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You need Indeed. Good morning, everybody. Welcome into the Winklerverse.
This is the 4th of July week as we celebrate in this great land. I am Bart Winkler. Paul Immig is here, and we're going to talk some NBA for you today right after a quick thought.
If you wonder if you don't wonder, I just I gotta get it out in the world. Yes, Greg Berhalter should be fired. He's already been fired. And then they did you know about this ball they fired him, then had a consulting firm try to figure out who the next coach should be.
No, which then landed on Greg Berhalter. Oh, and they what re hired him or just never officially fired him. They re hired him. Did he get his back pay like his severance pay and then get his new like, does he double dip like bootenholzer in Phoenix? I'm not quite sure his brother, Jay Berhalter, okay, is second in command, though, of the US soccer operation. So, so his brother would have to probably. So everyone crying nepotism over brownie James, man.
I got one better for you. He today inked his guaranteed multi year deal with the Lakers, which is, as NBA fans know, not a common practice among second round picks. Oh, he did. They guaranteed the whole thing.
They sure did. What is it four years. They haven't seen the years yet at multi year guaranteed rookie because I think you get the two and then the two. You can do the two plus two like you can you can you can do it the exact same as a first round pick contract if you want. There's no there's a lot fewer parameters than first round picks.
But yeah, I mean, oh, like, Bronnie got it guaranteed like yeah, no shit. Well, speaking of rookies, the Bucks introduced theirs on Tuesday. AJ Johnson and Tyler Smith.
And there's a lot of people that are great. It's excited to see these guys. Okay, we've been through this routine before a couple of guys that John Horace selects and then we'll see what they do. We get excited about them. You know, Marjan or DJ Wilson or whoever.
And then there's varying results. Maybe they play a little bit. Maybe they have the AJ Jackson game. They're Andre Jackson game.
See, it's going to be very confusing. Ajax, Ajax, A Johnson, AJ Green. But I think there was a more of a it wasn't about the rookies.
It was about what is John Horst going to say about this team because outside of Dylan Wright, they haven't done anything. Yeah, and they really don't have a lot of room to do anything. I think I think they have a veteran minimum left. Where they can offer a guy like two mil. So, well, yeah, like, yeah, depends on the years of service like Dylan Wright's was 3 million. Sure, but it only counts for 2 million.
I don't know if you care about those rules. Yes, and also no and then a thirdly no. But so the avenue to get this team to be I don't even know if better is the word but different. Yeah, his trades and horses quoted today is saying we've got six returning core guys that we know are ready now to compete at a high level.
Take it to where we want to go. We have three returning young vets that contributed last year should take another jump in Marjan, AJ and Andre. That's the end of the quote. So with the six returning guys, that would be Giannis and Dame and mid and Brooke and Pat. And Bobby and I think people are reading strongly into that as if John Horst has never lied before. Remember, I asked him about Brandon Jennings if he was coming back to the herd. I remember.
No, you said well you you said coming back. How did he it was he said well Brandon Jennings be a buck today or something. And then he's and then he was not yet signed to the club. And then like minutes later. But it was to the herd.
And so Horst didn't lie, didn't lie. Got me though. Um, so there's this Bucks team, which just as my feeling about where they're at. I think that we have not seen anywhere near Giannis and Dame.
Right. And I do have the optimism about that. Middleton was great in the playoffs, especially the game they lost in overtime.
I don't know that we have, like I don't know that he's, I don't know that he's projecting upwards. This feels like we had we've seen the best of Middleton. Yeah, and Brooke, and maybe Bobby and Pat and if that's the case another year of all these guys. It almost seems like for this Bucks team to be good.
They're really banking on guys young guys who they've sort of as an organization ignored for years, and now they're going to have Doc Rivers be the one to bring along Marshawn boat champ and AJ green Andre Jackson and these two draft picks. I don't right now, the Celtics obviously are the best team in the east. I think the Knicks have put themselves right there. Oh yeah.
I think the Sixers. It just feels like I'm watching a rerun, where it's like, or it's like, I think a comparison I used on Monday was, you know, like sometimes in a sequel they can't get the original actor. Iron Man with Yeah, yeah, that's that.
Okay, that's perfect. Mm hmm. So Paul George is Don Cheadle.
Mm hmm. If Jimmy Butler, and also James Harden were Terrence Howard. It's like it's different. But the characters the same like now, Tyrese Maxey's continuing to get better so so where I'm at right now is the Celtics are just good.
So I hate it. Yeah, the Knicks certainly got better. Yeah, the Sixers have the illusion of getting better but it is still never gotten to the Eastern Conference Finals. And I'm not sure that the Bucks have. So now for a Bucks fan.
I'm relying on the three young guys. And Damon Yanis being what we thought Damon Yanis was when he was traded back last September. Yeah, it's a good summary it's if Paul George wasn't 34. 29 year old Paul George at the Clippers traded for that's one thing.
