Transcript of The Annual Worst NBA Contracts Draft With Joe House and Wosny Lambre

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The Bill Simmons Podcast, brought to you by Sam's Club. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network, where it is still CR Month. Waz, where did CR Month rank for you on the happiest moments for you this decade?

Is it up there?

I mean, I'm—

CR— it's always CR Month for me personally, so Um, it's just another month, you know, like I'm, I'm listening to all this, all 80 CR pods anyway, so yeah, there's no, there's no difference for me.

That's fair. That's it, House. That seems to be the consensus, that every month is CR month. We just basically put a name on it.

He's beloved. Um, the thing that I will say is, you know, in my life I've had a lot of people over the years say, how can it be that this Tremendous show, rewatchables, where there's a home base right there in Los Angeles, has not done LA Confidential.

I know people— it's going to be next week. We're recording next week. So CR month, we put up To Live and Die in LA Today. We have The Nice Guys coming next week, and then LA Confidential finishing the month. So you can check that out. You can also check out House on The Ringer Gambling Show in February. Rolling. Waz left us, but he stayed with us. He stayed with us in spirit.

That's right.

Dude, go do, plug your new thing before we get going.

Doing a show called No Fouls Given with Paul Pierce and Danny Green. It's basically like a player-driven show, but I try to get these guys to actually say stuff unlike a lot of different player pods. And I have a lot of fun with these guys and they've been fun and candid and just having a good time with it. So, Yeah, check that out. YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, well, we're gonna pull you into a couple ringer pods during the playoffs. This is the big one. This is the Worst Contracts of 2026, the annual pod. I feel like we've been doing it all decade. I cannot wait. We're gonna take a break, bring in Burl Jam, and then Worst Contracts. This episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by Sam's Club. It is that time of the year when you just gotta get in your car and go somewhere. I've done that plenty of times in my life. Nowhere gets you ready to go quite like Sam's Club. Snacks, the gear, super low prices on gas. They got a bunch of stuff that keep you and the whole crew rolling. And here's what you got to do. You got to join the club of Yes And at sam'sclub.com/yesand. You must be 18 years or older to purchase membership, and membership is subject to qualifications. Visit sam'sclub.com/yesand. For details. All right, fellas, I don't remember when we started doing this. I just remember that I want to keep doing it for the rest of my life. When Waz told us he was leaving the Ringer, I was just immediately like, but we're still going to get to do Worst Contracts, right?

That actually happened on the phone.

Yeah, we had an emotional phone call. But before we do Worst Contracts, I went to Clippers Spurs last night, and I had really good seats. My friend Mark Samino took me. I sat courtside. I was on the wood. Wemby is the best player I've seen all season. Wow. And I've seen all the players. I know I intentionally didn't text this to you, House. SGA is going to win the MVP. SGA looks like he's veering into this Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant area. I think it's already happened. He has a chance to, he's going to win MVP. He has a chance to be Finals MVP 2 years in a row. I cannot believe how good Wemby is, how hard he plays, and how much he affects both ends of the floor, but especially the defense. We were just counting all the shots he changes, alters, or makes the guy change his mind, and it was almost 30. And he just, he never lets up. He's just going hard the entire time. And the impact that he has on a game, I just thought it was the most impactful thing I've seen. I've seen I saw a great Jokic game this year.

I saw a great SGA game this year. Like, I just think he's the most impactful. I don't think that means he's gonna win MVP, but, but Waz, it did change how I'm feeling about the playoffs and whether San Antonio can really stick it to OKC and everybody else. What do you think?

Yeah, you start the year, I'm pretty skeptical of a young team like that and their ability to dominate playoff series. But as the year progresses and they take down team after team in big matchups where, you know, we watch enough NBA games where we could tell when both teams are actually going as hard as they can.

Yeah.

And it's been a bunch of these games, the Detroit games, the OKC games, the Denver game. Like every single game I'm watching, I'm like, man, these guys are trying their hardest. Denver. Wemby didn't even play. They— these guys had to become superheroes in the fourth quarter to even pull that game out. And yeah, you mentioned the defense, which obviously I think we all thought he would become this kind of defensive player. But to me, his offense is just way ahead of schedule.

Yeah.

Where, you know, it's not that he's not taking jump shots anymore, he's just taking way better kinds of jump shots where they put a, you know, they put a little 6'9 guy on him and he catches the ball at 18 feet, doesn't even put the ball on the floor, gives a fake jab step, it's just like, I'm gonna shoot over you. And it's almost like I'm placing the ball right in the basket.

Yeah.

And that's not to mention what he is able to do at the cup. And so to me, offensively is where it just goes to another level. 'Cause I didn't think he would be this potent this quickly.

Clippers tried Chris Dunn on him. That lasted about 4 minutes. They basically put everyone on their team on him. House, he had one play in the second half and it was in front of us. He was on the right block and he did this swirling spin move and did this like Dr. J lefty flip George Gervin, like just 3-foot flip shot. And the whole crowd was like, oh, fuck. Like, he has 5 oh, fuck moments just for the crowd in person where you're just like, I've never seen that. And I think the thing that really stuck out to me yesterday, just watching the team, You know, Castle's a badass. Like Castle to me is moved into the third team All-NBA conversation. I don't know if I'm gonna vote for him, but he's at least on my little bubble list. But everybody in that Fox, all these dudes play really hard, but Wemby is the one I'm shocked how hard he plays. I know almost to the point where you fear for his safety. Like, yo, maybe don't play this hard. But I, I just think that's what he does. House.

Yeah. That he's got that young guy intensity. He doesn't know any better. He's out there to break everybody down and, and collect names put them all in the graveyard. He's putting up tombstones right now. That's where— that's the stage of his career. But the thing, um, I went through the mental checklist as you were saying he's the best player you saw this year. I was like, wait a minute, SGA, the Joker.

I know, I don't feel great. I don't feel great about saying it. I'm just telling you how I felt watching it. I was like, I can't believe what's happening.

I think it's a fair point. I think it's a fair point. I, I will still reserve judgment until we get to the playoffs because Yeah, the way this— the seeding in the West is lining up, it looks completely outrageous. We might get like the Spurs and the Lakers in the first round. We might get the Spurs and Minnesota in the first round. Like, and, and we know this, the OGs know this, the playoffs are a radically different animal. And I think that healthy skepticism that we OGs feel around, okay, young team, um, you did your thing in the regular season, we all give out the flowers because it was a thing of beauty the way they stepped up, the physicality of of San Antonio, when you say Castle, that, that Castle Fox, that's, they just get into you. They get into you. And they, I love that.

The kid that came in, and I've been watching this the last couple weeks, but Carter Bryan came in. He's a fucking huge dude. Like if you didn't know anything, you would think he was like a center. He's, I think he's 6'9". And there was one time in the first half he said, or maybe the second half, he said he was just at midcourt and set a pick on somebody. I think it was Garland. Who didn't see him and he ran into him. It was like watching somebody run into a tree. Like he's huge already. And they played a tiny bit. Cornette didn't play last night, so they played a little small ball 5 with him. And I was like, this is, this is not nothing right now. But the, the Wemby thing, the, the point Waz made about the offense being ahead of schedule, there's a lot of jump shots with that team. I was trying to, as I was watching last night, I was trying to think like, how does this go sideways? They had, they were up 16, 18, 20, and they do have these little stretches where somebody go on an 8-0 run, 9-0 run.

And I don't always love the shots San Antonio gets. And ultimately it's probably gonna come down to Fox, whether Fox can figure out a Fox-Wemby thing. But, it's weird to say he's the best player I've seen 'cause I don't think he's the best player in the league. But I also think maybe we underrate the defensive impact-wise of just when somebody's that special. It's almost like we don't know how to calibrate in our heads. 'Cause it's like there's two sides of basketball. There's offense and defense. And when somebody is that far ahead of everyone else in the league on defense, I wonder how we calibrate that.

Yeah, I think that's the ultimate question. I think me, I personally, my favorite performance individually so far the year outside of Bam Adebayo breaking Kobe's record, which made me super happy, is SGA. That game against Boston in the fourth quarter, what he was doing, it was like you said, Mike and Kobe. It felt like that watching it in real time. And I was actually watching it with Paul, and he was just like, man, they got to get the ball out of his hands because if he gets a shot off, start trapping him. It's going in.

Yeah.

And he's dictating the pace and he's getting to whatever spot he wants. And he's so calm, he's so poised. And it's the second they send that extra bit of help or that extra bit of, you know, shading the defense, he's whipping it out there to his open guys. I just think his command on offense right now, especially— we see it every year in the playoffs. Eventually you just got to put the ball in your best player's hands and trust that amazing things are gonna happen. And with SGA right now, to me, that's the guy that's like, that's the guy right now.

Yeah.

No, because even, even with Jokic, he has to kind of get set up. You don't want Jokic starting his attack from the 3-point line. SGA, he can start his attack from wherever.

It's lethal.

Yeah.

Well, the command he has on offense probably rivals the command Wemby has on defense. Yeah, in the playoffs I would trust the offense.

Oh yeah.

'Cause I think there's too many ways the defense can go sideways. You get in foul trouble, you could land on somebody's leg, all that stuff. But it's interesting that Wemby's moved in that conver— like we're doing Ringer 100 voting this week. SGA's probably gonna get the first spot, which I think is the first time Jokic has lost it. It's not like Jokic isn't having an awesome year, but I think the end of the game stuff with Denver has to affect how you think about Jokic, at least like 1%, right, House?

For sure. And if you look at the last 10 games where it starts to feel like Oklahoma City understands the moment and understands where it's— we're now getting to the point in the season where let's get some of these playoff chops going. They have 2 wins against Denver, speaking of, both of which were close games. They have a win against Boston, they have a win against Minnesota, they have a win on the road against the Knicks. Like They're, they're understanding the moment, and that's why we're seeing this version of SGA. I mean, I, I don't have any issue whatsoever with them taking that middle chunk of the season and like, yeah, we've got some injuries. Yeah, we're gonna get some rest. Yeah, we're gonna take some L's along the way here. It's okay, we'll be fine. Now look at the stretch that, that we're in right here now, um, where they're— it looks like they're kind of coming into form to me.

