EXPLAINING the NBA waiver process + the Phoenix Suns’ future 👀 | The Hoop Collective

EXPLAINING the NBA waiver process + the Phoenix Suns’ future 👀 | The Hoop Collective

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we’re doing on Thursday afternoon in Portugal and early morning in LA and midday here in Nebraska. We got the times right. Big win. And by the way, this is our first take. Usually there’s like two or three takes. All right. Joining us from Portugal, still there, Tim Bontos. Hello everybody. joining us from Los Angeles where he’s doing NBA today this week and um I watched the some of the red carpet at the ESPs McMahon were you banned from there as well? Howdy partners. I invitation got lost in the mail. Must have gotten sent out maybe when I was covering the finals or something and I just didn’t see it. Um I did uh I didn’t hang out with Dave McMinnon but uh another Dave a listener slid in my DMs invited me to go play pickup basketball. It was a mediocre performance by me. I was the oldest guy by at least a decade or so. He told me there’d be middleage and then it was all dudes in the 30s and I was thinking what happened here. So that’s my SPE. Here’s the question that Dave McMinnon cannot answer on the record. Do you think he would have preferred being on the SP’s red carpet or at a pickup game last night? I don’t think there’s any question. The answer is playing pickup. He he would answer that on the record, too. No. No. Dave was in heaven. He was red carpeting the his little Eagles got the team of the year. He had front row Joe seats. No, that Hey, Dave McMinnon loves hooping, but he loves being celebrity Dave. All right. Well, we did have another significant transaction, one we’ve been waiting for for a while. Um, this week, uh, the Phoenix Suns and Bradley Beal came to a buyout agreement. The final number was $99 million and the Suns will wave and stretch that over the next five years. That’s uh just a hair under $20 million a year on their books. And be uh you know, he had permission to discuss uh contract terms with other teams. It was wide open. That was allowed. Um his agent, Mark Bartlestein, told me he met with five or six teams over Zoom. um met with Steve Balmer, met with Tailoo, most importantly, I think, which we’ll talk about in a few minutes, met with James Harden. Harden played a key role here, and he signs a uh a two-year 11 million or in he hasn’t signed yet because he hasn’t cleared waiverss yet, but you know how this goes. The I got a feeling he will. Yeah. And by the way, literally he there’s no team that can play right now. So, he he will be clearing waiverss. I did have somebody ask me about that. So, let me just let me just uh clarify that for a second before I toss it to you, Bon Temps. The waiver process goes like this just we’re in mid July and we’ve got some time to uh Sure. We got time to Okay, player gets put on waiverss. The way that you get that player is there’s a reverse order. The team with the worst record gets to gets to go first and the team with the best record gets to go last. So, um, what it works is the player goes on waiverss and if you want to put a claim in, you tell the league office, I put a claim in and the team with the worst record gets them. Um, but to fantasy draft or fantasy league for people who play. Don’t start fantasy drafts with me, buddy. I was You’re going to only confuse me. Pick up a snake draft. Oh my god. So anyway, to claim the player though, you’ve you’ve either got to have enough cap space to to take him or you’ve got to have an exception to take him in, which because Beal makes 52 million or something. Even with the even with the buyout, it’s 30. It’s 39 or I guess it’s what 46 million because it’s 7 million each year. Nobody’s got 46 million in space. No team has 46 million in space. So Bill will pass through waiverss and become a free agent. This is understood. So he, you know, Priority Sports, who Mark Bartlestein is the CEO of, he can um he can say, “We’re going to go to the Clippers for two years and 1 million. It’s about 5.4 in the first year, which is everything the Clippers had left on their mid-level exception.” So, Bontemps, here’s what I was going to say to you before we talk about the Actually, let’s talk about the Suns of this first because Damen Lillard got released a few weeks ago and we already have seen a $113 million wave and stretch buyout and because we knew that Bradley Beal was going to be bought out for some period of time here, I think it dulls the reaction that we have a hundred million dollars going onto a team’s books for the next five years. Yeah, Brian, look, the Suns have been an abject disaster for a couple of years now from a roster building perspective, and this Bradley Beal wave and stretch is the culmination to that. You wrote a really good story, I I recommend everybody go read it, that lays out why and how the Suns chose to do this and why the Clippers got them, all all the various permutations of it. A lot of them we’ll get through, but