Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Was Luka Doncic For Anthony Davis The Worst Trade In NBA History? | Eric Messersmith & Brian Johnson

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Was Luka Doncic For Anthony Davis The Worst Trade In NBA History? | Eric Messersmith & Brian Johnson · Kenny Wallace Media

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  All right, Brian, I wanted to turn to the world of sports.
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  We had a massive NBA trade and, and I mean, this is not an
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  exaggeration to say I was shocked by this.
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  I wanted to lead. With this, you wanted to lead
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  the show with this Luka Doncic. For those who don't know, one of
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  the best players in the world, only 25 years old.
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  The Dallas Mavericks traded him to the LA Lakers for Anthony
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  Davis, who's a very good player but not quite a level of dodge
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  and a first round pick, and Max Christie as well.
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  Yeah. And they it, it it's crazy to
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  see two names like this traded for each other.
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  It's also I, I don't ever remember A-Team trading a guy
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  who's a top five player in the league.
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  I mean, he just LED this team, The Mavericks of the Finals last
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  year in the prime of his career, maybe even before the prime of
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  his career. He's only 25, about to be 26.
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  It it just is. It was a stunning deal.
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  When I, I saw this like late at night, I'm not sure what time it
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  broke, but I remember waking up in the morning and actually
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  thinking I was having like a fever dream And I had to go back
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  to the computer early in the morning and like confirm that it
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  was true. Because I seriously, I don't
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  remember why I read it. It might have been Facebook.
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  Someone posted something you you can't believe anything you see
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  on social media. So I went to bed 'cause my first
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  reaction was that no, that's fake.
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  Like there's no way. For our listeners who aren't
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  really into sports, I think you did a pretty good job with
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  context. But there are three players in
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  NBA history that averaged 28.7 rebounds and seven assists 7
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  years into their career for seven seasons.
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  Those are Oscar Robinson, LeBron James, and Luka Doncic.
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  That's the list. Incredible.
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  Yeah. 25 years old. Yeah, so it's been 3 days so
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  we've had some time to sit on it and I don't want to do like
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  total sports talk radio beer. But what did you think?
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  Like what do you think of the trade?
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  Both sides from Dallas side, from Lakers side?
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  Is the GM of the Mavs the dumbest person alive?
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  Is it possible? Like what happened?
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  I think, look, I think the Lakers clearly won the trade.
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  Anytime you get not only the best player in the trade, but a
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  guy who's maybe one of the best players in the league and could
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  go down as one of the best players all time you've won the
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  trade. That that said, the if you read
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  the reporting ESPN did and others, the reason Dallas did
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  this is they thought Luco was not dedicated enough, that he
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  was out of shape, that he was fat.
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  Apparently he'd ballooned to like 270 lbs that was causing
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  his his injury issues. He wasn't, he wasn't, he's not,
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  he's a terrible defender. We saw that in the finals last
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  year. I mean, he's, he's such a
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  liability on that side of the floor and they felt like they
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  had given him a lot of rope and he never showed them he could
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  get his conditioning right. And then the other thing is the
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  finances he was due to make. He was eligible for extension in
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  the summer for five years and I think $350 million, so about 70
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  million a. Year now, that is, it's 100
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  million less. Now, right, but so Dow, he would
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  have signed that deal. Dallas would have had to offer
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  him that deal. That is an insane amount of
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  money to give to someone. Now, I think it's worth the
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  gamble with Luca. But they it is telling that the
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  people that were around him and that saw him and worked with
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  him, looked at, looked at his accomplishments, how good he is
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  and can be the money they might owe him and said, yeah, not
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  really worth it. We'd rather take our chances
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  with a good defender, a great defender and a really good
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  player who's only 32, like Anthony Davis.
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  That is, that is pretty damning. That said, the upside with Luca
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  is so big. You mentioned, I mean, you
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  mentioned his stats. So he was rookie of the year.
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  Yeah. And then starting in Year 2
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  through last year, through his sixth year, those five seasons.
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  First team. He was all NBA first team every
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  single Year 5 for five and if he hadn't gotten hurt this year,
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  he's missed a a lot of time. He should be back soon.
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  He probably would have would have done it again this year.
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  SO5 all in I I just looked at this the other day.
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  All time 5 Remember, he's 25 years old.
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  He has five first team All NBA selections.
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  That's as many as the following players, Dwight Howard, George
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  Gervin, Julius Irving and Charles Barkley.
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  That's right, that is more than that is more than Chris Paul,
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  Steph Curry, John Havlicek, Dirk Novitsky, Moses Malone and Kevin
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  Garnett have in their entire careers.
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  These are mostly Hall of Famers. One more he what?
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  They're all helping. One more he will tie Hakeem
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  Elijah won Kevin Durant, James Harden at six all for and he you
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  know he's going to get at least one more.
