Bobby Marks and Kevin Pelton on the NBA Trade Deadline

And now the Lowe Post. As much of it as we can, we're loopy. These are snap reactions. Everybody's tired. We haven't had time to make all the calls we want to make and dot all the eyes and cross all the t's. We're flying by the seat of our pants. I have not even had my annual one beer yet. Bobby Marks. How are you? I'm good. I'm doing good. Yeah. I mean, we went, it's, we had, we, you know, Woshen, and I were doing pods at night, like late at night. And we were, you know, we got to the

point where like, we're gonna have anything else to talk about here. We were like, we're like scraping for first up to talk about. And yeah, we, we, we had a kind of a little bit of a flurry on Thursday morning. And then we had a bunch of stuff during the day. And, and as you said, you know, certainly some things that, that, that, that did not happen.

But all in all, I mean, kind of wanted those, I don't want to say typical trade deadlines because this year was a little bit different because two of the bigger names were off the board. When we got to the deadline with O.G. Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, with O.G. And, and, and Pascal Siacum. And then you could throw James Hardin back in, you know, back in, I

guess, November, early November. So it, you know, you, what you taught when you talked to teams, they were saying, yeah, it's gonna be a lot of back guys and not, you know, the seventh man to the eleventh man. And certainly, New York didn't see that way. A lot of action in the east. Lakers, nothing. Clippers, nothing already did the James

Hardin trade in the Daniel Tyson moving all that Denver. Oh, you guys, you guys think we gotta do something with our young bench come do with our two main game in mile high air in the playoffs. Pelicans had a lot of stuff to trade, nothing. Mavericks will talk about Mavericks active. Ooh, baby Mavericks. They went to the bank of jazz. They went to the bank of San Preston. We'll talk about that. Oh my God. The interest, the interest rates

are just abusive. The jazz all over the warriors and other media darling, nothing. Well, we're gonna talk about my thunder. Yeah, baby. Minnesota adjusted its backup point guard needs. And by the way, their offense just keeps on falling apart and crunch time. The latest was a horrible loss in Chicago. But we must start Bobby marks. We must start. Oh, and we must start. As you say, the Lakers did nothing. I already said that. My brain

is mush. The New York knicker boxers of New York city, the greatest city in the world. I don't really know what's happened, Bobby. I don't understand. It just, it happened so slowly. It was like imperceptible. And the nicks are suddenly acting like the smartest franchise in the NBA after 20 years of like Homer Simpson looking at every shiny object

that passes by the blue car and chasing the blue car. The nicks just, as seriously, thoroughly gathering little assets, little nuts like a squirrel, little acorns of draft picks in this and that. And almost imperceptibly just bit by bit by bit have gone from, you know, a 21 win team and a 17 win team before Randall got there to the playoff disappointment of two seasons ago before Jalen Brunson got there. And they today acquire Boy on Bogdan

of itch and Alec Berks from the Detroit pistons who are doing God knows what. And if you look at the sort of aggregate trade that they have made this year, including the N and Oby deal, outgoing RJ Barrett Quentin Grimes today, Emmanuel quickly, Evan forney, Malachy Flynn, Ryan Archie, the Ackano, a good Detroit second round pick, two more seconds that went out today, incoming and an Oby Bogdan of itch Berks Achua, the nicks are now loaded

with good players. Their starting five will be once healthy and we'll talk about in an Oby a second Brunson, even Chenzone who can't miss a three and certainly won't stop taking them. And an Oby who's going to have surgery on his elbow, he'll be out at least three weeks better now with the all start rate coming up to pretty much any time can

get by that Randall, maybe Mitchell Robinson, maybe Isaiah Hart and steam. And then the first four guys off the bench are Josh Hart, boy on Bogdan of itch, Alec Berks and either Hart and steam or Achua or Jericho Sims or whoever, like you don't even have to get to do smig bride. That's guy number 10 or 11, just loaded and they have size on the wing and shooting on the wing, both the Bogdan of itch. They can do a lot of interesting things line

up wise. And you look at what went out and what went in and what striking to me is a, we never said the word first. They got all their firsts. All the firsts are still here. So they're all still set up to trade for whatever superstar becomes available down the line. And the whole league is noticed. Oh, the next, the next guy religion, the nicks are smart

now. And it's just an interesting Bobby to zoom out and think, you know, there was a celebration a year and change ago when RJ Barrett signed his extension, the first New York Nick first round picked to do so since Charlie Ward, who was a football player as well. People may recall from the grainy low death footage of Florida State football in the 90s. And there was a lot of pride within the nicks about this quartet of first round picks. Barrett grimes

quickly and Obi-Toppin. All of them are gone. And yet it's a tribute to the nicks that none of it feels wasteful. None of it feels like they've thrown these guys away to get a team that's too old or too ancient or too anything. It's just a good solid team. And if they get in and it'll be healthy, we can sit here and talk about, well, they don't have a top 10 player. They don't have top five player. They don't have this. They're

not going to have the best player in any playoff series. You look, I've said all year, we could wake up and the nicks could be into conference finals. I think we need to upgrade that and be like, we can wake up and the nicks could be in the finals. Like this is a home run to trade that done for the nicks. And I don't even know what to do with that.

Yeah, you know, it's funny when we started hearing about Detroit, the thinking was, well, are the pistons going to ask for that first back that New York has of Detroit and they didn't and or maybe they've asked, you know, as you said, we were still in the process of making calls and you get to two seconds here. And you still have eight first available to use when you get into the offseason or however, way you want to want to do it here.

It's a, as you said, when they're healthy, it's a deep roster. The, I love, I love the Bogdanovic contract just because it's different than forni, forni had a team option. Bogdanovic got a partial $2 million partial functionally, though, not not as a bonus of this trade. They replaced the sort of like, oh, we can carry over this thing as a trade asset and also not have it. If we don't want to have it, they replaced that same thing almost functionally

with Bogdanovic. Well, yeah. I mean, you look at in the, in the offseason, who's, who is a bigger trade asset, Bogdanovic or Evan forni. If they, if it never got to that, no, if you, if you, if something, something big came and that's, that was my concern all along with, with forni was that what happens when you get past a trade deadline, then you're forced to make a decision, forced either decline the option or exercise it with the hope

that you're going to be able to maybe flip him again. And New York doesn't have to worry about that because there's a, I think it's a June 28th trigger day as far as one of you comes guaranteed and you'll have an idea as far as what is going to be available and what direction that you want to go in. But yeah, I mean, I thought certainly they were the big winners. I just, I, for me with Detroit and I hate saying like losers and

stuff, I just think they were a year behind. They were kind of a year behind as far as you're a year behind what? A year behind, engaging the market for these guys. Like, oh, you think, you think this, you think this was about outcome for Bogdanovic? I have no idea if they could have gotten two firsts for him. I don't know if that's fine. This guy 100%. Take it to the bank, the bank of Presti, whatever bank you want. They could have got a first round pick for Boy

on Bogdanovic. But I don't want to get to Detroit yet. I'm going to make, we're all going to make it, it's going to be great. Let's stick with the next. I mentioned those four guys. So like Barrett and quickly get you in a nobi 26 years old, perfect playoff player fits what they need. Grimes helps you get this, this poo poo platter of good veteran players with shooting skills and ball handling skills to replace quickly from the pistons. Top

in has kind of been forgotten about, got them two seconds. But as I tell people, it got them the financial flexibility to resign Josh Hart for whom they traded one bad first, like a low first, great trade. And to then sign Deven Chenzoe for a little bit less than the mid level, they have gotten, they've trade, these young guys are gone. But in their place are like prime mid career guys who fit Brunson and less importantly Randall, but

still importantly, and it just can't be overstated. Like what Jalen Brunson has become completely changed the structure of this franchise. It changed how the front office had to approach building a team. It changed their aspirations to change their time table. It changed everything. When you got a player of this good and this is got this guy's going to make an all NBA team as of now, I would think I think you should have started the all-star game over at Damien

Millard. You have to hit the gas a little bit, even though you have an eye on, well, maybe we can get a player that's quote unquote better than him via trade somehow. And they've hit the gas, put in a responsible sort of sustainable way with these mid career guys. And this team is like, look, Boston's the best team in the East still fillies obviously doing with M.B. to Milwaukee's one and four under Doc Rivers. I think they'll find themselves like

I've had Bev today. We can talk about that later. Cleveland is like 14 to one in its last 15 games. They're awesome. I do think that the challenge of reintegrating Garland and Moby who's now shooting and making some threes lately, by the way, will be interesting. This team's good, man. Like this team, this team's just really, really good. And now they're positioned to make real noise in the playoffs if they're healthy.

Well, and the trade comes out at the perfect time too, because if you if you've watched them late and certainly with with Randall out and and OB and you know, it's not only Brunson Springs is ankle and in the Memphis game. Man, the minutes were the minutes were getting high. And it's let's it's not it's not tips. I mean, I mean, we can say, Oh,

tips is over playing these guys. Basically what he has, right? He basically had he had a seven man rotation that we're playing, you know, your star is playing 35 36 minutes. So you you swab out four guys and Grimes was the only guy out of that group that played of significant minutes. And now you had two guys that can play 30 plus minutes for you. I mean, Berks was, Berks, I think was shooting 43% in the last five. He's been on. He's

been on like a ridiculous heater. He was terrific. Wednesday night against sacrameno. I'm him and Jay and I we were terrific and sacrameno and that win at Bogdanovics at 41.5. 47 playoff games under his belt. He's been in big moments, certainly with YouTube. I we drafted him. We drafted him in New Jersey. You know, one of the one of the great stories of one. He made me miss my my son's daycare graduation because I was doing a trade call

in the parking lot of the preschool. So I don't. I don't. Yeah, I don't know anything. I'm bad against him. No, but yeah, but you look at two quality guys that that that that come in and as we've talked about just have the flexibility and I think the beauty of it, Zach is that the Eastern Conference is more forgiving than the Western Conference right now. Like where like Milwaukee could figure itself out. I know they're what you said,

you know, one in four and they and but they're where they where they gone. They're going to go from two to three. You're not going from you're not going from three to seven unless maybe a billy. Of course, we could do you think when Robin Lopez got traded that that finaster's authentic. Um, go was like, uh, would they? Uh, uh, is my iron is my iron grip on this organization loosening a mine, a my next they broke up one set of untouchable brothers.

