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- [00:00]
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- [00:43]
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- [00:51]
J. Skeets
Yep.
- [00:52]
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- [01:13]
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J. Skeets
Model train store model train store.
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Tas Melis
Bring your girl here yeah and make her say all aboard they got that good.
- [02:11]
J. Skeets
Green those miniature trees Orange box on the shelf that ain't Nikes I got.
- [02:17]
Tas Melis
My crew here they all figurines Rip train, Smoke King, Mario Mozzie, Harry Potter train Do your thing.
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J. Skeets
Good morning sweet world and welcome to the no Dunks Podcast on the Athletic Network. It's Thursday, July 17, 2025. I'm J. Skeets here on the Classic Factory and alongside me as always, Tas Melis.
- [02:49]
Tas Melis
Must be the offseason because those cold opens are weird.
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J. Skeets
I like that one though. Catchy song.
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Tas Melis
This song is good. Yeah.
- [02:57]
J. Skeets
Harry Potter train over yonder Making the magic happen Finding these weird cold open super producer JD yeah.
- [03:04]
JD
AI Banger I think.
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Tas Melis
Oh I think it might.
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J. Skeets
Oh that changes things. You're probably right.
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JD
But still a banger. You know, it's Undeniable.
- [03:15]
Tas Melis
Good flow. Good flow.
- [03:17]
J. Skeets
Yeah. Did you ever get into model trains or had family members or anything?
- [03:21]
Tas Melis
No, not model ones.
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J. Skeets
No.
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JD
No.
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J. Skeets
What about, like, model cars?
- [03:26]
JD
Car collection. Like a little car collection.
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Tas Melis
Oh, Hot Wheels.
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J. Skeets
Oh, like Matchbox.
- [03:30]
JD
Yeah.
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Tas Melis
Okay.
- [03:31]
J. Skeets
I'm not, like, building them.
- [03:32]
JD
Yeah, yeah. No.
- [03:34]
J. Skeets
Okay.
- [03:34]
JD
No, more of a LEGO man.
- [03:36]
J. Skeets
My dad. My grandfather worked on trains. He was a railroad man.
- [03:41]
Tas Melis
Okay.
- [03:42]
J. Skeets
But so I think that was passed down to his kids, my dad being one of them. He was into model trains, collecting them and building them. Like, I remember having them at times growing up, or he had them, I guess we could sort of play with.
- [03:56]
Tas Melis
Them, but sort of not, right?
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JD
Don't touch.
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J. Skeets
Yeah. Very odd when I think about it.
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JD
But I'm never mad when I see one. Like a decent, like, setup. You know, mountains and cities and stuff.
- [04:07]
J. Skeets
That's what I thought of. When you, like. Yeah. You can buy the little trees and the little people. I guess that's half the fun. As we mentioned earlier this week, no. Trey Kirby, he's up north with the boys, hitting the links. I think it starts today where they start playing all this golf. All the giants, as I said out there, because Trey and his buddies, they're all, like, six, five. Trey's one of the smaller guys in his group of friends, so it's funny to picture, like, I don't know, four or five just giant dudes out there on the greens where the wild things are. That's all I can think of. The movie, the Spike Jones movie. That's how I picture Trey and his buddies golfing. I don't know why.
- [04:47]
Tas Melis
Yeah. How big do those clubs have to be? Because I pulled mine out. I never used them. I let my kids play with them, and they're way too big for my children. I'm the giant to them.
- [04:58]
J. Skeets
Right.
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Tas Melis
But I guess those guys would be the giants to me.
- [05:00]
J. Skeets
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they would. Pick up your clubs.
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JD
What is this?
- [05:07]
J. Skeets
Yeah, yeah.
- [05:08]
Tas Melis
How big do they have to be?
- [05:10]
J. Skeets
Yeah. I don't know. Custom made. I get. I don't know. Maybe the. What do they got, like, those big and tall stores for clothes? Do they have that for golf clubs in there as well? Maybe. Anyways, he's having a blast. Let's see that hole in one tray. Please get footage of it. Shout out to everybody joining us live on YouTube right now, the stream team just dropping zingers. Before we even went live, I was chuckling a few times with some of the comments. So good work. Keep it up throughout the show, and much love to all of our podcast listeners as well. Leave your boys a five star rating and review helps other people find the show that are NBA sickos like yourself. We have, we got enough to talk about, obviously took a show off yesterday, but we got some NBA news notes to get into and then I thought we could do like sort of a big picture, like best and worst trades of the off season, signings of the off season, some superlatives if you will.
- [06:00]
Tas Melis
It's nice to relive them already because we live in a world where we're just in the moment. So zooming out and looking at them, you kind of forget about some of the dollars thrown at some of these guys. We'll get into the big contracts, the strange ones, ones that have gotten worse actually over these two weeks because of some medical records. We'll get into loss.
- [06:20]
J. Skeets
Okay. Okay, so that's coming up later. But let's start with some news because we had some big news, I guess yesterday. Bradley Beal has agreed to a contract buyout with the Phoenix Suns and plans to join the LA Clippers on a two year, $11 million deal with a player option after he clears waivers. So Beal will give back 13.8 million of the 110.8 million that the Suns previously owed him over the next two years and then the Suns are going to stretch the remaining 97 million over five years, which creates a dead cap hit of 19.4 million that's going to stay on the books for Phoenix over the next five years. But again, Beal had to give some money back, but he's getting it a little bit back in the deal, gets that player option and he goes to LAC where we all anticipated he would go, especially after they traded Norman Powell.
- [07:10]
Tas Melis
That is totally true. I want to start from the Phoenix side just because the ERA is over and that's a wonderful thing for Phoenix Suns fans. The Beal Durant Booker era is done and that was what was making you laugh looking at the Stream team before the show. Right? A Beal comment that I hope this is the last day that I heard Bradley Beal over the summer.
- [07:35]
J. Skeets
Yeah, because to actually quote Devin in the Stream team, may this be the last piece of media about Bradley Beal that I consume this summer. Because we've talked about this for a while now.
- [07:43]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah. And it's been terrible for the Phoenix Suns fans. Now this is a risk by their front office because it does create some problems because of all that dead money that'll be on their books for years and years and years. Instead of just two years as Bradley Beal's contract was. But they were handcuffed. I mean, they had to sit on those handcuffed hands and they had nothing that they could possibly do. Now there are some options, but again, this doesn't mean that the Phoenix Suns are way better and they're going to be a much better team because they got rid of Bradley Beal. There's still a team that's going to be fighting for a plane. We'll get into what Devin Booker has said about how bad last year was and how good next year has to be. If the things he has to do, I should say to make next year great. But it does some things here for them. I mean, they can actually package some players together now if there's another star available. They couldn't do that before. They couldn't package those players to trade for a star. That's big. They've got $14 million to just give somebody in a mid level exception. So I think they're going to go get a point guard. It could be Chris Paul, it could be Malcolm Brogdon, it could be D. Anthony Melton. There's rumors around, but they need somebody, I think to back Booker and Jalen Green. So we don't have a situation here where like Bradley Beal was the point guard. But there, there are options there. It also gives them some trade, I mean some draft picks over the years. If they do stay, it unlocks them. Yeah, if they do stay below the second apron so they can trade those draft picks. But yeah, these two years, it's two years, it's tumultuous. Especially this last one. Beal, Booker and Durant never won a playoff game. Usually when you talk about a superstar, you know, you think in a worst case scenario, they never want to playoff series. They never want to playoff game. I mean the SEC the second year was terrible and there were 36 and 46. Going back to the beginning, it was Bill joining. He played like six games before Christmas. So they never got into a flow. But when he was on the floor for the rest of the season, they were 33 and 20, pretty good at 49 win team, top 10 offense, mid of the pack defense. Then they go against Minnesota, they get bombed and they just were out of the flow entirely. Like they just weren't into their, each of their possessions. And then it just, over the summer it just fell apart. And we, we watched the 36 to 46 team, they'd lost their way. So it was a disaster. Yeah, it was, it was I do think this front office at least is attempting at something to change that direction. Do you think this is a smart move in that you're literally paying dead money for an extra three years to be able to make other moves?
- [10:23]
J. Skeets
There were all these other options, right, that we have gone through before. Why not just buy Bill out and eat the money over the next two years? You could do that. That could be sort of an avenue you could take. Why not pay him the full amount, send his ass home? Yeah, you could do that if you wanted to. Now that's pretty toxic and doesn't maybe help your relations with players in the future and agents in the future. There's that there are reasons against these. Why not pay him the full amount and see if he could help the team under a new head coach, right? We talked about this idea like, okay, Durant's gone, you know, there's Green there, there's Dylan Brooks there. You know, maybe Beal has a bigger role or could buy in a little bit more, even sort of increase his trade value, whatever that was an option. Or you could just wait until next summer to then wave and stretch the last year of his salary only over three years instead of the five that you're pointing out here. But this move, and you set a task doing this, waving them, stretching them, having that 19.4 million dead cap over the next five, it allows the Suns to get underneath the first and second tax aprons as well as under the luxury tax. For now, they'll probably go back over, but that just allows them to do all these other things. More tradable draft picks opens up the mid level exception. You can aggregate salaries, all this stuff that we're always talking about with these aprons which like when you get there, you can't do anything. So that's why they did it. And the other important part is the Suns, you know, save like $175 million. Bang like that on luxury tax. Like this is a team that was paying over the last couple of years like over 600 million in like luxury tax stuff for a team like you said, like can't win. It's one thing to be a team that's like successful in paying all that luxury tax money. That's a whole other thing when you're garbage and doing that. So you know, there's cost saving reasons here as well. They're probably going to be over a cap type team anyway. So that 19.4 is there, but at least they can try other things. They had to do this. As sad as it is that they couldn't make it work with those three.
- [12:22]
Tas Melis
They still have to do stuff with all those options. Right. Because it would have been better off if you zoom out and you had all that salary cap room after two seasons of Bradley Beal gone to just try and be able to go sign a free agent. But now they have far less salary cap room. They have all these other options. So at the same time, they're not going to be a good team right here, right now. But this is a. The first step in many steps, hopefully for them to get better. So that still means that they could be bad for several years, especially in the Western Conference, but they have no.
- [12:57]
J. Skeets
Incentive right now to be bad because they don't have the draft picks. So it's not like, all right, let's lean into the tank.
- [13:02]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [13:02]
J. Skeets
You know, let's play the lottery odds. That's. I mean, that can't be an option. So they. They almost have to do this in a weird way because, you know, Booker signing the extension, they still believe in him as, like a cornerstone guy. He's getting up there in age, but he's really just hitting his sort of prime.
- [13:16]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
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J. Skeets
In terms of his age.
- [13:17]
Tas Melis
So that's what this is about for me.
- [13:18]
J. Skeets
They still see a path here to, like, try and be competitive because they have no other options because they don't have draft picks.
