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00:00 here. Miles Bridges. Been a lot of rumours. Chase, I'm going to read a few of them here,
00:04 a lot of reports about Miles Bridges' future. First, I think Jake Fisher reported from Yahoo
00:09 Sports that the Jazz are one of several teams who called to express interest in Miles Bridges,
00:14 along with Detroit and Phoenix. He also writes in the same piece that there was league-wide
00:19 scepticism that Hornets would be able to retain Bridges, but now they have newfound flexibility,
00:24 creating as much as 45 million in upcoming cap space. It could push an interested team
00:30 into trading for him now, as opposed to leaving Bridges available to re-sign with the NBA club
00:36 he's only known. Interesting tidbit at the end there. Also, in Phoenix, there's been two
00:42 reporters, Dwayne Rankin of the Arizona Republic, he wrote, "Suns confirmed to the Republic,
00:47 the Suns are interested in Charlotte Hornets forwarding Miles Bridges. The Suns aren't just
00:52 looking at Bridges, they have 10 or more other players on their radar." And then Gerald Bourget
00:58 from the Phoenix Suns also said, "As first reported by Phoenix Suns podcast, the Suns'
01:05 interest in Miles Bridges is very real. It's been confirmed by multiple outlets, and where there's
01:09 that much smoke, there's typically fire." Now, that all kind of came out in a period of two days,
01:15 and then Miles Bridges went public with a quote to the Charlotte Observer, shout out to Rob Green
01:21 of the Charlotte Observer, and he wrote, "Like I said before, the Hornets have been behind me,
01:26 and I want to stay here. I want to stay here, and that's never going to change. So as much as talk
01:31 as people have that's going around, I just want people to know I want to stay with the Hornets."
01:37 That's a lot whirlwind since we last spoke. Reports from multiple teams, multiple outlets,
01:44 then Miles Bridges coming out publicly, saying to the Observer, "I want to stay."
01:49 What do you make of this situation? It's a complex one.
01:52 It definitely is. I've kind of been saying all year that I don't really know what his value is
01:58 as a player, just due to the myriad of off-court situations, both the legal situation and his
02:04 contract status having taken the qualifying offer. But now, I think it's at least getting
02:10 slightly clear that the Hornets are not going to get commensurate value, probably, for a player
02:15 that averages 20 points per game and definitely has his flaws, but is able to offer you some
02:23 extremely positive offensive things that Miles can do. It's probably going to be a couple seconds,
02:29 and salary filler kind of seems like the middle ground value for him right now, unless,
02:36 like Jake Fisher said, there's some sort of bidding war that develops among the teams that
02:40 want him, which I kind of don't picture that happening, just because he can control where
02:44 he goes. I can kind of see him, if this is a discussion that's had between his camp and the
02:50 Hornets front office, being like, "Okay, I don't really want to go to Utah. If I'm going to be
02:55 traded, I'd like to go to the Phoenix Suns, where I can contend for a championship, re-sign and be
03:00 alongside Beale, Booker, and Kevin Durant. I'd rather just go there," because he has the ability
03:06 to do that. So I can't really see there being a bidding war, because he can pretty much directly
03:11 steer himself to whatever team that he wants. But then again, that at least will drive up his value,
03:17 even if it makes it so that, even if he only wants to go to this one team, they're going to have to
03:22 give up something more than what they probably would have if the Hornets were to trade him
03:26 three months ago, or over the summer, or anything like that, in the past, leading up until now.
03:32 But it seems like with his on-court play, and just with everything being further in the past,
03:39 right or wrong, teams are moving on and being more willing to at least share that they're
03:44 interested in him, rather than there just being no rumor of the sort, other than the fact that
03:49 the Hornets were going to re-sign him, which was the case for most of the past year and a half.
03:53 Will Barron Why do you think... You talked about that
03:56 middle ground of value, which seems to be salary filler in two seconds. I've seen that as well.
04:01 Why do we think that's established? Why has this become the middle ground? I've got my own theory,
04:06 but I'm curious to see what you say.
