Fallout From the LeBron Signing! Plus, Fake Curry Trades and Mets Corner!

Hey, I just Venmo Deferent.

Nice.

Now I can instantly spend it whether I'm checking out online with Venmo,

or using the Venmo Devacore.

Same more.

More exactly, because the more you do with Venmo, the more you get.

Like earning up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on a bundle of brains.

So, order more pizza.

The math demands it.

Get the Venmo Devacore.

Venmo Stash bundle terms and exclusions apply.

See terms of Venmo.me slash dash terms.

Venmo check out not available with all merchants.

Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bencore Bank NA.

Coming up on the Zacklow show, we've all had time to digest LeBron James,

Philadelphia 76er alongside Jalen Brown, Joel LnB, Tyrese Maxi, VJ Edge,

Cominale Catevis, Calmwell Pope.

He's also joined them.

It's time to sift through the teams that didn't get LeBron James,

starting with the Golden State Warriors who appeared to just be

pedering out toward the end of the Steph Curry era.

They resigned Dremon Green about 30 minutes ago to a 1 year,

27.7 million dollar deal, exactly the deal that he opted out of.

What went wrong for the Warriors?

Are they actually dead?

What were the missed opportunities around the way they were actually realistic?

Because this is a little bit of a depressing end of career situation for Steph Curry as of now.

Doesn't mean this is going to be this way all the time for the Warriors.

We talk about that.

Then their whole tier of the West is interesting because after the top six,

which we'll see if they're the same top six,

Portland, John Moran, Phoenix did a lot of stuff over the summer.

We'll talk about them.

Then Denver is not in their tier.

It's above their tier, but they're in a very sticky situation with Peyton Watson.

They were in one with Spencer Jones.

We're going around the West, LeBron, all of that, Moate DeKielis here to talk about all of that.

Then Sean Fenysey and I recorded a Metz corner and we did it before Francisco Lindor.

Hit two home runs and had a triple in a 14-3 win last night over the Braves.

Keep Francisco Lindor.

That's all coming up on the Zach Lo Show.

Welcome to the Zach Lo Show.

It's Tuesday afternoon.

We've had some time now to sift through LeBron James Philadelphia 76er.

Let it sink in.

It's a real thing.

Jalen Brown is also a 76er.

Not a Celtic.

Jalen Beat is still a 76er.

Kitevius Colwell Pope is going to be a 76er.

A clutch reunion in Philadelphia.

It's time to sort through some of the collateral damage that LeBron's decision left in Cleveland,

in Miami, and especially in Golden State,

where the Steph Curry era appears to be heading toward a whimper of an ending.

Mo DeKille, you love him.

You love him.

You used here to help us sort through all of it.

How are you doing?

I'm doing great, Zach.

I'm ready to roll right now.

I'm just happy LeBron got it done before August because that was my concern

with we're going to go into August with it.

We were not going to go into August with it.

We did not go into August with it.

It's still July.

LeBron is a 6er.

And right before we went on this show,

today, Dremont Green resigned a 1-year 27.7 million dollar deal with the Warriors.

Basically, the same deal he opted out of.

To potentially give the Warriors to flexibility to sign LeBron James,

which they were not able to do.

And not unexpected, Dremont is still a very good player.

One of the 10 to 12 best defensive players in the NBA.

His offense has declined precipitously.

His ability to be a real true playmaking hub has declined a bit with it.

But still quite a good player on a team that is just kind of a weird team.

It's the first real move they've done,

other than drafting Yaxxel Landobor,

who was awesome in Summer League.

We'll talk more about the words in a minute.

Do you have any leftover Philadelphia LeBron James thoughts, Moodikiel?

Yeah, I think we're also focused on the offensive end.

That we're not really looking at the defensive end a little bit infilly.

And how is that all going to kind of slide itself out?

You know, I know, look, Jalen Brown's good defender.

I think Edgecomb is going to be their point of attack guy.

If they can keep him be when he's on the floor near the rim,

I think makes a big difference.

But I do have concerns about that.

You go look at the one he did play in the next series.

They put him out in space and it's a problem.

And you have issues with what you have to deal with.

And I think those are the questions I'll be very curious about.

They're not a great rebounding team.

So how do they fix that?

Where does that come along?

Obviously, we know the depth issues with the front court

and how they deal with the size.

But those are things I don't think has really been discussed as much.

Because again, we always just focus on the offense.

But I think that's something to really try to keep an eye on.

I talked about that exact thing earlier this week

over the weekend.

Whenever I record, I can't remember.

All the summer, just every day is a different day.

I completely agree with you.

I get why people are worried about the offense

and how all these guys with 30 plus percent usage rates

are going to mesh.

I personally am not really worried about that

just because minutes staggering,

slash guys missing games,

slash Tyrie's Maxi being a really great off-ball player.

I think DJ Edge going playing mostly off the ball

is probably healthy for this stage of his career

and he's going to learn so much playing with LeBron.

I'm not worried too much.

It'll be interesting.

I'm not worried too much about it.

The defense to me is a bigger potential.

I want to say issue because I think there'll be a solid defensive team.

But are they going to be a top eight, top 10 defensive team?

I don't know.

You mentioned M.B.D.

in the playoffs against the Knicks

after his week of glory against the Celtics.

Should be noted that it was like post appendicitis.

Joel M.B.D.

along with chronic knee issues,

although I don't know how serious those were

in the playoffs, Joel M.B.D.

But look, I mean, that's the whole thing.

M.B.D.'s the whole thing,

unless it until there's a different starting center on the team

and I'm not convinced that that's even possible,

even if the sixers wished it were so,

and I'm not sure that they do,

can they manage Joel M.B.D.

through, forget a regular season,

multiple playoff rounds,

and that could take many forms,

as I've said before, it could take,

we're up to, well, we're going to sit you in game three.

It could be, you know, we just won seven game,

well, as seven game series,

we're going to rest you in game one.

It could take a lot of different forms,

and now the team is talented enough

that at least that might be a viable way

to get through three playoff series.

I'm not going to pick them to make the finals,

but they are in the conversation.

I think they have the second best finals odds in the East.

But I agree with you,

that the defense is a big question mark.

KCP, no harm, no foul.

I mean, like a potential 3-in-D guy off the bench

who knows LeBron very well,

fine, like put him next to Simon's and Dean Wade,

and they're back up five,

which is still, I think, kind of weak spot,

but, you know, fine, that's no harm, no foul.

Yeah, I think that's, you know,

it's, I like the KCP pickup

and the opportunity, you know,

getting him on the buyout market

and jumping in that area.

And again, we've seen what KCP can do

when he plays with LeBron,

when he plays with Yoke,

which we're seeing what it looks like when he doesn't,

and that hasn't been very good.

But hopefully they can kind of recreate that magic

that he had when he was with the Lakers

and teamed up with LeBron

in the way he goes.

I'm, you know, listen,

the Simon's aspect of it,

like I'm interested to see how that plays,

and, you know, they're going to bring a lot

of defensive utility off the bench,

like he's at KCP Wade and those guys.

It just comes down to imbede,

and then it's also going to come down to Bona.

It's going to come down to a 40,

right, in terms of their backup positions

and how they're able to hold up.

They probably need to go try to find somebody else

if they can at the center position.

Because those guys are just generally backups at this point,

and I don't feel like it's something

that they should feel very comfortable going into

for the night set.

One in B doesn't play, and I know we've,

you know, I know you, I think you even mentioned it on one

of the points, like we are going to see LeBron play the five.

So, you know, that's going to happen,

but it's not something that's going to be long term,

and that's going to be on the night set.

LeBron is actually playing,

so I think they still need to kind of figure that whole area out.

This still work to be done in Philly.

But again, this is going to be an awesome sort of fun thing

to watch, and I'm not, I'm with you.

I'm not that worried about the offensive event.

They will figure it out, and the truth is,

though, they all have to sacrifice something,

and that's just what it's going to be.

And they're all going to sacrifice usage.

All their usage is all going to take a dip.

Nobody's going to suddenly use

to climb in this situation,

but they got to figure out what they can do offensively.

I think this is a great opportunity for Nick Nurse

to get really creative on the offensive event.

I know, you know, nobody likes talking about

certain offensive philosophies,

but this is a team that can run some triangle philosophies

and get some good stuff out of it.

This team can have a lot of movement

with what they do.

They can run a multi-layered offense,

you know, with an action on the strong side,

with the pin down on the weak side,

or some other stuff going on with so many high IQ players.

Like, I'm pretty excited to see

how that kind of plays itself out.

I think this, and they can run.

They can run like hell in transition.

Everybody but in B, just built to play that way.

Look, I'm, I, this is, I think, the most fun LeBron

outcome.

I think it's reasonable for him to have concluded

that if he didn't want to go to Denver for whatever reason,

and it doesn't appear that was ever realistic,

and he didn't want to go be Danny Glover

and lethal weapon.

I'm too old for this shit in Minnesota,

and he appears he did not.

Then I think this is a reasonable place to land

if his priority is, I want to try to actually win.

I want to win into May and June and Chase,

a Chase of Fifth Ring, not that he's ring chasing.

He's not have already addressed that.

Can I jump it?

Everybody should be ring chasing.

Wow.

That's the point.

I don't, I don't, all 30 teams are chasing a trophy.

All the players should be chasing the rings.

Like, I don't, I don't get bad with these guys

that are ring chasing.

I mean, maybe if it's, I'm not going to play,

and I'm going to sit at the end of the bench

and just want to get the championship ring.

Sure, but like, he's going to play.

He's going to be a big part of it.

Like, I don't, I don't, I hate to phrase.

The only places that would have been like,

oh, really, are San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

And he was never going to those places.

Right.

I think Cleveland would have been equally viable

as Philadelphia, perhaps even.

Bill and I vehemently disagree on this.

He wrote the calves off completely

because of the hardened LeBron Mitchell fit.

And I get that.

It's not the most attractive three man on ball machine,

particularly with Hardins dribble, dribble, dribble tendencies.

But the double big thing of Moby and Alan is interesting.

It's in the east, not in the west, where you're probably

going to have to beat both of those juggernauts

to get to the finals.

But here, here are some things that, having had a few days

and out of sift through all this, here are some things

that I'm pretty certain of.

The hardened and not Daria's Garland thing

was a pretty significant obstacle for the calves.

If they have never made the hardened trade,

I think they have a much better chance of getting LeBron.

I don't know if they get him because maybe he just wanted

to do something new that's in keeping with his career.

And that's not to say they shouldn't have made that trade.

They were trying to go all in for this season

and they didn't trust Garland's health.

They had good reason not to.

The Jalen Brown trade, I don't think the Sixers

get LeBron James without Jalen Brown.

I think that that seems like common sense.

As of now, 72, 96 hours later, it just can't be overstated

that the Celtics not only traded Jalen Brown to the Sixers

and let them get off Paul George,

but also enabled them to get LeBron James.

