Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, we have a
Speaker 2: special interview with one of my favorites, Heath Smith. Keith
Speaker 2: is a senior writer at spot Track or spoke Track,
Speaker 2: one of my favorite NBA websites that I don't know
Speaker 2: how to pronounce, as well as the Celtics Insider. Keith
Speaker 2: joined me and my co host PJ Glass on bet
Speaker 2: MGM Tonight. On a recent episode, we discussed the Trailblazers,
Speaker 2: of course, Miles Turner, why he may actually not be
Speaker 2: on the move, how Malcolm Brogden symbolizes the new NBA,
Speaker 2: fascinating conversation around that, what's going on with Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 2: and why the Wolves might be the latest team to
Speaker 2: be taken by Trader Danny. One of my favorite interviews
Speaker 2: this season, Nick, So do me a favor. Let's drop
Speaker 2: that beat. I asked Keith whether he thought the Cleveland
Speaker 2: Cavaliers were for real and what he thought about the
Speaker 2: Portland Trailblazers in this clip listening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's still too early, but I think this is
Speaker 1: a case of water finding its level. They got out
Speaker 1: to that great start, but they weren't going to be
Speaker 1: that team all year. They've definitely got some holes in
Speaker 1: their rotation that they've got to shore up, and whether
Speaker 1: that's with development or they make conditions down the line,
Speaker 1: but they're going to settle into being a good team,
Speaker 1: which is probably a top six team in the East
Speaker 1: versus being a top two or three team in the end.
Speaker 2: I saw that you went on Rip City Radio this
Speaker 2: morning and talking about my Blazers. What do you think
Speaker 2: about them and whether they're going to find their level
Speaker 2: or whether what they're doing is sustainable and kind of
Speaker 2: just your thoughts on what you are seeing from them
Speaker 2: because last three years, Keith, defensively, they've been abysmal and
Speaker 2: right now there's sixth in defensive rating because of really
Speaker 2: Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean a lot of it is. I think
Speaker 1: two things. They got better defensive players on the court now,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that has helped a lot by
Speaker 1: Durreamy Durant, but I think they're playing some other guys
Speaker 1: Drew you Banks for the really solid defender when he's
Speaker 1: in their upfront. And then I think this is a
Speaker 1: year into what Chauncey Billips wants them to be doing
Speaker 1: and they've been more relatively healthy ish I think has
Speaker 1: also helped them, So I think there's some sustainability. They'll
Speaker 1: drop offs. I don't think they're gonna, you know, be
Speaker 1: the top team in the Western Conference when all is said,
Speaker 1: don but I think again, this is a team that will.
Speaker 1: Of course, I had them in the playing tournament, they
Speaker 1: might be able to get themselves out of it because
Speaker 1: a couple of teams in the West that I thought
Speaker 1: might be ahead of them right now that look like
Speaker 1: they kind of can't get out of their own way.
Speaker 1: So Fortan just needs to keep doing what they're doing
Speaker 1: and they're gonna put together a nice share of ten.
Speaker 2: Indiana having a fascinating year. So I asked Keith about
Speaker 2: the Pacers and Miles Turner since he recently broke him
Speaker 2: down on spot track, he had a ton of great
Speaker 2: insight into his situation. I'm curious about your thoughts on
Speaker 2: Indiana because this is a team that everyone says wants
Speaker 2: to have the top five draft pick, and yet they're
Speaker 2: above five hundred. Miles Turner has been awesome. He's on
Speaker 2: an expiring to you, what are the odds that Miles
Speaker 2: Turner he's been in trade talks for forever ends up
Speaker 2: actually staying in Indiana for the duration of this year
Speaker 2: even longer. The idea seems insane, and yet he is
Speaker 2: still there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I actually just wrote about him for spot Track yesterday
Speaker 1: because he's a candidate for the very rare renegotiation and extent,
Speaker 1: which is where you can actually up his salary this year,
Speaker 1: because the Pacers have cap space, and because he's done
Speaker 1: a right kind of contract. So I think whenever a
Speaker 1: guy who's been in trade talks for like four or
Speaker 1: five years, like Turner has been, but then he doesn't
Speaker 1: get traded, I tend to think there's something to do that
Speaker 1: either he doesn't want to be or the team doesn't
Speaker 1: really want to move him, and I think he may
Speaker 1: stick right there. I would not surprised that the Pacers,
Speaker 1: you know, after the trade deadline is gone and they
Speaker 1: see what moves are out there for them, maybe using
Speaker 1: that almost thirty million in cash space that they have,
Speaker 1: if they say, all right, you know what, let's give
Speaker 1: some of it as to Miles Turner as a bonus
Speaker 1: now and we'll tack two, three four years on in
Speaker 1: the new contract. That's still cheap of a tradeablasta just
Speaker 1: the case, but I don't think he's gonna go anywhere necessarily.
