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Speaker 1: presented by fan Duel. Here on the volume, I am
Speaker 1: Jason timp Happy Thursday, everybody happy? Trade deadline day, A
Speaker 1: lot still up in the air. We are going to
Speaker 1: react to any Lakers trades that come down as they happen.
Speaker 1: We're going to start by talking about this James Harden
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons exchange that took place between the Sixers and
Speaker 1: the Nets. Anything exciting happens, we will hit it towards
Speaker 1: the end. I appreciate you guys coming to hang out.
Speaker 1: Let's get into some basketball. Let's start with this James
Speaker 1: Harden trade. So, obviously, the the initial reaction is to
Speaker 1: look at what Philly sent out, right, because they did
Speaker 1: end up in louding Seth Curry, which was something that
Speaker 1: I advocated for them to do, because, like I said,
Speaker 1: this isn't Russell Westbrook, this is James Harden. This is
Speaker 1: a player of the necessary caliber to justify sending out
Speaker 1: role players. Now, the instant reaction, as is always the case,
Speaker 1: especially on NBA Twitters, for people to overreact to including
Speaker 1: draft picks. But for those of you who know Darryl Morey,
Speaker 1: there's really not a GM in the league that cares
Speaker 1: less about first round draft picks, especially once towards the
Speaker 1: end of the first round then Darryl Morey, because historically,
Speaker 1: statistically speaking, there's just not a great chance of you
Speaker 1: getting anything of really high quality in the twenties. When
Speaker 1: you're drafting in the first round, and as Daryl Morey knows,
Speaker 1: it's so easy to pick up draft picks at any
Speaker 1: point along the way, just in one single bad season,
Speaker 1: just by eating a bad contract or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: So I do not feel like Darryl overpaid. I think
Speaker 1: he was just making a very simple calculation of odds.
Speaker 1: If you remember Darryl Morey in press conferences recently during
Speaker 1: this whole Ben Simmons saga, made it very clear that
Speaker 1: he would not trade Ben Simmons unless it's significantly increased
Speaker 1: their championship odds. He was very clear about that intention.
Speaker 1: And so what he's weighing here is a crack at this,
Speaker 1: a chance this season for things to break right for
Speaker 1: Philly and to break wrong for other teams, combining the
Speaker 1: odds of that with future seasons. Because I think Darryl
Speaker 1: knew he could get James this summer, but he got
Speaker 1: an extra crack at it this year, and by doing that,
Speaker 1: he increased his championship odds, which, like we said, like
Speaker 1: he said, that was his goal all along. So I
Speaker 1: think to him, that's the price of the that. The
Speaker 1: price of that was those two additional first round draft picks,
Speaker 1: and they're probably not gonna miss those that badly as
Speaker 1: time progresses. Anyway, the really interesting thing to look at
Speaker 1: here is James Harden and his and and the weird
Speaker 1: angle that he has added to this whole thing with
Speaker 1: his attitude, because you know, like many of you guys,
Speaker 1: I grew up listening to Colin Cowherd and he used
Speaker 1: to have this bit that he would do on divorce,
Speaker 1: and he would talk about how like, hey, if you
Speaker 1: get divorced, you know, usually people will sympathize with you
Speaker 1: because divorce happens. It's normal. People can be in love
Speaker 1: and they can fall out of love for one of
Speaker 1: many reasons, right, But if they got divorced a second time,
Speaker 1: you'd start to kind of look a little sideways at
Speaker 1: the person and wonder if maybe something was going on.
Speaker 1: And then like if it was a third divorce, that's
Speaker 1: when you'd start to look at the guy and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe this is a you problem. Right, And this is
Speaker 1: now the second time in the last calendar year that
Speaker 1: James Harden has nuked his way out of a basketball
Speaker 1: situation because he was unhappy for one reason or another.