Well, one thing with Wemby, guys, 'cause I was really watching him carefully last night. And I, we, House and I are old, so I've seen basically every good center since the mid-'70s. And Kareem was somebody who was really durable. Part of it was how he played. He didn't play as hard as Wemby night to night. He did in the playoffs, but, but had that really, I think Kareem was 7'4", long, skinny, but athletic. Like when you saw him run, you weren't like, oh man, what's that gonna look like in 10 years? Like he, Wemby, I'm not saying he's gliding, but it looks better when you watch it where you're like, all right, I can see that guy lasting a while the way he moves around. But the big thing with him, because he falls a lot, like it's, you know, he gets knocked down, he might land on somebody's foot. He knows how to fall, which is a weird thing to say about some of the best athletes in the world, but some guys don't necessarily 100% know how to fall. And he has these falls and it's like, it's almost like he must practice them on a, on like a trampoline or, you know, on a big canvas thing or something.

So there was like 4 times where I go, no. And then he just gets up and the fall is never as bad as it seems like it's going to be. So I don't know. I, I, I'm more intrigued by these playoffs than anything we've had in a long time. Just because what House said earlier about these weird matchups, even now the Lakers at least being, you could talk yourself into them in a series, maybe Luka just getting hot for 4 out of 7 games. Who knows? Then the East, watching the Celtics last night where there was some real— I don't know, did you guys see that game last night?

I watched it. I watched it.

Some really interesting Jaylen Tatum stuff in that game where Jaylen's like, I got this, and just took over the last 5 minutes. And Tatum was on the side and it was like, I didn't know for sure that was going to happen this year, but it happened. So there's just a lot going on. What's your favorite subplot as we head into April was?

Well, I think the East playoffs are gonna be fascinating. Like, I'm on the record, I'm not this big Detroit is head and shoulders above anybody.

No, that's dumb.

I, I still think the Knicks, because of their sort of cohesion and continuity, I know they don't do it night to night, but they've showed me enough spurts of like, all right man, you guys are capable of playing competent defense.

Right.

And I think they're gonna do it in the playoffs.

And then of course the, the OKC game they had, I thought was a good loss for them. Yes, they at least showed that they could swim in those waters, you know what I mean?

Yes, exactly. And then Boston, man, I'm just blown away by what they're doing this year. And I've said it a bunch of times, Brad Stevens doesn't have a bunch of sycophants in the media, so nobody's calling him a genius and nobody's up his ass like they do certain other GMs. Brad Stevens is GMing his ass off. Yeah, this year to put these randos together. And a bunch of white guys nobody ever heard of. And these guys are getting serious minutes. And when you watch it, the level of execution and focus and attention to detail that Boston plays with— obviously Mazzulla deserves a lot of credit, but these are scrap heap dudes that are just playing their tails off for Boston. I'm just intrigued by the whole Eastern Conference thing at the top. I'm kind of off Cleveland. I like the Harden thing was dope when it started, and I was like, yeah, we've all come to our senses. Yeah, I got I said something again like an idiot and I'm now like, why did I even entertain that? I'm, I'm really intrigued by the East playoffs and I think, you know, okay.

And then Miami and Orlando is like just, yeah, who knows?

Who knows?

And meanwhile, Charlotte's the 10 seed. They might, they'd have to win right now 2 playing games just to get into the playoffs.

Love Charlotte.

Yeah. It's, Detroit's probably the one outta the top 4 I feel the worst about.

Me too.

I think it's really hard for them to score. And you, you, you know, one thing that the Celtics have, House, that's happened all year and happened again in the Phoenix game last night, they, they bring in the Dragons like at near the end of the first quarter. And they just flip the flow of the game. They'll bring in, you know, two of like Hugo, Shireman, sometimes with Walsh. And these guys come in, they just try their ass off and they're a lot of times going against second strings or second, string point guards or backup wings, and the crowd will really get into it. I, I think that's gonna be an intriguing wrinkle too. Like, they can kind of survive a bad 6 minutes and then come back. And I don't know where this is going. All right.

We Celtics are the, the biggest and best wildcard for sure. But I, my, my, uh, underrated subplot.

Oh yeah.

Uh, apologies in advance. The Lakers.

Yeah, I know.

The Lakers.

I know. Bill's not bad.

The Lakers.

Did you see what JJ said last night? He was like, I think it's clear to everybody now, or something like that, that LeBron is going to be our third, our number 3 usage guy the rest of the way. He said something like that. He basically like, he's 48 years old, but he basically, he made a point of saying this guy's going to have the ball the third amount of time out of Reeves, Luca, and LeBron. And we're just, this is who we are now.

I don't think they knew that a month ago was, which is insane to me because you just watch the games, especially Austin Reeves, the way he started the season like a bat shot out of hell. And every single game that I watch him now, I just hear cash registers ringing. I know, honestly. And you can tell he's smelling it. He can feel the max contract coming his way. And I love that for him. And it's just, I don't know, you watch LeBron with the ball, he's just not a threat. No defenses don't treat him as if he's a threat. He doesn't draw help anymore. It doesn't matter who they switch on to him. Sometimes he'll beat up on a little guy, a smaller defender, and that's nice. That's what he needs to be doing. But defenses will switch anybody onto him. Yeah, they don't play conventional pick and roll coverage on him anymore because just like he's not going to beat us one on one with a move when he's on the ball. So it's like, get off my ball.

Right.

Give it to the two guys who can create.

And he's starting to figure that out. He's figured out the win for me is to actually be the third best guy on this team.

Yes.

What else were you gonna say about the Lakers? I rudely interrupted you.

The defense. The defense. It's the defense.

Way better.

They, they, they held the Knicks to 97 points. They held Houston to 92 points. Now those are slower, you know, that, that especially the Houston game. But I just keep losing money betting against the Lakers and their defense is vastly improved and their rebounding is vastly improved. And this stretch that we've seen them, where they beat the Knicks, they beat Minnesota, they beat Denver, they beat Houston— and all those games matter to all those teams because all those teams are jockeying for position, um, you know, getting ready for this, this playoff run. And those— not one element of those wins was fluky. And it looks like, you know, all, uh, JJ said last night was what we were kind of watching with our own eyes, which is it's Luka and Reeves, and then LeBron's a great you know, sort of third option. Crazy. But the IQ element of it, especially on defense, if they, I'm interested in seeing, I haven't had a chance to sit down with net ratings over this 6-game stretch that they're on or whatever.

No, it's like, it's like 12 games and they're in the top 4.

Yeah.

So, yeah. So a couple counters, things I'm holding my hat, hanging my hat on just 'cause I hate the Lakers. DeAndre Ayton's involved. That's, that seems like a positive. It's involved. Can't trust him.

He's on a team.

He's on a team.

Marcus Smart physically has not really made it through a season in at least 3 years now. He looks like he's in the best shape he's been in a while, but he's had a bunch of different injuries and they're playing him big minutes. And I think that's alarming. And then LeBron's 40 years old and he's played 41, including the 41 and including the playoffs. He's played over 70,000 minutes and you're playing him big minutes and there's gonna be situations where he is gonna have to guard people. All right. Okay, enough foreplay. We're gonna take a break and then the worst contracts of 2026 is next. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The tournament is here. FanDuel, it is time to dance right now. FanDuel is dropping bonus bets into everyone's account for the tournament. All you have to do is opt in to claim your bonus. Got an upset? Roll the 1 seed. Calling for chaos? Want to throw a little bit on Aikoff and Arkansas maybe to advance to the Final Four. However you're playing the tourney, FanDuel giving you a little extra to get in on the action from the very first tip.

And don't wait because bonus bets only available for a limited time. FanDuel, it's time to dance. 21+ select states or 18+ DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by TaxAct. Like an expert coach, TaxAct offers step-by-step guidance, guaranteed accuracy, and your maximum refund when filing taxes. Get tips along the way, add Expert Assist to talk to tax experts, or let their experts do your taxes for you with Expert Full Service. TaxAct helps you find the deductions and credits you deserve so you can get them over with. Visit taxact.com. To learn more. Conditions apply. See taxact.com for details. All right, fellas, uh, the usual disclaimer. Worst Contracts. First of all, we're happy for all of these human beings that they're making a ton of money. Congratulations to their agents and their families. This is not a reflection on them as people, although in maybe 2 or 3 cases it might be. Um, and, uh, and we are talking about them as assets only. This is a league that just signed a $76.4 billion media contract, whatever that was, $80 billion.

I can't even remember. Uh, news finally broke this week about the expansion, that, uh, that they're going to be voting on expansion at the Board of Governors meeting, which Conspiracy Bill thought the timing of that announcement was pretty interesting because everybody knew that this was happening for months and they put it out and they almost put it out in a way to, in my opinion, try to shift the sentiment with the 30 owners. They need 23 votes. There's a Dolan coalition, and I think Ishby is in there too, and a couple others that, why are we doing this? I'd rather have my 1/30th media share. So I thought the timing of that announcement was intriguing, maybe to try to bump up what the number could get to. 8 million, 8 billion, 9 billion, whatever. Maybe if it gets above 8, maybe even the people who were against this will be like, all right, fuck it. Um, but I, I do think, I don't think this is a slam dunk. And I don't know what Seattle group has $8 billion ready to roll. There's a bunch of Vegas groups, um, all attached to famous players that we know, like LeBron, Shaq, Curry, Magic Johnson.

His hat was in the ring. Seattle, I'm not sure where they get the money, but this all seems positive. Anyway, we're all happy for all these guys. There's gonna be 30 new jobs coming in and there'll probably be more bad contracts.

Wes, 100%. And one thing to, uh, all the things you said about the players and the contracts, we're happy for you guys and your families. Another thing that I would say is if we could see what the owners were making and revenues and franchise value increases, Lord, would I love to do that. Oh my God. But we can't because those get to be opaque and secret and, you know, kind of gives you an idea about how the system works. But I did love— because I'm a hoops type guy when it comes to the salary stuff. I loved looking at all of these salaries and just being reminded about how much of this stuff just changes from year to year.

Yeah.

