Miami Heat: Is there a Dame Lillard mystery team? | Five on the Floor

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It's right there in downtown Miami. Now, today's episode. Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reasons Sports Network. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here's today's floor plan. I got Brady Hawk. You can follow me at BradyHawk305. I got Greg Sylvander. You can follow me at Greg Sylvander. Alex has the night off. Be back with us over the weekend. Also, make sure you check out Playback. We've been on there for the Team USA games, which there are no more. Well, there is one more, I guess. There's a third-place game against Canada. I don't know if we'll be doing that one, but we will be following Nikola Jovic in the final with Serbia against Germany. Not the final that everybody predicted, but it's going to be interesting to see Franz Wagner go against Nikola Jovic because that will be matched up against each other quite a bit as the Miami Heat, again, still have his rights. We'll see if they have his rights by the time the season starts since he could be a trade piece for Dame. And that's what we're going to talk about today because we had Drew Starr on this week. That's not his real name, but a lot of you enjoyed that podcast. He's been the aggregator of all aggregators. He's been going through all the content that's Miami Heat or Dame Lillard related during this offseason and putting it out there for people on Twitter. You can follow him at DRU underscore star. He does the podcast, but he also checks out all the stories, finds the Q&A's, the little nuggets that maybe we don't see and they're there always first thing in the morning. And then we play off of them on Twitter and other places during the day. And so Drew had a nugget today where he found a Q&A with Chris Maddox, who works for NBC Boston, but also appears on. Is he on the athletic pocket? No, the S.I. podcast or one of those. He's still on. Well, he's been a national writer for quite a long period of time. Maddox, again, I know Chris. I know our exposure is a good relationship with Chris, but he's been one of those that has been kind of, I think, downplaying the the Dame to Miami possibility or offer for quite a while. And Brady, do you have it up? Do you want to read it this time? Drew's transcribing of Chris Maddox's answer to a question today. This is where we're at. We're literally going through Q&A's. So the quote was right now that he are in the Blazers or the Blazers only option. I've been checking in with teams I believe might be interested for weeks and haven't picked up a whiff of intrigue for many of them. The combo of his contract at Portland's asking price has left Miami as the lone suitor. So there you go. Now, he fans skeptically, Greg may say Chris Maddox has been begging a team to get involved so that and I don't want to say he's that biased. OK, but it has been, you know, I know some fans think that begging a team to get involved so that Dane Bullard doesn't end up on a competitor to the Boston Celtics. Again, I'm not going to say that Chris is that biased, but he fans might say it for me. But this is kind of what we've been saying for weeks and months that you can poop who the heats offer all you want, but there's no other offers out there. And the narrative has now seemed to shift. And we address this on one episode, but we should get into it a little more depth here. The narrative has seemed to shift from Dame and his agent killed the market by saying only Miami to there was never a market to begin with. And there wouldn't have been even if Dame hadn't said just Miami, which again is what we've been saying all along, because there is no mystery team at this point. There hasn't been a mystery team. It's been like wish casting is what we've called it, that a mystery team would emerge and no mystery team is going to emerge by the start of the season. But let's just follow this through. And today's floor plan is to do that. Let's see if we can find the mystery team. Let's see if there is a team out there that we're overlooking. Maybe it's an expansion team that hasn't been invented yet. But is there some team out there that actually could jump into the sweepstakes for Dame that a would want his talent, which every team would, but also want him at his age, at his contract, which is sixty three million dollars in the last year, and also doesn't have a duplicative player already that makes getting Dame kind of to a certain degree pointless. So let's go through the list. And if they could build a better package than Miami, even if there was a team out there that we could find. So we can also find that stuff. Lots of qualifiers, but we'll narrow it down and see. Well, without having to give up a star that makes getting Dame pointless. Right. Because we know that