How Will the Portland Trail Blazers Navigate the Offseason? with Keith Smith of @NBAFrontOffice

How Will the Portland Trail Blazers Navigate the Offseason? with Keith Smith of @NBAFrontOffice

in today’s show Keith Smith of spot track and the NBA front office show joins the program we talk all things Trailblazers off seon welcome to lockdown Blazers let’s get into [Music] it you are locked on Trailblazers your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what up world it’s your past first point guard and Trail Blazers reporter Mike Richmond you are listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers part of the locked on podcast network available wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube thanks for making this show your first listen coming at you each and every weekday Monday through Friday so make it a part of your daily routine all your friends to do the same make it your first listen us lockon Blazers your team every day today’s episode a very special one we are joined by firsttime guest but not first time Aid of the program because Keith has responded to a couple of my emails Keith Smith of spot track and the NBA front off show Keith how you doing I’m doing well thank you so much for having me yeah thanks thanks for agreeing to come on here so you are an incredible resource for me even when you’re not responding to my emails because you update and maintain the uh the spot track spot track.com with all of the financial information for across the league um which also just has a beautiful ux it’s just a wonderful user experience I will say that it’s maybe maybe its greatest strength this is very easy to navigate um I I want to sort of Leverage your expertise of the cap and the Blazer situation let’s just start broad like what is you know we’re this is you’re listening dear listeners to Tuesday June 4th show what is the Blazer situation heading you know pre-draft heading into heading into the off season yeah it’s not is rosy as I think you would hope for a a rebuilding team a team that’s coming off a really tough season it but it’s almost not unexpected either uh the way the NBA works now these days is it’s pretty rare to we don’t see a lot of those team trades out 50 million and brings back 20 million deals anymore it just rarely works that way so what happened with Portland as they made their series of Trades first with Damen Lillard they brought in a bunch of money then when they uh re rrad or flipped Drew holiday they brought in some more money then so now you’re sitting on some contracts that you’d probably if we were being honest rather not have but here we are now they get to deal with that so they are despite the fact that they were one of the worst teams in the League they’re right around the luxury tax line for this upcoming season and that’s a really tough spot to be in when you are a team in their position standings wise roster wise and the like does having those Sal slots like the the larger money obviously they deand Ron’s making a ton of money I don’t think he’s likely to be traded um for a variety of reasons but is there some value like in having the some tradable contracts like M Malcolm Brogden say or Robert Williams guys that got back in the sort of in the Dame trade or in your eyes would they have been better off trying to end up with some uh cap space this summer more flexibility is the word we often see bandied about yeah and that’s like my favorite word to use is flexibility because people get so hung up on cap space has to be used to sign free agents and in reality it can be used to to facilitate trades and do all kinds of stuff so I I don’t get too hung up on cap space as much as flexibility and because of that reason Portland isn’t in necessarily bad space uh with some of their guys so Malcolm Brogden for example 22 and a half million I think that’s a very tradable number it’s an expiring contract expiring contracts can always be moved uh there’s very little trouble getting off one of those deals and it’s not a situation where it’s like well we got to move malcol Brogden so we’re have having to send out draft picks or something like that that’s not going to be the case they should actually be able to get a decent return for Malcolm Brogden in terms of whether it’s younger player or two or draft asset or two or something like that Robert Williams eminently tradeable he makes less than $15 million he’s right around the mid-level exception and the nice thing with a guy like him under the new CBA because this upcoming year he is set to make about 12.4 million that number is less than the mid-level exception in this year uh brand new under this new CBA teams can use the non- taxpayer midlevel or the taxpayer but in this case the non-t taxpayer is the one we care about as a trade exception so a team that is over the cap could trade for Robert Williams just trade them right into their mid-level exception which is different that that’s a new thing we it’s a little hard to predict how that’s going to work because it’s brand new we haven’t seen how teams will do that yet but it is something so if you have a team that’s out there like man what we really need is a valuable backup big that can come in and give us 15 20 minutes a night they might look at that and say you know what rather than sending