The Bradley Beal Trade Implications

Hey y'all, it's Emisa and Devon here, and we've got some news for you. Get ready because MTV's official challenge podcast is heading back in time. For the first time ever, we're diving into an iconic season from the past. Free agents. We'll go behind the scenes with legendary cast members from the season, plus here what they've been up to since it ended. Just because there's no challenge on TV right now, doesn't mean we're going to leave our podcast listeners hanging. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of On Purpose. Here on this show, I sit down with inspiring insightful individuals to learn about their experiences, habits, and mindset that allows them to live their best life. I had the opportunity to speak with iconic NBA player for the Phoenix Suns, Chris Paul. There's two different type of people. People who go and feel bad put themselves in just salt, and then there's other people who go and get to work. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Looking for advice on your sports bets this season? Well, from total to teasers, the unleashed podcast has you covered. Join me, actor, producer, and sports fan, Jerry Ferrara, and my co-hosts, sports journalist and sideline reporter Olivia Harlan Decker, as we look at the lines and break down all the big games. Plus, each week we'll be joined by a great guest from the world of sports and entertainment, and I'll get Jerry to tell some entourage stories. To listen to Unleashed, presented by Ben MGM on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the crossover NBA podcast on Chris Manic's senior writer, with what's illustrated joined, as always, by Rowan Nutcerny, who is still down in his basement in Miami. I just can't help it. I don't even go into these podcasts, Rowan, thinking I'm going to mock your living situation, but every time you run these zooms, the camera comes on and I see that kind of college-like curtain behind you in the background, it just makes me want to weigh in. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and act like it's the most elegant setup. We're powering through. Like I've said from the start, podcasting has got intended from your parents' home. I can't think of a more natural way to do it personally. Big time member of the Boomerang generation, as I said, on the last show. All right. We're going to dive right into the big story this week, which is the Wizard's Sons deal that will send Bradley Beale to Phoenix, an exchange for Beale. This agreed upon trade will send Chris Paul, Landry Shamit, and a whole bunch of second-round picks, unclear exactly how many at this point, but a whole bunch of second-round draft capital to Washington. The deal has not been finalized yet. In part, I'm told because the Wizards and Sons are still looking to potentially find a third team to facilitate Chris Paul to Washington really has no use for Chris Paul next season. Chris Paul wants to play for a contender. Over the next few days, we're going to see the Wizards and Sons work on something. Chris Paul's representatives too. Work on something to get a third team involved that Chris Paul would want to play on. This is what the deal is going to be. Bradley Beale is going to be a member of the Phoenix Sons and Landry Shamit and some draft capital will be headed to Washington. I want to weigh in here first, Rowan, because the more I digest this trade, the less enthusiastic I am about it for Phoenix. On paper, you look what they did. They effectively traded Chris Paul, who was not going to be on the team next season. For financial reasons, mostly, he was more likely than not going to get waived before June 28th. Landry Shamit, decent player, seventh or eighth man in the rotation, second round draft capital. You can have your opinions about second round draft capital. I don't think it amounts to much. You can do what the Sons are doing and package a bunch of these picks and call the equivalent of one first round pick, but the second round is a complete crapshoot. They got him for a very low price, but I just keep looking at this roster. I'm seeing Bradley Beale, Devon Booker, Kevin Durant, Deandre Aitent for now, and even in the most optimal of circumstances, which is all those guys play 65 plus games, which we both know is, I don't know how realistic that's going to be, given the injury history of some of them. I don't know how good that team is. They can score a lot of points, but some of the skills of Devon Booker and Bradley Beale overlap, you're going to be playing kind of a weird, probably three guard lineup most of the time with Beale, basically as your small forward, which puts you at a disadvantage, you know, in some situations there, you don't have a wing defender, which in this league you need. And if you trade Deandre Aitent, and we'll talk more about that, if you trade Deandre Aitent, you're talking about going into the playoffs, you know, with Denver and Nicole Yokich in front of you, with the Lakers and Anthony Davis and whoever is alongside Anthony Davis in front of you, Memphis, if they get Stephen Adams back, that's a team with some front court muscle. So you're going to have a pretty strange lineup in my mind that you'd roll out there every single night. A lineup and a rotation that's going to invariably include a lot of minimum salary guys because that's really all the sons are going to have to work with over the next couple of months. And on top of that, you've given yourself no flexibility for the future. Like this is your team, like this is who the Phoenix sons are going to be probably for at least the next three seasons, because Bradley Beale, his no trade clause, comes to Phoenix with him. So dealing him, if your Phoenix is going to be just as difficult as it was for Washington, Kevin Durant certainly is tradable, but you're not going to get back the kind of haul that you gave up to get him in the first place, which included McHale Bridges and multiple first round picks. Devin Booker, of course, very tradable, but if you trade Devin Booker, you're waving the white flag on everything, you know, down the line. I don't know. I just, on paper, the sun's got better. Do I think there are a championship team? No, I don't. And when you make a deal like this and zoom right past or are about to zoom right past that second tax apron that's going to go into effect next season, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how this, I don't know how you look at this and think this is a championship team that Phoenix put together. Yeah. You know, Chris, I read what you wrote today as well, kind of, because this is this kind of a rare lose, lose deal. It's really interesting. I have a lot of thoughts about this trade. On one hand, I'm glad that Phoenix is basically giving the second tax apron a giant middle finger. I really respect that. Personally, I'm not a fan of this new CBA. I think the second apron is trying to be an effective hard cap. And I don't like exactly what's trying to be exactly what it is. And I personally am not a fan of the way I believe it restricts movement. The way it might affect teams like Golden State or Milwaukee or even Boston. I just, I personally, not a fan of the way to severely restricts teams in that kind of tax back for making moves. So I respect Phoenix and their new ownership for saying, whatever, we'll spend and we'll figure it out on the