Giannis to Miami, LaMelo to Minnesota: NBA Trade Chaos Explained

ShotClock Pod Jun 28, 2026 === ​[00:00:00] Jose: All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, host of Celtic ~of~ Chalk Talk, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, and athletic director. The Shot Clock Pod was born out of contents of Steve's 13 Rules random NBA thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA. Today, we'll discuss his latest 13 Rules random NBA thoughts article, where he shares his random thoughts as the NBA off-season continues, and there were some bombs dropped in at least in terms of trades. We're gonna talk about them. Now, if you're listening to this, we're grateful, thank you. You are listening to one of many independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans who live the game every day, just like Steve and I. If [00:01:00] you believe voices like this should be heard, we appreciate your support. The best way to do that is to keep listening, tell a friend comment, subscribe. All that stuff matters, and we're grateful for all of it. As soon as this episode ends, head down to the PeachBasketPodcastNetwork.com, head over to thePeachBasket.net, check out more podcasts, more articles, and help this independent network grow the way it started, organically, one hoops fan at a time. Thanks again for being here. Steve, are you ready? Steve: Ready Jose: Let's go. I'm gonna start the timer. ~Oh, shoot.~ There we go. Boom, and we're off. All right. NBA off-season is off and running, and in- invariably this time of year you get trade rumors. Steve: ~I can't hear~ Jose: ~You can't hear me?~ ~You lost me? Still nothing? It was working this whole time. Dang. Okay, hold on. Let's see~ Steve: ~I can't talk~ Jose: ~Can you hear me now?~ Steve: ~Yeah, I might have hit something.~ Jose: ~Okay~ Steve: ~what you might wanna do, 'cause I was cleaning something off the, the keyboard. What you might wanna do, you finished with your talk about... So you might wanna pick it up from the first item. You started on the first item. Okay?~ Jose: ~Got it. All right, yeah.~ Steve: ~put it together, I guess~ Jose: ~Yeah, yeah, I can, I I can edit. All right. Dang, that was weird. That was the first time. All right,~ Steve: ~my fault. I, I know,~ Jose: ~nah, no worries. No worries. Um, okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. So, um, the NBA off-season is off and running. This is always a crazy time of year when lots of trade rumors are flying. ~Some of them happen, some of them don't, some of them are silly some of them are just absolutely ridiculous. But some actually, again, do happen, and probably the biggest shoe to drop in terms of trade, of course, is Giannis to the Heat. Pat Riley and the Heat got their star, but are they [00:02:00] better? Y- you wrote about that a little bit. Now tell us about the Heat getting Giannis Steve: For the Heat Riley's always been a star coach. They have little money to do anything. Mitchell Wiggins has got a $30 million option. He-- the be- best thing that can happen there is if they can re-sign him at a less money for a couple years. If he doesn't take his option, which he'd be crazy to, to not take it, he becomes a free agent and they could lose him. That, that's big. So they also have Powell, Norman Powell, who can shoot and play. He's a free agent. Jose: Yep Steve: money to go out and get him. Now, if you take away those two guys from Miami they're in trouble financially. that means they're gonna have a-- they're gonna be getting a lot of minimum contracts. Now, when you think about that, okay, it's gonna take a year or two or three to, find some players. Giannis is getting older, And he's gonna walk away [00:03:00] probably with an extension for a lot of money he said he would sign with Miami, re-sign, and they're gonna give him max money. So what-- They don't have a lot to work with. Giannis is getting older. Giannis, you have to guess, looking at past history, he's gonna miss 15, 20 games next year. So where does that put the Heat without Giannis in the game? I look at that, they could be just a play-in team or a lower seed, like a six or five, and that-that's not good. Now, naturally in the playoffs, a healthy Giannis, they can, upset or bother anybody, but y- you don't have a lot around them. Him and Bam are it. What do they have? Davion Mitchell, Fontecchio. They're not loaded here. So Pelly Larson I'm just thinking. So that's gonna be interesting to see how they can round it out, and I'm just gonna throw something crazy out there. Wouldn't it be ironic if LeBron came [00:04:00] home? Think about that Jose: Yeah Steve: But, and then