FULL NBA Today | Lakers Add Wiggins, Warriors Land Horford & Ayton Channels Shaq

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05/07/2025

🔥 On NBA Today, get all the latest updates as Andrew Wiggins is traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, Al Horford heads to the Golden State Warriors, and Deandre Ayton elevates his game to a peak Shaquille O’Neal level.

Our analysts break down how Wiggins fits alongside LeBron James and Deandre Ayton in L.A., what Horford brings to the Warriors’ veteran core, and why Ayton’s dominant inside presence reminds everyone of the legendary Shaq’s prime.

Stay tuned for insights on how these moves reshape the balance of power in the Western Conference and the implications for the upcoming NBA 2025 season.

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00:00but they found they found somebody else they found somebody who wanted a better resume

00:05you know what the best part of eddie is i don't a lot of our listeners slash viewers of a certain

00:11age are gonna have any idea what you're talking about um they like have these great trash talk

00:17sequences with like brad doherty and like avery johnson and i can't remember who else

00:23um it's it's awesome though i highly recommend it all right we have a coach in new york but first

00:31i think we should talk about the lakers getting a center um that was them getting deandre ayton

00:37on a two-year deal um i have to say while deandre ayton has flaws in his game which we have discussed

00:45in this podcast over the course of years when you don't have a center and you're limited in your

00:51what you can spend getting a player who can produce on that level for that money which was

00:57about eight million dollars a year um is a decent save so while he's not the perfect player nor do

01:07i think he's the long-term fit as the center for luca it is a much better position than they were in

01:13um two days ago bontemps yeah i mean look we've been talking about the lakers getting a center

01:19literally from the moment they traded for luka dodgich back in i guess late january early february

01:24i don't remember exactly what the date was um they obviously made the mark williams trade they

01:29rescinded almost immediately afterward and ever since then it's been like all right who are the

01:32lakers gonna get at center and yes deandre ayton is a flawed player he's far from a perfect player

01:38there is a reason he was just bought out of the max deal he was on that being said he also is one of

01:43the most talented centers that was available this summer can argue he's the second most talented

01:47center after miles turner on the market and the lakers getting him on this deal a two-year deal

01:54at less than the full mid-level i think believe player option on the second year um that is a

02:00that is to me a real win for them to get this deal done and that's not to say that deandre ayton is

02:06going to be an all-star with the lakers but he is a guy with a lot of talent who fits in in many ways

02:13what they need he's a he could be a presence inside particularly on offense he's not often played

02:18to the level he is capable of on defense but if the lakers can coax some good play out of him

02:25he could really make a significant impact this year for them it'd be a big upgrade over jackson hayes and

02:29also yes he's not a max player but it is a far different calculus to become a good signing when

02:36you have to clear being a guy that's not essentially what is the room mid-level around eight or nine

02:40million dollars than if you're making 35 million dollars so the lakers still have a lot of holes

02:46they're still i think outside the top four in the western conference but deandre ayton will help them

02:52i think it's a good signing and at least gets them started while they've seen several other teams in

02:56the west make upgrades over the past week or so right i i would argue he was the most talented

03:02center on the market he's the most physically gifted center on the market um you know the problem

03:10with deandre ayton has never been about talent he's seven foot 250 chiseled athletic has good touch like

03:17he has all the talent in the world called him a talented doofus on get up and and i don't mean doofus

03:24is in a lack of intelligence i just mean he's he tends to be foolish i mean he's you know just like

03:31he tends to just wear down his coaches his veteran teammates just with not malicious stuff but he's

03:40late you know he's not paying attention to detail he's snowed in you know all these kind of things

03:46there was a i did a piece on him a couple years ago when he was sort of ascending when the suns were

03:53ascending and i remember finding all of these videos of chris paul screaming at him in the huddle

04:02like every single huddle chris paul was yelling at him about something like yeah every single night

04:09now it's not a coincidence that was the best stretch of his career when he had chris paul directing him

