LeBron’s Philly Shocker! Plus, the 2011 NBA Redraftables With Zach Lowe.

作词:李宇宙 作词:李宇宙 李宇宙:Alright, it is Friday morning 李宇宙:This is the Bill Simmons podcast 李宇宙:I have no Sunday podcast 李宇宙:This was supposed to be the Sunday podcast 李宙:Zack Low was coming here 李宙:We're going to the 2011 redraft 李宙:And 20 minutes before we're about to start recording 李宙:We got the word that LeBron James is going to the Philadelphia 76 李宙:We're going to talk about that one second 李宙:Live rewatchable is coming Monday 李宙:Four o'clock, Pacific time 李宙:We are doing obsession 李宙:So stay tuned for that 李宙:Ok, LeBron to Philly 李宙:So I'm first going to start eating some crow 李宙:I thought Cleveland was done 李宙:I thought this was where this was headed the whole time 李宙:I'm not sure what happened there 李宙:We can talk about that later 李宙:Philly shocked me 李宙:This got a genuine woe 李宙:It wasn't a lucatrade woe but this was a woe 李宙:I didn't think this was in play 李宙:I didn't think he'd want to live there 李宙:I guess he's going to live in New York 李宙:Where was the sign of one out of ten woe scale for you 李宙:Seven point five 李宙:The moment Bob Myers went on game over 李宙:I had someone in the league 李宙:I said some iPod just say to me 李宙:Someone smart 李宙:Not even reading tealies 李宙:Why would he go on that show 李宙:And potentially debase himself 李宙:It like that 李宙:If he didn't know something 李宙:And since then that's 李宙:But that doesn't necessarily mean anything 李宙:Because all these teams were just telling you 李宙:The last two weeks we don't know 李宙:Seven point five 李宙:Seven point five 李宙:It's not a ten, it's not a nine 李宙:I'm like you 李宙:I just always thought momentum 李宙:would push him towards 李宙:a familiar destination 李宙:whether it was Cleveland, Miami 李宙:or his friends in Golden State 李宙:I actually really like this 李宙:for a whole multitude of reasons 李宙:I think this might be 李宙:other than Minnesota 李宙:which is a pipe dream 李宙:This is a really fun outcome 李宙:So you're gonna do the deep dive 李宙:on Sunday 李宙:We are doing the 李宙:orational holy shit reactions to this 李宙:Big picture 李宙:This is maybe 李宙:maybe not Joelle and Beade 李宙:We have no idea how many games he's gonna play 李宙:You have a franchise guy in Maxi 李宙:Who's also a clutch guy 李宙:You have Vijay Edgecomb 李宙:You're two 李宙:You have Jalen Brown 李宙:Just being thrown into all this 李宙:And then LeBron, I guess, says the power forward 李宙:It's a basketball team that makes sense 李宙:From a used to trade standpoint does not make sense 李宙:But this is a team that if everybody's healthy 李宙:And playing together 李宙:This would be kind of a nightmare to guard 李宙:And especially if they're playing with pace 李宙:Like they did with Edgecomb and Maxi 李宙:And a couple of those playoff games 李宙:And then you throw LeBron into that 李宙:I'm just surprised that 李宙:This man almost makes me wonder if he's gonna play 李宙:until he's 45 now 李宙:Which he's hinted at a couple times 李宙:We thought like, oh, this will be the last year or the last two years 李宙:He's said some things over the summer 李宙:Like, why should I have to retire if I don't have to 李宙:Right 李宙:Tom Brady played till he's 45 李宙:And I wonder like because the Cleveland thing 李宙:Which we could talk about later 李宙:They just couldn't figure out how to make that work 李宙:I wonder maybe that's where this ends anyway 李宙:And maybe he thinks two years, title chase 李宙:And then I'll end up in Cleveland for at the end 李宙:We're already projecting him out of Philadelphia and over to Cleveland 李宙:Can you give me a minute? 李宙:Can you give me a minute to our deal 李宙:My god, he's gonna be 44 years old at the end of it 李宙:Let him retire 李宙:Look, he said in his tweet 李宙:This we're doing this live 李宙:Didn't he say this is his last decision 李宙:And one of the 14 tweets he sent out in announcing this 李宙:I don't believe anything 李宙:And I don't think he's gonna retire unless he feels old 李宙:Like he's not gonna, it's not gonna be one of those things where it's like 李宙:22 next year, I'm gonna retire though 李宙:I'm just gonna read you what he said 李宙:I've had an incredible few months with all the people I love trying to figure it all out 李宙:This is my last decision 李宙:I'm not going for money, I'm not going for family 李宙:What am I really playing for at this point 李宙:I still want to sacrifice, I still want to work, I still want to grind 李宙:Thank you LA Miami all forever love and Northeast Ohio will always be home Minnesota 李宙:It doesn't get any acknowledgement in the state 李宙:And Golden State not acknowledge it 李宙:Look this is my last decision 李宙:You are gonna be a skeptic till the end I respect you, I'm gonna take him at his word 李宙:This is it 李宙:Well this is like when boxers say they're gonna retire 李宙:Or actors say they're doing their last movie 李宙:Or wrestler is like this is my farewell match 李宙:I'll never believe he's gonna retire until he hasn't played for a couple years 李宙:But this is, we'll start here 李宙:This is this is a title run 李宙:Oh yeah 李宙:I'm gonna try to get a fifth of fifth ring here 李宙:Which I think Cleveland 李宙:I don't know if they couldn't have figured out how to 李宙:I just don't know how he would have won a title with that Cleveland team 李宙:From what we saw last year and some of the offensive efficiencies they would have 李宙:That would have been a super fun team, a traveling America 李宙:The biggest high profile, a bunch of stars and famous people on one team in 10 years 李宙:But I don't think they would have won the title 李宙:This team if they can get NB'd going could win the title 李宙:And what's interesting is they have flexibility with or without NB'd right 李宙:Because you would have Maxi and Jalen and LeBron who were three of the top 20 to 25 players in the league 李宙:With them beat as the wild card and then you see what happens with Edgecomb 李宙:Did you like what they did in the off season from a bench standpoint? 李宙:I like Simons, Dean Wade looks a lot better as your seventh eighth guy coming off the bench and he did it in the starting five which LeBron takes his spot 李宙:One of the greatest upgrades in late off season rotation history, Dean Wade trunked by LeBron James for starting power forward spot 李宙:Mike Gansy getting the boys back together by the way he came out 李宙:Mike Gansy is like if I'm going to get I've waited a long time for this I'm coming in swinging I'm doing whatever I want 李宙:After that the depth is a little bit unproven particularly behind NB'd it's just the Dambona and Huck Porti at this point maybe 李宙:And Phylon too I like him 李宙:He'll play 李宙:I think he could actually be like a tenth man for them 李宙:But look I think there's I mean when you you mentioned the two things you said that I would be interested to dive into a little bit more 李宙:And you mentioned from a usage standpoint it doesn't make sense and I know what you mean because they have four extremely high usage players now on their team 李宙:But rarely does a championship contender have a usage hierarchy that makes sense in that sort of perfect ideal idyllic way like this is just part and parcel building a championship team 李宙:Number two they can stagger minutes incredibly strictly and they will do that like to whatever pairing they want you to go together you to go together and we know that LeBron will miss games and Embed will miss a ton of games 李宙:But so I think there's enough here to solve that problem the other thing I would say why you said about Cleveland the defensive deficiencies that you saw in that roster 李宙:Why is that team with LeBron worse than this team defensively only with LeBron because you have two small guards just like you have there 李宙:And they have mobility plus Alan this is small ball power forward plus Embed whose mobility slash health is always questionable to say the least fair well I was looking from a Cleveland standpoint ultimately you're talking about who's your five when there's six seven minutes left in a playoff game right the best five would have been Alan and mobility and LeBron Mitchell and Harden I think I just don't like that as a five I you have LeBron trying to guard guys of the wing you have Harden who can't guard anybody I just think that's a I don't think LeBron is a small forward at the stage of his career I think he's a four or five but on the flip side with Philly Embed who can certainly be put in a torture chamber LeBron can ratchet it up or down depending on whatever and you made the key point they have these they have in Jalen and VJ and Maxi three guys who can play 70 games at least and two 24 hundred minutes 2500 minutes somewhere in there you can move the other two around there and be could almost be on like a premier league schedule like you could just say play play home games you're going to play 40 games this year we just want to keep you ready for the playoffs and the same thing with LeBron you can just he's like hey LeBron we're just going to play you 25 minutes a game and and all we care about is the spring so they have the kind of roster that I feel I could could I don't know could basically get those guys ready for April May June which is all they're going to care about Well and the premier league schedule is not an option in the playoffs and the ultimate question is like will Joelle Embed ever be healthy for three or four playoff series which is what the dream here is I will say there's enough star power between Maxi LeBron and Jalen Brown and Arthur Edge come in there like I think Edge come has it was spectacular is a rookie has a big leap coming that they could put a representative competitive team on the floor without Embed if they have to for a couple games here a couple games there in steel games we've seen them steel games without Embed before it now they're kind of loaded and but to your point about the regular season like the east is no picnic getting into the top six in the east is going to be hard and I think they have fortified themselves really really well to be able to get into the top six while not overplaying Embed or LeBron or anybody because it's It's not going to be easy, but they have enough sort of top line depth to do. I mean, on paper bill, we can go through the starting fives in Oklahoma City in New York in San Antonio. Is this the best starting five in the NBA on paper? Who else is in contention besides the teams that I named? I mean, I don't know. I don't think anybody is Denver, if Denver's ever fully formed on paper, you're basically saying I'm getting the glass half full of version of Joel and Bid. Yeah. Any given night, he feels 95% throw this line up out there. Is there a better starting five in the NBA despite the one ball overlapping skill sets and all that? I mean, I think they have a pretty strong. I will say this. This is pro. So here's what here would my answer would be this is the number one team in the rankings of fuck. They're playing everybody tonight. If you're the other team, like, oh, shit. All these guys are going to play tonight. God damn. That's going to be hard for us. But yeah, I just don't I don't trust and beat. I don't. Well, how could you can't? You just can't. Can we bring conspiracy bill in for a second? I always welcome. I listen to a conspiracy bill go through a couple of male bad questions yesterday in my car and I was laughing the whole time. So he's always a welcome welcome edition. It felt like Anthony Davis was a key component of this LeBron fridge in summer. Right. I just don't you feel like that was made up? I don't think I don't so how do you explain James Harden not signing the contract extension and drink and or though contract whatever you call it and then dream on opting out and kind of waiting to see what happened with LeBron. To me that felt like LeBron side putting leverage on those two teams like we don't love the team that you have right now. We need one more move from you, right? There's no explanation. It's July 24th. Neither of those guys have signed it. I don't understand that. There is another explanation. They're just waiting for LeBron to make his decision independent of anything else. Shoms reported yesterday on McAfee show that there was no other domino there are waiting for it this point. Now that doesn't mean there never was. That just means they could have realized yesterday having planned probably to make this announcement today that another domino was not coming in as I'm saying this. Shoms saying that yesterday almost makes me more suspicious that at one point there was a domino that maybe they were dreaming. But here's what I say. When I first built