Colin Cowherd Podcast - Kyrie to Mavs Trade Reaction, Chris Mannix on Kyrie/Luka Fit, KD to Suns Rumors, LeBron Frustration

code Colin and download the Fan Duel app today. Start making every moment more during Super Bowl fifty seven, all right, everybody instant reaction to a very lively pre draft deadline in the NBA, which is February ninth. So we've got Kyrie Irving today. Four different suitors liked him. Clippers, Lakers in La MAVs were the three that jump out to me, and we talked about on our show on Fox Sports FS one Friday. Clippers had more to give than the Lakers, and we find out that's what it came down to.

The Brooklyn Nets liked what Dallas had to offer between draft picks Spencer Dinwiddie and another forward. You know, my takeaway is this is really about Luca. Dontage is that the Mavericks won a title previously with a great European player and they could never really get him an equal running mate. Now, they did win a title against the Heatles Miami Heatles. That team with JJ Barea and some

veteran players and some length and Dirk Navitsky. What was dubbed a kind of a stunning upset is Lebron had his worst series of his career. But one of the things I thought Mark Cuban was starting to feel a little little pressure is Okay, what are we going to do with Luca? We got to get him a running mate. Now, Luca's style, as everybody watching this that's an NBA fan knows, is very ball centric. You know, look at the numbers Jalen Brunson has put up leaving Luca to go to

the Knicks. You end up watching a lot of Luca offense as a teammate, and it can be really frustrating. Now, Kyrie Irving has played with Kevin Durant, he has played with Lebron James, so he has had teammates that have the ball. But there's nobody quite like Luca. So I think short term it would work a long term. If it was a four year deal, I think they butt heads eventually. Luca's the best, arguably offensive player in the

league right now. Some say it's not an argument. Kyrie's the best scoring little guy in the league right now, A lethal left and right hand scoring at the rim. There's not a lot Kyrie can't do. But I read a report before I went on today that Dallas is looking at a two year deal this year. Finishing up in a two year deal, That's what I'd be willing to do with Kyrie Irving. Can it work for a year and a half this year and next year, and then you know if you have to move them again.

There's always a market for elite talent. It could be a tech, it could be in broadcasting, it's in politics, it's in basketball, art doesn't matter. There's always a market for elite talent. A couple of things. Here's why I like it. If you look at the best defensive teams in the NBA, a lot of them are Eastern teams. Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami, Toronto Clippers play real defense out west. But the Eastern Conference, especially at the top, a lot of really, really good

defensive teams. The Warriors have decided this year that they're not going to play much, and so between Luca and Kyrie Irving, they're going to score out West. I mean they're when they're both on the floor, they're going to be a complete handful. The Eastern Conference is a better defensive conference than the Western Conference. That's where I like it. I also like it in the short term. Kyrie is reportedly ecstatic with the move. Luca struggled with poor Zingis,

who can be kind of a moody guy. But maybe he learned something from that relationship. You know, Lucas now a year older. You know, young players evolved into older players. They grow up. Stuff that bothered him their first couple of years in the league may not the next time they get a star. So, you know, Luca's a smart guy. He didn't get along with port Zingis. Maybe this time works. Short term, I think it will absolutely work. I don't think what the net Scott Listen a bunch of draft

picks that are irrelevant for Kevin Durant. You know Dinwood, he's a nice player. Finnie Smith forward not a big score, good locker room guys. Who knows, Maybe it's a better fit with Harris and Claxton Ben Simmons. Maybe it's a better defensive team and a better fit who knows Brooklyn, by the way, despite Kyrie actually play some decent defense like many Eastern teams. So there's a lot I do like about it. Short term, two great scorers in the West,

a weaker defensive conference. If you can get a two year deal, I like that. But the other thing that's real is that Kyrie Irving he missed games in college. He missed games in Cleveland, he missed games in Boston, he missed games in Brooklyn. He didn't give you eighty two games. If you can get to sixty eight, sixty nine, seventy games, you'd be happy with Kyrie Irving. He has never played a full slate. He's not going to. As

players age, they miss more and more games. So if Kyrie had gone to the Lakers and he's one of three stars, okay, you missed some games. But when you're one of two stars, neither want a good defensive star, Kyrie or Luca. When one's out, you don't get the offense and you get bad defense. That part they don't like. I don't feel like Dallas is a championship level team. I don't think they have the depth, but they'll score

