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Mac & Bone Show - Keith Smith Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Our next guest.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he would be honest and tell us if
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I spelled Mayhem wrong. By the way Mayhem describes Bone.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: What this show was yesterday about nine to twenty when
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: we found out, oh my god, they really did it,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the Hornets really traded LaMelo ball to Minnesota. Our next
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: guest has covered the NBA for a long time, contributor
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: to spot Track Front Office show as well, and I
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: know he was tweeted with folks about this LaMelo deal
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and the trade exception. So we got to talk through
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: this with Keith Smith and he joins us here on
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the on the Mac and Bone Show. Keith, Hope, you're
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: well man, what's going on.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: A lot? You know, Fat I'm here in the NBA.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't need to tell us us. We know
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's a busy times.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: We thank you for trying to give us the info
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: on a lot of the inner workings of this deal.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: It seems like Keith, a lot of the national media
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: likes it more from a Hornet's perspective than Minnesota, whereas
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the fans here are having a hard time coming to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: terms with this, Like do you view it as there
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: was a clear winner in the trade or not.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: How do you how do you view that?
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: I tend to take a more long term view of
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: let's see how these things pan out, and there's a
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: there're short term wins and then there are long term wins.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: For the Hornets. There are short term wins of they
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: get Nasried a really good player, and then their long
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: term wins are a whole boatloaded draft picks and swaps
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: and they've got control of drafts with Minnesota that are
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: you know, who knows where will be you know, six
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: seven years from now. And that that was not a
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: cheap LaMelo Ball joke. I promise.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: The hand gesture right now, so thank you probably did
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: it too.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: If I was on video, you would have seen it
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: as well. But you know, short term, yeah, I get
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: why fans, you know, could feel some consternation about this
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: very popular player, especially with the younger fans. LaMelo Ball
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: is he's somebody who is kind of the face of
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: the rebuild of the franchise when they started over. And
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I gotta you guys would know better than I, but
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: it feels like the reaction is, we finally have a
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: really good thing going here, Why are we even messing
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: with it at all?
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: That's exactly it going.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: So I do fully get that, but I think the
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: flexibility they created in this getting nasried getting all those
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: draft picks, and what I'll say is they are not done.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: Let's see what comes next after this before we start
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: passing judgment.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Real quick, before what's next. How surprised were you that
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: the Hornets did this after such a great season or
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: did you think in your mind that, hey, yeah, that
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: maybe he's not long for this for the Hornets, I was.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Pretty surprised that it happened, and especially the speed with
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: which this happened, which tells me. When we get reporting
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: of a deal in the evening hours and then you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: less than twelve hours later we get the agreement of
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: the deal, that's not really how it happens in the NBA,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: So that tells me there had been some talks going
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: on for a little bit here before this was settled.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: But in the end, it does surprise me, because, yeah,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: the Hornets were one of the really fun surprises. There
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: was nothing but upward momentum that said something was eventually
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: going to have to give because they need to resign
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Brandon Miller, there's a couple other guys they're gonna be
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: due for new contracts, so Kobe White was gonna get
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: his new deal, So they just weren't ever gonna be
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: one of those teams. I don't think that's gonna be
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: a you know, aprons be damned, let's go deep into
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: those and you know all those things. I don't think
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: that's the way they're going to operate, But I'm a
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: little surprised that happened this quickly.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: What did you think of the package that the Hornets got?
