The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Trade-Deadline Extravaganza With Ryen Russillo | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 480)

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo in the closing hour of the NBA trade deadline to talk Lakers, 76ers, and a whole bunch more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's special trade deadline edition of the Bill Simmons podcast with Ryan Rosillo is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. You know what's smart? Being ready for the trade deadline. We are here. It is almost 1130 a.m. Pacific time, and we're ready for whatever happens next. A lot of stuff already happened, but we're ready to go,

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer NBA show, which has been pounding the trade deadline all week. I was there yesterday to break down the Tobias Harris trade with Chris Ryan and Ben Dietrich. But we have that.

We have Winging It with Vince Carter and Ken Bazemore and Andy Finberg. And we have the JJ Reddick podcast so we are covered all over the place with basketball

if you like basketball if you want more basketball and if you like college basketball and you want to find out what's going on with the draft do we have a college basketball podcast

Kyle? I think we do what's it called? Tita oh sorry One Shining Podcast One Shining Podcast with Mark Titus

and Tate Frazier check that out as well don't forget to go to theringer.com, which has been on fire this week with some good movie stuff, some great food stuff, basketball coverage, post-Super Bowl stuff, some features. It continues to get better and better.

Very proud of that site. And that's it. And coming up, we are going to do a long, long trade deadline pod with Ryan Rosillo. The first 45 minutes or so, we actually stream live on YouTube and on our Twitter account. So if you hear me say goodbye to that audience, don't be alarmed. But anyway, that is all coming up. We're going to break down everything.

We're going to talk about the big Tobias Harris trade, Marc Gasol, Nikola Meretic, everything. It's all coming up. But first, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. Live BS podcast. I'm Bill Simmons. That's Ryan Russillo. Is this the highlight or the low light of your career?

No, this is awesome, man. This is great. It's 1130 Pacific time. Have you adjusted to the early trade deadline on the West Coast? I was up early today. We were texting at 6 a.m. Were you surprised you got a text back from me as soon as you did? I was. I'm always surprised when anybody

without kids texts me before like 8. Yeah. We were right on it. I was like, they're still awake. You had an all-nighter. You were just really going. I prep for this by staying up all night. So we have one of the

wonkiest trade deadlines we've ever had. And I have a theory on this. I want to throw it at you. Okay. I think all the contracts are shorter now and the teams are smarter. And everybody is on like these one year, two year, these fat deals. And this is the first year it all came to fruition. Where just everybody had expirings and extra picks.

And it is turning into like NBA 2K. This is more trades than I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, we're already ahead of, I think, like this season, all of what you had last year. I think they were almost tied with it last night. So I don't know how many more are going to kick in the next 20-something minutes here. What do we got? Less than 30 minutes to go. It feels like we're going to have a couple, right?

Do you want to start with- Oh, we got another one as we're talking. Scal Labassie for Caleb Swanigan. Wait a minute. Blockbuster. The Kings got rid of a Wildcat? Those are the good ones.

The good ones are when you almost forget who a guy, which team he's on. And then right before we came on was the big Laker trade. Right.

Mike Muscala. Yeah, why would you want to trade Zubach? Nobody wants Muscala's dad in their locker room, I think think is what it's going on. Well, now the LeVar is back. So my theory on LeVar, which was that the Lakers had paid him to shut the hell up or had some talk with him or intervention. But as soon as they started trying to trade his son, he's like, I'm back. Screw you guys.

Absolutely. And now he's back. He's back. I had more. Well, let me put it this way. I don't know that I had a ton of respect for him because the requests are absurd. I mean, he was saying today on Cowherd Show that he was upset that the Lakers wouldn't put his sons on the summer league team. Yeah. I mean, it was just, it was kind of ridiculous.

And then I would have had more respect for him if he hadn't shut him up. Like, it would have annoyed everybody. But like, you went dark for two-thirds of the season. So do you agree with my theory? Something was said because LeBron... Some cash was paid. Part of it was that LeBron was like, I don't want to come here if this guy's going to be ripping me

after the game, and he ripped LeBron. He said in today's interview, he quoted, he was like, now he just falls down and gets hurt. It's just nuclear against everybody. He called out Magic. He called out ownership. He hates Luke Walton. He was like, I want all three of my sons to play for the Phoenix Suns. So it's good to see that he's back while his shoes

are not delivered on time. I still have Lonzo stock, but I'm not feeling great about it. No, but I think there's some things about him that are really special. His vision is special. His transition game is special. His understanding of one-on-one defense is great.

And then also like the concept of team defense. He's really, like to think he's only been out of high school a few years and I'll see him do certain things where he reads things terrifically. I like him, but he's kind of like a Simmons in that Ben Simmons can only be the best version of him with a perfect roster around him. And I think Lonzo's kind of like that too. Phoenix would be fun for him. Let with a perfect roster around him. And I think Lonzo is kind of like that too. Phoenix will be fun for him.

Let's break through what we have. I'll go in order of just things that have shocked me so far. So let's start with the Lakers. Or do you want to start with the Eastern Conference, how two playoff teams got better? You pick. I think it's the Lakers because the Anthony Davis thing has been the dominant thing here for weeks. I think it's still the most important.

Yeah. One of the all-time backfirings I can remember this whole big strategy they tried to execute to basically pigeonhole the Pelicans into trading, trading Anthony Davis to them. And unfortunately for them, the Pelicans didn't go for it. Weren't interested. And I think they really underrated this widow that owns the team who is not used to how traditional basketball goes, who is, by everything I've heard, everyone I've talked to is kind of like, why do I have to trade him?

He's got a year and a half left on his deal. What are these guys talking about? What if we just kept him? And I don't think they saw that coming. I don't think they did at all. And I actually think it was kind of an underrated element to this whole thing where normally I think Clutch would say, okay, here's how it works. We've got LeBron, and whatever combination of this is or whatever we say it isn't, we know we usually get our way.

So history is we get our way. So if we want to get Anthony Davis out of there with a year and a half left on his contract, we have to make some noise. We have to make this ugly. Monday morning, news dump to Woj. Get the news cycle going. Now I'm on First Take. Now I'm on Coward Show. I'm to make this ugly. Monday morning, news dump to Woj, get the news cycle going. Now I'm on First Take. Now I'm on Coward Show. I'm going through PTI. I've started the day. Right. And honestly, I think they did it too late. Okay. But they are dealing with a set of

circumstances that, you know, I have contacts down there. Like I understand it, I think maybe better than other people do in that you have an ownership that basically inherited the Pelicans. Okay. And it's, it's the, the Benson ownership that also owns the saints in the beginning. It's new and it's kind of fun. It's like, man, this is this Pelicans thing is great. Look how great Anthony Davis is. And then you start realizing like attendance isn't as good. Attendance is bad. The thing you left out is they basically bought the team not because they wanted to own a basketball team, because they felt real civic duty. To the city. The Saints owner felt bad, and he decided to buy the team at a time when the teams, the values were in the tank.

And then this became this huge asset. And I think that's the other thing to watch is like there's really no teams teams available right now and they have this team and they clearly are football first. So why trade Anthony Davis when I don't know if they're going to own the team five years from now? I don't even know if it'll be that long, you know, and look, the civic duty is true, but also when they bought it and what they're going to end up making on it, it's going to end up being another great investment as most of these franchises and being like, I'd still like to read the piece for all the ownership complaints about revenue and all these things.

I would love to see a 60 minutes or a 30 for 30 on the guy that actually lost money on buying one of these things because it doesn't happen. But also look at the fact that what teams are available right now. Like when they were having real problems in 08, 2009, 2010, you could, there were 12 teams on the market and people were actively like, oh shit, attendance is down. It might be time to get out. Nobody wants to get out now. No, not at all. Because even with the rights and the TV stuff and everybody going, okay, there couldn't possibly, I actually think it might still be the safest bet.

Yeah, I agree. Because you're still trying to figure out from an entertainment standpoint, how are we going to get eyes on us? And I don't know that there's a better bet than the live sports thing. But back to the Davis thing, I don't think the media, I don't think clutch sports, I don't think anybody truly understood the challenges of Dell Demps in this GM role. He doesn't know how long he's going to be there. There's all sorts of rumors. So now you're dealing with kind of a lame duck general manager. You're dealing with a football operation that has the final say in a basketball player. An ownership situation where I'm not sure she even truly understands how everything works.

And it's like, so wait a minute. So we're supposed to just take the Lakers deal because we're just supposed to? Like, that doesn't make any sense. Because he's like, I'm only signing with the Lakers. Yeah. They're like, so what? You're in a contract. You signed a contract three and a half years ago. You have a year and a half to go. You don't have a say in this. I mean, you can tell us what you'd like. That's great. But unfortunately,

everybody we're being offered right now, there's not a single guy who has a chance to be an all star. You posted on Twitter today, Tatum versus Ingram. I don't think that's a contest. I think Tatum's ceiling, even the way he's playing now, he's just better than Ingram. I'm not even really positive what Ingram is. I don't like if he's one of my best three guys on a finals team, where's he playing? Is he creator? He's not really a three-point shooter. What is he? Yeah. Ingram's interesting because I don't, I'm not against him. I just, I don't think he's a sure thing by any means. No, whenever this deal was coming out, right, as it was building. So we saw the

Saturday night rumors that they showed during the Lakers-Golden State game, and it was the four pieces, right? And then on Monday it turns into basically all five young guys will take back Solomon Hill, will throw you two first-round picks, and it just starts building. And as it was building, everybody's doing this. Well, now you have to take it. Now you have, that's not the way this league works. You have

to make sure that the one piece that you're getting back amidst all the names is really important. And if the one name, if the best is Brandon Ingram or Kuzma, if you're the Pelicans, forget all the challenges of what's going on with that franchise. If you're sitting there going, why am I supposed to do this now? Like, I don't think the number one piece at the top of this pile of assets is that attractive. You have to get a blue chipper back. And the course of NBA history says almost every time this goes badly for the team that is trading the superstar. Every time. And it's always like you're getting Eric Gordon back as a centerpiece. Oh, he's great. He's got a ton of potential. And then he never gets to where he's going to go. That's why I was so intrigued by the Ben Simmons for Davis. And by the way, I heard that

there were conversations on both sides with that. That one would make a little bit more sense because you'd have the rookie control because the Porzingis stuff, of course, they called Anthony Davis on Porzingis, but the Knicks knew Porzingis wasn't going to help them facilitate trades at all, which is, I think, why that happened so quickly. And New Orleans, despite all the challenges and the frustrations of how they've built the roster around him and all the injuries and now on a second coach, I get some of Anthony Davis's concerns. But New Orleans isn't going to sit there and trade him for somebody else who's not resigning in a market that very few guys are ever going to want to go to. Yeah. So. Well, and the thing is, where is New Orleans three years from now? If

you're going to tell me they're definitely going to be in New Orleans and I'm Ben Simmons and all these guys care about their brand and all that stuff, why would I want to stay in New Orleans? Especially if they're not a very good team. But like if they're in Seattle in three years, that's a lot more enticing, I think, to the way these under 30 superstars kind of think, you know, it's like, oh, I'm in Seattle where Amazon's there. Yeah. I could, I could have an app. There's rich white people there and I could have meetings and maybe get, get some stock

tests. Can we get Ringer to follow around tech meetings of NBA guys? It's my favorite. I would love to know what actually happens. It's I asked so many questions. Cause what happens is all these guys, these rich dudes who live in like Silicon Valley or wherever, they just want to go home and tell their eight year old son that they met with Kevin Durant. And here's the photo that I took with him. And then when they're in that meeting, at the end of it, they're like, hey, why don't you get in on the early bird thing? We don't normally give this out,

but you could buy this for this. And all of a sudden, these guys are just amassing these massive stock portfolios, basically because these dudes just want to meet them. So they're giving them like the angel round stuff, but like, are they guys making money on this stuff? Or are they, that's the other thing.

Well, I think, you know, they have like a friends and family thing. Right. No, I understand like the intro rounds of. All they want to do is like, just hang out with these guys and get the picture and put the frame picture in their office of, you know, Kevin Durant. It's like me, Jacoby and Obama and Joe House, just like this, where Jacoby looks like he's just been let out of a prison. Jacoby has some, has some good pictures out there.

So compare and contrast LeBron right now to Michael Corleone at the end of Godfather 2, just on the bench by himself, where all of his plans, he's extinguished all his enemies, but he's all alone. Because I think that might be the next three years of his Lakers career. How bad do you think that they've played this? You were alluding to it, but I don't think you really finished it. I think they played it the next three years of his Lakers career. How bad do you think that they've played this? You were alluding to it, but I don't think you really finished it. I think they played it horribly because here's the thing.

I actually liked watching that Lakers team last year and I hate the Lakers, but I thought they had a lot of potential and I liked the way Luke Walton coached them after the All-Star break. The Luke Walton sucks thing? I don't get it. Luke Walton's a good coach. Fuck that. Right.

That team was a couple years removed from high school and they were good defensively. That's impossible. That doesn't happen. And playing hard and competitively. And I think like I was watching Brooklyn Denver last night and Brooklyn made this huge comeback in the second or third quarter. And somebody made a play and you could see the bench and they're all jumping up and fist pumping. And like that team really likes each other. That's how the Lakers were last year. In the last couple months, I felt like they were all jumping up and fist pumping. And like that team really likes each other. That's how the Lakers were last year

in the last couple months. I felt like they were all pulling for each other. And now it's a disaster. And everybody made a big deal about LeBron with the three empty seats next to him picture. And it was like, oh, actually that guy had just gone in the game. But at the same time, it was kind of symbolic, right?