And I don't know where he goes if Jalen Brown is not a Sixer.

Now, linked to that are the warriors

which we will get back to.

And linked to the Warriors also is the Anthony Davis variable.

You know, the reporting on this has been all over the place.

I've seen people say, well, did they try to get the Warriors

or whatever team to get Anthony Davis or would it have helped?

Here's where I come down.

I think, yeah, it would have helped.

I don't know if it would have swung it.

And I feel pretty confident saying,

no one was really told if you get Anthony Davis,

LeBron is coming to your team or likely to come to your team.

I don't think it got anywhere near that direct.

And some teams got absolutely no communication

about any player whether it was Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving.

And so the number one thing I keep saying this

and it's the least sexy thing to say, no one knew anything.

All the teams, everybody I've talked to,

everyone who was in it on the periphery of it was like,

I don't know, we don't know.

And that included should we get this player or that player.

No one had a clue until he made his decision.

The sixers didn't have a clue until he made his decision.

And so those are just some thoughts.

Are you ready to discuss the Warriors, Mo?

Yes, I am ready, but I do want to nominate Brad Stevens

for executive of the year for building this Philadelphia 76ers team.

Hey, look, we're going to get to Brad Stevens in a second.

And this conversation, if the Celtics start to season 20 and five

and I don't like, the Celtics are going to win.

Yeah, they're over under I think it's 50 and a half.

I just, I'm just going to prep you like the conversation

you'll be able to if they're 20 and five and the sixers like

and beads heard and Jalen Brown's cranky and they're 18 and 12.

Like the conversation is going to shift a little bit.

Yeah, for sure.

And it can go the other way as well.

But I think that's going to be that that's part of the dynamic

of what you have as a GM and I was just being a little bit

trying to be a little bit funny with the Stevens comment.

The Warriors are unquestionably the biggest losers of Dillabran saga

because this team has done essentially nothing

in the off season except kill the draft apparently.

Although we'll see.

They have a resign for Zingas fine.

We'll see how many games he can play.

They've now resigned.

Dream on Greenfine.

He should finish his career.

Warrior.

I hope that he does.

Jimmy Butler is going to miss a huge portion of the season.

And again, like you should not just assume that when he comes back

he's going to be Jimmy Butler.

He's coming off an AC out there.

We'll see what he is.

Moses Moody is going to miss a huge chunk of the season.

They're over under.

I believe is set at 39 and a half.

Vegas thinks this is a sub 500 team.

And it just seems like they have left Steph Curry in the lurch.

And there has been just a lot of screaming and yelling

about how the Warriors failing Curry

Bill went in on them hard yesterday.

And I don't disagree that clearly having arrived here.

The path from 2022 title, which by the way they deserve a

shit ton of credit for and we'll get there to here is disappointing.

And there are probably some missed opportunities along the way.

I just want people to tell me what is the actual missed opportunity that you see

that is realistic that would have put this team in position to win the title now

or in one of the previous couple of seasons.

Because I think a lot of this comes down to not now

and not 2025.

2024 was the finals appearance and the title that was kind of up for grabs

if the Warriors had found something in the interim between 2022 and 2024.

Everything after that, you're driving uphill against the wind,

against the thunder.

And now the spurs would still.

Would it be nice if the current Warriors were not 39 and a half over under

and kind of depressing?

Absolutely.

So here's where Jalen Brown comes in.

Because a lot of the Warriors criticism in the last 48 hours

has been focused on well, why didn't you get Jalen Brown?

Because if you had gotten Jalen Brown, you could have had the Brown James.

And maybe, maybe, but here's the thing, Mo.

Shoms reported this yesterday that the Warriors and the Celtics briefly

talked about Jalen Brown at the trade deadline.

Did you see this?

Yeah.

And that the price would have been four-ish first round draft assets.

And the Warriors decided he's not worth it.

The trade that just occurred for Jalen Brown and the negotiations around it

would suggest that the Warriors are in the consensus

in saying that Jalen Brown is not worth it.

Now, Mo, you would say why not revisit it now when the price might be lower

and you're only bidding against the Sixers.

I think one of the things that's being overlooked is that the centerpiece salary

in that trade is attached to a player who is injured

and is going to miss a huge portion of decision.

The Celtics don't want, the Celtics are trying to win games.

They don't want Jimmy Butler out till January, February,

whatever it is, and then a percentage of himself after that.

And as a result, they're going to ask for more picks

than the Sixers attached to get off of Paul George, I would think.

So those are just some of the Jalen Brown slash LaBron realities.

And even if you got Jalen Brown and LaBron,

Ethan Sherwin Strauss, what a great piece about this today on his sub-sec.

Are you actually good enough to win the West?

You're still super old and you're relying on a player in Jalen Brown

who doesn't appear to be a great fit with the way the Warriors typically play.

To the point that he got famously left off TV USA with Steve Kerr as the head coach.

Do you have any thoughts on Jalen Brown Warriors before I move on with my spiel?

No, I think it's a really important point to note

that the Celtics do get a player that's going to theoretically be playing on opening night.

You know, in Paul George, you should be healthy enough and ready to go.

And where you're getting with Jimmy Butler is somebody that you might get in March

and you talked about it earlier.

We don't know what he's going to look like at this point.

And beyond that, we've also even played with injuries for the past few years.

Like it's difficult to kind of envision that we're going to give up Jalen Brown in this situation.

For a player, we're going to get in March and we're not quite sure what he's going to look like.

As much as we want to joke about Paul George and everything,

he was pretty solid for them for the six years last year.

Way to be able to work from the one available.

But I think also in the playoffs series against the Celtics, he was really good.

And I think that is something that kind of you sort of look into going like,

all right, there's still something there.

Is he worth the contract?

Probably not, right?

Like it's he's overpaid at that point.

And you know, he has a player option for next season.

I almost positive he'll pick that up.

But I think what you're looking at is just they have a piece there.

Where it's hey, we can go out and win games right now and not take that far of a drop off of what we

were from last season when everybody written us off.

And we went out and won at 54 games.

You know, I think that's going to be the thing.

And then you add in Mitchell Robinson.

You're you're you're looking at where they're at.

You're kind of saying like, hey man, like the Celtics aren't just sitting there going,

hey, okay, we're going to trade Jalen Brown and suck next season.

So they're trying to go for it.

Here that's a Jimmy Butler being injured.

Is an important, you know, post whatever date he got injured reality for the warriors in these trade talks.

They do have, I think, three and a half first round picks that they can trade.

So they're not pick week.

They have a lot of picks and those picks have some value because of the age of their roster.

You could say at 20 and the new lottery rules are valuable picks.

The here the other realities are number one, the big salaries involved.

Ever since they traded Wiggins for Jimmy Butler, a masterstroke by the way that had everyone

drooling over how good this team was going into the previous season and at the end of the end of

the last end of two seasons ago.

The salaries have always been attached to either injured players like Jimmy Butler or franchise

legends who are hard to trade.

It's hard to just trade up trade, Dreymongreen or and you know, and it's just it's just not an easy thing to do.

And this is what Ethan really nailed.

All of this really comes down to if you think the words just blew this and missed opportunities.

It's not that they are being too precious, I think, with the assets that they have and too

reticent to take risks at the expense of the post-step future, which they are trying to protect.

That's true. It's that Jordan Poole, James Wiseman, Jonathan Caminga and Moses Moody

amounted to little to no trade value.

And they tried to trade the number two pick before they even used it on James Wiseman.

And they couldn't find someone that they liked or a good fit.

And then all of that blew up in their faces.

They probably they did wait too long to trade Caminga.

The sheen was off, but they also really liked Caminga and their owner really liked Caminga.

They mismanaged that.

I'm not sure that's changing their life.

And that's really what it comes down to.

They did not have those pick and it's their fault.

They made the picks.

They could have had Franz Wagner.

Alper and Shen Dune was really high on their draft where they didn't pick him because they had

picked Wiseman the year before or two years before, whenever it was.

And those picks just didn't have an value for them.

So you look at the Mo like I'm going to go through like the what ifs along the way.

You ready?

And I'm going to miss some because there's been a lot.

Like they could have tried to get Kawaii Leonard this past summer.

Okay, like he's old.

He's in he's currently not on he's in limbo.

He's literally an NBA limbo.

They tried to get Paul George in when he was it had the player option with the clippers that

ended up opting out and signing with the Sixers.

That was a very complicated potential three team transaction when none of the other not three team three entity clippers Paul George warriors where

although the entities had different sort of incentives and visions of what the deal would look like.

And Paul George Max salary player for the Sixers did not work out great until it did work out fine via Jalen Brown.

They tried to get Lowry Markin and the jazz demanded everything to the point that it was really a kind of an on starter.

The honest thing is interesting because I'm not really sure what happened when they used to be just hot and heavy

on the honest and then you didn't hear their name much in the last the last iteration of it.

And I think it's probably because they were just outgunned.

I don't think they could have really competed all that all that well with again like

Dremon green or injured Jimmy Butler as the salary filler is just like not that attractive to the Milwaukee Pucks.

Here are the ones that are interesting to me.

Carl Anthony towns ahead of when the next traded for him.

The athletic reported at the time that the warriors had sniffed around him and just couldn't have

a package that fit what the wolves needed and it would have had to involve Wiggins.

Wiggins salary Wiggins is played for the wolves already that didn't end well.

That was an interesting name for me.

They tried to get Kevin Durant by the way.

And Kevin ran was like no thank you please don't trade for me.

The towns one is interesting.

The other like if you want to look at realistic and well timed ones in 2023

slash going into winter 2024 trade deadline 2024.

They looked at the raptors guys OGN and OB and Pascal Siacum.

And if you're looking for like a realistic what if

that doesn't completely handicap the warriors post step and was doable.

It looks something like you traded decent amount of stuff for OGN and OB perfect fit exactly

as we've just seen.

And you have enough left over for like another medium size move for another top 45 player who

fits the way you play. I don't know who that would have been like just imagine Drew Holliday or

Derrick Layers just like someone in that vein of players. And then you're talking.

Are there alternate universes where they nail every transaction on the way to that?

Even even whipping in the draft like they did.

Maybe it's easy to say that now.

And by the way they do deserve a ton of credit for turning Derant into Dilo into Wiggins

and a championship. And then Wiggins into Butler and a team that looked pretty fearsome

for a while with Jimmy Butler. So I think a lot of the Warriors criticism is a little the

Warriors front office criticism is a little bit too loud and kind of also looking in the wrong

places. To me it all boils down to the draft picks that didn't hit well. And not that Moody is

like a whiff. He's a fine player. It just didn't hit well. It's wise man. It comes back to why.

You needed you needed a double or a triple and Moody is a single like at the end of the day in

terms of looking at it in that regard. But it's the draft picks that are the problem. And it's

picking Caminga and then Wagner going the next pick. Right? Like that's probably a perfect sort of

fit in where they go and how that kind of works out. And it changes their trajectory of the team.

