Speaker 1: Break was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines were
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Speaker 2: All Right, Keith Smith jumps on. It's been a while
Speaker 2: since we've talked, Keith. It's has been quiet in the
Speaker 2: NBA for a while, and then boom, we get this
Speaker 2: bomb today, Damian Lillard's off to the Bucks. Let's just
Speaker 2: I guess paying a big picture for not just the Bucks,
Speaker 2: but really all three teams involved here and sort of
Speaker 2: what your takeaways were from the trade?
Speaker 3: Yeah, very unexpected. You know, we'd heard over the last
Speaker 3: few days that Toronto was getting close and then there
Speaker 3: were some bods that maybe Miami might re engage. And
Speaker 3: I think there's some spin going on now on exactly
Speaker 3: you know, what the Heat did and didn't offer, and
Speaker 3: what they did and didn't do in the last couple
Speaker 3: of days. But it's you know, the Bucks are in
Speaker 3: a position where they were looking to make a big
Speaker 3: splash to try to convince Giannes, hey we're committed, and
Speaker 3: we're not just committed for another year or so. We're
Speaker 3: really trying to lock in for the next several years
Speaker 3: to try to keep winning. And that's what he said
Speaker 3: that do, and that's what they've gone out and done
Speaker 3: for Portland. Clearly, you're rebuilding, so you're going to get
Speaker 3: the young player and DeAndre eight, and you're getting the
Speaker 3: draft picks coming in from Milwaukee. We'll see what happens
Speaker 3: with Drew Holiday. He's probably never even going to show
Speaker 3: up in Portland at this point. They're probably gonna work
Speaker 3: a trade before that happens. And then the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 3: a bit of an odd edition in here, but they
Speaker 3: wanted to get move on from DeAndre eat and break
Speaker 3: that contract up into several smaller contracts. They get use
Speaker 3: of nurkics coming in and we'll step in at their
Speaker 3: starting five, and then we'll see where they go with
Speaker 3: the other guys. They got like Chraason Allen in this here.
Speaker 4: Little you're a I would call you a professional. You're
Speaker 4: a real deal journalist, Keith. I have been sickened by
Speaker 4: Miami media not doing real journalism, and I'm okay with
Speaker 4: that normally, but they've actually tried to bully and strong
Speaker 4: arm the Portland Trailblazers into taking that terrible deal. What's
Speaker 4: your perspective on kind of how this whole thing is
Speaker 4: played out, because it looks looks very silly in hindsight
Speaker 4: in terms of what they were doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, anytime you start taking the
Speaker 3: approach of trying to negotiate for a team, you're it's
Speaker 3: going to be a little backwards. Then you know, we're
Speaker 3: in this world now of fans covering teams, and that that's,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of a thing that happened. I'm often
Speaker 3: I did it. I grew up a Celtics fan. I
Speaker 3: covered the Celtics for years, but I like to take
Speaker 3: that tried to say fairly objective about it, even you know,
Speaker 3: at times, I know my fandom leaked in there for sure,
Speaker 3: but there's never a point where I was out there saying,
Speaker 3: you know, like right now there's reports Boston wants Strew Holliday,
Speaker 3: but I'm not going to pitch. You know, well, the
Speaker 3: Troublizer should absolutely take Malcolm Brogden. He'd be great for that.
Speaker 3: It doesn't make any sense for them, just like Tyler
Speaker 3: wouldn't have made any sense. So yeah, it was definitely
Speaker 3: one of those things where you know, if anything, I'm
Speaker 3: almost glad this is over, so we don't have to
Speaker 3: listen to and hear that kind of stuff on a
Speaker 3: daily basis anymore, all across social media.
