Trade deadline BIG QUESTIONS: What’s Giannis’ future with Bucks? What will Clippers do?! | NBA Today

Trade deadline BIG QUESTIONS: What’s Giannis’ future with Bucks? What will Clippers do?! | NBA Today

The NBA Cup Championship is set. The Spurs knocked out the Thunder Saturday and will take on the Knicks Tuesday night in Vegas. And now we welcome in senior NBA writer Tim Bontmps live from Las Vegas. So Tim, earlier you dropped a piece on ESPN.com on the state of the inseason tournament, the NBA Cup. How much players and coaches around the league have bought into it? How have they bought into it in your opinion? I mean, look, George, when this tournament got started three years ago, the goal of it was to increase attention on the first couple of months of the season. I think that certainly has happened. We have the tournament now in Las Vegas for a third straight year. You have the colorful courts across the league. And I think we've seen across the league players and coaches have gotten into the idea of trying to go win this championship. I just talk listening to Jaylen Brunson talking about the opportunity to give some of the support staff on the team some extra cash. if these guys are able to get a win tomorrow and even if they come in second, still get a couple hundred thousand in prize money. And we've seen players across the league talking about the importance for them to try to give the guys on two-way contracts or rookie contracts on their team some extra cash for getting through this tournament and winning. I think that was a smart move by the league. And overall, I think we've seen attention and interest in the opening several weeks of the year pick up. generally, especially coming out of that game Saturday night where you saw two highintensity games between the Knicks and Magic in the first one. Then you were here, George, that Thunder Spurs game was up there with just about any game we saw this season. There were a lot of people around the league who were quite happy with how that night played out and how this tournament has played out. Really, the only thing that's been in question is the amount of excitement that's been about the games being here in Las Vegas. Now, there's always tweaks and stuff, uh, even though the tournament, I think, has been fantastic to watch really in all three seasons. But what possible changes could be arriving for the tournament? >> The biggest thing on the agenda going forward for the NBA, George, is whether the tournament's championship game will be here in Las Vegas going forward. They've already announced before this season started that the semi-final games that were played Saturday night will be in home markets next year, just like the quarterfinals. But the expectation originally was that the cup championship game would once again be here in Las Vegas. Sources have told me though that that might not be the case and league is exploring the possibility of moving the championship game elsewhere next season. So we'll see what happens with that, but I think largely otherwise terms of where this where it is in the schedule and everything else should be largely the same when it comes back in 2026. >> Fascinating stuff, Tim. Thanks for the time, brother. Appreciate it. >> The Bucks still without Giannis at Tatoopo faced off against the Nets on Sunday. Bucks are two and seven without Giannis. Eight minutes left in the first. Game tied at 12. Ryan Rollins loses the ball. Kevin Porter Jr. scoops it up, finds a wideopen Gary Trent. His shot is blocked by Noah Clowny. And then the Nets go to work and they literally worked over the Bucks. >> Michael Porter Junior's having a good year for them this year. >> So the Nets continue here off the turnover. But nobody running back on defense. Danny Wolf finished off with the lob. Bucks lose 127 to 82. Milwaukee went scoreless the final seven minutes. Here's Doc after the game. >> That was disappointing. Probably one of the more disappointing games I've ever been involved in um with the way we performed um and competed. And we wanted to blame everybody but ourselves. You know, we're blaming the refs. We're looking at each other. Uh, no one wanted to play hard and you know um that was we got a lot of soulsearching to do. >> Tough loss for the Bucks, but today marks the official start of the NBA trade season. That means that 90% of the players in the NBA are now eligible to be traded by their teams. So, Bobby, what's the biggest question facing the Bucks now during trade season? Well, I certainly the Giannis question is, but I think for right now I think is is there anything out there that can help improve this roster here. When you look at they've got that first round pick in 2031 or 2032, that's their only first they can go out and trade. They have three players making $60 million and Kyle Koosma, Bobby Porters, and Miles Turner. What else is out there? Remember John Horus last year made the uh Kyle Kosma trade. But if if it's not Giannis, is there something else that you can make to improve this roster? who's 11 and 16 right now and hanging on that last playing spot. >> All right, let's move on to the Mavs and they've started to find their