and finished the, I didn't round it around, okay, and bead for Davis does work from a saddle cap standpoint. But you're just coming out. You're putting them on the cans. It's me. It's 28. That'd be my good. But could could this open the door. Philly uses the rest of their assets and tries to get Davis and Washington gets the and bead contract and some other assets. I just my brain went there for a second. I don't think it'll happen if I was Philly. I would want to see this and be a thing for a year before I got there. But I just felt like the Davis thing felt important all summer. So when I meant it was it ever real. Like I don't think the wizards and the warriors ever had a real conversation about Anthony Davis. I don't think the teams are ever involved. I'm not sure that LeBron ever went to the warriors and said anything directly about Anthony. Like again, every team I talked to on all sides of this was like, I don't know. I know as much as you know. And I would call about these rumors and they'd be like, hey, that's new to us. Like I can call the cabs about, hey, I heard you're trying to salary. Don't play Rx Y&Z. They were like, we are news to me. Now everyone lies. I get it. But this was just a universal shoulder shrug from around the league. But now conspiracy Zach, who does doesn't really exist. But Sean saying that. It's my cousin. Sean saying that yesterday that there's no other domino here. They had to know the clutch people that this was probably coming today. So I'm like, you could put the pieces together like had the decision already been made. They're sort of laying in the groundwork for, hey, there was never anything to see here. Do you believe the whole thing with Cleveland, because I'm always going to think he was looking at Cleveland first. And I think that that was down the road in a lot of different ways. And I'm never going to not believe that. And I don't think he liked the roster the way they had it. And the heart and peace. I do feel like the heart and opting out, which was the wink, wink from last year. But then no new deal. And then there was always like a little buzz, like maybe he could get him. And I think there was some some Phoenix stuff at one point. They went for Dallas with Kyrie and Dallas, like, no, thanks, we'll keep Kyrie. I do wonder if he was just like, I'm not going to sign because Cleveland only had the minimum, right? I'm going to sign with the minimum for Cleveland. And I probably can't win there anyway. And this doesn't seem like the way to go out. This is like the juiciest team, right? Go and state would have been the most fun for us. I said on Wednesday's pod, I just didn't see the Miami thing. I didn't get it. I didn't get him and Yannis and band together. I just don't like the fit. This feels like a better basketball fit if we have imbued. And that'll be the question. And I guess the, the accidental YouTube thing in Miami was actually an accidental YouTube thing or the greatest fumble in the history of sports. I don't know if it's like looks to, it looks to have actually been an accident. I think like Golden State was going to be too old. I think personally, you're underrating the Cleveland team just because we're all sort of like just the division of hard and dribbling the air out of the ball and everyone being like, Hey, man, we have LeBron on the team. We have Donald Mitchell on to like, why do we have to play like this? I think that actually would have been a pretty stacked team and a legit title contender. This team is a, I mean, if imbued can give them anything in the playoffs, they're a contender to get to the finals for sure. Forget the first 82. We don't have any evidence that he can stay healthy for the last 20 and those are the most intense, hardest playing games where they need them the most. Then maybe they just can lower his minutes in those games to a reasonable amount because they have so much talent around them. But their backup center situation is just okay. Like, I like Bona. Nick Nurse has never seemed to trust Bona. But here's the thing, they're going to be able to get February guys and buy up guys and people want to play with this team. Right now they unfandle their 10-1 win the title. They have the fourth best odds. They are plus 380 to win the East and they are minus 130 to win 50 plus games and plus 2 10 to win 55 plus games. Is that updated already? Yeah, they move fast. Listen, the Cleveland thing, you and I are just going to disagree on that. I don't like that team and I think they were trying, he wasn't going to go there for the minimum. They're trying to trade struts or shrewd or nobody wants those guys, especially in this new 2nd April CBA area. The hard and things seem very complicated because they've done the wink wink with them. And he goes to Philly instead. You mentioned the playoff piece. I was talking about this with somebody a couple of days ago about the 2nd and 3rd rounds and the playoffs are the young guy rounds where that's where you're playing a lot. You could see Philly in the Boston series and around when and beat plays three games or three and a half games in that Boston series. But then goes to that next round and all of a sudden you got to go and he couldn't hold up. This is still, those are the young guy rounds, but Philly is covered in that with the three guys they have that aren't and beat a little proud. Like Jalen is one of the most durable stars we've had in the last 20 years. That was one of the, one of the things I would always make the case for him. Maxi, I think either led the league in minutes or was second last year in the Edgecom played a crazy amount of minutes for rookies. So they're covered all the other way. How do you feel? Jalen Brown feels about this though. All right. What a summer for him. Two things. Number one, I agree with you. He is almost the most interesting character in this whole drama that has played out. And I'm going to get back to that in a second. I mean, the thing about the East is Detroit is going to win a lot of games and be a tough out no matter how you feel about their offense or their offseason. They're not going to be an easy out there in a lot of games. Boston is still going to win a lot of games despite coming off as one of the quote unquote losers of the offseason. The nicks are the nicks. The calves are going to win a lot of games. The heat have Yannis for whatever that's worth it. It's worth something. Toronto seems at least pretty darn likely to have Kawaii Leonard. My point is, I'm not sure how many rounds you get in the 2027 Eastern Conference to just be like, yeah, we don't have to play our all out rotation for this entire series. I think it's going to be a tough battle all the way through. I think that I couldn't wait for you to bring up Jalen Brown because I think he's the most fascinating. He was already the character of the offseason. And now even more so because not only is he not the number one option which he dreamed of, but now on a team where he has two former MVP's in his starting five and an ascended all NBA guard who's going to have the ball a lot. One of the MVP's on the team plays essentially his similar or almost same position and stylistically, although he's a in a different universe as a passer from Jalen Brown, like they're physically sort of similar and how they play. And so the overlap issue for him just got even worse severe and I'm trying to picture like, all right. So is there like a LeBron Jalen Brown two-man game that's going to happen? What is Jalen Brown doing when it's like a maxi and B pick and roll in the bronze attacking the closeout or LeBron's posting up where's Jalen Brown and smart players and talented players figure all this stuff out. But it is strange to think about like, what's his role going to be on the team? Yeah. The closest you would come to this was like the 24 Celtics when they had all those good players when they had poor Zingas and Drew Holiday was there and, you know, Jalen would get his five minutes at the top of the second quarter and the fourth quarter when Tatum sat. But last year his usage rate was 36.2, right? Maxi was 29.4. LeBron was 27. point two and then in Beads not in here because I guess he didn't play enough games, but in Beads is another one that when in Beads in the game, the whole offense seems like it revolves around him. So you have four guys. Jalen is going to get the short straw. It feels like all the time. And he's going to have to do the, all right. I guess I'm basically a glorified role part. I wonder is the end of the team in October? Do they flip them? Jalen Brown. Is that possible? So I just want to be you've already in the span of 15 minutes. I just traded Jalen Brown. I didn't trade him. I'm asking if he's on the team in October. Traded in Bead for Anthony Davis and put the cap, put LeBron on the calves in 2020. You're on fire. I love fire. Um, my coffee hasn't paid in yet. But is it? Would you bet your life? He's on the Sixers in October 20th. I wouldn't bet my, don't bet my, don't bet your life. I keep telling you this. Just word of advice. Don't bet your life in any circumstances. I would bet lots of money that he's on the team in October, February. Now you have four months of like, we get to see how this works. To trade that line comes, whatever. Like that. I mean, who knows what happens then. But in October, I would expect Jalen Brown to be on the team. I would too. I'm just mentioning a one to your point. If he said I want an extension or I'm going to be super unhappy the whole year. You know, I talked about this on my pod yesterday about extension candidates. I mean, he's got, it's just like, he's, these guys who have three years, I understand the tool is helpful for teams and players. And it's helpful to have as much flexibility using it the extension tool. Three years left under your contract just seems like, let's just, it's too early. In every case, that's not like Yokech or Shay or Luca or Wembenyama. It's like, can we just wait 18 months? Maybe if three years left under you, can we not talk about it? And can you not take that as like a personal affront? It's just a reality. But who knows? That's what I say. If I'm like, I'm like, I'm saying, we're not talking about that right now. Sorry. The Davis one's amazing because he's got this year and then a player option for next year. And he hasn't been healthy in two years because I don't know. I need an extension. It's like, do you? Can we see one year before we have to up you for more years? What happened? You're the one with the power anyway with the player option. How about, how about we all be reasonable and we'll say, okay, so let's tear up your player option. We'll give you a two year, a hundred million dollar extension. How do you feel about that? And he would go nuts and clutch would go nuts and they'd be all insulted about it and not be like, okay, so you're in your early 30s and you don't play two, you play a third, you miss a third of the games every year. Like, why am I just no brainering an extension with you at the max? I'm not. So Rich said something about if you paid attention all the clues. He said something like that last week. If you paid attention, all the clues were laid out for what the decision was going to be, which I, which you could have interpreted in all of these different ways. But now looking back, you mentioned Myers went on that podcast, right? That's that's pretty interesting. He wanted to win and also be happy. What were the other clues we can take from that they laid out? What are we talking about here? Is the whiteboard, is the whiteboard like usual suspects? Does it say like skokiel in the way I'm there somewhere? What do we miss? Am I going to drop the coffee cup on the floor? Am I going to drop the coffee clip on the floor? Like, do you think that was the bottom? It was Kobayashi. I wonder what the other clues were. I'd love to know what I missed. I guess I got to go spend some time. Here, look, I can call all the GMs and agents involved in the next four hours or I could spend time deconstructing the whiteboard and like listening for, you know how Steve Kerr, did you read the story that Steve Kerr dropped an entire Taylor Swift song into press conferences this year? Like one word at a time. So maybe we need to, maybe we need to go back and listen to some podcasts and see if we can hear a clue all put together. There must have been something. Well, so LeBron has the 12 year old