The Wolves' Pitch To LeBron, Wizards Trade For Ayton & NBA Mailbag

Summary

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No Dunks — July 6, 2026

"The Wolves' Pitch To LeBron, Wizards Trade For Ayton & NBA Mailbag"

Hosts: Je Skeets, Tas Melas, Trey Kirby (T.K.), J.D.
Producer: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

The No Dunks crew kicks off the week with takes on the NBA’s hottest offseason storyline: Where will LeBron James sign? They break down the Minnesota Timberwolves’ unique pitch to the King, analyze the Wizards’ trade for DeAndre Ayton, touch on other minor NBA transactions, and then hit the “beach” to answer mailbag questions about forgotten stars, food-based NBA comps, and long-lost show names. The episode is full of their trademark banter, basketball nerdery, and a few offbeat side quests.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Wolves’ Pitch to LeBron James (04:00–17:29)

• The LeBron Sweepstakes Context

  • LeBron’s agent Rich Paul released a whiteboard video with teams LeBron is considering, weighing pros and cons.
  • Rich Paul’s comment:

    "This is the first time that LeBron is making a decision pressure free. He's won already. He's made good on his promise...This is strictly for happiness. What does happiness entail? It’s a number of things." — Rich Paul (05:14)

• Timberwolves’ “GOAT” Pitch

  • The Wolves are reportedly telling LeBron: If you win a championship in Minnesota, you end the “GOAT” debate for good, given the state's title drought.

    “If you come to our sad sack city and win a championship, you absolutely must be the goat.” — T.K. (06:48)
    They compare this to his previous stints, noting a Wolves title could outweigh even his Cavaliers win.

  • T.K. highlights the storytelling drama around LeBron, who remains the focal point of the NBA’s offseason by simply “waiting a week.”

    “It’s like every possible story you could tell about LeBron James's career...makes sense. And also doesn’t make sense.” — T.K. (08:10)

• Cleveland and Other Options

  • Mark Stein reports “Cleveland is the scenario to beat,” with a possible Bronny roster spot (08:32).
  • Skepticism abounds whether LeBron is just building documentary content and might make a late surprise choice (09:25–11:19).

• Minnesota Fit

  • The crew discusses how tricky a fit Minnesota would be, with ball-dominant players (LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and LeBron).

    “Tough to wrap your head around...really three super ball dominant guys.” — Je Skeets (11:07)

• Mailbag “LeBron on Every Team” Concept

  • Listener Travis pitches a wild league scenario: LeBron plays two home games for each team—a 30-city mercenary tour (11:26).

    “This would be the absolute peak of player empowerment theater.” — Skeets (11:26)

  • Fun side-discussion on other tongue-in-cheek LeBron scenarios, including joining the winner of the NBA Cup (12:54).

• LeBron’s Off-Court Interests

  • The crew jokes about Rich Paul’s Dallas whiteboard notes “golf, oil, Macau, and Africa”—non-basketball attractions that could sway LeBron (13:26–14:03).

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2. NBA Transaction Round-Up

A. DeAndre Ayton to Wizards (22:32–28:11)

• Details
  • Lakers traded DeAndre Ayton to the Washington Wizards for Jaden Hardy and two future second round picks.
• Analysis
  • T.K. calls it a "minor, pinky-fingers" move and questions the fit for both sides (22:58–24:23).
  • Wizards add center depth; Ayton is a low-risk, one-year, $8M deal—valuable given Davis’s and Alex Sarr’s health situations.
  • Ayton’s recurring inconsistency is noted:

    "It was classic Ayton...he was pretty damn good in that [Rockets] series...classic Ayton against the Thunder: horrible." — Je Skeets (26:11)

  • Wizards now house three former #1 picks: Ayton, Anthony Davis, and AJ DeBansa (28:11).

B. Other Notable Moves

• Hornets Acquire Dorian Finney-Smith + Picks from Rockets (29:02–33:25)

  • 100% salary dump for Houston; Charlotte accumulates even more future picks and roster flexibility.
  • Skeets: “They have 10 firsts, 20 second-round picks. They’re set up to be a player if they want in any sort of transaction.” (31:08)

• Knicks Sign Andre Drummond (33:25–36:51)

  • A cheaper Mitchell Robinson replacement; Drummond’s offensive rebounding and surprising three-point attempts highlighted.
  • T.K. jokes: “The best shooting front court in NBA history: Cat and Drummond.” (34:43)

• Other Quick-hits (38:09–39:53)

  • Grizzlies offer Quentin Post a 3yr/$30M deal.
  • Josh Okogie to Jazz, Trey Lyles returns to Wolves, Clippers re-sign Jordan Miller.
  • Ongoing restricted FA rumors: Benedict Mathurin, Peyton Watson, Jalen Duren.

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3. Mailbag — “Beach Steppin’” (44:20–75:34)

Notable Mailbag Questions

A. “The Forgotten Star” (44:20–49:19)

• Player you can "tell the story of last season without," despite their significance.
  • Top answer: Zion Williamson, who faded out of relevance due to team struggles and lack of storylines (45:15).

    “Will you think about anything regarding Zion Williamson at the 25–26 season? There’s too much in the West.” — Tass (46:00)

  • Runner-up: Anthony Davis’s quiet, nondescript season split between Mavs and Wizards (48:00).

B. Food Genre as Player Personality (50:17–54:00)

• Each host pairs a cuisine with an NBA comp:
  • T.K.: Mexican food = Mikal Bridges — “I could eat it every day, and when I do, it gives me a big smile.” (51:31)
  • Skeets: Italian food as the “GOAT,” compares to LeBron or Curry.
  • Tass: Korean food’s “high ceiling, then it’s gone,” likened to Ja Morant (52:46).
  • J.D.: French food — "so good" (54:06).
  • Tass adds: Anthony Edwards is like saganaki, flaming Greek cheese—"theatrical, little dangerous, lights up the room." (53:42)

C. Hot-Take Confessionals (58:16–66:39)

• Listener’s fiancé’s: “Nuts don't belong in chocolate”, “doesn't like peanut butter”, “unfrosted Pop Tarts are superior.”
  • Tass, aghast: “Nuts should not be in chocolate? Oh...It's one of the best things.” (59:38)
• Hosts’ own hot takes:
  • T.K.: “Any NBA player could be a top 20 beach volleyball player in a year.” (61:39)
  • Also: “I don’t like tomatoes on pizza.” (63:03)
  • Skeets drops an advanced hot-take NBA comp: Jalen Brown’s 25–26 season is more similar to Carmelo Anthony’s 2012–13 than fans realize. (63:54–67:39)

D. Alternative Names for the Pod (67:41–75:29)

• Delves into their 2013 brainstorm:
  • “The Starters” and “No Dunks” were both early options.
  • Hilarious alternatives: The Associates, That NBA Show, MBA Holes, Jason Doyle Presents a Show about Basketball, The Bricklayers, Scotch and Soda, the Great Canadian Basketball Show, etc.

    "Honestly, it sounds like we picked the best two." — T.K. (72:37)

• They reminisce about the branding journey and self-deprecating initial ideas (“The Benchwarmers”).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Minnesota's LeBron Quest:

  “Come to Minnesota and win, please. After that, go to Sacramento and do it again. You want to really be the GOAT?” — T.K. (06:48)

• On LeBron’s Evolving Storyline:

  “All he says is, I'm going somewhere else. Rich Paul hops on the Internet, does a whiteboard video, and now LeBron is the key to the offseason once again.” — T.K. (07:13)

• On NBA Transaction Noise:

  “Those are minor, like, windy fingers for me...just not full windy fingers, but the little guys.” — T.K., re: Ayton trade (22:58)

• On Dorian Finney-Smith:

  “Hopefully he can bounce back a little bit because that was... last year was like a complete write-off because of the ankle surgery.” — Skeets (31:05)

• On Food/NBA Comps:

  "Anthony Edwards is kind of like the saganaki, the flaming cheese. He's theatrical, little dangerous, lights up the room and everyone turns to watch." — Tass (53:42)

• Jalen Brown vs. Carmelo Hot Take:

  “Jalen Brown’s last season...compares more favorably to Carmelo Anthony's 2012–13 with the Knicks.” — Skeets (63:54)

• Pod Naming Survivors:

  “I like Jason Doyle Presents the Basketball...A show about basketball, actually.” — Skeets (72:51)
  “Honestly, it sounds like we picked the best two. The Starters and No Dunks.” — T.K. (72:37)

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Important Timestamps

• LeBron Segment Starts: 04:00
• Wolves’ Pitch and Whiteboard Madness: 05:39–14:03
• LeBron Free Agency Brainstorm (mailbag idea): 11:26
• Wizards’ Ayton Trade Analysis: 22:32–28:11
• Charlotte-Houston DFS Trade: 29:01–33:25
• Knicks Sign Andre Drummond: 33:25–36:51
• Quick Transaction Roundup: 38:09–39:53
• Mailbag/Beach Steppin’:
  • Forgotten Star: 44:20–49:19
  • NBA Food Comps: 50:17–54:00
  • Hot Takes: 58:16–66:39
  • Show Name Brainstorm: 67:41–75:29

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Tone & Style

• Casual, playful, and deeply immersed in NBA culture.
• Frequent friendly ribbing, callbacks to NBA history, and self-referential in-jokes.
• Natural, off-the-cuff musings interspersed with thoughtful hoops analysis and genuine listener engagement.

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For No Dunks fans and NBA obsessives alike, this episode hits all the right off-season notes: LeBron drama, quirky trade talk, vintage group chemistry, and some fun trips down memory lane.

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Transcript

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[Je Skeets]

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[Je Skeets]

Good morning sweet world and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Monday, July 6, 2026. I'm Je Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me as always, tasmillis podcast listeners.

[Tass]

This is for you.

[Je Skeets]

Next to him is my top shot hot boy Trey Kirby.

