The Underrated

THE CLIPPERS TOTALLY BLEW THE PAUL GEORGE DEAL

THE CLIPPERS TOTALLY BLEW THE PAUL GEORGE DEAL—plus some thoughts on USA Basketball—Anthony Edwards's brash statements. Also, here are some thoughts on the Chicago Bears, Caleb Williams, and whether they will make the NFL playoffs this year—spoiler alert: probably not because they brought back Matt Eberflus as their head coach.

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Duration:: 16m
Broadcast on:: 09 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Coming up on the underrated, we are going to dissect whether or not an intern at a few too many cocktails before he sent over that Paul George $60 million contract. Of course Paul George was disrespected by the Los Angeles Clippers and the intern that sent over the contract. We are going to cover the entire Paul George story of how he ended up in Philadelphia as well as his attempt to actually get paid by the Clippers in how it all went down. If you will, it was almost as if Donald Sterling had subtly shown back up in the Los Angeles Clippers front office. We're going to talk about that. I've got some thoughts on USA basketball and I can't believe I'm going to say this. We're also going to talk about the Chicago Bears and Caleb Williams tonight. I've got all of that and trust me a whole lot more coming up on the big show tonight. All right. So we begin this evening with the Paul George revelation of the day and there were a couple of them. So I guess I should say plural revelations of the day. First, he's no longer PG 13 and you have to now call him PG 8, at least according to the post he put out a little earlier in the day to his new fans in Philadelphia. We've got that plus the podcast P episode, which came out where he reveals how everything actually went down with the Los Angeles Clippers. Now I grew up in Southern California and yeah, I've got all this Viking gear and we can cover all of that another day. I was there when the Clippers arrived and I was there when all of the mayhem sort of broke out with how bad this clipper team actually was. I mean, it was just absolute dysfunction until Steve Balmer actually took the team over in 2014. Balmer has done an absolutely fantastic job with the team to this point for God's sakes. He's got a $2 billion into it dome that the team is actually moving into. So for them to screw up this Paul George deal as badly as they did was just absolutely shocking. Here's how it all went down at least according to Paul George. Now at the start of the season, he was offered a two year deal worth $60 million and seriously did somebody send the contract to the wrong player? Did the intern actually forget to add a number or two to the offer or year to the offer? It is so disrespectful for the Clippers that I even feel disrespected for Paul George at this point, two years, $60 million. That's what the Clippers were offering Paul George at the start of last season. Now wonder he was a bit disgruntled throughout the season, sort of like Clay Thompson was disgruntled up here in in warrior land throughout most of last season as well because the warriors weren't doing anything to sign Clay Thompson to a new contract. Well so Paul George is upset about that. Now fast forward to January and in January, good old Kawhi Leonard, Mr. Always Injured Kawhi Leonard which incidentally was injured at the end of their playoff run this year while Paul George was still standing. That being said, the Clippers signed him to a three year deal, it was $153 million deal. So after that deal gets done Paul George tells his team, hey go back to the Clippers and tell them we'll take the same exact deal. I want to continue to play with Kawhi and the Clippers, I want to stay in Los Angeles. So his team goes back to the Clippers and the Clippers apparently come back and say no. So now fast forward to the end of the season and at this point the rumors had been spreading for quite some time that Paul George potentially could go to another team, that team. One of those teams was of course the Philadelphia 76ers who were doing the right thing by clearing up cap space to actually make it possible for them to bring in Paul George if they wanted to. So the season ends and the Clippers and Paul George and his team start talking and so they say Paul George thinks about it and he says look, I want the Kawhi deal at three years but you got to give me a no trade clause and there are only two other players as you all probably know in the association today who have no trade clauses. One being of course LeBron James and the other one being the shockingly bad Bradley Beale deal that the Brooklyn Nets decided to do and in fact it was so bad that the Washington Wizards decided to do so bad and in fact that the Wizards basically got nothing back in return for Bradley Beale on his way to Phoenix. Those are the only two players in the association that have no trade clauses. So he goes back and he says I want a three year deal same as Kawhi with a no trade clause or if you're not willing to give me that then give me the four years at the max amount which was for the Clippers and Paul George 212 million dollars. The Clippers being the Clippers, being your father's Clippers. These are the Clippers who were run by Donald Sterling straight into the ground came back to him and said no thank you and that's how Paul George actually ended up going to the Philadelphia 76ers, look Steve Balmer has proven that he is a good owner. He is the best owner obviously the Clippers have ever had probably has done a better job with the Clippers than the Lakers have done throughout the 10 years that he's been there when you talk about a team that's expanded his fan base a little bit and actually went out and built its own two billion dollar into wet dome. Yes, Balmer has more money than God, but that doesn't matter. I cannot believe that the Clippers disrespected Paul George so much as they did at the start of the season and then continued to disrespect him throughout the season and then when it came down to actually getting a deal done with Paul George, they simply walked away. It makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I would love for somebody to drop a comment in and actually tell me how this makes sense in any world at all. I swear it is if Steve Balmer was suddenly taking calls from Donald Sterling. It is so ridiculous on so many levels. It's not even funny. All right, so those are my thoughts on this Paul George story. Moving on to USA basketball, now USA basketball, as we all know, is underway. The