- 7/1/2025
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00:006 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, June 30th, the final day of last month, as we welcome you to a
00:07Tuesday, July 1st here on the Early Line. That was the start of free agency last night at 6 p.m.
00:14Eastern around the association, but not just free agency signings or contract extensions, DRS,
00:21large trades happening last night in the NBA. This was the largest in what we have seen as a flurry
00:28of maneuvers and early on here in the NBA offseason in these summer months. The Brooklyn Nets trading
00:36away Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets. In return, Denver sends Michael Porter Jr. in a 2032
00:43unprotected first round selection, making their way back to BK. Of course, MPJ, a part of the
00:51championship winning team for Denver. Now three NBA years ago in 2023, but this year it was clear
00:59maybe a change was needed for the Nugs. They make the big deal. They acquire Cam Johnson, a guy that
01:05averaged nearly 19 points per game, 18.8 to be exact this season inside the Barclays Center.
01:14That a career best. It also frees up some money, some cash flow, some cap space for that Nuggets
01:20franchise to utilize at altitude. Denver, a big move last night on the opening night of free agency.
01:28Yeah, I think it's a good move for Denver too. As you said, moving around some cap space, but I do get
01:32a viable basketball player. Now also understand this. You have a guy that's putting up, let's just say,
01:3620 points on a team that's going absolutely nowhere just for hollow 20 points every night.
01:40That doesn't necessarily equate to you're going to plug this guy into a lineup there that has Aaron Gordon,
01:45Nikola Jokic, and also certainly Jamal Murray, who are going to be the guys scoring the basketballs.
01:49He's going to take away their shots. He should be fine, but it's one of those things where I say to
01:52myself, a slight tweak didn't work out last year. Let's add some new energy to the lineup,
01:56and I think this provides it. Now what the Brooklyn Nets are doing, I have no idea, but then again,
02:00on a year-to-year basis, nobody ever knows what the Brooklyn Nets are doing. They're only like
02:04another day away from a complete rebuild once again. It seems like they stop, start, stop, start,
02:08stop, start. That's what Brooklyn's did since they moved to the Barclays Center.
02:12Yeah, that's kind of hard to argue that statement. An interesting draft for Sean Marks and that
02:18Brooklyn front office just about a week ago, utilizing all five of their first-round picks
02:24and a lot of guys that can facilitate not a ton of scores. But now after the acquisition of MPJ,
02:30maybe that's a good thing. You have Camp Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. in that Brooklyn starting
02:35five. Very ball-dominant, ball-heavy, shall we say. Cam Johnson, maybe not as much for a Denver
02:43offense, of course, that has many mouths to feed, led by Nikola Jokic. Another new move for the Nugs
02:50last night, bringing back a familiar face in Bruce Brown. Another member of that championship team
02:57three seasons ago, and a fan favorite in the Mile High City. Because of that, DRS,
03:02Denver the blockbuster deal to acquire Cam Johnson. Adding in Bruce Brown, of course,
03:08making some of these moves to better that roster around Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray,
03:13and Aaron Gordon with a new head coach in David Adelman. The odds maker's feeling confident that
03:19Denver will be a contender out West. Plus 850 now, the price on the Nugs to win an NBA championship.
03:26Second best for teams hailing from the Western Conference, as you see there. Of course,
03:32there is still going to be a gap and probably remain a large and substantial gap between the
03:37Thunder and everybody else out West the entirety of this NBA season. But Denver moves in front of
03:44Houston, 17-1 yesterday before free agency began. Slash that price in half and then some,
03:51plus 850 now for Denver. Yeah, they should. They should move higher up there. And also understand
03:56this, just a couple years ago, the Denver Nuggets won a world championship. Oh, they've been bad.
