You're tuned into Heat Check with trist Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got an interview with Yahoo senior NBA reporter and friend of show, Jake Fisher. He gives us some really good info on how the trade deadline went down, how the nets KD Kyrie Harden arrow will be looked at over time, why the Toronto Raptors were never going to make a move at the deadline except for to be a buyer.
Who is going to tank moving.
Forward this NBA season, and much much more like to get into Nick, So do me a favor and drop that generic ass beat. Let's just felt like the trade deadline as a whole, because I felt like, to a degree it was like one of the more dramatic trade deadlines, and then outside of the two real pieces of shot and all, there wasn't really anything of note.
Yeah, I mean that's kind of what we with inside information were kind of saying for a while, right that, like there wasn't a lot of like starting level players that were actually going to move teams. And then the Kyrie Urbing thing obviously throw a giant monkey wrench in the entire trade landscape. But just like with Kevin Durant requesting the trade like an hour before free agency started.
Like those two situations kind of happened in a vacuum outside of everything else, Like forre agency started at six o'clock on June thirtieth, even though KD, you know, asked out, and you know, the wheels still spun, the world still moved on. And like the fact that Kyrie's trade happened to Dallas, like he requested them on Friday, so it was six days before the deadline, and then he was
already dealt by Sunday. I mean, the reporting has been pretty clear since that KD requested his deal out of Brooklyn on Monday, but the Nets, they weren't willing to discuss it with anybody. He wanted to go to Phoenix. He's wanted to go to Phoenix all along. So the other twenty eight teams kind of operated as we were expecting, which was pretty much Toronto dangling players and having a lot of calls around the league. But they didn't make
any selling type moves. They were interested in Naka Purtle, like we had known about since you last trade deadline when they were registering interest there.
And there's a lot of activity.
I mean I wrote today, yeaho's seventy one second round picks got traded between January first and the deadline. The other past four years, the most was thirty two second round picks traded because there just weren't a lot of players out there that were actually worthy of first round picks. And I think that's illustrative of the level of talent that was actually on the market.
To when did it become clear to everybody was in the know that Phoenix was like the only place.
I mean, I didn't know for certain until the deal happened, but when Kyrie's stuff dropped on Friday, everyone around the league said, well, just just like just like my Twitter feed, just like yours, the timeline was going off, what does this mean for KD?
Is KD next?
And the impression that everyone got, and especially by everyone, I mean like rival teams inquiring and especially after Brooklyn's return for Kyrie was Spencer Dinwiddie, Dori and Phinney Smith first and a couple of seconds, I believe that was a win now move, right like that was a move just like they did throughout the summer with going and get Royce O'Neil and resigning Claxton, TJ. Warren and other
things to try to build a contender around KD. So, I mean, the thought was still prevalent of well, if he does if I mean he's he's changed his mind left and right.
That's that's kind of been his mo.
So the thought kind of prevailed, well, he could still do that before Thursday, he could decide it turns out he did it on Monday, right, And at that point in time, it was a holdover thing that everyone around the situation believed that if he was leaving Brooklyn, and even why he requested a trade originally from Brooklyn was the thought that that Phoenix could happen, that Phoenix was there,
he could play with Devin Booker, Chris Paul. So it just kind of felt like an inevitability if this came around. I mean, Memphis definitely lobbed an offer. Let's say, I don't know the specifics, but I know it was definitely all their picks and they're willing to trade anybody not named John Dylan Brooks and Jared Jackson Junior. But he wanted to go to Phoenix and that was the only thing that was going to happen. So I didn't know,
like I said, until you know when's did it. When the trade went down, it was like I mean, I remember saying on the radio on Tuesday night in Philly at WIP and my family because I'm from the area, was like listening to my brother, so like, oh, like you called Katie the Phoenix on Tuesday night, I didn't. I just like I had an understanding if he was going to get moved, the overwhelming likelihood was to the Sun, so that's where he wanted to go.
And then the second thing that you mentioned earlier too, was like that Toronto was just going to dangle everyone. How close do you think they actually were to ever selling the parts that they were dangling.
