Respecting Kyrie's Boundaries

and Trade. We all wanted to know, would Kyrie feel any feelings about maybe contrition about Hard and bolting Town only sixteen games into their trio. Well, I bet you can only imagine what he had to say, But we will get into that. And finally we talk about the Lakers. It's a heavy hitter, dysfunctional show, organizational quote unquote malpractice that is happening right now in Lakerland. So Brock, we have no time to wait. Let's drop that beat. Let's sun.

is not vibing. These items do not fit together well at all. I've got a coffee table too big for my couch. I've got a rug doesn't even quite fit into the room right. My entryways shelving I thought was gonna be all clean lines. Now the coats are everywhere. You don't even get to see the clean lines of this design within reach. Item that I spent like six

hundred dollars for everything else is kind of schlocky. You want to tikea get the rest because you couldn't afford everything being top dollar, So you hold a garage sale and you're like, everything in here can go. I'm not wedded to a goddamn thing. I'm ready to start fresh. Listen. I can work around a couch, I know I can work around an end table, But this whole setup, I

just know there's something out right about this setup. And then you get some people peeking in the window, they touch your stuff, they're chatting, and the end of the garage sill ends. You look around and nothing is gone and nothing. Nobody wants your shit, no one, no matter what. Like what you got some offers, folks for that particle board Ikia table that you paid three hundred and twenty five dollars for it. You knew it wasn't a great pot price, but you couldn't spend seven hundred on one,

so you just kind of get something. It's particle board, right, nobody's gonna spend three hundred and twenty five dollars three hundred dollars what you spend three hundred and fifty dollars. It's particle board buyers in some of your stuff, they want you to pay them to haul it away, Like, uh, listen, Oh this isn't fucking goodwill Ymca March of Dimes. You're gonna need to give me fifty dollars to haul that piece of shit out the dough That right now, folks,

is the New York Knicks. A week before trade deadline, there was no one more active than the New York Knicks. They were trying to get everybody. They went after CJ. McCollum, They went after Norm Powell, They went after Harrison Barnes, Harrison Barnes, Harrison Barnes, They went after Jalen Brunson. They went after Terrence Ross, the Orlando Magic, even Miles Turner, the injured Star. You would think they would have learned their lesson, given the fact that they have Mitchell Robinson

who also has foot issues. But nothing, and not a thing happened even after the team, even after you saw New York Post. Everyone's available, everyone's getta ball on the New York Knicks. Even Julish rental the eight hundred dollars entry, a piece from Design within Reach. He is even available for the right price. No one wanted your stuff. Zero people wanted your stuff. Folks. If you are ready to get rid of all the furniture and reshuffle, rebuy, figure out,

maybe do a little swapperoo. That is not a team confident about their current roster. That is not someone who's happy with the setup of their apartments. Facts Mitchell Robinson unrestricted free agent this summer. He's asking out. He's basically signal to your team. He's not resigning. You have shocked him around because you know you will get nothing for him if you don't move him. Now you look around and even he is not traded. What gives? What gives?

What is the mindset of the New York Knicks right now? I don't know. But here's what the New York Post my man Mark Berman is saying. Being sellers and dumping players just to open up summer cap space was considered but then scrapped aka garage sale. And this off season will now stand as one of the most important ones in franchise history. That's a little much, don't you think that's a bit of a hyper boil. But you know

how these New Yorkers are. You know, everything's the fucking end of the world, the most important off season in history. We'll see poor TIBs though, TIBs, TIBs. They do them wrong. They do him so dirty. Here's what he had to say about it, the fact that he even needs to answer any trade questions as a head coach. Listen, I'm not the GM here. Okay, this is what he said. We already made a trade earlier on Cam Reddish excuse me, pause,

do not He was a part. He was the random little uh ottoman you picked up off the street and you realize very quickly did not fit. Let me just throw this thing back outside us business. This shit is got mold inside. I'm not sure about this. They trying to flip them like that. They literally just got them and they tried to flip them immediately. Did not work. He said, that's part of it. You look at your trade possibilities, free agents, Leon rowse Wes, Scott Perry. They

look at this in totality. He wants to keep his job so bad. It's ongoing, it doesn't end. It's every day thinking about how we can improve this team. Propaganda. They're short term planning, long term planning, and you're always consistently, constantly looking at both. That's Leon's job. He'll continue to look. There's always possibilities. Is there different ways you can improve the club? And I trust him. I don't know that he said it quite like that, but that's the most

optimistic quote reread. Sounds like they are looking right now at the buyout market because the Knicks just finished, or getting a open roster spot filled, but they still can wave my man Kemba Walker Kemba might be in line for a buyout. He is also on sad Boy season. This is what he said. Yeah, I'm here, Like I said, I mean, what can I do. It's not up to me. I'm just a player. I don't make those decisions or anything like that. So yeah, yeah, I want to be there.

