7-3-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

Being a baseball play-by-play broadcaster demands a blend of learned mechanics, intense preparation, and a calm sense of entertainment. How hard is it to do this job?

Let's talk to the ones who do it. This is Matt Spiegel. My new podcast, The PBP Voices of Baseball, will bring those conversations to you as the best working and former broadcasters tell you why and how they do it.

New episodes come every Thursday all summer long. Follow The PBP Voices of Baseball on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your podcasts. AT&T Fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a gagillionaire?

Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one.

Straightforward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a gagillionaire with AT&T Fiber. Limited availability in select areas.

Visit att.com slash hypergig for details. I miss Mike Malone, but we've got plenty to trot out for our next Hall of Flame induction. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Good to hear from many of you already on our Facebook page. And we're just making the turn to the second half of the holiday weekend.

Yeah, it's perfect, right? For people who want to go away but not take a whole week off, you can just take one day off. Leave on Friday. A lot of people left town, their respective towns, on Thursday. That was kind of a getaway day, though I did have an appointment on Friday. So I was up early and I was listening to the traffic reports, and it was insanity getting away from the New York metro. So I know it was the same way in most major cities for people who wanted to just take the one day off and yet have a four-day weekend, which is pretty incredible. I definitely do not enjoy traveling on holiday weekends. I break out in hives if I have to travel at the same time as 50 plus million Americans.

The last I knew it was 51 million. I'm sure it swelled over the course of the last week, just as people decided last second, yeah, yeah, let's get the heck out of Dodge. I hope that you're enjoying your holiday weekend. I know we typically have a lot of listeners who are out of their familiar routines and rhythms until they find our show.

If it's the first time, give me two weeks, you'll be hooked. And yes, we do have a podcast that allows you to listen on your own time, on demand, whenever you like. It's posted every weekday morning, including holidays, on our show Twitter.

After hours, CBS, I do frequently retweet it, but you can always find it on our show Twitter. And then the link is on our podcast page. And lest we accidentally leave off the link, or we don't post the correct link, or something goes wrong with the link, we always hear about it. So we know that many of you do use our social media to be able to find the link as opposed to having it bookmarked, or, you know, a website that you can go to directly. I usually just Google it, honestly. I don't have it bookmarked on my laptop or on my phone, just every day, when I'm looking for the podcast to either listen back or to grab our interview, because we podcast our interviews separately. I like to share those on social in the afternoons. I just Google it.

After hours, Amy Lawrence podcast, and it'll pop up. But yes, the link is available on both of our social media sites. And we've got some other goodies available for you. I will have pictures actually of my 4th of July weekend activity, since work is the prevailing theme for the next couple of nights. I wanted to make sure I got in a fun water sport activity on Saturday, so our friends and I went kayaking, and it was awesome. It was hot, but the smoke and the haze actually kept the temperatures down a little more than what they would have been.

It was humid too, though, and the sun did come through the clouds a bit on the second half of our excursion. And I was out on a lake in western New Jersey, and the entire outside of the lake had a layer, a rim, if you will, of lily pads. It was really, it was amazing, really pretty. I went coasting through the lily pads and took a video while I was doing it because they were slapping up against the kayak, just a really pretty peaceful sound. And then in the middle of the lily pads, and as I say, I'll post some photos, in the middle of the lily pads were gorgeous flowers.

Oh, they're so amazing. And what blows me away is that they have these stems that go all the way down to the, obviously to the dirt, to the base, or not the base, but the, the, what am I thinking of? It's not the bottom. Well, I mean, it's the bottom of the lake, but there's a word that I'm thinking of that I'm not thinking of, actually. They go all the way down to the floor of the lake.

There you go. And they have these just long pink stems that you can only see so far down and then they trail away. And the flowers, they float and they're loose on the water because the stems are these long strings essentially. Loved it. I kept coasting up next to the lily so that I could get some photos.

And so I will share those with you on my Twitter, A Law Radio. But yeah, it was so much fun to be out on the water for a couple hours. And then we were, I even had snacks with me in the boat, but I still got hungry. And so the second we left there, we were on the hunt for food and we stopped at this, I'd never even heard of it, this little Mexican dive joint that my friend knew of. And we were the only ones in there. People were coming in to grab their takeout, but we were the only ones sitting in there.

