- 15 hours ago
David Aldridge joins the show to discuss the impact of LeBron's decision for Anthony Davis and the Washington Wizards.
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00:00better to talk about the nba with especially on a day with major breaking news than the legend
00:05david aldrich of the athletic da what's going on what's up fellas how you doing did you expect him
00:11to go to philadelphia yeah no i thought it was either philly or cleveland just made the most
00:17sense they checked most of the boxes there's not none of these are clean fit the cleanest fit
00:21was minnesota and he wasn't going to go to minnesota so um just from a basketball standpoint
00:27the cleanest fit was minnesota but um i didn't i never really thought miami was in play there was
00:34just a lot of bad blood when he left um you know when raleigh coming up and saying stay if
00:40you got
00:40the guts and all that sort of thing and some of the things behind the scenes that were going on
00:44and i
00:44know that they said they smoothed it out but i don't know you know i'm not sure how much that
00:49was
00:50totally smooth that it might have been a one-way smoothing we'll put it that way
00:53yeah you know you know i mean so i always thought philly or cleveland i don't know it would be
00:58cleveland be perfectly honest with you just because like how could you not want to go back
01:03where the circle and end the story the where you began you know like it just made too much sense
01:08um but philly was always viable and certainly once they got jalen brown they became very viable like
01:13it's not again it's not a perfect fit on the court but you can make it work like it's just
01:20there's
01:20there's too much there's too much institutional memory and knowledge now with with jalen brown there
01:28for lebron not to see that as a possible place that he could play the talent also fits into it
01:37he doesn't have to guard the other team's best front court player anymore that jalen can do that
01:43right like jalen's a better defense player than lebron is um you know he doesn't have to score as
01:49much we've got you've got edgecomb you've got you've got tyrese maxi you've got jalen you've got
01:55joel mb by the way you know yeah um so what is what what does he have to do he
02:01has to just kind of
02:01fill in the blanks you know do they need if they need a secondary ball handler on a possession he
02:06can do
02:07that if they need somebody to get a rebound he can do that if they need somebody to make the
02:12right
02:12pass at the right time to the right guy he will always do that right you need a guy that's
02:17just
02:17played in seven billion playoff games and isn't going to get flustered if they're down 12 in game
02:22seven on the road somewhere in new york he can do that right so all so but but what he
02:28can't do
02:29is do it for 40 minutes a game anymore yeah you can do it for 19 minutes a game you
02:34know what i mean
02:34yeah um and so that's where it makes sense like you can use him in smaller doses in philly
02:41doing everything that he does to help you win basketball games like that makes sense um lineups
02:49are going to be kind of wonky a little bit because they have shooting they do have shooting yeah um
02:54but the defense piece is kind of like it's possible like it looks good on paper yeah yeah like you
03:02look
03:03you know edgecoe's a good defender jalen brown's a good defender so on paper you go okay but i'm not
03:08sure if it's if it's a fit one the when the game starts but but but the bottom line is
03:16that's a ridiculous starting five
03:21it's insane starting five that's gonna roll out every night now is what lebron can do
03:27more important than mb staying healthy oh no it's mb's got to stay healthy for this to work
03:35you know that's still that's always going to be the number now with all of those guys now and and
03:41they added quentin grimes and they added dean way like they they've had a really productive son
03:46mike gansey has done a remarkable job in a very short period of time
03:51so now you can load manage joel mb during the regular season so d a you want to put you
03:58need
03:58to play every other game fine you need you need to play 50 games instead of 65 fine just be
04:05ready
04:05in april just be healthy in april because they need him in april they're going to need him in the
04:10playoffs just like the u.s the olympic team in 24 they had all that talent but they still had
04:17one
04:17game where they needed joel mb and that's when they played against jokic yeah and joel was healthy
04:23and he played great and they won that game that they would not have won if he hadn't been on
04:27the
04:27floor and there's going to be a game or a series in the playoffs where they need joel mb and
04:34his
04:34the only thing that matters is be healthy when that series starts all right be ready to go when
04:41that series starts and if he's healthy they can beat anybody in the league and they can win the
04:45championship so did you buy and how real was some of the he wanted anthony davis or he wanted kairi
04:55to try to get this done do you think it was something that they explored every avenue to try
04:59to get those things done with the respective teams that might have been willing to do that
