The 10 Most Interesting Extension Candidates With Grant Liffmann

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Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026, Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. ♪♪ Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, LeBron James. We are still waiting, and that's fine. Take all the time you want. We got nothing going on. Draymond Green and James Harden are also still waiting. Peyton Watson is still waiting for a deal. Jill Enduren is still waiting for a deal. Lots of stuff is in flux as we all wait on LeBron, and he's going to take his time, and that's fine. In the meantime, we have a busy summer and fall coming up. Notably around contract extensions, and Grant Liffman from NBC Sports. He used to work for the Atlanta Hawks front office. He's worked doing TV for NBC out in Golden State, but now he's national NBC's on the national TV games and all that. We're doing a fun little draft of extension-eligible players. The most interesting extension cases in the NBA, combining guys who are coming off their rookie deals soon, the Wembenyama draft class. Obviously, he signed for the Max, but less than the Supermax. And the veteran extension. Some are obvious. We've all talked about Tyler Hero and Michael Porter Jr. and Carl Anthony Towns, and we hit those guys. But there's always some fun under-the-radar ones. Like, oh, that guy was extension-eligible. They could get him for that amount. We go through that whole list, talk about what's a fair deal, a fair compromise, what negotiations might look like. We hit almost every team at some point comes up. So it's a fun episode. Grant's awesome. I think you guys will enjoy it. That's coming up now. We'll be right back. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. It's late July. It's day 24 of LeBron Watch. We're now drinking lake water instead of regular water. We're monitoring YouTube channels for videos that were posted by mistake. Whoops. Grant Liffman from NBC is here. My old buddy, how you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I'm just trying to survive LeBron Watch, just like you. I am. I'm reading the tea leaves. I've spoken to multiple people. I'm also going to, you know, just palm readers and all that, trying to figure it out. But we'll get there sometime. As I have said, the speculation, the tea leaf reading is just wildly out of control. You talk to people with teams. You talk to people with teams in your job as a front office insider for NBC. Nobody knows anything. Unless they're all lying and they do know something, nobody knows anything. They're all laughing. And how in the dark they are. And they're all like, I will find out when you find out. That's what I keep hearing anyway. Yeah, no, that's exactly it. I just, I put out a tweet like a couple of weeks ago and I said, Hey, by the way, just in case, you know, like if a source is saying this is a done deal or this was happening or he's leaning towards this way, I don't want to say they're lying, but I'll just put it this way. No one knows. And I think LeBron may be literally the only person that knows that includes Rich Paul. Is there a chance he doesn't know? There's always a chance. There's always a chance he doesn't know yet. I mean, there's all this burbling about, is he waiting for one of these teams to make a big move? Like, I don't believe that really, even I'm not sure that's a player. I don't really know what's happening other than I can tell you, they do seem to be enjoying the monopolization of NBA airwaves and the fact that we're all hanging on tenter hooks about a 41 year old player's decision that probably will not, but maybe might, maybe some chance it swings the championship balance a little bit, but we shall see. I don't have anything. I'm out of things to say. I just, I don't even have jokes anymore. Grant, I'm out. All right. My one thing I will say is this. So I think LeBron James is one of the more calculated NBA players, if not athletes of all time, the way he tells the story and the narrative of his career. And I was convinced and still am pretty convinced that when he said I'm stepping away from Lakers, he pretty much knew where he was going. However, there's only one team in my mind that will clearly show that he did not actually know. And he switched it up. And that is the 76ers. Because when he pulled out of the Lakers, they didn't have Jalen Brown yet. That deal did not happen. And I would be shocked if he was just going to go to the Sixers with Embiid and Maxie and Paul George. So I think if he actually does go to the Sixers, that means he might have pivoted because that would have been such a random team for him to go to before they got Jalen Brown, in my opinion. Who knows? We'll find out soon. Presumably. I don't even know. I was going to say presumably by August. First, I don't know. Who knows? I'm going on vacation in eight days. I'm taking my microphone. Who knows what's going to happen? But we will find out at some point before the season. And again, presumably, Bill has floated the idea that he should wait till Christmas or something. I don't see that happening. He likes being on a team. LeBron legitimately likes being on a team. I don't think he wants to shortchange that. In the meantime, we have to make up things to talk about. So here's what we're going to do today. Normally, you would do an episode on rookie deal extensions like Victor Wembenyama's draft plan. He already took the max, although not without the 30% language. And people have hemmed and hawed about that, justifiably so. And then another episode on veteran extensions, which there are always sneaky veteran extensions out there. We saw one today, Grant. The Celtics extended Jordan Walsh three years, $15 million. Nice deal. I mean, that's how they got Peyton Pritchard, is just these sort of sneaky extensions that come out of nowhere. It's like, yeah, why not? Like, $5 million, if that deal goes bust, it's not. It's not that big of a deal. Smart deal by the Celtics. I like Jordan Walsh. Like, no harm, no foul. And so I thought we'd have a little fun. Our 10, we each made a list, our 10 most interesting extension candidates among all the extension candidates. You can take the Thompson twins, and you can take Tyler Hero and Michael Porter Jr., put them all in a bucket. We made a list of our 10 most interesting extension candidates. We will have a draft, and you will go first, and we'll see how much we overlap. Are you ready to make your first pick in the extension draft? This is a big deal. This is my first. This is the first extension draft I've been part of. So, yeah, who I pick first may dictate, really, my future career in this. So, you ready? You're really baiting me with that, Grant. You're really baiting me with that, because you did work for the Atlanta Hawks. I had to say it. You're baiting me, but I'm not taking the bait. You make your first pick. All right. All right. So let's see if you overlap on any here. So I'm going to go with my first pick is actually a rookie extension, and that's Keontae George. And to me, Keontae George is such an interesting situation in that he was part of a team that had been trying to lose and trying to develop players. And they're one of those few teams that kind of just switched it. All of a sudden, we're like, and we're going for it. And in the midst of that, Keontae George was having his career breakout year. He's averaging 24 points per game. His percentages all went up 46 from the field, 37 from three. And you just saw this revolution of his game for someone that, was teetering a little bit about if he ever is going to be this efficient guy, or is he just going to be the sixth man, just kind of like puts up some stats and volume. But Keontae George is in a position now where he wants to get paid. He put up huge numbers to get paid, but the Jazz are in a completely different situation than they ever were before. Right now, they have committed about $100 million to Triple J and Lowry Marketing, right? They were also ticketed to get probably about $30 million on the books for Walker Kessler. So him, not being there does change the situation again for the Utah Jazz. But the biggest part about all of this is Darren Peterson now has entered into the mix. And Darren Peterson, we saw, is trying to be on ball. He's trying to have the ball in his hands. And Keontae George is best with the ball in his hands. He comes off pick and roll. He gets a high ball screen from Nurk. And then he comes off that he's a scorer. He is more of a scorer than he is a facilitator. And Darren Peterson is more of a scorer than a facilitator that we've seen thus far. So how much do you actually pay Keontae George? Do you want to keep him as trade bait throughout the season? And if so, you probably don't want to sign the deal because then it becomes poison pill and all the different things you have to think about. But for Keontae George now, we have to really talk about a guy who's 23 years old. And what is his ceiling? Is he a winner or is he a guy that puts up stats? And these are the things that the Jazz will have to figure out as they move forward. They also have Ace Bailey on the team. So that's another guy that eventually they're, you know, there's only, what did they say? There's only one. There's only one ball, right? There's only one ball to go around between all these mouths to feed. And finally, Zach, you mentioned that I was with the Atlanta Hawks before, and this is the way I look at extensions here is that, so I want to give a little shout out to who I think is one of the best young cap strategy minds in the, in the game, Ryan Silverstein there with the, with the Hawks. He created a model and I'm not going to go into the exact specifics or the nuances of it because I don't want to give away his strategy. But the idea is when you're building out a team championship teams, you have to look at the percentage. I THINK THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION. the cap that you're building out with these extensions and signings. And normally a championship team, and this is a very broad macro way of looking at it, has two max players and then about three guys that are making the MLE or above. So let's say about 9% of the cap to like 15 to 18% of the cap. Right now you have two guys that are making quote unquote close to max with JJJ and Lowry, right? If you're giving Keontae George, what 30 more, whatever, now you're starting to load up on positions of like those cap numbers are starting to skyrocket. And then you have to figure out Peterson in them. So a long way of saying you have to figure out the best way of team building more than just accumulating talent in the new apron system. And Keontae George is my most interesting one for that. Yeah. He was in my honorable mentions. He didn't make my top 10, partly because I'm pretty pessimistic that there is going to, be a deal before the season. There was a report. I can't remember where it was like a month ago that they did negotiations. It