Just a couple little tables, almost like a diner, fast food place. But the food was amazing. And so I think I ate a carne steak quesadilla, carne asada steak quesadilla in record time. It was scarfed.

And I generally eat fast, but I'm pretty sure that I ate it faster than any human should. It was so good though. With guac and sour cream and salsa and chipotle salsa.

I could use another one. So that was my Saturday. I do plan to grill out on Tuesday just in honor of July 4th, but we will be here. We're not taking any time off this week. Jay's got time off next week. I'm headed to Houston late in July.

But until then, we will be here with you after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. And one of the reasons that I do work is because it's always hot and heavy in NBA free agency the first week of July. The biggest news, yes, Damian Lillard did in fact request a trade. If you missed it, his number one choice for destination would be Miami. Miami wants him as well. From the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Ira Winderman was on NBA TV. And lest you think that Miami isn't interested, oh, well, guess what Miami is willing to give up?

Put it this way. They basically have loaded up one of those pods dumpsters in front of the Trailblazers and said, take anyone out of here you want besides Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. Maybe they'll go back and forth on Caleb Martin a little, but it's basically sort of come in pick and choose. Tell us what you want.

Anything else is yours. The Heat are all in on this. This is their moment. There's a reason they don't go hard after Bradley Beal. There's a reason they held off on some other moves.

This is their play. They've been through this in recent summers. You guys remember with Kevin Durant last summer to a lesser degree with Donovan Mitchell. Pat Riley tries to seize on this moment. He got his moment with Jimmy Butler. He got it for better or worse with Kyle Lowry.

Of course, the big three back a decade ago. So the Heat are basically saying anyone but Bam or Jimmy, go ahead. Let us know what you want. Take them. We'll load them up for you.

Oh my gosh. Just take them. Anybody but Bam and Butler. Those two are off limits. The rest of our roster, all yours.

Wow. I bet that's news to the Heat, huh? On NBA TV, although it shouldn't be. If you know Pat Riley, it should not be. He's a guy who is not afraid to mix it up. He is not afraid to change the look and the feel of the roster, trusting the coaching staff to get them on the same page where they maintain the identity and the culture in Miami. So Damian Lillard, a big story. Draymond Green stays put at Golden State.

I'm not surprised. What surprised me was not that he decided to remain there after seeing him with Stephen Clay on Thursday at the match. I kind of felt comfortable that he wasn't angling for a divorce, if you will, or angling for a departure. But also, with Draymond Green, it's not about the money. I mean, there will be another opportunity for him to make money. If he does, in fact, opt out after three years of this next deal, he could make another free agent deal. But there are guys who made far more money than him, including Kyrie Irving, which makes zero sense to me.

You are worth what your employer will pay you. And the Dallas Mavericks clearly wanted to keep Kyrie. They didn't give him a max deal, but they wanted to keep Kyrie. Draymond Green took less than Kyrie, less than Jeremy Grant, less money than Chris Middleton with the Bucks.

Not just less overall, but less average annual value. But going back to the end of the Warriors' run, remember, against the Lakers in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, what did you tell us? What did they all tell us? He, Steph, Clay, Steve Kerr, we're not done. This group is not done. Even after Steve had made some cryptic comments about feeling like they had run their course, the core, the players who are actually on the court, resisted that. So Dray stays. Dame goes. Russell Westbrook stays with the Clippers. Westbrook stays with the Clippers. Max Struce goes. From the Miami Heat, he will not be part of their run next year, although maybe he was going to get traded anyway.

If everybody's available, I'm glad he made some money. Do you remember how he was cut by the Celtics, finally landed with the Heat, had some critical moments and some huge contributions for the Heat as they went all the way to the NBA Finals? So I'll be interested to see what happens with him once he's out of that Heat culture, but with the Cavaliers, we know they had a lot of promise. I like the idea of him and Donovan Mitchell together. Desmond Bain stays with the Grizzlies. Bruce Brown goes from the champion Denver Nuggets. Just as a reminder, salty Michael Malone at the parade in Denver celebrating the Nuggets' first ever NBA championship. Bruce Brown was the only question mark.