daughter who's lived her whole, her whole life. So like, are they going to, is this family going to move? Or is he going to be like going back and forth? That's, are they going to live in New York? Who knows? That's going to be a whole thing. And then, then him and Jaylen Brown is another piece of this. Jaylen Brown, the famous thing about him sitting at Summer League and basically saying, you know, Bronn, he's not good or whatever. He wasn't fair because it was the cameras catching him. And then LeBron kind of made mention of it last year, but I assume Bronny is going to end up on the sixers of time. I was going to say, how do we get 20 minutes into this without answering the, what about Bronny question? Um, I just assume he's, he's probably on his way because day at the Lakers of 16 guys anyway. Um, geometry was, I give you and be LeBron, Jaylen, Maxine, Edgcomb, as a closing five. There's three minutes left in a playoff game. Walk me through a play and where everybody is in the court. I mean, and beat is setting a high screen or at the nail, probably, and it's a two man game with, I mean, again, like, I don't really know. It's a two man game, maybe with LeBron so that I can use Maxi in some off-ball stuff with Jaylen Brown and throw some size issues at the other team like to have a little guy on Maxi, maybe we can get a switch that way. But it's, they're, it's going to be so VJs in the corner, regardless. VJs probably in the corner or setting some off-ball stuff if Nick nurses getting creative and when Jaylen's Jaylen spending some time in the corner. Yeah. I mean, LeBron and Maxi kind of switching playing off and beat. And then if the beat's not out there, you can even go a little small ball with LeBron and or Bona, like whatever. But yeah, the geometry. There can be two guys in the corner of that are going to be like, shit, I'm in the corner. I wonder if when on days and beat doesn't play, if there is some potential for like LeBron at the five kind of lineups, they're built to try that out. It's always, those always sound better in theory than they are in reality. The other thing is like, you know, Joellen Beade had back-to-back seasons when he shot 37% on threes and one and two years ago when he shot 39% in limited games. If that, now that's all sandwiched around 33%, 30%, 33%. And no one's ever going to treat him like a DefCon one right out there. But if he can find that stroke again, you have a little bit more flexibility in where you can put him. It doesn't have to be at the nail. It doesn't have to be. We're running through stuff through. But what happens to his post-up game to me is a really interesting question here, like how often are you just dumping the ball into and be when these other four guys are on the floor? Does it make sense to play that way? Sometimes it will, but sometimes it won't. And if, and if you're talking to VJ Edgecom about this, you're like, dude, just practice your corner threes. Just take 100 million of them. Take 200,000 a day. And this is going to be a two-year thing. You're going to be a better place for this. You're going to be in big games. And it'll all pay off in the long run. But he's probably the biggest loser from a gross standpoint because he just, he basically just turns into a three in D guard now, I think. Well, I think he's also so good that he'll find ways to to stretch that three in D role in the half court to its boundaries. LeBron with the Lakers, and particularly with Luca, leaned a little bit more into transition fast. But remember, LeBron was known as a slow it down chess master kind of player. Jalen Brown is a demon in transition, particularly as a cutter. He wants to play that way. Everybody but MBEAT in that starting five is meant to play fast, like super fast. And I think that's okay for MBEAT. Like he can trail the play in whatever. And that's where VJ can run into eight points of game. I mean, like just, just like that. So I think there's there's something to be said there too. You know what else is going to be really fun. I think this can be really fun team to watch. And this is immediately the, this is the team I have to monitor the first two months team of all of the 30 teams we have that are different than they were last year. But VJ is so good at both like crashing the offensive boards when somebody else shoots. But then also those little sneaky back cuts he does from the side. And LeBron loves guys like that. So that'll be that'll be I think LeBron's going to love playing with him. And I, you know, him and Maxi, I think they've known each other for a long time and they have the rich Paul connection. And Bede will be the wild card. You know, we didn't mention though. This is unbelievable for the Boston Philly rivalry. The best rivalry in the league. The most important rivalry the league's ever had. Everybody says Celtics Lakers. I've said this a million times. Celtics Sixers is the most historic, awesome rivalry the league has. They've crossed paths every decade in some way, some more than others like the 60s more than the 70s and shit like that. But every year they've had battles and they had some battles this decade. But now you have the Celtics have traded Jalen Brown to Philly. You have LeBron who was their biggest foil from, I don't know, 2008 through 2013 where they were the big bully with him. And then he flipped it. And he was the big bully with them. He doesn't like Boston. That's been his rival and the team that really tried to break them down. And now he's going against them. And these are these are two fan bases that have gone at it. Philly beat them last year and came back. This I feel like all of these games will be on national TV, right? Oh, well, I mean, Adam silver made that pretty clear when he was like, Hey, man, can you can you make a decision? Yeah. Yeah. Philly Boston all-time classic rivalry. How about LeBron being back in the East and the state of all the teams involved? it's like LeBron could face the calves in a playoff series LeBron could face in a playoff series. He's still paying right on Toronto or now. No, he owns Toronto. He doesn't. Yeah, he doesn't. Yeah, he's paid out. Yeah. So you have Miami Cleveland, Toronto in history with we didn't mention the next. I mean Boston. I pretty. This is this is East is on a heater like we have not seen in the last 25 years in the NBA. It's the superior conference top to bottom right now. Even if you want to say the two best teams are in the West, it's the top to bottom, better conference. And we've got, you know, a lot of trade drama. We got players moving east. We we've got, you know, high probably moving east LeBron moving east. The east is on fire. I like how you said probably. Yeah, if you go to the to the finals ads on Fandall, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, eight of the eight of the 12 were in the East for the top for the highest dots. One was last time that happened. We didn't mention the Pacers who are 40 to one to win the finals. And I think could be could be pretty sneaky as well with Zubat's there and a healthy halberd and they had a new brain and all this stuff. So at Nick Sixers, what's what's going to be a battle rivalry Nick Sixers or Celtic Sixers this season? Oh, it's Celtic Celtic. The Jalen Brown stuff in Boston is going to be off the charts. The atmosphere, the Brown versus Tatum. The first time they go one on one against each other. If Tatum's ever under the rim when Brown is like winding up for a dunk like that, that stuff's going to be irresistible. There's so much tension. But Nick Sixers will be pretty great to them. Yeah, LeBron in the garden, Nick Sixers, Dave had recent playoff history. They had a really great series two seasons ago. And yeah, I mean, those are all great. These are these we have all or most of the iconic franchises in the Eastern Conference, other than the bulls are really like going all out for it right now. And that's like, it's pretty incredible. So I thought of one other clue. Ruben has, you know, LeBron did the fanatics fest stuff and Ruben has the Sixers connection. So maybe that was another clue. So, okay, ring chasing. This isn't a ring chase because he signed as a for agent with the team that wanted him, but he could win another ring with this team. Do you think he will? I would, I would always go, no, I mean, you're basically asking field versus Sixers. I'm going field like aggressively given MB health issues, but it's, it's of all the options out there. Sort of like LeBron signs with Oklahoma City for the minimum. This is about as good as it gets. But no, I would bet against them winning a title because the bar would be Oklahoma City in San Antonio the next two years. Now, say in Antonio, if they have a bead, it's one of the few teams where they could throw a guy with size at Wembee and at least make them think a little bit. And then OKC is just a nightmare to play against, but OKC is weaker now. You know, they had to get rid of some depth. They're relying on rookies. That, you know, in second year guys, the rookies did not look good in the summer league. We'll see. I really, you and I went to those Indiana games two years ago when Lou Dork and Caruso basically swung that series. Lou Dork's gone. Lou Dork's only 27. It's not like he's 40, you know, and they're a little smaller. They're going to be a little smaller in the perimeter. And this, this Philly team, when everybody's playing, like the size is a bitch. Like Jalen's a big-ass small forward who can go at basically every position, right? And score 29 points a game last year. LeBron can be an absolute bitch to garden and bead can overpower anybody. So there's going to be nights where I don't know, I like it. I think this was the smart move. I thought it was no chance of happening. I made fun of House the other day. There's no way he's going to go to Philly. That's ridiculous. Why would he do that? I get it. I get it from a basketball standpoint. This is a smart move. It's interesting. I said this with Howard on my part a couple weeks ago, because he was of the ilk of like it like when Wendy said on TV, it just feel the vibes would feel funny if you went to Philadelphia awkward, whatever he used. Howard was on that on that side of things. And I said honestly, I think it would be kind of cool, because whatever you want to say about LeBron, step by step by step in his career, he is not adhered to any sort of traditional superstar career track. He's chosen his own path for his own reasons like Miami was a shock, leaving Cleveland the way he did with the decision was a shock. Going back to Cleveland was kind of a bold mid career move, leaving Bosch and Wade going to the Lakers, because he just felt like, you know, yeah, I he probably thought I can get Anthony Davis to come here. We can revive this iconic franchise that's falling on hard times. And he just really wanted to live in Los Angeles and play for the Lakers. And I think this sort of going to a team that feels random to his history, to his trajectory, is actually kind of in step with the way he's handled his career. And I think he just he like when you were saying, maybe he'll just sign in December, January, I just think he loves being on a team. I think he likes getting to the arena early. I think he likes being around teammates. And I think he just looks at this and it's like, this will be fun. Like whatever whatever comes of this, this is an interesting group of players in a big sports city. This will be fun. Let's give it a go. Also the New York City piece of this can't be underrated. He can live in New York City if he wants, right? I mean, I think other sixers have done that in the past. Yeah, but he could have like his family could be in New York City. And he could have a place in Philly and bounce back and forth. So he keeps the big city thing. We'll see if he moves this whole family there. Listen, this is the, I think out of all the options, I told the state would have been really fun from a, from the expendable standpoint and just having those guys playing together. But this was the most fun basketball option. The more we talk about it. I just think this has the most variables every which way, including like there's 2012 Lakers potential to where this looks awesome on paper. And there are all these reasons for it. But you have LeBron who's 41, who with a ton of miles on him, God only knows when he's going to break down someday and embied who never plays and Jalen Brown