The Mismatch - The Mismatch’s Trade Deadline Postmortem

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

This Friday, Verno and KOC get into the most active trade deadline in NBA history, starting with the unexpected trade of Nikola Vucevic from the Magic to the Bulls (3:00). Then they get into the addition of Aaron Gordon to the Nuggets (18:00), the Lakers, Heat, and 76ers passing on Kyle Lowry (27:55), Miami’s strategically significant trade for Victor Oladipo (35:25), Portland’s sneaky addition of Norman Powell (46:45), the somewhat baffling Rajon Rondo for Lou Williams trade (57:50), and more! Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baseball season is right around the corner, and Jake Mintz and Jordan Schusterman will serve as your guides to the good, the bad, and the utterly bizarre corners of the baseball world on baseball barbecue. In the run-up to the season, they'll dive into the rabbit hole on some of their favorite fascinations, from the home run derby to baseball brawls and more. Once the MLB season returns, they'll break down the latest news and developments with their trademark wit and irreverence. Check out baseball barbecue on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan, and joining me as he does every Friday from the ring. com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k. Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.O.C.C.O.K.K.1. Kevin O'Connor. What a busy trade deadline. Oh, my. It was a busy trade deadline.

And yet, after I was going through everything last night, jotting down my notes, I found myself being a little underwhelmed. Wow. Wow. Just in the sense of, only in this sense. that I'm not sure that any of the moves really moved the needle in terms of who I think's going to be there at the end. The only one that I would argue possibly got themselves to a different level would be Miami. And I'm talking about, I'm talking about at the very end. I'm talking about like, do you think these teams are going to be in the Eastern finals? And I would have told you, of course, we thought in the Eastern Conference,

or we believe in the Eastern Conference, that it is, I would have said Brooklyn and Philly. Today, I would still say Brooklyn and Philly. But the Bucks are there, Miami's there. Those four are the ones that are going to be most likely. I would be absolutely stunned if the Eastern Conference. finals representatives are not from those four. I would just say that the heat moved up a tick. I can't really say that about the nuggets because I kind of already had the nuggets

where I had the nuggets, right, as a team that is a totally plausible Western Conference finals. So that's why you don't have Denver. Because I was going to say Denver. I don't think they moved up. I don't, their ceiling to me didn't move up exponentially. And the heats didn't. but it could, right?

That's what I'd say. And a lot of the other stuff is minor stuff that's obviously stuff that is going to help teams that are not solidly in the playoffs or not solidly in the top 10 as of today, try to get there. I would say, and we'll just start with this, the most surprising deal of the day was the Vucevich deal. Would you agree? I didn't see that coming. Yeah. I mean, with Orlando, there was all the indications all week, trading Aaron Gordon, trading Evan Fournier, and that happened.

You know, both of those things happened. We'll talk about those later, but Vutrovich going to Chicago, that did come a little bit out of nowhere. There are a lot of people around the league who were uncertain whether Vouchavich would actually get traded here because he's a really good player, man. He just got named an All-Star. He's having a career best season. And I think, you know, like Jeff Welman, Orlando's head of their front office said today,

they looked at their team and they said, can we win a championship? No. And so they went in this direction. They probably could have asked that question to themselves four years ago and done this. But they did sell probably at the peak value for Vucciovich having a career best season. Evan Fornier having a career best season, Fornier, like, I think his improvement has gone underrated. He's gotten better every year, a three-point shooter off the dribble. It's really impressive what he's done with his game.

And then Aaron Gordon. You know, we'll talk more about Denver later, but he can add all. lot to that group. I think I'm higher on that than you are. But Vouch, going to Chicago, there were some people on Twitter yesterday who responded to me saying, I love this move for the Bulls because of what it gives to Zach Levine. You're giving Zach Levine an all-star talent, one of the best scores in basketball, a guy who can pick and pop with him, who can pick and roll with him, who can run dribble handoffs with him. Vouch is going to be, they're going to make a great duo together, Levine and Vouchovic. And now it's about for the Bulls,

Two, three years from now, Vouchovich, you would hope still is a high-level player. You know, I think his game can age well. It's about the development of some of those young guys around them, especially Patrick Williams, who, in my opinion, is the most underrated rookie in the league. He's having a great rookie season. It doesn't have the numbers that are popping,

but he looks like a guy who's going to be a versatile two-way player who can defend multiple positions, who can shoot off the dribble for you, who can get to the basket, make smart plays. Like, Patrick Williams checks all the boxes of what you want as a player next to a guy, guard, a perimeter guard in Levine, and a big in Vouchavich, Patrick Williams could be that guy in this

trio in a year or two or three could be really, really a threat. So I love what the Bulls did. It's a move that helps now and it can help later. I would say this. It is, you do wonder if, and we have seen this happen with teams, where they realize that a kid that they've drafted is better than they thought they would be faster than they thought they would be. And is a hedge that Patrick Williams is going to be good quickly, right? Because there is an age gap here, right? There's like a five-year difference between Vucevic and Levine. And so they're not necessarily on the same trajectory. You say they could be really good in three years, but that's, you know, Vusovic is 33 then, right? So right now he is in his prime.

I would say that certainly there's great evidence to suggest this is Zach Levine's prime that has begun this year. To have the third guy be an outstanding player, it does feel like they look at that and say Patrick Williams can be that third guy for us. And they're all kind of on different career trajectories. but if Williams is awesome quickly, then it becomes, you know, then you recalibrate. Well, let's say Williams does become really good, really fast.

I would argue in that case, there's a chance, Booch is your third. And I know that it might be like an extreme thing to say the year. He's averaging nearly 25 points per game that he's an all star, but that's the level I look at Patrick Williams as a two-way talent. And so for them, for Orlando, for Chicago, you know, you're boosting your chances to win now. And there's some logic to, you know, going the other way and trying to get a better

young player through the draft and all that. But you have a serious talent in Zach Levine who people forget. Everybody talks about Bradley Biel's free agency. Everybody talks about Biel going to hit free agency in 2022. Zach Levine also hits free agency in 2022. Like this is a guy who's ready to win, who's ready to be on a winning team to his improvements. Chris, I think I've ripped Zach Levine more than anybody on this show over the years that We've done this.

We've talked about him so much as this piss poor defender who doesn't have a knack for playmaking, who has tunnel vision. That's all changed. It's all changed. He's become at least an average defender. He's become at least an average playmaker. And he's also one of the most dynamic scores in all of basketball, surrounding him with better talent than he's ever had in his entire career.

I get excited thinking about how that's going to elevate his game to even greater height. So I appreciate Chicago doing this and recognizing. recognizing the talent that they have in Zach Levine because he has legitimately gotten better at improving his weaknesses. And this is a move that shows, hey, man, we're ready to win with you. And they can win together. I think alone, Vucovich and Levine is the two, you know, real great veterans in that team. In addition to having like Thad Young on that roster, in addition to having some like a Kobe White, a young spark plug off your bench, having, you know, having now this Patrick Williams, who, Still, as a rookie, is impressive for them. They have a good team today, and it can get better. Staying on them real quickly before we move on. I like the Tice acquisition. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's another one.

