NBA Weekend Winners & Losers | Lakers Exceptionalism, Mavs Fans, Spurs Steal Fox
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Good morning, sweet world, and welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Monday, February 3rd, 2025. I'm J.D. Skeets here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, is Tass Mellis. Podcast listeners, this is for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Ayo! Ayo! And over yonder, making the magic happen all weekend long, super producer J.D. Hello. There he is. Here we are. Shout out to everybody joining us live. We love it. We love it.

Love it. Hit the like button. Subscribe. Podcast listeners, leave us a five-star rating and review. Before we get into more thoughts on the weekend's blockbuster trades and get into our NBA weekend winners and losers, yeah, we'll actually talk a little bit about real basketball. We got some wedgies. We had two more wedgies over the weekend. Yeah, we had one on Saturday.

It was Nick Richards getting away with the travel here. Big time. But, you know, we'll take it as he sticks the little soft wedgie there in Portland. And then on Sunday, Jacoperto with another little gentle floater-like wedgie there. Sticks it in Toronto. They didn't boo that. So there's two wedgies. 24 and 25, halfway there, Tass, to that magical number of 50.

They are magical. They are snowflakes. A seven-foot push shot. You don't see that all the time. And then a true travel. And then a wedgie. Do you remember a wedgie that happened just after a travel? I don't. I don't. That was... I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know, man. It's pretty blatant. They didn't call him. That was shocking. Weird. So let's get into a little bit more on the Blockbuster deals. Now, if you are just joining us here on Monday and you didn't listen or watch any of our shows from the weekend, we did emergency podcast.

We did this on Sunday morning, because some of us were asleep, on Saturday night when the trade went down. But we reacted to the Luka AD trade, of course, the big, most stunning deal in NBA history. And then Sunday night, we were all awake for this one, when the three-teamer went down, Fox going to the Spurs, Zach Levine going to the Kings, and Trey Kirby's Bulls finally getting a guy named Trey. Wow.

Finally. To his team. So can't wait for him to rock that jersey. But we've talked about these in some detail, so I encourage you, again, to go check them out. The link to the YouTube of those shows is in the show notes. But, you know, you've had some more time to think about this. We had an entire press conference from Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison. He had a lot to say. So maybe we can start there of him saying, I mean, really admitting to a lot of things, one being, I only talk to the Lakers.

Like, I talked to Palenka. We had coffee three weeks ago, and then we talked this out, and that's how Luka ultimately made his way to LA. Yeah, I know, perplexing, but he had a whole lot more to say. What do you want to go here, Tess? Well, after hearing that, I think it's clear it wasn't inevitable that Luka was leaving in a year and a half. It wasn't guaranteed. This happened for a couple reasons. One, for money, I suppose, because they didn't want to pay Luka a max contract. The owners maybe didn't want to pay that, but also...

I mean, a basketball style that Nico Harrison was clear about that he wanted to go get Anthony Davis because they want to get big. They kind of want to emulate what the Cavs are doing, just be extremely huge. And the other team that Sam Amick reported that they inquired about, maybe Nico Harrison didn't talk to, but it sure feels like it was big.

That they had, they, they talked to one of the, they inquired about, yeah. And he said, maybe they didn't have a conversation about it, but Yanis wasn't available because he's going to be a lifer. Well, yeah, the, the, it sure feels extremely weird to say, Hey, we want to get away from this heliocentric thing with Luca running everything. Cause you see what happened with our defense against the Boston Celtics. I mean, a coffee turns into that. That guy just dragged them to the finals. Yeah. He,

And the way that Mavs fans are so hurt, they conducted their own funeral outside the stadium where they are first in attendance. And this is just extremely painful for all of them right here, right now, for a guy that everybody picked. He was the number one pick for MVP this season. He had the best odds. Everybody was picking him. And they trade him because...

They want to get bigger, and they just got so much older. I mean, this isn't younger. They did. For the present and the future, Nico Harrison said, that's the confusing part. How is it for the present and the future? I mean, present, maybe. The future, come on. Well, yeah, Harrison said the trade was to, quote, make our team better.

And he did, though, mention Luka's contractual situation. There was some consideration, like you said, Tass, maybe this idea like, ooh, man, do we want to lock ourselves into a five-year, $345 million contract, supermax, with this guy this summer? But yeah, this guy just loves Anthony Davis, too, is my takeaway. Find somebody that loves you as much as Nico Harrison loves Anthony Davis because...

Hey, really wanted that guy. And yeah. Okay. Maybe. Hey, can we take you honest? No. Bye. Um, all right, let's go get Anthony Davis. And that's why they really only talked with the Lakers. I do like the honest part of it though. At least he asked for Giannis before getting to Anthony Davis. Uh,

I think this is a crazy move to see Luka Doncic. No doubt he got exposed in the finals. It was the NBA finals against an historically great offense. Lots of people looked bad against the Celtics in the playoffs last year. They ran through the Eastern Conference and then ran through the Mavericks in the finals.

Shouldn't the move be Luka get better at defense? They would have been able to trade him on a five-year $345 million max. They probably would have gotten more back for him. I was just wondering if he knew that the camera's on while he was talking. He said he brought it up to Rob Palenka, and Palenka's like, you're joking, right? He said the trade got figured out. They went to the owners, and the owner's like, you're joking, right? And he was serious. And he explained his reasoning.

two reporters with Jason Kidd sitting right there saying Jason Kidd had no idea what was going on. He's saying, I don't care about 10 years from now. We're talking three to four years in the future. I'll be fired in 10 years is what he said. That's crazy. Yeah. That was the extremely strange part that it was up to Nico Harrison. It didn't go through J kid. J kid found it at the end and he was just sitting there.

blank guy. You look like a deer in the headlights. Just, I don't want to listen to this. I mean, he couldn't have backed it. And then Nico Harrison said, yeah, J kid did coach him when they won in the bubble with the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach. But J kid didn't say a word about knowing. And so it was up to one man. It was up to Nico Harrison. And he somehow convinced him.

