Luka Gets Traded to the Lakers… What??? | With Ryen Russillo and Rob Mahoney

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I have new rewatchables coming for you Monday night. I have new BS podcasts coming for you Sunday night because Cousin Sal and I are still going to do our Super Bowl props pod.
This is a special Saturday night emergency podcast. I did not want to work on a Saturday night.
I was hanging out with my wife. All of a sudden, Luka Doncic got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Holy shit. Rob Mahoney, Ryan Rosillo, myself, we just hopped on.

We banged out an emergency podcast as fast as we possibly could. You can watch this as well on the

Bill Simms YouTube channel. Here's the pod.
Let's bring in our friends who also can't believe

Luka Doncic is the Los Angeles Laker from Pearl Jam. The most shocking trade, I think, in the history of the NBA.
At least from a shock value, oh my God, is this real? Has Shams been hacked? What is happening? Rob Mahoney is here. Ryan Rosillo is here.
It took me about 10 minutes to figure out, was this real? And then Shams, obviously, he had to retweet. No, no, this is real.
Mahoney, you followed Dallas pretty closely. Was there any sign whatsoever that Luka was on the block? Not like this, at least that I heard.
You hear burbling with players of his caliber all the time of like, oh, if it ever got to the point, then maybe the Lakers or a team like that would be consulted. If it ever reached a certain threshold, but threshold.
But I'm completely blindsided by this. As apparently is most of the league, including many of the players in it.
Rossello? I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was getting texts, and then I was like checking with people, and then with Bobby Marks was like, hey, this is real.
Like, Shams had to say, I'm not hacked above it. And then Bobby Marks above that had to be like, this is real because the headline of it is that it makes no fucking sense at all.
And whatever we're, you know, we're going to go all over the place and try to figure it out. But like you have traded at worst, the third best player in the NBA.
And when he's right, probably the second best guy and you've traded him at this age and you've completely reset the Lakers in a way that is basically impossible. So it doesn't make any sense at all.
So my, here's my cycle as I went through it. Somebody forwarded me the tweet.
I thought it was one of those NBA centel. Oh no, oh, somebody's messing around.
Then you click on it. They would have Bronny in it.
Right. True.
So then you click on it. It's Sean's actual account.
Then the next thing is, well, this he had to have been hacked because if you're actually making a trade of Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis, the Lakers would be giving up more stuff. It wouldn't just be the 2029 first.
And that's it. I would have been a 2031 first.
There would have been pick swaps. And then over the next 10 minutes, it just started to seem like it was real.
And that's when I think probably all of us were getting the text. You start going on Twitter, there's confirmation stuff on Twitter.
And it's like, I guess that's it. I guess the Lakers just basically hijacked Luka Doncic.
Rob, here's this team that over and over again has found ways to reinvent itself over the last 60 years, really. Going back to when they were able to get Wilt Chamberlain in the end of the late 60s and then Kareem in the 70s and they pull up Magic Johnson in the 80s.
Shaq and Kobe show up in the 90s and this is Pau Gasol in 2008. LeBron, miraculously of nowhere in 18, and then this.
This is almost a totally different level than any of those things. I think just because of the pure shock value, because it is a superstar not even yet in his prime, and we're already starting to see the information filter out from Dallas about why this could have possibly happened.
I am as stunned as anybody, and I don't think there is any justifiable explanation for trading a player as good as Luka right now unless he has come to the Mavs and said, I don't want to be here anymore. All right, so he had a year and a half left in his deal.
Yes. And maybe there were discussions behind the scene that I'm out of here after my contract's up at the end of 26, so if you can get something for me now, but that raises the biggest question in this whole thing.
If you're going to trade Luca, why not shop him? What can you get for him? Why not actually try to really come through? I don't, do you get that part, Rosilla? Why wouldn't they have shopped him to at least like three, four teams? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, I'm texting with teams right now and hopefully i'll get some responses here throughout the show on just you know did you know that he was available i'll never forget like teams reaching out just to be pissed off it's not like they wanted to talk to me that bad when gasol was traded there all right and i know people have debated about whether or not he was available and all this kind of different stuff but like when the actual trade went through there were other teams being like we we we had no idea that it was like coming to this point um and you know it's it's not just because it's the lakers thing there was a lot of stuff going on at the time that you could kind of read the tea leaves of like how it all came together but this is not enough of a haul like if you were shopping them you would do better than this so unless it was like you guys said, said, like Luka going, hey, look, that's the only place I want to go.
But we didn't even go through the cycle. We didn't even go through all the stuff that we're used to.
Like, oh, this guy already wants it. So even if he wanted out, then it's like, so what was the hurry if this is the return? And on top of everything else, like, look, I don't think Dallas is a very good matchup against Boston.
That's a good basketball team. And if everybody's healthy and what they've done and drafting lively, the Gafford Washington stuff, Kyrie, which by the way, like, does the Kyrie alarm start going off here? Like, are we back on the clock for like where, what he's thinking about next? Cause he was finally like basketball happy again here for a year and a half.
So yeah, my point would be, okay, so say Luca, cause we'll find out more about this stuff. And I wonder if there's like a Dallas hit piece coming, like the old Boston stuff used to happen with a guy in the Red Sox would go somewhere else.
And then two days later, yeah, the Brian Curtis. Now you tell us deal.
So I don't know if that's coming, but I just did my overall thing, I'm sorry, I'm going long here. It's just that, okay, fine.
If Luka was forcing your hand, why not just play it out this season if you're healthy? The West is not as deep. As good as OKC is, all the depth behind it's not what we thought it would be this summer.
You just made the NBA Finals. He's 25 years old.
He's 26 in February. You have him under contract the year after that there's a player option like you would have done better like this deal was not so like oh we have to do this right now we're talking about ad the 29 um what is it they got they got rid of uh i guess some kleber marquise morris money sure i actually thought max christie was just having him thrown in there.
I'm like, eh, Max Christie's not like nothing. No, he was awesome tonight, by the way, too.
Yeah. But still, I mean, give me a break.
I did my trade value rankings, and I put up the thing on Thursday, and I had Luka. A big thing for me was trying to decide whether I should move SGA ahead against Luka, and I didn't feel great about it.
But Luka's been hurt. Luka had the year and a half left in his deal.
And I was just like, I just think SGA seems like slightly more untradeable to me. But I had Luka fourth, at Davis 11th.
Davis is 31, so he's six years older. Davis already just got hurt a week ago.
He's been up and down the whole time. And I just think these are two different classes of players, as great as Davis is.
There's Luka, SGA, Jokic, Giannis Tatum. And now we're starting to drop a little bit to some other next level of person.
You can win the finals with Luka as your best guy if you can put the right people around him. So I guess the questions that we're going to have, Rob, coming out of this are, was the Luka Dallas situation worse than leaked out? Did Luka tell them, I'm going to the Lakers in a year and a half.
So just trade me there now. If you trade me anywhere else, I'm still going to go to the Lakers and we'll tell the team that's about to trade.
Was there more gamesmanship behind the scenes or was this Dallas and the Lakers just stealth going, hey, what about if we did this trade? And neither side had any idea. I'm already scared of the galaxy-braining effect of what is going to happen as a result of this because it does make you want to believe in a conspiracy theory.
The fact that this has been buttoned up clearly to the point that it shocked the entire league,

shocked the basketball landscape.

