🚨 Emergency Pod 🚨 Kevin Durant Trade Reaction: Suns’ Mistake? Win for Rockets? | The Hoop Collective

🚨 Emergency Pod 🚨 Kevin Durant Trade Reaction: Suns’ Mistake? Win for Rockets? | The Hoop Collective

hello and welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we’re doing on Sunday game seven of the NBA Finals are we talking about game seven of the NBA Finals we are not because today was the day that the Suns agreed to trade Kevin Durant joining me from here in Oklahoma City Tim Bonteps hello everybody joining me also in Oklahoma City fresh off of his pickup game where I’m told he dominated our producer Jackson Aello is Van McMahon howdy partner as usual Wendy your reporting is 100% on the money i was putting the finishing touches on a triple double performance as news breaks our guy Shams Kevin Durant headed to Houston every time Every time McMahon plays pickup he says he has a triple double jackson how that works if Jackson’s willing to put his microphone on he can confirm he might had a lot of triple doubles but a lot of meounds out there as well hey those count too baby those count too those guys who made career on rebounding their own offensive misses okay um Kevin Durant is traded according to Shams to Houston uh for Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks um the number 10 pick in the draft on Wednesday night and five count them five second round picks um so they got a lot of picks i don’t know how many of them are going to be any good but they did get a lottery pick in it um they got their own lottery pick back that is right i didn’t think about that till this second i didn’t realize that that is their pick um so I think it was at least two or so months ago when the season ended and it was pretty clear that the Suns primary decision in the offseason was going to be trading Kevin Durant even beyond their front office and and the head coach um and Bon Temps was saying I don’t think they’re going to get a great return for him and I just want to tell you that and the reporting is this trade is less than an hour old the reporting is still developing on my end um I think this was far and away the best thing they had i know that Sham said that Miami was uh the finalist i don’t think Miami’s I don’t I don’t think it was close i think I I don’t I don’t think Miami got a quote unquote outbid um I think Miami Well I mean Miami did get out bid because they didn’t they didn’t get them well this was but this was not a bidding war these were that were like this was Houston’s best offer they weren’t going higher and the Rockets accomplished their goal of not shortening their runway but making a win now move jaylen Green obviously is the young talent in this deal frankly if we’re ranking the Rockets young talents I would probably put him somewhere like the maybe fourth or fifth most valuable i think he’s lower than that maybe even lower and essentially let’s just be honest he’s he’s the salary filler in this deal but this is a I love this trade for Houston because this is a team they didn’t shorten their runway they kept all their young two-way players well can I can I stop you right there okay and maybe when this comes out we’ll have a good feel for whether or not there’s going to be a contract extension to me a big part of what happens from Houston’s side about whether they quote unquote won this or not is what they’re doing about Katie’s contract are they giving I anticipate there will be a contract extension okay is it two years and the at the full max because that’s I I’m I’m not ready to say that i’m not ready to say that i anticipate there will be a contract extension i you know that that’s let’s just be honest that’s part of that factoring in that math that cap math is part of the reason why the why the offers were nowhere near the value that uh that the Suns gave up right so I’m just going to say is before you can take a full picture of where this is for Houston I think you need to hear what the what the extension is i I’m going to assume it’s two years at a high number obviously I I don’t know that it would be the full max but look man this is a young tough athletic scrappy Rockets team that was is fresh off being a two seed that was desperately in need of a go-to guy kevin Durant even at this age is a big time big- time scorer that’s the one thing they needed um listen Dylan Brooks the Rockets were ripped for signing him to that deal he was a solid signing for them honestly I think he’s the kind of guy that that Phoenix needs they need that toughness they need that defense but he wasn’t going to start with KD there amen thompson’s obviously starting now and for a long long time well not only that but they they needed to KD makes $50 million jaylen Green makes 33 million they need they need to make 20 more million to go into it and um but uh All right but hold on bontemps you said two months ago you didn’t think the return would be terrific for Durant because of various reasons um what do you think of this trade and where where you thought it would be well I mean this isn’t a terrific return for Kevin Durant like this is exactly what we talked about right i would say that it’s about as good as the Rocket as the Suns could have expected to do in the moment because there just wasn’t anything available i think you know I think I would say where things sat by the end of this week like Friday I’m not really sure Minnesota was even an option at that point i do not believe they were the I don’t either the Miami offer this is this is better than the Miami offer it’s not This isn’t a great offer um like there just wasn’t really anything else to do miami offer by the way I I think the key thing about the Miami offer is it it didn’t have Tyler Hero in it it didn’t have Kel Wear in it no the the the Suns were trying to get a blue chip asset in this trade and there were none available there were not even any like you know whatever the next chip down is red chip assets available right like they couldn’t get Jabari Smith Jr in this deal certainly like Tari E absolutely not reed Shepard away they didn’t even get Cam Whitmore in the deal like you know they got they got a lottery pick they got Jaylen Green who is a guy that I don’t think has a ton of value around the league he