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  He's only a few away from getting as many all NBA first
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  teams as Wilt, as Shaq, as Magic, as Bird.
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  That's incredible. He's 25 years old.
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  So yes, the Lakers won this trade and yes, you have to do
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  this because look, maybe this lights the fire under him
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  because if he has been really out of shape and fat and
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  struggling because of that and he's still making all NBA first
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  team every single year, what could he do if he actually took
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  care of himself and put down the fork and the beer and really got
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  serious about diet and nutrition?
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  And maybe this is what will do it.
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  I mean, if a team, if you're 25 years old and an international
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  superstar and widely regarded as one of the best players in the
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  world and a team looks at you that you just led to the finals
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  last year and says I don't want to deal with him anymore.
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  I mean, if that doesn't light a fire under you to just and if
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  nothing else to show them, I don't know what will.
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  Yeah, I oh God, buddy. I just, I'm trying to make sense
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  of it from a basketball standpoint.
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  And I guess if you want to make the argument about defense and
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  everything you just said, fine. Like maybe Dallas has a short
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  window here with Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving.
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  All right, cool. But I can't make any sense of it
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  from a business perspective. I mean, he he was that city.
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  He's one of those athletes that I associated with a city, you
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  know what I mean? Like I associate Derek Jeter
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  with the New York Yankees. I, I associate Patrick Mahomes
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  with Kansas City. I associated Luka Doncic with
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  Dallas. You know what I mean?
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  He, he still had, he had the eighth highest selling jersey
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  this year. He pretty much does every year.
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  You know, that he's must see TV like he's the thing in Dallas
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  when the Cowboys aren't there, you know, And now out in LA, you
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  know, I think he's going to make up that $100 million in a lot of
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  different ways. LA is such a larger market.
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  So I think you can sell that to him.
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  But I do wonder in athletics at what point money stops
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  mattering. And it really just has to be
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  about your desire to be the best at the thing that you do.
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  Because Luca will probably make almost a billion dollars in his
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  NBA career by the time he's done.
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  With endorsements and everything.
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  Yeah, with endorsements, his salary, everything else, he's
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  probably going to make a billion dollars.
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  Like we, I think we can project that out.
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  Like give or take, LeBron is a billionaire.
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  You know, these guys bring in so much revenue and I don't want to
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  get into the thing whether they deserve it or not.
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  I actually think they do given the amount of money that they
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  bring in. But what I'm saying is at what
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  point is it a JOB and at what point are do you want to compete
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  on the highest level? I I would imagine that there's a
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  conversation to be had there. Absolutely.
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  And the Lakers got their franchise player again.
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  They they always find a way to do this for the next 10 or 15
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  years. I think he and LeBron are going
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  to work really well together. People who say, well, they both
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  handle the ball. I mean, come on.
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  He was with Kyrie Irving last year.
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  Those were two players, Luke and Kyrie that really need the ball
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  in their hands and they were fine.
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  LeBron, they're they're both very unselfish.
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  The problem for the Lakers is they don't have any big man now.
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  They've never been. They've got, they've got two
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  days left. Thursday afternoon is the trade
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  deadline. They need to bring in a center,
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  but I think they're gonna, they're gonna be a problem for a
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  lot of people. I I think the, the problem for
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  the Lakers too is defensively, if they don't get a center who's
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  maybe a rim protector that line up that they might put out there
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  late in a game with 40 year old LeBron, who's not the defender
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  he used to be, and Luca and Reeves who's become a really
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  good player and, and, and really fights hard defensively, but is
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  not a great defender and then no center potentially that could be
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  a problem. But man, offensively they are
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  going to light it up. So I'm trying to go.
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  I was going to say, I think sometimes people just think when
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  you put great players together that it works out.
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  And you have to remember that that's not always the case.
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  Like, it does take time for people to learn how to play
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  together. I mean, we just assumed that
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  when LeBron went to Miami, they were going to win it all with D
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  Wade and Bosch. And yeah, they made it to the
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  Finals, but ultimately they lost to a Mavericks team with Dirk
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  Nowitzki because they just didn't have a lot of time
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  playing together. And eventually, because they're
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  amazing and they're great, they figured it out.
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  But I think for anyone who thinks Lucas just going to show
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  up in LA and now they're going to go on this run, I don't think
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  that's going to happen. I also think it's going to take
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  AD some time to integrate himself into Dallas.
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  I think Dallas is a very good team.
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  How much NBA have you watched this year?
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  A decent amount, but I I only really watch the Lakers and the
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  warriors. Those are the two teams.