I am stunned

that it got to this point.

Even if you consider the trade value

that you just laid out, Bill, none of those

other guys are going to be available. None of those

other guys are going to be on the market. So if you are

going to trade Luka, it's going to be for

someone in that next class, the Anthony Davis

class of player. But you would

think there would be more to it than this. You would think

that there would be more supplementary pieces

it's going to trade Luka. It's going to be for someone in that next class, the Anthony Davis class of player.
But you would think there would be more to it than this. You would think that there would be more supplementary pieces involved.
And that's where all of this seems to have come together so fast. And I'm with you, Russell, like the acceleration from whatever instigating event, whether it was Luka coming to the Mavs or otherwise, from there to here, I don't understand why that period of time was fast-tracked to the degree that it was.
We still have days left before the deadline. Our friend Mark Stein is reporting Luka Doncic did not request a trade.
What are we doing? And the Mavericks did this on their own accord. So do you think Luka was just home? Like he was watching Night Agent Season 2 and it was like a phone rang.
It'sico harrison i have some bad news we've traded you to the lakers like i wonder if he was blindsided by this i just refuse to believe in this league that is so beholden the players and player relationships that uh that a superstar would be blindsided he had to have had some idea right rusilla i'm so confused by this no you you would think you think there had to have been something what would have motivated them to want to get rid like even if we play out well you know he does get hurt he doesn't take care of his body he comes in out of shape you know there's all this stuff with him it's like dude okay fine and he still might be the second best player in the world yeah no i would i would have i actually have like a bit of a line of like yokich which i don't think is really obtainable at this point for any other player and then it kind of goes back and forth between janice and luca and then i do have sga fourth you know even with the numbers i just think that there's there's a slightly different ceiling with some of those guys maybe just because i've seen luca do it in the playoffs where it's like, there's really nothing to do with that guy. Once he just decides he's going to drive and go slow and get you on his hip.
It seriously, I've called it like the best look that you'll get in basketball. Like if you just sort it all out and go, I need the best look that I feel just the best about.
As soon as the guy has the ball in his hands, it's that with his and his size so like even if because somebody will do it like somebody will do the well you know they were worried about how he was gonna be later on his career okay worry about that when he's 30 and you have to worry about the extension right he's not even in his prime yet by NBA standards, which is 27, 28. Bobby Marks points out astutely that he was in line for a massive extension this summer for five years, $345 million.
As I started thinking, okay, but as the cap goes up, that looks like Jalen Brown's deal was the deal where you're like, that's insane.'s insane. It's also Jalen Brown and not Luca, but you know, like every year we go through the cycle of deals where you're thinking you're paying 200 million for that guy.
And it's like, dude, in two years, these guys are beginning three, 350 million. Now Bobby says he's not going to be eligible for that now.
So that changes up some things. The only thing I was thinking was, you know, I always thought the Cuban ownership thing was really weird that this is somebody that has enjoyed being an owner in sports more than any person, maybe in any sport.
This is somebody who nine years ago said, you know, um, what is it? Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered when he talked about the NFL. And granted, he was basically pumping up his own product, like going on TV, talking about a position you have in a company when you own all their stock.
But he was basically dogging the NFL's future while he was propping up the NBA's future. All right? And that was nine years ago where he was like, it's going to happen.
And it hasn't happened. Okay, that's fine.
But is there anything to this that it was still very... Remember two, like, oh, yeah, we don't know the team anymore, but we're still going to run it.

Like, oh, yeah, right.

Because that's what billionaires love to do is buy things and let other people make all these decisions.

So you think it was the new owners potentially not wanting to pay the $350?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm so shocked by this, guys, that it crossed my mind.

Could it be any new owner thing? But apparently people really think that think that this group is they're not going to screw around with it so you know yeah but hold on hold on anymore so 350 i didn't see i didn't think he was in like the greatest shape this year would you agree rob agree and say he was um guys hey who cares no i know i'm just trying to figure out from their perspective they're worried about hey what's going on with this dude he's he doesn't seem like the light bulb's going off he's we're hearing rumors maybe he wants to leave unless we give him the 350 million should we do it with all that said I'm raising my hand for the people listening I just would never trade him never I I I just wouldn't like I would trade him for Wemby. I would trade him for Jokic.
I would trade him for SGA. And that's it.
There's no other player unless I'm also getting five, six first round picks. And when you think this is a league where Mikael Bridges went for five first rounders or a couple of years ago, KD went for, what was that? Four first rounders, two swaps, Mikael Bridges and Cam Johnson.

This just isn't enough for Luka.

And I think that's why, like David Aldridge

tweeted, he's been covering the NBA 37

years.

Nothing that happens, deals, free agent signings,

coach hiring fires, rises to the level of, as

the great Ben Bradley used to call them, a holy shit

stories. This is a holy shit trade.

I think it's bigger than that.

The only thing I can think of... What would that be called? I think it's a holy holy shit trade i think it's bigger than that i the only thing i can think what would that be called i think it's a holy fucking shit trade wow i the only thing i can think of is that night when all hell broke loose and paul george and kawaii ended up on the quippers but at least then we were on kind of call that week we knew something was happening we were waiting to seei was going to go.
We were trying to figure out where Kawhi's kids

were registered for school.

We were on call. We were on call like doctors.

This is a Saturday night. The Lakers

just played. LeBron looked fantastic

against the Knicks. Davis was supposed to come

back in a couple days. There was

no sign whatsoever and we all thought

Shams got hacked.