- [13:22]
Tas Melis
Yeah, but, but, but as you said, why not just keep Beal there? Yeah, maybe he's. He is a good basketball player.
- [13:28]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [13:28]
Tas Melis
I mean, he is a capable basketball player. But I do think this is about Devin Booker and just turning that car around, turning that model train around, go the other direction, get on that U track and go somewhere else. I think this is about making Devin Booker a happy guy again. Now, him and Jalen Green, I do think they need a point guard to run that show because it was Booker and Beal and that Backord against the Timberwolves and they got demolished. They need somebody running the show. To me, and I know Devin Booker can be the point guard there, but I don't think he has to be the primary guy. And so those guys I threw out there, Chris Paul returning to Phoenix would be ideal. Who knows? If that does happen, there's still rumors that he's going to Los Angeles. Malcolm Brogdon, I mean, I love Malcolm Brogdon, but another injured player, D. Anthony Melton, is he be. I think that's a good addition on paper. But is he healthy after his surgery? No idea. There just aren't a lot of options. At point guard. And so this could just be a, this could be a bad year. Devin Booker spoke about. Did you see our locker room last year? There's so many things to improve on and so I think he is putting pressure on himself just to run that locker room, just to be that lead guy. He's never had to be that type of guy. He had to his first few years but it didn't work out well until Chris Paul got there and he ran the show. And Den Booker was excellent, you know, as that your primary ball scorer. But they need a leader in that locker room. I don't think it's Shailen Green, I don't think it's Maluach coming out of Duke. That's not going to happen. They have better players now. But I think Brian Gregory in their front office, as much as I criticize the guy who doesn't have any NBA experience being the leader of their front office, he does have the ability to just scout and check out talent. And I do believe, you know the Malwatch draft pick, the brief second round draft pick, those look good. And Jordan Ott as a head coach needs to have better players. And so I think, I think just this for both of those guys is, is a the step in the right direction. I do think Jordan Ott coming from the Cleveland, Kenny Atkinson coach Tree is going to be able to use more guys rather than just hey Bradley Beal, you're the guy and that type of thing. They are going to try and utilize all five guys on the floor like Cleveland did. And I do think the roster is starting to look better. But again they're not going to make the playoffs. That would be very successful. That would be very. If this was the east, things would be way different.
- [16:08]
J. Skeets
But you know what, like now the expectations have completely changed too with the team.
- [16:11]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [16:11]
J. Skeets
In trading Kevin Durant and obviously getting off at Bradley Beal. And it's like when you have those three and you pay the amount of money you do, you expect to not only make the playoffs but like win a playoff game or a series or two, which they didn't. So now it changes and you got the new coach and you can like make, build instead of buy. And that's what they did. It was new owner syndrome. HBO comes in, get me the big names, the shiny stars and let's make it work. And it didn't, you know, especially the Beal one with the no trade clause. And then that became an issue. For those that are curious, that is now done. The Suns bought him out of his deal. Bradley Beal, the no trade clause from hell. At least the Phoenix Suns fans is gone. So he didn't. No, it's not on his new contract here with the Clippers eventually. So there is that part. But man, Windhorse had a great article on ESPN this morning. I was reading about this and what happened with the Suns. In total, to acquire Durant and Beal, the Suns traded five first round picks, five swaps. Mikhail Bridges, Cam Johnson and Chris Paul. And then those three guys, those three players collectively fetched seven additional first round picks plus a swap when their new teams traded them. Because obviously Bridges got a lot and, and so on. So those other guys getting some as well. But that's just, that's a whole lot of draft right there and they went all in and it blew up in their face.
- [17:28]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
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J. Skeets
And now they're like forced to do stuff like this.
- [17:30]
Tas Melis
Yeah, HBO was definitely not a, a basketball mind that led these trades. Obviously these are all three ridiculously talented guys, but three talented guys doesn't make up a good team.
- [17:42]
J. Skeets
No.
- [17:43]
Tas Melis
And, and the. That's where I think, I think, think a Brian Gregory would see this. If this Bradley Beal trade was on the table for Brian Gregory. Let's just say they have Booker and Durant. They don't have Bradley Beal. Would they give up all those picks for Bradley Beal? No, I don't think they would. I think they would play it way smarter two years later. Now in, in a different scenario. Obviously Beal didn't play enough. I mean, I went back to see what I said two years ago when this trade was made because in theory it looks fine. I mean it looks like a guy who could be a guard. But at the same time, the injuries definitely added up to him over his career.
- [18:24]
J. Skeets
He only durability has been an issue. He's averaged 33 missed games a season over the last four years.
- [18:29]
Tas Melis
Yeah, he missed a chunk of games. He missed a third of the games here with the Phoenix Suns. Especially, as I said, you started that first year missing games and so they never got into a flow.
- [18:39]
J. Skeets
But okay, but even he missed games and that was the whole thing. It's health off. You could get the big three guys all playing at the same time. When they did, they weren't that good either. Well, they were average.
- [18:49]
Tas Melis
They were top 10 offense that first year.
- [18:51]
J. Skeets
Like him. Him as the addition to KD and Booker. It didn't move the needle when he played. It didn't. You like go check it. It's like they were sort of the exact same without him as they were with them. You don't want that with our $50 million per year guy. You're like, you're like, you got to impact some winning here.
- [19:07]
Tas Melis
Yeah. You think though they're a great offensive team. They should have been able to win a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in that round one.
- [19:15]
J. Skeets
Yeah, I think I had the Suns winning that series.
- [19:18]
Tas Melis
If I remember correctly, they weren't running their offense if you just watch them. Bradley Beal wasn't the point guard and they just couldn't. Couldn't orchestrate good possessions one after the other.
- [19:29]
J. Skeets
They just Beals fault, by the way, and he is still a good player. But they are now completely pivoting to like. Oh yeah, Forget just having three guys that can score 25 a game, you know, like that's cool. But how about some guys that are like dogs and can play some defense and surround your talented star scoring guard in Booker? And yeah, you add Jalen Green, he's like a, you know, a Booker light maybe. Is that the hope? Add guys that can play D and do other things and rebound the ball and you'll get Mark Williams in there. Like they're going to like try something different because what they did obviously didn't work.
- [20:02]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [20:02]
J. Skeets
In terms of winning games or series.
- [20:04]
Tas Melis
And yeah, as much as this is happy times for Phoenix Suns fans, the supporting cast of Jim Green and Devin Booker ain't all that great. It's still lacking. He named all those guys and Ryan Dunn's going to be playing also. Godaro is going to be playing. But I desperately think they need a point guard.
- [20:22]
J. Skeets
I'm with you on that.
- [20:23]
Tas Melis
Colin Gillespie is their only point guard and it would literally would be Devin Booker most of the time right here, right now. I think they just need somebody to run their offense a little bit more constantly because it would probably. Their starting lineup would probably be Jalen Green and Devin Booker in the backcourt and then it would be your Ryan Dunn. Those would be their three guys. And then in the front court, yeah, it's Mark Williams, I suppose, and whoever. Whether it's Osogadaro. They're desperate. They need. I think they, they need somebody to preserve Devin Booker throughout games to just be handling the ball a little bit more.
- [21:00]
J. Skeets
And what about the Clipper side of things here?
- [21:01]
Tas Melis
Yeah, that's exciting.
- [21:02]
J. Skeets
Is it?
- [21:04]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [21:05]
J. Skeets
On paper the Clippers look great for the 10th year in a row.
- [21:07]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [21:08]
J. Skeets
But yeah, they've had a busy off season. Right. You know, they get Beal here on a Super cheap contract. And that's the other thing. It's like whatever, 18 points per game, couple says, couple boards, great shooting percentages. You feel a lot better paying that 5 million a year than you do 50 million. So that's good. They got Brook Lopez, John Collins again. This was sort of like the writing was on the wall that they would be the, maybe the, the lead team to get Beal once they traded Norman Powell because there's an obvious sort of opening there and some scoring that they would need to fill. But. So you're, you're excited about this and what they have at least going into next season.
- [21:43]
Tas Melis
Yeah, it is on paper. I did enjoy watching them against the Denver Nuggets and going to seven games. I thought they were going to win that series. It sure looked that way. Now they have a ton more offense and sort of like what you were saying about the Phoenix Suns with Bradley Beal, Devin Booker being your lead guards, you don't have that defensive mentality. This Clippers team was so good defensively last year. Now they're taking out Chris Dunn from the starting lineup, they're taking out Derek Jones Jr. From the starting lineup and inserting Bradley Beal and John Collins who has been a solid defender in the past. I wonder if they lose a little defensively. That being said, they should in theory outscore everyone. This team with Harden, Beal, Kawhi, John Collins and Zubots is frickin amazing offensively. And I think, you know, you will see a lot of Beal running the second lineup with Bogdanovic beside him or Harden running the second lineup and having John Collins in the second lineup for those, for Collins to be receiving those passes on those pick and rolls from Harden or Beal. The offense is good. This team had a great defensive mentality last year under Ty Lue. That's my only question.
- [22:56]
J. Skeets
But, but then you saw in the playoffs teams like the Nuggets, like you can leave Chris Dunn.
- [23:01]
Tas Melis
Exactly.
- [23:01]
J. Skeets
And like even Derrick Jones Jr. To some extent. So like yeah, it's always like this. Like yeah, you love to have the defensive minded guys out there but oh, if they can't hit a shot or they have no confidence in hitting a shot, then just teams completely forget about them when you get to the playoffs. But obviously it can help you win a lot of regular season games and you need defensive guys. As we just talked about, that's what the Suns are hoping to now get around their Devin Booker. But on paper the clips, I mean the depth is pretty impressive.
- [23:25]
Tas Melis
Yeah, we, you know, we didn't even mention Brooke Lopez now coming off the bench. They have a ton of depth, but yeah, it's, it's a little bit worrisome that now you're, you're starting back or it's Harden and Beal. Those are your most likely. Those are your two guys gotta stop the ball, period. I mean they have to be the, that point of defense right off the bat. So I wonder how that works. Just period. But you're right in that Chris Dunn was being left and they had to bench him eventually. They had, they had to decide what we're doing here. So I have a lot of trust in Tyloo to figure all that out. But to have now a backup guard and excuse me, a backup big and Brook Lopez who can go fight Jokic. I think the secondary tier below OKC has gotten so much stronger. We'll get to Houston and we'll get to Denver and now this Clippers along with a Wolves team that went to two straight conference finals. Exciting stuff.
- [24:19]
J. Skeets
So if you have OKC as a clear top tier Western Conference team your sounds like you're putting the Clippers maybe you always were, but especially after these offseason moves sort of in that, that second bunch with all those squads you were going through. The Rockets, the Wolves, the Nuggets.
- [24:36]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah. I have to throw Denver in there and Houston in there. I'm excited about those two. Minnesota, I suppose it should be, has to be there. They went to two straight conference finals. The Clippers, I think. I can't. I'm a little like you. I can't, I can't. I can't right now. I just watched them lose to this Denver Nuggets team. I think they're in the, in tier three.