the first thing you say in there is that this is about money. And then you go into other reasons. No offense to the reasons you put in there. This isn’t about the other reasons. This is about saving Matt Isvia over $160 million this year alone because the Suns go from being in the second apron to being out of the luxury tax in Cleveland. And this entire Sun situation is exactly what I covered 10 years ago with Muel Proker off and the Brooklyn Nets. It’s literally the same thing. Brash owner comes in says, “Damn the torpedoes. I’m gonna spend infinite money. Nobody can stop me. I know I know better than everybody. It’s gonna be fine. Makes a crazy trade with all the draft picks to get an older veteran player to try to immediately win a title. Wins I think they won one playoff series with Kevin Durant. Pretty sure just like the Kevin Garnett Paul Pierce team. Then they the team starts to struggle. The owner goes, “You know what? If we’re not very good, I don’t really want to spend $200 million on a team.” and then starts making rapid cost cutting moves to then hand really good draft picks to other other teams in the league. In this case, it’s got to be multiple teams. In that case, it was the Boston Celtics. And look, let’s also just be honest. If we go back a couple years now, the Suns have been going back and forth on all of these moves the whole time. They take on Bradley Beal. They say they’re going to spend money left and right. They give out all these second-year player options on deals to make them allegedly more tradable, which was not true, to cost them more money. Then they immediately start giving away picks and pick swaps to get rid of campaign, to get rid of Isaiah Todd back then. They then give Royce O’Neal and Grayson Allen big contracts in free agency to to keep the assets going forward. Now they can’t trade those guys. They’re stuck with all this money. So now they wave and stretch Bradley Beal for the rest of the decade and try to argue that it gives them more flexibility to build around Devin Booker, which it doesn’t. Like the idea that, oh, it’s no big deal for the Suns to have $22 million in Dead Space on their books for the rest of the decade is crazy. Like look, this isn’t Milwaukee. I can understand the Bucks doing that as much as I don’t think it’s going to work with Miles Turner. You’re trying to keep Yiannis Ted Koopo on the team and it’s Milwaukee. It’s not a cap space destination. I understand at least the rationale behind that even if it’s still a crazy move. Phoenix is a free agent destination. They could get guys to go there. And now they’ve they’re giving up 10 to 15% of their cap to wave and stretch Brady Beal to save the owner money when we were always told the owner was going to be all in on winning and money was no object. Like all of this stuff has just not made any sense. It’s why I’ve kept saying it’s as bad a situation as you’ve ever seen in a history of the league from a roster standpoint and from a draft pick standpoint and an overall management standpoint. And you know, even in your story, they’re arguing that Jaylen Green and Devin Booker are going to fit well together. Like that that I do not see that. Like I just this situation is really rough and we’ll see what happens with these young guys they got this summer. We’ll see. Maybe Kyler Malawak is going to be a really good player getting him in the Kevin Durant trade. Maybe Jaylen Green blows up getting Phoenix maybe. But it’s hard to look at this be thing as anything else other than just a giant exclamation point on what’s been a disastrous two and a half years of Matt Ishb and the Suns. Yeah. More than anything, that’s exactly what this is and what the KD trade is. an admission that the Matt Ishbia air in Phoenix has been an absolute disaster. I like you your use of the word abject. That’s a great word. This thing had it has been an abject failure. And Matt Ishbia’s philosophy that he has repeated over and over again has always been money. I’m not worried about money. I’m going to spend as you know I’m going to outspend everybody. I’m going to, you know, go all in on winning a championship every single year. And then you look up and you’re like, dude, you didn’t crack the freaking play in last year and you’re, you know, historically expensive. Like, it just it reached a point where it’s like, okay, dude, we’re not anywhere even remotely close to contending. I mean, not remotely close. And this was an opportunity for him to save $175 million this year when you add up all the tax and all that. And really just they have a shovel they are trying to dig out of the huge hole that they uh that they’ve created in the last two and a half years. They got nickels on the dollar for Kevin Durant. I won’t say pennies, but definitely nickels on the dollar. I mean, they still owe more um in picks than they got for him on the way out. That’s a disaster. And then, you know, as you said, Beal, you don’t just get to, you know, wash your hands of him. He’s lingering on your cap. He’s going