Speaker 1: And it's really strange because he was clearly unhappy in
Speaker 1: Houston when he was with Chris Paul, when he legitimately
Speaker 1: had a real chance to win a championship if he
Speaker 1: made any shots in two thousand eighteen in that playoff
Speaker 1: series against the Warriors, he probably wins the title. But
Speaker 1: then he decides after the next season that it's all
Speaker 1: Chris Paul's fault because he's coaching him too much or
Speaker 1: has too big of an ego, or whatever the heck
Speaker 1: his problem was, And so he demands a swap, and
Speaker 1: he gets Russell Westbrook instead of CP three, a significantly
Speaker 1: lesser player than that backfires on him. And when that
Speaker 1: backfires on him, he pouts, skips training camp, is spotted
Speaker 1: at strip clubs and stuff while all of his teammates
Speaker 1: are in camp getting ready for the season, and he
Speaker 1: plays some of the worst basketball of his career to
Speaker 1: nuke his way out to get to Brooklyn. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because you could see why he wanted to go
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn because that was his best chance to win
Speaker 1: a title, right, you know, like alongside Kevin Durant, Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving limits some of his shortcomings as a playoff initiator.
Speaker 1: As we've seen in his career, he gets fatigued and
Speaker 1: tends to fall apart in those settings, and so you
Speaker 1: would imagine he'd be happy there. But some normal turmoil
Speaker 1: that is generally associated with uh, just a normal regular season,
Speaker 1: especially during COVID, like some guys getting hurt or a
Speaker 1: couple of guys having to miss some time, and you
Speaker 1: having to do more as a as a player than
Speaker 1: you normally would have to do to just carry the
Speaker 1: team for a short stretch of the season. Apparently that's
Speaker 1: too much to ask for James Harden here, because he's
Speaker 1: got Kevin freakin Durant on his team and he had
Speaker 1: his eyes down in Philly. As soon as things started
Speaker 1: to go south, he gets the wandering eye. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I think that James Harden just cost himself
Speaker 1: his best chance to win a title as an NBA player.
Speaker 1: As I said before, the trade does make both teams better.
Speaker 1: I I really do believe that James Harden as a
Speaker 1: superstar perimeter initiator makes Philly better, and obviously Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: makes the Nets better, which will get too later. But
Speaker 1: I do not think Philly, even though they are better
Speaker 1: now than they were before the trade, I do not
Speaker 1: think they have a real chance to beat Milwaukee. I
Speaker 1: do not think they have a real chance to beat
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving. I would
Speaker 1: you pick James Harden in a playoff series like that
Speaker 1: over one of those guys, do you? I think Milwaukee
Speaker 1: would beat Philly soundly. So the question becomes why was
Speaker 1: Brooklyn still the title favorite on fan duel before this trade?
Speaker 1: They were because, just like all of us know from
Speaker 1: watching that team, they were destroying Milwaukee before Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: sprained his ankle. Without James Harden, I think we can
Speaker 1: all agree that if that team was healthy, they probably
Speaker 1: win the title. Kevin Durant was literally one inch away
Speaker 1: on a turnaround jump shot from ending that series in
Speaker 1: Game seven, even with the hamper James Harden, and even
Speaker 1: with the injured and unavailable Kyrie Irving. So I think
Speaker 1: he had his best chance right in front of him
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, if he could just weather the storm, if
Speaker 1: he could just carry the team for a little while
Speaker 1: until Kevin Durant came back from a knee injury, if
Speaker 1: he could just carry the team for a little while
Speaker 1: until maybe a mandate changes in Kyrie is available, or
Speaker 1: until Joe Harris can come back from his ankle surgery.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, he got the wandering eye, and
Speaker 1: now I think he's in on a Philly team that's
Speaker 1: better a legit title contended. They have a chance, but
Speaker 1: I'm not picking that team over end of these other guys.
