The low post is presented by Amazon music. Did you know you could be listening to this episode of the low post ad-free on Amazon music and now the low post. Welcome to the low post podcast on Monday morning after Father's Day, which will always be remembered in the low household as the day Bradley Beale, the era of mediocrity in Washington, eight seed by hell or high water. Playing Kings of the East is over.
Bradley Beale armed with the only no trade clause in the NBA and absolutely ridiculous insane piece of business by the previous Washington Wizards regime. Use the no trade clause to aim himself, directly to Phoenix, the team up with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, a new big three in Phoenix. DeAndre Eitin remains on the Suns in return. The wizards of Washington with their beautiful pink jerseys receive Chris Paul for now.
I would be very surprised if Chris Paul plays a second for the Washington Wizards. Landry Shamet, the just wears out his good will with every team he's on. An unknown number of second round picks. I believe the Suns had up to six to trade.
It might be damn near all of them. There may still be a first round pick swap or two, which is a Byzantine thing to begin with. Obviously, this is a crushing disappointment of a return for the Wizards. That has nothing to do with Michael Winger and Will Dawkins and Travis Schlenk and their new regime and everything to do with Ted Leonsis just and green lighting.
The previous regime were asking them to do whatever it takes to keep Bradley Beale happy and Mark Bartelsene, whose son Josh Bartelsene is the CEO of the Suns and we'll get to that connection to Bradley Beale's agent. Got a goddamn no trade clause that I think any analysis of this deal just has to start there. It's the most important variable in the thing. It's the reason he's with the Suns and not with anybody else.
It's the reason there was not like a classic trade war for Bradley Beale. The no trade clause is the whole thing. The Suns now have these three guys who, you know, all shooting, mid-range shooting, overlapping skill sets. Can Bradley Beale find a three point shot again?
I think you can. They had a fascinating choice here of how to proceed in this offseason and we can talk about that. Whoo, the offseason is here, Bobby Marks. This could have ripple effects for Damian Lillard for Chris Paul for the Miami Heat for the Brooklyn Nets for just lots and lots of people.
How are you? I'm good. And as we speak, Bradley Beale still has a true no trade clause. That thing still, that maybe carries with him to Phoenix.
Hey, and that was an issue with when this is a three-prong negotiation between Mark Bartle, Cine Bradley Beale, the Wizards and whoever wanted Bradley Beale. And I know for sure that at least a couple of teams, if not all of them, made the ask, Hey, would you wave the no-trake? Would you eliminate the no-trake clause if we got you? And that was a non-starter.
He was keeping the no-trake clause. And good for him, by the way, he's got it. Why not keep it? It's a big deal.
He gets to pick where he lives and where his family lives. That's a huge thing. You should keep it. Oh, yeah, definitely.
I mean, you can't say that if he was going to Phoenix and the sell would have been, Hey, you've got Duran in Booker and will continue the bill. I mean, who knows? Two years from now, who knows where this thing goes? And I mean, trying to get off $53.57 million down the road will be extremely challenging.
But he has it. There was no need for him to give up the no-trade. And it was one of those deals where we've talked about it that when you look at the no-trade and the contract, it just shrinks the marketplace. I mean, that's the reality of it here.
Well, from Bradley Beale's perspective, it expands the marketplace to anywhere you want to go. Yeah. And I think for looking back, I mean, that's the one thing I just, I probably underestimated Phoenix. I just didn't think they would basically do a cannibal off the deep end here and say, here, take it all, you know, and be able to keep you Andre and then basically give up, you know, we'll talk about the picks and all that stuff.
But man, what a blockbuster to start the off season. It's a blockbuster. What was your first reaction from, I guess, from let's start with the sun because the wizards we know what they're doing. It's over.
They're ripping the band-aid off. We could see poor Zingas opt in and get traded. I went through the fake poor Zingas trades with you and Givoni last week. We could see Kuzmag on like there's, we know what they're doing.
And they're aiming for in very wizard's fashion. They're aiming for the top of the draft the year after the top of the draft was historically incredible. Go Wiz. But it needed to happen and it's happened.
First, first gut instinctual reaction about the sun's. Second apron. That was my first reaction. Like the, you know, t-shirts made up second apron for the foreseeable future.
I mean, I basically like basically took the CBA and gave it the middle finger. I mean, that's basically how they, that's basically how they did it. I mean, that was my initial reaction here. But then when I kind of decompressed was, okay, if they hadn't done the trade and they just waved and stretched Chris Paul, then you were basically looking at the non-tax middle level at 12-2 and the veteran minimum to build that eroster here.
Now you trade him and you replace him with Bradley Beale and you have the veteran minimum. And all the other stuff is going to come down to road. All these harsh restrictions and you second apron. That's really fair to worry about next offseason here.
But yeah, my initial reaction was the second apron. And then my second reaction was that this is who the sun's are. There's no more picks out there likely to trade or swap or this is kind of who they are. And then I guess my third reaction, I'm expanding myself is what does this mean for DeAndre eight?
That's my third reaction. Poor DeAndre. I don't know why so he's making a lot of money. Just does anyone want to do the sun's want to do the one to do the pacer's offer him all this money?
I don't think they want the one to do anymore if they did. You might be on the pacer's by now. But anyway, I don't want to talk about DeAndre eight yet. First of all, you just came up with a great niche merchandising idea.
