Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with trist Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got an
Speaker 2: interview with Yahoo senior NBA reporter and friend of show,
Speaker 2: Jake Fisher. He gives us some really good info on
Speaker 2: how the trade deadline went down, how the nets KD
Speaker 2: Kyrie Harden arrow will be looked at over time, why
Speaker 2: the Toronto Raptors were never going to make a move
Speaker 2: at the deadline except for to be a buyer.
Speaker 3: Who is going to tank moving.
Speaker 4: Forward this NBA season, and much much more like to
Speaker 4: get into Nick, So do me a favor and drop
Speaker 4: that generic ass beat. Let's just felt like the trade
Speaker 4: deadline as a whole, because I felt like, to a
Speaker 4: degree it was like one of the more dramatic trade deadlines,
Speaker 4: and then outside of the two real pieces of shot
Speaker 4: and all, there wasn't really anything of note.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that's kind of what we with inside
Speaker 5: information were kind of saying for a while, right that,
Speaker 5: like there wasn't a lot of like starting level players
Speaker 5: that were actually going to move teams. And then the
Speaker 5: Kyrie Urbing thing obviously throw a giant monkey wrench in
Speaker 5: the entire trade landscape. But just like with Kevin Durant
Speaker 5: requesting the trade like an hour before free agency started.
Speaker 5: Like those two situations kind of happened in a vacuum
Speaker 5: outside of everything else, Like forre agency started at six
Speaker 5: o'clock on June thirtieth, even though KD, you know, asked out,
Speaker 5: and you know, the wheels still spun, the world still
Speaker 5: moved on. And like the fact that Kyrie's trade happened
Speaker 5: to Dallas, like he requested them on Friday, so it
Speaker 5: was six days before the deadline, and then he was
Speaker 5: already dealt by Sunday. I mean, the reporting has been
Speaker 5: pretty clear since that KD requested his deal out of
Speaker 5: Brooklyn on Monday, but the Nets, they weren't willing to
Speaker 5: discuss it with anybody. He wanted to go to Phoenix.
Speaker 5: He's wanted to go to Phoenix all along. So the
Speaker 5: other twenty eight teams kind of operated as we were expecting,
Speaker 5: which was pretty much Toronto dangling players and having a
Speaker 5: lot of calls around the league. But they didn't make
Speaker 5: any selling type moves. They were interested in Naka Purtle,
Speaker 5: like we had known about since you last trade deadline
Speaker 5: when they were registering interest there.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of activity.
Speaker 5: I mean I wrote today, yeaho's seventy one second round
Speaker 5: picks got traded between January first and the deadline. The
Speaker 5: other past four years, the most was thirty two second
Speaker 5: round picks traded because there just weren't a lot of
Speaker 5: players out there that were actually worthy of first round picks.
Speaker 5: And I think that's illustrative of the level of talent
Speaker 5: that was actually on the market.
Speaker 4: To when did it become clear to everybody was in
Speaker 4: the know that Phoenix was like the only place.
Speaker 5: I mean, I didn't know for certain until the deal happened,
Speaker 5: but when Kyrie's stuff dropped on Friday, everyone around the
Speaker 5: league said, well, just just like just like my Twitter feed,
Speaker 5: just like yours, the timeline was going off, what does
Speaker 5: this mean for KD?
Speaker 1: Is KD next?
Speaker 5: And the impression that everyone got, and especially by everyone,
Speaker 5: I mean like rival teams inquiring and especially after Brooklyn's
Speaker 5: return for Kyrie was Spencer Dinwiddie, Dori and Phinney Smith
Speaker 5: first and a couple of seconds, I believe that was
Speaker 5: a win now move, right like that was a move
Speaker 5: just like they did throughout the summer with going and
Speaker 5: get Royce O'Neil and resigning Claxton, TJ. Warren and other
Speaker 5: things to try to build a contender around KD. So,
Speaker 5: I mean, the thought was still prevalent of well, if
Speaker 5: he does if I mean he's he's changed his mind
Speaker 5: left and right.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of been his mo.
Speaker 5: So the thought kind of prevailed, well, he could still
Speaker 5: do that before Thursday, he could decide it turns out
Speaker 5: he did it on Monday, right, And at that point
Speaker 5: in time, it was a holdover thing that everyone around
Speaker 5: the situation believed that if he was leaving Brooklyn, and
Speaker 5: even why he requested a trade originally from Brooklyn was
Speaker 5: the thought that that Phoenix could happen, that Phoenix was there,
Speaker 5: he could play with Devin Booker, Chris Paul. So it
Speaker 5: just kind of felt like an inevitability if this came around.