you know we disagreed i disagreed with you guys last summer on this contract that they the Rockets gave him it did turn into a piece that we’re able to use to get this trade done but I you know maybe Jaylen Green will blow up in the future but now he’s on a team with Bradley Beal and Devin Booker that fit for many reasons doesn’t really work well well we’ll talk about that in a minute just talk about the return no I know so so but that is part of the return right dylan Brooks they could maybe flip Dylan Brooks again but look this is this is to me it’s really what it is like that this trade is fine for Phoenix in the situation Phoenix was in in terms of they got as much as they could get right now but the reason I’ve been saying this is the worst situation in the history of the league for a while is because of the cavernous hole that the Suns are in and like yes this is the beginning of starting to dig out of the hole but they’re still at the bottom of the Grand Canyon like they they don’t have any they don’t have any flexibility going forward still as of now now that could change but they’re still very expensive they have Bradley Beal with a no trade clause who they have to try to move or do something with they have to figure out if Jaylen Green fits they have to see if they get something for him maybe maybe he’s there maybe he’s not but you know look they have six picks now they have this first round pick they have these five second round picks i think they’ve got two or three first and several seconds now they can trade my understanding is that they’re going to be aggressive this week they’re going to try to retool the roster i expect this is not the last move they’re going to make so we’ll see where this team looks the trade itself could expand this can’t be official till July 6th it can’t happen till then so you could have permutations you have Jaylen Green al go elsewhere etc right but the Suns I think it’s more likely Devin Brooks gets rerouted than Jaylen Green dylan Brooks you almost said Deon Green you almost said books but yes hold on don’t aggregate that sorry well look I to me what the Suns We’re sitting here talking about the Thunder in the finals at least we’re all here for the Thunder in the finals right the trade that set up everything that’s happening right now with Oklahoma City was the Paul George trade to the Clippers yeah and after the Paul George trade to the Clippers what did the Thunder do they took that trade and they kept making more trades and after a couple weeks they made like 15 trades they had a whole pile full of stuff and that started off the path back to where they are now now obviously they started with a bazillion more things to trade out of that trade than the uh than the Suns are getting out of this deal but to me I’d be trying to reroute Dylan Brooks for stuff i’d be trying to reroute Jaylen Green for stuff i’d be trying to start that process to have some stuff to build around Devin Booker going forward grayson Allen and Royce O’Neal i mean I mean I I um I mean Grayson Allen’s on a bad contract i don’t think they’re getting anything for him royce O’Neal it I is a guy you could maybe turn into stuff but like this is what the Suns have to start doing they have to start digging well here’s the thing bradley Beal let’s just do some math here bradley Beal I’m going to just do it as we Bradley Beal’s making $53 million we got window writing down numbers devin Booker $53 million jaylen Green $33 million in theory they all play the same position that is whatund That’s 139 million of shooting guards of of shoot first guards dylan Brooks plays the wing i guess he’s not he’s more of a three than a two 161 million for four wing players okay that’s 161 million he can guard fours all right grayson Allen what position does he play he’s another wing that’s 178 million for five wing players what position does Rice O’Neal play rice he’s kind of a four but let’s call him a wing player he’s an under 188 it’s $188 million for six wing players okay i mean you need wings in the NBA don’t get me wrong but but um none of those guys can really play point guard i mean listen Jay Jaylen Green is a complete overlap in terms of talent uh in terms of skill set I should say with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal like he’s a total like he he he does not fit you know they’ve got to try to figure out a way uh to to reroute him obviously they’d like to reroute Bradley Beal good luck with all that um you know that doesn’t make sense brooks I think you can argue is what they need they need toughness they need defense you know they need gritty role players uh around Devin Booker but Green doesn’t fit there green you know Green’s in this deal because of the salary all right so they they’ve got a lopsided roster okay they have the number 10 pick in the draft um reasonable to guess that they’re going to try to draft a center there um because no I no whatever they do please Phoenix Suns if you’re listening draft the best player don’t draft some positional fit on the roster whoever the best player is draft the player whoever and Ishbia’s Ish is mandate is always everything to win now everything to win now everything to win now you’ve got to get off of that you’re not winning this season i haven’t heard I haven’t heard them say that i haven’t heard them say that hba has said that over and over and over no no no oh you haven’t i I haven’t heard them say that they’re going to that they’re not going to try to win this season no that’s what I’m saying all they have said is win window everything so why would I assume it’s going to be different look I’m not I’m saying I’m I’m trying to offer some unsolicited advice that dude you’ve got to take a 3 to 5 year view here and it’s like it can’t be this year this year this year this year nowhere is that they must do that should we 100% assume they’re going to draft at 10 no I don’t think we should assume that either i don’t think you can assume anything again Ishbas maybe they’ll trade number 10 for three firsts in 12 years uh Ishbia’s whole philosophy is everything to maximize your chances of winning now and it is crippling that franchise’s chance ever winning long term they’re going to extend Deon Booker for two years at 150 million