I do. Like, their center rotation just got real. When you're throwing, I mean, you know, Vucevich is high, high level at that position. If you're ranking the centers in the NBA, he's very high. and if you're ranking backup centers in the NBA, Tice has got to be right there. He's right at the top.

It turns of backup centers. And so I know that's like in Boston, Tyson, Tice was starting so it wasn't ideal. But like Tice is a backup center is one of the best backup centers of basketball. Yeah. And look at what they, look at how they just improved that one position. Yeah.

You know, they got two in the day. And now, in fairness, I don't hate what Orlando got in return for Boosevic. I think you're right. They sold high. This is probably the apex of whatever Vucevich's value is, but getting the multiple picks and getting Wendell Carter, who you and I both have stock in.

I mean, he is another one of those guys that, you know, you can fall either way on guys like this when they have not played many games. And he just has been ravaged by injury. to start his career, not unlike his Duke cohort Marvin Bagley, not unlike Jaron Jackson Jr. I mean, there's three of them, right, that of all just not been able to play, you know,

nowhere close to 70 games, right? And less than 60 games. And in two of those guys' cases, Carter and Bagley, less than 40 games in seasons. And so you have these, but it's just dependent upon, did you believe in the guy coming out and do you think that if you can ever stay healthy that there's something really there?

And by the way, they've got their own guy like that in Isaac, who is another big guy who has lost. This is becoming a thing, right? Where you've got a lot of big guys that have come out that have been drafted, that had a very difficult time staying on the court their first three or four years of their career. But anyway, I like Carter.

I still think Carter can be, a high level player in the NBA. And so getting him with some first round picks to boot, I think that's a really good return for Vucevic. And for Orlando, well, first I'll say for Chicago, Wendell Carter is who they, like, Nicola Vucovich is who they hoped Wendell Carter would someday be. Right, like that playmaking hub from the perimeter

who can, you know, play rock solid defense for you, who can pass the ball, who can shoot it, all that stuff. That's what they drafted Wendell Carter to be. And maybe someday he'll become that in Orlando. When I think about this whole day for Orlando, everything they got, the draft pigs, Wendell Carter, I come back to Steve Clifford. He needs to empower these young players, Chris. It's not about winning now.

It's about development. You have to develop Wendell Carter. You need to just say to this guy, I want you shooting four threes a game. You need to say to Moldamba, I need to say to Mubamba, I need. need the best version of you. Don't look behind your back about worry about losing minutes. We need to empower you. They need to empower these young guys to develop.

It's about development now for Orlando. Will Steve Clefford be willing to put aside the fact he's always been a win now coach and focus on development of young players? I'm not sure that's going to be the case. I hope it is for them. I really do because he's not the coach for that though. So is he not the guy long term there then? We both like Steve Clifford as like as a basketball coach.

I just don't like Steve Clifford for the Alano magic. No, I think Steve Clifford is best suited by taking over a team that's ready to win. And I do think that Steve Clifford, I believe this to be true. I do think Steve Clifford is as good as eking out every single win you can out of a roster. But to your point. Doing a good job this year. To your point, that is not what should matter most. Yeah, not this year.

is an organizational failure, Kevin, because they came, you know they came into the season thinking, let's go win. And then they sucked, and so they changed midstream. I know they were ravaged by injury. I know the stuff that took place, right? But they weren't good enough. And so then they decided, okay, that's not going to work. We all got to buy, you know, some time here. And so here's the pivot we're going to make.

because they treated this season like a let's win every single night season rather than let's try to try to win but also in the process let our young guys take their lumps let our young guys develop as as time goes on so we can kind of see what we've got here and serve two masters and they were just trying to serve one by trying to be a playoff team because they were you know they were in the playoffs two years ago right so they thought, hey, we can get back to the playoffs. Maybe we move some of these pieces. And they probably went into this season, I would imagine, thinking, let's try to win.

And we've got a bunch of these pieces now. So we can improve ourselves easily during the course of the season. We can be a buyer here because we've got Terrence Ross and we've got Evan Fournier, and we've got some of these young guys that don't necessarily fit. And we'll be able to pair all that up. veterans that can actually play that are on expirings and young players and we could get

something really good. And then the season went to hell and they look up and they're, you know, they're on the outside looking in and they said, ah, well, let's just hit reset again. I'll tell you what though, Chris. You know, it's not the right word to call us a fire sale for Orlando.

For a fire sale, Terrence Ross would not be on that team right now. Auto Porter would be bought out immediately. And the reason why I say that is because, I don't think this is a full on blow it up move by the Orlando magic here because Terrence Ross is still a good player and Terrence Ross like he tweeted yesterday

that funny hilarious he won the day I'm the captain now Giff yeah he won the day with that tweet amazing hilarious he's going to go from getting you know 14 shots per game to 18 19 20 he's going to get a lot of those 40s shots a lot of those

Vuccivic touches he's not a bad player he's a solid player and so So, you know, this team's going to lose a lot of games. I'm not saying they didn't get worse. I'm just saying they didn't get, you know, so young that they don't have any veteran talent. They're going to be terrible. They are going to be. Well, they already are bad.

No, no, no, but they are going to be awful. Awful, Kevin. Awful. And I just, and this is, I think you and I break ways on the whole, right? I know you were talking up Fornier earlier. Obviously, you talk up Gordon, Vucevich. I just sit there and I say, okay, if all these guys. are so damn good. Why does that team suck? If Fornier and Gordon and Vuzovic are so good, why is that

team not any good? You can't tell me it's the coach, because that's not the reason. I think that sometimes, you know, we want to poach these individual players off these teams, and then when they get to a better team, we say, ah, this guy's actually really good. And, you know, Orlando was the problem or whatever. But I sit there and I say, okay, if these guys are all so good, what the hell? Why? in this team any good? You know what I mean? You got three really good players like that? Like, you know, like that are so sought after that we're talking up, then why do they suck?

Orlando. You know, I think, I think it's an interesting thought there. I've thought, I've had this on my mind a lot the past couple of weeks, Chris, thinking about like Orlando trades, because you look at their team, a lot of good individual players. Just the talent together doesn't fit for whatever reason, just doesn't work together. And I think it comes back to simply This team has never had a guy to run their offense They've never had that playmaking presence

Who can run a pick and roll for you in a pinch Who can run an isolation and attack the basket Kick it out to an open shooter Evan Fornier is a scorer not a creator Vucovich can do a little bit of playmaking for you But he's not like a Yokic He's not even a band out of bio In terms of his playmaking ability

So Aaron Gordon same thing He can play off the short role for you bring the ball up occasionally, but not somebody who runs and orchestrates your offense. That's what they've never been able to find. You know what's funny? Would you say that? You know what I think of? The what the playoff win that they had that shocked the world?