Speaker 5: I mean, Memphis definitely lobbed an offer. Let's say, I
Speaker 5: don't know the specifics, but I know it was definitely
Speaker 5: all their picks and they're willing to trade anybody not
Speaker 5: named John Dylan Brooks and Jared Jackson Junior. But he
Speaker 5: wanted to go to Phoenix and that was the only
Speaker 5: thing that was going to happen. So I didn't know,
Speaker 5: like I said, until you know when's did it. When
Speaker 5: the trade went down, it was like I mean, I
Speaker 5: remember saying on the radio on Tuesday night in Philly
Speaker 5: at WIP and my family because I'm from the area,
Speaker 5: was like listening to my brother, so like, oh, like
Speaker 5: you called Katie the Phoenix on Tuesday night, I didn't.
Speaker 5: I just like I had an understanding if he was
Speaker 5: going to get moved, the overwhelming likelihood was to the Sun,
Speaker 5: so that's where he wanted to go.
Speaker 4: And then the second thing that you mentioned earlier too,
Speaker 4: was like that Toronto was just going to dangle everyone.
Speaker 4: How close do you think they actually were to ever
Speaker 4: selling the parts that they were dangling.
Speaker 5: So I don't have that definitive answer, but what I
Speaker 5: can say is that they were telling rival teams. And
Speaker 5: only the reason I don't have that definitive answers I'm
Speaker 5: on the phone right and like you're hearing stuff. At
Speaker 5: the end of the day, the job is to tell
Speaker 5: the public what you believe to be true based off of.
Speaker 1: The information that you hear.
Speaker 5: A lot of times you're hearing, you know, falsehoods or
Speaker 5: things that are a little bit misleading. To try to
Speaker 5: paint a certain picture, and it's your job to or
Speaker 5: it's my job to try to sift through all that
Speaker 5: and come and bring like the clearest picture I can.
Speaker 5: Right So with that, like Toronto was telling other teams
Speaker 5: starting at the showcase, like, we don't know what we're
Speaker 5: gonna do. We're gonna take out until the final minutes
Speaker 5: of the deadline. We're gonna have this long like eight
Speaker 5: game road trip or whatever it was, six games something
Speaker 5: like that, all throughout the West Coast before they came
Speaker 5: back that Sunday night before the deadline, and they were
Speaker 5: gonna regroup on Monday and figure out what the direction
Speaker 5: they wanted to go and sure Fred van Vliet's contract
Speaker 5: he could be a free agent this summer if he
Speaker 5: opts out. Gary Trent can opt out. Ojiananobi's guaranteed to
Speaker 5: be unrestricted for agent in twenty four because he can't
Speaker 5: buy CBA limitations get more than one hundred and twenty
Speaker 5: percent salary increase, which is well below his market value,
Speaker 5: being that he's eighteen ninety million that our player right now.
Speaker 1: But they were telling.
Speaker 5: Teams like, we don't know what we're gonna do, And
Speaker 5: they were telling teams we might be buyers. So to me,
Speaker 5: like I'm looking at reading all these te leaves and
Speaker 5: operating at the thirty first front office and trying to
Speaker 5: figure out what these teams are going to do because
Speaker 5: they don't know what they're gonna do. All that stuff
Speaker 5: I just said to you never signaled a team that
Speaker 5: was really going to sell. And it signaled a team
Speaker 5: just like they did with Kyle Larry in twenty one,
Speaker 5: they were going to talk and talk and see what
Speaker 5: the market was looking like and then probably the result
Speaker 5: would really come in the summer. So that at a
Speaker 5: certain point was really what I expected to be the case.
Speaker 5: I didn't know, I didn't like, I didn't wake up
Speaker 5: on Thursday confident, but I fully believed that they were
Speaker 5: going to go after Yaka Perle and the rest was
Speaker 5: kind of undetermined. And it seems like even though there's
Speaker 5: a finality to it right now, I mean it's late
Speaker 5: February already, like juven's pretty close. So we'll see what
Speaker 5: happens come this offseason, especially if they don't continue to
Speaker 5: rise up the East. They're still I mean, there are
Speaker 5: ways away from getting out of the play in tournament,
Speaker 5: which is you know, obviously not where they want to
Speaker 5: be when they've got all these guys will who are
Speaker 5: up for thirty million dollars paydays coming up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I thought that that to myself. I
Speaker 4: was sitting in the lawn in Arizona and right before this,
Speaker 4: you know, on Super Bowl Week, and I was like,
Speaker 4: do we really actually believe these guys are gonna do anything?