in the next two weeks they’re going to do they’re Yeah i mean look the the mandate is clear right and the mandate is clear coming out of this trade which is the goal is to retool the roster around Devin Booker with what they have available now by the way I haven’t even brought up Ryan Dunn who’s their best young player he plays the wing too well I mean look at that’s all fine i mean they also just don’t like look this as again this trade in a vacuum like people are going to go man the Sun’s got nothing for KD there was nothing available for KD for a variety of reasons this is as much as they were going to get you could argue they should just sit on it and try to like mend fences or whatever i I don’t think that made sense either as I have said many times I would be trading Devin Booker and like just starting over because there’s they they have to start over that’s not what they’re going to do that’s fine so let’s we will have a better picture you ask about the return of the trade the truth is as you said the trade can expand between now and July 6th i think there’s little doubt it’s going to expand in some form between now and July 6th and we will have a much better sense a week from now on the eve of free agency of what this trade looks like and where the Suns are based off what they do this week but as Tim said based off of the Matt Ishbia tenure with the franchise over the last two and a half years though now the experts are out of the way so maybe it’ll be different the the expectation should be it won’t be different i Well the expectation should be that this team is going to be very aggressive this week and is going to make trades and is going to try to improve the roster with win now moves yes we will see where that lands we will see if Bradley Bill’s on the team we’ll see if Jaylen Green’s on the team we’ll see if Dylan Brooks is on the team the only thing that I would say is certain is that Deon Booker will be on the team and Deon Booker will get that extension and then we will see what the Suns look like around him going into next season but sitting here right now if the Suns do something that makes them one of the six or eight best teams in the West over the next two weeks I will be the first to say I am incorrect about this it’s hard for me to see how they’re going to get from where they are right now which is maybe the 13th or 14th best team in the West to a playoff team listen it’s going to be a tough climb for the Suns to return to relevancy in the Western Conference simple as that and the Rockets are b they’ve benefited from it you know that to have this 10th overall pick that they could use to get a guy who I think is a great immediate fit short-term fit but again they didn’t give up like a ton of future assets in fact they still have two future Suns picks and assets are now extreme value well that’s the thing when they when they did the deal last summer with Brooklyn where they got the two firsts and the swap um the the concept was oh they’re going to trade th those for Durant they end up getting Durant for onethird of that stuff yeah yeah and then they also have the Mavs 29 pick in out of that deal so it’s really three picks and by the way what was the most valuable asset that the Grizzlies got in the Desmond Bane deal next year’s Suns pick essentially yes yeah i don’t think the Grizzlies are disappointed with this development one more thing before we pivot to the Rockets and please if you think I’m flawed in thinking please please step forward should the Suns just have ignored what KD wanted and traded him to the to the Warriors at the trade deadline yes yeah honestly yes cuz wouldn’t they have had Jimmy But I mean they wouldn’t would they not have had Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga if Am I wrong in saying that they had those you You have better info here than than I do so so I’m legitimately asking were the Warriors willing to do that with KD saying “Don’t get me.” No no the Warriors the Warriors were the ones who backed out of it you’re right okay so but but you’re you’re you’re correct on that but look if if the Suns have been able to do that trade that was a much better return than the trade they they got now there’s no question okay let me ask you this should they have ignored what KD wanted and traded did the deal with Minnesota again that’s the problem i these are all like yes like sure if you could just put in a trade machine we’re going to send Kevin Durant somewhere and get stuff back that’s better yeah that’s great but like that that the other teams involved here right are part of the trade it’s not like the other team was saying please give us Kevin Durant even though he doesn’t want to come here yeah and I think it would have been a bad idea for Minnesota to ignore KD’s that trade also just didn’t like it again like we talked about before a Rudy Goar trade for Kevin Durant did not make sense for Minnesota despite what people might say about the value of Rudy Goar and Kevin Durant it would have made the wolves worse so yeah that this is this to me was always the Houston was always the place that made the most sense yes as the process played out the Rockets were the team that where it just it it worked because of what I would say to your point Brian is if and you you were all over this story in February so you should correct me if I’m wrong on this for sure but if the Suns had worked with Kevin a little better in February and greased the skids to get him to Golden State in February that would have been a much better outcome than this outcome for the Suns but agree but yes but but short of that happening right that is now off the board you look at the options available now the options available now this is the best that they had which is the best of a a very you know mediocre lot and it’s again to me it it’s less about the merits of this specific trade than it is the all-encompassing nature of everything that’s gone wrong the past couple of years to McMahon’s point of just the continual throwing assets down the drain repeatedly and all these various decisions that have all led up to this which is why I am very curious to see what the next couple weeks look like because of where it could land him let me amend my point kd controlled