And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast where Bobby Marks, we had a trade. We're 16 days away from the trade deadline and the Lakers and the Wizards. Oh my God, a barn burner. This is going to turn everything around for the Lakers. Rui Hachimura disgruntled.
tweener forward in the last year of his rookie deal former number nine pick uh the latest or the the not quite the latest but one of a long line of disappointing wizards draft picks between like 8 and 16 in the last year of his rookie deal dealt to the lakers for kendrick nunn uh would be savior kendrick nunn much hyped like this is the guy we've been waiting on this guy kendrick nunn in three second round picks and here's where we find ourselves bobby
I looked at the Western Conference standings this morning, and you know intuitively, like, it's jam-packed. Oh my god. Seeds 5-13. So that's nine teams. There are only 15 teams in the conference. Seeds 5-13, which I believe is Dallas to Portland right now.
all have either 23, 24, or 25 losses, which means any of them can finish anywhere from 5 to 13, including the Lakers, who just will not die. Every time there's a trade like this, like only Wizards fans...
18 of them and sick people like you and I are actually watching the Washington Wizards. The rest of the people who are normal NBA fans only maybe watch the Wizards if their team's playing the Wizards, if even that, but they've heard of Rui Hachimura. They know he's a top 10 pick. He's world famous.
And so when a trade like this happens, the reaction is instantly like, what a steal for the Lakers. That's all the Wizards could get for Rui Hachimura. What a disgrace. Contract the franchise. That's it. Yeah.
I think all of that is slightly wrongheaded, but what was your initial reaction to this? Other than the, you know, let's, let's for now forestall the, what does this mean for the Lakers cap space off season plans, which I think is quite interesting. What did you think of the trade on its own? I thought that I, I, we always, I think we made too much into the Lakers first round picks that we talked about at nauseam 27 and 29. I just felt that if there was going to be a deal that it was going to involve seconds because they had seven and
including one of them is the Chicago second that went back to Chicago. Ironically, two of those picks were part of the Westbrook trade, right? So basically came back like full circle here, the Chicago one, and then the 2028, which is like the less favorable of the,
the Wizards or the Lakers here. Well, between Beal rumors and Kuzma rumors that never stop, it's like Thomas Bryan and Troy Brown Jr., it's kind of like they've just become one franchise at this point in all the interchangeable parts. How far would that franchise get in the playoffs if you just combine the teams? It'd be a pretty damn good team. But anyway, keep going. Yeah, I mean, a couple of thoughts. I mean,
you know, everyone was looking at it like, well, he's former lottery pick. Why couldn't you have gotten the first? And I said, well, he basically, he couldn't stay on the court. Um, you look at his games played, right? I mean, whether it be, you know, he was out last year for, you know, whether it be personal reasons, he had an ankle this year. Um,
His shooting numbers are down. I know his last game was that 30-point game against Orlando, but I think he was like 33% off catch and shoot threes this year, I want to say. I think it was a little bit higher, 47 last year. I think what it signals is that they're willing to spend on Kyle Kuzma.
uh as far the wizards are um and and likely that they think kyle kuzma will be receptive to them spending on him instead of lose or nothing lose him yeah i think he was the big winner traded a guy who was going to be a restricted free agent i mean you could have held on to them as an insurance policy in case the kuzma price tag was going to be big too high but um
So I get it from the Wizards perspective as far as moving off. I just I just think and I'll get to the Lakers in a minute. I mean, I just I guess I'm a little bit disappointed where like the track record of drafting is not good in Washington. It's not good at all. I mean, besides Bradley Beal, it's not been it's not good. And eventually you're going to need one of these players to give two of these guys a
to hit unless you just want to be a 35, 36 win team. I mean, that's the kind of the reality of it for, from the wizard's perspective for the Lakers. I think there's a lot of multiple ways you, we can look at it here. You know, you get a four. So basically, I mean, but when 80 comes back, you put 80 back at the five, right? Thomas Bryant's been really good. I mean, really good. He's been, he's been good enough. And I wrote about this before the season. I think they need to,
explore eight minutes a game of the two of them together because Thomas Bryan can shoot it well enough I mean he had such a he had the one bubble year where he shot the hell out of it from three and then he had injuries and the shooting fell off it if that bubble year was anything like real there is a world where the two of them can play together I don't think you want to do that given how great AD has been as the only center on the floor but he's been good enough that you got to explore that
Yeah. I mean, and it gives, I mean, it gives you, I mean, something they've lacked as big, you know, there was a glut of guards there. None goes out. You know, you still have those two first here. I think it's a matter of like kind of the what's next now, right? Like what's going to be the next move because again,
As you mentioned, he's a restricted free agent here. Woj said yesterday that there's the intent to resign him when he becomes a free agent. I know in talking in the offseason, I guess in October, there was that $12 million number. There was. I think it came down to the wire number.
I think like 13, 14, 12, something in there and Hachimura wouldn't take it. And that, and by the way, that given where the mid-level is like, that's a totally reasonable decision for him. Yeah. The mid-level isn't seven or $8 million anymore. I mean, it's eventually, it's going to be like 11 million. So it's, it's close to that here. So I,
I, I think you look at what the Lakers have done over the last, you know, whether it be the Memphis game or the Portland game. And I think they think internally, like we have a legit shot to get the crack, the top six. And you mentioned where the standings are, you know, they've got the Clippers coming up here. Um,
But my big my what I'm interested in now is now are are one of those first and play now. Right. Are one of those first and play is Westbrook in play. Because let's face it, if your goal is to bring Hachi or sign Rui in the offseason, like so.
You're either going to act as a team with cap space or you're going to take a direction right now where we want to target players that are under contract for two for in under 2023, 24 or have their bird rights and basically acquire three or four players instead of going into the free agent game. Yeah, the Lakers are two and a half games and two in the loss column out of fifth.
That's it. That's nothing. Like, that's... It's not nothing given just how many teams there are, but it's not much. And...
They have been playing all year long. You got to give them credit for as much of a show as they were for the first 15 games of the year. Are they going to start? Oh, and seven. Oh my God, whatever. Like they never stopped competing. That's a credit to the players. It's a credit to Darvin ham. They compete every game. Like even the other day in Portland, they fall behind 71 46. The blazers are laughing it up. The crowd's taunting them. They come out and they're like, we can win the game. Like we can still win. We're not rolling over. And they're,
It's just not AD out. Reeves has been out. Walker's been out. Like those are two of their best perimeter players. And I do think, I just want to talk for a second about LeBron because as he approaches the scoring record,
A lot of the analysis on LeBron is like big picture retrospective. He, for the millionth time is the first person at his age to do X. It's remarkable what he's doing at his age. You look at his, his career in total, all the records he's going to break. And he's about to break the most hallowed one, probably in the sport. And I do think it's getting a little overlooked. The fact that he's still amazing. Like he's still amazing. And for a while, like,
I think it was overlooked because the Lakers were losing. And some of the games they lost had the feel of like, he just get the ball on the left block and be like, you know what? I'm going to kind of pivot and take a couple fadeaways here just to see if I get some buckets and low stakes. And I'll pull up from three a couple times because why not? You know, I don't feel like going to the rim. This game's not worth it. That, like, there are stakes now. And here are the numbers. This is since Anthony Davis got hurt on December 16th, I think.