their way to a lot of wins. There'll be a hand full to play when they both play, they'll give up a lot of points on the defensive end. But if the deal's two years and not four, that's interesting. Kyrie's an unstable personality. Four year relationships, you know, that's the old saying, some of you date, some of you marry. He's a hard guy to depend on over the course of four years. I wasn't nearly as interested in that. I did think he fit well with Lebron James's game

with Luca. I think they'll wear each other out eventually. But listen, Luca, you gotta get him a second star, right Lebron's got his second star, and Durant had his second star, and Kobe was always better when he had a second star, And Michael Jordan had his, and Bird had his, and Magic had his, and that's the history of the league. And Tim Duncan had his. You know, Dirk didn't get his, and I think Mark Cuban didn't want to go through that again with his top international star,

and so he rolls the dice on this. Mark Cuban's an aggressive guy. I mean, this Dallas team pre Kyrie was not winning a championship. I don't know if this one is. But they'll be more dynamic, more electric offensively. You know, I thought this about the Lakers. So when you looked at what Dallas offered, and then you look at what the Lakers offered Westbrook, Russell Westbrook, and like a number one picked down the road, picks are irrelevant for you know, right now in the NBA, especially a

pick two or three years down the road. He's nineteen years old. It'll take him four years to be a top playoff NBA player at minimum, maybe six. But that Westbrook trade from the Wizards giving up Kyle Kuzma and KCP did damage in this What did the Lakers have to give you a bad contract with Russell Westbrook? Durant probably said, why, I'd rather get Dinwitty and a good forward. And I mean they gave up too much for Russell Westbrook. It didn't help this team and it blew this trade.

They just don't have enough to give anybody. I mean, the Lakers have shown they're not giving up those future picks, not all of them, they're not. The other component to this, I wrote this down on a piece of paper is Jalen Brunson is not as good as Kyrie Irving, probably a better teammate, but Jalen Brunson is younger than Kyrie Irving, not as expensive as Kyrie Irving, and is healthier than

Kyrie Irving. You know, if you pulled a lot of general managers and said Jalen Brunson Kyrie Irving, I think a lot of them would take Jalen Brunson and Dallas moved him. Now, Kyrie's a better player, but Kyrie gets hurt a lot. He's older, the contract, and he's difficult. He's prickly. I wouldn't even say unconventional. He's beyond unconventional. He's erratic, and you've got to be concerned about going

into business with people like that. So if Dallas can get this pulled off for a two year deal at like eighty million bucks, then it's worth it. It'll be fun to watch a lot of these big moves don't work. I remember, you know Robinson canoe to the Mariners. I mean, you're like, that's not going to work, like two years later, at three years later at unravels. But I think this will be fun. The West is not the defensive conference of the They will score, They'll be electric nights over

the course of a series. They'll give up just as many points. As much as we all love offense in the NBA, Let's not forget who made the finals last year. In the NBA, the Boston Celtics were the number one rate of defense and the Warriors, when Draymond Green played during the regular season, were the number one defense. So it was we're the two best defensive teams in the NBA made the finals. I want to bring in Chris Mannix covered the NBA for over a decade. He's got

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dot com slash colin. Terms and conditions apply. You know my first thought, Chris, when I saw the Steph Curry news. You know how these negotiations go. You know, you get the players figured out, then there's draft pick compensation. I could see Mark Cuban and Nico Harrison, who's the GM of the Mavericks former Nike exact, I could see there's They probably had a discussion starting Friday on this, and all of a sudden they saw they saw the Steph

injury and thought, well the West was wide open before that. Okay, well give you more picks. Probably didn't happen, but the timing was so perfect. In the end, this feels like a move to get Luca a guy he You know, we could talk about whether we like it or not, but it just feels like Dirk never got the guy we can't do this with Luca. We got to get him a guy. That was my interpretation. Your thoughts, Yeah,

I think that's pretty close to too accurate. I was talking to a couple of people down in Dallas today about why they meet. It made a deal like that. Number one was they need to do something. This was a team that has largely been stuck in the mud. They knew they were a cut below the top tier teams in the Western Conference. And look, even though Luca don Chich has several years left on his contract, we

both know that. You know, the guys don't need to be at the end of their contracts to ask out or to get frustrated enough to force their way out. So there was some pressure there to at least show Luca that they are doing everything they can to build a winner. And Kyrie, at least on paper, we can get into, you know why, it's more than just paper with Kyrie Irving, but on paper makes a lot of sense.