So I don't have that definitive answer, but what I can say is that they were telling rival teams. And only the reason I don't have that definitive answers I'm on the phone right and like you're hearing stuff. At the end of the day, the job is to tell the public what you believe to be true based off of.
The information that you hear.
A lot of times you're hearing, you know, falsehoods or things that are a little bit misleading. To try to paint a certain picture, and it's your job to or it's my job to try to sift through all that and come and bring like the clearest picture I can. Right So with that, like Toronto was telling other teams starting at the showcase, like, we don't know what we're gonna do. We're gonna take out until the final minutes
of the deadline. We're gonna have this long like eight game road trip or whatever it was, six games something like that, all throughout the West Coast before they came back that Sunday night before the deadline, and they were gonna regroup on Monday and figure out what the direction they wanted to go and sure Fred van Vliet's contract he could be a free agent this summer if he
opts out. Gary Trent can opt out. Ojiananobi's guaranteed to be unrestricted for agent in twenty four because he can't buy CBA limitations get more than one hundred and twenty percent salary increase, which is well below his market value, being that he's eighteen ninety million that our player right now.
But they were telling.
Teams like, we don't know what we're gonna do, And they were telling teams we might be buyers. So to me, like I'm looking at reading all these te leaves and operating at the thirty first front office and trying to figure out what these teams are going to do because they don't know what they're gonna do. All that stuff I just said to you never signaled a team that
was really going to sell. And it signaled a team just like they did with Kyle Larry in twenty one, they were going to talk and talk and see what the market was looking like and then probably the result would really come in the summer. So that at a certain point was really what I expected to be the case. I didn't know, I didn't like, I didn't wake up on Thursday confident, but I fully believed that they were going to go after Yaka Perle and the rest was
kind of undetermined. And it seems like even though there's a finality to it right now, I mean it's late February already, like juven's pretty close. So we'll see what happens come this offseason, especially if they don't continue to rise up the East. They're still I mean, there are ways away from getting out of the play in tournament, which is you know, obviously not where they want to be when they've got all these guys will who are up for thirty million dollars paydays coming up?
Yeah, you know, I thought that that to myself. I was sitting in the lawn in Arizona and right before this, you know, on Super Bowl Week, and I was like, do we really actually believe these guys are gonna do anything? Like I they really gonna move og Ananoby when he's under team control for another Yearine change Like it just doesn't. It never felt like a MASSI move, like a full fire sale.
You know what I mean. So I think you're I think you're right.
It is interesting that they didn't do anything really at all except for you know, purchase Yaga Purtle former play.
In fairness like they can say no one met her asking Christ like the Pacers offered three first right the Pacers picks, I believe, one's almost Cleveland, one's Milwaukee, Like those aren't those aren't great first round picks that they're their late twenties. The Grizzlies offering a bunch of picks. The Grizzlies are gonna they're projecting to be a top five record team in the league, like they have been for the next half decade, like how pick is.
Going to be?
So I can understand, you know that the Rappers thinking, well, we did a good job of drawing up this interest to get the quantity of first rounders, but the quality isn't what we're looking for. That could be a fair counter argument. But I don't know, three first round picks, no matter where they land for a player that I don't know. I don't know if OGM was ever going
to be more than what he is in Toronto. That's also, you know, why would a team give up so so, so much more than what we just stated because they wanted to pick from everything I've heard the Rappers wanted to picks and players and the player when that that's let's say it's Memphis or in Indiana, but Memphis probably it's greater stakes for them being that they're they're at the top of this, uh you know echelon here? Are they going to just willingly mortgage all that stuff?
To be right?
In the situation Toronto is where he can be an unrestricted for agent with no guarantees to re sign in twenty four that's a lot that's a big price to pay.
