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GREATEST Trade Deadline EVER · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Small Ball with Kenny Beecher.
0:03
SPEAKER_03: This episode is going to be magnificent.
0:05
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm calling the shot early.
0:07
SPEAKER_03: But we just had the greatest trade deadline in the history of this sport.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: You know, I have been very, very critical of the NBA, the MBPA, the people that make the decisions about the CBA.
0:20
SPEAKER_03: And I thought that maybe there was a world where teams will be too cautious at this deadline.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: Thinking about second aprons, thinking about future draft capital, all of those type of things.
0:29
SPEAKER_03: Nah, that was overblown.
0:31
SPEAKER_03: My fault, y'all.
0:32
SPEAKER_03: Because we saw the biggest trade, the most surprising trade in the history of basketball.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: And we saw a couple other trades where all-star players were shifted to new teams.
0:40
SPEAKER_03: Some all-star players got shifted to new countries.
0:42
SPEAKER_03: Like this was one of the months.
0:44
SPEAKER_03: Now, when I say it's going to be an all-time episode, I'm going to try my very best to give my opinion, my reaction to a lot of the trades that happened this last week.
0:53
SPEAKER_03: For what it's worth, I am filming this Thursday, uh four hours after the deadline, and I'm assuming everything is done.
0:59
SPEAKER_03: It's all quiet across the association.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: We don't know what team Dennis Schroeder plays for right now, but damn it, it's somebody.
1:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm super excited for this one.
1:07
SPEAKER_03: All I need from you is to leave a like on the episode or subscribe to the channel if you're new around here, telefrian to telefran.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, if you ask our tunest Carney Shovis, we got 30 more games of the regular season.
1:15
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna be bringing you content for those 30 games and then the postseason, then the offseason.
1:18
SPEAKER_03: This is the place you want to be.
1:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, I do want to say a very special thank you for the support that I've got this week.
1:24
SPEAKER_03: I mean, not specifically on this show, but um, I have another YouTube channel called Kenny Frill.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: If you didn't know, if some reason you watch this show and you don't know about my other channels, and what I use that channel for during this time of the year is quick initial reactions to trades.
1:38
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, Luca got moved.
1:40
SPEAKER_03: Let's film a 14 to 15 minute reaction.
1:43
SPEAKER_03: Not really giving a ton of analysis.
1:44
SPEAKER_03: That video was basically like, whoa, what the hell is going on?
1:47
SPEAKER_03: Video got a million views in 24 hours.
1:50
SPEAKER_03: A million views in 24 hours.
1:52
SPEAKER_03: And then we saw another big trade slightly after that, De'Aaron Fox getting shipped off to the San Antonio Spurs.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: That video got 600,000 views in 24 hours.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: And then lastly, we saw Jimmy Butler get moved to the Golden State Warriors.
2:05
SPEAKER_03: That video did half a million views in the same amount of time.
2:08
SPEAKER_03: So it is such a surreal feeling.
2:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, because at the end of the day, like it's numbers, right?
2:14
SPEAKER_03: It's numbers-based, but I it's so hard to really compute that that's how many people clicked the video.
2:20
SPEAKER_03: And I made a tweet about how mind-blown I am about the the amount of support and success we've had this week.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: And I got one comment specifically that stood out that said, as soon as the trade happened, I wanted to hear what you thought about it.
2:34
SPEAKER_03: And I'm just like, bro, what have what have I done to be so lucky, man?
2:37
SPEAKER_03: So again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I said, I originally did a video about the Luca Dontis trade.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: So I don't want to go too crazy into it now.
2:43
SPEAKER_03: Now we're what, four or five days released from that.
2:46
SPEAKER_03: We've seen Anthony Davis warming up.
2:48
SPEAKER_03: We've seen Luka Donce just do his press conference and look good in the in the jersey and everything.
2:52
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know if there's anything to be said that hasn't already been said by somebody.
2:55
SPEAKER_03: Even now, nobody really understands it.
2:58
SPEAKER_03: I have two to three, uh, two and a half NBA connects, right?
3:03
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not even talking about the players that I've become friends with.
3:05
SPEAKER_03: Just NBA straight up connects.
3:06
SPEAKER_03: These are people that are one of the guys in the front office.
3:09
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to show my car, so I'm not saying where.
3:11
SPEAKER_03: Uh, one of the guys in the front office, other guys like a newsbreaker, so on and so forth, or one of those dudes just ear to the ground.
3:17
SPEAKER_03: And nobody still understands what the hell is going on.
3:20
SPEAKER_03: It's got so bad that some of those people are making and texting me conspiracy theories that someone else put together because that's the only thing that kind of makes sense.
3:29
SPEAKER_03: You have a 25-year-old superstar, and you decide to ship him off by only listening to one offer from one other team.
3:37
SPEAKER_03: I've been critical of Ra Polinka and how he's managed these last couple years of LeBron James.
3:43
SPEAKER_03: I gotta give him all his flowers because this deadline, he was as active as anybody, and damn it, he got a 25-year-old superstar and got another player on top of that, which we'll get to that fits that superstar nearly perfectly.
3:55
SPEAKER_03: So Rob Palenka went from what has he done for me lately to extend that brother.
4:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I said a brother.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Extend him.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: All right, but let's get into some of the trades.
4:05
SPEAKER_03: So Jimmy Butler got traded to the Golden State Warriors.
4:08
SPEAKER_03: The package was the Detroit.
4:09
SPEAKER_03: Oh my God, we do know where Dennis Schroeder ended up.
4:11
SPEAKER_03: Dennis Schroeder's with the Detroit Pistons, Lindy Waters is with the Pistons, and then they waive some other guys.
4:16
SPEAKER_03: You get the Warriors getting Jimmy Butler, who signed a two-year$11 million extension.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: You got the Miami Heat bringing in Kyle Anderson, Davion Mitchell.
4:22
SPEAKER_03: This is a big six-team trade, by the way.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: Wiggins, and then the Warriors first round pick for 2025.
4:27
SPEAKER_03: That's top 10 protected, unprotected in 2027.
4:29
SPEAKER_03: That pick is gonna convey.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't see the Warriors jumping up to a top 10 pick.
4:35
SPEAKER_03: So that pick is gonna convey.
4:36
SPEAKER_03: And then you got the Philadelphia 76ers getting an$8 million player exception, the Toronto Raptors getting in, getting PJ Tucker and a second-round pick, who also got thrown around like I don't know.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: Like Hornswoggle back in the day.
4:47
SPEAKER_03: You remember Hornswaggle got thrown around the ring a bunch?
4:49
SPEAKER_03: That's how PJ Tucker and Dennis Schroeder got thrown around this year.
4:51
SPEAKER_03: And then Utah Jazz walk out with um KJ Martin and a couple second-round picks.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: Now, again, I've already talked about this trade, but one thing that has been in my mind a lot since it's happened is um just about the the pressure that is will be alleviated from from Steph Curry.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: I think the major criticism of people when they think about this trade just 24, 48 hours later, is the amount of money that is guaranteed to Jimmy Butler as he's already showed like somewhat of a decline in his career.
5:15
SPEAKER_03: But I don't I don't mind it mostly because the timeline matches up perfectly.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: His contract will go into Steph Curry's contract, is done and go into Draymond Green's contract is done.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: And I also think about the alternative.
5:26
SPEAKER_03: If we talk about a franchise, it's been in conversations for a lot of people not getting anybody.
5:30
SPEAKER_03: If they would have walked out of this trade deadline with nothing, or they would have walked out of this trade deadline with just Vusevich, I think we all look at them and say, hey, Mike Dunlavy, you haven't been in charge for a long time, but damn it, you deserve to be out.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: This team has pump faked us quite a bit from telling us that they are okay with not giving up the future for one last hurrah.
5:47
SPEAKER_03: And then they said, no, we take that back.
5:48
SPEAKER_03: We actually never even said that, even though we got video footage of Steve Curry saying that.
5:53
SPEAKER_03: I don't, I don't mind it.
5:55
SPEAKER_03: And again, I it's one of those type of trades that I don't look at the Golden State Wars and say, yes, this team is about to win a championship.
6:01
SPEAKER_03: But the goal is to be as competitive as possible around Steph Curry, and Jimmy Butler just helps that.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: He alleviates so much pressure.
6:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think I think if you watch the Golden State Wars, you can see that some of the the physics the physicality of Steph Curry has dropped a little bit.
6:16
SPEAKER_03: He used to be a guy that could just get around defenders.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: Like one of the most underrated things about Steph Curry, as he is the greatest shooter of all time, one of the best point guards of all time, is how how smooth he was with his with his with his dribble package, right?
6:27
SPEAKER_03: It's not really working as good this year.
6:29
SPEAKER_03: And I think part of that is him seeing a lot of a lot of bodies and also his body, like he's mid-30s, y'all.
6:35
SPEAKER_03: Small point guard mid-30s usually don't have this long of a career at this level superstaring him.
6:40
SPEAKER_03: So with him having the difficulty of getting past defenders and them throwing two to three at a time, Jimmy Butler would keep a lot of teams honest.
6:46
SPEAKER_03: He's willing to get to the basket, get to the to the free throw line.
6:49
SPEAKER_03: The Golden State Words ever got to the free throw line in the Seth Curry era ever.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: Ever.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: Even when they were the most dominant team in basketball with Kevin Oran and all these that they weren't a free throw shooting team.
6:58
SPEAKER_03: Jimmy Butler is the antithesis of ethical basketball.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm not one of those dudes, but but he gets to the line.
7:07
SPEAKER_03: And that is something that they've lacked for a very long time.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: And I think he can come in and help things out.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
7:13
SPEAKER_03: There's already been rumors about ooh, how can he fit alongside Draymond Green, two of the strongest personalities in all of the sport?
7:20
SPEAKER_03: I trust he'll be able to get it done.