team is in beautiful Sin City holding some scrimmages with some young up and coming NBA players, which they did a little bit earlier in the day. Their first game is of course going to be on Wednesday night and doesn't shock me at all, but one of their players, in this particular case, it looks like Kevin Durant's not going to play a sore hamstring. The big issue I have with this USA basketball team really is age. Let's just face it, nobody is actually going to beat the USA basketball team and actually take home the gold from Paris. It is the USA basketball team gold to win. Ultimately, if something were to happen to, I guess, Kevin Durant and Joel and beat and if Booker were to have an injury and if we all know, Anthony Davis is always on the ground, if they were to lose like five players to five of their major players to injuries, then maybe this team could get beaten. That's their age and vulnerability to injuries that actually scare me the most about this USA basketball team. That would be my one concern about this particular team. Now, I absolutely love the brashness. As you all know, you've been following the show for a while of one Anthony Edwards. You know I'm a huge Laker fan. You know I'm a huge Timmerwolf fan. And Anthony Edwards' quote from yesterday is just so priceless. I'm still the number one option. You all might look at it differently. They've got to fit in around me. That's how I feel. You absolutely have to love the brashness of one Anthony Edwards. I saw highlights today of Steph Curry hitting like 23 pointers in a row. Sorry, Anthony. I saw the highlights of LeBron James looking pretty good today as well. I saw Devin Booker knocking down jump shots. I saw Joel Embiid actually not looking like he was hurt throughout the game. Anthony Edwards at no point today in the footage I saw was he actually on the ground. I am just saying there is so much, excuse me, that was Anthony Davis. There's so much talent here with this particular USA basketball team that they shouldn't lose a single quarter in the run up games and in Paris. But will that actually happen? Injuries certainly could make things a little bit interesting for this particular team. And finally today I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about the National Football League specifically the Chicago Bears Matt Iberfos and of course, Caleb Williams. Now we all know that Matt Iberfos magically somehow was able to hold on to his job. I'm convinced their general manager just simply shook a magic eight ball and it said give him another year. Like I don't know how the Chicago Bears actually thought it was a good idea to bring back Matt Iberfos for another season, especially when at the time Jim Harbaugh was out there. And I'm sure that they could have lured Jim Harbaugh away from Michigan to Chicago. I mean, as happy as Harbaugh looks in Los Angeles with the Chargers. I'm sure the opportunity to actually go back to his former team in the National Football League and be their head coach and be the guy that actually turns him into a Super Bowl contender was at the top of his list of stuff to do. It made absolutely no sense to me that the Chicago Bears decided to not do that. Instead, they signed up for another year of Matt Iberfos. Now Caleb Williams has looked really good, at least in the footage I've seen of him. A word out of camp is that he's picking the offense up well. And there hasn't been any negativity that we sort of seen in some other camps with some other young quarterbacks. So I'm assuming Caleb Williams, day one in the National Football League, is going to be ready. Like I don't know if he's going to have the same kind of rookie season the kid did down in Houston last year, but I am willing to bet that he does have a very good rookie season. Sure, he's going to make his mistakes, but this offense is just so deep. They've got three essential number one wide receivers. That's right, three is a yes, one of them is a rookie, but I mean, let's just face it. And they went out and they strengthened their offensive line and the running backs are solid across the board and they have depth there as well. Yeah, you can ask, there's some questions in the secondary on the defensive side of the ball and some questions about whether or not they're going to be able to get enough pressure on quarterbacks, but those are standard National Football League things that pop up. So this Chicago Bears team, I can't believe I'm about to say this, should based on everything I said, make the playoffs this particular year, but I don't think they will. And the reason I don't think they will is their head coach is Matt Eberflos, a decision I think they'll regret at some point midway through the season. The other reason is Jordan Love and Jared Gough, Gough, who just got paid big time, both won playoff games last season. Like Jordan Love, while it was a short sample size, looks like the real deal. Did you know that the Green Bay Packers also just got an additional $400 million from the National Football League earlier in the day? Well, in fact, I should say every team in the National Football League got an extra 400 million bucks. They split their $13 billion of profit that they made last year for the 2023 season. You absolutely got to love the NFL and how they give you this all up. You know, the Dallas Cowboys get $400 million. The Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers, the smallest market team in the National Football League, is getting $400 million. That is a brilliant way to run things. So you've got this Packer team who has the money. You've got this Detroit Lions team, which quite frankly is getting better and better. Both of those teams should return to the playoffs this upcoming season, which means the Chicago Bears are going to have to have a hell of a season in order for them to actually make the playoffs. I just don't believe in as good of a year as I think Caleb Williams is going to have. I do not believe in Matt Iberflus and this particular coaching staff. I want to know what you think North America. Do you think I'm off my rocker on this one? Or do you agree with me about Matt Iberflus and his coaching staff? One thing for sure, it is going to be fun to watch. All right, North America, that is it for tonight's underrated pod. If you haven't had a chance, do check out our big sports website at underrated dot media and of course sign up for our daily news letter for the underrated. I am Dave Dabaugh wishing you all a tremendous rest of your sports viewing day. To the dramatic drumbeats we go. (upbeat music)