The 2025 NBA Worst Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre

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The annual NBA Worst Contracts Draft with House and Waz. It's next.
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So I think this is the fifth year we've done it. Me and Big Waz and House, we draft the worst contracts in the league.
It sounds like a negative podcast. It's actually very positive because we have a lot of laughs.

We have a great time talking about it.

We're going to talk

Warriors, Lakers at the top

with House and Waz

and then dive into

the worst contracts

of 2025 in the NBA.

This is always a blast.

Can't wait.

First, our friends from

Pearl Jam. All right, we've been doing it every year since 1977.
The worst NBA contracts draft. One of my favorite times of the year.
We always wait for the perfect week of the season. Far enough away from the playoffs, right after the trade deadline, guys start getting sidelined, scratched, bodies start breaking down.
Perfect time to do this. And we have a couple of doozies at the top.
House, just thinking back this decade, who was your favorite worst contract of the decade before the guys this year

was probably the Ben Simmons,

right?

Oh,

he had all that money left that was he number one or somebody else.

No,

no,

no,

no,

no,

nobody will ever rival Bradley Beal.

This,

we really should change the name of this.

Bradley Beal has a no trade clause,

like the impact of the Bradley Beal contract on the face of the league over the last you know seven or eight years just unbelievable my mind-blowing dearly it was unbelievable to you as it was happening and the no trade pushed over the top is there anybody else you would put was would you put simmons above that or no oh ben simmons bradley beal i think those are the creme de la creme, specifically because Ben Simmons got a max contract and had never played. And when he did play, he didn't want to take layups.
So, yeah, those two are the ones that immediately come to mind. Obviously, there are legacy deals like John Wall out there.
There's a few other doozies. But Ben Simmons and Bradley Beal.
Oh, yeah, there was a Westbrook one. I forgot.
Yeah, we had that Wall-Westbrook trade combo. Yes.
Simmons was five years for 177, and I think the last four was just complete regret by everybody who had him. So we should mention, you know, we've been trying to stay positive on the pods with our Ringer NBA coverage.
This isn't a sadly negative podcast, but we have fun. Hey, there's great contracts, great trades, great teams.
The storylines are awesome right now. How sweet.
We haven't talked on the pod. We have the Warriors and Lakers as legitimate contenders all of a sudden.
Unbelievable. Wonderful.
The league feels like it's been supercharged over the last couple weeks. We were like worried, oh my God, this is just going to be Cleveland, Boston, OKC, and literally nobody else.
And now all of a sudden Denver's in there, the Lakers, the Warriors, the Knicks are kind of lingering a little bit. But Waz, super fun NBA season all of a sudden.
Yeah, i mean i think the the luka trade definitely took this thing into a whole different gear obviously we spent a lot of time talking about what happened why it happened how it happened um but the actual basketball to watch luka kind of just pretty much automatically be embraced by the crowd at Crypto.

Yeah. Where he is just playing to the crowd and just straight up, he's in it.
And it's kind of amazing that it's come together in nine freaking games this way. Yeah.
Well, it's even more amazing that some people were saying, I don't know. I don't know how those guys are going to play together.
Two ball dominant guys. It's like, what two of the highest iq guys we've had in the last 30 years on a basketball court i'm pretty sure they'll figure it out it's been really fun to watch and how i want to drop the first f-bomb i mean he's a forced fucking multiplier like that dude because of his basketball brain and you put the two biggest basketball brains on the planet together yeah i think they're gonna figure it out but think about where we were in the first third of the season the uh criticism levied against the nba and it was proper criticism are we really gonna do this goddamn retirement tour thing with lebron and steph curry and kevin durant we have to watch all these shitty games with these shitty teams.
And now look where we are. Look where we are.
So on the one hand... We have a Celtic-Laker game Saturday night that's, you know, other than that first Cleveland OKC game is probably the most fascinating game of the season.
And it's two guys that the Celtics have real history with, right? They played Luka in the finals last year. And then LeBron has been their biggest foil of the 21st century, both on the same team.
They're so weird to watch just as a team now. They have no center.
They have no point guard. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jackson Hayes dropped 20 points in the first half. Long-armed Jackson.
But you watch them and you're like, I don't know why this is working, but it's working. And this is a team I would not want to see in a series when everything slows down and you have to play the same team every time for two weeks.
And I just don't want to see these guys under any circumstances. And LeBron looks rejuvenated.
And by the way, LeBron started to look rejuvenated two weeks before this trade. I'm just flagging that.
I'm just flagging that. Hopping a step from about two weeks earlier.
You say the same thing about Steph. As soon as they acquire Jimmy Curry, he drops a 56 on us.
Like, hey! Did you say Jimmy Curry? You've already had your first malapropism of the pod. I did say it.
Jimmy Butler. Whatever.
Everybody knows. That's the new duo, though.
But, no, LeBron seems to have a pep and a step. He had a chase down block the other day where I'm just like, this guy's now back to chase down blocking people.
I love that. They've smartly decided that, no, Luka Doncic is the point guard, the orchestrator.
We'll just work around, I don't know, one of the three best players in the NBA. And they've been rewarded for that.
And the J.J. Redick stuff is absolutely working.
Every time the Lakers social media account posts one of his post-game speeches, I know it's bullshit, but I'm bought in. I'm like, I'm ready to run through a wall for this guy.
It's amazing to watch what the Lakers have been doing. Yeah, it's very Dan Campbell Lions-ish, Those speeches he does.
And you know, it's little stuff with him like the pulling back Dalton Connect, right? Guy gets traded out of nowhere. Goes to Charlotte.
Meets everybody on Charlotte. Trade gets rescinded.
It's like, hey man, good to see you again. Have you been? Boy, this is awkward.
And yet he's, you know, inspiring him. It's not like he's a huge part of the team, but he's one of their best nine guys.
They kind of need him. I've been fascinated watching, and I've talked about this on the pod before, but watching LeBron, just like his fucking Terminator brain, recalculating how he should be used with Luka having the ball this much.
And I think he immediately embraced, I don't need to actually use as much energy as I used to. This is actually really good for me.
Now I'm like picking my spots in short bursts. It's very similar to that first Miami season when Wade was awesome.
And he didn't know how to pick his spots that year, especially as we got in the playoffs. And now, you know, he's such a good three-point shooter.
He wasn't in 2011. Now he is.
But then he's also figured out the defense rebounding. It's a really great team to watch right now.
And I'll say this. I know a lot of Laker fans, as this was, I can't even describe how euphoric they are.
They went from like, this is a wrap.

I don't like watching this team.

I can't take another AD up and down.

He's hurt.

He wants to play the four.

LeBron's padding his stats.

He's not playing defense.

This sucks.

We're fucked for the decade.

To in a flip, just like it's like they inherited money from some aunt they never knew. It's like, my aunt just gave me $10 million.
I hadn't seen her in 12 years. That's the attitude.
They're going absolutely crazy house and I might have to move. They deserve to be going crazy.
Like that is the only rational response in the face of, you know, the most extraordinary, irrational trade in the history, maybe of professional sports. I mean, I guess that the Sean Watson thing might rival it.
No, it's at least basketball. I think it's the craziest, most indefensible trade we've had in basketball.
All of sports. All of sports since we've been alive.
And we said this when the trade happened, and I know I said this on this pod, this is the greatest thing you ever did for Luka Doncic Yeah We talked about this when we did the trade deadline pod Like a week after It's like well yeah maybe you were worried about some stuff But you just did him the greatest favor you could have ever done them You lit a fire in him It's a kick in the ass Yeah now he's going to have a comeback And that's the other thing with LA LA loves comeback stories LA loves like oh ben affleck he's he's made gone baby gone he's back he looked like he had it rock bottom now he's putting his career back together and this lucas as great as he is but he was a little bit of a comeback story uh it's gonna be fun to watch him get in better shape embrace vegan, embrace smoothies, embrace the VersaClimber, all this stuff. He's going to be getting the Hailey Bieber from Erdogan.
Is that what we're saying? He needs a celebrity relationship soon. He's going to be playing all the hits.
It's going to be great. Fellas, I don't want to see this team in a playoff series if I'm basically

anybody. And I'm sure there's going

to be ways as we keep watching them that

you can solve some of their

deficiencies. But right now, it's just

if you have two guys who are putting up 60

points a game, I just don't want to see

a team like that. So that story

has been great. And then Golden State.

Oh, excellent. The Jimmy thing is excellent.
Can we officially say that worked out way better for them than getting KD? Because when we did the trade deadline, we were like, hmm, I don't know. What are we getting from Jimmy? And we were all bullish on the Jimmy part.
But I think now that we've watched it, the fact that he can give them this two-way defense stuff doesn't really necessarily need the ball. You don't get all of the up-and-down personality stuff that, sadly, KD brings to the table from time to time.
We saw it the other night on TV. Wait, wait, wait, wait, though.
Jimmy in Miami didn't cover himself in glory in terms of up-and-down. I'm just talking this season, House.
Happy Jimmy. We've seen Jimmy's teeth this season.
He was bitch Jimmy for 45 to 60 days. You really want to say, if you're comparing the emotional component of it, I'm not sure that I'm willing to concede.
I think KD, if he had been into it, would have arrived with the very best attitude. But I don't know if he was into it.
I do. He wasn't into other thing about Katie.
He didn't want to go to Golden State House. If he did want to is what I'm saying.
If it had been in his brain that that was where he wanted to land. If my aunt had Paul, she'd be my uncle.
I mean, he didn't want to go to Golden State. This is why I disagree with you, House, is when's the last time Katie was happy somewhere? Uh, 2016 Golden State.
17. Yeah, 16- 2016 Golden State.