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  If they're if one of them, one of those two are on, I'll watch
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  any other team and not so much, but occasionally I'll check out
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  some other games. But I now that the NFL is over,
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  I will start to watch more NBA because other than the NFL and
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  some college football, NBA is really the only sport I watch on
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  the on the regular. Especially like post All Star
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  break. I'll I'll be watching more, but
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  I think Dallas could be better this year than the Lakers the
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  rest of the year. I, I, yeah, maybe for one year
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  they may be because AD is is a guy who could dominate
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  defensively. They have another, they have
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  Gafford, who's really got a lot of athletic ability.
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  He can play the center position. AD can play power forward.
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  And then you got Kyrie still, that's a pretty good team.
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  But W is going to be very the West.
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  Is loaded, dude. That's what I was going to go
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  down the list. There's probably going to be two
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  pretty good teams that miss the playoffs.
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  Like even though the Spurs just got Deer and Fox, who I really
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  like, and they have Wembi, they might be on the outside looking
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  in. I mean, you have teams like
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  Oklahoma, right? Now they are.
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  I watched the Houston Rockets play the other day.
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  They are a team of Mad Men dude. They are so athletic and
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  aggressive. I love watching the Houston now.
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  They're super young, they're super young and I think they
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  really are lacking a superstar. But I, I, I mentioned A-Team
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  like that in the context of this conversation to say where does
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  it like the Warriors might miss the playoffs, the Golden State
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  Warriors. Of Steph.
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  Curry. Might.
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  Miss the playoffs, The the West is what they do in.
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  The next two days it is right now the Warriors and I'm sorry,
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  Phoenix and Sacramento are the last two.
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  It's a three-way tie for the last two play on spots right now
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  between Sacramento, Phoenix and Golden State.
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  And then the Spurs, who as you mentioned just got to Aaron Fox.
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  Normally that would be the biggest trade of the deadline.
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  They're only three games back now.
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  I think Phoenix losing Fox, I'm sorry, Sacramento will probably
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  fall back, but those other teams aren't.
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  I mean, Phoenix might get Jimmy Butler.
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  That's the other big domino to fall.
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  He clearly wants to go there. It's going to be wild man,
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  because I think I love about the West the rest of this year in
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  the play offs is you have these young teams like Oklahoma City,
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  which has been the best there in the West.
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  I like them the most. SGA is probably going to win the
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  MVP you've got. You mentioned Houston, Memphis
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  is another. Mostly just hanging around.
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  They're your top three. And then behind them you've got
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  these veteran, yeah, grizzled teams like Denver, who, you
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  know, just one or two years ago, the Lakers, the Clippers with
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  Harden. You've got now Dallas and
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  Phoenix, especially if they get Butler, throw Minnesota in
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  there. Yeah, that's good.
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  I'm excited for the. I know the NBA people are
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  saying, well, I know. Yeah.
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  I, I'm still into the NBA and I think the parody, the, the weird
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  thing about the NBA is it was, it was an entertaining sport and
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  grew to a pretty big level. It grew to probably the second
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  biggest sport in the country without much parody for a long
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  time and sometimes with almost no parody.
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  I mean, literally, Jordan wanted it almost every year, every a
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  while. But now I we have had how many
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  years in a row with a different champion?
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  What are we up to now? It's like 6 or seven years in a
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  row, Yeah. With a different champion.
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  No, because. Golden State was lost
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  back-to-back. Right, it is wide open right now
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  in the West and in the East. Cleveland, another young team.
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  They're they're great, they're best record league, but are they
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  going to do it in the playoffs? I don't know.
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  I guess Boston, but I'm I'm buying stock in the NBA right
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  now for the second-half of the season, I think.
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  It was great for this trade is so we agreed here.
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  This trade is great for the NBA, though.
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  It's an interesting conversation about parody, But my only point
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  to that is for people not watching the NBA, check out a
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  game. It's a dude.
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  It's so different than when we were kids.
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  The athleticism is off the charts when Benyama is an alien
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  from another planet. Like he should be illegal.
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  Did you see him block Giannis twice in like 30 seconds the
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  other day? It was incredible.
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  How was he allowed to play? He's like a cheat code.
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  He's dude. When When Benyama figures it out
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  that might be the next time that parody dies is when Lembin Yama
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  just figures out how to play he's.
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  Already starting to. No, I know he's really good, but
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  I'm saying if I don't see how anyone's going to beat them.
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  He's so good already at 21 years old or what was he 20 years?
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  He's so good it's insane. He's already probably the best
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  defensive player in the league and a really good offensive
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  player too in his second season. And now he has another All Star
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  with him and the Aaron Fox. And they might not be done
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  either with the they got a ton of first round picks still that
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  they could trade. They might not be done this
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  before the trade deadline or in the offseason.
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  So I look, I know people have been doing on the NBA a lot
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  lately and I know earlier in the season the ratings were down,
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  but and I know people complain about the three-point shot.
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  I still find the NBA pretty entertaining and I think it's
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  the parody really is making it even more so now.