Yeah, and it's not that much cheaper than say, like a Donovan Mitchell or you know, it's it's more than a Kyrie Irving at this stage, it's just slightly cheaper than Kevin Durant. Just feels like the drop off from like a A list player to let's be honest, like probably a B minus player, but a really good wing defender. It's like Toronto's very Danny Angish when it comes to
getting what they want. So, I guess, how do you think the trades actually fit into the rest of the season, Like, do you think anything really makes an impact outside of Katie and Kyrie to their respective destinations.
I do.
I mean, I think the Clippers got better and they're going to end up being just a talkable team until their season ends because Kwi and Paul George are so good when healthy and active, and that has not been the case consistently, right, and people love to talk about they're the big poster argument against you know, load management and whatnot. But and this is also like the fourth
year of this expensive iteration. And you know, they were across the aisle of the k D Kyrie experiment in Brooklyn, like those tandems came together the exact same offseason in July twenty nineteen, So like one potential super team dynasty already crumbled, Like is the time running out on this iteration in LA where there was already talk around the league back when they made that Western Conference Finals run against the Suns in twenty twenty one of like if
they didn't make it that far, what was going to happen up top?
Like there's I'm not I'm not here to.
Say that, Like I know definitively that there's hot seats in LA, but like this conventional wisdom would suggest he paid all this money to put together this you know contender, that maybe they don't make it to the Western Conference Finals more than once in a four year window like that be below expectations, Right, So they got better with Eric Gordon and Mason Plumley, And I really do like
Bones Island. I know there's been some you know, personality stuff that's come up in Denver, but I mean he's a damn good players in the second year of the rookie deal.
That's a pretty good, you know gamble.
I think from LA, the Nuggets got better with Thomas Bryant and Reddy Jackson's the nice buyout signing Golden State, getting Gary Payton the second back, Like I don't think he's a world changer, but you at least turn James Wiseman, who's was not going to play for them this year, into someone who was a really valuable or tation piece for them.
I mean the Lakers got a lot better.
Obviously they're starting five to pull the doors off the Pelicans without Zion, but the other night, so I mean, the whole conference, I think outside of Portland really got better. Your Blazers, like they didn't exactly buy to move.
This thing forward here, Trista, what what's going on?
It doesn't feel like it.
No, they got it for Trump pick that is only lottery protected, so that will convey I think this year they're gonna need to figure something out, right like Jeremy Grant, whether he ends up getting a deal done this summer,
I don't know. I saw something earlier today that I forget who was writing it, that in order to keep Dame really supported that most likely they would have to sign, or they would most likely have to trade Anthony Simon's and Shade and Sharp, which I very much disagree about trading Shade and Sharp but it just doesn't feel like their philosophy is much different than neiel' shase was outside
of just finding more athletic dudes. I think Neil Shan would have been fine with Cam Reddish, Like I think neil'sha would have been fine with Jeremy Grant, Like maybe he doesn't, maybe he doesn't draft Shade and Sharp, maybe he ends up with like I don't know, some white guy from Gonzaga that's not Chet Holmgren, But like, I don't know that this is a defensive first team really, and to me, it doesn't feel like they're doing Dame
any favors. Just real quick about the Nets, Like I think there's gonna be books written about the Nets, Like for sure, I think maybe you write a book about the Nets.
Do you think like there was any other way? What'd you say?
So it'd be an interesting endeavor, right?
I do think there was any other way out of this situation, like a series of unfortunate events around injuries and like a weird pandemic happening once in a lifetime.
So yes, But also like that's what happens in every big stakes environment in this league, and it's why people are looking at the Kyrie Luka Dontrich pairing as like a potentially combustible situation, right, I mean, do you trade
for the superstars every time in this league? That's just kind of them around front offices, because worst case scenario, typically you can be where Brooklyn is right now, where they are at a hell of a better starting point in this moment than they were in twenty sixteen when their asset cover was dry and you know, they screwed the pooch with the KG Paul Pierce, you know, deal because those guys were well past their prime and whatever.
Like, if you do it with guys who are ready to play right.
