Trae Young Channels Iverson, Brunson Is A Dog, Warriors Exploring Trade For Durant?
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Hey babe. Are you okay? Can we not film right now please? Can we not do this? Is this cause the Mavericks traded Juka Johnson? It's Luka Doncic. Yeah I said that.

Jukajnokovic. His name is Luka Doncic. Yeah, I said that. Luka Nonkovic. No. Jukajnokovic. I'm not making fun of you. Luka Doncic. Yeah. Jukajnokovic. No. Who do you know that's named Juka? Who? No. His name is Luka. Stop calling him Juka Johnson because it's Luka Doncic. I know. It's Luka Nonkovic. Why? What is that? This is important to me. This is important for us. Let's say the name together. Okay. Ready? Luka. Luka. Doncic. Nonkovic. Get out. Yay!

Woo!

Good morning, sweet world! And welcome to the No Dunks Podcast on The Athletic Network. It's Tuesday, February 4th, 2025. I'm Jay Skeets, here in the Classic Factory, and alongside me, as always, Tass Mellis. Podcast listeners, this is for you. Next to him, it's the bearded one, my top shot hot boy, Trey Kirby. Hey-o! And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer, JD. Oh, hello, there's some black box under there. Whoa, whoa, whoa, there I am. Oops.

Podcast listeners, that was for you. Now that was embarrassing. Hello to everybody joining us live right now on YouTube. Hit the like button, subscribe. Podcast listeners, we love you as well. Leave us a five-star rating and review if you haven't. Lots of games to talk about. Some slop.

To talk about, obviously, you're going to go back to the Luka AD trade because there's been some more. Juka Johnson? Because there's been more reporting on that. So lots to get to here, but we had another wedgie. They come in bunches. That's just how it works. And this one was Quentin Post on the, you know,

attempt at the putback sticks it in there on the rebound the offensive rebound so wedgie number 26 the wedgieing dutchman that's what they call them oh uh i guess to hear kalana azubuki on the warriors broadcast yell wedgie hit my heart yeah just a former player that excited he was super excited good wedgie i think only our second like rebound wedgie of the year

And the first, again, on the offensive glass, I remember Champagny had one earlier in the year, but that was a defensive sort of tip situation. Nice. I like it. I like it when it's underneath the rim. It looks weird. Super weird. It's all about hemisphere. So good job by Post. Let's get into some games. Picked a few to talk about here with you guys. We watched a lot of these on playback last night. Shout out to everybody that joined us. Had a lot of fun. Trae Young took over in the fourth quarter against the Pistons.

Help the Hawks end an eight-game losing streak? I hadn't realized it was that bad. So really needed this one. Trey did his thing. He hit a rainbow jumper, TK, that was just like a bit of a prayer shot. Malik Beasley then fell as he challenged it. Well, they both were on the ground, and when Trey got up,

He did the old Allen Iverson step over like I did to Ty Lue back in the finals. Very reminiscent of that. But 17 of his 34 in the fourth for Trey Young. They needed it. This is the definition of good defense, better offense. Because Malik Beasley was all over him. Trey Young doesn't take a sidestep to the right offensively.

One foot behind the three-point line, one foot inside the three-point line. He doesn't take that shot very much. He shot it so high up into the air. Drops through nicely. Pistons had a chance on the other end. Poor pass by Cade Cunningham. Would have had to been perfect for it to work. But I was just wondering if Trae Young set up Malik Beasley like that. You know, he fell down. Beasley was stumbling back.

Trey tabletopped him a little bit. Went for the fully extended body. Beasley drops. And then Bob Rathbun called it the Motown Stomp. I thought that was a great line. Oh, that is a great name. By Bobby Boy. But it's cool. After All-Star Reserves are announced, it feels like every game is a statement game. In this one, it was like first timer in Cade Cunningham versus...

snub machine in Trey Young and Trey Young was just a little bit better in the fourth quarter like you said 17 of his 34 points went five of seven from the field had an assist Cade 12 points on three of five and he was just having a little bit tougher time I thought getting to some of his shots so good win for the Hawks they absolutely needed it here and if you're Trey Young and you you know you put out your little tweet saying that we're not calling them snubs anymore we're calling them Trey's this is a good way to show up against the guy who took one of your spots yep yeah

I do think he was surprised that Malik Beasley was lying under him because I think he saw it and then he just ad-libbed his celebration. He would usually go to that, oh, I'm cold, but then he saw it and started stomping. I think the first step was, whoa, this guy is under me. I got to come up with a new celebration and it is me stomping.

doing the Motown stomp. Yeah, he sees him right there. He's like, I'm stepping over you. Oh, got to do this. Keep it going. 17 fourth-quarter points, he said, and 16 field goal attempts throughout this game. I mean, that's not a lot. He got to the free throw line a ton, 14 free throws for him. I was a little surprised that Asar Thompson wasn't on him instead of Malik Beasley. They gave up the switch there, yeah. And he was on him a lot down the stretch. And he did a good job. Yeah, he did. Although, yeah, Malik Beasley was definitely right in front of him.

I don't know about going to Tobias Harris for the game-winning attempt. I know the pass wasn't absolutely perfect, but Tobias Harris jumping straight up for the ball also wasn't perfect. He just kind of threw out his arm. But maybe that's not Tobias' thing to jump up straight in the air. It had to be absolutely right there while somebody else probably could have caught it and scored.

Yeah, exactly. They needed a pinpoint perfect pass. It wasn't, but also you probably have like a bigger margin for error if it's a star Thompson or Jalen Duren being the guy jumping at the rim. But still, it would have had to be an awesome pass from Cade and it was an okay pass.

Yeah, weird play in this one. It was a very fast pass. Yeah, it was. He rocketed that pass. Yeah, it was. Weird play, too, obviously in a close game. Fourth quarter, 340 left. Detroit's down two. Asar Thompson, who, again, was sort of hounding Trae Young. You know, the pick came. There's too many bodies there. The ball, like, squirts out. Asar Thompson picks it up. He's all alone. Like, it's fast break.

And he gets a little too excited and just fumbles it away, like out to the baseline. And that was huge at the time. You're like, oh my God, is that going to be the difference maker? Now they lose. Now they got to stop and then score. So it was all tied up again after that. But that's going to be, I believe, on Schacht and a Fool because it was a pretty rough one. Right. And it didn't look like it was going the Hawks way either late because it looked like they had a huge fart.

uh at the end of a shot clock where deandre hunter just he could have let it go it was a beautiful attempt there was a minute 20 seconds left it could have been a beautiful attempt but he just dribbles instead so i thought they were done yeah it looked like they were done on their side but the pistons also farted as well a little brain farts on either side there you go got your farts in for somebody that wanted that in the stream team i mean i should have said brain fart for immediately but i went fart okay yeah uh dice and daniels had a good game uh

Flirting with the 5x5, 19 points, 6 boards, 7 assists, 4 steals, and one of those steals was huge. That was the poke away on Cade Cunningham with like 35 seconds to go. That was big. And then 3 blocks. So he had the points, rebounds, assists. Those were taken care of, and then he had 3-3 there for like a majority of the fourth quarter, and we were talking, ooh, is he going to do this? But...

