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Speaker 1: making every moment more during Super Bowl fifty seven, all right,
Speaker 1: everybody instant reaction to a very lively pre draft deadline
Speaker 1: in the NBA, which is February ninth. So we've got
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving today. Four different suitors liked him. Clippers, Lakers
Speaker 1: in La MAVs were the three that jump out to me,
Speaker 1: and we talked about on our show on Fox Sports
Speaker 1: FS one Friday. Clippers had more to give than the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and we find out that's what it came down to.
Speaker 1: The Brooklyn Nets liked what Dallas had to offer between
Speaker 1: draft picks Spencer Dinwiddie and another forward. You know, my
Speaker 1: takeaway is this is really about Luca. Dontage is that
Speaker 1: the Mavericks won a title previously with a great European
Speaker 1: player and they could never really get him an equal
Speaker 1: running mate. Now, they did win a title against the
Speaker 1: Heatles Miami Heatles. That team with JJ Barea and some
Speaker 1: veteran players and some length and Dirk Navitsky. What was
Speaker 1: dubbed a kind of a stunning upset is Lebron had
Speaker 1: his worst series of his career. But one of the
Speaker 1: things I thought Mark Cuban was starting to feel a
Speaker 1: little little pressure is Okay, what are we going to
Speaker 1: do with Luca? We got to get him a running mate. Now,
Speaker 1: Luca's style, as everybody watching this that's an NBA fan knows,
Speaker 1: is very ball centric. You know, look at the numbers
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson has put up leaving Luca to go to
Speaker 1: the Knicks. You end up watching a lot of Luca
Speaker 1: offense as a teammate, and it can be really frustrating. Now,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving has played with Kevin Durant, he has played
Speaker 1: with Lebron James, so he has had teammates that have
Speaker 1: the ball. But there's nobody quite like Luca. So I
Speaker 1: think short term it would work a long term. If
Speaker 1: it was a four year deal, I think they butt
Speaker 1: heads eventually. Luca's the best, arguably offensive player in the
Speaker 1: league right now. Some say it's not an argument. Kyrie's
Speaker 1: the best scoring little guy in the league right now,
Speaker 1: A lethal left and right hand scoring at the rim.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot Kyrie can't do. But I read
Speaker 1: a report before I went on today that Dallas is
Speaker 1: looking at a two year deal this year. Finishing up
Speaker 1: in a two year deal, That's what I'd be willing
Speaker 1: to do with Kyrie Irving. Can it work for a
Speaker 1: year and a half this year and next year, and
Speaker 1: then you know if you have to move them again.
Speaker 1: There's always a market for elite talent. It could be
Speaker 1: a tech, it could be in broadcasting, it's in politics,
Speaker 1: it's in basketball, art doesn't matter. There's always a market
Speaker 1: for elite talent. A couple of things. Here's why I
Speaker 1: like it. If you look at the best defensive teams
Speaker 1: in the NBA, a lot of them are Eastern teams. Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Miami,
Speaker 1: Toronto Clippers play real defense out west. But the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: especially at the top, a lot of really, really good
Speaker 1: defensive teams. The Warriors have decided this year that they're
Speaker 1: not going to play much, and so between Luca and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, they're going to score out West. I mean
Speaker 1: they're when they're both on the floor, they're going to
Speaker 1: be a complete handful. The Eastern Conference is a better
Speaker 1: defensive conference than the Western Conference. That's where I like it.
Speaker 1: I also like it in the short term. Kyrie is
Speaker 1: reportedly ecstatic with the move. Luca struggled with poor Zingis,
Speaker 1: who can be kind of a moody guy. But maybe
Speaker 1: he learned something from that relationship. You know, Lucas now
Speaker 1: a year older. You know, young players evolved into older players.
Speaker 1: They grow up. Stuff that bothered him their first couple
Speaker 1: of years in the league may not the next time
Speaker 1: they get a star. So, you know, Luca's a smart guy.
Speaker 1: He didn't get along with port Zingis. Maybe this time works.
