- Every team, every topic, everywhere, this is believed. - What's good, y'all? Welcome back to Believe Mommy. He brought to you by Living Network. As always, I'm your host, Anthony DiNardo. And as fast as I just did that intro, is as fast as I saw the heat's chances of not running it back fly out the window over this past week. But before we get into that, I just wanna say that I am on the audio only side of things, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, et cetera. So if you're listening on those platforms, go ahead and leave a five-star review. Maybe a nice comment. That stuff does help me out a lot. But I also am on the YouTube side. If you wanna see the video, just search Anthony DiNardo. And if you are over here, hit the like button. But most importantly, hit subscribe because I'm less than 40 subs away from 5,000 y'all. So if you are on the audio side, come over to the YouTube too, hit that button. Help me reach that nice milestone there. But it's been a great week. I mean, for me, not necessarily the Miami Heat. I got a couple of DiMardo-Rosen videos out. That stuff's irrelevant now. I got a Kayla Martin out. I said, hey, the market's drying up. Maybe the Heat could re-sign Kayla for cheap. We get to keep our boy. That obviously didn't happen. We got some nice summer league ball yesterday in which the Heat got killed. But there was some positives, I guess. But we'll be getting to all that stuff. And Timestamps will be down below if you wanna jump around to a certain topic. Now for context, I am recording this at 9.30 AM on July 7th. So it's in between the first and second summer league game for the Heat. So we'll see what happens as they take on. I think the Kings today and their second summer league game. But I wanna start this podcast by talking about Kayla Martin as he signs with the 76ers for four years, $32 million. Now I kinda wanna give y'all a little bit of a timeline of how his free agency has gone. Because for him, it hasn't been a good one. Now, I should put this into context. He's a guy that went undrafted. He was only in the NBA because Jay Cole, the rapper, Jermaine Cole, shout out to RDC World. But Jermaine Cole is the one that discovered him. And he called up his boy, Coron Butler on the Miami Heat and said, "Hey, you gotta check out this Kayla." But he is a hooper 'cause they used to play together in some private runs and stuff. And sure enough, Caleb dominated the practices. They signed into, I think, a two-way. And then he very quickly made the full roster. So to go from that to making $32 million over the course of four years, it's a huge dub in life for Kayla Martin. Really, really is so. I wanna put some perspective into that. But it does sound like he or his agent did cost himself a ton of money because that 32 million over four years comes to an average of eight million per year. And what has been widely reported as the Miami Heat's offer was 65 million over five years, which comes to $13 million a year. So he's getting an average of five million less per year by going to Philly. Now, the reason this all kind of got messed up is because technically what had to happen for Kayla Martin to get that money from the Heat is he would have had to opt into his next season with the Heat and which he would have only got 7.1 million. So next season, he would have got about a million less than what he's going to get from Philly. But if Kayla Martin opted into that deal with the Heat, they were going to sign him to a four-year, $58 million extension, meaning that after next season, he would have got almost $15 million a year. So going from $8 million a year to $15 million a year or going from potentially, he could have had 15 and now he's at $8 million with the 76ers. Obviously, he cost himself a ton of money. And again, once he opted out, there was no going back for the Heat. Barry Jackson was even reporting too of some pretty, he said there were intense negotiations between the Heat and Kayla Martin because the Heat are saying, "Hey, we're giving you 14 and a half million a year." Like that's what his market is. Like we are able to give it to you. And apparently Kayla's agent was like, "No, we can get close to 20." And the Heat were dumbfounded. Those are the words that Barry Jackson used who does get his information from inside the organization. And apparently the agent for Kayla said, "No, that's not good enough. "We're going to explore the market." Kayla sat in free agency one week, two weeks. The market's drying up and all that was really left was that cap space. That the 76ers had, so he had no other options there. And I posted a video about the Kayla Martin news yesterday. And I got a couple of comments saying, "Oh, it's not, it's not the agent's fault. "It's Kayla Martin's fault. "He's the one that decided to opt out. "Guys, I promise you, that's not how it works." Kayla Martin, as a guy who's coming up on his first chance to get a payday, is obviously going to go where he can get the most bread. That's what everyone does when they're first contract. Like when they're out for their first big contract, they