Coming up, Terrible MBA Contracts. The Draft is Here. Next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. Put up a new Rewatchables on Monday night. We did Risky Business. Me and Chris Ryan had an absolutely great time. Go check that out. You can check out all the videos from the rewatchables and all the shorts, as well as all the stuff from this podcast, videos and shorts, on youtube. Com/bilsimmons. Com. We launched a TikTok channel just in time for the band. If you want to follow this podcast on TikTok, it is @bilsimmonspod. Check it out on the TikTok. Maybe we can last a week. I don't know. We'll see how long it goes. Not going to do anything on the Celtics Suns tonight because the Celtics killed the Suns. I'm absolutely loving this Jalen Brown season. We've talked about it a bunch of times in this podcast, but man, he is just bringing it night after night after All right. Spoiler alert, he is not drafted in the worst contracts draft we're about to do with Big Was, Wasnian Lambrie, and Joe House. This is the third annual. Can't wait to get to it.

Before we do, I just want to mention I really want the Patriots to sign Mike Williams? Can they just do that? I looked up. I was on a stat head looking up all the receivers since 2018 who have caught at least 25 touch downs and played at least 70 games, and there are only 14 of them, including Mike Williams, who somehow gets the rap as being injury prone and he can't stay healthy. Well, at the end of the 2022 season, he had hit in the back in week 18, really, really hard hit and ended up getting knocked out for the play-ups, but he played that whole season. Then last year, tore his ACL in week three as he was getting tackled, I think by three guys, and just got pushed and his knee went out. But he's still 29 years old, and I just really want the Patriots to sign him. I just feel like he's good value. He'll be ready for the start of this season. I want the Pats to do something. Spend some money, for God's sakes. All right, here we go. Worst NBA contracts draft, me, That's why it's next. First, our friends from ProJet.

All right, we're doing it again.

Third annual worst NBA contracts draft. I think two years ago, we tried to be nice I can call it the regrettable contracts, but we're not going to be nice. What do we care? Let's call it what it is. These are the worst. This is our crew. Big Was is back. Joe House is here. Nobody has more experience with bad NBA contracts than Joe You've lived it. How many years? Thirty-five years of your life bad contracts?

Every single year, it seems like we might be out from under it. Then there's a brand new arrival, a new candidate, a new signing, and It just keeps on coming. It's in perpetuity here in the nation's capital.

By the way, Bill, these contracts are signed. Generations of these guys' families will be able to enjoy this money. I think it's okay if we call them bad contracts because these guys are overpaid. I think it's okay.

Yeah, and that's an important thing to say at the top. We are not talking about these people as people. We are only talking about them as assets on an NBA team and what they're worth and whether a franchise decided they were worth more than they're paying the person. That's where we are right now, where we have guys that might be worth 10 million, and for some reason, they're getting 30 a year. They're guys that maybe should have a $40 million four-year deal, and for some reason, it's 120. We're going to point out all those. What we do, we do a draft. Waz has gone first the last two years in a row. House always passes up the sandwich pick, even though he loves sandwiches. So you're going to go second. But I'm going to go third and then have the first pick back. So we do snake fashion. Do you guys remember who the first picks were in 2022 and 2023?

Do you remember who you picked, Was? Yeah. Let's hear Was say it.

I would assume it was either Bradley Bill or Ben Simmons, knowing myself. No.

You went off the board quickly. You blew House is mine. You took Davis Bertons. You did it. The number one pick. He did do that. House was serious. House of Spirias. House of Spirias thought he was getting them. Everyone thought, I think you were going Westbrook. Last year, here was what the order was. Ben Simmons went first. Okay. Bradley Beale, second. Duncan Robinson was our third pick, and that's the thing about the worst contracts draft. Sometimes it lights a little flame under somebody. Sometimes they play themselves out of the draft. Duncan Robinson, a valuable guy for Miami this year, so kudos to him.

That was Bertrand's fourth. Dougie Robinson was playing so bad, Bill, that they pulled his podcast from him. They said, You can't even podcast anymore. You're playing so bad.

Well, he's back. Bertrand's was fourth. Then Rudy Gobert was our fifth pick. Another guy who's not going to be drafted, probably, today. Towns, Collins, Young, Jordan Pooh was ninth, and Evan Fournier was our 10th pick. A couple of things for the listeners. If somebody's in an expiring contract makes them less valuable. That doesn't mean Waz isn't going to take Clay Thompson at some point, even though he's got three months left on his deal. He still might take them, but that expiring deal makes them a little less gamey for And then the other thing I just wanted to mention in the top house, less bad contracts, less long bad ones than we used to have. And it's just, I think because the terms are shorter, the athletes are more willing to bet on themselves. Didn't you notice there's just less?

Yeah, I felt like one of the wrinkles that we're going to try to incorporate, there might be some speculation coming into the upcoming free agencies. And as I looked down the list of guys that are going to be free agents, I was like, You know what? I don't really see any of these guys as candidates for gross overpays.

You mean except LeBron James?

Well, that's a matter of debate.

42-year-old LeBron James making $60 million a year. Maybe it won't be a gross overpay, Waz. I don't know. Do you think LeBron comes up in this draft?

I mean, just so the listeners know, we have added an addendum in the sense of anticipating guys who are going to get deals that end up looking ridiculous this upcoming summer, which is only four months from now. So four months from now, there's some guys that are in line for some pretty cool raises for them and their families that might look nasty the second after the ink dries on that.

Well, we can only guess, but we can guess that Pascal Siakram is going to get a max or close to a max. We can guess that O'Gian and O'Bee is going to get a max or close to a max. We Can guess that LeBron is getting at least 100 million for the next two years combined? Probably.

Probably, yeah. He's angling for a third year.

We'll see if he gets it.

That Las Vegas franchise isn't going to pay for itself. So he's definitely angling for a third year. But yeah, LeBron is in line. You already said Siakam.

Those are the big ones.

James Harden.

Harden is going to get paid.

Oh, shit. I forgot about Harden. He's going to get paid. Yeah, Balmer is definitely paying him.

He's going to get paid.

All right, so James Harden's extension is on the board if anyone wants to say that. Let's go. Absolutely. Where's contract's draft? Let's do it. Waz, lead us off. Who do you have?

This one, it was definitely a little bit of... I had to fight with myself about what the pick would be because there are guys who have more money left on their deal, but are quality, you could say, players at their position. While they're a bit underwater on the contract, meaning they're probably getting paid 10, 15 million more than they should, and they're going to have that over the course of the next 2-3 seasons.

How is already laughing excited.

But then there are guys who are complete zeros when they don't play, and when they do, they're negative. That's why my first pick is Ben Simmons, who's owe me $40 million.

That's a relief. Oh, I was so worried.

Next year, Ben Simmons is going to get $40 million. The reason why I didn't pick him over guys like Lovine or Bill or some of these other guys who are going to quickly come off the board. The Nets are trying to be good right now.

Yeah, because they don't have their pick. They actually needed Ben Simmons.

And they're paying him 40 million this year and 40 million next to not play. And when he does play, he's effectively a backup center, guys. They're paying a backup center $40 million next year.

78 million this year, next year. He was the second pick in last year's draft house. Last year, we did a whole thing about bad contract or sad contract. That's a nice thing.. That's a nice angle. That's a nice angle. It was like, Lanza Ball, bad contract, but also a sad contract. It's not his fault. House, is Ben Simmons a bad contract or a sad contract for you?

It's both. And honestly, it's wonderful that we are doing this draft on the same day that it's reported that Ben Simmons had his surgery on his back for the second time in three years. The news came out today. Ben Simmons has played in 57 games since the Nets acquired him during the 2021-2022 season.

No, go back further. He's played in 57 games since the Hawks series in 2021. Sure. Fine. Which was three years ago.

And he missed games due to his mental health issue, apparently, which is a funny way of saying, I don't want to play basketball unless you who's Trade me. And he's missed games because he allegedly hurt himself trying to get himself into shape for the season whenever it was that he decided to return to professional basketball. This is a dude who just doesn't want to play.

He's changed agencies.

He doesn't want to play basketball. He could take that $40 million that he's going to get next year, the last time he will ever get anything like that in terms of money, and go back to Australia. I don't know how they feel about him there. Could he join? Could he get on the national team in Australia, play for them? Is that a path to rehabilitation? He can't play in the NBA. He doesn't want to play in the NBA. And so honestly, we're I'm going to be bidding him a Bonvoyage, I believe.

This is the end of the line for Ben Simmons because his deal will be finally, mercifully for the Brooklyn Nets expiring next year. And the Simmons thing is so crazy because it took another bizarre turn last week or maybe a week and a half ago when his agent came out and said, Guys, it's my fault Ben Simmons isn't playing. I didn't do the due diligence of finding the right doctors and getting second and third opinions. I've never heard of this in my life. A guy's agent came out and is taking the bullets because Ben Simmons' treatment wasn't taken seriously enough. I figured Ben was going to be one of our top two picks and actually did some research trying to figure out, was there an exact moment that this went sideways?

Because Doc had said on one of my pods, he was like, That Atlanta series when they started fouling him, and I saw it in his eyes, and he was never the same after they did that. So I actually went back and I was like, Is that true? In the 2021 Washington Series house, if you remember Russell Westbrook- My guy. Pulled your deal. You're one of Russ's last fans. So you're down three nothing in game four in Washington, and they start doing Hack of Ben, trying to get back in the game. They end up, they're up to it. You can go watch it on YouTube. They're up to it with two plus minutes left. And they intentionally fouled Ben Simmons after he gets a rebound. I think he makes one and misses the other. So now the seed's planted. He averaged in that Washington series in five games, 15, 10, and 9. He almost averaged a triple double. You go to the Atlanta series, that drops to 6, 7, and 9. And the key game was that game five that Doc mentioned. Philly's up. They're up 51-31 in the first half. They're up 26 in the second half, and Atlanta comes back and wins.