totally broken down and there was not going to be an extension. I don't think that's true. I think negotiations are going to start if they haven't already started. And that's fine. I just like the jazz are, they played hardball with Walker Kessler. And I think they will play a hardball with Keontae George and just say, Hey, look, if you want the security of an extension, you have to do it on our terms. We're not going to give you the back. We can give you the max next summer. If you play up, to the max, you mentioned $30 million. If that's their offer, I don't think a deal is getting done. I don't think Keontae George is taking $30 million. I could be wrong. That's like getting into the ballpark of where a player might say, you know what? That's just so much money per season that even if it's lower than we've discussed internally with the agent and stuff, I might take it. I think he's a very good player. I think he is a winning player. Offensively defensively, he made a huge leap last year from like, Oh my God, bad to just like normal below average. I think there should be, another leap coming. I think he and Peterson can co-exist fine as combo guards. There's a real creativity to Keontae's game that I think he can tap even more into with another perimeter score, but you did zero in on like the jazz have a lot of very good players. They don't have a lot of very good passers yet. And I think that's one of the deficits of their team. Like Isaiah Collier is probably their best passer. If you really stretch the argument, you could argue like Kyle Filipowski might be their second best passer. But I think Keontae George is a really good player has a lot of room to grow. Maybe there's an extension, maybe they're not, but that, that is a good, the, the model you posited is interesting because if they give him a lot, like 35, 40, whatever it ends, if it goes into that higher range, they're looking at a possible tax bill next season, 27, 28. But I, I still think they view him as a long-term part of the franchise, but he is, there is a world where like Peterson just explodes out of the gate. And you start talking about like who's expendable, who's tradable. That's a good, that's a good pick. Yeah. It's much, much, much more deep cut than my first pick is going to be. So I admire you. You came in, you came in strong. Yeah. I really want to get the brain going early and they'll want to follow up. I would say to that too, is that if you're Keontae George's side, there are a lot more mouths to feed this upcoming season. So do you want to get an extension done this summer before there's a chance you go into next year and your, your, your points per game drops and all that, because your usage is going to drop considerably. Potentially with Peterson and all these mouths to feed. So that is something that have to look into as well. You're coming off a big year. Do you want the security or do you want to go into it and just say, Hey, I want to make as much bank as possible the following year? I will say, I'll just, I said, I don't, I don't expect a deal at people, particularly aggregators go crazy with stuff like that. I'll say like, to be clear, I'll go like 35% extension, 65%, no extension. All right. My turn, my first pick, I assume this guy's going to be in your top 10. Anthony Davis of the Washington wizards who makes $58.5 million this year. And as a very juicy $63 million player option for 2027, 2028 for a whiz team that could be looking at paying the tax next season, depending on a whole bunch of variables, including is Anthony Davis on the team? Does he just opt in to $63 million and roll the dice as an unrestricted free agent after that in his mid thirties, is there a deal to be had extension? Where he opts out of $63 million and sign something like a three-year $150 million deal where he takes a pay cut in terms of annual salary, but locks in some money given his availability issues. Is any of this tied to the LeBron sweepstakes that's going on right now? I don't particularly think so. I don't think the words was showing much interest if any in Anthony Davis. I don't think the wizards have shown much interest in any in trading for Anthony Davis. And there's a world where Trey young plus Anthony Davis, plus AJ DeBansa, plus a whole pile of interesting young players suddenly nets you. If not this year, then maybe next year when all those young players have a year of growth and a year of fitting with the vets, like, is that a potentially 47, 48 win team? Like, I don't think that's like completely outrageous in two years, not this year in two years. I don't know what's going to happen here. This is one of the biggest mysteries in the league to me. I don't know what I think. The only thing I'm sure of is extension for Anthony Davis is batshit insane at no team should be even be within any reasonable reach of it because he just doesn't play enough, but he's still very good when he plays. So he's on my list for all those reasons. I love that. I, you know, I, I, I guess I went for guys that, you know, were a little bit more, you know, below the surface, uh, interesting, but I agree with you. Anthony Davis should be number one on this list, just out of all extensions, because it affects so many different teams in the league. And the one thing I can say is this very rarely has a clutch. Client just been like, you know what? I'll take a little less or, Hey, I'll, I'll do a three-year deal, et cetera. It seems like so many different times this person gets traded before they take that deal right before they go somewhere else. And then they sign that deal elsewhere. Um, a couple of years ago when I was the Hawks, we had Trey young, we labeled Anthony Davis as one of the guys that fits perfectly with Trey's game. Uh, and now this is a younger, more spry, maybe Anthony Davis. We don't know what he hates. We haven't seen him play very much. So we don't, we don't really know where he's at right now. Um, his game fits just perfectly with Trey young. It really is to a T now what that means for this Washington team. It just, it really comes down to motivation, right? Is he doing this? What, what is Anthony Davis motivation? And I feel like that's been a question mark, whichever team he goes to, who's his teammates, what are they trying for? Are they trying for money? Is he trying for a championship here, which is weird to say out loud, but like at the same time, we've kind of seen the ebb and flows of his career kind of based on a lot of, like, what is the drive going towards? Um, would I give him the full max at this? No, I mean, that's just, that's just hard to do. Again, we're talking about a guy. What are you trying for? Are you trying for a championship? If you're trying for a championship, giving the full max and giving all your dollars to Trey young, Anthony Davis at this point in their careers. And then I don't think you're as serious about trying for a championship. If you're trying to be relevant again. Yeah. I mean, I can see why you're going to pay him a lot, but I don't think you're going to be there. And Zach, the one thing I will say is this is that sometimes teams go out of their way to tank for so long that there's a stigma about them that no one wants to go there, or they have to be paid the max money to go there. And sometimes you need to change that stigma about your team to be a relatively up and coming team or a fun team or something. And then when a player gets traded there or goes there, they're like, Hey, maybe I'll take a little less or like I'll play for you guys, et cetera. Washington just has this vibe about them that like Anthony Davis went there and was immediately like, I'm not playing here. And it's like Washington itself, the city, the history, it's awesome. I actually loved going to DC for their games. It's just the point is the fan base is ready for something. You kind of have to build that in between team that's on the rise. And Devon said, obviously helps that they have a lot of good young players. Another guy that I almost added to this list was below Kula Bali. Cause I was always been intrigued by his, his career, but it's kind of tanked. Uh, over the last couple of years. But the point is, I believe, I agree with you completely. And the last thing I'll say is this, the golden state warriors have shown no interest in just acquiring Anthony Davis. They could have done it last year. If they wanted to, they didn't, they could do it right now, maybe, but they're not engaging the wizards. If LeBron says to them, Hey, go get Anthony Davis. I think this is a different story, but because that has not been said because that hasn't been said, it's like, they're not interested. So I really, at this point, it just feels like ad is just in line to get an extension of Washington. Yeah. You know, when they gave Trey young, the huge extension, which surprised me as it did many, I still don't really know who they were bidding against in just giving him all the money and a player option, but you know, look, I think Trey young's become actually underrated. I, my, one of my initial responses was, it doesn't seem like Anthony Davis is going to be too long for this team. Like at least beyond this season, because I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't I just don't think whatever the dollar amount Anthony Davis accepts, I just don't think the wizard should be in the business of paying these guys a hundred million dollars combined for like three years. I just think that's a little ahead of their skis. Maybe I'm wrong. And maybe that turns out to be wrong. The wild card is Alex SAR and how ad fits with Alex SAR, who has played mostly center in his career and would figure to benefit a lot from Trey young as a role, man, harder role for him to play with Anthony Davis. Also presumably starting, alongside him. So maybe I want to see a little bit more of that and how that works before I extend Anthony Davis. All right. Who's your next, who's your next pick? You know, I'm going to go with Zion Williamson on this one. And Zion, for me, his contract is one of the more unique contracts in NBA history. It's just every year is non-guaranteed or partial guaranteed. And some of it is by games played. And some of it is literally his weight is put into his contract, which is just crazy that that actually got put in there. But Zion, for as much as he's been in the spotlight or out of the spotlight, back and forth for so long, he's only 26 years old. And technically speaking, usually players enter their prime around 26 years old. So where Zion goes from here, he played 62 games last year. So it was one of his healthier years. A couple of years before that, he actually played 70. He looks like he's in better shape, et cetera. The question for me about Zion Williamson is, what is his ceiling at this point? Have we seen his ceiling? Or what does his prime look like? Because at the end of the day, he is somebody that really thrives off his power and his athleticism. And so technically speaking, let's say he seems healthy. He should be