The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast #30. NBA free agency moves, Durant/Kyrie predictions, Summer League

Hey, what's up, everybody?

It's the Rich Isaac Show Basketball Podcast. We're back. Hey. That just fell flat.

All right, everybody. We're back. We're back. We're back. Off last week. Hope you guys had a great Fourth of July holiday.

Hope you've been enjoying Summer League and NBA Free Agency and all the crazy mad rumors. We were just talking about Harrison Ford right before we came on the air. He's 80 today, guys.

That is absolutely insane. He has no basketball ties whatsoever. I have no idea that we know. But are you Han Solo or Indiana Jones, Adam? He's from Chicago. He's your guy. I'm more of an Indiana Jones guy. Okay. I like the adventures that he has in that.

Yeah, I mean, I enjoy that. TJ Han Solo or Indiana Jones. I mean, what an impossible question, because I know Star Wars. I was a kid when that came out. I mean, I was like four. But for some reason, I can still vividly recall.

So huge Star Wars fan. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first movie I ever saw twice. Two consecutive times in a movie theater. Like I went and then I somehow snuck in like the same day or next day. Didn't leave the theater. You just stayed.

I was like 10 or 11. Yeah. So that's really, really tough, man. That's awesome. I know you hate it when I do this. So I guess you got to go with your first love. And that would be Han Solo.

Yeah, but that's a tough one. Did you just chill like in the in the in the hallway or like in the theater? Basically, what I can remember from that day is I think maybe our church group of kids went and we went to the theater and we watched it. And then all I can remember is like.

Oh, here's what happened. We went to go see one movie that I didn't want to see. So I went into I kind of snuck in myself to see Indiana Jones. And the movie had already started. So I got to see probably two thirds of it.

Then I just hung around and dipped back in and then watched the entire movie. So it was the same day. And that's kind of how how that happened. That's incredible. Yeah. So Harrison Ford. Oh, man.

Awesome. Fugitive. I might watch The Fugitive tonight.

True story. I've never seen The Fugitive. Oh, that's bad. Oh, my gosh.

That's bad, isn't it? You need to watch The Fugitive tonight. It's got to be on some streaming.

Just find it. I think it takes place in the town next to me where I grew up. I think it takes place in Lake Forest, Illinois. I mean, it's all in Chicago. All of it is in Chicago.

They use local Chicago actors. What's your face has been here? So many. Should we play that? Jane Lynch? We play the story all the time. I know it's bad. Oh, wow. How many Jones won the Academy Award for Supporting Actor? I know it's a good. OK, OK, good.

Just watch it. Well, just kind of looking at Harrison Ford's background in sports. I'm just now seeing here that he when he graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois, he was his voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station. OK. And he was its first sportscaster during its senior year.

That's incredible. So there's some Harrison Ford sports. Big guy. So it wouldn't surprise me that if he played football or something growing up, I didn't even mention that in another world he could have been the next Bob Costas or somebody like that. Wow.

Could you imagine what would our world be like with no Harrison Ford? Not as fun. I could tell you that. Not as fun. All right. Speaking of fun, let's get to the NBA stuff that's been going on, guys.

Oh, wow. What a crazy off season it's been so far. Not like huge moves. It's just been a lot of guys kind of resigning and reading up, reading upping with their teams like Joker sign, you know, the biggest contract ever. Dave Willard got a two year bajillion dollar extension with Portland, which is crazy to think about. Zion got his. Who else?

Who am I missing? Zach Lavine reoffed with you guy with Chicago. So just James Harden took less money to stay with. Has he resigned, though? Has he? Did he announce a deal yet?

I don't know if the pens technically been put to paper, but apparently from all points. Yes, he's doing so. He rejected his or turned down his player option for like 47 million or something, just so the team could have a little more flexibility. I think basically his move is going to get them an extra four million to play with. I was actually thinking about I was hearing somebody else talk about it.

It seemed like it was smart strategy. He turned down. Take less. Take less. Take 30 million instead of 47.

You're not starving. But if he has a good year, then he can sign a max, you know, probably for a little bit more. So you're turning down a little bit to maybe get another three year 100 million down the line. Chris, I find a little ridiculous because it's like at this point you keep getting older and your skills are diminishing. So it's like, wait a minute.

So now we kind of already have this conversation about your diminished returns. But now we're like, oh, well, we're still going to give you a huge contract like next year. That that's just weird to me. I know that's how it works.

It's weird. But also the thing with Harden is, OK, you know, I don't know what his net worth is, but he signed a couple hundred million dollar contracts with Adidas. Right.

Like he had a massive okay. And he's already had a massive contract. So at this point, I don't know. James Harden I don't know his mentality is. I obviously you can't tell someone that you have enough money.

Oh, so he did sign a two year 68 68. OK. My thing with that is what you said. If you already got that money and you've got the accolades, there's one thing that's missing off this James Harden resume and that is that's the title. So at some point you're going to have to like say, all right, you want money. You have a lot of money.

