The James Ham Show – Kings And Mike Brown Agree To A Contract Extension
Hammer that was a fun week last week we got we got we got like five days worth of content out of what ultimately amounted to a complete non story well I don’t know if it’s an on story to to be honest with you the negotiations from what I know they weren’t clean like what what you were hearing is legitimate like everything that we saw like the ups and downs and everything that wasn’t just a foregone conclusion it wasn’t a done deal that just needed some some minor tweaks it it went through the ringer and so I’m glad they all came out on the right side here and why do you think that happened like why do you ultimately I think I I I started the show saying the most surprising thing to me was that Mike appeared to have been making the same amount if not less than Darin ham and Jesse said man doesn’t does that show you what the league thought of Mike Brown when he was hired by the Kings and for a coach with a six 05 win percentage that was just stunning to me that he was making $4.5 million when reports are Darin ham was making around five and this isn’t a shot at Darvin ham Darin ham was a firste head coach Mike Brown was not only a wellestablished coach but in the trees that he worked with they were the popping Cur trees like I just I I found that absolutely stunning but there’s nothing there’s nothing crazy in these contracts so it’s just it surprises me to hear that it was so uh it might have been a little bit more difficult than we anticipated yeah I think a little bit of it is that again when you don’t make the playoffs when you you make it one year and then you don’t make it I think there there was some angst behind the scene doubt yeah well just overall like are we are we heading towards another one of these situations where you owe a coach x amount of years and you don’t know if you’re going to be paying that coach to coach a team or not and you know you need 100% Buy in this is a moment like I keep saying is there’s like this critical moment in King’s history you missed the playoffs for 16 years you made it one you barely missed the next but you were at least in the playin T this is the the the point to double down on the path that you’ve chosen and improve the roster and give the coach that you decided was the right guy two years ago it’s time to give him the right ammunition because if you don’t do that and you break this thing up you you decide you’re going to go a different path and you’re not happy with whatever well that could cost you Malik Monk and free agency it certainly could cost you dearn fox a and potentially others who don’t want to be around if we’re starting over again yeah and that’s a problem and it’s a problem that the Kings have faced time and time again where they’re constantly starting over I mean I I tweeted out you know when the deal was done this is the first coach since Rick Adelman that’s got an extension in Sacramento that’s amazing I mean that’s that’s crazy talk absolutely amazing and part of the reason why we went through this right now was because the negotiations in the beginning when not only did he not get paid that well but Mike Brown also they you know there was his give and take and there ends up being a a fourthe mutual option well Mike Brown and his crew of course are gonna have to opt out like the you know to quote to quote Kenny yesterday’s price is not today’s price yeah that’s right right the all of the money started going Skyrock it started going crazy and look you could I if let’s just say they did go into this season and Mike didn’t get a contract and then the Kings did really well they make the second round they make the third round who knows what happens right like this could get to the point where now you’re talking about him in the 14 to 15 million range if salaries keep escalating like they have been now what where is he at in the higher Ary and and the last piece I think it was on Mike to fight to get near $10 million a year and he felt that like that’s something that coaches around the league are feeling this right now that the contracts just blew up but this can’t be the 2008 real estate market right this this can’t just be like oh it went up and it’s fake it’s got to go up and it’s got to be solidified by everyone involved it’s got to be solidified by pop and by spoler because they’re the the Masters here right and it’s got you know Steve cerr has to get that money but then guys that are coming back into the league like buelter he’s got to get his 10 mil Doc Rivers has got to get his 10 mil tyou is on a is an upand cominging guy but with an owner with billions he’s got to get 13 14 it’s on these guys not to just try to like steal every penny possible but it’s to solidify that this is the new normal for NBA head coaches especially with the television money coming in and so like look I think that this got I don’t think he got contentious as much as it got just kind of sideways a couple of times and um I’m glad it’s over I’m glad that that Mike Brown is the new head well is the the head coach for the foreseeable future because not because I’m like the biggest Mike Brown fan ever like I get along with almost every coaches teams ever had it’s not about that it’s about solidifying your your path forward this is who we are this is what we’re doing this is the culture we’re building this is a guy who already proved that he can build a culture he already proved he can win let’s build on something as opposed to deconstructing again and and starting from you know A New Beginning one more time which is just it’s already too many you talk about ham or the the change in coaching contract S one thing that we learned during our EXA exhaustive study of um coaching contracts over the last week or so is the market and it and it speaks to what you just said there how Mike felt like it was important for him to get close to this number how you know Tom thibo he’s got a a contract extension that’s on the way he’s going to be fighting a a a similar battle the market for coaches despite the fact we’ve seen this massive shift in player sales hasn’t changed much and like at least a decade maybe more yeah where you look up coaches you know we looked at Dwayne Casey this was 2019 he was in the area of six million we went back a little further I think we found a maybe it was a I I can’t I can’t remember which one it was but it was I think in the 2016 time where it was it was like five or six million and it’s like oh that’s I guess that’s just what coaches make