[T.K.]

Usao Usao.

[Je Skeets]

And over yonder making the magic happen, super producer jd.

[J.D.]

Hello.

[Je Skeets]

There he is. Here we are. Shout out to everyone joining us live on YouTube and or listening to us on Apple, Spotify, wherever you download and listen to no Dunks. Appreciate you all. Happy to have you here on Monday. Before we get into the latest transactions and hit the beach to answer some of your NBA questions, the people want to know Tess, how did The Peachtree Road Race go for you on July 4th.

[Tass]

It was very fun.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, good.

[Tass]

It was very crowded, so there's my excuse for having a slow time.

[Je Skeets]

55,000 people run this race.

[T.K.]

People on the way.

[Tass]

A lot of people literally saying, you're running laterals. I mean, you're running side to side around people. Yeah, they upped it. Every single announcer. Somebody on the PA kept upping the amount of people. It got up to 56,000. The biggest 10k ever. But a super fun. You got live bands playing. I'm not sold, but I got a soldier. You know, there's live bands everywhere. There's great signs everywhere. I'm grabbing bananas and eating nice. It was pretty fun. And, yeah, the signs make it happen.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. You like that?

[Tass]

Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Did you touch any?

[T.K.]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

Power up.

[Tass]

Yeah, exactly.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Yeah, that was pretty fun.

[Je Skeets]

Did you run through any sprinklers?

[Tass]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[T.K.]

Sprinklers were perfect.

[Je Skeets]

Did you get blessed by the holy water? Did you see that?

[Tass]

No, I didn't see that.

[Je Skeets]

Usually there's a church out there. Yeah.

[Tass]

Yeah, I missed that one. Yeah, yeah. Great size. Fast than Atlanta traffic. Smile. You paid for this.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

No one likes a quick finisher.

[Je Skeets]

Well done.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, good stuff.

[Tass]

I finished.

[Je Skeets]

Were you hurt? Like, were you hurting the next day?

[Tass]

A little, actually. When I left, I was. I felt fine. Yeah, but everything takes time, and you got to ride the MARTA to get out of there. So, you know, from the 5am on a MARTA to finally somewhere home, like, you know, at noon or something. Like, I was. I saw Curb, and I was like, okay, I feel good. I can bounce over this. I felt like Trey Kirby soon as I stepped over it.

[T.K.]

Crap.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, God.

[Tass]

But I was totally fine.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, good. Well, congratulations. That is cool. All right, let's get into some NBA news here. We're still waiting for LeBron James. We could be waiting for a while. By all the reporting here, I don't know how long he's going to drag this out, um, on Friday. And I know we touched on this on the on the Drop podcast. Cause I guess it had released that morning. But LeBron's agent, Rich Paul, he put out a new episode of the Game over podcast with Max Kellerman. And that was where we got the whiteboard shot, where Rich detailed the teams that LeBron is considering. They're on the whiteboard. We're showing it to you on YouTube. And he's listing 10, and he's outlining what he sees as the pros and cons.

[Tass]

Somebody name spelled Wrong.

[Je Skeets]

Each potential destination, like Cronky in parentheses.

[Tass]

Just throwing this over owner Crocky.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, so Rich did tell ESPN last week, quote, this is the first time that LeBron is making a decision pressure free. He's won already. He's made good on his promise. He won in la. This is strictly for happiness. What does happiness entail? It's a number of things. It's a bucket of happiness. It's basketball, it's livin', it's camaraderie, it's competition. It's everything. Again, that was Rich Paul.

[J.D.]

Sure.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. Now, over the weekend, the Timberwolves, we learned, are making, I guess you could call it a unique pitch. Maybe a simple pitch is a better way to put it. Hey, LeBron, come to Minnesota and end the greatest of all time debate once and for all. And this is according to the Athletics John Krasinski, who noted that the Wolves have just, like, ramped up their push for LeBron and they have a chance, they think of landing them. But here's the quote that what sort of made the rounds from Krasinski. The Timberwolves have never won a championship. The Vikings and Wild are titleless as well. The Twins World series win in 91 marks the last time a Minnesota men's professional sports franchise won it all. The longest drought among US markets with all four major sports. So their pitch to LeBron, TK is like, come here, Come to Minnesota. Bring us a title, which obviously it's been a very long time, and that will get you above MJ in the goat talk, if you can get your fifth. Because the idea, right, is not all championships are created equal. So, you know, we've said before, maybe the CAVS title for LeBron felt like. Felt like more than one big one. But anyway, what do you think of all this, LeBron?

[T.K.]

I mean, this is pretty funny. They're like, if you come to our sad sack city and win a championship, you absolutely must be the goat. There's no way around it. Come to Minnesota and win, please. After that, go to Sacramento and do it again. You want to really be the goat? I also like Rich Paul said in his whiteboard video, I guarantee you Coach Finch will have an edible Arrangement every day in his locker if LeBron goes.

[Tass]

What a line.

[T.K.]

I know, I know, but it's awesome. It's awesome. It's like there were questions if LeBron was going to retire this past season. You know, they put the patch on his shirt. He never made a declaration either way. And instead, he still gets to be the main character in free agency by simply waiting a week. All these trades happen, all these signings happen. LeBron isn't a part of any of them. All he says is, I'm going somewhere else. Rich Paul hops on the Internet, does a whiteboard video, and now LeBron is the key to the off season once again. And the longer that this goes, it's easier to talk yourself into literally any place he goes and also talk yourself out of any place you go. I felt like Golden State was the favorite five days ago, and now it feels like they're completely left behind because Cleveland is his home and he's doing a documentary. Like, it doesn't have any sort of influence on basketball to me at all. This all feels like LeBron storytelling at this point. So pretty funny. Apparently Mark Stein says Cleveland is the scenario to beat, and they might even try and get a roster spot open so that they could sign Bronnie if LeBron comes. It's like every possible story you could tell about LeBron James's career going into his potentially final season makes sense. And also doesn't make sense.

[Tass]

Yeah. I wonder. Him being spotted in Cleveland multiple times in a summer is all a front. Is this all part of the documentary that he is ending his career in Cleveland, or is it just, oh, we'll. We'll throw. He'll get out there in public, and then we'll make a left turn and sign somewhere else.

[Je Skeets]

Because this is where he's going right now. And this is all a bit of a. And just for obviously content play.

[Tass]

It's hard to say, Right?

[Je Skeets]

It could be right. He could know right now, of course, I'm going to Cleveland or maybe Golden State, whatever.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[Tass]

And that's why it would. To me, it would seem like a front. Like, I am turning, making the left turn, going somewhere else. Because this is the first time in his career that we've seen him out in public in the summer. I. I Googled it, trying to find out if we've. If he's been spotted multiple times in a city where he apparently goes every single summer.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

So is this just, hey, I'm. I'm getting out here. This is where I'm going. And then deciding to end his documentary in a different way by going in a different direction. It feels so logical that he would end in Cleveland.

[Je Skeets]

Right, right.

[Tass]

The book. And he's over 40, so I'm sure he likes the routine of a city that he knows instead of going to somewhere like Golden State or Minnesota or, you know, there's other. Other teams on the docket. But this feels, it feels so natural.

[Je Skeets]

And it's also like it's. The Cavs are not a 25 win team either. I mean they were in the conference finals. Like I don't know if I have them as suddenly like jumping the Knicks or another Eastern Conference team if he were to go back to Cleveland. But it's not like they're bad. So it's like you could see it at least the idea of them at least competing.

[Tass]

If he goes to championship. Yeah, if he goes to Cleveland, he's more like the guy who would win the championship as the number one player. I know it's Donovan Mitchell's team, but it's. That's a lot closer than a Steph Curry or a Giannis de Gumpo in Miami. You know, that's a good point.

[T.K.]

It's pretty seen as the savior once again

[Je Skeets]

doing the sequel.

[Tass]

Yeah. Is he the savior in Minnesota? Obviously, according to John Krasinski, it is for the city, but Anthony Edwards is the guy more so he plays a part.

[Je Skeets]

If he goes to one of these franchises that have never won or obviously haven't had a lot of success. You know, you said Sacramento. Okay. Atlanta, you know, there are teams that have got a very long time. The Suns have never won, stuff like that. But yeah, I mean the fit in Minnesota, there's a spot, there's a spot, a natural spot for him to play. Tough to wrap your head around. Like really three super ball dominant guys there Lamelo wants the ball, should have the ball. There is ant they got to figure that part out. And then LeBron, you know, despite getting up there in age, still has the ball in his hands and wants to sort of operate.

[Tass]

So, so many characters. You got a Rudy, you got a Labello, you got an Anthony Edwards and a LeBron, you're full of them.

[Je Skeets]

How about this idea from Travis who wrote into us over the weekend about LeBron? He said LeBron James going to be a free agent if the NBA gave him a special exemption. I would love to see him play home games with every NBA team. This would be the absolute peak of player empowerment theater. A 30 city single season mercenary tour. Mathematically it works out beautifully. 30 teams in the NBA. He plays exactly two home games for every franchise. That's a 60 game season for him. Using the 25, 26 campaign as an example, which ran from October to April, it gives the 41 year old LeBron plenty of rest days between city swaps to keep him from spending the entire season on an airplane. The NBA schedule makers would have to regionalize the tour. And then Travis went through how it would look like every, like, phase, like he starts on the west coast and he makes his way to this area. It was pretty funny. Any reaction to this? Yeah, why not, right at this point? There's your documentary right there.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

I mean, Travis Kelce writing in the weekend of his wedding to ask about LeBron. This is the poll that this guy has. Pretty incredible stuff. I also heard Simmons pitching basically the Roger Clemens plan, like, I'm not going to sign until February, then pick a team and get ready for a playoff run. Fun to think about. But then you also think about LeBron at the start of this past season as the first time he's ever missed the start of a season. He hated it.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

And it took him a while to kind of get in the swing of things as well.