he's not giving up a star. They may have to give up Tyler Hero, who is a borderline star, but they're not giving up either of their two top 20 players in the league, Jimmy and Bam. OK, so let's start here. The Milwaukee Bucks. Could we see any interest at any point from the Milwaukee Bucks, Greg? I think that this is the perfect team that comes out of nowhere, throws caution to the wind and says, just like Toronto did with Kawhi, he's too good. And also, mind you, Giannis, they got some rocky stuff heading up there with extension eligibility and not taking extensions and seeing how things play out. That's going to leave people walking on eggshells in Milwaukee. So a risky swing like Dame makes sense. Here's the issue. They have no damn picks. They've already emptied the chamber, the clip, whatever you want to say, to build the team that they have that won the twenty twenty one NBA championship. So like they're now feeling the after effects of that. So like this was, you know, kind of to go back to where you started us. This takes a very unique scenario. Even if this was like square one, Damian Lillard is out there and he is open minded to go elsewhere. It still takes a very unique scenario for it to be plausible and make sense for the franchise and for Dame. Milwaukee would be one of those teams, honestly, dead serious, but they don't have the assets to get it done. It's impossible. Yeah, you have to start here. Would Dame go to the place? I do believe he would consider Milwaukee if it was to play with Giannis, right? So then it again becomes, do they have the need? Well, they have a true holiday. But if you're trying to keep Giannis, then you do whatever you can to get Dame, even though true holiday did a number on Dame a few years ago in the postseason, which which some people remember. But then again, it comes down to assets. And I just don't see without any picks and without any players that can really get you picks what Milwaukee could do to make the situation attractive to Portland. So I'm eliminating them. I understand what you're saying, Greg, that they are. And I'm with you. They shouldn't. Yeah, eliminate them. I they fall into that category that you could say, OK, you could see both sides maybe wanting to do it. But if if Miami's package isn't good enough, Milwaukee's package isn't going to be good enough. So let's go down the list. OK, Boston, Brady. I mean, after the Jalen Brown, you can't. Right. Right. Right. So we don't even need to talk about them. We had enough talking about Boston on here. So just immediately eliminate them. Now, the other podcasts do Boston talk enough. All right. Philadelphia, then, Brady, I'll go to you. OK, with their current situation with James Harden, we know more. I likes the big swing. You're trying to keep Embiid there. Lillard, I don't think has expressed a hell of a lot of interests in them, but I don't I don't he hasn't like ruled them out like he reportedly did with the Celtics. OK, so I guess the possibility is there. James Harden has a contract that I guess could be moved since he opted in. They do have Maxey, but they weren't willing to include Maxey previously. Is this a dark horse team? I think this is very similar to Milwaukee, just because it's the same scenario where you're trying to make keep your star happy in a scenario where you're going to make the push. But the question is, do you have enough? The difference between this and Milwaukee, to Greg's point, when he mentioned about the no picks that Milwaukee has and I'm looking at that Milwaukee roster, I'm like, what player would they give up? Because there's not even one enticing player in the roster. You're giving it a trade. It feels like like a young piece that's like, you know, make them raise an eyebrow. Philly has that. And you mentioned Tyrese Maxey. So that's the main difference. Like, would they say with all the issues that they've had and they're just trying to make one final push to keep Embiid happy or something along those lines, you throw Maxey in a deal and kind of put some certain stuff together. I think that could rival it. And it just comes down to them. I mean, that will be willing to do it. And I guess that's the big question everybody's been having is because Portland keeps making these other calls and doesn't seem to be respecting the fact of the teams that he showed that he's chosen. Will it matter? But I think Philly is the one that probably is the dark horse in the east that makes the most sense just because they actually have the asset that Milwaukee doesn't have. Greg, do you give them any chance to get in the picture here? Do you think that I mean, do you think first thing they would want to? And then I mean, do you give them any any odds at all? Brady's right. It's one of the few scenarios we can eliminate, like the Indianas and the Detroit's really