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The Truth About The Damian Lillard Trade · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Kenny Beachum podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can I get a round of applause, ladies and gentlemen?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are back and we are better than ever in a makeshift studio that I built in my basement.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I got a real studio being built, um, real studio being built away from location.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it's gonna be ready by the start of the regular season.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Damian Lillard got traded.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: A trade like this only happens once a twice a three times a season at this point in 2022.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can we recognize how often we see star players get traded nowadays?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of crazy.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: But there is no way for me to put together an episode of the Kenny Beecham podcast without the visual.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So when he got traded, I said, oh snap.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Couple things on my agenda.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I must film a video for my YouTube channel, done check.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I must film a Through the Wire episode.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know, Through the Wire is my other podcast with the guys.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We did that.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to figure out how do I film a Kenny Beech and podcast episode, but also introduce this visual aspect.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I put together this desk, I put together these lights, I put together these shelves, and as you can see, half of the shelves don't got nothing on it, but the show must go on.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I got my boy to put together this for the TV, so the podcast is in the background.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We must talk about the Damian Lillard trade 24, 30 hours since the trade has gone down.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my opinions have changed as I'm sure most people's opinions change.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I am in the camp on some of my other channels of getting a reaction out as fast as possible.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think people anticipate and enjoy the initial shock value that is that video.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that video has 300,000 views in 24 hours, for God's sake.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to everybody that watched that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: But these, these Candy Beach and podcasts, I want to be a little bit more level-headed when approaching a trade or approaching anything.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're doing today.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you had no idea what I'm talking about, Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Trailblazers traded one of the two best players in their franchise history.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is the package they got back.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was Drew Holiday, DeAndre Aiden, too many cameras is something I found out was the nickname of Kamara.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: A 2029 first-round pick completely unprotected, a 2028 that is a swap, and a 2030 that was a swap, and you realize that the name DeAndre Aiden and too many cameras are in it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, there's a third team, and that third team ends up being the Suns.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: They give back Yousuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nazir Little, and Keon Johnson.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Boom.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: On this random, and I mean random, Wednesday afternoon, Damian Lillard is traded.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was on my way to Best Buy to get a new HDMI cord.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It dropped, and I'm like, do I turn around?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, Best Buy is like this.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's we can get there five minutes to get back, but I was so eager to talk about it, and I'm happy that I have this other platform where I could talk about it again and dive more into it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I I want to tackle this a couple different ways.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, of course, talk about this from every single aspect, from the aspect of the Bucks, from the Suns, from the Trailblazers, and from the team that missed out the Miami Heat, because they're they're objectively attached to all of this, and they might be even more attached to when we talk about Drew Holiday.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to give you my opinion, but I also want to play Devil's Advocate, alright?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like most people's opinions like thumbs up for the Bucks, thumbs down for the Blazers, thumbs down for the Suns.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I I want to kind of look at this from Devil's Advocate point of view and kind of think through the mindset of the other general managers that were pulling off these trades because they had to feel good enough to say that is the trade that we want to do.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about it from the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Milwaukee Bucks were in a very weird spot this offseason where they brought in guys like Millick Beasley to help shooting, but for the most part, they decided to run it back.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Middleton gets a contract extension.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Brooke Lopez is back and even brought his brother along with him again.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those things like, man, we're gonna run it back again after losing in the first round.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, losing the first round was the Miami Heat playing great basketball, not to discredit them.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis missing time, and even Giannis said in that interview after losing, is that they were kind of looking past them.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were thinking about the long stretch of the second round conference finals in the NBA finals and kind of looked over their competition, which I'm assuming he will never do that again, and they get eliminated.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Giannis is like, man, I'm looking around this roster.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Drew's really good.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: He made um an all-star team for the first time in 10 years.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Middleton was wasn't as good as he normally is, but again, coming off the injury that he came off of, I don't think anybody expected him to be the all-star version of himself.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Burr Lopez had an amazing bounce back season after having uh surgeries on his back.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: How many times do we see a seven-footer have surgeries on his back and come back better?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That took about uh 12 months for him to get to that point, but he had an amazing season, but still Giannis is looking around the locker room and saying, hey, I'm seeing this team get better with time and with efforts of getting Chris Dops Porzingis and so on and so forth.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: I see the Miami Heat link to Damian Lillard, and I see us just kind of sitting around and saying, hey, we're good.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want us to get complacent.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want us to look at the championship roster from a few years ago and say, as long as we run that back, we'll be in contention.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I want to be a champion again.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So because of that, he goes onto these interviews, he's going on podcasts and he's expressing to the world.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love being a part of the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, that feeling of winning a championship was unbeatable.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm willing to forego my loyalty in order to be put in a position to get that championship again.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And well, the Milwaukee Bucks took notice.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right, what do we have to mess around with?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was looking at the asset pool from the Milwaukee Bucks, not I didn't think there was no world that they pulled off of Damian Little Trey, but I saw them very low on the teams that had the assets to pick this to make this happen.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Giannis expressing his discomfort or expressing the fact that he is ready to win again, got them to the stuff is falling in the background.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see that?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Got them to the point where they felt like they could not just wait around because we are a smaller market team and we have one of the best players in basketball, number one, number two, no, no smaller than number three on the roster.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: It does not get better than this.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to do everything in our power to make him feel good, and that is trading for another player that is top 10-ish in the entire association.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful work.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to commend them.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is without knowing if this is gonna work, are they gonna win multiple championships?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we don't know that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But smaller market teams in general are just at a disadvantage.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I I live in a bigger market in Chicago, and though I don't feel the advantages because we suck all the time, there is an advantage for being a bigger market, being in a California, in a Los Angeles, being in a New York City, though New York hasn't been amazing in getting top and talent through free agency, it's just a part of the thing, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin Durant left his smaller market in Oklahoma City to go to the Golden State Warriors where it has Silicon Valley.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to be a businessman, and so that's a bigger market thanks to Steph Curry and company.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Milwaukee Bucks are looking at the at the different options.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Option one, we just say, hey, we feel good enough and we give it another year, and then that might have have Giannis look at us even differently, and he's starting to weigh his options.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But again, the roster might be good enough.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It might be good enough to do it again.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's option one.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just stamp at and maybe do some things around the edges.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're linked to Buddy Healed, who might be getting traded.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's option number one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Option number two is look at the options of trading Giannis.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: The New York Knicks will be interested.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We know that to be the case.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of teams will throw their name into the hat to pull off a Giannis trade, and we might get a ransom so very crazy considering he's one of the three best players of basketball that we can hit a reset button.