05:03i think that was real yeah no i think he wanted to play with ad for or kairi and or
05:08kairi right like
05:09those are known quantities he won a championship with with ad in la i you know i guess he won
05:14a
05:14championship in cleveland with with kairi right like those are so i mean great players have a
05:20very short list of guys that they rock with you know because they want guys that that can win the
05:25whole thing with them and once you've done that once you've cleared that hurdle then you're part
05:29of the club always right and so um sure they did now of course because people think the wizards are
05:35the wizards of 12 years ago they just think oh well let's just roll over and give them ad because
05:40that's what he wants no they're not doing that new new ownership in town new management in town
05:46that do things the right way and understand that they have all the leverage and ad doesn't have
05:50any leverage so um that was not going to happen unless somebody was going to offer them a ridiculous
05:56amount of first round picks or all-star level young big man in return right okay so yeah no i
06:05think
06:05he wanted that they saw that that wasn't going to happen that you couldn't bluster your way into
06:11getting ad traded to golden state for jimmy butler like that's insane like what would the wizards do
06:17that yeah it's a ridiculous trade for the wizards like it makes zero sense um so um no that once
06:26they
06:26saw that that was not going to happen i think they said okay we got to decide we got to
06:30you got to pick
06:30one now like it it's not going to that's not going to happen dallas is not trading you kyrie irving
06:36for a bag of beans so what do you do what are we doing um so then you have to
06:42decide and i think it
06:43was philly or cleveland what do you think they where do you think they fit in now i mean in
06:50the eastern
06:50conference the knicks are obviously the reigning champs so you figure they're they're at the head of
06:55the line we're looking at some of the odds i believe they're second now in the eastern conference
07:00behind new york and not that far behind them is that kind of how you see it i mean i
07:05think i think
07:05it's pretty even to be honest with you like look the knicks had a great they got in a heater
07:09of all
07:09heaters like they had a great postseason but it's not like they were killing people in the regular
07:14season right you know like they were good they weren't like wow the knicks who could beat them like
07:20it wasn't that they got hot at the right time in the playoffs and they rolled the whole thing and
07:25credit to them for doing it but um we'll see if they can do it again um so i think
07:31the east is i
07:32wouldn't say the east is open i would say at the top you can make an argument that the knicks
07:37can
07:37repeat but you can also make an argument now that philly can beat them like there's no reason that
07:42you would say well philly can't beat that team yeah they can beat that team if they're healthy
07:45is it just those two or is it boston or anybody else still in there you know i i i
07:54i want to get
07:55i want to put boston off the line but they they always seem to conjure up a great team every
08:02year
08:02no matter who's on the floor like so i can't write them off and tatum's presumably healthier again now
08:08and he can spend the whole summer on basketball instead of rehabbing right and so now you think
08:13you're going to get and look paul george is not without talent right like he's old but he's
08:18he's still a talented guy right so i can't write boston off yet um i can't with detroit sir just
08:26depends on what happens with durin like if that i assume it's going to get done i assume he's going
08:30to be back and if he's back i think they they did win 60 games last year it's not like
08:36you know so
08:37they they do have a good team um so they're in there somewhere uh the top of the east is
08:42a lot harder
08:43now a lot harder um but those i will put those four teams ahead of everybody else if kawaii goes
08:51if that trade winds up going through and he goes to toronto i would say toronto's kind of a wild
08:56card
08:56in that but but they you know you can't ignore kawaii leonard like he won a championship in toronto
09:03right like so uh you can't ignore that and that's what then they have a pretty decent team around him
09:09and so that could they're they're in there somewhere they're in that mix somewhere as well
09:12well the odds just went from plus 6 000 to plus 900 in vegas yeah
09:18it jumped quite a bit i mean it's it's incredible to see that starting lineup we'll see how the
09:23chemistry and everything fits together but it's tough not to look at that starting lineup and think
09:28that they're going to make some real noise it's a multiplier effect right like i mean it's that's that's
09:33where lebron that's why it's a that's why it's it's very intriguing because his the things that he
09:39does well are the things that the 76ers need you know the things that he's good at are the things
09:45that that fit their polls so that's where you go yeah this could work that could work um it still
