The Deep 3 Podcast - We Graded Every 2025 NBA Trade | Ep. 127

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Grading all the biggest trades from the NBA trade deadline! Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 2:10- Lakers trade for Luka 13:50- Lakers trade for Mark Williams 19:40- Can the Lakers make the finals? 35:26- Spurs get De'Aaron Fox 53:07- Warriors get Jimmy Butler 1:08:35- Raptors get Brandon Ingram 1:21:55- Bucks get Kyle Kuzma 1:31:22- Cavs get Deandre Hunter 1:36:30- Hawks ge Terrance mann 1:41:45- Suns get Cody Martin 1:46:18- Kings get Valenciunas 1:48:08- Mavs get Caleb Martin 1:55:16- tiktok time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get started, but real quick, y'all talk for a second. I got to do something. We're not getting started. He's just going to go on. Wait, Donovan, did you know that Donovan? Did you know that Donovan? Did you know that? I'm upset because, like, we're talking and we're clearly setting him up for whatever bit that he's about to put off.

He's going to put on some stanky-ass Laker jersey. Oh, my God. Oh, I regret getting that shit now. What the fuck? All I'm saying is, I don't know if you guys realize this at home. Two years ago, the NBA trade deadline came. Kevin Durant got traded Kyrie Irvin got traded

we said this is the craziest trade deadline we've seen in our lifetimes probably as NBA fans I don't know if we'll see a crazier one we just bore witness to an even crazier trade deadline Luca Donchis is a Laker Jimmy Buller is a warrior

the whole league turned upside down there's this ESPN graphic that showed all the star players that changed teams someone said this looks like the YouTube videos where somebody redrafts the entire league and that shit was facts

audio listeners I hate this we are in hell right now because this is you to Isaac just pulled up did all that for what to put on this much jersey number one much jersey that i got him for christmas like a year or two years ago or something like that just to go ahead and i don't know what you're talking about don't know what you're talking about yeah man we have so much to talk about

around the league honestly the landscape of the NBA is quite different than it was two days ago in a way that we probably didn't expect we're going to sit down we're going to grade every single trade that happened and when i say that you guys know us lie my ass off we're going to grade the 11 or 12 of the biggest trades that happen that actually matter and then all the other small ones we're going to lightning run through them like maybe say what worded to about them but we've got 12 big trades that we have to talk about in depth Utah Jazz and the Utah Jazz fans the four of you out there we are not mentioning your team at all I'm sorry y'all shout out for the seconds though there's only so much time in the world and you know they guys don't

deserve any bit today say but like I said every single grade of every single trade let's jump straight into it the cranium is crazy oh my god i mean i don't know what to say pray on eaters rejoice all right so i think we had to start off with the greatest trade of all time we got to talk about the one that matters luca dants is the laker and we talked about this a couple times now obviously we did our emergency trade reaction

where we just off the cuff reacted as soon as it happened at like midnight a few days ago Then on last stream, we gave like two days later thoughts. Let's do our definitive grading of this, our final thoughts, what we think for each team? Donovan, what are you grading this trade for the Los Angeles Lakers? It's been an A plus since the moment the trade happened. I just wanted to hear it again. There's nothing. Why did you give him what you wanted to hear, Donald?

I can't lie to what was I going to say. What was I going to say? Yeah, what was I going to say? Like, oh, yeah, you know, B plus, they gave up a little bit too much. They gave up one first round pick and Anthony Davis to like, and again, shout out. Christy. Shout out to Anthony Davis. Shout out to Max Christie. But you got Luca Donchich. You got the face of the league for the next 10 years. You are the biggest franchise in the league, one of the biggest franchises in the world. And now you have a star that matches him. This is like

getting like, imagine like they got LeBron in 2018 and it was like, oh my gosh. Like, right, this is amazing. And LeBron was still awesome. He was still awesome in 2018. Imagine if you, you had gotten that four years prior, right? Imagine if you had gotten like 2015 Braun, 2014 Braun. That's the level of Dominus. Not even. That's the level of 2009, Braun. Either way. Anything. Like, you have a decade of the guy who's going to be the guy for your franchise. And he is super motivated because they called him lazy and fat on the way out. And it's like, in the same conference, you go, you go talk about me like that. okay okay and it wasn't even like they called them lazy and fat like the pelicans have alluded to zion

being lazy and uh overweight at times and that being an issue for them but they said you are so motherfucking obese that we cannot bear to witness you step foot in our locker room dude they said 73 points be damned generational talent be damned i cannot look at those chins that's just like next level disrespect. It's not like it's an issue that, you know, we're dealing with it. We're going to suspend you. We're sick of it. You're causing a kerfuffle in a locker room. It's, it is a, it's a straw that broke the camel's back. You've got to leave town. That's insane. At least for Zion, like, they called them big and then they also like put protections on them. They called them big and they're like, okay, you're big. But just in case if you like,

to help you like be more money motivated or whatever, here's some stipulations in your contract. Well, Luca, you're right. They just kicked them out. That's a tough scene. Yeah, that's a good point. point. It was tough love for Zion. Here it's just hatred. Here it's Nico Harrison saying, I do not like you and I don't want to be associated with you on my team. I will find any mental gymnastics needed to justify shipping you to Los Angeles. And they still gave Zion $200 million. Like they still gave Zion the money. And so like for them to, for the Mavericks to do this and take away like $118 million from from Luca because you're not giving him to Supermax.

Oh no, you're going to pay. You're going to pay. Listen, say, you want to smoke? It's going to be a barbecue, right? Like that's the, you know. Shout out to. Obviously, the Lakers get an A and the Mavericks get an F. This is the least nuance of the gradings we're going to have today. This one's rather easy.

Absolutely easy. And I will go on, like, I'll take this a step further. The Mavericks could win an NBA championship with this iteration through this trade. And they still get an F, 100%. If not as, you can contend, yeah, they have to have. like get two, three rings in order for me to look at this trade and be like, okay, it's fine.

But for the sake of just how good Luca is historically and the never-ending ceiling that he just seemingly has as a player, you get an F no matter what, realistically speaking. Exactly. And we've talked about this.

We've said all these things before in our recent two episodes. Now that we're here on the official grading every trade episode, we've got to get a little more in depth. This is not just a bad trade for the Mavericks fans, right? this is a franchise altering trade

that we've said before all their fans should become San Antonio Spurs fans you should move across the state to get away from this team it is disrespectful the way this franchise is moving under Miriam Adelson

as the new owner is abhorrent to say the least I saw a Maz fan earlier on Twitter I forgot her name I think at SJ Basketball her name she's a big popular Maz fan and they were talking about

just even outside of this move outside of the clear grudge Nequal Harrison was letting out they just move nasty now like a few years ago they gave JJ Redick a contract after he came in and only played 18 games

and wasn't useful at all just to see him get paid they had to spend the money somewhere they gave to him to look out for him for the locker room presence he brought as kind of like a career reward thing that's the type of move you would never see this new ownership do

this new ownership group it came in and immediately trades a player who this may be exaggeration because you never know what the future holds you will never see a player this talented play for your team again, I think. That's a good chance.

Over the 50 years, you will probably never find another Luca. And they just shipped them out in the most unceremonious fashion. They didn't handle it with care with empathy. They didn't do this heartfelt thing. They put out a, what's it called, a tribute video?

And just kind of dropped in and it went. But outside of that, they handled it with such lack of empathy and lack of understanding of how the fans would react. So much scapegoating, so much trying to make it make sense in the media, putting in all the stuff,

rubbing dirt on his name, saying, throwing out a report saying, oh, we're also going to try to get KD to make it look better. Just a lot of trying to save face and it looks nasty. Yeah, it's absolutely disgusting. This trade will only make sense to someone like me if, if, like, Luca was somewhat disgruntled whatsoever. But that's obviously not the case due to, you know, what he said during the Lakers press

conference a couple days ago. Like you said, Isaac, like they're probably never going to find another player at Lucas level for the next 50 years. and that's probably true because teams like my Atlanta Hawks haven't had a player. I mean, shout out to Dominique Wilkins, but I think it's pretty fair and safe to assume that Lucas is just like on another level. So many teams, I can name so many teams off the top of my head that haven't had a player who's near Lucas true, like, true superstar level of that's that guy, you know?

And for the Dallas Maver's to stumble onto someone like him, right after or right during the end. end of the or yeah right right towards the end of the dirk no whiskey years and to like have that storyline just be perfectly mushed into like this what being a dallas maverick's all about and shit just ended off like that you're just you're literally destroying your organization yeah and that's that's the point that's the point that everybody has hammered home is that it's not just about the basketball this is a for for mass fans this is like a canon event of like you you stole and destroyed the hope and love that I had for this franchise.

And so, like, for, for a lot, for a lot of fans, like, if, if you want to stop being a fan of the Mavs, go ahead. You traded Luca Donchitz, right? Like, you traded, you traded this. And so there's not enough words to express just how bad of a trade it is. And so that's, that's why Mo's right. They, they would have to win back to back, three titles in a row just to, just to make this trade feel any, any better because even if they did do that, math fans would still be like,

damn, it should be Luca on this stage. Holden the trophy. It should be him that, that's here. Like, you are probably going to have to go an entire generation before you finally, like, remove the stink from it. And so that's why, like, on the math side of it, obviously, it's an F, it's terrible. Now, like, the super interesting part about it is the Lakers aspect of it, because I thought that they were going to be done,

but not necessarily like done, but they were like the majority of the moves and the things that would make them good this year, I thought all that was going to come in June and July and in the off season. They went ahead, they got Mark Williams, and now, like, the Lakers are here and it's like kind of bothering.

All right, well grade that trade too. Very upsetting. But on the maps part, the part that really infuriates me to is everything you guys are saying is true. That could make sense. in a world in which, let's say they decide to sacrifice

for long-term future of Luca because there's something on the table that makes them the championship favorites, right? Let's say they were able to trade Luca for Steph Curry and Raymond Green or some kind of crazy package. It's probably not even that,

but something that has win now starts that makes you an objectively better team that cannot be denied, you have an objectively better chance of winning a championship. If that would be the case, there would be some kind of silver lining you're like, okay,

they're just going all in now and they're deciding to mortgage a future for the next. So be it, it's still kind of dumb, but I guess there's some sort of logic that makes it not crazy. You have ESPN Shills on TV saying that's the case. You got people saying, they're a better team now. They're a little mortgageing for the win now future. That is straight of fucking ridiculous.

If you think this team is better, but after this trade, they're better building around Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving to fantastic second options. Well, I guess AD can be your best player, but he's not a primary on-ball creator. And we know what Kyrie is at saves his career. If you think that is a better, higher-ceiling team, better chance of winning a title than having Luca Donchish, the third best player in the world with an elite sidekick, with two elite lop threats, with good wings around them. If you think your new version of that around Anthony Davis gives you a better chance at winning now, you've either

lost your fucking mind or you're lying and you're trying to find any reason to cope. There are Nico-Harrison type timing. They lost their fucking mind, bro. And right after this trade, I think a day, two days later, they went ahead and just did another like dumber trade. Not dumber, actually. Thank God. But another dumb. dumb trade. They went ahead and let go Quinn and Grimes in exchange for Caleb, I believe. And it's just like, okay, like, scale

wide, no one's going to, like, give him hell for this trade. But in general, it's another dumb trade that he did. He traded for another older player. Quinn Grimes is 24 years old. Shooting like 39, 38% from 3, 44% from the field type shit averaging 10 points. He's another

really good young player. Really good young player. You know? And to bring in Caleb, bringing Caleb Martin he's also like a good player not very much differently but it's just like when it comes to using your assets in the most in the best way possible why are you doing that it isn't met and this team also just like generally genuinely speaking to they have even deeper holes in flaws than what they had prior to this trade now that you let go of yeah of course like we all know kairie irvin's a good ball handler and shit but he's never been like a fantastic

facilitator, like an actual floor general. He's best as a second option, like you said. And so on top of that too, doesn't he have like a bulging disc? Ain't something wrong with that man's back? If he's out for 10, 15 games, you guys are actually cooked for the season. Remember, they have

I think they're like in the plan as we speak. And on top of that too, they are, I think they have a 25 and 26th record. Their entire season lies literally on the back of Kyrie Irving. Who's hurt? Who's going, literally dealing with injuries right now. It's tough

scene. Yeah, it's not great. And I guess let's talk a little bit now about the Lakers side. We'll merge this in because we've got to talk about bull trades together and how their team looks now. What do you guys want to grade the Robert, I keep saying Robert Williams,

thank God it's not. What do you want to grade the Mark Williams trade? In this trade, they traded Dalton Connect, Cam Reddish, a 2031 protective first-on pick and a 2030 pick swap to the Charlotte Hornets from Mark Williams. Also, in it. I'd like, I understand.

And I understand like the camp of people that are saying, oh, you gave up a lot for Mark Williams, especially because he's never really available like that. But also at the same time, eh, you're fine. Like, it's okay. It's a necessary risk. It's something that you have to go in and do if you're starting to build this team out around Luca. And one of the things, even like Luca aside that we've been saying is like, you have to, you know, maximize the window that you have, LeBron.

you've done that to the max. You have Luca Donchitz now, and at whatever stage you feel that LeBron James is at, now you actually have, like, your windows reopened. So you have to go out and get players that fit your roster right now. So going out and getting Mark Williams, that's going to help you more than whatever Dalton Connect could provide for you. That's going to help you more than whatever a 2031 pick could help for you.

So I think it was necessary. I think they did a good job. And I think that the value is honestly straight on. I don't think that they overpaid or underpaid. It was just the price of Mark Williams. Yeah, I'll go B plus. I think people on Twitter were immediately like, Robert Polinka steals another young player.

Why do these small market teams keep farming themselves, hoaring themselves out to the Lakers and giving up these players for them to come and steal? Yeah. I don't think it's that. Mark Williams has played 30% of his NBA games. He is the most injury-prone player in the NBA among players that are very good,

among centers that are very good. You cannot get more injury-prone. than Mark Williams. So I'll give it a B plus for the Lakers because they gave up adequate value. And the only scary part is this is their all in move. No more first round picks left.

All you got is one second round pick and swaps available. Dalton Connect's gone. All you have left player-wise is contracts like Vanderbilt and Gabe who aren't necessarily interesting or maybe Ruey who might have value. You're full-on anchoring yourself

to Mark Williams being your final move to build his core. And I think when he's healthy, having a starting lineup of Luca Reeves, DFS, LeBron, Mark Williams, is fucking filthy. The offensive value Mark Williams is going to have catching a lot of next to Luca is outrageous. He's incredibly long, incredibly talented on the offensive boards. It'll be nasty, but that's a lot of risk.

Having your main next only available player at the center position be this injury pro. Yeah, and there's a reason why he went for that price. Like the shant horns aren't dumb. This new regime that they have isn't dumb. They've been making a whole lot of good moves as of late. But I will say they see Mark Williams. He's been hurt for so much, but when he actually plays, he does a lot of tantalizing stuff. His second jump, offense, rebound and all that, the rebounding that he provides and his ability to be a lot of threat.

Uber valuable. We all know this. They even know this. But they see him as a piece that isn't like untradable, considered depending on the conversation. The conversations that Rob Polenko was having were offering that 2031 pick and offering also Dalton Connect, who is like, who can be a very good rotational piece. we can drop off like 12, 13 points probably on any given night. And so that's a very fair asking price

considering where he is as a player. Like I think the conversations around him should they are polarizing as hell and they deserve to be because his value isn't just like written. Like they just didn't trade for someone like Nick Claxton or whatever. And I think this is the best all-in move

that they could do right now. They're committing to not only like the years after, not only this year, but also like the years after LeBron. and so I think this is probably the best move exactly he can be lashed on to luca for the next decade if you're going to have luca that long or however long timeline is decades a dramatic dramatic number but he can be there for the long haul and be like there derrick lively i will say though he's a perfect fit offensively obviously for all the reasons we know luca to

love lop threats he is not the answer defensively to come in and fix everything he obviously has the second biggest week's bat in the NBA i think or third now after edie and uh wimonyama I think, oh yeah. That makes you think he is like just some monstrous down low shot blocker. He is not that good defensively right now because he's so young and so raw and has missed so many games where he should have been developing. The team's defense is straight up worse than him on the court, 5.3 points for recession worse. And that's obviously a very simple number with devoiding context. But he's not a good post defender.

His fundamentals are really bad. He leads the league in goal tens per 75 minutes. He loves to get up there and try a block a shot, loves to be too late. gets a lot of goal tens he uh the team gives up more shots at the rim actually not got that backwards they don't give up as many shots but teams shoots 7% better at the rim with him

on the court because there's just a lot of small fundamental defensive things in the pick and roll and as a help side defender that he's not very polished in yet so while the potential is there he is young he's not coming in and fixing their defense so if that was an issue yesterday it's still going to be an issue today I think and that's why yeah and that's what that's why

you bring them in now as as opposed to to the all season right like You have to bring him in so that JJ Redick and his staff can have time with him to develop him. And that way they can get on the same page. And because he's so raw, you still have the ability to say, like, you know, I just need you to do X, Y, and Z. Like, you may have been over tasked in Charlotte doing everything that they asked you to do. That's not necessarily what we want you to do here in L.A. So I need you to focus on one to two things.

