Hoops Tonight - NBA Trade Rumors: Kevin Durant BACK TO Warriors? Jimmy Butler-Bucks, Nuggets options

and pick your team and place your bet. One of my favorite bets to look at right now is the NBA Championship picture. I have three teams in the same tier. I have Boston, Oklahoma City, and Cleveland all in the same tier. But Boston's at plus two fifty, the Thunder at plus two sixty five. The Cavs are at plus eleven hundred, So some nice value there to help get you started. Here's something special for all new customers. Bet five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets.

Instantly download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's code hoops, that's hoops. For new customers, to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gamble problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York called eight seven seven eight Hope and why or text hope and

why to four six seven three six nine. Connecticut help was available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction Voyden, Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one

hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash audio. All right, well coon hoobes tonight you're at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hope all you guys are having a great week. We are starting a series of videos today that I'm going to be doing over the next two weeks, not every day, but just kind of mixed in throughout the next two weeks where I'm going to be covering

the trade deadline. I'm going to be zeroing in on specific teams, talking about what they have going on at this point in the season and what I expect the trade deadline to look like for them. As we are now just a few weeks out. I believe it's January sixth, so less than three weeks away at this point. The three teams we're hitting today are the Milwaukee Bucks, the Denver Nuggets, and the Golden State Warriors. I'm going to hit them in groups of two or three a few

times over the next couple of weeks. You guys know the trip before we started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore jsonltis. You guys don't miss announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpfulf you leave your rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,

and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there, and the last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit them in our Friday mail bags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball, and you know important disclaimer here. You know, every time we're talking about trades, everything is unlikely. Trades are hard

to make, especially under the new CBA. Any of you guys who are fans of a team understand that when we discuss trades, everything is unlikely. All the guys that I'm mentioning today, lots of teams want them. Every team could benefit from having Cam Johnson on their team. Every team could benefit from having Zach Lavine if it wasn't for the salary implications, right, and there are some teams where it still makes sense, and there may be a

few teams that are interested. Same thing goes for Jimmy Butler. Same thing goes for all of these backup centers. You know how many teams want a backup centers. Like if all of you guys want Mark Williams, only one of you guys might get Mark Williams, right. So, like, again, just a disclaimer off the top, We're gonna be talking about a lot of scenarios. I'm aware that they are long shots, but I want to try to just zoom in on each individual team and what they should try

to accomplish as we head into this trade deadline. So starting with the Milwaukee Bucks, a little quick recap of their season. They're currently sitting at twenty one to seventeen. That's tied for the ninth best record in the NBA. They are thirteenth in offense and eleventh in defense. Since November twelfth, since their ugly start, they are nineteen and nine. Technically twenty and nine if you count their end season tournament win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, they are thirteenth

in offense and sixth in defense. And for all to talk about their defense last year, which was the primary point of contention, their ability to defend at the point of attack, their ability to hang with foot speed. In transition, they actually have built a pretty solid foundation on that end. They've been a good defense for a long time now. Brooke and Giannis are defending the back line at an

extremely high level. On most nights they've had their ugly knights, like they got just eviscerated by the New York Knicks the other day, but like on most nights, they're defending at a really high level. Andre Jackson, Gary Trent Junior and AJ Green have provided some stability at the point of attack at that two guard spot. Depending on the night, there's different guys that can go with different combinations of

traits that they need. And one of the things they've done to help them in transition is they've just abandoned attacking the offensive glass. They just straight up don't do it, which has given them a better transition defense than you would expect given the lack of foot speed they have

on the roster. So I actually think hunting for a defensive upgrade wouldn't do much for this team because they've kind of found schematically the best version of this that they can be at this point in the season without compromising their offensive identity. Right, So if there was an upgrade to be made, it would be a talent play. Be a talent play on the offensive end of the floor. I do think it would need to be in a certain context though, so obviously you can't include dam Or Janis.

The other guy I think you can't include is Brook Lopez. I think Brook, next to Jannis, is vital to your defensive floor in the regular season, and I think he's vital for specific matchups in the postseason. He's what allows Giannis to operate as a low man as much as he does. He's what operates. It allows Giannis offensively to have more space to operate because of his ability to operate on the perimeter on offense. I just don't think

you can include Brook Lopez. So it kind of handcuffs you a little bit in the type of guys that you have to include and puts you into a little bit of a predicament at the backup center spot. But let's look get some potential examples. The two that have been bouncing around the last couple of days are Jimmy Butler and Zach Lavine as like just big swing talent upgrades for the Milwaukee Bucks. Complicated because the Bucks are a second apron team, so they would have to get

under the second apron as part of a trade. But they can effectively do that by bringing a third team. And essentially it has to do with their ability to aggregate salaries their second apron team right now, so they can't aggregate salaries, but if they structure the trade in a certain way then they can, right And so it's complicated. It's a long shot. I'm not trying to sit here and pretend like this is a sure thing, but these are actual possible deals under certain machinations in the CBA.

