The Deep 3 Podcast - Winners & Losers Of The NBA Trade Deadline (So Far) | TD3 Live

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Which NBA players have won the deadline 1 week in? #nba Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/thedeep3pod Today we react to all the latest NBA news! Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Join the TD3 discord!: https://discord.gg/RUkjpMPp7E 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 Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Y'all, I think we're live. Are we? You think or do you know? There's a difference. Are we late? I'm like 85% sure. I'm 85% sure we're live and I'm 100% sure we're early. Ah, for early then.

God damn, bro. Who would have known? Look at us. Early? TD3? In what universe? Y'all, we are here. We have much to talk about today.

You know, we're exactly, I said exactly, but I didn't know the exact number. We're about five days removed from the NBA trade deadline. I think that's the number. And today we're here to kind of survey how things have gone so far,

give winners and losers over the last five days, kind of who early returns of trade deadline moves, who's winning, who's losing, et cetera. We're going to react to the news as always. And I think we had to start by talking about the main characters, talking about the team that we've been talking about nonstop for the last week and a half,

the Los Angeles. Jeez, God damn, who cares? What's important about them? Whatever, whatever. Since the last time we talked about them, we haven't made content yet since this happened, but the Mark Williams trade has been rescinded. They got him to the door.

I don't even know why you're celebrating that. Because it sounds like we dodged the bullet. You were happy about it, so I'm happy. I'm sure I'm happy he got rescinded now that we know a little more. Since we last talked, the Mark Williams' trade has been rescinded. did, Dalton Connect is a Laker again. Shout out. Because the physical with the Lakers

showed multiple issues that the team failed him on his exam. And it was not due to his back. His back was already concerned. I, along with everybody else, was going to look past it because the team desperately needed a big man post-Anthi Davis trade. So we're like, fuck it. Let's hope that he stays healthy because if he stays

healthy, having this giant center next to Luca and LeBron gives you a ceiling that might be championship worthy if you get the best out of him. But that was a big if. But that was when we thought only issue he had at the moment was his back. Apparently his skeleton was Swiss fucking cheese because they said there's multiple other issues. This is crazy. His body must be failing. And right now

the hornets are like, no, you're going to take him. Like they're doing everything in their power. They appeal the decision. They're like, we got rid of him for a reason, right? Like he's up for an extension. They're like, we are not going to be the ones that have to give him this contract. You guys accepted the trade. now take it take mark william yeah yeah i mean that's that's what that's what they're trying to do if you're mark will you can do nothing just feel so bad because like these two teams like they basically don't want you no teams want you whatsoever um no the lakers want words the so the horns wanted to sell them off but the lakers saw the papers and they're like ooh he's not that good

because of the you know because of the injuries and whatnot and i don't know do the lakers really want him Not anymore. They were saying that they wanted him to be a new team. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They looked at his fucking his tendons and they realized, oh my God, this shit is like salami and him back.

Not for that price. They clearly wanted Mark Williams. But like, I mean, you know, like you give up, you give up the first round pick. You give up connect. You have other assets. And it's like, all right. Like at a certain point,

it is a little bit too much. You're like, look, if you want to go over there rehab, that's fine. We'll talk to you. about a year, right? We'll see where you're at. We'll follow up. We'll circle back in 2026 in Q4, whatever. But they don't have time, I think, right now because clearly they saw, and we can talk about it a little bit, they saw what we saw last night, which is that, listen, you put Luca and LeBron on the same team. The product looks massively different than what it looked like

before. And so you got to go and get a big man. So I'd like, it just had to be done. Well, I mean, you're saying though they would wait for him But they can't because they're focused on now That's not it at all If they were wanting to wait for the future They would have taken him Because the alternative wasn't get somebody else

In this place, the deadline's over The alternative is nobody You go buy someone off the street Name Alex Lenn Which is fine I guess But this means that they don't want him Period long term This means that they view his health issues

As being detrimental to his long term health And ability to be available To the point where they can't use assets on him at all Because you only have so many to really anger the beginning of Luca Eritu? This is way more than just this year. This means they don't believe in him long term, short term, medium term, anything,

that these issues are so big of a deal that we can't even be willing to wait to see what this can be when he's fully healthy. There is no waiting for anything. They think he's just cooked. The Sean Hunter just tried to pull a fast one, and I love it, man. That haul is insane.

Even when, even when this should happened, like, no one looked at this rate and be like, oh my God, man, the liquids did it again. Like, who did it again? You're making moves. but like this move is really risky like you're throwing in multiple picks of picks off and also an extra pick from 2031 and on top of that to you letting go of a actually

like good productive rookie who couldn't get solid minutes on any team in the league they kind of try to pull a fast one and this actually blessing in disguise for Rob Polinka genuinely yeah I mean people keep saying blessing in disguise but it's just them doing due diligence right like if he was healthy or if he had

ability to be healthy in the near future then they would have kept them, but it was built into the trade that if he's not, we're not going to take him because we're not taking the fucking lemon and turns out they were trying to, like you said,

do a pull of fast one, try to pretend we weren't going to notice that everything was falling apart. And someone in the chat said, Jeff Teague predicted this years ago. I think he meant days ago because Jeff Teague said that the day after the trade happened,

but Jeff Teague said he smells something fishy as soon as his trade broke because why would a team like the Hornets who were rebuilding and have an extreme need for young talent,

why would they trade such a young promising player out of the blue in which case they offered him to the Lakers. Why would they do that? If not to try to get a fast one over on him, if not to try to dump a lemon before anybody notices. And Jeffty was right. That's probably what it was.

Yeah, they tried their best to put the sawdust in the car, you know, roll it back, trying to make the miles look a little bit better. But like, I think, I think for Charlotte, like, they're also, like, I can, the only way that I can see that is that, they are kind of like on the edge of restarting again because like obviously they're in the middle of a rebuild right now or quote unquote retooling because you've had some success with lamella before but you drafted brandon miller last uh two years ago you drafted salon last

year you have you have lamella you're trying to figure that out it's still not going great you just got a you just got a new head coach and there it like if the hornet said you know what we're going to go, we're going to trade Mark Williams, we're going to trade lamella ball at the end of the season during the offseason. And they restarted. That wouldn't be a crazy thing for them to do if now you got assets for Mark Williams and La Mella Ball and you have Brandon Miller as your pseudo star that you're building around and then you can keep moving.

So again, like I can see why it seems fishy. They also suck. And so decisions have to be made moving forward and moving off of a. a guy who who's played less than 50% of his games in three years, that's not the, it's not the worst thing in the world in terms of like process wise for the Hornets. Sure. All that would make sense, if not for the fact that they were clearly trying to sell a lemon. That all makes sense in principle, but now that we know that they failed a physical.