Since we've all been

working together, it's the most shocking NBA trade. I'd have to go through history.
I can't imagine a bigger one. Well, and in that case with Paul George and Kawhi, Kawhi was on the market.
So there were the precursors. There's no market for Luka Doncic.
I was under the impression, frankly, with the way the NBA has been operating over the last five or ten years, that a player of this caliber would just never be traded again without a demand or request of some kind on their part. And if that really is what happened, that this is entirely preemptive by the Mavs.
Granted, maybe they are reading the tea leaves about the extension. Maybe they are forecasting and saying, you know, a year and a half from now, we're going to have to deal with this in a way that doesn't look good for us.
Every other team in these instances holds on too long and ends up driving down some of the value in a potential trade. The fact that the Mavs jumped the line on that market and still came away with what feels to be such low value for a player of Luka's caliber.
Why are you preempting it? Why are you getting ahead of yourself and doing something that no other team is willing to do? In part because no other team pretty much has a player as good as Luka. Well, and you're also, now you have this team that's built around Kyrie, who was 2010 draft? 2011 draft.
So he's in his early 30s. Davis was 2012 draft.
He's 31. So you have this older team that's kind of built to win right now, but it doesn't have the long-term ceiling.
I don't think of what they had before. So Bobby Marks said Luka was in line for five for 345 this summer.
He was super max eligible being on the same team. That's out the window now because he got traded.
So this actually cost him money. Rosillo, can we just – I'm still wrapping my head around this.
Can we talk about the Dallas piece of this? Does Dallas think this made their team better? I don't understand it. I mean, I'm still reading stuff.
Like Shams has another post here that says, quote, the Mavericks approached the Lakers recently and offered Luka Doncic. Sources tell ESPN.
Lakers brass met and believed the 25-year-old Doncic has the ability to be the face of the franchise for the next decade while giving Anthony Davis a win-now move in Dallas. The best is like the last sentence, like, hey, say something nice about Anthony Davis on the way out of here.
I love the idea that they got the call and then were like, all right, let's kick around some thoughts. Yeah.
You know, how many opposed? You know, they must have thought that they were getting fucked with when that call first happens. But yeah, on the Dallas side, you're right.
Well, don't you think they, if you get that call and you're almost like, am I being pranked? Is my phone tapped? Are they trying to, like, they can't possibly be actually trying to trade Luka Doncic to us. Or what's wrong with them? Like, what happened to Luka that they would even want to trade him in the first place? It's like the put when Paul Pierce dropped to 10 in the 98 draft and he hit around, like, pick six.
And all the Celtics were like, what happened? Is he, was he arrested? Yeah, do we want to take him? Like, why is he dropping? Rosillo, how this dave mcbeneman just tweeted lebron learned of the davis donches trade after the next game he was out to dinner with his family sources close to james told espn he was surprised by the news is processing it had no idea it was in the works sources said i actually believe that because i think if any of this even came close to leaking out beyond like the immediate people that were involved in it, I think it would have leaked out. That's one of the shocking things about this is that none of this leaked out.
No. I mean, it can't happen, but that also, I think, speaks to the speed of what this was, because if they had reached out, say, two weeks ago, I think eventually somebody figures it out.
I would say, though, if Clutch knew, because granted, Davis is their client in this, I don't think that they would have leaked. What would have been the purpose? You wouldn't want anyone to even know about any of this stuff because they wouldn't want competition.
They tell LeBron, and then you don't know what happens. What if LeBron doesn't want the trade to happen? If you're LeBron, it's like, I mean, there's so many pieces to talk about this.
But now we have LeBron, James, and Luka Dacic on the same team. Luka's had the best, I don't know what, seven-year start to a career that any player has had since LeBron.
It's been on all the same. And now they're going to be on the same team, which is like, that has only happened a couple times in the history of the league where it's like, Hey, well, it's now going to be in the team with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.
You know, like we just don't have superstar, super duper star pairings out of nowhere like this. And I honestly don't know how they fit.
I think it's a pretty weird fit. The two of them.
You know what though? Like that used to be something I used to always think about when they would say chris paul and lebron really want to play to play with each other and

um when they were at their peaks i always thought it was a little stupid because i just felt like

it was redundant it was taking away what what both of their greatness was it was just setting

everything up and reading it and when they were both in their primes i'm like why would they

actually i don't even know that that makes a ton of sense now when you watch the lakers and you

think about their best possessions like they were so good tonight, man. Their spacing and the way LeBron was reading everything.
But a lot of times, like Austin Reeves, now post-Angelo Russell, is tasked with having to figure out a way to set up their offense because I think he just has the energy to do it. LeBron doesn't have the energy to play point guard the entire time.
And then on the other side of it, as good as Reeves has been, he's the number one hunt target for the other team's best player. And they're trying to get him into every single switch.
So it's just an exhausting role for Reeves to have all that stuff. And it was the best version of him based on who they had.
But now with Luka, at this stage at 40 for LeBron, this is great for him. This is fine.
Now, we could talk about their defense because

they were always trying to figure out their defense.

Luka, LeBron, and Austin Reeves all at the

same time. Three of your five guys.

And no ring protection.

Jackson Hayes is still out

right now on the East Coast. He's like,

extension, baby.

Jackson

Hayes is like, finally.

You know what it is, though?

It kind of... Is it worth going like, you know,

immediately, unless there's some more moves,

they are kind of a weird team.

And the Lakers and ownership are like, fuck it.

Who cares?

Of course they said, who cares?

Because now we have arguably the second best player in the world

at 25 years old.

Now you do this every time. You just do it just do questions asked but you don't even you don't even blink it could play out for a team that's been playing better and again you don't make decisions based on how the team's playing for two weeks but it could play out that it becomes more of a reset year than a what if we get lucky in the right playoff matchups and next thing you know we're're in the Western Conference Finals even though I think that that was still unlikely

going up against some of these other teams that I like

better in the West. I don't know

that we could completely write it off.

This is different.

They also might have another trade for

some sort of room protection. They need a big.

They need somebody. I'll say this

man. I don't think that's Valanciunas

as far as room protection.

That's not what you want. No, but maybe it's like

a Robert Williams.