Speaker 4: Like I they really gonna move og Ananoby when he's
Speaker 4: under team control for another Yearine change Like it just doesn't.
Speaker 4: It never felt like a MASSI move, like a full
Speaker 4: fire sale.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean. So I think you're I
Speaker 3: think you're right.
Speaker 4: It is interesting that they didn't do anything really at
Speaker 4: all except for you know, purchase Yaga Purtle former play.
Speaker 5: In fairness like they can say no one met her
Speaker 5: asking Christ like the Pacers offered three first right the
Speaker 5: Pacers picks, I believe, one's almost Cleveland, one's Milwaukee, Like
Speaker 5: those aren't those aren't great first round picks that they're
Speaker 5: their late twenties. The Grizzlies offering a bunch of picks.
Speaker 5: The Grizzlies are gonna they're projecting to be a top
Speaker 5: five record team in the league, like they have been
Speaker 5: for the next half decade, like how pick is.
Speaker 1: Going to be?
Speaker 5: So I can understand, you know that the Rappers thinking, well,
Speaker 5: we did a good job of drawing up this interest
Speaker 5: to get the quantity of first rounders, but the quality
Speaker 5: isn't what we're looking for. That could be a fair
Speaker 5: counter argument. But I don't know, three first round picks,
Speaker 5: no matter where they land for a player that I
Speaker 5: don't know. I don't know if OGM was ever going
Speaker 5: to be more than what he is in Toronto. That's also,
Speaker 5: you know, why would a team give up so so,
Speaker 5: so much more than what we just stated because they
Speaker 5: wanted to pick from everything I've heard the Rappers wanted
Speaker 5: to picks and players and the player when that that's
Speaker 5: let's say it's Memphis or in Indiana, but Memphis probably
Speaker 5: it's greater stakes for them being that they're they're at
Speaker 5: the top of this, uh you know echelon here? Are
Speaker 5: they going to just willingly mortgage all that stuff?
Speaker 1: To be right?
Speaker 5: In the situation Toronto is where he can be an
Speaker 5: unrestricted for agent with no guarantees to re sign in
Speaker 5: twenty four that's a lot that's a big price to pay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's not that much cheaper than say, like
Speaker 4: a Donovan Mitchell or you know, it's it's more than
Speaker 4: a Kyrie Irving at this stage, it's just slightly cheaper
Speaker 4: than Kevin Durant. Just feels like the drop off from
Speaker 4: like a A list player to let's be honest, like
Speaker 4: probably a B minus player, but a really good wing defender.
Speaker 4: It's like Toronto's very Danny Angish when it comes to
Speaker 4: getting what they want. So, I guess, how do you
Speaker 4: think the trades actually fit into the rest of the season, Like,
Speaker 4: do you think anything really makes an impact outside of
Speaker 4: Katie and Kyrie to their respective destinations.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think the Clippers got better and they're
Speaker 5: going to end up being just a talkable team until
Speaker 5: their season ends because Kwi and Paul George are so
Speaker 5: good when healthy and active, and that has not been
Speaker 5: the case consistently, right, and people love to talk about
Speaker 5: they're the big poster argument against you know, load management
Speaker 5: and whatnot. But and this is also like the fourth
Speaker 5: year of this expensive iteration. And you know, they were
Speaker 5: across the aisle of the k D Kyrie experiment in Brooklyn,
Speaker 5: like those tandems came together the exact same offseason in
Speaker 5: July twenty nineteen, So like one potential super team dynasty
Speaker 5: already crumbled, Like is the time running out on this
Speaker 5: iteration in LA where there was already talk around the
Speaker 5: league back when they made that Western Conference Finals run
Speaker 5: against the Suns in twenty twenty one of like if
Speaker 5: they didn't make it that far, what was going to
Speaker 5: happen up top?
Speaker 1: Like there's I'm not I'm not here to.