So let's start with Jimmy Butler. There's a lot of posturing going on in Miami with like who Jimmy's willing to play for, things along those lines. I saw a report that said that there's nothing that says Jimmy wouldn't want to play with the Bucks, So like, it is a possibility that I think is worth exploring. What would the deal look like. It would involve a third team, and it would involve Chris Middleton, Bobby Portis, and probably Pat Connitton going out in the deal. And again there's

multiple steps there. That'd be draft compensation, there'd be bringing the third team. It'd be complicated, but that would be the gist of the outgoing salary for the Bucks Chris Middleton, Bobby Portis, and Pat content That would leave you with if you pulled off that deal, if you send out those three guys and got back Jimmy Butler through all

of the machinations, your starters. If you're gonna start Jimmy Butler, he's been a good catch and shoot guy for a few years now, but he's not a hyper aggressive catch and shoot guy. He's not like a what I would consider to be an off ball score. He's kind of just like a guy who will take him sometimes when he feels like it, when he's got lots of space. And so with that being the case, I think i'd prefer to have Jimmy next to at that two to

three spot, another elite catch and shoot guy. So I don't think i'd start Andre Jackson next to Jimmy Butler for that reason. I think you could have some spacing issues.

I'd either go with Jimmy at the two next to Torrean Prince and just have those guys kind of pick perimeter defense responsibilities based on the matchup, or I'd start AJ Green, who's been shooing shit out the basketball, and I would just put Jimmy Butler at the three next to AJ, knowing that Jimmy can take at least certain types of perimeter defense defense assignments that AJ Green would struggle with, and AJ's jump shooting would just be really

valuable in that context. So let's call it AJ Green. Your starting lineup at that point becomes Damian Lillard, AJ Green, Jimmy Butler Johannisontena, Antenna Kompo, and Brook Lopez. I don't really have concerns with that lineup. I just think that's an awesome lineup with a lot of defensive talent, with

still quite a bit of shooting. Again, Jimmy's the guy you can't leave wide open at least Dames lights out shooting aj Green's lights out shooting Brook Lopez again, Like, if you leave him open, that could get your beat. I like that kind of structure. It's the bench where things get a little tricky, and it's not the perimeter. You actually have a pretty decent amount of perimeter talent there. Torrian Prince, solid bench wing. Andre Jackson Junior. We know

what he can do at the point of attack. Gary Trent Junior. That's a solid bench guard piece. You still have Delon Wright, you still have Ryan Rollins. A bunch of guards, right, But losing Bobby Portis puts you in the predicament of having to stagger Giannis in Brook at center. You're gonna have groups that just have Brook at center, just have Giannis as center, not as many as many

groups with the two of them playing together. You might have to look at making a separate deal for a backup center or in the buyout market, something along those lines. So there's definitely a downside in terms of depth at the center position and in terms of just what things could look like in terms of energy. A big downside someone might point out is like, Hey, an injury to

Brook Lopez, all of a sudden, nuke's your season. And I don't disagree, but I would say that was already the case regardless of whether or not you make a trade, Like if you don't do anything this deadline and you lose, if you lose Brook Lopez and you start having to start Bobby Portis, you're gonna run into similar issues down the line. So I don't really think that makes that much of a difference, and I think it undercuts the

real upside. I still think Jimmy Butler in a playoff context is one of the highest impact players in the league. He'd be a force multiplier for the Bucks defense if you layer him with Brooke and Giannis. There's just a lot of physicality that but you can see in that specific spot. Like one of my recent playoffs, the last time I watched Jimmy Butler to play playoff basketball was him doing a pretty damn good job guarding Jamal Murray

in the NBA Finals, at least at stretches. I mean, he was a big part of how they won Game two in that series. So, like Jimmy Butler is still such a useful defensive player on the perimeter, but also in off ball situations. I think there's just a lot of upside on the defensive end of the floor, and then he just gives the Bucks another option for half course shot creation an interesting kind of ball handler slash