fly and find out just how punitive these measures really are. The problem is, as you mentioned, first of all, there's a ton of overlap and skills here between Bill Durant and Booker. Secondly, you think of all the, kind of, quote unquote, great big threes in any history, whether it was Duncan, Manu, and Parker, the heats big three, even the Warriors big three, they at least, at the very least, at the bare minimum, had one guy who was could defend. And more often not at least two, who is the stopper on this sun's team? I mean, are they going to get a point guard because they don't currently don't have a point guard outside of campaign who has been largely unplayable the last couple of playoffs? They could say, Bill or Booker is going to handle the point duties, but that puts a lot of stress on them. And then they still have to find a wing defender, which is at a premium in this week. Every team is looking for those guys. I don't think this trade ultimately makes sense for them unless they find a way to move Deandre Aiton for multiple pieces because a team like Golden State, for example, it's a lot different when they're trying to spend into the tax or the second apron because they have, they already have these guys signed. They have Andrew Wiggins, they have Jordan pool, they have Gary Payton, the second, they have depth and movable pieces, the suns don't have that outside of them. They're owned for agents, whether it's Tori Craig, Josh Akogi, Ish Wainwright. They can only sign minimum players only. That's it. They have no tax exception. Nothing. It's going to be all minimum players. You look at the guys who were left on the roster, TJ Warren, et cetera, none of those guys could play in the playoffs. They were all getting in the second round. We're not talking about the finals, not talking about the conflict in the second round. These guys couldn't get rotation for minutes for a team, desperate for rotation minutes. I mean, Shamit finally got into the series. He had one nice game in the second round, but otherwise it was being attacked by the nuggets over and over again. If campaign is their starting point guard, I don't think you can win a title with campaign as your starting point guard, but I don't know how they go get another one. On one hand, I like that we already have a team saying whatever, we'll figure out the second apron stuff as we go along. I just don't think the suns were the right candidate for it. Just not to say I think Bradley feels a really good player. He's obviously not at the height that he was when he was an all NBA guy and all star. And I think he would have made sense for other teams. If I were Phoenix, I would have been destiny trying to move Paul and Ait in this summer for multiple rotation guys and try to build debt. We know Kevin Durant's going to miss time. We know he's going to miss time. What are they going to do in the regular season when he's out? And you have to play a minimum guy as his replacement. I'm with you. The more I think about it, the more I'm like, I don't think this is going to work as much as I respect the fact that they were like, you know, F the second apron. I mean, Matt ish be of the owner is behind a lot of this. And you know, from what I've been told, Matt ish be is, you know, he's close with Isaiah Thomas. And I think Isaiah Thomas has a voice in the ear of Matt ish be as these decisions are being made. Um, he's 10 years and owner has been incredibly aggressive. And it's too early to tell. It's too early to say if this aggressiveness is is folly, uh, but he took over as owner in what February and immediately, you know, kind of overruled his own, you know, basketball operations staff and said, you know, let's go all in. Let's put Michael Bridges in a deal for Kevin Durant to his credit. He was willing to spend in ways that Robert Sarver was never willing to spend. But you can make a pretty strong argument that Phoenix overpaid for Kevin Durant and paid a price that maybe they wouldn't have had to pay if they acquired him this summer. You know, if the nets were kind of looking around and saying, well, Kyrie is gone, uh, maybe we'll just reboot this whole thing. You could have done a deal with just draft capital, uh, you know, Cam Johnson and did whatever else. Maybe didn't have to give up. Michael Bridges would have been a deal, uh, a deal changer for, for Phoenix, um, fires money Williams. Okay. You know, right. You can't leave out. You can't leave out holding the ball away from Yoke. It's in the playoffs. Yeah. I mean, I just sort of the goopy stuff. But like, you know, fires money Williams, who, you know, immediately gets like a Cajillion dollar contract from Detroit, um, and then does this, uh, you know, encourages his staff to, you know, make this kind of trade. And I mean, this, this hat, look, if everything comes together, sure, you know, if all, if we see the kind of chemistry between Durant, Booker and Beale that is unexpected, yeah, this team could make a run. They've got three guys that can probably average 80 points, you know, during the season. But not only does this team have a chance to underachieve next year, I mean, this could set this franchise back for a generation because I mean, they, I think they're going to keep the pick in this year's draft, the second round pick, which I think is in the 50s. I'm not sure. I think they're going to keep that pick from what I, I've been hearing. But like, they don't have anything like not even first, like they've got some, yeah, I mean, they don't have control of their pick. They got some pickswops in the years to come. So they will have first, but they've just completely booted away all their future draft capital to win over these next few years. And I just think this has, this could blow up in, in Brooklyn, Nets' Esquays, like that's the easiest comp to make, you know, what the Nets did 10 years ago, all in with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and look at how disastrous that was for Brooklyn, but then a couple of years, you know, they were forking over draft picks to Boston that eventually turned at the Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. It feels like this has that kind of potential in Phoenix, where if they don't win a championship next year or the year after, you know, this could be, this could be a big time problem. Yeah. Especially, it's such an interesting amount of aggression to me after what Devon Booker showed us in the playoffs too. Like Devon Booker, I think showed in the playoffs, like he, I think he went to another level. I think he is someone definitely capable of being a number one on a championship team. Like when Chris Paul first got there, I think Chris got a lot of the credit for the way he changed Phoenix. And I think Devon Booker fully took control of that team this season, and especially in the playoffs, that I don't know that you need to make this kind of all in completely leveraged future and present move. I think so much of this Chris is going to come down to if they can move Aiton and if they can move Aiton for two guys, because they, they, like, who is guarding, who's guarding Jamal Murray for them? Oh, okay. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's a fair point, and I agree with that. But if you trade Aiton for guys that could theoretically guard Jamal Murray or... Yeah. Come on, James. Come on, yeah. Yeah. Why Paul George, any of those guys? Right. Who's going to be your starting five when you've got to go up against Nicole Yokech and you've got to go up against Anthony Davis? Are you that giddy about Joc Landale that he's going to be the guy in the middle? I mean, that's, it's, it's, it's trading one problem for another if you wind up dealing with that. And look, I honestly, I would, to me, the best, the best idea for Phoenix is to keep Deandre Aiton, because one thing we know about Frank Vogel's defenses is that they have been the successful ones have been built around a, a dominant big. And say what you want about Deandre Aiton, but he was, you know, the linchpin of some really good defensive teams during Phoenix's, you know, couple of good seasons, including the one that went to the finals. Frank Vogel, who I've talked to about this on the record, like he wants to coax this guy, like he believes that he can get more out of Deandre Aiton. I would be real reluctant to trade him for, for quarters on the dollar, just to get, you know, usable guys as part of the rotation. I, I don't disagree that that's another kind of baffling aspect of this trade is theoretically you bring in someone like Frank Vogel to coach up Deandre Aiton to put him in the best possible position to succeed. I don't know that this is that situation now, because the defensive pressure on him is going to go to another level, if they're not able to acquire any talent on the wing. I will say to play devil's advocate a little bit for Phoenix here. I'm sure they're probably sitting back and saying, we were the only team that took two games off of Deandre in the playoffs, and we did it without Chris Paul, and we did it with very little depth to begin with, we've shown that we can hang with them. I think that, listen, I think Deandre is very capable of winning multiple championships and Yokeach and Murray are kind of unstoppable right now, the leagues are going to figure out what to do with them. At the same time, it's not like Deandre was a 65 win team during the regular season, like we're coming off a season in which we saw maybe the most parity we've seen in the NBA for a very long time. I don't know that that means it's going to be like this forever, but I can, if you squint, you can kind of see Phoenix's thinking of, no one is doing big threes anymore. No one, you know, every team is kind of, the talent is more dispersed than it was even five years ago, eight years ago, when LeBron and the Warriors were kind of at their height. We have four guys right now who are really, really good. It's a little bit of a zag and I, I think you can, yeah, you can, it's a big zag, it's a big zag, but I think you can, if you try hard enough, I think you can kind of make that argument and to me, it's not a completely, it's not one that I would dismiss right away. The, the issue I have is that just take a look at the last two NBA champions, for example, Denver and Golden State. They have high price talent on that roster, but they've got two guys, both those teams have two guys that are big time scores. In Denver, it's Nicolio Kitsch and Jamal Murray in Golden State, it's definitely. The third guy, star, so to speak, on each of those teams was a more versatile guy in Golden State. It was Drey Montgomery in Denver. It's Aaron Gordon. So, you know, you can have pricey talent on your roster, but, you know, there better be some diversity to that talent. There better be some multi-skill players, or, you know, that do different things. Ph.H. is a bunch of guys at score. And Bradley Beale, look, I still, the last couple of days have been, it's felt like people have been banging on Bradley Beale. And that was really banging on Bradley Beale to play. It's Bradley Beale, the soon to be 30-year-old with four years left in his contract that people are banging on. But he is a guy that has not played more than 60 games in a season in each of the last four years. He is someone who statistically has regressed as a three-point shooter from early in his career. And he's also a very high usage rate player when he's at his best. The 2021 season, when he made 13-all NBA and was averaging 31 points per game, his usage rate was 34.1. That was third highest in the NBA, right behind Luca and Steph Curry. So, you know, here's a guy that, when he's most effective, has the ball in his hands. That's also the case for Kevin Durant, also the case for Devon Booker. And I hear you want Devon Booker being a playmaker, and I thought he thrived in that role in spurts in the postseason. Hard to do that for a long time. Hard to do that for 60-plus games in the regular season at a full playoff run. Like, they're going to need to find another playmaker, and I don't know who that guy is. I don't know who is available that is going to want to sign there. Maybe there are guys that want to sign there, but we'll sign there for the money Phoenix can offer. Sure. And I think part of the issue I think sometimes when people assess offseason moves, the first thing they do is look at the playoffs, and they say, with this guy would have helped in this series, how he made a difference in the postseason, et cetera. You also still have to build a team to a degree for the regular season. You need guys, for those first 82 games, look at what happens with Chris Paul, for example. The sons have never gotten kind of a real true backup point guard. I mean, campaign has had good moments and credit to him for reviving his career. But like, they needed someone who could take a lot of Chris Paul's play so that he would be healthy and fresh for the playoffs. That hasn't been the case in every year in Phoenix. He's had health issues in the playoffs, and part of that Chris's playing style dominates the ball, et cetera. But like, that's the challenge of building a team. It can't literally only be for the playoffs because you have to survive the regular season in order to get there. They're going to have a massive challenge surviving those first 82 games, especially if Durant goes down. I think they're going to be in big trouble. And all the things you mentioned about B.O., like needing the ball in his hands to be his best, et cetera, not to be heat guy, but makes it like all the more shocking to me that Miami didn't somehow get this done. I know that they're maybe trying to be involved in Dame. I think this is probably more tax related than Dame related, but like, I just think B.O. The skills are so redundant with Booker. He's a worse version of Devin Booker, if you really think about it, that he just made sense, I think, for so many other teams before Phoenix, and part of it, again, he had the no trade clause. He could decide where he wanted to go. It sounds like the sons were recruiting them very hard, but I just, I don't even think it's the best fit for B.O. moving forward in his career, even though it's the best team he's ever played on. I just don't know how it's quite going to work. I don't think there was a hard, I don't think there was a hard offer for Miami to go back to that. There was some reporting out there about, well, Tyler Hiro, first round pick, so I don't think Miami offered anything close to that, I mean, and we'll get into this in a minute, but I do think Miami is more focused on Damien Lillard and the hope that he'll become available over the next couple of weeks. Hey, all, it's Amison Devin here, and we've got some news for you. Get ready because MTV's official challenge podcast is heading back in time. For the first time ever, we're diving into an iconic season from the past. And what better place to start then? Say it with me. Free agents! It's a fan favorite and has so many iconic rivalries like Banana's versus Jordan, Laura versus Cara. Oh, and also you and I were both on it. Don't forget to mayor the wig. Oh, all right, Pete, girl. I know. You'll be joined by legendary cast members from the season, and we'll go behind the scenes with them for the first time ever. Plus, here what they've been doing since the show ended, because you know Yala knows anyone to know. Yeah, just because there's no challenge on TV right now, doesn't mean we're going to leave our podcast listeners hanging. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of On Purpose. Here on this show, I sit down with inspiring insightful individuals to learn about their experiences, habits, and mindset that allows them to live their best life. I had the opportunity to speak with iconic NBA player for the Phoenix Sun's Chris Paul. You know, nobody going to feel sorry for you. There's two different type of people. People who are going to feel bad, put themselves in just salt, and then there's other people who are going to get to work. Chris opened up about his inspiring journey, both on and off the court. He shared the highs and lows, the victories and struggles that shaped him into the basketball icon he is today. His story is a testament to resilience, dedication, and unwavering belief in oneself. His journey will leave you inspired to tackle your own challenges head on, to never give up on your dreams, and to always strive for greatness. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. No matter which team you root for, the Unleashed Podcast is here to help you pick winners and losers. So join me, Olivia Harlandecker, and my co-host, Jerry Ferrara, each week as we take a look at the latest lines and break down all the biggest stories and games in sports. That's right, from props to parlays, totals to teasers, we've got you covered. And you'll get to hear us celebrate our winners, or Bermone, our bad beats, but hopefully mostly celebrate winners. Plus we'll talk with some great guests from the world of sports and entertainment, which reminds me I got some calls to make, and IO used to cash in. Okay, Jerry. Yeah, you get on that. Now, a lot of shows break down games, but the Unleashed Podcast is the only one that also breaks down each season of entourage, as I've been to watch every episode, and make Jerry relive it in the process and take us behind the scenes. Oh, I got stories you could count on that. So listen to the Unleashed Podcast, presented by VenomGM on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I want to talk about Washington and what they got out of this, which quite frankly is nothing. Like what Washington gets out of this is they get off the final four years and $200 million of Bradley Beale's contract. Landrashamad is fine. Maybe he gets more minutes in a depleted wizard's rotation, second round picks are fine. Maybe you can package them to get somebody else down the line. But the prize in this was getting off the contract. I had been hearing for weeks now that the offers for Bradley Beale, they just weren't there. Like, even if Washington had been able to open things up because, you know, without a no trade clause, I don't think there would have been overwhelming offers like we saw last year when Donovan Mitchell hit the free agent or hit the trade market when Rudy Gobert hit the trade market. In those circumstances, you had two teams desperate to acquire those players. You had Cleveland that viewed Donovan Mitchell as the missing piece. You had Minnesota that for whatever reason at that time, thought Rudy Gobert could push them into the top four in the Western conference. For multiple reasons, those teams didn't exist during these last couple of weeks as Bradley Beale's availability became more known. That being said, like, what do we think of the return that Washington got? You know, is it worth it or was it worth it for them to do this deal now just to get off of the final four years of Beale's contract? Listen, I want to preface this, I'm saying I don't think it's Michael Winger's fault. He just got here. He had to clean up this mess. It's a disaster for Washington and the way they mismanaged this Beale situation, just a reflection on the entire franchise. The last five years, they have won playoff appearance. They lost in the first round. For them to see that and still give Beale the full Supermax, again, they're not bidding against anyone on the off-fair guy Supermax. You can just offer him a max. You can trade him. Not only did they sign him to the Supermax, they gave him the no trade clause. It's one of those just, you know, they should be thanking the Russell Westbrook trade every day for this not getting more attention as one of the worst decisions by front office in the last few years because they have just nothing to show for Bradley Beale's prime, nothing. They have won first round playoff loss and that's it. And listen, could they have gotten something better if they waited? I think it's easy to say that now, but wait till a team gets desperate, wait till the regular season starts and some teams feel, some team feels like they're a piece away. Like the suns did with the rant at the trade deadline this year. Worst case, you're paying Bradley Beale to sit at home and you go into the tank anyway. I don't know. I can't sit here and say they would have done better, but to me, this is just a culmination of a disastrous process. Just a huge black eye. I mean, they're going to be going into the tank for a few years here. I mean, they're going to be bad. It's going to be bleak. I grew through that holding on to Bradley Beale, deeper into the summer and even into the season would have been my move. Michael Winger was dealt a tough hand to be in it just, you know, oftentimes we sit here on podcasts or writing, whatever we're doing and we don't really see the whole board and, you know, teams, general managers as they should be are often smarter than the media. But how the Wizards handle Bradley Beale the last couple of years, it's crazy. Like, none of it made any sense. The, you know, not trading Beale in 2022 before he got this contract extension was a mistake. His maximum value, you know, probably came at the end, certainly at the end of 21 when he was electric in that season. And it certainly was, there was value in the middle of 2022 when, you know, he was still a guy that didn't have this albatross of a contract hanging around the Wizards heads, hanging over the Wizards heads. So, but, and then you, then you give him the no trade, I don't even want to get to the no trade clause. The no trade clause. Insane. Insane. Like, you know, it's blame Tommy Shepherd, blame Ted, but Ted Lee also signs off on that too. Like, that's got to be on him. That's what he's on ownership for sure. Like, at some point, it's something that there's, like, where is Brad, where's Beale going to go? Like, that he's going to get a deal better than the five years, 251. Like, that is the carrot, not the no trade clause. You don't give a guy like that. I wrote this, like, Bradley Beale got what Nicole Yokech, Yannis Tentekumpo and Joelle and Bied do not