But were they the only ones who had tape on Mark Williams? Like, everybody knows that he hasn't played any games. Like the book on Mark Williams is very clear. So it's like the Lakers were They are the only ones In the first place They are the only ones They have inside information

They are with him every day They know his medicals Everyone knows he's an injury risk The Lakers knew that They made the trade knowing that But clearly it is more severe Than anybody knew from the outside In terms of long term

Availability and long term Risk for Re-injury Only the Charlotte Horns can know that Everybody else has no ability to know that Dude This reminds me of a time in my life Where I What do you have an issue with saying there

That's literally what it is That's not even debatable. That's exactly what happened. No, I'm saying, but I'm, I think I'm, I'm kind of rejecting the idea that like, that the Lakers are like, all scot-free here. You bought, you tried to buy a fixer-upper house. And then you were like, oh, my God, the foundation is, like, you bought it, you bought something knowing that it was jacked up before. And now, no, we knew you're allowed to do that. We know it was this jacked up, though.

That's what I'm saying. You know you're allowed to do that when you buy a fix-repper house, too, right? That's a normal process. It's like it's discounted for a reason. But this is what I'm, that's, that's my exact point is that. But they paid for Mark Williams at non-discounted price. So that's the issue. Donovan, I know what you're saying.

What you're describing also exists in the house metaphor. If you're going to buy a house and you know there's issues, you're allowed to inspect it. And if you see the issues are worse than you thought, you can back out. That's precisely what happened. Like, no, I know. I know. And that's, that's what, but that's also what I'm saying, like, if somebody puts the thing out, knowing, knowing that like stuff is. stuff is bad with it. It's going to happen eventually, knowing that there's processes

in place to where people can go and do their own physicals and all that other stuff right there. So it's like they were just selling like the Hornets have a have a 23 year old player that everyone is like, yeah, it's very promising. But he never plays. And it's like, oh, wow, they're trying to get up on one. No, he never plays. So like here you go. If you want to, if you want to try and take the shot on him, go ahead and take the shot on it. I don't what are you even all right anyways

the Lakers signed Alex Lenn instead do you what is Alex Linn is such a the center in the NBA such a like oh yeah that's one of a guy I can't even pretend

that I know a defining part of his game for the last three years since he's been on the Kings playing less than 10 minutes a game this just feels like they got the most yeah he's big he sets good screens

it's all like outside of that I can't tell you anything specific about how the fit will go. I hope it goes well. He will probably play like 10 minutes a game still. They're going to play a lot of Jackson Hayes, a lot of small ball.

But at least they have a big body. Yeah, they just need someone with actual size. Well, they could have gone anywhere and done anything. And Alex Lund is like the perfect 72 overall center who's just like not good at nothing but being big. Everyone needs those on their team, you know? Yeah. They didn't move.

They need a bigger body because Hayes. Hayes is going to be really good. know in that first game yesterday when Luca came back he looked really good the first two lobs of the game the first two plays of the game were lobs you see how luca is able to elevate athletic bigs and just create nonstop open shots he's been pretty good defensively this year he's a relatively small center in terms of like like thickness you know he's not yeah yeah he's not a great rebounder he's not big to bang around the post with like a yokech or whatever Alexling usually the opposite he's a he's a much more sturdier big that can be necessary for those type of playstiles

Yeah, they had to do something, you know, after they caught their lemon. So, yeah. Good. Just as a labor for getting their business. Some of us said he's, Alex Lenn is a dollar store, Stephen Adams. Yeah, basically. I guess I don't do the play style. Sure.

Yeah. I guess that's an accurate, accurate thing. It sucks. Timing of this just absolutely sucks, of course, because now they are just pigeons to hold until only Alex Lenn being the only option. And the reason why they paid so much is because the, the big market is just so small and considering the timing of things

like this is all they got. Yeah. Our next new story relating to the Luca Donchish trade still, Nico Harrison has hired a full-time security team to guard his home after trading Luga Donchich. This team is moving so funny after this trade. They are making such a point

to highlight this type of stuff and to highlight these death threats that are coming on Nico Harrison. They're not showing any fans on the Jumbotron during games because the one time they did it, a guy came on screen and he was like fire nico harrison like mouthing this team is moving crazy it's like they're at war with their fans right now and they're putting stuff into the media like this like clearly the team told malika andrews this to try to like buy sympathy or something like

it's crazy what's happening guys don't be mean to deco man he didn't really do it he didn't mean it it's just basketball he meant it he meant it he meant to trade luka away wholeheartedly and It's crazy that he had to go, you know, get police presence. However, I understand because of the state that they are in, right? I understand. Like, if this was, if this was, you know, any other state, maybe not. But the access to danger here is a little bit different. So, like, you know what I'm saying?

So sometimes you have to just, you have to take, take that precaution. It is very, very funny how at every single turn, the Mavs are like, yes, we stay. by this decision and then they go and they tell the media and then they're like listen it's not looking too good like we kind of we got to have to move here because people do hate us and our fans don't really like us and why do we do it can't really tell you everything just know that we just know that we were justified in what we were trying to do but i can't tell you ask the guy with the security that's the guy who's scared okay not shout out show fans on the jimbotron that's hilarious that is embarrassing that is How are people going to get their t-shirts?

They're not. We're going to do an anti-t-shirt environment. How are people going to go ahead and do trivia? That's what I'm saying. How are you going to find which ball that the cup is in after it rotates in three cups? And you do that. You mess it up. The race cars.

The arena experience. Yes. There's so much stuff. You got to pick your color. Shout to shrimp de Rine for tipping $1.29. He said, Cooper de Gene Donovan, we did it. Fly Eagle, Fly. sing the song yeah yeah i don't understand well actually i think you do understand you won the championship

four years ago mo you will never understand what this you're like to have your favorite team be a champion of a league you will never understand what this is like i love this shout out my white boy shout out of kuba the jean shout out there and there you go shout of your champions we're champions we're champions oh that's enough of that Shout out to Horsi Yolk, you're tipping $6.34. He said, Don, I hope you like the donation amount. The true final score. Fourth quarter was garbage time.

Also, who do you think has done more damage to the Dallas franchise? Jerry Jones or Nico Harrison? Man, that's-easily Nico Harrison. Easily Nico Harrison. Next new story. ESPN story on the panel ruling in favor of Mark Lorry and Alice Rodriguez, taking over for Glenn Taylor as the new owners of the Minnesota Timberwolves. this lawsuit has reached a conclusion.

Hey man, Timberwolves have new owners. And the only thing we know about Mark Lorry and Alex Rodriguez is a leaked proposed ownership takeover plan where they said their plan was to cut salary. So that was pre-Carles and Towns Trade. That's already been done. We'll see if that continues. But outside of that, outside of the promise

to make the team cheaper, maybe they're amazing. It's a blank slate. We don't know. Julius Randall, pack your bags, call your realtor. You're going to be, you're going to be on the move, buddy. This whole lake. You're ready to speak Chicago Bulls.

You are getting traded for Zach Collins' expiring contract this summer. I'll go ahead and you send you on Zillow links, buddy. Don't worry about it. I'm on it immediately. Nikiel Alexander Walker, get ready to speak Los Angeles Lakers after LeBron James takes a pay cut and they sign you to play next to Luca Dantches. This guy is so delusional, Donovan. ever think that LeBron James is taking a pay cut. A pay cut, LeBron James?

