00:00We have with us Ty Windish. He has been covering Giannis and the Bucs for Sports Illustrated,
00:04also with the Eurostep podcast. And Ty, good talking to you, by the way. I want to follow
00:11up on something that we asked you a little while back when we first had you on about
00:15what you believe the value or the team believes the value was for Giannis. When you heard
00:21that Miami was really only offering Tyler Harrow and some picks, did that shock you?
00:27Yeah, I mean, I think right now I'll just say I think there's a lot of posturing on all
00:32possible sides, right? Like I think based on conversations I've had with people who understand
00:38the Heat pretty well is it seems like to me they've learned from the mistake of the Damian
00:43Lillard pursuit, which was thinking, oh, we're the only real suitor. We can now play a hard
00:49ball. Lo and behold, ironically, it happened to be the Bucs who are now the ones selling
00:52the superstar, but someone jumps in, right, and takes that player and they end up stuck
00:57in mediocrity, which they've basically been consistently for years now. They've been a
01:01play-in staple year after year. So I don't know if it's necessarily that they're holding
01:07back a ton. My read on this is more of the Bucs are looking at their offer and going, okay,
01:12this is fine. I think this is like kind of the baseline, the minimum acceptable offer for
01:17a player like Giannis. And we said we would decide on this, maybe not execute the move,
01:22but decide on it by the draft. We've got one week and a couple hours. Why would we take
01:27that now? If some team like Boston or one of these teams out West with all these assets,
01:31maybe they decide to get involved. And maybe if kind of the offers out there, a team like
01:36Boston thinks to themselves, you know, we didn't want to go all in, but we think we can beat
01:41the Miami offer and then that's better for the Bucs. So I kind of think the Bucs are just
01:45trying to draw out the string or play out the string, see who jumps in. And I don't
01:49know if Miami is necessarily hardballing here. I think they just kind of, they have an upper
01:54limit to what they can offer. And I just don't think that they have a compelling enough deal
01:58for the Bucs to, you know, shut everyone else out unnecessarily.
02:02We saw Windhorst from ESPN Ties say that Giannis wants his representation to have a seat at
02:08the table during this whole process. Does that make sense to you? Are you hearing the same?
02:11The agency wants to be talking with the Heat and the Celtics as well?
02:15Yeah, it's not, it's not something I've heard directly, but it makes sense to me. And I
02:20think even going back to the deadline, it felt like, you know, and you never know, you know,
02:25a hundred percent where everything comes from or how reputable it all is or anything like
02:29that. But you kind of were getting the yay or nay, it felt like through back channels
02:34on various teams when they jumped into the ring. Like, you know, the Warriors kind of surprised
02:40me. It didn't seem like Giannis was that interested. And I think he wants to be in the East
02:44is what it seems like. And also, you know, playing with Steph sounds great, but there
02:48wouldn't be a whole lot left around those two out there in Golden State. I think Minnesota
02:53actually kind of got the thumbs up. It was a little unclear. Portland then and now seems
02:57to be in the thumbs down. Like, I would not want to resign there. And that to me feels
03:01like some combo of Giannis and whether it's his agents, whether it's, you know, whatever
03:06the family themselves being involved, it's unsurprising. I mean, he, the man himself,
03:11Giannis Atetokounmpo, has not been texting, I think, agents and sources and reporters to
03:16put out all this stuff over the last year, right? Like, of course, there's a lot of agent
03:20involvement going on. So not surprised to hear it.
03:23Ty, I'm curious, you know, you know, you know, Giannis obviously better than we do. We just
03:28covered him there. If you had to guess what, what team do you think you said that he wants
03:33to go in the East? What team, you know, do you think he would prefer over the other,
03:37you know, the Heat or the Celtics and why?
03:40I think probably the Celtics, if you just listen to what he said about, I mean, one, you
03:45can, you know, I think he's covered last time, you know, the effusive praise for Joe
03:48Mazula in particular, kind of out of nowhere during the last season. But I think bigger
03:53than just Maz, it's he wants to win titles. I mean, that's the reason, you know, I think
03:57he really does love Milwaukee. It's not that he wants to get that, get out of town no
04:01matter what. I think it's just, he wants to win titles. And I think, you know, he shares
04:06an agent with Bam. I think he really believes in the kind of Miami, you know, culture and
04:11their ability to build around him or whatever. So he's not, not, he's open to that as a
04:15possibility. But obviously, even if Jalen Brown is going out in a deal, you're talking
04:20about now playing with Jason Tatum and Derek White versus Bam and Davion Mitchell. I mean,
04:25maybe Andrew Wiggins, like, you know, they're talking about, we can get Chris Middleton
04:28in free agency, like just get out the same player he was in 2021, unfortunately. So
04:33I think just from that pragmatic standpoint of like, where can I win more sliding in next
04:39to another superstar and a team that just won, I think, 56 games, it's just got to be more
04:43appealing than going to Miami, even if you do believe there's other levers they can pull.