Portland back salary they may not want we’ll send a draft pick or maybe a younger player who makes five six million and we’ll take Williams into our mid-level exception and W will go that way so that’s going to be something that’s going to be interesting uh to watch play out as well this year because that that’s a whole new new world so I think they’re in a good place as far as the some of the guys I I hesitate to put it this way but some of the guys that maybe you don’t really want on the roster on a rebuilding team right um they’re very tradable players these are not guys where you’re like ah man we’re stuck with a 50 million doll contract for this dude who doesn’t play or he’s a really tough fifth for 90% of the league and the other 10% can’t afford them anyway so that makes it really hard they’re in a place where I think they could move money around with relative ease this summer yeah I I think that’s key you mentioned Robert Williams matis thy is in the same camp like he fits in those in that in that non-t taxpayer mid-level exception that everyone’s gonna that that not everyone but many teams many competitive teams across the the league are going to have access to and that that gives them a little bit of flexibility they don’t have they don’t have a lot of wiggle room you mentioned that they’re right up against the tax line like they’ve got 11 11 that’s a good number for you we’re recording early in the morning on the west coast we got they got 11 guaranteed uh players and and three partial or non- guaranteed guys but two of the partial non- guaranteed guys Jabari Walker and and to particularly Tani kamaro like Tani is part of the plan like I don’t I don’t think there’s a world in which he’s not back I think there’s a very slim chance where Jabari Walker’s not back and then the third partial guy is Delano banson he’s got such a small guarantee that I don’t think they’ll make a decision on him for a while I believe it’s $200,000 according to the numbers from Keith that I am looking at on my screen over here um but like they don’t H so you go in with 11 guaranteed and three partial guys let’s say like they keep two of those they’re at they’re basically at a full roster with 13 players plus four draft picks how do that like what should their approach to be this summer knowing that they kind of got the Crunch and we’ll talk about the tax stuff in the second segment yeah I think so you could do a couple different things you can either try to move off like Brogden or Williams or thel or even Jeremy Grant if one of the cap space teams was was there and let me just say this now I don’t think jery Grant is this horrible contract that people pay him out to be in a few years it could be that we could be in a position where that one’s now a little underwater it’s turned a little sideways maybe a little sour as he’s aged but right now I think it’s fine it’s it’s not a max deal so we’re not in a place where it’s like oh my gosh this is one of those $50 million contracts or anything so I think Portland’s actually in an okay place and of the cap space teams I can see a world where where a handful of those cap space teams are like you know what Jeremy Grant actually fits pretty good with what we need let’s try to make it move so I I’ll kind of send include him in this as well where what I would say is I think one of your ideal scenarios would be let’s try to get off one of those contracts or two of them or maybe even three if we can of the guys that we’re trying to look to move on from and let’s do that in a way where we’re not bringing a player back necessarily or if we are we’re bringing a guy back that we can cut or retrade or whatever with relative ease maybe you work a three- team deal or something like that because then what that does is one gives you the very necessary Financial flexibility that you need and I know we’re going to get into that more in a minute but it also frees up the roster spots and that I think in some ways is almost the bigger immediate challenge is those roster spots and that that can also come through like you said I don’t think Kamar goes anywhere I think Walker’s a guy theyd prefer to keep I honestly think Banton with the way he played down the stretch is a guy beware the the uh numbers on a lottery team in March and April right I fully get that but he’s a guy who’s flashed at times I know being someone who covers the Celtics or covered them quite a bit there was a lot of excitement when they got him because hey big ball handlers right now that’s always a thing you want to have he showed flashes in Toronto May maybe there’s something here and I think he showed that again with Portland so I think you’d like to keep all those guys but yes you do hit a point where we can’t roster 30 guys so what are we doing we’ve gota we’re gonna have to make some tough decision somewhere but I think that’s the ideal approach move one or two of those guys for a little less uh salary back or more importantly free up a couple roster spots in a trade like that even if it turns into hey we packaged two for one in a trade where we did something like that that could be a thing we see as well exact yeah I especially because uh with Williams and thel they could be you know if you if you make the trade simultaneous or whatever at at the like have those guys