NEW DUNKER SPOT FROM LA!!!! EP 446 w/ @nekiasnba.bsky.social -NBA All Star Weekend Preview! -Rising Stars? Shooting Stars? -Who COMPETES in the All-Star Game -"tanking" -Unrivaled 1v1 Tournament thoughts! YOUTUBE: youtu.be/Lqx4hwF-sJo

Nikola Topić makes his season debut 💙 After battling testicular cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, the OKC guard hits the floor and wastes no time getting on the stat sheet. #NBA

Nikola Topic gets a standing ovation for his first minutes ever. Immediately gets an assist to a loud roar. Incredible moment.

I don’t like Sochan for the Knicks. They are just not going to play him in the playoffs and they are probably too expensive in the off-season to do anything like a new contract for him. If I were him, I don’t know if I would want my game seen in the playoff seen just yet.

The Grizzlies have a two loss lead for the 8th worst record, are one loss from a tie for 7th, and three losses out of a tie for 6th. I think 8th is their most likely pick still, but there's equal room above and below them. ~1/3 of their remaining games are double tank games - a lot of variance there

Not a bad night in the association when your tanking team plays Denver, the Bucks win, and the Jazz look likely to win.

while games are on tonight, i want to bump here: i'm going to use all-star break next week to do a mailbag. would like to do make part 1 a Grizzlies-centric one, and 1 a draft-centric one. hit me with your questions to answer

I don’t want to draw conclusions from the 10 Magic games I’ve watched this year but IMO the problem is Paolo.

I might have to write about the tanking debate, but the biggest rebuttal I'd have is that this is a function of the availability of talent. If 27 and 28 are weak drafts, tanking will be marginally decreased by the availability of talent in those drafts.

Final ball from Gray was heinous. Was he trying to put it through a brick wall?

It would have been cool if both Spencer brothers had made the 3 point contest.

I saw this ITM and my family wouldn’t rewind to prove it.

I am more optimistic of what Walter Clayton Jr could be than I was before. But somehow, even though I didn’t think he was an NBA player before, I am even less optimistic about Taylor Hendricks.

You can see Jaren Jackson Jr's fit within Utah's spacing and concepts. Second time they have ran this for him early, starts at the top and gets a backscreen. Magic switch it, Jazz go right to JJJ in the post.

/turns on game. /Romero gets a completely deserved straight red. /turns game off

Kleiman puts his thumb on the scale as to how long he thinks this rebuild will take. Pours water on the deep tear it down Thunder/Process Sixers builds, calls out Edey by name more than once.

I'm relatively surprised that the general consensus about the Pacers trade for Zubac is positive. Like, everything depends upon Hali being healthy, not to mention Siakim and Zubac still being good. I would've rather picked in the top 7, then traded that player if I had to.

This year has been so much more painful than the year we tanked for Jaren. We have so many more assets than we did, but geez, the entire fan base is held hostage by a guy who doesn't like to play basketball.

Ja Morant (derogatory) has thrown away another year of his rapidly shrinking basketball career.

Great! Ja has successfully made me a Kendrick Perkins fan.

Just posting my feelings over here.

Ivica Zubac netted more than Jaren Jackson. Wow. I would not have guessed that.

CONVERTS to a 2031 1st? Jesus.

The Pacers completely fucked this up. This is the worst trade of the season, and yes I know all the trades.

Sounds like Niang is the player being waived to make room for Eric Gordon (who will also be waived).

Wow. I am shocked that Indy is doing this.

Sixers trade: Eric Gordon and a 2032 second-round pick swap to Memphis for the rights to Justinian Jessup. Barlow conversion to a standard contract on the way

I’m really rooting for HOU to sack up and put in the assets to go get Giannis. Just blow the rest of these teams out of the water and give yourself a shot at the title.

Forgot about Dillingham. Ayo is sitting there as a possible poaching target this summer pending whatever else MIN does. They could be right back in the 2nd apron next year if someone throws $20mm at Ayo or something.

MIN got a point guard. Did they do this for Beringer?

I'll post something after the deadline passes, but it sure seems like things are lining up for Ja (possibly RJ Barrett) to go to SAC, Sabonis going to TOR, and some combination of Monk/Poeltl/Demar (into TPE) + at least two firsts heading to MEM.

Man, I really like that Coby White deal for CHO. They can sign him to a descending deal in the off-season and just add another guard to their rotation who can dribble/shoot/pass and isn’t terrible on defense.

Looks like many teams with cap space to take contracts right now are opting for smaller deals. For instance, the grizzlies could have taken Agbaji for free with their trade exception, but are opting for a bigger deal.

OKC is in the Deal?

Quick math suggests that absent other deals, DAL will have about $8mm in cap space. Not enough to use it next summer. WAS also out of space. Obviously there will be more moves, but the teams with huge amounts of cap space are opting not to have it next summer.

The 76ers remain the dark horse Giannis team. Just added another 1st round pick to what they can throw at the Bucks.

Man, the string of texts I just sent a Mavs friend of mine telling him just how bad this AD trade is for them.

I would ask for minimum the 26 1st and a 27 swap and something else (Walter?) to take Poeltl whole hog. If I can send back Brandon Clarke maybe it’s less.

It would be funny to send CLE back both Ty Jerome and Georges Niang for Lonzo Ball and another (larger) contract to surround the Harden Cavs with good vibes.

I really like Detroit turning Jaden Ivey into a pick swap up 5-10 picks and Kevin Heurter. Really smart move. CHI is collecting guards to play in front of Coby White and Ayo which prob tells you what’s happening there.

Chris has a much more detailed approach to my scattershot analysis. We landed in roughly the same place, though he did venture a guess on a Ja deal, which I could not do.

@johnhollinger.bsky.social a long while ago I wrote a scathing take on the Marc Gasol trade bc I didn't recognize the usefullness of the TPE. I am older and wiser now, and have some hopium.

Folks, Utah is keeping their pick this year. I can’t say they will finish with a worse record than MEM. But they will be slotted 7th in the lottery or better.

Just noting that Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid both fit into the MEM TPE that was created in the Jaren trade.

Per Jake Fischer, it’s: “The Utah Jazz are trading their most favorable 2027 first-round pick (Cleveland/Minnesota/Utah), the Lakers' 2027 first-round pick, and Phoenix's 2031 first-round pick.”

Kyle Anderson was telling afrer the game on Friday how much he enjoyed his time in Memphis. He back!

I dont think this is going to be Utah's 2026 pick. It'll be their 2027, and a couple of the more favorables of the picks they have in the future. Something like that.