Speaker 1: I don't think they can beat Phoenix or Golden State,
Speaker 1: or Milwaukee or or or Brooklyn. It's a long shot
Speaker 1: to think that they could beat Miami at this point
Speaker 1: with James Harden at the Helm. So it's funny. I
Speaker 1: think I think his own wandering eye, his own finicky nature,
Speaker 1: might have actually cost him his best chance to win
Speaker 1: the title, which is absolutely crazy to me. Um As
Speaker 1: far as the Brooklyn angle goes, it's really not all
Speaker 1: that complicated. Like they need somebody to fill in that
Speaker 1: spot up shooter role alongside the Stars. That was what
Speaker 1: they've been missing so badly with Joe Harris out, and
Speaker 1: Seth Curry is a perfect fit there. I actually think
Speaker 1: Seth Curry is a significantly better offensive player than Joe Harris.
Speaker 1: Joe Harris is a bigger, stronger athlete, so it's a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a uh is a little bit
Speaker 1: better of a fit in Brooklyn switching defensive scheme, and
Speaker 1: that will be a shortcoming that they'll have to overcome. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if you have guys like Seth Curry on the floor,
Speaker 1: they can be targeted in a playoff series. But he
Speaker 1: does fill in that offensive void and then some that
Speaker 1: you lost with Joe Harris. But that team has always
Speaker 1: been about finesse and offense. They've never had that brute
Speaker 1: force physicality on the roster. Their best brute force physicality
Speaker 1: has always been just the fact that Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: super tall, and when he had and when he does
Speaker 1: try on defense, he can cause some problems. But they
Speaker 1: have a real, rim, pressuring, freak athlete player that is
Speaker 1: a deeply impactful player on the defensive end now in
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, smilar to the James Harden thing. I don't
Speaker 1: expect his attitude to be an issue now the way
Speaker 1: it was in Philly, I think both players were acting out.
Speaker 1: I don't think that acting out is going to continue.
Speaker 1: I think Ben Simmons will buy in and be a
Speaker 1: very productive player in Brooklyn. And he feels, like I said,
Speaker 1: that very specific archetype of that defensive minded forward that
Speaker 1: can guard the other team's best player and be a
Speaker 1: good rim pressuring player alongside all your shooting. And that's
Speaker 1: where it gets really excited, because Ben Simmons is one
Speaker 1: of the best drive and kick three point shot creators
Speaker 1: that we have in the league, and so giving him
Speaker 1: transition opportunities with Kevin Durant on the wing, with Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving on the wing, with Seth Curry on the wing,
Speaker 1: if Joe Harris can get healthy with him out there,
Speaker 1: it's really easy to see a new dynamic to that
Speaker 1: Brooklyn offense that could be really, really hard to stop.
Speaker 1: And that defensive end is the part that's most interesting
Speaker 1: to me because in that Eastern Conference semifinal series against
Speaker 1: Milwaukee last year, there's a lot of Blake Griffin guarding
Speaker 1: Janice and he did okay, you know, because Blake is
Speaker 1: savvy and he's big and strong, and he moved his
Speaker 1: feet the best that he could. But towards the end
Speaker 1: of that series, Milwaukee had that figured out. They were
Speaker 1: doing a good job of clearing the side on his
Speaker 1: post ups and giving him more space to operate, and
Speaker 1: he was torching Brooklyn in that series. Ben Simmons is
Speaker 1: a great body to throw at Jannis Anton and Cumbo.
Speaker 1: That's a significant weapon to have in a playoff series.
