] they were in the number one seat so keep that in mind but let's talk about oh sorry we were just
[00:42:52] talking about the Pacific division so you got Sacramento you got Golden State you got the
[00:42:56] Clippers you got the Lakers and you got the Suns think about that that's five teams in a
[00:43:03] division when you're sitting there going like this like any any one of these teams could win that
[00:43:10] division now I always say with the Lakers you know where I've been on this I know I might be the
[00:43:16] only wet blanket person who is a Laker fan whatever but if you don't get a full season from AD
[00:43:27] in a full season from LeBron and I'm not saying 82 games man like let's let's not be unreasonable
[00:43:35] my whole thing was the magic number is 135 power that plays out those two guys need to play a combined
[00:43:42] 135 games if you get that the Lakers team is in the mix it's just we have not seen it so for me
[00:43:51] I got a whole I got a whole you know saying I got a hole right now you know I got reservations
[00:43:59] party of one I might be the only one on this island but I will stay here I will stay on this island
[00:44:05] until they prove me wrong all right um and then you got Phoenix who loaded up with Bradley
[00:44:13] Bill and they got you know obviously Kevin Durant and then got you know we everybody
[00:44:18] loves the piece of Eric Gordon going there on a minimal salary and all the other little pieces they
[00:44:24] pick up the tenor Taras Watts of the war or the world the Yuta Wada Navis of the world
[00:44:32] you know and then in this in this trade in the Portland trade the first one the day one
[00:44:37] they picked up Grayson Allen some people say regular season rotation piece
[00:44:45] some say really good outside shooter with the guys that they got you know and then
[00:44:54] who else did they pick up on the seer little love the seer little in this deal but also
[00:45:00] the seer is still theoretical it's not like oh you got this guy guy because if he was a guy he
[00:45:08] wouldn't have been available for you know because he's still young and he's on a really cheap
[00:45:12] contract basically so the Pacific Division onto itself has five teams that literally you can
[00:45:20] put them all in a hat and say hey which one of these teams is going to win the division
[00:45:25] and anybody who made an argument from whatever fan base I can't argue with down I can't you
[00:45:32] know why because they got a good case you betting against Steph until you until you know
[00:45:41] are you betting against him I mean we haven't seen it from Kawai or Paul George
[00:45:48] what can we just count them completely out now you could say I don't say it I don't
[00:45:57] I got a lot of respect for what Sacramento did last year what you could say is Sacramento
[00:46:04] for real now we got everybody back and people got the his put on right is Sacramento for real
[00:46:13] I don't think I don't think they get worse I don't so I'm just saying it's a very
[00:46:24] competitive West and the team that stays healthiest or the team that has insulated itself
[00:46:32] with more depth because of injury concern that's the way you survive in the West
[00:46:40] and good luck to you in the playoffs because I don't know I have no clue there's gonna be some
[00:46:46] teams that are like 70s that were sitting there going like dude if they were in the east right
[00:46:51] now they'd be like the third seed no doubt no doubt but here we are so it's gonna be a fascinating
[00:47:01] situation I hope we hit it off from all levels again I just want to give my heartfelt appreciation
[00:47:11] to everybody who is vibing on the YouTube channel and also on the podcast hit us up on Twitter
[00:47:19] or X sorry I can't get used to that at frontrunner PC or at Niko FR PC both are available to you
[00:47:31] get your questions in let's talk about basketball let's get it for my football people know that
[00:47:40] football is going to be back on Wednesday we had some technical issues our internet went down here
[00:47:48] it was crazy last week but you're gonna get a football pot trust me it will happen on Wednesday
[00:47:56] so that's where we are with it and amen stay look on look out for this fee because you never
[00:48:02] know yeah we never know what's gonna happen with any of these uh trade situations or whatever
[00:48:08] but that is the true holiday of it all he is a Celtic so Celtics are stacked they are stacked
[00:48:17] so I can't wait to open the season and see how it all goes down y'all stay safe man and I'm out of here
[00:48:26] peace