These guys are playing with this dude whose agent is leaking stuff, clearly trying to trade all of them for Anthony Davis. That's just not a way to have a basketball team. The LeBron deal is unlike anything else I think we've ever seen in team sports. LeBron, as far as I, for all the years I've ever watched anything, maybe I'm missing somebody historically, maybe it's a Babe Ruth, but I think LeBron's the most powerful individual in team sports that I've ever seen.

Yeah. And he's rewritten the rules. Orlando trading for Markel Fultz, by the way. Oh, what'd they get? I don't know. I'm going to find out. Keep going. Do you think it's a first?

I was excited for your point. Do you think it's a protected first? I think it's DJ Augustine. And hopefully some. And like a second. So LeBron's the most powerful athlete. Right. I think he's the most powerful athlete and I admire him for that you know the joke that

I've used before on TV shows and stuff is like you know how people would say you know they'd be defending Jordan and Jordan could say you're wearing my shoes you know

think about that well LeBron could say like my agency reps you and I know they try to say that it has nothing to do with the other that's kind of ridiculous so I admire

that he's kind of rewritten the power rules but he's able to do it because he's the best player and he's been the best player here for a really long time. And grabbing LeBron, like we nitpick Harden. Are people nitpicking Anthony Davis right now? Imagine nitpicking LeBron when it's eight straight finals. I mean, it's still a good deal for the team. And yes, you're going to have to find a way to concede certain things. Yeah, the orbit around him is going to be annoying at times. But the one constant, and I'm not saying he's a bad deal, but it's going to get really

ugly here towards the end. And I think this could be a preview of it here with the Lakers. But like, I went through it again, every single authoritative thing that he's ever had, whether it's a coach or GM or ownership, Paul Silas, they're a year plus. Jim Paxson, out. And it was because of the Boozer trade. And then we heard from Boozer last year who said, actually, LeBron told me to leave. And a lot of people blamed all these guys for losing Boozer. And that's why LeBron early on had doubts about Cleveland. Mike Brown, he let Brown get fired without telling anybody what he was going to do. Yeah. They bring in Byron Scott. It's like, oh, it didn't really matter what you did.

Right. Sorry you fired Mike Brown. I'm leaving anyway. I was leaving anyway. He gets down there. Danny Ferry, there were issues. Chris Grant wasn't him. Spoh issues early on.

Spoh was on his way out. Riley. That first 50, 60 games. Remember? It's like, this guy's overmatched. Yeah. And also, like, leaks. Stuff that I don't think LeBron was leaking, Riley in that first 50-60 games remember it's like this guy's overmatched yeah and also like leaks stuff that

I don't think LeBron was leaking but I do think the people around him might have a habit of putting stuff out there to make LeBron look better and other people look worse

that's been a recurring theme this whole decade right so keep going Riley I thought Riley was going to have an aneurysm

on that press conference when LeBron decided he was going back like that was real anger and by way, one of my favorite moments, non-basketball basketball moments of the decade where you have this guy basically like, yeah, this is hard. Sometimes you lose. That doesn't mean we just throw this all away. Like it doesn't always go your way. You got to stick together and was basically talking about it in this idealistic way

that people don't think that way anymore. It's like, this hasn't gone well. All right, what's next? Swipe right. I'm going to the next team. Right, the next team. So you got Riley. I don't know if Mickey Aronson, if that was ever close. The Gilbert thing, I understand his animosity towards Gilbert, but he was still able to get over enough. Blatt, they were like, look,

I don't think I blame anyone. I mean, Blatt was still able to get over enough. Blatt was, they were like, look, I don't, I don't think I blame anyone. I mean, Blatt was, Blatt was, it was, it was a bad fit. Yeah. It was a bad fit. And then Lou, I don't even think if he had gone back to Cleveland, I'm not even sure Ty Lou would have stuck around. So as soon as LeBron goes to LA, now, what are we hearing? We're hearing that Luke Waltz sucks.

We left out a couple, there were some fall guy players too. Like Chris Bosh the first year. He's too soft. Oh my God. He's, he's the lousy one out of these three. Why'd they have to bring him? And then same thing with Kevin Love.

Kevin Love took a beating for those first two years. That was the guy LeBron recruited. I don't know. None of it ever falls on him. And I, and it's weird because it's turning this thing where it's like, if you criticize LeBron, you're a hater.

I'm like, I'm not criticizing him. I love him, actually. I think he's the second best player of all time. I think going to eight finals is amazing. But I think it's really not a coincidence that we've had dysfunction every single year, basically, except for maybe two since 2010, that last Cleveland season, when he held them hostage the whole year by not saying what he was going to do. And it's like, goes to Cleveland, just signs one-year deals over and over and over again.

That just makes everyone uneasy. And then we have Durant last night laying into the press. I'm so tired of hearing about free agency. It's like, you're signing one-year deals. People are going to wonder where you're playing next year if you're constantly a free agent. They do this to get attention, I think, and to keep leverage, but you're going to have to answer questions about it. And the other thing about like LeBron's approach and kind of like with the Durant thing, you know, LeBron doing the one plus ones and making sure like they take such pride in not revealing anything. But at some point,

I think it's to the detriment of his own goals. Like you're still in a team sport and being collaborative with ownership and a general manager is not conceding power. Right. And he's burnt himself sometimes with this. Well, he did it last night. What was the Harrison Barnes Instagram post? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense.

You get traded at halftime. It's a business. That's like, what are you talking about? You guys have more power than at any point in the history league. I'm super sympathetic to especially the guys in the 50s and 60s and 70s, but those days are over. I'm always going to be pro player versus manager. Or even in football.

Like football, those guys get chewed up, spit out, replaced by a six-round pick. In basketball, they are fairly compensated. They make a ton of money. Yeah, I don't know in kind of the social awareness that's really developed over the last few years, because I think it's media driven a little bit.

This is great. The players are taking control of the league. It's like, is it great? Yeah. Cause I would, I would say, all right,

that's fine. Like I like that. I want to be pro player, but I also think it's fine to ask a very open ended question and be like, at what point are we past the tipping point of this where it's absurd? What if you sign a five-year deal and you're out a year in, you go, you know, I don't like this. Power to the player. Empowerment. I want out of here. And be like, we have four years left in your deal. Like, what do you mean? Would the media members still say, good for him, flexing his muscles? You know, like LeBron, the audacity of him to rip the whole idea

that like, okay, it is unfair for players sometimes. Player leaves as a free agent. Yeah, it sucks to get traded. I get it. You're emotional as a fan. You take it personally. The idiots that burn jerseys to try to get something to go viral. Like that stuff's all stupid.

But I understand because I remember being emotional about any one of these guys and feeling dumped when they left in free agency. Right? And the ruling of the ownership, having the ability to go ahead and trade them. But there's still an employer-employee relationship here. Like I can root for everyone in our business to make all the money that they can make, but I can still understand there's certain things that like you're still going to have to answer to as an employee. And despite making 30 and 40 million a year and being the most amazing athletes in the world, like that contract,

the right to make that money also comes with some things that you have to concede. And this empowerment thing that's like gained real momentum, which I think is kind of great that all the players aren't getting trashed the way you used to. We used to grow up in the eighties and nineties. These guys just get dumped on all the time. I like how it's developed, but I think there's a tipping point where it's okay to ask how far is too far where fans of the league are like, dude, are you serious? Everybody just gets to complain

the whole time and demand out? How much fun is that going to be? Think about how few happy teams there are these days. Which ones are there? Is it Boston? No, it's Brooklyn. Brooklyn's happy.

That should be their free agent pitch. Brooklyn, we're happy. Denver seems happy. Sacramento? Sacramento seems happy, although they just traded like two of their blue guys. Dallas, because they got rid of everybody. But nobody's happy.

And then the other thing is... Yeah, how is everybody this unhappy? I think that's maybe the point. Even people, teams that are stuck together, like the Philly situation, they don't seem that happy. The Boston situation, this is like the greatest... Kyrie's don't seem that happy. The Boston situation. This is like the greatest.

Kyrie's in the best situation. He's got a great organization, great front office. They have a ton of picks, ton of young guys. He doesn't seem happy. So it's like, what is happy? I don't know. I don't know what's happening. LeBron's not happy.

Anthony Davis isn't happy. LeBron hasn't seemed happy for years. Harden's thrilled because he's like, this is awesome. I love these unassisted assists. I don't need anybody. But it's like, I think people don't realize sometimes as fans, just in basketball, like how tied you are to the success, failure, ebbs and flows of the other guys in your team. You know, like you had this situation. You're on a show with Van Pelt for how many years? Six years. If Van Pelt was a free agent, like every six months. And every six months, it's just stories about, is Van Pelt leaving? What's going to happen to his show?

Is he going to get rid of Rosillo? And you're reading leaks and it's like, they might replace Rosillo with Brian Kenney. And you're just reading this stuff and you don't know where it's coming from. Wait a minute, did you hear anything? And you have to do the show every day. At some point, that's going to affect the show. Yes.

I just think the professional unease that a lot of these guys are bringing out, that's what happened with Draymond and KD. By all accounts, when they started yelling at each other,

it eventually escalated to shut the fuck up. You're not going to be here in a year anyway. And that was the underlying thing is these guys feel like we have a chance to win a third straight. You're not going to be here in a year anyway. And that was the underlying thing is these guys feel like we have a chance to win a third straight and you're going to leave

and now you're yelling at me at a basketball court? Fuck you. So, I don't know. It's all over the place. I try to be very sympathetic about this, you know, because they have more access to hate.

You know, whenever I've brought, I think it's a really good point. Like, and it's my point and I'm going to repeat it. We've had, I think of six or seven of the top players in the league. Almost every one of them has had some ad campaign built around the hatred. Yeah. Harden, Westbrook, Durant, LeBron, um, Curry has done it.

All of these guys have had different ad campaigns where it's addressing the hate because they have access to the hate that they've never had before. So I get it. You know what I mean? Like if I, I'm pretty good, I think, with social media and how I let it bother me, but I would check it after the show. Hey, did somebody like my segment? Did somebody like what I did? Hey, was somebody into this? And if it's the wrong day and somebody says that right thing, then I could walk around and have the persecution complex because I think a lot of us, it's easier to go down that road. It's easier

to get in our own heads. And despite the fact that these guys are making the money they're making, you know, the most famous athletes in the world, it's still human nature to feel like everybody's against you. But like for Durant to have that, that rant that he had when the Warriors are treated really well by that city, what's the hardest thing Durant's really had to deal with from the media, not fans? No, I get it. If he's fighting with high school kids on Instagram, that's his fault, okay?

Because that stuff's just out there. But imagine him in New York City, if they're a four or five seed. With Frank Isola going at him. Frank just hammering him. Frank just killing him. So I'm going to defend and excoriate Durant at the same time. Okay. Fundamentally, he's right. Why does he have to talk to these guys and answer stupid

questions after games? Why do we still do it this way in 2019? Kevin, what were you thinking on that three with a minute to go? Who's that for? What human being? I love basketball. Who's that for what what human being i love basketball who's that for i don't care when's the last time you read a game recap never so i get his point on that i get his point on like he obviously read that piece from ethan strauss and ethan strauss is writing it in a way that made it seem like he sourced close to durant and durant's point was i don't you don't fucking talk to me you're in the locker room every was, you don't fucking talk to me. You're in the locker room every day and we don't interact. Would Kevin have talked to him though?

In fairness to Ethan. So that's the part. The part that I don't agree with is if you're going to be a free agent and this Knicks stuff is going to be sitting there the whole year, and you have all these different options to be like, you know what, man? I'm in an awesome situation. We have a chance to win three straight.

We have a chance now to be one of the four best basketball teams of all time. And I'd be crazy to leave that. But he doesn't say that. He doesn't say anything. It's a lot of like, hey, man, my future is my future. I got to do what's best for me, which is fine. You can feel that way. But guess who doesn't want to hear that

fans the people that give a shit if I'm a Warriors fan I would just be like can you imagine McHale after 1986 Celtics win they've won 3 in 6 years

they made the finals 3 years ago McHale's like I don't know man I gotta do what's best for me like we would've gone fucking crazy what? we just won 67 games we 50 to 2 in the playoffs you have to do what's best for you but the counter to that would be mikhail it wouldn't even enter

like that wasn't even part of the thought process of the player back then so is it better now that a player understands his power flexes his muscle a little bit the thing that i think is kind of silly is like my question is what are they flexing? They seem to be flexing the everything is better at the next place. Yeah, but it's weird, though, because it's like every— Remember in Swingers when they're in that club and they're like, we should go. This place is dead anyway. That's like NBA's mentality now with everything.

Is the Golden State good? Eh, this place is dead anyway. I'm going to go to New York. And then he's going to go to New York. He's going to be happier playing for James Dolan over this Golden State situation. Give me a break. And that's the part that I always think is kind of funny

because you're like, it's a bit like the Kyrie thing, right? Yeah. I don't know if it was the Jimmy, but I think the Jimmy Butler thing is like different in a whole new level where I think the market for Jimmy, it's going to be a bit of a wake-up call there.

Where it's like, actually five teams don't want to give you the max. How about two years, 48 million, and you're going to like it, Jimmy. So who's giving him three years? When I talk to teams about him that have space, they're like, nope.

