NBA Potpourri: Luka, Durant & Wembanyama - Featuring Dan Favale - The NBA Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, my name is Morton Jensen, and you're listening.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
To the NBA podcast. Him there's the NBA podcast. My
name is Morton Jensen, and today we'll be discussing luc
At Dantage and his revenge game against the Dallas Mavericks.
We'll be discussing an interesting turn of events in the
mindset of Kevin Durant, who might be appearing to be

(00:32):
open to actually returning to the Golden State Warriors anyway
just in the off season. Very very odd stuff. And
then we'll wrap up with some Victor Webbin Yama season review.
I guess since he's out now for the rest of
the year with the block cloth. Horrible, horrible stuff. And
on that downer, let me bring in Dan fa Valley.

(00:53):
My good buddy, how are you, sir?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Hey always here to help everybody indulge in the pessimistics
of MBA. It's all I see you cold, I mean
piping hot pessimism. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
So it's so weird introducing you because like usually we
use your link and your whole Hardwood Knocks branding. Now
now it's the other way around. Now, all the pressures
on me. If this is how you feel every single
time I think I owe you a hug.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
At the very least, I'll accept shirtless hugs. I can.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I can work with that. I can work with that,
as long as you sign a waiver first, I'll consider it.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Look, we also we needed to throw our YouTube subs
for a whirl by like throwing putting different branding up there.
They're getting to use to the heart or not. That's
why Grant and I actually recorded it's a two second fix,
as you know on our platform. But we were in
each other spots the other day, but I didn't change it.
I was just like, I just you're you're Dan, I'm Grant.
Let's just move on and leave it.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I don't even think. See, this is how unprepared I am.
I actually think I forgot to use display names. And
now I put it out there.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Right now, boys, you know who I am. Yeah, this
is awful.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
And anonymous in the analysis with redacted, I love that.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Well, isn't that basically just the athletic article on Luca?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Then at this point, oh all right, I loved it.
Let's get into it, all right. So obviously there was
the game last night. Luca just looked at the MAVs bend.
She looked at Nico Harrison. He was just pissed throughout,
which was great. And what I want to dig into,
more so than just like the revenge factor of it all,

(02:37):
is there's this thing where everyone is on team Luca
regarding these even Dallas fans, and I kind of want
to get into why because it's not normal behavior for
fans or for analysts, like be on the side of something.
Well for fans, but maybe not like home fans, like
Dallas Mavericks fans would like normally be on you know,

(02:59):
their side, like the Dallas Mavericks side.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Post the route for the jersey, not the player in
the jersey exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
You're yeah, but everything is turned round, And I kind
of want to get into why because this was just
not a traditional trade. And when I say that, I
don't just mean, you know, the decision to trade him
or the weird return. You and I have talked about
this before we started recording. It's the fact that the
MAVs post trade have just kept throwing this dude under

(03:27):
the buzz in a way to justify their decision. Like
it's it's become this thing where it's like, I'm not
even gonna say it's bordering on pathetic. It's full blown
pathetic at this point.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, I just if you really believe in this, and
I understand it's topical. They just played one another. This
is one of the most shocking trades ever. But we've
now had how many weeks and Luca has yet to
and even a not like even through his people, has
yet to necessarily throw the Mavericks under the bus, at
least in this way, at this scale, And to just

(04:01):
continuously see them say things or let things out about
someone who is he makes a lot of money. He
was the face of the franchise. We all know he
wasn't perfect. We all know about the issues, but you
mentioned they keep throwing him under the bus, and it's like,
put your name to this stuff, other than you know,
Patrick Dumont basically saying that he was that Luca was
using this as a vacation. I guess at least Patrick

(04:22):
Dumont put his name on that, even though he cited
Shaq is sort of the you know, quintessential hard work
ethic guy during his career, I don't. I just the
quote from The Athletic too, where they concerned about his
drinking and his hookah use and him being in shape.
This feels like normal twenty five year old athlete shit

(04:43):
to me. He just seems like they don't know he was.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
He's European, right, and it's a.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Big deal because they were concerned about it while he
was at Real Madrid, Like, oh no, my whole thing
is this is the thing that got me. They're predicting
his basketball demise within the next five years, saying that
out loud, like allowing you not to be put It's just,
don't you feel like a shitty person, like you have
to feel like some semblance of grimy after saying that

(05:09):
my whole thing is he Let's say he's out of
the league in five years, right, there's still scenario on
which they lose this trade because he's so good over
the next two three years that it doesn't fucking matter.
And even if this is this is the this is
what is really fucks with my head. Even if this
is how you felt, it doesn't justify the way you

(05:30):
went about the trade because you decided that you still
needed to quote unquote win now and later, which is
really the next two to three years. According to Nico Harrison,
in which case, who cares if Luca's gonna be out
of league in five years. You're only operating on this
two to three year timeline anyway. Yeah, I want to
be clear, I'm not lending credence to his basketball demise
in five years. Come the fuck on, unless we find

(05:53):
out that he's like a human trafficker or something like
what is so bad about what we've heard about Luca
as a human being, even the people that have kind
of supported this, and you know, like among fans or
media members where it's just like, oh, like he's out
of shape or he complains it's like, yeah, he's definitely
the first star in the NBA to have those issues.

(06:13):
A lot of pretzel twisting. But I think what's just
most alarming here is it's so ineffective. You said it
at the top, like who is on team Dallas right now?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Uh yeah, I don't think I can mention anyone, like
not really, Like there's there's gonna be some contrarians just
for the hell of it, because hey, engagement, right, But
that's that's sort of it. I mean, everyone is understanding
of the situation from from Luca's perspective, and not so
much for Dallas by the way, Like, if we're looking
at the whole, little chuppy not the best like physical

(06:46):
work ethic. Why are we talking about Joki? Should Joki
trade candidate all of a sudden, like why is what's
the difference there?

Speaker 1 (06:55):
He's I guess because Luca is considered less durable, which
is when you look at the games played. I said
as fair, But Luca just dragged you. I won't say
dragged because the trade deadline had helped them. Their defense
was great, which kind of underminds the point that you
can't build a defense around Luka Dacic. But that's neither
here nor there. He just took you to the finals.
He just you just beat what is now the favorite

(07:18):
to come out of the West, with Luka Dancic not
playing at his best version ever? Like what is? You
gotta make it make sense for me? And if it's
really an issue of we couldn't get through to him,
that probably says something more about your organization than it
does the twenty five year old kid. I'm not trying
to absolve Luca. Yeah, I get annoyed by his complaining

(07:39):
to the refs. If I was making all that money
and I was nineteen years old, I'll tell y'all be
in the best damn shape of my life, Like I
could guarantee that, but like this is nothing that we
have read so far or heard off the record. I've
yet to hear read whatever anything that is just completely
unforgivable or aids whatever logic the doll Mavericks were using here.

(08:01):
And it's we're at the point now where I know
I might be squeaking, but like this isn't me a
thinking in the moment emotionally, Like we've now had time
to sit on this, and there's no support of concept
here to me, there's none zero.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
And it's also the fact that this keeps coming up.
It's been like what four weeks now, like it's every
single week.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
It's a month, and it's a month past the trade
deadline almost. And you said it at the top of this,
or maybe it was before we even started. Let's like,
let's kind of forget everything that you still didn't if
this is how you felt now that go ahead and
justify what you just did, which is give him to
the Lakers for a turn that could have been beaten
in a vacuum because you decided that Anthony Davis was

(08:45):
the best player right now that you can get for
Luka Dncic and that's like you yet to even justify
that effected, Like, what is all this bads? Let's say
you buy into the Luca He's not gonna look right
in the next five years or whatever. Can you defend
to me what the Mavericks then did by trading him
at the cur If anything, we're reading now about how

(09:05):
they helped submarine his value because Nico Harrison is too honest?
Is I guess the spin there going with that He's
he's too much of a people pleaser. He wanted to
give the Lakers the full story, so they were able
to get him for a little bit less, like come on.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah, look, I usually love a lot of the writers
or the Athletic. I still do, but there was that
fluff piece that was just oh boy, that was that
a week ago, week and a half ago where that
was yeah, like that was one of the most grecious
things I've ever it was.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Do you remember the piece? I'm not sure if it
was The Athletic, but it was. It was comparable, not identical,
to when neil O'Shea was clearly trying to save his
job and there was said, all this charity work he
does that he doesn't want anybody to know about it, say,
the best way to keep it a secret is that
to the athletic come up.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
A lot of lot of carrying of water over the
past few weeks, and it's I wonder if this is
just just one of those situations where an outlet goes
out's like, hey, let's maintain open lines of communication, like
let's not lose you as a potential source down the line.
I don't even know what that was, but we've reached
that point now where it's just it's so egregious, it's

(10:21):
so dumb, where I think it's it's completely fair to
just kind of put it into context for listeners here
and go, look, there's a reason we're bringing up this
trade even though it's four weeks ago, Like we're bringing
it up because the Dallas Mavericks keep.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Bringing it up. They did a very fucking.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Stupid move and they keep trying to justify it in
the stupidest fucking way ever, Like there's just no way
you can respect that. There's no way you cannot attack
it in some way.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, And I mean we'll see if it like sort
of quiets down now. Because the first meeting between the
two is out of the way, but I think it'll
probably maybe not from there end, but from the opposing ends,
it'll probably go louder if Luca continues to play like
its first what was it like two or three games
with the Lakers was kind of eh. Then he goes
he has a third for thirty point out and didn't
have a triple double against the MAVs. So I like,

(11:13):
the better he plays, the further he is away from
his basketball demise, the worst. This is probably gonna get
optically for the Mavericks, and I guess maybe they're trying
to get out. Look, I'm sure these people are being
asked about it. I'm sure these texts and these messages
aren't being sent unsolicited. At the same time, it's no
comment's fine too, like you used so like we're guilty

(11:35):
of it, like covering the game where it's constantly being
talked about. Think about the amount of just fallout pieces
that have been written, and it was it was this
slow or I shouldn't say slow, like this onslaught of
a build to that Mavericks Lakers game, Like we just
kept seeing pieces about it. I think it was a
landmark transaction, but it was a landmark transaction that still
weeks later, no matter what angle at which you view,

(11:58):
it makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Right it's and here's the thing I get why mass
fans are also caught on something else because so many
of them are basically saying, what does this mean for
the future, Like what if we get another superstar in
here who is a top three, top two player in
the NBA, Like if we ever get that type of
guy in once again, does that guy have you know?