If the sun's, the thunder did not listen to me about the Dort license plate that I have in my TV backdrop, but no one made it. They didn't sell it. They just put the brand salary, beals salary and bookers salary on them in white lettering. And then they're at the little sunburst logo below it.
A hundred people would buy it. I would buy it. I am now that I'm a suburban loser dad. I am a C minus on the grill.
C minus started off as an F. Didn't know how to do anything. I'm up to a C minus. I would wear that apron.
I, sons free idea. I would 20 bucks, 20 bucks an apron. They would cost two bucks to make. You'd buy it.
Oh, I would definitely buy it. I would actually would probably frame it and put a behind you when I'm home. We can show it, you know, I mean, they basically listen. Like the rules came into place for a reason.
So the, the, the, um, these three Mac stars can't join itself. What, what happened was that the loophole, there's like a, we got like a, we had a two-week window or a loophole and then we have another year loophole before everything else really comes to a crash and call here and give them credit. They took advantage of it. They knew that what they had wasn't good enough.
Who knows what they, I mean, they got a lot of work to do as far as filling out the roster here, but, um, you know, we'll see. Okay. So let's start basic. Sons.
So you, you, you outlined it. They had a choice. They, with, with or without Chris Paul, their choice was essentially, let's say without Chris Paul, let's say they stretch Chris Paul, just we don't want to be in a Chris Paul business anymore. We can't find a travel stretch.
Durant, Aiden Booker, Shammett, Paul's money, Payne's money, Ish Wayne writes money. They're already at like a hundred and thirty five million bucks. Just with that. Add on some minimums.
They're up to 140. So yeah, they have the tax mid level. And so I think they calculated two things here. Um, number one, if we went that route and we use the tax mid level or the non-tax mid level, the big mid level to get a player or two, we are now hard capped.
We could not go over a hundred and sixty nine million dollar payroll this coming season. We're about, no one wants to be hard capped. The hard cap sucks. It restricts you opportunities come and go.
You can't do it. Um, and they just said, you know what, rather than that, let's just not be hard capped anywhere. Let's just blow past the second apron. Yes, we can't use our exceptions.
That's fine. We'll have other exceptions we can use. Let's just ignore that blow past it, not get ourselves in this pickle where we have a ceiling that if we hit it, we're done. We can't do anything.
I think that absolutely was their thinking and underneath that or maybe even above it is. I said this from the beginning. The sons did not have enough good players to lose one of them, Chris Paul, for the unknown of exceptions, who 12.2 million dollars worth of salary you can use. He's too good for that.
They're too thin for that. So, I understand why people are panning the deal for the sons. Brad Beale has not had it by his standards, very good last three seasons. He certainly has not had a very good healthy last three seasons.
Um, he's a three time also, I was made in all 13 since 2019. I believe, um, he's on this massive contract that pays him forty six million, fifty four million, fifty seven million for the next four years. That contract I think is the number one reason why they might be heat. Do not have Bradley Beale on their team right now.
We'll talk about them later. Um, so I understand the criticisms. To me, they stared at that scenario of we could have Chris Paul, we could have exceptions in place of Chris Paul that might get us, I don't know, whoever your version of like Jeff Green plus whatever is, or we could turn Chris Paul into Bradley Beale. Flaws and all.
I think that scenario is clearly the best of those three scenarios. And yes, they'll have trouble filling out the roster. They're going to need to use minimums. They're going to need to use bird rights.
They're going to do that in very creative ways. They already were in that kind of same jail. The choice was made with Durant. That was when the choice was made.
The choice was we're breaking up this feel good team that made the finals two years ago. We're going all in on a top heavy team that's going to have us in cap jail. They're already in jail. They didn't even double down on that choice.
They just made the next logical leap from that choice. Hit it right on the head. I mean, once they went all in in February with the rant and when you added with Aitin's contract, you know, those three players, your options were basically boiled down to, you know, that's why waving him. Although that was probably that was always the last resort.
And that's why it was going to be taken up until June 28 because that was out of all your options. That was probably the least one you wanted to do and you wanted to go out and try to use that contract to bring you back either multiple players or try to bring you back a star player. And then it's a perfect storm. I mean, Bradley Beale doesn't have it.
If Bradley Beale doesn't have a no trade clause, I think it changes, you know, I think there's certain other teams that now join the, join the fray here. Now it would be up to the wizards if they feel like do we, do we get the equity clause to Bradley Beale because he's been a good soldier here or do we do it for the best interest of the organization? It's similar to what probably was going to happen maybe in Portland with Amy and Lillard here, but that didn't happen. That didn't happen because of the no trade clause.
Well, there's a zero percent chance he's on the Phoenix Suns if he doesn't have a no trade clause, zero percent. The only reason the Suns are in the game. Let's talk basketball before we get into the other mechanics of this. How do you like the Suns?
Now they've got to fill out the roster. So you know, right now they have Durant Beale, Booker, Aiden, Payne, maybe, Wayne Wright, maybe. I do think that we are going to see them overpay, Jaclyn Dale, maybe overpay, Tori Craig, maybe overpay Bismack Biambo, maybe even overpay Darius Basley or not overpay, but pay. All the guys they have legit bird rights on and it wouldn't surprise me, Mr.
Marks, in an era in which starting next year, the Suns as a second apron team will only be able to take back a hundred exact salary matching in trades. Like there's not going over by more than 250k, I think. They can't trade $20 million worth of salary and take back 24. They can take back 20 or less.