- [24:56]
J. Skeets
Okay, but that's okay. Well, Harden, I guess played a huge part in like recruiting Bradley Beal, like come play for us because there were other teams like obviously calling Beal and his representatives like, hey, we'd be interested in you. At 5 or 6 million per year, there's a role here, you know, again, I think once Miami made the deal, ironically with the Clippers that they were probably out of the Bradley Beal sort of sweepstakes because they got Norman Powell and maybe went that direction instead. I don't think you need both these guys a Powell and Beal. So yeah, in the end he goes there. He has a relationship with Ty Lue being a Missouri guy.
- [25:30]
Tas Melis
Oh, I didn't know that.
- [25:31]
J. Skeets
So, yeah, again you're going to feel great if Bradley Peel plays exactly like he did Last year in only paying him five or six million. You're good, you're going to feel good. And it's a contract year for him too. That's the other part. Him and Harden. Right. With player options. That's also good for guys like this. You know, he probably wants to play really well, get his value back up across the league. People think, you know, he's a bit of a joke and has been blamed for what happened in Phoenix. He still thinks like I'm a better. He's an all. He still believes, of course that he's an all star, borderline all NBA player. I guess he only made one all NBA team but a couple all star appearances there in Washington. So maybe he like has a bounce back here.
- [26:06]
Tas Melis
Yeah, I will say.
- [26:08]
J. Skeets
But they all have to be healthy, these guys because Kawhi's always hurt. Beals always hurt. I mean Harden's was an ironman last year and he's been pretty good.
- [26:13]
Tas Melis
He's an iron man.
- [26:14]
J. Skeets
Yeah. So.
- [26:15]
Tas Melis
And I do think he's just going to want to get guys involved who are coming off the ball. So Bradley Beal is perfect for that. He doesn't have to bring up the ball. Hardens fine doing that. Yeah.
- [26:24]
J. Skeets
It's just you say that like wasn't that a bit of an issue in Phoenix? Like it was like he was sort of the third guy on this like ball dominant team with KD and Booker and it's like he's sort of going the same. He's going to a team that he's the third guy. Clearly the third guy.
- [26:37]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [26:38]
J. Skeets
Right.
- [26:38]
Tas Melis
Yeah. What's wrong with this is just a totally different locker room. These guys come out to play ball and Kawhi is your guy and you have to follow your leader. Kawhi brings it every single time he's out there. Will he be out there? That's the question. Will he start on October 17th unlike last year when he started in January and actually was able to play through the playoffs. It worked out big difference. With a lot of questions there. Bradley. Bill was good in year one with Phoenix. I know it's, it's seems like a long time ago, but shooting 43% from three, unfortunately he had to be the number one defender on the outside and so that was his job. But he was, you know, wasting all of his energy or spending a lot of energy on the defensive end and then he had to come up and he was the, the third option. But he was fine with that. He was able to send it. Just pass that ball. But I don't know the whole locker room thing, whether it's not all on Beal, it's on a bunch of other guys too. And so you just think it's going.
- [27:37]
J. Skeets
To a better situation here. Fit in a lot better. Fair enough.
- [27:39]
Tas Melis
Yeah, it was, it was a great battle against Denver. Still seven games, but everyone is healthy now. Are they going to do that again next year? I don't know.
- [27:47]
J. Skeets
All right, so hopefully that's the last time we talk about being this summer. At least until we start getting into previews for the next season.
- [27:55]
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- [28:54]
J. Skeets
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- [30:55]
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- [31:40]
J. Skeets
Let's keep it moving here. At Tuesday's Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas, Adam Silver told reporters that league owners have instructed the NBA to conduct an in depth analysis when it comes to league expansion. This was the Hot Topic Task force quoting Silver here. A lot of analysis still needs to be done and nothing's been predetermined one way or another and without any specific timeline. Again, that's Silver on Tuesday. He's previously hinted at expansion as a possibility, but it always had been lower on the league sort of priority list. Like first they had to get the whole new CBA and then you had to get the new media rights deal. But after that we all assumed, okay, it's expansion time. And then he was even helped out even more with all these teams being sold for record breaking numbers like oh my goodness, you know the Celtics and the Lakers. And it was like, okay, we're only, you know, mere. It feels like months away from him saying we are expanding but he's sort of slow playing it here and saying all this analysis has to happen. What are your thoughts?
- [32:41]
Tas Melis
Well, I think a European league with FIBA happens first before, before they expand. I think that is their primary focus. They want to expand the game in Europe. That's the most important thing I think what we see here happening with the CBA is that a lot of these teams have lost their regional sports networks, have. Have suffered because.
- [33:03]
J. Skeets
And he did bring that up. This uncertainty behind local tv. Like, we can't just go into, like, these new markets and new expansion with, like, when we have half these other local TV markets that are, like, you know, going bankrupt or struggling or what are we doing?
- [33:14]
Tas Melis
Yeah, true. Yeah. So I think the CBA is going to pay all of those teams that have lost money because of it. That's what happens, first and foremost. Then we figure out the TV slash app situation, whatever's happening with Amazon and your peacocks and all that. I wish I was in those meetings. We get to go to summer league for the first weekend, then all the hardcore stay. Why don't they send us an invite to hang out on Tuesday? I would love to be in those meetings just to see how it goes. I don't have to report on it. I don't have to. I don't have to be a sonographer, but I would love to hear it and figure out what's going on. But I do think it's. While there's so many European cities out there that can benefit from the NBA's popularity, I don't know how deep I want to go into saying there's G League players out here. There's so many players here in secondary leagues that could go play in these random European teams as well. I think there's a lot of that. I don't think it's going to become diluted. I'm not worried about 32 teams here in the NBA diluting it. But I do think he's right in that the NBA is good in the way they have these touch points and making sure fans get out in European cities. I think that happens. That happens first before Anaheim or Vegas, or. Why would I say Anaheim? That's where it's.
- [34:31]
J. Skeets
I mean, we all believe, at least it's generally perceived, that it's going to be Seattle and Las Vegas as the expansion team.
- [34:37]
Tas Melis
Yeah, I don't know how I have Anaheim in my head for some reason. But anyway, yeah, it's Seattle and Vegas.
- [34:42]
J. Skeets
Which, if that is the case, Seattle, Las Vegas, last I checked, Western Conference teams, which means we'd have an imbalance between the conferences, which means, in theory, one of these Western Conference teams would probably have to be moved over to Eastern Conference. You know, you'd have 32 total teams, and then you'd want 16 in each conference. If we're sticking with conferences. So who moves east, Tess? Because it feels like, you know, it would be either Minnesota, Memphis, or maybe New Orleans. Those I think are like the three, like sort of most easterly Western Conference teams.
- [35:18]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [35:18]
J. Skeets
And it even came up when we were at the Hoop Collective live podcast, shout out to Wendy von temps and McMahon put on a great show in Vegas. They had as a special guest Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. And it came up. Now they couldn't really like answer that. Like, it came up like, hey, you're the Minnesota Timberwolves owners now. Wouldn't you love to move to. To the Eastern Conference, get the hell out of the west where it's like you need 48 wins just to even sniff the playoffs. Yeah. Again, they sort of like danced around the question. Couldn't really say much. But yeah, I mean, if I were them, I would want to move east. Or if I were the Grizzlies or the Pelicans.
- [35:53]
Tas Melis
Hell yeah, I'm with you. It would be nice. Yeah. I don't have a leader of the three teams as to who should, but all three.
- [36:03]
J. Skeets
Forget should.
- [36:04]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah.
- [36:04]
J. Skeets
You as just a die hard basketball fan. Which team of those three Wolves, Grizz, Pels, would you just love to see move to the Eastern Conference more than the other two?
- [36:16]
Tas Melis
I'd want to see one of those. The smaller markets. Well, they're all small markets. I mean the southern ones, I'd say Memphis or New Orleans.
- [36:24]
J. Skeets
Interesting. I thought you would say for balance reasons, the of the three teams right now, at least I know things change quickly in the NBA. Obviously the Wolves are the best.
- [36:33]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [36:33]
J. Skeets
So when you want to move. Yeah, let's do a really good team over to make another good team in the Eastern Conference.
- [36:39]
Tas Melis
Yeah. I think that by the Great Lakes there, you know, that's the route. I think that is the route. I'm being totally biased in being closest here physically to Memphis, New Orleans.
- [36:49]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [36:51]
Tas Melis
So I would not. Yeah, I think Minnesota, you're right in that. Get a strong team to the Eastern Conference for a little bit more balance.
- [37:00]
J. Skeets
I was also thinking about it. At least with mini Memphis, New Orleans, it's like I wouldn't want. I don't know why. This is probably just me, but if any of those three teams had NBA championships now I know Minneapolis as the Lakers way back in the day of. Doesn't count. We're not counting that. I'm saying these teams, the Wolves, Grizz and Pels, if they had an NBA championship, I would for some reason be like, nah, don't move them out of a conference. I don't know why. It's like, no, you got to stay there. You're like locked in. You're grandfathered in now. But that's not an issue here. So it's almost like it doesn't really matter to me. It's like, all right, they don't have a championship in the Western Conference.
- [37:36]
Tas Melis
Yeah, I'm with you. I would be a stubborn. Hey, your resume says you want a championship in the Eastern Conference or the Western Conference in this instance. Yeah, I'm with you. And maybe that's why I'm taking Memphis and New Orleans, who've had even less success. Well, you know, Minnesota hasn't won, so it doesn't really matter. I don't care about me in Minneapolis.
- [37:55]
J. Skeets
Nor do I. But let's hear from you. Which team would you want to see move from the west to the east if we were to add Seattle and Vegas? Is it mini Memphis, New Orleans? Maybe we'll get a poll up on our social media channels there for that one, I think. I don't know what people are going to say. I guess my gut says they do say the Wolves because it's like, why not take a good team out of there and bring them over? But maybe I'm wrong. Moving on. Despite plenty of speculation about his future, LeBron James appears content with his current situation with the Lakers. Braun reportedly hasn't spoken to the Lakers about a buyout or a trade, and he's expected to report to training camp with the team, according to the Athletic. So he's there in Vegas. You know, at first he wasn't and I was. Oh, he's not here. He usually shows up, but he was there. He caught Bronnie. He's sitting courtside, he's taking photos. He's doing the whole thing. But it sounds like, at least for now, he's going to be committed here to playing at least the start of the season with the Lakers.
- [38:54]
Tas Melis
And luka, he's playing 82 games. He's playing the whole season with the Los Angeles Lakers. No, I don't know if he's playing 82 games. I just mean he's not going anywhere. Yeah, yeah, he's not going anywhere. This is a story. That's not a story. It is. He's. If he wanted to leave, he could have done it before the season. Why exercise your player option for 50 plus million and then get bought out? That is bonkers. That's not going to happen.
