It is. The JR Sport Reef Show. on the infinity Sports Not work. Man, we got Cooper Flag and Brawny in forty minutes. How exciting.
Even more exciting, some of these guys getting these big old contracts. Devin Booker, a one hundred forty five million dollar extension, and Jalen Williams, two hundred eighty seven Paulo Bond. There's so much money flying around in the NBA. To talk about what we've seen in free agency, what we might see the rest of the way, talk some basketball as well. Joining us right now is Keith Smith.
Who covers all things basketball for Spot Track, also with the front office show. Hey, Keith, how are you? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. Absolutely.
Thank you for taking the time and joining us just today. We've seen the Oklahoma City Thunder dole out another contract. They have handed out more than $800 million in contracts to Shea Gilgas Alexander, Jalen Williams, and then also Chet Holmgram. Are you surprised that they lock them all up basically in the same week? I'm not.
this was going to go for the thunder they uh were very well committed to knowing this is time uh to get holmgren and williams locked up because this is when you do uh rookie scale extensions happen a year out uh then with shake iltis alexander coming off the mvp uh the real question was was he gonna sign now and do a four-year extension or was he going to choose to delay a year to do a fifth uh five-year extension and add a year a year from now and he chose to get it done now and then here we are you know now they've got their core guys locked up and and uh they things are pretty well set for them moving forward As the NBA continues to make money, revenue increases and what have you. And we are are in the current CBA. What does this mean for their their roster moving forward? Yeah, they're going to be dancing around starting not this season that's upcoming. They're fine with this season, but the year after that, when these extensions kick in for Holmgren and Williams, they'll be dancing around the second apron probably.
And then when SGA's extension kicks in, they'll really be up in that apron territory. But here's the thing: they with other guys on the roster, so guys like Isaiah Hartenstein and Lou Dord, and then further down the roster, guys like Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe. The Thunder were really smart with the way they structured those contracts. They have several of them that decline in value year to year. They have several that have team options on them.
So they really are set up to kind of control things a little bit more. And what you'll see with a guy like Hartenstein might be, all right, rather than us picking up your $28 million team option, we're going to decline it, but then we're going to sign you to something like a three-year. $40 million deal where you'll get more money. It's just going to be spread out over years. And those will be the things.
As well as, let's not forget, they have 14 first-round draft picks still coming their way over the next seven years.
So they're in a position to, you know, basically, all right, we had to lose a guy because of payroll reasons.
Now let's go out there and go about replacing that guy with somebody else down the line on a rookie deal. Miss Sam Presty has certainly hit the jackpot in in more ways than one. He's really good at what he does. He is. I mean, this is their teams that should be envious of the situation.
Keith Smith is joining us from Spot Track. When you think about a team that, well, they're the complete opposite of the Oklahoma City Thunder. I'm talking about the Phoenix Suns today. Devin Booker got himself a two-year contract extension to his current deal. He's making $72.5 million a year.
He'll be there until, I believe, about 2030 at this point. I get it. You want to have a star. What is Matt Ishbia doing? This team, did you have to do this?
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, they had to, probably not. They probably could have said, hey, let's let this play out a little bit more and we'll figure out where it lands. But I think for the Suns, it is this is a chance for our franchise guy to get locked up on a deal long term. And I think that was what they wanted to do.
Devin Booker doesn't want to go anywhere else. He wants to be with the Suns. I think the Sons are in a position where they want him still there, being kind of the face of the franchise.
So I think we're just in a position now where it is: all right, we've already moved on from Kevin Durant. We'll see. It sounds like they're getting ready to move on from Bradley Beale. We'll see when that happens. And we're just going to retool this roster around Devin Booker.
And now, when we go after the next guy, we can at least say, hey, Devin Booker's in the fold. uh for the next five years. And they'll be in a position where they can kind of try to set it up that way.
So I think that's where they're going with this, even if it's just locking in even more long term money down the line. Good luck to them as they try to figure out where they're going.
Well, Keith, let me ask you about where somebody's going. Jonas Valentunis. This man has a two year well, two years left on his contract at about ten mil per. And he wants to go out to Greece. Do we know how much money he's being offered there?
And he's currently in a contract. He can't just up and leave, right? He can't do that. Yeah, correct. He cannot do that.