17. Yeah, 16-17 Golden State.

That was the last full happy season.

So, like, the guy's just been, you know,

perpetually unhappy. Like,

everybody remembers that last year in Golden State.

Like, people think this Budenholzer thing is, like,

out of left field. It's like, go look

at the last year in Golden State. Like, this

guy was miserable. A lot of people

described it as morose for an entire season, for the best team in the league by far, right? Obviously, the Brooklyn thing blew up. And look, I've kind of defended what Jimmy did because it's just like, look, you guys don't want to pay me.
After I basically overachieved my entire tenure here, I'm blowing this thing up. Like, it was ugly, but he got the right outcome for himself in his career.
He got his money in Golden State, and now he's on a team that I think is as scary as anyone. And it's specifically because they got Jimmy Butler.
The defense has taken another step, and Jimmy is just seamlessly fitting to the offense, which I kind of thought would be the case because he played in a similar offense in Miami around, you know, Tyler Hero, Duncan Robinson getting free on the three-point line. Now it's Steph Curry.
Right. It's crazy.
Well, the other thing, it's so funny with basketball, you can just add one guy and the entire team slides into place, right? Like, now Moody is kind of doing a Wiggins impersonation defensively, and he was really good the other night in that, in that Knicks game pods who had the ball too much and they were almost using him as like a second, second playmaker. Cause they didn't really have another choice.
Now he just is who he is, which is a guy on the side who can hit some threes and rebound and play hard. And then Draymond doesn't have to worry about anything at all other than throwing entry passes to Jimmy or setting screens for Steph.
And you feel, Rissell and I talked about it Sunday. It's like, you can see it's, it's like a different human being.
Steph now, Steph had way to the world on his shoulders, just looked like he'd played nine games in 10 nights every night. And now he's skipping around that with the way he played at MSG and he's a little tweaked ankle and he's just dancing and prancing the whole day, which was awesome.
So, you know, it's funny because we talked, I don't know how many months ago about how this league was a prisoner of the LeBron Steph eras and they couldn't move on and create these new stars. So now ironically, they might get these two.
The thing to watch for me is, can Golden State get into the 4-5? Can they get OKC in round two? Because I want to get them earlier than later. And I think avoid that Lakers-Denver combo.
Let those guys beat the hell out of each other. Because those are going to be tough matchups for them.
But if they can play OKC, I know OKC is excellent and they're a really good young team and they're having a great season. But Golden State OKC, they've already had awesome games.
That's a team that I think Golden State feels like we can play with this team. And I just feel like if we end up, we could have a round two where we could have Celtics-Knicks, we could have Lakers-Denver, and we could have Golden State-OKC.
Those would be three of the four series. And I don't even know who the other.
Yeah. And then it would be Cleveland against somebody crappy.
Before we get to where it's kind, and I'm sorry I may be a tangenting, but am I the only one who thinks Cleveland is clearly the favorite right now? You are 100,050 million percent the only one. And I'm not buying this reverse jinx crap.
I'm not reverse jinxing anything. I'm not doing that.
We were going to sniff this out. We knew you were going to do this reverse jinx.
Look, the Celtics went out to a 25-3 lead. I think that's for a reason.
I think they are just a nightmare matchup for Cleveland because they get Cleveland out of their base offense, which is ball movement, quick hitting, all of that stuff. The Celtics being so switch-heavy, it's just like, no.
Like, Garland, you got to beat somebody. You know, Donovan Mitchell, you got to prove that you're an all-NBA caliber shot creator, finisher.
You got to beat somebody. You know, it's going to be Drew Holiday.
It's going to be Tatum. It's going to be Brown.
Like, they're going to force these guys to play in the one-on-one and I think they're going to be fine. Like, honestly.
It all depends on the health of the Celtics when those two teams get together. Yes.
That will be it. That's the most important thing for that matchup.
Two things. Health.
I thought the Philly Super Bowl really fucked me up, house. Well, you didn't have me on to help steer you, so you have no one to blame.
You were in New Orleans eating fried oysters. I could have jumped on the phone.
No, I've had a lot of regrets and I've spent a lot of time thinking about what went wrong with my Super Bowl pick because my instincts are telling me, Phil, I've talked about this. But I do wonder sometimes if hunger is the most underrated noun in sports.
And that's what worries me about Cleveland versus Boston. As Boston plays hard, Tatum plays hard every night, the team gives a shit.
But Cleveland hasn't been there before. And every guy in that team, when they play the Celtics, it will be the most important two weeks of their life.
And the Celtics can't say the same. And there's that little edge of like game seven at home, Donovan Mitchell with like, holy shit, I could actually make the finals.
This is my moment right now. The Celtics had that last year.
Going back to back is really hard. The history of the NBA is like, this is the single hardest thing you can do in the NBA is win the second time in a row.
And that's what worries me. The health, what am I getting from Porzingis? What am I getting from holiday? And then this Cleveland team that just can play everybody 30 minutes a game or less.
They have incredible depth. They have a bench.
They have a huge lead. They're going to play somebody absolutely shitty in round one, right? Like truly shitty.
Whoever that eight, nine, that is going to be a shit team. They're going to get a sweep in that.
They're just going to be fresh in round two. That's a real thing.
Those are my concerns, House. Who would be the fourth seed in the East? I'm blanking.
That would be... Indiana, Milwaukee.
Indiana. Milwaukee's playing better.
In Indiana... Detroit's making a push, by the way.
Let's not rule out Detroit. They had a tough loss last night.
Why has this guy Schroeder has been really good on the Pistons? That was a sneaky trade. I don't know why Miami didn't want him, especially when Terry Rozier has died, as we're going to cover in the draft.
He's an on-ball menace. He plays his ass off on defense.
This guy really tries. He takes his matchup personal every single night.
Obviously, he's a yapper and gets under the skin of every single one of his opponents. Sometimes he's on teammates too, but that's neither here nor there.
I just think he's a gamer, man. Me too.
And every now and again, he'll get you some buckets, blow by guys, drive and kick guy. He'll make his threes every night.
Like I been a Schroeder guy. They played him.
He came off the bench yesterday. Harden went nuts yesterday.
And Schroeder kind of took him in the fourth quarter and was just doing a whole bunch of German Schroeder things on him and just defending him full court and annoying him. Harden was getting madder and madder.
I think that Detroit team, that Detroit Knicks series is going to be an absolute bitch for the Knicks. And I can't wait because they are going to be trying to get in the fights, you know, shoving matches, get chippy.
They're going to try to work on towns. They're going to try to hit Brunson.
They have... Waz, where do you...
Rasul and I talked about this Sunday. Ron Holland, who's, I I think averaging an altercation every 10 minutes.
Is he on your radar yet? He's a little run or testy. He's on my radar.
Obviously, freaking Stewart. Beef Stew.
Beef Stew's number one now. Pretty much ready to rumble no matter who the opponent is.
The guy almost murdered LeBron James two years ago. But yeah, Ron Holland is fun.
I like that they haven't been afraid to throw him on the deep end, man, and just let him sort of figure it out. I think coming into last year's draft, people saw him as kind of the most physically, athletically gifted of the bunch, if not the most skilled and crafty.
But I like what i've seen from them so far i like how he's coaching these guys up i really do yeah i agree i like how feisty they are feisty team um okay we're gonna uh we're gonna take a break and then we're gonna do the worst contracts draft house are you playing fan duel 30 on 30 every time you put one out I ride because you can you can cash in on betting playing FanDuel 30 on 30? Every time you put one out, I ride.

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All right. It's time.
The worst contracts draft. I think this is our fifth one.
It's either four or five might be the fifth one. And the rules are as follows.
We go, we go in a not snake fashion. We just go in a circle.
I'll read the, you have to say the contract or I'll say it after you pick the guy. And the thing is, it's almost like reverse NBA trade value.
The worst contract in the league, the one you wouldn't want the most, the most untradeable contract, the one that if you were a fan of the team, you'd be like, oh my god. And there's one clear winner this year.
We'll see if it goes. House, did you want the first pick or you didn't? Because we have one wrinkle this year.
Coaches and GMs are now eligible for the worst contract draft. We've done coaches before.
In the GM case, we don't even know what the contracts are, but you can still take a guy. Doesn't matter doesn't matter anyway house or was you one of you can have you want the first pick was or do you want it I'll go first it's all good it's so obvious it's almost like a ceremonial first pick in the sense that I agree we all know what the outcome is going to be and it's got to be Bradley Beal of the Phoenix Suns wow Wow.
Wow. That was not who I had on my board.
I still. I have him fourth.
No shot. And the reason why is we just went through this exercise.
The Suns were desperate to move this guy. They spent basic, they did all kinds of tactics.
They tried to bench him to get him to remove his no-trade. They tried everything to get this man off of their team.
They had Jimmy Butler on hold, ready to go, locked and loaded. They were going to improve their roster.
They called everyone. It was not possible.
This is an immovable. It literally can't be moved.
This is an interesting case because it actually is untradeable. So from a worse contract, you can't trade it.
I don't know. He's winning the overhouse.
Not only can you not trade him, okay? And, like, there was this sort of, like, I did it. Well, Bradley Bill's still a, you know, a decent contributing player.
Like, other night, the, you know, KD and Bud game, they completely took off after Bradley Bill's ass went to the bench. And then, so he's getting $50 million this year, $53 million next year, and then $57 million.
Well, he has got a player option. Yeah.
Hold on. I wonder if he's going to take his player option.
Shams is reporting. He's exercised it.
Yeah. His player option is 57 million in 2627, all while holding a no trade clause, which means he basically has the franchise by the barrel.
Okay. To me, this is still, because of the two extra years, still the worst deal in the NBA.
And I get get it there's other guys here that i'm like wow this is tough but bradley bill to me is the worst so i i quite love it and i'll just interject quickly i think it would be fine if we wanted to rename this worst contract we just call it the bradley bill memorial worst contract and just do it every year. Name this for Bradley Beal,

like arguably one of the worst contracts

in the history of bad contracts in the NBA.