- [39:20]
J. Skeets
But there were reasons about the speculation of LeBron being unhappy.
- [39:25]
Tas Melis
The Rich Paul.
- [39:26]
J. Skeets
Well, I would say there was four reasons. You said the first one, he opted into his $52.6 million contract with the Lakers in June, but did not demand a one year extension on his contract. He's always done that in the past. So that people had some of us going, oh, that's interesting. And the Lakers reportedly didn't offer him an extension either. So there was that. Then you said his agent, Rich Paul, came out, made some comments about the Lakers trying to contend while also building for the future. That raised some eyebrows. The other thing is the guy that he plays with now, like Luca getting traded to the Lakers gave oxygen to any rumor imaginable. Right. Like, because it's like, oh, LeBron James, he could be moved if Luca got traded.
- [40:09]
Tas Melis
Well, Luca might not even stay there if you want to give some oxygen. Apparently, the Lakers aren't all that sold on giving Luca every single dollar this off season. Sure. Yeah.
- [40:20]
J. Skeets
Well, sure. But Laker stories in conjunction with that, it's like LeBron for the first time, is not the main guy on his team.
- [40:27]
Tas Melis
Right.
- [40:27]
J. Skeets
That's a fact. So there's that. And then the final reason, like, for this, like, speculation, as I'm calling it, just boredom. I'm part of the media. Right?
- [40:36]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [40:37]
J. Skeets
Like, and the fact that LeBron will be entering this will be his eighth season with the Lakers, which would be the longest consecutive stretch for LeBron with.
- [40:47]
Tas Melis
One team of his career.
- [40:48]
J. Skeets
Yeah. So it's like, you know, you just get to this point where like, okay, that's enough. And everybody's like, oh, what if he left? What if he left?
- [40:53]
Tas Melis
Yeah, he left after seven with Cleveland, then came on back. But I don't think he just says, hey, give me this fifty plus million dollars, and decides, you know what? I don't like this. I know he doesn't add in another year, but there is the possibility that he stays for one year and then, yeah, this time next year he signs for a, I don't know, a vet minimum. Probably not, but sign somewhere else. Goes to Cleveland.
- [41:18]
J. Skeets
Also, he is playing 23, 24. What's he going into his 23rd NBA season?
- [41:23]
Tas Melis
Yeah, 23.
- [41:25]
J. Skeets
I'm laughing because it's like, we just, we talk about him like, well, he's got good seven years left in him still, you know, see how many franchises he plays for.
- [41:33]
Tas Melis
Yeah, that's.
- [41:34]
J. Skeets
He could be retiring soon is my point. But.
- [41:36]
Tas Melis
Right. And that's the thinking in that maybe he wants to end his career, which could be at the end of this year somewhere else.
- [41:44]
J. Skeets
In a champion Cleveland.
- [41:46]
Tas Melis
Yeah, Cleveland makes sense. Obviously to me, if you want to play, play that game. Because Cleveland didn't win without him. They were the number one seed, but they just got destroyed to some degree in round number two. So it sort of makes sense and that they haven't had a lot of success. This isn't a repeat of Kevin Durant going to Golden State Warriors. This would be a situation where, oh, they need something. I'm going to go there. But he took the money that he deserves, and so it's difficult to get $50 million to Cleveland right here, right now. If he had signed way cheaper, that'd be a different story. But now I don't think he is picking up Savannah, the kids and go on to Cleveland or anywhere. I don't think he's going season. I don't think he's going anywhere.
- [42:35]
J. Skeets
So you'd believe though, if you're a betting man, that LeBron will play, what, two more seasons then before he like hangs it up? He plays for this year with the Lakers and then potentially a final one either with LA or somewhere else.
- [42:47]
Tas Melis
I'm never going to get into his head. I do wonder though, how many seasons, what is the number that he wants? Because I'm over reading this and I'm, you know, I'm playing astrology here, reading into the new numbers a little bit. It's fun to do that because does he want to end with 23, the same number as Michael Jordan and him, or does he want to up it sort of like Kobe used to do, wearing 24, you know, does he want to get 24 in there?
- [43:16]
J. Skeets
Wow.
- [43:17]
Tas Melis
I don't think it. I don't think all of that matters. It doesn't matter. I. That's just the fun part to me, because I don't want to read into to, oh, LeBron wants to go X go here because for whatever reason, I. Because he wants to win a championship, I guess, elsewhere, I think.
- [43:32]
J. Skeets
I think chasing ghosts, man. Yeah, he's got to win two more championships.
- [43:36]
Tas Melis
Yeah, but it's. It, it would, it would mean more if it was in la. I know it's. It's la and it's different now. He's already won in two other franchises, but it would feel. It would feel a little cheaper going and finding that fifth one somewhere else. Right.
- [43:52]
J. Skeets
We did win in LA too.
- [43:54]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [43:55]
J. Skeets
The bubble.
- [43:55]
Tas Melis
But yeah, three. He was one. Yeah, he's won three places. Yeah, it just win with four different franchises. Is that cooler than.
- [44:04]
J. Skeets
No, I think he's done enough Cool things.
- [44:06]
Tas Melis
Yeah, he's done. Listen, he could have taken. If you. If you want to play, you want to criticize, you can say, he could have taken less money this year. He could say, no, no player option. Give me two mean bet minimum and we can go sign some. Somebody else. There have been more money.
- [44:22]
J. Skeets
I mean, he's earned every single dollar. Of course he has. And what he brings into a franchise, I mean, he's like, probably underpaid, but like, he's also not a scrub. God, he's not end of the bench. He's not like an eighth grade. He's like, he's still a. An all NBA talent. That's the wild person. 223. So.
- [44:37]
Tas Melis
Yeah, but if he was.
- [44:38]
J. Skeets
He's not doing that.
- [44:39]
Tas Melis
But if he was, you know, air quote chasing ghosts, then he could have. Yeah, chased it, traced it harder by this. This man is a billionaire. He doesn't need the $50 million.
- [44:48]
J. Skeets
I mean, people already hate LeBron as it is. Like, LeBron haters like that would just give them more fuel because it'd be like, now he's like. He is the definition of like just chasing rings to get to a number to try and match Jordan. If he were to do that now, I know you could say the flip side is, well, he wants to win. That's all he cares about. When.
- [45:05]
Tas Melis
And he's taking. And he's taking way less money. That's the. The argument of a lot of fans out there saying, wow, he's. He is not.
- [45:15]
J. Skeets
What do you mean? He's still one of the best players. He should be paid accordingly.
- [45:19]
Tas Melis
I'm not arguing that he's what he should be paid. But if you're a fan and you see a guy take way less money, take $50 million less than he could, you'd say. Some would say, whoa, very noble of him.
- [45:35]
J. Skeets
Yes. Some would say. Others would say, oh, that's pathetic.
- [45:38]
Tas Melis
Well, that's social media. It's very pathetic. But if he wanted to win, that's. That's an option.
- [45:45]
J. Skeets
Well, he could win with Luca on his team here too.
- [45:48]
Tas Melis
Oh, that's why he's staying there. I agree. He's not going anywhere.
- [45:51]
J. Skeets
Good team.
- [45:52]
Tas Melis
Listen, DeAndre ain't gonna be all right. I don't know.
- [45:54]
J. Skeets
I mean, the Lakers, like the third seed last year.
- [45:56]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [45:56]
J. Skeets
Sort of forgotten.
- [45:57]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [45:57]
J. Skeets
You know, it is another piece of news. Talking contracts. The Pelicans plan to fully guarantee Zion Williamson salary for the 2526 season. If the Pelicans had placed Zion on waivers before Tuesday. They would have been on the hook for only a portion of his $39.4 million salary for the upcoming season. The final two seasons of his contract would also have been wiped off the books. But that's not happening. TAS fully guaranteeing Zion Williamson's salary here. And this is something I remember us talking about earlier this season. This sort of weird contract that he has because of his extensive injury history and all of these stipulations that, that you can sort of get in and out of money and stuff like that. And I think we even kicked around the idea like would the Pelicans actually, you know, not fully guarantee this and explore, you know, waving them and stuff like that. But they're still in the Zion business is what they're saying here.
- [46:50]
Tas Melis
Yeah, I kicked it around. And only 20% of his salary next year was guaranteed before July 15th.
- [47:00]
J. Skeets
That's right.
- [47:00]
Tas Melis
Because he likely met all of the waiting requirements.
- [47:06]
J. Skeets
The weigh in checkpoints, the way in checkpoint.
- [47:09]
Tas Melis
Yeah, he had six weigh in checkpoints that. And now that's the only one of the stipulations he met because the rest are all games played related.
- [47:18]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [47:18]
Tas Melis
So if you play half the season, you get 40% of your paycheck for the following season. So it was only partially guaranteed. It's very likely that he weighed in properly and below his. The number that they throw out there because he was the lightest he's ever been. But they wouldn't comment on that. The Pelicans have not commented on that. Will Guillory wrote this on the Athletic, didn't he didn't include that because it wasn't commented on, but that was probably what he meant. Now those final two years after next year, still not guaranteed. No, no, not a dollar.
- [47:51]
J. Skeets
It's sort of like it rolls over. Right. You sort of keep doing this.
- [47:54]
Tas Melis
Yeah. And he only played 30 games last year. So yeah, I think we, we kicked it around and I wondered if they would just literally let him go, which sounds bonkers because he is Zion Williamson. Right. That being said, will we see him play enough to. To warrant not only this year, but two more years on his contract? Which. Yeah, they go year to year to year. Every year is a question. Right. Every year is just.
- [48:22]
J. Skeets
I mean when he plays, he's amazing.
- [48:24]
Tas Melis
He's ridiculously good. In those 30 games he was awesome. Yeah.
- [48:27]
J. Skeets
He was like the stats are mind boggling. Yeah. And then the year before that was the healthy. The healthy, so to speak, year for Zion until. Right. Until the end.
- [48:35]
Tas Melis
Oh yeah.
- [48:35]
J. Skeets
Of the season. Most of the other seasons have been like it was last year. He doesn't play a lot and that's why they have this contract and these stipulations and all of like you said, these. Not only the weigh in checkpoints to get a certain percentage of the salary fully guaranteed or moving on, but then, yeah, games played as it, as it ticks up. If you hit 41 games played in the previous season and then if you hit 51 and then if you hit 60 plus, 61 plus, it's like that all comes into account here. But they're staying in the Zion business. I think this is like the right move, I guess. He does seem to appear to be in the best shape of his life. You just got to hope he can play 60 plus games at the very least. That's like a low bar. I know. Like, it'd be amazing if he could play the amount of games it takes to maybe make an all NBA team. Maybe be in the running for whatever.
- [49:18]
Tas Melis
Type of awards, you know, any new tattoo. I'm wondering if he got. Because last year he got that, that thing on his back. All over his back.