And also just like, man, some of these contracts are just like— still, it's way less than it used to be, like we always say, but there's still a few out there that's like, man, this is, this is tough.

You know, it's funny, I was thinking the same thing about how there's less than— I feel like we had more to work with. In the 22 range house. I think the apron stuff has really hurt, hurt this draft. I still think we're all going to be pleased with the results, but I don't think the ceiling is as high as it was in the 21 area. But yeah, screw the aprons.

I totally agree. This is— I came in, I'm honestly sad because there aren't as many bad contracts as we've grown accustomed to. I don't know if we can get to— we can definitely do 15. Each of us can have 5 guys. That's very easy.

Yeah.

Is it easy to get to 20? Like, then you have to start quibbling around the edges a little bit.

I think that's the fun part of this. There's going to be some— if we each have to draft 10, there's going to be some fun names. Yeah, there's going to be some good ones as we get down the list. Some surprises. Yeah. All right. We'll give— Waz, you can have the first pick.

Oh, this is—

I'll take this. House, you take the second pick and I'll go third. So, Waz, because you haven't been on in a while. It's great to have you, uh, have you back in the Ringer circle. So you get the easy first pick here.

Come on down, Philadelphia 76ers. It's Joel Embiid.

Oh, oh, I'm surprised.

Are you?

I, I thought it might be another Sixer there. Okay.

No, that other Sixer only has 2 years left on his deal after this one, whereas Embiid does after this season is over, Bill.

Yeah.

$60 million. $64 million, $70 million. How many games has Joel played this year? And even when he plays, he's constantly in a stage of ramping up.

Yeah.

And then he ramps up and then he has to sit again. So the guy's not going to play. And half the time when he does play, he's ramping up to being an effective player. We know his knee is not getting better. It's getting worse.

And he's got $190 million or something like that left on the deal starting next year. Yeah, this is the first of a 4-year, $243.5 million extension, House.

Yes.

Yeah, look, I don't think his shooting coach did him any help when he played like 12 games in a row and the shooting coach was like, see, see, hey, ringer. It's like, all right, settle down. Let's see if he can play for 2 straight months. House, did you have him first or second?

Oh, he was an easy first. And part of the reason for that is because there is a player that was on the Philadelphia 76ers until the trade deadline, and then they got rid of that player who's still on a rookie effing contract because they decided that, you know, asset-wise, they don't want to pay the luxury tax because they have so much of their cap committed to two guys.

Yeah.

And Jared mother effing McCain is expendable. Hello? I mean, this team has a pathway, right? They caught the greatest good fortune ever by the tank job they did last season when Joel couldn't play and got the 3rd overall pick in a very good draft. And then they have role players around it. No more McCain. Expendable. We can't figure out how to get him time. We can't figure out, and we don't want to pay the luxury tax. You don't want to pay the luxury tax because why? Because why? Help me understand what's going on there, Philadelphia. They gambled and they lost, and I respect it. I do respect Daryl.

They got some seconds. Congrats. Joel Embiid, last 3 years, 33 games, 19 games, 33 games.

Wow.

12 seasons, he's played 485. He's missed, it will be 486 tonight, 'cause I think they play. I went back and I looked at all the centers that House and I have grown up with over the years and watched the, the injury-prone list, right? So Joel's at 485, Bill Walton, 468 in 13 seasons. That's how many he played.

Damn.

Yao Ming, 486 in 9 seasons. Ralph Sampson, 456 in 9 seasons. Sam Bowie, 511 in 11 seasons. Andrew Bynum. How many games do you think Andrew Bynum played career?

He's gotta be in the 300s.

What do you think, House?

Totally agree.

418 in 9 seasons.

Yeah. So just, just, just north. Yeah.

Brad Daugherty, 548 in 10 seasons. So these are, that's one thing I just gave you. 6 other guys who are in this high 400s, low 500s range. Who had a bunch of injuries, who missed a bunch of time, and it did not get better. Bogut was at 7.06 for 14 seasons. So that's probably the peak. And then I looked at, I remember Olgaskis and Rick Smits being more injury-prone than they actually were looking at their basketball. Those guys actually played a lot of games. I was surprised. It's not, this is not looking good. Big picture. Like I don't, it's, what is this? He is Embiid. In the league 3 years from now?

So here's the thing.

I—

that piece that came out over the summer from ESPN, and I forget the writer's name. I always forget this dude's name. He did an incredible job, um, where he got a candid Joel Embiid feature.

Yeah.

It gave you a beautiful— like, one of the best pieces I've read in 5 years, 100%. And he gave you a beautiful insight into Joel's thinking, like the sort of stages of his career and all of that stuff. And reading that piece, I came away with that from one thing. This guy is resigned to his fate. It's over. He knows his body's never going to cooperate. Yeah, he signed this big deal. He's going to play out the string. He's going to ride off into the sunset with his $600 million in earnings or something like that. And God bless him, he worked his ass off for it. But again, even like, you know, back in like January, December when Joel was having some, some awesome offensive nights and it looked like the defense was coming back and I'm like, man, this is so cool to watch. Just knowing in the back of my head, this is just not sustainable. And yeah, the sad truth is, is not going to change. None of this is gonna change.

And the worst contracts draft off to a somber start. I remember there was a, I felt like there was a moment when Worldwide West and Leon Rose took over the Knicks and Joel was still playing well, but you could kind of see the finish line a little closer than maybe whatever that— I feel like they could have traded him for everything they, they gave up for Bridges and probably more stuff, right? And just been like, you know what, we took this as far as it can go. Let's, let's just cash in now. We have Darryl. Let's try to fit. But they went the other way. They did the Paul George extension. To make, I guess it'd be happier. And I'm guessing that's your number 2 pick, Joe House.

It sure is. Let's just get Philly off our chest and be done with that.

Let's clear them off of our cap space.

That's exactly right. I mean, the Paul George signing in and of itself at the time they did it, and Darryl's just, it's how he operates. It's his MO. Can I get 3 of the top 20 players in the league? You know, you can say whatever you want to say about Paul George as a top 20, at the time they signed him, the year he was coming off a really good year, 74 games, incredible defense that year. And then he got that contract, he got the extra year that he wanted. He has a player option, uh, 2 years from now for almost, uh, $57 million.

It's getting picked up.

Yeah, I bet he exercises that. Still $110 million left after this season. He promptly arrived in Philadelphia and played 41 games, and he's at 27 right now, uh, working off this drug suspension. I will say I will say they are interesting as motherfuckers. If indeed Maxie's ankle can, you know, be ready in time for playoffs and then be—

they are interesting. I was with somebody last night who made this prediction to me. It was about— he was a Knicks fan worried about Knicks-Sixers round one. I was like, please don't worry about that.

This is not a worry. You really don't need to worry about that. It's not a worry, Klaus. It's not a word. Two years ago, they had all their players and the Knicks beat 'em.

I know. Well, I did, I did text House and Sal a couple and Hedge, what, 6 weeks ago? I was like, the Sixers had just played an awesome game and Bede was great in it. And I was like, do the Sixers have the highest ceiling of every, any team in the East? And like the moment they played the Knicks 2 days later and Bede fell down 20 times, got hurt a couple games later and the moment was over. But this is, hey, over the course of a series where you have to potentially play 7 games in 2 weeks, I don't see it.

So Paul George is not unavailable. He's perpetually unavailable. When he's not injured, he's getting suspended for we don't know what. I think I know what the guy's suspended for, but guesses we can pretend we don't know what the drug is that he got suspended 25 games for. Okay, cool.

Well, we know what it was.

I think when he is playing, right, I saw an interview he gave. I think it was a postgame where he's like, my job is to set good screens, keep the ball moving, space the floor, play defense. And I'm like, yo, he's right.

And he's—

he's right when he's doing all of that. But man, we pay guys $55 million to do that now.

No, we don't. No, that's a $25— he's a role player. If he was getting $25, $30 million, you would not bat an eye. It's his age 35 year, and he's got another $110 Exactly. That's why it's ridiculous.

I blacked out. Are we talking about LeBron or Paul George?

Oh, here we go.

Here we go.

Why would you do that to LeBron?

Here we go.

Just jokes.

LeBron plays.

LeBron plays. I'm mad about the Lakers.

I know LeBron plays.

So Paul George has played in the 2020s, if we include the 2019-20 season, he's played 331 games. He had a 25-game suspension that cost him $11.7 million, but also saved Philly enough money that they got close to the tax that convinced them, fuck it, let's trade Jared McCain. So in a weird way, the suspension, which seemed like it was a gift for Philly, led to this trade that enrages all the Sixer fans.

Wait, so suspensions doesn't count in the tax?

You're not paying the guy?

Wow.

Yeah. So it saved them, it saved them all this tax money and gave them the idea, oh, we could reset our taxes here. I shouldn't talk too much shit because my team traded Anfernee Simons for, um, Vucevic. Probably could have used Simons. Um, but yeah, if you look at the Morey stuff, it's really like either really good or really awful, and there's no in between. Like, the Maxey pick was really good. Even the McCain pick was good. V, uh, the, the late tank to get VJ at 3. VJ was, was a good pick. I mean, maybe you say Concanipple at 3, I don't know. Uh, the Harden-Simmons deal I think was pretty good. The Grimes trade was good. But then, um, not trading Simmons for Halliburton, the Paul George signing, the Embiid extension, the second Harden trade to the Clippers, and the McCain trade. Just a lot of, lot of home runs and strikeouts basically.

Here's my thing about Darryl, and I've I've had a bunch of criticisms of him over the years, mainly about just like the propagandish ways that he approaches media, which is smart and I get it. I understand why he has to do it. It just— I kind of roll my eyes at it sometimes. The only thing I'll say, man, he goes for it.

Yeah, he does.

He's not one of these GMs that's like, in 6 years we're going to be incredible. It's like, no, every single year this guy is trying to find an edge and trying to make his team better that freaking year. Yeah, every year he's doing that, and I respect the hell out of Darryl for that, honestly.

All right, I'm up with the third pick. Sadly, the two Sixers are off the board.

This is an interesting, interesting couple ways to go.