(12:23):
Can he kind of reference the Luca trade as to
why he may not wish to continue going like staying
with this organization? Like what kind of message are we
sending here? And I think that's totally fair because it's
not just the Luca trade in a nutshell, the fact
that they're throwing him under the bus the way that
they are right now, it's a blueprint Like Kyrie Irving
I believe has a player option this summer, right if

(12:45):
I'm not mistaken, So he could technically decline that and
leave that would be fully within his rights. Is he
sitting right now going, oh, if I leave, I am
gonna be torn shreds, Like I'm pretty sure that thought
has crossed his mind or at very least his agency.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, I mean I would certainly he who's Luca's agent?
Is he Bartlestein? He's a Bartlesteine client, right, I believe so? Yes, Like,
why would Mark Bartlesteine ever funnel like good players in
Dallas's direction at this point after the way this was handled,
you have to think there's gonna be some type of
fallout and just the optics of it. When wasn't part

(13:25):
of the reason that Nico Harrison was brought in at
least the justification behind it was he's a relationships guy
and he's going to have those connections that you can
win big in free agency, And it was just funny.
This is all happening in the backdrop as free agency
has never been less important to team building at this
point with the way things are structured, and it's probably
more about managing the talent that's already in place and

(13:47):
then winning trades, which he's the Lucas trade being an exception,
like that front office has done a pretty good job
like building out the rest of the roster. So yeah,
I am curious to see if there's gonna be fallout.
I do wonder if do you think that someone in
Kyrie's situation or maybe Navy Davis's situation, like you're kind
of in your thirties and I can't be Davis is
still borderline like top ten, top fifteen guy. But it's

(14:09):
just like, is there really only like a select few
or maybe it's the top ten guys that you're worried
about kind of rankling in that way because with Kyrie
it's sort of, well, you're in like the middle end,
let's say of your career. That's fair. There's no cap
space out there, like what are you gonna do right now?
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
That's a different situation for sure, that's not there. There
wouldn't be a lot of controversy regarding that, No, I think.
I think the concern is rafting a guy, building him
up for a couple of years, and then that guy
suddenly like, yeah, I know this pattern, like like, oh
did I check in two percentage points off my targeted
weight before the for the season? Why Sneko Harrison giving

(14:46):
me the death stare? You know, it's I can sort
of understand why people would be in such a guy's
ears too, like Baby basically saying you know, hey, don't
get too comfortable, like this is an organization that you
can't trust because players talk.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
We know this.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
There are a lot of teams that have gone through it,
Like you brought up Neil Osha earlier, like the Blazers
for a while. Uh that was before his arrival though,
But like I want to say, twelve fifteen years ago
was not an organization that the players wanted to go to.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
They had a bad reputation.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Right now, the Bulls are one of those teams, Like
there are teams out there with bad reputations that players
actively want to avoid.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think it's perfectly.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Reasonable to wonder if Dallas has entered the chat.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
They probably have, because you know, we always kind of
have these fallout pieces, and with Dallas it feels like
we've had more of them of late, because like they
kind of like remember the after Grant Williams the trade,
like they threw him under the bus too, and part
of that was like didn't Luga Dancic's not get along
with him or whatever. We always see these things with players,
like even star players. I think about hard how many
times we've seen that with him. May about Kyrie is

(15:54):
a er example, even Kevin Durant. But what's different is
In all of those situations, unless I'm miss remember even Kaui.
Even if I'm misremembering one, there was always something like
the player requested out, or there was like this stuff
leading up to it that contributed to the trade or
them leaving. And with Luca, the MAVs just decided that

(16:16):
they didn't want to pay him and they I think,
what's gonna make this so much? There's so many things
that make it so much worse when you're looking at it,
like how you're looking at it. What makes it so
much worse is if this is not the guy at
this point in his career that you're comfortable paying, then
who are you comfortable paying? Right? Because it's just look

(16:37):
players sign their contracts. I think part of the money,
part of the contracts. Everything's collectively bargained. They can be
traded unless they have a no trade clause at any
given moment. But like when you finally see because it
is going to happen now, I think maybe the Luka
Dancic situation accelerated this. Someone is going to request out
either before they signed their rookie max extension or like

(16:58):
almost immediately after, Like you play that season as the
poison pill and then you're gonna request down. Someone is
going to do that. And while there's the contractual obligations
of it all, there's the balance of like balance of
leverage tips in the favor of the team in those instances,
it's going to happen. And this could be like part
of the rationale behind a player or their agents in particular,

(17:20):
thinking that because look at what this team did to
someone who, again from everything we have seen on the court,
that is the player that not even the super Max,
but that the Max is designed for.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, and what really gets me confused about all this
as well is even if you when you're the mass
and you're citing like the beer and the hookah and
all of this, right, what you're really saying is, all right,
we don't trust your body to keep up. What you're
saying then, is it's going to be a lack of availability.

(17:53):
That's what you're concerned about. You're concerned about paying a
ton of money for a guy who won't be available
a great deal.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
So you trade for Anthony Davis, Which doesn't it suck
because we have to chop down Anthony Davis in order
to make that point. But it's it's only anything we do.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Like it's fair he misses games, Like I have a
ton of respect for him. I think both of you
and I agree that he's such a wildly influential player.
But like, the guy has a history of not being
able to stay healthy. I don't think that's tearing him down.
I think that's just facts, right, I know.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
You're right there. It's like that that framing never made
sense because it's if you were that concerned about availability,
you might have would have targeted a different collection of players,
or you might have decided to burn as most teams
would have. If you're trading someone that's transcendent as Luca,
burn the whole thing down and start over, right.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, it's there's no logic behind it. The fact that
they keep throwing under the bus is why we should
bring this up, is why they deserve all the creditism
and honestly, every single time they decide to bring this up,
I'm gonna keep talking about it. Like when the Dallas
Mavericks decides to show the fuck.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Up, I will too.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
That's no, he's basically who are you kidd Maybe maybe
it will.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's easy to say that because it doesn't seem like
Dallas is gonna kind of shut up about this. I'm
assuming we'll reach a point when it does, but I think,
I mean, they're gonna be the butt of jokes for
so long because it's even Grant has said this on
our podcast. Even if they're right, they're like still wrong
because the component we haven't touched on is you mentioned

(19:27):
like the Mavericks fan reaction. I don't actually like they
could have gotten honest, maybe they could have gotten Wemby,
but there is that like emotional attachment to like that
guy being we drafted him. Yeah, he came up here,
he was the bridge into this arrow, this was everything
was supposed to be structured around him. I still don't
think I think the fallout would have been much different,

(19:50):
but I don't think it would have been anywhere near
overwhelmingly positive because like part of fandom, and this is
this is the part. There's a lot of part of
fandom that like for us, it could be great and
it could be annoying. Like I respect that part, like
you're attached to the players that like, especially the ones
that came up with you, and that it's not just
about I think teams want it to be about laundry,
but I would say now more so than ever when

(20:11):
players are brands, When the NBA promotes these players as
they do, when you're dealing with international superstars like Luka Doncic,
there's going to be an attachment to the players. And
so I honestly think, like at the Bucks said, had
they figured out a way to get Yannis, like I
don't think that would the reaction have been more justifiable.
Like yeah, but like, are we sure that Mavericks fans

(20:34):
would have really been on board with that?

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Are we sure Bucks fans would too?

Speaker 1 (20:39):
That's the same, Well, you know, that's a great that's
a that's an absolute great point is to say, like, oh,
you got the younger superstar, and maybe that that could
be an element of all this is that it's probably
easier to talk to yourself into the not even necessarily
imagine you maybe didn't get the better player depending on
like Giannis and Luca is a different discussion than Giannis
and Ad, but you did get the younger player, and

(21:01):
so maybe there's something different to that. But you're right,
like Bucks fans would like, that's the guy who they
won a title with, who that team drafted and developed,
who has said that he wanted to What did he
just say about Milwaukee that they would have to drag
him out or whatever he said? So yeah, like that's
so I don't think that they could have brings us
back to the point like like why are you making
the trade at all? And I don't know if this

(21:22):
has been talked about enough, but if they were concerned
about the drinking and the hookah use and just like ye,
him being able to stay in shape, what does that
say about you that like you weren't like the drinking problems,
but like, if you think it's a caps lock bold
text italics problem, did you do everything within your power

(21:44):
and resources to help this kid? I understand that these
are stars and that they're brands and that they're famous.
There's still also people, and so I'm not going to
you know, cry when they get traded without warning that
I could imagine that sucks. It's also part of the business.
But like really, like that's how like the spin is.
It's like, well, man, he's in so much trouble, we

(22:05):
don't want to fucking help him. Like you need to
then come out to like we did everything, and then
show us how you did everything within your power to
help him. And you can. You don't even get to
hide behind the cloak of well, we're just trying not
to air his laundry out there, Like people don't know
how deep this goes, and we don't want them to know,
because we'll just circle back and point to all these
anonymous sources talking about how they're predicting his demise within

(22:26):
the next half decades.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
I think I think the word kid is actually fair
on many levels because I know people are going to
point to, oh, he's gonna be twenty six in just
a moment, but this is clearly something that they've been
worry about for a long while. This this didn't just
materialize out of thin air over the past month, like,
of course it didn't, like this has been a thing
for years.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
We know that they've.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Complained a little bit internally about like, oh, we're a
little bit nervous about how he's never in shape. They've
done that since he was basically what twenty twenty one,
that like, well, wait a second, twenty two twenty three,
because that's when the weight game like started. That's a
kid to me, twenty two twenty three, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
This stuffy three. It's also like even with Zion like
being so young, Like it's easy to say you're making
all this money, like get your body in shape, but
like it's just you, Like that's not the mindset. That's
why people say you just wasted on the young. But
I could even I think the thing that really just
I struggle to wrap my brain around. I understand that

(23:26):
I don't want I'm never gonna look to in the
NBA itself or an organization as this arbor of morality.
But even if he's not, even if you don't, I'm
not saying kids will be kids or this isn't boys
will be boys. He could have been thirty seven, have
a legitimate drinking problem, and like you're not gonna like
you're like you're gonna ship him off, And I understand
the real world, like you might get fired from your job.
It was the same thing that doesn't necessarily make it okay.