his last two trades he controlled getting himself to Phoenix and he controlled blocking or dis disengaging the Warriors and Wolves correct to some level yet Phoenix paid a massive premium to get him mhm and then had to pay and then had to sell him for less because of the because of the lack of a the lack of a competitive market so they they paid a huge price in a non-competitive market the first time around and then paid you know sold low for the same reason two years two and a half years later made a big splash there was a lot of sizzle there was little substance in terms of winning you know KD won a playoff series um in Phoenix and then they had to sell I don’t know I’m not going to say pennies on the dollar but certainly change on the dollar i’m just saying when he came to Phoenix it was the only place he wanted to go he said I only wanted he told the Nets I only wanted to be traded to the Suns and they gave up four picks and three swaps and two Bridges and Cam Johnson yeah that I mean that that was a an immense hole and this is a fraction of that one one one more thing 2018 do you remember when the Suns traded for Dylan Brooks but Oh yeah that’s right thought it was Marawn Brooks yeah no I don’t know where Marshon is but Dylan is definitely going to Phoenix this time around well maybe not we’ll see i think Marshon might be playing in China i’m not sure all right i just remembered that the the Yeah no this is the the the Rockets only had one Brooks there might have been some confusion uh if there was other guys involved but there was only one Brooks whatever that was i don’t even remember who else was involved i just remember it was a three team trade kelly Ubé was involved I believe wasn’t Austin Rivers involved i don’t know or I don’t know i remember yeah whatever it was i think WoE reported I remember Wes reporting um Dylan Brooks blah blah blah blah blah dylan Brooks and whatever to Phoenix and then like five minutes later he’s like “Oh correction.” It was actually Marshon Brooks this sounds like correction i want to correct that correction oh my god all right anyway the Rockets as we talked about for months I don’t think the Rockets wanted to trade for a 37y old player but they got the price to a point here i mean just so you know the Rockets the Rockets didn’t want to pay a premium for a 30 player right yeah this is the thing I was going to say before the Suns have been waiting for weeks for somebody to blink and nobody did so why make I think because they decided they had to move forward and nobody was going to budge there’s been weak like this had none of this has I think changed for a while like Miami’s offer I don’t believe was changing they were not putting in the more attractive stuff i don’t think Houston’s offer was changing i don’t think they were putting in more attractive stuff miami had an opport Yeah before because I’m starting to see people say “Oh my gosh the Heat lost.” Miami had a chance to make a better offer at the trade deadline and elected not to make it and they had a chance to make a better offer now maybe they couldn’t outbid Houston anyway but I’m just telling you no they could have outed Houston if they chose to they chose not to the Heatrew The Heat actively chose to get Andrew Wiggins in a first round pick in February then trade picks with stuff to get Kevin Durant in February they made that active decision and by the way then they then lost by a billion to the Cavs in the first round of the playoffs like this Heat team giving up future assets for a 37y old Kevin Durant didn’t make any sense at all no where whereas I do think it does make a lot of sense for Houston this particular trade not giving up the farm for Kevin Durant not and again their whole thing was they didn’t want to make a deal that shortened the runway but they knew they needed a go-to guy they knew that was the one massive missing piece but there they’ve got a chance I think to be you know we can play semantics on contender but this was a two seed that gave the Warriors very competitive series um as my light goes out is like young athletic tough and now they’re adding one of the most skilled a guy who’s still one of the most skilled players in the league i love this move for the Rockets look the Rockets essentially have taken Jaylen Green out of their lineup an inefficient not all that great scorer who on this team well he was sometimes great he was great about one and a half listen he had he had moments but he he was not a player that was good enough to be the best perimeter scorer on a team that’s trying to win anything maybe he will be in the future one one big splash game and the rest was blah that that’s kind of and their team their team was an excellent defensive team that was mediocre to bat on offense a lot of the time and they grinded out a lot of wins right they now have added Kevin Durant to that team in essentially just in place of Jaylen Green they’ll have Fred Van Vleet back they can assuming they don’t make any other trades which by the way they have kept virtually all their assets so they could go make another big trade if they want this yeah and by the way they were they were probably going to trade the 10th pick no matter what they were probably going to trade they didn’t have room for another young asset on this team obviously if there’s a guy at 10 that they were in love with and like “Oh my god this is a perfect fit.” They would have done it they couldn’t play their lottery pick last year right reed Shepard barely played yeah this tent and they couldn’t get him and they wouldn’t trade him either this pick was probably not going to go to Houston anyway so yeah they give a lottery pick here but they didn’t even value that pick like and but again it’s a it’s a lottery pick that they got by making a great deal with Brooklyn last year by the way let’s just do this right now let’s just do this since I’ve got a pen and I’m writing stuff down oh I like it right let’s write down how many things that the that the that the Rockets have that they value more than Jaylen Green in the number 10 pick okay amin Thompson let’s just Hold on hold on hold on he’s got it right got it got it keep going amin Thompson yep uh Jabar Tori E shun alpar Shenon i should have he honestly should