What's next for James Harden & Kyrie Irving?! 👀

So Kyrie Irving is one of the players that so many around the league are keeping their eyes on as free agency opens in just under 2 hours and Tim McMahon you were front and center for Kyrie Irving's tenure in Dallas here joining us now what is the expectation surrounding Kyrie Irving when free agency opens. The Mavericks remain optimistic that that tenure in Dallas will continue from Mark Cuban to Nico Harrison Jason kid on down the line. They've made a priority to try to continue building and maintaining that relationship with Kyrie but these are delicate negotiations for the simple fact that the Mavericks want to respect Kyrie they want to give him an offer that reflects his his value his status but they also need to do what's best in terms of building out the rest of the roster part of that means protecting that full mid-level exception they cannot give him the full max and have that twelve point four million dollar mid-level exception so there's a little bit of give and take there but you know as as Ramona and Wendy and others have pointed out there is not a clear market for Kyrie in terms of other realistic alternatives he can meet with the suns but is he going to take the minimum to go there no lie at the Mavericks aren't going to be motivated to cooperate on signing trades with anybody now the one potential scenario is if the Rockets are not successful with their plan a which is Fred Bamblee they could pivot to Kyrie Irving they do have cap space to to put a max offer on the table there but even that contingency plan I'm not sure that's something the Rockets would move forward with for the same reason they decided that let's hold off on going after James Harden they want to get a Fred Bamblee type in there to be a leader for this young core that they've acquired over the previous few years so all that being said it looks like Kyrie Irving will ultimately be back in Dallas so let's just say though Tim let's just say Kyrie Irving goes elsewhere wherever that may be what would the ramifications ramifications be for Dallas obviously that would be a massive blow to the Mavericks and it would look it's bad business for two straight summers your second leading scorer leaves the franchise and I if it's a sign and trade type of scenario which again the Mavericks don't want to but hypothetically let's say they're pushed to a point where cooperating with that would make sense. They could at least recoup some assets. But again, the the full belief and confidence within the Mavericks organization is that they will achieve their top priority of keeping Kyrie Irving. This isn't like Jalen Brunson last year where we knew going into this. Hey, the Knicks have moved money around. They're getting Jalen Brunson. There's not a clear alternative for Kyrie Irving. So, you know that worst case scenario is something the Mavericks don't believe that they will have to deal with again this summer. Tim. Thank you. This is a situation that we are certainly going to continue to keep an eye on but it's not just Kyrie Irving. It's also his former teammate that is looking at potentially suiting up for a third team in the last three years and that's in James Harden. So Brian wind horse joins us. Once again, Brian help us read the tea leaves here. What do you expect could be next for James Harden now that he is opted into his deal, but we know that he wants to go elsewhere. Let's keep in mind Malika that it's James Harden wanting to work with the 76ers. They want to come together where James Harden expresses what he would like and the Sixers try to find something that they can move forward with and remain championship-level contenders. What James Harden really would like from what I am told is to go back home to Los Angeles where he is from and play with the Clippers and the Clippers realize this too and began preparing for this type of scenario 24 to 48 hours ago. They have a menu of things that they can offer for him. They can offer expiring contracts. They can offer a couple of first-round draft picks. They can offer pick swaps. They can offer players that are under contract that might be more suited to be starter-level players. It comes down to what exactly Philadelphia wants and from Philadelphia standpoint, they have to decide something very important Malika whether or not they want to take a trade right now and hold the assets those first-round picks potentially or those players and then try to go get another player later. Maybe a guy like I don't know Dame Lillard who may or may not become available in the short term or medium term or whether they want to do a trade to complete their roster. Now, that is some of the things that they're going through. Now one thing I'll last thing. I'll say remember that Daryl Morey is very patient. He waited six months to trade Ben Simmons two years ago when there was a stalemate and he ended up winning that trade big time getting James Harden. So keep that in mind. I think that it could go long, but I also think if certain things fall the right way, we could see something happened all to Lisa Park. Since you are Houston area resident here. I'll start with you. Is there a team that you have your eye on this free agency? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I do. It's the Milwaukee books. Oh, it's the Milwaukee books because Chris Millerton and Brooke Lopez means so much to that franchise. And I believe bringing those two guys back is very important because we have to ask ourselves who won the MVP this year. Joel and be a sinner who won the finals MVP in the championship, a sinner and Yolkage. And when I look at the market for free agents, I'm looking at a guy that reminds me a lot of myself right now looking in this camera. I can't and that's Brooke Lopez. He's the most attractive person on the market right now because the center position must be filled by a lot of teams. They especially the teams that are knocking at the door. You're competing for a championship. So when I look at the Milwaukee books, yes, it's a must for them to sign back Chris Millerton, but they can not lose Brooke Lopez and create. Did you say eye candy, bro? You heard what