NBA Trade Deadline ALERTS! Panic or patience for Lakers, Heat & MORE! | NBA Today

NBA Trade Deadline ALERTS! Panic or patience for Lakers, Heat & MORE! | NBA Today

We are under 17 days away from the trade deadline meaning teams have just two weeks to make decisions to upgrade their rosters in an attempt to get ready to make a championship push and with that we welcome in our senior NBA Insider Adrien W narowski and our front office

Insider Bobby marks as well ran wior back with us gentlemen this summer I mean there was an arms race in the Eastern Conference between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Buck and when you look at the odds to win the conference those two teams are far in away the

Favorites you can see followed by the Sixers the heat the Knicks so let’s just dive into that secondary grouping of teams in the East here W what’s the Sixers mindset as they try to surround Joel ID with a roster that can get them to the Conference Finals for his first

Time ever yeah Malik darl Mor the Philadelphia president he is always big game hunting he always wants to be involved in big trades there may not really be any of those out there for him but he does have the assets in Philadelphia largely from the the James

Harden trade to the Clippers uh to be active if those kinds of players become available but I think I like a lot of a few of the other contenders in the East including the Knicks it may be role players shooting playmaking another backup big what Philadelphia has going

For it is the chance to get into the summer and have maybe as much as 5060 million in cap space uh very likely enough for a max player so they want to get they may their best case may be getting past the trade deadline okay uh

And keeping their Assets in place but I think you’ll see them do something around the edges so as you as we look at those players around the edges for now and potentially that that big game hunting for next summer Bobby can you see what are what are some names that

Philly might be going after here yeah I mean w hit right on the head I think you have to look at players that either are expiring contracts or have a team or non-guaranteed uh option for next year and players like miles Bridges who’s in who’s on an expiring contract boam

Banovic in Detroit Bruce Brown in Toronto who can be traded once again they’ve got six second round picks they’ve got three first round picks I think you want to preserve those to the off season and you’ve got 12 players on an expiring contract so you have a

Little bit of everything I think it’s important once we get to the night of the draft those three number ones now increase to five so you’ve got five first $55 million in cap space so trim around the edges right now preserve your flexibility and then go into the

Offseason okay so that is the Philadelphia 76ers next up we have the Miami Heat I’m going to start with you on this one Brian what do you think the last three games the skid has highlighted that this team needs yeah so as you remember over the summer they were really in the point

Guard Market first going for Damen Lillard and then Drew holiday after that they weren’t able to get something done Eric spola over the weekend moved Kyle Lowry from the starting line up to the bench and that was an interesting move and certainly one to keep an eye on you

Know Kyle Lowry has an expiring contract of over $30 million he would be a prime candidate to be moved if the heat decided to re-enter the point guard Market obviously anybody in the NBA right now who needs a guard has checked in with the Atlanta Hawks on Deonte

Murray I would add another name in there that would be Terry roier of the Charlotte Hornets uh the Hornets have had some discussions about roier um you know with where they’re at in their season he’s got a couple of years left on his contract is having a very good

Year possible option for not only the heat but some other teams um and so that was an interesting move with Lowry and you know you know the heat are going to be very mindful of that asset you know expiring at the deadline now that expiring contract will have value

Between now in February 8th so uh keep an eye on the heat as they try to you know maybe take steps around the deadline to improve their chances Malika we’re going to do a little bit of a math lesson here how about that okay it used to be easy it

Used to be easy back when the old CBA where Pat Riley can go into Mickey Aron’s office and say hey we’re going to go more into luxury tax it’s going to cost us another $25 million what these new rules are doing right now and we can show where a player like Terry Rosier

Earns $25 million next year Miami salary is at$ 159 that second apron is at $190 million once you exceed that you won’t be able to go out and aggregate contracts in case as Pat Riley says that big whale becomes available so if you’re Miami you’ve got a balance trying to win

Now but also kind of what the future looks like in the offseason here and that’s going to be the Highwire tight wire act that teams are going to need to walk now that we have this new CBA coming into effect all right lastly though we cannot forget about the Knicks

They already made that kind of big splashing move with the acquisition of OG and anobi but W is New York trying to get Jaylen Brunson even a little bit more help here yeah scoring help off this Knicks bench they made their big trade with ogan anobi it has paid off

For the Knicks they want to keep themselves in position to do another big one for an Allstar all NBA level player that very likely would be in this off season that player is not available now but certainly players like Bruce Brown uh in Toronto now Alec Burks uh Jordan

Clarkson in Utah the Knicks have the assets they have the an expiring contract in Evan forier to be able uh to do a trade in the short term for some bench help going into the postseason without compromising themselves on going big game hunting in the off season they

Have a lot of picks and they have assets that they can use in trades they can do something here at the deadline and not take themselves out of the bigger thing that they hope comes along for them uh probably more so in this offseason or maybe into next year absolutely the

Lakers they have eight games remaining though until the trade deadline you can see here the last six come as a part of a road trip that includes stops against the Warriors the Celtics and the New York Knicks so let’s dive a little bit deeper into the Lakers W is here with us

What’s the mindset of La heading into this second half of the season I listen they’re in a lot the same place as they were last year knowing they needed to upgrade their talent uh you know they have a pick available they have a pick swap available but I think this is an LA

