Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode of Hardwood Knocks. This is
Adam from We'll here with my fantastic co host Dan Favalley. We're midway through,
well, I guess potentially midway through the twenty one NBA Finals between the
Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns. But we've already done a number of mailbags and
covered that pretty extensively to this point, so we're kind of shifting gears and
moving into off season mode a bit. We want to talk about fake trades,
both how we generate them, the potential pitfalls, the tools that are
used, what to look for, what to avoid, and then, of
course, because he's Dan, Dan has some fake trades for us. But
before we jump in any of that, how's it going, Dan? I
am doing well, and as you know, I love talking fake trades unlike
you, and I've gotten better at recognizing the human element of it. I
will preface any single trade article or podcast I write saying we are hypothetically relocating
people's lives and family, so I don't necessarily take it lightly. But trades
are part of the business, and I do think they're an interesting part as
much as you loathe them. But how are you doing. You are back
from a vacation. I'm sure our listeners were like, WTF, where's Adam
the past ten days? You're You're back though, How is your vacation or
you refreshed? It's great? I was. I was all over the state
of Washington, as north as you can get in the state without going to
the islands. I went to the Olympic Peninsula for a little bit. I
saw my wife's family, took a week off work. I'm relaxed and recharged,
so it was great to get away. Did you actually did you unplug
from work? Though? That's the key I recommend. Ever, can you
did you actually unplug unplugged? I did not bring my work computer. I
did not check in. I still did the NBA math updates because I can't
help myself and because I want to serve you the listeners, even if I
didn't record with Dan while I was gone. Yeah, I heard you were
working on some MLB math stuff on your flight too from you. That my
source is but I found that after your sources reliable. I do love that
flight was great though. The flight was great because my wife, my two
and a half year old son, and I all flew back together, and
we with like an hour to go until boarding. We were told that we'd
all been upgraded to first class, which sounds great until we looked at the
seat numbers and my wife was in row four, my son was in row
five, and I was in rows seven. We were like, well,
this sounds great, like for us, it sounds great. For the people
who are going to be next to a toddler without his parents, that sounds
miserable. So we went to the gate attendant and they got my wife and
my son to sit together, and we're like, we can't get all three
of you together. And I was like, oh no, that sucks.
And then I enjoyed sitting by myself on the plane and it was one of
the best parts of the vacation. I really felt for you when you told
me that you were going to be sitting without child. And it got even
better too, because the flight was entirely full except for one seat and it
was right next to me. I had no one on the row with me.
It was so great. You did something larmically. You were rewarded.
I don't know what it was. It wasn't providing good basketball takes, because
that was a terrible they've been terrible. I'm glad you were able to unplug,
though I love telling other people to unplug and just being the biggest hypocrite
of all. But we need to we need to start a self care segment.
What have you done to self care for yourself lately? Listeners? Let
us know self care is important. So we're talking about fake trades though,
So what do you have for me here? You have questions about the process.
Do I do it just to troll fan bases and get them mad at
me and purposely drop fake trades and be terrible at my job? That should
fire me After every single trade piece that I write. I think so often
we see on Twitter that the fake trades that get noticed are the ones that
are just terrible. It's usually like the Los Angeles Lakers fans who have decided
that their role players have immense value and they're going to land yet another star.
And it's not just the Lakers, it's every fan base. They're all
guilty of it. But you know, I've I never really loved doing those
I get why people enjoy reading them and all that, but I know that
you have a different perspective and it shows I've always thought that, and I'm
biased here, but I always thought that you were absolutely in the top tier
for generating compelling, reasonable fake trades. And they're always met with comments and
backlash because that's just the nature of the business, but to anyone who really
dives in, it's beyond clear, like how much time and effort you put
into generating those. And I thought it could be a good exercise leading into
the offseason where a lot of people listening to this are sure to go play
with the trade machines and try to figure out what they can do to improve
their teams. To just kind of talk through how you initially come up with
the ideas first, and then we can kind of dive into the more granular
details about how pick swaps and pick protections and what you do to balance it
and make sure that you're accounting for everything just what goes into that process.
Yeah, what I'm initially doing them. A lot of times there's the initiation
of so and so is tied to a specific rumor or a specific team,
and so you atomatically look that way. But if you're just generally trying to
come up with offseason trade ideas, my goal specifically is to either put a
unique spin on the rumor mill that's already out there, or just come up
with stuff all my own that hasn't been written about or talked about extensively,
Maybe finding a good destination that hasn't been talked about for a player that's already
on the market, and then trying to make it as equitable for both sides
as possible. And I think a lot of and I've written this way too,
where it's I'm proposing a team a trade from Team Ex's perspective to team
why that can happen, But like, that's not how I try and write
the trades. I want to know, Okay, well, what's team why
is most likely response going to this going to be? And I'm a big
fan of pulling other people. I have confidence that I just trust, like
fellow writers in the business that I'll pull if they're league wide. I'll talk
to people who cover the team that have or have a vested interest in the
outcome of the trade to see if I'm completely off or if someone wrote specifically
about a certain player in his market. So I will pull tons of people.
I'm pretty much every deal that I write about, and that's how I
come up with my framework, because there's a lot of back and forth there.
You've been the people on the other side of the trade talks that I'm
having, and I will ask, you know, who says no to this,
or is this fair for both sides? Sometimes they'll you'll have to ditch
framework completely, or sometimes it'll be a tweak here or tweak there. It's
talking about and we'll get into this. But like I'll go as granular and
like commentors don't appreciate this a lot. They say, like, this person
just wants us to know that he understands how pick swaps and pick protections work,
and it's not that it's I will go down to those details because I
want people to digest the trade with as open mind as possible. And that's
the level of thought I'm putting into these And I think, save for characters
who are paid to be characters, no one, I would argue is writing
these trade proposals with the intention of being bad. And the reaction makes it.
You know, I enjoy writing about fake trades, I hate the reaction
to them. And I'm you know, bleacher report your former employer and my
current employer. They do push you to interact with commentss. I do think
it's important to interact with your readership, But everyone just wants you to be
fired after you're writing them because they think that it's you're doing this lazily,
or they don't agree with it, or they don't know who a certain player
is, and that can vary. Someone was mad at me because they're like,
why would anyone ever give up a first round pick for Jonathan Isaac?
Who is that? So there's like different levels to them. But I try
to take into the account like this might be the wrong way to approach it.
How do I make people at the least amount of angry as possible.
I'm when I'm doing these trade proposals, and I think that does help comp
with more balance takes. But it's I do exhaust myself and that's not a
brag, Like I will overthink these where a lot of people probably think they're
easy pieces to write about and they are fun, I will overthink them hours
shifts worth of work. I'll be in the middle of a workout and be
thinking about a trade idea I just wrote about. I'm like scrap it later
on because I'm like, you know what, this doesn't make sense for shar
or something I've always felt and the backlash is inevitable when you're talking about these
trades, just because that's the nature of that territory. But I always felt
that you truly succeed when you craft a fake trade proposal if both sides criticize
it. And it's the same way if you're like ranking a player, you
know, like player X, we're putting him at number eight. Oh that's
way too high. Oh that's way too low. Well then I'm probably just
about right. So I think that always led me to really try to approach
it from both teams perspectives, and I think that's the biggest pitfall that you
see with a lot of the ones that circulate on Twitter. I don't think
that people who are working at, you know, the big publications and the
big websites are trying to put together fake trades just for the sake of ginning
up controversy. But I do think that as a fan, where you're not
necessarily operating from a true league wide perspective, that it's easy to forget that
you shouldn't just think about the value of the players and the assets included in
a vacuum, but you have to consider the team situations as well, Like
if you're sending a point guard to a team with an overload of initiators,
that's not going to be as valuable to them, even if on paper,
devoid of team situation, it looks like an even swap. So when you're
when you're crafting these, are you just looking at depth charts? Are you
looking at contract situations? What goes into that part of the process. I
think I start with the cap sheets because you want to see is team X
in the cap? Do they have contracts that can match easily? If we're
doing offseason trades, cap space can be a big part of that as well.
And that's, by the way, that's an asset. If you don't
have to take money back, that is part of the asset. The other
maybe less of an asset. It's less of an asset, yes, But
I'm just saying if you're getting off a fat deal or a longer term deal
without it, that's part of the that's part of the appeal there. I
will look at depth arts. You don't want to have over I mean,
look, there's you don't want to send right now a big to Cleveland if
they're keeping Jared Allen, Kevin love is still there. You have Larry Nance,
and I think technically could wind up with Evan Mobley at number three,
So like that's something that would have to be in consideration. That being said,
when you're it also depends on the team's timeline, where if there's a
team that's not as interested in competing, now, I'm not going to care
as much about the depth chart fit. It's okay, what level of asset
is coming back. And so if you're trading, let's say a guard to
Oklahoma City right now, they don't need another guard. But I would urge
people, and I know Twitter when they provide screenshots, some of which are
for my articles. I've had my articles aggregated, which I pity anyone whose
job it would be to aggregate me of all people, Like, that's just
a terrible existence. So you're not going to see or read the justification or
the reasoning behind it. I would urge people to actually look at the reasoning
because it might just be a matter of, Oh, I get why they
would take this player because they're getting this compensation, but I disagree with how
much they would need more compensation. And so the other thing that I'm big
with is what would be the response from Team Mex's fan base, because I
want to make sure that I'm not angering them as much as possible. But
the other pitfall here, and this is not a shot at people that root
for or cover one team. My knowledge on you know, Sacramentos on Sacramentos,
you know, fourth straight, like Robert Woodard is just not going to
be what it is for people who write about the Kings. At the same
time, if you're specifically covering the Kings, my job as a national writer
would be I have to have a better hold of league wide value of players
than you would. And so you see these trades. This is not Kings
specifically. That was just a team that came to mind for no apparent reason.
I have no idea why came. And Robert Woodard is great and going
to be a future rotation players, so let's find a better example two way
wing. But like you're he's not going to be the centerpiece of a Damian
Lillard trade, and why not. I think the disconnect exists when fans or
even people who cover one team look at it just from their team's perspective.