The Lakers since then, with LeBron on the floor, are plus 99. With LeBron off the floor, they are minus 114. That is crazy town. The plus 99 is a big number. It means that his play is still winning. Winning play against teams that are trying to win. Like good teams. I mean, everyone in the West, every night, it's like a freaking playoff game. And their starting lineup right now, you could argue,
Dennis Schroeder, Patrick Beverly, LeBron, Thomas Bryant. Who am I forgetting? I don't know. Somebody else. They've been going a little. Toscano Anderson too, right? Yeah, they've had JTA. You could argue it's four backups and LeBron. And they're still winning these minutes. And so I like this deal for them. Rui is in the last... I wrote this in 10 things either last week or the week before. The last month has been the best stretch of Rui Hachimura's career. He can score. Now...
The fit is going to be interesting because, as you said, the three-point shooting has been mostly mediocre for his career, with the exception of last season when he didn't play very much but shot very well. LeBron's going to make all those looks easier, right? He's going to have to make them. What he's really wanted to do in his career is take long twos off the dribble and out of post-ups against switches. There's going to be less room for him to do that with the Lakers. He's going to have to make threes. He's also been...
An empty calories score for most of his career. He's like Allen Houston power forward. Remember Allen Houston? I'm not saying that Allen Houston was not empty calorie score, but he was the king of like 22, one and one box score lines, 22, two and two. That's Rui. He's an awful passer. He's a bad rebounder. His defense sort of lacks feel and,
And his best position is the four, which is also LeBron's best position on defense. So they're going to have to figure all that out. But there's talent there, and it's a good buy low for the Lakers. And for the Wizards, as you pointed out, I understand that people clown the Wizards. You mentioned...
Do you just want to be a 35-36 win team? They might just want to be a 35-36 win team that maybe one year wins 45 and gets to the second round and is competitive. If they lock into Kuzma and Porzingis in the offseason, that's what they're going to be. But...
They're still run by basketball people. If there were a first-round pick to be had for Rui Hachimura, they would have the first-round pick today. There was no first-round pick. The rest of the league has watched Rui Hachimura put up 12 0-0 lines and play bad defense. That's just what it is. So I think it's a fair deal for both teams. It's disappointing for the Wizards,
Because they need to turn those picks into real players, as you said, and they didn't. And they didn't turn Rui into a player who's going to help their team going forward. But I think it's a good deal. I think it's a good deal for both teams. And whether Rui starts or comes off the bench, and I know there's reporting that they plan to start him. Okay, we'll see. It's worth a shot. Like Rui, LeBron, AD, and two guards. That's worth a look.
Well, yeah. I mean, I think, and I was asked yesterday on radio in Washington that should they, could they have just waited until we got closer to February 9th? And I said, well, the basically Kendrick Nunn in three seconds would have went somewhere else. Right. If it wasn't Hachimura, it would have been somewhere else. And that was the, you know, basically the best deal. Yeah. I mean, I think when you have currency and second round picks, yeah,
that that's more used in a trade like we saw yesterday here. And I think there is a little bit, you know, somewhat of a sense of urgency to get something more accomplished now than wait two weeks. And that's what they did. Yeah, there's a lot of the wizard screwed up faction will be like, second round picks don't matter. Who cares about second round picks? And the wizards do have a long track record of selling or punting on second round picks. That's been less the case in recent years. But, you know, Jordan Clarkson, for instance, was a wizard.
second round pick to tie up the two franchises again. But at the same token, the Lakers just got Rui Hachimura with second round picks. So if you love the deal for the Lakers and hate the deal for the Wizards, you can't hold those two diametrically opposed views of the worth of second round picks. Can I throw a fake Russell Westbrook and first round picks trade at you? Let me put on my Bill Simmons hat.
and ask you who says no. Zach Levine for Russell Westbrook and both first round picks. Let's say one is unprotected and the second one has the most limited possible protections that are allowable under NBA rules, which are whatever. I don't have the bandwidth to look them up right now. I would love to have asked this question in the off season, but I can't because Westbrook's a free agent. And I would love to go one more run with this group in the playoffs if they get in the play in the play. And I guess,
I would probably, I would do it. I would seriously consider if I was Chicago. And I think my intent would be then, now what's your direction? Now, what do you do with DeMar and Nick? But I think two unprotected ones for, I mean, I'm just, you know, between him and Beal, man, I'm,
I don't think it's going to be pretty on the back end of those contracts here. Well, I don't think Beal is even a conversation right now. No, it isn't. For anybody and specifically for that package. Is it no for Washington? Beal's not a conversation, Zach, just because the no trade, man. The no trade has a lot – I mean, it carries a lot of weight, man. Let's just throw out a hypothetical here. Let's say –
Toronto just came and offered, Messiah offered four firsts to Tommy Shepard. Right? Great. I want to do it. Well, Bradley Beal just can veto, right? It's like the baseball players. Like they have four teams where they want to go to here. So I don't think Beal is a conversation right now here. But for me with Zach, I would probably consider it because I don't,
I don't see this roster, although they've had a good win against Atlanta, I guess, at home. I just don't see it getting into that top four, top five. I think there has to be some type of pivot here with this group. Here's my gut, because this is one of the few Russ plus both picks trades that is still, even in theory, kind of viable. And I stress in theory, because I'm going to make the argument for why Chicago wouldn't do it in a second.
My gut is the Lakers would do it because that's their free agency in one fell swoop. It would come with some pretty painful tax implications. That's a big, big contract. And this is not a franchise that spends like the Clippers or the Warriors or whatever. It would give them a playmaker.
And I think Russ's ascension as their sixth man has shown that they need playmaking. And Anthony Davis in particular needs someone to set him up on the second unit. And LeBron needs another playmaker. Although Dennis Schroeder has been quietly fantastic for them in the starting five lately. I think my gut is the Lakers do it. Here's the argument for why Chicago should do it. And I'm not saying they should, but if you think they should, this is the argument.
We won't take that big of a step. The numbers and the evidence say we will not take that much of an on-court step back if DeMar DeRozan stays healthy. If DeMar DeRozan gets injured, we're screwed. That's probably the case anyway. Vucevic has played very, very well for the last month. We can probably flip this contract of an all-star, a two-time all-star Zach Levine that is, I think, has four years and $180 million left on it after this year.
He's had knee issues. He looks like himself again, explosive wise, but you just never know. Teams are wary. We get two first round picks for that. That's good business for us. We're off that contract on the court. Maybe we don't get that much worse. The case against it is a we really like Zach Levine. He's the main guy we got in the Butler trade way back when he's very good shooting the hell out of it again this season, playing better and better as the year goes on.
The Bulls are also quietly 11-6 in their last 17 games. Their next three games are Pacers, Charlotte, Orlando. Now the Bulls have crapped the bed against bad teams all season. If they take care of business against those teams, they will be 25-24, one game over 500. Exactly where I think if you told them a month ago they would have been that when they were 11-18, they would be thrilled. They'd be right in the play-in, play-off, outside shot at the six-seed race. So I don't think they would do it.
