AD: What’s up everybody? Welcome back to episode eight of EE-SPN. My name is Arjun Dhruv and I’m joined here with my co-host, Manas Kottakota. Today we’re going to be diving into the recent crazy trade deadline and a bunch of trades that will impact the league. So Manas, let’s start off with the biggest one — the Luka Dončić for Anthony Davis trade. What are your thoughts?
MK: So I have lots of thoughts on this trade. I think this was one of the most surprising ones that has happened in recent times, maybe one of the craziest trades in NBA history. Not even an exaggeration. I think the Lakers really set themselves up for the future. They’ve got Luka Dončić who is a superstar at 25 years old, pretty much an MVP candidate every year of his career besides maybe his first two, and they can extend him for the next 10 years. All they got rid of was an aging star in Anthony Davis, who’s pretty injury prone, like he’s literally injured right now. I definitely give them an A for their trade.
AD: Yeah, I think the Lakers definitely won this trade. They got a stud in Luka Dončić, who’s also very young, but also in the point of view of the Mavericks, I see where they’re coming from. Luka had a super max contract coming up and they didn’t want to pay him, so it makes sense because they wanted more interior defense and they didn’t like the way Luka was going about his conditioning and his attitude in the locker room. It sort of makes sense from a managerial point of view, but I think he’s just too good for you to trade like this. I think the Mavericks still messed up.
MK: I mean, talking about the money, if you’re not willing to pay Luka Dončić out of all people, who are you willing to pay at the end of the day? That just doesn’t make sense to me, the logic that the Mavericks GM had for that, and talking about him being slightly out of shape. I mean, you traded for an injury-prone player, so that logic doesn’t really make sense either. But I see that at the end of the day, he’s trying to win in the next two years with his core of Kyrie, Klay and now Davis, which is a slightly better fit than Luka Dončić, Kyrie and Klay, three guards. You’d definitely want some diversity, and they got it with a defensive minded player.
AD: Yeah, I agree. Let’s move on to the De’Aaron Fox trade. De’Aaron Fox went from the Kings to the Spurs in a three-team deal with the Bulls, and the Kings received Zach LaVine and a bunch of first round picks and second round picks. What are your thoughts on this trade?
MK: I really like this trade for the Spurs. They got De’Aaron Fox, who can kind of replace Chris Paul as he’s getting up there in age and is probably going to retire soon. And his pairing with Wembanyama will really set Wembanyama up, as well as the Spurs core for the future. The Spurs did a really good job maintaining their roster and not getting rid of too much. They kept young players like Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vasell, so that was really good on the part of San Antonio and I think for Sacramento it’s not a bad trade. They did get a lot of picks, so you can’t really shun them completely. I don’t see them winning in the near future, but they definitely got enough picks to set themselves up for the near future.
AD: Yeah, adding on about the Kings, I think we already saw the failed DeRozan and Lavine experiment in Chicago and I think it’s going to be more of the same here. I just don’t think they will play that well together, especially with Sabonis and Monk and other mouths to feed on that offense. But in terms of the Spurs, I think this was a great trade for them and I give them an A on this trade, just because I think it’ll make them contenders in the near future. And the pairing of Fox with Wembanyama will be scary in the league. Also with Chris Paul, I don’t know how much longer he has left, but he’ll definitely be able to help both Wemby and Fox develop and turn into bigger superstars than they are now.
MK: All right, so now I want to switch it to the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat trade, one of the other big trades that came out at this trade deadline. So what do you think?
AD: Yeah for the Warriors, I see where they’re coming from, but I don’t think this was the right move, just because Jimmy Butler has had those locker room issues in Miami — which is going to be different now because he’s in a new organization — but also the money, which was two years $120 million or something crazy like that. I just think that’s too much for Jimmy Butler, who’s also aging. I get that they want to save Steph Curry’s prime years, but I don’t think this was the move. Giving up Wiggins, who’s a really good kind of young star, it’s not really a great trade for them.
