The Ringer NBA Show - Jimmy Butler to the Warriors, and Lakers Get a New Center. Plus, Winners and Losers From the Trade Deadline. | Real Ones

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Logan, Raja, and Howard start their trade deadline recap by discussing the Jimmy Butler trade and whether this was the right move for the Warriors (1:55). Then they discuss the Lakers getting Mark Williams from Charlotte (32:27) and De’Aaron Fox’s first game as a Spur (37:30). Then they pick out some winners and losers (45:32) and wrap up with their Real Ones of the Week (1:05:45). Hit the mailbag! [e-mail] Get your tickets to the live show at Punch Line San Francisco on February 15 here. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Logan Murdock, Raja Bell, and Howard Beck Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, except we did 120 songs. And now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, Jalo, Kanye, sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, colon the 2000s. Wow.

That's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s, in the 2000s, preferably on Spotify. Fuck what you're talking about, bro. Fuck what you're talking about. Keep that shit in. Real ones.

Logan Murdoch here, Roger Bell, there in a rush. Howard Beck and the motherfucking cut. Ben Cruz is on the call, so you know it's a big deal. And we have Isaiah Blakely on the boards. This is a special edition of Real Ones back on our own old time slot Thursday, just for a day, because it is the trade deadline extravaganza. You guys ready, man? How are you guys thought about this trade deadline?

We're officially done. How is everybody feeling? I refilled my coffee, so I'm great. Yeah, I'm dealing with like flu symptoms, so I'm not doing so good. And I got a football game early, brother. Trade deadline kicks Roger's ass. Yeah, not feeling great. But yeah.

Okay, I got my black tea from Trader Joe's. You know what I mean? Let's get it. T.Js. All right, we got a lot to talk about for this, this trade deadline extravaganza. But like, we all know why y'all here. You know, let's just do that. Let's get it off the top.

Jimmy Butler is a Golden State warrior. After all of the posturing from both sides, he is now a Golden State warrior with a two-year $101 million extension, excuse me. Let's just go through the time. timeline really quickly. Obviously, there were reports out there, and I had been hearing this two last month that the Warriors staff, record label, and most of the crew didn't want Jimmy Butler in the building.

They were, if you talk to anyone within the organization, at least most of the people, there was definitely a divide on getting this guy into the building. And then, you get to the trade. deadline. And you don't know what's, and Beck knows this. You don't know what's posturing and what's actual dues at this point. There are a lot of just conflicting voices when you're around a team like this. But anyways, there was a, there was a sense that the lawyers didn't want them. Then didn't want Jimmy Butler. And then you get Jimmy who goes to intermediary saying that he's not going to sign an extension. The warriors go pursue Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant says kick rocks.

I don't want to come back. Then Jimmy Butler somehow. sees that no one else is going to pay him. And the warriors are like, well, we need a superstar. What's up? We'll pay you. Marriage of convenience. Did I get that right back? Does that seem like how it all went down?

That sounds about right. That sounds about right. Although I'll just footnote it. And you know, because I sent this to you yesterday morning, there was a moment that before Kevin Durant made it clear he was not interested in a big, happy, sentimental, sappy reunion in the Bay Area that there were people around the league who thought that something was imminent, a three-team trade minimum that was going to land Durant in San Francisco and send Jimmy Butler to Phoenix as part of the deal, which is a weird downgrade for

Phoenix, but whatever. I'll get into the details of that later in the show, but like that was in play. So that's the only other detail is that for a moment there, there was buzz around the league Wednesday morning that Durant was maybe Bay Area. about that it looked like the deal that was there was the parameters of a deal in place that could have landed in there and yeah you said it though logan at the end of this all we have a marriage of inconvenience here not quite like shotgun marriage but it might as well have been um it's like the warriors did this because they just kind of needed to do something to not waste another

stretch of step's career and jimmy was out of options how many teams were knocking down the Heat's door willing to give up anything of substance at all. And you can see by what the Miami Heat accepted in return, this was just basically just getting rid of the headache at this point, that the Warriors were on top of it willing to give Jimmy Butler that extension. I guess you might as well once you're down that path. But yeah, this is a marriage of convenience. We'll see, we'll take our temperature on how we all feel about what the results might be. But it's an awkward situation, I think. What did you think of the deal, right? I mean, you had to do something.

If you're Golden State, like we've talked about this on the pod, you know, until we're blue in the face, like you're in this situation with Steph that you owe him an opportunity to play for something. Like even your casual is like, you know, you don't want to see Steph in the later years of his career with just with some tread left on the tire, not having an opportunity to fight for something. So, you know, in the absence of getting what you really wanted. you wind up with Jimmy Butler.

I honestly, I think you guys summed it up. Like, I've given you all my reservations about Jimmy Butler and what the bad version of Jimmy can do, you know, culturally to your building. I mean, look at the heat. It can be great for long stretches of time. But if he decides it's not great anymore, it can get toxic really quickly.

And I would equally hate to see that happen to Golden State as Steph's time there runs out, if that makes sense, right? So much as I want to see him fighting for something and playing and being viable, I equally hate to see it get really ugly and messy in a way that we haven't really seen in Golden State to that degree. I mean, we've seen shit, but not like Jimmy can stir up some shit. Can you do what I'm saying? Like Jimmy can stirrup some shit.

So, I mean, hey, like kind of win-win, I see it as. I mean, you could call it lose a win-win, but win-win, I think. Think, like, you know, you get stuff something to work with. Jimmy's a good player. I think, you know, to get into the X's and O's of it, style of play for Jimmy is a good fit. You know, like he's a guy that he did some very similar things to what Golden State has done when they've played really well,

where there's a lot of movement, a lot of player movement, ball movement, you know, kind of flow to it rather than just the pure ISO. Jimmy can also get you the ISO buckets, though. So, you know, I kind of do like him as a fit there offensively. on the wing. You know, and the heat just had, I mean, the writing was on the wall there. I think on paper, I'm trying to figure out how to do this, because there's so many layers to this.

I think adding a Jimmy Butler to your roster from a basketball standpoint is always a net positive, right? Because he is that good of a basketball player. The politics surrounding it, though, give me pause that. this is going to work in the way that they would want it to work, right? Remember somebody telling me in the lead up to this trade, right? And this is like before, this is probably about three weeks ago, when the Warriors were in pursuit of not only Jimmy Butler,

but also Zach Levine and pretty much, you know, any superstar. I mean, Kevin Durant, they always wanted him as well. but they said if they get Jimmy Butler, the Warriors get Jimmy Butler, this is a Joe Lakeb call. And if they don't, then Joe Lakeb is actually listening to his staff. And they pointed to the last few times that Joe Lakeb has had decision making, use unilateral decision making to make a move. it was James Wiseman in drafting him and Kelly Ubrey

when they I think was it a trade I think when they traded for Kelly Ubre and neither of those ended well James Wiseman obviously because of injury and Kelly Ubre because he just didn't fit within the ecosystem right and I think this is a recurring thing

that we have kind of seen over the last few years as the Warriors have just tried to figure out things is, and I'm not trying to just sift blame because I think there's some blame to go all around,

but I think this one, Lacob is getting, isn't necessarily listening to the people that are actually coaching the team or actually the basketball people.