in the league and that doesn’t change and this is the first time where and maybe it started with that Monty Williams contract where it’s like okay Detroit went all in to get Monty Williams they needed desperately to get the coach that they wanted in the build around like it’s fine you can you can call that an outlier if you want to but this isn’t the Deshawn Watson quarterback deal this was other coaching a agents going well if mty got this pop has won five titles and he in he’s a part of every decision that’s made here in San Antonio he needs to make this Steve cerr has won four NBA championships he needs to make this and now hey tyo is an NBA champion he needs to make this Mike buer he’s an NBA champion he needs to make this and now you’re creating this this shift where contract are changing for the first time and the running joke here on the show is JJ has the opportunity to do that for first year head coaches because I don’t think JJ is getting paid four and a half million dollars to coach the Los Angeles Lakers if he winds up coaching the Los Angeles Lakers I think it’s going to be a lot closer to that seven or eight million range and that now creates a bit of a different barometer for head coaches to follow him next year yeah I totally agree and and again if you look at the coaches it got 10 million right both Doc Rivers and Mike buen hter uh doc got fouryear 40 and 5year 50 for buen hter well what’s funny about that James before you continue we think that’s what they got because that’s what was reported yes yes yes yes yes and it’s like this this whole this whole Twitter Saga didn’t benefit anybody as it pertains to the Mike Brown negotiation thing because if none of that other stuff happened and and wo just tweets Mike Brown signs three-year $30 million extension boom everybody’s happy because that’s what’s happened with Doc that’s what happened with Mike we don’t know if Mike buer has to win 60 games to get to1 million no it’s very true and like and it’s just so bizarre that we know that as it pertains to Mike like Mike Brown might be the only coach in the entire league that we know has incentives because no other coaches reported that way yeah but I I also I I understand your point there but I’d also say that again if you’re going to take all of these little pieces of the puzzle and use them against somebody or for somebody the fact that Mike Brown has a 605 win percentage of Mike buer is a 604 607 versus 604 whatever it is right but Mike doesn’t have uh Mike Brown doesn’t have the Championships he he has got to the finals but he hasn’t won one so it does make sense to make him like at the 10 million Mark but in order to get to 10 million I don’t know what the incentives are either uh like whether it’s you know you might have to win the championship yeah it could be like it could be something like 250,000 to make the playoffs 250,000 to make second round 500,000 if you win and at like the the the NBA Championship 500,000 if you win coach of the year I don’t know what it is but you you can understand that there’s probably some sort of tiered system here behind the scenes sure but that it also that makes sense because if you do want to put a a knock on somebody and say he doesn’t want to chip it’s like okay we incentivize that that makes sense to me so um yeah I think it’s interesting I don’t know that we’re we know all the finer nuances of the contract at all we just know that it’s three years and it for me from what I know it’s eight and a half eight and a half eight and a half with incentives and each year so I still I think it’s good that the thing got done um I again Mike Brown has not proven yet that he’s not the right coach for the job he’s still the right man for the job as of today now a year from now two years from now we might not feel that way like I I don’t know but for right now like it just felt like a moment in time where if you don’t push forward and if you leave a distraction out there all the way through the season you know then like why what are we doing here especially with the influx of cash that’s coming from from the new television deal in a year and a half or two years whatever it is like that’s going to be so much money for everybody involved that why are you not paying a coach because you’re going to have to that’s going to be the new market value is get like the base for like a first-time head coach is probably going to be like six seven million do so why are we like fighting over a couple of million dollars in the grand scheme of things you know and even like someone brought up the other day like well maybe Vex just saving his money to buy the A’s it’s like man that’s a that’s a billion and a half dollar deal if you somehow Buy a we’re not worried about two or three million bucks in the grand scheme of things in that situation you you have to be budget conscious but I’d also say lastly that like I don’t know what Jordi Fernandez was making but Jordi Fernandez was not just a lead assistant he was an associate head coach for the Kings he walked away and I guarantee you Luke LS didn’t just get his money like the hierarchy of the Kings assistant coaches I don’t know what they are exactly as far as like who gets paid what what but I’m going to guarantee you that the money that Jordy Fernandez made is isn’t being spent on another assistant like that right now because that’s not what they’re doing they promoted from within and Luke is probably he probably got a bump but not like a Jordy bump because Jordy was an associate head coach as well so again like in the coaching budget if you’re looking at some giant spreadsh sheeet with all of the things there was probably some play there anyways where you could go up without even like really hitting the bottom line uh this is just I got the Kings beat pulled up in front of me and shout out to brandan it looks like he’s been hitting the bicep curls after two seasons with the Kings Brown has two of the teams 10 total 500 plus Seasons yep Rick Adelman has the other eight yeah goodness gracious well that him we went through he’s goodness gracious he’s right behind Dave vager for uh for third place of the most wins in Kings history and then those guys the the number two guy and wins in in Sacramento Kings era history Gary saen so he can catch Gary saen I don’t know if he can catch him this year um but certainly the year after with no problem and be second all time and wins in King’s history and and I don’t even think it would be that difficult uh for him to do that so it just kind of speaks