go to get the bread as they should. So what you do is you ask your agent, "What is my market?" That's the agent's job to know your market. So for his agent to tell him, "No, 15 million is not good enough," Kayla has no choice but to believe it. And apparently it's an experienced agent too. He was a Kevin Garnett's agent back in the day. We know that boy got a bag once upon a time. Now they did say his agent doesn't currently have as many agents, but two of them is the Martin twins. And it sounds like he might have two less agents after this because if I'm Kayla Martin, I have to fire my agent because he truly, truly did do a disservice. Another thing I saw over the last 24 hours is, "Oh, Kayla just didn't want to be with the Miami Heat." That's why he took less money. Stop acting like he went for the money. He wanted to win a championship. First, I've seen comments like that. They literally said Kayla went to the 76ers because he wanted to win a championship. That's why he left the Heat. So he went to the team that hasn't been out of the second round in a decade, I'm sure way longer than a decade, truthfully, but hasn't been out of the second round in forever and Joel Embiid's entire tenure. So he, and he leaves the Miami Heat who have been to two NBA finals in the last five years, went to the NBA finals with him, went to the conference finals with him. That's obviously BS. And if you've been watching Kayla for any amount of time over these last few seasons, you know that his heart was with his Miami Heat team. The team that gave him a chance, you know he wanted to stay. There's no way he wanted to lead. And it just, it sucks that he not only has to go to Philadelphia, he has to do it for a lot less money. Now I am curious though, I mean, he is at the eight million dollars right now, the Heat, you know, eight million season, the Heat are about five and a half below the second apron. If the Heat could have cleared up just a little bit of space, maybe they would have been able to resign him for that eight million, but it doesn't sound like the Heat are able to do any trades here. It sounds like really nobody wants our assets. The whole Tyler hero thing, it really seems like he's a negative asset at this point. And that's been something I've been saying for a long time. I was hoping some of these bad teams would be more interested in the younger guy that could score, but it doesn't look like it. I will get into that a little bit when we start talking about DeMar. I would just want to say with the Caleb thing though, the, I think the most common sentiment that I saw from Heat fans is we are glad that he tried. It's not like they gave him a low ball offer. They didn't disrespect him, but at the end of the day it is, I think it's a good thing that Caleb declined, because then we'd be tied into Caleb Martin for quite a bit of money over the next few seasons. And I do agree with that sentiment, right? Because obviously $15 million a year is a lot. You'd essentially have your entire cap space for the next, you know, couple of seasons tied into Caleb Martin, Tara Roseer, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy and Bam. Is that team good enough to win a championship? Well, they haven't thus far. Well, I know Tara was hurt last year, but still, is that team good enough to win it all? Likely not. You would like to see some better pieces. So I do think it's a good thing that they, that Caleb did not take that money. That part I agree with, because we can't sit here and say, "Oh, Pat, don't run it back. Please, Pat." We don't want to see you run it back, shake things up. And then also be mad that they re-sign Caleb Martin for a ton of money. You know what I mean? Because then if you re-sign Caleb for that money, that's your roster for the time being. I mean, you could say, "Oh, these did this whole thing about tradable contracts. "If you get Caleb, you don't lose them for nothing. "You have the potential to trade them." Remember, we signed Wayne Deadman a couple of years ago. More than we thought he was worth, but it was a tradable contract. We had to attach a second round pick to get rid of him. 2016, we signed James Johnson. We signed Deon Waders. We signed the rest of that squad. We have tradable contracts. The he had to attach assets to move off of those guys. And that's really why we sit here today. That was the start of everything. That was why the he had no assets today, because they really messed themselves up in that situation. And truthfully, I think the he had signed all those guys to those massive deals because they had just led Duane Wadewalk recently. They said, "Hey, we need to rebuild our image "of a team that cares about its players." And the he finished that season prior to signing those guys 13-11. We know the deal. So they said, "You know what? "Maybe this team has some attention." So they were tricked into thinking that team was actually good. And they gave those guys a bunch of long-term money to say, "Hey, look, we take care of our guys." And obviously that screwed everything up. I really think that was the worst decision