I would argue we should name it after Andre Blatch.

That was only $27 million.

I know, but they gave him an extension

and then amnestied him before the extension kicked in.

We're never going to top that.

That's never going to happen to be a good guy. total of how many years it'll be at least 14 to 15 years if you add up the number of years that washington is going to take to recover and be competitive and how long it will be before phoenix is competitive again that's truly amazing you got to give up give it up to to tommy shepherd for that one well it's also funny that they the way they got him was they chris paul was an expiring right that they could have bought out after his next year and then they had Aiton who they wanted to get rid of and they somehow turned that into Beal and then another guy who's going to be in this worst contracts draft a little bit later it was like they took two things where they actually would have had some flexibility and now they're just stuck I just want to mention his last two, he's averaging 18 a game with 51-40, 42-82 percentage splits.
And on paper, you could go to Basketball Reference in 50 years and be like, Bradley Beal wasn't that bad. This contract's devastating.
When do you think his last season playing 61 games was? House would know this way better. Right before the extension.
Right before, like, you know, it was before the extension. The 2018-19 season.
There you go. Jeez.
Yeah. Wow.
How many playoff games do you think he's played since he lost to the Celtics in the Kelly Olenek game? He definitely, Russell Westbrook, single-handedly dragged the Wizards into the playoffs. So he played four games as they got their asses swept in that series.
And then I don't know how many, has he played three, four games for the Suns? He's played 15 total. So they're not making it this year.
So that'll be eight playoff games, 15 playoff games in eight years for Bradley. Anyway, a stunning number one pick, but I kind of liked it.
Bold. People tomorrow in the papers would be like, Big Waz, bold with his first pick.
And I gotta say, going through this list, there's just not as many horrific, scary contracts as there used to be. Yeah, we have the same depth.
Most of these contracts are like, not that terrible. Some of them you could be like, it's kind of risky, but most of these deals, even if a guy is slightly overpaid, it's not a franchise killer, the way this Bradley Beal thing is.
I'm pretty sure I know your next pick is going to be, but yeah, it's not a franchise killer the way this bradley bill thing is and i'm sure i'm pretty sure i know your next pick is gonna be but yeah it's tough how's your next pick well this is so i i respect was because he's a traditionalist he went with the the og here this this is an out of slightly out of left field but you know this this guy changed he altered the course of two franchises speaking of you know a five to ten year recovery window for one franchise and another franchise that's going to enjoy it should be at least another decade of prosperity it's it's nico harrison i mean what nico harrison i don't know how much money that man made and i know that he he is going to, I hope he's beefing up on, on the current, um, offering of Nike sneakers or whatever, because that, that man is going to return to the sneaker business. He is, there is no franchise in the NBA that he can go to now.
There are no more jobs for him in terms of, of a front office. How do you tell your fan base? Yeah.
Well, even quietly. Yeah, we brought him in because he's got this.
No, no, no, no. This is his last job in a front office.
And I keep looking for the definitive economic impacts. Like nobody's done the soup to nuts of how much money it will cost the Dallas Mavericks.
Just over the next five years, I think it's going to take much longer than that for them to properly recover because of what happened to Kyrie. But at the very, very lowest conservative estimate, it is a billion dollars.
It is a billion dollars in diminished value for that Dallas franchise. When you think about the impact on revenue from from attendance okay fine all of that is is getting walloped the revenue that they're going to get there and over the air uh you know in their local broadcast they don't have a a regional sports network that they're on they switch that how are they going to get advertisers to pay anything to watch for people about jersey sales right merchandise partners how do you how What are you going to get advertisers to pay anything for people to watch those games? Right.
Merchandise partners. How do you tell them? What are you going to tell those people? So on down the line, you can go through six or seven or eight categories.
The ways the team make money, the way that the teams have cash flow, wallet. Just take it right off.
I think the ultimate economic impact is going to be between a billion and a half and $2 billion billion dollars and think of how remarkable it is in this era where in every sport we look at them we say the best investment that a rich person can make is in a professional sports franchise because no franchise ever goes down in value this motherfucker look at the alchemy he performed here he took the golden goose and turned it into a golden pile of shit. Magnificent.
That is the worst contract in professional basketball. And we don't even know how much he makes, and he's number two in the worst contract draft.
Yeah, I did something on my pod at the top on Tuesday, and I was thinking about it. Because remember when LeBron left Cleveland the first time and they would

do those franchise values every year.

Last year he was on Cleveland.

They were the number two team.

And then a year later they were

28th.

They went from being worth

a billion point two to being worth

500 million. This is 15 years ago.

If Luka wins the title

with the Lakers this year,

you could argue Dallas might

Thank you. 500 million.
This is 15 years ago. If Luka wins the title with the Lakers this year, you could argue Dallas might this might be a they have to move in the middle of the night and go somewhere else.
Just break leases. Who is the guy in the Colts? Ursae? They just moved to Baltimore in the middle of the night one night? It might be a move in the middle of the night one night.
I don't know how they recover.

The way sports is consumed now with all these little kids get attached to players instead of

teams and all these kids love

Luka, I don't know how they come back.

This might be like a

death blow. It's tough.
I gotta

say, I've been one of

the biggest, like, look,

elements of wanting to move on

from Luka were justifiable

people in the media, right?

There are elements to it, but I'm like I understand why a team would say you know what man this guy is going to be problematic after we give him 350 million dollars the bottom line is trading for AD just it's just you just could you just had to do something more or better You had to get twice as much in much in the trade. Even then, I'm not sure.
And then AD goes... It's just like the way he framed it in the media was about availability.
AD goes down immediately. The first game he plays.
And now Kyrie's gone. Lively's gone.
Gaffer's gone. Did you see Kid thing? Did you see kids thing about he took real offense that people thought it was the increased workload that hurt Kyrie's knee.
And he's like, it was a fluke injury. It was like, dude, we've been following the NBA our whole lives.
Like this is Klay Thompson going down the 2019 finals because he was playing like crazy minutes and doing some crazy workload. And then all of sudden his his leg blew out like this is what happens in the league the more you put on these guys the more likely it is they're going to break down dumbass i have a question i have a serious question because that that trade um was immediately followed by the lakers trying to acquire mark williams and for whatever reason having cold feet about that.
You mean when they backed out? When they shook out a trade and backed out? Became the first team of 15 years to back out of a trade? It was a smart back out. It's a good back out.
They used the physical. Dallas acquired a hurt player and then got him hurt.
And somehow he passed the physical so I would like at some point to understand. Oh, I like this house.
So the better move would have been to back out of the trade because of the physical, because of the reaction. But now you've lit a fire under Luka.
That would have been a better outcome. You've also set open to the entire league the possibility that Luka's available.
Let's see that auction. Let's see how the rest of the league responds to that.
Let's have a proper. I thought there was a possibility.
I put it in the text threads within the first 12 hours that there was this crazy Machiavellian play. I wish that that's what had come to pass.
But what Dallas did is prove to all of us they showed their ass in terms of their inability to run very basic downside cases. Like, here's the hope for outcome.

Kyrie's awesome.

AD's injury is behind him.

We have all these giant guys.

We're going to be good.

And we're going to really compete this year.

Then we have a window.

But the downside case that any sensible, like, rational business person would conduct is

what happens if AD's injury is,

is lingering or, you know, um, can't be overcome quickly. How does that impact, you know, the rest of the team? How does that impact directly Kyrie? What's our assessment of the injury risk to Kyrie going forward? Like what happened to Dallas is not extraordinary.
It's the downside case, but now, now the rational basketball response the only thing that would make sense and possibly win this the fans back they got to throw nico into the bushes they got to trade ad they have to move hey i mean why would he even want to stay in dallas now he should resign great point here's the. I'll make a prediction because we saw this in 2011

when Cleveland miraculously won the lottery

the year after LeBron left.

I just think Dallas wins the lottery now.

I'm going to bet on it.

No.

I'm going to bet on it on FanDuel.

No.

Yeah, I'm betting on it.

No way.

Dallas wins the lottery.

No way.

Yeah.

Absolutely not.

We got safe basketball at Dallas.

Oh, they got Cooper Flagg.

Everything's okay.

You don't like this idea, House? Like 101 odds? Well, I mean, gambling on it and it coming to pass are two different things. Of course, I'll gamble on it.
I'm kidding. God, you guys took that so seriously.
I'm up. I don't know how he's still on the board.
It's very reminiscent of the 2014 NBA draft when he fell to three.

Vince Carter was half man, half amazing.

He's half man, half available.

He's Joel Embiid.

Five years, $299.5 million left.