And we can start on that here in February. And then once we get to the summer and you have the whole off season, that's whenever you should see a lot of growth. So like the expectations overall for the Lakers, next year is the year where I really have expectations. I still think that they're going to be like solid now. Who the fuck wants to see the Lakers in the first round? I actually don't think we made to Western Conference finals this year.

I think that's the ceiling. I don't think we wait until next year. I think they're sealing his finals. I don't, okay. After this move, I was cautiously optimistic before. this team can make the finals this team could absolutely make the finals they absolutely can

when it comes to the Mark Williams conversation and then we can talk about the final talk or whatever when it comes to the defensive end he doesn't necessarily have that reputation yet but also I'm not going to duck or deduce him defensively because it's like it's the Hornets

like I'm not exactly you know like your defenders are lamello ball Miles Bridges you know Brandon Miller you know, like, it's hard to go ahead. PG Washington wasn't considered a good defender. PG Washington was not looked at as a good defender when they traded him. And he came in and he changed the Maverick's defense.

So situation is a lot. You're right. Yeah, exactly. But if he is who I think he could be and the whole situation was just muddy, that's easy to not try hard or put in the effort when the four other dudes around you are not doing jack shit on defense. But if he goes over to that squad and shows actual life and pulse as a defender, then I'm looking at this team like as a fucking nightmare.

mirror in the playoffs and they could go ahead and just wreck everyone's expectations for the rest of the year. This team can make the finals. I'm not necessarily expecting to beat the Thunder. To think it's not possible, I think, is over-indexing on the weaknesses and not realizing they just added Luca motherfucking Donchich, a top three player. Their offense with Luca and Bron James is going to be out. It's going to be an amazing offense.

There's no world in which is not a great offense. You have two lot threats on this team now, Mark Williams and Jackson. and Hayes. That is precisely what Luca needs. That's probably about as good offensively as having lively and Gafford. You have Luca. LeBron James is going to be much better in this role, I think. He was good this year. His numbers were decent, right? If you watch him on plays where he has to dribble the ball and create one-on-one and try to get by somebody in isolation, it looks gross. It looks like his hips don't work. And it's really hard for him to consistently blow by people. He's going to be much better being able to consistently set screens for Luca and attack four on three down low like

Draymond Green, consistently operate from a place of maybe not having the best defender on you for the first time in your career as a main ball handler. Just not having to do nearly as much, he can probably put more effort in on defense. He can focus more off the ball as a cutter running in transition. He's too smart to not work off a Luca. Having Austin Reeves is a diet version of having Kyrie next to him of having the secondary ball handler who can play off ball and on ball. They can have two good ball handlers at all times on the court. Their wing defenders are not that bad. They don't have a point of attack to guard anymore with Max Fiercy being gone,

but they have DFS, they have Vando, they have Rui, who's been decent defensively on ball this year, it's really bad off ball. They'll probably switch more now, which is good for Rui, I guess. Actually, I know he's pretty bad at switching. But either way, this team has their flaws. They will absolutely be a very, very good team. If they had a full season together, this is like a 52-53-win team. Okay, so I'm not saying, yeah, that's fine.

I'm not saying that, like, that it's impossible, but I'm saying if you, If they match up with the thunder, what's the percentage of that that you're giving them? Like, are you saying it's like a 50-50 split? No. It's hard to give me a percentage right now. Yeah, we got to see it. I think there's a very real world.

We got people saying, you know, we are saying that they can't make the final. So that's why I'm asking, like, what you're right now with your percentage? There's a very real world where we look up to start the playoffs and I feel 50-50. But I'm not going to go that far yet just because we've got to see it to go that this matchup is very match-specific right because the Thunder obviously have their interior issues and the lack of size but the Lakers don't have a Shea answer at all

and the Thunder they struggled with Luca last year obviously they lost but they have a lot of good defenders that I feel like with the Shea level up with everything else leveling up I think they have a decent enough roster to defend Luca the only reason I hesitate is this Lakers team is really huge 7 foot Mark Williams who has a gigantic wingspan

LeBron James DFS Luka are all 6-7 to 6-9 Austin Reeves 6-5 is your smallest player They have a huge size advantage LeBron and Luca are going to be the best rebounding forward duo in the fucking league That presents some issues for OKC I understand that

I still think that Oklahoma City in a series you go into that series at least 60% I'm going to OKC. Yeah, that's fair. You have to give OKC the advantage, like naturally because it's a proven scene concept. But right now, I think the biggest swing factors to me, like things that I need to see happen is their defense shirt up and that's entirely contingent on how we see Mark Williams play. Like, he's the only thing that I'm just so unsure about.

And I just have like no real thought process or way to analyze it because he was playing just fake basketball over there. for these last few years, you know? I feel confident that the Lakers have the ceiling or a realistic outcome of being the second best team in the West. Obviously anything can happen in a playoff series. We don't know how they match up. Health matters more than anything. So if all things were equal, I would still go OKC.

They're absurdly dominant. The best team doesn't always win, you know? So things come up every year. It's a battle of attrition. The Lakers are not that deep, especially at the center position. I think the depth part is probably overhated on. I think they're winged up is all right, but the center position, they desperately need Mark Williams to be healthy who has never been healthy for a full season.

So I can't assume he will be healthy. But I think they could be second best in the West. I think it's very realistic. The interesting question, because, like, obviously, like, the OKC matchup is going to be fun if it gets to that point. I think the immediate place that you can put the Lakers in the West is in that tier. I think, I think even if Mark Williams comes in and he's, like, competent, whatever, you put the Lakers instantly in the tier with Memphis and with Denver.

And so I'm looking at that matchup with Denver. And it's like, clearly nobody has an answer for a yokey. You had A.D. who could guard him as best as anybody could still getting, you know, still getting cooked. How do you feel about that matchup? Like, do you still think there's 50-50 in that sense? I feel way better. I feel way better about being Denver now than I did before. Yeah, because Luke is there.

You have like, I need numbers, percentages. Oh, my gosh. 60% Lakers over Denver. I think before they had no answer for, for a Yokic and a lot of their resources the team were put into a Yokish defender in Anthony Davis. That was their biggest advantage, right, is the defensive talents AD, and those were rendered essentially useless against Yokch. Now the biggest talents is having ball handlers that can slut Yokic out because he does not have point of attack defenders to help him anymore. We're seeing a season in which Yokic's defensive reputation is at an all-time low. That's because he doesn't have KCP to help him out.

He doesn't have nearly enough perimeter defenders to guard the ball handler. And they're just leaving Yokic out to die. And he's not a good enough defender to survive next to poor perimeter defenders. Having Luca and Austin Reeves to go at Yokic and obviously LeBron James, that's a new advantage level that wasn't there before. So I feel probably a little bit better now. Yeah. I think the problem for the Lakers is mainly their offense in the playoffs.

They just specifically against the Denver Nuggets. It's like they just didn't have the ability to go ban for a band. They would always consistently come up short because they got the dealos of the world going fucking one for nine from the three point line and shit in Austin Reeves, fighting for his life, going for six for 14. And you got 38, LeBron, 30-year-old LeBron James trying to do his best. And Anthony Davis is, you know, expending most of his energy defensively. And what he's going to give you on offense is what he gives you on offense. But having these three trot down your throat on a consistent basis, LeBron, Luca, and Austin Reeves. alongside the DFSes of the world

who can do something defensively, not just be completely cooked, is a different beast that the Denver Nuggets haven't seen before. This might be the side of, I guess, Boston, this might be the best playoff offense in the NBA. Obviously, Luca is the best offensive guard in the NBA still.

We'll see what it looks like, what kind of shape he's in, if he's 400 pounds or not. That decides a lot if you can say healthy if the cap is going to fall off. LeBron is the second option as a tertiary playmaker is going to move mountains.

he's going to look so much better LeBron will be one the biggest benefactories of this trade I think and how many third options out there right now are playing better than Austin Reeves offensively? Not a lot. How many teams have a better third ball handler

to attack your third best defender? That's a big advantage. Yeah, I think Austin Rees' growth and his, not even grow, just like evolution. Like that, that in itself has been a massive storyline for the Lakers this year.

And then you have a lot of threat and Mark Williams that fits perfectly DFS corner standard that fits perfectly like the offense will be

bad shit insane I think y'all I'm talking about it and you're like hold on this team's amazing yeah

like I understand the haters nobody wants to roof the Lakers nobody wants to give it to them everyone wants to be like but they traded away all their defense they're actually worse

you're fucking insane if you think they're worse that's also that's also not true that's also not true everybody wants to root for the Lakers everybody has been a Lakers

bandwagon fan for the last seven years so like sure but you know the haters I'm not I'm not I'm not gonna give you you just got lucidantus I'm not gonna give you the nobody believes in us nobody likes us no no no no no no I'm not gonna let you take that no no no no I'm not saying no we believes in us nobody wants to believe in us so you guys are creating fake demons in your head that convince yourselves that the Lakers are gonna suck you know they won't but but but the point of attack defense but but but the reprotection of Anthony Davis is gone trying to manufacture a reason to believe that's the only that's the only that's the only that's the only

only thing that I actually think is, is real. And, like, if you get into a series with the Nuggets, that's the only thing that at this point, I'm like, you know what, everything's going to have to be on Yokic. Like, Yokic is the best player in the league, all time player, all that stuff. If it, if it ends up being, hey, we just couldn't stop Nikola Yokic and he came in and he did what he does, all right, cool, like, you wipe your hands and I will, I will accept that. But that's, yeah. But that's the way that the Nuggets are going to have to beat the Lakers because over the last two times that they've played, all the games, the Nuggets have been able to out-execute the Lakers in the second half of games. The Lakers have gone up by double digits several times.

They've gone into half-time. They've gone into fourth quarters with leads and they've blown them because, you know, for the role player's reasons, LeBron has run out of gas in certain spots. He doesn't have to do that anymore because you have Luka. And so now, like, LeBron who's already picking his spots, can pick his spots even more because the one thing that we've always said about, Anthony Davis, is that, oh, why is he, you know, he's not, he's not out here getting 30 every single night. Luke Dodgers, if he's going to do one thing, he's going to go, I think he's going to get 30. He might get 40. You know, that's the, that's the one thing. So, like, yeah, in a matcher versus the nuggets, you got that.

I've been trying to hang on to this Grizzlies love. I'm sorry Memphis I'm sorry Memphis I love Memphis I think the Lakers will beat the living shit out of the playoff series You can clip this for later on If they play in a playoff series

Lakers in five I would not feel I would sleep So swell at night And normally I don't like the same thing This definitive Because it'll come back to bite me And I respect these teams I don't respect that one

The Lakers are making them food It's so easy Yeah that's the one That's the one That's hilarious Yeah I'm not gonna lie I'm flipping our games about this and we're turning this into like

a Lakers versus X, Y, Z, top contending team. It's just so hard in my mind to envision if a solid defense is formatted, a solid one, like a top 15-ish defense. Hell, worst case in a 16 defense, is behind two

of the smartest, two out of the three smartest players with the basketball in their hand offensively, it's just no way that they can lose. That's my point. Exactly. We give you a Yokch to credit. Nobody out-execute Jokic in the final minutes. His brain is insane. They have two players with brains just as insane or even close. And Austin Reed's brain is pretty fucking good himself.

That is your third best creator is crazy. And then you have the role players to fit perfectly. If they're healthy, you will not be able to guard them. Like the processing speed of LeBron James is just like Luca, Luca daunch is just fucking on par with that. And outside of that, it's LeBron, Luca, Yokic. Outside of that, everyone else is in their own like, own stratosphere. to have two of the guys, two guys like that on the same team and have working parts proven players like Austin Reeves and DFS and you have to see what Mark Williams gives you.

It's just so hard to like, like I can see Envision LeBron and Luca bullying the fuck and exposing the living shit out of guys like Jadab. I love Jadab. But like there's only so much force and pressure that you can do as a second option, you know? I love what he provides for Chet Hongam, of course.

But there's only so much that he can like pursue and persevere through when you're dealing with these two demons it's hard exactly yeah understand I will have my oxtails on deck I will have all of my dog barking everything the Oklahoma City Thunder have to save the league this year everything is now on on their shoulders the fate of the Western conference resides at the Dave and Busters in Oklahoma City everything I do so think I do so think O KC will beat them especially just off of like time they have together they have 30 games to gel like

I'd be foolish to go so far as I'd say to beat the thunder who are a head and shoulders above everybody else but after those head and shoulders you get a lot of body that is very beatable. Rockets, food Grizzlies, food. Nuggets, food. We're coming down the list I'm okay predicting liquors over everybody else. Yeah, there's just...

Especially because the defense is obviously the biggest weakness I think in a playoff series and when things slow down obviously DFS and Mark Williams are going to have to We go sick on mode defensively and carry. But I think LeBron and Luca have enough lock-in factor and have the size that their sheer power in size defensively can make them competent in this series. We'll see.

That's a big lineup. That's a huge lineup. And then Bando and Rui. I understand. I have more confidence in everybody else to do that rather than Luca. Yeah. Well, Lucas had his times. You know, we've said times before we've played better defensively,

and now his offensively doesn't got to be as high next to LeBron and Reeves. He's motivated. He's called fat. He's called a bad defender. I can see a world where he's fine, you know, like, and the size, kind of like the positional size makes a difference. We'll see. That's, I'm not going to, I'm not, I'm not even going to pencil that.

Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to pencil that one in. I will wait and see on that, on that front. But everything else that you're saying is right. The Lakers are right now, like, back into the, not the inner inner circle, but they're up there, right? They're climbing up the pyramid of title contenders. And it's just, it's shocking. because I did not think that it would happen this fast for them.

No one did, man. This is what happens when you did it. This is what happens when you have a generational player co-opted with a generational dummy and Nico Harrison. Just like. Perfect storm. Yeah, exactly. Everything proved perfectly. All right, man.

Let's move on to the second biggest story of the trade deadline. We spent a lot of time on Lakers, but we have to. It's the biggest story in recent NBA history. We've got to go into it even though this is a grading every trade episode. Facts. We're not going to probably have an opportunity to talk about something. big in the next like six seven years bro maybe 10 years who knows hey let's do 30 more minutes yeah you all right fuck it let's talk about fucking diar fox to the goddamn san dietonio spurs

oh you want to do that next okay we'll do them next yeah what do you guys grade the dearen fox to the spurs trade what are you giving this for the spurs for the spurs a a plus a plus for the spurs yeah for everybody else you got actually no i'll say this so the spurs get an a plus the king get a D D. D, that's dramatic. The Kings get a D and then the Chicago Bulls get it F. I think for me, the Bulls get a D. The Kings get a C plus,

but you can convince me of B minus, and the Spurs get an A. Okay, Mo. Yeah, I think for me, I'm going to give the San Antonio Spurs, of course, A plus. The Kings, they, for what they, the cards that they were dealt with and wanting, having all these players

commit to their roster, they just can't, like, flat out, like, start a rebuild just yet because they have all these players in their prime. And there's not necessarily in markets for guys like DeMonis to be traded, Malik Munk, Debo and all that. So I think I'm going to go ahead and give them a C for what they did. They have to have a contending level team, quote, for their standards. So I think I'm going to give them a C. And then the Bulls, I think we said it earlier on a BR stream there for the community, doing community things. You know, we, how I see the San Antonio Spurt are the Chicago Bulls, I view them as the same, same ranking in, like, society as, like, public bathrooms, as, like, port-a-potties. We, we see them, they're there.

No one wants to, no one prefers to go there, but they come in useful, very clutch, you know? Just going there. Yeah, you think about it. The Bulls are basically, the fuck out of there. The Bulls are basically Social Security, you know, everybody has to watch them because they're part of the NBA. Nobody likes it. You know, you got to pay your due. Nobody likes to see the money come out.

But it's important. part of society is very important to take care of your elders, take care of those in need when they come around. As a functioning society, you need to look out for your fellow man. As a Bulls fan, you know your place in the world is to make every team better. Nobody looks to you to be interesting. Nobody looks to you to be smart, to be competence, to be a pillar of positivity for your fans. That's never an expectation. Your role in this ecosystem is to make everybody else better and you suffer. You basically die on the cross for everybody else to have a good life as an NBA fan. And you know what? That sounds like they deserve an A plus for playing

their role in this trade. I'm giving them a. You're spending. You're right. So the simplest part of this is the Aaron Fox is now a member of the Sacramento's, I said Sacramento Spurs. What the fuck? He's now a member of the San Antonio Spurs. We expected this. We wanted this in some regard. Me and Donald had the disagreement on the urgency in which the Spurs needed to do this. They ended up being able to do it without giving up Devin Vassil, without giving up Stefan Castle, without giving up any of the Hawks picks, without giving up their own pick this year, without giving up many of their future picks at all. All they gave up is the 2027 first round pick, their 2031 pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves, and then a couple fake-ass picks.