suddenly they get a little better. But the point being they don't have a lot and there's a problem. That, that, Jose: Yeah. So two things. I took a little bit of heat because when this trade happened, I didn't like it. I didn't like it for the Heat. I didn't quite understand it. They gave up so much. And understanding that they got the better player. Giannis is the better player, there's no argument there. But they gave up-- They did exactly what you don't wanna do when you trade for somebody, is get a really good player, but then don't give him a whole lot of supporting cast. They traded the really good supporting cast. And they needed to, I get it, but the trade didn't make sense to me, and I didn't see the Heat being better. I didn't see them being better. They were a play-in team this year, and they might be a little better. But I took a little bit of heat for that, so I appreciate you kinda backing me up. That helps. But the second thing there is some rumors about about LeBron going to, to Miami. Right now what they're missing is a [00:05:00] distributor. And at this stage in his career, and we've been saying this about LeBron forever, but he's always been really good. I was gonna say, at this stage in r-his career, he's a distributor. He's always been a distributor. But he would fit that model for them, maybe give him 20, 15 minutes, 15, 20, 25 minutes most and be a distributor. But you and I have talked about it before. Does LeBron have the ego, and it is, it's ego to take that kind of back seat to not one guy like Luka, but two guys in Miami less money Steve: He has, Five years ago, LeBron would be somebody that can change the direction of the league. now, he's become more of a player that could put you over the top. He's not the guy that you would bring in that will all of a sudden make us real good. He's still a player, and he's still a good player, but he needs help now. And, he could help Miami in a lot of ways, but again, you're looking at a... He's 41 or 42, and Giannis [00:06:00] is the natural thing, and I think I pointed out in the thing, some different stati- statisticians working and they said an NBA player's best years are from his 24 to 26, meaning points and all the other analytical issues, which is showing the change in the league. But You're dealing with... Now, Giannis doesn't play back to ba- didn't play back to backs. So teams play between generally 12 to 15 back to backs a year. So now you're without him. Now Bam's a good player and I know he scored 83 points, but I don't think he's going to be the one-man offense that you need without Jose: Yeah Steve: So you're in trouble for, 12 to 15 games right off the bat then you go from there. So it's not good. It's not a great situation for the Heat Jose: Yep. Agreed. And we-- if you're a Heat fan, I think you're waiting for the next r- shooter drop, right? Because this can't be it. [00:07:00] The team as constructed right now can't be it. So Pat Riley's gotta have something else working out. Let's see, what happens when the ball tips in in summer league. Not probably summer league, but certainly in preseason. But all right. Let's talk about the Giannis trade but from another perspective, and that is the trade that didn't happen. We know now that the Bucks had a choice, right? They could take the haul from Miami, or they could get Jaylen Brown. They passed on Jaylen Brown. It's kinda shocking to me. Now two things about that. Number one, why do you think they picked what they picked when they could've had a star who's younger than the star they're trading away? And more importantly, I think, does this potentially become Jaylen Brown's Lamar Odom moment? What I mean by that is Lamar got traded Chris Paul to the Lakers. It was rescinded, and it kinda messed with Lamar's head a little bit unfortunately. Is there any [00:08:00] danger of that with Jaylen Brown? Steve: Put that aside for a second. Let's start with the first thing for the Bucs. Jose: Yep Steve: The Bucs had a choice, quality or quantity. Jalen Brown's quality, the Miami package is quantity. Now, when you look at it, generally you take quality if you have draft picks future. Bucs don't have much in draft picks. they took a team that, 30 wins, and won't embarrass themselves. But they-- the smartest thing they can now do is maybe Tyler Herro and get a number one pick or start dealing a few of those people. But then you're going back to the twen- you still don't have enough. But if you think about it, if you have draft picks and you have some money, you're gonna take, you're gonna take a Jalen Brown because he's a better-- great player. So the Bucs did the right thing for