What about me? Oh, no, no, the NASA is the running joke in the NBA who's the most untradable player in the league. The NASA is the most power who's got the most power in the NBA. Right. Um, but yeah, so I listen, at the end of the day, New York did extremely well. They got out in front of the with an OB in late December. Um, they've reshaped their roster. They've gotten flexibility. They've got draft picks still. They still got a bunch

of seconds here. And they give themselves a chance, um, over, you know, over the next couple of months. Think about their lineup versatility. Like you can play heart in an OB and Bogdanovich together at the two, three and the four. When Randall's when Randall rests and you stagger Brunson for the most part, think about the shooting now. You can

put around Brunson and a rim rotor. If you want to play Randall at center now, if that becomes situationally something that tips would actually do, you're just loaded with wing depth, big wing depth to do it. All the first round picks are still there. I think it's just a home run trade deadline for them. They lose almost nothing in terms of flexibility, nothing meaningful in terms of picks. And they are now a threat to a real threat to make

the conference finals. And once you're that, like, yeah, Celtics would be favor over them. I bet Milwaukee in the end will figure it out. And because they just have the top end talent, but they have not looked good recently. And I don't know if Pat Beb is the answer to enough questions. But maybe they'd be favor over the next probably would, I guess, Cleveland's really good. But like the next could make the finals. Like that's on the

table for them. The next could make the finals and have assets to do a lot of stuff in the off season. And that's a rare place to be. Well, you know, I mean, someone will always become available. You know, somebody will lose in the first round here or second round. And you know, we'll want out our team's going to look to move it to make it do. I think the goal is now we've got what about 30 games left. You've got to make sure you stay out of that Boston bracket, right? You

got to make sure you're three. Yep. You got to be in that that bottom two, three bracket here. And one of the teams Milwaukee, Cleveland and New York are going to be in, you know, they're going to be in the Boston bracket. Right. That's just that's the reality. We kind of see where Philadelphia is going. I think Philadelphia is just we'll talk about them in a minute or is just kind of hanging on top six. Hopefully you get the big guy back.

But you know, you don't want to fall into that. Shoot you don't imagine imagine a Mo on a bot filled out the Miami playing seven eight. Can you imagine something like that? By the way, I liked the buddy heel trade for Philly. I think it was a cork MIS Morris three seconds for heel comes in and fills it. They just need someone to put them all in the basket right now. Shoot lots of threes. They don't shoot enough threes. You can sit here

and quibble like, Oh, can you play with Maxi defensively? Like let's put like let's put that they just need to get some baskets now. And by the way, Wage is reporting that the Pacers now are going to wave for concork MIS hats off to fur concork MIS the longest running unfulfilled trade requests by a bit player in the history of the NBA was finally fulfilled and ends with a thud of the Pacers waving him immediately. I like the Pat Bev trade.

I'm not the the buddy heel trade for Philly. My mind is all over the place before we get anywhere else though. Let me just pause and talk about the pistons for a second. Here I think you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think I have this right. This is the sum total of the pistons activity in the last 24 hours beginning with the acquisition of Somode Fontequeau who fits right into the pistons quote young core Somode Fontequeau's 28 years

old. Let's dial back to like, Oh, another prospect for the Detroit pistons. He can shoot the pistons have suddenly discovered shooting is a helpful thing to have on your team. So OK, I think I think this is it. Incoming Fontequeau fine player, one of three Utah rotation players that was traded for NEA hasn't played in seemingly years Archie Diacchino whatever Grimes. I still have hope for Grimes is a support player. He just doesn't do much, but

he's fine. Probably a nice bench guy. I believe four second round picks total. Incoming four seconds. And then the Troy Brown Jr. Shake Milton, Daniel House, none of whom are really going to be relevant to their team. I don't think so four second. You can boil it down if you want to four seconds Grimes and Fontequeau outgoing for that for four seconds Grimes and Fontequeau. Baddana Vitch, Birx, a really good second from the wizard. So net

three seconds. And then you have Montemores who got traded to the wolves, Procedo, this prospect people like in Kevin Knox. I just don't really understand what's going on there. Like I don't see how you just net net that much for Borg Donovan and Birx. Fontequeau's fine. Grimes is fine. Like it's all those guys are fine. I don't really see any sort of through line connecting any of those transactions. And then the kicker was the release of Killian

Hayes, the release. The dude started and then be a game yesterday. Number seven pick in 2021 over Tyree's Haliburton. One of many pistons draft misses in the top 10 or 12 and we don't need to recount all of them. I just look, I like cutting him. I like Duren. I like a Sartonson and Ivy's playing out of his mind lately at 37. That's great. I just don't understand like really what happened with the pistons. I don't get it. Do you get it?

Is there any of them missing something? No, I don't. And when you talk to as you do and as I do, we talked a lot of teams that you're like, what's the trade doing? And I said, well, I think I said, my biggest joy of the deadline is trying to find out where all these guys, you know, you're taking in seven, you're trading out three like. And then we find out, you know, did they make more trades than they have wins for the season? I think

they did. And then certainly, you know, you waved Joe Harris, who was your big free agent addition with Monty Morris. And we haven't seen Joe Harris since the Milwaukee playoff series in the second round in 21. And listen, I, as I said, when we were doing the Nick segment here, like there were basically sleep at the wheel, you know, a year ago. And instead of probably getting more value for a bugged on in last February here, you get two seconds.

And a, you know, a young, a young wing, you know, in quick grimes. I don't get it. Don't get the ass admit it. I mean, look, if Grimes hits, I don't really know what Grimes hitting looks like. You know, I think like a really good outcome would be something like Danny Green, like a fifth starter who defends pretty well and shoots threes and pretty much that's it. And Grimes can like pump and go and keep the offense

moving with drives against closeouts here and there. It just hasn't been very active. Funtekio, I just, I think is a nice player. A lot of teams were kicking around Funtekio. As soon as you talk got that second round pick offered for him, which is the wizard's second round pick this year, they were like, Oh, that's it. We're done. You can have some money. Funtekio, like that pick is better than anything we're going to get for him.

Pistons fans better brace themselves for the Tobias Harris pursuit of the summer of 2024 because it's coming probably maybe probably any parting Nick's thoughts. Just, I mean, we consider and look ahead to be who's going to become available. Yeah. Yeah. They've got a bunch of stars. They'll be like, I don't really even care. I want to see this team play. This is a really good team. I mean, they've got a bunch of roster spots available.

And I'm sure they'll explore who becomes becomes become available. Probably unlikely. I think Kyle Lowry probably has more Philadelphia kind of written all over him as far as that. And I'm sure I'm sure tips favorite Taj Gibson. They've got a home for him. That's for us from one of those roster spots here. But not all in all a really good day for the next. Let's shift conferences and talk about something that didn't happen, which is

that the Lakers did not make any trades. And notably, the Lakers did not trade for Dejante Murray and the Atlanta Hawks did not trade Dejante Murray. So much noise ended up not amounting to anything. I just don't think the Lakers had enough to get to get Murray. You could you could package, you know, Austin Reeves is off the table. And I think that's a correct stance by the Lakers. I think anything swapping Austin Reeves through to Jan De

Murray is a lateral move that doesn't really make a difference. And so why do it? Could you have gotten the Hawks attention with the Angelo Russell plus Max Christie plus an unprotected 2029 pick? I think you could have gotten their attention. I'm not sure that gets over the finish line. I'm not sure that's enough for the Hawks given what they traded for Dejante Murray, which is a lot of draft assets. And so now the Lakers who are ninth

in the West need to just sort of make it happen. They need to make it happen after LeBron James, who has a player option for next season. Did his usual passive aggressive emoji stuff, wheat stuff, then was like, what, who made? Huh? It's not my job. Made it very clear he would like to see upgrades. The upgrades did not happen. And on the flip side of all of this, like, like the Hawks have to sort of come back to business and be like, oh,

Jan De you're still on the team. And I think it sets up an interesting summer for them. And for the Lakers, wouldn't surprise me if these two teams intersected again in the summer. And I think one of the things that happened here is the Hawks like the Wizards with Kyle Kuzman and other teams as we talked about kind of looked at the landscape said, okay, Lakers, you have one first round pick you can trade right now. In the summer, you'll

have three come back, come back to us then. Kyle Kuzman, the same thing. Oh, Dallas, you got one first round pick you can trade for us, come back to us in the summer when you'll have three. Well, Dallas is now going out of that discussion, having acquired PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. And maybe that's the correct calculation. Maybe it's not one person pointing out to me. That sounds right. And there's there's some theoretical

rightness to that. The flip side of that is that you have tweeted and written nine teams are going to be in the second apron. Is that still true after today? Yeah. Yeah. We haven't seen anybody duck out. I mean, and what that means is is everyone focuses on what that means for the second apron teams, all the things they can't do. They can't aggregate

salaries. They can't do this. Well, it also means that like if you're trying to trade to John DeMurray, you got nine fewer teams that you can deal with once that second apron kicks in. Wouldn't surprise me if these two teams intersect again. And it wouldn't surprise me if the Lakers knock on door and say, Hey, what about the other guard? Can we can we get in the discussion for that guy? And what happens with the Hawkson to John DeMurray entry

on in the next year is one of the more interesting subplots in the NBA. But tell me what you think of the Lakers standing pat here? Well, here's the one thing that's pretty interesting. And as you learn, you go through this trade deadline and they had that that that that 2029 first available, they could have went to the bank of Sam Presty. Maybe, right? Maybe they could have done a swap in 20. What is it? 28? What would they owe it? A first to

Utah on 27, I think, done a swap like Dallas did and try to get a 2024 first. I'm just hypothetically saying that here. What I thought about the Lakers was that they, they just didn't have enough. The B, they thought the, you know, maybe it's just kind of smoking mirrors here that the play of the angel Russell over to the last whatever be five to 10 games here was enough for us to sit pat. Here's one thing where I'm interested about. I've talked

a lot of a lot of people. Why didn't the Lakers be a little bit of a seller and would have

been, would have been a bad perception on them? $1.26 million over the luxury tax. Okay? Why don't you move off one of your bigs, Jackson Hayes or Christian Wood or want to and duck under the tax and then you don't become a repeater tax anymore from a financial and I get, I get there's a perception that you're trying to upgrade and then all of a sudden you're trading the guy and now you're, you're, you're below and there's a financial angle there.