to count four times as much on the Sun’s cap for the next five years as he is on the on the uh Clippers cap this year. I mean, it’s it it really is with with the lack of picks. This creates a little bit of flexibility, but uh you know, to your point, any flexibility this creates is outweighed by the fact that he’s counting almost 20 million against their cap for the next 5 years. I just want to add one more quote because Bobby Marks had a great story in the second aprons that ran yesterday and he had an incredible quote from Matt Ishvia that he told Ramona after last season so a year ago right I just want to read this quote obviously remember the now infamous comments by Suns owner Matt Ishvia after the 2324 season here’s the quote quote I understand all the rules that come with the second apron I understand exactly what the CBA tried to do I read it I know it inside and out and we made a calculated decision that we think the team with the best players wins. Would I rather have Brad Beal, Kevin Durant, Deon Booker than just having two of those guys? I’d rather have all three a 100 times out of a hundred. And I don’t think there’s another GM or owner or CEO that wouldn’t say the exact same thing. Well, this is this is Ishb admitting that he was wrong and it was an expensive, right? So Bobby Marks gave me the numbers in this story which he believes that when you include everything, including the distribution that you get by being in the, you know, out of the tax, you get everybody else’s tax money. He thinks it’s a $175 million savings for the Suns this year. Now, at the end of the day, when you’re talking about billionaires money, I I get that some fans don’t care, and yeah, I don’t even I don’t that’s fine with that. I’m just going to say to you that from a straight spreadsheet standpoint, saving $175 million alone in one year is probably enough to talk you into making this a nobrainer from a money saving standpoint. The problem is trying to claim it’s something else. Okay. Yeah. The other thing is if you don’t if you include the money that you don’t pay bill this year, it’s like over 200 million. But obviously um uh obviously the um they’re gonna have to pay him the money eventually. He’s going to get the full 99 million. Having said that, um the you know, it doesn’t help you on the court. Now, the one thing that in talking to folks with the Suns that they say and they’re, by the way, to be clear, Bontams, they’re not arguing that this is the driving force. No one no one’s celebrating. But but when you are when you are in the second apron as they were last year and everywhere you turn you run into a wall and you have a bad team. Yeah. It’s tough to get through your your days and your weeks. Okay. And now at least they’re out of the second apron and yes they get their mid-level exception back which they’re not going to spend probably right now. Um but they get it back next year when they would have been in the second apron too. So you know is that gonna solve their problems? No. And by the way, getting out of the second apron so you can aggregate and stuff again matters less when you don’t control your draft pick for the next six years, which they don’t. And by and by the way, one other thing that is is very central to this whole discussion. When the Suns traded for Mattis or for Mattisfield, when the Suns traded for Bradley Beal and they they gave up the pick swaps and the second round picks, people were like, it sound like odd, you know, it’s not that much for Brady Beal. It’s a good good trade for the Suns. Yeah. The Suns not getting Bradley Beal to give up the no trade clause to do that deal was a catastrophic mistake. There’s a reason other teams were not trading for Bradley Beal. They didn’t want to deal with that no trade clause. There’s a reason why the the first thing Mike Winger and Will Dawkins when they got there, what did they do? They got Bradley Beal off their books. Why? Because they didn’t want to have that no trade clause because inherently what does a no trade clause mean? As we talked about with LeBron James, it means the player dictates how things go. And if the Suns could have traded Brad Mc Beal for other stuff, they probably could have done that. Wouldn’t have had to wave and stretch him and this whole thing might look a lot different. But instead, they had no choice but to do this and that’s why this is such a complete disaster. Now, you may say to yourself, well, why did the Suns let Bradley Beal go out and talk to all these teams? Because even though Bradley Beal wasn’t going to be traded and therefore his no trade clause really didn’t come into play here, this is an important factor. The And why did Bradley Beal give up 14 million? Why was it not 17 million? Why was it not 8 million? Mhm. The answer is because the Suns already had waved and stretched guys on their roster. Nier Little and who’s the other one, Bon Temps? EJ Lana. EJ former Ohio State star. Yeah. Yeah. um because they already had those guys, Beal had to wave that money