Team you know you go back to the summer yeah and they had some confidence that they might be able to sign Bruce Brown in free agency until Indiana stepped up offered him the two years $45 million they didn’t get him he goes to Indiana the Lakers tried to see if they could

Trade for Bruce Brown from the Pacers didn’t get him he goes to Toronto as part of the Pascal cakam deal and now that Lakers they’re going to continue to be on the phone with Toronto between now and the trade deadline trying to see if there’s a way that they can get Bruce

Brown uh listen he was part of a group that eliminated the Lakers for the playoffs last year you’ve seen his impact on winning teams in the playoffs I think certainly that’s a player dejonte Murray the Lakers have talked with the Hawks they’ll probably talk again Atlanta is really trying to live

In a world where they can get back more of the package that they gave up for Deon Murray three first round picks um a pick swap it’s going to be very difficult for them to get that value back they don’t have to trade him at the trade deadline he’s under contract for a

Number of years I think they’re trying to find a way to do it I think for any Laker trade though if D’Angelo Russell is going to be in that trade and you’re trading for a guard and the salaries just match up I think D’Angelo Russell having a player option on next year’s

Deal and expectation that he would exercise that player option if he’s not going to be your starting point guard somewhere yeah I think in a lot of these situations either you’re going to have to give I think some more draft compensation with the with D’Angelo Russell or you’re going to have to find

A third team that’s going to need that to take on his salary and if he again if he’s not going to be your starter right uh I I think that makes it a little more difficult for the Lakers to find a match here on a trade there’s some really

Interesting decisions that the Lakers need to make coming up here and you mentioned them being in a similar spot now than they were last year which isn’t the end of the world they’re back to 500 they’re currently ninth in the Western Conference but Brian I think when you

Thought about retaining the team largely that went to the Western Conference finals last year what they were able to do seeing where they are now it it it’s hard to not see that as a little bit of a disappointment so do you think it’s time with the trade deadline only 17

Days away for the Lakers to start ramping up here or practice a little bit more patience yeah they already did ramp it up they’ve already kind of come to the conclusion that they need to do something with the roster if they can find something you know it was I don’t

Blame the Lakers for doing this because they did look so good last spring now there was a set of circumstances in the playoffs that assisted them um they also look great in the in-season tournament and if they watch the team play that way it’s hard for them to to look at that

And say boy this doesn’t work but they are going to do what they can it has helped immensely over the last week and a half that D’Angelo Russell has broken out of his slump and looked very good they are a different team when he is so offensively involved that the thing is

Is that he you it’s hard to count on him he is up and down throughout his career I think what w talks about with Bruce Brown and and Deonte Murray is important to realize if they can acquire a player who can play at both ends of the Court offense and defense and is

Multi-dimensional can play multiple different positions and doesn’t have a contract that is potentially burdensome which is like a guy like Zack LaVine would have a burdensome contract then I think the Lakers were going to be in it and they will try to find that that mix

And match and that is what I expect Rob pink has been spending a lot of time recently and will spend these next two weeks doing trying to find something that will work there last year he’s successful in doing it and he had to do

A full team remake he may not need to do that he may be able to just do a tweak here and really supercharge the Lakers for the second half of the Season well D’Angelo Russell has been playing his best basketball of his career the last five games I he’s when he plays like

That you go oh that’s the number two overall pick once that’s when the Lakers that’s the offense that the Lakers have been missing right I mean he is shooting the ball exceptionally well he’s cre creating he’s engaged now is he playing like he wants to stay or is he playing

So well that maybe there’s more interest in him now because I think before as as W mentioned you might have had to incentivize teams to take him because of his conject for next year I think the Lakers clearly need some more speed in the back court they need some more

Athleticism in size there’s a lot of other teams that could use that and they are they’re not necessarily in the best position to bid on those type of players but Rob pinka has been a very active GM since he’s taken over in that role and he’s made a move basically every trade

Deadline to try to at least improve on the margins look I’m in my feelings with the Lakers I think it’s easy to say patience when they beat the Blazers but I was starting to panic when I watched them play the Nets just because I feel like the Lakers there’s this expectation

Which we all know to win a championship right but I feel like LeBron James is in the most pressurized timeline out of anyone in sports right now he’s 39 he knows that the expectation is Championship he knows his team went to the Western Conference finals last year

But what do they look like today and I looked at the numbers at this time last year uh there was only one team in the west with a 65 you know 650 win record right 650 now there’s four the rest of the league has gotten so much better but

It feels like the Lakers have remained the same or even some terms regress while LeBron James is averaged 25 and seven and ad0 is playing out of his mind and finally they get DLo back so as much as I want to say there’s patience it feels like your like the expectations

Are have shifted and that just puts so much more pressure maybe not necessarily on the Lakers for moves yeah but just pressure on what are we witnessing happening right now for LeBron James because we all want this perfect type of last few years we all want to see him

Compete at the highest levels but it doesn’t feel like that’s a reality [Applause] Anymore

On NBA Today, Bobby Marks, Adrian Wojnarowski, Ramona Shelburne, Chiney Ogwumike and Brian Windhorst join Malika Andrews to talk through the NBA trade deadline.
0:00 Deadline is quickly approaching
0:30 Mindsets in the Eastern Conference
2:30 Miami Heat mindset
4:40 New York Knicks’ outlook
5:30 Diving deeper into the Lakers
9:30 Panic or patience for Lakers?

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