- 2 days ago
Keith Smith joins the show to preview what the Wizards could do over the rest of the offseason.
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00:00Fired up to jump on the Rude Guest Hotline and welcome in Keith Smith from SpotTrack
00:05and host of the Front Office Show.
00:08Talk a little NBA.
00:09What's up, Keith?
00:10How are you, man?
00:11I'm doing well.
00:12Thanks so much for having me.
00:13What's happening?
00:14Let's start with the big trade that went down yesterday between Minnesota and Charlotte.
00:20What do you make of that move for the Hornets to ship Ball out when he's by far their best
00:25player?
00:27I don't know how to go by far their best player.
00:29I think he's certainly the most popular player, but I think Brandon Miller and Con Caniple are pushing him for
00:35best player.
00:36There's a very wide divide on LaMelo Ball.
00:40He's very popular with fans, especially younger fans, but some of them in the NBA still think he's a little
00:46bit too much of a circus sideshow for them
00:49where some of the things he does out there aren't always conducive to winning.
00:53That said, that got camped down quite a bit last year.
00:56They're a short team that's on the rise, and this is surprising from that standpoint because he's such a big
01:02part of what they were a year ago
01:04with being one of the better offensive teams we saw in the league and all their improvement.
01:08For them to move on from him, they have to feel like, hey, for what he was making salary-wise,
01:14for where we're going with having to pay some other guys
01:16and what we want to be as a team, it just doesn't really fit.
01:19They got one heck of a package.
01:21Nazarede is a really good player.
01:23They got a bunch of draft capital, so they're in a bunch of salaries flexibility.
01:27They're in pretty good shape.
01:28For the Wolves, they're doing everything they can to prove to Anthony Edwards.
01:31We'll make big moves to try to win around you, and they needed a point guard, and they went out
01:37and got one.
01:37It's going to be fascinating to watch how they come together.
01:40Is he there to take some of the pressure off of Ant?
01:42Because Ant seems to want to have the ball down the stretch.
01:46I don't think he's as good a ball handler as some of those point guards out there.
01:49Can that be a help for him?
01:51Yeah, for sure.
01:52I think at the end of the games, it's always going to be in his hands because he's Anthony Edwards.
01:57And the best player, I don't really care what team it is, the best player is going to have the
02:02ball at the end of the games
02:03if they can create their own look.
02:05But where LaMelo Ball will help is hopefully by the time you get there, Anthony Edwards hasn't had to do
02:10that 50 other times
02:11throughout the course of the game.
02:13So LaMelo Ball is really going to do a lot for getting Anthony Edwards set up.
02:18If the Timberwolves can commit to playing more kind of up-tempo and get out and run a little bit,
02:24I think he'll do really well there and get Edwards a lot of easy baskets in transition.
02:29I was talking with someone yesterday after the trade was reported, and they were like,
02:33man, Ant's going to live off LaMelo hit-ahead passes because he's so good at that.
02:38So definitely going to be somebody who can help with all that creation stuff
02:41and just make life easier for Anthony Edwards, for Rudy Gobert, for McDaniels, for Desunmu.
02:47He's a very helpful player in that vein.
02:51The other pending major trade is this Jalen Brown thing.
02:56Why are the Celtics in such a hurry to get him out of there?
03:01Well, I think what's happened is we've kind of gone down the road with offering Jalen Brown multiple times
03:08for the Celtics side, and now it is, all right, we've got to do this.
03:12If we're ever going to make a trade, we've got to make the trade now because Jalen Brown, his comments,
03:19I think, were,
03:20I don't think he intended them to mean what a lot of people took out of him postseason,
03:23what he said this past season was his favorite year in the league.
03:27I think what he was trying to be was very complimentary to, hey, my teammates and I were way overachieved,
03:32and we were still, you know, a really good team and no one really expected it.
03:36And instead of taking it, I mean, oh, he just wants to play by himself and, you know, isn't happy
03:40there.
03:41And I think the Celtics do know he got a taste of being the guy, and he probably does like
03:46that to some extent.
03:48But when you offered him for Kevin Durant a few years ago in a trade and it didn't get done,
03:52and now you very publicly offered him in a trade for Giannis, even if they can't come out and say
03:58it direct,
03:59we all know it happened.