Would not surprise me if some of those deals that I just mentioned, some of those free agents get re-signed $2 that are going to be exact matches the best they can project of like what the middle level exception will be. They're going to try and finagle all sorts of things like that so they can give themselves some trade flexibility that way. So they'll have some guys on their team that bring some guys will come back. Some ring chasers will come, but I want to ask you first blush, just beal, Durant, Booker, Aiden.
And I don't think they have anything imminent for Aiden. That doesn't mean they're not going to trade Aiden because similarly to what I just said, I believe correct me if I'm wrong, starting next year, not only can the Suns cannot aggregate their own players in trades, they so they can't take a 20 and a 10. They can't take back players who are aggregated in trades, correct? That is incorrect.
That's incorrect. Okay. I put that out yesterday and I talked to a bunch of teams just to get a more clarification. They are not allowed to aggregate Aiden's money, so they can't aggregate Aiden and...
They can't get an Aiden plus campaign for a $29 million. Yeah. So for this is for next offseason, this is before, they are allowed to take back a 20 and a 15. Okay.
So what I was going to say is so they can down the line, they are not under a strict timeline of if I wanted to break Aiden up into three players via trade, they can keep doing that beyond this season. Yeah. They're not on that. The heat timeline is different because we had talked about it where they were facing the aggregation because of heroes money, right?
Like they need it, if they ever, if Damien Lillard would say next year became available in the Heatwierd 2nd Apron team, they weren't allowed to add hero and a $20 million player and aggregate that there. So that's a little bit of a different timeline with Aiden. There really is no timeline for him. I mean, you don't have, you're not forced to do anything.
The only timeline is that for starting July 1st, it's 110% as far as money coming back. Right now we're still not 125% vote. And then for when you're a 2nd Apron team is that you're not taking money, more money back in a deal there. But my point is if they want to trade Aiden for three players, they will be able to do that beyond the season.
So they're under no time crunch to deal Aiden like now to break them up because they do face a fascinating decision. Because everything any team in the Western Conference does, including this trade, has to be done with an eye on the Denver Nuggets. And you need to either make a choice. Not necessarily a choice, but your choice is something like we either really care about getting a center who can guard Yogech or we invest our resources elsewhere and try to just shoot Yogech, outshoot the Nuggets and make Yoge cover in space and go five out.
And then we play Jacque Landale 18 minutes a game to just rough him up. We go all in on shooting, spread the floor. That's the only path we have. And that's a decision that I think Aiden is going to be involved in because Aiden until this season had done okay on Yogech.
I think Yogech has reached unguardability at this point. And I know you said this, I agree with you. The Denver Nuggets are the favorites to win the Western Conference now and almost regardless of anything else that happens in the offseason. I don't think the Suns are better than them.
I do however think the Suns as of now enter the season as the second best team in the Western Conference. But before I go all in on the basketball stuff, I want your take on the fit between the big three and if you include eight in the big three point five. I think what we saw when Chris got hurt in the playoffs here, you're going to see Booker more at point. I think that's probably what the assumption is going to be that he'll probably be based on primarily ball handler.
So now that creates with Bradley, I know we've talked a lot about certainly his health and that's going to be a big part of this year. But there was a regression in Washington last year. Is it a result of basically a lack of point guard the last two years? You basically had money more here.
I mean his numbers, catching the shoot numbers came down a little bit here. Listen, there's a lot of firepower here. And the three players even add Denver Booker to the mix here have not been durable. And it's going to be, as you said, it's going to be high levels far.
Who else? What other fits are around there? But I'm fine. Well, I'm comfortable with the fit.
It's, you know, but I just need to see kind of what else is there. My concern with Booker too, a little bit if he is, you know, if you're basically going Booker Durant, Beale, Aynn, and then, you know, another wing is his book are going to be chasing guards, you know, points, you know, so we're a little bit of a wear and tear factor here. But at least from a fit standpoint, for me, it's about health. And what was the last two years of Beale on a decline, a blip, or is it a bigger thing?
So I like the fit way more than, not way more, but more than what appears to be the consensus. And again, I understand. Oh, here we go. Mid-range mania.
Oh, they're recreating the nets. How did that work out? Oh, Bradley Beale's three point shot is falling off. That's not going to be great.
Oh, defense and defense. They are going to need to find a way to be a credible defense. Incredible. Just credible.
Just like to not get found a way to be a credible defense. Incredible. And Beale has been a bad defensive player now for a while. So I understand all that.
I think offensively this team is going to be dynamite. And Bradley Beale is going to be one of those guys who, if he's healthy, and he said that the injuries last year have been ham stringy stuff that makes you, on one hand, nervous. On the other hand, now he's going to play for a team that has something to play for. I don't know how much of those injuries were going down the tubes anyway this year.
I think he's going to be one of those guys who suddenly looks awesome as a second option and more pointedly, a third option. And there is a clear hierarchy on this team. He is the third option, and it is not close. I think, frankly, it's Devin Booker's team.
The team belongs to Devin Booker, and it should belong to Devin Booker. And they will have to sort out how to play. We saw the chemistry was kind of scattershot. They didn't really figure out how to play off of each other, Paul Booker Durant last year, how to get the ball moving from side to side when used the rant as a screener.