04:01Well, they went to game seven against the NBA champion this year. So small tweaks make a big
04:05difference. And again, we talk about like the Kansas City Chiefs. As long as Andy Reid is there,
04:09as long as Patrick Holmes is there, you will be fine. As long as Jamal Murray is healthy and you
04:13have a healthy Nikola Jokic, you will be just fine and be a contender in the West, which is all you can
04:17ask for. They're a playoff team. We'll make a deep run in the playoffs as long as they're healthy
04:22and you let that ride out. Maybe this year they can get home court advantage away from OKC to have
04:26that home court advantage in elevation as opposed to playing in OKC. I like the move that they made
04:31here. Minor tweaks. Again, you didn't need a major roster overall. The bones of this organization are
04:35still there. You just want to add some extra energy and maybe they got that now. The Grizzlies making
04:41some moves already this offseason, the drastic trade sending Desmond Bain to Orlando. It does seem now as
04:47the Grizz will clear space and allow Cole Anthony to find his new destination. But a max extension
04:54yesterday for Memphis handed out to Jaron Jackson Jr., Triple J, a five-year, $240 million max
05:03extension to remain in the grind city. Memphis, of course, the eighth seed last year in the Western
05:08Conference, fading down the stretch, dismissing head coach Taylor Jenkins in an offseason of change
05:15already, but not with Jaron Jackson Jr. He is set to remain in Memphis for the foreseeable future.
05:22Yeah, good player here. But also, you know, it's interesting. Like you take a look at Major
05:25League Baseball contracts like Scott Boris. Like, hey, I want that guy on my side. He's an absolute
05:29shark out here. He's going to get me the most I can possibly get. He's going to earn every single
05:33penny that I pay for him. Same thing in the NFL. Like you come up like, let's just say, Lamar Jackson.
05:37And like it was, I think his representation was basically his family at this point, but still an agency
05:41that represented you. Where if you get something where it's, hey, high-level place, worth their
05:46price in gold. I see the tweet here by Shams. And it said, you know, head of CAA basketball,
05:51Austin Brown and CAA agent Max Seidman negotiated a new agreement. It's the max. What did he negotiate?
05:57Like he was always going to get the max. Like it's almost like in the NBA sometimes, like I'm going to
06:00pay you three or 5% of a max deal when I could have just went to the organization and go, yeah,
06:04just give me the max. That's what I'm worth. Okay, here's the max at this point. Oh, you're going to kick
06:07out of like, you're getting credit for the organization where it's CAA. Like, hey, great job done. Like, no,
06:11it's paint and just press a button here. And that's what you get at this point. He deserves
06:16those money, that money, but CAA, they're loving this man. Max extension that was going to get
06:20that. Yeah. Pay us our, I don't know, 5, 10, 15, 20 million off of this. What a great negotiation
06:25tactic. The main insider now, of course, Shams Sharani. I think DRS highlighting the agencies
06:32and the agents that got deals done to kind of flex on why he has all these inside sources
06:38and scoops. Probably part of that contingency plan, by the way, for the Memphis Grizzlies,
06:45Jaron Jackson Jr. is back. John Morant remains. They bring back Santee Aldama as well to Memphis.
06:53100 to 1 now, though, for the Grizz to win an NBA championship this upcoming season. Not exactly
06:59the most optimistic or favorable price around the Western Conference. The New York Knicks need a new
07:05head coach. We'll discuss on the other side of the break because the former head man for the Grizz,
07:10Taylor Jenkins, is in the running. But is Mike Brown the four-time NBA head coach, the frontrunner?
07:17More of that next. We'll get to some notable free agent acquisitions on the opening night of free
07:22agency in just a moment. Maybe not superstars or even all-stars around the NBA, but still some
07:29significant pieces that have certainly moved the market. DRS, the New York Knicks enter free agency
07:35without a head coach in place. We know they have interviewed three people, that being Taylor Jenkins,
07:42Micah Nori, and Mike Brown. They have also reached out, it would appear, to South Carolina
07:48and the superstar in women's basketball in Don Staley. Has that been a full interview? That remains to be
07:56seen. But we do know a second interview is on the way for Mike Brown as well, who was dismissed midway
08:03through last season by the Sacramento Kings and has been the head coach at four different spots.