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: We trade Red Brooke Lopez who will have some value.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: We trade away Chris Middleton who might have some value.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Boom, we hit the reset, and we're looking like a team like OKC, where we have a million first-round picks, and now we get the reset button, and Milwaukee will be good again in seven years.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or option three is pulling off a trade, going completely and trading away every piece of future asset that you have in order to get Giannis happy.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Option two, which is trading away Giannis, I don't even think they even consider the idea of not having Giannis in town.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because no matter all of the draft capital you get, no matter what young players that you get, the likelihood of you hitting on a Giannis Adeda Kumpo again is close to zero.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: The likelihood you draft the player that will eventually be the top player in the league, an MVP player, is so slim that it's not even worth it at the end of the day.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: We'd rather take the chances of in 2030, it's six years, seven years down the line, that our team might be bad.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take that chance.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: They might be bad.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: That pick might be a top three pick, but at least we can lay our head on that pillow and say, Giannis, we gave you everything you got.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We gave you everything we got.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they did that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I commend them for running the smaller market this way because a lot of smaller market teams they fumble in a sense that they have a disgruntled, and I don't even want to call Giannis disgruntled, but a guy that is putting the pressure on the organization and they completely, completely fold.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, we're gonna trade your way.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna hit the reset button, and Minnesota Timberwolves traded away Kevin Garneff, all this stuff, and then this is a different time where draft capital wasn't as big as it is now and stuff.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I look back on some of the old trades, I'm like, you traded KG for who?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Al Jefferson and shout out to Al Jefferson, but I'm just saying, I'm just saying that is a team that traded away the best player in their franchise history 20 years ago, and has nothing to prove.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: None of the asses they got back turned into nearly the player that Kevin Garnett was.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and though again, it's different times where a player like Rudy Gobert is getting in five first-round picks with some swaps and stuff like that, it's completely different, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they go all in and they say Dame and Giannis is the best on paper two-way players you can imagine.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because not only are they highly talented, they fit each other like a gluff.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis having a guy of Damian Lillard's caliber who is one of the best pick and roll players in basketball is crazy.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we know what Damian Lillard can do in the basketball court.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: 71 points here, 50 points here, 40 point here, waving people off in playoff series.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's 33, but he's like that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And with Giannis being the force of nature that he is, we have finesse and force coming together.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we have to see what it looks like on court.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like most people are pretty confident that those two players are gonna walk their way into having a top five offense in basketball, especially when you consider that Brick Lopez is a threat from three, when you consider uh Bobby Portis is a threat from inside outside.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's had some good shooting seasons, some bad shooting seasons, and considering that Chris Middleton, look at his second half of the season for him, you look at the playoffs for him, he looked damn good.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, they sacrifice defense, they sacrifice that perimeter uh attack defender that is Drew Holiday.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody and they mama can tell you the sing the praises of Drew Holiday's defense.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it can only get you so far at the end of the day.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is an upgrade, obviously.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not breaking any barriers by saying that, but they also gave up Grayson Allen.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up their starting uh backcourt in order to make this trade happen.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what happens now?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the depth is obviously in question, right?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can roll out a starting lineup of Damian Lillard, Pat Conaton, Chris Middleton, Giannis, Brooke Lopez.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Starting lineup, then off the bench, you still have like Malik Beasley, who is looking to rejuvenate his career after struggling two five minutes when he got to LA.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Bobby Portis is a guy that should be in conversations for six men of the year, night in, night out.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: But after that, it's like, okay, Jay Crowder, but they traded seven second-round picks for Jay Crowder.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when it came down to the playoffs, he wasn't getting a lot of burn.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: They have guys like AJ Green, like Marjan Bochamp, these young guys, that the end of the day, they're gonna need some value for one, a collection of these young dudes, especially come regular season, just because you need some people that can soak up some minutes.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And AJ Green might be the guy.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Marjan Bochamp not being a part of this trade is crazy to me, considering he's a 22-year-old player.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if I am the Portland Trailblazers, I'm like, yeah, give me take a shot at him.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know he shot 30% from the field last year, but who knows what he could turn into.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but one of those young players is gonna have to step up, especially in the regular season, to just soak up some minutes so that we're not asking Dame and asking Giannis to be provided 40 minutes a night in order for us to win.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're asking me in the Eastern Conference, what is the tiers of teams?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Milwaukee Bucks will be my favorite.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: They were my favorite last year, and obviously that didn't go exactly as I anticipated.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the the other teams, I think that before this trade, for the top end teams, it was wide open.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Boston, Milwaukee, um, uh, I guess the 76ers technically, but you know, if you're on a 76ers success outside of the second round, and the Miami Heat, it was up for grabs.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: As I can say the same thing about the Western Conference.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Though the Denver Nuggets are the defending champion, there are a lot of teams on that tail, right?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So to see a team like the Boston Celtics go out there and make dramatic changes to their lineup, to see the Miami Heat struggling to pull off the next big deal and the 76ers struggling to figure out what's going on with James Harden, this is the perfect time for a team like Milwaukee to elevate themselves while these other teams, you know, because though Chris Dasporzingis, as far as talent goes, automatically.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we feel great about that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: What does the fit look like with Al Horford, with Porzingis, with Robert Williams?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: What does the fit look like?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: How do they deviate these minutes and stuff?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna probably gonna take some time to figure it out.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I feel again with Giannis and Dame, it's a it's a glove match made in heaven where there is no real questions, you know.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, once you get to the court, they have to figure things out, but just on the base level, there is no real questions about what these two can provide.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: While on these other teams, there are some questions, right?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we talk about what the future of this team looks like.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about the depth.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: From my understanding, the Milwaukee Bucks right now have two tradable second-round picks.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: They they've got rid of every single piece of first-round draft capital until 2030.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is the bet that they have on Dame, and that's the bet that they have on Giannis, and that was the bet that they took on the Drew Holiday trade that subsequently ended up getting them a championship.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, they've taken these jumps, and so far, it's been worth it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see what this dame.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: But they do have two second-round picks to play around with, and though they don't have a lot of contracts, like they are a very top-heavy team.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of their guys are making a lot of money up top.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: After that, it is a struggle where like Marjon Bochamps 3.whatever million dollars being on his rookie scale deal is like the most movable contract without getting rid of one of the super core pieces.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Him plus plus two second rounders.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that looks like.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Marjan might be the the missing piece.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's so young.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But when you when you talk about the Bucks, where they could potentially get that depth back up is obviously it's gonna have to be in that buyout market.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know just yet, but we've seen them be relatively successful on the buyout market, especially considering them being a small, smaller market.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying the buyout market has been a reason they won a championship, but as far as getting an additional talent piece, they might have to wait until the all-star break to make that happen.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this this risk is worth- I got notes.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you ain't noticed, the eyes is going over here.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I got notes.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: This risk is worth the reward because this offense is gonna be lethal.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: To have this type of top-end talent.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to explain that to you.