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Call him at 385-885-3885-8585-8528, tell him to lock down, send to you, Intercap Lending NMLS #190465 for more information, visit intercaplending.com. Hello and welcome to Lockdown Wolf's podcast. Today on the show, a conversation with Sonny Verma of Lockdown Aligna. We're going to talk all things Terence, Shane, and Junior, what his role was at Illinois, what he approved on most over his two seasons at the University of Illinois, and also what I expect shaded to do at the NBA level. It's also hit some other wolves and notes. It's all coming. Welcome in. You are Lockdown Wolves. You are Lockdown Timber Wolves, your daily Minnesota Timber Wolves podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I'm the host of Lockdown Wolves. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code LockdownNBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Happy Thursday, everybody. Today on the show, a conversation with me and Sonny Verma of Lockdown Aligna. We're going to talk about Terence, Shane, and Junior in college. A fun conversation, a couple of things that I didn't realize that he feels like our strengths of Terence, Shane, and he backs up a lot of what we talked about the last couple of weeks in terms of his defense, but actually more of an optimistic look at his defense than I had on the show back after the wolves drafted him. We'll also talk about what he could do in transition, what he could do in the half court, and talk a little bit about what I think his role will be. Basically, I asked Sonny a handful of questions, Sonny asked me some questions. We'll do all that. Then at the end of the show, I got a couple of other wolves, dudes, and notes that came out. I'll give my take on a couple of things from the last couple of days here. All that's upcoming, a big thank you off the top for making Lockdown wolves your first listen every day. Of course, this shows free and available everywhere, including YouTube, as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. You can also watch on Lockdown Sports, Minnesota App on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, and you can also follow on X at Lockdown T wolves and also at Bee Beacon with two B's, two E's, C-K-E-N. All right, we're going to jump right into my conversation with Sonny. Let's get to that here without further ado. All right, as promised, conversation crossover between Lockdown wolves and Lockdown. Align I, myself, Sonny Verma, we're going to talk a little bit of Terence Shannon Jr. What he brought to Illinois when he was there, and then we'll talk about his potential role in the NBA. Will he be in the wolves rotation? What will he do for the two rules this year? So, Terence Shannon spent, what, his final two years at Illinois, he spent three years at Texas Tech, a couple years at Illinois. He was a relative unknown, unless you're a hardcore college basketball fan, until he got to Illinois, and then really kind of exploded. You look at his two years with the Align I, and he had barely averaged and double figures his last year at Texas Tech in 2122. The scoring spiked, certainly his second to last year with Illinois, but then of course, this year he was one of the best players in the country over the first few months. And I guess, like, for wolves fans, for listeners who didn't follow him closely in college, or maybe only saw him, maybe when he played against the gophers, what, what, what should Terence Shannon Jr. what do you see from him as a player, or what did you see from him over his two years at Illinois? I think you have, I talked about this actually on my own show, whatever team that was lucky to draft him, should know that whatever his potential is, he's going to reach it. Because he's not one of those people that's going to become lackadaisical once he signs that contract and just kind of, you know, go with the flow type of thing. Now, he was a guy who was constantly the star of all of Illinois, like the official university social media campaigns, because they'd film him basically shooting jumpers at five in the morning, you know, seven in the morning. The guy was a complete workhorse. And as you talked about, essentially every single year in his career, he continued to get better. There was a different facet of his game that continued to get better. The guy is super athletic. You know, he's had an NBA body for two seasons now in college basketball, which kind of leads into why he was so successful. He was just bigger and stronger than most of the guys that were he was going up against. And so, you know, if we're talking about, you know, what kind of guy he is, it's just that he's a pure hustler and he's a guy who won't leave anything out on the floor. We'll leave everything out on the floor, sorry. Yeah. No, and that's, and that's great to hear. I mean, that's, that's something that like if, if, if fans are just looking at highlight reels or scouting reports online, they're not necessarily going to get all of that, which is exactly, you know, what, what fans want to hear is that he's going to reach because you look at, I know he's a five year college player, she's a little bit older in terms of NBA prospects, but somebody who averaged 23 points a game last year, 17 points a game the year prior, like clearly there's massive potential there. And, and so to hear that he's somebody