Now we'll see when they strike out on plan A, B, and C. And if Butler's still sitting there, do you talk yourself into it as if it's talent? History will tell you a team's going to talk themselves into it. The problem is teams now have decades and decades of evidence that if you sign the wrong person to the wrong long-term contract, you might as well dig a hole

for yourself in the desert and just bury your whole team in it for three years. Like look at Washington and John Wall right now. Is that now, Well, it's definitely the most immovable contract. That is the worst contract I think of all time. It's so bad. There's like three years left after this one at 40 million a year. He's has two separate, really damaging leg injuries at the same time. And he's gained weight the last couple of years. He has, excuse me, excuse me, he has four years. Four years after this? After this year. The extension kicks in next year, 38, 41, 44.

And then I'm going to go ahead and guess he's going to pick up that player option for 47 million in 2023. You think he's going to pick that up? I'm going to report that now. John Wall, breaking. Speaking of breaking, here's the full Markel Fultz deal. Oh, yes. All right. I'm going to guess. No one agrees with me. No one agrees with

me. So I'm going to make myself look like an idiot here. I'm going to guess that there's some language that there's a first rounder, possibly. Jonathan Simmons. So now they have two Simmonses. Wing. Protected future OKC first rounder. Cleveland second rounder. Oh, nice. That's a lot for Markel Fultz. I always contended there's got to be one team out there that would be willing to give you some sort of language around a first

for the guy that was the number one pick two years ago. And who's 21. It's not like he's 30. Does this mean that Philly doesn't like the way rehab went? I mean, what else are they going to say?

How great would it be if Markel was like, do they have Chick-fil-A in Orlando on Twitter? It would be the greatest tweet of all time. You know what's funny about Markel is like

in the beginning when he's hurt last year and I noticed like what a great bench guy he was. Yeah. and I even tweeted something out about it I go as bad as this has been and you feel for the kid anybody with a heart I mean you're like man how broken is this guy like yeah this sucks right and for the guys that know like you can't treat him like a total bust when teams that were in the mix at the top were like when you watch him in the under 18 or the FIBA stuff or whatever it was, they were like, he was filthy. And I'd watch him on the bench. I go,

you know what? All the negative stuff. Look how engaged he is. He's happy. He's smiling. He's having fun. I go, that's a great sign. And then I was watching a game not that long ago and he was doing the same shit. And I was like, now it doesn't feel like a great side anymore. Maybe that's just who he is. I don't know where this ranks against Darko and Thabit and some of the other ones. I remember they got a first rounder for Darko. They did. They got, yeah, mid first. Thabit, I don't even think, got a first rounder. I still feel like Thabit is the lost.

Like they always mention Darko. They're going to mention Fultz now. Thabit is like the lost, like they always mention Darko, they're going to mention Fultz now. Thabit is like the lost bust that nobody mentions because everybody kind of felt like it was going to be a bust when they had him, when they took him.

It was like, oh, that's going to be a bust. But like to pass on James Harden for Thabit, rough. But Thabit was weird because Thabit had given you plenty of evidence at UConn

that he wasn't that good anyway. Yeah. There was real concerns. He had some aggressiveness that finally showed up the last year he was at UConn that he wasn't that good anyway. Yeah, there was real concerns. He had some aggressiveness that finally showed up the last year he was at UConn, where you go, okay, because he used to just sort of plod around and you're like, how engaged

is this guy? And then you thought, okay, well, maybe there's a little bit more there. But, you know, the Steph thing is, you didn't realize in two years ago, he's going to be the best shooter, top three handle, and the smartest. Like, he was all of those things by his second year in the league he's one he's one of the smartest players i've ever seen and i don't know i can't believe this steph curry thing i can't believe in the moment it was crazy as it was happening him being him falling to seven

rubio johnny flynn it was just crazy in the moment I was doing my draft diary that day I've been wrong in the draft diary but that one it was like what is happening we just watched this guy

this guy had a command of the moment and has these skills that how does this not translate to the NBA it seemed impossible there was this

there was this weird thing there was some ankle shit with him though right but then they also switched him to point guard it was almost like Davidson allowed his last year

to be an entire NBA tryout which was really weird I. I think it turned off some people. It turned me off. You liked it. Hey, I have some breaking news. Yeah, keep it coming. Joe Varden. This is well-timed. Joe Varden, senior writer for The Athletic, based in Cleveland. Anthony Davis's agent, Rich Paul, tells me Davis is not being traded today that was literally hey Joe

I could have told you that 16 hours ago well it's official it's official at least now we know what we can do the final hour Rich Paul grabbing some ownership

over last night that deal being dead and the Pelicans being like okay do you think though so the rest of the season I think you're, because your background's a writer. Yeah.

That all writers love the most dramatic version of stories. Yeah. And that's, that's your. We gravitate toward the giant angles. It's the reason that makes you successful. And also I think has, has flaws in some of the ways we approach stories. Agree. I've created a monster.

No. Do you think it really matters that maybe everybody in the Lakers is pissed at LeBron the rest of this season? So here. If you believe that that's the case. Here's what does matter. It's not just a picture. Here's what does matter. He went to a team that he is now not going to succeed with.

And he is somebody that made the finals for eight years in a row, basically. And he went to L.A. And I think he thought, I'm going to go to LA and other guys will come. Nobody came. Then it's like, we'll play half of the season. Then we'll trade all our dudes for Anthony Davis. Rich Paul signs Anthony Davis. This is done.

Done deal. Davis will be there by February. That didn't happen. Do you think LeBron yells at those guys? At Rich Paul? Yeah. Well, my question is, if you're Davis, do you keep Clutch now? I don't know how you would ever have gone there if you didn't want to be there.

Because you left the last of an agency. Right, but how do you go to Clutch and then go, hey, I have an open mind about where I want to play? Like, wait a minute, you're just going to tell those guys, like, actually, I don't want to go play with your guy? Clutch has no commission because Davis is under his old contract, which was negotiated by his last agency. At this point, he could be like, wow, these guys really kind of screwed things up for me. Maybe I should change agents again.

I don't think he's that way. If we could bet on this and CAA was like 10 to 1, I would grab some CAA stock. You would future a CAA player? I would future Davis signs with CAA and fires clutch stock. Because this is a disaster. And all it did was it made New Orleans fans not like Davis. It made him look like a schmuck. It made clutch look terrible.

It made LeBron look terrible. And it made all the Laker guys worse. What was good about this? The only winner was the widow. The widow looks great. I'm trying to find a winner here because I don't think

Dale Damsen wanted him there anymore. You know who the winner is? It's the Boston Celtics. The hope is there now that this can be put together. The problem is

for the Celtics package, the Clippers pick, they're probably not going to get now as they tear down their team. The Sacramento pick is going to be a lot better than everybody thought.

Their own pick won't be very good. Mark Stein tweet. What do we got? One minute ago. The Boston Celtics, possibly at their own risk, are officially part of the Anthony Davis sweepstakes. Let's go, baby! It's on now.

What if Ainge never had any intention of including Tatum, but just decided to tell everybody that worked for the Celtics to leak it out? Like, tell everybody that Tatum's available this summer and get that message out there. Because you can never underestimate, this is going to sound stupid, but I think you and I, like guys that are in that area, Ainge loves kind of the Red Auerbach thing of like, let's just mess with the Lakers.

Now, I think he also wants Anthony Davis. Let's not be ridiculous here. But I think there's a little, there's a little, they're celebrating this in Boston. I would not commit to trading Jason Tatum right now until I see, like the other night against Cleveland, 12 free throw attempts, 26 points. Attacking the basket

the second half of the second season is usually when a guy starts to do this I would want to see that I mean we've already seen him in playoff games really come through I'd want to see him in another year with his legs under him to trade a guy on a rookie contract

and all this other stuff for Davis still makes me nervous. And I might be a homer on Tatum. I might like him too much. I really think the guy is really, really, really, really talented. Heinsohn wouldn't trade him for anybody. Heinsohn was like, Kawhi, ho! Well, it's clear that the mistake they might have made last year

was the Jalen Brown-Kawhi thing, which I agreed with. I thought they year was the Jalen Brown Kawhi thing, which I agreed with. I thought they should have kept Jalen, but maybe in retrospect, you know. It's hard to read Kawhi. I mean, nobody, I mean, every now and then you think you have some Intel on something with Kawhi, you just never know. You know, it's not hard to read the real estate article that he just bought a $13 million house outside of San Diego, which is like about an hour and 20 minutes from here where he bought the house, hour 30. I always, I follow the breadcrumbs of celebrity real estate. There should be a celebrity real estate podcast.

Do you want to start one? No, I don't want to do it. You and Kyle? Like, well, there's a place in El Segundo here that's not going to get list. So when do we give up on more trades happening? Now it's 1207. Remember back in the day, they used to kind of be caught up and it would go into like 1230. Yeah.

Hold on. We're going to take a break for the podcast. Okay. And then we'll come back. Watch how we do this. Let's take a break to talk about Academy Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Aaron Sorkin, who was here earlier this year discussing his incredible career and all the great things he's been involved with, including the West Wing, the Newsroom,

the Social Network. People love that podcast. They love the story as well. He has a new play on Broadway. It's an adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning To Kill a Mockingbird. Recently voted America's Best Loved Novel of All Time. One of the most popular and toughest tickets to get on Broadway. Set the record as the highest grossing American play in Broadway history. It has been selected as a Critics Pick by the New York Times. Called one of the greatest plays in history by NPR. Two-time Emmy winner Jeff Daniels.

Live on stage as Atticus Finch. Variety called it one of the great stage successes of this or any Broadway season. To Kill a Mockingbird, unfortunately, sold out for the next several months. But you know what? That doesn't mean you can't get tickets. Oh, you can get them.

You can get them, all you have to do. For Valentine's Day, by the way, which is coming up. It's a good Valentine's Day gift. Purchase available performances for this summer or this fall. Available at telecharge.com or the show's website, tequillamockingbirdbroadway.com. Impress your lady, impress your man. Get them tickets. Good Valentine's gift.

Check it out. All right, we're back. Are we not on the air anymore now? No, we're on the air. No, are we not on the camera? I think we are. Oh, we still are? Are we still on, Sean Yu?

Thanks, Sean. Sean, how are you feeling about the Rockets? All right, yeah, we'll go 10 more minutes sure to see if there's another thing and then we'll take everything else to the podcast because

I want to do winners and losers for some of these trades the Celtics have traded Jabard Bird to the Hawks opening up a roster spot and probably some luxury tax money so that was a pure luxury tax thing I don't think the Celtics

are going to do anything I think they're trying to keep everything for the Anthony Davis thing. Let's talk about the Miritich thing as we wait. Miritich is perfect for what they're doing. If you and I were co-GMs for a team and that team was a playoff team, Miritich would have been on our team. Would have been like, we have to top three second round picks. Okay.

What do you want? Yeah. Want to protect it first? Tell me. Let's get this done. Before we hang up, I want this deal done. Miritich can play crunch time for the Bucks.

Absolutely. A hundred percent. I thought that was a more important trade than the Gasol trade. Because they really needed a mirror. One more guy, one more dead-eye shooter who's not scared,

who can have 29 in game four on the road and has been in games. I trust that guy. What Budenholzer's doing with this team and this age of how much can we space this out, right? So Golden State would space it with four,

maybe three and a half now with the way Draymond's shooting has fallen off and the way people kind of don't really respect him as much. But, you know, it was set up that you couldn't leave, right? Houston's running the same thing. If they go five, that's one thing. When they go with Capella with certain matchups, it's four out, one in. The one in for Milwaukee is Giannis.

Right. Think about that. And he's actually not in. They play five out. So you add Miritich to a closing lineup, I don't care what he is or isn't defensively. Like, this is the league now. Can we put five guys out there that you have to...

I mean, it's hard enough. Giannis can dribble into double teams and still finish over them at the rim. And even if there's defensive issues, Giannis is so all over the place now defensively that he can cover up at least a little bit. I think if you put, what would be interesting to me is,

can they play Lopez, Miritich, and Giannis, the three of them together? What happens to them defensively? Yeah, will somebody just go ultra small against him to try to get them running around? Because none of those guys post up anymore. Hey, Lopez, what's funny is Lopez used to be, I feel like an elite post up guy. Hey, Lopez, what's funny is Lopez used to be... He used to post far, though.

I really feel like an elite post-up guy. Yeah, but his thing was, he would always start further away from the hoop than you'd want to for a post guy. That's some in-depth stuff right there. I watched a lot of Brooklyn, Brooke Lopez. Do you have net season tickets? No, one of the years that the Celtics had their pick.

You wanted to just make sure they were terrible? It was the year Jared Jack got hurt. My dad and I were just watching the Brooklyn games. And Lopez was just killing our pick for like a month and was unstoppable at the end of these games.

And both of us were like, fucking Brooke Lopez. Who knew he was this good? And then he went to the Lakers and just got kind of misused. And then LeBron shows up and you think like the Brooke Lopez now is kind of the perfect LeBron big guy.

And they got rid of him. But anyway. Oh, by the way, another trade. Yeah. The Phillies are going to get. The Phillies baseball? Yeah. Sixto Sanchez was traded from the Marlins, I think.

That's not part of the NBA trade deadline. Oh, I didn't know this was a specific. I just thought we hadn't gotten around. I just didn't know what we were doing yet. Milwaukee is plus 250 to win the East. They're not the favorites.