I don't know if he would be able to stay in the court, but it's

Thank you. I don't think that's Valanciunas as far as room protection.
That's not what you want. No, but maybe it's like a Robert Williams.
Well, I don't know if he would be able to stay in the court, but it's that kind of level, like the $10 million, $11 million center who can stay near the rim. I'll say this.
This team would, like, I'm just, it's breaking my brain thinking about it, but LeBron, the way he's looked tonight in a couple of the games recently where he's really, really, really, really good and efficient in some of the choices he's making and the way they were spreading the floor for him. He was just annihilated in the Knicks tonight.
And then you think about that with Luka and those guys spread out playing off each other with the offense spread. Like it's not nothing, Rob.
I'm looking at the Laker odds right now in FanDuel they have the six best odds now to win the title 21 to 1 so people are wagering on this Rob they still need a lot of work in terms of that front court I mean just as we said playable bodies the Christian Coloco Jackson Hayes thing that is that's not going to get it done these are small potatoes problems in the scope of when you bring in Doncic. Ultimately, having two supercomputers on the court is just going to give the Lakers something that literally no other team in the league has.
And the selective deployment of LeBron that we've been talking about where he can now pick his spots at a level that he's never been able to before. And he was someone who played with prime Dwayne Wade.
And so that in itself puts them in such a unique space that is frankly unquantifiable in terms of what the title race is. I will rule nothing out at this point.
Like Lakers exceptionalism clearly is the thing that exists. And we need to acknowledge that they can move the pieces around the board in ways that no other team can.
There are big markets. Dallas is one of the biggest markets in the league.
There are massive markets that operate in their own ways. And then there is the Lakers in their own zone of existence, making shit like this happen on a regular basis.
From a hunting the weak link on the other team standpoint, this is kind of a nightmare now with Luka and LeBron, if they can actually figure it out, how to kind of balance that. And there's always going to be somebody who's like, oh, you're going to, that's who you're going to have on him.
Oh, cool. And if they can figure that they still need some rim protection.
I Rosillo. Yeah.
But we both know, like we don't even need to say it, but maybe we'll just say it one more time. Like, I think the point is, is even if they feel like they can't fix themselves, none of it matters.
You still do it. Yeah.
So, Roussela, here's the question for you. What else would you have thrown into this trade from the Lakers side before you said yes if you were Dallas? The trade they already made, if you were the Dallas GM, what more would you have had to get? Nothing.
There would not have been a trade. I would have gone to a different team.
I would have asked for all their their picks i would have said san antonio you're going to give me all your picks you can't even make up some shit and i'm getting castle and i'm getting vassell and you know i'm getting i'm getting at least one really good young player that profiles to be a difference maker which still like sometimes we fall in love with these guys so much that you're like you can go back it's kind of like the jjson-Amari Stoudemire thing. Granted, Amari ended up being hurt a little bit.
It was like, you know, he'd love to have Amari, but, you know, we can't put J.J. Hickson in the deal.
And, you know, it just happens time and time again. And I'll admit, even, like, right now, when I think about the Fox Castle stuff, I'll be like, oh, man, Castle, there's something to him.
But then, you know, that's where you can start making some mistakes. So as far as like what would the Lakers need to keep adding for me to say yes, if the core of this is Anthony Davis, who last year was fantastic.
All right. But it was the first all-star team he had made in three years.
He played 76 games. Before that, he played 56, 40, 36, 62, and 56.
So it was his first 70 game season since 2018. And as much as we love what he is, and he's already got the ring and he was so good last year.
They're like, I got it. I'm, I'm trading for him.
I'm trading for Anthony Davis. So if Anthony Davis is the main piece I'm getting back because I guess they can argue,

hey, we're just different, but now we're competing and Luka wasn't even playing and we got some bad news

and it might take another month and things were getting a little weird.

Okay, fine.

So I guess you're not resetting it the way we would normally expect

a franchise and roster to have to reset on moving on from somebody like this.

But what's more likely?

Davis just ages really well the next four years?

No, I feel like we're at the tail end of the prime with him. Yeah, for me, if somebody tasked us not knowing this trade was going to happen, make up a Dallas Lakers trade.
Reeves would have to be in it. It would have to be Davis and Reeves.
Or Dalton.

I would assume...

He's untouchable.

Don't connect untouchable.

The 29 pick and the 31 pick.

I would have wanted swaps in 28 and 30.

I'm sticking you with the worst contract I have on my team.

You're taking that too.

It's the Bando deal.

No, it's the Bando deal.

Right.

Now, I'd have to have all the math in front of me here once Davis and the other stuff is included, then maybe it doesn't work or whatever. But like Vando's, every five minutes, I still can't believe it happened.
So Windhorst, I guess, was on ESPN saying that the clip notes are the Lakers were the only offer that Dallas had in their pocket. He didn't think Dallas could get all they

could get from LA and that Dallas was hesitant

to offer Luka the Supermax this summer.

I have no idea why Dallas was

hesitant to offer Luka the Supermax

this summer unless

even if they had some sort of

crazy insights to his terrible diet

habits, some sort of

physical issues that maybe they're only aware

of, I still would offer him the Supermax. He's Luka Doncic.
He made the finals last year. No doubt.
So I don't... He could have been smoking cigarettes, Bill.
He could have been smoking cigarettes, bringing the ball up the fucking court, and I would still be like, when can we sign you to the Supermax? By the way, I've heard from multiple teams that I sent text to in the beginning of this thing. Not one team even thought they were like completely shocked.

Yeah.

Totally off the radar.

People did not know that he was even available.

Now.

So this is,

I'm not,

I'm not right.

This is,

I have an over 29 sequel,

but it's like the Den of the sequel.

It's so much worse.

The budget is way bigger.

It's like,

this is not,

this is not little indie high school anymore.

So it's Gladiator 2?

Yeah.

This is a big budget. It's like, this is not, this is not little indie high school anymore.
Yeah. This is a big budget.

I,

uh,

as you guys know,

I kind of hate the Lakers.

Um,

this is,

you're fair though.

You're fair about it.

Bill,

Bill Boston fans infuriated.

How dare they get Luke at that?

What the fuck?

And then what if he gets in like awesome shape in a year?

And now they're like reset.

I felt like the Lakers were, you know, they weren't real title contenders. They were just delusional enough to think they could be title contenders.
They weren't. They were headed the wrong direction.
And now this has saved them because Dallas didn't feel like Luka Doncic was worth $340 million over five years in a league where everybody is getting $300 million for five years now. If that part is true, this is just going to go down as one of the biggest self-inflicted wounds in NBA history.
The fact that that's where they balked. That's where the line is.
Inexplicable shit. I think I'm trying to think though.
Do you think you'll wake up tomorrow, Bill, though? I'm sorry to interrupt you but like when something like this happens where everybody is going you've got to be getting guys that work in the league are texting me going I can't believe this just like we can't believe it is there a moment three days from now where you think you'll understand more? There's two things I'm not going to understand. One how is this the trade? I'm just going to trust my blink reaction to reading it and thinking it was Shams getting hacked because the trade seems so lopsided.
I just couldn't. I was like, ah, they fucked that up when they hacked Shams.
That's one. And then two, how do you not chop them? You have this incredible asset.
You basically, you have an open house for the best house in your neighborhood and the first person walks in and makes you an offer like, done. Done.
Cancel everyone else who came in. I'm done.
Wait, wait. I think we can get more.
Nope. Nope.
That was the first offer we got it. I just don't understand that.
It's just bad business. But he's not even the house.
He's the neighborhood. This isn't an asset.
This is

not a tradable player.