be should be higher on that list there’s no order of these no order on these Reed Shepard um the the other two Suns picks that they have yep i you know I think that’s a What about the Mavericks what about the Mavericks pick the Mavericks pick yes definitely probably although although the value the value on that over the last couple years is the Mavs have traded Luc i still think people would take a swing on Dallas at the moment given where Dallas is at all right what about Fred Van Vleet they love Fred Van Vleet um I would Yeah Fred is Fred i think the Suns would have taken Fred Van Vleet i’m putting him on there no for sure oh god Fred Van Vetle is exactly the kind of point guard the Suns no that’s so it’s a minimum of eight or nine assets that and and look the other thing about trading Jaylen Green it probably opens up minutes for Reed Shepard who last year and Reed Shepard was not in the rotation you know he was hurt at the time but he hadn’t really been in the rotation when I went down there and wrote this story about the Rockets are are are primed to to make a big splash but they’re going to be it’s a very cautious approach i was told they think Reed Shepard might be the most talented offensive player on that roster well and well yes not anymore kevin Durant is now but Well but look I also think I mean again if you’re talking about knockout effects of this ro of this trade let’s let’s just say the Rockets are who they are basically right i really like Jabari Smith i think he’s a really good player as a as a forward who can shoot it and guard multiple positions moving Dylan Brooks off out of there in particular you move Dylan Brooks and Jaylen Green out there’s now more minutes for Jabari Smith to play whose minutes would sometimes fluctuate last year there’s more minutes and more of a role for Amen Thompson even more than what he had before he’s obviously a focal point for them going forward there’s more minutes for Tar Een going forward there’s arguably even more minutes for Cam Whitmore going forward who is an interesting player who’s had an up and down career so far he’s been to the G-League some he’s had some some public battles with Eay Odoka second apron stuff here this the Suns are still in the second apron in another construction of this trade they probably could have asked for Cam Whitmore in this trade but they couldn’t get him in this trade because they would have taken back too much money right so like I’m not sure exact I I just to be clear I don’t have the exact reporting on the on the construction but like this even if even if they were willing to give Cam they couldn’t have done all three of those guys for Durant right so like there’s where the second apron bites you and I think the point is whether you know let’s let’s throw the two Suns picks they have out because you know maybe those picks will neither will be in the top 10 because the Suns can look you in the eye and say we traded for a top 10 pick yeah they’re at the very bottom line they’re they probably didn’t trade their five preferred assets and I’m talking young players just young players five preferred young players yeah their five their five best players are still on the right they didn’t trade any of their really good two-way young players jabari Smith Jr uh Tari Ein Thompson um those guys are completely don’t ask and that’s and that’s what the Suns were that’s what the Suns have been hoping for they’ve been hoping for somebody whether it’s Miami to put in KLE whether it’s Houston to put in one of these guys whether it’s Minnesota to to want to do something where it’s San Antonio to whatever name the team right they were hoping somebody would go we got to get Kevin Durant and jump in and do what the Sun not to the same degree the Suns did but to do what the Suns did two and a half years ago and overpay but everybody saw the situation for what it was where Kevin Durant is a distressed asset who’s 37 who has an injury history who’s going to want a ton of money who by the way has won two playoff series in the last six years so I think there is some question about the level of winning he can drive still now I do think Houston is the perfect place for him to go a bunch of young athletic dudes around him an offense that is pretty isolationheavy where they’re going to let Kevin be able to have the ball and operate and work around these guys gives a parent shenon more room to operate inside like I think I think basketball-wise this was easily the best fit by a mile with a coach he’s got a relationship with and likes like I do think it’s a it’s a very good trade for the Rockets and look if there’s a big fish that comes available between now and the trade deadline in February they could still go get a guy because they have all this stuff to trade i don’t think the Rockets are hoping for a big fish to become available their whole thing was they wanted their young core to be able to grow and they Well listen I’m not saying I never really I’ll be honest I never really bought the belief they were selling in Jaylen Green um whatever he was down the list to the guys who I think have the most value to the Rockets by the way just in terms of fit Jackson’s performance as a producer today much much better than uh his pickup performance here you go rockets seventh in isolations per game last season but 27th in points per ISO durant led the league in points per ISO among you know high usage guys among guys who run at least 200 they got still at 37 kd is one of if not the best ISO player and they just didn’t have the guy who could get him buckets when things stalled they didn’t have the guy late in the fourth quarter of a playoff game they didn’t have the guy who could say “Hey get us a bucket they’ve got this is going to be an elite defensive team this is going to be an elite rebounding team.” That’s how they had an ugly ass offense and were still a second seed that gave the Warriors a tough series now they’ve got that go-to guy we’ll see how long he’s at that level but you know at least a couple of years you know if it’s a two-year extension that third year maybe maybe it’s tough but again they did it without sacrificing core even if they don’t extend let’s say Kevin Durant doesn’t extend let’s say it’s a one-year deal