Yeah, and I think something that's I found very funny over the past 48 hours as the Paul George stuff and I apologize is really good. I don't know if you touched on it last night about just how much of a failure the Kawhi Paul George thing was, and how the Oklahoma City Thunder are the Oklahoma City Thunder now because of that trade to get rid of Paul George. They lost the short they just SGA for Paul George they lost the trade, they lost the trade just in there and you know I know there's like, yeah but Kawhi wasn't going to sign there without Paul George so you have to look at fine. They didn't do anything. It's still failed.
Signe like it was a huge failure. And there's still picks they haven't made yet. I know you've got picks in 25 and 26, by the way, bucks fan side note, think that it's hard having three AJ type names. Okay, two Jalen Williams.
Okay, we are j dub or whatever j will. But what I'll say what's funny is all of this like, wow, Paul George is really good. Who's a year older than Damian Lillard, who everyone is saying, he's so old. So, Lillard is a year younger than Paul George but yet, and this is kind of your thing like if Lillard was a Celtic and then if like if you flip the rosters, which I still agree with that. It's just the perception thing for whatever reason, but Paul George is very good the Sixers got better. They replaced to buy his Harris with Paul George, it's a good upgrade, but kind of like no matter what the bucks do like if we're talking and they make Lopez trade.
The Sixers will go as far as what MB body and health will allow if the bucks are healthy in the playoffs like there's nothing that I think can. I mean nothing will matter more right so like when you and I do our dress rehearsals when the bucks do their. What do you call them like their, their pre Broadway engagements. Yeah, the plans for the Broadway show between October and April. Like, as long as the honest is did not get hurt that night, the grade for the game should be an A plus. So good, the honest is healthy going into the playoffs they aced their pre Broadway engagement out of town like that's, that's what it is and it's the same thing for Philly. So they got better.
But I don't know. They're still not Boston, neither of the bucks. But if I mean if we could was it Tim Bond temps who I almost never agree with. I think Tim Bond temps and I was, you know, very good NBA reporter, like me and Kevin O'Connor. But I actually kind of, I mean, I like Kevin more much more so, but I never agree with Tim Bond temps, and he was like, Oh, there's this is the unquestioned in Philly. Best Big Three in basketball.
What you didn't hear this. Well then then Max he's doing a lot of the work there, Max he's awesome and I know you know that you I know when when he was having that playoff run pretty much single handedly with hobble Joel Embiid and zero point to Bob Harris. He's awesome but man that again Paul George is 34, like, at least when the Clippers traded all that for him he was 29, and you were getting Kawhi with the deal. So six years got better. Is it enough to roster wise have me think of them more than I think of the Knicks more than I think highly of the bucks.
No, but they're a lot closer. Well I think the Sixers. If you're a Sixers fan. You feel like you're better than the Knicks. But because it's new.
It's like it's a new right. And so maybe that's for the same reason if you're a Bucks fan. I don't know that we're better than the Knicks.
I don't think, I think, like I said, we talked about I think medium grant for this a little bit but I would. I was about to make a comment that I was maybe going to regret if you got that the Bucks can't beat any of these teams and not that they don't have the best player on the floor and not that Damien Lillard and Yanis Adetokounmpo could be the greatest pairing of two basketball players that ever exist. Yeah, I mean that could happen. But until it does Bart a trade just broke there's news. Okay, what the Milwaukee Bucks have just traded. Yeah, Paul, their entire roster to the New York Knicks in exchange for their entire roster.
This is a good deal for the Bucks. Mm hmm. Or, no Knicks are unquestioned the NBA favorites. Wait, what, oh you're Yanis and Dane we're in New York. Well, I see what you're saying. I see what you're doing. Come on. Yeah, I see what you're doing. Yeah, the Knicks have Yanis and Dane, we're in New York and we had the Villanova guys that'd be like, what is, what is Milwaukee doing just because they play together in college. What the hell, that's so dumb.
Yeah, no the Knicks have Yanis and Dane it's going to be, it's going to be amazing. Wow. Funny how that works. Paul Emmick's here we're into the Winklerverse, we are brought to you by, oh, there's just Paul. Okay, we are brought to you by Happy Place Hemp, HappyPlaceHemp.com. The promo code is BART for every single order that you get. I was talking to a couple of buddies and they said, yeah, you know, you got to drive to Chicago or Michigan to get some of the stuff that will relax you.
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You are drinking seltzers anyway, mix a THC one in there or specifically just go with that. HappyPlaceHemp.com, the promo code is BART, 25% off each and every order. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work, use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast, and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Just go to Indeed.com slash BlueWire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
That's Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire?
You need Indeed. I need it. Who's hosting Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? Sean Levine. Sean Levine.
Out of Kansas City. Zack's brother? Yeah. I think he said something like he's Sean Levine, the radio machine or something.
I don't know. Whatever it was, it was catchy. I was into it. Sean Levine the human suplex machine it was as good or your radio dream or something he Makes he makes use of rhyming his last name. I can't really do that Our Winkler your radio tinkler They called me stinkler yeah, they called me drinkler in college.