getting better in those worlds just for a little bit, or at least maintaining there. But what does he do for you that elevates you? Obviously, he's a scoring machine. But defensively, he struggles. The spacing is a nightmare. What position is he necessarily playing? I know it's positionalist basketball. But at some point, you have to have some type of vibe of where exactly we're putting you so we can put people around you as well to defend others. He's an interesting case. And in my, I truly expect at this point. I'm not going to be able to do that. I do expect this front office to extend them because I think they like him. I think they like him a lot. I think he's committed to putting his body in a better shape. But at the end of the day, I just don't know. He has a non-guaranteed or whatever his contract really stipulates in 2027 for $45 million. Could they let it play out? Absolutely. They could kind of say, hey, you still need to earn this. Or they just extend him right off the bat. But only 26 years old, Zach. It just blows my mind how long he's been around. He was on my list, too. I believe I checked with some CapEx reports. I believe that if they extend him, they have to first guarantee that year, then next year, 27, 28, and then extend off of that. I have heard the same thing that you've heard, that this front office really likes Zion Williamson to the point that, like, I kind of have my radar up for a possible, like, out-and-over Zion extension coming off a 60-whatever game season. The fit thing is interesting because his role dramatically changed. Last season, he had the ball less. His pick-and-roll volume was way down, both as a screener and as a ball handler. And that's because they were funneling the offense a lot through Derek Queen, who they paid a hefty price to get and who doesn't fit with Zion defensively either. That 4-5 combination is suicide defensively. And so his role just sort of was in this murky middle ground. And he still put up 21 a game on efficient shooting because he's just that explosive around the rim, that good at drawing fouls because of his power. But his role. What was a little less central than I think he was accustomed to, than the Pelicans were accustomed to. But I've heard the same thing. And the wild card here is, Grant, the phone lines have to work in the New Orleans offices for them to do any kind of extension. And there's just no. The only number they appear to have is they have just, like, they hit one on their speed dial, their landline speed dial, and it goes to DeAndre Jordan, and they sign him, and there's, like, nothing else going on. Okay, time for my pick. I mean, I have a list here in the. Next person on my list is a good name. I'm thinking of deviating from it because there's more interesting guys. No, I'll just. I guess I got to follow my list. Sneakily extension eligible again is Rudy Gobert, who makes $36.5 million this year. Like AD, has a player option for $27, $28 at $38 million a year, which is only 22% of the cap. Has a history of being, like, a pretty. He and his agents pretty fair with Minnesota and not holding. out for every last dollar that they can get. You know, technically, you can go 140% of your prior salary up to not exceeding the max. And I just think this is, like, a sneaky, interesting thing because he's kind of a semi-expiring contract. He's still a very good player. He enters his mid-30s, but, you know, you never know when the cliff is going to hit. And this is a team that is built to win. that threw in everything, that mortgaged everything to try to win something now with LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, even J.D. Mayfield. McDaniels makes a ton of money. Ayo Tsunu makes a ton of money. And they don't have anything. I mean, unless Baron J. is just so far ahead of what we've seen in terms of his readiness to really be a starting center, they don't have anybody who's ready to do for them what Gobert does. And at the same time, like, they have, I don't know, $150 million almost just to LaMelo and Ayo and Jaden. And so they have to be careful about the tax. I don't know that there's been any talks. It's early. I think everyone has now gone away for the summer. But I just. I'm keeping an eye on it. That's all. Yeah. I had him on my list, too. There you go. Yeah, I look at him, and he's played 70 games or more in all four seasons with the Minnesota. So you look at him, and in today's day and age, you look at his age, but, hey, like, a guy who actually gets out there and is consistent every single year, you know what you're going to get from Rudy Gobert. And to be honest, I thought there were some moments in the playoffs where it was like the first time we're like, hey, here's Rudy Gobert truly impacting winning in the postseason. Then he got exposed a few times, and this is just the Rudy Gobert experience. But for me, I look at it, and he has a player option, right? So in his mind, he's 34 years old. He's been really good for so many years. I'm looking at this being like, I'm not just picking up a player option. I'm not just extending one year. I'm trying to get my last big contract here. And Minnesota, to your point, just. They don't have the ability to just give him one big contract. They can't just say, here's another 30 a year for another three or four years. The one thing we do know, though, is Tim Connolly and his group are willing to take risks with the idea that they can make trades. They're one of the few teams that is willing to just make trades, especially in this new apron system. You don't have teams that just wheel and deal. And Tim Connolly is one of those guys. So that's the one catch where I might be like, yeah, maybe they say, Rudy Gobert, here's money because we can trade you eventually. But no, he was on my list as well on that one. See, I could see the. The reason I'm doing this exercise, and I like doing the veteran guys almost more than the rookie deal guys, although I have a couple of those on my list, is there are always a few guys who, I mean, much higher profile than Jordan Walsh today, but similarly like, oh, that guy was eligible for an extension? Like, I didn't see that coming. And if you told me that in September or August or whenever, there was like, Rudy Gobert signs a three-year $95 million extension with the Timberwolves, I wouldn't be like terribly surprised by that, but that's just me. All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll get to your next pick as we near the halfway point of our draft here. This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to watch basketball, think about basketball, talk about basketball, but even dream jobs have the stuff that nobody dreamed about, the busy work that gets in the way of the actual work. ServiceNow's AI specialists tackle that work. Requests handled, cases closed, the whole thing done. So you have more time for the work you actually want to do. For me, that's breaking down SGA film whenever I want and then talking about it into a microphone. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. When the sun goes down, the appetizers come out. Yeah, you heard that right. Late night half price appetizers are here at Applebee's. Saucy, sweet, and spicy boneless wings. Crispy, cheesy mozzarella sticks. Creamy spinach and artichoke dip. Your favorite apps half price available every single night because why should appetizers have curfews? Tap the banner to learn more. Dining only for a limited time at participating locations. Restrictions apply. Copyright 2026 Applebee's Restaurant LLC. All right, pick number five. Let's go. Yeah, it feels so weird throwing another Pelicans player out there because for zero talk of them this entire off season, you know, maybe it's just a little under the radar, but I want to throw DeJounte Murray, my old guy from the Hawks, DeJounte Murray, because he's kind of gone under the radar because of injuries. Injuries. He's only played 45 games the last two years. But the interesting thing about DeJounte Murray, he's going to be 30 years old this season coming up. He has a couple injuries, major injuries in his career, but he is a model of consistency. When he's out there, you know kind of what you're going to get from him. He's not the same defender he was when he was with the Spurs before the injuries. That's for sure. But when it comes to his ability just to maintain and be a guy that you can consistently be out there, who's going to hit some mid-range shots, who's going to spray the ball around a little bit. DeJounte Murray is a player option next year. And for me, when I look at it, DeJounte, he signed the extension with us, with the Hawks, at a number that at the time he could have gotten more. But he wanted the stability. We were ecstatic when he said, hey, I'm going to take the extension instead of waiting to free agency. Because we're like, whoa, that's great news for us that we got you at a number that we thought we would have to go higher or we're going to have to figure this all out. Because he wanted that security. And he's a guy who, you know, he's come from a tough past. And he was like, hey, I want this money. I want to know where I'm going to be and I want to keep on building. And so it'll be interesting to see what he does with that. But if I'm looking at it, I look at all these teams with cap space next year. If DeJounte does not sign an extension, I could see him going to many of these teams that are just looking for a solid influence on their team and a guy that can come in and bring him some consistency. So DeJounte is a guy that I know in New Orleans, they look at him as some of their culture is kind of building with him. with him, we'll see if they try to extend them off of that. I'm glad you mentioned the cap space landscape because there is some potential for a bunch of teams to have between 30 and 60 million dollars or so in cap space next summer. But that's so variable. It's it's hard to it's hard to project it. And it's inevitably going to be less than that once some of these extensions happen, once options are picked up. Like I have a Sar Thompson on my list for the Pistons. There is a world where the Pistons could open up like 40 million dollars in cap space. But it requires them to like not bring back John Collins is in a non-guaranteed deal. Not being back. Duncan Robinson is on a slightly partially guaranteed deal. Decline a team option on Ron Holland, which, by the way, if Ron Holland doesn't have a good start to the season or a good season, like he has an 11 million dollar or something player option or team option in the fourth year of his rookie deal. You know, that could get a little dicey, but like none. And Jalen Duren takes a below market deal, whatever it is. Like the Pistons are not going to have that level of cap space for all those reasons. But there is very. Variability. DeJounte Murray was not even on my honorable mention because I just need to see like New Orleans is such a mystery box to me that I can't go out on a limb at this point. Extending a veteran