Expansion Draft - Western Conference

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1:01This is straight good to start, Xander, and I'm down to dunk. This is J. Will, and I'm down to dunk. Hey, hey. Here we go. I'm as a hard-signed, and I'm down to dunk. I hope like Savior of Bessful has won. I want to... The Dorte Chimbers have been being gone pretty well. I'm Aaron Wiggins, and I'm down to dunk. I'm Chad Hombren, and I'm down to dunk. I'm Mark Degnell, and I'm down to dunk. It just does a big smile. I like it. I feel, but if I got to be here with Down to Dunk, be here with you. I'm Alice Crusoe, and I'm down to dunk. I'm AJ Mitchell, and I'm down to dunk. This is Isaiah Joe, and I'm down to dunk. Oh, geez. Are you going to sing it good enough for me to guess it? Or... P&A No. Geez! I'm Tweetin'. Name two famous Oklahoma's. Myself and J. William's. Is that a crazy issue? All my friends call me Bob. Where's Rachel? All right. You need scurry. You have the whole life. Plane? Plane. This is Kason Wallace, and I'm down to dunk. This is New Dorit, and I'm down to Dorit.

2:02True blood, Oklahoma. That's right. Pretty exciting if you ask me. This is J. U. World Champion, J. U. And I'm down to dunk. And E. Burgers. Yeah. Good morning, and welcome to Down to Dunk. I'm your host, Al Baby Cakes, Andrew. Off this week, caring for Amy, which means an Al Baby Cakes and McKellay takeover. Because we're doing a down to dunk expansion draft. We did this three, four years ago. It was summer of 2023, and I'll talk a little bit about that coming up. But before we get there, and before we get to my co-host, I've got to talk to you about Aaron and Drew, Reese of Shelter Insurance. Are you insert? You've heard about these guys. Great guys. Thunder fans, and also can help you out with home and car insurance. So give them a call at 4057-7550 or 4057-7714

3:03and support those who support down to dunk. Joining me, as always, for the Down to Dunk expansion draft. McKellay, Barra. McKellay, how's it going? Well, it's a fantastic Sunday here. Fresher than the last ones. So we are getting out of the summer. Excited to do this expansion draft. I mean, it's been a while. It has been a while. So we did this in summer of 2023. And the way the format of it is going to be, this is the Monday Sunday pod. We're going to do the Western Conference. Go through each Western Conference team, protect the players. Wednesday pod, which I'll be recording on Tuesday, is going to be the Eastern Conference. And then Friday pod, recorded on Thursday, is going to be the full Down to Dunk draft between the PP Sleepies and the Guyman guys. If you remember those names, some of a few years ago. I believe that's Jay versus Luke and Taylor, I think. Where people get mad because they don't protect Nazwede. Well, this is this is. That was what I was going to bring up.

4:04Because obviously, it's fun to do the expansion draft just as an exercise. But the most fun part is just a screwing up in some ways. And I think that a lot of people might remember you not protecting Nazwede. But I went back and actually found the names that we had protected and not protected last time. And there was another name that was by far worse than Nazwede. And this is such a, this gives you such a good idea of how long it's been since we did one of these. Because there was a future All Star that not only did we not protect, was not drafted in the fantasy draft. And that player was Jalen Johnson from the Atlanta Hots. Which it kind of makes sense. But I do think it's a good reminder going into this expansion draft that like maybe hang on to all the young guys who were first round picks just in case. Yes, this is something that I did without because you told me

5:04we screwed up big timing 2023. And I vaguely thought about that and then forgot up until now. But in this year expansion draft, I actually took care a lot of, hey, does this pick mean something for the team? Is this still like a top 25, top 30? Sometimes even early second round pick. If so, let's give it a thought. Let's go back, rewatch a little bit and see if this guy's anything. On Nazwede, I had like another discussion with Andrew. I think that I was trying to save the team of wolves. And to some degree, I mean, I still think that that was the right move. Like to force them not to have Nazwede so that they could keep towns and maybe be a little bit better today. But anyhow, it was, yeah, I should just protect them and just go on. I do think this year's expansion draft is going to be better than the previous one.

6:05Just in terms of the quality of players, do you remember who was selected first overall? In the dough and dough? No recollection of that because of that. It was, I'm sure I listened, but. Vesiliy Metsich. Really? Wow. Which was, I think a bad decision at the time, but even a worst decision now. Also, Sasha Vzenkov was the third overall pick for the PP Sleepies. I, did he, he played briefly in the NBA, right? Yeah, yeah, Vzenkov. It was like this European sensation, like Fumble Gary, I think. He just a gunner. And it was what the kings. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that ended up not mattering. So as an example of what we're going to do, I'm going to show you, I'm going to share my screen. And the first thing we're going to look at is what our options were back then in 2023 for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Just because I thought it'd be fun to go back in time.

7:07It's actually a similar situation where there's a ton of eligible players. I'm going to kind of explain the rules of the expansion draft as we go through and explain the differences between this expansion draft and like Bleacher report just into the expansion draft, but ours is going to be slightly different. So the rules for an expansion draft, which we're all kind of assuming these will be the same rules. Obviously, Shams came out and said that they're moving towards expansion. He actually even suggested that the draft could happen as soon as not next summer, but the summer after. So the summer of 2028. But the rules are that each team can protect up to eight players. You don't have to protect eight, which might come in to conversation as we go through some of these teams. Each team has to expose at least one player. So even if you only have six eligible players, you have to expose one of them. You cannot, and this is the big difference between what we're doing and what Bleacher report recently did, is you cannot protect players who are on expiring contracts.

8:11So if they are, and actually now that I look at this, these guys wouldn't, these guys would have been eligible because I have team option on them. Yeah. So it's really just Victor O'Leopo would have been the only in eligible one. Oh my gosh. Look at that. That is a terrible choice. So with with the Bleacher report expansion draft, they were operating under the idea that like the draft was going to happen tomorrow. So players on expiring deals were under contract. The way it was work in real life, though, is that it would likely happen around the regular draft time. And so players who are currently on an expiring deal by the time you get to the draft next summer, they would be unrestricted for agents. So we're not going to treat them as players that we need to worry about protecting or not. So for example, Denver, I think, is the first team we're going to talk about, DeMartin Rosen's on an expiring contract. We're not even thinking about him. We're not worrying about whether he's going to be involved in the expansion draft or not.

9:11Yeah, we are projecting ourselves at the end of this season. So there's no contract going forward. If it's a theme option, we assume that it can be taken. And so we can protect them basically. Yes. By taking the option and deciding. And then you have to protect restricted free agents. Well, you don't have to protect. But you have the option to protect restricted free agents. However, if you don't protect them, and they are drafted, they automatically become unrestricted free agents. So it's kind of like a lose-lose for everyone other than the player. I think it works out for the player because they just become an unrestricted free agent and can take a deal anywhere. But like, if you're the expansion team drafting a restricted free agent, you have to be very confident you're then going to be able to sign them to a deal. Yeah, maybe you get the rights, some sort of bird rights or early bird in order to be more in position to sign them that I don't know, but it's likely. That's what you get this way. The other difference between what we did last time and this time is

10:15I'm not going to worry about two-way players exhibit 10 guys. You will not see their names on here because it doesn't really matter. They're all unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. So we're not going to include them. So wow, looking at what we had to deal with in 2023 for OKC, there were 16, is it 17? 17 eligible players. Now, of course, this was, we did this during the summer. So a lot of these players would end up not making the team. And so, you know, that's why it's 17. But it was SGA, Dort, Chet, Mitzich, Giddy, Kenrich, Kason, Poku, Us, Dub, Trayman, Usman, Veruba, who was still on the team at that point, briefly. Jay Will, Kiantate Johnson, Isaiah Joe, Jerry, Aaron Wiggins. Now, looking back, you would obviously say SGA, Dort, Chet, you're going to be keeping them. We would have been keeping Giddy, right? Kason? Yeah. Yeah.