04:07 Matt Dillard So I think that it's because when you're the
04:10 team that's trading for him, you don't have his bird rights. So no matter what, you can't give
04:17 him the contract that A, he probably wants, and that B, the Hornets are able to give him right
04:22 now. So you're kind of knocking off whatever level of interest that he has in being there anyway,
04:27 because he can't take the same type of contract that what he'd get right now with Charlotte.
04:33 Going forward, it seems like he's going to want to make pretty good money. So I think that those
04:38 teams know that there's a decent chance that even if they sign or trade for him, tell him they're
04:43 going to re-sign him, offer him a commensurate value contract, he's still probably going to test
04:47 free agency to some degree, which just opens the door for him to leave at some point. So I think
04:54 that's going to knock a little bit off. And obviously he has an outstanding court case still
05:00 that is like, I think a week or two after the deadline. So there are a lot of things like that,
05:04 that I think are not, but otherwise, I think he'd be probably worth the first round pick,
05:09 pretty similar to what Terry was last week. So your answer is kind of linked to my theory,
05:16 which is the Phoenix Suns have very little assets, right? And Phoenix could not re-sign Miles
05:23 probably in the summer because of that bird right situation you talked about. So they would be
05:27 looking at Miles Bridges as a, what, half season rental, most likely. And for that reason, I
05:33 completely understand. And I think I've seen trades proposed by, I think Gerald and maybe
05:38 like other people who cover the Suns saying, this is what it could look like, you know, Naseer Little
05:42 and some second round picks, two or three second round picks. And I think that's where like this
05:48 kind of emerged, like these people are keyed in with the Suns are reporting that there's interest
05:53 and then they're suggesting what a trade could look like. So the people are putting two and two
05:56 together. And for Phoenix, I get that. For Utah and Detroit, they have a lot of cap space this
06:05 summer. Like they can easily re-sign Miles Bridges. So for me, I don't see why they should
06:11 hold the same like value for Miles Bridges. For me, they can be, they can put in a better bid
06:16 because they aren't just trading from for a rental, they're trading from probably for the
06:20 next four years. So he's worth a lot more to those people. Now I hear what you're saying.
06:24 Miles has that no trade clause that he can basically waive. But if Miles says like, I'm
06:30 not waiving it for anywhere other than Phoenix because I want to go win a championship, which
06:35 would go against what he said in the Charlotte Observer, by the way, then I just don't think
06:40 I'd trade him. I think I'd just be like, we're not going to do like, if you want to be traded,
06:44 we will trade you and we can trade you anywhere for half a season. And then if you want to go
06:48 sign in Phoenix or go sign with a contender, you can do that as a free agent. But I would
06:53 keep him and try and trade him like by a sign trade in the summer. I think I'd even like preferred to
06:58 like try and resign him. And then he like walks instead of getting like two second round picks
07:05 from the Phoenix Suns. Like I know it would be easy in hindsight to say, well, you should have
07:09 taken the two seconds when he walks for nothing. But I just think there'd be other avenues, either
07:14 resigning him or sign and trading him in the summer, which I would rather pursue. And I don't
07:20 think that's the case anyway. I mean, we'll get into these quotes from Miles in a little bit, but
07:24 I just I think the value around what I've seen reported around is probably lower than I think
07:31 the reality in the Charlotte Hornets situation. Yeah. And especially because he is after Terry,
07:39 the guy that you would think that if they traded him, just looking at his box score production,
07:45 his age, his salary, he would be the guy that they can get the most from and be able to extract
07:50 some like real positive value from another team. But obviously, his situation has been muddied
07:56 quite a bit over the last couple of years. But I mean, even still, he's back now, like the NBA
08:03 has already handed out whatever punishment that he's going to get, we assume unless this next court
08:09 case, another punishment is levied against him because of it. It's already over for another.