DJ Augustine. It was DJ Augustine. The one time they did have that guy. He's the one that won them to playoff game single-handedly. Yeah. DJ Augustine. It's like, hey. And the lack of that point card, not having DJ Augustine be a star every night,

that's what's prevented Aaron Gordon in addition to the fact they have always had two bigs on the floor and Aaron Gordon's play the three but the fact they haven't had that playmaking guard on the perimeter has prevented Aaron Gordon from being in his perfect role and I think that's what we're going to see in Denver.

All right, let's move to that one because they didn't give up much to get him at all. It's a solid trade for both I mean especially for Denver though. Yeah, I mean, RJ Hampton we'll see what he becomes. I mean, that's going to tell a story. Orlando liked RJ Hampton in the draft and they strongly considered him over Cole Anthony.

Like that's a fact there. A lot of people like RJ. I'm not surprised by that. I'm just funny. They got a guy that they did want. They just didn't get because they chose somebody else. I looked at their roster yesterday and I was like, oh my God. They are, I wondered, are they trying to build the 2017 Peach Jam All Stars that high school tournament that goes on in Georgia? because I swear they have got every old McDonald's All-American that has not necessarily lived up to all of the promise. And they add R.J. Hampton, who was another just prep superstar yesterday on their team. I didn't, look, it's a good move for Denver.

I don't think they gave up all that much. I do think, you know, look, Gary Harris has just never been able to stay on the court, ever, ever. He's just not the same guy as he was. He got off that contract. He did help them last year during the playoffs when he came back, though. He's still a really good defensive perimeter defender. You know, if you're having to go up against somebody that has some, you know, real firepower at those guard positions. Gary Harris is a useful tool to put out there. But he has not been available. You know, he hasn't even sniffed 70 games since I think his second. you're in the league. So he just,

he just has not been able to play. You know, and I believe that that was when he like, you know, before he got the contract and he averaged like 18 points a game. And it looked like he was on his way to being one of the really good two-way guards in the NBA. Since then,

he just, he just hasn't been out on the court for that team. And so it's unsurprising that I think you would move on from that. And with Aaron Gordon, it's going to be, it's going to be great to watch here because I think, we're going to see Gordon fill the Jeremy Grant role, right? We're going to see him defend multiple positions at a high level.

We're going to see him as a screener. We're going to see him playing off ball, spotting up next to Yokic and Murray handling the rock. What I'm excited about, though, is the fact that aside from Orlando's run to the playoffs in 2018, 19, we have never seen a version of Aaron Gordon that was had to lock in on defense and must win games with a lot at stake. and during that season there were countless games. I went back to an article I wrote that year and just rewatch and reread some of those stuff. He had awesome possessions defending Kevin Durant, Kauai Leonard, James Hardin, and did it consistently over the course of a full game. And I think people underrate what Gordon can be on defense.

So for him, he can, this is why I think we're a little bit, we look at that trade a little differently for Denver here, Chris, because I look at that as elevating them significantly. because if you're going to get through the Western Conference, if you're going to get through Kauai Leonard, LeBron James, even Anthony Davis, you know, all down the line, you need a stopper. And Gordon, I believe, can be that stopper for you. Additionally, I would say he's a better fit offensively than Jeremy Grant was because Grant, as good as he was on the role, as good as he was as a spot-up shooter,

as much talent that he's shown this season beyond what he could do in Denver, Gordon is a better playmaker. And to me, he kind of, he's kind of another link between Yokic and Murray. So much of their offense is Murray or Yokich, Murray or Yokich, Murray or Yokich, and sometimes Will Barton, sometimes Monta Morris.

Gordon is another guy with size who can add playmaking for you that could give you an advantage in certain match-ups, certain situations. So you can run those big, big picker and rolls with Yokich and Gordon. You could do it with Porter and Gordon. You could do it with Murray running

Murray as the screener if you want to get really funky or Murray is the ball handler with Gordon on the short role picking apart defenses. I get excited thinking about what Aaron Gordon is going to do here

with the Denver Nuggets. To me, this raises their ceiling a good amount. I mean, I guess I've never viewed Aaron Gordon as some kind of massive defensive stopper,

but we will see under that role. We will. I think he's, you know, I think the overrated part of him comes, you know,

offensively. I mean, in the end, he's, He's 13 points and six rebounds, and he plays a lot of minutes, and he's played on a bad team. So your numbers should be inflated if you're playing on a bad team to me. He's never had the opportunity, though, Chris. There's been a million different iterations of that team.

And none of them have been good for him. In six years. None of them have been good for him, though. But is it the team or is it him? Because other guys have flourished, you just had Evan Fournier average 20 points a game. You got Vucevich having a career year. So it's like always in every different iteration. with every coach and every roster.

I just think we kept waiting for a breakthrough, and it was wildly underwhelming. And I'll just say, Kevin Clark was on. I listened to that pod yesterday that he was on with Simmons, and, you know, he's a huge magic fan. I mean, he's been there six years. He asked him outside of the dunk contest,

what is your, what's the best Aaron Gordon memory? He couldn't even name anything. Like, in six years that the guy's ever done. Like, there's been nothing, no significant, like, you know. I mean, I sound like I'm making excuses for Aaron Gordon, but like I said, I would look at that roster every single season of his career. Every single season, there's never been that point guard. There's never been that fit. He's always been playing with two bigs.

He should be playing more of the four or playing with another guy like a Michael Porter Jr. who can also kind of be interchangeable with you. I just don't think he's ever been in a good situation. And plus, you're kind of evictive of circumstances here if you're Gordon. Nobody expected Vucovich to turn into the guy that he has. I don't think Orlando expected that when they drafted Mo Obama, when they drafted Aaron Gordon, when they made some of the choices that they did in the past. Sometimes stuff just happens that you don't expect that throws off your plan. And for Aaron Gordon, I look at his game.

And I do think he has gotten better. Look at what he did at his rookie season, five points per game, nine points per game in his second year. He's a better offensive player than he was then. I just don't think he's ever been in a situation where winning was actually a realistic outcome for the game. the team. So defense was never a thing except for that 1819 season. He's never been in a situation that could really utilize his talents offensively as a as kind of a Swiss army knife. He's been plugged and played into so many different roles that haven't worked. Post score, ISO score. That's not who he is. And maybe that's partially on him to go through that. It could

be that. But I look at more of the situation. Orlando needed a guy in the perimeter and they were asking him to do it because they had nobody else to try. But that's not his game. So I, I look forward to seeing what he's going to do in Denver because you look at that team now, like, where do you put Denver right now after their addition of Aaron Gordon compared to the other teams in the West? And maybe we don't break ways.