They gave away the Charlotte Hornets pick this year that was top 14 protected. That's essentially two second round picks. And they gave up their Chicago Bulls pick back to them, which was top 10 protected. That is not much at all to get an all-star caliber player into the team right now. You're immediately better. You're immediately maximizing the Wemblee air as much as you can right away. That's obviously a good deal, right? Yes.

And that's why, like, yeah, that's, that's, why they get an a plus and so like you look at you look at the landscape and so like the two biggest trades for me were obviously like luka trade and then just because of the ripple effects the de erin trade yes and in those two trades the thing that stands out to me is that the rich get richer and the dumb get number because the the lakers the lakers and spurs like obviously the lakers get everybody that they want and every single generation they get the guy the spurs are one of the better organizations in the league. They do things the right way.

And look at that. Everybody thought that they were going to have to give up one of their young players and they didn't. Meanwhile, the Kings, and this is why I give them a D rather than AC Plus. And it's not a reflection of Zach Levine because I think that Zach Levine is a really,

really good player. And he's had a really good season. But your priorities are off. Once you trade De Aaron Fox, who is like, once you trade DeAren Fox who is in his mid, 20s and is a young all-star, your franchise is done. Like, you guys are now officially in your transition phase.

You traded him and you fired Mike Brown this season. Yet you are still trying to fight for this fake sense of competency. So for what? So you could be in the playing and potentially losing in the first round? It doesn't make sense to go and acquire a Zach Levine in place of demanding that you get a dev of a cell or demanding that you get a castle. that's why that's why for me I don't I don't like it because even if you got one of those young players you're still fine like the way that everybody else has been playing and the way that the team has

been playing you probably still would have been in the playing mix you could have achieved all of your goals and gotten a young player back that's why I didn't like it I didn't like it for them yeah I know what you mean I I'm trying to get better at not being too much of an NBA fan nerd I'm with you we always say never be mediocre never built from the middle if you're going to be mid, tear it down, and we're right, right? That's like objectively smart in the NBA. I'm trying to come to understanding that some of these small market teams can't be graded on the level of being smart.

I said this on the project in April episode that came out today. We have to apply a king's tax in how we view this. This is a team that does not seek the smartest move. They seek the middest move. That is their M.O. They have an objective and that is to be competitive, which means in realistic terms to be average and be mid. because if you're going for competitiveness every single year and not willing to take your lumps,

you're going to end up being mid because you have to put in the work to get really good. I know that's what they want. I can't pretend they should go into expecting otherwise because I would just be expecting them to be smart when they're not. And they want to be competitive. They don't want to tear it down. That's not realistic. If that's the goal and Fox wants to leave, you can do a lot worse in replacing him with Zach Levine, who is a fantastic fit next to Subonis, a fantastic fit next to Malik Monk,

who they're really empowering to essentially be. their starting point guard and he deserves it. He's a 99th percentile assist percentage for a wing. He needs to be empowered to be the true point guard. Levine is a great off-fall player to play next to them. He's a fantastic shooter. He's having a crazy off-the-jibble shooting year, which is what they need. He doesn't fix their issues at all. He doesn't make their rim defense good. Doesn't make their three-point volume good. Doesn't make their three-point defense good. Doesn't make their rebounding good. Doesn't make a lot of things good that suck. So I'm not giving them an A because he doesn't fix

shit. But he makes them just as good as they were before. And that's really hard to do when you trade your All-Star? Yeah, I like that line of thinking. It's just like, although like we all want to see all teams should be in it to win and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But everyone has to like look in the mirror and know who they are and just come to a realistic terms of their identity and what their place is in this world. And the Sacramento Kings right now, like their job is just to entertain all those fans as much as possible around a Domana-Sabonis-centric team. and right now they've again continuously done as much as they possibly could to empower him just to go off and go dummy and put up those stats and entertain fans as much as possible.

This seems not set up to win. It seems not set up to go ahead and like win a first round playoff series. It seems also not set up to suck whatsoever. Like with the cards that are dealt and given, like this is what you have to do. And they think they did as best as they could possibly good. I think it would be kind of not necessarily dumb to hold on to Deering Fox until the off season. but if like the market is bleak out there because teams would rather wait then go ahead and just peel it off and get a max level player like Zach Levine already

but if this was but if this was the case I think like I leaning into like NBA nerd nerd think that would be like okay like just get get all the picks that that you can right like that that would be the thing not getting a player that you that you can identify and do stuff like that's the that's the part where it's kind of weird and it's like if this was going to be the hall dearon fox is under contract for another for another year and a half you're just not gonna you're just not going to get traded like we're just not going to do that and we will talk about it at a later date but i've like if this is the best that it that it is no you're going to come back here we're going to be mid

and everyone's going to like it and that's what i say like it's just it's just going to have to it's just going to have to roll like that so i really don't i think i like zach levine more than you do I would rather have Zach Levine than Vassel For For what? For two, For two, for two,

for two, three years. Any certain sense. I don't think, I don't think, Devin Vessel will ever be as good as Zach Levine like is. I don't, I don't,

I don't either. And that's why like, for me, the higher asset in this trade was, was Castle. And I think, and I think that like, if you're the,

if you're the kings, you have to get Castle back. I like, I like, I like Castle a lot. And like, I don't, I don't,

I don't ever think that he's, He's going to be this, like, you know, crazy 1A kind of song. But I do think that he is a very valuable piece that he will contribute to winning. Man, watching these highlights, Deerrin Fox used to get up. He used to be a rimed smasher. What happened, man? He's a mid-range jump shooter now. He's smarter on his knees now, but we can still do that shit, but takes a toll.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about the fit with the king. I'm with the Spurs. Please. It's interesting. When this happened, when it first got rumored that he would go to the Spurs, we obviously liked it. They have what's going to be the best. stretch five and NBA history, pretty clearly. The gravity that Wembe creates as a lob finisher

and as a stretch five is ridiculous. He is going to make every guard next to him better forever. And even if he's not the shooter that cat is or a shooter that Dirk was, the sheer size of him, you know what hard is to contest his jumper? You have to close out so tough to try to get his hand in his face because he's so tall that I think he'll always have more shooting gravity than anybody else. So with that being said, a slashing point guard sounds like the coolest shit in the world to pair with him, right? That makes all the sense in the world. I was arguing with someone on Twitter because some people were saying

that Fox is actually a bad fit with Wembe, and I understand their line of thinking because the Fox that was around two years ago and he made an All-Star leap is not here today. He shot 77% from three that year and 29% of his shots came at the room. Now he shoots 68%.

You said 77% from face. I think it wasn't done. 77% at the rim and 29% of his shots came at the room. That's like Shay. The volume's a little bit lower, but that's like Shea efficiency. Now it's like 67% at the rim, and he shoots a lot less there in favor of a lot more jump shots. So that downhill gravity isn't quite what it was.

So that makes him a little bit less of a good fit because he's more for mid-range player, which isn't the natural fit with Wemby. And as a passer, he's not Chris Ball. You know, he's not the natural lob thrower. He's not the natural lob thrower. He's really more of a driving kick passer. So some people say he's not the ideal point guard to pair with Wembe for those reasons. Does that bother you guys, or do you think that playing next to Wemby will just make you better at those things? I think, yeah, I think Wembe is just so damn good.

He helps overshadow any flaw that any player could have. They could have waited and traded for Trey Young. Oh, Trey Young's defense and shit like that. Like, cool, he got when you're back there. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

He's going to be great already. And same thing goes for like someone like DeN Fox. Okay, shooting's not that well, whatever. And he's not that passer. It doesn't matter if the shooting isn't that well. Because Wembe looks like he's going to turn into that level of shooters. and if you insert a certain amount of three-point shooters around Deere and Fox in that starting lineup, you will be just fine. I sit here and I also like listen to these criticisms about the Deerr and Fox trading the fit.

And I'm just like, I don't, I know, I understand the type of player he is and the archetype that he is. And I see that he's playing next to D. And next to Demona Sabonis, but you have to understand too, like good players. Just because he's over there in Sacramento, not allowed to fully, like, go dummy at the room because of the spacing isn't necessarily the greatest, doesn't mean that it's absolutely cooked for him inside the paint. That's just like me. Who is he supposed to throw lives to? So bonus? Exactly.

Like, of course his rim shooting is going to, his room percentage like that is naturally going to get worse if, like, the opportunity is not given. It's going to look like a worse. If all my lights are off right now, this podcast is going to look worse because my lighting is fucked up. You know what I'm saying? So it's just like, once you remove him and enlighten his situation, I'm a bag right now. Once you enlighten the situation, like, he's just going to go dummy in general. So that's not giving much credit to DeAnon Fox. Like he is who he is.

That's giving all the credit to like what Wembe does and how he just allows him to just shine. Shine. The flaws are the flaws. The traits are the traits of the traits. The habits of the habits. I think D.R. Fox is capable of changing his habits with the different coach that wants to prioritize Wembe. Their offense won't be runoff of a handoff with Sabonis and get to the mid-range

number because the remit attempt isn't there. It'll be throw lobs to Wemby. I think it's not natural to Fox, but he's more than capable. He can make those adjustments. In his first game, he had 13 assists. He's not going to average 13, but he's going to average more than he did play to Sabonis when Sabonis was like leaching assists off of him because they played through him. Fox is going to play entirely different.

And it's to be seen how much of a chance. change he can make, but he's going to make some sort of change. You won't see the same exact habits when he's playing with Wembe v. Sabonis. Exactly. And yes, you can sit here and like talk about the fit. But one, if you want like the perfect fit, very rarely is the perfect fit to play with your, you know, generational star. Very rarely is that going to to come around and be available for trade. And whenever that happens, it's the most shocking trade in NBA history. Right. Like that's, like, Like, that almost never happens. And so you have that aspect of it.

And then on the other side is, guys, the spurs suck. Like the players that they have right now are not great. And so getting the air fox in the building, the spurs are still at the point. Like you, you look at Wembe and you see how great he is and that kind of muddies what you think that the spurs should be. If you go down the list and on their roster, you can upgrade at very several positions and there are still in the point of their rebuild. to where we are just accumulating talent and we're getting good players in the building and we are putting them together and we're letting good players figure out how to play with other good players.

And that is the beauty about this trade is that you got a, you got an all-star caliber player to play with Wembe. So that's all that you need right now. Next year in the offseason, yes, we can talk a little bit more about fit and, you know, getting to the next level and all that stuff. You have to start somewhere. And this is, this, this does exactly that for the spurs. So I love it for them.

And it's not an all-in move at all. Like you kept Vassil and you kept Keldon Johnson, who are big salaries you can later trade. You have a lot to work with. You have a lot of money. You have a lot of picks. You didn't get rid of any premier picks. You're going to draft somebody good this year with that Atlanta Hawks pick

as well as your own pick this year. Like you're going to get some more young core and then you also get some more win now players in exchange for these contracts you still have. Like Fox might not even be the main co-star whenever Wemby's winning championships. He might just be the guy for now while he's young, and then eventually somebody else comes around

and they get somebody better. They have so many options at their exposure still. There's no reason to not be okay with this. Yeah, like the worst thing possible that could happen next year, and this whole Fox thing just doesn't work out and his passing fizzle off. He's not a finisher like we thought he was, or whatever.

If all that happens, they still have the ability to make another move. All that happens, they still have to Fawn Castle on his ability to just continue to grow and process. If all that happens, they still have the Atlanta Hawks picks in 2016, pick swap in 26 and 27 pick they have so many more options still this is why this trade is such a

massive w because they lose nothing in this trade yeah and the scenario we're talking about where maybe the aaron fox's habits aren't perfectly in line with wemby that doesn't mean it would be a disaster that doesn't mean it'll be bad it just means that oh okay it's not the perfect player you won't look at the duo and say this is bad regardless you just maybe won't see a perfect version like if it was trey young whose habits fit a little bit better there's no downside that is like this is an abject failure yeah exactly okay we can move on now next trade oh and for the bulls i think they're just fucking stupid they have zach ravine who has the PR of having a career year and they still get no draft compensation back the main headline is

they get their pick that they already had top 10 protected so all they had to do was tank a little bit what happened to being good for the community not too much on the chicago wolves okay okay okay we'll move on we'll move on shout out the bottom feeders man we all we all need them Shout out the teams that let the rest of the league run trains on them. Oh my God. Next. You've been very upset with vulgarity lately. Next trade.

You've been going crazy. I'll never stop going in. Next trade. Jimmy Butler has finally been traded. Steph Curry finally has a help. Double whammy. Jimmy Butler is a member of the Golden State Warriors. He was traded for Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroeder, Kyle Anderson, and a

protected first-round pick. How do you guys feel about this outcome of the Jimmy Butler Saga? Night, night, don't care. You still sleeping? What? Yeah, I'm still, I'm still, I'm still sleeping on the Warriors. I don't think that like, I, it's a good move. Okay, it is a good move. You were able to get, great it. Yeah, B-plus. You were able to get some, some more talent in, in the door. you are more interesting now your ceiling is probably a little bit higher whatever that means and it gives you a second chance at competency and you are now able like i actually have some real faith that the warriors are going to get into the into the playing it might make some noise in the playing tournament whereas but whereas before this i did not feel like that at all i thought that the

words were going to go out extremely sad and you were going to have another year probably the last year of like what all star like legitimate all star step curry like great step curry whatever the last year that wasted and now you have at least a different look you changed it up so it's about a b plus for me i think that's a good grade it's not a it's not earth shattering but it's a very good move they're i think they're meaningfully better yeah whether that amounts to anything i don't know but they're better yeah i agree i think i i damn don't want to give this like a b plus i think in general like the conversation all the war it just sucks because everyone knows the inevitable. They're not going to, they're not championship contenders. They're not on

Lakers, Memphis Grizzies, or OKC timing whatsoever. They're far from that. But in terms of just being better, not being in the same conversations as the Phoenix Suns, they shouldn't be. I think they're meaningfully better than the Phoenix Suns in this conversation. And so with that, I think I'd go ahead and give them like a B plus, maybe B, I don't know. And I want to give them that great also because they still have John the Kamega, who's one of the more valuable assets. And similar to like the San Antonio Spurs, they didn't give up a super valuable asset. Now, Kaminga's Kaminga. I don't know what they're going to be able to get for them,

but that is an asset to other teams would give up some things for. Now, looking at this on-court product, I still have no idea how Komingo is going to be able to thrive because again, like, there are just too many similarities, not similarities, but just the player archetype

for Kamingas is not set up to be successful still, even with Jimmy Bowler, especially with Jimmy Baller coming onto this team. I kind of like it for Kaminga. So we've been talking about The problem coming to this season Was the Finca wasn't good Because in order to maximize him

You need a stretch five And they don't have a stretch five So in order to get one You got to put Draymona center Who has been a pretty good shooter this year But if you do that You get him out of his natural comfort zone To play next to a traditional big man

So it's either you take away Dremong Green's comfort zone Or take away Kaminga's comfort zone And that's just a zero-sum game Jimmy Butler fits everything they want to do I think I think you lose some defensive value from Andrew Wiggins, who is just younger, more intense,

able to provide more play-by-play wing-stopper value. But we know Jimmy Butler is still a good defender, right? If he's locking in the playoff series, he's not going to sink your defense going from Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler. You'll be fine, I think. They obviously need a ball handler, right? They need someone that when you double-team Steph Curry, there's passing talent around him to be able to give him a release valve

so they can't just full-on sell out on him. Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, being able to beat the two players in a four-on-five situation, that's a less enough passing talent. Jimmy Butler is a very good playmaker. He can handle lineups when Steph Curry sits, being an isolation score. I think he has more scoring juice left than he showed. And in a starting lineup in the playoff series,

I think you're going to start Comingga at the 4 and Dreymont at the 5. Jimmy Butler is a good enough shooter that he's not killing your spacing. I think having a little more defensive intensity there in playmaking lets you get away with Drehermont at the 5 more so that allows Kamanga to be in a situation that's better for him. And extra playmaker to set him up. Camingo is a pretty good shooter this year. great slasher

to play off of another ball handler that creates attention Kamiga's gonna be a good play finisher next time I think I don't know the spacing is

the thing that really worries me and that's why I'm like I don't know how this works out for Kamiga and his ability to just like

show that he can do positive things on the court because Jimmy Butler over the last few years specifically like

the last three years he's a lower volume three-point shooter than Draymond green over the last few years he shoots he attempts like

one and a half to two three-pointers a game this is not like 2019 2021 Jimmy Butler we used to see like three, four threes in game. He's just getting these easy like off the dribble three

pointers. Now maybe like his game is just naturally evolved and he can like just divert straight back to that. He's still like a good three throw shooter. So I assume that he just prefers to play a lower or more or less taxing style of basketball. And maybe that'll just all shift in what I'm saying just withers away as time goes on. But right now with the Jimmy Buller that I've seen over the last few years, I see real spacing issues between the three. I love, I know that Steph Curry's like the greatest three point shooter of all time. And they have, but he healed the guess for whatever that means. But how is this going to, like,

how are they going to go through and withstand having three guys who are not well-respectively point shooters in the league starting the playoffs or just being a real part of their team? I get why you say that. The Warriors are not a typical offense, though. Spacing is never an issue for the Warriors. Offense is hardly an issue for the Warriors. Even when they're at their worst, they still have a decent enough offensive rating

because their system around Steph Curry does make spacing less of a big deal, just how they naturally play with these. off-screen looks and the gravity that's created by the movement, they're going to create open threes regardless. And yes, Jimmy Butler has to take more. I think you will in this system that's asking to take more. And even if he doesn't, ball handling is a much bigger limiter for this team

than three-point shooting is because they're going to create looks and they're also going to create cuts non-stop with their movement. They're going to create looks down low. It's about having enough ball handlers that can take those off-screen looks and make something happen going downhill and passers. That's their biggest issue right now. Shooting isn't that big of an issue. they were like Andrew Wiggins isn't he's a good shooter he's not Clay Thompson you know

they're not slotting Jimmy Butler into the role of somebody who's firing off crazy contested threes and creating crazy gravity I understand your concern I think for the warriors specifically it's perfectly doable yeah and I think that for them obviously like you're not going to fix every single issue that you have in in one move and so the the biggest thing for them was I think is the creation and it is the playmaking from from Jimmy because we haven't seen him because like we haven't seen the Warriors really ever. Maybe in like 20, 21 where it was just Steph and nobody else. And like Steph was still at a point in his career where he could go out and do a lot of

stuff for other people who he won scoring title, all that stuff. But even throughout their runs, like you still had you had KD there. Iggy was there to handle the ball. Even later like Jordan Poole came up and he and he can handle the ball. Well, they, now that, now that Poole's gone, now that, you know, now that Iggy's gone, obviously KD hasn't been there in a while, that, that level of like, hey, Steph, you go do what you do over here and we can, we can have some action on this side as well, that, that aspect is now here again.