(23:49):
And even if you do that to then kind of
use that as the shield like, oh, he has a
drinking problem, so we fire him into the sun. No,
that just their spin to me, just make there was
no in this specific instance, there was no way to
spend it unless he asked for out. So I understand that,
but like the way they've cant about it's just been
it's it's been so cringey, so ineffective, and finally just

(24:12):
so frequent, like all right, like leave it like you
did it, you fucked up, Like time to move on.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah. Yeah, And I and I think that's a good
way segue for us to move on as well, because
we need to talk about Kevin Durant. So Durant, uh,
someone who certainly does not struggle with wave these shoes whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
That perhaps kind of kind of way of issues.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Perhaps he was the guy the comparison should have gone
for it instead.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Duran, as we know at the trade headline, was like, no,
I don't want to go back to Golden State. I
kind of want to see this through. Everyone seems to
be aligned now that he's going to get traded this summer.
The Hoop collective, I think said it the other day,
if not two day, basically that this is this is
gonna happen. Durant, though, said something interesting. He went on

(25:04):
the Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis like I haven't
listened to it.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
I just read the transcript, so I don't know. He
went on Draymond Green's podcast. Yeah, you alerted me. I
didn't see any of these comments. I'm oh, this is
even better. I didn't know it was the Draymond Green podcast, Yeah,
but with Baron Davis.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
So I haven't listened to it, so I don't know
if that Draymond was even there or Baron Davis.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Was on load managing his podcast like Paul George's. Did
you see that? I saw that. I saw that, Yeah,
podcast for the Championship push. I assume he means like
plating their Cooper flag odds is the only That's why
I interpreted was that was wild.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Uh No, So he went on the pot and he
he said that he wants his career to end on
his terms and that's the only thing that he's worried about.
But then he said this, but as far as the Warriors,
I didn't want to move. And then as a player
like me, I cost a lot. Me going into your
team in the middle of the season going to be
a big blow to any team I'm going too. I
get why you wanted to trade for me, simple fact

(26:05):
that's just business for me looking at it, it just
doesn't make sense for either side right now to go
through that when we just play the season out and
if that's the decision you want to make in the
off season, then we can figure it out. Uh, hello,
that's big.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
I'm sorry, but like that's that's kind of big.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
That's that's a door opener, right, Like he just opened
the fucking door.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, I don't I said this to you when you
first told me about this off air. I don't understand
the beginning of that, where it costs so much to
bring me in mid season, you don't get him for
free over the off season. As far as I know,
is there are a loop on the CBA that I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
I'm just assuming the players and the CBA understanding generally
is lacking, and because like that's not their job. That's
why they have agents, which fair enough, like you have
to work on your your skill level and your body
and everything during.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
The off season. I get it.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
But just the near fact that he seems to be
open to doing this, that's that's kind of wild. Maybe
maybe he just said it because he knew, Oh, they
got Jimmy, so like the pressure isn't on me to
do anything. Maybe just a cheap way of just saying
telling Dubbs fans.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Like, you know, I would be open to it, but
not really. I don't know, And I could see this
being his way like initially saying no, it's just his
way of wants to survey the land in the offseason
and then like choose where he would like figure out
how you know him and his people like they put
out feelers or they look at which teams they want
to go to. Because I find it interesting that he

(27:36):
said this, and I appreciate the candor. I'm sure some
people are mad that he says this, but I want
players to be I don't. I want them to be candid.
We can't. We can't campaign for candor and then get
mad when they give it to us. My whole thing,
But I don't see the pathway to getting to go.
It'd be really funny though, if he is campaigning to
get the Golden State on the podcast of the player

(27:57):
who will then need to be traded to get him to.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Golden Oh God, that'd be fantastic.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
What is the and I mean, I guess we know
the Suns are interested in Jimmy, so like there is
framework there that you can make work. But if you're
the Warriors, like I like, if would you even just
do just forget about the money for a second. Did
you just do it one for one? Still at this point,
I mean the sample size with Jimmy's been really small,

(28:25):
but it's been going on Steph minutes right now. Like,
I don't know, it's pretty interesting.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
I mean, look, if that's offered to me, if that's
a one on one flip, yeah, I would. Look, I'm
I'm calling Jimmy immediately. I'm going, love your buddy. I'm
driving your ass to the fucking airport.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Oh, I'm I don't know, man, I don't know. Like
it's KD. Jimmy's a little bit younger, he's the better,
Like I think he's the better playmaker at this point.
Oh yeah, no, that he is. But defender. Yeah, you
know what, I'm actually gonna say it. I gotta stop.
I'm not doing it. If I'm Golden side. Oh all right,
I wouldn't do it. I mean it's still KD.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Though the chemistry is already established with Steph, he's still
one of the toughest shot makers of all time.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
The three point range.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Alone is going to give them so much more space
to operate with.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
I gotta go see Kevin Durant takes enough of those.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, look, maybe he's you know,
he's getting older eventually. We have this thing where we
always talk about Lebron like never aging. I think we
sort of have to talk about the same thing with
with Durant though, like this dude is still averaging twenty seven,
Like it's nothing.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well here, so here's my thing. He's like, I'm just
like kind of dealing with the law of averages, I
guess or whatever, where these players are going to have
to age at some point. And so what is Kevin
Durant going to be his age thirty eight campaign next year?
Because he's thirty seven now or my year ahead.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Of it, he's he's actually only thirty six. He'll be
thirty seven in September.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
All right, So they're really not that far apart because
jim me to turn thirty five in September, right, I think, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
I think let's just double jack.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
I am just like, don't you think maybe I'm Galaxy
branding this, But don't you think that Jimmy that Golden
State has so many different boxes to check, and to me,
it feels like Jimmy Butler checks them more than Kevin
Durant does.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
In terms of the defense, the secondary ball handling or
the churchier depending on how you fit in dream On. Yeah,
there's definitely something there, But I do think Durand can
adequately take over some of those responsibilities. Like, look, he's
not a bad defender. I agree that Jimmy's better. Durand
is still like a seven foot switchable, long armed nuisance

(30:42):
defensively point jim Jimmy is still disruptive as hell like
and he's he's probably a little bit more dedicated on
that end than k D because Duran still is a
bucket keeter. But that's also why you acquire him. You
acquire a forward who can just give you twenty seven,
Like it's nothing like hell.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
He'll sort of find.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
A way regardless, just to get to that number while
still playing adequate defense, while still playing you know, adequent playmaking.
I would go that route. I get what you're saying, though, like,
especially in terms of Jimmy also handling some of the
secondary unit responsibilities of him, like being at de factor
point guard, setting things up being a primary scorer when

(31:26):
the vast majority of the players are in or from
the second unit. I get it. I'm still going major
upside here, I'm I'm and also like the Steph Durand
years were dope. They were so fun And maybe I'm
seeking nostalgia, like I'll own up to that, but.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
I really fun. Maybe the first two were like that.
That first like the first year and a half was fun.
Then everything after that almost outgrading you think, So I
know from okay, the final season was not fun.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Now the final year was was fed up for sure,
But like I still think from a purely basketball perspective,
the way they played off one another, God, that was great.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah. I mean they are two of the most plug
and play superstars in league history. He's not the two
biggest plug and play superstars, Like you could PLoP them
on any team and it's just gonna work. So if
push comes to show, I feel like more people would
side with you then they would side with me. But
I like, don't you think it might be a little closer,
like there would be like a real there'll be real
division here with that or no, am I am I

(32:27):
overthinking this now? No?