But one of the things that happens, second quarter, Philly's up 20. Atlanta starts fouling Ben Simmons, and he misses seven of his next eight free throws, and he's never the same. I'm sure physically there's some issues. I think stress has some stuff to do with back issues, which I've personally experienced. But But he finished that last three games of the Atlanta series, 6, 7, and 9, 7 for 20 from free throws. And then for the rest of his career since, he's made zero threes, 31 for 72 from the charity strict. His last 92 free throws he's made 38 was, 38 for 92, making high 30s. To me, there might be stuff going on with him physically, but to me, this is This is like Chuck Nobleck. We're going in that direction with this. This is somebody that got the yips. Yeah, this is somebody that something happened to them and they couldn't get it back. Maybe he didn't want to put in the work. Maybe physically he wasn't feeling the same. But This is like a sports documentary at this point in house.

Well, and I think this could be the end. The final chapter is this upcoming season. Who knows whether or not he's able to rehabilitate himself after this back surgery and show up. I mean, the Nets are saying, Are we expecting them back for a full season? Best of luck. It is very curious to me, the observation made at the outset as we were talking about this pick. The Brooklyn Nets are trying to win right now?

Is that really what we're going to believe? Is that really what we're going to believe? Yeah, they need a rebounder defender.

They don't own their pick futures. They have a bunch of swaps out. They don't own their destiny as far as pics are concerned. They want to put as high quality a roster out there as possible at all times. There is $40 million burning a whole through their books. It's just a cautionary tale.

This is why they dumped their whole front office because when you get this... Oh, no, those guys still have jobs. Wait, no.

Sean Marks, he's got some- I forgot. He's got some compromise on Joe's side that we haven't heard about, man.

Well, we liked Ben Simmons as an asset when he was holding out with Philly, even though there was buzz that he was in London, that he wasn't even working on his game, that he didn't really care about playing basketball. And I was still like, that's still an asset. If I'm another team looking to cash in on somebody, I would still think about that. Even last year with Portland, with Dame, I was like, You know what? If I'm Portland and it's Two Years of Ben Simmons, Roll the Dice. The Roll the Dice era with Ben Simmons is now over. And that's it. You're right. He might be an Australian in two years. All right. How else? You have the second pick. Who do you got?

I'm so happy. This was so nice of Was. The lead-in that he teed up is so perfect for this player. This guy, I literally have never seen a player with this much talent who is so disconnected to any of the elements of winning basketball. And of course, I'm talking about Jordan pool.

He is literally the dumbest basketball player in terms of the talent that he possesses I've ever seen, ever in my entire life as a fan of professional basketball.

Our good buddy Tom Haberstro, I feel like he did this for me in the middle of February, did a breakdown. Jordan pulls in the first year of his four-year, $126 million contract.

That Golden State- We should have mentioned that sooner. Four years, $126 million, and this is year one.

Three years, $100 million basically left on the deal after this year.

So this is a guy who has the most turnovers without an assist in clutch time for any guard, going all the way back to 1996, '97.

Wait, he doesn't have an assist in crunch time?

No clutch time assist.

Zero clutch time assist. How is that possible?

Well, somewhere along the way here- He's the point guard. Well, the The team's finally decided to bring him off the bench. He leads all players in the NBA with the most fouls beyond the three-point arc. The worst foul that you can commit, Jordan Pooh leads all players in that. He is number one amongst all guards in the NBA in travels. He has the worst shooting percentage among all players with at least 150 attempts on pull-up three-pointers. Take a guess at what his shooting percentage is for Dribble Up, pull up three pointers.

He's underwater. He's definitely under 30.

I would say- I would say 28%.

27.3 as of- It feels worse when you're watching them on a small TV.

In your house.

I honestly don't know what the path out of this is. I can't come up with... It's a true conundrum. It's a challenge that I'm not up for. How does he get better? What fixes him?

Well, a couple of my wife's friends, not even close friends, but extended friends, like microdosing is in now. I wonder, maybe they should just try microdosing with them. It seems like it calms moods. It melds people out. Maybe we're at the microdosing level with Jordan pool.

So brain chemistry. We want to alter his brain chemistry.

Maybe it'll have him have an assist in the last three minutes. I was looking at the stats about Just like these are more simple than the stats you came up with, but for anyone who's played over 25 minutes a game, he's 173 out of 179 players in net rating. He's minus 11. He's shooting 32% from three, but he's taking 6.8 three pointers a game. And in the last two years, only two players have averaged seven three pointers a game but shot under 33%. Jordan pool, and can you guess who the other one is. So seven threes a game under 33%.

Russell Westbrook.

No. Good guess. It's Jalen Green.

Oh, wow.

Of course it is. Who's probably going to be in the Wizards in Two years. Don't roll it out. The conundrum here for me is just how good he was in the last couple of finals games. Now, worst case scenario, he looked like Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford. That was going to be his destiny. Like instant offense off the bench, good three-point shooter, a lot of confidence, really smart decision-making. He looked Curry light a little bit. I mean that as a positive. He could do a Curry impression for them. From the moment he got punched by Draymon, it went away, and we haven't seen it since. I don't know what happened.

In the best of times, Jordan Pooh was a negative on defense, literally one of the worst high minutes cards in the league by every single metric, eye test, you name it, teammate, eye rolls, whatever metric you want to use. He was leading the league and being horrible at defense, at guard, and he's supposed to be an all-offensive player. And yeah, I think he's at above a 25% usage on the season or about there, which is damn high. That's like running the offense type of thing, and he's got a true shooting percentage at about 51. He might even be huffering around the 50s by the time of this recording. And so negative on defense and now high minutes, high usage, not neutral, not like, oh, decent.

He's horrible on offense Do you have stats on eye rolls? Did Second Spectrum keep track of that? How many times somebody just left their body?

No, I just listen to the Jaymon Green podcast every now and again and hear him defend the punch.

House, can you... Jaymon, That was a lose-lose, literally, for everyone involved. There were no winners whatsoever. House, what's it like to watch him week to week when a player who clearly cannot get out of a funk to the point that it's It's almost like watching... We've seen this happen in other sports, right? This happens in baseball where the closer just can't throw a strike anymore. We've seen it in football where the quarterback... It happened in Mac Jones this year. He just literally lost his confidence and became unplayable for a team that needed a quarterback. What's it like to watch an NBA player go through this?

The problem I have is I'm not sure it's a funk. I think this is who he is. I don't think he belongs in the NBA, to be honest with you. Well, this is the challenge, right? What is the thing that he does that helps the team with winning? What's the particular skillset?

But we've seen him do it, though. The thing is we've seen it. We saw it in Golden State.

Surrounded by three Hall of Famers. He was surrounded by three Hall of Famers with discrete minutes. I do wonder if somewhere early on, if you wanted to be a person that subscribed to the Golden State, Light Years Ahead thesis that they- Dubs culture? That they overpaid him, that they understood how limited he ultimately was going to be, and they zag. They said, You know what? What if we gave him this enormous contract to make the rest of the league think that there is some value associated with this dude?

Oh, interesting.

Because he is a sunk cost. He's absolutely a sunk cost in terms of actual winning basketball.

I know that they really thought he had a chance to be a special piece of a bunch of good teams. Over the course of the decade. I don't think they know what happened. But I will say this, I'm still rooting for him, and I always feel bad for him, and I thought he got a really raw deal with the Draymon incident.

And he did handle it with a lot of grace, honestly. Any time he's talked about it in public, he's been really freaking gracious and could have been a lot more pissed off about it publicly, throwing people under the bus and stuff like that. He's been really gracious about it.

Maybe that's what he should do. Maybe he needs to... That's how he gets his mojo back, because he should lave some grenades. All right, we're going to take a break. I can't believe the second guy on my board is still available, and I'm going to take him right after this. Vando is putting the ball on your court for the rest of the NBA season. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200. If your bet wins, you can even have some fun, do some Futures. You can have Minnesota at 10:00 to 1:00 to get the one seed in the Western conference right now. You can get the Warriors if you think they're going to make the playoffs, which basically means they're either the nine or the 10 seed, they win that game, and then they beat the loser of the seven, eight seed. That's plus one 64. I like the Warriors. I actually think that's pretty good value. Anyway, you can do stuff like that on FanDuel until you go nuts. Bet on the NBA with a wide range of bet types, including quick bets, live same game, parlay, player props.

Oh, and the wait is over, North Carolina. Fanduel officially live in the Tar Hale State. Visit fandil. Com/bs and make your first bet a layup. Fanduel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA, must be 21 plus in present in select states. Game problem? Call 1-800-Gambler or visit theringer. Com/rg. First online real money wager only, $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-monetrable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook. Fandil. Com. All right, coming back. I have the third and fourth picks in the worst contracts draft, and I'm I'm going to take somebody who was number two on my board, a head of Ben Simmons. Zack Levine, four years, including this year, left $198 million, plus has a 15% trade kicker if he gets traded. Right now, he has the seventh biggest contract value in the entire league, which would go up with the trade kicker. He's hurt. He's had at least one knee surgery. Did he have two knee surgeries or one? I I can't remember. He had at least one torn ACL, but now he's got this foot thing. He was available for a month, and nobody wanted to trade for him except LeBron, which, by the way, is a fact.

He We trust.

Here's what really strikes me, fellows, with Zack, and this is like... Because somebody's going to try to talk themselves into him this summer for $198 million minus whatever it was this year. This was his 10th year in the league. Do you guys realize that? That's nuts. He was in the 2015 draft. Was. How many playoff games do you think he's played in? Total number of playoff games. What would your guess be?

Well, I guess he was on the Jimmy- This is year 10 of Zack O'Neill. He was part of the Jimmy Butler deal. They got Jimmy to Minnesota. So he wasn't on that Minnesota team. The Bulls only made the play-in.

So he's never made the play-off. He's just going to talk it out.

He's trying to do zero play-off. Zero play-off.

No, it's four play-off games.

I was going to say five.