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even if 10 years down the line, we might look at it and say, man, that wasn't worth it.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: As of right now, keeping Giannis happy is worth everything.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Kobe back in the day told the Lakers, trade me.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Trade it for Pal Casol, two championships, you know, just like that.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this could be very similar with Giannis just expressing things to just use his leverage to get his organization to do some stuff.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh at the end of the day, call us an A.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where I play Devil's Advocate.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned earlier, the goal is to play Devil's Advocate with this one.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's tough.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because the writing on the wall is saying, hey, this trade is amazing for us.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough to play devil's advocate.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: But here's here's my attempt at that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Losing Drew Holiday's defense is going to be crucial in the playoffs.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that is my devil advocate piece.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Point of attack defender is gone.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: The main off-ball chaser, which is what Grayson Allen was over the last season when he played, is gone.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I did make a tweet about Grayson Allen that I'll talk about with the Suns that got a little bit hot on Twitter, and I'll explain that later.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the devil advocated in me is saying, hey, the defense might drop a little bit.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't worry about the interior defense.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have Giannis.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we have Brooke Lopez.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But this might be a year where Giannis finally steps up and says, like, hey, I'm going to not be the best help defender in the NBA, one of the top three help defenders in the NBA.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I am going to be an on-ball defender and I'm be damn good at it because we know he can.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen him step up occasionally and take that assignment, but for the most part, under the Bud era, he was so much the help defender that even the times where Kevin O'Reilly is dropping 50 points, Giannis is going to and say, hey, that's not that's not how I play.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: My goal is not to guard Kevin.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: We'd rather give somebody else and let me be in the help.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: This, especially under new management, or I'm sorry, new uh coaching, he might have to take a Jimmy Butler assignment happen they end up getting matched up because the Jimmy Butler stopper, which we watched that series, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Jimmy Butler stopper in Drew Holiday is gone.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we need somebody else to do that.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and Dame has had moments throughout his career.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I know more once you become a player that is averaging 30 points per game, uh it's hard to be a plus defender.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I I can say that, but we've seen him uh have opportunities to clamp up, and he has been able to do it to an extent.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're not at he's he's not gonna be Drew, but as far as like getting stops here and here there, he's been able to do that.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is his old age in 33?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Devil's advocate is saying that the defense is gonna take a hit, and that in 2030, we might look back and say, man, that that kid right there, that first overall pick, that was a part of the Damian Lillard trade.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know, all right?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's like I'm willing to make that risk if I'm them.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what they did.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a step back and talk about these things from the Blazers position because again, they traded one of the two best players in their franchise history.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm only saying that because I respect Clyde Drexler.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know some other people like Bill Simmons would say the dame is no higher than three because of Bill Walton.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say that I'm super aware of Bill Walton's impact.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know he up to win the championship at all, but like I'm not gonna come here and act like I'm a Bill Walton enthusiast, but I know Clyde Drexler, and I know Damian Lillard.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And who would I say is number one?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would probably put Damian Lillard.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: That can't say he's the all-time leading scorer, and he has helped them get to the conference finals.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know Clyde Drexler has had to get to Houston to get his.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh Bill Walton got them a championship.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: They traded one of the two best players in their franchise history, and I'm gonna read you the package again.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is Drew Holiday, DeAndre Aiden, too many cameras, a first-round pick in 2029, completely unprotected, and the swaps in 2028 and 2030.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was under the impression that with a Damian Lillard trade, considering the the way this team is is built with Anthony Simons and Scoot Henderson and Shane Sharp, that they would skewer more younger, they would skier younger than this when it came to Damian Lillard trade.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're starting to recognize as more reports have come out over the last 24 hours, the the teams that were ultra interested in a Damian Lillard didn't really have the super young talent.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tyler Harrow is the guy, but they weren't interested in Tyler Harrow.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're talking about a three-team or potential four-team trade.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, they opted to get Drew Holiday, who by all accounts will get flipped again, and we'll talk about that in a second.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre Aiden, who feels pretty safe as part of the new core in Portland, and they are taking the bet that this doesn't work out.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis eventually goes to his next team.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Damian Lillard's Super Max extensions basically just starting to kick in, so he'll be there for some years.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But they're taking the bet that by 2029, the Milwaukee Bucks will not have the combination of the two, and not having the combination of the two means that they're bad.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know what it's gonna actually look like, but they're taking the bet that the Bucks will not be as successful in 2029, which is how many years from now?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's five uh uh uh six years from now.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Six years from now, Damian Lillard's what, 39?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh, he might not be there if anything.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: If he is there, he's not gonna be a this caliber player.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they're taking the chance that with them being the smaller market and maybe not have an opportunity to do a uh sign somebody a free agency hoping that Damian Lillard goes, they would be bad.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is it worth the bet for training away your franchise player?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, because we don't necessarily know what those other offers look like.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: We heard that when it came to the Miami Heat conversations, the trailblazers say, hey, give me Jimmy, give me Bam, give me one of the two.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why did they ask that?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they just didn't like the idea of him going to Miami, or they would just be in the Lulu, as the kids might say.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: They would be just a little bit the Lulu when it came to the trade package that might have been Damian Lillard, or maybe they just were like, hey, we don't want to give them exact.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: What they want because we know that that is that, right?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they take the bet on the Bucks instead.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because though the Miami Heat have struck out quite a bit, and we're gonna talk about the Heat, they have been a team that over the last 15-ish years have been towards the top of the Eastern Conference pretty regularly, right?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: 15, 10 years, let's say 10 years, let's say 10 years, let's say 2013.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, LeBron left in 2010.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So for the last 15-ish years, you know, of course they had their years where they were not there.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for the most part, they've been a playoff team and they've they've been able to figure out ways to be competent at all times.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But we can't say the same thing about the Bucs, right?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: No dispect to the Bucs, but just saying, based on prior history, the Miami Heat are probably more likely to be better at this time frame.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the picks that would have been attached to Tyler Hero in their eyes aren't as valuable as this one because if they lose Giannis, the things fall apart.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Miami Heat were able to get Jimmy Butler for Josh Richardson with no cap space.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the likelihood of them able to be good is out there.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: But they they ended up with Drew Holiday, which again was surprising.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: He felt like a guy that would retire a buck.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even he expressed the fact that he wanted to retire a buck.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not happening.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it could no no no no, it could happen.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: We saw Paul Pierce sign a one-day contract.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: We saw Joe Kim Noah sign a one-year contract in Chicago.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: One year contract, oh not one year, I'm sorry, one day.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Get this 12-hour contract, sign this and go retire real quick before we have to pay you.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he might be able to retire a buck, but he's not spending the next two years there.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're also betting on the fact that there will be teams interested in Drew Holiday.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're already seeing that immediately after trade, after the trade happened.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Wolves is talking about the Boston Celtics, the 76ers, the Clippers, the Miami Heat.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: These are teams, the Chicago Bulls, for God's sake.