7:22
SPEAKER_03: And when I say get it done, I mean just not punch each other.
7:24
SPEAKER_03: And if they do punch each other and not get leaked to TMZ.
7:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, big winner in this trade to me, though, out of all of it, is the Miami Heat.
7:31
SPEAKER_03: Given that they had zero leverage whatsoever with the Jimmy Butler thing, for them to walk out with Davion Mitchell, who is gonna, I think it's gonna play real minutes for them.
7:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, Wiggins, who I think is at 30 years old at this point, and you know, he seems like a type of dude that might be able to go to Miami Heat culture and elevate his game again, and then a first-round pick out of it.
7:47
SPEAKER_03: This is as good as you can get for Jimmy Butler when you consider the type of value that was really in that when you get suspended three times and and everybody in the world knows you wants to get traded.
7:56
SPEAKER_03: This is a win.
7:57
SPEAKER_03: All the exterior teams, I mean, Dennis Schroeder going to the Detroit Pistons, it's fine.
8:01
SPEAKER_03: I was hoping that they got somebody just a little bit better at this deadline, right?
8:04
SPEAKER_03: I know that they were in conversations for Lonzo Ball, but Lonzo got his extension.
8:07
SPEAKER_03: And since then, the Bulls basically made him untouchable at this deadline.
8:10
SPEAKER_03: But they just needed another creator, Dennis Schroeder provides some of that.
8:14
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was a big difference between Brooklyn Nets Dennis Schroeder and Golden State Warrior Dennis Schroeder, and they're baking on it be closer to the Brooklyn Nets version of him.
8:23
SPEAKER_03: But even if it is, let's say it is the Golden State Warrior shooter, that is still an upgrade from some of the other secondary ball handlers on the Detroit Pistons.
8:30
SPEAKER_03: So, though this is not the home run of a deadline that maybe some Piss and Sands were hoping for, considering they're right there for the playoff hunt.
8:37
SPEAKER_03: Kate Cunningham is an all-star the season.
8:39
SPEAKER_03: They maybe need another star caliber player.
8:41
SPEAKER_03: I would take this and say, hey, I think it, I think it's completely okay.
8:45
SPEAKER_03: These other teams, the Raptors or the Jazz or the 76, in this specific trade.
8:49
SPEAKER_03: What you want me to say about them getting$8 million trade exception after giving up two second round picks?
8:54
SPEAKER_03: I don't give a damn.
8:54
SPEAKER_03: One of the most surprising deals, and it wasn't surprising in the moment because it, I guess it was leading up to it for the last hour or two before it broke, is the Toronto Raptors getting in on Brandon Ingram.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm about what, 24 hours since this deal has happened, I still don't really know what to what to think about it.
9:10
SPEAKER_03: Here's the details of the trade.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: The Pelicans receive Bruce Brown Jr., Kelly O'Lenick.
9:14
SPEAKER_03: Oh my God, we got a stretch five alongside Zion, um, a first-round pick from Indiana, which is top four protected through 2027.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: So it'll be, it'll convey this season.
9:22
SPEAKER_03: And then a 2031 second-round pick, and then the Toronto Raptors get Brandon Ingram.
9:27
SPEAKER_03: One thing about Masayu Giri, if you've been keeping up with Masai since he became the general manager of the Raptors, even before that, when he was with the what, Denver Nuggets, he is a guy that is willing to buy low.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: And I gotta give him his credit there because you get the six super success stories when you buy low, like them getting a championship with with Kawhi Leonard.
9:47
SPEAKER_03: That was the best buy-low deal of all time.
9:49
SPEAKER_03: It was Yaka Purdle, who's back on the team, by the way.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: And then DeMar DeRozan, like that is for Kawhi Leonard.
9:54
SPEAKER_03: That's the biggest and best buy low trade of all time, considering the quad injury with Kawhi.
9:59
SPEAKER_03: Will he ever be able to stay healthy?
10:00
SPEAKER_03: He was healthy enough to win them a championship.
10:02
SPEAKER_03: But he also has other buy lows in his um in his resume that just didn't work out.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: I don't know exactly what Brandon Ingram is gonna turn out to be because I think about it this way: they extended um Emmanuel quickly.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: RJ Barrett is still on his contract from what the New York Knicks game.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: They gave Scotty Barnes the full rookie max.
10:20
SPEAKER_03: And now with Brandon Ingram going into the end of his contract, that is gonna be your core four at a pretty expensive value, right?
10:28
SPEAKER_03: They are already an expensive team right now.
10:29
SPEAKER_03: You think about the three before they added Brandon Ingram, and I look at this team and I say, hey, let's say they're completely healthy next season.
10:35
SPEAKER_03: This season has been a disaster when it comes to health.
10:38
SPEAKER_03: At one point, we were, it was the middle of um January, and I remember looking at the stats.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: Their core three guys, quickly, RJ and then Scotty Barnes have played 88 minutes together, and it was January.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: So they have not had a good hand when it came comes to injury and all.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: But I look at what their team is right now, and then they add Brandon Ingram, and you think about the money that will be attached to Brandon Ingram.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: I think I don't think that is a team that I'm looking at and saying, hey, they're gonna be in contention.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: Now, the one big caveat of it all is right now they have the fifth highest odds.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: And I just ran one tank-a-thon, and I swear to God, they jumped up to the first overall pick, and that changes everything.
11:12
SPEAKER_03: So, though, again, this is a by-low situation, you're gonna extend Brandon Ingram.
11:16
SPEAKER_03: I would guess you don't give up a first-round pick for two months of a player on a bad team, right?
11:20
SPEAKER_03: So you extend Brandon Ingram, maybe bring his value back up.
11:23
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he legitimately is a part of the future, but also this year's draft changes the dynamic of everything.
11:29
SPEAKER_03: It changed the dynamic of everything.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: And they've been winning some games as of late.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: So shout out to them because it helped my team get some better odds.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: But it's a bit confusing.
11:37
SPEAKER_03: And then I remembered that basically what what Masai has done, when you think about the picks that he just gave up, which is a part of the Indiana Pacer Pascal Siakam deal, he turned Pascal Siakam to like a treasure chest of good, talented players, right?
11:50
SPEAKER_03: Oce Abaji is a part of this one.
11:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, he flipped Bruce Brown, who was a part of this trade, to get Brandon Ingram.
11:56
SPEAKER_03: So, like, he's done a pretty good job slowly and methodically figuring some things out, but I still wonder what the long-term goal is with this roster.
12:04
SPEAKER_03: But at the end of that, I think it's gonna be cool.
12:07
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be great.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: Maybe not.
12:10
SPEAKER_03: The Pelicans, I don't really have an opinion about the Pelicans.
12:12
SPEAKER_03: They get a first-round pick.
12:13
SPEAKER_03: Actually, no, I'm gonna give them a thumbs up for the first round pick because Brandon Ingram, another one of those guys, has been rumored to be traded for about two years now.
12:19
SPEAKER_03: And when you think about him being on an expiring contract, I didn't see a world where they got a first-rounder.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: Every single mock trade I saw from Brandon Ingram had two to three second-round picks going in exchange.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: So getting the first round pick, even if it is as of right now, that first round pick is the 22nd overall pick.
12:33
SPEAKER_03: That's a win.
12:34
SPEAKER_03: That's a win, that's a win, that's a win.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: So um, shout out to both of those teams for getting that deal done.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: I think it will be interesting.
12:39
SPEAKER_03: I saw a clip of Brandon Ingram basically talking about how much he loved Toronto.
12:44
SPEAKER_03: All right.
12:44
SPEAKER_03: Let's see, let's see if he can elevate his game once he gets up north.
12:47
SPEAKER_03: Now we can go to the Lakers, though, because a couple nights ago, they made a Mark Williams trade.
12:52
SPEAKER_03: And one of those trades that came out of nowhere, the Charlotte Hornets received Dawn Connect, Cam Redish, a 2031 pick swap, and then a 2031 unprotected for Mark Williams.
13:01
SPEAKER_03: Now, when this trade happened, I quoted the Shams tweet.
13:04
SPEAKER_03: I said, wow, right?
13:06
SPEAKER_03: And then I made a little jokey joke.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: My jokey joke was um uh starting a rebuild while you're in the middle of a rebuild greater than emoji.
13:13
SPEAKER_03: Like, because that's what's happening in Charlotte.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: They've been rebuilding since Kimball Walker left, and they just traded a 23, 22-year-old center for the future, the 2031 pick.
13:23
SPEAKER_03: So it's just another rebuild on top of a rebuild.
13:25
SPEAKER_03: And then I quoted that tweet with some some some grounded opinion, which said, for what it's worth, this is good value for Mark Williams.
13:32
SPEAKER_03: The guy has never been healthy.
13:34
SPEAKER_03: Ooh, I opened up the floodgates because all Lakers fans are riding the high.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: They just traded for Luka Donces.
13:40
SPEAKER_03: They deserve to be on the high.
13:41
SPEAKER_03: You would you would have thought I said they lost a trade, that Mark Williams was a bum, that Rob Polinka was a bum.
13:48
SPEAKER_03: That I I literally just said that Mark Williams has not been able to stay healthy in his career, which is a fact.
13:55
SPEAKER_03: It's been in the league for three years, he has 80 games under his belt.
13:59
SPEAKER_03: Sounds like a player that struggles to stay healthy.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: Damn, man.
14:03
SPEAKER_03: It's like the good old tweet.
14:04
SPEAKER_03: The tweet that says, I like pancakes, and people reply back, what you hate, would you hate waffles?
14:09
SPEAKER_03: No, motherfucker.
14:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm just can I can I talk about one thing at a time?
14:13
SPEAKER_03: I do want to give credit before we talk about the Lakers side of things.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: I do want to give credit to the Hornets.
14:19
SPEAKER_03: If you don't remember, the Hornets redid everything.
