EMERGENCY POD: LeBron Signs With 76ers Reaction

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom-scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling. Just another way to save with the Personal Price Plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Hello, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing right now in emergency fashion. Joining us from Naples, Florida, with the Philadelphia 76ers cap sheets in front of them, is Bobby Marks. Gentlemen, free agency part two has began. How about that? A little late July free agency. Joining us from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his college tour, not his college tour, his daughter's college tour continues, is Ben McMahon. Howdy, partners. No, I'm good. I did graduate college, although the time it took me was kind of like the time that it took LeBron to make his free agency decision. It was historically long, for sure. LeBron has chosen the 76ers, in case you haven't heard. I believe that there are two reasons why he chose the 76ers, although this is obviously very fresh and there'll be more information will come out. But as he said in his comments that he made on social media after it was announced, he has chosen the number one thing, which is winning the NBA. He has chosen the number one thing, which is winning the NBA. It doesn't happen. to be. Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. Yeah, the Cavs obviously elected not to make Evan Mobley available for either Giannis Attenacompo or Jalen Brown, because if they did, they probably would have had a very good chance to get them. I know that the Celtics got the first round pick and the swap from Philly, but Evan Mobley is not Paul George at this point in his career. So yeah, you know, the Cavs roster since they got swept in the conference finals, they have lost Dean Wade and they've lost Evan Mobley. They have lost Keon Ellis, which, you know, Dean Wade was a part-time starter. Keon Ellis was a fringe rotation player. They lost those two players. I mean, arguably their two best perimeter defenders. Dean Wade, certainly their best perimeter defender. Yes, certainly very good perimeter defenders. And so like that's, you know, they had a second round pick, Malik Thomas, who had a good summer league. That's what they added. So the Cavs, you know, you look at, you know, you compare it to the 76ers and the 76ers have, you know, have powered up. And I will say this, Bobby, Boston made their Jalen Brown decision for various reasons. They believed in it and made the decision. But Boston has to be feeling a certain way right now because the Eastern Conference is going to be difficult for them to win, I think. Not impossible, but it's going to be difficult for them to win. And you've gone through this offseason and you were the number one seed last year. And you've watched, obviously the Knicks won the championship. You've seen what Philly has done. You've seen what Miami has done. And you look at what you've done. I wonder how Detroit and Cleveland are feeling about the hands they're holding today. I mean, just look at the East, right? I mean, look at the Eastern Conference as far, even like Atlanta made some good decisions this offseason. It's like, where are they in the pecking order? In the East. And with Boston, it's like, listen, you could say it was apron related or depth related, or maybe they just didn't like the play. Yeah. But don't talk to me about finances when it was based. And that's the biggest, like, and I know like everybody gets caught up on the apron in Boston. Like they traded the Max for Max. The apron was last summer. Yeah. Jalen Brown was not about money. Right. Or, yeah. And because they could have still done Mitch and they still could have done the other two guys with extent. You could have still done everything. Right. So like, I need like that. Don't use the apron as an excuse for Boston. Like that's the, that's the reality here. But at the end of the day, um, and they'll live with it, that the trade basically helped get LeBron to Philadelphia. I mean, that's, that's a big part of it. It's kind of like when Milwaukee made the deal to get Dame, which I liked at the time and boy, was I wrong about that? It blew up in their face. But in making that deal, it's like they indirectly delivered Drew Holiday to Boston and Drew Holiday. It was a finishing piece to the Celtics championship puzzle. You know, in, in this case, the Celtics decided that they were moving Jalen Brown and they were going to take the best offer, which ended up being not a great offer, but it was the best they had. And they're clearly were, had made the determination Jalen Brown cannot come back. And they indirectly helped deliver LeBron to Philly as part of the deal. And by the way, LeBron, I mean, well, let me just ask you this. I think a lot of us, I certainly, like I had my head in my hands for the bucks when, when Michael Kitt, when, um, sorry, I'm looking at my guy, just I have to cop to this. I just saw my, my guy, Michael Kim shoot 59. I'm totally distracted. He's friends with the PGA golf. He wants everybody to know that. He made a 20, he made a 25 footer on the 18th hole to shoot 59. Amazing. Hey, you've been friends with LeBron for a lot longer than you've been friends with Michael Kim. I have a lot more conversations with Michael Kim than I do LeBron. The, um, the, when I had my head in my hands, when, for the, for the bucks, when, when, uh, when Drew Holiday ended up on the Celtics, I was like, oh my God, this trade has already backfired on that. I don't feel that way necessarily about the Celtics