point guard where like I'm not really sure what we're doing as a team and what his function is with Zion Williamson and Jeremiah Fears, who I really liked as a rookie point queen. Like I just don't know. Like DeJounte is in that is in that I would call it a sour spot. Instead of a sweet spot. It's like he's he's good with the ball. He's best with the ball. But he's like, I'm just making up a number. The 20th best guy at being best with the ball at his position. And so like that doesn't get me that far as a team. And he's not that useful off the ball because he's undersized as a defender and a lot of matchups at the two and his jumper is just so so from three. So I'm staying away from I think he's quite a fine NBA player. I just am not extending him at, you know, whatever market value he's going to want. OK, my pick. OK, you're making me look bad with all these all these like slick, fun names. I'm just going to keep going chalk until there's no more chalk. And I'll say Michael Porter Jr. Forty million dollar expiring contract. Forty point eight million dollars coming off a career year where I thought he had a real all star case. He didn't end up playing enough games really to get super consideration in the Nets were bad. Can fit offensively on any team. In any system, you could probably name a bunch of contenders who could use a player like him. And the Nets, because they have cap room, have a whole bunch of options with him where they could raise his salary up this season and then extend him on a deal that declines. Now that I think affects his trade ability. I don't think you can trade him as quickly if you do it that way, or they can just extend out off the 40 million dollar number up to a certain number that makes sense. Like I said, I don't. If I'm Michael Porter Jr. And he's represented by Mark Bartlestein, who's as good as it gets. I have to look at that landscape of cap room. I'm like, I'm not sure, like all these players and agents, especially they see forty one million dollars and they think, well, I'm Michael Porter Jr. Twenty eight. I think I should earn more than that on my next deal. It doesn't always work that way. And there's not going to be necessarily like four teams with Max cap room just jostling for you. If I were the Nets and I, I would, I would go to Bartlestein. Maybe I'd get laughed out of the room and I'd say, how about you? How about three years? One twenty. Like, I think that's fairly fair. We keep your salary around forty tack on three more years into your early thirties. It's not like you've been a beacon of health your entire basketball career. I might even go a little less than that if I were the Nets, just to see if he would bite. And then that becomes a very both a very tradable contract, I think. And also one that, hey, I have all these young guards who need outlets to catch and shoot our passes and space the floor and all that stuff. He's a nice fit for that, too. So I think there's and if it goes sour, if those extension talks, which I assume will happen now, the Nets have all year. There's no deadline. They have all season to do this. There's no October 1st deadline or anything. So maybe nothing happens before the season. But if Michael Porter Jr.'s agents want to talk before the season and those talks are either shoved off or don't go well, I don't know what happens from there. No one. Those situations can get wonky fast. So he's a very interesting player. Who could swing like legitimately swing the balance of power to some small degree if he's traded. I completely agree. I definitely he's somebody that I had in my honorable mention list as well. And for me, I look at it as I'm going to throw this back at you. The best version of MPJ, like on a title team, which number play? Like, who is he on a team? Which number guy is your third best player? Is your third best scorer? In a title team? I think he could be your second best scorer and you're like third best player is the way I would put it. I think he could be a legit. He just doesn't create on the. I mean, he was better creating on the ball last season than we've seen in the past because he had to be not sure that's ideal for a team that's like really, really trying to win at the highest level. But could he average 24 a game and be your second leading scorer and your third best player and your team is really good? I think so. I don't see why not. Yeah. So, you know, I'm close. I would probably say third or fourth. Like in that realm. And to me, that's what the $40 million range. I look at percentages of the cap, et cetera. That's like your third best player. If you have two max players above him, and then you have to kind of really thin out your bench after that and kind of rely on the MLE or less. If I'm the Nets, I just try to do this either way. Exactly what you're saying, because at the end of the day, either he's staying with you or he's a trade piece and you try to get assets because with you guys with the Nets, he should get his numbers. And we've seen over and over again, these guys come to the Nets when they haven't been playing well as a team. But they get huge numbers and then they send them out and get a ton of draft picks. That's happened multiple times. McKell Bridges, Cam Johnson, Michael Porter Jr. Almost happened again. So you do start wondering, is it real or not? And the one thing we know about Michael Porter Jr. Is he's been there, right? He's been with Denver. He's done this. So I actually, I mean, he was probably one of the biggest red flags of health when he came out of the draft. He had so many issues. And really, in truth, while he's missed some time in his career, he really has been pretty healthy overall. You know, you have some question marks. So I think he's a great fit. And I know for a fact, like at the deadline, just before the Warriors lost Jimmy Butler for the year, like his name was real as a potential there. Because he was somebody that you could just plug right next to Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry. They would have felt great. And I could see MPJ really getting off to a good start again, especially if you have him on a good number. Let's say 40 year for three years where a team has team control over him and add him to the roster. And he's great. So I love that one. That's a very good one. Right there. And honestly, like I might not even open with 3-1-20. I might open with less than that if I were the Nets, just to see how it goes. Before we get into the second half of the draft, I mentioned that before I had an aside for you. This happened to me today. And I need your take on this. I was at a traffic light today. And two cars in front of me, whoever's in the passenger seat, just finishes a banana, opens the window, and just drops the banana peel onto the road. And I'm like, man, that's like bold. We're stopped. Everybody can see you doing this. And then like people can look in your window and see who it is. Then I did some Googling. So I was like, maybe a banana peel is like it's biodegradable. Maybe it's like it's not actually considered littering anymore. My brief Googling around was like, no, it's still littering. You shouldn't do that. It's like it's less bad than litter litter, but still bad. Would you, Grant Liffman, ever do something like that? Or do you consider it littering? I do consider it littering. The word biodegradable did come up in my mind. And I started thinking of compost, right? When we're composting, where does a banana peel fall in the range and the spectrum of compost, right? What's the most compostable things? Is compostable a word? You just made a word. It sounds like a word. I just, I personally do not have it in me. Maybe it was the way I was raised to drop anything on the ground. I couldn't believe it. I almost, if I were, if I were like Michael Douglas and falling down level enraged at the world. The old man movie reference there. I would have gotten out of the car because we were at the light for like two minutes. I could have gone out and be like, dude, you just dropped a banana peel on the road. Just like, just hold the banana peel in the car until you get to a garbage can. The reason I brought this up is because on the last group chat podcast, Justin Verrier, who is just like, I don't know how old Justin is. He's younger than me, but his soul is much older than even mine. Had just this great rant about the decline of civilization, basically being symbolized. By when you as a driver extend a courtesy to one of your fellow drivers, you wave someone in, you stop them in the back out of a parking spot. You expect in return, little wave, little acknowledgement of some kind. Give me a peace sign. Give me a salute. Give me a wave. I will say it really resonated with me because I am an absolutely elite waver as a driver. Like if you give me a courtesy, you're going to see me wave at you from the car and I'm going to be enthusiastic. You're going to be enthusiastic about it, and it just got me thinking of like all the little things that we all, we all have these little things that like I've said before, I think I should, there should be citizens arrest for like bad subway behavior in New York City is a long time. If you get on the train while people are getting off the train, I should be able to execute a citizen's arrest. If you, if you just gather at the doors and you don't go to the middle when there's space in the middle, I should be able to say, these are grounds for us. These are my. these are my pet peeves. If you're standing on the left side of escalator and people behind you are trying to walk up the left side and you don't realize it, citizens arrest. Citizens arrest right off the bat. If you stop on a sidewalk in New York City to take a phone call, to take a photo, to look at your map, and you're in the middle of a sidewalk, these are the things that are the decline of world society. So this banana peel thing really stuck with me because I was like, this guy just boldly just plopped it right down there at a traffic light. I don't think I've ever seen such blatant littering. This is actually the speech that's going to resonate with me. You could have said anything in this draft that we're doing right now. And if this will not resonate with me as much as you're saying right now, everything you're saying is a massive pet peeve of mine. And I'm so convicted, my convictions and like, I really, this stuff matters to me at the end of the day. If I'm walking outside, it is a super windy day. And just a napkin, probably a biodegradable napkin flies out of my hands. Even if it's 50 yards down, I'm sprinting. That thing. That's how, that's how neurotic I am with it. So I appreciate you saying in the elevator, I just, it just kills me when someone walks in the elevator before I get out, vice versa, all that stuff. But really it's that wave part that gets me. And my wife knows this. Varia was on fire. Everyone should go listen to this. He was absolutely on fire. I couldn't believe, I never thought anyone would be as passionate about it as I am. And