I get it. But I thought if there wasn't anything that you could do as far as marginally around the edges, why don't you, why don't you move off that? You know, you're not going to be able to trade cash in the off season here. Why don't you move off one of those contracts? Maybe just perception. Look, they know LeBron has a player option, right? And they know he's made his wishes a pretty clear way to do. I honestly like you look at what was

out there. I'm not a big deal. Oh guy. The dude is making shots and he's taking like audacious shots like that dude will pull up on a three on one with LeBron and AD on the wings to be like, I'm just gonna shoot this three. And it's been going in. I think Murray's better than him. Just more north south force. The deal doesn't get to the rim. Better defensively. All faster. All that stuff that the Lakers need. But I don't think he's

like a first round pick better. Yeah. And I don't think any of these trades really meaningfully close the gap between the Lakers and the four best teams in the West is essentially a four way tie for first in the West right now. Couple of those teams could be beatable in a playoff series for the Lakers, but they would need to bring their A plus game every single game. Couple of those teams like, I don't think they could beat the Clippers or

the Nuggets in a playoff series. Almost under any circumstances. Maybe they'll prove me wrong. They proved a lot of people wrong last year. At some point you just got to accept this is what we are. Let's see if we can make a run. And by the way, they're starting Hot Chamber, which I've been lobbying for them to do all year. Finally, they're doing it. They're playing Reeves, Hot Chamber, LeBron and AD together with Delo and they're playing

their four best players. I do the four players that fit together in functional, important ways. I think they'll probably hit a nice stable patch. I don't really think it's a crisis that they didn't do anything. I don't know that there was really going to be a common ground with Atlanta. And on LeBron, look, I can't see here and be like, oh, yeah, I've

had, you know, I know what LeBron wants at a life. Everything I've heard for years, including today is if he has his brothers, he would like to finish his career with the Lakers. You know, there are pipe dream scenarios out there where like, well, Philly has all this cap space. Could he opt in and as for a trade to Philly? Like, I just don't, I haven't heard that those things are real. I think he wants to finish his career, a Laker. I think

he will probably opt in as Wendy said, he's really opting out of $51 million. And I think, you know, if you slow down and zoom out, winning that title in 2020, I think this whole thing feels different if they don't have that. He came to LA and he got a fourth ring. He got a ring for the Lakers. And if he's able to feel at peace with like, I might just be on a good team, not a great one. If I stay with the Lakers for the rest of my career, if

he's able to feel, and I don't know if he is, I think that title is why. And if you talk to people around him, that title really changes the perception of how maybe everyone feels about what this Lakers run is and could be going forward. But I don't, you know, I don't have any strong. I think the Lakers are fine to stamp out. I know they looked around. They looked everywhere. Yeah. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, they've

totally have turned over their roster. I mean, there's only four guys remaining from from last December here. And eventually you just kind of run out of things, right? Like, you know, the Vanderbilt injuries hurts, right? That's going to be like, if there's a, if there's something that's kind of hanging over, who knows when he comes back? That's, that hurts as far as, you know, big versatile, you know, big that we saw last year in the

playoffs here. And who knows when we, when you get, get back Gabe Vincent here. And it's like, you know what? We just put away what we have. We'll re, re, regroup in the off season here. And as you said, like there wasn't like, you know, besides really, there's not the murder. There wasn't like, there wasn't guys out there. Like there wasn't that many,

like, you know, I love it. It would have cost you. Yeah. Listen, if you want to go get Kyle Kuzma, I've tried, you know, it would probably cost you a good one and something else, and that's, you know, that's kind of where, you know, when, you know, Dallas, we'll talk about the Mavericks and that's trying to make a strong play for him. And they just, they didn't have enough, they had enough to get PJ Washington. They didn't have enough to

get Kyle Kuzma. And like, you could sit here and say, well, why didn't the Lakers go get like a Roy Sohniel who went to Phoenix for three second round picks to great deal for Phoenix, by the way. But and I like, people were kind of sh**ing on the David Roddy deal, which they, they did the thing that I joked about. They split up their swap again. They are like Voldemort. They have split their soul so many times. They split up another swap

and they got David Roddy. I think I kind of like David Roddy just kind of goes around and hits people. He doesn't make jump shots. He needs to make more jump shots. But Roy Sohniel will play for the sons and gives them another option to play Durand at center. Like, that's a good trade. I just like, Phoenix is in a position to make that trade and think this could actually elevate us into the finals conversation. Because when we've got these

three guys healthy, we've been pretty damn good. The Lakers are not in a position where they're like, oh, let's go splurge on Roy Sohniel. That's the missing piece. Passion drive and patience. What brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps you ride or die

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knowledge and experience to answer your toughest questions. Plus, their commitment to being your safety partner can help you keep your facility safe and your people safer. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. You have any thoughts on the hot? I mean, we, you guys talked about and we talked about last night over the phone privately, the, the Hawks, Pelicans talks. Those teams definitely talked about Dejante Marie going to New Orleans. I don't think those, according to my reporting,

I don't think those talks really got far. And if you start piecing together all the, like the Pelicans want, well, they wanted Dejante Marie to some degree and they want rim protection so you can put two and two together who would come from Atlanta, one of the bigs. It just starts to get unwieldy pretty fast in terms of how big the salaries are and who the players are. I think the nets took a look at Dejante Marie, but I don't, I don't, again, you can tell

me what you've heard. Everyone hears different things. I don't get the sense it. And that's where, like, super duper interested. And if they were, I think, like, what he'd be on one of these teams. Yeah. I mean, first with, first with New Orleans, certainly, they had their eyes on a Nekka Okongo. That, I mean, and what's happened with him? He's played really well. I mean, last, I think he started last two or three games here.

Yeah, with Capella out. I think he's now double doubling. I think it's last five games, like 17 and eight, 17 and nine somewhere around there. He's not even in year one of that rookie extension, which is a really good number. So why are you, why are you getting off that number? And then, then you look at New Orleans, you know, CJ McComb was not going to be part of the deal, right? We, we, we, we've, we've, all the information that we got, we flushed

that out. He was not part of the deal. So now who is, would, if you're New Orleans, I mean, if you're Atlanta, who's coming back? Was it Vouncunis? Probably because if you swapping center for center. And then what else? If CJ was not part of it, then it was just, to me, it was just never a thing. Yeah. Because obviously it's not going to be Ingram. It's not going to be Zionist. Like, what do we talk about? I mean, would you, I guess you could start up a drone, a million

picks in, and dice and Daniels and stuff like that. And I'm not trading those guys at Femme New Orleans. Those dudes are good, especially herbs on a great contract. I'm not trading him. Yeah. I mean, and that's like, I know, I was another one of these teams. Like, get them into playoff. See what they, see what their missing Zion was terrific last night. There's a Wednesday night against the clips. Man, he was awesome. Like, just kind of moving

guys around. So I think for Atlanta, it's just like, this is the danger of trade, trade in the regular season, because there's the emotional element too, right? Their games are going on. We're winning in a little bit. We played well. We beat Phoenix. We beat Golden State. We were competitive against the Clippers here. Maybe we do have a chance. Maybe we could be Miami of last year where we were the eight seed and we want to play in game.

And now we, we get a chance at what? I mean, good luck against Boston. And it's like, I'm, it's just like we've seen enough body of work with, with Nate McMillan. And now quince nighter here is that this team is kind of who they are, right? They are, you know, a below 500 team. And I've always thought, and I really said, publicly, I would honestly

look at moving trade, right? If you want to like a restart or kind of like, like, kind of like a, like kind of meet in the middle type thing, keep Murray, move, look to move trade, and then get as much as you can for him. Well, a wise man in the league on a team that's not involved in any of the stuff we've thought about always reminds me when you get all super deep into the trade deadline and start projecting teams futures and what's next? Remember that the playoffs reveal everything.

The playoffs tell you everything you need to know about a team. Teams find out things about themselves directions change because of the playoffs. The hawks are not going to make the top six. They should make the play in tournament boring and disaster as they have the last two

years or at least the last year. I think two years. Let's see how they play because even against Boston last year in the first round, when they look like they're going to get totally outclassed by the end of that series, they got pretty close to forcing that to go to the distance. And Trey, you know, I think the hawks had this idea of we're going to

surround Trey with long defenders and a rim protector and Capella. And we're going to mimic the warriors and cover for him defensively and let him sing on offense because that dude is an offense unto himself. An incredible passer and incredible shot maker. And when he's rolling like he got during that Boston series, like he got there in the 2021 playoffs, he can break your defense. Like it may not last a full seven game series. He may go a little

cold from three. He's only so, so when it's rolling, he can single handedly bust your defense. And what happened to the hawks is like none of those defensive things really worked. Like the Andre Hunter didn't become the defender they thought. Siddiquet Bay is not the defender they hoped you would be. Jalen Johnson, I think we'll get there. You know, I don't know, but my point is if they, if they in these next 30 games show you something, then that may

lead them one way. If they in these next 30 games just kind of muck around where they are and then get roasted in the play internament, then I think anything should be on the table and will be on the table for them. Let's talk about some other teams. But by what, I'm Royce O'Neill because we're not going to spend too much time on it. One reason I really like it for the sons is he's going to be typecast as a 3 and D guy and he is and

he's not as big as people think, Roes and O'Neill. He's six four. He's not like a power four. He's kind of masqueraded as one at times. But he is a live body. He likes to move around. He likes to do random stuff, set random screens, set random handoffs. He can attack off of closeout. He's had a lot of games this year for the nets where he looked at the box. He's like, wow, Royce O'Neill is like five assists, six assists. He's a mover of the

ball in himself. I think the sons need a little randomness injected into their offense now. I think he'll be good for that. Can I tell you my other thing too regarding that real quick is that they didn't have to use the Nassir little contract. Basically gobbled together four minimum guys to flip. I think you want to you don't want to Memphis, I believe, and I'm a two. You did. It's a homecoming and good win and base the up went to Brooklyn.