who's going to reach that potential at least work to reach that potential is huge. What would you say from your, your one Illinois, which was his fourth year college basketball to year two at Illinois, what was his biggest growth point? Like, what do you think he did, you know, that much better in his final year than he did in his first year at Illinois? I knew this shooting. He did the NBA draft camps last year, and that's kind of the feedback that he got that he needed to work on his three point shooting a little bit. And there are some questions about his back. So his first, first couple of seasons at Texas Tech, he missed significant portions of the season because of he had some sort of back issues. Now you wouldn't know this, but like Illinois has one of the best strength and fitness guys in their locker room. And so his name is Adam Fletcher, he basically took Terence Shannon and for the two seasons, Terence had almost zero issues with his back. So it looks like that is kind of healed. And so basically it was just his shooting from three point land from the corners. That's kind of what, because he always had the NBA body, he's got NBA defense, NBA strength, NBA athleticism, but in order to, you know, the NBA has kind of become a three and D league, and the key part of Shannon developing was the three part, and that's kind of what he did last season. Yeah, and to your point, first year at Illinois, he shot 32.1% from three last year, 36.2%. And if you just glance at his numbers, his last year of Texas Tech, he shot 38%, but the volume was a lot lower. He attempted just like sheer volume of threes, almost twice as many as first year at Illinois versus his last year of Texas Tech. So, you know, the 38% is a little bit misleading, but then last year he attempted nearly three times as many threes as he did his last year at Texas Tech, and he was still north of 36%. So if that continues to progress to the NBA three point line, that's obviously a huge and the wolves are banking on that. And you mentioned the NBA body, that's kind of the first thing I've said when I've been asked about what he brings to bring the Timberwolves, what they're looking for, it's that he looks the part, he looks like he can be, you know, at the very least a solid perimeter defender, he'll be able to guard at the point of attack a little bit and should be an absolute terror in transition. It seems like that could be his biggest impact initially at the NBA level and correct me if I'm wrong, but he did a ton of damage in transition, both from beyond the arc and also at the rim. That's what he was best at in the college level. Once he got a quick rebound, there was nobody better in the league in transition of just kind of putting his head down and attacking the rim. I mean, he's scared a lot of the guys basically defending him and I think that's what he's going to kind of do ultimately in the NBA. He's a guy who, his defensive numbers fell a little bit his senior year, but that's only because he was asked to carry so much on the offensive end. He was the focal point, you know, we had him guard the best guy, also being our number one option, you know, to score the basketball. In the NBA, when you have guys who are, you know, Anthony Grant, no one's going to ask Terrence Shannon to score even double figures. The idea I'm assuming is going to be, hey, you know, make a basket here and there, you know, grab the outlet rebound, go do your thing what you just did in college, but most importantly, and I know you guys were one of the best defensive teams in the league already last year, he's going to, if you tell Terrence, hey, expend most of your energy guarding and harassing the guy that you're defending that night, he's going to absolutely excel in that role. And that's why I think he's going to be a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, fan favorite very quickly. Yeah. So I actually, you mentioned two things I was going to ask you about, and I guess let's talk about the defense first because you kind of finished there. I was going to ask you what your overall impressions were for him on defense. I think I saw at least one Scott in your port out there when I was kind of cramming on Terrence Shannon around the time of the draft, that he, there was some concern that maybe the effort wasn't always there at Illinois where maybe it was, it was greater, at least maybe you're one in Illinois or back to Texas Tech years. And to your point, it sounds like some of that could be because he was carrying so much of the load offensively, he was such a high usage player on offense for Illinois. And then, you know, just looking at the numbers, I like to look at steel rate as a good indicator of defensive activity of the steel rate was certainly down last year over where it was your one in Illinois, but would you chalk most of that up to a carrying a huge load on offense and be having a really difficult assignment night in and night out, but really on both ends of the floor, but also defensively, accurate. He was always, when it was time, you know, if there's a minute and a half left in the game in a close game, he's the guy guarding their best player. And for the most, most of the time, you know, he ended up on the winning end, like he's just that guy. You know, throughout the game, sure, sometimes things happen, and again, when you're carrying the load