on a new team trying to fit his way. Like there's some, there's an unhappy version of this too. And I don't know which one I would bet on to be honest. I mean, look, there was an unhappy version of the Knicks in January and they won the championship. I have to say February, like April, these things are not easy to do when you're juggling a bunch of guys who are stars or think they're stars or whatever the thing is. And I, it's always challenging and you always have to find the right style of play and you, everyone's got a sacrifice like your point about edge comb. If I'm Nick Nurse, I'm going to VJ and saying, Hey, look, man, you're a second year player. You're good, you're going to walk in hopefully to 18 points a game. Strong solid number for a second year guard on a loaded team. This could be a lot of nights when Embed doesn't play or when the Brown doesn't play. Those are nights you can go for 25, 28, whatever you explore for. And by the way, being on national TV all the time and being part of a winning team is good for everybody, including you. So just enjoy it. This isn't your permanent lot in life and go from there. That's just the, but yeah, I mean, look, it all comes down to Embed. Right. The whole thing comes down to Embed because I think if he's, if he's not healthy in the playoffs, I don't think this for some plus what they have on the team is good. And they have on the team is good enough to win a championship. If he by whatever miracle is healthy for enough of the playoffs, this team can go toe to toe with anybody. I just don't believe that he can be healthy for four straight playoffs series. I just don't I won't believe it until I see it happen. He still has not made the conference finals. Would you rather have Embed for the team that the six or seven now or a Gafford PJ Washington Clay Thompson three some. Oh my god. I mean, the fact that that's a fair question is just such a sad state of affairs given. I still, I just want Embed. I want Embed both. I just look, I get the argument. I get what you're saying. Depth pieces clay, just bring clay in as part of this to like another all time legend. I want to go down swinging one more time with Embed. You know, Philly, the whole history has. I have two LeBron years and we'll see we'll see how he looks by near the end of the second year. But at least for this year with the roster and the depth, this is the best possible situation for Embed where it's like we're just going to be super careful with you. This is we're going to be cat. This will be you'll be like the vase and risky business will be will be carrying like this the entire season not putting any any miles that you would off just trying to get you to April May and June. And even in the playoffs, you know, I remember Chris Ryan when they went to round two and Chris Ryan's like I would bench a bead tonight against the next. I'd bench him for game one throw it away and they ended up playing him and he's he just broke down as a one along. They could be in situations where he just plays five of the seven games and they look and they like, hey LeBron and Jalen, you're carrying us tonight and do it that way possible. I mean, we mentioned it earlier. It's possible the east is going to be tough, but they at least have enough. Like superstar ball dominance cover or or or pseudo cover for him that it's if you go up to oh, maybe you can take that kind of that kind of risk. I'm stunned for the calves. And I just don't think they could figure out how to pull it off. I still feel like that's where this was going to end up. I'm always going to feel that way, but they couldn't trade the dudes and it all goes back to that weird the Andre Hunter contract that they did that weird extension they did with him that they then had to turn in a shooter. And that was the extra 14 15 million on the Laker side just quickly. If they had been manage the LeBron piece of that a little better. And somehow I've been able to kept to keep LeBron there with Luca Kessler and Reeves plus patching together fridge and stuff. I don't like that team as much as this Philly theme. The Lakers with LeBron. Yeah. And Kessler and Luca and Reeves. I'd have to think harder about it. It feels almost like a wash to me again because I just can't, I can't factor in. I mean, I guess Kessler is as much an injury risk as an bead, although it's been a recurring shoulder thing more than anything else. But yeah, I'd have to think more about it. All right. Those are all my preliminary thoughts. You're going to do a podcast on Sunday with some deeper dive thoughts. And I'll do something middle of the week next week. I'm going to want to marinate on this and think about this. But I will tell you there. The NBA is more fun today. This was incredibly fun outcome. There's Robert is galore LeBron's back in the east. And we'll see. I would say who would you say has? Who would you say has the most at stake with this? That's not LeBron. Would you say in bead? Like this is it. And it has will in bead ever be a better team than this. We're focusing on Philly only most at stake. Yeah, it's it's in bead. It's got to be in bead, right? Everybody else Jalen's won a title. Maxi has his whole career. I don't know. So does VJ. Nick there's this one title. This is like, Hey, and bead. This is on a platter now. You have somebody who is six MVP last year in your team. You have a franchise guy. You have LeBron. You hit the ladder with VJ. And let's be fair to embied when we bring up the health stuff. A lot of the playoff injuries have been really fluky injuries. Pascal Siacum elbows in in the orbital bone at the end of a game that's probably over Bell's palsy strikes him and all this. But the knee stuff highlighted by when Kaminga fell on his knee two seasons ago, that's becoming the scary recurring thing that he just can't seem to shake for any prolonged period of time. And you can see when he comes back, he's like almost playing with a certain trepidation about it that he has to get past that every time he comes back. So that's just the fairer dossier of like Joel and bead and barring some sort of transaction where they get a really another high quality center. I think they're going to need him to get where they need to go. And so it feels unfair to be like the pressure is on Joel and bead. You play off legacy when a lot of his playoff legacy is he just gets hurt. And I don't know what there's what that what there's to be done about that. I don't think either of us thought LeBron could win a title if he was one of the two best players on a team at this stage of his career, right? Yeah. I don't I mean, it's he's 41 years old. He'd have to be the third best player. In this case, he's drifting between three and four best possible situation. Biggest loser today, Darryl Mori, he just held on for two more months. It's a tough one. He would he would have he would have done the Jalen Brown trade and then ended up with LeBron and been like, this was his dream of putting a whole bunch of stars at the same team. I got a big and I would say go and stay too. It would be the other one because they got out of that dream on Dale. They did nothing. They were just basically paused, but the entire summer. And now I think they have 10 players in their roster, including Jimmy Butler who can't run yet. Yeah, I'm checking my phone here because I keep thinking we're going to get the the flurry of like hard and resigns, dream on resigns, all these other deals, but nothing has come out. I also just think like not that he was ever going to go there or really even entertainment, entertain it, but go catch and Denver just sort of sitting there in stasis while all of this happens around them. And maybe Peyton Watson comes back and that's their big sort of move so far. But you know, it feels like after thought is too strong of a word, but they've got some catching up to do. The window. Yeah. Or the window may have closed. They got one title out of it. I don't the Peyton Watson. Any scenario where he's making more than $15 million a year does not really pass the sniff test for me. Well, the way the way the middle class numbers are, I just don't understand who's giving him 20. So you're saying Peyton Watson deserves Gary Trent Jr. Money is what you're saying. We're going to take a break. Zach's going to do way more LeBron stuff on Sunday. We're going to come back to a 2011 draft rewatchables. The 2011 redraftables ironically 2011 was right after LeBron lost in the finals with Miami to Dirk. We had a lockout looming in July. We had no owner for the New Orleans Pelicans. We had the first month of Great Land, a great website that you eventually work for. And we had Cleveland with the first pick after mysteriously went in the lottery. Thanks to a Clippers Baron Davis dump trade a year after they lost LeBron to Miami conspiracy bill has always been very focused on that lottery. This turned out to be the Kwai Karee Clay Jimmy Butler draft. We did not know this at the time. What we did know we had a first round that had two Lithuanian guys, a Turkish guy, a Congolese guy, a Serbian guy, a Czech guy, a Latvian guy, a Canadian guy, and a Croatian guy. We had five top tips, top 10 picks in a row named NS Tristan Jonas Jan and Bismek. We had Charlotte with the seventh and ninth picks and somehow they didn't end up with Clay Thompson or Kauai Leonard. We had a huge trade in the middle of the draft Kauai Leonard getting taken by Indiana and then traded for George Hill from San Antonio, which had dramatic effects on the 13 and 14 playoffs and led to one of your best grant land pieces ever. And then I wrote my draft diary at the end. I have a feeling we'll remember the 2011 draft as the foreigner draft. That was the takeaway. Now looking back, this is a 10 out of 10 batshit crazy draft. It's a 10. It's just a 10 with the four best guys in the draft with first 11th, 15th and 30th. It's also a draft. It's very close to my heart because as you said, it sort of dub tails with me transitioning into full time NBA media. This would have been my second year, I think full time. But it's like these are guys where it's like, I've written about a lot of them over the years. I feel like I've like they're like my cohort almost. So I have a soft spot for a lot of these guys. All right. I'll give you the first pick. Go. This was easier than I thought. I'm going to take Kauai Leonard and I'm not really going to think about it too hard despite the injuries, the drama, the aspiration, scandal, all of it. And the thing about, you know, you mentioned the top four guys you nailed them. They're going to go top four in some order. They've all had enough health issues that, you know, they've all scored. Kauai has the fewest career points at 16,500. But Kairi, who's number one is 18,400. So there's not that much of a difference in terms of just sort of the raw scoring. And Kauai's got seven all NBA appearances. This is the only one of this four that has any first team all NBA appearances, two championships, two finals MVP's the best two way player by a decent margin. And was the best player alive at the end of 2019. Yeah, I think I think it's a pretty easy choice that I'll take Kauai. I had him number one as well, also defensive player of the year twice, runner up MVP in 2016, three year peak of 26, seven and four, four year playoff peak of 29, nine and five over 60 games, best player on the 2019 champs finals MVP in 2014. What's interesting about this draft, if we had done this even after 2000, maybe 15, we would have said Kairi that it was was the number on pick, right? I think so. I don't even know who else it would be. I wrote this big, I wrote this huge piece for Grandland in 2014 about what a crapshoot the draft was. I regretted in preparation for this. Yeah, I did, I did 20 years of drafts about, and I redrafted basically all of this. And, and I did the 2011 draft. So I did three years later. And I had Kauai first, which I was surprised by, I had Kyrie Irving second, I had Clay third, and I had Chamberlain Parsons fourth and Kenneth Fareed fifth. Jimmy Butler was 11th on this list. So that goes to show you how much all this stuff can change. We, we should have mentioned before, before you made the first pick, what the what should at least do the lottery for this draft, right? Because we had just so people remember it if they don't remember it when it happened. Kyrie went first. Minnesota took Derek William's second. Can't wait