But what about, oh, Toronto's going to be the favorite. I'm going to give you some Eastern odds now because we didn't talk about Toronto. No, we got to do Toronto.

We got to do. Marc Gasol, who I would have liked this trade more... Two years ago? Even two months ago. Remember, he was making threes in November, and I was like, oh, Marc Gasol, fountain of youth. But he just hasn't played that well the last six, seven weeks. I was kidding around at the beginning.

I didn't think we were on the air yet. But there's always these times when you're brought in as an analyst to describe what's happening early in a season, and Memphis is 12-5. Yeah. You don't know why they're 12-5, but you seem like you have to go on TV and explain it. You have to have a take. Yeah, and you're just like, you know, everyone knows their role.

Yeah. It's not that they're great, but everyone understands. And you know, as you're saying it, you're totally full of shit. Continuity is important. Right, right, right. Like, they respect their coach. He has a voice that reaches these guys. And you just know you're making up everything. Because deep down

you're like, I think they suck. But they're 12-5 and SportsCenter has it in the B's. So we got Toronto at plus 210. Celtics plus 230. Bucks at plus 260. Philly at plus 350. Okay, give me your Philly thing on Tobias Harris.

Because you and I agreed about the price. Yeah, we agreed about the price and then, you know, it was like, hey, wake up Philadelphia. I have a two-part take on it. This is the part where I wish I were not aligned in living in Boston. I mean, I always feel the same way about everything. It has nothing to do with that, but maybe you're biased.

You mean you and I are aligned? Well, we see basketball the same way a lot of the times. Well, that Miami pick completely just thrown in. I would love to know what the other offers were. Was anyone else offering two first rounders in pieces for Tobias Harris?

For a guy who's leaving, who they were going to drive to the airport as soon as their season ended. Yeah, the Clippers didn't want to resign Tobias Harris. They offered him a contract last summer and he turned it down. So at that point he's out. So I have a two part take. One is that. Give me part one first.

I'm going to do, I'm going to do part two first. Oh, it's more relevant. Okay. It's like quiz show. I would rather have Meritage for Wilson Chandler and two number twos or protected number one or whatever over everything I paid for Tobias Harris.

Because of what Tobias Harris is going to cost you. I just thought they overpaid and he's going to be the fourth option and he's going to need shots and he's going to need the ball on a team where now they have a starting five of all guys who need the ball, who at least like, you know,

ideally would like 15 shots a game. You're not going to be able to do that. They don't have like the quote unquote glue guy. And if you're just going to have Tobias Harris over in the corner shooting threes and not running plays for him, which I think is how this plays out. I just rather have Meritage

because then I can, I have a guy who fits really nice with Embiid. I don't have to give up a lot. I keep my Miami pick for maybe a trade down the road with whoever. I just, I didn't like the trade when it happened. And now after the Meritage price, I like it even less.

Does that make sense? It makes all the sense in the world, but I do think that there's a way it works too. I think if you have a stretch floor, like what's Philly's problem?

They don't have enough shooters. Butler's not a knockdown shooter even though, you know, you still have to guard him out there. Simmons is somebody

who won't even take the shot. They'd rotate it around with different things like Mascala would close some games. Shamit, who I liked, and both guys defensively

it was a problem. And then depending on how they used... I like Shamit too. Right. But I hear Sixers arguments it's like,

well, whatever, he's not a rental. It's like, yeah, but you're trading assets as if you know it isn't a rental. And you don't know that. What if he's unhappy?

What if he doesn't enjoy being the fourth option on a team and is like, I'd rather go to Brooklyn? Look back at it historically for a guy like Tobias Harris, who's good, but he also put up big numbers on a Clippers team that really was void of scores. Like when Avery Bradley's the other guy on your team, you're going to get a lot of shots. Ask Isaiah Thomas.

And that's the thing. He was a 21 and 8 guy on a team that actually needed him to shoot 17 to 20 times a game and now he's a guy who's really not going to get a lot of shots and I think you and I both played basketball I think I think people don't

understand sometimes basketball is hard it's hard to like be marginalized it's hard to go from 35 minutes a game to 18 it's hard to go marginalized. It's hard to go from 35 minutes a game to 18. It's hard to go from 18 shots to 10. This isn't a computer. I watched the other night, and I know no one likes Jimmy Butler anymore,

but I watched what was happening in that game they lost to Toronto. Yeah. And if I were Jimmy Butler, I would have been pissed off. Yeah. Like Embiid, they gassed Embiid. They kind of got back into the game

after being down almost 20. Embiid was incredible. I have these moments with Embiid. They kind of got back into the game after being down almost 20. Embiid was incredible. Like, I have these moments with Embiid where I go, man, like, why can't he be the best player in the league right now? Yeah, why not? Like, is he? Like, is Joel Embiid the best player in the NBA? And there's moments on my couch where I'm like,

it's not crazy to say that. He might have the highest ceiling out of anybody unless Davis is healthy and playing. It's so stupid how good he is. But then I see, see like Butler making a cut and they bring Butler back in with three and a half minutes in the fourth quarter. So of course he's seething.

Yeah. He's like, what are you? Like, I understand like Brett Brown has a hard thing to deal with here. He's trying to stagger the stars that don't fit well. And you know, not to make it always about the Celtics, but like when you look at different teams that were successful,

the greatest thing about that Celtics team in 2008 was that all of them had accepted or experienced big-time failure individually, and they were all older, and they were all over it. And the most important thing from a basketball standpoint is they all played in different places on the floor. They all did. And Ray basically had to sacrifice the most. Shout out to Ray because he reminds everybody of that every single month.

Now, Miami, you know, Bosch was going to be the guy. Bosch was going to be like somebody was going to have to sacrifice. When you're this young and you haven't experienced failure really, because now you're just saying, I've got my contract, I've got my brand, I've got my studio. You're going to be a free agent soon. It's like... You can't

sacrifice yet. You don't think of it. Philly wins. The best situation for them is if Jimmy Butler's like, I'm the glue guy. Yeah. Like some nights I'll get you 25. I'm going to do everything I can to help this team win. Don't worry about me and shots. He's never going to do that. No, he's never. And then

he gets back into the game. They're trying to salvage his thing. There was a horrible call on Shaman, an offensive foul call. Whatever. I don't want to get too into the weeds here. They got kind of back into the game, but it's Butler's cutting baseline. Like Simmons is trailing him two feet behind. And Butler's like, what are you doing? And then Simmons will sit there and he'll work the post,

and he worked Kawhi on like two post possessions. And you go, oh, my God, this is amazing. This is so impressive. And then another play, they ran somebody in to him and just brought everybody over, and they're all looking at each other being like, why are you bringing somebody down to the post when I have a one-on-one here and I've just won this matchup twice? So I could see where there's a version of this deal where Tobias Harris, just as a player,

as a stretch four, he was a low usage guy to get 20 a game, which is important. Okay. It's not like you're bringing in somebody else who always has the ball in his hand. You're not getting DM waiters. But I'm just, I'm a little worried that when it already hasn't worked with Butler and the other two guys, why is a fourth scorer, is he just going to fit in? Is it going to make them really hard to guard? Or is it going to be another guy that gets in Butler's way?

And I think those are both fair questions. And it's a weird roster that it's not very flexible. I like the rosters that they can go small, they can go big, they can, if you have Devin Booker on the other team

and he's just hot, who's shutting him down? It feels like TJ McConnell is going to be more important than I think Philly would have wanted because he was important last year in the playoffs

and that went badly. Imagine how, like think about how He's going to have to play in the playoffs now for them. They were better with TJ in the playoffs. Yeah. But that, but I don't think. He's going to have to play in the playoffs now for them. They were better with TJ in the playoffs. Yeah.

But that, but I don't think that's a road to the title. I just felt like they needed to get some sort of combo guard or two guard or I would have rather done that than Tobias Harris.

Do you think Harris tells you they're not resigning Jimmy? Maybe. I don't know. I mean, I know. I know it's not going great. They said they're going to just keep everybody.

Yeah, but that's, you just think, you've no idea if that's true. You make a trade for that, and the guy's like, yeah, it'd be great. I'd love to resign there, but he's going to become a free agent and do whatever the hell he wants, you know? The moment he becomes a free agent, now you have all these other teams like, hey, man, what if we do this and that?

And he starts looking at it and he's like, do I really want to be the fourth guy in Philly? Plus, he's been traded four times already. He's going to want to go somewhere stable. If you go in Philly and it doesn't work out, who are they trading? Not Simmons, not Embiid. They're trading the next two guys that have the giant contracts. Yeah, right.

So I'll get my money. I almost feel like these big contracts now are just sort of like a, hey, do you want to sign your money deal and then worry about the rest of your career later? We're going to break down the rest of the uh, the trade deadline, the winners and losers on the BS podcast, which you'll have to listen to. We're going to end this, uh, live YouTube, Twitter feed. We enjoyed having you though. Thank you. Um, and we'll take a break. Let's take a break to talk about high flying bird. You might've heard Steven Soderbergh on this podcast, Academy award winner. one of the only people ever nominated

in the same category in the same year for two different movies. It is a Netflix film about the NBA, ironically. It's a lockout. Players' owners are negotiating a new agreement. Nobody's willing to budge. Does any of this sound familiar? Well, in this movie,

some players are getting more desperate than others. Like one of the league's newest stars, Eric Scott, gets himself into some financial trouble even before stepping on the court. What a rookie move that is. Fortunately for him, his agent Ray, played by Andre Holland, great actor, has his back, plans to make some cash during this seemingly endless lockout. But when the owners find out what Ray is up to, they realize there is now a game on top of the game.

I really liked this movie. I thought it was cool. What's interesting is it's a basketball movie with no basketball in it, but very authentic. A couple twists and turns at the end and ties into this whole player empowerment era that we've been talking about during this podcast.

Watch High Flying Bird right now. Starting, I think, February 8th. So Friday. Yeah. Friday, February 8th. Watch High Flying Bird only on Netflix. You might've heard of it. All right, back to the pod.

We're back. It is now 1221 Pacific time. Raptors sending Greg Monroe in a second round pick to Brooklyn. Old Hoss. Greg Monroe. Greg Monroe. Just five years too late. Yeah, really.

90s would have been awesome for him. You would have had a poster of him. 98, he would have been like a 2010 guy making 20 million a year forever. The law firm of Monroe and Valanciunas. Let's go through some of the winners and losers. I'm going to do it by contenders. So the Bucks, they got rid of Thon Maker, or Thon McCore, as some people like to call him. No way.

Did he have a new? Apparently, the correct pronunciation is McCore, but for me, it's Thonmaker or Thon McCore, as some people like to call him. No way. Did he have a new? Apparently, the correct pronunciation is McCore, but for me, it's Thonmaker. You know my thing on foreign guys on draft night. Uh-oh. What is it? I go, that's not my fault if I get this wrong, because you're just going to change the pronunciation after a couple years. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a lock. You're going to Americanize. Yeah. So, Merich for basically, they turn Thonmaker into Stanley Johnson, then throw him into a second trade with Jason Smith expiring for Miritich and threw in some second rounders. That is to me...

Yet a real piece. You're getting rid of guys who aren't playing for you for a guy who can now play in crunch time. I give that an A. Sixers, they basically trade the Miami 2021 pick, the Philly first,

Shemit. Shemit? Yeah. Shemit? No, he has his second one. Landry Shemit. I want to call him Shemit though. Give it a year or two.

He might. Shemit? Maybe he'll change. Where is he from? Lithuania? I don't think he is. They trade that. They trade Fultz. They get back. Oh, and they trade Muscala.

They get back Tobias Harris, Mike Scott, Boban, and Jonathan Simmons, basically. Simmons is a nice little grab for them. I've always liked Simmons. If you need to throw in somebody to defend,

if you have a closing group, like, I like teams that, you know, the whole depth thing is overrated probably in the playoffs. Like, over the years, like, Toronto has so much depth.

They have so much depth. Like, well, are their two stars going to make any shots? Because the depth doesn't matter if you guys aren't doing anything. But, I do like teams

that can throw a fifth guy in there to close a game that's different than maybe the game before or the series before. This is my case for Schroeder on OKC. Yeah. I like guys that can win game four on the road just randomly.

Like Jonathan Simmons is one of those guys. They could be playing in Toronto, game four, game five, whatever. And he could come in the third quarter and score 16. He'd be like whoa Jonathan Simmons where's this coming from but he is one of those guys

because remember on the Spurs like it would be like well everybody's better on the Spurs no but remember he's like he's not Kawhi but every once in a while kind of reminds you of Kawhi

and it would be like once every three four weeks yeah because it was this real thing like they were doing stories on him on SportsCenter like where was he from Houston

or something like that so I don't mind those when you have a playoff team if that's your ninth man and occasionally he might come in and be awesome that's a good

Bellinelli's like that too yep everyone saw Bellinelli and was like oh shit Bellinelli's got 22 in the third quarter yeah cause I think there's always kind of

this line between like a lot of things like confidence and now you're just fucking us up every single possession that's Reggie Jackson's game you know

and kind of the worst of Terry Rozier. Yeah, when it's not going right. Because he's like, wait a minute, didn't I almost get us to the NBA Finals last year? Yeah, I'm going to launch another 25-footer with 18 seconds left. I kind of felt like Schroeder was in that group when I watched him in Atlanta. It was very much like, hey,

making somebody the guy when they got rid of Teague and, hey, Dennis, now it's your team. And then it's like, okay, well, I guess when they got rid of Teague and hey, Dennis, now it's your team. And then it's like, okay, well, I guess I have to always have the ball in my hands. You're like, well, that doesn't always...