volumes to the like instability yeah Gary sine has 159 career wins as a head coach of the Kings and a 403 win percentage does it just speak to the coaching turnover more than anything else like I mean Rick adaman was obviously here longer than anyone else I mean Gary St Gene’s probably second on that list right yeah I mean he certainly and it’s not that long like how long he was here yeah yeah he coached one two three four almost five years he he was fired with 15 games left in the and the 96 997 season uh for Eddie Jordan and then Eddie Jordan coached the team the next year it’s not even closed after that like the only guy I think the only other coach in the Sacramento era who’s coached three seasons is Dave Jagger and I don’t think it speaks to the coaches as much as I think it speaks to the the the instability of the franchise and and inability to choose a path and stay DAV was a bad coach wasn’t no no he absolutely was not a bad coach well that and I he was a weird guy but he was not a bad coach yeah and I I like Dave he’s different for sure yeah he’s different and like we’ve had we we’ve remained close since he’s he’s left um you know he’s had a bunch of health issues and stuff um but uh the thing I would point out with Dave too and it’s something I always bring up with Luke as well the coach the team they coach in the first year is not the team they coach in the second year and the team they coach in the second year is not the team they coach in the third year and we’re not talking about like they made a couple of minor changes we’re talking about his first year that he coaches a team is is like nothing but veterans it’s Demarcus it’s Rudy Gay it’s uh omry caspy and Darren Collison they bring in Ty Lawson they have all of these veterans Costa uh just down the list there Matt Barnes and like you can just keep going all of the veterans on that team the next year they have nine first and second year players all of those veterans are gone and they go out and they they sign Zebo and they sign uh Vince Carter and they sign uh George Hill the next year all of those veterans are gone and you’re starting over again and it’s you know all these young players who are now in their second year or third year you’re you know again buddy and dearen and but Willie Coy Stein and like there’s so many players that are coming along in that group and that’s when like Dave really turns the corner right and he he leads that team to 39 wins but then even he knows he’s fired at the at the trade at the yeah the All-Star game he he already knows that he’s gone at the end of the season and so it becomes like what are we doing here like I’m coasting home sort of and so it’s this like constant like maybe if if Dave jger stayed on who knows what happens the next year maybe you do build something instead of Luke Walt and then you you have a like a the the T you snap the streak right the the postseason streak maybe you don’t all I know is that then Luke takes over the team and the team he has in his first year and the team he has in his second year totally different again he loses bogdon bogdanovich going into his second season they barely miss the playoffs in his first year they go to the bubble and all that stuff happens the next year they lose Bo DA they lose Alex Lynn they lose Kent basemore and they replace him with h Hassan Whiteside and Glenn Robinson the uh the third there’s no way to expect a coach to be able to improve on a ro on the previous season when he doesn’t have the same when he his roster hasn’t improved and that’s just where it really becomes difficult I have no man there a couple of things there I have no idea if Luke Walton can coach I get my Luke Walton jokes off all the time I have no idea if that dude can coach but I do know there was a time when he was coaching the pre- LeBron James version of the Los Angeles Lakers and I was watching that young team develop thinking man if Sacramento develops this way we’re gonna be in really good shape and this this was PRI this was when Luke Walton wasn’t here this is when Dave jger was here it’s like if if Sacramento can develop this way like they’re going to be in really good shape you’re seeing the development of a young team that’s you know not you know there’s no superstars like how they’re kind of putting this thing together and you you see growth in them and again I don’t know how great of a coach Luke Walton was there in uh Los Angeles but I saw the development of the team that I like and I don’t know why they felt so adamantly and I was working down south when the Dave Jagger stuff was going on and it was the worst kept secret that he was being fired and it it got to the point like I remember talking to Jason about like at at some point are we going to acknowledge this like are we supposed to pretend like we don’t know he’s getting fired like not only do we are we supposed to pretend like he’s not getting fired like we don’t know who they’re hiring and I never understood what it was about Dave Jagger that made them so adamant that they needed to move on from him before the season was even like not we’re going to fire him before the season is over but no he’s going to coach out the regular season but we know the next day he’s fired well not only that but we knew in February that Luke Walton was getting fired in LA and he was gonna be the new head coach yeah like there was no well that was the LeBron that was that was because of LeBron yeah we can trace a coaching firing to LeBron James that quick we can’t figure out what like what why the kings were adamant about moving on from Dave and why Luke Walton was so damn attractive to them yeah it definitely it was an interesting time and you know again it wasn’t just vlog is Brandon Williams as well there was some some like definite disagreements behind the scenes between those two hard to believe and uh just some really really odd things that went on that whole season but Dave walked into that year knowing that he had not he thought he had 20 games like fully he thought he had 20 games and he’d be gone and the fact that he was able to hold on to the job the entire season was because they just played so well and you remember that was the 39 win season right yeah they even tried to like put it out there that he could get fired like 23 games into the season and they’re winning and they’ve got A plus 500 but he might still be gone and so it was a really awkward situation but then like what people forget is that the Lakers team that you’re talking about we all remember this Dave jger