All right, so I had to look this up. A new basketball reference. I'm a subscriber to Stathead because I like looking up weird shit. How many guys have played the first 10 years of their career and played less than five playoff games? Well, you could get answers for that. How many of those guys also made an All-Star team and played less than five playoff games and played 10 years in the league. It's him and Maurice Stokes. Those are the only two. Maurice Stokes, which is one of the saddest NBA stories ever because he had an annual... This guy was basically Elgin Baylor before Elgin Baylor, got hurt, and they had the Maurice Stokes Award, and he's a beloved NBA figure. He's the only other one in the history of the league that this happened to. If you expand it to five playoff games or less, the great Steve Francis enters the equation as the third guy. House, this is pretty dire. And this is a guy that you've looked at for the Wizards for the last four or five years as 30% wanted him and 70% nude and badly.

Definitely not interested. Definitely not. No. I mean, this is a guy who's going to... This contract is going to run its course, and there will be a reset of what he can get in the marketplace.

He'll be 34 at that point. 33.

Is it going to be half of what he's getting right now? Is it not even 25 million, right?

This is the last one. Can we now, after the Bradley Beale deal, where it's like, you got to give them the money, you got to protect the asset. You can't lose the asset. And a year later, they have Jordan pool for the Bradley. And a bunch of... They have 40 second-round picks in Jordan pool because they protected the asset. Same for the Bulls. The Bulls are, I got to protect the asset. Can't let Zack Leven leave. Well, now you're stuck with Zack Leven. Is this era now over? Are we going to see a team just be like, You know what? Fuck that. I don't even want to protect the asset. Good luck. Godspeed.

Yeah, I think because of the structure of the salary cap, teams often just get capped into doing it, meaning there's no way to even get replacement-level talent in the building. You're just literally fielding a way worse team at that point. But at the same I wonder with the Bulls, specifically, what they might do when faced with this, because if people remember, Zack Levine was in the press complaining because he thought the Bulls might not pay him. I remember Windhorse I put something out, and Chicago had been putting out for a while. Like, look, why would we pay a guy who can't get us in the playoffs? He's never done it.

What are we, the Wizards?

And then ultimately, they They did it. They pulled the trigger on it. And yeah, it's been quite regretful. The fact that so many teams want to add the idea of what Zack Levine brings to the table. He just languished there and nobody pulled the trigger. And then also that first... So you guys remember him and Billy Donovan got into it? So there was all this stuff in the press, him and Billy Donovan hitting each other. And let me tell you, it wasn't just Billy Donovan. The guys on the team, that first time he left the team and they took off the guys on the team were sick of Zack Levine. So it's like coaches, players, everybody's off for this guy. And then teams around the league were like, I'm good. Even Rob Polinka was disciplined enough not to do something like this. That's crazy.

Yeah. So Levine gets hurt this year. Kobe White gets more minutes, and the Bulls immediately look way better.

Revelation.

Or at least a frisky playing team. House, anything to add about Zack Levine before I go to my fourth pick?

No. I mean, we said it all. Good luck to him for the rest of his career. It might not be very long.

Top three for Zack Levin. Tough B for him. All right. Well, I also have the fourth pick. I feel Am I bad doing this? But then I thought about how I lost my 2022 title, Banner 18 for the Celtics, because really Steph Curry in game 4 and Jordan pool coming off the bench in the last three games. But really, it was Andrew Wiggens turning into the second best player of the series and becoming this amazing two-way guy, tapping in all that he potentially had, leading to him getting a pretty nice extension, four years, 109 million. Last year, he disappeared for a long time. Don't want to speculate on whatever. We've all been like, I don't know what happened, but feel bad for him.

I have an idea, and it wasn't warranted.

And this year, he did it again and was just gone for two weeks. This is two years in a row where he just left the team. But I'm just going to do production. He's down to 12.6 points a game and 4 rebounds, and his three-point shooting is in the 35% range. And the reason this is the number four pick for me is, I think he's almost impossible to trade. Who is like, Oh, cool. I can get Andrew Wiggins. At this point, he's going to hit his 30s. There's been some erratic stuff the last couple of years. People aren't sure about the motor to begin with. And if he leaves that Golden State infrastructure, what am I getting? And I just think I was looking at everybody else on my list, and he would give me the most hesitation house. It's like, Oh, Andrew Wiggins for that? I don't know.

The problem with him is what evidence is there? Setting aside the title runs.

Six months in 2022. We'll always have those six months.

That's right. That he wants- The tantalizing six It was six months.

That he wants to play NBA basketball, that he likes playing it. That's it.

It was like the six months before Kyle's wedding when he wasn't smoking, he wasn't going out. The same thing. He Andrew Wiggens us. Look at this guy.

He's changed his life around.

He's an adult now. Kyle, he's all grown up. He's throwing a wedding for himself. Yeah, I don't know. Where's Wiggins a year from now? What team?

Still going to say- That's a great I mean, he's not so bad, I feel like, yet that he can't even be salary dumped. But when he signed that deal, everybody was like, Man, he should have held out for more. Everybody thought it was a steal for what he got. And what we all forgot is that Glenn Taylor gave him a max rookie extension on a freaking promise that he would try hard. That was the thing Glenn Taylor said in public. He said, I talked to Andrew, and he told me he was going to work himself into being worthy of the contract. I just fashioned on it. That's a thing that happened.

Such an underrated, awful owner, Glenn Taylor. Yeah, it was just a disaster.

He's so low profile.

He did some of the dumbest shit ever.

And you know why, Bill? Because a lot of times bad owners are associated with meddling. With Glenn Taylor, it's the opposite. It's apathy.

Yeah, apathy and like, Hey, this David Kohn seems like a good guy. Maybe I'll make him the GM. Whatever. Keep it. The one thing I'll say with Wiggins house is that by all counts, really well-liked teammate. Okay. You could feel it in the 2022 playoffs when he was doing well. All the warriors and Steve Kerr and the coaching staff, they called him Wiggs. They were just so happy that he was having a moment.

Right.

Which makes me think, Could this come back? But for that price, I don't know who's taken... When Dallas didn't want to take a gamble on it and went for P. J. Washington instead, right? They could have just probably flipped Grant Williams and a pick and a Wiggins if they wanted, or even just Grant Williams and something. But I just don't feel like anyone was looking at Wiggins. House, you're up. Number five.

Well, I can't let a top five of worst contracts in the NBA go by without including Bradley Beale. I mean, call. Let me be honest here.

He's 30 years old.

He's in the second year of his five-year, $251 million deal. The final season of that contract is a player option for 57.1 million.

He just said, yes, I'm going to exercise that.

Can we bet on that future? Is that a future we can get FanDuel to write some odds for us?

By the way, that's the second biggest contract value in the entire league right now.

Well, contract, yes. Value, no. He's played 36 out of 65 games. When you look up his stat line, it says Bradley Beal, nursing ham string, is what it says. He's averaging 18.6 points per game. Now look, the stat line for him this season in the 36 out of 65 games that he's played to date. Not bad. He's shooting almost 50% from the field, just 49.7. He's up on his career average from three, 37.7%..

I got to say I like the way he's been playing for them. He just didn't know his play. He's playing well. He'd be nice to know if he was playing. But yeah, I think he's fit in really nicely with them.

Me too. Good asset when he plays.

But he's being paid as if he's Shade Gilgish Alexander. Yeah. But he's a glorified third banana. I mean, come on. It's a terrible contract. Then you forgot the last part house, which is my favorite part about the Bradley Bill contract. He has a no trade.

Did that move with him? Did it go from? Did it carry?

Did it carry? Yes, it did. It's like BD. You just get to bring it to the next stop.

Even if you find a place that's crazy enough, sicko enough, to love Brad Bill so much as to try to trade for him and give you value for the guy, he could veto the deal. It's the gift that keeps on giving the Brad Bill contract.

One of my favorite Bradley Bill stats is he hasn't played 60 games in the season since the 2018 '18, '19 campaign when Kawhi was on Toronto and Kevin Durant was on the Warriors. It was five fucking years ago. He hasn't played 60 games? I do like the way he fits with Booker and Durant, though. House and I talked, and I know House did a thing on East Coast Bias, as always, you guys stole stuff that I brought up in the thread. At least you gave me credit this time. I did. What are you talking about? It's fine. But I was saying that Phoenix, the more I stare at the West and the more I stare at Denver and how unbeatable they are, especially in the last five minutes, just nobody's beating them. You have to be up 10 on them with five minutes left, and that's how you beat them in a playoff But the only way to beat them is just to outscore them, literally. They're going to score on their end, so you just have to score at least one more point than them on your end. Phoenix might be the only team in the West that can do that, was, where they could just be like, All right, you're definitely scoring, but we're definitely scoring, too.

And that's how to beat them? I don't see another recipe for beating Denver.

I'm of the mind that you got to... I'd like to see somebody build a jumbo package against them. If guys will I remember the last time this team lost at full strength was with the Lakers, who, Dwight Howard still had something in the tag. Just big boyed them.

Well, Minnesota has the people to do that.

I think you got to have a jumbo package available. I actually think Rudy does pretty decently against Jokich when they face up with each other. Not that he's killing him or anything, but he plays pretty well against the guy. But outside of a jumbo package, I don't think the outscoring thing is going to I don't think anything is going to work. But maybe Durant and Booker are getting hot four times in a series, and they win three of those, and then Bill has the one rando game when he has six threes. I just can't imagine that the Nuggets are losing four times to a team because of Bradley Bill.

The Nuggets aren't losing to anybody. Somebody's going to have to get injured for it to be realistic.

I am intrigued by what was just shared because that is the way that Phoenix beat them last week. They played Norkich and Ubank's 53 minutes, and both those guys fouled out of the game. What that got them to was overtime, but then they wanted overtime. They did outscore Denver in the overtime. So it did that.

Durant made a three, Bill made a couple of big plays. Well, we'll see with Bradley Bill. All right, Waz. I mean, this is where the board drops. If we're doing the NFL draft, this is like a swing pick right here. This could go in a lot of directions right now, and you got two in a row. We're in a new tier. What do you got?