They need shot creation. That's been a problem for them all season long, and Kyrie Irving, whether it's for himself or others, is a bona fide top of the line shot creator, So it's definitely a roll the dice for the Mavericks. If it goes down in flames, like literally every other Kyrie Irving stop he's been to along the way, they could be in some trouble, but it's it's a calculated risk on their part that they could be the team that works with Kyrie Irving. Do you think the

Mavericks are done? Because as much as I think this will be dynamic offensively in Eastern teams, as I said in my preamble, there's more good defensive teams in the East than the West. The Clippers obviously in Memphis played wheel defense. But it will be dynamic offensively. But these are not good defensive players. I would guess Dallas would

make another move. Maybe I don't know. I don't think they have the pieces, and either do they Frankly, I mean I think they were I want to say, surprised that they were able to land Kyrie, but I don't think they went into these talks believing that they were the front runner, because I mean, look at their assets there. You know, Phinney Smith didn witty good players. One first

round pick. It's fine, but you know, there was definitely a thinking in Dallas they were going to get outbid by somebody else, be at the Lakers, Clippers, Sons, the other teams that were in that mix. And now that that Finney Smith is gone and he was kind of that piece column that that teams were the most interest. They didn't view him as a superstar, but he is kind of a three and D player who shoots thirty six percent from the floor or from three, So you

know there was value there. Now that he's gone, there's not a lot like there's not a clamoring, you know, to get Tim Hardaway Junior out of Dallas. Christian Wood is someone to keep your eye on over the next three or four days. Because christian Wood is extension eligible. It has been since Christmas. He has not signed an extension yet. And the Mavericks are, you know, reluctant to lose a player of any kind of value for nothing. That just happened with Jyllen Brunson. I could see them

moving him again. But what are you going to get for christian Wood at this point? You know, what are you going to get a wing defender or going to get a perimeter a paint defender. I just don't see it. So I don't think I think as far as moves of substance, they're probably done. So listen, Brunson popped. He was a good player, but he popped when he left Luca. Luca struggled with poors ingus. Kyrie struggled eventually with Lebron, who's actually a great distributor and more than willing to

elevate everybody else's game. I mean he played with d Wade. You know, I don't think Lebron's a hard teammate. He wants a d to flourish. He wanted Kyrie to flourish. That's why he was stunned when Kyrie wanted out. So you know, not that. You know, Luca has had a couple of teammates who didn't get the ball enough. He's very ball centric. A lot of people can get along initially.

Is it possible I saw one report in my preamble that it could just be that Kyrie was willing to see how it works and then agree to a two year deal. At two I'm way more comfortable. Or is that just something somebody says and Kyrie wants for Well, it's definitely something somebody says. The most of the information coming out about Kyrie's situation with the Nets is being fed from Kyrie's camp. Like, you know, the Nets didn't want Kyrie's trade demand out there because that effectively detonated

any chance they had of keeping him around. Look, Kyrie is about Kyrie here, Yeah, this is all him. Like he knew after months of negotiation that the Nets were not going to come close to giving him the contract that he wanted to get. He believes he is a three or four year max level player, and the numbers certainly back that up. But the behavior makes just handing him that type of deal much too big a risk,

and the Nets simply weren't going to do it. So by forcing his way out, Kyrie goes to a team that now has his bird rights and can resign him to the same type of deal that he was looking for in Brooklyn. If he had played out the season, he would have had to look for teams with cap space, And you look at the teams with cap space Collin Detroit's I believe san Antonio has a bunch of Caps based Houston. These are not teams they're gonna be banging down the door of Kyrie irving to give him a

max level contract. So this was a purely selfish move by Kyrie Irving. Now, will the Mavericks give him that

type of deal? I don't know, you know, from what I've been able to gather, the MAVs are going to kind of wait and see here if look, if they let him walk, if my math is correct, they would free up max cap space for it themselves next summer, which there's not a lot of guys you want to spend that on right away, but at least you create some flexibility with the contracts of Finney Smith and Dinwittie off the book, so they could theoretically do something else.

