Wizards President on the No. 1 Pick, Wemby & the Spurs Bounce Back, Plus Future Lottery Pick Nate Ament

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We have Michael Winger, who is president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. They won the lottery. I was in there and we're going to sit down and talk about his team. So that's going to be a lot of fun and a lottery pick out of Tennessee. Nate Aiman, 6'10", measured great. Huge week for him on the measurements, not a pun. We've got life advice as well as my recap of the spurs, taking control of the series and winning game five at home. The NBA Playoffs are here and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, brings excitement to every game day, the whole postseason. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoffs, stars turn it up round by round and DraftKings turns it up with them from the first round all the way to the finals. Bet player props, bet live from the opening tip to the final possession. 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A lot to get to today, but we'll start in San Antonio with the spurs and fattig win against the Timberwolves. When I've watched this series, I think you'd probably agree when the two teams are right, when there's nothing weird going on, shot variants or absurd spikes or just kind of the wimpy thing not being around for game four. When the two teams are at what they're supposed to be, there's a significant gap between the two teams, which also speaks to the regular season. Spurs are going to move on in this series. I think it's credit to Minnesota with the different challenges they've had through the playoffs. I mean, Ant's had some incredible moments and then you have last night where part of it's defensive stuff, part of it's maybe not getting him involved in different ways, but Ant can't have five shots in the first half of game five. So we'll get to that a little bit. But really, this game is about Wimpy and Yama coming back and 16 points under six minutes. And look, I don't know if it's him being ejected in game four, coming home. I read all the stories I heard about the quotes after the fact. I think it's kind of like a nice storytelling version of some of this stuff where we can be a little too dramatic with it where it's like, well, he needed to prove or whatever. But those first six minutes, this is kind of who he is now, folks. He is the most fun watch in the NBA at this point. This has replaced the Steph quarter where he's going for 20 and he's taking tougher and tougher shots and he knows he's feeling it. He's almost wondering, well, like, what can he pull off? Those peak Steph moments that have brought us so much joy as basketball fans. I think Ant's in that conversation because it's a wing with his attitude and the ferocity with what he plays with when he just starts really cooking, which we've already seen in this series. There's other players that are the best players in this league, obviously with SGA, likely winning the MVP. He gets dinged for not having enough aura. Tatum's probably in the not having enough aura category as well. Luca, it depends. Like when he's just going off and it's absurd shot making and no one can ever do anything with him. It is a lot of fun, but I also think there's enough detractors that don't necessarily appreciate it because of the other nights where he can be kind of a tough watch at times. But if you're talking about the unfair O.K.C. stuff of like, yeah, they win. They're eight and no of the playoffs. They're missing their second slash third best player. They have 13 guys that can play and they can trust every single one of them. It feels boring. Look, that doesn't feel entirely fair, but I get how we get there with it. And then on the other side, you have Wimbin Yamada doing the stuff that he did last night. I don't think there again, I don't think there's anything more fun than what he's doing. He had an offensive play on Rudy Govera where Rudy was lost. He like turned around the wrong way. There was a couple plays like this where it kind of reminds you of like a dad playing with a bunch of neighborhood kids in the driveway where he's just doing stupid shit and making all the kids around him look dumb. The difference is this guy doing this in his third year in an NBA playoff game. He had a block on Shannon Jr. in the second half where you can't believe he blocked it and then they show the replay and he's like looking up at the ball off of the release and then tips it with his fingers. My favorite play was a play that didn't even count. They're in transition and the first thing you think of, especially with all these great perimeter players around Wemby is here he is bringing it up, which we know he brings it up, right? But there's still an instinct for any of us that have grown up and loving basketball, watching as long as I have. We're like, get it to a guard, get it to a guard. And then you're like, oh, that's right. He doesn't have to get it to a guard. Not only does he not have to get it to a guard, he pulls a smitty dribble on Jade McDaniels. Unfortunately, that's where he hit him in the face with the offhand. So it was called an offensive foul, but that was going to end up being like him getting loose at seven foot four, almost 40 feet away from the basket in transition with a really good defensive player flying around him. And he shakes free from him with a hesitation dribble where it looks like he's going to spin the other way and then goes right into the paint. And it was so loud, he celebrated the whole thing. I don't care the play didn't count. That was just more to the enjoyment of what this guy is when he's absolutely cooking. Sure, he can be a little clunky at times, you know, without some of it, just because there's so much body there, where if you get into them low, you know, it's just harder for him to fight through against like certain guys, but it hasn't been the case against Randall and Jade McDaniels. I thought San Antonio did an awesome job last night with that two man game with Fox, where it's Fox against whoever is defending him, usually Jade McDaniels. And then if they work it, where they get Wemby in a roll and he's pinning Jade McDaniels down underneath and then Fox can still go if it's Randall or if it's Rudy. I thought Fox had some really nice moments last night, but this play in particular, just real simple two man game with those guys, Fox can take it to one side or the other and then throw it back to the lob or he's clear if he has a step. But the stuff I like the most is Wemby just pinning McDaniels into the restricted area and getting the catch. And McDaniels, if he can't stop, is just going to foul him every single time. And you could see McDaniels was getting frustrated the entire game. What else did I like? They talked about a line in the sand being drawn after game four. And this was the post game stuff. So basically Mitch Johnson had said line in the sand felt like the guys tonight drew a line in the sand and that's in response to the game four loss and the things that happened last night in game five. A 14-2 run happened in this game to start the second half for Minnesota. So this game gets to 61 apiece. San Antonio was one of 13 during this stretch. I think it was a carry over the close of the first half where you're like, hey, the score isn't as bad as maybe it should be. I think San Antonio would have been up 30 earlier if they were just average during this stretch, but they missed 12 or 13 shots. And I'd say going back and looking at it, like a lot of the shots are pretty good. They just, you know, like a lot of teams do, they had kind of a bad stretch while Minnesota was getting back into this thing. And Champagny hits a three and then it's castle, castle, castle. The display of what this guy put together was just all time stuff. I'm not going to say like, you know, when he's in the hall of fame that they'll run this video. It feels a little early for that. But the intensity, you know, some of the castle drives, I don't always necessarily love, but with the castle like overall, hey, good versus bad, the good is so much more than the bad when he can maybe get an offensive foul or he just completely gets stopped. But even when he gets stopped, he still like maintains all of his balance on one foot. And then everybody else, defensively, he's like either gone up and down or they're out of the play. And then he just makes this super easy layup where it's just about him going like fast, not to slow, but fast to an absolute stop. But he's going to dunk, he's going to spin move in this, and then he's going to pull up. So he goes for six straight points after the Champagny three. And that's the game. That's the game. It was basically over after that. There were a bunch of plays in this game too, where if you're thinking about two rookies in Harper, who is now already looking like one of the best finishers in the league, this guy is going to be really, really special man. So he was asking me for the show. He's like, would you take Dylan Harper number one over anyone else in the 26 NBA drive class? And honestly, I'm such a fan of like, I've just seen it. I've seen what he's done in these playoffs, like taking over and closing out Portland in his first ever playoff series in one of those games, matching scoot Henderson's intensity and winning the scoot battle. Unfortunately for us scoot fans out there, but it happened and it was real. You're like, yeah, okay, your third ever playoff game as an NBA rookie, and you're going to be the calming force and you're going to make every single shot and make all the right decisions. I can't unsee any of that stuff. So I would go, yeah, I'll take Harper right now. If you were Washington and said, hey, would you, would you give them the number one pick for Dylan Harper? You would, you would do it. I don't even know that it really should