04:00At some point, the guy's going to be like, hey, do you want me here or not?
04:02Because you can tell me all you want is you're trying to trade me for great players, but I'm a
04:08great player too.
04:08Why not just keep me?
04:10All of that said, the Celtics are not going to give him away.
04:14They're only going to make a trade if it makes sense.
04:16And a trade, people keep pitching these trades of, well, here's a ton of draft picks and young players.
04:20That's not really what Boston wants.
04:22They're trying to win right now.
04:24So it's a pretty tough needle for them to thread, to get win-now players that are going to really
04:28help them
04:29in a trade where you move Jalen Brown because rebuilding is not what they're looking to do.
04:34Talking with Keith Smith here, host of the Front Office Show and at SpotTrack.
04:38You can give him a follow at KeithSmithNBA.
04:41All right, I'm going to switch it to D.C.
04:43because all of a sudden there's a ton of excitement with this Washington Wizards team.
04:47They get the deal done with Trey Young.
04:49They draft A.J. DeBonsa.
04:51Anthony Davis, the team is talking like they really want him to be a part of it.
04:57Let's start with Trey Young.
04:58What did you make of that contract?
05:01I have no issue with the contract being a max contract in the first couple of years,
05:07or effectively a max contract.
05:09What I don't love is the latter couple of years on that because as this Wizards team
05:15gets into a position where they're going to have to pay other guys,
05:18and clearly that's going to sort itself out here over the coming years.
05:23But Alex Saar will need a new deal.
05:25Then eventually George and Carrington, and we'll see what happens with Koulibaly.
05:30And those guys, you're just going to get very, very expensive.
05:34And then that's when having 50-plus million for Trey Young may start to look a little tough
05:39to balance the cap sheet.
05:40But, you know, he's a really good player.
05:43I think he's going to help them be really an improved team going into next year,
05:48a combination of him and Anthony Davis, who I believe they're going to keep.
05:51We haven't even seen him in uniform yet,
05:53so I don't think they're going to do anything as far as trying to trade him.
05:56I think they're looking forward to see what those two guys can do
05:59with all of that young talent going forward.
06:03And they'll see if they can build this thing up and get into a place
06:06where they can kind of do what the Pistons did,
06:08which was go from one of the worst teams in the league to a playoff team
06:11to winning a playoff series and just kind of move through the steps that way.
06:15And I think Trey Young's going to help them in a big, big way with that,
06:18at least over the next two, three seasons.
06:20I agree.
06:20And then I saw this, and I'm curious what you think.
06:24Isn't there a strong possibility of an expansion draft,
06:28like after the 2028 season?
06:32Yeah.
06:32Yeah, so Adam Silver said multiple times ahead of the NBA draft
06:37in various settings where he's interviewed when asked about expansion
06:41that if expansion comes, they're looking at starting that with the 2028-29 season
06:48is when those teams would come in.
06:50So we've got this season, next season we get through,
06:53and then after the 27-28 season we would have an expansion draft,
06:57assuming everything goes the way it always has with that.
07:00Adam, there's no guarantee, but that's the assumption.
07:03And we'll see now, would a guy like Trey Young be interesting to an expansion team
07:08at 50-plus million?
07:09We'll see.
07:10But the other thing the Wizards could always do, let's say it goes really sideways.
07:13And it's like, man, this is now killing our cap and it's not working out
07:17and we want to move on.
07:18They could pay an expansion team to just pick him.
07:20They could be like, hey, here's a couple draft picks.
07:23They take them off our hands because we've got to rebalance our books.
07:26So I think they know they're going to have options with that down the line.
07:30And I think that's pretty interesting in this whole thing.
07:34And at some point, yeah, they're paying him a lot of money,
07:37but those expiring contracts become assets too.
07:40Yes.
07:42I like the Trey pick.
07:44I also like that Washington is very clearly trying to win.
07:49They're trying to compete.
07:51I think adding to Bonts is a huge part of that.
07:53But the biggest kind of question mark, I'd say, is Anthony Davis.
07:58What do you hear about Davis in Washington and how that will go?