Speaker 4: So what happened with the Portland and Miami negotiations in
Speaker 4: terms of what you know, because we're hearing a lot
Speaker 4: of different information about Portland didn't go back to Miami
Speaker 4: when they had other deals on the table. Originally there
Speaker 4: was no deals that were outside of Miami. Aaron Goodwin,
Speaker 4: Now I hear we're report there were some reports that
Speaker 4: he went to Milwaukee and Brooklyn and said dam actually
Speaker 4: would go there. What are you hearing?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What I heard was, you know, Miami obviously engaged them
Speaker 3: right away, and it openly said, hey, we know, you
Speaker 3: know this may take to thirteen. There may not be
Speaker 3: a direct two team match here because any trade they
Speaker 3: did was going to involve either Kyle Lowry or Tyler
Speaker 3: heroes with primary salary matching eat in the Blazers that
Speaker 3: they're not in a position where they really want to
Speaker 3: take on either of those guys. Miami also was capped
Speaker 3: out at offering two draft picks and a lot of
Speaker 3: teams view of the Miami Heat draft picks and similar
Speaker 3: to the Los Angeles Lakers, where yeah, it sounds good
Speaker 3: to have them, but it's pretty rare when those teams
Speaker 3: are bad and bad for very long. So what it
Speaker 3: turns into is do we really want all all of
Speaker 3: those picks, you know, from them? And you know, then
Speaker 3: we're gonna have to turn around and move Hero or
Speaker 3: move Lowry and that's going to be a complicated process.
Speaker 3: So everything sounds like there was no real two team
Speaker 3: match there, and then what ultimately happened was Portland was, hey,
Speaker 3: we're gonna move on. If you want to make this work,
Speaker 3: you've got to find the third team. We're not going
Speaker 3: to be the ones that go out there and find
Speaker 3: that third team to make this happen. You're you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to, you know, figure this out. So I think
Speaker 3: we're in a spot where it just wasn't a match
Speaker 3: for and a lot got made of you know, Portland's
Speaker 3: unwillingness to be re when it's not on them to
Speaker 3: be the team that puts together the full trade when
Speaker 3: they had other options and obviously took one.
Speaker 5: Keith really quick moving over to the West because the
Speaker 5: Sun's also obviously involved in the deal and they're the favorites,
Speaker 5: right now even over the Nuggets in the West. So
Speaker 5: do you think they're a better team after these moves?
Speaker 5: Obviously they needed death, but they moved DeAndre, and you
Speaker 5: bring in Grayson Allen, you bring in Little you already
Speaker 5: added Eric Gordon. Do you think the Sons are a
Speaker 5: better team today on Wednesday than they were on Tuesday
Speaker 5: after this deal?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. It's tough because as much
Speaker 3: as I like yus of Narkic, and he's a better
Speaker 3: offensive player than DeAndre, eton I look at him. How
Speaker 3: much more offense do you need? You have Kevin Durant,
Speaker 3: you have Devin Booker, you have Bradley Deal. If you're
Speaker 3: really feeling like you need to add more offense, well
Speaker 3: then you you better be planning on outscoring teams, you know,
Speaker 3: one forty to one to twenty five every night. And
Speaker 3: and Ayton he's not a great defender, but he's a
Speaker 3: better defender than Nurkic. He's got more potential to be
Speaker 3: a better defender in Nurkic. I think Frank Goal was
Speaker 3: going to be able to pull that out of him.
Speaker 3: Some wonders with big men throughout the course of his career.
Speaker 3: But I kind of get it. They wanted more of
Speaker 3: a short thing with Nurkic. They're a guy they weren't
Speaker 3: gonna probably worry at all about his his you know,
Speaker 3: buy in and really want to work and do all
Speaker 3: the things. He knows he's a role player. He's gonna
Speaker 3: come in and play that role. Grace and Allen will
Speaker 3: help because he can play both guard positions. They're a
Speaker 3: little weak at guard depth behind the two primary guys
Speaker 3: and Booker and bial Eric Gordon is a veteran but
Speaker 3: a little bit older. He's had some injury issues, so
Speaker 3: that's something to watch. And then if you're little just
Speaker 3: a player I really like. But we'll see there there's
Speaker 3: kind of a you know, mixed the guys that are
Speaker 3: going to be in there battling for minutes in the
Speaker 3: starting five and alongside Kevin Durant, you know, in that group,
Speaker 3: and behind Durant as well, So we're gonna see. I
Speaker 3: think they're probably better. I don't know that they're appreciably better.
Speaker 3: I've still got them behind Denver, but they're right there.
Speaker 3: They were already number two, and I don't know that
Speaker 3: this changes much from the being number two for me.
Speaker 2: Talking to Keith Smith, bet MGM tonight. So obviously a
Speaker 2: lot of reports that Drew Holliday may get just flipped
Speaker 2: by Portland. Where do you see him or what are
Speaker 2: some the maybe the most likely landing spots for him?