have. Like, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy, but I just, I don't, I don't like the speed with which this deal could have been. I understand that in the new, under the new CBA rules, it gets even more complicated to come to life first to do big deals because the money teams are allowed to take back shrinks a little bit and it just becomes overall more complicated. So maybe there was that in the mind of the wizards that if we don't do this deal now, we may have to take back more bad contracts just to get off this Bradley Beale deal. So I can understand it from that perspective, but there's just nothing here that there's, there's no meat on this bone. It's just a deal that removes a bad contract off their books for the long term. On the Chris Paul side of it. So as we said, this deal is not official because, you know, the wizards are going to try to find a third team to facilitate that'll give them something back in exchange for Chris Paul. If they don't, there will be pressure from Paul's representatives to wave him and cut him loose so he can go off and hand pick the team that he wants to sign with. I understand that Chris Paul's perspective. If the wizards do that though, they're nuts. They're absolutely nuts because what does Washington have to gain by just waving Chris Paul? Like goodwill towards Paul and the people that represent him, like can't deposit that in the bank. I don't, you know, and if history has shown us that if you have a player like Chris Paul who's going to be on what a 30 million ish expiring contract, it's going to be a market for him somewhere. Like somebody over the course of the next few months and into next season is going to look at Paul who, you know, he spends the off season working, you know, all of a sudden you can kind of forget some of the things we saw last year, maybe it makes a few more three pointers. He's going to be somebody out there. It's going to say here's an asset or a future draft pick for, for you to, to, to, to, for Chris Paul, for us to take Chris Paul off your hands. I just think the worst thing Washington can do is to just wave Chris Paul. I mean, there's going to be pressure and I understand, you know, you want, teams want to do right by players. I don't know if I, I agree with that perspective, but teams in these situations, they want to do right by players. I wouldn't do it. I would hold on to him and I'd wait to see how the season develops next year as far as a, a developing market for Chris Paul. I could not agree with you more for multiple reasons. First, I believe Bobby Marks pointed this out, but I think Chris Paul's guarantee increases by $10 million because he's been traded. So you don't even get the cap savings from waving him. If you, if you'd waved him at his $15.8 million guarantee, you can wave and stretch him. You pay only three to $5 million for the life of his deal towards the cap and you can cut him and it makes a lot of sense. Now it makes much less sense to cut him. I also think it would be beneficial for Chris Paul to not be in a rush. You look at what happened with Al Hoerford and Oklahoma City. I don't, I'm not suggesting Chris Paul should practically sit out an entire season, which is what Hoerford came close to doing, but he doesn't have to report to Washington. He can work out in L.A. and even if they trade him after two months, that's two months less of regular season games that he's putting on his body before the playoffs. There are a lot of teams that make sense for him. I would be surprised if he did not end up back out west somewhere. I think he's someone who genuinely, when he says I want to be close to my family, his family still lives in Los Angeles, that means a lot to him. I do think the Clippers make a lot of sense on a lot of levels. He's not going to have the same burden there as he would as he's had in Phoenix the last few years. He can play fewer minutes, you know, they can manage him along the regular season. They have a lot of tradable contracts. I believe if they traded Aaron Gordon before June 28th, the Wizards could just cut Aaron Gordon for no money. He's on an on-guaranteed salary. A lot going on there, but I'm with you. Chris Paul should look at it like, hey, I'm not in a rush. There are worse things for him than I think taking an extra two months to get his body right to make sure he's really ready to go come playoff time. Yeah. Look, if you move off Chris Paul's contract, maybe you can get that protected first round pick you couldn't get in the Phoenix deal. That can happen over the next six months, and if I'm Washington, I'd want to hold on to him. Is it an insane that Chris Paul could have more trade value than Bradley Beale? I mean, it's all about circumstance, right? It's all about the market. I mean, as we said last summer, there was a robust market for Donovan Mitchell. You had the Knicks and Cavs competing to get him, so the offers just kept getting going up and up. Same thing, maybe not the same thing, but Minnesota was determined to get their hands up. Rudy Gobert and pair him next to Carl Anthony Towns. Because of the circumstance with Beale and the contract and the no trade clause, it wasn't that market like you, and again, I don't, I just don't believe that Miami was offering anything of substance. Right. I don't even know if there was a firm offer on the table for Beale because you would think like, I mean, they couldn't, they couldn't beat net easily if they wanted to. Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson or some combination of that plus a protected first. Right. It's a better deal. Right. If the heat offered any sort of first round pick, it's a better deal, which doesn't need to believe it. Okay. Speaking of the Gobert trade real quick, I just want to ask you, will Tim Connolly get a championship ring? Yeah. I don't really even want one. That is. Yeah. That's a tough one. Yeah. I mean, look, he built that team. Yeah. You know, not to say Calvin Booth didn't have a impact on the front office, but yeah, no, not even not just being in the front office, but it was Calvin Booth's maneuvering last offseason. Right. That brought in the defensive minded guys, Contavio, Contavio's called Wapop, Bruce Brown. And that was a conscious decision. Like they went after Gary Payton, the second, you know, I was told for a little bit. So you know, he definitely earned his money, earned his championship ring, Calvin Booth and that one. But Tim Connolly, see if you can do it in Minnesota, see if he can even bigger challenge and do it right now with the temperals. Hey, all it's Amisa and Devon here and we've got some news for you. Get ready because MTV's official challenge podcast is heading back in time for the first time ever. We're diving into an iconic season from the past. And what better place to start then? Say it with me. Free agents. It's a fan favorite and has so many iconic rivalries like bananas versus Jordan, floral versus Kara. Oh, and also you and I were both on it. Don't forget to mayor the wig. Oh, all right. Pete, girl. I know. We'll be joined by legendary cast members from the season and we'll go behind the scenes with them for the first time ever. Plus, here what they've been doing since the show ended because you know y'all are nosing. You want to know? Yeah, just because there's no challenge on TV right now, doesn't mean we're going to leave our podcast listeners hanging. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty and I'm the host of On Purpose. Here on this show, I sit down with inspiring insightful individuals to learn about their experiences, habits and mindset that allows them to live their best life. I had the opportunity to speak with iconic NBA player for the Phoenix Sun's Chris Paul. You know, nobody going to feel sorry for you. There's two different type of people. People who don't feel bad for themselves and just salt and then there's other people who won't get to work. Chris opened up about his inspiring journey, both on and off the court. He shared the highs and lows, the victories and struggles that shaped him into the basketball icon he is today. His story is a testament to resilience, dedication and unwavering belief in oneself. His journey will leave you inspired to tackle your own challenges head on to never give up on your dreams and to always strive for greatness. Coming to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. No matter which team you root for, the unleashed podcast is here to help you pick winners and losers. So join me, Olivia Harlan Decker and my co-host, Jerry Ferrara, each week as we take a look at the latest lines and break down all the biggest stories and games in sports. That's right. From props to parlays, totals to teasers, we've got you covered and you'll get to hear celebrate our winners or bimmon our bad beats, but hopefully mostly celebrate winners. Plus we'll talk with some great guests from the world of sports and entertainment, which reminds me, I got some calls to make and IO used to cash in. Okay, Jerry, yeah, you get on that. Now a lot of shows break down games, but the unleashed podcast is the only one that also breaks down each season of entourage as I binge watch every episode and make Jerry relive it in the process and take us behind the scenes. Oh, I got stories you could count on that. So listen to the unleashed podcast presented by VETMGM on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Last thing on this deal is kind of an ancillary part of it. As we said, Miami didn't really get all that aggressive for Beale. I think it will be different if Damie Lille becomes available. I think Miami would get ultra aggressive to try to extract Damian Lillard because I believe down in Miami, they are the idea of a Damian Lillard Jimmy Butler band at a bio core. That's pretty appealing. That is worth the same. That is worth going into the second apron. That's that is a nice mix right there, a really nice mix of talent that does a whole lot of different things for you. So with Lillard, as I reported this a little bit on Monday, like Portland, Portland is not looking to deal the number three pick right now, but they're also kind of trying to thread the needle. Like they're trying to use other draft capital and some of the young piece they have on the roster to get a win now type of player. Two guys they've been looking hard at and talking about are in Toronto, Pascal Siacum and Ojiyananobi are two guys they've discussed with the Raptors. But to this point, as far as I can tell, the Blazers are not looking to deal that number three pick. I think a reason for that Rohan is, look, there seems to be a debate about at least in Charlotte about who should go number two, whether it's Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson. I honestly believe like at least two thirds of the league, maybe more would take Scoot Henderson hands down with that number two pick. But maybe it gets a little bit complicated for Charlotte, which already has a point card in place. The Melliball is the franchise player down there. Now, there is a huge danger to drafting based on need and not the best player available. I think that's always a bad idea, but there does seem to be some debate in Charlotte over who to take with that number two pick. At least there has been over the last couple of weeks. If Charlotte winds up taking Brandon Miller, and if Scoot Henderson is on the board, Scoot has has transformational potential. He's not Victor Wimbanyama, but you know, you watch Scoot Henderson last year, almost a lot of times. Scoot's going number one. Yeah, he would be going number one in a lot of drafts. He is a big, strong athletic playmaking scoring whole package type of point guard. He looks like a prime Russell Westbrook, you know, at this point. And maybe with the potential to be even better. So I think the Blazers, I think they're kind of like if Scoot goes number two, would the Blazers be more motivated to deal number three? Maybe, maybe because I don't know, maybe they don't think Brandon Miller has the same upside as Scoot Henderson, but if Scoot Henderson is on the board, it's going to be really tough for the Blazers to pass that up. I mean, the Blazers, they're already kind of rebuilding anyway, right? Like they've got, I mean, you have Amphority Simons, a really young guy that drafted years ago, it's just starting to develop into a score. Shade and Sharp is a year or two away from being whatever they hope he's going to be. So they're trying to walk a fine line here in Portland where they're going to be, they're on the lookout and aggressively pursuing win-now type of guys that will make Liller believe that this team is going in the right direction. At the same time, teams are out there and Miami's at the forefront of it that are, you know, waiting to see if that pursuit comes up short. And if the Blazers come Friday morning are sitting there with Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson and no other player, that's going to make them better because if that's the case, there's going to be a discussion in that Portland front office with Damien Lillard. And look, this is not breaking news. I mean, Lillard told me this in March, he's told other outlets this in the past like, if they are not in a position where they can compete for championships or at least compete at a reasonably high level, he'll sit down with Joe Cronin, who he's got a great relationship with and discuss the best possible options. And that's why I think teams are like Miami are waiting for right now. I don't blame them for that. I mean, Bradley Biel would make Miami better, but Damien Lillard is such a better fit, like such a better fit with that Miami team. Yeah, it makes sense to wait, you know, we can talk about each team waiting specifically. To me, it's just, you know, we've done this for a couple years with Damien now and the risk you take with waiting is big, especially if you mentioned the scenario happens in which Scoot Henderson's taken number two. And I think, you know, if you follow the betting markets, that's looking more and more like a possibility to Charlotte to exclude Henderson. Second, in which case, then Portland becomes more amenable to trading the third pick. And whether or not Portland is making a smart decision by going out and getting a pass call, see Alcomer, whoever the case may be, someone that makes the team better, but not necessarily championship contender, now all the teams putting their eggs in the damn basket are left with him staying in Portland where he has needed like, he's needed like every single last thing to go wrong before he's willing to say, I want out. And now you're going to roll that dice again. It's not a good free agent market. So I understand why teams will wait for Damien. Like if you're the