11:22Definitely, Dub. Yes. We're already at six. Last two spots. What do you think would have been the correct decision back then? I mean, looking at the names we've got, I think Jay Will. Yeah, just a good idea. Jay Will and Isaiah Joe. OK, so in that scenario, we would have left, Aaron Wiggins would probably be the best player we left unprotected. Yeah. Although back then, we might have thought Trayman or Usman Zhang or Poku. No, probably not Poku by that point. I mean, to be fair to the past ourselves, past ourselves in the 2023 summer, the production of Usman Zhang was not that different from Jay Will and Johnson. And also, feeling about those two players. Jay Will and Johnson was severely injured or always injured, who was fairly available and had moments where you could say, OK, here it is. Like the versatile

12:25six, ten-ish, something, guard forward. Let's see. Let's give him a little bit more time. So now I want to reveal who we actually protected back then in the summer of 2023. Protected. SGA, Dork, Chet, Gidey, Ken Rich, Kason Wallace, Usman Zhang, and J.Dub. Which means, and this is the one that I thought was most interesting, is that we left Jay Will unprotected. But it makes sense now. I mean, thinking back to how we felt about Jay Will at the time. It was like, is this guy just like a charge merchant? Does he have like real NBA skills? What is he? Because he's kind of like this undersized big. Doesn't feel like he can play the four. Doesn't seem like he's going to be great defensively. He's certainly not going to be a rim protector. So like, yeah, he has some nice passing chops and like maybe he'll be able to shoot. But we didn't have a clear idea of like what his ceiling could be. Now he's, if he feels like

13:29integral to this team. Yeah, but not to, not to prove you too much. Or at least, I know it's a team that's probably you will do. But Jay Will to me, it's also very difficult this year. Because it's it's clear to me that he belongs to the core guys. But this year, okay, see, it's even more difficult than it was in 2023. Last guys. But different decisions to be made. Yeah. We'll talk about them. But yes, I mean, there are teams in the league where it took me literally five seconds to make it. To make a decision. And there are teams like, okay, see, we were chatting about others like Dallas and and other teams where any of the conference as well. I mean, there are teams where it's. It's so we there is so few players worth taking in their awful contracts.

14:30But in the other end, you have like teams where they are either in a, hey, let's win a title today. And so you need to keep the title players or teams that are just, okay, we have nobody. Just randomly pick eight players and you'll probably be okay. Yeah. Yeah, there are some teams in here that are not going to be sweating too much in this expansion draft. So we wanted to start off with a bang. So you're getting the Western conference on Monday. We're also front loading the Northwest Division. So we're going to get to OKC very quickly. However, we are going to start with the Denver Nuggets. So the eligible players for the Denver Nuggets include Eekly Yokech who does have a player option next summer. Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Brown, Spencer Jones, Ziknaji, Julian Strother, Doron Holmes and Trevin Brazil. I decided. So that's nine names. So I

15:32only need to expose one of these players to the expansion draft, but I could do more than that. I ultimately decided just to do Ziknaji. And it was a question though with Christian Brown. Like, is it worth this is where you get into like the game theory? Like, could we get off, potentially get off of this bad Christian Brown contract? Could we trick one of these expansion teams into taking them because hey, he's still young. He had he was injured last year, which probably affected his play. Like, yeah, he's probably going to be overpaid, even if he bounces back, but it might not be an awful option for an expansion team. The only reason I didn't do that, the only reason I decided to protect Christian Brown is because this team is so thin that if they lose Christian brown for nothing, like that is just like hit after hit after hit in terms of rotation players that they have just really lost for not a lot back. I mean, you know, like Peyton Watten, they got a first

16:32back from them, but they don't get a rotation player back. So they just lose a rotation player. If they lost another rotation player with Christian Brown and got nothing back in this expansion draft, I think that would be bad for them. Even though Christian Brown's contract is is not good. As a player. It's a terrible contract. And somehow, I mean, I was working with a version of the file where you had just six players protecting. I said, oh, maybe there was some weird rule that held in explain. And so I ended up not protecting three players or at least rank last three player. And to me, the ranking was, Christian Brown, they're on homes and last, so we're not that different in terms of who should be protected or not. That means Zignage is just a terrible contract and not like a productive player. So it's very easy. The point about Brown, which you probably made is you lose this salary slot because today, you can probably think about like doing maybe even mid-season

17:35trying to take the picks that you got from Peyton Watten, attached them to Brown, especially if he has like a good enough, not perfect, not horrible start, where you can lower teams say, okay, I give you a big and a half and we shuffle a player that we are not convinced, but maybe fits my team better than yours. Something like that. So I think that ultimately, if you have just one player to not protect and it's Zignage, unfortunately for Denver, nobody is speaking him. Yeah, that is true. Yeah, it has this kind of a waste of exercise for Denver. They can get their hopes up briefly and then hope during the draft that someone sees something in Zignage. They just have to pay them because he's going to have that player option next year. He would be an expiring contract next year. So he would finally be like actual contract filler that someone might be willing to take in a deal. But yeah, I think this one's pretty straightforward for Denver.

18:41The only way that I would unprotect Christian Brown is if I knew they were planning to blow up the team and rebuild it around Yokecitch, like if I knew that they were going to be trading Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon this year, because if you just lose Christian Brown, I think their cap sheet next year is already at 190 million. And that's like without Cam Johnson, who's an unrestricted free agent. And so even if you lose Christian Brown, you get like to 10 million in cap space. So it doesn't really even like change your world that much. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's where I decided to go with Denver. So this is probably the last time you'll hear about Denver, because like we said, Zignage, not getting drafted. So that brings us to Minnesota. So what we did with these teams is we alternated. So McKelle is going to take the lead on Minnesota. And the I should have warned you that some of those were not space to eight players, but yes, you can protect eight players for each team. This is one of the teams where to me was just

19:44very easy. Very easy. I think that it's also about what kind of, let's say, product you like on the court. And to me, Cummunga is not a player that I want to protect. I don't know. I should read the name. Sorry each time. So Anthony Edwards, Lamellabal, Rudy Gobert, Jane McDaniels, IO, Cummunga, Cody Williams, Joan Berenjay, Jalen Clark, Terrent Shannon, Jr., and Isaiah Evans. So 11 players, you can protect eight. So there's need to be at least three exposed. Yeah, it's three players. To me, it's it's a no brainer to keep and Lamellabal Rudy, Daniels and IO. These are no brainer to me. It's very close to no brainer protecting also Jalen Clark, Terrent Shannon, Jr. One very productive in the regular season Jalen Clark, the other with sparks in the playoffs. So to me, you have already seven players that those are basically your no brainers. And then you have

20:45Cummunga, Cody Williams, Berenjay and Isaiah Evans. Probably the player with the highest upside still is Cody Williams. Again, Cummunga is not my cup of tea item. I don't care. Probably he is more helpful than any other player on this list. But to me, he's a player that you don't want on your team. And also, like he signed that deal, ideally not finishing it. You know, like he wants to play really well this year, not pick up his player option and then get a bigger deal somewhere. So like even if you protected him, there's a chance he leaves and you lose him for nothing. Yeah. So I ended up not protecting him, Cody Williams and Isaiah Evans and protecting Berenjay because he has a legit option, oh, sorry, not option. He has a possibility this year to play and to see if he's any good. And I think that Mini wants to do that. And I mean, there are,

21:46there have been many talks about him getting space this year. Some of the moves were also made in that sense. And so to me, it makes sense to give him a try for real and see if it's any good. Not that is at risk of being taken, really. But also, I mean, if you lose in any, your big man rotation is very thin, very, very thin. Yeah, he, he, honestly for me, was like pretty automatic just because he's second year player. Yeah. Just right outside the lottery. He did look good in summer league. They should have played him more last year. I think I've mentioned that like Brooks, Modern Heiser played more minutes than Berenjay. He should have played more. He kind of has to play more now. So we'll learn more about him. The only difference I had with you is I ended up, oh no, we did the exact same thing. Okay. Well, I'll just move these over. There we go. Yeah. And then the other two names, which were Kaminga and Cody Williams. Yeah,

22:48I think both of those make sense as well. Yeah. I did, I did work with like, Jaylen Clark and Isaiah Evans, just wondering like, but the thing about Jaylen Clark, Terrence Jr. and Isaiah Evans, like, Jaylen Clark's on a really cheap deal. Yeah. They just signed him too. So it's not like you have to make a decision on him anytime soon. He has, I mean, as thunder fans, we know he's had moments defensively against Shay, where you're like, hey, this could potentially be something long term. I kind of still don't think there's like that much of a ceiling there. And so maybe I'm just interested in just taking the guy who's just drafted and Isaiah Evans just to see what happens. But I think this is fine. I think this is fine. Also, their identity is defense. And so keeping Jaylen Clark around makes sense. Yeah. And I also think that the expansion team will likely keep coming. He can just be your, hey, just see if