Do you want to give your team the flexibility to add pieces so that you can get that one thing that's kind of keeping you off of those all time great lists? So I kind of hope that's where his mentality was. If you recall last year, right after the NBA finals, we got to see your honest going to Chick-fil-A. He was having fun. He's amazing. Remember what I told? I don't know if you remember what I told you, but I told you, man, I hope right now, Joel Embiid is watching every clip of this and saying there's no reason that this cannot be me. And, you know, he did come out and being had a fantastic year, could have been MVP. And it seemed like he really did kind of I don't know if it was the honest thing that made him work extra hard, but he had a great season.

Of course, injuries hurt him. So I'm hoping that maybe Harden sees that same thing because remember a few years ago, guys, we had a bunch of point cards and was, you know, Wall and D Rose and Steph and Harden and Russ. And at that point, you may have put Steph Curry is like fifth best on that list, right? Now, Harden sees that like if I want to like be the man or, you know, kind of raise myself on this list, he's got to get it. Well, TJ, what's interesting is I've noticed a lot on social media that there are random sightings of James Harden in public gyms throughout the country. Yeah, I don't know what you really seen this. Yeah, I've seen one or two. Yeah, there's been there's been a few videos of people just posting workout videos. Then, like in the background, again, it's on a TikTok video. It'll just show James Harden.

Like, yeah, I don't like it. Tuesday afternoon in L.A. fitness. Yeah, we're putting in work, man. So it looks like he's putting in work and he's in the weight room when they show him. And there's another video.

I don't know if you guys saw this. He was with Maxie working out and Sam Cassell is leading the workout. It was hilarious because James Harden looks so confused during the workout because it was essentially a drill to do medium range jump shots. And first of all, that's not in James Harden's vocabulary or his game.

It doesn't know that is to begin with. Well, maybe he needs to know because I'm a big proponent that obviously James Harden is not the guy to maybe take this advice. But yesterday we talked on the big show, Chris, and, you know, kind of jokingly I said, well, Steph Curry ruined basketball. And you're like, how?

Why? And I'm like, because Steph Curry has been blessed by the Lord above. I mean, like every one of us is shot a basketball well into the thousands of times.

None of us are a million with close to being anywhere skilled or as good as Steph Curry shooting a ball. But what that did was much like when a one mix tapes came out. Right. And you watched a bunch of people doing a bunch of stuff that most people can't do. And then you ran out there and you tried to incorporate it in your game and failed miserably. Oh, yeah. The one move where you like you fall on the ground, like all of those moves around the back.

I mean, I can remember watching your shirt and one mix tapes. And the second that VCR tape ran out, we were hitting the court. I think with Steph, you see a guy who makes it look so fluent and so easy. And then you also have clays doing it and like, OK, let's everybody shoot from 30 feet.

Not everybody can do that. So I mean, it was kind of joking. He ruined basketball, but I don't know.

Come to your own conclusion. You remember that Nike commercial they did with all those guys, too? Oh, yeah.

It was awesome. So it's miles. Yeah. So I only know one guy. This guy, Barry Baker, I went to college with. He one of the greatest athletes in the history of Long Island was end up being like a prop forty nine guy and played football at Syracuse.

He could do every one of those and one moves. He was the best basketball player I've ever played with. Pickup. Phenomenal.

Unbelievable. And him and I had this like thing go and I got a lot of respect in Syracuse. TJ doesn't believe it, but I was a really good pickup player in college. And would you play with a lot of the football players?

Yes. So the football players, one season ended, they come up and play. Dwight Franey dunked on my friend in a pickup game. It was incredible. And it's like this dude, Barry Baker, could do all of the end one moves. And I'd never seen anybody do those before. And it was it just blew my mind in 2000.

That just blew your mind. The cool thing also that I thought was incredible was when skips my lure fear, Alston, he was the and one mixtape legend, and then he actually had a good career. I was so happy when that happened, because I used to love watching his tape constantly and then going to the park and failing to do his moves every single time, having fun doing it. So, TJ, you kind of got into it before I got a chance to set it up, but I wanted us to talk about our own teams. Just going to be a short pod today, but I wanted to talk about our own teams and how we view and how we feel about the moves or no moves our teams kind of made in the beginning of NBA free agency.

We're like two weeks into it now. We're still waiting for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to maybe change teams. We'll talk about that in a second. But how do you feel Philadelphia?

We'll start with them. How do you think Philadelphia is done in the off season so far? Let me just pull up their moves here real quick so I can intelligently talk about happy that hard in his back.

Yeah, I mean, look, what are you going to do? Let him walk like you can't let James Harden walk. He didn't do what a lot of people thought he could do. But right off the bat, if you recall, when the trade was made, I looked at that 24 games and was like, I'm not sure if this is enough time to really mesh. Now they played great with him there.

The record obviously was I want to say that they were 13 and two, maybe the first 15 games started out amazing, amazing. So, you know, I'm happy he's back, you know, with some really good additions. You know, but the bottom line is no matter who you put on this team, right? The bottom line is this Joelle Embiid has to stay healthy.

And if he can stay healthy, then, you know, the Sixers could go as far as he takes him. That's just the only problem, right? It's just every year it's something it's a it's a finger. It's this, it's that it's a wayward elbow breaking his eye socket, you know, and so got a lot of bad luck, a lot of bad luck that it's really frustrating. But, you know, the Anthony Melton, he's he's going to be a nice addition to the squad. Obviously, P.J. Tucker, you're not sure what you're going to get out of P.J. I believe he's 30, not 37, but very team friendly deal.

