Reacting To All The Trades & The NBA Draft | EP 29
what is going on everyone welcome to the Hoops Crush podcast that is Brady Parks I’m Eric Brandt Brady I don’t think we have much to talk about in the last week before our previous episode not not much has happened in the NBA right no nothing has happened this is about to be a pretty boring episode but we’re gonna get through it strong nice uh so how was how was your week uh how did everything go I know you streamed for the draft both days uh it’s been it’s been good and overwhelming at the same time I don’t know why but whenever trades like start happening as a content creator I get kind of overwhelmed because I feel like I got to rush things and I don’t know it’s weird and I try not to be like that but I just like to talk about things as soon as possible but other than that it’s been great well we’ll get to uh one of the deals uh for Portland Trail Blazers that happened right as we were going for the another part of it that was like oh my gosh what the CU I was like still doing stuff and then that happened I’m like oh my I’m like bro what is very interesting timing yeah I actually uh Tori Was preparing for the stream and I actually broke the news to him like five minutes after it happened he still hadn’t heard it yet which is kind of surprising in today’s day and age yeah exactly I was like so we need to go live talk about the trade he’s like what trade am I so so I got to hear his immediate reaction yeah I’m sure that was overwhelming to him too but the night before the draft is when the fireworks start the uh New York Knicks make a huge trade for male Bridges get another member from the Villanova wild cats um and uh yeah so I know you got some heat for having some video or a video where M got traded to uh New York um and uh there was a lot of people who said that Brooklyn would never trade Mel to New York right uh so what did you think when you saw not only did that happen but how much New York gave up to get him yeah I was a little surprised about the compensation uh it’s like I don’t know I thought it’d be like at least four but getting exact on top of four they got four on top of or they got four and then more some more on top so uh very big return for the Brooklyn Nets but this is exactly the direction they needed to take so it made a lot of sense for both sides and obviously when trades happen at least for me and I’m sure most of everybody is also like this you start to think about why did each team do this what’s next for them and then obviously when it comes to Brooklyn very easy it’s rebuild time for them and they immediately of course as we know got some of their picks back uh which another trade that happened but New York obviously loading up and what w shed is they’re loading up to try to beat the Boston Celtics get all these wings and uh everyone was like oh does this mean OG is gone and I never really thought that I was like there’s no way OG is gone they gave up a lot to get him back I think adding mckel and OG is kind of crazy I never thought those two would be on the same team it’s actually insane that that’s happening right now uh because those were two two guys at the blaze would have loved to have had obviously and the fact that they’re on the same team is pretty is pretty insane uh but yeah obviously the Nick’s overpaid it it’s I think anyone could agree with that but New York and Brooklyn do not trade with trade with each other it’s been like since the 80s or 90s since they last made a trade with each other so I kind of figured it would have to be an overpay by the Nicks side and you already knew that Brunson and uh Diva chinzo Josh Hart it it was pretty easy to see that Mel if he were to be traded is probably going to be the Knicks or the Rockets because the Rockets have their picks or the Knicks have the Villanova thing so like one of those two teams was going to get Mel and obviously ends up being the Knicks uh which I think everybody saw coming for the most part uh the reason why I got so much heat was because I traded Randall in the trade um I still think there’s a chance that Randall has moved but he will be a little bit harder to move I’m not sure I like him on the team anymore but I don’t know uh we’ll see if they end up ever doing anything with him but man the Knicks yeah they overpaid but their team is going to be extremely fun next year yeah so OG resigns the next day for like 5 years 215 million or something like that um I guess the Knicks were hoping to get him somewhere in the $30 million range right OG wanted more like a Max contract in the $45 million range and uh they ultimately have to give him what he wants because they like you mentioned I think they were kind of stuck once you go all in you can’t just then lose uh your other forward you just traded for so I think they were going to be in a position where they had to pay him whatever it took to retain him I think obviously OG knew that as well um so but yeah that’s crazy having M and OG like M doesn’t have to guard like the team’s best the other team’s best player um you he all of a sudden like a second point of attack Defender like it’s just insane and now the Knicks are in a position where they are loaded at every position except for center right uh we’ll see what happens there uh Isaiah Haron sign is a free agent there’s all kinds of rumors that of teams that’ll uh potentially offer him a big contract he’s a uh yeah but uh we’ll have to see because if they can convince him to stay uh maybe take a more Team friendly deal than what he would get from the other teams uh this team team is crazy as I I can’t think of a team that has or has had more uh just like effort defensive wings um because you got to throw like Josh Hart in the mix too and Divan cenzo’s decent on both ends as well so uh just crazy amount of uh guarden Wing action for the Knicks the lineups that that next team can run is going to be so much fun man like you could do like OG Kell and even chinel on the floor together you could have Josh Hart and there’s just so many different combinations they can run jayen Brunson obviously will still be the primary scorer but you have so many guys around him that are just going to be pesky on defense Hustlers like the Knicks they were fun to watch last year and I can’t imagine how much more fun they’re going to be I still interested and curious to see what happens with Randall if they do decide to keep him if they you know maybe they’re able to move him but I think it’s going to be a little hard a little bit harder to do so but yeah uh interesting trade to start this off season and once we saw that and how much it cost to get him get Mel I was like yeah this offseason’s about to be crazy like this is crazy off season cuz that was insane how much they gave up so it ended up being like six picks in total well six first right it was like four unprotected first rounders from the Knicks and then a pick Swap and from Milwaukee and then a uh a protected or it was like some un unprotected pick Swap and then a a protected Buck pick so and then a seconds I I think or second swap or something like that but a crazy amount of pick compensation and of course boam McDon ofic for salary filler uh wild trade wild trade for sure and Brooklyn shout out to him for finally picking a freaking Direction well that Milwaukee pick is uh for us Blazer fans that was the one we acquired in the CJ McCullum trade for New Orleans that turned into that pick after they made the playoffs otherwise they would have had second lottery pick that draft uh that was the draft we took sharp um so we used that pick to acquire Jeremy Grant um and then subsequently due to the cap savings we provided Detroit in that deal they were able to flip that pick and their cap space to New York to get uh the draft rights to Jaylen durran uh so and then New York uses that pick so it’s only top four protected so it’s basically five unprotected picks it’s not like the pick we owe Chicago right now where it’s Lottery protected for several years and might not convey or whatever um so that one’s almost certainly going to convey um so yeah just a crazy haul for for the Nets and then they turn around and do what I think was one of the smartest things I’ve ever seen a rebuilding team do and uh that was uh maybe give up some potential future assets from other teams to make sure you secure your own picks back so that you can properly rebuild and not have a situation in a better draft uh one of the next two years where um what happened this year in this draft where they had the ninth worst record ended up moving up into the uh third spot but Houston got their pick unprotected so they just lost the third pick uh just and they don’t even have Harden anymore or Durant or Kyrie or anything that they were trying to assemble that team for where they gave up that pick so they went from a really really tough situation where you’re not going to be good enough to uh make the playoffs or make a run or anything but you’re also uh screwed if you lose game um so they they went from that to controlling pretty much the rest of their future I think they still ow one more pick or a swap or something to to Houston down the road um but it’s several years from now so you think maybe by then they can get back to you know play in or playoff contention so it’s not quite as bad and uh yeah so I really like what the Nets did just fully embraced the rebuild they don’t have a guy you can like kind of say is the guy we’re building around yet so they needed that guy and I think if they’re as bad as it looks like they’ll probably be next year uh they should be in a prime position to take someone near the top of the draft and I believe already looking at it there’s going to be four or five like legit difference making possible build around guys at the top of that draft so you don’t even need to get number one and have a chance at like Cooper flag or Ace Bailey or anything like that you just need to get in the vicinity of the top and so I think they with a lot of teams improving and uh not really wanting to tank that much anymore um I think the Nets put themselves in a great position moving forward absolutely absolutely agree the Nets did exactly what they needed to do so of course they make the muel bridges trade they go to Houston and they get their 2025 and 2026 pick back and then they send over the Phoenix Suns I believe 2025 and then 2027 first so we’re very happy with the Nets did I’m sure Nets fans are probably happy about it too and then we talk about the Rockets who have the Suns picks now and a bunch of stuff just started firing off from W that the Rockets the reason why they were able to wanted to do this trade because I’m sure the Nets wouldn’t have done this wouldn’t have done the Mel Bridges trade if the Rockets didn’t agree this beforehand by the way so like yeah you could say that oh the Rockets