the situation. And they took the right [00:09:00] package and that's not to say a guy like Khalil Ware doesn't become a star. a good player and beware, he can play. So you don't know if one of those young guys in there, Jacko- Jackie Otis or whatever his name is, he could score. So there's a little bit of hope there that one of those guys might develop. So I understand totally what the Bucs did. It makes the most sense. But it's still the Bucs, future, unless there's major change, 40 wins is gonna be a good season in any year in the next couple years Now we also-- you asked about Jaylen Brown. It's a very interesting situation and it's fluid. It's fluid as we're Jose: Yeah Steve: I don't know what Jaylen Brown's value is. I don't know... I know Boston's asking for a lot. I have to believe Brad Stevens does a lot of, he's a, he's more of a player's coach or [00:10:00] player's general manager. He does a lot of talking and working with the people. And they-- like with Jrue Holiday when they traded him, Jrue knew he was gonna go 'cause Stevens made it clear. I have to think him and Jaylen Brown had a lot of conversations. They did. Supposedly, Stevens said that in his press conference last week. So if they did, I have to wonder, did Jaylen Brown say something along the line, "Okay, try to trade me. I'd like to go, but if not, I can, I can handle this." Because I, I don't think Jaylen Brown... First of all, Jaylen Brown's very much vocal in the media and everywhere else. He hasn't really made any comments about that. So y-you have to wonder what went on inside. and my sense would be Brown knows the situation and probably doesn't mind going somewhere and being the number one player. Probably would like it. he also knows if he stays that's [00:11:00] fine for a year, and just keep working to get me out of here and that's fine. But also, we're gonna learn a lot. I think I said this last week. January 6th, Boston can offer to, to up him for another couple years. He's still got three years on his contract. They can offer two more ridiculous money. If Boston offers that money maybe he's gonna be there. And by the way, Jaylen Brown might be upset, suddenly, if you're getting five years and you're averaging about 70, 75 million a year, that would calm me down a lot. So that would be the way I would think it Jose: Yeah, money has a way of helping things out a little bit, especially when things don't work out your way. But yeah. It's tough. Again I don't mean to kinda link Brown to Odom, but i- to me Steve: but Jose: it's similar, but Steve: There's no comparison. Jose: that's what you called out. He's, I think, is obviously a different person, but I think you called out probably the most important thing. Brad Stevens is a different person, right? This is a guy [00:12:00] who talks to his players, lets them know, so there's no shock, there's no surprise. You're not hearing about it from your, on your phone when you're working out that you got traded. And that's the part that I think might have been difficult, made it difficult for Lamar Odom. All right. Let's talk about... And we're gonna kinda pivot now a little bit 'cause this is an interesting conversation. You kinda hinted to it a little bit. Steve: though. Isn't it Jose: Yeah. Steve: you take an obscure Laker and compare him with the MVP in the playoffs a couple years ago and pretty good player. And Jose: Yeah. Steve: obscure Laker that Jose: Obscurely Steve: of other guys. He was a good player. He wasn't great. He was a good player. Jose: Yeah. Steve: N-now Jose: former Clipper Steve: about one of the top 10 or 15 players in the NBA. You're comparing him? Come on. It's like Jose: Just the situation, not the player, just the situation. Steve: a Laker, by the way. But you're comparing, you're it would be like comparing LeBron to Deuce McBride. Come on. Let's be serious now.[00:13:00] Jose: Yeah. Steve: I'm sorry Jose: Now you're comparing Lamar Odom to Deuce McBride Steve: No, but what I'm saying is something ridiculous, something that's pretty obvious. Okay, how about LeBron in his prime and Bridges, Mikal Bridges? Jose: Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. I, again, no disrespect, it's, I, it was just the situ- it was just the situation. But let's pivot a little before this bus- this spirals out of control Steve: I often wonder when we talk, I often wonder, like when we evaluate players, there's the Lakers and then the rest of the league we evaluate. But the Lakers are above them. The first 15 are Lakers, and then we go to the other teams, and that includes Bronny James. But go ahead with your evaluation tool. Go ahead Jose: Guilty as