So you still have the little contract to use if you needed, I guess in the offseason here. I'll tell you the trade they got me most excited. I do. I actually fist pumped. I've been saying all year. I want them to do something and I said repeatedly, including to you on this podcast, my gut says they're going to do something. The Oklahoma City Thunder trading Britanns, Meachie and Shreyman who deserves a chance that he's going to get when

he was not going to get one in Oklahoma City. I think two seconds for Gordon Hayward, who from what I've heard is healthy and about ready to go ready to play. Look, you can sit here and laugh like he's never healthy. This and that. He's not the same explosive athlete he was and I've talked about how I think about that injury in his first game as a Celtic like every other day. All the sliding doors that slid open and closed because of that one

thing, maybe I love that they did something and I like to fit a lot. I've been saying all year. Everyone talks about the Thunder Lake Dake either do nothing or they have to make the gigantic trade where they trade everything for a star. There's such a big middle ground between that and this team is so good that they're like one decent player away from being a real threat to make the finals. If that, well, here is this guy, Gordon Hayward, and

you've seen teams aren't going to guard Josh Gidey. Teams are really going to make Lou Dort prove it from three and off the dribble. Gordon Hayward, as far as he's fallen outside the discourse, outside the spotlight, he's a 15, 5 and 5 guy who moves the ball. He's essentially a four now. He's big and he can play the four. He's a 40% plus spot up three

point shooter. He's a good passer. He knows where to be. He's on selfish. I think he'll plug and play right into this team and they needed a guy who could come off the bench, but also be good enough to close games for them and have the skill set that just the shooting playmaking skill set that they've really thrived on. I think he fits like a glove. I think this is an awesome trade and everyone wanted them to get size and I get it. I get it. Chets

skinny. They're a bad rebounding team. I get it. I think and people throw out Capella and other rim runner types. I think people underestimate the mileage they've gotten out of playing five out of what that does for Shay's driving lanes of what that allows them to do playing Gidey and Dort who are not the most threatening perimeter players

load Dort and shot it well this year. If you introduce a rim runner and say you're now playing 25 minutes of game, that's a sea change to your offense with 30 games left in the season. I think this trade threads the needle and I think Minnesota on a smaller scale checked a lot of boxes with Matt DeMores. But of the teams at the top of the west, most of them were pretty quiet. The Clippers did their job early in the season with Hardin.

I think this is a great move for the Thunder. What am I missing? No, you're not missing anything. I mean, it's a low risk high reward trade and there was actually a point during when it came out that Hayward has his trade bonus and his deal and started to complicate a little bit of things as far as how to make the money work. They were short and as far as that got resolved. You look at it, Oklahoma City didn't have to touch any of their court. They're top, probably

a top 11, right? I mean, man Bertons, those guys hadn't been playing. They had 21 seconds. I mean, so you're using two of those there. If Hayward's healthy, it's a high, high reward type deal. Now, here's the other thing too. Financially, there's a window now. There's a little bit of a window this offseason coming up before you've got to pay check and you've got to pay jailing Williams and then eventually shea down the road here. So they, they're going to be looking at,

35, 40 million to hustle room. They're a significant room team here. And I'm not saying they're going to go out and get Paul George, for example, here. But they have the flexibility to keep on out of order. Maybe they want to, they want Gordon plays really well and he's healthy and you want to sign them to a one year, 20 million dollar deal. So you have the ton of flexibility, but on the court, I thought I thought it was no brainer. They were, you know, they were one of my, you know,

they were one of my winners. I liked what they did. I like Charlotte. I liked Dallas. You know, those, you know, certainly besides New York and Philly. But I liked what, but Oklahoma City was able to do. Um, I think it's a great move. And, and this, this roster, these players earned the right to have a real shot in the playoffs to make noise. And I do think they were one guy away from like, okay, now you're not, they, they, they're important. Maybe even, I mean, the stats say

they're not one guy away. I just like beefing up the rotation. I like the skill set that's been added. Shay right and his prime deserves a front office to not go all in, but step in a little bit and not be so precious with its picks. And it did that without getting a player that fits without coughing up anything of meaning in terms of draft equity, uh, home run, thunder or scary. Before we get to Dallas who had maybe the most interesting trade deadline, let's do a couple of

quick hitters. What are the bulls doing? Oh, do the bulls know that the trade deadline was happening? Yeah. Were they like, what is all this stuff going on on Twitter? Do you know that? What is this? You know, it's amazing. You know, when I was writing their offseason guy, I mean, they're not off to the ball. That's going to happen soon. They're all season guy when I'm writing their, you know, their trade guide. You know, the last trade in season trade they made was or last trade they made

that didn't have like drop by in a pick was marketing. Back in 2000 was at 21. What did they get for him? They traded. They got Derek Jones Jr. and they got the Portland. They get the portal. They were part of that three team deal. He went to they did not get very much for a lot of marketing. Let's put it that way. So and the RAS regular season trade was the infamous Orlando trade in in 2021. So they have not been active during the regular season, but like,

it's my like here it is again. Like you have a great win against Minnesota and on our Torres Cornish Service came out and said, yeah, we like I like how we're playing. We're playing good basketball right now, but you're still, you know, three or four games under 500. It's like kind of like pick a direction, right? Like pick a direction. And I know lots of hats happen. You had the, you know, Lonzo out the lean out. You know, we Kurosos on a great contract. What happens?

Maybe the, you know, the rose is going to be a free agent, but the, you know, the value wasn't team weren't willing to give you a ton for them. And I think what Chicago was looking at, and when you talk to teams, Chicago was trying to emulate what Toronto did when they moved off Anonobi. I've heard the same and I heard you say that. And it just, it's not, it's, you know, hard that was to pull off there. That's like one that's like one and a hundred type deals there.

Alex Kuroso is how old I would have to look at him. He's not, he's not OG Anonobi in terms of, in terms of his skill set and stature. And he doesn't even have the salary really to bring back a massive Liam, like a really two really good players like RJ Barrett and Emmanuel quickly. Demar de Rosen certainly is he's 30 almost 35 years old. Like you're just, those player Alex Kurosos is a good player. He is not going to get you the same return value

in terms of present day players from, from, forget picks like picks they could have gotten. They could have gotten two first round picks for Alex Kuroso. I'm pretty sure. Um, in terms of like if you want present day talent, if that's what you want, he's just not going to bring back the same level of that for many reasons. And Demar de Rosen isn't either. And I just can't believe that we've arrived here with Demar de Rosen who's going to hit free agency presumably and just like I don't, what are

the, I just don't get it. I don't get it. No, I, I, I totally get it. And you know, I mean, you're weren't going to, you weren't going to get the hall back for, for the Rosen and especially a guy on, um, not an expiring contract here. But here they are. I mean, they're kind of, you know, a little bit of it, I guess a little bit of a different situation than Atlanta. Landon, Landon at least has their guys under contract here. So at least you can, you can flip, you know,

some of your guys here. I heard, you know, you know, that they were active trying to move off that Lonzo ball contract. Um, you know, who had it? Uh, he's got a player option for next year. And who knows if he's going to put that would have cost attaching something that you only had really the Portland pick here in a future first down, down, down the road here. Um, so yeah, I, I thought

Chicago would have been a lot more active here. But the trend is, um, you know, with Arturus in the front office, they're not a team that moves around a lot outside of that 2021 year when, um, you know, they made a bunch of trades there. Well, Karusso to answer my own question is turning 30 at the end of the month. Um, and that, that New York Toronto deal and it'll be for Barrett and quickly plus some other stuff. That was a very unusual deal. It was very rare to see players,

good, three good players, 26 and under exchange like that between two team. One team, it was not a traditional buyer seller kind of deal. It didn't look that way. Um, it's a hard deal to emulate and it's just, it's not emulatable with these bulls players. And the Rosen, I look, maybe they'll, maybe they'll thread the needle like, but they're in a position right now

where they can lose them for nothing. Yeah. Or they could re-sign them to a contract like they did with Vouch that at, at its best is going to be and at its worst is going to just be something that you're stuck with. Maybe they find a third way and sign and trade them or do something creative,

but that's where they are here. And I just don't, they're fans are furious and like, I don't really, I just, I don't get, I just don't get how you can, I just don't get how you can look at Alex Cruisal's contract, his age and his, and his, and the state of your team and turn up your nose at multiple first round picks potentially for Alex Cruisal. If, if indeed, that was on the team.

Yeah, it's funny. We did a, we did a, a woj YouTube show earlier on Thursday after the, uh, after the show on the regular show on ESPN Cassidy was hosting it and I, Cassidy was like spit and fire man. She was so like, what do we do? She's a big bulls fan. She's like, what are we doing here, man? Like, what is going on?

Even Benny, the, even Benny, the bull looks a little, his, his little popcorn or a cheese that he has in the stands, they don't have the same, they don't have the same euphoric hedonism to them these days. Uh, okay. Um, what do you think of Pat Beverly to the bucks? Yeah. I mean, so you look at it like two different ways, right? Why would Phil,

Altia move it? And I think a big reason why is I think they've got Kyle Ari lined up as far as it, if he's bought out of his contract in, um, in Charlotte as far as to replace him. And why, why would it make sense to have Pat Bev and Kyle together here? I like it from Mulhockey, man. And I know it's not like, you know, Pat Bev from, like,

there's like, you need a little bit of a spit fighter. You need a little bit of a, you know, a little bit of an edge, a little bit of a raw rock guy on a team that's, you know, trying to find its, find its way. Um, so I, I like it for, um, you know, listen, Mulhockey was really limited as far as what they could do. They had a, um, they had two seconds that were available. Um, one was a Portland one that they still have. They had a, I think the one they traded was in,

like, two, they're own in 2027. Um, you know, they weren't, you know, they weren't, they weren't moving Bobby Portis for Grant Williams, right? Like that was not happening. And they looked around, they, all the reporting on them trying to get in on Finney Smith. I think it was accurate. They were searching around to try to get a first. Well, they tried getting in, they tried getting in on Desjardins Murray. We, I, we, I kept on

here in their name. You know, you talked to a lot of teams. You kept on in your thing, like, how, like, how are you gonna, you know, unless you're gonna do, I don't know, more, more swaps and other things and try to do what Phoenix did and swap a swap and, and go in that direction here. But I mean, you're really only looking at Portis and Conantin and, you know, maybe some of those young players there. And I look, if you had a wing or a guard who's good at defense and is not a star,

I think they probably called you about that. Like I heard they call Cleveland about Isaac Acoro and didn't get anywhere. Like they tried. I think Pepe's fine. Pepe's good. Uh, he's not going to start. I would imagine. Um, and so I, I just don't know how many minutes he's gonna play. You know, help on the bench. He'll help their defensive identity. Are they gonna close games with Dame Beverly, Middleton, Yannis and Lopez? Are he's gonna close over Malik Beasley if they have a lead

and they need defense? Maybe, like, maybe he's a capable offensive player to like, I think, I think for what they had, it's a fine deal. It does not really change my opinion of, of the bucks and in the aggregate. No, no, I, I, I mean, I totally, totally agree with you. And I know they're, I think one in one in four here, I, they've played better defensively here. I, I think they will eventually figure it out. I mean, they're gonna be judged what happens in April, April and May.