08:09Might New York and Madison Square Garden be his fifth? No, it better not be his fifth. Like,
08:14I'd rather hire somebody I never heard of at this point. He's up and coming. It's supposed to be
08:18a real analytics guy that can drive that team as opposed to the comfortable coach that comes in and
08:23the players like him and they get nothing out of it here. If you're going to fire Tom Thibodeau,
08:26you're not going to go ahead and hire Mike Brown. You're going to fire Thibodeau because you have
08:30a rock star above his level or you're going, nope, we've identified this 26-year-old coach who's
08:35coming over from Spain or France. This guy is the next level. He's going to take us here and push us
08:41through to get us to an NBA Finals and or an NBA Championship, which is something New York hasn't
08:45had in a while. We were always thought to believe you fired Thibodeau because you have something
08:49better in your back pocket and in your back pocket was never the thought it was going to be Mike
08:53Brown. No, you never really did believe that DRS and it's not a great sign for the New York Knicks.
09:00However, the Knicks making some moves on the opening night of free agency. Jordan Clarkson agrees to a
09:06buyout with the Utah Jazz when he clears waivers. Sham Sharania telling us Clarkson is on his way to the
09:13Big Apple, a nice piece for a front runner in the Eastern Conference. Now in the New York Knicks
09:18is tied to Rome the reason for that. A finalist for sixth man of the year last year with the Cavaliers
09:25DRS. He now leaves Cleveland. He heads to Memphis on a three-year $28 million deal in Cleveland who
09:33had the shortest price to win an NBA Championship entering yesterday out of the Eastern Conference
09:38at six to one moves back by four bucks to ten to one. We gave our producer extraordinaire Joe
09:45Friso some flack yesterday for including Ty Jerome on a graphic of notable free agents that might be
09:52on the move when free agency began yesterday evening at 6 p.m. Eastern time because the two went to high
09:58school together. Ty Jerome, a market mover. How about that? Moving it around, you know, solid guard that
10:04you can sort of lean on here, but you don't like to get a kick out of two. Like imagine like that's your
10:07like your contract. Like I'm hoping to get something here. You just signed with a new organization like
10:11three years, $28 million. It's all guaranteed. You move to a new city. Like it's got to be a great time
10:16for some of these guys that finally made it because yes, we always talk about the LeBron James and the
10:20$50 million and, you know, Jaron Jackson's making all that money. But the mid-level guys are like,
10:25you know what? I made it, man. This isn't a two-way contract, a one-year $2.5 million deal that they
10:30can send me down to, you know, the G League at any time. Like three years, $28 million, worked hard in
10:34college. You had some success there. You made a name for yourself in the NBA and you got yourself
10:39a nice deal. Like these are the real winners of free agency. We usually just talk about the upper
10:43level end of the spectrum, man. Congratulations to guys doing big things like that.
10:47And Donnie, we knew entering last night, there wasn't the upper level echelon of free agents
10:52available this summer nor in this market. So again, you see the notable NBA free agency signings.
10:59And here are a few of the notable names that we highlight. Are they superstars? Are they all-stars?
11:04Heck, might they even be in the starting five for their new teams? Maybe not. Are they going to make
11:09a difference? Perhaps. Karis Levert, a nice deal to head back to Detroit. Of course, he played his
11:14college basketball at Michigan. Brooke Lopez, the veteran big, makes his way to LA with the Clippers.
11:21Nikhil Alexander-Walker, maybe the big move of the night. He signs a four-year deal, $62 million with the
11:28Atlanta Hawks, who saw a lot of market movement in their favor in the last week or so. And Dorian
11:35Finney-Smith also signs a deal with the Houston Rockets. A great 3-and-D guy that provides that
11:42presence off the bench, perhaps, for Houston. Those two teams, DRS, not just because of Nikhil Alexander-Walker
11:50or DFS, are very, very in on this year. Atlanta's price post-draft last week, 95-1 to win a Larry
11:59O'Brien trophy. Now it is 30-1, fourth best from teams in the Eastern Conference. And Houston was
12:06leapfrogged last night by the Denver Nuggets. But the Rockets still that third best price out of the
12:11Western Conference, plus 950, fourth best overall. Yeah, a couple years ago, you saw them run the
12:17Sixers in game number seven with Trey Young. Hey, things are building up. You know, those
12:21on-court rivalries with the Knicks here. But now it finally feels like Atlanta got it right. Like,
12:25let's surround this guy with legitimate talent where he can be the playmaker we need and other
12:29guys can compensate with defense and off-the-ball skills here. I like what Atlanta's doing. So do
12:33a lot of people.
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