charged. I don't even know what else to say. You brought up a very interest-- I don't know how to pivot cleanly from this. You brought up a very interesting conversation. You hinted about this before, too today, that [00:14:00] NBA contracts skew older, right? In terms of the more money goes to the older players, and that's always been the case, right? In the NBA, you're rewarded for what you did. You're not getting paid for what you're expected to do, right? That's generally what it is. The people that get the big contracts are not the ones with the, with the highest ceiling. They're the ones who've had a really great off-season or, last season. You- you're suggesting it's time for a change in the collective bargaining agreement, which I think you wrote doesn't, isn't-- you can't opt out of that until '28, '29, so it's a long way out if it happens. ~But you're, you're envisioning something different. How would you do it? What's your perfect CBA look like?~ Steve: ~Hold on, you froze at 16:32, you froze. stopped here. So~ Jose: ~weird~ Steve: ~yeah, I don't know why. I don't know what,~ Jose: ~Okay, 16:32 was 20 seconds ago.~ Steve: ~Y- you're suggesting is where you started. The last thing you said was you're suggesting~ Jose: ~Okay. Let me, uh, uh, let, let me, uh, let me start there. So NBA contracts skew old, okay? By that, the more money goes to the older players, and you're suggesting something different, because it just doesn't make sense that the big money doesn't go to the players with the highest ceiling. It goes to the players who had the greatest off-sea- or last season.~ ~That's a problem, and you're suggesting that the CBA address it. Now, you wrote that the, uh, the CBA can't be discussed, or you can't opt out of that contract until 28-29, so it's a ways away.~ But what do you envision, what would you change to kinda fix that salary, Steve: There... Jose: issue? Steve: If you're a fan Let's use the Lakers. If you're a Laker fan, Jose: Thank you Steve: Austin Reaves started out with the Lakers, you want him to be there for the rest of his career if you're a Laker fan. What happens is, Jaylen Brown's a good example. Jaylen [00:15:00] Brown will be 30, this year. He will make a lot of money, and if they re-up him, it's five years. That goes up to 35. Obviously, it's diminishing returns you're getting back and the money you're paying him. So what it-- the NBA, this system does, is makes teams, when they get to 30, get rid of the guy. You-- He's got value. But-- And what the problem with that is, and let's go back to Austin Reaves, the Laker fan to see the guy play with them for his whole career, not trade him. Many years ago, Danny Ainge, when he was a player, had-- or right after, had this discussion with Red Auerbach. You should have traded Bird and McHale at the end of their career of letting them go out as Celtics, because then you're getting something back. A system that is like that is [00:16:00] not fan-friendly. So I think what the NBA has to do is sit down and look at these guys who've been 10 years with the team, even if they're making, count it maybe half in the salary cap so that they're not locked in. Think about Joel Embiid making 70 million. Jose: Right Steve: hurt more and-- but he's staying with Philly, and he probably-- he'll retire probably a Sixer. So that-- the point being, that's good that he's staying with them 'cause there's a lot of kids with J- Embiid jerseys walking around, and a lot of kids in Philly that love Joel Embiid. So what I'm saying to you is, there's gotta be a way where you can keep these guys. Think about what Danny Ainge is saying. Danny Ainge was looking at it from a business point when he spoke to Red Auerbach about that, but he was right. And there's something wrong if Boston were to trade Larry Bird. Does that mean the Bulls would trade Michael Jordan? Come on. It is something-- it's [00:17:00] not right for these guys. Jaylen Brown, 10 years a Celtic, and now he's gonna go probably. And it's the right thing to do because of the financial thing. And I, as I pointed out, and I said before, from 24 26 years old, that's the best production you're gonna get out of a player. think about that for a while. What does that mean? You wanna get young players, good legs, play every night, don't miss games and c- keep you going. Look at Oklahoma, how young they were. Look at San Antonio, how young they were. That's what-- That's where the game is going, to the young people Jose: So you-- I'm trying to put this into, i-i-into practice. So k-kind of what you're suggesting is to flip things. In other words, the money goes to the folks in that... Go-- a-and