Speaker 1: Short term, I think it will absolutely work. I don't
Speaker 1: think what the net Scott Listen a bunch of draft
Speaker 1: picks that are irrelevant for Kevin Durant. You know Dinwood,
Speaker 1: he's a nice player. Finnie Smith forward not a big score,
Speaker 1: good locker room guys. Who knows, Maybe it's a better
Speaker 1: fit with Harris and Claxton Ben Simmons. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: better defensive team and a better fit who knows Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: by the way, despite Kyrie actually play some decent defense
Speaker 1: like many Eastern teams. So there's a lot I do
Speaker 1: like about it. Short term, two great scorers in the West,
Speaker 1: a weaker defensive conference. If you can get a two
Speaker 1: year deal, I like that. But the other thing that's
Speaker 1: real is that Kyrie Irving he missed games in college.
Speaker 1: He missed games in Cleveland, he missed games in Boston,
Speaker 1: he missed games in Brooklyn. He didn't give you eighty
Speaker 1: two games. If you can get to sixty eight, sixty nine,
Speaker 1: seventy games, you'd be happy with Kyrie Irving. He has
Speaker 1: never played a full slate. He's not going to. As
Speaker 1: players age, they miss more and more games. So if
Speaker 1: Kyrie had gone to the Lakers and he's one of
Speaker 1: three stars, okay, you missed some games. But when you're
Speaker 1: one of two stars, neither want a good defensive star,
Speaker 1: Kyrie or Luca. When one's out, you don't get the
Speaker 1: offense and you get bad defense. That part they don't like.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like Dallas is a championship level team.
Speaker 1: I don't think they have the depth, but they'll score
Speaker 1: their way to a lot of wins. There'll be a
Speaker 1: hand full to play when they both play, they'll give
Speaker 1: up a lot of points on the defensive end. But
Speaker 1: if the deal's two years and not four, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Kyrie's an unstable personality. Four year relationships, you know, that's
Speaker 1: the old saying, some of you date, some of you marry.
Speaker 1: He's a hard guy to depend on over the course
Speaker 1: of four years. I wasn't nearly as interested in that.
Speaker 1: I did think he fit well with Lebron James's game
Speaker 1: with Luca. I think they'll wear each other out eventually.
Speaker 1: But listen, Luca, you gotta get him a second star,
Speaker 1: right Lebron's got his second star, and Durant had his
Speaker 1: second star, and Kobe was always better when he had
Speaker 1: a second star, And Michael Jordan had his, and Bird
Speaker 1: had his, and Magic had his, and that's the history
Speaker 1: of the league. And Tim Duncan had his. You know,
Speaker 1: Dirk didn't get his, and I think Mark Cuban didn't
Speaker 1: want to go through that again with his top international star,
Speaker 1: and so he rolls the dice on this. Mark Cuban's
Speaker 1: an aggressive guy. I mean, this Dallas team pre Kyrie
Speaker 1: was not winning a championship. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: one is. But they'll be more dynamic, more electric offensively.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought this about the Lakers. So when
Speaker 1: you looked at what Dallas offered, and then you look
Speaker 1: at what the Lakers offered Westbrook, Russell Westbrook, and like
Speaker 1: a number one picked down the road, picks are irrelevant
Speaker 1: for you know, right now in the NBA, especially a
Speaker 1: pick two or three years down the road. He's nineteen
Speaker 1: years old. It'll take him four years to be a
Speaker 1: top playoff NBA player at minimum, maybe six. But that
Speaker 1: Westbrook trade from the Wizards giving up Kyle Kuzma and
Speaker 1: KCP did damage in this What did the Lakers have
Speaker 1: to give you a bad contract with Russell Westbrook? Durant
Speaker 1: probably said, why, I'd rather get Dinwitty and a good forward.
Speaker 1: And I mean they gave up too much for Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: It didn't help this team and it blew this trade.
Speaker 1: They just don't have enough to give anybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Lakers have shown they're not giving up those future picks,
Speaker 1: not all of them, they're not. The other component to this,
Speaker 1: I wrote this down on a piece of paper is
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson is not as good as Kyrie Irving, probably
Speaker 1: a better teammate, but Jalen Brunson is younger than Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: not as expensive as Kyrie Irving, and is healthier than
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. You know, if you pulled a lot of
Speaker 1: general managers and said Jalen Brunson Kyrie Irving, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of them would take Jalen Brunson and Dallas
Speaker 1: moved him. Now, Kyrie's a better player, but Kyrie gets
Speaker 1: hurt a lot. He's older, the contract, and he's difficult.