The wise mid one first off and and and build it the redraft. You sure did.

You know for 2020 which was an incredibly weird draft. As somebody that's been part of the draft

process. I couldn't imagine of you know we're only going to do one on one on O workouts. The guy

has to wear a mask. We're going to do interviews just over zoom. And there's just so many different

weird sort of things that went through the whole process even into just evaluating these guys.

Like I kind of like yeah maybe you should have taken a mellow over Weisman. Like that's such a

a wild draft that I kind of say all right like that was strange. And when you look at that

whole draft there were a lot of whists in there. So I kind of a little bit forgive them a bit on

the on the Weisman one. For me is the Caminga Wagner one that really kind of changes everything

for me. Shengoon would have been a great would have been a really nice pick up. And I think the

mistake is what we have Weisman and then two years later saying we have Weisman we can't take Shengoon.

No just take the guy you what you like and figure it out from there. And if Weisman if you got to move

Weisman you got to move Weisman. But I think that's sort of the the mistakes that they made.

But in terms of the other stuff like yeah they

You're part of being able to trade for a guy is the other side has to agree to the trade.

It has to make sense right like I was all in like they should have gotten Larry Markinan except

Utah was asking for pretty much the golden game by which by the way Larry Markinan still on

the Utah Jazz so no one was able to trade for Larry Markinan not one team. So there was you know

So they were Danny Angels trying to flee store workers and they just said the price was too high.

Okay, like that's Jared actually speaking of the jazz like Jared Jackson Jr. is another name who

it took three firsts and you know Desmond Bane took four firsts. I mean are any of those guys

at this stage right now turning the Warriors into real contenders in steps Twilight and that's

why I rewind to like 2023 2024 those were the last best chances I think for the Warriors to chase

another title after the truly magical 2022 title that they conjured almost out of seemingly nowhere

And I've said this over and over again this what's happening now

Was always the most likely scenario. It's what happens to every great team. Yes, they get old and they don't contend anymore

this great team

happen to have the rare

Golden chance to do their version of the spurs drafting Kawaii Leonard

In whatever 2011 whatever draft that was and prolong your window

and

Kawaii Leonard is

Ameyrico you don't get that player often at number 14 or 15 where he was drafted

You have a much better chance of getting it at number two. They did not they didn't get Halibur and it's we've all done at ad nauseam

This was always the most likely outcome is that the young guys aren't good enough in time for the old guys

And then the old guys leave and the young guys aren't quite good enough to do what the old guys did

Which was become a championship team and there is honor and going out on your shield

We're going out under sword or whatever it is and they're going to keep trying to win like they still have all these picks

They're going to see what comes available in the regular season and see if they find something that they fit better

But as of now, yeah, I mean the over under his right this team has no shot

They they they are not in the top six in the west. I put Utah ahead of them

I'd probably break them like eighth ninth something like that a play in team in the west

That's depressing. It's not what Steph Curry quote deserves at the end of his career

He also has four championships and two MVPs in a finals MVP

I do have however now there's the next level of discussion is

Well should the Warriors just trade Steph Curry

Um, I don't think they will ever trade Steph Curry. I don't think Steph Curry wants to be traded or will ever want to be traded

I think he and Dre I wanted him and Clay and Dre Monday go out as warriors for life together

Raging against the dying of the light Clay obviously left. We're still here with Steph and Dremond and

If you're curry and you really did have a wandering eye and I don't think he does

I'm just doing this for the sake of discussion to be clear

I think the smarter move is don't sign a contract extension. He's eligible for one now two years and a gazillion dollars

And do what LeBron did go into free agency and pick my team so that a team doesn't have to gut its roster to get me now

And I have one more year with the words and then if I really want to chase a ring or play competitive basketball

I can sign for the minimum anywhere I want that said mo

I do have some fake Steph Curry trades just to do the thought exercise. I love it. I love it and

I'll win the other and again the dream was all three of those guys would retire together

So that was unfortunately not going to happen anymore um, so I found

Six teams

That make literally any level of sense as Steph Curry trade targets just this is again

This is just for fun. It's July 28th nothing's happening. We're waiting on Peyton Watson and Jalen Duren

Indulge me in the thought exercise which I think is actually important to do if you're going to say trade Steph Curry

They should trade up here's where we're looking. Okay. Are you ready for the teams in no particular order?

Uh

Atlanta

Needs a point guard has a lot of pieces it would take

It would and has some ticks some extra picks

It would take three of their salaries starting with Dyson Daniels

I don't think Jonathan Camingo would be signed and traded back to Golden State in this scenario

But there's a whole sack there one that you could make the argument that um, they have assets

They have the salaries to make it work and they are a player away from being extremely interesting

Steph Curry is still a top 10 to 12 player at worst in the NBA

um

Denver

Unfortunately, they don't really have any picks to trade. They're already hard

They're already like have major apron issues can't take any additional money back in a Peyton Watson

Sign and trade it would have to involve Jamal Murray and or some combination of salaries that the worries don't want this really makes sense

I know you have a couple so I'm wondering if I hit any of yours along the way and I'll let you know when you hit one of my teams or lando

Yeah, send Franz Wagner back to Golden State where he belongs

Sugs

Wagner and pick slash picks for Stefan Moses moody works almost exactly in the trade machine

You could put bancaro in for Wagner if you want

It's gonna take one of those two guys in the words probably don't even want to eat the jail and suck salary

But were they on your list? They were on my list. I got one to do it was almost essentially that that that framework where I had

Franz go into

It's a golden state and you know filler and then

Making it all work with draft assets

Houston

Fred van my list Fred van Vley jibari smith junior read shepherd and some sort of draft assets and the the rockets with Shirley

Balkan including anything other than the the players I mentioned any draft assets at all

But just like no

Remember this is step curry if I'm trading them in the Warriors you're gonna have to bolt me over

um

reunite step and kd in Houston when kd wouldn't go to reunite with him in the Warriors

I think that's actually like

That's interesting. I think that's legit interesting

I think shen goon is probably a bridge too far for the rockets, but that package

Like that kind of makes sense to me. I again, I don't think any of this is this is all pie in the sky

Yeah, yeah, I actually that's

Along the lines of what I had with shen goon being the centerpiece and I don't think Houston would do it

But I also kind of looking at it this way with

You know kd not wanting to go to golden state

Is more I think is is different than step curry coming to kd

And I think that's something where I think kd would be more open to that concept and that idea of having stuff on his team

And I think that opens everything up and then you're kind of covered defensively because like they're not

I'm in Thompson's not gonna be on the board like they're not gonna a lot you know put that in play

And I think that's an interesting one where I think that would be

Pretty fun to kind of watch as we go forward if it were to ever happen which we both know

Not not likely bill Simmons mentioned the spurs

Deer and fox and every possible draft asset that the spurs have including what they find out of the couch cushions

Um, yeah, that makes that makes some sense

By the way speaking of bill Simmons on that podcast

Did you see the joe house unveiled the t-shirts that says he a t-tricked bill he tricked bill

So it's gonna a little warm in my home studio unzipped his hoodie or whatever

And underneath was the jaylin brown got traded during bill simmons colonoscopy t-shirt or whatever it was and it reminded me mo

Did you see when bill tricked me about attending the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey wedding?

I

I did I heard that on the the the podcast and to be honest I was like wow bill really

He bill got to go to the podcast. I mean to the the wedding

I don't know that he realizes the damage that he's done in my personal life

That this is following me around

So we were at some friends house over the weekend

They have a 12 year old girl rata who's very good friends with our daughter. We all we've all been very good friends

And we were just catching up

Rada's a big basketball player big basketball fan she loves LeBron her dad's a six years fan

She had a lot of questions about LeBron coming to the six years we're catching up on summer and this 12 year old girl

Not an adult a 12 year old girl says he's that you know

There's something else I've been meaning to talk to you about I was at the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift wedding

If you have any questions about it and I'm like even you

even you

Are trolling me rata about this. This is what's happened to me in my life anyway

I just wanted to share my human

Does rata does rata talk trash on the basketball court like this seems to be the start of a

A dream on green like sort of run on the court for rata. I tell you she talks stress on goes act that's for sure

And the last one of course you have to mention the hornets who have all the ingredients and would surely just not it would not be brand new

Miller or conkiniple they're not doing that

It would probably have to involve one of Nasrider Kobe White who aren't either from our tradable yet

But under NBA rules another salary and then a bunch of picks and the hornets also have the bonus of like the warriors could get the

Mavericks pick that the hornets have and other picks that are not just the hornets pick to give them as many bites at other teams failing

As possible those are really the only

Those are the only teams that I could make a legit argument for I tried to mess around a little bit and try to see if I can get stuff to Boston

Oh

I've totally forgot that that was my other one

Uh Paul George and draft for Seth Curry that actually makes sense

Um, it actually I forgot to put it in my notes that was that was another one of mine. I actually ran that by Bill

And he kind of liked that one obviously. Oh, yeah

I would hope Bill would like that one if you're getting stuff curry but I think you know if

If it wasn't like to be asked it okay the Warriors go on Paul George

There's just no other way to make it work

financially after that

You know if it's Derek white

Peyton Pritchard and just you have to gut the entire roster to get to just the salary

So it would have to be Paul George and at the end of the day I was just like I think I'll just leave that one off

Fair enough. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll talk about Golden States area within the uh very interesting western conference

Okay

The Warriors enough with the Warriors they finished 10th in the west last year at 37 and 45

Stefan's the lot of games Jimmy missed the end of the season. It was not a great season for the Warriors kind of miserable when actually

Um the top six in the west last year Oklahoma City San Antonio

Denver Lakers rockets woals

Overunderwise and according to my own personal thoughts

In some order those remain the top six

After that the west gets really interesting um the play in teams last year a seven to ten were Portland Phoenix the Clippers the Warriors

Say goodbye to the Clippers they're gone there

Uh Utah finished last in the west. I think they have a shot at if there's a team that has a shot at cracking the top six

I actually think it's Utah out of out of all these other teams and

The rest of it is like I think this Portland

Phoenix Warriors nexus of strangeness

I think there's there's enough volatility there that a team like Dallas

Or Memphis. I think Memphis is being really underrated by Vegas

I don't know about New Orleans. There's just too much there's too much going on but someone

An afterthought team in the west is I think gonna have a shot if not if not two of these

At chasing a play in birth because I just think the Portland Phoenix Warriors stuff

That trio has a lot of volatility and in golden states case of a pretty bad downside

Like Steph misses 35 games

They are like toast in those 35 games not you know toast toast, but pretty toasty um

So I thought this would be a good time to look at Portland and Phoenix. Which one you want to start with

Let's go ahead and start with the blazers and and go with with that team as long as I can just stay in Portland

Well, look, I'm not gonna get into the whole thing about whether this is all the bluff by a cheap skater