I'm not sure on this. Like, to me, Aaron Gordon is a very highly paid role player. That's what he is. I think that's very fair, Chris. We thought he was going to be able to be a star, and he's never going to be a big star.

But again, again, I like this move for Denver, right? You can be a star on your role, I do not buy his, I don't buy his three point percentage at all in terms of it being long term. 37 and a half percent this year. It's much better this year. 63% from the free throw line.

Like the free throw numbers have never gotten significantly better, only 70% for his career. Yeah, and I don't know, do you play him with Porter? Is that like that? Yeah, I think you do. You do. So you move Porter over. Yeah, I mean, you play him. I don't know if it's moving them over except they're just next to each other.

I don't look at three and four on the position one through four. five much differently. I think they're interchangeable more than anything else. But like, you know, you say you won't be a star. I mean, like Draymond Green just called himself the biggest,

you know, best defender of all time, which, you know, it's a different conversation. But Draymond Green is a different type of star. He's like the greatest role player ever. You know what I mean?

And like Aaron Gordon, I think he has a trajectory to be one of the better role players in all of basketball. Well, that's what they would do that next to Yonkish and Murray. You know, he's not, he can elevate him.

elevate them. I do think he improves them. He improves them. Yes. And the story. Does he improve them to the level of some of these other teams in the West? That's the only big question for them. I think right now, you know, again, we all think that with a healthy LeBron James and with a healthy Anthony Davis, they will still be the favorites, right? After that, yeah, Denver is right there at the top, you know, with, with, if we're talking about the others, with Utah, with the Clippers, you know, those are the teams right there. If you want to, yeah, if you want to throw in Phoenix, even though they haven't really taken their, their lumps yet in the playoffs, we'll see how they do when they get there. They certainly have guys that have scars. How about Portland?

Playoffs. Portland and Dallas. Yeah. Dallas, too? Did you throw Dallas on that? No. Really surging now? No.

not after getting not the defense JJ Redick not the defense it's another offensive improvement you know what I'm saying but I just I don't know I feel like they they should be the sneaky team on the drummond

thing you know what I mean to me why not regarding it because he might actually like get a deal there you know in the off season they could try to make it work and he could stay there but can we push reset or just like a pause on like the standings right and there on the west i just want to say right now

lakers in that four spot there are three and a half games up on dallas for the seven so between them you have denver a game and a half back from l a portland a game and a half back from l a and then dallas in the seven spot three and a half back chris haines reported last night it's still two to three weeks for a d could be four to six weeks for lebron james there's a chance the Lakers slide down to six or seven. If you've watched them, it's hard to imagine them winning

more than a few games without the two. There's a real chance that the Lakers are borderline playing tournament. Oh yeah. Which is crazy to say. Like all year we've been talking about this, Chris, staying out of the seven spot so you avoid the playing tournament, the Lakers could be on that playing bubble

because of all these injuries. Though I will say this, though, their schedule coming up, Cleveland, Orlando, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Clippers, Raptors, Heat, Brooklyn, New York, like, you know, so on and so forth, the longer it gets. But they have a couple winnable ones coming up. They get a handful. I'm just not sure how many of these are actually going to win. They don't look good at all. And do you think they didn't trade for Kyle Lowry? They could have, all reports yesterday are had they put in Tailing Horton Tucker into the deal with Dennis Schrooter and maybe Contavius called well Pope.

that they could have gone Kyle Lari. Do you think they made the right call not doing that? I think if that's what LeBron told him to do. If LeBron said, nah, that's a right call. So it depends on LeBron's feelings there. You don't think they conferred with them? Well, they 100% did. Okay.

So if he said, don't give up Tailing Horton Tucker. Don't give up whatever. Then again, like, I promise you, if LeBron wanted Kyle Lowry desperately and said, do this, do this, yes, pull the trigger. than they would have. And people can tell you that, like, oh, they do whatever.

They don't have to confer with LeBron. Bull crap. They confer with LeBron on this stuff. Why would you not confer with LeBron? That's right. Why would you not? Yeah. He's LeBron James.

And they also probably know that Lowry is, that's not where he's going to stay. That's not where he's going to be going forward, right, after this year. It would be a, it would be a rental. Theoretically, theoretically he could have stayed. But not, but you're talking about, I mean, you're asking Kyle Lowry to take an immense pay. cut unless you want to just, you know, just pay whatever about a buddy and not care about

luxury tax and everything else. Like, the way this works is if you've got, you know, good young players on that team, don't forfeit your future. I'm not so sure. I mean, look, to me, they're the favorite if those two are healthy. Lowry moves the needle a lot more for a couple of those other teams than he does for them. Like, Okay, so they get Kyle Lowry. Now what? Now they're the mega favorite. Like, they're the favorite anyway if those guys are healthy.

They're probably going to win the thing. If they're not healthy, they're probably not going to win the thing. Kyle Lowry or not. So I don't think that that's crazy. And I also think that the heat did right by not giving up hero. I told you that Tuesday. Let's stay on the Lakers for a second. Let's stay on the Lakers.

I was tweeting with Jason Maples last night, who has a great NBA podcast, Temple of Hoop, and we were going back and forth on the Lowry thing, and he thinks the Lakers should have gone all in. Get Kyle Lurie, maximize the team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, which I completely understand. There's a chance that we look back at Trade Deadline Day, March 25th, as a missed opportunity for the Lakers to get Kyle Lurie and bolster the LeBron James, Anthony Davis core, and elevate their championship odds even further. There's a chance we look back at this day like that. but I tend to side with the decision not to make the deal here because Taylor and Horton Tucker, the long-term potential was pretty high.

Put that aside and think only about this year's team. There's significant risk in a massive shakeup mid-season dealing Dennis Schrooter, dealing, you know, Contavius Colwell Pope while LeBron James and Anthony Davis are out. The lack of continuity and chemistry that you would enter the playoffs in, with a potential playing tournament game even without those guys getting more than what 10 games together possibly 15 games 5 games I don't know what the number will be

that's a lot of risk for what will be a gauntlet schedule in the postseason and for the Lakers I think they made the right decision we'll see if it turns out to be the right decision but the fact that you would totally disrupt team chemistry when you're going to have to get through some really good teams the West is loaded

man. It's going to be tough. And that continuity and chemistry this team already has together after winning one championship, that's important and it's going to be critical. So I side with the Lakers not making the deal as tough as it might be. The other things to me, you're not getting

the full Kyle Lowry experience. You're just not. That's LeBron's team, Kev. LeBron's going to have the ball. Kyle Lowry has the ball. Kyle Lurie's had the ball for the last decade. You know, he's not just throw him off the ball.

