This podcast episode is brought to you by Coors Light. These days, everything is go, go go. It's NonStop hustle all the time. Work, friends, family, expect you to be on twenty four seven. Well, sometimes you just need to reach for a Coors Light because it's made to chill. Coorse Light is cold loggered, cold filtered, and cold package. It's as crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. He's literally made to chill. Coors Light is the one I choose when I need to unwind. So when you want to hit reset, reach for the beer that's made to chill. Get Coors Light and the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or instat cart Celebrate responsibly. Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado. What's up, y'all is Jerusky and I've teamed up with Mountain Dew to produce a hilarious new basketball podcast called The Douzone. With Drusky, learn the backstories of your favorite balls and celebrities like Jamal Murray. Did you have like a favorite team? Was it the Raptors at the time or no, was the Raptors even started around the top? Come on, Brod, you like I'm vity Taylor Rose, Asia Wilson, and any more. You won't want to miss this. Listen to The Dudes One with Drew Ski on Apple podcast, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts. What is Krack oakin Hardware Knocks listeners. I am Dan for Valley, coming at you without my co host Adam Frommel back by popular demand, though at least between my ears is good friend and colleague Bleacher Reports NBA national writer Grant Hughes. Follow him on Twitter at gt Underscore Hughes. We're gonna get into some mid season factor fictions that Grant is coming in blind too. I'll get into more of that in a minute, but just as a brief, quick and important reminder, please please please please continue rating and reviewing and subscribing to this podcast on iTunes search Hardware Knocks on iTunes, throw us that fires the rating, what right, whatever you want in the reviews. It helps us out a ton, and definitely subscribe and about all the episodes. Wherever you're consuming our podcast, iTunes help reduce those numbers whether you use it or not. But wherever you get your podcasts, make sure you're subscribed and downloading every episode and word of math, pass it along, tell people, friends, family, acquaintances, random people on the internet that this podcast is at least pleasantly mediocre or sub mediocre. Let's call let's let's set the bar too high. With all of that out of the way, though, Grants, how are you doing? I'm kind of nervous because you offered to send me. You know, normally we will discuss a little bit before we record these what we're going to talk about, and I recklessly declined this time. And so I'm just waiting to look foolish and uneducated, and we'll also bonus for you. You're gonna look really smart by comparison. So and I did this to myself when I gave you the pitch for this podcast. I've said, look, we can go into all star rosters, but then you could tell by the number of words I used where I said, why don't we just do factor fiction where you come in blind that I didn't really want to do all star rosters, in large part because I'm not into there being a game at all, but also the conversation bores me a little bit. I respect anyone wants to talk about it, but you could tell which which direction I was favoring based on the text message that I sent you for this podcast. I couldn't further underscore my irresponsibility as a guest. I did spend literally all day today thinking about the All Star Game and putting together predictions for the reserves after the starters get announced tomorrow, so I could absolutely talk about that. It would probably be a really thorough educated discussion, but we're not going to do that. I've already prepped some snubs too. I have to release snubs for starters after those are picked, but I don't have if we get to it, because I have a ton. But since we're pressed for time, I'm just gonna get through. I'm going to use the most interesting ones. A lot of trade deadline stuff just because I feel like it's topical now, since teams are already benching players in anticipation of a trade deadline that's like five weeks away at this point. Anyway, are you ready coming in blind just to just to get through this, I'm not getting any readier, all right, I'm gonna start with the Brooklyn Nets factor fiction. The Brooklyn Nets will trade Spencer Dinwoody. Oh, that's interesting. I will say fact, and only because it doesn't seem like he's going to be back at all this year. It's his injury was weird. They called it like a mild ACL tear or a partial tear, which usually there's not that distinction. That could I don't know what that means. But he's out for the year, correct, Like, yeah, they still be out for the year with that torn right ACL? Yeah? Or so it's partially torn, right, you have to say that now, No, the so just on the thinking that like this is a team that needs, you know, all hands on deck and then some sacrificed all its depth to trade for James Harden and Dinwoody cannot help them this year, So I mean he can't help anybody else, which is what complicates the trade. Uh So, like who who wants him, you know, to take dead money for this year? And then he's probably going to opt out because I believe he's entering he can enter free agency. You can correct me if he's got one more year. But I think so you're trading to him unless you're giving up a bad deal. You want his bird rights is the incentive? Yeah? Yeah, Which that's an interesting thing that's entered the trade discussions now is like, oh, you want this guy's bird rights, like people talk about that with all DEEPO a little bit. He's like, I don't know, dude, does it? How much does that really matter? So I'll say a fact just because he can't help the Nets and they need guys that can help them, so they're motivated to move him. Yeah. So I don't necessarily believe all these these are just topics that I've plucked that I find interesting. I would call this a fact too. I just think they need his salary filler because they're not going to move DeAndre Jordan. And I do think his bird rights because he's such a good offensive player, will be important to some teams that maybe aren't slated to have massive cap space or wouldn't be able to appeal to him in free agency. Normally, the team that I think he's a great fit for, I don't know how much they value his bird rights would be Orlando. Can you work out something built around would have to be Dinwoodie and stuff. They have Shammitt and second round picks and TLC for Aaron Gordon once he's healthy, or maybe you don't need stuff because I heard Gorn's injured right now. The other one I thought about is how much foresight is Memphis operating with? And would you own his valanciunist beyond the table because he'd be interesting for this team. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of guys you'd say it would be interesting for the natser you could say, well, he could play for them, right, because they just I mean, they're just thin. They just And I don't think the buyout market is going to really be as impactful for them as as you'd expect, just because like, who's realistically going to be there? I don't know. I mean maybe Andre Drummond. Don't want to jump the gun. I'm sure we'll talk about him, but let's look, let's talk about him next. And we have a mailbag question that I skipped over in our last mailbag and I felt bad doing it because I get questions when we don't have mailbags in my DMS, and I fully appreciate those people, and I missed one during our last mailbag. So I'm gonna I'm gonna throw it onto you with Andre Drummond. But let's start here. Factor Andre Drummond gets bought out, not traded. Oh, I feel like I'm gonna say, oh, that's a good one to all of these. No, I have a few that I know you're gonna despise. Don't worry about it. Well, I kind of hate this one because it's hard. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say fact, he will get bought out because I just don't know, Like he's got the cosmetic numbers, right, you know, the whatever it is, seventeen ish and thirteen ish or something in that neighborhood. You know it gets a bunch of steals and all that stuff. But he's shooting this is as of a couple of days ago, like forty seven point four or forty eight point four percent, and he only shoots twos. So I'm not sure he's a major impact guy that you would give up the requisite salary to acquire. And I'm assuming you're talking about a team that is contending or fancies itself a contender, like a Boston or something like that, that needs somebody needs a body, needs a big guy in the middle that could theoretically close playoff games, which maybe Drummond is. I don't know, but I just don't see a realistic trade for him. And so he is the type of guy that you could imagine a buyout for you know, unlike Griffin, that Blake Griffin, who I think is kind of linked because he's also sitting out, who's got that player option for like thirty nine million next year. That's not I mean you could. I can't imagine how you arrive at a buyout number for someone like him. Drummond's a little bit easier, I guess because he's you know, just expiring this year, and you know, he could take half of whatever he's got left on the books to take off. So I like, I like the buyout option for him. It's just it's the money. For me. There are teams that I think would be interested in him, but how do you you know, compiling the money. Like let's use Toronto as the example, because they were linked to him just getting the twenty eight million. It's it's so hard he's at you don't have to get there, but twenty eight point eight million, So you have to get over twenty million in salary if you're a normal team. And like, yeah, there are teams like Dallas, everyone links them to a big I think it's fair this season because Christapp's kind of sucks on defense. But like you have one contract. Maybe you're okay getting rid of and let's say Norman Powell for Toronto that's ten point nine million, Like where are you coming up with the other ten? Like I wouldn't give up Chris Boucher in that. Yeah, you give up Patrick McCaw. Yeah you give up they do. They have no he's not on there, but like maybe you give up Stanley Johnson. But now you're getting into scenario where it's four for one in the middle of the season and it's just not going to happen. So and I don't know that there's like a really bad contract out there that yeah, you could definitely move him if you're taking back bad money. But even if you know, let use Dallas and say they want to get rid of Dwight Powell's money. Even though he's been up and down this year, I'd say mostly bad. He's still only making eleven point one And so it's like, okay, Dwight Powell and James Johnson, that does work, But what else are you giving Cleveland in that scenario. There are just so few situations like that where it seems like that could work. I expect him to get bought out. It's just the sheer volume. It's not because he's a bad player, but you can't invest that type of money in such a pure five at this time. Yeah, and to go back to the Toronto example, because they are kind of perfect for it. Like, I don't think you involved Norm Powell because I think he probably gives the Raptors more than Drummond does. Just you know, your big trades are weird. Yeah, forget the dollar amount. If you lose Powell and you're the Raptors and Kyle Lowry just went down I think today or yesterday, Like you're not replacing Powell. I just don't know where that production comes from. But the other thing is if you do start throwing like, well, here take like our five, you know, the five contracts we can throw together that we could get close to the number for Drummond, and then like, okay, fine, maybe one or two of those guys as a rotation guy. So now you're down a rotation player and you got to replace those guys on the roster with minimums or whatever. And so if you're taking on Drummond, which is going to be more than you sent out theoretically, and then you're replacing those guys and you're a good team like Toronto or someone that theoretically would go for Drummond. Now you're bumping your tax bill up, and like, is Andre Drummond worth his salary plus whatever the tax penalties are. I just like, I don't know, man, Like, there's just that's his expiring deals are always great, but that number is just too big to make sense in almost every trade you put together. And he probably wants to get traded so that he can go somewhere that I'll have his bird rights. But the reality is I just don't see it, which is why the Cavaliers. You know, I don't know how you feel about Draymond Green's talking points. I think he used a lot of the wrong players when he's mentioning James Harden and Anthony Davis. Yeah, the coverage of Kyrie Irving has definitely been on faret points. But this pastime where it's like, yeah, I kind of get that maybe he needed a break, But then he shows up and he's partying with his sister. Those guys careers aren't on the line. Drummond and Griffin are interesting to me just because it's like we're so far from the trade deadline. This feels more like a team driven thing when realizing that they don't have a market, and that's like a it's just a readily existent market. It's like, those are the players I'd focus on. Where yet it's I don't know that Andre Drummond is fighting for his career right now, but it does suck for them because he's not the type of player that has the leverage to force a trade. And while he might be amenable to sitting right now, you don't think this has to do with Cleveland wanting to play Jared Allen Moore and this is this just gives them an excuse to do that without having a you know, have Drummond in the rotation taking up space or you know, being angry about his playing time or hijacking possessions because he's a free agent and wants to make his money. Yeah. No, like he made me think I'm gonna throw a factor fiction, Drummond related back at you because you made me think of it with the bird rights issue. Factor fiction. The team Andre Drummond goes to, however it happens, leaving the Calves this season, will not be the team he plays for next year, because he seems like a rental to me, I'll just say it's fiction for Mayan. But like I just I don't. I don't imagine that a team is trading for Andre Drummond right now, thinking like, oh man, we gotta have the ability to keep this guy for a market rate salary and we want his bird rights to do that. I feel like he's just a stop gap for somebody and then he's gonna, you know, he'll just hit unrestricted free agency and sign someplace else. That that feels like the path to me. Yeah, especially maybe if he's traded, you could say that's the team he'll play for next year. But if he's bought out, I would absolutely think that he'll end up with a different team and free agency. Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas Hearns legends whose four way rivalry define one of the greatest errors in boxing history, relive their decade of dominance in the new Showtime Sports documentary The Kings, a four parts series premiering Sunday, June sixth, only on Showtime. So the Drummond question we have comes from listener Ewing McDonald. Again, apologies for not getting this on the actual mailbag. Andre Drummond is consistently rated as one of the best players in basketball in the defensive rating category. Any one or two years like this, and I think it's easy to dismiss as a statistically noisy outlier, but he's essentially been top ten in the league in defensive ratings since becoming a full time starter. Defensive rating is obviously a single data point that doesn't prove anything, but I have a hard time squaring these numbers with the eye tech. He usually makes the top ten in blocks per game, but as far from what I would call it dominating rim protector, and he gets cooked every time he's in pick and roll coverage or switched on to perimeter guys, how would you reconcile this? Grant? Oh man, I'd say, I'd say I wish I had researched this a little bit more of Number one. No, I think I think he is. I'm looking at his on off, you know, stuff over the last for his career right now, and I think that's instructive because he's got a couple of really massive negative on court neet rating swings kind of interspersed with some decent, you know, plus five point five and fifteen sixteen minus twelve point one, in sixteen seventeen minus one point five, the next year plus eleven point four, and eighteen nineteen minus one point five, sixteen point one. So he's all over the map. And I think what that sort of points too, is that one, yeah, all those stats are noisy. Defensive rating is especially noisy because it depends on who else is out there, depends on opponent shooting luck, depends on all kinds of stuff that are out of the individual players control. And so I think generally you just have to look deeper than certainly individual defensive rating to gauge how effective a defensive big is, because like there's just so much more that goes into it. Think of, you know, Robin Lopez, just to kind of really get tangential, is not a good individual rebounder, but his team's always rebound better when he's on the floor. So you have to start looking at stuff that says, well, what does the team do when he's out there versus how does it look when he's not. So I don't know if that reconciles it, but like he gets a ton of rebounds, and you know, first at like pr for example, which I'm sure Drummond always rates highly in loves defensive rebounding, loves high field goal percentages. That doesn't take into account the things he doesn't do, which is, you know, get