I wonder how that nickname came about Oh, it's gonna come about this weekend, maybe two Popping the seltzers. Yeah, you know with all due respect to Sean Levine. I Mean I was born to host these draft night free-agent night not draft night, but these free agent night show so if Sean happens to fall ill and Infinity that doesn't mind me doing it from she just made you a co-host. Yeah You go just been the show this should have been just we're pre record it Okay Here's I don't know Do you have do you do? Notifications like on do you have like a Sean's like it pops into your phone or the text message? You have a Sean's notification a whoa, which notification? I'm in enough DM groups and group text where I Someone need to do that So my test is always when a name pops in so you get the text and usually that the tweet The X the post it's too long to see Ultimately, what the Nate like what's so like in the case of this one, so I got 120 minutes It's like James Wiseman has agreed to a two-year deal with this And then you have to click on it to see the who the team is yeah, and what's fun is like that instant reaction of like and Then it either is like either I'm like like I hope that this isn't just it's not gonna click It's gonna say the box or it's like ah and I have to admit Probably very stupidly that when it said James Wiseman has agreed to sign with the dot-dot-dot.
I was like No, I would have been in yeah, that would have been fun. I mean they can't pay him but but I mean I don't I don't know what his they have not announced like the The dollars associated with his deal with the Pacers, but I was like my am I wrong to Because we're just talking about the top four teams in the East. Yeah You might want to not include the Pacers you are not wrong to include the Pacers for the same reason that you would not have Been wrong to include the Hawks. I really think it's the same thing Okay, are you saying with the Hawks comparison? Yeah, it totally is Yeah And even like the Mavs this year, right and we'll talk about that, but I don't expect him to get back Mmm. Well, let's let's talk about the Mavs because what I really want to do is talk about the Nuggets.
So when I was two players But it connects, okay For back-to-back off seasons. They lose the Nuggets lose a significant contributor. Yeah When you lose Bruce Brown and you say okay Christian Brown's gonna step up and then you lose Caldwell Pope and you say well Someone's gonna step up Peyton Watson like right if that's and these guys are kids dude Bronze 21 and Watson's 19 and that's that's that's fine and maybe they're going to reportedly Jokic really wants Russell Westbrook. I don't know if I understand why but he does and Westbrook is only no no I got the ages wrong.
Sorry. Christian Brown. Those are the ages at signing for some reason. That's what's showing on my website.
Christian Brown's what 2425. Yeah, they're in their 20s. Yeah, but regardless so I mean he Jokic apparently wants to get Westbrook on the team. So I was of the opinion during the NBA. I didn't see that. What's that? He wants Westbrook? Yeah, like in between his horse riding. Jokic gave an opinion.
I know isn't that interesting? But I think the Nuggets were the only team. I think myself like you like many Bucks fans the goal of these past playoffs once the Bucks were eliminated was like let's have the Celtics not win and I thought the only team who could have done that was Denver. Yeah, that was that was the team who if Boston wasn't going to win the finals, I would have preferred to have watched the series against Minnesota against Boston, but Boston, I think would have trounced to Minnesota. I think that obviously end up happening with Dallas but Denver. I don't think so this is that when you talk about a window and we talked about Bucks windows like if you stack up a big four and I said this on the on the pod before Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon is an incredible like I don't think you can construct. I know Boston is a great roster, but one through four that is amazing, but I don't think you can recover from back to back off seasons of Bruce Brown who I really like and Contavious Caldwell Pope who's really good. I think that window is definitely not closed because Jokic is the best player in the world. I still maintain that to be true, but that depth is really really in question. They're like us.
That's what I say. So I think now so the Nuggets if all of a sudden it's like okay like you really should have not bowed out the way you did these past playoffs because your roster is worse again than what it was when you win the whole thing and now you take another step back. I don't I would you know in July here, I would pick the Nuggets to win a series against Dallas at full health both teams. But it wasn't like Dallas just added Klay Thompson. They got Quinton Grimes who I certainly like more than Tim Hardaway Jr. They lost Derek Jones Jr., but they got Najee Marshall. They're not as good as Boston.
Dallas isn't but in terms of winning the West, I don't know so I don't know if you've touched on Denver at all, but I think that they're experiencing now what the Bucks have been experiencing, which is you're going to get in a situation like okay. So what minimum guys do we sign and this I mean I think it's the stupid thing that happened is Denver could have paid Caldwell Pope. They had bird rights. Now they would have had a tax bill the size of Golden State, the size of Boston, but once you lose Caldwell Pope, you can't okay. I'm going to let's use that money on something else. We could really use a fill in the blank type of player.
Now it's just gone. Yeah like our argument with Chris all the time or even when the Bucks thought they had a deal or fans thought the Bucks had a deal with PJ Tucker and I'm not like here to advocate for PJ Tucker, but then you lost PJ Tucker for nothing and then it was yeah, but they got Grayson Allen in this other trade and so they chose Grayson Allen over PJ fine, but you could have had both. And you said well, there's there's financial implications and not salary cap implications. Just money out of the pockets of the ownership group implications.