this franchise has ever had is that 2016 off season. Because I think that still it is, it's still affecting them today. Because they don't have first round picks now because of they had to attach them to get rid of guys back then. And that's a huge reason they can't improve the roster right now. So although I am sad to lose Caleb, I do think it was the right move to not run it back with him. Because, I mean, Ethan, you lost him for nothing. There's a lot of that talk too. You lost him for nothing. You lost Gabe for nothing. Max Drew's ended up being a sign in trade. So you did get a second round pick for him, but you lost Kendrick Nunn for nothing. And I will say this, because hindsight is always 2020. And I didn't like the discourse I saw on Twitter saying, "Oh, now you're mad we didn't trade Caleb. "When a month ago you wanted to keep Caleb." Yes, that's how hindsight works. People are allowed to be wrong. People are allowed to make mistakes. Now I'm not gonna say I wanted to keep Caleb at the trade deadline last season. I was cool either way. But for the people that did want to keep Caleb and now that they're mad they didn't trade him, that's fine. You're allowed to be wrong. I have an opinion. That's what this is all about. I didn't like to see that discourse on Twitter, people making fun of other people. You know, like, "Oh, how you gonna say this now?" That's not what you said two months ago. That's BS. Anyways, I feel like I'm going in circles there just 'cause it gets me so upset. Like, especially as a guy in this content creation thing, I make opinions all the time. Most of the time I'm wrong. And if I admit it in hindsight, don't act, why am I still talking about this? Y'all get what I'm trying to say. Anyways, what I will say in complete hindsight is not trading Max and Gabe in 2023. I do think was the right move because those guys were critical components in helping us reach the NBA finals. And I think making the finals is way more important than a couple of second round picks you would have got for Gabe and Max. 'Cause you ended up getting one for Max anyways. I was obviously signing trade. The Spurs then, the Spurs took on some assets from Cleveland into their salary cap space. And then the Heat got a second round pick from Max. Why couldn't the Spurs help us facilitate a three team signing trade for tomorrow now? I don't know. Anyways, but making the finals is way more valuable because although they didn't win it, I'm not saying, "Oh, at least they made it." No, this Heat team has different standards. Championship are bust. There's winning and there's misery. And so far, Jimmy Butler's tenure with the Heat has been a failure because the goal has been to win a championship and they have not done that. So therefore, they have failed to achieve their goal. But making the finals is still valuable because it shows these other free agents that hey, we are capable of putting together a contender. Maybe you're enough to get us over the top. So maybe a guy like Larry marketing wants to get traded and says, "Hey, you know what, I want to win a chip." Now he's younger, so he probably wants his money, but I was going to say the same about Demar, but again, the Heat didn't have money either. It sounded like Demar wanted money. But maybe the next free agent says, "Hey, I'm deciding between a couple of teams. "Let me," well, I think that's kind of what we've seen. We've seen us be on Dame's list. We've seen us be on Bradley Bill's list. We've seen us be on KD's list. Those are guys that are older and probably want to win a championship now. Well, KD and win another championship. So that's why they're on the Heat's list because they know we're capable of putting together a contender. And those guys might think, "Hey, if they made the NBA Finals without me, "maybe they could win the whole thing with me." The problem is though, the Heat didn't have the assets to acquire those guys. Well, I guess they did for Dame, but Joe Cronin was petty. It's like, I don't know. There's so many variables here because then the Heat didn't want Bradley Bill 'cause they could have got him. KD sounds like maybe he did prefer to sons. So now I don't know what the hell is going on anymore at all. That's what this offseason has done to me. I like to call this the duality of a Heat fan because I feel like you can make a great argument to blame the front office for the way things going, but you can make a great argument to blame other people or just blame bad luck. That's why I kind of like to call myself a realist because I could see every perspective. I really do 'cause I'll be honest with you. Things aren't looking good right now. It's really looking like the only chances of not running it back is what? I don't know. If you're talking Wales, is there Larry Markinin? Is he available? I don't think the Heat have the assets to get that done. Is it Trey Young? Maybe the Heat have the assets to get that done, but is he even on the market? Do you trade Tyler Hero for a couple of ancillary rotation pieces that fit better? The one I keep coming to is Dorian Finney Smith and Dennis Schroeder, two guys that are solid defense elites, Schroeder's that a pest on that end. Dorian Finney Smith is a very switchable defender and they're both kind of unexpiring contracts. So do the Nets want to take on him to, or take on Tyler Hero and send them out to get some value for those expirings? 