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Back pickswaps are intrigued because you don't really know which
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: way it's gonna go. Plus a couple of the pick swaps,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: there's like three different teams picks involved. They got the
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: one first rounder three thirds. We all love nas reed
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: like that's the type of stretch for we've been looking
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: for for a while. Did you think the package was
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: a lot for the Hornets or the trade exceptions obviously
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a big part too.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely can start there. If this trade goes down
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: as it looks like it's structured now, which who knows,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: right we this will not be able to go official
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: until July sixth, when the moratorium lists. For a number
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: of reasons, some of them involving the other teams in
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the trade. So we're at a fourteen trader right now.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: You give NBA GMS another week or so, well, this
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: could expand out to be an even bigger trade. We
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: saw that with the Kevin Durant trade of from the
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Sun to the Rockets last year ended up being a
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: seventeen trade when all was said and done. But to
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: your question about about the TP, that's huge. Getting that
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: trade exception forty point seven million dollars, that's massive. That's
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: gonna allow them to do so do quite a few things.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Then the the picks. Here's the good thing with the
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: pick swaps. What's nice is when you trade for a
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: pick direct, especially in this new world, the lattery reform
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: and the like, it can't get a little bit messy
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: because some teams being ah that picked don't locally. It's
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: gonna be very good. Not I'm sure I even want
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: to get involved with that. With a pick swop, it
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: kind of is, hey, we're gonna end up with the
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: best of whatever this is. This kind of works out.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: So I think they did quite well to get that,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and then getting a completely unprotected pick seven years from now,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: who knows where will be. I mean, neither one of
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: these teams will look very similar at that point, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: that pick could be absolute gold.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Walk us through a little bit how the CPE works
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: in terms of the Jalen Brown obviously is the biggest
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: name out there, so a lot of fans and we
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: hear and media things all. Can the Hornets get Jalen Brown?
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: Can they get Jalen Brown with that or is that
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: not how it's going to operate?
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it won't work that way. So when you have
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: a traded player exception, which is forty we're just going
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: to say it's forty point seven million because that's what
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: it looks like today. What happens is you have to
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: be able to fit the player's salary into that traded
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: player exception. So they could trade for anybody who can
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: go on spot tracks, sword order the contracts and anybody
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: who makes forty point seven seven million or less can
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: fit into that trade exception, and mechanically it would work.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Here's your challenge is with Jaln Brown, he makes fifty
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: seven million. So what you're not allowed to do is
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: take like like I've seen people saying, well, trade Brandon
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Miller and combine another contract and that's how you get
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Jalen Brown with that big trade. You'll combine those guys
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: with the trade exception. You're not allowed to combine or
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: aggregate is the CBA term for this, the trade exception
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: with outgoing player salary together to bring in more salary
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: than what's allowed by the trade exception. So now what
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I will say, sorry, is if they expand this trade,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: there are ways you could rework this where you don't
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: even create the trade exception, use LaMelo Ball as matching
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: salary even though he's going to Minnesota. And that's how
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: you could rope in whether it's Boston and Jalen Brown
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: or any number of players. And that's why it's important
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: to kind of all right, let's see right now it's
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: a fourteen trade. Maybe just expand even further.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fascinating and they can. Can they do it?
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I think they can do it. You tell me with
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: multiple players, like, let's say two players worth ones where
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: twenty ones worth twenty two? Can they can the exception cover?
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I guess that'd be too much. I gotta go lower
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: fifteen million, my mass horrible, key, fifteen million in twenty
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: fifteen and twenty Like if you do that. Can you
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: use that to cover both? Yes, yeah, okay you could do.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: You can't split a trade exception to bring in multiple players.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: You just can't add a trade exception to any other salary.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, Keith, do you teach night classes on this stuff?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: By a chance?
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I can't hit me off separately, and we'll just got
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: the thing. Thank you.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I love it because I saw this on Twitter. My
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: guy here game and figure out the math on the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: whole time. Yeah, I screwed that whole thing up. Keith
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was getting ready to shoot me down.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Bro.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: You just gave me forty three million dollars the salary.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's Friday, Keith. I need a beer man.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: At my Friday. You've been out of school for a while.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: You can't spell, can't do math, all.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Those good excuses. Hey, what do you think though about like,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: like how quickly? Because there's there's a local TV reporter here,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Michael sett does TV here that responded to Sham's tweet
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: about Sham's last night said, Hey, Boston's talking to multiple
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: teams about Jalen Brown right now, and one of our
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: local TV guys said, my sources telling me the Hornets
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: are one of the teams that are talking to them,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Like do you think the Hornet should be that aggressive
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: and like be trying to add a star right now?
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Or do you think they should slow play this a
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: little bit more? Like, how do you think they should
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: play this rebuild?
