Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got the
Speaker 1: most shocking, surprising NBA trade in history, maybe all of sports.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you heard this, but I am here to
Speaker 1: break it all down. Dallas Mavericks have traded Luca to
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers. Fuck. I hate the Lakers for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis for day to day Davis, one injury prone
Speaker 1: guy for an older, injury prone guy one can play
Speaker 1: defense though. Oh yeah, by the way, the Kings. The
Speaker 1: Kings traded dearon Fox in a three teen to seven
Speaker 1: player deal. We'll get into that as well. My god,
Speaker 1: don't Dottle Anthony, I know you've been up late drinking wine,
Speaker 1: recording podcasts. Drop that beat that should be Rihanna. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to say. I don't know. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: oh holy shit, Holy fuck. Early Sunday morning or late
Speaker 1: Saturday night, depending on what coach you're on. Something happened.
Speaker 1: The Trains changed the entire landscape of the NBA. Not
Speaker 1: a goddamn soul saw it coming, not even the souls involved.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Mavericks moved one of what was regarded as
Speaker 1: maybe the number one untouchable player in all of the
Speaker 1: NBA and Luka Doncic, a player that, just in October
Speaker 1: was the leader in the clubhouse for MVP to the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers, for Anthony Davis in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. No rumors, no whispers, nothing. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: as a Blazer fan if I will ever get used
Speaker 1: to Luka Doncic a Laker. My phone went nuclear. I
Speaker 1: was fast asleep, trying to get a little rest. I
Speaker 1: hauled myself out of bed to get to all this,
Speaker 1: and I am still in shock. Rewind this and let
Speaker 1: me just say it again for the people in the back.
Speaker 1: People thought that Twitter was hacked, that Scham's somehow had
Speaker 1: broken his account, that China had taken over the NBA
Speaker 1: Twitter sphere. Luka Doncic is an a Los Angeles Laker.
Speaker 1: How sway? Why sway? Lord have mercy? How did the
Speaker 1: trade go down in this way? How is it so cheap?
Speaker 1: That's the point of this episode to try to make
Speaker 1: sense of what happened, because if you're like everyone else,
Speaker 1: and I mean everyone else, you probably didn't believe it
Speaker 1: when you first saw it. When you first heard it,
Speaker 1: and when Shams broke the news, the universal reaction was Nope,
Speaker 1: that's not correct, that's not real. There's just it's just
Speaker 1: a twelve year old in his basement in Beijing hacking
Speaker 1: into Shalms's account and being like, I know what it'll
Speaker 1: be fun today, Luca for Anthony Davis, just a random
Speaker 1: I don't even think the ESPN trade generator would let
Speaker 1: that trade through in fake news, in like the alternate
Speaker 1: reality of the Internet. That's how little sense it all made.
Speaker 1: Shams tweeted multiple times, Hey, this is one thousand percent real,
Speaker 1: he said, one thousand percent reel. I am not kidding.
Speaker 1: He had to put that. When was the last time
Speaker 1: you saw a newsbreaker being like, hey, guys, it's me still,
Speaker 1: I'm not joking. This is real. And while you're still
Speaker 1: processing this, let's get into the details before we try
Speaker 1: to figure out what actually happened. The details are almost
Speaker 1: inconsequential when compared to the ramifications. The Dallas Mavericks traded
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleba, Marky Morris to the Lakers for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Max Christy, and an unprotected twenty twenty nine
Speaker 1: first round pick. Of course, Danny Ainge got involved because
Speaker 1: that's what he does. He trades. Okay, he trades, taking
Speaker 1: on a bad contract hood Schaffito and getting a parent
Speaker 1: Jalen Hoods Fido. Remember that was probably a tough one
Speaker 1: for Rob Polinka at Asualla, but we'll give him some
Speaker 1: credit right now because he pulled off a fleecing. So
Speaker 1: the Jalen Hoods Shaffido picks somehow meaningless. Now, uh, they
Speaker 1: got a pair of second round picks in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five for what just I don't get it. Anyway, with that,
Speaker 1: everything changed, not just in Dallas and in LA but
Speaker 1: everywhere in the league. We've got Kevin Durant being like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I can be traded at any moment. Now,
Speaker 1: if Luka Doncic can be traded, anyone can be traded.