Three years, 30 some million dollars. He's going to bring what they call the dog to the team, which is necessary. So, again, you're not you're not signing P.J.

Tucker in hopes of getting 20 points a game. It's more what he brings to the culture, what he brings on the defensive side of the ball. And, you know, Daniel House, you know, we got some some decent guys, you know, Maxie, his his growth is going to be just paramount for this team to move on. And, you know, I'm a Tobias Harris fan.

I know there were rumbles about him getting moved. But, you know, Tobias Harris is the fourth best player on your team. I think you're doing all right for yourself. So I'm excited. It all is going to come down to Embiid's health and how dedicated James Harden is, because if James Harden is like, I want what Steph's got.

They could be very dangerous. Yeah, it's kind of like what Rich said, like, you know, he kind of said it half kidding, but not really. You know, James Harden should call Tom Brady and be like, look, bro, you are older in your career and you completely change your diet, you change your fitness, you change the way you train. And now here you are, you're going to be 45. You know, obviously, well, we're not going to see an NBA player at age 45. But, you know, maybe LeBron knows. Yeah, I mean, yeah, maybe. I mean, LeBron's kind of on that same Brady trajectory.

But like, you know, you have a way to extend your career and still be successful and play at a high level. How do you feel about Philly's got 14 to one title odds? How do you feel about those? You know, I'm not, as you know, really great with the odds. So I don't really know if that's those are good odds or bad. They're eight. They're the eighth best. I mean, you think that Philly's the top eight team in the league?

I don't believe that. So, yeah, I don't have no problem with those odds. And I'm happy with where they're at right now. So we'll see. I still kind of think Darryl is going to make maybe another move or two before it's all said and done. So, you know, we'll see.

We'll see. All right, Adam, let's go to Chicago. TJ, we'll get to the Clippers after after I talk about Boston. But Chicago Zachary's back on a max deal. There's some DeRozan trade rumors. Is that is that a thing that's going down? Yeah, I don't see that really happening unless it's a big move for Kevin Durant. OK, I just don't see that happening. That's kind of the basis of it, right?

Yeah, I've assumed that would be the the only worthwhile player to get in return for him. Yeah, we'll talk about Kevin Durant a second. But how do you what do you think about Chicago? They've done anything.

They haven't really made much noise. That's too much. I mean, we signs Andre Drummond, who was was an all star for a couple of years. And he's still pretty young. He's 20. I just looked. He's 28 years old.

Wow. You could have told me he was 34. And I believe, yeah, he's also he's also kind of on the first first team of I've always looked way older than I was.

Yeah, for sure. I was on that for a long time because I used to have this huge goatee. So like in high school, I looked twenty five. You had a goatee in high school.

It was gigantic. Wow. I'm surprised you could even grow in high school.

Yeah, I didn't care. Oh, man, I've you know, I could tell you some story. I mean, I was like the first person growing up to have chest hair, to go bald, to like have like have a goatee.

Oh, yeah. I had armpit hair when I was like 10 or 11. It made me so like so conscious of it, like self-conscious that during basketball games, I wouldn't put my arms up because I don't want people to know I had armpit hair. That's amazing. Go for a rebound. That's incredible.

Having that age and like having weird stuff start to happen to your body is just so strange. So I couldn't imagine going through that again, but go ahead. Yeah.

So anyway, I've got a nice little tangent there. But but yeah, no, I like Andre Drummond. He can be a good backup center. The Bulls struggled a lot on rebounding with the bench unit last year.

And so he'll provide that rebounding that we definitely need when Vucic is out of the game and he's a good defensive player also. So yeah, it's not like a move that'll, you know, make or break the team, but it's a good move. I trust the Bulls management.

I really like the guys that are in charge of the Bulls now. And then we also signs Goran Dragic. Oh, yeah, I thought that was a good signing for you guys.

Yeah, he's a he's a good signing. He didn't play too well last year. I looked at his shooting percentage for three-point shooting in Brooklyn.

It was like 24% which is way lower than his normal standard, but he's a good leader. He's a veteran. He's been to the finals before he can provide some good leadership and some experience for the team. The Bulls kind of have a lot of guards. The problem with the Bulls right now is we just don't know what the health of Lonzo ball will be next year. There's a lot of mixed signals in terms of how he's rehabbing right now. We don't really know a clear outlook on how his knee will be.

So I think it's just an insurance for him. But the Bulls have a lot of players in their back court. Now you have Lonzo and Caruso.

Really Caruso will be fully healthy next year. You have IO who had a good rookie year. You have an the new rookie the Bulls drafted in Dale and Terry who I I've I didn't watch him in college.

I have to be honest. I did not watch Arizona play but but I watched his clips and he looks like he's a tough player that could be good on defense and he's a good passer. And then also you have Kobe white. So there's kind of a lot of backcourt guys. So I don't know how much drag gets will play but but he's a good insurance for the Bulls to have. So I like the signing. And then obviously you have the Zach Levine Max deal which I'm fine with. I don't know if he's a great player.