Who wants the city to pony up money for his arena

Or whether it's a real move and I don't even know where they wouldn't move because that's one of the issues

But there's a it's a very complicated standoff between you know the city the state

A certain bucket of funding has already been sort of a let like kind of approved

For the arena renovations to the blazers, but there's this communication gap between what the blazers want what they're willing to accept

And there's funding being held that it's just complete mess. How about to billionaire pays for an arena. It's a wild fun

Um the blazers over under is 43 and a half which actually is higher than I expected it to be

Four higher than the Warriors and four higher than the sons

um

They're starting five I guess is going to be John Marant

Damien Lillard

Denny Abdia, Tumani Kamara, Donovan Klingin

Off the bench scoot Henderson drew holiday Shaden Sharpef is in the rotation

Backup five Robert Williams III Hanson Yang is here. I you know, there's some other guys V

Crachy, Micapotter, Sisoko. They don't really have a true backup for

This is a team that made its bones on defense last year. They're a twelfth in defense

They cannot shoot from anywhere and in Jama-Rant you and I disagreed on this last time with they were on

I thought this was a perfectly fine flyer for them to take on a high end talent

That created some short-term issues and challenges for them

I just I don't know what to make of this team 43 and a half surprised me. I thought it would be more like 41 and a half for 39 and a half

Yeah, and we should also mention they have a coach that's on a one-year deal like prove it type deal in terms of going forward and and that's

Probably a story for another time, but that drove me nuts when that was

Announced and I and I because I like Mike andoria

I think he's almost kind of like the Ted Lasso of the NBA in a in a large degree

But I think the thing that concerns me the most is just you just slightly laid out the starting five and only two of those guys play defense

Right and it's not of any clinging and it's to money tomorrow after that the other three guys need to have the ball

Exclusively in their hands to really dominate. I think I think I think of the a plays defense

Just less so as a blazer because he has been the point everything on offense for them and that is sapt his defense and the past

I've thought he was a perfectly fine defender

But it wasn't there last year and I'm curious to see how the how he handles it

You know the way we talk about Philly like how does he handle less usage?

Because Dam's gonna eat into that and Jaws gonna eat into that and both especially Jod not great off of ball

In terms of you you're not guarding him in terms of the spacing

So that's gonna crowd you even more and obviously you are guarding game when he's off ball

But it's not really great as an off ball guy

You know, he's so used to the ball being in his hands as part of the reasons why it didn't really work so well in Milwaukee

With him and Yannis and that pairing and I'm just gonna be fascinated to see how they kind of

Sort of paper overall of this stuff and it'd be interesting to see if if they do tweak the starting lineup a little bit and add more defense in the back court

Some way don't know which one between Jaws or Dam's it's if it's bad to guess it's more likely Jaws and Dave

But I think you're gonna have to kind of figure it out

Where you're gonna get those things from because in the west on a nightly basis

Just playing in the Western conference

Shay Yulges Alexander the trio of spurs guards to Mall Murray, you know where the Steph Curry like just the number of guards

You have to deal with every night coming at you

I'd be worried about them. Yeah, they're gonna put come on them cool

That's gonna open up other areas where they're gonna be able to get attacked and and leave them vulnerable last year

They made their bones defensively

This year it's gonna have to be totally just relying on offense and I'm not sure if that's gonna go the way they think it is

Because I think that offense is gonna have a little bit more trouble getting off the ground

I mean again

There a team that can't shoot from anywhere and they're counting on internal development

It's certainly scoot finish last season strong from three and just overall

And now on on paper he's back to a bench roll as he's eligible for a contract extension

We'll see what that with that brings yeah the job damn thing

I don't think we'll work

I would put the over under on when they really have a come to Jesus moment about the starting five at like 14 and a half games

And I don't know what happens

I don't know if it's a trade one way or the other

I don't know who would even get traded

They have a bunch of extra draft assets from Orlando and Milwaukee to play with so it makes them an interesting

Team to watch, but yeah, the offense is gonna be

I think the judge raid was a recognition of where they are as a team like yeah last year was fun

It's not like we're contending

Let's take a shot at like a moonshot of if we actually can find

The jama rant that was an all-in-be a player

That sets us up to be a more interesting team in three years in two years

Then we are currently slated to be and all the cost and was Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray which is fine whatever

I just like

It does make me nervous when teams have it just in terms of short-term win-to-littles when teams walk into seasons with like some pretty

fundamental questions to ask and answer about themselves because it takes time in real games to answer those questions and sometimes it takes pain and I just don't know

How the ball is going to be distributed offensively

How this team is going to defend at the same level they did last year under Thiago splitter who was too expensive for them

I guess

And just how they sort out this bench rotation that is again kind of heavy on guards and shade and sharp seems to fall in and out of the rotation all of that

Just it's a strange

It's a strange team that

May not have cap room by the way until depending on a bunch of variables including scoot

Until the summer of 2028 when obdias deal is up and his cap old is so low because his current salary is so low

And that's fine. I just I could see a world where this where this goes fine

And they are 500 team I

Could see a world where it goes haywire for a bit and all of a sudden there are 35 win team and that puts some other teams in play

What's your view of scoot going forward like if you're them how do you handle this? I don't know

This is a guy you drafted that you thought was going to be a starting level guard

Is rookie season was derailed from the beginning with injuries and things like that. I'm a fan of scoot. I'm

I own stock or own a house on the island. I don't know what we're doing

School straights. Literations. Good straights. Good straights. Good straights. You know, I'm I'm I'm still on the straight there

And I think you know, I'm just curious. So as the team going forward

He did he didn't prove so much over the last season, especially at the end of the season

I'm curious to say like okay now. We're gonna move him back to the bench

It's a little bit something his growth

Well, where do you go with that like what's the plan like I don't know

Go give him a contract extension at this point and how do you sort of continue with his development like I'm just kind of

Perplexed a little bit with like what's the plan for scoop Henderson as you go forward

Well, what was so interesting about him last year and I like you I

I kind of never gave up hope on him because he has he has stuff in his game

That is hard to find a rhythmic stuff change a page stuff for so though

He's never been as good a finisher explosive of finisher as you at the rim as you think

um

But the turnovers have been a disaster and the jumper has been up and down to say the least and what was so interesting about last year was that

He kind of wasn't a point guard anymore. He became an off guard slash hybrid guard with denny obdiya running the offense

and among others and

It's set up to be that way again

And that's fine if that's his destiny as a player

He could be very good at that and shot the ball well and had some good playoff games for them

To answer a question. I'm not entertaining an extension if I'm the blazers

Yeah, right unless he's willing to take a deal that's wildly below market because I've looked at the cap room situation this summer

and I'm not afraid and

Of a team overpaying him and if the team does overpay him it means he's had a great season and I'm all I'll pay him

Uh, and if not I'll get into a jail and during paid and Watson restricted for agency standoff and you know

We'll see what happens, but just a straight. It's a strange team. I am a believer in obdiya

I think what obdiya showed last year offensively was real

And that's what makes them a rant damn wild card so interesting is does he does he get to show that again?

Or is it actually sort of better for him and the team

To settle into a role that still he has the ball up

But maybe not quite as much and you can get more spot up three is attack close out a little bit more

But I thought the scoring was completely legit and uh he was an all NBA almost borderline level player and I think that's real

No, that's definitely real like what he showed last year. It sustained through the whole season

You know, and it wasn't just a matter of get it was getting downhill

But also putting the pressure on the defense and getting to the line right like I think that was a key part of it

And it's just the constant pressure that he applies is something he can continue to do

You know, they nicknamed him turbo for a reason right like he's just gonna fly down the hill and get going and get down the lane and go from there

And I think that's something that

He can recreate. I think he's gonna look we're gonna look to see more of that in transition from him

But I am curious to see again. It's how does that fit with jaw

One like if I'm the opposing defense cool

I'm gonna let job bomb away from three and I'm just gonna crowd the paint some more right and at this point

I'd be as used to it because that was last season right they didn't they didn't address it anymore this season

And then you have Dame who can stretch the floor

But he's also gonna want the ball in his hands a lot so it's kind of just figuring out sort of the

The way this is gonna go off eventually because I think the worst case scenario for really any team

Is my turn your turn his turn when you have three guys

I think generally leaves so a lot of difficulty offensively finding any fluidity and finding any sort of flow

And I think that's gonna be something that they got to stay away from but they have three guys

That are my turn your turn his turn and I think that's something I'm

Kind of just want to see what they put together

Offensively going into the season. I'm excited to watch them

I am very excited to see Damien Lillard play basketball in Portland again

I think that first game is gonna be awesome and I can't wait to see that Phoenix last year's feel good story

45 and 37

Got smacked around in the first round by the thunder

Retained well they retained a lot of their guys

But they also their one big trade was Royce O'Neill and Grayson Allen both like sometimes starters sometimes backups for them

And then unprotected 2033 pick to Charlotte for Miles Bridges and a not good

2029 first round pick that's like the lesser of a bunch of picks

Um, they're starting five. I think

Will be jail or on paper would be jailing green

Devon Booker

Dylan Brooks

Miles Bridges and Mark Williams

So no true point guard really in the bunch the truest point guard on the team is calling the lesbih

Wouldn't shock me if at some point

He butts his way back into the starting five just his his stability

Is three point shooting. I thought he was great last year the deal that they brought him back on the great deal

But for now, I think that's what they want to start

I think they need to figure out what they have in jail in green. He has a $36 million player option for 2728

And that's one of the biggest wild cards in the league

So off the bench would be Gillespie

Luke Kinnard that's a nice deal and this is now where

The young guys take the place of the Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neill types

Wish your Fleming is gonna have to play Ryan Dunn will play

Iggadaro and Mala watch will play summit the for free Goudoro summit the five

Um, it's it's a we didn't even mention Jordan Goodwin who's was a very was a very good bench guard for them

They are they are I'm a believer in Fleming. I think he's gonna be solid

Iggadaro is a decent playmaker switchy defender who's lack of

Lack of anything on offense kind of handicaps him a little bit and he's a terrible foul shooter. He's a solid player

That their depth if I think is a reason for optimism

They're over under his 39 and a half which is four lower than the Blazers

That surprised me a little bit because I think their depth is pretty powerful. I just don't like

I don't see like a ton of upside here

I'm just very curious to see what this team follows up a 45 win season where again like the Blazers

They were a defense first team. They were ninth on defense

Um some shooting luck was baked into that

And I just you know, I don't know that the bridges thing is worth what they paid for it

uh

And I don't think he's gonna help their rebounding which was pretty bad last year

And the jailing green thing is gonna be it's it could if they're gonna start him it could make or break their season

Yeah, and I think one thing that you didn't really mention is just the big man rotation

You know like you're not getting mark Williams took a step back defensively in terms of rebounding too fewer rebounds per game

Uh

Night with with the way this uh from the previous season and then you got a hope malo watch pays off