Now and at the peak of their powers, like Brooklyn did, if it doesn't work out, you'll be able to get a pretty good return back. That being said, like when you do mortgage young players and first round picks in the moment, it's hard to continue to add anslar pieces. The Bucks just had to send out five second round
picks to add Jake Crowder to this team. And when as the Lakers have seen, especially like when your roster is so top heavy with salary and so much of the success is dependent on just a couple of guys and a couple of guys getting along in an environment that is pretty self centered and ego driven and a competitive, you know, small sphere where your contract and your riches and your fame are all dependent on how could you perform on TV in front of millions of people every night.
That's a conflicting idea to.
The essence of basketball, where you share it amongst your teammates to try to be a collective other. So there's just a natural situation where these tensions and these pressures
can can blow up. And I think it gets so much easier for things to fail when the stakes are that high and there's such a pressure cooker and you are in an environment where you put the onus on yourself to be championship or bus So, whether it's you know the Celtics Big Three to KG and Paul Pierce that we just talked about, you know, Ray Allen left and there was an emotions there and he goes to
the heat and the heat thing crumbles with Lebron. Everyone talking about that locker room when they lost the Spurs. They were so exhausted and they were just glad it was over. And KD and Golden State and like just these marriages, the honeymoon period always always ends, So I don't necessarily think it was like doomed to fail from the beginning or like how could they have avoided it?
But like to for any team build to be successful, it's going to take so much luck and so many circumstances, and I just think the odds are are more against you to sustain it long term, just because of the ultimate stakes that come in those situations.
I actually like Brooklyn now more than I did last year. I did, like, I think this trade's going to go down to me as an incredible opportunity for Micheale Bridges to prove that he can be an offensive power as well. Like he was a defensive specialist for the Phoenix Suns and that was his role, and he was never going to be the guy with the ball in his hands
at all times. And I was curious to see how the ball sharing would go between him and Spencer Dimwity, because Spencer doesn't like to share the ball with anyone unless their name is Luca, and he's like, that's his role. But Mikhale already putting buckets up at forty five the other night shows that he was sort of underutilized in a lot of ways in Phoenix.
Yeah.
I mean, look, there's a situation where the Nets put together a fun little run down the stretch and they make some noise in the playoffs, take a team to seven or something, and then there's a star that decides, you know what I want out of my team this summer, And I'm looking at Brooklyn because they got a bunch of picks they just got from Phoenix and a bunch of players I want to go there, Like mckailberd just could be my number two. Cam Johnson could be my
number three, like the Clackson's our defensive anchor. Like, I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm not saying that's absolutely what Brooklyn wants to do, but they're excited that that's a possibility.
So it is an interesting place to be in.
If I was Sean Marks, I would say no to any star that wanted to go there.
Again, I think that's.
The only way you build the fan base to some level of real loyalty, because the one thing that I realized from being on the fan was the fans just don't care because they feel no connection to these players and Brooklyn's never been really the place for New York fans to like clamor around.
It's always been the Knicks.
And so unless they figure out some way to organically build something.
Buying stars, I don't think is a really.
Great and I don't think Sean Marks does well with stars truthfully, Like I don't think that's his forte.
You know what I mean.
I mean the has not been exemplary so far.
Who do you think shut it down?
My curiosity is obviously always with Okay, see because even when they're teetering on success in prior years, they've been, you know, very reluctant to keep success going, right, Like they shut down Shay last year, they shut down Giddy last year, they shut down like even Kenrick Williams. I think at one point, like anybody who had a pulse wasn't playing for this team.
Obviously we mentioned Portland.
Portland is not on a trajectory for a play in spot, despite what Dame thinks or what Chauncey Billups thinks, Like who do you think goes or do you like full I'm going to sell mode like for the rest of the season, I'm just gonna whether they shut down players or they.
Just lose games like semi intentionally.
I think it'll happen.