You know, there's a pick that seems like an easy pick, and yet the heart wants what the heart wants. At number 3, I'm taking Jaren Jackson Jr. Wow. 5 years, $240 million. I just don't— I just don't get it.

That's a garden variety extension.

I just don't get it.

Garden variety max.

Career.

I'm so outraged by that. I don't understand this.

Career.

18 points a game, 5.6 rebounds. This is career averages. 1.9 blocks. I looked up, I went on Stathead and I tried to figure out all these different ways to figure out, has there ever been a better player who didn't rebound and who got, who blocked shots and scored but just didn't really care about getting rebounds ever? It's only 8 guys ever averaged 17 points a game, under 8 rebounds a game, and over 1 block a game. And all of them are forwards except for Joe Barry Carroll and Chris Stapps Porzingis. He's an unusual player in a way that I don't know makes him a winning player. And we just saw it on Memphis the last 2 years as the league got better. I'm fine with him if he's $25 million a year, $28 million a year. I don't want to pay him this much money. I just think he's too expensive and, and that the amount of years on the deal is what scares me. I just, because there's other guys that will go over and either the contracts are shorter or the money's not as long. This one, I just— it really jumped out to me.

I thought it was too much. I didn't even really like that they traded the first-round picks for him.

Wow. I'm, I'm not there with you in the sense that I didn't even have Jaren Jackson on here because I think he went that rogue. Yeah, yeah.

For me, for me, I don't have him either.

I think he's— you don't have him. No.

$240 million.

He's, he's the one Defensive Player of the Year. You, you went through a whole list of things about the attributes of his game and didn't mention the word defense one effing time.

Where was the defense the last two years?

So he's—

I'm a rant submarine. That team, you can't try and say, well, where— give me the sample size with this Memphis team.

I have to pay all this money to him, but then I have to put other players next to him to hide all the things he can't do. So why do I have to do that?

Everybody, right? In the sense that this guy is nobody's idea of a number one player in any way, shape, or form. Like, I'll give you an example, like a Dwight Howard in his prime. He's number one. He shows up, you have a top 3 defense, and, you know, most centers can't guard him, right? And so Jared Jackson is like a really good two. I wouldn't say he's a premium two. I would say he's a really good number two.

I just completely disagree.

I think it's fair.

So here's my thinking. With this new APER now, you can afford two expensive guys, right?

Sure.

You're seeing this with the Lakers now where they're gonna have to pay Reeves. They're gonna have to get rid of LeBron or get him on a short contract. The Celtics have Tatum and Brown. You go on down the list, you get two. So there's 60 of these guys in the league that you can pay $45 to $60, $70 million a year to. I'm just, I'm not, he's not one of those guys for me because once you do that, That's your title window right there. It's like, all right, these, these are my best two guys. What's my ceiling? We've already kind of seen the ceiling. They made round two once in Memphis. The last couple years they were like, I just don't, I think to me at that position, I don't want to pay a center more than like $15, $20 million a year.

It's interesting because it's been proven that Jackson can't play center. He's just— your defense will fall off a cliff against good teams if this guy is playing center for you because of the rebounding problems you mentioned.

You're just gonna get destroyed on the boards.

Yes. At the same time, I'm like, and he's not as good on defense as Evan Mobley, but like, has Evan Mobley proven that he could hold down, lock up a center position yet? And we all love him. And see him as a player that's worthy of that max extension is so like, I'm very uncertain.

No, I just wonder, like, I'm watching the Celtics with Keita and Luka Garza who they're paying combined $3 million a year. I just, I value the perimeter players so much more than centers that aren't like impactful. Over the top. Like the Lakers, they got DeAndre Ayton for $8 million a year, right? Just throw him in there. Hey, can you protect the rim a little bit? I just think these guys are out there and I, I don't know why I have to pay $240 million for Jaren Jackson, why he's that big of an upgrade over 20 other guys in the league. I don't think he is.

If the Jazz are in the top 5 of the West within the next 2 years, I think his deal is more than worth it.

Okay.

If you're one of the 10 best teams in the NBA, I think paying Jaren Jackson that much is more than worth it. Now, if you're still nibbling on the edges of playing status, then I'm just like, I don't know.

I like that we have some controversy. Number 3, did we go snake fashion? I can't remember.

We usually go snake. All right.

So I'll take the other guy that I thought about here, Zach Levine. Oh yeah. 2 years, $96.5 million left. At least I can get out of that contract after next year. But, so he's played— this is his 12th year and he's played 4 career playoff games. I went back on Stathead. I was just trying to figure out, has anyone ever had a better, more meaningless career? No offense to Zach, but, so 63 guys have played 600+ games, made an All-Star team, averaged 20-plus a game for their career, 63 total. None of them have played less than 26 playoff games except for Zach Lavine, who's played 4. He's been in one round one, and I don't know if he even won a game. This guy's career is going to come and go, and then 50 years from now, somebody's going to be a basketball reference, like, what's up with Zach Lavine? Is he, is he top 100? I just never seen a career like this. Was this is a one of one.

It's, it's so crazy where the talent is so obvious in the sense of like, this guy is an elite shooter, incredible explosive, you know, graceful athlete. He's shown ball handling ability on ball stuff, yet he's a loser every single place that he goes and everybody gets sick of him.

And the plus-minus doesn't like him either. I think he's like -14 this year or something. He's like one of the worst.

The defense has always been just atrocious. And the thing is, his contract for next year is a player option, guys.

I'm reporting that he picked it up.

Yeah, he's bet. He probably already did.

Right.

If he opted out, guys, would anybody throw the, you know, the Jordan Poole, contract of 4 years, $120 million at him. The Tyler Hero?

No, no.

Nobody would want anything to do with this guy.

It's like $8 million a year.

How's $8 million a year?

How has he not been a Wizard? What did you guys do wrong? It just feels like it was the ultimate team for him.

When you outlined that list with 63 guys, what was the, the attributes? Average 20 points. And what was the other thing?

You had to play 600 games.

Yeah. Yeah. Average.

You know who won All-Star team and 20 points?

Rex Chapman made an All-Star team, didn't he? At least once.

Sexy Rexy ever made one.

He didn't make it. Well, that's who I think of when I think of Zach Levine. That, those are, and, and Sexy Rexy did get to, to more playoff games than, than Levine as well.

Well, so yeah, that's our first either the Kings traded for him or drafted him. I'm going to keep a running tally. Because they're recurring.

How many Kings?

Recurring theme in this Worst Contracts Draft. We're up to one. Howes, you have the fifth pick.

Yeah, I'm going to take your notion as it relates to centers and, you know, the predilection of teams to overpay them and then get nothing at all out of them and welcome Jakob Pertl to the conversation.

He's on my list.

It is stunning to me. Do you know Let me just put it— I'll put it to you in the form of a question. How many times in his career has Jakob Poertl averaged 30 minutes a game over a season?

Did he average that with the Warriors? I doubt it. They don't play a game past 20 minutes.

Not Warriors, the Spurs. Spurs, yeah. You might be getting your Jakobs mixed up. I'm going to say he's never played 30.

You are correct. He has never averaged 30 minutes a game in his entire career over the course of a season. He also—

well, you gotta, you gotta mention what he— so he, he has this year plus the next 4 for $123 million because they gave him an extension for reasons that remain unclear. So $123 million. The $25 million. Yeah. Well, this was—

I wanted to blame Masai, but it's Bobby Webster is the guy, and Bobby's still there.

I—

they said at the time that it was— he's like the anchor and the— of this young core that's coming together. And immediately he hasn't played 60 games since the 2022-23 season. Maybe it was even going further back. Hasn't played 60 games. His highest number of games is 57. He's played, you know, whatever the number is this season, under 40.

And he's had a bad back all year that they're like, his back's feeling better. It's like, who is he talking about, me and House or your 30-year-old center? Makes $25 million a year.

The rookie they drafted is ready. Yeah, why waste another minute with, with Pirtle? Uh, and they, they tried, you know, over the trade deadline to stick him into some package. The rumors were out there, there's reports about them trying to get off of the stupid contract that they just extended him. It hasn't been a full calendar year.

Wizards move, trying to trade the guy whose extension hasn't kicked in yet. That's the Andre Blatche. That was my— when they amnesty Andre, that was my favorite Wizards.

Remember, they didn't pay him $25 million a year.

Was—

you remember that?

We talked about this every year. The Wizards gave Andre the extension and then a year later amnestied him before the extension kicked in. The all-time best.

Incredible work. And the, the crazy thing about Hurdle is that it's just what Toronto just loves to do. They love to get a guy and they love stability. Let's extend him right away. Let's just, let's just knock this contract out right away. And he, you know, I think he's, he's had moments in his career where it's like, okay, this is an above average starting center. But the guy just doesn't play that much.

He was good on Monday night against Detroit or Sunday, whatever, when they just— Sunday, they just beat Detroit. So you guys are telling me you would rather have Jaren Jackson 5 for 240 than Jakob Pertl 5 for 123?

Without hesitation.

Interesting.

Yes. Lock, lock.

I feel like that 240 is just crippling. I mean, I have room for one more.

You think the Utah Jazz are crippled as a franchise?

No, I'm just saying, for if I'm trying to win a title, And I only have 2 spots, and I've just given one of them to Jaren Jackson. I don't know what I'm winning at that point. I have to get really, really crazy lucky like the Spurs did with all of these rookie year contract guys that I haven't paid.

Let me ask you this though, Bill. Ask yourself this. Would Utah actually allow Jakob Pertl to finish a game that they were trying to throw and tank in the middle of?

Interesting.

Hey, Jakob, get your minutes, buddy. Enjoy all the way through the bet at the end of this game.

All right, you have this, the, uh, 6th pick of the draft.

Oh man, this is— yeah, this is a pretty simple one for me. Not simple. Myles Turner.

Who? Another center.

Another center. 26 next year, 26 the year after that, 27, then a player option for 29. Add in the Dame stretch, so that's another like How much? You know, tens of millions of dollars every single year.

That is fair. If you add the Dame stretch to the Turner thing, he's the third pick. But I don't know if we can legally do that. I think that's a leap of faith.