Not easy to get two more steals, two more blocks in the final nine minutes of a game, but he ultimately got one more steal. I would say he's a candidate. He's a candidate to do a 5x5 at some point in his career. Yeah, that poke from Cade Cunningham was so quick. I had to look at it again and again just to see if Cade lost it. It was super fast, but he made up for DeAndre Hunter's brain fart with that immediately after. It was beautiful, and he had a great game scoring. I thought the backdoor cuts...

the running bank don't see that from him too often and the spin move on isaiah stewart you definitely don't see dyson daniels do that very often he sets him up one way and isaiah went diving like he's diving into the stew and he got lost you don't see that from dyson daniels it looks like that game is expanding as they just let him go to work up top do your thing dyson daniels sometimes he makes it work and because we are you know the biggest veek crachie fans on planet earth uh

He had a good game for them. You know, 13 points off the bench. He made a big play late. Like it was sort of like a broken play. You know, they're obviously trying to get the ball back to Trey. It found Viet in the corner and he attacked and then the defense collapsed and he found a Kong Wu and he finished with like a beauty left-hand layup, but like smart play by him. He didn't sort of like panic in that situation. That was a huge timely bucket.

So they get the win. Hawks 132-130 to improve to 23-27. Am I alone? I didn't realize they lost eight straight. I knew they were reeling here after the Jalen Johnson injury, but not that bad. Yeah, I'd been to two of them, and I didn't realize there was that many. I didn't feel like that. Yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, the Jalen Johnson thing obviously gives us the reasoning, and we all say, oh, they're going to drop out of the play-in.

That being said, this is obviously a big win in the play-in race. What also happened in this one, no Jalen, no Capella, no Bogdan Bogdanovich, who we all say is bound to be dealt here before the trade deadline. Does it hurt them that he's hurt right before the trade deadline? I don't know, but it is a guy that people want, I'm sure. Okay, let's keep it going here. Let's move to Madison Square Garden. Fun game between the Rockets and Knicks. Jalen Brunson, though, the star, 42 points, 10 assists.

They rally the Knicks to pass the Knicks. They were down like 11 there at one point in the second half, but come back and it was similar to what happened with Trae Young and the Hawks. It was Brunson takeover TK, 17 of his points in the fourth quarter in a game that they did trail. He hit a layup there that put the Knicks ahead and then he followed it up with a big three-pointer and that gave them a little space to play with as they got the victory.

I had him as MVP preseason. He's not going to win MVP, but he's going to win Clutch Player of the Year. The guy takes over every fourth quarter for the Knicks. You mentioned the scoring last night. He scored or assisted on 22 of the Knicks' last 26 plays. It was crazy, too, because through the first three quarters, you heard Walt...

Claude Frazier saying it on the broadcast the entire time. Every shot was tough for Jalen Brunson, like having to work so hard to get into his little sidesteps and his floaters. And then in the fourth quarter, it looked like easy mode for Jalen Brunson getting anywhere he wanted scoring and assisting. That was awesome. It's cool to watch too. It was basically Jalen Brunson versus a men Thompson for the Rockets. And it's like,

two completely different play styles. You've got craft guy and Brunson. You've got super athlete and a man Thompson who finished with a triple double once again, also had one of the highlights of the year crossing up precious Achua and dunking on him on the same possession. Clyde,

Great line on that one. Feline quickness. Canine aggression. We were rolling on playback when he saw that one. This was a fun game to watch. Rockets got out to a big lead. Knicks battled back. Rockets got out to another big lead. Knicks battled back. Really impressive stuff. Brunson, just... If you've got him on your team, if you're the Knicks, you've got to feel good every fourth quarter because he's going to get the right shots and...

He's pretty efficient when it comes down to it. Yeah, spectacular game. We called it yesterday while we sat here and we're trying to promo playback. I'm sure we'll watch this game. But this game came through, not just because it was in Madison Square Garden and the fans were into it. I think if you were in any gym anywhere, the fans, the casuals would be into it. It looked...

great and it looked like the Rockets had this one as they were up late in this fourth quarter you saw spectacular plays that the one you mentioned with Amin Thompson then Jalen Green had a beautiful inside out and he went up and he switched hands over Carl Anthony Townsend that was gorgeous I thought he was going to crown Towns but he goes to the left hand that looked great and then Amin Thompson another dunk with under two minutes left

that he just got it so fast. Oh yeah. He was, that was, he dumped it before the other Knicks players could even like jump to react. The guy is just like in a league full of the best athletes in the world. He looks like on another level and it jumps off the screen. It's like, it's like everybody agrees. It's like, Oh no, he's a different type of athlete. Um,

That was feline stuff, man. Yeah. That was out of nowhere. But you also saw his, you know, his youthfulness, I guess, in a bad way, like a couple errors at the end. And he was being asked to do a ton suddenly as like, hey, you're the lead guy here. Go get us a bucket or go create something. And a couple times obviously got stopped or slipped out of his hands and stuff.

Yeah, they didn't have Fred VanVleet to help out. They didn't have Shangoon. Although Aaron Holiday was awesome in that fourth quarter. Aaron Holiday, this team is three point guards deep. We saw Reed Shepard for a second there, but he got to sit because Aaron Holiday was coming through with big buckets. But then Jalen Brunson closed it. Yeah, 17 in that fourth quarter, 11 in the last four minutes. He had three buckets in a minute and he was the terror, giving it to the terror twins. It went back to back against the men, Thompson and Tari Eason. Yeah.

which are both great defenders. But what a spectacular game. And you got to the line, too. 14 free throws, just like Trae Young. 41-10, six boards. He's also just so resilient, going at everything. It's fun. And they didn't have OG as well. Yeah. So they needed somebody like that to help out. But what a game. Yeah, Houston's bench, though, outscored the Knicks 41-12.

They won the rebounding battle by 10. Houston did. The Knicks only shot six of 26 from three. You don't see that all that often and win a game still where you hit six threes. They had 14 turnovers and like still, it's just, it was Brunson. They win this game solely because of Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter. He was so, so special and he's just relentless, man. He now passed Carmelo Anthony when it comes to 40 point games as a Knick.