It's a ball hanger. Now they have a whole season to figure that out. I think Beale will look awesome as a second or third option. And again, the alternative was what exactly?
They turned Chris Paul into Bradley Beale. Here are Bradley Beale's numbers on catching shoot three pointers for the last nine seasons. Percentage. 40%.
This is in order for most recent to pass. 40%, 30%, 39%, 38%, 37%, 43%, 42%, and the other one. They'll do 39%, 42%, 42%. Those 43s and 42s were playing with John Wall.
Those 43s and 42s were when his three pointers skewed catch and shoot instead of the last two or three years when they skewed pull up because the wizards were bad and he was effectively their point guard. I think he's going to shoot the lights out. Not the light. I think he's going to shoot really well from three.
And the team will be a really good offensive team. And for all the clowning of like, well, they're just recreating the KD nets with three high usage ball handlers, the KD nets were awesome when they played. They were unstoppable. And only injuries and just blew the doors off of Milwaukee in game one and two.
Like if that's what we're saying was that was a bad outcome for reasons that didn't have any to do with basketball and they didn't even really need to be a good defensive team. Their offense was so good. Now the difference is, and this is what I'm interested in, the difference is this three pronged monster does not have a passer anywhere near James Harden's level. Booker's a good passer.
Beale's an okay passer who can also move off the ball. Although a lot of his all ball movement was like dribble hand off stuff with marching or top back in the day and all that kind of stuff. He can come up and do all that that you need. And Durant's a good passer.
Harden is an all time passer. And part of the reason that big three was so unstoppable offensively was there was a clear like, this is the guy that's going to handle the ball the most. KD will handle it the second most. Kyrie will just kind of find his points in transition.
He became a good cutter. He did his Kyrie stuff. That's what I'm most interested in because if the nets are not to be clowned as an example of what the sons could be offensively defensively, defensively, the sons have a lot of questions. I do think the play making question and how they ring enough passing out of this is an interesting one because there is no hard in here.
And by the way, the hard in the Phoenix thing was never a thing. That was never going to be a real thing. No, I agree. I mean, I never saw a clear path.
For hard, they also have a trade exception too that they have access to, which who knows. I mean, it's just another tool for them. But you're right. I mean, that there is a difference between this Phoenix team and this Brooklyn team is certainly the harden factor.
I think the fit offensively is going to be fun. I think people are kind of overthinking it. Now defensively, it's going to be defense, health. Those are all fair questions.
And the Nuggets are watching this. I mean, I guarantee you, I know the Nuggets are watching this. Like, yes, they're in the afterglow. But they're watching this.
Like, all right, you guys want to like, you guys just want to like have no depth and no chemistry and three due to need and want the ball like, cool, we built our team pretty carefully. We like it. We're not scared one bit of you. And I actually like, again, all both these teams healthy depending on how the sun's filled out, the Nuggets to me are better.
They're still the best team. No, I agree. I mean, I mean, they played together. I mean, that's the big thing.
And I think, you know, Bruce Brown decisions, which is, you know, the likelihood is that he declines that option. But you know, hey, he might come back on a discount. Who knows? Yeah, I'm not ready to put.
I'm not ready to put Phoenix up there. I had a head of Denver just because of, you know, what what it looks like right now. I need to see what the roster looks like. I need a sample of games here.
I need to see this team get healthy. Listen, for the playoffs, you roll this team out and you just put, you know, spare parts. I love it. But as you said, like you got to get there, right?
And you got to get there in one piece and you got to get there as a, you know, as a pretty good seed also. I do think the Bruce Brown thing becomes a little bit more pressing for the Nuggets now because they do need as many perimeter defenders as they can throw at these guys. And Bruce Brown's very good. And particularly on the ball.
And he's going to have a market at the mid level exception for multiple years at worst. And maybe more than that, he needs to get paid. This is his time. And their only route is really to just do the Bobby Portis thing where like you sign a one plus one at whatever the most they can offer him is, which is you can probably tell me how to stop your head.
It's like 120% every 7.8 million. 7.8 million. And then then you wink, wink. This is we never had this conversation, but you decline your option.
And then we resigned you at the full early burden. How all of a sudden did I get Walmart stock in my, my account all of a sudden. And in the meantime, when you, when you meet with him now, you're like, Hey, Hey man, what's your favorite wine? Like, what can we do for you?
Well, I can get you the best table at this restaurant over here. Like, you know, pick up a dry cleaning. Hey sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network in service.
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Let's talk about the heat who were, I thought the most logical landing place for Bradley Beale. And I think they kept their powder dry. I really think that's what you never, as you recreate, you're on the phone all night trying to figure out who was offered to win and how were they offered? What's an offer?
Were they actually offered? Where were they just bandied about? Um, in the end, my best guess and please disagree with me. If you think I'm wrong, please, my best guess is they looked at Tyler heroes contract.
So, okay, 27 29 31 33 Beale 46 51 54 57 Beale seven years older than Tyler heroes. Still young. Tyler here is still so young and everyone's down on him because the heat made the finals without him. And I think the heat to the best of my knowledge looked in the mirror and said is Bradley Beale 30 million dollars and seven years older, better than Tyler hero.
And if not, and if Washington does one other long term salary anyway and Washington clearly wanted to just get this money off the books and move on, then why don't we just keep our powder dry for the next wave of guys. And maybe I don't think anybody knows this for certain. I really do not think anybody knows what Damien Lillard is going to do. But maybe it's Damien Lillard in four days.
