Onto the news from around the league on we go.
So I was so happy for Kevin Love and his rider died partner Ricky Rubio coming.
Back to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
I was so excited for that duo to continue their reign in Cleveland. And then all of a sudden, Kevin Love gets injured and and now, in a very surprising move, Cavaliers and Kevin Love are negotiating a buyout. What I mean, it is not shocking that he would get a buyout. It is just shocking that the buyout comes now. He has been on this Cavs team since I was not even.
In the business. I was selling mutual funds.
When Kevin Love got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has seen his playing time drop from twenty minutes a game to half that and now twelve straight DMPs.
I don't know if it's injury.
I don't know if it's like, hey, we're just gonna let you ice your knees for a while. But I don't think it's acrimonious or bad blood at all. I think it's more just the realization that Kevin Love would like to play somewhere else and what he's going to do, which is play on the perimeter, does not necessarily fit with the Cavs are always trying to do, especially since they have Donovan Mitchell now Darius Garland. They got some young guys that want to give some minutes too, and
Kevin Love doesn't necessarily fit into that mode. But I don't think it actually means that Kevin Love can't be useful. In the first twelve games of the season, Kevin Love averaged twelve, eight and two and twenty one minutes. Teams are gonna be excited to get him in a way. It's kind of sad. This is the end of an era, right It's the end of the Lebron James era. He was the only vestige of the strive for greatness in
Cleveland era. And by all accounts, everyone has always said Kevin Love is a great teammate, except for that one little, like four week span where he was like throwing basketballs at his teammates and like not playing when they were playing. Do you remember that there was a time where Kevin Love was quiet quitting.
Outside of that time, he's been tremendous.
According to Shams, the Miami Heat are lurking for him and they probably aren't really someone that.
Could actually get him.
This is kind of like when you break up and you've got a long time best friend and they've got a crush on you and you have no feelings back for them, and they think just because you're single, now they have a shot. The Miami Heat do not have a shot with Kevin Love at all, Like no shot. They are Miami Heat. You are in the friend zone. I am sorry. Shams reported have been told that Heat are prioritizing something big over Russell Westbrook or Patrick Beverly,
so Kevin Love or Serge Ibaka appeared to be priorities. Okay, well you prioritize and he'll prioritize, and we'll see where that leaves you. Makes sense though from a basketball perspective, he was shooting forty one percent from three in the first fifth of the season. He can pull down rebounds, we know that's what he does really well. He's a rebound monster.
Both things that the Heat need desperately.
They're bad at both of those, outside of say Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo. Regardless, I like that this is a bio where it's nice. This is nice, peaceful, on. You know, you see things get a little ugly down the stretch with buyouts, same thing that's gonna probably happen with say like a Russell Westbrook or John Wall in Houston that got ugly. The return I thought of Ricky
Rubio gave me some hope. But now it is time to take his game to another contender and that The latest rumors are that the Warriors are interested in Love. That makes sense, They've never found a replacement for Bilica or Otto Porter.
But the wild thing.
Is that if he does sign with the Heat, that might mean a Calves Heat first round matchup. And if that does happen, I think Kevin Love does go off for one game against the Calves. Especially if you're a Cavs fan, I think you have to be fearful of that because the universe is always undefeated.
Moving on, I guess it was bound to happen.
But our favorite Bible thumper, our favorite holy Water whisperer, our favorite summersalter, Joe Missoula was officially named the Celtics head coach permanently on Thursday morning.
Even if it's deserved, which.
Like I'm not here to say yay or nay on that, but like it's weird.
It's weird.
I'm confused because the reason I had heard that they didn't announce him already the permanent head coach is because they would have to fire emy Udoka. You already have a current head coach. He can't have two current head coaches. You have one current head coach who is suspended, so the other ones in interim until you figure out what to do with the one that's suspended. But it's really done, right, So what are you doing now? There's intricacies here that
I am not able to comprehend. I thought Imey at this point was still suspended. Unless I miss something, Are they firing him for costs? Is that the next domino to fall? I couldn't find any information that he's on the website. Hemy Udoka still on the website right now, like this very second. Numerous sources reported that the Celtics did a bunch of due diligence before suspending Udoka to protect themselves from a wrongful termination lawsuits. So what happens next?
That's why they didn't fire him. They did not want to get sued. I imagine that there is going to be an announcement happening about udoka status soon, and the rumors are that most likely uh Udoka might go back to San Antonio.
Congratulations to Joe Massoula. God was on your side.
He always was willing to move mountains in order for you to be in the spot.
