Speaker 1: Next on the drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your
Speaker 1: NBA daily assists.
Speaker 2: Van McMahon Van mcman That is beating old Land, Texas
Speaker 2: flood as its mud. He's and Manvan McMahon Van mcman
Speaker 2: Then man.
Speaker 1: All right, Tuesday afternoon. You know what that means. Time
Speaker 1: for our Tuesday staple. And my goodness, gracious, I don't
Speaker 1: know how it's been for our guy, Tim McMahon over
Speaker 1: the past seventy two hours. Tim, are you sleeping, are
Speaker 1: you eating, are you hydrating or are you just working
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 3: I got a little bit of sleep the last couple
Speaker 3: of nights, not so much the night before that. I
Speaker 3: don't think I've had lunch. I've been in this particular
Speaker 3: stop in the strip, but I'm seeing and breakfast in
Speaker 3: a little bit of dinner show.
Speaker 1: All right, my man, Well, I appreciate the time, and look,
Speaker 1: you know, like everybody else, I've been trying to make
Speaker 1: sense of what's happened over the past few days. And
Speaker 1: like everybody else, I've been trying to talk to people
Speaker 1: around the league about if they knew about this, what
Speaker 1: their thoughts were. I've had more than a few NBA
Speaker 1: front office people text me and say this is simply
Speaker 1: Dallas being concerned about his condition and is off the
Speaker 1: court habits and his long term health and whether or
Speaker 1: not he's durable. And then there are conspiracy theories left
Speaker 1: and right. I guess I'm going Aukham's razor here and
Speaker 1: just believing in the most basic of explanations.
Speaker 4: But you're the guy for this.
Speaker 1: Why would Dallas trade a twenty five year old Luka
Speaker 1: Doncics right in the start of the prime of his career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the first one is the accurate one.
Speaker 3: They did not feel that they can make a three
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty million dollar investment, which would have been
Speaker 3: a supermax number roughly in a player who has not
Speaker 3: shown the willingness of the discipline to himself to conditioning
Speaker 3: who you know, they're they're fearful, he's his body has
Speaker 3: already broken down at the age of twenty five. You know,
Speaker 3: he's missed uh twenty seven games already this season. They
Speaker 3: don't feel like the messaging is getting through. They aren't
Speaker 3: seeing the habits change. Honestly, they feel like in some
Speaker 3: ways things have gotten worse. And look that stuff is
Speaker 3: all the primary stuff. There's also like Luca has been
Speaker 3: very attached, very aloof you know, there have been some
Speaker 3: changes in the kind of behind the scene staff of
Speaker 3: the Mavericks where they've fired a lot of people who
Speaker 3: Luca considered considered his friends, you know, and you know,
Speaker 3: as a result, at least partly as a result, the
Speaker 3: communication between Luca's quote unquote body team and the Mavericks
Speaker 3: was unpleasant and minimal, to say the least. The communication
Speaker 3: between Luca and Nikhil Harrison has been minimal, And this
Speaker 3: is where Nico ultimately decided, I don't trust him, I
Speaker 3: don't want to rely on him. I don't care how
Speaker 3: talent he is. I'm going to go get one of
Speaker 3: my guys. And Anthony Davis has been more than Miikel
Speaker 3: Harrison guys since Ad was a you know, a teenage
Speaker 3: big time prospect and Mikol was throwing the basketball division
Speaker 3: at niceties.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, let me let me follow up, because you've
Speaker 1: been on the ground there and you understand this dynamic
Speaker 1: better than any media member I could talk to. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm just simply of the opinion that you do not
Speaker 1: trade him, that you do not trade Luka Doncicch at
Speaker 1: twenty five years old, because in my opinion, he's one
Speaker 1: of the top two or three players in pro basketball.
Speaker 4: I don't think I'm alone.
Speaker 1: So that, to me, Tim indicates that behind the scenes
Speaker 1: it must be a lot worse than anybody indicates. Is
Speaker 1: he just is he? Is he a malcontent? Is he
Speaker 1: a pain? Does he great on people?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: Just how bad has it become behind the scenes there?