But the Mavericks are not going to give Kyrie the deal he's looking for right off the bat. They're going to see what happens with Kyrie this season, if he fits opposite Luca, and then make their decision from there. Yeah, I think it'll be dynamic. In the short term, it'll be less, but eventually of a defensive team. When I hear the West is wide open, I do believe that Steph Curry is going to come back. I've kind of felt like, and I always feel this way about pitchers

in baseball. You know, if you go in a couple of long playoff runs as a pitcher and you're in two fifty three hundred innings. It's like arm fatigue. And then you come back to the spring like I expected the Warriors, an old team, a lot of minutes, a lot of intense playoff games, to have a very sluggish start. The Draymond Green Jordan Pool altercation. It wasn't a big shock. The first month. They were awful on the road because on the road is when chemistry matters, and they didn't

have any. And then they're you know, they're one of those teams where they can look awful against the t Wolves and then go out and play Memphis and Boston and be fantastic. So I've watched probably a dozen Warrior games, and I don't think the West is white as wide open. I do feel like they will kind of flip a gear,

although they're not playing many players. So when people say the West is wide open, do you believe a Dallas for instance, just at least offensively could win this thing, or does this move them up with a Curry injury or do you kind of feel I do anyway, the Warriors are lurking. It's just a predictably tepid a predictably inconsistent first half. Well, to answer the question about the Mavericks, this makes them more of a contender certainly than what

they were before the deal. But look, din Wittie was pretty good for them. Yeah, so it's not like they are giving up nothing of value. And they liked him in the locker room down there, so I think they get better. But that is a very very weak defensive back forward. As much as it's going to score, they're going to get blown by. And it's not like there's a ton of rim protection down there in Dallas to clean up a lot of those mistakes. So look, it

makes them better in the short term. You know, Kyrie is going to be on his best behavior, playing at a premium level to try to get that contract. So look, Luca has done some magical things. Maybe they can catch lightning in a bottle. I'm just not I'm not bullish

about the Warriors, even with Curry help. Okay, Like enough people in and around Golden State have told me that they know they're missing something, Like they know they're missing that bench piece, like they're missing that consistent veteran that they can rely on. What Iguadala was early in this run, what Porter Junior was, what Gary Payton the second was guys go to to give them fifteen ish minutes. They don't have that, Like Cominga has been pretty good, but

Moody's given them less than that. He's been okay, Like you know, you can't really rely on them. I say that Moody's given them nothing. Wiseman's given them less. So you don't have that guy. And that's why whenever you know, I talked to teams about what's going on before the trade deadline, I asked, like, what are the Warriors looking to do? Like Golden State historically doesn't like to do

deadline deals. They're not they're not prone to shaking things up because they never had to really, especially during this last six or seven year run. This might be the year they have to, and this might be the year they have to bite the bullet. Maybe sell low on James Wiseman, sell low on Moses Moody, like think about it.

James Wiseman for Alex Caruso straight up works right Like Alex Caruso doesn't have anywhere near the upside of James Wiseman, but he is a twenty eight year old multi positional defender who shoots the three and has championship experience. This version of the Warriors needs that. They need either Alex Caruso or something like that to get them to a

championship level. If they don't get that player, Colin. As much as I respect the Curries, Thompson's Greens, the guys that have been there before, I don't think they have enough to get past the top the upper tier teams in the Western Conference. So Lebron James, as we tape this, mister Mannox has tweeted as he's prone to do. Maybe it's me projecting a little bit, woe is me? What do you make about Lebron and a d not landing Kyrie?

I think the Lakers could look back and regret it, because the Lakers were one of those teams that reeked of desperation going into this deadline. Yeah, and you know you project out right. This summer, they acquired ru Ruey Hashimura. They gave up a bunch of second round picks to get him. They want to bring back Ruey Hashimura, so that is going to cost them at least half of their available cap space. They're probably going to have fifteen million to spend on players this Offsee, so they're not

landing a big fish. A trade is the only way to land the big fish. And you look at the capitol of what it was like. You know, it would have cost them Westbrook. Maybe they would have had to have taken back Joe Harris, and maybe they couldn't have gotten a deal done anyway, because Westbrook doesn't help the

Nets contend. Like you know, I don't even know if they keep him around if they acquired him in a trade like that, and the Nets clearly want to try to keep winning while Kevin Durant is still on the roster, maybe there was nothing they could do. But the Lakers, this was a situation they should have been really aggressive in Colin. This is kind of their m O when it comes to deals. Go back a couple of years ago. They wouldn't give up Taylor Horton Tucker to get Kyle Lowry.