No, it's not.

Unless it's for Jokic or Wembedyama

or SGA. Even then, you would

have to really think about it. That's how good

Luka is.

So I guess Tatum's more

tradable than Luka, Brasillo.

It's one of my lessons tonight.

I don't think the Celtics do this trade. Big win for the Celts.
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That is L-O-O-M.com. So everyone you're hearing from is like, we had no idea he was available.
Again, I'm not talking to 29 teams here. I'm not that cool to get 29 texts back, or I guess I would ask for 28 texts back, but yeah, multiple teams.
What do we got? Another Tim McMahon. We missed this one.
The Mavs had major concerns about moving forward with Luka Doncic

due to his constant conditioning issues

and the commitment of another Supermax contract extension.

So we're going to get the now they tell a story Monday

about the war behind the scenes to keep Luka in shape,

that whole thing.

Yeah, but we all knew this stuff.

And none of it mattered, and they still made the finals.

And the Western Conference finals two years before that.

So if you're going to say, like, hey, if he were 32 and available for whatever the most it was,

and you're trading for 31-year-old AD, and, you know, it's run its course,

and he's been there a decade plus, okay, fine.

All right, so say all of it, because you're right. It's all going to happen.
What's the problem with shopping them? There's nothing that tells me this would be the best deal if you called 28 GMs and said, it's real. You have 48 hours, put together your best off.
And by the way, you'd leak it. You'd leak it so that everybody knew that everybody knew that it was serious.
So that when it's leaked to say a Brian Windhorst, right, who he'll probably go, I can't believe this is happening. Don't burn me on this.
He would have to have the relationship with Nico or somebody with that team. You know, that's how this stuff works.
And then all of a sudden, like, Windhorst is getting calls from teams saying, is this serious? Like, what do you think they're doing? And then Windhorst is almost like in that position. because that's kind of like Woj was so powerful, man.
Woj was so powerful that people would be checking in on him going like, what's going on over there in Dallas? And then Woj would be telling him the truth. But you would be doing that.
You'd be planting that seed so that everybody knew because this guy is now available. So put in your final bids because we're serious about this.
And then you

start bidding against things you don't need. You know what I mean?

Like when there's those blind bids for

Daisuke Matsuzaka who had the mysterious

gyro ball. Remember like they were

blind bids. And so you didn't

know. You're like, should we offer 15

or 51 million? And you're

like, well, you know, it's I don't want to lose this guy. So you're almost bidding against yourself a little bit.
So even if all that stuff, which is going to come out, the negative Luca, he was all of these things. We want to get in front of it.
You don't want to get this in front of it. You don't want to get so in front of it that the rest of the league doesn't know that he's available.
So, I mean, to me, this is like fireable shit. And that's why I wonder, like, did ownership get involved in some level? But from what I've heard, it wouldn't make sense.
Like who's buying a team now that's scared off from a supermax, especially when it's somebody like this. Rob is shaking his head as violently as if it was the worst season finale of all time on the Prestige TV podcast.

And him and Joanna were just like,

I just can't believe they did that.

I just can't believe it.

It's just presumed innocent all over again.

My brain is breaking.

It was a time machine.

The thing that's really shaking me up and we touched on earlier

is there isn't even the plausible deniability

of trading for things

that are on a completely different timeline.

Like if you weren't trading for another player

in his like ostensible prime

and it was all of these picks

Thank you. ability of trading for things that are on a completely different timeline.
If you weren't trading for another player in his ostensible prime and it was all of these picks, all of these swaps, you can at least understand an underlying logic. It would still be questionable.
But here you have one pick, no swaps. Max Christie, thank God.
You couldn't even get Jalen Hood-Shifino out of Utah. Rosillo, remember I texted you today about the Utah? Yeah.
And I was like, this set... So Utah made that weird trade today where they took P.J.
Tucker's contract and they took money and the Clippers and it was like, man, this is a weird trade. And I texted Rosillo and I said, my shit detector's going off.
You do this kind of trade when there's another trade coming. And we were like, oh, I wonder if it's going to be John Collins and P.J.
Tucker for Brandon Ingram. Not realizing it was going to be Luka fucking Doncic as the third team.
But, um, so, I'm trying to think, like, if they had offered him him to San Antonio and I would, and the three of us were running San Antonio. Yeah.
We would have a two hour meeting and we would basically say, all right, how much, like we could basically give up every single asset we have. And if we just end up with Luca and Wemby, we're probably good.
So if Castle, Vassell seven first round picks like yeah let's do it let's do oh they want us to take a bad contract like whatever I had to do to just get Luca and Wemby on the same team I would have done it and the Lakers basically got it it feels like 40 cents on the dollar 41 cents on on the dollar, Rosilla? I just keep wondering. 42? What do we not understand? What do we not understand about this? Dallas is now under the luxury tax.
Cool. So that happened.
Congrats. According to Bobby Marks, there's 628,000 under the luxury tax.
What would you... Rob, you know some Dallas fans.

They're not doing well, by the way.

Yeah, I was going to say, I don't even know.

What would you say to a Dallas fan who thought Luka was going to be in their life for the next

15 years?