I don't think they would do it, but I do think that's a deal that they should consider if it were ever a profit. And by the way, I asked you to make your 12 man all-star rosters. Did DeMar make your Eastern Conference all-star team? He was my 12th guy. He was the final wild card. Yes. I had trouble with it. I got to make, I got to write my all-star card. I think, I think with, and you made it, you're making really good points here. I think if DeMar,
I think if you were Chicago and this was a year from now and they just finished a year where they lost in the play-in and they're 25 and 24 right now, right? Same group. Then I think, yes. Right. I think it's more of a like, guys, where are we going here? Right. I just think it's a little bit too fresh. Right. Just year one. Let's see where this group, you know, is there another, are we the Boston of last year?
Right. Can we, you know, can we get into the, you know, you probably, you can, we get to six. I don't think so. Miami, Miami, Miami's built a little separation there now and it's getting healthy. Um,
But yeah, I just think it's a it's a look. I mean, I would look at it, but I think it's a little bit too, as I said, a little too fresh where if it was a year from now, I think I would be probably more more considerate. I guess Miami has actually not built much separation. Only a game ahead of the Knicks, who have lost four in a row. And there are two games ahead of the Hawks, who have lost two in a row after a nice five game winning streak. They kind of.
some of the hoaxy melodrama that's been going on there. But it just feels like Miami is set to kind of stabilize as a good team that wins, you know, three out of every five games. It just sort of crawls up toward locking in sixth. And, you know, I mean, five is going to be tough. They're only three games out of Cleveland. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. The other thing with Chicago is,
It makes you older, right? It makes you older. Although Levine's not young anymore. He's younger than the other two all-stars on their team. And it kind of like... Now I have to re-sign Vucevic. I got to re-sign Vucevic. It decreases my leverage a little bit with him. Just the opposite of the Wizards kind of...
increase their leverage in trading Kuzma. Like now, if you want Kuzma, you have to come with a big, big offer. It may have hurt their leverage resigning Kuzma, but it helped their leverage in trading Kuzma. I just think it's interesting. I also had DeMar on my Eastern Conference All-Star squad as one of the, as either the second guard of the backups or one of the wild cards. I just think he's been
I'm not going to reveal the whole column now in part, cause I still haven't made all my decisions. I just think he's, he's played a ton of minutes. I just think he's a little bit more consistent as a score and a playmaker than either Jalen Brunson or Julius Randall. I have him over both of those guys. Um,
I don't know if either Nick is going to make my 12-man All-Star team. I don't have him on there. I don't have either Nick. They're having good years. It's hard, man. It's hard to make the All-Star team. That's the thing. It always drives me crazy when people say people get snubbed, and I always say, well, who's coming off? If you're going to say snubbed, who's coming off? Hal Burton has missed some games. Has to be on it. Yeah, you see his impact with him not on the roster.
You know, leading the league in assists.
Perfect transition. Tyrese Halliburton has to be on it. In fact, the second guard spot for me in the starting lineup, and I have a ballot for the starters, came down to Halliburton and Jalen Brown. That's how good Halliburton has been despite his recent injury. The Pacers are 0-6 without Halliburton. They play, I believe, two of the next three nights. They have a bunch of games coming up. And that was my next question for you. They're now down to 23-25. They are 9th in the East.
A game tied now with the Bulls, actually, at the ninth and tenth spots. The Raptors are not climbing. The Raptors are clinging to life, but they're clinging to life just two games behind the Pacers, and they have a decision to make. The Wizards, you know...
Who are tied with the Raptors are coming for 10th, baby. Coming for 10th. You know, the Wizards are accumulating some good play-in experience. They're going to become like the play-in... Well, Charlotte had accumulated that, right? It wasn't pretty. Charlotte is...
Charlotte is not fun to watch. I'll tell you, you know who he was fun to watch? Mark Williams. Yeah. They finally put that dude in the rotation. He's good, man. And it's, it's so funny. Cause I wrote that article in Wendy's column back in December. I basically just bludgeoned them about their draft history. And then all of a sudden, like, you know how it works. It's like the curse. Like the next day, Mark Williams played and he had like 17 and seven. I was like,
Whoa, where did you come from? Thank God. I watched him play the Rockets the other day. Again, that is Hornets Rockets is a sign that I have a lot of problems. And the Rockets announcers were like, oh my God, Mark Williams has blocked every single shot since he's been on the court. He never stops dunking. He had like six dunks in the game. I like Mark Williams. I don't know on Charlotte. We're not talking about Charlotte, except to say now that we're here on Charlotte, I
I think the intel I'm hearing, I'm wondering what you're hearing, is, you know, Rozier, Hayward, Oubre. Oubre's hurt now. Hayward, to me, I love Gordon Hayward. He's a great player. To me, as a trade candidate, as a buyer, I just have to write him off as a zero. I can't trust him. He just doesn't play enough. I can't trust him. He doesn't play enough. I can't trust him. And Rozier's not had a great year. The guy that I keep mentioning as someone I would try to get is P.J. Washington. The intel I keep hearing now...
is I think that's quieted down and they seem pretty determined to keep him in restricted free agency. Have you heard the same? I have. I think the Bridges stuff also complicates a lot of things, right? Like what direction, you know, that, cause that went from, you know, things were maybe in
both sides were negotiating and then they came out like they were pretty adamant. Like nothing is going on with, um, miles bridges. The Hornets were, I think they even sent out like a press release or a statement, um, regarding that to the, to the observer. Um, so I think it's hard for them, um, you know, to,
to move off PJ, not knowing what's going to happen with Bridges. I think PJ is interesting just because, you know, his number from what I understand what was offered was like in that four years, 52, 53 area. Same with Hachimura and they're not dissimilar players. I think PJ Washington is better, but similar number. And we'll see if that's a little bit North. So I would say, yeah, I mean, that was Mike, you know, he was in my fake trade, like to, to golden state. Right. Like I remember that, but,
So I would say probably less. The other guys you mentioned, I think they're all up. Mason Plumlee is having a really good year. It's funny you mention that because it's – please, to the whole Plumlee family, I apologize for what I'm about to say. To all the Plumlees, Mason, Marshall, Miles, Mr. and Mrs. Plumlee. I don't know if there is a sisters – Plumlee sisters. I hate watching Mason Plumlee play. I just – I hate it.
I hate it. He's stiff. He's awkward. He's shooting jumpers lefty now, not just free throws. He shot a pick and pop lefty jump the other day. I don't know why I'm even talking about this. I think I need to see a therapist for how much I hate watching Mason Plumlee play. And yet Bobby, it's every game, 16, 12 and five. Like he's, I, I, I, I have to just say, I understand someone's got to put up numbers in Charlotte. Someone's got to get these numbers, but,
He's been good this year. I don't know that I would like trade for him and be like, you're my, you're, I'm going to play you 20 minutes as a backup center. But I, I need to get over my Mason Plumlee blind spot. Cause he's been, I can't, I can't talk about this anymore. Pacers 23 and 25. The question that really matters is how it burns out a little bit longer. Let's say this swoon continues. We've all kind of buried the Turner healed for Russ and two first round picks deal.