08:15 From what I've heard, nobody seems to be very worried about this February 20th court case,
08:23 okay? Like other teams, Miles Bridges himself or the Charlotte Hornets. I think that might come
08:29 and go with with very little change. Yeah. And like, I that does add up because to this point,
08:37 like you would think the NBA or the Hornets or miles or whoever would have issued some sort of
08:42 statement on it, which I don't really believe that they have to my knowledge. I know it's
08:47 been a couple months since that first came out now, so I might be wrong, but I don't believe
08:51 that they've acknowledged it in nearly as significant of a way that they did the first
08:54 time back in June of 2022. So like the other another team that's trading for him doesn't
09:00 have to deal with any of that. Like the Hornets already, you know, bit the bullet, like he missed
09:05 a year for them and then another 10 games to start this year. The team that gets him is just getting
09:10 the basketball player miles bridges with, you know, 80% less of the off the court baggage as
09:17 to what he had with the last year and a half with the Hornets. So there is at least that which you
09:21 would think would help kind of rebuild that value back to what it was two seasons ago, going into
09:28 that off season when he was like a borderline all star. But obviously they're not going to get quite
09:33 as much in a trade as they would have in that moment. Yeah, I will say with this statement to
09:39 the observer and the second bit particularly he wrote, and I'll just say it again. So as much talk
09:45 as people here that's going around, just know I want to stay with the Hornets. That does sound to
09:51 me like a little bit like if I get traded, like it's not me who initiated it. It's the Charlotte
09:58 Hornets. Do you not think that kind of is like trying to pass blame there a little bit in terms
10:02 of it wasn't me, it's them? Oh, absolutely. Like 100%. I mean, and I mean, I kind of get it from
10:11 his perspective. Like the fans are going to think that it was him because he has the no trade clause
10:18 and the team that trades him doesn't get his bird rights. He just sat out a year and a half after
10:22 being involved in a extremely serious off the court legal situation. Like I think all the
10:29 fans rightfully have plenty of reason to think that he would have been the one that would initiate
10:34 that just given his situation. But I mean, yeah, it seems like it was pretty clear that he was
10:38 trying to spell it out. Like I'm willing to stay here. Like he directly said, like, I want to be
10:44 a Charlotte Hornet, like almost verbatim. So you really can't spell it out any more than that. Like
10:50 him being like, I want to be here, but if I'm not, it wasn't my fault. And this dangerous game you're
10:55 playing if you're the team with that, right? Like he's unrestricted free agent with a no trade
11:00 clause. Like you are creating friction. It feels right. Now he's had to go to the Charlotte Observer
11:06 to make a statement. He's not spoken to Hornets.com. No, he spoke to the Charlotte Observer,
11:10 right? And I know Hornets.com wouldn't normally put that, but he could have released it by himself.
11:15 Like, but he's gone to a news outlet to do that. And I do wonder if there's a little bit of
11:22 friction being created here between Miles and the new ownership group who maybe,
11:25 who maybe aren't seeing things how they want to, right? And they are looking to move him. And
11:30 I just hope that both sides can work collaboratively on trying to get something
11:36 that doesn't end up that, you know, the Charlotte Hornets get massively screwed over. It feels like
11:42 they're going to get a bit screwed over in the grand scheme of things, no matter what. But I mean,
11:47 after Charlotte had just traded away Teru Zia, you know, one of what Lamella calls the three amigos,
11:52 if they were to move on from Miles a week later, Lamella Ball, I mean, you just saw him in the
11:59 Utah game. He was one unhappy guy sitting on the sidelines, right? How worried should the team be
12:08 about him being like unhappy that you're basically trading away his two best friends on the team?
12:13 [00:10:00] So I don't even think of it from that perspective,
12:17 though. It definitely does have an impact, especially for like a younger guy that that's
12:21 really like all he's known is playing alongside those two. But and this is something I really,
12:28 really don't think people give Lamella enough credit for both Hornets fans and just the NBA
12:34 community at large. That dude really, really, really gives a shit about winning and being good
12:40 and just not going out and having no hope to be successful or like leave an impact on the league.