in good position and maybe not go for the defensive board. A lot of bigs at Hort DeAndre Jordan, for example, would get out of position defensively or maybe not contest a shot that he otherwise could have because he wants defensive rebounding position. So to reconcile it, you got to look at more numbers. You got to consider context, and you have to watch the games to see, like, what kind of player this guy is as opposed to well, his defensive rating is ninety eight point four, so he's so he's good. It just has to be. It's like anything, It's more complicated than just one number. I think, and I think you look at the stan Van Gundi coached years in Detroit specifically, and the two things that stand out are he was married to certain lineup combinations Drummond that probably performed better defensively than a lot of if he was playing in other lineups that wouldn't have because they wanted a very specific set of personnel around him. And then two excuse me, is he's never been like that actual deterrent, Like he has never had great I feel like this season, actually the beginning with Cleveland is probably the best defense he had in front of him his entire career. Maybe, But teams shoot better generally at the rim with him on the court. There's been a bunch of years where they take a higher percentage of their shots at the rim with him on the court, and I do think that speaks to his troubles. And then the third thing I would point out for why his defensive rating specifically is you know, some of these numbers are weird, Like I'm looking at the screenshot you only sent me. You know, in twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen he was ranked first an individual defensive rating. That's just that screams noisy to me. And also, there were Detroit teams I did not look this up, but they always seemed not always, but there were Detroit teams that, even being mediocre on defense in general, it felt like they overachieved. And so I think those things sort of combined to one. My second point really just shows like why he wouldn't be the great defenders. You don't use him to anchor these lineups. Like he can be part of a good defense, I just don't know that he could be the lifeblood of it. And we saw that in Detroit a bunch and to his credit, like you didn't have guards that could stop drible penetration while he was in Detroit. Really he also played next to some power forwards. You look at Blake Griffin, who just weren't great defenders, and so that's going to sell him out even more. But again, I think the lineup combinations in Detroit specifically understand Van Gundi even more specifically, probably helped buoy his defensive rating. I don't know if that's an adequate explanation, but he is. He's sort of fascinating, just like the way we talked about another former Piston, Avery Bradley, and sort of his on ball defense. Like I think team defenders smart team defenders just have inherently more value, even though you may not. They can't go and Robert Cummington isn't gonna lock up some guy, but because you can provide, you know, weak side help at the rim, I'm an addition to like closing out well and not leaving spot up shooters all alone forever. That's going to help you more than someone who can you know, sometimes they can take someone out of a game, but unless you're Ben Simmons, you're not taking a star out of a game. And Drummond's just never He's never even been on the mbiad level where it's like or go let alone Gobert, where it's like, hey, funnel the action into the back line, like you don't want to do that because he there happened moments, he has good hands and where he seems like he's played well in space. But it's just never been consistent either. And I'm not saying he has a low IQ that individual consistency when you weed out all the other problems or factors that were around him, it just never felt like it's been there for him. Yeah, I mean, just as another example, you mentioned the rim numbers, Like I think if you look at enough different years, you start to sort of like normalize some of the variables like lineup combinations and other stuff. Just five of the last six years, as I'm looking at it, opponent's effective field will percentage has been higher with him on the floor than off. Now that's all across the floor, so it's not just at the rim where maybe he's the primary defender, but even that's indicative of he's not that mobile, he's not that intuitive and help rotations, you know, that type of thing. But also just to make a broader point, and we can button this up, because we're getting weigh into the weeds, you know, sometimes like Andre Drummond has been a regular starter for his whole career, So he's playing typically you know, the first quarter, which is playing against first units. He'll play the third quarter that's against first units. He'll play the last six minutes of the second and fourth quarter that's against first units. So he's getting action against better competition. So that probably means he's got better teammates too in theory. But I mean all those little granular things, that's what some of the better advanced, you know, catch all metrics are doing now is filtering out a lot of the stuff of well, who are you playing against and who are you playing with? But but yeah, I think I don't know if anybody like has Drummond ever even been a serious consideration for an all defensive team. He hasn't made one. I can't remember a year where he was like even a you know, a serious thought on that, and so no, I don't know numbers, just not a helpful defensive player generally speaking. Yeah, I thought maybe like could there be like the Roy hibbertification of Andrew Drummond here where it's if you pull him out of the paint, he just becomes like super useless. I don't think that he's there because if you look at some of the numbers, like of him defending, you know, I don't know what these like when you look at the Brook Lopez, for example, is shooting one of seven against Andrew Drummond on threes this year. That's I don't know how much noise is in there. I didn't watch every single one of those possessions. It does seems like he's just is going to struggle against the more mobile bigs, like if they can put the ball on the floor, forget about floor spacing, that's where's achilles heel is going to be. And because those biggs exist in increasing frequency over the years, I think that's probably hurt him as well. Again, I think your explanation, they'll probably it does a better job of contextualizing why he ranks so high in individual defensive rating for the question. Good question, though, Let's stick with this sort of same general topic, and so fact or fiction, Blake Griffin or Al Horford will be traded by the deadline. Fact and it's it's gotta be Horford. I think a smart team, Yeah, should do it. I think so too. I mean, you see the Boston talk because that trade exception kind of works out. I think this is the great like misconception about about the trade exception that Boston has, which is twenty and a half million, is they they're hardcapped and so right now they can only use like nineteen or twenty one of it unless they slough off some other salary. So it's like, oh, Buchavitch fits Like, no, he doesn't because they'd have to make some moves to clear extra room for that. Yeah, they look like they have twenty two or I have them. So this is a trust my math, twenty two million in room below the apron. So I've I've seen like three different accounts of it. So some of the Celtics guys have it at like twenty one or twenty two point one. I saw nineteen. It's not twenty eight and a half. I know that it's so they're either they're somewhere between fifteen and sixteen under the tax and then there's somewhere between like twenty one and twenty two under the apron. I think that's fair to say. But they can't use the full thing without moving other salary, right so so but to get back to it Orford like might make some sense. I don't know, that's like, but whereas if but just just for comparisons sake, if you're the Celtics and it's like, it's not apples to apples because Griffin makes way more and with the trade exceptions out the window, but it's like, of course you'd rather have Apple for than Blake Griffin, right like, even if even if the month he were the same, I think, and I Horford makes sense on a good team Griffin. I don't know what Griffin does for you, like I don't. I don't know what his role is. Yeah, and again unless you're getting off a worse contract, which I feel, what is that? Right? There are very few right now? Is you know, is Washington trading Russell Westbrook for him? And what are they attaching to it? But looking at Griffin, maybe he could rest up and get to the rim more and he'll be shooting better because he's shooting three is okay. At the beginning of the year, he still has