NETS REPORTER TALKS GIANNIS TRADE RUMORS & NBA DRAFT! | Nets Fans You Know #102 w/ Collin Helwig

NETS REPORTER TALKS GIANNIS TRADE RUMORS & NBA DRAFT! | Nets Fans You Know #102 w/ Collin Helwig

The rumors of Shawn Marks loving Giannis has been out for years. How real is this? Tell me the truth. What is the percent chance Giannis is on the Brooklyn Nets roster come opening day. Gets it off and he’s got big Nets win. The only Net fans, you know, the only what? The only Nets fans you know. I mean, come on, man. Or are these guys? Welcome back to the only net fans you know podcast. I’m Peter. Welcome to episode number 102. I have a very special returning guest. You know him from Nets Daily from his podcast with Pooch the Brooklyn Pod. Welcome back to the show. Colin Hellwe. What’s going on, bro? How we doing, Pete? Happy to be back. We’re uh we finally made it. We made it through the year one of the rebuild. Jordy is calling this summer the the biggest summer of our lives. So, it’s got the making of a coming of age film, it sounds like. Let’s Let’s do it. All right. This is off season preview number one pre-lder state of the Nets. They went 26 and 56. They finished towards the bottom three in points per game field goal percentage, rebounding, and opponents field goal percentage. The Nets will hold the most cap space this off season with 12 players becoming free agents. The Nets might have up to 91 million in cap space according to Sport Track. But most importantly, the draft picks. They have four firstrounders and a high second. The Nets will have the sixth best odds in getting first overall. They have a 9% chance to win the lottery and a 37.2% chance to make it into the top four. Historically, teams that had the sixth slot have landed either seventh or eighth. So, where do we go from here? And how much will the NBA lottery determine what happens next with the Nets? Yeah, you know, it’s difficult to say. I think, you know, if you jump up and you get Cooper flag, I could see the Nets doing a and this would have to be the season after, but like, you know, they got WebMyama, the San Antonio Spurs, and then all of a sudden Chris Paul was on that team. I bet you any Spurs fans never would have thought that, you know, they’d be signing like win now players. So, I think if they really get lucky and they get jumped up and they get someone where it’s like, “All right, we can build now.” And, you know, everyone talks about the new CBA, how it’s like tough to pay these guys and build out full teams. We’ve been seeing in the NFL for years with like young quarterback QB contracts. If you really want to win a championship, a way you can kind of do it, no one’s really done it yet, is where your best player is still in a rookie scale contract and you can spread that money around to beef up the team and, you know, kind of dodge some of the handcuffs that the new CBA puts on you. So, you know, if they find a way to get Cooper flag, I could definitely see them, you know, speeding up this rebuild. However, we all know the odds are something like that isn’t going to happen. So, at least in my opinion, you know, the Shawn Mark special is taking in bad contracts and getting picks. You know, they’re gonna have to spend that cap or use up that cap space somewhere. I could see them kicking the can down another year, another two years, taking some bad contracts, getting even more picks. you know, still drafting hopefully a stud this year, but you know, making sure that, you know, two years from now, cuz not ready to contend yet, but maybe two years from now, maybe one year from now, you got some young talent and that cap space comes back because you ate up some contracts that are now expiring and you got a couple more picks from those trades. Position doesn’t matter, right? This is going to be all about talent. Like you just uh talked about the center position. If the best player available is a center, we’re going to take a center. Yes. Yeah. I think center center is maybe the only one because they have two relatively Claxton’s still relatively young but you have a decent center rotation right now. Everything else anything could happen. You know Cam Johnson could be traded. You know Keon Johnson, Tyrese Martin, all these guys, Jaylen Wilson, they had played very hard this year and I was impressed with their effort but it’s a coin flip if they’re back or not next year and you really shouldn’t let you know those guys deter who you’re going to pick or where. So yeah. Depending where they draft, will that change how they feel about and this is obviously in your opinion how they feel about the other draft picks. If I draft second overall compared to seventh overall, will that change maybe moving up from 19 to uh to get another player or can I just chill and I could just see what comes to me? It’s a really good question. I don’t know that I have an answer. I think that there will definitely be the Nets are an active trade team. They’ve made trades at or around the draft almost every every other year, you know, the last 10 years or certainly in the Morris era. So, I I I think they’ll look to move. You know, it’s I feel