14:21
SPEAKER_03: They sold the team, they got new management, they got new GMs, and this was about two years ago now.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: And if you have been a part of a team that has fired their GM and brought in a new guy, you would know that a lot of times when new GMs, new presidents of operations guy coming to uh to control, they kind of want to clear the deck and bring in their own personal guys, right?
14:43
SPEAKER_03: They don't want to keep the dudes that were drafted by the previous regime.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: They may not fit the whole archetype of roster that we want to create.
14:50
SPEAKER_03: Mark Williams was drafted by the previous regime.
14:54
SPEAKER_03: So this looks like to me, they're saying, hey, we like Mark.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: He's a good player.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: He just played amazing for a month.
15:00
SPEAKER_03: We his value is as high as it probably ever will be.
15:04
SPEAKER_03: Let's ship him off.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Because we're starting, we're starting our rebuild.
15:07
SPEAKER_03: The rebuild that y'all know for the Charlotte Hornets was the previous regime.
15:09
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
15:10
SPEAKER_03: This is our rebuild.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: And it's around Tazan Salon who kind of stinks.
15:14
SPEAKER_03: But he's playing basketball.
15:16
SPEAKER_03: He kind of stinks.
15:16
SPEAKER_03: That's fine.
15:17
SPEAKER_03: So he traded Mark Williams.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: So when you think about a guy who, again, has only played 80 to 90 games in a three-year career, who, if you ask uh Hornets fans, even though they love Mark because he's been the best center they've had, because goddamn, we all know Nick Richards wasn't it.
15:33
SPEAKER_03: We all know the Zellers wasn't it.
15:34
SPEAKER_03: He's been the best center they've had in some time.
15:36
SPEAKER_03: They will tell you about his lack of defensive effort at times and his lack of health.
15:42
SPEAKER_03: He is 23 years old, seven feet tall, and has already had multiple back injuries, right?
15:48
SPEAKER_03: So you add up all of those variables, them walking out with a 2031 unprotected first-round pick from the Lakers is pretty clutch.
15:54
SPEAKER_03: Now, this same unprotected first-round pick is not as valuable today as it was a week ago before Luca got on the team.
15:59
SPEAKER_03: Because in theory, Luca's still here in 2031.
16:01
SPEAKER_03: So that's probably not even a lottery pick.
16:04
SPEAKER_03: But you take the chance.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: There's no guarantee Luca's gonna be there.
16:07
SPEAKER_03: There's no guarantee the Lakers are gonna have the healthy season in 2031.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: And we've seen teams take this chance before and it worked out.
16:12
SPEAKER_03: They also got a pick swap, which is fucking hilarious that they got the pick swap considering the Luca Trey got less draft compensation.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: The Luca Trey got less draft compensation.
16:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, so shout out to the Hornets.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: And they get Don Connect, who's 32, 32-year-old rookie.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: He might be good.
16:28
SPEAKER_03: And Charlotte, he might not.
16:29
SPEAKER_03: I don't think they're really taking that bad.
16:31
SPEAKER_03: But I did read that they were in love with him on draft night, but they they decided instead of drafting the oldest guy in the draft class, they would draft the youngest guy in the draft class.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: Now they got them both.
16:39
SPEAKER_03: What a win.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: Now let's talk about it from the Lakers' perspective because while I did say all of that for the Charlotte Hornets, I do believe that this is a good trade for the Lakers.
16:47
SPEAKER_03: Can you believe that two people can get a good grade on a single trade?
16:50
SPEAKER_03: And here's why.
16:51
SPEAKER_03: I think the Charlotte Hornets have become kind of like fodder for other NBA teams.
16:56
SPEAKER_03: This farm system, if you will, for other NBA teams.
16:58
SPEAKER_03: When you think about all of the guys, not all the guys, because some of the guys are just straight up trash.
17:03
SPEAKER_03: When you think about some of the guys, some success stories where people end up in Charlotte, get drafted there, play a couple seasons to get shipped off to the next team.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: Malik Monk, a great story.
17:11
SPEAKER_03: Malik Monk was good in Charlotte, don't get me wrong, but he has got to the point where he was on the Lakers, he was phenomenal.
17:16
SPEAKER_03: Then he got to Sacramento and they traded De'Aaron Fox away.
17:19
SPEAKER_03: And now Malik Monk is a starting point guard of the Sacramento Kings.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: That's that's a pretty good story.
17:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, PJ Washington, another great story.
17:25
SPEAKER_03: He was fine.
17:25
SPEAKER_03: He was fine.
17:26
SPEAKER_03: He may have set he set the record for most threes in the NBA debut, and then he was just cool for the rest of the next couple years, and he ends up with the Mavericks, and we're like, oh my God, PJ Washington versatile and best role players in the league.
17:40
SPEAKER_03: Mark Williams can definitely, definitely back that up and be in that same company.
17:45
SPEAKER_03: Because one thing that he's gonna do is he's gonna be Athletic as hell.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: One thing he's gonna be is a great role man for Luka Doncic.
17:53
SPEAKER_03: He just is.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: And they already said Luka Donj's influences trade.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: So Luka has been in the team, on the team for four days now, and he's like, give me a center.
18:01
SPEAKER_03: I saw I saw a meme that was like, um uh Luka Doncic asking for a center.
18:07
SPEAKER_03: Rob Polinka's like, yes, you got it.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Anthony Davis asked for a center for four years, and they call like human resources.
18:12
SPEAKER_03: That's what it feels like.
18:13
SPEAKER_03: I mean, but it's Luka Doncic, he said, give me a center that can go up there and get it.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: He got it.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: And then you saw the game the other night when they played against the Clippers, absolutely dog walked the Clippers.
18:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, you had the moments where Jackson Hayes went up to get it and they cut to Luka, and Luca's like, and they got another type of lob threat.
18:27
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes, and maybe I'm unfair here, because I'm gonna be my own critic here.
18:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh, because I'm not, I'm gonna say this very publicly.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: I am not a huge Mark Williams fan.
18:35
SPEAKER_03: Just not.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: Not saying he's bad, not saying he can't be great.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: Remember, he's on he's still on his rookie contract, y'all.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: But from what I've watched from Mark Williams, while he can give you the 2020 game, he can give you the 20 and 17 game, he can be an absolute dog on the glass.
18:49
SPEAKER_03: I've also watched him because you think about the Charlotte Hornets having a six o'clock tip-off here in Chicago, maybe the most of the time, the first game of the day.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: I've watched Mark Williams quite a bit, as much as you can with his 80 games play.
19:00
SPEAKER_03: And his defensive effort is something that I question.
19:02
SPEAKER_03: Now, some of that can get glossed over because now he's playing with Luke, he's playing with Braun, he's playing for something, and he has not played for anything in his NBA career.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: It could be the same thing with Malik Monk, who also had questions about his defense.
19:11
SPEAKER_03: And though he's not uh goddamn Andre Roberson, he has stepped up defensively.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: He could say the same thing about PJ Washington, right?
19:17
SPEAKER_03: So again, Mark Williams could fit in that as well.
19:19
SPEAKER_03: But I'm just giving you what I have watched of Mark Williams over his first three years of his career, and I haven't been a huge fan of that.
19:26
SPEAKER_03: But he now plays with Luca and he's now playing for something, and maybe he can snap.
19:31
SPEAKER_03: Some of it is literally just defensive instinct, and I think that's a little bit tougher to just snap on, but the effort part of things should be better.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: It just should be better.
19:39
SPEAKER_03: I watched just last week, and this maybe is unfair to him.
19:42
SPEAKER_03: Anthony Davis gave him 47 and 20.
19:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, I've I've watched Daniel Gaffer give him a 20-20.
19:47
SPEAKER_03: Like it's it can be bad.
19:48
SPEAKER_03: Now, granted, when you look at an Anthony Davis box score, you look at a Daniel Gafford box score, it's not like Mark Williams is guarding him one-on-one all game.
19:56
SPEAKER_03: But within those games, when they are 101 in the block, I've seen him get dogged.
20:02
SPEAKER_03: But he's playing with Luca now.
20:03
SPEAKER_03: He's playing with Braun Braun, and he's playing under Coach JJ.
20:06
SPEAKER_03: They can make it work.
20:08
SPEAKER_03: They can make it work.
20:09
SPEAKER_03: This is one of those trades where I think both teams are taking a gamble.
20:12
SPEAKER_03: They genuinely are taking a gamble.
20:13
SPEAKER_03: The Charlotte Hornets are taking a gamble that in 2031, that pick will be worth something.
20:17
SPEAKER_03: The Lakers are taking a gamble on a guy that's had multiple back injuries and he's seven feet tall.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: You know, I think it was Zach Lowe that said somebody in a couple years are probably gonna look back on this trade and say they lost it.
20:27
SPEAKER_03: But it was a worthy gamble for both teams, and I truly do believe that as well.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Zach Lowe, though.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: He did come back for the Luca thing, and he came back for one 17-minute clip and then he vanished again to tweet.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: No, man.
20:41
SPEAKER_03: Just do the do the podcast, damn it.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: Do the podcast.
20:44
SPEAKER_03: Because it seemed like you made a way around.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: I ain't trying to get into the weeds, but I know how these contracts work.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: Now I've been in the industry just for a little bit.
20:51
SPEAKER_03: It seemed like you doing the Twitter video might be the way to get around some of the stuff.
20:55
SPEAKER_03: Zachary, Coach Zach, Professor Zach.
20:59
SPEAKER_03: We love you here.
21:00
SPEAKER_03: That's all I'm saying.
21:01
SPEAKER_03: Come back.
21:07
SPEAKER_03: Here's a trade that also happened.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: Karis LeVert, Jordan Yang, a first-round pick swap, least favorable of Cleveland, Utah, and Washington for 2026.
21:16
SPEAKER_03: A first round pick swap in 2028, and three second-round picks for DeAndre Hunter.