be that much of a debate unless you just think like, hey, everybody's sleeping on Peterson, which may actually be happening right now. But you've got Keldon Johnson, who looks like, I don't know what his core workout is. He is beasting guys, you know, he'll get Randall with him one on one, usually likes to come in from the corner. So he's got a little momentum. And these guys cannot stop his momentum. He's smaller than these players, but he is stronger than these players. Even these guys that are like, like Randall's not a small dude. I think there was a Nasreed play where he put him under the basket and he's just going up and finishing against these guys. So it's great to see that. Harper again finishes against anybody. Castle just goes right at dudes. And even Carter Bryant, there was a play where he just smashed into Randall. And I'm glad they didn't call it because it was like two guys just being physical. And Carter's like, I'm not having this. There was a play in game four where Terrence Shannon looked like he was going to, I don't know what he was going to do to him, but he was like, not feeling it. Bitch may have been used. I'm not sure. And Carter Bryant just kind of looked back at him and laughed. This is again, two rookies, a second year player and again, Keldon, who's been around for a little while, hanging on top of all the other players hanging with, you know, whatever you want to say about Minnesota, we know this is that they are physical, they are strong, they're not afraid. And the San Antonio group is like completely like just they're not intimidated by them whatsoever. The ant five field goal attempts in the first half, you know, we can sit here and say, Hey, it can't happen. It was a little reminiscent of that Western Conference finals game last year against O.K. C, where you're like, Hey, you know, ant, you've got to be more aggressive. You're going to take more shots, but it was one of those deals where it's like, well, if he's running into a double every single time, like, what do you want to do? There was plays last night where two are on him with the ball. And then Wemby's lurking behind not playing anybody. And then that gets into the Rudy Goverry discussion because Rudy basically, Finch goes small in the fourth quarter, Rudy plays 209. And I was waiting for that. I was waiting for it last night to go, when is he going to pull the plug on Rudy hoping just to put five offensive players out there? Because when Rudy, you know, that's why he made such a big deal about his two dunks, well, the layup and then a dunk and end one, his five points to close out game four, it's like, Hey, they actually passed to him. And then last night was another reminder of why usually they don't pass to him. So I don't, we'll talk about the Rudy thing afterwards, because I think there's like a lot of victory lapping in and I don't want to turn that into this because like, look, they had plenty of issues. Minnesota had issues last night, shot selection, I don't think was great. There may be something about trying to get ant coming up from the baseline or getting him off the ball instead of him just inviting himself into the trap all these times. But like, dude, it's ridiculous. Like when you're sitting there and it's ant, so I'm not knocking them for not having enough shot attempts. If you're him and you're facing two per unit of players in a double team, and then Wemby is 10 feet behind them, like, what the fuck are you supposed to do? So look, this series, I didn't even know that it was going to go six. But Wemby right now, I would rather watch him than any other player in the NBA. I usually don't get excited about loyalty programs. They promise big rewards. Then it's like, you actually have to eat 48 pizzas to get one free. Wow. So when I heard about the Shell Fuel Rewards program, I was skeptical. Shocking, I know me skeptical. But here's the thing, it's actually kind of annoyingly practical. You're already getting gas. You already grab and take now. You already buying snacks you definitely didn't need, but absolutely deserve. With Shell Fuel Rewards, you just get rewarded for that. And not in a fake point you'll never use way. It's actually savings on gas. And the part that got me, the savings stack. So it's not like one sad little discount. It's you fill up, you eat, you shop, and it all piles up into real savings at the pump. Joining takes less than three minutes in the Shell app, and you'll save on every fill after that, literally every single one. Join the Shell Fuel Rewards program and save. We have Michael Winger in studio from the Wizards, president of, it's a massive title. You have a big title. It's monumental basketball. It's a bloated title. Yeah. All right, let's go through lottery day. You've got a great chance at the number one pick. It's my first time and probably last time ever in the drawing room. I'm glad I got the experience. It's nice to see you there. Yeah, I know. You were focused, but not rattled at all. But take me through, is your stomach a mess? Are you anxious? Are you totally calm? You're like, hey, I have no control over this, so it doesn't matter. What did you actually feel like? Because you seemed stoic prior to and during. It was my first experience in the room. And so part of me was just sort of consuming the environment, trying to figure out who was in the room, what folks' purpose was in the room, making sure that I was saying hi to the people that I knew, giving hugs to the people that I wanted to give a hug to. But then once Byron started reading off the instructions, he asked everybody to take a seat and he starts reading the instructions. Yeah, I had the bubble guts a little bit. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm sitting here. You have this giant worksheet of lottery ball odds in front of you. A thousand scenarios. Yeah, right, exactly. A thousand scenarios. We had the first 140 of them. And so I'm quickly trying to process in my head, okay, what numbers do I need to see come up first? And the inverse, what numbers, if I see them, are going to piss me off. And so the first number was four. Okay, that's a low number. I like low numbers. Second number was two. It's like, oh, I'll be damned. That's another low number. So this is good. And then when the one came up, I knew we had it because we had every one, two, four combination. And I was just sort of stunned for a minute. And I remember telling myself the entire time, whatever happens, just don't don't overreact. Don't overreact. If it doesn't go your way, don't overreact. If it goes your way, just don't overreact. But the gentleman sitting next to me from Indiana Ted, he tapped me. And so like he and I both knew that we'd gotten, not we, that the wizards had gotten the pick. And then Byron called out the last number 13. And I just, the first thing I thought to myself was, I just wish I could be around my group right now to like celebrate this moment. Because it really is an absolute buzzkill to be in that room for the next hour, not be able to call your owner, not being able to call your wife, like not be able to like, you can't celebrate with your players, your GM, like nobody. And so, and you don't get to, you don't get to escape fast enough to get to them during their moment of elation. And so you're sort of like, rounding third when it was the home run that won it, and like everybody's already celebrating. It's like, I sort of want to be in the pile too. And you just can't get to the pile fast enough. That was a great explanation, because it was something I thought about, like this thing that's so important, it changes kind of the outlook for a franchise. And then it's like, now I can't tell my own. Yeah, you can't tell anybody. I can't. You know, I mean, there's a lot of folks in the room, guys like, we're still going to bug me for an hour straight. Oh, that didn't do anything. But you know, I mean, like, take you for example, right? Came over, gave me a hug, you know, congratulations. And that means something. But you don't, you don't share the same joy because like you move on to your next thing. This is our next thing. It's like, this is our thing. And so there's nobody else in that room who shares that with me like, okay, we've got the first pick in really amazing draft. And what the hell are we going to do with it? Right. And you're also sitting next to somebody who's probably devastated. He's devastated. There's somebody else who I'm not going to name, but I hadn't really ever known, but we have a mutual friend and I went over like an hour after that we were just before they were about to let us all out. Yeah. And I was like, Hey, you know, and I just went, I was going to say hi. And I'm sure you said, but he was, it was like I was invisible. He was still so upset about what had happened, but it wasn't, that was a very subdued room in general, like on the highs and lows, but it was, you could tell with this one person, it was just, I know you're talking about her. Yes, I felt the same. Yeah. And I was, it was like I was invisible. You're just kind of looking through me and it's changes the course of franchises. So, so here you are. I'm trying to figure out a way for you not to be able to stonewall me on this. But then I'm also, I think anticipating your answer. Well, let's see how good of a stonewaller I am. How many players are in play for number one? We can only draft one. True. Yeah, they haven't changed that rule. I think that there are three or four players in play. I think that by the time we get to, I would imagine that within the next few weeks, that will change. And the reason I say that is because you don't prepare to have number one. And so all of the work that you're putting in, like in our case, when the regular season ended, we knew that our floor was five. And so you have to find five guys that you can fall in love with. And as soon as the regular season