That's not even delusional. He would did it if he got somebody. This summer, I think they'll get somebody. Yeah, maybe we'll take a $6,000 pay cutters. That's like the 100th least delusional thing I've said. Like, that's not delusional at all. That's pretty fucking likely. Well, guess what?

I'm going to call the other 99 things you said delusional. Anything that comes out of your mouth for the next four months, I'm calling it delusion. I don't like the way you've been moving. You've been moving with a little bit too much confidence. and I don't like it, okay? I don't appreciate it. So, yes, you're going to call you delusional. Some of the chats at Kyrie to the Lakers.

I'm noticing the plot, too. I understand what you're looking at. I'm not talking about, man. My finger is on the pulse. I see the storyline unfolding. But next news story, Toronto Raptors and star Brandon Ingram have agreed to a three-year,

$120 million contract. How are you all feeling about Brandon Ingram anchored himself for the next three years to the Toronto Raptors and vice versa. That's who's genuinely surprising. It's very encouraging to see, I guess, Masai Jir, go ahead and commit to Brandon Ingram long term like this.

Of course, they kind of had to because his contract expires this upcoming summer. But I'm hoping that Brandon Ingram is the fit in the high-octane score that they're looking for because they actually need that alongside some like Scottie Barnes, who's probably a second or third option offensively. so hey like i hope this shit works out there's a lot of commitment yeah i actually i actually kind of disagree with that though i i don't think that it's that it's a massive commitment and i and i actually expected to see this from a sigeria like once again the raptors at the deadline traded a first round pig you went out and got somebody when you probably should be

like prioritizing tanking but brandon ingram is still young enough to where him and scotty barnes and that fit like that can help push you guys forward especially because The Raptors, you know, like Messiah always talks about trying to be like competent and making moves forward. So yeah, it's good to have him there. And then you wouldn't necessarily trade for a guy like Brandon Ingram if you weren't prepared to give him a contract. So I'm, I like, this is kind of like on schedule. In three years, I actually don't think like, even though that the NBA moves super fast now, I don't think that three years is a massive commitment. I think that that is like the perfect amount of time and the best of both worlds where Brandon Ingram can get his, he can get his money,

his $40 million a year. And after two years of whatever experiment and whatever, you know, team building, a B. I, you are on an expiring contract. We can trade you if it's not going well, right? If it's, if nobody wants to, wants to take, take you on, fine. We'll just run our course and you'll go somewhere else. But I think it's a, this is a very, very, like, best case scenario for both sides in terms of the deal. So I like it, though. And it, but it does make a lot of sense. Yeah, they're obviously going to do this. You don't, you don't trade for him without planning on extending him. You don't give up assets for guys that's going to be here for four months. So it was definitely going to happen. Forty billion dollars is a fine number. I don't really

care. I probably would have wanted like 32 or whatever for Brandon Ingram, but 40's okay. The only problem is now they have, they have $127 million a year tied up to Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, and Emmanuel Quickly. And that is like contender core money for a team that's horrific right now and branding will make them a little bit better so that's fine but that's still too much money for your core for rj barrett and or manual quickly count your days you will soon believe in the country this summer one of you is being shipped back to america if it's quickly you're going back home if it's rj barrett get ready to get deported again one of them is going to be gone probably depending on what happens in the draft if they get a high pick and get

dylan harper amenel quickly get ready to speak america again if not rj barrett get to speak america again I 100% agree. If it's not going to be someone like Dylan Harper, then Emmanuel quickly, congratulations. You've made it another round to be a Toronto Raptor for life. Congratulations. But I will say my, like, instincts tell me almost no matter what it's probably going to be RJ Barrett because you need the most amount of space as possible if you're going to commit to B.I. and Scotty Barnes as your like core duo for the next few years.

regardless of RJ Barrett makes total sense to be salary dumped like again so I mentioned the Bulls and having that Zach Collins expiring contract

I could totally see them taking on R.J. Barrett giving Collins that expiring contract and RJ Barrett is the perfect

Bulls player man he is he is yes the Bulls they honestly they collect RJ Barrett they got like

a couple white RJ Barrett a couple old RJ Barrett a couple young RJ Barrett now they get the real RJ Barrett

it makes all the sense in the world yo they might get like 36 30 seven once next year if they do that. I love that trade. It's going to be really crazy when they end up trading for RJ

and Julius Randall. And they just like, they just recreate the 2020 Knicks. Dude, that'd be amazing. Treacherous basketball. Next new story, we have a free agency signing that happened in the past few days.

Ben Simmons is now a member of the Los Angeles Clippers. Are you moved by the idea of backup power forward, small ball center, Ben Simmons playing next to the guys on the Clippers. he's still in the lead

he's been dating this year he has he has some he is a very small scale low minute role player like there's some interesting things there no no I'm not I'm not moved at all and I think at this point

honestly I did gain just a little bit of respect for Ben Simmons though because he's like listen I'm only living in New York or L.A. I'm not doing anywhere in the middle I have a

standard of life that I love to live. And if I have the choice, I'm going to continue to do that. I'm going to be in a place where I can get fits off. I'm going to be in a coastal city, and I'm going to be on a team where I don't really have to do much. So shout out to Ben Simmons for, you know, picking

your life. It's like a Sims movie for him. It's awesome. I think there's some interesting things you can do. He's still a good defender. He's not, like, a great defender anymore. He obviously can't play a lot of minutes because you're always going to be scared of him getting hurt. And he can't, like, score. He's not going to be aggressive going in the basket at all but you view him the same way you would have viewed a team

signing like that is young for years ago when he was at often available passing a little power forward that can give you some line of versatility i don't hate it you know for nothing they have now they have some more passing talent on the roster it could be interesting yeah yeah i mean i agree with you this team it generally sitting down ben simmons does not make your team any worse in the NBA whatsoever because of his natural skills with playmaking and defending and all that but at the same time too

your expectations need to be dumb low like don't expect too much don't expect 15 points or 10 points a game don't even expect it's like seven or eight points a game expect two three a couple nice passes you can you can pray for like four rebounds a game that you'll be happy

that's that's ridiculous those are expectations no no it's fair like at this point in his school career, it's reasonable and it is realistic to, you know, to ask him to have like a two, four, five kind of night. But it's just wild that like Benzian. Be the god of triple singles. Yeah.

Damn. Ben Simmons a couple years ago. Now it's like, you know, it's just crazy. It's wild. Speaking of wild, next news story, Joelle Lindbitt is weighing the possibility of getting another long-term recovery knee surgery. that right now he's met with several specialists that don't see a clear

process to fix the knee right now and one of the options is another long-term surge that will hopefully get it right but will require a big exit and big recovery time and I hope he does it I think right now is really really sad that it feels like we're witnessing a player

who will never be healthy again for two weeks in a row and this shit if it takes you a year-long recovery which is obviously dramatic at this point do it because either you sit out for six months or whatever it is

and you lose the rest of the season or if you try to fight through it like he always has and avoid that which is how we got here I think it's over so if I'm a six years fan I want him to just do

the long term surgery and pray that they somehow do some medical miracle and after that they can be on top of this it's over it's over I think any time

that anytime like news stories comes out and we're talking about players we're talking about their health and you read the word specialist I'm out It's a lot. It's a lot.

