BONUS: Top Three Storylines That Could Shake Up Draft Week

If you're tuned into Heat Check with Trista.

Quick on this bonus episode of the Heat Check, what are the three potential storyline that might have huge impacts in the NBA Draft? A lot of fun on this, so I thought i'd share it with the Heat Check folks.

Do me a favorite nick?

Drop that beat?

That should be Rihanna.

Trista, What do you think the top three stories are right now?

They could shake up the NBA here on Draft week?

Yeah, I think it's very simple to me.

Number one centers around what Portland does? The Beal or the Dame saga?

Right, everyone has their eyes on that. Everyone wants to know. Okay, are they going to trade Damian Lillard if they take the number three overall pick? Like the Miami Heat were reluctant to trade for Bradley Beal because they think that they can still get Damian Lillard. And I think Damian Lillard is a much better player than Bradley Beal. He's a much clutcher, much more clutch player than Bradley Buial. Damian Lillard was second team All NBA this year. He's

So if they go with Miller, and.

That's about fifty to fifty between mock drafters right now, then the Blazers have to make a choice, right They need to either move a very valuable number three pick, which is a player that would probably go number one and every other draft except for this one to bring in, or they need to win now with Damian.

Lillard, as he says that we should. He says that the.

Portland, hey, I've been loyal to you. You need to surround me with talent, and that all depends on what they can get for number three right, And I don't know that they're gonna get a king's.

Ransom for number three.

There's all these teams that say they want to move up, and at the end of the day, will they move up don't? I don't know. Or the question is does Portland bring in Scoop and then have to trade Dame as a result. That's a massive storyline Damian Lillard anywhere else, but Portland changes the entire NBA landscape because he's only

That's insane.

That would make Miami the very heavy bedding favorite in the East at least, right, And that.

Would make this lineup look like this.

For the Portland you would have Nurkic, Jeremy Grant, Bible, Sharp and Scoot with Anthony Simons, Cam Reddish, Keon Johnson off the bench. That's probably the most athletic team in the NBA. I think a team that has a really bright future. Yeah, a team that's no longer in and out, you know, one foot in, one foot out. At that point, there are a couple of pieces away, and they probably have four first round picks or three first round picks from Miami, and maybe they trade Tyler Herro for two more.

So maybe they're a team that's.

Like the OKC Thunder. Maybe they're a team that's closer to being Memphis. You know when Memphis ended up trading Mike Conley and Mark Dasol in order to get John Morant and a bunch of new pieces. Right, so all those guys could be you know, Sharp and Scoot could easily be all NBA by twenty four and then Miami starting lineup would be Bam, Struce, Butler, Duncan, Robinson, and Dame with potentially gave Vincent, Caleb, Martin Oladipo and Haywood Higsmith off the bench. That's a team that would be

Point, right, I bet them immediately.

I would bet them immediately as well. Yeah, so I would say this from a betting perspective. If because I don't think Portland's going to trade Dame right away, I've talked to people who say that. But if you think that they could trade Dame by the deadline as soon as they pick number three, if Portland takes that selection, bet.

The Miami Heat immediately to win the title. That's what you should do. Number two. This one's very interesting. Zion.

The Zion trade is now something that's looming. Yeah, Bill Simmons, Ian Begley, others are hinting that Zion hates the New Orleans Pelicans, does not want to be in New Orleans generally. Simmons says that he would bet his career on the fact that Zion will not be a Pelican by Friday. Keep in mind, he also had Kevin Young to be the head coach of the Phoenix, so he's not.

Batting a thousand.

But if Bill Simmons is right and Zion is traded, that would be a very seismic shift in the NBA.

Yeah, he was right about the zombie Heat.

Not Yeah, he was.

He was right about the Zombie Heat beating the Boston Celtics, especially if Zion ends up in New York, which would be his preferred destination most likely. Right the rumors are that the trade would be as follows. Julius Randall, Obi Toppin plus some first rounders and the Knicks obviously have a lot of them for Zion, which would make that starting lineup Mitchell Robinson, Zion, RJ Barrett, Josh Hart, and Jalen Brunson with Emmanuel Quickly and Grimes off the bench.

With Miami doing Miami things. What happens with them.

So if Zion comes to New York and he's healthy, which Tom Thibodeau is the perfect coach for Zion. He's a guy who's gonna run him like a thoroughbread, run him ragged and get Zion back in shape.

Wouldn't that scare you a little bit though, just because Zion Okay, yeah, but he doesn't play enough defense. I feel like TIBs may off.

I'm like, well, and I think that I think that would.

Really help Zion too. Is that is that Tibbs doesn't play no games? True?

Yeah, And it isn't like you have to be like a lockdown defender at the four, like Carlos Boozer was getting thirty plus minutes, but he wasn't playing at the end of those games. You know, That's when you'd see a guy like Taj Gibson that'd concerned you have.

To get somebody else to come in for the Zion, you know, off Zion minutes.

Yeah, but he's averaging twenty six, eight and four in.

The forty one games that he's played against Eastern Conference teams, and that would there's not a lot of great defenders to be able to stop him either.

So the Pelicans we get better too.

Yeah, Brandon Ingram and Julius Julius Randall have already played together.

I was gonna say they'd be back together.

Yeah, they played, they played together on two teams. They played for the Lakers and the Pelicans.

Just forget about the Pelicans run. I do remember the Lakers run because I remember like I was covering the Bucks that year and I was so excited. I thought I was finally going to get to cover and watch Lebron live. And then he sat out and everybody sat out. It was like Lonzo on that team.

Will we played that year?

Yeah?

Yeah, that was fun, And Julius Randall kind of reinvigorated his career in New Orleans. He loves playing with Brandon Ingram. You add Herb Jones to that, Valentunis to that, CJ. McCollum to that, Josey Alfarado. Maybe another step for Dyson Daniels. Maybe you want to place a bet now on Trey Murphy. Yeah, And like Julius Randold's been largely healthy recently, So maybe you want to place a bet on the Pelicans to go over their win total.

Maybe you want.

I think that.

Changes the league quite a bit as well. Oh yeah, and then thirdly, this one's sneaky. What does Golden State do? Zach Lavine to a Golden State would be a massive seismic shift.

To the NBA.

I agree.

The rumors are starting already that Golden State wants to do something with their new GM Mike Dunley, Vy and Kent lakeup. They to make a big splash. The Sons have moved on from Chris Paul. The Beal trade's not gonna happen. The Nuggets dog walk the West on their way to the chip. Draymond's opting out, what are you gonna do? You've got Steph, Clay dre It doesn't look as formidable as it once did, right, so what do

That is Zach Levine. He's on the trade block.

So maybe you know Levine makes thirty seven million dollars next year, Jordan Poole makes twenty seven point five. Damn you throw in some salary filler, throw in a twenty five twenty six first rounder, and now you shake up the West by it being Steph Curry, Zach Levine, Clay Thompson. Maybe you bring back Draymond and now you've got another good decision making scorer better than Jordan Poole, and now