get absorbed into an exception and then trade grant for the money or however it might work yeah um yeah I don’t think Jeremy Grant’s dollar figure is that bad I think the years might turn some teams off it kind of dep like the back half of that contract is like H 36y old Jeremy Grant okay like you start to get into what it is but good teams to particularly like competitive teams they’re not they will be less worried about that timeline they’ll say our goal is to be very good in the spring of 2025 can this dude help us be good in the spring of 2025 and I think that will have some appeal but there will be a there will be a slightly smaller Market just because of um because he freaking clutched sports them and he got four years plus a team option heading into unrestricted free agency I would say um if there’s anything we’ve learned about the Blazers under Joe Cronin it’s that if they have a an appending unrestricted free agent represented by clutch sports that person is going to get a Payday um and uh shout out to Yousef nerkin to Jeremy Grant it’s been good for him they’ve the Blazers in addition to having this sort of roster crunch as you mentioned which I think is more I think the roster numbers is more important than the figure than the salary itself they also have four draft picks in the upcoming draft it’s going to get a little crowded let’s talk about a little crowded and maybe approaching the first apron in the second segment join us there won’t you but first I want to tell you that Today’s Show is brought to you by FanDuel it’s winner take all time in the NHL and in the NBA we’ve reached the finals baby and FanDuel wants you to make every playoff shot count that’s why new users of FanDuel can get 100 $50 in bonus bucks with any winning $ five bet you get you put in your $5 bet you get that W and then you get $150 of bonus bets to play with whether you want to go props or money lines or any Futures bets that you’re into uh why not M make the playoffs a little more exciting fanduel.com lockon make sure you visit that URL one more time for you fanduel.com lockdown it’s FanDuel America’s number one sports book all right I’m still Mike Richmond chat here with Keith Smith of spot rack in the NBA front office show Keith are the Blazers going to be a first apron team and what does that mean I I really hope not um that’s a that’s a rough place to be if you are a uh a team that’s probably I not trying to be insulting by any means but probably not going to be very good they’re bad they’re bad they they’re the 15th yeah they’re one of the worst teams in the league and they they probably want to be one of the worst teams the league again like that’s like their goal they want to be young and rebuilding um and being young and rebuilding in expensive is dicey yes that that’s the I always say this you can be expensive you can be bad you can’t be both uh if you’re both that’s a problem that’s generally when we start to see uh front offices people start losing jobs guys start getting moved on from and things just get really rough so I think what we’re looking at with Portland is there is a need to let’s do what we can to out from underneath these apron concerns and and PE people have said hey when I look at it I add all the salaries up and they’re they’re not even over the tax yes but then you have to add in the two draft picks and the two draft picks are about 11 and a half million combined so once you add in the two draft picks now you’re over now what I think they may do because of what we referenced in the first part of our chat was a roster spot crunch they may take a kick to can down the road approach with that second draft pick especially of hey somebody’s trying to trade back in one of these teams that wants to get in that is kind of like what Phoenix did a little bit with hey we don’t have a lot to offer but we can give you a future swap right Phoenix is a bad example right now because they’ve already horcrux all their picks as much as you possibly can so I think what what you could be looking at is like Milwaukee or Boston or one of those teams that you know rougher they may say hey you want to do a swap right in 2029 or 2030 um we’ll do something like that so that that way we can uh get get a pick High a little higher now because we don’t have because we’re a second Aon team we can’t go out and sign these these guys we can’t sign free agents or minimum contracts sign our own draft picks so there were I think that’s a way where Port Lincoln maybe are we alleviate a little bit of the pressure on ourselves we move off we free up a potential roster spot that way and now we keep things moving down the line so I think that’s that’s kind of a really important thing uh to factor in here as well as anything they may do with moving players but if we were to just say everybody is back and they make make the draft picks they’re going to be flirting with that they’re going to be over the tax and they’re going to be flirting uh with that second apron and that’s really really tough because that just puts a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t do and what you don’t need when you’re a bad team is restrictions on what you can’t do as far as trading players in the L what would be the most um prohibitive restrictions that they would hit so so according