Oh, that's too much for us to give up, and then they'll counterpropose,
and I've looked at comments, I've gotten feedback on articles from people that
I trust, and I'll take it into consideration. A lot of it I
take into account, like, yeah, you know what, maybe I had
the Warriors give up too much for zach Lavine. But I've also not taken
into account the feedback because I'm like, well, that's just not going to
happen, because I'm not saying that the Bulls have to trade zach Lavine at
all, or do the Warriors, nor do the Warriors have to be the
team that acquires him. But if this is the trade I'm going to write
about because I like the fit, like this is going to be the price
point set because I think the Bulls need this and I think the Warriors are
allowed or should be comfortable with giving up this much. And that's also the
genesis of a lot of trades, is I'm not always reacting to the rumor
mill per se when it comes to specifically available players or even specific destinations that
are linked to I'm looking at And this I guess goes back to depth charts,
but like fits is, like, you know, if you were talking
about a Damian Lillard trade, I want one hundred yet one hundred percent understand
people are going to be like, well, he's gonna go to the Knicks,
or maybe the Warriors will get involved. But it's kind of fun to
think about. Well, Baby and Lillard in New Orleans makes a lot of
sense. And so if you want to come up with the perspective package for
that. That's not a novel concept, by the way it's been discussed,
but that's just an example of where a genesis of a certain trade might come
from. When I was officially trying to come up with the fake trade proposals,
it was never my goal and I'm curious if your approach differs from mine
here, but it was never my goal to predict what was actually going to
happen. It's more of an exercise to showcase the value of those primary assets,
to highlight team needs and how they could go about improving those needs or
getting rid of a surplus of talent at a certain position, or whatever the
case may be. And that's why I think your point about responding to that
reader feedback when it's constructive is the most salient one, because these trades aren't
supposed to be perfect. If they were perfect, they'd happen in real life,
and typically they don't because we do learn from them, and we do
consider new pieces of information that might not have been considered at the start because
you're so focused on so many different elements of constructing these in a way that's
legal and compelling and makes sense and it actually improves both teams. But because
these aren't supposed to be entirely predictive, I think that it allows for more
of that. Yeah, I'm there's if you're covering a specific player where you're
trying to come up with as many trade packages as possible. For Ben Simmons,
yeah, you want to tackle the realistic destinations, the ones that have
been linked. But I would just go back to like fit or you know,
there have been trades that I haven't published out of fear for what the
reaction will because the player has not been talked about as a trade prospect.
We need an example now, Well, so I'll use one that I actually
did write about, and I think I received the least critical feedback of anyone
who wrote about a Shy Guilt Just Alexander trade. I understand he's not available,
We've both said on this podcast while talking about his trade value that Oklahoma
Station not trade him, but I don't would have to help the exact framework.
But it was og and number four for Shay Gilges Alexander and I think
number sixteen or whatever it was. And you know, I didn't get I
had some people were mad in the comments, but like it didn't go on
Twitter and get people big mad. I won't promote most of my trade packages
either on Twitter because the bleacher reports app luckily for us. For me,
you don't work anymore. Is a machine. So like I'm in a position
where I don't have to do those and they'll do their its own level of
engagement. I really don't want to make people mad. I'm not trying to
hide from my trade proposals, but I don't go out of my way to
throw them out there. And but yeah, I'm not trying to predict what
that and the look that's a no win proposition, predictions before the season about
things like a player performance stats, teams who finish where, But like,
we're not news breakers, we don't have that insight. Anything I hear is
like and that's not saying I hear a lot, Like there are things I
heard because I am friends with writers who've heard stuff or heard stuff from other
people who told them. They tell you things that are going on. I
would never one relay it, and two I would never write about it because
there's no value in it. The chances that you're right are slim, and
if you are right, no one's gonna remember. I don't think people are
gonna pat me on the back for predicting the Phoenix Suns to win the title
before the postseason ever started, so like that is a different type of ledge
to step out on, but I'm not. There's no to me, there's
no real reward unless you're a woad and you're breaking the trade itself. There's
no real reward in predicting the exact destination. I think I wrote about a
trade to get Pja Tucker to Milwaukee, and the framework was basically identical to
what it ended up being. They just had that creative pick swat where they
swapped their first rounder for Houston's second rounder, and that's not I don't think
that Milwaukee's trying office read my article, but I people said that that's not
enough to get But people said that's not enough to get PJ Tucker, and
it ended up the framework basically was No one was like, oh, you
called it, and I'm not going to take a victory lap for it.
So I would never be in the business of predicting it, nor do I
set out that way to do it. Not When it comes to trades anyway,
Yeah, they're mostly for informative purposes and a little bit entertainment as well,
because that's the business. I think one thing I always appreciated about writing
the trade proposals for Bleacher Report, and you know, I know this applies
to you now, is that I was and you are encouraged to write about
each piece within the trade structure. Now, there's no such thing as an
irrelevant throw in, even if it's just having a fourth string or listed for
salary matching purposes. That player is included for a reason. And I think
that that is often lost when people are scanning through an article that might have
ten or a dozen trade proposals, where like, yes, every piece of
this was crafted for a reason. It wasn't just drawn out of a hat
like our you know, our player rankings totally drawn out of a hat,
but the trades definitely not right. So, and that comes back to I
do think it's important to read you also have to understand that, and that's
I do think. I will say it forces I'm sure you and me to
critically think about trades more, knowing people are either going to scroll past it
and only look at the framework, So you want to make it as equitable
and appealing as possible just to that initial glimpse, because some people aren't going
to read. And I don't know how much my justifications are going to sway
people that are against it from reading the framework, but you do try and
be specific, and I know what I specifically do Appleacher Report and just overall
exists to feed the machine. I'm not under any illusion that I am writing
content that is changing the world and it interests me. I will never write
something that I fundamentally don't want to or don't agree with, or don't think
you should be written. And that's a luxury I'm sure other people don't have.
But I am going to try and provide a level of depth and detail
and voice that makes it distinguishable and what I think better than cookie cutter,
regardless of the concept. And so that's how I approach it, is how
do you get initially what does this look like without context? But then to
provide that context for the people who actually read so that they can understand where
I'm coming from, because I don't want to be constantly not only getting yelled
at, but I don't want to have to, you know, I don't
want to be wrong all the time. And I want people, if they're
going to tell me I'm wrong, like, come and tell me like,
oh, you wrote this, but it's just not true, Like that's that
fit is just not going to work. And I think it allows for if
you read it, a more thorough or more valuable conversation to both parties of
it. And I think if you actually read what I write, whether you
agree with it or not, you can at least tell the thought I've put
into it. And it was the same thing with you when I would read
your articles, or if you would, you know, you would send me
stuff that you wrote before you submitted, be like does this make sense?
And it's not always about trades. Even if I didn't agree with like the
like the title that you came up with or the conclusion that you were setting
up, I would read you and be like, all right, I get
where he's coming from. And some a lot of the times, because you're
such auld right, it would sway me. So that's where that's where I
land there. I just don't think you mentioned a player rankings at the top
of this question too. That trades maybe anything in particular like it just doesn't
lend itself to people doing that anymore. And that's I want to be clear.
It's not just the reader the audience's fault. That's why I said it's
important that you try and come up with the best package where even a pursory
glance will make it people can at least understand the reasoning. It shouldn't be
something that's so far fetched that people look at it and no amount of reading
or justification that you provide, no context you deliver, will help your case.
What is the biggest piece of advice that you have for people who are
listening to this and are inevitably going to generate fake trade proposals of their own
during the offseason. My answer, just to give you a second to think
about it, since you didn't know that question was coming, would be to
remember that you are interpreting the value of a player or asset included from both
perspectives. I think that it's it's important to remember that you know let's use
Damian Lillard as an example. Portland is going to be expecting a gigantic return
from him. Not every team is going to. Are you saying, like
Kuzma and number twenty two? Or will Portland have to send something to Los
Angeles other than day They might need to include like a future pick swap or
something. But you know Portland, Portland wants a big return, but not
every team is a going to be capable or be you going to want to
give up a sizeable return because everyone has differing levels of desire and need for
Damian Lillard. And this is a top ten player in the league, top
fifteen player in the league, wherever you want to put him. I don't
really want to make that a centerpiece of this conversation. But no matter how
good he is, you know, like the Atlanta Hawks with Trey Young who
is so ball dominant, are going to value him very very differently than the
New York Knicks who need a player like that. Yeah, and you have
to start there, And so I don't I'm not going to repeat anything you
said. I agree with one hundred percent of it that I do think that's
particularly valuable, Like if you're not if you're writing about trades and not thinking
about it from that perspective, there's no obvious problems. So if you're writing
it as a I'm just throwing it random team out here, I'm trying to
throw out different teams. If you're writing this as writing something as a Raptors
fan, like, try and consider what that looks like from the wizard's perspective
if you're trying to get Bradley Beal. I also think the other thing that's
important is like make sure that these trades work. They have. ESPN's trade
machine is valuable. I don't know how often it's updated, but there is
the the NBA other trade machine out there. I have my own spreadsheet of
salaries, nothing anywhere near like a actual salary cap expert has, but that
I will. I don't even use the trade machines anymore. I'm like calculating
it myself because you don't want to throw out framework that one doesn't work.
And I also think that Lucy Goosey framework is kind of a cop out in
certain instances like oh if we could figure out a way to get Ben Simmons
to you know, Denver, and it's like you don't mention that, oh,
they're probably gonna have to trade Jamal Murray in that's an area. So
and then you're talking about or even I've seen it with the Timberwolves would be
a great example. A subset of Timberwolves fans, writers, bloggers. It
wasn't everyone, but when Ben Simmons was linked and they were like, wow,
imagine what De'angelo Russell, Karl Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Anthony Edwards
would look like together. And in my head, I'm like, okay,
well, they didn't include Leek Beasley, but some of them included Jane McDaniels.