like when those trades come, it’s not so much about the guy you pick, but it’s the guy you see that you like that is like falling or is just kind of like close close enough and it’s like, “All right, let’s pick up the phone.” And you do that. So, it’ll be very much where they’re they’re kind of freestyling. Would you be shocked if they wound up taking something like two point guards with their first lottery pick and then at 19 or is it just we’re going for all talent. If the same uh position winds up being available, we’re just going to take that. Yeah, I I think they go all talent. I really do. And I think part of the thing about, you know, no front office is perfect. Sometimes you make a pick and it doesn’t pan out the way you do. One of the things about the Nets having so this bounty of picks is that they’re throwing four darts at a target and the Nets have shown to be a good late round uh or later first round like drafting team. So that’s that works to their advantage. But, you know, maybe there’s certainly a world where this is not ideal, but there’s certainly a world where, you know, you miss you you draft Jolly Locafhor and then, yo, but we got Yokic like in the that’s a really extreme example, but you know what I mean? Where it’s like these are opportunities to find a guy. And I think a lot of those backend first round guys are the kind of guys where it’s like you they have that high upside. Maybe they don’t have the highest floor, but you know, a high upside we there’s countless NBA stars who have been drafted in that area and end up being stars. So, I think they they’re going to use the fact that they have all these opportunities to keep looking and, you know, if one doesn’t pan out, maybe another will. Does the draft affect the free agency or restricted free agency of one Cam Thomas? I don’t think so. Like I said, I think uh the Nets are going to try to draft the best player with every pick. And the Nets have so much cap space. I I think they’re one they’re going to be able to get Cam as long as they want him back and I think they do. And then it’s it’s not going to be something where but he’s he’s also not established himself enough where it’s like we we still don’t really know if Cam Thomas is this guy who’s going to entertain us for the next couple years or if he’s going to be the building block that, you know, they build the the new Nets around. So, it’s it’s it is a real bummer. Not just the fact that, you know, any injury is a bummer, but it’s a bummer in the fact that we kind of thought we were going to get that answer this year and then we didn’t. So, I I I don’t think the two things are that related. No. Uh Kevin Smith, the sport track is expecting CT to get around three years 45 million. Uh I think that’s a little bit low in my in my estimation. I can understand it because let’s face it, there’s not a lot of cap room in the NBA. Not a lot of money is going to be thrown around. What do you think? Is that a little low? I think that’s a little low. Yeah, I’ve kind of we had Mike Scott on the Brooklyn Pod and he said he he was kind of we were dancing around the 20 number for a little while and that that’s kind of what feels right to me. So I think that would but I do think it’ll be a short-term deal though for those reasons where you know he’s still kind of in that trial period unfortunately because of the injuries. we we want to see what else he can do and the Nets if if it ends up being where you know he’s not that guy that you know they want to build the franchise around and you know you paid him well for the time he was here but it’s time to move off and then you got that cap space so somewhere around like three years like 20 mil feels right to me not entirely sure like I I haven’t thrown that out with like other free agents who they might acquire you know they could really I think it’s what did you have in there like 90 something mil in cap space that’s these guys are loaded So, you know, with uh so much room to move around, uh there’s there’s obviously a lot of different ways you could go, but yeah, 20 mil feels right to me. That’s what Claxton got two years ago. Kind of a similar thing where like you’ve seen flashes was like, yeah, you could be a very good NBA player, but you know, there arguably seen more from Claxton when he got that deal than we did from Cam. So, but center market’s different than a guard market. Thinking about CT’s I don’t want to say ego but confidence in his game. I don’t think I would be shocked to see I don’t know maybe about 20 something mil per year but only two years wanting to kind of get to free agency quicker if you believe in your game. Do you say that third year we’ll forget about the guaranteed money but I’ll be able to enter the market and we could see what I’m really worth. Is that crazy? I’d love to hear his uh agent’s take on that because the player can be confident and the agent can be like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s let’s relax a little bit now.” Um I wouldn’t be shocked to see that though, you know? I mean, if he says he can do it and you know, if Cam Thomas is anything, the dude is goddamn