12:47 Like he wants to be good. He wants to be on a winning team that every night has a chance to
12:52 play with the other players on the other teams that are as good as he is. Like Lamella is the
12:58 franchise cornerstone of this team. If you look at the franchise cornerstone of nearly any other
13:02 team in the league, they have a another really good player alongside them. And the Hornets might
13:08 have that in Brandon Miller, but just not yet. And B, they have some sort of stretch where they've
13:13 been good already, like and had sustainable success like Tyrese Halliburton's getting there right now.
13:18 Anthony Edwards has been there. Obviously, Boston, Milwaukee, Denver and Phoenix have been there with
13:24 all of their young guys that have come up. Lamella has not even gotten close to getting a taste of
13:28 that. And when you trade away guys like Terry and Miles, you are only putting that further away
13:34 unless you pull off some absolute wizardry this offseason with your asset management and turn the
13:40 team from a bottom like cellar dweller into a legitimate top six playoff contender over the
13:45 course of a couple of months, which is always possible, but it would be very difficult.
13:49 And then you're just asking Lamella if you don't do that to sit through another year of being
13:55 pretty much terrible like they are right now. And I don't know if he's going to be like too
14:02 willing to do that. Like he's not old, but he's getting old.
14:05 Is he wired for it to get more painful in order for it to get better? Or is the idea of being
14:11 worse than it is right now? How does that make him feel? And the thing is, I don't think they
14:19 will speak to him about it. As far as they're aware, he's under contract for five years. They
14:24 have all the power. I don't even know if he should either. I'm being really honest. If I was running
14:31 the team, as soon as you start speaking to your key player, but you're basically deciding what
14:37 you do as a franchise direction due to the personal feelings of a 22 year old, I just don't
14:42 think that's how you can run a sustainable organisation. If you're LeBron James, it's a
14:49 little bit different, but we are not talking at that level just yet. So that's definitely one of
14:55 the things to keep into account. And even though Miles is a free agent in summer, I feel like
15:01 really free agency is playing out right now. The team know exactly what Miles Bridges wants to get
15:07 paid. Before the summer, before he came back from the qualifying offer in the summer, Jake Fish
15:13 reported that Bridges was seeking upward of 25 million in average annual salary from the Hornets
15:18 this July. Well, that's when he hadn't played in over a year. And that was, now the cap is going
15:24 up as well. So would you agree that he's in a stronger position now to negotiate than he was
15:29 then? Yeah, definitely. And he's come back and shown that he's at least not going to be marginally
15:36 worse. And he's at best like a pretty equal player to what he was when he first left. So I agree.
15:42 Yeah. I hadn't even thought about it like that, but I definitely agree that he's in an even better
15:45 negotiating position than he was. Well, if I'm Miles Bridges agent now, I'm saying when I was 25
15:51 then, now I'm 30, right? I can play in all the games. I'm not suspended anymore. I've come back
15:58 and I've proven. So you're talking about, Jeremy Grant is a good example. This pass off season,
16:04 he's had a five year, 160 million deal. That's average annual salary of 32 million per year.
16:10 Miles Bridges is younger, arguably probably more productive offensively, not as good defensively.
16:16 That is definitely the case. But as a team that you are where the Charlotte Hornets are,
16:22 and probably similar to almost where the Portland Trail Blazers are, do you want to have a guy north
16:27 of 30 million locked up long-term, but someone who doesn't automatically like raise the level
16:33 of your team to like a competitive level of play? Because I don't think Miles does that. He's a good
16:37 player, but he's not necessarily changed. I don't think the ceiling of this team since coming back.