They'll be judged. Clippers, Clippers talked to all the fit people you think they talked to, including the nets about the net's wings, you know, Roy so Neil was one of them. I think they did, they just, they circled the wagons for trying to get one more guy. But the, the obstacle from what I heard, the obstacles they ran into are number one, PJ Tucker's $11 million dollar player option for next season, which is obviously gonna pick up was not an attractive thing. And number two,

they have one first round pick left to trade. They're gonna be in the second apron next year. So they're 2032 first round pick, which is not tradably yet. We'll get frozen. Yeah. So if they had traded this pick, they would essentially have been out of trade equity in perpetuity. Yeah. And they were gonna be very cautious about doing that. List was for an impact guy. Honestly, I don't really think they need to do anything. I think they're loaded. I think they're fine. I had

some people say, oh, they should really get daring and look what they can get for man or Zubat. No, the way they're playing, I'm not messing with it. No, I'm, I mean, listen, you're in a, you're in a top two, top three of the Western Conference. You made your big trade. The hardened trade was your big trade and they had and, you know, basically a longer runaway than most teams because they've had them since November here. I didn't, you know, you mentioned the first, you know, you certainly

heard bones highland as a guy marginal trade there is maybe moving off open up a roster spot. Maybe they tried, they tried to get some seconds for him. Yeah. So, um, so I was not surprised, um, you know, especially as you said, PJ with the second year, likely picked, he's gonna pick that up. Um, hard to find takers, um, for that contract. It's a little one, but I, I really liked, uh, I like Boston getting Xavier Tillman for two second round picks. I think that really like,

he's a Xavier Tillman is on my, you're just happy. They're around guys like, oh, you don't play for two weeks. You come in. It's like, oh my god, Xavier Tillman had 15 and eight and played alongside a traditional center and then played center himself and then he, when we asked him to switch, he was like pretty good at switching. We asked him to drop. He was all right at that. Made a little jump hook, made a corner three. I know he's shooting like 22% just let me have it.

Like Xavier Tillman, little versatility, no harm. No foul. I like that one. I like James Springer too. I mean, like, listen, you gave up a, um, uh, a second for him and what, what's gonna happen is is that it's almost like they stole a little bit of the playbook of what Denver did at the draft, this year. They knew their salaries are gonna be high. They went out and got a bunch of seconds. They, you know, they've got a first here. They need these young players on these like,

controllable contracts here. And for a player that's got, um, I think another year after he's got this year in the next year, um, two, three guy can maybe go, you know, he can guard, um, you know, some just bench protection as far as, you know, you know, with, uh, with some of your depth there. Trying to think if there's any other ones that want to hit. Philly got, we talked about Dallas. We're gonna get to Philly. Philly, we talked about heel. They called about

Brockton. I don't think they got anywhere with Brockton. I don't think they got anywhere, but I thought to Rosen, maybe for them, I went on, we went on TV and did it the more. I did it. The Rosen, Andre Drummond package to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, to, uh, Andre Drummond still on the bulls. Well, that's, that's the, that's the, like, listen, your draft equity is like, I think Chicago has one or two seconds available in the kitty.

Like, like, like, you know, flip the guy for you. You could probably get two twos for him. But man, you watched him the other night. They're going to win towers to finish games. You know, him and Vouch. It's old school. It worked, it kind of worked in that one game. It was against Minnesota. So that I think they've, they went size for size in that one and counted on the wolves to crap the bed in the fourth quarter and over time, which they did. Um, uh,

uh, Braggden, Philly, whatever. Okay. Um, Monty Morris, we talked about, like, Toronto, Toronto Utah, do anything. I'm going to say, I'm going to say, Toronto Utah for Kevin Pelton is going to come out. Sorry. Yeah. Um, okay. Dallas is, wins my award from maybe the most interesting team of the trade deadline. Um, two major transactions, uh, although I guess there were, it's a sub transaction in between. We'll, we'll go through them. First, um, they traded Roshan Homes who has, uh,

what, a $12 million player option for next season. Yes. Uh, and, uh, a 2024 first round pick. Yes. To the Wizards for Daniel Gafford, who will presumably be Derek Lively's backup. First round pick for a backup. They went to the bank of Presti. That's right. Yeah. So that 2024 first round pick, they acquired by trading the thunder pick swap rights with, with them Dallas in 2028. Then in a separate transaction, they traded grant

Williams. The grant Williams era in Dallas. We will always, what was your favorite memory from the grant Williams era in Dallas? Oh, goodness. Was it when Luca was like a week into the season, being like, he really talks a lot. I mean, I, I had to look back as far as what my favorite was. Oh, the one where his face got like stepped on, right? Was that one? Or was that last year in Boston? I'm going to be in Boston last year. Anyway, the Mab's trade grant Williams, a top two protected

first round pick in 2027, which was the only pick they had to trade. And I believe it has to roll over immediately. And to the Charlotte Hornets for PJ Washington, who I'm guessing will step in and start immediately for the Mab's. And I've been singing PJ Washington's praises as someone I would try to steal from the thunder. I would not qualify. This is a steal or a heist. So I think you put four starters in pen when they're healthy. Kairi, Luca, PJ Washington,

and lively. The fifth guy could be Josh Green, who's playing well. It could be Exum, who had been playing well, but it's hurt. It could be Derek Jones Jr., who's been serviceable for them. Then on the bench, you have one of Kairi and Luca on the floor at all times. Hardaway, Gafford is your backup five. And then you again, the same jumble of guys for Seth Curry also got

traded in the state. I forgot about him. Sorry, Seth. That's a good team. I have seen people, including very smart people like David Thorpe proclaim the Mavericks, the winners of the 2024 trade deadline. What do you think? Yeah, listen, there's two ways to look at it. Like it's, it's the, you had, so you enter today with, as you said, your 2027 first and two seconds. That's your draft equity, okay? And you were able to turn at around and get that first from O.K.C. in 24 and get

it. Here's my analogy. I look at them with Dallas. They went, basically went out and got two middle relievers. Guys that can come in to semi thinning guys. Dennis Cook and Turkwendell. That is right. Those guys win games, man. Like they're not the high level. They'll come in and strike out. You know, they need a lefty lefty. All right. How to throw the rosin bag, baby.

That's how I look at is guys that are not high profile, but just kind of fit as far as what they're doing as far as, you know, gaffered behind lively, certainly with PJ as far as starting or, maybe haven't come off the bench. He's can play multiple positions here. And, you know, Jason kid said this, and I've listened. I've worked with with Jason. He was a player. He was a coach. And Jason, I'm sure was on the front offices behinds with upgrade. Like, hey, we need this guy.

We need this guy here. And he, Jason, but is out in front. And he says, you know, when you have Luca, you got to do everything possible to continue to put town around him. So there was, there was, I think a pressure there. And we know Woj's talked about it that they went after Kuzma. There's no secret about that. Just didn't think they had enough with Kyle here who's got one of the great, you know, he's got a really good contract that descends. And there's value,

maybe to flip him if you're the wizards in the offseason here. But I like what they did. Um, the draft picks are the draft picks. Um, you could, you know, listen, you could say, like, wait a minute, like, you forgot to mention that they also, oh, a swap in 30 with San Antonio. That was part of the sign in trade to get Grant Williams here. Um, and I get the draft part of it here. But I thought from just on the court, they did a nice job. Yeah, I think this is a very good

team. Uh, I, I realized there were only 28 and 23 given the injuries they've had. And, and I said this earlier this week with Tim McMahon, at least at that point, I still think now they're one of only three teams in the NBA to not have any lineup, not one, play more than 100 minutes together for the season. They've just been a mash unit. All you're including Kyrie is missed, almost half the season and been outstanding when he's played, including boy, did he light up the brock?

Oh, I think this is a good team. I think they're better on the court right now than they were before the straight deadline. I love the idea of having a rim runner, dunker, and Gafford is one of the nastiest dunker. He dunks like he wants to embarrass people. I really like, I like guys like that. I want to, I'm dunking like I'm angry at the rim and I want to embarrass who's ever around me. I love the idea of 48 minutes of rim runners with Luca and Kyrie, particularly with Luca. It's just

awesome. Don't love the idea of a first round pick for a backup who can't play with my starter, but my starter is young. He's a rookie. He's playing like 20, 25 minutes a game, even when he's healthy. Don't mind it. Uh, don't love it. Don't mind it. The PJ Washington one. Here's, here's my, again, they're better. It just feels like they're always chasing their tails a little bit and you look at what they've traded 20, 20, 28 pick swap, 20, 30 pick swap with San Antonio. As you mentioned,

to get Grant Williams. So essentially they traded a 20, 30 pick swap and a top two protected first round pick for PJ Washington. They're already out the 2024 pick for Przengus. Yep. Uh, still. Yeah, that's going to, that's top 10 pertats going to likely, highly likely convey. And they traded another first round pick and Dorian Finne Smith and Spencer didn't wait for Kyrie Irving to correct the mistake of letting Jail and Brunson walk in free agency. It just feels like they have paid

the piper pretty heavily to correct mistakes of omission and coal mission. And if you just add it, it looks good on paper. And again, this team is really good in just terms of cold asset management. It's a lot out the door. Like that's a lot out the door for the combination of Grant Williams and then all of this didn't work. PJ Washington credit to them for realizing it

wasn't working. I like the Gafford archetype for them. It's just, they've kind of been all over the place and given up a lot and and it's like two steps forward a step and a half back two steps forward a step and a half back. It can always net out well because the top guy is that good and is a terror in the playoffs. I just, I'm not as exuberant about their trade deadline. Is everybody else's? Yeah, that's all. I mean, listen, outside of Luka,

what there hasn't been any stability, right? Like they're, and I give them credit as far as trying to continually finding the right pieces here, but you can go all the way back from when, when they traded poor zingas for for for for for dinwitty and that in the trade with the wizards here, I think two or three, three years ago, maybe. And then you look at what they were able to do. Like so they're continue. So it's like, okay, what happens if this doesn't work now?