Speaker 1: He's prickly. I wouldn't even say unconventional. He's beyond unconventional.
Speaker 1: He's erratic, and you've got to be concerned about going
Speaker 1: into business with people like that. So if Dallas can
Speaker 1: get this pulled off for a two year deal at
Speaker 1: like eighty million bucks, then it's worth it. It'll be
Speaker 1: fun to watch a lot of these big moves don't work.
Speaker 1: I remember, you know Robinson canoe to the Mariners. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're like, that's not going to work, like two years later,
Speaker 1: at three years later at unravels. But I think this
Speaker 1: will be fun. The West is not the defensive conference
Speaker 1: of the They will score, They'll be electric nights over
Speaker 1: the course of a series. They'll give up just as
Speaker 1: many points. As much as we all love offense in
Speaker 1: the NBA, Let's not forget who made the finals last year.
Speaker 1: In the NBA, the Boston Celtics were the number one
Speaker 1: rate of defense and the Warriors, when Draymond Green played
Speaker 1: during the regular season, were the number one defense. So
Speaker 1: it was we're the two best defensive teams in the
Speaker 1: NBA made the finals. I want to bring in Chris
Speaker 1: Mannix covered the NBA for over a decade. He's got
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Speaker 1: my first thought, Chris, when I saw the Steph Curry news.
Speaker 1: You know how these negotiations go. You know, you get
Speaker 1: the players figured out, then there's draft pick compensation. I
Speaker 1: could see Mark Cuban and Nico Harrison, who's the GM
Speaker 1: of the Mavericks former Nike exact, I could see there's
Speaker 1: They probably had a discussion starting Friday on this, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they saw they saw the Steph
Speaker 1: injury and thought, well the West was wide open before that. Okay,
Speaker 1: well give you more picks. Probably didn't happen, but the
Speaker 1: timing was so perfect. In the end, this feels like
Speaker 1: a move to get Luca a guy he You know,
Speaker 1: we could talk about whether we like it or not,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like Dirk never got the guy
Speaker 1: we can't do this with Luca. We got to get
Speaker 1: him a guy. That was my interpretation. Your thoughts, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty close to too accurate. I was
Speaker 1: talking to a couple of people down in Dallas today
Speaker 1: about why they meet. It made a deal like that.
Speaker 1: Number one was they need to do something. This was
Speaker 1: a team that has largely been stuck in the mud.
Speaker 1: They knew they were a cut below the top tier
Speaker 1: teams in the Western Conference. And look, even though Luca
Speaker 1: don Chich has several years left on his contract, we
Speaker 1: both know that. You know, the guys don't need to
Speaker 1: be at the end of their contracts to ask out
Speaker 1: or to get frustrated enough to force their way out.
Speaker 1: So there was some pressure there to at least show
Speaker 1: Luca that they are doing everything they can to build
Speaker 1: a winner. And Kyrie, at least on paper, we can
Speaker 1: get into, you know why, it's more than just paper
Speaker 1: with Kyrie Irving, but on paper makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: They need shot creation. That's been a problem for them
Speaker 1: all season long, and Kyrie Irving, whether it's for himself
Speaker 1: or others, is a bona fide top of the line
Speaker 1: shot creator, So it's definitely a roll the dice for
Speaker 1: the Mavericks. If it goes down in flames, like literally
Speaker 1: every other Kyrie Irving stop he's been to along the way,
Speaker 1: they could be in some trouble, but it's it's a
Speaker 1: calculated risk on their part that they could be the
Speaker 1: team that works with Kyrie Irving. Do you think the
Speaker 1: Mavericks are done? Because as much as I think this
Speaker 1: will be dynamic offensively in Eastern teams, as I said
Speaker 1: in my preamble, there's more good defensive teams in the
Speaker 1: East than the West. The Clippers obviously in Memphis played
Speaker 1: wheel defense. But it will be dynamic offensively. But these
Speaker 1: are not good defensive players. I would guess Dallas would
Speaker 1: make another move. Maybe I don't know. I don't think
Speaker 1: they have the pieces, and either do they Frankly, I
Speaker 1: mean I think they were I want to say, surprised
Speaker 1: that they were able to land Kyrie, but I don't
Speaker 1: think they went into these talks believing that they were
Speaker 1: the front runner, because I mean, look at their assets there.