Like and takes the leap as a big man in terms of what you're going because I thought that was something that really hurt them

And like you said riches isn't really a good rebounder

And that's something you need to kind of build upon like they're they're big man rotation

Leaves me wanting like I this is something I like the guards to have I love the guys they have off the bench when you laid off

When you you ran off all those names, you know, and I was waiting I was sitting here waiting

To gonna say good one is he gonna say good one can I just say who yeah? I think is the inside track to be their 15th man

He gave them good minutes last year when they called on him like their guard rotations and like how how good all their guards are is pretty impressive

But I just I wish they can just turn some of those guys into big men

And I think they need to have some sort of big guy

They really will present themselves at least on the terms of like you know, I'm gonna clean up the glass

I don't you I don't need much

I just need somebody that's going to dominate the glass for them in one way shape or form

And then when we talk about shooting look like Dylan Brooks

Was making unbelievable shots last season right like and can he do that again like I don't know like it in

And sort of baking that in and looking into the next season for this team, you know, I

You're right when Jalen Green is probably the maker break if he's a guy that can start for them

But when it comes down to who's gonna create for Devon Booker

And if he has to do everything and create on his own

If it comes really difficult for him, especially when he has to create for others because I like book one

It's just hey man. I have somebody set in me up. There's no there's a reason why they went to the finals when they had Chris Paul

Beyond eight and playing great during that run

But CP was able to set up Booker a ton, but they don't have a set up man for Booker anymore

We've seen him kind of drop off each season when he doesn't have a guy like that

And I think that's something that worries me when we look at this team

Do you remember pop quizmo what team Deandre Aiden is currently on

Oh, I did just oh god

Obviously not the Lakers. Oh my god. I just oh

God I have to remind myself every time I think there you go point will give you I don't think the jeopardy buzzer sounded quite yet on on your

I just knew I was like the backup so I was like oh god. Okay. I just look at this team

I

Some like I have their depth hardware right here sometimes. I look at them like I like this team

It's pretty deep. I think bridges will be all right for them

He's kind of a jack of all trades kind of player who might function better in this environment

They need a little bounce. They need a little more size at the floor

I get it and then I'll look away and I'll look back and I'm like

I don't know what is this they owe all these picks including

2031 and 2033 unprotected picks like what end

They look in the end just very average to me and

That's probably just what they are an average team and by the way, that's fine if they've dug out of this this morass that they were in after

Beale and during Beale's money is still on the books and Durant to be average with some

interesting young players in Fleming and Malawatch and Igedaro and Dunn and Booker still like not old and Jalen Green maybe

You know bridges and is it in the same sort of age range as Booker and so is Brooks like that's a that's a fun

Young-ish team. That's totally fine

I just still don't really know where it's going and I think there's gonna be nights where it looks great

And nights where it looks a little ugly and they just look like a team that'll be like

15th on offense 15th on defense 41 and 41 and that

Again opens the door for like

God forbid there's an injury setback all of a sudden

And it's like wait are the pelicans gonna be the eighth seed in the bus. What's happening right now?

Well, you know the one thing too with Phoenix though is

And we can this is what they were last season

Every night's good. They're gonna play their asses off

They have a bunch of guys that play extremely hard right? So you're in a dogfight each night any team that comes in

A little bit like a daisicle is gonna find themselves in a fight the moment they step on the floor and now the league knows that

And I think they knew that last year and maybe that's worth a half a win less or whatever than it would by the way

Should also be noted

Geo and green has the player option. I said

Dylan Brooks and Miles Bridges are both extension eligible now

I would bet on both of them getting an extension or at least having some pretty serious talks

You factor in all three of those guys on the books for next year

They're basically at the second apron for a team that is good enough to be at the second apron. So we'll see

Last team in the West that

Is not in this tier is hovering way above this tier

The Denver nuggets who have had a little bit of an active offseason

They signed this guide diolo from Europe. They signed Marvin Bagley as a backup center

They re-signed Spencer Jones after it just an absolutely devilish maneuver

I mean literally press the as mr. Burns excellent

finger tips touching

Excellent. Oh, we've opened up six million under the cap. Who do we like Spencer Jones with that really fucked

Denver you would let's do it and they did it in the nuggets match

And now they have paid Watson hanging in the wind as restricted free agent

Um, I don't know there really anything has happened there other than

Some talks that have led nowhere

Uh, some people around the league have speculated like do the nuggets actually want

Peyton Watson to take his qualifying offer of six and a half million dollars in which case he'd be an unrestricted free agent

After next season

Actually don't think that they want that and they should definitely not want that because if they're gonna keep their window open

And it was a popular topic including here when they got eliminated into the first round last year like is this it

Is it just close is the window just closed given Aaron Gordon's endless injury issues

It's pretty close to close

Closed I just can't slam it shut as long as Yoke is healthy and among the best three players in the league

So I'm gonna open it a crack still

You it might the crack might be like

San Antonio or Oklahoma city has to run into some issues at the right time for the nuggets

But did you know what the nuggets played the spurs well last year?

So I'm keeping it in the crack open if you want to really open it up

Peyton Watson is exactly the kind of player that you need you watch the spurs in the thunder play young athletic

Long ferocious athleticism physicality that's all Peyton Watson

He's got flaws in his game. We'll see if the three-point shot is real

You showed some ball handling picking roll stuff when Yoke it's in everyone else on the team was heard

We'll see how real that is

Yes, there's a riskable we're paying him. I get it the nuggets are like

Oh like way they're apron down already with potential to be way apron down

They're looking at a tax bill that the cronkeys have never even sniffed before

Um, I don't know man like there's a world

What if they just actually paid all these guys? What if they kept cam Johnson and Christian Brown and re-signed Peyton Watson

And just actually bit the bullet for a year. Is that really so bad?

Cronkeys

What if they kept them all with the idea of and this is another theory I've heard floated

Well, we'll just if we have to cut money we'll figure it out at the trade deadline

That's a risky game because teams have you over a barrel

But if they re-signed Peyton Watson

They're starting five is Murray brown cam Johnson airing Gordon Nicole Yoke

Itch maybe Watson moves into a starting spot under his new deal

For airing Gordon maybe give airing Gordon easier life off the bench for Christian Brown

Maybe go big for cam Johnson maybe who was just okay last year

That starting five by the way only played in 23 games last year was wildly effective when they played

Off the bench gets a little dice here, Mo

Little dice. Oh, dice. Oh, dice. Oh, dice. Jones is back

Straw there straights. I guess I can't have multiple straights. I guess I can't have a scooch straights because I have

Straw there straights

We got to find a new one first gear. I own there's nobody also on straw the straights

It's me and whoever I well, I was about to say it's me and whoever I invite to the straights. We're not gonna

Spencer Jones Peyton Watson Marvin Bagley, Najee still here etc

Somehow is the eagnogious still here

The bench is shaky, but less so if they they will stagger Murray and you'll catch what it matters

Watson can eat up a lot of minutes if they bring him back

I think it's like a must to bring him back. I like Jones a lot

It's a good team

And I'm not closing the window. I'm just not but TBD on what they do if they really if Peyton Watson takes the qualifying off

And leaves that's it that's a that's not great for the Denver Nuggets

If they don't

Resign Peyton Watson and I mean if they don't have them on the roster next season. I'm closing the window

Like I think that that's fair. I just don't I think they absolutely need him

I think you you know unless you're gonna get a bounce back season from Christian Brown

And he's gonna live up to the contract that he has now that kicks in the season at 25 a year

I don't see a way for them to really and and is and I love yoke it's I want to see him at that level

But we we look at Aaron Gordon's injury history at this point and even Watson only played it

58 games last season like this little

concerns with that but what we saw when he played especially when they didn't have anybody pretty much on the floor

He was like showed a lot of growth now. We have to see it again to say okay. It's real

And we have to see it sustained over longer periods of time

But I think you absolutely have to have him

Back for them to really have a legitimate chance because I think he does such a great job

I'm gonna be the point of attack defender and assuming Aaron Gordon and Celty

Aaron Gordon can then take the big guys and that takes a lot of pressure off a yoke

defensively in terms of what they have to deal with and I think that's an important thing they kind of pay attention to

I think cam johnson's going to have a better season his second time around with the nuggets

It's I likened it a lot to Richard Jefferson's second season with the spurs first season was it really good

It was a little bit complicated when he came out I don't know who should be more insulted by that Richard Jefferson or cam johnson

RJK RJK RJK can weigh in on this

No, I wasn't meant to be an in so I was there. I was doing what RJ got there so the coaching was the problem then

You're just trying to get me into all sorts of trouble right now and in all of this and I see that little smile

You have but I think the the way I look at it those I think

The second time around with a little more understanding of the system and and how to play I think goes a long way for cam johnson

That's an issue for them, you know

The Jonas balance unit stuff didn't work last season

Bagley's not an upgrade in that scenario for for the nuggets

But I think they have to kind of figure out how they're going to get this thing going

But I think they got to have lots and that's got to be the starting point. Kroki's got to bite the bullet

Well, it's hey like just paint. I think if it costs you if it ends up causing you

Cam johnson's expiring deal. It's just a matter of like they don't really have any picks that are available to trade

So I'm not sure how they even incentivize teams Christian Brown's deal runs through 2031. It runs to like eternity

That's a rough deal. It could it but it also in six months it could look okay

Right again if you choose the three ball better and and plays up to his potential

um

This is look you have Nicole the okay, you should be trying to win and they own

1700 sports teams some of whom are presumably very profitable. They should be just fine

footing the bill and hopefully the Rams win the Super Bowl and they they could that's where the excess money can come in

Yeah, you know enough. Uh, it's enough

I just attended a Dodgers meds game where the meds just it was well, I talked about it later with Sean

Uh, but I think paid and Watson is important enough that if it costs you one of your other key players than it because of your

Mandate to save money then that's what it cost you I think paid and Watson needs to be on the team um

And if he's not

next year that'll be

Problematic and Aaron Gordon look. I mean, if people are putting Aaron Gordon into these fake trades

I'm just telling you he makes 32 million dollars 35 million dollars and 37 million dollars on a player option in 2029

His health issues are not a secret

I love Aaron Gordon. I'm like the president of the Aaron Gordon fan club

He has lived out his greatest basketball destiny playing with Nicole Yoke just his right hand man

The league knows about his health issues the rest of the themes know about his health issues. I'm just not sure how tradable that contract actually is

Um, and so we'll have to see but I'm not

I look the thunder lost some depth and

Are gonna rely on some young guys and losing some death doesn't hurt that much for them because they're already so deep

But it does make them even more vulnerable to an ill-time injury spurs are still pretty young

Nuggets played them well. I'm not shutting the window until I until I have to with the nuggets and the Koli Yokeitch

And baggy was good for the Wizards last year Moe. I don't know how you know defensively not super viable