Speaker 3: I mean, it is the difficult, is he high manlans? Yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: one hundred percent. Are the conditioning concerned? Legitimate? Absolutely? Did
Speaker 3: he Adams thirty four, ten and nine and leads the
Speaker 3: team to the NBA Finals months ago? Yes? You know? And
Speaker 3: so I'm with you as far as you just cannot
Speaker 3: trade that type of talent during the state his career
Speaker 3: when he should be enter any crime.
Speaker 4: What has the reaction been?
Speaker 1: I mean, I imagine I know the answer, But with
Speaker 1: Mavericks fans, what what has been the town and tenor
Speaker 1: of the fan base down there?
Speaker 3: Indeed, it's it's Saturday when the Matticks are back home.
Speaker 3: I fear it will be toxic act here. And I
Speaker 3: could say there's been sing backlash, is I you know?
Speaker 3: I saying Luca uh looked at a production season last year.
Speaker 3: It's a massive understatement. Uh this This fan base is angry,
Speaker 3: it is heartbroken, you know, as Luca felt Blines having
Speaker 3: been in the trade, and the fan base feels out
Speaker 3: as well. You know the answer. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: there's protests outside the American Airline Center. People are canceling
Speaker 3: season safety. It's like it's not gonna it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a not a not a nice vibe. I would say,
Speaker 3: when the matters get back into town and I have
Speaker 3: a home homestand coming up starting on Saturday.
Speaker 1: A lot of people, including our mutual friend Tom Haverstrow
Speaker 1: who joined the show yesterday and his podcast partners, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're bringing up this theory floated out by a
Speaker 1: Dallas area attorney and I've read the Twitter threat and
Speaker 1: I've read the reactions to it that this new ownership
Speaker 1: group after Mark Cuban sold his majority shares last year.
Speaker 1: This addleson group who has interest in Vegas, in the
Speaker 1: Vegas Sands casino. This is a long term play for
Speaker 1: them to take the Mavericks to Las Vegas. That doesn't
Speaker 1: land with me, Tim. I would imagine only having Luca
Speaker 1: on a roster gives you more leverage to do things
Speaker 1: you want to do. But any is there any meat
Speaker 1: on that bone at all? I I can't follow that logic.
Speaker 1: But you're the guy for this.
Speaker 3: What do you think you listen, I've seen that U.
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any meat on the bone. I
Speaker 3: don't think that the NBA would allow the Mavericks to
Speaker 3: move to Vegas where you know, ultimately they have plans
Speaker 3: who have an expansion franchise that will pay a whole
Speaker 3: lot of money to be there, you know, the whole
Speaker 3: Adilson Dumont Las Vegas Sans groups ambitions are to get
Speaker 3: gambling legalized in Dallas and to build a massive resort
Speaker 3: casino to include the new arena. They already have all
Speaker 3: this stuff in Vegas, so you know, I've seen all
Speaker 3: that as well. I will say this, I was told
Speaker 3: by somebody in that in that high powered Dallas attorney
Speaker 3: community that this is a big time blow to any
Speaker 3: any plans they had of accompition their goals of getting
Speaker 3: gambling legalized, because frankly, I don't think that they understood
Speaker 3: just the financial potential, financial financial ramifications of trading LUKA
Speaker 3: DONCIS and trading the face of the franchise, who is
Speaker 3: just adored, like by fan base, you know, the most
Speaker 3: the most talented player in franchise history, for sure. And
Speaker 3: that's a mouthful because Dirk scored thirty thousand some odd points.
Speaker 3: And I can't say most popular because Dirk was there
Speaker 3: so long and so beloved, but definitely the most spectacular,
Speaker 3: no question about that. And those he sold a lot
Speaker 3: of jerseys, He sold a lot of tickets, he sold
Speaker 3: a lot of sponsorships, and I think all those things
Speaker 3: are going to take a significant hit.
Speaker 1: Is there any way before we get over to the
Speaker 1: Lakers side of this, and then of course I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the jazz side of this as well.