to talk about him later. And it's Cantor when third to Utah now, and it's freedom. Thompson to Cleveland of four. Downshootness to Toronto of five. Jan Vesley at six who won the draft, because he had the hottest looking girlfriend, probably in the history of the draft. That was a big part, part of my draft diary. His back beyond both seventh ends up in Charlotte, Brandon night eighth to Detroit, Kemple Walker ninth in Charlotte. Jim are for debt. Giver by Jim are for that stock. Giver call your broker on him or no. Okay. No, he had no stock. He went 10th ended up in Sacramento, who was not did not have a vacate. That was still the mollusse. You're telling me Sacramento messed up the draft. Yeah, telling you that. That's a draft day trade, by the way, and then extremely depressing one. Really one of the most depressing three team draft day trades we've ever had. It was Sacramento, Milwaukee, and I think Charlotte. Clay Thompson, 11th Golden State, Birx, 12th to Utah. We had the Morris Twins go back to back. Mark Keif to Phoenix, Marcus to Houston. And then Indiana takes Kawaii Leonard 15th. And in my draft diary, which I had some some huge huge wins and some huge misses. is after Berks went 12, I wrote, how is quiet Leonard not been taken yet? What am I missing? The Morris twins went 13 and 14. I wrote, San Diego's quiet Leonard is officially our, how the hell did he slide to the middle of the draft guy, which doesn't happen every year. But when it happens and I put in parentheses, Granger loss and Herbert, you know, as it's happening, he should have been a lottery pick. He's a natural small forward. So I had that right. I did not have the first pick of the draft right, which I will go second here. And I'm going to take Kyrie Irving. I was a bait. This is one of my biggest draft misses of the last 20 plus years. I was in the, let's take Derek Williams here camp for Cleveland. Derek Williams have come off a really good Arizona season and just seem like a natural stretch for he shot 59% from three in college is sophomore year. That's a real stat 59% 59%. He made 1.1 and and took 1.9 over. I made 1.1 and just seemed like and was really good in Arizona. And Kyrie, I think it played 10 Duke games and gotten hurt. But Cleveland took Kyrie and I said, I see him settling somewhere between an extremely poor man's Chris Paul and a rich man's Mike Connolly. Well, he ever make it all start team. It's possible. Maybe one or two big miss. Tough one. But I think Kyrie, I was interested. I had a feeling you're going to give me the number one pick. And I knew who I was going to take without doing much research about it. By the way, there's that that Kawaii trade. It's an all time fun trade. I went back and I read that piece that I wrote when I did a sort of TikTok of it. There's so many things that we're going on that I had forgotten about. Like Wohch had reported that the spurs were actually sort of exploring trading Tony Parker to move up higher in the draft for. We're getting shop summer. Yeah, then like the GM's are on the record in the piece being like, well, you know, we got we got to go time and the spurs decided they didn't just need the Kawaii pick. They wanted Dovis Bertand or they wanted the 42nd pick in that draft that became Dovis Bertand and an international prospect named Erasm Lorbeck. And they might not do the trade unless they get both of them. Wow. And and Indiana was like, both of them. That seems like a lot. I guess we'll do it. Like all these things, all these like all these things can fall apart like so easily in the moment that it's kind of amazing that a deal like this gets done. But yeah, Kyrie, I was interested to see who you take second. If you would flirt with Jimmy Butler, Kyrie, I think is the clear second guy. I mean, I don't I feel like we just we have had very limited glimpses of him given his stature of like him being the guy in an NBA offense like undisputed the guy. And I just wonder how we'd think of him. If we if like that was mostly Cleveland pre LeBron coming back when they were just a bad team. Yeah, I think he's just an absolutely sensational offensive player that in his prime. If he ever got handed the keys to an offense, we might think of him a little differently. To keep felt that way too, which is why he wanted to leave second best guy in a championship team. Three finals teams, one second team on NBA two thirds playoff's career, 23 a game, 39% from three. 14 seasons, only 779 games, but a big one of one factor with him. I think he's one of those guys. He's he's way better than a Kyrie Irving was a problem social media video guy. But he will be a guy that I think as the years pass will be even better as some of us that how just his ability to go left hand right hand in traffic, double clutch, triple clutch. And he made one of the biggest shots of the century, right? That's it. We were both there, which one? No, I wasn't there for that one. You were there for them, but you know, one of title, I thought he was the clear second choice. And I'll take the L on that one. You have the third pick, who do you have? This is a good one. Without hesitation, I will take Jimmy Butler. It's it's him or clay. And obviously, both have had some injury issues. Clay is more severe and traumatic than Julian Butler's. Jimmy's had some conflagrations in some of his stops and all of his stops almost. And Clay is a four time champion. Jimmy Butler is not a champion yet. I just think head to head, the defense, the size, just the all around scoring ability. I would put him, I would take him over Clay in a vacuum with apologies to one of the greatest shooters of all time. And game six, Clay and clutch performances. It's it's a it's a debate because of what Clay has done on the biggest stage so many times. But you know, part of the reason he got to do that was that he was surrounded by one of the 12 greatest players of all time and and just the perfect nucleus for him. So I'll take I'll take Jim Butler. I have a feeling you would go and Clay here, but I'm going to you and Butler. It was three a three B to me. I think if you're going, Jimmy, he was the best player on two finals teams that didn't win the finals. But, but he carried two teams to the finals, which I don't know if Clay could have done as a number one guy. And I think that's the difference. Jimmy had one top 10, one second team on be a three top 15s. 2020 playoffs, 22, 7 and 6, two year playoff peak, 27, 7 and 5, 39 games, career playoffs, 21, 6 and 5, 130 games. The, the chemistry stuff with him is really dicey and I think has to be that was that was one of the things there are two things that almost swung it to me for Clay. One is Clay is one of the great shooters of all time. I think Clay gets unfairly dinged because that five year Warriors one was so grueling the entire team literally broke down at the end and Clay broke down once and for all at the tail end of it after five years when they're playing. I mean, what do they play over over 500 games and five years of games? It's one of the most grueling awful stretches any teams had and it's a reason why we don't see will never see a Bill Russell Celtics again because no team can do that for more than four to five years. His five year peak 22, four and three 42% from three. You mentioned the Clay Thompson game in OKC that saved them in 2016. Second best player on the 15 champs, third best on the 17 and 18 champs basically the second best are third best guy and a team that went 207 and 39 over three years and 125 games in a row and had a 73 win record at one point. Couple shooting things with him really quick. So there's only four guys ever who have made two thousand threes and shot 40% from three. He's one of the four Curry Ray on Quay Thompson. We're the Kyle Corver. He's also the only guy ever to have at least 403s and shoot 40% in the playoffs is 501 threes in the playoffs. Even if you're going 175 threes or more, that's only him Steve Nash Ray out in Duncan Robinson or the only four guys who did that. So I actually think he's a greater shooter than maybe people realize and he was also an awesome defensive player and was never the same after those two injuries, which happened. He blew out his knee and then he blew out the Achilles within what eight months of each other and was just never the same guy after that. I think this could have been like a ray out in 15 year career of just him being awesome. Ray Allen is Ray Allen is the right name because we never got to see the Clay Thompson version of Seattle Ray Allen who is the number one option and actually kind of fared better than maybe people thought he would as someone who was pigeonhole does a shooter more than a score and a distributor. I think Clay Thompson could have approximated that if he ever I don't know if the team would have won quite as much as the Warriors one. But when he was in his prime, his shot was so lethal that it made every other part of his game better because you had to press him so high on the front you had to overreact him every time he touched the ball that he could have just like he didn't need to be the most explosive driver to beat people off the dribble because they were already basically beaten by the time they were guarding him and he was an OK passer. But to your point, just an absolute killer as a shooter, a beloved teammate, a grinder turned himself into a very good defensive player has an all defensive team appearance, I believe on on his resume never heard any arena. I've ever been in maybe with the exception of MSG after the end and OB tip, then Oracle was when he came out to shoot those free throws in the finals in game six when he was on one of the great heaters of his career and then got fouled and injured. Yeah, end up tearing his ACL and he was a guy like one of the things I'll now a story I'll never get tired of telling that I unearthed in writing about clay. He was a guy that the spurs in this draft brought in for a second secret workout right before the draft because they were so curious about him and obviously he gets picked I think four spots above. Kauai in chip England, who was a spurs assistant coach, then shooting specialist was was at these workouts and he told people on the spurs something about this guy's internal drive reminds me of mountain genoble and they they all their hair stood up on and because they all revered genoble is as a competitor as a fighter. And a lot of people saw that in clays kind of like so Cal laid back whatever but the fire really burns in him and it really endeared him to everybody he he was ever around he hated losing he took a person like he took this whole draft personally he took he and others with the warriors told me about that like he never forgave the kings for taking jumer for it over him he would go around saying the cast. the Cavs took the wrong Thompson, they took Tristan Thompson, like he was, he is doesn't look it, but he is a fiery fiery dude. I, regardless of the fact that I didn't take him with my first or third pick in the draft, he's just one of my all-time favorite basketball players and always will be. Yeah, there's a stretch there from Bianco at seven, knighted eight, Kenbet nine, and Jim are at 10 that I'm sure Clay was probably like, what the fuck is happening. I think the Jimmer one really stuck in his crawl. It's like really you're taking another shooter over me. All right. So listen, I think you made the right pick at three with Jimmy, but if, if, if we can go back in a time machine and have this draft and I know what I'm getting with each guy and the Clay injury is, you know, that you can't factor that in because I think that was a wear and tear from the five years. I just think I'd rather have Clay Thompson on my team for the 15 years than Jimmy Butler because I get an awesome teammate, I get no drama at all, I get the gravity of Clay. Well, you're not going to have Jimmy for 15 years. That's, I guess I have to make that into my decision. But that's that that Jimmy brings this extra drama, but the higher upside. It's a really interesting debate. Like, I guarantee if we asked Steve Kerr, yo, just curious, who would you rather have had since 2011 on? He wasn't there until 2014, but would you rather Jimmy or Clay? It would have been no contest. So it's good argument. But the thing about Jimmy is the thing that's interesting about how every situation with him seems to end badly is, which is true. The Jimmy stuff is always really