I know he can play off the ball. Obviously, he has done that a lot with Van Vleet. And he's an outstanding player. But in terms of like you get, you maximize what you've got from Kyle Lowry, you are, if you are a point guard like Lowry, who's kind of an alpha type point guard, you render a lot of stuff that I think he brings to the table less effective. when you put him on a LeBron team. You know what I mean?

Like he is the set up the team, run the pick and roll, run the show, get in there, grab the rebounds, guard the other team's opposing point card, like all that stuff. And I'm not so sure that that is necessarily the best type of fit, you know, towards, again,

if you're paying a guy $30 million, if you're taking on a guy with a $30 million contract, I want to get the full experience. of him. And I don't think you would get the full Kyle Lowry experience on that team. And that's not a demerit towards anybody. I'm just saying that's the way that team functions.

You got LeBron, you got AD, and you got three guys that are playing a role. That's it. That's the way that works. End of story. And I'll tell you what. I'm sure with similar logic here with Philadelphia with the decision to go for George Hill.

Darryor Moore had a great quote about that deal. And I'm paraphrasing here. but he pretty much said like the way he looks ahead is you have all your move all his moves are based off increasing championship odds and he he decided to make a move that he felt raised their ceiling and getting george hill this year without lowering the ceiling in the years to come and the price for kyle lorry was so immense that it could have hurt them down the line when you're adding a 35 year old point guard and giving up a young player and draft picks it would cripple your ability to to make moves down the line, maybe for the role player you need or whatever might pop up

in a year or two from now, because it's not just about this season. And you mentioned the heat, Chris, it's the same thing there. All these past couple weeks it's been about they're going to get Kyle Lari, are they going to make that trade? Lowry over Dragich is an upgrade, but it's not like, I don't know if it's a championship level upgrade for the Miami Heat this season. So when I look at the heat, when I look at the heat, what they did is, they hedged their bets.

They got Oladipo on the cheap, on the cheap. Man, nothing. And a guy that just a couple years ago was an All-Star that has shown some flashes over the course of the season. I'm a little bit discouraged with the consistency and all that, but he's still shown some flashes of his former self. So if you're Miami, you get a guy for a couple months that wants to be there. Ola Depot wants to be in Miami. You give it a test run, bringing him into heat cone. Get those Miami doctors in there, right?

Try to help them get back and be healthy. And this does raise your ceiling for that reason, but you do it without sacrificing future flexibility. You keep Tyler here, like you just said earlier, you keep Duncan Robinson and precious of Chua, all these young guys, you keep your draft picks and you keep your cap flexibility during the offseason when, by the way, Kyle Lowry will be a free agent. If you decide you don't want Victor Oladipo, and if Kyle Lowry wants to play with Jimmy Butler down on Miami, you can sign him then without giving up all those assets. And one more step further, Chris, if Bradley Beal were to become available, you might be one of those teams that can make

the strongest offer because you kept all your guys. And you could get the younger, better player in Beale, potentially. I don't know if that'll happen. But you, if you're a team that has championship aspirations, you need to be ready to react to opportunities that may present themselves. And Miami, he retained that ability by getting a former All-Star, who's having a solid season despite, you know, everything that's happened in Victorola Deepa. So I love what the Miami Heat did, and I love their approach. And I think they made the right decision. I've got yesterday, somebody sent me a tweet by scripts by James, James Alexander.

And it said, it kind of chronicled the Pat Riley stuff. It said, Pat Riley, listen to this. This is insane when you hear this. Pat Riley turned Josh Richardson, Kelly O'Lennick, Myers-Leon, Avery Bradley, Mo Harkless, and Chris Silva into

Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo, Trevor Areza, Bialita, and probably Lamarcus Aldridge, all while keeping Tyler Hero, Duncan Robinson, precious Achua, Casey O'Pala, and Andre Aguadalu

Wow. I mean, that is outrageous. Wow. Richardson Olinick Leonard, Bradley, Hartless, Silva into Butler, Ola, DePo, Areza, Bialita, and probably Lamarcus Aldrich. What the hell? And you know what the Houston Rockets did? They turned James Hard and a PJ Tucker into Kelly O'Lennick, Avery Bradley, Dante XM, D.J. Wilson, four first-round draft picks, and four pick swaps. That's what the Houston Rockets did.

Look, I told you the day that that happened, I would have taken Ben Simmons. If nothing, even if I don't want to build around him, the asset that is Ben Simmons is something that you will always be able to get insane return for. Look at the return they got for Oladipo. And they could have had Lavert. And they could have Jared Allen. What the F? That's the missed opportunity. They could have had real.

And not just Jared Allen. And Karras Lever, they also could have had Spencer Dinwiddie. They grew up him in that deal too. What are we doing? Yeah. They, they, they can't. They screwed up. At least when the dude in Oklahoma City traded hard.

And at least he got like a couple of years of Kevin Martin. They're like played for him. Like, I mean, this is crazy. I'm not willing to say that, and this might be stupid of me. I'm not willing to say that taking the picks over Ben, Simmons was the wrong decision because those 2025, 2026, 2027 first round draft picks that are unprotected could be awesome. Those could be awesome picks. They could be franchise changing picks. They could be. But Ben Simmons is Ben Simmons today. And sometimes picking the mystery box isn't

better than picking what's real. And so for Houston passing on the opportunity to get a guy signed to a long-term contract that Ben Simmons could turn out to be a monumental mistake. what I can say today was a monumental mistake is not taking care of Stavvert, Jared Allen, and Spencer Didwitty instead of Victor Oladipo. That is very clearly a monumental mistake, kind of an embarrassing mistake

by the Houston Rockets do that when you're trading a player of the caliber of James Hardin. And you look at this Rockets team now, boy, oh boy, to any Rockets fan listening to this podcast, I hope for you, you land a top two pick because if you don't,

I feel bad for Christian Wood. I mean, I don't feel Look, I'm glad he got his money. Me too. He got his money, right? Got paid. But in terms of what you thought you were getting into versus what you got into, I mean, God bless America.

Can you imagine what he thought he was signing up for versus what? He thought he was signing up into running like 70 pick and rolls a night with James Hardin. And Silas probably thought he would sign it up for a much different experience too, you know? Just sucks. It sucks, too. I feel so bad. Yeah. Oh, and now.

Silas and Wood and you know. Yeah. So I'm with you on the Miami thing. And look, it's kind of like, you know, I remember when in the heyday, you will recall with your Patriots, in the heyday of the Patriots that Tim Tebow went there right under Bill Belichick. And everybody got to thought, but what I'm saying is once he got like cut off that team, it like kind of sent a message out to the rest of the league.

okay, if Bill Belichick ain't doing something with it, then it's probably not happening. There are some of these teams that get so, and coaches that get so much respect, and I do think that is the case with the Oladipo thing.

If you are going to extract what is left of or what Oladipo is, the best of, they have a pretty great track record of extracting the best out of everyone. Yeah, right? And there have been guys that have played there that have gone elsewhere that haven't looked as good.