04:47All right. We're talking to Ty Windish from Sports Illustrated. He's been covering Giannis
04:50and the Bucs for Eurostep podcast. And, and I, I got, we played a clip coming in. I don't
04:56know if you heard it. It was Gary Washburn. And one of the things that he had mentioned
04:59is that it sounds to me as if Brad Stevens might be trying to find some sort of way to
05:06get Giannis here in Boston without giving up either one of the Jays. Could you think
05:12of any kind of package that the Bucs would accept that didn't involve Jalen Brown that
05:18would get Giannis here to Boston?
05:21No, no, flat. No. I mean, it would take, you know, is there some team that just goes
05:26absurdly over the moon for Derek White or Shireman or Hauser? I think even that, even,
05:33even your definition of over the moon, just because, you know, the other Miami, the Miami
05:37picks, right? So their offer with Jalen is Jalen going somewhere, a bunch of stuff that
05:42is close enough to Miami stuff goes to Milwaukee for Jalen. And then Boston throws in some of
05:47their picks as well. The problem I think with Boston's offer in either circumstance is those
05:53picks just aren't going to be that valuable. I mean, their first this year is toward the
05:57end of the first round. Miami can give you 13, which is a late lottery pick, but obviously
06:01much better, especially in this particular class where kind of a top 20 or so, it seems
06:06like, is where there's a big fall off. And then the future picks, again, like, would
06:10I rather bet against Bam and Giannis in Miami or, you know, Jason Tatum in 2031 is going
06:15to be in his early thirties, right? Like there's no, there's no guarantee that Boston
06:19is ever going to be bad in the, when these picks are owed. And especially not if you're
06:24talking about there's any world where they can keep both of the Jays and Giannis. And
06:28of course that gives you some pretty crazy tax implications and stuff. Like if we go down
06:33this road, like, I don't know if it's really feasible to have a real team and all three
06:37guys. When I said, I think everyone's posturing. I think this is some posturing from the Celtics
06:41a little bit to ease things with Jalen Brown, but no, I would not be interested in
06:45that package. I just think who would want the 30th overall pick every other year for
06:49Giannis? Like I just, I wouldn't want to bet against that team at all.
06:52What about a mystery team? Like we've heard the Clippers and the fifth pick, and there's
06:56been some rumbling that may be a surprise.
06:57Orlando.
06:58Orlando.
06:59Yeah, I think that's my thought on this whole thing is that's what the Bucs are kind
07:06of begging. Is either to make someone like Boston really go out there and kind of
07:10collaboratively figure this thing out where, you know, maybe bought, maybe the Clippers
07:14get Jalen Brown and Garland and five go to the Bucs. Like then you're talking about a
07:18couple of premier assets or some other team like Orlando just jumps in directly with
07:23Milwaukee. Right. And says, you know what? We see an opportunity. You know, think about
07:27Orlando. How long have we been mired and not able to get over any sort of a hump? Let's
07:32drop any honest next to some of these other guys we have locked in. Even if it costs us
07:35a lot, we can take that leap immediately. Like Atlanta hasn't signaled they want to, but
07:40again, when's the last time Atlanta accomplished anything in the East? And if you have
07:44Giannis and Jalen Johnson, I think you at least have a shot too. So I think the Bucs
07:48hope is that like the Dames situation, somebody else jumps in and maybe that's
07:53Boston just going all out, finding the perfect third team or someone else. I mean,
07:57they've poo-pooed it at every step, but like if Oklahoma City, what if they just go, we
08:02could still have picks left over and we could get this guy on our team. Like it wouldn't
08:06be like them, but I do wonder if there's just a certain point where a team out there
08:10goes, we can beat either of those offers. We can do it directly. The third team adds
08:14complication. Let's call the Bucs. I think that's kind of what the Bucs are holding out
08:19for. And I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. There's just not that many times where you
08:23can add a player of this caliber, even with the age and contract stuff that Giannis has.
08:28All right. Well, Ty Windisch, who covers Giannis and the Bucs, Sports Illustrated,
08:32Eurostip podcast. Ty, maybe we'll be having a completely different conversation just days
08:36from now. Supposed to go down in a week, you know, that the mandate, I think from the owner
08:42there, right, Ty, is get it done before the draft next week. Yeah, we should know by next
08:47week. Either signal he's going to sign the extension and maybe they get a tampering charge
08:50or there's a trade announced by them. So yeah, I'd be happy to come back and talk about
08:55it and talk a little bit about his game if he's actually going to be a Celtic. And I
08:59think that's certainly on the table at this point.
09:00And the Celtics will have made their big move, bringing back Kelly Olenek.
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