[Je Skeets]

And what did Rich Paul say? Camaraderie.

[T.K.]

Sure.

[Je Skeets]

You need a full season, I think, to some camaraderie. True. Absolutely. And even a preseason. So probably. Yeah, I did hear that idea too. Somebody even wrote in on the Simmons podcast, like, lebron should just wait to see who wins the NBA Cup. And then that in addition to the trophy and the extra Money, you get LeBron on your team. Just up the stakes for the NBA cup. You're playing for LeBron.

[Tass]

It's a great honor.

[Je Skeets]

No bad ideas right now.

[Tass]

This is our whiteboard.

[Je Skeets]

Put everything up there.

[T.K.]

I mean, literally, the Dallas one said golf, oil, Macau and Africa. I know why he might possibly sign with the Mavs. Like literally zero basketball. But there's some good off court opportunities, including oil.

[Tass]

Yeah, yeah. He's gonna get his money in oil golfing. Okay, that makes sense.

[T.K.]

Sure.

[Tass]

Yeah, sure. Macau casinos in Macau.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

The innocent family. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And then Messiah Jerry, I think is the Africa. Yeah, yeah, he is.

[Tass]

He is worldly. I mean, he does have his.

[Je Skeets]

See, Trey's right. You can start to talk yourself in any spot.

[T.K.]

He is an oil man.

[Je Skeets]

He loves coffee. Isn't awesome.

[T.K.]

He's leaving the Lakers. He abandoned his boy. He's gotta go to Dallas now.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Then you start to see. You start to see other forms of his boy. Not his son, but a Brandon Weems, you know?

[T.K.]

Yeah, I guess they're close.

[Tass]

Yeah, I guess they're close from way back when, you know, high school days. And he's an assistant gm. We've talked before about Mike Gansey and that he played ball against him in High School. LeBron was Mr. Basketball. Mike Gansey was runner up of Mr. Basketball in Ohio. Now he's running the Philadelphia 76ers. Because the 76ers, one night, you can really start to buy.

[T.K.]

Yeah, it's nice to have only four locked in. Members of a starting five right now. That's how you get on that whiteboard.

[Tass]

Yeah. Yeah. Your Minnesota's, your Phillies. Yeah, perfect. Slap me in. I mean, the Yanis one is a weird one. I. You know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

You know. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

I think all. He's going back to Cleveland.

[Tass]

I would think so.

[Je Skeets]

But, hey, who knows? Who knows with this guy? And how long will this take? That is the question. Will this take all summer?

[Tass]

We're all, you know, around LeBron's age, you turn 41, you want to go to a new city that you've never been to. You know, that whole routine thing of being a basketball player. Because part of why he's so good is that he's so good at his routine.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tass]

You're just gonna tap into a new city. You go, Cleveland, la. I'm sorry. Cleveland. Miami. Cleveland, la. And then. I don't know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, but it's just, you know, also,

[Tass]

it's a little Minneapolis. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Midlife crisis. I mean, you just ran your first 10k, for crying out loud. Or Peachtree, at least, you know, like, shake it up.

[Tass]

I've run half marathons before. That's different.

[Je Skeets]

He just wants to switch it up.

[Tass]

Switch it up and go to Minnesota after incentive consulting, a smaller market like Memphis, you know, much smaller than Minnesota. But. Yeah, but he did that Hotels. Hates Memphis hotels. But maybe he likes Minnesota's. I mean, who's pitching? Is Alex Rodriguez pitching? LeBron as. Now you're the goat.

[T.K.]

Now, you can say in the Krasinski article that he likes the Timberwolves ownership group.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[T.K.]

But I don't know what kind of connections Mark Laurie has off the court.

[Tass]

Oh, but hold on.

[Je Skeets]

This is the exact pitch.

[Tass]

He's got some good connection. Yeah, he does. The food delivery systems.

[T.K.]

All right.

[J.D.]

Food.

[Tass]

Put it on the whiteboard.

[Je Skeets]

I was gonna say, but this is. Honestly, this is not a bad pitch idea. If you are the Minnesota Term Wolves. Like, I get the reasoning. Like, yeah, we haven't won, man.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. You go to Golden State. I'm sorry, buddy. Like, you're tied to Curry. We get excited about the whole USA connection. But, like, like you said, it's not your team, it's not your franchise. Like, okay, this is what you do if you're Minnesota. Absolutely. I have no problems with the concept of the pitch.

[Tass]

Yeah, it's a Little more. It's a little more apples to apples. If he had only won in one organization like Michael, you know, if he had only just won it with one, you want to want the second one. I hear what you're saying. It's a new organization, but he's already won with three.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, I'm just saying Miami or Golden State, like they have success, they have championships. Multiple championships. If you're a team like Minnesota, this is what you say, hey, man, we can't do it. Yeah, yeah.

[Tass]

All right.

[Je Skeets]

I mean, when's the last time they won? What are we talking Kirby Puckett. We're talking about Dan Gladden. 91.

[Tass]

Kirby Puckett. Running against. In running against that wall. That's right, those fiberglass walls. Jack Morris doing some stuff with that mustache. That series. He was Great. He pitched 10 innings. 10 innings.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, that's incredible. Yeah, you're right. In game seven.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Game seven. You would never see that nowadays. He'd be out by the sixth inning.

[J.D.]

Exactly.

[T.K.]

Get that closer in. Exactly. Who's the closer for the Tim. The Twins.

[Tass]

Wasn't Rick Aguilera, was it?

[T.K.]

It feels like maybe he was around back then.

[J.D.]

For sure.

[Boost Mobile Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Then he went to Atlanta, Right. Oh, no, that's Jeff Reardon. My bad. I get my Aguilaris and my Reardon's mixed.

[Je Skeets]

Totally. That's all right, man. That's all right. All right, let's get into some other weekend.

[Tass]

Hold on. Quick, quickly. Another old guy. I'm getting the more of the feeling that wants to go back to his team, the DeMar DeRozan rumors out there. Oh, wants to go to the Toronto Raptors.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Maybe.

[Tass]

Perhaps to come up. He'd have to come off the bench, though, I would think. Yeah, in Toronto.

[Je Skeets]

And that should be his role at this point.

[Tass]

They need one. That would be nice to have a score come off the bench. So, yeah, you could see that his money is not locked up.

[J.D.]

Right.

[Tass]

He's part of his contract is guaranteed this next year. I could see a buyout there for a guy who's almost 37. He's gonna be 37 going into next season. Maybe you could see, hey, I'm at the end here. Maybe I can do something with the Toronto team that I used to be in love with instead of Sacramento. So why would you want to stay there?

[T.K.]

Yeah, I think he's non guaranteed.

[J.D.]

Right.

[T.K.]

So they'll. It makes sense for the Kings also to cut ties with him.

[Tass]

Yeah. 10 mil guaranteed of his 25.

[Je Skeets]

What's the date on that decision?

[Tass]

Do you know, I think it's soon.

[J.D.]

Is it?

[Tass]

I don't know. I'll just make noise to kill. Well, eat some clock here.

[Je Skeets]

Teams can officially sign players to contracts beginning at 12:01 today, July 6th here. So there'll be a lot of like official, you know, news being like all the stuff we've known but like player signed or because it's all like a reports and agrees to and it's like today it all becomes official or a lot of it will at the very least. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him Carrier contracts, tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dust. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the nonstop group chat, trash talk. He clears on goal. He shoots no unlimited data for $25 a month forever Visit your local Boost

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[Tass]

Awkward time to ask this, but. Hey, did you download the trail map?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, no, I don't need to.

[Tass]

I. I don't understand. You're trusting your signal out here.

[Je Skeets]

I'm trusting T Mobile. They have the best network and if we end up in bum tots nowhere, well, we've got T Satellite for backup.

[J.D.]

Whoa.

[Tass]

I don't trust my carrier that much.

[Je Skeets]

We'll just use your phone as a flashlight.

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[Je Skeets]

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[T.K.]

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[Je Skeets]

a limited time only while supplies last contact store for availability. Some things over the weekend we can pivot to this. You know these are smaller trades, but on Friday the Lakers traded center deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards for guard jaden Hardy and two second round picks in 20, 31 and 32. TK do you have a reaction to eight into the Wizards here?

[T.K.]

Those are minor like windy fingers for me.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, oh, pinkies. Why would they do that?

[T.K.]

Just not full. Not full windy fingers, but the little guys.

[Tass]

Yeah, it was an interesting one.

[J.D.]

Yeah, right.

[T.K.]

You're like okay, DeAndre and the Lakers now don't have a backup center. It seemed like Ayton would be at least a decent backup guy behind Walker Kessler. Then you look at the Wizard. It's like they do have Saar, Anthony Davis and Tristan Vuksovich way down on the depth chart as well. So I don't necessarily know how deandre Ayton fits there. Does it mean Anthony Davis is potentially available as we've heard and as he certainly feels like he wants to be on the move? I just thought it was kind of interesting that the Lakers after about as good of A season as they could have gotten out of DeAndre Ayton last year. He showed his warts the way he always does, but he produced for the team. They got him on a cheap deal, only 8 mil I think this year.

[Je Skeets]

Right.

[T.K.]

So he could have stuck around and they need some size on that team. Still a young dude, but apparently they said, no, thank you. We'll take our chances with a Kavon Looney or a Nick Rick or maybe a Plumlee or Mark Stein was even suggesting Jonas Val to the Lakers. He was a potential Laker last season. Didn't happen. Don't know if he's even going to be an NBA guy this coming season because he apparently wanted to leave last year. He didn't. But now that's still up in the air and maybe the Lakers come and save him. So kind of unusual to see DeAndre Ayton on the move, I thought.