quick and just keep this thing moving. But Philadelphia is an interesting one. I'll just say this, like Maxey is still in the tier of hero, but just maybe isn't quite paid like him just yet. And the 76ers also, I don't believe, have a ton of picks Roland sitting around. So like they'd have to make moves. And Maury has done that. So, I mean, it's possible. Like somebody had to call Dame for Dame to say, no, no, I'm good on Boston. Well, somebody will call on Philly and then he'll say, no, I'm good on Philly. I just don't see that that's a scenario for him. It's too it's too like if he's going to leave, he's not going to leave for the instability that is the Sixers. Like that's part of why he's choosing Miami. And we're going to want Maxey, by the way. OK, that was what I was going to ask. This is the part I don't understand. OK, and this is the part I don't understand with the Portland media, which can maybe we'll have another of those guys on here is they don't want a hero, but they would want Maxey. I mean, it's just it's a preference and player. But do they think he can get an extra pick? Maybe? I don't know. Like, well, that's what I'm saying. They want I mean, they want Maxey or they want Maxey can retrieve. I mean, Maxey is going to have to get paid eventually, like this idea that he's a lot cheaper than hero right now. He is. But I mean, if a team that's not very good acquires him for a first round pick, he's going to average 25 points on semi, you know, probably not great efficiency, but he's going to get paid. I mean, he's going to get petty. Jordan Poole got paid. Maxey is going to get paid. So that's the part I don't get. Like if Portland doesn't want another guard, why was Maxey even in discussion here? I'm keeping Philly in the loop on this as a where where, you know, I don't know what they can do, but more I might have to do it to keep Embiid away from New York and other places eventually, and just to keep the whole thing from totally imploding on his new coach. But I don't really see how it makes a lot of sense either for Portland. I mean, for Dame, I think Dame could be talked into it because he'd be playing with the league MVP. I mean, you know, I understand the instability of Philadelphia that hasn't worked for Harden. It didn't work for Simmons and honestly, and Jimmy left and everything else. But if you're Dame, you know, playing with a big man like that, when the best big man you've ever played with is what, Nirkich in Myers Leonard. I mean, I feel like that would be attractive to him in some regard. And Philadelphia doesn't have the negative kind of. Yes, they have crazy ass fans, but the connotation of their fans is different than Boston fans. And so I feel like they might be more open to it. I'm going to keep them in the mix, but I think if that's the wish casting that people are doing, that it's going to be Philly with all of their issues right now. That's a reach. All right. Before we get to the Cleveland, you have Donovan Mitchell situation where it's pretty clear that as much as Donovan may like it, he's probably going to leave. Right. So I guess the question is, are you trading Donovan Mitchell to get to get Dame or you bringing in Dame, you trading Garland maybe to upgrade at that position to try to keep Mitchell there? I mean, what could you do if you're Kobe Altman and Cleveland? These are all the same positions as the guys that they're drafting and building around. So what are we doing? See, it's beautiful. It's this exercise. It's so it has explanatory power beyond what we say, because every time we land on a team where you're like, oh, wait a minute, this actually could make some sense. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell would do the same ---- that Dame Lillard, Tyler Hero, Tyrese Maxey and all these other guys are doing. It just doesn't fit in. It just shows you that it's not. I mean, I guess we we could talk about it because they may be in a situation where Donovan Mitchell has to get dealt because they don't think they're going to keep them. They're not there yet, but maybe one day they're going to have to face that reality. I just don't see them making that decision now. Would New York be any more plausible than Cleveland, Brady? I was just looking at that because they at least have like young pieces. But like, I think the way people talk about New York's young pieces is like, like, there's so much better than like, let's say, Miami's young pieces as we speak. Because it's New York. That's been the case for centuries at this point. Like is like, OK, Dame's getting traded for R.J. Barrett and Emanuel quickly, and we're going to say, OK, that matches up like that makes sense. And it's all even. And once again, more guards like more guards that we're talking about, like the more I'm looking at this, if there is something your Portland's