two man game partner with Damian Lillard. One three pick and roll is one of the most difficult actions to defend in the league when you've got a really good pull up shooting guard that can beat people off the dribble. We saw this with Stephen kd Because you need to guard these big, matchup attacking forwards with a certain type of guy, and you need to guard these quick pull

up shooters with a certain type of guy. And there's not a lot of translatability between those two types of defenders, and so if you get any of them switched, there's just a lot of opportunities to attack on either side of that action. That's you know why inverted ball screens work so well in any contact even when Giannis runs them right, So like there's there's and it doesn't even necessarily have to be inverted. Even if Jimmy is just

screening for Dame. There's a lot of good that can come from that if Jimmy's defender lingers and he gets an opportunity to drive, or if he gets a switch that he can exploit. He also just has a certain level of translatability to the playoffs because he's a big, physical wing who thrives when things get nastier and more physical. He's just a kind of guy who thrives in that

type of environment. Again, the downsides you understand, an injury to brook nukesture season Jimmy Butler also comes with several other considerations, like his attitude and willingness to accept a role. I'm personally not super concerned about that, but that's something

that's at least worth bringing up. The desire for a new deal is where I would get concerned, Like, he's gonna want a multi year, fifty million dollar plus deal, right, and so even with the projected ten percent annual increases in the cap that we're going to see through the end of the decade, as they've smoothed the new TV deal into the picture, that's still a lot too account for.

So to me, Jimmy Butler represents your best chance to win the title in the short term, but probably represents an all in type of move that within a year or two could end to this entire deal, this entire roster being blown up. Right, So let's say you try this year, and you try next year, and even if you do win the title, but let's just say for the sake of argument, you don't win the title. You'd go for it for two years, and you're sitting at it the summer of twenty twenty six and you're like,

what do we do. Jimmy would be thirty six by the start of next season, thirty seven by the start of the following season. Dame thirty five the start of next season, thirty six the start of the following season. Both players next year would still have multiple years left on their deal if Jimmy signed a new deal, right, and both deals would be pretty difficult to trade as stars that have had injury concerns in the late part of their career, and you're also just left with little

in the way of assets. If you lose Dame and Jimmy to retirement, that trades, whatever it is you lose, then they get out of the picture. You just don't have a lot with which to pivot around Yiannis for another phase. Because remember, Yiannis is thirty, so like there's still a lot of time for Yannis to be playing at extremely high level. Jannis, in my opinions, playing the best basketball of his career right now. So like, if you do make a Jimmy Butler trade, it's by far

the most aggressive. I think it also gives you the best chance to win the title. But the flip side is is it's like it is the gamble of all gambles because if it works, in the next two years, you have a second title with Yannis. Yannis cements himself as an all time great, the Bucks cement themselves as an ultra successful NBA franchise. All of that's there, and that's just the thing that makes it all worth it.

But no matter what, if you win or lose either next summer or the summer after, you're likely blowing things up because you're not gonna have the assets to rebuild around Yiannis, which is going to force you to likely have to trade him and start from scratch. This is why I see a guy like Zach Levigne as more of a long term, viable type of move. He's twenty nine years old and he's playing some of the best basketball of his career, if not the best basketball of

his career. Yes, he's had some injury concerns, but I do think they're a little bit overblown. He only played in twenty five games last year, that's true, but he averaged sixty five games played in his previous five seasons, which is not terrible. I mean, he's missing seventeen games a year, but nothing insane. Insane, right, And he played in seventy seven games last year or the year before

he got hurt. Excuse me, So he played in twenty five games last year, he played in seventy seven games a year before, and he's only missed five games so far this year, so sandwiched around that nasty season last year, he's actually been very available. He's missed ten games total in both and basically a season and a half, so I would argue his availability is better than his reputation

would lead you to believe. Another way to look at it for Bucks fans would be like this, Chris Middleton has averaged fifty seven games played in his last five season, so you'd be effectively turning one injury concern in Chris Middleton into another. It was Zach Lavine, except for Zach Lavine is currently healthy. Chris is playing, but Zach is currently healthy, playing at a higher level than Chris, a

substantially higher level than Chris. The trade would look in terms of the machinations, roughly the same as the Butler trade. You're still sending out Portis and content. You're still sending out Chris Middleton right still involves a third team. Still, probably there's draft compensations. Probably not quite as crazy was zachly Levine's deal, but it still is a similar type of machinations in order to make the trade work, Except for the Bucks would save a little bit more money.

