NBA Offseason Mania with Fred Katz | Slam N Jam
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Saturday Slammin' Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily on today's show. We have Fred Katz joining us and we're talking about all the trades. What has happened to the NBA? I feel like there's been so many trades that have happened that have like been head scratching. And we're going to break it all down here with Fred Katz and then we'll do some trivia with me. As always, this is my good friend Alex Spears. Alex, what's up? What's up, Andrew? And... Our guest, Fred Katz of The Athletic, one of my favorite people. Katz and Shoot podcast. Great show, Fred. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. Long time listener. First time caller. I'm really excited. Also, Super Nervous is the only podcast I get genuinely unbelievably nervous for because the trivia just humiliates me every single time.
In the wake of the Jalen Brown trade, a friend of the show, Jared Weiss, wrote, Speaking to people around the league, I still have not found someone who thinks this Jalen Brown trade makes sense. Fred, now that you've had some time to think about it, Does this trade make sense to you from the Boston side at all?
Here's what I'll tell you. Hey, Jared Weiss, tell me you're not talking to the Celtics without telling me you're not talking to the Celtics. Because if you ask the Celtics, it makes sense. I mean, they did it.
Yeah, they did do it. They did it.
They did it. I think the way to make it make sense is that the Celtics felt like their situation with Jalen Brown had gotten so untenable that they could not go 24 more hours while having him on the team. And that is kind of the only way to make it make sense. Otherwise, I'm just like, I don't really get the return because the reality is if you told me You told me 48 hours ago, Paul George is definitely getting traded. I know Paul George is getting traded. What do you think the return is? I would say, okay, it's probably matching salary. And then they have to attach one or two first round picks in order for Philadelphia to get off of him. And in that sense, now I think Philadelphia probably gave up better picks than they would have to if it was just Paul George for actual matching salary.
But in that sense, Jalen Brown conceptually is not that far off here from matching salary. And he's got an extra year left that Paul George doesn't have, but he's also a way better player than Paul George is right now, a way healthier and more durable player than Paul George is right now. And even if you're on the low end of Jalen Brown, He's still, I mean, look, the seventh best player on a team is still a good player. Still someone who gets burned. Still a good player. You still think he's a good player. No one doesn't think Jalen Brown's a good player. He's a good to great player. He was the finals MVP. He was the finals MVP.
They won the NBA championship with him being the finals MVP. Of course he's a good player.
He was sixth in MVP voting this year. Yes. The season that just finished. Yeah. Like a few weeks ago when it came out, he was sixth in MVP voting. And there were people who were furious that he wasn't top five. He was second team all NBA this year. He was really good. He averaged 29 a game. I mean, I thought it was a really great get by Philly. I understand the contract is really large, but even if you view it as purely an asset play, if you're like, this is a distressed asset and the Celtics are settling for something way below what you thought it would be, then go capitalize on that good player. So I obviously really liked it from Philly's perspective. That's not something that I mean, I think anybody would really disagree with.
And I was a little confounded by Boston settling for that level when they were like a Hugo Gonzalez away from attaching just that one guy and getting Giannis.
OK, that's the part that I can't like square because that was that was two weeks ago.
What happened with the Jaylen Brown trade and did it make sense for the Celtics?
So was that reporting wrong? That was coming from a lot of places that they had a very competitive offer for Giannis and that, yeah, maybe like Hugo Gonzalez was like a deciding factor one way or the other.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:07–4:21
2
What happened with the Jaylen Brown trade and did it make sense for the Celtics?
4:21–25:42
3
Why do on-off stats and mainstream analytics create controversy around Jalen Brown's value?
25:42–41:40
4
How big of a loss is Mitchell Robinson to the Knicks and what does he bring defensively?
41:40–52:49
5
How should we evaluate the Sixers after acquiring Jalen Brown—are they true Eastern contenders?
52:49–1:02:03