Speaker 1: On this emergency episode of The Heat Check. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it happened.
Speaker 2: It happened.
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard has been traded to the Little Walky fucking Bocks.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And we also have a special interview by the way
Speaker 1: with Keith Smith, NBA insider and CAP expert, to break
Speaker 1: it all down, folks from the perspective of every teen
Speaker 1: involved and not involved. Here's looking at You might drop
Speaker 1: everything that you're doing because we need to get into
Speaker 1: this episode right now. Got that beat, Rihanna, the drop
Speaker 1: that beat, William the chimby Rihanna.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: Break was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines.
Speaker 4: We're tuned in to The Heat Check.
Speaker 3: The Heat Check was just a crack the best podcast
Speaker 3: covering all the drama around the association.
Speaker 1: It's breaking, it's breaking news. I know it happened yesterday,
Speaker 1: but I had to do some other work and then
Speaker 1: come home and then record this.
Speaker 2: It is breaking news to me.
Speaker 1: At about two pm Eastern Standard time, we got the
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the the taj Mahal of WOJ bombs.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, right, like, this is the one that's
Speaker 1: made up. This is the WOJ Mary, You've been getting
Speaker 1: your ass fucking handed to you by Sham's for the
Speaker 1: last I don't know three months, and you know what.
Speaker 1: Here we are the redemption arc of Adrian war Janowski.
Speaker 2: It is Dame Lollard.
Speaker 1: The trade is here to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: This is the bomb. This is the sound of the
Speaker 2: WOJ bomb.
Speaker 1: Because Damian Lillard is not a Miami heat Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: is not a Toronto raptor. Like a thief in the night,
Speaker 1: they say, real GE's move in silence, likeless. That is
Speaker 1: John Horst and the Milwaukee Bucks. There's so much to
Speaker 1: process there just is. Let's collectively though, take a deep
Speaker 1: breath because it's been a long summer for this. Inhale, exhale,
Speaker 1: pause the podcast and download your favorite meditation app and know,
Speaker 1: feel your body, Feel every every inch of your body.
Speaker 1: Start with your toes, go all the way to your ankles,
Speaker 1: to your knees, to your thighs, to your elbows, to
Speaker 1: your neck, feel your head and say, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Damian Luller's a Milwaukee Buck. Now that we're as cool
Speaker 1: and calm as the Arctic breeze, I will break down
Speaker 1: the deal. We will then go ape shit again, because
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen and we will dissect it. It's a
Speaker 1: three team deal involving the Blazers of course, the Phoenix Suns. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: because DeAndre Ayton did it was real, and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: Note the one.
Speaker 1: Team missing is the Miami Heat, who said, listen, it's
Speaker 1: all all you can fight and scream. It's like when
Speaker 1: you're on death row and they're like, it's coming, the
Speaker 1: needle is coming for you. Whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1: You can think it it's nappening. You can pretend, you
Speaker 1: can appeal, you can try to run away. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the time, the Miami Heat are inevitable.
Speaker 1: They try to act like there was nothing we could do.
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazer fans they were just gonna hold us down
Speaker 1: and they were just gonna put a pillow on our
Speaker 1: face into our bodies went lifeless, and they took Damian
Speaker 1: Lollard for us. Anyway, they didn't so much to get
Speaker 1: to on that soon the trade, the Blazers get DeAndre Ayton,
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday, Toumani Kamara Kamari nobody cares about him, a
Speaker 1: twenty twenty nine first round pick unprotected, which By that point,
Speaker 1: Dame will probably be out of the league. Two picks
Speaker 1: would and Giannis will probably force his way to another team,
Speaker 1: and two pickswaps in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty,
Speaker 1: the Suns get Yusuf Nurkic Grayson, Allen, Nicirlittle, Keon Johnson,
Speaker 1: The Bucks get Dame Lollard. I didn't see this coming.
Speaker 2: Did you see this coming?
Speaker 1: I don't know that anyone whispered about it. I heard like, oh,
Speaker 1: that would make sense. Jannis wants maybe this team to
Speaker 1: go all in. But no one thought that they would
Speaker 1: get rid of their golden child that they paid for
Speaker 1: four first round picks for Drew Holliday. Not a whisper,
Speaker 1: not from Mark Spears, not from Chris Haynes, no one,
Speaker 1: not a ripple, not a peep, Quiet as church mouses.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think we were all kind of floored
Speaker 1: by the news. My initial reaction, I love it. I can't,
Speaker 1: I mean, inject it into my veins. You know me,
Speaker 1: longtime Bucks fan, a legend at Deer Park.
Speaker 2: Come on, let's get with it.
Speaker 1: Let me rephrase that, though as much as you can love,
Speaker 1: as much as you can love, letting go of your
Speaker 1: favorite blazer in your team's history.
Speaker 2: Just given the options, he was out.
Speaker 1: He was outro right like there was unless you were
Speaker 1: getting honest to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Speaker 2: He was gone. He was giggity gone.
Speaker 1: Joe Cronin knew GM did his best and did about
Speaker 1: as well as you could even expect against all the odds.
Speaker 1: He did the following he protected his team's interest in
Speaker 1: the face of, let's be honest, a disinformation campaign that
Speaker 1: rivals the election in twenty sixteen by Russia. That's where
Speaker 1: we're at, Like the Facebook campaign where it was like
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi had a straight like what was it? Human
Speaker 1: trafficking ring inside of a pizza shop in the garage,
Speaker 1: Like that's where we're at in terms of comparable disinformation campaigns.
Speaker 1: Because they said that Dame would only play for one team,
Speaker 1: and one team only matter where he went, no matter
Speaker 1: if it was a.
Speaker 2: Really good contender.
Speaker 1: He was going to ask to Miami anyway he was,
Speaker 1: he was going to be traded to that one place.