Speaker 5: Say that, Like I know definitively that there's hot seats
Speaker 5: in LA, but like this conventional wisdom would suggest he
Speaker 5: paid all this money to put together this you know contender,
Speaker 5: that maybe they don't make it to the Western Conference
Speaker 5: Finals more than once in a four year window like
Speaker 5: that be below expectations, Right, So they got better with
Speaker 5: Eric Gordon and Mason Plumley, And I really do like
Speaker 5: Bones Island. I know there's been some you know, personality
Speaker 5: stuff that's come up in Denver, but I mean he's
Speaker 5: a damn good players in the second year of the
Speaker 5: rookie deal.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good, you know gamble.
Speaker 5: I think from LA, the Nuggets got better with Thomas
Speaker 5: Bryant and Reddy Jackson's the nice buyout signing Golden State,
Speaker 5: getting Gary Payton the second back, Like I don't think
Speaker 5: he's a world changer, but you at least turn James Wiseman,
Speaker 5: who's was not going to play for them this year,
Speaker 5: into someone who was a really valuable or tation piece
Speaker 5: for them.
Speaker 1: I mean the Lakers got a lot better.
Speaker 5: Obviously they're starting five to pull the doors off the
Speaker 5: Pelicans without Zion, but the other night, so I mean,
Speaker 5: the whole conference, I think outside of Portland really got better.
Speaker 5: Your Blazers, like they didn't exactly buy to move.
Speaker 1: This thing forward here, Trista, what what's going on?
Speaker 3: It doesn't feel like it.
Speaker 4: No, they got it for Trump pick that is only
Speaker 4: lottery protected, so that will convey I think this year
Speaker 4: they're gonna need to figure something out, right like Jeremy Grant,
Speaker 4: whether he ends up getting a deal done this summer,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I saw something earlier today that I
Speaker 4: forget who was writing it, that in order to keep
Speaker 4: Dame really supported that most likely they would have to sign,
Speaker 4: or they would most likely have to trade Anthony Simon's
Speaker 4: and Shade and Sharp, which I very much disagree about
Speaker 4: trading Shade and Sharp but it just doesn't feel like
Speaker 4: their philosophy is much different than neiel' shase was outside
Speaker 4: of just finding more athletic dudes. I think Neil Shan
Speaker 4: would have been fine with Cam Reddish, Like I think
Speaker 4: neil'sha would have been fine with Jeremy Grant, Like maybe
Speaker 4: he doesn't, maybe he doesn't draft Shade and Sharp, maybe
Speaker 4: he ends up with like I don't know, some white
Speaker 4: guy from Gonzaga that's not Chet Holmgren, But like, I
Speaker 4: don't know that this is a defensive first team really,
Speaker 4: and to me, it doesn't feel like they're doing Dame
Speaker 4: any favors. Just real quick about the Nets, Like I
Speaker 4: think there's gonna be books written about the Nets, Like
Speaker 4: for sure, I think maybe you write a book about
Speaker 4: the Nets.
Speaker 3: Do you think like there was any other way? What'd
Speaker 3: you say?
Speaker 1: So it'd be an interesting endeavor, right?
Speaker 4: I do think there was any other way out of
Speaker 4: this situation, like a series of unfortunate events around injuries
Speaker 4: and like a weird pandemic happening once in a lifetime.
Speaker 5: So yes, But also like that's what happens in every
Speaker 5: big stakes environment in this league, and it's why people
Speaker 5: are looking at the Kyrie Luka Dontrich pairing as like
Speaker 5: a potentially combustible situation, right, I mean, do you trade
Speaker 5: for the superstars every time in this league? That's just
Speaker 5: kind of them around front offices, because worst case scenario,
Speaker 5: typically you can be where Brooklyn is right now, where
Speaker 5: they are at a hell of a better starting point
Speaker 5: in this moment than they were in twenty sixteen when
Speaker 5: their asset cover was dry and you know, they screwed
Speaker 5: the pooch with the KG Paul Pierce, you know, deal
Speaker 5: because those guys were well past their prime and whatever.
Speaker 1: Like, if you do it with guys who are ready
Speaker 1: to play right.
Speaker 5: Now and at the peak of their powers, like Brooklyn did,
Speaker 5: if it doesn't work out, you'll be able to get
Speaker 5: a pretty good return back. That being said, like when
Speaker 5: you do mortgage young players and first round picks in
Speaker 5: the moment, it's hard to continue to add anslar pieces.