ends, I mean, quite frankly, even before that, you start to study those guys. And it's easy to fall in love with guys who are really good basketball players and really good people. And there's a good handful of those guys at the top of the draft. And so like it's easy to fall in love with the kid that you think is probably available at five. It's easy to fall in love with the kid that you think is probably available at four. And so like so far, those are the kids that we've fallen in love with. It's like, we like that group. We like that group a lot, but the three, four, five group. Now that we get to prepare for one, we've got different work to do. And I imagine that over the course of the next handful of weeks, we'll probably fall in love with two or maybe one player who will be the guy. But as of right now, having prepared for five, there's five guys we love. But over the course of the next few weeks, well, I mean, one, we have no choice but to whittle it down. But now we get to focus on one, which is not something you do when you only have a 14% chance of getting it. You focus on the thing that you're most likely to get. You're most likely to get, which is five. I don't feel stonewall at all. That was thorough. And that was terrific. I do have follow ups, but here's a quick one. Does fit need break the tie? I don't know that there would ever be a tie. That's not, and I don't mean that with respect to this particular draft, because it is very top it. Well, it's very deep. But even the guys at the top, like there's a lot of competition among those guys. I don't think that you ever get to a point where there's a tie. I think that you get to a point where like your player choosers, they have figured out some some kind of way to distinguish between player A and player B, such that there there isn't a tie, so to speak. Fit could be a thing. Now, I'll give you an example, like, let's just say hypothetically, the top two players, the top three players in this draft, two of them were purely centers. We've got Alex R, who we're in love with, and we think is going to be the forever wizard and a really, really great player. Probably doesn't make a ton of sense for us to draft a five at that with like the top pick, particularly if there's somebody else at a different position who is neck and neck. That might be a scenario where we let Fit break the tie. Maybe, but like in this draft, we don't really have that. We don't have that problem. Because I think your situation is incredibly unique, because there's a bunch of young players I really like, you know, and SAR would be one of them. I mean, I could just list a ton of them here, but then there's also a philosophical pivot with where the franchise is at with the trade, trade, and the AD trade. So normally a team that's picking this high that has the kind of regular season record, I would normally be like, hey, don't worry about Fit, don't worry about that. That's where you can make mistakes when you're not a very good team. But the hope would be with those two players healthy, and then the support of all the younger players around them is like, hey, this should be a team fighting for a playoff spot in the East. So before I kind of go down that road, I want to go back to that decision. Was it a philosophical pivot? Was it the pricing of these two guys that have made all star teams? What went into, hey, we need to do something different midseason? So I think I and we think of things sort of in the form of a pie chart, you've got, you know, all of these different slices of a pie that lead to a decision. And so various different slices of that pie were probably the biggest slice of the pie was our young players sort of showed us on the floor that they were ready to play in more competitive basketball games. I think that we had exhausted sort of this never mind wins and losses, let's go try to develop these guys, let's give these guys a ton of minutes, let them play through their mistakes, let them play through repeat mistakes. And you're like not bang them over the head with a loss. And so we did that for two years with Alex and three years with with Bilal, two years with Alex, Kebub, one year with Trey Johnson. But we also wanted to see sort of when we draft guys, particularly in the first round, I shouldn't even say first round, when we draft guys that we believe in, we want to give them an opportunity to show what they could do. Like we see them in practice every day. But your opponent in practice is your teammate who knows what you're doing. Like they're just there are no secrets in practice. And so it's just a much harder environment to evaluate a player. And so throughout the course of this last season, like we wanted to give will Riley run, we wanted to give Jumer Watkins run like we wanted to see what these guys could do. But once we were getting up toward the trade deadline, our group sort of, you know, we meet all the know the time. We were watching these guys are like, like Alex got a lot better. And Kishan got a lot better. And Bob got a lot better. Like maybe it's time to maybe it's time to roll the ball out and being considerably more competitive games. Okay, so we make that decision. Then it is, well, we've got basically two avenues to add proven talent draft and free agency. You look at the prospect of you look at the free agent prospects for the 26 off season. And we had a ton of cap space at the time we were scheduled to have like 85 million in room. It was our opinion that Trey was the best free agent on the board. And we decided internally, okay, like if this is the best free agent, like he fits with us, he he would really help our young players get better, he'd help us being competitive games. Let's you know, like, let's put in a call see if this is even worth the conversation. I mean, to Atlanta. See if they have plans to retain him, whatever the case may be. And we immediately got into really friendly professional conversations at the Hawks that escalated quickly, and we end up trading for Trey young. And then so once we got Trey, it became our I don't want to say our philosophy because our philosophy has been the same from day one. But our competitive approach changed. And we knew that we would be some degree of good with Trey young. And even if it was just all of our young guys. But you're still three weeks away from the trade deadlines, you're talking to every team. And a friend of mine was was managing Dallas. And so, you know, we sort of danced around a deal a little bit like, what are you thinking, what are you doing? And then it became sort of apparent that they would entertain the conversation. And so internally, we decided, Oh, hell, we've already, we've already gotten Trey young. Like, what if we paired him with, you know, one of the best picks in the league, one of the best picks of all time. And we just sort of, we went with it. It was, you know, the price point was right for us. Neither player displaced, sort of like a proven player in that position. And we knew that whatever happens at the draft, like whoever we draft is going to be able to fit between T. Y. And a D. And Alex, and like everything else is like, these guys got to compete for the minutes. And so we're very fortunate to have those guys. Because I think there was a time like when the first thing happened with Trey, I went, Okay, you know, look, it's the pieces going out in his resume. And I also think like sometimes even, even those on the outside, like maybe be critical of some players, really, you know how hard it is to be what he's been, do you know how hard it is to be like what AD has been at that time. And like, there's this gap that I think that you guys understand every single day. And it's like, we're trying to if you don't have anyone that's kind of in that level, you're trying desperately to figure out a way to do it. And so when the deal happened, I was like, God, there's all these young guys I like, this is the trade deal, the trade deal, the first trade deal. Because I was like, All right. Like, you know, there's certainly in my experience watching them, I'm like, Hey, the high side is great. The low side, there's some stuff that I found sort of frustrating. And then I thought, Okay, does his presence open up everything for these guys to feel more free? Or does it potentially like get in the way of he decides like, Hey, I'm just going to take every single shot. And then it's everybody kind of because I think that happened at times with Atlanta. So when it happened, I didn't get a chance to ask you the question. But I guess I'm asking it now is like, what are you discussing on how he impacts the development of all of these resources that you put into all these young players around him? Because, you know, I could probably guess a couple different answers on it. But I'm curious how you play that out leading up to the decision to do it. Well, there's two sides of the floor. And so offensively, he's an absolute genius. I mean, he is a savant with the basketball in his hands. He's a playmaker, he's a shooter, he can create for others, he can create for himself. Up until that point, or I should say really up until the time that we can get him on the floor sustainably healthy, other players on the floor have had to create for themselves and others. And we don't have a pure natural playmaker like, well, I was gonna say like Trey young, but like Trey doesn't really exist anyway. We struggle offensively to create, because we don't have somebody as naturally gifted as he is at creating something like he is an offensive engine. We lacked an offensive engine. We have great play finishers. We have great athletes, we have great guys who do something great, but we didn't have an offensive engine. And so what we felt was adding him as an offensive engine, he will create space for everybody else. He creates a lot of defensive movement. I mean, he's a float threat, he's