Speaker 1: And you know what Portland said, We are unfazed. We
Speaker 1: are unfazed by this, Honest to god. It was like
Speaker 1: a Cold war Soviet propaganda campaign. Being waged against Joe
Speaker 1: Cronin personally never seen any I think these Miami Heat
Speaker 1: fans were actually rushing bots. I honestly, we need to
Speaker 1: check what their follower accounts really were, who they were,
Speaker 1: where their followers real I don't know they were mad
Speaker 1: at me though. Two. Once Drew is traded, it's going
Speaker 1: to result in a hall commensurate with the superstar you
Speaker 1: get eighton you get likely because you have two.
Speaker 2: Pick swaps and a first round pick.
Speaker 1: So and remember they traded for Drew with two first
Speaker 1: and two pickswaps, so as of now, it's the same
Speaker 1: as the Drew trade minus one first round pick, so
Speaker 1: you're probably getting one or two first round picks back
Speaker 1: for you're likely getting three first rounders and two pickswaps.
Speaker 1: Joe three protected the interest of young guards by not
Speaker 1: adding another one right because you don't want that, and
Speaker 1: moving Dame out, not saddling them with a broken down
Speaker 1: player with like Kyle Lowry who will only hinder their development,
Speaker 1: or that you have to worry about having on this team,
Speaker 1: and telling him to make eighty two t times because
Speaker 1: he's not planning for your squad. Just don't show up. Four.
Speaker 1: They get out from under a very bad Nurkic contract.
Speaker 1: I mean Nurkic is represented by Clutch Sports, so you
Speaker 1: know the deal wasn't great, very underrated move placed Dame
Speaker 1: in a winning position, and everyone said, oh, Portland poverty
Speaker 1: franchise all they're not going to do right by Dame.
Speaker 1: Who's talking about that now, no one. It's a much
Speaker 1: better situation for Dame than Miami was sands no state taxes.
Speaker 1: That one hurts, and then fine, only my favorite one.
Speaker 1: It's not really my favorite one, but we'll just say
Speaker 1: it is he screwed Miami. Joe Cronin said, you know what,
Speaker 1: if it's jump ball, fuck you.
Speaker 2: And he was.
Speaker 1: He was saying it and he was doing it. That,
Speaker 1: my friends, is a six part win with a capitol
Speaker 1: w and with every winner there's got to be losers.
Speaker 1: And the losers in this situation not Dame, but Dame's agent,
Speaker 1: Aaron Goodwin, the hyper aggressive agent who spent the last
Speaker 1: two months telling the world that he was going to
Speaker 1: get exactly what he wanted for his client there was
Speaker 1: nothing that anybody could do about it, trying to convince
Speaker 1: a very increasingly skeptical world that Dame was not going
Speaker 1: to do anything other than play for the Heat. Imagine
Speaker 1: Dame going to Milwaukee and being like at media Day Monday, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I still want the Heat, though not gonna. I know,
Speaker 1: I said I wanted to play for you with you,
Speaker 1: but I'm not really I'm not really about that. Cronin
Speaker 1: destroyed Aaron Goodwin's reputation based on the fact that everything
Speaker 1: that he's been claiming for the last sixty days just
Speaker 1: completely false. Mark Spears just reported the following, with Miami
Speaker 1: talks going nowhere, Agent Goodwin privately told the Bucks and
Speaker 1: Nets ten days ago that Dame would be interested in
Speaker 1: the deal there. Oh that's interesting. Oh, the Raptors were
Speaker 1: a real contender to land the ex Trailblazer Star, but
Speaker 1: ultimately the Bucks got it done. Per WOJE report. Even
Speaker 1: Aaron Goodwin at the end knew the end was coming.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I know that this is a gigantic al for the
Speaker 1: Heats and Goodwin because Goodwin came out with the white flag.
Speaker 1: He said, the Heat did everything that they could do
Speaker 1: acquire Dame. It takes two to get a deal done.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all that Pat, Andy and Mickey did to
Speaker 1: try to make this happen, folks. Here's something that just
Speaker 1: came to my mind as I was reading this. Aaron
Speaker 1: Goodwin has I would say, a very small collection of assets.
Speaker 1: So him playing nicey nicy with the Miami Heat, to me.
Speaker 2: Means one thing.
Speaker 1: He's gonna try to get DeMar de Ro's in there. Yes,
Speaker 1: he is one of his other few clients that he
Speaker 1: has on this team besides Trendon Watford and Dame's cousin
Speaker 1: is DeMar Deroz and that's the other marquee player of
Speaker 1: no just watch it is now September twenty seventh, Do
Speaker 1: not sleep DeMar DeRozan. Heat Talks will heat up the
Speaker 1: other big loser, Miami Heat Reddit, Miami Heat Twitter, the
Speaker 1: wildly arrogant fan base that lives on the Internet because
Speaker 1: no one gas let us harder, no one gas let
Speaker 1: us more feverishly, and no one is more gut punched
Speaker 1: as result than Twitter Heat fans. Immediately, news leaked after
Speaker 1: the deal went down, probably from Blazer's camp, that not
Speaker 1: only did the Blazers not reach out to the Heat
Speaker 1: to match Milwaukee's offer, but also that pat Riley found
Speaker 1: out that Dame got traded to Milwaukee on Twitter with
Speaker 1: everyone else through social media. Just brutal, Just a very
Speaker 1: very bad beat for pat Riley, for this fan base,
Speaker 1: especially for a guy who is pushing in his eighties right,
Speaker 1: who tried to bully, intimidate play chicken with the Blazers
Speaker 1: because he was like, well, what other options do you have?
Speaker 1: I'm not giving you Haimi hawkas, I'm not giving you
Speaker 1: Nikoli Jovich. I'm not giving you anything other than Talerio in.