Your time is here now.
It is time for you to serve out your Lord and Savior's purpose, which is to get these Celtics, which.
I think is like an Irish Catholic thing.
A championship ring Joe. I'm sure he is doing somersaults in the locker room right now and he will.
Be for many, many years.
We don't talk enough about the OKAC thunder, do we. We don't really say much. They are the most fun team that gets under discussed, mostly because I think we're still waiting for them to tank. We're still waiting for them to do nothing. And also, in particular, nobody speaks about their head coach because I don't think they know what his name is. I don't think they know how to pronounce it. I don't think they know what he
looks like. Honestly, if you were to say to fifty decently casual to serious NBA fans, who the head coach of the Okac Thunder was I bet you four would say they knew who it was, and they and about two would get it right. I think there's no more under the radar coach than Mark Dugno dag Know, it's hard to say too, you just kind of say, yeah, yeah, that Mark guy. All he does though, is to have okase. He prepared to cover every single game, if not win outright.
They've been the toughest team to kill the past two years. How do we know it?
They have been destroying Vegas.
This team has been killing against the spread at a higher rate than any other team in the NBA these past two seasons, including the Memphis Grizzlies, which were the runaway against the spread leader last year. Vegas doesn't know who Mark Dangno is either. Vegas does not care. Vegas is underestimating the Thunder and so much I think has to do with that with Sam Presty, who we've given love to on the pod before, and Mark Dagnel, who we need to give love to more.
So that's what this is about. That's what we're gonna do. This year.
Has been spectacular, considering that it started with the Thunder losing out on chet holmgrun for the year. He hurt himself Liz Frank injury. I think he stepped on a wet floor and all of a sudden boomboom before it camp even started, he was done for the year shut down.
They are currently.
Twenty eight and twenty nine, tenth place, which if you're a Blazer fan, you realize that's two spots better than you. A team that actually wants to win SGA taking the next step. Josh Giddy is a monster. He's elevated his game. He's an elite point guard as well. The rookies have been really great. Jalen Williams, we love both of them. The team has twelve players under the age of twenty four, so they're very good. They're very fun, they're very exciting.
The oldest player is twenty eight Kenrick Williams. Dario Sarah's probably gonna get bought out. They're five hundred team with three rookies and six second year professional That's ridiculous. A team that's five hundred just rocking with the young guns and with the baby lineup. Dagneau has been a masterful coach. Right he has minutes to everyone so they can continue to develop. The rookies who have benefited from his caretaking, Jalen, j. Dubb and Jay will and Uzman Jeng, who rarely gets.
Talked about, have been really good.
If you look at Jalen Williams with an E, he's currently averaging twelve four and three in around twenty eight minutes this year as a rookie. He's been getting better as the season has progressed as well. The OKAC Thunder did an incredible job of getting him out of value, his length, his athleticism.
GM's drool over.
That, and one of the major reasons that he leads the rookies and steals is that. So in a recent interview, this is where we're going, This is where the whole point of this piece is. Is all about Jalen Williams and what he thought when he was drafted by OKC. He said, Yeah, it was cool to be called with Chet and Uzman Jang and then they picked Jalen Williams with the why.
It was a really cool and surreal moment. I think it was full.
Circle too, because I had a really good workout in Oklahoma.
It was a cool vibe going into.
It, and when I was out there, I thought this wouldn't be a bad place to be. I really enjoyed my visit. I talked to Sam Presty. So nothing's out of the ordinary here, right, Everything seems to be just pretty normal, okay. See is noted for being very professional, extremely well respected by their peers and other teams for how they run their ship.
But then then it gets really interesting.
Jalen Williams said this, it was the only place where the coach, Mark Dagnell, ran the entire workout. I'm going through the workout saying, this guy's pretty good. I had no idea he was the head coach until afterwards, he laughs. We had a cool interaction. Mark was talking to me the whole time. I had no idea who he was. I was thinking he was a trainer or somebody. The head coach ran the pre draft workout alone, and Jalen.
Wood didn't tell Jalen Williams say, I'm also the head coach.
And think about this. Jalen Williams probably watched the NBA. Had no idea who Mark dagniel was. If this was I don't know, Mark D'Antoni, Mike D'Antoni, if it was Doc Rivers, if it was any of the other.
Twenty nine coaches in the NBA, he would know who they were, right.