And like him and his recovery process, the fact that at the beginning of the season, he was talking about his knee swelling wasn't hurt at all. Just knee was swollen. That part in itself has showed us for the last six to seven months that obviously it is something serious. You can't do anything. It wouldn't even surprise me if he had to go and get to surgery.

And now he's out for like a year, a year and a half like you said that you know a year recovery time it sounds crazy yeah but his knee situation is also very very wild that it's gotten to this point this quickly and it is like this severe so i would not i would not be shocked but if you're a sixist fan yo like i don't know go go go go be with your family for the rest of the year you have you don't have anything to look forward to this year they got the eagles they got the eagles yes yes you do have that. Someone's a wise

boat 240 P. The season's over. The season's over for the Eagles. So you can celebrate. Celebrate. You just have the next three to six months. No. No.

Just celebrate until the NFL draft when you know they're going to draft like four more starters and it's going to be great and just ride that hype. Yeah, exactly. I agree. Some that makes you really sad about this whole process is seeing how

fucking he played for Team USA during the summer and he didn't have the best showcase. They still won, of course. He did contribute to a game or two in a massive way. But seeing him sacrifice, like, possibly like the last consistent stretch of being healthy for the country is kind of heartbreaking a little bit. Now, again, he did it for the country. So I guess you could be like, oh, what a true martyr. There's a metaphor there.

Come on, now. Next new story. Dave McMedam... It's a little shaky, but I... Dave McVetteman is being messy and he reported that LeBron's camp took notice of how quickly the Lakers' trading picks

to appease Luca Donchich while LeBron had wanted the same for years. Quote is, what is clear is that Donchich will have a say and it wasn't lost on James's camp. That Rob Polinka prioritizes Donch's involvement upon his arrival and immediately engaged in the Williams' trade

that he'd asked for when James had for years wanted the team to trade his pick to improve its roster Dave McMedman you are a messy motherfucker he reported this

the same day that Luca made his debut yes drama queen so how'd you feel how you feel about LeBron's camp noticing

quote unquote this is nasty work what is there to notice that they did what Luca wanted surprise surprise you trade for a superstar and you try to build around him in the way he likes. Congrats on noticing that, Rich Paul.

It's not even that. Luca is 25. He's 25 years old. When LeBron signed with the Lakers, he was 34. The Lakers also in their hand were like, man, this guy's 34. It's not going to go on for much longer. Like, you still, they probably still had that expectation. And so, yes, there's a decade age gap between Luca and LeBron when he signed.

And even now, you're talking about, oh, we'll have the Lakers been in the last two to three years. You mean when LeBron was 38, 39, and 40? No, I'm not going to listen to you. Oh, man, go talk to the cloud. I'm not going to mortgage my future. But we have Luca Dachia now, who is, again, 25 years old, about to turn in 26 in three weeks. Yes, I will listen to him. I'm not going to listen to you about what you do for the next seven years.

So it makes sense. They also got him, Anthony Davis. And then got him Russell Westbrook, which obviously didn't work out. but that to LeBron, I'm sure at the time, was viewed as a positive addition that he wanted. So I think Dave McBendeman is making something out of nothing

at the timing of this report is the game. The game is the game. I'll just say, leave it there. See, I understand. I'm not gonna lie. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm reaching. But I feel like since this trade has happened, LeBron is playing with an extra pep in the step

to just be like, guys like, hey, like I'm still that guy. I know my age says whatever it says, but like I can still do really cool things on the basketball for you and he's been playing on 10 of the late you've seen yeah he's definitely motivated by lucas arrival yeah you've seen him twice this year and to where it's like super super apparent first whenever uh the first time that he played de angelo russell he sat down in his stance he was ready last last night again sat down in the stance he was ready he's like

oh lucas here we're about to go to the chip i got to show out for him yes those those those times like you see you see very clearly whenever lebron is energized whenever he's like ready to dial it up and also the also break is coming up this week so he's like this is a perfect time i can show out for like three games go you know go rush for a week and then come back and yeah lovely it all everything always makes sense when you start to think about it shout out to adam for tipping five dollars he said donovan you got some pretty eyes okay thank you got you that donovan got him tell you that donovan got a off guard. Did anybody ever tell you that?

I'm gonna take the I'm gonna take the compliment. Shout out to ADI for tipping $2.991. He said, do you think the Las Vegas Mavs are still contenders? Speaking of what Mazz is the Las Vegas Mavs? Yeah, speaking of the Las Vegas Mavs. Anthony Davis played his debut game. Looks phenomenal. They beat the shit out of the Rockets and for the three quarters of Anthony Davis

was there, it looked like they were, it made sense to build defensively and unlock 80 size again at the floor. And it was so beautiful. And then you heard his groin. And now we've got a report from Mark Stein that there is a fear that Anthony Davis may be out indefinitely. He will be out at least the next month probably. And there is looming fear that it might be more serious, TBD on what the final outcome would be. But there is some, some chance in the world that he might miss in a long, long period of time that maybe ends up being the rest of the regular. season we don't know yet damn damn damn yeah nico harrison might have to hire two security squads he might have to get two one for the front and one to walk in front of him one to walk behind him

he needs every angle covered because if anthony davis i pray it doesn't happen but if he's out indefinitely and he misses enough time to where the mavericks fall out of the playoffs and you're safe you. It's not going to look good. I said this a week ago. There needs to be revolution. Dallas Mavericks fans, start reading some books

that might not be allowed in your Texas schools. It's time for revolution. It's time to seize the team. They're trying to. They're trying to. They're doing little by little. Again, they went on the jumbo trine.

They shut it down. They protest outside the stadium. all the time they brought a coffin to the arena they're doing their part. Come on comrades it needs to happen this is the price that you have to pay when it comes to trading for someone like Anthony Davis you know like he's 32 years old injury prone shit happens we need a burn down

American Airlines Center today Retribution Allegedly Allegedly Somebody commented in all caps Isaac Justin Herbert sucks randomly. They really

trying to make sure I know. So to make sure I know. But yeah, so the tip ADI, the tip $2.91 said, do you think they're still contenders? Sure, if they have

Anthony Davis. I mean, but at this point if he misses a long period of time, they've been aware about making the fucking playing. The Warriors are looking good want to show Jimmy Butler. They might pass them up.

The Spurs has got Deere and Fox. They might pass them up. The Timberwolves are thriving right now without Julius Randall. There's a lot of competition to even. make the playoffs depending how long anthony a davis is out it is no longer safe that they're going to like have a good opportunity i'll say this too slowly and this would be a crazy thing to

happen don't think it's necessarily going to but there's a team in the pacific northwest that is kind of making their own push towards the playing and the mavericks need to be scared of getting to that range which wrong listen you look at the sentence look at the sentence look Look at the Sandys. They're making their push, though. They have the same amount of wins as, they have the same amount of wins as the spurs. January basketball is fake.

We're in February. And they lost two in real since February started. I've not played this two games in 11 days. Anyways, next new story. Dallas Maverick star Kyrie Irving has replaced Anthony Davis in the All-Star game, and Trey Young is replacing, Gianna Cumpo.