to your numbers real quick and I don’t know if these are updated to the second but uh the blazes are about 8 million shy of the first apron they got a salary allocation about 170 million bucks the line is about 178 and a half so they’re they’re $8 million away from it uh if they were they have picks seven and 14 if they were to sign both of those draft picks uh rookie rookie uh first round rookies it’s a salary slot there’s no negotiating everybody gets 125% of their slot basically I don’t don’t have I don’t remember someone getting less than that everybody gets the number that they’re slotted for and then you’re just over but if the Blazers were to take both those picks and end up you know they wake up in on June 29th as a team in the apron what would be the restrictions that they have um so when you get to a spot where you’re over the first apron uh this is people know about the whole coming down on the super expensive teams and all that you you hit a spot where first apron also gets a lot of restrictions on them and probably the most prohibitive for Portland because we’re not talking about a team that’s going to be really playing in the free agent Market or that stuff but the prohibitive one is you can only make trades where you bring back a 100% of the money you send out now we’ve just spent a whole lot of time talking about they probably don’t want to bring back more money than they send out in the trade ideally you want to bring back less but you have to and if it’s a have to that’s that’s worse than a just want to right if it is we can only bring back what we send out so Malcolm Brogden I just use him as example because this is a nice round number of 22.5 million they can’t bring back 22.7 million in a trade they can bring back 22.5 million or less that’s what they could do so that’s where it gets really kind of restrictive on the teams and then there’s a bunch of stuff like can’t sign by all players you don’t have signing exceptions those kind of things that probably aren’t really going to matter this year for poor of them but really it’s that trade restrictions beyond the fact that if you’re that far over that means you’re 11 plus million or so into the luxury tax and that’s not where you want to be either right and I don’t think ownership will I I think they’ll be a I think they will enter the season or at least get there at some point before it kicks in they’re not going to be a tax team like they’re gonna be one of the worst teams in the league they’re not going to be a no ownership group can I add something to that real quick I’m sorry and I I apologize for interrupting you but what you said I think is really important to build on there is at some point because we get this mindset of you have to be there by the end of the offseason when the season starts and you don’t as long as you get there by really it’s the trade deadline because you’re probably not going to make meaningful enough roster changes after like for example is there a world where if Malcolm brog didn’t saw on the roster at the trade deadline they work a buyout chore but it’s not going to be a buyout where he’s like here’s $20 million back here’s here’s 8 million bucks back to help your tax situation yeah exactly it might be Here’s 2 million back to set me free and let me go somewhere and that may matter down the line but but it’s really important to know it’s really by the time the trade deadline passes you need to be under the tax because that that’s kind of your your first big window is the summer and then your next kind of next and final big window becomes the trade deadline so that’s why when you said at some point that just triggered for me that’s really important for people to know because I’ve had people say well now we’re a tax team now the challenges of being a tax team with all the restrictions that puts on you that all exists there now one other thing with the draft picks that I want to know too I would not be surprised if there’s a slight delay for Portland on signing those guys for two reasons one you’re helped this year that summer league doesn’t start until the 12th of July that’s really kind of when you H have to have guys signed because guys aren’t going to play in Summer League until they’ve signed a deal um so that’s helpful it also they don’t count as salary fully until they’re signed so you’re still kind of operating in this world where those guys are draft rights until they’re signed and draft rights are sitting out there they have a cap hold towards being over the cap but for tax purposes they’re not going to hit so they’ll be able to do some stuff where they could do some unbalanced trades they could do do a deal where it’s like hey we need to deal one we take in a little bit of money but in Deal two we’re actually getting off that money or whatever it is so there may be a you know minimal four or five weekly long delay until we see uh those two guys get signed that’s assuming they even Mo make both of those draft picks too that’s another part of that as well so I just wanted to add that just because they they’ve got some ways they can dance and work around this uh luxury tax stuff if they have to yeah I I think like it’s not clean but like you said like when you move off a Max contract like Damen Lillard and they didn’t prioritize expiring right