And pivoted to, is Turner going to sign an extension with Indiana? I don't think that that deal doesn't seem to be alive to me still right now, despite this Pacers swoon. But I wonder, have you heard anything about if this feel-good season ends now, if they keep falling and all of a sudden they look up and they're like, well, we're seventh in the lottery standings, does this change their approach at all? I think...
The realist there was that this probably wasn't sustainable as far as being in the top six. Eventually, we're going to come back to earth a little bit here. Although, as you mentioned, you have to make a decision with Turner, renegotiation. I wouldn't be...
you know, I'm interested to see if, if something gets done before the deadline or after, you know, we've, we've talked about $27 million in cap space. I don't think he's going to get, you know, the full amount, which is you can boost it up to like 36, 37 million. So it's another 18 there. I don't see the Lakers coming back with a, you know, Russ and two ones for those two guys right now. I'd be surprised. Yeah.
you know, about that. Especially the way Thomas Bryan is playing and Anthony Davis needs to play center. Like that's been the obstacle all along to that, to that deal. Yeah. I mean, and that, and then that's your kind of, you know, you, you sacrifice those two and those are your two free agents. Basically, you know, if you re-sign Turner and you have healed for another year here, but you look at, but you look at their roster besides those two players, like,
I like TJ McConnell. He's having a good year and he's on a good contract, right? So there's not a pressing need to move off, but I think they're more of, um, less upgrading their roster, which I thought we could have seen maybe with that Boston and, um,
that Cleveland pick, right? They've got Boston Cleveland pick, or are they buyers with those two picks? Right. Do we put those in play and see what you can get? But I think you're looking at more of like salary dumps, right? I think you're looking at, I mean, they've got 15 players, but you didn't, you'd have to, I think they're more of like, I had put in there, like, you know, if Phoenix was looking to get off money, right. If you know, Sarich for an example, right.
you know, saves them $30 million in tax. Like that's the type of deals I was looking at more from, from Indiana's perspective than some of these bigger names. Phoenix has got to do something. They're 24 and 24. They've now won three in a row after a devastating stretch where they just didn't have, they didn't have bodies. Chris Paul is back. Booker will be back at some point, hopefully soon. Cam Johnson's back.
They still don't have campaign. Aiton's missed a couple of recent games. They're going to get healthy. It would be hard for them to pivot down the standings given that what I've heard about this new incoming owner is that he does not want to do that. He wants to win. And obviously Chris Paul is 37 years old or 36, whatever he is, and it needs to win. And if you have Chris Paul on your team being productive, and he's been pretty productive after a slow start, you need to win.
And you mentioned all these, the Shamit Sarich contracts, they have a lot of movable contracts and they just have this Crowder situation that, you know, every week there's like, oh, there was almost this seven team deal where Crowder went. It's always Milwaukee. And I was, I think I was the first one to say at the beginning of the season, keep an eye on Milwaukee for Crowder. I think he fits there. I think they want him as the sort of PJ Tucker 2.0. I still think if you ask me what team is Jay Crowder on in April,
Maybe it's the Globetrotters. I don't know. I would guess the Suns. I would guess the Bucs. I would guess the Bucs because I just think the interest is there. The Suns have to make a deal at some point.
They have all their picks. They have all the swap rights. You know, they were KD's team back when KD had a list. That list is gone for now. They got to do something, right? Is there any Suns buzz out there? No, I mean, it's really, it's really crowder. I mean, and it's like eventually time is going to run out, right? I mean, we're two weeks, almost two weeks away here. And, you know, you're not going to get a first warm for a guy who hasn't played since last, since the Dallas series year. Yeah.
I think if you're Phoenix, I would be concerned. I mean, if I was Milwaukee, I would be concerned giving up Pat Connaughton and George Hill. But this Pat Connaughton thing –
Someone pitched this to me last week, an executive from another team. Hey, I heard this Bucks are going to trade Pat Connaughton for Jay Crowder. Is Pat Connaughton just better than Jay Crowder? Why am I doing that? I understand Jay Crowder is bigger, more switchable on defense. Pat Connaughton is good. Why am I doing that? He's on a good contract. He's on a good extension. His extension doesn't even kick in yet. You get him for a few more years. That's, for me, like...
If I'm Milwaukee, like what, how am I getting there? Right. Like how, I mean, it's, it's, it's probably George Hill and something else, but is it, I mean, I don't know if I want to give up Grayson Allen. Right. Like, well, that's why, that's why all these three team trades. Yeah. Someone told me that it has some interest in Crowder, that the sun seemed to want two of the following three things, a good young player, a first round pick,
And a rotation, almost a starter Crowder level player, two of those three. And it's like, that's cool. Like that's why Jay Crowder hasn't been traded yet because he hasn't, we're 50 games into the season. He hasn't played and he's in the last year of his contract. Like throw the, the heat have also been an obvious Crowder team. They've had Jay Crowder. They like Jay Crowder. He yells at Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler yells at him. It all works. Everybody yells at each other. Hashtag heat culture. Um,
Should they trade Caleb Martin for Jay Crowder? Caleb Martin's been pretty good. He's younger than Jay Crowder. He's got a good contract. I think Jay Crowder, to the average NBA fan, Jay Crowder's a better player, a bigger name, and maybe he is a better player, certainly more rugged and playoff proven. Is that worth my while, though? The Heat are going to try to do something for sure.
I don't know if that ends up being it, but like, that's not a no brainer to me. I might not even do that far in Miami. Well, I think what's hurt too is that he, he hasn't played right. I think if he would have been like, you know, when PJ Tucker was traded from Houston to Milwaukee, he was on the court, right. He played right. Like, so I think there would be more interest if he, if he was out there, uh,
competing and see where it got, you know, like maybe it becomes, maybe the two out of those three things on that Phoenix wishlist gets checked off here. But I just think, you know, his shooting numbers started to take a little bit of a dive. What's what type of role is he willing to accept? Is he willing to come off your bench for you? You know, like that's for me, that's where I'm like, you know, Hey, I'll give you, you know, an expiring and maybe a guy that's got another year in a second, you
Like that, that's, you know, that's probably more of the, the, the price tag. Did you have a, either bam out of bio or Jimmy Butler on your 12 man Eastern conference all-star team? I had bam on my 12 man. I didn't have, I didn't have Butler. He's on my, my reserve, my alternate list there. I think bam has to be a lock. I think he's just been too good. I understand Randall scores more points.