I think you'd save about ten million dollars on that deal in their current cap situation. I actually like the offensive fit with Zach Lavine a bit better. I think Zach would be able to more seamlessly transition between off ball and on ball scoring roles. I could see entire games in the postseason where he functions as just a hyper aggressive spot up player, but they can. I also see entire games where it's like Dame has a rough matchup,

entire series where Dame has a rough matchup. Zack has a better matchup and you lean on him more in shot creation responsibilities. But Zach is just not in the same stratosphere as Jimmy Butler as a defender. Now there's

some tree, there's some different stuff there. Like I think you could get away with playing in Andre Jackson Junior next to Zach Lavine, so that still gives you the Andre Jackson Jannis Brook kind of foundation defensively, but certainly not the level of playoff defense that you could reach with Jimmy Butler in the picture. He also is just not anywhere near his experience as Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler's played in the NBA Finals twice, He's been in so

many big playoff moments. He's gone toe to toe with some of the best players in NBA history in a postseason series. So like all of that needs to be addressed. But again, I think Zach Levine unlocks the ability to play more of a defensive minded player at the two. I also think Dame and Giannis's playoff experience and their ability to kind of be comfortable in those situations will help Zach in those situations. So I'm not overly concerned.

So like, I don't think this deal has quite the champ being ship potential is the Jimmy Butler deal, But I just think it's more prudent while still giving you a legitimate upgrade and improving your chances to win the title in the short term, it's prud in the long

term because let's look at it this way. We talked earlier about the what it would look like if if you traded for Jimmy Butler and things went south right, and just how you'd probably have to blow things up if you let's say you've made a trade for Zach Lavine and you flamed out bad in the postseason this year, and you're like, Okay, we just need to just completely

revamp this thing. You could probably trade Dame this summer for a pretty decent haul of role players and picks, and then you could rebuild around Zach Lavine and Giannis and Tenacumpo, who would both be in their early thirties. That is a potentially viable path to pivot while still maintaining enough belief from Giannis that he's not gonna want

to run out the door. Right, Like, if Zach continues to play at this level, it's he's playing a lot closer to the Dame Lillard's of the world than a lot of these other shot creators around the world around the league. Right. So, like, I just i'd be lying if I didn't say, I just want to see what it looks like to see Jimmy Butler in Milwaukee. I

think it'd be so much fun. But I think Levine is the more prudent option if they're looking for a big swing talent upgrade on the offensive end of the four. I've seen a lot of talk about trading for a backup center. I keep saying the same exact thing with this sort of thing with Bobby Portis, and like, I get it. I've watched Bobby Portis a lot, and his defense can be so abominably bad at times that it's

destructive to what a team is trying to accomplish. But he also legitimately does a lot of good and he has nights where it functions better defensively. That is the backup center experience. Guys backup centers in the league are backup centers for a reason because they're too inconsistent or they have too many weaknesses to function as a starting center in this league. So I'm going to say the same thing about the backup center spot that I would

say about anyone. Let's say you don't make that hyper aggressive trade and you're just looking to upgrade Bobby. Or let's say you make the up the massive trade, Bobby's out of the off the roster now and you need to find someone to anchor that spot. I'm gonna say the same thing I would say about any other team in the league. I would not give up real assets

for a backup center. If you can get into the picture where you find a decent like whether it's a Mark Williams, or it's a Dayron Sharp, or it's a Robert Williams, or it's a Jonas valanceiunas, and I don't like Jonas. I don't think he could play in the playoffs. But like, if you can get a guy like that without having to give up much, by all means, jump

on it. I just think that sort of thing it needs to be more of a trade of circumstance, a trade of opportunity rather than like we're hunting for a backup center when push comes to shove, especially on a team with Brooke and Giannis, who are both capable of anchoring units as a center, I just don't think it's worth giving any sort of asset return for. And frankly, the options that we've been presenting I don't think are

that materially better than Bobby. They are materially better than Bobby on defense, but not materially better than Bobby as overall basketball players, because they're backup centers that come with flaws and that's just the reality of that position group another way to look at it, Guys like I feel like Christian KloCo for the Lakers has been doing a pretty decent job at backup center, and I've seen a lot of Lakers fans that are like, we should go

get this guy, we should go get that guy, and like, I'm not saying they shouldn't if the opportunity presents itself, but like the gap between Christian KloCo as like a guy they signed off the street and another traded for backup center is pretty small in my opinion, and certainly not big enough to justify the price in a lot

of these cases. So again, if there's a trade to be made for Milwaukee, I think it's a big swing for a perimeter talent to try to get up into the talent level that you see at the top of the Eastern Conference. All right, let's look at the Denver Nuggets big win in Dallas last night. Jamal Murray had his best game of the season. Just an absolute shot making display, really really impressive stuff from Jamal. Looked really comfortable,

was hunting aggressively from the three point line early. I had the mid range shot going at his tough shot, makee going. It was just it was beautiful to watch.