Maybe not. I don't think anybody knows. But that's my best read on a Miami situation. What have you heard?
No, that's why we started to hear Victor O'Deepo Kyle Lowry, right? It went from hero as the main guy and then whatever else Duncan Robinson, for example, as far as to make the money work from what I've, you know, that Miami certainly was looking to get off to keep that hero contract to get off the expirings. It would have cost him probably the 18th pick in the draft. It might have cost him something down the road, whether it may be a protected future one.
I didn't see a scenario where Miami can go get Bradley Beale and then all the sudden if Damien Lillard became available enough. Oh, there was no way you could go. No, there was, you know, there was, you know, there was, you know, they don't have enough. There's no, no, no draft equity here.
And I think for the heat, they were, Hey, this is, this is what we'll do. We're not including hero. They don't do it. Right.
We'll just wait and we'll kind of sit in the holding pattern. If Lillard becomes available and who knows, you know, Damien Lillard becomes available. If Damien Lillard wants to become available. All right.
I mean, that's that the end. That's what how I look at it. This is what we have to offer, whether it be here or three ones and whatever salary that I mean, look, and I actually think in a weird way, Beale is a, is a cleaner fit in Miami than he is in Phoenix because Miami has the defenders to kind of prop him up on that end of the floor and they need badly another reliable ball handler who can shoot and run pick and roll with Bam who's never going anywhere. I mean, Bam is, Bam might end up being a heat lifer.
But they didn't get him. And as for Dame, look, it's smoke screen season. We talked last week about Portland's dilemma with the number three pick and the draft, right? And the idea that if they just make the pick, that what that means names out.
They have to trade Dame, Dame, Alaska. And the only way to keep Dame is to trade the pick and whether whatever veteran they can get for that pick plus, pretty assignments, plus whatever else they have to put in, that's the vehicle to keeping Dame. Or if there's a third path where they say, Hey, look, this is a generational prospect. We got to take them.
Dame, we will try to play get you by resounding Jeremy Grant by doing X, Y, and Z and free agency by trading use of Nercage for this person. Give us until the trade deadline. Let's see how the team is. Maybe you'll end up really liking it.
We think the West is kind of open. Maybe we'll be like the fourth seed in January February and you'll be okay. I don't know how realistic that is. I don't know that anybody knows how realistic that is.
I don't know what Damien Lillard wants. I don't know what his reaction will be on Thursday. If the players just take Brandon Miller or Sue Henderson and are like, Hey, we're done. That's it.
There's no Pascal Siakon. There's no Zion Williamson. There's no McElbridge. There's no Janet Obi.
There's no whoever you want. Sorry. We just couldn't pass up this opportunity. It's better for our franchise, but stick with us.
I don't know how realistic that is. Not only that, Mr. Marks. Damien Lillard doesn't have a no trade clause.
He has a lot of years left on his contract. Can my I don't know if Miami wins a trade war for Damien Lillard. They might because Point Guard is such a loaded position around the league because so many of the teams that are in wind now mode have already traded all their stuff. And so many of the teams that are not in total wind now mode don't want a 32 year old Point Guard who's going to make $60 million in three years.
They may well hero plus whatever plus three first that may be all it takes, but they'll be other teams. They'll be other teams. What is your best synopsis of the lay of the land at the number three pick right now? Well, I mean, I think the lay of the land right now is certainly it's going to be either Miller or Scoop, but that means that there's not a deal out there as of Monday and we still have three or four days for Portland to move off that, right?
It's not. And that certainly, I don't know if it does change. I don't know if Zion Williamson becomes available. I don't know Brandon Ingram becomes available.
One of those, you know, one of those two players here, I think I think you hit it right on the head that like if you're the trailblazers, you're basically picking the best available and then you're having that, you're going to have that conversation with him saying, Hey, let's see where Shane Sharp looks. We're going to bring back Jeremy Grant. Let's see what happens with scoot Henderson. And then if you want, we can move, we can go in a different direction.
But as you said, like he doesn't have a no trade clause like Bradley Beagle his. The question would be how much he's built up so much equity. Do you almost treat it that way? But here's the thing.
If it came down to, all right, we're going to make a deal. We're going to make a move. If Miami comes in and let's say a team like Brooklyn comes in and he wants to go to Miami, Brooklyn second choice and Brooklyn just says here, you know what, we're going to give you a couple of these Phoenix picks. We'll give you that Dallas pick.
We'll give you three unprotected and whatever. And that is the better offer for the trailblazers. What direction do you go in? Do you take the best offer or do you want to take the team that he wants to go to?
And I think the Brooklyn Nets who are on my list of, uh, of Beagle teams, if I can find my list of Beagle teams or Dame teams, Dame teams. I think they would have a frothy internal debate about whether going all in, and I mean all in. Like if you can go, if you can get them half in, that's a different story, but all in for Damian Willard, you pair him with Michael Bridges and the Clackston and Cam John, whatever's left over. I don't know what goes up.
If it's all picks and young players, whatever, presumably somebody who's not a Kilbridge, but is also good is going out in that trade. Just for salaries and if nothing else. Well, I don't even want to say the name of the Simmons. I just, can we just not do the shirt?