'Cause Schroeder is expiring. And Dorian Finney Smith has a player option next season, which he might opt out of. But then do the Nets want Tyler Hero's massive contract. Nobody else does. So I don't know what the hell to think as a Heat fan, but anyway, I kind of want to transition from the Kayla Martin topic. And we'll talk about Demarter Rosen a little bit because that kind of relates to everything that we've been saying. So officially, Demarter Rosen is going to the Sacramento Kings. They send off the salary of Harrison Barnes to the Spurs. And then the Bulls, they get a couple of second round picks in Chris Duarte. The hold up there was basically every team that was kind of interested in Demarter was waiting to find a third team to take on some salary 'cause like the Heat, the Kings had no cap space, but they were able to send Harrison Barnes to the Spurs. The part about that that stands out to me is damn nobody wants Tyler Hero. Because the Spurs, a young team, they could have used a guard like Tyler Hero's. Somebody that could score, throw a little bit of laws with Victor Whamayama. And they just truly do not want that contract. That's all that tells me. That's clear as day. And I know they're not the only one. Because the Spurs chose to take on the smaller, shorter Harrison Barnes contract over the massive Tyler Hero deal, which that tells me it's going to be very, very hard to trade Tyler Hero. I mean, I made a video a couple of months ago saying the harsh truth about Tyler Hero, and it was talking about how I think he's a negative asset. That's the harsh truth. 'Cause there's a lot of Heat fans that's out here saying, oh, I blame the front office. They value Tyler Hero too much. I don't think that's it. I think at one point they did, that's why they paid him. But at this point, I just don't think anybody wants him. Because the only way that he can make some moves this offseason is if they offload Tyler Hero and open up that cap space. Obviously the Spurs didn't want him. The magic was an option. I think he would have fit nice there. But they decided to go after KCP and a bunch of other guys. I thought the Pistons would have been a nice fit because their guard rotation was Kate Cunningham, Jayden Ivy, Ron Holland. None of those guys can shoot. I think Tyler Hero would have fit great there as a shooter from the guard spot. A guy that has some experience and fits the age timeline that they're on. But they just signed Malik Beasley. They already traded for Tim Hardaway Jr. earlier this summer. So they very clearly rather have those guys over Hero because Tim Hardaway is an expiring contract. Malik Beasley, they just signed for cheap. Like six, seven million bucks, something like that. So they don't want Tyler Hero's contract. The only other team with cap space for now is like the Utah Jazz. At one point we know Danny Ainge won a Tyler Hero. As before the draft, would he still want Tyler Hero now? I make all the jokes about him being white so maybe they won it for that. Maybe that's like the only reason I could think why they would want him. 'Cause they still have Keyante George. They still have Colin Sexton. They just drafted Isaiah Collier. So do they even want Tyler Hero? Do they want to take on that massive contract? I don't know. And I think that he kind of have to trade Tyler at this point is very clearly run its course. He needs to change the scenery. He's on Twitter liking tweets saying free Tyler Hero from this toxic fan based at Miami Heat. That's clear as they demand in the trade in my book. Like in a tweet telling the team to release you, I think that he got to move on from him. But it sounds like nobody wants him. Like I said, I'm hoping that net steal, they can work out something with the nets because that team is obviously trying to blow it up. But do they look at Tyler Hero as getting an asset for a couple of expirings? Or do they look at Tyler Hero as, damn, we've taken on a lot of money. I don't want that. Even if you were talking about doing a sign and trade for Demar straight with the Bulls, the Bulls very clearly didn't want Tyler Hero. 