Speaker 1: As Devin Booker just said, no one is safe. Well
Speaker 1: maybe Wemby is safe, but really Booker was so shocked
Speaker 1: when he was told Luca got traded he immediately asked Garza,
Speaker 1: Luca Garza, I mean not certainly, not the dawn. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we'll start here. The one thing that everyone agrees on,
Speaker 1: because you look at the reporting and it's let's just
Speaker 1: say not consistent. The one thing that everyone agrees on
Speaker 1: is that it all begins with one man, Dallas Mavericks
Speaker 1: GM Nico Harrison, former VP of Basketball Operations for Nike.
Speaker 1: The story is emerging by the moment, but here's what
Speaker 1: we believe right now. The idea of trading Luca formed
Speaker 1: in Nico's head as early as Thanksgiving, but around a
Speaker 1: month ago, Nico reached out directly to Laker's GM Rob Polinka,
Speaker 1: and they had coffee, That's what Nico said. They had
Speaker 1: coffee and it was just it was just a chill
Speaker 1: GM GM coffee And it was like, according to Nico,
Speaker 1: would you ever maybe think about I don't know, haven't
Speaker 1: ever thought about it? Would you ever think about it?
Speaker 1: It was like two friends being like, have you ever
Speaker 1: thought about fucking? You know? It's like I don't know, maybe,
Speaker 1: And then it's like I think we should fuck. You know,
Speaker 1: we fucked. Now it's done. No one else knows, but
Speaker 1: we are now in a post Coito relationship. Anyway. The
Speaker 1: only one that he said that too, though, by the way,
Speaker 1: is Rob Polinka former And I don't think actually it's
Speaker 1: being quite underline how insider trading ish. This is. No
Speaker 1: one's saying this, and actually just came to my mind.
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison when he was at Nike was a big
Speaker 1: Kobe guy. That was his dude. They were thickest thieves,
Speaker 1: peas and carrots. That was his marquee player. He was
Speaker 1: responsible for shepherding, putting out the signature line and doing
Speaker 1: everything under the sun that Kobe could want. Pause. Kobe's
Speaker 1: agent was also thickest thieves with Kobe, and that was
Speaker 1: Rob Polinka. So it probably would make sense that nic
Speaker 1: o'harrison and Rob Polinka have maintained a quite tight relationship,
Speaker 1: a buddy buddy brotherhood connected by rest in peace. Kobe
Speaker 1: Bryant on the right around the fifth year anniversary of
Speaker 1: his death, Reports are that Polinka was like, what, you're
Speaker 1: interested in trading Luca? His first words were are you kidding?
Speaker 1: But after forty eight hours of thought, after they finally
Speaker 1: had detailed a real trade, he came back and was like,
Speaker 1: let's do this in secret, baby, don't tell nobody. They
Speaker 1: started negotiating without anyone else involved, no players, no agents, nothing,
Speaker 1: for three weeks. Despite contrary reports, Nico said himself that
Speaker 1: there were no other teams contacted about Luca. It was
Speaker 1: all under the darkness of night and by secret. Luca
Speaker 1: had no idea that this was coming. He is, by
Speaker 1: all accounts, stunned, baffled, now going to lose probably fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars as a result. We will get into one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixteen million reasons why. And early reports were
Speaker 1: none of the players knew what was coming, not Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: not even the man who we say has the strings
Speaker 1: of the puppet, Lebron, James Chris Haynes is reporting there
Speaker 1: was one other person who knew about the impending trade.