to get under that. So Be still had leverage. You know, this was the bare minimum that the number he gave up was the bare minimum he had to give up in order to make it legal to wave and stretch it. Just so people are clear. So for the Suns to save the $175 million this year, they needed Bill to leave 14 million on the table. And so that meant Bill had leverage because that’s I think that’s the other thing like you know I I see Suns fans saying well why couldn’t they get him to leave more money on the table. You you imagine that they tried. I’m sure they tried. Also Brad Beal would just I think Brad and Mark Bartles would have very simply said we don’t have to leave any money on the table. You guys want to get rid of us you can get rid of us. The only reason they gave us this much is because they wanted to leave. So people people were saying well how come this is taking so long? Well, the answer is because Beal completely and fully vetted the market and talked to everybody. Even I said in this story because I talked to Mark Bartlestein on the record, he asked for permission from James Harden’s agents to talk to James Harden. Now when Mark Bartlestein Mark Bartlestein asked for permission Mark Bartlestein Bradley Beal’s representative asked and received permission to talk to James Harden. He didn’t want there to be any shenanigans. I mean by the way like players that talk to guys who are not their agents all the time but he wanted it all to be on the up and up. And so that was part of what was going on here with this whole process. But the reason all of that went on was because to for the for the Suns to have to get that savings, they had to play ball with Bradley Beal. Even when the no trade clause was out of the picture, they still had to play ball because he still had leverage because of the situation they left themselves in. That’s what we’re getting to. And quite frankly, Bradley Beal wasn’t in a mood to do the Suns any great favors either. Because let me just tell you that’s a guy who sat there last season and despite the fact that he had a no trade clause. His name was in trade rumors for months and you know he felt disrespect and I’m I’m not guessing he told me this stuff on the record. He felt disrespected by that. He felt disrespected by uh you know in his eyes being demoted for a little while to a six-man role. And this was last summer or I’m sorry, last season. I’m talking to him after the trade deadline. And basically he said, you know, hey, you know, like KD, I didn’t want to be traded in the middle of the season. You know, Beal’s got a wife, he’s got young kids. He didn’t want to uproot his family in the middle of the season, but he said in the summer there’s a lot more options. You know, there’s a lot more time to figure things out. And so, look, Beal wanted out, but he wasn’t going to do any charity work for Ishby on the way out. He was going to get as much money as he as he could get. One other thing about Bill last season, okay, he averaged 17 points, shot about 49%ish, shot about 39% on threes. Yeah, his numbers are very similar with the guy he’s replacing with the Clippers, Norm Powell. Okay, so let so let’s just pivot to that. So, he had the lowest usage rate of his career last year. Now whether or not you think he should have had the ball more, that’s another conversation. Whether or not you side with Mike Budenhoer, who wanted basically to have him more become a spot-up shooter and defender as opposed to a ball handler, however you want to say it. The point is Beiel got the ball the least amount of times in his career. His whole even when he was a rookie, he got the ball more than he did last year. When you’re making 53, actually this last year he made exactly 50. When you’re making $50 million and you average 17 points, people are not going to be thrilled. No. But now, oh, we’re going to pivot to the Clippers. So, why did he choose the Clippers? He obviously had a number of teams who were interested. The Clippers won out. Couple of reasons. One, Tyoo, who has a very good relationship with players across the league. Tyoo is from the St. Louis area. He was returned to the St. Louis area, Mexico. uh Missouri is where he’s from, but it’s on the it’s, you know, it’s it’s I wouldn’t say it’s a suburb of St. Louis, but it’s if you’re going to Mexico, you’re flying to St. Louis and then take a drive. So then take a little drive. So Tailoo um is from the same area Bradley Bill and therefore has known him for decades. Yeah. The second thing is Harden called him up. Harden called him up and made the pitch. And here’s the pitch that Harden made. He said, “All right, last year I played 79 games. because I played the fifth most minutes. I need to offload some stuff here and you are going to I need you to to help me. I want you to have a bigger role. Okay. I need to offload some two Norm Pal thrived in this system and I made sure Nor I took you know I think if you’re hard and you’re saying I took care of Norm Pal and I took care of the Zubots. They both