That's why I came here to be a part of my home team. But it's not really my decision. Oh uh, that feels like a change of tone. Does not seem like he's skewing optimistic. We'll say that. To say that Kemba is not a part of the problem would be not true. Not true. He started out bad. Uh, then he got benched, and then he got better, and then he got worse again. Right now, Kemba has shot I can't even believe what I'm looking at. Right now, Kemba has shot twenty eight point six percent from the field

in the last seven games. Yikes, I tell you. Let me say it again for the folks in the back who aren't quite processing this. Right now, Kemba Walker, New York legend, is shooting twenty eight point six percent from the field. Not from three, not from twenty five thirty five feet out. I mean including like right underneath the basket to whatever the furthest distance is that he shot all of those together combined on average twenty eight point

six percent under thirty percent in totality bad. We've already talked about Julia's Randalls season that he only seems to ball out on Nashley televised games. We've also noted when I was talking about the coffee table made at a particle board when you could have spent another two three hundred dollars on solid wood, that analogy was Evan Fournier. He is the particle board coffee table boy. He is a model of inconsistency. You only get one move with them,

like you know those coffee tables. You know you've got one move, probably the move from the Ikea to that apartment, and nothing else, not the ikea, set it up, build it, put it in storage, put it in a No. That's Evan Fournier. And that one move was in Tokyo. Literally, that was his best version was the first place, Tokyo. You took it from Tokyo to New York, and you thought that baby was gonna hold your feet up when

you watch the TV. That shit folded quick shesh. In his last fourteen games, Evan Fournier has scored anywhere from four points to thirty points, including five games of twenty or more good and five games under ten bad. The only trade the Knicks made was again for my guy, Camriddish aka the poof that you got on the side of the road, realized really quick wasn't quite the decor you thought it might be when it was free. Same guy who left Atlanta is averaging twelve minutes and five

points per game. During his eleven game stint, he has seen four dnps. Tibbs is reportedly not a fan. Reddish has actually been pretty good. He played pretty well when they beat the Golden State Warriors. They did go on the road. They played five games on the road. They only won one, and that was the game Cam Reddish balled out, played like seventeen nineteen minutes, had a bunch of points off the bench. Apparently they tried to trade

Cam Reddish for Jalen Brunson. If you thought you were gonna trade a poof off the side of the road for a mid century modern cocktail table from like the early nineteen fifties, a Renaissance piece that is peaking right now seventy years after. Like Jalen Brunson is an American original, Jalen Brunson is one of the better role player point guards in this league. Cam Reddish is getting DMPs okay

poof off the street, mid century modern and table. To me, this feels like the Knicks, after being the darlings of last year, are at what we would call a fork in the road. It's not just me saying it, obviously. Mark Berman, as I said, calls this offseason the most important Enfranchise history. Could it have something to do with a very unhappy fat player living in New Orleans currently rehabbing his foot in Portland. We don't even need to say his name. You know who I'm talking about. I mean,

it's Zion. I mean this team is already basically the can Tucky East with five UK Wildcats on it, five Kevin k Ox, Julius Randall, Michael Kidd, Gilchris didn't know he was on there, Nerlan's, Noel and Emmanuel Quickly, this could also become the Duke Blue Devil's team with Cam Reddish, RJ. Barrett,

and Zion Zion Zion Zion. I don't know, I don't know, man, the Knicks are apparently still aiming for the playoffs, sort of aiming for the play in despite being seven games under five hundred two and a half back two and a half back of the ten seed. Yikes, this seems like a team that really should just say take it all. We've got a generational piece here. If we go ahead and tank Pallo Ban Carrol's right around the corner, Chet Holmgern run around the corner, Jabari Smith right around the corner.