[Tass]

Yeah, I understand. Even from his perspective, you go from playing hard as a starter to now you're going to be the backup to very, very likely. So Walker Kessler in Washington. Super interesting in that Anthony Davis likes to be the four and so you could see DeAndre and playing beside him. But you do have a Sar there. Alex Sar is a guy that they kind of, you know, not kind of. They like the guy, but he did have off season surgery so he will come into camp banged up even though he's supposed to play at the beginning of the season. So maybe deandre Ayton gets the five start beside Anthony Davis, which seems so strange. So Ayton wants to start, I imagine. But we have our man Jake Fisher saying there's a chance that Ad Ayton and Sar all start at the same time.

[Je Skeets]

Whatever. Come on.

[Tass]

I shouldn't say start, but they're going to play at the same time. I know it sounds really weird, but it's just a weird time. It's just a weird team with Ad Ayton and Trey, lots of veteran talent and then a whole ton of young players. And we're coming up to August 6th talking dates, talking DeRozan dates. This Anthony Avis date is coming up. He can be extended on August 6th. So what's happening there? This is a. An interesting summer. And the DeRozan deal actually getting back to DeMar DeRozan. It only becomes guaranteed in January. He makes 10 mil no matter what, but at full guaranteed on January 10th for the rest of that $25 million. So if he's making a buyout deal, I guess it's really only in terms of negotiation for that 15.7 which is the balance. So you know, give them a few. Go sign somewhere else for a minimum. You take a little bit less. So there we go.

[Je Skeets]

My only thoughts on Nate and it does feel like a bit of a low risk move for the Wizards. Like you guys said, guaranteed salary of just basically 8 million with one year remaining. And yeah, with the SAR injury and they say he's going to be good to go by the start of the season. But you also have ad whether he's there or not, he's going to probably miss time. So decent work here at least as a backup center and a guy that can start in a pinch. He played a lot for the lakers. You're right, T.K. it was like not a bad year really. It was classic Ayton. It was like he averaged at 12 1/2 points during 72 starts. Shot the ball extremely high. Of course had a great impact in the first round against the Rockets. Like he was pretty damn good in that series. We talked about it like he was a big reason why they maybe beat the Rockets. And then it was classic eight. And against the Thunder it was like, it was horrible. He was really, really bad. Shot the ball as a big 45%, seven points per game. Like not good. Didn't we have like a certain point like I think just JJ Redick doesn't love deandre Ayton and his type of play. Like there was frustration. I think so.

[Tass]

There was, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And they get two second round picks back. Helps them replenish a little bit draft assets which they have next to none. Especially after the Walker Kessler of it all. I know they're second round picks. These things fly around like candy. But it's not nothing, at least in a trade moving forward if you're trying to help the team. But yeah, they got work to do here. Getting a backup big.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

I remember on Amazon prime, you know how you done as Haslam talks guys up. He talked up deandre Ayton. He was trying to talk him up. And you could see J.J. redick doing the same thing, trying to get him to be himself. But again he played a lot. So it's going to be an interesting year. Especially because you want to play AJ Debanza a ton of at the small forward spot. Yeah, we'll be. You would hope so and we'll. Yes. So all these young guys, it's. It's a big year for a lot of these young guys in terms of their future in Washington. A lot of contracts could be extended. Are Coming up. But I'm sure we'll be watching AJ DeBance on Thursday when he plays Darren Peterson Thursday and then we'll be here on Friday. I'm sure we'll be talking about it

[Je Skeets]

and Darren Peterson already underway in the other summer leagues before the big Vegas summer league had a good game. Fun note here before we move on. The Wizards now have three number one overall picks on their roster. That's always fun, isn't it? You've got Ayton, number one pick. Anthony Davis is there number one pick. And then of course the new one in AJ Debanza.

[T.K.]

Did they have, did they have three on the Lakers last year? Is that right? They had LeBron and they had Ayton.

[Je Skeets]

Who's the third around?

[T.K.]

I'm trying to.

[T-Mobile Advertiser]

I don't know.

[Tass]

I think we thought about that.

[Je Skeets]

We've had to before.

[T.K.]

Yeah, we. It wasn't Aiden or it wasn't Wiggins

[Je Skeets]

cat and Anthony Bennett, right?

[T.K.]

Wiggins Cat, Anthony Bennett, yeah.

[Tass]

Classic.

[T.K.]

Lakers had it like back in the day. Worthy, Kareem and Magic. They might had a fourth as well. Michael Thompson was on the bench.

[Tab Ramos]

Wow.

[T.K.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Good call. All right. Another deal from late last week. The Charlotte Hornets acquired Dorian Finney Smith and three second round picks from the Rockets for Houston. The trade opens up roster flexibility and creates a $13 million trade exception. But this is, this is DFS and those picks going to Charlotte. Trey really 100% salary dump here for Houston. I mean gets them out of the first apron and the luxury tax.

[T.K.]

100% salary dump for Houston. And I guess DFS makes a little bit more sense on the Hornets than he does on the Rockets. Like a down season. I thought for Dorian Finney Smith, he was coming off an injury, just never looked super comfortable. Never established himself in the rotation with Houston. But now you can go to Charlotte team which is consciously taking a step back this year and be one of the veterans on that team. And if he's able to get some three point shots going, if he's able to rediscover his stroke from outside, like he could probably play on this team. Because it feels like this year's Hornets team is all about spacing and chucking threes. That's everybody they brought in is kind of an in the middle size guy who's gonna chuck threes. So I can see why DFS is there. Plus the hornets now have 20 second round picks in the next seven drafts. So anybody who's projected to go like 31 through 40 in the next seven seasons, if the Hornets like one of those guys. They can get them. Yeah. Because he just chuck a couple of picks in here. We want to draft 33rd now. We got our own Leonard Miller and

[Tass]

they got a lot of contracts. They can bundle together if they have a star that's available.

[Je Skeets]

That's right.

[Tass]

Right. Because their highest paid players. Nasrid at 23 million.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Wow.

[J.D.]

That's it.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

But they have 168 million combined with so many types of contracts or so many numbers. So they can do that. But Dorian Finney Smith. Yeah. Off year. We know the Houston Rockets love old guys. That whole organization likes old guys. And unfortunately Doran Phoenix Smith looked like he was getting older. It wasn't that guy that they signed. And yeah. Hopefully he can bounce back a little bit because that was not.

[Je Skeets]

Last year was like complete write off because of the ankle surgery.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

And it was bad.

[Je Skeets]

Then obviously gets in there and it didn't look all that great. But I'm with you on the Hornets, man. Like you brought up the draft assets. Trey. Like they have. They have 10 first round picks too. Right. In addition to 20 second round picks. The financial flexibility they are. They're set up to. To be a player if they want in any sort of transaction really over the years to come here. The way they're currently constructed now. We'll see how they.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

It's an interesting thought. Do they fall off this year a little bit or. They try to stay the same. Obviously give the keys to Knipple and Brandon Miller. They've made moves in the Nasrid and keeping Kobe white. But the. We went through it the other day like the east is suddenly loaded or better. Yeah. But they're probably in a good spot here right now. Right now.

[Tass]

Yeah. So many first round picks coming up this next year. They've got their own. They've got Miami protected but should go to them because Miami should be good. They've got Dallas's also protected so they can start to bundle things together. It's a different front office. Jeff Peterson's made this a different front office. But hopefully Dorian can do something where he's known more for that than winning wedgie of the Year for the starters on NBA TV in 2017.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[T.K.]

People are always bringing.

[Tass]

I think so. I definitely do. I mean he accepted the award. He brought up, pulled up the starty and did a little speech, sent it in. What else do you know Dorian Finney Smith for? I mean traded to la.

[T.K.]

Good point. He was. He was close friends with Luka Doncic during their tenure in Dallas. That would be the only other thing because like I was looking at his basketball reference page, of course, to kind of refresh myself, and you can't even like figure out any sort of reason why he wears his numbers. I'm sure he does wear them, but he went 10, 28, 17 and 2.

[Je Skeets]

Holy moly.

[T.K.]

Doesn't have any sort of like connection at all to me. 28, that's a weird one. That's Marshall Falk.

[Tass]

I also remember his nickname was Dodo.

[T.K.]

Dodo.

[Tass]

Call him that a lot.

[Je Skeets]

But yeah, I just immediately think of daily fantasy sports. Anytime I see his name, that's all I think about. And he's also. He's older than I always think. Like not he's 33. I mean, obviously I'm 10 plus years older, but you know, in the NBA world I don't think I'm as that old. And maybe, maybe it's because these last two years, sort of especially last year with the ankle injury and then he bounced around. Right. The year before that, played for two teams.

[T.K.]

He was a net Laker.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Okay, so it's like sort of a forgotten year to me at least. But maybe I like this is like they got second round picks too for taking him on. I think he could, if he can bounce back from injury, help the Hornets for sure. I don't think he's washed or anything like that. I wouldn't think so. So we'll see. Here's a minor move. The Knicks agreed to a one year, $3.9 million contract with veteran center Andre Drummond, the big Penguin. The move comes on the heels of Mitchell Robinson reaching a much bigger deal with the Celtics. Mitchell's departure was expected after James Dolan said he wouldn't allow his team to go into the luxury tax second apron. So, TK they're trying to replace Mitch Robinson with Andre Drummond.

[T.K.]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

Sort of makes sense when you think about what they do.

[T.K.]

Yeah, exactly. They said we still want an offensive rebounder and we need a backup big man for Carl Anthony Towns. The other guy who was rumored to be going to New York is Kavon Looney. I think I would prefer Drummond over Looney, though. They're both a little bit worse than Mitchell Robinson and a little bit older as well. But you can't undervalue the stretchiness that Andre Drummond now brings to the New York Knicks. First it was corner threes. Now he's there with Karl Anthony Towns. He's going to learn to shoot above the break freeze. Best shooting front court in NBA history.

[Je Skeets]

Cat and Drummond Damn.