had career years. Yeah. I’m going to take care of you. And the reason that this matters to Beal isn’t just for his ego. Beal is 32 years old and he got a one-year plus a player option. He can be a free agent in a year. Cash in a year if he has a great year. Exactly. He’s going to want to get the money back. In fact, he could end up in the black here depending on what happens very easily. So, um that was the other thing Harden said. He’s like, look, look at what happened with with Norm Pal. I loved Norm. We’re going to work together like um like Norm and I did. Three, when I came here to the Clippers, I was in a tough spot. I washed out of Philadelphia. I thought things were going to go well there. It didn’t work out. Yeah. I end up coming here. I got to rehab my situation. The Clippers promised me A, B, and C, and A, B, and C happened. He goes, “You can trust this organization.” So, he says those three things. I’m sure there are other players, by the way, on um on the Clippers who reached out, but Harden met with Beal. Harden met with the representative, sold them all. The Clippers had $5.4 million left of their of their mid-level and said, “This is what we’re going to offer you.” So, as Bonds pointed out, he gave up the absolute minimum that he could to get out of the deal with Phoenix and then he got the every penny that he could from the Clippers. So he maximized those two things and McMahon now be slides into a team that is too deep at every position. They are not the perfect team but they finished last season 18 and three. They go out in seven games in the series you covered in the first round Clippers. Did you cover that first round series? I didn’t cover that series in the first round. It was a series seven game one at that. It was the first round of the conference series. Yes. Anyway, McMahon Beal slides into that team and I I I assume the way I was told by I won’t I can’t The Clippers have hands off. They can’t talk to Bradley Beiel yet because uh you know and then they can but you know the Clippers can’t say anything because he’s not their player yet. But I think there’s a strong let’s just let’s just say he’s got to be Norm Pow on the Clippers. He’s going to be their starting team. This of course the the business of the Norm Pow trade is now done. The Clippers make that trade with the anticipation that they’re going to be able to slide Bradley Beal right into that starting shooting guard spot. And look, Bradley Beal for $50 million with a no trade clause is a terrible contract. Bradley Beal for 5 million and change for ninth man money. Are you kidding me? This is a tremendous value addition for the Clippers. And look, Beal was miscast. He was miscast in Phoenix. It was a bad fit. He’s not a bad player. He’s not a supermax player. He’s not a superstar. He’s not He’s a good player though. Even in Phoenix, the guy over two years averaged 184 and four on 5048 shooting. Um you know, but like last year there were times Beal was taking the toughest defensive assignment. Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous. That’s not what he does. And like this is a team you mentioned it. It’s too deep. Um, you know, I called it the best team in LA yesterday, and I don’t think that’s a controversial comment. Of course, I had Lakers fans all mad about it. Clippers have five. It’s unquestionable. Yeah, the Clippers have five guys that would be the Lakers best defensive player. I mean, five two bigs and three uh on ball guys. At least five guys. Like people think I think a lot of people still think of James Harden as Houston James Harden ball dominant James Harden. You know the guy who you know some people would say he was tough to play with because he dominated the ball so much. James Harden right now at this stage of his career is maybe the best table setter in the NBA. He’s not a guy who’s looking to get 35 a night. He’s a guy who’s looking to get everybody involved. He’s a basketball trying to get 22 and 12. Yeah, he’s a basketball genius who just helped Norm Pal have a career year, just helped Avita Zubots have a career year. He’s, you know, as as he’s saying, he’s trying to figure out how to win while not, you know, just wearing himself out from an energy perspective. And getting a guy like this who’s still a big- time efficient scorer who can operate off the dribble is huge for Harden. I don’t know where I don’t know if the Clippers are I you know I don’t know that they’re going to make a playoff run, but they’ve got that potential. I mean the West is so loaded. If the Clippers were in the East, they might be the best team in the East. They’d at least be top two or three. But they’re they’re a they’re a good team last year and they’ve gotten better this summer. Yeah. Yeah, I mean look, they turned they turned Norm Powell into Bradley Beal who’s at worst the same level player as Norm Powell and they got John Powell for free. John Powell is a really good player, especially if he’s your eighth or ninth guy. They signed Brook Lopez to a one plus one with