Speaker 2: And could Portland make any other moves after that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, to answer the second part, I don't think we're
Speaker 3: gonna see Portland do much else because they're pretty well fent.
Speaker 3: Now you basically got your young core in place with
Speaker 3: Scoot Henderson, Shaden Sharp, Anthony Simon. Now you're at DeAndre
Speaker 3: Ayton for that mix, got Chris Murray, who you also drafted.
Speaker 3: Basically everybody outside of Drew Holiday is under thirty on
Speaker 3: this roster. Jeremy Grant will turn thirty in season, but
Speaker 3: you know he's locked into such a long term contract.
Speaker 3: Nothing's gonna happen with that one anytime soon. So it's
Speaker 3: gonna be Drew Holiday after Who could trade for any
Speaker 3: team that has title aspirations? I could use A guard
Speaker 3: is probably picked up the phone and called, whether it's
Speaker 3: Philadelphia or Boston or Toronto or maybe the La Clippers.
Speaker 3: I'm sure all those teams are looking at it and saying, hey,
Speaker 3: what did it take? And one of the things I
Speaker 3: was told, you know, in the aftermath of the trade,
Speaker 3: was hey, it's easier to trade for Drew Holliday than
Speaker 3: it is to trade for Damian Lillard because he makes
Speaker 3: a lot less money. And you know, the teams are
Speaker 3: going to look at it and say, yeah, he's a
Speaker 3: very good player, but he's not Damian Lillard. So I
Speaker 3: think you're gonna see a lot of teams making offers
Speaker 3: and get involved. And I do think Kortan will get
Speaker 3: him traded, probably before everything kicks off next week, because
Speaker 3: one of the motivating factors in all of this was
Speaker 3: given Chauncey billis the roster is going to have to
Speaker 3: start the year without a whole bunch of stuff hanging
Speaker 3: over him of yeah we'll get fifth guy, my trade
Speaker 3: them and all that. They want him to be able
Speaker 3: to start fresh with that young group, and I think
Speaker 3: that's gonna be a big part to get a Holiday
Speaker 3: moved fairly quickly.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of teams that want Holiday, not a
Speaker 4: lot of teams that have what it takes to get Holiday.
Speaker 4: Who do you think is the most likely team to
Speaker 4: get him? Who are some dark horses and who would
Speaker 4: you absolutely rule out?
Speaker 3: I would keep an eye on Philadelphia to get him.
Speaker 3: He was one of the players that they were talked
Speaker 3: about maybe trying to go after with this whole cap
Speaker 3: space plan for next summer. And I think people maybe
Speaker 3: have forgotten that's where he started his career and that
Speaker 3: they loved him. They just basically said, hey, it's too
Speaker 3: good for what we're going to be. He has a
Speaker 3: team as we start the process years so we got
Speaker 3: to move on. And they've obviously James Harden becomes the
Speaker 3: immediate easy salary match. Not direct to Portland. They'd have
Speaker 3: to be a third team. So maybe the Clippers get
Speaker 3: in there, and the Clippers and Philly both send a
Speaker 3: pick to Jill Portland's way, or you know, we get
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of players moved on and that's
Speaker 3: how this happens. There definitely could be something there with
Speaker 3: that team. I know Boston would love to have them.
Speaker 3: Their challenge is it's Malcolm Brogden and then putting together.
Speaker 3: The other piece is that you've got to trade you know,
Speaker 3: either Robert Williams Al Horford or a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: guys's depth, and then you can have to make it up.
Speaker 3: The difference with draft picks, and that's becomes a little
Speaker 3: bit of a challenge for the Celtics. Say, but I
Speaker 3: you know one thing, Drew Holliday, the agent, has done
Speaker 3: a lot of work with Boston over the years. So
Speaker 3: I wouldn't rule them out that they're being aggressive. They're
Speaker 3: trying to, you know, make things happen if they can.
Speaker 3: So you know what we're gonna see. You know, I
Speaker 3: think we're in a spot where this is going to
Speaker 3: be really interesting to watch this playoff. Who would absolutely
Speaker 3: rule out the Lakers aren't going to get them. Of course,
Speaker 3: they're fans of media who want to, oh, well we'll
Speaker 3: get them, We'll trade you know, D'andelo Russell and other stuff,
Speaker 3: without any regard of why would Portland want those things.
Speaker 3: But that's just you know what Laker fans.