He just wants to be in the show and make sure that they have a superstar are and on paper like yeah i guess you have jimmy butler but you're unwilling to actually reinvent yourself and i said this in the last podcast it felt like the warriors were flailing and just at a certain point and just trying to pick anybody that will come there and it doesn't seem like there's necessarily a plan right it's like get an all-star what what we've seen that makes good teams is deep actual deep teams what do even when you see jimmy butler i think he's a great Iso guy. This team needed shooting. I don't know if he necessarily provides that. And if you were going

to get a Jimmy Butler, could you get another shooter to help with Steph or Buddy Hill to kind of help spread the floor? Or can you do a maybe? And also another thing that the warriors have said, and this goes back to Joe Lekob, you know, there were some whispers throughout this time that, you know, maybe Jremont Green. And I think he alluded to this after the game last night. But that Draymond Green had kind of used a bit a lot of his capital in terms of how the team would, his capital of how the team would tolerate his actions, right? Like how much they were fed up with him at this point that he might be dealt. Joe Lek of was not going to let that happen, right? And you've seen even throughout all these deals the people that Joe Lakev wanted to stay on the team, Jonathan Kameh and Dremont Green.

are still on the team. It's by reservations from a lot of different people. So I do think there is a disconnect within this front office. And if they're going to be good, even in salvage this Jimmy Butler situation, you know, Lakers are going to have to listen to the basketball people. And I don't think that that's happening here. And I think that that's the thing that is. So the other people, you're saying the other people wanted Zach Levine?

I think they would have been, I think they would have preferred. hurt him over Jimmy Butler, those are their two people, right? Because, you know, Zach Levine doesn't play a lick of defense, but he can spread the floor. He could be a secondary scoring option. Not to say that Jimmy Butler can't, but like a, he, Zach Levine is a better score than Jimmy Butler. And also, they didn't want the headache, you know?

You think, you don't think so? No. You don't think that? I'm not going to get a full in argument. It's more of the headache, too. than anything. They would rather have, they would rather have Levine than the headache of Jimmy Butler. And that was, that was what you would hear all the time. And so, like, for them to pivot and get Jimmy Butler, despite all those reservations, is telling. So, I mean, look, the intel I got was

the same as, as Logan's, when this was going down yesterday, that this was a Joe Lake of move. Like, that was almost literally word for word what somebody had texted me about 10 minutes before the story finally broke. They said, this thing's happening. This was somebody outside of the organization. and the impression around the league is, yeah, this was a Joe Lake of move. And if people around the league are getting that impression, it's because they're being told that probably by people that they're talking to on the basketball side with the Warriors. That's how the gossip chain works in this league. Put all that aside for a minute, how, you know, process, decision making,

who's making decision? At the end of the day, they made this commitment, right? They're in on Jimmy Butler. They're in the Jimmy Butler business for the next two seasons. plus the rest of this one, equaling the time that Steph Curry has left on his deal, that Steve Kerr does.

This is it. This is the last phase of the Steph Curry era or the Steph and Draymond and Kerr era. And they have put everybody's fate, whatever's going to become of this last gasp of the dynasty in Jimmy Butler's hands. There's risk there for sure.

But like if I'm going to, I would focus on on the glass half full for a moment here. Jimmy Butler at his best, we know what he can do. We know the notch he can turn it up or the several notches he turns it up in the playoffs. Jimmy Butler's a badass. They needed defense.

They needed shot creation. They needed somebody else who could handle the ball. They needed somebody else who could be a high usage-ish score at times when necessary. I see Jimmy Butler in some ways as a more skilled version of what they had with Agadala when he was there. Like, you know, a, you know, a bigger ball handler, you know, obviously Andre's like really long. It's like different, different build. But like, Andre ran the offense off the bench. Andre was another leader on the floor. Igadala could, could initiate and create. Jimmy can do all those things at a much higher level. And for all of the, just the angst of the last several

months with Miami, which cannot be swept under the rug by any means, his first. His first five years there, things were mostly fine. Now, you'd hear things here and there. Jimmy's always a pain, wherever he is. He's a, but it was, it's, it, it wasn't like, to the extent that it was really messing things up. They got to the finals twice with lackluster rosters. They don't do that without Jimmy Butler getting them there. So lest we get too caught up in the drama and everything that's, that Jimmy stirred up because he was pissed about his contract in recent months, he had a nice long stretch there in Miami where things were mostly fine and they made two finals. And he's, this is the last stage of his career too. And he can decide how much trouble he wants to stir up or

whether he's going to try to conform to the culture that he's now joining where he's got the best shot that he's going to have. Again, he went to two finals. But if there's any shot for him to to make that stage again in his career, it's going to have to be by playing by the warrior's rules. I know there's also this Draymond element. too. You've got these two really hard-headed dudes in the same locker room now. I'm not saying there's not risk. There is. On the functional side of it, I'm more concerned just because Jimmy's not a knock-down three-point shooter. Ideally, you want to be playing, you know, especially at the end of the game, you want to play Steph with your best players. That's going to be Jimmy, Dremond, Kuminga, and a fifth

person to be named. Jimmy's not a shooter. Dremon's not a shooter, even though Dremont's having a pretty good shooting year by percentage. And Kaming is not really a shooter. So you have some issues, right? Like, can you ever play Kavana Looney with any combination of these guys because he's not a shoot? Like some of their best players just don't fit together in terms of spacing in today's NBA. On the other hand, Jimmy can manufacture scoring from a bunch of different places on the floor and that's going to help them out. And it's going to be less wear and tear on on Steph and less on Steph's shoulders. So on balance, if we We put all the other stuff aside, all the drama aside, personality stuff aside.

I do think this is a worthwhile gamble, especially when you couldn't get Kevin Durant to come back. You tried Paul George. You tried Larry Mark. Where else were you going to go? Is there a better option in the offseason, maybe? But there's just so many rocks you can turn out. Yeah, that's where I'm, that's kind of where I'm at Howard. And I'm, look, I hope that you are, Corralic.

I'm hoping like, hell, that. that he does buy into the culture there realizes that, you know, this is a real opportunity for them to do something and just kind of buys in and is the best version of himself there. Like, because when he is doing that, it's all systems go. Like he's, I mean, I'm a huge Jimmy Butler hooping on the court fan. I would honestly make the argument. And you guys know I love Zach Levine too.

Jimmy Butler is, there are a handful of players in the NBA that you get those spacing out the window and what they do to spacing. He's one of them. Like, just because. because he's so good when he's good that I don't I don't think you account like you account spacing for somebody like me like do you know what I mean I'm not giving you shit else so I better be able to space the floor and like defend you know but like he's one of those dudes that just he's got the ability big shots timely shots carry you for stretches of games with shot making

and creation that that I wouldn't even really worry about the spacing and I think I think that if him and Dremont are connected emotionally, like you just went, you just got really, you just got really tough. You know what I mean? Like, you just got really grimy and really gritty, you know, in a way that might counter some of what you're talking about on offense, Logan,

and you know what I mean? In the shooting and stuff like that, I'm just trying to make the argument. Because I do think it's a win, and I think it's a win for the reason you just stated Howard. Like they might have wanted Zach Levine. Was there any indication that they could have had him? Like could they have had him if they wanted him?

I don't know. I mean, I'm not locked in like you guys are on that. There were a deal in place and maybe they just didn't want vouch, but like there was reports that they could have gotten. But something made it unpalatable. I mean, I guess my point is like if you're looking around and you had other targets that you wanted, IE. Kevin Durant and stuff like that and Paul George and like those avenues are closed.

I'm with Howard and that you had to do something and I'm going to take Jim. We'll make Jimmy Butler work. Now he's got to be a good version of himself. That will always be the caveat for me. and I know what you're saying Howard about, like for the years in Miami before recent events, like he was good, but he wasn't, right? Like they were just keeping it under wraps because like everybody's winning, everybody's happy.