He's a walking bucket. I don't know if he can be the best player on a title team. But you know if somehow you guys work out a trade package and Kevin Durant comes to town you got to like that Durant Levine one to punch with Caruso and Lonzo if he's healthy and I don't know. Oh maybe those guys get dealt but it's yet to be seen with Zach being the number one player on the championship team. I have my doubts right now but absolutely he could be a number two player if Durant came in. So I like the signing is still young. I think he's like twenty seven so he's just entering his prime. So yes it's a good signing for the Bulls.

I liked it. Looking down at the odds. I mean I kind of am surprised the Bulls are 50 to 1. They're way down there.

They have the same. They have worse odds so the Pelicans are 40 to 1. And then then we got the 20s. We got T wolves and Mavericks at twenty five Grizzlies at twenty two and the Raptors and Nuggets at one to one. That's that's good odds for the Bulls in terms of like if you're a better value value. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Because this team I'm not saying that the Bulls will win the East next year but you never know though you just never know when you have two guys that are all stars on your team that can score forty fifty points a game which the Bulls have with DeRozan and Levine you just don't know what will happen and the key is the development this year for the Bulls of Patrick Williams he's to me that make or break for the Bulls if he's if he takes that next leap then the Bulls can really contend in the East but if he if he's not aggressive and he's and he's passive and he's the same player he was last year then the Bulls really won't go anywhere.