Speaker 1: Do we think Brooklyn would have beat Milwaukee if they
Speaker 1: were healthy last year? Yes? Do we think they would
Speaker 1: have done it again this year? Most likely? However, that
Speaker 1: series takes on a new dynamic now because let's say
Speaker 1: Janice is just better. Let's say fifty point Game six
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, Janice is closer to what Janice is going
Speaker 1: to be in that series than what he actually was
Speaker 1: last year in that series. If that's the case, that
Speaker 1: could tip the scales. And so having a guy like
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, a legitimate defensive weapon to throw at, honest
Speaker 1: gives you just another card in your hand that you
Speaker 1: might be able to play in that series. I talked
Speaker 1: about all the time on the show that these playoffs
Speaker 1: series they're like chess matches. It's always like move counter move,
Speaker 1: and you're always working the matchups. And so having a
Speaker 1: guy like Ben Simmons that you can throw into those
Speaker 1: specific matchups gives you just an additional versatility and it
Speaker 1: increases your odds of being able to make that happen. So,
Speaker 1: you know the question that we always ask ourselves after
Speaker 1: a deal like this, is who won the trade. And
Speaker 1: it's easy to say Philly because they got the best player,
Speaker 1: right like Ben Simmons. His stock is at an all
Speaker 1: time low because of his disastrous performance, and you know,
Speaker 1: the we forget what he's capable of and because we
Speaker 1: always just have that miss dunk burned into our memory,
Speaker 1: right you know. But the truth is is I look
Speaker 1: at it as what team has the best chances to
Speaker 1: win the title. It's hard not to think of Brooklyn
Speaker 1: as the winner when you factor in the fact that
Speaker 1: they right now look like the team that is most
Speaker 1: capable of actually hoisting the trophy even though they sent
Speaker 1: away the best player in the trade. So I I
Speaker 1: I love the move for both teams, but I think
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is the winner. I think they have the best
Speaker 1: chance to win the title. And again, James Harden, it's
Speaker 1: time to put up or shut up. Man. You have
Speaker 1: forced your way out of situations. You've got yourself into
Speaker 1: another situation here where there's a lot of pressure on you,
Speaker 1: and you don't have a great history in these moments.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm curious to see if he can live
Speaker 1: up to that. But let's move on to the Lakers.
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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. No deal for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: source tells ESPN this is a tweet from Major and
Speaker 1: Morganowski they'll focus on the buyout market. I think this
Speaker 1: is an absolutely disastrous outcome for the Lakers. They need
Speaker 1: significant roster turnover. It's not just about talent anymore. As
Speaker 1: I've said on the show many times, there is something
Speaker 1: wrong with this concoction of basketball players. This group doesn't
Speaker 1: believe in what Frank is asking them to do. And
Speaker 1: that is most evident in the fact that on any
Speaker 1: given night there's roughly a coin flip chance that they'll
Speaker 1: come out and just mail it in. Just like last
Speaker 1: night in Portland, you had Lebron James and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: you basically had everybody but Russell Westbrook, and you gave
Speaker 1: one of your more pitiful efforts of the season. And
Speaker 1: as I've said, like there's a lot of people who
Speaker 1: tried to turn that into like a Hey, it's not
Speaker 1: Russ's fault. Look, they lost without him. As I've said, you,
Speaker 1: you can't be this bad in the standings without many
Speaker 1: things going wrong, not just Russell Westbrook. However, that the
Speaker 1: trade off that happened in the in the Russell Westbrook trade,
Speaker 1: losing all of those talented players is part of the
Speaker 1: reason why we're here, So I always I always tie
Speaker 1: those things together. Of course, Russ, at least the Rush
Speaker 1: trade is part of why the Lakers are so incapable
Speaker 1: of even going on the road to Portland and beating
Speaker 1: a deliberately tanking basketball team. But the group, this group
Speaker 1: of players is not functioning anymore. And so one of
Speaker 1: my big theories is like, if you just swap out
Speaker 1: like five of them, you can get five completely new
Speaker 1: personalities in there, completely different basketball character, human beings in
Speaker 1: the room, then you might be able to mix it
Speaker 1: up and strike, you know, catch fire again because it's
Speaker 1: not always tied to the core. I mean a lot
Speaker 1: of there was a lot of turnover last year. You
Speaker 1: swapped out Danny Green for Dennis Schroeder, you brought in
Speaker 1: Montrese Harold, you got rid of JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard,
Speaker 1: you brought in Marcusol. But that group also carried on
Speaker 1: the chemistry, carried on the commitment, carried on the identity
Speaker 1: of the previous team. But this latest shake up of
Speaker 1: the snow Globe did not. And so rolling into the
Speaker 1: rest of this season with no trades, keeping everything, holding
Speaker 1: onto assets is akin to punting the season in my opinion,
Speaker 1: because unless they have intel on some fantastic buyout candidates
Speaker 1: that are coming around, then it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: even functionally imagine this team reaching a ceiling that is
Speaker 1: capable of competing with the real teams in the league.