Speaker 5: The Bucks just had to send out five second round
Speaker 5: picks to add Jake Crowder to this team. And when
Speaker 5: as the Lakers have seen, especially like when your roster
Speaker 5: is so top heavy with salary and so much of
Speaker 5: the success is dependent on just a couple of guys
Speaker 5: and a couple of guys getting along in an environment
Speaker 5: that is pretty self centered and ego driven and a competitive,
Speaker 5: you know, small sphere where your contract and your riches
Speaker 5: and your fame are all dependent on how could you
Speaker 5: perform on TV in front of millions of people every night.
Speaker 1: That's a conflicting idea to.
Speaker 5: The essence of basketball, where you share it amongst your
Speaker 5: teammates to try to be a collective other. So there's
Speaker 5: just a natural situation where these tensions and these pressures
Speaker 5: can can blow up. And I think it gets so
Speaker 5: much easier for things to fail when the stakes are
Speaker 5: that high and there's such a pressure cooker and you
Speaker 5: are in an environment where you put the onus on
Speaker 5: yourself to be championship or bus So, whether it's you
Speaker 5: know the Celtics Big Three to KG and Paul Pierce
Speaker 5: that we just talked about, you know, Ray Allen left
Speaker 5: and there was an emotions there and he goes to
Speaker 5: the heat and the heat thing crumbles with Lebron. Everyone
Speaker 5: talking about that locker room when they lost the Spurs.
Speaker 5: They were so exhausted and they were just glad it
Speaker 5: was over. And KD and Golden State and like just
Speaker 5: these marriages, the honeymoon period always always ends, So I
Speaker 5: don't necessarily think it was like doomed to fail from
Speaker 5: the beginning or like how could they have avoided it?
Speaker 5: But like to for any team build to be successful,
Speaker 5: it's going to take so much luck and so many circumstances,
Speaker 5: and I just think the odds are are more against
Speaker 5: you to sustain it long term, just because of the
Speaker 5: ultimate stakes that come in those situations.
Speaker 4: I actually like Brooklyn now more than I did last year.
Speaker 4: I did, like, I think this trade's going to go
Speaker 4: down to me as an incredible opportunity for Micheale Bridges
Speaker 4: to prove that he can be an offensive power as well.
Speaker 4: Like he was a defensive specialist for the Phoenix Suns
Speaker 4: and that was his role, and he was never going
Speaker 4: to be the guy with the ball in his hands
Speaker 4: at all times. And I was curious to see how
Speaker 4: the ball sharing would go between him and Spencer Dimwity,
Speaker 4: because Spencer doesn't like to share the ball with anyone
Speaker 4: unless their name is Luca, and he's like, that's his role.
Speaker 4: But Mikhale already putting buckets up at forty five the
Speaker 4: other night shows that he was sort of underutilized in
Speaker 4: a lot of ways in Phoenix.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, there's a situation where the Nets put
Speaker 5: together a fun little run down the stretch and they
Speaker 5: make some noise in the playoffs, take a team to
Speaker 5: seven or something, and then there's a star that decides,
Speaker 5: you know what I want out of my team this summer,
Speaker 5: And I'm looking at Brooklyn because they got a bunch
Speaker 5: of picks they just got from Phoenix and a bunch
Speaker 5: of players I want to go there, Like mckailberd just
Speaker 5: could be my number two. Cam Johnson could be my
Speaker 5: number three, like the Clackson's our defensive anchor. Like, I'm
Speaker 5: not saying that's going to happen. I'm not saying that's
Speaker 5: absolutely what Brooklyn wants to do, but they're excited that
Speaker 5: that's a possibility.
Speaker 1: So it is an interesting place to be in.
Speaker 4: If I was Sean Marks, I would say no to
Speaker 4: any star that wanted to go there.
Speaker 3: Again, I think that's.
Speaker 4: The only way you build the fan base to some
Speaker 4: level of real loyalty, because the one thing that I
Speaker 4: realized from being on the fan was the fans just
Speaker 4: don't care because they feel no connection to these players
Speaker 4: and Brooklyn's never been really the place for New York
Speaker 4: fans to like clamor around.
Speaker 3: It's always been the Knicks.
Speaker 4: And so unless they figure out some way to organically
Speaker 4: build something.
Speaker 3: Buying stars, I don't think is a really.
Speaker 4: Great and I don't think Sean Marks does well with
Speaker 4: stars truthfully, Like I don't think that's his forte.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean the has not been exemplary so far.
Speaker 3: Who do you think shut it down?