with LeBron coming here. I think the Celtics, even if they knew LeBron was going to go there, I think they probably still do this trade. Right. Well, because they, they, they clearly felt like they had to trade Jalen Brown. And so, you know, again, we can, we've talked all about the value of that. Um, but again, I just, I didn't feel, and LeBron never called to ask my advice, but I did not feel that Philly was a great fit for him just because I don't know where he is like in the pecking order. And there was clear frustration to the point where he said he considered retirement about this season in LA where he ended up being distant third, uh, in the pecking order off defensively, even though he thrived in that role. Um, and now it's like, look, Embiid's going to need the ball. Jalen Brown clearly enjoys being the number one guy. Tyrese Maxey has thrived as the number one guy. Like is LeBron willing to kind of be the old wise facilitator and distributor first and foremost. And, and then again, stylistically, here's a fascinating thing for me. This team has the, you know, I say it's Tyrese, it's been Tyrese Maxey's team the last couple of years, but it's still Joel Embiid's franchise. All right, here's the, uh, NBA, the rank and fast break points scored last season. Tyrese Maxey first, LeBron James second. That's because LeBron, that was the only way he could score because he had to run to score. I'm sorry. Jalen Brown, 10th, VJ Edgecombe, who's probably the best athlete of the four, 14th. So I think one way to really kind of figure out, like, how does this all fit is just to play at like Audubon speed. And then, you know, whoever has the ball, when you're ready to dunk it, throws it down. Um, now how does Joel Embiid fit? Now he could fit, uh, it's kind of the same way I do when I'm playing pickup basketball. It's not cross half court on most offensive possessions, but again, but that's, but that's not, you're not going to play that basketball in the playoffs. Like I think the Sixers, if we're going to have a basketball discussion, about the Sixers sitting here the day this happened, my speculation is that VJ Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey, and Jalen Brown are going to be the heavy lifters during the regular season. And obviously LeBron is going to be, have a, have a significant role, but LeBron is not going to play him back to backs. There's going to be times when he takes some time off. Um, you're going to want LeBron and Embiid ready to go for April and you do what you have to do to have LeBron and Embiid ready to go for April. Now, one thing I will say as LeBron has been tweeting out pictures of himself at five 30 in the morning, doing these workouts, you didn't see that last summer because LeBron couldn't do it last summer because he was dealing with first a sprained knee and then with the sciatica. He was, he, I suspect, you know, knocking on wood that he does not suffer anything that he will be in much better physical condition coming into this season than last season. That said, Nick Nurse's job from day one will be to have LeBron and Embiid ready to roll by the post season. And Embiid played 38 games last year. And that was, you know, when you include the playoffs, it was the most games he's played in three years. I was going to say that that's not like, uh, and then at backup center, they signed top 40. Yeah. It's kind of a, you know, depending on who they're playing, Dean Wade can play some center. But by the way, Bobby, real quick, as we sit here at this exact moment, right. The Sixers can't even functionally sign LeBron. Is that correct? Can you explain that? That's correct. It's because he's, he's signing a two-year deal. So are we sure he's going to sign a two-year deal? Maybe not. That's what sports CEO and, uh, uh, game over show host, Rich Paul, LeBron's agent called Shams. I understand. Can you, can you explain it, Bobby? Sure. Uh, because, uh, so when you, if you sign a one-year veteran deal, uh, for cap purpose, cap tax purposes, 2.4 million counts against the cap. Uh, it doesn't matter if you're 10 years of service or five years of service, 2.4 million, because this is a 23 years of service. Doesn't matter. There's no range. There's no range. Just he's in a 10 plus range, right? Because this is a two year deal. He's in a 10 times two plus range because this is a two year deal, which is a 3.9 in the first year. There is no, there's no, um, I guess salary reimbursement. The full amount counts against the cap. The same thing as DeAndre Jordan, DeAndre Jordan with the Pelicans, except for in this case, getting LeBron at that number is a massive discount. So you don't feel so bad about not getting the extra savings. Yeah. So when you do it, when you do the math, their technique, their heart, they're already hard capped at the first apron that pushes them over to the first apron. Yeah. So the reason they're hard capped at the first apron is because the trade that they did with Jalen Brown, they took more money in than they sent out. Is that correct? that correct? Slightly? Yeah. I mean, they've hard capped themselves multiple times. times if you can do it dean wade oh that's right that's right hot 40 that basically i think they've hard capped themselves four times you can only do it once but for four for them they did it four times so right now that's another like they've got some serious offensive firepower more hoop collective podcast after this this episode is brought to you by state farm listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling smart move another smart move getting help from one of