If it was TYLERU, He's not gonna be like, oh yeah, I thought Tyler was a trainer. No, Mark dagna he thought was some rando assistant, that it was just so hands on and so diligent that he wanted to run it and prove to the powers that be that he could run a workout this important. No, this was Mark dagnia the head coach of the OKAC Thunder in a nutshell. This is why he's awesome, blue collar coach, not afraid to get his hands dirty, uninterested in any shine.
Could not ask for a better fit for OKC and the.
Kind of guy that Sam Presty wants in charge of a team full of young guys. Players want to respect who they're playing for. Mark Dagneau is no frills, no bullshit, and is getting the respect of his players.
Immediately.
You have all those guys, and then you have Chet and a healthy Poku maybe probably Victor or Scoot and or the Thompson twins.
And then you bring in a free agent.
Oh my god, this is a contender in like five years as someone who's been on the Kings before the start of the season. I think it's been gratifying to see the Kings getting a lot of national love from ESPN to the Athletic Everyone is starting to see the Kings as the incredible, fun and exciting team that they are right and I think that the real game changer for the Kings, and I think we can all agree is it's Demonisabons. Demonosa Bonus is the engine that makes
the Kings go. I remember when people were slamming.
That trade a year ago.
Today almost today like yeah, they're like, oh, this is malpractice.
They shouldn't let Tyrese Haliburton go.
No, No, that was the right move, and now he is an All Star again, as he should be. What I do want to focus on, though, is that Sabonis and Deer and Fox are now getting shine. They have multiple features written about them. They recently were on the cover of Slam magazine breaking down the pick and roll, and Kyrie Irving just admitted in a postgame presser after a win against them that he read the article carefully looking for ways to defend it, and he said, that's pretty cool.
It shows a level of respect.
Sabona said, So, the meat of this new Athletic article that came out was about Sabonis's relationship with Mike Brown, which is kind of funny because I remember the start of the.
Season being like, Sabonis looks fucking awful.
Turns out, the relationship with Mike Brown and Demano Sabona started out a little rocky, he said, before we came to a better understanding. It was pick and roll, roll out the way cel your defender dunker. It was obviously things that I can do, but my strengths are in different areas that other bigs don't have, like playmaking in the post, in the little areas where I thrive. Sounds like Mike Brown was trying to get to be Kavon Looney and he was like, yo, no, I'm not Kavon Looney, okay,
Like I am much better than Kavan Looney. Should not shock anyone that it took a little time for the two to get on the same page, right. I saw Sibonis, like I said, second third game of the year, and I'm like, he does not look good out there. He looks confused, he looks slow, He does not look like he knows where he needs to be. So apparently it took a little time for Mike Brown and him to figure things out to get Demonis where he needed to be.
And remember Mike Brown came from Golden State where Draymond Green was the center of the defense, and Jordy Fernandez, who of the King, who's the King's lead assistant, came from Denver where the entire offense revolves around Jokic, so they want a passing big man in the center.
Sabona said this about the early days.
As the year went on, we definitely learned from each other, and it's like you said, I feel like I had to show him in person and it was easier for him to trust me to do what I do. It's been great now for most of the season, it's been great, but that beginning was a bit tough for me because I was trying to figure out the offense and how to be myself at the same time trying to figure out what coach wants me to do. That's something I've
experienced probably with every coaching staff. You know, at the beginning, it's always okay, how do I figure out what they want and at the same time be myself. I know what I can do and I have confidence in myself. Man, did it work out? They figured it out pretty fast too. Sabonis is now an All Star.
He is deserving.
The Kings are in third place in the West for the last month now, showing no signs of.
That going away.
And then you add in Darren Fox, who is a bona fide All Star finally getting some shine as well. I love the supporting cast around him. I love Kevin Herder, I like Malik Monk. Keegan Murray's a nice little rookie piece. Harrison Barnes is doing things. They got not a lot of depth, but a ton of talent. But in terms of where the Kings go goes as far as where Sabonis takes them. And unfortunately, as we know, he's been
dealing with a hand injury, a thumb injury. Probably should have given him surgery for it, and he doesn't want that because he wants to take this team to the playoffs. He said, obviously it's in pain, and knowing the timeline of surgery was six to eight weeks to miss, that's like twenty five games, and he didn't want to let his teammates down, so he opted to just play through the pain. I guess it's not getting any worse, so he's playing through pain getting.
Just these absurd stats.
For the rest of the season, he hasn't really slowed down at all. He's averaging eighteen, twelve and a half and seven for a guy with no thumb.
That's pretty damn good.
So as long as Sabonis is relatively healthy, the Kings are a dangerous, dangerous team. And whoever came out and said negative things about the Saboni's trade, delete your fucking account.