Man, I got to go back to Chicago and one Nikola Vuchimay Vuchivich. Because I don't think people realize how badly this guy is thinking up the joint this year at this point. Just so folks know, he's got about 66 million left for three years. After this season, 41.5 million bucks, which is the biggest-For two years, yeah. For two years. That's what you pay a starting quality above average center in this week.

Is that where you pay a guy who gets replaced by Andre Drummond at Crunch Time?

It's insane. His defense has gotten worse, obviously, over the years with age. His offense, one, because he's got the cultural veteran cache, guys feel a need to give him the rock. So he could, quote, unquote, go to work on killing his team. Now he's taking threes at volume and he's at 28%.

It's very reminiscent on what happened to House and pick up basketball near the end of his career. No, near the end. Guys still felt like, Oh, it's house. We'll feed him at the top. But it wasn't there in the same way anymore.

Just a black hole. I still got him up. He's so bad. The Bulls are so anonymous at this point that people don't notice. But that extension they gave him has been a killer. Who is he being a backup center at this point?

Who is the other person in there? We also are at 66 for three for Vucevic.

I think it was the we loved what we had when Lanzo and Caruso and all these guys were cooking.

During the two weeks when Lanzo and Caruso and we had everybody.

I think they fell in love with that and felt like Vuch was a big part of it, and it was justifiable, but clearly. Then they gave up a bunch of pigs to bring them in. Just terrible, terrible transaction that way.

I'm ready for Vuch to move into the next phase of his career, the Marc Gasol, late 2010s, an eighth man on a good team where he comes in and you're not relying on him, but every once in a while, it's like, Oh, my God. Whoosh Bitch had 12 points in that quarter, and that's where he is now. But unfortunately, he's the starting center on a team making 22 million a year. House, any last voosh thoughts other than the obvious Wizards trade that's going to happen with him?

No, no. They're not going to do that. I can't imagine.

All Waz, what's your other pick?

I think it's time to get just slightly spicier.

I've been waiting.

I'm still not a fan of the Carl Towns deal. I'm still not a fan of a guy who is a center, and I get it. He made the All-Star team. He's a quality offensive player.

Well, say what the deal is.

Five years, I think it's about 260,257.

Two hundred and fifty-seven million for this year and the next four. Two, fifty-seven. Two, five, seven.

Yes. Over the next four years after this one, there will be $220 million left on Carl Towns' deal.

At least one of the years starts with a six.

After this year. This is a guy who is a center, who you had to go trade for someone, who you're now paying $45 million to do what? Center. Because of Carl Towns' game, Minnesota is paying $120 million a year in centers.

They were number one in the West for 60 days of the season so far.

Look, they did not work well. They had an Edward, so all isn't lost. Again, Carl Towns is a quality player. It's not like he's some unplayable whatever player. He is not He's not a $50 million NBA player. He's just not. I had him lower on the list.

I did, too, only because I think we got a little bit of validation of what Minnesota was after in terms of bringing in Gobert. We did see them be able to function together. His versatility still, I think, makes him a little bit of an asset. But I was, I'm not arguing with the point.

Yeah. Listen, he was going to get drafted. I just... Yeah, right. Was grabbing him at seven was a little like when the Pacers took Walker eighth last year. I was like, Whoa, he's going now? Okay. Yeah, no. I did notice that he went out and Nas Reid immediately went into his spot and had 34 points. It looked really good.

20 million a year for Nas Reid, center.

Was, here's why I didn't have him in the top 10. Because I think if they shopped in this summer, I think teams would pay for him. I think the Knicks would pay for him. I think there's some teams out there that are like, Oh, Towns is on board. Will you take this back plus some pics? Whereas I just don't think Beal has a market. Beal's market was basically somebody buying the Suns and just being like, Let's make the finals. I don't care about pics. I don't care about the second apron. Let's get some players. He was it. He was the only guy bidding. With Towns, I do feel like there's a couple of teams that would... For instance, Oklahoma City, that's a guy that they should be thinking about if he ever became available because he fits what they do. They like all those permanent people. They have a million pics. I don't know if they care about the money as much. Any other Karl-Anthony Towns? This is the nicest we've ever treated him in the worst contract strategy.

Listen, look, I thought Rudy should have got his spot at All-Star, honestly, because they're a dominant defense, and it's because of Rudy Gobert. I don't know. That Carl Towns thing seems absurd to me. Although, again, to be fair, what he's done on defense this year, he deserves credit for that. Eight years or whatever we are into the Carl Towns experience, he's decided that defense is a thing that matters and serious teams actually perform at, serious players. But yeah, that deal looks absurd to me. Every time I look at that number, I'm just blown away that Carl Towns got that.

Was this might be one of those pics when you look back at this draft in June after Towns falls apart in the playoff series. You'll be like, Whoa, great value at seven. Come on, man. That was a top four pick.

Well, that's a perfect segue and set up into my next pick because I can absolutely tell you a player and a team that would gladly take Karl Anthony Towns, and that is the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Trey Young. I'm really surprised that Trey Young made it this far in this draft. We still took them last year, 10 spots early. I think he's in exactly the right spot right here. Was it number 8 or number 9 in this draft?

Yeah, number 8.

It was a five-year, $215 million deal. We need a name for this class of overpaying. It's your Zack Levine, your Bradley Beal, your Trey Young. I don't know if I want to put K-A-T into this, but there is this- It's not a max deal.

It's his first rookie max extension, right? Towns is on his second one. That's why his is so much more- So first max. This is his first max. That's why for me, he's still a borderline All-Star, which means he is close to a $35 million player. He is. I don't see it as... In terms of production, in terms of leadership, It's tough.

Let's define production. What is his role on a team? Setting aside, and I'm going to recognize what I'm doing here, what he did with that Atlanta team in the Eastern Conference playoffs a couple of years ago, can he ever do that again? This contract is based on that performance.

Well, you need Ben Simmons on the other team. You need Joel Embiid to gack two free throws at the end of a game. There's a lot of stuff that has to go your way. I think the thing with Trey Young, the potential of what he is, you could even see it. Like, House and I were fascinated by the betting for this season where the Hawks at one point, after 60 games, were 22 games under 500 covering the spread. What was their record? They were like 19 and 41 against the spread.

Historically bad.

Despite all evidence that the Hawks were bad, week after week, gamblers were like, This is the week. Here they go. I was watching highlights the other day. Trey Young looked amazing. And then guess what? They'd fucking lose again. And they just lost. And Vegas is just set in the line perfectly. And all these idiots like us are like, This is the week for the Hawks. They I nailed most of my over-unders. When I was in Boston, I did a bunch of future parlays. And of course, I put the fucking Hawks in four of them, where I'm going to hit six of the seven win over-unders. And then there's the Hawks. We're going to be 10 wins lower. I just wonder if that's Trey's destiny, that they'll be dining off this 2021 playoffs for the rest of his career, where we're like, Well, that one time, remember that? It's just maybe it was a fluke. Maybe Philly should have beaten them in five, and then we would be talking about it the way we should be talking about it, which is like, he is a good stats, bad team player until we have further evidence that he's not.

And Waz, you care about the Hawks the most. Out of the three of us, you probably watch the Hawks the most. What evidence is there that he's more than a good stats, bad team guy?

Look, I think what he does is elite. His passing is elite. And under the right circumstances, he can be pretty elite at scoring as well. I think the problem with that is the route that he takes to these stats is very alienating to teammates. And Trey Young being a guy who's always going to need teammates to pick him up defensively. So the proposition that he's making to his teammates now and in the future is, watch me take all the shots, hog the ball, pass it when I feel like, take 40 footers on a whim, and then lift me up on defense Who's signing up for that? It's just an insane proposition.

It's a very junior situation of the LeBron situation. Lebron has earned all the accolades with this. But when you're on LeBron's team, if you When LeBron gets all the credit, and if you lose, it's your fault. If you're on Atlanta, Trey gets the credit if anything good happens. I think this is part of the Murray thing. It's always interesting when Trey doesn't play what happens with Murray in those games.

He's like, Finally.

He I was like, Finally, I get to take dad's car out of the garage. I thought it was a whiff early for Trey Young, but house, I respect that you're a man of principles and you stick to your guns, and it was a very predictable pick. I'm going to take a break and then do my two in a row. All right, coming back. I have two picks. Honestly, I'm stunned, guys. I'm stunned that he's still available at the ninth pick. I thought for sure he was going as one of the last two. Deandre Ayton. Yes. I'm waving the white flag. I'm not defending him anymore. I'm done. I just can't do it anymore. Deandre, it's not you, it's me. It's not you, it's me. I just need some space. I can't defend you anymore, but you're great. I had a great time riding for you and mentioning the 2021 finals and how you were able to guard Yana, and you got a bad deal in Phoenix. You got blamed for everything. If you could just end up on the right team, it'll be, I'm done. Can't do it. Three years, 102 million left, and that's this year and the next two.

He's 15 and 11. He's like the guy's house that I grew up with, these centers that can get... They can get 18 and 11. They can get 15 and 10. They don't really seem like they're always trying. Minus 6.7 net. I thought he was in a great situation, this Portland team. Rob Williams goes down. He gets to be the starting center. It's like, All right, prove it to us. Show us Phoenix made a mistake. He did the opposite, was.

You can go, I want to say 10, 12, 13 possessions at a time without even noticing this man is on the court. To buy a tarot syndrome. On both ends. It's insane how bad this guy has been this year to me. And again, this is relative to the deal. He gets paid like an upper echelon starting center in the NBA. He is nowhere close to that. Again, he's not a negative. So he's not Jordan pool range where he's actively hurting his team every single minute that he's on the floor. But my God, the dominant- It's just too much money allocated for this production. For this level of production.

Would you rather have Luke Cornet for $2 million a year or DeAndre Ayton for 30?

Sign me up for Cornet. Thank you.