they prioritized some sort of like tradable veterans and they really wanted uh for better for worse DeAndre aen and like they he also makes a lot of money and they became they became a more expensive team um I wanna I I want to ask you kind of like about how how they how teams might need to approach it in the new CBA climate we don’t know yet but I think there was a time when rebuilding teams like the Blazers would take a different approach than I think Portland’s going to be able to let’s talk about the new world to close the show join us in that third segment won’t you first I want to tell you that this show is sponsored by better Help Therapy can be incredibly beneficial no matter what you’re going through if you’re experiencing a major trauma in your life 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still pass first point guard I’m still Mike Richmond you are still listening to lockon blaze still chatting here with Keith Smith spot track and also the NBA front office show Keith there was a time when NBA bad NBA teams would head into the off season with like $60 million in cap space and just say okay we we’re just bad and really cheap and when you have a bad contract send it our way you can’t really do that anymore like uh because of the salary floor there’s a number you have to hit now the Blazers don’t really have a path to create $60 million in cap space right that’s not very realistic but I guess there is a world in which they get intentionally cheaper to to to absorb some bad contracts how do how what is the best approach for rebuilding teams now knowing that you can’t just kind of cruise in there with dead money yeah it it is interesting like you said and you said it kind of closing out that middle segment of where are where where Portland didn’t necessarily prioritize we have to have expiring contracts in the like because that is certainly one path and then you’re right that used to be the kind of prescribed path where a bad team was we’re getting off all the money we can we only want guys on rookie scale deals guys on expiring contracts that’s how we’re going to operate and yes is the the um I I I feel like we’re taking a little shot at our friends on locked on Pistons here but the Pistons are of hey just you know but C us you’re tired you’re hungry you’re poor you’re bad contracts here we are you know arms are open we’ll take all of them and off we go and we’ll see how they even operate under a new front office this coming season but there is an approach now of actually as long as we’re not taking back terrible long-term contracts we’re okay and I think that’s the path Portland took which was hey Malcolm brogon still gonna have value there are a bunch of teams with cap space this summer what makes it unique this summer with the cap space teams is those cap space teams are good teams or teams that are trying to be good Detroit is the only bad cap space team this summer the other teams the three of the teams with some of the most cap space that I project Philadelphia Orlando and um Oklahoma City three teams that playoff teams teams that are trying to be good what are the ones right behind them the Utah Jazz they’re sending signals we’re going after players this summer we’re not we’re we’re not just taking in assets we’re not just going to take care of our own guys we’re trying to get really good San Antonio there’s a world I don’t think they’re going to get super impatient but there’s a world where hey we’ll take on a couple veterans because we’re trying to grow around vikor wanyama and grow into a good team so that really kind of leaves uh Detroit and maybe Charlotte we’ll see what happens in their situation of bad teams with some cap space where for Portland that’s like money in the bank because it’s like hey wait a minute you need a couple good players uh maybe free agency didn’t work out for you you you had plans to sign player X that didn’t happen well guess what you still need a point guard what do you think about Malcolm Brogden hey guess what you still need a big and a big who’s on a pretty affordable contract what about Rob Williams Oh you still need a a wing who maybe if the shooting in Portland carries over elsewhere I don’t know what kind of Vortex he stepped through but you you want matis thel right now he’s a three and D guy we they they can pass the red face test and package him is that because that’s what he did for them or you know you could even get you deeper in of hey you you think Jeremy Grant’s the guy to really lift you and you you can afford his contract let’s go so that’s where I think for Portland is you end up in the same end Place whereas if you took back a bunch of bad contracts but you could move off those contracts in that hey we moved off a bunch of money we’re sitting on some guys yeah we maybe we don’t really want them because you’re not going to trade all those guys away trade yeah yeah exactly but but what we got back was in each one of those trades either they attached the young player we want to take a look at to the money we’re taking back or they gave us a draft pick and now we’re sitting here and we’re building up our stash and we’re going to move forward with still all that flexibility it looks slightly different but we’ve got a ton of flexibility and we’ve got draft picks and a bunch of