Which one ended up dipping out anyway. How much did you hit on that story last night Boston and I don't know how much why is everyone like collectively yawning about that whatever they're selling. They're good for them. No, there's an interesting angle to it because you've seen the mat like Cuban sold and he's sold to a group that wants to get a casino attached to a stadium in Texas and Boston could maybe do that. They don't own the TD Garden, so they don't make money off of it. So they could get to a point where they build a new arena, not the garden.
Oh really and attach a casino to it in Massachusetts. That seems to be what a lot of the thinking is. But yeah, I don't I don't know it's not a it's not as sexy owners saying that they're gonna sell doesn't play as well as owners that say they're not gonna sell that need to sell like who we talked about like Washington like John Fisher and Dan Snyder and yeah or like the Timberwolves situation which is all strange.
Yeah, it just struck me here before we get into some of the other ones. We didn't really talk a lot about Delon Wright. And I forgot when I was mentioning the roster, I forgot about his place on it. Yeah, but I mean you traded Delon Wright from Malik Beasley. Yeah and Wright played well when he was asked to for the Heat last year.
Yeah, I like him. But he didn't play a lot. He played he got traded from Washington.
I mean he's playing 18 minutes a night. Yeah. I'm trying to remember back to that Heat series.
I'll have to look it up. But again, if I if this is the if the in the in the in terms of the balance of power in the East, it's fair to say from an outsider's perspective, the Sixers add Paul George, the Knicks add Mikel Bridges, the Bucks add Delon Wright. I get it like I get why that is something that you'd say well that doesn't stack up which team got better and and I think all of that is fine and we can talk about Delon Wright. But like I was saying earlier with with Paul George and Embiid, it's like if Dame comes back in shape, you know, just to kinda use his own words and Giannis comes back and like I don't know if you saw this clip of him hitting free throw after free throw after free throw. I did in like eight seconds.
Yeah, like in a short time period of just like not spending all day at the line. Like if those if Giannis is the best he's ever been and if Dame is as good as he's ever been, the Bucks are great. Like yes, you shouldn't if you're John Horst, you don't rest on that and you don't say, well, I guess I throw my hands up and I just wait to see if Giannis and Dame are both 100% versions of themselves.
Like there's nothing I can do about it. Like no, you should be trying to improve the roster. And Delon Wright is a better fit next to Dame. Just like Malik Beasley would have been a better fit next to Drew.
Like it just the timing was poor, right? Because they hadn't Beasley who did oh good. Someone who can shoot the ball and Drew can guard out there but then you're stuck with Beasley and Lillard. So like it just the timing was all bad but yeah, I think Delon Wright is a fine addition. He's a better, he's obviously a better fit next to Damian Lillard than than what Beasley was.
Even though that was obviously never the intention to have those guys team up. But yeah, I mean this is this is Delon Wright's 9th team. So like I'm I'm cool to get excited about it but you know he's a 32 year old guy who's been on nine teams so.
I saw a report too. Jabari Parker may have some interest. Do you do you do you want to do this?
I want Jabari Parker back. I'm not saying you don't. And yeah. Do I want to do this? Do you want to do this? No. What I want to say is that if you have the chance and I don't know this full situation but if you have the chance to retire. Just retire.
For Jabari? No. Oh okay. I just. Just. You've lived a life.
You've covered it all. I would argue though this is the story he was born to tell. But is there even a story?
Or is there like this is my last chance? Yeah. I mean honestly the problem with you know fulfilling your dream of having Jabari and Thon as like the last two, three guys added to the roster.
As silly as that might be and as half serious I think and half joking that you are about that. Drafting two 19 year olds and pairing them on a roster that already has Bo Champ and Ajax and AJ Green and Livingston is like there's no spots for like the Jabaris cuz you have six ultra young guys on rookie contracts. You signed Alon Wright.
You have your core six even if like two of those guys from that core six. Let's say Pat and Brook are traded. You you there's there's no flyers really for Jabari.
There's no flyer for really anyone cuz you've put and I'm not saying it's the wrong strategy by the way. I would much rather the Bucks use one of their 19 roster one of their 15 roster spots on 19 year old AJ Johnson than on Jabari Parker. Like it would be a more fun story if it was Jabari but in terms of the future of this franchise, I'm glad that they're devoting if it was like alright, let's flip a coin. Jabari's on the heads and AJ Johnson's on the tails like they they correctly chose tails but what do you say? Go ahead.
No II interrupted you. I was asked a question about are the Bucks do we all are we all freaking out because this window looks like are they really gonna win here or is this a Bucks team that is building for 2627? Is this a Bucks team that I'll pull up the track here. Is this a Bucks team that is building for the Giannis era after this era ends which makes you have to assume okay is you know Giannis still going to be here. I don't know that there's any indication he's ever given us that he wouldn't and if you look at this um you kinda have to squint with your on the Dan Cheney YouTube but you've got Giannis who is under contract through 2627 with an option in 2728. Lillard would have to go into his option in 2627 but Middleton's off. Bobby's off.
Conotons off. You could still get Beau Champ. You can have these young guys.