There's no consoling a fan of a team like that

in a situation like this. And as we said,

there's no precedent to say like, oh look, it worked

out okay for this other team and this other

star. They rebooted.
They got things together. Marc Gasol ended up being pretty good.
Max Christie could be their Marc Gasol. That's really what they're hoping for.
He's further along than Marc was. We should say congratulations to Anthony Davis, who will be playing with the center.
Daniel Gafford for now, Derek Lively later. You get what you wish for.
Congratulations to Anthony Davis. There's no coming back from this.
And I would say the polar extremes of a fan base that was able to hold on to Dirk for so long and had all of the hopes in the world that Luka could be that same kind of fixture within the franchise, maybe that was always a bit of a stretch. Maybe no player in the modern NBA is that kind of thing anymore.
But I think they all counted on him being around longer than this. And certainly if he did leave, there being a little bit more ceremony to it.
There being a little bit more of a bidding war to it and not just swept out the door in the night for Anthony Davis and a pick in Max Christie. It's one of the biggest mistakes.
I feel very comfortable saying this right after the trade. It's one of the biggest mistakes I can ever remember in NBA franchise making.
How is there not a swap? Yeah. How are there no swap? Every trade now, it's like, oh, and by the way, we get two swaps.
We have seven swaps and 14 second round picks. There are swaps.
There was a swap in a Houston deal where I was like, that's such a stupid swap. It gets already set in stone that it's not going to happen.
But you wanted to be able to say, potentially, we have this other pick. Because I think it was an in-season deal.
It may have been the Harden-Nets thing where the way the math worked on the swap was like, oh, we also get the swap this year. It was the Nets-Houston one.
Yeah. Where it was like, yeah, we're going to swap chance there was no way there was there was no way that was actually going to be in play that they would want to swap picks of them but it just sounded better right because all these trades get reported as like and potentially up to five trade or five first round picks how i don't like that part of it was one of the first things where i thought it was hacked i was like oh the guy hacked him and wasn't smart enough to put in like two swaps because this deal would always have a couple of swaps in it.
So two things. Number one, this is where I have to go back to things I've written in the past and regurgitate them.
The FU factor with Luca now is going to be unbelievable. And I think he's the wrong guy to challenge with an FU.
Yeah. I can't think of somebody in our lives from a basketball standpoint that I'm more excited about to have like a fucking fire lit under his ass now.
Like, really? You guys traded me? Like, what happens if he really takes this seriously? Like, all right. And then, you know, I, I never felt like from a physical,

physical diet,

the whole thing,

it always felt like there was going to be some year coming.

We would joke about it on all of our podcasts.

Oh,

wait till the year when there's the video of Luca in August and he's fucking

working out and he's jacked.

And you know,

he's eating,

he's eating a grilled chicken and beets,

pickles.

Maybe that's going to happen.

That's one.

The other one is

is LeBron the next move here?

No.

Because I had somebody that knows things

was saying that they do this,

they don't give LeBron a heads up,

and then the next move is LeBron to Golden State.

Wow.

And they're just basically out of the LeBron and AD business

and rebooting.

What happens to LeBron?

I think he's probably in the trade.

Yeah.

I think he has to come.

LeBron, he had a lefty layup today.

He's in Santa Cruz.

He got one today.

He did.

He's still going percentage in the teens again.

I love all the announcers.

What if LeBron was like,

everybody has to be nice.

LeBron has the no trade clause,

but what if LeBron's like,

all right,

now I'm next.

And,

um,

and that door was open too.

Or maybe he'll be like,

this is great.

I can't wait to play Luka Doncic.

And then Laka blows up the deal.

Cause he's like,

I'm not paying tax on Bronny's extension.

Yeah. Can we stretch Bronny for the next 18 years? Rousseau, what do you think about the FU side of the Luka thing now? Could you see a year and three years where he's just in awesome shape and just declaring war on the league? I would hope so.
I mean, just think how much scarier that would be. But I think he's always one of those guys, Jokic has a bit of this, where you always think Jokic is spent, and it's just the way he carries himself for his 35 to 38 minutes a night.
And, you know, granted, it's been cranked up what he's had to do, especially at the beginning of the year with all the injuries. But Luka is somebody who forever throughout the game, he constantly looked like he's hurt.
He's, you know, he's a bit theatrical with it. Um, LeBron has been that way for a good chunk of his career.
We were like, Oh no, is he going to get up? Is he going to get up? Um, so maybe, but I, I, he's a pretty mad guy. I mean, he's, he's probably one of the maddest players and you would want that to translate some of the off season stuff.
And I think there've been times too, in Dallas where I hear like, okay, we really expect him to kind of come in. So pissed off.

The problem is like, what are you going to do?

It's not like he's putting up 30 and they're the 11 seed in the West, you know?

So whatever his approach is, it's kind of hard to tell him, hey, you need to change this thing. Because I know that his background is that, you know, he's just kind of different.

Obviously, he's very different.

His father's different.

Like it's a different kind of culture and the way they kind of look at the profession of the whole thing um I don't know what the LeBron part of it is I wonder Rob like do you think do you think AD feels like I'm out of this and this is cool or I went to the one team that Clutch wanted me to go to, to be paired up with LeBron, win the title,

and,

no,

granted, or I went to the one team that Clutch wanted me to go to, to be paired up with LeBron, win the title.

And now granted, you know,

the Lakers are just going to do this no matter what.

Yeah.

Or, you know, is there a part of this where if LeBron's 35,

they don't do it because they're worried about the relationship more with LeBron.

But again, then they, maybe they don't take his kid. I'm just kind of thinking thinking about the clutch part of it.
If Davis is thinking, hey, it's cool, whatever. I'm always, you know, Dallas would be one of the five places I'd want to play.
I don't know if he has any relationship with Kyrie. They're going to say all the right things and all that kind of stuff.
Rob, before you answer that, there was stuff on there about AD and Nico Harrison had a really good relationship. And that was one of the reasons Dallas wanted to trade for him.
Take that for what you will. The Nico Harrison part of this is fascinating too, because he had done a pretty tremendous job overhauling the Mavericks roster over the last couple of years.
Even moves, I was highly skeptical when they traded for Kyrie in the first place. I didn't quite see the vision of that.
It was just hit after hit after hit. I think it's fair of everybody to be like, I don't know that I would want to trade for him, but at that point, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
And at this point, if you are AD, I agree that if you're a player of his stature at his position that plays the way he does, if you look around the league, Dallas is a pretty good spot for AD to land. And the compliment of being the return for Luka Doncic is a pretty strong endorsement of your game in and of itself.
What's a little confusing to me as we kind of juxtapose all

of the pieces in this deal, not

only are the Mavs getting AD, they're getting this

2029 pick, but we just said

that Luka Doncic is not only this level

of playmaker, but this level of fuck you

competitor. You're

betting that a Luka Doncic Lakers team isn't

going to be that good in 2029? I

think they're going to be pretty fucking good. Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, you would almost want the 2031 pick over the 29 pick. Or just get fucking both of them because you traded for Luka Doncic.
Give me both picks. What picks do you have? I'm going to take all the remaining picks you have.
I'm getting a slew of texts and they're now moving as we're like 40 minutes after the trade, 45 minutes. Two camps are now merging.