[Tass]

And last year was a huge year for him. Shooting the three.

[T.K.]

Huge.

[Tass]

Coming out of nowhere in year 13 of his shooting, by far the most threes. It was year one through 12. If you add him up, all his threes were way lower than what he did last year, so.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[Tass]

But also dunking the ball, I think more importantly. Yeah. Just dunking it like Mitchell Robinson can. Definitely a healthier guy than Kevon Looney. Looney was really hurt last year. Zion Williamson fooled me coming into his preseason press conference saying, yeah, Kevon Looney, man, it's good to have him around like he's my vet. And then, I mean, Looney didn't play. He played 20 games. Or was it 21? Something really, really low. So, yeah, Drummond, even older than Looney Drummond is Dorian Finney Smith's age. I mean, he's. He seems like a way older than Dorian.

[Je Skeets]

Totally.

[Tass]

But he's only going to be 33 this coming season, so. But it's a better move than Looney. It's not Mitchell Robinson. It's Mitchell Robinson. Light, but it's better than Looney.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Mitchell Robinson recovered 23 of the Knicks misses when he was on the court. 23 of their own misses that, you know, if he had played the requisite minutes and games and all that, that would have like shattered Dennis Rodman's single season record for offensive rebound rate, which is 17.2%, which is huge. But that's how great Mitch Robinson is just gobbling up offensive rebounds. And that's what the Knicks like. That's part of their offense, that they obsess over the possession game. So they're hoping Drummond can replicate it a little bit. Hollinger also notes that the one year minimum for Andre Drummond means the Knicks won't need to tip into their taxpayer exception to fill the backup center slot. They could bring back Jordan Clarkson, it could add one more veteran and still comfortably stay below the second apron. So, you know, they're looking at the books there as well. With Mitchell Robinson getting paid what he got paid. This is obviously just much cheaper, but yeah, I don't think he's going to. Drummond is going to be able to give you 100% of what Mitchell Robinson gave you. No, I don't know what percentage they'd be happy with. 75%. They're probably like, all right, great for the cost.

[T.K.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tab Ramos]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, exactly.

[T.K.]

Unfortunately for championship teams, you gotta cycle through bench guys.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

So you lose a Mitchell Robinson.

[Je Skeets]

That's exactly right.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Jim didn't want to pay for Him.

[Je Skeets]

And we learned Mitchell Robinson over the weekend revealed why or how he fractured his hand just before the NBA Finals. He had a lengthy post and it was like a moment of frustration to use his words about a personal matter with like an accident in his family. And he basically banged his hand on

[T.K.]

this truck, smacked his.

[Je Skeets]

It involved his truck. We were right about that. And then so he had surgery on the pinky there before game one. It's sort of like doesn't matter because they went on to win the championship. Could have been a much bigger story if he couldn't have played or they fall short. But yeah, it's a great. I'm laughing because it's a crazy post of like what he's explaining of why he injured it.

[Tass]

Absolutely.

[Je Skeets]

It was scary. Of why, but it was. There's all these funny, weird details in it and stuff like that. Let's just say it's very Mitchell Robinson esque. But he's on boss enough.

[Tass]

And he said, and I love my truck. Right.

[Je Skeets]

That's what I mean. Funny details.

[T.K.]

It's not the truck's fault.

[Tass]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah. Other moves we just learned here before going live that restricted free agent Quentin Post has agreed to a three year, $30 million deal with the Grizzlies so the warriors could match.

[T.K.]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

TBD on that. Joshua Koji agreed to a 2 year, 12 million dollar deal with the Jazz. Trey Lyles, good old Canadian boy, agrees to a one year deal with the Wolves. And the Clippers are bringing back Jordan Miller on a 3 year, 15.3 million dollar deal. Any thoughts on any of those smaller transactions?

[Tass]

Trey Lyles back from Real Madrid where he played last season, although he's from Saskatoon. That's right, Saskatoon.

[Je Skeets]

Basically Minnesota.

[Tass]

Yeah, pretty much. When he goes back to Saskatoon, he's got to say to his mom, we're not in Madrid anymore, Mom. That's the. That's my, my. We're not in Saskatoon anymore, Mom. We're in Toronto now. We don't tuck in our blouses, mom. That's a good Nick Kroll show.

[J.D.]

Come on.

[Tass]

That's a good episode of the Nick Kl. Anyway, Jordan Miller goes to the Clippers. They got to pay people. That's. That's it. The number. Numbers wise, they're not even at the salary floor. They got Garland at 42, Ingram at 40, big drop off. Derek Jones Jr. At 10. So they gotta pay people. So Jordan Miller. Yeah. Come get your money.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tass]

Josh Kogi, the Jazz, they're gonna be good, I guess, if you got a Josh. Yeah.

[T.K.]

What was I even gonna say? Oh, Benedict Mather. And he's still a free agent, right?

[Tass]

Yeah. Good call.

[T.K.]

They'll probably Quentin Grimes them, like, just wait until the last second, see if there's anybody out there for you. And if not, we're gonna get you on a cheap deal.

[Je Skeets]

Obviously. Waiting on Peyton Watson. Still Denver Nuggets restricted free agent.

[Tass]

Yeah, they want him, apparently.

[T.K.]

Clippers, who was reporting. Was this a Mark Stein joint that said that basically the Nuggets will match anything, but they're also open to a signing trade.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

So, like. Well, whatever, let's see what you think.

[Tass]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

And we're waiting on Jaylen Durin as well.

[T.K.]

We are waiting on Jaylen Durin, who.

[Je Skeets]

You know, there's been a lot of talk about a potential sign and trade, too, with what they're going to do there. So we'll see. It's a restricted waiting game here. All right, let's take a break. When we come back, beach stepping.

[T.K.]

The biggest stage in world soccer is here. And every goal changes everything. And now FanDuel's giving you a reason to root for every single one. Introducing every goal pays. Bet on a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored in that match. That's right. More goals mean more bonus bets. And all you have to do is turn on your token. Usa, a slight favorite tonight against the Belgium team.

[Je Skeets]

Getting a little help there.

[T.K.]

I love it when it's rigged for us, baby. Flo baligan, he's a plus 145 to score tonight.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[T.K.]

Plus 1,000 for the brace. Two goals. But apparently now Belgium is giving the opportunity to appeal the appeal.

[Je Skeets]

Wow. We.

[T.K.]

The game starts and it's almost 11:00am Eastern Conference time. Time. Eastern Conference time because it's known here on the east coast games at eight. So what, they got nine hours to figure it out.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T-Mobile Advertiser]

Weird.

[Tass]

What a weird world.

[T.K.]

Couldn't believe this guy's back in. But I love it because they jobbed him. That shouldn't have been a record. Everybody knows it. Landon Donovan knows it.

[Tass]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic also said it.

[T.K.]

He knows it.

[Tass]

He's like, yeah, I'm glad he's back. It should have happened quicker is what he said. He didn't get. He didn't get into the politics. He just said.

[Je Skeets]

I agree with that.

[Tass]

Yeah. Because it was an odd call.

[T.K.]

Period. Call.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

USA. USA. Visit FanDuel.com podcast to get started now. Let there be goals on FanDuel.

[Je Skeets]

Do you like your chances tonight?

[T.K.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Tass]

Back.

[T.K.]

I mean, they were Gonna win without Baligan. But now it's a guarantee.

[Tass]

Okay, so there are slight favorites now, were they?

[T.K.]

I hadn't looked.

[Je Skeets]

I think they were. I think they were tiny favorites.

[Tass]

Okay.

[T.K.]

I mean, okay, they're minus 128 currently.

[Tass]

Okay.

[T.K.]

Belgium, a plus 104.

[Tass]

So it's close.

[Je Skeets]

That's an 8O'. Clocker. You watch any of Mexico, England?

[T.K.]

I watched it all.

[Je Skeets]

I know. Stressful.

[T.K.]

Yeah. I love seeing FIFA going out of their way to try and rig things for the home nation stuff because they're like, sorry, Mexico. I see that you're down off of two brutal goals that they conceded back to back. Basically almost the exact same goals. Just kind of forgetting to play defense there for about one minute. So then the FIFA referee was like, all right, we're getting one of these English guys out of here. We're gonna give you as many possible opportunities to tie it up. But apparently just crossing it into the middle to the shorter team wasn't working.

[Je Skeets]

They tried that, like 35 times. Try something else.

[T.K.]

20 minutes across it. See if this works.

[Je Skeets]

It was very exciting, but it was exciting. It was very exciting. Very exciting. Didn't go as well for Canada there on Saturday.

[Tass]

No.

[Je Skeets]

Needed to score that one in the first half when we completely outplayed them.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

For the first half, they outplayed Morocco. And then second half started.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And then it was rough. And then it got out of hand because you got to press, press to tie it up, and then you just give up the transition.

[T-Mobile Advertiser]

It was.

[Tass]

Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

It's okay. Hey. Hell of a performance.

[Tass]

Yeah. When those stats came up that said shots and shots on goal over the first. Whatever it was. 30 minutes. It was all Canada zeros.

[Je Skeets]

But you gotta find the back of the net.

[T.K.]

Got to.

[J.D.]

Right.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

You know, it's pointless otherwise.

[Tass]

Yeah. Well, unless you want to get to penalties, you know.

[J.D.]

Oh, yeah.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

All right, let's hit the beach. Let's do it. You got the buzz. I got the rockets. You got the nuts. I got the chocolates. We got that shot down pack, blah, blah, blah. You got that certain special genesis. Let's go to the beach, baby. We are on the beach reading your emails and your tweets. Best way to email them in is to nodunksincmail.com. all right, send them in. Especially now that we've hit the summer. Lot of beach stepping here for the boys. First one, let's get into it. Ayo, no dunks, boys. I want to share my Clipper Bros Hand gesture to every fan Listening and watching right now. Okay, hold on. Follow along here. You heard it here first. That's a point down. Have a great time. That's an okay turn up. That's a bit of a hang loose. Love you guys. That's the hearts with the two hands. Awesome. Thumbs up. Okay.