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: These are teams that are interested in bringing in Drew Holiday.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I would assume that the price of Drew Holiday, if I am the Portland Trailblazer, is that hey, give me a to multiple first-round picks.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on how desperate you are.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you are the Miami Heat, you might be really desperate.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, oh, you never got to give me Tyler Hero.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take, we'll take back the contract that is Kyle Lauri.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take a Duncan Robinson contract to make it work.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just give me the two first-round picks that you were gonna give me for Dame.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want those same exact picks.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: You keep Tyler Hero, you go get Drew Holiday and boom, you look good, but we want that.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the LA Clippers who have two tradable first-round picks, I want both of those.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because what are your other options?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: James?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean maybe you get James Harden, but it seemed like Darremore is willing to let James Harden just sit at the crib for the season.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you might be desperate.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want the two first.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're the Boston Celtics who have draft capital, I want those.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: In order to make that happen, I think it's like Malcolm Brogdon, who is this uh feeling a little uncomfortable with him being traded to the Clippers for about 12 hours, and he's like, ah, the trust has been broken.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to make the money happen, I'm pretty sure they'd have to throw in Robert Williams.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how they feel about that.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how Portland feels about that, considering they just got DeAndre Aiden.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, the teams that are interested, you're gonna have to pay up.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to pay up because Drew Holiday is what we've seen over the last five years as a player that can be one of the, if not the best perimeter defender in all of the association, and also be good enough to give you 18 to 21 points per game.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: In the playoffs, might fall off a little bit, as do most players.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a special player to increase his game come playoffs.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: But in the playoffs, he might fall off a little bit.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: But on these other teams, on the Boston Celtics, they already got Porzingis, they got the Jays.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Either fourth guy.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Feel good about that.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: On the 76ers, well, he his role is going to be higher.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I actually like his fit with the 76ers a ton, uh, considering uh on the implication that James is gone.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like Drew and Maxi.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I like that a ton.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers, he would be behind Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So like he'd be the third, chief to fourth best option on a lot of these teams.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you can kind of say, like, man, we don't need you to drop 20 a night in the playoffs.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just be efficient, which is something you may have struggled with in the playoffs.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he also has had some of the best of the biggest defensive plays in recent playoff history.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's made one of the best, craziest passes in recent NBA finals history.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: We know what Drew Holiday is, and these other teams that are trying to win championships can use him.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not in a huge rush to make it happen.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would rather it happen before the opening night, but I'm not in a huge rush to make this happen.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have this bidding war.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have this bidding war because the true the pieces could turn into.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: We traded Damien Little the way for um a first-round pick from the Bucks, two swaps, and then two extra first-round picks from the Miami Heat, two extra first-round picks from the Clippers, a first-round pick and a swap from the 76th, then your trade packs looks a lot better.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: My question to them is would they prioritize a younger player now?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because they didn't get that, you know?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on what you look at, DeAndre.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's 25.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's young in NBA years, but max contract player.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: We consider that young still.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, those are the teams that are rumored to be interested, but there are a lot of teams out there that could use uh a Drew Holiday type player, you know?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw um Zach Lowe, shout out to Zach Lowe.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, one day me and Zach Lowe will have a conversation.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him at Summer League this year, um, and I saw him at a uh, I was courtside at a Brooklyn Knicks game.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: He walked past me, and I've always been hesitant to say what's up.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: He followed me on Twitter, but I Zach Lowe's one of the guys.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: He mentioned how he believes that the New York Knicks should be involved.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that was not a team that I was really thinking about.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all, they got it.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: They got what you would need to get a Drew.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: A backcourt of Jalen Brunson and Drew Holiday sounds damn good.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the question is you're the New York Knicks, is is that good enough for us to win an Eastern Conference, right?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are we trading away multiple first-round picks, which we have, by the way?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of first-round picks.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are we trading away multiple first-round picks plus, I don't know, probably RJ Barrett, maybe, um, in order to make this happen?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is that worth it, even if we believe that we're still the third, fourth best team in the conference?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the fit there is kind of elite, and I like it, right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Drew Holiday is one of those really good plug-and-play guys.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Brooklyn Nets, I don't know where their head is at, but they were potentially in on Damian Lillard.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh the Drew Holiday is a good consolation prize if they want to compete right now.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you, you know, you could go on and off.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Raptors were interested in Dame.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: If they were not willing to throw OG on a nobian a trade, I doubt they'd be willing to make a trade for Drew Holiday, considering that would be the price.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the Bulls are a team that were rumored.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't believe any Chicago Bulls rumors until things are in actuality.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I don't want to, I don't want to discredit anybody, but I know a lot of people on the ground here in Chicago that will say something for the cliques.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So anything that comes out about the Bulls, I'm a little bit hesitant about because I don't know what the original source is.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're talking about fit, yeah, yeah, how do you make that happen?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you give up some things that you may not want to.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: You give up the Lonzo ball contract of$20 million.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just say Lonzo, stay at home, rehabilitate, hit free agency, or whatever you really need to do.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then in order to make it happy, you throw on Patrick Williams.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you ask yourself, is a core of DeMar DeRozan, Zach Levin, Drew, Holiday, and Vucevic good enough to compete?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: The answer to the question is no, but the front office might be thinking yes.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so they're a team that might be interested.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the Western Conference, I don't know, it's it's a little bit harder.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers obviously are the team.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: People are talking about the Warriors trading Chris Paul and maybe a Moses Moody in order to make that happen.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: But if Chris Paul has to do another press conference with a new jersey, I am a cre as a Chris Paul fan am gonna be pissed.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want I want to see my boy compete for a championship.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was there once and he was he was addicted.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: What was the was that the exact quote?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's addicted to playing in the NBA finals, has not been back.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is his best chance.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Wars is his best chance.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see him get moved.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers have thrown a name into the the hat.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: How how do we get there?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's Rui Hachimura and D'Angelo Russell, but they can't do that for a couple months or so, so that's unrealistic.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Timberwolves probably don't have the assets without giving up um Kat.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think if I'm the Blazers, I accept Kat Carnthony Towns as the piece.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans could do something, but that will be trading CJ back to the Blazers plus some capital.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's just one of those dudes that I'll be like, man, I can see him on the jazz.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I can see him on the Mavericks.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's just one of those dudes.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very curious, I'm very curious to see exactly what that looks like.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um DeAndre Aiden.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's shift our gears to DeAndre Aiden because he is the one staying peace a part of this trade for the Portland Trailblazers.