On this episode of the Heat Check Summer League is here.
I am off to Vegas. By this time that you're listening to this, I will be touching down on the West Coast. I will report on the ground. Until then, I will drop this interview from Spotrax. Keith Smith, one of the smartest dudes in the game, actually dropped a ton of wisdom on the free agent market, just some of the things that I was curious about in terms of the Paul George deal and how that got done.
I'm not gonna waste any more of my time, Anthony, so drop that motherfucking beat that should be the.
Honest Tree is in charge.
Everybody knows it. So I'm just glad to be here. We are about to walk into the show. Keith Smith Keith Covers, Keith Covers the NBA. He is the co host of the Front Office show. You can follow him on x at Keith Smith NBA. Keith, what's up, big dog? Welcome to the show.
How we do it?
Man?
I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
Absolutely absolutely great to have you. Let's get into some get into some NBA free agency talk. Obviously we've got Clay, We've got CP three, we've got Paul George.
If I ask you right.
Now, the number one most impactful free agency move, the one that we're gonna be talking about after a title is handed out next offseason, and I ask you to narrow it down to one, who's that guy? What's that move?
That'd probably have to be Paul George. It's hard to beat that one. He's the only Max player who change teams this offseason, So you know that's huge for Philadelphia. They're good. Of course, they're health issues. We're gonna find out because they got to be healthy, not not just throughout the regular season, but when it matters. They got to be healthy and pro mae in for their hopes June.
So we'll see what happened there. But you know, the perfect fit between Max and and b. They did a nice job filling out the roster around that edition and getting good depths in, so you know Philadelphia is going to be a tough team. That was a really good pickup by them.
Yeah.
I don't know if you saw it today, Keith, but before today, the chatter from all of the insiders was that Paul George wanted the full four years from LA and they weren't willing to give it to him, and they would go to the three years, But it turns out, according to Paul George, that they were offering just two years, and then when he said I'll take what quiet offer was offered three years one fifty three with the no trade clause. They bopped at that, and then the taste
got sour. Are you surprised at the difference between what the perception was in terms of the deal and Paul George's side of it to what we're hearing now.
Yeah, it's totally tough, right because I'm sure the Clippers would tell a different variation of that story. I was told a lot of the same things everybody else was that he wanted four years, and then when he came down, he was insistent that he get a no trade clause, and it sounds like that was ultimately the thing that the Clippers were not going to give on. They were not going to give him a no trade clause at any point, and then at that point, I think that's
where things kind of got a little sideways. And for Paul George, it helped knowing, Hey, I've got Philly out here who's willing to give me the full Max contract. They were willing to give me that fourth year in the playoffs, and they can't give him a no trade clause, but he doesn't really need one from them because they signed him. It's probably unlikely they're going to move him.
So it's always a little tough, you know. It's you know, I love when the players are candid with us and tell us everything like that, but I also like to balance that out with this story from the other side too, And we'll see, maybe we'll get it at some point, but I think the Clippers at this point are just kind of saying, aren't time to move on? But we're headed in a different direction.
You mentioned some of the other moves that the Sixers made to round out the roster. I thought the one that was like very low key under the radar was Caleb Martin. He turned down a big bag from Miami and is getting quite a lot less to go to sit in the Sixers. Was that a matter of him kind of underestimate or overestimating his value or did he really just want to go to a place with a better fit.
Yeah, that's a really good question because he played such a big role in Miami. But they've got a lot of forwards on that team with Haimi Hawka is coming into to play here, and then you've got you know, Nikolai Jovich, who they're playing quite a bit. You still have Jimmy Butler there, Josh Richardson, who can even play up at times, is coming back healthy next year. So there's just a lot going on, you know, with that
Miami team. And I wonder if he was like, all right, hey, let me see if something else is bigger out there. But money came off the board very fast this summer. There were very few teams that were willing to kind of go all in on free agent moves that they were more gonna take this it around kind of approach like Orlando did with KCP and then resigning a whole bunch of their guys. And we're still gonna see, you know,
what Utah and Detroit are doing. But my guest is Caleb Martin ultimately decided, all right, maybe I'm not going to get that money from Miami, but I still want to be in a good situation on a team where I can compete and try to win. So I'm gonna head off to Philadelphia. And he's still got a pretty nice contract In the end, Keith I wanted.