It's very Spurs-esque. And that is the whole heat culture thing. But, I mean, I do think that there is, look, if Oladipo can't cut it and Spolster is like not playing him and whatever else and he's not helping in a big way and he doesn't fit right in, it is going to do a profound number on his. whatever he can get in the offseason. But I also think it is the absolute best chance to get the best version of him. Whereas I'm not so sure he could, you know, there's a lot of places he could have gotten traded where, you know, he probably mails it in for the rest of the year and tries to hit free agency and we don't see.

But, I mean, he'll be playing in competitive games. And the other thing is he's not the guy anymore. And I kind of feel like Oladipo is the type. of guy that is going to be well served by having Jimmy Butler be the man on that team. The man in that locker room, the man on that bench, the guy. I think Oladipo was probably miscast as the best guy. You know what I mean? Like he was in Indiana, right?

Yeah. He was a good best guy, but not a great best guy. Right. And now I think that that will serve him very well. I think Butler will also be able to bring out the best in him. You know what I mean? I'm with you, Chris. Like on paper, like in theory, if Oladipo can get back, this is a wonderful marriage,

a wonderful fit with those guys. And one variable that I want to bring up is Ola DPO trains every year in Miami. You know, he does all his physical training with this guy, David Alexander. I think it's a D, DBC fitness, DBC fitness down in Miami. And that's where Ola Depot trains every offseason. And so for him, like a guy that does need that extra, you know, conditioning now and all that to be there in Miami, where you do all your training. I'm sure that could help him in terms of, you know, his health,

especially after that knee injury. So for him, the benefits of being with those better players, the benefits of heat culture, the benefits of playing under a coach like Spolster, the benefits of being at the place that you always do your training, all that together is why Victor Leto devo wanted to be in Miami. So he landed in the place that he wanted to be that he prefers to be. So for him, sometimes what you want to be,

want in life isn't always what's best for you, but I think for Oladipo being in Miami is best for him, and it could be best for the heat if they can get everything out of him that they could. We're going to find out. You know, it's also best for, Chris. Especially if he is Victor Oladipo again, it's best for Tyler

Hero. Because they've pushed him into that, you know, really quickly in terms of be the guy. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Great point. And you saw him last night even when Butler was out. He came off the bench last night. He dropped 29 against the Blazers last night.

They ended up losing it at the very end of the game. It was, you know, weird game. But it was, you saw what Tyler Hero can bring to the table. And, you know, I had a Miami fan the other day saying, I know you said don't get rid of Tyler Hero, but Chris, you know, we've seen it enough. He is what he is.

He's going to be, you know, he's going to be like a high-end role player in the league. And I respond to the guy. I said, hold on now. This guy turned 21 in January. He has played in the NBA finals. He has played as of when I typed that, 88

regular season basketball games. You have no idea what Tyler Hero is going to be. And we do this all the time, Kevin, where we years later, like, think about it at the beginning of this pod, how we were talking about

Zach Levine. We could have talked about Zach Levine any time for the last six years in a radically different way than what we're talking about him right now. So beyond making a determination, even four and five years in, making a determination 88 games in is foolishness at best. And I think heroes got a chance to be an outstanding player in this league for a long, long time.

And that's why I would not have given him up. And I think they did right. I also think he'll be best suited to be in the role that he will be in. And I think he will light up second units. You know what I mean? he'll light up second units and that'll serve him very well. Let's talk about that team they were playing against because I was listening to you yesterday on the pods

and I feel like me and you break ways a little bit on this one. I love the Norman Powell move. I love Norman Powell too. And to me, to me, I look at it and I say, all right, if you're going to do the Zig when everybody's zagging thing, You know, there's a lot of size and a lot of big, but if you are, if you can somehow figure out how to be small and be devastating, but also have size when you desperately need to have size because you're just getting mangled on the boards, boy, they're small lineup if they can run Covington out at the four. When you're running. Nirkutcher to the five.

Yeah, because North Powell, he guards a lot of small forwards anyway. He's already had to on that Toronto team. I think Pelton had in his article that he's been matching. up with small forwards more than any other position this year. And so to me, if you've got Dame, CJ, Powell, Covington, and Nurkich, boy, I like that. Let's talk about that for a second because I think, you know, I was, I was thinking about this last night. You know, I had tweeted they made a mistake not going all in for Aaron Gordon.

And I stand by that for all the reasons we talked about that apply to Denver. I got even more excited about what that could have been in Portland with Damien Lillard and C.J. McCollum, how often, especially Dame, gets trapped in blitzed and picking rolls. Gordon could have been the perfect outlet in that, and I wish we could have seen it. But Norman Powell, there is some logic to going all in on offense here. And with Norman Powell, you get another downhill guy who can get to the basket for you, who can make the right play, who can score inside, who can pull up from outside, who can play off ball. Norman Powell was a fantastic,

offensive player. And having McCollum, Lillard, and now Powell together, that's a serious three-headed monster in the back court that's going to be a handful for any team to have to worry about stopping or containing. Those guys can be devastating offensively. And I was just looking at the other teams

in the Western Conference last night, thinking to myself like, okay, so you just mentioned how Norman Powell can defend up a position, you know, defend some small forwards, he's to get a 6'11 wingspan, his 215 pounds. He does have some versatility to him. Powell is a solid defender. And I was just thinking about, well, who's going to stop LeBron James?

Who's going to stop Kauai Leonard? And Covington is just not that guy. Blazers fans have found that out this season. He is not a great on-ball defender. He is a tremendous off-ball defender, one of the best in basketball. On-ball, that's just not his gig. And I still worry about who stops LeBron, who stops Kauai, who defends Luca, like all these matchups against big forwards and all that, but I just don't think anybody stops them.

You're just trying to make them less efficient. And that's, and that's sort of what I'm getting at here. It's like going all in on offense, maybe for Portland, it's like, you know what? Screw defense here. Screw defense because we're not going to stop these guys anyway. Why don't you lean all in and make yourself as hard to stop as possible with perimeter oriented players? And plus, let's just say Portland's, you know, playoff path.

requires them to beat Utah or beat Phoenix or to even, you know, even beat a Denver. A lot of these teams, it's more about stopping their big guys or they're small guys and not like the forwards, the Kauai, LeBron types of the world, the Paul Georges and all that. So if you get the right mix, you know, in terms of your, your playoff series that you have to go through, they are equipped to get through some teams in the West. They are. I would just say this, Kev. Look, if I were going to build a situation to make life hell,

a team that could make life hell on Luke Adich in his first playoff series, I would have chosen the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and Patrick Beverly and all these guys. And he torched their ass. So to me, it's like nowadays, there's not, there's nobody that's stopping these guys. from having big games. We watched Balbury scored 50. We scored, you know,

Donovan Mitchell scored 50. We see Trey Young average 30 points a game in the frigging NBA. You know, we got all these guys that are just so offensively devastating. And with the way that you have to guard now, I mean, I don't know. Like, I know that Covington's not shutting a guy down

one-on-one, but I mean, like, there's very few of, like, there's like Lou Door to, The torture chamber. There's just not a lot of these guys. And this has gotten into, this is why I do think, you know, regarding that argument that went on earlier this week with Tony Allen and Dremont Green and all these others,

that we now look at team defenders, team defenders, not necessarily the one-on-one guys. Like, he shut that guy down in a different way than we did in the past. Those in many cases appear to be the most valuable of the defenders rather than the Lou Dort, you know, can make life hell on James Hardin or Ben Simmons can make life hell on Luke Godinche. It's like those one-on-one I make life hell on the opposing offensive guy. Like those guys, they're hard to come by because defense takes so much effort. Defense takes so much agility. a defense takes so much energy out of you.