16:44 That's the question the team are asking themselves right now. It's not a question for the summer,
16:49 because they have to make a decision now if they do want to make a trade. Where is that Maginot
16:57 line for you? What would you be happy to re-sign Miles Bridges? Let's say free agency start
17:03 tomorrow. You've seen what you've seen. What contract are you thinking, "Yeah, I want to
17:07 have Miles Bridges back for that."? Oh boy. It's so tough too, because,
17:14 and like you said about him not being somebody that really raises your floor like that,
17:18 on top of that, you've drafted Brandon Miller, right? Probably to be your three. We've hoped
17:24 that he could be a two, but right now you're probably going to pencil him in as you're
17:28 starting three. That means if you re-sign Miles, you're probably penciling him in as you're starting
17:33 four. That is like a very limited team building structure. I wouldn't do that. I would have Miles
17:41 at the three, and I would go for Brandon at the two. Just to create the team bigger, but that's
17:47 just me, right? I agree still with the fundamentals of what you said. Yeah. Regardless though,
17:54 you are kind of locking yourself into a certain roster building structure right there, and being
18:00 able to play a certain type of way. That core is not ever going to be strong defensively.
18:06 A, Mark has to get a lot better and more consistent. B, you probably need that fifth
18:13 guy that slots in with Lamello, Mark, Brandon Miller, and Miles to be a really, really strong
18:19 defender, which again, just limits the amount of players or the types of players that you can slot
18:23 into right there. That on top of all of the other stuff affects what I would want to give him even
18:30 more. If you just kind of look around the league, not even players at that position necessarily,
18:36 but the free agents that's coming up this off season that are making around $20 million,
18:41 Joe Harris, obviously overpaid. Lonzo Ball got injured. Then there's guys like Bruce Brown,
18:49 probably not as good as Miles, but doesn't have the same off the court baggage and has shown that
18:54 he can impact a winning team in many ways. He can fit anywhere. It's like, are you going to pay him
19:00 one of those guys? Which I think is probably more accurate in terms of his value. Or like you said,
19:05 are you going to pay him like Jeremy Grant money? Because he's a productive box score player and has
19:10 asked for this salary before in a previous negotiation and has came back and only improved
19:16 his standing to negotiate further. It's honestly very tough. I would rather give him something like
19:21 what Bruce Brown makes. That's 22 and a half million rather than pay close to 30, which is
19:26 what I think he'll want. If it were me, I would just let him walk. I think if he wanted closer
19:33 to Jeremy Grant money than like 18 to 20 million. OG Ananobe just got traded and he has a player
19:39 option. He makes $18 million. The Knicks are getting a boon with what they're paying him
19:44 right now. I don't think if you put Miles in that situation, the Knicks are not 11 and two
19:49 in their last 13 games. The level of impact and salary are going to be a lot different, I think,
19:56 for Miles. And you've got Utah and Detroit who have both been reported as interested,
20:02 have both got north of 38 million this summer. They can just sign him like that. I didn't see
20:08 a world where Miles Bridges is like getting less than 28, 30 million. So if you're of that
20:17 opinion that this Charlotte Hornet should not pay that, then I do understand the idea of moving him
20:24 now. But again, just the quote in the Shot Observer, I think it's like, yeah, I want to be
20:29 in Charlotte. But what he's not said in that quote is if I'm paid what I want to be paid, right?
20:36 So he's trying to shift the blame here when just realistically, there are a lot of teams that would
20:41 not want to pay Miles Bridges that money. Utah and Detroit might be who that are, especially with his
20:47 ties to being from Detroit and the situation there in panicking. If those teams did trade now,
20:54 I mean, I've tried to look through both Detroit, Utah, and Phoenix,
20:58 of what some trades would look like. And tell me which of these you think sounds like it makes
21:05 sense. So let's start with Detroit. I had kind of two options. You could do, depending if their
21:11 front office is just out on Jaden Ivey, who has had issues this year, the coaching obviously hasn't
21:16 loved Jaden Ivey. You could just do Jaden Ivey for Miles Bridges straight up, right? As a swap deal.