Speaker 1: You know, Phinney Smith didn witty good players. One first
Speaker 1: round pick. It's fine, but you know, there was definitely
Speaker 1: a thinking in Dallas they were going to get outbid
Speaker 1: by somebody else, be at the Lakers, Clippers, Sons, the
Speaker 1: other teams that were in that mix. And now that
Speaker 1: that Finney Smith is gone and he was kind of
Speaker 1: that piece column that that teams were the most interest.
Speaker 1: They didn't view him as a superstar, but he is
Speaker 1: kind of a three and D player who shoots thirty
Speaker 1: six percent from the floor or from three, So you
Speaker 1: know there was value there. Now that he's gone, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot like there's not a clamoring, you know,
Speaker 1: to get Tim Hardaway Junior out of Dallas. Christian Wood
Speaker 1: is someone to keep your eye on over the next
Speaker 1: three or four days. Because christian Wood is extension eligible.
Speaker 1: It has been since Christmas. He has not signed an
Speaker 1: extension yet. And the Mavericks are, you know, reluctant to
Speaker 1: lose a player of any kind of value for nothing.
Speaker 1: That just happened with Jyllen Brunson. I could see them
Speaker 1: moving him again. But what are you going to get
Speaker 1: for christian Wood at this point? You know, what are
Speaker 1: you going to get a wing defender or going to
Speaker 1: get a perimeter a paint defender. I just don't see it.
Speaker 1: So I don't think I think as far as moves
Speaker 1: of substance, they're probably done. So listen, Brunson popped. He
Speaker 1: was a good player, but he popped when he left Luca.
Speaker 1: Luca struggled with poors ingus. Kyrie struggled eventually with Lebron,
Speaker 1: who's actually a great distributor and more than willing to
Speaker 1: elevate everybody else's game. I mean he played with d Wade.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think Lebron's a hard teammate. He
Speaker 1: wants a d to flourish. He wanted Kyrie to flourish.
Speaker 1: That's why he was stunned when Kyrie wanted out. So
Speaker 1: you know, not that. You know, Luca has had a
Speaker 1: couple of teammates who didn't get the ball enough. He's
Speaker 1: very ball centric. A lot of people can get along initially.
Speaker 1: Is it possible I saw one report in my preamble
Speaker 1: that it could just be that Kyrie was willing to
Speaker 1: see how it works and then agree to a two
Speaker 1: year deal. At two I'm way more comfortable. Or is
Speaker 1: that just something somebody says and Kyrie wants for Well,
Speaker 1: it's definitely something somebody says. The most of the information
Speaker 1: coming out about Kyrie's situation with the Nets is being
Speaker 1: fed from Kyrie's camp. Like, you know, the Nets didn't
Speaker 1: want Kyrie's trade demand out there because that effectively detonated
Speaker 1: any chance they had of keeping him around. Look, Kyrie
Speaker 1: is about Kyrie here, Yeah, this is all him. Like
Speaker 1: he knew after months of negotiation that the Nets were
Speaker 1: not going to come close to giving him the contract
Speaker 1: that he wanted to get. He believes he is a
Speaker 1: three or four year max level player, and the numbers
Speaker 1: certainly back that up. But the behavior makes just handing
Speaker 1: him that type of deal much too big a risk,
Speaker 1: and the Nets simply weren't going to do it. So
Speaker 1: by forcing his way out, Kyrie goes to a team
Speaker 1: that now has his bird rights and can resign him
Speaker 1: to the same type of deal that he was looking
Speaker 1: for in Brooklyn. If he had played out the season,
Speaker 1: he would have had to look for teams with cap space,
Speaker 1: And you look at the teams with cap space Collin
Speaker 1: Detroit's I believe san Antonio has a bunch of Caps
Speaker 1: based Houston. These are not teams they're gonna be banging
Speaker 1: down the door of Kyrie irving to give him a
Speaker 1: max level contract. So this was a purely selfish move
Speaker 1: by Kyrie Irving. Now, will the Mavericks give him that
Speaker 1: type of deal? I don't know, you know, from what
Speaker 1: I've been able to gather, the MAVs are going to
Speaker 1: kind of wait and see here if look, if they
Speaker 1: let him walk, if my math is correct, they would
Speaker 1: free up max cap space for it themselves next summer,
Speaker 1: which there's not a lot of guys you want to
Speaker 1: spend that on right away, but at least you create
Speaker 1: some flexibility with the contracts of Finney Smith and Dinwittie
Speaker 1: off the book, so they could theoretically do something else.
