This past week, I was listening to that on, Of course, he was asked Bill recently what it would mean to play his entire career in Washington.

Here's the quote from Bradley Beal quote.

I'm a loyal guy.

I wanna be here.

I'm here.

I've signed my extension.

And that will mean the world to me being able to finish your career in one place.

You know, you don't see that in today's game.

I would definitely be an honor.

But my ultimate goal is to win.

27 year old Bill is already the number two all time leading scorer in Wizards history.

Elvin Hayes is number one.

He signed that extension before the season began in his under contract for at least two more seasons with a player option for 2022.

Kendrick, are you buying that?

Beale wants to stay in D.

C.

Are you taking the first work?

I'm towing in between.

To be honest, George, I could see Look, Bradley, Bill is a wonderful human being and he is a lawyer guy come from a great family But I'm also say this to Bradley Bill.

He's given his all to that wizard organization even this past season.

I mean, he left it all out on the table for them and his time.

He's entering his prime.

I see him trying to run it back, maybe one more year with a healthy John Wall.

If that don't pan out, it's time for him to move on.

He does.

He deserves better.

He deserves to be on a better team that's going to contend for a title.

So I understand the law report.

But he also have to realize that this is a business because guess what?

When he can't contribute or the Wizards think that he's not getting it done, he will be on the first thing smoking Soto.

All the players.

I will be careful how you use that loyalty word when it comes down to being law toe franchises and make sure that you do the best thing for Bradley.

Bill Bradley builds a smart guy.

He has an excellent agent.

He is veteran.

This statement was perfectly framed.

Yes, he's loyal.

Yes, he wants to be there, but he wants to win, and so that's the big thing Now there are a bunch of teams in this league George who would kill to get their hands on Bradley Beal before the start of next season.

My feel is that that is not happening.

They're going to see how this season goes, both Bradley and the Wizards.

But if this season doesn't go well, the clock is going to start ticking.

And everybody knows that.

By the way, if you want to hear Maura about potential trade targets this offseason, the Hoop collective podcast I mentioned earlier with Brian Wynne horse did a great job this week.

Although Brian, I do love the fact that you try to start at the beginning of the podcast to say aggregators don't mount up.

This isn't reporting, but yet nonetheless, they still aggregated you anyway, in your content.

All right, so the Rockets won 44 games this past shortened season before bowing out to the Lakers in the conference semis.

In five games, the team is expensive and they're not necessarily young either.

So let's take a look at their cap situation here.

Russ and James, both making 40 million plus through 2023 so Perk will start with you.

Is this the right move?

Are they still contenders in the West?

They are.

And look, we have toe all remember before the pandemic, the Rockets, when they made that trade and traded a work away, Clint Capela people were like they were on to something.

Russell Westbrook was having, in my opinion, the best season of his career.

And I get it.

He averaged a triple double for three straight seasons and all that with Oklahoma.

But when I look at this Russell Westbrook, before the pandemic, he was efficient.

He shot the highest field goal percentage he ever shot in his career, almost at 48%.

He was dominating the paint.

I had changed his name to Russell, Neil.

And when the pandemic hit Russell Westbrook, when the restarted the bubble, he caught the coronavirus.

So he didn't have his much time to prepare like everyone else.

And he taught his quad muscle so he wasn't healthy.

That's 1/6 toe, eight week injury.

I had that injury he wasn't supposed to be playing, so I'm looking at it.

And he and for for once the owner is right.

You run it back, you still have two guys that are in their prime that were former MVPs that could get the job done.

You do a little tweaking here and there to the roster and you run it back and you give yourself another opportunity.

So I really appreciate the Tilman Fertitta does thes interviews on the record virtually every week.

Uh, but in this particular case, um, he is saying something that everybody knows because they don't really have an option to rebuild right now.

They don't control their draft next year on def.

You look at the way Daryl Morey structured the Russell Westbrook trade.

Um, the Thunder control the the Rockets draft in 2021 then from 2024 to 2026.

So it looks like the plan for the Rockets is to contend the next two years with their 31 year old stars and then begin to rebuild when they have control.

It's very difficult, asked the Brooklyn.

That's to do a rebuilt when you don't control your draft pick.

And so that is probably the timeline that they're on.

And even if he wanted to rebuild, as you just showed with that graphic, they have $120 million tied up in five players and a couple of those guys.

They couldn't trade for value if they wanted to.

They have no choice but status quo.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, the draft part of it is a huge part of this particular equation.

All right, let's stick with Rockets here.

They're one of two teams in the NBA with a coaching vacancy at the moment.

Ah, lot of different names have been tossed around to fill that opening, but they're still taking their time.

So, Brian, who are they looking at?

And how soon do you think the rockets need to actually hire someone?

Well, I don't I mean, they don't They're not under under started time pressure.

They don't have a pick in this draft.

Felt like he has toe work.

Draft workouts.

Um, you know, when Daryl Morey decided toe to resign, Uh, there were candidates who decided they didn't want to be in the process anymore.

And that's okay, but narrowed their candidate pool.

Many people in the league think that John Lucas, the longtime assistant there who hasn't been a head coach in the league in 18 years, has a chance here, and part of that is his relationship with the players and his relationship with Raphael Stone, who was just named general manager.

So while there are other candidates, including Stephen Silas, I would say today that my guess is it's gonna be John Lucas.

What about Jeff Van Gundy there?

I mean, we've heard his name been thrown about with the Clippers and the Rockets.

Is that even a realistic possibility?

I think circumstances have changed.

Okay, fair enough.

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