at thirty nine million dollars player option al. Horford has two more years at fifty three point five and it's actually lower than that. It's about thirty nine million guaranteed exactly because there's a fourteen point five million guarantee in the in that that latter season. So he's just going to do more for you as a defender and a passer at this point, and maybe even as a floor spacer depending on what Griffin's really doing. So the price point is high. It would be hysterical if he goes back to the Celtics after Boston, it seems, had the opportunity to get Miles Turner as part of Hayward's departure. But other teams, like you know, Charlotte, the fancies itself something and can use a big Dallas. I don't want to link Dallas to every big, but Horford can certainly play with with Chris Stops and you have James Johnson and Powell right there, so can you give does okay? See even just do that? Because Powell is so much cheaper than Horford after this year, maybe san Antonio would be interesting just to straight up Audridge for Horford. Swap and can okay see puts something small in there, like as a sweetener. And if Toronto wants to spend big on on a center, I know Drummond comes off the books. I'd rather see Horford there as opposed to Andre Drummond. But like there are I think you could come up with teams. I even thought about Portland for a minute where it's like, maybe I'm undervaluing a healthy use of Nurkich, but Horford just might be a better fit for that roster, especially considering how bad they were defensively while Nurkicch was healthy this year. Yeah, I mean, and this is scary because Horford's a center and he has been a center for for a very long time. But you know, the Sixers kind of toyed with like in addition to him being not someone who will guard you all umbe it anymore, and also could back him up like he played with him a little bit. And you look at it this year in Horford shooting thirty nine percent from three on more volume than he's ever had so offensively at least, and he's a good passer. He's a smart player you could talk yourself into like maybe this guy's a four. I don't know, we'd have to have rejigger some weird lineup stuff around him. But I think that expands, you know, the whatever, the spectrum of teams that might talk themselves into him that, you know, unless you're talking about the minimum after a buyout for Griffin, which is like, what is that buyout going to be? If that's even possible? You know, I just don't know. I don't know what team says, well, Blake Griffin is is someone that you know, we we gotta have. I just I just I don't know, buy out if he gets there. I think there's a team that would take a flyer. I would say, oh yeah, yeah, no, let's do factor fiction on this. Blake Griffin gets bought out and ends up with the Miami Heat. I just I don't know how, Like, what are the terms you agree to on a buyout? I just I think he just gives back five million and Detroit should take the entire hit next year. It's what they should do. And I almost feel like they're trying to force him into a buyout, buy and maybe I doubt Griffin wants to sit at this point after sitting so much last year, unless he's just so banged up and wants to get his knees right or he needs more rest. But like this almost feels like a tactic where it's like, hey, you're not going to be traded if we're gonna move you. But we're not going to move you, So if you want to go play somewhere else and actually see the court, you're gonna have to agree to a buyout and give us back some money, which again would lead to Draymond's point of that kind of sucks because you know this isn't Griffin doesn't have that same level of player empowerment that other stars do. They're like, what twenty players, let's say you that have that type of leverage, maybe twenty five? Yeah, No, I mean, I just think I'm trying to imagine it from Griffin's perspective, whether where the Pistons come and say, hey, you gotta because they I don't know who has the leverage in this situation, and everybody's powerless. It feels like, because you know, Griffin, he doesn't have market value and the Pistons like don't need him and don't want to play him, and like even if you were good that they wouldn't be interested. Like I just I'm trying to imagine, because I do. I think five million is like if you're a Griffin, and like, why am I giving up anything? You know, like anything beyond what you buyout situation would normally cost a player. But if I'm the Pistons, I'm like, I don't know, man, Like I'm not paying, I'm not gonna just let you off the hook. It's just I don't know. It's it's a mess. It's a total mess, I really have. It's kind of one of the most sadly kind of interesting aspects of this season now because I just don't see a clean resolution to it. I think he's gonna end up in Miami on a buy out and that or I don't know what's gonna happen with with this Anthony Davis injury. But if he gets bought out, I could see a spot for him on the Lakers. But with Miami he feels like he might have a chance too, and maybe he goes somewhere out of left field that he knows he'll be able to close with them, just to be in closing units. But I think it'll be he'll at least have an opportunity in Miami, So that is my guest. Maybe it turns out to be a terrible one, though, who knows. Let's see where are we going with this? All right, let's settle on this because there's so many factor fiction. Nikola Vukovic deserves to be an All Star more than Julius Randall. Oh well, that's fact. And I know that because I was doing this today and Boujevich does not make my All Star team in the East. He was like the last guy cut and then I sort of forgot that. Oh yeah, Julius Randall's having a crazy statistical year and I didn't actually even consider him for that last spot. So just based on that, I think Booch does even though the Knicks are better team and Randall's numbers are completely ridiculous, but Bouche's numbers are ridiculous too, and he is What is it possible to say that Booch has less help than Randall does? Yeah, I mean it probably does. Look at the match you just locks Colanthony, They Michael Carter will him only just started player playing again. I think Evan Floorier has been banged up. Aaron Gordon's out, Jonathan Isaac's out, Marco Foltz is out. I don't even think Amano's in the league anymore at this point. That's a joke. I know that he is, so he has less help. I think he's probably more useful on defense, and Julius Ryndol's shouldering a heavier burden as a passer, which I think matters. But Nicola Vujevic has just been one of the most valuable shooters in the league this year. And I did this like relative to value added to the league average per shot, and he graded out as one of the ten most valuable shooters in the league statistically. It's not the perfect way to do it, but he's shooting forty three percent on relatively high volume from three. He's taken almost fifty more three point attempts than than Julius Randall right, now, they're about the same on two point percentage. If you look at their like production, they're both you know, Vujevich twenty three point seven points a game, Julius Randold twenty three point one, Vujevic eleven point four boards. Per game Randall eleven. Randall hasn't beat pretty handily in assists. He's getting to the free throw line more, which is just a function of he's going to face up more attack. It's close. I don't know what I would call this one. I almost feel like it should be fiction just because Julius Randol is more of a surprise, But I kind of feel like it's a fact and Booch might even make if I were to fill out. I think I filled out a ballot for Bleach Report a couple of weeks ago, and he was certainly on it. So this one was tough for me. And I don't have to give an answer because you're the guest, But I think I think I lean towards I think I lean towards fact when you just factor in the shooting and he just does more. Study's better hands on defense, and he can hold up as a primary rim protector more So. I was down to those last two wildcard predictions for East Reserve today, and we'll throw Randall in there just for comparisons sake, which and so the guys I was down to where Zach Lavine, Trey Young, Buchovich, Van Vleet, Ben Simmons and Randall, so it's six for two spots basically, and going through it, I'll just spoil it because who cares. I picked Trey and I picked Ben Simmons almost almost totally because the numbers are close up with all those guys and you can sort of pick what you like, because I just think those two are objectively the best two players, and it's like that's what it came down to. But looking at it, like Lavine is having an insanely efficient scoring year, it's just like absurd. He's shooting like fifty seven percent at the rim, forty three percent from deep, I mean, just unbelievable, like on par