23:49the ball goes into the basket. Oh, this will be a test of the fry pod guys. I could see them tricking themselves into Cody Williams. Oh, I mean, it may happen for Cody. I'm not sure that this will be the place. Okay. So next up is Utah. They have 13 eligible players, Jared Jackson Jr. Larry marketing, Darren Peterson, use of Nurgut, East Bailey, County George, Joshua Kogi, Jackson Hayes, Bryce, Sensebaus, Fima, Hi Luke, Mo Bomba, Kyle Philip, Powse, Ken Isaiah, Kyle, this one was super easy. I thought. So you can only keep eight names. So you have to unprotect five. I unprotected use of Nurgut, Joshua Kogi, Jackson Hayes, Sfima, Hi Luke, Mo Bomba. I have two different names. Who, who, who of those names that I just read, would you possibly want to keep? Who's, who's getting you excited? It's, it's not about, it's not about who

24:52gets me excited. Who? Who? That you, that you saved, that, that makes me puke. So, um, I, I hate Isaiah Collier. Um, I think he's, uh, a very personal. No, no, I hate the way he plays. And, and the same can be said by, uh, from, from Senseba. I, I really don't like those two players. Um, if I have to pick between the two, it's Senseba, which is my first unprotected that I vaguely can try to protect. Um, I don't know why I protected Nurgut and Sfie. Um, Sfie? Yes. Sfie is a shooter. Um, he's, he's, he's fine, but I don't, I don't think you have to worry about him getting taken. This, see, this is the other thing I was thinking about is like, I hope that someone takes Senseba and Collier. This is the point. I really hope that somebody is, but you can get off of their deals pretty, I mean, they, they both have team options. Uh, well,

25:54Bryce Senseba, he's currently eligible for extension. So he would be a restricted for agent next year. Isaiah Collier has a team option next year. They're not making like that much money. No, I don't know. This is, for me, this was like the Jalen Johnson thing where it's like, if, if I, even, if there's even a question, if there's even a question, I'm going to air on the side of keeping the young guys just in case. I mean, I mean, I, I just, I just despise the way Collier plays. And Senseba to me, it's just, uh, he gave me nothing, really nothing. And so, yeah, I mean, it's not that I really like protecting Sfie. Nurg, to me, it's, it's a different thing. I think a Nurg in a proper moment of the year where a team just panics completely and freaks out because it doesn't have a center, then you can get like something for Nurg. So this is why I kept it. Not because I, I love his effort or a talent anyhow. But to me, there is a world where you can

26:58say, okay, just is a valuable asset. It is a seller as long. Sfie and Senseba, to me, was just, uh, I just don't like him. And, and it's a restricted free agent. I might end up paying him a little bit more than I showed it. So that's just try to see if someone picks him up. I refuse to protect use of Nurg. The only, the only, the reason I would give to protect use of Nurg is that they don't have a center because they traded Walker Kessler. And so he actually is kind of important for the jazz this season. But of course, this is at the end of this season. So I didn't really care about that. Um, and, and, and I mean, Nurg has certainly had his moments, but he should not be the starting center on a team that has playoff aspirations, which the jazz do. He, I, I don't think any of these five guys, Nurg, Akogi, Hayes, Mahalook, or Bomba are getting drafted in, in our draft. So they're probably all coming back. And that's the other thing to, I said at the beginning, but you can only have one player taken, which will come more into focus when we get

28:00to OKC. And you're like, oh my gosh, all of these guys are unprotected, but you're only going to lose one max. Yeah. Um, OK, well, I'm going to overrule you here because it was my team. Um, you can overrule me on some of your teams. Give me your pitch for call your one. It's, it's as simple as these five names I unprotected. I don't have any feeling about they do nothing for me. Whereas Isaiah Collier is at least young. I can label him with the label of young. OK. And so maybe something happens. Yeah, I'm not like a Collier fan. OK, that brings us to Portland 11 eligible. John Morant drew holiday, Shade and Sharp to Manikamara, time Lord Scoot, Dame, Denny, Donovan Klingin, Hanson Young, Young Hanson, Vite Kretchi. OK, this will probably be the first bad Michele moment of these, of this show.

29:03I protected Klingin as first name. I protected Drew and Tumani because these are valuable names. I mean, I protected Shade and Sharp, even if I don't believe, um, same with Scoot. Yeah. Uh, of course, I protected any of you. And, and I think that if you leave Dame, um, protected, someone will pick him up because it seemed they me a little. Yeah, you can't do that today. Exactly. You had a bad breakup. You finally, everything's been rekindled. Everyone's happy again. You can't do it again. Yeah. So we are left with three players, four players, Hanson Young, Jamorant, Vite Kretchi and time Lord. I refused to protect time Lord. Um, I think that he has like a super duper high salary slot for the production. Uh, it's not high in in general, but it's like he's always with something. And then I refused to protect Jamorant. Uh, I know that they, they just

30:07traded for him somehow. But I, I just have no idea why they did it. And I really hope that someone picks him up and just take him away. So to me, the choice was between Hanson Young and Vite Kretchi. And I love Vite Kretchi. Um, I think that he's a useful player in terms of production. He is much better than Hanson Young today. But Hanson Young is young. Very young. He is like 10 to 21. Sorry. He's like 21. He's not very young. He's young. Um, and he's a big man. Big man have this hence too mature to be the later. So I ended up protecting him and I'm protecting Jamorant Vite Kretchi and the Williams. Okay. If I could try to talk you into protecting Robert Williams, my case would be that his salary is completely reasonable for a backup center. Okay. He's making like,

31:15they sign it for the next three years. He makes a max of like 15 million. And as we saw in the playoffs, he was their best center in the playoffs by like a long shot. Klingen was not ready. And having Robert Williams off the bench allowed them to continue like giving them their defensive identity. He was like, I think he was hugely important to that team. Even though he's only playing, you know, like 15 minutes a night or something. Yeah. If he, if they don't have Robert Williams, one, Klingen up to this point hasn't, it's not, he's not a guy that you're expecting. He's going to play like 35 minutes a night. Yeah. So you really do need a solid backup center. And I don't know if you've watched Young Hanson, but it hasn't looked good yet. Doesn't mean it can't look better in the future. But like as of now, I don't think he's ready to be the full-time backup center for the Blazers. And if you don't have Robert Williams, like, who, what do you do when Klingen's off the court?

32:21Do other stuff? Like take another guy? Is it Brandon Carlson in this team? Yeah, we're in a Carlson is on this team. That's perfect. Perfectly fine backup center. Just play him, play CDC Soko as a, as a small four man, play a small ball lineup, play Hanson Young. So whatever, play him, otherwise you don't know. And to be honest with you, I don't think that if you unprotect Robert Williams, someone will actually take him because he's too fragile. So I just don't want to protect him, but it's fine. Okay. It's your team. So what you make final call? My friend I call is I know that Hanson Young is very, very, very not ready right now. But there is still a world where he turns into a decent player. Same, same call that we made with Usman Jang. We, we had like very small hopes, but some hope nevertheless. And, and again, to protect time, Lord, where if you, I mean,

33:30if you pay, you get a center that can do backup minutes for you. It's, it's not that hard to find one. I think it's funny that we, there's been no discussion about both of us unprotecting John Morant. I think that that's the correct answer. I don't even think we have to talk about it that much. It's a terrible contract. He doesn't play. Why, why would you want that contract on your books? I would rather have Jeremy Grant's contract. It's cheaper and it runs the same amount of time. But they traded that one away. I not that I think Jeremy Grant's any good. But, or it's worth the perfect thing, but we will talk in a minute about that. Yeah, true. Okay. So that brings us to the Oklahoma City Thunder. All right. Don't we leave that for last? No, let's do it now. Okay. Oh, because we always leave it for last. And then I don't know. Then it, this gives this gives the pot a little boost right in the middle. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So there are 13 eligible players. We got Chet, Dub, SGA, I heart, Caruso, J. Will, Kason, a Dymara, Topic, Sorber,

34:34Sturts, McCain, AJ Mitchell. All 13 of those are eligible. 13. That means you can only keep eight max. So this was my team. And listen, I think that there would be more of a conversation if I, heart or Caruso were closer to the end of their contract. But as it stands, both of those guys have two years after this upcoming year. So it's not even like they're an expiring contract next year. And because of that, I basically dropped all of their young guys. So a Dymara, Topic, Sorber, Sturts, and Jared McCain. Oh, no, you did that. And that hurt. But no, I think the only name you would consider would be J. Will, right? Is that who I, I did that. Um, so give the pitch for