Speaker 2 (32:28):
I mean, look, I get what you're saying. I'm just
saying from my perspective, I would drive Jimmy to the
airport with all due respect to Jimmy Butler, because I
just have Durant at a higher level.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
I just do. I always have.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
That's not to say Jimmy isn't great, and that's not
to say he doesn't solve a lot of those issues,
as you pointed out, because accurately so. And I think,
I think when it comes down to me is if
Durant wants to go to Golden State in the summer,
let's say that that's the thing, and that's the motivation,
you know, in him wanting to go there, That makes
me a lot more, you know, that puts me more

(33:03):
at ease.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Whereas if he'd.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Traded there against his will, then yeah, I'm going Jimmy
for sure.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
You know what's interesting too, I'm not considering is like
there won't be I still think defensively Durant like on
the interior better than Jimmy for sure, but like now
there's there is gonna be some redundancy at least spatially
with Jimmy and Jonathan Kaminga. And so if you want
to keep Jonathan Kaminga, Durant and him just don't have
nearly as much overlap on the offensive end of the floor,

(33:32):
so that that would probably be like maybe the biggest
Like oh, like okay, now it's kaminga Durant and Steph
and Draymond makes way more sense than Butler. Kaminga Steph
and and Draymond. Would you, as the Warriors, if this
was on the table, would you rather trade Jimmy Butler
or build something around Draymond Green?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Oh, Draymond, build around Draymond? Yeah, for sure. Like, come on,
if they somehow may retain Steph Jimmy and then add KD,
I mean, that's ridiculous, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, it's potentially ridiculous, but there's I mean, they're not
necessarily getting a lot older, but like there's some real
combustibility in.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
That, of course, But like I appreciate the effort though,
Like for them to go like that into the final
years of Steph, I feel like that's doing Steph right too.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Oh yeah. Some of our biggest critiques of the podcast
we did in the reactions. I didn't give the Warriors
an a plus on the Jimmy Butler trade because I've
been saying that there were ways for them to really
optimize Seph's timeline without giving up everything, and I only
gave him like a B plus or whatever it is,
but in part because I thought that they like waited
too long to do this. But for sure, like that
is certainly a vote of confidence and like, okay, we're

(34:43):
all about Steph, like we've been saying, right we are.
It's I almost can't pay, Like I mean, I guess
he said it so it could happen. It would just
be like that'd be such a weird order of operations,
like the turn down the trade mid season, only to
make it in the off season, like what would have
been the material difference there? So I just the whole

(35:04):
situation is just weird, but I guess to be expected
because it feels like this is what happens when just
like we know what happens when Jimmy Butler leaves teams
or James Harden leaves a team, this is kind of
what happens when Kevin Durant leaves a team. Is that
there's like months worth of tea leaves, if not more.
And I think it says a lot that you mentioned
it before. Brian Windhorst is one of the most plugged

(35:26):
in guys in the entire league, and he's like very
more so than most very particular about what he says.
I feel like you very rarely see him preempt things
with such diffinity as him just basically saying that Kevin
Durant is going to be created. And so it's like,
I've already just decided that Kevin Durant's not gonna be
in Phoenix at the start, just because Windhors framed it
the way that he has fully agree.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
So maybe let's get into where, because if it's not
gonna be Golden State, I don't know why, but I'm
really thinking Minnesota might.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
End up with him. They were the team. I found
it funny when the initial reporting came out that said
they tried to get him, and I pointed out like
the second Apron things, and then there were some follower
up a boarding that said they were trying to figure
out a way to duck like the Second Apron so
they could aggregate salaries, Like was this about Kevin Duranda
more about lowering their luxury tax bill? Is like the
point that it kind of reached, right, But yeah, I

(36:16):
mean that would be interesting, but you still, if you're
in Minnesota, you still have a lot of moving parts
to figure out, like what is the primary outgoing salaries,
and I guess it depends on if Julius Randall picks
up his player option, and then if he doesn't, that
almost makes it harder for you because he might take less,
you know, logistically, less moving parts to make it happen.

(36:36):
But then it's oh, like, are we trying to find
someone to take on Rudy Gobert or is it Jade
McDaniels is getting moved In that instance, I would just
be fascinated.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
What the structure there looks like, let's see, so DuRane
is going to be at fifty five fifty four point
seven next year, how would Rudy Gobar and Jade McDaniels look.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
That's sixty so they can don't get me wrong, they
can get to the money I think fairly easily. But
as of right now, I guess they're under the If
you think so, they if Julius Randall opts in, they're
still going to be a second Apron team, right or
are they actually going to be out of it? No,
they should still be a second Apron team. Unless I'm

(37:17):
reading this wrong, they could be.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
So Gobert's salary goes down by a bottle.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Oh I forgot that. He goes down now.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, yeah, but that's offset a little bit by McDaniels
going up. I mean, look, if you rich, your not
rich yourself because he's a good player. It just hasn't
been a good fit. But if you find a taker
for Stevincenzo, which I think you can, like, he's still good.
I don't think teams around the league are like, oh,
you played bad in Minnesota, Well fuck you. I don't

(37:45):
think that's gonna be a thing.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
And he was starting to kind of come on too
before his injury.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, he was, so I think there could definitely be
a taker for him, and especially teams that would take
him into cap space easily. I mean or the the
MLE for example, which is now a thing you can do,
so that he.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Probably makes glow the mL. I totally forgot about that
as well. He's so cheap. He's so cheap. So yeah,
I guess my read on it actually is Minnesota will
have no problem aggregating contracts this summer, even with Julius
Randall opting in.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah, I mean the driving The driving force here obviously
is Anthony Edwards because KD is his favorite player. I imagine
he would love that chance. We all know that KD
is like very you know, flattered of the continuous praise
he gets from the young kids. So I don't know.
Something just seems like that to me. Could be the cards.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
I yeah, I mean, And I guess Phoenix won't have
a ton of lever because Minnesota has no picks to offer, right,
And so I guess you're just getting there with two
of like the more like nas read if he opts in.
But if he ops out, that could complicate things a
little bit. I'd be curious what the package would up
looking like, because if I'm Phoenix, I'm not taking back
like Julius Randall and Filler to make this happen.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Dude, take back Gobart because you're so drastically in need
of a center.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Oh how long is that Gobert extension for? Again, he's
on the books for another three years?

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Right, so yeah, so this summer he's got three years left.
We're actually too guaranteed. Then he's got a player option
in year three for thirty eight million, but I'm guessing
he's gonna pick that up.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
So three years, yes, I mean, so it'd be go
bear and then what like then de Vincenzo.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
And Stevencenzo, or if you want to, like, because it's
Kevin Durant you're getting after all, you might have to
relinquish Dave McDaniels instead and then expand the package. From
Phoenix's point of view, so you're getting I.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Mean, if I'm Phoenix and Jane McDaniels is involved, like
I pretty much I'm really looking at it. And if
you're Minnesota, what there I'm assuming there's gonna be third
and fourth teams here, because even if Minnesota can take
back more money than it's sending out, you don't invest
all this money in Kevin Durant and Afy Edwards just
to be hard tapped.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Below the first day, right, That's and that's fair. That's
a fair point. And also that like this team would
have to like pivot from being a defensive oriented team
into like fully offense, because it's gonna be Nas Reid,
Kevin DuRane, and Anthony Edwards like and then Rob Dillingham.
I guess that's gonna be all offense. That's not gonna
be a lot of defense.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
You're just giving you can maybe resigned to Alexander Walker
would help them. Sure, Yeah, I mean the whole jewel, Like,
but then Julius Randall's still there in the package that
we just.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
So that's it's gonna be nass Reid, Julius Randall, Kevin
Durand and Anthony.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Edwards and ro that's gonna be all offense. Maybe it
would be way more of a no brainer if they're
like even if it costs you Dillingham. Yeah, if it's
like Dillingham and Randall and Devincenzone like you're doing whatever
you have to make them, Like, I'm probably more on
board with that. Uh, that'd be I mean, we know
Anthy Edwards like looks up to Kevin Durant's like that

(40:59):
would be a nice little win there and he would
be a good fit. I'm just curious, like, do you
think there'd be a better offer for Durant because Minnesota
feels like if they put j mcdoniel's on the table, Okay,
it's different, but if Kevin Durant wants to go there,
then it becomes way more like not even palatable, but
like Phoenix is forced to work with that. Would you

(41:21):
We've talked about this. I don't think we need to
spend a ton of time on it, but like, do
you think Houston would be involved and Kevin respek six?
Are they kind of waiting for the Devin Bookers reepstikes.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, we've been talking about this, Like the Devin Poker
part makes way more sense. I don't think they want
to go that old because that means just shortening their
window dramatically, like dramatically, So it has to be a
team that's already there where the primary cores is probably
a little bit older. You know, it seemed like Sacramento
would be super fun. I just don't think they can

(41:52):
get there in the asset department, but I wouldn't hate that,
like if they're still trying to win at the very least,
there's something fun about the prospect of Durant going there,
especially if you you get Damar out of there. Like
I I absolutely think it's a bonus. Durant Levine trio
would be like top League pass type of ship.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Can they get to the money without including Zach Levine
at that point, that's that's you have a funk I
guess can be thrown in there.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, let's see, because that's a really good point. Uh.
Derosen is at twenty four point seven monk Is at
eighteen point seven.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
You're at forty. You're almost there, but you need another
million if you want to. Salentunis would make it. That
would work and that, but then you just have no
You have the bonus and Levine and Durant who are
all like, it's almost a really good point maker, but
he's not.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know, right, you don't have anyone like you still
have Kean Ellis because he's on a on a team
option by it gets it gets rough from there.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Yeah, And I also like, at that point, if you're Sacramento,
is that a team and you think Durrant signs an
extension with at that age? Do we care? Also fair?

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I mean, I get it, though he'd be he'd be
an understated free agent twenty twenty six, So I would,
I hear you, what would.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
It look like? Would san Antonio consider it?

Speaker 2 (43:22):
I think the Spurs would be like if if for
the right package, yeah, probably probably. But they there we
saw that with the darn Fox trade. They were not
fucking around. They were like, we're not going to relinquish
the fodcast, We're not gonna relinquish the Hawks picks, Like
I don't even know what the what the like the

(43:43):
actual trade is like.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
It would have to be I think almost cell has
to be included in that deal because yeah, yeah, and
then like you're not gonna trade Fox, I would assume.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
It'll have to be the cell killed in Johnson and Harrison, Barnes,
all three of them Essentially.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
I'm like, I'm Devin of a cell pilled, so I'd
probably say know, but like that they might consider it
to be fair.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
I love vassel He's struggled a lot this year, which
is unfortunate, But.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
It just be having like two Devin Bookers on the Suns.
That'd be really fun. By the way. That's the other
thing is like Durant will have a saying where he goes.
But I'll be very if Phoenix has options to choose from.
And let's say, you know, I think like if you're
taking a Spurs pat while the cells included, if you're
taking like a Timberwolf's package, it's very incoming players focused.