[T.K.]

Thumbs up.

[Je Skeets]

You know, that works. So now you can just start doing it without saying it, and then people will know what you're doing. Okay, the actual question here, a signature celebration move for every classic episode. Okay, my question, the phrase, can you tell the story of the NBA season with this player? Is often used to measure a player's impact. Now, let's apply that to the 25, 26 season, but in reverse, who's a player you can tell the story of last season without? Must be a significant active player. To give you an example, Klay Thompson. He's a top 76 player. Nice catch, by the way. Very nice catch. But was completely forgotten this season with the Mavericks listening every day since. Since Trey's hair beret from the starter's days. That's from Chi. All the way in the Philippines. So a player you can tell the story of last season without, but it's got to be a significant player.

[Tass]

I went way more significant than Klay Thompson. Okay, tell me if I'm wrong. Zion Williamson, number one on my list.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, number one with a bullet.

[Tass]

Now, if we're talking preseason, he should be talked about. Joe Dumar sold him on the new ownership or, sorry, the new front office, I should say, in New Orleans. But then he came out and, yeah, it was a dud from the get go. I mean, he kind of. There was kind of some things written about Zion Williamson at the beginning because they lost three games by 30 or more points in their first six. So that was bad. And they wrote. People wrote about it. So people talked about it. But they got up to what, a 3 and 22 start? So it was over. It was over that talking about Zion, you know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

And maybe this season's different with dejante Murray, but will you think about anything regarding Zion Williamson at the 2526 season? There's too much in the West. They're just one of those teams that wasn't even the worst of the worst. So they kind of just like they're in the floating in that stinky category. It's just people. You just people. You forget about it, you know, on under the Plan again, Pick either was

[Je Skeets]

a part of it too, because we wouldn't even talk about them. Like, well, at least they're bad. And maybe they'll hit the pick.

[Tass]

But yeah, 26 and 56 overall is bad, but I guess if you're. If you're like, if you were the piss, like the Pistons of a couple years ago, when you're, you know, 15 and 67, maybe there's more talk. But anyway.

[Je Skeets]

How bad you are.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

How bad you are.

[Je Skeets]

Well, I love. Go back and count the number of times on our podcast. Especially you, Trey. I know. Let it a couple times myself. Like, don't worry, the Pelicans will not run this back. Right. They can't possibly do this again. They'll. They'll trade one or two or three or whatever. They'll take a different direction. Have you seen what they've done this offseason? They signed DeAndre Jordan.

[T.K.]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

Keep him around. Great locker room guy. That's all they've done.

[T.K.]

That's all they've done.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

So right now they're showing us we are going to do the exact same thing that you said we wouldn't do.

[T.K.]

Apparently they lowered their price on Trey Murphy.

[J.D.]

Okay.

[T.K.]

From four to three first round picks.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tass]

Yeah. And as I said, dejante Murray, he'll start the season with the team, unlike last year.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. That's what they're selling. That's what they're gonna sell you.

[Tass]

That's what. Yeah, exactly.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tass]

But Trey Murphy talk will be up to very soon. I. I imagine because he's the guy who's going to get back the most.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tass]

Even more than sign Williamson, I would say.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Tass]

At this point. So as soon as it goes poorly and especially in the Western Conference, it ain't going to be easy with, you know, a strength in Portland, strength in Utah. Those teams that they're sort of in the. The realm of the conversations will start pretty early in the season, I imagine.

[Je Skeets]

Trey, do you have any other names?

[T.K.]

Anthony Davis played 20 games for the Mavericks. Completely forgettable. They went 10 and 10 in the 20 games that he played. He was part of a three team trade between the Mavs, the Wizards, and of course,

[Je Skeets]

you remember, right?

[Tass]

Nets.

[T.K.]

No, the Hornets. Hornets. Oh, he got traded for a bag of beans. Nobody did anything on their new teams, literally. Anthony Davis didn't suit up for the Wizards. Might never play for him after the trade. The other guys he got traded for, Dante exum, Jaden Hardy, D' Angelo Russell, Tyus Jones, Malachi Branham, Marvin Bagley, AJ Johnson and Chris Middleton. It's just like 20 guys who all got traded for each other and who cares?

[Tass]

Mm.

[T.K.]

So I got Anthony Davis.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

He was part of two teams last year, and it didn't matter at all.

[Je Skeets]

Right. My. My only pushback on Anthony Davis is a great one.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Is.

[Je Skeets]

Didn't he have. I thought he had one monster game.

[T.K.]

He did have one great game.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

He did. Right. The only thing I remember.

[T.K.]

17 or something like that.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. 35 and 17.

[Tass]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

That's got to be the game against Pelicans.

[Tass]

But I thought you would remember him for what you said about him and Cooper Flag that they didn't like each other.

[T.K.]

You remember that for sure?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, for sure.

[T.K.]

I do remember saying it, and I think it's true.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

All right, well, let's hear from you guys. That's a fun one for everybody out there who's a player you can tell the story of last season without let us know. Next one.

[Tass]

Next one here. Hey. Some layups. Heard your episode talking about the NBA cup being at Butler, and I have to push back against the slander of indie restaurants. If you truly respect the cup, you'll be attending the finale. And I have every restaurant food wreck you could ever need. My question. What is your favorite genre of food, and which NBA player's personality slash playstyle matches your genre of food? My favorite is Mexican. And as a Cavs fan, I'll go Spider, Donnie, Mitch. Consistent, full of options and best enjoyed when they've got a little pop. Love the show, Salute the cup and go Cavs. That's from Nash Coy. So two sided question here. Favorite genre of food, and how would a player's personality apply to that food? We got some. This is a tough one.

[Je Skeets]

I do. Before we get into answering the question. Indianapolis food. We did go. I mean, they all blend together. So I'm actually asking you guys. It was super snowy.

[T.K.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And we went to a chicken sandwich place or like a hot chicken place, right?

[J.D.]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

In Indianapolis. Yeah.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And it was like. It was cool. I had a bit of a vibe and food was good. What the hell was the name of it?

[Tass]

No idea.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[J.D.]

No idea.

[Je Skeets]

But that was in Indianapolis. Yeah.

[Tass]

Took photos in that little hallway.

[Je Skeets]

There was a dj. She had, like, a NASCAR jacket.

[T.K.]

Yeah. That was.

[Je Skeets]

It was great.

[T.K.]

That was a cool place.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, that was a great place, but I don't know the name of it.

[Tass]

It's a simple name.

[Je Skeets]

Was it Dave's? Nah, it may have been. Honestly. May have been Dave's. Hot chicken. Yeah, it could be. Okay, somebody let us know. It was good.

[T.K.]

It was good.

[Je Skeets]

They only have two restaurants. In Indianapolis, St. Elmo's.

[Tass]

And that the music was great.

[Je Skeets]

The music was awesome.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

All right, back to the question. You go ahead, T.K.

[T.K.]

oh, me? Yeah. I'm also Mexican food. Okay, number one for me.

[Je Skeets]

Your favorite genre. I sent this to Nora. She's like, who calls it a genre of food?

[T.K.]

It's cuisine.

[Podcast Advertiser]

See?

[Je Skeets]

And I'm like, yeah, that's a weird genre.

[Tass]

Maybe they do in India. I don't know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

[T.K.]

I don't know why Nash is being so coy about his recommendations. He said you have to. You have to write back to get the recommendation. I'm not sliding them in here, but. Whereas he's a spider. Donnie, Mitch. I'm more of a male Bridges when it comes to Mexican food. I could eat it every day, and when I do, it gives me a big smile.

[Je Skeets]

That's good. That's your favorite, eh?

[J.D.]

It is.

[Podcast Advertiser]

It is.

[Je Skeets]

I, I, I. You know, this is always. That's tough to answer. I think I go Italian.

[J.D.]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Favorite cuisine, like, you know, that to me is the goat, the pizza in the pasta. So I don't know, does that make Italian food? I guess. Arguably, our goat of our generation is LeBron. Now, he's not my goat, but he's obviously this era's goat. But you could maybe as a curry. I don't. Maybe you can tell me. It's curry. I don't know who's Italian? Who's more Italian, LeBron or Curry?

[T.K.]

LeBron.

[Je Skeets]

But I just want to tell you.

[T.K.]

I guess that's French.

[Je Skeets]

What's your favorite genre of food?

[Tass]

My favorite genre?

[Je Skeets]

I'm gonna start asking it that way. What's your favorite genre?

[J.D.]

Greek.

[Tass]

Greek is too easy an answer for me.

[J.D.]

So what's.

[Tass]

What's happening a lot is I'm going to eat Korean a ton. That's. So that's happening a lot. I. And I think

[Tab Ramos]

the.

[Tass]

The spiciness of it really gets to me, but I love how it's. It's non. It doesn't sit with you for a long time. It just evaporates real quickly. Like John Moran, like, High Ceiling, an incredible play. But then he's gone for a bit. You know, he's gone pretty quickly. So. Yeah, you know, I could have so many things. Have you guys ever had that? The spicy. We're getting dinged all over the place.

[T.K.]

Okay.

[Tass]

That's okay. Oh, okay.

[J.D.]

I only get texts from my son, and I just yelled at him for putting the wrong name on that last beach stepping. He's apologizing. Profusely. But the dings are coming through.

[T.K.]

We're making it way worse.

[Tass]

What was the wrong name I had?

[J.D.]

Toronto. A guy from Toronto from last week.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, wow.

[Tass]

Oh, damn.

[J.D.]

Well, it's a big deal.

[Tass]

It is a really big deal. You know what else?

[Je Skeets]

Sorry, Nashkoi.