Um so maybe they're partially building towards some sort of some sort of team uh to compete. Yeah, if you can compete now in the next couple of years, I'm not I'm not saying that but is John Horst thinking about now but also thinking about the future in the same way and if I'm John Horst, you know, I don't know if I'm still gonna be here but if I'm John Horst, I keep talking about man. Um and people keep wanting me to get Giannis resigned and I keep getting Giannis resigned. So, if I'm here, there's no situation where I won't be able to resign him.
I'll be able to bring him back um without issue. So, then I volley the question to you, Paul. Is there some sort of way where you think Horst in this like his mindset is now we are trying to win now. Yeah. But also, I'm also planning for after these contracts that everyone wants me to move that I just flat out cannot.
Mm hmm. I'm also trying to be good then instead of just having Giannis and fading into obscurity. Not that he's got the right guys but um you know, he's seeing what's happening with the Warriors. Yeah. They're not, they're not, they're not gonna win a title without Clay. They're not gonna win one with Clay. Well, I feel like what you're describing though is a little bit of what you saw first hand which was the varsity and the JV thing at the same time.
Yeah. And the Bucks have six guys on JV right now. Two of which AJ Green and Ajax who could very much be part of the varsity roster. Yeah, you know, get regular playing time but that's a big percent of an only fifteen-man roster. And you need a lot of these guys to hit and it's not like we have number two, you know, overall draft picks in the bunch. I mean, we're we're banking on guy wear number 77. See like when I I'm a I'm a multi-years in the future planning type of guy.
Bit of a robot admittedly. Like one of the things that I think about is as I see these franchises either completely hit it out of the park like the Oklahoma City Thunder or you see some of the faltering that a lot of these teams do where they end up. I mean, the Warriors turned their situation of, you know, Jordan Poole and Chris Paul and Clay Thompson into two second-round picks. You know, like they they turned down a chance reportedly of getting Caminga, Moody, and two firsts in order to do the Paul George trade because the Clippers said, no, we'd rather not have him go to Golden State.
Yeah. And I'm not saying that that's the Warriors fault but then they end up waving Chris Paul for nothing and so I start thinking hopefully deep, deep, deep into the future and I would, I mean, if the time ever comes where the Bucks have Giannis as their best player, Brooke is retired, Chris is retired, Lillard is retired, Pat, Bobby, they're gone or retired. So, it's just Giannis.
So, just Giannis and then it's like, I don't know, Bo Champ, Andre Jackson Jr., AJ Green, and like whoever else they've added on the. Well, they'd have cap room at this point. Then they'd have cap room and then maybe you get your own 34-year-old version of Paul George, right? Like, whatever these things can happen. But if that ends up being the case and you're just like scratching to be the sixth best team in your conference. I know it's kinda dark but like I want Giannis to retire a Buck but if forced between like hanging on and hanging on and hanging on and just basically like what the Clippers are doing like where they're they re-sign James Harden and Kawhi and but now you're like, oh, like, I guess we're gonna replace Paul George with Derek Jones Jr. Who's a fine player and but I don't know. Like.
I have this guy that calls in to tell me the Warriors should trade Steph Curry and then a bunch of other callers call in and yell at him but. See, like, I. I'm not gonna win. I wouldn't want the nostalgia. As a Warriors fan, I wouldn't wanna be like, well, I can completely reset the franchise.
Or I can cling to dear life for the play in. Which is what the Warriors are doing. So.
I think they should have kept like I think they should have worked it out. Yeah. You've got I like I was very much against what the Lakers did that Kobe year. Yes. Yeah. They won fifteen games and they just gave him a year. But he won five titles with them. Right. And we're trying to think of other examples and Derek Jeter had won five titles and they just kept on to him forever. Mm hmm. If the Bucks had won four titles with Middleton and Giannis and Drew.
Just run it into the ground. Just I mean, four titles, you guys. Four titles and now it's gotta end badly between Clay and the Warriors and I know they paid him a bunch of money when he wasn't playing. Um and they, you know, gave him deals but I saw one report that Clay was telling Steph, don't. Yeah.
Don't use your influence. Mm hmm. If they want me, they want me. Yep.
And so he must have felt like they didn't want him and clearly they didn't. I mean, Bob Myers knew this was coming. Everyone knew that.
Everyone, everyone says that like they're like, do you think that's why Bob? Well, no, no kidding. Yeah.
Don't think I've sworn yet in this one. Mm. I hit one earlier. An SH one but yeah. Oh. Sorry. Nah. That don't matter.
I don't know. I do think it's fair though. So like the I I saw your friend Kevin O'Connor. I saw his ringer piece earlier today and like I do think it's fair when the national perspective of where the Bucks are at and here's here's the exact headline from KOC's piece. The Milwaukee Bucks are confusing me. That's totally fair.
Like I know we can be all. What what's confusing about it? They're stuck. No, I think the confusing thing is that they drafted how they did yet again when you could have had Ryan Dunn. You could have had uh Tyler Kolak like there. Okay.
Sure. There would have been guys who say, hey, you know what? I know Doc River doesn't traditionally play rookies. I know they don't have this high of upside in theory as AJ Johnson or Tyler Smith.