Speaker 2: Two first round picks.
Speaker 1: Why because I got you over the barrel? Goodness, gracious,
Speaker 1: what's that old saying about karma that it's a dish.
Speaker 1: What's that saying about revenge, that that's a dish best
Speaker 1: served cold? Because Joe Conan served up a full plate
Speaker 1: of frozen revenge to pat Riley. The Heat did not
Speaker 1: do anything, certainly did not do anything to acquire dame,
Speaker 1: and you can argue that they almost did nothing to
Speaker 1: get them. It was almost like they didn't want them.
Speaker 1: Like I said, their offer was Tyler Hero and two
Speaker 1: first round picks, a player that the Blazers did not want,
Speaker 1: did not need, and they said, if you can get
Speaker 1: us multiple firsts for him and its four first round picks,
Speaker 1: then maybe what happened is that pat Riley tried to
Speaker 1: play hardball and it didn't. It did not work. Classic
Speaker 1: case of fuck around and fine out. The other minor
Speaker 1: loser was Toronto. They just do not want to get
Speaker 1: rid of their assets and get anything back.
Speaker 2: They just don't.
Speaker 1: They are actually like the worst at this. They did
Speaker 1: one good thing to get Kawhi Leonard Massai Ujuri, and
Speaker 1: they let Kyle Lowry go for almost nothing. They're gonna
Speaker 1: let they let Fred van Fleet go for nothing. They're
Speaker 1: going to let Ogn and Obi go for nothing. They're
Speaker 1: probably gonna let Pascal Siakam go for nothing, because why
Speaker 1: they would not let Ogn and Obi go for Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard even though Ognnobi is on an expiring Everyone said
Speaker 1: that Portland would have lost that trade because og no
Speaker 1: way would have stayed with Portland and they would have
Speaker 1: just gotten I don't know, Grady Dick to first round
Speaker 1: picks and a guy who doesn't want to be there.
Speaker 1: But guess what Toronto said. No, let's look at the
Speaker 1: reaction from the respective teams fan bases. Starting in Portland,
Speaker 1: things are looking good. Things are rosy, universal celebration. People
Speaker 1: are buying Milwaukee Bucks jerseys probably tickets to Deer Park.
Speaker 1: We all wanted to do right by Dame as long
Speaker 1: as it was right for the Blazers. And guess what
Speaker 1: here it is. And on top of that, big fuck
Speaker 1: you to the heat fans. Vast majority of Blazer fans
Speaker 1: are excited. They have four reactions. One Relief it's over.
Speaker 1: It's over, Blazer fans, It's done. We don't have to
Speaker 1: think about this ever again. Genuine relief from rip City
Speaker 1: that Portland was not bullied into taking a bad deal
Speaker 1: and they no longer have to worry about Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: saying mean things about us on media Day.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: Appreciation for Joe Cronin. He was put in a terrible
Speaker 1: position and somehow found a path so that all the
Speaker 1: people who mattered actually became happy moderately at least. Three.
Speaker 1: Of course we're putting out memes, We're putting out tweets,
Speaker 1: appreciation posts, gratitude for Dame. He's the best, He's the best.
Speaker 1: It was the best a Blazer fan could ever hope for.
Speaker 1: Ten toes down was here a decade, did everything that
Speaker 1: he could to win us a ring. I loved Dame
Speaker 1: as a person, I love Dame as a player. He's
Speaker 1: the best Blazer in my mind to ever suit up.
Speaker 1: And I loved Arvitus a bonus I loved I loved
Speaker 1: Clyde Drexler, But boy, oh boy, were they not Dame
Speaker 1: so many moments that he gave us. I infamously said
Speaker 1: that I don't want Dame to win a chip if
Speaker 1: he goes anywhere else. Really, what I meant is I
Speaker 1: don't want a Dame to I didn't want Dame to
Speaker 1: win a chip if he went to Miami. That's really
Speaker 1: what I meant. That was just me being bitter about Miami.
Speaker 1: I couldn't stomach the fact that pat Riley would win
Speaker 1: because he always wins. Watch winning time. It's just gross,
Speaker 1: a little slick back. He just smuck. And for Portland
Speaker 1: fans feel happiness over the fact that Nurk is not
Speaker 1: there anymore and that contract's not there anymore.
Speaker 2: And you get a young number one overall.
Speaker 1: Draft pick from a few years ago who's got a
Speaker 1: lot left of potential in the tank. DeAndre Ayden didn't
Speaker 1: get a great shake in Phoenix, and now you get
Speaker 1: him and Drew who will result in a Hall. And yes,
Speaker 1: I think that that's a great way to set the
Speaker 1: Blazers up for the future. So I say, I think
Speaker 1: it's safe to say that Blazer Nation is pretty good.
Speaker 1: If you're a Mowahi Ho fan, you've gotta be fucking stunned.
Speaker 2: You're stunned. How did we get this? We didn't even know.
Speaker 2: We thought it was July and it's Christmas.
Speaker 1: We woke up in the middle of July and there's
Speaker 1: a room full of presents for us under a tree
Speaker 1: we didn't even know should be there. Every Buck site,
Speaker 1: every Bucks podcast is like, huh, how what we thought
Speaker 1: we were losing Giannis? And all I see is how
Speaker 1: GM John big Balls Horse pulls some shit off like this.
Speaker 1: Although Mark Spears mentioned that the Bucks had preliminary talks
Speaker 1: with the Blazers, no one saw it coming. Just like
Speaker 1: with the Drew trade. La la la la, Holy shit
Speaker 1: woj bomb. Bucks fans also appreciative. They love Drew Holliday,
Speaker 1: they don't want to let him go. But you can't
Speaker 1: say no to Dame time AKA it's now called freak time, Pauls.
Speaker 2: No one thinks it's bad trade.