And you also need salary other than Lee Beasley to go out, and
De'angelo Russell will probably be one of those salaries. If you're getting Ben Simmons,
there's a chance of Philly might even demand Anthy Edwards, in which case,
if you're in Minnesota, you hang up the phone. I want to
make that clear, but it doesn't work like that. And it's even with
the Knicks and Dame. There are people that are This might be a bad
example because I do think there's a scenario, since RJ. Barrett's entering year
three that if I'm Portland I'd probably prefer extra picks then I would RJ.
Barrett. But like, you can't just assume that you're gonna get Damian Lillard
without giving up r J Barrett. If your breaking point, you won't give
up r J Barrett for Damian Lillard, I understand. But that has to
be part of the conversations, not just oh, imagine what Dame Quickly Randall,
RJ Barrett, top in Mitchell Robinson would look like all those players aren't
surviving those trade talks. And so that comes back to the perspective that you
also said. But then I do think you also want to make sure the
framework is feasible, and that comes back to make sure that teams have these
picks to offer real GM catalogs them exceptionally. Well, you can look at
commitments. Understand also, and this goes into context, is like you can
technically trade consecutive first round picks. It's just that you can't trade future consecutive
first round picks. And so, like an example that I would use is
the Lakers. I think, oh, they're twenty twenty two first round pick
to New Orleans, and they can still trade their twenty twenty one first round
pick number twenty two as an actual salary thirty days after they sign him.
It'll happen after the draft. It could be agreed upon before the draft.
During the draft. They can make that selection on New Orleans' behalf. They
did that with on their next team's behalf. They did it with DeAndre Hunter
essentially, like that pick was made on the Pelicans behalf before the Anthony Davis
trade, like was officially finalized. I believe. So no stuff like that,
and I'm something my words there because I don't actually know if that was
the scenario with Anthony Davis. That feels like a half decade ago. But
my point stands where the Lakers can trade the Nets can trade their first round
pick this year after the draft, after they made this selection because it's no
longer a future and pay attention to second round picks, like a lot of
teams have traded all of the second round picks away and so you have to
go pretty far out into the distance too for them to convey those, and
like just stuff little things like that I think can help separate them. I'm
not pretending to be a fake trade savant in that regard, but I do
think being accurate there and even coming up with the details like, oh,
a pick swap, which is not the same as a first round pick.
That was the other thing that it seems that commenters or people who've read my
stuff don't like, why would you know, why would Dallas give up two
first round picks to get off of Dwight Powell and Christops Porzingi's contract, And
it's like they didn't give up any first round picks. It was two first
round swaps. I ultimately decided that was too rich of a price for them
to pay. But you know, try and understand and implement things like those,
I do believe is important. I'm sure I even still make mistakes,
but at least if you're seeing like you know and write about those things,
if you think that, you know, sending out if the Clippers sending out
one of Detroit's second round picks has actual value. Because people write off second
round picks so much. Explain why, Yeah, Detroit's getting Kaid Cunningham,
but they're twenty twenty four second round pick. There's a chance that it still
might be semi good where it's in the thirties or the early forties. The
hope is that it's not, but they're a team that you look at and
go, oh, that second round pick could be early, or a team
like Washington where you don't know what's going to happen with Beal. I think
do the Bulls or own some of their like future first I can't remember,
maybe it's even the Clippers that own it. But if you own some of
Washington's future first round picks, second round picks, excuse me, that are
imminent, those can have value. Just just write about why. With respect
to the legality of trades too, I would just recommend that everybody check out
cbafaq dot com. It's a resource that Larry Kuhn, who literally teaches classes
about the salary cap and the Collective Bargaining Agreement, has put together one hundred
twenty seven hyperlinked table of content portions. Frequently ask questions. If you have
a question about the CBA, whether it's the Steppian rule or when you can
trade picks, or the Lautery tax scale, or whatever the case may be,
the answer is going to be in there, and it is important to
understand the nuances of those pieces if you're constructing trades that are both compelling and
legal. Yeah, and he's great and I think like a big one about
like the salary matching too, is where he has the it's a convenient table
set up and then he goes into detail like I do think some people just
assume that it's always one hundred and twenty five percent of the outgoing salary can
be taken inbound, and it's like, no, you get to a certain
amount plus one hundred thousand dollars, do you know that, Yes, you
get to a certain point where the salary level that's all you can say back.
But across the board, that's only true for the tax paying teams where
it's you know, certain teams, And I'm not going to go to the
nitty gritty on the numbers here because I don't think that relays too well in
podcast for him. But it's like some of them, if it's low enough,
they can take back up to just five million more or it's one hundred
and seventy five percent of the outgoing salary. So stuff like that can be
valuable when you're built because if you forget that, like if five million dollars
ends up being more than one hundred and twenty five percent of the salary,
and if the salaries are low enough, then yeah, it's it's going to
be a useful asset that can be part of your justification behind the trade because
you're saving another team money. I think, like you mentioned at the top,
that's not going to be the primary asset. I guess in some cases
it could be where if you just send Yeah, if the Spurs, let's
just say the Pacers want to avoid the tax this season and they want to
keep keeaching McConnell and Doug McDermott. They can't do both. That would be
my projection, at least with what McConnell McDermot. They could send Jeremy Lamb
into san Antonio's cap space for a fake second or whatever. Like that's something
that could happen. And the asset is san Antonio is providing you with they're
releasing out flexibility. Essentially, they're giving you flexibility, but it's not it's
it's like a it's like a I don't want to say it's to throw in,
but it can be part of the discussion you're having about the fake trade,
right, Do you have anything to add on the topic before we move
to some actual fake trades? No, I don't think so. I just
hope that you can find a time where maybe you enjoy them a little bit
more again, or hopefully at least enjoy hearing me me vamp about them always.
I feel like this. These are the episodes where I just like,
sit back, take a little nap, you know. I typically do that
when we get to segments about Frankie Smokes, because I know that long monologues
are coming. Just get a couple of z's in then. But these episodes
are usually pretty good for that too. Oh, I guess the last piece
of trade advice would we pay attention to who's a free agent? Because you
can't just trade them. There's a sign and trade which you can you can
obviously propose, but understand that you're working with three parties there, the incumbent
team, the player, and what would be his new team. That's just
and again they're people who I think are I'll just a lot better at this
than I am. You know, nikaias Duncan is just absolutely fantastic at this.
The level of detail he puts into discussing the trade packages he comes up
with is great, and everyone knows he's a fantastic ex As and Nose writers
Brian to pork Over at four Sports and the NBA podcast does a great job
of doing this. So I don't think that I'm an expert on these.
I just I know that I'm doing them. And this is if anyone I
think you're an expert on these, well that's all that counts. I appreciate
your low bar for respect, but if anyone is happening to hate, listen
to us right now. I'm just hoping that you understand where I am coming
from because my soft, fragile shell of an ego cannot take all the all
the lampooning. I just want everyone to like me, or at least not
hate me as much as you did thirty one minutes ago. It's true.
You should just see the text message history that I have with Dan. It's
basically just him like sending me one screenshot of hate comments after another, just
like you after because don't want you to be mad that I'm texting you.
You'd think, after a decade in the business, that he'd have like,
at least partially thick skin. It's still like pretty translucent. It is pretty
translucent. I will say what sucks about and there are people who get it
worse. They have bigger platforms than I do. They are also people of
color females. They get it way worse than I do. Some of the
comments will still stick with me after all these years. Isn't that kind of
incredible that that can happen. I will say, I have like it's not
teflon, but I definitely let stuff bounce off me or I won't respond like
I used to. But it's funny that after all this time, some of
the ship will still hit really totally get that, I mean we I have
a number of friends who still like cite hate messages that I've gotten and shared,
like the hashtag saw off Adam Framwell's neck that has stuck with me.
I was once called a fruity anorexic panda bear, which is just some vivid
imagery that I'll never forget. And every fourth of July I get reminded with
my Facebook memories of all the Kobe Bryant related hate tweets that I got,
and those those were aggressive. I remember if somebody wanted me to choke on
either a hotdog or a hamburger, just like drastically underestimating my appetite. Another
person wanted me to get hit by a bus and tear my Achilles and I'm
unprofanity ing these. Yeah, if you're write about Kobe or Derek Rose,
those are ones that get bad and then they'll they'll seek you out, like
not in the comment sets of the article, but and not just Twitter.
I don't use my Instagram. I don't really use it period, but like
I use it for like fitness stuff. I want to be fitness junkie over
here. So I've had comments about that on articles from those so they find
you there. What's funny is that you always get like one or two people
who are like I found them. This is their handles, like no shit,
like it was linked in the article congratulations on your detective work, Sherlock
Holmes. I will say there are one really quickly. I'll appreciate the ones
that are super specific and like, like someone once told me that I looked
like I'm not I'm actually not going to censor this, but it looked like
Frankie Moonez fucked Bert and then got a job as a waiter at Sonic in
roller Skates who only worked Tuesday through Thursday or something like that. It was
so specific, but that was the gist. I was like, I respect
that, and I liked the comment because you can hit the final like.
The only inaccurate part I think is like the Tuesday through Thursday, Like you're
definitely a Monday through Wednesday guy. Yeah that was. And look, I'm
not wearing roller skates. I'm wearing roller blades. So that's the other thing
is I used to I'll make people feel uncomfortable when I can, and I
don't mean to be too tm I here, But there was once someone tweeted
at me, I hope your mom gets cancer and dies. So I remember
this one my mom. I was. I was so mad on your behalf
that day. I think, first of all, you're the I can't get
I'll get hurt by stuff. I can't get mad at stuff that I should
be mad. So sometimes I will tell you those just so I know that
someone will be mad on my behalf. But if this isn't funny and I
don't need to pay his tragic But like my mom died of cancer when like
just after I turned seventeen, and so I quote tweeted and I put the
screenshot on Facebook. I was super young at the time, and I remember
my family members like comment. It has like like one like on Facebook after
all these years becau people probably thought it was so morbid. I was,
like, my mom did get cancer and died just after I turned seventeen.