This league fixed it for the Lakers.

This is fucking bullshit.

You've got to investigate this.

I'm getting those texts.

Are you doing that monologue on Tuesday's pod?

I want to research it more and maybe talk to some lawyers.

And then there's some clutch and AD and LeBron pushed the lakers too far and they finally said fuck it we've had it and that was why they didn't give them a heads up any of that stuff i actually believe that because i think when the when there was those stories last week about what was it a week or two weeks ago about we need some help was the self-esteem the roster i was when they did that i was like are you guys fucking serious we're doing this again you're doing that we've got to improve the roster. When they did that, I was like, are you guys fucking serious? We're doing this again? You're doing the we've got to improve the roster, passive-aggressive thing? Your roster is actually pretty good.
So I wonder if maybe they're just trying to get out of this business completely. And plus, they traded for Luka Doncic.
So of course they're doing that. So they trade for Luka Doncic and the Lakers get to be the little guy standing up to big bad clutch.
Yeah. The little $7 billion team standing up to the $15 billion agency.
Yeah, by the way, six months after they drafted his son and gave him a two-year $100 million extension. And so, like, you know, wow.
You guys really told them. You did it, guys.
I knew they could. But if we want to compliment them, do you think Palenka at some point like Niko was like, I need two first and Palenka had the balls to go.
Nah. I'll give you one.
He's like, what about a 20-30 swap? He's like, nope, my offer's my offer. My shitty offer stands.
Right, because the story about when the Celtics did that Nets deal, when it was all of their picks, like it was like a real Christopher Columbus type moment with one of those trades. And I remember I was in Brooklyn for the draft because I was doing the draft for ESPN.
And I, I, I remember how confused I was at first. I was like, so they get this pick, but then they have the right to do this.
And the story goes that they were like, Hey, it's Prokhorov. Just keep asking.
Right. They'd agree.
And then that's how they got the 17 swap. That's how they got the Tatum pick.
The last second, they were like, hey, we want that too. He's like, oh, that's fine.
That sounds good. I will give you that.
That's a good Prokhorov right there. Thank you.
I've been working on my Prokhorov. I knew it was going to come in handy.
So Dallas, Nico Harrison really values the center position apparently,

values conditioning and doesn't value picks in the 2030s.

That's what we've learned.

I'm just trying to think of how it would have hit me

if someone would have told me a week ago

Rob Palenka is going to win executive of the year

and what it would take to get us to that point.

But I think it just happened.

I think it just happened.

There's one other...

Oh, Tim McMahon reporting

that Luca was pushing 270 pounds.

I don't care.

I don't give a shit.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Rusillo, can we talk about

Hood Shofino's fit with the Jazz?

How do you see him playing off of John Collins

and some of their bigs?

How are he and Sensiball going to play together?

Yeah. I just don't want my guy Will Hardy to retire this year if there's another on-ball dominant dude while Markkinen's standing off to the side going, are you guys? I like Keontae George, but the number of times I'll see him dribble in and then not get the angle and then be like, all right, let me just reset thisrey Young watches that film it's like dude you're gonna move the ball a little bit right he'll go in it doesn't happen all the time anyway nobody wants a jazz breakdown out of this point um I I think you wait your whole life to have a player like this a franchise wait I agree you know you hope to have have...
There's some teams that are spoiled. Your team,

Bill. The Lakers are spoiled.

Chicago certainly had that one guy. I'm not saying

Lucas, MJ, or any of that kind of stuff.

And LeBron's had some different stops. It's a more

modern version of what we're used to in the NBA.

But

you hope

as an owner or a city

you get somebody that makes you think anything is possible

if you have the right pieces around you.

Like what happened last year.

Yep.

Yeah, right.

And the fact that he turns 26, it's just-

Yeah, you're talking about somebody who has a chance to go down

as one of the 15 best players of all time.

We haven't seen anything yet that would make me think

that's not still in play.

And he's hit every sort of statistical benchmark you'd want. He's made the finals already, which is a huge piece of when you're talking about the greatest guys ever, did they actually have a moment where they got to the big stage pretty early in their career? He did that.
We know that players peak 26, 27, 28. He's not even those ages yet.
And now he's going to be playing for the Lakers. He's going to be a huge star.
He's going to love it here. He's going to be a big celebrity in a city of celebrities.
And he's playing for, you know, this is the most famous franchise that we have in the NBA. Hasn't been the most successful because the Celtics have won a couple more titles.
I don't count the Minnesota ones. But this is the most famous franchise in the NBA.

It is.

They've been the most famous franchise for 60 years.

Celebrity fans.

They keep winning.

They're relevant every single decade.

And they pulled it off again.

I just can't believe it.

How many is this?

So it's Will.

It's Kareem.

It's Shaq.

Yep.

It's LeBron.

It's Luka.

Am I missing anybody?

That's kind of. Will, Kareem.

And they luck out with the magic trade. That was ridiculous.
But yeah, it's a trade. but it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's

it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's LeBron. It's Luka.
Am I missing anybody? That's kind of...

And they luck out with the magic trade. That was

ridiculous.

Gasol.

Kobe.

12 teams passed on Kobe, but then

especially the Nets

not taking him.

Player acquisitions, Gasol is a big one.

And then Davis is the last one.

So it's, they have

So say that again.

So it's Will, it's Kareem,

it's Shaq,

it's Gasol, it's

LeBron, it's Davis,

and it's Luka?

Yeah. Just players

they didn't draft

that got sucked into their franchise.

