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A show about basketball
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Welcome to Gucci Row on the Rebel HD 2. I'm your host Kevin Kelly with co-host Will Despard. Thanks for tuning in to our courtside conversations covering all things NBA.
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Welcome back, y'all. Gucci Ro. My name's Kevin Kelly. Will Despart. We're back, man. How you feeling, Will?
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Pretty good. How about you?
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Good, man.
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We're about to, I'm about to be back in a little trip in New York. We got a little hiatus coming up before the start of the season. So feeling good ready to get to back to watching some basketball I've been fiending for anything But um with that the FIBA stuff has kind of started so I'm taking a peek at that and then once the Actual games get going, you know We'll all be tuned in there. So that's good stuff yeah, not too much going on around the league, but we'll talk a little bit of contract stuff and not really get on his uh... jaylen brown who signed his uh... impending extension which was five years three hundred and three million dollars supermax uh... which makes it the largest contract in nba history and uh... he'll be making sixty nine million dollars in in the last season of her so you had the uh... the celtics they were able to avoid a a player option in the last year so he's solidified all those. But they had to give him, he's secured a trade kicker, so if they do end up moving him, his price goes up and he makes more money than if he stays there. Yeah, and then since he signed that, he can't be moved for a year after the extension. So as we saw for the last three years, constant talks of whether they'll split the Jays up and if he'll go somewhere else. That looks like it's going to be on hold at least for a while because he's got a year. So yeah, I guess overall do you like the contract? Do you think it's a bad move? Do you think it's the better of the two evils? Yeah.
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I mean, I don't like it. I don't think he commands that kind of money, but I also don't really think they should let him go.
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So I guess it is the lesser of two evils. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I don't think it's that bad of an evil because although the numbers seem insane right now, and they are, especially considering the new CBA, these contracts around the league are going to go up. Like $30 million a year this year versus in five years is entirely different and just looked at differently, but yeah, I think you had to I mean the the only other option was to let him go and With them bringing in poor Zingas, I think even though it's a lot to deal with later on for for now I think that they're in the best opportunity they could be in and Around the league you look around the league They have one of the better rosters going in for contention this year and and also they made the conference finals or the finals five of the seven years that he's been on the Celtics. Something like that has to be rewarded, especially considering he's been over 22 points a game for the last handful of years. Do your personal expectations change or since he's signed are you just looking for the team's success to stay there and maybe win a ring and not necessarily an individual jump. He averaged 26.5 points per game last year, almost 7 rebounds, a little over 3 assists per game, and he shot a career-low 33.5% from 3. So like I guess that last bit is the only real individual measure that I'm looking for him to jump. I don't care if he's at 26 or 23 points per game getting 7 or 5 rebounds. None of that really is that important to me as a second option like you said as long as they're you know one of the best teams in the league and able to contend and hopefully if you're a Celtics fan win a ring. Um, but yeah, I mean, I guess the biggest like I said, the biggest measure is I think he's really got a shoot better this year and As we saw with all the memes about him not having a left hand I think it'd be nice to see him just improve a bit on the handle and be in a position where that doesn't get exploited in the playoffs for sure Cuz yeah, like I know I forget who it was someone In the playoffs on the heat this year they asked him about about sending Jalen left and if that was like starting to become the the plan of action and basically the answer was no that's been the plan of action like we're trying to send him left everyone knows this so yeah that those are just the two things I think that would really need to build upon to make this real justified. Moving on to the more, I hate that we have to still talk about it without any real update, but more Damien Lillard stuff. You know, there's not a lot of update to go off of, but there is a report I saw this morning from NBA Trade Report with hashtag sources that weren't named. So you know, I always take that with a big grain of salt. But they said that there's another Dark Horse East team that entered the running for Dame, similar to how the Cavs swooped in for a Spida when everyone thought the Knicks. Yeah, how do you feel about the source, trust me, bro? Uh, I don't know.