a lob threat, he's a threat from three. Yeah, I mean, SAR should be. Yeah, but like, depending on how 80 and SAR would play next to each other anyway, but like, it's the best thing ever for a big. For sure. Right. And when Trey young has the ball in his hands, there's 10 defensive eyeballs on him. And if there's 10 defensive eyeballs on him, then hopefully somebody gets some space, hopefully somebody gets a split second to make a move. And that like, you can't replicate that with coaching with, with like, you know, designing a bunch of fancy plays, you just can't recreate what Trey young does. And so we felt very strongly that he would help our guys get open looks, whether at the rim in the corner pocket, it doesn't even matter. But also, having somebody on the floor that has been to multiple All-Star games who's played in the postseason, you know, we, we, we wanted that we wanted, we wanted somebody who could sort of like articulate what that what that requires in the regular season. And so that was partly why we and then on the offense or on the defensive end, like, I mean, he'll be the first to tell you like he's not he's not a humongous athlete. And so like, he gives up size on the defensive end. But he like, he'll play with effort, he'll play with he'll play with intelligence. And, you know, he talks defensively when he's in the position to talk. And so, but right, he's not a shop locker. And guys could potentially bully him where they need to bully him, like, bigger guys, huge guys. But that's okay, because that puts more pressure on Alex. And we don't mind the pressure on Alex. It puts more pressure on Bilal. That's fine. We want that pressure on those guys. So we're, you know, he's going to add a lot of value to us. And that's why we did the deal. Do you know who is going to be the center between Sarr and AD? Because we know AD feels about playing center. I would imagine, I would imagine Alex. I would imagine Alex. Right. But if AD says, you know, AD wants to play the four, I think. Well, that's been that's historically because I think there's a hope that like Sarr is sort of that. I mean, the best version of him is like, man, if you have this stretch five, you know, to me, that's like, if you're a GM, you go, what's the number of the one thing you want? I'd be like, hey, can I find a stretch five, he plays defense. It's why prosingus is going to get another contract of soft season. But I think that part of it is kind of really interesting, because, you know, it kind of depends on who provides the spacing more so than the preference. Well, yes, offensively, maybe. I would also submit that like AD is a special talent. And AD is a special guy. And if AD says, you know, like, I need a break from the five for, you know, a few minutes, BK is going to give him a break from the five for a few minutes. So we will, I mean, we will listen to Anthony. He says, you know, he's, he has a, he has a very loud vote in, in what happens on the court. Do you think these trades, I mean, it doesn't signal anything in the timeline, but I think it confirms something that I've felt for a while is like, you start a hoarding cap space, might be wasting your time. I think, I don't know that it's a waste of time. I think it's a, I think it's a high risk going into free agency with a tremendous amount of cap space in what could also be a limited free agent marketplace. And so that was part of our analysis that pie chart was okay, if we don't do this deal with trade, and then we don't subsequently do the second deal with AD, what are we doing with this cap space? Well, one, we're going to chase Tray-Yung and hope he comes. But what sure would be a whole hell lot easier to sign him in for agency if he's already got six months of experience with us, wouldn't it? So that's partly why we traded for him. But there's got to be guys in for agency that are willing to come. Right. And you don't know that. You don't know. Yeah. You don't know. And guys aren't really getting to for agency anymore. It's, it's like, if a player wants to be on his team, and a team wants him on that team, they pay him, like they extend him. And so it's just not, it's not as prevalent as it used to be. Like you used to be able to go into for agency with a bunch of cap room and, you know, have, you know, meetings lined up and talk to talk to stars and they just don't get there anymore. Is there any lesson along your stops with some of, I think the best basketball minds that you know, I think the philosophies can change just based on like the cap space thing is a really good example. But is there a moment or some kind of thing that you can actually share? Because there might be a strategy you don't want to share with us where you're like, Hey, this is just a great way of thinking about this game and prioritizing kind of the right things. Because I feel like all the guys I've gotten to know that do the job that you do, you know, some of it's very similar and very similar. And some of it's like fascinating and how different people can be on prioritizing, like, Hey, this is so hard. I think it's the hardest general manager job in American sports, because the math and if you don't have one of those guys, it doesn't really matter. But in your years of doing this, something that you've kind of stayed true to. It's a great question. A couple of things come to mind. One is probably I learned in Oklahoma City. Was the importance of vets around young players. The importance of the right vets around young players who have who have the right professional disposition, but are also unafraid to say what needs to be said, who've had the real life experiences to draw upon in order to say the thing that needs to be said, but who are also still very capable basketball players so that they aren't discounted by virtue of their age or their inability to perform. And so, we had Chris for a while. We had CG for a while. And those guys were outstanding. I mean, just absolutely freaking outstanding for us. And quite frankly, the hardest part of doing our trades was trading Chris and trading CJ. But I learned in Oklahoma City that you need guys like that around young players. You need guys like that to help. Give me a Chris story, because I love them. I don't have Chris stories because Chris stories stay in the locker room. I'll tell you one that I think is not that bad. So it's not like, well, I don't mean bad and like I'm not ashamed. But I was told when he got there, Billy was like, Hey, you know, it's sort of a weird dynamic. Which Chris, you talking about? I'm talking about Chris Paul. I'm talking about Chris Middleton. Oh, I don't have him ranked as high in my vet thing. So I that's that's and whenever I hear Chris, I think, I think I was not Oklahoma City with Chris. You were the Clippers. Yeah. All right. So I don't know. Are there any stories anyone told you about Chris? I'm just kidding. I mean, I've heard a lot of Chris Paul stories. That's really funny. All for the good. Well, I was like, wait a minute, was he in there in the 20 series? I'm like, I don't know. Because in a way I was like, I thought he was already with the Clippers. But then I was like, all right, we're already down this road. You can't tell us a Chris Middleton story. That's fine. CJ, though, stud. When he got to New Orleans, they were like, thank God. Wait, they New Orleans? Yeah, like, I mean, I'm talking when he first showed up there. I remember hearing again, I don't think I'm like sharing it, but it's just like, we've got an adult here. He's an adult. He's an adult. He's ultra high character. He takes unbelievable care of his body. He's really good. And it was like, hey, let's get to the 20 point per game score. If you don't trade him, I don't think you end up with a number one. No comment. I didn't mean it that way. I love that you said that because when I see some of these rebuilds, maybe it's guys with different backgrounds that come in. Maybe it's the media. It's like, everybody's supposed to be 18 or 21. And then it's like, okay, well, cool. So we're just going to lose a million games and we all understand what's happening here. But like, I think there's some teams that kind of doomed their young core guys by having horrible habits and getting their brains beaten for like three plus years. I agree with that. I've seen that. Yeah. And then one other thing that I recall learning, particularly in Oklahoma City, I mean, I'm sorry, with LA is all these guys are still writing the book on who they are, no matter how old they are. And whatever some guy did in, you know, Miami or Charlotte or Brooklyn, like it, you can, your environment can help a guy be different. Like, while leopards may or may not be able to change their spots, the perception of that leopard can change. And so, you know, we had some we had some rough dudes in LA from time to time. And they were unbelievably important to our organization. And like, whether or not people could change, I don't know the answer to that. But don't don't necessarily take the the the most widely held view of a guy and assume that that's the truth. And so really knowing a guy and giving him giving him grace, giving him a second chance or a third chance to be something different than maybe he's been before. I think it's really important. Wow, I've not heard that answer for I really like that because, yeah, I mean, I can sit here and yeah, I mean, I can sit here and here and then like he gets another chance and then you'll hear about it. It's like, no, no, we need we need this edge. Like I think every team needs like one guy. And you may not like the overall package, but in some of those spots, like you need somebody who's ready to fight back. I think that's like a standard roster rule that enough teams don't don't buy into. That's actually a good transit. I don't know how we'll finish up here quickly. But you know, there's a unique situation with Peterson