- [49:29]
J. Skeets
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I was gonna say, would you be concerned putting too much ink on your body weighs you down more. I don't know. I don't know how much a tattoo ink weighs on the human body, but it's gotta weigh something a little bit. So don't get too much. So anyways, Ion staying there and they're, you know, they. I mean, I know we're going to get into it. We get into best and worst trades of the off season. I think the Pelicans might come up, but they, they are in trading an unprotected draft pick next season, 26, because they wanted to move up this year. They're sort of saying like, could we, we want to be competitive now. You know, you're sort of like, you're not saying you're going to be bad or at least believing you're not going to be bad?
- [50:11]
Tas Melis
No. Here in Atlanta, you want them to be bad, right. That they get that very rare pick swap where you would get the better of two random teams, Milwaukee and New Orleans. So the more favorable. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [50:27]
J. Skeets
I mean, that means you could have the number one pick. Like if Pelicans struggle or play and all this.
- [50:32]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [50:32]
J. Skeets
Anyway.
- [50:33]
Tas Melis
And yeah, lottery, they could be the 14th worst team and you could still win. That's what I'm saying.
- [50:38]
J. Skeets
A lot of it's crazy. All right, well, let's talk about the.
- [50:40]
JD
Real quick back Tattoo will add three 2 to 3 grams max to your weight.
- [50:47]
J. Skeets
So still something. If you're trying to get under a particular.
- [50:49]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [50:50]
J. Skeets
Weight.
- [50:50]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Is that a max? Like when you say back tattoo?
- [50:53]
JD
Is that like if you had your entire back tattooed, it would weigh about 2 to 3 grams.
- [50:59]
Tas Melis
That's exactly the most.
- [51:00]
JD
That's the same as a paperclip.
- [51:02]
J. Skeets
Okay.
- [51:03]
JD
Or a raisin.
- [51:04]
J. Skeets
Okay, this is good. I need to hear this.
- [51:06]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [51:06]
JD
So it does nothing.
- [51:08]
J. Skeets
I was gonna say add something to your weight, but it's gotta be a full back piece.
- [51:13]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah. That's why. Exactly. The thing he got last year was top to bottom of.
- [51:18]
J. Skeets
Okay, well, there you go. He added a raisin. Try eating them. Okay. Let's get into NBA off season superlatives here. I want to quickly hit you and the listener and the viewer tasks just with some of the big deals we saw. Just to refresh your memory. So June 15th is when things really got underway. Grizzlies moved Desmond Bain to the Magic for kcp, Cole Anthony and a number of first round draft picks and swaps. Then on the last day of the season, you know, it was on Game 7, the Suns traded Gavin Durant to the Rockets for Jalen Green and Dylan brooks, the number 10 pick and five second round picks. We had the Celtics and Blazers swapping Jrue Holiday for Anthony Simons. A day later, the Celtics, Hawks and Nets finalized a three team deal that moved Porzingis here to Atlanta. We had the Wizards trading Jordan Poole to the Pelicans for C.J. mcCollum. The Suns traded for Hornet center Mark Williams. The Bulls traded Lonzo Ball to the Cavs for Isaac Okoro. The Nuggets traded Michael Porter Jr. To the Nets for Cam Johnson. We had that three team deal that got Norman Powell to the Heat, John Collins to the Clippers. And then we've had a few sign and trade moves as well. Most notably the Hawks getting to kill Alexander Walker from the Wolves and the Pistons getting Duncan Robinson from the Heat. Bunch of other smaller deals, but that's just like a general look at the bigger names that moved this offseason. So I wanted to ask you, and I ask everyone here, best trade of the off season in your opinion?
- [52:47]
Tas Melis
I'm going to do a little lumping. I want to lump the Rockets move and the Nuggets move because they're just that little tier below OKC in a. An off season here where obviously OKC feels like they're going to win forever. But we were here 12 months ago when everyone was saying, oh, Boston's going to win forever. It didn't happen. So the fact that Houston goes and gets Kevin Durant with a team that just needs a guy that they can rely on to score, now, I am concerned a little bit about how much they're going to get to the rim. All these. All these guards doesn't matter. Fred Van Vliet doesn't really get to the rim. Kevin Durant's not a rim guy, although he's going to score no matter what. Amen. Thompson's probably going to take a step in that direction. He's going to drive his heart out, especially with guys stretching the floor. So I am concerned about that. But them going after OKC as well as Nikola Jokic, getting Cam Johnson beside him is a great move. Michael Porter Jr. Wasn't great defensively, number one. I mean, he kept fighting offensively, but Cam Johnson's, I think, a superior player on both sides, on both sides of the floor. Cam Johnson is damn good defensively. He is 30, so he is. I guess we're seeing the best of Cam Johnson, but I don't think. I don't think enough people saw the best of Cam Johnson last year in Brooklyn. They just didn't see it. He's good offensively. He's different than Michael Porter Jr. In that he can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim and finish. And so when all the. The focus is on either Jokic or Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon, who had a hurt but hurt slash hamstring in Game seven against okc. Those three guys plus Cam Johnson, I think they're gonna. They're gonna be really good.
- [54:31]
J. Skeets
Really like the teams that were like a tier behind OKC, really going for it here to challenge them. Rockets trading for Kevin Durant, which, you know, cost him some players, but not a lot of draft capital. And a part of that's his age and obviously, you know, his expiring deal and stuff like that.
- [54:46]
Tas Melis
And they got so much depth.
- [54:47]
J. Skeets
Yeah. And then you like the Nuggets in that deal, trading Michael Porter Jr. For Cam Johnson.
- [54:52]
Tas Melis
I just love teams going forward in basketball. Those are good just to keep swinging against okc, who you can't win every year. You can't. Although, you know, OKC is fricking good, and they're doing it way younger than all NBA teams, frankly. They're winning championships with such young guys. So they're going to be up there for a long time. They are so rock steady. But you can't win every year. So I like these teams going forward here.
- [55:18]
J. Skeets
One of my favorite trades is the Nuggets trading Michael Porter Jr. For Cam Johnson. Now it did also cost them an unprotected future pick like in 2032, I want to say, which sounds like a fake year, but that's what they had to attach to MPJ to get Cam Johnson. But still, both those guys, you said when you look at it, their numbers last year, MPJ and Cam Johnson, very similar, like eerily similar in terms of scoring, shooting, the three ball, you know, sort of across the board. But man, one makes way more than the other guy. And Denver needed that sort of, that help on the books there to go do other things. Right. They ended up going to get Bruce Brown back in the mix. They made this Valentunas trade, looks like he's going to be their backup center, you know, after swapping Dario Sarge for him. But that idea that Michael Porter Jr. Making 38 million and then eventually 41 million, where Cam makes 21 million and then 23, like that's. We're talking like half the contract almost for what I believe the equivalent value on the court, if not more when you consider the defensive capabilities of Cam Johnson. So that's a, that's a bit of a no brainer. I thought that was good work here, I think. And also you say like no one really knows how good Cam Johnson is. Fair. Because he played in Brooklyn. You're going to find out especially he still might level up despite his age because now he's playing with Jokic. There's that whole part of the equation too where everyone suddenly looks better.
- [56:39]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah. He's got a ton of confidence to be that sporting guy. He's got the, the pedigree. It's not championship pedigree, but the pedigree of getting to an NBA finals with Phoenix Suns where he was a guy. He was the guy, you know, beside Mikhail Bridges to guard the other team's best player. So that's monstrous for this Denver Nuggets team overall. Yeah. Plus their bench. Yeah. Great moves here. Taking advantage of the Brooklyn Nets that needed to get a draft pick because they just needed to get something to keep going in the direction of tanking. So they took advantage of that perfectly.
- [57:18]
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- [58:19]
Tas Melis
Services.
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- [58:51]
J. Skeets
Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're.
- [58:54]
Tas Melis
Not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows home so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte.
- [58:58]
J. Skeets
Paint finish and satin or what that.
- [59:00]
Tas Melis
Clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack you don't have to be a home pro, you just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see.
- [59:08]
J. Skeets
Price estimates and read reviews all on.
- [59:10]
Tas Melis
The app download today.
- [59:16]
J. Skeets
What about the worst trade of the off season?
- [59:19]
Tas Melis
We're sitting here thinking about Drew Holiday going to the Portland Trailblazers. When it happened I thought okay, okay, it's an investment in a guy who didn't have a really good year. But you need some sort of older veteran that is a fricking champ of two different teams. But now after seeing the medical records for the Phoenix or from the Portland Trailblazers gave up and Freddie Simons plus two second round picks for Drew Holiday. Now they got those two second round picks back because of these medical records that they found for Drew Holiday. Now they weren't. They weren't.
- [59:58]
J. Skeets
Hold on. The trade was Drew Holiday and eventually two second round picks to Portland for Anthony Simons. Was it not because of Drew Holiday's health issues that the that the Celtics then had to add? I'm I'm clarifying here.
- [60:14]
Tas Melis
No, no, it's the other way around.
- [60:15]
J. Skeets
Why?
- [60:16]
Tas Melis
Why?
- [60:16]
J. Skeets
Because I thought the trade was Drew Holiday for Anthony Simons. Okay, they agree on that. Let's shake hands. Okay. But then they're like, they start looking at Drew Holiday's like medical records and maybe his health status and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you giving us damaged goods here? Yeah, maybe we are. Okay, well, you got to throw in more stuff. So you got to throw in two second round picks.
- [60:35]
Tas Melis
That's how I thought, I thought, I thought a little. No, no, no. The initial deal was you got to give us and Freddy Simons plus picks and now they get to keep those picks.
- [60:43]
J. Skeets
Wow. Okay.
- [60:45]
Tas Melis
Yeah, because the.
- [60:47]
J. Skeets
Oh, I see what you're saying. You're saying keep those.
- [60:50]
Tas Melis
Okay, okay, yeah, because those medical records are not good. That's. The medical records weren't bad enough to say, hey, we don't want true Holiday, but apparently there's still stuff on there to say. Okay, can you give us back those picks, please? That's all it is. And you look at Drew Holiday and what he was last year. I know they're second round picks. It's not what I really concerned about.
- [61:10]
J. Skeets
Well, I bring that up because we thought for the Celtics to get off of Drew Holiday, they might have to attach picks.
- [61:15]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [61:16]
J. Skeets
Let alone maybe even a first round pick is what we were considering at the time. So, yeah, they didn't have to do that, which is pretty good work.
- [61:22]
Tas Melis
Yeah. No, here's the graphic that you made.
- [61:25]
J. Skeets
I did make that.
- [61:26]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Once upon a time. But Drew Holiday had a bad. Yeah. So they gave up second round picks and people were saying, yeah, come on, Drew Holiday didn't have a good year and you're giving up second round picks. Why? Why would you do that? I am a little concerned just about Jrue Holiday medically because he did not look even like himself guarding Jalen Brunson in that second round. You know, he just, he just wasn't himself. And so I think obviously he can rub off very well. But you look at the number like he can rub off on guys in that locker room. No doubt. But you look at the numbers, three times the dollars owed for anfront Simons because he's getting paid way longer than Ann Free Simons upcoming expiring deal after this coming season. He's 10 years older. He just had an off year. I mean, he's making between 20 and 25% of the salary cap for the next few years. And he's taken some of those youngins minutes. So that's a concern. It is a concern.