But when I've watched OKC, I've liked them so much more this year. Me too. Knowing that I've always kind of doubted Westbrook late in the game. I'll believe the Paul George

thing in the playoffs when I see it in the playoffs because that Utah series is really tough to scrub from the brain. Yeah. Because it was awful. There's no way that that OKC team, even in a different mold and the uncertainty, there's no way they should have lost to Donovan Mitchell. But that was like, it's like when Kyla Perry self-destructs in these big Kentucky Final Four games when Westbrook just kind of lost his mind. He had,

he was like maniacal when somebody has that kind of energy. They're so frantic like that. I really does think it hurts the team. There's a franticness to that playoff run where you can kind of feel them unraveling. Yeah. And you, you know, the other four guys are going,

I'm not getting the ball here. I'm not getting the ball. And this guy's like wired. But as I've watched him this year, Denver, it's fun. Houston, this has been incredible what Harden's been able to do, and it's actually been necessary, and now Paul is back. You know, I wouldn't even, you know, if the Lakers,

even before LeBron had gotten hurt and missed a month, but OKC, it's so identifiable who they are. Everybody on the team knows their role. And they play really hard. Schroeder's been better for them because they've paired him up there and allowed Russ to play off. Yeah. Which is like when you see him off the ball, it's the weirdest thing

because you're just used to a decade of him initiating everything. Yeah. Other than obviously when KD was there're used to a decade of him initiating everything other than obviously when KD was there and he'd be off of him but they to me are like I know what they are

right now even if I'm going to have like I'll watch the playoffs and be like okay like let's see so the regular season has been great in a way I think

they were almost overlooked I think that's the team the Warriors are I don't think they're afraid of anybody but if you had to be like who's probably the matchup that makes you win easiest

yeah cause don't you think that would be the most that's easily the most emotional matchup it's emotional what's going on it's a really hard place to play it's just really loud

the fans are crazy Adams has always been a problem for them Paul George against Durant he could at least like try to play him to a standstill and then Westbrook versus Curry has always been an issue for them. You know,

it's the athleticism that Westbrook has and he just really goes at Curry. And he's been a better defender. Like he's always been this athletic, but he has took too many chances. And I think watching him this year, it's just been, it feels more solid. I don't know.

Like it's a team. I think Jeremy Grant's really turned into a valuable playoff guy. That dude fucking plays hard I put him on my honorable mention trade value list I was I really like watching and how'd you feel about him two years ago I wasn't a fan I could I couldn't stand him yeah and and then as I slowly watch and then I start hearing from other teams be like you know who might kick the tires on is Jeremy Grant I was like I don't think and Ferguson Ferguson something like he'll get no you'll look at the game if you don't watch watch him, you'll just go, he sucks. Yeah.

And you go, well, I don't know. He plays hard and he's athletic. Yeah. So they have a lot of different things to throw out there. They're athletic and they're physical and they,

and Paul George, for whatever reason, has turned into a closer at the end of games. It's sick. And I don't think it lasts. Right. He's,

he's been incredible. But he's a closer. It'll be, you know, Westbrook, I think played a big part in them falling apart when they're up 3-1

against Golden State. Yeah. Durant didn't play great either. There's all these things in my head that I know are going to, like, impact how I feel about them. But when I watch the West, you know, every night, just clicking through all the games, I know who they are. And even with my doubts, I like them better than everybody else except for Golden State. Yeah, Denver, like one of the reasons I watched that Denver-Brooklyn game last night

was I was just curious because I think Brooklyn is the prototypical, you feel like you can beat them in a playoff series, but at the same time, you actually have to beat them and they're going to come at you. They're actually pretty well coached now. I don't know if that was always the case.

They have a bunch of different guys that can go one-on-one. They have some three-point shooters. Did you see LeBron congratulate Malone? Yeah, yeah. But I was like, oh, I bet Brooklyn thinks they can beat Denver tonight. And they went at them toe-to-toe. And I think one of the weird subplots of this season is nobody's afraid of really anybody, not even Golden State. You watch really anybody, not even Golden State.

You watch these teams, Sacramento, playing Golden State, and it's not like, oh, bow down to the two-time champs. They're like, we're going to fucking beat you. Fuck you. And it just, there's a variance now between the threes and the fearlessness of the teams that I think is really fun night to night. I like it. Well, I think part of that non-fear of Golden State, though, is like you can see picking spots. Now, granted, that Spurs game is not a good example

because the Spurs were missing their guys. But as somebody that's never liked Cousins while also appreciating his talent, it's brutal now. It's brutal because he can pass. It actually should be a bigger story. It's watching it. They went from Kavon Looney to Mark's cousins.

And we all thought he wasn't healthy, but then it's like, oh, he's like 85%. Like that's a hundred times better than Kavon Looney. I had heard that there was a chance they're going to have him ready to go by Christmas. And then it was just, let's just push it off, push it off. I had heard that he was a chance they were going to have him ready to go by Christmas. And then it was just, let's just push it off, push it off. I had heard that he might not be back. There was like a stretch six weeks ago where I was like, what's going on with Cousins? They were like, the home stretch has been rough. Oh, no kidding.

Yeah. But then all of a sudden he was playing. Yeah. I went to that first game against the Clippers. And you see like a pick and pop and he pulls up and hits a three. And you're like, okay, that's a little different than Jordan Bell. Well, and also the big thing for me are the screens.

And now he fouls on half of them, but his screens are ridiculous. I've watched almost all the games he's been back because I just want to see. He's going to lose his shit again, by the way. Yeah, he will. That part, everyone is out to get him, angst from start of the game.

That's not gone. I've seen some guys say, hey, he's finally at rest. He's finally at peace with everything. No, he isn't. They're just winning. And there's a million other guys. He is going to have his moment because you can already see it happening.

They have three of the moodiest guys in the league. Durant is up and down. Durant will have things where he doesn't talk to anybody for like two weeks. Yeah. Boogie is- When you guys text during that time. Boogie, he does return texts. Boogie, super moody, obviously, legendarily so.

And then Draymond just night to night. So not Jarebko. Not Jarebko, I think is pretty solid. But that's just, it's a volatile team is my point. And in the playoffs, that could be what undoes them. It could be like, we're up 2-1. We thought this series was going to be over. OKC's fighting back against us.

They just erased a 15-point lead. Draymond just had a call go against them and now Draymond and Boogie are upset and now all of a sudden all hell breaks loose like they do have that potential yeah I guess but I still when I watch it all move around well from a talent standpoint

I think the Cousins part did motivate them it's ridiculous I was saying it was like Bison Dele in 97 multiplied by like three. Where this team that was really, really, really good anyway just is like, we're going to add this. Here's something you haven't seen from us.

Bison Dele. Remember Bison Dele? Absolutely. Remember they would post him up? Yeah. Spread the floor with him. Good passer. He was good that year.

He was. Other trade deadline winner losers. So what grade would you give the Sixers for all of this? He was good that year. Other trade deadline winner losers. So what grade would you give the Sixers for all of this? They squandered every asset they have basically for Tobias Harris, Jonathan Simmons, Boban, and Mike Scott. I like the Simmons part. The Fultz thing is I'd love to go back and read all those.

But what were they going to say? I just feel bad about Markell about the whole thing. But they must not have loved how the rehab was going with him or they didn't understand it. I think at some point you just got to move on. The asset, the second- We're almost there with Nephew Kyle. We're like, he's at the 11th hour. I'm just kidding. I want to see if you're paying attention.

The second, everybody's favorite part of the dual threat podcast is when Kyle just laughs in the background with his mic on. And one of my friends was like, how much did you hate that at first? I was like, I don't think I loved it at first.

And now it's my favorite part. It's great. It's validation. It's grown on me that like it's an audience of one. It's like that old. It's all genuine. It's never fake.

Do you remember that talk show in the 90s, early 90s? Maybe it was Comedy Central where they used to have like a talk show that was like the audience of one. Who was that? Charles Grodin? I don't remember that one. You don't remember that talk show in the 90s, early 90s? Maybe it was Comedy Central where they used to have like a talk show that was like the audience of one. Who was that?

Charles Grodin? I don't remember that one. You don't remember that show? No. This is right up your alley. This is all your stuff. There was this guy who had this late night talk show

where he used to just have an audience of one and it would be a guy and they would show him and he would wait. That's a good idea. Yeah, I actually love it. It's a good web series.

Right. So, I'm going to give a B minus because I can talk myself into it being a ridiculous price paying, like I just, the whole, hey, we're going to re-sign him, we're going to re him a B- because I can talk myself into it being a ridiculous price. Like, I just, the whole, hey, we're going to re-sign him, we're going to re-sign him. Yeah, but you're paying the price nobody else would pay.

You're paying the price as if it's already a done deal, and you don't know that it's a done deal. But I also can understand the stretch, the stretch four. He's going to have nights where he doesn't get any shots. There's going to be nights where Jimmy Butler's going to be pissed again. I don't know how it works with Simmons. I don't know what Brett Brown's going to do with all that stuff, but at least I know he's added like two easily,

what, one top four and a top eight guy. So I'm not going to give him a worse grade just because I think the price was high. I'm giving him a C- because I think they should have gone for Miritich instead. All right. And I feel like that Harris trade is there at 11 o'clock this morning. No need to do that two days ago.

Where else was he going? Who else is offering the Miami 2021 pick for Tobias Harris? I don't know how they got two firsts. I can't believe they gave him two firsts. Can't believe it either. Does that trade historically, you're lucky to get a first. Can you do a Brett Brown impersonation for us? I'm kind of under the weather, so that would work.

It's like a combo New Hampshire, Rhode Island accent. under the weather. So that would work. Uh, it's like a combo, New Hampshire, Rhode Island. It's tough. There's a lot of Rhode Island in it. Yeah. Rhode Island has,

that's so smart of you. Cause my grandmother and my grand, my grandparents, I guess is how most people reference their grandparents. Uh, they're both from Providence and there's a different accent than the Boston accent. So the Boston accent is, has the fuck you in it. It's,

it's the, you think you're better than me. It's got that. The Rhode Island does not have that, but it just is like exaggerated. It's kind of like Cavell. Yeah. It's like a JFK Jr.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. when they go to Atwell Avenue and the Sopranos, when he goes to like hire the old guys and all hooked up to oxygen and they're trying to find somebody to pull a hit. So they're like, go to

Atwell Avenue because it's known in mafia circles and Providence because Providence is, well, just go ahead and Google it kids. And so, um, I had an aunt and uncle that lived on river Avenue and I had an uncle that played on the freshman team at Providence and the Mullaney's were tight with my family. So like there's some real Rosillo-Providence ties there. So when they had the Atwell Avenue scene, my father thought it was the greatest thing. And like Tony and I think, is it Tony and Chris or Tony and Pauly show up? What season was that? I forget. They go to Atwell Avenue in Providence to hire them for a hit.

And the people look like corpse. And the woman comes out and she's like, do you want some cake? It's Cavell. Yeah. And it was like the fact that David Simon and the woman comes out and she's like, do you want some cake? It's Carvel. Yeah. And it was like, the fact that David Simon and the producers knew they were like,

there's a Providence accent that's not a Boston accent and they fucking nailed it. So that's what's weird is that Brett Brown's is more Providence than New Hampshire. Yeah, I can't,

I can't, I don't think I can do it. We're still working our way through kinks with Jimmy Butler, but I, it's like, we're trying to win games here.

See, I can't. It's too Boston. I can't. The Vermont one's a different one. Raptors. Marc Gasol basically for Valanchunas and Deion Wright in the second round pick. I like Deion Wright. Did not seem like a lot. That feels like a lot. DeLon? DeLon Wright. Sorry. Right. I just wanted

to make sure. Because whenever who he played for comes up, I get upset when I miss one. That's like 60 cents on the dollar? Well, Gasol's what? He's got... I wrote all this shit down last night. He's got one more year.

Yeah, it's his year. 26, just under 26 player option. I would have loved to see Conley go there. Me too. He's got two more. I would have liked to see Conley get out of Memphis is maybe my point. I thought Conley was going to go to Detroit. That just seemed like a no-brainer. That Conley-Detroit thing was happening. They were going to

have to take back Reggie Jackson, but then Detroit was going to have to take on my man Chandler Parsons. Oh my God. Who still has some money owed to him. That was probably one of the strongest rumors. It was a Detroit Conley thing and then all the salary

moving around because they wanted to get ready to jackson out of there. We know where he was going to go. Or Utah. If Oladipo never got hurt, you think Indy would have done it? I think Indy does it

in five seconds. Plus, he's from there. I would have loved to see Conley out of Memphis. No diss to Memphis. You know what I mean? I think even Memphis fans. Yeah, it just sucks that he's not

going to be on a playoff team. Utah, the numbers never match with Utah because Favors would have had to be in the trade. And at that point, why are you doing that? Yeah, you know, I don't love Favors. He ended up not being the guy I thought he would be. But Favors and Rubio for Conley is actually like a lot. And I don't know what that does for Memphis.

That weirdly makes them, instead of making them worse for a lottery pick, it weirdly makes them kind of neutral. But I also think the problem is that there's still some small lineups, despite Gobert's defensive prowess, that I've seen him pulled from a game or two. I don't buy Utah, though.