08:04Yeah, everything since the trade has been,
08:07he would have preferred to be with a team that's closer to title contention
08:11at this stage in his career.
08:12But he's perfectly open to giving this, you know,
08:15a run with the Wizards in seeing.
08:17And I think once they landed the first number one pick in the draft
08:21and then drafted A.J.
08:22DeBonts, I think that became even more so of, all right,
08:25we've got talent galore here on this team, and now we've got Trey Young.
08:30So it's not just me leading a whole bunch of kids.
08:33I've got a running mate who's more on my level career-wise as far as experience
08:38goes and desire to win and all those things.
08:41And now you get all these young kids that are going to grow up,
08:44and they're going to grow up quick.
08:46I mean, I think a lot of people, I know you all watched it,
08:49but I think a lot of people around the general NBA fandom just kind of quit
08:53on the Wizards last year because, all right,
08:55these guys aren't really trying to win, and Trey's not playing,
08:58AD's not playing, who cares?
08:59But I think the people who did that missed out on.
09:02Alex Saar improved greatly as the season went along.
09:05So Keyshawn George, a much better player than he was as a rookie.
09:09I think there's a lot of talent within that young group there.
09:13And DeBonts, for me, was a no-brainer number one.
09:15I thought he should have been the pick.
09:17I think he's going to be great in time.
09:19It's going to take him like every other young player a couple years
09:22to get adjusted.
09:23But I could not be higher on the future for the Wizards right now.
09:26Love that, man.
09:27I love to hear that.
09:28Do you think they have to do a deal with Davis?
09:32Because I've seen these reports that he wants an extension.
09:35Like, when would that even kind of be a topic?
09:39Yeah, that's going to be probably at some point this summer.
09:42We'll get a lot more about, like, hey,
09:44we want to try to get something done with AD.
09:47You know, what is it going to take?
09:49Where do we need to be?
09:50And I think that, much like the Trae Young situation is,
09:55you've got to be careful there.
09:56Because you don't want to, for a player of his age,
09:58with his injury history, you've got to be careful how much you lock into,
10:02how big of money, how long-term of money, and those kind of things.
10:06That'll come up in August, because I believe it's around August 6th,
10:09when he's actually eligible to extend.
10:12So if you don't hear anything about that in the next month,
10:14I wouldn't stress, that'll come up later.
10:17Or, and then if it gets, if that gets sideways,
10:20then that's where things could go a little rough for Anthony Davis,
10:24because I think he's going to probably have a conversation of,
10:27hey, if you don't really want me here, like, what are we doing?
10:29You know, let me get somewhere else who does want me,
10:32is willing to pay me, because it's not like it's, well,
10:35passing up on a chance to win the title.
10:37Because they're not as high as they am on the future.
10:39I don't think they're going to be in that position this upcoming season.
10:42So that's something to keep an eye on there.
10:44But the Wizards traded for him, knowing that would be where things would go,
10:48and they've definitely, I would assume,
10:50have all kinds of backup plans ready to go,
10:52you know, depending on how those negotiations play out.
10:54If an opportunity came up to move him,
10:57what do you think they can get for a guy like Anthony Davis
11:00with that injury history?
11:02Yeah, I mean, it depends.
11:03You know, are you willing to take on some money
11:06that's maybe a little sketchy the other way?
11:08It would depend on what they're prioritizing, like positional fit.
11:12But you could be able to get players who can play,
11:14but maybe their contracts aren't so great.
11:17You could certainly take on draft picks.
11:19They wanted to do that.
11:21And I think we've moved out of that phase of this rebuild.
11:26So I think it would be, hey, if we're moving Anthony Davis,
11:29we want guys who can actually come in, help us win,
11:31and help us play.
11:32And they're probably going to have to be more of like a power forward type player.
11:36Because just looking at this roster, the team has guards and wings for days.
11:41So it's going to be, all right, we need a little bit more size
11:43to go with Alex Saar up front if we're going to move Anthony Davis.
11:47And you could certainly pull that off.
11:49My sense is we'll see if that's where it goes with it.
11:51It's probably only going to be a conversation
11:53if they can't come to an extension
11:55and he starts to agitate of, hey, then get me somewhere else.