21:22
SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is an absolute win for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
21:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, this puts them closer for sure with being able to compete with the Celtics at the end of the day in the seven-game series.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: Because when I watch these two teams go against each other, or I watch just separately, the things that were missing for the Cleveland Cavaliers are these bigger wings that can defend.
21:40
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not saying DeAndre Hunter is about to be a Tatum or Brown stopper, but he gives them a better chance defensively on the wing than anybody else that would have been on that roster.
21:49
SPEAKER_03: And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.
21:51
SPEAKER_03: Um I think this is a huge, huge win.
21:53
SPEAKER_03: Even if DeAndre Hunter is not the player, because I've been skeptical, right?
21:56
SPEAKER_03: I'm skeptical of players that are having career years.
21:59
SPEAKER_03: I just am.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: What about what you're doing today can translate to next season or the year after that?
22:04
SPEAKER_03: Maybe this is a one-hit wonder year for DeAndre Hunter.
22:06
SPEAKER_03: Maybe this is the greatest year of his career until next year when he gets better.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: I've just always a bit skeptical of those type of things.
22:12
SPEAKER_03: But it's still a word of the gamble if you're the Cleveland Cavaliers.
22:15
SPEAKER_03: Because what did you give up?
22:16
SPEAKER_03: Some pick swaps in 2026?
22:18
SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
22:19
SPEAKER_03: Believe it or not, they're going to be good in 2026.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: 2028, believe it or not, they're going to be good in 2028.
22:26
SPEAKER_03: So you really just give up three second-round picks.
22:28
SPEAKER_03: Karis Levert, who does kind of suck to see him go because he's been such a glove to this team.
22:33
SPEAKER_03: If you needed him to play point, he can play point.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: You needed him to play the wing, he can play wing.
22:37
SPEAKER_03: But sometimes he did have overlapping skill set with a Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garla.
22:41
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, he has to go to Atlanta now.
22:43
SPEAKER_03: And then George Nyang, I didn't see a world where George Yang would be able because when you're in the Cleveland Cavaliers, you're this good.
22:49
SPEAKER_03: You are now thinking to yourself, who is our biggest competitor in our conference?
22:54
SPEAKER_03: And granted, there are a lot of good teams out east.
22:56
SPEAKER_03: There are a lot of good teams out east, but they're probably looking at the Celtics.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: They say, hey, how can we really compete with the Celtics?
23:01
SPEAKER_03: A guy like George Niang probably cannot play much in a Celtic series.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: So let's trade him from somebody that we trust a little bit more on the defensive side of the ball.
23:09
SPEAKER_03: Trade him for a player that we trust hitting shots a little bit more.
23:12
SPEAKER_03: And DeAndre Hunter had been one of the best role player bench players in basketball.
23:16
SPEAKER_03: I think he he may start, or it might just be Dean Wade still and just let DeAndre Hunter be that six-man role that he's been all season long.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: I absolutely love this trade from the Cavs' perspective.
23:26
SPEAKER_03: But on the other side of things, the Atlanta Hawks made a couple deals and it surprised me, right?
23:30
SPEAKER_03: Keris Liver, George Yang, some swaps and some second round picks for DeAndre Hunter.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: One of the things I asked the guys like three months ago when DeAndre Hunter had started, well, not three months ago, it was in the middle of December.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: So two months ago, a month and a half ago, was if you were in charge of the Atlanta Hawks, would you sell high on DeAndre Hunter?
23:47
SPEAKER_03: And most of the guys said, yeah, because A, he also fits in that category as guys that never stay healthy.
23:54
SPEAKER_03: And B, you just don't know if this is really him or not.
23:57
SPEAKER_03: So let's sell high.
23:58
SPEAKER_03: Unfortunately for them, selling high in 2025 is really second-round draft compensation.
24:03
SPEAKER_03: And maybe they're they're just smarter, smarter than some other general managers across basketball to recognize that this is not a first-round centric league anymore.
24:11
SPEAKER_03: You're just normally not going to get a ton of first-round draft capital.
24:15
SPEAKER_03: I wish Artunus Carney Shovis kind of recognized that.
24:18
SPEAKER_03: So maybe they're just being proactive, right?
24:20
SPEAKER_03: I still, I still question what is next for the Atlanta Hawks.
24:24
SPEAKER_03: There is a report right after the deadline that Trey Young's future with this team is murky.
24:29
SPEAKER_03: And it only makes sense, right?
24:30
SPEAKER_03: They they sailed DeAndre Hunter.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: And granted, Caris Liver is a good player.
24:33
SPEAKER_03: George Yang is a good enough player to play for the Atlanta Hawks.
24:36
SPEAKER_03: They made another trade where they brought in uh Terrence Mann from the Clippers, who I guess we'll get to a little bit later.
24:41
SPEAKER_03: But they sold some good players.
24:43
SPEAKER_03: And now I look at and I say, what the hell happens with Trey Young?
24:47
SPEAKER_03: Because you didn't know the Atlanta Hawks' first-round pick this year is completely unprotected.
24:51
SPEAKER_03: And right now it has the 10th best odds, but it's not by a lot.
24:54
SPEAKER_03: They go on another loser streak because they were just on an eight-game loser streak, if you didn't know.
24:58
SPEAKER_03: If they go on another loser streak, they have an opportunity to gift, gift wrap a top seven pick to the San Antonio Spurs.
25:04
SPEAKER_03: So the question is, why would you give up a real player in DeAndre Hunter?
25:07
SPEAKER_03: Which also means that you're probably going to give up a real first-round pick, a top 10 first-round pick.
25:12
SPEAKER_03: And the answer is sometimes you kind of have to wash your hands with the situation.
25:17
SPEAKER_03: This is something we saw the Brooklyn Mets do after the KG, Paul Pierce, all of that.
25:21
SPEAKER_03: When that regime was out, when Billy King was out of there, they had to come to the realization we're not, we shouldn't just walk around here and put together really mediocre 30-year-old teams just because we're afraid to give up a first-round pick to a team because somebody else made a train.
25:38
SPEAKER_03: We have to now think about what we have in-house.
25:41
SPEAKER_03: Fuck what we gave up.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: It's not important to us anymore.
25:43
SPEAKER_03: It's not ours.
25:44
SPEAKER_03: We shouldn't be looking at the Spurs and hoping that we don't give them a good pick.
25:47
SPEAKER_03: Let's focus in-house.
25:49
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's what they're doing there.
25:50
SPEAKER_03: They get a few second-round picks, they get a few pick swaps, and they just focus internally.
25:55
SPEAKER_03: But focusing internally, when you think about who Trey Young is, and you think about when the Dallas Mavericks went on their run last season, you remember Luca Dante's play for the Dallas Mavericks?
26:04
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of crazy.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: When they went on their run last season, all of the tweets, all of the Instagram posts that Trey Young liked revolving around Luca and revolving around what at that point, good GM Nico Harrison.
26:16
SPEAKER_03: Good GM Nico Harrison had done.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: There's one specifically where they were just going through the timeline of them trying to get Porzingis.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: Then it worked out.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: All right, we flip him from here, and then we get this, and now we got PJ, and now we got Daniel Gaffer, and now we got this, now we got that, and boom, we're in the finals.
26:29
SPEAKER_03: And Trey Young is like, damn, must be nice.
26:32
SPEAKER_03: I've been asking for good players, competent players here in Atlanta for forever.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: So for them to throw out another good player, and I saw Double O and Yekka Kongo tweet like a broken heart emoji after the DeAndre Hunter trade, I would not be surprised if Trey Young is like, it's time.
26:47
SPEAKER_03: I don't think any Atlanta Hawks fan would be able to fault him.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: You can tell he cares about Atlanta.
26:51
SPEAKER_03: You can tell he wants to be a Hawk.
26:52
SPEAKER_03: But if the front office can't put a competent enough team around him where every single season they're going to be fighting to be 500 or be slightly below 500, you can't blame him if he walks into that office and says, Time.
27:04
SPEAKER_03: I've given you this many years of our of my life, and we had one playoff run in the entirety of it, man.
27:09
SPEAKER_03: There are teams out there that could use my services with better front offices, with better pieces.
27:13
SPEAKER_03: And when he was uh going into the draft, he like interviewed with the Orlando Magic.
27:17
SPEAKER_03: So I tweeted out a picture of him from that press conference.
27:19
SPEAKER_03: The Orlando Magic should call because goddammit, they didn't make no trades.
27:22
SPEAKER_03: They set Pat and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit later.
27:25
SPEAKER_03: But yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if Trey Young is on the move this offseason, which kind of sucked because I like his fit in there.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: I like him as an Atlanta Hawk player.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: But sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, so so shout out to that.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: While we're here, we'll talk about the next trade that the Atlanta Hawks did, which is bringing the bones highlander, Terrence Man for Bogdanovich.
27:45
SPEAKER_03: They also get some pick swaps.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: Fine.
27:48
SPEAKER_03: Bogdanovich isn't bad this season.
27:50
SPEAKER_03: He's just straight up in bad.
27:51
SPEAKER_03: And um, this might just be regression because he's he's older than most people recognize, you know, Bogdanovich, but you know, you're able to get some second-round draft capital for a guy that was bad anyway.
28:00
SPEAKER_03: Fine.
28:01
SPEAKER_03: The only bad thing about it, you brought in long-term, a long-term contract in Terrence Mann, who just signed what, a three-year,$45 million extension not too long ago.
28:09
SPEAKER_03: And Terrence Mann, believe it or not, also bad.
28:13
SPEAKER_03: Um how about we talk about the biggest loser of the deadline, the Suns, because they made a trade.
28:19
SPEAKER_03: Yusuf Nurkic in a first-round pick, it's the least favorable of seven teams.
28:22
SPEAKER_03: It's a first round of a damn it, it's not at the same time.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: For Cody Martin, Michic in a second round pick.