A big question that the Nuggets have to confront before they do anything with the trade deadline is what to do with the starting lineup because you have this situation here right Russell Westbrook has slotted into the starting lineup as Aaron Gordon has been out with his calf injury, and Russ has looked great, and the team has looked great. Right Like. They're thirteen and five since December eighth. That's the fifth best record in basketball. They're second in offense

and eleventh in defense. Over that span, the Nuggets are playing really good basketball. Aaron Gordon, though, is one of your most important and best players on the team, one of your best players. He's got to eventually start. I think that the defensive back line simply needs him out there. Not the Dallas game last night, but the previous Dallas game. Guys, remember the one Denver almost lost. There was a lot of like these possessions where Jokic was coming out to

the level and Lively was rolling. And when he was rolling and getting the catches, they were tagging him from the weakside, but they were tagging in with smaller players, and Lively was able to quickly go to post moves and just easily finish over those guys on the top. That's where Aaron Gordon is so valuable. Aaron Gordon is the defensive anchor that makes Jokic viable in the big picture context of contending with the best teams in the league. So I think that Aaron Gordon's got to be out there.

So it gets complicated. I would continue to start Russell Westbrook though, meaning I would move Christian Brown out of the starting lineup, and I'd go Jamal Russ. Michael Porter junior Aaron Gordon, Nicole Yokich. The reason why is, like

Russ is playing the best basketball. He's by far the best basketball he's played since giving up that top tier superstar role when he left the Washington Wizards, Right Like, he struggled so much with so many different things over the last few years on so many different teams, and it seems to be clicking for him right now. He's hitting the open jump shot at a substantially higher rate

than he has in any recent season. He's finishing at the rim at a substantially higher rate than he has in any other season, specifically doing really well with Jokic. Right So, there's some lightning in a bottle there that I wouldn't want to mess with if I was a nugget, if I was in the Nuggets organization. I also think Christian Brown's pro without an ego. Who will be accepting of event role, who's played an event roll before, And

you can adjust down the line. If you stick with starting Russ and it falls apart, you can always move Russ back to the bench. But while this lightning in the bottle is captured, I would try to stick with as much Russ in the starting lineup as possible to continue to just kind of breed that continuity and try to just further explore that concept. So again, I would just move Aaron Gordon in, I'd move Christian Brown out,

and I'd keep Russell Westbrook in the starting lineup. Now, what about the deadline again, Verse twenty four and fifteen. So far this season, they have seventh best record in the NBA, fourth best offense, sixteenth best defense since December eight, thirteen to five, fifth best record in basketball, second and offense, eleventh in defense. I am completely out on the Nuggets making a big swing trade for an offensive star. Frankly,

I think it's just unnecessary. They've been the second best offense in all of basketball for almost six weeks now. They have a one to twenty six Clutch offensive rating, which is absurd, and we all know that their offense scales well to the postseason because Jamal Murray shot making works in the postseason, Nikola Jokich best player in the world that works in the postseason. Everything about what Denver does works in the postseason. So I just trust that

group to score the basketball when it matters. End of story. I do not think that there is a reason to make a big swing trade for an offensive star. So if there is a play to make, it's a smaller trade for bench depth, right, But any perimeter based player will lead to issues with the important context of the big picture for Denver, which is making sure you continue to get reps for guys like Julian Strawther, for guys

like Peyton Watson. So, for instance, let's say if you were like, we just need a rock solid, you know, perimeter guard to come in to help the situation, right, Like if you were like, oh, let's go get Josh Green or something along those lines, like just a just a solid bench guard, and that that's gonna eat into Julian Strather's minutes, That's gonna potentially eat into a Peyton Watson's minute. So like, I I think those guys need reps.