with you know, you name it the elite to elite territory. But Vujevic is shooting an identical percentage from deep and this is a cent So it's just like, okay, well that's that's just completely a different type of asset to an offense than when a guard can do that, and the volume is not that different. And so again those aren't the two guys were comparing, but like, yeah, Vujevich has had a phenomenal offensive season. It just yeah, the magic started Gary Clark, and I think James Ennis the last game I watched them, so it's just like, what what are you? And Joynt Bacon there were there were games all three of them were starting at the same time, which is just that's right. It was unbelievable. Let's get super specific about the trade deadline right here. Victor Ladipo will finish the season in Dallas, Memphis or Toronto. Factor fiction. Oh why isn't Miami in there? I don't want Miami being there. They want his bird rights. I don't know. I think I threw that in some makeup of trade. I mean, they have less cap space and when they were supposed to because they extended bam at a bio. But I just don't I don't know what the pathway to Miami getting him is. Are you giving up Duncan Robinson or Tyler Hero when a Victor Ladipo trade, I'm probably not. Hell no, give me the team's Memphis, Toronto, what was the third one? Or Dallas. Let's say Dallas. Well, it's factor fiction. You could just statistically pick the field and I don't go. I don't go that way. It's fact Dallas. We're gonna pin me to this forever. Actually, Dallas. I know you're not the only one that's gonna say everybody that's available is gonna end up in Dallas. I feel like Oladipo was one of the you know, when, oh, who's Dallas's third star gonna be? And you know, within the last couple of years, that's been a big conversation, questions Dallas his second star. Yeah, well that was the problem. The guy that thought was it ain't it or it doesn't look like it right now. Oladipo was always someone that kind of made sense, or at least like the idealized version of Oladipo, like a combo guard that could defend and create a shot and just kind of up the athleticism. He's not that same guy anymore, obviously, But I'm just gonna say fact and go with Dallas because I actually do kind of like how that looks. On the off chance Oladipo is, you know, gonna get rejuvenated and whatever show Dallas that he's worth keeping. Via bird rights, I'm gonna say fact too. I really want Memphis to trade for him, just because if you were like sub in him for Dylan Brooks in the starting lineup, that team makes so much more sense than thin Abou Dylan Brooks getting to cook against second units a little bit more, where his bruising play is probably more valuable. Both Dallas I look at Dallas and Memphis specifically need that just like second theoretical high level shot creator. I'm not sure if Victor Oladipo can do that from long stretches now, and he's currently out with a foot injury his right plot at up too before that. He is not played necessarily well in Houston. But I think that just means that maybe you're able to get him for more reasonable cost because he's going to be a free agent and Houston has no business paying for him, and there might be value in having his bird rights even if you are a team like Miami or Dallas or even Memphis that can get to cap space this summer, just because there's gonna be so much cash floating around out there, it almost doesn't matter a Victor Oladipo has to fall off a cliff to not get paid this summer. That money has to go somewhere. He's probably a top five free agent and it's going to be top three once true Holiday signs and extension and people realize Quai is not going to consider leaving the Clippers, so there might just be value in having him there. And I don't know if Toronto or Memphis will think about being a buyer towards the trade deadline, But man, I love the idea of old Deepo next to a healthy Oldadiepo anyway, next to John Moran and old people. Kind of fits the way that Memphis likes to defend two and you could go hyper small. Think about when Memphis is at full strength, just a lineup of Oladipo, Melton and Morant just at one, two and three. That's something that I would endlessly watch. Yeah, no, that would. I mean those are all you know. I love the idea of just a bunch of athletic like dogging defenders running around it. And really Brooks kind of fits that, except he just fouls everything that moves, you know, NonStop. I feel like like a couple of years ago, I like got on the soapbox and said, I like Dylan Brooks. I thought that contract he signed was really great, and ever since then, every time I watched him, he goes like two for thirteen and he's five seventeen minutes, he's he's the Norman Powell of the Western Conference, just you're waiting for the real I get a John Starks vibe from him, like just I just I mean in terms of expectations where it's like, oh, he's good, but like he never stays that way for a while, and he's always going to be better in fury than practice, and he's always going to be on the verge though of like that next step, Like we've been waiting for a Norman Powell break out for the past since like two thousand and eight, and that's obviously an exaggeration. He wasn't in the league then when he was in junior high or as Sharon Brown came on the podcast and said before the season that he fancy that he's Dollar Tree Kobe with his shot selection and so okay, so factor fiction at six and ten since the Victor Oladipot trade, the Pacers should be panicking fiction. And it's just because, you know, I think an obvious major factor is like they have two very good wing players that are not playing, you know, the carousel. Verde hasn't played TJ Warren. I don't know how much like dud he played one game, he played four before he had foot surgery. Whatever it is, Like those are you know, two I don't know, you know, Turner and Sabonis and Brogden are all very good players. But I mean if they have those two, then you've got I mean that starting unit is nails. Like I really like that starting five they're projected closing lineup, which would be the same, Like that's it feels like in terms of that, it feels like a one size fits all thing where, yeah, you need to play matchups, but they're starting five with which should be their five healthy guys. Almost feels like, well, you could close that against almost any team in the league. Yeah, I mean I think that gives you almost just so so much burt, Like what box is not checked by that team? I guess you. I mean Warren has developed before he got hurt into like a really good wing defender from you know, two years ago it was terrible. So yeah, I think it's just I'm not panicking just because of health. Like they still the Pacers. Their shot profile makes sense this year after it never made sense under Nate McMillan. They have significant talent. I mean, Turner, you know, you you know more than anybody Miles Turner should be defensive Player of the Millennia. Yeah yeah, just just build a statue of that guy blocking a shot. Uh No, Yeah, I'm not worried. I mean, I just think it's it's a health thing and I like a lot of the peripherals, and you know they've had a bad stretch. But but I'm not I'm not concerned about it. This is our first disagreement as a podcast couple. I'm excited. Everything you say makes sense, and so I don't know that this is a red alarm fire here. I'm absolutely concerned the way that they're defending right now. And look a lot of it is there are lineups where Jeremy Lamb is playing a four and it's Sabonis at the five. Even McDermott is the four and Sabonis is the five. I don't understand looking at the lineup data, which I did before this justin holiday because he's starting now, but even in the loan big lineups, he sees more time at the four next to Miles Turner, and then Sabonis has McDermott and Lamb at the four when he's the lone big and it feels like that should flip flop just based off how those two work defensively, and they're probably being too aggressive with Sabonus's defensive coverages, or at least they're not adjusting for matchups and something that stands out to me, And maybe I'm just on a crusade to justify the fact that I didn't predict Miles Turner to win Defensive Player of the Year, and if that is creeping into a bias, I honestly apologize because I've been higher on Miles Turner than the consensus for years. Yeah, me too, but apparently I overlooked him in that discussion. Whatever, I still don't think he's gonna win Defensive Player of the Year and I don't know where he's going to finish on the ballot. But here's the thing. They have a top nine defense overall one point one points allowed per possession. They're surrendering against top twelve offenses, which is a span of twelve games, which is a small sample size, but also half the season basically one