could have should have just kept the Nets pick because they’re going to be bad but this wouldn’t have happened uh at all none of this would have happened obviously I think that’s you know pretty obvious but so Houston wants control of the Phoenix’s picks because they want Kevin Durant or Devin Booker because Phoenix will eventually probably implode which I actually agree with uh I do think and I’m willing to admit if I’m wrong I do think the Rockets are eventually going to are going to do something stupid I don’t like what they’re doing I don’t like the idea of trying to rush things they made it sound like they were going to trade the third overall pick obviously they didn’t end up doing that at least at this point they drafted Reed Shepard which we’ll get to eventually uh I don’t love it for the Rockets like not the fact that they made but I don’t love the reasoning behind what they’re doing like having those Suns picks could be awesome because the suns are probably screwed right but the fact that they’re probably going to bail the Suns out by trading for Kevin Durant or Devin Booker I eventually think it’s going to end up being a mistake cuz you know when we did our young cores I said the Rockets had one of the best young cores in the NBA and I still think that but uh they’re they are eventually going to screw it up I think so uh but hey I’m willing to admit if I’m wrong if they’re able to somehow build a team that wins a championship or makes it far and it was all worth it for them then I’ll admit I’m wrong but I think they’re making a mistake if they do eventually try to trade for like KD or something like that yeah I agree with that I also think that they already kind of made a mistake and I know you said they wouldn’t have done it um but they had Brooklyn’s pick so they didn’t have to agree to anything right they could have just said no we don’t think you’re gonna be good so go ahead and keep male that led to us getting the third pick this year that’s like look what we could have got like look what we could potentially get next year uh but Houston is for some reason they’re they’re thinking bigger and want to make it happen sooner rather than later um and I don’t agree with that either um I just think unless you know LeBron is a different example because I mean he went to teams that he knew he could get other stars to join him and stuff like that um and then the Lakers and uh 2019 offseason they end up having a guy like Anthony Davis uh forcing his way to the Lakers um I guess the Suns kind of had Kevin Durant Force his way there as well um Harden forced his way to Brooklyn uh all that kind of stuff but outside of LeBron and the Anthony Davis one there’s not a lot of examples of a of a team like trying to shortcut the rebuild and then it like ending in success right right exactly so um I mean even the Nets uh they were coming off a season where Danel Russell was an Allstar they make the first round of the playoffs they seem like they’re on kind of an uproot trajectory with the young team and just scrap it all to go all in on Kevin Durant and Kyrie um and they never make it out of the second round so um I just I don’t know I’m I’m with you that I think especially if it’s for Durant like if you can get Booker Maybe he’s still you know in that range where he’s got a long window of his prime left over so if you get a guy like that might be different but um I just one I don’t like planning like you’re going to get him eventually because I mean there’s 30 teams and you might have a pretty good trade package but you don’t think like the Thunder have good trade package or um one of these other teams like Brooklyn if they start to get good in a couple years they couldn’t uh now have some young talent to trade um so yeah it’s I don’t know there’s lots of teams that have assets that that they could move and uh I don’t know if uh also Phoenix is like well we don’t like that you tried to get our picks and screw our team over right U like so they might not trade with them or might ask for more than they’d have to give up to so then Houston’s going to like overpay for someone I don’t know man it’s just it seems weird and we know Houston was been trying to get male for a while as well um so it’s one of those rare instances for Brooklyn where they actually I think got better value by waiting um so that’s kind of crazy as well uh but yeah just real interesting group of I mean it’s worked for like it worked for myy too when he did the um Ben Simmons trade it worked out for him then he still got a decent return for the James Harden trade as well so and then yeah as you mentioned they the Mel Bridges obviously that is a massive Hall so yeah sometimes waiting does work another thing is Matt ishia has already said he doesn’t care about picks so and sounds like he’s going to own the team for a while so does he even care that the Rockets got their pick Pi probably not uh but maybe he eventually changes his mind about the whole thing once he sees this inevitably fail cuz it most definitely will I don’t think the suns are winning a championship anytime soon uh but we’ll see we’ll see what happens man because I think Houston is eventually going to make a mistake but you know I I’m willing to admit if I’m wrong yeah absolutely and then see this is this leads into what happened with the Blazer so right before the draft uh about an hour beforehand uh we got the tweets that Portland was acquiring Denny ABA from the Washington Wizards and uh it seemed like a lot of Blazer fans were like who like they didn’t know much about him um but this guy this is a guy who uh is Young he’s tall he can do a little bit of everything on the court decent rebounder decent ball handler decent passer uh this last year he had his best three-point shooting year so maybe that’s something that has improved for him where he’s a three-point shooter now as well um and uh just on the path the last couple years kind of quietly because he’s played for Washington but he’s if he played on a better team he might have garnered some all defensive team um votes because uh he is really really good on defense and he’s only what 23 I think um maybe he’s 23 right I think yeah I think he’s 23 so in my mind those are the kind of players these teams like the rockets and um you know the Nets or or whatever uh should be going after when you’re like a young team trying to take that next step like an established player that’s still young and uh so that’s why I thought it was good for the Blazers to do that because they’re kind of in a similar situation where they have a lot of young Talent hasn’t come together yet hopefully uh in a year or two with Scoot and sharp and all those guys um they start to figure things out uh but adding a wing that’s cost controlled for four years uh Denny’s contract is declining so it’s about 15 million coming up and then it drops down to 11 something in the final year of the deal and that’s going to be one of the most insanely valuable contracts in a few years in the entire MBA it already is a pretty good contract um and so I thought no matter what you thought of the compensation Portland gave up which was uh they gave up the 14th pick they gave up uh the second most favorable between three picks that they have in 2029 including their own Boston and Milwaukee and then they gave up a second round pick or two second round picks as well um if you think that was a lot or not I think in this situation when you locate or Target a young Wing that that can do a lot of the things that your team has needed uh primarily on the defensive end and then has a pretty pretty cool offensive skill set as well the last three months of the Season uh he averaged nearly 20 points nine rebounds and I forgot how many assists but it was a pretty good amount of assists as well um as he kind of took over as the lead player on that Wizards team um it just I thought that was a really nice Savvy move uh I’m always a little disappointed when a rebuilding team gives up draft picks but in this particular case um when you get oh we forgot to mention Malcolm Brockton was in the trade as well yeah sorry um in this particular case in my opinion when you give up those picks for a guy who still fits with your core and at the four position which I’m assuming he’ll play primary if depending what happens with Grant I guess um I think you needed that kind of player with the roster you had and so I I thought this was the first move where I could see okay they they targeted a player they wanted they went out and got him it cost a little bit of their future Capital but this is a guy who could play a role as part of the core for a long time so yeah I think there I think you’re right to feel either way about this you can think that port overpaid or you can think that that’s fine and you when you really break it down so we gave up Malcolm Brogden sounds like Brogden didn’t have any trade value they didn’t trade him at the deadline and now he’s just thrown in kind of a salary dump where we included picks on top of them um and he goes to Washington or go ahead can I just say something about that real quick uh Brockton did have value just not to Washington in this trade yeah the value the value was as an exp ing contract not not uh if we would have traded him elsewhere we probably could have gotten something but this is the problem you think it would been a first though or no I don’t think it would have been a first but that’s why I wanted to trade him for whatever you could get an expiring contract uh whatever get pickwise an expiring contract at the deadline because then it would have already cleared that money off the books and then when we trade other players we wouldn’t have had to worry about any kind of money coming in or out or whether we’re it puts us more in the tax or out of the tax or whatever because I believe in this particular trade I mean we already gotten the stuff like see you guys shouldn’t have panicked about the luxury tax but when you would give away a player that has value but in a trade he doesn’t have any value for that trade that’s exactly the type of scenario where I was worried about when you’re in the tax heading into an offseason as a rebuilding team because that absolutely did factor into this trade it’s probably why we had to give up a couple of seconds on top of those two first and it’s probably why we gave up like the second most valuable instead of the third the worst of those three um things like that and then on top of that you gave up the picks but you didn’t get a pick or anything for Malcolm so yeah he was just like a throw into the trade to make it work financially um I think no matter what contract we would have given them I think the pick compensation was enough for Denny that they would have likely done it so um it could have been Thal it could have been Robert Williams it could have been any number of players and