And so I think, like, that dynamic in their offense, it should, again, it should make them a little bit more interesting and it should make them a little bit better offensively to where you can start overcoming these humps and these gaps that they you know falling into we're also we're also ignoring the elephant in the room what's probably the most significant factor of this trade the factor that will probably contribute to the most wins and the most future championships they have unlimited dog now not only do you go one rottweiler and draymond green you got two you got the rottweiler you got the basset hound jimmy and draymond are insane having both of them together.

I'm joking about it like being a huge impact on winning, but this team needs that. This team needs energy, man. They've been defeated for a long time this season. Every time their players talk to the media,

every time their coach talks to the media, their GM, it's desolate. They need a spark and whether that spark leads to a forest fire and the entire organization burning down or it leads to a run,

Jimmy Butler will light a fucking spark. I guarantee it. That sounds like a dream come true. but also a nightmare within the same sleep at night. That can, I envision a world and where, like, him having that spark can do some things for comminga.

He's just going to turn it on and yell at pods, tell him he's a bum ass or whatever the fucking pod just snaps it together and shoots 38% of 3. Whatever it is. Like, I see a world and that happening. If that's the case, and, like, you know, my point still stands. I'm still giving this trade, like, a B plus.

Now, my question to you guys is, like, what is this team's sealing now? Like, what's the absolute best day it could get? We all know what's better, but how good is it? They can win one playoff series. They could be the fifth or sixth best team in the West if it goes perfectly. Yeah. Maybe fourth.

Sealing, fourth. Yeah, if everything goes right for this team, they could get up there and they can win one playoff series, and that's about it. They won't get to that seed because they're already too far in a hole. But as far as the rest of the season goes, they're not being better than OKC. They won't be better than the Lakers, I think. Grizzlies probably not. Nuggets probably not.

the Rockets I'll give them credit So I'm thinking like rockets That's the talks they're in fifth or six best I think In terms of the playoff performance Which I don't want to suspect the rockets I understand your second seat But you know what we're talking about A fifth or six best team I think is the ceiling

Because yeah yeah That's I'll say that I know the rockets a slider It's right now It's gonna be tough hold to dig out of Because I think It's gonna be a tough hole to dig out of right now I think the clippers

Are they better than the clippers? I don't know I don't know. I don't know. Right now, the Golden State Warriors are out of the play-in and then they're 11th.

They're 25 and 25. We can assume that they're going to be better than the Dallas Mavericks, the Kings, sons, of course. Yeah.

Oh, Mavs. No, they're not better than the Mavs. Never mind. Hello, Keith. I'm sorry, Warriors fans. Warriors fans, I don't know.

I think you're still probably like the eighth best team in the Western Conference. The Mads are better. The Clippers might be better. I'm sorry. I gave you false hope. Yeah, that's what I'm saying

is like it's very, very hard. They're, they're either tied, well, listen, wait until Julius Randall comes back. I told you they'd look good when Julius Randall gone. I told you as soon as he'd turn an ankle, they'd look decent. You did. But that ankle got turned two weeks later. And now, now they are fully solidified in like that seven spot.

But the words are like, Minnesota Timu's trainer just stretching out the Judas Railway takes a hammer. Oh my God, Julius, what happened? Yeah, man. Yeah, the Warriors are like half a game out from the 8th seed right now. So there is a very real world where they can end up ahead of Phoenix, ahead of Dallas and all those other teams that you name. But Minnesota and the Clippers is probably where the line is drawn in terms of seeding. Man, the West is tough, man.

I get, I feel decent about the Warriors. It's a good move. there's the very real world where there's still the eighth best team out there. Yeah. What are you guys great in this return for the Miami Heat? After all the tumultuous drama, getting Wiggins back and a first-on pick is the main parts that matter. Dennis has already been rerouted.

Kyle Anderson doesn't matter. Shout out to you. I think at this point. Yeah. Shout out to you. You did what you did. We know that the heat don't like to tank. You got Andrew Wiggins, very serviceable.

And also you traded for Dave Yard Mitchell. So you got yourself to, you know, good defenders on this team to pair along with Tyler Hero and Bam and where and them boys. So getting back to your roots. Yeah. Yeah. I think Andrew Wiggins. It's just over, which is fine. Like, that's the big thing. That's great. I think they need a humongous, like, cultural reset and they need to get back to what they know. Andrew Wiggins is like one of the best players at shutting the fuck up and just getting in doing his job, defending two threes. You know what I'm saying. He's real good at shutting up. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what like

this team his ass does not be happening they don't like they don't like loud personalities is what I'm getting towards right now they don't like guys who are OD vocal like LeBron and shit like that

they just want you come in do your job get the fuck home and Andrew Wiggins does that you're saying you're saying Pat Riley wants his players you're set up in the room

no I do you're going to say that no that's what I'm saying yeah you kind of what you said it's kind of what you said he's literally just a simple three and D player he's like one of the one of the better ones in the league

and so with that being said this is just a good trade to stay play a role yeah no you're right wiggins naturally fits anywhere yeah they need to move past this empower a Tyler hero to be the main offensive player get ban back on track who's you know up and down but having some more ups lately so you're aware it has wiggins fits into this new vision perfectly fine i'll give them a b it's a decent enough return you didn't have a you there is no world in which you're getting an a type of return because jimmy there nuked his value. So they did with it good. Yeah. Jimmy Bowler is a goddamn mercenary.

Like any time that he wants to get traded, he makes himself the most unappealing, unappetizing option out there by clamoring, screaming, just having a full out, just tantrum. And he also plays where he played worse too. So now everyone's questioning him. Isn't it crazy that they were one Kevin Durant phone call away from getting Kevin Durant? If Kevin Durant was okay with being a warrior, he would be a warrior today. That's something. That's something. That's a something we should talk about right now like the phoenix sunday i did absolutely nothing and it's so interesting no they didn't do nothing they didn't do oh shit i forget you're right they did go in we have way bigger i i feel disrespectful to the trades that matter to talk about the sons right now

but it is funny it is funny that kevin rack could have been a warrior and said no i'm good draymond's still there i'll stay here and you know what i respect it i i respect it what yeah carry that beef to the grave yeah do that we do that we We need a documentary in like 30 years. Like the same way that Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas hate each other, let's bring real hate back. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. Bees for life.

I love it. But it's not a funny. It's not fun. Is it? I mean, it's quite dramatic in the moment. The sun sucks, so it's not fun.

It doesn't matter. I mean, it's very funny that the Warriors could have had like a superstar come back home and they couldn't because he hates the other co-star so much. Like, that's fun. I like it. But see, this is what tears down the goddamn black community, Isaac. And I don't, I don't expect you to someone, I don't expect someone like you to understand that.

This is what tears us apart. This is what the government really wants. God damn. I'm the problem. I'm Jay Edgar Hoover. I'm ruining the community. We need us back together. We need to just stop all this goddamn separation.

This is what they want us to do. Argue. God damn. And now is the time to talk about it. It is February. Let's get into it. Right. Exactly.

All right, my next trade. Brandon Ingram is a member of the Toronto Raptors. He was traded for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olinick, one first round pick, and one second round pick. This is after a bidding war that was going on over the last day of the trade deadline between the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors. Mo, I just want to know how it feels to once again be a loser.

Oh, man. You know, at times like this where I sit down and try to think of, you know, funny comebacks, staff. jabs, jabs and all that. I just simply can't because I look at your team. You got my goat. You got Luca.

Can't say shit. And I'm just stuck with looking at someone like Clint Capel in the face at the Tread deadline. Looking at all the players who I wanted seeing Trey and looking at him be so upset. What really set this off and what genuinely, like, switched the entire, like, storyline for the Atlanta Hawks now is seeing what happened. over there in San Antonio and then on top of that too like the Toronto Raptors will really like shut the door closed with that

Brandon Ingram trade. The main need for this Atlanta Hawks team right now is fucking playmaking. Guys who can do shit with the ball in their hands. We went ahead and traded away DeAndre Hunter. We could talk about that trade whenever the case is but the hundred hundred is having a very good season. A lot of people tend

to forget though like he was league wide viewed as like a bad contract. He had had major inconsistencies. You look at him as a big wing, someone who can, your traditional 3-and-D player, and this season he's shown

that he can be that once he's coming off of the bench. I made a mistake. What is it? I asked you about the Hawks. I don't care. Anyways. On back to my point.

Let me go ahead and let this podcast be my journal for two seconds. What's this trade? I'm just fucking with you. I'm going to cry. Please leave me alone right now. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I keep going to go. enough pain enough i know i know but once this goddamn trade happened it's like okay well fuck now we literally have to get off a dion jaunter because he was looked at as a bad contract during the summer we literally tried to trade him during the summer and we wouldn't get jack shit for him we see k or sovert okay cool that was our best most saving grace because we wanted brandy ingram so he can go ahead he was like a lifesaver a life vest because we are sinking train young is literally sinking of course he's been going off having great

games and all that great motivated for missing all start games and stuff like that but this level of play is not sustainable for fighting and clawing their way into wins so you lose out on that um the san antonio spurs probably aren't going to be interested any more in like any type of exchange for getting your picks back through whatever transactions you can imagine in your mind and now we're at this point in time where okay we don't have our 2025 pick 2026 pick is uh up for swaps and 27 we just don't have control of. The next pick of our own that we have a control of is

going to happen in the year 2028. So we suck and we suck for no reason. We won't get any of our picks back. We have the Spurs pick in 2026. What the fuck good use is that for? That doesn't matter at that point in time. We need it in Life Fest. Brandon Ingram was supposed to be that because

Jaylon Johnson is out for the entirety of the year. We need playmakers. Giongianj Hunter is a great player, but he simply is a he's not a black hole in offense, but all he knows is buckets and get more buckets. We like that. That's great. But we need guys who can help get us to the position and opportunity to get buckets.

And this right here is open the door. Why the fuck open for a Trey Young Trey to actually happen? I was rejecting that claim for as long as I possibly could. I know Trey is looking out here, looking at this landscape, feeling so bad, so salty, so irritated that this market of Atlanta can't do shit for them. Okay, y'all go good wings. It's a cool city. But I have no talent on my team.

the marketing fucking sucks and you guys can't even get me to the all star game and you consistently sell me and fumble me and did you tell me for the next three years I'm just sucking and you want me to like suck for no reason I can't even get no cool young guys around me you only continue to rebuild meanwhile like guys like luka fucking all this other shit are like actually making strides in the career janin jackson junior shades winning MVP's and shit and I'm over here just near magic city just chilling what the fuck he has to be out here follows him I would demand to trade this off season and that is legitimately going to just tank this organization for the next few years. I'm sick.

Tough scene. So, Donovan, what are you grading this trade for the Toronto Raptors? I mean, honestly, the more I think about it, I really like it. I give it like an A-minus. I really, really like this trade for them. I think that... Most of festering? Listen, he... I'm about to get my drone out right, bro. I understand. Go ahead. Go ahead. I don't believe you. I understand so much that I just let you hijack the section about Brandon Ingram to get you shut off with the hawks so go for it man yeah i understand well listen stay stay over there right

work through your feelings we'll be here my turn my camera off you're good all right we'll return we'll return to you a little bit let you recuperate we'll talk about the hawks trades in the seconds yeah for the raptors donovan how do you like randon ingram drink some watermark yeah so i like i like it a lot we don't want to one or no more yeah you need that right that's right but like the but the Raptors, like, Scotty Barnes is not... Moe can't put down the cup. It has a problem. Scotty Barnes is not the guy who you are going to say,

here's the ball, go get a sturdy tonight. Right? Like, that's just not him. RJ Barrett, in spurts this season, has looked really good. But there also, there's been times where the inconsistent RJ Barrett has also come out. Emmanuel quickly, he's really good,

but he's also not roll the ball out, hey, go get a sturdy. Brandon Ingram isn't necessarily go get a sturdy, But he is a bucket-getter. He is somebody who, as everybody else develops and that Scotty Barnes is out here, you know, being like Isaac calls him a lot, a Swiss Army knife, Brandon Ingram can be a lead score. And now you have a long, you have a long-rangey wing in Scotty Barnes,

and you have another long-rangee wing in Brandon Ingram, who could do a little bit of scoring, a little bit of playmaking, a little bit of defense, and all that. And so for them moving forward, I like it, Because it puts them in position to be competent, competitive next season, and still prioritize development from their younger guys like RJ Barrett, like Grady Dick, like, O'Sha Abaji, like all this stuff, they are moving in a really, really good direction. And so I like to trade a lot for them. People on Twitter were, I think, kind of confused by it because on the surface, you look at the Raptors, terrible fucking team, bottom three in the Eastern Conference, clearly tanking, trying to capture the flag like everybody else. right so people see that and they think oh this team wants to be as bad as possible they want

cooper flag why would you trade for a close to all-star level player that's just going to make you win more right and you didn't understand the messiah jiri does not think like you do masai jiri did not want to be bad this year he wanted to be very good the team just got dealt a bad hand and they sucked naturally this is not a tank job this is a retooling as the kids say and they want to be good as soon as possible as the young core kids don't say that's a joke Only old people say that. They want to be good. They know they have to tank this year, I'm sure.

Brandon Ingram is not so good that he's going to come in and make them unable to tank. He's also been hurt all year. We don't know when he's coming back yet. They can still get a top five pick this year and now going to next year, they'll have a top five pick, which hopefully becomes whoever the best center in the draft is.

And then now you'll add that player to a core that has your all-star in Scotty Barnes, the perfect fitting dynamic wing next to him in Brandon Ingram, and then Grady Dick and quickly to hopefully be your back, for the future. Scotty Barnes is extremely good.

You said Swiss Army knife. I've said that before. He is not a go-to score and it's probably not a go-to playmaker. It has been very ugly watching him have to create everything this year. Last year, when I was on top of the world, grading him extremely highly

saying he looks like a top 25 player in the world. It was when he was playing next to Pascal Seacum and having the second option defensive attention really filling the holes perfectly. Since he became the go-to guy,

it has been uglier and uglier by month. Ingram is not better than him, but he is a better score than him that needs the ball in his hands is the primary scorer scottie barn slots in so perfectly next to him in this new role where he can really fill things in and be the i don't want to say sidekick but like in terms of the scoring punch the sidekick that's what he needs to be yeah yeah this this lost scottie where he needs to be in the offensive pecking order yeah okay i can see a world and for me personally

i think i i agree this trade like a b you can i can see this turning into a b plus i'm a part of the group that just like looks at this trade and i'm like okay like touching back on r j barrett donovan i don't think i think this is a clear as day signal that like they don't they don't vibe with rj barrett like that and he's probably going to be offloaded in some capacity during the summer and they're cashing in their tips into bi scottie barns and like spacing and good defensive center behind them which is like i like that i like that a lot but like why i hear that and i see that and i like that too a lot i'm i'm wondering if bi and the specific spots that he chooses.