To talk a bit about the Demarta Rosen trade. He goes out to Sacramento, they end up sending Harrison Barnes out. Chris Duarte gets moved in that trade as well. I'm not a huge believer in this trade. Like I like Demarta Rosen, I just don't think he's the big name he's that key guy. I think he's a question mark defensively, and considering he's not a big three point guy and you just traded your best one in Harrison Barnes, I'm
kind of worried about where this leaves Sacramento. Why were the Kings ultimately the team that ended up with Demarta Rosen.
Yeah, I think the Kings have hit a point where their feeling was, if we have Demos to Sabonis anchoring our defense, we're never gonna probably be more than an average defense in the league. It's just too hard that way. So I think now they're looking at it in a sense of, you know what, let's go after being a great offensive team. Now the fifth a little weird, we'll see, but imagine on the nights when Malik Monk is out there with Fox sa Bonis to Rosen keik It Murray
is now your fifth option like on those nights. That's one of the best fifth options offensively in the entire NBA. So that that is, you know, really really good work by the Kings there. So we'll see. My guess is they're just going to try to play entertaining basketball, outscore a whole bunch of people, and you know, try to
win games that way, because defensively gave up somebody. It's not like Harrison Barnes was lifting them to being, you know, a great defense anyway, And I like Harrison Barnes quite a bit. I think he'll help the Spurs as they try to mature that roster a little bit here moving into one Binyama second season. But yeah, I don't mind it for the Kings. It's a weird kind of move, but sometimes weird works out, and I.
Know the Kings Keith are looking to make some other moves and maybe add one more piece. There's been rumors around Brandon Ingram, There's been rumors around Kyle Kuzma. Sam Vaccini today said that he thinks that a better fit would be a player like Isaiah Stewart in the front court, maybe a little beefier, no pun intended, maybe a little bit more physical. Who do you think that player that could round out that roster might be.
Yeah, I think the Ingram and Kuzma sauce is all over after getting DeRose, and they're just there's not really a way to make that work in a way that makes sense for the Kings. Use your big trade chip in Barnes to get that one. But Stuart's a guy they could go get. He makes about half what those other guys make, so that's the guy they could go get. My thing is, though I've been told Detroit doesn't really want to move him, they're very happy to have him
right now. That's the team that's kind of thinned up front behind Jalen Duran at the moment, and so they're seemingly pretty content with having Isaiah Stewart back and letting him kind of, you know, work. I think they're planning for now with Tobias Harris sign is to move Stewart back to a bench role where he really excelled playing
in that role. But he'll move to the bench, but he's still going to get twenty five thirty minutes the night because right now it's Jalen during Isaiah Stewart and not much else up from for the Pistons as far as big men go. So I don't know what Detroit would need to move him. They might need something kind of really good back. And the Kings after making this trade are a little bit out of stuff because they still, you know, a pick to Sacramento from a previous trade.
They have a pick swap out there now with the Spurs as a result of the Spurs helping him make this trade. So I'm not sure that that's where it goes. I think Sacramento might be resign a couple guys and finish it out that way.
Keith Smith covers the NBA for spow Track. He is also the host of the Front Office show. I'm glad we brought up brandon Ingram there. I'm kind of curious as to what's going on with the Pelicans going into free age. And see, there was all the talk that brandon Ingram was getting moved. They were looking the Pelicans to dump that salary and move on. They've had a couple of moves. Brandon Ingram still a Pelican, and not only still a Pelican, but I really haven't heard anything
about bibing on the move. How the Pelicans reverse course to hang on to the guy. Is it just that nobody's interested in brandon Ingram? What's kind of the smoke around him right now.