Speaker 4: Do you think there's any chance that Orlando tries to
Speaker 4: get in the mix, because that's what Kevin O'Connor thinks
Speaker 4: is a good look.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think so. It just doesn't scream what
Speaker 3: they're trying to do. They're trying to build something that
Speaker 3: can be sustainable for years here in Orlando. That's where
Speaker 3: I am and where I'm located. So I know that
Speaker 3: front office that they're they're content to just keep building
Speaker 3: with what they've got. They're very happy with the players
Speaker 3: that they have, and this would mean, all right, we
Speaker 3: got to start cashing some guys. There's no organizational push
Speaker 3: to you got to be a playoff team this year
Speaker 3: or anything like da coming. So there's no motivation from
Speaker 3: that side to make a trade like this, and they're
Speaker 3: just not ready to cash in. They're young players and
Speaker 3: their young assets to make something like this happen right now.
Speaker 3: So I think we're in a spot where you know,
Speaker 3: the magic I get it there there. It could make sense,
Speaker 3: but I just don't see that being something that happens.
Speaker 2: Keith.
Speaker 5: In my perfect world, Drew Holliday goes to the Clippers,
Speaker 5: they get an actual point guard.
Speaker 2: Kawhi and Paul George stay healthy.
Speaker 5: So that means so that means Philadelphia gets nothing. And
Speaker 5: that's what I wanted to ask you really quick about.
Speaker 5: So if Philadelphia strikes out on everything this offseason, any
Speaker 5: chance and like they get off to a slow start,
Speaker 5: that Mbeid maybe asks to get moved.
Speaker 3: I don't think you'll see that in season, but I
Speaker 3: think if they play him out early again in the playoffs,
Speaker 3: and he's like, man, we just kind of punked it
Speaker 3: a little bit on this year and now it's just
Speaker 3: caps faced stuff, and what are we going to do
Speaker 3: with it? Because the free agent market isn't great and
Speaker 3: I know you can use tap space to make trades obviously,
Speaker 3: but that's become a whole other thing. I could see
Speaker 3: at the end of the season jil Embiid saying, hey,
Speaker 3: what are we doing here? Hey, I want to win
Speaker 3: before it comes out, because you know, joelan Bead's thirty now,
Speaker 3: he's you know, in I believe this is your ten
Speaker 3: or eleven for him, like he's not. You know, I
Speaker 3: think there's still because he missed all that time early.
Speaker 3: There's a thought of that he's still like twenty five,
Speaker 3: twenty six years old and he's only been around for
Speaker 3: you know, seven years or something. But he's starting to,
Speaker 3: you know, hit the point where hey, if I'm not
Speaker 3: going to win here, I want to do it somewhere
Speaker 3: and let's let's get this figured out. So I think
Speaker 3: maybe after this year you see him start asking some
Speaker 3: questions and it might be as simple as hey, Yannis
Speaker 3: said he wanted guys and the Bucks went and got them.
Speaker 3: Damian Lillard, I want guys to and what are we
Speaker 3: doing here?
Speaker 2: Got about a minute left or so here James Harden,
Speaker 2: I mean, like, what the hell is going to happen
Speaker 2: with this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I think we might be in
Speaker 3: for an ugly media day. There's talks he may not
Speaker 3: even show up, which if you're Philadelphia that may ask
Speaker 3: would be for the best. Just yo, let's hit him
Speaker 3: with a fine and he doesn't show up and go
Speaker 3: And then it turns to our what a training camp
Speaker 3: looks like because they're headed out to Colorado Springs for
Speaker 3: training camp. Is he gonna be there working out with him?
Speaker 3: Do you want him there? Is he gonna show up
Speaker 3: and do what he did at the end of his
Speaker 3: next tenure. That's the messy stuff that could happen with
Speaker 3: James Harden unless there's a trade found here in the
Speaker 3: next few days. And it just doesn't seem like anybody's
Speaker 3: jumping at the opportunity to trade for him.
Speaker 2: Keith Smith, I know him. You've been busy. Really appreciate
Speaker 2: the time, man, thanks for coming on with us.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: That's all the time that we have for this episode
Speaker 4: of The Heat Check. Come back next week for an
Speaker 4: all new episode. Many thanks to Keith as my co
Speaker 4: hosts Nick Ashew and Ryan Horbitt, and producer Scott Lynn
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