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they gave up Yusuf Nurkic, who had been their starting center for I don't know how many years at this point since they traded him away from Denver to focus on Nicole Jokic, which is an all-time great move, by the way.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: All-time great move, by the way.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, DeAndre Aiden comes in.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited for DeAndre Aiden.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like his relationship with the Phoenix Suns had run its course.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand that the roster is different.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: The only person that's still there from the from two years ago is Devin Booker.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I have some experience here.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Before I was a YouTube uh extraordinaire, a philanthropist, I don't even know what that word means.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I heard Tony Stark say it once upon a time.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Before I was a YouTuber, I worked a couple jobs, you feel me?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't just jump into this YouTube game.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: My first job was at a movie theater, but it was one of those sit-down and eat movie theaters, and I was a runner.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would go get the food from the kitchen in this dark ass movie theater, try to figure out, oh, there's case six, I'm gonna put this down.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: K6, okay.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: You got and you can't talk because they're watching a movie and stuff.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a runner, and I despise this job.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it was my first job in high school, 16 years old, and I wanted to.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that was important to me when I was young is to not be a burden on my parents.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to make money for myself.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, dad, you can pay the phone.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm 26 and my dad still paid my phone bill.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Dad, you can pay the phone bill, you pay the rent because I can't help you there.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: But like, you don't have to give me money for lunch, you don't have to give me money to hang out with the homies, whatever.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make my own money for that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I hated this job, and I was like, it's paying me a slightly above minimum wage, and everybody else and 16 years old is making minimum wage.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll stick here.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hated it.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely hated it, right?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the two, my two managers at the place went to go get different jobs.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we got new management in.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I got flipped to a different different shift.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I am with a different, I'm different with different coworkers and different management, and yet I still hated being there.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it had to do with the duties of the job.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was just the facility in itself.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it might have been with DeAndre Aiden's experience because Monty Williams is gone, Chris Paul is gone, every single person that was associated with those sons teams is gone, and yet he might have still been disgruntled because I just hate this place.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just hate this place.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there've been rumors leading up to this that they were interested in the use of Nurkits because they wanted a defensive minded center.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that one more time.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted a defensive minded center.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they got their guy, right?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, DeAndre Aiden over the last year and a half, maybe two years or so, had been playing with this I don't want to be here mindset.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's been coming, he's been showing up to work, he's been doing his job, he might have been benched in some really quality playoff games, really important playoff games.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: But he's been good for 18 and 11, even though it might be one of the least impactful 18 and 11s I've seen in a long time, be honest with you.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: But he did his job with the idea that one day I won't have to be here, and that day happened to be yesterday.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So now he's playing 2K.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did y'all see that?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's playing 2K an hour after the trade, and he already has a Trailblazers jersey on on his My Player.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty funny.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty funny.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's excited, he's happy about this this new era of his career.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm interested to see what it looks like because he he has had the luxury over the last couple years of playing with a guy like Chris Paul.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not like Chris Paul, uh, not fanfic, she's Chris Paul uh worship, but say what you want about Chris Paul, he's one of the best floor generals in the history of basketball, and it has its cons for sure.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: It has its cons playing with Chris Paul.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to say he's a perfect teammate or a perfect player to have on your roster, but for a guy of DeAndre Aiden's caliber where his job is to be around the rim and flick up shots and hit a 10-footer or so on and so forth, it's pretty decent.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, I'm not gonna look past the fact that there are plenty of times throughout his Phoenix Suns tenure where he's wide open and him uh him being Chris Paul or Devin Booker either refused or missed him wide open under the basket.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like that happens.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: That that has happened a ton.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, playing with a floor general like Chris Paul for most sinners feels like a job that's worth doing.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that wasn't the case for him.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's transitioned to a part where he's gonna have a rookie point guard, a sophomore year wing, and Anthony Simons who still look like he's 14 years old.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how old Anthony Simons is, but I'm assuming that he's maybe now old enough to drink alcohol, you know, where the playmaking chops of Devin Booker or Chris Paul are now gone.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: So what does it look like from DeAndre Aiden?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest knocks about DeAndre Aiden that I have said over the course of his career is that for a guy of his size, this man is built, in the words of Derek Miller, my homie D.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Mills from the Through the Wire podcast, he built like an action figure.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: For guys whose shoulders have shoulders, for a guy that can flex him and hit himself in the eye with the muscle.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: The man is not strong in the paint.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: He does not draw fouls, he does not dunk on somebody's head often for a guy that's built like him, right?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, and again, maybe I'm just being, I don't know, too optimistic with DeAndre Aiden.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if this change of scenery is gonna unlock that in him.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Where we can ask him to average more than uh two free throws.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what the exact number is.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look this up real, real quick while I'm talking about it.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: We can maybe ask him to average more than uh uh three free throws a game from my starting center.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was a career high, by the way.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: More than for a guy that shoots 76%, I want him to get to five.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Draw more fouls, you know?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe this is an opportunity for him to do this.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's also a player that I've seen over the last couple years that if he's not getting his touches, he's not as impactful as you want him to be.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: There, there is a year, this was not last year, the year before last, the championship run year, um, I guess that's two years ago now, where his defense was as good as I've ever seen it from DeAndre Aiden.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because the first couple years of his career, though, he was averaging 16 and 18 points per game, his defense was very lackluster for a guy that projected to be an elite level defender.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: He projected to be.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: A lot if you look at his cops, if you look at his weaknesses and stuff when he was coming out of college, a lot of people expected DeAndre Aiden to not hop onto the scene and be a great defender because the center position is one that takes a lot of this and a lot of this.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of people believe that one day he will be a really good to elite level defender in the first two years of his career.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: There was no signs of that.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then they go on their playoff run.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm watching him and I'm like, damn, he's not elite by any means, not elite, but that's a thousand times better than what I've seen from him over the last two seasons, right?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he fell off.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dang, that's such a 2020 reward thing.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: He had fallen off defensively over the last year.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Come playoff time, he was not impactful.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: For a guy, he's had years where he's averaged a block, a block and a half, and then that regressed to sub one block per game.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I would want to see him invest more on that side of the ball.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: The the Blazers consider, let's say the Drew Holly is traded for draft capital and a flyer for a player, that don't really matter.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: This team of Scoot, Simons, Sharp, whatever, Jeremy Grant, who might get moved again, and DeAndre Aiden, at the end of the day, at least for the first week and a half, two weeks of the season, I am going to be ultra interested in watching these boys play because they have some potential fun stuff going on.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fun does not equal good.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to misinterpret it.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Fun does not equal good, but with Scoot Henderson doing what he did in the one and a half, um, or was it one and a half, or did he even get through that first game of summer league?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, one and a half, two games of summer league.