here because of the year that he just had. And then I went back and watched the high school stuff. So I was like, Oh my God, a prolific like, Oh, all right. Now that you have the number one pick and he's in that conversation, like how different does the work go into trying to figure out what happened this past year at Kansas? It's the same work with everybody. It's just it's the same work with everybody. It's just he has his variables. The other guys have their variables, but you still have to dig into all this stuff. You have to dig into the health. You have to dig into the family. You have to dig into the competitiveness. The how good of a teammate is he when things aren't going well, how does he respond to that? How does he like to learn? Is he a visual learner? Is he an audio learner? Is he a hands on learner? We dig into every imaginable piece of information we can dig into to help us understand the athlete. We owe it to the organization. We have to the fans to dig into that info. But sure, on his list of things to dig into, the health. You have no choice. Like you saw it in real time at Kansas. But it's not at all unique. Every every every draft candidate has something that you need to study. There's just no perfect guy. That's not to say there's no perfect guy in this draft. There's just no perfect player. I'll close with this. You played I think 26 guys got into a game for you this year. I didn't know that. Yeah. It was actually lower than maybe I thought it was going to be. I did the math on it. So there's things I like about Bob. There's things I like about Bilal and then certain like fit stuff. Sar has all sorts of traits of like, Hey, this could be really good. And then Trey was one of my favorite players in the draft. I love Kishan. I mean, you've got, I thought Jameer had some minutes where I'm like, Okay, this is real. The Will Riley stuff at the end of the year. You even had Julian Reese have like an 18 and 20 game. I haven't even mentioned Kim more leaky black who I felt be like Sharif Sharif Cooper Yeah. Who I'll admit like after his, I was like, Oh, that's not going to work. And I don't want us to game in Detroit. I mean, he was outstanding and he was great for us all season long. It feels a bit like, I don't know if you'll answer like, do you have any idea? I mean, Tristan was terrific for us. Tristan. I mean, it just, it was, there were all these nights where like, Hey, if you were on, like, let me eat my eyes on the wizards for a few minutes. And I'd be like, Oh, that's guys playing his ass off. And I thought the Will stuff is really good to close here too, as I said. So there's a lot of guys I like and it kind of feels like in the best way ever in sports is like, Hey, you guys are going to have to figure out who's going to be who here. I mean, it really feels like going into this year, the normal one pick AD, obviously, Trey, it's like, Hey, those minutes are not going to be there for you anymore. Was that a conscious decision? Yeah. And in eggs interviews, big team meeting at the end of the season, BK said it will set it. In individual meetings, we've all said it, like, nothing is promised to anybody anymore. And so we promise to maintain a culture of development 100%. Like that's just in our DNA. That's who we are for the rest of time. For the rest of our time. Like it's a culture of improvement. It's a culture of player development, AD, the oldest guy in the team to the youngest guy in the team. But for the last handful of years, a lot of minutes have been just gifted to our draft the kids that we've selected in the draft. And we've let them work through mistakes and mistakes and mistakes. That's so when some of these these guys that you're talking about sort of showed us, like, we're some of these guys are ready to be in competitive games. Like you said at the top, we got to be in good games. In order for us to be in good games, we tolerate few mistakes. We have to play guys who know how to play. We have to play the guys that are playing well. And so by virtue of wanting to win more basketball games, our tolerance for mistakes, our tolerance for laziness will be either little or nothing. And so you're exactly right. These guys are going to have to fight for their minutes. And whoever's, you know, whoever steps up and camp and whoever steps up and practice and, you know, I mean, it's an NBA season. It's a very long NBA season. So guys are going to get hurt. But it's no more gifts. And I love that because I like our group is ridiculously competitive. I mean, almost comically competitive, you just watch these guys in practice, like, she's like, is there anything they don't compete at right? Like first to the parking spot. Like, come on, like who cares? But it will be competitive. It'll be a really competitive camp. It'll be a really competitive early start to the season. But to your point, it's like, if you want to win, that's NBA basketball. You have to compete. Did you keep the four ping pong balls? I can't answer that question. I have secrets, I can't tell. I look, I think you were very, very helpful in this. Did you, if you were dropped out of the top four, would you have come on the show? Yeah, I would have. You're the man. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate you having me. Have fun doing all the homework, man. Good seeing you again. Good seeing you. We have a lottery pick in studio. I'm going to let him introduce himself here. Because it seems like I've seen your name pronounced a million different ways and I'm already starting to worry about it. I think I do know what it is, but why don't we just keep it? I think it's amen. Correct. My name is Nate Amant from the University of Tennessee. Now I actually pronounced it wrong. My dad saw an interview, my first ever interview I pronounced it wrong. I said, Nate, amen. And he let me hear it. He said, Moomin, what the hell are you doing, man? So now I say it correctly. Well, that's, I can imagine a dad being like, what are you doing here? Yeah, I just think it's one of those things. It's like you're going to get it right before you come in. Thanks for doing this. How have these last couple of days been for you as you've been here for a while? Good. A little hectic, but just blessed, honored, and grateful for the opportunity. The great thing is, is the reaction to when you measure really well as if you're also supposed to be surprised. You realize how ridiculous that is, like, hey, great job on the measurements. You're like, I was actually pretty aware how tall I was. Yeah, it wasn't really surprised to me, to be honest. I've been living in this body for a little bit now. So There was no, you're not still growing. I think I might be, I'm trying to get some facial hair. So until I get that, until I get that, I think I'm still growing. How many interviews have you done? I've done, today was my first day at it for today. I got seven tomorrow, then two on Thursday. What do you, what will you remember the most, I think, from the interview process today? Man, I mean, they just, they used to be grilling you. You just sit down, they grill you, watch some film, watch some bad clips, some good clips. I don't know. I mean, first ever job interview is pretty good. I mean, pretty high level job, I think. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, they don't let everybody apply for these jobs. That's a good part of you're already here. I do want to ask you this just because of like the NIL and how much has changed things. What was realistic about you potentially going back to Tennessee? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was a very real conversation. Really? Yeah, I mean, I think you'd be stupid not to, you know, consider every option. And I mean, I think I still left a little bit on the table with my college performers. I think it's, could have done a lot more. And yeah, I mean, we're just, you know, waiting to hear back feedback from the, you know, the teams and lottery and see what's going on. But I think we got ourselves in a pretty good position. So just kind of made sense, you know, tend to the draft. What did you like about your freshman year? I loved a lot of it. I mean, my teammates for the most part, like, they were just the best team it's going to have. Also, just the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and in and of itself, things like the best, not only campus university, but just like the best city, most like, it's grown super fast and there's so much to do there. But yeah, I mean, the fans were great. Everything was great. Coach Barnes gave me hell for the whole year, but it was, it was one of the best years of my life for sure. When I was 16, I went to his camp in Providence. Yeah, he was the worst. I hated him so much. Now, granted, he wasn't super locked in, you know, maybe I was 511 then wing from Martha's Vineyard. So I wasn't necessarily on PC's radar, but I remember he spoke to us and I didn't like him before and then he spoke to us and I liked him even less afterwards. And I'll never forget, he like looked at 200 of us and there were some real dudes. Like there was guys that were going to play D1 and some of the games we were playing in, but he was like, I can beat every single one of you one-on-one. And guys were kind of looking at each other and we were like, what? You know, it was kind of crazy as soon as I got here, I met one of his old friends and he was like, hey, give Rick a call for me. I know he makes you guys play defense, but when he played, he never played any type of defense. So I'm going to give him a call and I'm here for sure. Well, it was nuts because like there were some real like, you know, New York kids there and you know, that's the cool thing about a camp, especially like when you're from this place, I can't even call where I'm from at like a suburbs and island completely isolated from everything. So there wasn't a ton of