Speaker 1: You know, Lebron candidly admitted after the Milwaukee Bucks game
Speaker 1: that he did not think that the Laker team was
Speaker 1: even capable of possibly in the future, potentially reaching Milwaukee's level.
Speaker 1: It was one of the craziest things I've heard from
Speaker 1: him in his career, essentially admitting defeat in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. So too literally two days removed from that
Speaker 1: to make no moves to me, reeks of punting. It
Speaker 1: seems to me like the like I we we all
Speaker 1: saw reports like they didn't want to trade Westbrook because
Speaker 1: they wanted to wait till this summer, because this summer
Speaker 1: they could package him with two first round picks and
Speaker 1: maybe get some star or something like that in return.
Speaker 1: If that was the ideology, if the ideology was hanging
Speaker 1: on all the assets for this summer, then it's the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of that thing I was just talking about
Speaker 1: with Daryl Morey. You need cracks at the table, you
Speaker 1: need poles of the slot machine, and when you punt
Speaker 1: one of them, because you're waiting for next year, you
Speaker 1: significantly hinder your odds because now you're going at it
Speaker 1: with a thirty eight year old Lebron James who literally
Speaker 1: just randomly playing basketball a couple of weeks ago his
Speaker 1: knee inflated with fluid. Because he's thirty seven, things are
Speaker 1: only going to trend further in that direction as Lebron ages.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be harder and harder for him to stay
Speaker 1: on the court. It's gonna be harder and harder for
Speaker 1: him to maintain that m v P level of play
Speaker 1: that he's shown for so much of this season. That
Speaker 1: that's why I saw this season is such an opportunity.
Speaker 1: You have Lebron and Anthony Davis right now playing this well,
Speaker 1: how do you not try at least take a crack
Speaker 1: at it? What do you what are you risking? Yes,
Speaker 1: you lose, Yes you lose th HT potentially, but you
Speaker 1: increase your title odds in this season and you give
Speaker 1: yourself a realistic chance to win with two of the
Speaker 1: best players in NBA history at their absolute peak. And
Speaker 1: then the last angle of this that I find so infuriating,
Speaker 1: it's just the Russell Westbrook attitude piece. You know, we
Speaker 1: after the show ended the against the Bucks, we because
Speaker 1: there was a delayed uh, they didn't get to the
Speaker 1: press conferences until quite a way, quite a ways after
Speaker 1: the game, and Russell Westbrook gets out there and just
Speaker 1: starts talking absolutely reckless. We have this super awkward moment
Speaker 1: out on the court where he's like petting Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis on the head, and Lebron Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: looking super awkward and uncomfortable with the situation. Is russ
Speaker 1: is like pointing over to Frank and me and like,
Speaker 1: he didn't let me help you guys. And then he's
Speaker 1: in the press conference talking about how he's earned the
Speaker 1: right just through his reputation to be in closing lineups,
Speaker 1: and he talked about how he viewed the booze as
Speaker 1: a sign of respective. Is a truly bizarre press conference
Speaker 1: And why was it bizarre? It's bizarre because you literally
Speaker 1: have one of the biggest egos in the league going
Speaker 1: through an identity crisis, going through the NBA's version of
Speaker 1: a midlife crisis. We had reports the other day that
Speaker 1: he literally refuses to work out with Phil Handy, that
Speaker 1: was reported by Kendrick Perkins. This guy is in a
Speaker 1: phase of denial. In that phase of denial makes him volatile,
Speaker 1: and you have now signed yourself up to have a volatile,
Speaker 1: huge ego who is currently in denial around the team
Speaker 1: the rest of the season, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: go well. There's no universe where it goes well. Like
Speaker 1: this transition for Russ is gonna take time, just like
Speaker 1: it did for Mellow. It could take years for him
Speaker 1: to finally understand and realize the kind of changes he
Speaker 1: has to make in order to remain a productive NBA player.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be around for those growing pains.