But he eats eats up rebounds

I mean if it's being good for the Wizards isn't necessarily gonna get you to

Ready to go in the conference finals in the west or or even the finals though

Hey, look man over under for the Wizards 35 and a half treasurer talk about we're putting the Wizards back on the map

Anthony Davis presumably

Is aware that he plays for the Wizards and we'll report to camp in the right city

When the season starts look out for the Wiz baby look out

I like AJ. I'm excited for AJ. I'm ready to see all all we can get from there

I'm excited for all these rookies. This is gonna be a tremendous rookie class

I can't wait to see some of these teams. Alright moe to kill

Double dribble podcasts

We've got you on the ringer a lot you're doing stuff for bleacher report now

And then you got a twitch stream you and jalen brown or carrying twitch on your shoulders like I actually

I've actually just I've given it up to jalen brown. Okay

Twitch stream is done. I he's he surpassed me in a way where I can't even mention it

Anything else we need to mention

Videos on offside here and there. Offside this one

From from time to time offseason

There's probably not gonna be a lot from me there and and really just get and ready and next time's actually see me

The chalkboard's probably gonna be gone because I'm gonna be in my actual office

I'm gonna have a studio my little studio coming up soon. I love that

I'm not sure when I will next to you because we're heading out on vacation soon to Europe and

I wish the Dodger is nothing but bad luck between now and the end of the season

And and I will I will talk to you soon mo if I have to text you if we trade for school ball

Don't how about let me tell you right now mo you guys trade for school ball and you send me a text message

It's not getting returned. I'm not returning it. So just prepare yourself now for a non-response mo to kill thanks, bud

Thank you

Hello and welcome to Pluto foe if you know the name of the movie you'd like to see just stream it for free on Pluto TV

We're all your bloodbusters favorites are landing all summer long catch anchor man the legend of Ron Burgundy fantastic men and black one through three

That's what I'm talking about mean girls

I'm the key in the world and so much more for showtime's press nothing they're free 24 seven that is so

On Pluto TV stream now pay never

All right, it's time for our last met's corner before I head on to vacation in Europe where recording this on Monday evening July 27th the trade deadline is approaching and Sean fantasy

I normally bring a microphone and a camera to Europe because there's always one super dramatic NBA story

potentially hovering bubbling below the surface. It was yon as last summer. It's been KD before Lebron just signed

We are poised it seems for the first dead ish NBA august september in a long time

But I'm bringing my stuff anyway because it does not seem like we are poised for a calm trade deadline in met's land

In that in that vein. Can I interest you in this Freddy parolta

Bobblehead that was the giveaway on Saturday for the first 20,000 fans on the night I threw out the first pitch

It's going to be a collector's item very soon because for frame Freddy went out and did his thing the next day

Baby any interest that we picked up four of them. I personally will pass

But I do think we will be asking 15 to 18 clubs around major league baseball whether or not they would be interested in Freddy parolta's

Body and some former fashion. So uh, yeah, that's incredible and they really should have found a way to pivot off of

That giveaway day, but nevertheless

We endure

Any then he pitched the next day for innings and the meds got a w anyway tyrone Taylor who seems to just hit home runs every time

We play him and Marcus simian woke up from the season long calm line hitter three or he's actually has 11 home runs

He's that's about all he's done is hit those 11 home runs and the meds beat the Dodgers. They're good. They are playing

Who are we playing right now? We're playing somebody right now. I was a record the Atlanta briefs. I'm sure that'll go great

First place the Atlanta briefs

We will talk a little bit about my experience

Throwing the first pitch in a game that the meds lost in like just every I'm just I'm glad that I took my dad and my daughter and my wife

And some friends to a game that really summarized the experience of the 2026 meds embarrassing errors

Embarrassing past balls red baby just throwing the ball all around the field at various positions not of which he can play adequately

No clutch hitting at all to speak of until the game was four one Dodgers and the meds fake came back and got back in it

Wansoto filled a cameo film the cameo with in an amazon movie and now is out with the calf injury and is asking

Answering questions about whether he's even going to come back at some point this season and he says he is

It's going great Sean. It's really going great and you you are

You are curious if this trade deadline even ends up being perhaps bigger

Then or should be perhaps bigger than then many people think it might be let's talk about

Let's talk about all the different permutations that we could get right because it is a pretty important

Six-day stretch here that we're going to have with the team. It's probably the last important six-day stretch

We're going to have with this team until we get to the offseason and even then there's no guarantee that we're getting baseball next year

So you could make the case that the next six days are the most important week for the meds

for the next 18 months that's in play and

That's upsetting to think about but it's it's definitely possible and

There's a lot of different directions that they could go there's

I think most of the insiders and baseball have clearly demarcated

We'll hear the seven or eight players that are probably available for the New York meds

David Sterns and meds brass have indicated well

There's like five maybe six players that are currently untouchable on our roster

But that doesn't account for every single player on the roster and I've got to say

For a team that's 19 games under 500 it doesn't seem like there are a few tweaks away from being back in contention next year

And so I'm feeling like are there maybe much more dramatic things that need to be done to radically alter what we're doing

It's possible that that's not possible

But let's just start with the people who we know we don't want traded

I'm going to name the people and you tell me I'll keep naming names and you say stop when I've named someone who you think should be traded

Okay should should be okay. Yeah Carson bench

Uh

Juan Soto

Nolan McLean

Christian Scott

AJ Ewing

Zach Thorne

Francisco Lendor

Francisco Alvarez

Luis Tarenz

Ooh

Okay, no keep going keep going my daughter loves him too much

Okay, that's nine players that I've just named Luke Weaver

And now okay, so you know that I have it I

I have

This vision of how do we thread this needle of being sellers in what has been an all-time cataclysmic season that is long over

And still acknowledging that we have one of the five best hitters on the planet and that's probably too high of a number

In his prime on our team next year meaning we should compete and it seems like likely not certain that

A Hall of Fame level shortstop will be on our team and his early to mid-30s

next season

And so that was why I was like well this Luke Weaver guy man. He seems awesome. He's like he had millions scoreless endings in a row

If we want it if we want to compete next year don't we need guys like that and then I've actually talked to some baseball experts over the last couple weeks

I went to a game I met some people and they're like, you know

Relievers are just kind of like if you can sell high on a reliever you just generally should because there's so volatile

And so I've been swayed by that

Alvarez I am on team don't trade Alvarez and I understand he's frustrating

He swings at a lot of bad pitches

He's young and he has power any place catcher and I don't really even care that he plays catcher poorly on defense

Because I I wore the jersey of a horrible defensive catcher onto the mound at city field to throw my first pitch

Because Mike Piazzo was just that damn good as a hit or Alvi's not in that in that range

But you know the question you're basically asking is like

If that's if if the line is Luke Weaver

Are we going to get enough stuff for this to be a real sell-off and like what's actually the pivot next year is Boba

Shit on the team next year is he better than this like Luis Robert Jr. Hori Polanco has done

I mean literally nothing now one thing of any significance like so I is that enough and that's the question you're asking

Does it need to be more? Yeah, I mean, there's just a quagmire

There's a big question about lindor which you and I have talked about the last two met's corners

I think it's a both an untradable contract and a bad time to trade him

So I don't think that that's necessarily a key conversation point

But there's a weird thing about this team which is there have just been

roughly six

Awful major league expensive contracts either given out or traded for on the books

And we don't really know what to do because if you look down the line next year the team has over

230 million dollars in payroll already committed in two years

They still have over 150 and including opt-ins potentially 180 plus million dollars on the books

This is a team

Zach that's going to struggle to win 70 games

This is insane that they have this much long-term money committed to a a terrible core right now

And I didn't even I didn't even bother to do the math of what our record updated records since we were 45 and 24 last season

And so to your point like this is just a flat out bad team

It's 200 games plus of just your bad you're just really really bad and

You can say well everybody got injured

This guy inexplicably swamped Frankie Mottes isn't even on the freaking team anymore so much

But like that's how teams get bad is like a lot of things go wrong all at the same time

And it's been going wrong for a baseball season and a quarter

I don't know it's it's just like they're just not good

Yeah, I send you this note someone tweeted this and I'll add an addendum to the tweet

It was about the fact that boba shed Jorge Polanco Marcus Semian Sean Maniah Devon Williams

Code isenga and if you include Frankie Montasets seven players who are currently making a total of

160 million dollars this year have accounted for point eight war

Point eight they know that doesn't even that's not even one win above replacement

That's insane and Maniah has been actually okay

He's for two two months now to the point where I'm okay with him being

22 million dollars next year

It is embarrassing to your point that in the coming labor struggle

The mets are being used the mets own and competence is being used by the players union as evidence that a salary cap is not actually necessary

Despite the they are the flip side of the Dodgers dominance

And you combine that with a bunch of low payroll teams like the guardians and the white soft etc

Performing really well this year and the mets are like the post the mets are through their own embarrassing performance

Are being used as a tool in the cba disagreement of like maybe a salary cap is not necessary look at these idiots

They spent all the money in the world and they suck

I never in a million years thought we would have been here when Stern's was hired three seat three off seasons ago

Never in a million years. I'm shocked now some of some of what I just shared with you is

Bad luck, you know, it's bad luck the code

I sang a got hurt and it just has never been the best the the player he was

It's bad luck that Montaus got hurt. It's bad luck that Polanco and

Has has been as hurt as he has been even though you could have seen that before the signing

I think there's the Marcus Semi in question is really tricky and it's really bothering me

Zach and one of the things that I do when I watch the games is I think to myself

What can happen here that will make me happy um

Because what a question that like I

Marcus Semi in is 35 years old

Obviously, he was traded for Brandon Nemo at an effort to clear the final two years of Nemo's deal

And also to make space in the outfield for these prospects who are rising up

You know bench started this season with the team. AJ you and came up quickly proved himself a major league

Lear Nick Morbito is still in triple A right now. He's somebody who's essentially part of the team

You know, we've got Lon Soto. We've got Tyrone Taylor is reborn as hack Wilson

um

So like I get that move. I'm not necessarily debating that move specifically

But literally Marcus Semi in who is I think the worst position player in baseball

Has two years and 50 million dollars left on his contract. I'm gonna keep saying this on vets corner for the next two years

Like that is a a a fuck ton of money to be paying to somebody who literally should not be in the lineup

I mean, he is not despite that through run home run that you're citing

um

He is he's a negative. He is literally a negative at the plate and he's his defense has been deteriorating all season

And so it's really hard to even invest

I like actually like investing in the sort of like let's watch the kids narratives

We've had a lot of met seasons where the second half has been just kind of all like let's get a look at what we have under the hood here

Who are the players who can come up and and play for us

But it feels as though there has been some tacit agreement made between Semi and in the front office that he is no matter what the

Every day second baseman and despite his injury a couple weeks ago the plan was for him to play 162 games this year

That's inexplicable to me inexplicable and it I don't know what it says about what the long-term strategy is going to be for the team

But if we're making agreements like that with players who should not be on the field and we're making guys like Brett

Baby who is a much more natural second baseman than he is first baseman play first base

You're meaningfully undermining the potential success of the team. So I don't know

I know that's a very small drop in the bucket relative to this disaster this year

But it itches at me every time I watch them well look

I mean you're you mentioned Bady

And I just was looking up like how often is he played second baseman the past he's played it quite a bit

I'll tell you right now he can't play any of the positions that he's playing right now

He cannot play first. He is a freaking walking disaster at first base

He hit her I can't and then in the outfield

You know we have all these outfielders. We have actual five six outfielders now that we saw opportuneers back

And you and I were both watching the brewers game last week. I was watching with my daughter fly ball to deep christian scott

Who's been just a workhorse a godson?