And in case you want to focus on another family member, my dad left
right around my fifth birthday. I never saw him again, and he died
just after I turned eighteen. So I tried to make it uncomfortable like that,
but then I sort of realized that that air is like a level of
your own I don't want to say dirty laundry, but personal life that I
don't necessarily like discussing. But that is one route that I've taken. I'll
make people super uncomfortable by relating like that actually happened to me or I have
found And I know I don't have the stomach for this all the time,
and I understand why people wouldn't if you actually kill them with kindness or try
to have a discussion. I've gotten a lot of apologies too, Like not
everyone the Internet who's trolling is unequivocally a jackass. I don't. It's amazing
how quickly they can realize that there's a human being on the other end.
And look, without these people, we wouldn't have jobs or an industry,
because there I do find myself thinking, why are people so impassionate about this?
I will never get so mad at a fake trade idea. But that
reaction, whether it's too incendiary or not, is part of why sports is
so popular. I still think people can tone it down and we can have
constructive conversations when we disagree, I think. I think the other thing,
too, is that it's just easier for people to send negative responses than positive
responses. And part of that is societal where we're just a little, in
my opinion, too hesitant to give compliments when they're deserved. But it's it's,
you know, the person yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. You
know, if there are two hundred people in the theater and only one person
is yelling, which one are you going to notice? You know, how
many of your articles have gotten one hundred thousand reads and twelve nasty comments?
Like if you look at the percentages there, it's pretty low percentage, but
they still stand out because of this vociferousness, because of the negativity, And
I get it, Like I remember when I first started writing, it was
with Bleacher Reports internship program all the way back in twenty ten and part of
the responsibilities in that internship, on every single article, we were required to
leave at least ten comments, you know, whether they were just promoting conversation
or responding to people. And it killed me if one person had even the
smallest level of criticism, it was like, oh it was it was always
just a disaster, Like I put so much effort into this and it's not
perfect to everyone. Whatever will I do? And like that was a genuine
reaction, Like I lost sleepover thinking that one person had a negative reaction to
something that I wrote. And I think it's something you just kind of become
a bit inured to. I mean, I don't think you ever want to
stop caring that people disliked something, because even if it's irrational feedback, it
is an opportunity for growth, is an opportunity to improve your craft. But
I do think that you develop a lot less sensitivity to it, right,
And I do think that that's why a lot of writers, though, don't
engage with their general audience. And even myself, if I'm promoting articles on
Twitter, there will be some I don't get it again, modest account,
maybe small account I don't get like always a ton of engagement. But I've
had articles that will be fairly somewhat widely retweeted or liked. But the promotions
that don't mean that much is if it's a writer, fellow writer that you
respect, or person that you follow that retweet your work, and at the
end of the day, that necessarily shouldn't matter. Like it's cool that I
don't want to drop any names because I'm I'm sure there are just too many
people I respect. But if you know, if you're retweeting my article,
that means a lot to me, and you're like the you know, at
this point you might feel obligated to do it. But that's why it might
mean more to me than if random person que just likes it or retweets it.
But technically they mean more because you're not you typically want to avoid the
cues, right, all right, it's a random person is like they're who
I'm writing for actually though, like you're not You're not my you shouldn't be
my target audience, Like I'm not writing just for the people who write or
my colleagues or peers, right or people who I consider peers. They might
not consider me a peer. You're supposed to be writing for the audience.
But I do think the negativity that's attached to this in general. But to
loop this back to trade ideas, the trade idea discussion, or definitely player
ranking specifically, it definitely factors into why people value with that way. And
I do think, look, there are sometimes rankings are presented without or trades
without context. That is one percent. I think what people need to remember,
like, that's not a writer decision. That's if someone's coming up with
the trade, they want to write about it, trust me, That's all
I'll say on it. It's not their choice, and you should not get
pissed off at them. You can get met about the idea, but maybe
try and have a discussion with them first. It's the same thing with rankings.
I one thousand percent know that if they're only given fifty words to justify
why player acts as ranked as the twelfth best player overall, they probably wanted
at least ten times as many at least at least all right, so to
get to some specific deals, which is why these will be just a weird,
weird episode here. I've enjoyed it. I hope people listen to this
and don't just skip ahead to the time stamps of the fake trades. We'll
try and go through some here. I have trades for every single team.
So are there teams that you want to hear trades for? Or is there
a player that you want to hear a trade for. Let's let's just host
with Let's start with the big names. I think you know everyone wants to
know where Ben Simmons, Damian Lillard, and Bradley Bealle are gonna end up,
because those are the three big ones. Yeah, well, here's the
question. Do you think Ben Simmons gets traded? No? I don't either.
I don't don't think any of those three get traded. I don't know
why you would move him at the nadir of his value. First all,
Damian Loward, we feel like it least a year too early on right,
at least a year. I don't know. And again, like I think
it's always important to provide the caveats that we don't have the sources that a
lot of writers and reporters do. So this is purely from an outside perspective,
but I've always gotten the sense from Damian Lillard's social media activity, from
the way he's comported himself in postgame press conferences and media availability sessions that he
wants to play in Portland forever because that's just kind of how he's wired.
That he started his career there, you know, coming from you know,
a lightly recruited high school player to a we were State standout to a rookie
sensation to a superstar that he wants to finish what he started in Portland.
Yeah, I do feel like that stance is loosening, just based off the
report from Chris holl Chris Haynes. So it would not, but it just
seems like even if he wanted out right now, he would have to be
super mess see about it to get them to move him with four years left
on his deal. It feels like, so I agree with you there with
Simmons, I would say specifically that if I'm the Sixers, I'm trying to
reboot. If you want to move him, I wouldn't be surprised if we
saw a mid season trade for him, just not an off season one.
And it's not even just Ben Simmons is a better regular season player than he
is in the playoffs, even though that's to this point. But you put
distance between yourself and the most recent memory of him just becoming this total and
complete off season built up with this offensive liability. Excuse me? Can I
push back there, though, because like I get that, I get that
he was an offensive liability during the fourth quarters because he couldn't touch the ball
and they were going to follow him, and he wasn't attacking because he was
he was afraid to go to the free throw line. Just the antithesis of
the honest mentality. But I feel like there's been too much marginalization of his
talent because his passing impact and his ability in those first three quarters was still
pretty spec tacular. I mean, the TPA numbers from NBA maths still have
him as a positive offensive presence, but that doesn't take into account him not
touching the ball, because you know, he didn't rack up any negative stats
while not touching the ball, obviously, so I think that's a little bit
misleading. But he still did provide a good bit of value. Yes,
but looking at the conference finals specifically, if you have someone who you want
to put the ball in his hands, and it didn't seem like the Sixers
always wanted to at all. For any point during the game, they need
to be a threat to score, and he has Oh. I'm not saying
that he's the right fit for Philadelphia or anything like that, just that I
I don't like just completely all encompassing value down to he was a liability oh
in trade talks for sure, Like I would give up more for Ben Simmons
than I think the average fan would at this point. And you know,
I get like, looking at oh, he attempted seven or fewer shots in
five games against the Hawks. I think it was, yeah, five or
seven, which is I know we went to line in some of those,
but you know those line trips included a three of ten night and a four
or fourteen night, so that is a problem. But I had this discussion
with Terabo and Biggs when we talked about the Blazers. I asked whether she
would do CJ. McCollum and Robert Covington's for Ben Simmons, and she thought
that was and Anthony Tolliver would be involved to guarantee his contract for money purposes.
She thought that was a bit of an overpay for Ben Simmons. And
I get it from the Blazer's perspective of why would we give up these two
really good players for Ben Simmons when his value seems to have hit rock bottom.
But if I'm Philly, like I'm not even sure I do Robert Covington
and CJ. McCollum for Ben Simmons, I would consider it. I don't
know if that if that's the trade that i'm you know, if it's that
or going to the regular season with him, I might just pick going to
the regular season. I agree, I do think that it would be a
fair trade at this stage. But and I'm probably a little lower on Robert
Covington than most people. I'm just here a question the consistency of the shooting.
And I mean you've heard me talk about it before. A great help
defender, off ball defender, not necessarily great point of attack defender, which
you increasingly need against wings in today's NBA. So I think that's a fair
package. But if I'm Philadelphia, I know that I can recoup more value
if he shines during the regular season and we're reminded, hey, this is
a defensive player that you're contender All Defensive first teamer, potential All NBA threat
because of his passing in defense alone, Another Ben Simmons, try them for
you to munch on. Jante Murray Devin Vassell and the number twelve pick for
Ben Simmons. I don't think I'm as intrigued if I'm Philly because I don't
know what Dejante Murray is yet. If I'm looking to replace Ben Simmons from
Philadelphia's perspective, I need more shooting and Vassell looks like he could very much
be that three and D guy. I don't trust Murray enough at this point,
and you need that guard who can create. I trust Murray to be
an upgrade offensively from Ben Simmons. Shown he can hit some standstill threes and
he's shooting. He just shoots more than Ben Simmons. And from further out,
I think I don't think it's a bad fit. I just don't think
it's quite enough. It just given what he can do defensively, doesn't have
the same range, but he could have been on defense this year. In
my opinion, I think what would turn me off if I'm Philly And maybe
you know, maybe san Antonio just doesn't want to go this route either.