point one seven points per possession, which would be the equivalent of twenty ninth place, So a small sample, but they've had trouble against some of the elite offenses, and that's I think they haven't played two teams in this They have not played Denver or the Lakers yet. If I'm mistaken, there there's a chance that it's worse. So, like, I don't know that how real the defense is, and I'm not sure that Warren. I guess Warren coming back and you no longer have to play Jeremy Lamb at the four. That's gonna be huge even cares la Vert, and Lavert can be a good defender, I would say against ones and twos, he's kind of stretched against wings and he vacillates. So I do think there's a chance that could help. But if you think they're going to be a top ten defense all year, that's probably something i'd pushed back against. And considering how that was touted, like how their aggressive style of defense now matters, or how it was painted that it matters, I think that could end up being a fairly big deal. You're gonna have to go through a lot of these offenses to do well in the playoffs, basically, and Brooklyn has not gotten any easier. Since they've played Brooklyn, They've only played and the only top twelve offense they've played twice is the Pelicans, and they played fairly well against them one oh seven four defensive rating in one of those games. Oh, they played the Raptors twice two and they actually did pretty well there. But just concerning against how they've played against the upper echelon offenses in the league. To me, that coupled with their injuries, which can be a concern itself because when does Karraslvert come back? Does he come back? Yeah, And so I'm saying fact that they should be they should be panicking. Why were they so much better defensively last year? Like just I'm looking at it. They were in cleaning the last outam the sixth and defensive rating last season, you know they still it was some on a S turner, it was you know, Warren played more I guess I just I don't know, I more conservative style too. I don't know if that helped. Yeah, But it's weird how sometimes you know, like they're changing shot profile shouldn't necessarily mean that like oh they're not getting back or I didn't split out the transition defense numbered versus half court stuff. But it is weird how there always seems to be some kind of trade off when you really you know, switch up your your your whole approach. But yeah, I don't know. I guess some of it. Some of my lack of concern is that I didn't come into this season thinking the Pacers were going to be really great. I was more surprised by when they looked like they were very good earlier this year than them kind of slipping back. And there are encouraging harbingers. When you look at Myles Turner shooting better from three during this stretch where they're six and ten, Malcolm Brogden is going to shoot better. I think he struggled more on his drives and hitting pull up three since Oladipot is gone. And that's actually not a surprise because it kind of felt like the same stories last season. War On having Warren or Lavert let alone both that will help him out a ton. So there are encouraging signs there. I think most of them on offense, though, and I'm not sure how much that's necessarily going to matter. Let's get back to the trade deadline. This one okay, factor fiction Zach Lavine or Bradley Beale will be traded this season. Well, if Bradley Beale gets traded, it will be like the greatest smoke screen of all time. Because he and the Wizards have just been in lockstep saying this isn't going to happen. I'm gonna go get bold and say fact and say Lavine will be the one that's traded because the Bulls are going nowhere. This is like as well as he can possibly play, and they still get out scored by like ten points per hundred possessions when he's on the floor, or their net ratings ten points worse when he's on the court. So I just I think like the Bulls feel like a team that the last rebuild didn't and so now it's time to start the next one. And Lavine should return a pretty good haul because his contract is very reasonable for what he is, and it's possible that if you get him on a better team where like maybe he doesn't even have to play such a high usage offensive role in his efficiency inexplicably goes up like there's you know, and you can hide him defensively a little bit better. I think Lavine would have real value, and so the Bulls at we should think about trading him. But I'm starting to believe this beal stuff, where like they're just not going to do it. So I think it's fact, but it's got to be Lavine. I'm with you. I'm actually disappointed that we're so in lockstep with this one. Here's the thing for me, though, So there are two ways to look at the next star available landscape following the James Harden blockbuster One. There are only two names that fit that bill, and I think they're Buell or Levine. I don't you know. No, you can't throw Andre Drummond in there, Victor Ladipo. That's a stretch at this point. Even if you wanted to throw Christops porzingis his name in there? If you think Dallas should be shopping him, he doesn't necessarily fit that bill. So there's that, and then you look at it. To me, you could look at it through two lenses. One. Now is not the time to go all in on a deal for a marquee name when the season has been subject to just so many topsy turvy competitive landscape issues, a lot of it having to do with COVID not to mention injuries, or because the pool of available heavyweight players is just so bone thin, one reluctant seller is going to invariably be coaxed into giving up someone because there won't be an offer that amounts to a king's ransom and a half, and Chicago seems perfectly positioned to do that. Lavine has not aged himself out of the rebuild. He's in his mid twenties, and I think the bigger concern for them is I still don't know that he's of the no brainer max contract quality, and with him coming up on free agent twenty two, like you said, is there a chance that this is his absolute peak? Yes, so you're gonna get value for him now, and if you don't, you don't want to max him out in twenty twenty two or in advance of that, I would look at moving him. And I do think they'll be tantalizing offers out there because there are just so few options that you have to figure at least one desperate team is going to come in over the top with something, and Bradley Beale stands with the Wizards kind of works out in that favor, because yeah, it's limiting the technically available pool of stars, but I think that only then ups what Chicago can get for Lavine right now, because I would hazard over the summer Bradley Beale is probably going to become available or to at least be a hotter topic of discussion. Yeah, he's got to it just amazingly. The Wizards just don't seem like they're going to pull the trigger on it this year. It's hard to find the Lavine fit though, like I mean in a weird way, because he makes nineteen and a half million this year and next and theoretically, like, yeah, everybody should want a guy that's sixty percent plus true shooting and can you know, hand out a few. He's a serviceable passer. I think that gets you know, volume assist because he has the ball so much. But like just as as a pure offensive player. You know what the thing is, Here's the worry I'd have if I'm trading for Lavine is that like he's actually a six man like what like in and the idealized version of him on a good team where he's not William zach Lavine right now, that's as excessive. Well, like that's my fear if I'm trading for him and I gotta pay whatever this disinflated cost is going to be that we're talking about, because like again, on off stuff, we just spent, you know, however, many minutes talking about how you can't just fixate on one step, but like Lavigne just cannot play better offensive. This is like as good as it gets for like almost anyone short of Steph Curry, James Harden, Kyrie Durant like all those guys. And he's still a net negative player by a huge margin. So and it's not like the guys coming off the Bulls bench are world beaters, even though like bad Young and Garrett Temple like have been their best players by a lot of metrics this year. So I'm concerned that on a good team, like on a bad team, this is what Lavine is like high twenties efficient stuff. On a good team, you're just not gonna give him the ball this much. You're not gonna play him this much because he's gonna get eaten up on defense and all this other stuff. So that would be my concern if I'm if we're talking about like what it will theoretically cost to get The two teams that interesting most are Golden State, I can you're not cringing so awesome, and Philly I think or the Philly can definitely cover up for him defensively, and the theory of him. You know, he can play with Ben