I think uh they would have been fine with it because they were they were more interested in getting the 14th pick and a future pick and uh they really uh were headed in that direction where they wanted to add a bunch of Youth to the roster um which is is cool I think um cuz that’s exactly what they should do um so it’s just kind of kind of frustrating that people don’t see that that’s that did factor into this trade uh but props to Joe he’s already solved the tax equation right that’s that’s exactly what he needed to do and he got it done uh so yeah good for him maybe we’ll get an answer on brogen’s value if the Wizards are able to flip him like imagine the Wizards flip him for a first that’d be kind of crazy That’d Be Wild don’t see that happening but maybe I’m wrong but well with him um so he still has questionable medical records right exactly and the reason why I know that the Wizards did not care about who the player coming back was they didn’t care about his Medicals they yeah they were like one of the few teams that were gonna take brog in whether he failed the physical or his Medicals look um washed or whatever they were going to take him uh as part of the deal if that’s who we wanted to deal because they just wanted the pick compensation and who knows if another team or like you said if they Washington flips him who knows if another team will look at his Medicals and be like yeah this guy is cooked you know yeah so yeah it’ll be very fascinating to see if they can flip him because I’m sure they’ll try at some point yeah so you trade the 14th pick as well and when you saw the board at 14 14 Dal connect was a guy that it sounded like we were pretty high on so maybe we traded the right to draft Dal connect over Den OFA but to me I think I’d rather have the 69 guy just based off this roster alone right now Den ofia is kind of a Ford that we’ve needed for a long time and the fact that of Dia’s contract descends and he’s locked up for like four more years on an incredible salary I think that obviously factored into the trade as well um and I you know his contract is amazing if you haven’t looked at it look at it yourself his contract is incredible I think he’s going to be making like 11 million in the last year of his deal uh and then yeah unfortunately trading the 2029 second round or not second round first round pick hurts but we truly don’t know what that will turn into it’ll be the middle of those picks so maybe down the line in 2029 which is obviously five years from now so who knows uh maybe we’ll regret that cuz maybe the Bucks and the Blazers or bucks and Celtics are terrible and there’s two lottery picks in that situation and so maybe that happens but the fact of the matter is highest of the three yeah uh we get the highest of the three and we got a fourward that we’ve needed for quiet a while and he will actually rebound a little bit which also is amazing and uh he will be able to play defense and I think he’s a perfect fit next to scoot and sharp uh for the future so by all means I’m very happy about the trade I can totally understand if you think it is a slight overpay 14th pick in a week draft and the 20 29 best of seconds or middle of those picks I can understand maybe you feel a little bit you know that you overpaid but I think at the end of the day Joe Cronin did a good job and I personally love to trade uh if now if it would have been like a 2029 you know best of those picks I would fa a lot different about it but the fact that is the middle uh you know I think it’s still a really good trade and I I love the addition of den of De I didn’t even think den of De was available which is another thing like that’s kind of crazy that he was even traded that that was I think it shocked all of us that the fact that Denny of was even available because he just had a breakout season in Washington and I understand if you didn’t watch any Wizards game and don’t really know much about him but trust me he is a great player uh you know there’s still maybe potentially room for him to grow even more as well and uh these overseas players are also taken over so we get to add one to our starting five which is awesome uh so yeah I’m very excited about the of the Edition for sure all right so the Blazers do that it the only I mean this isn’t anything to do with the trade but it’s always a bummer when you’re talking about two picks and you’re looking at all these prospects for a long time and then um they end up trading a pick right before the draft or something and then um you obviously only get to talk about one pick after the first day instead of two right um but that’s that was the only doubter but that had nothing to do with the value of the trade or anything yeah uh just once like you mentioned Dalton connect ends up following there and I do believe um had the player we take took not been on the board I think they would have taken Dalton connect there they just really liked him a lot and uh they were not super high on any of the forwards I think they might have taken one at 14 if they didn’t make this trade if one of them fell but obviously none of them did so um yeah I think uh even though they lost out on connect at 14 that would have been pretty crazy um I I think this uh trade was good and then so the Draft starts an hour later um were you surprised by the Atlanta Hawks taking Zachary rishe or uh was that who you were expecting them to take um what were your thoughts when you heard that name be called so yeah I wasn’t I wasn’t surprised um you know Atlanta could have done of two things they could have said screw what you think Alex star we’re taking you no matter what it does not matter that you don’t want to come here you don’t work work out for us whatever take him that’s fine I can see that side of it but I can also understand at L’s perspective thinking that this player wants nothing to do with us and he doesn’t want to be here so why would we want to add him here so um I actually did like a mini mock draft right before just one through 14 right before the stream or right before the draft started and I started four for four so that felt pretty good re chasar uh and then Shepard and then Stefan Castle so uh did pretty good there and uh no I was I was not shocked they took Reet Reet like he doesn’t strike me as a usual number one overall pick it just felt like this was the circumstance Atlanta found themselves in and uh you know I’m not sure ret will ever be a superstar might be a very very good role player but um yeah I think I mean this draft of course was considered weak so maybe it’s not that big of a deal but yeah I almost feel like if I were in their shoes I would have said screw what you think are and just taking him but I can understand why they didn’t do so yeah I was really disappointed in the start things and he tried to come out after the draft and say he never said he wouldn’t play for Atlanta yeah he would have been fine but um yeah I just I always get disappointed when players do stuff like that um especially like so he ends up going to to Washington it’s not like Washington’s some great franchise that um like he felt comfortable developing there he just um so I’ve heard it be said about him that he’s uh often taken the easier path to things I hope that’s not true because uh that guy has all the talent in the world and uh I think he was clearly the best player in this draft um so I I agree I would have taken him one but uh they go rishe or is uh Adam Silver called them I don’t even remember it was like r risher or something he pronounced it really weird uh tough job uh for him though yeah havinga to pronounce all the names but uh so yeah SAR goes to uh Houston ends up keeping the pick at three no trade take Reed Shepard I think he’s a good fit for them Stefon Castle goes for obviously I think that’s all Al a good fit for San Antonio um five is our first surprise you mentioned you had the first four right Ron Holland right yeah so they take Ron Holland which I mean if you look at it I don’t think it’s like a bad pick if you just said a team took Ron Holland with the fifth pick but the fact it was Detroit uh when they have a serious issues with shooting already um Ur was not good shooting the ball last year as a rookie um Cade can shoot a little bit but hasn’t really um proven that with no spacing around him that he can be super effective shooting the ball um and then they don’t really have I mean they got fonio uh who I guess can space the floor a little bit um they made another trade today which we’ll talk about but they they pick up Tim Hardway Jr’s expiring contract who knows if it’s just a contract like we talked about with brought him to the Wizards or not or if if he’ll he’ll actually play for them but I I feel like Holland um you know durren doesn’t shoot it e either he’s one of their uh bigman and then they got Jaden Ivy who has questionable shot selection and um shooting as as well so I it’s hard for me to see Holland getting added to this mix um especially when you’re talking about him and Thompson on the wings uh I don’t know I just feel like that was a really weird uh pick for me oh I agree the shooting is not there and if when they took him I was absolutely shocked and part of me thinks that James Bango took his name out of the job for that reason alone that like he this team is going to have no spacing so he wanted nothing to do with the job but um you know head coach jobs are hard to come by but maybe he just wants to wait for the right opportunity and they still don’t have a head coach which is kind of crazy to think about um yeah but whoever gets the job there the spacing on that team is not going to be good you know Ron Holland like I said it’s not that the prospect I hate you know that he was Tak like like you said basically what you said it’s not that he was taken it’s just the situation he’s going to where assar doesn’t shoot Ivy has question marks I guess Isaiah Stewart spaces the floor a little bit um Jaylen dur doesn’t shoot Kade is not a knockdown three-point shooter by any means like the spacing on that team is just horrendous Hardway is a guy that will Jack him up of course um but yeah I don’t know man Detroit their spacing concern is definitely going to be a problem for them but I wish them luck in trying to fix it um we’ll see what they’re able to do yeah so then Charlotte what’s up next with the six pick uh we have someone jel fiser report that they’re trading it to Memphis obviously this was no secret we’ve known for weeks the Blazers coveted Donovan kingan uh I’m sure they did not expect him to fall to seven and not have to move up at all um especially considering uh by all counts Memphis tried very hard to move past them uh at several points um and Donovan kingan was also in the conversation for the first pick with Atlanta so he could have gone number one and then no matter what what they traded for afterwards