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's ready to be a grown man in his league.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he's fun.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Shade is sharp in his limited amount of minutes.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Fun.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Poster dunk, poster dunk.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Can be fun.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's not how is it Neil's Neil O'Shea still in charge over there?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're not building their team based on fun.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you that.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: But for the the fans out there, you're gonna have a fun roster.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this this reminds me heavily of when Anthony Davis was traded away, right?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis wears a shirt that said that's all folks in the last game of the season.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: He swear to God that there was an accident.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: He had requested a trait.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: And man, it was lights out for Pelicans fans.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: We draft this guy first overall.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: We try our best trading for Drew Holiday.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: We traded for Boogie.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: We try our best to build a team around him.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: We we were unsuccessful, as most teams are.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Most teams are unsuccessful in winning championships.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: He requests a trade and be like, man, we're about to lose out on this generational franchise player, and then the lottery hits.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh shit, we just got the first overall pick.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye, Anthony Davis Zion.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how the Blazers are right now.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, we're trading the best to second best player in our franchise history, but at least we already got this young fella that's ready.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: And though Damian Lillard is writing disc tracks about School Henderson already, go look it up, go listen to the song.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Though he's he's writing disc tracks about him already, this is a good fallback plan to say, hey, we already got school.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: We can already you know sell his jerseys where most teams, when they trade away their franchise player, a guy that's one of the best in their history, it might take them years before they get a guy that they feel like they can build around.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Zanyan was that for the Pelicans, and School Henderson could be that for the Blazers.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in him, but I don't the belief ain't enough.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: He got to go out there and get some things done.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do not love the trade, though.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: All that being said, I do not love the trade, but also I don't know what the other options were.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, when you talk about the connection with the Miami Heat, they were asking for Bam and Jimmy.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't gonna happen.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Toronto Raptors were not giving you OG Ananobi.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, what the hell were you giving me?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: So this might have been the best thing available, but I still don't love it.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it might take six years before we find out if it's good or not, you know, because that's what the trade piece is coming to play.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also an incomplete because we don't know where Drew Holiday is going and we don't know what type of thing we can fetch for Drew Holiday.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna play devil's advocate again for a guy that doesn't love the trade.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that I can see it from their perspective in a sense that we get a future first-round pick for a small market team that might not be good in eight years, seven years, six years from now.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: We get another flippable piece in in uh Drew Holiday, who should warrant us at least one first-round pick, potentially two, depending on how desperate the opposing teams are.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And now we can say, hey, we traded our best player and one of our best players in franchise history for a bunch of draft capital that might be good in four years, five years down the line.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And DeAndre Aiden could be good.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was drafted over Luca, Trey Young, Jaron Jackson Jr., and so on and so forth.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Significantly worse than those players.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Me and the guys on the Through the Wire podcast, every single year we do a ranking of top 10 players at a position.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I mentioned this on a previous episode of this podcast.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: I desperately hate the idea of ranking players, it's just not something I enjoy.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just different for me, uh, especially considering a lot of players are in the same range.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: But when we were talking about the center position, which was just a couple days ago, DeAndre Aiden did not make the top 10.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre Aiden didn't make the top 12.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre Aiden did not make the top 14.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's saying something, because again, he averaged 18 and 10.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read you off these other centers if I still have the list.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you tell me if if we were bucking Jokic and B, Davis, Sabonis, Bayam, Porzigas, Brooke Lopez, Nicholas Claxon, Turner, and Jared Allen.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those were our 10.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, you got players like Rudy Gobert.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: You you can answer the question what do you value most in your center?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nicola Vusevich, who was also like 18 and 11 and played all games.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Mitchell Robison, who is a lot less in points, I think it's like eight points per game, but has been able to anchor really, really good defense and then showed in the playoffs, especially in that first round, that he can do different things.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then Walker Caster, who's coming off a stellar rookie season defensively.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: I could see you making an argument for him over some of those last people, but the the point still stands that he has been underwhelming in the sense that he's not even top ten at his position, right?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this gives him an opportunity to potentially get that potential and turn it into a reality.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the Suns.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns, a couple weeks before, or a week or so before this trade, said, Hey, we're interested in trading DeAndre Aiden uh for a defensive mind and center.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say, again, this is I don't have any source.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in Phoenix, the one guy that I knew in Phoenix no longer plays for the team.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: So zero sources.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not reporting.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And please, I will say this: don't look at me as a reporter because I'm not.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is not who I am.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I do know some people.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, I do know some people, but I'm not a reporter, so don't, you know.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I believe that the that the relationship with DeAndre Aiden is is run as course, and we talked about that with my uh parallel to my movie theater thing.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if that was the case, that DeAndre Aiden was so fed up, slash you were so fed up with him as a player, trading him away for this package, I will say it again, isn't as bad as it might seem.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this is my genuine opinion.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not playing devil's advocate.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is my genuine, genuine opinion here.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, DeAndre Aiden is objectively better than Yusuf Nurkic.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, we can agree there.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: I said it on our Through the Wire podcast and I got pushback, but I I think most of us can agree DeAndre Aiden is a better player center than Yusuf Nurkic.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, talking about Yusuf Nurkic from three years ago, we're talking about 2023 Yusuf Nurkic, right?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: They downgraded at their starting center position almost objectively, right?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: But when I saw that they were looking to trade away DeAndre Aiden, one thing that I knew was gonna happen was they were gonna try to piece together a trade that it was depth over overall talent.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is a team that has Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and then DeAndre Aiden.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is three max players, three four max, four max contract players.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Next guy getting paid on the team, about three amps, two amps, a minimum, a minimum, a minimum, a minimum.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have the depth.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: And though I believe before this, they had a good offseason to bring in Katie Bates Diop, they bring in Eric Gordon, they bring in Utawatanabe.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: These are players that I trust.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And do I trust them in the seven-game series?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: But these are players I trust, especially in the regular season, to provide minutes and do their job effectively enough.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: But still, they lack depth.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when I saw DeAndre Ada potentially get a move, I was like, they're 100% gonna trade a two for one, in this case, a three for one.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: The three of the four players they got back in this trade are players that will be real rotational players, at least in the regular season, come postseason.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the rotation will look like.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: And no disrespect to Keon Johnson, but this is what his third team already in his three NBA years.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: I wish him nothing but the best, but I'm just gonna look at this from the other three spots.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, they downgraded from DeAndre Aiden for sure.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: But getting back a center, is that how I'm describing Yusuf Nurkits now?