11:58Yeah.
11:59So the timeline for that is August.
12:01I'm very curious how that will shake out.
12:03But doesn't AD have two years on his deal?
12:06Like, is it standard?
12:0758 and 62, I think.
12:08Yeah, is it standard to offer extensions with two years left?
12:12Well, next year, he has this upcoming season
12:15and the season after that's a player option.
12:17So functionally, he could walk for nothing at the end of this season.
12:22He could opt out and walk away to another team.
12:25That's why when you get to this point in these contracts,
12:28you almost kind of ignore the player option year
12:30because you don't have control of that as the team.
12:34So what you're trying to do, if you want them long-term,
12:37is we're going to extend.
12:38When it's multiple guaranteed years and there's no options attached,
12:42yeah, teams get a little bit more of, all right, hold on.
12:45Unless you're like Nikola Jokic
12:47and you're very clearly our franchise guy
12:49and we're going to do what it takes to get you extended,
12:52then we'll do that.
12:53But if it's a situation where, all right, if we don't do an extension,
12:56we'll talk about it later.
12:58Later, if you're Anthony Davis, you're going to say,
13:00well, now I'll opt out and I'll run to whoever has cap space
13:02that fits where I want to be and what I want to do as a player.
13:06So that's where you have to be careful with that.
13:08It's interesting because I kind of thought
13:11if he was going to get moved, it would be at the draft.
13:14But we've now seen, I mean, the ball trade came after the draft.
13:19You know what I mean?
13:20Like, there was, obviously the Giannis thing was the headliner,
13:24but there wasn't that much action at the draft with trades and stuff,
13:29which I found kind of interesting.
13:31But I guess...
13:32Yeah, we don't...
13:33Sorry to interrupt you.
13:34We don't always see the, like, superstar trades at the draft.
13:39It's more of the, you know, nice starter-level guys
13:43that get moved around at the draft and those kind of things.
13:45So I'm not overly surprised.
13:47I mean, it's funny.
13:48So much has already happened with contracts being agreed to
13:52and trades being agreed to.
13:53Free agency doesn't even open until the 30th at 6 p.m.
13:56So we're still, you know, four days away, you know,
14:00from free agency even being officially open for negotiations.
14:04Now, trades, you can negotiate.
14:06Those are a little bit different.
14:07But, yeah, we're really in this position where it's like,
14:10holy cow, so much has already happened.
14:11But I'm not surprised that other things haven't happened yet.
14:14Who is the biggest free agent now?
14:17Because it seems like free agency has changed so dramatically in the NBA
14:21that it's all sign-in trades
14:23because these guys can get more money with their current teams.
14:27Yeah, can I interest you in Norman Powell?
14:31That's kind of where we're at.
14:34He's a really good player and he was an all-star last year,
14:37but this is a guy who's in his 30s now
14:40and, you know, you're not breaking the bank for him.
14:43And obviously it's LeBron James,
14:46but that's a whole different kind of world where, you know,
14:49at this point in his career, LeBron's going to tell us where he's playing.
14:53He's not going to do meetings like he did once upon a time
14:55with everybody come pitch me.
14:57It's going to be, here's where I'm going, we're going to make it work,
15:00and here's how it happens.
15:01But you're absolutely right.
15:02What's happened in the NBA now is extensions have become so lucrative for players.
15:07What they do is they extend, and then when they're not happy,
15:11they ask for a trade and say, hey, all right, it didn't work out.
15:14Now let's move me along in trades.
15:16Trade, it's extensions, then trades are really how business gets done in the NBA.
15:21And here's why I always say it's almost kind of more fun
15:23because when it's a free agent signing, it impacts one player going to one team
15:28and maybe impacts the team they left.
15:30When it's a trade, it's going to be multiple teams
15:32and often multiple players involved, so you get a lot more movement that way.
15:36Keith, man, the great information.
15:38Thank you for your time.
15:40I appreciate it.
15:41Thanks so much for having me.
15:42Thanks, bud.
15:42Keith Smith from SpotTrack and the Front Office Show.
15:45Give him a follow at KeithSmithNBA.
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