it wouldn’t have mattered uh so uh Charlotte’s up and then it’s reported that they have agreed to a trade with Memphis so it’s like oops there goes uh their guy uh they’re gonna um jump us and take Donovan Clinton one pick before us and that’s where I think it would have gotten really interesting who the Blazers would have taken Zach would have been a Blazer I think yeah I think that that would have been a scenario where they might have taken Ed especially since they had already traded the 14th pick um because if Memphis is out of the way maybe they might have thought that Ed would have slipped to 14 and you could have gotten in there so you could have used your your pick on something else but uh yeah I think there was it would have came down to uh connect Salon or Ed if cling and go six to Memphis um but then there’s rumors that oh wait a minute the Blazers have entered the discussion and are potentially going to out bid Memphis and get that pick and then all of a sudden it’s just like nope Charlotte’s keeping the pick yeah and the only thing I can think of as to why they wouldn’t have wanted to trade back uh it doesn’t really make sense why they wouldn’t have traded with us right because then Memphis uh they would have controlled the seventh pick they knew who Portland was picking um they could have made it they could have said like we’re only finalizing this trade if you take who you say you’re taking so there’s no funny business or whatever uh so I would have traded back he probably could have gotten uh probably could have asked for both seconds from Portland and uh traded those for future assets or something or pick up some future seconds um so I always think when that kind of stuff happens it’s kind of bad gming but Hornets end up taking to Jean Salon a guy I really like in this draft and uh yeah may I can understand trading back with Memphis you think maybe the Spurs take him at eight um but yeah I just I don’t get it there um so we won’t know what would have happened if Memphis uh did move past us but um so the Blazers are up next and I mean it was for sure going to be Donald clinging if he was on the board yeah they uh by some accounts had him very high on his board on their board I I don’t know if he was one but he was definitely top four on their board um and so they get him at seven they had to have been ecstatic that they didn’t have to give up any assets um I also think that the den fdia trade earlier in the day kind of um made it a lot easier to justify taking a center since you had already gotten a wing and so if you pass up on like a Cody Williams um you already got your forward that you think is potentially better than any of the guys you could have taken there so I think this was probably when they made that Dia trade the best case scenario for the Blazers just sit there and hope that Kling and falls and he does uh so what did you think about that whole process and then what do you think of Donovan King and someone you’ve talked about on the show before but now that he’s a Blazer what do you think so uh yeah I mean that whole scenario and I was actually I wasn’t actually looking at Twitter and nobody was telling me either so I wasn’t even aware what Jake fiser was saying I was just kind of like waiting for things to happen but I was like waiting for w to come on the TV and say oh the Hornets are trading with the Grizzlies like I was kind of full expecting that to happen but never ended up happening and uh you know I heard from a Blazer reporter so interpret interpret this however you want or believe it however you want he said that’s that’s two years in a row two years in a row now that Charlotte tried to leverage Portland and failed so um I don’t know what Charlotte’s been trying to do to us but I guess it hasn’t worked um and Charlotte takes tjon Salon which is someone the Blazers might have been interested in maybe before the D ofia trade but yeah the Blazers know they almost traded up it sounds like but the fact that Donan kingan and you and I both said if kingan and it makes it feel better as you said with the D of Dia trade like this just makes it a thousand times better but neither one of us wanted to give up assets for kinging but if he fell to our laps that would be okay and that feel all right and that’s exactly what ended up happening which uh I’m you know extremely happy with I think kingan uh overall to me klling in if nothing else I think you got yourself backup center for the future uh forever like or I think he’s going to be a really not forever that’s a weird thing to say but you know for a long yeah yeah I think if nothing else he’s a good he’s going to be a good backup center and I assume he’ll play backup center for year number one I know uh everyone has brought up the idea of trading aen I just don’t think that’s going to realistically happen I think Aon will start this year and no Aiden should not play the power forward I know people have brought that up that’s not something we should do uh it should be Aiden at start starting at Center and allowing kingan to back him up and then hey if kingan is showing flashes right away and chony if he’s still the head coach believes that kingan should start over him you know maybe eventually during the season or maybe they make that decision next off season but I think this has put the clock on deand Dron 100% his contract will be fully expiring uh this coming or you know obviously two years left and then next off season is when they can make a decision with him and it’ll probably be a lot easier to move but yeah I feel good about getting klling in the fact that he fell to our laps and we didn’t trade up to get him I’m I’m very okay with it yeah I just didn’t want to package seven and 14 to move up to get one of these guys right I felt like that would have been the mistake is putting all your eggs into one basket but now instead of just getting Donovan kinging they got him and got Danny fdia so um yeah you fill two spots of needs um I mean I have to I have to say I am not a huge fan of Donovan kingan’s game in the modern NBA um especially since for the Blazers they have preached since cronin’s taken over how they need uh more athleticism length athlete like athletic length not necessarily just length you know um and so in my opinion I feel like if they keep Anthony uh I think kingan works pretty good with with Anthony at least on the the offensive end on the offensive end though for Scoot and kingan I I don’t know if it’s really ideal to have a big that can’t pop maybe he develops that eventually but as of right now he hasn’t shown the ability to pop out and hit too many threes um and so he’s he needs to get the ball around the free throw line kind of like where Aon gets it or around the rim um and so when you have a point guard who’s coming off the screen and who was not really a threat to shoot either um and his main goal is to get downhill and get to the rim there’s going to be a lot of times where they’re kind of occupying the same place or they kind of allow the Defenders to recover because they’re kind of bunched together um so I don’t know longterm if it’s the most ideal fit with scoot um but I think you know having him fall to seven if that was your guy sure take him and if they’re ever going to have a chance to make uh it work with Anthony still on the roster now we we’ll probably trade him and then we don’t have this conversation anymore but if you wanted to make the anery scoot sharp Trio work in my opinion you had to have Kind of Perfect fits at that four and five to uh offset whatever weaknesses playing those three together would have and I think you absolutely 100% got one of those two right with abdilla um who is great defensively in all the areas we need that forward position to be you also still have tamman Kamar who was pretty good defensively as a rookie last year so maybe you have those two that can really help out at the forward position to make the smaller back court work and then you add a five who is a really good Defender the only issue with it is it’s mostly around the back basket and in the NBA it’s a little harder to just Camp around the hoop and play rim protector instead of uh we’ve seen even the best rim protector in the league Rudy goar multiple defensive player of the years um in the playoffs sometimes when teams go small and make them have to guard the perimeter it becomes a problem occasionally and so uh um I don’t know how it’s going to work uh the Bucks have kind of both extreme of this working and not working uh two years ago Brook Lopez was I believe runner up for defensive player of the year uh had a great defensive season mostly playing drop coverage and then this year he looked completely uh like cooked on defense right like he like he was one of their biggest problems was his defense coming off a runnerup defensive player of the year it’s crazy but um so my opinion when teams figure out how to attack drop coverage or against teams that have a guard that’s a playmaker or a shooter um it’s just it’s tough to only be able to play Drop and I don’t think you want like a 72 Center switching out on the perimeter that often either so um you know maybe since you have Denny now it’ll work and I think it’s worth the it’s worth a shot because I like I said you didn’t give up any assets to get kingan you stayed there at seven and got him so you might have found the right five if you can somehow figure out how to still be effective on defense in the NBA of course if he’s around the rim um blocking shots or affecting thoughts he should be just as good as he was in college if he’s in that area I’m just afraid of him getting drawn out to the perimeter too often yeah I definitely uh understand that concern obviously him on the perimeter will be something he will need to work on and we’ll see if you can ever develop that part of his game um overall excited about what we were able to do in the draft as Blazers fans and I’m excited for what’s next uh I’m assuming we’re far from done this offseason I think there’s still up to like five players that you could potentially trade this off season potentially um not that I think all five will be traded but I do believe there will be some more transactions for the Blazers at least one um so yeah I’m I’m uh excited for what’s to come um but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about like anything else that happened from this draft like yeah one thing that was surprising and I’ll just bring it up now because maybe you’re about to go with this the ter Wolves of all teams were able to get yeah the next pick yeah the next pick the ter wolves were able to acquire Rob Dillingham which is exactly what they need uh they need a guard that you know Conley is great and all but he is older I think having Dillingham and you got teren Shannon later in the draft the Timberwolves killed it and they had little to no asset