run. But I remember like Rick kept giving this speech over and over and over again. And then there were some guys in the city that were just like, we were sitting in this hot Providence summer day on a court, our asses are back hurt, like even teenagers, I'm like, I'm cramping. This is so bad. And then guys started like saying stuff. And they're like, shut the fuck up. You know, even kind of like look around because you couldn't figure out of like the 200 kids. And then he picked a dude. He was like, all right, he's like, I'm going to prove it right now. I can beat any one of you. And he picked a guy with seriously like with old school Rex Bexon was one of the least athletic looking dudes there. And then you like put him in the blender and started posting them up and killed them. And guys were like, you this is who you picked to prove the point. Like even as high school kids, we didn't believe it. The point is, is that I brought it up to Rick once and I didn't get as in detail as I just did here. And he kind of was like, yeah, I was kind of messed up back then. And now I think you guys know that he's a hard coach, but that it seems like he's mellowed on a way where he's getting guys in still. And it feels like the players like him more because I think in Providence, they hated him. 100%. He tells us, I mean, we're in a film, film station one time and our film stations are super long, but like towards the end, he was just telling us like, how good we have it, because like when he was at Texas in Providence, he said he treated his players like dogs. Like he would just, he would run him to have five hour practices, run him however he wanted to talk to him, however he wanted to, but he definitely showed out a lot for sure. But that also just speaks to how crazy he probably was when he's at Texas in Providence. Yeah. For to get a guy, because I still think college basketball coaches are 10 times crazier than college football coaches. People are always like, no, football, football, fine. I'm like, you don't understand. Like the craziest college basketball coach is still crazier than the top football guy, again, an opinion, but I think I've seen it enough. And when Rick is like, yeah, like he's agreeing with you when I was kind of like hitting at this story. But all right, let's look at the other side. Because you said you were watching some film with different teams. Like if I said, Hey, what didn't you like about your freshman year? What would you say? Yeah, I mean, I think from a production standpoint, I feel like my numbers, I think could have been a lot better. I think in towards the beginning half of the season, I think I definitely could have performed a lot better. I think I started to pick it up towards the end. But I think that just in overall terms of the numbers and what I produce, I think I could have been way more efficient and had a lot better games to honestly help us win a lot more, to be honest. Some of the stuff that I saw, I was like, all right, what's going on here? Like when you're a younger player, and you have like a ball dominant guard who's been around a little bit more, it's like, I felt like you got stuck playing off the ball. And then it was like, I don't know if that takes you out of aggressiveness, or if it's like, Hey, this isn't my responsibility, and I'm supposed to get somebody else loose. Like, that's probably the first time in your life that on certain possessions, it's like, your role is this and not all the things that you've had in growing up. How hard was that? Yeah, it was pretty hard. I mean, it was great playing with the guys I was played with. And I knew it coming in for sure. But I mean, just with Tennessee, we try to play in the half court a little bit, try to play for your possession game and try to make each possession matter. So I'm just kind of different from me. Coming out of high school, you're just guns at blazing, get the ball, you're going to the other basket as quick as you can. But I mean, I think it's important to learn different styles. It's important to learn how to play on the ball off the ball. That's another reason why I chose Tennessee. And you know, when I get to the NBA, I'm not always going to be on the ball. I'm going to be playing with Hall of Famers and great other players. So it's a good contrast to learn from this in high school, where I was on the ball constantly to go to Tennessee, where all five players on the court could be on the ball. How many of these guys have you played with that are projected lottery picks? Like how not played with or maybe you have, but different stops, because I don't know your full AU high school career. But I imagine a few of these guys you've played against, right? I think I've played against almost everybody or with them at a camp. Yeah, I've played with with or against either in college, high school, almost everybody in the lottery. Can you give us a scattering poor anybody? Is there anybody? I mean, this might be, I don't know if agents going to like this, but is there somebody like, I can't believe this guy's projected ahead of me. You may not want to see the answer because then you'll come off as a jerk. I may be a GM going. I love that that's in him. I mean, I personally think that I'm the best player in the draft. Obviously, I'm going to take myself over. Why would you take yourself over everybody else? I just think, I mean, for me, it's a no brainer. I think how could you pass up on me? Like when it comes to sky size and skill set with that size, I think there's not anything on the court I can't do. I think I'm a young player and I'm only getting better. And if you look at me from high school till now, when I first started playing basketball each year, I've gotten better and better. I've grown in height and weight and just that upper trajectory is a sign of growth. And I think you really will be kind of stupid to pass up. I do think like at your height, the guys that think they can dribble, you can actually dribble. Yeah. I think it's actually like my favorite thing about you where I go, oh wait, like you're really a perimeter guy at 6'10". Yeah. There's also kind of a story that I don't know that many people know about, but like when you got hurt this year, was there a debate on just shutting it down? Never, not for me at least. But did they want to shut you down? They want to shut me down for the next couple of games. They told me they said it could be two to six weeks you got to sit out, but for me, I was trying to get back the next game. And this was after the Alabama game injury? Yeah. I mean, I got injured during that game and I tried when we went back to the training room. I told them just to throw some more tape on it and let me hop back out there. But I'm kind of fortunate that they didn't let me do that. Could have been way worse if I went back out there. But yeah, there was no chance I was going to sit out March Madness or even the SEC tournament for that matter. Even though, you know, like there's probably some stuff about March Madness you'd like to do over, but the overall experience to have that kind of attention on you, what are you going to remember from that time? Everything. This was one of the best things I've ever been on. Playing for the best university in the country. It brings me so much joy and makes me so proud to be able to wear the Tennessee across the front of my chest and then obviously represent my family with the name on the back. But we just had so much fun with it. I think that, you know, as the year went on, we just grew so much closer, especially towards March Madness. It was probably like one of the best months that we had. When you think about your rookie year in the NBA, you know, it's, I know what the right answer would be, right? Because it's kind of like, hey, I'd like to play, but then it's like, would there be a benefit to being with a better organization, a better coach, maybe prioritizing development? What if it's a little bit later than I want to go, but it's a more competitive team? Like, what are you hoping for other than just the stock answer of like, hey, I'm just excited to fulfill a dream and all that? Because they're like, for you, it's, it could be like a few different landing spots that are totally different scenarios for rookie. I could go, I mean, yeah, you're right. I could go anywhere. I mean, my ego says, want to say that, you know, obviously, I want to be the highest pick I can be. That's just my ego talking. But if we're talking longevity wise and the career I want to have, like, I mean, you mentioned it, like, I just want to go to the best team for me and develop. I think that this is like the most crucial time for us young players, like, our career can go so many different ways based off where we're drafted. And I think for me, as because I'm so young, because, you know, my ceiling's super high, and I'm not the player I want to be yet that whatever team I get drafted to is going to be, give a huge imprint on my career. So I think that's just another huge, huge thing for me. And the great thing is we just found out from your reps that you're going to play in the scrimmages next to you, which is crazy. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. For a guy projected as high as you're going to go. We don't see that very often. So commit on just kidding around, man. I'll see you out there stretching maybe. Yeah. And then getting some of the free gear. Enjoy the week. It's a really cool experience. And I can't wait to see where this all goes down to June. Nate, I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, it's Hannah Montoya. Abercrombie's new summer drop is our latest obsession. 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The apps you know, go further with Copilot. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work. All right. Our Combine Studios has everybody feeling today. Much better now. We'll just leave it at that. We will leave it at that. Breakfast buffet is man. It's a wild card. Yeah. Well, tight, tight quarters here. I appreciate decision. Anyway, because I was kind of like, wait a minute, don't get too comfortable. All right, 41, 510, 190 mostly just walk my dog and implement the occasional fast after a heavy duty weekend. Comp big cat think about getting fit regularly, but usually end up ordering a little extra for the table while I'm out to eat. A little extra for the table. Yeah, big cats get a great frame, great frame. What a waste. 41 divorced once and my bank account is best described as humble. Well, that's pretty good. Honestly, after three years ago, I met my now wife at work. She's smart, beautiful and was 26 at the time. So that means he was 38. She was 26. I think that's pretty normal. I was in the middle of a messy divorce had zero interest in dating, but after year me dodging happy hours, we played nine holes in a muni course with coworkers. She can't hit an iron to save her life, but I've been all in ever since. I think there's a lot of guys out there who wouldn't want to be married to somebody who is better at them than golf. I think I'd be okay with it. All right. We legally tied the knot January. The two of us are heading to Bora Bora in June for an official ceremony full disclosure. I'm not footing the bill. That's her dad. I would never ask for something like this and definitely feel a little uncomfortable with that kind of money getting thrown around, but it's always been her dream and her dad insisted on granting the wish. He's a great guy. We get along really well. Her mom and siblings slowly going on board to accept for the little brother 23. The kid is on a mission. He texts her constantly saying she's ruining the family calls me a pedophile and a gold digger. Okay. This guy's online all the time. This 23 year old. Yeah, it's a bar. Yeah. He was raised by online concern. And essentially praise for our downfall. My wife and I talked through everything early on in our relationship, the age gap, the money, the past two to 12 years. It's not like a Hugh Hefner situation. Yeah. The past and we're solid. She shrugs them off, but reading that level of hate toward her makes me want to lace up the gloves. I'm not going to catch a battery charge, but do I confront him text call a meeting person or I just wait for him to grow up while he's enjoying while we're enjoying our life together. Have you experienced something like this or know anyone that has looking forward to sharing notes on a future Bora Bora travel? Wow. Yeah, look, it kind of sucks, but I think you answered your own thing of all the different options here. You're just going to have to wait until he grows out of this thing. And if you're going to be together a long time, I would put money on him eventually hitting an age here, maybe the next five years, maybe seven, if he's still online a lot, watching conspiracy videos on YouTube and isn't working 40 hours a week. Like this kid, unfortunately, I think some of the stuff that's like cool awareness thing, like I've talked about this with my friends where like, I never ever would have in college, it blows somebody's mind to be like, Hey, do you still talk to Mark? And you're like, no, I don't like his politics. That happens zero times in the eight years I was in college. All right. There was one guy that once said something positive about Newt Gingrich and I was like, what are you talking about? And he was like, he's running the country right now, we're so low. And he was so proud of new Mark, I think to say back to yeah. Well, Newt had some serious like momentum there for a little while in the mid 90s, but this guy was like sort of on current events more than anybody else was. And you just knew like, I don't have a counter for you and I don't care. And I'm going to go play hockey. Like, yeah, I remember there was dudes who'd be like, you know, he's really the most powerful man in America, Alan Greenspan. Yeah, like, are you just saying that because you've heard other guys say that and it sounds smart? Yes. Yes. Yes, is the reason. But I would say like, in the awareness of some of the good things, like some of the issues in society, like the awareness level, there's a benefit to that. And then there's an awareness level where you're like, Hey, maybe you're too aware and just kind of lost the plot here a little bit. If you're calling your future brother in law pedophile, because now she's 29 while you're 41. Although that's always that score when it teams up like 51-44, it looks way worse than yeah. It's way worse than yeah. Like 51-44, I think is the worst seven point lead as far as for the losing team. Anyway, I think about that stuff a lot. Because like 81-59, you're like, Oh my God, this game is over. 51-29. Am I doing the math right now? 51-39. 51-39 looks like it's a disaster. Or 41-29 is probably the worst. That's probably even worse. Yeah. Yeah. But on a marriage thing, I've talked for too long on this one already. So why don't I just go to you guys? Do you have anything like this? No, I've always kept a pretty close range. But I thought you were going to be like, I was positive you were going to say like, All right, man, what's up? Like, there's a way to be alone. I don't know. Maybe you guys go on an ice run or something for the thing you run over. Oh, what's the other guy? I think he's helpless right now at 23. If he's calling you a pedophile for marrying his sister when there's 12 years of difference, this guy's not worth really like. You think so? I'm sure he uses a lot of other buzzwords that are like really trendy right now too. Yeah. For just like big picture things. Exactly who you are. Yeah, the fascist. He's the one sending this to Bora Bora. So I, yeah, I got nothing. I mean, I remember, damn, I remember I'm trying to think of like the age gap because my wife is I think three, almost four, three years younger than me. And we had another buddy, he started dating a girl in college who was way younger than him. But then as you get older, like it just doesn't matter. Like the gap doesn't matter. We used to make fun of a back then. But哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎哎 trying to convince him that he's wrong. Because he's, again, I would bet money there's an age if you stay together with his sister where he's gonna go. Oh, man, you know. Probably apologize to his parents for being a dick to them in his own way too. Yeah. Yeah, I thought around 23 is when that flip switches and you at least say sorry to mom and dad for everything you put him through up to that point. But I guess if he lives at home, my only concern is if he lives at home and you guys are doing the visit thing, if you give him like three years, something's gonna boil over at some point. If he's just gonna be there. So I don't know. I think maybe going through the data is if you guys are even close like that, then yeah. I think there's gotta be some sort of step towards a path of this not being the thing. Does it matter to her that her brother feels this way? Like does she care if she doesn't care? Then I think- He said he's bumming her out, right? Yeah, he's bumming out the sister. But sometimes when there's just like that one crazy person, the best thing you can do is like not give them the power to ruin it for the rest of you. Just be like, hey man, cool. Thanks. I think you enjoy Bora Bora. You spoil her in other ways, make it seem, I mean, it seems like things are good, but just like maybe go a little extra and just be like how much, and then he's gonna feel increasingly worse about how what his opinion of you is, if you're like a really good husband and you're just awesome with the family. He's the only guy that's actually holding out and not liking you. Like it's gonna be his existence is gonna be hard if you keep doing that. So that's what I would do. And you'd be able to tell what the rest of the family, if they're like, yeah, Trent, we just hope he figures it out. You know, he's got a good heart. Yeah, Trent trying to find new ones. Yeah, I like that. But like there's that like sort of not silent, but like you don't say the words that like, yeah, we're really worried about where he's headed. But like if that's the air that everyone else talks about, he's like, he's a good kid, you know, he'll figure it out. If that's the way that they're talking, like everyone's already on the same page with you anyway, then it's probably a little easier to just move on with this unpleasantness. Yeah. The other thing that's kind of weird about this is I think the older brother is usually far more protective of the sisters than it is the younger brother. I'm the older brother of four, two sisters, two brothers. And so I think there was some like inherent thing, but I was kind of out of the house by the time my sister that's the closest to age to me was like entering high school. Yeah. So if I came back or like heard something, you know, I don't know, but I, my first thing was always like defensive of like, I don't, you know, I'm still a teenager. So like I'm not mature enough or developed enough. Normally my experience has been when you're the younger brother of the sister, the sister's like, you can fuck off, dude. You know, you can, you can pretend you're being protective of me. I mean, I've seen some scenarios where like the older sisters like, yeah, thanks for your input now. I'm banging your roommate, you know, like I'm totally in control of this. And yeah, your concern is noted. We are, we are moving on with our own decisions. And we don't like, I think older sisters care the least about a little brother input of any of the different connect the dots on a pop quiz. Probably right. Yeah, probably. Yeah. All right, let's get another email in here. What do we got here? Um, that's not going to work. Let's see. All right. Hey, y'all, I had a question. A Southern