Giese, the Sultan of salary, our very own sports financial guru when athletes get paid, Our go tougas Mike Jannetti from spot track dot Com.
Mike Janetti are go through sports financial expert, the best in the business. You can find his work over at spot track dot com and check out the spot Track podcast a weekly Mike and I drop an episode together every single week. And what a week it has been.
What a whirlwind in the NBA. We'll start with the tires Haliburton injury and how exactly that changes the complexion of the Eastern Conference and I think more importantly for Indiana, does it change anything they might do in the off season to stay competitive.
Yeah, I think that's the big one right now, and it may have shifted some gears slightly with Indiana specifically. Look, this is both Oka See and Indiana pretty long in for the next eighteen to twenty four months here, So no drastic changes unless warranted. And will they replace Haliburton, Probably on some sort of minimum or exception type contract with an older player that can maybe handle a simple
point guard role. But no, don't I don't expect sweeping changes with you of those two finalists in terms of the rest of the East, when you zoom out a little bit, I think what we already knew is definitely locked in the stone now, which is Yiannis is going nowhere. I think Milwaukee now spells enough blood to the point where they can sit down with Giannis and say we're comfortable spending a little bit of cash to make this thing a little better for twenty twenty five, and then
we can discuss this maybe this time next year. But to me, that's the big line of the sand moment with Haliburton going down, that this East is just two up for grabs to really do something drastic anymore.
I think you're one hundred percent right. In fact, I was going to ask you about exactly that, because it does feel like the next big Domino would be honest in terms of off season moves. But why in the world would have mill Milwaukee move off of a player that might be good enough? I say single handedly. Obviously you can't do it by yourself, but if he is significantly the best player on the team by a good margin, I still think you can get by in the Eastern Conference if he plays like an MVP.
Yeah, and if if the goal is to make some sort of all playoff run for you know, selfish financial reasons. If that's what that front office is looking around saying he can get that done by himself. He's proved for over the past couple of seasons that he and some complimentary players can get that done. So I think they can. They can, you know, achieve their minimum goal with the roster they have right now, and they will certainly look to improve it here and there over the next couple of weeks.
There's a lot of moves going down in the NBA. We saw one late last night, early in the morning. I don't know. I rolled over at four thirty in the morning and for some reason check Twitter. I should probably get my head checked for that. And I saw that Anthony Simons got traded to the Celtics, and I thought, rather than firing off a four thirty am tweet, let's go back to bed, deal with this in the morning.
But what is Boston saying with their deal with Portland moving off of a winning player that helped them win a championship and Drew Holliday and bringing in a younger, slightly cheaper piece.
Yeah, so maybe to attach this conversation as the one. We just had the mindset in Boston's not going to change because of the Halliburton injury or because the Bucks are defeated a little bit here. This is not so much about what's going to be on the court for the next couple of seasons. I think the holiday situation was going to happen no matter what, for financial reasons and because he's an aged out player that they think can probably replace minutes fies with what they've already drafted
and developed. And I would imagine that we see Perzingis be one of the next big chips to move. And it's the same conversation. They've certainly played big roles in winning that title and making this a successful franchise and iteration, but this is going to be an organization that's going to be extremely fluid, and they're going to be good at what they do, and theyre going to have some
hits and some misses. But thanks for what you've done, we've got to move on to younger and cheaper because that second apron is a monster when you get up there for a few seasons.
Well are they going to be able to get away from that? Though? Because they're still eighteen million dollars north of the second apron. I know they're looking at potentially trading Kristaps Porzingis. But in the NBA, where you have to make salaries match, are they going to be able to get away from that second apron? Is that possible?
Let me put it this way, because no, they're not going to get under all things considered for twenty twenty five to twenty six unless something drastic changes. But just in doing what they did, they feed up forty million dollars of cash because of what the tax bill has been reduced to. So because they're at this gigantic percentage in terms of text here, the actual TA tax bill that comes due at the end of the season is
significantly higher than most teams have to deal with. So that's what this little move from a cash perspective on the court has done to their overall tax situation. They'll do it again with Porzingia in a couple of weeks.
Very interesting, also a less high profile deal, but a deal. Nonetheless. The Pelicans and the Wizards made a trade where CJ. McCollum is now with Washington, bless his heart, and Jordan Poole is with the New Orleans Pelicans and Keith Smith, who works with you at spot track dot Com, had a terrific breakdown on Twitter. New Orleans saves about six million dollars this season. Jordan Poole is the obvious replacement for McCollum, plus you get that extra year under contract.
But this is the one that really blew me away. Washington can create one hundred million dollars in cab space next summer. That's some of the most cap space I've heard of in the years. What exactly are they hunting trying to make sure that they're in the market for I guess whoever they want. But that's putting yourself in quite the position if you're Washington.
Kind of like this for Washington, and I kind of sneak you like Washington at least down down, way down down, where you have to look hard to see what you're looking at. I think they're going to have a great draft here, maybe even luck into a player that turns out to be better than some of the players ahead
of them. And I think they kind of are taking are setting themselves up for if we do everything right over the next couple of weeks here and now, we position ourselves to be you know, the Brooklyn Nets of this year. Next year, there's a chance they can really turn this thing around finally after years and years of kind of being the joke of the league. So I'm
in on this. They turned two expiring contracts, excuse me to turn two two year contracts into two expiring contracts, which for your forty million next year, they can get to the hundred million mark with a couple of you know, holdouts and things like that. I like this. I think they are believing in themselves. They see what they see with some of these rookies, and if they have one market draft year, look for them to be uberly aggressive this time next summer.
Unbelievable. I kind of like Washington was the quote, and I thought I needed tone out. I need to get my head checked, all right. One more thing. Pallavan Caro's extension window is open. I believe as of today he's entering his fourth year of his rookie contract, and players in this situation can negotiate a contract extension worth about two hundred and forty seven million dollars. I believe that window is open. Is there any and it hasn't been
signed yet? Otherwise we would be talking about that. But is there any reason that Magic fans should be nervous about this in any way?
No, no way. I mean they've already put their foot down that they know exactly what they are and what they want to be for the next four to five seasons minimum, and that started with the Desmond Dane trade. So you don't cure around now with these with these rookie extensions, the window I think officially opens July first for technical purposes and then runs in October for that rookie extension. But there's gonna there's gonna be no conversation here.
I know there's been some inconsistency and some injuries, but this is the cornerstone piece that you're looking to build around, and you're gonna lock him into all the all the language you need to get him to that. You know that that veteran extension at thirty percent if he gets super max potential. All right.
Just needed you to say it because I always come across like a homer when I say it. Mike Cinneti sports financial analyst, the best in the game. Find his work over at spot track dot com. Thanks so much, Mike, Coming up next tea time right around the corner. Also, I've got raise A's tickets to give away. I'll figure out a way to do that in that next segment as well. But as your ac ready for the summer heat, don't sweat it. All the pros