I think that's a beatable team. I think the problem that I'm saying, I think they're looking at it going, hey, even if we don't love favors in room, we can add Michael Conley. Like, who are we going big with when we go small? I just don't think that does help them make the finals, no. How much do you think Toronto's just like, Marc Gasol? Sweet. Yeah.

I think that's kind of what they did. They're just like, let's just try this too. The fact is, Ibaka has been probably the best Ibaka that we've seen in a long time. It's bizarre because it seemed like his career was almost over two years ago. And people were like, is he like 38? Nobody could understand it. He was like an El Duque. Yeah.

Like, wait a minute. Tom Bell? Let's see your records. But now he... Who filled out this form? Now he looks great. I like that trade for them. I'm going to give them a B+.

Now, the catch is, can Gasol hold up for a whole season? now he looks great I like that trade for them I'm going to give them a B plus now the catch is can Gasol hold up for a whole season he already looked like he was looked a little long in the tooth

as this year went along he was really good the last couple weeks can you have four playoff rounds out of him playing 28 minutes a game can you do this can you just bank on the fact

that he's going to be energized he's incredibly smart he's not like he needs to be energized? He's incredibly smart. It's not like he needs to be an athlete. Huge head. You know, just a crank of a dome. He's a one-notcher.

Imagine trying to get an adjustable for him. Sabonis had the biggest head in NBA history, but Gasol is like an eight and a half out of ten on the Sabonis scale.

I'm trying to think who had the biggest head. I mean, Sabonis, it looked like his head was going to tip over and roll off and roll down the court. There was a guy for the Texas Rangers that had just a fucking epic dome.

Remember Bruce, Bruce, Bruce Bocci? Bruce Bochy? Bruce Bochy. Yeah. Right. Like you would have thought something was wrong with him. Like, did you get a head transplant? No, he had like a size eight and a half head.

Eight and a half's huge. Like you show up to Lids and they go, hey, dude. Like we have hats for human beings. Bonds was like a nine there for two years. I don't know how that happened. That's your guy. That's my guy. I sat next to him at a game. What did you guys talk about?

Didn't talk about how huge his head was. He stopped doing those neck raises. Yeah. Whenever you go to the gym and you see a guy with just plates hooked up to a neck brace and he's going back up, he's like 48. I love when you bring the gym into it. Well, you're just like fullback. Which year

did you play fullback? Like I'm still a fullback. Fuck you talking about. Celtics did zero. Nothing. I didn't think they were going to do anything. I think once they knew. Well, Dirty Secret, they're playing pretty well. Oh yeah, that by the way. Yeah, they're like kind of. Oh, yeah. That, by the way... Yeah.

They're kind of on the radar. They're the fifth best team in the league, third in point differential. They're 9-1 in their last 10. Have you seen the numbers? I don't know if it was... I don't know. Somebody who covers the Celtics was tweeting out their point differential and record since a certain date. Yeah.

And the date was removing... I actually was shocked that it was that good. It was like the number one or number two point differential from the beginning of December. I think the problem is that there's still been some losses in there where you go, what the hell is that? They had that loss, the Kyrie yelling at Gordon

Hayward loss, and then another loss right around there. Yeah, there was two in there that made everyone think they were doing bad, but actually they were playing really well and they probably would have beaten the Warriors if Hayward had done anything. It always is like a nice reminder of,

like, whenever I think I get behind in watching games and stuff and I'll watch a TV show and be like, oh, you guys haven't fucking

watched anything in forever. Because nobody, I haven't heard anybody be like, the Celtics have really figured this thing out. Yeah. And maybe it's just

the standard for what they are is so high that it's still not enough but I don't feel like anybody's talked about the fact that they've actually played really well and they have they went from this stretch where they were getting the worst schedule breaks possible and catching

everybody during their hottest break I sound like a Celtic apologist but do you think they're coming out of the East? no I don't know yet but it's just for the first time they're catching schedule breaks, right? They're playing the Lakers tonight. This is a great night to play the Lakers tonight.

Out of all nights. Feels like a win. They're playing the Clippers two nights from now after they've just traded all these dudes. This would be the kind of content I want.

This is the content for the future. What is it? Is that... You with a runny nose. Me with a runny nose. You go up to Commissioner Silver, if you're ESPN, and you say, 10 games a year, we get to pick all access.

Oh, yeah. That's it. You can't say anything. It's hard knocks for five hours. Right. We'll throw in however much more you want. Yeah. And then you go, hey, it's the guys over down in Bristol.

We're going to send a caravan up to the garden. Yeah. And we want full coverage of the Lakers pregame speech. Right. Unedited. Celtics right now are 35 and 19. They're three games behind the Raptors. And they are six in the last column behind Milwaukee.

I don't know if they're catching Milwaukee. The other thing that's interesting... Yeah, I just think it's worth mentioning that they've turned this... Yeah, that they have the fifth best record in the league. And I still think I like Toronto better than all the teams in the East. So, the other thing that's weird... So, we're at the two-third mark, basically, right now. Okay.

Milwaukee would have home court if the season ended today. So, Golden State's 38-15, and it seemed like they were going to go on this 25-game winning streak. Then they lost that Philly game. Yeah. I still think they're going to go on a streak. I could see them coming out of the All-Star break and winning 20 straight. But I don't know.

I'm still a believer in home court. I think it matters. And for Golden State to have to win on the road in the finals is still not easy. They were able to do it last year because, or two years, what was the year? Two years ago? No, Houston, they didn't have it. Houston, they didn't have it. Yeah, right.

They won in Houston, but they fucking sweated it out. That was hard. You know, it's not easy. I think OKC, the year that they almost beat Golden State in 16, the fact that Golden State came back in five and seven was because five and seven was at home. That just helped them. So I think,

I think that is a sub-part. I hadn't really even thought about it because you're right. Like they were the fastest to 40 and then Denver's the fastest to 40 they've ever had. Denver's not taking them seriously as much as I enjoy them. Celtics, nothing. Pacers really did nothing.

Nets did nothing. I thought the Nets were going to get frisky. Rockets. I heard they were not going to. Source told me we won't be frisky. Sources say. I saw that on the bottom line. Rockets turned Brandon Knight's contract,

which went through next year, James Ennis and a conditional first, basically, into Iman Shumpert, who by all counts is a great chemistry guy. Right, and Sacramento was like depressed the night of when they heard it. I don't know why Sacramento did that unless they had to do it because it opened up the Barnes

trade. Well, at least they didn't do what Phoenix did, which was, hey, we're going to bring in a couple of vets to help our young guys. We're like, all right, DeAndre, did you get everything you needed from Tyson Chandler in the two weeks? Okay, cool. We're going to trade him now and give him to LeBron because James Jones is running the shop now. And then Trevor Reese.

By the way, that was. That was ridiculous. And then. Also, like, why not keep Tyson Chandler until the trade deadline and then buy him out after that? Because he's an expiring contract. You might have been able to throw him into

some massive trade. That's like negligence. No, that's, that's, that's just, I mean, that was the kind of stuff

and that's why there's been so much anti-Anthony Davis to the Lakers stuff is because teams around the league are like, so let me get this straight. James Jones, get the GM gig

and then next thing you know, Tyson Chandler because LeBron needed him is on, and then everybody thought like the Ariza thing was going to happen too. Right. And you're like, wait Chandler, because LeBron needed him, is on. And then everybody thought the Ariza thing was going to happen too. And you're like,

wait a minute, he's going to send these two dudes when Phoenix supposedly brought these guys in? And I do think that there's a nice thing about having some vets around. This obsession with everyone

having to be within that same two or three year window when you're rebuilding, that everybody has to be between 21 and 23, that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. But the Houston thing,

like Daryl, Daryl doesn't get enough credit, Daryl Morey here, because he actually did something in the playoffs where Golden State didn't look like Golden State. And it was a possibility that they were going to get knocked out in a year no one thought it was even possible. And I know that's not a ring. I know it's not even getting to the NBA finals and we're real hard markers here about how we do this stuff. But like to me, Daryl deserves credit for that.

Like he deserves some, and he finds- You know where he is? He's in the critically acclaimed Hall of Fame with the 2007 Suns. Yes. I like that.

Not incapable of winning a ring. Critically acclaimed. Yeah. We'll remember them finally. The team that almost pulled it off, and if Chris Paul hadn't gotten hurt, he pulled all the strings and it almost happened. Critically acclaimed. I'm in full agreement

there. The only thing I wish, I would say, I want one day Daryl Morey to get a ring, because he was so doubted. People shit on him around the league, like, what's this guy going to do? He's going to get fired before that Harden trade. If that Harden trade doesn't happen, I think he's gone in a year. Yeah, maybe.

You would know better than I. Remember because he had those three first round picks and then it was like the Royce White draft? Yeah, the Royce White draft. Yeah, we got Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, and somebody else who wasn't great. Yeah. I was like, here, this is our big haul. Okay.

I was, the only other thing I'd like to happen with Daryl is I would like Daryl to have to have his team face Pete Harden and Harden get the calls against Daryl's team

in the playoffs. Hmm. Can I read you a tweet from the Ringer NBA? Yes. At Ringer NBA, good Twitter feed. The Sixers essentially traded Jason Tatum and an unprotected Kings first rounder.

Oh, I hate when this happens. For Jonathan Simmons, a Cav second, and a pick Philly already held at one point. Yeah, when you put it that way. So that was bad? Robin Lopez buyout guy. He'll go to the Warriors, right? Yeah, I had heard. Rank your favorite buyout guys for me.

Is Rolo one? Would you put Wes Matthews above him? No. How about Wayne Ellington? Wayne Ellington doesn't do much for me anymore. None of those guys. He had a nice stretch. It's probably Robin Lopez

because I think he just makes things hard on the opponent. You know, like you can't look at the numbers there. It's just, hey, Lopez is in and this is going to suck. Like I'm going to have to deal with you because you're still into it. I remember him in that Celtics playoff series. He was a problem. He's around the rim. Yeah. He's big. Yeah. He protects

the rim. He's kind of crazy. He knows who he is. He's a little crazy. He's physical. I think if you have the Warriors and you all of a sudden have Cousins and Robin Lopez just in your arsenal, it's pretty nice. A couple more trades. What other buyouts?

Oh, Anus Kanter. That's a hard pass. I don't like guys that talk shit and don't play in games. Fair. You wouldn't like him on the Celtics? I don't. I mean, yeah, you could ask. You wouldn't like him on the Celtics? I don't. I mean, yeah,

you could ask, you could say, all right, if there's a depth issue there with bigs, but I like Baines. My guess for him would be Portland

because they've been attracted. It's like, it's like when you're in college and you know, like one of your buddies likes the girl,

but they were always dating somebody else for a while and you just know one night, at senior year, they're going to look at each other and something might happen. Enos Cantor in Portland. They signed him to a giant offer sheet once. They did. But I mean, do you think you also could have been like, Hey, remember that night? It almost went down with you and I. Thank God. Thank God it didn't happen. Right. Now you have two kids.

You married the guy who steals from the gas station. You married that hockey player who gained 20 pounds. Steals from the gas station. You know he doesn't even own that gas station. It's his uncle's. Portland traded crap for Rodney Hood. I don't know really what that did for them. The Kings traded Shumpert, Zeebo, Justin Jackson, basically for, uh, Alec Burks and Harrison

Barnes. People still like Alec Burks, which I think is interesting in itself. I'm not, I'm not in that group. There's probably, you could, you could put Rodney Hood in that group as well. Also, I'm not, I'm not, I don't, I don't belong to either of those Facebook groups. I feel like whenever you look at like superstars,, Kobe talks to Kyrie and LeBron talks to this guy. Jeff Green's like, my dudes are Alec Burks and Rodney Hood. Right.

Jeff Green DMs me all the time. He's always telling me, if you disappear in a game, don't worry about it. There's another one tomorrow. I didn't realize until last night that Harrison Barnes was as well-liked as he is. Yeah, they loved him down there. He's a pro. We told him he might get traded.

He wanted to play anyway. Yeah, that was what was so weird about the LeBron post is that, I mean, there's a bunch of reasons why it was weird. But they told Harrison Barnes, like, you might get traded. And he's like, all right, I want to play. I'm still waiting for LeBron's first, like, big comment on something that changes the way I think about a subject. So you're saying he points out some things that tend to be obvious. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Right. The NFL gets rid of you when you're no longer. Like if LeBron was a political,Bron was a political like if he was in a politics

he'd be like we gotta fix global warming it's gonna be really bad for everybody and people would be like 85,000 likes you did it again LeBron you waited

you've changed our lives yet again with your wisdom Will Cain's in the background there's not enough evidence to support that we all gotta get along better There's not enough evidence to support that. We all got to get along better. Just change my opinion on anything in life.

Man, Facebook makes you think. Facebook has to do better. Yeah, I would agree with that. If you're going to use your platform to make it seem like you're being profound, just every once in a while throw in something profound. Just once in a while. New rule. New rule.

Just be profound every once in a while. Just try it. The problem is anybody's afraid to almost like it's like I want to be profound, but I'm afraid if I actually say something profound, then I'm going to get killed for it. So I might as well just stay in the lane of mass approval. And that's kind of what happens to these guys. That's basically with social media. Right. I mean, because it sucks. Here's my mass approval tweet of the day.