We should mention, but like Devin Vassell and number twelve is a little bit
too mystery box when you have dwell embid wanting to win. Now do you
have like, is there another train lined up where you're parlaying those into somebody
else that helps you immediately. But that was one where I thought, if
the Spurs wanted to swing the swing, you know, take a swing,
and I actually really do like Murray in Philly and then Vassell, I think
he'll shoot better from three his time goes on. He's already really just a
defensive workaholic that way. I want to be clear that I do like Murray
in Philly, just not necessarily enough to want to take that package. Right
now, do you want a trade idea that you already know what I wrote
about for your in Atlanta Hawks, big gass blockbuster, it's huge, Bring
it on. The Hawks receive Avery Bradley. The Hawks receive Avery Bradley,
who has a team option, and Daniel House. The Rockets get Chris dunn
who was a player option that I'm assuming he'll pick up. And then Oklahoma
City's twenty two first round pick, which is lottery protected, and then it
turns into two seconds. I'm just going to go out on a limb and
say that pick is going to turn into two seconds. So it's Chris Dunne
and two Oklahoma City seconds for blockbusters here. So yeah, I mean I
would do it just because houses wing defense is more valuable as is Avery Bradley's
feigned attempt at wing defense these days. But Chris Dunn, like if he
wasn't going to play in the most important postseason games because he was either still
recovering from injuries or wasn't a part of the rotation, that was one of
the more disappointing offseason acquisitions. In my mind. I was excited about that
that acquisition and it just did not pan out whatsoever. So if he's not
going to be that standout sterling defender, then I would just immediately say yes
and take the wing defense upgrade, because ultimately that's what Atlanta needs. The
offense is fine, the defense is what needs help, and they are set
up if they want to take if they want to go splash year. Just
having Clink Cappella or on Yeko Kongolu, who might make Clink Cappella expendable in
the next year or two, looked real good. In those brief spurts during
the postseason. You have Kevin Herder, Cam Reddish, DeAndre Hunter, John
Collins sign and trade scenarios are probably on the table. I just think after
making the Conference finals not being really healthy, just I virtue of not having
DeAndre Hunter at when you needed him most Cam Reddish, you didn't have him
for a bunch, then he flashed stuff in game six. That's great.
I'd like to see them more at full strength. And so with you know,
Lou Williams entering free agency, you have Tony Snow and Solomon Hill entering
free agency, can you kind of deepen the perimeter rank safeguard yourself against more
injuries to Reddish or Hunter, but also maybe some guys who are comfortable putting
the ball on the floor. Not Daniel House, Avery Bradley's more likely to
do that, not higher end. But I don't necessarily want to I don't
want to say bust up. But if I'm Atlanta, unless the perfect name
becomes available, I don't necessarily want to consolidate this core just yet. I
agree that might be something you look at next summer. I do think that
in theory, Chris Dunn is the best asset in that group and still makes
a lot of sense. But if he wasn't going to play much in this
postseason, when is he going to right. I think just Daniel House didn't
shoot two well from three this year, but knowing what he'll shoot next to
a Trey Young offense, and even John Collins being there, plus you already
mentioned his wing defense. Okay, so here's one that I found interesting.
Spencer Dinwoodie signed in trade from Brooklyn and it involves the Lakers, who would
be hard capped after this. So keep in mind that doing this probably means
they don't pay Dennis Shrewder one hundred and eighty nine million dollars whatever he's asking.
So the Nets receive Montrez Harrold, who is a player option I'm expecting
him to exercise, and Kyle Kuzma and the Lakers get Spencer Dinwoody in a
sign in trade. I don't know about Tread's picking up the option these days.
I don't know how much to read into the into the social media comments
and stuff, but it seems like he's throwing Frank Vogel under the bus a
bit, and that does not point towards a return in my mind. Well,
in this in this case, he wouldn't be returning. He would have
been shipped to Brooklyn. Yes, correct, Look, so the framework would
be Kuzma and salary for Spencer Dinwoody, because Kuzma makes thirteen next year,
so that's a nice number. Maybe it's enough to get you Spencer Dinwoody on
your own. I included Tread's basically because the Lakers need more wiggle room under
the hardcaps. You'd rather get off that money. And technically, if you're
Brooklyn, Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, Blake Griffin are all free agents,
DeAndre Jordan's not playing anymore or shouldn't be playing, you could use some downhill
juice at the five. It's very offensive, it's all very centric and he's
not shooting, but he's not unusable on that team, depending on which Biggs
come back. But I sense too, Yeah, Who's was perfect for them
just based off his improvement as a positional defender. And I assume you know
it'll be the same situation with the Lakers. You're not going to see him
work on the ball as much. The last time he did that was as
a rookie basically, but I'm assuming he'll knock down, catch and shoot threes
when you have Kyrie and James Harden and Kevin duranteing them up for you,
and look I forget who said this, but I know some prominent figure said
that he could be a twenty five point per game All Star. Do you
remember who I'm taking the fifth year? I think it was it was Kuzma.
It was Kuzma said that. Kuzma himself said that I believe, all
right, well he's not really I need to fact check this since you weren't
aware of it, but I feel like he said that recently. I'm but
regardless, I do like it because that that defensive improvement look legitimate. Just
the effort level was there, the discipline was more present than we'd seen in
any prior season. And if he's going to be able to buy into that
kind of role, knowing that he's operating alongside three ball dominant scores and can
be that coordinary option, then so be it. Are you ready? I
know you love you some Charlotte Hornets. How about a Charlotte Hornets trade?
I'm always ready for that. So this one has gone through multiple iterations,
and I talked to a bunch of people about it, and this is the
framework I ended up with. The Rockets get PJ. Washington the number eleven
pick and Boston's twenty twenty two second round pick, and the Charlotte Hornets received
Christian Wood. Run that by me one more time, PJ. Washington number
eleven and Boston's twenty twenty two second for Christian Wood. Who. So I'll
note this because it is important to me. He has two years left on
his deal at a wildly underpaid number, which unfair to him. He did
sign the contract but for Charlotte's purposes two years and twenty eight million dollars.
So my justification here from giving up that value, as you might say,
well, hey, why don't they just cap Space and sign a big they
could, but if they want this type of an upgrade, you're probably giving
fifteen or sixteen million a year to Rashaun Holmes. And you can still kind
of act as a cap Space team if you send out another smaller money deal
in this like you can bring in. You could spend your cap Space and
then go in a choir. Christian would. So that's what And look,
Christian Wood was also really good. That's my point here, and I would
do it in a heartbeat just because of that. And I think both of
us don't want to speak for you, but I think we've talked about this
before. I think both of us view him as an All Star level talent.
Yeah, at his position, probably close to it. He has,
he has a nice floor against twenty and twelve unreasonable for him. I mean,
look, he did it in Detroit after Drummond was traded, and then
he basically did it all of last year. It'd be nice to see him
do it for an entire season where he doesn't get injured. And then I
think he run at the issue of a why would Houston want to trade him?
And it's just like, by the time they're ready to be good again
and this might not even it might even be before then, he's gonna need
to be paid a lot of money. Good for him. I don't think
that lines with whatever window they're working with, right, And just to circle
back on Kuzma, I was correct. It was from an exclusive interview with
Bleach Reports Tyler Conway who asked if he could see himself as a player capable
of averaging twenty five points per game and reaching All Star heights, and Kuzma
said, I definitely can. I definitely believe that too. I don't really
care what nobody thinks or says. I know myself and I know my ability.
It's hard to be consistent in an inconsistent role. I'm excited for a
more consistent space next year. Good for Kuzma. I don't know how I
missed that, especially because he came from Bleacher Report. I'm not a good
teammate, so kind of like Kyle Kuzma. Why is he bad teammate?
I don't know, just some of some of the things he said about his
role in the past, someone we shied away from talking about. We've talked
about how we like him, but he's officially kind of in the rumor mill
now. Colin Sexton, I still hate that he's in the rumor mill.
It's I think it should get it, but it's dumb. It's by virtue.
I think we'll probably no more after the draft. They have to see
who is available at number three. But there's a chance you end up with
Jalen Green or Jalen Suggs. Then you have Sexton, then you have Garland,
and Sexton's about to get paid a lot of money. Garland will be
right behind him. Is there too much overlap there? I think would be
fair to ask a trade that I came up with. I don't know how
I feel about it. Cleveland gets Drag and Andre Goadala, who have just
team options, so they're expiring contracts if they were picked up, and then
Tyler Hero they send Miami Kevin Love Colin Sexton, So you're getting off Kevin
Loves money and you're getting Tyler hero Is another year on his rookie scale.
I feel like you need so much more than that, though. Sexton's potential
is still through the roof, and I've soured so much on Tyler Hero.
It very much feels like he was a bubble product, where like that style
of play was conducive to his game. We saw so much backsliding this year,
so little grow within virtually any aspect of his game. I'm not sure
that he's ever anything more than like a low end starter Sexton. Sexton can
be way more than that. So yeah, there's there's a benefit to getting
Kevin Love's salary off the books, to getting those two team options where you're
sure to free up cap space. But what are you left with, Like,
are you are you really happy moving forward with the core that is built
around like Jared Allen, Isaac accorro Garland and Hero and whoever you pick at
number three? Like that just sounds like you're perpetuating the rebuild. I was
iffy on it. I just if you like Tyler Hero having him under team
control for the extra year, and I think I kind of like his off
the bounce potential more than a context in it. And I also like his
ability if you want someone to be not a point guard, because I don't
think that's con Sexton's roll. I don't think it's Tither Hero's role. But
if you want someone to be the second primary playmaker, I think Hero is
a better chance of becoming that than Colin Sexton. So this is po on
the fence about But you need to value flexibility and getting off of Kevin Love,
and I don't know that they do, because Kevin Love is still in
Cleveland to begin with, I would I would assume they could have gotten expiring
contracts for him already. I believe this was two years ago, so it's
different. Portland offer just expirings for him and they refused it. I think
that was per the athletic. I'm sure they've had the opportunity since then to
move him for just expiring money. I think this is a little different because
if you're that worried about paying Colin Sexton, which it does seem like they
are. I'd just be curious if they consider it. But at the same
time, in general, I'm less intrigued by teams acquiring more cap space when
they're so clearly in the beginning stages of a rebuild. I don't know who
was going to want to sign with the Cavaliers if they're torn down yet again.