Speaker 2: Malcolm Brogden went to the Celtics in the offseason for
Speaker 2: less than people thought that he would make, less than
Speaker 2: people thought it would take to get that trade done.
Speaker 2: Keith gives a fascinating answer. I want to delve more
Speaker 2: into an a later episode of The Heat Check. Incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: I like Atlanta to win that division. I think they've
Speaker 1: got a better team Miami is that they're older. You
Speaker 1: are already putting a lot of miles on some of
Speaker 1: their guys early in this season. That's very worrisome to
Speaker 1: me for what they may look like when we get
Speaker 1: into February, March, in April. What's that going to look like.
Speaker 1: They don't have a ton of depths on that team.
Speaker 1: They have major holes up Fronte, They don't have anybody
Speaker 1: at the power forward spot. Their big band rotation has
Speaker 1: been a little bit messy. So unless there's a trade coming,
Speaker 1: which is not an easy thing to do for them,
Speaker 1: because they're kind of out of tradable asset that I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna be one of those teams that might
Speaker 1: be down in the playing range and I think the
Speaker 1: Hawks will ultimately win the division almost by default because
Speaker 1: it's not going to be any of the other three teams.
Speaker 1: They're just looking to Don Keith.
Speaker 2: Can you talk a little bit about the job that
Speaker 2: Joe Missoula has done this year, because WOJ says that
Speaker 2: he's coached his way into a long term deal. I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people think this is a team
Speaker 2: that already went to the finals, so how hard could
Speaker 2: it be. But the institutional chaos that was going on
Speaker 2: when he took over was immense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. It's that part there at the end
Speaker 1: that he said is this could have gone completely sideways
Speaker 1: on the Celtics and you know, really been terrible because
Speaker 1: the players, I openly said, they had no idea any
Speaker 1: of this was coming. They basically found out right before
Speaker 1: the rest of us did that all this was going down.
Speaker 1: And that's you know, that's tough, especially you know right
Speaker 1: on the eve of the season starting off, that you're
Speaker 1: gonna be in that spot. I think, you know, Joe Mazzola, yes,
Speaker 1: he's kept some of he May Udoka's stuff in there,
Speaker 1: but offensively, he's created more of a five out system
Speaker 1: than even Udoka ran that's opened up driving lanes for
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and JAYLEB.
Speaker 2: Brown.
Speaker 1: I think he's really empowered the players. And what he's
Speaker 1: also done is he's kind of said, hey, these are
Speaker 1: my rotation guys. I know who my eight nine guys are.
Speaker 1: But the rest of you, guys, guys, you're ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
Speaker 1: you better be ready because we know we've got a
Speaker 1: couple of injury prone guys. When we come to you,
Speaker 1: you gotta be ready to go. And that's what we've
Speaker 1: seen here over the last couple of weeks with like
Speaker 1: Peyton Pritchard and Sam Houser and Luke Cornett. Those guys
Speaker 1: have been able to step in. You'll really do some stuff,
Speaker 1: and they're they're playing really good basketball, and they're they're
Speaker 1: gonna get Malcolm brogen back. Looks like tomorrow, Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: probably only a couple more games away, and then eventually
Speaker 1: Robert Williams is going to return. That's when I think
Speaker 1: you'll see the defensive takeoffs as well.
Speaker 2: In your travels of covering the league, I've heard some
Speaker 2: things just kind of whispers about that Malcolm Brogden you
Speaker 2: talk about, you know, just guys that are injury prone.
Speaker 2: Something that I heard, you know, whispers about is that
Speaker 2: when Malcolm Brogden gets injured, it doesn't really matter how
Speaker 2: injured he is, he will miss miss time because he's
Speaker 2: that careful about his body. Is that something that's like
Speaker 2: pretty normal across the league? Is there a wide disparity?
Speaker 1: Have you heard this?
Speaker 2: Just kind of curious about that in general and how
Speaker 2: how gms think about players.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have heard that as it pertained to Malcolm Brocknen.
Speaker 1: I think there's a reason why the Celtics Gotum for
Speaker 1: as low a price as they did, which I think,
Speaker 1: you know, when you just look at the player in
Speaker 1: the talent, it was like, Wow, the Celtics really stolen.
Speaker 1: But when then you look at it, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the the guy who plays you know, forty to fifty
Speaker 1: games in some years, and that that could be tough
Speaker 1: to work around. And I think for Boston the idea
Speaker 1: was we have Derek White, we have marcusmart we have
Speaker 1: Peyton Pritchard. Hey, if he needs a week off to
Speaker 1: recover from what teams like maybe a minor injury, we go.
Speaker 1: And that's becoming more prevalent around the league with players.
Speaker 1: I think players are looking at this and say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't want to have a eight good year career.
Speaker 1: I'd like to have a ten to twelve good year career.