offensively, his numbers may have struggled a little bit. And truth be told, Illinois's defense in general this past season wasn't very good. We were number one in offense for most of the college basketball season, but the defense event really started sliding once the month of January hit, and so his numbers included. I don't think it's an effort issue necessarily, and I truly think that once he gets to the next level, and he's told by the coach, hey, just focus on defense. I think he's going to absolutely excel at that role. That's great here. I mean, like you said this a few minutes ago, like the Wolves do have multiple point of attack defenders who he's not going to be. They're not going to ask him to go guard, you know, insert, like they're he's not going to guard John Morant one night and Kevin Durant, the next or whatever it's, you know, they've got Jane McDaniel's who, you know, an all defensive team caliber player, Rudy go bare, obviously, is not guarded in the perimeter, but he's on the floor. So there's he's papering over if guys get beat on the perimeter, but Jane McDaniel's to kill Alexander Walker, Anthony Edwards are all plus perimeter defenders. And then, you know, you add in some of the other length that they have, even guys like Carl, Teddy Towns, who can who can switch on the perimeter and stuff like that. It's just really it's like that athleticism and again, an NBA body. Obviously, we talked about what he does in transition. You talked about his improvement as a three point shooter in the half court. So not in transition when things slow down there in the half court, it seems like he had the ball in his hands a ton. Was he really initiated a lot of offense? Was it a lot of shooting out a pick and roll or what or how would you describe his half court game with Illinois? I actually wouldn't say he had the ball all that often unless it was one of those in transition. You know, again, that's kind of give the ball deterrence and move out of the way, let him go get a basket. I mean, if you take a look, I think he averaged almost nine free throws a game in his last season, shooting almost 80 percent. The whistle follows him wherever he goes. He's very good at initiating contact and getting to the free throw line. And when he gets there, he tends to hit them right under what I always like to joke around to all season long that all year long, he never ran a single play for Tanja. You know, it was simply one of those where either through sheer hustle, he got involved with the play. He developed a catch and shoot three pointer in his final season at Illinois. So it's one of those where it's perfect for Minnesota because you have so many weapons as it is. And he's not really going to get in the way of a guy like Anthony Edwards. It's basically he'll be able to fill whatever niche you're looking for on the offensive side. And for me, when I watch the NBA, I do love guys who can get contact him and who can get fouls on the opposing team and, you know, get them in foul trouble. And that's something Terrence has always been really, really good at. Yeah. And I've kind of been talking about his fit with Minnesota and we'll get into this here in a second, a little bit more in depth, but I mean, they're not going to ask him to do too much. It's going to be, hey, knock down threes, play in transition, play good defense. And if he does reach that ceiling that you alluded to at the beginning of the conversation, like if there's a good chance he reaches that, it's obviously still a very high ceiling. And every team can use a score off the bench and, you know, two, three years down the road. I mean, like Nicole Alexander Walker is a free agent next year. So his role could increase as we move forward. Let's get into that. Next, let's talk about his fit with Minnesota and a Sunday's going to, we're going to turn the table here. He's going to ask me a few questions about Terrence, Shane, and Junior as a pro. We get to that here next today's episode of Lactile Wolves is brought to us by our friends at Game Time. Game Time is an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. 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Download the game time app, create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code locked on NBA. That's L O C K E D O N NBA for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Hey every dayers, NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team. Locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the off season with quick hitting 30 minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA. Make locked on NBA your second listen and stay caught up on the biggest off season storylines and free agency signings every day. Available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. All right, turn the keys over to sunny. We're going to talk a little bit about Terrence Shannon Jr. as a pro and of course add anything else in along the way that maybe we didn't get to in the first segment, Sonny, but take it away. Sure. But first and foremost, let's kind of give me a quick cliff note on the last maybe two seasons of the Minnesota Timberwolves, just so line I fans who are now becoming Minnesota Timberwolves fans and those of you who are new Timberwolves fans definitely follow Ben at locked on Timberwolves. I give us a little cliff notes of what kind of team Terrence and junior