35:37unprotecting J. Will over Jared McCain. To me, it's, it's not about J. Will. It's about McCain. I mean, I have a, a, no part of my brain, the idea of unprotecting McCain was just there. I, I think that McCain is one of the guys that will make the biggest leap. I thought that about Rayman and I said, Joe, in the playoffs last year. So you can take that as this. I failed because I always overvalue shooting. Um, I also thought about unprotecting Caruso to be honest video because he is not the best contract that he has, I think. But also, if you want to have anything in the playoffs done the right way, you cannot trade him. Um, yeah. So in the end, I said, okay, you cannot unprotect Alex. He was a case of Wallace. I mean, it's easier for me to think about

36:38the way in which you can, well, no, it's, it's the same. AJ Mitchell, uh, McCain and, and, and Wallace to me have so much to give to this team that was unthinkable to leave them out. J. Will, it's with like heavy heart. But if you play a little bit more with heart and sign and chat staggered, you can be at the same level, exactly the same level in my opinion. You don't, um, you, you want, you want to play the Twin Tower more together. It's fine. But if you think about the lineup with Jay, McCain, um, Caruso, Wallace and, and, and, and chat as your second, uh, part of the first quarter kind of unit, that unit is ballistic defensively. They can do anything defensively. And then you start the second quarter with, um, AJ Mitchell, dub, um, I heart and again, Caruso, I mean, that unit is

37:48fantastic as well. So just, McCain is, to me, is too important. The shooting is, um, it's just okay. So one thing I did consider and why I put Jay will in the protected was because of the contract situation, which is basically just that they're both on cheap contracts right now. But I think Jay Will's next contract is going to be lower than McCain's. And so then it might be easier to keep Jay Will, easier to keep Jay will long term than it will be to keep McCain. Uh-huh. But now that I think about it more, I actually think if you unprotect Jay Will, chances are somebody's going to take one of these young guys anyways, like Mara will, Mara would probably get taken or even Sorber, whereas if you unprotect Jared McCain, I do think Jared McCain gets selected by a team immediately. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I agree with you. So we're going to move Jay Will to unprotected Jared McCain, shout out Jared McCain, goes to protect it. I have the list typed in the same order.

38:52Oh really? Exactly. That's that's that's. And for an expansion draft team, like, I mean, we'll look at what we get from some of these other teams, but having these five players to choose from, that's pretty exciting. There's like you could talk yourself into any of these guys. I do think Mara would probably get selected. Yes. And to be fair, um, I think that you can offer compensation not to get this. So if you have, I mean, you can, of course, saying, I want to unprotect, it's actually the same because I mean, if you if you leave Jared McCain open, then it's it's to me, it's sure that they will keep him and you have to pay. The others, I mean, if someone takes sorbure, okay, just just okay, Jay Will, you can think about it. You can you can reach the

39:53agency, okay, I want to give you a second contract. If you say yes, then you're you're you're here. Yeah. So any fits now, we'll just see at the end of the contract, just protecting it and then we'll see you in a chow chow Jay will. And um, so to me, it's I want to bring up something. If this actually happens in real life, and we actually have the expansion draft in the summer of 2028, one thing that would help the thunder is that Jay will has a team option for next year. So if they pick up that team option, which I expect they do because it's super cheap, he'll be an expiring contract. So he would be ineligible to be protected. So this decision would kind of be taken off the board. Yeah, I was kind of hoping that would be the case with like I heart or caruso, but it's not because even at the end of next season, they'll still have a another year left. So you're still going to have to make those decisions, but at least that would be one decision with Jay Will where you don't have to include him. And he can't be drafted by a team.

40:57Now, obviously, he'd be an unrestricted free agent. So he could sign with the expansion team, but he can't be drafted in the expansion draft. Yeah. Um, okay, that brings us to the end of the Northwest Division. Why don't we take a break here and we'll come right back into the rest of the Western Conference. You know, those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing on repeat, the sweater that goes with everything, the perfect pair of pants, or the tea you somehow always reach for first. Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. And that's what Quinn's does best. Quinn's focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and marino wool. The styles are limitless, versatile, and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for a day after day. They're 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Start at just $60 giving you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand

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43:01or go to Quinn's.com slash Dunk O'K.C. Get free shipping on your order in 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash Dunk O'K.C. Whatever bike you're looking for from Mountain to Road, either pedal powered or electric, we've got what you want ready for super fast delivery. Quality gear at prices you won't find in your average bike shop. Bikeshomeline.com. Ride more for less. And we're back! Before we get to the rest of the Western conference, want to tell you about Ring Family Dentistry. It takes straight forward on its approach to dental care, doctors fill and brand and ring believe in keeping what's healthy, fixing what's not and only replacing what truly needs it. No pressure, no upselling, just clear explanations, thoughtful recommendations and decisions that are always up to you. Ring Family Dentistry is a true family practice with a laid back vibe, modern tech and high quality work, including same day crowns,

44:05even for front teeth. Plus implants, bridges, root canals and clear aligner therapy all offered in-house. Call to schedule your appointment at 405-621-1555 or make an appointment online at ringfamilydenistry.com. Support the people who support down to Dunk. And we're back! And that means we're done making the tough decisions with O'K.C. Anyway, it wasn't a tough decision, but after we talked it out, I actually feel pretty good about this. I do think Jay will, we're not too worried, although with the FriPod guys, they might just like, eat a dimar right now and they might actually draft Jay will. But in general, I think most teams will see, hey, a number 12 overall pick from this recent draft. I feel like that's easy decision. Okay, so that brings us to the Kings, the Sacramento Kings for McKelle. So 11 possible players to mount a subonus, Keegan Murray,

45:06Malik Monk, Derriase Cup Jr., Precious Achua, Nick Clifford, Alex Caravan, Dequeon Plowden, Maxime Reynau, Dylan Cardwell, and Emanuel Sharp. So you have to unprotect at least three Kings. Could you do it? Yeah, yes, I did. Can I just protect three players? Like maybe four? Who would you, like, yeah, who do you care most about in this team? I mean, I think that you you put that Akef for sure. Definitely. You protect Clifford for sure. Okay. Boy or boy. I mean, of course, if you have to get to Akef, you protect Domas, Kigs, Monk, these are players that have value. Then you have Caravan, Achua, Reynau, Plowden, Cardwell, Sharp. Look, I had to go and watch a few videos of I know Plowden and Cardwell and Sharp. Yeah.

46:07Whatever, whatever. I would probably protect Caravan because I like him. I think he is a player that can be your smart, intelligent, very good shooter, like team guy, callism-like player. Achua is a productive player, so you probably want to keep him around. And then, I mean, just protect seven. I mean, the last four, I have no idea. You can probably protect Reynau just because he played more and he has a vaguely better statistical outlook. Okay. So let me try to talk you into unprotecting Domana's subbonus, which is what I did. So I unprotected subbonus, Malik Monk, and Decoon Plowden. My case for subbonus is that they've been trying to trade him for a year and can't find any deal where they're getting even neutral value back. If they could get neutral value, they would have traded him by now. So why bother keeping him on your team? If it actually

47:12might be cheaper for you to just lose him for nothing instead of having to take back a bad contract. Now, the argument against this is that by next summer, he will be an expiring contract. So then that issue, maybe I weigh that a little too heavily. It's just this idea that it doesn't seem like they're going to be able to get any value for him. And so do you just play out this contract or do you get off of it and at least free up some cap space and maybe you can sign to water players? Well, sign Jalen Durin. Jalen Durin, oh my gosh. I listen to you know ball and they always say Jalen Durin and it gets stuck in my head even though it's Jalen Durin. Jalen Durin, they're going to max them out. It's going to be their new point guard center duo. Wow. Okay, so but ruling in at our productive center. Fantastic. So I will give you final say though. So I think we definitely agreed on these five.

48:18Yes. So who would you like your last three? So Kigamurri, Deris Aikuf, Nick Clifford, Karabhan and Achoa. So who would you like your last three spots to be? You need to protect Malik Monk. Why? No, no, no, no. He is a player option. He's a player option. I he could just leave. Why why are you protecting Malik Monk? Because there is a slightly slightly chance that he stays. He has a good season and I can get anything about for him because I think that Malik Monk still has value to who? You know what you know what type of team he would have value to the kings and he's already on the kings. Come on, come on, come on, please protect the shooters. I am, I am just on the protect the shooters kind of mold. This is my mold and Malik Monk qualifies as a very good impactful shooters. You know what she makes? You know what she makes? 20. Yeah, 21 million.