Speaker 1: Nico apparently called Rich Paul of Clutch, Lebron's agent, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's agent, and told him what could be coming. But
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. And even though Lebron says
Speaker 1: that he didn't catch wind of the trade, if Rich
Speaker 1: Paul had news of the trade, do you think he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have said anything to Lebron. I don't know more
Speaker 1: on this later. So the facts are as we know
Speaker 1: him there as that. Let's get into why. Well, part
Speaker 1: of it has to do with what Tim McMahon, longtime
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks beat reporter, tweeted out that around the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year before they shut Luca down, Luca was
Speaker 1: playing at close to two hundred and seventy pounds, paging
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson, paiging Zion Willimson like epic levels of out
Speaker 1: of shape eating croissauts and bagels and ben Yet's and
Speaker 1: anything else that Luca wants to put in his mouth,
Speaker 1: and not doing a ton of running in order to
Speaker 1: get those calories off, which would make Luca, by the way,
Speaker 1: the seventh heaviest player in the NBA, which would also
Speaker 1: make Luca a defensive lineman for the Washington Commanders. Reports
Speaker 1: are trickling in that the team was frustrated with Luca,
Speaker 1: and not just as conditioning, but with the team that
Speaker 1: came along with Luca and his conditioning. They were getting
Speaker 1: a little antsy about paying Luca three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: four million dollars who just does not come to seasons
Speaker 1: prepared physically, does not seem to care about his body
Speaker 1: consistently has we'll call it nicks and bruises with the
Speaker 1: same ailments calf strains, squad strains, ankle sprains, and that
Speaker 1: they thought he would be more prone to in the
Speaker 1: future because of it. They were basically out. They were
Speaker 1: wanted out of the Luka Doncic business. And he's not
Speaker 1: even close to his contract expiring. It he was just
Speaker 1: eligible for an extension. He has multiple years left on
Speaker 1: his deal. This team firmly did not believe that they
Speaker 1: could win a championship with Luka Doncic at the center,
Speaker 1: and they believe they could win a championship with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis at the center. Mind you, Anthony Davis isn't exactly
Speaker 1: some picture of health either, not because they didn't think
Speaker 1: he was good enough, but because they didn't think he
Speaker 1: was healthy or fit enough. They thought he was loving
Speaker 1: donuts and beer. Remember when Michael Finley, after they made
Speaker 1: the finals, the Dallas Mavericks made the finals, took away
Speaker 1: Luca's beer. That's how you knew they were all kinds
Speaker 1: of fucking upset with him. Anyway, short of it is
Speaker 1: that Luke Nico didn't believe Luca playing himself into shape
Speaker 1: was even a possibility. And we all thought that the
Speaker 1: Pelicans were the one and only team with concerns about
Speaker 1: player condition, so much to process. How do you trade
Speaker 1: a guy with no other suitors involved. Let's make it.
Speaker 1: Let's move it down by breaking a team by team.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the Mavericks. This team, by the way,
Speaker 1: went to the finals last year and two series. Luca
Speaker 1: was carrying these boys Kyrieata's moments. PJ Washington hit a
Speaker 1: couple of corner threes, Derek Lively blocked a couple of
Speaker 1: very clutched shots, had some putbacks, Daniel Gafford out a
Speaker 1: game or two, They had a Klay Thompson, and they said,
Speaker 1: we don't think we can win with you. They just
Speaker 1: went to the finals. The MAVs had won fifteen of
Speaker 1: seventeen games before Luca went down with his injury on
Speaker 1: Christmas Day, and he hasn't played since. I don't even
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I don't know that this is
Speaker 1: real life. The MAVs then add Anthony day to Day Davis,
Speaker 1: who's been very healthy the past one and a half years,
Speaker 1: but like I said, has had a history of injuries.
Speaker 1: Besides that is now thirty two years old, which is
Speaker 1: seven years older than Luka. Doncic Nico's main statement since
Speaker 1: the trade, I believe defense wins championships. I believe getting
Speaker 1: an all defensive center and an All NBA player with
Speaker 1: a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We're built
Speaker 1: to win now and in the future. Man I don't
Speaker 1: know how he can say that with a real straight
Speaker 1: face and for us to believe him, Jason Kidds said,
Speaker 1: toning the company line, would you look at the vision
Speaker 1: of the team and what Nico wants to do? I
Speaker 1: truly support and truly believe that the players we are
Speaker 1: getting are the ones who can help us achieve that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, by the way, Max Christy, they wanted him
Speaker 1: a lot. I guess the players we are getting fair.
Speaker 1: Before I go into the lineup, Nico has made a
Speaker 1: series of suspect moves as GM ones that we have panned, derided,
Speaker 1: and truthfully they've all looked pretty fucking good. We all
Speaker 1: will say that the moves he makes are peculiar, unorthodox,
Speaker 1: and so far they have worked. Here's the MAVs lineup
Speaker 1: and what it looks like right now. Kyrie at the one,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson at the two, PJ. Washington at the three,
Speaker 1: Anthony Day to Day Davis at the four, and Derek
Speaker 1: Lively at the five, with the bench in Spencer Dinwiddie,
Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford and Max Christi. And they're probably not done.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need another shot creator. That's a big ass team.