Come on now. I'm finding the loopholes here. And you add to the fact that Giannis is gone. You did all of this shit.

Yeah.

Giannis ain't coming back. That's why this deal is so egregious to me. So it's not just the deal in and of itself.

So Turner, 4 for 109, turns 30 next season. He's already played 700+ games, and they could have just kept Brook Lopez and tried to sign a couple cross-your-finger guys on the scrap heap, hope that they could get lucky, and kept Dame and used Dame. Maybe they could have traded Dame in February with one year left on his deal after this for a bigger contract. Act. Maybe they could have just punted on the season and taken it to the summer, but instead they did this damn stretch. And I don't know, did you like the Turner thing when they did it? Because I remember really not liking it.

I understand the move because all they have to lose is Giannis, the Greek Freak. And so, you know, the notion of trying to find a chemistry that's going to work after the failure of Dame Lillard. And really that's just because of the injury to Dame. I get it. But you know, Miles Turner's on the wrong side of so many statistical categories. He can't defend the rim any longer. He is atrocious inside the 3-point line.

So was I said at the time that this was the equivalent of you're about to break up with somebody, but instead you decide to have a kid to try to save the relationship.

Yeah.

Was the Miles Turner Dame move. I think that's how it played out. We are, uh, we've gone through 6. So our first 6: Embiid, Paul George, controversial Jaren Jackson, Zach Lavine, Pirtle, Turner. We're gonna take a break, come back, finish the draft. Hey, every Wednesday I look through the NBA slate. I try to come up with a parlay. I won the first week. Second week I should have won. I blew it with an over-under. I'm not doing over-unders anymore, just doing trying to pick winners, teaming stuff together, uh, for that Wednesday slate. I'm looking at that Houston Lakers game because I think when teams play back-to-back in the same location, I like going with the team that lost the first game in the second game. So Rockets probably with a couple moneyline teams against teams that aren't trying hard anymore. And that will probably be the parlay. I will tweet it out on Wednesday. The bet will be live in the FanDuel Sportsbook app. Don't forget to use a Profit Boost token to increase your potential winnings. Before you join me and place your bet, FanDuel, play your game.

Osterfreude für alle zum Aldi-Preis. Milani Milchsnack, 10x28 Gramm für nur 1,79 Oder Dr. Oetker Vitalis Müsli, ab 516 Gramm für nur 2,22 Aldi, Gutes für alle.

All right, Waz, you have the 7th pick. What is it?

Oh, I know where I'm going with this.

Okay.

Arvidas Sabonis's kid. Get him out of here.

Get him out of here.

I've been banging this drum of this kid is overpaid and overrated for like 3, 4 years now. And I think the league and the world has finally caught up with me where the trade deadline— he was one of those guys in the Trae Youngs and all these other guys that teams are like, please, I beg you, get this guy off of my hands. They just straight up couldn't do it. And he's owed $45 million next year, $48 million the year after that. Let me repeat that. Domantas Sabonis is owed $45 million next year, $48 million to basically be a guy who gets rebounds and can sometimes make an open layup. That's it. Can I say he does nothing else? Can I say actually he's a good passer too? I shouldn't say that. He's a good passer.

Wrong team, wrong organization, used incorrectly. I think he, I think he might be an asset.

Yeah, right.

I want to see somebody else get him now. I mean, the plus minus stats are awful because of the defense. I do think there's a fun version of him. It's just not a fun version of you have to pay him $48 million a year for the fun version. That's where the trade gets tough.

Your center can't have the same wingspan as your point guard. That's just not gonna be helpful for your defense. And so yeah, it's a bonus. That's just, he's a glaring obvious case for me.

I wonder if they even try to trade him. So basically it was a 4-year, $130, 4-year, or 3 years, $136.4 including this year. He's only played 20 playoff games. He's never made round 2. He turns 30 next year. Has— this is another guy I could see on the Wizards at some point.

No, why? Stop that. That's the, that's the old Wizards. What the Wizards are doing now is perfectly sound.

Don't you dare trade your guys that help you tank who are really fine.

Okay, tanking this year, not next year. We'll be competitive next year. We'll try hard next year, especially when AJ DeBansa is playing, uh, wing for the Washington Wizards. Will be very interesting.

Is Is there a team for you guys that you feel like Sabonis would actually be good on? He, you'd have to put him next to some sort of rim protector, right? Like a, like a, like a 4 who like a Wemby.

He could play next to Wemby who's always outside.

Yeah.

Wemby, he'll do all the paint protecting and he operates on the outside. So Sabonis could operate inside, but again, he has to play next to a space race alien.

Yeah.

In order to make any type of sense whatsoever.

So that can't be how it's—

he could have been good. I think he'd be interesting on Houston or Minnesota. I think, you know, in the right kind of, uh, rotational spot, he, he's being a war effect offensively. No, no, he, he can play next to Shengun because, I mean, it's insurance for the Steven Adams recurring injury that's every single season. I, I'm no knock at all. I love Steven Adams, but he just can't play.

I honestly can't believe the Sabonis money that's left until you remember that Vivek paid it. And yet I still feel like on the right team, he's such a smart offensive player and he is a good rebounder. And there's stuff that he does that I do feel like he could have a moment, but I really think it would have to be, you'd really have to thread the needle on what kind of team that was. And I don't know, I get off top of my head, I can't think of one. Has You're up with the 8th pick.

Yeah, this feels like the right spot to put Ja Morant in. Welcome, welcome, Ja Morant. I mean, he's still got 2 years left, just over $87 million, and Memphis asked the entire league, maybe the entire world, maybe they went abroad and asked if it would— anybody be interested in Ja Morant's services? Yeah, the NBA said no, no, no team in the league was interested. Even Miami said no.

Miami was a classic Miami move, and they were like, we're good, thank you. Thanks.

Yeah. He's only 26 years old. Still can't shoot from 3. And unfortunately, the thing that really sets him apart, the ability to get to the rim, has diminished over the last couple of years. And his free throw rate has diminished over the last couple of years. That's really the dynamic version of him that has, you know, another 6 years of a career to it. But he's getting paid, you know, just under $44 million over the next couple of years. And I don't have an answer as to what team he belongs on. What team would make sense for Ja Morant?

327 games in 7 years. Last 3 years, 9 games, 50 games, 20 games. And was one mistake away from being suspended for a year, I would guess. Which I don't know if that would help from a cap standpoint. But yeah, they, they put them on eBay for 2 months and no buyers, and they kept lowering the buy-it-now price and people were like, no thank you.

Also, Bill, on what planet is your age-26 season with no reportable drastic injury in sight your worst season ever? Like, this whole thing is going in a crazy bad direction for him. Yeah, because it's like you're playing— it's not like you've hit a ceiling. You're playing way worse than you have 3 years ago. So what am I to attribute that to besides— some people would say change of scenery. When you watch it, it's like, can't make a shot. Isn't getting to the cup anymore.

Yeah.

So that's like a lethal combination for the type of game that Ja Morant plays.

He reminds me of some of the guys who just went sideways in the 2000s where you'd be like, why isn't Steve Francis good anymore?

What happened here?

Right.

And he just was never good again. Or Marbury, these guys that just kind of lost it. We'll see. I still feel like, I wonder if he could be revived.

Me too.

Like in the right organization system, whole thing. Like almost like a plant that seems dead and you just keep watering it and take caring of it.

And somehow, you know, where did you fall in the great debate of fallen point guards with Ja, Trae, and Mellow Ball?

I thought Mellow was the most redeemable of the three.

I was a Ja guy. Yeah. 'Cause I've actually seen him play serious basketball before.

Yeah.

Like in the playoffs. Whereas like LaMelo Ball is all just like clown shit.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? But again, it's tough, man. It, it's tough to hold any hope that this guy's gonna come back.

The only thing with LaMelo is I always try to think about the situation and the fact that he was just on bad teams with a, a cheap organization. And you just wonder like, well, what would happen if you just put, you know, with Ja, the, the questions are just different. It's like this guy, failed the IQ test and then went back into the classroom and then failed it again. And that's, that's where you're like, okay, I'll give you one, but the two makes me a little nervous. Another guy I can't believe wasn't ever on the Wizards. All right, I have two picks. Speaking of the Kings, um, we've gone long enough without mentioning Keegan Murray's name. Signed an extension for some reason. Because they're the Kings. So not including, including this year, 6 years, $151.1 million for Keegan Murray, who is basically 13-5 the last 3 years. Okay, 3-point shooter. There's so many wings. It's almost like the same thing with centers. Like, you can, you can find wings on every team that you could just play 25 minutes a game. The Clippers have guys guys, they're still— guys are still pulling off their warm-up jackets on the Clippers.

They're like, who's that guy? It's like, ah, he scored 10 points. I just would never overpay guys that are just role players, and he's a role player, and I don't see any scenario where he's anything more than a role player. So 6 years, $151 million, I don't get it. I don't think this contract's tradable, and, uh, that would be my first pickhouse.

I don't have any argument with See, I think Keegan Murray is tradable in the sense that, you know, what, like, what's the bonus is like, what's his realistic role on a team? It's like you gotta find the perfect situation and surroundings and blah, blah, blah. Whereas Keegan Murray, it's like if he's playing the way we think he's capable of playing, that fits on every team in the NBA, right? A guy who can shoot, who's a movement shooter, who's got size.

I'm not even sure how good he is on defense. I, it's probably their best wing defender other than Keon Ellis the last 2 years.

So to me, he still has a market, but I, I understand he not in the era.

I don't think there's a really a market in the same way now that you're just constricted on what you can spend.

We can just say that he hasn't lived up to the extension this season so far.

Yeah, very fair.

I think that's fair to say.

Well, I'll give you another wing. I'm upset that he hasn't been taken yet. Patrick Williams on the Bulls.

4 years.

Oh yeah.