he's more. Yeah, no, no. It's like, I won't say I have road rage, but like it angers me. If you, I will, I will be so grateful. You could do anything to me. You could pretty much give me a fender bender and then wave to me afterwards. And I'm okay. If you just wave to me, I'm happy. My one thing to use act. And this is actually, I thought a lot about this glares on cars as they're driving by. I've always wondered how long you have to hold up your hand on a wave because there's been multiple times. I can't fully see the driver. And I like, do I give them the benefit of the doubt? If I didn't see a wave that maybe during the glare time that gave a wave. And that's been, that's been bothering me for years now. And I, I don't know the answer. I got another one for you. Actually, as you mentioned glares on cars, my mind went to, can we just, can we all agree? Can you just everyone not do whatever it is that you're doing to make your car and or motorcycle noisier than it was to begin with? Like who, who wants this? Who even the person driving the car? Yeah. You startle everyone around you. Is that what, is that what you're going for? Do you think that makes you powerful or cool? Or ultra masculine or whatever you're going? It just makes you annoying. Just the cars. If I were mayor of the world, people that would be illegal. You're not allowed to make your, you're not allowed to add artificial noise. Okay. Anyway, we're done. Make your next extension pick the banana peel really set me off. No, I get it. And I feel like we can do a whole pod doing this because I have a whole list of pet peeves. So I digress. Yeah. Can we talk about a star? You mentioned him. He's on my list. He's on my list. Let's do it. He's going to be 24 next year. You first time I ever saw him, I was like, this guy could be one of the best defenders in the league. And then I, you know, it's very obvious. He is an elite defender. And we saw it during the playoffs, especially I got a chance to cover, uh, with NBC, the magic piston series. And just when he's on ball or email, he's just an elite, elite defender, smart guys, physical, strong, does it all bounce out of the gym. Um, but he's a 10 points per game guy cannot shoot. There's no spacing. And you're on a team where there's a good chance. They end up paying during a big amount of money. He can't shoot either. Right. It's not like King Cunningham, some elite shooter either. But the point is if you're three top guys and two of them cannot shoot the ball, that is a dangerous proposition. And when you're looking at a star Thompson, you start looking at comps. And I always love this part of negotiations for extensions, because when you talk with agents and you're doing these negotiations, everyone goes, you know what? I don't want to do comps here. I don't believe in comps, but then comps start coming out. And I'm like, well, if you're going to comp, let me, if you don't want to comp back at you. And so a SAR, I'm sure the comp is going to be, well, Dyson Daniels got $25 million a year for four years. And you know, that's going to be the range, 25 Jalen Suggs got 30 and then they start well, offensively this and this and this at the end of the day, I look at percentages and I say, can a SAR Thompson be your fourth highest played player paid player on your team and be a championship team. Cause that's where the pistons are trying to be as a championship team at this point. And at some point, you're going to have to see a growth offensively for me to get behind that because an elite defender is as important as anything in today's league, a guy you can put on ball and say, just shut down that guy. But if he is that much of a negative offensively, there's an issue. I do think he's gotten better. I think he will continue to get better, but the shooting piece is tough for me. And I just, it's a very interesting one to see of how much willing, how much money they're willing to give. Speaker 2 : Yeah. Speaker 1 : It was a strange year for both the Thompson twins last year, where the kind of linear growth that everyone hoped to see didn't really come at least statistically for either player. The idea of putting the ball more and a SAR's hands was, was positive before the season. And it happened like a little bit here and there, but not, not very much. That said the numbers you threw out, if I'm the pistons and I can get a SAR Thompson at Dyson Daniels money, I'm doing backflips and I'm doing it immediately. I'm betting on both the Thompson twins. That doesn't mean I'm maxing out. Speaker 2 : Yeah. Speaker 1 : I think amen has a better case for the 25% max contract and just be careful to about. Cause if he, if you negotiate that language in and he wins defensive player of the year, you've got some more money on your, you can go up to 30% if you negotiate it, which Wemby did not. I think a SAR is going to be a very good offensive player at everything, but shooting. And unfortunately shooting remains still the most important part of being a good offensive player, but I think he's going to be a great passer, a great cutter. Speaker 2 : A great offensive rebounder. The free throw shooting is problematic and bodes poorly for his jump shooting, but I just think he's so indispensable on defense. He's probably the second best defense player in the NBA right now. Maybe Scotty Barnes over him behind Wemby or Chet, I guess you could throw him in there too. I just, I want him on my team and I understand the spacing problems that he and during represent together. But during his, I believe 22 and a SAR Thompson is 23 doesn't mean that they're suddenly going to blossom into great shooters. I think during has a chance to blossom into like a just good enough mid range shooter where you, these are like first world problems. You just won 60 games with an imperfect offensive alignment that we all knew was going to be worse in the playoffs when defenses become better, more focused and the sort of chaos points that the pistons really feast on, on the fast break, offensive rebounds, random backdoor cuts. Those get closed off a little bit by defenses that are just being more diligent about all of it. So that all happened, but I he's on my list because I just think there's a very wide range. Like I, there are certain negotiations that are easy and like, you're either a minimum guy or you're a max guy. There's not much to negotiate. This is one where I could see it being much like jail and during a, a messy negotiation, which is why I would expect at the end of the day, particularly the longer this during thing goes, I would expect the pistons just say, we'll play it out in restricted free agency, just like we are enduring. But at that, I don't, I don't know that that's going to happen. All right, my turn. I'm going to throw a curveball at you. Now you're ready. Yep. What is this? The eighth pick of the draft we're flying through this. I'm going to combine two players in one, but the, but the headline player is Pascal Siakam, who I just don't know if many people realize that he's already eligible for an extension. He has $49 million this year, $53 million in 27, 28. And then he's an unrestricted free agent. He is eligible for a three year, $206 million extension, which is insane. And nobody is ever going to do that. He's 32 years old or 31 years old or something like that right now. The Pacers have a bunch of guys who are eligible for extensions. Tyrese Halliburton is already eligible despite having three years left on his contract. By the way, I do think I understand extensions are a very useful tool for players and for teams can be very mutually beneficial. It just, feels like three years left on an extent on a contract. It just feels a little early. Like Desmond Bain is eligible for an extension. I, and, and you get players who are like, I'm a star player. I want all the money locked in immediately. And if I'm a team, I'm like, dude, you have three, can we just not give, we have 18 months to talk about this, but Pascal Siakam is at the age where if I think both sides could go in and say, we can get something out of this, we can get a deal. And, and the Pacers who are in wind now mode just almost won the championship two years ago. If I'm the Pacers, I'm like, I don't know what, but I don't know what the fair deal is. I don't know what the deal is that he's going to accept. We're not going near that max, obviously. But if I went to him, I was like, Hey man, look, you're going to be 34. When this deal kicks in, we want to give you some security. The cap hasn't jumped quite as much as league projections over the last couple of seasons. Would you take three years? One 25, like, yeah, it's a huge pay cut. It's like a $10 million a year pay cut. Maybe he's insulted by that. Maybe, or would you take two for 90? So $45 million a year. And as the Pacers, I might actually go up to, I might secretly be willing to go up to two years, a hundred million, stay away from the third year completely. That seems like fair ish to me. He's eligible, I believe now. And the other guy is Evita Zubats is eligible in September. He'd be coming off a $21 million contract. So you can go I think those are both really interesting. The Pacers don't have much on the books beyond. 27 28 i think they'd probably like to see how this team fits together with zoo bots and everybody here before making a decision but siakam is an interesting case to me i'm just flagging it i'm flagging it i like that i i agree completely i don't think i think people underrate how important he is to that team and i also think zoo bots is an interesting one because they gave up a lot to get him and so you have to fear that one out nem hard is another guy that's extension eligible i feel like i just saw nem hard and the numbers they gave him and i was like wait what and now he's already extension eligible again but the point is um siakam they signed him to that deal originally and i think part of their mind was hey we're gonna get jairus walker we're gonna develop him and by the time that siakam is starting to get a little older whatever jairus walker steps in jairus walker just did not develop into the guy that they were hoping for so not yet not yet there's been so far there's been flashes there's been flashes of both shooting and playmaking that are interesting but to your point i think the two-year 16 million dollar deal for kelly ubra is a shot across the bow at jairus walker just be like hey man if you don't if you don't develop this year like we have an out now where we we could do something else with you exactly so um but yeah no completely agree that it's definitely worth watching and as you said this year is gonna be very important for indiana to kind of figure out what they got um let's pivot to a rookie uh brandon podjamski with the warriors he was he was on my honorable mention uh so make the case okay just just at the end of the day i think it's going to be a good year for indiana we're talking about lebron with the warriors we're talking about this and that and how old they are and