I don't know. It's gonna take a lot the next to resurrect their season, I tell you what. But you know what they did, go on a one and four West coast road trip and that one win. I'm pushing p I'm trying. I'm trying to find the sun in the gray clouds and beating the Warriors. If you're gonna win one out of five games, make it against the team that has the third best dogs to win the title. You know what I'm saying, Hope that springs the turtles for the knickerbox. That girl only knew he alone, and

then and then they did. That's what they did. That Sean Marks traded Hardened to Philly. She would probably leave Hardens for Simmons Traders in the books now as the Double Dust. There's like a zillion questions that I have a zillion Let's just look at you. First of all, we thought in the beginning of this trade the Harden signed a player opt in which would give the Philadelphia Sixers this season and next season to evaluate whether my man, James Harden was or was not washed. But apparently we

do not think he's washed. I just want to go on the record, I do not think James Harden is washed. But if I was evaluating him to the point of maybe paying him sixty million dollars a year in seven and five, four years from now, maybe I would be a little less enthusiastic and optimistic as me the hardened fan that I am, the huge, completely optimistic hardened fan than I am. He didnt d the player contract, so you got the twenty five games and then it's time

is it marriage? Is love and marriage or is it time to cut your losses and go elsewhere. I think they're gonna I think they're gonna sign them. Regardless they paid up too much, that so much has gone on, you had Ben Simmons on the books for the next four years anyway. I mean, he wasn't gonna play for you ever, so who knows. But it is an important detail, nonetheless, that everyone thought that a part of that deal was him opting in, so that you had a season and

twenty five games plus this postseason to evaluate. But if you're worried as a Sixer fan that he's gonna go somewhere else in free agency, do not be worried, at least for about this, because James has got nowhere else to go. Yeah, you go no place to go. You've got the Spurs and you've got the Pistons as the two most likely teams to have cap space this offseason. And I tell you what, if you're James Harden, you push your way out of Houston, you push your way

out of Brooklyn. You are not gonna be excited about playing with de Jonte Murray or Kaid Cunningham. Have you seen Kay cunning I'm not even gonna go into Kaid Cunningham. But yeah, he had got nowhere else to go. The only teams are them, and plus if he were to go to the Spurs of the Pistons, he would have to sign a deal of four years, two hundred million, right, that's a lot of jack. But if he signs with the Sixers, he can sign for five years, two hundred

and seventy million. And let me ask you this, riddle me this. Do you think if he signs a four year deal with another team, somehow in that fifth year, they're gonna that's gonna be a seventy million dollars one year deal for James Harden when he's thirty seven years old. No shot, there's no shot he makes up that money. Fascinating stuff, Just a little wrinkle for folks to think about in terms of how you want to, I don't know,

deal with James Harden long term and vice versa. Secondly, I personally wanted to know what Kyrie Riving had to say about this trade. I personally thought maybe he would address feeling I don't know, bad, like sad, like damn. Maybe I could have done more. Maybe I could have called him and told him I was looking into vegan vaccines and it might be coming soon. Who knows, who knows. People were asking Kyrie, Kyrie, what'd you think? Would you think?

I don't know, Like the fact that he's missed most of this year despite being healthy enough to play. Maybe he would have some self awareness that not being available despite being healthy could have pushed James Harden to a place where he was feeling like that was in a situation he wanted to be in, putting a lot of pressure on James, pressure that James didn't no longer want, which is why he left Houston to begin with. I don't know pressure that Kyrie had the hand on his lever.

He could change how much pressure up and down all you wanted, down, pressure, up, pressure, and he turned that volume all the way up. No, James, Now look Kd's out. It's all you all by yourself. You and Paote, Nick Claxton, just you two know, Joe Harris, It's just you and old Wash, Blake Griffin and Harder with me a LaMarcus Doldridge and me halftime. So I wanted to know, Kyrie, what do you say? Here's what he had.

I can, just like everybody else. The miss these last two years. You know, I didn't have a plan in place when all this was going on. Didn't know. Like I said, the NBA and the MVPA made it very clear that there would be things that I would be able to do the work around this, and that's off the table. So you tell me if I'm just alone out here, or do I have support from everybody else that's dealing with the same thing.