Patrick Dumont, the owner, to say, yeah, this is how we do it. And maybe the money comes into it as well because they are trying to build an arena and a casino combined if they can get it through Texas legislature. Very strange. That part's very strange. It's just the basketball part. It was up to one man to say, we are getting bigger and getting so much older. Yeah. I mean, simply put, as simple as that, AD is good. And

The Mavs have somehow beat OKC three times without Luka this season. He hasn't played in any of those games. And they somehow have won. And so that's the picture. But...

I mean, how many years does AD have left with Kyrie playing extremely well? Right, right. Robbie Callen of Uproxx, he wrote something that stuck with me. He said he can't stop thinking about how the Mavs put themselves in one of the hardest positions to be in sports. And that is title or bust expectations with a very short runway. And that is spot on because...

You were trying to go through the reasoning when we did that emergency podcast. Like, you were trying to put yourself in his shoes, and you really were getting at, like, yeah, this guy really wants Anthony Davis. He thinks they make him better. In addition to, like, is Luka healthy? Will he ever be healthy? Does he take it this serious? And inevitably, I thought he was inevitably leaving. That was a big part of it. If you know a guy is leaving, why not get something for him now before he inevitably leaves?

instead of being a rental. There's no real reporting on that though. That Luke was like, I'm out of here, right? That was before the press conference. I thought there was something about that. But Harrison adamant that AD boosts their title chances like right here, right now. That's what he's selling or at least trying to sell to the Mavericks fans who are obviously pretty distraught and furious and like,

what the hell like we have a statue with Dirk Nowitzki outside that literally says on it like loyalty never fades away and then you have Luke obviously you know like saying goodbye to the fans and sorry I couldn't bring a championship and all that so it's uh I mean it's an unbelievably tough sell but like it has to work it has to work now or maybe next year because then they're sort of pooched because it's not like they have a lot of draft capital they don't have draft they don't so hell of a hell of a

gamble here. I mean, like an insane gamble that feels like no one else would take except for this guy. No, no one else would do this. That's why it's such a weird trade. It comes down to who do you think they have a better chance of winning a title with?

Maybe they have a better chance with Anthony Davis for literally this season. I don't think that's true. I would take, you know, if you could go, if you could do this on 2K or whatever, the Mavs with Luka versus the Mavs with AD, I'm taking the Luka team. Just because I think they're going to make it tough. Matchups will play a factor. Like the Mavs are going to be humongous, but everybody's playing the wrong way in positions. Like they've got fives in Gafford and Lively who's hurt right now. And people are talking about Lively as a trade piece. Cause I think maybe everybody's like,

What are Gafford and Lively going to look like without Luka throwing them lobs all the time? They don't dribble. You know? They only catch lobs. PJ Washington, he's a four. Now he's playing a three. Klay Thompson, he's a three. Probably should be a four. He's going to be playing the two. Kyrie Irving, he's your only ball handler. If he gets hurt, it's Spencer Dinwiddie. What if Kyrie Irving opts out? What if he goes to L.A.?

He seemed to like playing with Luka Doncic. We know he liked playing with LeBron. He could leave. Yeah, it doesn't seem locked in. And I can see why they want to give up a five because Anthony Davis is going to finish games at the five. I mean, like when Draymond Green won a championship. You start playing beside Dwight, and then Dwight gets off the floor, and then your best lineup is Dray at the five. And Anthony Davis should be playing the five. But they also just don't have enough guards, so they're probably going to do that before Thursday as a ball handler. It's Kyrie. It's Spencer Dinwiddie.

It's Dante Axum who's injured. I mean, they really need a ball handler. That's for sure to get into it. But really, it's just odd because it sure felt like Luka wasn't inevitably leaving. The thing that he put on Instagram after he found out about the trade was his recent phone list. Who called him? It was Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico, Nico, that he didn't pick up.

And then he deleted that from Instagram because he needed to. So that just to me seems like he's pissed. He's extremely pissed. And if he was inevitably going to leave, then...

He wouldn't be that upset, you know? That part just doesn't, it doesn't equal out. And the Luka being pissed part of this equation is exciting to Lakers fans because they want to be like, yeah, get pissed, man. Like, you're already incredible. What happens if he does take maybe his conditioning a little more seriously and just like levels up because of his, I guess, frustration and anger with the Mavericks and how he sort of got dealt? Like, that's a scary thought.

in addition to being paired with LeBron. And they're probably going to try and maybe make some moves. I mean, they do need a center. They have to. They got to go get a big. What can they do? Who could that be? Obviously, as we lead up to the trade deadline on Thursday. And you know, you're going to hear a lot of, oh, don't worry, there'll be some buyout guys. There will. There will. They rarely make any impact whatsoever. And guess what? We'll be just as guilty as going, oh yeah, that's a nice buyout pickup. Eh, it won't matter. It really usually doesn't matter.

The other part, the Nico Harrison comment of this is for the present and for the future. It just doesn't make total sense to go get so much older. And right here, right now, even getting into this year a little bit more, you said Derek Lively is injured. He could literally be coming back in April, just before the playoffs. Now, the Mavs had a very different statement than...

What was initially put out about him being out for two months. He, they said that he would be revalued in a month just to say that Derek Lively needs to come back and get some freaking reps. I mean, yeah, they made the finals last year.

when they got gafford and they got pj washington but they had somebody carry them and they had a lot of camaraderie they played a lot of minutes together it's so different this year yeah it's just way different now i mean correct me if i'm wrong but like after those additions at the trade deadline the maps are like one of the best defensive teams top five from there on out yeah so they were a defensive team i mean he keeps saying nico harrison like defense wins championships defense wins championships i

It's like, you had a good defense. You know, okay, did you nearly win the championship? No, it wasn't all that close in the finals, but my God, you got there. A couple more wins, but man, he seems hell-bent on like, we can't do this with Luka. We literally cannot win a championship with Luka. He seems to have made that decision. Again, an insane gamble. Maybe he's right, but it sure feels like he won't be.

And this is going to look so and age so poorly. Him's like going against the grain. He's like, oh, you watch this. I'll get rid of Luka now and I'll send him to the Lakers. I won't even talk to other teams because I got AD out of it. He's like, we want to be the Cavs. The Mavs went farther than the Cavs last year. Wild. Wild. I guess he wants to be the Cavs of this year, but they don't have the guards really to do that.