But that doesn't mean he wasn't there ruffling feathers. Right, but he wasn't derailing things either. Well, he wasn't derail it, but he's scary to me because, like, you would say logically, normally, right? Most people at their end of their career don't want it to like go completely sideways. They're like, no, I wouldn't do that. Jimmy's so wildcardish to me, and I don't know him. I'm just watching him.

He's such a wild card that I wouldn't know, and that would scare me. And another point to that, Roger, I have a couple points actually to that one. One, I don't think that the warriors have the institutional infrastructure that the heat do, to your point on that, right? So, like, where he can do all those things. And there's a Eudonis Haslam that's going to be like, hey, bro, too. behind the scenes and also have a respected voice in that, right? Like, there's not an old head in that way.

Like, Draymond is fiery, but he's not a Udana's Haslam type figure. That's an institutional figure like that, right? Like, that's not, they don't have that. And also, like, there's no Pat Riley there, right? There's no, it's just, so that would scare me as a, as someone in the Warriors organization, right? Because they're just somebody, they're a, it's a, hippie vibes type organization, man.

They're really cool. They're nice, but like, what, if everything that you see for the Goldest Day Warriors is they try to deflect from confrontation. Every time there's confrontation, they sweep that under the rug, right? You let a fox in the headhouse. Exactly.

Hey, come on in. Yeah. On top of the fact that Howard and I got to push back on this, on top of the fact, Jimmy Butler doesn't stay healthy. So, like, if they do all these things, and he is in a perfect world, you know, really good alongside Steph.

And I do think there's a world where he is where, you know, they're playing good defense. And maybe they're not scoring 110 points, but they're winning by scoring 105 points, right? Because they're playing lockdown defense, another person that's really good on Golden State. Gary Payton, the second, really good defender, who also doesn't stay healthy, ironically.

But this could go bad. Like, this could go really bad just from the injury. Like, I am more, and I'm trying to shoot them bail, and I'm trying to do last half full. And you made a very good point. But I think the other side of it is winning out here right now, Beck. Look, there's downside with Jimmy's personality and all the stuff he can bring to the table if things aren't going well or if he's just in a mood to be a pain in the ass. There's downside on the health part of it for sure. Jimmy misses like, whatever, a quarter to a third of every season.

for the last however many years due to injury. You can't diminish any of that. You can't dismiss any of that. It's all real. Also, one other thing really quickly from a strategic standpoint, and, like, yes, the Warriors do run similar offensive stretches as the heap, but the Warriors ain't got no shooters. There ain't no Duncan Robinson coming through that door.

There's no Tyler Hero going through that door, right? Like, there's no, it's definitely a different type of roster. And Buddy Heald, who's the second best shooter on a team, has not been good this season shooting the basketball. Yeah, I mean, Heald's got to get, Heald's got to get his stroke back, Pajemski's got to get his stroke back, Moses Moody. Like, they've got guys who we have seen be effective above average three-point shooters. For whatever reason, some of them have just been out of sync this year.

Pajemski was some sort of sophomore jinks and Buddy Heald. I don't know what the heck's going on with Buddy Heald. But I think Wiggins was their second best volume three-point shooter after Steph at the moment of the trade. So, yeah, I mean, all that's potentially concerning, but at this stage of Steph's career arc, maybe you have to figure out a different way to win. And maybe that's by being a little bit more, as Rajah said, grimy, more defensive-minded, a little bit more mid-range going on with Jimmy out there and some ISO with Jimmy at times. But like, I'm not putting them in the title conversation.

But my point has been all along and has been this way. for the last five years or whatever. With regard to LeBron and with regard to Steph and anybody else in their class, you owe it to them, you owe it to history, you owe it to your fans to do everything possible to make their final years as meaningful as possible, especially when they're still playing at an all-MBA level. And Steph and LeBron are both going to be in the All-Star game.

Steph might make the LNBA team. LeBron, maybe not, but we'll see. But these guys are still playing at a really high level. So do whatever you've got to do. And if Jimmy Butler's the best you can pull out of this trade market, I'm fine with it because the clock's ticking. And I don't, I don't, again, I don't know how many other avenues they really had or whether those things would have moved the needle any more than this does.

So like, fuck, man, give it a shot. Like, I don't, I don't mind it. It is definitely a roll of the dice. I don't mind it. I think there's upside. I think they're better today than they were two days ago. Yeah, no, I agree with that. I would also, I would also add a couple of,

things. Number, like, this isn't, this isn't finished for, for what they're going to look like. Yeah. You know, this is just what they look like now. You, you've got the pillars now of what, of, you know, you've got your foundation laid essentially. So now we're, we're going to start, you know, putting up the, the walls and all the fringes and shit like that.

That would be next summer, um, what type of pieces we're going to target to go around those guys. And that's where obviously you're going to address some of the issues that you're talking about, Logan, as it relates to like the offense with the heat and, and, and, and, and Golden State, they might not be the same offenses and they might not have the same weaponry, right? But the biggest challenge for NBA players is going from a system where you're not used to running intricate shit

and the ball is just basically with like a Luca-ish team where you're in pick and roll and you're standing off the ball all the time. So now you're in stuff where I need you moving and I need the ball moving. And that's the biggest thing. It doesn't have to be exactly the same. Pieces can be interchange.

we might shoot better on this team or not. But just the fact that he's excelled on teams that would move people and move the ball and like operate in huge spurts of the game with action, I think makes him a fit for them when they want to do that. By the way, can I just throw in one quick thing too? They got Jimmy for free, basically. Like, no disrespect to Andrew Wiggins. But like, unless you were going to somehow be able to get the Andrew Wiggins of 2022 back,

which doesn't seem like it's ever happening, you gave up an okay player and a bunch of role guys, Dennis Schrooter and Lindy Waters and like Kyle Anderson, like, and and a pick this year that's going to be somewhere in the middle of the first round. You got a really good player. You essentially flipped Clay Thompson for Jimmy Butler. That's, yeah. Well, along with Wiggins.

And Wiggins, yeah. Yeah. But, but it's, you're getting a, you're getting, like, yes, you're having. to pay him 110 or whatever. I've seen like 17 different versions of what his two-year extension is. There's probably some incentives in there and stuff and people are probably, you know, inflating it a little bit. But whatever it is, it's a lot of money to pay him. And you've tied your fate to him for the next couple of seasons. But you basically got him for nothing. And he's one of the best players of his, of the era, you know, a perennial NBA candidate when he's

healthy. Like, again, you got him for very little investment. Might as well. Yeah, it should be fine. One last thing on this, we started at the top with like, clearly neither party wanted to, you know, have a partnership going into this trade deadline. And even like when I was watching the postgame pressers, it didn't seem like anybody on the Warriors was necessarily excited for this, right? And granted, they were coming off of a collapse against the Utah Jazz. but Raja, with that being the case, is there, do you anticipate any, like, awkward exchanges?

Like, this is definitely a marriage of convenience. Do you, or do you get over that pretty quickly in the locker room when Jimmy comes in, right? When Jimmy knows that, like, I didn't want to be here and the team knows are like, we didn't really want him a month ago. Is there going to be something residual from that or not really? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. like I think for the most part they're going to be fine I think a lot of it has to do with the culture you talked about within the building there um like they're just not they don't seem to be built like that as an organization um yeah man I and I think you know the other thing is windows are very aligned there like there's no time to be wasting on that dumb shit you know what I mean like we we we got to get it cracking we got to get to work we have to figure out in this last stretch of the season if we're viable this year, if we're not viable this year, what we look

like, like what do we do well as a group that's going to be here moving forward? What has to go around that group because we do these things well to support that group? Like there's a lot to do. So I would, you know, as professional basketball players, I bet you're over that pretty quick. Let's get to work. Let's add a couple quick things here, Logan, before we move on. just in terms of the need. So the Warriors are 25 and 25, as we sit here right now, right? They're ninth in the West. They're tied with the Kings and Sons there.