heat, for example, I don't know, we keep using the heat. Like if you're Brooklyn, if you're going to go down that route, Brooklyn can afford to wait a little bit more, you know, they have all these draft picks are not as worried about the cap. If you're like, Oh, Brooklyn is the biggest threat to Miami, at least right now, because they do have 11 tradable first round picks. Yeah, they've got a lot of the suns ones. And we very interesting. I don't know. By the way, I don't know that that Miami would obviously make Tallah hero the centerpiece. But Miami would throw everything at Portland outside of Bam and Jimmy, like, but is that enough to get a deal done with the blazes when you consider the competition? Because, you know, we talked about circumstance, there will be a big market for Damien, Lillard, a big market. I mean, it's going to be New York will be in it, like, there'll be a lot of teams out there that at least on the surface seem to have more assets available than Miami would. For sure. It's going to take, if the heat get Damien, it's going to take Damien pushing for him to go to Miami, because, you know, the heat could put in this year's pick, I think, two or three down the line swaps. Last year's first on pick, Nikolay Ović, hero, like, they'll have enough to get something passable done, but it would take Damien saying, I want to play there. I just think all these teams waiting for Damien, teams have been waiting for him for years. And I think the closer we get to the draft without them making a move, the more I'd be nervous if I'm one of these teams hoping that Damien's my next guy, because I think it's going to take Portland to really kind of, they'd have to go, I think, in a really negative direction quickly for Damien to finally want out. Yeah. It's not even a negative direction. Right. A real big direction. Look, Damien Lillard looks at this team and no, it's not a contender. It's not. With everybody back. They were relatively healthy last year, I mean, it wasn't like, they got off to a good start, but then it was just kind of whatever, yeah, and they were, they were in that play and mix for a while, like, you're just, he's, if this is the team plus a teenager, whether it's Scoot or Brandon Miller, Damien's not going to want to be a part of that. He's not going to demand a trade because it's not his style. But as he said publicly, like, there will be conversations had with Portland about what to do going forward. And I think that that's what teams are waiting to see. He does Friday morning and what happens with that team does a Lillard, Siacum, Jeremy Grant, Trio, do anything for you? I don't think that moves the knee. And like, you're going to have to probably give up Simons and the 23rd pick for that. I don't, I like Simons as a player. To me, I don't understand him and Damien together. I don't know how that's a better version of Damien McCollum, honestly, like, nah, it's kind of a new version of that. That damn sharp Grant Siacum, I think at some point they have to get a new center for many reasons. A good luck getting off that contract. Yeah. I think he's got like three years left. That's a tough one. No, it's not a great deal. Yeah. I don't know. I don't, I don't even know like just, you know, getting Siacum and swapping Siacum out for, for Simons, I don't know how much that improves you. Siacum's a good player. But does that put you in that Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, Lakers, Clipper, I don't know. It feels like that's still, that's still a team that is in the bottom half of the playoff bracket at best. And it's, that's not where Damien is looking to be. You know, look, this, we're, we're having this conversation now and it just, it just feels obvious to me that, that now is the time to deal with it. It feels, it felt obvious last year that it was time to trade Bradley Beale. And you know, Lillard's contract is, it's, it's kind of around the same as Beale. It's got three guaranteed years left. I think a player option is 63 million, which is huge on the back end of that deal. But like he said, some injury issues last couple of years. Yeah. Like he's one bad abdominal strain, you know, from, you know, being incredibly difficult to deal. It's really getting less than the kind of value you can get right now. Right now, you got a chance to get real value with draft picks, young pieces, like we know that six months from now, maybe, maybe you still can, but you don't know. It just feels like a big risk to take to hold on to him. It just does, and I understand he sells tickets and he's an icon out there. He doesn't want to leave. Let's make that clear. He does not want to leave. He wants, like nobody in the NBA wants to win a championship in their home market more than Damien Little that doesn't Portland. That's unequivocally true. But I don't know how they get there. And I don't think there's a deal out there. Even like the third, like, you all had Zion talk that's out there. I mean, I don't know. I don't know how available Zion Williamson is. Right. There's a weird dynamic right now with Zion and New Orleans and I can promise you, like, Zion hearing his name and all these trade talks, that can't be good for that relationship. I can't be good for that dynamic down there. Is there a world in which they could somehow do Zion and see all come in the same summer? I don't know if they have the contracts to do it. That would made me get perk my ears up a little bit. I don't know. Would I acquire, if I had, if I was Charlotte, would I trade the number two pick for Zion? I understand contracts. You have to figure it out. That's not just that simple. Maybe? I think Zion is being undervalued right now. I would, listen, if I could pair Lamello and Zion together, I mean, come on. I would do it. I would do it. He's 23. He's 23 with five years left on his deal. Five years. And Charlotte would be, they would sell a lot of tickets for people wanting to see Lamello and Zion play together. It would be electric. And look, that's part of the reason you don't deal Zion if you're New Orleans, too, because Zion is the draw down there. If I was Portland and the third pick was on the table for Zion, I'd do that in a heartbeat, too. I would. Because that kind of solves both your problems. Because Zion is still just 23, but he's an established 23-year-old. When healthy, as he was two seasons ago, average is 27 points a game on 65% true shooting. So he's, you know, I mean, that's big. The other one, and I'm not taking a position on this because I kind of took a vow not to do fake Jalen Brown trades this off-season, but like a Zion for Jalen Brown deal straight up with filler kind of around it. I'm wondering who says no to that. That's an interesting one that I haven't really heard anyone float out. I just, I wonder who says no in that situation. Well again, I, I think Jalen Brown is tremendous and I want to break him up as I'm on the record is. I'm on the record is don't break him up. Yeah. Look, I think what Denver has shown is the value of patience, right? Yes. It's been a lot of seasons now for Boston being the bridesmaid and coming up short whether it's conference finals or the NBA finals a year ago. But you know, Zion may not be on the table a year from now and he may not be as valuable a year from now. I mean, you look, you, you get worse like on paper right away, you get worse because Jalen Brown