Brunson is a little bit better of a playmaker. Bam's just better than those guys. He's just better. Well, he helped. I mean, when that thing was sink, you know, with injuries and guys, they basically had like nine guys playing. Like he, I mean, he basically kind of held that together for them. What I had a hard time with picking my East reserves are. So in the West, you have four players who have played three of them have played well, well,
south of a thousand minutes, which is like nothing. Like you've barely participated in, not barely, but like that's just not a lot of minutes. If you haven't played a thousand minutes and you're, and they're still out, which means they're just going to end up missing more than half their team's games by the time the all-star game comes around. And then there's another Devin Booker who's played just over a thousand minutes. It's Devin Booker, Zion Williamson, Jaron Jackson Jr. And Anthony Davis. Yep. And there's no,
It's there's really no logic to putting one on and not putting all of them on your 12 man roster. Like if you put Zion on Lakers fans have a real argument. Like I don't understand like a hundred minutes. AD's played a hundred fewer minutes and like that disqualifies him. Phoenix fans. Wait, you put Zion on?
Yeah, the Pelicans are good. They're five games over 500 now. They're not like great. And I realized they were much better with Zion, but we were much better with Devin Booker. He's not on. So it's hard to make a logical argument to include one, but not all three, all four, maybe three. In the East, you have two guys who have played like five more games than that.
And like 200 more minutes than that. So that's a significant, like somewhere in there is my line of demarcation. Like they've played like 35 games in 1100 to 1200 minutes. Like Jaron Jackson Jr. has played like 750 minutes. AD is at 830. Those two guys are James Harden and Jimmy Butler. And what makes them complicated is if you look at the numbers, and particularly if you look at all the advanced metrics, all of them,
They leap out as like they have to be on your all-star team. Like their advanced numbers are so much better than everyone else's in this sample other than Halliburton and Giannis, who is someone in that front court of Embiid, Tatum, Durant. Giannis is going to have to come off the bench. Did you have Harden on? No.
Here's my issue. And he's played well. I mean, they're on a great run right now. Harden has been under the radar. I just have like, I mean, maybe I'm just biased. I just have this sour taste in my mouth from that Oklahoma City game, that home game where they lost in his defense. Zach might have been the worst I've ever seen anybody play.
Like I, I, I, and I just can't get it out of my mind how bad he was defensively here. And I know we have to look at the whole body of work here, but, um, I mean, I think if I, if I'm putting, if I'm looking at the East guards, I drew holiday on there. He's, he's, he's either going to make it or be a very tough cut. Yeah. Um,
I mean, certainly the Kyrie situation, he'll probably make it as a starter, right? Yeah, I do it. I start from scratch. Kyrie's been incredible, and they've won these last two games without Durant, and he's been incredible in both of them. I just, you know, maybe I'm getting old, but if your own team decides that you need to go away for a little while, I think you sit out my all-star team that year. If your own team is like, we don't want you around for a prolonged period of time, I
And it's nice that they've righted the ship. I just think you sit all star. You sit out Utah this year. I'm my fake ballot. That doesn't really matter. It's not funny. I'm not joking. His own team was like, dude, you just got to go away. Let me ask you a question here.
You got Damian Lillard on your all-star ballot. And I know that sounds like a loaded, that sounds like, what do you, why would he ask that? But do you have Damian Lillard on there? I do. I don't think it's a no brainer, but I do think he needs to be on it. Let's talk about Portland. Yeah. Let's use that as a transition to talk about Portland. They are down to 22 and 25. They finally won last night against the Spurs who stink. That ended some amount of games losing streak that included that Lakers comeback.
They are in the middle of a stretch where they play a whole bunch of home games. And going into that stretch, I think they felt very, very good about themselves. They were 500 or maybe one game under. They had a bunch of road games already in the bag. And here came this stretch. And it started with like Orlando, you know, Cleveland. I think Cleveland was missing somebody for that game. That was a winnable game. Lakers at home, winnable game. And it hasn't gone well.
And then you and I talked yesterday about the Damian Lillard postgame media availability after the Lakers game when he was asked about the trade deadline and whether he wanted to see something, action of some kind. And he kind of, I think, I couldn't quite understand why the question made him so angry. I think he felt like he was being baited maybe into saying something that was either going to make
That was just going to be maybe not reflectable on his current teammates or something. And he just didn't like the question. And it got the whole league sort of on notice about like, wait a second, is this...
is this something going wrong here? We both kicked around, you know, checked in around the Blazers and stuff yesterday. What'd you hear? Nothing. I don't, I think it's more of a player that's, you know, I think the Laker game and I, the Laker game left a really sour taste in his mouth. And he even commented after they beat it, beat San Antonio by 20, like how hard it was to come to the gym and,
with what base he like, he's like, I still have that mind that, that second half on my mind. I think he's just, I think he's looking at it. Like, you know, I just want to play basketball. Stop asking me these questions. And it's, it's really hard. What they've been trying to do there is that you, you, you basically kind of like retool on the fly. I mean, I've been writing about it. It's like extremely hard as far as, um,
what they're trying to accomplish. But I don't see, I don't see anything from, from Lillard's standpoint. I mean, I think it's just hard with how the roster is, is that,
You're $67,000 below the luxury tax. You have basically no first-round picks to trade because you owe Chicago a top 14 protected for basically the next six years. So it basically has to be two years after that. That's a weird pick. And that's the Larry Nance. That was the Larry Nance trade with Chicago and Cleveland and all that stuff.
Their bench, it's been well documented. Bench has been bad, right? Bench has not been good. It's been unhealthy. It's been injured. And now it's less so. Yeah, you had Nasir Little out for a while. Justice Winslow has been out. Nurkic has not been good. Nurkic has not been good. Then you've got four years of him. I mean, that's a problem.
you know, at a bit at a six, 15, $16 million number here. And then you've got the Jeremy Grant situation where, as we've talked about, you know, that extension is still sitting there. 113 million for four years could be a free agent this off season. And if you sign him either to that or another number, like you're locked in man, like between Lillard, Simon's grant, you know, you're committing close to probably over 80, $90 million in those, you know, those three players.
They've become the team that I kind of thought they were before the season when I referred to them as meh, just vanilla and meh. And something is just not working. Offensively, it just doesn't feel like they know quite what their identity is on offense. Like they don't want to be the Damian Lillard 70 pick and roll the game show that they used to be.
All the pet kind of motion flex sets that Terry Stotts ran are not there anymore, but they run Damian off screens a lot, off the ball. It just doesn't quite seem like they know exactly what they want to do on offense. Their offense is fine. And when Dame's on the court, they're winning those minutes by a lot. And then defensively, it just feels like, you know, Chauncey Billups has talked about how small they are across the board. And it's like, well, yeah, that's the team that
you guys built. And they were, they were small last year before they, when they had, that was the big complaint when they had Lillard Simons and Norman Powell, you know, the three guards, they were, it's like a under six, three lineup as far as, you know, with that. And I just, I just feel like we're living the same movie again, where the Lillard Simons backcourt is just never going to be able to defend. They're just never going to be able to have a good defense with those two guys at the top of it.
And I just don't know what to do. Like you mentioned Nurkic. Nurkic has been wildly up and down this year. Had a huge game last night against the Spurs. Nurkic is whatever. He's fine. He's just an okay starting center. When people ask, you know, how could the Blazers pivot if they decide to go into sell mode? I have not heard anything about Dame being anything. Like Dame's going to be on the Blazers as far as I know.