wanting, you're looking for a young frontcourt player with all those guards. That's what Miami has right now. Like, that's the one thing that Miami has is like the young frontcourt guys instead of young guards. Like, it's it's just funny looking at these different things. But once again, and then the Dame Brunson thing would be I don't know, it does not make sense to me. Like, none of it makes sense to me. Oh, my God. That's a New York thing. Brady, that backcourt trying to defend Dame and Brunson together. Jimmy, I love it. Jimmy would absolutely love it. The Knicks would love it. That's some dumb ---- the Knicks would do. So keep him on the list, too. Who knows? No, I seems. But it also seems like, you know, people were worried that maybe the heat would hold out for Embiid and wait for that situation to play out. The Knicks are the team that would hold out for Embiid because the Knicks actually have an inside track to Embiid, you know, with with some of the connections that they have to him. And it just seems like he ends up in New York as their next great big. They haven't really. I mean, they tried with Stoudemire, but after Patrick, you know, after Willis Reed and Patrick, like it makes sense for Embiid potentially to end up in New York. So I guess before we go to break here, looking at the rest of the East, I mean, the team that people are I mean, let's eliminate others before we get to Brooklyn. OK, Atlanta. No. Right. I mean, there's no I'm no point. I mean, what do you have? You're going to trade Trey. I mean, you're not going to play Trey and Dame together, right? So forget that one. Chicago. OK, Zach Levine solve any problems for them? No, they don't have. I mean, Patrick Williams is their front court piece. No interest in Busevich or guards of Levine. That's that's great. Right. So eliminate them. Toronto. If we knew what the hell was what they were doing, what they're trying to do. Yeah, maybe we could project that out. But, you know, everyone wants to never count out Maasai. So maybe we shouldn't either. But I don't see it. And then there's the Raptors. I don't I don't. I mean, Kawhi did, but I don't know. It seems totally weird. That team doesn't like you take Dame and put that in place of Fred Van Vliet is essentially you and they have Dennis Schroeder there who would come off the bench, I guess now and Scotty Barnes and Siakam, I guess, would still. But they'd have to give up. Right. So, oh, geez, the guy that supposedly he would want to play with, but OG would probably go the other direction when they so. Yeah. So maybe Barnes, they punt on and like that doesn't feel really viable either. So that would be the one thing. Right. But that would be the one I think Portland would want. I would think so, too. I mean, they would want Scotty Barnes and figure they play him at the three. Right. And that would at least it. It's late for Brooklyn. That's the last team. OK, well, we'll get to Brooklyn, but we can eliminate Charlotte, Detroit. He's not going to those places. Orlando. I already did that. Sorry. Washington not going there. Indiana not going there. Right. OK, so the last conversation here before the break is Brooklyn. I mean, it does not seem like they've expressed a ton of interest here. I don't at least in him. He did mention them early on. It is the New York market. They have failed with superstars repeatedly over the past few years, and it is really I mean, Sean Marks has been there now for a little while, but he wants to play with McHale Bridges. But wouldn't McHale Bridges have to go the other way? Maybe Cam Johnson does instead. But there's some weird salary cap stuff that with extensions in first years and base year compensation, et cetera, it makes it hard to make that work. And he's not any closer to a championship. So like I just don't think he could sit up there and say, I made this big stink. And then like I'm ending up on a team that doesn't really have any any surefire Hall of Famers next to me or all perennial all stars. McHale Bridges may be ascending into that, but he's not a player who's been made in the all star team every year. He's not Jimmy. Right. So, right. Yeah, exactly. He's not made deep playoff runs as a is a major guy. So like, let's not put them in the same tier and say that that would make Dame feel like he is as close as he would be in Miami. So to me, like it was talked about because there's some sexy little moments when you think about the two. But I don't find it viable. So if I was to say the one team in these, we've gone through all of them now that would get it to get involved and either steal Dame from Miami or force Miami to raise their offer significantly. I'll go to each of you individually here. Brady, your team is. I still want to say Philadelphia just because they actually have the piece like they they're the one team