is coming off his best season and Zion is damaged goods, right? But the ceiling for Zion, yeah, I mean you in a year, you could be, yeah, that would be. You're talking about Zion and Tatum, like you'd have to change your identity because Boston was has been this kind of switch happy, great defensive team and that's a lot to do with Jalen Brown, but that, that, I don't think that's going to be discussed, at least I haven't heard it discussed, but that's the most interesting fake Zion trade. What do you, what do you make of the Celtics position in general? We're hearing Malcolm Brownkin chatter. I think Grant Williams, I'd be surprised if there's, it's just the money. I think it's going to be tricky to retain him. They're right there. They're right there in the east. How do they, what is your kind of outlook? How do they get over the top? Well, I don't know how they get over the top per se. I do think there's, there's, there's something to the, the Brockden back court, break up the back court kind of stuff because there is a log jam there and, you know, Peyton Pritchard didn't play much last year, but he's cheaper than, you know, the other guys. And he's a rotation guy on most teams in the league and look at him and it's, it's like with the new CBA, this is what you need cheap talent and you're cheap guys that can play. Because you start spending more money going into that first or second apron and it creates a whole host of new problems because of the way this has been collectively bargained. I do think there'll be conversations about Brockden being traded, Marcus Smart. He would probably be the next, I don't think he's, he'd be the guy, but he'd be the next guy in the list. Like, as really established himself as kind of this invaluable piece of, of that rotation. Um, I don't know about Grant Williams. They obviously couldn't agree to a deal last year. I don't know what the market is going to look like. I mean, it fits, he would fit in a lot of places because the tricky thing is, he could shoot the three. There's not a ton of teams with cap space and the ones that do have space, like, but he's young enough that, like, if that makes sense, yeah, if you want to give Grant Williams four years at anywhere between 15 and 20, I'm kind of making that up, um, that number. Like you can justify that. Or if you're, if I'm San Antonio Houston and I have a ton of space, I would try to do some kind of either a one year balloon deal with Grant Williams or some kind of deal where it starts big the first year and it decreases, make it tricky for Boston to match. But Boston's cap is actually in decent space, decent shape, I should say, because wharf or it's taking a huge pay cut on his extension, I haven't pulled up right here. They actually have less committed salary next year, grants the only guy they don't have signed. So it'll be interesting. I mean, if they can find a taker for Galenari, maybe you package him with someone. I think there's an avenue for them to bring Grant back because I like him as a player and they need front court depth. I think wharf or you saw it. They badly, yeah. Front court depth. Yeah. They, you know, this goes back and we've discussed this on the show before, but like, the Celtics, if they could do it all over again, would they include a second first round picked to get Yacca Pertle out of Toronto? I mean, they really missed some front court. They really missed a player like that as part of front court rotation because, you know, Luke Cornett was unplayable. Mike McCollough was unplayable. Right. They had to rely heavily on Al Hoerford, Rob Williams, you know, Grant, you know, when he was in, he played a lot when he was out, he didn't play at all. Yeah, I think he's not a, I mean, they need to either get him back or get somebody equally as good to replace him because he's a young guy that, when he's on his game, is a really good three-point shooter and he's a really good versatile defender, like those are the kind of guys you need in that Boston system. So, yeah, he's, that's going to be interesting to watch see if there's a team out there that looks at Grant Williams who's like, what, 25 or something like that and says, you know, we'll give him four years at a number of Boston, you know, doesn't want to pay. That's when he was, Grant was banking on last year, you know, when he, you know, he, I thought they would come to an agreement last summer, but they didn't and now he enters for agency with a chance to, to prove that he was right on a deal like that. All right. That's enough for today. I think we've covered all the base there. We will be back though on Friday, I'm going to say, after the NBA draft to see, I'm excited Chris. I'm hoping we get a lot of movement. I'm, I'm ready. I feel like every year we think it's going to be it, but there's definitely going to be a lot of chatter. It's going to start right at the top, you know, second and third picks. If I had to guess, I'm going to say both teams use their picks, you know, and I'm just going to guess that Charlotte's going to take Scoot, like I'm, I'm just, I just don't, again, you know, when I talk to people around the league about who they would take with the second pick, it's overwhelmingly in favor of Scoot Harris. It's not a knock on Brandon Miller who could be a very good player. Right. It's, it's Scoot looks like a transformational talent. So, and, and I'm a Lamello fan. I don't think that he's, I don't think it's like, we can never draft another guard talent. I mean, you just draft talent now to take the best guy out, you know, it never, it, it almost never works when you draft positional lead. It never works. Take the best guy and then deal with the fallout afterwards. So we will back on Friday to discuss everything that happened on what could be a pretty exciting NBA draft night. Hey y'all, it's Emisa and Devon here and we've got some news for you. Get ready because MTV's official challenge podcast is heading back in time. For the first time ever, we're diving into an iconic season from the past. Free agents. We'll go behind the scenes with legendary cast members from the season, plus here what they've been up to since it ended. Just because there's no challenge on TV right now, doesn't mean we're going to leave our podcast listeners hanging. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty and I'm the host of On Purpose. Here on this show, I sit down with inspiring insightful individuals to learn about their experiences, habits, and mindset that allows them to live their best life. I had the opportunity to speak with iconic NBA player for the Phoenix Suns, Chris Paul. There's two different type of people, people who are going to feel bad for themselves and just salt, and then there's other people who are going to get to work. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Looking for advice on your sports bets this season? Well, from total to teasers, the unleashed podcast has you covered. Between me, actor, producer, and sports fan, Jerry Ferrara, and my co-hosts, sports journalist and sideline reporter Olivia Harlan Decker, as we look at the lines and break down all the big games. Plus, each week we'll be joined by a great guest from the world of sports and entertainment, and I'll get Jerry to tell some entourage stories. The Listen to Unleashed, presented by BedMGM on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.