04:15around the court to deandre ayton's credit he did play a significant role on a team that went to

04:22the nba finals was up 2-0 in the finals you know also to chris paul's credit i was really down on the

04:29fit of deandre ayton with the lakers because i know like hey if he's gonna be not rolling hard and

04:37wanting to post ups and all that kind of stuff luca is not a guy known for an extraordinary level of

04:44patience with his teammates i think jj reddick's patience could certainly be tested and i talked to

04:52a couple people yesterday about deandre and i talked to one former phoenix staffer one former

04:58portland staffer and the former phoenix staffer is like this is not going to work he's you know he's

05:04he's gonna do this little half roll thing luca's gonna just get fed up with him you know that jj reddick's

05:10gonna get driven crazy this is gonna be a disaster the portland former portland staffer was like

05:16listen everything that went wrong in portland some of it was on deandre some of it was on the

05:22organization his feeling though was ayton's going to understand the situation here he's not a max

05:31player he's a guy who's been dumped by two franchises and as you said is basically playing

05:36on a prove it deal for the room mid-level here you know with you know one year deal plus a player

05:42option and that that's going to create a sense of urgency it's going to create a kind of hunger that

05:49maybe he has not had at his first two stops in the league and i said okay is is he going to do the

05:55things you have to do to to thrive playing with luca and he says if he knows he's going to get past to

06:01he'll roll hard you know and he pointed out that he was a very effective uh role finisher with chris

06:08paul uh during their time together with his son so i'm after that conversation i am a little bit more

06:14optimistic about this and the thing is if ayton it's it's all about attitude it's all about willingness

06:20to do dirty work if he does those things it does have a chance to be a long-term fit i think it's either

06:27going to be a long-term fit or a short-term circus fire hey i think the lakers need even another center

06:34because well you need more than one and right now they have one you probably need a second one i will

06:41also add one thing really quick it is worth pointing out that i believe and you guys can correct me if i'm

06:46wrong i'm pretty sure that it was the deandre eight side of the equation that went to the blazers and

06:50helped orchestrate this buyout i think in part because they sort of saw the writing on the wall in

06:56portland and saw that they drafted donovan clingen last year they drafted yang hansen i believe is how

07:02we're saying it this year and they clearly were going in a different direction at the center spot

07:07and to mcmahon's point this is deandre eight and his chance to reset what people think of him and his

07:13career going forward like if this goes well there's a lot of cap space next summer he is an extremely

07:19talented player i believe he's still only 26 like he could still cash in and have a totally different

07:26second half of his career or he could go the other way and be a guy that's looking at a minimum deal

07:33a year from now and like that's all entirely down to how he handles what is a pretty great opportunity

07:40in front of him well and i think the that was the concern from deandre eight and his agents when they

07:46went to portland obviously portland was looking to move on from him portland was you know it made

07:51all the sense of the world for portland to have phased him out this year and gone with their young

07:54bigs um and if ayton's kind of in and look i don't think ayton's a guy who's great at masking

08:02his feelings or and or preventing his feelings from being evident when he's on the floor so if he's

08:08feeling if he's feeling unappreciated if he's feeling you know maybe even disrespected unwanted and

08:15all those kind of things and he kind of mopes through a season then he's looking at maybe being

08:19a minimum guy next year now he gets basically all i think he might have left a little bit on the table

08:25i'm not sure i'm a minimum guy but okay okay but uh scrap heap guy he's in a situation now he has

08:34a golden opportunity to restore his value with a franchise that has a glaring need for a long-term

08:45solution at that position and if you are a big guy in the league you've got to get over the post-up

08:53stuff but there's no better point guard to play with than luca donchich derrick lively had more dunks

09:01during a rookie season which he missed time with injury than deandre ayton's had in any year in his

09:07career that's why i mean all you all you got to do is roll hard and roll hard and be willing to

09:15clean up the the you know the trash and he's going to get four dunks a game you know and plus whatever