Speaker 1: The idea of Dame keeping defenses from collapsing on Giannis
Speaker 1: is going to be great of course, they've got unbridled
Speaker 1: giddy excitement. They've moved from the fourth favorite plus six
Speaker 1: hundred to the leader in the clubhouse in one minute,
Speaker 1: in literally a minute. If I didn't know how happy
Speaker 1: this fan base was, the hundreds of variations of I'm
Speaker 1: glad I wore white pants today joke would have been
Speaker 1: a dead giveaway. And rightly so, this combo is going
Speaker 1: to be deadly number one duo in the East, probably
Speaker 1: number one duo in the NBA. If you're a Sixers
Speaker 1: and Celtics fan, you're like, how are we guarding that?
Speaker 1: We used to just build a wall around Giannis and
Speaker 1: now like this, the wall doesn't work anymore, does not work?
Speaker 1: A brief pit stop. Also in Phoenix, as facilitators of
Speaker 1: this deal, they it was just never gonna work with
Speaker 1: DeAndre aid and they hated them. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but they did. They got Vogel. Vogel was saying all
Speaker 1: the right things. I think Vogo could have turned eight
Speaker 1: and into a nice center, and they just they just
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, let's stop trying to make DeAndre Ayton happen.
Speaker 1: It's not happening.
Speaker 2: I love him, I love Ayton. I think he's awesome.
Speaker 1: I've always loved Dayton since he was I loved Dayton
Speaker 1: since he was fifteen years old when I saw him
Speaker 1: at the Adida's Nations. That's how long. So this is
Speaker 1: a fresh start for him. He finally gets the respect
Speaker 1: he wants. He's already changed his two K jersey and
Speaker 1: putting it online to Portland. Hell yeah, the Suns pick
Speaker 1: up badly needed depth. They get in this yere little
Speaker 1: They get Keon Johnson and they get NRK's gonna know
Speaker 1: his role. He's gonna shut his mouth and he's gonna
Speaker 1: play with KD. He's gonna love it too. Everyone's everyone
Speaker 1: in Phoenix has got to be pretty much over the mood.
Speaker 1: Finally we end in Miami, where fans are starting to
Speaker 1: cannibalize on one another. It's bad out there on the streets.
Speaker 1: They're like ready to turn on pat Riley. They're saying
Speaker 1: he's a slappy when they were saying he was the
Speaker 1: smartest facilitator League exec Ever, how much changes in an
Speaker 1: hour as why it's WHOA. The entire fan base was
Speaker 1: convinced they were getting damned. They would have staked their
Speaker 1: beating heart on it, and now rug is out from
Speaker 1: under them, and they're looking around like Will Smith in
Speaker 1: an empty room. How is the heat in their fan
Speaker 1: base taking the news. Let's look into it. What's the emotions?
Speaker 1: Do we really care what their emotions are? Do we
Speaker 1: really care about them? No, but we'll go into it.
Speaker 1: Number one is anger. They're just shocked and angry. A
Speaker 1: whole lot of angry posts across social meeting like how
Speaker 1: did this happen? They've whiffed on one star after another
Speaker 1: to add to Jimmy and bam Nobile even though that
Speaker 1: what Phoenix got him for peanuts. There were some pat
Speaker 1: Riley as eighty and he's lost his fastball. He needs
Speaker 1: to retire posts. Someone tweeted that it was Joe Cronin's fault,
Speaker 1: It was Danny Ainge's fault, it was Clutch's fault, It
Speaker 1: was everybody's fault except for pat Riley's. If the whole
Speaker 1: league is against them, maybe we should replace him with
Speaker 1: someone that can actually get along with people.
Speaker 2: Whoa WHOA hold on?
Speaker 1: Now, settle down, Heat fans. Remember you told me everything
Speaker 1: was fine, and you were just in the finals last year,
Speaker 1: so seems like everything's fine. Number two emotion is rage.
Speaker 1: Rage at the Blazers, which I gotta say is my
Speaker 1: favorite emotion of them all. Much more common were Heat
Speaker 1: fans believing that the Blazers did this out of straight pettiness,
Speaker 1: which I don't know whether that's true, but if it is,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. That's awesome. They're big mad folks, big mad,
Speaker 1: and they're blaming Joe Cronin. This fan base is delusional.
Speaker 1: They really, they really are. The fact that Joe Cronin
Speaker 1: would take a worse deal just screw over Miami is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Like I said, if it's a jump ball, it's fuck you.
Speaker 1: Number three is resignation. I think they're starting to realize that.
Speaker 2: They've got nothing.
Speaker 1: They've lost multiple role plays, guys that played, two guys
Speaker 1: that played in the starting lineup for the entire playoffs,
Speaker 1: and those guys are gone. The Heat, heatles, heat over
Speaker 1: heat a verse. I guess we'll call it felt a
Speaker 1: whole lot of uh, just resignation over the news. They
Speaker 1: kept being told that they can't go all in on
Speaker 1: a superstar because the next star down the road is
Speaker 1: the one. That's what the genius about Joe Cronin really
Speaker 1: is though, because the next Domino was supposed to be honest,
Speaker 1: and now they've taken them both away and one fell swoop,
Speaker 1: and they've actually taken three away because let's be real,
Speaker 1: the next Domino guard that they wanted was Drew Holliday,
Speaker 1: and guess what, you're not getting him either. So option
Speaker 1: one gone, Option two gone, Option three gone fuck you.
Speaker 1: That means there's only one possibility for them on the
Speaker 1: table and the Jimmy bam Era, and that's Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: And folks, if that's your backup plan, I hate to
Speaker 1: tell you the seventy six ers are in the market for.
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday and boil boy.
Speaker 1: Do I see Joe Cronin making that move, which would
Speaker 1: be about checkmate?
Speaker 2: Check mate?