Speaker 4: My curiosity is obviously always with Okay, see because even
Speaker 4: when they're teetering on success in prior years, they've been,
Speaker 4: you know, very reluctant to keep success going, right, Like
Speaker 4: they shut down Shay last year, they shut down Giddy
Speaker 4: last year, they shut down like even Kenrick Williams. I
Speaker 4: think at one point, like anybody who had a pulse
Speaker 4: wasn't playing for this team.
Speaker 3: Obviously we mentioned Portland.
Speaker 4: Portland is not on a trajectory for a play in spot,
Speaker 4: despite what Dame thinks or what Chauncey Billups thinks, Like
Speaker 4: who do you think goes or do you like full
Speaker 4: I'm going to sell mode like for the rest of
Speaker 4: the season, I'm just gonna whether they shut down players
Speaker 4: or they.
Speaker 3: Just lose games like semi intentionally.
Speaker 1: I think it'll happen.
Speaker 5: Can I pinpoint where I'll pinpoint where I don't think
Speaker 5: it will. Orlando seems pretty content on trying to win
Speaker 5: games and trying to compete, and Magic want to take
Speaker 5: steps forward. The Pistons, I mean, they haven't had the
Speaker 5: bench guys to be the worst team in the league,
Speaker 5: so I don't think. I don't think. I don't think
Speaker 5: we'll see that either. I think don but are still
Speaker 5: gonna be chasing thirty every night. You know, San Antonio's
Speaker 5: lost a good amount of games after selling Josh Richardson
Speaker 5: and taking on Dwayne dead Bean into salary and waving him.
Speaker 5: I don't think the Spurs have a ton of interest
Speaker 5: in competing for the postseason. Utah, I would expect to
Speaker 5: see some more youth movement, some more minutes for unproven guys,
Speaker 5: some boggy opportunity. I mean, they just moved Vanderbilt and
Speaker 5: Lake Beasley and Mike Conley out the door. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 5: obviously is not going to be playing for the Utah Jazz,
Speaker 5: So those are probably the two teams I would have
Speaker 5: it the most. The Thunder I never I've gotten into
Speaker 5: plenty of trouble speaking about the Thunder and positions where
Speaker 5: I don't one hundred percent know what's going on there,
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna I'm gonna abstain from that.
Speaker 3: Bottle out on that that makes sense.
Speaker 4: One thing about the Thunder I thought was interesting was
Speaker 4: a recent article that came out that I don't know
Speaker 4: why even they would do this, that they promised Jabari
Speaker 4: that they would take him number two overall if he
Speaker 4: was there. Obviously they take chet Jabari ends up in Houston,
Speaker 4: Like how how normal is something that would be very
Speaker 4: blatantly not true. Obviously was not going to be a
Speaker 4: fit there.
Speaker 1: I think two things. One, I think teams say.
Speaker 5: We're going to take you here if you're there, and
Speaker 5: that can be one of two things. One it is
Speaker 5: a promise, and the guy they thought wasn't going to
Speaker 5: be there there's all of a sudden there. Or two
Speaker 5: they could say to someone, if you're there, we think
Speaker 5: we're gonna take you and the or we're gonna take
Speaker 5: you or whatever, and then the player and their parents
Speaker 5: just take it as an ironclad promise when it really wasn't.
Speaker 5: And then there are promises where you know, we promise
Speaker 5: this guy and then that's the guy they take because
Speaker 5: they they're men and women of their words, and that's
Speaker 5: what they said. So with Jabari's circumstance, I don't know
Speaker 5: what it was, but I just know that from my reporting,
Speaker 5: chet Holmgren wanted to go to Okay see Okay, So
Speaker 5: he was obviously very interested in Chet Holmgren, and the
Speaker 5: second that he did knock on number one, I was
Speaker 5: not expecting him to not go to like it was
Speaker 5: kind of a sliding doors thing where either Palo or
Speaker 5: Jabari we're gonna go one or three, depending on what
Speaker 5: the magic decided. So I don't know where Jabari Smith's
Speaker 5: camp got that impression. Could they have thought that they
Speaker 5: got promised and it wasn't a promise?
Speaker 3: Sure that is.
Speaker 4: A Houston maybe broke him. I think he seems like
Speaker 4: he's not himself. There's new articles about how he cried
Speaker 4: on draft night when they took him, which I guess
Speaker 4: I understand given that this is going to be a
Speaker 4: losing situation in the post hardened era. To me, my
Speaker 4: opinion is the only way he gets out of this
Speaker 4: jail sentence as if James Harden somehow wants to go back.