this brandon podjamski is going to be 24 next season and for some reason and i'm not going to say for some reason that i understand why warriors fans and and a lot of people around the league you know there's some mixed thoughts about podjamski and a lot of it is just his bravado that he brings out there in his style of play it's not the most uh aesthetically pleasing way of playing either but the guy put up 14 five and four last year he's like a career 37 and a half percent three-point shooter he played all 82 games last year those type of numbers usually mean a significant extension that comes let's keep in mind the warriors do not have money on the books in the future jimmy butler's max contracts expiring steph curry's due for an extension dream on green we do not know what he's going to do there's a good chance if lebron doesn't come he could just really just match whatever his play option was going to be and he the most money they have on the books is practically moses moody's number going forward so podjamski is a guy to me that at 24 years old he's a guy that you lock up and you keep on this team especially when you have the money and analytically he is a good player he's a good player for them when he's on the court analytically analytically is a dirty word now grant after the kenny atkinson fiasco analytically analytically brandon podjamski is michael jordan 2.0 to be fair though i i don't know too many details but the the conversations you have during draft time between your analytics department and the scouting department are just fascinating because the analytics will be like this player coming out has a chance to be the next steph curry and then you go i'm sorry are we looking at the same player right now what are you talking about and then it just it just it's such an interesting conversation but we'll get into that another time anyway podjamski to me it's going to be 25 million dollars to 20 to 25 million dollars extension i think that's where his realm i would be like christian brown that's the number that you should be going for etc etc i think anything between 20 to 25 is very reasonable for brandon podjamski and i actually if i'm the warriors i try to get that done and i do not try to go into next season trying to figure this out because there is a world that exists where people get hurt again and ever and podjamski has to play a very big role and all of a sudden he's averaging 17 points etc i try to get this done right now i mature and he'll become more of the guy that i think people want him to be but i i have my eyes on it because people are sleeping on the fact that he is a big rookie extension this uh off season coming up i like pods um i think pods has kind of been a punching bag for some segments of the warriors fan base through almost no fault of his own through the the front office and particularly joe lake of kind of talking him up as the next big thing i think he's a very good player he could be i mean you mentioned christian brown i i said this on my last podcast i think he's a very good player these 20 to 30 million dollar deals for guards and wings are so interesting because you can talk yourself into all of them the moment that they happen like christian brown yeah winning player good defender probably the best perimeter defender on the nuggets pre-payton watson's emergence great chemistry with you okay john you pay 25 million dollars a year for a player like that keegan murray yeah it's a little made me a little nervous but like yeah maybe it's a little overpaid but like 30 million dollars for a three and d guy with some feel like that's kind of what you pay kobe white and i assume there will be test cases of this too even i mentioned even malik monk who is like completely untradeable right now in the moment he signed his deal which is like 20 a year like yeah six man of the year candidate comes off the bench slinging three is good pastor like that's just kind of what you pay and like then all those jail and all those deals are underwater like they're untradeable not kobe and io they're just fresh the others are like underwater and untradeable so they feel easy and yet they can turn bad fast but i agree i think pods is good he's a good connector it feels like a fifth starter on a truly great team which is which is fine and if i'm the words i can get him for four for 80 i'd do it if we start going towards like 4 100 4 110 i might just be like we're cool we're gonna wait we're gonna wait till the summer but he was on my honorable mention list and very quickly i completely agree with you for those numbers and that's why i brought up that model of you have three positions the to be like mle or a little above that and that's where the percentage is nine to fifteen percent of the cap and does this person does christian brown fit into that mold and that's an important question that you have to ask when you're doing this and very rarely does it work out where you say like haha we got him at this price and for instance when i was with the hawks we got jalen johnson at uh five for 150 at 30 million and if he had gone hurt again and all that would have been like oh my goodness but at the same time now you're looking at 30 million like we got a max player at 30 million dollars a year so yeah it could work both ways but i see it a lot of them do go underwater okay let's take a quick break i'm gonna make my last real pick and then we'll just fly through some others over on our honorable mention list this episode is brought to you by 20th century studios the dog stars now playing in theaters and imax visionary filmmaker ridley scott returns with a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller when a mysterious radio transmission shatters a lone pilot's isolated existence he embarks on a dangerous journey in search of hope starring jacob lordy josh brolin margaret qualley alice and jenny and guy pierce the dog stars now playing in theaters and imax this episode is brought to you by nas energy every ounce of dirt sweat and gears every checkered flag and trophy raised every lap every race every hard-fought place they're all jammed inside every can of nas energy high performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets go ahead crack open a can of nas energy and get after it all right for my last pick i'm gonna go under the radar um and bypass some some sexier names that we'll just throw in a honorable mention bucket uh i'm gonna nominate jalen wells because i just like these sort of under the radar opportunistic deals that teams and players can strike he's making like essentially the minimum right now is a second round pick uh i mean functionally about the minimum and they have a team option on him for 2.5 million dollars next year the grizzlies do uh i think jalen wells is is pretty good uh i think his place in the rookie of the year race in a week rookie of the year race got him a little bit overrated and he was maybe a little bit over his head in terms of the level of responsibility he had last year on the grizzlies i think this year with cam boozer coming in and zach edie supposedly coming back we'll put him in a level as a solid three and d guy six seven with some passing chops attacking closeouts and all that if i'm the grizzlies and they're a forward-thinking smart team he's eligible for i think i wrote down the number according to bobby marks four years 92 million i'm not going anywhere near that but if i can say if i can go to him and get him on some sort of like mid-level ish deal for four years or that i'm gonna try to broach that and see how it goes because that could be a really good value do on a really good value player and i just think those are the kind of like um peyton pritchard is is eligible for a similar a similar extension with boston now he's accomplished i think peyton pritchard is uh where do i have it somewhere three years 67 million and this is because the new extension rules you can go 140 of your prior salary which in peyton pritchard's case is not up to where he needs to get or 140 i believe of the league average salary which is how you can get peyton pritchard on a three-year 70 million dollar almost contract um those those can be sneaky valuable plays for teams and so i just i just have my eye on the jail and wall situation that's all yeah no i love it i actually compare it to the champagne uh extension that's a good one with this three years 45 right very similar type situation where they had a team option they could have gone with but instead lock them up now um you mentioned a just a bunch of guys uh peyton pritchard all these guys actually had on my list as well a little bit an honorable mention because again a lot of it comes down to does the player just want security I look at the Colin Gillespie. deal. And I say, I mean, I think the sun's got a steel on that one. And Kong Gillespie at the same time goes, I just got $48 million or whatever, you know, he feels good, but the sun's got a great player at that number. And if he was on the free agent market, if he was a rookie going to extension, he probably would have been asking for 20 to $25 million a year. So again, I agree with you completely. If you can get a guy that are on these options, the second round picks undrafted, you pick up these guys. It's, it's literally the dream situation for a GM and a front office. Cause you can get deals like that. I love the sun's let's do rapid fire honorable mention because I have some sun stuff. I love the sun's had four really good contracts signed this summer and not just good. Like, Oh, they are stealing money. Like for like they're, Oh, what a steal for the team for good and fair contracts. Gillespie at four years, 48, something like that. Mark Williams. Three years, 36 ish. Luke Kennard, one plus one, six, six and change a year. And Jordan Goodwin, two plus one, about six and a half a year, all great value contracts. They're a candidate for this draft, which I passed up on. And I think he's one of the biggest wild cards in the league. And every sense of the word is Jalen green, who has $36 million guaranteed this year in a $36 million player option for 27, 28. The sun's also, are looking at extensions for Dylan Brooks and miles bridges, who they just acquired. And if you pay those guys about what it's going to take to pay him and you pay Jalen green, something around where his player option is for next season, you're looking at a team that is suddenly not including the dead money on the books, like $20 million over the tax. And that just feels like too much money for a team. That's just pretty good at its ceiling. I think they're intriguing. I think they've actually done a good job cobbling together and intriguing a group of young players with almost no resources post Durant trade. But that was one of my, one of my honorable benches. You want me to just zoom through some others? Well, I just, I want to agree with you. Just everything you said about the four contracts they signed were really good. And I think it's just, you know, people really gave for right roof rifle reasons. The, the sun's a lot of crap for a while for just being just like when HBO came in, just firing away at all this stuff. But I think they've done really some frugal and smart deals. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what they do with Dylan miles and Jalen, but all right, here's some other honorable mentions. I have you ready? You could just play almost like word association, RJ Barrett. That's a great one because the Raptors he's been on trade rumors for now for four straight years, depending on what team he's on. That's going to be an interesting one because he's actually more productive than people have actually given him credit for. I think he's underrated kind of a Jack of all trades in legit unrestricted free agent after this season. No, no options of any kind. $30 million right in the sweet spot. We're like, oh, 140% of $30 million. That sounds great as a starting salary for RJ Barrett. Probably sounds horrible to the Raptors. What about we keep it about flat? Does that sound better for you? So he's on my list. Of course, they have to know if Kawhi Leonard is on their team or not. Anthony Black among the rookie deal class. Orlando already has almost $200 million on the books for 2728, which would give them 15 to 20 before they hit the tax line. I've said for a year, more than a year, one of these expensive dudes is getting traded and it could be Anthony Black and some sort of sign and trade transaction because they just are not going to carry all these guys on the team. I like Anthony Black a lot, kind of a disappointing playoffs for him, but he was coming off a late season. He missed some time. I think he's. A good player. I wouldn't even begin to know what sort of value I'd place on him. And he's probably falls into that 20 to $28 million bucket where you're just like, okay, sure. Maybe it'll be a bad deal. Maybe it would be a good deal. If I'm his agents, I'm looking at the sucks contract and be like, that guy doesn't play. Well, can we get more than that? So that's, that's an interesting one. I agree with you completely. Anthony Black is a player that I actually am. I'm pretty fond of. I think he has a really high upside. And I think at the end of the day, if the magic had their way, they would move off of Jalen sucks contract. And put Anthony Black in that spot instead. I can't believe neither of us picked. I mean, I'm wearing my Dan housing Knicks t-shirt right now. I can't believe neither of us picked the combination of Carl Anthony towns and Josh Hart, maybe just too obvious that we all knew the Knicks second apron issues have been so well-documented that Brunson next contract is not going to be presumed, presumably not going to be a discount. Cat has a $61 million playoff. There's a player option for 27, 28, Josh Hart, the Knicks hold a $22 million team option on him for 27, 28, which they could just sort of lock in and then extend off that eventually, but just guys to guys to monitor. Yeah. Those are very clear ones. And you're going to laugh at me. In fact, on my list, I thought we, again, I thought I was going to find the most interesting thing. I had miles McBride on my list because they cannot afford him. He's made about $18 million in his career. By the time the season is over, he's going to want to get paid. I'm not saying he's going to want to get paid. I'm not saying he's a massive piece for them, but when you're looking at depth and you look at players like that, they're paying this money to Alvarado and sham it just to keep that part, that bench afloat miles McBride is going to be a good piece for somebody, maybe a six man or that type of thing. And the Knicks will not be able to afford him. So I don't think he's able to get an extension. When they re-signed Alvarado on a very good deal. One of my first thoughts was whether they might have to trade miles McBride because there's just not enough room for all of these guards off the bench. They also could just be like, oh, I'm going to have to trade Miles McBride. I'm going to have to trade Miles McBride. Hey, we just won the championship. We'll keep everyone together this year. We're going to need everybody at some point. And then just let them walk in for agency. No harm. Yep. No foul. Jalen Brown. That's been well publicized. I wouldn't really go there if I were the Sixers. I think Brandon Miller, that'll be an interesting negotiation because he is the, when healthy, he, he has the kind of rising track record and positional flexibility that you would typically go in and be like, oh, we're just, we're just like Franz Wagner. I got the max. I'll get the max too. And I think the Hornets are, are run pretty well and understand the leverage that they'll have in a restricted free agency. But like Brandon Miller's last 30 something games last year, 40 something games. Again, not a coincidence that the Hornets surge really started when he became healthy and available and productive consistently. He was not far from like being like that player that we only saw for 30 or 40 games. So take it with whatever grain of salt you want. Was not far from. Like, should he be in the third team, all NBA, just fringe conversation at least. So he's, he's on my list. I mentioned Peyton Pritchard, Tyler hero, new Milwaukee buck, Denny Abdiah. I just want to mention because his salary is so low that he's almost unextendable unless the Blazers are able to open cap space and renegotiate him up and extend him out. Scoot Henderson. That was my guy. That was the one I was going to say. Scoot Henderson. Scoot Henderson. And his $40 million cap hold. If he goes into free agency as a restricted free agent next summer, I don't even know where you begin to negotiate that. And that means you probably don't because not only is he missed like what half his games, if not more in his three in his time with the Blazers, but he's been sometimes productive, sometimes unproductive at a very nice finish to last season, but also almost kind of changed positions from point guard to off guard. I mean, he's been a great player. I'm with Denver and live here for the rest of my life, NBA life anyway. We'll see. Darius Garland, I've already talked about. If I'm the Clippers, I'm saying, no, thank you. Let me see you play. And then we'll revisit. DeAndre Hunter, hard no. Cason Wallace, talked a lot about him in the aftermath of the door trade. They're obviously going to extend him. It's just going to be a matter of how big the price gets. I love Cason Wallace. He'll be on the thunder one way or another. Who else do I have here? But they have to keep in mind, AJ Mitchell's coming up soon with a contract too. So you have to worry about like he's, AJ Mitchell's one of the guy I'm just want to put out there that I think can run an NBA team in a couple of years and be one of the starters in this league. I'm unbelievably high on AJ Mitchell. So they're, they're, he's going to be costing a lot of money soon. Yeah. He's next in line. He and McCain are both eligible for extensions after next season. Uh, Cason is eligible now. Uh, I w I would be very surprised if the thunder didn't take care of him. With, with the door in the aftermath of the door trade where he and Caruso are now sort of like the code number one stoppers on the team with door himself is eligible for an extension. Uh, I don't know. He's on an expiring deal. I don't know what the Hawks will do there. Um, I'm so, I know there was a lot of people who are like, Oh, it's pretty obvious that it looks at, I actually don't. They have a lot of guys that play that same position. I wouldn't be surprised if they let this one play out throughout the year and then figure it out afterwards. Uh, another interesting name I'll give you, who's literally the next guy I was going to mention. He's just, he's just, people forget about him, but two years ago with Luca and everyone, he was going to be the next big thing. He was going to be the center. And we've seen how the center's position this off season is just so you got to find a guy right now because everyone's getting paid. Um, but he's only played 44 games in the last two years and he just get, they have Gafford under contract. I, I doubt they get something done, but if I'm them, if I do think he can. Speaker 4 : And get healthy and that's their doctors, their health. They are the ones that know that the truth behind Derek lively's body. Um, I would actually try to get a low ball team control thing done because if he gets healthy and goes his last year and plays really well for them, the numbers between what you can sign now versus what you can sign later, it's just astronomical difference, but that's up to their health officials there. Speaker 5 : You, you just described exactly why I think there will be no Derek lively extension. I he's clutch as well. He's, he's both rich Paul and clutch. My guess would be that they will not entertain whatever Dallas is going to offer be precisely because Dallas will go to him and say, Hey, you haven't played much. Here's an extension that would be pal to the bus. And they'll just say, we'll bet on ourselves. If, if they, if they have faith in itself, we'll bet, um, we'll bet on ourselves. Uh, Nadja Marshall, also sneakily extension eligible. Um, I mentioned Keldon Johnson. The Spurs have a lot of big money issues coming down the line. Uh, Jalen Smith, speaking of decent NBA backup centers, not Derek, back up. I don't mean to say that he's not, he's a starter when healthy. Uh, and then I'm going to conclude at least my honorable mention with a, with one that is near and dear to your heart. I'm guessing, um, also sort of like under the radar extension, eligible Onyeka Kongwu that's literally who is my one person. I was going to say to conclude for myself, 16 million this year, 16.9 guaranteed in 27, 28. And again, an extension where you can go up to 140% of, of the average salary or 16.8 million, whichever is higher, which caps it at a number that I think, I don't know that the Hawks would go all the way up to whatever that number is, but presents the opportunity for a Congo to lock in some money. Remember this is a guy who is not a full-time starter for most of his career. Uh, and I think even last year, there were some doubts about whether he would be when Porzingis was there, uh, and really emerged as a stalwart two-way player for them, a little undersized as a rim protector rebounder, but like a, a, a good player. Um, and his three-point shooting appears to be very, very real and very important for how they're building out their team with a bunch of like, so, so three-point shooters around him. Um, that just seems like there's an opportunity there for both the Hawks and a Congo to figure something out ahead of time. That makes sense. Might be a year early, but I, I, I don't have any opposition to them trying to figure something out. I love double O he's my guy. I just, when we signed him to the deal that he's on right now, at that time, we were, we were like, please shoot the three ball, please shoot the three