Speaker 1: I think there are two things Heat fans can take
Speaker 1: away from today. One, this team signed our j Hampton,
Speaker 1: which is a personal favorite player of mine, considering that
Speaker 1: I watched Davion Mitchell cook him for an entire Summer
Speaker 1: League game telling us about all of the ways he
Speaker 1: was just trash. You got that going for you, which
Speaker 1: is nice. And the team tweeted out that Josh Richardson
Speaker 1: will wear the number zero for the Heat.
Speaker 2: Wow, if that's not putting.
Speaker 1: Oh god, if that's not throwing in the towel, I
Speaker 1: don't know what is silver linings, heat fans, silver linings.
Speaker 1: My personal feeling on a more we'll call it Sincere
Speaker 1: and Ote is that I'm incredibly happy that this is
Speaker 1: the duo we got because these are two of the
Speaker 1: most loyal guys in the NBA, and they both were
Speaker 1: kind of pushed to the brink. And now because they
Speaker 1: said something, Hey, I need to win, they got put
Speaker 1: together Dame and Joannie. And the truth is, Dame, no
Speaker 1: matter how much he said he wanted to be in Miami,
Speaker 1: said this a long time ago about Yiannis, and I
Speaker 1: think it still rings true today.
Speaker 3: If you were to pick a player that would help
Speaker 3: you win a championship.
Speaker 5: Who would you pick?
Speaker 3: I would pick I hope people get to play with
Speaker 3: Giannis at some point. Those two would be a very
Speaker 3: very nice come bo. I mean, I would say, just
Speaker 3: the dominance. You know, somebody that's you know, gonna get
Speaker 3: to the rim. He's a good playmaker, a good defender, disruptive,
Speaker 3: and the way he plays compliments the way I play.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, and so I like that for Dame a lot.
Speaker 2: I think he deserves.
Speaker 1: Maybe you guys thought I really meant that he did
Speaker 1: not deserve to have basketball happiness. But I really think
Speaker 1: this is good for both of them. They're two of
Speaker 1: the most likable guys in the league. I wish them
Speaker 1: all the best.
Speaker 2: It's a lot easier.
Speaker 1: Also, another thought that I had about this is just
Speaker 1: it was so much easier for Milwaukee to do this
Speaker 1: for you, honest, than it was for Portland to do
Speaker 1: this for Dame, because big guys like Giannis really really
Speaker 1: hard to find, hence the reason he's a two time MVP,
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the Year and Greek freak. Than it
Speaker 1: is to do that when you've got a guard, which
Speaker 1: are a lot easier to replace. And I think Dame
Speaker 1: obviously I consider him a top three guard in the league.
Speaker 1: But star players ask out a lot more when they're guards.
Speaker 1: That's just the truth.
Speaker 2: Embeid.
Speaker 1: As much as he's been quote unquote unhappy, he's been rocking.
Speaker 1: You're not getting a Yo Kic. You're not getting a
Speaker 1: y honest, because teams don't want to give up on
Speaker 1: those dudes. I am also happy that Miami did not
Speaker 1: get what they wanted. I think I've said that multiple
Speaker 1: times on this podcast, but it's worth saying again, I
Speaker 1: am happy that they are left holding their dicks. Their
Speaker 1: fans were insufferable and guess what, Like, I'm more upset
Speaker 1: that there were legit Miami quote unquote journalists that were
Speaker 1: trying to manipulate the information to make it seem like
Speaker 1: there was nothing that Portland could do. I do hope
Speaker 1: that if Dame gets a ring in my Milwaukee, that
Speaker 1: he gets multiple. I hope that they stay together forever.
Speaker 1: I would not mind if they were title contenders and
Speaker 1: they were running through the East. For a minute, I
Speaker 1: thought that Cronan as a new GM, did a fantastic job.
Speaker 1: He played his cards to his vest. There was no leaks.
Speaker 1: There were plenty of people who were saying that Joe
Speaker 1: Conan had dick, and you know what, he knew he didn't,
Speaker 1: but he didn't say a word. He kept things closed
Speaker 1: and that's what good gms do. It's a great day
Speaker 1: also for the NBA. Why if Dame had gone to Miami,
Speaker 1: every star player would be like yeah, and every agent
Speaker 1: would say I can get my client wherever I want
Speaker 1: to go and wherever they want to go, whenever I
Speaker 1: want to go, and that's just what you cannot have
Speaker 1: if you're Adam Silver. So a good day for the logo,
Speaker 1: great day for the logo. I am happy for Dame.
Speaker 1: I really don't think the Blazers did right by Dame,
Speaker 1: and that's not Joe Cronin's fault, so I'm glad that
Speaker 1: they have found.
Speaker 2: An end to this chapter.
Speaker 1: I am happy for watching Dame on the East Coast
Speaker 1: because ten pm from the East Coast is a rough
Speaker 1: fucking beat forty one times. For Dame to play at
Speaker 1: ten thirty is disgusting. And it's a great day for
Speaker 1: the league, good day for Blazer fans, good day for Dame,
Speaker 1: and good day for fans of the entire league.
Speaker 2: And if it's not.
Speaker 1: A good day for you, you're a Heat fan.
Speaker 2: That was That's the end of this portion.
Speaker 1: Since that was so much fun, we needed someone to
Speaker 1: come in and give us a full on breakdown. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to bring on Keith Smith for a special Dame
Speaker 1: centric interview. If you don't know Keith, you don't know anything.
Speaker 1: He's the insider insider from Spowtrack. He came ont of
Speaker 1: the show bet MGM tonight to give his candid reaction
Speaker 1: to the Dame Trade. The other voices that you hear
Speaker 1: are my co host Nick Ashy and Ryan Horvat. He
Speaker 1: also breaks down what happens now with Miami and with
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday. So let's get into it all right.