So to me, that kind of feels like you're creating an asset that
you either can't use or you're going to use on an overpay to get someone
to town, and then you're going to regret it down the road. You're
almost like creating potential problems for self and you will have to pay Tyler hero
in two years as opposed to paying context and in one. So I think
i'd agree with you if I'm Miami. I'm not offering any more than that,
though, would also be my stance because Kevin Love's deal is laborious for
them, especially with Bam and Jimmy on the cab sheet this one. The
feedback was mixed. I People on Denver's side loved and hated it, people
on Boston's side loved and hated it, So it was like four different levels
of responses. Denver gets Marcus Smart and a twenty twenty three second most favorable
via Dallas, Houston or Miami. The Celtics get PJ Doger, Monte Morris
and the number twenty six pick. I mean that feels wildly inadequate for Monte
Morris, who is clearly the centerpiece in this deal, right, No,
I I like that for both teams. I think I think that seems like
a fair swap that builds on actual needs for the team. I mean,
we can't overlook the improvements that Marcus Smart has made as a shooter, and
I'm sure that playing with Yokich would open up even more opportunities for him on
that front. But he's a point of attack defender, which is what Denver
needs. Boston needs more shock creators beyond Jason's Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown,
especially with Kemba Walker you know, just not there anymore. So yeah,
I'm game for that one. The issues here are Boston probably wants to keep
Smart, but they can extend him at a max of seventeen point two million
starting in twenty twenty two twenty twenty three. If he refuses that and thinks
he can get more that might make them rethink or if they don't even want
to give him the seventeen point two. I think that's why you look at
moving him for Denver. It's you are giving up stuff for someone who's a
fantastic defender, and I think keeps your title window open without Jamal Murray because
he can't do something. He's hit a lot of pull up triples over the
past three years, can do some initiation at the same time. You're going
into next offseason. Potentially, it depends on what Will Barton does this year
with his player option. Will Barton, Marcus mart Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter
Jr. Are all free agents. That's a pricey offseason for sure, but
championship caliber teams are supposed to be pricey. I do think also that Fukundo
Composo's emergence makes this easier to stomach if you're Denver, because you can give
up Monte Morris more easily knowing that you do have Campozzo. Yeah. I
liked it for both sides, but the response was split four ways. This
one was riffed off of Zach Low saying that he thinks both Los Angeles teams
are gonna go after Kemba Walker. I had the Clippers doing it. They
get Kember Walker and ken Ricks Williams from OKC. Okay, see he gets
Sergeibaka if he picks up his player option. That's a little reunion there,
Luconard Rajon Rondo, who's on an expiring contract, Number thirty, and then
I had them also getting Detroit's twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five second round
picks. I wasn't sure if that was an overpay for Kemba Walker or not,
but I think we think it's an overpay for Kemba given how much he
declined. It definitely looks like his All Star days are a thing of the
past. But I'm more on board with it because I still believe that ken
Rick Williams has a future. I don't think that's just a throw. I
think what's tough and what I struggled with, and I didn't think Kenrick william
wasn't involved in this initially, but it felt like Abaca, ard Rondo and
number thirty weren't enough because Kennard is entering the first year of his It's like
a three year guaranteed extension at a fairly steep price point, and so he's
kind of a nice fit in Oklahoma City. But he has a four year,
fifty six million dollar extension, the final of which is a team option.
I don't know if that's viewed as positive value, and so if you
know, if it can be Abaca, Kenard Rondo and number thirty and for
Kemba is the framework. The other thing I ran into there is with Oklahoma
City specifically, four for one is incredibly tough, and I assumed that the
Clippers would still want to keep Patrick Beverley because you can get this done with
fewer players. If you use Patrick Beverley, that felt them like too much.
So that's where I kind of landed on here. If you can keep
one over both of the Detroit seconds, I'd probably like it even more for
Los Angeles because while Kemba has those knee issues, I do think you have
I don't want to say a margin for error because Kawai is his own injury
history, but it also increases the likelihood that you have two stars available in
the postseason when it matters most. And even with Reggie Jackson playing out of
his mind, this postseason, like you still kind of ran out of firepower
towards the end. There. All of that makes total sense to me,
So yeah, I think that's another one I'm on board with. Let's wrap
up here really quickly to see if I have any ones that I really like
that I need to get off my chest right here. Okay, let's do
two more Minnesota Minnesota relieves. Minnesota receives Jonathan Isaac and Terrence Ross. The
Magic receive Malik Beasley, Jared Culver, Jade McDaniels, Jake Layman, and
a top eight protected twenty twenty three first round pick. I feel like the
protection needs to be a little bit more on that one for Minnesota or Lusen
for Orlando in Minnesota's favor, just because as as talented as Isaac is coming
off multiple major injuries where he was just starting to emerge and we still aren't
quite sure if his offensive development is as legitimate as it looked. So I
think baking in that risk, they have to be able to have less risk
on their end. So would you say LOTO protected, Probably so maybe even
like top twenty I do that in harpeat if I'm Minnesota. I want to
make that clear. Because I'm that high, and Isaac can imagine him and
talents together in the front. It's a great combination. And if Jonathan Isaac
looks like the pre injury Jonathan Isaac, then you win that trade with ease.
But I don't know how much we can guarantee that's what he looks like.
I have a more fascinating question for you, though, and I want
to know which side would be more likely to say no to this you remove
all protections or maybe it's top one protected or something. On twenty twenty three,
and then Minnesota, I guess to keep Jade McDaniels. If you're Orlando,
would you prefer the heavily protected first? And Jayden? If you're Minnesota,
would you prefer unprotected in keeping Jaden? Or closed to unprotected very loosely
protected. Let's say I think I would prefer the pick protection if I'm Minnesota.
McDaniels is intrigue game. He's so good. Yeah, but how scalable
is it? His game is? It seems extremely plug and play. I
guess there's the yeah, is he is he a star or is he a
star role player? And it's one year obviously. Yeah, So if you're
Orlando, you would prefer getting Jayden and the pick protection, or you would
prefer getting the very loosely protected twenty. I would prefer getting a very loosely
protected pick. Interesting. That would just be something I'd be ruminating on if
if I was them. Do you have for our last one? I have
so many here, but we've already gone an hour. Is there a team
you'd like to see that we haven't done yet? You called him out earlier,
so let's let's do the Sacramento Kings. I don't like this king's trade.
Where was my other king's trade? That might have been a have that
written? Okay? Okay, how about Dallas because it feels like Dallas needs
to make a move to be to maximize the dawn Chech impact. You're not
gonna like my trade idea for them? Man? I have Will Barton?
Is it Luca for Trey? Because that would just cause the internet to break?
Why would at Lanta do that? I have no idea exactly. I
might have two day once for them, But the one that I have pulled
up immediately is they get Will Barton and Denver gets Josh Richardson. And this
is assuming both of them opt in Tyrell Terry at a twenty twenty two second.
Now, my thoughts here are, will Barton gives you some on ball
juice that you need besides Luca that Josh Richardson did not this year? Getting
that secondary playmaking is important. The fact that he'd be expiring it keeps you
flexible and then maybe it prevents you from overspending in free agency on someone you
shouldn't. It also kind of allows you to keep Tim Hardaway junior if you
think Barton can come close to running some units, maybe with Jalen Brunson if
you're the Nuggets, even if Josh Richardson's offense never comes back, and it
might in Denver, I know, we thought Aaron Gordon was going to be
spectacularly there on offense and was not the defense. While it was still not
pee j rich this year, they need exactly what he brings there, and
so that was just sort of my reasoning is like hitting a double here,
for either side trying it. I'm curious why you thought I wasn't gonna like
it, because I do for both sides for exactly the reasons you listed out.
Yeah, it's just maybe I thought you wanted something like a little bit
splash here. Noah, that's all good, then all. I think that's
another like circling back to the beginning beginning of the podcast, I think that
people make mistakes by trying to make trades too splashy. If you look throughout
NBA history, the vast majority of trades do not involve a star player.
So it's totally acceptable to work on the periphery. It's not as exciting,
it's not as engaging, But I think incorporating those trades lends even more validity
to the star generated trades that you do have. That's a great point.
I want to lie and throw this final one at you because I think it's
a thinker and I actually already teased it when we did that pod with Tony
East, that surprise pod with Tony East. Oh yes, so get your
We need you pay attention to channeling my inner Tony. It's a twenty nine
team trade. No, it's a three team trade. The New Orleans Pelicans
receive Miles Turner, The Indian of Pacers receive Nikkil Alexander Walker the tenth overall
pick. San Antonio takes Steven Adams into cap space and just for anyone to
know he has two years and thirty five million on that extension that he signed.
They also get the number thirty five pick and then the two thousand and
two and twenty two first round pick, the least favorable or most favorable.
If you think that swings it from the Lakers or the Pelicans, I like
that You're expecting me to retain all of that, So I think I have
flawed the creativity and effort that went into crafting that trade, and I think
that because you generated it, that it probably makes a lot of sense.
Here's I think here's the fund amount of question. If you're the Spurs,
is number thirty five and a first round pick in two and twenty two enough
for you to take on Steven Adams? I think that's the I think I
think it is because Adams is not necessarily like a liability. He wasn't a
good fit for New Orleans, but that doesn't mean that he's a bad fit
everywhere. He's still a good rebound under, a good screen center, a
good interior defender. He has a more offensive value than people think because of
his passing. There is value to plumb there, and we don't really know
what the next iteration of San Antonio is going to look like in the first
place. So if I'm the Spurs, sure I will. I will take
on a talent that might be overpaid in his current location without giving up too
much. And I think the other thing that allows them to do this is
that there are two main centers at this point, Drew Eubanks and Yaka Purtle
aren under twelve million between them next year, so you don't all of a
sudden have too much money funneled into your center position. Yeah, I'm down
with that one. This was fun. I have many more trade ideas if
anyone wants them, I'm sure we'll do another podcast, or I'll bring someone
else on so that Adam doesn't have to suffer through it. As always,
please please Putty, please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Hardwonox
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Follow Adam at Framo z or nine. I'm at Dan fa Valley,
fav A l E. There's so many social media platforms right now, I
just want to get that off my chest, and I'm managing too many of
them at the moment. Until next time, we leave me with the shout
out to the one, the only, the centerpiece of the Marcus Smart trade,
Monte Morris. What is krack lacking? Order Knox listeners, I am
Dan Valley, came we out you without my co host Adam promo because this
is a quick reaction to the Kawhi Leonard news. If you're listening to it
on the podcast, it has been placed at the end of our Wednesday or
Thursday podcast, not sure what day that's going to be, but if you're
listening to it on YouTube, it's basically a YouTube exclusive. It came out
there first. Welcome. This is not really the matter though, that we
want to have to react to immediately, the Clippers announced that Kawhi Leonard underwent
surgery to repair a partially torn right a cl he injured. He suffered that
injury pretty much a month ago at this point, during the Clippers second round
series against the Utah Jazz. And it's just an injury. The implications are
expansive and they don't have a timetable for his return. When you look at
other ACL injuries they can take really the average timelineingwhere between eight and twelve months.