4 years, $72 million. Career, 9 points a game. And they traded Okoro for him, who's also was a lottery pick letdown guy, but Okoro's contract was half as long. That this Bulls GM is the worst GM in the league. He doesn't have the right PR team for the worst GM argument. We maybe need to get him some help. But did it turn down the Derrick Queen trade? 12th pick was like, no, I'm good, I don't want your first-round pick next year in New Orleans. It took the French kid who doesn't play. Um, did that Williams-Akoro trade nobody could figure out. Dumped Kobe White and, and, and Io at the trade deadline for nothing. Got like a couple second-rounders. Um, the only trade that's really worked for them was the Giddy-Carruso trade. Yeah, but they gave up something. Um, I don't understand anything they're doing, but Patrick Williams, this is another example of like, I just don't want to pay that guy $18 million a year when I could find someone for $2.

He's got 3 years guaranteed left after this year, guys.

Yeah, he, he's a guy, he gets the benefit of where he was drafted and they, they couldn't, the Bulls had a decision to make. If we let him go and he goes off somewhere else, uh, on the extension and does, and comes back to haunt us.

Us, right?

Yeah, that was the contract. That's the— that he has a back-to-haunt-us contract.

We had a million of these guys in the 2000s where we would have like the Ty Thomas, Stromaele Swift, these guys that it was like, well, he was drafted 4th, like he's got to be good, right? And then somebody else would take a chance on them, and then, yeah, then that was it.

But we gotta have a new category of extension, the stays to haunt you guys. This is a contract that's going to stay and haunt you.

Well, that's called the Joel Embiid. Yeah, I'm on DeJounte Murray. Uh, it's, it's not like all his fault, but do you know how much money he makes?

Yeah, you know how much? Give the money, go ahead.

Yeah, he still has 2 years left after this season, and there it's, it's $63.5 million. Now that is, that, that's the issue. If you want DeJounte Murray and get— and he was getting Jordan Poole money, if he was getting 20 whatever that's okay. But he is a point guard that can't shoot the 3 and is a very questionable defender. And I don't know what his role with this Pelicans team could be. Now he's playing better. His defense is the thing that should have been his calling card. But, you know, his scoring volume increased. The defense didn't sort of go along with it. So the problem is the money. The problem is the money.

I'm really surprised by this.

You could give him over $30 million. Really? $30 million?

Because I, I've, I kind of enjoy the Pelicans as a terrible league pass team. I thought he's looked— I was kind of shocked by how good he looked. And he's like talking shit too.

Like, he's like, I get it.

Like, seems like he's got the eye of the tiger a little bit. I, I actually would trade for him this summer if I was, uh, somebody, because he looks healthy.

$30 million.

I know, that's a— I know, that's the problem.

That's just the money.

He had a, he had a point in time, man, early in his career where I was like, this defenders I've ever seen, right? Like, in his early San Antonio days, he was, he was incredible. He was unbelievable. But like, now, you know, he got a little taste of becoming a scoring guard and with a lot of guys, what ends up happening is like, all right, I don't do defense anymore. I score. That's for other people to do now. And also, you know, he's coming off of an Achilles, so you got to figure some of his athleticism and quickness has been sapped. I briefly thought about him, but, you know, it's only 2 years.

Yeah.

So I think teams, teams would be willing to eat that if you could convince yourself that you're going to get this guy to function within a role at an elite level. I just think this is the second team now who thought he was going to come in and do something significant for them, and it just hasn't panned out. So I actually super respect the pick.

I would rather pay him than Jaren Jackson Jr. Wise, you're up with two in a row.

Different amounts of money.

I want to get him, and this is not to get too controversial, but this matters. Mikal Bridges, man.

Oh, where's he been?

I thought he'd be gone by now.

Mikal Bridges, who is old after this season, 33, 36. 38. And again, it's not just the money. They also gave a ton of picks to get him. And then, you know, if you paying attention to the Knicks internet, there's a lot of grumbling of like, hold on, if we never gave up all those picks to get this kid in here, we'd have Giannis by now. So you think about the opportunity cost from having given away all of those picks to get Mikal Bridges, who I'll admit I was all on board when they did this. It was like, well, you got to try to beat Boston. You got to get a bunch of great wings into your building. You pair him with OG, that's a good recipe. And in fact, they beat Boston last year in the playoffs, and Bridges was critical to a lot of the stuff that they were doing on defense. I just think when you watch him over the course of the season, he's so inconsistent. His unwillingness to take layups or get fouled or like, and the defense kind of waxes and wanes and I don't know, man. He seems like a great guy and I'm sure his team makes the wrong situation too where he just doesn't get the ball ever.

And now it seems like he's lost confidence a little bit.

I don't know.

I'm out on the bench. He was on my list because the key point other than that the production isn't there for somebody making mid-30s. He's a walking reminder of all the picks you traded in this one chance you had with, you were the Knicks where you struck oil with the Brunson signing, right? You had, you were able to convince OG to stay and you got him on a pretty good trade. And then you had all this, all this draft pick capital to make one major move and you kind of shot your wad Forrest Gump style. It was, you put your hand on Jenny's boob.

Well, he is a Villanova guy. He's, he's part of the club, you understand?

It's like, baby, baby, baby, show some stamina.

Premature. A bit premature.

It was a premature tradejaculation. I, uh, and then Brunson took a little I think so. They could give him the extension. Some weird vibes with that Knicks team. What's your other pick, Wes?

Again, another guy that's gonna be a little controversial because the dorks are obsessed with him. But for me, it's Dyson Daniels. I think that extension is looking— that extension is looking funny in the light. It is because he's just a one-sided player, straight up. The guy plays one side of the ball. And on offense, I like that Quinn Snyder's putting the ball in his hands because God knows he's useless when he doesn't have the ball. Yeah, because no defense respects him. You're playing 4-on-5, but it's not like he's showing some real dexterity there. It's just he's getting an opportunity to try to maybe see if it develops, but the shooting just isn't there. And he's not some great finisher at the cup. Up. He's not some incredible facilitator. It's just, he's a zero on offense. And to be paying a guy $100 million for the next 4 years, I just think it's tough, man. It's, it's really tough. Wow.

I'm, I'm shocked by that because the Hawks are red hot, red hot, 10 in a row. And part of the reason is the lineup with, they, they basically brought McCollum in.

Yeah.

They stopped playing Risacher and they just kind of got it going. And Jalen Johnson's playing his way on an All-NBA team. How— so you were surprised by that pick?

Well, because I have another guy that fits exactly the parameter of what Waz just, uh, described, and I hope he doesn't take this guy in terms of, of a brand new extension where you're like, you might have buyer's remorse.

Well, you can take them right now. Go.

Oh, did Waz take two?

He, he did Bridges and Dyson Daniels.

Oh, that's a wonderful—

Daniels was having a great time listening to this pod, and now he's got a gunshot in the side of his head. That's the thing.

I believe Daniels at least has one elite skill. Unfortunately, Christian Brown is a very nice player. Christian Brown, 5-year, $125 million extension signed in October of 2025. And unfortunately, he was the wrong guy to extend because they're not going to be able to extend Payton Watson.

Yeah.

And Payton Watson is better than Christian Brown. And that, that's a just, that's a tough one. That's, that's a, you, you, you can't move off of that, um, within, you know, a calendar year. Now Brown's contribution, we'll see it come playoff time. It did take Payton Watson longer to contribute, but I don't, does anybody here think that Christian Brown's better than Payton Watson? That, that Brown has a higher upside than Watson?

He, he is a one-time guard, some really good dudes though.

It's good.

It's a little high. So they definitely, they, they, they definitely goosed it. Would've been nice.

They did not sign Brown to that extension thinking he would shoot 28.6% from 3 this season.

He's also been hurt.

Yeah. And they're, they're open 3s. That's the problem. They're joker 3s. Yeah. He's not gonna get that anywhere else in the entire NBA.

I'm a big Christian Brown supporter, but he's been, he's had a disappointing season and he's got one extra year. He got one more year than Dyson Daniels even got.

Yes.

And so yeah, I think it's the same kind of principle there. And you know what's so funny about that? It's the exact same deal that the Warriors were avoiding with Emmanuel Moody. They were just like, listen, I was like, man, like, you can't give this guy the Dyson Daniels deal. He doesn't deserve the Christian Brown deal.

Right.

And they said, no, fuck him. He's out. It's tough.

I don't think they're wrong.

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Just any pizza with any toppings for only $9.99. Get Domino's best deal ever today. Prices higher in some locations. Select this online-only offer from February 23rd until April 6th. Size availability varies by crust type. Max 7 toppings, 6 for New York style and pan crust. Stuffed crust extra excludes XL and specialty pizzas. Conditions, minimum purchase required for delivery, prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary. Well, I can't believe this guy hasn't been taken yet. I don't know where you guys were. I thought for sure he wouldn't get back to me. Anthony Davis, this year and the next 2, 3 years, $175.3 million. Since the bubble title, he's played 279 games and missed 203 because I assume he's not coming back. Back, uh, since the bubble title. 36 games, 40, 56, 76, 51, 20. He's 33 years old, he's gonna be 34 next year. And they tried to trade him and there were no takers. And, uh, our friend Rich Paul, he, he tried to lay the ground of if you trade him, you got to give him an extension. And that quickly became, wait, you've traded the Wizards? There was no market for him.

And, um, I actually thought House's team got kind of a steal because what do they care? They're not getting him free agent anyway. but just fundamentally paying this guy $120 million for 2 years and you have no idea if he's gonna play 30 games, that seems like a bad contract for me.

With AD, when he plays, I think he plays close to what that contract is worth. Whereas like with a Paul George and some of these other, it's like you're just not playing like a $50 million player. Whereas like AD, when he's on the court, The defense gets lifted up. Yeah, he's a plus offensive player and like he's really good, but the guy just does not play. And so he's—

his nickname is, or his name is now AD when he plays. It's just like for a while he was together. That's his name.

For a while he was every other Davis. Every other Davis.

Any day that he plays, Anthony Street closed Davis.

Yeah.

See, I, from you, from, from a rational perspective, I have no quibble with the idea of Davis at this spot in this thing. I will say this. I do think his impact and meaning to this Wizards team is outsized, and it will have, you know, translate into a kind of value that goes beyond— if he's healthy, you know, it's a gigantic— if we can get— honestly, I'll take 60 games from him because what he will teach Sar, who has already got the instincts as a rim protector, what he will create for—

he didn't have it that night against Miami. That's for sure. He got— oh my God, did his lunch get just destroyed that day.