Speaker 5: Keith Smith jumps on. It's been a while since we've talked, Keith.
Speaker 5: It's been quiet in the NBA for a while, and
Speaker 5: then boom, we get this bomb today, Damian Lillard's off
Speaker 5: to the Bucks. Let's just I guess paying a big
Speaker 5: picture for not just the Bucks, but really all three
Speaker 5: teams involved here and sort of what your takeaways were
Speaker 5: from the trade?
Speaker 4: Yeah, very unexpected. You know, we'd heard over the last
Speaker 4: few days that Toronto was getting close, and then there
Speaker 4: were some buds that maybe Miami might re engage. And
Speaker 4: I think there's some spin going on now on exactly
Speaker 4: you know, what the Heat did and didn't offer, and
Speaker 4: what they did and didn't do in the last couple
Speaker 4: of days. But it's you know, the Bucks are in
Speaker 4: a position where they were looking to make a big
Speaker 4: splash to try to convince Jianna, hey, we're committed, and
Speaker 4: we're not just committed for another year or so, we're
Speaker 4: really trying to lock in for the next several years
Speaker 4: to try to keep winning. And that's what he said
Speaker 4: that do, and that's what they'd gone out and done
Speaker 4: for Portland. Clearly, you're rebuilding, so you're going to get
Speaker 4: the young player and DeAndre eight and you're getting the
Speaker 4: draft picks coming in from Milwaukee. We'll see what happens
Speaker 4: with Drew Holiday. He's probably never even going to show
Speaker 4: up in Portland at this point. They're probably going to
Speaker 4: work a trade before that happens. And then the Phoenix
Speaker 4: Suns a bit of an odd edition in here, but
Speaker 4: they wanted to get move on from DeAndre eat and
Speaker 4: break that contract up into several smaller contracts. They get
Speaker 4: use of Nurkics coming in and will step in at
Speaker 4: their starting five, and then we'll see where they go
Speaker 4: with the other guys. They got like Chrason Allen in
Speaker 4: this here.
Speaker 1: Little You're a I would call you a professional. You're
Speaker 1: a real deal journalist, Keith. I have been sickened by
Speaker 1: Miami media not doing real journalism, and I'm okay with
Speaker 1: that normally, but they've actually tried to bully and strong
Speaker 1: arm the Portland Trailblazers into taking that terrible deal. What's
Speaker 1: your perspective on kind of how this whole thing is
Speaker 1: played out, because it looks looks very silly in hindsight
Speaker 1: in terms of what they were doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, you know, anytime you start taking the
Speaker 4: approach of trying to negotiate for a team, it's gonna
Speaker 4: be a little backwards. Then you know, we're we're in
Speaker 4: this world now of fans covering teams, and that that's,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of a thing that happens. I'm often
Speaker 4: I did it. I grew up a Celtics fan. I
Speaker 4: covered the Celtics for years, but I like to think
Speaker 4: I tried to stay fairly objective about it, even you know,
Speaker 4: at times, I know my fandom leaked in there for sure,
Speaker 4: but there's never a point where I was out there saying,
Speaker 4: you know, like, right now there's reports Boston wants Strew holiday,
Speaker 4: but I'm not gonna pitch. You know, well, the trouble
Speaker 4: Azers should absolutely take Malcolm Brogden. He'd be great for that.
Speaker 4: He doesn't make any sense for them, just like Tyler
Speaker 4: Hero wouldn't have made any sense. So yeah, it was
Speaker 4: definitely one of those things where you know, if anything
Speaker 4: I'm almost glad this is over so we don't have
Speaker 4: to listen to and hear that kind of stuff on
Speaker 4: it any basis anymore, all across social media.
Speaker 1: So what happened with the Portland and Miami negotiations in
Speaker 1: terms of what you know because we're hearing a lot
Speaker 1: of different information about Portland didn't go back.
Speaker 2: To Miami when they had other deals on the table.
Speaker 1: Originally there was no deals that were outside of Miami.
Speaker 2: Aaron Goodwin, Now I hear.
Speaker 1: We're report there were some reports that he went to
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and Brooklyn and said Dame actually would go there, Like,
Speaker 1: what are you hearing?
Speaker 4: Yeah? What I heard was, you know, Miami obviously engaged
Speaker 4: them right away, and it openly said, hey, we know,
Speaker 4: you know, this may take the thirteen. There may not
Speaker 4: be a direct two team match here because any trade
Speaker 4: they did was going to involve either Kyle Lowry or
Speaker 4: Tyler Hero as the primary salary matching Pete in the
Speaker 4: Blazers that they're not in a position where they really
Speaker 4: want to take on either of those guys. Miami also
Speaker 4: was capped out at offering two draft picks in a
Speaker 4: lot of teams view of the Miami heat draft picks
Speaker 4: similar to the Los Angeles Lakers, where yeah, it sounds
Speaker 4: good to have them, but it's pretty rare when those
Speaker 4: teams are bad and bad for very long. So what
Speaker 4: it turns into is do we really want all all
Speaker 4: of those picks, you know, from them? And you know,
Speaker 4: then we're gonna have to turn around and move Hero
Speaker 4: or move Lowry and that's going to be a complicated process.
Speaker 4: So everything sounds like there was no real two team
Speaker 4: match there, and then what ultimately happened was Portland was, hey,
Speaker 4: we're gonna move on. If you want to make this work,
Speaker 4: you got to find the third team. We're not going
Speaker 4: to be the ones that go out there and find
Speaker 4: that third team to make this happen. You're you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to, you know, figure this out. So I think
Speaker 4: we're in a spot where it just wasn't a match
Speaker 4: for and a lot got made of you know, Portland's
Speaker 4: unwillingness to be reasonable when it's not on them to
Speaker 4: be the team that puts together the full trade when
Speaker 4: they had other options and obviously took one.