Can I pinpoint where I'll pinpoint where I don't think it will. Orlando seems pretty content on trying to win games and trying to compete, and Magic want to take steps forward. The Pistons, I mean, they haven't had the bench guys to be the worst team in the league, so I don't think. I don't think. I don't think we'll see that either. I think don but are still
gonna be chasing thirty every night. You know, San Antonio's lost a good amount of games after selling Josh Richardson and taking on Dwayne dead Bean into salary and waving him. I don't think the Spurs have a ton of interest in competing for the postseason. Utah, I would expect to see some more youth movement, some more minutes for unproven guys, some boggy opportunity. I mean, they just moved Vanderbilt and
Lake Beasley and Mike Conley out the door. Russell Westbrook obviously is not going to be playing for the Utah Jazz, So those are probably the two teams I would have it the most. The Thunder I never I've gotten into plenty of trouble speaking about the Thunder and positions where I don't one hundred percent know what's going on there, So I'm gonna I'm gonna abstain from that.
Bottle out on that that makes sense.
One thing about the Thunder I thought was interesting was a recent article that came out that I don't know why even they would do this, that they promised Jabari that they would take him number two overall if he was there. Obviously they take chet Jabari ends up in Houston, Like how how normal is something that would be very blatantly not true. Obviously was not going to be a fit there.
I think two things. One, I think teams say.
We're going to take you here if you're there, and that can be one of two things. One it is a promise, and the guy they thought wasn't going to be there there's all of a sudden there. Or two they could say to someone, if you're there, we think we're gonna take you and the or we're gonna take you or whatever, and then the player and their parents just take it as an ironclad promise when it really wasn't.
And then there are promises where you know, we promise this guy and then that's the guy they take because they they're men and women of their words, and that's
what they said. So with Jabari's circumstance, I don't know what it was, but I just know that from my reporting, chet Holmgren wanted to go to Okay see Okay, So he was obviously very interested in Chet Holmgren, and the second that he did knock on number one, I was not expecting him to not go to like it was kind of a sliding doors thing where either Palo or Jabari we're gonna go one or three, depending on what the magic decided. So I don't know where Jabari Smith's
camp got that impression. Could they have thought that they got promised and it wasn't a promise?
Sure that is.
A Houston maybe broke him. I think he seems like he's not himself. There's new articles about how he cried on draft night when they took him, which I guess I understand given that this is going to be a losing situation in the post hardened era. To me, my opinion is the only way he gets out of this jail sentence as if James Harden somehow wants to go back. Feels to me like Houston is a mess, but I
don't exactly know why. Like I kind of know why, but I don't exactly know why outside of say Steve steven Silas being obviously the wrong coach for this type of group.
What do you in your estimation is wrong there?
You know, it's it's a question that I want to make more phone calls about and potentially even go to Houston to learn more about in the coming weeks.
But all I can.
Say, and what I will say is that, I mean, there hasn't been a clear direction to build this thing forward, more so than just adding top level rookie talents into the mix here. I mean Eric Gordon has been you know in the fold, Christian Wood was there a year ago.
But in terms of like it isn't just like you draft guys, then you add pieces and then things just materialize, Like there needs to be some type of commitment towards winning as opposed to just throwing minutes at particular players that your front office is invested in and actually like coming in with strategies on how to develop these guys and winning roles in a particular greater team environment.
That just doesn't seem to be the case.
It seems like they're back to the John Wall situation from everything I'd heard last season, and it was just we want to play Kevin Porter Junior and Jalen Green X number of minutes you X number of minutes off the bench, and like take it or.
Leave it, and obviously he left it, and it didn't seem.
Like there was any more of a of a I mean, I don't want to discredit the coaching staff there for not having more of a plan, but.
Just from the.
Way the conversations have gone, it just hasn't sounded like there's been a collective universal like we're all moving in this direction together, which a concerted thing is important, Like to have your owner and your front office and your head coach and you're like the player development guy, all aligned on what Kevin Porter Junior, Jalen Green or kJ Martin need to be doing to jab Jamari Smith to become this player that you envision your overall team to
be than like any second you're not doing that.
It's kind of just a waste of time.
Yeah, I saw this, and I don't know why this is happening, but this is some tea.
It's like a tea related question.
Why do you think there's this like uprising of chatter that there's some sort of problem between a D and Bron?