09:52is about mb i'm not ever going to walk away from that he's got to be healthy for them to
09:59win a
09:59championship yeah um and so but you have a much better chance now of him being healthy when you
10:05get to the playoffs as opposed to the older days where it was his team and he was playing 37
10:11minutes
10:11a game and heavy volume heavy usage heavy heavy physicality heavy contact you know um you can
10:19lighten a lot of those loads on him during the regular season now with with the group that they
10:24have around i mean we we've seen lebron this reminds me a little bit when we were having some
10:30of these discussions about ov about if he was going to come back and he took a little bit less
10:34money
10:34than expected and then you know he's going to probably be a little deferential i would think
10:38in terms of his role i don't know that you fully expect that out of lebron he still was incredible
10:42last season but do you think it's something where he's just gonna define that role and fit in
10:47versus hey build a team around me oh no i don't think i look lebron is a lot of things
10:53but he's
10:54but i do think he has some self-awareness i think he understands yeah he's 41 years old he can't
10:59do
11:00this stuff that he did you know 10 years ago you know like he can't do it anymore like but
11:05he's still
11:06a really smart and good basketball player and that's again what to me is intriguing is that
11:12the 76ers have glitched in the playoffs because of injuries but they've also glitched because
11:18they haven't known what to do in rough situations you know i go back to that series with the knicks
11:24ironically two years ago like the game's over you just have to finish the game yeah the game's over
11:28you have the game one and they totally blew a short circuit and because nobody knew what to do when
11:34when the knicks put some pressure on him and lebron will know what to do and it won't won't be
11:40phased
11:40by it he won't be phased by going on into the garden and playing like you know what i mean
11:45like
11:45the things that have tripped philly up have been physical but they've also been mental now you can't
11:50do anything about the physical part because that's mb but the mental part you got the you have a pretty
11:56mentally strong guy coming in now that's not going to be shook by having to win a playoff game on
12:02the
12:02road um you know and so that to me is a big big positive for the sixers going forward talking
12:12with
12:12da david aldrich of the athletic so it feels like lebron obviously he's a lightning rod for so many
12:20people whether you like him whether you hate him it feels like you know a part of his legacy is
12:26kind
12:26of moving around and it feels like he's kind of cemented himself in what his legacy is do you think
12:32yeah you know depending upon what he does here if he does win a championship and it's another city
12:36that he brings a championship to but regardless of that do you think this affects anything or is
12:41you know this is lebron like this is kind of what you expect no i mean i mean i think
12:47his legacy is
12:47pretty pretty secure i don't think he's doing this i don't think this is a legacy move i think this
12:52is
12:53what's the what's the best what's the most boxes i can check right like he became obvious he didn't
12:59want to stay in la and you know wait for the ball to come to him like that's not who
13:05he is right and
13:07in in fairness to lebron he's earned that right i think you know what i mean like he's earned that
13:12like you know he has been a really great player in this league for 20 years and so you can't
13:18i can't
13:19begrudge him that saying no well no i've earned the right to have the ball and make the decisions
13:23at the end of the game i've earned that right okay you have right so i but i don't think
13:28going
13:28to philly is a legacy that cleveland would have been the legacy move right like that would have been like
13:33yeah the narrative story this is a basketball story like i give him credit this is still about
13:40basketball for lebron it's not about the feel-good story nobody would have begrudged him going back to
13:45cleveland for a third time everybody would have said yeah of course go home finish your career at
13:49home um and he didn't do it he went for the for the harder thing because philly's hard it's hard
13:57to
13:57win in philly oh yeah it's it's hard to play in philly it's hard to play in philly that's a
14:03hard time to
14:04play in you gotta bring it you gotta bring it you know and um yeah so they're gonna test your
14:12medal right i give him props because he didn't duck the smoke he was like no let me go let
14:16me go
14:17to the hard place and try to win it because i and you know ironically if he does win if
14:23they did win
14:23and it you know that would be an ultimate legacy move as well but i really think this is more
14:28about
14:29what's the best fit for me basketball wise what's what checks the most boxes yeah and i still think
14:34minnesota's the best fit but that's not you know doesn't matter what i think so anyway so for the
14:41wizard side of things here d.a yeah anthony davis doesn't seem like he's gonna be going anywhere
14:47they'd love to talk about it what do you make of them what what the future is for ad here