Yeah, they're still willing to move him if they can find the right trade, but they're certainly not looking at salary dump him. They're not looking to just give him away. They're not going to give up any kind of assets. So they're not in that kind of position with brandon Ingram. What the Pelicans ran into a little bit though, was teams don't want to necessarily give up a lot for
Ingram because it's a big contract to take on. And then you're in a position he's a free agent, so you have to pay him next year if that's where it wants to go. And that's why this is taken a while. But you know, there were some rumors Utah might be interested, and there's some matches there that could make sense, especially if Utah decided, you know what, we are going to kind of go for it a little bit this year. We will try to win. Maybe they'll
keep marketing. They could add Ingram, and they could move out somebody like John Collins in a trade like that and try to go in a direction that way. So we'll see, you know, kind of how that comes together. But I think right now New Orleans is just they're looking for front courts eyes. They added Daniel Tykes today, but he it's him and Eves Missy who are the only two centers on that roster, and Zion Williamson's the only other real rotation big so they've got to add
depth desperately upfront. So we'll see, you know, kind of how that comes together right now. But if they're gonna do it, it's probably gonna involve a Brandon an Ingram trade or maybe less likely this CJ. McCollum trade to get there.
I wasn't gonna ask you this, but I wanted to get your thoughts on our tourist, Karnisovus as a GM and he was really lauded well from his time in Denver and all the things that they did to build the Nuggets into a champion right and now I wonder based on some of the decisions he's made for the Bulls, moving off of De Rozan too late, still not you know, paying Zach Lavine and now having to add a first round pick probably to get rid of him the Voots
trade of course, as you know, living in Orlando being kind of a disaster. Like, what's your thoughts on ak And is it just the ownership is stifling him or is he maybe not as good as people thought he was? And Tim Connelly was truly the architect of Denver.
Yeah, the truth priorized somewhere in the middle there. I think the Bulls owners have made it really hard to build sustainable winners there because they they have everybody right now is so much into hard caps and first Apron and second Apron and all these other things. For years, the Bulls owners have basically put a false hard cap of the luxury tax on the team building and have more or less said we're not going to pay the tax. So this is, you know, this is what you can do.
If you can make the work in under the tax line. Great, If you can't, just try to put together a playoff team, you know, we we chase, you know, selling out the building every night, being semi competitive, and and then it's on the baseball season for the ownership. So it's been really tough for various Bulls folks, and that's why they're kind of stuck here in this spot where right now.
I like some of the moves that they've made, as far as I don't mind the Josh Getty return for Alex Cruso, even if maybe you could have got back more later. I think the Jalen Smith signing was really good because he fits if they're rebuilding or if they're going for it. Uh, but they're right now, this is a weird roster. It's just before you all called, I was looking at their roster to really see, all right,
who's gonna start? What does this look like? And it's just kind of messy because it feels like we're pulling this team in about three different directions of all right, these guys are, you know, fit for contenders, these guys are fit for tasing the you know, playing tournament, then these guys should be you're getting twenty five thirty minutes a night playing in a rebuilding situation, So I don't know if they're done or not. And for Cornel Silvis,
it becomes it all falls back on him. He's the one, even if ownership is putting these limits on him, He's got to make it work. He's got to build a functional team, and he hasn't been able to do that. I know we had those great few months when Lonzo ball Derozen first got there and they had Levine and everything was really going well for them, but that's all it's then it was those first few months and then they never able to get that magic back.
Yeah, and Keith, you mentioned the Jalen Smith signing, which I love as well. But if they don't sign Jalen Smith, then they have the ability to take back the Harrison Barnes contract, get that twenty thirty one swap, and then maybe move Harrison Barnes down the road. I do want to get your thoughts on if there's anybody on this roster that you would build around, or is everybody expendable.
Everybody should be expendable, because no one has shown the ability to be like kind of a foundational franchise peace. I know they took a lot of grief for the Patrick Williams contract. I don't mind it that eighteen million a year is going to be barely above the mid
level by the time that contract finishes out. I think Patrick Williams, we're gonna find out canny scale or is he just going to kind of be the like poor Man's Virgin of Harrison Barnes, which is he's okay and everybody likes kind of having him around, but he never gets that much better. So we'll see how that comes together. And then the closest thing beyond that would be Modus Brousellis. But we have no idea. He's a rookie and you know,
we don't know how good he'll be or not. But right now I think, yeah, they should be pretty much open to just about anything.
Keith Smith covers the NBA for Spow Track. He is also a contributor for the NBA front off. The show joins us here on bet MG and tonight Keith my Man, great stuff, Bud, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
Partner, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me