Think about that now, they wouldn't give him up. What would that team been a couple of years ago if they would have acquired that version of Kyle Lowry from Toronto. They just get a little too hesitant, a little too reluctant. Can't pull the trigger on some of these critical deals and look, Lebron a D. When they're together, they play great, but that's not a shape to contending team. It's just not you, no matter how well Ruy Hashima is playing.

So you know, this is gonna be one of those things, like six months a year from now we look back and saying, man, they should have at least tried. Guess the one team Lebron's played with Kyrie, he knows how to deal with them. Kyrie very close with a D. You know, when when Kyrie was in Boston, I covered this a lot back then when whenever they was talking about the South that's acquiring a D, Kyrie was kind of a carrot there because they've got a great relationship together.

So that would have been a situation for the Lakers that made sense if they were if they had enough to pull it off, they probably should have done it. Yeah, I mean I said it my preamble. You know, for the Westbrook deal, they gave up Kusman KCP, and yeah, they don't have a lot of pieces Austin reeves. You know, there's limitations. So the Westbrook deal, they gave up too much. Then it hurt him. Now it's been a predictable mess this year. The only app you need it your Super

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seven for confidential health in Michigan one eight seven seven h Ope n y or tex Hope n Y. F for six seven three six nine, New York, Tennessee Redline one hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine Tennessee visits one eight hundred gamble dot in West Virginia. All right, let's pivot to Kevin Durant Phoenix rumors. So Phoenix feels like those old Sacramento King teams that never won a title. Took the Lakers to seven and then all of a

sudden lost and the window closed really fast. And so Phoenix had this two years where I'm like, wow, eighton's becoming something. Bookers a star Chris, But Chris Paul is now aging, you know, eighton Monty, will you have friction? It does feel like it's close fast, And we talked about this in the NFL. I thought the Seahawks, We're gonna have a six year run. It was like three years, like when those close fast Warriors are really an outlier. And as good as the Celtics have been for six

or seven years, they don't have the ring yet. So here's Phoenix, like a very condensed version of Boston. You're like, wow, it's over like we're the Celtics. We feel like it's got some real legs here. And so there's some talk out there about Kevin Durant. Do you think it's fueled, as you said earlier, by like the star players camp. Where do you think those stories surface? I don't at

this point. I think it's only being fueled externally. I have not had indications yet that Kevin Durant is looking at this Kyrie situation saying that's it. Trade me now before the trade deadline. That could change, certainly next couple day is very fresh. But my understanding is Kevin Durant is not requested a trade from Brooklyn look, the Nets had months to try to figure out a deal with Phoenix over the summer. It didn't happen. They weren't overly

enthralled with DeAndre Ayton. And I don't know why that would be the case right now, Mchaale Bridge's fine player, draft picks whatever. But what Phoenix was dangling in front of them back in the summer when there was real competition for Kevin Durant. There were a lot of teams bidding for Kevin Durant over the summer. The Nets weren't interested. I have a hard time believing that the Suns can construct something over the next four days that will make

the Nets bite on a Durant deal. More to the point, Colin, when I see this return from Dallas, that tells me the Nets are still trying to contend. And what's interesting about how the Nets have played the last few years. If you look at some of the numbers, they have a better record with Durant and no Kyrie than Durant and Kyrie. It's like sixty nine winning percentage versus sixty

five percent. Like they've been better because Kevin Durant just has his ability to elevate a lot of guys around him, and so the NETS calculus, I think, is that you add Finney Smith to the mix. So with Royce O'Neill, you've got another three and D type of guy, versatile player, can guard multi positions, which is certainly useful when you're looking at going up against Boston or any of the other Milwaukee top tier teams in the Eastern Conference. And

Spencer Dinwittie had his best years in Brooklyn. You saw him tweeting out earlier, can't wait to go home, like he's excited about the possibility, never wants to really leave Brooklyn, but just went because the money was bigger when he signed in Washington. I think Spencer dinwitt He's gonna be really good for that team. He's not Kyrie, but plug him into that point guard spot. He's gonna average fifteen eighteen points per game over the rest of the season.

So the NETS thinking, and it could be crazy at least right now, is that, look, we got some guys that can play, and Kevin Durant Gwenny's healthy is otherworldly. So if we can just put enough competent role players around him and maybe at some point try to resurrect this corpse of Ben Simmons that's been out there for the last few months. Maybe we can we can do something in the postseason. Chris Mannox is always good stuff the Volume. Make sure to check out The Draymon Green Show.

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