like Juggernaut that he had in his final year right and like the fastest team you can ever possibly imagine go back and look the Lakers under Luke Walton finished above them in Pace the Lakers were the fastest team with Lonzo and with that young core like they were the fastest team in the league and so it actually looked like you were going from a coach that was doing his best to push a Tempo and to to morph himself into something else to a coach that that was who he was he was this fast-paced freestyle guy who had done really well as an assistant in Golden State and then who had that team that Lakers team playing really well until LeBron got hurt that year and so it wasn’t that big of a stretch to understand why Luke won made sense plus his relationship with lah and all that was like it stuck out as like a huge reason why warri sure helped yeah yeah [Music] um yeah and but you know where I really give Dave credit was he that 39 win fast-paced season where he they you know they got some nice acknowledgement from Dwayne Wade and Greg papovich and and different guys throughout the season is I think it was Dave who was like yes it’s not how we’re going to win games all year like we’ve got to get better defensively there are things that we have to do defensively because a lot of this is going to be Fool’s Gold if we can’t do things on the defensive end it’s just going to get it’s only going to get us so far and he was right like he he I think he was saying that to try to get these guys to do some other things on the defensive end and it didn’t work but he was 100% right that whole thing was Fool’s Gold because they essentially ran out of gas they essent they couldn’t get up the floor and the book was kind of out on them as to what they were going to do and it stopped working yeah definitely um they they were very one diim onedimensional and not only that but Dave knew the whole time it was smoking mirrors and he kept saying like it’s smoking mirrors but I’m doing what I can to keep morale up while while we teach the guys how to play basketball he’s like because getting kicked in the teeth every single night is really difficult especially if you go into a second season because the year before they got they got punted right so they’re 27 and 55 in Dave’s second season the year before is midseason where they trade Demarcus where Rudy uh Blew as Achilles where omry casby gets waved um or traded he was thrown in I believe on the Demarcus trade and then uh and then Matt Barn was waved all in that same season so went from a team that looked like a playoff team to a team that they’re like okay we’re they were so close to the playoffs when they at the All-Star break when they traded to Marcus and then they’re like look we’re not really a legitimate playoff team we’re going to get thumped in the second half they cut their losses they traded everybody they brought in picks they brought in buddy in the in the Demarcus trade and all that and they they were starting over but what Dave was taxed with in that that second season was taking again you got to remember that the year before the dearn fox draft so the dearn fox draft they have number they have number five they have number 15 and number 20 which is Justin Jackson and Harry Giles they also had the second pick in the second round which was Frank Mason and they bring bogdon bogdanovich over from overseas so they have five rookies the year before joros papanas at 13 Malachi Richardson at 22 scbca at 20 uh 28 and you traded for the number six pick in the draft which was Buddy hee so you had again you had nine first and second year players adding on the year before you drafted Willie so really your core is like 10 dudes it’s just so hard to teach those kids how to how to play and so Dave was trying to again develop players and in year one they got thumped every night I mean they win 27 games but they’re lucky to do that year two that’s when they start to really like Ascend but at the same time it was like Hey we’re doing smok and mirrors here to try to win as many games as possible because if not if we don’t win games the morale is going to be so bad that teaching these kids is going to be really difficult so like again it’s it’s a lot of weird revisionist history a lot of weird like history and like and I know it gets looked at a bunch of different ways but like when you walk through it and you lived it you understood what they were trying to do but that doesn’t change the fact that like starts and stops and starts and stops and changing directions and it’s really hard because everyone falls in love with the wins like this season but it’s it’s just not linear never is and you got to hope that you keep improving these young teams you just listed like 10 first or second year players at that time and one of them is here one and how many of them are even in the league man I I was thinking I was trying to think that as you were talking but I was getting like I was distracting myself like if I keep trying to figure this out cuz I ended it shano uh Harry was in the league Harry was in the league and Justin Jackson is actually on the end of the Minnesota bench if I’m not mistaken okay so that’s it okay Willie’s Gone scowl’s Gone oh and bogon oh bogey yeah of course of course but that that again we’re talking about 10 players do we just get to five of the 10 and two of those are total Fringe and bogy was a pro yeah he had already been a pro for like eight years nine years when he came over uh we’ll come back James gonna spend a few more minutes with us uh it’s Ste maey brought to you by Sky River Casino and Sacramento sports leader ESPN 131 uh what time you want to get out of here three 3:15 is fine okay we can go a half hour okay good stuff thank you it’s a good question where is Frank Mason um I don’t even know if he’s playing overseas there was so many weird things people don’t know about that year uh with with Dave and with um um why am I drown blank Brandon Williams some crazy things happened behind the scenes even like things happened in the family room that got out of control with kids and stuff it was it was like there was all kinds of weirdness going on the whole time I I remember Dave I W I was the only one there uh oh I was the only one there one day for shoot around and that’s a day I I walk in and everything is quiet and the whole thing is a mess and that’s the day that Dave kicked Brandon Williams out of shoot around mhm and Dave kept saying you know like after the the Yahoo report came out Dave kept saying I got a cobra