I wonder if there's, like, too much clashing offensively between the two. You know? Like, I don't know if B.I. is, like, I don't think he has enough juice around the perimeter specifically to go ahead and, like, fully optimize some of my Scotty Barnes. Now, again, like, not every team can fully optimize their star player. They're, like, all you can do is the best that you can do at that moment of time.

And that's probably what they did do. But I look at this trade and I'm just like, yeah, like, he is, Branding is a free agent this offseason, right? Yes. Okay. Which is why it's perplexing to people because he's expiring. He might not resign. I think he probably will because I think Brandingham probably wants to feel wanted.

He's currently looking for a home. And I think they show commitment. They'll pay him. He'll probably stay. But it's not a guarantee. And if he, even if he does lose, I think, okay, I give this a B plus because this is just an experiment. You're not going to sit down and cry and pound your fist if Brenning Ingraham just walks because, okay, boohoo, Kelly Olenick, boohoo, Bruce Brown and whatever pick that you give up, it would suck, of course. but it's not the end of the world

and it's not the reason why Scotty Barnes ends up being unhappy and whatever happens with your organization in the future. So it's a good move overall. I'm not like ecstatic

about it, but I'm just like I'm interesting. It's interesting enough to see what happens and develops over time. They have a really good creative offensive coach in Darko.

Yeah, I understand you're basically saying him and Scotty both operate from the midrange and that's not a natural cohesive fit. I understand that. I think they're versatile.

The biggest thing will be does Scotty Barnes three point shot come back around? I mentioned early last year whenever I was really high on him and I ranked him top 24 in our player rankings he was shooting 39% for three for that time. I thought he just made a leap and was going to stay there.

He since he hasn't been able to recapture that level of shooting. That'll be a big thing. If he can beat that level of shooter to be able to really thrive off ball, then I think it'll be glove and hand fit and it'll go super well. But I can understand your concerns if they just have two guys who aren't high-volume three-point shooters trying to just muscle their way in two buckets. And if it doesn't work, if they don't mesh in that way,

there's definitely a downside in which they're just very mid so I understand I'll go B. It's worth the risk though considering it's low assets that weren't important to your team anyways. For the Pelicans I'll go B minus. Not a great return you wait too long but also it's because

you tried and couldn't find a good deal I think it's solid actually no I'll go A minus he's an expiring contract and you got a first round pick for him and you got role players that are good and can help you. Kelly Olinick is a stretch five thank the Lord we finally have a stretch five next to Zion in some capacity.

We'll see minutes of it. It won't be the primary looks, won't start. Not game. Missy is the future. Minutes. Yeah, we'll see some minutes of it in some capacity and we'll see a vision.

We'll know what Zion looks like next to a stretch five. We've never seen it for a single goddamn minute. Now we'll get a taste of it. Not the whole load. We don't have the franchise stretch five yet. We don't get the whole load. We'll get a taste. It's a drizzle.

Yeah. It's a splash. All right. All right. Yeah. A dollup. will. I'll say B plus for for New Orleans just because I think a big thing for a lot of these teams is like you got to learn you have to make the trade when the trade is there. Stop

waiting. Stop waiting. Very rarely is the price of the brick going to go up. It's like it's whenever you think it's the highest it probably will be because the league is so unpredictable. things happen every single night. Like, you might want to get the best return on it right now. And, like, I saw a couple of people who kind of be shocked that Zion didn't get moved. And this is probably New Orleans last go of, all right, we're going to continue to build around Zion. We're going to see what happens. And next year, when they run it back, can they have Zion and they have, you know, a linic with CJ McCullough.

They're there. Like, we'll see what happens. But, yeah. solid deal it's not it's okay for them next trade let's talk about one that shook the league Kyle Kuzma has been traded

to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Chris Middleton and what's the rookie they drafted AJ Johnson and a pick swap yeah this trade is I'm struggling to find the right word for this

I will simply settle on fucking disgusting I think if you worry I tweeted I think if you are a bucks fan you should be allowed to do one violent act today I'm not telling you who to direct that at I'm not saying anybody deserves violence I'm saying you deserve the ability to create violence

in some way whether it be property damage whether it be verbal assaults whether it be any type of rage exerted by you I would like to give you permission and I hope the law enforcement agrees to trade a franchise legend which I don't think is dramatic to call Chris Middleton this is a guy that looked like he was going to be a lifer

He is Janice's partner in crime He brought you a championship as a closer He is as important As almost anybody in your franchise's history Outside of Kareem and Yannis Absolutely To trade him To trade him is one thing

To trade him for Kyle fucking Kuzma As well as dumping your first round pick That you just kept AJ Johnson Who probably wasn't a good pick anyways And now you just get rid of him To make a downgrading player For somebody who has been one of the worst Worst rotation players

In the entire NBA this year I find this to be incredibly disrespectful To Bucks fans They did this to go underneath the tax and to get a power forward that can allow you honest to close at the five. I think the tax is the biggest part of this year. I think they wanted to save some goddamn money

and I find it repulsive. Yeah, with this trade, they're under the second April, which is, I guess, cool beings. No one really gives a fuck though at the end of the day outside of the owners. It matters. It matters for team building, but... Yeah, but at the same time, too,

it's like, what other things can you do? Like, you went ahead and traded pick alongside Chris Millen's like to make this happen. Chris Bowdozen over the last few games was actually kind of cooking. Of course he hasn't been he hasn't been like consistently healthy but over the last few games

he's been better and better in finding his like natural rule. I think he's been averaging like 13 points and shooting like 39, 40% from three along with four assists. Like he is like the playmaking hub, not hub, but he is a playmaker out on the perimeter who just helps put

things together and makes his Dame and Janus pairing that can look awkward at times make more sense of time. goes on. And right now, like, they're just hoping and praying that Kyle Kuzma reverts back to, you know, 2020, Kyle Kuzma, when he's playing behind Anthony Davis, God damn, LeBron James and some of the better at the time three and D role players that the league could offer. So I think there is a world. Kuzma will look better. He will not look as bad as he did last year. I don't know if the juice is worth of squeeze when he's coming

from this terrible of a floor right now where he's playing this destructively. You're expecting a lot to change magically overnight. And situation will help. I don't know, situation cures all. Guys, it's very, it's very frustrating because the thing that you are asking from Kyle Kuzma is to be the same guy that he was four years ago. That is what you are asking from Kyle Kuzma. And it is a lot. The quotes that he had, the quotes that he put out the other day were absolutely ridiculous

for a guy who did not want to be there, actively. like wants to be on another team and it's trying to showcase this stuff to go out and just be like yeah I really didn't care about the about the game plan I was just trying to get mine you know like I was just I don't really care about rhythm or development for anybody else I wanted to just get shots up that is very very damning and very yeah it lacks a self-awareness and like I can I can understand why the bucks made this trade because especially me and I've been saying it all year long. Chris Middleton has surgery on not one, but two of his ankles on both.

At the same time. At the same time. Bilateral ankle surgery. Ridiculous. But you've waited this long into the season and he has started to come along. As you are a championship team, you need championship players. You need people who fit within your culture. And Kyle Kuzma hasn't shown himself to be that kind of player in two to three years.

So I'm not sure how. that works and then also the other thing that bothers me about this that i hate with billionaires sit up here and act like broke boys if y'all don't pay this tax and keep the franchise legend around what are we doing i mean it's not just it's not just a tax bill it's also the restrictions to team building and they're not good enough to warrant being the second apron respectfully i don't care like some instances you can care some instances it's not worth it because you lose value You can't, Brooke, you, you are committed to this core, right? Brooke, Brooke is your center.

Dame is your point guard. Those two guys are old. Chris Milton is old. Like, I think that from a basketball perspective, that is the core that you should have, that you should have rocked with and you should have kept kept it moving. I understand, like, the restriction from second apron, but again, I think that bringing Kuzma in, doing this for Kuzma is the big detrimental part. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. That's why I don't like it. I'm just saying it's ignorant to not care about the second apron. It does matter. It's not just billionaire money. We can say fuck that shit when you're talking about Carleton Townshade because those are that that's your team. You made yourself trash. This is not the case with this team. You can lose Chris Middleton. Moving Chris Milton is not a problem at all. Moving is not a problem is not a problem. He is unavailable. He will probably never be healthy for an extended time again. It's okay to work the extended off and lose that. I think that is embarrassing. But it is okay to get out of the second. apron that is necessary if you're not going to be a team contending for a championship obviously

yeah but you are but you are a team because you have yannis and dame like you are a team chris milton isn't changing that come on christ milton getting out of the april for chris middleton is not chris milton is not a factor in that anymore and i do understand that you mentioned those are your four core players the biggest most important thing in the modern NBA is health every year the title is won by who stays the most healthy we see contenders every year we have horror stories of damn what what could have been if they said healthy that's the equation you have to play up against Your four players are old and injury prone. That is bad math to go into a playoff series, hoping all four stay healthy.

That is almost impossible to expect that to be the case. So if that's the case and you know that's a bad bet, moving Chris Milton is not an issue, especially it helps you get out of the tax, which also makes it so you can have more assets next year and help your team get better in the coming years. It's not crazy. It's just a thirsty-ass situation right now. It sucks that Chris Middleton had to die for the second apron, basically. like yo like you're right like I agree with you this the process which they took I can

agree with both sides it sucks but also it's like beneficial because you do get younger you do get more rebounding on this team and you hope that like you do get a little bit of you know spacing from this 29% three point shooter or 30% three point shooter that he is this season in Kyle Kuzma but at the end of the day it's like damn bro like Kyle Kall Khrum Chris Mineta was putting it together. And that idea of him just like solely finding his way in like being this new version of Chris Minow who was just holding the bench down with his good old 13 points for game may have been really valuable, you know? I don't know if he's putting it together though because the hell thing was so the hell thing. He had two games in the last five games, which he had zero points

because he left early with injury. He played 19 minutes and 15 minutes, both with zero points. That's, oh, it's going to keep being a thing where just these nagging injuries. So I don't want to harp too much on the, he was putting it together. He would have been good. He would would have been helping them win a championship, I do think that it's hard when you have this few assets to waste that much money and that much just like allocation of touches to somebody who's just not going to be available consistently. I don't know what's worse though. Me neither. That's tough. Cus was probably worse.

Yeah. Like if he's going to, if he's going to come in and play the way that he's been playing, I'd rather, I'd rather be bad with my friend. Like, I don't want to bring somebody new in here to to be bad as well so i yeah i'm not i'm not sure ultimately like i think i think whether they had chris middleton or kuzma obviously the buck stops with yannis and his health specifically and so like if you can get a healthy run from daman yannis they could get to to the conference finals and but i think that that probably could have been done with chris or without or yeah with Chris or with Kuzma, but yeah, I'll give it a D plus

the C minus. It might be a C it might be good. If Kuzma gives you some of what he gave you last year's of score in a slightly better washing situation or even gives you what he gave you when he was a contender on the Lakers, that could be a good player that's helpful, but it's so

so much just like dreaming and hoping has to occur for him to look at that player again that I can't expect it, so I'm not giving it a super positive grid. Yeah, it's a risk. It's a risk. It's a risk. what the trade deadline is fucking about bro he might prove us wrong I don't think it's great chances but I do think there is a worldly

proves this wrong I'm just not betting on it there's one thing that the Milwaukee books gained it's okay more flexibility quote unquote at the end of the day that's a sure damn thing okay those are our biggest trades now we can move on to some smaller ones let's talk about the cabs

let's talk about the calves now and the Atlanta Hawks DeAndre Hunter is a member of the Atlanta Hawks the Cavs have been the best team in the east for the regular season thus far, but they have a glaring hole of size from the wing position, especially defensively. DeAndi Hunter does not fix that. He's not a very good defender, I don't think. I think he's not good at fighting around screens. He's not super mobile. But he is the exact size of human being they need to guard certain players. So I think he'll look better defensively

next to Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. But more importantly, he makes the most unguardable offense in the NBA that much more unguarded. Having that go-to scoring is such a nice, just embarrassment of riches for the Cleveland Cavaliers to have for their already crazy good offense this has to be an A right for the Cavs yeah it's it's a it's a to me like if you look at the Cleveland Cavaliers there they have one of the best playmakers in the league and dares going they also have Donovan Mitch who's not a terrible playmaker himself either Evan Moby has playmaking tops okay then you look at the bench you got Ty Jerome who's having a great year and he's a great playmaker as well carous overt is there as well and

there's just like only so much playmaking that you can have one the team. And I think it's a trade because you see what DeAnd Hunter, something like DeAnd Hunter provides offensively. Yes, take that a hundred times out of a hundred because you've seen another movie have his days offensively. You've seen Donald Mitchell even have his days and Darius gone have his days. Just add another score of flame thrower in which Donald, in which that DeAndre Hunter is. I think he takes like six threes a game. He's smacking the fuck out of him this year like this version of DeAndre Hunter, you know, the Hawks sold high as hell on him. And that's what he is now defensively they didn't saw that didn't sell hell they the return is not great

when it comes to what he has been over the last course of his entire his career this is the highs that they sold him for it sure but i'm going to give this a d for the alina hawks i think they returned cares liver georgias niang three second round picks and two swaps we'll see what those swaps are i imagine it is in an era in which you do not think you will be better than the calves cool that they got the swaps they might end up being diamonds in the rough I would expect the cats be good for a long time with Evan Mowgli

and Darius Garland so long so I'm going to assume those swaps are not going to amount to shit. I wanted them to sell high too.

Three second round picks is not a lot. They ended up using those second round picks to flip boge for Terrence man and Bones Highland, which is fine, I guess.

You mentioned earlier how the team has put Tray Young in a spot where it would almost be assonite to not request a trade. This is a part of that, I think.

To get no compensation back in terms of the first round picks, you're not selling high you're selling medium at that rate if the return is that mediocre so if you look at this hawks team like i think djadja hunter and carous overt are the same like level of players they're not changing your world but they do provide like yeah you know very very good like useful things they have holes in their game absolutely but they provide like really serviceable things to any

contending team like would love to have and for the specifically the situation the hawks are in and have been in uh over the last week or whatever like they need playmaking that's like the biggest thing I was harping on. And Carol Sovert has masqueraded as a backup point guard or tertiary or secondary ball handler for the entirety of his career. And that's what the Hawks are in dire neither. That's why I was like clamoring for someone like Brayne and Ingram

because without Jalen Johnson there, we have nobody. Like our guards. Yeah, baby Ingram, let's go. Our guards are literally cooked. We have like Kaysam Kaysen Wallace's brother over here fighting for his wife, Keaton Wallace. And he's a great player, but you know, like there's only

so much that he can do. That's I'm like, I can't look at this trade and give this a D. Because just, I think I was clamoring earlier, like, just a couple months ago during the offseason, we wanted to trade for DeAnda Hunter. But there were no, there were no takers whatsoever. And this is the highest that we possibly could have sold them for. Yeah, I'm taking it. I'm not going to give this like a D.

I'm not going to give this a B, but I think this is like just a solid C. Like it's not moving. It is. And it makes you better. Well, maybe it made you a little better. But it's not, it's not changing your life. Cool. We made like three more buckets.

than we would have with DeAnda Hunter but it's like It doesn't make you that much better at all It makes Tray Young's life A little bit easier Because like Kerosovert's gonna go in there

And masquerade at the secondary point brother Deion J. Hunter's the furthest thing from that Brother I understand why you're selling it yourself Trae Young's life is not meaningfully going to be easier

I'm sorry it will not matter It does It will be just because like Like most said It now puts the pressure on Trey Young to ask for a trade and he will go to a different team.

This is, yeah, this like, I really do feel bad for you because you did have high hopes of being the seventh seed this year. Oh my God. And everything has fallen apart. Jalen Johnson was supposed to be an all-star and he got hurt. And, like, Trey Young is having a downseason. And now, like, there was a lot of promise about the idea and the build of this team and it's just not there anymore.

and you're probably going to have, you know, new franchise coin guard. Yeah, and let's pair this with this next trade. The Los Angeles Clippers are trading Terrence Mann on Bones Highland to Atlanta Hawks for Bogdan and three second round picks. I don't know the specific picks. I'm assuming that the same fucking ones they just got. Is that confirmed Mo? I'm not 100% sure. Okay, either way, second round picks or second round picks is not high quality.

So they just, yeah. Okay, I guess. Terrence, man. Sure. I haven't heard of it since 2021, but cool. That's a rotation player. He could play on whatever version of the Hawks are. going to be next year that's a good deaf wing i guess so keros lavert and terence man are your backup

two and three type shit all right yeah i mean it's clear as day like laundry feels has like a vision and right now he's like prioritizing the most flexibility as possible and i don't i think it's maybe the best route as of now because you don't want to completely take your team because if you look at someone like bogie he's having an absolute shitter of a year like he sacrificed his knee for i think serbia over the summer he is not the same player whatsoever. Maybe he gets a little bit better over there in L.A. with the Clippers, but I'm not sure about that.