49:24How how they spend that better than Malik Monk? He only played 12 minutes a game for him last year. He was like barely in the rotation. Oh, sorry, he played 22 minutes a game because because they don't have a good coach. Well, that's not changing. Coach can do well, maybe I can coach can do something with Malik Monk and and Thomas. So you're not worried that any of these young guys because you're going to end up unprotecting a lot of young guys. None of them are going to come back to bite you. I'll I mean, listen to your team. At least Monk. Then you can peak whoever. And you want to be honest. So yes, okay, which of these you only get the first one? One, it, Maxi, and Marino. Okay, so Dylan Cardwell, Emmanuel Sharp and Deacon Flouton are unprotected. Thank you. All right, and we will I know what the Freypod will have no idea who any of these three guys are. So they're

50:24actually going to be safe for that reason. Yeah, nobody will pick them. Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to see what the other names are, but probably not. I mean, Emmanuel Sharp is recently drafted. So maybe you just take a flyer on a recently drafted guy, but but he's like a second month big. It's fine, but yeah, yeah, Dylan Cardwell, people seem to like him as like a backup big, but again, not like super exciting. Okay, all right, all right, we've protected Malik Monk. He's safe. Malik Monk is safe. Thank you. Okay. Kentucky guy. Come on. Next up, speaking of Kentucky guys, Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns. I'm interested to hear because I yeah, there's a lot of interesting ways to go with Phoenix. So 12 eligible Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, Mark Williams, Colin Gillespie, Common Malewatch, Luke Connard, Jordan Goodwin, Koeh Pete, Ryan Dunn, Oso Legadaro, and Rishir Fleming. So you have to protect eight, and that means you have to expose

51:28four of these players. For me, I decided to leave off more than Ryan Dunn. Where did the other players go? Okay, well, it was Jalen Green. So I went, Ryan Dunn, Jalen Green. Yes. Me too. You did? Yes. Luke Connard. Yes. And then who was the fourth? Oh, it was probably Jordan Goodwin. No, come on, we have the same. This is boring, Alex. Well, really, those were the exact same. Yeah. Okay, I mean, one like Devin Booker, yes, he's on a terrible contract, but like he is the Phoenix Suns. That would be like unprotecting game. Like I just don't think it's worth it. Who cares? So keep it Devin Booker. He's good. Mark Williams injured right now, but I would protect him. Colin Gillespie, that was easy one. Malewatch, Year Two, showed flashes in the summer league. Sure. Koeh Pete,

52:32first round pick, keep him. Yes. Oh, so a good Darrow. I like Oh, so yeah. Yeah. He's kind of been, he kind of gives me like some J Will vibes, just in terms of his status on a team. No, kind of of... Passing jobs and whatnot. Yeah. Dylan Brooks got to keep him. He's like their culture center. And then it came down for me between like, Rashir Fleming, Ryan Dunn, Jordan Goodwin. I went Fleming just because I think that Ryan Dunn, I just don't think those types of players can hang in the NBA nowadays. It's just so hard when you cannot shoot to that extent. And at least for sheer Fleming, I can kind of believe it. I mean, he's out like 36% on low volume in his first year, but I can at least believe it short term. I can see the argument for Jordan Goodwin. I just went with the younger player with the big wing span, who's a little more exciting. Okay, so we agree. Yes, we agree. Can art super duper easy. I mean, he's a nice guy.

53:32I don't think that an expansion team will pick him. I put general green unprotected because I'm dead sure that he will be picked and it will be okay for Phoenix. I know. I know that it's... You have moments and flashes in the playoffs where you see the great score that he can be. But then what? But also go look at his basketball reference page and look at his stats per year. He has been the exact same player statistically since his rookie season. Yeah. Like his field go percentage by year, 42.6%, 41.6%, 42.3%, 42.3%, 42.2%, he's always shot in between like 31% and 35% from three. Like he's he takes a ton of threes, but he's not good at them. He is just like empty. He's an awesome shooter, he is an awesome shooter in terms of in terms of getting them up. No, no, no, no, no, I'm that serious here. Jalen Green has sensational touch.

54:41He's just super duper horrible at picking the right shots and also the way in which he places his body, his lower body for shots because the the touch is fantastic. The problem with him is he takes ill-advised shots over and over and over. He's just not reliable in that regard. I mean, and it's I mean, either he somehow gets a coach that can whisper in his ears like hey, stop that. Just stop taking that awesome in your mind, but horrible in every other shot that you fade away. You can hit that shot. Yes, probably at a higher percentage than most. It's still a terrible shot. Just don't take it. And I can see him in being like a 38% or 9% treatment shooter. I really am because you don't

55:47make those shots at that clip if you're not a good shooter. The point is those are just 32, 33, 34% shots and it's it's about that more so than him not being able to hit them. Yeah, he also took 15% of his shots from the long mid range, which was in the 90 second percentile among wings. Yeah. So he's a big fan of those long twos. He has the shot diet of a superstar and he looks like a superstar at times. But he has been that player for five seasons now. Okay, moving on to our favorite team. Los Angeles Clippers is going to be McAlley's team. 13 players eligible Darry Scarlin, Brandon Ingram, Rui Hachemura, Keaton Wagler, Grady Dick, Isaiah Jackson, Bradley Beale, Jordan Miller, Yannick Neeter Houser, Kobe Sanders, Cam Christie, Baba Miller, and Janai Broom. So you have to expose five of these Clippers. Can you do it? I did. But it took me a while and also your file had seven. So now I have to

56:56pick an eight. Sorry, but that's fine. So let's start with the easy ones. Wagler, that is very easy. Neeter Houser. Super to be easy. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's still okay to protect Grady Dick because he is still technically young. I don't remember what I did, but I'll say for right now. So I ended up protecting, let's put the name in order, Dearest Garland, Wagler, Dick, Baba Miller, Rui Hachemura, Kobe Sanders, Neeter Houser, and then I had seven spots. So it's either Jordan Miller or Johnny Broom. You can pick the one that you prefer. Okay. Did you not say Brandon Ingram? Yes. Yes. You protected him or yes, you? No, yes, I don't. Yes, I did not. Okay. I have like a very strong opinion that you don't have to protect him. It's another

58:02guide that has the shot diet of a super duper star. We didn't efficiency that is not a super duper super star. And it's the solid slot doesn't make any sense for the clippers. So I just did not protect them. I see what this is, Contra. He has two years left. He has. Yeah. Oh, he has a place for 40 million this year and then a player option for 41 next year. Again, to me, it's not a it's not a good contract. As Jackson, no brainer, Greta Biel, no brainer, Ken Christie, okay, whatever. So we the only difference that we have is well, two differences. Greg Vick and Brandon Ingram basically. That is. Okay. My case for protecting Brandon Ingram is I agree with you. It's a bad contract. But where where this draft is going to be held next summer, by that point, he will be a 41 million

59:06dollar expiring contract. And if they have any hope of like cobbling together a trade package, maybe with like some of the picks they got from the quad deal or whatever. Brandon Ingram as matching salary would be helpful to have. And so whereas Lake with Cready Dick, I just I don't know. He's going to be a he's going to be a restricted free agent. So he's probably not going to get drafted anyways because a team that if expansion team drafts on me instantly comes under stricter free agent. Now he can't go back to Clippers in that scenario. But like I just don't think a team would even take him. And Brandon Ingram, I would just rather have the salary. Which I realize this is the opposite argument I made for subonus. But we eventually did protect subonus. Yeah, but the point of Domus is I don't know. To me, there is some part of my brain where Domus had goose seasons where when he's put in the right context, we take that can be I think I think. In this case, I mean,

1:00:16BI it's not a player I like. And for the Clippers, if you decide that is the moment to restart a lot of your team, then you already under the salary with BI on your team. If you remove that that player slot, you have roughly 30 minutes in space. So it's not the same. To me, it's very close to the same in terms of valuable space. But it's okay. I don't I don't have a strong opinion. I don't think that Grady Dick is a player that will change the outlook of the Clippers. I just think that it's probably a guy that you can pay a reasonable amount of money and that in the right context can be a decent enough shooter. Okay, so final decision, McKellay. Are you protecting Grady Dick or Brandon Ingram? I will go with my guts and say Grady Dick. All right, Brandon Ingram,