I know everyone's making fun of it, but it's true. Can we just not do the shirtless Instagram posts? Like nobody cares. Nobody cares.
Nobody's, nobody's convinced. Like I think they would have a real internal debate. Like is that, is that a smart move or having pivoted from this era of disaster and accumulated so many picks, can we, can we slow go it a little bit? I think that would be a big internal debate.
As for the number three pick, I don't know. I don't know what Portland is going to do. Design on noise is so all over the place that I, I've just kind of, I've in the mode where I've talked to a million people and I've just given up trying to figure out like are they actually maybe going to trade him? Are they not going to trade him?
I know Givoni said his indication was no. I've heard that same stuff, but then there's all this other buzz going. I have no idea what's going on anymore. I have no idea what Toronto is going to do.
You know, I wouldn't turn my nose up at Pascal Cacob, no. That dude's good. He's got a lot of money, but he's good. And I think he can play with Jeremy Grant.
And an Opie, he's a good player. Everyone keeps waiting for him to get great as an App Engine. Bridges, that's a hand and glove fit. Those are all good players.
I just don't, I don't know. Zion is, I don't even know how to value Zion. Like, is he more, Zion playing 60 games a year. Forget 80, 60 is like far and away more valuable than the number three pick.
It's not close. Zion now, I don't even know how to value him. He's played 25 games a year for four years. I don't know how to project him.
I don't have access to his medical records. If I'm trading for him, I'll maybe I'll get that at the last minute. I just don't even know what to do with that. I don't know what's, it's just chaos right now.
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, how you value him is that you're basically, it's a gut, it's a gut decision, right? It's a gut decision based on what you saw in 114 games. It's a gut decision based on what you saw in November, December when he played. And he was top five, probably in the league at that, you know, when he played.
Yeah, we've talked, I said this, I said it this morning and I said it, I've said it the the last couple of days here. Like, I'm, for me, I'm not concerned about the contract, right? Like, I'm not concerned. I'm like, oh my God, we got $194 million and this guy doesn't play because there's so much, we've talked about, there's so much stipulations in there, right?
I mean, it's got, it's one of the great NFL type contracts where a team had to get out of it. They eventually could down the road. But what does that say when you just traded the number three pick for it? Right.
Like it's the opportunity cost. Yeah. It's the opportunity cost here. But yeah, it is a man, you better have some conviction that this guy is going to be out there if you're going to go in that direction.
See, I come for me is intriguing. And I don't, like I think if you get, if you flipped him for three, you get him there, him being on expiring. You can, in Lillard's, is there, that's a guy that I'm, I would be comfortable, you know, certainly resigning, you know, there. But yeah, I mean, that's a three's got value.
It's just a matter of like, who's that, who's going to be that guy that you would actually move for? Yeah, there's so much noise now that I can no longer figure out with any certainty what is going to happen and what Damien Lillard will say if the blazers just keep the pick or where he would even want to go. Well, he said, I mean, like, you know, I think we talked about it. Like when he did that interview, like he said it, like it's always, the grass is always greener on the other side, right?
Sort of like who is coming back and what that roster looks like. And if it was, you know, certainly if it was in the, you know, if it's, if it's Brooklyn, let's say, and it's just a pick package, right? It's a pick package and it includes like a bunch of expiring just to get off his money. That may be his more appealing.
Same with Miami. If it's, we already talked about it's hero here. So that's the other factor in it is that, and, but he does, as we said, he doesn't have a no trade. I'll tell you.
Lillard Butler, Bam, would scare the crap out of me if I were any team in the Eastern Conference. Scare the, now I'd have to pay a ginormous tax bill, no exceptions. The whole thing, you know, see if they can hang on to Caleb Martin in that kind of transaction. That big three is a real big three as a scary big three.
The Knicks have all the goods to make any of these deals. And I think they, they, they snipped around Beale for sure. I don't know what, what did you hear about how involved the Knicks were with Beale? Yeah.
I mean, you know, considering that they have their pick, right? I think that was something that would have been in play. They have the Wizards pick that's protected. They, for them, it's just, it's a matter of like, it's a, it's certainly a cost issue when you've got quickly coming up, you know, you still have, eventually you're going to probably extend Brunson down the road when, when Beale's making 53, 57 million dollars here.
But I think if there was a, if from their perspective, if there was a low risk move and we didn't have to give up everything, you know, we go out and do it. But now the thing is that all these picks that they have, whether it be their own, in the future and they've got a Milwaukee pick that's protected, the Wizards pick probably is now, is the least valuable out of these picks here. I don't know. I don't think that probably conveys at all.
And you just kind of want to turn it into a second. I didn't get this. And again, there's just so much noise around all this. I didn't get the sense that the Knicks were like really in the Derby at the end.
And again, it's in the Derby that Bradley Beale controls so that the end there's only one team in and it's the team he picks. I don't know what the Knicks would have given up. I don't know the exact price. They weren't in it enough for me to really dig so hard into that.
I honestly think Brunson is so good that I wouldn't go hard for Beale and I wouldn't go hard for Lillard. Like I don't really get the New York Lillard thing. Like Brunson is good enough. The last time we saw him, he was scoring 40 points on a bum ankle against the Heat in the playoffs.
Like every game it seemed like I'm just, I got my chips. I like my team. I think we're a good team playoff team, solid team. I'm saving my chips for other stuff.
