Look, I didn’t mean to make a reference to Mountain Dew, I’m just trying to factually describe the situation here. And just as the experts (what do they know anyway?) told us that Rome wasn’t built in a day, the same could be said of a sweet juicy Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumor. It’s been many years, so many that I used Old Ye English for a sentence since the rumor mill started, some say I was just a boy. So many trade machine machinations for the Knicks, so much pieced together content, decoding every third adjective in Giannis’ media appearances to distract from this second-preferred team… it’s been a journey, you might say. Giannis could say that too.
Here we are again, at another trade deadline, and while we’ve all been here before, including Giannis of course, it almost seems like both a surprise and a disappointment that Giannis’ trade game 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 wasn’t talking about a trade scenario for this top-5 talent and so it feels kind of meh that we’re at a point where he could actually be traded. That is, if you believe in the aggregation that is there, for me? Sure, he could be traded, but I’m just not a natural fit there that makes sense going into the season. There might be some truth in the fact that the Hawks and Spurs are potential candidates, they certainly have the players, the roster and the resources to make it work and of course I’m contractually obligated to mention the Knicks… but since the lede hasn’t really shied away from it, this has been going on for a while so I guess I’ll be both shocked and not shocked if he goes on the road in two weeks… btw, what color is ‘shock’ anyway? Foreign.
Anyway, here’s what else I noticed about the NBA…
So it’s not like Russell Westbrook went 26/6 against the Wizards, nor is it like he’s now 3-0 against his former teams.
James Harden capped the night with a double-double and while Kawhi Leonard has been carrying the Clippers hard in recent weeks, so has Harden in recent months, and with both clicks, Los Angeles has gone from 6-21 to 18-23 last year and surprisingly 5-2 against teams above .500 during that stretch. Look for them to be buyers, with some money to move, linking rumors to DeMar DeRozen and similar players.
Jaylon Tyson scored 39 points with seven threes against the Sixers, now adding to the mix of Jaylen, Jalen, Jaylin, Jalin, Jaylon and Jalons. As writers, we love this kind of thing because it gives more reasons to drink. On the other hand, I did a lede with spell check nightmare Giannis Antetokounmpo… *drinks more*
Oh, and speaking of which, Giannis may be holding up a potential Jonathan Kuminga trade with the Kings. Now I’m not necessarily a big Kuminga guy, but I certainly like him at the Kings where he can add value on volume, so something to keep an eye on.
Tough to gauge the Rockets’ stretch, but the eye test shows a need for a point guard, which confirms what Captain Obvious recently told me. However, Kevin Durant is still doing his thing, scoring 39 points and 7 assists in a big win against the Wolves.
And Jay Huff continues his hot streak this week, scoring 29 points and grabbing 9 boards in a win against the Pelicans.
#Giannis #code #red