- [62:24]
J. Skeets
Now looking back, I'm seeing not breaking news here, but I guess Jake Fisher was saying the Raptors made an aggressive offer for Drew Holiday that they turned down and it looked like it was going to be like the contract of RJ Barrett and that the Raptors were going to be that team going after Drew to add to the squad. Seeing that right now here, yeah, the.
- [62:43]
Tas Melis
Toronto Raptors have a bunch of guys that kind of overlap and unfortunately RJ Barrett is one of them. And so that I'm not surprised that they would offer RJ Barrett.
- [62:56]
J. Skeets
Fisher stated that the Raptors dangled the idea of giving the Celtics the number nine overall pick in this year's draft in exchange for Derrick White or Drew Holiday. Celtics turned off by the idea of having to take on the contract of RJ Barrett instead went with the Anthony Simons expiring contract after this coming season.
- [63:14]
Tas Melis
Yeah, so, you know, I don't want to go, hey, the Toronto Raptors are the Phoenix Suns East. But it is a little bit of, unfortunately a little bit of a. We got all these talented guys, but they just aren't merging all together in Brandon Ingram, Scotty Barnes, RG Barrett and Emmanuel Quickley. I mean that's a. He plays a different position, but guys that aren't healthy, that are scores in, you know, some similar ways. So here we are. I do think the Raptors are gotta be better.
- [63:45]
J. Skeets
Okay, so I guess ultimately you're not loving the Blazers. I'm not quite excited. Yeah.
- [63:49]
Tas Melis
Yeah. If he's healthy, I mean, healthy stuff. I mean it's. You think you can throw that out the window? He's. I don't know if he's gonna be healthy. I, I think that's. We watched him, he just wasn't himself last year.
- [64:01]
J. Skeets
I'm going for worst trade of the offseason. Sort of talked about it already. The Pelicans trading an unprotected 2026 first round pick to the Hawks to move up from 23rd to I guess 13th in the 25 draft. And that allowed them to take Derek Queen. They were very high on him, obviously wanting to move up to snap snatch him there at 13. But this was one where like the Hawks couldn't believe the Pelicans were offering an unprotected pick to move up 10 slots in the 25 draft. And I think the Hawks were very happy to ultimately take it. Like according to reports they were calling, they were like, this can't be real. Real, right. Did we like, did it get garbled on the phone when they was that protected instead of unprotected? We better call Joe Dumars. Like, no, no. Unprotected. Wow. I mean, again, the Pelicans are like thinking they're going to be okay and they're going to be a good squad again, but like, that's very possible. They don't and they have a weird team as it is. And you know, I mean, if you were that in love with Queen, it's like people are like, why didn't you take them seventh? They took Fears, so they got a point guard, so they got two guys here in Fears and Queen and hopefully they're great players, but that could blow up in their face. I mean, it really could. And the Hawks again, like, they got a guy they liked in Newell at 23. So that was a slick move by them to move back, but it was just more perplexing than anything. You don't see that all that often.
- [65:24]
Tas Melis
No.
- [65:24]
J. Skeets
In this now, sort of the way that lottery can go, it's like, whoa, man. Unprotected. Like, even if it was like top four protected, just to cover your ass a little bit.
- [65:33]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [65:33]
J. Skeets
But no.
- [65:34]
Tas Melis
Yeah, that New Orleans front office is a little puzzling after, you know, hitting back to back shots here, going after Jordan Pool just before that, and then going to get Derek Queen, who's a Maryland boy, who I. You got to make the connection to Troy Weaver who's now running the front office along with Joe Dumars, who just likes taking guys from Washington. They just love it. And any, any, any sort of in that region, if you're from that region or you played on the Washington Wizards, you're getting trade to Joy Weaver's team. And it's just perplexing. As far as their guard rotation, like you mentioned, Jeremiah Fierce looks good. Put him with Jordan Fool. Jordan Poole plus Dejounte Murray. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see if it works. Dejante Murray, obviously really talented guy coming off an injury and then you get into your really talented guys and Herb Jones is signed. Extension Trey Murphy and Trey Murphy and.
- [66:30]
J. Skeets
Then Queen now there. But can he play alongside Missy? He's Missy. I, I don't know. Like, is he more of a five, a smaller ball five guy? I mean, he's great offensive player.
- [66:39]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Well, if he's better, if he's better than Eve me, then he's going to play over him because even if he was solid, but they really feel like Queen is another level.
- [66:52]
J. Skeets
Yeah, I mean, I saw them play at summer league. They tried them together. It didn't look that great for Queen, if I'm being honest. But then the game where Misi was out and Queen was like their big, let alone big, it looked a lot better and he looked like the guy that's like the reason they wanted to move up to draft. So, yeah, they'll have to figure that summer league, I mean, sort of throw it out the window. I get all that, but the point of all this is, like, you're not convinced the Pelicans are going to be a good team in the loaded Western Conference next year.
- [67:15]
Tas Melis
Nobody is.
- [67:16]
J. Skeets
Like, you're not putting them ahead of a lot of teams when we move into October, November. So that means they could be in the lottery, which means they could have a chance to have a very high draft pick, which means it'll be going to Atlanta. All to move up 10 spots is a hell of a roll of the dice. Yeah, right.
- [67:32]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [67:33]
J. Skeets
What about most surprising contract this off season?
- [67:37]
Tas Melis
I think you got to start with Miles Turner, where it came from.
- [67:41]
J. Skeets
That was a shock.
- [67:41]
Tas Melis
It was a big shock. We're sitting here at the desk to see number one, Damian Lillard wave. Yeah, that's a shock. I mean, the wave and stretch. But then to see Miles Turner go to Milwaukee for four years and 108.9, which isn't a lot in today's NBA, to be around 27 million per year to make Yannis happy in a couple ways. Of course, they got to keep trying to make Yannis happy by adding talented guys, but Yanis having the ability just to play the four, and that's it is so good for play the four.
- [68:15]
J. Skeets
Sounds like he's playing the one.
- [68:16]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [68:18]
J. Skeets
John Horse leaning into the idea it's point Guardian's time.
- [68:21]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [68:21]
J. Skeets
Which he sort of does anyway. Yeah, right.
- [68:23]
Tas Melis
Yeah. We're flashing back to Jason Kid coach in them days where giving Giannis the ball, but I'm more concerned on the defensive end where he has to play. Had to play the five. We watched him against the Pacers in the first round and how Tyrese Halberd ended that series against them, it was mainly because he got Giannis in space multiple times and yes, tried as well as he possibly could. But to go that route, for Doc Rivers to say, janice, you're our five. You're going to guard so much space because you know what? We don't have a center that can really do that anymore. And Brook Lopez wasn't that guy. So Brooks gone, but Miles Turner is inserted, and now Janice doesn't have to do that. And so that bodes out well for them. And I don't think 27 is all that much. 27 mil per year.
- [69:07]
J. Skeets
Well, but then you could look at it like it costs a lot more with. When you add the dead cat money from Damian Lillard, if you attach that to Miles Turner, which is the only reason they could do it.
- [69:16]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [69:16]
J. Skeets
But it is. It's definitely, to answer this question, surprising, because none of us had this on our. On our bingo card heading into the off season, especially on a guy that was just in the NBA Finals. Did Miles Turner play all that well offensively? No. He couldn't hit a three to save his life, but obviously had an impact still on the Pacers run to the Finals, especially defensively. But for this Bucks team who came in the off season, everyone going like, what the hell are they going to do? How are they going to keep Giannis happy to create enough cap space to sign one of the more expensive free agent centers on the market? That's pretty surprising.
- [69:46]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [69:46]
J. Skeets
And pretty good work by them. And then have started to, like, you know, get a lot of their other guys back. And there are big question marks at the point guard position in Porter Jr. And Rollins and the rest of the roster. But, you know, they did get one of the biggest names that, again, we didn't even think would even hit the market. Seemed to surprise the Pacers themselves that he was even moving. Right. So. And it's definitely one of the more surprising contracts.
- [70:09]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Apparently Kevin Pritchard, their gm, found out from Sean Sharanya that Miles Turner agreed to leave. Now, you're right in that there's a lot of dead money on the Milwaukee Bucks salary cap, but it's dead. But it makes them feel alive. Right. I mean, they have something to do now. They can make some other moves a little bit, but. But I shouldn't say that. I should say it just makes him feel alive. Like Yanis has a guy beside him that he can play with all the time. But you brought up the names of Porter Jr. And Ryan Rollins and Kuzma. They know who they are at the five and the four, but they don't know who they are really at the 1, 2, and 3. That's a lot of questions.
- [70:53]
J. Skeets
What is dead may never die.
- [70:55]
Tas Melis
Oh, yeah, Good one.
- [70:56]
J. Skeets
Yeah. Game of Thrones. Remember that? What were they called again? J.D. help us out. What was that?
- [71:02]
JD
The Greyjoys.
- [71:03]
J. Skeets
Greyjoys thank you. That's what I was looking for. Yeah, yeah, they were the water ones.
- [71:07]
Tas Melis
Yeah, the water one.
- [71:08]
J. Skeets
They would, like, dunk them. That was their whole. Drown them. Yeah. What is dead may never die.
- [71:14]
JD
Crazy.
- [71:15]
J. Skeets
So, like, make a shirt with like. I'm trying to think, like, how you'd make a shirt with like Damian Lillard's dead cat money with that slogan on it. There's gotta be somebody out there that could do it. Another surprising contract, maybe in a bad way. Dennis Schroeder agreeing to a three year, $45 million deal with the Kings. I think it was a signing trade in the end, if I remember correctly, but. Whoa.
- [71:40]
Tas Melis
What.
- [71:40]
J. Skeets
What are the Kings doing, man? Yeah, that's a per. That's a weird one. And I like Dennis Schurter. We like Dennis.
- [71:46]
Tas Melis
I like Dennis Schroeder not really for.
- [71:48]
J. Skeets
That amount of money at this stage of his career on a team like the Kings that have a lot of guards as it is. It's just. I mean, he's a weird point guard in the sense. He's not like. He's. He's not like, you're like pure table setting type of point guard, you know. He's actually really good at like scoring, attacking, and you can. That's why he's a really good sort of backup point guard at this stage of his career.
- [72:09]
Tas Melis
Right.
- [72:09]
J. Skeets
It's just an odd one to me. It is surprising for sure that he.
- [72:13]
Tas Melis
Got that much and that many years.
- [72:15]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [72:16]
Tas Melis
This is like his 10th team, right? Yeah. He hasn't spent two years in a row on one team since he was with OKC a billion years ago. And so now three years to give him is. Is questionable. Very talented guy like. Like him in these small doses.
