The possible Miami Heat offers for Kevin Durant | Five on the Floor

The possible Miami Heat offers for Kevin Durant | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the floor on the Five Reason Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple, Apple Podcast, on Android, Spotify or the Five Reasons YouTube channel. We’ve been recommending that you download us on Spotify. Sometimes takes a little bit longer on Apple Podcast, iTunes lately. So download us on Spotify. The benefit of the Five Reasons YouTube channel is you get the rest of our content which is across the sports spectrum. Also check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. You’ll find our next guest on there all the time. You’ll also find Eternal Sean and of course the hosts of Five on the Floor. Check it out. It’s off the floor link right there in description. Get off of Twitter. Just talk heat and other things related to them. And we’ve got the draft channel and the transactions channel. Both of which we’ve been talking about a lot lately here, but you get the information first there. So go to off the floor, click on the link in the description and you’ll bypass the Apple Upcharge. Also check out Prize Pix. Use the code five fiv $50 to play right away. Prize Pix is the official sponsor of the Five Reasons Sports Network and it is legal in the state of Florida. So play again across the sports spectrum. It’s priz.com. And now today’s [Music] [Applause] episode heat nation. Yeah. Mercy go down the [ __ ] Y on the floor ride for my dogs. Where’s the thing? You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars bubble frog. Kept a plan. Got it all. Y’all seen the block with one hand and paps. We’re here to bring the heat. Y’all can hang it up. Welcome to five on the floor. a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. And follow me, Ethan Skolnick on Five Sports. And today I’ve got Matt Hannifan. You can follow him atmp_824 always got to get those underscores in there. Matt, of course, uh does a lot of things for us. He’s on playback. You can follow him at playback.tvrsn and you find him on off the floor quite a bit and with occasional appearances here. And Matt, uh a little frozen there, but that’s okay. We’ll get through it. I think I’ll be able to hear you. Uh Matt, of course, is Where are you, by the way? You’re in Nevada, right? You’re in Nevada. Yes. Yeah. you’re you’re in the desert. So, the the the internet has not reached the desert yet. But that’s okay as long as water does. Um and gambling and all those other things and eventually an NBA team because they’re going to be adding teams it looks like in Las Vegas and Seattle, which has been talked about for years and years and years, but looks like it’s it’s finally going to happen. So, I took I took I I those two of my you know, I mean, there are a lot of people’s top 10 in the top 10 cities. Uh I I took the wrong time to get off of the road beat. Anyway, um I was I did a lot of Detroits and uh Detroits and Indiana’s and Cleveland’s Matt, we’re going to talk about Kevin Durant today, but a little bit differently than I spoke to Gerald Borgay who covers the Suns for PHX uh uh last week. And by the way, congratulations to Gerald on his child. I did not know he was expecting. So, congratulations. And I thought that was a really good episode with him. He talked about Kevin Durant uh first that he’s not as bad a defender as people are making him out to be. He thought a lot of what happened this year was more system and bud and the players around him. The year before he was actually very good. Uh and his defensive metrics this year he was about average. Talked about how he’s not the finisher he used to be but still so efficient other ways offensively uh to still be elite when healthy. And he also talked about what the Suns needs might be and why they might trade him which is that they’re trying to basically pivot around Devin Booker. I spoke about what the Heat might offer, what might be looked for and that whole back and forth at the trade deadline where essentially the Heat came to. And I know originally it was Josh Richardson and Jimmy had a pick. But eventually my understanding is it became Yoic uh Butler and a pick, but then but Matt Ishbia, the owner, didn’t want any of that and ultimately uh was like, “No, I want everything.” And the Heat were like, “We’ll see you in the summer.” And now we’re waiting to see if other teams get involved. OKC’s been mentioned, Houston’s been mentioned, Minnesota’s been mentioned. He thinks Houston, but he kind of said Miami is a close second. I would agree with that. I think it depends on whether or not Houston is really ready to go older right now and and trade some of the young core. But Matt, you did the math on this. So, math is fun. Math is fundamental. Um, I want you to give me some of your scenarios here for how the Heat could acquire Kevin