But they're only a half game out of eighth, which is Dallas. We'll see what Dallas looks like with Anthony Davis. There are two and a half the Warriors behind Minnesota for seventh. There are three games out of sixth. Like, they're really still right there. And the West is such a bizarre. Outside of Oklahoma, there just feels like nothing is guaranteed. And the teams that are, a lot of the teams that are ahead of you, especially if you finish in the lower part of the bracket, if you're the Warriors with Steph, Dremond and Jimmy Butler going up against a Rockets team that's never been in the playoffs with a bunch of young guys or even against the Grizzlies.

Bro, everybody is circling the wagons on the Rockets right now. They're like the Kings of a couple years ago. It's like, let's just get to the Rockets. I think quite frankly, I think the people got the Rockets messed up in that regard. But I do too. But I'm with Howard in that like if I were on a team, like that's the way I'd be looking at it. Like if I was playing them, I'd be looking at it. Because I think the Rockers are going to surprise a lot of people in the postseason. I think people are going to come with that attitude and get fucked up. They're going to get popped. Right.

But that's what you're supposed to feel. But they're also vulnerable. And we've seen them like, dude, I just watched them lose to the nets twice in a three, four day span or whatever. And they gagged the second one in Brooklyn just badly. And Fred Van Bensik didn't play that game. And like if he's out there, things probably execute a little differently down. the stretch, but still. I'm just saying there's opportunity for the warriors here. Are they going to win a championship? Probably not. Are they knocking out the Oklahoma City Thunder? Probably not.

Is the West just a wild jumble of just mystery boxes? Yeah. And so, you know, our guys at Kramm, people should go check out his piece about the Jimmy Butler deal on the ringer.com. But, you know, cram's got some good stats about just how much the offense falls off when Steph's not on the court. also a great Jimmy stat. Jimmy Butler, over the last three seasons, this is from Cram, Jimmy Butler ranks fourth in true shooting percentage among the 71 players with a usage rate of 24 or higher. So among high volume or high usage guys, he's behind only like two recent MVP's and Kevin Durant in true shooting percentage. So like he's still really valuable. And there is opportunity here. So yeah, again, I got no problem with it. Sometimes in basketball,

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Let's go down the coast. The Lakers made another move, guys. Yay. They got... I'm sorry, God, that can't stop fucking cough. I'm sorry. Someone get Rodgers some cough drops, man.

Jesus Christ, bro. I'm on all that in. Blue Game Roz. Blue Game Roz is here, bro. We're out here. Let's go. Lakers received Mark Williams from the Charlotte Hornets. They traded Dalton,

Cam Redis, a 231 unprotected first route pick, and have a 2030 pick swap with the Charlotte Hornet. thoughts, Beck, how do you feel? How does this round out the quest for a championship in Los Angeles this year? It's funny because we're just talking about

like, well, Jimmy, as long as he's healthy, Mark Williams is 23 years old and is only in his third NBA season and he's missed a shit ton of games. He played 17 games, or excuse me, he played 43 games as a rookie, 19 last season. Hell of you.

And he's played in 23 this year. Mark Williams misses a lot of games. That said, very good score. With that highlight tape, though? Very good score and rebounder. He's not your classic rim protector type among Biggs. Like I think I was reading, it was Kevin Pelton or somebody had it earlier where like guys field goal percentage against him at the rim is pretty decent. It's not like he's not a great rim protector, at least with the Hornets he wasn't.

Maybe he'll be better in a context of this Laker team. So they didn't just go out and get Rudy Gobert. or even Walker Kessler. But they badly needed a good center. Somebody who's also, by the way, going to be on Lucas timeline. Again, this is not about LeBron. It's about Luca at this stage. But they got a big body to put in the middle.

They filled out their roster. I feel better about the Lakers today than I did before they got Mark Williams. Put it that way. We'll see. I think it's right. I mean, for all the things that you said, like, he could get you 15 to 7, but, like, if he ain't on the court and this is, the fact of the matter is what the Lakers is, this is a two, three year process, man, you know?

Like, this is, we talked about the Warriors. And I don't want to spend too much time on the Lakers because there's other deals that we need to talk about. We send to do winners and losers, right? But, like, they're going to be, they're going to be, we got to figure out what's going to happen this summer. to figure out what's going to happen next summer. They soon need to get a level of shooting. They soon need to figure out what their identity is. They're still going to figure out, have to figure out the partnership between LeBron and Luca

and how that's going to last. And it's a weird time. And I think I've finally gotten to the point where I am used to seeing Luca in a Lakers jersey. But Luca is like the Don Dada right now, which is wild on a team with LeBron. And they're going to have to make up this team in his vision in a way. So it's weird. But this is a good pickup. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference this year.

They just needed a center. They needed a functioning starting center that is living and breathing. That's literally what they needed. Roger, how much Mark Williams have you watched? Not much. Were you aware of his existence pre-trade? Yeah, but I hadn't watched him a lot. And honestly, I looked him up like when I saw the trade just to see, you know, what he was as a player and shit like that.

but, but I, this one for me, there are two things. Like I, guys, like, I mean, people know this. I'm not like deep dive in everybody's roster. Like, that's not my, that's not my jam. I would say this, the two things that are striking out, like sticking out the most. One is what Howard said, which is everything moving forward that the Lakers do, how, how Luca centric the deal is and the focus is on that as they move going forward. And then secondly, like you said, Logan, like you just, I, I,

I think it's a good deal because you needed a big body and you got it. Yeah. And he can do some pick and roll. We can do some good things with the ball. Like it's, yeah. If he's on the court, you know, but like, you know, if this was a fifth. I mean, I do wonder about cost, right? Like, in their desperation to backfill Anthony Davis and they just didn't have any other serviceable bigs to put out there.

Like, is this the deal that they would have made in the summer when they had a full range of options and when they're not dealing with the desperation of a trade deadline. coming down and trying to figure out how to make sure that this season goes the way they want it to. Like, Dalton Connect, you know, decent, you know, decent young player, Cam Reddish, whatever. But they gave up an unprotected first rounder in 2013. It's like their last chip that they could really spend. And a pick swap in 2030 that almost certainly won't happen because the Hornets are in perpetual purgatory. You're never going to have to swap with that. Hey, man, pick swaps are dope on the table.

That's all that is. know. But the 2031 pick, like, that was their last, you know, like, and they, you know, there'll be more coming as they get past the draft and all that. But like, I don't know, man, like, is that, was that the right guy to, to fire your last chip on? And is that, you know, like, like, how much, how much more do you have to do still this summer as you, as you, as you kind of shift toward Lucas timeline and try to build around him? Um, I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I would just say this. I hope the Lakers medical staff can figure out something that the Hornets medical staff has not with Mark Williams.

Because even though the financial commitment isn't big, I think still on his rookie deal, you did send out some of the only good assets you had available. And that means you're not using them down the road. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't have been mad. I mean, the only thing that you're mad at is this first round pick. But they're expecting, no matter what they do. And I know it's in the interim that they're mad that you can't maybe make a trade or something like that.