Were those the right choices? I feel like Trey's like collecting a whole entire like finger full of here damn and here damn like fucking All-Star elections, bro. Like it's kind of sad. But also we don't take it. We don't get it

regardless of like it fucking counts. It's going to show up on his basketball references that he's like a what five-time All-Sar now. We'll take it. I'm kind of embarrassing. It's the only way to get in for a player of his caliber. but it is what it is at that point. He has to tell, like, I do understand because he is, again, he is massively underrated and disrespected from not getting these all-star nods,

and you do want them on your resume at the end of the day. But also, you have to tell somebody to go kick rocks and don't call my phone. Like, I think that, like, the trade, like at a certain point, like you said, they're really just. just like pity All-Star appearances. I feel like the the optics of that

at a certain point could get annoying. So I went over. I wasn't looking to do it too much. It's hard to make it. I'm going to Cobble. You're going to take it for sure. But also,

it's not a bad thing. You have to think it's bad for branding and just your career overall. He just supposed to be like, nah, fuck that. Like that's insane. And nobody remembers.

Nobody remembers ever. Two weeks after the selection happens, nobody remembers that a selection was injury replacement. They just get the branding of All-Star. Gianty Murray, injury replacement. Scottie Barnes, injury replacement. People just say they're All-Star season. Like, everybody completely forgets immediately.

You take that shit and you keep moving. Yeah, exactly. The only injury replacement, All-Stars that people will not forget is the year Mike Connolly get in. That's when people start in mind. Mike Connolly or Gorondragic or something egregious that happens like that, then sure. But most of the time, it's not

that crazy. And you know, there is that thing that people keep pointing out every year that we've had the same amount of all-star spots despite expanding the league several teams that is crazy like there should be more spots so i'll never look at an injury replacement as like lesser because at this point we should have like 14 or 15 spots instead of 12 yeah i agree yes but when you have three straight injury replacements you start like mo said you start to think about his all-star appearances as a oh here you go yes for those two weeks though for those two three three weeks whenever it continues. But it happens every year. It happens every year. I guess what I haven't

thought about it in 11 and a half months. I haven't thought about it a single time that he gets Mickey Mouse all-stars completely forgot talking about like yeah and whenever anyone's talking about like oh here you go like all-star selections like no one is when you're having serious conversations about whatever all-time player you don't go back and think about like certain all-star selections like Kobe Bryant his last year and the NBA. Well that's different. That's different. That's actually a fake all-star. That's different. That's different. That's a difference. You don't want to do any All-Stars, though, for real.

But you can talk about it. What, first of all, once you get to like 17 all-star appearances, it's like, you have more All-Star appearances than, like, five other players than every player other than five in the history of the sport. I'm saying for Trey Young, at least for, and maybe I'm just thinking about it differently, but I'm looking at him and, like, I still consider him, like, an All-Star-Calibre player. Definitely. But there have been times, especially over this last year.

Oh, yeah, Trey didn't make the All-Star team. And then, like, you'll go back and you'll look and you're like, oh, he actually did. Why? Because he was an injury replacement. But as I'm thinking about Trey Young right now, it does not feel like Trey Young is ever considered as an all-star rather just all-star caliber. And so I think, like, there might be a population of people out there. And for Trey, it's like, is it bad for Brandon? For what branding, your team is not good.

You're probably going to request a trade. Like, I don't think it would be terrible. The Hawker 3 and O since the trade, noticing how the playmaking has been coming into fruition and DeAndi Hunter, the loss of him has not mattered. Wonderful. I'm just taking note. Great. I hope it goes well for you. Next to the story.

All-Star discourse a little bit. Adam Silver says there could be a USA versus World format in the All-Stra game one day. Man, shut up, Adam. Nobody really, damn. Obviously, nobody really cares about the current format with the three-team drafting. We'll see if it surprises people,

but it was met with, like, exactly zero excitement, I think, from the players or fans. Do you want to see this? Is this another option that maybe would inject some life into the games? No. It's fun.

Yeah. It's great for people like Gilbert Arena's pro. Okay, let's let Mo. What are you think? I mean, I hate everything regardless. no but it's not but it's not even hate like it's not even hate hate hate like that i'm telling adam to shut up so that he can save his breath because i don't think that there's anything that he specifically can do i don't think that there's a format that he can that he can um decide on

that would inject the the life into it i think that like having four all-star teams it honestly is a pretty cool idea having players draft uh draft teams that's a cool idea none of it matters if the aren't going to go out here and actually try even for a quarter or anything you can try the elam ending all of it none of it matters unless the players do something so on the chat to bro is so bald it's a picture of adam sober on screener now oh yeah oh you just so ball but yeah it just it just doesn't the it doesn't fall on adam silver and i know it's i know it's literally his job to try and fix this stuff and yeah and to try and like be creative but it's not not on him. He can't do it. It's on the players.

Kevin Durant? What are you prepared to do about it? Nobody believes in you. Nobody. He's prepared to do nothing about it. He's prepared to go home and I care. Shout out to Mike Oxlong for tipping $10 and $69. And shout out to Rosa for tipping $25. I appreciate both of you. That's all the new stories today. Appreciate all y'all. Tiping like always. Next thing we'll talk about let's do with the title of this episode. says we were going to do, it's being men of our words, 40 minutes into the show. Let's talk about the winners and losers of the NBA trade deadline so far. So really what we're saying is after every team that made trades has played a few games,

who, you know, what are the big stories so far? Who's shining from the trades, who maybe made a mistake and so on. Mo, you can go first. Who's the first big winner of the trade deadline so far? Shit. I guess we can go ahead and start with the obvious, the Lakers, like. That was not ready. you said what

that's a dude you were not ready to go first no it was I don't want to talk with the Lakers or the hogs let's just fucking talk about the Lakers bro it's not that I wasn't right I don't want to talk about the Lakers again because we started it off with the Lakers and I guess I fucking have to shit

but yeah it's the clear as day the biggest winner so far just a couple of days from the trade deadline is the Lakers you got Luca Dodgers for fucking nothing basically that was you got You just let go, Anthony Davis.

You finally see... Nothing. Yeah. Anthony Davis. Yeah, you finally see these two LeBron and Luca, like, come into the court and play. Luke is finally healthy. Although he didn't, like, play the greatest game, he's coming back from... I guess the last time you played was what?

In Christmas, December or so. And so, yeah, it's the Lakers, bro. This is the biggest fucking winner ever. Mo with the South Sudan Internet. That's crazy. No, no, no, no, we're not standing for that. We're not speaking for that. Give him some of pixels, please.

I know. They're cooking you. They're cooking your internet. I know. That one you can't read it. They're cooking. Let's give them some pencils, please. Like a good neighbor, Mojo is there.

I don't know what that would means. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, obviously, Lakers and winners. They played their first game together. They play their first game together. Well, calm down. They played their first game together. And Luca did not look in shape.