- [72:34]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [72:34]
Tas Melis
But to have multiple years. He was obviously good with what he did with the Pistons. He was their sort of their secondary playmaker coming off the bench. And it worked. But signed multiple years. I don't know. I just like him in small doses. I like him in a World cup tournament. Playing for our man Gord, Herbert, our Canadian coach who's moved to Germany. That guy was a baller. That guy played in the 84 Summer Olympics.
- [72:59]
J. Skeets
Gordon Gord played a good.
- [73:02]
Tas Melis
Not sure.
- [73:03]
J. Skeets
He's not that bad.
- [73:03]
Tas Melis
Herbert. Yeah, it's just. That's a strange one. He played against Michael Jordan. Anyway, that's weird. Another three year, $48 million deal. That was weird. Duncan Robinson. Who are the. Who are the Detroit Pistons bidding against? Like, who. Who is saying, I'm signing Duncan Robinson to 2 for 30 or something. Then they're like, I'll give you a 3 for 48. You know, I don't know. I know Duncan Robinson, a very talented guy, but it seemed like he was overpaid with Miami and. And they're obviously replacing Michael Beasley.
- [73:34]
J. Skeets
Malik, Damn.
- [73:35]
Tas Melis
I will always.
- [73:36]
J. Skeets
I was waiting to see if you would do it.
- [73:37]
Tas Melis
Yeah, the M came out of my mouth and I. I thought, I'll say the right one, but I'll always say.
- [73:42]
J. Skeets
Michael B. I actually thought you were purposely doing it outside for a second.
- [73:45]
Tas Melis
No, I just like saying Michael Beasley.
- [73:48]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [73:48]
Tas Melis
Who. Who are they baiting against? I don't. That's the confusing part. It's not so much that you're paying Duncan Robinson 16 million per year because he could pay off. He could. He's a talented guy and he can put it on the floor, but he just hasn't been consistent over the last couple of years. Maybe he's going to stop podcasting. Maybe that'll help. He's been podcasting a bit.
- [74:07]
J. Skeets
I will say, in their defense, like, yeah, the Beasley, you know, gambling investigation here and whether this guy even plays another second in the NBA, for all we know.
- [74:16]
Tas Melis
Very possible.
- [74:16]
J. Skeets
That really put the Pistons in a tough spot. And I think they're like, we saw the success having shooters around Cade Cunningham and the roster we're building there and our young guys and our big guys, we saw the impact. It means we're a better team and we're actually getting into the playoffs. We got to sort of continue that. That can't fall off. Like, Beasley was like the leader in three point, like made basically. It was like Curry and him. And I'm not saying Duncan Robbins is going to replicate that, but you can at least like say, well, you can see why they're thinking we gotta have. We gotta keep shooting out there. Like Tim Hardaway Jr's gone. Like, we gotta have threats that can fire away. So. Oh, yeah, yeah. It'd be nice for him to have a bit of a bounce back for them, but it's a lot of money. I'm not disagreeing with it, but this Beasley whole thing really screwed them.
- [74:59]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Yeah. It just doesn't. It seems like the length of this contract for Duncan just seems like nobody else would have offered that.
- [75:05]
J. Skeets
Right.
- [75:06]
Tas Melis
I don't. I don't think. I don't think there was a market for him.
- [75:09]
J. Skeets
Final question a little more silly. What's your favorite moment of the off season? This doesn't need to be contract related or trade related. Or whatever.
- [75:18]
Tas Melis
Well, seeing an NBA player in a backwards hat playing basketball, and that's Jonathan Kaminga. Now I'm. The more interesting part is that Jonathan Kaminga was literally putting out videos. He literally was.
- [75:31]
J. Skeets
He was like a 14 year old, like, highlight mixtape, kind of.
- [75:35]
Tas Melis
Yeah. He was putting out an audition tape, essentially, to other teams to say, Steve Kerr did not use me in the way I could be used. So this is what I can do. You see these videos? You like my hat? Take me. So that's. That was the most interesting thing to me. We've been watching basketball for a long time. Off top of my head, I can't remember end of the season, before free agency, a guy is basically saying, this is my game.
- [76:02]
J. Skeets
Hey, check this out.
- [76:03]
Tas Melis
Yeah. An NBA player of multiple years, and he is super talented, but we're still here. It's July 17th and no deal for him yet.
- [76:12]
J. Skeets
Am I wrong to say the warriors haven't done a single thing this off season? Yeah, I can't think of a single transaction. I know there's a bit of a holdup because of this coming a thing, and obviously rumored to be in the Al Horford sort of race. If he doesn't retire, Melton might come back. I don't. I think they're the lone team that has not done anything.
- [76:32]
Tas Melis
I don't think they have. Gary Payton II remains unsigned. No, I don't think they've. Yeah, you're right. And that's a weird one.
- [76:40]
J. Skeets
They're in a weird spot with Kamingo, but, yeah, he's got the addition tape out there trying to show these other teams. Let me, man. Put me in a pick and roll, man.
- [76:46]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah.
- [76:47]
J. Skeets
ISO, man.
- [76:48]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [76:48]
J. Skeets
Look at this athleticism.
- [76:49]
Tas Melis
Come on.
- [76:49]
J. Skeets
Pops off the page.
- [76:50]
Tas Melis
Has there ever.
- [76:51]
J. Skeets
With a hat on.
- [76:51]
Tas Melis
Has there ever been something like that? I don't. I don't remember one. It really is coming from their agent.
- [76:58]
J. Skeets
Right, right, right, right.
- [76:59]
Tas Melis
Show that. Like this. It's everywhere.
- [77:02]
J. Skeets
I mean, we see the Ben Simmons mixtape every summer. Like, hey, look at. This guy's got a jump shot. This guy can hit three in a gym.
- [77:07]
Tas Melis
Yeah, but he was already soft, baby. He was already signed.
- [77:09]
J. Skeets
No, I know, I know.
- [77:10]
Tas Melis
Yes.
- [77:10]
J. Skeets
That's more for us, the fans. Like, hey, you say I never shoot. Well, look at this. All I do is shoot during the summer.
- [77:17]
Tas Melis
Well, he.
- [77:17]
J. Skeets
Without my shirt on.
- [77:18]
Tas Melis
He should be putting out videos right now. He's not signed.
- [77:21]
J. Skeets
He's not signed.
- [77:22]
Tas Melis
That's.
- [77:22]
J. Skeets
Wow. Yeah.
- [77:23]
Tas Melis
Who wants him?
- [77:24]
J. Skeets
My favorite moment of the off season, Victor weMinyama. Having a 10 day stay at a Shaolin temple in China and like, all like, the content we saw, especially when we saw that he shaved his head and then he was like in the robes. Then you're getting like, him like doing like kung fu poses. Apparently he was practicing, doing meditation. I read that he ate a lot of zucchini and rice noodles because it was like a vegetarian Shaolin temple. But then I couldn't tell if this was a joke or not. I don't think it was like, he had to like sneak out and eat like, I guess real protein, real meat to like get his weight up because he's added weight as well. But he probably wasn't gonna add a lot of weight at eating zucchini and rice noodles, so. But this is pretty cool.
- [78:07]
Tas Melis
It is pretty cool.
- [78:08]
J. Skeets
It's like a 7 foot 4 guy doing kung fu and, like running around with them. It's awesome. Then there's like basketball highlights. He's playing all like these short monks and stuff like that. Looked even cooler.
- [78:19]
Tas Melis
It is cool.
- [78:20]
J. Skeets
He said, quote, my goal going there was putting my body through things that it's not used to doing and allowing my range of movement and strength. This was probably as very different as possible from what I'm used to doing. End quote. I love that, man. Guys think outside the box, man. Cerebral chest.
- [78:39]
Tas Melis
Exactly.
- [78:39]
J. Skeets
Doing kung fu and meditation.
- [78:42]
Tas Melis
He does the splits when he stretches, right?
- [78:44]
J. Skeets
Yeah, he's super flexible.
- [78:46]
Tas Melis
Yeah. This guy's brilliant.
- [78:48]
J. Skeets
So that's one of my favorite moments. Do you have any thoughts on Klay Thompson's new girlfriend? Megan Thee, Stallion.
- [78:53]
Tas Melis
Megan Thee, Stallion.
- [78:54]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [78:54]
Tas Melis
Looks like they're enjoying themselves.
- [78:56]
J. Skeets
They've. It's out now because there was that photo of her at a pool and like, and there was a guy, like, sitting on a lounger in the back. Everyone's like, is that Klay Thompson? I don't know if you saw this. I was like, what the hell's going on here? Are they hooking up? But last night or the night before, they were at some award ceremony. It's a fish.
- [79:11]
Tas Melis
Nice.
- [79:12]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [79:12]
Tas Melis
There is going to be some sort of tie in the Dallas Mavericks. The Stallions. I don't know.
- [79:17]
J. Skeets
Oh, you know, okay, maybe.
- [79:19]
Tas Melis
Yeah, yeah. Because they're. They've got a great social media team. They're going to do some stuff.
- [79:23]
J. Skeets
I saw her on an episode. Not proud to say this, but I'm going to say it out loud. Saw Megan on the episode of Love island this past season, American version. She showed up to, like, host one of the Games, whatever. Host. One of the times where they all make out with each other. She's hilarious. I don't really know, like, I don't really know much about her. Like, I'm not a huge fan of her music. Obviously heard her songs and stuff like that.
- [79:50]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [79:51]
J. Skeets
Huge fan now. She's so funny.
- [79:53]
Tas Melis
Oh, yeah.
- [79:54]
J. Skeets
So, like, confident, charismatic. She loved Love Island. She was geeking out. Like, of course. The contestants in there, like, oh, my God. Like, we love you. We love you. Love you. She's like, no, no, I love you. And she, like, knew everything about the show, became a fan.
- [80:07]
Tas Melis
Cool.
- [80:07]
J. Skeets
So I ship it. Clay and her, they look great together.
- [80:11]
Tas Melis
He looked happy as he should be. Yeah.
- [80:15]
J. Skeets
Any other favorite moments? Jd, you got anything from. Again, this can be across the board.
- [80:20]
JD
I enjoyed hanging out with the fans in Vegas.
- [80:22]
J. Skeets
Oh, that's a nice answer.
- [80:24]
JD
The. The. Where were we? I was like, God damn. That was.
- [80:29]
Tas Melis
It does blend together.
- [80:30]
JD
It was blend together.
- [80:31]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [80:31]
JD
And the. The darkest room of all time where we did our show. Yeah. Fans turned out.
- [80:37]
J. Skeets
They did. They did.
- [80:38]
JD
I was happy.
- [80:39]
J. Skeets
That part was fun.
- [80:40]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [80:40]
JD
Super fun. That one part was fun.
- [80:42]
J. Skeets
That was your only time you had fun in Vegas?