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just by his position.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: All these other people, oh, a hard-nosed defender, uh great, great interior defender, or whatever.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yusuf Nurkits just a center.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: They get back a serviceable, there it is, there's the word, an uh adjective for you.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: A serviceable center.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: Grayson Allen, who's a 41% catch-and-shoot three-point shooter.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nazir Little, who at one point was starting to hit some threes and then fell out of rotation.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: Either he fell out of rotation or got injured.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Porla.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't watching y'all last season as much as I probably no.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to I don't need to say sorry for that.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, y'all are bad.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: They got three players that I'm pretty confident that can come in and play real life minutes on this team that was looking for players to play real life minutes.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they come into this this offseason now with I think 19 players after this trade, so we will probably see Keon Johnson get cut.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: We might see some other players get cut.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't cut my boy Timezi Matsu, please.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: He deserves a chance, I believe, but whatever.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: I like it in that sense.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Will you get three serviceable rotational players for a guy that was disgruntled, a guy that is overpaid.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be, he's overpaid for his production.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: You walked out of it saying, hey, Youssef Nurkic rebounds the hell out of the ball.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Grayson Alice, who's 41% on catch-a-shoot threes, and he's a chaser.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I made a tweet yesterday, and oh, I wish I could bring up the tweet.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I can't bring up the tweet.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: What am I talking about?
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not signed into Twitter on my computer, but guess what?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: You got the handy dandy computer in your hand, which is your cellular device.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: I made this tweet, and in the moment I sent it, I regretted it quite a bit.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I am a guy that would not delete a tweet in the NBA world.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: I might delete a tweet that said, hey, um uh like this tweet for$100.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because eventually I'm gonna get$100 away.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: So my tweet my tweet was assuming that the Suns and Aiden relationship was unrepairable, which is a word.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are saying that it wasn't.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I I Googled it, it is a word, um, that it's unrepairable.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't hate their return for him.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Grayson Allen is a high-level defender and a 41% catch-and-shoot player.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nurgitz hasn't been as good as pre-injury, but he's one of the best in the league in closing out defensive possessions.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is me kind of playing devil's advocate.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I regret in that tweet?
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: I said high-level defender for Grayson Allen.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't mean he's Drew Holiday.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't mean he was Marcus Smart, Alex Caruso, Derek White.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's not on the tier of that.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're ranking players of his position defensively, he's not average.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would say he's maybe slightly above.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think that sometimes he might be overtaxed in the sense that he might be asked to guard some players that he's just not very good at.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: One thing as a secondary defender, as a chaser, which again is what he did a lot in Milwaukee, as Drew Holiday is guarding the Bam out of Bay.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Drew Holiday's guarding the Jimmy Butler.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: You see Grayson Allen running around guarding Tyler Harrow before his injury, or running around guarding the Max Struces, or the guy, the movement players, and he's good there.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not high level.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: My fault.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want I don't want to I want to delete the tweet.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want to delete the tweet.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: And with the use of Nurkits, I was trying to find a way to bring a good light to him.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: And closing out defensive possessions is that he's a hell of a defensive rebounder.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: Simple as that.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's just not the he's not the same player as three years ago.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: You could convince me three years ago version of him, this trade is magnificent for them, but that's just not who he is.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: He he he's worse defensively, he's slower than he's ever been before, and he doesn't finish nearly as good as a guy that's seven foot tall should.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is even pre-injury.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't even out there, you know, doing what he could.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he did have a five by five game.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you forget?
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yusuf Nurkits would not.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: I had a tweet from two years ago that I tweeted.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: What player is gonna be next to put up a five-by-five?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow Yusuf Nurkins himself saw that tweet and quoted it and said, like, I did, or something like that.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: But my question was, who's next?
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yusuf Nurkits.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Who's next?
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: We saw yours.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: And bravo.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the same player.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: So now the Phoenix Suns are running out a lineup.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is probably Booker Beal, Josh Akogi, maybe.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is Grayson, maybe it's Josh Akogi, maybe it's Katie BCF.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: That three position is still up in the air.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then Kevin and Yusuf Nurkic.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I worry about them defensively.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: I worry about them defensively.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I would have to go back and re-watch exactly what Frank Vogel's philosophies are.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I maybe his philosophy changes depending on what his personnel is.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's what I hope.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, his last stop, he's had Anthony Davis as an anchor, so you know, and now he's got to deal with Yusuf Nurkic.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't trust Yusuf Nurkic in space.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: I very rarely trust him on as drop defender.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when they say they wanted a defensive-minded center, I was just so confused, as I think most people were.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: But again, even if he's not that, a three for one deal is not too bad.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: And something that I haven't heard anybody really talk about is the idea of more trades.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not now, but come regular season.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say Grayson Allen's not a part of their long-term future, which makes sense.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's a role player.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: 41% can shoot shooter last year, but it's not like he's uh Cal Corver out there, you know.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say he's not a part of their long-term plans.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's making$9.3 million next season, which, you know, it's not a ton of money in the association, as we all know and know.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's not gonna be hard to trade him away if you need to, but it might be hard to find the elevation of that.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: But they made a bunch of deals over the last six to eight months where they have a ton of second-round draft picks.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where let's say a player does come available at this 9 million to 10 million or whatever it might be, percentage um million dollar thing.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: They have a bunch of second-round picks they can attach to a Grayson Allen to upgrade if that opportunity comes up.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what does an upgrade look like?