Yeah, right. Like whenever there's some sort of natural. Oh man, they trade Harrison Burns. This is a business. Yeah. What? Like they'll be friends of mine and there'll be a natural disaster in a part of the country they've never been to.

They'll be like, day ruined. Thoughts and prayers. Yeah. It just really makes you think. You know, like, are you ever going to think about this part of the country again today? I mean, maybe I sound really harsh right now.

What else could LeBron weigh in on? Jeweling? Wait, jeweling? Jeweling. Let the kids jewel. Oh, no, no.

Nephew Kyle's ordering a LeBron jersey right now. Are you kidding me? Mango's fucking fire. What if he tweeted out fire festival? When does it end? Like, dude, that was almost two years ago. Cigarettes are bad. Why do they sell these?

Don't drink and drive. LeBron, the master of the obvious. More trades. Where did you weigh in on the Otto Porter for expirings? Oh, Otto Porter. He's another one of my guys. That was amazing. I'm going on to Chicago in a little bit.

I know that Waddle and Sylvia are going to be pumped that they got him, and I'm going to go, here's the deal. You can run your offense through him. There's some things that I saw from him at Georgetown going all the way back I absolutely loved. He hit some threes from the outside, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's a really good passer. And then you're going to go a week and you're going to forget he's on the team.

That's Otto Porter. And you got him for $55 million the next two years. He breaks my rule of if I'm at a game that you're playing in and I forgot you're on the court for a quarter and a half, you probably shouldn't make more than like $8 million a year by the current NBA seller standards. Andrew Wiggins is the ultimate example of this. You can go see Minnesota and it was like, Wiggins will have like some 360 layup. He'll be like, when did he get here?

Did he check in? Was he late? Did he just show up two minutes ago? And you realize he's played 38 minutes. It's so true. Aaron Gordon, the Orlando Magic. Aaron Gordon is another run. There's this whole, like I've been on this now where I wanted to do like first, second, third team.

All I forgot, you're on the floor. When did you get here? Yeah. And it's just, it's actually not a complicated process to decide who really is an engaged, really good player. Yeah. Like there's all sorts of skill things. And like, yeah, I mean, I make fun of the Jeff Green thing,

but like, remember watching him all the time with the Celtics and he would throw down a dunk in traffic on like a two power dribble and you're like, oh my God. James Worthy. Like, where is that? And you'd be like, well,

we'll do that again in a couple of weeks. So, I'm convinced that when... Wiggins is a perfect example of it. Otto is like, they're skilled guys. They're skilled guys all over this league. But for whatever reason, and I think,

I think it's pretty, like there's just certain guys that kind of go into a game already defeated. I don't know if it's a lack of self-confidence. I don't know if it's their situation. But like sometimes I think guys

could just take it to another level when they just said, F this. I'm going to go out there and ball. Nobody can stop me. And not everybody's wired that way. And the guys that are wired that way, I know I try to check myself every now and then when somebody says something that I don't always like, it's like, yeah, but got to remember, like Isaiah Thomas has said a bunch of stuff where I'm like, dude, but I also

get why he says what he says, because he's actually more wired than these huge guys that let us down all the time. At least I know Isaiah gives a crap, you know, that was a rant. Ryan, you and I both play basketball or we used to, obviously I have a game this weekend. I don't know. I just, you have a game this weekend.

Yeah. I don't want to call out the guys on, uh, on your podcast again, because I got some DMS from a couple of them that were really upset, but you play. Yeah. There's certain guys.

I know in my forties, I hit a point where I was like, I just want to be Meritage stretch four, but I'll try. Like I'll defend whoever I'll try to get rebounds. And then there's the other guys who are just kind of running up and down. Yeah. Like almost for the exercise. Yeah. And sometimes I feel like that's Andrew Wiggins. It's like, he's like, I just want to get a run. Yeah. This would be some good exercise. I'll burn some calories today. It's like,

no, they're paying you 25 million a year. Do something. So if somebody didn't know him, they'd be like, Hey, what are you up to? Be like,

uh, getting a little run. I got a game. I get some running. Oh yeah. You play at the Bay club. No, we're playing the jazz.

Uh, that trade was weird. I didn't understand it I don't know why the Bulls would want to pay Otto Porter 26 million a year I don't know why they wanted to make themselves

slightly better when all they should care about is Zion Williamson everything about it I didn't like and for the Wizards I actually thought it was smart it's smart for the Wizards

there's other Wizards moves that they've been making here to get under that luxury tax threshold but here's the thing they're going to these all other Wizards moves that they've been making here to get under that luxury tax threshold. Yeah, let's get it. But here's the thing. They're going to—these all point to, like, just because they have the worst contract in the NBA and wall doesn't mean they should be thinking of getting off of Beal.

They should be thinking, I was trying to make— The Beal thing drives me nuts. He's 25. I'm not trading Bradley Beal. He's good. Now, is he perfect? No. He's 30.

I get it. He's 25. So guess what you're going to do? You're just going to pay Beal a ton of money and keep him around. Beal's actually been better without Wall, even though I'm not one of those massive anti-Wall guys, because even a couple years ago when he was healthy, he was awesome a couple years ago. Yeah, I love Beal. But for Chicago, when it's defended as, well, they couldn't use their cap space on anybody anyway.

And it's like, so I want to use it on Otto Porter for $56 million? But it also proves it. Like, whenever we see these deals and you go, and that's why the Wall contract fascinates me. How many times have we said a deal? Oh, you can't move that deal. You can never move that deal. Every deal is actually movable. I do believe that.

Except for John Walls. Well, remember, Gilbert Arenas' deal got traded. Yeah, right. That was... And we thought that was... And then Chris Webber's deal got traded in the mid-2000s, which seemed impossible.

Rafe LaFrance moved a couple of times. I was researching Rafe LaFrance the other day. Yeah, he got hurt. I still think... I think young Rafe LaFrance, I think was really good. Last one,

Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington for expirings, which allowed Miami to get way down in the tax. And Miami is kind of a sneaky one more trade away from being a player in free agency this summer. Yeah, they have a ton of terrible deals on their books. Did we ever figure out why they lost their minds and just tried to lock down $12 million guys for two years? Well, the cap went up. That was so weird.

It's the opposite of what I would do. I would never feel a need to just overpay non-All-Stars if I ran a team. Yeah, like James Johnson in two years is going to have $16 million on the books. Kelly Olenek's $14 million. Dion Waiters is $12.5 million. Josh Richardson's $11 million.

Winslow's... You don't like those contracts? Well, the Hassan Whiteside $27 million player option next year. That was weird. Who are they bidding against with that? I think he just looked at his PER and they went— I think Riley went absolutely mental for a post-LeBron stretch. You think LeBron killed him?

Yeah, I think mentally— He thought he was riding the LeBron trade for 10 more years. In their retirement. He was going to train for 10 more years. Yeah, so they have— Yeah, they have yeah they have a lot of contracts next year

that's actually going to be if Dragic opts in they're kind of screwed right and Phoenix picked

him up right who Tyler Tyler yeah right so Phoenix still doesn't have a point

card just checking I like the Richardson WWinslow combo for $23 million. Yeah, and honestly, Spoh is so good that he covers up some of the problems. Like, I don't know. By the way, I know we made fun of LeBron's social media before, but Jared Dudley had a thing I did like yesterday because it was about how Ryan Anderson got traded.

And Ryan Anderson, over the summer, gave up money on next year's deal. He redid the next year of his deal, which was $21 million. Now it's going to be like $16 million to try to get traded to Phoenix to make that Brandon Knight trade work so that he'd have a chance to play in Phoenix. What happens? He goes to Phoenix. He doesn't play. Now he gets traded and he lost like 5 million bucks. And Jared Dudley was like,

this is why guys should never give back money. Don't ever give back money. I'm like, you're actually right, Jared Dudley. You know what Ryan Anderson should have done? Be like, sure, I'd love to go to Phoenix. You can still send me the 21 million a year though. Yeah. I'm not giving back money.

Fine. I'll just hang out here for 21 million though. Yeah. I'm not giving back my fine. I'll just hang out here for 21 million then. Yeah. That was always the Morris twins thing. Like I didn't really understand it. Cause at first in the beginning, I'm like, do you guys really think you get to play together in the NBA? Get no trade clauses. And then that's bad agency. The way, the way that deal was done from what I'd heard removed was if you guys will let you stay together, but you get to sign these deals. And then as soon as they signed those deals, they were really, you know, they became a trade trade.

Yeah. So that was like, there's plenty of stuff that's out there. I mean, but how about on the other, like imagine doing Tim Hardaway juniors deal with the Knicks and also getting a 15% trade bonus in there. There's a 15% trade kicker on Hardaway's deal.

Now with Dallas, like who, why did you have to give Tim Hardaway Jr. a 15% trade kicker when the minute that deal was reported, everybody's like, are you serious? Well, what made that trade crazy was it was not a summer or deal. It was a summer of 2017 deal. Yeah, right. It always gets lumped into the crazy 16th summer. It was a year later. It was after we had

already learned don't give deals like this to guys who aren't all-stars. Listen, you can trace half the problems in the history of the NBA to teams going all in

on guys who aren't all-stars. It's the quickest way to murder your cap. It's the quickest way to watch somebody who overachieved, who is now getting paid, who tails off. It's never good. We never somebody who overachieved, who is now getting paid, who tails off.

It's never good. We never talked about the Porzingis trade. We could probably end on that note because nothing else happened really. Porzingis, his indoctrination of the NBA was Phil, which was bad, even though a lot of people around the league never thought that Phil would take him. Right, old man Phil, the bad version. Grumpy old men, part three. That's bad. I'll never forget you and I.

We did an interview right after I was in Alabama. It was when I used to do the show solo sometimes on Fridays from a college location. If Scott wasn't working on that Friday, and I would be like standing in a tent by myself doing a three-hour national radio show. Those were not the best shows I've ever done. And it was right when it was being rumored that Phil was going to come back to the Lakers. And some of the stories go that he wanted part ownership and that's why it didn't happen. Whatever, whatever. And you made one of the funniest points ever is that they called Phil to like see what he thought about something.

And he was asleep. It was like nine o'clock. Oh, that was true. Yeah. No, it was totally true. That part was totally true. They called him and he was asleep at nine o'clock.

Yeah. And you go, don't you see that's a huge problem. And I kind of like, didn't pick up exactly what you were saying. And you're like, Ryan, you,

you're going to run him. He's going to run your team. And he, he's not up watching. He's asleep. Right. He's not watching league pass. Right.

He's not watching the Denver Brooklyn game. So I think Porzingis kind of was like, what's the deal with this? And it's the Knicks and it's Dolan and it's Mello. And I don't shit on Mello. I feel like I say this every time I say Carmelo Anthony. I don't want to be lumped into the Mello sucks crew because, you know,

the most recent success they've ever had was when Mello had like a flirty MVP. The backlash is outrageous it's too much it's too much and he never lived in that he was a star you made it another great point is that mellow when he went up against the stars saw himself so he was never afraid yeah and unfortunately for him he got lumped in with the guys that really kill it in this league and he wasn't those guys even though he put up some of those numbers so anyway he was chris pine he was in leo dicaprio i love chris pine chris pine's great chris pine's the guys that really kill it in this league. And he wasn't those guys, even though he put up some of those numbers. So anyway. He was Chris Pine. He was in Leo DiCaprio. I love Chris Pine. Chris Pine's great.

Chris Pine's great. But he's not Leo DiCaprio. Yeah, that's fine. You think Chris Pine will hear this and get pissed or he'll go, yeah, those guys are right. We'll table that. We'll table that.

LeBron's going to do an Instagram post about that. Why can't we leave Chris Pine alone? He's had a great career. Star Trek, Star Wars, both great. Chris Pine's making money and making movies. Jen Brown's husband kind of looks like Chris Pine. Yeah? Wes.

That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I just met him recently in Nashville. Really nice guy. I don't know why that just popped in my head. Probably because the cold medicine is kicking in. Przingis saw Mello's deal and was

like, okay, he's pissed off. He's mad at Phil. So, even if they had overhauled the front office, okay, some of the same pieces there, they have some other new pieces. I don't think Przingis was ever going to do the Knicks any favors about, like,

hey, here's my plan. Here's my issue with it. And I've had now almost a week to think about it. I took way too long to make my point.

No, no, I got your point, though. I hated the trade when it happened. You hated it for the Knicks or the Mavs? I hated it for the Knicks. You don't trade a franchise guy

in a rookie contract. You've got to do better than Capspace. And I know they've got two firsts coming, but I'm with you. I just, and I space. And I know they got two firsts coming, but. I'm with you. I just, and I like him and I know he's hurt all the time.

You got to do better than that. My thing is, all right, you and I take over the Knicks. Let's say last summer. And somebody tells us, hey, look, I think we have a chance to get Durant, maybe Kyrie too. Your job now is to create cap space for two max contracts. Do whatever you do. Do your thing. My solution isn't to trade Porzingis to do that. I am exhausting every other possibility that exists to try to do this. I'll be like, Tim Hardaway Jr., I'll give you 2021 and 2023 first round picks

if you take Hardaway Jr. Courtney Lee, I'll stretch them. Like whatever I have to do, I'm creating those things. Right, I'm going to use all the tools. Without giving up Porzingis, because it's just like, to me, the Porzingis contract, having somebody who next year could have been one of the four best guys on a potential contender on a rookie contract is the equivalent of like having Pat Mahomes on a rookie contract.