Let's put him in the rotation and still next season is about to get out of a jam long fly ball to right field hit pretty hard

But it's a fly ball that you have to catch and our our right fielder

And I had just flipped on the game half an inning before our right fielder who I thought was bench

Was like staggering back switching directions tripping over his own feet

Reaching out at the last minute for a ball did he's taken a horrible angle on and it drops in the warning track and hits the wall

And it's a double in everybody scores

And I'm I'm like my daughter and I're watching again. I'm like, yeah, that's not that's unlike Carson bench

That's an even look like Carson bench. And of course it was Brett bady and my 11 year old daughter not me

My daughter says to me

Why is bady playing the outfield and I'm going through all the names of the outfielders we have

Including Taylor who's on the bench because god forbid we play him against the right handed pitcher because Brett bady just has to play

He's so ferocious offensively

His left hand at bat has to be in the lineup despite that he cost us a game of the field my 11 year old daughter

Asked a question. Why is Brett bady playing the outfield honey? I don't know, but we're about to lose this god damn game too

I think that

My instinct on that is there's either two answers to that question one is

They're trying to show that red bady is a very versatile player and playing him frequently to up his trade value or

They're making they're making an effort knowing this is a lost season to teach him how to play those positions and give him more exposure to them

So that he is a super utility player. This is like the NBA man. You're not a versatile defender

Just because you're bad at every position. That's just a make you versatile. I know you're right

But see simian stinks so put bady at second. Maybe he stinks a little less

I and you you were at a restaurant you told me and the waiter said the same thing to you right like what is what what is that?

I was leaving the leaving the restaurant last Wednesday night at the same night of the game that you're describing and the first thing the guy said

This is in Los Angeles

He grabbed me by the army said why the hell is Brett bady playing right field and I didn't know what to say to him

I don't what what the team is just the absolute first and

I'm so confused. I'm so confused how it could have gone this poorly. Um, I really

I don't know where they're supposed to go now. I think there's maybe two schools of thought here in terms of like dealing guys

Because they're gonna make deals right Brooks really is gonna be traded any minute. AJ mentors gonna be traded any minute

I think there's a good chance we've got stale and they're gonna be try to compile as many top 100 prospects as they can if you were the front office of this team

would you

Say well, we've got Soto and he'll be going into his age 28 season next year

We've got all these young guys, you know who are not even at arbitration yet. So that's all very cost-managed

Those other players that Sean was bitching about those are some cost right it's over. We made those commitments

Don't worry about that

Would you try to acquire as many close to the big leagues prospects as possible or would you just try to acquire best player available

And then consider

Dealing those prospects in the offseason for majorly ready players to to compete in 2027 the latter

I think I think everything has to be aimed at trying to get this team back to being something next season

If you're going to have Soto in lindore and McLean who's clearly ready for big things on the team next year

I would aim everything at that, but again, I'm

I'm just an idiot. I mean, I don't know what the other path is like

I mean, I guess if you get majorly ready prospects and you just baseball is weird

If you just have a bunch of good players on your team, that's very very powerful. So I'm I'm open to either path

But I would I would aim more towards

Something that helps us flip for guys in the short term that can that can

coincide with maybe a nice 2027 2028 season

I think you're right and I think a lot of this season can be talked up to bad luck too bad strategy for sure

But just like you know

Soto and lindore playing six combined games together this year or whatever it is

To fact that the bishet cannot be worse and you know, he's gonna opt in after this season and he he's simply cannot be worse

He hasn't after coming alive in June

He's been honestly one of the least impressive hitters in the whole sport this month. It's that it's crazy

Um

So I have a couple of a couple of things

um, I just

lindore

We're going through it right now in our house because she's aware my daughter that there is a possibility. He'll be traded

And she's gone through several phases of dealing with this

Phase one was well, I won't be a met's fan anymore. I'll be a fan of whatever team lindore is traded for if a fan at all

And I said well that that hurts me. I think you should stick with the met's phase two was I will cheer for

The met's and whatever team lindore is traded to

Even if it's the Yankees because they do need a short stop and there's been I don't there can't be a world where the met's

Straight a player of this caliber to the Yankees right like that has to be a non starter

I don't think that there are match in terms of the prospects that the Yankees have available to deal

But never say never and then I said to her

That's not acceptable

You cannot cheer for the New York Yankees to have success

Even if they have Francisco lindore on their team what you can do is root for the met's

root for his individual success and root for the Yankees to fail and she accepted that

As they compromise in the rare event that lindore gets traded to

But she if lindore gets traded to like the Padres she's gonna be a Padres fan and a met's fan

I think I have to accept that I think this is

This is an acceptable trade with an 11 year old girl who's two years into being a baseball fan

It fell in love with this one particular player

You got to start getting her on that AJ Ewing Carson Bench. Oh, she loves those guys

You know she goes she in the car yesterday on the way we're on the way to meet a friend in Westchester

She was like daddy and mommy do you want to hear my rankings of like my favorite met and it's lindore and then it then Torrance

She just has a softball for Torrance. He's one of them and then Ben Benjen Ewing are three four

She loves she's all in on those guys. That's what it's about too is you know as as I love Francis go lindore too

When I was a young fan I was getting addicted to

Guys who I was watching debut in their rookie seasons and one of my great joys as a fan was watching

David Wright and Jose Reyes come up and watching them blossom into stars

You know, I was older and at that point in my life

But getting having a real genuine connection obviously we went through this with Peter Lonzo as well who we lost in the offseason um

I I hope she sticks with it. I wanted to stick with it. I think that

There is

Melissa and I was listening to to Bill and his dad talk on Bill's show today and I've a guy

I've gotten to that for you. I'm still in the house the house section

They tried to spend as much time on the red socks as they possibly could to avoid talking about the jalen brown trade

Which I understood from their perspective, but I found him using but they did talk about the moment when no more Garcia

Paro was traded which was of course a very

You know, a tremendously important moment in red socks history that eventually got them off the schneid and they went on to win

But before that happened I think it was the offseason before no mar was traded midseason where there was a lot of talk of him being traded

And then he started the season and he was kind of

Didn't seem right his kind of his head wasn't on straight

He was kind of making mistakes and maybe he'd been losing some of his athleticism and there was a lot of talk about

Was he maybe going on the downside and they dealt him and then dealing him ultimately led to putting together the

That legendary team that came back against the anchors and won the title but

I see some modest parallels

Between no mar and lendoor there and I like lendoor and I don't want him to be traded

But he does seem off and he does seem a little unhappy and

he does have a very large contract and

That that would be the most um earth shaking thing they would do. They're not going to deal any young pitching that obviously makes no sense

um

I don't think they're going to deal one soda. I don't think that's ever going to come up

He does have an opt out in a few years. Let's not let us not forget that

I'll be very curious to see what happens with that opt out

I doubt he's going to opt out because the mess essentially like have the option to retain him and if they pay him a significant amount more money

but

It's just a feeling they're very far away and I don't know how you fix it in a short period of time

They're so bad that it pains me to say it nothing would even so like in the NBA

If this were the NBA which I realized is a completely different game where one guy can impact winning at such a

More dramatic level and in baseball. There were like a hundred percent be one soda trade rumors

Even though he has a no trade clause that has those lindore as this like apparently a third of major league baseball

um

But I don't I don't think we're there either. I don't expect we seems like selling low

On lindore is is after a just a nightmare season of injuries

It injuries the top injuries just doesn't seem like a smart move. I will say

Um first of all the meds have done everything possible to keep my daughter

A meds fan like I can't I can't say enough about

How well they have treated us the few games that we've went there including on saturday when I threw out the first pitch like the whole staff was

I'm gonna just name check jordan kara sam mr. met

Zach they were all just like amazing my daughters been able to stand on city field twice and like be pretty close lindore

We were 10 feet away from steven call and steven cone was in his seat as I was preparing to go out on the mound

And I I was like the journalist in me should go introduce myself make a connection

Exchange numbers whatever and I was like I'm just

I'm nervous for the pitch which I will get to

And I'm I also feel negatively about the team right now

Maybe this is not the maybe I'm not in the right emotional space to go up to one of the richest men in the world who controls my personal happiness to some level

And strike up a this conversation can go sideways

It can go it can go George cascans is dead

Why don't you try to you

I got to say my people get telling me Jim Phillips

I do I would want to see you and steve cone speaking to each other

I you know I know that you talked last time we spoke about this that you were you didn't love listening to him um talk to George Sherman and and John

I honestly did appreciate it because I felt like one he was more candid than almost any other owner would

In an environment like that and I appreciate the owner being honest to

He seemed upset and bothered he was really happy for going that was true

I I felt his fandom seeping through but there was a certain like impatience with the questions that

And the end that I didn't enjoy yeah, it was a mixed bag

I give him credit for making that appearance. I know he wants to turn it around and he's in this weird thing where he's like

Well, I've made this commitment to this executive and I don't want to be seen as somebody who

Is overreacting to the moment and firing that executive and then making this seem like you know

A not very happy destination for for management

But I don't think that's the case considering he's gonna pay people ten million dollars a year to spend his money

Which just seems like an insane proposition for almost any sports executive

But I'm glad that the team took care of you. That's the flip side of this is that you know the organization broadly seems like

It's in a world class state. It seems like going to the ballpark is a lot of fun the team

Despite its performance on the field like it's a very well-run team outside of the team part of the team

So it they're in direct conflict

But I want to hear about the first pitch because I saw what happened and I I have a lot of questions

What's your what do you want me to just talk or do you want to ask your body? Where'd you get that arm on you?