What was reported on the table over in Greece is a $12 million contract over the next three seasons. And some people are like, well, he's going to make $10 million this year with the Nuggets. Why wouldn't he just take that?
Well, it's important to note that that $12 million is likely $12 million actual dollars because in Europe, especially for players of his caliber, the team will cover the agent fees, they'll cover the taxes. The players generally live rent-free wherever they live. Like he's going to clear more money, even if it is over three years than what he'd actually clear in the NBA. But here's the reality: none of that matters unless the Denver Nuggets agree to let him go. In the world of basketball, there's a thing called a FIBA letter of clearance.
So FIBA is the governing body for all leagues, really outside of the NBA, but the NBA works with them. And in order to change teams, With FIBA, one of the things you have to do is you have to prove to those the team that you have adequately fulfilled your prior contract.
Well, in this case, the Nuggets would say, no, they haven't adequately fulfilled anything. You know, he's still under contract to us, even if he's trying to leave and he would not be granted that letter of clearance, would not be able to sign with Panathenite Ghost in Greece, and he'd just be in a holding pattern with Denver.
So it sounds like he wants to talk to the Nuggets and see where things go. It's probably not going to turn into any kind of holdout situation because that'll get ugly. And my guess is it's going to be the Nuggets saying, hey, you're under contract. We expect you to be a training camp on this date here and ready to back up Nikola Jokic.
Well, that'll be a great team if they're able to go out there and do so, especially how they have retooled. Akee Smith is joining us from Spot Track and the Front Office Show. Retooling is something I think the Bucs are doing. And we also heard the comments from Yannis Atedokunpo. He's like, I don't know if I'm going to be a Buck.
I hope so. And not all that confident in what he said. What are your thoughts on the Milwaukee Bucs? They're eventually going to come to a head with Giannis. No.
Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I I think Jo Yannis is I think he's just trying to basically play the game without upsetting anybody here. And I think his comments continue to be: yeah, you know, I love Milwaukee. I'll probably be back in Milwaukee. And I think what he's been doing over the last really last couple of seasons is setting the stage for: hey, if I ever do ask out.
Like you need to understand, like, it was only because we got to a point where he couldn't win anymore. And I think he's been kind of, you know, it's like the soft sell, right? Of like, hey, let me set this up in advance. And then when it does happen, you at least, hey, we had a couple years where we knew.
So I don't think he's going anywhere this summer. I think we're getting a little too late in the game now. Maybe it does still happen, but I think it seems like he is committed to, all right, I'm going to be here. I'm going to be with the, I'll be here with the Bucks next season. And you're right, they did what they could to reset that roster on the fly.
It cost them a lot of money long term for Damian Lillard, stretched out over five years at 22.5 million. That's just going to sit on the books and dead money. And that's a little tough to take, but kind of is what it is with that. They get Miles Turner. They made a bunch of re-signings, a couple of smart pickups.
And they think they're in place to at least be pretty competitive in a very weakened Eastern conference.
So, Keith, if I'm understanding this correctly, Giannis is. Pulling the Russell Wilson from a few years ago, where he wanted out but didn't want to ask out, didn't want to, you know, he wants to save face in the process. I don't know. It's hard, right? It's especially hard with the players who come to the NBA from overseas.
Those guys, they equate their home here in the U.S. to it's like their home country almost. And they don't like to jump around. If you look at international players, they generally stick. They do not move around.
Think about all the times it was talked about, oh, Dirk Davitsky is going to move on to a different team just to be competitive. And he never did. He stayed with Dallas his entire career. A lot of those guys, they make this home and they go. But I do think there's a position for Giannis where I believe him when he says the most important thing to me is winning championships.
And I think if he gets a sense that, all right, the Bucs are nowhere close and it's not going to happen, then I think you may see him finally say, all right, you know, hey, we gave it a good run here for a decade plus.
Now it's time for me to try something different. Until that happens, they're going to be under no motivation to move ahead.
Well, Keith, there's so many conversations about somebody else moving around, and that's LeBron James. He has this. Contract that he opted into. Things have been quiet on the Western Front with the Lakers announcing it. LeBron is putting up cryptic posts.
