Look, I didn’t want to make a Mountain Dew reference, I’m just trying to factually describe the situation here. And like how the experts (what do they know anyways?) told us Rome wasn’t built in a day, the same could be said of a sweet juicy Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumor. Tis been many years, so many that I went Old Ye English for a phrase since the rumor mill began, some say I was but a boy. So many trade machine machinations to the Knicks, so much content aggregated, decoding every single third adjective in Giannis’ media appearances to deduce this second preferred team… it’s been a journey you could say. Giannis might say that too.
We are here, once again, at another trade deadline, and while we’ve all been here before, including of course Giannis, that it seems almost both a surprise and a disappointment that the Giannis trade sweepstakes is still going strong even after all these centuries. Exaggerations aside, I don’t think there’s been a three month period where the media didn’t talk about a trade scenario for this top-5 talent and so it feels really kinda meh that we’ve arrived at a point where he actually might get traded. That is, if you believe in the aggregation out there, for me? Sure, he could be traded, but I just don’t a natural fit out there that makes sense in-season. There could be some truth in the Hawks and Spurs being potential suitors, they certainly have the players, picks and sheets to make it work and I am of course contractually obligated to mention the Knicks… but as the lede didn’t really shy away from, this has been going on for a while, so I guess color me both shock and unshocked if he’s on the move within two weeks… by the way, what color actually is ‘shock’? Weird.
Anyways, here’s what else I’ve been noticing around the NBA…
So it isn’t that Russell Westbrook went 26/6 against the Wizards, nor is it that he’s now 3-0 against his former teams
James Harden finished the night with a double-double and while Kawhi Leonard has been hard carrying the Clippers the last few weeks, Harden had been doing it the last few months, and with both clicking, Los Angeles has gone from 6-21 last year to 18-23 and surprisingly 5-2 against teams over .500 during that stretch. Look for them to be buyers, with some money that can be moved with rumors being linked to DeMar DeRozen and players that are similar.
Jaylon Tyson put up 39 points with seven threes against the Sixers, adding now to the mixes of Jaylen, Jalen, Jaylin, Jalin, Jaylon and Jalons. As writers, we love stuff like this because it adds more reasons to drink. Then again, I did do a lede with spellcheck nightmare Giannis Antetokounmpo… *drinks more*
Oh, and speaking of which, Giannis may actually be holding up a potential Jonathan Kuminga trade to the Kings. Now, I’m not a huge Kuminga guy per say, but I certainly do like him on the Kings where he can provide value from volume, so something to keep an eye out on.
Tough to gauge the Rockets stretch, the eye test says the need a point guard, which confirms what Captain Obvious told me the other day. Kevin Durant is still doing his thing though and put up 39 points and 7 assists in a big win against the Wolves.
And Jay Huff continues his hot stretch this week, putting up 29 points and grabbing 9 boards in a win against the Pelicans.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