confident. So, and I I think that I think that would make sense. Yeah. But, you know, you we’re talking about generational wealth here, as they say. I think uh you want to see him get paid even if it is a little bit longer and a little bit less, you know, get uh get that money. All right, let’s speed things up. Let’s get to the exciting part of the podcast that everyone wants to hear about. Quote unquote plan A. Giannis just put up 30 points a game, 11 rebounds, six assists, shot 60% for the field. We’ve been hearing this talk for a while. The rumors of Shawn Marks loving Giannis has been out for years. How real is this? Tell me the truth. What’s going on? I have I have no sources, but I don’t think it’s real. The the thing is the sources the sources have said it’s real. Like Brian Lewis is the best and he has said that the interest is very real. And so I don’t doubt that, but I think everyone is interested in the best player in the league to a certain degree. And I I genuinely think that trading for Giannis onto Dmpo, a guy who’s entering the second half of his career, a guy whose game is dependent on his athleticism is a mistake. I I don’t think the timelines match up. I think we saw how good of a coach Jordi Fernandez was and we got impatient and we wanted to start to win with them and that’s just not I think we need at least one more year of this. I know that’s not the answer everyone wants to hear. I feel like I’m I’m constantly reeling people in who are all excited and I feel like a jerk because who doesn’t want to root for a good team, a team that would be, you know, a top five team in the East with Giannis right now? But is being a top five team in the East all you want to be or do you want to have a shot at maybe being what the OKC Thunder are now? I I I would take the ladder and I think that the front office is smart enough to recognize that. I think that you can always be interested and it’s it’s good to be interested. Part of being a good GM is, you know, if the Bucks call and, you know, their GM like had like has like food poisoning and said, “I want Keon Johnson on a signing trade for Giannis right now, you got to do it.” So, I I think it’s okay to be interested. And I said the same thing when um there were reports that the Nets were making Cam Thomas available like earlier in the season. And I I think sometimes people read into these things and they don’t understand that when you’re at MBA GM, you have an open door, open phone policy. So like everyone’s available, you know, like you think about what the word available really means. Think about what the word interested really means. It’s it’s there’s very different. And here’s the other thing. Plan A, anytime someone says plan A, it implies that there’s like a plan B and a plan C and a plan F. Like plan A is for me to like win the lottery and like buy like a penthouse like looking over like and you know marry Sabrina Carpenter and you know invest in all the just be the king of the world but you know that’s probably not going to happen. So it’s uh just don’t read into uh too many things. Do read into what some of these words really mean in the report though because I’m I’m not doubting the report but the terminology is is pretty curious. You know he is 31 years old. the timelines don’t match up. Although for a podcaster, I would love to have him on the team. It would bring a lot of excitement for for our shows for sure. But um I I I don’t think that’s the play. So for all the people listening, there’s no way that we get the eighth pick in the lottery and it’s going to go to Milwaukee in a Giannis deal, right? You don’t think so? No. Come on. Come on. I don’t think Milwaukee would take that either. Well, that’d be obviously there’d be other things attached to it, but Milwaukee would be laughing saying like, “Oh, you’re going to try to pawn us off your your failed tank pick for our best player. Come on.” I would imagine if Giannis is coming, you he want a sidekick. That’s something that we have to keep in mind that I don’t think people are really thinking about. Do you think Giannis would come here alone? No, probably not. Bleacher Report had a a mock trade. Clax, Keon Johnson, Clowny, and six firsts. I don’t think Milwaukee would touch that on their own. If I’m Milwaukee, I’m starting with the Bridges deal, right? They that has to be the starting point. The Nets got that amount of picks for Bridges. You mean like you also got like a Bdanovich? You also got, you know, like, you know what I mean? Yeah. No, I do. Contracts. The thing is the picks are going to be like I think Milwaukee will do a hard rebuild. So, like six vers. I don’t know that I mean I I told you I’m against Giannis like from the jump, but six is a lot. You that’s that’s honestly probably what he deserves, but I don’t know. Uh I I would I would definitely not want the Nets to do that either, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. If he was three years younger, I think that deal would be the for the sixth round picks, I think the deal is worth it, but not now. I agree. Yeah. So, just to add in a a little drama, what is the percent chance Giannis is on the Brooklyn Nets roster come opening day? What’s the percent chance they get the number one pick? 37.2. 