Speaker 1: But is there any way? Because Luca is so good,
Speaker 1: people are talking about Anthony Davis like he's Jerome James
Speaker 1: for the Knicks. I mean, Anthony Davis is good and
Speaker 1: he played in seventy two games last year. He's been
Speaker 1: really good this year. Is there any way this works
Speaker 1: out in Niko's favor? Can you expand your horizons to
Speaker 1: get to that point?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, it's within the realm of possibility. I
Speaker 3: would have done the trade, but it is within the
Speaker 3: realm of possibility. I have talked to a couple of
Speaker 3: gentlemanners who felt like this move made them better immediately.
Speaker 3: It definitely crunches the time frame. You know, Nico's said
Speaker 3: they're built to a now and in the future, then
Speaker 3: clarify the features being the next three to four years,
Speaker 3: which is interesting because the issue there is they start
Speaker 3: having a fix theyo in twenty seven and then twenty eight,
Speaker 3: in twenty nine of the thirty and by the play
Speaker 3: the last three of those were their neighbors in Oklahoma
Speaker 3: City to any other Chief Texas teams with picks and swaps,
Speaker 3: But like Dallas is going to be eight if they
Speaker 3: if they're healthy, this is going to be a team
Speaker 3: that's a tough matchup in the playoffs for sure. And hey,
Speaker 3: if they're right about Luca and he doesn't, you know,
Speaker 3: dedicate himself as body breaks down, then yeah, he could
Speaker 3: end up being right. I don't know the odds in
Speaker 3: his favorite because again, just for the level of this
Speaker 3: guy's talents, I mean, we're talking about one of the
Speaker 3: best players through the age twenty five, maybe the best
Speaker 3: what's ever seen.
Speaker 1: No, you just you don't do this trade. You just don't.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to back off that assertion. But
Speaker 1: let me ask you the question that everybody's been kicking
Speaker 1: around that I'm honestly conflicted about.
Speaker 4: We had mcminimon on you yesterday. I kind of asked
Speaker 4: him the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I get the whole side of this, like why
Speaker 1: didn't you open this up for business? Why didn't you
Speaker 1: shop him to get a package that is better than
Speaker 1: what you got? But I also understand that if you know,
Speaker 1: according to your reporting and others, that Nico was just
Speaker 1: long for Anthony Davis, maybe this was just tunnel vision
Speaker 1: because that's the dude he wanted. But what's your take
Speaker 1: on the dynamic of Nico not opening this up for
Speaker 1: an open market bidding war.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely have heard a lot of criticisms about that.
Speaker 3: You know, the reason one is locked in Anthony Davis,
Speaker 3: that's the guy he wanted. Two, he did not want
Speaker 3: to give Luca and his agent, Bill Duffi, one of
Speaker 3: the most respected agents in the league, a chance to
Speaker 3: have any influence on this, a chance to you know, uh,
Speaker 3: cut off discussions, you know, tell team we're not resigning
Speaker 3: a chance to muddy the waters. That also, he wanted
Speaker 3: this thing to be absolutely done in secrecy. That's the logic,
Speaker 3: you know. I don't know, man, So yeah, it's I
Speaker 3: would have at least wrote it out the rest of
Speaker 3: the season, and they didn't want to. They didn't want
Speaker 3: to mid season saga in terms of Luca's on the
Speaker 3: block and all the drama went along with that. I
Speaker 3: would have wrote it out the rest of the season
Speaker 3: at the minimum. Yeah, and and and handle if you
Speaker 3: want to handle out business, handle it in the summer.
Speaker 3: You know, I knew just how frustrated they were with him,
Speaker 3: from Nico to Jason Kidd, you know, throughout for an office,
Speaker 3: the you know, the code and staff, et cetera. I
Speaker 3: even had people mentioned, you know, if we got trade,
Speaker 3: will trade him. I thought they were blowing smoke. I'd
Speaker 3: never imagine they would actually do it. I you know,
Speaker 3: you hear a lot of people huff and puff, like, man,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm glad you'll let off some steam there.
Speaker 3: Let's be real. Well it was real.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm still stunned.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe more information would come out after I
Speaker 1: got the alert on my phone to this day to day,
Speaker 1: but it's still as stunning right now as it was
Speaker 1: when it happened.