i still think it’s a big win for Houston yeah like this is a this is a a no doubt trade for that they get off of Jaylen Green’s contract and they get off and they get off of Dylan Brooks’s money which Dylan Brooks’s contract is fine but it like and you could turn like to McMahon’s point he if he’s in Phoenix he’ll be useful if they want to trade him for an asset he’ll be he’s useful places but they have a lot of guys who could play that role between Tar East and Jabari Smith and AM Thompson like that’s an expendable piece they have a million young players and draft picks so the 10th pick is an expendable piece and look Jaylen Green was their dominant perimeter shooter last year right he shot 42% overall he shot 35% from three on 17 attempts a game from the field in the playoffs played 30 minutes he shot 37% from the field shot 29% from three they replaced that with Kevin Durant the Rockets have a chance to drastically better offensive team with Durant and again Reed Shepard is a wild card in all this all right let’s talk about the big big let’s talk let’s let’s talk about the bigger picture with the Rockets okay I want to talk about what they did with the Stephen Adam they they signed Stephen Adams last week to a contract extension and I you know he’s a quality roleplaying big man who would have gotten attention on the market they kept him off the market but I want to talk about the contract he did he signed a contract that descends in value it’s $14 million 13 million 11 million they’re doing that because they’re trying to already manage the the salaries that they’ve got so this summer they are in position to extend Jabari Smith i would think since they kept him out of this trade that they intend to do so but and Tari E then the year after that they have to take care you know one year from now they have to take care of a men Thompson and if a men Thompson has another year like he did this last year I think that’s a max i’m coming you know that’s a fun that’s fund max territory i mean I know that we’re we’re in an era where the fund max is under threat because of the apron yeah i mean we’ll see i don’t think the number Yeah i don’t think that’s whatever the number it’s it’s going to be a it’s going to be a big extension they they they did some maneuvering on both El Perin Shenon and Jen Green’s extensions last year where where they didn’t yield um so that’s why I’m that’s that’s why I don’t just flippantly say “Oh yeah they’re going to give D you know that’s why I want to know what the Durant extension is.” And also remember Fred Van Vleet they have a team option on him for next season now he is going to be a rocket there’s no way that they’re going to not pick that up unless they have an understanding of what a new contract is going to be but here’s my thing i just I just said they got to page you know and this is this is where the Second Apron thing is different in the past it was like Tilman Fertitta are you okay with having a $300 million payroll with taxes you are okay fine let’s pay all these dudes all right now you can’t do that so that’s my question they in the next they they probably already have an understanding with Durant now and if they don’t they got a pretty good It’s going to be fast they better have an understanding with Fred Van Vleet now and if they don’t it’s going to be fast so what happens with Durant and Van Vleet are going to be key in the next few days they already moved Van Vleet’s option date back to help facilitate any moves they could make right so they’ve already been working with Fred on this i’m sure Fred will be there to your point it would certainly make sense if Fred opts out of this 44 million and signs for a longer term deal on lower numbers that allows for them to have more flexibility going forward i’m not saying it’s definitely going to happen although the other thing that could make sense is for for them to give him the 44 with an understanding of hey we can’t officially do it now but this 44 is essentially we’re going to give you this lump sum now and a massive pay cut later but we we this is to keep you around for the next three or four years sure that that that’s a possibility there’s different ways there’s different ways to do that right what the certainty is is Fred Van Vleet is firmly in their plans fred Van Vleet is completely aligned with Rafel Stone with Emeoka with Patrick Fertitta and he like he is a huge huge part of that franchise’s management coaching staff and on the floor like he’s he’s one of the best leaders in the league one of the best locker room presences in the league like obviously won a title at Toronto tough as nails like exactly the kind of guy you thinko would love to have as his point guard like it’s not a coincidence Fred has shown up there these young guys have all gotten better like you know he’s definitely going to be there and yeah but that’s the point right like they’re working with Fred Van Vleet emodoka’s got a long-standing relationship with Kevin Durant like you’re he’s going to walk in there with I’m sure some understanding of what it is they’re trying to do like yeah they were together in Brooklyn for a year they were together with Team USA and by the way Royale Ivy one of Eay’s uh assistants a guy who you know I think’s got future head coach potential certainly had a hell of a run with uh South Sudan’s national team um one of Kevin’s best friends yeah college teammate for years teams have been hiring Royal Ivy and they’ve been like “Oh they’re they’re doing it to get Durant.” I think he made an OKC too didn’t he and to your point on the the second apron thing Brian you make a really good point about the Rockets now I didn’t like the Jaylen Green deal at the time that doesn’t matter the but it served its function i mean it did serve it function but that’s not that’s not the point of the discussion though but the Alparin Shangun deal I think is very instructive of where the Rockets were thinking ahead in ways that a lot of other teams were not apparent Shenon when he was up for his extension in a a lot of other teams would have just given him a max deal he’d already been off to a great start in his career he was on a all-star trajectory he may have already made the all-star team i don’t remember if this