By the end of this season,

because he's been scratched for the rest of the season,

452 games played, 440 games games missed it's a very sad story i don't mean to sound so excited talking about it i'm just excited he was still on the board um i'm just going to read through his injuries guys in college stress fracture in his lower back miss march madness right before draft, stress fracture navicular bone in his foot, 2014. Rebroke the same thing, 2015.
Left meniscus tear, 2017. Fractured orbital bone, 18.
Finger surgery, 2020. Right meniscus tear, 2021.
So, he tore meniscus in both legs. Torn ligaments, right thumb, 22.
Fractured

same orbital bone, 22.

Right torn lateral meniscus,

23. There's

two different meniscuses, I guess, in his

right knee. Tore both of them.

Bell's palsy, 24.

And then this year,

they're not even telling us what the

injury is. It's just left knee swelling

management that now he's out. And what's weird is the left knee was the one that's only been operated on once, unless they're not telling us about one.
And then the right knee, which isn't even the one that's having all the swelling, has two operations. Four years left.
There's no way out of this. And we've seen with the big centers, once you keep breaking down like this, there's really no path back.
And maybe if there's a path, it's 50, 60 games. Brutal contract-wise.
Why did they do the extension? Will we ever figure this out? Why did they do it? I think they did it because it's like before he went down last year, he was basically averaging 35 points. He was having the best scoring season since Michael Jordan, literally in like 1988.
Right. And so the idea being like, look, when this guy was on the floor for us, he was amazing.
And, you know, even in his limited capacity against the Knicks, he was pretty good. So the idea is like, oh, he's going to get back to that form before he went down midway through the season.
I think the problem for me and what makes this a justifiable pick is that, you know, guys go down and it's like, all right, he's got an ACL. He's got a PCL.
He's got a broken fibula. He's got whatever, ankle, whatever.
This is the problem. This is the procedure we're going to do.
This is how long it's going to take for him to come back. It's going to be fine.
They can't even tell us what is wrong with his knee and what they're going to do. People are throwing out micro fracture surgery.
Do they even still do that? Dude, that's how dumbfounded they are by what they can do to address the problem in his knee and it feels like there's nothing left to fix they said so they do the extension but then Bontemps writes that piece right before the season starts about how Philly finally has their plan to peak in the playoffs and Embiid says I'm never playing back to backs again for the rest of my career that would have been been my extension, red flag. Call me nuts to just add the three years and $170 million to a contract I'm already worried about.
House, from what you saw from Embiid in the Olympics, would you have given him an extension under any circumstances? Can you remind me, you did this outstanding podcast with the executive producer of White Lotus, David. David Bernad.
Yeah. And he described this phenomena.
He said one of the best pieces of advice he ever got was from. I can't remember who the famous person was that gave him this advice.
It had to do with, you know, you get inside of. Was it the monkey cage? What was it? It was inside was inside oh yeah you you can't you can't get

used to the smell of shit you grow so acclimated to the smell of the shit that you cannot um identify that there's a bad thing that you're in in a bad environment situation so for me the problem with the Sixers goes all the way back to what I will forever argue was an ill-advised and ill-conceived return to the playoffs by Embiid. He wasn't ready.
He wasn't healthy. We know this.
Waz is right. He had a 50-point game in the first game in Philadelphia.
I went up there and watched it. It was awesome.
But he also had many dramatic moments where he went down on the floor and stayed on the floor for several minutes and then went to the locker room and then came back. That whole situation of him coming back to the playoffs and playing under the highest leverage situation in the shape that he was in with his knee and the condition it was in.
And then you go from that to the Olympics, which are barely six weeks later. And even less than that when you consider the training.
And the USA team says, look, it's on the player to make the decision about the player's health. And what we saw from him looked like a competent joel and bead now well he he had some impactful look as explosive no they used his size really well but he you could tell he wasn't 100 right right and so we come off of that and that's the moment when when the extension is given after the the olympics and And Windhorse had a great story

this week about some of the decision

making.

The Sixers talked to every single

knee specialist in the

world and got the input. By the way, that's a red flag.

They wanted the assurance.

The problem with the extension is

what the fuck was the rush?

How about him just

play the season, see what happens.

Now, Maury said

Thank you. The problem with the extension is what the fuck was the rush? Like, right.
How about him just play the season, see what happens. Now, more, he said, then do a quote that wind horse attributed to him was like, we didn't want to arrive in the summer of 25 and have the uncertainty, the potential chaos of him going somewhere else.
And my question is why the fuck not? Yeah. He would have been 32 and had played 60% of the games in his career.
Listen, I've known Darryl a long time. I think if there's a flaw with him, I think he wants to be liked by players.
And we saw that when the Harden thing fell sideways. And I just think he likes Embiid and wanted to take care of him and chose to see it as a glass half full versus a glass half empty thing.
And I think the owners like him be too. And ultimately like that was what was so funny about last week when they're leaking out like this was Daryl's fault.
Daryl did this. It's like the owner makes the decision.
They just stop. It's that one person is signing that extension and one person is asking all the questions and getting all the answers for it.
But it's a devastating, devastating contract. Just so folks understand, let's just say presumably he plays three more years on this knee.
In 28-29, he's going to be owed basically $70 million. That's tough.
There might be some insurance wrinkles with this. That's right.
Because we found out more info about Zion's contract as the months came out. And there might be some wrinkles with this.
But as of yet, we have not heard of any. And this just seems like a straight $300 million for a guy who doesn't seem like he's going to be able to play that much.
In his age, 30, what would that be? He'll be 31 next year. If we were gambling on this before, what do you think is more likely? He retires in the next two years or he makes it to that third year of that contract? Oh, he's going to make it to the third year.
He's not retiring. The only person we've We have not seen the only person we've seen retire is Andrew Luck.
Yeah. Like, just

walk away from money. And that was seen

like a more like, I don't want to put my body through

this anymore. Okay.
He's not going

to retire before this contract is

up. He can't.
His accountant will not

allow it. Okay.
Yeah, you can't. So 20 games

a season out of him for the Sixers?

Hey, it is whatever I got to do to make

it to the finish line. And listen, look, I think Joel Embiid is a bit of a tragic figure.
A lot of a tragic figure. I mean, everybody likes him.
And he seems to want it really badly. It's just his body just straight up has not cooperated, and that sucks.
But at the end of the day, he's going to have like $600 million in career earnings. And I don't feel that bad for the guy, you know? Right.
Well, House and I are old enough to remember doing this dance with Bill Walton way, way, way back when. Yao Ming, Greg Oden, Ralph Sampson.
There's been a lot of big dudes that their bodies couldn't hold up because just fundamentally, it's really hard for a seven foot three person to run up and down a basketball for nine months a year and jump up and down and land on things. You're playing with fire.
All right, we're going to take one more break and then we'll do the rest. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra.
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All right, come back. Waz is up.
There's one big kahuna still left on the board. This is the last obvious this is just horrible contract, in my opinion, left in the league.
There's other ones that are like, this is pretty bad, but this is horrific. And it's Joel Embiid's teammate, Paul George.
I honestly thought these two could be one, two in the drafts. No, easily.
I think so. I think you could make arguments for both.
We are in the situation with this worst contract draft where we have one guy who cost his team like a billion and a half dollars and another guy that cost his team $500 million. And both of those franchises are looking at a decade of pure effing misery coming up.
Yeah. Amazing.
So Paul George is four years to 11.6, three years after this one. Yep.
Player option in 27, 28 for 56 mil, probably opting into that one. I couldn't figure out a way to look this up because I'm not smart enough.
But when somebody drops six points a game, just fundamentally, when somebody goes from 22 to 16 and they played, they're like year 12 or later, it usually doesn't come back. I remember talking about this with Jermaine O'Neal 20 years ago when When you go from being a 24-10 guy or a 22-11 guy, and now you're like a 15-9 guy, it doesn't come back.
And that would be my fear with Paul George. They said something's wrong with his finger, but it doesn't explain the lack of explosiveness.
It's so bad. And this is the thing.
I think we got to cut Daryl a break here a little bit in the sense that last year on the Clippers, Paul George was an all-NBA performer. He was...
The Clippers on-off numbers with Paul George on on both offense and defense. He was their best player last year.
Yeah. He was a bona fide star NBA player last year.
he's coming to the 76ers environment just turned into a pumpkin. I don't think we could have foreseen this.
Wow, we could have foreseen it. House, this is one of those, we see this in sports sometimes, you had to do it but you didn't feel awesome about it as you're doing it, signings.
We had this argument in in October when we were doing the over under pod me, you and Rosillo. And I'm the only one that, that chose the over for Philadelphia.
I own it, but I did understand the thesis. I understood all of the moves that Philadelphia made in their off season.
It was a gamble. It was an all in all the chips tothe-chips-to-the-center-of-the-table gamble where that Philadelphia team on paper, as we entered the season, looked like it had the potential to compete.
I'm not saying beat, but compete with Boston. Boston is the standard.
How can we put guys around Joel Embiid? The whole thing revolves around Joel Embiid's health. That is, you know, obviously the biggest part of the gamble.
But the other side of the gamble is that Paul George will show up. The thing that the Sixers had done successfully in the two seasons leading up to this season is in those chunks of time that Embiid was missing, they could tread water and they were able to tread water through, you know, the players that they had.
Paul George was supposed to be the T water character but that dude showed up i will never this will always be paul george for me and i hope when he gets into the hall of fame that they put this picture up as part of the the montage for his legacy him putting his mouth on his wife's titty on uh spring break you know during right before the all- All-Star. The players that aren't involved

with the All-Star game

are off on their version of

having a break. And that man

has the gall to put on his Instagram, his

mouth on his wife's titty. That will forever

be the Paul George moment

for me. I'll always

think of him in that context.