Let's talk a little bit. I don't know. I feel like we kind of underplayed how big of a trade it is, actually. Like, this is going to be a momentous day in NBA history. You're going to remember this day. It's similar to me to LeBron going to the Heat the first time, KD going to the Warriors, where you're like, oh...

The complete landscape of the NBA has changed. The Lakers are going to be a title contender moving forward for however many decades when they start actually building around Luka. Like this isn't going to be the year, but the guy's going to be 26 at the end of the season. They're going to build around him. The Lakers are a title contender. Dallas seemed like they were going to be a title contender for the next decade.

Who knows what they're going to look like in two or three years. Who knows if they're going to have Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd, the guys who actually made this decision. It's just a huge deal. I was explaining to my kid yesterday. I was like, literally, the Lakers, they always have the best players. And I ran it down with people she knew, like Shaq, Kobe, Pau Gasol. You know, she's a huge, huge, huge Pau Gasol fan. LeBron, AD. And now they got Luka, and she just said, are they cheating? I was like, cheating? But it is a little unfair.

Right? Yeah. Just because they're in Los Angeles. A huge part of it. They get the best players. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. To hear Yanni's postgame after they played Memphis on Sunday when he said, no one is safe. And then he started going through, you know what? Let me say this. Since he was serious, he talked to our man Eric Name for a while, and he was serious about how everything plays out, how everybody can be traded. Then he said, you know what?

I want Luka to go to LA and I want Nikola Jokic to go to New York because that would be huge for Europe. And so he's kind of speaking to what the NBA speaks to, which is big markets.

big money, big ratings. And Giannis was kind of playing into that because it's good for Europe, which you'd be excited about. It is strange. And that's got a lot of people putting on the tinfoil hats, these big deals, the Luca to LA part especially, of like, oh, a lot of talk about how ratings are down. And oh my God, suddenly Silver wants to change the entire game. He wants to cut minutes off and all this. Like everybody trying to figure out, how do we save the NBA game? How do we save the entertainment product? And then this deal happens? Right.

Ratings are going to be good, of course. The other part of this, I said to you guys right before we went live, I was like, oh, interesting timing. We just found out about Terry Rozier now getting roped into a federal investigation to the Jonte Porter gambling scandal.

What, two days later we have like, don't worry about that, eyes over here, complete like, this is all the news. Again, this just could be insane timing. Now the deadline's a week away, so of course it would happen before that. But good timing is what I'm saying for all that stuff. Unbelievable.

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Let's talk a little bit more about the Fox trade to the Spurs. He gets his way. He gets there. They didn't have to give up anything. Again, we talked about it last night. Like, wow, no Castle, no Devin Vassell, no Salah, Sohan, like...

that like not even their juiciest of picks and they got De'Aaron Fox. You've had a little bit more time to think about it. Like A plus to San Antonio if you're grading this one or what do you think? I had him an A minus last night. I'm upgrading it to A right in the middle. They even got off the Zach Collins contract. That was their worst contract on their books and they traded it. It's on the Bulls now. That's

It's unbelievable what the Spurs did. They got an all-in result, getting De'Aaron Fox, the biggest name that's on the market. Obviously, Luka was out there, but not quite the same. But Fox was the guy that everybody was looking at right now. Everybody knew he wanted to go to the Spurs. They got him without going all-in at all. They kept all their best picks, got rid of their worst contract, kept basically their entire rotation. What they did was upgraded Trey Jones, their backup point guard, to De'Aaron Fox, an all-star, who's going to be a starter for them. Yeah.

They've got the third easiest remaining schedule in the Western Conference. So for me, the playoffs start now for the San Antonio Spurs. Three games out of eighth place. And that to me, like I said last night, that's the goal. Because at the very least, you're getting two play-in games. Maybe you win the first one, you're playing in the playoffs. That would be amazing for this team. We'll see how Chris Paul and De'Aaron Fox work together. I think that's kind of a curveball as well. Fox is shooting 33% on catch-and-shoot jumpers this season. Chris Paul just 30%. So...

They could use some more shooting, which I think is why Devin Vassell, they're probably very happy to keep him 37% from three. And it's going to be important that Castle learns how to shoot threes over the course of his career. Same with Sohan. The guys that are the 2-3-4 for San Antonio, they got to shoot it because, you know, Fox and Wemby are going to be huge parts of their offense.

Spurs are going to be a dynasty, aren't they? Yeah, they have Wemby. Yeah, they have Wemby. And it sure feels that way. It's not the tinfoil hat coming through. It just leads with Wemby. And Darren Fox has a clear number two spot.

It's a great match, I think. He is going to get those feet going because all the eyes are going to be on Wemby Nyama. The pick and roll, which De'Aaron Fox is really, really good at this season, shooting 54% as a pick and roll ball handler. It's a great number. And again, I think it's going to get better with Wemby Nyama. And he's a passable three-point shooter. I know he's not

all the time, but with more space. And yeah, he's having a bad season. Everything's bad in Sacramento, but he's had a couple good 37% years. He's streaky. He is streaky. Yeah, he's a 33.3 for his career. But he also gets those tips from Chris Paul now. It's just a great, great move. They just didn't give up a lot, and it's fine for them to give up picks. They've collected enough. They've done enough with them. Victor Wambanyama's on their team. It's time. This screams of Cavs.

Donovan Mitchell to me. This makes me think that

De'Aaron Fox is going to sign an extension and he was just done with Sacramento. Like Mitchell was done with Utah and it's, it's his new spot. How could he not like playing with Victor? I see some comparisons in what the Kings ultimately got for a player of De'Aaron Fox's caliber to what happened with the Raptors and the Pascal Siakam trade as well. Um, you know, there's some picks, obviously there's contracts to make it all work. No, it's a three team deal. They get Zach Levine. Like that is a, he's a good player and he's played really well this year. Um,

But in terms of no young prospect, they got nothing. And I was so upset as a Raptors fan when they got nothing from the Pacers and they had a bunch of young guys. You're like, just get one, just one thrown in there and ultimately didn't. Part of that's the whole Siakam contract situation at that time. And here is the same thing with the Kings. They don't get any of these guys we've listed from the Spurs.

Good job by San Antonio, man. They kept everything. Prospects, like you said. Hawks picks. The best picks. Expiring deals without having to, like, I mean, it's wild. Yeah, getting off to Collins even. That's a good point. That surprised me how much he made.