young players and that starts to feel a lot more like the traditional kind of rebuild that we’re used to yeah I I think it’s um it’ll be curious because I think they have to make a move on draft Knight like in addition to the two to the two uh lottery picks like they have two second rounders obviously they can sign those guys to to two-way deals but 34 is relatively high up in the draft for a guy to be like heck yeah two two-way contracts great like that might be a thing where the agent is like don’t draft me I’m not a two-way guy like this is someone who wants mid-level money or like part of the mid-level like you know a long-term or a multi-year second round pick exception right where I want that like I want the three or four year deal where I’m coming in long term I will say 34 that could be a prime space where take a draft and stash kid where it’s like hey you’re he’s gonna stay over in Europe for a couple years but even that starts to be a little bit High because I think people have a little you get a little squeamish where it’s like hey wait we made one of the first picks on this new second night where because that pick’s not being made at 11 o’clock at night anymore time yeah exactly so it’s going to be like oh we drafted a guy who’s not g to come over here for three years and and it’s funny because I can only imagine the Blazers fans my age and a little bit older being like yeah we did that with this guy named arvida sabonis and by the time we saw him he was 100 pounds heavier and couldn’t move even even though he was still awesome but like you know what are we doing here so I think that becomes the the point where yeah you’re I’m with you you’ve got to do you’ve got to do something they they cannot come out with having made four draft picks this year I’d be very shocked if they did unless we they lined up a move that cleared two or three guys off the roster entirely right right like they traded 14 and Brogden and ended up with 22 or something like that it’s like yeah and then they get a another useful young part and then another pick like yeah there’s a world in which they shed salary and make four picks I don’t think there is a world in which they just say draft night let’s make our picks we’re on the clock let’s do it and then go from there just just because they can’t um I I wonder is like just to to close out here like with a team like this they’re pretty far away from being really competitive the West is just so freaking good like I I think they could make some relatively aggressive moves and end up the 13th best team in the west right what is in in sort of obviously there’s some older teams in the sort of in the middle of the West so there’s a world in which teams some particularly two teams that are in are based in Los Angeles um but like it what do you think the Blazers approach should be in terms of like timeline are are we talking four years are we talk in two years like what is what should their goals be when they make moves this summer in terms of thinking about when they want to be competitive yeah I’m gonna answer this first by looking back at this past year and what for me becomes the roughest part about this past season was yes there was a world where all the guys they traded for you know fit seamlessly and they were still a playoff tender right did that could have happened they grew all a little more realistic of that probably wasn’t going to be the way yeah they were going to if they were fully healthy I think they still missed the play in but they would have not been it wouldn’t have felt like it did agreed so what I look at though when I land in this bot is all right if you’re gonna be bad being bad is fine right it happens every team goes through it well you can’t be being that this will be my second thing I already said you can’t be bad and expensive it where it becomes a loss season is when your young players that you’re trying to figure out what you have Miss a bunch of time and I think the single biggest thing Portland lost this year was what is the fit of scoot Henderson Anthony Simons and Shaden sharp gives there a world where can those three guys play together for 10 15 minutes a game do we have to you know are we looking at and saying man we are set with we got a back court of three guys that all fit together pretty well but two of them at a time but that’s fine now we’ve got you know we we’ve got our 120 Minutes of really good guard play in our back quar or even more than that whatever 150 minutes whatever however you work out your math with that so there there’s your one thing there then I think your other challenge became all right and then we didn’t get to see those guys with some of the other young guys and that’s where a Bad season turns into a Lost season so I think in a lot of ways barring them saying you know what we’re going to move um Anthony Simons I think what we run into too in this situation is let’s we’re almost Starting Over Again with a we’re starting over with with year year one on this I apologize my dogs are losing their mind over something I don’t know what it is well Hey listen we got we got to the end of the episode for the dogs got upset so I they’re doing I think they did pretty well yeah they did okay I there’s probably like a squirrel in the backyard or something that’s driving them