[Tass]

I would say if we're going Greek, Anthony Edwards is kind of like the saganaki, the flaming cheese. He's theatrical, little dangerous, lights up the room and everyone turns to watch it happens. Is straight up saginaki. Straight up.

[Je Skeets]

And J.D. we don't need an NBA comp unless you got one. But what is your favorite genre of food?

[J.D.]

French. I have to say I love the I love French food. French restaurants. The cream, the butter, the meats, the cheeses, the wine. God damn, so good.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

We gotta go back. Ajd.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, for sure.

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[Tass]

Awkward time to ask this, but. Hey, did you download the trail map?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, no, I don't need to.

[Tass]

I. I don't understand. You're trusting your signal out here?

[Je Skeets]

I'm trusting T Mobile. They have the best network and if we end up in bumtots nowhere, well, we've got T satellite for backup.

[J.D.]

Whoa.

[Tass]

I don't trust my carrier that much.

[Je Skeets]

We'll just use your phone as a flashlight.

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[Je Skeets]

All right, next one here. Hello, sans slams Random question for the off season, I got some protein Pop Tarts to try and they were only available in classic strawberry with white frosting. Upon seeing them, my fiance made it clear she would have preferred the plain strawberry with no fruit frosting. I thought this was an insanely hot take. She then went on to give some other controversial takes, not liking peanut butter and that nuts should not Be in candy or chocolate. Wow. Okay. Which of my fiance's. Fiance's takes is most difficult to defend? And what's a take of yours? NBA or not. That goes against the grain. That is from Mark in Virginia, and it's there on the graphic. Thank you, Mark. Going through it with this fiance's hot takes. Did you want to address that part first?

[T.K.]

Oh, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[T.K.]

Let's see here. Which of my fiance's takes is most difficult to defend? So we're going between frosting and not frosting.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

And a strawberry Pop Tart. I didn't even know they made protein pop Tarts.

[Je Skeets]

I didn't either.

[T.K.]

What innovation. My dad was always a person who liked the plain one with just the holes on the top.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[T.K.]

I thought that was crazy back then, but it's still tasty on the inside. Not liking peanut butter. Weird to me, but there are people out there who aren't peanut butter heads. But you can put nuts and candy and chocolate. You can do it.

[Tass]

Oh, gosh.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

That is. That's probably the wildest take. Nuts should not be in chocolate. Oh. I mean, it's. It's one of the best things. One of the best things.

[T.K.]

One of your favorite things to put in chocolate.

[Tass]

A freaking almond. Just an almond.

[Je Skeets]

Freaking almond.

[Tab Ramos]

Man.

[Tass]

You know, I love it there.

[T.K.]

Leave that out.

[J.D.]

Just leave it there.

[Tass]

You're right.

[J.D.]

That's all you need to say.

[Tass]

The strawberry with frosting. I kind of agree with Mark's fiance. I mean, maybe it's not as good.

[T.K.]

I agree.

[Tass]

Which part?

[T.K.]

The plainy isn't as good.

[Tass]

It's not as good, but the frosting is. Maybe I'm old, but it really hits. It really hits my taste buds, like, hard. It's probably. It's ch.

[T.K.]

Sugar.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

I have. We haven't. We have them in our house, and even the kids are like, I don't. I can. This is too much.

[J.D.]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Could you bring me one that might blow your mind? I've never had a Pop Tart.

[Tass]

Weird.

[Je Skeets]

Never. Wow.

[Tass]

Didn't have a toaster.

[Je Skeets]

Didn't have. Growing up, we were so poor, we didn't have a toaster. No. We just never had them in the house. It was never bought. And I just went my entire life without having one.

[Tass]

You didn't miss much.

[Je Skeets]

No, I'm not intrigued.

[J.D.]

I never had one either till I was over 40. Definitely over 40 till we came here.

[Je Skeets]

I know. I. I was going to say, were they not a big Canadian thing? I know they existed, but I had them. Okay.

[Tass]

Things were happening in my toaster saga.

[J.D.]

Had them.

[Tass]

Yeah, that's some weird stuff in my toaster, now that we think about it. Anyway, Mark's fiance also noted. But I didn't include it in the. In the email just because. Or the messages because it was going too long. She said not liking peanut butter, and that's included mixing with things like peanut butter and chocolate. Anything.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah,

[T.K.]

I'm a peanut.

[Tass]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

So anyway, okay, so what about. What about our own hot takes? NBA related or not? Does anyone want to go? Anyone?

[T.K.]

You want an NBA one or a not NBA one?

[Je Skeets]

Give me both.

[Tab Ramos]

Okay.

[T.K.]

Any NBA player could be a top 20 beach volleyball player within a year.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. Doubling down on this.

[T.K.]

That one is a guarantee. I love this, like, name name, like the least athletic NBA player and they're as athletic as the most athletic beach volleyball player is my contention.

[Tass]

Okay, I think you're going the wrong direction now.

[Je Skeets]

You've got two.

[T.K.]

TJ McConnell would be a top 20 beach volleyball player.

[Je Skeets]

Well, see, this is wild.

[Tass]

Okay, so he's the guy who never

[Je Skeets]

hits the ball because, I mean, he's a setter.

[T.K.]

I mean, but he's McConnell 6:1.

[Je Skeets]

Like, those guys are big. Those guys are huge volleyball players.

[T.K.]

Who's the best beach volleyball player in the world?

[Tass]

I am. No clue.

[T.K.]

No one knows.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Oh, Chase Buddinger is the one that stands out as exactly the NBA player that turned volleyball player. But he's a dunk. He played.

[Je Skeets]

He played. He played volleyball growing up is the part. Trey's whole thing is like, give them one year, they could do it now. They're athletes. So a part of me goes, you might have a point. But of course, somebody that played volleyball their whole life is going to come back and go, are you insane? Like, no, not. Not a chance. They'd have to play much longer and all that, but maybe two years.

[Tass]

You're right.

[T.K.]

To take down.

[Tass]

Love the take.

[Je Skeets]

I love the take.

[T.K.]

An Elmer Anderson.

[Je Skeets]

Elmer Anderson.

[T.K.]

They're the top range beach volleyball pairing in the world and they don't even have a Wikipedia page.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[T.K.]

Ridiculous.

[Je Skeets]

You're helping get their name out there, so maybe it'll be made. Okay, I like that one. What's your other one?

[T.K.]

I don't like tomatoes on pizza. Like an actual slice of a tomato on top of a pizza. It gets so wet.

[Tass]

It's slid.

[Je Skeets]

It's sliding all around.

[T.K.]

Yeah, it's just like, it's a little too juicy for on top of a pizza.

[Tass]

I'm with you if it's a roaster. If it's roasted. Different style.

[Je Skeets]

Could be better.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

Sun dried are fine.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tass]

I agree.

[T.K.]

The wetness of it.

[Tass]

I agree. I'm glad we don't order mushroom. I'm glad we don't.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah. What about you?

[Tass]

I don't have anything that compares to those two. But I do want to ask Mark's fiance, do you wear shoes in public? Because. Because that's a Virginia thing. People don't wear shoes sometimes. That's a thing. That's a little. That's a. It's a known Virginia thing. Yeah, it is. It's. It's a known thing.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tass]

People just. Just hang out, drive barefoot anyway, just so you know.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Okay.

[Tass]

Please write in Mark, Mark and Mark fiance, follow up your footwork.

[Je Skeets]

I've got an NBA one that you know is sort of a hot take, but hear me out on this. This is a thought that's been percolating over the last couple days. It's on the heels of the shocking Celtic Sixers trade and with the analytics debate that was going off because there was a lot, I'm sure you guys saw it of Jaylen Brown is just Rudy Gay with better pr. That was like a sentiment going around the Internet. And I think I got a better comparison, maybe a hotter take. Jalen Brown's last season and the overrated or underrated narrative surrounding compares more favorably to Carmelo Anthony's 201213 season with the New York Knicks. And I'm going to tell you why. Both players were all Stars. Both players were all NBA second team selections. Melo finished third in MVP voting that year. Jaylen Brown finished sixth. So really good results. Both players averaged exactly 28.7 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game. Exact same numbers. Brown had more assists and more turnovers. He shot the ball a little bit better from the floor. Melo more efficient from three, better at the line. Melo led the league with a 35.6% usage percentage. This was in large part due to amari Stoudemire missing 50 plus games with knee surgery. Brown had a 36.2 usage percentage that ranked second in the league only to Luka. That was in large part to Jayson Tatum missing 60 plus games coming back from the ruptured Achilles mellows. Knicks won 54 games thanks to a top three offense that shot a lot of threes and took care of the ball. They fell short in the second round to the Pacers featuring Paul George. Melo had a rough series in that one. He shot 43% from the floor. He turned the ball over 15 times in six games. Jaylen Brown, Celtics won 56 games thanks to a top two offense that shot a lot of threes, took care of the ball. They lost in the first round to the Sixers featuring Paul George. Brown shot 45% in the series. He had a lot of Turnovers in the seven game series. 25. And then the real comp though comes down to like this idea of how they were perceived by fans and players. Like, where are they? Are they top 10? Are they top 15? They top 20? And I know we had those debates about Carmelo Anthony because we were doing it on our show, especially in the starters days, about the idea of like, is Melo. Is he actually overrated now? I think Jaylen Brown is a much better defensive player than Carmelo Anthony ever was. So that's a part of the equation here. But I think the comp is much more similar for those particular seasons. Your thoughts?

[T.K.]

Well, once you said they both averaged 28.7 points per game, I was 100%.

[Tass]

That's all it took.

[T.K.]

And they're, they're like, they're both such big eye test versus analysts. I'm telling you, style players.