Speaker 4: Feels to me like Houston is a mess, but I
Speaker 4: don't exactly know why. Like I kind of know why,
Speaker 4: but I don't exactly know why outside of say Steve
Speaker 4: steven Silas being obviously the wrong coach for this type
Speaker 4: of group.
Speaker 3: What do you in your estimation is wrong there?
Speaker 5: You know, it's it's a question that I want to
Speaker 5: make more phone calls about and potentially even go to
Speaker 5: Houston to learn more about in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: But all I can.
Speaker 5: Say, and what I will say is that, I mean,
Speaker 5: there hasn't been a clear direction to build this thing forward,
Speaker 5: more so than just adding top level rookie talents into
Speaker 5: the mix here. I mean Eric Gordon has been you
Speaker 5: know in the fold, Christian Wood was there a year ago.
Speaker 5: But in terms of like it isn't just like you
Speaker 5: draft guys, then you add pieces and then things just materialize,
Speaker 5: Like there needs to be some type of commitment towards
Speaker 5: winning as opposed to just throwing minutes at particular players
Speaker 5: that your front office is invested in and actually like
Speaker 5: coming in with strategies on how to develop these guys
Speaker 5: and winning roles in a particular greater team environment.
Speaker 1: That just doesn't seem to be the case.
Speaker 5: It seems like they're back to the John Wall situation
Speaker 5: from everything I'd heard last season, and it was just
Speaker 5: we want to play Kevin Porter Junior and Jalen Green
Speaker 5: X number of minutes you X number of minutes off
Speaker 5: the bench, and like take it or.
Speaker 1: Leave it, and obviously he left it, and it didn't seem.
Speaker 5: Like there was any more of a of a I mean,
Speaker 5: I don't want to discredit the coaching staff there for
Speaker 5: not having more of a plan, but.
Speaker 1: Just from the.
Speaker 5: Way the conversations have gone, it just hasn't sounded like
Speaker 5: there's been a collective universal like we're all moving in
Speaker 5: this direction together, which a concerted thing is important, Like
Speaker 5: to have your owner and your front office and your
Speaker 5: head coach and you're like the player development guy, all
Speaker 5: aligned on what Kevin Porter Junior, Jalen Green or kJ
Speaker 5: Martin need to be doing to jab Jamari Smith to
Speaker 5: become this player that you envision your overall team to
Speaker 5: be than like any second you're not doing that.
Speaker 1: It's kind of just a waste of time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw this, and I don't know why this
Speaker 4: is happening, but this is some tea.
Speaker 3: It's like a tea related question.
Speaker 4: Why do you think there's this like uprising of chatter
Speaker 4: that there's some sort of problem between a D and Bron?
Speaker 3: Like what's I feel like that's very weird.
Speaker 1: It's just the by language doctors are out.
Speaker 5: She clearly was not thrilled the evening of Lebron's all
Speaker 5: time record setting performance. And he's kind of been poudied
Speaker 5: ever since. I mean he was when the Lakers were
Speaker 5: here in New York. It was like a week before
Speaker 5: he broke the record. At MSG, they were talking about
Speaker 5: how Lebron is going to inevitably and Lebron was in
Speaker 5: New York like a week before he was gonna break it.
Speaker 5: Of course he's going to be asked about it. That's
Speaker 5: just how the media scene works here. And Ady was
Speaker 5: kind of chuckling about it and saying like, oh, Dan,
Speaker 5: that's cold or something like that when Lebron said, I'm
Speaker 5: going to break it just like a matter of time. So,
Speaker 5: I mean, this hasn't been like a long winding whatever
Speaker 5: it is. I'll say, like I can say that, but yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean the situation hasn't been perfect.
Speaker 3: So do you think it's real?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't I don't know.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think a lot of this has been
Speaker 5: just a tough season on the whole, where it's just
Speaker 5: it's a it's a drain generally to be in the
Speaker 5: center of that storm all year long, where there's headlines
Speaker 5: and headlines and headlines and people asking about it. And
Speaker 5: it's not just the headlines. Obviously, things are happening behind
Speaker 5: the scenes that are not exemplary either. So when when
Speaker 5: it's not a fun environment to be in, like you
Speaker 5: can understand why things can kind of snowball and grow
Speaker 5: a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I've heard for years that the Lakers
Speaker 4: are warm of the least fun environments to play in,
Speaker 4: Like not just you're winning.