I think he's shooting, like, 30% of the three-point line, 39% from the field. Like, he's just not the same player. He's not, he's not the same player whatsoever. So I basically traded DeAndre, let's grade it combined. You basically traded DeAndre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovich for Terrence Man, Bones Highland, and Karas Lever. That is such a C to me.

That is so lateral. It depends on how you think about it. I think you're not, I think you're not like paying attention to how bad the playmaking on this team was. You always say that. We watch the Hawks. Do you really?

Do you really see anyone outside of Trey making a play on this team? Do you see anyone in the Hesie Tween? Of course not. I just don't think these guys will either. But no, you're right. I'll give it a C plus to B minus just because Bogi is not long for this team.

And Terrence Mann can be here for the next two years. Let's say that on a two-year time line around Trey Young. Terrence man helps longer term than bug. Dawn does. Yeah. I just don't. Okay, I understand why you're selling the Lavert over DeAndre Hunter thing. I just wish in a cell high there was a more meaningful player. But if that's not a reality of what's available, yeah, it can be B minus. Yeah. I mean, there's a world like I think, I don't think people understand. I love Dea Hunter so much and having the best season of his life,

but there's been time and time again where you see this big wing coming out of Virginia, he got Kawhioling in comparisons and all that. He consistently has been disappointing us. And every single metric ever, bro. When you see big wing, oh my God, like, I want to see how he looks like against Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. He looks like he's Trey Young's size out there, bro. I've seen him time and time again, just shrivel. And now that he's finally, like, coming into his own light, who knows if this is going

to be him now, if it is him now, cool. I hate that it happened too late for us, but it is what it is. Right now in the situation, like, we need some guys who can make Tray's life easier and make Tray less stress. You know what it bothers me? It's not for the long-term value, no, I'm thinking about it. It bothers me because all this did was make them worse this year in hopes of it making them better next year when Jalen Johnson's year.

And all this did was make Tray Young more unhappy and give the Spurs a better pick. They are not going to win more. DeAndre Hunter was on a heater, right? He's on the best year of his career. I am pro selling high because before this year, I told you Deandre Hunter sucks. He doesn't suck this year, right?

He's been on a bender. He's been, I said bender, wrong word. He's been very good. I don't think, I think you're probably a better team that has a higher chance of winning with that than Leverton Man, Bones isn't going to play. I don't think they're going to win more games now.

And when you don't have your pick, I guess you don't want to factor this into your equation realistically because it's whether you give Spurs a high pick or mid-pick is neither here nor there for you. But it just doesn't sit right with me that they're just going to give the Spurs an even better pick than they were yesterday. To me, in my mind, which just feels nasty.

Like, I see DeAndre Hunter and I see what he provides for us. If he's not scoring 18 points per game for us, there's nothing else that he can provide on this team. He's not rebounding the ball. He gets really defensive there. He's not playmaking. His defense is sketchy at times. If Caros Avert is not giving us a cool 15 points per game, I know what he's doing.

I know he's least like contributing in other ways and helping out Zachary, we should say. Like, it's about like the other players on this team around Troy Young. And that's why I'm like, okay, this is a better thing. DeAnd Hunter was giving you 18 points for game. No, there's been, but when he's not, though, like, obviously. I know. Of course, of course. But like, there's just a myriad of ways where we can win now instead of just like one way.

so there's there's a void that we need to fulfill with jell and johnson and right now we're just reeling and like we're reeling and we're just we're fighting for our lives that's the best way at this point let me stop let me stop downing it worse than it is i understand you're imagining a world in which it works no it's cooked like it's absolutely cooked like i think if i'm tri young again like i'm absolutely like i want to leave this team and as a try young fan i want him to go ahead and like bro requested straight lindji just went ahead and fucked off like the last four years, three years of your NBA career. Go to hell. I'm leaving this team. Shout out to Atlanta. I want the best for him. And Atlanta is simply not that for him right now. He's wasting his time.

He's going to love Toronto. He's going to love playing for the Raptors. I can envision a world and where that happens. And I would love that for him. Yeah. How did you guys feel? Next trade on this list. How do you guys feel about the Phoenix Suns trading a first round pig in 2026 and Jusef Nurkich for Cody Martin and Meechich? Man, at this point. At this point, at this, yeah. That's the same, yes. And that's why at this point, just keep him.

Just keep Nerkitz. Like, it would honestly been better for your team if you just said, You should go home and don't come back. Like attaching, like attaching an asset and attaching a first round pick to get rid of NERCIT when you are already so desolate. in your in your draft capital is wild and like maybe you felt like right like you maybe they thought that they were going to go get jimmy butler and right and that's why you made that deal to flip the one first round pick into three and all that stuff and now you're just sitting around

with three first round picks and you're like oh it's the deadline we were going to do something anyways i understand it i don't think it's like you're exactly right that's exactly why they did that you're so right they're so stupid it's like okay i guess but i think i think i think losing the first round pick at this point is worse. Yeah. That's worse than the positives of getting back what you got back in the trades. It's like, I, I, fine. But like, this is an A for the Hornets.

The Hornets got a first round pick. The Hornet's got a first round pick for a replacement level wing player and a bad tertiary player that came along with it. Yeah. That is a dub. I'm not going to lie, bro. The Hornets are kind of cooking this trade off. this trade deadline like this new regime that they have going on they're like yo they see the

bullshit that this pass regime has been on they just called fake tanking they're they're smarter now actually i'm i think right now like an hour ago like like an hour ago did we not just call them stupid they're ahead of the curb now i think i see what they're cooking i see the vision they see the past regime with like half ass rebuilding and they played fake basketball with terry ruggier gordon haver and they were playing demons and now like y'all y'all thought y'all ass fuck that i'm show yo a ass really looks like and they pull their hands down and they understand that they have to tear it down again

that was crazy I got a beautiful representation waiting for you right now Yeah, calm down Calm down, calm down Yeah The son, the worst part I saw Suns fans talking about is that it's just hilarious that they traded for those three first-on picks

without a clear plan It's so embarrassing It's embarrassing, bro, you lose it Yeah, you're, this is the F son for the trades I'm F-pick for the My brain just worked back for This was an F trade For the goddamn feeding sucks bro

There's like nothing that they could do Honestly if I were them I would have just like wanted to go in ahead And trade away for tradeaway Kevin Durant That's the best thing they should have done They tried I said no But like

But like you look at this trade And now you really got to go back And look at the other trade That they made for those picks It's like why would you Why would you do that unless you were on the phone with Miami or with anybody. And they were like, hey, we can get this deal done.

But like, I wish you had two, like, I wish you had two first-on picks. And then we could get this deal done. And then the sons were like, all right, hold on hold on, I'm going to put them on hold. Go get that. Unless that was the case, why would you make that deal to go flip that pick into this other stuff? A lot of it seems very, it feels kind of on. brand for how the sons have moved over the last year and a half two years it's very very scattered very scrambled doesn't seem very very linear or very planned out or very thoughtful and so now

you have bradley beals who once again just has the most power in the NBA and do and do whatever he wants and apparently you know kD is on that on that wavelength too you're at risk you're at risk of missing the playing because now once again the warriors just made a deal and the spurs just made a deal and the sons are 10th in the conference and they can miss the they can miss the play in and now what yeah the sacramento kings ain't going to where they're still going to like get their pesky wins here and air you know they're going to get their 41 wins yeah exactly 401 free for sure lock it in it's a tough scene over there in phoenix i don't i don't like it for phoenix a way to be done speaking of a tough scene let's move on to the next trade the

washington wizards are trading yonis valentunis to the sacramento kings for city kosoko and two second round picks and this is a trade that happened this is one of these trades of all time and the one thing that i took this to be as an absolute a is because as a fan of the los angers lakers i've been kind of my fucking days to the trade deadline because i've woke it up in cold sweats many times been absolutely horrified at the prospect of Bob Polinka trading for Jonas Valchunis. Now I can sleep well at night knowing he is a member of the Kings and not my team. And it is absolutely hysterical for the Kings to trade for Jonas Valchunis. They have Alex Lenzer backup center.

He's mid. He's not that good. They have DeMont de Sabonis as their starting center, who is a very good player, very mid, very bad rim protector, not his strength. The only way to change this team and get rid of one of those two things, things, find a more mid-rim protector until we find the worst backup center. And they did that. They replaced, they brought in another bad room protector to double down. It's gross. Why would you want to see this player on this team? This is Demontas Sabonis's team. He's like,

you know what? You're trained away my partner in crime. Go ahead and give me my Lithuanian brother and Yon's Van Sunnis and make me happy. If I'm going to have a bad time, at least let me have a bad time with one of my guys and they want to run those double big lineups. I see the vision Demonis and this is the W for you. Gang. All right. F. F.

F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. The Honest Funtunis is cooked. This is an F. Shout out the Wizards for getting two second round picks for Vones Fowlunis. Hey. Did they do a good job. They've been cooking low key too, the straight dead line. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, shit. They got rid of really bad players and got picks for it. So shout out them. Next trade. This is another nice little piece of brain dead work from Nico Harrison. We mentioned really, but we didn't. fully talk about it. Caleb Martin was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Quentin Grimes.

And so it was Quentin Grimes and a second round pick for Caleb Martin. My only question is why? Okay. Okay. From the phone. Nico, stop calling people, man. Stop calling people. Every time you pick up the phone, you make a mistake.

Stop it. Stop it. I don't, I don't like this move for Dallas. Quinn Grimes, this year is averaging cool 10. points and he's shooting like 40% from the point line, 45% from the field. Caleb Martin and Quinn Grimes are like the same level and caliber of players

are obviously different in certain ways. But Quentin Grimes is like five years younger. It's like 24 years old. And he's more efficient. He's just better in most meaningful ways. Okay, so I understand why they did this. I'll explain why I think they did this. I don't think it's smart, but I understand. But let me hear it.

You have to talk dumb for this to make sense. You have to. Come on. See the stupidest shit ever. So Kayla Martin is basketball player. Don't do that So I think This team understands Luke Donch is gone They need ball handling, right?

Quinn Grimes has been extremely good playing Next to their ball handlers But he's not a ball handler But he's not a ball handler himself I don't think his juice As a ball handler Is quite as good as Caleb Martins

True So maybe they see that as a better fit Playing off of Kyrie Irving He's a little bit better As hacking closeouts and creating But more importantly Quinn Grimes is a pending Restrictor free agent

They're not going to want to pay him They couldn't come to an extension Caleb Martin is cost controlled So there's less variability You know he'll be around for several years And you know he might have an equal If not slightly more optimized skill set and habits And the money factor isn't going to be a thing

You're not going to have to pay him more We're coming Grime So if he goes off in this next couple months It'll be more expensive That's gone Wait, but With that being said, just give me the good player I don't think it's smart

But that's the thought process And the reason why that doesn't make sense Is Nico Harrison said that You know We're at the Maverick server ready to win championships now. You know, defense wins championships and they just acquired an all-MBA level player with an all-MBA, you know, defensive mindset. And so they're ready to go make a run right now. So why are you making moves for next year, right? Why are you making moves for things down

the line in two, three years when you might be gone by then, Nico Harrison, in your words. So again, why are you trading away Quentin Grimes? Come on, Nico. And I guess you could say Max Christie is a similar player that you can afford to lose Grimes now as that kind of two guard defender and maybe Caleb scales up a little higher to guard more wings so maybe you're not going to play Grimes and Christie together maybe maybe that's another thought process again it's not out it makes somewhat sense yeah it doesn't make sense it just feels like it did they if they were more hamstringed and like in a more tough financial situation I guess I could understand it but end of the day the talent is a talent and I think Quentin Rhyme is a good player and I wouldn't want to get rid of him

for a worse player yeah and then I'll talk about it too like a second round pick What fuck are you? I mean, the second round pick is the second round pick but why? Yeah, why'd they have to give up

pick value? That's dumb. I know my player is better and I also know like he is like more whatever versatile on teams or whatever and he's younger too but please just like take him

and also on top of that thank you. I'll pay you to take him. I'll pay you for more. There you go. Oh fuck. Good assets. I'll pay you to take it off my hands.

What is wrong with him? Nicos he's going to have to like I don't know what. Listen, you just train. By the way, you just traded away Luca Donches. You have no benefit of the doubt whatsoever. Like, on any move, you are going to have to trade Max Christie for Yokic for people to be like, hey, he's kind of cooking over here.

I can kind of see the vision. Like, it's not going well. For the Sixers, B-plus, very good deal. You've got a good young player and a pick. A, A, it's an A. Yeah, you did nothing wrong. Something interesting about the Dallas Maver. is like, Carrie Irving this summer has a player option for $43 million.

He's having a pretty good year. I don't imagine the world and where he accepts that. He's probably going to go ahead and maybe test for agency or renegotiate some type of extension. Maybe. But if I'm Kyrie Irving, I don't know how I would feel in seeing the dysfunction in this team whatsoever. Why the fuck would you get rid of the first, like the best player on this team, a generational player. my guy and expect me to trust you

with the future of my career maybe if Kyrie's focused on the bag and he just really fucks the Dallas because they accept them after a really tough time cool like I can understand that but if I'm Kyrie Irving if any team's gonna pay him why would you want to reside alongside

the Dallas Mavericks when they're just like not straight minded makes no sense questions that will be seen and all I'm saying is there is a real possibility for the Lakers to open up money That is exactly Carri Irving size

And I won't have any more comments about it But just know it's a thought process Oh my God This is absolutely Diabolical I'm only kind of joking I'm not just No you're not kind of joking

You are dead serious I mean I don't think Kyrie's in a walk But just know it That is like in the air Like it's not impossible And there is reasons to believe That one might be interested in that If your name is Kyrie Irving

I'll listen If If Kyrie Irving leaves the Dallas Mavericks to go to the Los Angeles Lakers because Nico Harrison traded away Luca Donutsons to the Los Angeles Lakers Nico Harrison

stay where you're at the authorities are on the way we're coming to a rescue like you can't do that to a city and they got straight jackets ready for you bro I'm sorry I got the cubs get in the back of the car buddy you're going downtown

I can't say you come with us it's either you come downtown or you you face those Mavs fans outside your house with hammers. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You pick. But that just can't happen if you're the Mavericks. You might have to like, if you're Nico Harrison and you think that's a possibility, you might have to hack Carrier ring and reveal his search history to the world.

Otherwise, otherwise he's gone and your life is over. It goes somewhere else. Seek asylum. It's not going to be well for you here, but. Seek asylum Seek political refuge, bitch Go see if you can sleep on Masayu Jiri's couch or something If you like it happen

I know the relationship with Canada isn't great right now But they might take you We'll see You'll be all right They'll let you in That's hilarious And with that being said We are two hours into the show

That is all the trades I'm one to highlight today of the grade everything else was too small to talk about shout out Detroit for getting Dennis Schrooter I think that's a good fit shout out other teams for doing other things that I can't remember I need one L to give out I need a single L to give out the Memphis Grizzies

seeing what happened with Marcus Smart they traded him for like two first round picks and now they're trading him away for another pick just for like a whatever player kind of sucks and it's sad to see that's all I'll say about that they dumped them yeah for two second round picks that's kind of sad

so is the way he's been playing though so I don't really care It's a swing and miss It's a swing and miss in his league Tragic soon Hey, buy him out We need a defender next to Luke and Donchage Bye

Oh my God Shut up You mentioned that Shut up Somehow you always tie it To the goddamn wiggars We get it Can we go on to TikTok time

Please We're on the TikTok time Pugh Welcome to TikTok time Today we're once again Gonna begin with the draft

What a surprise Wow I am shot D3 Staple And today the draft is going to be Drafting only players who played for the Brooklyn Nets We did one with the Thunder a little bit ago That was fun

People got really mad because we didn't pick Russell Westbrook We'll see if there's anything to pitch you guys off today But only stipulation is it has to be a player That played at least one season with the Brooklyn Nets We get the best version of them Point Guard 3 Center, you guys know how it works Draft order, Mojo, Isaac, Donnie Moe, how do you want to kick this off

Who was the first pick on your list? man there's so many ways I could go with this but I think the best way fuck it just give me go just go ahead and give me Kevin Duran mm yeah okay thank you give me Kevin Garnett congratulations you can keep him I'll tell I'll take him gladly that's fair um you know what I'm gonna double up I'm gonna double up with my wings and that means that for my two I will take Vince Carter and for my three

I will take Paul Pierce Ew Oh okay Okay Yeah we're witnessing A generational cell here That's decent I guess Give me James Harden at the one

To pair with Kevin Garnett I did forget about James Hardin Oh I can tell I can tell That much is apparent to me That is okay I have one point guard in mind Did forget about him

Okay Okay Okay Okay Oh damn Fuck So I can go multitude of ways here

You think we can cut this and like restart and then we can just like go back. Yeah. Okay. Got you. Got you. Yeah. Yeah.