I didn't know he was like, he's like 16, 18. It goes up. It's like, holy crap. That guy got paid. Zach Collins, man. It's one of the worst contracts. Jesus. Yeah. Like you never played either. I know. Yeah. The Kevin Herter number is similar. Let's go Bulls. Yeah, let's go. They got him. Yeah. So they got both Bulls. Headbands coming with. Right, right, right. Oh, yeah.

Alright, and then I guess one more trade that we haven't even talked about is very minor, especially in comparison to these, but on Saturday morning, the Clippers traded P.J. Tucker, Mo Bamba, a future second round pick in cash to the Jazz in exchange for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills.

The deal's basically a salary dump here for the Clippers. They're going to dip below the tax. Mo Bamba, I think, has already been waived by the Jazz. Maybe some of you had forgotten PJ Tucker was actually still in the league. He was one of these situations where he wasn't there. He wasn't around the team. He was getting paid. This has been going on for a while, but...

Any thoughts on clips? Jazz, maybe? No. No? No, that was a bad Daryl Morey move. The contract for P.J. Tucker, which is still paying him, which is, yeah, he's a little too old. But no, no other thoughts for myself. Okay. I just wish that I would have used my brain on that one because it was like, why are the Jazz doing any kind of move right now?

And it turned out to be able to facilitate these deals that actually mattered for the NBA. Drew Eubanks, he'll probably play for the Clippers. Yeah. Backup center. Serviceable backup big. And if it doesn't work out, it's like he's an expiring deal. It doesn't matter. But yeah, definitely working the books there for the Clips. Okay, let's get to winners of the NBA weekend. We'll do one round of winners. We'll do one round of losers. There was basketball going on.

Which is funny. Who do you have as your big NBA weekend winner? This game took place three Earth days ago, but it feels like 300 NBA years ago. Victor Wembanyama dominating against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night. The Spurs got a big win, scored 144 points.

And Wemby was absolutely Wemby-ing in this one. 30 for Victor, 14 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 5 threes. It's his fifth game in his career with 5 or more blocks, 5 or more threes. That's already the most ever. That's a Wemby. That's a Wemby. That's a Wemby. And, I mean, I don't know.

if every play was a highlight, but it felt like every play he made was a highlight. He double banked in a three-pointer over Giannis after, like, almost losing the ball at half-court, just chucks it up, goes in. That looked awesome. He hit a one-footed running three like it was no big deal. He blocked Giannis at the rim three times, made Giannis look small, though I will say Giannis did get a dunk in on him, not bad. And then he had that last block on Dame Lillard that they called a goaltend, literally because the refs were like,

There's no way somebody can block a shot above the square, right? There's no way they could do it. It felt like when Andre 3000 did the first alley-oop in basketball history and the refs had to call the game. Wait, can he do that? Yes, he can do that.

awesome game from Wemby. Then he sat out with an illness. Then he got De'Aaron Fox. Like this guy's got to be loving life right now. Yeah. And now he's going in the skills challenge with Chris Paul, Chris Haynes reporting competing on Saturday night there at all-star weekend in San Francisco. And then this is a little different here, but over the weekend, the NBA announced four replacement players for,

for the 2025 Rising Star. So Suns rookie Ryan Dunn is replacing 76ers rookie Jared McCain, who's out with season-ending surgery. And then Anthony Black, Toumani Kamra, and Asar Thompson are replacing the sophomores, Derek Lively II, Brandon Miller, both those guys sort of injured, and gasp, Victor Weminyama! So Wemby gets the Friday night off now, but he'll be there for Saturday and Sunday, obviously, in the actual All-Star game.

Kamara will block shots like Wemby does. He blocks some nice shots. We got the Thompson twins there. That's fun. So, yeah. It feels like every single rookie and sophomore is somehow in this game or been announced in this game. Who are we missing? Bozellis? Yeah. He's still not. No Khalil Ware? Yeah, no Ware. You would have thought both of those guys would go ahead of Ryan Dunn. I thought that was weird.

Yeah, that's interesting. Maybe they turned it down. I mean, Buzalas is going to be there, but he's going to be competing on Saturday night. Ware probably just wants to go on vacation. I don't blame him. Also, on that Friday night game, we had Giannis and Chris Paul fighting against each other. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Giannis was not happy. Giannis was not happy. I'm on his side. Definitely Chris Paul tripped him. I'm looking forward to All-Star Weekend in a weird way for different reasons. I think the Spurs are going to own All-Star Weekend because you mentioned Wemby and Chris Paul.

that first event on Saturday, which is never all that juicy. It's the skills challenge. You know, it's the appetizer. It's a little bit of an hors d'oeuvre. It's like, maybe I'll try one. Maybe I'll look at this. But you don't get too excited over it. Not at all. But is there any more excitement than this season? I don't think so. I mean, it's not – I know we're not all that excited, but people got to get in their seats by 8 a.m. For what? For what? For what?

To see Victor Wembanyama. Cass, you're crazy. To see Victor Wembanyama. Just to see Victor. Everybody wants to see Victor Wembanyama in every arena, in every city. So you think they're going to be in their seats in San Francisco on Saturday night for the start of the skills challenge. And people will tune in. People will tune in.

Just to see. And then Stephon Castle, I think, will win the dunk contest. Okay, okay, okay. He's my pick. Okay, fair, fair, fair. I think he'll get to the final. Mack McClung will just be free. He's got that pressure off his shoulders now, potentially being traded. Oh, absolutely. Doesn't have to worry about that. Yeah. Maybe bring Fox out, throw an oop to him or something. Who knows? And then I don't know who plays defense on Sunday, but Wemby's playing, so they win. Okay, okay. So big Spurs weekend. Tass is calling. Yeah, why not? I don't know why. I mean, things are working. They win. We'll see which team he's on. Yeah.