in the house and I got to be the he kept saying it he kept he was hated and he said my dad told me you got a cobra in the house you got to be the Mongoose it was some like it’s some crazy stuff we’re not talking about like like this was like hey please don’t come in in here you’re not allowed in here no this was some some bare knuckle stuff yeah some bare knuckle stuff going on yeah that was a bizarre that was bizarre yeah I’m gonna take he the the soul shine band uh Patrick Williams wants 25 to 30 million a year that’s why no one wanted to trade besides the injuries like he wants a lot of money and and this the reason why Justin Jackson stays in the league is because he’s a very he’s good people and he does a lot of work off the court he he’s a good a good dude with a good heart that’s good stuff ambivalent to basketball well I don’t say ambivalent to basketball ambivalent to winning sometimes it felt like like not really understanding but but a good dude and good good good people I mean his um he set up he’s uh big into supporting like Down Syndrome causes and he set up like the uh the home here in Sacramento for you know like a place where Down syndrome kids can go to camp and stuff very good yeah he’s a good dude Justin Jackson Soulshine ban I don’t know that Patrick Williams gets that but I also know that you don’t take a guy who wants $30 million a year and give him8 to 10 and think that you’re going to get the same player yeah sauren that was a weird one to live through a weird one to live through and and the year before joerger had a lot of personal issues the year before which I’m not going to get into but like there was a lot going on there and I thought his revitalization in his final year was so refreshing and what he did with that team was so refreshing and how good they were was fun and his guys were great dudes Elson Turner Dwayne tickner Big Bob Thor and Jason March like he had a really good group of dudes around him who were all about teaching our man Ben has checked in he said he loved all of the bad boys movies so we’re good we’re good two hours and 30 minutes behind I say what like 12:30 around about that about that shout out Ben appreciate you Brody always gonna go see that new one I will yeah yeah yeah I think will I always say I’ll go to the theater I never do but we’ve been trying lately my son keeps trying to drag us and like I wanted to go see Fall Guy and we didn’t see it I don’t know there’s a couple I’m sure we’ll see Deadpool I want to see I want to see I I do want to see bad boys I I enjoy those movies and I want to see uh I’m certain it’s I think it’s November I’ll go see the um the new Lion King movie when it comes out I’m no there’s new one yeah uh live an it I think it’s Mufasa I think that’s what it’s called yeah oh Gilbert don’t tell me that I still want to see V guy oh Moana yeah I’ll go see Moana too also Tyler yeah yeah yeah I’ll go see Moana that’s a good call that’s November I think have you seen the the Deadpool thing that they’re doing with the popcorn things the popcorn tub I don’t think so it’s uh Wolverine’s face with his mouth open like laying down so you reach in his mouth to grab your popcorn and so they’re Instagram pictures like reals on oh no oh no oh the juvenile chatty house get a hold of those Wolverine popcorn bags it would be terrible yeah I get a kick out of the Deadpool movies I I I I find them I think they’re enjoyable oh I think they’re hilarious yeah yeah I like them uh shout out to the chatty house brought to you by Matthews mattress the Memorial Day sale continues that includes special 60-month financing with no money down on approved credit with equal monthly payments required um you can get even free same day delivery if your mattress is in stock to remove your old set for you as well you can find one of the 10 locations the one nearest you at Matthews mattress.com of course they’ve got one in elgrove they got one here in Roseville they got a clearance center on ardan and how chances are they have a Matthews mattress very near you and their wonderful staff will be there uh to help you out just as James ham is being kind enough uh to hang out with me uh joining me a little little bit early today despite the fact he’s got some business to attend to later on in the three o’clock hour so happy to have James with us as we put the Mike Brown portion of the offseason behind us and now GES we can get back to panicking over Malik Monk and creating fake trade proposals I tuned in this soon as I got in the car you guys were talking about Brandon Ingram and I thought ah back to normal and we’re back and we’re back baby um yeah well I mean I think this is like this was a key thing though absolutely I I think initially when we walked into the off season and we all thought that he had a four-year deal like if it was no big deal it was like okay look you just get straight into all this but then all of a sudden when you start to figure out that not only that there was a mutual option for year four and that that Mutual option wasn’t exercised then it BEC when was that discovered I I don’t know I don’t know exact during I was it during the season um or at the end I think it’s at the end yeah yeah I think so too so but for for good reason I mean coaching salaries have gone through the roof so it makes sense M um but once that was like uh oh Mike Brown’s not under contract after next year that became like an issue that you have to in order to move forward you have to make sure that the path is like we’re all moving forward together right and again if you want to have a player commit to a two or three or a four-year deal like Malik monk he should probably know who his head coach is GNA be after year one and what you don’t want to do is have the drama and the distraction Midway through the year like will he get a his job uh will he get picked up will he not um is this going to be one of those things where look you walk into a year and just say he had a great year we talked about this with Bonnie McNair uh like a year and a half ago right what if they win what if they everything goes well and Mike goes look you didn’t want to commit to me and three other teams are interested in my services offseason and now you’re starting over in a totally different way like this thing could have ended in a bunch of different ways and and I I’d say the same thing and and I’d also point out too we gave all of the same exact energy with Monty steel yep and that’s something that people like when they when they look back at this say oh we