[Je Skeets]

I think it's good we had those debates about mellow. We did. And like now they're just amplified because of the Internet and the echo chamber of all that. But like we had, yeah, we had a lot of this with mellow. Of like, okay, he scores a lot. But you know, we're, you know, he's a max guy too. Now like J. Brown's making $60 million. Mellow's making. What was his deal? He was like 5, 1 3. He actually took a discount if I remember correctly.

[T.K.]

Probably so.

[Je Skeets]

But anyway, he was making a max deal at the time.

[Tass]

It's a good comp. Yeah, it's a good comp.

[Je Skeets]

All right. Good, good.

[Tass]

Also, yeah. Jalen Brown took the most shots in the NBA total, while Carmelo Anthony. Anthony took the most shots per game.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. And a part of it was by design, like as we. Jason Tatum part for sure. And how they sort of play their team. So. All right, I'm glad that sort of hit with you guys.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Final one.

[Tass]

Final one. Good morning, basketball boys. This is Keith Van horney from the YouTube chat. I was wondering if you guys had any names for the pod that were left on the cutting room floor. I know that rebrands must be difficult, so I'm sure there was a conversation about the name change way back then. I've been a loyal Listener and watcher since the beginning of the starters days. And it's weird to even think of you guys as anything but. No dunks. Now maybe one of the possible names was Basketball Boys turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. That's from Keith Rogers, also known as Keith Van horny, on the YouTube chat Keith Van Horn.

[Je Skeets]

Well, I think we've talked about this before a little bit.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

I did find a list, a Google Doc.

[Tass]

Oh, there it is.

[Je Skeets]

Titled TBJ Conclave from August 2013. So this is actually us trying to decide what we were going to call the new show after where we couldn't be called the Basketball Jones anymore. And we were coming to Atlanta for NBA TV and what we were going to call the show because I guess what was the whole thing. Lou Adler owns the rights to the Basketball Jones because of the Cheech and Chong song, so we had to call it something else. By the way, this list or this Google Doc. I mean, other notes about house hunting. How's everybody house hunting going? We had calls scheduled with people from Turner Sports and we had a lot of thoughts about how the studio and the desk were going to look. There was a lot of buzzwords like warm and intimate.

[T.K.]

I would say we nailed that. For our first season on the show, we got on the smallest desk for the biggest possible studio.

[Je Skeets]

So when it came to the names, it did look like we really wanted to try and go with still the Jones or the NBA Jones. That was like leading sort of on this list at the time. But then we wrote down so many possible names. Can I read you some?

[T.K.]

Fire em.

[Je Skeets]

All right, this is gonna sound like a tweet of the week shout out here, but this is pretty funny. All right, so it starts with a bunch of Jones ones. The Jones cast. The Jones show. The Jones Report, the Brian Jones Rimcast. Then it goes into this. The Skeets and Task show. Technical foul. F O W L. Our logo could be a duck. Somebody wrote. We kept it simple. The NBA show. That NBA show. NBA at large. No dunks was on this list the first time. NBA hangover. NBA overtime. Overtime. Dimes and things. Dunks and donuts. The score. Sneakers Score. Jason Doyle presents a show about basketball. Sleeveless endeavors. The great Canadian basketball show. Tips and toques. Austin and Ellis. Has a ring to it. No is what we had in our notes. The associates. The Basketball Diaries. Buzzer beaters. MBA holes. This for you too. Scotch and soda. This for you and me. Cuban Pete and Gary talk basketball. NBA taco, that's for you. We just decided to start no bad ideas. In a brainstorm. Kirby's epic yarn, the basketball Jones 2 we threw out.

[Tass]

Oh, yeah, I like that sequel.

[Je Skeets]

Right? I got more. I got more then. Okay. The Jones, the NBA Jones, the associates, the mob, the company, the alliance, the crew, the crowd, the convoy. So we ultimately went with the starter. So we really zeroed in on the. And then. I'm almost done here now for these ones. And this really tells you the time of when we were doing this. We had the hashtags ready to go. So the blue chips, hashtag tbc.

[T.K.]

We put a lot of effort into the hashtags for sure.

[Je Skeets]

I mean, it was, you know, it had to. That was the time the earbuds. Hashtag tab. Tab.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

That's an actual NBA podcast.

[Je Skeets]

Pretty funny. Yeah. Hashtag the crossover. It's another good actual show name for another one that was hashtag tco, the Bricklayers, Hashtag tbl. Hash. The Naismith Jones, hashtag tnj. And then the final four on my list. Here are our list, was the substitutes, the replacements, the 13th man. And then somebody wrote, should technically be 14th, but that sounds weird. And then after the score was another name. So that. That was a huge. I know, because we were coming from. Sure, sure, sure. It was a huge, huge list that we had going at one point. Yeah. A trip down memory lane there.

[T.K.]

I mean, honestly, it sounds like we picked the best two. The starters and no dunks.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

Though I do have some affinity for rim cast and NBA holes.

[Je Skeets]

I like Jason Dole Presents the Basketball. A show about basketball, actually.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

J.D. is that you remember any of those?

[J.D.]

Oh, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Remember that list?

[J.D.]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[J.D.]

There was too many on the list. That was the problem. Like, it was very hard to narrow down.

[Je Skeets]

We did, of course, narrow it down.

[J.D.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And presented to NBA tv. Yeah, Stuff like that.

[J.D.]

I remember being in that meeting, like we were. I was sitting on. In Nova Scotia, like I was overlooking the Bay of Fundy.

[Tass]

Oh, wow.

[J.D.]

And then we were on a Skype or whatever.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[J.D.]

And it was. That's probably where the duck thing came. A bird in the ocean.

[Je Skeets]

I just remember it really. Like, obviously we want the starters, but there was more of a self deprecating, like the bench warmers. Right. Or something like that. That was.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

The B team.

[Martha (Kohler Ambassador)]

Yeah.

[Tass]

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And then we talked ourselves out of that.

[T.K.]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

I mean, what are we doing?

[Tass]

Why don't we.

[Je Skeets]

We're the starters.

[J.D.]

Half of Turner called us the bench warmers anyways.

[Je Skeets]

How dare you.

[J.D.]

I'm sorry, but they did.

[Je Skeets]

They called us the NBA Holes or the Great Canadian Basketball Show. Or the Shitty Canadian Basketball show, maybe.

[J.D.]

Yeah. All right.

[Je Skeets]

Anyway, funny, I was happy to find that. That Google Doc.

[Tab Ramos]

So there.

[Je Skeets]

There's your answer.

[T.K.]

Very good.

[Je Skeets]

Or at least. Who sent that in? Keith. Yeah, Keith sent that in.

[J.D.]

Don't. Don't tell me that there's no more basketball podcast names out there, because you just. There's like, 15 of those are actually usable names.

[Je Skeets]

You think so? Well, I mean, I think 10 of these are actual names.

[T.K.]

Yeah.

[Tass]

Nobody's used that NBA show. I'm surprised by that.

[Je Skeets]

NBA show is not bad, actually.

[Tass]

Trying to increase the reach, you know?

[Je Skeets]

I know. Yeah.

[Tass]

Go listen to that NBA show.

[Je Skeets]

You know, were they against us having NBA in the title or we didn't want NBA in the title or.

[J.D.]

Great question.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[T.K.]

I don't remember specifically is.

[Je Skeets]

Anyway, and they.

[J.D.]

They shot down a lot. A lot of them.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[J.D.]

And ultimately, I think they chose the start.

[Tab Ramos]

Yeah.

[J.D.]

Because it was on a list of five.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[J.D.]

And then they were just like, okay, this is. This is the least offensive to us.

[Tass]

So go with that. And because it was leading into the night's games, like, right before the night's games are like, yeah, this makes sense.

[Je Skeets]

That did make some sense. All right. And as for the no Dunks part of it all, we've said this before, but no Dunks is what we actually called our. Like, our company, so to speak, way back in our partnership when it was just J.D. tass and myself. So that sort of always been in the background.

[J.D.]

No Dunks.

[Je Skeets]

Even when we were the Basketball Jones, I was. Again, we weren't, like, an official company, but that's sort of what we called our team.

[Tass]

Well, when we were all moving to Atlanta, I remember you changed the group name for one of our conversations. You know, just. Just a. An app that we all use.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tass]

To the crew. You remember that? Yeah. Yeah. I say. I. I saved that one. I saved the chain. The name change on a group chat. Yeah. I'm gonna say this one screenshot.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, I did save the crew, didn't I? That was one of the ones I said. Yeah.

[Tass]

Oh, actually, it was the show crew. I take it back. The show crew.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[J.D.]

Wow.

[T.K.]

I don't know another option.

[Tass]

All right,

[Je Skeets]

trip down memory lane. Thank you for all the questions. Keep them coming. As I said, we'll be hitting the beach a lot more frequent here in the summer. No Dunks, Inc. That's inc.gmail.com. you can drop your questions in the YouTube comments. Make sure you hit the like button. Make sure you subscribe Podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews and obviously comments. Comment away on Spotify as well. The plan this week, probably back on Wednesday, definitely back on Friday. But we'll have a couple more pods this week. Of course we're waiting on LeBron, but that could be legit weeks for all we know. But we're here for the rest of this week, a little bit next week. We do have some vacation time coming up, so just make sure you subscribe wherever you watch or listen to the show until we see you probably on Wednesday. Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time.

[Tab Ramos]

Turn up.

[T.K.]

Love you guys.

[Tab Ramos]

Awesome.

[Tass]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, we'll definitely be back a couple times a week. But like Jennifer Lopez said, we're all waiting for LeBron.

[Je Skeets]

Nice brace today people. He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him. Carrier contracts tries to block him. Oh, he leaves him in the dust. He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the nonstop group chat, trash talk. He clears on goal. He shoots unlimited data for $25 a month forever.

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[Je Skeets]

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[T.K.]

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[Je Skeets]

Yeah, fully.

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[Je Skeets]

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[Je Skeets]

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[Je Skeets]

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[Je Skeets]

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