He's—

how else is he gonna learn? I thought it was a learning—

you haven't been on the podcast since that happened. The disgrace, the disgrace of the '83.

I don't know what you're talking about. Will Ryan combined for 50 points. It was a tremendous game, developing game.

How did your team give up? Legro brought this up. How did your team give up 30 points in the first quarter to Bam Adebayo when the Heat rested everybody else?

Have you, have you watched? They, they can't get in front of him without, they couldn't get in front of him without fouling him. He set the NBA record. What do you want me to say?

It was the worst moment in Wizards history. It was embarrassing.

No, no, there's been far worse. That's been far worse moments than that. There's definitely been far worse.

The Celtics played the Wizards after and Kader had like 25 in the first half or something. And Scalabrine was announcing with, with, uh, our friend Drew Carter. And he, he just over and over again, he was like, it was almost like he was muttering to himself, like he forgot his mic was on. He was like, I just, I don't understand what the Wizards are doing. I don't understand. I've never seen defense like this. I don't understand why they won't guard Keita. They're just letting him get layups. I don't understand this, Drew. I don't understand what they're doing. And he just kept saying it, which is how everyone feels watching the Wizards.

Is it Wizards covered? Is this 20.5? Wizards covered. Go ahead.

So the coach just—

he got all his money up front and he said, like, they, they have all of these G League guys that are bringing up— it's really fun to see Juju Reese, um, Maryland Terrapins own Juju Reese, Angel's brother. Angel came to a game, uh, congrats, house. Yeah, we've got—

I didn't realize the season was just uplift Interesting.

It's a buzz. Why not? Sharif Cooper, internet legend, Instagram legend, is getting some run. Yeah, why not?

Wow. I'm in the camp that this is just not good for young players to be on the Washington Generals, basically. I don't see how this is helpful to anybody.

I think the idea, bro, when they traded for Trae Young and AD and they're like basically bragging to anybody who would listen that these guys don't— will not play because they're going to be too competitive.

Yeah.

Are you fucking kidding me? Trae Young, who nobody in the NBA wanted, would make you too competitive?

Well, I mean, CJ McCollum made him too competitive. CJ McCollum, they had to get rid of him. That was the trade. It was necessary.

That is—

they thought they could get away with keeping Trae on the bench for the whole season.

That's nuts.

Well, behind the scenes, the league is like, that's enough.

How's this turning into those Philly fans during the mid-2010s with the Process?

I love what we're doing.

At a certain point, how's this professional sports. Yeah, you should be trying to win, bro. You should be trying to teach these kids winning habits. Or at least if they're broadcasting, guys, we need you to lose every day.

I know.

Yeah, it's every day.

It's one thing to game the system. It's another thing to just be completely humiliated game after game. I got it. I don't get it, House. You're just— you're just—

what do you want me to say?

They're doing it.

They have a mission. They have a mission, and they're, they're going to be very successful at achieving their role, which is having one of the forward—

destroy the integrity of professional sports.

No, just the NBA. And the NBA doesn't have any integrity. The NBA is the league that gave the Dallas Mavericks the first overall draft pick last season. They can fuck right off.

Oh Lord have mercy.

We're running out of picks. But that's— and this is, I think, our first one-year-left-after-this-year guy that's been taken. I don't think we've taken an expiring '27 guy yet, and I'm gonna have to do it here with DeAndre Hunter. 2 years, $48.2 million. This year he was averaging 14 points a game for the Cavaliers and shooting 30.5% from 3 on 3s that were wide open because nobody was guarding him because everybody was like, please shoot, we're going to guard Donovan Mitchell and the other guys on this team. Couldn't make any of them. And the Kings were like, he's available? Intriguing. King and went and grabbed him. And I didn't understand it at all. I thought he was so bad second half of last year with the Cavs and then this season. I can't believe anybody would want to pay him $24 million when you could just find 10 guys who could get 3.

All you need to know is the Cavs had him in their building and they said, ah, we'd rather Dean Wade.

That's really tough. Really tough. So our first 2-year guy, how's up?

Um, I'm, I'm surprised this guy has fallen this far, but maybe because there's only 2 years left, one of them is a player option. Jalen Green feels like a guy that should get mentioned at this, uh, point in the, in the draft. Um, he really shouldn't jump ahead of either Collin Gillespie or Grayson Allen in the starting rotation for the Phoenix Suns. Um, this is another guy who Houston had to extend him because of where they took him in, in the draft. Draft. The problem is, well, say the money, 3 years, $105.8 including this year. Yeah, right. So, so 2 years after this year, uh, player option remaining at over $72 million.

36 million.

36 and 36. Yeah, that, that, that is the issue.

Probably be picking up that player option. Here's the thing about Jalen Green, I was one of the last people off the bandwagon, and there's times even in the Boston game where I'm like, Yo, this is a useful player. Like he's puncturing the defense, he's disrupting stuff. Like he felt pesky and like good in moments against Boston yesterday. He's just so inconsistent. The decision-making comes and goes. The shot is all over the place. Yeah, he, he definitely just belongs on this list for sure.

This was the right area to take him. I think it's a great pick.

Thank you.

I've been impressed with how hard he's playing for Phoenix though. Sure. And I do think his heart's in the right place. I just think he was a young player who went to a bad team. I'm not sure what happens to his minutes when Brooks comes back, but he does, he has moments every once in a while where you're like, he's so talented. Yeah.

If he is healthy this upcoming season, you know, that he might end up being an asset. 'Cause this Phoenix thing, what they have going on there with, with, you know, coaching, there is a kind of ethic there where he might, you know, it might click in for him.

They did a good job. Challenge. Yeah. With, with the, with the, guys who just play hard and give a shit. And you kind of either, for Jalen Green, who I think could go either way as a player, like he, it feels like he's at least embracing the right things. They get the Celtics. They played the Celtics really well last night. That was a good game. And Booker, Booker and Boston, you can just book the 40+ points. Waz, do you have 2 picks left?

Oh yeah, I got 20 picks left. First one, absolutely Jeremy Grant. Grant, uh, sure, $34 mil next season, come on, $36 mil player option. He's just average. Is he even average at this point?

I think he's been in every draft that we've done. Even his old contract I think was also in this. I think, I think he's been in our last— I think he's been all decade. He's, he's like the, uh, the Mikal Bridges streak of, of, uh, worst contract draft.

Who's my name? Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving. Okay, $39 mil next season coming off of the ACL, play option for $40 after that. That's getting picked up. Um, he's a small guy, you know, obviously his mobility is going to be compromised by the career-long injuries, guys. Like, he's been having been dealing with injuries all the time. And it's like, even when he comes back, can you count on him to be on the floor? And so, yeah, Kyrie, to me, tough, tough, tough contract.

Two different spots in his career where he basically took 18 months off. Yeah, right. Because that Nets season, that first Nets season, he didn't really play, and then they shelved him for this one. I think this is the right spot for him. I have no idea anymore with longevity, House. 'Cause back in the day it was like if somebody had that injury in their early 30s, their career was just over. There was no chance they'd come back. Now, watching Jason Tatum just blow by guys 10 months after an Achilles, I don't know what to think anymore, but it does feel a little pricey, I would say. Okay, what's your other pick then? Oh, you have Jeremy Grant and Kyrie. So how's your—

I did it. This is gonna be controversial. I'm interested in the— the reaction of you guys. I do wonder about De'Aaron Fox. Because—

I really like him.

There is a ton of money left on this contract. And what does he represent to this team if Dylan Harper needs more minutes? If you need minutes, how are you going to give the minutes to the backcourt across the board here? How many more times do you think De'Aaron Fox is going to be an All-Star? That's what you have to kind of answer. This is a thought experiment. Like, I'm looking, I'm like, wow, it's just, it's, it's, oh, it's 4 more years and it's $223 million remaining. It's a, it's a, it's a very large number.

To me, it made sense. It's the right, it's the right conversation to have. I saw him in person last night and thought he was, looked fucking great. Rate. So that's— and they have the money to spend 'cause Wemby's on a rookie deal.

All true.

If they're at the— if they're in the top 2 of the West, to me he's worth the money.

Me too. Okay. I agree.

At a certain point, you know, some extensions are gonna kick in way down the road for the younger guards. But right now, then you flip for the next 2 to 3 seasons, he seems worth the trouble. And I think he's a— I think he's flippable. That's the difference, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Where we talk about guys like Embiid there's the second Philly picks up that phone, click on the other end.

Yeah.

You talking trading me that Embiid deal. I think with Fox, with these, you know, he's known as a hard worker, a good locker room guy, can play, you know what I'm saying?

I, I, I think it was, it's why I posed it as a thought experiment. I do not like, it's very unfair to say how many times over the, the life of this contract is he gonna be an all-star because you go through the West and you know, well, his redundancy's at his position with Castle and you're hoping if Dylan Harper, who you drafted, drafted is what you think he's gonna be.

This guy is completely expendable, right? So, but Harper's not there yet, not even close.

Agreed, agreed.

So we'll see.

Thought experiment. That's the only reason I put it out.

I appreciate the, the spirit behind the pick. I feel even better about my Jaren Jackson pick. You, you just wondered about 5 for 220 for just this, the second best guy in a team that might win the middle.

I just can't believe how much you dismiss defense. He's an elite effing defender. He's already multiple, is he a first-time, first, first All-NBA Defender, Defensive Player of the Year.

Like, why is this guy— Kobe made some All-Defenses in the mid to late 2000s that we weren't sure about.

There are elite stats for him.

The, the fact that the statute of limitations on Kobe snark has expired is amazing for me. It's a great feeling. I'm not gonna lie.

It's just for the Laker fans who are nuts about him. The, this name hasn't been said yet. It's been said, I think every year we've had the draft. He only has a year left after this one. It's a 2-year, $42.7 million left on the deal. I just can't believe how bad he is in some of the games as I watch my friend Doc Rivers trying to save the Bucks season. Kyle Kuzma.

Oh God.