He looked like he missed no, a month and a half. So like, it looked how you'd expect with somebody coming into a new team after missing some time of injury. He was kind of doing a lot more corner sitting than he normally would. He was doing a lot less on ball than normally would where he normally does all the on ball touches in the world. And they still beat the living shit at the jazz by like 40 points in the third quarter. You kind of saw everything come together and you're like, oh.

offensively at least when this when these guys are right this is going to be scary it's kind of hard to gauge how good this team is because it's the utah jazz and how can you take anything that utah jazz does on the basketball court in the year 2024 2025 like any somewhat serious at all this is like a feels like a fucking college basketball team outside of larry marketing john collins but you know the vision is there seeing how he's deploying austin rees and starting him alongside Luke and LeBron has been super interesting. I wonder if that's ever going to change

and if they're going to like sooner than later throw DFS into that starting lineup. But as of now, like the vision is there. Yeah. Yeah. It is. And like you, I mean, like you saw Luke on like the minute's restriction and everything.

So like he has like you said, he hasn't played since, since December. You give, you give Luca, especially this upcoming week where everybody's off and he has, you know, more time to get back and heal and stuff. By the time March rolls around, the Lakers have a real chance to go on a run, and it sucks to say, but yes, they are going to make their run. They're going to make their push, and they can get pretty high up.

Yeah, this team is going to be extremely good. I think we're starting, they switched a lot. It was a much more switch-heavy scheme like I expected whenever they lose Anthony Davis, adding Luca, who that's where he's at his best defensively. they're going all in on offense going all in on using the size they have to switch a lot and hope that we can cause enough with effort

Jared Vanderbilt has really changed their defense the last 12 games even without AD he's really made a big difference to playing this really fast frenzied style of defense and if they can maintain that effort and maintain the buy-in we saw from Luca last night defensively and LeBron who like you said Donovan was moving those fucking beat like he hasn't all year

if they can maintain that the offense will undoubtedly be one of the best in the NBA that that helps defensively too so high effort defense plus the natural offensive skill set these three passengers playing together it's hard not to think this is going to be one of the best teams in the NBA I don't know yeah it is one of them I don't know if they're going to get closer to one than they are to five but I feel like this is like you know that's the the ceiling we're talking about yeah the only thing stopping them is their big man

rotation and at this point in time it's probably the worst or the second worst big man rotation in the entire NBA. But outside of that, like, if you have these two amazing passers and just scores and two of the best all-round players of the NBA can offer outside of Nicole Yokic, a very good third option, Austin Reeves, who's made a legitimate leap

over the course of the year. And then on top of that, too, a pretty decent surrounding cast. Dude, I've never seen Gabe Vincent look so fucking locked in in my entire life. I've never seen this shit out of ball. I think he actually realizes that, like, yo, he's in jeopardy. He saw the fear that was in Dalton Connect's eyes.

He's like, yeah, I don't want to be like that guy. I actually have to make smart reading a cut to actually make these goddamn shots. Robling is not going to hesitate to trade me away. Yeah. Shout out to Jordan Pool, Pool Boy for tipping $43.98. He said, got to donate to get Mo off to Happy Mill Wi-Fi. Appreciate you. My Wi-Fi.

Every dollar counts. Every dollar counts. We'll save them. We'll save them one dollar at a time. Donovan, who's the first loser of the deadline so far? I hate to keep being a dead horse, but it's clearly Nico Harrison in terms of like the biggest loser. But. Besides Nico Harrison then.

Yeah, yeah, besides Nico. I do think that it's the, it's the Sacramento Kings. I know, I know you. I know you got Zach Levine I know you got Levine I know you have been bad for the better part of 20 years and you don't necessarily want to go into a rebuild but I do think that you have to see the writing on the wall

and I think that out of a lot of teams that were backed into a corner they kind of allowed themselves to get played more than other teams and this is a spot where you as an organization have to really, really strengthen your own backbone.

Dearon Fox had a year and a half less on his contract. You did not have to trade him at this deadline. I understand that he was unhappy and the, like, the word had already gotten out and, you know,

listen, maybe Clutch set the black SUVs up there to Sacramento and all right, like, they got to take it out. It's going to be black TVs. Why can't there just be a stand-up organization and just like listen to their franchise guys? be like there you give us all this your bustling tears for all these years we'll go ahead and trade you

away whoever you want no but i don't i don't think i don't think that they had to to do it i don't think that that this would have been the absolute best package um in terms of future like setting yourself up for the up for the future and so i think that the kings probably you know probably could have gotten a better deal in terms of draft capital if they had waited and I think that right now they put themselves in another position where they're once again in no man's land I don't know if they have a direction right now and that kind of sucks for the kings who a year and a half two years ago were like oh yeah where the upstart kings were moving forward all this stuff is going well I don't know where where they

stand right now and that that really sucks and that's why I look at them at this deadline I think of them as a loser yeah uh if it wasn't for demarta rose and hitting a game winning shot over a double team stepping through and winning against the Mavs they would have lost three in a row after the Zach Levine acquisition so it hasn't been pretty yet the problem is they're not starting Keone Ellis and that's a problem because as we you know kind of know the De Mardorosen like presence kind of hamstrings them because they can't bench him for respect reasons politics reasons just he's a star you brought in you're not bringing to marteros not the bench it's not realistic and they want to empower him or Leake Monk to kind of step into the air in fox's shoes

and be the lead playmaker and they just got Zach Levine. Like, you're running out of players that can come off the bench for Keone Ellis, but we all know they need the defense, they need the spacing. So it's a tough spot to be in that I don't know what they can do about it. We'll see how it ages because, again, they're just as talented with Zach Levine, but the fit, it makes sense if he didn't have DeMarter Rosen with him being there. I don't know if we'll be able to see the maximized version of them. It was just, it's awful.

What was the first move that they did whenever they fired Mike Brown? starting the key on Ellis you know what I'm saying and then what did they do one seven straight and now you make this acquisition replace them so it's like

you are going back to the thing that made you fire your coach and so now you're like 50 games into a season with a firehead coach a traded franchise player and you're doing the things that set all of those things back in motion and you are without those two guys

so again you're looking at the situation and it's like what's going on here like what what happened so yeah yeah another loser because it's a lot easier to give winners it's a lot easier to give winners here from the acquisitions another person i think is a loser they're not no magic they have lost six to the last eight games pala man cares been back for all them franz wagner's been back for most of them their offense is straight up horrific they have lost all the positive momentum they had early in the year when palo got hurt and franz wagner kept them afloat is the four seed winning all those games leading the offense

that's not there anymore. This team, I think, clearly, needed some offensive life and injection, and this summer they had all the money in the world to open up a lot of money. All they did was resound their guys to sign KCP. KCP was a good signing, but at the time I said,

I would have wanted to see more with the bountiful amount of money you had. Only KCP is a little disappointing. Okay, but fine. We're running together. We'll see what happens. We know there is a long-term vision here. You entered this season.

The offense is the worst in the NBA by far. you get at the deadline, you would think you would try to add a little bit of firepower and do a little bit of something. They did exactly nothing. The offense is not looking good as of late. It hasn't gotten any better in the recent few games either.