that has the asset, but not the asset to Portland. So even when we're talking about the one team that could do it, it still isn't a perfect puzzle piece. It's just a guy just like we're talking about Miami. But before, because I know I was actually going to maybe say Brooklyn just because he's on the list that I don't want to take Greg before you before you say anything. But I want to ask, what is their pick situation like? Like, what is the difference between Brooklyn's pick situation and let's say Miami's? Well, they have all the Phoenix's picks. Let me let me take a look. We can we can look this up real quick. I'm going to do this while we go to the break. And then when we when we after we do this, we'll go to the West and we'll answer the question here. But you again, before before we do so, would you have said Philadelphia, Greg? Also, yeah, that's my pick. Hundred percent. Oh, just because they're like they're in a spot where trying to not say the word literally, I caught myself there at the end of the day. You're getting like Alex there. They're at a spot where they're so desperate because Embiid's eventually going to say, get me the hell out of here. That may be like that's the shiny new toy they deliver to try to keep Embiid around. So, yeah, just because they're so inept, they would take that kind of swing and fail and mess everything up for the heat. Well, it's possible. I think it's unlikely. All right. As we're looking this up here on the Brooklyn side, I do want to mention a couple of great sponsors, the five reason sports network. Speaking of picks, go to prize picks, use the code five F.I.V.E. get that initial deposit matched up to one hundred dollars. Use our code, please. It helps you and it helps us. And and you play two, three, four, five, six players together. NFL season is already open. Play all of the Sunday games, all of the Sunday games on prize picks. Pair different players together. They still have the Dak Prescott, pretty much a free box on their free square. So check it out. Go to prize picks dot com. Use the code five F.I.V.E. And of course, you can play it during NBA season as well. And better edge. Go to better edge dot com. We've got a contest on there right now. I'm Rochester. He's he's in the pole position right now. So make your five picks. It's a ten dollar entry. You can win a lot more than that. And you get twenty dollars to play when you sign up with our code five hours. And so it's literally playing free. This is legal sports betting at better edge. So go to better edge dot com. Use the code five R.S.N. Go to prize picks. Use the code five. All right. I'm looking at incoming draft picks for Portland, excuse me, for Brooklyn. Do they not have a pick next year because it says the next one they have is twenty twenty. They sent that pick to Houston, Houston. OK, so they don't have a twenty twenty four. They have twenty twenty. And that that also means with a step in rule, too, that they can't trade twenty twenty five. Correct. So they have to make sure they at least keep. Well, yeah, twenty twenty five. Also, OKC has the right to swap its twenty twenty five first rounder with Houston. So for selections one through five, it gets super. I'm going to need to go to get in the weeds here. But they have a first round pick and they don't have one in twenty four. They have one in twenty five from Phoenix. OK, which again, if people are complaining about the quality of the Heat's picks and that they may be too too far down, is a twenty twenty five pick from Phoenix going to be worth much if Durant, Beale and and Booker are still there. That seems unlikely. Twenty. They also have a second rounder, which is protected. That's actually from Miami. The twenty twenty six, they own their own second. They don't have a first twenty twenty seven. They have a first from Phoenix with no protections. They have a first from Philly protected one through eight. They don't have their own twenty eight. They have their own first and second round picks. Twenty nine. They have their own and Phoenix's first round pick. So they have a bunch of picks way into the future. They have a twenty twenty nine second from Dallas with no protections they have. And then they have their own picks in twenty thirty. I can't believe how old we've gotten. We're talking about the year twenty thirty. That does not seem like a much better pick situation than Miami's, actually. And, you know, and then there are some rules that we would have to get into with some of the swaps and again, the step in rule. So I don't put them in much better position. All right. So let's go then to the West, the Denver Nuggets. Would it make any sense for the Denver Nuggets to get involved and do they since it seems like they only have six players on the roster, even though they're the defending champions, would they make a