Durant just legally within the parameters of the CBA. Uh, without us, you know, focusing on at first on whether or not the Suns would do this or the Heat would. So, yeah. I I I I did this in our off the floor Discord last week, which again, you should please check this out. I think today in today’s NBA, we get too kind of caught up in like how much a player make makes exactly like 30 million today isn’t what 30 million used to be. And that, you know, with the with the two aprons with uh the the TV deal that’s going to be implemented into this next season, like the cap’s going to be going up 10% roughly each of the next few seasons we project. And so I tried to look at this from a like cap percentage standpoint like how much like what percentage of the cap is KD plus BAM plus you know all these different scenarios. Um and the one that I kind of went in in my head thinking like okay this could be like a realistic deal for the Heat is like Wiggins Yoic Duncan like you get Duncan’s partially guaranteed salary that’s some cap relief. Andrew Wiggins, he’s not the best a he’s probably may not be the asset that he once was um in in uh Golden State, but he’s still like a decent asset. Only a couple more years left on his contract, obviously the player option in the last year. Um and then Yoic, who he’s not where, but he’s probably their second best young player asset depending on what you think about Tyler Hero in the sense of how old he is. um that put the heat I think I want to say that the number was 52 and a half million that uh those three players take up and then Durant 54.7 million um he you know he’s in the last year of his contract. The Suns are in a situation where I can’t speak to their cap situation like you know I’m not well verssed with it but I know they’re a second apron team. They’re pretty deep in that and so they can’t aggregate salary. they can’t take back more money than um they they trade out. And so that would he would that’s roughly 2.2 million above, you know, or the he would be taking in 2.2 million more. But with that comes the different scenarios of okay, what’s the percentage of cap that, you know, Durant plus, you know, x number of players would make. And I here’s one where like KD plus Bam plus Tyler plus Hawz plus Wear plus Haywood Highmith who wouldn’t be going out in that specific deal. And then assume again let’s assume DaVon resigns for you know $8 million like or let’s say his cap next year is roughly $8 million. That’s 94% of the salary cap just with those seven players by itself. If DaVon resigns for more that’s 95% of the cap. And so like that’s kind of the exercise that I did and I did kind of a bunch of like arbitrary scenarios just to see like okay what kind of flexibility would the Heat be looking at if they you know if they acquired Kevin Durant they traded X number of players and we can kind of talk about the overarching conclusion but like there’s going to be sacrifices somewhere if you know seven players are making up 85 to 100% of your salary cap and that’s just kind of the situation that the heat is in and like I know you’ve phrased it in the past in the sense that like the amount of vehicles they can drive. Well, obviously the first and second aprons they’re I think the first apron is roughly like 40 million above what the cap will be this year and then second apron will be 12 million past that past the first apron. So, like there’s still some flexibility, but it limits to like it limits how you can build out the rest of your roster. Like you’re still going to need to be trading contracts like in the scenario. Like you’re going to have to be trying to get off of Terry’s contract, which could be difficult by itself. Obviously, they tried to get off of Kyle Anderson’s contract at the deadline. Who knows if that’s still like a feasible option. like there’s still some maneuverability that they would have to have in order to to pull off this kind of trade and still, you know, build a palatable roster around Kevin Durant, Bam Adabio, and whomever else. All right. So, so again, give it to me one more time because I’m writing it down. So, basically KD goes to the Heat, right? Wiggins. I had Wiggins, Yoic, and uh I’m trying to blame Duncan. Duncan. Duncan. Yeah, it was Duncan. And that was kind of like not saying that’s like a realistic offer or anything like that, but it’s just within the confines of like that’s not maybe I mean obviously picks aside like that’s a decent you know back and forth trade. Um, obviously there’s consternation about whether they should include where. Um, what other assets that they could potentially include, but there’s only so much that you can trade because you can’t go over that $54.7 million threshold, which is something that the Heat may have a hard time with. And the and the aggregation for Phoenix is a problem, which we found at the trade deadline, too, with the