'Cause I'm sure that's a topic that was discussed because they don't want to take on that long term money 'cause they'd be over the first apron to suck. That's why they only took on Chris Duarte who's not making a lot of money. Also, does Hero fit with that Bullsey many ways? Josh Skiddy, Kobe White, two ball dominant players there? I don't see, I don't see a way that Kayla Martin is, or Kayla Martin, I'm looking at my notes here, red Kayla. I don't see a way that Tyler Hero is moved. Even though, again, the duality of heat fan. On one side, I don't see how Tyler Hero was traded this offseason. I don't see a deal that's reasonable. On the other hand, Tyler Hero needs to be gone. Ow, I can't explain it, but that's not my job. That's the front offices to do. I guess that's pretty much it as far as the Demar trade. I do like that for the Kings. People are saying the spacing is gonna suck. I've talked about with the Heat. Demar shoots shot three threes a game last year. That's enough to keep the defense honest. I know Sabonis is not really a spacer, but he's just, that offense is gonna be so great now. It really is. The Aaron Fox side, like 38% from three last year on high volume, so he really picked it up in that regard. They now, they have a couple of great scorers to go to late in games. Two of the clutches players in the entire league and Fox and Demar, it's gonna be very hard to win close games for us at team. The very young team gets a little bit more experience with Demar de Rosen, although Demar has never really been far in the playoffs or anything like that. Did he make a conference finals to go against Lebronto? I don't remember, but still. He's obviously a true vet in this league. I think it's a great pickup for the Kings. I mean, the prize still finished, you know, summer, seventh, eighth. I don't know, I don't really have to think about it, but I think it's a great pickup from them. And for there, where did the Miami Heat go? Because obviously he was an option, gone. I know some Heat fans had a hope for Paul George, gone. I had hope for Lebron months ago. They drafted Bronnie, got JJ Redick. Lebron obviously resigned. He's gone. I mean, who else is there out there? Brandon Ingram, he's a guy that might be able to get for cheap, doesn't sound like the Heat are particularly interested 'cause of the injury history. I get it. But I also, I do think Brandon Ingram's an expiring contract. Let me actually look that up. Because if you can at least get off a Tyler hero, like I said, would the Pelican's one Tyler hero? I have no idea. But I'm praying they do, and then you could go ahead and bring on a Brandon Ingram who, yes, is an expiring $36 million. So best case scenario, you get Brandon Ingram, he works out, plays amazing, you win a championship with him, re-sign him to a ton of money. He still is very young. He's only 27 years old. Worst case scenario, you bring him in, he sucks. You lose him next offseason. You clear up all that cap space. That's worst case scenario. 'Cause right now, Tyler heroes is not an asset. Instead of, instead of keep talking about Tyler heroes, is there anyone else, Trey Young? I like him, we talked about Larry Markman. I don't know, I don't know. I don't see it. I'm trying to think of any scenario in which the heat don't run it back next season. Run it back, but worse, and I don't see it. We can transition it to Summer League because maybe one way where the heat get better is through some of these rookies. We did see only one game of film so far. I will say, you know, not judging based off the one, you know, Summer League game, I did like the off season they had in terms of bringing in some rookies. Obviously, Kaloo Ware is a great fit. When you talk about a big that can rebound and play defense. I don't like when people say, oh, he's a stretch, he's a stretch to floor big, he's not. He saw one, three a game in college. That tells me that the potential is there. Now, he shot 43% on, you know, one attempt in college. So, he's a guy that might be able to come to the league and do the same thing. So, if you count one, three a game is a stretch to floor big, fine. I don't know if that's enough for the defense to go out there and guard him, but we'll see. But he still is a very good, you know, he's a very, he's a true seven-footer. He plays some defense, I like that. Pilell Larson is a guy that looks like he can contribute right away. Zion Pullen, true point guard. I've said he's a bitter, a better pass in Gabe Vincent or a bigger, Ties Jones. Kasha Johnson, I've said he's PJ Tucker with Derrick Jones Jr. athleticism. So, I do really like these guys. In the first game of Summer League, everyone was pretty terrible. They obviously lost by almost 40 points. Nobody shot the ball well at all. But the, except for Cole Swider. Swider was like four of eight from three. Shout out to the amazing Swider Man. With him, by the way, they said that he shot 47% from three in the Glee last year on 10 attempts. I couldn't believe that when I heard that during the game. That sounds unheard of. So, if you're asking why he hasn't been called up yet, because he's got a lot of like defensive concerns through one game in Summer League, I can't really tell if he's improved on that end. They actually started him at point guard, which is interesting because if he can develop into a playmaker with that jump shot, maybe he has a real spot as a rotation spot in his league. But those three point numbers are too, too gaudy to ignore. So, I do get why the heat was keeping him around. And through one game, he shot well. Everyone else obviously offensively wasn't great. But the positives though, Cole aware he did have a nice stretch in the second half where he wasn't getting some buckets, had some nice touches inside. He did hit it in a