All right, Tess, let's go to you. Who's your big NBA weekend winner? I'm going with a big guy. Jaron Jackson Jr. had a great game against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Memphis Grizzlies, they're fun. They come in there with no John Morant, so they need Jaron Jackson Jr. to be great. He gets hit in the face in the first quarter, elbow to the face. He's tough. He comes back. He's posting up Giannis Adetokounmpo multiple times, and he's splashing threes, but he's

They were down in the third quarter, and the Grizz just teammates, their teammates just kept on coming through. It was impressive. Santiago Dama, we know, has been impressive all season long. He is a six-man candidate. He's just good all around. You just think, oh, he's a three-point shooter. Then he'll put it on the floor. He had three assists in this one, eight boards, 23 points, a steal and a block. And speaking of blocks and speaking of Giannis getting blocked, Gigi Jackson blocked him at that time.

That top, a 20-year-old blocking at us at the Goombo. That was great stuff coming off the bench. And Scottie Pippen was setting up Jaron Jackson Jr. for those threes. Nine points, 10 assists, four steals off the bench. They're so deep.

And they needed Jaron Jackson Jr. to splash those threes to get back in the game. He had seven threes, seven of 13. That's the second most threes of his career, so he doesn't do that all the time. But he just kept coming. When we went to that MLK Day game in Memphis, we got in the car and we drove from here to Memphis six hours away. And we saw Jaron Jackson Jr. in 2022. I didn't think that he would evolve into a guy who could put the ball on the floor so well.

And that was the most impressive part to me. Yeah, he was great post-ups in the last few minutes against Giannis. Great time shooting a three. But he's able to just get into his moves quickly. He looks like a different guy. And so that was a dominant win. Memphis has won seven straight versus the Bucs some way, somehow. It's a weird one. But they're second. They sit in second over the Houston Rockets right now, a half game. So this is like, I think Trey said it in.

December probably, that no one was talking about the Memphis Grizzlies. And that's definitely happening now. Here in February. They're just kind of going under the radar. But the Western Conference playoffs are going to be super duper fun. Jaron Jackson Jr. is one of the most underrated players in the league right now. The season he's having, not a lot of people have noticed. They've won eight of their last nine games.

over that stretch he's averaging basically 25 5 this is a thing he doesn't rebound a ton right so like maybe the box scores like don't wow you like that but 25 5 a couple assists over a block shooting 41 from deep on a decent amount of temps for a big guy like him nearly 50 from the field like

yeah and this is all in 31 minutes per game this isn't like a ton of minutes uh their only loss was to the knicks over that span he's been awesome good season other all-star i know like the award has taken so many twists and turns but most improved like he's actually improved as a player but you know he was already an all-star already won a defensive player of the year like he's not gonna win it i get that but he actually has if you watch the games and you've talked a lot about him tk

Yeah, he's got one move. It's Derek Zoolander mode. He goes left every single time. He goes left so often that when you see him shoot his three-pointers or his free throws, you're like, wait.

He's right-handed. He's been in the league for years, and still I'm like, it feels like he's a left-handed player because he was doing it to Giannis last night, just driving in the lane, giving him a shoulder bump, shooting the easy lefty. Mark Jones said, shoulder day for Jaron Jackson Jr. He said, put Giannis in the weight room. That was pretty impressive. Scottie Pippen Jr. I thought was also huge in the win. Four steals, like you said, they all came in the fourth quarter, and he was just...

a pest defensively picking up basically full court, getting the steals. Yeah. Jaron Jackson Jr. has really diversified his game because he's a good three-point shooter, like you're saying, kind of streaky. I thought the Bucs were a complete mess defensively, and most of his threes seemed like open looks where they didn't know what they were doing, but he's added the dribble drive game to it, and it's really opened things up for the Grizzlies and deserving all-star, and he's been playing great since he got named to the all-star team. Yeah, for sure. All right, my winner of the weekend,

Just a little love to two teams that are hot as hell right now, but they're still near the bottom of the standings. The Toronto Raptors keep winning a bunch of games and the Portland Trailblazers are cooking right now too. Both these teams like are really like figured some things out and putting together some W's. So a little love to them, but I'm going to give mine to Jason Tatum and the Celtics, specifically Tatum, what he did in two games over the weekend. On Friday night,

Tatum hit a beautiful jumper with .7 seconds remaining to give the Celtics the two-point victory over the Pelicans, who were shorthanded there in New Orleans. Tatum hit the midi fadeaway. He hit it this time, and it was tough. They went to him, he bled the clock, he had McCollum on him, he sort of spun, and then here comes Herb Jones, here comes the help, and...

Like no rim at all. That was the game winner. A great like look over to the camera. Someone had incredible footage. The sideline footage was great. That was amazing. It was like a commercial. God damn. Did it ever. He gave a cool, mean mug to the camera. Looks so good. Is that aura? Yeah. So there was that. I mean, that's impressive. Hit the game winner. But then he followed it up on Sunday. He scored 13 of his 35 in the fourth quarter as the Celtics came back from 26 down.

to beat the 76ers. 118-110, they won sort of handedly at the end. The Celtics used a 39-10 extended run to spark a big comeback. That's the largest in the NBA this season, that 26-point deficit that they came back from. Third largest in the last 20 seasons for the Celtics. So just good work. He was pretty instrumental in that. And first time in Tatum's career, back-to-back games of 10-plus assists.

So all the scoring he's doing, which we know that he does, but facilitating here over these last two. And he's unlocked that to his game and it's gotten better and better as a, as a ball handler and a facilitator. So Tatum, a winner of the weekend here. And you know, they're trying to hang on to the Cavs. You know, the Cavs are still great. I think they're at 40 wins, but you

The Celtics are there. They're there. They're holding on to the rope in that number one seat, if they even want it. And they're holding on to the second seat because the Knicks are closer to them than they are to the Cavs. But the Celtics season is like that win against Philadelphia 76ers.

They play when they need to. Yeah. They do what they need to. So that is going to be their season. Yeah. Any other winners that anyone wanted to show a little love to? Or should we do a round of love? I mean, you hit it. My Sixers, tough loss for them. The way that the Celtics were able to come back like that. But a great win for my Raptors. Yeah, baby. Smelling the play. Yeah. It's legitimate. That's right. I got 300 teams to cheer for in the second half of the season. The Kings, because they're the Bulls. Yeah.