It seems this is partially torn. Maybe it's different, but the fact
that you need to have surgery means maybe it's not. This is also Kwai
Leonard we're talking about. You look at the right quad injuries that he dealt
with before leaving San Antonio, how much he's been load managed since then.
It was dealing with dealing with some me stuff, even during the twenty nineteen
NBA Finals with the with the Toronto Raptors. It makes you wonder whether the
Clippers and Kauai are going to take the ultra cautious route and sit him out
all of next season, and certainly just at this point he's going to miss
You would think a huge chunk of next year, and so if you're the
Clippers, there's the what do you do? Element? But I think first
this it sucks her. Kawai hope he's able to make a full recovery.
Just turned thirty. One of the five to seven best players in basketball.
Torn acls are not partially torn acls, especially, they're not supposed to be
these hugely adversely impactful injuries that they were in the past. You are,
I would say, above average, having above average level of concern when it
comes to Quai, just because of his past, and again he is over
thirty, But this is someone who's not relying on explosion a ton to begin
with, and as long as he's able to rest and get a full recovery,
he should still be I would estimate. I'm not a doctor and I'm
not an injury expert. The hope, though, from a fanner, just
a media perspective, would be that he comes back and he is close to,
if not exactly, the same player. But this is this just absolutely
sucks, and it's you know, this is someone who's been meticulously looked after
when it comes to his health over the past three seasons or even four.
He didn't he played only nine games during his final season with San Antonio eighteen
twenty nineteen, he missed his twenty two games with the Raptors basically load management
there. Last year, he missed fifteen games in the seventy two games season
and ends up missing twenty games in the seventy two games season this year,
and it just it sucks. Hopefully he gets better. He does have a
player option for free agency worth thirty six million dollars. I would think this
makes it more likely that he declines it and then signs a long term deal.
He could go the one plus run route and then try and get the
you know, the mega contract eventually, but that would be taking a big
risk unless you know you're going to come back and play next season, which
is why if you don't know, you certainly opt out and take the long
term deal you're sure to be offered, because I would assume the market for
him doesn't change leading into twenty two. But if you just play out next
year on the thirty six million dollars salary and then enter free agency after not
playing for an entire season, who knows what type of shenatigans could be up.
He could suffer a setback in his recovery and his market value could be
neutered. From that perspective, he is a player where he probably still gets
the maximoney anyway, But just looking at what's the smartest decision financially, I
would certainly expect him just opt out and sign a longer deal, whether that's
a one plus one or two plus one at this point because he's writing off
next year, or just a full on four year deal, and he can
sign with Los Angeles because they can't offer from a five year deal. They
only have early bird rights on him right now. The rest of the roster,
though, this is just if you don't think that Kauai is going to
play most of, if not all, of next season. They just have
a lot of I don't even know if it's decisions, but they just have
some tough calls to make. This season, they were basically a net neutral
during the minutes that Kawai was off the floor minus zero point one points per
one hundred possessions. They ranked fifty eighth percentile on offensive efficiency, and they
were fiftieth per centile on defense. If you include just the minutes that Paul
George played without Kawhi Leonard, they were a little bit better plus one point
five points per one hundred possessions. But the really big trade off here is
that because Kawhi is just not playing for whatever stretch of time, they are
going to be you know, protracted periods where both Kawai and Paul George aren't
on the court. And the Clippers came close to treading water there too,
six offensive rating in the sixty third percentile per cleaning the glass in nearly fifteen
hundred possessions without both of those guys in the court, minus one point seven.
Overall, they gave up nearly one or sixteen points per one hundred possessions
on defense during those minutes. Again, not an end all be all,
but I would wonder, and this is a team that entering the off season
it's most expensive spending tool free agencies, the mini midlevel exception, and you're
not going to get just a hugely impactful player with that, certainly not a
primary shot creator that you trust Kawatity and you're already kind of down one of
those guys. Reggie Jackson helps there, but one can even bring Reggie Jackson
back. He is an early bird free agent. So given just the rules,
they're gonna be able to offer him the league average salary, which is
I think gonna be between like ten point one and ten point four million dollars.
That's more than the non tax player mid levels. So maybe it's enough
to keep them, especially if they're willing to give him three or four full
years. But there's also the chance that he gets an inflated, you know,
one or two year deal from another team and is willing to sign that
for a more prominent role. Not having Kawai, though, I think,
sets him up nicely to have the prominent role in Los Angeles, But overall,
he just becomes more mission critical to stay. But if let's assume you
resign him, use I don't know who you're going to use the mini mid
level on at this point, you might need to use part of that on
Nicholas Batum. You don't have bird rights on him. He's still getting he's
still getting paid by Charlotte, and the fit in Los Angeles was clearly great
for him. He led them in total regular season minutes. That is just
a It makes sense when you look at all the injuries they're dealing with,
but that's just a bonkers thing to consider that Nicholas Batum in the twenty twenty
twenty one season led the loss angelist Clippers perceived title contender in total regular seat
as minutes played. It's just it's uncomfortable. It's also kind of a fun
fact. But you're gonna have to bring him back, and who's is he
just going to come back for you on an afterthought? Dealing might not And
so if you need to use your best spending tool to retain talent, it
puts you in even more of a bind. And I think even if you're
not going to, you know, even if you don't need it to resign
inca between even if you're able to spend that elsewhere, maybe on a superior
player, I don't think he's going to be on the player that the type
of player that you need. I still think this is a situation where the
Clippers are going to need to use the trade market to boot to beef up
their rotation and find somebody. I do wonder if this makes it more likely,
and maybe not just because you'd be going from one injured star to another
injury prone star, but doesn't make it more likely that they try to go
after a Kemba locker trade it just they can get there with the salaries.
It depends on who they're going to give up. I would argue you definitely
can't give up Patrick Beverley on his expiring deal now. He was good towards
the end of the playoffs, also has an expiring contract, and he's just
going to shoulder a higher workload defensively now with Kawai out, and so that
leaves you looking at something like the Sergebaca opt in after his back injury.
And if so, you're probably using Luke Kennard and then Rondo as your salary
filler there, or are you looking at Rondo to kind of help initiate your
offense now more than ever, even though he wasn't a pivotal role in the
didn't play a pivotal role for them in the postseason. But Kema Walker seems
like it. He might be gettable. And if you're willing to throw in
your this would be after the draft. Of course, for any Stepian rule
sticklers, you can send your two thousand and twenty one first, which is
at number twenty five, after the draft to okayc is that enough? You
do have some Detroit seconds that you're sitting on twenty twenty four and twenty twenty
five. I believe those are enticing, but you have to look at the
fact that, Okay, well, Kema Walker was just dealing with his own
knee injuries and he was below all star level in Boston. But you wonder,
if you know, were there any other things that could have been going
on there. This was the first season he shot under thirty five percent of
his pull up threes since I think twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, and he still
hit them at thirty four point nine percent. Clip. You need someone who
can help you with the off the dribble offense here, and you already arguably
needed that. Just someone to attack a defense is coming out of conventional pick
and roll. I know that all the left knee stuff that Kema dealt with
this year and just his play overall, he seldom put together many great,
prolonged stretches of basketball. It's a red flag. But if the opportunity cost
really isn't too high for you, I just don't know what the alternatives would
be. I mean, if you go to the free agency route, you're
for what You're like, You're not even gonna be in the Derrick Rose mix.
I would assume you're definitely not gonna be in the DeVante Graham mix.
You plan not even in the TJ McConnell mix, like Reggie Jackson's the best
point guard. I think that you could sign and then they drop off from
there? Is how much does is Schmith help you? Does does go on
dragage? If the heat declined his team option? Think about taking a pay
cut for the promise of maybe a bigger role in Los Angeles. Maybe are
there cheaper options that you could look at on the trade market. You know,
absolutely you're at a point now though I think you have enough wings to
get by with Terrence Mann, Paul George, Marcus Morris looking at the defense,
so I don't know that you need to care where the off the dribble
offense comes from. This isn't the situation you look at and say, okay,
well they need to trade four and sign another wing. If you have
a two who can make quick second passes as well and handle the ball a
little bit if he comes back, that puts you in good shape. But
just looking overall at like who could they realistically trade for? Like Thomas said
a Ranskeet, is he moved the needle for them at all? Could they
get into the Eric Gordon sweepstakes? You know he shot fifty eight percent on
his drives, shoots ultra deep threes, just someone who could put the ball
on the floor. Ode I think thirty seven point six million guaranteed over the
next two years. He's not going to have the third year on his contract
unless his team wins wins the finals, So can you get involved with that?
Again? You have the rematching tools when you look at Obaka and Rondo,
and then what's the Is Houston just happy to get off of the Eric
Gordon contract at this point as possible. He's also working his way back so
from his own injury. I think he injured his I don't remember WHI knee
it was, but I believe he's working off a knee injury. I'll double
check that as I'm speaking. So that's just something else to consider. And
it's the same thing with Kema Walker. He definitely have the higher ceiling than
Eric Gordon at this point, though Gordon can give you more quality defensive minutes,
like he's been put on wings before and kind of held his own and
it was he had right groin issues is what ended his season, then he
dealt with in addition to that left knee problem. So I was twenty five
percent right, fifty percent right, whatever you kind of want to say.