21:22 I don't think it's a great fit with O'Mello. It's a bit of a bet on the talent. It's the kind of
21:26 trade that never really happens, but it was one. But other than that, the only other thing I could
21:31 see is James Wiseman and three seconds. Yeah, I mean, I don't love that, but again, it matches
21:39 that criteria of just second round picks over players. Wiseman expires this summer. Maybe
21:45 Charlotte, have a look at him. Obviously with the big man injuries that they're having this year,
21:50 but he's struggled everywhere he's been now. He's shown no real progress. Do you think, again,
21:57 do you like any of those Detroit moves? I would do the Bridges for Jaden Ivey swap in a heartbeat.
22:04 I mean, I think it doesn't get done. Right, exactly. Yeah. That's perfectly perfect
22:09 evidence that it's probably not a plausible trade if the two Hornets podcast hosts are like,
22:15 yep, let's do it right away. But I mean, on top of the fact that you get like an extra year,
22:19 I believe out of Jaden Ivey, because he was drafted more, or actually two years, I think,
22:24 before you'll have to resign him. I think he's a great fit next to Lamella on court as like a
22:29 downhill athletic score, reasonably good positional size, and at least like an average defender or
22:36 ceiling to be like an above average defender. I mean, I'd probably do the James Wiseman one,
22:41 too, honestly, like just for injury insurance at this point is essentially like an upgraded
22:46 version of like what they would have gotten in Kai Jones had he spent the whole year with the team,
22:51 like athletic, rebounding dunking big that is going to be off the books this coming summer. I
22:57 mean, it's just a different player in Wiseman than yeah, and this current office like James
23:02 Wiseman a lot heading into the dress like now if he if he was there, he would have been a Charlotte
23:08 Hornet like there's almost no question about it. Like, absolutely. Now, whether you know what
23:14 having a backup center for the second half of the loss season means I mean, I don't know if there's
23:19 any value there. But like, let's say he comes in and as well, maybe look to resign in the summer to
23:23 a team friendly contract. And he's just, you know, looks at a situation where he's happy. Maybe that
23:29 happens. But you're basically doing that for the three second round picks. For Utah. I think this
23:37 one makes more sense because I think there's a lot more ways to deal. You can go the Bryce
23:42 sensor bar or Ochai Bajiroot as like young players. You can do salary filler with Taylor
23:48 Horne Tucker. You can they've got a bunch of first from like the Lakers, Cleveland and Minnesota,
23:54 like enough first that maybe they'd be willing to put one on the line like Detroit just doesn't
23:58 have any picks. That's the issue with Detroit. Like they only have they're pretty pick poor.
24:02 So Utah is the one that seems to make the most sense to me just because any of like any of those
24:11 combination of picks and players seems to make some sense. I agree. I think like, unfortunately,
24:19 that's probably the least likely destination or at least I think the one that he's most likely to,
24:24 you know, wave off on his no trade clause and say, no, I don't I don't want to go there because
24:28 they're in a relatively similar situation to the Hornets. And I can't imagine that that many NBA
24:34 players are dying to move to Salt Lake City for four months at a time. But I would do that like
24:39 that Bryce Sensabaugh one. I mean, as a big Bryce Sensabaugh top 10 guy last year, I would be more
24:45 than enthusiastic about that one. And then Horton Tucker, not not not so much. That's where like
24:51 the roller coaster went up with Bryce Sensabaugh. And then it went right back down when you said
24:55 Taylor Horton Tucker, that one like that's probably more realistic, though, like taking
24:59 on somebody that's maybe, you know, not as positively viewed among the NBA circles as
25:06 they were a couple of years ago. That's now on like a more long term contract. And what they
25:10 were as a player does no longer matches up with their salary slot. And that's probably right.
25:16 Exactly. Whereas with Abaji and Sensabaugh, I talked earlier like pick saver players,
25:23 you're making it like you're probably not getting a first then when you include one of them in,
25:28 especially Bryce, right? Because he's a recent first. So and I just think in any deal, they
25:32 would prefer to just get the pick rather than get the player because for the same reasons we talked
25:37 about earlier, but it's it's possible like the value I think is equivalent there. Yeah, right.