Like what's I feel like that's very weird.
It's just the by language doctors are out.
She clearly was not thrilled the evening of Lebron's all time record setting performance. And he's kind of been poudied ever since. I mean he was when the Lakers were here in New York. It was like a week before he broke the record. At MSG, they were talking about how Lebron is going to inevitably and Lebron was in New York like a week before he was gonna break it. Of course he's going to be asked about it. That's
just how the media scene works here. And Ady was kind of chuckling about it and saying like, oh, Dan, that's cold or something like that when Lebron said, I'm going to break it just like a matter of time. So, I mean, this hasn't been like a long winding whatever it is. I'll say, like I can say that, but yeah, I mean the situation hasn't been perfect.
So do you think it's real?
I don't know. I don't I don't know.
I mean, I think a lot of this has been just a tough season on the whole, where it's just it's a it's a drain generally to be in the center of that storm all year long, where there's headlines and headlines and headlines and people asking about it. And it's not just the headlines. Obviously, things are happening behind the scenes that are not exemplary either. So when when it's not a fun environment to be in, like you can understand why things can kind of snowball and grow a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, I've heard for years that the Lakers are warm of the least fun environments to play in, Like not just you're winning.
It's great. When you're winning, it's great.
Yeah, it's like a worst version of like New York sports because it's just different, right, Like there's just different trappings. I saw this factoid the Celtics are on pace to lead the NBA with fifty eight wins, and that'll be the first time it's that a team hasn't broken sixty wins in the NBA since like two thousand and it's the second time that that would have happened in forty
four years. Like I just kind of like, finally, because I know we got to both go just kind of get your estimation on like why why that there is no team that's maybe going to get to sixty and what that actually means for the league.
Yeah, there's just so much talent in the NBA right now and there's no absolute juggernaut Warriors or even like, wasn't just the fact that the Warriors were such a juggernaut. It was the fact that it was kind of a foregone conclusion that Golden State and Cleveland were going to meet in the finals for or straight years, and that might before that, Miami was gonna make the finals for four straight years, and San Antonio was there for you know,
pretty much every year. They weren't in the finals every single year, but they were they were a threat every year for the better part of two decades. There's the Warriors are still here, Lebron is still here, There's still you know, the old cast of characters that are knocking
on the door. But it's just there's it's considered in the league right now that any goal you want to accomplish, whether you're a rebuilding team, wants to make the plan, whether you're a playing team and wants to make the playoffs, whether you're a team has been a first round roadkill that wants to make move further into the postseason.
Everyone's under the impression that we're one move away from getting there.
Yeah, and that's because the talent's so deep, So everyone's given the best shot primarily, and the parody's been I think a result of those compounding factors where the playing tournament has clearly helped a lot in that regard, combined with this influx of young dudes where like you know, Pallo for example, is contributing winning type of basketball right now.
It's not like Luca was immediately in Dallas, but very rarely do these rookies come in and impact winning let alone, like Anthony Edwards is all of a sudden an engine in Minnesota, and you know, there's just there's just a lot of really good young players in the league right now, while we still have so many players like Lebron and Chris Paul and k D and Steph who are playing at such a highlight game at.
You know, in the into their mid and late thirties.
So let's get a prediction.
So we got twenty seven games left. Who is in the finals? Are our Dubs still?
Okay?
I'm going Dubs to the Western Conference Finals.
However, I'm gonna right now, I'm gonna tip my hat to Denver. I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick Denver, and I'm gonna pick Denver. Milwaukee a little small market finals that the NBA will love.
And what do they play in the Eastern Conference Finals?
Boston.
I think the Sixers had the talent to be in that top tier with those two teams. They're clearly ahead of Cleveland when they put it all together, but they just don't put it all together on a consistent enough basis. I think to make it through four rounds, let alone three. So I think it's going to be Boston.
Milwaukee and then who wins?
Give me honest and the Bucks. Let's do it.
Many thanks to Jake Fisher on this episode of The Heat Check.
We'll be back on Friday.
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