Could they trade Nurkic? I'm like, well, is anyone like, does anyone want, I mean, Yusuf Nurkic is fine. He has three years and $55 million left on his contract. And he's like a, like a old school starting center. Does anybody want, is anyone backing up the Brinks truck for that? Then, then it's like Josh Hart is a name that is very, very hot right now. A lot of teams would like Josh Hart. We mentioned Crowder from Miami. I think Miami would, would, will probably express some interest in Josh Hart.
He's a heat guy, heat kind of guy. And he has that weirdo contract where he's essentially probably going to be a free agent after this year. It's weird. It's got a player option. And if he picks it up and comes back, then the contract becomes non-guaranteed. So I think he's going to probably become a free agent. Well, Josh Hart is good despite his recent aversion to shooting threes, which seems to be abating. He's been shooting threes. Someone clearly spoke to him in the last week like, dude, you got to shoot. He's good.
And here's the world we live in, Bobby, and it's very different from the world you lived in when you worked in the league.
Nobody cares about expiring contracts anymore. Expiring contracts used to be this golden chip of we can get picks and players. Nobody needs expiring contracts anymore. No one's cap sheet is clogged for the next four years. No one has a really good player on a long-term deal they need to get rid of. They don't have the same currency anymore. So Josh Hart on an expiring contract, what's the point of that for me if I'm the player? It's not like it's going to make my team appreciably worse. I'm not going to tank because I traded Josh Hart.
I don't see what the point is. Yeah, I mean, you're right. They don't have the currency like they did when we signed Chris Humphries to a one-year, $12 million deal on an expiring because we thought it had value, right? I mean, that's not the mindset anymore that teams have. And he's really kind of, if you break it down, I mean, like Jeremy Grant,
you know, basically to whoever, you know, if they ever put him on the market, he's not going to be able to sign an extension. And then you're basically going to have to over, you're going to have to overpay him. I mean, that's usually the Cardinal rule, right? When you give up so much for a player that you have to overpay to retain him here. And what does that do for Portland? Like that's, that's it. So there's really no easy answer as far as what they can, you know, what they can do, unless it becomes a point where you look at Simon's,
Right? Like, does that break you up into two guys? Right? Well, that's what I was going to say. They're only... If they want to retool, if they just conclude this roster is not good enough, we need to retool around Damian Lode. Like, Damian Lode's our guy. He's 10 toes in. We're never trading him. He's going to be a blazer for life. Their only avenues to do that are Grant and Simons. That's it. And...
And Simon's thing is dangerous because he's so young. He's the bridge to your post-Damian Lillard future. And Damian Lillard is in his early to mid-30s now or whatever he is. I mean, I'll look it up later. But he's not young anymore, obviously. Trading Simons really kind of leaves you a little bit naked in the future. And Grant, okay, so say you trade Grant. Like, you better nail that trade. You better get two good rotation players that really fit and a pick and something. And that's not easy.
you know, with a guy that this summer is going to get paid a whole lot of money, probably by you. And if we're talking signing trades or trades next year, trading them now on an expiring deal, that's tricky. I don't know what the avenue here going forward is, but I thought this was a 500 team coming into the season. It looks like a 500 team. It's an interesting 500 team. They've just started to reintegrate Gary Payton. The second, as you mentioned, is Cyr Little just came back. It's interesting team.
And there's going to be a lot of noise around Josh Hart. And if they really kind of spiral the next two weeks, I think that may change their mindset a little bit. But I just don't know what they could do. Well, yeah. I mean, that's your guy because then what you probably do is that you probably – I mean, we've seen a little more of Shane Sharp, right? Kind of from a minutes standpoint. Now, does he – you basically go with him, Nasir Little –
you know, eventually we'll see Winslow back, but you're right. I mean like the pain thing is like, and that's, that's the challenge when you have, when you're limited to what you can pay players and you have, you know, I'd love to go back and do a study on how many teams, the mid-level or the tax mid-level exception have it's fair. It hasn't worked out and Peyton's been injured. So it's hard to say, but like you, you go back in history here. And if you miss out on that, basically one of your own little, you know, tools, uh,
to sign guys, that certainly hurts you. Let's go back and talk about Toronto for a second, because our old colleague Chris Haynes is reporting that Fred VanVleet, something that I had heard last week and hadn't been able to nail down, has changed the agents, which is always interesting when it's timed to someone's free agency. And
It doesn't say who his new agent is going to be. I think I know who his new agent is going to be, but I haven't confirmed it yet. But either way...
The Toronto thing, Toronto's 21-27. They're just not good. They don't show signs of being good. Even when they win, you don't come out thinking, oh. You know what's funny too, though, Zach? When I look at their lineup, I like their lineup. I like their start. Just look at it. I like it. You're talking to the idiot who's told people to take the over on 44.5 wins or whatever it was. But then there's just something...
Yeah, there's I've seen it. We've seen enough, right? There's enough body of work, I think, right after 48 games to kind of, you know, look at this group here for because for the most part, I know Siakam was out, you know, for a little bit, but for the most part, it's been, you know, somewhat healthy. Fred's been in and out a little bit, but they're, you know, you know, there's a 35 game sample probably with this group.
Siakam make your all-star team? Yes. Just give me your 12 Eastern Conference all-stars. All right. I have Mitchell, Brown, Tatum, Durant, and Bede. That's my same starting lineup. Holiday, Halliburton, Giannis, Bam, Siakam, and Bede.
I have Kyrie. I should have probably gone by your philosophy. No. He's been on the court. He's been amazing. Kyrie and DeRozan. Fair enough. So Siakam was on it. Yeah. So the Toronto thing, I don't know what direction they want to go, but I don't think they can look at their team and say the big run is coming. This is a sleeping giant. It doesn't appear that way.
So there are two different versions of the Toronto thing. There's the traditional sort of like ho-hum, like Fred VanVleet may not come back here. Let's see what we can get for him instead of losing him for nothing. Gary Trent may not come back here. Let's see what we can get.
instead of losing it for nothing. And he's been, I think the hottest, or at least seems to be the most likely Raptor to be moved. Although I think he's playing very well for them. And I think the, you know, there have been murmurings over the years that he's not thrilled there. I have heard the opposite. I've heard he's okay there, but, and then there's the big one, which is moving Ananobi or Siaka. Those are two completely different things.
The first one, the Van Vliet-Trent one, is sort of standard team-building stuff. The second one is we no longer believe in the Ananobi-Barnes-Siakam construction. We're going to sell as high as possible, likely on Ananobi, in which case a lot of teams will register interest and Toronto will get some good stuff back for OG Ananobi. Those are two different things. My favorite Van Vliet deal that I mentioned before the season was Kyle Lowry back to Toronto-Trent.
along with a Heat pick, first-round pick for Van Vliet. I still like that trade. I don't think the Heat would do it because I think if we're trading a pick, we're doing it in the Heat mega deal for the next big guy that comes to the Heat. I like that trade. I mean, Fred can go...