14:52in dc
14:53look i've always i've continued to say despite all the noise on social media that the the only thing
15:03that makes any sense is for anthony davis to play great in washington this coming season
15:08and then he can then he will regain the leverage that he note that he currently does not possess
15:14no the reason why nobody wants to trade for ad is because nobody's seen him play in a year
15:19you know what i mean like and he's 33 years old like at some point you gotta i have to
15:24see you on the
15:25court man i have to see you are you still capable of being ad and dominating games defensively and
15:31making shots and and and protecting the rim and doing all the things that that made you a great
15:36player when you were healthy i need to see it on the court in nba games i have to see
15:40it if the once
15:41you show me you can do that then we can have a discussion about what your future contract should
15:46be but until you do that what are we talking about so i think that that's what will happen i
15:52you know
15:53the wizards are under no obligation to do an extension with him i think they would talk about an
15:59extension but i it's not going to be a max extension i don't know where i don't know where
16:04half of the things i that people say to me is happening come from they just come out of full
16:08cloth and people just inventing them if they were to me guys that i you know i'm not i don't
16:15pat
16:15myself on the back too much i don't call attention to myself too much but i know i've been in
16:20the
16:20wizards locker room a lot the last three years and josh robbins has been the wizards locker room now
16:25you got all these experts all of a sudden why haven't you seen any wizards games in the last
16:28three years and you guys all know what's going on with the team one of the most secretive front
16:33offices in the league and you guys know everything but like that extension thing if they were to do
16:39something that's that's in this august right it's starting that's right next week yeah really uh and
16:46the next week they can start talking to him about an extension i think that's when it was enough
16:50that's when it's available and i look again i think would they do a short extension a year
16:56extension the two-year extension maybe they're not doing a five-year extension no i i just that's not
17:02happening um i think they would be willing to talk about a short extension i don't think at a max
17:09number and a max dollar amount i don't think so you know and so you know again he can opt
17:19out after
17:19next year he's got you know he's got a player option for 27 28 if he wants to be a
17:24free agent
17:25and go play for the nets okay yeah they'll have money you can do that well and that's the thing
17:30i'd ask you da you talk about trying to rebuild some of that value and i thought all along along
17:36to the same lines you did like he needs to play basketball here for the wizards to get back
17:39the value they gave up it's not like they gave up a ton but you're also not just going to
17:43trade a
17:44guy that you got that never played and get less than you traded so it always made sense for him
17:49to suit up at some point is it something to regain the value to hit the free agency like
17:53you're talking about next year or is it something that regain some of the value and then flip him
17:57at the deadline well that's that's where the rubber meets the road that's where that's the
18:01decision at the point that's the inflection point you're exactly right let's say plays at an all-star
18:07level whether he's an all-star or not but he plays at a high level the first three months of
18:11the
18:11season now you're at the trade deadline and you have a decision to make and this is when the
18:15wizards will have to make a decision are we in are we in the anthony davis business or are we
18:20not in
18:20the anthony davis business you know and so that's the best case scenario because now it's the trade
18:26deadline there's pressure other teams are going to need a big man for the stretcher and they may
18:30be willing to give you more that's the best case scenario for the wizards frankly to me is to have
18:37the opportunity to trade him at high value for assets that can help you short term and long term
18:46now that's a that's a very tough needle to thread right like it's not a given that that that scenario
18:52is going to present itself but there's a there's a chance that it does if he plays great and i
18:59think
18:59that's what the wizards are banking on he's going to play well teams are going to ask us for more
19:05teams are going to be willing to give us more and that's when we can move and we can maximize
19:09the
19:10return on the investment all right da appreciate you hopping on with us on a big day as lebron's
19:16headed to philadelphia i'll call you and ask you some stuff about this uh football thing that's
19:21people buying houses and they haven't made the move to become free i'll call you and talk to you about
19:27that oh my goodness my god right i look forward to that conversation yeah appreciate your time
19:36all right man all right guys thank you brother
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