But they do have other assets that they could trade on this roster. But they gave away Cam Redis and Dalton, who were rotational players at best. You know, like, Cam Reddish, I don't even, he's not a factor on that roster whatsoever. No, he's just a guy. He's just a guy. A really good basketball player compared to me. But, you know, it's just fine. All right. Enough Laker talk, guys, Jesus. We just find a way to put him on, put them on, much to Roger's chagrin.

Anybody see the Deerian Fox first game against the Hawks? Jeez, this could turn out pretty good, guys. He looked great. He looked really happy, didn't he? It was like one of those things were like, you forget. Because the kings operate in relative obscurity and for such a long, time. I forget like when they do have good players and when good players are happy and how they play when they're happy. I remember that I was the first step back three that that a fox had was just butter. It just looked like he was playing in the park. It was great to watch. I'm happy for

him. Yeah. Sometimes you need a just a fresh start, a breath of fresh air just, you know, and it doesn't even have to be like as much shade as we throw at Sacramento and rightfully so. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be because they screwed anything up. It could just be, you know, you've overstayed your welcome. You're past the expiration date on that. And getting somebody with talent and real legs under them and a real skill set and like in another situation. Now, his is going to be like really crazy because you're with Wembe and you're with an organization like the Spurs and all of the great things that are there waiting for him. But just generally speaking, getting a guy out of something and into something new can be.

can be kind of rejuvenating for him. I also love Howard, the three point guard lineup that they have going with Chris Paul, Castle, and Fox. Like that could be something. I'm really, like, excited to see what this team can do, right? I mean, they're also in the play-in mix as well. That'll be fun to watch down the stretch, right? Is see if Wimby can, I want to see if he can, like, galvanize this team enough to at least get into a playing.

And, like, let's get Wimby in the playoffs. Why not? I mean, I'm counting on it. Dude, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, look, so the spurs, back to the standings, two games behind the Warriors right now. So the Spurs are in 12th. But, you know, even if the Warriors rise, the sons are teetering. I think the Kings are teetering. You never know about the Timberwolves.

Like, I don't know how many spots the Spurs can move up, but I think they're at least getting into the play in. And do you want to be facing Wembe, Dierre, and Fox, Faustafon Castle, Christ, Paul, Devin Vassell, Keldon Jots, like, that's a frisky team. Like, Chris Paul is no longer frisky, but the rest of that team's really frisky and Chris Paul's still really good and really effective. You know what the streets need, Howard? We need, we need Houston versus San Antonio. That's what we need first round.

That would be amazing. Look, I'll just say it now, the Spurs are making the playoffs. I don't know which position they'll be in. Let's go. Let's go. Okay. I love Deer and Fox there. I love what I saw.

Overreaction Theater. One game, they look awesome. They look great. I mean, and not to overstate it. They were awesome at times and not so awesome at the moments last night. But it looks like it's going to fit really easily. Like Deer and Fox looked like he's just slipping right into place there, finding a rhythm with Wemby, throwing lobs to him at the rim.

Seems like the easiest job in the world. And I think this was a great move for the Spurs. And I'm, you know, we'll get to winners. losers in Sacramento might land on my list, but like the Kings did not get enough back. And I don't know why they had to make this deal when they made it. I will say, I'm just going to, I got to, you know, we got to play all sides on real ones, right? I will just say this about Fox. I think he's a really great player.

I think the criticism of him in Sacramento is sometimes he can disappear in games. And sometimes when he's not mad, he can just be out in the corner. And that would piss a lot of people off within the van base and also. some people in the organization where, you know, he's standing in the corner, letting like Malik Monk and other guys carry the offense down the stretch of a game, even though he was in the running. Did he win clutch player of the year a couple years ago? He won the very first one.

He won the very first one, right? He can be clutched, but sometimes he can disappear within games. I don't know if that was necessarily because it was a function of Sacramento and what they were doing, but that can't fly when you're on the stage and the lights are on you in San Antonio because that will get exposed. So that's one, that's the other caveat I would have on the Deerun Fox 2. No doubt. You don't like, sorry.

You don't like the, huh? I said no doubt. Yeah, I'm just fucking go. Sorry. You go, buddy. Yo, I don't know how we're going to edit this, but I just want to say early, we're one of the week candidate right now is Roger Bell, who's like really just fucking fighting through this pod, who's like really getting through it.

Crazy because he said, let's hurry this shit up because I have a flag football. game to catch. And the fact that he's going to score three touchdowns in this flag football game after this thing, Roger? What? No, hell no. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Zend's playing. Listen, man, I was in the bed. You ever had to, like, I was so cold in this bed. I had a down, we're in Miami, man. I got a down, what's the weather right now? It's 82 degrees, man. I'm under this blanket, like, sweating for hour, but I couldn't even sleep. It's the wildest. But I'm, you know, I'm struggling now, but I feel better than that. I just got this damn hacking coughing.

My head's killing me. Did you win or lose the trade deadline? I lost that shit unequivocally, but I'm out. Not even question. Back, anything else on the D.A. I think anything else on the D.A. Fox, also one other thing, question that I do have that we haven't really, like, spoken of right here, like, about the San Antonio Spurs that I think is,

something I don't think is being talked about or now. Like, where's pop? you know and how does that that also throws a wrench into the future of whatever the spurs are going to be it's going to be a huge wrench we haven't really heard much about him we know

what the spurs are really tight-lipped about such things I heard a little bit that he's recovering but not much because again it's the spurs he had a stroke this is a tough terrain to deal with in this time

but how do they navigate this right now because that's a huge, huge piece to what they're trying to build. Yeah, I mean, I haven't really checked in with them in a while. I have heard some things about pop from folks around the league. But, you know, I think at this stage of the season, do you expect him? He's going to come back? You know, probably not. Is he going to coach next season?

I don't, like, I think there's a lot of unknown there. I'm not reporting that. I'm just saying, like, I think it's just the obvious. It's the logical thing. But, you know, Mitch Johnson's done a really nice job. It seems like they're in good hands. And they still got a lot of, you know, R.C. Buford's still around. They've got a lot of people who have been steering this franchise for a long time who are still in place.

Like, I don't worry about the spurs in that regard. Okay. I mean, I just think that like that would, even if they do get a new coach or the current coach is in place, that's going to be a huge difference going forward. Like, that's going to be at least some sort of identity turnover, right? I mean, not necessarily from the organizational. standpoint, but like having a new coach after having a stalwart like that for so long is going to be an adjustment.

I mean, we'll see. But it's just interesting because you're going to have, you have this generational talent in Wimby, and, you know, you want to be delicate with that. So we'll see. Who's your big, who are winners? I'm going to start with, I'm going to start with, I'm going to start with Raja. Who are our winners, your winner of this trade deadline? It was a winner.

I mean. I mean, the Lakers are a winner, right? Like, you got fucking Luca Donchich. They're winners. But I think DeAndre Hunter, big winner, a huge winner. Like, you're now on the number one team in the league. Are they still number one in the league?

I mean, look at the standard. There's number one in the league, right? Yes. Yeah. No. No? Slightly behind Oklahoma. The number one in the east.

Yeah. So, yeah. But the Outer Hunter of the Cavs, like the Cavs are a big winner there too. Like the other hunters are a winner. The Cavs are a winner for getting him. That was a phenomenal move. For sure. Kyle Kuzma?