stride. They've won as many games in their last six games as they did in their first 20. So, Bobby, what's the big question facing the Mavs? >> Well, it comes down to Anthony Davis right now. If if you're not comfortable extending Anthony Davis, who's extension eligible for 4 for 275 this off season, is it better off looking at trade options right now, or do you want to wait until Kyrie Irving gets back to look at what the body of work is and then address this in the offseason here? Anthony Davis is going to be the center point as far as over the next six weeks. >> One more, Bobby. Let's go to Chris Paul. He's not played for the Clippers since the 1st of December when he was sent home by the organization for a difference in leadership styles, we'll call it. The Clippers will attempt to move CP3 this trade season. But Bobby, could there be any other names that could join him? >> Well, they're six and 19 right now. They they've certainly sitting in the bottom of the standings. They're keep continually tumbling back there. I I think the focus is going to have to be on James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Ibeca Zub Zubac. They don't control their first round pick until 2030. >> Is there a deal that where you can take two steps back to take go three steps forward here as far as reset with a reset? And I think the hardest thing to do is when you don't control those picks and it's a lot different than when Brooklyn was there with Shawn Marks who inherited that Boston trade where he can wipe the slate clean when that front office is still in place to take those two steps back as I as I said here. But those would be the three guys I would be looking at. The Chris Paul situation is going to resolve itself. >> Yeah. Ramona, how do you see the Clippers approach? >> I don't get the sense that they are thinking about blowing it up. I think they want to get back to being as competitive as they can be. They've been a little bit more competitive in these last few games. Their defense has been better. They they had Houston on the ropes and there was a couple of strange plays at the end of the game, which is what happens when you're losing games, right? When you're losing games, you keep finding ways to lose games. But they are closer. They are getting better. And I don't think they're ready to pull the plug on James Harden or Kawhi Leonard or any of those bigger names. I think it would be something around the margins just to change the vibe a little bit. >> I just don't know if that's enough, man. Like in the West, it's so hard. >> Yeah, it's clearly not enough, right? They're six and 19. Yeah. And the question is they owe their first round pick to Oklahoma City, >> right? >> It's unprotected, >> right? No, you can't. I mean, the whole league needs them to win because they don't want >> the Allar game is in LA. Steve Bombber is a competitive guy. I don't see them being comfortable trying to bottom out. I think they're just going to keep trying to climb up the standings a little bit. I >> I would look at John Collins who's on an expiring contract. Brook Lopez who has a team option for next year. Bdon Bdanovic who's has a team option that gets you to around 45 to$50 million. This is a Clipper team that um potentially could have cap space in the 2027 offseason. A guy that I would pay attention to would certainly be Zack Lavine where you can take back his contract for next season. He gives them an athletic wing for this Clipper team and it doesn't impact you uh financially in 2027 where they could be sitting on $100 million in cap space. >> Man, it doesn't look good. But I don't want to be the Grinch on Christmas. So, let's get to Dunk the Halls dunk of the day here. Jackson Hayes who had Thank you, Mickey or boss as I like to call that hops like that. >> Yeah, that's the boss. I don't want to get in his way. Jackson Hayes. Here's one >> two-handed. >> Okay. >> And then in the third, Jake Laria finds Jackson Hayes. >> Another throw down. >> I wonder how that what that feels like. >> I know. I can't even do that on a boat rim. >> And then And then you saw the LeBron lob to Hayes. Two lobs, Lorravia and LeBron to Jackson Hayes. The Christmas Day tradition continues with Dunk the Halls Cavs Nicks at noon Eastern on ABC and ESPN will feature a real-time animated version from Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom on ESPN 2. You can also watch on Disney Plus, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and the allnew ESPN app. So, I'm sorry Clippers, I didn't mean to be the Grinch. Okay, it just is what it is. Well, you have to look at the teams also ahead of them in the standings who may not necessarily >> Well, they're only three and a half back of the playin. That's actually not not that crazy. >> They could turn around. You never know. The West isn't as deep as we once thought. >> Yeah, the East is a lot more competitive. >> See, there's some sunshine, George. >> A lot of things that we didn't think were competitive. So,

On NBA Today, Tim Bontemps joins to talk about the state of the NBA Cup. Then, Bobby Marks answers big trade deadline questions.

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