(44:29):
If you're taking a package from like the Kings or
even if the Rockets get involved, they're probably trying to
figure out how it's more picks based, and even the
Spurs might But like I said, Vasselle would be included
in that they might be the team that could offer
a balance.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, you can get both if you if you ship
out to sell Kelton Johnson and Harrison Barnes for a
salary matching purposes. That doesn't, you know, preclude you from
adding picks. You can still do that.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Maybe it should, Like, yeah, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
I'm just saying technically they could, right, But is that
also is it cheating to have Kevin Durant and Victor
woman Yama on the same team? Is that like, is
that cheating? Is that allowed with CPA regulations?

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Probably not, that's gonna be or you'll be even more hysterical.
Maybe there's more teams all that. The Spurs end up
turning around and trading Daron Fox as part of any
Kevin Durant deal because they decide like, rather than giving
up picks or something, they're like bringing in another party
like taking on Daron Fox or maybe Phoenix wants Dearon
Fox at that point. I don't know, but that would

(45:36):
be that would be really funny too.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
There are so many possibilities there, But like, could you
imagine just the evolution of Wempy to have just one
year playing next to the guy that he's sort of
tailoring himself up as offensively speaking.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, dude, dude, do you think Miami would get involved
here at all? Yes?

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah, I mean they would try to. I don't know
if they have the assets, but the Heat, like I
think the Heat are looking to rebuild, but like if
they hear Kevin Durant, They're probably gonna pivot off those
those plans pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
There was actually there was a fascinating question in our discord,
and it was I think it was proposed through basically
the lens of this team is gonna have to cut
cost eventually, and this kind of shortens it. But if
the Celtics don't win the title this year and the
Sun's call, and it's just there's gonna have to be
other moving parts. But it's Durant for Jalen Brown. Oh yeah,

(46:31):
I mean yes, yes, yes, for who before Boston. I
love Jalen Brown, but like, yes, I'm absolutely doing that.
So Jalen Brown is what is he on the books
for next season?

Speaker 2 (46:43):
I'm trying to look at fifty three million, fifty three
point one and KD set fifty four point seven.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
So so Boston can't even do it because they would
have to duck the second apron as part of it,
and then you get into okay, you have to get
rid of I guess like Drew Holliday or Derek White
or Christops porzingis somehow to lower your Sam.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
House or Sam House was the big one because his
salary increases from you know, the Mint deal this year
to ten million next year. So that's a substantial leap
as well.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
And how far I mean they're second. They're twenty two
million dollars over twenty two million dollars into the second
apron last year. So that's not Sam House ain't cutting it.
It's it's more like saying, guess would need to be
like the balance being sent out.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
But it's a fun idea though, Like the Celtics would
be fun. Like rand if memory served by twenty sixteen
was pretty close signing with them.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
They're on his list anyway, have teams that he met
with Yeah, yeah, I don't know, Like are I'm sure
there are other teams I would love to get involved.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
I have a fun one for you though, but like
I don't know how to make the money work because
that's gonna be tricky. But like the Calves.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
And that's like Jared Allen and DeAndre Hunter and then
another salary. I guess at that point.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Giving up mostly quickly, like I don't.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
No, I'm not. You're not giving up Mobley for that?

Speaker 2 (48:02):
No. See, that's and that's the thing, Like I'm not
saying I necessarily would, but I'm also not saying it
wouldn't be intriguing because like a lineup of Garland, Mitchell, Hunter,
KD and Jared Allen, are we sure that team couldn't
win a championship in twenty twenty six?

Speaker 1 (48:19):
They would be contenders? But that would be a really
big to give up Mobleys.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
It's basically a Luca like unless it reaches Luca for
ad type of trade.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, I wouldn't. If I'm Cleveland, I wouldn't touch it.
That's fair, that's fair. What about about the Knicks?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
I mean yeah, but but who let me?

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Let me they got the car Anthony Town's money, or
you could do something like Michale Bridges plus X.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
I'm not surprised to bring up Bridges. Yes, if McHale
Bridge is going back to Phoenix, just like get back.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Vibes, that keep maybe that keeps Devin Booker in Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Too, right, Yeah, his buddy bit coming back. Uh No,
that would be interesting again for a lot of teams,
I would do this that that's a good shout of
a team that's you know, in a win now scenario
where they could move off some contracts, would it be
Oobi instead?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Perhaps? Not sure? Honestly, I don't think the Knicks if
you're giving a British around Inobe, given what your defense
is already, and then Mitchell Robinson might be. But if,
like if Talents isn't going out, then Mitchell Robinson probably is.
I don't think that. I don't know what the resulting
product ends up being that would be. That'd be like
a weird pivot by them.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
I think, yeah, the Pacers, but like, are they giving
up Sia come here?

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Plus a very Unpacers like move.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
It would That's why I'm you know, because this league
has a tendency to just what about Toronto?

Speaker 1 (49:49):
They got that brandon Ingram salary now floating on that book, So.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
That'd actually be fun. That would actually be fun. That
would make way more sense than so like himself.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
With Brandon Ingram and Yaka Peardle that they make more
than Kevin Durant. Next year right, because brandings almost have
forty so you would almost need to not use yaka
pearls money. You have to maybe find someone cheaper if
you're just trying to do it straight up.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
So what you're saying is a you know, assigned and
traded Chris Bouchet.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Absolutely not, he's on touchable.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeah, I had a feeling.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
I had a feeling, Uh that could work. Memphis wouldn't
do it right, Like they're just so caut conscious they're
not gonna and they would have to send out like
they were trading Desmond Bane. It would probably take like
ninety contracts because all their contracts are middle wrung or lower.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
But they wanted him, that was reported, So like, I
don't think we should rule out Memphis. Memphis would absolutely
be in it.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
The money on that would be, would you trade Desmond
Bane for Kevin Durant?

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Like, are we assuming that the season Desmond Bane is
having right now is going to be the new norm?
Because if so, yeah, that's not been a you know,
that's not been a regular or Desmond Bain season.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, I mean he wouldn't. You would have to move
him because I'm just looking at like all the money
you're not gonna move Jaron Jackson Junior at this point,
and he's probably gonna extend. So John Morand or Desmond
Bain is like the primary money going out. Are we okay,
I'm just gonna say it.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Are we sure that job Moran is completely off limits
for the Memphis Grizzlies nowadays?

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Did we didn't? Was it? Did Climbing come out and
say that he was after the exact speculated and how
I think?

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Which is which is what a good GM should do
instead of shipping him off to the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Well, I think that you could also just say nothing
so that people don't go cite that interview. If you
then do trade true true, what do we do?

Speaker 2 (51:45):
We do we think that Jah has the same connection
with the Memphis fan base as Luga does with with
Dallas for example, Like I.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Would say, I would say, do I think Memphis, Well,
the Mavericks fans would have been outraged if you traded
Luca for Durant. I think Memphis fans would be pretty bummed.
If I think Jaron Jackson Junior is all like kind
of tracking towards maybe the most important player in that building.
But Jaws like electric and Grizzlies fans do and should

(52:18):
love him. That would be one where they react. I
would be fascinated by the reaction me.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Too, and the return frankly, because I just don't know that.
For me, it's just one thing is off the court
stuff that's not that doesn't really like.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Unless yeah, they're being effectively buried. Again, we haven't heard
anything like, correct.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
But the second thing is the injuries. Like I think
we've reached that point where we can no longer ignore
the fact that he's never cracked seventy games played in
the season, like he's cracked sixty five once.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
That's where we are. How much the pandemic shortened seasons
factor that at all, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
They probably do, But like you lately, you know, we
can't like the twenty twenty two twenty twenty three season
when it was sixty one games and that was was
that the suspension.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Year, No, because he was suspended for twenty five that year.
That was last year, was the suspension year where he
played in nine games. That was last year. Okay, So
I mean he played in the oh because that was
a seventy So the seventy two seasons were nineteen Oh. Yeah,
you're right. It was funny. Those were the seasons where
he actually he missed single digit games his first three

(53:31):
years in the league, because he missed five in twenty
and then he missed nine in twenty twenty one. So yeah,
it's been the absences have kind of been like racked
up in the intervening years.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
We're looking at a player who is six years since
his career and his has yet to crack three hundred
played games.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Is that? But like you're so you're talking about if
let's just say they flame out in the playoffs or something,
you're looking at trading. I don't know, No, I not.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
I'm not a looking at like aggressively shopping John Moran.
What I'm saying is I'm not a post to taking calls.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
I guess there. I think it the Luca trade proves anything,
is that there's probably two on charge. I would have
argued that there's maybe five and that Luca was one
of them. So what do I know? I think the
issue with John Morant, though, is that if you when
you put Luca on the open market, you were able
to get one of the fifteen best players in the
NBA in return. In addition to other stuff, that's not

(54:30):
gonna happen. With John Morant. You would definitely be taking
You're either doing one of two things. You're trading John
Morant and it's a package that's built around prospects and
picks and maybe some inferior like role players or fringe stars,
or you're attaching stuff to John Morant to try and
upgrade from Giant. It'd be like the Lakers side of
the end of the Luka Dants trade almost so, And

(54:53):
I don't know what I'm not doing that for Kevin Durant.
I can tell you that, yeah, that's fair. Would you do,
Like what is the player that would have be come
available for you to Memphis to even think about that, Like,
the list has to be pretty.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Low, so so small, because if you're trying to upgrade
at a specificity, you call.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
The Lakers and see, like what what's going on with Luca?