But they could they're ready to at least be given a chance to try to earn minutes. So, I think the confusing part is that the Bucks are repeating the failed experiment of the Warriors which is Varsity and JV. Albeit with a far worse JV team.
Like the Warriors JV, yes, Wiseman has failed. But Kaminga and Moody and now Pajemski and it's like their JV team kicks ass or at least kicked ass in past tense. And I mean, the Bucks JV compared to that and again, the Bucks varsity team has won one title.
The Warriors varsity team won four titles. So, I don't know. I guess I just start to think about like as the Bucks have no control of their future first round picks of the ones that they can actively do anything about. And I think what's confusing, I mean, we live and breathe the Bucks so we get to kind of see it. I think what's always funny too is like Bucks fans are defensive to the national media about like, oh, but then in our own universe, everyone's like Horst is, what is he doing? What is he doing? But he's our reason to be question.
He's not, you're not allowed to. Right. Which is, you know, the typical thing that happens but and then the second KLC point in his article was Brooke Lopez is twisting in the wind and he goes into detail about, you know, and again, take take John Horst's comments today in the same vein as what you did when John told Bart that Brandon Jennings will not be part of the Bucks at all. Again, much less later that day, later that morning.
It means nothing. They're they're clearly still fielding offers. But it's not like, I mean, even if you're like, oh yeah, but Andre Drummond is still out there.
He's not. Like, there's no, there's you and even if you did, like, Brooke Lopez has a very unique skill set in terms of like. Yeah, it's always pumped about Wiseman. Yeah, even if it's just like the idea of James Wiseman. And by the way, speaking to Varsity and JV, I mean, what would have been the case if they had drafted LaMelo instead? Yeah. I mean, that would have, where would they be?
And I know he's always injured and he's certainly an unfocused individual but if he was on Golden State competing for championships and as opposed to like the worst franchise in the league in Charlotte like that, he could be a totally different player, a totally different person. But I, I think the reason we could have almost waited to do this. Do you, do you think, okay, how about this?
I'll you. It hasn't happened yet but the Bucks are going to trade Brooke Lopez. I don't think any of these people are getting moved. I don't think so. No, you don't, so you think Horst is, okay, go ahead. Like, if he gets traded, I'll pop on the internet again. Jeez. But I don't, I don't, I think this is our team.
See, that's where I'm at too. I mean, that's why it's like, okay, well, do you, do you wait to do this NBA thing, this NBA discussion until the Bucks make their big trade? First off, their big trade didn't happen until September of this past season, right? Yeah. I don't see that.
Was it even, was it even October? I don't see. I mean, who's that going to be this time? Donovan Mitchell re-up today. Yeah.
It's not. I mean, and like, I see some people getting excited about the Lakers are interested in Brooke and then I see some things where it's like, in exchange, the Bucks got Jared Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura. I mean, I think about our guys. Like, they're good players, Vanderbilt and Rui are, but like, that's what you're, I mean, don't trade Brooke to trade Brooke, right? Well, that's what I think that's what we want to do, even though, but, but then we've also been like, God trade Pat, God trade Pat, God trade Bobby, God trade Bobby.
I'm more okay with God, I'm more okay with the reshuffling of the Bobby and Pat deck chairs, but Brooke is a very unique deck chair. But it's like putting something in the bin to take the goodwill and then trying to also sell it. For sure. It's like, it's, if you're putting it in a pile that you're going to donate it, you understand that it doesn't have a lot of value for you to try to make a sale. Sure. It might have value for you to take to a place which then helps.
And then someone gets a nice thing for affordable price, but you're not, you can't, you can't recognize that something is no longer valuable to you and think it's going to be intrinsically valuable to others. I know what you're saying, and I agree. I mean, but the other thing that should be mentioned with the bucks specifically is we've talked about the Denver Nuggets window. Chris Middleton has a player option next off season, right?
Brooke Lopez is expiring. So yeah, they're drafting all these young guys, but you talk about like future roster construction in the 25, 26 seasons. So essentially a year from now, Yannis and Dame are making the exact same amount of money, 54.126380. In other words combined, they're making $108 million at which Middleton could opt out of his player option. They figured out in the past, they could figure it out again. That's possible.
But Brooke is gone. Bobby has a player option. Pat has a player option. And then the rest of the roster are the guys, the J's, the J's player options.
Horst always gives the player option, dude. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you didn't Bobby and Pat didn't have a player option.
They both, I mean, it changed everything. I know. And it's like, okay, but that means you can at least extend them. Yeah.
But do you want to extend them? No, he, he won't. He, you need expiring deals to move guys. But you, I mean, and that's the problem is like, you don't because he doesn't let it happen. Right.
So you're just kind of, you're, you're stuck. It's not that good of a GM, dude. So I almost, I almost had this as like my, because let me be, was that why he got hired? He got hired to keep you honest here. That was his job. He did it. I mean, and mission accomplished, right? So you often talk about, or in the past, at least how your, your Madden work has prepped you to be an eight, nine, nine and eight NFL coach.