is a sitting up for. Yeah, I mean two years ago going in the wolves were coming off of like if you go back two years, they were coming off of a season where they were the sixth seed in the West. They lost some Memphis in the first round. They had made the playoffs for the first time in a long time. The second time in 19 years at the time, which is crazy. And there was a lot of optimism going into last season, but the year got off to a bit of a tough start. They made the Rudy go bear trade. So there was, you know, for anybody that follows the NBA or even doesn't, it was widely thought of as a massive overpay for a guy who's about to be 30, playing two bigs with Rudy go Baron Carl, 30 towns, but still Anthony Edwards is so exciting and everybody thought like, Hey, what, what could this be? Well, go bear was banged up after playing in Eurobasket in the summer of 22 and Carl Anthony towns heard his calf at Thanksgiving and miss 60 plus games. The team still ended up winning 42 games, getting the eighth seed after the play in tournament, but had to play the Denver Nuggets in the first round, lost to the eventual, eventual champion nuggets in five games in 2023. Last season, a lot of people's expectations had come back down for the wolves. It was effectively the same roster coming back and, you know, traded a bunch of draft picks. They didn't have any incoming rookies that were going to play. And so there were a lot of people down on the wolves going into last season. I was, I was up on them and that I thought that they would be a playoff team. I didn't think they'd win 56 games. I thought they would win around 50, which was still more optimistic than most people. I thought they were probably the four or five seed in the West. They ended up winning the, getting the third seed and they were in the number one spot most of the season easily could have had the top seed in the West were relatively healthy other than cat missing Carl, 30 towns have been seen about a month in the spring with any issue, but Anthony Edwards took the leap. He became an all star, well, I guess it was a second all star season and was, was fantastic. Jayden McDaniel's was great defensively, Rudy. Go bare one defensive player of the year. And it was really all about those players, Rudy getting comfortable, cat staying healthy and adopting a new role as a four and somebody who's guarding a little bit differently on defense being asked to do some different things. But the offense struggled a little bit. It was middle of the pack for most of the season defensively. They were the best team in the league. It was actually the only the second time in the last 20 years that there's been a gap that big between the best defense, the second best defense in the league in terms of defensive ratings. They were dominant defensively, but the offense was a little sluggish at times, lacked a little bit of pop and you know, defense is kind of their identity. So as we're going to talk about Terrence Shannon is kind of a perfect fit. This is a team that 156 games, the top, you know, seven of the top eight guys in the rotation will be exactly the same next year bar and something shocking in the next few weeks of the off season. So this team should win mid 50s games. They should compete for the top seed in our legit finals contender going into next season. So was Terrence Shannon Junior's name kind of on your guys draft board, you know, in all the mock drafts and whatnot? Is that the type of player you guys were kind of looking for? I think so. And I was well, for a couple of reasons, you know, certainly I think it was actually ESPN. One of their last mocks did have him going to Minnesota. There were a couple of mocks that had him there. He was one of I think 10 or 12 players I previewed leading into the draft that the wolves may be interested in. I think partly because he's an older college player and this is already a playoff team. They don't want to spend a ton of time developing somebody who's who potentially could be a rotation piece right away. And because he brings it transition like we talked about this last segment. The wolves did not play fast enough at times last year and they were a good shooting team like they were the had the third best team three point percentage in the league, but they didn't take enough threes. So a guy who's going to be a volume three point shooter play fast and also have the body type and athleticism and hopefully want to to play really well defensively and kind of slot right into that mentality that they had on defense. It's kind of a perfect fit in that sense. Now nobody had on their bingo card that the wolves would trade up on draft night to pick aid and take, you know, Rob Dylan him from Kentucky. And so I think we were all kind of thinking like, all right, who are they going to take a 27? They'll certainly be a rotation piece. Now, you know, we can talk about exact role. I think he's going to be kind of on the edge of the rotation, but he fits in line with what they need, which is size on the wing. They love size on the wing. They needed more shooting, more volume shooting from outside the arc and they needed to play faster and continue that defensive mentality. And I think Terrence and Junior should check all those boxes. So do you foresee him being a rotational guy in his first year? I think he'll be right on the edge. I think the