so none of this really seemed possible but the fact that they got Dillingham for those two picks in 2030 and 2031 or whatever it is what a great night for the Timberwolves something I did not expect to see from them uh but yeah having Dillingham as your future point guard behind Conley maybe for this season because their point guard situation behind Conley was not great obviously had mcclaflin and Monte Morris uh both will be a free agent this off season but having Dillingham is something that is super exciting for Minnesota for the future yeah um obviously I think think SAR is a better player but if I had uh my life on the line and I had to choose what player in this draft would eventually be a star I would say it’s Rob Dillingham and the fact that not only did the Timberwolves get him like you said they didn’t seemingly have to give up a ton for him they already owe a bunch of their future picks like almost all their picks anyway way so you might as well just do this they shown last year that they’re right there on the cusp of contention um so you add maybe you know the best player in this draft eventually and uh at a position of need uh with Conley getting up there um but you still have both of them um I just man him and Anthony Edwards for the next decade is scary um I can’t believe San Antonio just gave up the eighth pick like that um I know those picks could be really good they got a swap and a and a pick and the swaps only like top one protected so it’s likely going to be um I mean even if it’s two it’s awesome value but uh I just thought they were in a position to take uh they could have had their back court of the future with Dillingham and Castle um they could have taken Cody Williams um there there’s a number of things they could have done uh I don’t know if maybe they had that draft promise to Castle about being a point guard well that and um I think uh they were probably hop to John Salon was still on the board there at eight so I don’t know if they trade that pick if they’re still on the board or if he’s still on the board I think Charlotte kind of surprised them by taking him yeah um but man I just I I feel like San Antonio had everything break their way to have just a huge crazy off season in which you added two like super talented players to wemi and were set forever and they’re still really good with castle and wemi like don’t get me wrong that’s still a great combination and Castle is a great fit there um I just felt like they had a chance to hit like a grand slam and they might have just hit like a solo Homer instead yeah I it’s Minnesota did such a great job getting Dillingham and San Antonio honestly for me I think they’re just getting future draft Capital to eventually make a big trade for wimi I think uh also truly do believe that castle you know I kind of said it um but I think Castle really does want to play point guard in San Antonio going to give them every chance to do so so which is why I think Dillingham was not something they were going to keep uh but man Minnesota did a great job and San Antonio obviously they got their point guard in Castle it sounds like so uh overall if San Antonio could turn those picks into something in the future uh whether it’s for like a star or player which is something I think we could see or maybe they’re sitting with it in 2030 or whatever so um overall it was weird that Minnesota was able to get that pick with no picks in this draft but hey you know they got Dillingham which exactly what they need the eighth pick too yeah yeah the eighth pick is pretty crazy but I guess in a week draft maybe that’s just kind of what it was man I think if Minnesota eventually wins a championship I know they could have this year but who knows what would happen against Boston even if they uh would have beaten Dallas um I think though moving forward if they win a championship you can look at this moment in the draft and you’ll see how pivotal it was to their success just not only adding a good player but just like adding that player that was the perfect player to add at the right time and uh man yeah I’m just I was so impressed with the way they they got things done with like you said little to no assets to do so so the NBA draft was a two-day event um obviously I think they sh to me they should go back to one day but the second day uh we had two picks end up with zero at the end of the day we trade them out for three future seconds and a bunch of cash but the biggest storyline from day two which I want to hear your opinion on this is Rich Paul telling teams not to draft bronny or he will go play to Australia I know the NBA is not going to do a single damn thing about it but to me and I know players and Rich Paul is a very powerful guy he represents a lot of the NBA but man that just seems like something that should be totally illegal like I don’t know it should be but it is LeBron so I don’t think the and it’s the Lakers so I don’t think the NBA is going to do anything and I don’t think they’re going to care uh but not that I want to spend like a ton of time on bronny but I just thought that was a crazy thing that happened on draft night or you know day two of the draft Yeah so bronnie ends up falling to 55 which is the Lakers pick they take him um yeah I think because I’m pretty sure it was on this show where we’ve talked about LeBron’s saying that he oh I don’t I don’t really prioritize playing with my son um that was BSS absolute BS I said I told you guys that was BS right like I said he is setting him he’s trying to set it up to where a team won’t take him just because he’s doing that and no one should have bought that for a minute and that’s exactly why now in during the draft Rich Paul has to come out and resort to those kind of dude I agree it’s just like LeBron James says he’s making no decisions or has no impact on what the Lakers are doing yeah it just all Bs it’s just bull crap yeah so I agree that like it’s it’s Bush League man if I was a team I was I was just praying someone took him like because I I kind of wanted Brony to end up in La uh because it doesn’t affect them being good or anything right um but it you know it’s a cool story for LeBron to end his career like that um but I was just like praying that a team would just call Rich Fall’s Bluff and be like oh oh really we’re gonna draft bronny like a a guy who shouldn’t even be drafted and you’re gonna you’re gonna say he’s not gonna he’s gonna refuse to play in the NBA because uh Team other than the Lakers drafted him yeah and then a news Outlet was like oh you should some team should draft draft Bonnie and say hey we have your son give me whatever we want like like it’s a Taken movie like a ransom like that was funny special set ofs yeah great movie goated movie by the way um but yeah the the NBA you know you know the Brony thing was dumb but you know at the end of the day it doesn’t affect much of anything like if it would have been a better Prospect that’s way different like that’s stupid I think the NBA should definitely do something about that but I don’t think the n is that mad that bronny is playing with his dad like they’re not going to do anything about yeah think of how much attention that’s yeah that’s going to draw a lot of attention for them but overall the NBA should absolutely go back to one day I’m not sure if they will um two-day event uh was not it it just the second round was weird it was in a studio yeah it was extremely weird uh yeah I hated it I did not felt very flat yeah yeah so overall though the draft was fun just the two-day event needs to go I think uh I just want to say something about Brony too is that I do kind of think it’s I know he doesn’t have the status he doesn’t have anything that warrants this but I do think he can eventually be like a role player in the NBA um so I don’t think it’s like that crazy that he got drafted right it’s just obviously if his name was not uh Brony James that he would have I I don’t think he would would have been drafted he would have had to try to fight his way into the league as an undrafted free agent um but I do think he has I don’t think he’s gonna look like that out of place if he look if he gets in a game I mean maybe just because he’s like small and deer in the headlights type of thing maybe as a rookie like jumping from high school to one year of college where you don’t play that much to NBA is kind of a crazy fast um upbringing but I mean this guy has been around his dad his whole career so he he seen it he’s seen how much you know pressure is on his dad at all times so maybe of all people he he might be able to handle it yeah exactly go ahead oh uh unless you’re going to say anything else about draft Yeah I just want to say a couple things one the Blazers part of this day two I is drives me crazy it was so confusing the whole night too like the yeah like that’s the other thing that sucks about the NBA man just announce the trades beforehand don’t make the guys wear a stupid hat of a team you know they’re not playing for and all that come on NBA uh but uh so Joe Cronin after the Gary Payton the second trade to Golden State for five second round picks got on the podium and talked about how second round picks are the new NBA currency and they’re going to be so valuable moving forward and yes you get three for one with the 34th pick but you know that’s a fringe it’s a 34th pick it’s not like we traded like a pick in the 40s or 50s you know for for three picks um so that that’s a pretty high pick and there were still some decent value players on the board um that depending on how you had him I mean you mentioned a guy um oh no that he went the first round sorry uh Terence Shan Junior went the first round yeah uh my bad uh but like there were still some quality players uh so that it was fine if you want to trade the 34th pick you don’t have roster spots um you want to get out of this draft great get those three seconds and move on but then we find out the Blazers traded 40 for 52 and then so you’re thinking okay so what did they get to move back 12 spots like because picks around there was still going for decent value and obviously there were some players on teams that teams were coveting to move up to get um so when I found out it was just cash to move back it’s like okay that doesn’t matter at all it doesn’t affect if if you get cash and trade just for people who don’t know you don’t get like salary cap relief or anything for that it’s just cash to your teeth yeah uh so it’s basically like trading a pick for nothing and uh so that was kind of confusing but I was like well maybe there’s a guy at 52 that they don’t they’re not worried about uh if another team’s going to take him and then also you know later in the second round it’s I mean players know that that’s two-way contract range and probably not actual contract range unless you have like a good summer league U for example Jabari