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Like about to say Luca is the one name, right,
Like Luca is the one name that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
If you really wanted to go that route and thought like, okay,
we could approximate primary. That's the other thing though, is
like not that this Luca wasn't this to the MAVs,
but like Desmond Bain's gotten better as a playmaker, did
Jared Jackson Junior as a self starter. They have some
reserve ballhanders like John Moran is the driving like as
the ballhandler is the driving force of that offense. And
even if you go from John Moran to Giannis as

(55:42):
an example, who's your primary playmaker, then it creates like
some oddities.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Right, So here's the last one is not going to
be serialized whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I just wanted to bring it up, like.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
If Embiid wasn't a complete unknown at this point, like
at least it would be something interesting about a potential
you know, KD Embiid swap. Like obviously I'm just realizing
right now Phoenix can't do it because I'll be discerning
more money. But like the whole Center situation there, at

(56:16):
least there would be some sort of you know, comedy
involved here that that it's a bid because it solves
the Center thing at least when he's healthy, like beil
Booker Embiid, I sort of see like the slither of
a vision there, but like who's healthy on that team?
I don't know, and I don't think he has that

(56:39):
trade value whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
No, that's what brings the inbad situation? So tough and
a bummer for the obviously who's the because I think
we've gone through all like the obvious, with the exception
of your naming name checking Sacramento. What's the like left
team that comes out of left field that you could
see Pelicans would Scion? Oh, okay, Toronto would kind of.
I don't if they would count left field anymore. Like

(57:01):
that's right up Messi's alley, right, yeah, them up? They were.
They could be a fun team. What about based off
how a lot of this season has gone. They have
some contracts that can make it work and they would
be a team that you have like some young players,
some picks Portland. If you get off to Jeremy Grant
deal or the eight and contract, that'd be even funnier

(57:24):
or both.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Like we want to would like to one end where
what does his team do?

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Kevin Durant plus Scoot plus Donovan cling In plus Tamani Kamara,
Like that's that's what we're penciling in. Like because you
can't say Denny Abdio is untouchable in that. You may
be Sharp's untouchable in that, but like, but remember.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
The first quote from Kadi, I want to end my
career on my own terms.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Oh what could be more of your own terms than
co signing the move to Portland? That could have been
once upon a time.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
I mean, sure, I'm not seeing it, but that's fair.
See that was the team on left field. I can't
even wrap my head around how that would work.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
Like maybe Atlanta, Like would they just be they have
some concience like all right, we're gonna move forward with KD,
Trey Young and Jalen Johnson. Oh they're running out of Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Atlanta could be fun, Yeah, Jalen, do you give up
Jalen Johnson?

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Though I'm actually looking at the money right now because
Capella's coming off the books. They have some like who
are there? And DeAndre Hunter's salary's gone, Karis la Vertz
coming off the books. So yeah, the money. If you're
not gonna trade Trey, your second highest paid player on
the books for next season is Terrence Mann at fifteen
and a half. Well, aside from Johnson, Yeah, I mean

(58:46):
you could get there without it, just because they're gonna
have flexibility underneath the luxury tax. So it would be
like a Kung Wu would you rather give up. It
would have to be would you rather give up Jalen
Johnson or I think I'd rather give up? All right,
let's step ladder with a hung Wu and Terrence Man
agreed and other stuff. Are you giving up Reesa? Say

(59:06):
his money end up being important just because he's on
the books like ten million? I am.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
I like Reasoship, however, that's just that's that's.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
So it would be recas ship. Let's say if it
was Man Reache and a kung Wu Durant.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Yeah, I do that if I'm in Atlanta, because I
know that the Spurs still have my picks and swap
options and whatnot. So yeah, I'm saying screw it, I'm.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
You got that. You got to get a big man
in there. That's for surely time Papella.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
At that point, what about what about Denver the MPJ
and Aaron Gordon is out going? That's sixty over sixty
million over sixty one million out going, So like it
would have to be one of those situations where.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
Third and fourth teams are involved. Yeah, going to be
in the second Yeah, Well okay, Zeke Nagy's probably got
some trade value right now, right, you better hope. So
if you're Denver, Yeah, yeah, I don't. Would you give
just as an exercise, are you giving up MPJ and
Aaron Gordon for Kevin Durant? I don't think I could
do it if I'm Denver.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
It's it's not gonna be like an easy yes for
me at all. But like the upside of like a
Murray kd Jokic Pridebury trio, that is very, very intriguing
to me. Also because I do think that Christian Brown,
Christian Brown is good. I really like watching him play
this year. I think he's smart. Julius thing is gonna

(01:00:29):
come on.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Yeah, you could build a package just around MPJ, because
he's a thirty eight million you could. That's something you consider.
But here's the I think probably more interesting one for
well maybe not for Phoenix, Like would you give up
Jamal Murray for Kevin Durant? So Jamal is starting to

(01:00:49):
show his worth again. I don't even know if he's starting.
It's been like what two and a half months. Well,
I think he's.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
I think he's. I think he's leveled up a little
bit more over the past couple of weeks. I think
we've seen like more stability from him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
But you have to weigh that against four years and
two hundred and eight million dollars or whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
And that's where I'm I'm worried.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Right, So are we predicting his demise within the next
basketball demise within five years we're.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Doing I'm not predicting his demise. I am predicting that
there is a risk of a demise, and that risk
alone is concerning. But like, this is where it gets
messed up, right, because the Durant thing. You keep having
it in the back of your mind that he's thirty six, right,
Like you know that you're not gonna get a long

(01:01:39):
runway here. It's it's you've got to take off immediately.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Do you think the kron Keys that would be part
of the appeal for them though the money they're gonna
have to let's just say objectively, Jamal Murray over the
next four years is going to cost you more than
Kevin Durant and doesn't make it easier, like viewed through
that prism of well, we gotta pay Brown, maybe Watson.
I mean this is assuming like what else needs to

(01:02:03):
be thrown into any Jamal Murray plus salary? But like
Jamal Murray is ignology to get you very close to
getting Kevin Durant, Like money wise, I think so if
like that's the cost, I think you probably have to
have a conversation about it. But but I do think
the synergy between Murray and Jokic, specifically, like Durant's not
gonna be playing off jokis the way that Murray plays

(01:02:24):
off Jokic. You could say that Christian Brown replaces some
of that, you know who also replaces some of that
Russell Westbrook, But I don't know. If Durant and Westbrook
want to play together again, that'd be another might be
another part of this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
No, But see, the thing is Russ is only on
the hook if he picks up his player option by
the way at three and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Give those things out like candy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Yeah, right exactly, So that's not a problem. Like you,
they can trade him, or if he knows that KD
is coming, you know, he might get a little word
in advance that those things are happening, so he can
decline that option.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Uh, But but like that's a good, that's a good,
Like mine said that, we have to consider ownership angles
in this because if this could end up just saving
them a ton of money. Yeah, that should absolutely be
in play.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I just don't, do you think, man, I don't. Would
you rather have Jo Kich, Durrant, MPJ, and Aaron Gordon
or Yo Kic, Durant, Gordon, Jamal Murray as you're four
basically summing out Murray and.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
MPJ and yeah, okay, yeah no no, then then I'd
rather have you know, Jo Kich, Murray, KD Gordon.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Yeah, I think I'm with you because Durant doesn't have
the I don't know, man, No, I'm like, I'm overthinking.
So I'm just I don't know the way Michael Porter
Junior has been playing when he gets going downhill, but
his replacing his three point volume would be Durant's a
very talented shooter, but we've just never seen him prop
up the type of three point volume that you necessarily
want him to have it. But Murray could replace some
of that too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
So with you, kad ever played with a guy who's
as good a playmaker as Jokic.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
I mean, Jokic is like, what, one of the five
best passers in NBA history? So what kind of a
question is that? Right? Exactly?

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
So I'm saying maybe there are a lot more open
threes in the future there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Lay offense necessarily, there might be a lot of more
like duck into the rim for him.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
Well, okay, I mean KD is KD. He's going to
dictate some terms as well. I think for him, like, like,
I agree with you that he's been overall a reluctant
three point shooter, but he's never a guy to turn
him down though, Like, that's that's the one thing I
will give him when he's open.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
He's taking that bad boy, I think, Yeah, I don't.
I do wonder if you gave the Nuggets front office
true si erm if they would prefer to give up
Murray or Porter Junior, if it was a Kevin Duran trade,
it'd be interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
And I'm also just curious between the the jo Kic
KD fed there's something intriguing about that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
I mean, there's the Jokic plus whoever fit is super
increasing and.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Say that about because you're actually but you're right about
something though, because I just looked up Katy's career high
in three point field goal attempts in a game. It's
it's fifteen. Like we have guys who are averaging like thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Yeah, they're ruined in the game, though Katie's trying to
save it. That's KD. I want him to just be like,
it'd be really funny if he was just like wanted to,
like I want to go to Detroit, Like, let me
play next to Asar Thompson, Let's go do this my terms.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yeah yeah, Or I'm gonna be the I'm gonna be
the guy who steps out of Michael Jordan's shadow in Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Oh god, he will ruin his legacy if he actively
chooses to go. Oh absolutely. You know team we haven't mentioned,
and they come up in every single trade discussion for
a superstar. The Lakers still have their twenty thirty one
first round pick. If he wants to go to the
Lakers and play with Luca and Lebron, I think it
takes like they could basically like everybody and they would

(01:05:58):
have Apron concerns. You have to send out specific salaries,
but they could make them. If he says I want
to go to the Lakers, that'd be really funny. I
don't think I don't know what that team would be
because you're not like you're exacerbating a lot of your
you know, you have to send Vando out in that
you're losing a big sign bigs off the scrap heap then,
I guess, but they could still in fury send out

(01:06:21):
a swap, a pick and money to make it work.
And like Austin Reeves has real value at this point,
I'm sure he does. He does. We're near what I
would deem the best package. But if that's the team
that KD sort of lasers in on, I'd be interested.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
And there is speculation that the Lakers might trade Austin
Reeves because he is on that very you know, insanely
good value contract and they could possibly get a ton
for him, which I don't know if I would go
that route if I'm at LA, but like I understand
just trying to figure out what exactly is his trade value,
Like I.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
Don't know, and I wonder is he moral valuable to
the Lakers with Luca there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think people for a long time
had him pegged as just a shooter, and now, you know,
fortunately people are waking up to the fact that that's
not who he is. It's more of a pick and
roll guy, more of a creator. So yeah, I do
think there is a world where it might prove beneficial
for the Lakers to like just fill out a different