And so many of these guys are just, you know, I mean, nobody gets drafted for their defense anymore generally, you know, especially like perimeter guys. And so I don't know, I look at it and I say when Dame gets, you know, bottled up or he gets doubled like that and then you swing it to CJ and a guy's all up breathing up on him, and when it's swing, swing, swing time and that swing, heads over to Norm Powell, I mean, he's just a better version.

to Gary Trent to me. Yeah. I mean, and part of the, part of the reasons why they did that, though, is because my understanding is they weren't super hot about giving Gary Trent Jr. the money that he's going to demand the soft season. So it's similar to

what we talked about earlier with Miami and Philly. It's a deal for this season, but it is also a deal for the future in the sense that Norman Powell is the guy that they would rather pay a lot of money than Gary Trent. So naturally they view Gary Trent as a inferior player today and

tomorrow than Norman Powell. And for the Blazers here, when it comes to their defense, I think you're right about everything you said there about individual defense. It can be devalued because offense is so potent. Guys can hit shots with a hand in their face when you're facing the premier talent in the league. Like Damien Lillard, there's only so much you can do. There was a clip last night in that Sixers-Lakers game where Danny Green hit a corner three or Kyle Kuhesma was just smothering Danny Green,

just smothering him all over him. Danny Green, I don't even know how he brought the ball up into his shot, but he did and he made it. And I bring that up to say that shooting is at such a high level in the NBA today that sometimes you can do everything right on defense and still have the shot just switch right through the net against you. And Kyle Kuzmer after that play, like was like,

oh, like are you kidding? I did everything right. Look no further than the Damien Lillard wave play. What that F are you supposed to do? There's nothing you can do, man. 50 feet away from the basket. Pulling a three on you. Exactly.

Okay. Like, I don't care how good Paul George is as a defender. It doesn't matter. And all of that is true. What I worry about with Portland is containing penetration to the basket. And like they allow a lot of shots at the rim, a lot of kickouts for open three-pointers. that's what I worry about with Portland is stopping drill

dribble penetration. Covington oftentimes quicker guys just go by him. You know, you have a lot of smaller guys now where some of those stronger, bigger players will be able to overpower them and get inside to force the defense to collapse and rotate, creating kickout passes, which forces defenses into rotation and that can be a mess. And that's where those open, easy opportunities come from, which is why Portland is one of the worst defenses in basketball.

That's where I worry. But to your point, Chris, like, I'm with you there that sometimes there's like nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. I might as well have a guy that could score because I'm not really slowing this guy down that much anyway. It's to me, I look at the deal as an acknowledgement that we can't get stops. We have to out score everybody. And you know what?

That could work out. Like it does, it raises their ceiling. It's a deal that helps them. It's not the deal I would have preferred them to get. But Norman Powell does help the Portland Trailblazers and their offense. I cannot wait to watch a bad. court with Damien Lourge, C.J. McCollum, and Norm Powell. Like, C.J. McCollum, we did a video on him this week on The Void, Chris, about his offensive improvement this year. Shooting less from the mid-range,

more from three. McCollum last night, the guy that we saw, if he hadn't gotten hurt, McCollum was an all-star. No doubt about it. He was averaging almost 30 points per game before we got hurt. Last night, he had 29 in the first half. Man, and it looked easy for him at times. Six for eight from three. He's unbelievable. He's unbelievable. He's unbelievable. dude. Like that back court, like we talk about how it's hard to stop a LeBron or a Kauai or a George without that

wing defender. It's also going to be really hard to stop these guys or never mind stop them. You can't stop them. You can only help to contain them. Yeah, I have to mention this before we move on from the Blazers because Tim Reynolds tweeted this out and this was Oh, I saw it. Just insane

that Gary Trent start, the father, started his career in Portland, average 10 points per game there, traded to Toronto, 41 games into his third season. Gary Trent Jr. Started his career in Portland, average 10 points per game there, traded to Toronto, 41 games into his third season.

That is insane. Like the chances of that happening with a father and a son and all of that lining up? I mean, it's just, I mean, mind-blowing. It's one of those. To average the exact same amount of points and be traded the exact same amount of games to the exact same team? No way. It's wild.

No way. That's one of those is life assimilation things. Yeah, I know. How is that even possible? It's crazy. Any other teasing what a bunch? Oh, the Rondo thing was the other way. When that happened, I was like, what?

in the hell. Like, how did a guy go from a buyout, you know, minimum guy a year ago to commanding a sixth man of the year candidate every year and picks? Like, that just seemed crazy to me that the return that they got for him. And I will take a little victory lap here in the second they signed that in free agency. I told you that is a, I'm going to get this money. I'm going to go sit on this bench and then at the trade deadline, I'll go to a contender. But the contender's not going to pay me this money.

And so I'm going to go ahead and take their money here in Atlanta and then move on because it never made sense to me that Rajan Rondo coming off of a ring and a finals appearance was going to be coming off the bench in Atlanta and tutoring the young players. Like it just made it just, it was miscast. Now, it's weird because the price was way too high. But I do think he could help the Clippers. I do. I think he could help the Clippers, you know?

I certainly just get into the offense. And this is where I think he can help more than like his actual play. That locker room needs a Rondo. I agree with you. You know, and that they need a Rondo. That's the benefit people overlook. No, that's what they didn't have. That, I'm paying for that.

in the lot because I do think he can have a profound effect there in the locker room. I don't in Atlanta where they're not going to win shit anyway, but I do with the clippers. I think he could have a profound effect because there's those nights where you blow it to Denver and you're on the cusp of the whole season collapsing and Kauai is putting on his new balance sweatsuit and walking out. And Paul George has got his head down looking at his phone and he's walking out. And Pat Bev didn't really play and he's pissed off and he's walking out. Like, Rondo is, like he will be able to walk into that locker room and have a massive voice immediately.