That's it.

Next year is year 16 for him in the NBA. The year after that will be year 17.
And then the last year of this contract will be year 18. Not feeling great about it.
And he's another one that's had some physical stuff. He's got the rod in his leg and all kinds of things.
Well, House, you're up in the... I think there's one primetime guy one prime time guy left here but we'll see if you take them oh interesting because i'm not now i'm officially kind of you think the draft is dropped yeah i'm having a hard time i think there's one good one left but let's see we can do house is already it's round two and house is already like flummoxed and can't figure out who to pick.
No, I'm not flummoxed. I know who I want to put in here.
And, you know, I'm prepared to take all of the slings and arrows. It's Scotty Barnes.
I don't like the Scotty Barnes extension. I don't like it one bit.
They have, this is the thing, right? And the reason why I'm putting him in at this moment, I know what I'm going to take from Toronto. The bullets I'm about to take from the Raptors.
But somebody proved to me that he is not Zach Levine. Somebody proved to me that he is not Trey Young.
The problem with paying a guy that's not ready to be the leader of the team and look, you can say he's been hurt. Well, yes, he's been hurt.
He's only the fourth year of his NBA career. I don't want guys that are missing chunks of time the way that Scottie Barnes is missing time.
Can we give the contract? Because he's on the last year of his rookie deal, which is $10 million. Next year, we're kicking in five years $224 million you're not a fan.
Well, it's his worst year shooting percentage-wise of his entire career. I've been saying this for a while and the Toronto fans get mad.
I'm not against Scotty Barnes becoming potentially a guy, but they've been he's been treated from day one like he's a future franchise guy. Remember, he wasn't in the KD trade.
Yeah, and I got yelled at a few years ago because I implied that he wasn't the next Kawhi Leonard. People thought I was insane and kept saying, look at his rookie stats compared to Kawhi's.
I'm like, guys, this is not... I think Scottie Barnes is a really good player.
Me too. I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one...
I think he's a good player. I don't think he's anybody's idea of a number one option.
I think around the right circumstance where he would be de-emphasized and just kind of just solely allowed to focus on his strengths and not, you know, firing up threes on a regular basis. Controlling the ball at the end of the game.
It's that Iguodala Philly situation, right? Where it's like, alright, you're not really a number one guy, but if you're a number three guy on an awesome team, you might be awesome. Tell me when he will make his first all-NBA team.
Hey, he made the all-star team last year, House. He's an NBA all-star.
so he's knocking on the door uh theoretically on all NBA great theory I've never been the biggest Scotty Barnes person but I I don't see his contract as like you know some kind of death knell to Toronto's future I think some of the team building they've you know taken the taken, the actions they've taken in that direction, I think are highly problematic. But I don't think Scottie Barnes is like some horribly overplayed guy.
I love it. House has replaced Trump as the number one enemy of Canada.
I love it. I put him where I put him because we've seen this song and dance before.
It's good. And you warned us about Bradley Beal.
You've warned us about guys in the past. Scottie Barnes averaging 28 and 6.
He's shooting 27% from 3. And the team loses year after 3.
It's his worst shooting percentage. So here's what I compare Scottie Barnes to.
I compare it to the deal that Wiggins got off of his rookie extension where Glenn Taylor said that, well, Andrew Wiggins promised me that he was going to work his ass off in the offseason. And so I gave him the max contract extension.
Like, he hasn't put it on the court that he's worth that, but he promised me. He gave me his word.
I think if Scott, I think I look at his deal like that. Like you look at the talent, where they drafted him, the idea that they're just not going to give him, you know, a max extension, I think would have been problematic for their management.
And I'm like, in a few years, can Scottie Barnes be the finishing piece, even at a slightly inflated or vastly inflated, according to Joe Howe's contract? Could he help a winner, like elevate their situation the way Wiggins did for the Warriors? I think he could, potentially. That's why I'm not so, so down.
When he's a fourth banana. Okay, I'll keep my eye on it.
A $50 million fourth banana. There you go.
Hey, man, I just came back from the grocery store. It's not that far off.
I'll tell you how much. He turns 24

in August.

Listen, they need him to be a number one

guy if they're going to pay him that kind of money.

That's right. I agree.

I like the pick. You used history.

Thank you. I think

this young guy might be a max guy,

so I'm giving him a max when there's no actual

evidence he's a max guy. Look at his stats

and his basketball reference page is really good. We have seen this go wrong many times.
I like the Wiggins seat too. Well, guys, I feel like I've already won the draft.
I got Joel Embiid with the third pick. Kawhi Leonard still on the board.
I don't know. What are you guys doing? Kawhi Leonard, three years, $149 million.
He's played 20 games this season. He's played 249 games in six years for the Clippers.
He's played 15 playoff games. What is he, Kyle Ripken Jr.
all of a sudden? What is happening? You know what's so funny, Bill, is that when I looked, I looked at Kawhi's contract, but I looked at it next to Paul George's, and I was like, yeah, not so bad. And plus, he's been playing so well recently.
I'm like, ah. But you're right, though.
It is. I watched last night, and it's like, there's Kawhi during a timeout wearing a, you know, jogging suit.
It's like, I guess he's not playing. He just straight up does not play, and that's what makes the deal.
Never know if he's gonna play. Go to a Clipper game, it's like, oh,i's warming up he's going to play this is great i'll confess i might have a little softer view on kawaii because at the end of the day i think that um everything the clippers have done with him has been part of the wildly successful arrival of the intuit center i think what Ballmer did was try and create a credible product.
Yes. Not an incredible product, a credible product.
And the way that he did that was he used Kawhi as the vehicle. It has been a gross overpay from really the, ever since he arrived from the Raptors, each of the two extensions were gross overp from really the, the ever since he arrived from,

from the Raptors,

each of the,

the two extensions were,

were gross overpays,

but for the purposes of what the Clippers are trying to,

the identity that they're,

you know,

they,

they want to be relevant and the risk of him,

you know,

not being available was kind of worth it.

So the risk is the fact of him not being available.

So the case for the case for this contract, they had a really fun Lakers game a couple of worth it. For risk, it's the fact of him not being available.

So the case for this contract,

they had a really fun Lakers game a couple nights ago.

And Kawhi played, played 40 minutes, 13 for 23, 33 points, 10 rebounds,

and looked like he was every bit as good as Luke and LeBron. He looked better than Paul George.

And that's why he did it.

Now, if you saw a tweet tomorrow and it's like,

Kawhi Leonard has been shut down for the next three weeks,

wouldn't be surprised at all.

And that's why for $50 million a year.

It's fair.

Thank you. why he did it.
Now, if you saw a tweet tomorrow and it's like Kawhi Leonard has been shut down for the next three weeks, wouldn't be surprised at all. And that's why for $50 million a year.
It's fair. I got to put him on there.
249 games in six years for the Clippers is nuts. Waz, you're up.
My next contract is like this. I feel like this contract goes under the radar because this franchise is just known for ineptitude, basically.
But it doesn't get talked about enough. And to me, this contract just signals everything this franchise is about.
And it's Patrick Williams of the Bulls. I had him on my list.
Interesting. This dude is going to make $18 million per year until 2029.
And like,

he's never been good.

He's not good now. And like what,

there was no reason to do this.

Like they,

who are they competing against?

Five years,

90 million for Patrick Williams.

He's like a nice man.

Guy has been theorized.

It's like,

Oh,

look at the,

the body and the three and D and it's just never,

ever materialized.

And it's just what the bulls do.

Nothing they,

they've done aside from finally,

See you next time. look at the body and the 3ND and it's just never, ever materialized.
And it's just what the Bulls do. Nothing they've done.
Aside from finally, thankfully, moving on from Zach Levine makes any sense whatsoever. But are we even sure that they're even going down the rebuilding path? We don't even know if that's the case, man.
But the Patrick, as soon as they inked this, it was like, what are they doing?

Like, why would you do this?

The Bulls are your guy in your fantasy league,

your friend that you haven't talked to in 12 years who doesn't really make any moves.

And then every once in a while,

we'll spend $58 in the free agent auction.

And you're like, oh, there he is.

It's like, he's trying to finish sixth place.

What's this guy doing?

He just likes being in the league. He likes being on the email threads.
They're embarrassing. I have Patrick Williams too.
He's 26 minutes a game somehow this season, averaging 37% from on field goals house. And I've never, I just don't get it.
When I watch him, he doesn't really jump out of the TV. There seems like there's 20 guys like him.
I don't know why you would pay him. I think five years from 50 would have been kind of aggressive.
I don't get it. Dude, for the season, he's shooting 37.5%.
He can't shoot. From the field, guys.
He's 6'8". How's your up? This is crazy.
It's time to have the Terry Rozier conversation. Oh, man years, 51.5 million left for Terry Rozier.
On the face of it, 25 million bucks for a shooting guard that is capable of being a prolific scorer. It's okay.
The problem is we have a sizzle reel from this season that shows him actively, actively undermining the ability of the Miami heat to win basketball games. It looks like he's completely lost his ability to play basketball.
Cause I looked at, I looked up when they made the trade last year. Cause I remember thinking like, Oh, getting Terry Rozier for what they gave up like a first for him.
I would much rather do that than give all the shit you had to give up for Dame Lillard, which included Tyler Hero, right? So when they traded for him last year, he played 30 Charlotte games, 23.2 points a game, 36% from three, and was playing awesome and was like crunch time. He was a good player.
I thought Miami had a great pickup. Yeah.
This year, his stats are almost half. He's 11.8 points a game.
He's shooting 40%. He's shooting 29% from three.
And eye test-wise, he might be the worst rotation guy in the league. And I don't know what happened.
And there's lots of theories floating around, not hard to find, but it really seems like whatever, there might be a scandal with him. There might not with some of this betting thing, but it really seems like it sent him into an absolute tailspin.
But they keep playing him as the part I don't get house. I wonder, you know, we can theorize about stuff that doesn't take us into uncomfortable territory.