Wow. That's crazy. That is fast. Very fast. He trails only Patrick Ewing, who did it 30 times, and Bernard King. I mean, two Hall of Famers there. And I think it was like Brunson's 18th or 19th or something like that. So he's going to likely pass Bernard King at the very least. Crazy. But man, back to that on Ben Thompson play. Like, what I loved about that is you had Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier playing.

showing it well-deserved love despite it happening to the Knicks. Like, like Clyde is going, he had Precious on the ice skates. He kept saying that. And then he had like the bars, like you said, after. And he was going, oops, oops. That was so funny. As Ahmed brings it up, like, yeah, does that crazy little inside out dribble, has Precious like stumbling.

Credit to Precious, he didn't fall over and then gets back, but then gets dunked on because Thompson's that athletic. What a play. Yeah, Precious's persistence made it double the highlight because he could have just allowed him and Thompson to drop him and dunk, but he went and got dunked on, too.

Yeah. That was pretty cool. Good effort. So fun, fun game. Definitely check out the highlights at the very least of the Knicks getting it done there against the Rockets, who I think have now lost three in a row. They have. You know, with the way Grizzlies are playing and they picked up another W last night. You know, a tiny little separation there between the second and third scenes in the West. Another game we got to talk about that we watched the ending of DeRozan leading the Kings 116-114 to a road win over the Wolves. Now,

I was going to call them like the new look Kings, but no Zach Levine there on the roster, just obviously no deer and Fox. So it was DeRozan and monk, you know, leading again, Sacramento to a,

pretty solid victory in Minnesota. Ten points in the fourth quarter for Monk, nine in the fourth quarter for DeRozan, and they were basically just taking turns down the stretch against the Timberwolves, and the Timberwolves couldn't get a stop on either of them. It felt like DeRozan was in clutch player of the year mode. Back in his Bulls days, getting exactly to the spots he wanted.

if it was a shorter guard like a Nikhil Alexander Walker, even Anthony Edwards, he was just shooting over the top. If it was Jaden McDaniels, going by him, finishing at the rim as well. That was pretty impressive. Monk's been on quite a run here. He's been, once they moved him into the starting lineup, it's kind of when things really turned for this team. And then you look at the fourth quarter, the way they were playing, it's like, oh, they have a D.

have a decent lineup out there still it was Monk Murray Sabonis DeRozan and Keon Ellis like that's a decent closing lineup for the Sacramento Kings a team they would have been playing anyways you know had De'Aaron Fox been out with an injury or something like that so I liked watching it my question was like how does Zach Levine fit in here because it felt like we're watching two guys take turns Monk and DeRozan they're both playing awesome that's worked for the Kings here and

Zach Levine did not like being used as go stand there in the corner and wait for DeMar DeRozan to cook when he was on the Chicago Bulls. Part of that certainly was his relationship with Billy Donovan wasn't great, but definitely Levine didn't like being superseded by DeRozan as the go-to guy. He wanted touches in the fourth quarter. I don't know where they're going to come from, but the Kings as Bulls East or Bulls West, they should be better.

Yes. Yes. But they're still in the Western Conference, which is also better. So I don't know where that leaves them. But this was a nice win for the Kings and great stuff from DeRozan and from Monk. Yeah. DeRozan definitely looked like a number one guy where Zach is going to have to take a number two seat going down the stretch there.

I don't know how the chemistry works. It is a big question, but they have the chemistry right out of the gate. 38 points in the first quarter, that ain't easy to do, but their offense looks great. And they closed it, obviously, with DeRozan, especially 33 points on 25 shots, while Monk was 26 points on 23 shots. But DeRozan, the 7-6-0 turnovers, I mean, it seems like with Fox out of the way, he's the one.

And that's it. But we will see how that all plays out with Zach Levine and Monk behind him. The other side, Anthony Edwards, didn't look right. He came back from illness. Looked like he was a little sick out there still. Not so good. Yeah, 7-21 for Ant. 21 points, 3-10 from deep.

No Julius Randle. Three turnovers, four assists. Yeah, no Randles. I thought he was worse on the defensive end. I thought Edwards was getting cooked, and yes, he's coming back from an illness, but I feel like every time I watch the Timberwolves, A, they're always playing a close game, and I'm seeing Edwards' guy score all the time. He's easily screened. He's very easily pump faked, and he's getting beaten off the dribble.

quite a bit. Like, Monk dusted him a couple of times in the fourth quarter, getting wide open layups in half-court settings. Minnesota has played 31 clutch games. It's the most in the league this season. They're 13 and 18. They've won 41%. That's 25th in the league. That's the reason that they're

record is so poor this season in clutch situations. They're 27th in offense. We know that's a problem because they just can't get good shots. They had like a six minute stretch here where they scored two points. Edwards didn't score in the fourth quarter until the game was over for the most part, but they're 24th in defense as well. They're supposed to be a good defensive team. They've got Anthony Edwards, who's supposed to be a good defensive player. I don't think he has been this season. McDaniels is looking a little bit better right now, but

They should be able to get stops. This is a team that is built as a defensive identity, and they don't really play any defense, especially in the fourth quarters, especially in clutch situations, and they just have to hope that Edwards is hitting threes. It's a weird team. That's why they've been so streaky this year. Yeah. They need the Don back. And by the Don, I don't mean Luka. I mean the Dante. I mean, I think they have... I didn't know who you meant, so I'm glad you clarified. He's important. He...

They don't have an identity in the fourth quarter. And I think they started to try and find one by putting Dante in the starting lineup and getting to that, who they are. Because, yeah, they're still a good team, but they don't close games out very well, which, again, was something that happened last year. And they somehow found it enough, especially in the postseason. But, yeah, their defense is lacking, especially on the perimeter. There's no doubt.

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Another game of note, Devin Booker became the Suns' all-time leading scorer in a loss to the Blazers. They fall in overtime, but Book did pass Walter Davis' franchise record of 15,666 points. Hit a three there, you know, close to midway through the third quarter. Hugged his family members at the next timeout.

Given a pretty loud ovation, I thought, from the fans. Like, respect there from the Portland crowd. Pretty classy move. But, yeah, Portland got it done in the end. They're hot right now. This team is racking up victories. The Blazers had a three-point lead. Avdi, a fouled booker in the corner. Like, he was just, like, way too close up on them, under them.

Got the foul called, but Booker made the first two free throws, missed the third, and Aiton grabbed his 20th rebound. That's a lot of roast beef. That's right. He had a big game, 25-20, and Blazers got the 121-119 victory. So not good for the Suns. Congrats to Booker on becoming the franchise's all-time leading scorer. But, man, Portland, man. Let me gas them up right now. Yeah, let's do it. They're 21-29.