It's, it's, you can get two max guys and put them with Porzingis, who's a max guy making $5 million a year or whatever it was. That's the greatest advantage you can have in sports. And they fucking gave it away. So to read afterwards where everybody's like, well, you know, the Knicks, they knew he wasn't going to stay and they had to get rid of those contracts, so they had to do this. It's like, well, first of all, he didn't want to stay because they were

assholes. And then second of all, they had to get rid of the contracts because they signed the fucking contracts in the first place. So it's like, I fucked up here, I fucked up here. I fucked up here. I fucked up with this guy. So let's use our clearly best asset. So now here's my get out of jail free card.

I'm just going to give away my franchise guy. Now it's better. And oh, by the way, he was a dick. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be there because you didn't want him. You screwed it up. And that's the whole point of me telling you that long-winded story is that from day one, it just was always like a little different.

And I don't know what the deal with his brother is. You know how easy it is to make the relationship better with somebody it's not fucking hard you have 12 guys on your team I don't think he ever believed in it

I just don't think he ever believed in whatever they were doing even as they changed it over even as they went to Fizdale why would he they have like 7 GMs but I don't

like what's his brother's role like that seems weird to me too though I don't I don't understand that I had somebody tell me that they were like the wild and crazy guys

from SNL. I hope that's true. Yeah. Like, hey, remember we went to Perzingis' place last night? That was crazy.

They had a ping pong table in the living room. They put on, they, ace of base. I just think that, because, that was good. I, because, that's what I just imagined a I saw the sign. That was good.

That's what I just imagined at a previous brother right now. He hadn't played in a year. Everyone forgot how freaking good he is. He's He's so good. Right. Like an A-minus rim protector?

That's the other thing too. B-plus rim protector? Like with the Anthony Davis stuff too. It's like, well, he's not and you're going, do you know how this fucking league works? Do you know how hard this league is? It's the hardest league in sports to be a general manager in. There's no cap in baseball. There's a luxury tax. It doesn't really matter. And you can figure that shit out. Okay. You can,

you can overhaul your thing. And if you put your money into minor league stuff, you can find a way to overhaul that. I'm not saying it's a guaranteed success. The NFL, you can bring in a coach, you know, the, the contracts you can move on. Nothing is really even on the books more than three years. Everything else after three years is fake. This league is so hard to acquire talent. So you're going to sit there and tell me you don't like Anthony Davis because he's been on the injury list a little bit, or that maybe he's not an alpha. He might be the best player in the world right now at 25 years old, and you're going to nitpick him.

And so, yeah, I get it. It'd be awesome if Porzingis was more healthy, but to use him in a deal where it helps you get cap space for deals that you're telling me, you know, in the end of January. For fingers crossed. Right, right. Like, I hope we get KD. Like, Kyrie told the Celtics three months ago in front of all the season ticket holders that he was re-signing. If you'll have me back. If you'll have me back. He did a whole thing. Oops, I shouldn't have said, like, that was three months ago. How fake does that feel now? But also, like, the fact that he did a 180 in three months

because they lost a couple games, and now it's like, I don't know, ask me on July 1st. I don't want to talk about this anymore. The Knicks are hitching their wagon to that? What if he changes his mind two months from now? What if they win? KD was up and down every day. You're hitching your wagging to that?

I don't know. At least I knew Porzingis. First of all, nobody passes, nobody signs the qualifying offer when it's like a $23 million difference. Name me, point me to the player

who's done this. None of those guys do it. The superstar rookie contract guy who's like, there's $23 million. I'm just going to walk away from him out of principle. It never happens. They sign the contract, then they push to get traded. Now, would he be different, though, because he's had

the injuries if Cuban throws him something? When Cuban said we want these guys to be together for the next 20 years, I honestly believe that that's all they care about every move they made. So you have, you have Luca there,

you have Dennis Smith jr. Who thinks he's the best part in the team. Yeah. And you have not Harrison Barnes. Who's like, I'm a champion. It's end of the game is my time. And everyone in Dallas is like,

this is Lucas team. Can this be Lucas team now? I remember watching a couple of games where he didn't even touch the ball in the last minute. Cause these two guys think they're the best guy in the team. Everything they want to do is just get rid of those two guys and get some assets. Then I'm getting Porzingis.

Now it's like, who cares who else is on the team? You have Donchus, you have Porzingis, you're gonna have cap space in a year. That's like a top 5 roster now yeah I don't it's a top 5 roster

situation now yeah and they're going to have about 30 million in cap how many franchise players are there 13 I don't even think it's that many

11 but even if I think it's less it doesn't mean I wouldn't want a chance at Porzingis even if you're telling like this quest of

the perfect guy you know when I've heard this stuff with Anthony Davis well okay if you trade all these pieces, it's LeBron and Davis, and then what? And you go, who gives a shit? Right. Then I'll just, I'll start there.

I'll start with two of the top three guys, maybe one and two, you know, who knows? Like, I'll start there and I'll figure out, because you know what's not happening this year? The Lakers aren't winning the championship anyway. So don't give me this, oh, what if we trade five? Like, imagine being the Pelicans and be like and welcome in

the 2017-18 Lakers you know what I mean and they'd just be going sweet the 35 win team from a year ago and we got Luke Walton in the deal

I remember this was a big stance for me when they put the Bosh-LeBron-Wade team together and that first and everybody was like they're going to win

the title it's done and I remember going on Levitard's show and arguing with them. I'm like, look, the history of the league says that role players matter and they have constructed this team so that they have no help whatsoever. And it's going to be harder than people think.

Now. They got to that bad start. And then it was, but they could have won the title with those three guys. Yeah. Like if that game two if Wade doesn't talk shit to Dallas' bench

and Dirk doesn't get in and the whole thing and the series flips they probably win the title with three guys and then next year they're able to add they added Mike Miller

they had a bat or was Mike Miller there they had Battier and then the year after that they added Ray Allen they kind of figured out that you need like seven. So like with Dallas.

Not Antoine Walker. Not Antoine Walker. He was part of the other one. But even LeBron and Davis, if they get him this summer, I think it's going to be really hard to compete for a title next year with just those two guys.

It takes like another year to get the other dudes. Okay, but. Dallas is in a much better position. They can be like out of a position of strength. Over the next five years, we are building the perfect team around these two guys. Shooters.

We're going to have like combo guards, guys who can guard point guards on D, but then play off the ball on offense, and they'll know how to do it. Do you remember the last team Antoine Walker played for? It wasn't the 06 Heat? No. Who was it? The 07-08 T-Wolves.

I forgot. Shout out to the T-Wolves. I look at some of those guys from the mid-90s, like Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer and Marbury and Iverson. It's so weird that their careers weren't long. Antoine Walker joined the league

in 96. He was 19. He was out of the league at age... 31. 31. 31. He was out of the league.

Like, Steph Curry's 30 now. It was weird. They just... Imagine Steph being done in a year. That's nuts. Well,

wait a minute though. Are you disagreeing with me then on the Anthony Davis thing? My point is just go ahead and get the guy. No, I'm agreeing with you. I'm saying... But you don't like their position even if they add him. My whole thing on this is just go get the guys and then figure out the rest of it.

Yeah, I'm with you. I'm saying by not getting him now, it's going to be much harder to win the 2020 title. Oh, because of the uncertainty of the offseason. They're going to have to pick up a bunch of extra. Because they're going to have to still trade all these dudes to get him in June. And then it just becomes hard. You're getting slim pickings for the rest of the dudes. So you still think the Lakers would be better?

It would have been easier now. Yeah. Well, I think that's why they were pushing so hard for it. They wanted him in place already. They wanted him. I think the Knicks have to be taken seriously with this. I really do. they were pushing so hard for it. They wanted him in place already. They wanted to... I think the Knicks have to be taken seriously with this.

I really do. Because let's say they don't get the Zion pick, right? Let's say they get the third pick. And they can put the third pick, they can put Kevin Knox, and they can put the two picks they got from Dallas.

That's a pretty nice offer. Would you do the Knicks pick right now? Say the deadline were tomorrow. And it was the Knicks pick for Anthony Davis. And you don't know what the pick's going to be. Would you do it if you were the Knicks? I wouldn't do it if I was New Orleans. Would you do it if you were the Knicks? So I have to do the next trade value list. And one of the questions for me is the rights to Zion Williamson. What kind of trade value does that have?

And I feel like that is a top five trade value right now. I don't think anybody can trade those picks until they know if they're getting him or not. This is the most important guy that's entered the league since Davis. So what if you knew it was number one, you wouldn't trade Zion? So basically you're telling me

you wouldn't trade Zion Williamson for Anthony Davis? I don't think so. Because I could lose Davis in a year. I know I have Zion for five years. Well, alright, yeah, I mean You have to factor that in though. What if Davis says, if you trade for me, I'll sign? What if you know you're re-signing Davis, so that means

you got him for a four-year extension? How do I trust that? It's written in blood. I don't know. Like, do I get his possessions that I'd have to, he gets back like a security deposit? What if you know your, I mean, all right, you're right. You put it that way. I guess I was trying to do some thing here where it's just,

would you do the rights to Zion for Anthony Davis, knowing Davis is part of your future, but not a one-year rental? I don't think I would. See, that's where it starts to get crazy to me. But I think Zion is, I think he's about as sure of a thing as anybody we've had since LeBron. Do you think he is right now like a once in a generation type? I think he might be. So like a LeBron and Anthony Davis? I think he might be. What if he's Blake Griffin? I think he's better than Blake Griffin. Right, but you know, Blake's pretty good. Blake was fucking hot.

Blake was the third best player in the league four years ago. Remember the stretch where Paul was hurt? Yeah. Not that one, the other one. I think Blake finished third for MVP in 14. He had a ton of assists. He was running the offense. He's really good.

Right. I just wonder, like, if I told everybody listening right now, I said, hey, Zion ends up having Blake Griffin's career, everybody would freak and be like,

no way, no way. Maybe you're doing that right now, but I actually think- I think that's a good career. I mean, I think he'll be healthier

than Blake was. I would hope so, yeah. I think what, God, there's so many things I love about him, but I'm shocked

by his defense already. He's kind of dream on D. On D? What is he, like 6'8"? Yeah, 6'8". The way he helps and, like, the way he protects the rim, it's like, I always think he's going to get hurt because he's jumping so high.

I would have, I think Giannis and Doncic are the two that I would not trade for the rights to Zion. Everyone else I would trade. Giannis. But who knows? Ask me in a month. If he sucks in the tournament. Steph's 30.

He's making $40 million a year. I'd rather have Zion. I'm all in on Zion, as you can tell. I think he's one of the all-time short things we've had. Let's really test you here. Yeah. Tatum? Marcus Smart.

That's my least favorite thing that's floated around that I know you've heard too, is they signed Marcus to that exact contract because they knew it fit in perfectly for a Davis trade in June. I've heard that one. I was like, first of all, no. Second of all, if you're going to try to win a title,

you want to keep Marcus Smart. Yeah, how about they just like Marcus Smart and he said yes to a number that made sense. Third, in July, you could easily just sign some sort of, you can patch together contracts. That's not hard. All right, we're going to wrap it up. Anything else?

No, I think we covered it all. Dual threat? We hit a lot of stuff. Dual threat was great this week. I was extremely proud of this one. So check it out. And then starting after the All-Star break,

we're going to start doing the Sunday night, Monday morning BS podcast, depending on the week. NBA only. Kyle hates it. All the way through. Kyle's upset about the scheduling.

But Kyle could... Kyle's better off working on a Sunday night than doing the things that he would be doing if he wasn't working on a Sunday night. Let them jewel. Kyle's fine. The dark room will be fine, Kyle. Spoken like an employer, man.

I don't know. Yeah, man. You'll be fine. Sunday night. We don't need you you'll be fine you're treating like Harrison Barnes right now then he can we need LeBron to wait on Kyle let people have Sunday nights hey

man Game of Thrones is coming back it is coming back oh yeah what are we gonna do we could just do a live Monday mornings we could just do it'll be either Sunday nights Monday mornings but if there's if there's something topical on Sunday nights we'll go Sunday nights if not Monday mornings oh We could just do... It'll be either Sunday nights, Monday mornings. But if there's something topical on Sunday nights, we'll go Sunday nights.

If not, Monday mornings. I'm down. I'm down. After the All-Star Week, it's going to be awesome. We're not going to give it some goofy name unless you want to.

No, I think you've done well. I think we're okay as is. Thanks for joining us on the Trade Deadline Podcast, Ryan Rosillo. Thanks, man. Thanks, everybody, for listening. All right. Thanks to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go to Podcast, Ryan Rosillo. Thanks, man. Thanks, everybody, for listening. All right.

Thanks to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go to ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks to TheRinger.com and The Ringer Podcast Network. Thanks to High Flying Bird. Remember, it starts on Netflix February 8th when the NBA players are locked out from the game they love. Will they change the game or will they start a new one? This is directed by a heavy hitter, Academy Award winner, Steven Soderbergh.

It's really good. We talked about it last week on this podcast. Watch it right now only on Netflix. That's it for the BS podcast. Hope you heard all the ones this week. Hope you heard the rewatchables with the Warriors. We have another rewatchables coming up on Tuesday. It's A Star is Born.

It's happening. Got to get ready for the Oscars. It's already a rewatchable. I don't know how that happened. So we're doing that on Tuesday. And then 3DS podcast coming as well. Enjoy the weekend. Talk to you soon.