move for him? No. Next, Phoenix Brady. Unless they're trying to build Team USA, I was going to say they're going to try. OK, that's that's a fair way to look at it. Memphis. I mean, if things get become a sticky situation with jaw down the line, maybe. But right now, there's I don't see that being. Why would Portland trade for job? It's a scenario. Same scenario. Yeah. Or maybe. I mean, talent wise. Yes. But I'm just saying, why would you? I mean, they just they just drafted Scoot, right? And then you've got the off the court stuff where you don't know what that's going to blow up again. Yeah, it's also Memphis and they wouldn't contend. So Dame would be pissed about going. Well, they might contend. I mean, I know. I mean, but it depends who they gave up. Are you giving up Triple J? I mean, is that. No, I'm just thinking more of that. And Bane, I mean, I'm going to get another something like swing, probably in that direction for them to really get involved here, I guess. But again, this is all very, let's say it's hypothetical. OK, Sacramento, they have the Aaron Fox. Why would now that now that's their pillar? That's no way the Clippers. What assets do they have like that? That's my first. So this is a team that's similar to Milwaukee and Philly and that they make some sense. But the asset situation, I mean, they can't even get a deal done for James Harden. Never mind Damian Lillard. So I just don't see them having the assets. I mean, I don't even know what they could offer that would up it from what they were reportedly offering from Harden. They wouldn't even give up Terrence Mann for Harden. So I don't I don't know. Again, I sort of agree with them about that. But, you know, and also Damon Paul George don't have the best history, so I don't even know. Maybe they trade Paul George. Oh, man. But but again, if you're Portland, why does that make any sense? You got another guy who's off the timeline. I mean, you had a podcaster, but and a great player. But I mean, where are you? I mean, you're still you're still in the play in, right? I mean, and you think Paul George is going to be happy going to that situation at this stage of his career? I mean, he went to the second fiddle in L.A., a guy that he might just be the only guy in the playoffs if Kawhi's injured again. Like, I don't know. Right. Exactly. Exactly. All right. The Warriors. What? Steph, Chris Paul and Dame. Okay. That'll be third string. The second string. But yes, I'm with you. I mean, there was some stuff. There was some smoke put out there about them wanting to play together, but I don't even know if that's feasible for the two of them. The other Paul thing hadn't happened. Like I'd say, you know what? Those are two two great players that say, hey, let's try to make this thing work. Right. And they don't have any young front court players anymore. They've gotten rid of them all with the exception is coming even still there. I mean, he's still there, right? But they've traded Wiseman. They've moved on from a whole bunch of guys. They've re-signed Draymond. They're not they're not they don't have anything to offer Portland. Their pick situation is not great either. Kominga doesn't hold that kind of young player weight that he once did. They've kind of killed his value, to be honest. The Lakers. Unless they the Reeves, the Reeves hype thinks that equals a game trade. There's I don't really know another team that I don't know. Young front court players again, right? Yeah. And they can trade Reeves even if they wanted to, to like, make this interesting, which is just bizarre. But yeah, that's it's just they're not there. They're a new team to a degree with all the guys that they brought back, signed, etc. So they don't have tradable pieces. They paid Gabe. They're good. Of course, they are. Exactly. Minnesota. No, I'm you're laughing, but I'm going deeper on the West list because there are like 10 to 12 potential playoff teams in the West. So I'm just I mean, I guess a team that is like, OK, we have to go get Dame to kind of elevate ourselves in this conference. That's the asset. Is that the swap right there? Twenty seven years old, I guess. No heart, no playoff, you know, series victories. Ability to change tone of voice at drop of dime. Correct. But you throw them in there with Scoot and Anthony Simons and Shane and Sharp and see how it works. I mean, they don't have any picks, though. They gave them all up for Colbert, right? Like I don't like where are they? I mean, so it is. It really is. Portland is saying we'll just try to make it work with Kat. That's it, because we get we basically get a six year. You know, we go back six years in terms of age from Dame to Kat, and he's in the front court and we rebalance our roster. And when I get one of six or seven seed, maybe at best. Right. You cannot make that choice as a franchise