Try to get. Okay. Damn, he has James Harden and K.G. He's in a, that's where we're really fucked up, bro. That's where we really fucked up. Let me be greedy, though. I want to make you feel the pain an extra hard, Donovan. I'm going back to back.

So for my point guard, give me Jason Kidd. That's a good pick. And then from my shooting guard, give me Kyrie Irving. Okay. I like those two paired together. I like, I like how they're a compliment. Yeah, I got a point God. Someone who's going to facilitate the foreplay defense.

And I got Katie and Kyrie once again teamed up. But last time you saw Kyrie and Kevin Rand pair up, it wasn't pretty, so you lost automatically. Yeah, this is 2016, Kyrie. This is Kyrie before Kyrie happened. Fair enough. Okay. Give me Julius Irvin. I knew you were going to do that.

Then why did you pick them? Because I wanted Donovan to feel the pain. Go ahead and suck your next guy, Donovan. What guard do you want to pick this time? See, people... All the point guards are gone. No, they're not gone. Because you got to understand.

There's a certain point that people don't remember that we were having Chris Paul versus Darren Williams' conversations. So as my point guard, I would take Darren Williams. Staying over there. They're far away from me. And then just because, as you know, you know what, let me go get a big and I will take the all-time leading score in franchise history.

I will take Brooke Lopez at my five. Okay. That hurt me. I need shooting real back because I got KG and Julius Irving. Give me draws and Petrovich at my shooting guard. Solid, solid. Rest in peace. Mo, don't start crying again.

I know it. I know it gives you, it's a sore spot for you. This is the second time I talked about it, bro. I just get so emotional. Damn, Jarzan. That's crazy. Anyways. Damn.

She was just talking to Drazen. It's so crazy. Like, trade deadline came. I'm just saying you're thinking about Drazen. Like, always, it's nuts. What could have happened, bro?

It's one of the biggest in NBA history. Okay. So I got Jason Katt at the one, Kari at the two, and Kady at the three. I could really, really hone in on just like the unlimited buckets I'm about to get. And I think I have a real great pathway to do so. So with that being said, at my, I'm going to move KD at the four.

Put Joe Johnson at that three spot. I'm just getting buckets on buckets on buckets. Here we go. We love to see it. Whatever way you want to see it, mid-range mask. You want me to pull up on you like Katie or fly. slash layup by Kyrie, I got it all for you. You're building and won mixtapes.

I'm building wins. Give me AK-47. Give me Andre Kirill, Linkgo on my power forward. All right. Okay. Cool. Lane basketball. No one cares. Wait, wait. Mo, did you pick twice? Wait, Mo, did you pick twice? Mo, your turn. You have your center left. You can't take them. Go ahead if you want. Hold on. So I got...

Go for it. I got... Kid, Kyrie, Joe Johnson, Kevin Durant. Joe Johnson, Kevin Durant. fuck okay you want to see him so bad but it won't make sense they could I mean go for it he's ahead of his time

but for the sake of the simple simply size I dare you Nick Claxton come save me brother Nick Clackson come give me help brother Claxton you got your work cut out for you

nah I would like to build the nastiest defensive duo of all time give me Andre Carrelinko next to Kevin Garn Nets. Nice. Okay. Let's see. I have Darren Williams. I have, have Vince Carter. I have Paul Pierce. My buckets are taken care of. I have Brooke Lopez. I have low post scoring. I have three-point shooting. That's taken care of. The one thing that I need, Enforcer and a dog. Give me Kenyon Martin at my floor. And we're rocking out like that.

That is where I'm going. okay yeah i mean you listen brooke lobe's big ass next to kenyon martin that's a lot of girth you don't want to fuck with come on now okay i have james hardin droszen petrovitch julius irvin aka 47 and kevin garnett i mean that's how i like i mean if you like good basketball i guess that's okay it's fine if you want to have ticot edits to go around yeah i mean i have darrell williams vince carter paul pierce kenyon martin and brooke lopez so it's like you know yeah yeah it's a lot of old Big body buckets right there. I don't think that team would win a championship in the NBA in real life.

Yeah, they wouldn't. There's a lot of holes in flaws. That team is, too. I don't think they win 60 games. My team, though, would. They can get 60. Maybe, yeah. Are we playing, and this is my one question.

What year are y'all are we? Exactly. Are we playing in 2002? Because if we are, we have 60 wins, Eastern Conference Finals solidified. Like, that's where our season starts in the conference finals. So we have eight games to win. Wow.

We just 23 years behind. That's all it is. I see the video done. It sounds like. Yeah. So what. So what? I got Jason Kidd, Kyrie, Joe Johnson, Katie, and Nick Claxon.

It's a whole lot of buckets, man. I mean, I'm beating you. At what? At basketball. In 2003, in 2023. I could beat you in. Hell, duh. Yes.

You're doing all that. Yes. You're doing all that. Well, there you go. Y'all, y'all comment who won the draft. I don't know. Who knows? Who knows?

It's up in the air. The next thing we're going to do, let's stick on the topic of trades. One of these trades that happened this week matters more than others, has been talked about more than others. So in the spirit of that trade, that shall not be named, otherwise you guys are going to crucify me. I want to have us put the worst trades in NBA history into a tier list.

Let's do it. Okay, let's do this. I have eight of the most assinine decisions ever made. and you guys know it works S through F tell me where this ranks So let's start off So for this

S would be S would honestly be the worst trade Yes Okay F would be It's kind of defensible It's not too bad I guess

Okay Because you know We're gauging it on the badness Not the goodness Gotcha Let's start off with the good one To set the bar We have

The Brooklyn Nets Trading for Kevin Garnett And giving the Boston Celtics Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown Two All-Stars It's tough man two dudes who won an NBA championships for the Boston Celtics

because they went ahead and got it all done especially, this has to be an S-tier level of just like unfortunate and just stupid. To directly gift another team a championship and to directly gift a team as vile and repulsive as the Boston Celtics a championship, I'm giving this

S-plus. This is the worst, this isn't anybody's ever made because it benefits the worst people on mankind. And you did it, and you did it for geysers. Yeah, it was also stupid as fuck Is that too? Yeah, like Camel Garnett and Paul Pierce were so washed, they were so cooked at this point

But honestly, like the amount The amount of draft capital That the Celtics were able to extract Honestly, set the bar, set the standard For the next decade of like This is how you fleece an NBA team This is what you are supposed to get When you are robbing somebody

This is how it goes I think personally Danny Ains should have got a murder charge Or at least attempted murder That's fair That's fair And not listen Some kind of felony He's a witness protection program right now in Utah

He's paying for it He did it He's on a farm somewhere Drinking sodas Soas So does that say Okay Utah

They love them from sodas Yeah Next up Let's throw it back a little bit Let's go back to the olden days We got to Utah Jazz, trading three first-round picks for Gail Goodrich and giving the Lakers Magic Johnson. Three first-round picks. Hey, back in these days, these dumb GMs didn't know what first-round picks before.

They were tossed them out left and right. Gifting Magic Johnson to the Lakers is hysterical. I'm not going to lie. That's one of those hilarious decisions. That honestly saved the NBA as well. Like, who wants to see Magic Johnson build such a fantastic career over here in the middle of nowhere in Utah? that like that ruins half of his aura so now that you say that this is an amazing trade this was good for everybody so this is go f tier it's not that bad because it really helped the world

yes yeah i think like for for the greater good it had to be done i'll go f we had to sacrifice the youths to save america i love it you know what maybe you guys deserve some credit shout on utah man yeah i have a job today the game i love exists because of you and what you were willing to sacrifice for the NBA to put a star in Los Angeles and put the game back on TV? Thank you, Utah. How much are drinking more sodas?

Yeah. I might watch some BYUu games. BYU. I might throw some tofu on the grill. No one to eat. Okay. Next up, it's fine one. How about the Atlanta Hawks

trading Luca Donchich to bring in Trey Young? Now, Atlanta Hawks actually won that trade as far as I'm concerned. Duka's gone, bro. He was going to be out either way. This is an F-Q trade. Tray-on wishes he was gone. This is a terrible trade. Then it went shit.

No, I'll say, I'll say, see, it was like, it's a little bit defensible just because you're trading it on draft night. You don't know exactly how everybody's going to pan out. Yeah. Yeah, it's not as bad as some trades on here. You didn't gift anybody a ring. But it wasn't smart. It wasn't smart in the moment. We knew it was dumb at the time.

just because you had the longevity to beat Nico Harrison in the long run, I'm not giving you any props for that. Well, I mean, we're not an all-time idiot, so that's great. Like, if I go across the street and I box a five-year-old and I win, you're not going to pat me on the back. I am, because the one is a win. Who cares about age? What the fuck?

That's dumb's a dove. Yeah, exactly. I count them all up. It's tough out here. He should have had his hands up. Exactly. What? A first round knockout is a first round knockout. Yeah, exactly. Just be smart. Duck and weave, dummy. What are you doing? But you know, this, this is an objection. actually bad trade no matter how many years pass,

but it's not as bad as something like the Kevin Garnett trade that's an S-tier where I think this has to be gauged in part based on how we thought in the moment and what the outcome was. It's got to have some hindsight, and this doesn't have the gravity, some of the other ones. Yeah, like, if we had, if Treyer wasn't an all-star and he was like, like, you know,

just a borderline all-star, then it's like, okay, like, it's probably an L. But he was able to lead us to it at Easter Conference Finals, gave us one great year of, at A-plus, Atlanta Hawks, basketball. But that's why it's not one of the worst. That's why it's not one of the worst. And it's more than you can ask for as an Atlanta Hawks fan when you never guaranteed A plus basketball. You're almost always guaranteed C-minus basketball as the world's best 41 and 41 team. So that one year was essentially a three-p four-year standards. That's true. But also,

listen, the Hawks made it to the conference finals before the Mavericks did with Luca. So he got him. He did beat them. He did beat them to that. Tortoise versus the hair situation here, but I'll allow it. I mean, hey, if you really think about it, too, we traded away Luca daunches and turned for Trey Young, and Luca eventually turned into Anthony Davis and Max Christie. So in my mind, we actually win that trade. I don't understand why you would say that, but I'll let you say it because I don't want to talk about the Atlanta Hawks anymore. We cooked.

Next up, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder trading James Harding because they're cheap. Tough scene You know what I hate That makes you mad You know what I hate I hate billionaires acting like broke boys I can't do it I can't do it

Sam Preston you're lucky You did the best rebuild of all time after this Kevin Durant Could have stopped LeBron from getting titles Before he got to Golden State He could have did that If it was him Russell Westbrook and James Harder They would have gotten at least one

And yet Now you had an MVP And an MVP and an MVP and an MVP all go somewhere else and be successful. You hate to see it. Is it A tier? Yeah. Yeah, it's an A tier.

Punning on an MVP before he becomes that is so disgusting just because you're always going to think about what could have been. You didn't gift anybody a championship so you're not S tier, but you've got to be A. Yeah, I agree. And it's a very clear world in which we see this trio, KD, Hardin, and West, went in multiple championships. if they just simply had time to be together longer. They ain't got to do nothing with the roster.

Just keep those two, keep those three together. Or Kevin Durant and James Harden button. Oh, come on, man. Stop, stop, stop. Speaking of, speaking of, we have the Los Angeles Lakers trading for Russell Westbrook and slamming their championship window shut. For a couple of years.

Or so they thought. Until the, we'll see. Yeah. No, this is, this is one of, this is one of the worst trades of all time. Again, I will never, ever forget Russell Westbrook playing in the Staples Center, having

a wide open three, and people say, no, don't shoot, no! The fans turned on him, the team turned on him, social media turned on him, it was an awful experience for everybody. Again, you have the greatest player of all time, and you effectively ruin his chance to

win a championship forever, indefensible esteer. Yeah, they got one, went away from what made them great, and Now you curse the last three, four years of peak power, LeBron James. With that, it's an S tier for sure. Yeah. Okay. And what about the trade that saved that championship window?

The Mavericks trading Luca Dantzich at 25 years old. Nico Harrison deserves a special place on this tier list, bro. Special place at S. Make a tier. Hammers and coffers. Hammers and coffins because that's what the Davao Levervich. Tier. Viva Leverviusian.

What the hell does that mean? Revolution to Dallas Mavericks fans. We're fucking storming the capital. We can't do this. We can't do this. Yeah, this is a different level of hatred, bro. Like, I was on Twitter, and folks are out here leaking Nico, Nico Harrison's address.

No fuck is going on. Bro, it's just basketball. Not some people. Not some people. This is light here. No, this is S plus. This is one of the worst rates of all time. because not only did Luca not request a trade not only was he not unhappy you called to give him away

this didn't this didn't have to happen your hand was not forced this isn't kareem abdul jabar requesting a trade this is you saying i'm sick of this fat guy i want him out of here for no reason all he did was perform well for you and you're like actually i hate you actually i want you out of my fucking site and i'll do anything necessary to get you out of here you said i hate you i don't know if you're to re-sign this contract and plus you're kind of tubby get out you said L plus ratio plus BMI too high BMI too high BMI too high as to you all right next up let's do one that's commonly compared to this as one of the other worst trades of all time the clippers trading for Paul George and sending Shagg Dildos Alexander to O KC every time I see this trade and I see

what the Clippers gave up versus what O KC gave up is absolutely hysterical gave up Fischer MVP in like 20 fucking picks, bro. That's hilarious. And Jalen Williams. Yeah. An All-Star, again. God damn, bro. Like an All-Star in it.

Oh, fuck, man. This might be... So, this is really, really bad. S-tier's getting crowded. Getting rid of an MVP is terrible. Do we want to... How much hindsight do you want to apply? Because obviously, it was decent in the moments,

but age terribly. I feel like it being decent in the moment makes it... It can't be S-tier, because everything in S-tier was stupid as soon as they did it. But we have to understand. This is a two-and-one.

one package though like without this trade they wouldn't have gone to kawai too apparently that's what i'm saying so it can't be s tier s tier was indefensible in the moment i'm going b i'm going to be because even even looking at it now you go back into that moment you say if that was the deal if if making this trade get you paul george and kawai leonard in 2019 you make that deal 10 out of 10 times you do it every time yeah and you can you can still call it a bad trade because hindsight's hindsight and also if kawai was dead set on joining the clippers because they didn't want team up with the and he didn't want to live in Canada, maybe you could have tried harder

and convince him to give SGA a chance if you knew he was going to be something, which I'm assuming they did. So B's fine. A and S in the moment, you're like, oh, these guys are dumb. You didn't say that about the Clippers. Exactly.

Yeah, it's true. Okay, so last but not least, we have the Charlotte Hornets trading Kobe Bryant on draft night. The goddamn Hornets are making trades on draft night, bro. Didn't they trade Shagelis Alexander on draft night too? They did

They did it twice They could show up on his list Multiple times Two of the best scores of all time Could have been wearing teal Tough scene Well who's their franchise go Kimber Walker

Oh my God Al Defferson Oh my god Grandmama Oh Oh man Oh man Hey listen shout out to Gerald Wallace

Is that one year You know what I'm saying Out there Charlie Shout to Zoh Real hoops Hey, shout out to Egghead Henderson, bro. One of the greatest fucking demon hopper. Dale Curry.

Del Curry is on the 2K all-time team for the Hornets. And that all could have changed if they didn't trade Kobe Brown on draft night. Yeah. I don't know what the reception was in the moment. He was a high school player. He wasn't a sure thing. But man, if you're a team with the Hornets, even back then, it's probably worth taking that risk. Yeah.

Yeah, this is, again, is this year? It may be eight tier because, I mean, there are an organization who was trying, a new organization who was trying to establish themselves and they were tired of sucking. I don't know if it is. They traded him for Vladay Divac. Yeah, it's kind of, it's kind of tough. And like, when you trade away a top five player of all time, it really, it really hurts to say. So slow down. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, not the conversation that I'm not trying to. Yeah, my bad, my bad, my bad. My bad. Keep, keep pushing. Keep pushing. the way I said that sounded like the slowdown grab the wall if they get up to start busting it down on that wall

Isaac yeah maybe A tier it wasn't unknown you couldn't know Kobe's going to be the second greatest shooting guard of all time guys

bad up wobble like you try to make it We go to A to Yeah, let's do A-tier Man, I think we're a movie Oh, middle school dances were crazy All right, so to recap

S-tier we have Kevin Garnett To the Nets We have Russell Westwood to the Lakers And Luca Donchett to the Lakers A tier, we have James Hardin to the Rockets And Kobe Bryant to the Lakers B tier, we got Shea to the Thunder C tier we have the Hawks passing on Luca

And F tier, we have magic going to the lakers do we want to change anything man uh normally normally whenever we do tier list i don't want to change anything because we normally make them perfect i kind of feel the same way here i kind of think we made another perfect cheerless so i don't think any change there we go there we go strong agrees that's the end of segment let's wash her hands i love a good dub next thing we're going to do i'm going to name six NBA players You have to tell me three of them. You have to pick three that it will be Hall of Famers

or three that are not. They're not going to make it. Okay. New variation. Let's do it. Yeah. So you know, you've done stuff with this in the past. It's essentially a blind ranking.