Yeah. I'm not trying to undersell John horse value or overinflate my own ego, but I'm pretty confident the bucks would be in the same place with the same number of championships. If I had been given that job, like given what I was handed, which is Giannis and Chris. And like people act, people act about these GMs. Like there's some guys that magically fell out of the sky or they were grown in this GM land. I mean, before John horse with John horse, he was just a Paul image out there in the world. And do people, I honestly, I know you have like the people forget joke, but do people forget how John horse got this job?
Yeah. But more than that, it's because the new bucks ownership group couldn't decide if Justin Xanax was their guy or not. And then they said, like, remember they had like the, the three, the three problems of like the triangle and it's like, Oh, well, all three of us have to agree, but they couldn't agree on that. But they had already brought him in to be like the associate GM. And then just like, I don't know, let's give it to the fucking kid. And when Horst was in the early stages of his role, he was by far the lowest paid general manager in sports. Yeah, like, don't get me wrong. I'll take $400,000 a year.
There was 500 or something in that range. And now he's making a lot more horses. And he's, he's wanted like the Detroit Pistons wanted to give this guy trades and Langdon's job. The bucks didn't allow it. He's I mean, come on.
I'm not I'm not trying to discredit him at all. But if you handed me got his and Chris and some parts. I don't know, I think you could competently put together enough that if you got it all right. Are you sure?
Are you sure you could do it? You know, you would be trying to win championships in 2030. You and you. I would have traded Brooke and Chris by now for sure. You would have more future picks than the Thunder do. My JV team would be plentiful. You would own the entire 31 draft.
Somehow. But I really honestly would run my team very much like Sam Presti runs his teams. I would like the Thunder GM. That's, that's, that's fair. But I would have get that I think I could get that one championship before I did that. Well, with that, yeah, I don't, I don't just, I don't discredit you.
I don't, I'm not gonna argue. So wait here, but I'm not trying to like, anoint myself as the David Shepherd, David Shepherd of like taking the Lakers job, because you know what, I once really managed a good NBA 2k roster. I was really good. But all jokes aside, like, like, I'd be a bad football coach.
Just time management wise, I'm better than these people. Right? Yeah. But the Bucks do have a I mean, the window is not pretend. There's all these reports like in terms for the Bucks, the Rockets reportedly told Brook Lopez last offseason when they were courting him, hey, you know, the Bucks are that they might give you this two year and $50 million deal, but they're, they're gonna probably trade you next offseason when you're expiring. And, you know, credit to Brooke, thankfully, because if Brooke walked again, much like Caldwell Pope in Denver. Oh, yeah, I guess that is their expiring deal.
Yeah, that is. That's the only one they have. So, while Brooke is really tough to replace, and you shouldn't trade Brooke to trade Brooke, you have, you have to shuffle things around to not make this a team that's Giannis and Dame making $109 million next year with three expirings, Chris, Pat, not expirings, three player options, Chris, Bobby, and Pat, with now Brook Lopez is gone. And yeah, you have the rights to retain Brooke, but how many more times are you going to extend mid to late? Oh, all these guys when they're, I think they're done when they're done. I think Chris is done when he's done. I think Brook's done when he's done. They're not bringing him back. So, then, then you've committed 75% of your cap to two players, and you have AJ Green, Marjon Beauchamp, Andre Jackson Jr., Chris Livingston, Tyler Smith.
It's, I mean, I, I hope that they're not done shopping, or at least listening, because they, they, they aren't a really, really, you know what, maybe this would be a good topic for you at some point at a national level. I've said they're like the Suns. The Suns and them are all, they're stuck. Well, the topic I was thinking it was like, who has the tightest, smallest window in the NBA to like, you, you have, if you screw this up this year, it's over.
But you have two years, and then, and then it's over. This, I think the Suns, like the Bucks, I think this year is it. The Bucks need to create a sense of urgency because this, they're not, this is, yeah, this is it. They're, they're, I don't, you're not going to have a team in three years that still has all these guys. You're not going to have a team next year. This is Brook's last season as a Buck.
Yeah. And again, you will not, it, let's say Brook leaves in free agency a year from now and takes a one-year deal with Houston a year from now. They're not going to have cap space to, okay, yeah, yeah, but they can, then they'll just be like, whoever the new Isaiah Hartenstein is.
No, like you won't have, you won't have any room to do anything. So, if you're going to prepare for that loss, and if your 2024, 2025 team doesn't get markedly worse in the meantime, do you have to consider the Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura thing? You know, I don't know. Oh, you trade in Dame at some point?
It depends. But yeah. I mean, where they're, where they're at now, they're in a position where they have to go with what they've got. Including Brook. I don't think they get better with the Brook trade.
I don't, see, and that's the thing, I don't either. It's like you'd be extending the window. But I think everybody would be excited about a Brook trade, even if it was that trade, because it'd be new. It would be new, but also you could then say you have two competent pieces, in this case, you know, Rui and Jared Vanderbilt.
Neither of which individually is as good, but at least you now expanded your depth by one guy. Lastly, but then who does go up against MB? Who does go up?