No team in the NBA has more double-digit leads that they've coughed up in the fourth quarter than the Miami Heat. And I, on the Ringer Gambling Podcast just this past Monday, said one of my favorite betting strategies over the last couple weeks, and will be until the end of the season,

is to find situations where Miami has a lead going into the fourth quarter and watching them cough it up. They down the stretch in the last six minutes of the game have no apparent game plan.
It's ISO to hero, but Rose years contribution to that. And again, who knows? I wonder if they quietly went to him and were like, dude, we're really not trying to make the playoffs.
Well, so they're the seven seed right now, 29 and 32. Orlando's 29, 34.
Atlanta's 28 and 34. So they could fall to the nine seed pretty easily if they wanted to.
I shocking thing to me is they are a bottom half of the league from a talent standpoint. The weirdest thing to me that I think helps your theory house is why they didn't want Schroeder.
Why don't they want him? Great point. They actively try to not keep him in the trade.
It's like that guy actually would have been a really fun heat that would have helped you. And now instead you're playing Terry Rozier.
I've never seen somebody who is not past his prime. He's young.
I'm going to say he's 30. I've never seen somebody crater.
He's 31 on St. Patrick's Day.
I've never seen somebody crater where last year you're watching going year you're watching man Terry Roger could he make the all-star team to this guy is now the worst rotation guy in the league good pick house I feel really bad with my next pick doesn't make me feel good I almost want to take a shower after he's somebody I did not like for a long time and he really won me back over the last couple years I really respect him I really feel bad for him I feel for him and this is way too soon but I have to take Kyrie Irving he only has two years left at 84.9 million he's not playing this year and I don't think he's playing next year wait is this for the extension that Nico Harrison is going to eventually give him this summer? Well, regardless, this is Kyrie, the ACL injury, when it happens at this point in the season, it's usually a season and a half. Next season is done.
We saw it with Jamal Murray. In football, you can come back in less than a year.
In basketball, it doesn't seem like you can. So basically, he's not going to play again on this contract.
And I feel bad, but I don't see a worse contract left than two years 84.9 for a guy who can't play. So, not his fault.
And again, I think Dallas was good. They were basically going to be over a barrel this summer and have to probably give him a max extension for four years which would have been kind of insane.
With a lot of scary history for small guards. But now they could probably lose a lot of that and so maybe that'll be a mitigating factor in the next deal but yeah he's not playing next year.
Wait you're saying that a team owned by Patrick Dumont who just traded the most popular guy in the history of the franchise since Dirk DeWitsky. And then talked all kinds of leaky shit about him after they traded him with Do Something Shady.
Tough. He said he wanted them to exhibit the work habits of one Shaquille O'Neal.
That was tough. Am I up now? You're up now.
Go ahead. Actually, let's take one more break and then you're up.
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All right, let's go speed round from now on.

Waz, you're up.

Who do you got?

This is kind of easy for me, to be honest.

And it's Brandon Ingram, another guy who nobody. They tried to trade this guy for two straight years.
Basically, David Griffin was like, bro, we're not paying you a penny over your current salary. Like, it's not going to happen.
They fought and they fought and fought. Nobody would take this guy.
Golden State needed a forward and wouldn't take him. It was like, no, thank you.
Everybody said no, thank you. And then, of course, like the Raptors, for reasons I still don't understand, traded for the guy, gave him the extension three years, $140 million.
And then, you know, right after, my guy Jake Fisher is like, yo, they're probably going to trade R.J. Barrett next summer.
Like, what was the point of this? I don't get it. He's not a fit next to Scotty Barnes.
He never plays any defense despite, you know, the physical tools and the profile. He's always just been a kind of like, give me the ball, let me cook, and not going to elevate a single thing around me.
Hates taking spot up threes. I don't understand the trade.
I don't understand this deal. I don't understand what Masai Ujiri has done basically since 2019.
To be fair, it's three years, $120 million extension. $120, sorry.
And it's still awful because that's $40 million a year for a guy that New Orleans could not trade for a solid year as an expiring contract. I love it

because it's a confession about

how they feel about Scottie Barnes.

It's wonderful. It feels like it validates

a win for house. It feels like an

extra win for me. Also, I

love putting a worse contract on here that

hasn't officially kicked in yet.

Kudos to everybody in Barnes.

It's on its way.

Musai Uhari, who, remember there was that moment when it's, it was like, could the Knicks just turn over the entire franchise to him? Is this guy, the Knicks, see the next guy? And he did a great job with the Raptors in the 2010s, but holy shit, the last five years. I disagree with basically everything they've done.
I just don't understand it. House, you're up.
This one, I understand the controversy surrounding it. I have to, though, put a bright light on Jamal Murray because it is an enormous, enormous contract for a guy.
Remember where we are with him in terms of his injury situation and his execution. Our recency bias will tell us this guy is a mad killer when he's healthy, but the dude's only been healthy for about six weeks now.
And I adore him next to Joker. I want to be very plain about this very clear clear.
I love the contribution of Jamal Murray to the Denver Nuggets. I'm very excited to see how this playoff shakes out, but his injury history and what he does to that franchise, what he does to that franchise when he can't play, it ruins an all-time historical figure in in the joker it takes so much off the table with the joker so when you're staring at it says five years 243 million dollars that's a big that's a big gamble that's a big that's all i want to say that's a big gamble first of all classic house backhanded compliment talks about what a big gamble.
First of all, classic house, backhanded compliment,

talks about what a great fit he is, then

complains about the contract. The extension

was four years for 207.8

that kicks in starting

next year. I'm personally fine with it.

I had him

way later in the draft.

I had him way later in the draft. You have to pay

the money. He definitely made my

list, but it's like, you're the Nuggets. This guy's been a part of the greatest team in the history of your franchise.
You drafted the guy. They love the guy.
If the Nuggets make another finals run or two, I think this is completely justified to keep the era going and all that. But I'm not going to lie, House.
Some of these Jamal Murray box scores to start the season,

definitely my eyebrow was raised for a while.

The performance with Team Canada in the goddamn Olympics,

that was scary stuff for me.

But as of lately, he's dropping 50 on guys.

He's looking to cry.

Yeah, I love it.

I'm feeling more confident, but yeah,

it's scary when you think about his injury history.

I think House has moved into the clear number one spot

for a guy who's going to take the most shit online from this draft, and I can't wait for it. I'm going to read you the salary years for my pick.
Yet another great pick. I feel like I'm dominating the draft now.
$43.827,587 this year, so almost $44 million this year. Three-year extension kicking in for $109.5 million next three years.
That's right. The Stifle Tower himself.
Rudy Gobert. I had him circled.
He's on the list. This is a really interesting one.
They had him at 43.8 this year and 46.6 next year.

And they thought that would get all smart.

They're like, hey, Rudy, let's wipe out that player option for the 46.6

and we'll give you the three years 109.

And then we'll turn Carl Anthony Towns into DiVincenzo and Julius Randle.

And it's a reallocation of money. It's going to be great.
So Rudy Gobert, who is having the worst statistical season he's had. Is it fair to say he is unplayable in a Lakers series, an OKC series, and a Golden State series? I don't think so.
I don't think that's a fair characterization. You think he sees the court in a Lakers series? You think he sees a fourth quarter in a Lakers series with Luka and LeBron in the game? Yes, 100%.
I think so. I think Rudy was the anchor of by far the league's best defense last year.
He was key to beating Joker in the playoffs. He was.
I mean, it was a trio, but Rudy played a major part in sort of like keeping Joker contained. They win that in a dogfight, you know, seven-game series.
And then he got played out the court by Luka Doncic in the next series. They justified it by saying, look, $35 million, that's probably the going great for starting centers.
This guy has always been an Ironman in terms of playing. Takes his, you know, his conditioning and his body really super seriously to stay on the court.
I understand the pick, Bill. But why is that? That's not why they did it.
I would be fine if that's why they did it. They did it because of the money because they are worried about how much money they're paying.
They didn't want to pay Towns what he was paying. And they looked at it as like, we can get off this Randall deal hopefully next year because he'll have an awesome season for us.
He'll go into free agency. Guess what? Julius Randall will be opting into the $32 million next year.
So they didn't get out of that contract. Deep and Shenzo, they're going to lose.
And now they're stuck with Rudy for three more years. And I don't know, man.
They're going to lose Nas Reed now. Nas Reed is gone.
He's done. He's leaving.
They can't keep him out. There's no chance they keep him.
He is going to New Orleans. He'll go to Brooklyn.
He could go to your Washington Wizards. He's going to be making $35 million a year next year and it will not be in Minnesota.
I think that Minnesota is going to find a way to keep him. I think that there's some off-season.
Let's do it. Dinner.
That's great.