That's not good. 13th in the Western Conference. They would be 10th in the East. They're tied with the Bulls right now. Four straight wins. They've won eight of their last nine games. They went 8-8 in January. Like, these don't sound good. That was their first 500-month since December of 2022. The things that stick out to me, first and foremost, Denny Abdiah is a starter now. Shaden Sharp went to the bench. That's when the winning started. Eight of their last nine, like I said, and that has been with Abdiah as a starter there. It means more minutes for their best defenders in Abdiah and to Manny Kamara. Abdiah's been awesome.

Yeah.

More minutes for their best defenders. Like Kamara, I think part of the reason that Booker missed the free throws to tie the game at the end was that he had barely touched the ball in fourth quarter and overtime because Kamara was all over him. They split up Simons and Sharpe, which is huge because you can't survive having both those guys on the court right now, especially Jeremy Grant. He's not really much of a defender now anyway. So they had a lot of guys you could go for. In the games that Obdias started, their second defense, tiny sample size, but if you go back to January 1st, that's 18 games. Their ninth in defense.

they have a little bit of an identity right now which i don't think you can say for the blazers at all during the chauncey billups tenure they're looking okay right now and the second thing scoots hooping scoots playing pretty well 15 points a couple of threes six assists and two turnovers last night that's his averages since the calendar year started in 2025 shooting 48 from the field 42 from three taking almost five a game he turned 21 last night he

He played in goggles all last season because he didn't know he needed glasses. That's right. It ain't over for Scoot Henderson is all I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. They have a different team because he's comfortable coming off the bench even. And he looks good. There are a bunch of guys that look good. For them to be 21 and 29 is a heck of an accomplishment, as weird as that sounds. That's as many victories as they had last year. They were 21 and 61. So kudos to them. Yeah. Denny Avdia is...

he looks like a great complimentary player for a very, very good team. Uh, and they just need to get better a little bit more, you know, across the board. Uh, that's for sure, but they do have a great defensive player and come to money. Kamara, uh, Deandre and against his old team is going to have a good game. There's no doubt about that. He was playing in overtime against Royce O'Neill, the Nick Richards, uh,

experiment is not going well Nick Richards played in this game he sat in overtime he had he was a minus 16 in his limited minutes he started this game but they didn't play him in overtime because the experiment just ain't going that well he gets killed in space that's what's gonna happen and the sons are trying to find something and it was cool how they got to overtime even and

40 seconds left. Kevin Durant blocks a three-point shot from Jeremy Grant. That's a beautiful block, but somehow Jeremy Grant just grabs it and goes and dunks it. It's just a bad bounce for them. But Booker makes an extra pass to Royce O'Neal for the tying three. That was pretty sweet. He could have fired that. He could have. Got a better even look from Royce O'Neal, yeah. Yeah, and the night he became the franchise leader, for sure. And then, triple B, a Bradley Beal block. You don't see that very often, but then they go to overtime, and yeah, DeAndre Ayton...

Very good against, literally against Royce O'Neal. I mean, that's... He should feast. He probably should. Hey, he took six free throws in overtime. That's like two weeks of games. Yeah. Against the old team, he's going to have his best game. That's for sure. 25-20. Only the fifth player this season with a 25-20. The other ones are just awesome. I mean, Jokic a hundred times. Jokic probably 106. No, Janus has it. Surprisingly. Sabonis. Sabonis, yeah. And two others.

Rudy? No. Towns? Yes. And one more. Vooch? He was involved in a big trade. Not Vooch. Luka? No, the guy he was trading for. In his last game, he had what? 42-23, I think. And now Aiton. Aiton. You can see why he went number one. That's right. The funny part is you do see it every once in a while. You're like, damn, this guy's amazing. And then you're like, it's gone. And then you're also like, shit, the Suns have just...

Kept him and Tamani Kamara. Yeah, they should have. Yes, they should have. Tamani Kamara, oh my god, I love the... Like, he's becoming like the 3 and D guy. Because he's hitting threes too. He hit five last night. If you look back over the last little while, he's had other games where he hit... He went 5 for 5 in a game from deep. He's had another one where he went 4. Got up a lot of attempts in that one. But like, he's generally chipping in, you know, 2 or 3. As I think he's like a 36% 3-point shooter. But that's awesome when you pair it with the defense. Because he's got to be able to knock those down. So...

He's going to have a great rising star scheme. You think so? Why not? Lockdown. He's so good, man. The Booker thing is pretty impressive, though. The guy's 28 years old. Oh, I know. He's first in points and only seventh in games.

For the Phoenix Suns. I scored a lot. That doesn't really make sense to me, but then I'm like, okay, best player they've ever had, Steve Nash, not a huge scorer, right? He was more of a passer. Next best player they had, Charles Barkley. He wasn't there for very long. Amari Stoudemire, great scorer, but had injury problems. So yeah, Walter Davis, that's a guy I would like to know more about. Yeah.

Yeah. Because a Hall of Famer was leading the Suns in scoring for a long, long time. Like, rarely discussed. And then you go to his basketball reference page. Awesome nicknames. Walt. Greyhound. Then it gets sexy. Sweet D. Candyman. The man with the velvet touch. Jesus. What was this guy doing?

I'm going to research Walter Davis on Valentine's Day. That's all I'm saying. He was like a six-time All-Star, right? Decent amount of accolades for sure. But I'm with you. Nobody talks about Walter Davis outside of, I guess, Phoenix Suns fans. Sweet D. Yeah. All right, so congrats to Booker there. But congrats to the Blazers on the win. Any other takeaways from Monday's NBA slate? A lot of other games? Well, I will say Trey Murphy's had back-to-back 40-point games for the Pelicans. If there is anything positive, it's that this guy has grown exponentially.

And grown a lot in this season. Maybe grown into a number one or two guy as an experiment, which could be what the Pelicans are looking at in the future. Besides that, the Pacers won an ugly game. That doesn't happen very often. First game, they've won this season shooting under 25% from three. So that wasn't good. They're 12-2 in their last 14. They've locked themselves into fourth in the East because the Bucs right behind them lost...

They lost their fourth in a row. They've got no defense during this losing streak. They've allowed over 125 in every game of the losing streak. And it's not because...