Speaker 6: Keith really quick moving over to the West because the
Speaker 6: Sun's also obviously involved in the deal, and they're the
Speaker 6: favorites right now, even over the Nuggets in the West.
Speaker 6: So do you think they're a better team after these moves?
Speaker 6: Obviously they needed death, but they moved DeAndre, and you
Speaker 6: bring in Grayson Allen, you bring in Little, you already
Speaker 6: added Eric Gordon. Do you think the Suns are a
Speaker 6: better team today on Wednesday than they were on Tuesday
Speaker 6: after this deal?
Speaker 4: You know, I don't know. It's tough because as much
Speaker 4: as I like Yusef Nurkic, and he's a better offensive
Speaker 4: player than DeAndre Ayton, I look at him. How much
Speaker 4: more offense do you need? You have Kevin Durant, you
Speaker 4: have Devin Booker, you have Bradley Deal. If you're really
Speaker 4: feeling like you need to add more offense, well then
Speaker 4: you you you better be planning on outscoring teams, you know, one,
Speaker 4: forty one twenty five every night. And and Ayton, he's
Speaker 4: not a great defender, but he's a better defender than Nurkic.
Speaker 4: He's got more potential to be a better defender in Nurkic.
Speaker 4: I think Frank Vogel was going to be able to
Speaker 4: pull that out of him. He's some wonders with big
Speaker 4: men throughout the course of his career. But I kind
Speaker 4: of get it. They wanted more of a short thing
Speaker 4: with Nurkic. They are a guy they weren't gonna probably
Speaker 4: worry at all about his his you know, buy in
Speaker 4: and really want to work and do all the things.
Speaker 4: He knows he's a role player and he's going to
Speaker 4: come in and play that role great fan Allen will
Speaker 4: help because he can play both guard positions. They're a
Speaker 4: little weak at guard depth behind the two primary guys
Speaker 4: and Booker and Beale. Eric Gordon is a veteran but
Speaker 4: a little bit older. He's had some injury issues, so
Speaker 4: that's something to watch. And then if you're little just
Speaker 4: a player I really like. But we'll see. There's there's
Speaker 4: kind of a you know, mix of guys that are
Speaker 4: going to be in there battling for minutes in the
Speaker 4: starting five and alongside Kevin Durant, you know, in that group,
Speaker 4: and behind Durant as well. So we're gonna see. I
Speaker 4: think they're probably better. I don't know that they're appreciably better.
Speaker 4: I've still got them behind Denver, but they're right there.
Speaker 4: They were already number two, and I don't know that
Speaker 4: this changes much from the being number two for.
Speaker 5: Me talking to Keith Smith bet MGM tonight. So obviously
Speaker 5: a lot of reports that Drew Holliday may get just
Speaker 5: flipped by Portland. Where do you see him or what
Speaker 5: are some the maybe the most likely landing spots for him?
Speaker 5: And could Portland make any other moves after that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, to answer the second part, I don't think oregan
Speaker 4: to see Portland do much else because they're pretty well fent.
Speaker 4: Now you basically got your young core in place with
Speaker 4: Scoot Henderson, Shaden Sharp Anfony Simon. Now you're at DeAndre
Speaker 4: Ayton for that mix, got Chris Murray who also drafted.
Speaker 4: Basically everybody outside of Drew Holiday is under thirty on
Speaker 4: this roster. Jeremy Grant will turn thirty in season, but
Speaker 4: you know he's locked into such a long term contract.
Speaker 4: Nothing's gonna happen with that one anytime soon. So it's
Speaker 4: gonna be Drew Holiday after Who could trade for any
Speaker 4: team that has title aspirations? I could use A guard
Speaker 4: is probably picked up the phone and called. Whether it's Philadelphia,
Speaker 4: Boston or Toronto or maybe the La Clippers. I'm sure
Speaker 4: all those teams are looking at it. And saying, hey,
Speaker 4: what did it take. And one of the things I
Speaker 4: was told, you know, in the aftermath of the trade
Speaker 4: was hey, it's easier to trade for Drew Holiday than
Speaker 4: it is to trade for Damian Liller because he makes
Speaker 4: a lot less money. And you know, the teams are
Speaker 4: going to look at it and say, yeah, he's a
Speaker 4: very good player, but he's not Damian Lillard. So I
Speaker 4: think you're gonna see a lot of teams making offers
Speaker 4: and getting involved. And I do think Kortan will get
Speaker 4: him traded, probably before everything kicks off next week, because
Speaker 4: one of the motivating factors in all of this was
Speaker 4: given Chauncey Billips the roster, who is going to have
Speaker 4: to start the year without a whole bunch of stuff
Speaker 4: hanging over him of yeah we'll get fifth guy, my
Speaker 4: trade him and all that. They want him to be
Speaker 4: able to start fresh with that young group, and I
Speaker 4: think that's gonna be a big part to get a
Speaker 4: Holiday moved fairly quickly.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of teams that want Holiday, not a
Speaker 1: lot of teams that have what it takes to get Holiday.
Speaker 1: Who do you think is the most likely team to
Speaker 1: get him? Who are some dark horses and who would
Speaker 1: you absolutely rule out.
Speaker 4: I would keep an eye on Philadelphia to get him.
Speaker 4: He was one of the players that they were talked
Speaker 4: about maybe trying to go after or with this whole
Speaker 4: cap space plan for next summer. And I think people
Speaker 4: maybe have forgotten that we started his career and that
Speaker 4: they loved him. They just basically said, hey's too good
Speaker 4: for what we're going to be. He has a team
Speaker 4: as we start the process years so we got to
Speaker 4: move on. And they've obviously jinks Harden becomes the immediate
Speaker 4: easy salary match. Not direct to Portland. They'd have to
Speaker 4: be a third team. So maybe the Clippers get in there,
Speaker 4: and the Clippers and Philly both send a pick to
Speaker 4: Gill Portland's way, or you know, we get you know,
Speaker 4: some a couple of players moved on, and that's how
Speaker 4: this happens. That there definitely could be something there with
Speaker 4: that team. I know Boston would love to have them.