was his first year he may or if he last year was but last year was he was he was the fun max fund max zone yes the fund max doesn’t really exist anymore at least it shouldn’t because you have to mind every single dollar on your books and I’m just I’m looking at Bobby Marx’s sheet so going forward a guy in Alparent Shenon who could have been on the 25% max right here’s his percentage of the cap under Bobby’s projections for the next four years 18% 17% 16% 15% if you have a guy like that and you’re paying him 15% instead of 24% right yeah that is very easily the difference between one or two more good players being on your team that’s the kind of stuff that more teams have to start thinking about and not just giving away extra money on extensions and deals because then you look a year or two later go “Oh man we’re now bumping up against the second apron.” You know like look at Minnesota minnesota look at Cleveland look at Cleveland look at Minnesota they have to make decisions do they keep Nikquil Alexander Walker and Nas Reed and what do they do with Julius Randle can Cleveland keep Tai Jerome and Sam Merrill like can you know Boston we’re talking all season what’s Boston who how many players is Boston going to lose because they’re so expensive you mentioned Phoenix couldn’t get Cam Whitmore in this trade at least in part because it was it cost too much money right couldn’t aggregate that way so like that’s why you just it’s really I think critically important for teams to be hyperfocused on every dollar in these deals and yeah like you might have to negotiate a little bit i’m sure the Shangoon negotiations were a little rockier than it would have been if I mean they didn’t they didn’t happen till right before the deadline you know they weren’t sure they were going to take that but both Jaylen Green and Shenon both did the deals right at the end and the Rockets quote unquote won those yeah and that and that extra 20 or $30 million over the life of Shangon’s deal that could be the difference between them keeping Taren or keeping Jabari Smith or somebody else just stick with your percentages this is the way smart teams have been talking for a few years not the actual dollars but the percentages of the cap if you sign two players to 25% of the cap that’s half of your half of your salary cap if you sign one to 18% and one to 21% you’ve just created a spot for a whole another player just on percentages and then as then and then as the cap goes on obviously the cap go will go up and that percentage goes down so maybe you don’t necessarily keep a player the first year you negotiate hard but maybe in the third year you’re able to do that and that’s like like look today the the Oklahoma City Thunder are 100% focused on trying to get their first championship that is what this is all about they can’t be bothered with what Kevin Durant’s being traded for they can’t be bothered on this other stuff but when this is over they’ve got three contracts to sign okay they’ve got to do Alexander Chad Williams Jaylen Williams Chad Homegr and if they can squeeze three two or three percentage points underneath you know if they could get Chad Homegrren for 21% 22% if they could somehow get Jaylen you know or like I’m not I’m not putting words in the guy’s mouth i as far as I know he’s never addressed this but Shay Gildus Alexander who represents himself now if he basically says “Hey I want to maximize our chances of contending i’ll take I’ll take a little bit less than the full supermax.” Like there’s a lot of possibilities how do you keep Kase Wallace in three years you get Chad Homegrren to take 20% instead of 25% of your cap yeah because like you said it’s not it’s not just as simple as you pay everybody right it’s not just the owners got to pay money like the the Thunder are a good example they in 2014 and 2015 were saving money in 2012 and 2013 to pay the Kevin Durant Sergea Russell Westbrook Thunder after they all resigned now obviously history went in a different direction but they wound up having a gigantic luxury tax bill for Russell Westbrook Paul George Carmelo Anthony and that money was money they had earmarked four or five years earlier with all those picks they have like they didn’t make some splashy all-in trade because they knew like hey this payroll if things progress the way we anticipate it’s going to get big yes and so now it’s a combination of you have to be planning ahead financially right which the Thunder have been doing to pay all of these guys from a pure monetary standpoint but you also have to plan ahead from a salary number perspective on the cap because you just if you’re you can go in the second apron for a couple years but once you do there’s a time crunch because of all the limitations you have on your roster between the draft pick stuff you can’t sign guys over the minimum you can’t aggregate all these things it just really restricts what you can do with your team so when you’re going to go in there a you got to be good enough to win and b you got to be able to get back out and so that’s the calculus all these teams have to make and like look Orlando just made this Desbane trade i really like this trade for them like we’ll see if they didn’t negotiate on France Vagner they gave France Vagner full 25% fund max they didn’t really fight with him on that we’ll see if in a couple years we’ll see where Orlando’s books are at maybe they’ll have to start making hard decisions and that extra 10 million might end up making a huge difference for him you know the uh the other element of the negotiations with I think Jabari Smith Jr in particular you know a former number three overall pick a guy who certainly has shown that he’s a quality two-way player he was coming off the bench last year um I and and you know because Amin Thompson took took that job when Jabari Smith Jr was out and just like was never coming out of the starting lineup i wonder now if you know is it is it as simple as hey Jabari you’re back in the starting lineup um you know you’re assured of a starting role and then and you kind of take that element out of any uh extension discussions i I I don’t know that um because you know Tar East also could very easily slide into the starting lineup yeah there’s going to be a lot we’re