I still think it looks stinky. I'm kind of worried. Yeah. I mean, it starts at the head of the snake, of course. They've always had the issues with spacing no matter what, and I agree with you. They're like consistently losers. It feels like they've been losers

over the last two years when it comes to the trade deadline because we see the framework of this team being so good behind their defense and their two, like, guys, the two franchise guys, and Franz Bogner and Paula Vancaro. And it's true, they took an L dating back to the offseason, like you said, took him another massive L when it comes to passing up on guys like Kobe White, because who knows if he would have been for sales, the Chicago Bulls, or for God's sake, like, we don't know what's going on in their mind. And Free of Simons, I don't know how to think about the Portland Trailblazers because they're actually, like, decent. and so just seeing them sit on their hands to do absolutely nothing is the most damning and worse than you can do. Get a low level player.

Get fucking Lamry, Landry shamit or something like that. Someone who can shoot like 37% and put the slightest bit of fear into your defender's hearts. Yeah. Donovan has a magic delegate to the show. How are you feeling?

Not great. You know, like it's not, it's not going really well. and like you watched that game against listen like most against most hawks you know part part of their their little win streak but like

you you I was waiting in that second half and in the fourth quarter like okay now it's palo's time now it's front time and like the offense can finally just like get flowing and it never really got there and I think I think part of part of having those

two forwards and this like defensive infrastructure is like You know, we can kind of survive all game, and we're just going to live on the fact that we'll play good defense, and when the time comes, our two guys are going to make plates, and they're going to make enough shots and make enough reads and do all that stuff to where they can carry us. It's a lot of pressure when this team and when the offense isn't top 20. Yeah, bro. That's honestly, that's the bar that we're trying to clear at this point. When I even ask, right, when I even asking for the magic to get up to average. league average 13th in the NBA.

That's not what we're trying to get to. Get to 20 and you can start to play Orlando Magic Basketball. Something else, Donovan, that I got to say that you're not saying is that I'm very, very scared for Powell Bankero and I am having him under my microscope. Seeing him struggle offensively, whatever, like, that happens. But I'm just starting to worry. Like, offense, cool. But if you're not going to, like, be super impactful on the defensive end to, like,

Their defense is good, but their defense isn't, it's not number one defense in the NBA. Their defense isn't good enough to save them on offense. And they've been able to, like, carry that on over the last, you know, few 14, 16 months or whatever or so. But if they're going to be trying like this, there's going to be real conversations. I will stay quiet for now about Palo Bancaro and give him more time to come back from injury. I gave him credit during those five games and which you proved me wrong as somebody who would is saying let's calm down a little bit on the Palibank Carol hype as of now I am noticing I'll leave it there we'll give it a couple more weeks

stop you've already noticed I've seen your Twitter you already noticed I never stopped noticing I've been noticing but I will leave it at noticing for now and not I will be less I will be vocal about my noticing later oh I'm not I'm just not sharing my thoughts yet but we'll get there a couple more weeks I'll give them more grace period but the noticing never ended we'll leave it there No. The next winner of the deadline so far, Steph Curry.

Obviously, the Golden State Warriors added something like Jimmy Butler, and there was like mixed reaction, I think. I think part of it was the Luca hype kind of had people not really giving a shit about every other trade that happened after. But even outside of that, I think there was some pushback all year about should the Warriors get Jimmy Butler,

does Jimmy Butler move the needle for this team? Is it good enough, yada yada? Personally, I've wanted them to do it all year. I've been very vocal that. I think he's exactly what they need. I think the fit would be great. I think he'd help Steph Curry a lot. It would be a good fit with Draymond,

the shooting office system they have. Through two games, I'm feeling good about that. I'm feeling good about being on Jimmy Butler Island because everything this team needs, he's brought them so far. This team has no slasher's last two years. They've been last in the league in the rim volume for the last two years.

Great slasher. They're routinely a terrible free throw team because nobody on this team is good at drawing contact and their jump shot shooting team. Amazing. He's been glued to the free throw line in these two games. And above all else,

Steph Curry has looked terrible. because they're able to throw so much attention to him and nobody can make them pay so teams don't stop throwing attention to him jimmy burleigh's bought just enough just enough energy and just enough ball handling that step is able to get his game off this energy is really good already jimmy's not trying to do too much i'm feeling good about the warriors post jimmy yeah i agree i agree yeah i think that i think that golden estate like they're they're in a spot where they're going to do exactly what we thought that they could do, which is make a push to get back into the playing it

and get a little bit of firepower. And obviously, you don't think of Steph Curry right now as a guy who, if he's your best player, you're going to win a championship. He's probably past that in his career. It's going to have to be a much more team-oriented type of offensive style. Jimmy Butler can do that.

And so I do think that, like, I was a little bit hesitant because for them to make the Jimmy Butler move early because I was like, okay, may, like you want to save your chips for something big for something that can maybe guarantee you that you're going to be a contender. It got to be so bad that you're just like, we can care about contender anymore. We just have to be competent. He just have to be good. And that's what Jimmy Butler allows them to do. So, yeah, they're very clear winner at the deadline. Yeah, I'm not necessarily going crazy yet and saying there going to be some like, I'm not saying there'd be some top tier team.

Like, oh, 2-1-0, they're not going to stop winning. They beat the bucks without Yannis. So, like, they should have won, and they did. But it just looks better. You see the process makes more sense. Anything that makes Steph Curry play at a higher level automatically raises your floor and ceiling, and that enough makes the move worth it for what they gave up.

Yeah, exactly. And dive it back into it on the offensive. And you talked about him and his ability to get to the line, which is, like, you know, the Golden State Warriors, notorious krypton night over the last few years. Start the entire, like, Seth Curry era, actually just consists of, like, weakness by Jimmy Buller this year, his ability to get to the line and get into, like, file truck. Get the other teams of the foul trouble early and get the words into the bonus, just opens up continuous avenues and just ways to slip your way into buckets, which is what they need direly. Yeah, they need someone to slip it in really bad.

Shout out to Eye of Avocado for just tipping $12. He said, Houston's momentum took a massive shift. I'm starting to think playing contenders by the end of the season. What do you guys think? I'm not going that far, but they are in a rough stretch right now. They are in a rough stretch.