So I wouldn't miss mess with that, especially when you're gonna just scale up the starter's minutes when you get into the postseason anyway, and those guys will probably play less, right, at least straw there will probably play less, right, So I think you got to go for a low salary

point your high salaries Jokic, Murray, Gordon, and MPJ. None of those I can afford to be traded in my pay, and so pretty much comes down to Zeke Naji and Dario sarch which is roughly about fourteen million dollars worth of salary. Zeke Nagi's Contract's gonna be somewhat tough to trade because he has three years left on his deal. He's just not a very good NBA player, and teams will be hesitant to take on that type of long

term commitment under the circumstances. So without being the case like Zeke's deal is just gonna be really difficult to offload. You're almost gonna have to include more draft compensation just

to do that. So what I look at is the best option for Denver to be exploring in this deadline is packaging just Dario Sarche or maybe Dariosarch in a minimum something like that for a backup center, because that takes minutes away from the Dariosarge DeAndre Jordan group without affecting the Julian Strawther Peyton Watson group, while not messing with the offensive continuity that we talked about with some

sort of big aggressive swing. Right. So with that being the case, the first guy I look at his guy like Nick Richard's out of Charlotte, really nice fit salary for salary. Both make five million dollars right Yonas valentiunis. I think one he makes too much and then two, I don't think he can play in the playoffs, so I'm like completely out on him. The Lakers have been really high on Yonas Valentunas. I don't understand that either.

Walker Kessler is an interesting option. He'd be expensive, like, he probably costs you the twenty thirty one first round pick and a couple of second round picks, and it's just a lot of money or excuse me, a lot of compensation to spend on a guy that would just be Yoki's backup. It also handcuffs your ability to make trades in the future because you wouldn't have any other first round picks to trade. But there's real upside there. He's the best player out of all the guys that

have listed so far at that center spot. He gives you a legit chance to anchor a real and competent bench group, and he has a team option for five million dollars next year, so by the time you have to pay him, you could very well see a twenty percent increase in the salary cap. But as intriguing as a Walker Kessler type of deal is, I still think the Nuggets should stay cheap, stay as cheap as possible.

I think this window they're in is relatively short, but Jokic will be the best player in the world for several years after that, so I think there is some form of more substantial pivot for the Nuggets that is coming down the line in like a year or two, and when that happens, I think they'll be glad they have that extra first round pick, especially since a guy like Walker Kessler doesn't materially affect their chances of winning the title this season. So if I had to pick one,

I think i'd go with Mark Williams. He's averaging twenty three points and fourteen rebounds per thirty six minutes, so he's really active in his minutes. He's been excellent at finishing as a role man this year. He is pretty decent touched when he gets a few feet away from the rim. I think he's a really nice fit. But I also would not trade a first round pick for him with all these backup center trades. As I said, I don't think it's worth including real substantial draft compensation,

so like as I kind of zoom out. Even with even if the Nuggets don't make a single trade this year, I still like them as a rock solid second tier championship contender with a real chance to beat anybody. They currently on DraftKings have the fifth best odds to win the title. I used to look at it as you know, Boston, Cleveland, OKC, and then a small gap and then Dallas was my next team. But with the back injury for Kyrie and Lucas still being out, I think Denver probably has a

better case there. So I'd say off the top tier, Denver's probably the most likely team to win the championship. So there's a real solid foundation regardless. But if you're gonna do something at this deadline, I think it would be a sarch centered deal without any first round draft compensation for a backup center if it's possible. But it's very possible that a guy like Mark Williams gets that you just get out bid for it, and maybe that's

what happens. But if I was to look to make a deal for Denver this year, that'd be what I'd be looking at Golden State. Both Draymond Green and Steph Curry went off in recent interviews will interview postgame pressers about how they don't want to make some sort of hyper aggressive deal, that it would be irresponsible to do it, and they got kind of dramatic about it like that.

I can't remember whether it was Steph or Draymond, but one of them talked about like how they'd be giving up draft control for seven years or some shit like that, Like, honestly,

that's just a massive exaggeration. From what I understand, the Warriors control all of their first round draft picks except for the twenty thirty first rounder, and they have four second round picks available between now and the twenty thirty draft, So you have six first round picks in the next seven drafts and four second round picks in the next seven drafts from what I understand, if I'm reading the tea leaves properly, so you could include two first round

picks in a trade and still have four first round picks between now and twenty thirty one, not even counting any first round picks you could get in return from sending out players after you decide to rebuild, and so When I hear things like, oh, it could mortgage the next seven years of the draft, It's like, yeah, there are occasionally star trades out there that asks for three first round picks and three picks and crazy stuff like that, But aside from like Kevin Durant, there's not really a