going to have to discuss there’s going to be more that these teams do um uh and I cannot wait for where happens with this Durant contract and what happens with Fred Van Vleet because um Rafel Stone has had a very successful campaign as the Rockus general manager um and starting with a full-blown tearown Patrick Fertitta Tilman’s son has a played an important role tilman is not the uh ambassador to Italy he’s having cashway Pepe i don’t know if he’s he’s uh you know how much he’s never he’s never Tilman’s never really been involved in the day-to-day tilman’s contribution has been getting out of the way after the Chris Paul trade well he’s I don’t know but seriously it has been about okay you guys think this is the best route I’ll buy it and then staying patient when it was painful because there were three ugly years in Houston but that was what they had to go through i remember the press conference after the Harden deal and he explained what their thought process was and for an owner who’s still very much a new owner hearing that it was you could tell that that it was a hard sell to the fans much less the guy who who bought the team and and then and and who bought the team when they were right before they had a 65 win season and you know the whole hamstring away thing his first game as owner they won in the defending champion Warriors I think they open the season i don’t know if it was the first game or the second game right out of the gate they won in Golden State in the first few games of him being an owner and he was running on the court celebrating well to go full circle to where we started with this like there’s a lot of parallels between the Tilman Fertitta beginning of his run and beginning of his run and Tilman Fertitta learned his lessons and you know we’ve made jokes about the experts now being out of the way tilman Fertitta let his front office do its job and they it took a couple of years and they didn’t get everything right like they drafted Jaylen Green over Evan Mobley which obviously in retrospect isn’t great but if you look at the arc of what they’ve done they’ve built a damn good team they got a ton of assets they have now added Kevin Durant without sacrificing all this stuff they’re signing guys to good contracts like you know it’s going to be very difficult to catch Oklahoma City but like Houston’s sitting here and for the rest of the decade there are very few teams other than Oklahoma City like right now you might even take them over San Antonio even though San Antonio’s victor in the west because of the amount of stuff the Rockets have amassed on this rock including getting to coach the team so like yeah that if you’re Phoenix to go back to the beginning yes they’ve this trade does not feel great to make and let’s see what they do over the next week or two but like at some point there has to be a looking in the mirror moment to go we have to do things differently can’t just keep trying to chase instant gratification of winning today and you know it’s like we’re going to win the championship this year thing it’s not going to work and I think we’ll have a much better sense between now and July 1 or July 8 July 6th or July 8th whether the Suns have started to learn some lessons or whether they’re now just going to take this stuff and throw it at some other guys who are going to try to win now with Devin Booker to win 40 games and these are two new owners who over the last you know since bought the team in the last 5 years for the Rockets have taken polar opposite approaches the Rockets are benefiting greatly from their approach and the Rockets are also benefiting greatly from the Sun’s approach all right that’s uh enough for our emergency pod on to game seven let’s cover game seven um real quick you guys probably saw that Durant um was on stage at the Fanatics Fest in New York City when Shams broke the news there’s a ton of people saying this is when Durant found out it was really cool to see because he had this huge smile on his face and everybody was screaming i believe he was on he was being interviewed um by Taylor Rooks on stage and everybody was screaming “You just got traded.” And he had this big smile on his face he’s like “Oh I know.” Yeah to one of his preferred destinations yes obviously he knew that it it was about to happen he may not have known it had been agreed to but he when he walked on stage he knew but whatever i don’t want to mess with him just just so you know like um he did he’s given some interviews afterwards um sort of saying that same thing but it was still a unique thing to see and um and so that I mean we we’ve we’ve seen guys you know we’ve we hear guys tell stories about where they were when they found out this one was you know in front of a you know hundreds if not thousands of fans I don’t know how many people were there so uh all right thank you to McMahon and to Jackson for cutting their their pickup up game short to come record this podcast no I finished I finished the domination kind of really if I’m being honest it was kind of like an Alpie Shingon type of performance from me today uh all offense no defense listen man they were a top five defense in the league last year buddy i said what I said um all right uh on to game seven uh we got a bunch of free agency and draft stuff coming i recorded a podcast earlier today with Jonathan Gavone so we’ll have that with the draft starting to turn the page to that and uh and game seven postgame seven live stream I believe these are uh these are busy days adios amigos

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to Kevin Durant getting traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets. The guys break down what this return means for the Suns’ future, how this fit could work out for the Rockets and how Houston’s future is now set up moving forward.

0:00 Intro
1:12 Kevin Durant Trade Reaction
5:16 How did the Suns make out in the deal? (Kevin Durant Trade Reaction)
21:34 Houston in good spot moving forward (Kevin Durant Trade Reaction)
32:58 Bigger Picture Outlook For Rockets (Kevin Durant Trade Reaction)
38:07 Importance of Cap Planning in NBA (Bigger Picture Outlook For Rockets)
48:02 Durant Reacting To Trade On Stage

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