Let's break this down for a second. Kyrie not only feels zero guilt, he decided to go on the offensive on the media member who asked him, do you feel any anything about the fact that the reason potentially that James Harden left early was because you were not around due to your choices you've made that have impacted the team for the to the point where you weren't even around the team at all until they needed you because guys were dropping like fly, so they allowed you to

come back for only road games, and you decided, not only do I not feel guilt, how dare you even imply that I should feel guilt? No, this is something that only I have to deal with, because no other human being has to deal with a pandemic and the decisions that you make by being vaccinated or not vaccinated in the city of New York, like even intimating that there is a possibility that you were a factor, a determining factor, or a catalyst in that decision making. First

and foremost, you should acknowledge that. Second of all, if you were a catalyst for someone leaving and becoming pissed off because you're not around because you won't get vaccinated. To the point where I've come on the show and said James Harden on a press release said, I am going to give Kyrie Irving the shot myself in a joking but not really so joking manner, to the point where you on those role games that you're so able to play when you go to Cleveland, you're burning sage

in front of him, like bad vibes. Get these bad vibes out of here, Like you're basically trying to burn the COVID away. What the fuck are you talking about? And secondarily like boundaries, Excuse me, boundaries. We're literally asking you questions about something that just happened that you are probably directly responsible for, and you're talking about boundaries. Excuse me?

He's the reason that I left. We were a trio that went thirteen and three in sixteen games. We could have been an unstoppable offensive force. When all healthy ad role players that'll come here and play for us for nothing, we're chilling. What are you taking? You forced him out? Period? Yes? Was James Harden a bit of a bitch and the way that he left? Yes? Were you responsible for him taking this downturn and his attitude going from I want

to play in Brooklyn. That's the place I want to go is reunite with Katie, which I was already a little suss about to play with who I've heard things about all of us together going in one direction like a boat unstoppable. But when we're going in different directions, we're going absolutely nowhere, which is why they went on an eight game losing streak. Kyrie, perfectly healthy, which he normally never is, decides you know what, James, it's just you out there, go ball out my dog on the road.

I'll see you in Houston. Are you insane? Back in October, Shaun Mark said that there would be no contract extension for Kyrie. He signed through next year at thirty six million dollars a year. Then maybe we can start talking about boundaries at that point. Huh, what if they don't sign him when he's able to be extended. How about the guilt he might be feeling at that point in times, So the three amigos become two amigos, become one amigo and holy shit, it's just kd out here by himself

hoping for chet Holmgren. What a wild, bizarre ending to a team that could have been fucking electric, and instead we get this fucking multiverse of madness where we have to think of alternate realities where this three would have been together facing off against Giannis and the Bucks, which they certainly could have won that series, in an alternate scenario where they play the Warriors or the Phoenix Suns in the finals this year, in an alternate reality where

everyone's healthy and maybe they win not one, not two, no three, who knows, maybe two or three. But instead we've got the multi verse of madness with a man who feels nothing about his role in getting rid of one of the most prolific scorers and playmakers we've ever seen in this generation. I am see me. I'm not asking you what like kind of sex toys you play with? I'm asking you whether you feel any emotion. There's no longer on the team because of the boundary to the

young black pulp. So he's want to last focus drinking. It ain't trying to hear what I'm kicking linked.

the salary cap. This is what he said. If the Lakers are going to do anything in the buy out market at all, pause, which is basically where they're at right now, because they made no moves, like I said, at the trade deadline, as they claim that they will. They're inactivity on minor salary dumps. Was quote borderline organizational mail practice. Cream get the money, dollar dollar bills, y'all, No, sesh,

what does this mean. Let's break it down because this is not something that's really being talked about a Ton. This is a very niche basketball situation. Sometimes there are a little breadcrumbs that if you pay attention and you put them into a larger context, they give you an idea of where the direction of the franchise is heading. Which is what I fucking love to do, So let's do it because I don't get a chance to do

it that often. The Lakers had the ability to send some of their players who are doing absolutely nothing away from the team, trade them away. They are just taking up space on the bench, they're on league minimums. You can send them to other teams for cash, which basically take DeAndre Jordan, can't take take Kent Baysmore, for example.