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I mean, I'm sure there's something there. I don't think it's probably that, but I'm sure there's other people making offers. And when that kind of stuff gets leaked, there's usually motivation behind it. So whether it's
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true or not, there's some motive behind that being released. I just am sick of people not naming their sources or hiding behind a hashtag. But it me I hate to even bring this up because I saw a lot of people like the trainer Drew Hanlon and other people around the league come out and say that that is just entirely fake. But so yeah, just those kind of updates, I don't know, it's tough to know what's real and what's not sometimes. But so that said, if those reports are true, who do you think that third team, I mean the or Harden to I guess my two picks would be It's sort of the obvious ones. I guess Raptors and nets. I think that um the Raptors really need someone who's just gonna want to shoot it and Shoot it a lot and that's what Tyler does. He's Shown that he can score on volume off the bench in the starting lineup Yeah, and then also the nets obviously who are in a really good spot to To try and get another young guy in who's got more room to grow like he does so Yeah, those are the the two that I think I why do you think sixers? What do you like about that? I? Just think it makes the most sense as far as like a competitive window
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I think they're gonna lose hard and obviously they're gonna need someone to replace him and I don't think they're just gonna mail it in right now. I
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Think they're gonna be aggressive knowing they have to capitalize on Embiid's window. I kind of wonder what that package would look like obviously Harden's included but is Harden going to Portland or is he rerouted to a third team? Do you have to include? More young assets. I'd say Maxie probably gets included to go to Portland Martin probably would go to a third team and then have other role-playing assets come back to the Sixers. Yeah, I think that's probably the Best route honestly, that's something I'd like to see happen. Just Even just As sad as it would be as a heat fan just to see the whole Dame saga come to an end but um Yeah, I guess on that one other I guess I would like to see, I mean Hero Land is somewhere like the Jazz or even the Spurs, just like a Western, even though they're not part of the report, a Western conference team that is at the bottom, has a lot of room to grow, shots to give up. I think that, yeah, I don't know if you want to see him taking a lot of shots from Wembley, but I think it'd be fun to watch at the very least. I mean, I don't think Wembley is going to be carrying the offense this first year. Yeah, that's a good point. You could have a veteran in there, I don't think it could hurt. So another piece of news that came out this week, the NBA announced that Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks will play a regular season game in Mexico City on November 9th. It marks the 32nd NBA game in Mexico since 1992. Do you think they should expand international play? Either if it's regular season or preseason? to have that first-hand experience. I went to Dortmund vs. Man City in Vegas and you were able to come with us to Milan vs. Barca. I just think that's huge for the sport and for the American support, I guess just foreign support. I don't know if you see those two things coming together. Yeah, it's definitely big for the sport, but I would say that it needs to happen in the season mostly because adding international travel to the 82 game grind is not fair. That's a really good point. I think even like, because you know, the time that we're here between like the end of July after a lot of the free agency stuff is done and the beginning of training camp, besides FIBA, like there's not really any basketball going on. Like I agree, I think that'd be a perfect time to do like a tour, whether it's like you just pick one continent or whatever and do that each year. Yeah. And like I mentioned, like even being someone who just recently, a few years ago, started watching and getting into soccer, like that game does a lot for, to be able to go and witness like players of that caliber that you're not able to see in your country. I think that that does a whole lot for one's interest in a league. Yeah, definitely. So I guess continuing on the magic, their owners, the DeVos family, just donated $50,000 to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' super PAC called Never Back Down. Yeah, um, fun stuff. But the Magic partnered with Disney in 2010 and their logo has been on the jersey since 2017. So, um, it seems like a little bit of a conflict of interest there. I mean, if I was Disney, I would just tell them to scram, honestly, like, just take my
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my ball and go home and support DeSantis who's been like openly tyrannical against Disney.
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Might I add the biggest business in Florida.
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Yeah, I mean not just against Disney but against the people there too, but in this case Disney. And yeah, I mean Disney is the one popular entity in Florida that can flex its muscle
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on the government. Yeah, it seems like there's, um, it shouldn't just fly as is. Someone over at Disney or in the Magic should say like, hey, this is too contradictory for us to just stand by. They always say don't mess with the mouse. I'm not messing with the mouse. Yeah. Which I guess, to add a little context, Richard DeVos is the original owner of the Magic and his son Dan is the current chairman. Dan's sister-in-law Betsy DeVos is the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and she served as the Secretary of Education under Trump. So you know obviously a lot of Republican ties in that family from the jump but yeah they had never like nor has any team NBA team like given that much public support The Players Association came out with a statement saying, A political contribution from the Orlando Magic is alarming given recent comments and policies of its beneficiary. personal political views, including through donations and statements. However, if contributions are made on behalf of an entire team, using money earned through the labor of its employees, it is incumbent upon the team governors to consider the diverse values and perspective of staff and players. The Magic's donation does not represent player support for the recipient. Yeah, I think you put players in a pretty rough situation there. Yeah, for sure. Besides Jonathan Isaac.
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Yeah, he's probably pumped.
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Yeah, famed Fox News hero.