28:30
SPEAKER_03: This team have been in conversations for everybody.
28:35
SPEAKER_03: One thing I think I mentioned is last time we talked about the Phoenix Suns.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: One thing I appreciate about the Suns and their new ownership is how much they are willing to zag when everybody's zigging.
28:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're gonna have three, the three of the 10 most expensive players in basketball and B500, and damn it, we still not gonna sell.
28:52
SPEAKER_03: Actually, we're gonna try to buy as much as we can.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: And they gave up a first-round pick to get off Nurkic and got back Cody Martin, who's a fine NBA player.
28:59
SPEAKER_03: He can't shoot, but he's a fine NBA player.
29:01
SPEAKER_03: He helps, I guess.
29:04
SPEAKER_03: And there were so many conversations about Kevin.
29:06
SPEAKER_03: And I thought honestly, that there was a world where Kevin did get dealt.
29:10
SPEAKER_03: And then I thought to myself, what is the benefit there?
29:15
SPEAKER_03: Do we truly believe that the trade packages that are out for Kevin Durant today in February 6th, 2025, will be better than what they are in the offseason?
29:23
SPEAKER_03: Probably not.
29:24
SPEAKER_03: I think that those same trades will be there and more in the offseason.
29:28
SPEAKER_03: When one seems to really figure out who they are and what they want to do.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: So even though it's been crazy to see a Luka Doncic, De'Aaron Fox, Kevin Durant trade that line, it's not really it.
29:39
SPEAKER_03: And now they got to sit there and just be average for the rest of the season.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: They got to sit there and just be average for the rest of the season.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: Another opportunity for the Charlotte Hornets.
29:51
SPEAKER_03: And again, I gotta give them that credit, man.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: Since the new regime has taken over, they've accumulated a lot of draft capital.
29:56
SPEAKER_03: Will they draft well with it?
29:58
SPEAKER_03: Time will tell, because we really don't have that big of a sample size to know whether or not they're good drafters in their front office.
30:03
SPEAKER_03: But they've done a really good job of quiring not just first round picks, but second round picks, who what we've seen over the last couple of years, these second round picks are pretty damn valuable.
30:13
SPEAKER_03: Like four first or four second round picks is pretty damn valuable.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: So if you if you got a treasure trove of 16 of them, I'm just saying you could be buyers or you can use them all.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
30:22
SPEAKER_03: So that's another one of the trades.
30:24
SPEAKER_03: Before we get to the next one, I want to talk about how some things have shifted across basketball, man.
30:27
SPEAKER_03: We got to talk about it.
30:28
SPEAKER_03: The trade down line is definitely one of those places where you will see odds shift.
30:33
SPEAKER_03: And the Spurs.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: The Spurs odds shifted.
30:36
SPEAKER_03: Now, let's not act like the Spurs are championship team.
30:38
SPEAKER_03: But before they traded for De'Aaron Fox, if you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, you would have seen that they had a plus 790 chance to make the playoffs.
30:46
SPEAKER_03: Now the odds have jumped to 430, and now they sit pretty standard at four plus 470.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: Pretty good.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: Pretty good.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
30:54
SPEAKER_03: Pretty good.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: We get to like the Sacramento Kings.
30:58
SPEAKER_03: We start talking about playoffs for them.
31:00
SPEAKER_03: They were a plus 205.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: You know, they were on a nice little streak under Doug Christie.
31:04
SPEAKER_03: They've dropped just a little bit since they brought in Zach Levine at plus 310.
31:09
SPEAKER_03: But since the rest of the deadline has happened, it's back up to a plus 225.
31:13
SPEAKER_03: Not too bad.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: What about the finals?
31:15
SPEAKER_03: Forget about making the playoffs.
31:16
SPEAKER_03: We're talking about playing teams, the NBA finals.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: You know, the Dallas Mavericks did something, didn't they?
31:22
SPEAKER_03: They had a plus 2,000 chance.
31:24
SPEAKER_03: And actually, I kind of like those odds.
31:26
SPEAKER_03: If you remember my episode a little while ago when I was talking about contenders, I firmly hit the Dallas Mavericks as a contender.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: Not anymore.
31:32
SPEAKER_03: Those things have shifted to plus 410 or 4,100.
31:36
SPEAKER_03: So the odds are always shifting.
31:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh another big winner here is, of course, the Lakers, as you can imagine.
31:42
SPEAKER_03: When you bring in a guy like Luka Doncic, they were from the team before the 80 trade where they were plus 4,000.
31:47
SPEAKER_03: Now they're plus 2,500.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: All I'm saying, and they're currently that plus 2,000, all I'm saying is that the things are shifting.
31:53
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33:03
SPEAKER_03: All right, all right.
33:04
SPEAKER_03: Let's get back to um some some more trades because one of the more peculiar deadlines um has to come from the Vancouver Grizzlies.
33:14
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no.
33:15
SPEAKER_03: It's the Memphis Grizzlies.
33:16
SPEAKER_03: I'm looking at a picture of them in their Vancouver jersey.
33:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, they did a couple things.
33:20
SPEAKER_03: The first one is the Grizzlies receiver Marvin Bagley, Johnny Davis, two second-round picks, shipping Jake LaRavia to the Kings.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: I think that's a good pickup for the Kings.
33:28
SPEAKER_03: Not that Jake LaRavia is about to save them.
33:29
SPEAKER_03: He's not the defender that they need, but he's better than the people that they set out, which is Kobe Jones, Alex Lynn, and Marcus Smart, who's going to the Washington Wizards.
33:37
SPEAKER_03: This is one of those trades that was just really surprising to me.
33:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, I give a lot of credit to the Memphis Grizzlies because they've been able to find diamond in the rough after diamond in the rough after diamond in the rough.
33:45
SPEAKER_03: Jake LaRavia is one of those guys.
33:47
SPEAKER_03: Santi Obama's one of those guys.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: Vince Williams, like we can go on and on of all of the cool stories.
33:52
SPEAKER_03: Uh Jalen Wells, who's a candy for a All-Star a few weeks back, they've done a really good job of finding talent and places in the draft that you normally don't find a ton of talent.
34:00
SPEAKER_03: So congratulations.
34:02
SPEAKER_03: But then they did the one move, which was trading two first-round picks and Tyus Jones to bring in Marcus Smart for Marcus Smart to basically.
34:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna say it.
34:11
SPEAKER_03: Marcus Smart didn't even play for this team.
34:12
SPEAKER_03: I swear to you, I can count on a single hand how many times I've seen Marcus Smart do anything for the for the Memphis Grizzlies.
34:18
SPEAKER_03: And now they're trading things away to get off of the money.
34:22
SPEAKER_03: It's a miss.
34:23
SPEAKER_03: Straight up a miss.
34:25
SPEAKER_03: They gave up multiple picks for Marcus Smart for him to be eight injury-prone in his tenure with the Grizzlies and then gave up stuff to get rid of him.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: It's uh ultimately it's just a bad, bad look.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: Again, I like it for the Kings.
34:37
SPEAKER_03: The Kings walk out of there with a rotational player when they desperately needed somebody that can hit threes.
34:41
SPEAKER_03: Jake LaVia is a low, uh, low frequency, high efficiency type of guy, and that's kind of what you kind of need in Sacramento.
34:48
SPEAKER_03: Zach Levin comes in, he had some three-point variants, and now you get Jake LaRavia who could do that as well.
34:52
SPEAKER_03: And then I feel like the Wizards have been running pretty damn well over the last deadline.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: So shout out to them.
34:58
SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna get to them doing another deal, but them bringing in uh Kobe Jones, Alex Land, Marcus Smart, a first-round pick.
35:04
SPEAKER_03: Like that's huge.
35:05
SPEAKER_03: This first round pick for the Memphis Grizzlies is unprotected, and it's this year.
35:08
SPEAKER_03: And as of right now, that is the 27th overall pick.
35:10
SPEAKER_03: And we are the Washington Wizards, who are, when you think about it, with the new regime, this is what year, is this year two of the new regime?
35:18
SPEAKER_03: A similar situation where you want to bring in your guys.
35:20
SPEAKER_03: Last year they had, what, three first-round picks and they traded for AJ Johnson a couple days back as well.
35:26
SPEAKER_03: Sorry, the Chris Middleton trade.
35:27
SPEAKER_03: So they basically have four first-round picks from the 2024 draft.
35:30
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't the most crazy draft, but they're taking a lot of bites at the apple, and I like that.
35:36
SPEAKER_03: And when you are a rebuilding team, I think that's very important because out of those four first-round picks, if two of them are real NBA players and one of them is an all-star-calibred player, absolutely a big ass win.
35:47
SPEAKER_03: So shout out to the Washington Wizards.
35:49
SPEAKER_03: I still can't really watch y'all play, even though I did see Bilau with a triple dub the other night.
35:53
SPEAKER_03: Big win.
35:54
SPEAKER_03: All right, some of these trades are such minuscule trades, but I guess we'll get to Cody Zeller in a second round pick, getting brought in by the Houston Rockets.
36:05
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, it's not worth talking about.
36:06
SPEAKER_03: It's not worth talking about.
36:07
SPEAKER_03: Um how how about, how about, how about this one?
36:11
SPEAKER_03: How about this one?
36:12
SPEAKER_03: Um, Jonas Valenciunis going to the Kings.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: The Kings are very active.
36:15
SPEAKER_03: La Ravia, Valenciunis, Zach Levine is the three guys they brought in.
36:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh De'Aaron Fox goes out the door, some other players, but it's really just De'Arn Fox that when we think about what matters.
36:25
SPEAKER_03: And Zach Levine already has played his first game, and it was uh it was bad.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: Not from Zach Levine's standpoint, but just as a team, they struggle to score, they struggle to get stops.
36:33
SPEAKER_03: And again, we're talking about the first game.