Yeah. Because people love living in Los Angeles, including me and Rosillo.
Um, all right. No one traded for me.
So just one, one, the only thing we didn't really cover is a Lakers team that will have Rui Hachimura, LeBron James, we think, unless he's the next piece of this, Austin Reeves, Jackson Hayes, Finney Smith, Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Kinect, and Luka when he comes back. And I assume they'll trade for some sort of big rub.
Yeah. And I think...
I don't want to see that team in a playoff series. Sorry.
I don't. I don't care who is on Luka's team.
I wouldn't want to play against him in a playoff series. And this is part of this formula too, is not only is Luka one of the best players in the world, he's uniquely capable of lifting up minimum salary guys, mid-salary guys, all the players that are going to be essential in an apron luxury era, luxury tax era.
He's the player that makes those pieces work, that makes a Christian Coloco viable, that will make Jackson Hayes viable, that will allow you to find... He broadens the range of the supporting talent you can put around him to make it make sense.
And so yeah, if it is LeBron and Luka and Rui and Austin Reeves and whoever, you can butcher us around that, it's going to be competitive, it's going to be formidable because Luka Doncic is a part of it. And it's, I would say, one of the biggest gambles in the history of the league, the Mavericks, who basically seem like they just want to get out of the Luka Doncic business, which was frightening enough a decision to make.
But then on top of it, to not shop him. I think it's going to be something that if it works out the way I think the three of us might think it's going to work out that we'll be talking about for the rest of the time we talk about basketball.
It's like, remember when the Mavericks did that? Remember when they just didn't shop Luca at all? They traded him for 28 cents of the dollar. It's an amazing trade.
I think we hit everything. Anything else, Priscilla? Yeah.
I just want to follow up Rob's point, though, a little bit on what's possible around it long-term and how he raises your floor so much. I always think there's these conference finals runs with teams that are really fluky, can actually cause more damage to the team in believing there's something that they're not.
And maybe a couple of years ago, you could have made that case for Dallas, but they turned the team over. They were better.
They make it to the NBA finals. And we know it's primarily because of Luka.
But if you look at like that team that played against the Warriors and lost in five games a couple of years ago, like look at the shot attempts. Luka took 118.
Here are the next shot attempt leaders. Jalen Brunson, who was not even close to like, I can't even say half formed, like not even fully formed Jalen Brunson, Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, Reggie Bullock, Maxi Kleba, Bertons.
Like those are the guys taking shots against the Warriors. And that's the team that he had in the Western Conference Finals.
So I'm totally with you on how he raises it. But I do wonder how much of it is kind of like feeling each other out, knowing that you kind of have to stay glued to your spot

for Luka on those drives

because he's going to make the pass

at the last possible second.

I mean, that's stuff that basketball players

can figure out pretty quickly.

Like don't reset and move from your spot

because he's going to find you.

But defensively, yeah.

I mean, there's still, there are, this is a,

no one's going to sit here and go like,

oh, I don't like him now defensively in playoffs.

That's not what this is about

is you have a face of the franchise

that's this special for the next seven years probably.

because hell,

you're not going to sit here and go like, oh, I don't like him now defensively in playoffs. That's not what this is about, is you have a face of the franchise that's this special for the next seven years probably.
Because hell, as much as we could worry about his conditioning, if he's this good already, right, he's already played at the body type of the guy that ages later on. So I can't believe it.
I can't. I just, I know I've already said it a million times.
I don't know how you run a basketball team and you don't let the world know that he's available. And then for the Lakers, when you're looking at the tail end of this LeBron thing, God only knows how many more years he's going to play.
But when you think you got to keep the building filled, you got the most expensive seats in the league. You got all those suites.
And it's like, well, what are you going to do? Are people going to be coming to see Anthony Davis and Austin Reeves? And now you have Luka, who other than Otani is now the biggest, and LeBron, obviously, but LeBron's on the tail end. But now you have Luka, who has a chance to be the biggest star in the city.
And your other option was Austin Reeves. Rob seems kind of like sneaky devastated.
You just know too many Dallas Mavericks fans. There'd be a lot of hugs in your future, a lot of like Zooms where you're just telling people it's okay.
A lot of just nodding acknowledgement with people who are in deep existential pain. And you just have to be there for them in the way that you can.
You have to listen. You have to feel everything that they're feeling.
Honestly, for everything that Dallas is going through, I am in utter disbelief of exactly what you just laid out, which is the expedience of the Lakers reset. I had taken it into account that whenever the LeBron era or the AD era or the combined era coasted out, it would take a couple years at least before they could find their next Shaq, their next Kareem.
Or maybe never. We know they're going to do it.
Yeah, maybe this would be the one time where it would actually take a significant window before the next superstar walked in the door. We really didn't even have to wait.
The era didn't even end. Like this is the smoothest transition of power that we've seen in recent NBA history.
It is jarring on every possible basketball level and an inexplicable trade for Dallas.. It just doesn't get better than this if you're the Lakers.
It really doesn't. Think about it.
They had a six-year playoff drought before they won it. Right.
One other thing I was thinking, I was just thinking back to my pyramid, the best guys ever. Some of them got traded, right? LeBron switched teams.
Kareem got traded.

Wilt got traded a couple times.

Moses.

Moses got traded but really signed with Philly and then they traded him.

Durant changed teams.

He go through the top 20.

KG got traded but he decided where he was going.

If you go through the top 25 players ever,

none of them were blindsided by being traded. This is the first time somebody at least who has top 25, top 30 all-time talent.
I'm going through Barkley, Kuzi. I guess Barkley, but Barkley knew he was going to get traded that summer.
Kawhi Leonard was demanding a trade that whole summer. This is the first time we've seen somebody with that kind of talent just been like, hey, dude, you're out of here.
Here's the number of the new GM. Call him.
He'll tell you how to get your stuff. This is just an unconscionable trade.
I think it's a massive mistake, and I think it's an amazing day for the Lakers. And I refuse to congratulate them.
I can't believe this happened again. How does this happen? The Pau Gasol trade in this.
How does this happen? Where there were no other bidders for

a guy that nine teams wanted?

The Pau one's

easy to explain. Is it?

Incompetence. Yeah.

Yeah. There was a lot of...

I just remember the conversations at the

time. You're like, oh, okay.

Yeah, they traded him two weeks ahead.

I'm worried about Bill because you're going to have access to these people make sense so two weeks ahead i'm worried about bill

because you're gonna have access to these people in your life that are gonna start hammering kind

of like the chiefs get too many calls stuff the conspiracy stuff yeah it's gonna get me the

brought up you're right i gotta be careful right just be careful because i'm worried about your

next episode and if kopitar signs an extension with the kings then you're gonna be like oh wait

this was all countrymen they were all oh yeah wow all yeah. Wow.
All in it together. Like a big Slovenian thing.
Jesus. I didn't even think of that.
Thank you to thank you to nephew Kaya, who I don't think was 100 percent sober tonight, but it's fine. I think he was functional enough to produce the pod.
That's why he's a pro. Listen,

it was the day off for all of us. Thank God my wife is doing dry February.
I'd like to thank her

that I wasn't drinking wine tonight, that I was able to do the podcast.

Thanks to Rob Mahoney and Ryan Rosillo on very short notice. And I can't wait to find out more

about why that fuck the straight happened. You can listen or you can watch this podcast too on

the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. Guys, thank you.
I really appreciate it. Thanks, Bill.
I don't have feelings with them On the wayside

On the blue side

Never on saying

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