Oh damn. I just like paying Kyle Kuzma Kuzma over 20 million left. He, it's 42.5 for this year and the next year. That's just, I just have to take him.

Kuz, my guy. Yeah, it's been, it's been a rough one.

Really rough.

He threw a pass the other night that went way into like the third deck and they cut to Doc and Doc's face was just, he couldn't believe it.

It just, you just drawn.

I started calling him Samsonite when he was with Samsonite. I go ahead.

I just don't think he would play.

Yeah, because his bag was always packed. His luggage was sitting right there at the end of the bed. He's got the bag always packed. My boy Samsonite.

I don't think he'd play one minute on the Celtics. Oh wow. There's still some good guys left.

Oh yeah, there's a, there's a few, there's a few guys on the border. And I don't even, I wouldn't even say on the border, just, and I have this, I have a list called I Have, I Got My Eye on This.

I, uh, I gotta go back to my center, center thing. It's the right time to take Jared Allen, 5 years including this year for $130. And I've watched Nemias Keita outplay him multiple times and I'm just like, I just don't want to pay that much for a center ever. I just feel like I can find centers.

It's respectable. I think on another team he's a perfectly fine starter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's, he's, you know, not a top 8 center, center, but he's solid. Solid center. I just don't want to pay that much for a center when I have second apron and all luxury tax and shit like that. How's— you have any more picks?

I just feel like, again, this is a thought experiment. You guys feel like Karl-Anthony Towns, 2 years left, $120 million, um, he was on my list, diminished. Okay, okay.

It's a lot of money for Karl-Anthony Towns.

It is.

It goes back to the Jaren Jackson thing. Of if this is one of my two guys on 10 years after this one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. At $120 million. Yeah, right.

It caught my attention.

Why?

You have two. You want to go quick?

Yeah. Finney Smith.

He should have been taken sooner.

He's toast. This guy is done. Yeah, he's got $40 mil after this year over the next 3 years. Jonathan Isaac, another guy who's toast to me. He's just completely toast and has $45 mil after this year.

Old.

So I get it. They got a quote unquote discount because of the injuries, but 3 years, $45 after this season. So he's out of here. Those are— I'm out of— oh, one more front line just to throw it out there. Jordan Poole making $34 next year to be a scrub benchwarmer. Like, goddamn, that's just horrible.

That's fine. He's— yeah, he's perpetually on the list. He always deserves to be on the list.

Do you have any more?

I don't even— no, no, I'm happy with where I ended. Here.

Can you, can we each go, uh, one guy you really wanted to take but you didn't have the balls?

Oh, that's easy. Franz Wagner. Oh, that's Franz Wagner.

Tremendous. 5 for 220.

Lord have mercy. Jesus.

Tremendous.

I do like his game. Does seem like he gets hurt though.

Play.

Yeah.

You have to play the game.

I gave Jabari Smith some consideration just because of the lack of consistency, but then he served me some shut the fuck up juice last night. He had a very good game, and so I'm just going to shut the fuck up. But that would be, you know, he— I looked at him.

Not an ideal time to bring this name up, Bill, but Bam Adebayo.

Wise is back.

52 next year, 56 the year after that. Player option for 60 the year after that.

Forever in the record books.

The guy averages 17 points a game.

I had two that I really looked at. Kevin Durant.

No, no, no, no, no.

I agree. No, no, no, no, no.

No, you can't even make a case.

He's still— he's too good at age 37.

3 for— counting this year, 3 for 144.7. So I have him for 2 more years after this year, and he'll be 39 at the end of that. And every time I watch him go against a good team, it feels like it could go either way. Not to mention some of the non-basketball stuff. I just wonder if that's— do you want to be in the $50 million a year for Kevin Durant business at this point?

I'm on the market. Teams are snapping them up like this.

I, I—

that's why you need that scoring.

That's why I just looked at it for a second. Um, are we sure Lauri Markkanen should make $200 million for 4 years?

My eye on this.

Did I, did I fall asleep for a minute? Did my internet go out? We haven't talked about Zion.

If you're gonna say Lauri Markkanen, you can get out of that contract every year though is the problem.

You could take him year for year.

You're, he's on a year to year deal.

Markkanen is at 46 next year, 49 the year after that, 53.5 the year after that.

Where it's like, okay, we have no idea.

We have no idea how to play guys that are good on your team.

Yeah. Let us, let us see if he can play.

We didn't mention Trae Young, 2 for 95.3.

He's gonna get an extension.

He's expiring next year, which, well, if he gets an extension, we should have picked Trae Young's extension as a pick. That's who they picked.

Pick. Yeah. That you guys are 100%. That should have been a pick. It's just the extension hasn't been announced. And I'm like, is this actually really happen? Like they really gonna extend this dude?

Please don't do that.

Big money.

House, don't do it. It's happening. House.

No, it's gonna happen.

No house. No, I'm telling you.

Well, we could just pin Trae Young to the top of next year's draft.

Yeah.

Ice Trae and Trae Johnson. We got Trae to Trae, baby. It's gonna be delightful.

Did anybody take a spin around the block with Jalen Suggs' 5-for-150 contract? Contract.

I love Jalen Suggs too much.

I can't.

He's, he's—

I felt the same way. Does he—

he means too much to that team.

I know, personally attached.

Does he—

30 is fair for him.

That's why I landed this one.

Compare him to like Jalen Green, other guys around that 30, we were like, say, like, you really want to pay the 30 to Jalen Suggs is fair.

We respect championship quality and equity here, but Siakam, he's been really good this year. Yeah, I think it's a fair price for him though, don't you think? He's like, like in the $45 a year range.

I'm keeping my eye on it. Okay, he's getting older, he's getting up in age, guys. I'm just keeping my eye— and Shengun, keeping my eye on that. Your coach is dissing you every single day. He basically called your defense trash multiple times in public.

You might have been right.

Where are you standing on Emmanuel Quickley for, for $130 million?

Oh my God, he's—

he could have gone in the top 15.

He slides under the radar because it's like at 32 and 32 and a half a year.

Yeah.

If you are playing, if you're starting on the Eastern Conference's 5th best team, that's kind of fair.

Yeah.

But he, he's not playing like that though.

The problem is they— the— he's basically in the Heatcheck spot for the Raptors, like a kind of elevated Heatcheck where Jordan Clarkson was a couple years ago. You don't want to pay those guys $30, you want to pay them like $20. So it's $10 million too much, but Toronto just made a strategy. The only other one we didn't mention were Terrence Mann for 3 for 47, Malik Monk for 3 for 65. And I'd like to commend all of us for not mentioning any of the Achilles guys.

Nobody brought up Tatum.

Thank you guys. Not bring up Tatum. Kudos for nobody bringing up Tyrese Halliburton making over $200 million for the next couple years. And then Dame, Dame 3 for 42.

He's just getting at the end of it. He's getting what he got. Yeah.

No.

And then the last one would be Kawhi 3 for 149, which he's been so awesome this year. But it's the same thing with Durant. Like, am I gonna be happy with They did that in 2027?

Probably not.

But next year is Kawhi's last year on the deal. That's why it's like, I can't even consider it. He's got like, he's on an expiring and—

But he's got that player option after that though, I thought, right?

No, next year is it. Next year is he's done.

I screwed that up. You're right. We did mention Draymond Green, 2 for 53.5. 5. We didn't mention Jrue Holiday, 3 for 102.4. And then Rudy Gobert just came out on skates, 2 for 72. Everybody's cool with it. So 2 rookie contracts, House. Risa Shea, 2 for 27. Basically got to pay him $13 million next year. He doesn't play anymore.

Don't care.

And then, uh, shout out Rob Dillingham gets like $7 million guaranteed next year and is— should be headed toward Europe. And that's really it. I think if we did this 2 weeks ago, I think one of us would have taken DeAndre Ayton for the comedy. But, but he's actually been out there in crunch time.

So, and I think Bam absolutely makes the list, list, if not for this 2 weeks.

Bam would have been pretty high up there.

Tough offensive season overall.

He would have been pretty high up there.

All right, so finalists: Embiid, Paul George, Jarren Jackson Jr., controversial. Levine, Pirtle, Miles Turner, Sabonis, John Morant, Keegan Murray, Patrick Williams, DeJounte Murray, still disagree with that one. Mikal Bridges, Dyson Daniels, Christian Brown, Anthony Davis, DeAndre Hunter, Jalen Green, Jeremy Grant, Kyrie Irving, De'Aaron Fox, disagree with that one, Kyle Kuzma, Jared Allen, Karl-Anthony Towns, Towns and Dorian Finney-Smith, who is Mr. Irrelevant of the worst contracts draft for 2026. We're going to be saying goodbye to our worst contract friends next year. I don't— like, Kuzma won't make it. Maybe Jeremy Grant doesn't make it next year. His streak might be over. Um, maybe there'll be some new guys we didn't expect.

I think Zach Levine's definitely gone.

Last year, some of the guys that we took ended up playing their way out of bad contract status. I'm pretty sure. Hold on, I had this. Didn't we have— I think somebody took Scotty Barnes last year at one point.

Oh, I did. I took Scotty Barnes sometime in the last 2 years because of the way that Toronto was open and notorious with its tank job. Job. There was no point to paying him. They were sacrificing years of the extension.

I think Brandon Ingram got taken, but there's some guys that played themselves off the list. So the point is, there's hope for anybody on this list. You control your own destiny. Next year you might be on the best contracts list. Oh, I see a cat tail.

See, Mimi's being rude.

That's the end of the podcast when Wise's cat waves the tail. Uh, House, always a pleasure. Why Buzz, a true pleasure. Great to have you back.

This was fun, guys.

Thanks to Cahal and Eduardo as well. Don't forget, new Rewatchables is up, To Live and Die in LA, and I'm gonna be back with a podcast. Oh, and a Rewatchables mailbag going up Wednesday night, and then another podcast here on Thursday. So, uh, I'll see you with a couple more pods the rest of the week. Thanks, guys. Must be 21+ in President Select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18+ in President DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Opt-in required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Max bonus $500 unless otherwise Otherwise, specified restrictions apply. Game problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 888-797-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 877-770-7867. 7.