a team option on the second year. A great contract to back up a Dubach. They got 48 minutes of really good center play. Lopez, you know, if Lopez is playing 38 minutes for you or 35 minutes for you and having to deal with all sorts of different lineups, there are times he could run into some trouble, but he’s still a good player. And as a guy who’s going to be coming off the bench for them who can space the court, bomb threes, and protect the rim. That’s a great signing for them. Yeah, you, as you mentioned, Zubach was tremendous last year. He’s only getting better. We’ll see if Kawhai can stay healthy. But even if Kawhai can’t stay healthy during the season with James Harden and now Bradley Beal and then all of these, like you said, all these solid role players who can guard Chris Dunn, Derek Jones, Nick Patun, like I think the Clippers have a really good chance to be top two in the West in a regular season. I don’t know what the ceiling will be in the playoffs because again, that comes down to Kawhai’s health and we’ve seen that come up time and time again even though he was healthy at least for the back half of the year and the playoff run this past season. But these guys won 50 games last year and I think they got marketkedly better. And yeah, the idea that they’re in the same conversation with the Lakers. The Lakers are not nearly as deep overall. No. As the Clippers are. I know the Lakers last year had the same record as the Clippers, but to me, if you’re going roster for roster with all the holes on the Laker roster, I don’t think it’s that controversial to say that this Clippers team, especially after these moves they made this summer, have gotten way better and I think are really primed. At minimum, to me, it’s a little bit of a funky comparison, but they kind of remind me of the George Carl Denver Nuggets team with AB on it and Danilo Gallinari and those guys that won 56 57 games. Obviously Kawawaii is a different level player than that team had, but that team was like 10 deep and they just ran out good players all the time and churned out regular season wins. I could see this Clipper team having a very similar season next year. You know, one thing I would say because you know that you look at the Clippers off seasonason, they took their mid-level which they signed hard, they gave Harden a $6 million raise. I’m sure he probably wanted a little bit more, but he’s 35. They gave him a $6 million raise. So he makes AllNBA, he makes the All-Star team. They bump him to $40 million a year. That’s, you know, it’s a representative. You know, they didn’t insult him. He agreed to it, but they gave him just enough money that they had the full mid-level. So, then they take the mid level and Norm Pal, and as you guys just described, they turn that into John Collins, uh, Bradley Beal, and Brook Lopez. That’s just good work. I I don’t know if they’re winning championship, but it’s great business. And I’ll say something else. You look at the Clippers, they add John Collins and they add Brook Lopez. You look at the the Rockets, they add they resigned Stephen Adams, they sign Capella. Dodge. Yeah. You look at the Nuggets, they trade for Jonas Valenunis. We assume he’s going to show up and play, right? Size across the board. These teams back. That’s right. Uh, you know, for for a decade plus, everybody leaned into small. Everyone’s leaning into size. And that’s why look what the Thunder did last year. They went out and got a Hartinstein, the biggest free agency edition in franchise history. Look what the Thunder prioritized this offseason. You know what the Thunder did this off season before they signed Shay Chad Homegrren or Jaylen Williams? They signed Jay Will. Jaylen Williams out of Arkansas. They resigned the big and draft drafted the center Thomas out of dress. And even look elsewhere. Look at look at Portland. Portland has drafted centers in back-to-back drafts. You know, like um that I mean people are re even look at the Cavs. The Cavs made one significant free agent addition this off season. that was signing friend of the that was signing friend of the pod Larry Nance to get a more playable extra big man. So look, you got to have size in the game and that’s one of the reasons why you’re a little worried about the Lakers. If you’re looking at the Lakers, okay, they got DeAndre Aiden that was a great job spending $8 million to get that player. They got Jackson Hayes as a backup. Is that good enough when you’re looking at all this size that you go in the Western Conference? I mean the answer the answer the answer and also you’re also looking at why the Warriors I mean we believe that they’re going to get Al Horford but you understand why the Warriors huge priority was to go out there and get Al Horford because the Warriors size is their challenge. So Al Horford was playing when they were the we believe Warriors. That actually is true. They um the other the other one other thing just to put a bow on the Suns part too is to give those guys some credit for all the issues