Speaker 4: Their challenge is it's Malcolm Brogden and then putting together.
Speaker 4: The other piece is that you've got to trade you know,
Speaker 4: either Robert Williams Al Horford or a whole bunch of
Speaker 4: guys a depth, and then you can have to make
Speaker 4: it up the difference with draft picks, and that becomes
Speaker 4: a little bit of a challenge for the Celtics. But
Speaker 4: I you know one thing, Drew Holliday, the agent, has
Speaker 4: done a lot of work with Boston over the years.
Speaker 4: So I wouldn't rule them out that they're being aggressive.
Speaker 4: They're trying to, you know, make things to happen if
Speaker 4: they can. So you know what we're gonna see. You know,
Speaker 4: I think we're in a spot where this is going
Speaker 4: to be really interesting to watch this playoff. Who would
Speaker 4: absolutely rule out the Lakers aren't going to get them.
Speaker 4: Of course, they're fans of media who want to, oh
Speaker 4: well we'll get them, We'll trade you know, D'andelo, Russell
Speaker 4: and other stuff, without any regard of why would Portland
Speaker 4: want those things. But that's just feel what Laker fans.
Speaker 1: Do You think there's any chance that Orlando tries to
Speaker 1: get in the mix, because that's what Kevin O'Connor thinks
Speaker 1: is a good look.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think so. It just doesn't scream what
Speaker 4: they're trying to do. They're trying to build something that
Speaker 4: can be sustainable for years here in Orlando. That's where
Speaker 4: I am and where I'm located, So I know that
Speaker 4: front office that they're they're content to just keep building
Speaker 4: with what they've got. They're very happy with the players
Speaker 4: that they have. And this would mean, all right, we
Speaker 4: got to start cashing in some guys. There's no organizational
Speaker 4: push to you got to be a playoff team this
Speaker 4: year or anything like that, Cummings. So there's no motivation
Speaker 4: from that side to make a trade like this, and
Speaker 4: I'm not ready to cash in. They're young players and
Speaker 4: their young assets to make something like this happen right now.
Speaker 4: So I think we're in a spot where you know
Speaker 4: the magic I get it there. It could make sense,
Speaker 4: but I just don't see that being something that happens.
Speaker 5: Keith.
Speaker 6: In my perfect world, Drew Holliday goes to the Clippers,
Speaker 6: they get an actual point guard.
Speaker 5: Kawhi and Paul George stay healthy. So that means so that.
Speaker 6: Means Philadelphia gets nothing. And that's what I wanted to
Speaker 6: ask you really quick about. So if Philadelphia strikes out
Speaker 6: on everything this offseason, any chance, and like they get
Speaker 6: off to a slow start, that Embiid maybe asks to
Speaker 6: get moved.
Speaker 4: I don't think he'll see that in season, but I
Speaker 4: think if they flame out early again in the playoffs
Speaker 4: and he's like, man, we just kind of punt it
Speaker 4: a little bit on this year, and now it's this
Speaker 4: cap space stuff and what are we going to do
Speaker 4: with it? Because the free agent market isn't great and
Speaker 4: I know you can use cap space to make trades obviously,
Speaker 4: but that's become a whole other thing. I could see
Speaker 4: at the end of the season Jill Embiid saying, hey,
Speaker 4: what are we doing? Hey, I want to win before
Speaker 4: it comes out, because you know, Jolan Bead's thirty. Now,
Speaker 4: he's you know, in I believe this is your ten
Speaker 4: or eleven for him, like he's not. You know, I
Speaker 4: think there's still because he missed all that time early.
Speaker 4: There's a thought of that he's still like twenty five,
Speaker 4: twenty six years old and he's only been around for
Speaker 4: you know, seven years or something. But he's starting to,
Speaker 4: you know, hit the point where hey, if I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna win here, I want to do it somewhere and
Speaker 4: let's let's get this figured out. So I think maybe
Speaker 4: after this year you see him start asking some questions
Speaker 4: and it might be as simple as hey, Yannis said,
Speaker 4: he wanted guys, and the Bucks went and got them.
Speaker 4: Damian Lillard, I want guys to and what are we
Speaker 4: doing here?
Speaker 5: Got about a minute left or so here James Harden,
Speaker 5: I mean, like, what the hell is gonna happen with this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I think we might be in
Speaker 4: for an ugly media day. There's talks he may not
Speaker 4: even show up, which if you're Philadelphia that may answer
Speaker 4: it be for the best. Just you know, let's hit
Speaker 4: him with a fine and he doesn't show up and
Speaker 4: and go, And then it turns to or what a
Speaker 4: training camp looks like because they're headed out to Colorado
Speaker 4: Springs for training camp. Is he gonna be there working
Speaker 4: out with him? Do you want him there? Is he
Speaker 4: gonna show up and do what he did at the
Speaker 4: end of his next tenure. That's the messy stuff that
Speaker 4: could happen with James Harden unless there's a trade found
Speaker 4: here in the next few days. And it just doesn't
Speaker 4: seem like anybody's jumping at the opportunity to trade for him.
Speaker 5: Keith Smith, I know you've been busy. Really appreciate the
Speaker 5: time man, Thanks for coming on with us.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we have for this episode
Speaker 1: of The Heat Check. Come back next week for an
Speaker 1: all new episode. Many thanks to Keith as my co
Speaker 1: hosts Nick Ashew and Ryan Horbite, and producer Scott Lynn
Speaker 1: from bed MGM Tonight. Check out the feed for past
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