Speaker 1: That's why Houston sent him home. That's why Houston sent
Speaker 1: Mellow home. I mean, so, I'm just confused by it
Speaker 1: because like that, you would think at this point, um,
Speaker 1: you would need to somehow have a conversation with Russ
Speaker 1: that convinces him that his role has to be shrunken
Speaker 1: massively for this team to to perform. We actually heard
Speaker 1: from Frank Vogel last night after the loss in Portland,
Speaker 1: straight up came out and said, like, there are going
Speaker 1: to be Knights where I go with Russ in the
Speaker 1: closing group, and there are going to be Knights where
Speaker 1: I don't. That's him basically saying, regardless of what Russ said,
Speaker 1: regardless of any of the antics, I'm going to continue
Speaker 1: to mention if he's not playing well in these clothes,
Speaker 1: if not playing well enough to earn the right to
Speaker 1: close these games. And so I'm just I'm confused at
Speaker 1: the idea of the Lakers willingly signing up to have
Speaker 1: that around the team, that type of that type of
Speaker 1: turmoil around the team. And the weird angle to this
Speaker 1: now is if they're really going to push forward, if
Speaker 1: they're really just gonna go for it with what they've
Speaker 1: got in a handful of buyout guys, then you're gonna
Speaker 1: learn a lot about the mental makeup of this team
Speaker 1: over the course of the next few weeks, because it
Speaker 1: could either spiral horribly out of control or something will
Speaker 1: rise up within them where where their competitive nature will
Speaker 1: take over and some better version of this team will
Speaker 1: materialize that doesn't just go for Uss, that goes for
Speaker 1: the whole team. You know, Lebron and a Dye weren't
Speaker 1: very good last night, But like, maybe maybe Russ will
Speaker 1: acknowledge the realities of the situation and undergo a change,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem likely. I I just Lebron said
Speaker 1: in the postgame press or last night that the team
Speaker 1: was stuck in a fog and they're having a hard
Speaker 1: time seeing what's on the other end of the fog.
Speaker 1: And then refusing to go through any sort of roster
Speaker 1: turnover is the equivalent of signing up for the fog.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's like punting the season. Genuinely confused.
Speaker 1: I was prepared to come in today and talk about
Speaker 1: new Lakers. It's prepared to talk about maybe a Terence Ross,
Speaker 1: maybe and Eric Gordon's someone that would come onto the
Speaker 1: wing here and make a huge difference because of the
Speaker 1: short the talent shortcomings of this roster. And instead we're
Speaker 1: playing Golden State on Saturday with the same guys, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the same group that's probably gonna come
Speaker 1: out and have the same lack of daisical nature, the
Speaker 1: same lack of belief in what the coaches asking them
Speaker 1: to do, and they're probably gonna get their butts kicked
Speaker 1: because Golden State is a really good team who's really
Speaker 1: well coached, who has an identity that they lean on,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, they don't have that same basketball chemistry
Speaker 1: issue that the Lakers have. They fit, they great even
Speaker 1: when guys are out of the lineup. So I'm disappointed
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. Hope hopefully they'll hopefully
Speaker 1: they hopefully they have some intel that we're that we're
Speaker 1: not aware of. Anyway, That's all I had for today. Guys,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming to hang out. Like
Speaker 1: I said, we will be back for our postgame show
Speaker 1: on Saturday, immediately after the final buzzer against the Warriors.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your support and we will see
Speaker 1: you in a couple of days. The volume