Fred can go lots of different places. I mentioned the Clippers for him. You know, the Wolves have a point guard situation that I think is kind of quieted down with D'Angelo Russell. D'Angelo Russell's like kind of had a good year for them. Yeah. Shooting the ball really well. I have not heard a lot of D'Lo stuff anymore. I don't know where the Fred VanVleet journey ends this season. Maybe it just ends in Toronto. I like that Miami trade, but I don't sense a lot of traction on my fake trade.
No, I mean, I had, I had in my fake trade, I had him with to the Clippers, you know, just for a package of, um, you know, they have, I don't know if I would, if I were the Clippers, I would consider moving Terrence man, you know, like it's too much for me. So like basically like take, you know, take Batum and not Batum, uh, Covington and whatever you get to the number and we'll throw in a first round pick and kind of go from there. Um,
I think that my concern with, you know, certainly with Fred, four for 114, which is his number right now, it's a pretty good number. That's what he's eligible for. That's what he's eligible for right now. I mean, he's right that he's outplayed his contract. I think he's 19th among all point guards in salary.
19? Man, he's played a ton of minutes. Man, he's second behind Harden in the last four years in minutes played. I mean, there's a lot of wear and tear here, and he's played pretty good the last few games. I think for me, I would –
I would look probably more at OG. I mean, his last five games have not been good. I mean, I think he's 37% and 37 from the field, 33%, 11 points here. It's going to be interesting because I think we're going to get some clarifications, Zach, as far as from a CBA standpoint. And then hopefully by this time, the –
by the trade deadline comes into play. And I think one of the, and I wrote about it today in, in, in Wendy's column, one of the things that we might be heading towards is some of these extension rules being tweaked where like OG as is basically, we're going to, we're going to hear about his name forever, right? Because he's not going to sign an extension because he's limited for 120%.
But if they change the rules where basically it's the percentage of the cap. Okay. So it's for him like 30%, then that might, that might change things a little bit here. But I think for him, um,
As you've mentioned before, like he's got the most value and you've said it like, you know, what are we looking for? We're looking for a Murray type package from that San Antonio guy, you know, two ones, a pick swap, but maybe a first from another team here. And I think if teams have an understanding that these rules are going to change or potentially change, I think that maybe even give us Toronto even a little bit more leverage here.
Yeah, I think I said on a prior podcast in a fit of exuberance that I think the return could approach Donovan and Mitchell levels of return. What I really meant to say and what I should have said was in draft equity only. There's no marketing coming back in that trade. There's no on-court talent. I just meant draft equity, and I think even that is overstating. I think the Murray one is a better comp because I think –
Toronto will surely ask for two first-round picks, and if multiple teams meet that price, well, then that just sort of leads you to, like, you're going to get something else above that. You know, the other thing I want to say is, again, every, not every team, but lots of teams have registered interest in OG and Inouye, right? Like, he's just the player type that every team wants, a big wing who can shoot threes, although he's not shooting well this season. And he was, for a while, the Defense Player of the Year kind of hot name. He's very good defensively.
The team that has been – other – Chris Vernon has been on this for a while is Memphis. And I've been all over Memphis to make a trade, all over them. I mentioned Kuzma. Maybe he's off the table now. Bogdanovich would be just absolutely perfect for them. Detroit Bogdanovich, I don't think they can get up to the money. I keep hearing that they don't want to trade Danny Green, that they love Danny Green's locker room presence. They think he might play for them the rest of the season whenever he comes back. And that's a $10 million chip that is otherwise off the table then.
And one thing I said once was one of the reasons I wanted them to go for a just a smaller upgrade like that. Like what you don't have to save your chips for like all NBA level player in three years. You're not promised three years from now. Three years from now is promised to nobody in the NBA. You're good enough now to make a run at it. Just upgrade those Roddy Aldama conchar minutes to like a guy who's really proven himself.
And I really want them to do that. And one of the arguments I made was, well, you're saving your money for this like theoretical superstar X. How are you going to pay that guy, Jaron Jackson Jr., Desmond Bain, and John Morant? And a couple of executives around the league heard that and said, hey, look at their cap sheet. Take a closer look. A lot of this is dependent on what Bain gets. Morant's going to likely get the supermax. So his deal is going to go up by X percent compared to what it's projected to be.
Bain is going to be a critical negotiation for them, and they have a history of bringing their guys back on good deals. If they get Bain on something closer to 25, then what's Bain's max going to be? 32 or something? It's the same, the hero style thing. Yeah, 33, somewhere around there. If they get him back at like 25, just say, hey, we're going to offer you security, like blah, blah, blah. Not the max, but really good.
That Jaron Jackson Jr. deal looms as a very critical contract for them. It declines from 29 this year to 27, 25, and 23 in 25-26. Depending on what happens to the tax, there is a world in which they can actually have Bane, Morant, Jackson, and a really good player X.
and stay under ish or near the like, and their owner is making a gazillion, a billion dollars every single day. Like it's, it actually may not be untenable for them to have four star level players, especially if the fourth guy is an Anunobi level player. Who's like a top, whatever, 40, 50 player, but not a top 12 player and makes the requisite amount of. So like, that's, that's not out of bounds. The math in, in math terms, like,
And it wouldn't surprise me if Toronto ever gets to the point of really trying to see what they can get for Ananobi if Memphis actually does kick the tires. That's the one name they've been very hesitant to trade any of their guys, any of their picks. That's the one name. Verno nailed this from the beginning. I could see them looking at it.
I mean, they've got everything to offer. I mean, besides, as you mentioned, their own ones and they've got a golden state pick and they've got contracts to do it. And as you said, their cap sheet is clean. They're never a team that goes out as a team with room, right? They're really never kind of a team that just hovers around it. And eventually like,
You've got all these young players on these minimum contract. I mean, on his first round contract, there's a reason why they basically have stockpiled it, right? Like eventually they'll become an expiration date on these players. And then the next wave of players here and, and,
It would be fascinating just because it's what they did with Melton. Like as soon as we resigned Melton for a good number, flip them for a pick. Yeah. I mean, contra too. Right. I mean like guys like that, Brandon Clark, you know, the brand Clark's number is a good number, right? 12 and a half. But we've talked about it. Like it's just, it would kind of go out of character a little bit because they love to draft. Right. We know we'd love to draft, but,
I just think we get to a point where we always can't think just because we have Ja and Jaren and Desmond Bain, our window is going to be open forever. I think what we saw in the end of the Laker game, the start of Phoenix, and then I know Ja didn't play in Sacramento when they got their doors blown off. I think that has to be a little bit of a wake-up call here.
I like that we got through this whole podcast without mentioning the Shannon Sharp brouhaha. Well, the only thing I mentioned about it was when our own Dave McManaman got him back in the interview, I literally had to click on Dave's profile to make sure this was not a hacked account. You know, I'm not going to say anything else. The Clippers, just to wrap up your...
The Clippers are definitely going to do something. You mentioned the Clippers and Van Vliet. I don't know what the Clippers. The Dallas game the other night, or was it Sunday? Like, that's the team I've been waiting for, man. Right? But it's every third game. Yeah. Like, the last time they played Dallas, I thought, was maybe the best they had looked all season other than the Celtics win, maybe. And then, you know, three more games happened. Kawhi doesn't play two of them. PG doesn't play the other one. They crap the bed in the middle. It's like, what is this team?