Beal stuff and all of that. Uh, I think there you’re looking at a minimum of two first round picks probably, right? I mean, if you’re on Phoenix’s side, maybe. Yeah, probably. Sure. Wiggins. So, so essentially let let me look at the benefits from both sides. Pick swaps could be involved as well, but let here’s you’re basically looking at Wiggins who at this stage is a functional player, but I would say at best a neutral contract. Um maybe with the years that he’s got left on his deal, but I mean you could put him next to Booker. He could fill kind of the role he did with Steph in Golden State. You get Yoic, who might flourish if he’s finally given a role and stays healthy. And then Duncan, the benefit there is you could use him as a shooter, which you never have enough of those. Or um the other thing is that he’s got that partial guarantee in his contract, which could free up a little money for them if they make a decision on it soon enough. And then again, the two picks for the Heat. The benefit is obvious. Uh you lose Wiggins, who you never really had in the first place, not for a long period of time. So you’re essentially replacing Butler with KD. Uh but you’re you’re and you’re giving up Yovic and Duncan. Duncan I don’t think would have been here beyond next year anyway. Yoic you have an extension decision to make on and um and if you resign DaVon Mitchell and you have Kyle Anderson then essentially you’ve traded Jimmy Yoic the last year of Duncan’s contract for Durant DaVon Mitchell and Kyle Anderson and then you’re throwing in the picks right so but again one of the picks you may throw in might be the pick that you got from Golden State so you really throwing in one future pick. I I think that’s a a dra a trade that Heat fans could probably tolerate. Um knowing where things were go with Jimmy and also knowing not just where they were going on this roster, but knowing that playoff Jimmy is real, but only like once a week now, which is what which is what the Heat felt uh at this stage. And that’s kind of what it proved out to be in the playoffs. All right. So, on the other side of this, I want you to get to some variations of this. Um, we’ll talk about that too as we go as we kind of figure out how they might be able to get something done and then the wear thing which is how this that may be the sticking point for Phoenix I would think but we’ll talk about that in a second. Before we do want to talk about great sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network, our friend Eric Rubenstein. You can find him at eric rubenstein.com or ask aboutme I got you or attorney Rubenstein on Instagram. I just recommend the Instagram because this dude he’s everywhere. I mean, like, he’s friends with Meek Mill and Rick Ross, okay? But he’s also a great great great great attorney if you get in an accident. And he he grew up down in South Florida in Broward County. He graduated Magnum Ladi from St. Thomas University, which a lot of you know. I used to teach there briefly actually. I don’t know if anybody learned anything. Uh, shout out to Andy Ellisburg who’s knows St. Thomas very well. Um, and Eric is uh he’s just really good at his job. He’s got a great personality. He’s got an alter ego named Ruby. He’s just a whole thing. Okay, so check him out. Attorney Rubenstein. The biggest thing is if you have a car accident, he’s your go-to. Attorney Rubenstein on Instagram or 877-829 ERIC. That’s 8778293742. All right. So, let’s get to some You did some other sort of financial variations of this, right, Matt? I did a bunch of like arbitrary combinations. Uh I probably did around like 20 of them just from curiosity from a curiosity standpoint. Another one that I obviously I’m I don’t think this would be at all realistic, but it sounds something like if Phoenix wants salary relief, you could kind of swap instead of Wiggins, you could do Terry, but then you’re taking um more money back in the sense that uh that would be I think I want to say it’s he would be taking in 3.7 million or they’re they’d be taking more money than they send out. Well, Ros’s around, right, Matt? Rosier’s around 24, right? I don’t know how it works with those incentives he didn’t earn. And then Wiggins is closer to 30, right? So yeah, you’re talking about a little bit of a difference. I I guess the point you’re making is Rosier’s in the last year of his contract and Wiggins is not, right? So you you Wiggins is the better player, the more useful player at this stage, unless Terry has a renaissance that’s honestly hard to see right now. But um he was valued as a first round pick guy before. I mean, so we’ll see. Uh but uh yeah, that would that would require So that would change the dynamic a little. That would that would be strictly if I think it like you’re saying if Phoenix is looking for salary cap relief right at the end of next season. I don’t see that. I don’t Yeah, I