What else is new? Is he going to finish out his career with the Los Angeles Lakers? You know, I don't know. It's one of the big topics, the conversation with everybody in the league. I'll be in Las Vegas in a couple of days, and I know it's already flying around out there with Summer League.
And sometimes when it's a trade that would have to be that big, involving that many moving parts and that much salary, it takes everybody being able to sit down in the room together in Las Vegas. And that's been kind of hinted at is we might still have a couple more big trades coming in the league. Not this summer, not necessarily LeBron or Giannis, but just, you know, more teams are looking to do more stuff. Here because the league feels pretty wide open. You have a lot of teams that are like, hey, why not us?
Why can't we make a run? Everybody knows the Thunder are good, but I don't think anybody. Fears the thunder, really, in that way.
So, we're going to see, you know, kind of what happens here with LeBron. But I think, you know, with him, it's definitely odd that he opted in. And then immediately the comments were: you know, LeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future. He wants to do what's best for him and the Lakers, which again seems a little bit like, hey, if we decide we want to move, like, don't get mad. We told you, you know, it might go that way.
So, so more to come on that one. And that's going to be, you know, a popular topic of conversation, I imagine, all the way through the trade deadline if he's still on the Lakers then.
Well, like you mentioned, there's so much more that has to happen. We don't have a resolution as it relates to Jonathan Kuminga, Bradley Beale. Apparently, he hasn't been. A separated hasn't come to a settlement on his contract and a buyout with the sons yet. What other shoe is there to drop that you're paying attention to?
Yeah, it's kind of related to the Caminga situation, but Al Horford is still available in free agency. He's deciding between, does he want to play? Does he want to take less money to stay in Boston? Does he want to move his family to the West Coast? Or does he just want to retire and call it a career after a good long career?
In addition to Caminga, we've got Josh Giddy is still available, restricted free agent, Quentin Grimes, Cam Thomas, a couple more restricted free agents. Those guys are just kind of being held by their teams because nobody else has cap space to be players there. The Grizzlies are trying to figure out how to move off a salary or two so that they can complete their renegotiation and extension with Jaron Jackson Jr. And then you've got some veteran guys that are still looking for jobs. Guys like Chris Paul, Malcolm Brogdon, Russell Westbrook are all out there.
You know, and then you got in the big man group, I mentioned Horford, but you got guys like Chris Boucher and Trey Lyle.
So there's still quite a few helpful. Players available on the market. And some of it is held up by these teams that are, all right, well, if we do X, we're going to be hamstrung.
So we can't really offer you a deal today, but let's see where we go. And that's what's holding up, I think, everything right now. Yeah, this has been a real stretched-out. I guess it's July 10th. It just feels like it's been going on forever.
It's been a real stretched-out period. You know what I mean? It was that. We had all those trades early. Um, before the draft, which we don't generally have.
And I think that's what's made it feel like you know, free agency started a month ago, even when, you know, in reality, it only opened 10 days ago. Yeah, when we get the news earlier now, not but well, the cat is out the bag. People actually have always negotiated before the fact, but. Everybody has just fully admitted it now. Hey, Keith, thank you so much for the insightful conversation.
Please tell everybody where they could follow you and all of your work with Spotrack and also with the front office show. Yeah, you can find me on social media at Keith Smith NBA, Twitter, and Blue Sky. I don't post anywhere else.
So if you see stuff, it's not me. I don't post there. And then you can follow my written work over at spotrack.com. All of our salary sheets, we're updating them as close to real time as we can and then plugging in official details as soon as we can track them down. And then NBA Front Office Show, that's our podcast.
Trevor Lane and I, we're on a little bit of a weird recording schedule because of Summer League and both of us traveling, but generally, you know, we're there three to five times a week in the summertime, five times a week in season, breaking down all the latest and greatest around the NBA. Hey, Keith, enjoy Vegas just a little bit. Look forward to having a chat with you soon. This was fun. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me. No, thank you. Our daughter Jessie loves playing detective. A clue. But since we discovered she has sensitive skin, we've been playing detective too.
We thought the problem was our puppy. But it was actually our old detergent. Aha.
So we switched to Tide Free and Gentle. Tide Free and Gentle provides an excellent tide clean, and it doesn't leave behind irritating residues like dyes or perfumes.
So it's gentle on your skin. Case closed. If it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide-free and gentle.