He was the only free agent and Malone was sure of one thing. Two wings. I got guys like Bruce Brown. Come here, Bruce.

Hey, y'all tell me is Bruce going anywhere? Hell no. Hell no. Hell no.

Hey, we run this. I wonder if he's got a voice yet, or maybe he's crying over Bruce Brown signing a two-year $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers, not the Denver Nuggets, but Brown got his ring and then he got paid. And he was so important for shoring up the Nuggets defense and giving them tenacity and bite, if you will, giving the defense bite.

And yeah, he had some huge threes at times too. I'm sure they're bummed out that he's headed to Indiana. This is Bruce's choice though. And $45 million over two years is nothing to sneeze at. Likely wasn't going to get that from Denver.

It's after hours here on CBS porch radio. The choice was Brown's in that case. For Marcus Smart, the choice was not his.

In his first comments since the Celtics traded him to the Memphis Grizzlies, Marcus admits he was blindsided when he found out about the trade from Boston. It was a shock for sure. I think for me, I was actually asleep and my agent called my fiance. She woke me up out of a sleep, like literally about, I think like it was right after the deal had been made.

And I think Shams had already tweeted it out and that's how we found out. And then, you know, I went to the gym the next day, got my stuff. And then I talked to Brad and Joe and a couple other guys that was there at the gym, but it was definitely, it was definitely shocking to find out that way. Especially because the week before I was already told that we were good and you know, they weren't, it was no trade talks to me and I was good. So, you know, we was expecting that, but for me, I understand the business side of it. And I've always been like that. And anybody knows me and those that, you know, I'm the first one to tell people you can't put personal with business. It just doesn't mix.

And if you do, you're going to get yourself hurt. Man, I appreciate his wisdom and he's been in the league for a long time, but he says the Celtics told him the week before that he was on stable ground and he didn't have to worry about a trade. That audio comes from an event in Boston, the Dana Barrows Basketball Club. It's the 14 League.

That's the name of the, the locale. And he had a party with his foundation, not just friends and foundation members, but also fans were there and engaging in a bit of a send off. And the Grizzlies bring in Marcus Smart. He's going to give them not just some maturity in the back court.

He's going to give them hearts and smarts. I like to say that about Marcus. He's a great defender. In fact, he's the NBA Defender of the Year, all defensive team more than once. And he's got that blue collar, work your ass off mentality. He's a grinder. Sometimes the shots look like he's a grinder, but every now and then he can get hot and give you 20. He'll fit in with Memphis because they need his leadership and his tenacity, and they also need his experience. Think about what he's been through in his career with Boston. And the Celtics believe that they got what they needed in Kristaps Porzingis, the length, the reach, the inside presence. But Marcus was told he was good.

They weren't exploring a trade. And then he's asleep when his fiance wakes him up, because she saw it on social. Ew, that's just gross. I can't stand that.

And while Marcus may be handling it with maturity and with an even keel, that's not what fans are doing and how they're reacting when they see him. I grew up here, you know, nine years here, you know, in the city. You know, I've done stuff in the city, you know, to become more acquireable to the city for myself. And, you know, I just built a special bond with the fans and the people of Boston.

You know, I don't think there's no place in Boston that I can go where, you know, I wouldn't be welcome. And that speaks value. It's definitely tough.

I'm hearing it all the time from everybody. The fans, every time I see them, they're devastated. The city is devastated. And, you know, I understand why we grew up together, you know, so it's definitely tough. It's definitely hard to say goodbye. I know talking to some of these fans, I definitely get emotional. You know, they're coming up to me and they're balling. So I definitely have heard, you know, everybody's disappointed.

But like I said, you know, it's a business first. Boston will always be in my heart. I love Boston. But, you know, they decided that they made a move where they thought was best for the team.

And that's all you can ask for. I'm not laughing as people are crying. I just, can you imagine being in Marcus's position and fans are coming up to him in Boston, balling, he says. And I've actually seen friends of mine on Facebook who are torn up about it, crushed over Marcus Smart. I don't love it. I hate that sometimes the business values the winning over the people.