They had no one. They literally were playing no one against OKC. They weren't playing Giannis. They weren't playing Lillard. They weren't playing Brooke. So how are they supposed to win? Just decide on a schedule loss here? Is that what they were doing? I guess so. Yeah. I mean, Trey said it yesterday. You're going to see a lot of different lineups here leading into the trade deadline. So I started thinking, is this going to happen? They absolutely can't trade anybody because they're so top heavy that

that if they trade multiple guys for one guy, like if they trade for a Jimmy Butler or whoever they're looking for, I just think they get so much weaker. During this streak, Bobby Portis has missed the entire streak. And I know it's just Bobby Portis, but it hurts. It just hurts not having him out there. And so I don't think they make a move here in the next couple of days.

And it looks like they're going to be locked into fifth and going to be going on the road again into Indiana like they did last year. Hold on. They played last year in the playoffs, but the home team was the Pacers, right? I can't remember. No, Bucs were 13. Yeah. The Pacers were six, right? Oh, yeah, 3-6. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's correct. That game last night in Oklahoma. I mean, it's insane who was playing in this game. The Thunder won 125-96.

The Thunder scored nine points in the fourth quarter because they were up by a million and then obviously didn't really matter how well they played or not in the fourth quarter. But we had for the Bucs, you had starters Chris Livingston, Ryan Rollins. These are guys. These are NBA guys. They started for Milwaukee last night. And then you had on the Thunder bench because it turned into garbage time, you know, Alex Dukas, Bob Dukas' brother. He's got hot tub foot.

Adam Flagler, we've talked about him. Dylan Jones is a guy playing in this game. I mean, it's wild when you look at this box score. I'll be honest. I didn't watch this one, Skeets. But I'm kind of interested to see what was going on with Adam Flagler in the fourth quarter. Played the entire fourth, went 1 for 11. Yeah, 0 for 8 from deep. He was letting it rip, man. What was he doing? He was letting it rip.

I was watching this game at the beginning and the starting lineup comes up for the Bucs and I thought, okay, this is a malfunction. Somebody messed up in the control room. Yeah.

But no, glad I picked them for their plus 10.5. They're getting 10.5 points they did not cover. Any other games you wanted to address here from last night? I thought a clutch tank loss from the Utah Jazz. They were up 8 with about 5 minutes left, and they just completely stopped scoring. And Siakam was giving it to them on the other end. He's making us look good for having him as an all-star. 10 points in the fourth quarter in that one. You mentioned Trey Murphy. This guy's on a heater right now. That'll pay dividends in the second quarter.

Or in next season, at the very least. And the Wizards, they won back-to-back games now for the second time this season. Yes, that's right. The Wizards up to, I believe, eight wins now on the season. So, you know, like, there's going to be no fear of them, like, having the worst record of all time. Because it sort of was, like, a little in play there when they only had six wins, basically, after 50 or so games. So they're going to be okay. Three of their eight wins are against the Charlotte Hornets. Okay. Good for them. Three of them. And then two against the Hawks.

That's awesome, actually.

They definitely beat the Hawks twice. I didn't know they beat the Hornets three times. Good for them. Yeah, they beat the—I just saw they beat the Hornets every year a lot. But yes, two against the Hawks. That's a big game, man. That's a rivalry game. Let's get into some slop talk, some news. This one, big yesterday. According to Jake Fisher, the Golden State Warriors are exploring the possibility of trading for Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns. That's right.

Potentially. Can they do it? What is your reaction? And what do you think even the likelihood of this happening is, TK? Well, I mean, it's the Warriors, so it ain't going to happen. Yeah.

How many players have they been involved in here so that they can show to their fans, we're trying, we're trying. Trades are hard. That's the go-to motto for the Golden State Warriors front office. Anthony Slater reported yesterday basically saying they're desperate. Shams was saying they've called on every all-star in the league. I looked it up. That's 67 players. You think they called on Isaiah Thomas? I know he's in the G League, but he's an all-star. He might actually help this team. A guy who can score with the ball in his hands.

But it does make me think, is there a world where Kevin Durant is a little bit available right now? Because you're seeing some of that reporting as well, that if the Bradley Beal, Jimmy Butler thing doesn't get done, if Beal won't waive his no trade clause, how long is Kevin Durant going to want to stick around there? It's a guy that you can believe would want to leave a team, I think. And, you know, it's like, why would the Thunder do that move yesterday?

Why would the Rockets get all those future Suns picks during the summer? Is Kevin Durant in play? He hasn't signed a contract extension beyond next season. That does give him a little...

bit of uh control i guess about his future if he wants to be rerouted somewhere phoenix would maintain a very high asking price i believe for kevin durant so you know you're looking at draft capital you're looking at young players if there's a warrior's son's hypothetical where katie comes i i assume someone like jonathan cominga has to be involved in this deal but yeah what do you think is this likely at all this is just great slop here from fisher

It would take two things. It would take the sun saying, we're not trying anymore. They go from going for Jimmy Butler to, all right, we're giving up essentially if they're trying to give out Kevin Durant. And it would also take Kevin Durant saying, happy to go back to the golden state warriors, which I think there's a tiny, teeny, tiny part of him that isn't too proud to do not do it because it would just be, man, I went there. I wasn't the number one guy.

But I'm comfortable doing it again. I ain't winning here. And if you're the Warriors, you've got to say, yeah. I think they would give up Jonathan Kaminga for a couple great years of Kevin Durant. At least, probably three great years, including this one. Two and a half full years of Kevin Durant. Yeah, they would do it in a heartbeat. Especially, we get this combined rumor with the Shams Shranya rumor saying that they are calling everybody. My only question is,

Would they be calling for Paul George? Now, they tried to get him in the offseason, but would they be calling to go get him now under a four-year contract where he hasn't played all that well? I would say no. Even though they've called for every All-Star. Every All-Star. They're on the phone for DeAndre Jordan. DeAndre, come on, DeAndre. In technicality, does every All-Star mean current All-Star or...

Was ever an all-star. Good question. Ben Simmons, we need you. Paul George was an all-star last year, and they were rumored to be wanting him in the offseason. Paul George said, they're coming at me. And now he goes and signs a four-year max. I do not think that they would go get him.

Do you guys think that there's a line in the all-star list that they're looking at? It does feel like maybe Warriors ownership sees what goes down over the last 48 hours or so and goes, holy crap, Luka going to the Lakers. Okay, Fox getting moves. Zach Levine, you know, a name that they were sort of tied to, gets moved to Sacramento. And maybe they're like, hey, Mike.