Dinner bet. He will not be on Minnesota next year.

It's not happening.

He's not happening.

Well, look. I mean, you just went through.

They moved Cat.

Nobody had that on their radar for money-saving purposes.

I think they understand the value.

We'll see it in the playoffs.

I think Nasrita is going to make such a compelling case over the course of these playoffs. If Minnesota goes anywhere, honest to God, my favorite matchup of the entire first round is Oklahoma City, Minnesota.
I pray to God that we get that as our opening round in that thing. And the toll it's going to take on Oklahoma City sets up that matchup against potentially Golden State in the second.
God, it's so juicy. But to go back to the point around Nas Reed and Rudy Gobert, if the Gobert extension was for the purposes of, you know, does it make him more palatable as a trade asset? But they have to do something to keep Nas Reed.
And I think Nas Reed will stay with Minnesota. What do you think, Wes? I think Rudy's going to stick around.
The idea that they had a three-center rotation last year is just an anomaly. You can't keep three centers who are basically paid their market value on your roster when all of them are basically kind of starter caliber.
So I don't know. they figure out how to do how to make the nas read thing works i just i'm just not as disgusted by the rudy deal and i guess i've kind of become a rudy convert man i just think a lot of stuff does gets a little bit underrated i can't believe this he's expensive but i'm gonna be texting you guys when he's sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter of a Lakers series watching LeBron and Luka run pick and rolls.
Waz, you're up. By the way, Julius Randle still available.
Another one, I take no joy from this, but DeJounte Murray, after this year, he's got three years at about 32 per, coming off of an Achilles injury and it's just it's tough you tear your achilles at guard and you're like one of your main strengths is basically your athleticism your shiftiness yeah i i'm not seeing it for him and uh the deal is tough i i I think this is going to end up being a bad deal for New Orleans, man. Four for 114 for him.

I mean. and the deal is tough.
I think this is going to end up being a bad deal

for New Orleans, man.

Four for 114 for him.

I mean, it could be worse.

They could have traded Dyson Daniels.

Oh, wait.

House, you're up.

It's mandatory if we're doing a worse contract draft.

We've mentioned his name once,

but he has to officially be a selection.

It is Ben Simmons.

Ben Simmons has to be.

Even as the Ben Simmons buyout? You're just taking them anyway? Yeah, you can't have a draft and talk about bad contracts. Rosillo sent a hilarious text this week watching him on the Clippers, just making an observation around what seemed to be Ben Simmons instincts for, for passing the ball.

Some of like,

it's just hard to really thread the needle in terms of what he was trying to

accomplish,

where the ball was going.

Uh,

it's an honorary pick for,

for Ben Simmons for me at this stage.

I like it.

Um,

you know,

I'm upset that Patrick Williams is gone.

Cause this is right where I thought I was going to be able to get him,

but he's not a,

he's not on the list anymore.

Um,

Thank you. You know, I'm upset that Patrick Williams is gone because this is right where I thought I was going to be able to get him.
But he's not on the list anymore. I got to do Emmanuel quickly.
We got to go back to the Raptors. Wow.
Unbelievable. Got to do it one more time.
He's in the first year of a deal that pays him five years, 162.5 million. And I kind of like Emmanuel quickly.
Like he's 38% from three. He's instant offense off the bench.
But his destiny on any good team, on an actual good team, would be a sixth or seventh man, a bench scorer, instant offense. That's how you'd want to ideally use him.
And you don't pay 30 plus million dollars a year for a guy like that.

You pay like 14 million dollars a year.

You pay the Celtics are playing Peyton Pritchard 7 million a year.

Well, he's on the opposite of a bad contract.

That's an amazing contract they got for Peyton Pritchard right now.

Right.

Right.

That would be doing the best contracts.

That's what I was up there for

sure i just it's just too much money if it was five for 100 i'd be like all right i guess but uh when you're talking about that much and now you're basically locked into barnes and ingram and quickly as your three expensive guys where the fuck are you going at that point what what do you think is going to happen?

You're going to win 38 games?

I honestly

do not understand what Toronto is doing.

Anyway, Waz, you're up.

This is pretty

easy for me, and it sucks, but it's

Grant Williams.

This guy has... Three for 41.

Yeah, and he's just

not an NBA player anymore.

Straight up.

Doesn't play.

Just just he's just done.

He's well, he he blew out his knee.

But you're saying next year?

Next year, he's even when he was was playing and he was getting ticked this season, it

was pretty disastrous.

This was another he was another Nico Harrison sort of une of unearthing uh just never never panned out um yeah grant grant williams i think he's done all right house um am i allowed to do a combo deal because these guys uh to me fit this the exact same profile and they are also in this in this gamble phase why would you be able to take two picks in the same pick? I don't understand. Okay, alright.
Then I'll choose Zion because, you know, you can imagine who the foil would be, who the other guy's name is, but I won't say it. He could still be a viable pick.
You know, we need proof that Zion can play basketball for a season. I didn't know where to put him on the board because he technically has four for 163 left, but they have all these different outs for games played, for weighing him, and it seems like a movable contract.
I also think teams would have traded for it in February if they had put it out there, and I don't think they... I know teams kick the tires on it.
I'm positive. And I think New Orleans was like, no.
But maybe this summer we could see something. He's looking good in a couple of these games though.
I did too. I want it to work.
Okay. Well, I need a white guy.
And this is very similar to what I just laid out with the manual quickly grace and allen at four years 70 million to basically be my ninth man like yeah he's shooting 43 from three he's he's sam hauser he's in that kind of level of like those white dudes the Cavs have. There's a bunch of these guys.
And guess what? None of them are making $17, $18 million a year. They're all making like three.
They're making four. They're making two.
They're making, oh, man, we found this guy in the waiver wire. They're not making this.
So congratulations, Matt Ishbia. You did it again.
I mean, he's making Austin Reeves money. money.
Yeah. That's great.
He's making more than Austin Reeves. He's making more than Austin Reeves.
That's correct. I'm glad you brought up Austin Reeves because fuck the Spurs again for not making an offer that summer.
I said it that whole month and everybody's like why are you just saying this because you want the Lakers to lose him. It's like no I'm saying because Austin because Austin Reeves is good and he should have gone.
Now that's somebody, if he got a quickly deal, I would have been like, all right, a little high, but I would do it. Waz, who do you have? I don't want to draw the ire of this fan base, but for me it's the minus, the bonus.
I'm sorry. I love when you do this.
You do this every year. This guy is just over me.
You do it every year. Like, I think the team's limitations are based on their commitment to this dude playing center where just like straight up, you cannot guard the paint.
Chaus and Doug Christie has changed up the game plan to make it just straight up. Everybody just packs the paint and we allow teams to shoot threes now.
That's it. We cannot guard the paint with Damani Sabonis at center.
And they just committed to it and I get it. He gets rebounds.
He's a great guy. I get it, all of that.
But like, this guy is just not worth what they're paying him. So they're paying him four for 186.
It's year one of the new extension. Listen, he always has...
If you're another team and you've identified Sabonis as somebody you want, why? Why do you want him at that number? Because I want to win 43 games. Okay, thank you.
I think there's a world where you could build an awesome team around him, but I think it's really hard. Like, you really have to put a lot of thought into every other player in that roster because he does have some limitations but you're right like he's like the center version of ben simmons would have panned out well wow every year sabonis just takes strays he really does who do you have house uh i'm going back to an old favorite of mine.
This guy is near the end of his career

doing a very distinguished job of helping a franchise, you know, with a tremendous talent, you know, try and see the best outcome. This is Damian Lillard time.
He's playing well lately. Wow.
I agree. Three for 161 for Damian Lillard.
The problem is the amount that's left on this contract at his age and the history in the NBA of guards with his profile being effective. It's just really the end of the year thing.
I said up front that I'm glad that he's playing well because I'm glad for Milwaukee to be good. I'm pissed at Milwaukee.
And our guy Doc. Doc's going to to get to play golf at Bel Air with Doc.
We got to praise David Lillard. Now you're pissed off another fan base.
Well, I don't think so because he's doing all that he can do. 161 is a gulp.
And wait for the playoffs. That's all.
You're going to regret this in the playoffs. I'm trying to put it in the right category.
He's going to be good. Milwaukee, I'm pissed at Milwaukee.
I honestly think the Portis drug thing was a bummer. But I don't think they should have traded Milton.
I know that they needed some cap savings and that Kuzma is a live body. But I will tell you, come playoff time time without any reservation or hesitation, a moment will come and Kyle Kuzma will have the effing ball at that moment.
And it is going to go badly. It's going Chris Middleton.
I trust Kyle Kuzma. I do not best of luck to the bucks for my next pick.
First of all, houses won the draft for pissing off the most fan bases.

He locked it up two rounds ago.

Oh, yeah.

Don't be mad.

The Dane fans.

There's a whole Dane live.

I can't believe this guy's still available.

Three years, 66 million.

Contavious Caldwell Pope.

Goes to Orlando.

It's been a rough year in Orlando. Leaves Denver.

Christian Brown comes in. He's immediately twice as good as he was.
Goes to Orlando it's been a rough year in Orlando leaves Denver, Christian Brown comes in and is immediately like twice as good as he was goes to Orlando twice as good, come on man hear the stats, 60 games 8.6 points 2.1 rebounds 1.8 assists, congratulations on all that 31% from. He's rocking the 9.0 PR.