I don't know if you've seen him lately, but he might be a $30 million a year guy the way it's going for Luke Cornet.

Good rim protection.

House, you tried to talk yourself into Ayton with the Wizards a bunch of times. Is that shit sailed?

I thought there was a possibility that he was going to be part of the Bradley Beale thing because it was apparent. It seemed that Phoenix was thinking about moving on from him. Yeah, I'm good. I'm all good with Mr. Aiton.

Well, maybe Portland signs Buddy Heel this summer, get a little Bahamas reunion. Maybe that'll get him going. If it didn't happen this year with no Rob Williams, I don't know if it ever happens. All right, so 8 and one pick. I'm going to admit defeat on him. I have two guys on my board. One is like an underrated drive-by, and then the other one is Super Spicy. I think I can get the Super Spicy guy in a couple of pics. I'm going to go with Keldon Johnson. Really? Probably weren't expecting him in the top 10.

He's a media darling.

Four years, 74 million. Yet another guy when everyone, when we have to talk about how smart the Spurs are, even though there's been really no evidence since 2017 that they're either smarter or dumber than anybody else. Like, literally, there's none.

Nobody can come up with any of it. They got the number one pick. What are you talking about?

They drafted the next generation of talent.

They're geniuses.

If you just go through the moves, not great. But they gave Caldon Johnson this extension, and he's dropped from 22 points to 16 points a game, 33% three-point field goal the last two years. He's got the worst net rating on the Spurs minus 8.5 And I test-wise, I'm like, fucking A, man. Wemby needs better teammates. And one of the guys you look at right away is like, I wish Keldon Johnson was better. So you go from your 22 point of game score on a really bad team to now that you have a good teammate, it should make you better. And it just doesn't feel like it has. So I don't know who would be excited to trade for that contract house.

Sure. Except for it's not that much money is the thing.

It's like 18, 19 million. It's 20 million this year, and it goes backwards.

But that's fungible.

See, so to me, the reason why I don't like your pig Bill is because there's a guy on his team, Zack Collins. I mean, good Lord. What does he make him? He's got 34 million two years after this one. Okay? Yeah, like Zack Collins- He didn't make my draft last.

He is 34 million.

What the hell? I'm looking this up. Zack Collins, 34 million over the next two seasons after this one. Can't play with Wemby. Obviously, can't man lineups without him. They just paid him blindly on blind faith that he would be a guy. No, he's 22.

Oh, no. He got an extension. Jesus. Yes. Two year, 34 million extension next two years after this one. But he's only at 7.7 this year.

Yes. Two years, 34 million in the next two years. He's just been wiped out of the rotation, wiped out of existence.

He does nothing. Is that your next pick? Oh, no, you're not up.

Well, no, because I got to go spicy my next few.

Oh, no, you're not up yet.

Oh, I can't wait. I like it when.

Now, I regret not going spice here. But yeah, I wanted to lash out against the Spurs because the Wemby thing makes me so mad.

That's why we're here to pick you up, Bill.

Can you put a fucking better team around Wemby? I say it every podcast. House, you're up.

Well, I'm surprised with the DeAndre Ayton pick. Why? Because the combination of his age and the duration of the contract, there There is still an out. That out doesn't exist with his teammate, Jeremy Grant, who is in the first year of a five-year, $160 million deal. This guy is making 27.5 million this year, 29.8 next year, 32, and he's 30 years old.

Yeah, that part's not great.

Congratulations to Jeremy Grant, by the way. Tremendous job. Like turning himself into two great deals.

He's like the new Kerr Cousins.

He really is.

That's just a great call. I had him in my top 10, and then I went and looked at his stats this year because I From watching Portland, I was like, Yeah, Jeremy Grant's pretty good. He's averaging 21 a game. He's shooting 38% for three. He's a good player.

He is, for sure.

He's just too overpaid.

And Portland's atrocious. It makes no sense at all for them to have They have $60 million combined going to DeAndre Ayton and Jeremy Grant. They have the kids who really should be getting this run. They have to find out what they got with Scoot. Simon is still salvageable. Shaden Sharpe is legit. I don't know. I mean, if it's a go-along-to-get-along contract, it just feels like that's what it is, and it feels expensive to me. He could be a very valuable player in a different circumstance altogether, but I don't know what he's doing on Portland at that price.

The reason he wasn't up on my list is that I think the second this season's over, they'll be getting calls on him again, and they'll be able to extract value out of his deal again. And so they just punted on it this past trade deadline because they're like, People are going to want this guy because, like you said, he shouldn't 38 %. Although I do think, I don't think he's a little bit overrated. I do think that, but I think his perception because he plays a premium position, because he's got great size and he's making his threes, I think people will still call them for him, and he will draw some damn interest this summer again. So that's why he was low for me. Although, again, I do think he's a bit overrated in that way.

I like House. I thought you made the key point about where he is the last two years of that deal when he's in his mid-30s. Maybe not as exciting to pay 34-year-old Jeremy Grant 32 million. How spot and low. All right, Waz, you're on the clock with two.

Kawhi Leonard just left the freaking Clippers game. With back spasm. So now we're adding back spasms to a gimpy meniscus and ACL. I mean, the injuries just never stop piling up for this guy. And yes, obviously, when he he's a borderline and VP candidate, but he never plays. And he's going to make $50 million three years preceding this. That is a scary proposition. So to me, I'm making that bet that He's just not going to be on the court. And that is expensive.

Four years this year, plus the next three. He's making 45.6 this year. And then a new extension kicks in from Uncle Steve. Uncle Steve's I got a new arena. Who wants some money? And he gave Kawhi three years, 149.65 million dollars house. What would you say for when you throw in Kawhi history and the Curse of the Clippers, what is the over-under for Kauai games in the three-year extension? If you had to bet. If I said it at one-Oh, amazing. I'm going to set it at 140 games. Would you go over or under?

Way Under. That's an outrageous number, 140.

Would you go Under, Wes? You have to play 141 regular season games next three years. Including this year? No, next year.

No, next year. The three years.

I'm going under. That's That's 50 a season, right? No, under. Under, under, under, under, way under. I'd count the postseason in that, too.

That's basically you're saying he's going to make more than a million a game.

I want to count it in the postseason. Absolutely.

Well, the funny thing is we do the Ringer 100 voting, and I think I had Kawhi as the sixth best player in the league. Yeah, that makes sense. I just wouldn't want to pay him $200 million. I'd want to pay him by the season.

He just doesn't play. He doesn't play. He's a liability that way. He doesn't play.

But if he's healthy come these playoffs and Harden and George are healthy. How else?

He just left the game. He just left the game and went to the hospital with back spasm.

It's a regular season.

It's a regular season. Not great. Okay. It wasn't great.

They got drugs for that.

Okay. Waz, what's your other pick?

C. J. Mccollum. I mean, he's just got such a great reputation in the media. He's a media member himself. Nobody would ever come after C. J. Mccollum because he's such a positive, well-liked, so polished and all of that. I don't fall for it. It's a bad deal. The guy can't guard anybody. He's not a point guard. He's not They're like a set up guy, set the table type of guy. Thankfully, he's shooting threes at volume for the first time in his career, really. He's always been like a mid-range darling. But guess what? He's the third set up guy on this team. Doesn't guard people, and all he does is spot up, essentially. He's overpaid. Two more years at 32 million a pop after this year. So 64 million after this year. If you count this $100 million. C. J. Mccollon could be a glorified microwave dude. I think that's absurd. Overpaid as hell. Bad contract. C. J. Mccollon rounds out my roster.

That was my favorite wise pick of the draft. He's not falling for C. J. Mccolls.

Come on, man. I'm not falling for this media glad-handing. I'm not going to fall for it. I'm too impartial.

What are your additional thoughts, House?

I He was staring me right at the face. It was. It's right. He's getting paid for something that doesn't have to do with going out and playing basketball and helping his team win basketball games.

I like him, but sometimes this happens where... What's weird is they double down on it. He was pretty pricey when they got him, and then they're like, Hey, how about two more years? It feels like the 25 range is the right range for him, and he's above that. All right, House, who do you have?

I ask a technical question because I have a combo, but I don't know. This would be the first time in the history of the worst contract thing. What this really amounts to is an indictment of one particular team. But I don't want to... I could just say one of the players, and you would understand who the other side of the coin is. I'll do it however the podfather dictates, but I'm asking permission for a combo pick here because I don't think either one of these guys- You'd have to forfeit next round's pick, but I'll allow it because I don't think you're going to-I like this.

Well done. I don't think you're going to take any of my snake pics.

I don't think so either. I'm looking at DeAndre Hunter and John Collins and wondering, what in the hell was Atlanta doing two years ago? What in God? John Collins is now in the third year of a five-year, $125 million deal. Deandre Hunter still has four years, $80 million, I believe.

I have him for four for 90. This is year one of this extension. Yeah. So three years after this, and it's 90 million total for the four years.

This is how you create teams that can't possibly find their way to success. This gross overpaying role players. These guys, what contribution does John Collins make to a winning basketball team? Now, the curious thing, both these guys are 26 years old.

The knock-off Hunter- John Collins, three for 78.6, by the way, including this year. That's what's left. That's what's left. So he's at 26 million a year for this year next year.

Hunter had garnered this reputation of being a defensive ace, except for he can't play. When he does play, he doesn't play very good defense. I'm happy to use both of my picks right now on this disastrous Atlanta tandem. This is three picks in a row for me with Atlanta. And honestly, it might be the only franchise that gives me hope with my Washington franchise because they really do rival Washington in terms of grossly overpaying role players, third and fourth, not even really third, fourth and fifth bananas on teams that actually have aspirations for winning.

I'm glad you're blaming Atlanta for the contract, even though it's now in Utah. It's telling that when they traded him to Utah, Utah was like, Here's our offer. Nothing. Right. They did the Michael Corleone. Yeah. Here's my offer. Zero. We'll just take the contract and give you a bag of balls back. The Colin thing is interesting because I do like his game, but if the three-point shooting was in the '40s?