But I understand that's how you get better, right? And I also don't love it when there's dishonesty or teams are disingenuous with players or the opposite. A lot of times both sides will be cryptic, will say things they don't mean, will posture. It can come across kind of dirty and underhanded. Marcus is handling it as best you possibly can, even when there are balling fans who come up to him.

And also he wants to set the record straight. Absolutely no problems between he and Jaylen Brown. I actually want to clear up something I've seen online that it was going around that because JB didn't post something about me like JT did, that we had beef.

Jason and Jaylen are my brothers for life. And I don't think what anybody's, what people see isn't enough of what and how our relationship really is. We've been through a lot together. We've been through a fire.

My mom passed away. JB was actually one of the people on that plane that came to Dallas to the funeral. So I just wanted to shut all rumors down now that me and JB had beef. I have no beef with anybody with the Celtics, none of my teammates. I love those guys. They love me. We're brother. And I know that if I'm ever in need or need or want anything, I can call those guys and it's vice versa. But me and JB were great. That's my brother.

He actually texted me and he was just as disappointed as I was. So we're good. And just because JB did it or any of my teammates didn't post anything doesn't mean that we have any beef or something going on. So I just wanted to clear it on that, but there we go. There've been a lot of rumors about how the, the three, the core in Boston get along.

Marcus, Marte, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum. It's just dumb. It's a little bit like what people would say about the Warriors, right?

And how Draymond Green is not wanted there and they, they put up with him. Nah, I mean, it's that way with friends and family, right? I say about my best friend, she loves, she knows everything about me and she loves me anyway.

Warts and all. That's how you know that someone's for real and someone's for life is they stick around even when they see the ugliest side of you. And when you are a member of a team, especially NBA or NHL, when you're with your teammates for not just 82 games, but training camp and travel, post-season, oh heavens, of course you're going to get tired of each other.

Of course, they're going to see you at your worst. When you're mentally and physically exhausted, when you're cranky, when you've sucked on the floor, when you've been a crappy teammate. I mean, these guys see the worst, but also the best in one another. And that makes those relationships stronger, like any team. And this is one of the things that kids can learn about playing sports or can learn from playing sports, is that teamwork, the best teams, are really based on understanding one another's strengths and weaknesses. And how, as teammates, we can all complement each other. And then the best coaches put their players in positions to succeed based on those complementary qualities, strengths, weaknesses.

It's one element of chemistry, though, not the only element. On Twitter, A-Law Radio, eek eek. So coming up, let's see, what do I want to do coming up? Oh, our boy Dylan Brooks has a new home. I am still sold on this guy as an instigator and as someone that most teams would take but don't want to have to face him.

I poke bears. Remember when he said LeBron James is gonna have to score 40 on him to impress him? I don't care, he's old.

Oh, okay. So anyways, a little more on NBA free agency. He's old.

Stop who you callin' old. But we'll let you know about his new home. Also, the Suns, still working on their roster.

Not done yet. It's gonna be a little quieter, maybe, over the next 24 hours. But still, there's much to be done, an NBA free agency and trades. An NBA free agency and trades. I will be happy for Dame wherever he ends up if he's on a contender.

What did we hear last week from Aaron Fentress, our Oregonian insider? No one wants to be the bad guy. Dame doesn't want to be asking out because it looks like he's bailing on Portland or there's this perception that he's bailing on Portland.

And then the opposite is true, right? They don't want to be the team. Joe Cronin doesn't want to be the GM who traded away Damian Lillard. But now that it's out there, it's kind of like the Aaron Rodgers situation.

Now that it's out there, the Portland Trailblazers have to do what's best for them. It's after hours with a- AT&T Fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a gagillionaire?

Yeah, I have AT&T Fiber. The straightforward pricing has inspired me to be more straightforward. Me too. Ugh, this wine. I'll fetch you a better one.

Straightforward is better. No equipment fees, no data caps, no price increase at 12 months. Live like a gagillionaire with AT&T Fiber. Limited availability in select areas.