1:01:19you're in the draft, which brings us to Golden State. This was an easy one of sadness. Because there's so many other players are on expiring deals. Steph, Jimmy Butler, dream on green. Wait, didn't dream on green just sign a longer deal. Is that true? Do it do. I'm bringing it up right now. Is he still not signed? Yeah. Okay. I think so. All right, I'm assuming that's going to happen. I guess that their their in talks with Steph right now, but nothing has happened yet. So all these guys are going to be understood for a bit. I don't have to think about them. The only players I have to think about Christophe Rozinguis, Moses Moody, Al Horthard, Yaxx, Deanthany Mountain, Pajemski, Gisantous, Will Richard. For me, this was pretty easy. I decided to unprotect Deanthany Mountain. That's fine. He just hasn't been consistently healthy and I like Al Horthard. It was

1:02:21basically came down to Al Horthard or TFT Mountain. That's that's completely fine with me. I don't think that Will Richard is good enough, but fine. Fine. Okay, let's go into the Lakers. That was easy work. Okay, Lakers, 12 names. Oh, okay, I'm just gonna see what you do with the Lakers. I think that was the first team where I didn't protect eight players. Okay, we got Luca, Austin Reeves, Walker Kessler, Quinten Grimes, Mamu, Jared Vanderbilt, Colin Sexton, Jayden Hardy, Dalton Kinecht, Cameron Carr, Bronny James, Adoo, Tiro. Okay, so easy once. One, two, three, of course, protected Luca Reeves and Kessler. I protected Mamu because they just picked him. Vando, still a very useful defensive player, but I mean, I protected him, but if you have strong opinions, I'm okay. Also, various for me, protect Cameron Carr, just dropped him. Adoo, Tiro, I think he has some interesting traits and I want to see more of them. I did not protect Grimes,

1:03:30Hardy, Dalton Kinecht and Bronny James. Oh, no, Grimes, like you have to protect Grimes. No, he makes like under, he makes, he has a player option in 2930 for 16 million. That's going to be like nothing on the cat. I know, I struggle every time to see him as a valuable piece. He's moved around, sometimes he's good, but it disappears most of the time. I just, I just don't care. But if you, like, if you force me into pick him over Vando, that is fine. I mean, well, who else did you have? Sex, sorry. Oh, why do you keep contextin? Because sex is at least giving me something. I don't always like it, but I see him. He was not bad. He's a weird player. I know that he's a weird player,

1:04:32but he's not a bad one. You need to, you might be a bad one. You need to frame him into a specific context. But if you use him in the right way, I think that he can be like a nice spark of the bench. Now, I, I just, okay, my argument against everything you're saying is that for this team, Quentin Grimes is their best perimeter defender right now. Okay, he's the best perimeter trainer on the team. And so if you remove him, especially in favor of Colin Sexton, who's not good defensively, and who I think is not good anymore, I know that he can like still score. And that's helpful because they did lose a lot of scoring. But for me, like, you have to keep Grimes just because you don't have anyone else. You're basically betting on Cam Carr, but he weighs like 180 pounds. It's fine. It's, it's keep Grimes. Don't keep it. No, keep it. You want to keep sex. Okay. Yes. All right. All right. So we're unprotecting Jared

1:05:36Vanderbilt. Jayden Hardy don't connect. Brony James. Yes. Any of those players are going to get drifted. Yes. I see. I see your point in not drafting and not protecting sex. And I do, I, I struggled to me was their last name, uh, sex and Grimes, sex and all Grimes. Um, it's okay. I mean, it's okay. I don't know. And who know? I mean, Consex and he's, he's got like a nine million dollar player option for some reason next season. So he might not even be on the team. Uh, Memphis. Now we're getting into some of the hard ones. Yes. So Memphis, as of right now, has like 19 or 20 players on their team. Uh, they have to cut several of the players on about to name because they have 16 eligible players. So some of these players aren't even going to be on this team. This is very similar to what we showed at the very beginning with O.K.C. in 2023. Yeah. It's just like a ton of young guys. You don't really have a good idea on a lot of

1:06:37them. So you're just kind of guessing. So it's Jeremy Grant, Isaiah Stewart, Cam Booser, Ty Jerome, Quintin Post, Taylor Hendrix, Jordan Hawkins, Zach Edie, Cedric Coward, Walter Clayton Jr. Karim Lopez, Scotty Pippin Jr. Cam Spencer, Jalen Wells, Micah P.V. Chris Murray. It's a lot of names. You have to expose eight of those guys. Yeah. The easy ones for me, Cam Booser. Yes. Zach Edie. Cedric Coward. Yes. Karim Lopez, they just drafted. Yes. Scotty Pippin Jr. I think he's good. I didn't make the cut. Wrong. Cam Spencer, shooting. Jalen Wells. Yes. So for me, that's already six, seven, seven. And then the other name I took was Beef Stew. Because I do think having beef stew as your third big with Cam Booser and Zach Edie, I just like locking that in for right now. He's a really good defender. He's been a really good

1:07:38rim protector. I don't want to just give beef stew away. So that means that I unprotected Jeremy Grant, Chris Murray, Micah P.V. Ty Jerome, Walter Clayton Jr. Jordan Hawkins, Taylor Hendrix and Quintin Post, who they also just traded for. So who did you not agree with there? I mean, it's a very light disagreement. I have Scotty Pippin Jr. as my first, let's say, bubble guy. Yeah. And it took me a while deciding between him and Ty Jerome. I ended up protecting Ty Jerome because shooter, I mean, it's the old protecting the shooters kind of thing. But I don't have like a very strong opinion. I don't think that either we'll get drafted here. Probably the right choice for Memphis is not protecting Jeremy Grant. And the right choice for a draft team is to get Jeremy Grant. So I agree with you on Beef Stew. Initially, I said, well, that do they really need one? Yes, they do need one. Well, a big man like that.

1:08:42Honestly, with their injuries, they probably need both Scotty Pippin Jr. and Ty Jerome because they their guard rotation right now. Yeah. Especially last year was just a complete mess because of injuries. And maybe I do. Ty Jerome is better than Scotty Pippin Jr. So maybe I keep Ty Jerome. Okay. I like Ty Jerome. I have strong opinions on count Spencer. I don't know if you listened to the Monday pod last week. I suggest that this should be a target for okay. See it right now. Oh, yeah. I think that I mean, probably you have Sturts. But I mean, Kim Spencer is a proven shooter. And I would, this is like a very, very good contract. Yeah, guys, I mean, again, we, we have, yeah, Kim Spencer seems like a classic. Once they get in the playoffs, a guy that will kill your team and will drive you insane.

1:09:44Yeah. I have thoughts on Hendrix, but I mean, who's going to pick him? Yeah. And again, they have to cut, I think like two of these guys. Yeah. And a lot of people think it's going to be Jordan Hawkins and then someone else. Like maybe Walter Clayton Jr. already. Yeah. Who's just a rookie last year. So they have some decisions. This is definitely, this reminds me kind of of the roster crunch off season when we had like, Taeho and all those guys. And oh my gosh, all these guys matter so much. And then you just never hear from the guys that are cut ever again. That could happen here. Okay. So we unprotected Jeremy Grant, Chris Murray, Michael Peevee, Scotty Pippin Jr. Walter Clayton Jr. Jordan Hawkins Taylor Hendrix Quint Post, which brings us to Norland's Pelicans. You're going to take the lead on this one. 12 eligible players. 12 because Citiq Bay just signed a deal. Zion, Dejonte Murray, Tray Murphy, Herb Jones, Benedict Matheryn, Jeremiah Fieres, Derek

1:10:51Queen, Deandre Jordan, Eves Missy, AJ Johnson, Bryce McGallons, and Citiq Bay. 33 presidents. I called the president and not for 30 in the morning. And he answered seven decades in space. We want to see what's beyond the next star. 60 Super Sundays. They were probably the best team in the league every single year. 53,500 puzzles. I use a different starting word every day. 25,000 recipes. And I love a one-pan recipe because I don't love washing pans. The New York Times celebrating 175 years of helping you understand the world. Subscribe now for a special offer at nytime.com slash subscribe. Yeah. I mean, in the original version, there was no Citiq Bay. So while I didn't put it in my list, let's start with the six names that I have sort of very clearly protected,