(01:07:25):
hole on the roster by using that contract.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
And now I was just going to go the opposite
way of saying, with Lebron being where he is right now,
you don't need any more primary ball handlers, but soon
you might. You don't have anyone else in the pipeline
aside from Austin Reeces who kind of fits that. Bill.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Oh that's fair. Yeah, that's a different way of looking
at it. I could see that. I mean, we keep
forgetting that Lebron is forth. How does Lebron feel like
he's younger than Kat? We're sitting there talking about Kat
had thirty six, like, oh, the end is near, and
then we were just kind of like, oh, yeah, he
can go play with Lebron, who's forty, and we don't
even mention in that age.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
That's Lebron is just I mean, Kevin Durant's the longevity
of the get like the like the impact of Kevin Durant,
Lebron James and i'lso throw Steph Curry into here. I
think that we do a good job of propping those
guys up, but I still don't think we fully appreciate
what's happening with those three when you look at the
level at which they're playing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
Yep, hell, I mean, look, I'm a big herd and skeptic.
I'll even throw him in there, like he's still like, yeah,
his age just showing a little bit more this year
in particular, especially just in terms of like gaining separation
from defenders and whatnot. But like, he's still a very
productive player, and he's also thirty five.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Like he also liked the party in his twenties and
in his thirties and in his mid thirties too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
It's a and who does have a bit of a
midsection occasionally.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
But his there was I guess a point in when
he was trying to get out of Houston on purpose.
He was never someone that wasn't considered a worker though
right it was always his He didn't recognize when his
body could no longer handle the late nights. So it
feels like the critics from Luca's a little bit different.
But he is kind of proof that you could work
hard and then party harder, I guess or something. I

(01:09:06):
don't know, however you want to phrase it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Look, also, can we just can we just acknowledge that
that the Luca experience of him partying hard after working hard,
that's like something we can all identify with a lot easily.
Like I don't identify with Lebron because he's he's putting
up a million and a half bucks per year to
like preserve his body's waking up at four in the
morning to go work out, like dude, that I can't

(01:09:31):
relate to. That I can relate to Luca.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Right, and it's im Lebron is. Also there's just players
who are different. We're like one, social media was not
like as prevalent when Lebron was Luca's agent, so we
don't know what Lebron's diet and off court habits were
as well as we might know Luca's at this point,
And it just felt like players were still good, just
like Michael Jordan was covered differently than Lebron was covered,
like when you're skipping those generations, and so there's also

(01:09:57):
just you're always gonna have the sick goes in the
sense of Okay, Lebron came in as a teenager and
maybe he just got it when it came to body
maintenance and whatever I mean, Like, but also he's gifted
genetically too, like he might not. Luca may need to
be more cognizant of his sort of physiology than Lebron. Ever, mean,
that's not saying Lebron. Lebron's one of the hardest workers
in NBA history. I'm sure I'm not trying to pooh

(01:10:19):
pooh Lebron's work ethic. I just you don't want to
draw those comps to it. But I do wonder, like
I think you could say this about any past errors,
like even more Lebron's what you considered a contemporary star.
But I do think the way that the league was
covered and that players were put under a microscope like
it was, it was different when he was twenty five
versus when he's forty and Lucas twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:10:41):
And we will take a short break and be back
to talk about Victor Wimbenyama, who's also fortunately been under
the microscope, or rather his blood has and it might
have saved his life. All right, Dan, they're still laughing
of that one. Uh Vi is going to miss the

(01:11:03):
rest of the season. A blood test might have saved
his light because he this is not a laughing matter,
got down.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
This is not nothing going off is funny, but you're
it was just it was so dumb. It was the
worst segue ever had. It wasn't dumb, it was just
so like it felt like one of those things like
I don't know, like I can't describe what you would
where you would hear it, but it just felt like
it was.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
It was the most forced segue ever. And that that's
just the reality of the situation.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
This. It's like it's one thirty in the morning, so
like that's.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
What I had.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
That's what I had. Look, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
We can't laugh of this this because it's it's obviously
very very serious, but we are very happy. Well, we
can laugh and enjoy something, and that is that the
the deep vein thromboses got caught in time, which is
basically a blood cloth. And and the fact that he's
going to make a recovery acording to this birth. And

(01:12:01):
I'm assuming very much that Wemby is going to be,
you know, providing them with with blood tests after what
every single game. Now, like he's gonna be poked and
prodded like never before. This is gonna be a thing
that they're going to take a look at continuously over
the rest of his career rightfully. So I think it's
safe to say both you and I are very very

(01:12:23):
happy that we this got, you know, uncovered, and this
is a thing that that's now being treated. Unfortunately, it
also means we won't be seeing him for the rest
of this year.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
So Dan, I'm just gonna throw it straight to you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Now we can like put his season into review his
second year, like now the first two years of his
career are over with. What is your like overall thought
process of the year two of the Wemby.

Speaker 1 (01:12:52):
This is a good timing because we just did our
sophomore stock reports over at hard On a Knox and more.
I know this is controversy, but I went stock up
for Victor women Yama. I just I think he's pretty
good at basketball. And uh, that's just the long and
short of it. But look, I saw some some I
don't think that this was the prevailing thought right when

(01:13:15):
he when the deep vein thrombosis prognosis came back, there
were a lot of people that said this conversation returned
to how does this affect a year end awards Defensive
Player of the Year, But a lot of people were
kind of using this as an opportunity to say one,
he was only being pushed as defensive player of the
year because of blocks, and then people were sort of
using this as see there was always concerns about his durability.

(01:13:36):
This is not this is not a durability thing. This
is like a this is like a serious health issue.
And it doesn't prove anything about his body breaking down.
And if you're using anything like this as a victory lap,
like it's probably time to look in the Maybe I'm
being overly pious there, but when you watched him this year,
I don't have notes about the defense. I think he's
probably he's just better overall. But like you can't watch

(01:14:00):
him and think that his impact boils down to blocks.
He's the biggest deterrent in the league right now in
terms of and I don't think it'll ever be able
to be properly quantified because it's like, yeah, you can
look at the number of opponent shots coming at the
room when he's on the court. But like the way
players will veer out of the lane or always in
the basket, because Wemby's like by the baseline, I even

(01:14:21):
really near the basket. It's the offense that some of
the efficiency numbers were down looking at his pull up shooting, overall,
his self created efficiency is up. I think he's become
a much better passer this year. He could still kind
of like, you know, he's gonna have those weird turnovers
and dribble into the help, but just the distance the

(01:14:41):
ball has to travel when he's dribbling, I think that
might always be kind of ingrained into his game. But
I think that the stuff he's done as a playmaker
and maybe it helps that, Like there were more organizers
on this team than there were last year. I think
we just saw a lot of growth from him on
both sides of the floor, and even people who were wondering, oh,
is he ever gonna play more than thirty minutes a game? Yeah,

(01:15:04):
he just did. And I know it was ended up
only being forty six. But he can hit a wall
because he's not hashtag built for this, Like he has
a serious health issue and so it's something to monitor.
Hopefully it's fine. We saw sar Thompson kind of came
back from something similar this season. We know Brandon Ingram
had something similar. So the Spurs believe this is a
one off and if if this is really a one off,
Like there's still no way to hyperbolyze what Victor women

(01:15:27):
Yaba just might become, because he's unlike any player that
we've ever seen, Right, I concur with everything you just said.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
The passing in particular, I think basically just the ball handling. Yeah,
he'll still have let's just say a dumb turn overs
here and there, but like his paternal percentage declined, which
again is a big indicator of someone like getting it,
especially at that position. And it's also the quality of
the passes. Like people will sometimes look at just raw

(01:15:56):
cysts or amounts of passes per game, but that is
never a good enough substitute to actually just watching how
he makes passes and what type of passes he makes.
Some of them are ridiculous, Like he can he can
like atch a pass in the middle of the floor,
two or three guys can just kind of rotate over

(01:16:18):
him and he won't even like necessarily pass over the defense,
Like he'll make this perfectly timed bounce pass. Ye, So
like a cutting Jeremy Sohan where you're just like what
just happened and like doing with his offhand on the
move and like two guys coming at him, it's just
it's it's really ridiculous. And I think with him playing

(01:16:41):
next to Chris Paul for the most part of this
year that has only like given him a lot of tips.
Moving forward, I assume he's gonna come back a little
bit stronger. Like I'm not saying he's gonna be Dwight.
We know that he doesn't want to be that size,
which I think is the right call, but we did
see him bulk up a little bit from year one
in the year two. I see no reason to expect

(01:17:02):
that he won't also have a similar growth period between
year two and year three. So when he comes back
and is maybe able to take some of the more
physical punishment and still make those passes or still get
the end one or whatever, I think he's gonna be
freaking unstoppable. And that's just offensively defense, you kind of
leaned into it. Teams are just starting their offense as

(01:17:24):
far away from him as humanly possible, and when he's
at that free throw line area, just kind of free
roaming the shit out of everyone. Those those teams are
taking threes. They're like nope, like we're not, We're just
not We're gonna swing it to the corner, we're gonna
take to the top of the key threes. We're just
we're not gonna try to force the ball in there.
We're not gonna try to drive past you, because we

(01:17:46):
know that's not gonna work. It's so I absolutely think
he's the defensive player of the Year. Obviously it's not
gonna win it because of the criteria of games played,
but like the most impactful defender in the league. Yes,
because visides that the letticism, but also because of his
smarts and positions and like how he pursues himself the

(01:18:06):
one grid that I do have and I do think
it's fair. He became a little bit too not timid,
that's the wrong word. But like in year one, he
had this thing where he would he would attack the
rim with reckless abandoned times led to way more free froze,
and I think this year he was a little bit