So it depends on him to me. Yeah yeah weird odds considering just how great you guys started the year last year. I mean one of the most surprising teams off to such a hot start struggled obviously against teams with kind of winning records like those top four teams yeah you gotta beat up on the bad teams but definitely surprised. And there's a lot of injuries I mean Lonzo's out a lot of yeah I mean that was a huge deal so do Caruso yeah yeah and those guys are so important in terms of their defense. All right let's talk about the team that won the offseason guys. I mean come on. I'm so happy. This is something and you know I was joking with you but you we did have this talk you know right after the the day after Celtics lost the finals you came in you were a little down and I was trying to hype you up even though it hurt me because I don't like the Celtics but I was like bro you're in a position no one really thought you'd be in right and you'd play great I said all you need to do is you cut down on those turnovers just get yourself a point guard to which you replied well what do we like we get a point guard and what happens with you know Marcus Smart and I'm like well that's a good point but I still think you should that might be the move and then you guys end up getting it also seemed like a good problem to have absolutely suddenly you have smart defensive play of the year I know people had a lot of issues with that but whatever and I remember you said that I was like well crap I'd be happy to have that problem and now and now the C's go and get Malcolm Brogdon yeah yo Malcolm Brogdon remember how good he was on Milwaukee he won rookie of the year came out like damn and then you know the Pacers era for him didn't didn't go great high expectations based on what he did to start his career and then he's been banged up but there's no other way to put it injuries have slowed him down and now he becomes expendable but he goes to a team where he's not counted on to be the guy not even going to start Malcolm Brogdon has admitted like he will embrace the sixth man role and so what this is able to do now for the Celtics in that second unit and now maybe in crunch time is he out there is he one of the final five minute fourth quarter guys where smart doesn't have to handle the ball Jaylen Brown doesn't have to handle the ball we don't have to see 20 turnovers in an NBA Finals game like that is a huge huge deal that if you're not a Celtics fan you you wouldn't really think is as important as it is but I'm so fired up for this I'm so fired up to get Gallinari like this is a guy who grew up a Celtics fan loves Larry Bird like wants to be there wants to be part of the team and to bring banner 18 and this is a guy that they need they need a guy who can make threes he's 610 he can defend if he has to he can grab a rebound and he can stand in the corner and make 22 foot three pointers all day long he said 10 threes in a game before no one on Boston really has that ability and we got a guy who can be the seventh eighth ninth guy coming off the bench and be able to do that Boston totally won the off season in my opinion and it's not just a homer pick I agree with you like I really think that Brad Stevens is making all the right moves pushing all the right buttons he said he's not done so what is that one final move that Brad's going to make now they have suddenly a 10 man rotation and they're the favorites to win the title which I think is a little insane like let's be honest like Milwaukee still probably the best team in the NBA if they're fully healthy they have the best player on the planet Chris Middleton is a Olympian all-star it sucked that he didn't get to play in the playoffs it was good for my team but I still think Milwaukee's probably the best team they have the same odds they're six to one Phoenix is plus 650 Golden State seven to one with the Clippers but I just think Boston really really did a great job like like TJ like you said they overachieved this year considering where they started this season where they were halfway through the season 500 and then they just kind of got on a rocket ship to the NBA Finals and to improve the way they did this offseason sky's the limit now for this team and but now expectations are there right definitely higher and so yeah go ahead and they did what the Cincinnati Bengals and NFL need to do everyone knew that their liability their one glaring weakness that that weak link in their chain was their offensive line so what did they immediately do what did they do they made it to the Super Bowl they got as far as they could and then what did they do now they didn't stand pat they went and aggressively I took the welders torch to that weak link and I don't know they put some vibranium some titanium around there you know I when I talk to you yeah I was like look you got to cut down on your turnovers and that's what Malcolm Brogdon does I was just peeping this like over his career he's averaged only and I just say this only 1.8 turnovers per game like his last starting season well I mean he played 36 games but he had 2.1 now just for comparison Luca as I'm looking here he averaged 4.5 turnovers a game Trey Young is in the four turnovers a game so you got a guy who's really you know he's going to protect the ball he's not going to turn it over that was your biggest issue at the end of the season and into the late into the playoffs so you really you really did a great job in addressing that man I mean game six of the NBA Finals the Celtics three best players at Tatum Brown and smart 13 turnovers you know game five I got to imagine it's probably even higher you know so that's the one major thing Boston does a great job shooting the three-pointer what do you do you bring in a guy who's gonna make that even better but addressing the turnover situation and improving the bench is it could it could Brogdon be a starter down the stretch yeah maybe yeah and also you know injuries are gonna play like you know what's gonna happen but I just think as a fan couldn't be more excited now the expectations are there Tatum was first team all NBA I keep pointing that out but you got to maintain that level now and now you got to take it to the to the next level whereas when you have a 2-1 lead in the finals you're closing that baby out so that's your hope we'll see pretty excited alright TJ clippers talk to me John Wall let's show it I mean that's it right you know look he again we just talked about health it's always the issue with the Clippers right there and I've done this on the show before I've given you like a laundry list I've given you a Rite Aid receipt list you know how those Rite Aid CVS I'm sorry CVS yeah I've given you those like why are they so long by the way it's like it's like coupons and ads and stuff do I don't want that in my life Ricky Bobby like I said Rite Aid I'm still caught back in the old days with Rite Aid but yeah CVS so you know look John Wall had injury problems the last few years and we kind of they said but John Wall let's not forget that dudes a 19 point per game scorer and guess what like he said he doesn't have to be Batman on this team like God if you listen and help in my smoke a lot voice but if these guys can stay healthy my goodness which is always the problem but you've got Kawhi you've got PG now John Wall doesn't have to be Batman he doesn't have to be Superman he doesn't have to be you know number one on the call sheet now he can just kind of get in where he fits in and John Wall even said this himself you think the third best defenders gonna be able to lock me up good luck with that so you know you got to worry about Paul you got to worry about Kawhi you know you got to worry about the tomb sitting in the corner in the top of the top of the key hitting threes