state farm's 19 000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling just another way to save with the personal price plan prices are based on rating plans that vary by state coverage options are selected by the customer availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state this episode is brought to you by welch's fruit snacks back to school season can be tough on parents but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be stock up on welch's fruit snacks made with whole fruit and now made with no artificial dyes it's a snack kids already love and one you can feel good about giving them go back to school with welch's fruit snacks now made with no artificial dyes chronic migraine 15 or more headache days a month each lasting four hours or more can make me feel like a spectator in my own life botox on a botch a line a month each lasting four hours or more can make me feel like a spectator in my own life prevention toxin a prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine it's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month it's the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment prescription botox is injected by your doctor effects of botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing speaking breathing eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk side effects may include allergic reactions neck and injection site pain fatigue and headache allergic reactions can include rash welts asthma symptoms and dizziness don't receive botox if there's a skin infection tell your doctor your medical history muscle or nerve conditions including als lugeric's disease myasthenia gravis or lambert eaton syndrome and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects why wait ask your doctor visit botox chronic migraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more so right now they have 14 players under contract and they and they only have 3.3 million dollars under their hard cap yeah so they are going to have to waive a couple of players uh yeah they'll have to waive they've got two guys dylan terry's on a non-guarantee jabbar walker's on a partial 250 grand they could try to maybe move off of the john ape room they picked in the second round a year they could do something there they'll figure it out the big thing will be they'll have an open roster spot but based on how they maneuver here that they're not going to be able to here here's what i'm getting to it correct me if i'm wrong let's say they waive the two um non-guaranteed players they've only got to waive one though correct chill well okay chill i bet let's say they waive the two non-guaranteed players yeah they may come to lebron and say lebron if you want us to sign another player cantavious caldwell pope for example oh um who's you read by i believe is up by clutch if you want us to sign another player you need to sign a one-year deal is that correct correct correct so we'll see this is this is the footnote this is why bobby is here but um but as far as the sixers go um you would think that their starting lineup when they're fully healthy we don't know when they're fully healthy is edgecombe and maxi at the guards brown and lebron at the forwards and beat at center that is that's loaded again i i think it's going to take some time for all the fit stuff to be figured out but that is correct me if if you guys feel like i'm wrong the most athletic backcourt in the nba well and then let's talk about their backups so their backups would be dean wade who can play three four or five that's a he's a play hard guy that's for sure athletic guy who plays hard uh and then they have uh justin edwards and dominic barlow as backup forwards wrote edge rotation players it's a pretty and the rookie that they draft yeah he was good in summer lebron final lebron he's a guard he's a guard it's pretty good it's a pretty good 10-man team well and again i think it's the most athletic backcourt and i think it's maybe the most athletic forward tandem even though lebron's turning 42 this year but tell me a a more athletic forward tandem than jayden brown and lebron james again dean wade was starting in the playoffs for the team that went to the conference finals last year i'm not saying that he was driving force but that's a that's a you know that's a decent big man rotation even if you're down in bead for half the season their big man rotation is substantial yeah and and jayden brown i'm sorry uh dean wade is probably the guy best suited to chase around a bunch of the elite perimeter scores that they'll see jayden brown might be second best suited for that um well it's not going to be lebron you know they'll be able to hide lebron is probably pretty well suited for some of that too i i'm the shot distribution is going to be fascinating to me and just how much of a focal point in bead is offensively is going to be fascinating well this is what i'm sure they've been discussing in these last few weeks i'm sure lebron i from from my knowledge lebron's had multiple conversations with these sixers players and i'm i'm not saying they got the x's and o's out but i don't want to guess what was in those conversations but my guess is how they were going to play would be discussed i don't think it was where the best players were going to be in philly are um tell you what your guy gansey man he doesn't come in you know timid in his first crack as the uh as a gm i will say this like lebron's no mike gansey since he was a teenager you know i'm not saying that that like again i think he i think the reasons he chose philly were because they could win immediately