3. Oh, no. I’m sorry. 9%. 9% chance. Yeah. I wish it was 37.2. I’ll I’ll tack one more on just for shits and gigs because there has been so much noise about it, but I would say 10%. And I think Cooper Flag is seen as a he’s that good where you can go out and like be competitive like right now. Maybe not win a championship, but that’s also why it’s still 10% cuz Giannis should be looking for win a championship right now. But we all know that. But I think Cooper Flag is probably the only guy where it would make sense where kind of what I talked about earlier where he’s so good and you know sometimes one of the ways you can win, no one’s really done it yet because it’s hard to win with a rookie as your best player. But if you can take advantage of that rookie contract to kind of manipulate the cap in the new CBA and I I think it would that that would be the only way, you know. So 10% feels right to me. What about you? What would you put it at? Oh, what I put it at, man, that’s a very good question. Um, I think I put it at uh 20%. 20%. I think that’s a lie. I’d say about 15%. And I’ll say why I think 50%. I think there’s a crazy scenario that he could force his way out and we’d have to give up something like a Luca deal and that we’re not really giving up too much, but Milwaukee is like, “Oh, we want to send him to the team he wants to go to.” I don’t think it’s going to happen. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but that’s the only way I could see it really happening. Uh, yeah. Wait, like look at this. When Katie and Kyrie came to Brooklyn, people forget we had Jared Allen, Spencer Denwitty, there was already a team already set coming here for Giannis. Like, no offense to Keon Johnson. I like Keon Johnson, but it it’s it’s a different roster. It’s just a totally different roster. Playing next to Drew Timmy is not the same as playing next to Jared Allen. That there’s no roster set here that there’s so many steps that we’re just skipping. Uh that the only way that this I could see this happening with my 15% chance is the Nets have to have like a no-brainer. Like of course we do this deal. Like it’s you know what? Uh we just match the salaries. Uh it’s CJ and it’s only like three first rounders or two first rounders. Of course, like how could we say no to this? That’s the only way really. But uh it would be fun. It’s fun talking about it though. No, you’re absolutely right. We uh Jiannis Dumpo, we we needed you in a way in a in a weird way this year and you were there for us. So, I can’t say thank you because of what he did to us in 2021, but made some stuff. Made made made the days go by just a little bit faster with the drama. All right, I got a couple rapid fire questions for you. You ready? Let’s do it. Yeah, let’s do it. Okay. Nets drafting 2.5 players over or under? drafting and keeping I should say. Yeah, I’ll do over. Three kind of feels right. Four is a lot. Interesting. Very. I didn’t expect that. They need They need young They need young players. They need everything. Let’s use them. I would go I could see three, but I I would say under. I’m going to go with two. The lottery pick is one obviously, but I I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing something with those uh ladder picks. There’s other drafts in the future that you may want to build up on. It’s depending who falls, obviously. Right. If we see a top 10 pick wind up dropping, that that might obviously change my opinion, but for right now, I’m going to go with two. You reminded me of a point I made another week ago. I’ll still stick with three, but I could very much see them because, you know, the tank wasn’t it was a little bit posh this year in true terms of what a tank is. might make a little sense to kick the can down another year. Trade like one for maybe another one in like a second or something next year. So, I I I definitely hear what you’re saying. Draft night trades 2.5 over or under? Two trades are hard to pull off in and however actually the draft goes on really long. I I’ve been to some of those. They drag on if you are there, let me tell you. Uh I’ll do over just because Nets love trading on draft night. I it’ll be tough, but you know, this this is the the summer of our lives, as Jordy called it. I I expect them to treat it as such and, you know, go balls to the wall one way or another. And keep in mind, it doesn’t have to talk we don’t have to be talking about draft picks here. This could be, you know, a player trade going somewhere else. If you want to trade a Cam Johnson somewhere else for a future draft pick, technically that would still be like a draft night trade. So, I would include that. Also, I I would love to see them take one of the later picks plus Cam Johnson and try to find your way back up to the lottery. I think that’d be especially if it’s a guy who kind of like meshes well and you know, it’s kind of cool when you can draft two lot two guys from the same lottery. I don’t know. I just feel like that’s that’s kind of like a good vibe buddy buddy