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Is he even playing in Orlando anymore?
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Is he just like a full-time um... I mean, he went through like two and a half years of knee injury issues. Yeah, he came back and immediately got hurt again. The only time I see him is when he's like, oh, my God, I'm gonna be so mad. Yeah, he came back and immediately got hurt again. The only time I see him is when he's like, up on stage with preachers and like... Yeah, he just launched his... I don't even want to get into it. He just launched an anti-woke pro-Christian apparel brand and uh, yeah, his first shoot with the Air Judah 1s. The Air Judah 1s. Have been getting unanimously clowned online. So yeah, that's been funny.
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But yeah, I just think...
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I'm that Definitely don't represent the feelings of all the staff and players You get into pretty tricky territory, especially like you mentioned with when you have a sponsor like like Disney for sure but moving on We're gonna just get into some of the awards for the upcoming season and odds around them Ones we think are unfair or maybe some sleepers Yeah, I mean got yo kajet plus 400 dont it's a plus 500 and tata kumbo plus 550 and bead 600 Tatum 900 some other names steph plus 1400 and SGA and Damon plus 1300 or 2300 Out of all those I would say the best value right now Is Tatum honestly at 900 however I would say my pick is Luka. So I I think that Luka will probably get cannibalized by Tyree assuming that they stay healthy but so my pick I think the best value there is
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Currently SGA
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and It turns to Dame if he gets moves, but I think my pick is SGA I think he was ended up like fourth or something on MVP voting last year. The team should be significantly better This year with like less weight on his shoulders specifically. So if I had to put one name right now It would definitely be him to So I was gonna throw down right now. I'd probably go and then Thompson at plus 1500 I mean when binyama minus 200 sure whatever, but that's not good value it especially because he is Probably gonna struggle a little bit especially because we saw in summer league with his conditioning was a little subpar He's got to get stronger so I mean he could struggle a little bit his first year I Mean and you got a guy like a men Thompson who's gonna be in like a guard wing type role, right? and like you mentioned earlier like he might not be a 35% usage offense driver like Victor is good for so many reasons other than just having the ball in his hand So I think I think amends a good pick the only Thing I'd push back on is that I don't know I think that he should be like six seventh man if not starting but I don't know Really how much playing time he'll have guaranteed when you talk about Fred coming in and they also obviously have KPJ and Jalen and Yeah, I mean if he gets the the time I think that and then is certainly the best value there the other sleeper I had is key on to george who was phenomenal in the summer league for the jazz and you know the jazz obviously team that have a lot of uh... shots to be taken uh... he's coming off an ankle injury which is the only thing that uh... makes me pause but his odds of an anywhere i've seen from like twenty five hundred to eight thousand so anywhere as high as that, I mean, I'd definitely take that. The six-man-of-the-year odds, for some reason, after searching around, are not available many places at all. FanDuel just has two names, Brogdon and Powell, at plus 850 and 900, respectively. Probably not too much to speak on with this one, but I guess Brogdon would be a really on things like that. But so to move on, defensive player of the year, if you want to go through those odds. We got Jaron Jackson at plus 550, Giannis Antetokounmpo plus 700, Mobley at 700, Anthony Davis plus 1000, Adebayo plus 1000, Joel Embiid plus 1400, Brooke Lopez plus 1400. I would say my pick is Mobley at plus 700 because he was close enough last year. I think he was like, the voting didn't end up that close, but for the most of the season he was like up neck and neck with Jaren Jackson for the voting. So I would probably say he gets the narrative on his side this year. Here's a more interesting question. What is the worst value of those names? Probably Jaren Jackson. worst worst value for me uh... jerry's a terrible pick i'm gonna say despite him uh... doing so well in it last year i'm gonna say mobile ages because if it's anything like totally it's not that's anything like we saw in that next series uh... he really was kinda getting bullied them also that's playoff ball arts share her season ball Jared Allen there who's really good defender and they yeah, I think like I mentioned with the cannibalization and MVP I think it's tough like to win that when you have another healthy Really good defender like that on the team which brings me to my biggest best value I have no idea how he's so low but robert williams uh... is that like plus five thousand on almost everything everywhere i saw which is insane because they just lost the celtics just lost their rating defensive player of the year it's really important to mention i don't see it talked about a lot but that marcus smart defensive player of the year mid-tenth mid-march robert williams was like minus to win Defense Player of the Year and then got hurt and Smart just jumped up way, like five spots, even though it was, if he stayed healthy it was guaranteed to be Time Lord. So I think if their defense is really good it'd be hard not to give it to him.