But I won't go that far. I think they'll be okay, but they need the deadline really bad. Since Jabari went out and they're starting to play him in Thompson full minutes, he looks a little tired to me. The last few games, they need that break really bad

and neither depth back. Yeah, I mean, it's the long season. To me, I wouldn't have words Anybody want to talk Can you hear me? Yeah

Yeah To me I wouldn't go as far as saying That they are going to be Fucking plain contenders Whatsoever that's insane But I will say I am starting to notice And the things that I've been fearful of

I'm not going to say they're happening now Like you could be right I'm in time somebody Not be used to This load of minutes And the like responsibility That just kind of got thrown onto his shoulders so so quickly but i'm just taking notes right now i'm not going as far

yeah playing playing is hard they're going to have to drop three and a half games to get into the to to fall into the playing from where they're at right now that's three to a half games over the last what like 60 or like 25 27 type games that's a lot right but i have held reservations about Houston throughout the year and some of the issues that I have reservations with have been some of the clear reasons why they haven't necessarily been able to win some of these games as of late. And so I do think that like coming out the break, it's kind of a fresh late for everybody, right? Like trade deadline goes by, buy out deadline goes by. Everybody gets a week off. You reset your mind. You have about like two to three weeks to show me what's real

because then we all know March, end of March, early April, that is also fake basketball. So like in terms of just my perception and like what we think, that's a very important stretch. Obviously I'm not like discounting absolutely everything, but that is a very important stretch coming out of the break. And then even going into fake basketball season, that's the time where there will be games where you should win and you're going to have to win those for standing purposes. I want to see them do that because they are still at that point in their development where like seating seating matters and on a game to game basis

it matters what the Rockets do so I'm very curious to see how they finish out the season but I do think that playing is a bit too much for them It's not impossible though you never know it wouldn't surprise me too much that they went down to seven at the worst but I'd expect their rebound you know the end of the day they're playing ahead of schedule

they shouldn't be this high to begin with they're winning with the defense obviously but we all know the offense isn't good enough to really make a splash at all in the playoffs. Nobody's expecting them to make a fucking finals or anything. So I think these like lulls are probably good for them to continue to learn where the

weaknesses are because I can almost guarantee you there will be a change made of some sort this summer regardless of what happens because they know exactly what they need to make that next jump. So I kind of think it's good that they have some downstretches to see what it looks like when things aren't going perfect like it has for most of the season when defense is

really carrying you and you're not really feeling the effects of the offensive woes too much it's good that they don't have just rainbows and perfection i have a question for you um yeah and it's it's not like rocket centric but it's kind of like off of that so when you guys so when we say a team is ahead of schedule is it ever possible for um for us to like in the middle of that season just be like you know what like this is their schedule now and like a just your expectations because like if the rockets are like is there anything that the rockets can do over the second half of this season to prove to you guys that they are quote unquote on schedule and now they have on schedule expectations rather than just like oh they're ahead

of schedule they're not supposed to be here in the first place that types of jalen green i think the whole ahead of schedule conversation i think the whole ahead of schedule conversation is like throughout the many times i throughout the few times in nb history when we've seen that It hasn't been very many, and I think that only deserves to be raised over, like, true, truly generational players, like the Wembees of the world or the shake, like the Shake goes Alexander's of the world, okay, see, you want them to go ahead and make a move and trade, trade, trade all these bigs or whatever. So when I look at someone like the Rockets, I don't think that necessarily, like, they're ahead of schedule, of course, but I don't, I don't like believe in them to make that final push just yet. And that's where I, like, reside in that conversation. I think what you're describing done, it happens all the time. Anytime a new contender comes out of nowhere,

they're usually because they were ahead of schedule and then you realized they're just that good. It was OKC last year where before the year, we were like, okay, maybe they were in the play in the previous year. Let's see if they can be top six. Let's see yada. Halfway through the year, we're like, oh, they're the fucking one seed.

They're the two seed. They're in this conversation. Shea has clearly risen to MVP level. The MVP level rise of Shay is what made you say, okay, so it's real. They can win now because this player's good enough to lead them. Sangoon and Jane LaGree are not that level So there's no reason to believe they have enough top-end talents to do that

So we would need to see a crazy run from one of those guys or a men To like jump into like top ten player for three months in a row Then we can say okay well now they have what it takes over the outgun some team So maybe the schedule has changed but I don't really see that in the cards for the rockets Yeah the last time we've seen someone our organization be viewed as like ahead of the schedule just was this last year in the Indiana Pacers. We saw them run their way into the Eastern Conference Finals with specific things happening within their season in the playoffs.

Whatever one, whatever fluke or you call it, whatever, but we can see like the infrastructure of this team and be like, wow, like they can actually do something special. Tyrese Halber in terms of his development looks way ahead of fucking schedule. And he was doing like damn near generational stuff in terms of his three-point shooting with the combination of his passing. like he was doing truly special stuff so I think that conversation is reserved for players who are

on the tip of the iceberg are just like insane start a minute right now in the Houston Rockins there's no one on that roster who I think of white who I think of in that light yeah okay alright yeah I'll another winner at the deadline so far you guys don't want to talk about it but I will

the Atlanta Hawks are 3 and O we see you're witnessing the fucking labor that Karrison for has been given to us. We witnessing the Terrence man's of the world. Go ahead and play tremendous defense, bro. I was over here clamoring to y'all

about how we absolutely are horrendous outside of Trey Young with the ball on his hands. We got like a few connecting pieces like V. Creasy who no one fucking knows. We got, you know, Zachary Richard say he's not an absolute like block or ovenmans with the ball on his hands. But in general, we just need more playmaking

and caro subvert his just like ability to be on the court and just do get his own bucket while also evolving others and masquerade as another point guard helps this team in so many ways and so laundry field is slowly trying to undo the ungodly damage that he's done to triung his life in this roster and it's like actually working rangy defenders more help i love it i appreciate and yeah and if you consider the hawks a win then that trade is a win-win because I do think that the calves are a winner. I think them getting Goudger Hunter is a really, really good win for them. Because obviously, everybody in the East is building themselves to beat Boston,

to try and match up and beat the Celtics. You know who your core four are. The one question for them throughout this entire two to three-year run is like, do we have enough bodies at that three-spot? Do we have enough wings that we can play? with our four core guys that can make sense and having having versatility like you've seen it early on in this year whether it was like dean wade or coro or strews and like they had this rotation guys adding another wing that can actually play meaningful minutes and who's having another

like a really good year like dandre hunter is having another wing to put into that rotation so that whenever you play boston you just keep having opportunities to create the best five-man lineup possible for yourself. That's a win. And you saw it. What's up? I think they traded for the wrong wing. They probably should have gotten Cam Johnson.

Again, I am a Hots fan, so therefore I am reading for Deion Hunter. But I don't think that he is who the Cleveland Cavalier's think he is. If they could have, they would have. But Dion Cam Johnson was going for two versions on big because why I didn't get moved. Yeah, the price was too high. The price was much lower. if they really believe in this team they should have rolled them dices

if it was the same price that definitely would have got Cam Johnson I guarantee you you're right he'd be a much better fit than the Andre Hunter but some people got the prices in their pockets some people don't the Cavs do not have that kind of asset pool but yeah I do hope

I do hope the Cavs though in the in the playoffs like I hope the Hunter Hunter can be very very productive for him because you've seen in the matchups against Boston they've been there and they've had opportunities but boston has just been like the better team and so going into going into a seven game series you know there's going to be weird games where the three point variance is is off there's going to be games where maybe de mitch isn't

rising to some crazy playoff levels and you're going to need games from your role players from the rest of your supporting cast if diadre hunter is worth one game in a series against to sell six the trade is absolutely worth it that's all you're asking for at this point yeah well that's all the winners and losers i want to talk about today i think that's the end of the stream right that's cool with me that's cool with me i'm fine i don't think that's pain if people it's not pain at all it's a normal run time it's if people are so here what should they comment on the bode tell me what's the same mo

what should the people if you're still here comment one dollar a day buys mo some new Wi-Fi and we'll see y'all we'll see all the episode