Walker for the Blazers a couple years ago was probably gonna be on a 2A uh but then has a really good summer league and the plays are signed to the actual rust um and uh so I thought you know the Blazers currently do not have a guaranteed two-way contract there you can have up to three of them and so I thought the 52nd pick would have been a good time to grab one of those guys for that spot or one of those three spots and then when I found out we traded that one I was kind of relieved because I absolutely would have hated the pick you probably heard me go off about it but uh um like that guy made no sense after the clinging trade and needing defense and like it just would have been like yeah both times we drafted I was like oh my goodness what are we doing like kic I like when we took coic I didn’t see we traded it yet I’m like wow this probably means the end for Anthony and then uh everyone’s like oh we traded I was like okay and then we take that guy I forgot that guy’s name and I was like I’ve never heard of him in my life and uh yeah it was just so weird yeah I quit post that’s exactly I was like okay um not sure much I don’t know anything about him but yeah neither pick ended up being ours so it was just like weird yeah so we traded that and we ended up getting cash for that so we end up we took the 40th pick and got nothing for it basically yeah and I don’t like that at all even in the weak draft I I hate that I think that’s bad use of your assets and uh yeah I I’m not sure what happened there um but it’s it’s also weird freed that we had the four picks heading into the draft and come out with one rookie if you would have told me we traded um three of our four picks right yeah I would have thought we probably traded them for like future picks right yeah but instead we come out of it with one less first in the future and one more more second so like worse draft Capital than we started the day with in the future if you would have told me we are only getting one player from the draft and also like decreasing our value of our future assets like that’s that would have been crazy um but granted I didn’t think a guy like AA would be available like you kind of alluded to earlier um so that was that was crazy man yeah very weird yeah and then uh as far as the second round goes uh there was there was three guys I was hoping the Blazers would take a 34 then obviously they didn’t keep the pick so it didn’t matter but the Raptors end up with two of my guys Brady MBO and Chi right yeah they take the those guys and they got um jacobe Walter also in the first round who I wasn’t like super high on but I thought you know the 18 pick it was pretty good range for him to go so I thought they now that they have two of my favorite players in the second round who I had all three of those players were in my top 19 on my draft board and they got him at 1931 and 57 so uh pretty good value if you’re just looking at my board which doesn’t matter obviously but um I think they got two steals um a lot of people think moo is a center but I I’ve been saying I think he’s a wing and then so it was kind of cool to see hear their GM say that they believe he can play wing and stuff like that um and then the other winner besides Minnesota of the draft in my opinion well I think Washington did well as also they uh they got bub Carrington with the pick they got from us and then they also got alexar obviously uh but the other team I thought did really well in this draft just taking value when they got uh time for their picks was Utah they get Cody Williams at 10 and Isaiah Collier at 29 I think it was yep um so I think those were two really good picks from Utah and I believe they got I’m blanking on who they got in the second round filipowski oh Philip palsky yeah which some weird stories about him but yeah uh I I was also wasn’t high on filipowski but you know getting him in the second round I think was decent value so um yeah really good draft for Utah I think as well but that’s all I had for the draft Yeah so I think you talking about the Raptors is a perfect Segway to what’s next because the Raptors have given out some extensions they’ve extended Scotty Barnes gave him the full Max and they’ve also extended a manual quickly today I forget what Scotty barnes’s extension was but obviously in the 200 million uh you know standard what guys are getting now but Emanuel quickly quickly gets 5 years $175 million so the Raptor quickly go from a rebuild or you know a little bit of a retool rebuild to very expensive once again I don’t exactly know what the salary numbers but I know RJ Barrett’s already on a contract that it’s not like crazy big but he’s making around like 26 million then Scotty Barnes is going to be on a Max and quickly gets a big contract so Raptors are getting locked into their core slowly but they had a good draft overall um so I I I mean I kind of like what the Raptors are doing but I also could see it maybe not paying off but um you know cuz I think Quickly’s contract so I think Nicks were right to get rid of quickly because I think it would have made no sense to pay quickly that much with Brunson uh but if quickly could take another step then you know maybe that contract looks great uh but yeah guys are getting paid man that’s that’s for sure guys contracts are getting massive even for role players yeah I think uh them having Walter follow them will signify the end of Gary Trent Jr’s um time there he’s a free agent this summer they got uh their shooter last year in the draft Grady dick um and uh I thought quickly and even RJ uh played pretty well once they came over um didn’t necessarily translate to wins but um you know you have pretty solid starting lineup I think they still have a Lin right Al L still there so they got they got some depth at the big man position if if sh uh takes uh or ends up being anything um that could I guess that’ be the steal of the draft um and uh I think he fits in really well I think that’s a good team for him to go to um yeah mlo and Barnes on the wings now both are very similar in the fact that they can get to the basket dribble break their man off the dribble quick First Step all that kind of stuff um still still going to have shooting issues I think but um man yeah that team’s interesting at least and it they also uh picked up Bruce Brown’s team option so uh you know which was an obvious one to do because he’ll he’ll still have value around the league but uh it’ll be interesting to see if they end up trading him which I think is very possible yeah I think they just picked that up to trade him yeah but yeah and then or go ahead yeah I think there was a then bam signed an extension toam three years 166 which was pretty fair value I think yeah for both sides there oh also uh Nick Claxton yeah signed a four years 100 million yeah so that was one that we missed but uh yeah I mean you know you traded M but you didn’t want to lose toxin for nothing I think you might be able to still move him down the road um contracts kind of similar to like a Jared Allen type contract so um yeah we’ll see how it is moving forward but I wasn’t uh I don’t even though quickle was was pretty high I don’t think it was like egregious or anything I don’t think any of these were even though it seems like a lot of money yeah it does seem like a lot of money but uh Dallas and there were some rumors about this uh I think even before the draft have acquired Quinton Grimes they sent three second round picks and Tim Hardway to acquire Quinton Grimes and I’m not sure if you saw this cuz maybe you did but Mark Stein has reported that there is mutual interest between Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks at the start of free agency which I think is very interesting uh because I think with this trade the Mavericks saved uh some money and they they will have access to an mle I think is that correct or something like that uh yeah I don’t know if it’s the mle but it’s um pretty close to to most of it and uh that’s because Derrik Jones Jr is a free agent right but they didn’t have his bird rights so they could only offer him like 175% of his current contract but that was only a few million so it wouldn’t have been enough to probably keep him on the open market um but now they can potentially offer him somewhere between like 10 and 12 million a season to start off so can they offer clay that much too or or I know they can’t get both of them right because they can only get one of the other in this scenario or um so they could offer both it they could it would require a sign and trade though so if Golden State didn’t want to lose clay for nothing I don’t know if they would like only matching sour I can think of for like a clay yeah I mean Josh Green might Josh Green yeah that’s possible too coming to play too so I don’t know if those teams would do business with each other but I mean they that is a possibility but maybe they go after clay first and Derek Jones Jr is their second option or whatever right I don’t know it seems kind of weird but um yeah I don’t know I think if you’re just talking fit for clay I don’t think that’s that bad um but I wouldn’t like pay him a ton of money yes qu gri yeah Quinn Grimes is a good addition to Dallas I like it um he went to Detroit and didn’t really do too much there I don’t think he played a ton obviously kind of had some gripes with Tom Tibido New York which is why he eventually got moved and Detroit got Tim Hard Away um I’m assuming he’ll probably play there this season and then won’t be there much longer after that maybe he’s moved to the deadline uh but yeah so pretty solid trade for Dallas uh they get another addition there and uh they access some money to either pay Dereck Jones or pay clay or get both of them so Dallas is still doing moves which I I like for them because yeah they just made it to the finals and they’ve done a great job but you know you don’t stay complacent you keep going and uh if they can get clay I I would love that for them to be honest I think getting clay would be awesome I’m not sure if they’ll be able to uh and I know Mark Stein I think is a reporter out of Dallas which is why he has some Intel on that uh but man that sounds like a lot of fun I kind of like clay and I know they’ve I know there’s been talks about clay to Orlando but I would love clay and Dallas that I think will be you know a team that would fit he would fit a lot better in not that he wouldn’t fit in Orlando but I kind of like it like the idea of clay and Dallas yeah well uh clay yeah that’s that’s one of the biggest stories of the off season um maybe there’s talk about Paul George to the Warriors right so maybe there’s some like obviously if they get Paul George they’re probably letting clay walk so who knows what’s going to happen there actually in terms of Quinton Grimes I think this is an awesome byow guy for Dallas it’s someone who has