Speaker 1: By the way a lot of guys six six and above.
Speaker 1: Kyrie is kind of the only small guy in the
Speaker 1: starting five. Spencer Dinwittie, I think is six to five,
Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford, seven footer Max CHRISTI I believe six to
Speaker 1: six big team, big boys. Feels like that jumbo lineup
Speaker 1: that they had going for them which took them to
Speaker 1: the finals last year. They wanted to lean into more,
Speaker 1: but they also saw that Luka Doncic in the finals
Speaker 1: was a sieve and they didn't want that no more.
Speaker 1: I guess is it better than the MAVs with the
Speaker 1: healthy Luca, I don't know. I remember how Luca was
Speaker 1: doubled and triple teams against OKC, and how they got
Speaker 1: guys like I don't know, PJ. Washington and Derek Jones
Speaker 1: Junior hitting clutch threes. PJ. Washington just left wide open
Speaker 1: the whole series. Is that a possibility when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is there and not Luca, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Anthony Davis better start hitting those threes again.
Speaker 1: If you look at any playoff game over the past
Speaker 1: three years, you will see what I'm talking about, and
Speaker 1: that with the healthy Lebron taking a lot of heat
Speaker 1: off Kyrie Irving better be a picture of health. Part
Speaker 1: of this scoring load will be passed on Kyrie, who
Speaker 1: is He's pretty good this year. He's thirty two, and
Speaker 1: he has a bulging disk in his back. He hasn't
Speaker 1: been particularly healthy. Klay Thompson's role will probably increase as well.
Speaker 1: But Klay Thompson is not a shot creator. He is
Speaker 1: a shot maker, and he's a worst defender, probably right
Speaker 1: now than Luca and Ad is thirty two, with the
Speaker 1: history of injuries. I hope this goes the way they
Speaker 1: want it because Nico Harrison, if he makes this trade
Speaker 1: under the darkness of night, without ownership approval, without player approval,
Speaker 1: and this goes bad, they might kill him. They might
Speaker 1: kill him. I swear. If you trade a player like
Speaker 1: that with no else, no other people signing off, and
Speaker 1: it does not work out like it goes really bad.
Speaker 1: If they're still I don't know, like a play in team,
Speaker 1: we got real problems anyway, here's the lynchpin. Nope, Nico
Speaker 1: is preaching defense, but this team last year was third
Speaker 1: in the league in defense in the second half. But
Speaker 1: now they have a roster where they're gonna have three
Speaker 1: guys at center. They have eighty four, which is really
Speaker 1: where he plays his best. PJ defends the three, Clay
Speaker 1: defends the two, and Kyrie trying to strap a bunch
Speaker 1: of six to six guards. I don't know how that's
Speaker 1: gonna go. I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you believe in what Nico has done so far,
Speaker 1: you say, the man knows a lot more about Luca
Speaker 1: than we do, and he did not like what he sees.
Speaker 1: What would success be for the MAVs right now? Well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to go to the Western Conference finals again.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to beat Okac probably again. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to beat the Minnesota Temperwolves again. You better figure
Speaker 1: it out. I'm concerned, but I've been wrong before when
Speaker 1: it comes to Nico Harrison. By the way it caused
Speaker 1: people to this trade caused people to dig up the
Speaker 1: fact that they think that Nico Harrison was responsible for
Speaker 1: fumbling the bag on Steph Curry when Steph Curry was
Speaker 1: thinking about being a Nike athlete, where a botch presentation
Speaker 1: happened so badly where someone called him seth and recycle
Speaker 1: the presentation made for Kevin Durant that Curry then ditched
Speaker 1: Nike and signed with under Armour. By the way, Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's under Armour deal is now worth over a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the Lakers, how do you do this?
Speaker 1: I don't know. On both sides, it's pretty confusing. You
Speaker 1: basically have to say in terms of the long term
Speaker 1: post Lebron, because we don't know when he's going to retire.