09:24else and like there would be i think there'll be opportunities for him to punish switches like

09:28his post-ups have to come off of punishing smaller defenders on switches not thinking okay

09:33this is a play call for me let me you know or forget the play call let me go post up in the

09:39you know with the nail and and try to operate like that stuff's got to get scrapped but he's got a

09:45chance to to feast uh just thriving as as the pick and roll partner with luca donchich

09:51well we'll be keeping an eye on the lakers offseason moves it's still not clear what

09:57their roster is going to look like so we'll see um it's now clear who the knicks head coach is mike

10:02brown um i met mike brown in 2005 when he was hired as the head coach of the cleveland cavaliers like in

10:11the first week of june and i remember at the press conference um the calves didn't have a gm yet

10:18that was interesting and uh so owner dan gilbert uh hired him and uh at the press conference he gave

10:24him a clock because he was giving him the gift of time couldn't make this up i thought i thought he

10:35was giving him a clock because he was on the clock i thought that's what you were saying right which is

10:39what he is in new york he's already on the clock yeah i thought it was gonna be some morning on first

10:44take evico and sb this morning on first take he said is mike brown already on the hot seat i said

10:48obviously because he obviously is already on the hot seat no fault of his own that's the situation

10:53he's walking into during the playoffs and this is a true story there's another time during the

10:59playoffs where dan gilbert i'm not saying he himself did it he may have had somebody do it

11:04he left a whoopee cushion on the seat at the at for the a playoff press conference on the podium

11:12he left a whoopee cushion and the mike brown sat on i tell you what was the point of that

11:19to make fun of mike brown yeah too embarrassing okay i might i might see if i can pull that off at

11:26the live show with bond timpson vegas dan dan gilbert is prime dan gilbert in the twitter era really

11:33would have been true twitter it really would have been something like the comic sans letter was

11:37obviously the nascent days of twitter but if you can imagine like the last few years if that had

11:41happened in like 2023 i the internet would have literally melted if that happened so he he bought

11:47the calves march 1st 2005 okay on april 1st one month in one month as the owner he by the way in that

11:56month he fired the coach and the calves were plummeting from being like in third or fourth place to out of

12:02the playoffs just so you know and on april 1st he wanted to put out a release that said that the

12:11calves were signing dennis rodman to a 10-day contract as an april fool's joke now he didn't put it out

12:18because this pr staff talked him out of it but that was his that was one month into his his uh his time

12:25his owner well you remember the guy boring fellow did you not a boring fellow the uh jokes when he

12:32hired a uh hired an actor to pretend to be a ref during a time out and then got into a fight with

12:38the actor and del harris turned white as a ghost freaked out hurried to break it up oh my god so on

12:48mike brown um what you need to know about mike brown um and i don't think he does this anymore and

12:55you know but just helps you understand used to bring his own iron on the road because he wanted

13:05to he had the thing where he would iron um he he would he and his ironing board because he had this

13:15pre-ironing board he might i mean you can't talk about anybody packing anything giving you pack

13:20five thousand pairs of shoes he definitely packed his preferred iron and the man who was in charge of

13:28packing his iron was jordy fernandez jordy fernandez was the lowest staffer um um on the cav staff

13:39and just over from spain looking for a foothold in in the nba and jordy was kind of like like i think

13:48he i don't know what his role was but he was basically mike brown's gopher i mean he he definitely

13:54helped out in practices and stuff like he was doing coaching but he was also mike brown's gopher

13:59and he was in charge of packing the iron and mike had this thing where he before every game would

14:05have an ironing board set up in the coach's office um home and road and he would iron his shirt

14:11he wanted to be the one to iron it it was like this zen thing for him to iron his shirt before he

14:16went out to the game not not an ocd fellow whatsoever mike brass right well i think it's just it more goes

14:23to the point of how um sort of disciplined and persnickety he is he was he's a he was raised in

14:30the air as an air force brat he graduated um high school at rammstein air force base in germany