There they But again, when you're the Clippers, and yes, you have
the contracts to go out and maybe bring back someone's making a ton of money,
you just don't have the sweeteners. If you're looking at this year's first
round, pick those Detroit seconds unless you will want to give up a Terrence
Mann or an Avicha Zubox, which I wouldn't recommend at this point because you're
not exactly flushed with centers and I know that he had some issues in the
playoffs. You don't know what Sergebaka will look like with his back, and
that's assuming he opts in. He might opt out, and then you decide,
well, is one hundred and twenty percent of this year's salary enough to
keep him? I'd probably guess yes, But then what is he gonna look
like? So questions galore really for them, and you can feel free to
add me on Twitter or at Hardwood Knox or and then there's at Damp Valley
IVLI if you have any what you think are realistic trade targets for the Clippers,
but Kemba and Eric Gordon are probably the best highest end ones, most
realistic that's bring to mind I can come up with, unless they decide to
go the route of surrounding you know, Paul George's with as much shooting as
possible, Like if they can pick up Terrence Ross for you know, packing
peanuts or something from Orlando, like just basically matching and then a very little
sweet and attached. Do they look at that? I don't. I would
argue that that's not something they do. Could they? I think you know
the problem here is too you could probably open up sign and trade possibilities if
you're looking at a Spencer Dinwitty looking at what he's going to make, But
then you're hardcapped at one hundred and forty three million dollars. I don't know
that you the Clippers have the money below the apron with Kawai's next salary around
there, I think they're just above the apron without you know, putting if
you pencilan Serge Ibaka's player option, yeah, they're they're comfortably above the apron
by about I have them over nine million, between eight and nine plus million
above the apron. In that scenario, with Abaca opting in and just Kawai
getting his max salary in free agency, you can look at shedding salary and
staying under the hardcap, but then you're leaving yourself with very little wiggle room.
You're certainly not going to be able to resign Reggie Jackson, resign Nick
Patoum, and then stay under the apron. So sign in trades, I
would guess, are mostly out of the equation, or they would be super
complex. You're trimming a lot of salary in that scenario, and so trade
is probably just the most realistic path for you to do anything substantial. I
also just wonder if they have the guts or the impetus to do that.
I don't think when you have Paul George and you've given up so much draft
equity to get Kawai plus shake jojis I was Andrew, mind you, who's
one hell of a player. When you've given up that much to maximize Paul
George and Kahi Leonards window and you've already resigned to Paul George, you can't
just say it right. Next year is kind of this gap year, like
you're not working towards anything there you already owe you your pick to okay see
in twenty twenty two, So I think that it's like you're you're not fighting
to keep that pick. So this isn't a gap year. You're trying to
win. But do you when you don't have Kawhi Leonard? It is kind
of weird to say, all right, well we need to go out and
we're going to I don't think giving up on Luke anard four year, fifty
six million dollars deal. The first three years are free, are guaranteed,
and then they have the team option on the fourth and there they're incentives bake
into there. I think can bring it to four years and sixty four million.
I don't think that stings. And then giving up on Rondo Tobaca,
I don't know that that's things either. You can probably pick up a big
on the chief. The Marcus Cousins has a really nice minutes for the Clippers
in the playoffs, so maybe they are to bring him back on a cheaper
deal. You have him and Zubots. You still have Marcus Morris and Nicholas
pet two if you bring him back to use if you really want to downsize
having Kawai though, it was kind of important to those situations too. You're
just had so much size on the wings and just wing talent in general.
You can envision yourself downsizing more often in certain matchups, and that's what helped
to give Utah the problem. So I'm not writing off the Clippers completely next
year. I'm just curious as to what are they going to get for.
I think players that other teams aren't going to you as the actual assets.
Maybe Okay, so he would be intrigued by Luke Nard or Houston because they're
at the early stages of a rebuild. Are those players enough though, just
to get you the other players you're targeting in this case and I'm just looking
at Camera or Eric Gordon. I'm not tied to this at all. There's
a way for the you know, you can send out a similar package bringing
back Harrison Barnes. I don't think he brings enough of the shot creation aspect,
but he really does preserve a lot of your defensive structure and would help
you retain access to those super small combinations. So you could look at that,
but just are is salary filler enough to get you anyone? And there
might be some unique opportunities where it is. This is the nuclear scenario though,
if Bradley bls out of Washington, no, the Clippers can't get him,
but they wouldn't. Or if the Clippers decide a trade Bradley beal,
which is possible if he doesn't indicated on to sign extension. I don't think
that's a situation that needs to harp on a trade request. Do you look
at bringing in Russell Westbrook like that's someone I would assume that Washington in that
scenario would probably only care about saving long term money on I would prefer if
I were them just to go after Kemba Walker. Russell Westbrook was much better
last season, and now we're finding out that he played through that that quad
injury, so I'm not trying to write that off. And maybe he maybe
he has the higher ceiling in they both have two years left on his deal.
His is just more expensive. It's two years and ninety one point three
million compared to Kemba Walker, who was about two years and I think it's
like seventy six and change left on his deal or seventy seven around exactly.
That's just a huge commitment. And then you have Kawai, Paul Gewards,
and Russell Westbrook in twenty twenty two and twenty three making just a crap ton
of money. I don't know how you feel about that. At the same
time, maybe you look at it as if you truly do believe that Russell
Westbrook is still an All NBA caliber player, especially for a team he's already
played with Paul George and OKC and it worked out fairly well for them until
they got to the playoffs. You know, are you going to feel that
much better about paying Kemba Walker thirty seven point seven million dollars in twenty twenty
two twenty twenty three then playing Russell Westbrook and forty seven point one in that
same season. If Kemba is Kemba, I would say yes, But that
matters, but he is the new stuff he's dealing with. Russell Westbrook also
isn't a billboard for health at this point. The fact that he played through
a quad injury this year is certainly impressed. But he really did pick up
towards the end of the year. He was a huge part of why the
Wizards really turned their their season around. But then you still need a confluence
of circumstances in this case to tilt in your favor, which is one the
Wizards entering a rebuild, and two that entails them wanting or being forced to
move off Bradley Beal, and then three not wanting actual value for Russell Westbrook
because the best you can offer is number twenty six attached a salary filler,
and it's much harder to just get to his money than Kemba's. By the
way, you might be looking at scenario where you have to include Patrick Beverley
unless you're gonna go the five for one route, your pick plus four plus
four players and there for us. Just that's some things to consider. Very
very sad to see this happen for Kawhi Leonard. It has a huge impact
on the championship playing case in the Western Conference next year. I wonder if
it emboldens you know, the Lakers are teams are always going to be there,
but doesn't embolden other teams that are maybe on the fringes to think,
Okay, the Clippers are kind of out of it. Next year, you're
not going to view them as a title contender unless you think Kauai is going
to come back and just be Kawhi right away, but whether he comes back
out late in the season, what does he look like after you know,
let's say eight months at minimum. I would argue closer to ten, like
months of basketball. And you know, if we're going if we just say
from the moment he got injured, Kawhi Leonard will return ten months from that
day, you're looking at April sixteenth, that's like right around the start of
the playoffs. So I don't know, it's basically the entire regular season if
it's If it's eight then yeah, okay, then it's a lot earlier.
I just with Klyai can't wrap my head around it being that much that much
sooner. So, but just other teams and maybe maybe not just because you
know, the championship hierarchy in the West, it's almost kind of set.
You knew the Nuggets, even though they don't have Jamal Murray next season,
weren't just going to fall out of it. But maybe they would be more
aggressive this offseason, and especially if Will Barton NOPs out in kind of just
looking to add talent if they had Jamal Murray. So they're another team that
could be sort of just okay, well, we're gonna keep not gonna do
anything too DRAFTSI because we're not going to have our team at full strength.
We're not gonna be able to reap the full benefits of this for at least
another season. A lot of people think Jamal Murray will be back by like
December January, because he's Jamal Murray. Maybe that's part of their calculus,
But just you know, you have you have the Lakers, you have the
Suns, assuming that Chris Paul comes back, you have the Jazz, the
Mavericks, and the Blazers are like those fringe teams the Blazers will Does this
make them more inclined to swing a big move a trade? Most likely,
I would argue know because it would be Damian Lillar's future that does that.
If you if they weren't going to make this huge move before at this gamble,
they wouldn't. They wouldn't. Now Dallas is in is like kind of
the similar position. They just changed their coaches and Luca doesn't seem like he's
too happy with how their seasons have ended, so maybe you're a little bit
more willing to do something drastic. The Warriors would be the team that I
look at and go okay the Clippers. If you just don't Penncilman is the
true title contender next year, That theoretically makes a championship race a little bit
easier. Are you now a little bit more likely to consider going hard after
a fringe star in a trade using some combination of James Wiseman, number seven,
number fourteen and then other stuff be a future first rounders or are Andrew
Wiggins? I don't know either way as of right now. The Western Conference
championship pecking order, it's just it's a little shallower and it's a little bit
more murky, and it was already a little murky. There are questions that
need to be answered with what do the Nuggets look like without Jamal Murray four
let's say a lion share of the season at least, And now we're asking
the same question of the Clippers. You had the teams hovering aroun on the
Fringes and the Mavericks and the Blazers. We assume the Lakers will be right
there if they're healthy. The Warriors were our v team. Maybe that this
impacts the most. I don't think you're going to see the team. I
think Grizzlies be like oh Quais injured, we need to go out and trade
for Zach Lavine and Bradley Beal. I would love that. I love seeing
small market's non glamor markers act in that fashion. But I don't think we're
going to see that from them, or or the Pelicans all of a sudden.
More all of the story this sucks. I do think that this really
does force the Clippers into a quasi gap here where No, you can't afford
to treat next season like a gap here, but I don't. I wouldn't
put them in the upper echelal hunt of of title contenders. I think if
we're just accounting for full health of all the players who are available, you
have the Lakers there, you have the Sons there. If Chris Paul comes
back, you throw the Jazz in there. If if my Comedy come back,
that's kind of it for the first tier. There'd be a bunch of
wild cards after that. Nuggets, Clippers, Mavericks, Blazers, Golden State
Warriors. We'll see if anyone else can sneak in there. Thank you all
for listening. Please please, pretty please remember to subscribe to Hartloo Knox.
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with the shout out to the one, the only, Frank Nilikina, but
also Kauie Lewars who are we at Hardwin Knox are wishing a speedy and mega
super duper effective recovery