Is PJ going to be the guy next guy next trade deadline we're talking? Is he going to be the guy flipped here? And that, you know, that that's the challenge here as far as when you have, you know, we'll have Luka, I had concerns with Dallas when you look at the standings and there have been some nights where, you know, when kite with kaiwi back and certainly the get you to two good wins, well, you mean two wins over Philly and in Brooklyn. They were sitting in seven and what how you get

maybe the Lakers into playing. Maybe you lose, then you get the maybe Utah, maybe you get maybe you're getting gold state and then you're like basically staring basically at the lottery again. So I understand that there. And I think it'll be interesting how these guys, you know, Lylees got a lot, listen, if Derrick, if Daniel Gaffer's playing more than Derrick Lively, that's a problem, right? But Lylees has been in and out because he's been injured. But I on all,

I like it for like, I like it for Dallas. Well Gaffer is a good player on a good contract that has two more years left on it after this one. So a year longer than Holmes. He's a solid rim protector. He's a, he's a okay rebounder and a good, he's a good defensive player. He fits well with what they want to do. PJ Washington is going to have to bring it on defense. Yeah. We can sit here and,

you know, clip all about what Grand Williams does it doesn't do. He didn't make enough shots. This and that he's still a good defense player, not a stopper, not quite the stopper Dallas need him to be, but a better defense player than PJ Washington. And we all know this team's going to be incredible on offense when they're healthy. They need to be competent on defense. And I get, they're probably better defensively because of Gaffer, um, filling those backup five minutes. I'm just going to see

what happens to Kaleba and Dwight Powell, the who just is unkillable. He's still on the maps. Um, it'll be interesting to see what happens to those guys. But PJ Washington is going to have to bring it defensively. I think Josh Green has been solid and that's, that's meaningful. This is a good team. Yeah. It's a good team. It's got to be something more than that pretty damn soon. I think to justify all the, all the sort of asset, whatever that has happened to build this team.

And as you mentioned, you mentioned Kuzma. I don't like, I don't know what the, I guess they just couldn't meet Washington. They got pretty far. And I think concluded like we just can't meet Washington's price. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's probably, um, you know, certainly a walkaway number. And as you said, they just couldn't, they couldn't get to where, um, you know, what the Wizards were looking for. Striking to the ties, Jones didn't get traded. You know,

once money moors goes to Minnesota, that eliminates them. I think, you know, there were teams like Orlando that were kind of sniffing around about him. But I think you look at it from, from the, Orlando, you know, from the magic's perspective, um, you know, can we just reassign him? Can we sign them as a free agent with room? We could be potentially a room team. But that's another team that, you know, that didn't, you know, that could have maybe added some shooting, perhaps, um,

that didn't do anything. It's a team that needs guards. Yeah. I agreed with you that that was likely their calculation with ties, Jones. Like, why am I going to expend an asset? Yeah. When I can, when I, they've got how much cap room, I don't know a lot. Yeah. This coming summer. That's a team. They got, they got a, they should be watching a lot of Hawks games in the next two months, because if I were them, I would have attempted to go after

Dijon Tei Murray. Yeah. And I remember this, they were hot on Treyong and the draft. I remember in that draft, I would, I believe they took Bomba in that draft. Um, there was talk about them trying to move up to get Treyong. And look, I understand like they, they, they are winning right now and they have a team built around these two forwards who have the ball a lot. Introducing Treyong into that is, is totally turning your organization upside down. And I'm not saying anyone

is to be clear. I'm not saying anybody considered this on either side of it. I'm just considering it right now, because depending on this, this team still stinks on offense. Still, and it's just an idea that if I were them and I got to the off season, depending on how the rest of the season unfolds, I got to start looking at guards like this team's ready to do some stuff and we just don't have the back court play and the shooting to really do enough of it. And that's just one

direction that I could see them potentially looking. I don't know though. No, I forgot to mention them. They didn't, they didn't do it. No, I mean, listen, they're going to be, you know, I think for them, it's almost like, all right, let's see where we are in April. If we're in the plan or if we get the crack, the top six probably in the plan here and then figure out what we need, you know,

they're almost like where I guess we're Oklahoma City was a year ago. I want to say probably maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit more advanced, you know, with, you know, with, certainly with Franz and with Paulo there. But yeah, I mean, they'll, they've, I mean, listen, they got all their picks. They got a Denver first and 25. They got a ton of seconds here. They've got a bunch of guys on, you know, team option, expiring non guaranteed type deals also. I like to take a window card in

junior and not that dead wherever not going to. All right, Bobby, you need what is what is on their docket for the rest of the night? You know, at Zach, I've eaten in the ESPN cafe. Probably I've exhausted my options in there, eating turkey burgers and chicken sandwiches and all that fun stuff that would, I would never eat at home, right? I do not see myself eating at the ESPN

cafe tonight. I'm going to find somewhere by myself tucked away in a corner at some restaurant and eat a nice bowl pasta and just stare at the wall just stare at the wall thinking about Naji Marshall didn't get traded. Now just starting mumbling Naji Mark, why is that guy over there mumbling Naji between bites of pasta? All right, Bobby marks it's time to call Kevin Pelton in from the bullpen. You got to go eat your pasta. Thank you as always for what has become an annual

tradition of a groggy Bristol five Bobby marks and I doing a podcast about the trade deadline. Thank you sir. Exactly. The low post is brought to you by progressive insurance whether you love true crime or comedy celebrity interviews or news you call the shots on what's in your podcast Q and guess what now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name your price tool from progressive it works just the way it sounds you tell progressive how much you want to pay

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that's code low on the price picks app for a first deposit match up to $100 price picks pick more pick less it's that easy all right we should probably play enter sandman here because coming out of the bullpen ready to close it you can get nine outs if necessary I just probably a bad reference

for a mariners fan I'm sorry Kevin pelton how are you yeah the especially the 90s era bullpen beds were we're not a strength for the mariners you were not excited when that music started what year was it that you the mariners won like a million games and then predictably lost to

the Yankees and the playoffs to much to my chagrin it was 2001 when they tied the all-time record with 116 wins before losing to the Yankees although admittedly that was after the peak of my Mariners fandom in the late 90s Griffey Griffey was Griffey was the apex for sure oh has there ever

been a more fun baseball player until Julio Rodriguez I don't I don't know and I don't know who that person is that you just said their name okay Bobby and I talked about tons of stuff I want to talk to you about a trade that I think is a series of trades that I think is going to go

under the radar a little bit Raptors jazz made a very interesting and somewhat unexpected to me trade where the Raptors acquired Kelly Olinik and Ochaia Baji for salary filler of auto-porter and Kyra Lewis and a 2024 first round pick that's going to be the lesser of a lot of pick so there'll

be a low first round pick and I saw an initial reaction was like what is what is Toronto doing they're trading a first round pick for an expiring contract in Kelly Olinik and kind of a project wing who's 23 already in Aagbaji a little surprised that Utah traded three of its 10 rotation players

if you include Fontecchio to Detroit who did who did take it from the Raptors perspective what did you think of this trade yeah I mean it's an interesting one I mean I had the same reaction in terms of Olinik being part of this deal like the first question is is he going to go

somewhere else they're going to get value for him somehow and a separate deal here but you know it seems like based on the reporting that they just really liked Olinik and in case they decide to keep Prusgrat and Junior on his 22 million dollar team option and stay over the cap this is a case

of pre-agency where you're getting the players bird rights in order to be able to reassign them it wasn't where I was expecting Olinik to go I I don't even know if I was even expecting him to get traded by the jazz you know given that they're very much in the thick of the play in conversation

and it's an interesting set of moves that we'll talk about from there Stan point but yeah I mean I think it's a late first in a draft that no one is all that excited about you're getting a guy who was a higher first round pick a year ago in a Baji I think a lot of his value has diminished

this season you know isn't shot the ball particularly well I've never been huge on a Baji he didn't come out super well in my draft projections so I'm not terribly surprised but like a year he doesn't he doesn't really dribble which which is a which is a thing that matters um you better shoot and

play defense at like a to a plus levels if that's going to be the case and you didn't look he's young he hasn't done either of those things but I think it's worth I think that's worth a shot I anyway continue I'm sorry yeah I mean like if you would have a year ago said hey you're trading

a late first round pick for Occiabaji on his own I think people would have seen that is a pretty reasonable deal given that a Baji played pretty well the back half of his rookie season after you know he got more of an opportunity when Utah sold off at last year's deadline this year his value is not quite as high but still a first round picking a late draft to get that plus a Linux bird rights I mean I understand it I don't I don't think it's a move I necessarily would have made but it's not

unreasonable I think I actually like it better for Toronto than I do for Utah and that's not to say I don't I don't like it for Utah because I said three days ago if they get offered a bad first the late first for Kelly the Linux I think they have to do that and they did that they just threw a