- [80:44]
Tas Melis
No, no, no.
- [80:45]
JD
I mean, the show was a bit of a. It was. It was a heavy lift, I'll say that.
- [80:49]
J. Skeets
Oh, okay.
- [80:50]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [80:51]
JD
Remember, they told us to turn us. Did I tell you they told us to turn it down?
- [80:54]
J. Skeets
I was right there when the guy came up and told me.
- [80:56]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [80:56]
JD
Very nicely.
- [80:58]
J. Skeets
Now, in the guy's defense, this was before the show had started.
- [81:02]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [81:02]
J. Skeets
You played music as, like, people came in, and I guess it was too loud.
- [81:07]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [81:08]
JD
It's pre show. Trying to get the people hyped up.
- [81:12]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [81:12]
JD
Add some. Cause some tension, you know.
- [81:15]
J. Skeets
Yeah. They came in and they were like. Yeah, like, the music's too loud for all the degenerate gamblers out there on the floor. You know, they can't hear whether they should hit or day.
- [81:23]
Tas Melis
That's right.
- [81:23]
J. Skeets
That's sort of what he was saying.
- [81:25]
JD
That's exactly what I was saying.
- [81:26]
J. Skeets
Yeah. So you had to turn it down.
- [81:27]
JD
We had to turn it down. But, you know, still fun.
- [81:30]
J. Skeets
Did anybody gamble at all while we were in Vegas?
- [81:34]
Tas Melis
Did you at all? No.
- [81:35]
J. Skeets
I didn't either.
- [81:36]
Tas Melis
Surprised? Yeah.
- [81:37]
J. Skeets
Not a single second gambled, you know, does it.
- [81:43]
Tas Melis
Does gambling get reduced because you don't carry cash anymore?
- [81:48]
J. Skeets
Yeah, probably because I definitely don't want to go to the machine and ding.
- [81:51]
Tas Melis
On those fees, but so few people carry cash.
- [81:54]
J. Skeets
Yeah.
- [81:55]
Tas Melis
You got. There's two steps.
- [81:56]
J. Skeets
If I had, you know, 200, 300 bucks in my wallet. I would have been more likely to sit down on a blackjack table.
- [82:01]
Tas Melis
But a Whitney Houston slot machine. Yeah, I'm doing it. There's a random slot machines.
- [82:08]
JD
I usually, like, every year, Will. I'll make a point of bringing cash. I carry cash usually anyway. At least, you know, 100 bucks or whatever.
- [82:16]
Tas Melis
Oh.
- [82:16]
JD
But, yeah, we're walking by, like, a. A roulette table. You just slap down 20.
- [82:21]
J. Skeets
Yeah. It's like, why not?
- [82:22]
JD
Let's go. Yeah, 20 on black.
- [82:24]
Tas Melis
So. Yeah. So you had cash, but you didn't.
- [82:26]
JD
It just didn't do it.
- [82:26]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [82:27]
J. Skeets
Interesting.
- [82:28]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [82:29]
J. Skeets
Well, we saved money. We could have that way.
- [82:31]
JD
Or we lost.
- [82:32]
J. Skeets
Or we could have lost. Yeah.
- [82:35]
JD
Thousands on the table.
- [82:37]
J. Skeets
We left hundreds in our wallet as we left Vegas. Yeah. The last time we were in Vegas for the cup. Didn't gamble all that much either. A little bit more. I think we played blackjack a little bit. And I never play slots, but I was waiting before we left that one morning. You've seen it. Because we walk by it every time. We'd go back to our rooms at park, mgm, that one Game of Thrones slot machine. And right before we left again. This was back in the winter. I threw like 10 or 20 bucks into it. Won like a hundred bucks. Like, hey, Greyjoys came through for me. All right.
- [83:09]
JD
That Kraken came through.
- [83:10]
J. Skeets
Through. Yeah, exactly.
- [83:12]
Tas Melis
But I.
- [83:12]
J. Skeets
And I meant to do it again, but I forgot. Yeah, yeah. Cool story. Cool story. I thought about playing money on the slot.
- [83:19]
JD
Want to hear about my dream I had last night?
- [83:21]
Tas Melis
Just kidding.
- [83:21]
JD
Just kidding. I actually. I won 400 bucks last at the. When we were at. When we were there for the cup on roulette.
- [83:29]
Tas Melis
Yeah. Really? Oh, so we're all.
- [83:30]
J. Skeets
We're. Didn't you win money on. Oh, no, no. Was that. I go on. On tennis, too.
- [83:34]
JD
Two years ago, Wimbledon. Yeah.
- [83:37]
J. Skeets
Yeah. I would have lost. I would have put money on Alcaraz. I thought about doing it, and then again, one of these things. I never got around to it. I would have lost for sure. Okay, great. Everybody saved their money. Look at us. Really respond. That's what happens when you, like, end up in Vegas for, like, the 14th or 15th time in your life. It's not as exciting. It really isn't.
- [83:56]
Tas Melis
That's true. Yeah.
- [83:57]
J. Skeets
You're more. You're more. We're more into the shows and the food at that point. And the people.
- [84:01]
JD
100%.
- [84:02]
J. Skeets
The people.
- [84:03]
Tas Melis
The people. Yeah.
- [84:04]
JD
Jackson loved it.
- [84:05]
Tas Melis
Oh, did he oh, yeah.
- [84:06]
J. Skeets
Your son go in Vegas.
- [84:08]
JD
It's like, I love Vegas. We haven't even experienced it, really. But, you know, we took him out to dinner with the sights.
- [84:15]
J. Skeets
He had some great meals.
- [84:16]
JD
Great meals.
- [84:17]
J. Skeets
Saw the fountains.
- [84:19]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [84:20]
JD
Surprisingly worth it.
- [84:22]
J. Skeets
Way shorter that show. I thought, like, than I thought.
- [84:25]
JD
Well, I looked it up and it's like the. That's the average, like one song.
- [84:30]
J. Skeets
So every half hour they do the Bellagio. Fountains just do that.
- [84:32]
JD
Yeah.
- [84:32]
J. Skeets
Frank Sinatra song.
- [84:33]
JD
It's every 15 minutes.
- [84:35]
J. Skeets
No, not Frank Sinatra.
- [84:36]
JD
It was Frank Sinatra.
- [84:37]
Tas Melis
Oh, was it?
- [84:38]
JD
What the hell song was it? Anyway, it was great.
- [84:40]
Tas Melis
It's every 15 minutes, but they change the songs. Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [84:44]
JD
It's different songs.
- [84:46]
Tas Melis
Yes. It's a blast. But it is one song.
- [84:49]
J. Skeets
It's cool.
- [84:50]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [84:50]
J. Skeets
I mean, if you, you want it, I'll tell you. You want to time it, right?
- [84:53]
Tas Melis
Yeah.
- [84:53]
J. Skeets
I don't want to wait around a half hour or 15, 20 minutes to see it. But if you're just walking by and it's like, oh, this is starting in two minutes, then yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [85:01]
JD
But you have no way of knowing.
- [85:02]
Tas Melis
That's.
- [85:02]
J. Skeets
You have no way of knowing. But it must be on the. I thought it was every 30 minutes, but maybe it is.
- [85:08]
JD
Friday and Saturday nights, it's. It's more often 15.
- [85:12]
J. Skeets
The way you tell, though, is like, there's just a bunch of people.
- [85:14]
Tas Melis
Yep.
- [85:15]
J. Skeets
They're like, okay, there's a lot of people waiting here.
- [85:17]
Tas Melis
What do you have to do that you got to rush out of there?
- [85:19]
J. Skeets
Well, nothing. I got to go think about playing the Game of Thrones slot machine. Just got to go stare at it. No, you're right. There's no rush. But. Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's hot as balls. And I don't want to wait outside. I want to get inside. So I guess that's my answer.
- [85:34]
Tas Melis
It's toasty.
- [85:35]
J. Skeets
Yeah. Okay, let's call it there. Got some NBA news in. Got some best and worst trades of the off season. Some contract signing talk. Let's hear from you with all of those questions and your opinions on expansion. Which team should go to the East? Your thoughts on LeBron? Your thoughts on Beal to the Clippers. We got a lot in here. Good job. NBA still giving us stuff to talk about here in the dog days of summer. We'll be back next week from the Classic Factory. So make sure you subscribe. Make sure you hit the like button. Share the Show Podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews until next week. Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome.
- [86:11]
Tas Melis
Thanks for joining us. And remember, a back tattoo adds 2 to 3 grams. Grams of weight. I guess as JD said, what I'm surprised is you also said raisins add 2 to 3 grams or are 2 to 3 grams.
- [86:26]
JD
That is just a comparison of what weighs 2 to 3 grams.
- [86:31]
Tas Melis
Yeah, because raisins are so dense. Like you brought up Wemby. Needing. Needing to gain protein. If people need to gain weight, they often eat raisins. Eat raisins? Yeah, because they're just, I guess because they're dried and they're dense, it's not like eating a grape. That's all I gotta say.
- [86:48]
J. Skeets
So I think we have two pick and payoff ideas. One, just eat a bunch of raisins. I actually wouldn't like that because I'm not the biggest raisin.
- [86:55]
Tas Melis
Oh, I would do that first. And yeah, I actually ordered some grapes today.
- [87:02]
J. Skeets
Grapes to let them dehydrate into raisins.
- [87:04]
Tas Melis
I ordered Danielle to when she's at the grocery store. Get me some grapes. Okay, so that's an order.
- [87:11]
J. Skeets
Yeah, but grapes, not raisins.
- [87:13]
Tas Melis
I love both.
- [87:13]
J. Skeets
Well, I love grapes. I don't love raisins.
- [87:15]
Tas Melis
Okay.
- [87:15]
J. Skeets
Anyway, the second option is loser has to get a giant back tattoo.
- [87:20]
Tas Melis
Okay, now we're talking now of the California raisins.
- [87:24]
JD
Yeah.
- [87:24]
J. Skeets
Embrace the weekend, people.
- [87:30]
T. Rowe Price
Listen. We live in a quickly changing world.
- [87:32]
Tas Melis
And.
- [87:33]
T. Rowe Price
And when it comes to investing, every day brings new questions. But asking the right questions, that's what leads to confident investing. That's why at T. Rowe Price, they're relentlessly curious and aren't afraid to dive deep. Asking questions like, how can healthcare innovations create a healthier world? How can emerging technologies change lives? Or how will AI be a part of a new tomorrow? They don't settle for fast answers. They respond with more questions to get the answers they need to make the right decisions. Now that's what it means to be confidently curious. To see where that curiosity leads and get key insights, check out their podcast Confident Conversations on retirement and the angle from T. Rowe Price on your favorite podcast platform. Great listens from my no free lunch fans and see how better questions can lead to better outcomes@t roweprice.com Curiosity popsicles.
- [88:31]
Verizon
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- [88:38]
J. Skeets
Yep.
- [88:39]
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