Speaker 1: But the Mavericks are not going to give Kyrie the
Speaker 1: deal he's looking for right off the bat. They're going
Speaker 1: to see what happens with Kyrie this season, if he
Speaker 1: fits opposite Luca, and then make their decision from there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be dynamic. In the short term, it'll
Speaker 1: be less, but eventually of a defensive team. When I
Speaker 1: hear the West is wide open, I do believe that
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is going to come back. I've kind of
Speaker 1: felt like, and I always feel this way about pitchers
Speaker 1: in baseball. You know, if you go in a couple
Speaker 1: of long playoff runs as a pitcher and you're in
Speaker 1: two fifty three hundred innings. It's like arm fatigue. And
Speaker 1: then you come back to the spring like I expected
Speaker 1: the Warriors, an old team, a lot of minutes, a
Speaker 1: lot of intense playoff games, to have a very sluggish start.
Speaker 1: The Draymond Green Jordan Pool altercation. It wasn't a big shock.
Speaker 1: The first month. They were awful on the road because
Speaker 1: on the road is when chemistry matters, and they didn't
Speaker 1: have any. And then they're you know, they're one of
Speaker 1: those teams where they can look awful against the t
Speaker 1: Wolves and then go out and play Memphis and Boston
Speaker 1: and be fantastic. So I've watched probably a dozen Warrior games,
Speaker 1: and I don't think the West is white as wide open.
Speaker 1: I do feel like they will kind of flip a gear,
Speaker 1: although they're not playing many players. So when people say
Speaker 1: the West is wide open, do you believe a Dallas
Speaker 1: for instance, just at least offensively could win this thing,
Speaker 1: or does this move them up with a Curry injury
Speaker 1: or do you kind of feel I do anyway, the
Speaker 1: Warriors are lurking. It's just a predictably tepid a predictably
Speaker 1: inconsistent first half. Well, to answer the question about the Mavericks,
Speaker 1: this makes them more of a contender certainly than what
Speaker 1: they were before the deal. But look, din Wittie was
Speaker 1: pretty good for them. Yeah, so it's not like they
Speaker 1: are giving up nothing of value. And they liked him
Speaker 1: in the locker room down there, so I think they
Speaker 1: get better. But that is a very very weak defensive
Speaker 1: back forward. As much as it's going to score, they're
Speaker 1: going to get blown by. And it's not like there's
Speaker 1: a ton of rim protection down there in Dallas to
Speaker 1: clean up a lot of those mistakes. So look, it
Speaker 1: makes them better in the short term. You know, Kyrie
Speaker 1: is going to be on his best behavior, playing at
Speaker 1: a premium level to try to get that contract. So look,
Speaker 1: Luca has done some magical things. Maybe they can catch
Speaker 1: lightning in a bottle. I'm just not I'm not bullish
Speaker 1: about the Warriors, even with Curry help. Okay, Like enough
Speaker 1: people in and around Golden State have told me that
Speaker 1: they know they're missing something, Like they know they're missing
Speaker 1: that bench piece, like they're missing that consistent veteran that
Speaker 1: they can rely on. What Iguadala was early in this run,
Speaker 1: what Porter Junior was, what Gary Payton the second was
Speaker 1: guys go to to give them fifteen ish minutes. They
Speaker 1: don't have that, Like Cominga has been pretty good, but
Speaker 1: Moody's given them less than that. He's been okay, Like
Speaker 1: you know, you can't really rely on them. I say
Speaker 1: that Moody's given them nothing. Wiseman's given them less. So
Speaker 1: you don't have that guy. And that's why whenever you know,
Speaker 1: I talked to teams about what's going on before the
Speaker 1: trade deadline, I asked, like, what are the Warriors looking
Speaker 1: to do? Like Golden State historically doesn't like to do
Speaker 1: deadline deals. They're not they're not prone to shaking things
Speaker 1: up because they never had to really, especially during this
Speaker 1: last six or seven year run. This might be the
Speaker 1: year they have to, and this might be the year
Speaker 1: they have to bite the bullet. Maybe sell low on
Speaker 1: James Wiseman, sell low on Moses Moody, like think about it.