Not what he was brought in to do. And he's

playing 30 minutes a game. And you could argue

if anyone playing 30 minutes or more

a game, he might

be the least useful player. And I know there's good

defense. Look, he's a good defensive

player. There's metrics.
Great

locker room guy. Great locker room guy.
All that.

But I promise you they were looking for more

than what he's given them this year with this contract.

So he is my pick.

Thank you. offensive player, there's metrics.
Great locker room guy. Great locker room guy, all that.
But I promise you they were looking for more than what he's given them this year with this contract.

So he is my pick.

Walsh, who do you have?

Ah, man, now I'm starting to get into guys that I really actually like

as players.

That's part of the draft.

This is tough.

I think the Jalen Green deal is a tough one.

Just the up and down, inconsistent nature of his game man two weeks

he's up three weeks he's down well can we get the deal one for 12 yes and then next year three for 105 as an extension which yep what a play at the end of it and by the way good content for us because he's going to be in 58 of the fake trades we make in in june yeah we try to get them a superstar when we get to to a booker and we try to, it's like, well, Jalen Green will be in it. And I think the ultimate indictment of Jalen Green and the deal is that Fred Van Vliet goes down and the offense just goes into the tank because they don't have a creator who can effectively get them into decent offense.
And it's like, Jalen Green, like, you're. You should be stepping up here.
He cannot create anything for anybody else. That would be the criticism.
I really like Jalen Green. Yeah, there was a moment last year when I really feel like it all came together, and I have not seen it.
I was waiting. House, you're up.
I can't believe this guy is still available, to be honest with you. And I'll take the criticism for some of my earlier picks, but Andrew Wiggins is still on the board.
Look at this man's contract. And please tell me the next time that you think that he is going to play 60 games in an NBA season.
Please tell me the next time you think that that's going to happen. He's at 49 games right now.
He played 49 games last season. He is living off of a contract that was a reward for helping the Golden State Warriors win a championship.
Second best guy in the league. Totally reasonable.
No problem with that. You always forget to say the contract.
Three years, 85 million. That counts this year.
That's a lot. That's a lot of money left for a guy that looks like

he's lost some

interest. And his interest in basketball

has always been kind of an open question.

Except for the championship year.

Everyone's getting groggy.

We're nearing the end of the draft.

And I haven't really pissed off

the fan base yet.

And I also haven't made Waz laugh

hysterically with a pick yet. And I think this is going to be it.
It's the most controversial pick of the late rounds. I got to do it.
Four years, 163 million. Ja Morant.
Stop it. Get the hell out of here.
Listen, it's the end of the draft. I'm just trying to get value.
I'm just trying to get value. Why doesn't he play? Why doesn't he play? They're conserving his body for the postseason, folks.
Chill. What's running on his shoulder now? What's going on? When I asked for permission to combine players, I wanted to do Zion and Ja together because to me, they fit the same kind of...
When is Ja going to be able... If the idea with him over his entire career will be to preserve him for the playoffs, then what does that do for your team? You're paying...
He's 25. What are we preserving him for? He should be playing every game.
He can't. There's no proof that he can.
But he is... This year he's played...
38 games this year. He can't.
There's no proof that he can. So this year he's played 38 games this year.
He played nine games last year. He plays 29.4 minutes a game.
He doesn't even play 30 minutes a game. And they're kid gloves bubble wrapping him.
And now yesterday he didn't play well and he's like, I don't know if my shoulder is going to be good the rest of the year so now I have a fundamental shoulder issue on top of all the other baggage like look there's 10 teams that are paying him that contract without blinking I'm just flagging it we're near the end of the draft the contract the numbers are pretty high for somebody who doesn't seem like he's going to play all the time okay not mad at it who do you got Wes this hurts me because he's one of my

favorite players in the league but it's

Ogie Ananobi

I was wondering when he'd go

5 for 212

it's a huge

deal with a guy who has an

extensive injury history

especially muscle injuries

which tend to happen with

you know a lot of over usage which newsash, he plays with Tom Thibodeau. Asked Llewell Dang about that.
Love OG. I love watching OG play.
I love his approach to the game, but this is so much money for a guy who doesn't create his own shot ever. He's not some great distributor.
It's like, man, this is a lot. And he's a very good defender, but I will also say that Tatum and Brown aren't exactly quaking in their boots when they see him.
And that was one of the reasons they did that thing. I'm with you.
He's, for the injury issues with him that always are lingering, 212 is a scary number. House, I'll give you one more pick.
Thank you. And I want to say this name so we can have a quick conversation about him.
I'm going to draw a distinction between him and Scotty Barnes. I'm taking LaMelo Ball here.
And the distinction that I want to make is... See, this is when the draft gets great.
John Moran and Laomelo Ball. I love it.
Well, here's the distinction.

I think Lomelo Ball could definitely make an all-NBA team,

and it could be like right around the corner.

It's just not going to be in Charlotte.

And I don't really quibble with Charlotte paying him this contract.

I think it is commensurate with his talent.

But his talent, he is a loser.

He's a serial loser. You mean a loser of games, not an actual human loser.
Correct. Correct.
There is no proof to the contrary. He's never played basketball in this situation, a serious situation where his team has been a winning.
Where his team has been high-fiving and shaking hands in celebration after games. It's a unique experience for him.
We're missing the winning component. Good win.
I can't believe we won seven games in a row. It's never been said.
With his talent, if he can stay healthy, another guy who can, you know, we keep seeing these nagging ankles here and there. But his talent is such that if he was with the right situation, with the right coach, this would be an incredible contract potentially because I think he is supremely talented and I like his swag.
It just needs to be redirected. So in this circumstance with this team, tough one.
I like it. I don't think it's bad money, but you know what? I'll take his career over Scotty Barnes and everybody from Toronto can go ahead and send me poop sandwiches.
I'm fine with it. I'll recap

the draft before I make the last pick.

Walsh took Bradley

Beal to kick us off.

Walsh took Nico Harrison. I took Joel Embiid.

And then it went Paul

George, Scottie Barnes, Kawhi Leonard,

Patrick Williams, Terry Rozier,

Kyrie Irving. I felt

bad about that one. Brandon Ingram,

Jamal Murray, Rudy Gobert,

DeJounte Murray,

Ben Simmons. Just

I'm going to go bad about that one. Brandon Ingram, Jamal Murray, Rudy Gobert.
Dejounte Murray, Ben Simmons, just in Amoritis, just has to be picked anyway. If there's a million bucks, house just on the board.
I took Emmanuel quickly. Then Grant Williams, Zion Williamson, Grayson Allen, Dematis Sabonis, Dame Lord, Contavious Caldwell Pope Jalen Green Andrew Wiggins Ja Morant O.J.
Ananobi LaMelo Ball and the last pick of the draft only because he has to another guy he's like Ben Simmons he has to be in their house he's so excited Zach Levine three for 141 we gotta have him can't leave Zach Zach out. Zach was outside the door knocking.
Like, hey, guys. I thought that was the worst contract party.
That's right. Hey, anybody home? Okay.
I mean, the case for that, even though he's had a really good year, is the Bulls traded him and didn't even get good stuff back. They got a hill of Beans.
They just got bad contracts from other teams. Literally a Hill of Beans.
So apologies to the following people for not getting picked. Julius Randle, two for 64.
Jimmy Butler, three for 159. Chris Middleton on House's Wizards, two for 65.
I like Chris. Zach Collins, two for 35.7.
Can't believe that contract isal trade. How is he not in our draft? Yeah, he should be.
Zach Collins definitely should be. Kevin Herter, 2 for 35.
Terrence Mann, 1 for 11 this year, then kicks in 3 for 47. Lori Markkinen, 5 for 237.
I did look at him for the last couple rounds I looked long and hard at it I almost took him over John Morant Gary Harris, 2 for 15, just had to put it in there Principal, Buddy Heald 4 for 38, can't believe he didn't get drafted Teams are trying to sign him as an undrafted free agent for the draft right now Drew Holiday, 4 for 134 Drew Holiday's tough and. I thought about it.
I thought about it. And another guy that's tough.

He's got like a fucked up finger.

That I thought about

is Bam Adebayo.

Um,

he's having a horrible season.

Everybody thought this was going to be

a breakout year,

particularly on offense.

That just straight up has not happened.

He's got a sterling reputation

amongst people in our profession.

So he won't get killed

in like the media,

but like he's been a disappointment. Well, we've hit the end.
I had a wonderful time. Me too.
It was the worst contracts draft. My favorite part is that everyone's going to be the maddest at house.
Yes. I feel like maybe the Memphis fans come after me a tiny bit.
Waz, who's coming after you? Probably Sacramento.

Definitely Sacramento. Oh, Sabonis.
Yeah, the

Sabonis hive coming at you.

This was a blast, though. Thanks to Saruti

and thanks to Kyle and thanks to Gahal. As always,

you can watch this as

a video podcast on Spotify.

I don't know why you would because you just finished the podcast,

but it's also going to be available on the Bill

Simmons YouTube channel. You can listen to the house

on Fairway Rolling and on the Ringer Gambling Show.

You can listen to Waz on group chat with Mahoney and Barrier on the Ringer NBA Show.

Great to see you, fellas.

Thank you. I don't have feelings with them

On the wayside

I'm a bruised son

I don't have

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