And it's like, okay, fine. What about the other 26 teams who don't have dominant centers? Just kind of, then you're just kind of saying, well, what's the luck of our draw in the playoffs? Like, what seed do we need to be?
What, who do you have to avoid in the playoffs? I don't know. When I realized I enjoy like these kind of conversations about Middleton, I don't like talking about Brook. I don't know why. Is it cuz he's a Disney adult? It has to be.
You sickos. What do you think DeRozan signs? Now he's saying one year deal. Then that would, he is, he's an LA guy. But no one's got room. Well, LeBron hasn't officially signed his thing yet.
Oh, that's true. So, he can still make that exception where he's like, how much does DeRozan need to make for one year? I think, well, I mean, if he was a truly, truly maxed out his value, he'd get in the 20s.
I think if he goes to the Lakers, he'll get like thirteen to fifteen a year. Yeah, I'm looking at Keith Smith had a max spending power tweet. Okay. He has. Mm hmm.
The Lakers, I think there's a lot of teams that could offer maybe twelve or there's a few teams but the Lakers would be the only one you'd consider out of that or Indiana. I don't know. Probably not. No. Houston.
That would be interesting. Orlando could give him up to twenty-four and Utah could give him up to thirty-eight. He's not going to Utah. I'd live in Detroit twenty-six. Even after Tobias?
Yeah. Cap room. They still got room. I bet DeRozan would go to the Lakers. Or the Clippers. Uh the Clippers couldn't do it though, could they? Clippers are vet men.
Well, they could but I think DeRozan though, he can still be signed and traded. Oh, sure. So.
Okay, yeah, I'm just looking at free agent. Yeah. Okay, that's see that's very confusing. Uh. It is very confusing.
Very confusing sport. Well, thanks for joining me. Yeah. You're welcome.
Unless you had anything else to get off your chest about. Oh god. I'm sure you have, I'm sure you have Chris Paul to the Spurs thoughts.
I don't. Hey, how about this though? Speaking of the Spurs, we'll maybe we'll end on this. The Spurs also reportedly have Brook Lopez interest. Who are we getting back? Mamu?
Keldon Johnson. Well, then who's our center? That's, I mean, I don't know. The whole problem with this whole thing. The Rui and Jared Vanderbilt thing. Who's the center?
I don't know. I guess you could get. Unless we sign Daniel Tice. I mean, he's your third string big. Like, he's your starting center. Could they give us Zach Collins?
I swear to you, I was about to say like, they could maybe do like Collins plus Keldon for Brook and Pat. Like, you could do that, I think. I think that's legal. Well, then, what are we doing?
Well, you're getting younger though. Like, I mean, that's kind of the question is how, how all in are you? Because if you were all in all in for this year. Keldon is an Olympian. I don't know.
I wouldn't, you know. And he had a he had a big step back this past season. He's whatever the opposite of improving is. Deproving. Deproving.
Deproving. But also you're stuck on a really weird Spurs team where they didn't have a point guard and where it's like him and Devin Vissell fighting for corner shots while clearly the only thing anybody wants is to give Wembe the ball and I'm keeping all my Keldon Johnson, Keldon Johnson stock. So, I would be pretty stoked about that even though I fully acknowledge that like present day Keldon is not the same but yeah, what do you got? You know, you said acknowledge. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I got you. So, I acknowledged you.
I got you. I'll be on Infinity Sports Net on Tuesday night and then I think I'm gonna stay in bed Wednesday and try to pick my kid up from daycare. I got a whole day off. I thought I would, I thought I would, I thought I would attack the world and get some stuff done around the house. I I think I'm gonna sleep.
I'm I need to sleep. Yeah. Will you do me a favor and what are you gonna do Bart-O-Meter tonight as like because you're not gonna be there. No, I'm gonna skip a week.
Seth Partnell will be joining the show tonight. Oh, nice. Yeah. Okay. Anchorage man. Mm hmm.
To talk just anything NBA? He joined me during COVID to break down COVID numbers. Remember that? No, I don't think I do. Yeah, we're statistically looking at COVID spread.
On your sports show. Yeah. Okay. Remember, remember COVID? I remember when you had significant time dedicated to Tiger King? No. Shut up. Oh, we didn't talk about Tiger King.
Everyone else did. We didn't do, we did it as a joke then. Maybe.
Maybe? We were not the Tiger King show. You did do a lot of Last Dance documentary stuff. That you did. Well, cuz we had Horvat. And cuz you had nothing else to talk about. You had like MLB trying not to come back. Sorta kinda not trying to come back. We'd get to know your weather man.
Uh meteorologist. Tim. Post. There's two minutes to go, Tim.
You can just call it there, buddy. I haven't had Tim on in a while. I should probably talk to Tim. Is that why ratings are up?
Yeah. Tim, cut that. Tim, Tim, cut your own burn. Bye, Bart. Thank you, Paul. Bye. We'll be back with another episode. God only knows when.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-07-02 16:24:17 / 2024-07-02 16:49:12 / 25