36:35
SPEAKER_03: Let's not super overreact to any of this.
36:37
SPEAKER_03: But um, it was weird for me as a Bulls fan to see my boy Zach Levine in a whole different jersey.
36:42
SPEAKER_03: That was that was something.
36:44
SPEAKER_03: Still don't feel real.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, bringing in Jonas Valentinous is cool.
36:48
SPEAKER_03: Like, obviously, upgrade over Alex Lynn, obvious upgrader over anybody they have running center, but like they got a type, bro.
36:55
SPEAKER_03: I would I would say Sacramento has a type, and it is Lithuanian center.
36:59
SPEAKER_03: That is, that is the type.
37:01
SPEAKER_03: We had some other pretty, pretty big deals when we talk about um Chris Middleton.
37:06
SPEAKER_03: This is one of the ones that surprised me the most.
37:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, basically, all you need to know is that Chris Middleton was traded to the Wizards, and they have said that they are not buying him out.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: They want to bring him there for his mentorship.
37:18
SPEAKER_03: And they also said they want to bring him in to be an alpha, an alpha male in the locker room.
37:25
SPEAKER_03: That feels weird to say in 2025, but that's what they said.
37:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, so he's not being bought out.
37:29
SPEAKER_03: And now Marcus Smart, too.
37:30
SPEAKER_03: So Marcus Smart's gonna be teaching some defense to these younger dudes.
37:32
SPEAKER_03: Chris Winnerson is gonna be teaching some turnaround mid-range fadeaways and how to be a co-star alongside Giannis.
37:37
SPEAKER_03: And Giannis for the Wizards is Bilaukuliballi.
37:40
SPEAKER_03: It's actually a win.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: It's it feels weird to see him get flipped for specifically Cal Kuzman.
37:44
SPEAKER_03: And I waited.
37:45
SPEAKER_03: And I waited, and I waited because this has to be the first deal of many for the Memphis for the Milwaukee Bucks.
37:51
SPEAKER_03: No, it wasn't.
37:54
SPEAKER_03: It was really just this and in the AJ Johnson trade.
37:56
SPEAKER_03: I I oh no, AJ Johnson's in this trade.
37:58
SPEAKER_03: So, like it was a big surprise to me.
38:01
SPEAKER_03: And I'm not gonna say you're an act like Chris Middleton was as good this year, has been as good this year as he was in the playoffs, or as good this year as he was two years ago.
38:08
SPEAKER_03: That's not what I'm doing here.
38:10
SPEAKER_03: But I think the difference between what Chris Middleton has provided you and the difference between what Kal Kuzma is gonna provide is so minuscule that this trade feels like it was unnecessary from the the standpoint of the Milwaukee Bucks.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: Why trade away one of the best players in in your franchise history for a guy that's been ass?
38:33
SPEAKER_03: I'll say it, he's been ass.
38:35
SPEAKER_03: Now, there are some things that you can be optimistic about.
38:38
SPEAKER_03: Last time we saw Cal Kuzma be the third option versus the first option, he was pretty damn good.
38:43
SPEAKER_03: He was a big defender who gave a damn and his shot selection wasn't that bad, though he's not a good three-point shooter, never really been a good three-point shooter, more of a streaky guy.
38:52
SPEAKER_03: He provided a lot of value as a third guy, and you hope that even though he's three years, four years removed since then, that he can get back into that book.
39:01
SPEAKER_03: But also, I watched him and and heard him say when he was a part of the Wizards that he's done helping people develop, that he's gonna get his own.
39:08
SPEAKER_03: I hope he ain't coming to Milwaukee with that mindset.
39:11
SPEAKER_03: Because getting your own is gonna get your ass benched.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: So it just felt it felt it felt very weird.
39:15
SPEAKER_03: And then they gave him a first-round pick.
39:17
SPEAKER_03: And when you think about AJ Johnson, and I remember the time of the trade, um, people didn't see AJ Johnson as a first-round type of talent.
39:24
SPEAKER_03: He did just have 18 points in a blowout game a couple nights before that, so shout out to him.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: But maybe this is not really a first-round pick because AJ Johnson might not be that level of talent, but it's a worried to gamble for the wizard side of things.
39:35
SPEAKER_03: It just confused the hell out of me.
39:37
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, this can't be it because now they were below the second eight, which means that they can aggregate contracts a little bit more.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's already been rumors about Bobby.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: There's rumors about Pat Connerton, and even when Giannis was asked about Chris Middleton being gone, he said, I'm not even gonna try to do the accent again.
39:51
SPEAKER_03: He basically said, like, it felt the same as when we traded Drew Holiday.
39:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that it's not something you get used to, even if we trade Pat Connerton or we trade Chris Middleton or you we trade Bobby Porter.
40:03
SPEAKER_03: This is gonna feel the same.
40:03
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, damn, he basically said that that shit is over.
40:06
SPEAKER_03: They're gonna they're gonna shift them out.
40:07
SPEAKER_03: They didn't.
40:08
SPEAKER_03: It felt like there was something else to be done.
40:10
SPEAKER_03: And you know, one thing that we as fans we always do is we complain about nothing happening, but we don't we don't really know what John Horst was up to.
40:17
SPEAKER_03: He could have had a deal at the finish line that was evolving around these two dudes and it fell through because something else happened, right?
40:22
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe there was something else to be done and it didn't happen, and now you got Kyle Kuzma on your team instead of Chris Middleton.
40:30
SPEAKER_03: I don't love it though.
40:31
SPEAKER_03: I'll just say that straight up.
40:32
SPEAKER_03: I do not love his fit here.
40:34
SPEAKER_03: Um, mostly because I don't know if we could tap back into that third option bad from our guy Kyle Kuzma.
40:40
SPEAKER_03: Um can I can I can I rant a little bit?
40:43
SPEAKER_03: Is my show right?
40:45
SPEAKER_03: Um my favorite team, the Chicago Bulls, have put me through a third trade deadline of straight agony.
40:57
SPEAKER_03: The last two trade deadlines, we uh did nothing, literally nothing.
41:01
SPEAKER_03: Set on our hands, went to the podium and said we were on the phone a lot, nothing materialized.
41:06
SPEAKER_03: The first time that happens, you say, Oh, okay, that sucks, but it is what it is.
41:12
SPEAKER_03: Happened a second time, you look at yourself as a fool for believing in the first time, but you also look at the guy that's talking and think he's a fool as well.
41:19
SPEAKER_03: This time around, they did do a deal.
41:20
SPEAKER_03: Zach Levin is in the Sacramento.
41:22
SPEAKER_03: If you didn't, if you don't remember, we got back Trey Jones, Kevin Herter, Zach Collins.
41:27
SPEAKER_03: Good luck to them guys here in Chicago.
41:28
SPEAKER_03: And we got back the rights of our own first-round pick.
41:31
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
41:33
SPEAKER_03: So a team with no direction.
41:37
SPEAKER_03: A team with no direction.
41:39
SPEAKER_03: The team has six point guards on the team.
41:41
SPEAKER_03: Six point guards.
41:42
SPEAKER_03: Six of them.
41:43
SPEAKER_03: The other night we started four of them at the same time with Wooch.
41:49
SPEAKER_03: And then I'm getting I'm getting I'm getting flustered here, okay?
41:53
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to contain my anger.
41:57
SPEAKER_03: And uh Bulls fan.
41:58
SPEAKER_03: There's nobody in Bulls fandom that's looking at this and saying, hey, let's give this guy the benefit of the doubt.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Because you remember the previous times we gave you the benefit of the doubt?
42:07
SPEAKER_03: And then we get to the press release, the presser.
42:11
SPEAKER_03: And one thing I do want to say, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our reporters and all our writers in the Chicagoland area that was in that room because they absolutely grilled that man.
42:22
SPEAKER_03: They absolutely grilled that man.
42:24
SPEAKER_03: And I've seen, you know, front office people get lobbed softball after softball after softball when they do some stupid shit.
42:32
SPEAKER_03: So now that I know that, like, even though I ain't been a huge fan of Joe Crowley in his writing, he was on ass.
42:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, KC Johnson, on ass.
42:42
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
42:43
SPEAKER_03: So shout out to them.
42:44
SPEAKER_03: They made that brother think they made him sweat.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: And he didn't answer a single question correctly.
42:50
SPEAKER_03: Not a single one.
42:52
SPEAKER_03: And some of my my the craziest quotes, some of the craziest things that a GM has ever said was said in that press conference.
43:00
SPEAKER_03: Nobody's gonna care outside of Bulls fans because why would you care?
43:02
SPEAKER_03: If you're an Orlando Magic fan, why the fuck would you care about what our Tunis County shows are saying?
43:05
SPEAKER_03: But can I can I tell you some of the stuff that he has said on all right?
43:09
SPEAKER_03: Um he first of all came in with a written thing.
43:12
SPEAKER_03: He's reading, he's reading off two papers.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: Thank you to Zach Levine, which is warranted.
43:16
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Zach Levine for his eight years of service here in Chicago.
43:19
SPEAKER_03: That's basically what it is fucking service to be a part of this franchise.
43:22
SPEAKER_03: It's not even a luxury anymore.
43:23
SPEAKER_03: The Bulls used to be a place with a bunch of things going for them, never again.
43:27
SPEAKER_03: He's saying thank you to Zach Levine.
43:28
SPEAKER_03: He talks about how they're always on the phone.
43:30
SPEAKER_03: He but he still likes this group, nothing materialized, and he'll have to wait to the offseason because he planted some seeds.
43:38
SPEAKER_03: You planted some seeds?
43:41
SPEAKER_03: Fuck out of here.
43:44
SPEAKER_03: You planted some seeds?
43:48
SPEAKER_03: This man, um someone, and I wish I wrote it down again, they were grilling him, and they mentioned that this roster right now has a bunch of guards.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: It just does.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: Everybody knows, everybody knows that.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: And our students Carney Stow has kept saying these last 30 games, we're going to see what we have and we're going to make a decision from there.