longer mid-range shot that looked very silky smooth. You like to see that from him. But defensively, he was a monster. Finished with five blocks on the night. I felt like he was rotating very well. He was holding his own on his old man very well. He was playing with great energy and effort, blocking shots, sprinting back on the offensive end. I love what I saw from him as far as motor, but more importantly, defensive IQ. Because a lot of seven footers could, you could say, "Oh, they could block shots because they're tall." That's not the case. You have to know how to rotate. You have to know when to leave your man, when not to leave your man. You have to have the timing to block the shot. So it's not goal-tending to pin it off the backboard. And he did a lot of that yesterday. So I love what I saw from him as far as the defensive IQ. Everyone else? I mean, Palette Larson, I had been saying that boy is the title hero mold. We saw that yesterday. He was letting those things fly. Only finished with eight shots. I think he was two of eight. But they were almost all of them in the first quarter. So he didn't shoot great, but I do like the confidence. So if you want to say some positives, sure, the kid had some confidence. And he took a wide array of shots. So there was some offensive versatility there. Who was Kishaw Johnson? Didn't shoot great either. But you didn't get to see the full athleticism in the open lane. But he had some really nice rebounds, some nice blocks. Had like three offensive rebounds. He was chasing his own shot. He showed a lot of energy out there. And I like how they used him. He did get a lot of corner threes up. I think he shot like four of them. And we know the way that he liked to run their offense, put a guy in the corner for that spacing. A lot of those driving lanes for Jimmy and Bam. We saw them do that masterfully with PJ Tucker. So I like seeing that's how they planned on using Kishaw Johnson too. Didn't knock him down yesterday. But in college, you know, at his last year at Arizona, he was very, very good in the corners. That's how they used him in game one. He just didn't knock him down in that particular game. Zion pulling didn't do too much there. But I felt like he made some nice reads. And overall, I like him as a true point guard. I mean, the guy had a five to one assist the turnover ratio as a senior at Florida. That's a big school. You know, you don't accidentally walk into a five to one assist the turnover ratio. That that's amazing. So although he didn't he came off the bench yesterday, so he didn't get a ton of run. Didn't you well, obviously? But I like what he brings to the table as far as a point guard. We'll see what happens in the next game. Alondis Williams was 0 for nine yesterday. He's the guy you're sort of looking to as your bucket getter. Didn't do that yesterday. But we know through the G League, he's had a couple of monster scoring performances, a 45-point game, a 55-point game. He's certainly capable. I was hoping to see him come in in summer league and dominate because he's sort of a summer league vet at this point. And that's kind of where you start to see these guys set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd. Remember that summer league that Max Drew's had where he dominated? You knew that boy was ready for big time. And sure enough, he had a really big season for the Miami Heat whenever that was 22 or 2023. So we'll see what happens in game two. They do play that later today. I might have a reaction video out to that. I'll see. I'll be busy. I'll definitely be watching the game, whether live or after the fact. But it might not make sense to do a post game six hours after the game ended 'cause I'm not sure anyone would watch that. But anyways, I think that's kind of all I gotta say for this podcast. So if you made it to this point of the podcast, you were a real one and I do appreciate you. So go ahead and comment down below. What can we get you to say? Comment down below your score prediction for tonight's game versus the, I think they played the Kings today in the summer league. And whoever the closest prediction is, I'll shout you out in the next podcast next week. How about that? 'Cause I'll try to do these long form, no edit podcast once a week. And if you're watching this after the game, I guess there's no way to really prove. Okay, this is gonna be uploaded by 10, 30 a.m. I think the game's at 4.30. You have five hours to get your comments in. Anyways, like the video, subscribe. I'll see you all next time. Peace out. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Believe. You can show support to your host by subscribing to the show and giving us a five star rating when you're a preferred platform. Check us out at Believe.com and search for B-L-E-A-V on YouTube. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
Caleb Martin, DeMar DeRozan are gone, Tyler Herro next? What about Lauri Markkanen, Zach Lavine, Brandon Ingram? Also talking Miami Heat Summer League: Kel'el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Zyon Pullin, Alondes Williams, Cole Swider.