Visit att.com slash hypergig for details. Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. There are some people, Lakers are making that run.

They gave it to 14. You and Ron have that exchange. There are people out there that say maybe you shouldn't do that with one of the better players in the game. What were you thinking? I don't care. He's old.

You know what I mean? I was waiting for that. I was expecting him to do that game four, game five. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. You know, I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Dylan Brooks does not care. He doesn't care at all. And even though his antics and also a bit of a disappearing act later in the series against the Lakers, right? So he pokes the bear. The Lakers respond. LeBron James torches him in, I think it was game six, right? Back in LA.

Maybe it's a Friday night, if I remember correctly. The Lakers have the last laugh. Dylan Brooks finds himself on the outside. The Grizzlies make it clear they don't want to bring him back. And some would say it's because of his antics. I would say it gives the Grizzlies an edge.

Maybe over the top. He does, in fact, poke the bear. He's an instigator. But it's pretty clear that the Grizzlies were not interested in the act or in having him on their roster again. So he was available and looks like, according to multiple reports, that via a sign and trade. So the Grizzlies will not release him. They'll trade him. But via a sign and trade, he's headed to Houston. Along with Fred Van Vliet, by the way, Van Vliet getting $130 million over three years.

Holy crap. $130 million. What did I tell you about Draymond taking a discount to stay with the Warriors?

Here's yet another player. Again, just for comparison, four years, 100 mil for Draymond. Nothing to sneeze at, but it's $25 million a year. Van Vliet, three years, $130 million. It is $30 million more for one less year. That's crazy in comparison, but you are worth what a team will give you. So Fred Van Vliet already headed to the Rockets, and now Dylan Brooks. Four years, $80 million deal. So they are throwing money around.

Unless you laugh, I mean, you can laugh if you want to. Dylan Brooks has one defender in JJ Redick, who uses his podcast to defend not just Dylan, but the fit with Houston. Everybody spent a month clowning this guy. They clowned him during the Lakers series. They clowned him afterwards.

They clowned him after the report came out. I saw all the memes on Twitter and IG about him needing to learn Mandarin because he was going to go play in China. Motherfucker just signed for $80 million.

Sorry for the language, but he just signed for $80 million. He's a good player, valuable player. I've said it many times.

I'll say it again. I want Dylan Brooks on my team. I want a disruptor. I want a guy that's a pest, and I want a guy that can defend at his level. He's an all defensive type player.

You need those guys on your team. And he's a pain in the ass. He gets inside the heads of opponents. He is a tenacious defender.

He's physical. He does not back down, no matter how strong in a guy like LeBron James. But he also brings an intensity and an edge, a little bit like a Draymond, but not that talented. This is Dylan Brooks, not that long ago, who was trying to poke the bear that is Draymond Green. And instead, all he got was Dray clowning him and actually calling him a clown. This idiot said, I don't know what Draymond does out there.

Wait, can we hear it just for fun? This is how Draymond celebrates his independence. This idiot said, I don't know what Draymond does out there. He said, I don't like Draymond at all. You don't know me. I just don't like Golden State. I quite frankly wouldn't like a team that beats me all the time either.

I don't like anything to do with them. Quite frankly, you were a little kid in high school watching us win championships. Should be happy that you even witnessed that.

Maybe college, but you get the point. You're a fan. Draymond talks a lot. You talk a lot now. So if you have four rings, sure you talk a lot more. For all stars, you probably talk a bit more. Defensive player of the year, you for damn sure would talk more. Two Olympic gold medals. You definitely would be talking because that would mean you beat Team USA and we all know how that goes. So gets away with a lot too.

What exactly do I get away with? I have 15 texts, one less than your dumb ass. Okay, great. His game is cool. If you ever wondered why the Memphis Grizzlies is not ready to compete for a championship, look no further than this idiot right here. They're actually depending on this guy to help them win a championship.

And he says his game is cool. Quite frankly, that just shows how little you know about basketball. And yet y'all you running around talking about dynasty.