(01:18:26):
more you know, push shots, weird floaters, like shots that
didn't really go towards the basket as much. So that's
probably one thing where I will say, that's something we
need to see less of in year three, where he
has to go back to like his rookie mentality.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
So you're just saying you want him posting up on
the block back to the basket, slowed things down when
the game was beautiful, big man proper.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
No, No, that would be horrendous because frankly, I'm not
really I think I actually trust him more as a
passer when he posts up than at the nest of score.
I think that's that's how he utilized him as a
post of threat. I just want him to, like when
he has a semi open chord, just to utilize it
and just take it strong. Because when he leaps and

(01:19:15):
you kind of think, oh he's going with like a
finger roll or he's going with you know, a push shot,
he'll dunk the fucking ball, Dan and you're like not
realizing how he even gets there. But that's because he's
so long. I just need him to utilize his length
slightly more.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
Yeah, that's fair. I think the other thing though, too,
it's it's interesting that his foul right has gone down.
I think he's a better screener this year than he was,
Like oh yeah, yeah, what you think would just kind
of coincide with Okay, like that would open up more
into here, especially with someone like Chris Paul on the team.
So that'll be interesting to monitor. And he has look
his credit, like he shot seventy percent at the rim
last year, He's gonna finish seventy six percent at the

(01:19:52):
RIM this year. Yeah, so yeah, I'd be like, I
think there can be especially when you maybe look at
some of the timing on his shots, like does he
become maybe too reliant on the pole up even just
because I don't think we don't see a ton of
him just like operating on the block, but like, can
you bring him like kind of the Christops Porzingis thing.
I think we saw it a lot more in Washington,
I would say, maybe, I'm mister, we've seen it some

(01:20:13):
in Boston, but like catches it back to the basket,
then turns around and fire And that's like how christophs
Porzingis punishes mismatches. He has the height and the jumper
to do that. I don't know if the efficiency was
necessarily on it. But this is all just to be
able to say all this about a player who's just
not only finishing up a second year, but it's still
so young. It's not like he came in as an
older rookie. Is pretty incredible and you know We'll see

(01:20:35):
if this changes the complexion of how the Spurs operate
over the offseason or are they going to be less
aggressive because Victor Wermingham is coming off this injury. Does
it reinforce the urgency behind having him like in his
prime or playing at this level for them to be
again not to do something reckless or stupid, but this
team has real needs and you also you're you're losing

(01:20:57):
information on the fit between him, dearon Fox, and everybody
else that you view as a long term piece. And
so now I think we're gonna get a ton of
and are starting to get information on Okay, the Castle
Fox dynamic and how does all of that work? When
mi y'allm was plugging play enough to where I think that, okay,
this will be these will be useful reps. Like that's
kind of the biggest loss of all here is just

(01:21:18):
the Spurs now have left information on the current makeup
of this team and its inner workings.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
I think the three point shot that he leaned into
has made him plug and play like you alluded to,
and I think that's why it was crucial for him
to just up the volume there. I know a lot
of people were like no, don't take as many threes.
And the first I want to say, handful of games
this year, I was a little bit not I wasn't
nervous about the volume. I was nervous about the process

(01:21:47):
of him taking them because he was rushing them like
I'd never seen him rushing him that that way before.
And then suddenly he started calming down and like he
kind of put his ass into the shot a little
bit more instead of just full uber body strength, and
all of a sudden he was like knocking down for
a stretch there like five or six threes per game,
which was ridiculous. And for him to like embrace three

(01:22:09):
point shot and understand what is a good three, Like,
how do I get myself into the right rhythm, how
do I get myself into the high volume, how do
I make myself how do I apply my skill set.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
From out there.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
It's huge because that means you're opening up for ballhandlers
to do their work much more. You don't have to
be this ISO guy. You can you can sort of
be a release valve. It's just there's so many things
here that I like about him upping the three point.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Rate, and also some of that I mentioned some of
his efficiency on the pull up jumpers declined. There was
the I think part of that reporting was they couldn't
figure out why he was so tired and fatigued during
like kind of the last latter part of his season,
and apparently the deep vein thrombosis can contribute to that.
Is you know, we don't even know, like, well, how
much you're talking about maybe like increasing his volume on

(01:22:59):
the interier, how much of that had anything to do
with just fatigue over the last like what fifteen or
twenty games or so leading into the All Star break
would be another factor to kind of track moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
It was probably around ten games, so I've watched I
think every game, maybe missed one or two of his
this year, and it was about between eight and ten
games where I was like, something's up. And I didn't
obviously I didn't think blood cloth like let's I thought
it was like, you know, a sophomore wall or like

(01:23:30):
him just being fatigued, just but like you could clearly
see he was panting way earlier in the first quarter
than usually, like hands on his hips, just like having
struggling to breathe really and you could see that his
shots were coming up a lot flatter than before. And
it was like, like I was almost hoping for him

(01:23:50):
to not make All Star like on his behalf, just
to get the week off. And then when the diagnosis
came out, I was like, oh, all right, yeah, that
that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
Unfortunate, Yah, that's such a bummer that he's gonna be done,
but hopefully he'll just be okay long term, and that
because they caught it. When they did that, it was
just you know, he's just going to be fine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
And and I do think he's in good hands because
like everyone who's over six seven is apparently you know,
they're they're they're so preproposed to these things, and like
the risk level just increases, like at a dramatic rate.
So I do think in the NBA must have a
lot of experience with this. They must know what they're doing.
I have to assume that as soon as they, you know,

(01:24:34):
found out what it was, they were like, oh, yeah,
here's a treatment planned, here's exactly what we're gonna do. First,
we're gonna make sure it's not a Chris Bosh issue,
because damn if that was a case. Uh, and then
let's see from here. So I think he's gonna be
in good hands. And yeah, like he's probably gonna be
hooked a lot in the coming years. He's gonna have
a lot of block tests and that's gonna be fine.

(01:24:57):
I'm pretty sure he and his entire family are like, yes, please,
more blood, more blood work. That's fine. Let's just make sure.
I'm okay.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
Everything we heard and read about him leading up to
the draft process, too, is that his preparation is exhaustive,
like so meticulous that yeah, you kind of wonder, Okay,
they caught this just because it seems like they're the
key and the infrastructure that's around him. And then credit
san Antonio too, I'm sure, just like having the wherewithal
to just be on top of everything makes you feel
better about the prognosis going forward. That's like a very

(01:25:25):
unscientific way of looking at it, I'm sure, but that's
like my view on it. Yeah, totally agree.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
So top marks for his second season here, it's it's
so unfortunately got cut short. But again, a human life
was at stake here, so that's way more important than
fucking basketball. But I will say nothing that I've seen
in here two makes me any like less encouraged about
the future quite the opposite.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
This guy is the real deal.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
And there's a reason I bringing him up on this
podcast so much because I really want people to like
attention to this because one, he's so fun of watch like,
he's he you know, I'll be I beill, be honest
with you because covering this game and doing it through work,
there are periods of time where I can go like
full seasons even and I know you've had a similar

(01:26:15):
experiences where you can sort of feel like, oh, this.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Is this is work.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Like I'm not necessarily enjoying every game as much like
it can be a feel a little a little bit long,
so like the two and a half three hour games,
you're kind of waiting around for it to end. I mean,
this guy is just so unique. He just broke so
many like things that we've never seen, Like, we never
seen him do things before. We've never seen any player

(01:26:41):
do stuff like what he does before. And I found
myself completely rejuvenated by watching him play it. With the
first two seasons here, I'm like, I'm in. I'm gonna
watch him for the rest of his career because this
is he's, by far from me, one of the most
entertaining basketball players I've ever seen, So that's why I'm
bringing him up so often. A lot of people which
enjoy Kay much more if they watch more of him.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
What a hot take by Moret Jensen. I am in
might be the first person I've ever heard say it
out loud. Whodos to you breaking on Yahoo Sports?

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
Yeah, yep, that's that's fantastic. All right, Dan Valley, thank
you so much for joining me on what should have
been a twenty minute podcast. That's at least how I wrote.
You said this won't be a quick podcast. Now we've
done in almost ninety minutes, so we're sticking to our brand.
I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Yeah, if we ever have a twenty minute podcast together,
I assume it's because we're beef in or because one
of us didn't attend.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
I don't even know how you and I were beef though.
I like, I've tried to visualize something, don't even know
how that works.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
We'll figure something, will create, like a fake feud for
the engagement numbers. Right. Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
By the way, I know this isn't your pod, but
I have a Danish word for you and you can
guess it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
So no, you can guess what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
In English, after I say it and before I say
it is it's exclusively due to the Dallas Mavericks. I'm
using this word incompetent.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
Impotent. Oh no, incompetent but close, No, that's the word.
But I was trying to figure out, well, I mean, look,
yellow one put up been great, though, I was trying
to think of the most not suitable for work word
that was also kind of suitable for work that I
could come up with in that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
Yeah, but look that I think that kind of fits
for the mask too.

Speaker 1 (01:28:29):
Wait, hat, what is it? Incompetent? Incompetent. That's how I'm
gonna actually just pronounce it from now on so that
I can always say that I'm speaking that counts as bilingual.
Then right if I from there you.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
Go, yeah, absolutely absolutely all right, So thank you to
everyone listening in. And remember, if you want to save
big on meal boxes from Hello Fresh, you can go
to HelloFresh dot com slash busser beater and use my
promo code busser beater in one word, and that will
get you a ton of percentages off your first hurches.
Thank you once again for Todan's Favali for joining this

(01:29:04):
supposedly twenty minute podcast. Thank you for everyone listening in
until we speak again. Have a good one everyone,

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NBA Potpourri: Luka, Durant & Wembanyama - Featuring Dan Favale

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}NBA Potpourri: Luka, Durant & Wembanyama - Featuring Dan Favale