44:05
SPEAKER_03: We see what we have, we're going to make a decision from there.
44:06
SPEAKER_03: And then somebody's asked him, like, hey, how do you expect to see what you have if every single person on the roster plays the same position outside of Vooch?
44:14
SPEAKER_03: And you know what he said?
44:16
SPEAKER_03: A couple nights ago, when we played the Celtics, we ran four point guards, and I liked it.
44:27
SPEAKER_03: Are you being for real?
44:30
SPEAKER_03: It was contradiction after contradiction after contradiction.
44:35
SPEAKER_03: We're not a team about meteorcrity, but if we made the plan I look at that as a success.
44:43
SPEAKER_03: Are you serious?
44:45
SPEAKER_03: This is what's gonna happen.
44:46
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna lay out the timeline.
44:49
SPEAKER_03: Because there's a zero, there's zero reason for Vusevich to be on the on our team right now.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: Because this is not just from the reporting that you see on the internet, this is from reporting that I know from people.
44:57
SPEAKER_03: I'm tapped in a little bit.
45:01
SPEAKER_03: The Warriors are really interested.
45:03
SPEAKER_03: The Warriors are really aggressive.
45:06
SPEAKER_03: They were.
45:47
SPEAKER_03: And you let the other pieces fall.
45:50
SPEAKER_03: Seven teams called about Kobe White, and Kobe White is my favorite player in all of basketball.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: I fucking love Kobe White.
45:57
SPEAKER_03: You trying to tell me nobody gave you a decent offer for Kobe White?
46:01
SPEAKER_03: You know what's gonna happen?
46:03
SPEAKER_03: There's only a couple things that could happen here.
46:05
SPEAKER_03: Kobe White is on maybe the best, one of the three best contracts in all of basketball, giving us production to give the a little amount of money that he's getting paid.
46:12
SPEAKER_03: Next year, he's going into a contract year.
46:15
SPEAKER_03: He will be an expiring contract, which means that he will objectively be less valuable on the market.
46:23
SPEAKER_03: You're not getting some extra draft compensation if he's only gonna be on the team for seven months before the team has to pay him.
46:29
SPEAKER_03: When I tell you the Orlando Magic called for Kobe White, they did.
46:32
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what that trade looked like.
46:34
SPEAKER_03: I don't know the specific.
46:35
SPEAKER_03: When I tell you the Orlando Magic called, they did.
46:39
SPEAKER_03: Not the materialized.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: Shout out Morgan Park.
46:47
SPEAKER_03: There's no way Casey Johnson should be reporting that teams across leagues see him as untouchable to Atrunis Carney's Ovus.
46:56
SPEAKER_03: Like, we don't even know if IO is legitimately a starting caliber player in the league.
47:01
SPEAKER_03: Are you being for real?
47:05
SPEAKER_03: You couldn't find a spot for Trey Jones.
47:07
SPEAKER_03: Fine, he's expiring contract.
47:08
SPEAKER_03: But then Casey Johnson said that Trey Jones, Trey Jones, has a legitimate chance of being on the roster past the end of his contract.
47:17
SPEAKER_03: We have six point guards.
47:20
SPEAKER_03: You want to resign Trey Jones on top of having to resign Josh Giddy.
47:26
SPEAKER_03: I am mind blown at the malpractice and incompetences of this team.
47:33
SPEAKER_03: I just give my blood pressure high.
47:35
SPEAKER_03: That's what's happening.
47:38
SPEAKER_03: I just don't know if I'll I'll see, like, I'm I'm gonna be 30 in a few years.
47:46
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I'll see the Bulls win a playoff series in the next decade.
47:52
SPEAKER_03: Is that fucking wild?
47:53
SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's a crazy take.
47:55
SPEAKER_03: I don't think I'll see the Bulls win a playoff series for the next decade.
47:59
SPEAKER_03: This madman is telling us that if they make the plan, it's a successful season.
48:03
SPEAKER_03: Well, everybody in the league is laughing at him.
48:07
SPEAKER_03: Everybody in the league.
48:09
SPEAKER_03: The NBA player connections that I had when when the um which trade?
48:13
SPEAKER_03: The Marty Rosen trade happened.
48:14
SPEAKER_03: Or no, sorry, the De'Arra Fox trade happened with Zach LeVee.
48:17
SPEAKER_03: I got a call from an NBA player that when I answered the phone, it's a FaceTime.
48:22
SPEAKER_03: I answered the phone.
48:24
SPEAKER_03: No words were said.
48:25
SPEAKER_03: He literally just laughed.
48:29
SPEAKER_03: He literally just laughed.
48:32
SPEAKER_03: That's just one example, Kenny.
48:34
SPEAKER_03: It can't be that bad.
48:36
SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, I'm leaving it.
48:37
SPEAKER_03: I'm leaving it.
48:38
SPEAKER_03: I'm leaving it.
48:39
SPEAKER_03: All I need to tell you is that it is widely known across the league that that man doesn't know what the hell he's doing.
48:45
SPEAKER_03: And everybody outside of the league, and I'm talking about the fans, understand that as well.
48:49
SPEAKER_03: The only people that don't understand it or don't care are the people that are in charge.
48:54
SPEAKER_03: Don't let me be in the same room with the Reinsdorf.
48:56
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
48:57
SPEAKER_03: Don't put me in the same room as a Reinsdorf.
48:59
SPEAKER_03: Because I don't I don't I don't I don't I leave it at that.
49:02
SPEAKER_03: That's a trade outline, though.
49:05
SPEAKER_03: Um was surprised to see the Atlanta Magic didn't get a deal done.
49:08
SPEAKER_03: Um was surprised to see Cam Johnson still on the Brooklyn Nets.
49:12
SPEAKER_03: Maybe they set their own prices too high, asking for two first-round picks.
49:15
SPEAKER_03: But as the time was dwindling, I kind of figured that they would accept.
49:18
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure there was a first-round pickout for him, but maybe not.
49:21
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
49:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, so the fact they held on to him was very interesting.
49:25
SPEAKER_03: He's another one of those players that like I'm not completely sure if I trust what he's doing this season.
49:29
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Cam.
49:29
SPEAKER_03: He's a great guy.
49:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I would have sold.
49:32
SPEAKER_03: I would have I would just I would have just sold on that.
49:34
SPEAKER_03: Um who else?
49:36
SPEAKER_03: Who else?
49:36
SPEAKER_03: Who else?
49:37
SPEAKER_03: Uh the Putin Charl Blazers didn't get anything done, right?
49:40
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
49:40
SPEAKER_03: Did they get anything?
49:41
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if they got a single thing done.
49:43
SPEAKER_03: If it if they did get something done, it was one of the minor deals.
49:45
SPEAKER_03: Nothing like Jeremy Grant, DeAndre Aiden, um, all of these guys are still on the roster.
49:50
SPEAKER_03: So that's something.
49:50
SPEAKER_03: They've been a good basketball team as of late anyway.
49:52
SPEAKER_03: Five-game win streak, nine of their last 10.
49:54
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to them.
49:55
SPEAKER_03: I thought they were playing so well.
49:56
SPEAKER_03: They was gonna force the Suns to go into a full rebuild.
49:59
SPEAKER_03: Nah, that's not the case.
50:00
SPEAKER_03: Um is that is that everybody?
50:02
SPEAKER_03: I think that might be everybody, y'all.
50:04
SPEAKER_03: I think that might be everybody.
50:05
SPEAKER_03: And that Pacers also didn't do anything.
50:07
SPEAKER_03: I think that's okay.
50:08
SPEAKER_03: I thought there was a world where they did consolidations, but I also got um word that they weren't looking to make many moves.
50:13
SPEAKER_03: They were gonna answer calls, but not necessarily pick the phone up.
50:17
SPEAKER_03: Seemed like that probably was the case.
50:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, before we get out of here, I'm gonna bring in uh producer Greg for a five out.
50:28
SPEAKER_03: Greg, how are we feeling today, man?
50:30
SPEAKER_03: Trade that line.
50:30
SPEAKER_03: Your team did something big.
50:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I'm I feel good.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: To me, something had to be done.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: I was prepared for nothing to be done, and to really question whether I would continue watching the team this season, just knowing that they were not trying to be competitive.
50:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know what?
50:47
SPEAKER_01: It does not make us contenders, but it makes us competitive and worth watching.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: So I'm happy.
50:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you should be.
50:54
SPEAKER_03: You should be.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, question for you.
50:57
SPEAKER_01: If you could change the trade deadline in any way, whether it's the timing of it, whether it's how trades are reported, would you change anything?
51:07
SPEAKER_01: How what what would you change?
51:09
SPEAKER_03: I don't think I would change anything.
51:10
SPEAKER_03: I like I like the because someone said that we should do it during all-star weekend.
51:14
SPEAKER_03: I don't like that at all.
51:15
SPEAKER_03: Like it happened, I think it fell that way once, and that was when Boogie got traded, or whatsoever, whatsoever.
51:19
SPEAKER_03: Um I kind of like this runway because the the league is so dead to like the average fan um until All-Star.
51:29
SPEAKER_03: This gives like a little joke.
51:30
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm in a I'm in a different circle than a lot of people.
51:33
SPEAKER_03: I could not care less about what the hell is gonna happen on Sunday, the big game, the Super Bowl, because the trade deadline has been so crazy, right?
51:40
SPEAKER_03: So I kind of like the momentum that goes into All-Star.
51:44
SPEAKER_03: And we had one all like one this year all-star get moved, right?
51:48
SPEAKER_03: Because Luca's not an all-star because of his injury.
51:49
SPEAKER_03: So Anthony Davis get on a new team.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: So I like it the way it is.
51:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, they should allow fans to like use like a radio scanner to listen to the trade negotiations.