The dynasty starts after you, not with you. He plays with heart, knows the ins and outs of the defense. You want to be quite frank, I made the ins and outs of our defense. I guess that's why they like him over there. I'm trying to figure out why they like you in Memphis. Or do they like you in Memphis?

That's a better question. I'm not sure your teammates like you, but I can tell you why they like me over there. When you contribute in the way that I have contributed to four championships, they tend to like you. So next time you speak up on me, you should do some fact checking. Next time you speak up on me, you should do some soul searching. Next time you speak up on me, I hope you in a better situation than you in now, where the guys you play with actually enjoy playing with you because they actually think you're contributing to win it.

Oh Lord. Because it ain't happening right now, champ. Ah, you're not a champ. You're a clown.

It ain't happening for you. That's Andre's podcast on the volume. Oh my goodness. He just went off on Dylan Brooks. Well, here's the thing. Houston thinks that Dylan has value and not just Dylan, but Fred Van Vliet, Patty Mills, Jeff Green.

They're bringing in all kinds of veterans under Imei Udonku who takes over as the head coach. Well, okay. Let's piece it together and see what happens in Houston. You're not a champ. You a clown. You a clown. But don't add James Harden because he's also a clown and he cannot shoot in the post-season. Kyrie Irving got a lot of money from Dallas. Can someone tell me why?

Anyone. It's not about the money, baby. I'm willing to listen to anyone who has a reason for why the Mavericks were bringing back after they got worse when they traded for him.

Every time I've played with other great players, we've become better. It's just a bald-faced lie. No, no, no. But we'll talk about it anyway. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Twitter, ALawRadio. You can also clown me if you like.

And on our Facebook page, you are listening to the After... Introducing L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com, your solution to combat the negative effects of sitting at a desk. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day is as harmful as smoking.

If you're stuck at a desk all day, you don't need to quit your job. You need to join our Desk to 5K program. No running experience is required. As a doctor of physical therapy, I'll be honored to guide you every step of the way to reach your running and fitness goals. Let's conquer running together and make it enjoyable.

Visit L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com and start moving today. Rebound tipped ahead from McGee to Hardy to the right to Kyrie. Pulls up for the wing three. It's good. Good push by Dallas.

Irving with 14 points and the Mavericks up by eight. I think it's a great fit. You know, obviously people are going to say no. I mean, look at the results we're having, but you know, like I said, chemistry, relationships takes time. And I wish you can see we're here.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Luka Doncic, even though the Dallas Mavericks did not make the playoffs after trading for Kyrie Irving and probably giving up too much to get him in terms of their roster constitution, they actually got worse in terms of record. But he didn't have a lot of other suitors, let's be fair, who would give him what he wanted. And that was the case going back to the last year in Brooklyn when he opted into his deal because there wasn't another team that was going to give him the money that he wanted. And according to industry insiders, there wasn't a lot of business for him this time either. His reputation precedes him from his exit in Boston, where they couldn't wait to get rid of him. He did not fit there.

And it was a problem from the beginning. And you generally don't hear a lot of NBA guys hear a lot of NBA guys, other than Draymond, who will trash someone publicly or who will say negative things about a guy once he's gone. But in Boston, they couldn't wait to get rid of him.

In Brooklyn, it was a disaster. And even though Kevin Durant would still call him his friend, he also admits that the way that Kyrie asked out was a blind side to him. And he felt like it changed everything for him in Brooklyn, not to mention James Harden got there and couldn't wait to leave. And he made cryptic comments about Kyrie once he was gone. Kyrie is an incredible offensive player. But since he left Cleveland, after hitting the championship winning shot in 2016, since he left Cleveland, it's been a disaster everywhere he's gone. It's gotten worse. And so I do not understand the Dallas Mavericks bringing him back unless they felt like this was the best that they could do.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. There have been multiple times over the past three seasons where he's just gone AWOL, where his team didn't know where he was, his coaches hadn't heard from him. And no, I'm not talking about when he didn't get vaccinated. That was his personal choice.

I don't think the NBA played that right anyway. But for the Dallas Mavericks to give him the deal that they did, and there was some talk that Kyrie was, well Kyrie's agents, his reps, were looking around. They were trying to find something else for him. But the weird thing was he was meeting with teams that couldn't afford him.