don’t see it either. I just think like you’re you’d be throwing for a lack of better word, you’d be throwing Phoenix all your garbage or at least some of your garbage. That’s not that’s not a realistic scenario about from a negotiation standpoint. Wh why would Phoenix do that? But outside of the the salary relief, but I mean that’s another one you could go with. I mean, you can maybe in in that scenario, you can maybe throw in like a colloar. Let me see if this actually I think he makes a little bit too much. It might be just Hawz. Um, but there Yeah, there’s some like there’s some other ones that you can do like you can it maybe instead of Yoic, you can throw in where to to incentivize that just a little bit more because they’re making roughly the same amount of money. Um, but again, that’s that could be a stopping point for the heat. They don’t want they may not want to include wear in a trade like this. Um, and so it gets kind of complicated and again like the closer that you get to that first apron, you can’t use your mid-level exception. Um, resigning Davon becomes a more difficult path, right? It becomes a little bit more like it becomes a little bit harder just to build out the rest of your roster just depending on what package you send out. like more is less and less is more kind of like it’s if I’m trading out more obviously there’s a less I have a less palatable team around Durant um but if I’m trading out less I’m trading out some of my worst assets well then you’re taking more back and it’s just harder to build around that and it’s just becomes a little bit harder for the Heat and that’s it’s it’s a very like I’m very in I I I wish I was a fly on the wall just to see what those negotiations would look like. Obviously, we probably know what Ishbia wants, but what the he we know what Ishbia wants, right? But but but Matt, the interesting part of that is we know what Ishbia wants, but from my understanding, Ishbia is not all that in tune with the cap. Now, and the tax and the CBA and how that all works and and I I’m not he’s not the only owner that’s like that. um you know just typically left to the general managers a lot of even even some of them don’t completely understand it and that’s that while they have the cappers in the heat are fortunate that Andy you know understands all this stuff and and so they’ll they’ll be prepared for whatever it is the execution sometimes becomes harder when you’re dealing with other teams and all the rest of this but I I think that you know as you look at it he the minutiae of this is going to end up being handled on the Phoenix side I figure by the guy that they just promoted right so James Jones kind of got moved to this advisory capacity the Bartlestein’s son, which is kind of how everybody talks about him. He’s in the front office, but more on the business side. I don’t know what to say he’ll have, but as far as the minutiae of this, it was really James Jones who was going to deal with with Andy and um and then they have a relationship that goes way back. I mean, I’m not giving away secrets here. They know know each other well. Every time Phoenix was in town, JJ and Andy would be sitting on the scorers table talking to each other for 30 minutes. And they have they have a very good relationship. So, I I figured that he would handle it, but now I don’t know. Okay. on the on the uh on the Phoenix side. Um before we go here, give me because I know the Davon Mitchell thing you mentioned is interesting because Greg has talked about this before that it starts to get a little bit more complicated because he’s a restricted free agent and could get an offer from somewhere else that the Heat have to match where if other teams really like him, they could put the Heat in a very uncomfortable position there if the Heat are going after Durant in terms of how they’re able to do both. Um I my feeling on DaVon and it’s no disrespect to him because I loved what he brought and I want them to resign him is that other teams I don’t know if that like sort of grant that crazy offer is coming just because the word’s sort of out now that like some of those players just thrive better in the heat system and I I don’t know we’ve seen this over and over and I and him in particular like he fits and I just wonder if other teams going to look at it and say well yeah he’s a nice player be good for a rotation but are we going to get the production out of him that Miami did is he worth that kind of a contract, but who knows? Sometimes teams have money, they want to get a guy. I mean, Brooklyn would worry me. Um, for him, I we talked to, you know, I think uh FCA has uh mentioned this, our guy, Brian Fka, he covers a lot of Knicks and Net stuff, and he talked about how uh DaVon’s agent actually represents three other players on the Nets, and the Nets have money. So, that’s the one that I would watch there. They don’t really