Simmons, and now all of a sudden, those minutes without embied they get a lot beefier whether you're playing with Simmons and Leavin or if it's Lavine and Dwight Howard, because that's the natural. They're trying not to play Howard and Simmons together too much this season. That helps, and I think Lavine is someone you could get if you include enough picks. You don't have to. You know, Ben Simmons is gonna be on the table there and for the Warriors, I don't know, he's not. You're not. He's not costing you James Wiseman, even though I might consider it. I'm just not as high on James Wiseman as anybody else. But he's only going to cost you either the mini pick or not if you get again shorten the Warriors is future at this point is not a bad idea at all. And so if you include enough future first rounders, maybe you get away with not giving either one of those prime time assets. But you're not gonna have to give up more than one. And that's why it's interesting for them, is it sort of allows them to Hedge. I don't expect the Warriors to make a big move because I think that they're cowards basically, but Philly would interest me, and I think that you can talk yourself into you know, in a Golden State, you just need someone competently what Levine's doing now in Chicago. If he could just do even seventy five percent of that when Stephen Curry isn't on the floor for Golden State, how much better is Golden State in that scenario? Yeah, I mean that's yeah, not to go too deep on the Warriors, but like that's just clearly they just have nobody that can generate anything that's not step So, like, yeah, I'd say Zach Lavine would be an offensive upgrade from Brad Wannamaker, who like tends to run second units and like instead of everyone would be an actual upgrade over bred wanna maker two. I'm just throwing it out there. Yeah, Levine's interesting. I don't know. I hope that comes to past because I would like to see him on a good team and see what that looks like. You have tennish minutes left, correct, Yes, let's move away from the trade deadline for a second. Okay, Anthony Davis's injury will win Lebron the MVP Award factor fiction. M I'm gonna say fiction because I think I don't think he needs this stretch of like of whatever he's gonna do with Davis out to hold on to his top three possible favorite status. Like I think I think Lebron will continue to do what he's doing. Like I'm gonna be the idiot that says like, I don't know if Lebron has a higher regular season gear for like three weeks than this. I just I don't know that he's got that in him or that he wants to do that. So that's a tough call. That is such a good narrative thing, though, because it can just imagine how it plays out where it's like he goes for thirty five, ten and ten for the whole time eight is out. But I'll say fiction. I think Lebron has as good a shot as anybody at it right now, and I don't think Davis's absence is going to put him on some like, you know, put him on some crazy run that blocks it up. I'm gonna say fact just because I kind of have a feeling Anthony Davis might be out for a while, and I'm not saying Lebron will be my MVP pick as of right now. I'd probably go with Joel Embiid. But when you build, Lebron is going to get votes. Because he's doing this in his age thirty sixth season, I don't think it's fair to view it in those terms for MVP, but there's no like clear cut criteria, and so it's you know, you can make an argument you're talking about plucking Steff off the Warriors. Look how terrible they'd be. But are we going to reward Steff because the front office doesn't know how to build a roster around him. I know they're missing Clay, but like they didn't have enough shooting around him to begin with, and then they doubled down on that with Kelly Wobridge Jr. Who's playing better. But it's like it's the same thing where you can't penalize Jannis last year because the Bucks roster around him was so good when he was elevating a great team. Lebron has a case as of right now, I would probably say a top three case. I think we put him second or I put him a second. You put him first when we actually did this exercise. But now that he has sort of this added value of okay Kawhi, Leonard has started to miss games. Kevin Durant has kind of almost faded out of the MVP race at this point because he's missed games. Joel Ebead is inbearably going to miss games and missed a couple with back tightness. If he's playing in these regular season games and Anthony Davis isn't in them, and the Lakers don't, you know, plunge into the depths of what third place in the West or some like, I don't know how pat they could realistically fall. I think it's gonna win him the MVP award because that narrative. He's already has just the narrative machine behind him because of the age factor and this I do agree with the shortened off season. That's absolutely something that you could say and wait in the MVP discussion. I think this is going to push it over the top and he eventually wins. I don't know if he'll be my pick, but I think this is this stretch is gonna do it. Now. If Anthony Davis plays in two or three days and I look like an idiot for this. Okay, fine, it's still gonna be a debate, but I'm gonna say fact, just because he's already so close to it. Just the argument he's going to have if he helps the Lakers navigate a long stretch without another top five, top seven player, that's gonna do wonders for his argument. I was gonna say, the real fact in all this is what you said a second ago about like Davis is going to be out longer than that timeline. Like just there's no scenario where you mess around with this injury. When the Lakers are very good and they have like a legit shot to win a title like this, the next three months don't matter. Forget three weeks. You know, let's see when you get to a couple of small, smaller markets here Minnesota. Factor fiction, Malie Beasley will finish the season on a different team. Oh well, I gotta eat crow. I'll say a fiction. He's been really good for them, Like there's a case that he's their best player, at least most productive player this season. It would be Towns obviously if his season hadn't been kind of ruined for several reasons. But I think I had Beasley's deal as one of the worst of the offseason. I just thought he was like an empty calories guy. I didn't think he'd sustained the three point shooting that he had when he came over last year, which he hasn't, but he's been phenomenal. Nonetheless, I think he's a good wing player that defensively not great, But Minnesota actually has like a fair value deal for him now, and he's young enough to where you could envision him being Maybe he's not a starter in like the real fully realized version of the Wolves down the line, but like he's a contributor, so they don't have a lot of those guys. So I think I think he's probably going to stick around. I'm gonna say fact, because now would be the time to move him for all the reasons she said. Averaging over twenty points per game, shooting above forty percent on his pull up threes, and I don't know that his maybe his deal this is proof that it's gonna age just fine. But he hasn't had to play. I mean, Daniel Russell cornumthyccounts to play five games together since the trade. That was over a year ago at this point, so he hasn't played with the full version of the Timberwolves, and I think now is you know, if you're married at all to Jared Culver, Anthony Edwards. Josh Akogi has been borderline unplayable this season, so maybe you feel better that you don't have a ton of these younger wing options. But it almost feels like an either or situation here where it's you have to be aggressive in some form and whether you want to rack up more picks or a young player, or you want to go out there and buy Malik Beasley feels like integral to either package. Because the lack of wings available at this trade deadline, you have to think contenders are going to want someone, you know, if Zach Lavine isn't gettable or the the price is too high for him. Elik Beasley's a nice substitute there. Doesn't have the same creation ceiling by any stretch, but can hit you know, has him off the bounce possess to his game. So I think he's going to be like that that dark horse, highly sought after player at the trade DeLine if you can really capitalize on its value when he probably is better off on a good team at this point and how long before Minnesota is good? But how long are you waiting here? And if you keep him and that's a rotation spot, like you're essentially saying, Okay, you know one of Edwards or Colver just isn't lasting. Yeah, I mean I feel better about the idea of them moving Beasley for value if Culver had shown that he's like an NBA player at this which which she just hasn't, you know, and a Kobe, you know, a Coke can can defend. But he just like he's he's half