Speaker 4: The Lakers side of this, Tim.
Speaker 1: You know, when it comes to people that believe that
Speaker 1: the NBA is a scripted WWE league, they look at
Speaker 1: the Lakers and they say Wilt to Cream, Cream to Magic,
Speaker 1: Magic to Shaq and Kobe Shaq and Kobe Lebron, Lebron
Speaker 1: to Luca. For me, it doesn't change my calculus on
Speaker 1: them this year, but it does reset them for another
Speaker 1: decade plus. What are your thoughts on what appears to
Speaker 1: be just another slam dunk move for the LA Lakers.
Speaker 4: What does this mean for them?
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously there's the risk of the hell stuff,
Speaker 3: but they got the most talented twenty five year old
Speaker 3: in the league right now. The mostly I mean, this
Speaker 3: is a boon for the Lakers, and like you said,
Speaker 3: it basically played with the Brons for the next probably
Speaker 3: a year and a half and off the baton. You know.
Speaker 3: The hope certainly is that he will learn from the
Speaker 3: barn guy he idolized as a kid growing up in Slovenia.
Speaker 3: That would be wise. Maybe this is the massive slap
Speaker 3: in the face that Luken needs to really just lock
Speaker 3: in to, you know, the around the clock professionalism that
Speaker 3: you need to put yourself in a position to fully
Speaker 3: achieved what is just immense potential. But dude, like the
Speaker 3: Lakers had to do this, and then you know they've
Speaker 3: got a huge hole center. Now the length was very clear.
Speaker 3: That's gonna have to wait until the summer. I can
Speaker 3: assure you this rim running BigMan will be lying enough
Speaker 3: to out against the Lakers. I can guarantee you that.
Speaker 4: No doubt, all right.
Speaker 1: The portion of your reporting that has received the most
Speaker 1: amount of tension around here is that the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: did not know what deal they were facilitating, and according
Speaker 1: to what you and Ramona wrote, even Danny had only
Speaker 1: about thirty minutes notice, according to your sources. Dave mcminniman
Speaker 1: coroborated your source yesterday. Dave said his source says the
Speaker 1: Jazz were quote flying blind.
Speaker 4: How how like? How does this happen?
Speaker 1: If you're one of the executives of the three teams
Speaker 1: involved with the transaction, don't you want to know every
Speaker 1: single detail about the transaction, including the fact that you
Speaker 1: own their twenty twenty seven first round pick, top four
Speaker 1: protected and suddenly you have just given them the ability
Speaker 1: to make sure that pick is probably in the twenties.
Speaker 4: This to me, tim is not a great look. So
Speaker 4: unpack this for us.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I hear what you're saying that you're assuming
Speaker 3: the Jazz are their only options, and they weren't. I
Speaker 3: can promise you that the first I heard, the first
Speaker 3: time I heard run this was and I got a
Speaker 3: call from another team that say, I paid, what are
Speaker 3: the Maps trying to do? They're trying to get us
Speaker 3: to take on a sub five million dollars salary. I
Speaker 3: think it's from another team and all those hellaces. They're
Speaker 3: targeting a front court player. And so they were calling
Speaker 3: around to, you know, to the handful of teams that
Speaker 3: were in a position to facilitate this. And so it's
Speaker 3: not like if Danny, if Danny Ainge and Justin Zanner
Speaker 3: said okay, lay them on the brakes, we're not doing this,
Speaker 3: that the deal falls apart. The deal would have still
Speaker 3: gotten done. The Jazz just would have gotten a couple
Speaker 3: of second round picks out of it.
Speaker 1: So with what the Jazz have done over the past
Speaker 1: few days to transactions really helping teams, the Clippers get
Speaker 1: under the luxury tax, the Lakers get Luca, it appears
Speaker 1: that Danny and Justin are simply willing to trade almost
Speaker 1: everybody on the roster outside of the young kids they like,
Speaker 1: and obviously marketing if any team is willing to give
Speaker 1: up assets and draft capitals, so that leads us. I
Speaker 1: was told this morning John Collins will not be playing
Speaker 1: for the Jazz after Thursday.