And they will want him to. And it's those moments where they need somebody that has some gravitas, that has some level of respect. And then obviously you pray that playoff Rondo shows up and he can be a contributor. but I think the locker room thing is way, way bigger. And congratulations to him. He stole Atlanta's money. He got the good little contract, and then he got to be on a good team after all.

I was texting with our former producer and my co-worker, Isaac Lee, good friend, Clippers fan, and we were texting about Rondo, and I said to him, Rondo, better for the locker room, better for the bench, better for the playing rides, better for chemistry.

Not sure he's better on the court, but I don't know if the best. benefit on the court matters quite as much as all the other stuff that you're talking about there, Chris. Everything else is what the clippers needed, somebody to help steer their ship off the court and occasionally on the court. And if Rondo can give you that, then the clippers got what they needed there. That's, it's a solid deal for them. It's not, you know, a great deal. It's not a star player, but it helps. It helps. And they're already a really good team. You're already a contender. So I can't believe they gave up Lou Williams and picks. Yeah, that that's a little

surprising there, but you know, got to do what you're going to do. It's an upgrade for the things that you need. Look, if they have showed us anything, is that they don't give a shit in terms of the future. They don't care. They're all about right now. Yes.

Whatever the price is, they'll pay it. It's almost like they never negotiate. You know what I mean? It's like the guy in Oklahoma City, he's like, all right, I'll give you Paul George, but you got to give me every pick for the next 20 years. They're like, fine. Like, they just don't even care about what they end up giving up.

to get what they want. Is there any deals that we missed? I mean, just one quick real known in Evan Fornier, you know, I mentioned earlier shooting off the dribble. Yeah, I just wanted to get your thoughts on Boston. That was a lot of noise for nothing. Yeah, I mean, look, we covered the two other Orlando guys a lot in terms of possibly landing in Boston.

Vucevic a couple of weeks ago, and then that seemed like it wasn't going to happen. And then Gordon this week, and the one they end up with is Fournier of all of them. You know, they ended up with one of the Orlando guys. But Danny Hageant said, you know, we're not good enough. And so I think people thought that they were going to be active. And yet they ended up with Evan Fournier and then they moved off of Daniel Tice, which I think hurts them.

I do. I think moving Tice hurts them. Yeah, I mean, it was about getting under the luxury tax. I know. Setting yourself to avoid the repeater. So what they didn't. There wasn't another way to do that? That way to make.

I like the path they took personally. I mean, Evan Fornier is a good player. And he's in his prime years right now. He's going to be understricken free agent in the soft season. So we'll see what happens there. Is he on the court, though? Like, are you, are you playing? So smart won't be a score.

They're all going to play. No, but I'm saying smart won't be? Smart will play. No, I'm saying, like, smart's a closer, right? I mean, I don't know. Oh, who closes games? I'm not so sure. Well, that could be different every night.

Well, I mean, because you've got Kimball Walker and you got The two way guys. It might not be Kemba. It might not be Kemba some nights, Chris, which is crazy to say, but it might not be Kemba some nights. So we'll see. But I like Evan Forney and, you know, he can get to the basket, can pull up from mid range and he's expanded his range to shoot from three. I like that. I think what Dallas did getting JJ Reddick, that's a solid acquisition to add much needed shooting to the perimeter for them. Dallas is really surging right now. Luca is playing at an MVP caliber level. He's, I mean, the way Lucas shooting the ball right now. Chris, ever since a slow start when he came into camp a little bit out of shape, that dude is better than he was last season. That's a good little mild correction for what they did in the offseason because, you know, look. I mean, they basically just got Seth Curry, who's 20 years older than Seth Curry by adding JJ. I mean, they should have never gotten rid of Seth Curry. Can we just say this about Josh Richardson, though?

He's not shooting the ball well, but he's doing everything else well. I mean, I like, we just going to make that clear. You can't just look at the three point percentage with him. Like, this was on Bill's pod yesterday, too, with Ryan Rissile. But I, like, we kind of moved on topics. But Richardson has not been awful. He's just shooting the ball off.

No, I just rather have Seth Curry for my fit with Luca. That's what I'm saying. I think, I think that's fair. But this addresses it finding that shooting specialist for you. That's right. And so, for Dallas. Oh, no, JJ will be able to knock down threes for them. I like that.

Yeah, man. I'm excited. I'm excited to see what JJ can do next to Lucie. He's going to get a lot of open. shots, that's for damn sure. He also demands your respect. Yes. You're right. It's sometimes it's just that you have to be honored. And that may be where a fortier can really step into and help that Celtics team, that the numbers might not be that good, you know, in terms of what he puts up, points for

game and whatever else. But just the fact that somebody's got to guard his ass all the way out at the three point line is going to be beneficial for both Jalen Brown. and Tatum who can both, you know, if you give them space, they can both score, you know. And they didn't have a lot of space creators on that team because the Naismith thing hasn't taken. Jeff Teague doesn't really do it. Kemba's not a create a bunch of space guy because he's not, you know, he's never going to shoot nine threes in a game. So I do think the 48 thing, sometimes it's just about how it all fits. And having Reddick, even if he just stands out there at the three points,

line. You've got to guard him. And now more open lanes for Luca. So I think, yeah, I think it was pretty well covered. Yeah. One last thought, though. We also didn't get Alonzo trade. I think that was the right decision for New Orleans. Not trading John Collins, I would say is the right decision for Atlanta. Take that stuff into the offseason, evaluate then.

So I like the deadline. I like what we saw yesterday from a lot of teams here. Not a lot of critiques in that sense. A lot of smart moves. moves over all, though. Maybe not stuff that raises the ceiling as we took. I was just looking at the schedule for tonight, Kev. Boy, I hope Gordon's in the lineup.

That'd be fun. Welcome to the Western Conference. You're guarding Zion tonight. Oh, okay. Okay. If he does, I don't know. I don't know if he'll be there or not. Denver, New Orleans.

That'll be fun. That would be good, right? I hope we get that. Yeah, we get some good games on the slate tonight. I will, hey, look, Boston, Milwaukee could be good. By the way, allow me to just tell you off the front. I'm not going to use it against him. If Zion puts him in the seventh row because he's done that to every.

I mean, what an assignment night one for your new team. Like, hey, we got Aaron Gordon. We think it's going to really improve us defensively. Next thing, you know, the guys are the 20th row. Zion's cracking on everybody. To our point earlier, it's hard to stop good odds. It's hard to stop these guys. And especially that train, good luck.

Kevin, it was a fun deadline. There was at least activity. I don't think it necessarily moved the needle drastically for who we would pick. I don't know if who we would pick to win changes based on yesterday. And it could have with a Lowry move. But, you know, we got enough moving around that it makes it interesting to see these guys on teams for the first time. Have a good weekend. Thank you to producer Sasha, as always.

And we will talk to you next week. Have a fun weekend, everybody.