And then the Raptors and the 76ers. That's great, man. That's awesome, man. That is freaking unbelievable. The more I look at that 16-33 record and how I believed in them the entire season, but I came to...

understand that the play-in tournament wasn't going to happen. But to see... 16-33, that's less than a third of games that they win. And they somehow could still make it. It ain't that far back. The Eastern Conference is crazy. You can finish in the 10th seed and get a top 10 draft pick. Honestly, at this point, I want to go back to the bubble rules where it's like you have to be so many games to the actual playoff teams behind to warrant a play-in game because...

I mean, it would be pretty insane if we have a team that's like has 30 wins and they're like, hey, we got a chance, baby. It would be crazy. Go back to the bubble days. Didn't they take 22 teams to play in? To play in the play-in tournament to get into the playoffs? They had those extra teams. I just remember you had to be within a certain amount of games to warrant it. That's definitely true. That's true. But it was a weird year, obviously. Get Zion there. Yeah, right, right.

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All right, let's do losers of the NBA weekend. Trey Kirby, get us started. I think it was a bad weekend on and off the court for the Golden State Warriors. Once again, referring to Friday. It happened before the NBA completely changed. Blowout loss for the Dubs. Steph Curry scored 14 points on 14 shots. Andrew Wiggins, 17 on 20 shots. They were not really in this one against the Suns, and that's a team they're competing against. Pre-game, Steve Curry even said...

We're not in a position where we can just say, nah, we're good. Let's stand pat. That's the reality of where we are, which is a complete change of face from where the

The Warriors were, like a week ago, when you had Kerr, Draymond, and even Steph Curry saying, let's not make a move here. The tenor of things have changed, which I think is why I'm giving them a loser, because things got even worse off the court on Sunday. The Kings traded for Zach Levine, which means that he's not going to be a Golden State Warrior. Then we got the Brian Windhorst report. Jimmy isn't going to sign an extension in Golden State, which ended the trade talks between Miami and the Warriors. You throw in the fact that the Kings are in the 10th seed. Yeah.

The Suns are in the eighth seed right now. They're likely getting better. They might get Jimmy Butler. We know the Kings got Zach Levine. Those are two teams they're chasing. Dallas traded Luka Doncic, but they got Anthony Davis. They're still in the mix. Still formidable. The Dubs are just kind of running out of options right now. They said they have changed. They're pivoting to smaller moves here. They're going to be competing against the Lakers for Vucevic, it seems like.

But it's like, look at all the names that they've missed out on in the past two seasons. Basically, since they won the title, they've passed or missed out on Pascal Siakam, Larry Markkinen, Levine, maybe Vooch, Paul George, Jimmy Butler. Then you look at LeBron James in the same scenario as Stephen Curry. He's played with Anthony Davis and Luka Doncic this season. Yeah.

What are they doing? If they're just going to play out the string the way they are, they should have paid Clay Thompson and had like a going away party. Right. Yeah. And it just fits so well in a Clay type of way to get Jimmy Butler there. So I still think that it could happen. Even though Brian Windhorst did say that it has stopped for now. The conversation has stopped for now. And maybe it's all just a play to try and make it happen. But it's either Phoenix or them. And...

I can't believe Grok on Twitter literally offers you the option here. Below Brian Windhorst's tweet, you can click and ask, why won't Butler sign with Warriors? And Grok will tell you why they won't. It's unbelievable. And it is a fair question. Why wouldn't he sign an extension with Golden State? Why? He will.

He has to. And the other side is he can't get to Phoenix if Beal doesn't agree. So, I mean, that's why both are still alive.

Four days away. Three days away. You said Lucas showed that basically his phone log was all Nico Harrison calls. I'd like to believe right now that Bradley Beal's phone is all Jimmy Butler calls. Please. Hey, man, Miami's incredible, man. Trust me. Or whatever other team you want to go to. He'll have a better chance there. He must be trying to convince them because it feels like, yeah, Jimmy wants to get to the desert there to play with Katie and Booker. Yeah.

I guess. I still have a little bit of hope, too, that a Warriors deal happens. But, man, it's also sad as hell. Like, you just went through it. They never make a deal. No. And the worst part is they're always in deals. They're always almost, almost got that guy. Oh, we thought about that guy. It's like that's even like doubling down on insulting your fan base, in my opinion. It's Danny Angish. We're like, oh, look at the guys we almost traded for. Oh, God. Pull a move.

The only move they've really pulled in the past few years is sending away Jordan Poole, who was maybe their best chance at having the next guy. Because it ain't Kaminga. It ain't Moses Moody. It obviously isn't Wiseman. So what are they going to do? Moves around the margin, probably. I would think that if Jimmy Butler signed a two-year extension beyond this year, if he opted out of that player extension and signed a two-year, just to match Curry and Draymond, that...

The Warriors would do it just because they'd have somebody to play with the dudes. But I don't know if money-wise for Butler might not be enough. And Dunleavy may not say, we're giving you multiple years beyond Curry and Wiggins. All right, Curry and Draymond. Because who knows if Wiggins is going to be there. Who do you have for the weekend? I'm going with the Orlando Magic. They lost to the Utah Jazz.

They didn't crack 100. Things are a little bleak. I didn't like watching Paulo Banqueiro go 4 of 19, started with an air ball well beyond the three-point line. And then the jumper just wasn't there. He's due for a good game tonight versus Golden State, as a matter of fact, because he follows up a bad game with a good game since he returned on January 10th. But those 11 games...

The Magic are 2-9, and his numbers are 39 from the floor, 28 from three, and 62 from the free throw line. This ain't Paolo Pancaro. Things are not going well, and they're in the play-in tournament. I mean, they sit in eighth right now, and they have three more road games because they're on this road trip. 0-3 so far, so I don't think it's going to end all that well. They're still a great defensive team. It's happening every single game, except against the Utah Jazz. The Utah Jazz beat them anyway.

They need Jalen Suggs back who's injured, and they just need a ball handler. And it is odd to see Jalen Suggs out here with this quad injury, but he's questionable for tonight. They just need a ball handler to just spice things up because it is becoming just way too much. There are some guys, man, in the league that are just like the ultimate difference makers, and they're not like the superstar level guys. It's like, you know, Josh Hart comes to mind. Like, when he plays...