good until it's not like like Chicago. Oh, he changed our culture. He's a locker room. What is what a bulldog? What a story? Gives a tibs. And then he hates Williamsburg and it goes the other way. Minnesota tibs again, like, oh, he's elevating the culture. And then he decides he doesn't think Kat and Wiggins are winners. And it goes the other way. Miami. All Taylor made is a heat culture guy like central casting. Maybe he's a problem somewhere else, but he's made for us. And then it goes badly there. So it is this weird up and down where he's like a he plays in a way that you want your other players to play a toughness defense and all that stuff. He's a good chemistry guy. And then it goes, it goes the other way. It's not like a universally bad like you know from day one, this guy is going to bring some issues to our team. It's not, it doesn't start that way with Jimmy. So we went Kauai Kairi Butler clay. You have the fifth pick. And it drops off here to a pretty interesting next three. I mean, I'm excited to pick one three five in this draft because I can build my team around the trio of Kauai and Jimmy Butler on the wing and Kimball Walker as a spot of shooting point guard. I just think he reached his highs were higher than anyone else on the list. His two best seasons in Charlotte were better than anything that I can get from anybody else in this draft. He fits with my he fits with my two wings that I've already taken. We can protect him on defense. And I just thought he, he, it's some pretty spectacular highs both as an off the dribble artist. And it just is a number one score on a decent team that frankly I, people didn't expect from him earlier in his career when his jumper was shaking all that stuff. And another just all time beloved culture guy. So I'm taking him. I wrote in the draft diary. He's a leader and a winner could absolutely be the second or third guard on a contender someday, which he ended up being in 2020 and the Celtics and the bubble where he did not they went to the conference finals. He did not have a great last series there. You mentioned his peak in Charlotte 24 six six 38 percent from three. He was basically discounted. Dame lowered it, right? So it was slightly poor man's name. Four all-star teams, one third team on B.A. And, and sadly his knees just didn't hold up. I mean, they went pretty fast. Boston stiffed it out. They traded him. He ended up getting them out horror for that then attach a pick to it. And then there's a weird thing where the next thought he had a little bit left in him and he just didn't and he had one all-time great game with the nicks. When his mom was in the stands. Yeah, I think he might just put up a 50 ball. If I may be making that up, but it was like a crazy high scoring game. But I think that led to them having a trade would end up being the Jalen Durham pick because they had to attach the pick to get rid of Kemba on Detroit and that ended up so they didn't get him, but they ended up with some creative stuff. Anyway, I think that's fair. I had, I'm going to take Vousavitch 6th and I had him in the five spot. So over a thousand games, 32K minutes, which is second most in this draft, 17 and 10 career, 50% shooting. Never want to play a series that is entire career. Two all-star games and his big legacy ended up being that Bazaar Chicago trade, which ended up being Wendell Carter, Wagner, and I think Anthony Black. They got it for Vousavitch. It was Jet Howard. Oh, it was Jet Howard. Okay. Well, then I'm getting Carter and Wagner for Vousavitch, basically, which you're doing 100 times out of 100. But I like the durability with him. I think he fits in with my team. But I also think he should be either the fifth or sixth guy from this draft. I can't believe you, I can't believe you'd even entertain taking him over Kemba Walker. I guess I don't know what we're aiming for. I'm like, I just am aiming for, I'm going heights more than durability. I guess the Kenba question to me is, was it a good stats bad team situation with them? Because that's not like those Charlotte teams were winning, right? And he was putting it those stats. And the only time we ever saw him on a good team with a chance to really do well was that Boston team that he just didn't have a good plasticers for them or good platform for him. But it might have been at a different point of him physically. That's bubble and physically wearing down. And it's not as if that Charlotte team was making great decisions about its franchise around Kemba Walker. As if it inspired the rest of this draft and the fact that we will not say Bismegbeambo's name for quite a long time. He was a defensive liability even when he was 100% healthy. And in the 2020 playoffs, teams just, as, but Miami especially, it was just like he had, they just put a, they covered him and stakes us and just tried to grill him. What do you think is going to happen? What do you think, Sam, with Vuch on your team? Well, that's the irony of this is Kemba versus Vuch, two all-time guys who get hunted and more big reasons why they never had more playoff success. So I just thought Vuch's career was a little longer. But I, I thought that was a 5/8, 5/8 situation. I know you're going to take seventh. So go ahead. Yeah. I think, I think really you surrendered this draft by letting me have the first pick. I think this is a clear one, three, five, seven. I win the draft over you. I will take, let me just check the second round to make sure. Now you, you know what you're going to take. I got to bring them in. I got to bring Tobias Harris to my team. I'm taking Tobias Harris at seven. And I have, you know, he's a power, my team is trending power forwardly, but that's, that's okay. He's longevity, production, a little late career revival with the pistons that ain't go up the spurs. You know, left the Philadelphia sour experience behind and rebounded. And I just like, he's done more than the Morris Twins. He's done more than Alec Birx than more than Brandon Knight. He's done more than Chandler Parsons and Boyon Bogdanovich who are good second round picks here. I just don't think there's really anyone else who, who sways me here. I mean, is there another candidate? More Keith Morris at his best was pretty good. Tristan Thompson, I think, is underrated. You're spoiling the draft for the listeners. All right. All right. Well, good. Okay. All right. Well, it dropped. Give me Tobias Harris and we'll sign the Bullbomb, Mariana Bitches, an undrafted free agent and reunite them. Over a thousand games for him. Most minutes of anyone from this draft, 32,474, 16 and six for his career, 17 and eight in the playoffs. Never made a conference finals in the running for best zero all star guy from this century. Oh, I like that. Never made an all star game, but I think the career is pretty solid. He's going to end up, you know, now he's going to San Antonio might have a chance to actually make conference finals or finals. I would say his good chance. He's also been in five trades where the team that traded him lost the trade each time. Charlotte traded up and Milwaukee traded back and it ended up being a mess, but Milwaukee ended up getting Harris and ended up winning the trade. He got traded in 2013 with Doron Lamb. Do you have Doron Lamb stock? You know, Ujray and Cash for, uh, so that, that Orlando got Tobias with those other two guys and Milwaukee got Gustavo I own JJ Reddick and Ish Smith, a famously unhappy JJ Reddick Milwaukee. I was going to say, let me, let me give you some personal advice if you run into JJ. Do not ask him questions about his tenure with the Milwaukee bucks. It's not funny. He's not going to laugh at it. He's not going to take the joke. Well, even went better than his New Orleans Pelicans tenure. 2016 traded to the trade. From Orlando for your son, Eli Soba and Brandon Jennings. wildly irresponsible trade. Really horrible for the magic. That was a Scott Skiles has the wheel and is driving the car into the Grand Canyon trade. By the way, I see genuine joy as I list these terrible trades from the 2010s in your face right now. 2018 traded traded with Avi Bradley, Bobon and a 2018 first round pick that ended up being Miles Bridges, but then they traded back with Miles Bridgespot to take SGA who became a two-time MVP to the clippers for Blake Griffin and two other guys and Detroit got a year and a half out of Blake Griffin and he broke down. And then last but not least, traded by the clippers with Bobon and Mike Scott for Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, Landry Shamit, and two firsts that were not big firsts. That's the only one where the other team might have won the trade because I think the clippers were excited to turn to bias in the two firsts. Anyway, quite a career still going. We're going to seem in some real playoff situations on a good team. We should mention another beloved teammate. Everybody likes him. So there you go. Okay. Eighth pick. Eighth pick for me. I'm just taking upside with Isaiah Thomas who was the 60th pick of the strength. Oh, that's a good one. By the way, I should have mentioned Boosebitch was 16th and Tobias was 19th in this draft. Isaiah Thomas was 60th, went to Sacramento, somehow ended up having a better career than Jim or Ferdat who they took 10th, ended up in Phoenix, Danny Ange Steelzum, and has this incredible two-year run with the Celtics where he averages 26 a game for two years. Seven point six free throw attempts, two all-star teams, and in 2017, second team on B.A. Fifth MVP, and they make the conference finals. Really nice run. And then got hurt and they traded him and probably still paying karma points for trading a guy who really went all out for them in the playoffs and was never really the same again after that when it was arguable. He should have kept playing. But his highs were high. I would say it's a good pick. I would say similar, although the other person had way more success, but his effect on those Celtics seems those first two years or those those big two years. In the vicinity of what Brunson has done for the next for the last four from a statistic slash, oh my god, I can't believe he's getting to the rim like this. And there was some similar. It's Brunson's a better player, obviously. Well, he's he also arrives in Boston as part of this spasm of Phoenix point guard trades where they turned him to Boston for first round pick. They traded droggarts to the heat for two picks. They didn't then they trade one of the Lakers picks that they had one of the golden chips of the league for another guy in this draft brand at night who neither of us have taken it. So to recap, we have Kauai at 15. These are the top eight picks we took. Kauai, Kauai who went 15. Kauai refers, Butler 30, Klay 11, Kemba 9, Vusubich 16, Harris 19 and Thomas 60. This draft was fucking not only drunk, but like throwing up and having its hair held back as it puked again. Well, I'm going to restore some order with the ninth pick and pick Tristan Thompson, who is the fourth pick in the draft because I know here is something I'm going to get from prime Tristan Thompson. I'm going to get some really, I'm going to get a lot of press for his romantic endeavors, which is going to help my team's publicity go up. I'm going to get elite defense switchability versatility and I'm going to have the most annoying offensive rebounder in the entirely who's going to do all the dirty work for my team never complain about his touches and just be effective at what he does. And at this age of the draft, I'm very happy to just get that. He turned it to an awesome role player for finals teams 2016 champs. Three playoffs from 15 to 17, where average 9.4 rebounds a game and did all the switching stuff you mentioned. Billis said during the draft, he just needs to learn how to play and how to score. And then I wrote, I think I need more from my fourth pick than that. Well, he turned it into a decent guy. I think that was a great ninth pick in this draft. Yeah, I, I'm going to take a guy who's played 1,000 games to career as 13 and 9, 56% shooting. And who is an interesting, what if for the 2016 playoffs? Jonas Balenschunis. So came back 2016 playoffs as his peak. He's averaging a 15 and 12 in the 2016 playoffs for a really good Toronto team and gets hurt midway through the second round and comes back for the last couple Cleveland games in round three. Toronto loses to Cleveland in six. Did you ever feel like that was