25:43 And then that just goes back to what we said, too, with like you're forcing players on a new staff
25:48 in front office, like you're essentially being like, if you don't like Bryce Sensabaugh and
25:52 O'Shea Abaji, you have to trade them again, or you just have to let them walk for nothing,
25:56 which nobody wants to do really either of those things, especially letting them walk for nothing.
26:02 Yeah. The Phoenix, we've already talked about it. Any trade is basically a little and a mixed bag
26:09 of seconds like the 2024 Spurs second, you think is nice because it will be towards the top of the
26:14 second round. But remember, the 2024 draft is pretty weak. So really, like compared to other
26:20 years, it's probably like a mid second in terms of value. Again, I think if I had to rank these
26:26 teams in terms of where do I see most likely a deal getting done? I think I probably go like Utah.
26:35 First, then Detroit and Phoenix, even though, like I say, Miles might say I don't not gonna
26:45 waive my no trade calls for anywhere other than Phoenix. If that happens, like I'd almost just
26:51 say then we'll take it into the offseason because then you can't go to Phoenix like it's impossible
26:56 for them to do it from a cap perspective. You say to Miles, we will send you anywhere that gives us
27:01 a first round pick. We will happily send you there, but that is our offer and we're not moving
27:06 from that. Yeah, that's true. Because if that happens too, you almost have, that gives you
27:17 leverage like in a way, like even though he has the leverage with the actual like no trade clause
27:24 in practice, like that almost gives you leverage. If he really wants to go to Phoenix that bad,
27:29 you can be like, okay, then like, why not just talk to your camp or whatever, have them communicate
27:36 with Phoenix that they have to give us every available second round pick that they have.
27:40 Like if you want to go there so bad, if they want you so bad, that's what will happen. Like
27:44 then that actually kind of flips in your favor at that point. But well, then it's the deal trade,
27:49 almost like rehabs, right? Which was a bunch of seconds and pick swaps,
27:53 which is what ended up doing. And, you know, but Bradley Beal was obviously under contract for
27:58 longer as Miles Bridges wasn't. And so, but what other choice do the Suns have? They don't have
28:03 many, many moves left to make. Yeah. They really have no way to build their team other than through
28:09 trades like this, like taking on a player whose value and on court production don't necessarily
28:15 match up. It doesn't make sense for them though. Like it's so short term. I know the win now,
28:20 but it's literally win this year or else you lose all your seconds and Miles Bridges.
28:25 I just don't understand how else, unless Miles Bridges is really signing for like
28:31 a way below market value contract, which is not going to do. It just makes no sense to me. I just
28:36 don't understand this Phoenix Miles link at all. Other than Matt Ishbeer, the owner of Phoenix
28:42 Suns is a Michigan state alum. Like that makes sense to me, but the rest of it, I just don't get
28:48 it. Yeah. I mean, that is easily the strongest argument in favor of making that deal. If you're
28:55 the Suns, they just don't have anything to trade, which like it kind of, again, if they win a
29:02 championship, it doesn't matter, but it puts into question the strategy of team building that the
29:08 Suns and many other teams in the past have kind of undertaken here. So, I mean, I agree with you.
29:14 They're probably the least likely team of those three to trade for miles purely because they just
29:18 have no assets to trade. Like they don't have anything good to give up. Yeah. I wonder if some
29:27 of this is Phoenix trying to make their knowledge public so that miles like requests to trade and
29:33 says, I won't go anywhere other than Phoenix to, like you say, to try and use his leverage of,
29:39 well, I know they're interested in me. Don't trade me to Utah or Detroit. I want to go to Phoenix.
29:44 And that, that could make, like, I would understand in some ways, like Phoenix trying to do that,
29:50 because if miles didn't know they're interested, miles might be like, yeah, I'll go to Utah for
29:54 half a year. Fine. Like they'll be in the play in or maybe the playoffs. That'd be interesting.
29:59 So I think that's maybe what's happening here. And that's why we're hearing so much noise from
30:03 the Phoenix side. Okay. Moving on to our last part of the show. Before we do, I want to quickly tell
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