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Off the top of head, Alex Russo makes$9 million a year.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's an upgrade.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's not the 41% catch-a-shoot player, but if we want defense, Alex Russo is that.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the Bulls suck, which maybe likely.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe likely.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe they'll be willing to make a trade.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: And is an all-defender, all defensive guard worth a first-round draft pick?
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is he worth three seconds?
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe more likely.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a world where this team that we see right now is not the team that they finish with.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: They also are going to be a team that's going to be very active on the buyout market considering they have so much top and talent that there will be players that get bought out that say, hey, if I want to win a championship, the Suns might be my best option.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just, yeah.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough having you some nerds who are starting center on a championship.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: A team that's trying to get me for a championship.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be blunt.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be blunt.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe he proves me wrong.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hope he does for his sake.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: I hope he proves me wrong, and he proves everybody wrong because it might be a little bit rough.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, let's talk about the Miami Heat.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think we can all agree if there was any any team that missed the boat, that missed out, it was the Miami Heat.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I feel a lot less confident in saying that now that I know that the Trailblazers say, hey, I want I want Bam or I want Jimmy.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if you're Pat Riley, you hang up the phone, you say, hey, we're good.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: But for a team that has been so over the last four years, this is what it looked like.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: NBA finals appearance, lost to the LA Lakers.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the year after that they lost in the first round of Giannis, if my timeline is right, maybe.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, uh the year after that wasn't great.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then the year after that, they get to the conference finals against the Boston Celtics.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're in a game seven.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Butler pulls up for three.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're one shot away from making the finals appearance.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: They fail.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: The year after that, they're in the NBA Finals as the eight seed, one of the most legendary low seed runs that you'll ever see in the history of the sport.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last four years, they have two championship appearances in one conference finals missed shot away from another.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they have not been able to hit that next step, which has helped them get to that win.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin O'Connor had this tweet.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that it's a completely fair tweet.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it is, but I'm just gonna read it because I think it's interesting.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since, I think he meant every, he did not say every.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since Jimmy Butler was acquired in 2019, these are the guards that Miami He were interested in but didn't land.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Zach Levine, James Harden, and Kyrie Irvin.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is an extremely long list of high-end talent that you were interested in, or vice versa.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: The player might have been interested in being a part of Heat Culture.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you've missed them all.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing you have done since acquiring Jimmy Butler in 2019 is get Kyle Laura.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: Victor Ledipo.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: That is great.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: But because you have the postseason success of being in the finals two of the last four years, being in the conference finals three of the last four years, then it's fine.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_00: But when Damian Lillard was traded away, uh Twitter was a crazy place and heat fandom.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in those spaces.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not in the real account.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not in the real account.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: See, gotta have another one.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in those spaces.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of them even went viral, I believe, where he fans are upset with Pat Riley.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell them how to feel or anything.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't want to discredit Pat Riley because he's one of the greatest to ever do it.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: But over the last couple years, he has struck out quite a bit.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you say, no harm done.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: We made it to the finals.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: No harm done.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've been in the conference finals, no harm done.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Butler, if I'm not mistaken, is a 34-year-old player who does not show signs of slowing down anytime soon, but everybody does.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the longer you play, the closer you are to that slowdown.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I fear for a Heat fandom is that they they this time of Jimmy and Bam is for not because they're not able to elevate to the next level.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: And having Tyler Hero as a 23-year-old player in the max contract that's really good and still has potential left.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like Tyler Hero, I know as part of a damn trade, everybody was turned off by Tyler Bro.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Tyler Hero is a damn good basketball player.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, can we say that?
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: Having him as a trade piece in a lot of these potential trades and losing those trades, those offers, it's gonna hurt.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Heat were prepared to offer up to three first-round draft picks with Tyler Harrow going to a third team and multiple second rounds and swaps along with expiring contracts and 2020, a 2022 first-round pick, uh Nikole Yovich, but the Blaze were disinterested.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can't necessarily in this situation fault Pat Riley.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that was from Shamsharani, by the way.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can't fault Pat Riley for this because that's everything that they have, not named Jimmy Butler, not named Bam Matabayo.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and this is all we know.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe the trouble said, okay, um, uh, maybe we want uh Jame Hockey S and they said no, that's where we draw the line.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they said uh we won't Caleb Martin and they say no, that's where we draw the line.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: There were some rumors of the Caleb Martin stuff, but again, that wasn't from uh a source that I feel confident saying that that is the fact, right?
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if this is the option, three first rounders plus some swaps, and then Nikola Yovich and then Tyler are going to another team.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a pretty good trade package.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best they could potentially put together.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can't fault old man Pat Riley for missing on this case because that's good.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now the other ones, maybe, maybe we can fault him missing the other ones because I don't really have much memory of some of those other ones.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the Donovan Mitchell one.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Cavs came out of nowhere and said, here you go.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the Utah Jazz got an all-star in return and plus some draft capital, right?
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Bradley Beal one, they could have undoubtedly won the Bradley Beal sweepstakes because the Bradley Beal trade was pretty much nothing.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was like them washing their hands of it.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: But they might have looked at their books and said, Hey, is it worth trading for this guy making all of this money?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: And now that they struck out on that, I don't know what the next thing is.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably trying to get Drew.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you could tell the fans say we did something to elevate.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now the offseason is Josh Richardson, it's Thomas Bryant, and it's relying on rookie Jame Hokes and sophomore Yanikole Yovich to help us out.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the teams around them, the ones that are trying to compete, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics, those teams got better.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put it in quotation better, because we have to see it, but they got better, and we didn't.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see what happens next with the Miami Heat.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm trying to figure out if there are other things worth chatting about with this trade.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: Every single piece of my notes is done.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's done.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the next thing we could, I guess, hope for is see what happens with James Harden.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and maybe James Harden and the Drew Holiday thing is attached one way or another.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I've been doing this, I have been getting notifications, and I'm hoping that it's not some breaking news.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: Miami is uninterested in James Harden.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I didn't really expect them to be interested in James Harden, but um, we know for sure that they're not.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: From from the Miami Herald.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Miami Herald.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to say thank you so much.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I should have probably done this at the top of the show, but if you're listening on audio platforms, you can go over to the YouTube channel and type in the Kenny Beach and Podcast, and the channel should pop up.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening on the audio platform, go over to YouTube, hit the subscribe button to the Kenny Beach and Podcast is really much appreciated.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is for uh this season to do some crazy stuff, get some sponsorships.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do some ad read, make some money, build the other studio and for this studio, get some stuff on these shelves because boy is bear out here.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to say I appreciate you.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love you as always, and uh, we'll be back media day more than likely.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll be back in a couple days.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.