you know Terrence Mann is going to do his thing we we signed zoo bots that was great we lost Hartenstein which you know kind of hurts a little bit with because our big situation wasn't that great but you know big shot Bob Covington I believe the Marcus Morris will probably be back Luke Kennard hopefully I like Luke keep him so I'm excited to see what these what a healthy Clippers team can do because you know Kawhi Leonard obviously you know missed some games throughout his career but when healthy and on that court you're hard-pressed to find five better players in Kawhi Leonard in basketball yeah in a weird way Adam the Clippers not only added John Wall but they're also gonna add Kawhi and Paul George next year's team so suddenly maybe they win the offseason in a weird way yeah absolutely the Clippers to me are our for sure title contenders and I forgot Norman Powell who we got you know another big move there so really good player John Wall can either be the sixth man or start either way I think he'll be playing down the stretch and like I talked about in the past podcast you can have that lineup where you have Reggie Jackson John Wall Kawhi Leonard Paul George and Nick Batum is your is your final five down the stretch hey let me tell you something I ain't mad at that crazy three outside shooting yeah everybody can shoot everybody could score and even if you want to put Zubac in there to get some rebounds you still have guys all around him that can shoot that's that's a great team I like Tyloo a lot I think he's a really good coach and yeah TJ I know that you're scared I know you have PTSD I know you've had some scarring moments in the past I know you're scared to be excited but I've been hurt the summer of 2022 in front of the 2022-2023 season you TJ Jefferson needs to be excited about your Los Angeles Clippers let's go I'm always excited there's always a little bit of trepidation but I'm always excited because it's always like you get the biggest what if and just if we could stay healthy you guys know my dream is a Sixers Clippers NBA final I'm convinced that before the good nightmare though oh no well nightmares are dreams too just keep that in mind but I'm convinced that the good Lord before he calls me home is gonna reward one of his favorite sons and let me witness this in person I don't know what would you do would you go to every game would you just go back and forth well I'd have to boost up my my economic stat status you know I'd have to maybe you know maybe hit this mega millions that we're talking about but if I Jimmy Goldstein money of course I'd be there Jimmy make friends with Jimmy and ask how do you not know Jimmy Goldstein at this point I've met him once or twice but I mean we ain't down like that but how do I watch this game is very interesting anytime I go to a Clippers Sixers game as my friend Riley will tell you because we've been watching Clippers together for 20 years so we've seen about 13 Clippers Sixers games I just basically sit there and I root for good basketball like you probably never seen someone who like will cheer on this end of the court sure on that in the court I pretty much turn into more of a coach then because if I see something that someone does bad it infuriates me and then I get hyped up for the guys that do well it's I guess maybe some would find it weird but it's just the way I watch those again and I've had to stop forever it's like man I the Sixers you want the dr. J is my second favorite athlete besides Muhammad Ali I only have two sports idols dr. J Muhammad Ali so I've my entire life I'm a sixer fan but I've been out here 20-plus years I've had Clippers season tickets and the thing is the Clippers have never won at least I was alive in 83 I you know obviously I didn't stay up and watch the game I was a kid but I can remember that the Sixers won a title I've never seen the Clippers do anything so if I'd have to say that would be the tiebreaker because this team did win I moved in Los Angeles in 1999 no one knew me I could have easily hopped on that Laker bandwagon and as much as I love basketball you know how lovely my life would have been the last 20 years as a Laker fan I mean take a few bad years that's five titles I've never sniffed anything like that as a Clipper fan so I truly believe that as a Clipper fan who sat here through all these years and Laker success if they win and I get to see it that's gonna be bro like that's gonna be the greatest thing in the world like your fans like oh shit I don't know what makes me happier the fact that I'm gonna be happier the fact that they're gonna be mad but the fact of the matter is it hasn't happened we haven't come close but man if it does it would be glorious so it if you're asking me if they played each other who I'd root for oh man that's tough I might have to go for the team who's never won a title yes it is the third best odds there uh so Boston and Milwaukee are six to one like I said Phoenix is 13 to two and then Golden State and the Clippers are seven to one should they have the same odds as the Warriors who just won the title the Warriors lost a lot of good bench players Gary Payton was lost Otto Porter Otto Porter I'm missing I'm missing somebody else but well they you know they resigned Louie which I thought Looney was gonna dip to be honest with you but you know he resigned so one of the dudes went to the Lakers oh yeah yeah but then you have to think that you're also will be adding Weissman will hopefully be healthy why doesn't look really good the other night yeah and then and then there's more of a role for for Moody who's young and then cominga cominga is expected to take it take a leap next year and any kind of and Steph will be back to I mean clay will be back to a hundred percent yeah to me to me I'm worried about him I like the Warriors again in the West right now you've got to be yeah yeah there's just there's a great team and until they show weakness to me they're the favorite I just I think you know I think pool also will have another better even year than even did this year he'll improve expectations are gonna be high for pool though yep that is true that is very true there's not as much would you say there's not as much pressure necessarily on him because he's won a ring now but there is more I think I think I think he's got more pressure there's more pressure I think there's more pressure I guess he's playing for the contract yeah he's playing for this max deal it's paying for 200 million so there is more pressure I was wrong about that yeah I think a really interesting fight I mean as much as I want Boston to make it back but like Milwaukee at at a hundred percent against Golden State a hundred percent like that's kind of an NBA Finals I wouldn't mind well that'd be amazing seeing seven games of I'd love to see obviously he cannot stop him but I'd love to see Draymond try to try to get in the head of Giannis and just see what would happen impossible Giannis would put 50 on him all day yeah but it would just be fun to see Draymond like try to fight that yeah well here's something real quick guys that we can chat about since we've made it through our teams on the big show you know I'm doing the thing where I talk about the NBA goats the greatest player per franchise so maybe real quick run through these and just kind of quickly get you guys thoughts on some of these picks that I made I kicked it off with the Southwest Division we started off with that so that's Dallas Houston Memphis New Orleans and San Antonio actually that was the second one but I had Dirk Nowitzki as the greatest Dallas Maverick Hakeem as the greatest rocket Zach Randolph is the greatest Grizzlies player came down to Anthony Davis for the Pelicans and Tim Duncan for the Spurs just what do you guys think about those