crazy um but anyway my point on that was when you hit now you’re almost kind of I call this like if year zero was last year now you’re in year one of the rebuild where it is all right now we’re going to find out what we’ve gotten some of these kids we’re going to continue to clean up the books we’re going to continue to collect assets so so to answer your actual question about how long I think you’re probably looking at minimum two more years of just building up and then we’ll see because one of the things in the west it’s super deep right now but a couple of those teams are older so some of those teams I think are going to come back to to the pack a little bit they’re going to slide and that that’s where you want to be positioned now your challenge is the other if we call them bad teams as they put that in quotes is Memphis isn’t really a bad team they just have this year they’re gonna be be pretty good San Antonio has one Bama so they they should be pretty good here in another couple years so what you’re hoping is you’re trying to keep Pace a little bit with those guys as some of the other teams come back to the fold and then then you’re mve moving up but the the the the world is there where that could happen in two three years if they kind of nail their draft picks they hit on things right I think the important thing is everybody should be kind of okay with being really bad this year because this looks like a pretty good draft coming forward so hey if we’re kind of bad this year and we’re we’re adding uh Cooper flag or Ace Bailey in this draft and and we’ve cleaned up our books and we’ve added other draft picks let’s go I I think they’re in a really good spot that way yeah there’s a there’s a there’s a world in which they’re a 60 lost team and it feels a lot better than last year and I I think that’s that that’s the key for him right is like um just like larger fan base Vibes it’s just if it is if this is year one after like a year zero where they just don’t know anything they just didn’t get enough data to figure out who they are if year one is similar in terms of record right they’re no good the the offense is all these things but you get to see the flashes you get like no good record wise but you get to see the flashes it’s going to feel a lot better then end up with a top another top five pick you’re going to feel you’re going to be in a much better spot it’s just um they’ve got a lot of steps to do it and some of it is just getting a little cleaning up some of like you said cleaning up the books a little bit because you want to go into next summer with with the FW baby you want to have that flexibility because if you’re if you’re bad and and have made added to your asset chest and have some flexibility next summer you’ve got a much cleaner path back to being good um and like at some point LeBron James is going to age and at some point the the clip are are having all mid-30s guys is going to matter and all those things and um maybe the new world of the CBA makes it impossible to be good for that long of a time and so every team takes a three-year wheel and the Blazers will get their chance to do it Keith thanks so much for joining the program there’s a whole bunch of fun I appreciate it thanks for having me it was a lot of fun Portland’s a team that I don’t get a chance to talk about too much in this kind of level of depth so I was super excited to join thanks for asking yeah of course uh if if folks are looking for more of your work where can they find it yeah you can find my written work if you like this kind of stuff uh this kind of detail getting into this on spot track.com right now we’re we’re everything is off season Focus so we’ve got our team previews are up uh we’ve got our free agent previews are buy position are going up I’ll have things like rookie scale extension uh projections going up soon we’re gonna have a whole bunch of offseason content and then we’ll have a whole bunch of stuff reacting to whatever happens at the draft and then obviously when free agent starts and if you like this in more listenable format NBA front office show that’s Trevor Lane and I do that show together it’s a little odd because it’s a Lakers guy in him and a Celtics guy in me but we make it work we have a lot of fun we do that Monday through Friday every Friday is our live show called front office Friday where we take a lot of questions it’s the fan show so ask whatever questions you have we have a lot of fun over there it’s a lot of trade rumors news roundups and then a lot of Deep dive salary cap stuff so we have a lot of fun over there too yeah there’s not many people who can make the uh the sort of easily sortable minua like like Keith he’s he’s really he’s really an incredible resource if you’re an NBA fan and someone who’s um curious about how the money Works Keith is your guy uh dear listeners come back for tomorrow show it’s what we do five days a week wherever you get podcasts tell your friends about the program I appreciate you listening I’ll talk to you soon [Music]

Keith Smith of Spotrac and the Front Office NBA podcast joins the show to talk about the Trail Blazers financial situation heading into the offseason and how a rebuilding team up against the luxury tax line should operate.

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