and because tyrese maxi is like one of the central pieces of the team and he knows he can trust him i think those i think that's driving it but the fact that he's coming in having some background with gansey who was also in cleveland all the years he was in cleveland he gansey was in the cleveland front office for a decade and nurse is also a clutch guy i think you know and also look you're you're putting your hands and saying we believe in bob myers you know if you know you know if there's a situation here bob myers you know if there's an issue that bob myers voice is there so i gotta tell you i don't you know i saw bob in vegas last week i last week in vegas the sixers didn't think they were getting him okay so um you know maybe that was maybe they were throwing him off but they didn't think they were getting him so um it'll be interesting to see how much and it's and going back like i just keep on going back to that nick series too where they basically got in you know infiltrated by nick's fans and they lose they get swept and they're thinking like this thing is this it's almost like a dead end right dead end roster i mean it's amazing how things change quickly such a humiliating way to go and i said it then that i almost felt like it would have been better if they'd lost game seven in the first round than the way that the second round played out i mean wow that was a rough way to end when it's 80 nick's fans and you're just getting blown out to finish a sweep and it's on your home floor um but but nobody will be thinking about that when the season starts i mean they have made what the jaylen brown trade and the bronze sign and those are the two biggest splashes certainly in terms of publicity well i feel i don't know how you guys but our podcast posted on friday morning i feel good about calling the sixers my winner you like to revise that no i do not like to revise i like to well how about what do you think you had him as a winner what do you think opening i wouldn't be surprised i had heard i had a little bit of scuttlebutt like this in lost days i wouldn't i wouldn't be surprised i wouldn't be surprised i wouldn't be surprised if we go triple header opening night which is it started having a game at four o'clock having a i wouldn't be i'm and i'm sure i'll get aggravated like heck on this and i'm just speaking out loud i wouldn't i wouldn't be surprised if we go like you know boston philly at four someone at new york at seven and in the western conference game at night well and what's the christmas game is it lebron going back to la is it jaylen brown against the olympics like lebron takes precedence with the tv schedule right i mean he just does i would think philly i'm philly new york would probably be christmas right oh wow you'd have to you'd have to have philly new york if you know no philly boston on christmas oh jaylen brown's return to boston yeah i just think lebron in la might be it also give lebron a christmas you know at home well that's true that's true i'll tell you what like i know that adam silver was like grumbling about the way this has all fallen like all the philly cleveland games are interesting listen philly new york games are super interesting philly boston philly boston is like in the competition for christmas and for martin luther king day whatever opening week philly la both of those games did philly miami tv all the time yeah yeah i mean this is like when the heat i mean this is this is now this this doesn't have the villain uh complexity that the that the heat big three did but like every time the the heat played it was an event i i don't know if that'll be the same here but like just think of the delicious match-ups that philly has instantaneously like there's 10 10 premium games that's top of my head involving no question and you yeah then no doubt about that now i just want to caution it was a couple summers ago when the 76ers were the big winners of the summer and uh where where did bond tims go on his little training camp vacation uh was it in the bahamas yeah but in the bahamas and uh you know basically hey we're gonna kind of slow play it with paul george and joelle and beat and we'll microwave that chemistry come playoff time so i i just bring that up just to point out just because you make this like the splashes moves of the summer doesn't mean you've made the biggest improvements i am a prime example a listen we had a we had a sports illustrated cover the team nobody wants to play so i will i will and as i said the beauty of the off season is everybody you're on paper right like like the paper the beauty everybody and then you get to train camp you're like holy crap what just happened what this is not what we thought of but yeah i mean we're on everybody's on the honeymoon period and everybody loves your roster and everybody will talk about philly and new york and all these teams and stuff like that but we get to late september early october you got to roll out that ball it's a hell of an nba 2k roster there's no question about that but you know you the season is not played with with uh video game controllers that's true all right we'll be talking about this significantly more in the coming days and um man enjoy the rest of your college tour hey we're going to check out the carolina basketball museum here in a little bit so i am truly looking forward to that all right thank you bobby thank you all man thank you to our producers who scrambled to get on on this thank you for listening and watching the collective we'll talk to you next week adios 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