shown the ability to hit threes in the past at a high clip um I think if he’s going to regain some of that after an injury riddled season um I think this is the perfect place to do it playing off those two guards and he’s also a very underrated Defender as well so so um good Defender good shooter I think that’s the kind of player that could pop as we saw like a PJ Washington play well for them uh after being acquired last year so um I think uh that’s a good move for Dallas you basically get a cheaper much cheaper and potentially better version of Tim Hardaway Jr if he’s healthy exactly and then the big move of the night the NBA has another big trade the jontay Murray is being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans uh funny enough I actually when I did a hawks offseason video or it was either the Pelicans video or the Hawks video I did trade to Johnson to the Pelicans because I thought that made sense but I thought Brandon Ingram might be involved he was not so the Pelicans still have Brandon Ingram and uh the Pelicans you know trade to J or get to JN de Murray and they trade out out Dyson Daniels two first round picks one of them being the worst or sorry the or is it the wor I think it’s the worst of the Pelicans and the Bucks pick in 2027 and then that Lakers 2025 and then uh I saw that EJ liell is actually also in the trade saw that on spot Trak Larry n Jr as well yeah Larry Nance so it’s Larry Nance eell and Dyson Danel to Atlanta with a couple draft picks and uh the Pelicans get dejonte Murray so I love it for New Orleans Atlanta it’s not a strong return for a team that strikes us as trying to still continue to win when I first saw the package it made me think that Atlanta may move Trey young next but the problem with that is is they don’t have their future draft picks either because of the John T Murray trade so um I’m not sure if they eventually do trade Trey young if they could do something with San Antonio like Brooklyn did and get their picks back maybe they still plan on building around Trey um but yeah very interesting trade I think this is a great addition for New Orleans especially since that Lakers 2025 pick you know I I’m assuming they’re thinking LeBron is staying so they don’t really care they think at least they’ll they probably think the Lakers will very at the very least be a playing team and uh you know it’ll be like a middle of the- pack pick which this is still good draft so maybe that’s a mistake and they could still move Brandon Ingram despite what w said that they might try to keep him I still think they should move Brandon Ingram if possible uh but yeah very uh you know very interesting trade let me know what you uh what what did you think about when you first saw it yeah I thought it was I was kind of surprised it was New Orleans like I knew there were a possibility to get him but I didn’t really think it would be the team he went to um and the second thing I thought of was actually the opposite I thought oh they chose trade which is exactly what we thought if they were going to stick with one of them I think we both thought that it should be Trey not Deon now I also thought they should have paired him with alexar as well but um I don’t know what this signifies for them for the Pelicans uh I think obviously since the CJ trade they’ve been trying to go for it um my dog is uh really lapping up the water really thirsty um yeah um sorry uh all good so ever since the CJ trade they’ve obviously been trying to win um you know you can debate how successful that’s been um they’ve been trying to make the playoffs they have at least done that um but I I don’t know if it’s anything more as that um but I do like de jante there yeah me too and I I don’t I it’s going to be interesting to see what they do um I know they got Missy in the draft uh which I thought was a pretty good pick at 21 um but yeah I don’t know man uh I could see that being a really good fit I could also see it being much like Trey and deante were in Atlanta with CJ um so yeah uh yet to be seen on that one but I do I don’t like New Orleans giving up the that pick next year but I do understand like why they’re trying to still go for it you got a guy like Zion you at least have to try in my opinion and they are um Atlanta um I think they’re okay if they try to still win I think they’re better than last year you got Rish now you got uh Jaylen Johnson uh that’s um you know really really good potentially 34 you have and they’re both good defensively uh you still have a Kong wo uh who’s a little undersized for Center but uh I know they still have capella too but you know he’s he was showing signs of of deteriorating last year uh but yeah so you got a Kong Wu and now you got Larry n Jr so you got a couple of okay bigs there um and then uh you know you drafted Kobe buffkin the year before he hasn’t really played much um I really liked uh I think they’re the team that ended up trading for uh Nico jusik um Miami and Atlanta swapped that’s someone who I also had uh I had 14th I think on my big board so I think he was a good addition for them um and I think they’re going to be in a position to maybe use that capella contract and stuff like that to go go for it I if I’m them I I’m giving it one last run with a little different personnel with Trey uh you mentioned their picks not being owned by them it’s actually the next three years they have unprotected either given to San Antonio or pick swap uh given to San Antonio so it makes no sense for them to rebuild the next three years right and lose that pick uh as a high pick for nothing so um yeah I if I’m them I’m keeping Trey for this season at least and going for it with that I have a couple of ideas I was thinking in my head when I saw this trade so for the Pelicans I still think you should trade Brandon Ingram because I really think if you give Trey Murphy the chance to start he could potentially Blossom um now as far as Trey Trey Murphy and Herb Jones Off the Bench though man that’s still disgusting but like that’s incredible B like your top I feel Trey Murphy’s a much better fit next to Zion than Ingram is I just I don’t know I think I agree I I don’t I don’t think you should trade brain angle for nothing but here’s my idea I think Cleveland has Jared Allen so if you could find a way to maybe have I know Cleveland would have to send back more salary because Ingram makes more money than jar Allen uh but if you could send you know the main package being Jarett Allen for Brandon Ingram I think that makes sense for both sides because Cleveland looks like they’re going to keep Donovan Mitchell so having a co-star and Brandon Ingram next to Donovan Mitchell I think would fit fairly well and then you have Evan Moy at the five who uh you know has the ability to shoot uh from three so he’ll be a good fit next to Brandon Ingram so I think I like that potentially if that were to happen and then so that’s what I’m thinking for the Pelicans for the Hawks now obviously like I said they could just run it back with Trey young and uh that’s fine but if they were to trade Trey young here’s my idea and this is a long shot I don’t think it’s actually going to happen but what if the Hawks said hey you can again this is probably not gonna happen but you can have Zachary rishes if you give us all of our fcks back or one or two of them cuz I know this first had interest in so I don’t think that’s going to happen obviously but that’s that’s definitely something that maybe no it’s not gonna happen but that was kind of an idea I thought in my head like that would be crazy yeah just justify it by saying he wouldn’t have been the number one pick in any other draft in history or something I don’t know because the Spurs aren’t traded for Trey young they just drafted Castle right so like if there was anybody the Spurs would potentially give them their picks back for it I feel like it could be Reet but I think that would be a huge Risk by San Antonio doing that too so probably not GNA happen it’ll probably just be simply running back with Trey young but that was like something I thought of but uh yeah yeah very very much a long shot I think if they do trade trade Trey young it would have to be to San Antonio to get their fixed back or whatever they get from the third team what ever goes to San Antonio for their pcks back like it would have to be something special like that exactly because I don’t I don’t think it’s a good idea else otherwise um yeah uh actually yeah I I do agree that they should start Trey Murphy so maybe they should trade Brandon Ingram um I do like the J all idea because I I don’t know if Miss’s ready to do what hoping to do by quarian deante and that’s you know get higher up in the playoff standings um avoid the play and stuff like that um so yeah i’ probably use him if I’m going to to get a center Ingram for aan just kid although I don’t want Ingram here no I know I don’t either was a joke another third team their salaries match up pretty perfectly though yeah kind of funny U but yeah so I don’t know I think it was very clear that Atlanta had to break them up and they did so I don’t mind that at all yeah um but I mean that was pretty much it it was a lot to talk about um and guys I don’t know if you were aware of this by the time you’re seeing this free agency starts tomorrow so the chaos is only going to keep commencing from here by the time you see this video there is a that another trade happened like there is a chance maybe something big happened but we were recording this um you know at midnight my time on the 29th so uh you know more than likely you know some may have happened but we don’t know so um but man what a fun episode there was a ton to talk [Music] about wait go ahead we didn’t have another one of episodes was it the James Harden traded that while we were recording low key I’ve been like looking at Twitter to see if anything would but yeah that would nice um yeah so free agency starts Sunday June 30th 3:00 p.m. Pacific 6 Eastern that’s when you can start uh talking to free agents that aren’t your own team this year uh was the first year of being able to negotiate with your own free agents so that’s why we’ve had several signings already uh with re signings on your own team um but yeah that’s usually a day when a lot lot of fireworks happen and uh it’s it’s four days before July 4th so but every year there’s some crazy stuff that goes down and uh yeah we’ll see if uh the Suns tamper with gyu banks or something along the lines of that now you stream for that right yeah I have the last two years uh it’s been a ton fun when I do that uh a couple years ago I had my highest view stream ever so I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that again but man that was a ton of fun uh years ago uh but yeah so I’ll probably how many VI is that uh for me my highest uh I forget exactly what it was but it was above a thousand