wolves have, you know, seven of the top eight guys are back from last year. That's not going to change. Rob Dylan him would be certainly a rotation guy. They basically already said he's our backup point guard. So that's eight. And then Joe Ingles, they just signed and I mean, he didn't sign in Minnesota for the minimum to not play. And he's basically going to take that Kyle Anderson role slo-mo who was kind of that point forward off the bench. He's going to fill in that role. So that gets you to about nine guys. And typically in an NBA season, your rotation that sees heavy minutes is closer to nine, but usually you're going to have 10 guys that play. So I really think it's Terrence and Junior and a couple of guys who have been around that are still younger players that will be kind of vying for those those 10th man minutes, if you will. Some nights it might be 14 minutes if guys are in foul trouble. If somebody's banged up or misses or sits on a back to back, maybe he plays 20 minutes. Some nights, depending on the opponent and the matchup, he may get a DNP CD and not see the floor at all. I think it's him. It's Josh Minot who's going to be a third year guy out of Memphis who's a different player. He's more of a, he's not as much a perimeter threat as he is a defender and a rebounder and just a little bit of a bigger body. I think those two are probably and then Leonard Miller, who's a little bit more of a point forward type really plays four five, four slash five. So I think it also could change based on the matchup, but I think they'll give him every opportunity to earn a slot in the rotation. And he'll certainly at some point next year be part of the Wolves rotation, even if it's not opening night, he's going to be an important part of what, of what this team's trying to do. What was the initial response from T will's fans when, you know, at the conclusion of night to one of the NBA draft when they came home with Gillingham and, you know, Shannon. I think overwhelmingly positive. I mean, the, the cost to move up to eight to take Dillingham was not too prohibitive. It's, you know, a pick swap and a 20, 31 pick. And by that point, like, hopefully this team's been to the finals and it won a championship, right? Like that's the goal. And so this team's also over the second apron not to get to in the weeds and NBA cap nerd stuff, but like the short version is the wolves can't sign anybody in free agency for more than the minimum. So the only way you're going to make this team better over the next couple of years is through the draft. And they don't have very many picks because they traded them all for Rudy go bare. So trading up with a future asset, seven years down the road to take a guy who's a consensus lottery pick and one of the best offensive players in the draft and Dillingham and still getting a guy who was in the running for, you know, player of the year in December, who averaged 20 plus points per game and, and Phil's, Phil, some holes off your bench coming out of that night with guys who even casual college basketball fans knew who both those guys were. And so coming out of the draft with those two players and that much more offensive punch and upside because again, this is a team that went to the conference finals. I mean, they were three wins away from the finals last year and the offense was middle of the pack at best. It was, it was at times 18th, 19th in the league in terms of offensive ratings. So to get too offensive players and at least in the case of Shannon, somebody who's not going to hurt you defensively and may help you is a big win. So I guess, you know, usually when colleges, their players are drafted, it tends to be on teams that are played poorly the season before, Alina fans are a little spoiled in this case, you know, now being newly fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves. How close exactly would you say you guys are to winning that ultimate NBA championship? Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think it could have happened last year. I think it was a combination of having never been there and I mean, nobody on the Timberwolves had played that deep in their career. I mean, I think Conley got to the conference finals once and go bare had never been there. And so like just from a fatigue standpoint, which sounds like a cop out, but it's a very real thing when you're used to play until May one and you're playing till June one. I mean, I think that played into it. And obviously, Luca Doncic had a crazy series and they ran into a buzz saw and tough matchup for Minnesota. Luca Doncic really was. This team is going to be basically the same and the only guys that like obviously might Conley being a year older isn't great and Rudy go bare being a year older. I mean, he's still in his early thirties, but Kat's in his prime, Anthony Edwards, Jane McDaniel's, those guys are only getting better. And so I think expectations next year are going to be in those mid fifties wins. It's going to be 55, 57, 59 wins and a top, certainly a top four seat in the West and the West is tough. It didn't get any easier over the off season, but this is absolutely a 50 plus win team. It's absolutely a home court team that has a shot at the finals and if Anthony Edwards, he took the leap from like borderline all star to like all NBA caliber player last year. And if he takes the leap to, I don't think there's any doubt he's got the ceiling of a top three player in the league. I don't think there's any question about that. If he can do that next year, this immediately is a finals contender. You know, I think it is anyway, but it's a very serious one and is right up there with everybody else. I mean, other young teams in the West like Oklahoma City and Minnesota are going to be around for a while. Then you've got teams that are trying to retool and reload that are a little bit older. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I mean, you're right. Like a guy who play who is as good as Terrence Shannon was in college doesn't often go to a team that's already ready to compete for a championship. And that's exactly the type of team he's going to. Hey, every dayers, NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the off season with quick hitting 30 minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA, make locked on NBA, your second listen, and stay caught up on the biggest off season storylines and free agency signings every day, available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. All right, so there you have a great conversation with Sonny at lockdown, Alina. I thought it was really good perspective on what Terrence Shannon did defensively at Illinois. You know, I had seen a couple different scouting reports that kind of knocked what he'd done. The steal rate was down. But the context of guarding the best player and also being the top option, even if the ball he was a beneficiary in transition. They ran stuff for him to get, you know, come off a pin downs to get shot attempts and things like that. So, I mean, it's certainly understandable if there was a bit of some slippage in terms of his one on one defense. And if he could just wreak havoc and that actually has been I talked with us on the basketball party last week on the Wednesday basketball party that we do here at lockdown wolves. And I've talked about it on regular lockdown will show as well. If he's able to kind of dial in and be the guy that does every that sorry, that doesn't do it. Not that does everything. But the guy who knows his role and is all over the place and just like wreaking havoc on both ends of the floor, getting steals, getting out in transition, getting dunks, getting trail threes in transition, sprinting to the corner, getting three point opportunities there, you know, getting to the free throw line. It's a thing that Sonny brought up a couple different times is his ability to to get to the free throw line as well. They didn't shoot the ball great at the rim in college. But that's something that can that I think can grow. And also if he's drawing files, that matters a little bit less as long as he's getting to the free throw line. But again, lower usage type guy at the, I should say lower usage, just less opportunities, less volume of opportunities at the NBA level when he's on a team with Anthony Edwards, Carl City towns and others. So completely, completely agree with a lot of what what Sonny said. I thought it was interesting insight on his defense, but also the mentality, the fact that he clearly improved throughout his career at Illinois, even if it was only those two seasons compared to what he did at Texas Tech for three years. I think that's that's a really important to note and really, really good context, I think for wolves fans. And hopefully he gave some some good context for line I fans on on locked on line as well about the wolves. All right, a couple quick wolves notes that are out there from, I guess mostly from Wednesday. The first one was Team Canada finalized their Olympic roster, which I thought was nothing really surprising there, except for a couple of wolves related notes. Now, there it's a really good team. We knew that. Nicole Alexander Walker is on the team. And a familiar name that is not as Andrew Wiggins, he had withdrawn initially right before camp began, the word is called it mutual, but various reports have reported that Golden State was the party driving the decision as often as the case when players are no longer in international competition. But there's other guys who who aren't on the team like Zach Edie, she had in sharp Benedict bathroom from the Pacers. Leonard Miller also was in their training camp never was really considered to make the team, which makes sense given how stacked this team is. I mean, seriously, they've got SGA. They've got Jamal Murray. Nick Alexander Walker, Andrew Nemhard, RJ Barrett, Lou Dort, I'm just reading these in the order on Hoops Rivers, not in any particular order, Dylan Brooks, Melvin Eheim, Trey Lyles, Kelly Elinik, Dwight Pollan, and Kime Burch. So every one of those guys except for Akim, which I think I'm saying, right, has played in the NBA. And then Wiggins, Edie, Sharp, Mathur, and Miller, all, all not going to be on the roster. Notably, this is also as much as a fixture as they've been in recent years in the international scene. They haven't actually been in the Olympics since 2000, like this is, this is the only time, since 2000, they've been in the Olympics because they've, they've finally improved to that point on the international stage to qualify for the Olympics. So interesting, exciting that Alexander Walker is there. And of course, we know Jo Ingalls is playing for Australia. We know that Rudy Guabera is playing for