ball. He was hesitant, but we saw behind the scenes that he could, and I'm just so glad he's starting to launch the one thing about one thing that we also saw was we even actually played him at the four, a few times with Quinn Capella and he played well. And now that he's really shooting the three ball, I think that's what makes him more versatile is he can actually play the four and five. And when he's being able to do that, it just brings a whole Swiss army knife thing to him that I just, I'm a huge fan and I hope it works out there, but I also could see other teams being like, Hey, like, I will play a premium to get him and bring him in as a Swiss army knife for us as well. And that gives the Hawks an opportunity to go after like a, a, a Hartenstein type player in the future that they think maybe could fix their rim protection a little bit more. All right. Last thing that has nothing to do with any of this. I'm going to get nostalgic. Are you ready? Did you see the ESPN layoffs this week? I did. Yes. Obviously I'm familiar with the process. I haven't gone through it. And also I haven't gone through it when the call came in is I was ironing my suit in my hotel room in Los Angeles, all the way across the country from where I live about to go on television. Uh, I'm familiar with the entire process of it. I have no judgment. I have no emotional feelings really about it one way or the other. I certainly like, I think the blame Stephen and McAfee stuff is like, it's not their fault that they're wildly popular. That's what they shouldn't be doing. Um, the one thing I will say was one of the names that got, and I don't know any, I literally have no relationship with any of the people who got laid off. I've never talked to Ryan Clark. I've never talked to Carl. Ravitch. I've never talked to David Lloyd. I've never talked to Stefania Bell. I've never talked to any of them. I have no relationship with any of them. I just want to shout out Carl Ravitch, um, 33 years at ESPN. How old are you grant? I'm 39. So you're 10 years younger than me. You may have missed. There was a period of time in the late nineties through early 2000s when Carl Ravitch, are you a baseball fan? Oh, baseball tonight was my favorite show ever. I mean, literally I would, it was a, that eight year span when the a team on baseball tonight was Ravitch Harold Reynolds and Peter Gammons was like the best show on television, all the television. I watched it every single night. Now this is pre Twitter, pre social media, pre you already saw the highlights. It was a unique environment that doesn't exist anymore. I get it. But those three guys to the point that when you would flip it on, I would like fist pump it. Like I had roommates who had all gathered to watch it together at that time. I would fist pump. Like the a team is on, it was absolutely indispensable. And he was the driver of the car. He had his own little catch phrases for highlights that were really funny himself. I just want to shout out Carl Ravitch because that's a lifetime of, uh, of, of, of work. And that kind of show almost doesn't exist really anymore. Um, and I just wanted to shout him out because I just, that show with those three guys in particular was as good. My mind, a lot of people go NFL primetime and NFL primetime was awesome when it was Berman and Tom Jackson, uh, and more and all that. Uh, and I watched that too, but I just wasn't as big an NFL fan to me that nightly show was with those three guys was as good as ESPN ever got. And has ever been. I completely agree. Baseball tonight to me is actually one of the reasons I even wanted to get into the side of the business because actually they look like they're having so much fun. And then getting up in the morning and reading the newspaper, looking at box scores of, uh, baseball games the next morning as just those combination that got me so excited every day. Yeah. Ravitch just to me was just, it was just awesome. I agree. Bring back and to bring back the feels. I listened to the music when it goes in and like, it would just be, it'd be the best. So I completely agree with you. It's, I just, it's just such a crappy part of this business, this whole thing of the layoffs. And every, every year, every year we have to talk about this. It's just All these people will land on their feet and be fine. Apropos of which listeners, regular listeners of this podcast will will remember that I was supposed to throw out the first pitch in a Mets game in late June. The game got rained out, of course, because why would anything go right for the Mets this season or for me personally as a baseball fan this season? Your boy is throwing out the first pitch on Saturday at Citi Field before Mets Dodgers. Have I practiced throwing off a mound? Yes, I have. Am I a little bit nervous? Absolutely. But I feel ready. I feel like I'm going to be in the zone and I'm throwing off the mound. I'm not going to do any of this chicken chicken shit, throw it from in front of the mound. I'm not calling anyone out. OK, like there are certain people literally they're too old or too young or too weak to do it. I am an able bodied 48 year old male. I am throwing from the road. On Saturday, can you do me a favor? First of all, this is my dream. And if you're listening, San Francisco Giants, just remember that they suck, right? Don't they suck? Yeah, the Mets and the Giants, they pay a lot of money and they what do they have gone for them? Bring you in as a crowd. What else? What else is happening? At least give it. I'm like, they can all boo me or something. But will you do me a favor? First of all, when you get out there, do the little flick of the wrist like I'm throwing fastball, right? Like, right. But like, actually put some heat behind it. I'm so sick of people. Just kind of like, I'm not saying throw 80, but I'm just like, put it on a line. I don't want to. I'm going to try to put it on a line. I'm going to try to put it on to it. Don't give me any curvature. I want to see it on a line. Because everyone's advice is don't miss low. If you miss, miss high. And so that necessarily. that makes you just want to just throw a lollipop up there. I'm going to try to throw what passes for me throwing a ball in a real way. I have joked, but my family's just like, you just not embarrass us in any, like for, for that doesn't mean a bad throw. That means like, don't, don't ham it up. And so I'm like, I, can I check on the runner at first? Can I look and they're like, don't, don't do that. Anyway, flick of the fastball, like flick with a, with a glove hand. And then what, what arm slot are you coming over the top three quarters? Where are you coming from? It's a great question. I throw how I throw and I've never analyzed if it's, if it's not over, it's probably three quarters. It's probably three quarters. I enjoyed by the way, the all speaking of the pitches, the all-star, we watched the all-star game. Cause my daughter is now, unfortunately for a Mets fan slash baseball fan. I don't know how long they've been doing this, but I enjoyed the pitcher and the catcher being mic'd up and talking about what pitch they were going to throw. I thought that was really cool. That was cool. I don't know if that's a new thing or not, but stuff like that actually is very enjoyable. I think all fans like that. I don't know some of the other fluffy stuff, not for me, but that's, that's pretty cool. All right, well, let's go Mets grant liftman. So tell, tell everyone like what your NBC responsibilities are going to be next year. Cause we saw you do a combination of things. You're a front office insider. You're doing some sideline. Is that going to be the same next year? Where are we going to see you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you can find me on NBC sports.com. They put up a lot of videos, especially during the off season, putting up a lot of stuff, especially on YouTube and you can find those things. But in the, during the season, I'll be doing some studio work, really trying to do it. Explain things. They call me a little Y guy. Why something happened? I'm not going to be newsbreaking. I'm not going to be sitting there saying like, this is about to happen. It's more newsbreaking and such. So it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm excited to do it. And we'll be doing something again, where I'll be doing courtside and all that. But happy to be here, man. Do you remember the first time we met Zach? I believe we met at Oracle arena or outside Oracle arena. Am I misremembering that when you were doing, when you were doing TV and audio stuff for the warriors? Uh, no. So we actually knew each other cause I had to ask you to come on for that. This is just, it's really sad that I remember this, but I was, I was kind of a rookie at Vegas summer league. This is a decade ago, maybe further back. And I show up and I didn't really know what I'm doing. And I show up at this dinner, um, at Javier's the Mexican space. Oh, I do remember. I remember this exact dinner. I can remember the cast of characters who is there. So what was the warriors dinner? Yeah, it was a warriors dinner. It was like 20 dudes there and I show up and I didn't know what I was showing up for. And I bring my girlfriend to it. Yeah. It's a sad, that's a sad time for her. Yeah. And you're like, Oh no. Like you're the guy that brought your girl. I've done it before. Yeah. And I was like, I was like, Oh no, what have I done? And so luckily she's awesome and she can hang and she probably knows more about basketball than I do. But like the point was, was that I was like, you really, like you wanted to make it known that you're the guy that brought the girl to dinner. And I was like, yeah, I tried to own it a little bit, but deep down, I was like, man, Zach's right. I just like, I'm that guy, but I remember that dinner. That still is a hotspot at Vegas summer league. That, that, that restaurant, Grant Liffman. It's great to see you virtually. It sounds like I'll see you around the circuit next year. And maybe by then LeBron will have signed Grant Liffman, everyone. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. That's it for today's edition of the Zach Lowe show. Thanks to Grant Liffman of NBC. Thanks as always to Mike, Jonathan and Billy on production. And thanks to you all for listening to and or watching. The Zach Lowe show. We will be back next week unless LeBron signs in the meantime, it'll be next week. And with a couple more episodes before I head out to my annual Europe sojourn. So look out for that. And thank you all for listening and or watching the show today. 21 or over and president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president DC, Kentucky or Wyoming gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. You want to impress them on a first date, but also play it cool. So what do you do? I'm Rufy Thorpe, and I wrote and read a real love story about a hinge couple that navigated exactly that. Listen to the free audiobook now. 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