1:11:56which are Fieres, Queen, Dejonte Murray, Tray Murphy, and Matheryn, which are five. Probably also Herb Jones. But Herb Jones I have. I started like, why? I don't know. I like him, but the content is not great. I wonder, you think it's great. It's okay. It's 16 millions. Fine. I protected him. That's old. He's on the old door contract. Yes. Possibly well. Actually, it's, that's not true. Next year, he makes 20.8, 22.5. And then it's a player of 24. Well, let's let's he actually makes what I would love Kason to make. Yeah, which then then you have two spots. The question is, do we really have to protect Zion? I don't think that it's a yes. But also, I am not protecting Zion in order to protect

1:12:59me see and Bay. Because the other gentleman to me, it's a no-no. A.D. Johnson. I don't like him. Bryce McAllen's, sure, do you really protect him? No. So to me, it's three names, two spots. Zion he's me see and said, he Bay. They just protect me. I wonder, do you have strong opinions on Zion? He's another one of these guys, similar to actually, Joss, Sabona, Sprannon, Ingram. There's all these guys who have two years left on their deal, making about 40 plus million. And Zion is another one of those guys. So his deal is 42.1 this year. And then in the year we're talking about, he would be an expiring $44.9 million deal. For the Pellse, I think the nicest way to do it is to protect

1:14:02Zion and Sidik Bay. Because in the end, I don't think that a team will like Eves Misi so much. Really see, I feel that about Sidik Bay. Yeah, but don't you agree that if Zion is there, he will be immediately picked. Do you think someone's taken Mathurin? Yeah. I mean, why do we, why do we all hate Mathurin? He was not bad in playoffs in the finals. He was not super duper productive, but he won them a game. In the finals. He also lost them a game. Sure. Just be better as a coach and reign him in. Yeah, I would not want him on my team, but that's a different story. I'm open to the idea that maybe there's a word on my team. I don't want fears on my team. Yeah, so that is the only reason I could see for unprotecting Zion is that you just want to move forward with fears and queen. And there's no way

1:15:06that queen and Zion are working together long term. Then let's just do it. There has to be an end date on that. Come on. Let's be brave and do it. Wow. Okay. We're unprotecting Zion. Now again, this will be after this season. Yeah. Funny story. Pick one and two of that draft, which was a fantastic draft, both unprotected. Wow. Wow. Zion. Unprotected along with the Andre Jordan, AJ Johnson, Bryce Mingans. That's spicy. And I feel like that's a good chance. He'll be number one in this pick in this upcoming draft. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see what the guy men guys think. Okay, moving on to Dallas. This was difficult one. I think this might be the most difficult. Yeah. So 15 players, basically everyone on their roster is eligible. Yeah. Because of the way it worked out. So I'm not even going to name you everyone because it's everyone on the roster. Yeah. So the obvious ones

1:16:08for me were Cooper Flag, Rage Johnson Jr. Derek Lively. Yes. I know. He's been injured, but I think that's obvious. Then at that point, I think after those three, now you can start talking about some of these other guys. I decided to go max Christy because they have no shooting on this team. They have a bunch of six, nine forwards who can't shoot. And so it's basically and they just lost Clay, which like Clay's not great, but he he's a shooter. So they basically have max Christy and Kyrie as the guys who you would trust as shooters. So I think I have to keep max Christy. Yeah. I say that. I'm about to unprotected Kyrie. I kept Sergio De LaRera first round pick. They just drafted. Yeah. I keep I kept PJ Washington Jr. Why? Because I think it some of it came down between him and Daniel Gafford. And I just thought PJ Washington Jr. would have more trade value. Which could be wrong. I'm up to being wrong on that. Go ahead. I'll let you finish. And then we have

1:17:10two differences basically here. Okay. Because you have PJ Washington locked up for a long time. He's locked up at least through 2930. That's as far as it's good. It's a good thing. Okay. Naji Marshall for them specifically. I don't know. But yeah, I do I do think another team would like PJ Washington Jr. Naji Marshall who they just signed to now he is on the classic door deal. He makes like 18 17 16. So it's a descending deal. That's nice. And then Santiago Dama who they got this summer. So that would leave unprotected recess. Kaleb Martin. I think Kaleb Martin's lock. Daniel Gafford. Marcus Sasser. Yeah. Yeah. Shooting. Then Kyrie. So the my thing with Kyrie is that I feel like he's unpredictable and as like a free agent like is he really locked in to Dallas

1:18:11long term and he has a player option this upcoming summer. So you might lose him for nothing regardless. So unless you feel like really confident that Kyrie is part of your long term future and that he's going to rebound from tearing his ACL. I'm just open to letting him be unprotected and seeing what happens. And then the last two names were Tariq Bibbarovic and Musa Sise. So I protected Marcus Sasser and Kyrie over K. Not protecting Kyrie. The argument that you made is is a good one. I still think that if he takes the PO which is likely he is a very good asset for LeBron James teams. Not sure if LeBron will play next year but there is a universe in which he has 20 games, 20 Kyrie games and someone just decides. Charlotte thinks oh that that Lamello guy

1:19:14was actually all our offense. So why not just trying to bribe Kyrie out of that team. Things like that. So it's okay. I don't have stronger being. I don't even have stronger being on Sasser. I like him. I just like him. He's a competitor. I think that I trust his shot but it's 6661 whatever. So I don't think that protecting Gafford, PJ Washington and Najim Marshall is that interesting because these are players that probably you lose one of them. Any if you lose one of them independently of whom you are in the same position as before. So to me I keep you lose Najim but you keep PJ. Okay. If you lose Gafford, okay. If you Gafford, I mean it's probably the best you can lose but if you lose either PJ or Najim you still have a wing. So I don't have too much

1:20:16law for either but it's fine. I mean I probably the reason why I put Sasser there is because you we are protecting too many three fours and Dallas has too many three fours. Yeah. That's the only thing. Okay. I'm open to replacing PJ Washington Jr. because Marais Johnson, you're going to want him getting a lot of those minutes. Yeah. And maybe he doesn't get taken anyways as you said. Now it does feel weird switching him out for Marais Sasser instead of Kyrie. Nobody's speaking Sasser. Probably. Yeah that's true. Okay. Let's protect Kyrie. We'll protect Kyrie. We'll move set. Yeah. Because if somebody's going to take someone they're going to take PJ Washington Jr. or Gafford. Yeah. Okay. All right Kyrie is safe. Two more teams to go. Your final team Houston Rockets.

1:21:19This one felt pretty easy. Eleven guys, KD, Shengoon, Jabari Smith Jr. Tarih Eason, Steven Adams, Aument Thompson, Reach Shepherd, Clint Capela, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Crawford and Bruce Thornton. I probably need something very stupid here. Okay. We watch it. I protected KD, Shengoon, Jabari, Tari, Steven Adams, Aument Thompson and Reach Shepherd. Okay. Is it the same? Then who was your final name? I had very clear idea not to protect Isaiah Crawford and Clint Capela. Okay. I ended up not protecting Smart, which is bad and probably not the right choice. So I don't know. Are you really picking Marcus Smart? Probably. Let's protect him. It's fine. I had ideas up until the end. But now, like, are you really not protecting a guy that locked down Shay for Bruce Thornton? That nobody will

1:22:20probably pick. I know. And for me, it's like, it just gives them another option if instead of read. Because there were so many times in that playoff series where they it felt like they just had to go with read and having Marcus Smart as another option, it just makes it, it just makes that decision so much easier. Like to just be able to throw a smart out there. My initial thought was, are you really picking Marcus Smart as an ex? And then yes, of course they are. Because it's a it's a great and grind guy. So yeah, the offense is going to be miserable to watch regardless. Yeah. And at least with Marcus Smart, you feel like they could have a really good defense when he's on the court with like Stephen Adams and Amen and all that. That seems like a team's like 10 years ago. But it does. Yeah. I mean, well, they're disgusting. They're disgusting to watch. I'm not looking forward to the Houston offense. Fred Van Dlee really has to like work some magic

1:23:25yeah, this year. Okay, the final one. This is a fun one to end on. Yeah. Antonio Spurs for the Western. I assume that we have one difference. We'll see. So the names are Deerne Fox, Devin Vaselle, Wimby, Julian Champenny, Tobias Harris, Dylan Harper, Luke Cornett, Steph Castle, Carter Bryant, Jayden Quintins and Teresery Jr. I protected the obvious ones. Devin Vaselle, Wimby, Julian Champenny, Dylan Harper, Steph Castle, Carter Bryant, Jayden Quintins. That got me to seven. Okay. I decided to go Teresery Jr. Which means I'm unprotecting Deerne Fox, Luke Cornett and Tobias Harris. We have one difference. What is our one difference? I protected the Aaron Fox. You did it. Why did you do that? It's a little bit overblown. Yeah, Dylan Harper should start,