I don't know. I don't know what the game is. I just guard. Small guard is not the place I'm going.
And I don't feel the need to upgrade from jail in Brunson at cost. If I'm like you're talking about Brunson for a little bit. I'm fine the way they are. There's always going to be somebody else.
There's always going to be, right now it's Beale and maybe Lillard and eventually it's going to be somebody else and it might be somebody better. And that's how you have to look at it where you may, it's like, you know, it's like going Christmas shopping, right? You want all the toys, but eventually there's going to be a better toy next year. When I was at the Combine in Chicago, Doc Rivers got fired and I wrote the night at the lottery there was already buzz going around that that had flipped, not flipped, but changed the equation in James Harden's calculus about like, well, maybe the noise was already starting like, okay, pumped the brakes a little bit on the Houston thing.
The breaks have now been pumped like slammed on around the league to the point that I bet if you pulled 50 front office executives, a majority of them would guess he's going back to Philly. I don't know what the hell is going to happen. We'll see. I mean, who the hell knows.
But if James Harden goes back to Philly, I don't even know if this is feasible. Would you at least call Portland and say Harris and Maxi, do they even have a pick? I mean, is Maxi, I guess there's a two-prong questionnaire. Is Maxi already too good for Philly to move for a 30-something guard when they already have another 30-something guard and defense is going to be a problem with any lillard hard in combo?
Or flip it around, is Maxi the best thing Portland might get offered among all the deals we're talking about for lillard if it's lillard indeed? And again, we don't know exactly, we don't know what he's going to do. That's an interesting one to me. I don't even know if it would work on you.
It's almost like the Gildris Alexander trade for Paula George without the picks. It's like that kind of like young player rookie contract. You're going to have to pay him, Maxi. He's not going to...
Yeah, he's up this... He's extension eligible this offseason, he's restricted for agent next offseason. So eventually you were going to have to pay him and that's what... I mean, those are your cards, right?
That's what your cards are right now. I mean, I said last week, there's no way you put him in a deal deal. But Dame's a different... Dame with Harden coming back is a different conversation.
I haven't thought... Everyone loves the jail in Brown for Damien and Lillard deal. Everyone. The media loves to speculate about that one.
I haven't thought so hard about that one because I understand Jalen Brown's now extension eligible. We have... Boston knows more internally about what he wants and he has agency in this whole process. I just have never loved the idea of that trade for Boston.
I just don't like trading a guy who's... Jalen Brown has his warts and he was borderline Olympia. I had him in at the end because of injuries to other players. But he's still 25 or 26 or whatever he is.
I don't know if that's the deal that catapults me if I'm Boston. Like, past my issues. Now maybe it is because all my issues are offensive execution and this guy's an all-time crunch time killer. But I just...
That one has never felt great to me from the Celtics perspective. It never felt... Everyone loves to just boom, done. Cleaned it up.
I don't love it. I don't even love it from Portland's perspective that much honestly. No, because it's not... I mean, what else is there anything else coming with him?
I think if... I think if you're Portland, if he ever was moved, I think it's got to be almost like... I guess comparable to what the jazz went through where you're trying to reset in the middle where you're getting a player on a deep and a good contract whether it's in the case of whether it was marking in there and then you're getting the picks. You're getting the three or four unprotected ones.
Speaking of agency and player agency, I do want to talk about the Bartlesstein connection between Mark Bartlesstein, agent and Josh Bartlesstein who's the CEO of the Suns. I think that's the side of the CEO of the Suns. Yeah. Father's Sun.
Josh is the Sun. I think that connection absolutely helped grease the wheels for this trade. That's just how the business works. Human connections, most of the time it's GMs who like each other and have had beers together or used to work on the same team and now they've ascended to BGMs.
They talk. There's no question it helped. But this whole thing, I saw this whole thing when I would pop in on Twitter about how, oh, here we go. The Bartlesteens are colluding to manipulate Bradley Beale to go to the Suns.
I'm like, dude, Bradley Beale is going to go with... I've reduced Bradley Beale to like a pawn in some agent and Sun game. Bradley Beale has been in a legal long time. He's very, very smart.
He's going to pick where he wants to go. He's not going to be like, oh, you guys wanted to go here. I'll go here. That's not how this happened.
Bradley Beale was recruited by the Suns, wanted to go to the Suns and pick to the Suns because that's where he wanted to be. I didn't like... The connection clearly helped. It helped start the conversation and get it going.
But I didn't like how it was framed in some corners. No, you're right. I mean, the connection definitely helped. No, it would be a bigger issue and it would be collusion if Bradley Beale did not have a no trade clause and a team like Miami or Brooklyn or New York came in with a whopping offer.
Right? Just said like, we're going to give you three ones and young players and Phoenix said, you know what? Or Washington said, you know what? We're going to do it to the team that's got second round picks and expiring contracts.
Then that would raise the red flag. It just wasn't the case here. The no trade clause is the whole thing. It's the whole thing and it's a disaster for the Wizards.
They're five years late, three years late at minimum trading Bradley Beale. Three years late. No trade clause is the whole thing. Yeah.
I know why they resigned him last year. I did not understand certainly the no trade because you were giving him 50 more than another team and to add that in there. And we knew there was eventually going to be the day when we were going to be faced with this because I just never saw the writing on the wall where this was going to be a 51 team. I saw the vomit on the wall.