to take your pillar of your franchise and trade them for Carl Anthony Towns, like no future assets, nothing like you're talking down on Miami's assets, young players and picks and not wanting Tyler or this and that, and you're going to trade for Carl Anthony Towns as the guy like that press, it would be hilarious. We think Carl can be a real asset to us in building a winner as everyone's rolling their eyes. I mean, I don't even know which teams Mannix could have called because I'm going through these thieves and there's just nothing that makes any sense. Now, OK, what about the Pelicans? Can you make a case? David Griffin's aggressive, can you? And you have Zion. We know that it was open, open to playing with Zion. Could you trade Brandon Ingram as the core piece? Rebalance the roster a little bit. I mean, Branton is considerably younger. You're not impressed in this tournament, but they do have some pick assets. And CJ, who would be like, hey, you come back and play with CJ again. We'll basically do Portland East, but now you're playing with Zion and they have some interesting pieces. I mean, Herb Jones is an interesting piece. I know that Trey Murphy's hurt now. Which does suck because I thought he might be an MIP candidate this year. But he also would be a player that I would think that that's like the type of chip that you might be interested in. And now he's he's hurt. I mean, honestly, of the teams we've mentioned in the West, New Orleans is like the sleeper that you could see because Griffin, he does swing big and he has made the kind of trades before. Getting first round picks when he made the trades for Mozgov and J.R. Smith that time. He also cleared out the roster previously to bring LeBron in. If you remember, he dumped a bunch of players beforehand. There's a certain level of creativity and sort of risk taking there. And you could potentially sell Dame. I mean, the city of New Orleans is a basketball property has always been kind of shaky, but you could send it. It also could be, again, a way to keep Zion engaged. And it does look like he's lost the weight and that maybe he's going to be healthy for at least 35 games this season. That's the one that keeps jumping out to me, because the other one that keeps getting mentioned is OKC. And the OKC makes no sense to me. They have the capital. And that's the one that like there is the wish casting for, because that's if you're a Portland fan, you're like, well, they could just give us all their damn picks there. By the way, the Pelicans have a ton of picks, too. OK, yeah, the Pelicans and the Jazz both have a ton of picks that Pelicans, the Jazz and the Thunder basically own the draft for the last for the next like seven years. OK, so those three teams get mentioned a lot. But if you look at those three, the only one I think that would really make any sense is the Pelicans. I don't I know Dame has some connections to the Utah area, but I can't. I cannot see that. I just I just can't see it at all. Right. And and I don't know. I just I mean, how much does that elevate them? And they have, again, the picks. But to play with marketing, I guess, and what and Walker Kessler, you know, I didn't want to ruin what he had in Portland. He was willing to stick it out and be whatever they are in Portland. And then he finally goes up there and says, I have one situation I like. I'm finally going to say that I want to be traded. And it's this one scenario. And now we have the approach with due diligence. Look at all these other teams. But ultimately, it's all cycles back to why is the market down? You could say, oh, his agent suppressed it and blah, blah, blah. And like, it's all their fault. It's also because the whole damn league knows Damian Lillard wants to play for Miami. And he's expensive at the end of his contract. And most of them have lead guards. I mean, most of the teams that would want him have lead guards. Like even if you look at OKC, like you're going to make that thing work with Shea right now. And you've got two different timelines. Yeah, Josh, Josh, it is a young developing player that that you like. You know, you're going to work in Holmgren this season. They've pretty much hit on their draft picks. They they always do. That's what Presti does so well. And they have all these other picks. So you're going to cash it in for Dame. Are you going to win in Dame's window? No. Right. So why would you shorten the timeline with this particular group? When you can build, you know, the type of team that they really were trying to build the last time when you hit on, you know, Durant, Westbrook and Harden, like you have an opportunity to redo that and maybe try to actually pay the guys this time instead of letting Harden walk like they did. Why would you gut it? I just when I look at those three, those and the jazz, no. So when I look at