fan. Okay. Or not a Southern fan. Had a question that I wanted the show is ruling on no Jim Stats, but listening to Rossellos since Rossellos first show with SVP, my fiance has been giving me a hard time about how much I spend on non essential items. Now, when I say hard time, it's mostly good nature ribbing. However, sometimes I can tell it does bother her. She's from a very modest upbringing. And while I am too, I can tell she's uncomfortable with the money going out. I'm the breadwinner in the house and we do just fine financially, which is. Which I convey to her and conveyed to her. For instance, I recently placed all the TVs in the house, not because they were broken, but more so because I wanted to upgrade to better tech. TVs are actually like relatively cheap to today. So yeah. Well, it depends on which tier you're looking at. All right. Yeah. You're not buying like the highest of them, but you can go like a decent price. There's a lot of Chrysler 300s masquerading as the fandom. How are your TVs doing? Let's give our guys shout out. My TVs are great. My TVs are awesome. That one. The brand that we had set up for. Yeah. TCL is is working overtime for the NBA season. Good. Good. Good. Good. Overtime. I can tell she's uncomfortable. The money going out. All right. Replaced all the TVs. Another example is replacing an office chair that was perfectly fine, but was bothering my back during long hours. How do I broach the subject without making things worse? I'm willing to modify my spending, but also don't want to feel like I have to justify everything that's delivered to the house. Signed maybe I have a buying problem. I don't know. That didn't seem that bad. I needed some crazier examples, I think. Yeah. Look, people are people are really different about this, though. Like I remember I had a friend. We. I don't know. When I was broke, I was like, I just don't really care. Like me saving two thousand dollars is not going to do anything. My life's not going to be this whole deeper than that. I was like, if I'm going to buy a camping gear, because it's on sale, they're like, are you going to go camping? I'm like, well, if shit goes weird, I have. I'm yeah, I'm ready to go. And circle in a roof rack. I like to. Yeah, right. Like what kind of lumber could I put up there? There was a car stereo thing where like a friend was like, I'm going with you to Best Buy because like I can't wait to see how much money you're going to spend. And then I was kind of like, what do you do with yours? He's like, I save like 60 percent of it. And I was like, you save 60 percent of it. Like, how do you even live that way? And then I realized that he doesn't spend anything. And he was like entertained by mine because I was like, there's no amount that I'm putting in an envelope that like going to change any of this. And it's like, unfortunately, I was kind of married to that philosophy financially for a long time. But I don't look. I think there's there's times with me like when I move, I'm like you dick. When you just look at the stuff that you're you're the worst. I've had a couple moves where I was like, you need you need to change. And I've been I've been a lot better about it as I've gotten a little bit older. Yeah. So I'm just trying to explain like there are two. One person can be doing nothing wrong. And the other person can have concerns that aren't too aggressive. And yet you're just not going to see the world the same way. Yeah. So you're to your moving thing like every we try to do a spring cleaning every year, and I'm like, you really know, like, hey, I bought some dumb stuff. And a lot of it's, you know, close things like, man, I really didn't wear that as much as I would have liked to. Like, can I can I can I didn't need an orange? Yeah, waffle. Can I make any back like, but. I'm not I'm not a big buyer of random things. Like, I don't there's probably things that I should buy where I'm like, now just hold out with this old thing or this whatever for way too long. It's like, hey, buddy, you're doing like somewhat OK. Like you could probably buy that. But I don't know. I don't like clutter around the house. So I get it. So I don't know. I guess I get some kind of truck in a cell. But I've gone through it and it's just the worst experience. It's the worst. It never like it can be a five thousand dollar couch. And if you ask for a thousand, they're like, are you nuts? Yeah, also, do you have a truck? Right. Yeah. Although usually with a couch for me after like 10 years, you're like, so all the other cushions are mint contigions except for that one. One dent. Yeah. You never think about rotating these like your tires. It's a good point. I guess there's a couple of things that I think might be missing from this email. Like, can she see the accounts? Is that part of the problem? Or is it like she's you're just assuring or everything's fine? And she has like access to stuff without actually seeing how things are going. You know what I mean? Is she just like wondering if it's enough and you're assuring her that it's enough? Because then I'd be like, all right, maybe maybe throw her on the visibility of the accounts there. If you're like the money guy, I don't I don't understand. But that could also make it worse. She'd be like, oh, my God, I just realized our Amazon subscriptions, 20 bucks. That's another thing towards the tally. I don't know. There's got to be some way that like maybe maybe not changing your ways, but like be more safe, positive. Maybe you can counter her. Oh, my God, look at that office chair with, I don't know, I found this new thing that rounds up my change into a Acorns account or something. Maybe just attack her with positivity towards her goal of saving money. So try to try to distract a little in a non. I mean, you can just simply do like a budget to and be like, hey, actually look at the amount that we're putting away each month. And this is the amount that I'm spending on the things that you don't think are worth it. And here's why I think it is worth it because it's not that much and prove it to her. Like get a spreadsheet out, you know, get on Excel. I would admit that if I were the breadwinner and then all of a sudden I was like, I spend whatever I want whenever I want. I mean, with a reason and then you marry somebody and they're like, hey, I can't believe you bought a new office chair. I would I would have our time. These examples are tough. But for the record, though, you'd rather that person's better than the person who doesn't care and it's just like spend whatever you want has no. It's just like, you know, hey, I don't care about finances whatsoever. I'd rather the person because like I grew up in a house that, you know, my dad was just like, you put your money in the bank. Like that's what you do. Even if that's not the right call now, because it's kind of not. It sounds like it's not. But like back then it was like, you save your money, you don't buy dumb stuff. And, you know, and that has you wait till London broils on sale. Motherfucker. Right. Yeah. You're looking at the prices of stuff like I and that's always been kind of ingrained in me. So I'm, you know, I always think like, what's the level of success that I could have where I would not care about buying like something stupid, right? Like would I ever buy? I don't know. You can't even think of something. You can't even know something. No, something dumb like just really like a really expensive piece of clothing or jewelry or whatever like, or it's like a Y3 Mercedes leather jacket. That exactly that. Like I that's actually an investment. I don't know that I'm in a breath. I don't know that I'd ever be like, oh, yeah, I'm cool with buying it. In the back of my head, I'd be like, that's a dumb purchase. Like, why would I do that? You know, so I don't know. Jetskies. Seasonally, an argument against it. Yeah, I can understand. But I think you make a good point that you'd probably rather that than just do whatever. Maybe she was just throwing off. Like if you replaced every TV, what are we talking about? Like TVs four and five? Are you even watching TV number three? You're definitely not watching TV number five, but then you replaced it. That might like blow her mind from a very practical standpoint of like you just replaced it. You didn't even need it because you like tech. Like maybe that's a hint that there's all sorts of stuff that's happening here all the time. But I would ask the person like, you know, usually when this is happening, it's some sort of version of retail therapy. Yeah, also, how are her parents like, do they like she comes in the house with a nice coffee or they're like, Oh, do they make that? That's where your money's going because like I got my I got to set a parent center that way too. It's like, you know, the avocado toast crowd. Not even that. It was just like we come in with it. Like I'll dump out the if there's like this much Duncan left in my cup, I'll just throw it in the recycling bin before I walk in because they're like, you know, housing market's tough and you're out here with your coffees. I'm like, I can't get into this as you guys right now. Yeah, you don't need that. I mean, that's the other thing too, is it's like, hey, how's that house account doing? The Duncan brought this up. Oh, shit. You don't even want to know what cigarettes cost. All right. Well, that'll do it for Life Advice because we have an NBA lottery pick waiting for us downstairs. So another abrupt ending. Thanks to everybody on the show. Ryan Rossellow show, Barstool Sports. Keep the cuddles and lose the mess with Advantage chewable. Just one tasty tablet kills fleas and ticks for a whole month. No mess, no stress. Just one tasty chew. Advantage chewable. Flee and tick protection made easy. Find out more at advantage chewable.co.uk. Easy to love, easy to protect. 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