I said? Look at me. Yeah. Oh, the way, by the way, which team do you have your eye on? They're still talking over there. I know. I did. Sometimes you just have to let him. I was Milwaukee was on my short list perk. Milwaukee's on my short list, but I'm going to give you a duh. And the duh is the Portland Trailblazers because this is opening day in free age. It's only in Daniel low-hanging fruit fine. Move on. I want to hear what you have to say about that. Go ahead, Zach. The whole league is watching Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is a player that's worth just waiting with bated breath to see where he goes. He is a player who could tilt the championship picture by himself next year. You don't think the heat are waiting. Everyone in the league is waiting. What is Portland do? They had a strange decision today, waving. One of the young players trended Watford. What does that mean? Do the wind horse thing. So I just watched in Portland for the team. They don't make an angry face. My answer is Philadelphia. I'm looking to see what you're going to do. But I'm just Zach. I'm just saying Zach. We've been talking about Dane for the last three and a half or years. They just had a meet. He's waiting to see it out. Brooke Lopez is the eye candy. We're going to keep talking about about the eye candy. I did think that Brooke Lopez had one of the best answers on this show that I've ever heard in a non-answer of where he wants to go. What he wants to do in free agency when he said he wants to go to Seattle or Montreal or it was it was impeccable. I do know that been seriously though. You do have your eyes on Philadelphia. What's the ideal situation? Well, I said this. Well, listen to you guys talking. I agree 100% about Tyrus Maxey, but it was it's funny to see how you lose Doc Rivers because James Harden wasn't happy with how he was used. Sure. And now he gets his money and he's on the way out. So now you're bringing in, you know, you're going to move him and you're going to bring in some talent. But what does that say about Maxie? And then I'm also interested in what happens with Tobias Harris. And I go back to thinking Joel Embiid. How did he feel about Doc Rivers being moved? Which I thought he was pretty happy with, you know, in general. And now we're not talking about what what he wants. So I think at the end of the day, Joel Embiid plays a huge role in this and what he wants and what players he's interested. Hey, go get this guy. Go get that guy bringing in because I think I can play with him and we can win together. But Maxie still has to be on that. Well, in a sense, it's a perpetual audition, right? Can you keep these stars? Can you keep a star like Joel Embiid happy and feeling like he has a chance to win and whoever they put around him that that's going to be important and all that. Who are you looking at? Rich? Well, it's unfortunate because I had something ready and it was the Kings and they spent all their money. They spent all their money on what was the same really bad Harrison Barnes yesterday. What did I say about the King? I said, don't forget about the Kings are the Kings. Go ahead. That's what I was going to talk about. What I want to talk about with the Sacramento Kings is will they make that jump? So are they going to be able to add somebody? Are they going to be able? Are they going to be able to? Well, I think they have adults on their team. But for me in free agency, what is it that you add again? I will go back. I will go back to the Denver Nuggets. They added the two, two most perfect pieces in Bruce Brown and KCP to me. So if you can just add one or two pieces to your team and again, I like that. They re-signed Harrison Barnes. So some of their cap space is gone. But if they're able to sign one or two, maybe they can actually make a run in that Western Conference. We saw they were the most consistent team all year last year in the Western Conference outside of Denver. And so for me to see that young team may continue to make a group. I think they need to ask them. They're young and the Denver Nuggets had to go through growing. That's why I'm watching them closely in free agency. They don't have to add nothing right now. Why does he get to sit at the end of the table and poo-poo all our answers? How do you mean poo-poo? By the way, I saw Morris Chestnut last weekend and he was offended that you compared yourself to him. Oh my goodness. All right. So Adrian Woodruff started this block gentlemen. Yeah, that was nice. You can pick that name drop off the floor. Adrian Woodruff started this block Zach and Vince because there's the only two people I'm going to talk to. Yeah, the adults of the room right now Zach by talking about the Houston Rockets and just how much space they have to potentially go after a player like Fred Van Vliet. What do you expect them? I expect them to be aggressive because they're under a clear directive to try to get better next season to try to just make progress in terms of wins in that they are this sort of free agency. Scary guy that all the teams are all the agents are using for leverage and all that they could do anything they want. But Van Vliet is particularly interesting because Toronto is a good team. If he leaves, they don't really have another point guard unless they're ready to turn the offense over to Scottie Barnes, which maybe they are. But that is a short-term step back for the Raptors. And if there is a short-term step back for the Raptors, what happens to Yaka Pirtle? What happens to Pascal Siakam? What happens to OG and Anobi? What are the domino effects of a potentially the only point guard organizer on their team leaving in free agency. So that's why that is such an interesting domino. It's that it hits a lot of other ones. It could go in different directions. You can see the teams on your screen right now with the most cap space. The Rockets leading the way, followed by the San Antonio. That's why they were so trash last year. Yes. You got that much money to spend. You weren't, you did not feel the team. That was respectable. Now they got a lot of head coach and they got a lot of young talent. We're big fans of Alper and Shangoon in this building.