That was the part that I thought was odd. Or maybe those were just rumors put out there by his reps. There was talk that he had met with the Suns. There was talk that he might be on Houston's radar. Ultimately, it's Dallas that gives him the deal.

And again, from Kyrie's point of view, that was likely going to be the only place that he got the money that he wanted, or close to the money that he wanted. I appreciate that Luca was vouching for him. If you can't play with Luca, well that's definitely you. Luca wants to win, and he's shown his ability to be versatile and morph and to play with not just different guys, but in different roles. So yeah, Kyrie's great when he's available.

He's just not always available. And there have been plenty of injuries too. Going back to Boston, and then Brooklyn, and then Dallas even.

But three years, $126 million. And last year when he was on the court, he averaged 27 points and five and a half assists for the Nets and the Mavs. But I still believe the Mavericks are playing with fire. Or maybe volcano is a better metaphor. You never know when Kyrie is going to erupt and drown you in his burning hot lava.

That's the thing, he's not reliable. But the Mavericks, there's a little bit of a desperation I think too when you give up so much to get a player like him. They traded away Spencer Dinwiddie, traded away Dorian Finney-Smith, they traded an unprotected first round pick a couple years down the road, and two second round picks.

The proof is in the record. Whether it's the two in Luca and Kyrie not having enough time to get acclimated, whether it's the fact that they traded away too much for these guys and they just didn't have enough role players and support around them. I mean that's certainly the case, but I mean that's certainly the case. Actually it applies to the Lakers too, right? They were so thin off their bench after they retooled their roster they could only ask for so much of LeBron and AD before they just ran out of gas. Load management didn't even keep them fresh enough for a deep playoff run. So yeah there's a lot to be said for maybe giving up too much for a star and then you have too short of a bench.

But regardless, whatever the reason, it's probably a combination of some of those. The team was only 5-11 when Luca and Kyrie played together. Can they find a comfort zone? Can they learn how to play off one another? They probably can.

Do they have enough around them? The GM of the Mavericks is Nico Harrison and he made it clear that he wanted to re-sign Irving. He thinks they work well together, so now they'll have a full season theoretically to do it. But Dallas is still a question mark for a lot of other people.

I don't understand it, but it's not just me, it's people inside the league. On NBA TV, Ryan McDonough, who used to be the Suns general manager, doesn't understand this deal for Kyrie. Kyrie Irving has been unhappy over the last six years on a winning Cleveland Cavaliers team, a winning Boston Celtics team, and a Brooklyn Nets super team where he chose to go four years ago today as a free agent with Kevin Durant. So why would you give him this kind of money? Why would you give him a player option in the third year? 42 million dollars a year is insane for Kyrie Irving combined with a player option. Who are they bidding against?

I don't understand this at all. I get it's player empowerment trying to keep players happy, but if this does not work out for Dallas, they're not going to be able to trade Kyrie Irving. They're going to be stuck with him for the next three years, and it is going to be for three years because I don't think anybody's going to pay him more than 42 million or whatever the number escalates to in his mid-30s. So this is a huge gamble for the Mavericks. I guess maybe it was to fend off the Houston Rockets if you're worried about that in Dallas, but given Kyrie's history and his mercurial nature and general unhappiness with his current situation, I have no idea who the Mavericks were bidding against and why they gave him a deal at this level. Three years is fine, but especially the level and the player option in the third year, I don't get it at all. That's Ryan McDonough who used to be making these types of decisions for the Phoenix Suns, and he doesn't understand why.

Speaking of the Suns, they get a two-year deal done with guard Eric Gordon. Moving and shaking around the NBA. Good morning to you.

It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio. Introducing L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com. Your solution to combat the negative effects of sitting at a desk. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day is as harmful as smoking.

If you're stuck at a desk all day, you don't need to quit your job. You need to join our Desk to 5k program. No running experience is required. As a doctor of physical therapy, I'll be honored to guide you every step of the way to reach your running and fitness goals. Let's conquer running together and make it enjoyable. Visit L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com and start moving today.