14:37he was a dominant point guard i believe on the rammstein air force base uh uh high school or whatever

14:44um yeah but anyway um i remember like early you know my years covering covering mike brown um he

14:55uh he was so obsessed with defense um like the calves like the calves lose a game like 89 86 or

15:04something and so you'd be in the post game and you'd be like coach uh offense really struggled

15:10tonight you know he needed some more uh he needed some more help for lebron he was like

15:14we should have given we we lost 89 86 we should have only given up 85 and that sort of process led to

15:23the 79 77 uh games in the conference finals against the pistons um it's gonna be a great fit for cat

15:32having said that when the kings won the or got to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years two

15:43years ago i think it was and he i think was in 23 and he was named coach of the year um they led the

15:49league in offense and i think they led the league in passes per game and so he was the best offense

15:55in nba history at that point that well every offense seems like it's that way every year right

16:00so record that gets broken every year yes so mike brown has come a long way in 20 years as a coach

16:06he's really um he's still going to be hokey i know that that um that thing that's uh going around the

16:15internet which was his his i don't know he called a rant um when he was talking about his thought

16:22process on how he wants the kings to play and he kept saying we have to be good possession after

16:28possession after possession he kept saying it like 17 times over just need to be methodical by stacking

16:35or playing the right way possession after possession after possession after possession after possession

16:42after possession after possession after possession after possession and people thought like he was

16:47was a glitch in the matrix um that is how he operates he you know he's a pound the rock

16:55greg popovich disciple um so uh i can see how he would win a coaching search

17:05that would that mostly featured longevity as opposed to star power or whatever because

17:12he over the course of many conversations kind of wears you down and be like you know what this guy

17:18does it so i don't know if it's going to mean the knicks greatness but that's who he is he also had

17:24the advantage of actually not being employed by another nba franchise as their head coach in this

17:30particular coaching search but listen it was a clumsy coaching search by the knicks but they have

17:35like he's a qualified guy obviously he's been a two-time uh coach of the year i do think he'll be

17:42able to you know walk into the knicks facility and and you know command respect from the players

17:48the other thing in new york i think it's important that you have a coach who's not going to be like

17:54intimidated by the media cesspool that is new york city to borrow one of my favorite rick

18:01carlyle lines i was gonna say these are your these are your peers you're talking about there i i say i

18:06say with love carlyle did not he was mad at him because they were writing mean things like mike

18:11woodson's job was in jeopardy um which was literally what he was upset about but seriously

18:17i think mike brown you know he for as persnickety as he may be he's a he's an engaging guy he's a funny

18:25guy you know i don't think he's gonna have any issues kind of developing rapport and managing um

18:32you know demanding media core demanding beat core i don't think that's gonna be a problem

18:37um how much do you think his time uh as a warriors assistant kind of changed him and

18:44altered his approach a lot a lot um completely altered the way he he mellowed out and i could

18:54tell mike brown stories for two three hours um but you know he he was a lot for for players he he wore

19:04you know he wore out the calves his first time around a little bit marathon um shoot arounds

19:10especially um and i think being with that sort of very mature multi-championship winning team

19:20mellowed him out um i think i think it made a big difference in the way he approaches stuff and and for

19:26a team like the knicks who has you know some pretty self you know jalen brunson josh hart mikhail bridges

19:34these are these are these are very mature dudes so i actually think that that kind of uh that kind of

19:43you know arc in his career will probably help him i i was out there with the warriors uh for a good

19:49chunk of mike's time out there and i i definitely think it mellowed him out to some degree i mean he was

19:54always as brian laid out a very hard charging guy i mean i think he talked about that when we were on

20:00uh when he was on the pot a couple years ago during the finals i think it was after that um

20:05that first king seasons in 23 and he definitely i think sort of watched how steve kerr handled things

20:13and took a bit of a different approach and i do think it it led to a lot of the things that went right

20:19in sacramento and the only thing i'd say about the general reception to mike here is um use this