deal like that out there. The Jimmy Butler's and the Zach Levines and the Cam Johnson's, like, that group isn't gonna pull an insane hall of like three picks three swaps. It'll mostly be about matching salary. Maybe Cam Johnson gets two first round picks Jimmy and Levine, who knows, Like the Levine's contract, it might be no draft compensation. With Jimmy's. It might be one maybe two. Like the I don't

think it's gonna reach that level of expense. So frankly, the idea that the Warriors would be mortgaging their future with an aggressive trade at the deadline is just inaccurate. And like, if you did do it for a guy like KD, I think he immediately vaults you into contention, makes you bigger, it makes you better defensively, he fixes your offense. That's a no brainer. So let's just explore

what Kevin Durantea would look like. The Sons are obviously still hemorrhaging the loss again to the Hawks last night, So let's say things get super nasty for those Sons and the blow things up at the deadline. What would

Kevin Durant to the Warriors deal look like? It would look something like Kevin Durant Osoigadaro heading to the Warriors with Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kaminga, Buddy Healed, and Gary Payton the second heading back to the Suns and again sending out Kaminga and Wiggins I think actually would help lessen

the draft compensation issues because of their value. Like Kaminga obviously is a prospect in this league with some upside, and I think Andrew Wiggins is a good player at his salary, Like I take him at that number in a heartbeat as the Lakers rooting for the Lakers right like especially moving forward, like the cap is going to keep increasing by about ten percent a year moving forward, Like Andrew Wiggins is deal. It's just a really good player at that number. So that might soften the soften

the draft compensation element of it. But let's say you make that deal. So again, Katie and OsO Agudaro are coming back, Wiggins Kaminga healed, and Gary Payton all heading out to the Suns. You'd be left with Steph Curry, Dennis Schroeder, Kevin Durant, Raymond Green, Trace Jackson Davis as

your starting lineup. There's a version of that where you move Trace Jackson out and you move in, take a guy like Moses Moody or a third guard and put him in the lineup, but I think they'd probably start big and off the bench, you'd still have Kyle Anderson, Kevon Looney, Moses Moody, Brandon Pajemski, Lindy Waters, Gie Santos and Ohso Guitar. You have two guys who can play backup Big minutes. You have two guys who can play backup Ford minutes, and Kyle Anderson and Moses Moody, And

you've got guards like Brandon Pajemski and Lindy Waters. Gizanto's can play some backup Ford. He's been playing some decent minutes as of late. So like you're just you're still pretty deep. And then like you have Dennis that can help with backup ball handling. You can stagger Stephan KD,

so your offense is more stable throughout the game. Kevin Durant is just an he still this year, some of the most impressive defensive sequences I've seen have come from Kevin Durant as he cleans up messes on that garbage Phoenix Suns. Team like KD would instantly anchor your defensive front line alongside Draymond and make you a real championship level defensive front line. And you still have plenty of perimeter defense. Dennis Schroeder can guard on the perimeter, Moses

Moody can guard on the perimeter. Podit Pozemski's not bad out there. Draymond and KD can guard on the perimeter, plenty of length on the back line. I think that would immediately vault the Warriors into the same tier with Dallas and Denver with a real shot to win the title. And I don't want to count on Steph Curry and Kevin Durant in the big playoff series, would you. I think if you could do that deal, you do it ten times out of ten. Now it's a long shot.

KAD might not even want it after some of the hang ups he has, after he left the Warriors. Matt Eshpia may have no desire to trade him at all whatsoever. It's a long shot, but if you can make that deal, I think you'd do it any day of the week. Let's talk about some smaller, more prudent moves, though. This idea of getting Cam Johnson without Jonathan Kamina has been something that I've been intrigued with a little bit. There's different variations of that. I would also try to get

Dayon Sharp in the deal. You guys want a backup center. I think he's a decent option there that shouldn't cost much. So if you got Cameron Johnson and Dayron Sharp, you'd have to send out something like Kyle Anderson, Buddy Heeld, Kevon Looney, Kylie Anderson, Buddy Heeld, Gary Payton second, something along those lines. I still think i'd want Gary Payton in my playoff rotation, so I think I'd go with like a Kyle Anderson, Buddy Heeld, Kavan Looney type of deal.