those and then Rockets spurs, we can eliminate those. And the Mavericks, no, not not not where they're at right now. And he does not mean to have Kyrie. So that's not happening. You're not taking Kyrie back in a trade. I come down to this. I agree with you that the only to me, the only two teams that you would be even somewhat concerned about would be the Sixers and the Pelicans for different reasons. And I don't think either of them is making the move, but for different reasons, because of the Pelicans assets, because CJ is there, because Griffin is aggressive and then Philadelphia, to me, it's desperation to keep and the attraction potentially for Dame, at least of playing with an elite, elite, elite of the elite bigs. Those would be the two teams that I would look at. But I still don't think this is happening. Greg, go ahead. Well, and the other part of this that I think and shout out to Drew Stars, we're giving him his tour of props. You even heard Portland say, I think you can expect like that. Woj said this. I think you can expect there'll be more conversations with Portland and perspective teams over the next few weeks than there were over the last couple of months. The next real deadline is the start of training camp. You could expect the Blazers to talk to teams again before then. So now what we've been saying, the 15th training camp right around there, that's the next thing we're watching for. Congratulations. Everyone else has now caught up officially. And I don't mean that to be completely. Well, it's OK. Yeah, I kind of am being that guy. But anyway, so here we are. And they're saying perspective teams. Mannix is mentioning other teams. Cut the crap, everyone. We know that this is a two team thing. This is Miami and Portland. They need to hash this out. And I just I wonder as the Blazers are going through this, whether it's Cronin, whether it's ownership with the Allen family, et cetera, whether they really think they're fooling anybody anymore. Like, that's what I'm wondering. And like when Woj gives up the ghost, when he's essentially been the mouthpiece for the Blazers organization, you know, he's still throwing out the possibility of teams or Maddox is still calling around. If there was a team, we would have heard about it already. And I just I just don't, again, see what circumstance is going to change. I guess the only thing could be if one of these teams we're talking about that has an elite lead guard loses that elite lead guard to injury, like let's say a Shay gets hurt or Drew gets hurt or something along those lines. But if we're going to say that, then just does Dame replacing that player make that team a contender anyway? And the odds are against that. So this is a perfect storm situation for Miami. And it's why they've been able to kind of sit tight, which is that they know the market. They know what each team has. They know in terms of their draft picks. They know in terms of their rosters. They know in terms of their desire to win immediately. They know in terms of their tax situations, their ownership, payroll thresholds. They know all of this stuff. And you keep coming around to this and saying there just ain't anything else out there. And there's not going to be anything else out there. And this is basically been a as Greg, you sort of pointed out a slow moving train ride to get to where we've been for the last three months. And now the only question is, does Portland just want to be this damn stubborn and ignore everything that's out there? And if that's the case, the Miami is going to have to go into the season with what they have. And that's really where it's at. But I don't think there's going to be anything that is going to force Miami to overpay beyond well beyond where they wanted to. Maybe one additional pick, one additional player, get the deal done, let Portland save face, get Dame here. So it's easy. So he's here in, say, November or whatever, October instead of in February. OK, and you have more time to acclimate. Maybe it'll be worth the heat to do for the heat to do that. But it's not going to be worth it for the heat to empty the chest when they are still literally competing against themselves. I said this before. Seattle may get an expansion team. Las Vegas may get an expansion team. But right now, those teams do not exist. And to that same point, neither does the team that once Damian Lillard can afford Damian Lillard and can compensate Portland for Damian Lillard much more than Miami can. And none of those teams, as you said, Greg, are the team that Dame wants to play for. So why are you going to wait and piss off your franchise icon for all time? OK, to to hold out for a fantasy, a ghost, something that does not exist and will never exist. Have a good night. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five regional sports network.