like maybe not a Hall of Fame what if, but maybe like a little stealth on the Sunday buffet next to the scrambled eggs and bacon as a what if for you? Like what if Jonas doesn't get hurt? Has anything changed in 2016? Hello? No, no, no. We're going with no Alex. No. Okay. He does give up Toronto, he does end up getting Toronto title though because what happens? Well, they trade him for Marcus all one of my favorite all-time players. I love Jonas. I think he's actually a great success story of someone who found his place in the NBA by just doubling down by everything he was good at. He's a big man who they know they flirted with him. Can we make him a three-point shooter? Can we do this? And he's like, you know what? I'll just beat the shit out of everybody all the time and that's going to be what I do. And he was very effective at it. He was a top five or six. Don't fuck with him guy for at least 12 years. I never, other than Toronto, I never felt like he found the right teams. I always felt like it was always a mismatch with teams that he was on. I did it either. That's why he's in Europe now. Right. He went from, he went through some of the real drags of the last five years in the NBA just sort of like cycling through teams. New Orleans and Sacramento, the two worst-run teams in the league at one point. And by the time he gets to Denver, he's pretty much washed. I did the draft. I were in 2011. I had Kevin Wilde and Dave Jacobi with me as peanut gallery guys. And when Valentinus got interviewed for this draft after he got picked, Wilde's thought, Valentinus was right on the interpreter cusp where he knew just enough English that he didn't need one, but probably should have gotten one anyway. And Wilde said, the interpreter never hurts. You're always going to start talking in your own language. And then I wrote, unless you're bread far. What is what a what a night. I think that's a great point by Wilde's though. The interpreter always makes you sound bad. The interpreter is always a win. Like, unless you're like Wembenjama level English, I'm using the interpreter until it's just obvious I don't need one anymore. I'm just like, fuck it. Wow. Yeah. Just look, I mean, it depends what French. I mean, like, could you imagine they asking Tom Dundin to pay for some extra interpreters for Hudson Young? It'll only be one. It won't be one that. One guy who speaks 12 different languages, just in case we sign anyone from this from any part of the world. Which things have the Tom Dundin belt tightening things? Have you actually agreed with or kind of see his point? Because my only one is why do we have 12 assistant coaches at every game and on the bench and at summer league? I would just never have more than four. I do think there is a certain amount of fake hustle in all of sports that he's trying to police a little bit. Like, do we really need like 17 people to scout this opponent? But most of it is just like, he's just obviously trying to squeeze every penny I can out of the team. Are they even going to have a broadcast team next year? I know you talked about this already, but what do you think his end game is? I am not as plugged in as I need to be on it. I would assume his end game is get the city to pay for a really nice arena or a really nice upgrade to the current arena and not have to put too much of the bill himself. I don't think that's going to happen. Do you think they're going to move the team? I don't. I just don't think I don't think the city's going to be chipping in to help this rich guy have a better arena. Good. They shouldn't. I mean, it's been 15 years since I've read field of schemes on a summer vacation, which is all about this and the schemes are still scheming. When I did my HBO show, this is a big part of the ad campaign how billionaires should pay for their own stadiums. What a concept. You have the most money, maybe you should use the money. Why are you asking the city to do it or just keep the arena you have. All right. You have the 11th pick. Who do you have? Boy. Okay. Now we've reached a point where I like two guys, though. Look, I'm debating between two guys. I wonder if they're the same two guys. But you know where I have a connection in the world. And so I will take a boy on Bob Donovich to round out my team. I had him shooting. I had him 10 years in the league, 20,000 minutes, 11,000 points, knockdown shooter, could do a little ball. 39% three for his career could handle the ball and it post up in a pinch. If I need him, I'm not gonna need him to do it on my team. But I feel like he's the best option. There are some good, depending on how much you weigh longevity here. There are some interesting players in this spot, but I'll go I'll go boy on. He had a couple couple of coffees, cups of coffee, cup of coffees. He had a couple cups of coffee as this guy is a missing piece for us. And the only time it really worked was in Utah. I looked at his stats for 21 and they lose to the Clippers after Kauai gets hurt, which was just an indefensible loss. But he was 18 and a half points a game in like 13 playoff games, 46% from three. And was an absolute bitch in that entire playoffs to guard. And really felt like, oh, you know, but that was really the only time we saw it unleashed, but I I was like this game. I always thought remember, is on the Wizards in 2017 when the Celtics played them. I always felt like they didn't get him the ball enough and figure out how to unleash him because I thought the Celtics said there was a piecer cav series when he was on the Pacers and yeah, that was another is he's a little brown stopper. I forgot about that. Yeah, I do feel like he's a legitimate playoff guy. He went 31st in this draft, which ties into my pick at number 12. I'm taking Marcus Morris, who was 14th, who played 41 more games than his brother. What swung it for me is he was a real rotation guy for two conference finals teams in 2018 with the Celtics and 2021 with the Quippers where he was, he played 30 minutes of game for the Celts and 31 for the Quippers. He's like a 12 and five, almost 40% from three both times and I just think if he could have been this one of the top five to seven guys on a conference finalist, that's better than anyone else I'm getting in this and I thought he was a little better than his brother. Okay, so you're right now. We only have a couple picks left. There's a couple of fun ones left so we can go quick. Who do you have? I'm going to have some fun. I'm going to have some fun right now. I want all around skill. I'm going ceiling, I'm drafting ceiling all around skill. Max player back in his day, a little entertainment value off the core. We're bringing Chandler Parsons onto the squad. He was the 38th pick in this draft. Yeah, injuries, ruined his career, knee stuff, all that stuff. Some late nights with Mark Cuban that were well publicized. We may have to let you know just get get the off court stuff a little under control. But we're taking Chandler Parsons and he's a great, he's going to help recruit free agents to my team. He was always at the forefront of that. He's emoji use was first rate during the deandre joy. Great. Yeah, I'm taking him. So I had him hire on my initial list and I did the deep dive on the career and he only played 440 games in nine years. He played 13 playoff games, zero round two playoff games. His four year peak was 15 and five 39% from three. I had him down, but not I had this guy ahead of him. And his canter was the third pick of the draft. 11 and 8 for his career. Really one of the better per 36 guys we've ever had. I think bo-bons obviously the LeBron of per 36. But canter was 22 and 12 as a per 36 guy for his prime and also helped the next win the title. You know how? Who do they get in that? And he's involved in a whole, an Oklahoma City New York trade. Okay, see trades for Carmelo for some reason in 2018. They give up canter McDermott and a second round pick in 2018, which becomes Mitchell Robinson. Oh, wow. Yeah. I always like canter's game. It went fast when he was on the Celtics. He was just, he just was washed. He was too slow. But I always thought he was kind of a bitch on the low post, like he could really like torture teams. And he was a good change of pace coming off the bench, fiscal guy. And I feel like where the league is now. He kind of missed. He was between these two errors that he would have been good in. He was in the worst possible era for what he was good at. I think he would have been better now. It's a good pick. And as you said, when I took Chandler Parsons, there was a bunch of guys in this draft that played significantly more games than him. And we're fairly productive in NS Canter and his freedom is one of them. I also will always admire 2019 playoffs with the Blazers. Nercatch got hurt. He's shoved into the starting five. He was dealing with some kind of elbow or arm and injury and just like unrelenting, you know, his skill level was, you know, who's around the rim guy offensively. He was a liability defensively. There's the famous Billy Donovan can't play canter lip reading thing that happened in Oklahoma City. But he gave everything he had to that Portland team and did what he did well. And so it's a good pick. The one piece with him, he was, he went and ended up in Utah because they traded D will to the nets. And then I'm getting the third pick in the draft. Would they get Derek favors and canter out of it, basically? Devon Harris is in that trade too. But the canter pick really felt like holy shit. They're getting the third pick of the draft out of this. And it was just the wrong draft. It wasn't like if, like, if that happened in 2024, it's like, oh, cool. We have Jabari Smith. That's gonna go. All right. Let's go quick. Who do you have next? Okay. Quick. Quick. Who do I have next? This is now we're getting into dicey. Not dicey, but, you know, I'll take. You're gonna take who I would have taken. There's someone I really want to take, but it's too early for him. I'll take Markey from Morris to make sure the twins are not on the same team. Wow. Markey. I really, I really thought, I really thought Markey from Morris was going to be better than he ended up being in the NBA. I think he had real all around skill and feel that just somehow never all clicked together at the same time. Yeah. But the shooting never clicked. And maybe that's the sort of all encompassing explainer, but at this spot in the draft, I feel pretty good about taking him over a few other guys. I agree with you. When I did my the 2014 rankings, I had him 10th and I had him out ahead of his brother. He, we should mention was a role player on the 2020 Lakers won the title 18 minutes of game, played for eight teams. So he could be, I think at his peak, maybe the ninth or tenth man on a really good team, which I think he was better than that. But yeah, I mean, he never became. There was a vision of him where he was a starting power forward on a good team because you could do just about just enough of everything to be like a jack of all trades. And that never really the irony of the Morris twins of both of them were about an inch and a half too short. Right. They were in that weird tweener zone. I'm taking Reggie Jackson. He was in, yeah, let's get back to conference finals. 2014 playoffs for OKC six man was pretty good as a bench guy that year, a living a game. And then famously, oversized ego. And I don't think it played well in that team ended up going to a trade, staying in Gandhi overpaid for him. Your guy. And then 2021 playoffs. Clippers make the conference finals. He's 18 a game in the playoffs. 