What are you doing? Are you even calling anyone? You know, I get to get work in the horns, man. And then we get like this. Oh, we're calling everybody. Suddenly it feels honestly, it feels like there's a part of that that's happening here. It's like, well, what are we doing? What about our two timelines? The Lakers have the perfect two timelines. They actually have a star for the next one. Yeah. But Anthony Slater ended his article yesterday for the athletic writing that the Warriors have maintained a willingness to take their star hunting to the summer.

if necessary, but Steph Curry's basketball clock is ticking. He turns 37 next month. And all-stars are flying around the trade market at a greater rate than expected this week. End quote there from Slater. Yeah, they should be working. I mean, we've been saying this for months. I mean, I've definitely been saying, what are you doing, Warriors? I think you're blowing this and you really should be leaning into...

give Curry a chance basically for a year or two here. And that involves moving some of these younger pieces and whatever draft capital to make it happen to get a star guy who that is. Jimmy, Kevin, Paul. Yeah. The West became a tiny bit more open yesterday with Dallas saying, I don't know if we're going to get there. We're moving from Luka Doncic. So I think that opens things, but does it open up?

Matt Ishbia's new vision here. That's the thing. It's up to Matt Ishbia saying we're not going for it for whatever reason. While the West seems to be open a little bit, they just freaking went for it with Bradley Beal. Not just, but I mean, they did try and make a Nick Richards move. So they would be totally doing a 180 to try and get out of this. Here's one guy who will not be available to the Golden State Warriors.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone quieted rumors that Michael Porter Jr. could be dealt this week. They had a big win over the Pels. He played great. MPJ did. And they said, we're not trading Michael Porter. Okay? That's the quote. Pretty damn clear. He says, we're not trading him. And a lot of people thinking if the Nuggets were going to make a move, you know, they don't have a lot of, like, salaries, like, bigger salaries that you would have to move to get another sort of star quality player back. So...

And MPJ obviously has a big deal, but they're saying, no, he's a key part to our success here, has been, and continue to be. Michael Porter Jr., I don't think, has turned out what the Nuggets thought he was going to be, hasn't become a guy who scores a ton with the ball in his hands, but good luck finding somebody who's 6'10 that shoots 50 from the field, 40 from three on six three-point attempts. Also, he's played every game this season.

for the Denver Nuggets. That being said, it's smokescreen season. You can't believe a word any of these people are saying. Mike Malone even hedged his own self talking about this when he said, no, because we're not trading Michael Porter. So I'm not touching base with anybody on that. And if there's something coming, obviously Calvin Booth will talk with me and I'm sure we'll communicate with whatever players. So he's literally saying we're not trading him.

but if we're trading him, things will change. I think it's more likely that it happens in the summer or at some point during the future. He's owed $80 million over the next two seasons. He does make sense as the contract that they would most likely want to move with his age and how much he makes. And obviously Jamal Murray is ahead of him in the pecking order. They're going to keep Jokic and Murray together ahead of keeping Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. together. I don't think it'll happen during this season, but it wouldn't surprise me if Porter's moved at some point on this contract.

I love rumors. I absolutely adore them, but I'm not reading into this one either. I just don't think the way their offense works, they need a guy number one who can shoot the three, but it's also just running plays on the perimeter. You see Russell and you, you see Christian Brown and their backdoor cuts and shooting from the corners. They need somebody up top to work with not only Jokic, but Jamal Murray a little bit. I mean the dribble handoffs from Jokic to Michael Porter jr.

And that is part of their offense. And I just don't think...

that they would try and do something now after they gave up essentially last year by giving away Bruce Brown and now going into this KCP. I shouldn't say gave up, but they gave up their old chemistry, the one that won the title. So I don't think they do it right here, right now. He's been really solid for them. And just to throw something in like that now, throw that wrench in right here before the playoffs, when the West does seem open, it would seem like the wrong thing to do. Although financially...

As Trey said, yes, that makes sense at some point. But I mean, Bruce Brown, bye-bye. Kentavious Caldwell Pope, bye-bye. To do it again, that just means they ain't winning, it would feel like. To me, this just feels like a coach trying to keep the confidence of his, you know, youngish player high here who's rolling right now. Hey, yeah, your name's in all these trade rumors, but squash it. Don't worry. We're not trading you. I'm not trading you at the very least is what he's sort of saying. I believe in you. You're important. You have been, you will be. And like, keep that sort of flow going. But yeah.

Yeah. Will he finish his entire either contract or career with the Denver Nuggets? Unlikely. But sure, right now, before the deadline, I think they will probably stick with him. They were a fourth quarter away from making it back to the conference finals last season. So the KCP thing happened. The Nuggets made the right call on that. He hasn't been very good for the Magic. Christian Brown has been awesome. Westbrook has been...

a steal for them this season. So I imagine they will try it again. If they fall short again this year, that's when I think they really start thinking about moving Michael Porter Jr. just because how many other ways are there to improve this team? They still owe a pick to the magic for the Aaron Gordon trade. Aaron Gordon's not going anywhere. They just signed him. So I think that we'll see how the playoffs go. Sure.

Alright, more reporting around the Mavericks' decision to trade Luka Doncic. It's spilled out over the last couple days here since that deal broke. Now the two main stories, you got one on ESPN from Ramona Shelburne and Tim McMahon. That one titled Unfathomable, How the Stunning Luka AD Trade Came Together. And then we got one from the Athletics powerhouse trio of Fred Katz, Joe Varden, and Sam Emick writing about the top secret trade negotiations that made Luka Doncic.

get to the Lakers. So I guess my question for you guys, you've read both of these. What was your biggest takeaway from now these sort of detailed reporting here from ESPN and The Athletic when it comes to the Luka-AD trade and how it came about? Well, the first thing is I'm not a fan of this slow drip coffee idea that takes eight hours to drip. I've tried it.

I like the nitro coffees. Well, the inclusion of that little nitro, yeah, it sounds cool, but it doesn't really do anything. This is in the ESPN article. Yeah, yeah. Ramona Shelburne boss. It's a great piece. Setting the scene of the coffee house where the now infamous, I guess, first meeting between Palenka and Nico Harrison went down to start spitballing this trade, I guess. I've never been to that coffee shop. Sure. But I have had a extreme slow drip Dutch coffee. It's just a coffee. Yeah.

It takes eight hours to brew. We've had better with our man, Marty, at Broad Sheet Coffee. He roasts a great bean. It does taste like a great bean. Brewed immediately, and it's good. Anyway, what this piece said to me was, especially the ESPN one, was a lot about the chemistry that Luka Doncic lacks in creating in a locker room. So there's a lot about his work ethic, but it's also just about

Ain't fun to be around his personality, the culture, the culture kept being said a million times by Nico Harris. Those are not Nico's. I don't know if it was number one word, but it was high on there. I mean, a lot of culture, a lot of culture talk. And so I don't know. It's, it's being, it's like a spider web here. It's, it's being thrown up multiple ways. He's overweight and doesn't want to work all that hard. The lack of culture is there. The lack of defense is there.