So for the Lakers, for example, would have moved DeAndre Jordan, who's had twenty DMPs in the last twenty four games, so he's doing nothing, Kent Bazemore who's had twenty five DMPs in the last thirty nine games, and cash. The Lakers would have saved eight million dollars in luxury tax payments. That's a shitload of money, and created two small but

valuable trade player exceptions. The going rate for this kind of transaction is around a million dollars and there were many willing partners that were willing to do this deal. So the question that I have is why the Lakers didn't do this deal. No one seems to have an answer. John Holger says in his article he thinks that the Lakers are basically quote unquote asleep at the wheel. That's not good. That's troubling because Polinka hasn't had any answers

this entire year. His big splashy move for Russell Westbrook, which we talked about a gazillion times, basically crippled this franchise, and most of the smaller moves besides Milik Monk have

been somewhere between mediocre and disastrous. And this particular in action seems very ironic and very odd because the Lakers just threw away eight million dollars in luxury tax payments or savings when they could have when they said this past season that the reason that they let Alex Caruso go, because they let him walk, was because they couldn't afford to pay him the money that would have put them over the luxury tax eight million dollars, the exact same

amount of dollars that they did not want to pay was the reason that they kept Alex Caruso away from the team and they let him go elsewhere. Wild turn of events. Let's face it, the Lakers could use some Alex Crusoe right now. That would fix a lot of their problems. A disaster. But there's more to this story that you can add to the context that makes me even more concerned. This is what the athletics said about the lakers woes recently when the Lakers were struggling in

early December. This was supposed to be like an uplifting story, but it really is not. When the Lakers were struggling in early December, injuries derailing what was supposed to have the potential to be a championship season behind James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook pause. This article is trying to purport the injuries or the reason that they're not a contender. Get the fuck out of here anyway. Jeanie Bus, owner of the Lakers, consulted Magic Johnson about the direction of

the franchise. Remember the date of this, mid December, right I sat down with Magic Bus told the athletic and I said, should I be concerned? What are you seeing? And he just talked, you know, the injuries and that the team hadn't had a chance to be together. This is such a lie. You know, he's very calm and insightful, and I appreciate seeing the big picture instead of him

reacting to every game missus propaganda. Three weeks after this supposed meeting, right mid January, Magic Johnson tweeted this after they got mollywopped by the Nuggets. They lost by almost forty we as at Lakers fans, He's he's tagging these people in the Twitter. We as at Lakers fans, can accept being outplayed, but we deserve more than a lack of effort and no sense of urgency. Owner at Genie Buss, you deserve better, Dushy though. Dushy and then he says this,

I set that tweet out for a reason. It's a different standard when you put on the purple and gold. So those guys need to understand that, you know, not taking a shot at anybody. But that's unacceptable as a Laker to not give maximum effort. It's something that would have been unthinkable when I was playing, thinking the main

thing is always about winning. I don't care about anything else. Okay, So after that meeting that she had with Magie Johnson when he basically don't worry just injuries, think big picture. They haven't had time to gell and then three weeks later he basically says, you dogshit players won't even get up and play against the Jokic led team. He has nobody else helping him. You guys got destroyed by forty at Lakers. At Genie Bus after that tweet, you have

three weeks before the trade deadline. Three weeks and Genie Buss felt comfortable with the direction of the franchise after she had that meeting, after she saw that tweet. She didn't come to Rob Plink and say, Yo, we gotta figure some shit out. We gotta make a move here. This team is trash. This team doesn't even try. I don't care what you need to do. Get John Wall.

If you can't get John Wall, then we need to save some of my hard earned not really hard earned, but taxpayer money that I'm paying out in luxury tax. At least save me some money. These guys are sitting on the end of the bench just doing whatever the fuck they want, getting DMP after DMP. Get rid of them. Save me some money. At least no pressure put on the GM to make any changes at the deadline. And if she did pressure him and he didn't make changes,

that's even worse. Are you kidding me? Doctor Buss must be rolling in his grave. Something is seriously wrong with the Lakers, and I suspect Genie Buss is a bigger issue than I might have ever and anticipated. That's all the time we have for the heat Check. We'll be back early Squirrely Wednesday with a new episode. Please do not forget to download, subscribe and tell all your friends and follow us on social and add this heat check and at trist Creek on TikTok. Thank you so much for joining us.