Baji in two so they they paid a little bit more than I thought for the same equivalent pick I think Ocbaji is fine to take a look at the Raptors already have what three picks in this coming draft so I think they were like we don't need all these picks and I think Olinik is just is good and having

a shooting big man and a playmaking big man is just a handy thing to have around for a young team that needs both of those things frankly and I think he can play with portal too I mean he's shown in Utah he can kind of be a little malleable positionally I kind of and I don't think like a

lot of these centers like Yees expiring I don't think like there's going to be a huge like bidding war for Kelly Olinik I think if the Raptors want to resign him and operate as an over the cap team like keeping Bruce Brown whatever like I don't think they're going to end up like paying

him an amount that is going to hamstring them I kind of like it Utah's perspective it's an interesting trade deadline for you so let's like take their two deals in tandem out go fun some one Fontequeo Kelly Olinik and Ocbaji Fontequeo is a starter and like the only

wing true wing almost on the whole team I guess Ocbaji is but he's the tenth guy and sometimes he's minutes get squeezed those are three of the ten guys that are playing for them in come the 2024 first that we talked about which is a who is it Oklahoma it's it's

it's Oklahoma City or the Clippers right so it's going to be a bad first so I believe it is the the now I've lost track of which one it is I think it's the worst of all of these or it's the second yeah it's the worst of all of these because Indiana had that then went to Toronto

in the Siacham deal and now coming here it's very confusing because now the second worst of those got traded and ended up in Dallas anyway so Fontequeo Olinik I'd Baji out in this 25 plus first round pick the Wizards second round pick which would be a good pick this this Procedah prospect

who people seem to like who's in Europe and I maybe mispronounce his name because I've never seen him play and obviously they've opened up minutes for Taylor Hendrix will be interesting they were never interested in Bruce Brown that was not that was never a thing so three rotation players out

a first round pick a second round pick and a prospect in what do we think of that in in total both for this season's team because I I think that Utah should want to make the play in and I think their moves as a whole are a boon for golden state and Houston and the Lakers because I think Utah

is demonstrably worse on the floor which makes me a little sad because I want them to go for it so what do you think of their team now and going forward yeah I think they're considerably worse I mean it's not probably as big a drop off his last year when you know they traded Mike Conley and

it didn't really have anything at point guard and also just kind of sad all their guys down the stretch and it'll be interesting also in the context of the you know the other pick involved in this Oklahoma city for first round picks this year that have been traded all over the place is Utah

as top 10 protected something we talked about back in the preseason we were talking to the jazz over under and how that would motivate them and for a long period of time it seemed like okay it's not even going to be a concern they're not going to be all that close to that now all of the sudden

there's a chance I think they drop down into that that bottom 10 in the league and and have a chance to keep it this year now whether you know there's a lot of talk about do they want to get that obligation over with especially in a draft that everyone considers so weak and not have to

worry about in 2025 but these moves seem to indicate you're probably going down into that bottom 10 the rest of this year they got to start losing pretty fast that bottom 10 is is robust but they they can do it I mean they showed last year that they can do it it's totally doable

we'll see how the east shakes out from eight to eight to 12 let's see I don't any other thoughts on the raptors well from the jazz I think the other thing I'd say is one of the strategies I thought they might take is kind of a mixed strategy you know so much of this focuses on well which

teams are going to add which teams are going to subtract and like it doesn't always have to be one of the other Toronto now is an example of that they're a team that has subtracted with Pascal Siacum and and OG Aninobi and then added well anyway one of the the first round picked a

traded in the steel is one of the three they received from Indiana in the Siacum deal so you can kind of wrap all those together correct they've also got the protected pick issue where they do not seem to be worrying about the top six protection on the pick that they have sent to San Antonio

so they then would probably end up with only one first round pick from Indiana in this year's draft if they lose their own and and after training this one but you know I thought that maybe it be a case where like if we get a lot of value for a linux or we get a lot of value for Jordan

Clarkson let's make those moves but maybe we backfill them and pick up someone younger so many Fidtuck you actually was that kind of someone younger on that timeline and essentially he was the guy they traded to the trade so you know I think I wrote about this last year when the jazz

made the Westbrook trade and gave up on Conley and gave up on that play and Chase Sam Hinky was famously the guy with the longest room and the view in the room Danny Ange despite not being considered Hinkyish as a GM or you know it is executive CEO of basketball operations or whatever

his title is now he is operated with a really long view throughout this time in Utah and I think these trades are consistent with that where you know the fact that the the chance to make the play in this year is not that important even the ability to resign flantecchio is restricted for age

and not that important to them and it's all about we're just going to keep trying to create value wherever we can't and you know I actually as much as I want them to make the play and I think they're worse it's hard to argue with the value plays like flantecchio is fine if you didn't

think you were going to resign him to get the wizard's second round pick for him is great is great value I think if you've concluded agbaji just isn't going to happen and you've got Kiyanti George and you like sexton and you like Clarkson maybe they're just aren't going to be minutes for him

and it's a sunk cost and you go with it it's really comes down to olinic and they did get a first and so like they they got more stuff to trade more stuff to do just this season I'm even curious like how they fill these minutes particularly the flantecchio minutes because if you're going to

play market and now at the three more that he's going to have to play with Kessler and Collins some and like that that may screw up your spacing a little bit I'm just interested to see how they fill this all maybe Hendrix is the solutions to this to some of that problem and I've liked

what I've seen from him you it I actually think that both teams did fine from a value perspective it struck me a strange both both ways first but I kind of like it for both yeah I think it's just unexpected more than it is necessarily bad for for either of these teams perspectives uh yeah I mean

Hendrix I think hypothetically is a bit of a solution to that if the idea is that you know Kessler and Collins can't play together because they're both rim runners Hendrix is notionally a stretch for does provide you a little something different I like it let's see it um what did you think of

the warriors uh doing nothing other than trading Cory Joseph I was okay with it I mean I I just you know a few weeks ago had begun to feel like I don't know if Steph Curry is still playing at the level where we should be sacrificing a lot in pursuit of this season uh you know it is woj is

explained recently it seems like they're thinking is look the most important thing that we can do to get back to that playing at a high level is to get Andrew Wiggins and Clay Thompson to where they were in the 2021 title run and you know I think there's a better chance of that with Wiggins

given his age than there is with with Clay but you know I think that's realistic and then the other thing is you know Kamehenga playing so well you don't want to part with him I I'm still very high in Moses Moody although he's had a tough time carving out playing time uh just because of the

fact that Brandon Pajewski has jumped him in the pecking order of young prospects with the warriors but I I wouldn't have given up any of those young prospects I wouldn't have wanted to give away draft picks in pursuit of this season you would have to be something that really made me clearly

better this season and next season to do that I mean the Chris Paul question is the one that's still hanging out there in terms of what they do with that why didn't they what they do with that salary I mean I think these presumption is the reason they didn't trade him is because they're going

to cut their payroll next year by by taking advantage of that non-garentianist contract but you know we still they still got several months to figure that out this was always the obvious not problem but just reality baked into the two timeline thing is even if some of

these guys hit and Kamehenga's hit hitting Pajemsi's good obviously the wiseman thing was a miss a very costly one you know we'll see on moody even if they hit they might hit on such a timeline that it's too late for Steph Curry and even if that hit is starting to happen now it's only starting

to happen and it's happening while Clay Thompson declines and Andrew Wiggins is doing whatever and all together it makes you just sort of go back and think about the hypothetical of like what could they have gotten had they just traded the number two pick in the draft before it became James

wise and what could they have gotten for these people they didn't do that and I think I think their team is kind of coming together in an interesting way with the Dremond at the five starting lineup and Kamehenga Dremond and Wiggins are playing well together Pajemsi's just legit good

is Kamehenga the second best player on the team over the last month without question yeah that came that came fast and it just might be like so they're in the process of reshaping it um it just it just may be too late and that's okay for now like I didn't really have a

I it and the flip side is I think there are some teams around the league who had chances to acquire John think cominga in trades particularly like last year I think Toronto could have gotten cominga in like if you know and an obi was in place y'all come was in play and they didn't make you know they

studied Kamehenga extensively and he was in the same draft in the same range as Scotty Barnes so they know and and I but they're not alone I think a lot of teams could have tried to get Kamehenga and now it's too late he's he's just legit good what did you think of um what do you what do you

make of the report it's interesting you know a name that was talked about a lot and ultimately didn't get traded and I didn't expect them to was jailing green and there were also reports that the nets are the rockets offered the nets the ability to get all their picks and all their swaps back

from the hardened deal in exchange for mccale bridges I'm not sure where jailing green fit into that um what did you make of all that noise and the nets just saying yeah we're good it's a fascinating scenario because I do think teams especially value those that ability to get their own picks back

because now it gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of your strategy you know I don't buy this idea that the nets can't tank because of the fact that they owe these picks to Houston because guess what we just uh Brooklyn go through an extended rebuild without its own draft fix

when Sean Varks first we just saw them do it so so they definitely very much can now it may not make as much sense for them to do it especially if they feel like they can be more competitive than they've been this season and you know the the brief flashes we've seen from Ben Simmons the last

few games here have been kind of exciting although it's it's hard to know no no no I'm gonna do that I'm gonna reality Tony rally mute you until he makes more than one free throw in a month fair I don't care but that's that's completely fair as he plays once he gets past half court he plays

horizontally he's now playing sideline to say I don't know how many times he's touched the paint with a live dribble in any of the games he's come back I do wonder if there's an element where and you know he was much more aggressive I think during the preseason when we saw him play when teams

aren't as used to Ben Simmons not looking for his own shot and thinking about that maybe he can be more effective in those situations than when they start realizing hey we need to play him for the pass anytime he drives here so yeah so from that standpoint you know it would have been really

interesting for Brooklyn and I think I mean that would have been amazing value clearly from Mikael bridges and like if you go back to the Durant trade somehow you would have gotten all of your own picks plus all of Phoenix's picks I mean that would have been a remarkable haul that's part of why