Speaker 1: It's great. When you're winning, it's great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like a worst version of like New York
Speaker 4: sports because it's just different, right, Like there's just different trappings.
Speaker 4: I saw this factoid the Celtics are on pace to
Speaker 4: lead the NBA with fifty eight wins, and that'll be
Speaker 4: the first time it's that a team hasn't broken sixty
Speaker 4: wins in the NBA since like two thousand and it's
Speaker 4: the second time that that would have happened in forty
Speaker 4: four years. Like I just kind of like, finally, because
Speaker 4: I know we got to both go just kind of
Speaker 4: get your estimation on like why why that there is
Speaker 4: no team that's maybe going to get to sixty and
Speaker 4: what that actually means for the league.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's just so much talent in the NBA right
Speaker 5: now and there's no absolute juggernaut Warriors or even like,
Speaker 5: wasn't just the fact that the Warriors were such a juggernaut.
Speaker 5: It was the fact that it was kind of a
Speaker 5: foregone conclusion that Golden State and Cleveland were going to
Speaker 5: meet in the finals for or straight years, and that
Speaker 5: might before that, Miami was gonna make the finals for
Speaker 5: four straight years, and San Antonio was there for you know,
Speaker 5: pretty much every year. They weren't in the finals every
Speaker 5: single year, but they were they were a threat every
Speaker 5: year for the better part of two decades. There's the
Speaker 5: Warriors are still here, Lebron is still here, There's still
Speaker 5: you know, the old cast of characters that are knocking
Speaker 5: on the door. But it's just there's it's considered in
Speaker 5: the league right now that any goal you want to accomplish,
Speaker 5: whether you're a rebuilding team, wants to make the plan,
Speaker 5: whether you're a playing team and wants to make the playoffs,
Speaker 5: whether you're a team has been a first round roadkill
Speaker 5: that wants to make move further into the postseason.
Speaker 1: Everyone's under the impression that we're one move away from
Speaker 1: getting there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's because the talent's so deep, So everyone's
Speaker 5: given the best shot primarily, and the parody's been I
Speaker 5: think a result of those compounding factors where the playing
Speaker 5: tournament has clearly helped a lot in that regard, combined
Speaker 5: with this influx of young dudes where like you know,
Speaker 5: Pallo for example, is contributing winning type of basketball right now.
Speaker 5: It's not like Luca was immediately in Dallas, but very
Speaker 5: rarely do these rookies come in and impact winning let alone,
Speaker 5: like Anthony Edwards is all of a sudden an engine
Speaker 5: in Minnesota, and you know, there's just there's just a
Speaker 5: lot of really good young players in the league right now,
Speaker 5: while we still have so many players like Lebron and
Speaker 5: Chris Paul and k D and Steph who are playing
Speaker 5: at such a highlight game at.
Speaker 1: You know, in the into their mid and late thirties.
Speaker 3: So let's get a prediction.
Speaker 4: So we got twenty seven games left. Who is in
Speaker 4: the finals? Are our Dubs still?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: I'm going Dubs to the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 5: However, I'm gonna right now, I'm gonna tip my hat
Speaker 5: to Denver. I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick Denver,
Speaker 5: and I'm gonna pick Denver. Milwaukee a little small market
Speaker 5: finals that the NBA will love.
Speaker 3: And what do they play in the Eastern Conference Finals?
Speaker 1: Boston.
Speaker 5: I think the Sixers had the talent to be in
Speaker 5: that top tier with those two teams. They're clearly ahead
Speaker 5: of Cleveland when they put it all together, but they
Speaker 5: just don't put it all together on a consistent enough basis.
Speaker 5: I think to make it through four rounds, let alone three.
Speaker 5: So I think it's going to be Boston.
Speaker 3: Milwaukee and then who wins?
Speaker 1: Give me honest and the Bucks. Let's do it.
Speaker 4: Many thanks to Jake Fisher on this episode of The
Speaker 4: Heat Check.
Speaker 3: We'll be back on Friday.
Speaker 4: Keep it locked, Please subscribe, please download, Please tell all
Speaker 4: your friends, every single one of them, and follow us
Speaker 4: on at this heat Check, on TikTok and actriss to
Speaker 4: crick everywhere you get your social media. We'll see you
Speaker 4: next time.