Speaker 1: And the way they're doing that is by not playing
Speaker 1: through injuries in the life. So I think that's where
Speaker 1: we're starting to see a little bit here if some
Speaker 1: of these guys are are taking a little bit more
Speaker 1: time to make sure, Hey, I'm not going to come
Speaker 1: back in ninety ninety five percent. I'm going to be
Speaker 1: one hundred percent before it retakes more.
Speaker 2: Keith, you talk about guys playing through injury and not
Speaker 2: having injury prone guys on a team, what is happening
Speaker 2: with Kawhi because he was supposed to be ready to
Speaker 2: go a lot earlier and with all the hoopline la
Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, in Boston, Kawhi and his status has completely
Speaker 2: flown under the radar. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I think the challenge with Kawhi Leonard is when
Speaker 1: the Spurs trade at him after he missed all of
Speaker 1: those games with them, they traded him to the Raptors,
Speaker 1: and then the Raptors really kind of said, hey, we're
Speaker 1: going to put you on a full on maintenance plan.
Speaker 1: Make sure we have what came out at that time
Speaker 1: was he wasn't dealing with a quad injury. It was
Speaker 1: a quad condition, and they said openly this is going
Speaker 1: to last for the rest of his career. And I
Speaker 1: think what we're really looking at now is you're seeing
Speaker 1: the kind of totality of that plus the torn acl
Speaker 1: adding up to being a guy who when he feels
Speaker 1: something it's he's not gonna get He's not going to
Speaker 1: push to get back out there until he feels like
Speaker 1: he's ready. And I think for the Clippers, they're still
Speaker 1: kind of playing it. We have bigger goals. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter winning games in November for us. We want
Speaker 1: to be winning games in May and June, and I
Speaker 1: think they're content to kind of make sure let's getting back.
Speaker 1: My worry is, is he going to come back for
Speaker 1: a week and they need to miss another month, because
Speaker 1: if that happens now all of a sudden, that changes
Speaker 1: the whole upside of the Clippers. And for what it's worth,
Speaker 1: I thought they were going to be in the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals this year.
Speaker 2: Finally, I asked Keith about whether he thought the Rudy
Speaker 2: trade in Minnesota was going to work out long term.
Speaker 2: Hint he's not optimistic Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I think I kind of with the Clippers that I
Speaker 1: thought they might get off to a little bit of
Speaker 1: a slow start, just because I did. I obviously didn't
Speaker 1: think it'd be quite to the extent of time Kawhi's mess,
Speaker 1: but I thought he might miss some time Paul George
Speaker 1: john Wall coming back after a year away. I thought
Speaker 1: they might just take a little bit of time to
Speaker 1: get going. But Minnesota just looks I mean, they look
Speaker 1: like a mess a lot of the time. And now
Speaker 1: I know they won the other night, so maybe they're
Speaker 1: starting to figure some stuff out. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you're five six games into the season and guys are
Speaker 1: already talking about how these lineups don't work and this
Speaker 1: facing is a mess, that's a problem that's normally kind
Speaker 1: of reserved for, you know, thirty forty games into the
Speaker 1: season kind of conversation. So I'm a little bit worried
Speaker 1: about what they are and I got to start to
Speaker 1: wonder if it all falls apart there Danny Age like
Speaker 1: he did with the Celtics when they made the trade
Speaker 1: with the Nets, did he outsource his tank job to
Speaker 1: another team and lets them do it and he builds
Speaker 1: his own roster the way he wants to stay in Utah.
Speaker 2: See, that's a fascinating point Chest not checkers with when
Speaker 2: it comes.
Speaker 1: To Danny Ainge. Yeah, he he really can be you know,
Speaker 1: in that in that position. And I think too, what
Speaker 1: I learned covering him for years, what the Celtics is.
Speaker 1: Danny Ainge is not the kind of guy. He might
Speaker 1: bottom it out for a year, but he is not
Speaker 1: going to do a multi year you know, tear down
Speaker 1: and take. He's far too competitive to that. It sounds good.
Speaker 1: I take to him to hey, let's have a million
Speaker 1: draft picks. But I think he loves the idea of
Speaker 1: if I don't have to do my own tanking, let
Speaker 1: these other teams be bad for me, and I can
Speaker 1: build a pretty good roster like he did, you know
Speaker 1: with Boston when he rebuilt that team kind of on
Speaker 1: the fly with Brett Stevens into what became a playoff
Speaker 1: team and then into eventually a pretty good team as
Speaker 1: they added a few more talented players.
Speaker 2: NMGM Tonight airs Monday through Friday, live seven pm to
Speaker 2: eleven pm Eastern Standard Time. It's available wherever you find
Speaker 2: your podcast. It's also available on demand on the Odyssey
Speaker 2: app a million thanks to Keith Smith, my co host
Speaker 2: Ryan Horbot, and super producer Cameron Gray, along with my
Speaker 2: other co host PJ Glasser. That's all the time that
Speaker 2: we have for the Heat Check. Check the feed please
Speaker 2: for past episodes of many episodes they drop almost every day.
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