52:01
SPEAKER_03: That's that's we should definitely do.
52:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, that's the one.
52:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think Steve Kerr brought up the the all-star thing.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: And it it is it is weird to, you know, for a guy like Andrew Wiggins to be warming up in Utah and 30 minutes before the game and just not play and be headed to a new city.
52:19
SPEAKER_01: That is a I mean, these guys make make millions of dollars, so it is what it is, but it's it's it doesn't really happen in any other line of work.
52:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think that that's maybe the biggest complaint of it all is that even though the trades and stuff are so cool, this week of basketball feels like it doesn't matter, right?
52:35
SPEAKER_03: Like they had a what Celtics versus um Cavs the other night.
52:39
SPEAKER_03: And though I was watching, I was thinking about trade.
52:42
SPEAKER_03: Like I was literally legitimately thinking about trades, and then we saw some big game winners, and I got locked back in like the other night.
52:47
SPEAKER_03: It was Darius Garland against uh Pistons.
52:49
SPEAKER_03: So I was locked back in, but it feels like the games don't matter because you don't even know if this person is gonna be on the team past Thursday.
52:56
SPEAKER_03: That'll be the only complaint, but I just feel like that's just a product of it all.
53:00
SPEAKER_03: I still wouldn't change it.
53:01
SPEAKER_01: And I totally agree that those these games feel like they either don't matter or are less serious.
53:06
SPEAKER_01: And I have to keep reminding myself like, for example, last night's Warriors Jazz game, which felt pretty unserious, that loss, or if they won, counts the same as a major game in April or a major game in you know early in the season.
53:22
SPEAKER_01: And it's a win is a win, a loss is a loss.
53:24
SPEAKER_01: So it's frustrating, I think, to uh to watch a game like that, uh, knowing a lot of the guys aren't fully engaged or or mentally in it, but that game counts the same.
53:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
53:35
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes you see a team with seven bodies, like legitimately don't have anybody because they just did a trade three hours ago.
53:41
SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, it would it would suck to be half a game out and you think about the Jazz beating you on Wednesday night, you know, and it's like uh, but yeah, it's I don't hey, I don't know if there's a fix to that.
53:51
SPEAKER_03: I think we just have to roll the punches and hope that your coach coaches well when he only has seven people, I guess.
53:56
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
54:02
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to producer Greg.
54:04
SPEAKER_03: He should be really excited about the Golden State Warriors.
54:06
SPEAKER_03: Now we're going to get into my favorite segment.
54:09
SPEAKER_03: Ask KB.
54:10
SPEAKER_03: All you gotta do is hit up, hit us up at Enjoy Smallball on Instagram, hit us up on Twitter.
54:14
SPEAKER_03: We try our very best to answer some of your questions.
54:16
SPEAKER_03: Let's see what we got today.
54:18
SPEAKER_00: If the NBA did ever add a 1v1 tournament and made it in classes of 6'4 and shorter, 6'5 to 6'9, and 6'10 and above, who would you have winning each class?
54:29
SPEAKER_00: And why do you think this person would win?
54:32
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
54:33
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
54:34
SPEAKER_03: Um, I love the classes because I think everybody's just like Kevin Durant's gonna win.
54:37
SPEAKER_03: But like, no, no, we got we got three different games going on.
54:40
SPEAKER_03: I think let's assume that everybody's playing like they care, and it's not a normal all-star thing when you have ass in it.
54:45
SPEAKER_03: When it comes to 6'4 and below, I think a guy like everybody knows Kyrie Irving's one of the best one-on-one players in basketball.
54:52
SPEAKER_03: Specifically what he always talk about, that he be he was busting Kyrie Irvin ads.
54:56
SPEAKER_03: I don't really believe that too much.
54:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, I would probably go like Kyrie Irvin or another sneaky guy, just because he's so like so strong and so stocky would be like a I think Donovan Mitchell would do very well in a one-on-one tournament with people his own size.
55:10
SPEAKER_03: Um, where are we classifying Kevin Durant, by the way?
55:13
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes he's listed 6'9, sometimes he's listed as 6'11.
55:15
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
55:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna put him in the bigs conversation.
55:19
SPEAKER_03: Hey, he's he's winning that by the way.
55:20
SPEAKER_03: Him or Joel Embiid if we're getting a healthy Jojo.
55:23
SPEAKER_03: For the wings, ooh, that's such a good question.
55:26
SPEAKER_03: Which wing do I feel like would win a one-on-one tournament?
55:29
SPEAKER_03: Um I hmm, you said six four.
55:34
SPEAKER_03: So like Shea technically fits here, and I think he has all of the moves to win.
55:38
SPEAKER_03: He's silky smooth.
55:39
SPEAKER_03: It's hard to stay in front of him.
55:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, he's got a oh my god, Jalen Brunson for the smaller guys, too.
55:45
SPEAKER_03: I think about having counter after counter after counter.
55:47
SPEAKER_03: It's a good defense.
55:48
SPEAKER_03: Jalen Brunson's one of them guys.
55:50
SPEAKER_03: I'm giving you three answers.
55:52
SPEAKER_03: How about that?
55:52
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna I'm gonna give you Carrie Irvin, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson.
55:56
SPEAKER_03: Then we get to the wings.
55:58
SPEAKER_03: I think I'm putting Shay because he's wing size.
56:01
SPEAKER_03: I think I'm putting I'm putting Shay.
56:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm putting Paolo in there because technically they're in the same class, and I look at Paolo as like this super big tough shot maker.
56:13
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it doesn't translate to the five-on-five, but he just looks like a guy that could just win one-on-one tournaments.
56:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, I'll put Luca in there as well, and then when it comes to the bigs, I'll go KD.
56:24
SPEAKER_03: Huh?
56:26
SPEAKER_03: Uh Jimmy?
56:28
SPEAKER_03: Jimmy in a one-on-one, I'm putting I'm taking Shay over Jimmy in a one-on-one.
56:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm Jimmy has a better case against Palo, but I think I might still take Palo.
56:42
SPEAKER_03: Believe it or not.
56:43
SPEAKER_03: I think he's just gonna be bigger.
56:44
SPEAKER_03: Um my bigs though, I'm gonna go Kevin Durant.
56:48
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna go Joel Embiid.
56:51
SPEAKER_03: And I'll go big cat.
56:52
SPEAKER_03: I think Carnt Towns can hold his own in a one-on-one tournament for sure.
56:55
SPEAKER_03: I like that question.
56:57
SPEAKER_02: Hey Kenny, big fan.
56:59
SPEAKER_02: As we see with the Luca Donci trade, we see suddenly now talks about Kevin Durant and all the all these other superstars in the league.
57:08
SPEAKER_02: Do you think there's a possibility that Embiid could be traded?
57:12
SPEAKER_02: Because he's the most injury-prone superstar we have in the league, I would say.
57:17
SPEAKER_02: And who would be interested in trading for Embiid?
57:19
SPEAKER_02: It's quite interesting.
57:20
SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
57:22
SPEAKER_03: Um maybe maybe he could get moved.
57:24
SPEAKER_03: I think that was one of the craziest things about the Luka Doncha thing, not trying to bring it back, but them basically saying they're afraid of him having a Joel Embiid type of thing, and people look across the league and say, Joel Embiid is having a Joel Embiid type of thing, and he's still not traded.
57:39
SPEAKER_03: Because when you have a talent in the door, you're really just looking for one run.
57:43
SPEAKER_03: Like you're waiting for a Joel Embiid run.
57:45
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
57:47
SPEAKER_03: Like, because of that, I'm gonna say no.
57:51
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I think there's no such thing as a touch.
57:54
SPEAKER_03: Well, Luka Dazi can get traded, damn, anybody can get traded.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: But like, if I'm just being realistic here, I just don't feel like there's real opportunity for them to trade him because hypothetically, let's say they do ended up putting him on the market.
58:05
SPEAKER_03: Maybe they don't put him on the market, they just pull a Nico Harris and just trade him to a random team.
58:08
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you're ever gonna get the full value of what you think you deserve for Joel and B, because he's under contract for a long time.
58:14
SPEAKER_03: I think he's gonna be what, 35 at the end, 35, 36 at the end of his contract.
58:19
SPEAKER_03: You got to worry about the injury history.
58:20
SPEAKER_03: It's a big ass contract.
58:22
SPEAKER_03: I think Philly is probably the team that is more secure with him on the team versus like a Miami Heat or New York Knicks or one of these other bigger teams that might make a trade for him.
58:33
SPEAKER_03: Not saying he would have zero trade value, but I feel like if they called Daryl Morey for Joel Embiid, the trade won't be worth it.
58:40
SPEAKER_03: So he just won't be traded.
58:42
SPEAKER_03: We'd rather just take our chances with Joel and Bede having a healthy April, May, June, and then we can finally do the thing.
58:48
SPEAKER_03: So, short of it all, he's not untouchable, but I highly doubt he would get traded because the value just wouldn't be there.
58:55
SPEAKER_03: I appreciate y'all watching or listening to this episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beachum.
58:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, one hell of a deadline, man.
59:01
SPEAKER_03: Do not take it for granted because 2025, I'm sorry, we're in 2025, 2026 is not gonna have this many fireworks.
59:09
SPEAKER_03: Or maybe it does.
59:10
SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
59:11
SPEAKER_03: That's why we love this sport.
59:13
SPEAKER_03: I cannot wait to watch all of these new guys on their new teams.
59:16
SPEAKER_03: Who's the best fit?
59:18
SPEAKER_03: Who's not?
59:18
SPEAKER_03: Only time will tell.
59:20
SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed the episode, leave it a like, subscribe to TeleFriend to Telefran.
59:24
SPEAKER_03: This is where you get your hoops fixed.
59:26
SPEAKER_03: I appreciate y'all, and I'll see y'all next week.