Speaker 4: Your thoughts on that then?
Speaker 1: Of course Sexton, he's spraying his ankle last night and
Speaker 1: Clarkson came in and actually played pretty well. I wondered
Speaker 1: if any GM was watching last night. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe you can't help, but what do you anticipate between
Speaker 1: now and Thursday afternoon here in Salt Lake from the Jazz.
Speaker 3: I assure you there are plenty of scouts of jazz
Speaker 3: games these days. I mean they're going to be They're
Speaker 3: going to be busy. College has certainly played himself to
Speaker 3: a point where you know there's interest there. I assume
Speaker 3: something probably gets sell with him, and it wouldn't you know,
Speaker 3: if you're asking me about those three guys in particular,
Speaker 3: how many of them are traded? I probably put the
Speaker 3: overrunner at one point five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that that feels right. The last thing, how
Speaker 1: does the how does the Butler thing play out? What
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on the Jimmy Butler trade.
Speaker 3: I don't have like it's gone from shipping anywhere to
Speaker 3: Phoenix or bus. I just didn't like, dude, I don't
Speaker 3: see a Phoenix trade. Brad may be able to have
Speaker 3: to okay it, and there would have to be a
Speaker 3: place he wants to go that wants to have them,
Speaker 3: and I don't think that's the case right now. And
Speaker 3: so you know, again, this like clear empowerment has taken
Speaker 3: a pretty strong shift this week. I feel just with
Speaker 3: the way the Jimmy say we'll see you know, the
Speaker 3: Jimmy stuff it ain't over, but certainly with the way
Speaker 3: that Luca was just blindsided and dumped, and then you
Speaker 3: know the way that Jimmy saga has played out to
Speaker 3: this point, it does feel like there's been this shift
Speaker 3: where these are two cases of two superstars we just
Speaker 3: haven't been able to get their way.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well what a wild week, man. You guys have done
Speaker 1: a great job. So keep up the great work. Tim,
Speaker 1: appreciate the time. We'll set you loose.
Speaker 4: Be good, Okay, I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Brother.
Speaker 4: Tim McMahon covers THEES.
Speaker 1: He covers the NBA for ESPN, specifically he's their Mavericks guy.
Speaker 4: When the jazz are interesting, he's their jazz guy. He
Speaker 4: wrote a.
Speaker 1: Book about Luca that actually publishes March twenty fifth, and
Speaker 1: he and Ramona Shelburne wrote that piece about detailing kind
Speaker 1: of all the happenings how this all went down, and
Speaker 1: Tim and Ramon are the one that reported the jazz
Speaker 1: had no idea exactly which deal they were facilitating. Now,
Speaker 1: Tim makes a good point if the weren't willing to
Speaker 1: do this because I don't know, Like, let's say, Danny
Speaker 1: and Justin got a call from Nico, got a call
Speaker 1: from Rob Polenku, by the way, was dressed like he's
Speaker 1: the lead singer of a bad Bond jovie band this
Speaker 1: morning and said, look, we need you to send a
Speaker 1: little bit of cash. In both of our directions. We're
Speaker 1: going to ask you to absorb this young rookies not
Speaker 1: a very good player. It's second you're actually Jalen Hood Chafino,
Speaker 1: and for your troubles, we're going to give you two
Speaker 1: second round picks. And what is happening is the Lakers
Speaker 1: are getting Luka Doncic and really everything else is irrelevant.
Speaker 1: I mean, if they knew all the details of that trade,
Speaker 1: do they still step in and do it now? To
Speaker 1: Tim's point, the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Lakers had
Speaker 1: other options at their disposal to try to make this happen,
Speaker 1: so if the Jazz didn't do it, they wouldn't have
Speaker 1: received two second round picks. Luca is a Laker, and
Speaker 1: that twenty twenty seven LA Laker top four protected pick
Speaker 1: doesn't look near as good as it did forty eight
Speaker 1: hours ago. So we'll see if the Jazz are done
Speaker 1: prior to that Thursday trade deadline