1:24:26Castle and Harper should run the show. They were bad without the Aaron at full force. In multiple moments, I know that the Aaron was not the best, but to me protecting Quintins for him, no, Quintins, nobody will draft him. Nobody. Absolutely nobody. I would, I would. Really? I would. Yeah. Why not? Wow. Because he has like a, like, yes, he has talent. But are you really risking one of your picks to play and maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll be on an NBA court? By the time we get to that part of the expansion draft, it's not going to be pretty names no matter what. Yeah, if you have Tobias, they will pick Tobias. Here, any team will pick Tobias. Tobias is a good player. He's a good man. He's a good human being. It doesn't complain. He plays basketball. He's a reliable player. I don't want to protect him because I don't think that he will make the San Antonio Spurs better. So I don't want to protect him. Luke Cornett, I mean, another awesome human being that you,

1:25:32if you get him on your team, you're just okay because you have a reliable, uh, sturdy, strong big man. So to me, I do think Luke Cornett would be my selection, but I was another team. Okay. But okay, let me just pitch you on unprotecting Darren Fox. I get your argument that, yeah, it's probably a little overblown. He was really important to them. We saw when they didn't have him how much they turned the ball over. Like it is really important to have some kind of real point guard on this team, which up until this point, Steph Castle's not and Dylan Harper, you know, they haven't put him in that role quite yet. I just think that like, eventually you're going to want to move on from Darren Fox. Even if you think like, oh, it's fine for this season, eventually you're going to want to do it because I do think Dylan Harper is

1:26:33that guy and you're going to want to be able to start Dylan Harper, have him be your main ball handler going forward. Darren Fox makes 49 million 53 57 61. I don't know if you're going to be able to have another opportunity to potentially just get off of his contract without having to give up anything. Without either having to take back another huge contract or without having to attach picks to get off of that contract. And again, this is not about like Darren Fox being good or bad. It's just the current cap environment, you know, going back to Carl Anthony Towns, great player, a team had to get rid of them or felt like they had to get rid of them because of the contract. Darren Fox is decision maybe, but Darren Fox is not as good. They would have they wouldn't have had the same team. They wouldn't have been able to keep

1:27:34all the other players they kept if they keep if they keep cat. It's not like you just get to keep cat and everyone else stays the same. Yeah, they would have had to make real financial decisions based on that. I see the argument. I really do. I think that you really risk it in terms of if what you keep is not able to get one B where it needs to, you are in deep trouble, my man. He just, he just signed a huge deal. Oh, did that doesn't mean anything. I mean, to me, in this, this construction of the Spurs is a final contender. It is period. We're all without connect Tobias and Quintants. And you go Quint and Sobert Tereshary? Yeah, just because I think that the

1:28:35hell being will scare anybody off. But to me, I see your point. But the point is, even if you remove him as early as next year, you don't have functional cup space to replace him. So you don't have functional cup space to replace Darren Fox next year because the one B deal kicks in. You already have solid blocks allocated to that. You have to extend quickly year after seven castle. And I know that it will bring everything to a huge financial crunch. But you don't have a point guard. And next year, at the end of next year, this might sound like the best decision. But today, with what we have today, if you're projecting the growth of Harper, okay, if we pretend that he had like a good enough season, okay, I might be of the opinion that,

1:29:35yes, if you have a J of free card because Harper is playing 38 minutes in the year in Fox 12. Yes. But with what we have now, I think, you risk so much. And that's probably good news for the Spurs because if the draft does end up being in the summer of 2028, maybe this decision is much more clear because by that time, you'll have a whole another season of data with Dylan Harper. And maybe at that point, you'll be, you'll have everything you need to know. Now, I feel like I have everything I need to know right now. But I will agree that there's that like removing Fox from this team, it would end up being next year's Spurs team. It could result in them taking a step back. That's a sweet step back. I think it can play. I'll see they they are worse. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, well, I do think that they are not good enough to pass. Okay, see, fully at three, as constructed. And I

1:30:38think that Tobias Harris is a nice player, but also the player, the exact player that you can see needed to hide either a heart and style or a shadow went on, which is very weird to me that they picked that player. Have you heard the idea of, I think Bill Simmons did it of Garland for Fox? The basic idea is like, you maintain a point guard in San Antonio, but you get off the Fox contract. Garland's contract is only this year and next. So there's like a clear endpoint for when the expensive point guard experiment is going to be over. And then for the Clippers, Fox is still a really good player. You would have them walked up for a long time, and he's been healthier than Garland. Well, if you somehow can, what you can get for them, because Garland does not cut it,

1:31:41you probably have to include another soloist law, like seven minions, credit dick. Yeah, I would actually pay for that, especially if I'm like vaguely an Emerald, we don't see Garland defensively is just terrible. So defensively they will clearly take us that back. Offensively, it's a different player. I think that Fox is a stabilizer. Garland is different, so I don't know if they are as effective. Again, to me, the Spurs have very interesting brand of basketball that works with DRM Fox as point guard. Now, would I, to me that the wrong decision was to trade for Fox in that specific moment and to jump start the WMB experience, to me that was not a good move. And this sounds

1:32:41countering. This seems that I'm countering myself, but the point is right now you breathe, you have like this moment in the finals that happened. And now you cannot take a huge step back. If you don't get it to the second round, because you get like anything to deal in harbor or to someone and you don't get there, it's a disaster. So you put yourself into this situation, and I think that it's your kind of tie to that. All right, fine. I will agree with McCalei. We are going to protect DRM Fox, which means we're going to unprotect Jane Quaintons, Luke Cornett, Tobias Harris. I do think, I mean, we'll see what the fry bug guys do, but I do think Luke Cornett would be a pretty obvious selection there, just because he's on a really cheap deal. He has a very obvious like elite NBA skill. I know it

1:33:43seems like a huge drop off when it goes from Wembee to Luke Cornett, but I think on most teams, Cornett would be hugely helpful. And he makes 10 million, 9.9, and then a team option for 9.3. Yeah, it's just an awesome job. Honestly, should we protect him over Terrace Reed Jr? Why are we not protecting Luke Cornett? Because they just drafted Dr. Tarris Jr. I'm overriding it. Okay. We're protecting Luke Cornett. That deal is too good. Oops. That is just like for especially for a team, I mean, it's the same way with OKC. If you have any rotation player making 10 million or under a year, it is like found money. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like this better. Will they get Terrace Reed? I still think that Tobias is going to be big in here.

1:34:44He has, yeah, he's 15 and then he would, so in this scenario, he'd be a 15.8 expiring. Yeah, which is a fantastic counter. Okay. Well, not sure if fantastic for him, but in general, 15 is okay. Yeah. Okay, so that brings us to the end of the Western Commerce, which we did in a cool 90 minutes. So Wednesday, we're going to do the Eastern Conference. I have not looked at it yet. Did you, have you looked at it already? Do you feel like the Eastern Conference is more hard? No, it's easier. I put it here myself. Because I don't have time to start tomorrow, but I'm ready. Okay, so that one might be a shorter, I'll see. But for now, just a recap. Okay, see, the one that everyone cares about. We decided to unprotect a dimara, Euclato pitch, Thomas Sorber, Bennett Sturts, and J. Will. And the final decision came down to J. Will versus Jared McCain. So we'll see what happens on Friday. I assume, I mean,

1:35:49one thing I can guarantee is in any real life expanions draft, someone from the Thunder is getting taken. They're not going to be one of the teams. That's no players taken. Although, as McKellay brought up, you can offer picks to entice teams not to take anyone from your team. How does that work, though, because there's two teams. So do you have to pay both of the teams? I guess you would have to. I have no idea. So it could theoretically cost you two picks to keep a play. When you get one player picked and you settle that we picks, that's done. That's done. It's the same as you had to play your pick. Okay. Okay. Well, that would make me feel better. Yeah. All right. So thank you for listening. We will see you all again on Wednesday.

1:36:50Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Kevin Hart here in this cashback in season. I'm getting scary amounts of cash back on all my Halloween stuff. Do you like scary movies? Have you seen my movies? Yeah, big fan. All right, scary guy. I'll see you around. It's cashback in season with Chase Freedom. Cards issued by JP Morgan Chase Bank and a member of FDIC.