20:25analogy a few times today i think you could draw a lot of parallels at least if you want to be

20:30optimistic about it for the knicks to 30 years ago when the yankees hired joe tory when the fire

20:36buck show alter in a very similar circumstance a guy that had gotten the yankees back to the playoffs

20:41is a very popular guy with the media and in the city and it was controversial by george stein brenner

20:47to fire him and when they hired joe tory who like mike brown was 55 years old like mike brown had

20:52coached three places before like mike brown hadn't won a championship before joe tory's case he had

20:57won a playoff game before he got they got destroyed for hiring him the clues joe was the back page of

21:03the daily news nobody thought it was going to work everybody thought it was going to be a disaster

21:07and that led to 12 straight playoff appearances in four titles now i'm not saying the knicks are going

21:12to become a dynastic team but in my opinion of the coaches that were available after as big man said

21:18they struck out on the uh currently employed guys who may have been potentially better fits i always

21:26thought if it got down to people that were available that mike was the only real viable option among them

21:32he's definitely going to be able to handle the media part of the job well this is the next team that

21:36needs to uh be picked up on the defensive end mike has all sorts of credentials as a defensive coach

21:43and he showed with the kings he's got the ability to run a sophisticated offense and you know one thing

21:49you could say about the knicks is that their offense was a little predictable while being pretty good

21:53and that some more bald movement and some more um creativity at that end could improve things for

21:59them some so you know we'll see how it goes but i certainly think when you look at the options that

22:04were available this is about as good as the knicks could have hoped for and now it's just a matter of

22:10whether he can live up to the very high expectations that are on him because whenever he gets introduced

22:16sometime next week from then on it's going to be you know finals or bust i mean i don't know for

22:22unless it'll be championship or bust here but it's certainly going to be finals or bust and if he

22:26doesn't do that you know it the next spring is not going to be pretty here

22:30yeah that's why i would say to him get your money you know oh he'll get any money

22:38yeah wasn't there a time when he's being paid by three teams there was yes um he'll get his money

22:45man can negotiate when he came back to cleveland you know he got fired by the calves and he coached

22:50the lakers and then he got fired by the lakers and he came back to cleveland and he was so skeptical

22:55because they hadn't gotten lebron yet and you know there was this long rebuild and i think he got a

22:59five-year contract or it might even have been longer it might have been i can't it was a very long

23:04contract it was like okay we're going to commit to you mike because you know he had he'd gotten

23:07fired in cleveland the first time around despite 550 win seasons and 260 win seasons he had back-to-back

23:14right he got to keep the clock um they fired him by the way if lebron if you go back like obviously

23:22they had lebron james those calves teams were not loaded with talent like he did an unbelievable job

23:28with those teams like seriously like they were not it was lebron and a bunch of role players and he

23:33won 66 games with them like he did a really good job yeah with that in all honesty you know i know

23:39nba tv like might even be going away i don't know but like if you if anybody has ever seen

23:45the famous you know 48 special where lebron had 48 points in detroit um by the way if you ever

23:51watched that game it used to be on nba tv all the time you will you know all these dudes who talk

23:56about how much better the league was in like the 80s and 90s just go back and look at the 2000s

24:02the 2000s forget about the 90s and see that game was is almost unbearable to watch sorry about the

24:08drilling in my wall next to me had to be done that's all you got to say it's had to be done um

24:14the life of the star uh anyway if you go back and watch that game yes you will see lebron have an

24:21incredible uh second half you will also see some great coaching by mike brown in that game was an

24:27elite coaching game but anyway it's either here nor there um he's been fired four times so he's

24:32far from the perfect coach but he has a lot of success on his resume coaches get fired that's

24:37that's just that's a you know it's a matter of when not if almost every single coach gets fired pop

24:44was an exception there's not many exceptions all right we'll see if the knicks uh we'll see if the

24:51knicks do anything else their roster they look like they're set but we've got some big unknowns