feel like you were one-sided or we feel like you were giving Mike all kinds of Praise all the time it’s like no no we were in this exact same boat with Monty I don’t know if he’s a great GM or not but what I do know if if he’s going to be the guy who’s making massive decisions that could impact your entire franchise for a decade then I want him to be under contract and I don’t want him to make deals to make deals I want him to make deals because it’s a right thing for building a program and we gave the same exact energy and so I think it’s like it makes sense that you’re moving forward with Mike you’re moving forward with mty this is a group because that’s the continuity that you keep preaching on the court is a continuity you need off the court and I think it’s a good thing we’re seeing all this kind of play out do these deals line up again I don’t know with with one we don’t know money steel we don’t oh we don’t no I could have told you like I’m never like what I knew about how much money was making going into that year like that’s not something I’m going to discuss but like they were they were doing this thing on a Sho string budget like this is Europe with a backpack here this isn’t we’re not uh staying in the Ritz Carlton here that National Lampoon european vacation with exactly wow look kids Big Ben look kids Big Ben it’s the only scene I look kids Big Ben oh no you you don’t remember some of the other scenes there are some good scenes oh yeah okay I remember one October Fest there’s one SC there’s one scene young young Dow has recollection of yeah that’s tremendous that’s tremendous uh yeah it feels like everything is complicated but yeah it’s done Monty’s here Mike is here and well let’s make sure Malik is here and kind of go from there at least that’s where I’d like to start from and now I you know James I brought this up earlier and we’re you know this is this is going to as you know intensify as we get closer and closer uh to the Wednesday and Thursday of the draft near the end of the month you’re you’re just you read all sorts of stuff right now everybody is positioning and posturing and try to put themselves in the best position imaginable so you read things about you know the the the Pelicans reluctance on offering Brandon Ingram a Max contract extension you’re reading things about Zack LaVine and his price tag you’re reading things about um uh Kyle kosma you’re reading things about about different players across the league and what they want what their teams want and all of this stuff and I wonder how much the discourse around the draft is going to start to change I mean one thing oh this is a bad draft not not not not something really people want to be a part of I wonder how much of that changes because I don’t know that the idea of not being number one or two or three is really going to change but the idea of being three four five maybe up to 13 14 15 maybe the um idea around that maybe the conversation around that starts to shift I think uh TC called us earlier and said he was listening to to locked on Wizards and how like they want to accumulate draft picks getting it you know up around that you know getting to where at 13 where Sacramento are is is in a bad look for them and I wonder as we get closer whether genuine or not how much discourse around this Draft starts to change as teams start to position themselves yeah I I think that is very similar to like like the 2013 draft and it’s very like there every couple of years there are there is a draft like this where you’re very leery about the top end of the draft where there isn’t a Bonafide star that that you like a guaranteed star and and I don’t think there really are guaranteed stars because I mean look look over the last like five or six years one of the biggest names ever is Kade Cunningham and I don’t think kad’s lived up to like any of that building as of yet he still has an opportunity to but that’s what I mean like we don’t really know you you can project and think that someone’s going to be huge and then have them not ever materialize and be the player that you thought they would be like I mean I think the jury still out on say from a couple years ago like Jabari Smith uh Jr like what is he gonna be and that I think the jury still still out on on Jaden Ivy I think everyone knows that keagan’s going to be a solid NBA player chat and with potential to be more Chad is going to be like probably a defensive stopper for the rest of his career and everyone’s going to really like him as a player and pal of course is like Star but you know go back to the dearen fox draft first pick in that draft is Marquel Foltz the second pick is is um big ball brand uh Lonzo Lonzo the third pick is Jason Tatum the fourth pick in that draft right before is Josh Jackson and so that’s like like the draft is a total crapshoot but this draft in particular I think the top end is it’s just not guaranteed to be anything other than rotational players that you hope will be rotational players there might be a player or two that steps up and is better than we think but the top pick in this draft is making I think it’s $12 million in year one the second pick is making 11 third is making 10 fourth is making nine like that’s so much money but is it it is because because you have players out there that are going to be way more valuable than these players the first three years of their career who are making three or four million doll a year you know so even the the number 13 pick in this year’s draft it’s five million bucks like that’s where we’re at with draft picks and if you’re looking at your salary and you’re at 151 million and you’re going to sign Malik monk hopefully and that’ll put you up to 168 point something million and all of a sudden you have your draft pick at five million you’re over the luxury tax it like happened that quick you’re like what just happened and that’s not a good position to be in and that’s where like look I think the Kings going be really open in number 13 and I think more than anything else there’s going to be a cost to Value evaluation in this draft right at what point are you getting potentially the right player at the right cost and not might be pick number eight it might be pick number 10 in this draft where the really the balance is where you can see that hey look I’m willing to take a flyer on a $5 million player at number 13 but am I really willing to take a flyer on a $10 million player at number four I don’t know and that’s tough so I think it’s part of like we can all talk about