Yeah, it never came back around, honestly. He broke the hand and it never came back around. I feel bad because I've been a John Collins apologist for about four years, and I thought the Utah thing would finally be able to turn it around. But it turns out he's just a nice little low-end starter. He was definitely on my board because he gets paid like a premium power forward type. Utah, he gets plenty of opportunities, plays around plenty of space. They got a creative offense, and it just hasn't worked out. It's just he's not worth the deal that he's on. It's just a fact. There's no two ways about it. Deandre Hunter is not a starter. He's not a guy. He's just not. He got his deal at a time where everybody was just like, Oh, the way the cap is spiking and blah, blah, blah. You could never overpay for a little role player, three and D wing guy. It doesn't matter if he can't dribble or shoot or pass. It's all good. It's going to work out. And it just didn't. I think Hunter is a way worse value on his contract than John Collins.

It's only because I can see John Collins getting meaningful minutes for a real team.

Hunter is at least in threes this year. He was not last year. We're going to take one more break. And when we come back, I am bringing the Moma Fuku spice, and we are about to give this podcast a shocker.

Gilly Crunch.

All right, for my next two pics, I dedicate both these pics to Gill Bang. Curbant enthusiasm. What was it? Episode three or four, The Shocker. Gilbang was on the pornset all day. And you know what? His equipment wasn't totally working. And then somebody had an idea to put a little Tabasco in his ass. And it turned out it wasn't the actress he was working with. It was the cameraman. And he told a whole story. And Larry's wife was horrified. And this was the first great Curbier Enthusiasm episode, House and I, Revere Gill Bang. I'm Gill Banging both of these pics. First off, LaMelo Ball. Welcome to the draft.

Yeah.

Sheesh. I mean, honestly, for the love of God, LaMelo Ball. Ten million this year. His extension hasn't even kicked in yet. Five years, 204.5 million starting next year for the Melo Ball, who's played 58 games last year and this year, who every time I watch the Hornets, he's just in street clothes smiling as they're down 20. I have no idea if he could be even the second He's really a best player in a good team. From a culture standpoint, we've now had a whole presidential term with him, and I don't see it. I know the talent is there, but this feels like somebody who's going to break some hearts along the way where it's like, Oh, man, he's so talented. Oh, did you see? He had a 36, 15, and 10 last night, and I don't see it. I don't like where it's gone was, and the middle of all is my first pick.

Yeah, I feel you. He's somebody I thought about myself. The The talent is obviously there. He's obviously still super young. I don't think he's plateaued in terms of output when he's actually played. He's shooting threes at pretty nice volume, 36 %. You can't be mad at that. That's not scintillating, but it's like, okay, this is respectable. He's always had the core vision, always had the size. Let's get those positives out the way. He does not play. He is highly unserious, is not a defensive player yet, even with all of the size and the alleged basketball.

I think the yet is going to be standing for the next 10 years.

There's just no proof that a guy who never played. This guy, he's got to get on the court. When he's on the court, he has to be a serious person. I know some of this stuff is very cosmetic. It's like, Oh, he's not moping on the bench. Well, sometimes you should mope. Your team stinks, and you're never on the floor. Stop showing up the games and goofing around. You know I mean? I get it. This is a scary, scary, scary situation. Good thing they got Randy Miller.

Listen, maybe this segment will be a PSA for him. Lamela Ball, we all think you're talented. What we don't want is 10 years from now on whatever Twitter ends up being in 2034 is the 90-second montage of some idiot going, LaMelo Ball is a problem. It's these LaMelo Ball highlights. Oh, man, LaMelo Ball was really good. Your destiny can't be the 90 second Twitter montage of that you were a problem when you didn't fucking make the playoffs ever. So get your shit together, LaMillo Ball. What do you have to add house?

I feel the exact same way. Stop the Clowny Pants. I mean, this is the thing. I'm not going to besmirch the family, but we have a problem with getting the balls on the basketball court. That is now a documented fact.

We all love Lanzo, and to me, that was like, I don't know what happened with this knee, but we've at least seen moments from Lanzo where it's like, this guy is a winning player who has real value and adds something to good teams. And LaMelo just seems like a guy who's a good stats, bad team guy. And he's not. It doesn't seem like a culture guy, at least not yet, but he's young. Maybe there's a chance, but I don't know how.

And again, just the opposite end of the spectrum with a young guy. And some of this stuff is structural for me in the sense that LaMelo Ball has accomplished He's basically nothing in the NBA, and he's already got... If he doesn't live a single finger again, he will have earned $250 million. At a certain point, it's like, you can't tell me my career is panned out bad in that sense. With that being said, What's his incentive to turn into a serious player? Turn that to a Victor Wimbenyama, who I'm not going to lie, I was pretty skeptical, he's going to come in here and kick everybody's ass. He's a dog. He's yelling at his teammates. He's playing hard. He's taking defense seriously.

He's serious.

He is taking it so freaking serious. That's what you want to see out of a young guy.

We're not seeing it. We all agree, something's missing. Can't put my finger on it, but the way was just spelled out, the WMDBE thing, that's exactly how I feel. You either have that, I want to dominate, and I want to kick ass, and I want to be awesome, and I want my team to be awesome, or you're just playing basketball to get stats and get commercials. Look cool.

At Instagram followers.

Maybe there's still time for a LaMillo ball. All right, my other pick. Also another Gill Banger. This year in the next three, he's owed 207.2 $3.3 million. He's going to be 37 years old getting a paycheck that starts with a six for the year. He's good once a week?

Mm-hmm.

Not positive, but his best years might be behind him. We're about to find out over the next three months. Every once in a while, he gets absolutely torched by somebody. I hope he doesn't make a diss track about me. Damian Lillard. It's just too much money. It's money that scares the fucking shit out of me if I'm the Bucks for three years from now. It's a terrifying number. For what we're seeing now, I think he's going to be three years older in three years, and we're going to be paying 60 plus million? House, it makes you gulp.

I made this case on this show a year ago with There were still only four years left, but it's about his age at the end of this deal. Now, the thing that you, better than me and was, maybe, have a perspective on what the next media deal might look like. There could be a form of cap relief when teams like the fuck take this in.

I don't think it's going to be as exciting of a media deal as everybody seems to think. Okay, all right.

But we do think the cap will go up some amount, right?

I think we'll still get those 10% raises. I believe so. Yeah.

That creates a little bit of room.

Well, let me ask you this, house. It's not enough. If you're a network and you're like, All right, what am I paying for? The two most famous players in your of your league are 39 and 35. What's year seven of my deal looking like? I better really believe in Anthony Edwards and Jason Tatum and Wembenyama, who's a French guy.

Fair enough.

The biggest player, all the biggest players in your league are not going to be from America?

Yeah, it's tough.

Jokić is the best player in the league, and it's not close right now. I feel like the Ringer probably spends the most time talking about him, but I don't know if he's a national guy like LeBron and Curry. I don't think it's ever happening. I also don't think he gives a shit. But I don't know what I'm paying for if I'm the networks. Why do I have to pay a 25% premium on where we were already?

Well, I think maybe if you think you're a network and you're just better at selling this package of goods than the previous partners were, because let's face it, they haven't been always awesome at doing that. Don't want to say no names, but maybe that's the play. It's like, I think this is a depressed asset, and I can do way better with this, with these guys have to sell than what the current partners are doing. I think that's the only way to spin it when you look at some of the current numbers and trends, et cetera.

The problem is what Derek Thompson talked about on this podcast a couple of weeks ago is there's so many basketball fans who don't actually watch that much of the games, but they follow the league religiously on social media. My son knows everything Wembenyam is doing. I know for a fact he hasn't sat down and watched more than five minutes of a Spurs game with me. So how do you sell that to networks? I think it's a problem anyway. We'll see. If the cap goes up, the Dame contract, not that bad. I just know House is terrified. You want to get through another podcast about a Dame Lohard diss track or anything. Yeah, any- Well, you know what? Or an eye emoji.

If they make it to the finals this year, the NBA finals this year, then it'll all be worth it. I think if you put that on the table- This year next, when they retool this summer, where they actually have the ability to add to the roster and not just be trotting out a joke of a wing rotation.

I think this year and next will be the window. I think Dame has been out of rhythm, out of sorts. He's definitely, obviously, clearly not having as good a season as he had last year, but I think he can bounce back. I think he's got it in him. I'm not as down on Dame as you two guys are, but I understand the trepidation.

I'm down at the 50 plus million a year. It's just in general. That number is terrifying no matter who the player is, unless it's like Jokich. House, what's your next pick?

Well, I used the combo, and you said I had to skip. Oh, yeah.

So Was is up. Was, who do you got?

All right. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty here.

We We're going to have two more rounds of us, so we'll go this round, next round, and we're going to wrap. We could go faster.

Mpj for me.

Still, he looked good last night.

Listen, look, I just think Jokey is He lifts all boats, man. It just can't be overstated how much he elevates all the things that are around him. I think Jamal Murray is an amazing player. I think he is extremely complementary of what Jokuj brings to the table. I don't think without Jokuj, he'd be some world-beating, dominating one. I shown. I think the world of the guy, and I think he's great for this team. He's extremely clutch. But I think because he gets to work off of Jokić, that thing looks beautiful. Same with MPJ. He doesn't got any moves. He would never be any ball dominant guy. He's not some prime Clay Thompson, just deathly scaring everybody with what he's doing with movement shooting and shooting and all of that. And respect to him for becoming a plus defender, actually using his size and all of that. But you think about the back, you think about it's only a matter of time before this guy's probably like, Yo, man, I need more touches. I need to rock more. I'm just thinking in the future. So MPJ, I'm looking at that contract, and I'm not too crazy about it.