Got the hell out of Washington. Kyle Kuzma won. I don't know if the Bucks necessarily won. I didn't say the Bucer definitely won. Listen, I will say this about the Bucks about that move. The word around the league is that Chris Middleton is just kind of toast. I hate to say. And if that's the case, if you traded a Chris Middleton who's not really functional anymore or won't be for very much longer for a much younger Kyle Kuzma, you know, fit aside.

That's a really good deal for this, right? Has a descending deal. Yeah. Yeah. Kyle Kuzman. Like, yeah, I mean, it's a good, it's a decent move. I just, I've seen a lot of Kyle Kuzma this season and a lot of it has been. Yeah. Yeah. He's not caring whatsoever about that's another one, right? Like in fairness to Kyle, I should have been fairer to Kyle when. But I said I didn't say the Bucks one. You're in a bad situation. It brings out, it brings out, like, you can only be in those so long before they start bringing out bad habits in you, right? So, you know, you get somewhere and there's a breath of fresh air and there's an opportunity. Like, who knows, who knows what kind of services he provides for Milwaukee.

He was a good, responsible role player on that Lakers championship team, right? No, no. You put him in the right situation with stars around him and where he knows his role in his place and is not trying to say like I'm the guy now. You're not doing that when you're playing next to Janus and Dame. So, yeah, Raj is right. Like you, it's easy to get caught up in yourself when you're in a no, no, you know, situation where the team's tanking and you're just starting about your own stats.

Now he's got to think about something else. So like there's a good chance that the bucks get the best version of Kuzma. Not for nothing, though. Kyle Kuzma, I don't know if he was clairvorn or what, but. That decision not to go to Dallas is looking really good right now. You knew something? The third eye. My winners are going to be the Cleveland Cavs and the Andre Hunter.

I think I'll just distill it down to those two. Back who are your winners? We don't have to get cute about this, right? Like the Lakers won the trade deadline. They just did. They got fucking Luca Donch. You said that while we have a Celtics fan on the line and we have a Warriors fan just and Ben Cruz just I'm surprised he isn't cried right now

because he was looking really disheveled coming on to this call. The Lakers won the trade deadline by a mile. That's just that's just the truth of it. But I want to say this too. You know what else won the trade deadline? The NBA won the trade deadline because after listen, after all this stuff about second aprons and the market's going to be really tight and it's like a hard cap. nobody can move anything and everybody's the whole system's locked up.

We saw a shit ton of activity in the last several days, including Luca, only an MVP candidate, Jimmy Butler, only, you know, multiple time all NBA guy, Darren Fox, really good young player, Brandon Ingram, Zach Levine, like these are not, you know, the 10th men on rosters. Like, these are significant players that just got moved. And on top of that, yeah, DeAndre Hunter to Cleveland, like the Cavaliers having a historically great season for them who look like they're in a position to possibly challenge the Celtics, not possibly two challenges of Celtics. And they just filled like the one potential weak spot in their starting five by getting DeAndre Hunter. You know, Clippers picked up Bogdanovich.

There's been a bunch of moves like at that level. There was a shit ton of activity. And here we are Super Bowl week. And a ton of people are talking about like, you know, Luca Donchich and Jimmy Butler getting traded and all this other stuff. The NBA, like, like give them their props for this like whatever we thought about the CBA shit's still getting done again like the GMs win too by the way the GMs in a in a system that is tighter that is harder that is harder to make almost all of them do well yeah a lot lot of we'll get to that in the loser section yeah some some of them made a lot of moves and maybe we shouldn't be praising them for it but I'm just saying the creativity of front offices is still winning out even in a the system is tighter

It is harder to make deals. But these guys just got a ton of business done in the last several days. And so, like, that is a good sign for the league, not just because transactions are fun for everybody and great content and fans love it, but because you do need enough flexibility in the system to make roster adjustments. And it's still there. So the NBA won. Yeah. All right. Well, you guys took all my stuff and then made your own points and made the points I was going to make on.

There's still other words. I was just want to say, I'm going to start the biggest loser of this all is Rob Polinka's jacket. Jesus Christ. It's pretty bad. No, we all win because there's been so many great Rob Polinka jacket jokes. Rob Polika won, no. I do want to like, we could say the Lakers, right? Obviously, we could say the Lakers is the whole one, the deadline they did.

But we do should give special props to Rob Polinka. and in a lot of ways has transformed his reputation league-wide, right? Like, there's a reason why he took that picture after Luca got off the private jet in the sprinter van with Luca, like, yeah, I did this. And that's the reason why he wore that hideous leather jacket because he did this. And the special roley because he did this. So I think that Rob Polinka definitely wins it. I want to give a great shout out to that.

I want to give a, let's go to the losers really quickly. And I think we should start off. I have other losers that I want to get to. Obviously, Nico Harrison, no matter how you ever spend this, is just the loser. We have talked about him in depth. I want to ask this question. No, no, no, no.

He'll do that. We don't do that. You want to, he lost the trade deadline, though. Did he not? I guess that's my guy. He came out. The Lakers are the biggest winner of the trade deadline. Then the Mavericks are the biggest loser of the trade deadline.

Roger. No, but here's the thing, though. I get it, because Roger's a great friend. and this is what arises. This is, this is like the, this is like the 2020 Russell Westbrook

Slander Award for like, you don't slander him, but I don't have a reason why you can't right now, but you better not fucking slander him in my presence. And I respect it. I respect it.

I just want to use this as a question. And I was thinking it, but Isaiah Blakely just brought it up in the prepod meeting. And I agree with him. What the hell of the Toronto Raptors doing, ladies and gentlemen? What are they doing?

What plan do they, they have. What is what isai Ujuri doing? He traded for Brandon Ingram. That means he's going to have to pay Brandon Ingram. They're building around Scotty Barnes, who I'm not sure is a, he's a decent player, but I'm not sure he's better than decent. He gets good stats, but doesn't necessarily elevate that team. What is the goal here, Beck? What the hell are the Raptors doing? It seems to me like they haven't picked, like first they didn't pick a direction once Kawhi left, right? It was, well, we're going to try to meander along with what's left at the championship team, and that didn't work so well. They belatedly start tearing it apart. They trade Siakum. They trade

O'G. Annanobie. They lost Van Vleet along the way for nothing. And I thought, like, the Antenobie trade brought back, you know, quickly and bear it. And it looked like, all right, like there's, you know, the outline of something here. But in their, not in fairness, the context of the this is that no team that doesn't have a clear franchise star ever completely can have a clear direction, right? Like, if you think Scotty Barnes is going to actually be a perennial all-MBA player who you can build around, that gives you clarity. You know exactly what you need to do. But when Scotty Barnes is sometimes looks like a franchise star and sometimes looks like it's just a really good, like complimentary type star, like more of a Lamar Odom type or something,

like then it's harder to pick a direction because you, you know, you don't have, you don't have that North Star for that, to provide that clarity. And so what they're doing instead right now is being opportunistic, right? Oh, Brandon Ingram's available for practically nothing. We got a Bruce Brown contract. We need to move anyway. Yeah, why not? But yeah, he's coming up on free agency and what are they willing to pay him? And do they, do they already have a sense of what that will be? Are they actually keeping him? And if they're not, then what was the point of this exercise? So, you know, and I haven't checked in with people in the wake of that one to see if there's a specific, you know, narrative around that trade

about what their intentions are. But like, yeah, the Raptors are confusing. I had another loser here. It's a, it's a brief loser. Danny Aange, for anything that he, he messed around and helped a team that he hated. You know, you hate, you hate helping out your ops. Help facilitating the deal to get Luca Dodgers to the Lakers. And he picked up more second round picks. He's just stockpiling stuff, trying to figure out. No, he's stockpiling, but, you know, It's like, you're still bad that you, that you helped an op when you didn't know you were going to help a hop. It's always something, always bad. Laker fans are having a field day with that part of it.