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: I think you'd be aggressive within reason. Like where I'm
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: starting to see and I get it. A lot of
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: this is coming from Celtics fans who are obviously their
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: their opinion is, hey, if we're trading Jalen Brown, we
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: want kN Kin Nipple, we want Brandon Miller, we want
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: we don't just want matching salary and draft picks. And
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: part of that for the Celtics is they're not trying
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: to rebuild. Right when Milwaukee traded Giannis for a boatloaded draft,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: it's because they're trying to rebuild, so they're they're fine
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: with that. In this case, the Celtics are not trying
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: to do that. They're trying to win, So you know,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: a bunch of just draft centric uh, trade is not
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: really what they're looking for. So with Charlotte, that's where
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: it gets a little messy, Like, yeah, you could trade
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: maybe one of those guys because in theory, Jalen Brown
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: overlaps with them, and I kind of get why maybe
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: you would you would do that, but I think you
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: want to be careful. We don't want to do is
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: kind of down all of a sudden, it's well, we
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: swapped out these two three really good players, and we
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: got one really good player and some some flexibility and
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: in that and now all of a sudden, when you
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: look at it, when the dust clears it, but we're
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: kind of really in the same spot. So I would
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: be very careful of going too deep and too crazy
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: with another trade. You know, if it's there and it
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: makes sense, yeah, absolutely go after it. But but I'm
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: not I'm not giving up all my younger guys in
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: the trade for Jalen Brown.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: If I'm the Hornets, what do you think about? How
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: about this one? We've had a couple of like local
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: hornets figure out my head over here exception bones like
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: carried to one. Let's see here. We had a couple
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: of local Hornets writers that have said to us today
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: that they would be real patient and they would use
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: the exception in order to take back maybe you know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: bad contract, but get more picks and just keep adding
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: to that treasure chest of picks that we have. Do
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: you think that's the right place, Because Hornets fans hear that, Keith,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and they're like, we just want forty four games. We
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: want to try to win fifty, you know what I mean,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Like we finally saw success, we don't want to take
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: a step back. Do you think that would be a
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: good pragmatic approach or is that too much slow play
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: in this thing?
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I mean it can be if we look at like
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: in everybody right wants to be like the Oklahoma City Thunder.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Everybody wants to model after them. But what the Thunder did,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: even when they kind of took their step forward and
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: got into contention to make the postseason, then what they
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: did was they continue to still add to their Trevor
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: treasure trove of draft picks. So I think there is
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: a place where you can do that if you're the
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Hornets without really further weakening the team. But I get
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: why fans are saying, like, hey, it hasn't been good
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: here for ten years. You know, we're finally in a
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: place where things feel like we're close and we're moving.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: The East is getting better around us, like let's keep
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: trying to trying to move that forward. And that's that's
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: the balancing act and quite frankly, why Jeff Peterson gets
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: paid the big box. He's got to sit down and
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: sort through like do we go right now? Because hardest
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: thing for GM, if you talk to them, is when
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: do we go all in? When is we make that
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: all in move? Because if you go too early, maybe
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: you never quite get there, and if you wait too late,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: maybe that window passes you by. So threading that needle
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: is a really difficult part of that job.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: And the fan perspective is what you just talked about,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: like we just had the most of I mean, I
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: can't tell you, Keith how many times I have mentioned
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: their net efficiency ratings since January first, Like I want
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: him to hang a banner for it, you know what
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, being tops in the league. And I say that,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: But it's like we have been so you know, deprived
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: of anything fun on the hard court here that that
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: was just an out of body experience, even though we
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: got beat up by Orlando. So I think we were
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: all thinking just build on this young core. Instead they
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: said the biggest star of the young core, we're going
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: to use now, probably when they thought his value as
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: a highest So I don't know, man, it's gonna be
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: fascinating to see. But I appreciate you are a and
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I believe you've used this term before basketball nerd. You
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: are a true basketball nerd. I mean, not the best
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: best way case Smith. You broke it all down for us, man,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: and I really appreciate it.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: That was great.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I think that as the highest of compliments. I am happy,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: happy to call myself that happy to have you call me.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Love it. Even he even shot down.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: I think it was like it was either might have
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: been poly market one of the prediction markets had got
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: well yes to day on Twitter I saw this, they
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: were like, oh, Hornets are now the favorite to get
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Jaylen Brown because they have that trade exception. And Keith
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: had to hoopsplain to him here's how the trade exception works.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: It doesn't apply to Jayleen Brown. So that was beautiful.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, brother, I only get.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Tagged in those things so many times before. It like
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: I got a reply.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: That was great.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: It was great the way to explain you're the best
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: at this, man. Thank you have a good summer, Man,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me