So we got 115 million for this year and the next two. Three years, 115 million counted this year. History of back issues, although he's been really healthy. I I'll be the 170th person to make this point on a podcast this year, but he definitely is the X factor of that team. It seems like when he plays well, they're unbeatable. They might be unbeatable anyway. But when he plays well, you're like, holy shit, now what happens? If you do that in playoff series twice per playoff series, that's a win for him. House is just thinking about him ending up on the Wizards three years from now. He's the perfect Wizards. House likes MPJ. House doesn't I don't want to say it, but you're an MPJ guy. All right, Waz, what's your other pick?

Just because I have to, it's a bonus. I mean, come on. Wow. I can't do this. I can't do this. You're not going to get me to buy this thing. I'm never going to buy this thing. The T-rex arms at center, I'm never going to buy it. I get it. He's a focal point of what they're doing on offense, and he doesn't always embarrass himself on defense, and he plays hard, and he's a positive guy, but he's got four years, 186 left after this year, okay? Which, again, over $200 million when you- That was an uncle of a Beck.

Uncle of a beck is like, You've heard of Uncle Steve?

Here's uncle of a beck. Come on now. For a 6'8 center, I can't. Who doesn't shoot threes?

I can't be. He killed Anthony Davis last thing. I'm not impressed.

That's all he does.

Do it in the postseason. It's fair. I'm not buying this bonus You all can buy it. I'm not.

Basically, five years, 214 million for him, if you include this year.

We took a lot of heat, Simmons. When you and I were together looking at the list of potential All-stars, and we didn't know exactly what to do with Sabonis. The light of beam people came at us for not having... And he does have this incredible double-street going in the season.

He has the production.

Not only that, but it's production that matters. They beat the Lakers' ass last night because he's very challenging to Anthony Davis.

I guess my question is, and I know this defeats the purpose of the worst contract draft, but every team has to have at least one guy making over 40, right? Yeah. And probably two. This is the situation Lakers are in that Rousil and I talked about. Basically, every team has the spot, and the guys are going to make between 40 and 50. And if you pick your two guys and they're making a combined 90 to 100, what's the ceiling with those two guys? That's what everybody has to figure out. So if you're the Kings, you're like, All right, here's, we have Fox. Fox is on a pretty good deal because he's under 40 because they signed it two years ago. It's a bonus. We're paying 85 million maybe for those two together. What's our ceiling? Then you could talk yourself into, Well, we had the number one offense last year. We're really fun to watch.

He likes being in Sacramento. He got bounced in the first round by Jordan pool. I get it.

The case for the contract is this guy actually likes being in Sacramento. Our fans like him, and our team's pretty good. With all that said, it's too much money for Sabonis, I agree. It seems high.

Your ceiling is very low.

What's your other pick?

No, those were the two.

No, I made MPJ and Sabonis.

You did MPJ and Sabonis, so house is up.

He did, too. I have a confession. Is this the last pick or the second last pick?

This is the second last pick, but we can help feed you if you're happy.

No, I just have a confession. There's a name on this list that I'm just staring at it. I don't want to say it.

I don't want to say it. Go bang us. Give it to us.

I'm going to save it. I'll save it for the last pick. This is low-hanging fruit staring us right in the face. Whatever Pascal C. Occam's next deal is, it's going to be a gross, grotesque overpay. It's going to be a preposterous. We're also certain it's going to be a max. Do the Pacers really have to do that?

I don't know if it's going to be a max, but it's probably going to be like 40, 42 range.

I think it's going to be like 220 for five years, something like that.

For what?

The problem is they have a truly transcendent talent in Halley, right? You have to him with complementary pieces.

So far, it seems like- You got to overpay for the piece.

But is that the piece? That's the piece you're going to overpay for?

You want to be your third best guy. He can't be second.

I would sign that deal in I'm going to immediately try and trade him for Carl Anthony Towns. If I was to do that deal, that's what I would try to do. I'm an optimist.

What I will say is that since Halliburton got hurt and he rushed back, he just hasn't been the same. I'm I'm not going to judge the Siakam trade too harshly right now because Halliburton isn't at his best. And ultimately Halliburton has to be at his best so we can see what it really looks like. For sure. But yeah, the Seahakam deal, it can be a little It's just scary.

I will say, to me, he is in the class with Julius Randall and Jalen Brown, where it's like, Oh, man, how much money is it? Oh, he doesn't do this. He doesn't do that. But when they're on your team, it's a nice guy to have on the team. All three of those guys are three of the 10 best forwards in the league, and they play. They're durable. You know what you're getting. You watch Indiana at the end of the games, and it's like, Siakam will make a really good play with 90 seconds left. He's been in big games. I like him. He knows how to play. I just think he's too expensive.

That's it. He's going to be too expensive. He will be on this list next year. He definitely knows how to play, and that is a very good reason to have him on a team with the youth that Indianapolis has. I do wonder a tiny bit. It looks to me like his athleticism is diminishing a tiny bit. I do think that. Why? I said, Yeah, immediately. That makes me feel better.

All right.

I mean, he's 29. He's on the other side of that hill.

Yeah.

I have two picks left. The first one's easy. I'm offended that he hasn't gone yet. He's making for this year and the next three, four years, $94 million. To me, it's like for what he does during a game, I can find 30 guys in the league who basically does this. It's Cam Johnson on the Brooklyn Nets. It's like, oh, yeah, they traded Durant. They got Mikhel Bridges back. They got Cam Johnson. They re-signed him to almost $100 million, and he's going to blossom. Well, where's the blossom? First of all, he's one of the few people who failed by Team USA theory. Usually, when you play on Team USA, you come back and you're better. He's somehow worse. He's three points worse. Three-point shooting is fine. He's a 40% three-point shooter. But that's That's really it. It doesn't really rebound, doesn't really pass. Solid defender. It's a 3D guy. Why do I have to pay a 3D guy $22 million, $23, $24 million a year? I don't want to. No, thank you. It's the same conundrum you're in with DeAndre Hunter. It's like, Cool, I'm getting all this stuff, but can't I patch this together and find people that I'm paying $5 million a year for?

Anyway, I'm a little disillusioned. I thought he'd be better this year, and he's just not. He's one of my picks.

Kim Johnson is like a Tavon Austin type. Every time somebody thinks about him or brings him, Oh, Tavon Austin. He might unlock some stuff. It's such a great piece. And it's so explosive. And it's like, bro, he's dropping 40 in the spiked basketball era. It's like the Bradley Anderson 50 home run situation.

We're in the spike stats era and the stats went down.

Yeah. But what I'm saying is, remember those games where he dropped 40 three times in a row and it was like, oh, when Kyrie left the team at first, that's what got people really excited about this dude. But yeah, I've never saw it for him.

House?

He's the poster child of, are we really sure that Brooklyn's trying to win? I mean, we had the conversation at the top. I understand the point about them not having a fix or anything. But right. This guy, this is exactly why I asked the question. The Nets can lose to anybody. They've proven it time and time again. They'll lose to any team in the entire NBA on any given night. And And this guy at this salary is part and parcel of it. There is no proof to me that that's a serious team with serious intentions of trying to win. But good luck. Good luck to him.

Well, the good news is they haven't changed their front office in 10 years. Can I make a quick defense of Cam Johnson, even though I just picked him in the worst contract draft? Please. If Cam Johnson was here and was like, Cam, what happened this year? I think his response would be, My point cards were Spencer Dinwiddie, Cam Thomas, and Dennis Smith Jr. That's what happened. Give me a real fucking point card. Maybe you'd see your 20 points a game. Okay? Leave me alone. All right. My last pick. This is emotional. I'm sad it's over. I was really having a good time. There's some good ones left. But I got to go... It's been jumping out at me. I can't stop I'm staring at it. This year in the next five, $262 million for Anthony Davis, who is 31 years old.

It's not a bad pick.

Who's been playing big minutes really since he got in the league, who hasn't exactly been Mr. Durability.

No.

Look, I don't mind the number this year. I don't mind it next year. I don't mind it the year after that. But now you're taking me into the rest of the 2020s. You're taking me into he's going to be 35 years old, 36 years old, 37 years old, making $60 million. What is that going to look like? What is our evidence of big guys hitting the year 14, 15, 16, 17 in their career and still being awesome. I thought it was a perplexing extension. I didn't really understand it because they already had them under contract. And that's a lot of money house.

It is one of the curiosities of the way that the NBA contracts have to work. There is no mechanism by which you can reward a player. And it literally is the thing that Washington... I'm very accustomed to this in seasons when A. Poland owned the team, years where guys had good seasons, they would come back and they would get like, giant contract extensions without really any modicum of what What does this do to the cap? What's our team building thesis? It was, No, we had a good season last season. Extensions for everybody. And so it's because there is no way to truly compensate guys for resetting the direction of a team, resetting the trajectory of a franchise. I think Anthony Davis 10 years- By the way, House, I fucked up.

I said six years, 256 million. It's five years, 256 million. So it's 83 million this year and next year. And then the extension that kicks in is three years, 177 million, culminating with a player option in 27, 28 for 62.97 million dollars. Anthony Davis has already picked that up.

It's just a bonus. They gave him a bonus. They gave him a bonus because he helped them be competitive. He was a running mate for LeBron. He made the Lakers relevant. They won the summer camp title in Look, those are all meaningful things. I'm fine with rewarding him for that. But right, on the face of it.

I cannot wait for Waz's take because he's making a face.

No, I listened. I think AD Like you guys said, the reason he's at the back of this thing is because for the next three years, he's going to justify whatever he's getting paid. But once he gets up in the years when you count the injuries, and I think of a big man who's playing well into his mid to late 30s, which is Al Horford. But his game isn't so predicated on athleticism like AD's is. Al Horford is spreading you out to three. Ad can't shoot threes. Ad is counting on catching lobs and being really athletic on the perimeter on switches and stuff like that. I don't know. That stuff is going to be greatly diminished at the end of this deal. So I get it, but I'm an AD guy. For me, he's second-team All-MBA this year.