MK: I definitely feel what you were saying. Jimmy Butler’s acquisition seems kind of like a desperate move to just kind of have something happen in this trade deadline. You have a 35-year-old Jimmy Butler, Steph is over 35, Draymond is over 34 — you have all these old players, and they’re not really at the best, like the peak of their powers anymore. We’ve seen that Steph’s points per game has dropped. His efficiency is still pretty good, but overall, they’re not playing as well as they used to so I don’t see them making much of a push in the playoffs this year, even with Jimmy Butler. But I think the Miami Heat did a pretty good job getting Andrew Wiggins and young players like Davion Mitchell, because Jimmy Butler wasn’t gonna play anyway. So they definitely came out with solid players that they can develop a little more.
AD: I think the Miami side of this trade is pretty underrated, because Wiggins, Mitchell and a first round pick that’s top 10 protected are all three great assets to get for Jimmy Butler. And you know your future is going nowhere with Jimmy Butler, if you’re Pat Riley. So it really makes sense, this trade for the Heat.
AD: So we already talked a little bit about the Lakers and their Luka trade and how they’re going to have a gap at center because of this trade that they made, and they gave away one of the best rim protectors in the league. But then they surprised everyone and got Mark Williams, who is a 23-year-old rising star from Charlotte. So what do you think about that trade?
MK: I think this was really good, because one of the first things I critiqued about the Lakers after seeing the Luka trade is their lack of interior presence, and now they got one of the tallest players in the league, at seven plus feet tall in Mark Williams, who can definitely anchor down the defensive end in the paint. So the Lakers are definitely looking like one of the strongest teams to come out of this trade deadline and I see them making a far stronger push than they would have without these trades.
AD: Yeah and if you look at the Lakers team a couple weeks ago, you had LeBron and AD on the team, who are both aging, but now you got this new young core with Luka and Mark Williams and other players as well like Rui Hachimura and Austin Reeves as well. Now the future is looking really bright for LA, as well as the present, because they still have LeBron.
AD: Let’s switch gears one last time to the Toronto Raptors and the Pelicans. So the Raptors recently acquired Brandon Ingram in exchange for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and a couple picks. So what are your thoughts on that trade?
MK: I actually really like this trade for the Raptors. They have a strong young core already, with Scotty Barnes, Grady Dick and RJ Barrett and the rest of that team, and now acquiring Brandon Ingram, I feel like that just really improved their roster. He’s slightly older, so he could give them a little bit more of a veteran experience as well, and pass down some knowledge to the young core that’s already there. I see them having sort of development like Oklahoma City, where they had a strong young core, and now they’re like the number one seed. So I see the Raptors making strong pushes in the coming years. Maybe in the next five years, they might reach the finals with this core.
AD: I don’t know if they’re that ready to be a team like the Thunder to even make the finals, but they’re definitely going to be like a playoff contender in the East, just because they have so much star power with Barrett, Ingram, Dick, Barnes and also Poeltl and a bunch of young guys who can carry the slack. So I think this trade is really good for the Raptors. But in terms of the Pelicans, they’ve been plagued with injuries this year and they have so many issues with Zion. So I don’t know if this was a bad trade for them necessarily, just because this season was going to be a bust anyways, but I’m interested to see what the Pelicans do with their future in terms of CJ McCollum and Dejounte Murray and how they go about dealing with them.
MK: And for one of the final trades that we want to discuss, we’re going to talk about the Milwaukee Bucks acquiring Kyle Kuzma in exchange for Khris Middleton to the Washington Wizards. So what do you think about that?
AD: I’m a little shocked by this trade. I thought that since they won the finals together and everything, Giannis and Khris were best friends, and I think they still are and I was surprised that the Bucks organization would trade away Khris, who’s someone who’s so essential to that finals team. But I mean, I understand it because this season, he hasn’t really been performing, and he’s been injured a bit, so it makes sense. Also, I think Kyle Kuzma was a great pickup for them because he’s been overshadowed by his terrible team in Washington, but now I think he’s on a better team, and he can thrive where he doesn’t have to be the number one, and he can just compliment Dame and Giannis.
MK: I think this trade is slightly beneficial for both teams, because Kuzma wasn’t really able to flourish on the Wizards and Khris Middleton was not in the same form as he was in the 2021 Finals, where they won the ring. After his injuries he has been slightly worse so I think getting rid of him and trying to move on to a new player in that same kind of wing position can maybe give the Bucks more success.
AD: That’s all we have. Thank you so much for listening, we’ll see you guys next time!