Speaker 1: James Wiseman for Alex Caruso straight up works right Like
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso doesn't have anywhere near the upside of James Wiseman,
Speaker 1: but he is a twenty eight year old multi positional
Speaker 1: defender who shoots the three and has championship experience. This
Speaker 1: version of the Warriors needs that. They need either Alex
Speaker 1: Caruso or something like that to get them to a
Speaker 1: championship level. If they don't get that player, Colin. As
Speaker 1: much as I respect the Curries, Thompson's Greens, the guys
Speaker 1: that have been there before, I don't think they have
Speaker 1: enough to get past the top the upper tier teams
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. So Lebron James, as we tape this,
Speaker 1: mister Mannox has tweeted as he's prone to do. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's me projecting a little bit, woe is me? What
Speaker 1: do you make about Lebron and a d not landing Kyrie?
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers could look back and regret it,
Speaker 1: because the Lakers were one of those teams that reeked
Speaker 1: of desperation going into this deadline. Yeah, and you know
Speaker 1: you project out right. This summer, they acquired ru Ruey Hashimura.
Speaker 1: They gave up a bunch of second round picks to
Speaker 1: get him. They want to bring back Ruey Hashimura, so
Speaker 1: that is going to cost them at least half of
Speaker 1: their available cap space. They're probably going to have fifteen
Speaker 1: million to spend on players this Offsee, so they're not
Speaker 1: landing a big fish. A trade is the only way
Speaker 1: to land the big fish. And you look at the
Speaker 1: capitol of what it was like. You know, it would
Speaker 1: have cost them Westbrook. Maybe they would have had to
Speaker 1: have taken back Joe Harris, and maybe they couldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten a deal done anyway, because Westbrook doesn't help the
Speaker 1: Nets contend. Like you know, I don't even know if
Speaker 1: they keep him around if they acquired him in a
Speaker 1: trade like that, and the Nets clearly want to try
Speaker 1: to keep winning while Kevin Durant is still on the roster,
Speaker 1: maybe there was nothing they could do. But the Lakers,
Speaker 1: this was a situation they should have been really aggressive
Speaker 1: in Colin. This is kind of their m O when
Speaker 1: it comes to deals. Go back a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't give up Taylor Horton Tucker to get Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 1: Think about that now, they wouldn't give him up. What
Speaker 1: would that team been a couple of years ago if
Speaker 1: they would have acquired that version of Kyle Lowry from Toronto.
Speaker 1: They just get a little too hesitant, a little too reluctant.
Speaker 1: Can't pull the trigger on some of these critical deals
Speaker 1: and look, Lebron a D. When they're together, they play great,
Speaker 1: but that's not a shape to contending team. It's just
Speaker 1: not you, no matter how well Ruy Hashima is playing.
Speaker 1: So you know, this is gonna be one of those things,
Speaker 1: like six months a year from now we look back
Speaker 1: and saying, man, they should have at least tried. Guess
Speaker 1: the one team Lebron's played with Kyrie, he knows how
Speaker 1: to deal with them. Kyrie very close with a D.
Speaker 1: You know, when when Kyrie was in Boston, I covered
Speaker 1: this a lot back then when whenever they was talking
Speaker 1: about the South that's acquiring a D, Kyrie was kind
Speaker 1: of a carrot there because they've got a great relationship together.
Speaker 1: So that would have been a situation for the Lakers
Speaker 1: that made sense if they were if they had enough
Speaker 1: to pull it off, they probably should have done it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I said it my preamble. You know, for
Speaker 1: the Westbrook deal, they gave up Kusman KCP, and yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of pieces Austin reeves. You know,
Speaker 1: there's limitations. So the Westbrook deal, they gave up too much.