how much the salary cap is going to go up but it’s only going up 10% a year and those are big dollar contracts I mean we’re talking an an $ million contract or like the number one pick in this draft is probably like eight% of the cap and okay maybe that works for your team if you’re a bad team that that’s fine but if you’re a good team some of these picks are a little risky as far as the sort of value that you’re getting for them I forgot who has the number one pick oh who does have the number one pick have no idea yo the the the draft has been trash is it Atlanta do the Hawks have it the Hawks have it yes the Hawks you look at teams like uh so you have Atlanta here Washington Rockets Houston San Antonio those teams have cap space like they’re probably not concerned about but same with number five you look at Detroit and people will keep saying oh Detroit’s got all this money it’s like yeah but that number 10 pick has a i that number five pick has almost A10 million do cap hold yeah and I don’t think that they can that they’re going to be a free agent hotbed yeah but that still it does limit what you can do and yeah I don’t think they’re going to be what Houston was where Houston was able to you know pay Fred Van play pay Dylan Brooks and get those guys in the building to to play with em ooca and the group that they got there the group of young guys that they got there I don’t think that’s going to be Detroit for some reason yeah no they’ll be able to they’ll be able to do some maneuvering I just don’t know that the again the dollar for dollar is all that great like what you’re getting out of it and and you know again Houston right now is at 129 million uh 29.7 million in dedicated salary for this year right is that over no uh it’s going to be at 141 oh um but you do realize that their draft pick puts them at the at the cap so there is no like flexibility there so that’s what I mean like there this is a lot of money to spend on a draft pick if it’s not a a player like nobody cares how much Victor wiama makes in his first four years like all right whatever I’m paying it like he’s and we know that he’s gonna make bargain he’s gonna make a billion dollars in his career at a minimum the Riverwalk has probably paid for wimy salary this first year the increased traffic on the river they might just have to give him like the Alamo just to you know like keep him around but it’s going to like he’s going to make so much money in the span of his career you’re not wored about stuff like this but when the player isn’t guaranteed to be a great player that’s a lot of money if you’re out on the open market and you’re trying to gauge like how much you’re going to give a player who who at least has some track record these kids have no track record and some of them haven’t even played that much so you’re you’re extending a lot an 11 million or1 million salary is a lot of money to put out there for for somebody who has no track record and all the more reason to wonder how or if the discourse around this draft changes yeah and how much movement there is in the days headed into the draft and more specifically we’re kind of entering uncharted waters here with the first ever second night of a draft the for those that didn’t take the time and I don’t believe you to read why there’s a second night of the draft the overwhelming response was and I think this is a while I believe it’s genuine I do believe there is probably a little bit of bull crap involved in this it’s like hey we can get another TV night we can do what the NFL does and we can you know own own TV for another night but the clock is too quick in the second round and they can’t really execute the way that they want to so we might learn hey maybe there was a lot of validity to that as we see some movement in the second round of the draft and movement meaning trading picks trading players more activity um going into the second round on Thursday night than we might see going into the second round you know at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard time yeah the second round is always a waste of time like not not to be rude but like after the first like 11 picks like it’s just like go ahead and get it over with nobody cares I think that this is going to be interesting to see if I kind of want to see not just like how how the trades are different and how it’s slow down like how we learn more about players how players you might all of a sudden be more invested in than you were before because there is more to it than than what we’ve seen over the last handful of years um I I still don’t know and I’ll keep saying this like for me the perfect thing for the NBA to do would be to like three two-way uh spots is fine I totally agree with three two-way spots but I would also increase the draft to a third year I mean a third round and and make the day two a two round draft um and I would also bolster the The g-league rosters up to I think I think they’re 10 but like something like 12 to 15 um and then I would create two like super two-ways where you can pull up veterans that are in the G league and you can give them the equivalent of a 10-day contract but they can bounce back and forth between the main roster and the and the g-league roster just like you do with two- ways should there be a limit on those vets like because I know you you’ve been you’ve been adamant for a while that the NBA uses you feel like the gag is not a yeah true developmental league and you know part of that is and we saw Stockton do it where you you they acquired they wound up acquiring a lot of veteran players yeah uh rather than developmental players should there be a cap on the number number of veteran players that a g-league team has would that help well I think it would help if you just expand in the roster because then you could still have your young players and your veteran players and it’s just like what I was talking about with with the Dave jger years like you can’t expect nine or 10 young players who don’t have any experience to have fine success so if you do the same thing at the G League like having 27 28 29 year olds in the G league is a good thing because they’re acting as Veterans for all these young players that you’re bringing in and young players that can be all the way from 18 to like you know 22 23 that you’re trying to develop at the same time it’s really tough for a coaching staff who doesn’t have like a ninan or 10 or 12 man coaching staff you’re talking like a head coach and like two or three assistants like it’s a very small