thing, you know, beginning of a duo. So, you who is your favorite draft prospect? Could be any round, any position. It doesn’t have to be a Harper or Cooper flag. Yeah, I’ve been very high on VJ Edgecomb. I think he’s kind of the guy where obviously you want to see the Nets go one or two. But if you look at like what’s like a something where they’re jumping up, but it’s not just like the crazy like Cinderella situation. And you know, I like him because he just seems so much like a Jordy Fernandez player. He’s an athletic freak. He’s fast. He’s a very good defender. Jordy loves, you know, bulldog, point of attack, ball pressure, defenders. I think I think he makes sense for that. He’s really the most athletic player in the draft in my opinion. And the the other thing Jordy loves, shooting the three. You know, he had a slow start to the year, but once he got into Big 12 play, I think he shot 39% from three. Got to the point where Baylor was even, you know, setting screens for him, whether it was he’s coming around like uh pulling it himself or he’s coming around for a catch and shoot opportunity. So, I just really like him. He’s younger. He’s he’s a freshman, so there’s that that upside. I’ve been saying all year this is uh we don’t know how long the rebuild is going to be but you know makes sense to take younger players because this was the first year of it. So he’s he just kind of checks all those boxes for me. I really like VJ Ecom. I was very big on VJ really early before the season started. Man, what what team did he play for in in um in the Olympics? Oh man, I forgot what team. But he was killing it against grown ass men. And when I see something like that, that’s usually a very very good sign come their NBA career if they could put up numbers or at least even just compete on that level. Yeah. But uh I I think he’s a little short. I wonder if the explosiveness can match that. I I’ve heard he’s 6’2 without shoes. Maybe that’s tall enough. Maybe it’s not. Is he a point guard? He’s not a point guard. But I’m I’m interested to see where his career goes for sure. My favorite player is extremely flawed, but for some reason, I just I just love this guy’s games. It’s Casper Jackronis. I know I’m going to get killed for this, but I just I I love his game. I know the turnovers. I get it. I just think you see a complete player of being able to playmake for people, hit threes, and he doesn’t have to be, you know, Mr. Speed. If he doesn’t get the turnovers down, it’s going to be a major issue. Who do you think is most likely to be drafted by the Brooklyn Nets on draft night? That’s one where I’m going to go back to Malawatch. I think part of answer this answering this question is finding a guy who is going to be in the r the the range they’ll likely be picking in which is what most likely seven to nine I think. So I I kind of see that’s where he’s going to fall. The Nets like they were way more of a defensive team than offensive team this year. Now, certainly you could say that’s just because of the personnel they had whatsoever. But the way Jory Fernandez talks about effort and energy, it seems like they’re going to be try to be a defensive team. That’s what they’re going to build their identity around. And Malawash kind of checks those boxes. He’s also he’s not a great shooter, but he’s a willing shooter. That’s something that’s also important. Jordy likes to have everyone get the threes up. So, I just think all those things kind of come together. He he makes sense for the Nets. All right, Colin, let’s get some plugs in there for you. Yeah. So, um, Colin Hellwig, just on Twitter, two L’s in Colin, one in Hellwig. And then check us out, uh, the Brooklyn Pod on Twitter, on Instagram, Tik Tok, and, uh, like and subscribe to us on YouTube. Um, I think we’re going to have an episode this week. I got a Circle with Pooch. If not, we’ll have one the next week. Uh, potentially after, yeah, it’ll be after the lottery. So, something lottery related coming up soon. All right, guys. You could find me friends you know on Twitter and YouTube. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe, leave a like, all that good stuff. Have a good day. Have a good night. And uh let’s get lucky in the lottery. Let’s go Nets. route.

Brooklyn Nets Offseason Preview #1: Pre-Lottery & Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade?

@sbnnetsdaily writer & co-host of @TheBrooklynPod Collin Helwig joins Pete to give his thoughts on the important upcoming offseason for the Brooklyn Nets. TOPICS INCLUDE: NBA Draft Lottery scenarios affecting the team’s plans, how the team may use it’s (4) 1st round picks, re-signing Cam Thomas, trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo (!) & MUCH MORE. Part of @NetsKingdom .

*NBA DRAFT LOTTERY LIVE STREAM – MAY 12 5:30PM ON @NetsKingdom ‘s channel.*

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🏀 RANDOM TIME STAMPS 🏀

1:07 Start Of Episode (State Of The Nets)
1:51 How Will The Lottery Affect The Nets’ Offseason Plans? + Draft Talk
9:35 Trading For Giannis?
17:06 Rapid Fire Q’s & Draft Predictions

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