Speaker 1: Then it hurt him. Now it's been a predictable mess
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Speaker 1: let's pivot to Kevin Durant Phoenix rumors. So Phoenix feels
Speaker 1: like those old Sacramento King teams that never won a title.
Speaker 1: Took the Lakers to seven and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden lost and the window closed really fast. And so
Speaker 1: Phoenix had this two years where I'm like, wow, eighton's
Speaker 1: becoming something. Bookers a star Chris, But Chris Paul is
Speaker 1: now aging, you know, eighton Monty, will you have friction?
Speaker 1: It does feel like it's close fast, And we talked
Speaker 1: about this in the NFL. I thought the Seahawks, We're
Speaker 1: gonna have a six year run. It was like three years,
Speaker 1: like when those close fast Warriors are really an outlier.
Speaker 1: And as good as the Celtics have been for six
Speaker 1: or seven years, they don't have the ring yet. So
Speaker 1: here's Phoenix, like a very condensed version of Boston. You're like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's over like we're the Celtics. We feel like it's
Speaker 1: got some real legs here. And so there's some talk
Speaker 1: out there about Kevin Durant. Do you think it's fueled,
Speaker 1: as you said earlier, by like the star players camp.
Speaker 1: Where do you think those stories surface? I don't at
Speaker 1: this point. I think it's only being fueled externally. I
Speaker 1: have not had indications yet that Kevin Durant is looking
Speaker 1: at this Kyrie situation saying that's it. Trade me now
Speaker 1: before the trade deadline. That could change, certainly next couple
Speaker 1: day is very fresh. But my understanding is Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: is not requested a trade from Brooklyn look, the Nets
Speaker 1: had months to try to figure out a deal with
Speaker 1: Phoenix over the summer. It didn't happen. They weren't overly
Speaker 1: enthralled with DeAndre Ayton. And I don't know why that
Speaker 1: would be the case right now, Mchaale Bridge's fine player,
Speaker 1: draft picks whatever. But what Phoenix was dangling in front
Speaker 1: of them back in the summer when there was real
Speaker 1: competition for Kevin Durant. There were a lot of teams
Speaker 1: bidding for Kevin Durant over the summer. The Nets weren't interested.
Speaker 1: I have a hard time believing that the Suns can
Speaker 1: construct something over the next four days that will make
Speaker 1: the Nets bite on a Durant deal. More to the point, Colin,
Speaker 1: when I see this return from Dallas, that tells me
Speaker 1: the Nets are still trying to contend. And what's interesting
Speaker 1: about how the Nets have played the last few years.
Speaker 1: If you look at some of the numbers, they have
Speaker 1: a better record with Durant and no Kyrie than Durant
Speaker 1: and Kyrie. It's like sixty nine winning percentage versus sixty
Speaker 1: five percent. Like they've been better because Kevin Durant just
Speaker 1: has his ability to elevate a lot of guys around him,
Speaker 1: and so the NETS calculus, I think, is that you
Speaker 1: add Finney Smith to the mix. So with Royce O'Neill,
Speaker 1: you've got another three and D type of guy, versatile player,
Speaker 1: can guard multi positions, which is certainly useful when you're
Speaker 1: looking at going up against Boston or any of the
Speaker 1: other Milwaukee top tier teams in the Eastern Conference. And
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwittie had his best years in Brooklyn. You saw
Speaker 1: him tweeting out earlier, can't wait to go home, like
Speaker 1: he's excited about the possibility, never wants to really leave Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: but just went because the money was bigger when he
Speaker 1: signed in Washington. I think Spencer dinwitt He's gonna be
Speaker 1: really good for that team. He's not Kyrie, but plug
Speaker 1: him into that point guard spot. He's gonna average fifteen
Speaker 1: eighteen points per game over the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: So the NETS thinking, and it could be crazy at
Speaker 1: least right now, is that, look, we got some guys
Speaker 1: that can play, and Kevin Durant Gwenny's healthy is otherworldly.
Speaker 1: So if we can just put enough competent role players
Speaker 1: around him and maybe at some point try to resurrect
Speaker 1: this corpse of Ben Simmons that's been out there for
Speaker 1: the last few months. Maybe we can we can do
Speaker 1: something in the postseason. Chris Mannox is always good stuff
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