picks there yeah I kind of think the ones right off the bat were pretty we're pretty no-brainers yeah I really think there was kind of no controversy it's kind of weird the NBA ones a little slightly easier than it's definitely slightly easier I think when we get to like Boston and LA it's gonna be New York like those ones are gonna be so I kind of left them for last pretty difficult you know but you know just like some of these franchises that maybe not as old either you know when you go talking about yeah like for instance Adam today I picked the the Charlotte Hornets right and I went with Kemba Walker and I can probably tell you it's gonna be the least sexy pick probably of all of these but their franchise history is kind of as such where they don't really have a great history of winning so you know I put Kemba in there for the greatest Charlotte Hornet I would disagree with you on that I'd say it's Alonzo Mourning I thought so too that's kind of what I was thinking when you say Charlotte Hornet that was kind of my first thought and I thought I'd have to go look at Kemba's stats which I'm sure are amazing well like I said Kemba Alonzo my initial criteria was you have to play at least three seasons for a team Alonzo played three period incredible three years I didn't realize it was only three I guess I thought it was longer we all think that but no remember then he left so you know Kemba is the all-time leading scorer in the franchise probably has the most dimes and just it's like it wasn't maybe the most sexy pick but that's who I three seasons yeah that's amazing so yeah I guess I guess when I think of Charlotte Hornets I just immediately think of Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning against Boston when Alonzo hit the jumper and won and always think of those and then he was gone and then you know I started off with the central because I was like this is the easiest division it's the Bulls that's obviously Jordan it's the Cavs it's obviously LeBron it's the Pistons obviously Isaiah it's the Pacers obviously Reggie Miller but then we got to the Bucks and I spent about three hours believe it or not copying and pasting going stat for stat back and back going all right Giannis is six years Kareem six years yeah I wanted to give this to Giannis but it's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar man and the guy averaged 32 points 18 rebounds he had three MVPs he won like I just ten years from now I said when this list is done whoever does this it's going to be honest but as of right now if I just put them together and they're you combine where they're at in their career I had to go with Kareem as the greatest puck of all time with the nod then it will be honest though you could win Marcus Johnson maybe with Milwaukee Marcus he had a great career but I don't think that no no I know but he played seven years for the hockey that's all he was a great player and obviously you know one of the greatest after basketball careers of all time with one of the greatest roles and one of the greatest movies of all time so yeah no doubt no I think I think you're doing a great job it's a little easier with the NBA stuff I kind of gave you some grief today about the heat but I mean it's fine like that's our thing we go back and forth you came to the right conclusion I was just surprised you even considered LeBron that's all yeah I mean but like I said if LeBron plays any amount of time on your team you have to at least acknowledge the fact that he's one of the greatest players of all time like obviously it was I didn't realize the Alonzo Mourning thing that he was only three years I have no idea that that's yeah I mean cuz I'm a huge you know I'm a huge Georgetown fan so I love Alonzo so I knew that you know he didn't stay there LeBron LeBron didn't play that many years on the heat either I think it was like or but he won two titles and he was so dominant that in LeBron when he was in Miami that was his absolute peak that was yeah that was like his ultimate prime he had several primes but that was his ultimate prime yeah and when I think Miami Heat though I just think the way yeah that's right but you have to acknowledge the fact of LeBron if you have a Mount Rushmore he's got to be on it for for that team you know but yeah D Wade what he meant to the I've got friends in Miami what he meant to the culture the city he was he was the heat you know so and I think I also did the Southwest Division the day which I think probably surprised you when I got to the Hawks and I picked Bob Pettit over Dominique Wilkins but it just turned out they won one title Bob Pettit was the best player yeah he was a four-time all-star game MVP 11 time all-star 75 greatest is one of the 50 greatest he's one of the 75 as much as I love Dominique but I mean if I'm gonna be real and try to have some type of you know people respect this list Bob Pettit and then the Hornets of course I said Kemba the heat Wade the magic came down to Shaq and Dwight Howard and again I think it just came down to Howard did it for a little bit longer than Shaq plus his defensive player of the years which for every reason we always crap on people who don't play defense and yet he got a guy who defensive player here three times in a row and no one really ever taught I mean not in a row I'm sorry but yeah I mean on the 75th team Dwight was the biggest omission for me I would say so he's been so disrespected totally yeah and part of it is he's not the most likable player Colby didn't like him originally well his Lakers tenure his Lakers tenure was kind of a disaster but it's weird because he's always like smiling and looking like he's having a good time so it's really weird that like he was so amazing in his prime he was the face of the league first I remember the superman dunk contest like incredible that was another thing Shaq was hating on him so yeah because he took the nickname yeah he just got a bad rap from a lot of people but in his prime he was the best center in the league by far a dominant defensive force and he led that magic team to the finals against the Lakers yeah and and he was unbelievable that year so there's a lot of people who don't respect a white Howard he's not in his prime anymore he's not anywhere near what he used to be but that guy is he was a baller 100 Hall of Famer yeah 100% I'll make the Hall of Fame I just think it's weird we're gonna live in a world where like Shaq isn't the greatest player in the history of one of the teams he played on trust me it was easy to think about it when I was hitting send on the email last night I was like really like am I gonna do this but but Shaq's not the greatest magic arguably he's not the greatest Laker well did Shaq can you say Shaq had a greatest season of a Laker yeah you can put them in there but sure one of the greatest seasons ever Shaq from 99 to 2002 like honestly if I'm gonna create an all-time team and I get to plug pick them from any era MDE most dollar I might start the five with Shaq from because the 2000 Shaquille O'Neal was there was nothing literally nothing you could do to stop this man yeah nothing great before we get out sorry Chris I just ended with Wes Unseld Unseld with the the Wizards there we know you thought it should be Michael Jordan bullets and wizards I think you should have separated like the Oilers and the Titans yeah although other Ben Lyons had a good pledge Gilbert Reedus is the greatest was the most controversial his a bocce year where he was throwing up 60 was just it was a little ridiculous I got it he had stupid confidence levels multiple multiple 60-point games in a season that gets absurd real quickly let's just talk about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving real quick because they've kind of been dominating the offseason