You just feel good about your chances because of the hustle and what he does. And Suggs is like that for the Magic, just in terms of how important he is. But yeah, this is... Wow. I didn't realize they had slipped that far there in the Eastern Conference standings. Two and nine, you said, over the last 11? Yeah. And with my... Right now, it's... Okay. The top four, five are locked, sort of. Milwaukee's in the fifth. Pacers are in the fourth. I would say they're locked. But...

beyond that, it's Heat in sixth, Pistons in seventh, and then the Magic have fallen even further than that. So it's not a guarantee that they finish top six. They got a long road trip after this road trip, like, you know, down the road here in the next two months. So it's not easy. Suggs is helpful, but they need more than just getting Jalen Suggs back. They should really be active this week. They should be looking at CJ McCollum. They should be looking, I think, a guy they really should target. It's a Bulls player, Kobe White. He, like, fits their timeline. He's going to be, I think, what, 25 at the end of the year? He's on a

really nice deal right now. He could play alongside Suggs. He could play as their point guard alongside KCP as well. I mean, Lonzo could be a buyout candidate for him depending on what happens, but they need guard help outside of getting Suggs back, which will be huge because they're losing these games.

with Paulo and Franz coming back. They tried to water pretty good during the injury portion of their season. You would think now is kind of when they would be hopefully ramping up. So I kind of think this is a sneaky big week for the Magic. They don't owe any picks right now. So considering where they are as a franchise, maybe it's smart to throw away a little bit of the future to get somebody in who fits the timeline and helps out.

All right, my NBA weekend loser. It's a little tongue-in-cheek, okay? But I'm going to give it to Aaron Wiggins of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and here's why. This guy on Saturday night, he was a sharpshooter. Wiggins had a career-high 41 points. He had 14 rebounds. The Thunder steamrolled the Kings, 144-110. He started in place...

of J-Dub, Jalen Williams. He was out. So Wiggins goes 16-30 from the field, 6-14 from deep. He scored 14 in the fourth quarter. He was cooking. So why would I give him loser of the weekend?

because unfortunately Wiggins did all of this at the worst imaginable time when it came to warranting any sort of NBA media attention you're already doing it on a Saturday night that's tough my guy that's the one night that's a rough night uh in terms of like putting up a big night to be talked about all that much but then of course he does it on the night where almost at the exact same time of him going off for 41 and 14 Luka gets traded to the

to the Lakers 80 to the Mavs and it's like it's like a forgotten game it's a hell of a performance again tongue in cheek that he's losing the weekend just bad timing on his part because this is maybe this could be the best game of his career when it's all said and done like will he ever have a better game than this

I don't know. 41 is pretty important. 41 and 14 is an awesome game. Yeah. And again, it just happened on the night where the NBA just went haywire and we had the biggest deal in NBA history. So just rough timing. Put him in the all underrated list, like actually underrated players. This guy is good. He could win seventh man of the

You know, sometimes he starts for the Thunder and he might be a very important player come playoff time. I think there's a lot of streaky shooters amongst the Thunder. So if he has the hot hand, I think he could be a big time piece for them because he's also maybe the best driver of like the Dort Caruso team.

wing defender sort of archetype that the Thunder had there because he could put the ball on the floor and get to the rim a little bit. He was just eating on offensive rebounds in this one. It's like they had never thought of him possibly grabbing an offensive board. He got like so many of them right at the hoop for easy putbacks, but yeah, an awesome game for him and, uh,

I think the Thunder must be happy to have this dude on their bench. He can start for some teams out there for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they just did all that work over the summer, right? All those good little deals, Isaiah Joe and stuff like that, and just kept them all and stockpiled them all just like they do their draft picks and sort of wait and see if they ultimately move any of these guys or any of those picks for a bigger name. But we'll see. Yeah, they got A.J. Mitchell. Someday we'll be playing plenty for them.

On the other side of the Kings, that was the end of it for De'Aaron Fox. The team was just dead. They were done. They didn't look like they were playing hard. No disrespect to Aaron Wiggins, but the offensive boards, like you said, they just weren't fighting. They weren't ready for that game. Look, you see the impact on some of these teams around the trade deadline. Obviously, guys involved in trades, uncertainty. I mean, look, I know the Dallas Mavericks, they just got waxed yesterday.

Were they up all night like everybody else? Checking the tweets to see the Luka deal? They were down like 50 to the Cavs. And of course, they're short-handed as well. That does have impacts on these teams. You'll have some probably weird results this week.

if we're being honest, in terms of other guys involved in trade rumors and stuff like that. Who is Kyler Kelly? Dude started for the Mavericks. Right. Kyler. K-Y-L-O-R. L-O? Yeah. Whoa, that was a curveball. I thought we were going Kyler Murray. I don't know him. What? Can you tell us anything else about him? Where did he go to school? Kyler Kelly, he's a beaver. Oh. Went to Oregon State. Okay. He's an Oregon man. Nice. He's a center.

That's a guy. That's a new guy. That's a new guy to me. That's a guy that got a chance there yesterday. All right. Any other winners, losers, thoughts on the trends? Pelicans are a loser of the weekend. DeJounte Murray out for the season, torn Achilles. Literally, the two New Orleans Pelicans fans in my life, I sent them this message, fun way to wake up. And they both responded, the Pelicans are literally cursed. Dyson Daniels said it in an interview and it's

It feels like it. And until proven otherwise, you might have to believe it. And I don't think – I think I saw Will Guillory of The Athletic said that Zion, Ingram, and DeJounte Murray didn't play the game together this season. They did not. Not a minute. Yeah, Will Guillory did say that as well. Oh, my God. Yeah, they're definitely cursed. Like the voodoo down there in New Orleans too. Someone's got a hex on them for sure. Somebody does, yeah. Yeah, what did they do? Like they –

They must have, like, someone came to the arena once and, like, I don't know. They were like, hey, you can't sit there or something. Oh, I'm going to X you. I don't know, like 20 years ago or whatever when they first moved there. Something's in the Smoothie Kings there, man. Hey, they got the Super Bowl this week, though. Right? That's in Nolens. Yeah, you're right. They on a road trip? I don't know. I don't think they should get a good draft pick this year. Lil Wayne's upset. He wanted to be performing.

Who? Lil Wayne. Oh, right. Because it's in New Orleans. Kendrick Lamar. It'll be good. I think he did pretty well at the Grammys last night. I think he went five for five, if I have that fact correct. Grammys were a delight. Did you watch any? I caught...