group and now their tax with trying to develop this team that’s why I think like number one you want these 28 29 year old guys to stick around because it brings up the value of the game the basketball is better when those guys are on the court right so like whether it’s Jaylen noell or uh man Deontay Burton or Stanley Johnson scaber like that those guys know how to play basketball they’re a lot smarter on the court they’re more seasoned than a bunch of 18 19 20 year olds that don’t know what they’re doing at all but you need this mixture and those guys are capped at like 70 or 80 it might be up to 90 grand now that a g-league like top end player makes but if you that’s why teams bring him into their training camps they cut them last but they’re giving him a $150 $200,000 signing bonus so then that way they stick around the G League I would much rather Midway through the season as opposed to someone that you’re not going to use like like again this isn’t to be rude to Jaylen Slawson but Jaylen slaon you’re not going to play him but you got to bring him up because he has a certain amount of days he’s got be up with a parent Club I would so much rather them be able to bring up Stanley Johnson for 10 days and actually give you an an opportunity to maybe get a guy back in the league maybe he shows something that he didn’t before and maybe he’s able to like jumpstart his career and then put him back down in the g-league when when you don’t have an injury or whatever I I would hope that at some point they would allow these players to bounce back and forth and not just wait for 10 days which at the end of the year there might be eight guys who get 10 uh 10day contracts maybe 12 10day contracts but that leaves everybody else out in the cold yeah it feels like there’s a lot of revamping that could happen with the G league and as the league tries to continue to take steps to become a more like we see what they’re doing we we obviously know depending on what you read there’s a belief that this massive TV deal is actually done it just hasn’t been announced of course we’re on the cusp of the the NBA Finals beginning on Thursday we’ve got a two day draft now we’re seeing the shout out to the Kings beat the business of basketball changing a little bit and maybe the g-league and how they’re incorporated into the league could be the next step in that yeah I think this is the first season where all 30 teams will have a team like I think there were two teams that were holding out I think what is it Phoenix and Portland that were holding out didn’t have g-league teams I think at this point everyone will have g-league roster like use it as a true minor league system use it as a way to develop talent talent here in the US uh so guys don’t have to go overseas and go make their money playing in Europe it it just makes more sense like if you want to you know broaden the talent base if you want to improve the overall value not just of your parent clubs but of the G League itself to have a better product on the floor that you would try to maximize these things and and again I think it’s not a hugely profitable thing so that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing sort of this this momentary weight on this stuff but neither is single a baseball you know double A baseball tripa base not all of these like levels make money for anybody so you’re just trying to sustain basically and so I would like to see them figure out a way for it to be more of you know again if a guy needs three games for a rehab assignment to to get through to get healthy after a knee injury you can send them down to the G league and one night plays you know two five minute halves and the second 0 plays you know 14 minutes total and you you build a guy up that way and it as of right now we don’t see sort of the player movement you see player movement from the g- league up you don’t see player movement to the g- league where guys can go and get rehab assignments it doesn’t make any sense it should be about that sometimes uh finals begin on Thursday can you watch Luca without thinking about the 2018 draft Yeah I can some can and I understand like those that can’t like he got to the finals the other night and you know Twitter can be a tough play sometimes like people were understandably like H come on I get it I get it you covered this pretty closely like are you able to separate the two yeah yeah and not only that but like to see Luca figure it out and to like find his joy for the game and again I’m going to keep giving Kyrie I think Kyrie at the end of the day is going to be someone who is so impactful for for Luca specifically and that franchise but for Luca as a player and as a you know as a basketball person I think he’s helping him develop and become something different I can separate him um but I’d also tell you like that draft went a different way Dave Jagger probably gets his extension and we’re not talking about Mike Brown as the the first head coach to get an extension since uh Rick Adelman yeah yeah this you you talked about Domino effects earlier yeah it’s it’s interesting domino effect should yeah uh the Sacramento Kings draft Luca but the one thing I’m always quick to point out is the organization was still the organization might not have worked like you could feel however you want to about Mark cubin and the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Mavericks were criticized I think it was just two years ago when they went with Nico Harrison and you know they were going with Lucas’s guys and now you’re looking at what is kind of the third incarnation of the Dallas Mavericks going to the to the NBA finals it’s definitely the second um I think there was a there was some difference between the two Dallas teams that took on um Miami um the two different Miami teams but that Mavericks organization deserves credit Mark cubin there I love listening to Mark cubin talk about Kyrie Irving and why things have worked uh with him this year he it’s it’s one time where I’ve listened to Mark cubin and go man he he seems to like really understand Kyrie Irving like I don’t feel like Mark is talking and feeding me BS like I feel like he is just being genuine when he talks about uh what’s working with Kyrie Irving so it’ll make for an interesting watch for sure uh with the Boston Celtics coming up on Thursday James appreciate you as always man I know you got to run thanks for stepping in uh for an hour to talk with case
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1 Comment
1140 hates Caitlin Clark!