Brooklyn did so well when I regretted the the Durant trade earlier this week but I can also understand why look we've we've gone through all this pain we've got a guy who's played quite well for us in Mikael bridges even if it's not necessarily leading to a lot of team success he's

also the kind of guy that players want to play it with so if you're trying to eventually recruit via free agency after Simmons contract expires and you have some more cat flexibility bridges the guy you probably still want in your roster at that point yeah time will tell time will tell I've had a

number of front office executives say man if they really were offered their picks back they probably should have done that and and my response is the same as yours like yeah in the cold reality of spreadsheet basketball probably in this reality it's it's a little tougher they didn't trade

door infinity Smith and they didn't trade Nick Cleggs that I don't think they were ever going to I actually think they would like to resign Nick Cleggs and who's good I don't know I'm going to open the 4 to you pick pick a team or a deal that was or a non deal or whatever that was curious

or interesting or that you just want to talk about Kevin Pilton well I'm curious I obviously didn't get a chance to hear Bobby's appearance on the front half of this podcast is the starting picture I saw and and I've not had a chance to read this because I've had my head down righty all day that

he has Dallas is a winner of the trade deadline and that's interesting because I think particularly from a long term perspective I find them a loser in terms of you know now they have given up control of all their possible drafts starting in 2027 which is the year after Luga Donchich can hit

free agency and look that's one thing if it's a Milwaukee bucks situation and it's we're willing to trade all these picks for Drew Holiday the first time and then Damien Lillard the second time because we know that that's going to convince Yannis and Edicompa to sign an extension with us

he's going to be with us through this run these aren't going to be very good drafts Dallas isn't in that position yet with Luga Donchich and he may stick around you know they're going to have at some point the super max to be able to present to him but boy are you taking

an enormous risk that if Luga ends up on another roster by that point you are rebuilding without any kind of a net whatsoever and I just don't think like it's one thing to do that because of the fact that again you're getting a guy like Drew Holiday or Damien Lillard star players are going to

make you a championship contender be the difference in winning a championship in Milwaukee's case with holiday PT Washington is not to me that guy I was a little closer to you than to Bobby on the Mavericks I think I used the phrase chasing

their tail a lot on a lot of these like throw throw throw more picks at problems which is which is fine they've just made conc uh they know Luga better than we do and B they may conclude that as long as we have Luke and Kyrie we're not as far as the record would suggest we are from being

in that top tier conversation I do think they're better today on the court than they were yesterday but I have the same the same kind of concern judo it's a lot to give up and I'm not sure defensively you know the gaffer thing will help the backline defense but it'll be interesting to see if they

can really get a boost defensively you mentioned Milwaukee what do you think of Milwaukee right now uh I think they're fascinating first off because you know the whole idea when Adrian Griffin came in was well why is he doing all these you know wild trapping and pressure and you know Brookleve

Lopez is up on at the level of the screen like we know that drop coverage with Brookleve has worked and they went back to that pretty quickly and now here comes talk rivers replace Adrian Griffin and all of a sudden they're trapping all over the place you know Brookleve has

not necessarily been on the court for all of this uh you know the other night he was out due to personal reasons and the the comeback they had I can't remember how involved he was against Dallas but it is fascinating to see teams keep the coaches keep doing this with Milwaukee to try to do the

thing that they haven't been good at but you know maybe to their detriment and I would what I would say is what we have seen the last few games that's maybe different from early in the season is you know besides the low hanging fruit of transition defense it's also like now they're actually forcing

turnovers particularly against Luca when they were trapping him it's one thing to trap and not force turnovers like that's that's definitely a worse defense than the drop coverage if you can force a lot of turnovers it can be a better defensive style what do you think of Pat Beverly there remember

remember the clip of Pat Beverly and Marcus Morris jumping all over themselves laughing at Damian Lillard missing free throws in the bubble it definitely appeared on Twitter I mean I also remember Patrick Beverly getting pretty pretty quickly excised by the Clippers after they had it

co-ileted and Paul George we used the conflict between those two styles and you know it's it's fascinating given that dockroppers was still overseeing that last season of it so that that's a tie as well I I think he is an upgrade for them I never really quite got when people thought that

Cameron Payne was a big pickup for their depth after the Lillard trade he just wasn't that effective last season which is why you know Phoenix and San Antonio two teams that both needed point guards chose to move on from him this off season so I do think it helps them and and

I'm probably higher on Patrick Beverly than you know even a lot of people in the analytics community are buddy Seth Partnow I do think what he does defensively is more than just show I think it translates to better defense and that you know the other aspect of it is just having

somebody giving that kind of visible effort will be a nice thing on this Milwaukee team where that defensive effort has not been as strong this season is in past years and he does guard up pretty well he just like we've seen him guard Durant and he gets into his stomach and his chest and his

annoying so I could see him closing games over Mollique Beasley maybe if they need defense I'm not sure about Middleton I think he's too important to their team and that'll hurt their offense a little bit but I you everything is is a trade off you just I mean their perimeter defense is so bad

and like I was watching their gaming it's Utah the other day when Utah out scored him by 27 points in the fourth quarter I mean they were like double teaming Jordan Clarkson at the elbow because they knew that he's gonna blow by Mollique Beasley's gonna blow by Damien Lurie's gonna break our defense

and they were like Jordan Clarkson's like oh this is this is what you're doing this is easy I'll just throw pass after pass after pass and we'll bring three's on you and so I think given what they had it is a pretty good move they just you know they fired their coach they did their little dance

still a little conga line that they did that night and they're one in four since their defense doesn't really show many signs of improving and you know they they need to start clicking a little bit like the playoffs are not that far away and we just haven't seen a version of this team yet they give you a ton of faith that they have a really long run in them I think as long as they have Damien honest they have an upside of championship like they can make a really long run but I'm starting

to get the point where it's like I kind of would like to see like demonstrable three straight weeks of just like oh this team's really good right now absolutely I mean look you know they have had a lot of change this season but we're more than halfway into the season you know that they've had

a lot of runway at Chris Middleton has been in the more lineup more regularly like you know the the excuses they've been out there those kind of got used up which is why I think they decided to make the coaching change when they did and now they've got kind of this new explanation of

we're trying new things under doc rivers but you just this is the this is the danger of making a coaching change but it's season is you just don't have that much time where you is high on the nicks and what they did today is everybody else I haven't gotten a chance to read oh no I did you

gave them an A you gave the nicks an A absolutely they were a top my list of winners from today I mean you know the I think the biggest question is once oji and in obi comes back from this surgery that he's undergoing and Julius Randall is back like can they find enough minutes to keep boy

on Bogdanovic happy because that they're that deep like that's that's pretty incredible given that they've also kind of upgraded in terms of high end talent within this season by making the ananovic trade I I think there's a lot to like and then you know down the road the fact that they've still

retained all their first round picks they've got Bogdanovic's non-garrantine next year that they'll surely guarantee is matching salary and a trade if if a star comes available I I think they've done tremendously well you go back over like the you think about the last I guess going back to

the 2022 off season when they sign Brunson and the guy the quality of talent that they've added in that span once in the off season hard at last year's trade deadline Dante Diven Chenzoe this off season who you know thinking about all the teams that could have offered Dante Diven

Chenzoe their non-tax prayer amid the level exception and how much better he would be for them I mean obviously you know Gabe Vincent unfortunately we haven't even got a chance to see with the Lakers because of his injury but imagine Dante Diven Chenzoe with the Lakers the way that he's

shooting it right now and then ananobe Bogdanovic and Berks so far this season I mean that's that's an incredible run of talent accumulation to go with you know starting with the fact that they developed you know a lot of these later draft picks quickly and grimes into layers who had a

lot of trade value well yeah if you look back it I said with Bobby it almost happened in such like a drip drip drip pattern that you almost didn't notice it if you go back and look at like in 2018 19 they won 17 games in 2019 20 they were 21 and 45 that was Randall Randall was on that team

already and then they hired tips and they won 20 more games the next season it's not like they were even starting from a position of strength it's not like they tanked and got a foundational player and kind of built everything off of that they were starting if anything from a position

of like we got Barrett who's fine but was the consolation prize in that draft behind Zion and Morant and like a lot of draft misses behind that like they had the Kevin Knox missed and Yulah Keenam is like all of these things linger and set them back in terms of what their asset base was

and just like I went back and I looked earlier today when I had 10 minutes of like roster by roster transaction by transaction because my brain was like wait a second how did they let me review how did they get like step by step how did they do it and it's actually pretty amazing when

you just lay it all out it's like one little thing after another after another after another it's it's very interesting what are my philosophies on trading is that people think trading in the NBA is like one red paper clip where it's just like I'm gonna trade trade from you know this thing

that isn't worth very much to a star player and that it's generally not like that it's more about like I have this piece that I you need you have this piece that I need and we make a trade and it works well for both of us but the Knicks have sort of one red paper clipped a lot of things

over the past two and a half years here before we go just give me your quick thoughts on the Lakers standing pat and not trading for Dejanté Murray and the Hawks not trading for Dejanté Murray hit this with a little with Bobby a little bit but I'm interested to hear your thoughts

yeah I think for Atlantis perspective it makes sense to me even though I would I would love to see Dejanté Murray somewhere else I wrote in my winners and losers about he's performed at an all-star level when trade young has been off the court this season and it's been you know usually

him and book Donovic in the back court and he he's just been cooking in the pick and roll in those situations but you know I think when you look at the Lakers I understand the decision not to make a move now I don't think that there was one move that was going to be good enough to get them into

the top four in the West because of the fact that you know that's just such a higher bar than it was last year when the path really opened up for them out of the plan tournament in a way that I don't think it will this year with you know the Clippers and Nuggets as teams that project is very strong

playoff teams and you know people are going to be more skeptical of Minnesota and Oklahoma City because they're lack of experience but I don't think that you know those teams are going to be easy easy fodder if you match up with them in a first round series whatsoever no way no way so no way

so given all that I totally understand not throwing kind of bad money after good or good money after bad I guess is the expression I don't know money after money by making give you away one of your rare draft picks right now and then now you will have the three draft picks come draft night that

you can put into a trade now the downside of that is is it wrote about the winners and losers you also have LeBron by draft night two days away from a player option decision and there's going to be a lot of looming pressure especially if the playoffs do not go well this year on we have to do

something make a move now to upgrade dramatically and you know who would be I'd be pretty excited about being the Atlanta Hawks on draft night if that's really the situation because all of a sudden maybe I'm able to leverage even more out of the Lakers than I was asking for now

and the Lakers are not projected be a second ampere into your next year correct not even I don't think even close yeah I mean they're they're not they're not all that close to that right now and I don't think their payroll goes up dramatically next year so they'll have flexibility to do to do

what they want interesting thoughts Kevin Pelton you probably have more writing to do I have some writing to do my brain is mush and I'm hungry and I'm going to eat and waiting in my fridge is a big 24 ounce single beer that I will be drinking in several hours and just luxurrating and I can't wait

it's a wonderful anal tradition and I look forward to what we'll have you back on soon because now we get to see how all these things starting at the next couple nights of NBA basketball are not awesome but after that we start to see new players and new places we'll break it all down Kevin Pelton go read we got trade grades we got winners and losers the machine is up and running thank you sir thanks for having me