Bits and pieces. Yeah. Bits and pieces. I mean, we were doing a podcast while it was going on too. Yeah, I watched right after. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the Lady Gaga MasterCard thing. Yeah, yeah. That was something. Stevie Wonder. Oh, that one guy. What's his name? Boone? Boone.

What? I don't know. He has like a hit song. I never, I didn't even know what he looked like. I frick, I don't remember the song, but everybody's heard it. Trust me. Okay. But anyway, like they like, he was wearing a suit and then they ripped it off. He was like in like a jumper sequence. But anyway, the whole point of this, this guy Boone, I don't even know his name. He goes up on the stage, jumps on the piano and does like a, like a front flip off of it. Pretty slick. Like a, you know, like a rotating flip.

I've never seen John Legend do that. No, the guy's athletic, I guess. I don't know.

Yeah. Get a, get a sign him to the Mavericks right now. John was there. He was in the front row. He was there. He opened up the show. Oh, he did. I didn't miss that. He was a part of an ensemble. They did a cool thing with obviously, uh, um, you know, the fire relief and stuff like that. It was big donation, uh, push and stuff. So they had like a band from LA. I think they're called the doors.

I want to say. There is a band called The Doors. I believe it's them. They're from LA. Yeah. I mean, they haven't been around for a long time. No, no, no, no. They're like Jim Morrison. You're talking about. No, no, no. I know. That's why I'm like hesitating. It probably isn't. No, but it is Doors something. But anyway, I had a bunch of other artists playing with them on stage. And John Legend was there. Well, John was in the front row loving Cynthia Erivo from Wicked. Her performance. What kind of notes did she hit? I didn't actually see this one. So I'll have to check it out. All right. Queen Latifah also enjoying it.

That was great. It was just nice to see something sort of normal happening in life. I guess, yeah. It was sort of normal. Did you see what Jaden Smith was wearing? Showed up to the red carpet wearing? Yeah, that's why I said it was sort of normal. There was off clothing. I don't even know how you describe what he was wearing. He was wearing a castle hat, a castle helmet. I don't know. But a lot of jokes that that's Stephen Castle, which is pretty funny. So it was foam, right? Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah, because it was also weird how he was standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. He was just kind of, I don't know, all bulky. Will Smith was there. He was talking. He was on the mic. He's back. Gave love to Quincy Jones. Benson Boone. Is that the guy? Benson Boone! That's his name. What's his song? What's his, like, he has a hit song. It's everywhere.

Beautiful Things? Sure, maybe. It's Beautiful Things! Oh, that's not the song? Is he related to Brett Boone? Boone's athletic, man. Bob, Brett, and Benson, the Boone family. Yes, well done. Benson Boone. Benson Boone. Benson Boone. But he can do a flip, huh? Yeah. Well, he's got that MLB athleticism. Yeah, he sure does, man. I want to be a catcher, Dad! I want to play piano! I'll still squat! Ha ha ha!

Go check that clip out, man. It's pretty impressive. All right, we got a whole new pick-em to start up here. Brand new month of February. It's our first game here, Tass. Where are we going? We're all 0-0. Did you make an error on Bob Boone? Well, I think Bob Boone is the catcher, but Brett Boone probably played second base. Was there an Aaron Boone? Aaron Boone was the manager, right? There's a Brett Boone, too.

There is an Aaron Boone, but there's Brett Boone, isn't there? Okay. I don't know. Yeah, of course, man. Well, when you said you didn't like it, I thought, yeah, you're right. He's a second baseman. Oh, the two-bagger. Okay, anyway. His brother is Aaron. Right. Moving on. We've got a rematch of the NBA Cup Final tonight. Oh, wow. Now, if you look at the Thunder or Bucs schedule,

That NBA Cup Final didn't exist. Right, didn't play it. But they play tonight. It's a rematch tonight. Bucks obviously won. The Thunder here at home are favored by 10.5 points. This was one that...

I didn't put my pick in first. Yeah, you waited. It was rare. I don't know. I don't know how to feel about it. I wanted to see the entire Bucs story from yesterday. They're on a back-to-back here. You guys all comfortable with saying the Thunder are going to win by 11 or more.

Is it revenge for the NBA Cup final? Hell yeah. Also, they're not on the back-to-back. That helps. Tough travel schedule here for the Bucs. So you guys have... Okay, so yeah, I am taking Milwaukee. Okay. Got a lot of points to play with. Yes. And I will be paying off last month's Pick'em loss starting next Monday, so a week from today, doing the Interstellar Challenge.

Excellent. Stay tuned for that. But first, we've got to make it through trade deadline week. Make sure you go check out those podcasts over the weekend, talking about the Luka AD trade, and of course the Fox Levine Bulls trade as well. A lot of fun breaking those down. Thanks for joining us here. Join us tonight, though, on Playback.

Fired up around 9 p.m. Eastern, we will try and catch the endings to those early games. A lot of games on tonight, so hopefully have a fair number of games that are entertaining down the stretch that we can bounce around and take in for an hour on playback. That link is in the show notes. Whenever we watch a Rockets game, it's fun. It's Rockets-Knicks. Oh, hell yeah. That's nice. Oh, hell yeah. So hopefully that one will be ending by the time we get on there. So 9 p.m. Eastern is when we will start.

until either tonight on playback or tomorrow here in the classic factory, or Hey, you never know another emergency podcast. Clipper bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, it's going to end this with a Josh Hart question that he put out on Twitter. He said, so who are the untouchables in the league? Josh Hart wants to know. So do I. Who is it? When being yokage.

Maybe Giannis. I mean, if the report of Giannis, if the Bucs report is true, then he's confirmed. Keep the conversation going. Brace the day, people.

Hey, everybody. It's Diana Rossini from the Scoop City Podcast. It's Super Bowl week and the eyes of the world are on New Orleans to see if the Chiefs can make history or if the Eagles are ready to rain on their parade. Myself, Robert Mays, Derek Clausen, and a whole host of NFL reporters and special guests will be live streaming every day from Radio Row, covering all the buildup to Sunday's showdown. Join us on the Athletic HQ YouTube account every day at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. It's not to be missed.