they’ve had. I do think they have had a decent offseason at least getting some younger talent in there and making some moves that are starting to at least acknowledge that they’re recognizing the problems they’ve had. Now they have as McMahon correctly said they got a ton to dig out of but like Malak is a good swing at 10. Like that’s the kind of guy that could really pop for them. You know getting moving around in in the second round to get Rashir Fleming who’s a guy that you know was seen as a potential first round pick. Getting him at 31 was good. like they did, you know, Brian Dunn and also Gdoro at least are interesting young guys from last year. They are starting to add some depth to their roster and getting some young talent in there, but you know, obviously it’s a long way to go. To your point about you talk about the Nets, I think it’s a very fair compar comparison. How did the Nets get out of the hole that the the KG Paul Pierce trade put them in? They got out of the hole by stopping digging. Yeah. Now, the shovel now is putting the dirt back in that deep hole. That’s right. So, they had to pivot around and look, they ultimately did it through free agency when they got Kyrie and Durant, and that’s another story. But when they they built a respectable team to to put them in position and they started by getting some young players. So, as Bon just said, you know, last year’s picks look pretty good. Ryan Dunn had a good year. Yep. They’re very excited about they drafted Caris Lever. They drafted Jared Allen. They went and found Joe Harris on the scrap heap. Like that. That’s the Suns have to start doing that kind of stuff and it’s gonna take a while but well the Suns have a cleareyed view of where they are and it’s it had to smack them in the face by not even making the freaking plan with that historically expensive roster. But they’ve recognized they’ve said hey Booker’s a franchise guy we’ve got to surround him with defense youth and athleticism. that’s been their priority and there’s a long way to go, but they at least understand they’re not a a a little tweak away from being a title contender. The Nets ended up taking D’Angelo Russell, turning him into an all-star, and trading him for Kevin Durant. Now, they didn’t have to trade him for Kevin Durant. That’s another story. I mean, that that Yeah, that’s I mean, that’s a Okay, sure. They would you say they maximized D’Angelo Russell? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I would. I I would see a little bit of a charitable rewriting of history of that. But all right, let’s see. The look, the Nets did a lot of bright a lot of good things building out that roster to set it up to get those guys. The only thing I’ll say is the Nets were able to do that because they could have they could generate max cap space and these guys have Deon Booker on the roster and they have $22 million in dead money on the roster. By the way, slightly different. Before we move on, can I just say something about Deon Booker’s contract? It’s your podcast. You got a player. I shouldn’t say that like Devin Booker is a bad way a bad thing. By the way, having Deon Booker is good to be clear. He got a player option in that deal. Why wouldn’t he get a player option? Why wouldn’t he? I I get I just figured if you’re giving him a two-year extension that you wouldn’t just No, the owner came out and said we have to give Devin Booker all the money. It’s a pretty easy negotiation if you’re Deon Booker and his representatives. Well, just give us all the stuff and we’ll say Devin Booker’s blind loyalty to the Suns organization is of immense value. Can you imagine if Booker forces a trade trying to put butts in those seats? I want you to think what Devin Booker got here. He essentially agreed to a one-year extension. He agreed to giving the Suns one more year because he got a player option in the deal, which I wouldn’t have have thought was a guarantee. And he he got he got a he he promised the Suns one additional season and guaranted himself 140 something million. My god. It’s pretty good. It’s pretty It’s pretty good business. By the way, if Adam Booker just says, as we’ve talked about before, if he just wants to be with the Suns for his career, like that’s cool. Like, I I don’t think there’s any issue with that either. Like, I’ll be curious to see where his mindset is on this in a year or two if this team turns into what the Nets were uh post moves. And in the Western Conference, it’s going to be tough for these guys to be, I think, a playin team with the team they have. But if he wants to stay there, by no mean I I, you know, I by no means do I think that’s some sort of uh blight on Deon Booker. [Music]

On The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon talk through:
0:00 Bradley Beal buyout is officially done
4:00 Explaining the NBA waiver process
9:00 What this means for the Phoenix Suns
19:30 How does Bradley Beal fit with the Clippers?
31:00 Future of the Suns

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