that’s the most I’ve ever had in a stream at one time because I don’t stream that often so like oh you was talking about concurrent viewers yeah or yeah viewers at the at one time it was pretty wild the chat was insane like that was overwhelming um never I’ve never had that happen before uh if I streamed like more often I feel like that wouldn’t be like too crazy but for me as someone that rarely streams that was really a really cool moment uh for sure yeah so yeah Brady over on his crushable YouTube channel will be live on Sunday as will I over on Blazers uprise with Tori um breaking down every signing every trade that happens reacting to them live so it’s always a lot of fun one of the best stream days of the year like you mentioned so yeah Join one or have us both on on try to listen to us both um that be go back and forth support us both please I’ve seen a couple of uh guys pop in back and forth from you for guys’ fan base that’s been pretty cool so thank you guys for the love youall show me on my channel as well yeah and uh yeah I I don’t know about you but uh the draft streams were awesome Y for the most part uh everyone in chat was a lot of fun to discuss basketball with and uh went pretty well um so yeah it was very fun week and uh got some Blazer action actually happening so that’ll be fun and uh hopefully that’s not the end of the Blazers trade there’s no way it will be right I feel like we’ll do more we’ll see though well uh I mean we haven’t mentioned this yet so we briefly touched on it but the Blazers went from being a little over 7 million and having 16 players including the two roster spot or the two draft picks in the first round uh about a little over seven million over the cap to a little over four million under the cap now so they don’t have to worry about paying the tax currently um but with the seventh pick Donovan kingan and the rest of the returning roster because everyone outside of Moses Brown was uh uh under contract for next year or at least uh has option to be under contract next year and uh so the Blazers currently have 15 players under contract the amount you uh for a full roster so it is possible that they just keep that those 15 and run it back and run it back but I think they will be I don’t know if they’ll be aggressive but I think they will be open to moving several of their players still and we’ll see if they make a big trade or maybe a couple smaller ones just to um free up some position battles or uh you know ba balance a roster a little bit um so yeah that’s that’s what’s to come but the Blazers currently little under the tack still can’t really take back too much more than they’re sending out um you don’t want to go back into the tax so they’re they’re probably not going to have like a big lopsided trade in where they’re taking a bunch of money back um they’re probably also not doing like a a Geremy grant for four players type of trade where it makes them have 18 players on the roster instead of 15 um I think the team to watch moving forward uh is still Philadelphia and if they lose out on Paul George to Golden State or any other team um it’s very interesting to see which way they’re going to go to use that cap space I don’t see them just not renouncing their free agents and then using it to resign like Tobias Harris and all those guys there’s no way they bring Tobias back to Philly yeah so think if the Blazers are going to move Jeremy I think Dallas made it a little harder for them to do uh a trade for someone making that much um today I mean they could still make it work with like cever and uh or CBA and uh Josh green and maybe another small contract but it made a little tougher not having that expiring contract in Tim Hardway Jr to use as filler um and then the Lakers uh who knows but I think if the Blazers are going to deal JY Grant Philly makes a lot of sense because if they can take his contract outright that basically clears up any worry about the cap for the Blazers until um you have to start signing players like Scoot and sharp to extensions um which is still a couple years away uh so I think maybe that might be a a thing to look at but um I don’t know if they’re really actively aggressively shopping those guys or simply just if you call they’ll listen to what you have to say but probably not going to happen um or they could move ant in the next couple days and it just completely changes the makeup of the team moving forward U but yes uh I don’t expect them to sign any free agents though like either I don’t expect any free it might be super boring if they don’t make a trade because we’re not going to get anything to talk about in terms of the Blazers uh but around the league should be plenty of fireworks and uh we’ll be here uh next week to talk about it all but we’ll have another stream where we have ton to talk about when another video I should say yeah my uh gut is telling me that maybe not if it’s not in the off season I think at the deadline depending if this team doesn’t do anything and I know this is a team that everyone’s talking about for him I think there’s a good chance that anony does get traded to Orlando I think there is a good chance of that I don’t know my gut’s telling me that’s GNA happen I don’t know why something that might happen but I I we’ll see we’ll see I just it’s hard for me to listen to Joe Cronin talk about because he was asked uh you know what does this mean for DeAndre Aton that you drafted Donovan kingan right and he’s like we’re not worried about that right now we’re worried about getting as many good players as possible so it would then to me be another contradiction from him if he then turns around and trades ay um especially if it’s mostly just salary filler and picks for the future um for like when you’re in Talent acquisition Mode still you don’t you don’t trade Talent away in Talent acquisition mode you keep acquiring Talent so um it just it seems weird if they push some of their future picks in for abdia and then move on from one of their if not their best player you know so yeah we’ll see I think uh I think I think there will at least be one one trade at maybe it’s just a boring Robert Williams trade for a second or two but um yeah so look out for that I think German Grant to Philly would be awesome for Philadelphia if that’s how they want to use their cap space if they strike on everybody else part of me wonders if Philly taking him taking them complete into their cow space would lower the value of what we get in return like maybe Philly says we’ll only give you one first to do this because we’re taking him entirely into our cap space but hey the first they have I’ll if that’s the 2028 Clippers pick I’ll take it if it’s just a 2028 Clippers pick for Grant and they take his contract entirely with nothing coming back other than that Clippers pick I would still do that I would absolutely still do that so uh I definitely think that’s something to look out for though Dallas is completely out of the running now for Grant I think with them getting Quinton Grimes and moving hardways contract Sacramento still a team to watch out for La has been mentioned as well uh so yeah I think those are the three teams to really look at if grant were to be moved this offseason yeah absolutely and uh yeah just want to say once again thank you for watching these episodes we really appreciate it uh if you’re not already subscribed to this Channel or the Blazers upright main Channel or crushable YouTube channel go ahead and please subscribe to those and easiest way to support us is to just leave a like on the video but we also love reading your comments um and so please leave a comment about what you thought about all the trades What specifically if you’re a Blazer fan what you thought of getting Denny abdia and uh drafting Donovan Kling in are you uh thinking Joe Cronin hit out of the park with those two moves and uh or do you are you a little disappointed or what like just give us what you think about those trades and draft picks um but yeah that’s going to do it for this episode appreciate you all uh have a good day I hope everyone enjoys free agency come join us and uh like let us know live reactions as well in the chats of both of our streams um hope to see you there yep but until then Brady peace out go Blazers
Eric Brandt (HoopsJock) and Brady Parks (Crushables) talk about the NBA Offseason Moves & The Aftermath of the NBA Draft
Follow us on Twitter!
Brady Parks – https://twitter.com/Crushables59
Eric Brandt – https://twitter.com/hoopsjock
Blazers Uprise – https://twitter.com/BlazersUpriseYT
Subscribe to the Main Channel – @BlazersUprise
14 Comments
When Knecht blows up and becomes a twenty ppg scorer, we'll regret not drafting him. It would have been nice to have both him and Deni. We still need more shooting. Too bad we had salary cap issues and couldn't draft another shooter.
Yep agree. The 34th pick is the one i was most bummed about. That was a high 2nd that it didnt feel like we have had in a long time.
Imo Camara and Rupert need all the mins at SF. They have the frame and defensive potential. Give scoot and Sharpe the keys at the PG and SG. Ant must be traded sooner rather than later. I dont want to see 3 guards in the starting lineup. Love Ant but he has value atm and Scoot and Sharpe are the future. Scoot/Banton PG, Sharpe/Banton SG, Camara/Rupert SF, Avdija/Walker PF, Ayton/Clingon C. Wish there was a better backup guard than Banton though. Hoping Cling Kong plays himself into starting role midseason.
One thing I've notice watching Clingan is he can catch passes and rebounds way outside of his area. His hands are incredible compared to Nurk and especially Ayton. Not much else stands out to me, but that is a huge plus.
is scoot coming off te bench a bad thing? starting 5 if we keep grant &simons id do – 1simons, 2sharp, 3dani, 4grant ,5 DA ..
coming off bench , 1scoot, 2rupert,3murry 4camara, 5clingan
last 3 Badji,thybull, walker …..
thats if we keep thybull and badji
Clingan has foot problems
š + š = Hoops Crush
Hey ERIC CALM DF DoWN
My guess is that charlotte stayed put because of the risk that Portland would then take Salaun instead of Edey. Charlottes main man was Salaun all along and they couldnt have taken that risk by trading back.
Great content fun listening as always happy 4 th crushable
Good video guys.
Eric my favorite blazer podcaster/ streamer S/o to the goat
Jokes on these guys unfortunately. NY Times article came out a few hours ago where Billups states he's: "Excited to put Ayton and Clingan on the floor at the same time because he thinks the NBA is moving towards playing two big's out on the floor at the same time."
Once I see the film on Avdija, I absolutely love the move. This guy is a bodafide starter for years to come, and at age 23, the team doesn't have to blow 2 or 3 years waiting for him to develop. Deals like this are why you accumulate draft capital.