of a good NBA player because he can't score at all. So like they just there's got it's ugly. I'm just looking at their at their wings right now. It's gonna be interesting. Side note for Anthony Edwards to kind of have the ball a lot more going forward. He's he's had a couple of interesting games kind of doing some primary ball handling, So maybe that I don't know, I don't know. I'm just talking about the Timberwolves too much. Now, what's the next one factor? Fiction? Lonzo Ball will remain in New Orleans for the rest of the season. I'm gonna say fiction and be simple about it. I think if the Pelicans were sure he was someone they valued enough to keep that there would have been an extension signed. And I do think that somebody is going to value been talking about bird rights. Someone's gonna value having his match rights and restricted free agency, I think, and I think it just doesn't This is a stupid explanation, but this it just doesn't feel like he's someone that they see as a long term fit because they would have locked him up. You know, they locked up Brandon, a very different player, different level of player, but they do commit. I think we've seen when they have somebody that they value, and he doesn't seem to be one of those players. Now does seem like the time to move him? Since he was mentioned in trade rumors, He's played twelve games. He's averaging fifteen point four points, shooting forty five point two percent on seven point eight three point attempts per game, four point eight assists. He's a pretty good He's not a lockdown one on one defender, but he's just a good disruptive defender for someone who's going to guard a lot of ones and twos. But the fact of the matter is he's never put together. And I've vacillated on I remained a Lonzo Ball believer, but it always feels like there it's the Jamal Murray syndrome where it's six weeks, eight weeks, but then there's this huge drop off and maybe you don't want and like you said, why wouldn't you have just locked him down this season played out and if you want to move him over the summer, that deal probably is theoretically still movable. I don't. I would probably say fact he still finishes it in New Orleans because he's played so well, Like, what are you going to get like the Alonzo ball for lotry marketing trade now is just I wouldn't do that if I were New Orleans. What else are you're attaching to that Chicago if something is getting done, So it'd be interesting to see him, you know, in New York. I don't think he brings what Golden State needs to a team because he's shooting under thirty five percent on drives, doesn't get to the rim, can't run, not that they're running a ton of pick and roll, but during the non staff minutes, he's just not someone who could do that. But they need high IQ players and he's certainly that, So that'd be a team might be interested to see him on I honestly don't know. I'm just going to lean towards fact because he's playing so well, and what value are you going to get for this production when he's so close to restricted free agency. Assign and trade or signing him with the intent to trade him later feels like it might be the more efficient route for him. Yeah, I just to put a button on that one. I really do think we keep saying this, but I think he's the type of guy that needs to be on a good team because you said it about the Warriors. You know, Ball's strengths are not your conventional you know, point guard. He's not a good pick and roll player, he's not a good isolation scorer. He's not the best one on one defender. But if you sort of think of him as like just to do the Warriors thing, very different player, but someone likes Sean Livingston who just will make the right pass, we'll kind of anticipate things well, can switch a little bit, can make the right decision off the ball, like all that stuff. That just plays better on a good team, because if you're the only guy doing that on a bad team, one, you're probably gonna stop making those efforts because nobody else is doing it. And two, when you do it, it doesn't matter because the other four guys or three of the other four or whatever are doing the wrong things, like if ones of ball makes the right rotation or anticipates something. And Zion Williamson is like running in circles somewhere else over here on defense and brandon Ingram has hung up on a screen like bug on a windshield. It doesn't matter. But on a good team, I think it makes a big difference. So I'd love to see what he could do on a team where like maybe he's not even a starter, but he just he gets minutes with the starters and he makes a difference. Give time for one more quick one. Yes, the Miami Heat. The Miami Heats problems are more than injury slash COVID related. Can we throw in turnovers too, because they're leadingly in turnovers but you know they are still they're the team they're dead last in turnover percentage. But you know that's that I'm saying. Their problems are not due factor fishing, and their problems are not due to the availability of the solely due to the availability of the personnel they've had this season, and they've missed. Every team has been hit by this. But you look at the time that Butler has missed, Dragitch has missed. You know, they've They've played Gabriel Vincent this season a bunch along with other players. So I think it's easy to provide their eight and seven with Jimmy Butler in the lineup for whatever that matters. And I don't even think Jimmy Butler's come close to peaking. We're playing up to snuff. But I'm just where do you land on that factor fiction Is this availability related or is there something more sinister at play here? So let's look at their theoretically their best lineup, which is Hero Robinson, Butler, Olnic and Outu Bio. I guess reasonable minds could disagree, but that's their most used lineup, and I think that's probably their best. I don't know if maybe Dragitch belongs in there, but or you maybe you'd like someone else in there for Alnic, but that lineups plus eighteen per hundred and they haven't played a lot together, but that's a big number. So I think certainly the Heat have issues with like Dragics was never going to be as good as he was in the bubble last year, you know, hero, I think like can't possibly be the guy that he was in the playoffs because he was just a ridiculous teenager. So I do think they have a couple bigger problems, but I don't know what the percentage is. I feel like eighty five percent of the things that have afflicted them this year are the ones you mentioned, So I guess the answer is is fact. There is more that's that's a cause for concern with the heat than COVID, than injury, than fatigue, but like not a lot. Like I think, I think there's still going to be a very dangerous playoff team as long as they can keep that that line up in a couple other bodies healthy. I'm going to actually say it's a fact, And I hate critics sizing teams that have been going through this, so let's just I'll side with you. They got to do something about like the four spot. It's just not nearly as dynamic as it was last year. Even if you want to use Jimmy Butler for some of those minutes, I think it helps the Tyler heroes playing better. Even in the times when he's basically their their point guard. But the turnovers are a problem, and I think just looking at their front court rotation next to Bam, I don't know how playable Bam and Olinok are together in some playoff matchups. I don't know what you can get from Andre Goodala for long stretches of time at this point, like you need someone more dynamic offensively who can shoot. And I still don't understand why they didn't resign Jay Crowder. I'm very much of the mind that if you need cap space created later and was Jay Crowder on even if it was a four year deal at the full mid level? Is Jay Crowder not movable at that point? Maybe he really knew that Miami was going to trade him anyway, That's why I didn't go back. But I think that ends up hurting them a ton. So I don't think they're gonna come and COVID and fatigue and health issues, they're all part of that. I would be very surprised if they come close to even sniffing the peak that they had last year. They missed Derek Jones Junior two because he was the head of the snake in that zone and that was just a whole different dimension that they had that they could bust out and like flip a quarter, you know, win a win a quarter, just all of a sudden with that defense. So yeah, they got that four spot is rough. Grant, you stayed a full sixty plus seconds later than you promised me, so I'm forever grateful. If you guys are not following him on Twitter, remedy that post taste at GT underscore, Hughes, thanks so much for joining us, and look you know it, I'm gonna be testing you again very soon. Thank you. 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