Speaker 1: You now have one of the most marketable players in
Speaker 1: all of the NBA. You have a guy who, if
Speaker 1: you believe he can get in shape, is top three
Speaker 1: in the league, top five in the league. Just when
Speaker 1: you count the Lakers. They find a way to find
Speaker 1: one of the best bucket getters whose idol is Lebron James.
Speaker 1: Luca in La a fit. Luca in La is a lifesaver.
Speaker 1: How exactly this team is gonna shake out is unknown.
Speaker 1: The Lakers need a center. They needed a center when
Speaker 1: Ad was playing center, and now they don't have one anymore.
Speaker 1: They've got Jackson Hayes and they've got Christian Wood. Not great.
Speaker 1: They're gonna need to make a move again. The truth
Speaker 1: is you're looking at a team with Luca Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: Lebron James, Ruy Hachi Mura or Dorian Finney Smith and
Speaker 1: Jackson Hayes. I think they've punted on the year a
Speaker 1: little bit. Luca went to the finals with less last year.
Speaker 1: He went to the Western Conference finals with less a
Speaker 1: few years ago, and with a functioning center like a
Speaker 1: Clint Capella or a Walker Kesler, who knows, who knows?
Speaker 1: Stranger things have happened. And when you have not won,
Speaker 1: but two players on your team who can win a
Speaker 1: series by themselves, akaa Lebron James and AKAA Luca Doujits,
Speaker 1: you'd never know. You cannot count them out. A lot
Speaker 1: of this is going to depend how Luca responds to
Speaker 1: this trade. Is this a wake up? He did not
Speaker 1: request the trade. He did not want out of Dallas.
Speaker 1: He loves Dallas. He never has indicated I don't want
Speaker 1: to sign my extension. The MAVs could have signed him
Speaker 1: to the Supermax and then could have traded him, certainly
Speaker 1: for more than they got from the Lakers. One NBA
Speaker 1: exec was asking what he would trade for Luca, and
Speaker 1: he gave a one word answer. Everything at anything you want,
Speaker 1: you can have first indications Luca is pissed. His dad said,
Speaker 1: with this trade hypocrisy from the MAVs organization hurts me personally.
Speaker 1: I think Luca absolutely did not deserve this. I know
Speaker 1: he sacrificed a lot. He respected Dallas, he respected the
Speaker 1: whole city. He helped children, and it was not a
Speaker 1: problem for him to go to hospitals and charity events.
Speaker 1: He played one hundred games last season for forty minutes
Speaker 1: a game, constantly being doubled. I think it's very unfair
Speaker 1: from certain people from Dallas. And Sunday he released a
Speaker 1: statement Luca did to the Dallas fans in which he said,
Speaker 1: I thought I'd spend my entire career here. I wanted
Speaker 1: so badly to bring you a championship. That is sad.
Speaker 1: That is Tyrese Halliburton sad. If he decides to say
Speaker 1: fuck you to the MAVs and comes out in shape
Speaker 1: with a huge chip on his shoulder, this could mean
Speaker 1: banners in La Gross. Gross. Also, what's going on in Utah?
Speaker 1: What is going on in Utah? They're just stacking up salary,
Speaker 1: picking up picks, picking up random players. They just took PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker for Christ's sake. Doesn't make any sense. Utah now
Speaker 1: owns a twenty seven Lakers first round pick top for
Speaker 1: four protected, so it's in their interest that the Lakers
Speaker 1: get bad very quickly. This pretty much ensures that this
Speaker 1: is a middling pick. Very weird, very weird situation. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to process it all. Here's what the Athletic wrote.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, Doncich had no idea this was going
Speaker 1: to happen. This is like when you're fucking up at
Speaker 1: your job but your manager hasn't really told you, hey,
Speaker 1: you're on thin ice, and then you do something that
Speaker 1: really is very small aka Luca straining his calf and
Speaker 1: not being available in the team tumbling down standings, and
Speaker 1: then they just decide, you know what, we're gonna fire yours.
Speaker 1: You're out of here, and you're like, what that feels extreme?
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, you've been fucking up for a while.