I agree with you. That's the team. And they played Covington and Zubats together, which is something they've been hesitant to do. I think that's interesting. I'm not as enamored with that as some of the Clippers' bloggerati. But I do think they're going to do something. The problem, as you mentioned, is any team with a player worth their while, a player who's really going to change their life, a Van Vliet type player,
is going to say Terrence Mann in a first-round pick. That's where it starts. And they don't want to trade Terrence Mann, and they shouldn't want to trade Terrence Mann. So I think it's going to be like, look, we all know they have a million wings. They're thin at the one, and they're thin at the five. I think it's more likely to just be like a small move somewhere at those positions. And that's the end of my Clippers thoughts. I do think they're pretty likely to do something. Is there any team you wanted to hit that we didn't hit? And then I'm going to ask you for your Western Conference 12-team pick.
All-star roster. I think we hit on everything here. I mean, we... Yeah, I mean, I think... Oklahoma City is fascinating. Just because they're in a position where I think they're one year away from making a big...
Let's see if we can get into playing. Let's see how we play competitive games down the stretch here. And then they're an interesting team a year from now to talk about, right? From a trade standpoint here, just because they have... I love how basically they roll with Shea, Dort, Santa Clara, Williams, and...
And Giddy. And then basically every game is a rotation at center, right? You got Kenrick Williams, you got Arkansas, Jalen Williams, and you've got Mike Muscala, right? And it's like a rotation here. And I think they're kind of a year away from like, let's talk about, all right, do we get to a point where we start consolidating some of these draft picks in here? But they are, I mean, they come after you, man. Like they compete every night.
Yeah, they're kind of playing with house money. You know, the team I wanted to ask you about is the Kings. Yeah. Because Simmons, Bill Simmons has been on this a lot, that the Kings should make a win-now move. They should really go all in on the season. And, you know, I look at their team, and there's always, everyone is always fake trading Harrison Barnes everywhere. Harrison Barnes is always in like 16 a game and shooting 40% from three and a career high on twos, I think. And the sweetener...
I mean, Keegan Murray's not a sweetener. Keegan Murray's good. Keegan Murray's shooting 42% on threes. He's just a good basketball player. I kind of think the Kings, and I think the argument for making a win-now move is the Kings are third. Oh my God, what a story. Are they going to be underdogs in the first round if they're third? They might be. They might be. Certainly, perception of it will be that they're underdogs. They need to do something. I kind of think the smartest thing for the Kings to do, unless something amazing falls into their lap, is just like, chill. Chill.
Enjoy what's happening. Do not do anything short-sighted that is going to sacrifice any of your future picks. You already traded one for Herter, great deal. Just let the good vibes flow. Maybe you trade a Holmes trade.
uh for rashaun holmes for a couple seconds or whatever you can get just to declutter the backup center thing i just kind of have you heard any king's buzz i the only thing i would be i wouldn't be surprised if they take that trade they have a four million dollar trade exception and use that you know in a deal here they've got an open roster spot here and take back something maybe kind of just like a fringe type move here and even like you know i wrote about um
A little bit about Terrence Davis here. He's on an expiry. And they like him. They like him as far as... His minutes are kind of up and down. I'm not sure he's loving his playing time there. He's the name I would look at as an outgoing trade piece. Yeah. So you basically have...
Three trade pieces here. If you don't want to touch your guys, you know, you got Alex Lennon on an expiring contract. You mentioned Holmes and you've got Terrence Davis, right? Like that's, and then you've got this trade exception. That's kind of where you are. Yeah. Dude, I would, something fringy. Fine. I just like, don't get too crazy. Kings. Don't get too crazy. All right. Wrap up. Give me your Western conference. 12 man, all-star team starters and bench. All right. So I have, um, Luca, John, Luca and John's the starting guards. Yup. Um,
LeBron, Zion. As a starter? Yeah. Whoa. 836 minutes, Bobby. I know. No, that's AD. 950 minutes. Fine. Sure. Jokic. And Jokic. Yeah. We actually have two starters that are different, which I think is rare for All-Star. Curry. Nope. I have SGA as my second starting guard. Okay. Booker. Booker off the bench. Markkinen. Got to be there.
Sabonis. He's a starter for me. Aaron Gordon. SGA and Lillard. So no Fox. I mean, that's why I asked you before about Lillard. It's so hard. I mean, who comes off, right? And again, this is all just...
There's no point to any of this. This has no actual impact. My starters are Luka, SGA, LeBron, Sabonis, and Jokic. And I talked with Bill last week about how Markin and LeBron was kind of a debate for the last starting frontcourt spot. I think LeBron has settled that debate. It's LeBron James. He starts. My reserve guards are John, Steph Curry. That's easy.
my first reserve forward is Markanen, frontcourt player rather. And after that, it gets a little messy because I don't know what to do with Zion minutes-wise. Like, why Zion and no AD? Defend that, Bobby Marks. Yeah. No, that's fair. That's fair. Hashtag Lake Show. And then you run into, like, if you don't want Zion or AD because of minutes, you're running out of frontcourt players in the West. It's weird. You don't have a lot of good frontcourt players. So you may be stuck with Aaron Gordon and then it's like Paul George.
Okay. Paul George is having a good year. Like I wouldn't have any problem with Paul George making the all-star team. It doesn't feel like he's having a good year, but he is the guy who really, because they are so strict with positions of guard and front court is getting squeezed as Anthony Edwards. If I could find a way to slide Anthony Edwards to front court, I think I, I, he would have a really strong case. He's been sensational for the last six weeks. It's hard to put him over Dame as a guard. Cause that's what he's listed as. And it's hard to put him over Fox as a guard.
And I wouldn't mind the Kings getting to. So I'm still debating what to do with the Zions and ADs of the world. Do you have Booker off your – you don't have Booker?
it's, it's tough, man. I know he's not played a lot, just like these other guys. And he's still out and he's going to continue to be out. And yeah, you know, at some point you got to draw a threshold of minutes somewhere. I mean, Devin Booker, I had him on my MVP ballot last year. Like no one needs to come at me about how good Devin Booker is. The guy's amazing. I was a Devin Booker fan in like 2017. I wrote a piece about how good Devin Booker was going to be. Um,
Anyway, Bobby Marks, it's going to be a busy couple weeks. Am I going to see you in Los Angeles for trade that week? No, Bristol. Bristol. I'll save you a couple cookies from the cafe. Save me the Hilton Doubletree cookies, baby. That's right. All right, Bobby Marks. What do we got? We have two trade guides out.
That came out late last week, I think. We've got both trade guides. You can print those babies out or save some trees and don't print them out, but sit down in front of your laptop for quite a while and read those. Or read them on your phone. And Brian Windhorst's column today that he has on Mike Brown, we have some extension stuff regarding the next CBA. And I would think in the next few weeks, we'll probably hear more about some more CBA stuff.
Bobby Marks, essential, essential. Thank you for your time and I will see you soon, my friend. Thank you.