have a roster in place. They’re kind of formulating it. Uh, and he might fit, but I mean, he fit great in Miami and I hope he can return. It’s just make it a little complicated. All right, before we go, um, give me you mentioned the Wiggins Yovich Duncan at the beginning. G, give me did you have anything on there with where that you found palatable? I guess uh because I do feel like that’s going to be the issue here ultimately. I think the one like mini variation that I made was instead of Yish, you include where? Because again, they make roughly 4.4 4 million uh this upcoming season and so it’s a similar salary. The the the numbers financially still work. I think wear is a better asset than Yoic in the sense that like I think he has a higher ceiling. I don’t think that’s like a hot take or anything like that. Um so I think that would be the one that like Wiggins wear and Duncan again that you get to around 52 and a half million you’re still taking 2.1 2.2 million back. Um, and so you’re I think roughly 13 million away from the first apron. Uh, 25 million away from the second apron. And that’s just with I think I want to say it’s like 10 guys 10 or 11 guys on the roster. And so you still need to find a way to to fill that out whether be it minimum contracts. You try to trade away Kyle Anderson and create some salary relief. If you have to trade away someone like Tyler, I know that’s like a a hot topic. you have to get less salary in return. Like I don’t that’s not even factoring the potential players or player that would come back in addition to potentially some draft capital. Um like you you have to get a little bit creative. Not saying it something that he should do or shouldn’t do. Um but regardless of you know the if you acquire Kevin Durant, you still have to find a way to to build a good enough team to compete. And again, like we’re now in the parody era where as of yesterday, seven straight years, we’ll have a new NBA champion. Like, maybe the Heat, I know you talked about this with Eternal, maybe the Heat do believe that they’re, you know, one piece away or one and a half pieces away or whatever the case is from really competing. And obviously, it’s no, it’s no secret that that the guy that they’re going to be going after is Kevin Durant. and how market how dry that market actually is. Um we’ll see in the coming weeks. But um maybe they do see themselves as a team that you know could climb into the top four or five in the east and then you know figure it out from there. And obviously with Bo and everyone else like maybe they think it’s maybe they think they can legitimately contend and I’m not saying I agree or disagree with that but right well they’re always going to think that. That’s the thing and I I I mean there is some history here. I mean, this team, you know, they went from I mean, look, they went from 15 wins in 2007, 2008 to making the playoffs the next year and having, you know, a series with Boston. I mean, they they’ve done this kind of thing before. Um, the East is, I think, has been weak for about a quarter century, but it’s this is historically weak. Um, when you’re looking at next season and you’re looking at, yes, you might have Detroit and Orlando pop, Indiana needs more respect at this point for what they’ve done two straight years. the Knicks will be there, but Milwaukee, Philadelphia, I don’t know what that’s going to look like without Embiid. Tatum’s out for the season. Uh Dame’s out for I mean like it’s just it’s a mess. Uh it’s and and none of the stars are going east and now Cooper Flag just went west. So it’s Lucas stayed west. Like it’s everybody’s staying west. So I I understand the thinking and I think that is the big pitch when you’re going, you know, if trying to convince Durant to push this a little bit to Miami. It’s like okay, and I don’t think he needs to push. He knows hoop, okay, obviously better than anybody. Uh look at the two conferences. You want to go fight in the west? Seriously, like in that or you want to come to the east, uh it’s kind of like, you know, you the east is the HOV lane, okay? That’s that’s 20 bucks so that nobody wants to pay it. That’s the HOV lane and everybody else is stuck in in uh traffic at the Golden Glades. Like that’s you should go to the east. Just just run over some cones and get to the east. Okay, so that’s kind of where we’re at right now. Anyway, Matt, appreciate you doing this. Um, I guess the debates will come on what you do, but when you’re talking about like where Wiggins Duncan two picks for KD, I’ll just leave this with fans as we go. Would you do that? Have a good one, everybody.

We know the Miami Heat has pursued Kevin Durant, and will likely again this offseason. Ethan Skolnick brought on Matt Hanifan to break down the offers that could work within the rules, and maybe get a deal done.

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