Speaker 1: You're a really high performing team player, but really you
Speaker 1: do a lot of things we do not like. We
Speaker 1: don't like you culturally for us, as a fit for us,
Speaker 1: you come in late, you come in out of shape,
Speaker 1: you're eating and meetings, what are you doing. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter whether Luca would have signed with the team
Speaker 1: that acquired him. Now there's no guarantee he's gonna resign
Speaker 1: with the Lakers either. Who knows La pulled the trigger?
Speaker 1: And because you pulled the trigger for Luke, don you
Speaker 1: figure the rest out later? Other teams with younger superstars
Speaker 1: would have pulled the trigger for Luca too. He's that good,
Speaker 1: that's the athletic says. Yeah. The strange thing is that
Speaker 1: there are probably twenty teams that would have mortgaged their
Speaker 1: entire future for Luca. That's why I think this is
Speaker 1: a strict Kobe Bryant inside job. Nico Harrison and Rob Polinka.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that makes any logical sense. This
Speaker 1: is just a buddy, buddy. This is like when you've
Speaker 1: got you've got your membership at Augusta golf course, and
Speaker 1: like you just sell it to your friend for pennies
Speaker 1: on the dollar just because you can. That's what just happened.
Speaker 1: Nico didn't tell anyone, He's like, fucker, this is up
Speaker 1: to me, so I'll hook my boy up. And Rob
Speaker 1: Polink was on a Nike sedge. Things were getting real
Speaker 1: dicey for him. Luca is a marketing monster, a superstar.
Speaker 1: He moves the needle and weighs the very few others do.
Speaker 1: He's global. Why wouldn't you pick up the phone and say, hey,
Speaker 1: can we get a donnovd Mitchell? What do you think?
Speaker 1: Can we get Darius Carlin and Donovan Mitchell? What about
Speaker 1: the Hawks? Like? Could we get Dyson Daniels and Jalen
Speaker 1: Johnson and some picks the nets? Can we have everything
Speaker 1: you have? Can we can we have all the picks
Speaker 1: from you? Like Michel Bridges got five first round picks?
Speaker 1: Michel Bridges? What is like? What is Luka Doncic getting?
Speaker 1: What if the Knicks would have traded for Luka Doncic?
Speaker 1: Why didn't the Knicks trade Karl Anthony Towns for Luka Doncic?
Speaker 1: Why did Minnesota trade Karl Anthony Towns for Luka Doncic?
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison's legacy right now. He's turned Jalen Brunson, Christas Porzinkis,
Speaker 1: and Luca into Anthony Davis, Max Christie, Spencer Dinwiddie and
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty nine first round pick. He's turned Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: Christas Pors, and Luka Doncic into basically Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: a first round pick Spencer didn't when he was a
Speaker 1: buyout canidate. By the way, as for the Lakers, fuck him,
Speaker 1: fuck them. They went from Jerry West to Kareem Abdul
Speaker 1: with Jabbar to Magic Johnson to Shaq and Kobe to
Speaker 1: Lebron to Luca with like no hiccups. I think there's
Speaker 1: like two years where they didn't have anybody. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Nico and Polinka must be thicke as thieves somehow. This
Speaker 1: deal doesn't surprise me. But what do I know? If
Speaker 1: I was if David Stern was alive, I think he
Speaker 1: blocks fucking trad He's like Chris Paul's not going to
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and you're not fucking going to Lakers either, bitch.
Speaker 1: I don't think either team's done trading either. We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. We need like a like a Cam Thomas
Speaker 1: on Navs just chucking. We need a Clint Capella or
Speaker 1: a Mitchell Robin or Rob Williams would be a great Laker.
Speaker 1: Give us that twenty thirty one first round pick. There
Speaker 1: were whispers of Lebron James the Golden State and I
Speaker 1: was like, no way, but right now, can't call it.
Speaker 1: Anything's possible the Lakers would be dumb not to get
Speaker 1: a center. Now there's too many guards. Austin Reeves has
Speaker 1: gotta go. No more trades, gotta be more. Trades have
Speaker 1: got to be coming. How big. I don't know who knows,
Speaker 1: Like maybe Honest is out. Like if Luca can go,
Speaker 1: anyone can go. Golden State's making trades about Kevin or
Speaker 1: making calls about Kevin Duran who knows? Right now, Ad
Speaker 1: is out with a shocking abdominal strain and all two
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy pounds of Luca back, probably around the
Speaker 1: All Star break. I just bought tickets, by the way
Speaker 1: to the probably the first game that Luca plays in
Speaker 1: a Lakers uniform against the Trailblazers in Portland, February twentieth.