because there really hasn't been much movement like we said guys are just kind of re upping signing the max deals with their team and then Kevin Durant's like cool I want to be traded do you think that was just a move to get Kyrie out and that Kevin Durant's not really going anywhere or do you think they're both gone or and Durant ends up in Miami or Phoenix or Chicago or Golden State or who knows where like what do you think is gonna happen with these guys Adam it's madness right now in Brooklyn it's crazy it's crazy we don't know if they'll have both those guys if they'll neither that that team right now could be potentially the worst team in the NBA or the NBA champions by the end of the year yeah you have no idea what's happening right now I don't know Brooklyn is not going to give up Kevin Durant's without getting extreme value I think you sent me that that post where Minnesota they're trying to trade with Minnesota and they asked for Edwards and towns which is they asked for everybody like Edwards towns and five picks yeah that's it why wouldn't absolutely absurd because how do you get equal value back for Kevin Durant here's the thing you miss but you can't but you can't give up your two guys who are under 30 superstars like that's just creating multiple draft picks so like what team could do it would want to do it I don't know Phoenix jumps out they make the most sense making the most sense apparently Phoenix wants Devin Booker which is obviously yeah Brooklyn wants Devin Booker which can happen can happen so you trade Aiden and then he signs the max deal and then bridges and maybe Cam Johnson and a couple draft picks that just makes sense to me that's a championship contender with the big three and it makes Brooklyn really good to Chris Paul yeah Brooklyn can compete yeah I'm not saying they'll win the East but they can be a playoff team with that totally but when you have Devin Booker Kevin Durant's and Chris Paul on a team that's instant championship contenders and they're better than last year so it's either the Suns I don't know what Miami Miami sends back I mean hero like everybody except for BAM because there's some weird like contract rule where they can't trade BAM I'll say this I don't think either one of them go anywhere either I think when the season starts Kyrie Kevin Durant will both be and then Simmons Joe Harris and they just run it back I kind of think so because the Lakers are gonna have to I mean we all kind of think maybe Kyrie can up on the Lakers but something tells me that I mean why would the Nets ever do that just give it yeah like that doesn't make sense that's what I'm saying like you're not you can't get equal value for these guys so you might as well keep them so I don't think either one of them is the Bulls gonna can honestly have a great package for Durant's you have to Marta Rosen Patrick Williams Williams Kobe white in two or three first round picks that's a great package and then you pair him up with Zach Levine that's him can compete also for a championship Kevin Durant and Zach Levine aren't competing for a championship what do you mean of course they are you have Kevin Durant who's a top ten player and in Zag Levine who's at least a top 25 top 30 player is the number two option and then you have a healthy Lonzo ball you have who should take back that team beat the Celtics is that no the Celtics they're probably they would not be the favorite but they could beat them yeah so that's that's him can contend that's why I think Kyrie's gone I weirdly think Durant's gonna come back I mean the team put out the season ticket information panel the other day and Durant's in the photo but Kyrie isn't that weirdly says a lot to me like maybe you were saying like maybe the owner and Durant kind of worked something out or maybe it was just a move maybe it was kind of a chess play by by KD and his team to be like let's get this trade talk out let's get that leaked so then Kyrie will force his way to LA and then I can you know have this team to myself with you know Ben Simmons and Joe Harris and Seth Curry and whoever and Wes and in Westbrook potentially yeah maybe Westbrook yeah and I think we may have spoken about this on the big show yesterday or maybe we didn't but you also have to look at if this is going to work Kevin Durant loves basketball right we like basketball Kevin Durant loves basketball Kevin Durant would play probably 24 hours a day if he could and then you got Ben Simmons who we don't think loves basketball so I don't know how that combination is going to work when you got a gym rat and a guy who doesn't appear to be a gym rat like like I said I believe in the beginning of the season both of them are in the nets you notice I didn't say by the end of the season they both be on the nets though because that part I'm not sure of yeah it's interesting it's interesting all right so I just wanted to get out of there on that and real quickly before we go any summer league what do you got Chet vs. Paulo how awesome is that you know Chet balled at the beginning but then you know Kenny Lofton Jr. who by the way I don't understand how he was undrafted I really don't I don't understand also how he's not the son of he's a junior he's a junior like there's another kind of he kind of put it on shed a little bit game too and I died down the next thing you know of a sudden they're sitting Chet Holmgren out I that was a little weird to me but Paulo balled out so I'm a fan you know I followed Duke very closely last year I watched a lot of their games Paulo is a potential superstar he's got the total package offensively and he's huge he's 6'10 to 250 built like a brick he's only gonna get bigger as he gets in the league he can shoot outside he can post people up I love that pick by the magic and everybody thought that they were going to pick Jabari Smith going into the draft it was pretty much a guarantee and they had that change of heart I think they made the smart pick with Paulo and it'll be fun to see him and in Chet in a potential rivalry 2022 draft class rivalry along with Jabari so Chet has potential to be special I think game-changing defensive player especially he can shoot for a big man it's gonna block shot just the fact I was going I was going there that he can become a Dikembe Mutombo like shot blocker where he's blocking two three shots every single game I think so too yeah it's going to be tough with his frame maybe he'll never be he's got to put on some muscle yeah he'll never be I'll never be ripped he'll never be yoked well he's not gonna be Zion no I mean yeah and he won't even be Zion as excuse me Yanis but if he can just put on like 15 20 pounds of muscle over the next couple years and establish himself in the paint and continue to work on his jumper that guy can be a superstar as well so there's no reason why he can't be 2010 and three blocks yeah but I am you know this is me I'm always hesitant when you're mentioning Dikembe Mutombo you know the Dikembe Mutombo who's the second greatest shot blocker in the history of the NBA to kind of say like he could be Dikembe like I mean that's a that's a just that's a bold statement cut and that's all I'm saying is in terms of altering shots and you know I mean he had six blocks in his first game yeah I get summer league company you both either one of you probably could have scored at least two points in one of those games so I would have been a corner three for sure all right everybody keep enjoying the summertime we'll be back next week to talk about more hopefully Kevin Durant's on the move and I'll give us something to talk about sixers Katie Trey five if you're out there like you know do some do some stuff we have stuff to talk about keep enjoying everybody thanks for watching TJ Adam Brockman here we're out. Peace.