So those are the things that are sticking out right here, right now to seemingly create this reason for not wanting Luka Doncic around.

Yeah, they're going hard on the conditioning, I think, is basically the smear tactic here from the Dallas Mavericks. But also, I think Luka played the most combined minutes of anybody in the season last year, including the playoffs when he led the entire playoffs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. So maybe work on his conditioning if that's something you're really working about, which makes you think maybe it's something else. And it kind of feels like Nico Harrison maybe just didn't like Luka Doncic. Yeah.

Traded Dorian Finney-Smith, his best friend, included Maxi Kleban in this trade. They mentioned how they fired every coach he liked, all the trainers he liked, had to hire new trainers as well. At one point, they have a quote from Luka saying, they get rid of everybody I like. It just seems like they made it untenable for Luka to want to stay around. Maybe he hadn't requested a trade. Maybe he hadn't said anything about not wanting to

Signed the Supermax that, you know, Nico talked about a tumultuous offseason coming for the Mavericks in summer 2025. So there just must have been a lot of tension and maybe it comes from Harrison just not liking the way Luca carries himself.

Yeah. Which is interesting. It's usually players win out, especially players of this stature. But the Mavericks are back in Nico Harrison. Yeah, there's a quote from Harrison that says, there's other teams that were loading up to acquire Luka as a free agent. He was going to have to make his own decision at some point of whether he wants to be here or not, whether we want to supermax him or not, or whether he wants to opt out.

yeah he keeps bringing up this idea like and it's like they sort of like go hand in hand it feels like it's like well he doesn't like me I don't really like him therefore I'm worried about first off handing him a super max contract and us continuing our relationship or him hating me so much that he's like I don't want to be here because I hate you and I want out of here like so like we'll get ahead of it and we'll just train him before that

Again, if that's what went down if that's like this like conflict of like relationship and they butt heads, okay strange You can't get over that especially from Lucas side of things. It hasn't been like I want out of here We haven't heard any of that they're not saying that either but

It's just so odd still that you just decided to talk to Rob Polinka and the Lakers. I can't get over that part because they did not enter deep negotiations with any other team. I know there's one other team that they sort of kicked the tires on, but like they didn't. And he said, or this is from the ESPN article, Harrison decided early on, team sources said, that the best way to trade a player of Luka Doncic's caliber was to pick the trade that he wanted

nico harrison rather than open up the process to avoid luca and his agent exerting their own leverage it would also avoid the crippling fan backlash that might influence the deal

This is when we were reacting on the emergency podcast and we were trying to figure out what the hell's going on here. Why'd they do it this way? I brought that up. I said, a part of this feels like he wanted to do this like secretly because you're going to trade Luca. And otherwise you had said, we're going to try Luca auction. Let's go get your best deals. Like the backlash would have been insane. It still is by the way, but it would have been nuts. And I felt like a part of this, why they did that sort of in the shadows here. Cause he's got his tail between his legs a little bit. Cause he knows how insane it is, what he's doing.

Trading Luka to Lakers. Yeah, yeah. It's a good point. And it reminds me, and it was gone through in the ESPN article, how this has happened before where these trades that are on the burner, they're going to happen, but they take some time, end up being rough for everybody involved. I remember the Anthony Davis deal from New Orleans to the Lakers when he said, I want to be dealt to the Lakers. And it took them.

I guess it was like six weeks. I don't know. Yeah, but guess what? They got a better deal. They did. They did. They just got more than one pick. And Anthony Davis. And unfortunately, I initially thought that it must mean Luka's leaving.

That has definitely not been confirmed. And he was just purchasing a $15 million home, according to all reports and real reports, that he wanted in Dallas. Now, I think Nico Harrison should have just gone to the real estate agent and said, you know, slow this flow. Or no, I guess he would be giving it away if he did that. He can't give it away. But he's saying all the things that he wants in, number one, a guy in the locker room, and number two,

on the floor when he says defense matters in our archetypes of players. And then you take a step back and you say basketball is as simple as a guy who leads your team to the finals. And the articles also says he gets quotes from people like, okay, this guy was averaging 27 and nine and nine and leading us to the finals. And so I,

And there's obviously a lot of layers. And we've said, how much is this guy going to be the same guy in three or four years, I suppose, because it's also a Niko Arsene said, we're not making this trade just for now, but for the future, which is hard to believe when you got older. Yeah. You've like your star player being another mid 30 something guy instead of Luca in his mid 20s.

One thing too, like Nico Harrison's news conference, press conference, when he praised Rob Palenka's ability to keep the talks quiet, even though they had been going on for weeks. That was funny, man.

What? Of course Rob Palenka is going to keep it quiet. Like he's not that stupid. Like, yeah, yeah. We'll just talk just with you about getting Luka Doncic. Yeah. I won't broadcast this to Shams or any other reporters. Yeah, no problem, man. We keep this under wraps. Like, what is he talking about? Nico Harrison? Like he was like, that's my guy. That's my buddy, man. He kept his quiet.

He really helped us out. Insanity, man. We did nothing for him. Just insane. But recommend you go read both these articles. I do love the detail of Danny Ainge getting involved. He's like, ooh, you got some second-round draft picks? I'll get in this trade. Only to then find out it's the Lakers getting Luka Doncic. He must have been furious. That's really funny. That part was pretty funny. Yeah, great curveball. And I was just left wondering, like,

When you hear conditioning problems, it's always big guys. It's like Jokic. People had questions about his conditioning before, honestly, before the bubble. He came back in great shape and turned into a top 10 all-time player. Joel Embiid is a guy with conditioning issues. DeMarcus Cousins at one point. Shaq is obviously a huge one. I mean, Barkley to some extent. Okay, maybe Barkley is like the closest to Luka Doncic because it's rare to find perimeter guys. I tweeted it yesterday and people are like, Kyle Lowry?

I think that's a fair one. Like Boris Diaw. And then people are like Khalid Al-Amin. I was like, okay, yes. Yeah, that was a problem for sure, but not quite on the same level. But it's pretty rare for guards to get called out like that. Yeah, it's a good call. And that's why people say, hey, 28-9-9. I just upped his point per game. I think that was the right number, whatever it was quoted at. But 28-9-9, you just can't replicate that. So, yeah, I don't see how...

I just don't see the physical projection of how this isn't going to work out in several years. Maybe Nico knows more, but he will be playing beside LeBron James again, and maybe LeBron can help him in that, in getting him set on his body a little bit more.