Speaker 1: You can get into any other Portland Trailblazers game for
Speaker 1: eighteen bucks, this one one hundred and eighty bucks. What
Speaker 1: a night, What a night. Moving on, while I was
Speaker 1: wrapping up the Lucas Show, a trade dropped at the
Speaker 1: last minute. The finally sent deeron Fox as San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 1: Let's break the trade down first before I react. Spurs,
Speaker 1: get dearon Fox and Jordan McLoughlin backup point guard and
Speaker 1: a full time point guard. Kings get Zach Levine, Big
Speaker 1: Booty City Susoco if you know, you know Thirst, three
Speaker 1: first round picks, one of them will not convey because
Speaker 1: of how bad Charlotte is, and three second round picks.
Speaker 1: Bulls get Kevin Herder, Zach Collins, Trade Jones and a
Speaker 1: Bulls first rounder. Yuck yuck. Does anyone do well in
Speaker 1: this trade? Except for the Spurs getting deeron Fox for
Speaker 1: almost nothing. It feels like a haul for the Kings
Speaker 1: out on the face right until you realize that the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five first rounder from Charlotte is top fourteen
Speaker 1: protected and they will not be in the top fourteen,
Speaker 1: so it will turn into two second rounders. The twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seven first rounder is the Spurs twenty twenty seven
Speaker 1: first rounder, and they'll probably be a top five team
Speaker 1: in the West by then. The twenty thirty one Timberwolves
Speaker 1: first rounder is a long time away. That is, I
Speaker 1: will be if I'm doing the podcast in twenty thirty one,
Speaker 1: I will be committed, committed to the grind. I'll be
Speaker 1: grown by then. Twenty thirty one seven years away. So
Speaker 1: now you look at it, and it's not really a
Speaker 1: great haul, considering at any time in the last two years,
Speaker 1: Chicago would have given you a first round pick or
Speaker 1: maybe two to get rid of zach Lavine. By the way,
Speaker 1: Demart Rosen still exists and plays for the Sacramento Kings
Speaker 1: and now is going to be a teammate of zach
Speaker 1: Lavine again. Where there was friction between those two at
Speaker 1: the end of games, Zack Lavine powder like a little bitch,
Speaker 1: losing games, causing friction, all kinds of issues. A lot
Speaker 1: of data now on Levine and how dermod de Rozen
Speaker 1: play together, and I don't like the data. As for
Speaker 1: the Bulls, good for you, you get off of Zach
Speaker 1: Levine's contract, You get your first round pick back the
Speaker 1: top ten protected, but who knows, maybe you'll be outside
Speaker 1: the top ten. You get three rotation players in additions,
Speaker 1: so you can say you probably did well in the trade.
Speaker 1: The Spurs now have Dearon Fox and Harrison Barnes together again,
Speaker 1: a backcourt of Chris Paul and Dearon Fox with Wemby,
Speaker 1: and they still kept Steph Castle. They didn't have to
Speaker 1: get rid of Steph Castle. They didn't have to get
Speaker 1: rid of Devin Vazzel. They didn't have to get rid
Speaker 1: of Kelvin Johnson, they didn't have to get rid of
Speaker 1: They did have to get rid of that Collins, but
Speaker 1: they didn't have to get rid of anybody important. Okay,
Speaker 1: role players, bench players, not a single starter. Goodness, gracious,
Speaker 1: things are really interesting. I think they'll use me be
Speaker 1: one more shooter and they can elevate up the power rankings.
Speaker 1: What a while last weekend, and we still have five
Speaker 1: days until the trade deadline, so keep an eye out.
Speaker 1: There's more shit popping. That's all the time that we
Speaker 1: have for this episode of the Heat Check. Come back
Speaker 1: Wednesday maybe for an a new episode. Check out the
Speaker 1: feed for past episodes of many episodes. Much drop on
Speaker 1: unexpectedly like this Luca trade. Oh my goodness, do not
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Speaker 1: see you next time.