I will say that. Yes, they are. You brought up the Kings, and I know those are one of your losers, Beck. Cangs. Kings, Kings, Kings, Kings, Kings. Kings are Kings. Kings, okay. No, they're back to being the Kangs.

I'm sorry. I like a lot of people there, but they're back to being Kings. They got no direction. Are they acting like Stack State right now? Stop that. You got me in trouble with Sam Amick already once in the last couple of weeks with your Sack State slander, which he just then blames me for, even though both times you're the one to bring them up. Go Aggies. Anyway. See, that's what's cool about not going to college and not. You can slander everyone's college. I can slander UC Davis as I wanted to. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. No, the Kings, man, I understand difficult.

situation here where Deer and Fox is basically indicated, I'm not signing the extension, and I probably would like to go somewhere else, and it would probably prefer it to be San Antonio. They didn't get enough back. They should have gotten, there was the one first round pick that the Spurs owned from the Hawks, I think in this year's draft. Like, that would have been a nice piece to get. Maybe you were never going to get Stefan Castle or Vassell or somebody else, but like, my gosh, you had to get more for Deer and Fox. He's your franchise star. He's the best thing that had happened to you in a long time. And you're, you're now, like, the number of ways in which this has just gone wrong. And then Monty McNair, the GM has to sit there the other day,

has to sit there. He finally does a press conference, right? The Kings never put anybody out there to talk about why they fired Mike Brown. Like, not unheard of, but incredibly rare and very bad formed by any pro sports franchise to not address why you fired your coach at the time that you did it. So here he's having a press conference to talk about trading Deerrin Fox for Zach Levine and the very first question, as it should be, I don't know who asked it, but props to them for doing it. Tell us why you fired Mike Brown a month and a half or whatever it was ago and didn't talk about it.

Why did you fire him and why didn't you address it? And Moni McNair with weeks for them to decide what the message would be basically said we were too busy. Like that was the basic thing. Like we had a lot. There was a lot going on. I'm sorry. That's not it.

You owe it to your fans to explain the decision, that why you fired the not so long ago coach of the year who led you to your best, your franchise's best season in 20 years. And so like it just feels like the battle days with the Kings again. Your franchise player has been traded for an insufficient return. You fired the coach of the year. You have a lame duck head coach right now, right? I mean, who knows? Maybe Doug Christie becomes the guy.

Like, I just, again, you want to know where a franchise is heading. Where are they heading? What is their direction? Like, Zach Levine's a really good player. But you were better off with Deeran Fox and Sabonis and company than Zach Levine and D'Mar de Rozen reenacting their Chicago Bulls' mediocre teams from a couple of years ago. So where is this going other than just like spinning your wheels? And like, I, again, I feel for Kings fans.

Like, this is a really frustrating team. And they just, just had some good vibes and feeling like everything was in the right direction, light the beam, all of it just a year and a half ago. And it's just all dissipated. I mean, I think it's from ownership on down. I mean, I, it's ownership. Let's be clear. It's definitely ownership, Vivek Ronezivae. And like, just from a standpoint of even like, you didn't get a good return on it.

But like, I think Vivek more than anything more than he wants to win, I think he just wants to be relevant, right? and he wants to be on TV. He wants to say, hey, I got Zach Levine. Hey, I'm surprised I didn't get Kuzma at the, at the trade deadline because they love, like, they just love random. Whoever the Kings get is just like a random love because of a random love affair that Bebeck has with said player, right? Or even from a politics standpoint behind the scenes, like you say you empower Moni McNair, but then you have Vladay Divox sitting next to you in the court side, right? like completely even from like even from a even if vlady's not doing anything like that's just bad optics you have your former GM right there by your side as moni and i get that vlade divok is a

former is as a great in sacramento but this is just a weird thing that they that they have going and that's just the politics right there and how you're under you continue to undermine your head coaches everybody is scared to become a head coach there because because they thought that they already knew that Doug Christie was going to be in the wings if you ever got on Vivek's bad side and he fired you. Like, that was, there was no trust anywhere within that organization because there's just so much innuendo. There's so much, you know, backstabbing, as you can see.

Like, it's just not, and it starts with the face of that is the owner of Revecronadiv. And they're not going to get right until they get out of their own way. Vlad, by the way, who was the one who passed on Luca to take Marvin Bagley, who got traded again today. So they passed on Luca and took Marvin Bagley instead. And that might have been some like European like beef. Yeah, some intel or whatever, who knows. But whatever. So that happens, right?

And part of the excuse for not drafting Luca was, well, we have Deer and Fox. We didn't think that they would fit together. Then they eventually make a really savvy draft pick. Tyrese Halliburton, but Halliburton and Fox don't seem altogether compatible. So you trade Halliburton for Subonis. Then you have the best season you've had in 20 years with Fox and Sabonis as your pillars, and now Deeran Fox is gone. So you passed on Luca because of Deer and Fox, and then you traded away Tyrese Halliburton because of Deer and Fox, and now you don't have Deeran Fox. Like, this is just, you know, this is different front offices along the way, and it's different

decision points, and these things aren't all necessarily related, but they kind of of R also and it's just a bad sequence of events that uh well it's a pattern right like it's not only that's just like the the the draft stuff right but then you talk about how mike brown was fired that happened with mike malone a decade ago with this with the people that are in place there's just so much turnover and so much turnover god i feel for the fans but the fans don't even actually criticize this team locally like it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's I get it, but it's just... Give the media credit, though.

I watch that pressure with Monny McNair. They went hard out of yesterday. I get it. No, no, no. They did a good job. I'm not talking about the media. I'm talking about the fan base because, I mean, they're still, they're happy to have a basketball team right now, right?

And it's tough to, for a fan base to crew. I think so. I mean, they're happy to be... Have you been to a Kings game lately? Yes, they are happy to have a basketball team. Anyways, I feel like we pass the Kings and I feel bad that we always go. we go hard on the Kings on the real ones pod, but it is what it is.

Any other moves that tickled anyone's fancy before we get out of here? Any moves that we need that you like, Beck? Any moves that you like, Raja that were savvy? Go ahead, Howard. No, I was just going to say one more loser, like the son's lost too.

Like they wanted Jimmy Butler, they couldn't get him. They couldn't get Bradley Bealdaweb as no trade clause. They at least, you know, looked around on KD trades, I think. And they're just, they did, you know, they offloaded Nerkich I think it cost them a pick. Also, they talked themselves briefly into trading Kevin Durant for Jimmy Butler.

Yeah, right. So. For what though? Like it was like for no reason at all just said, hey, they could have just said no. No, we're not getting there. Somebody's untouchable. Yeah. I don't understand what that, where that would have gotten them or why they even entertained that. But at one point, what I had heard yesterday was it was going to be Durant to the Warriors. The Suns would have landed Jimmy, Butler and Coominga and a first, I think, that was coming from the Warriors. And then Wiggins, Schrooter and Picks would have gone to Miami. So that was the outline of a deal that I heard was on the table up until KD made it clear that he wasn't going to participate. And maybe that wasn't the full thing. But that was the outline that somebody had provided to me yesterday morning. But the suns are kind of dead in the water. And they've got a lot to figure out. And it's it certainly seems clear at this point that they have rightly concluded that this is not going anywhere. And so, like, I'll be shocked if they don't trade Durant this summer. And who knows,

maybe it'll be even more extensive than that. Maybe they find somebody, maybe Bradley Biel, Will Wave is no trade clause, and they'll offload him too. And, um, but the, the, the, the sons are heading for a reckoning because this, this season is, is, is rapidly getting away from them. And we're already getting reports that the, sorry, Rajah, about your sons, buddy. We're already getting reports that the locker room dynamic is getting toxic after this. It's from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. It's tough. And also, like, the trade from what Golden State in Phoenix for Durant seemed like everybody

was making plans and no one asked Durant what he wanted to do. It was like, hey, we got this deal in place just in case you try to go. He's like, nah, I'll pass. I'm good. Yikes. Anyways, that has been our trade deadline extravaganza. Before we go, though, this is a rare time that we have Howard here for this, but we're going to do it. It's time for a real one of the week.