yeah, maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but you're gonna take the rookie contracts and you're gonna, you're gonna, y-you're gonna increase that salary [00:18:00] level, Steve: I'm not. Jose: you're gonna decrease... You're not. Go ahead Steve: you, what I'm saying to you is this. If you're gonna... Let's use Jaylen Brown. If you're gonna trade Jaylen Brown because of the co- the CBA, you're gonna trade him, go out and get 23, 24-year-olds. Now, they're not gonna make a lot of money, you, if you pick the right... L- let me hear. Hypothetically, let's say Boston and Detroit, 'cause Jalen Duren is the, he's saying, "Sign and trade me." Let's use that. Let's say Boston signs Jalen Duren, trades Jaylen Brown. Now, what do you want with him? He's young. What do you want with him? Here, I'm gonna give you a couple things. How about Osar Thompson and Dennis what's his name? Dennis Je- They're young. They have potential to be great. Thompson's a great Jose: Yeah Steve: Can't shoot real well but can defend. it Denor- Dennis De- Dennis Jen- Jenkins or Jose: Yeah, that's yeah, Steve: his name is? He yeah, he's young. He's got great potential. Take [00:19:00] those guys and use them, and naturally, Thompson will be coming up on a bigger contract soon. But get their three, four years out of them. By the time they're 27 or 28, move on. Trade them, move on. And just keep regenerating through young players as opposed to what's going on now, where you're signing Giannis, and it's a great gamble. And I can't sit and tell you he's not gonna be healthy, but all the odds say there's gonna be an injury or two next year. And you want that? That's what I'm saying Jose: Yeah. We're stuck with it, the CBA, like you said, and you called out in your article, right? It can't be renegotiated until '28, '29 we got a couple more years of this. But we'll see what direction the game takes. I wanna talk about the other trade that went down, and this one kinda was a bit surprising, 'cause of course there was a lot of talk about Giannis, and then finally that, that shoe dropped, and there's talk about Jaylen Brown.[00:20:00] There wasn't a whole lot of talk about LaMelo Ball. You heard some rumors. I know the Clippers had some interest. But it wasn't... I was a bit shocked, and I was certainly shocked by who he went to. Now, I gotta ask you this. The sh- the Hornets, since January of this year, they were the best team in the league. Offensive rating, they led everybody. They had a record nine-game winning streak. They went from just no chance to a play-in and actually won a game in the play-in. Th- they were pretty good, and they were building something. Why trade LaMelo Ball now seems so odd to me, and what's the fit like in Minnesota? Steve: Let's start with Charlotte. The first thing I'll ask you, is LaMelo Ball a serious basketball player? Jose: That's so subjective. I, what does that even mean? Steve: does he w- By saying that, does he wanna win or does he wanna entertain? So just put that aside and think about Jose: [00:21:00] Yeah. All right Steve: thing. If you watched Charlotte during the year, I saw it a couple times where down the stretch, LaMelo made some stupid mistakes or threw up something from 30 feet, which he's prone to do. Charles Lee, new coach, pulls him, and they go Jose: Yeah Steve: him down the stretch. That tells you something right away. Jose: Yeah Steve: 'Cause you don't do that to your star. A couple things. Management's on your team. They've had enough of LaMelo. And LaMelo did try harder last year than before because his habit used to be defensively, any screen or any action, he never dropped below the foul line and followed anybody. He really didn't defend real well. He defended a lot harder. He's not a great defensive player. He's talented, believe me. the point being, they had seen that and said maybe we should move on and get what we can." making $45 million. So they trade him for Naz Reid and some draft picks. Naz Reid is only about [00:22:00] $25 million, so they ma- you know, they, they're saving money on that. The team is really Miller's and Knuppel. They-- It's their team. Jose: Yeah Steve: And Knuppel's the guy that changed the attitude of the team and really them thinking winning as opposed to anything else. it makes sense when you see that, and they made a great trade. They needed size. Naz Reid gives them some. They still need another big, He gives them some size. So for them it's good. Now, when you look at Minnesota, it's really interesting Minnesota was always, I guess since Finch has been the coach a gritty team. The one thing I would say, LaMelo Ball is not gritty. they took