Chris Miles of NBA TV joined Craig Hoffman Tuesday to discuss the NBA playoffs, but Craig had to ask him about the Wizards' decision to fire GM Tommy Sheppard - and Miles was 'not surprised at all.'
"I'm not surprised at all. Look, I don't like to be the two-faced guy, because I like Tommy Sheppard and I think he made some really good ancillary moves," Miles said, "but I think if you're Ted Leonsis and how much they love Rui Hachimura, and you watch him score 29 for the Lakers and you gave him away for nothing and you're not even in the Play-In, that's where you think 'alright, we have to do something completely different.'"
Something, Miles says, he's been advocating for a while.
"I've been saying this for years, that it's time to destroy and rebuild this team. I thought the John Wall trade was the start of it, but nothing has really happened since," Miles said. "No disrespect to Bradley Beal, but I've said for years he was the piece to get you the things you needed to rebuild and find your superstar, and now he's not that; now he's this exorbitant contract that a lot of teams don't want."
So what can the Wizards do to fix things under a new GM?
"The Wizards need to look at this roster and what else is happening, and try to figure out how they can get a superstar on this team who can lead them to victory most nights," Miles said.
Whomever becomes the next GM has that task among others, but one name Miles doesn't see in that role is the one many have rumored to be the guy: Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly.
"I loved Connelly a lot more before he went and traded the future for Rudy Gobert, and it soured on me there," Miles said. "You know how someone does one bad thing and that's their reputation? That's him, and that's probably why he'd be available in the first place. I think they need to go with a new, fresh mind, who we might not even know about - an assistant GM from a team on the uptick that is making all the right decisions."
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Craig then wondered what the Wizards might be able to get for Beal - "you could've gotten like six first-round picks for him when he was making less than Otto Porter," Miles joked - but now, what about a bad contract for bad contract trade sending Beal to Los Angeles for Kawhi Leonard, a move that would actually save the Wizards a little over $1 million in 2023-24 salary and get them out of a big contract a year or two (or even three) earlier than they'd be done with Beal, as Leonard is entering the final guaranteed year of his deal (with a 2024-25 player option) while Beal is entering Year 2 of a four-year deal with a fifth-year option?
"Kawhi started off on a minutes restriction this year, and his numbers are skewed by that, but even at 23 PPG, later in the season it was more like 30," Miles said. "Exactly the point of Beal's contract and what you expect to get out of it: the baseline is like Kawhi Leonard. You need that production if you're going to have that contract, and if you want to be a winning team, that's a losing formula."
Miles then gave an actual synopsis of what the Wizards might get for Beal, and had one team he would call if he became the new GM.
"I'm picking up the phone, and the team I would call is the Orlando Magic," he said. "I'd say, 'Hey, you guys need a consistent veteran leading scorer, and you have cap space; we're looking to rebuild, so we'll take that terrible Jonathan Isaac contract off your hands, and give us a couple of firsts.' See what they say!"
Then again, Craig proposed a deal with Miami for Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro when Miles said he's been waiting for a Heat deal for years, and Miles thought it was a good deal for both sides, so...
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