Zack, you know great stuff

So here's what happened first of all the whole thing is a well-edged machine

I took the fairy we expect there's a fairy now from various places

They get you to city field including Stanford Connecticut

We took that the fairy was like 30 minutes late and I was extremely stressed out because you have to be out there by a certain

Certain time or else this can't happen

But they like whisked me through

And they're like they bring me on the field they give me the ball they give you the ball which I have and I have to decide what to do with it and

I had three choices for whom I catcher would be and I think if I were a more famous person

One of the choices would have been a player, but I don't meet that threshold and that's fine

Was anyone in my family and

It just didn't no one is a great fit. It was my dad who's a 83 my daughter who wouldn't do it and my wife who would do it and is a tremendous athlete

but it didn't didn't feel like the right pick mr. Met

Or missus met now

It if I were his hashtag woke as I'd like to be I don't missus missus met with all the apologies to missus met

Mr. Metz the OG okay, like mr. Mr. Metz is the choice

I'm sorry, Mrs. Metz you're amazing. I'm really your addition to the team has been welcome on every front

It's no and they sit there like they bring you out on the field and they're like all right at

101 the national anthem is gonna be done at

702 mr. Metz and you were gonna get announced and walk out into the field and I had practiced from a mound at our local high school

Easy speasy and I was super confident and I'm like I'm like I'm throwing

I'm gonna throw gas like for what what passes his gas for me. I'm going up there

I'm gonna throw hard. I'm there was no question. I was gonna throw from the mound

They did tell me interestingly

Don't touch the rubber

The pictures don't like it when the ceremonial pictures touch the rubber and whatever I'm okay

Oh, so interesting you can stand right in front of it if you want so I was gonna do that

I did that and I got up there and I got tight

I got nervous and so plan A was throw gas come hell or high water because I was confident

Plan B was take 30% off and just ensure that you get it all the way there on a decent trajectory and over the plate and don't embarrass yourself

I pivoted to plan B very quickly despite mr. Metz pumping me up the whole the whole time we were there silently it doesn't talk but yeah

What did he do that

Just like

Like justering at me pointing at me coming up. Okay

And I was mildly happy with how it went and just thrilled that my dad got to be there and my wife got to be there

And my kid got to be there and and witness that

Great. It's like insane to me that I was able to do this and for the only team. I've ever truly loved

And it was awesome and then mr. Met and I went backstage and we filmed a little skit that will appear on mr. Metz

Social media channels. I think sometimes soon. So we'll see how that how that goes, but it was it was truly

A crazy a crazy experience and with that I will open up the floor for questions

Okay, one I thought you were gonna say I went backstage with mr. Metz and we did fireball shots

Drank and watch the game together. I don't think mr. Metz drinks

Uh

Okay, I I'm very curious about the practice you played baseball growing up

I literally and quit literally you know what I couldn't overcome

I didn't want to get hit by a pitch. I just like I could never get over like I didn't want to get hit by a pitch

That's interesting because I felt like your motion was pretty sound. Were you thinking?

I'm definitely going from the wind up should I consider going from the stretch just to you know

Make this a little bit easier on myself. You know you left it a little high. I did

But it was a lot of play play the play and very respectable like honestly

We've seen hundreds of versions of significantly worse first pitches

I mean, I thought you did very well

But like what how did you think about the way you were going to throw the ball?

So now that I've done it once and done respectively well

I would like to do it again and like actually go for it and show the arm

But we got to get you out to a long island ducks. I know like I coin the Kony Island this the whatever the Kony Island the cyclones um

Uh, I

So I actually weirdly you know, it is frowned upon for an adult human to bring a glove to a baseball game

It's an in beta mark of embarrassment like I would never do it

I thought about bringing one just to have like

The comfort of of of going into a traditional wind up of like having a place to put the ball and grab it and grip it

And I just decided that's too embarrassing. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to throw

The ball and then it was over and then you walk out and you're done and

I some people sent me videos

I had some friends at the game in various places. I was booed by a few there a few stray boobards in the crowd

Which like respect if you want to boom me booby. I did my best. What do you want me to do?

They boon you were performance or did they don't like your commentary about the NBA

What do you think I think it was before I think as I walked out I heard a straight now one of my friends Tom

Whose last name was she'll be redacted bought a ticket

In section 11 and he's like I have to be close enough for you to hear me say low you suck before you

So it was it was tremendous. It was tremendous. I had a question about the crowds actually because you know

Sparsely attended game is something I wanted to note

I I clocked that despite the fact that it was a Nolan McLean

Yashinobu Yamamoto match up. You got a real corker of a pitching duel

You know did it

Did you feel the crowd when you were getting ready to throw?

Which did you like could you sense that you were in a giant stadium or you sown your head that you were like

I'm in a hallway with mr. Met I blocked it out. I blocked. I didn't I didn't look into the stands

I didn't I didn't look anywhere in the crowd. I will say

You know as recently this is the first game I've been doing a little bit since it really went south

As recently as last September when I went to old what old timers there whatever they call it now

When the bottom was falling out, but they were still like a half game up in the playoffs wild card race or two games up

Either but the it was clearly like we're just gonna either fall backwards into the playoffs or not make it

the crowd was still alive

And like when lindor would come up and my girl would play half the stadium was singing the lyrics and doing the wave back and forth

The atmosphere of the other night made me so sad. It is like absolutely dead every like the level of play has just killed the fans

No one is singing hey my girl. No one is doing the wave with with in tune to the song

um

The crowd is totally dead the crowd was probably 40% Dodgers fans and they were like way louder than the Metz fans in multiple and I had people all around the stadium who reported my experience

Sitting pretty close the same like the Dodgers fans were loud and enthusiastic and the Metz fans were just like dead

It's not they're not booing no one is booing. It's just like

disinterest and and even

In September of last year there was at least hope and interest and now there's just like

You know, it's only one game. I'm gonna go back soon when I get back from vacation

There's a couple good home series. I think we have the giants and the Astros coming in like winnable games. Hopefully

But that was that was a sad it was a sad state of affairs. It was just a totally dead the Metz portion of the crowd was just totally dead

Yeah, it's it's depressing to think about that. I mean, we're now fully back to

1992 1993 era, you know, the Jeff Torbore commandeged teams or so brutally

Underperforming relative to what their expectations were I think in 92 they went 70 and 92 and this feels like a 70 and 92 kind of season

You know the thing that we have to watch for here that is kind of agonizing in two ways is

Where will they finish in the standings actually matters and

I there they have the third worst record in the sport right now. We need them to stay pretty much right there

I mean, they're behind the angels and the Rockies and if they finish within the top six

They have obviously a much higher likelihood of staying in the top six in terms of the lottery

But even if they finish in the top six, I think they can still fall out of the lottery

And if they fall out of the top six picks then they get bumped down automatically 10 picks because of the threshold and the payroll that they have crossed

So like that lottery

It's pretty important because if we're going to go through this season we at least need to get a top five draft pick out of it

I guess I need to do this

I guess I need to learn a new set of over complicated lottery rules

Right as the NBA is going to introduce the three two one relegation zone system

I guess I'm going to have to dive in and figure out how the hell this lottery works and this one is ornate man

This one is complicated

And it's pretty much only complicated for the Metz because they're the only team that spends this much money and is this terrible

Well

Hurray for the Metz

There was going to be watching I love viewing it and Benjamin

No, I love watching them

I forgot like there was a moment in the game

First of all, but the most exciting moment of the game was Tyrone Taylor's hit to pull us within four three and then we didn't have a base runner in the night

Then the Dodgers made a pitching change in like the seventh inning

I think you're eighth inning maybe and during the commercial break they shot the lights off in the stadium for like one of those sort of light shows

They do and the motifos on the jumbo tron a subway train

Wushed by and the whooshing of that train was then replicated in the lights around the stadium

As if the train was going around in a circle is very cool light show there was red there was reds and greens and oranges all flashing in the outfield too

And I actually my brain actually thought

Wait a second are the are the Dodgers bringing in Edwin Diaz and the Metz this is like the Metz are gonna like do some sort of tribute for him

Because there's no other possible

Exciting thing occurring here. There's certainly nothing exciting that the Metz are generating and I knew that Diaz was like

Maybe gonna be active for the series. I had lost I wasn't paying attention and then no it was just like

Hey, here's something that's kind of cool to watch while our team sucks and the other team makes a pitching change

And it was I got my hopes up for like a Diaz cameo and there was none none to be had

Yeah, that's the stage of fandom that we're in right now. We just hope for a cool light show while watching our favorite baseball team lose

It's

The game of the year it reminded me of the very first game

I went to in my Renaissance of fandom

We was also a metz Dodgers game. It's crazy. My daughter has seen two metz Dodgers games in Otani

It's not gotten on base one time in two games and there might choose beginning to be skeptical that he's actually this good

We got a teacher about sample sizes and things like that

But that you know maybe wait on sample sizes

But the but the first to my point is the first game

The Timmy trumpet light show when they shut the lights off and everything what like that

I think sealed her as a fan that was so spectacular

That it was like her it was it was spectacular to me let alone and then 10 year old girl

And now a similar light show happens to mark nothing other than there's the Dodgers are making a pitching change and yet another metz loss

Anyway, it's Monday night. We got we got a ways to go

I guess we'll see what happens man any any final thoughts anything we didn't cover

No, I mean, I'm sorry. We're not uni are both going to be um not available to to do a post trade deadline breakdown

You know, and I feel fine about that to be totally honest with you

I am excited to find out who they acquire and who I can pretend is going to matter to my life in five years

I might be three shots of rachia into my night in Croatia when they make a trade and I got a mic and I got a camera

And I forgot to show you one the other cool thing the metz did you get your

Personalized jersey any number that you want wow

So I chose 18 not because of their old strawberry although he was my favorite player

I was wondering about that my my daughter and my mom have the same birthday February 18th to 18

So I chose 18 for them. And so this will be I got to figure out what to do with just I'll probably frame it but that this is like

This is I get that anybody can make a personalize jersey. I get it

But this is a very cool thing and I gotta tell you it's possible that the metz can acquire Brandon Lowe at some point in the next 12 months

I really hope that they do and in which case you'll have a a use for that Brandon Lowe

Yeah, cuz I can't wait. I can't wear this one like there's no

There's that I frown upon it. So it's either gonna be framed or stashed somewhere

But it was very cool anyway. Thank you to the metz

Thank you to Sean Fennesy the one and only subscribe to his newsletter on substack projections

It's awesome. It's teaching me so much about the movies. I feel so smart now

Sean Fennesy who knows when we next reconvene in September what the state of things will be

But always always let's go metz as they were winning last night against the Dodgers my my daughter now

We're watching and I said there. It's a lost season. I didn't know about this lottery wheels

It's like why not have fun why not why not why not it's still fun to see them win. So let's have some fun. That's awesome fun. Thanks

That's it for today. Thank you as always

Let's do that again three two one. All right. That's it for today. Thank you to Motikio

Thank you to Sean Fennesy thank you to the metz for having a win before this podcast went up

Thanks to Oscar Mike and Billy on production

Thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lo Show. We'll see you next time

21 or over in president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas,

Star Casino or 18 and over in president DC can tuck your oil and gambling problem call one in 100 gambler or one 800

My reset call one 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or is it md gambling help.org in Maryland hope is here

Visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800 327 50 50 for 24 sevens important Massachusetts or call

1877 8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 1877 770 7867