a shot here, and they're gambling. They felt this team they have la- last year that they finished with, wasn't good enough to compete with the big two, Oklahoma and San Antonio. We've gotta Jose: Yeah Steve: They got rid of Randle for nothing. They re-signed [00:23:00] Nesumu, and he's a good player. I don't know if he's as good as Randle right now, but he's a good player. They believe, what's his name? They have a guy on the bench, a big man, Ber- Bergeron, who's not bad, and they think he's got a future. And probably if he can play, and they're right, you'll see Gobert go in a year or two. But they have Edwards, have Ball. They went small. They're gonna make Jaden McDaniels their four. Now, y- we talked about this a couple weeks ago. San Antonio and-- is a problem 'cause of their size with the big guy. How do you pl- how do you attack that? And what they're doing looking for offense, scoring, and shooting. Edwards can shoot. Ball can shoot a three. Nesumu's more of a slasher, but look at how they changed the game, and they're banking on a couple things. A, the shooting be able to counteract the size. risk. Also, Finch has got the most to [00:24:00] lose if it doesn't work and LaMelo's not sold on this Anthony Edwards might want out. Finch will Jose: Yeah Steve: line and you're starting over. But I understand it because they weren't good enough to beat those two teams, and they had to do something. I don't think-- I believe that the team Minnesota has now is not as good as t- last year's team, but I could be wrong. And that's the risk they took in doing this. And I understand it. And teams in the West now have to think about a couple things if they're gonna contend. How do we attack seven-foot-four guy? Jose: Yeah Steve: How do-- y- so there's a lot to it. Now, Oklahoma City, look what they did. They just got two guys that are seven-footers, and they re-signed Hardenstein. So what do you think they're trying to do? They're trying to counteract the big guy. Jose: Sure Steve: teams have to take note and say okay, what kind of [00:25:00] basketball will work?" Minnesota's taking a risk with shooters, but what kind of basketball could possibly beat the big guy, Wemby, or Oklahoma City, who has-- they, they now have, what, four seven-footers counting the guy who had the bad playoffs. I can't think of the name off the top of my head. The other Chet Holmgren. They, Jose: Oh, Chet Holmgren. Horrible playoffs Steve: yeah, they have four big people. Is that a counter or are they gonna trade Chet? Who knows. But the point being, look at what's going on. Jose: Yeah Steve: you're thinking about it, n- in the last 10 years, we haven't had a situation where teams were trying to figure out how to compete with a good team. They were just trying to amass talent and play. Now it's a little different. Jose: Yeah. Steve: what I see Jose: Yeah. It is odd, right? That the team, their best player, arguably in the league right now is 7'4". That's the way, the league is young. Y- the league is tall now. They- things change, and the [00:26:00] Timberwolves are going in the opposite direction. Not that they're getting older, but they're looking at shooters. Th- there's not a whole lot you can do with Wemby, so I think they're just thi- thinking let's just let's score three to every one of their two, I don't know. We'll see how it plays out. This is the most exciting time of the year if you're a basketball fan, e- especially if you're the fan of a, of the general manager, 'cause this is when they make their money Steve: Queta Jose: undeniably. You heard the buzzer go off. We're in the midst of World Cup, so we took a little extra time. If you're watching the games, you know that the clock means nothing in World Cup soccer or really soccer in general because they always add extra time. We had a couple of technical glitches, and we had more to talk about, so we added some extra time. How's that? That worked out really well. Steve: Great Jose: but our time is up. That is where we've gotta end this. Please make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules article. We will link it wherever you're watching or listening to this today to hear more or to read more about Steve's thoughts on the Mavs' new coach and an interesting situation in [00:27:00] Portland, which I think says a lot about the coach and says a lot about the ownership in Portland. Good reading. Make sure you follow that. But that's it. Our time is up. Thank you again for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire article, we just said that, and join us next week for more NBA Random Thoughts. Steve, we'll talk then. Thank you. Steve: Take care