France. I don't think I'm missing anybody else besides Anthony Edwards, obviously, played for Team USA. I don't have any thoughts. By the way, I'm the Anthony Edwards interview about him saying, like, it's just the amp being at like the rules fans have seen this before. It's not a headline for wolves, like ants saying he's the best player and he wants all the shots, but then also in the same interview saying, yeah, of course, I'm going to pass to Steph and Katie because those guys are great, like none of that is surprising. So let's not act like, I don't think any wolves fans are acting like they're surprised. Nobody should be like too offended by that because it's just amp being ant and all the guys on the team don't care. Like it's just, it's whatever. And then the other thing is that Tyrell's promoted Matt Lloyd to GM. Of course, Matt Lloyd was, was the senior VP of basketball operations. He had ran the front office in Orlando, who's our interim GM and also been their VP of basketball ops, and prior to that was in Chicago with the Bulls back, mostly when the Bulls were good, or at least I should say, I think it was more tips era type Bulls teams. So Matt Lloyd was a finalist for the Charlotte role earlier this, I guess it would have been in spring when they were interviewing or was right around the end of the season. And he did not get the job there, but then he was offered a role. This is according to John Krasinski over at the athletic, Matt Lloyd turned down a, basically the role he had him in a soda to go to Charlotte, decided to stay and, and he gets, he gets the title, he gets the title bump from senior VP of basketball ops as general manager. Also in the thread on Twitter, John Krasinski reports that he is now officially number two behind Tim Connolly, who of course is president of basketball ops and Sachin Gupta is executive VP of basketball operations, which as he also notes, it's collaborative, it doesn't really matter in terms of hierarchy, even though it is Connolly Lloyd Gupta. So congrats to Matt Lloyd, seems to be somebody that a lot of people respect, he's someone who gets brought up occasionally, I mean, like Risillo, Ryan Risillo on his show when he talks about basketball, he always talks about Lloyd along with Connolly for whatever that's worth. And I don't agree with all Risillo's opinions, but he's obviously plugged in on some level and, and interesting that he always brings him up for, take that for what it's worth. So a little bit of wolves news there to leave you with Friday show, I'm going to get you ready. The wolves actually play basketball tomorrow that well, some version of the table was at least five to six to seven roster players, you know, five current guys, including the two rookies, including Jalen Clark, we get to see a two way play to a sunny Jesse Edwards. We get to see, we talked about him, if you miss Wednesday show, I talked about him quite a bit, the big center on a two way deal, he'll play in summer league. And then also, obviously, Dacia Nixon was on a two way deal last year, some familiar names for the hour wolves. I talked a lot about it this week, but I'll give you kind of my, my last takeaways heading into summer league on Friday, they play Friday afternoon, I believe Sunday. So over the weekend, I'll have a couple games before my next show on Monday so I can kind of unpack those first two games, key takeaways, things I liked and didn't like. And Friday will get you ready, leave you with kind of like what to watch for, and especially with a focus on the, the Josh Meinatz, the, um, Leonard Villers, the two rookies, and, uh, Jalen Clark, who, you know, haven't seen him play. So we got to be, we got to be fair to him, but like interested to see what we see out of him too. So a lot to get to on Friday, that's what we'll do on Friday. A big thank you for making lockdown wolves your first list in every single day. And of course, this shows free and available everywhere that includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms, whoever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find locked up wolves. You can also watch on the lockdown sports Minnesota app on both Roku and Amazon fire TV. And you can also follow an X at lockdown T wolves and also at be beacon with two bees to ease CK. And our monitor that locked on is launched the first ever national sports 24 seven streaming channel on YouTube. It's now also available on Amazon fire TV and the free fire TV channels app locked on sports today is here for 24 seven covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of lockdown plus our national shows covering every league find locked on sports today now available on the free fire TV channels app. Of course, the locked out wolves podcast is part of the locked on podcast network. Remember the locked on network is your local experts on all the biggest stories. Once again, I'm Ben beacon. This is the locked out wolves podcast and we'll catch you next time. Hey, every day is NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team. Locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the off season with quick hitting 30 minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA. Make locked on NBA your second listen and stay caught up on the biggest off season storylines and free agency signings every day. 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