41% from three. And it was like a revelation for them. So he did it in a big spot. He was the 24th pick in this draft. And, uh, you know, worst case scenario, that I think the thing that thinks him was he went to Denver in 23. And we thought that was going to be an impactful move for them, heading in. And they won the title anyway, but he just really wasn't involved and never really meshed with Joker, which seemed to be a recurring theme for him. So taking them there. Who do you got? I have four draftable guys left. That's it. Yeah. I got more than that. Uh, I am going to go off the board a little bit here. And I'm going to go all the way down to number 42. And I'm going to take Davis, pertains. Just, you know what? Let it fly. Like almost no one, almost no non star player has been so like guiltless without conscience, without thinking about letting it fly from three. And he should. That's what he was in the NBA to do. He would let fly from all angles, all distances against tight closeouts. And he's in all time, very, he's like a very, very good elite three point shooter. And let's have some fun on my team. He'll create some chemistry problems by taking too many shots. So our coaches left to do some work with that. But you know, it's, it's him or a couple of other guys that you're going to mention. And I don't feel strongly enough about any of them that I'll take the guy that I know has one A plus skill, uh, uh, some other liabilities, but one A plus skill. I'll take Davis, pertains. What was didn't he get a goofy contract at some point from somebody? Because I remember writing that as pertains contract for two years. Uh, I believe it was the Washington Wizards of Joe. Yeah. Well, that's it was. I just remember him being in every trade rumor for two years as some sort of third contract, whatever. Okay. Resigned, resigned unrestricted free agent. Sit down for a minute. Yeah. Five years, $80 million in 2020, uh, Washington Wizards. What year was that? The year of our basketball, God's 2020. Oh, that was like, uh, I'm like, why would they do that? That's insane. Even for the Wizards, that's insane. Five years, $80 million. Jesus, fucking Wizards. I'm taking out perks. 12 pick in this draft. Good pick. Basically 11 points of game, 38% from three first career and he's played 791 games. Always like in the eighth, ninth, tenth range, some playoff contenders have kicked the tires on him to mixed success. Probably did the best on what the trade, I would say, but had a long time in Utah. He had a late career, um, revival with the next tips. Love them. Yeah. I was kind of a Jordan cookie shot. One of the weird cookie shots of in an era where a lot of people have the assembly line shots, but his shot was a little, uh, little goofy, which I liked. So that's my one. All right. Who do you got? You know, I don't got, um, isn't this the draft where the timber wolves take through a trade select tank? a guy in a gombo who turned out to be too old to be draft eligible. I think that happened in this draft. That was David. When did David cons? Last moves. I think that's it. I think that's the right guy. A talent for the David Cod era. Yeah. If it's not, but he is one of the players taking in the second round who has no stats in the NBA and thus never played. So I will not be taking him in all time or like drafting a guy who's undraftable. I mean, that's like, you might as well draft a football player just just for fun. Like teams used to do. I'll have some fun. I'll take Kenneth Fareed. I really liked watching. I met the disappointed Kenneth Freed, but got taken part of this draft. Yeah. He's been just, you know, voracious rebounder, rim runner, super angry dunker never really advanced any other part of his game. Unfortunately, I didn't let a little useful jump hook. He could bust out now. And then I just feel like he'll come in and make hustle plays for me. As a huge fan, first six years, 12 and nine in 26 minutes of game, probably peaked on that weird Denver playoff Hodgepodge team. I love them in the draft. If Fareed doesn't end up having a meaningful moment for a contender at some point over the next eight years, I'm giving you a full refund for this column. I think you win. I think you had a meaningful moment for a kind of a, the George Carl team where Galen Howard got hurt right before the playoffs. That counted as a made lose to the Warriors is sort of the Warriors announcing to the world. We are here. We're forced to be reckoned with. But yeah, I think you, I think you don't owe anybody. I'm going to take Nicole Ameritich with that we could make this the last picker go one more round. 23rd in this draft couldn't come over for a few years was dangled as this very few times this has happened over the years. The guy who's overseas, who's always being surgery alone, it's the surgery alone all stars. These guys that are overseas that are just lingering as these massive assets, but they really weren't. But we always heard about them over and over again. He finally came over. He played second round in the rotation for the Bulls, Pelicans and Bucks and was a 12 and six guy and was always a little overpaid. I think I liked them the most on the Bulls. But he ended up who did he get in the fight with? Bobby Portis. I was going to say you got to just keep don't sign Bobby Portis on your team. Yeah. Bobby Portis teammate fight in the locker room. Probably quite, quite, he really hurt me or it's itch. Yeah. The booty break is like orbital bone or something? I just would just say he broke his face. Not great. Anyway, welcome to my team. We'll keep Bobby Portis off it. All right. I'll give you one last pick if you want. I have a guy. I'm excited to pick. I think this is a perfect. What is this? The one to select the 10th guy on my team. I think some perfect 10th guy had some playoff moments. locker room stabilizer, organized the offense for us off the fence. Cory Joseph, come on down to team low. He was the 29th pick in this draft right behind Norris Cole, NBA champion, Morris Cole, who can't, who can't get a sniff nor can number two pick Derek Williams. Cory Joseph might have had there was somebody overpaid him at some point. I can't remember who. I remember there was a, ooh, contract with him. Could be. I think it's a Toronto. Yeah. Somebody did it. Yeah. It's more of a fourth guard who got, uh, miscast as a third guard sometimes. But yeah, he was around there and he was on the 2014 Spurs, um, high five and people. Kings signed to a three year, 37 point $2 million. Oh, man, just it just goes to show you it's always to keep the Raptors signed them in four years earlier to four years 30, um, which is a more reasonable. So, bird time, Friday, when in doubt, King's Wizards, like, if you're like, who was that bad contract with the crazy contract? All right. Last pick of the draft chemistry guy. When he was drafted, Fran for Shela said about him, the problem, he cannot score. You cannot run any place for him. That was when I had the draft diary, Bismek, Bianca, seven pick in the draft, getting in still kicking around. Bismek's big moment was when Valentine's got hurt in 2016 and the Raptors had to throw him in, uh, for like seven, eight playoff games. They won a series with him as the center. They finished off Miami with Bianca was their center and then, uh, lost the Cleveland, but he's still around. I'm sure he's going to be in the league next year. He's one of the longest running guys from this draft. You know what else happened in 2016 with Bismek, Bianca? He was the cap spike, the cap spike and the $64 million contract from the Orlando magic who had like nine big men on their team already, um, did not work out. I love the cap spike. All right. So that's the draft, uh, not picked. Derek Williams, the second pick in this draft who ended up being a 30% three point shooter in the NBA, uh, I wrote in the draft diary. I believe Derek Williams will be a more effective professional basketball player than Kyrie Irving. We will see. One of my worst ones ever, uh, easily in the top 10. This was David Khan's last first round pick, I think. And this really, just quickly, the number two curse, which goes back to 1984 where we have Sam Buie, Lenny bias, Danny Ferry, Sean Bradley, Jay Williams, Darko Milachick, uh, Marvin Williams, Michael Beasley, Hashim ThaBeat, Evan Turner, Derek Williams, Michael Kidgill Crestjabari Parker, Lonzo Ball, Marvin Bagley, and James Weisman from 1984 to 2020. And then not mentioning Steve Francis, John Moran, Kenny Anderson and Victor LaDepa, who all had off the court stuff for bad injury luck. Um, and then it feels like it shifted now. I'm not as scared as the second of the second pick anymore in the 2020s. We've had some good ones in a row. Um, Jan Bezzley did not get drafted. Wanted to mention Sal and I bet that Jan Bezzley would be a top six pick in this draft. And we won that because he went six. One of my, one of my first summer league memories that I can see really clearly was sitting in the stands in the little gym, not Thomas and Mack, the other one with some Wizards officials watching Jan Bezzley play the three for their summer league team after getting drafted. It was clear he was not going to be able to play the three. And in my mind, he had like eight fouls in the first half. And I was like, this is, I might be this is getting a little awkward with you guys. It's not going great for Jan Bezzley. You go to the back and don't come back. Brandon Knight went eight. Now Brandon Knight should have been drafted, but just could not stay healthy. I mean, I think he played 60 games once. He did get one big contract from somebody. I think the pistons. Jim referred at at 10. I wrote, I see him becoming a more consistently explosive version of JJ Berea, only with deeper range. That's some guy you'd want on your team, right? Turned out, no, it was wrong on that. Amon Shumpert 17. Yeah, Shump Shump was the other one had a case. And the only thing from this draft was ESPN played Adele's rolling in the deep the entire time. Oh, that was it was a rolling in the deep draft with a lot of, I'm trying, I'm trying to look at the look at the draft and, and see is there, is there a guy in here that I just had a super sauce spot for like, I was sure this guy was going to make it and it was not. I think that was kind of three. I remember liking Jordan. And by the way, Josh Selby is in this draft. Yep. And the only reason I bring up Josh Selby is because all time, Summer League All Star, just like he came in and exploded in Summer League and then played 38 games over two NBA seasons. My soft spot guy, Dan Gai Nagambo. I did kind of enjoy John, John, how'd you put that same lure? Lure. Lure, Lure was good. I thought he was like a banger that was going to have a moment. I had a moment where I would enjoy the LeVoy Allen, who was the 50th pick in the draft. I like LeVoy Allen. I liked Jordan Hamilton added a sauce spot for it. And I liked Andrew Goudlock had some, had some sauce to his game, Andrew Goudlock was a problem. Now you said Steamsmo was an undrafted for agent in this draft. Yeah. Okay. I had the list, but I deleted it because there was no one, there was no one that we were going to pick. All right. Here's your team. I'll just do what the draft was and it goes back and forth, Zach's pick, my pick, Zach's pick, my pick. You took Hawaii. I took Kyrie Irving. You took Jimmy Butler. I took Clay Thompson. You took Kimber Walker. I took Nicola Vucovic. You took Tobias Harris. I took Isaiah Thomas with the eighth pick. You took Tristan Thompson. I took Jonas Fountain, sheeness. You took Boyam Bogdanovich. I took Marcus Morris. You took Chandler Parsons. You took a more fun kind of team to hang out with than me. Joy. Joy is going to be our watchward. I have Anna Scanter. You have Mark Keef Morris. You ended up, did you get, oh no, we split up the Morris Twins. I took Reggie Jackson. You took the Avis Bertons. I took Al Berks. You took Kenneth Fried. I took Nicola Meritich. You took Cory Joseph. I took Biz Mac Bianca to round it out. We'll put it on the social medias and we'll ask people to say who won that one. But man, I would say that's a 10 out of 10 weirdo draft. I don't know if it gets greater than that one, other than maybe 2013, 2013 is a 10 and a half out of 10. It's a pretty 2013 to great one, 2009 is not weird, but it's a good one of my favorite ones. This one is in all time. What happened? What's going on? And I was listening to you guys do the bubble one or the COVID one the other day. That was another, it's another wacky one. Zach Low, we will hear from you a deeper dive on the LeBron trade and not a little LeBron signing. and all the ramifications from that that's going up Sunday, I'm not going to have another podcast until Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Don't forget about the live rewatchables on Monday obsession four p.m. Pacific time live on Netflix. And thanks to Kyle and Eduardo and everybody's Spotify as well. Congrats to the Philip fans. Are you going to have Chris Ryan this weekend? We're going to try. We're efforting. We're currently efforting. I bet he's available. Okay. That's it for the pod. Enjoy the weekend. I will see you next week. Thanks, Zach. Thank you. 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