Yeah. Because I'm going to still vote with positions. I think he's been the second best center in the league, and it's perplexing to me that he's been as good as he's been and the Lakers have been better. I'm just looking. We've followed the NBA too long, and Hauston and I are older than he was. But these athletic, tall, big guys who can't shoot from deep. It goes Jermaine O'Neill, it was over all of a sudden. And three different teams tried to talk themselves into him after it was over. And he went to Miami and he went to Toronto. It was just like, when it's over, it's over. I just think it's going to be abrupt with him because of what you're talking about with the athleticism. He's not going to have a plan B. Horford was able to refashion himself around a lot of the skills he had, but he also wasn't making 62 million dollars in the final year of his deal.

Although that last deal with Elton Brandt, that was tough. Yeah, true.

They did have to attach a first-run pick to trade it. All right. House, your last pick.

Okay, so here's the name that I've been staring at. This is a confession, and I'm not going to select him out of respect and love for our beloved colleague, Chris Vernon. But Ja Morant, at five years, 197 million.

With the last 18 months- He was on my list. I had him marked.

The last 18 months of Ja Morant, there was a lot of uncertainty. Now, it's everything. Because we want him to play in this league. The TV contracts that we're talking about, he should be asserting himself as the best American player. He should be in that. It should be him, Ja Morant, going head to head with Anthony Edwards, going head to head with Jason Tatum.

And Zion.

And Zion.

And Halliburton. Let's get some Americans in a mix, baby. Come on, man.

We just got to get the past 18 months in the rear view mirror as quickly as possible. I am not going to sit here and cast his contract. It's a fair level of compensation. It's the same amount of money that Zion's making. I think it's fair. The extensions for both those guys after their rookie contract.

Zion did get drafted last year.

He did. I know.

In our thing. Yeah.

He deserved it because there was no proof that he could play a full basketball season. Looks like a knock on wood. Let's not jink Zion. I want Zion in the playoff. All right, so who's your pick? I want the telecons in the playoff. Got to be Kyle Kuzma. The reason is because Kyle Kuzma took an extension from the Washington terrible franchise, and they put him on the table as they told him that he was going to be. They had a deal in principle with the Dallas Mavericks, and he said that the team asked him, Do you want to go to Dallas and play with Kyrie and Luca? Kyle Kuzma said, No, I'm good. This is great. I love it right here.

How cool. Why would I leave here? He said he wants to build something special in DC with you guys. Come on now. He's looking forward to opening up that new building.

It's been a special year.

That new building in Northern Virginia, he's excited to open that thing up house.

It's the waniest thing I ever heard. I love this so much. Do you want to go to Dallas and play with the team that's going to make a deep run potentially in the playoff? No, I'm good. I would love to know the validity of that idea.

I would imagine that the deal fell through and Kuzma was like, I know I was supposed to be traded, but I still like being here because he's a nice guy.

Can I tag on this? Because I've had a theory on this.

Let's hear it.

Kuzma played with Porzingas last year.

Yes, he did. Might have made a call, huh?

Probably hung out right on the road a little bit. Hey, what was it like to play with Luca? Maybe you heard some stuff.

Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised.

And by the way, guess who was pretty miserable playing in Dallas? Porzingas. And guess who immediately left Dallas and was good on Washington and now on Boston? Porzingas. And I wonder if Kuzma is like, Man, I already did that. I won a title doing that with LeBron. I don't need to win another title. I have a ring. I'll stay here and I get a lot of shots. Maybe Jordan Pooh will be good again in the 2020s. I I can see it. Maybe he likes DC. Maybe he likes the DMV house. You haven't left the DMV since we graduated college.

I honestly have no problem at all with Kuzma, and I think that contract is honestly fair. He's a good fourth player, fifth player, fifth player. Contract is expensive.

I think that's a good Kuzma contract, especially just before we get out of here, obviously. Just a couple that I had up here that you guys didn't mention. Wait, you're up.

You have the last pick. You got to finish. You have the last pick? Yeah. Kuzma. I Four for 90. It's second to last pick. You're wrapping this up, Wes.

It's not Nerkish for me. It's Tyler Hero. It's Tyler Hero. It's the Jordan pool deal. Good job. Essentially, the exact same deal.

It's four years, 120, right? Or four years, 126?

Yeah, great call.

Three years, 99 mil at the end of this season. He just has not lived up to it. They went to the finals without him last year. It's tough. He basically was part of the reason they couldn't get in there because everybody think he stinks. He does shoot it still, but he doesn't really do anything else. That's a tough contract.

Tyler Hero. Now you got Heat Nation against you. Now you have a weird-I don't know. Coming out wise. Do I really think that Heath Nation- Ringer Pundit takes Slam's Tyler Hero. That's going to be a headline now.

Does Heat Nation stand by Tyler Hero?

I don't think so. Well, they tried to trade them all fucking summer. I don't think so either. They put him on It feels like a lifetime.

I think they've moved on to Yowich and Hymehakez, who are legitimately good-ballers.rookies in legitimate pieces. Ballers.

I agree.

All right, so to recap, Ben Simmons was our first pick to Waz. House took pool. I took Levine and Wiggins. House took Beal. Waz took Vucevic and Towns. House took Trey. I took Aiton and Keldi Johnson. House took Jeremy Grant. Waz took Kawhi and McCollum. Started to get spicy right around here. House asked to take two picks a row and took Hunter and Collins together. I took LaMelo and Lillard with the Gill Bang same game parlay. Michael P. Jordan, a. K. Michael Porter Jr. I have MPJ down. I wrote it as MBJ for some reason. Michael Porter Jr. And Sabonis. You got super spicy here in the second half of this draft. I didn't really fully realize it until I was looking at it. Yeah. House took the Siakam extension that hasn't happened yet. I took Kim Johnson and Anthony Davis. Kyle Kuzmen went to House, and the last pick was Tyler Hara. We have some apologies, as always. We like to offer apologies. Bruce Brown, two years, $45 million, making $20 million next year to be the ninth man on Toronto. Apologies. Kevin Herder, the Red Rocket, three for 50.5. His stats dropped dramatically.

I hope Fusillo doesn't I hear that.

Grant Williams, $453, made it 50 games with the team that signed him. He doesn't know what else he had to do to get picked.

Michael Finley is taking Snipes at him in the media.

There's drive-bys on him every day. P. J. Tucker with the two for 22.6, taking the leave of absence and everybody be like, All right, tell us where you're going to come back. He didn't get picked. Rob Williams, three for 37.2. Sorry to Rob. Sorry to Draymond Green, four for 100. One more incident away from maybe just being suspended for the rest of the season. I'm not sure I'd want to be on the hook with that. Then last but not least, Davis Bertans, 16 million this year in a 5.4 Five million dollar buyout just to get out of his 17 million dollar extension. He had to pay five and a half just to get him out. But he did not get picked, and it made me sad. This is the first time we've done the draft without Bertons. Maybe next year, somebody overpays him. All right, before we go, we got to bring in Sourudi.

What's up, gentlemen?

Sourudi, who won the draft?

Man, was super spicy. I think I love the hero pick. The The bonus thing was just, especially after like, what, triple doubles owning Anthony Davis?

It's going to be a tough one, but I'm willing to hear it as somebody who still thinks that trade is a disaster for the kinks. So I got aside with Waz. Obviously, House is a homer, so Houses is the most homer pick for anybody.

I give this light edge to Waz.

Waz, congratulations. You won the 2024 worst contract draft. I mean, he did have the first pick, but when you start out with Ben Simmons, your team is just loaded. This is too tantalizing. Yeah, you start out Ben Simmons, Vucevich Towns. Wow. All right, that's it. Sourdi, were you disappointed there weren't more magic taken? I don't think there were any magic taken.

No, they had no good deals.

No. Well, last year was, I think took, or maybe it was honorable mention, it was Jonathan Isaac, and I zagged on that.

Yeah, you did.

You were talking about his contract. He's playing well this year.

I just want to mention that.

He's fine, and we'll see what happens this summer. But no, they haven't given out any contracts yet. So inevitably, there will be somebody bad on there.

We might be having that speech I'm going to talk about Franz in a few years. You never know.

I agree. Waz, we got to get you on Rusillo, by the way, because we did talk about what we talked about today was your take on Paula not being one of the number one picks that you wanted because everybody in Magic The land was bad at you.

That's not what I said. We were talking about- He got misaggregated. We were talking about teams with the best futures, right? Who has the next best five years? And the reason you might be able to make an argument for the Spurs is because they have Wemby. Sometimes you get the number one picking is Wemby, who's like Kareem and LeBron and Shaq, or you get Paolo, who's not. That's it. That's all I was saying. I wasn't I was saying he's terrible.

I was just saying he's not LeBron and Shaq. Really hurts Sourya's feelings.

It's his favorite player.

We did a whole segment on it today. So next week, we'll get you on. He's not magic. Sorry.

I think the one that could end up next year in the Magic is when they pay $160 million over four years for Malik Monk, which, by the way, I would sign up for. I think it's a great move for the Magic, but it will also be drafted next year.

What if it's Clay Thompson?

There's one.

Oh, please, no.

That might be on there next year. How much? Ten million? How much does he get?

No, they'd have to overpay him. They'd have to give him more than 25.

What's Tobias Harris get next year? This is his last... Yeah.

Yeah, it's probably like a two for 20, right?

How the money have fallen.

After all the contracts we just listed, I believe anything. House, it was great Nice to see you. Always. Always a pleasure. Of course. Steve Cerruti, good to see you. Kyle Creighton, thanks for producing. You can watch this entire episode on youtube. Com/bilsimmons. Have a great night, fellows. Must be 21 plus in present in select states. Fandle is offering online sports wadering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 Gambler. Visit fandle. Com/rg. Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800 Next Step or text Next Step to 533-42 in Arizona. 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-in-connecticate. 809 with it in Indiana. 800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp. Com in Kansas. 877-770. Stop in Louisiana. Mdgamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. 800-gambler. Net in West Virginia. 800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma. Org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1-877-8 Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y in New.