You put them into two pools. One, they'll make the Hall of Fame. One, they won't. Let's do it. First name. Jason Tatum. Hall of Famer. That's easy.

Yeah. He's not an MVP. He's an Olympian, an NBA champion. Hell of first team. Does it hurt your heart to say that? Donovan? What? Did you not hear me?

No, no, I didn't hear you. Does it hurt your heart to say that? I mean, no, you know, sometimes bad stuff in the world happens and you just have to learn how to, you know, live within it and move past it. Learn how to cope, put one foot in front of the other, keep going. The Jason Taylor hate, died? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's, you just learn how to live within, you keep, you keep it moving. But, you know, they will be brighter days again.

The agenda will thrive. Bro, he's just making a Hall of Fame. That's it. You're like a natural disaster just happened. I want to be for him. Yeah, I can't. I can't take it. Now, but he's a Hall of Famer.

He is. Yeah, obviously. He's he wanted to start. Derek Rose. You only have three spots. He's iffy. What do you think? He's on the line.

He's two on the line. And I'd rather this. Yeah. I want to keep him so bad. so bad because I think he'll be the only MVP of all time to not make the Hall of Fame. If you want to keep him so bad do it. It's your list. No. But there's other

players who probably have stronger arguments though, so let's watch him up here for now. Okay. Devin Booker. No. Damn. He's down on pace? No. He's the Sun's all times leading score. What do you mean? Cool. Then he can be in the Sun's Hall of Fame.

He's not going to... He's not going in the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. No. Why? What does he have to do to make it? Yeah. Went to the NBA finals played a key part in the Olympics this past summer Again I'm not doing it

I'm not doing it I think he might be I think he might be actually I kind of want to put him But if it's a might If it's a might and a no I think you guys you guys If he's two on the line

Donovan then okay Let's wash our hands off a deep look He better come Bangor names Donovan Or else is over Okay Only one spot left and nah You better be careful

Okay Jalen Brown Finals MVP Oh Donovan, do you see what you just did? Are you aware of this catastrophe that you just created on this list? Guess what?

Jalen Brown is not going to be a Hall of Famer because he doesn't have the five rings yet. So we're going to put him there and we're just going to keep rocking. We have no more space. So are you putting him in now? Yeah, we're going to put him in now. So all three spots are gone.

We have no more space left, Donovan. I understand what the situation is, man. I get where we're at. We should put D-Book there. We should have put D-Bek there. He said, God forbid, I'm not putting Jalen, regardless of it fucks me in the game. Next name, Trey Young. Yes.

Automatically, Hall of Fame. He's, yeah. Despite never making the All-Star game anymore. I guess he's in the Hall of Fame for you guys. Yeah, he's guaranteed 20 and 10, sometimes 30 and 10. Hall of Fame were easy. I like that. Yes.

And last one at least, we have Shea Guildless Alexander. Hall of Famer. Okay. Okay, Donovan. you deserve what good job yeah yeah

should devon booker be there over trey young nah no should derrick rose be there over tray young probably if there was one

if there was one that we if there was one that we were going to it would be it would be Derek Rose over Trayon really you think Derek wait sir the MVP of the league yes you're telling me

Derek Rose is a stronger argument than Devin Booker easily yes right right on Devin Booker a little bit I think he'll probably make it eventually. I think Deepak probably makes it over Derek Rose. Trails aside, I think he has a strong argument. That would, if there is, I'm, I'm going to be nice.

I'm going to be nice. You don't want to, though. I can see it in your eyes. I don't. You feel, you look rabid. I don't. Okay, next thing we're going to do. I don't like the thought of that.

I like the thought of it. It's facts. We're going to go back to hoopgoat.com. A new site we've been using us, all these NBA mini games that we fuck with shout out them go check out the website uh we're going to do another blind tier list it's just like pyramid type thing where we have four slots in the bottom row three slots in the second row two slots in the third row and one slot at the very top you know to make this pyramid shape let me share my screen so you guys and see this okay great reference it yeah and then yeah

so you know we just be blind ranked players and put them where they belong on here last time we did a pretty good job it was uh legends so obviously there was debate and people yelled at us because we didn't put Kobe number one but so be it I think we can do good again that's fine let's do it so first name

we have Isaiah Thomas big one like second row second row really I also last time it was all legends yeah I'm okay going third row to be safe

but if you guys want to go second row I won't argue with it I think third row is the safest thing we could do all right fine we'll go third row I'm sorry Hope we don't regret it I'm sorry

Rajon Rondo Oh shit Fourth row for show What? Walking with a fourth row Lakers legend Got to do it Yeah

We messed up Damn maybe you did Chris Ball I think Chris Paul I think Chris Paul probably Belong side by side With IT He does absolutely

Let's set the standard All right I hope we don't fuck ourselves though I know Hopefully we don't put some bumps up top But I think this is okay Steve Nash

I don't care Steve Nash can not be ahead of Chris Paul and Isaiah Thomas Yeah he's got to be side by side Yeah side by side okay Yeah that's fair Steve Francis Top of the Mountain

Get out of here Get out of here I'm sorry I saw an edit Of the mountain I saw an edit today of Steve Francis and Catino Moblee Listen Steve Francis was like that I'm putting Steve Francis up top

Steve Francis was definitely like that I guess fourth row. Steph Curry. He's number one. Welcome to the top of the mountain. First two. This is clearly all point guards.

Unless Madge Johnson is here, we're putting Steph the top of the mountain. John Morantz, welcome to tier four. No words needed to see you, Doc. Yeah, we messed up. Alan Iverson. Damn, you fucked up. Alan's got to be tier two.

Do I, would I really want him over IT and Chris Paul? No, but it's not indefensible. Yeah. I'm not taking the gamble. Let's go ahead and pick him and take him to her two. Barron Davis Either tier two or tier four Get to that

Get to that fourth Dyer Barron What if tier four is like D'Angelo Russell Don't walk, run Then that's how we're We're looking for Last one at least

Kyrie Irfey Wow Now wait We messed up In terms of fun Tearless This probably makes the most sense Jaws

If we're using our brain This sucks ass If we're using Ah Ah This is dope That's what I'm saying It's Steph Curry Who's the

nomination of both that boy nice nerd point guards and then just fourth row yeah fourth row okay so we didn't do a good job no no we did not everyone and that's the end of the sentence yeah i mean everyone who belonged in the fourth tier belongs in the fourth tier we did good yeah we got we got one in four right in the middle not so much honestly if you just flipped them we'd be done an amazing job but you guys wanted to disrespect like Zeeke. Ah, okay, fine. You went for one.

Sorry, okay, you're right. You got that one. We should have set that standard. Sorry. Third best point guard of all time. Hey. Oh, my God. Is that true?

I don't even know. Let's let him have it. I'm in no position to argue. Just give it to Uncle, bro. Magic, Magic, Steph, IT? Yes. Just give it to him. Okay.

Okay. Next thing we're going to do, you know, we've got to discuss the best player in the NBA, the best duo in the end. NBA, the best team in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lake. Oh my God. What I'm going to do is I'm going to name you several NBA duos.

You tell me who is better, them or Luca and LeBron James. All right. We got five levels of duo. You tell me who's going to be better. Simple. We've done this five level game before. Now it's a duo is with the goats. Level one.

We got Brandon Ingram and Scotty Barnes. Hey. Versed Luca and LeBron. It's not even close. Yep. They're cooked, deep fried, grilled, baked, whatever way you can cook something, bro. Braised. Yeah.

Brailed. All that. Air fried. Air fried. Microwaves. It is what it is. Air chilled. Freeze dried.

We're going with the Lakers. Yeah. Dry aged. Ooh, marinated. Yeah, bro. Cooked. Yeah. We're going to Lakers.

Obviously, level one's always easy. Level two. Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. It's probably going to be a good duo, but still, they're getting fried. I'm sorry, Seth, I love you. You're not touching my wife, boy. It's not happening. Now, if this was like the year 2019 or 2021 or 22, even, hey.

It would still be Luca and LeBron because LeBron was even better back then. Nope. No, no. I don't know. If you have like 22 step versus 22 step and 22. Do you remember who LeBron James was in 2022? No, we're talking about LeBron now. I don't know LeBron now,

2022 Steph and 22. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, even then, I still think Lucas probably just as good as 22 Steph and LeBron now still clears Jimmy. Damn, look at LeBron. I don't know.

22 playoff Jimmy's kind of... Yeah, you're right. Well, no, 22, they didn't do anything. It was 20, 23. They did something. Yeah, 20 was off here. No, no. They were a Jimmy Butler pull-up three away

from getting to the final. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right, you're right. You're right. They almost beat the South Lakes. You're right. Yeah. Nevertheless, level two, we're going to Lakers.

Ultimately, yeah, I'll be in Lakers. Ultimately. Level three, Victor Wemba, and Deerrin Fox. The Lakers got it. The Lakers. We can honestly just get to the fifth level because there's not a lot of people that's going to compete with LeBron and Luca.

Yeah, maybe if this was like Luca and Wembe, then we give it to him. But luckily, the white boys on my side. We're going to Lakers. Fox can't hold up this type of weight. Sorry, buddy. Yeah, sorry, Fox. we love you level four

Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown oh they're getting done up in the worst way possible I don't know they might be able to compete they can't compete they can compete it'll be hard fought you'll think about it for 34 seconds and you'll say Los Angeles Lakers I don't know I don't know I don't know if you gave Luca and LeBron Derek White

Drew Holiday and Chris Osbergis it would be a very different conversation about these teams well guess who has him Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The worst duo. That's who. This is a duos list. So I guess we'll see what happens. Yeah. They're getting wiped for show.

I love the defense. I respected. If Jalen Brown was having a career year, I would understand it. But he's having a slow year. So for now, we've got to go Lakers, I think. Jaylon Brown broke Luca Donchage last year in the finals. Get out of here. This time he's got unc behind him.

It's going to be a different story. He's not going out the same way Kyrie did. Jason Dayton will lock up LeBron right now. In what universe? I can't. You do not believe it. I can't say anything. Okay, level five, Shea and Chet.

She can hold his weight against anybody in the league. Yep, She's the closest to Luca. He's the one that's looking at him out, straight in the eyes. But is Chet, how would it takes against LeBron James? I think so. I don't think any. I don't know. I don't know.

You know what? I'm not mad at going Thunder. mad at it. But I'm not going to do it, though. I'm going to go Thunder. The last time that we saw Chet, Chet had taken it offensively pused the DPLI of the league.

I don't care there was only 10 games into the season. He looked amazing. And since then, Shea scored 50 points like three times in the last two weeks. Okay. I'm going with the Thunder. Donovan went Thunder.

Mo went Lakers. Who am I, but not biased? Give me the Lakers, making them win. Best Dew on the league. Level five is a victory. Damn. The Lakers got the new best duo in the league.

That's crazy, man. This is an easy one, though. Easy, easy. Is there a duo, I forgot? Like, I, I, there's no, like, these are the best duo in the league, I think. I think it's the J's and then, and then Shea, like, I don't know

if there's a better duo out there. I mean, Brunson and Katz was underrated. Get the, oh, okay, yeah, you can fuck off. Should we go Janice and Dame? Are they better? Yonis and Dave. I don't know. Then Brunson and Kat?

Brunson. Are you joking? There's Janus separates. Yeah, relax, yeah, stay over there. Stay over there. Stay over there. person and cat can be up there though but obviously we're still aware higher in the seating yes I will stay here then these geezers yeah I'll stay here yeah I understand I have to fight my

battles because best doing the league is out the question I'm picking my spots here so what who are you who spot are you picking it up against uh I will go after I'll go after Janice and dame are you going after Jamal in um yokech and yokech which No, you can just too far above. I'll go after D. Mitch and Mobley or whichever, whichever two pairing, we're going for y'all. I'll do that. What else? What a low bar?

Okay. What else? Out west, who else? Oh, John Jaron? We're going after that. I mean Jaron and Demon Heddy? True. You're nasty.

Dement Eadie. Yeah. Okay. Last thing we want to do. Top five. We're done talking. talking about the Knicks. This is a Lakers podcast only. Fuck off. Oh, my God.

Next thing we're going to do. Inseverable. Let's talk a little bit more about the Jimmy Butler trade. I forgot to do this early in the episode. I'm going to name you a player from the Golden State Warriors or the Miami Heat. You tell me if they're a winner or a loser of the Jimmy Butler trade. A player. Okay.

Or just somebody involved. It might be a coach, GM, whatever, but somebody involved in these two teams. You tell me if they're a winner or a loser. Okay. Interesting. Let's do it. First of all, keep it easy. Steph Curry. Winner. Big winner.

He don't go to fight for his life no more. And he got so many acts on his team now instead of one. He's a winner. He has someone who could create his own shot. He's a winner. What? The biggest winner. We've been begging for Steph to have any kind of help.

And they went from Andrew Wiggins as help to Jimmy Butler. And if Jimmy Butler, if he could be playoff Jimmy, Steph might be the biggest winner of the year. Hopefully they don't, this allows it so Steph doesn't get triple team to half court. But now there's no more excuses Now he can't be coming out here To dropping 22 points a game He has to get back to some good numbers

Because now he has some help That'll alleviate some pressure He means 30 stuff We'll see that Jimmy plays I got the excuse on day Don't worry, don't worry Steph I'll protect you He said the spacing still isn't good

But he'll still can't shoot Exactly Relax You make something up Relax Yeah but listen Steph went from no health To having two rabid hyenas To attack everybody for him

It's gonna be great Yeah exactly he won Jimmy Butler Is he a winner or a loser He wanted to go to the sun So this isn't his favorite option He's a two-year contract instead of four At the end of the day

He got his bag And he's going to the bay So I think he And he out-meaded Pat Riley That's hard to do Wow What has happened to us? They went

They went dome for dome Just going together like steers Like Rams batting Budding heads To see who would win the meetoff And he got traded You would think Pat Riley Would say not

You're staying here but he didn't after pat riley publicly said yeah we're not trade in jimmy butler guess what yeah you won you traded him and guess what now he has 120 million dollars you made the most hard-headed old man in the country say damn maybe i am washed you're right that's an accomplishment and got bred it in the process yes sir jimmy winner winner winner it's a lot of money okay uh andrew wiggins loser see how is he loser wait how is he a loser everyone everyone said like that it was like it was it was really sad whenever he had had to go they streets is saying that andrew wiggins just had a child now he got to move the baby damn hmm they hate to see it being on planes his baby

is stressful but at the end of the day like he is in Miami great weather still he's a family man now he don't want to be out there play basketball with no criticism after being in the echo chamber of insane warriors fans, he's probably going to be much happier. Yeah, I think he's a solid winner. The winner, why not? Yeah. Tyler Hero.

It's a massive winner. He gets to go ahead and ball out the balls all in his hands. Show us what real all-star Tyler Hero looks like. No distractions. This team is building around Tyler Hero, I guess, now. So he's a massive winner. Joe Lacob, owner of the Golden State Warriors. Loser

Because it took to that long I think we can leave it there I think no matter what We can call Joe Lacob a loser And feel good about it as people I feel like that's a general good stance To have Joe Lacob is a loser Let's stick with it

Yeah exactly Too much dip on a ship Multiple occasions They're gonna hate us out there They're gonna hate us out there We're never gonna invite over again We'll never Say goodbye

You're coming to my building Dremont Green Winner. He's happy as hell right now, bro. Winner. Got his treacherous twin next to him. It's going to be crazy. Yeah, he's going to look around.

Him and Jimmy are going to be like, they're going to be going to be going crazy. And Jeremy's going to be like, you see what I've been having to deal with? I'm not crazy. I told you. It's wild out here. It's like that tweet where it's like, it's always two dumb bitches telling each other, yeah. Yeah.

Always too crazy motherfuckers telling each other, yes. Yeah. Right. I feel so sorry for the referees that got to deal with these two each and every single night. And then you got Steve Kerr over. They're just breaking clipboards and all that too consistently. It's over. Disgusting brothers.

I can't wait to watch it. Disgusting, brothers. I can't think any more losers. Nobody really lost this trade. Oh, uh, hey, Dennis Schroeder, loser. Oh, my God, yeah. Once, once again had to relocate, brother. Someone said, someone said, this motherfucker's a nomad.

Bro. Retired. retire and buy a house he has to be upset he has to be tired is just consistent like up and down then he said like the trade trade season or whatever is like equivalent to modern day slavery or something like that for like he said he did he said that and then proceed to trade his ass three times in 36 hours god damn bro he said you're going to find out you're going to get moved multiple times he said a word a word okay okay Oh, Shayless

And that's the end of the episode If you're still here What should people comment? What do you pick? Disgusting noise. Okay, no, no, no, don't know, I'm just going to say, go ahead. I was just going to say, buy a home, Dennis. Okay, he deserves it low key.

Dennis, buy home. Okay, and we'll see y'all next week.