Can I tell you something else while we're here that grinds my gears? Totally unrelated to any of this. I'm going to get into this more later. I'm going to monitor.
I'm going to monitor the landscape. I haven't liked how I haven't liked this. I got a bone to pick with perks specifically. Oh, here we go.
And I picked it with him on TV last week. Can I tell you a funny story before you get into yours? So my 14 year old, I went to go pick them up. Him and his buddies up.
They were at a party. Oh boy. Oh boy. Listen, listen, we had the whole discussion with my wife ladle.
She said, she laid it all out. There was like, here's your one chance. It was a party where there were school, like different schools, you know, it wasn't just his. So I picked them and his buddies up from the party and we're driving home and they're all in the backseat and they're like, Mr.
Marks, do you know Kendrick Perkins? And I was like, I do. They're like, can we ask you a question? I'm like, yeah, like, why is he such a bleep on NBA 2K?
Why is he such a jerk? I said, I don't know. It's a good question. So when we were out in LA doing NBA today, Cooper, my 14, saw a perk in the hallway.
He said, Hey, perk. He's in the parking. What's up, little man? He says, why are you such a jerk on NBA 2K?
He looked at him like, what? He's like, what are you talking about? And yeah, that's, is he a commentator in NBA 2K? He's here to the player.
He's a heater. Well, this goes beyond perk. I've seen this. I've seen this pop up in several media places.
So, so here's what's happened in the past two weeks. Uh, Nicole Yochich was the best player on the championship team. Two years after Janus was the best player on the championship team. John Maran was suspended 25 games for waving a gun on Instagram after waving a gun on Instagram live before.
Why anybody has Instagram live is goddamn beyond me. And Zion Williamson was embroiled in some off-court drama that I don't want to get further into because it's rated NC 17. And so now I've seen this propagated in a few places how, and perk set it out loud on TV. I know where you're going with this.
If you want to build a team, he said something like, look for, and Alan Han equated on GetUp, look for international players. This is a bad moment for American players. Look for international players. And I'm like, dude, this is, we've now done the 180 so fast on, on all of this.
And I don't, I haven't, I just, I'm uncomfortable. Like, I, I pivoted so fast away from that on NBA today when perk brought it up. Because like, I don't, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, you'll get just unbelievable. I've been on you'll get since he came into the league.
Janus is unbelievable. Um, perk brought up in B. Like, okay, I'm beat hasn't like done a done in a playhouse to the degree that the other guys have as international guy. Um, I'm not reading anything in from Maran and Zion to like, oh, I got to look at international players.
And I think there are interesting issues in what it's like for international players who start playing professionally at a younger age versus coming up in A.U. here. I think that's a worthy area to investigate, but like, Steph Curry won the championship two years ago. LeBron was the most dominant of worst in the league for 20 years.
Kevin Durant has been, you know, there's a lot of pressure on Kevin Durant now. Like if this thing fails in Phoenix, you know, I mean, Kevin Durant goes to Phoenix, Chris Paul's out, Monty Williams is out, like, he's one of the greatest, 20 greatest players of all time. Like, I just don't, I don't like where that's headed. And I felt like the train got out of the station last week and began accelerating.
And I'd be like, keep accelerating. And if I were Devin Booker or Jason Tatum or some of those, some other American players who are younger, I'd be like, wait a second, what's what are people saying? I'm DMing a little, and I'm saying, wait, what are people saying? Didn't like the other thing.
Since we're talking about that, that bothered me a little bit was that, well, they just need a change of scenery. Wait, wait a minute. You mean, you just, you don't think the issues that John Moran had Memphis wouldn't pop up somewhere else if he doesn't face that square on or what Zion in New Orleans if, you know, from a health standpoint. So yeah, I agree with you on the, um, I saw that it run me the wrong way.
The international part that, um, you know, if I was an American, as you said, if I was an American Booker Durant, one of these players, that certainly would bother me also. While we're here, what did you think of John Moran getting suspended for 25 years? I thought that's what it was going to be. I just, I never, like, I went on, um, I went into the dark spot, the dark place on Twitter and people were like, I actually went in and read the comments when I, uh, I think I might have said something about, I guess it was just maybe how much he got fined and people were like, oh, it should have been 50.
Just, you know, it should have been a year. I was like, you know, like, I thought if it was 50 that he would have definitely filed the grievance and that probably would have been reduced to 25. I think the league thought it as a sweet spot. Um, we'll see if he files a grievance.
I thought it was going to be that number. Um, Gilbert, Gilbert, or Venus was 50 games because they basically had a gun, like, like, an old, like Western, like, gun draw in the locker room. Like, that was a little bit different than what this was. Yeah, I actually, so I was setting the over, under 20 and a half and I was taking the over, but under 30 and a half.
We were having, this was one of the debates we had over drinks during the finals one night. So it was not unexpected. I will say it's interesting and the NBA got into this in their statement to some degree. If you go back and look at gun related suspensions.
Arena is a totally different thing. That's in the locker room. That's guns in the facility. Totally, that's just over here.
Steven Jackson shot a gun outside of strip club. Seven games. Raymond Felton brandished, I think, a semi-automatic weapon in a domestic dispute. Four games.
Now, those cases were adjudicated. Those were criminal cases. Both of the both of the women felt an Instagram completed guilty, um, to, like, lesser charges I think that they were initially charged with. And, but those are real things.