24:56out there in the league right now we've got a lot more podcasts to do this summer but um all right so

25:01a little bit ago as we're recording this is not locking any doors i had to hear that line all day

25:07today that's for sure um yeah we're a little low on news at the moment um okay so dwayne rankin of

25:16the arizona republic reported that the uh sons are in uh buyout serious buyout discussions with bradley

25:22beal this is something that has been in the ether for a few days now maybe by the time this pod comes

25:27out it'll have been done maybe it won't be done but we all know that this is true that they are in

25:32serious discussions and so on the heels of dame lillard getting bought out getting basically

25:38waived and stretched on 113 million bradley beal is probably going to get bought it probably it's not

25:44going to be that high because i think beal is intending or at least discussing well here it can't

25:50be it can't be that high so right there's a quirk in the rules uh we talked about this with the dame

25:57willard uh wave and stretch where a team cannot have more than 15 of the salary cap in dead money

26:04at any time so in the past few years the sons have at different points waved and stretched ej liddell

26:13former ohio state star and nasir little and those two guys this year are going to be on the books

26:20according to bobby marks for about 3.8 million dollars so the a maximum amount that you can have

26:29on your books is somewhere around 23 million dollars this year in dead money so because of that

26:35ravi beal who's currently owed about 110 million dollars i think it's just a little bit less than

26:42what dame's deal was um he's got to give back at least 13 or 14 million or so yeah to allow

26:50it to be a legal buyout so the sons are going to end up with basically the same deb cap hit that

26:59the bucks are going to have on their books but because of this nasir little signing that they are

27:04this wave and stretch in the past they have to get brad to give back a little bit just so they can

27:09actually do it and look typically a buyout is a guy gives back the money he's getting on his next deal

27:17you know it's i i don't know is there is there a situation now where beal can get

27:2514 million is there a team is there a team that has the full non-taxpayer mid-level i don't i don't

27:34see there's a few there's a few teams that would make sense for him

27:38um i mean i don't know my point is around go it yeah i'm not looking for speculation okay my point

27:47is there's a couple places he could go well my point is this this is real quick he doesn't have

27:52to get he doesn't have to get if he's let's just say for the sake of the discussion he's leaving 14

27:57million on the table and he wants to be whole because for example deandre aden didn't quite get

28:02whole he was a couple of million short of being whole but he went from being a possible third

28:07stringer in portland to starter in la if beale's looking to be whole he just needs to make 14 million

28:15over two years he doesn't have to make it all back this year so just just so yeah but they're

28:24he's going to get bought out very likely they're haggling about money you know i mean i remember when

28:31i when i went uh i was around the suns for a little bit to to write the story on the not so

28:38pleasant state of the suns and you know this is when beale had heard his name and trade rumors

28:44for months despite the fact he had a no trade clause and i talked to him about it he was honest

28:49about and by the way he'd also been in his eyes demoted to a six-man role for a while there and

28:56you know he said he felt disrespected and but you know he didn't he mentioned like hey

29:01there wasn't anything that uh that made sense before the trade deadline he didn't want to

29:06just like kd he didn't want to uproot his family or you know his personal life in his in beale's

29:12cases his family young kids wife in the middle of season but he pointed out like you know summer

29:17there's a lot more options on the table there's a lot more possibilities i don't think bradley beale

29:23is in any way shape or form opposed to getting his walking papers from phoenix i think he just wants

29:29as much of the money as possible to go along with him yeah um so there might be some more by the time

29:37we do our next podcast there might be some more there but i will just say like um if they do this

29:43buyout um it will save the suns somewhere in the neighborhood you know they haven't completed their

29:50roster yet they could add more to it but i believe bontemps it will save the suns it will get them out

29:58of the tax or be very close to getting them out of the tax which will save them 160 million dollars

30:05this year alone and it's the repeater tax thing also is this our first indication that microwave

30:15matt isn't just about right now right now right now maximize your chance to win a championship every

30:19single year is this

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