I can go first, and you guys can think of your rules in the week. I'm going to go first. This hits dear to, this hits near and dear to my heart. I'm not sure how much it hits to Beck, but it might move my ruin of the week to Dennis Richmond of KTVU Fox News here in the Bay Area. He passed away this week. For my whole childhood, he was a stalwart on the 10 o'clock news. He was, he was like the cool. It was him and Barry White Roger were like the two of the coolest black dudes that I had

ever seen growing up. You know what I mean? He would say, welcome to the 10 o'clock news. This is Dennis Richmond. And he was, he was the shit. And like, if you go look at every once in a while on YouTube and look up archival footage of Dennis Richmond, like there's like him in like 85 with like, fires behind him, but like he has like the cleanest afro with the cleanest suit just like giving

you the news, like old school style talking about everything that's like dope and not dope about what's going on in the Bay Area, but he was always dope. Shout out Dennis Richmond, my role in the week. No doubt. I haven't lived in the Bay Area in like 30 years or whatever it is, but yeah, like I just, I had to look him up because like the name didn't quite, and as soon as I saw him, like, yep, I grew up watching that guy too. Like, that's how long and that's how much. And that's how much of an institution Dennis Richmond was, is that Logan and I, who are separated by about a half century of years on this earth, both grew up watching this guy deliver the news on Channel 2. So, yeah, shout out and rest in peace to Dennis Richmond.

Go ahead, Howard. You got yours. Yeah, so this is a little off the wall, but my real one of the week is, I'm not going to use his last name, just Carlos. Carlos is a diehard Mavericks fan and Luca fan who, last spring had sent me a very unkind tweet. He wasn't the only one. I got a bunch of them after I wrote that piece about Luca, which we discussed a little bit on the pot earlier this week. And I don't usually, you know, respond to people, but I responded to him because of something specific that he said. He felt so bad about it that he apologized. I had that little tip jar thing going on Twitter at the time. And so he sent me like 20, 20 bucks via Venmo.

And I went and I messes him back. I'm like, thank you. But like, that's not necessary. Just like donate to charity or something. And he's like, listen, you can donate to charity. So I, I upped it to like whatever. I sent 50 bucks to like the food bank in New York or whatever. And so partially with with the money that Carlos sent. And that was really nice. It was like this rare moment of kindness and just human kind of understanding on a platform, social media, where things can get really toxic and really impersonal and really mean-spirited very quickly. And so he, he, you know, he apologized. He makes this donation and this, this nice gesture.

And the reason I bring him up now is he was listening to our pot earlier this week after the Luca trade. And he messaged me again, I think it was over, over Venmo, because that's where we're now connected. He says, I was listening to Real Ones. It reminded me of this unfortunate interaction from last year. At the time, I was upset with even the notion that anyone would think Luca was not as valuable as I thought he was. Looking back at it, it's not a crazy premise for an article,

and it seems like Nico Harrison was grappling with the conundrum too. All good things come to an end. I just thought there was more time. And so I bring that up just because I just, like, thank you, Carlos. I really appreciate that. I appreciate that you're listening to the pod. I appreciate the follow-up. I did send him a note back also earlier today, but just, again, there's so much negativity and so much toxicity on social media and people will treat any of us who are even semi in the in the public sphere very uh you know like like we're we're just another thing to bash sometimes and um it's rare that we see that shit bro we got feelings too man that shit hurts but it and you learn to kind of brush it off and you learn it just kind of comes with it but like people at especially on that story i would

they were just like you know kicking the crap out i mean it gets really it's not even about the story anymore or about Luca or about basketball. It gets, you know, really personal and obnoxious. So, you know, you appreciate when you actually have the human reaction where it breaks through and you act like people. And it's like, you know what? Didn't need to go there. Appreciate it.

So appreciate the follow up. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you for listening. And he's my real one of the week. Thanks, Carlos. Thanks for listening to the pod too, bro. Thanks to everybody for listening to the pod. Brian, who's your real one?

Two real good, real ones. So I'm going to make mine simple. It's going to be a joke, but it's going to be real. Let's get me my wife for this fucking Theraflu she's about to get me. Oh, shout out seeing. Yeah. Thanks for the run to CBS because the boy's struggling. Hope she's got some.

Are you going to make it out of the house, buddy? Yeah. I would have to go sit off to the side on a fence, like, away from everybody. But I owes that. I got to go to the game. I can't miss it. Are you going to be like on the side, like, like, hungover with the glasses on? Like, yeah, and having it.

Oh, yeah. I'll just be sitting there mind in my business. So I don't get nobody sick. But she's my real work. I need that. Shout out sin, obviously, ruin of the week every week. But shout to you, Roger, bro. Because, like, I don't think people, maybe they will see if there's the, no, stop, because

I'm giving you your, please don't put no viral click. I'm giving you your damn, letting up on me on that shit. That's what you was about to say. Don't, Ben, whoever does that shit. No, no, believe it in, because I want to give him his flowers. Can I give my big bro his flowers? Oh, this part. I'm saying, don't put me up there looking sick as a dog on no viral shit is what I'm saying.

Oh, okay, okay. I mean, we might be on YouTube, but he might just, like, do a two shot with me and Howard. But, like, damn, let me get my big bro some flowers, dog. I wasn't trying to stop you from that. Oh, okay. Wow. Yeah. Shit.

Here, motherfucker. Hey, anyways, Roger is also a real one of the week, bro, because, like, y'all can't hear, and they're probably going to edit all the damn coughs, but, like, Raja held it down today. Roger held it down today. Some of that can't be edited out, I'm sure. Like, Howard was in mid-mid. Like, you can't edit all of that. No, no, no, you can because there's separate tracks.

Oh, that's right. We're all right. Yeah, we're all right. But, like, yeah, Roger held it down, and he was looking rough. I'm sorry if my content was poor today, guys. And we did it, we did a different time change. Roger held it fucking down. This is like almost to when he didn't go off with Michael Jordan and came to go,

um, came to go do the body. It's not even close. Not even close. That's still, to this day, I'm still like, what were you thinking? Oh, bad. Anyways, before we get out of here, Realonesmailbag at gmail.com. Real onesmail back at gmail.com. What's that email, Howard? Real onesmailbag at gmail.com. What's the, what's the, what is it again?

Roger? What's the email? They're a flu. At gmail. Um, also make sure you get your tickets. We're almost sold out. So if you're trying to go to the punchline on February 15th, you better get your tickets now. Stop catting off. I might pop out and give me something new, but I might get a fit dog. Who knows? Ooh, you got me rolling. Oh, Roger. I hit the lucky rep for the Jordan ones. Jesus, Lord. Rogers, keep that in.

Hey, keep that in. All right. All this is. See you all Tuesday. Bye. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem.

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