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to find the reasoning. That's the fear for the rest of the league. Exactly that. That, oh my God, that this will be the thing that somehow he goes even crazier, despite being already one of the greatest players, at least of his generation here, as being so young too. We'll see. Go read those articles. Final one here. We've got a trio of basketball Hall of Famers that are the four coaches who will serve as honorary head coaches for the Castrol Rising Stars. Yes, Castrol.

Vroom, vroom, baby. That's oil, right? I think so, yeah. I don't know a lot about cars, but I believe it is. Tim Hardaway Sr., Chris Mullen, Mitch Richmond, all former Golden State Warriors. Yeah, Team T, Team M, Team C. They're going to serve as honorary coaches. And we've got former NBA player and Warriors guard Jeremy Lin as the fourth head coach there for Team G League. Cool. You guys, okay, you like this, huh? Good get. Yeah.

At first I laughed at Team T, Team M, Team C. Why would you name them that? Obviously it's the Warriors, TMC. Yeah, run TMC. And I thought, you know, it's better than previous iterations of this Rising Stars. Do you really remember the coaches? We all went through them. This is, you know, for the hometown. It's like Hal Gasol has done it a lot. Jalen Rose, I guess, has done it a lot. They had Detlef Schrempf last year. Yes, he was there. We had Tameka Ketchings in Indiana. Last year, yeah.

Yeah, so this is good for them. That's some real sicko behavior. Yes, it is. Naming the honorary coaches for relaxing stars games. Show team Noah. Yes. Beasted it. But anyways, it's good for the hometown to have the TMC flashbacks. Yeah, it's good.

Could be some, you know, some... It's old. Gently ribbing between the old guys there. The coaches, right? Yeah. You gotta mic them up. Let them have at it. Chris Mullen, I think, is a known trash talker. I like that these guys still look the same as they did when they played for the Warriors. They all got their same haircuts. Right. Tim and Mitch, they shaved their heads and Chris is sticking with the flat top. Yeah. Crazy. So, 2026...

The All-Star game will be in Los Angeles. Who are going to be the honorary coaches in Los Angeles? Well, I mean, Pau Gasol could be back in the... But it's Clippers. It's Clippers. It's into it, Dome. Wow. Elton Brand? Give me a Lloyd Vaught. Bring back Lloyd Vaught? Why not? Blake will do it. He's funny on the mic. Blake Griffin could be, especially since he's going to be on... Is he Amazon or Peacock? I don't remember. Yeah, I think it's Amazon. Would Bones do it? Would Brent Berry do it? Wow.

It's not bad. Rick Barry's done it. Rick Barry has done it, yes. Yeah, who else? Chris Kamen. Chris Kamen. We could lie down. Team Chris.

Yeah, all right. Those are some suggestions. Let us know. Darius Miles. Darius Miles. Quentin Richardson. They're podcasters as well. For sure. Okay, I like those guys. That's good. That's a good call. We just got to find the other two. I like that start. Yeah, Blake. I think that's three right there. We just need the fourth. We need a G League Clipper guy.

Mike Taylor, first player ever drafted from the G League into the NBA. Jesus. I think that's true. Okay, well, let's honor him. Check the facts. Jamal Crawford will be used. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, he's a broadcaster. We probably just named the four, honestly. If they go Miles and Keurig. Some unfortunate news.

We will not be doing a live show in San Francisco after all. I know I told you on Friday, get ready. Tickets are coming. Here we go. Some unfortunate circumstances are not going to allow us to get there to San Fran to do the live show. So apologies if you were planning on joining us on February 14th. We were going to exchange Valentines, man. It was going to be great. But it won't be happening this year. So sorry. But don't you worry. We've got some fun things in store for our All-Star Weekend coverage from here in Atlanta.

Maybe better. Maybe better. Better than a live show. You want to do a live show here in the Classic Factory? Yeah, let's do it. Open up the garage doors and pile them in here. You want to have our own dunk contest? Come over to my house, lower the rim? I'm game. Always. Careful, we got a slanty driveway. It could be dangerous on the ankles, but... And would, like, if you dunked on your net, like, would you tear it down? Like, if you really hung on the net? Like, it's not...

Only one way to find out. You know, it was very, very sturdy until my dad accidentally backed over the water reservoir, completely emptying it. Now I got sandbags on top. Thanks, Dad. Oh, geez. Oh, he like cracked the water reservoir for the net. Yeah, it's got a hole in it. So yeah, it's definitely not holding us on Duncan on it. It hasn't fallen in over a year.

Let's risk it. All right. All right. Well, maybe we'll do that over All-Star weekend. Bring back the dunk contest that we used to do. All right. Let's get to a pick-em for tonight. Last night, a lot of us took the thunder. We said, hey, that might be a scheduled victory. We were right. They easily covered the 10 and a half. Tass, you had the bucks, so you're 0 and 1 here in February. Definitely. All right.

I was excited about the Lakers going to visit the Clippers. Or is Luka debuting? Although that is highly, highly, highly unlikely. So I went with the...

Just another doozy. Boston in Cleveland. 1-2 here in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland, basically a pick-em. They're favored by one and a half. I was surprised that two of us picked Cleveland. Seeds and I in two picked Boston. Trey and Ash. Okay, we're split. Are those the TNT games tonight then? Boston, Cleveland, and then Clips Lakes?

This one, Cleveland-Boston is definitely TNT. I would think the other one is, wouldn't you? You would think so. Yeah, it is. That's pretty tasty. Pretty tasty for a Tuesday night. All right, so we're split one and a half Cleveland as the favorites there. Let's call it there. Thanks for joining us. Again, hit the like button, subscribe. We've got to get off the air because you never know when we're going to have to do an emergency podcast. That's how we have to live this week.

You know, he's got to be always ready, always available. Do you think we'll get another one before actual Thursday trade deadline day? Nora asked me that today. Like, are you going to get another big trade? And I was like, I don't think so until the deadline. I agree. Like if Jimmy Butler is traded, maybe Vucevic. I mean, well, this KD one's obviously interesting. If that happens, that's huge. Oh, yeah. No, I don't. I think if we get on, it happens on the Thursday.

Yeah. I don't have one. I don't have one that I know is happening beforehand. Okay. Well, we're going to be here obviously tomorrow. We'll be here on Thursday morning and then we plan on going live on

for the deadline again on Thursday in the afternoon around 2 or 3 p.m. Eastern, probably building up to the actual deadline. So 2 p.m. Eastern, let's call it. So two shows on Thursday, then the drop on Friday. So lots of No Dunks content coming your way. Till then, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. And remember, the best quote, I think, from the Luka Doncic trade was from Anthony Edwards. He said, quote, I'm scared. Tim,

If you're gonna trade me, let me know, dawg. 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 Claussen, 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.