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Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I think he kind of fell out of like the narrative last year with his injury I think people kind of like forgot about him a little bit. So we'll see if he can Establish himself again. Mm-hmm
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So that brings us to most improved the odds follow Mikhail bridges first at plus 650 and then we jump all the way down to plus 1200 for Tyrese Maxey and then plus 1400 for Kate coming Cunningham 1600 for Jordan pool and plus 1800 for Alfred single You know, I I could see why the odds are the way they are McHale isn't just a perfect opportunity to jump up six points per game and yeah, he's got a lot more volume coming his way and and um yeah I think that's a pretty despite there being a 600 whatever odds difference between there I think that I'd probably take the kill. Yeah, fair I agree with that. I think the other one that I mentioned is uh Devin Vassell who as we mentioned earlier is gonna be playing with Vic who don't get me wrong it's not like he's going to take 5 shots a game, but he's not like a ball in his hand all the time, 40% usage guy. So I think that the Spurs are going to be a lot more successful, so if there's a guy there that's able to up his numbers a bit while their team's success goes way up, he'd have a really good chance at winning that. And lastly, maybe the toughest one, is coach of the year, which is pretty tough to predict But uh is spolstra plus 800 Michael Malone at plus 900 Joe Missoula plus 900 Nick nurse at plus 900 mark diagonal at plus 900 Adrian Griffin at plus thousand Frank Fogle at plus 1200 Taylor Jenkins at plus 1400 and JB Bickerstaff at plus 1600. It's interesting how many of those are new, you know, Frank Fogle Adrian Griffin both new in their teams Nick nurse Nick nurse to you. I'm surprised to see Spoh up at the the front. He's Despite being a top 15 coach ever has never won his coach of the year. So that's pretty crazy Yeah, so I'm gonna hope that that's this year Yeah, if he hasn't won it yet, maybe I'll just throw him a bone this year if the heater fine. Yeah, if there's not like um a Mike Brown from last year You know like yeah, so That one yeah, and then I guess just we'll close off with talking If teams that we might see as having a big jump or fall So we'll start with jumps. I think two of them you could mention are the some of the bottom feeders on the East, the Magic, who went 34-48 and I think could probably add like 5, 6, 7 wins to that pretty easily just with their development and bringing in AB and yeah, hopefully consolidating the roster a bit. And then Pistons who only won 17 games last year, I think with a healthy Cade and the decayed and uh... uh... talent they have beyond town roster they could
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game ten wins pretty pretty easy yeah i mean
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i can see the pelicans obviously i think it's i'm can get back at any reasonable rate yet they did there one of those teams that shows spurts each year that like they could via fifteen over to put him on that same wavelength the Timberwolves obviously have you know between the twin towers and ant who's Emerging as a superstar. I think they could one of these years take a big jump Yeah, I think that'll require like a big MVP type season from and but it could be common Yeah, and I think you said it right it won't be from cat It'll be from ant yeah, and they'll either be with cat there to help or moving him for pieces that fit better and with which is guaranteed to hurt them a lot. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be tough. I think the Kings, I think they'll be fine, honestly. I could see them being a regression candidate, but I think they'll probably, maybe a few games less, but I think they'll probably stay around the same. Yeah, I don't think it'll be anything on them. I just think the West is going to be a bit tougher this year. Yeah, and it's mostly around the seed. I don't think that 48 and 34 is like a super unachievable record again, but the three seed would be tough to maintain. That's fair. And then, yeah, the last two I have is the Sixers who have a lot of question marks going on. Obviously, Harden is on the move. We don't know where he's going to go or what the asset return is going to look like. they obviously drop way off this this list of falls if they end up with Damian Lillard, but In a lot of scenarios I could see them going from 54 and 28 which is an incredible record to yeah losing like yeah at least five wins Yeah, and then the last one I said is the Nets who? You know went 45 and 37 last year, but a lot of that is just based off the team that they had up until the trade deadline and you know they're obviously coming in with a lot less of a win now roster so yeah that's uh it's about all we have today I again I appreciate y'all for tuning in with Kevin Kelly well that's part I appreciate it that's a wrap for Gucci row this week thanks for tuning in on the rebel HD 2 with your hosts Kevin Kelly and well that's part you can find us on Instagram at one Kevin and Will Despard. You can find us on Instagram at 1kevkelly and willdespard. You can find us on Instagram at 1kevkelly and willdespard.
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We'll see you next time on the Rebel HD 2.