You may even decide that you prefer Looney over Dayn Sharp and want to make some sort of different version of that deal, But there are versions of it where you can get Cam Johnson without including Jonathan Kaminga. I like that deal. It unquestionably makes you better. Cam is a high level offensive player. He's shooting forty three percent on jump shots this year, both off the catch and off the dribble, shooting sixty nine percent at the rim,

which is excellent for a perimeter player. He's ran one hundred and fifty eight pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups including passes, for one hundred and sixty six points. That's one point zero five points per possession. That's good self creation. And that's with him getting the other team's best defender. As of late on the perimeter, his life is going to be easier next to Steph. Not just being guarded by lesser defenders, but he'll be less emphasized

in the scheme action with Steph. That could be effective. There's just so much good there offensively, and he's become a really useful defensive player point of in his career. Most importantly, he addresses a very specific area of need and shot creation for the Warriors. I also just think he's very clearly a positive asset. His two more deals years on his deal with like we talked about ten percent increases in the cap He's only twenty eight years old.

You could make a deal for Cam Johnson and you lose in the first round this year, and then turn around and trade him this summer and immediately get whatever you sent out back for him. One compromise your future in any way, and it would bring back a backup center, and that Darren Sharpropson, like we talked about, Darren Sharp's been getting sixteen points and thirteen rebounds per thirty six

minutes this season. The one thing that I think would be absolutely foolish is a really tiny deal on the margin, something like let's just get a backup center. First of all, everybody wants them, but nobody wants to pay for them, so it's gonna be weird negotiation anyway. By the way, no one really should, as I've been talking about throughout these other segments today, and frankly, I just think trading for only a backup center would be embarrassing. It's the

most two timelines move I've ever seen. Let's pretend to support the present while not actually giving them any capability to raise their ceiling, while still not having any real obvious future to speak of. All of these other teams, they're confronting it in different functions or different fashions because

of where they're at in their development. If you have like this clear like two three years from now, we have this on the horizon, it's more complicated, right, But like, like for instance, when I look at Denver, you can't trade something that compromises the development of Julian straw the or Peyton wantson when Jokich is his age and probably still going to be the best player in the world for two or three more years, in a top five player for even longer after that, maybe even the best

player in the world for longer. So like there's a real pivot that they're going to have in one to two years that they have to be super cognizant of the Warriors. There's nothing on the horizon. John can being a not leading a team to success in the Western Conference, not anytime soon. He's five plus years out from being able to like anchor a dominant Western Conference team at best.

There's no future. So like, with there being no future and you being so far away in the present pretending to support the present with some little move on the side for a backup center, I think he's insulting Steph Curry, and it's just the most classic representation of their strategy over the last couple of years that they've been straddling these two timelines. Last thing I'm gonna say about the Warriors, you will not have a player like Steph for a

long time. If ever, again, it's rare. Even through tanking, you're not guaranteed to go get a number one pick. Who's gonna be the best player in the league. Who are the best players in the league right now? Nicole Joki's second round pick, Giannest wasn't a top ten pick. Shay wasn't a top ten pick. Even Luca was passed on by two teams who didn't think he was a superstar. Like it's there's a lot of luck involved in this. You happen to have Steph Curry. He's a unicorn in

NBA history. When you're lucky enough to have one of those guys, you should make the most of it while you can. Any competent organization can pivot through taking on bad money for draft compensation, drafting well, developing well, establishing a quality basketball culture that will quickly pivot you into a positive future while you wait for maybe getting one

of those best guys. Trading a couple of first round picks to support Steph Curry while he still has a fighting chance is not going to affect materially your future.

That is the fact. And so even beyond anything having to do with my feelings as a basketball fan wanting to watch Steph play in high leveraged basketball games, I would just argue that the discussion over like what you're giving up versus what you're getting in return, is so heavily focused in an inaccurate way on what you're giving up.

It doesn't make any sense to me. We haven't even had like an honest conversation about what these price tags look like relevant to what the Warrior's future would look like in their asset trove, not to mention like anytime you decide to blow it up, it's like any quality role player you have can be moved for draft compensation to refill the troph So I don't think they should make some small move on the margins. I think they should go for the home run swing, because the home

run swing is not three picks and four swaps. It's probably two picks, maybe one pick and a couple second round picks for a guy like Cam Johnson, and that guy can easily be turned around for the same return down the line. All right, guys, it's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a couple instant reactions. I'm also recording another trade deadline preview with Jovann Buja on the Lakers. I don't think

that's gonna run tomorrow. I think we're gonna run it on Saturday. But we'll have that coming later this week and then again periodically throughout the next couple weeks. I'm gonna be doing more trade deadline centric content that you guys will see again. I appreciate you guys for rocking with me. I'll see you tomorrow the volume what's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting

Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.