Atlanta Hawks trade buzz, Kristaps Porzingis, Trae Young, latest news, Eastern Conference landscape

Atlanta Hawks trade buzz, Kristaps Porzingis, Trae Young, latest news, Eastern Conference landscape

On today's show, the Hawks don't play again until Thursday, but there's plenty to discuss in the meantime, including the latest trade buzz. We'll get into that and more coming up. You are Locked on Hawks, your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast, part of the Locked On [music] podcast network, your team every day. Hello friends, welcome to episode 2125 of the lockd on hawks podcast part of the lockdown on podcast network now the number one sports podcast network. I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Tuesday afternoon actually here in mid December and today's podcast with the folks at FanDuel sportsbook if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season. Visit bay.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. And today we'll be diving into a lot of different things when it comes to the latest trade buzz with the with the Hawks as well as the latest news. Tri Young practicing on Tuesday is a positive indicator for example. And then later in the show your mailback questions on a number of different things when it comes to most improved player comes to again more trade stuff the east etc. But first, we'll begin with the latest reporting on the trade buzz, I would say, is the word I'll use. Now, it is still not trade rumor season just yet, but December 15th is kind of the unofficial start to deadline buzz and trade season because of the guys who can be now traded. And there was there was some reporting over the last couple days on some Hawk stuff. So, I've obviously gotten a lot of questions about Christo Pzingis in recent days. If you missed it on the show on Sunday evening into Monday, I talked about this extensively, but Porzingis is going to be sidelined for at least a couple of weeks as the Hawks kind of um monitor him and he gets more probably some more testing done and some rest etc for his illness related absence. I won't repeat all of what I've said. There is a lot of mystery with this compared to a normal absence with injury or with even illness because Porzingis has indicated at least his one his one press conference indication was that it was not a recurrence of the pot diagnosis that he had last summer. But at the same time, it has to be something that's not a normal illness. So, I don't have all the answers. What we know right now, he'll be out a couple weeks. And this is important. I think the Hawks have to kind of assume that he won't be there. Now, he might still be there. They're hopeful from what I've heard from people around the organization that he can still help them this season. They're not ruling that out. But given just how uncertain this all is, it is hard to build your team and navigate the season. It's the rigors of a season. It's a very grueling schedule without knowing who's going to be there and how long he'll be out um you know dayto-day all those things. So obviously if he is good to go physically he's going to play and will help them. he's already helped him this year, but there is a lot of uh difficulty on the team side and obviously they probably know more than we do on the outside about whe whether he can come back and likelihoods and all those things, but it it does make things difficult from a team building standpoint, which we'll come back to in a second. There was some reporting from Mark Stein who said, and I quote, "Any significant trade business that Atlanta does in season is expected to include the expiring contract held by held by by Porzingis." End quote. And look, every time I show something on Porzingis, I met with a lot of people telling me that the Hawks have to trade him urgently. And I get why. He makes a lot of money. He's not playing. There's some negativity about him. I totally understand all of that stuff right now on the fan side of things. I do have to laugh sometimes though because the same people will then tell you that he has huge trade value. Like you can just trade him for this awesome stuff. It's like, well, which one is it? He's either bad and you don't like him, but also he he suddenly has a massive trade value. It's a finite dichotomy on some level. There is some use to an expiring contract. Unfortunately though, like I know he is, again, I just said this, but he could help them this season, but if you're a if you're another team, his value on the court is like very mixed right now. Like you're mostly going to his biggest value right now as a trade piece is the expiring contract. this summer. The thought was he could get healthier and maybe he still will, but if you're an opposing team, like you're not going to trade for Pzingus because of his onc court value right now. That's not going to happen. So that does lessen his appeal to some situations. And from what I've been hearing, and I pooked around this a lot actually in recent days, the Hawks would rather let Porzingis expire than trade him for a long-term deal that they don't actually like. Like a good example of this this summer, right? They trade well I guess last season in season they trade DeAndre Hunter in season. It wasn't that they hated DeAndre Hunter. It's that they they didn't really want that contract on their books long term and they were able to trade it without having to suffer pain in that trade and people didn't like it. I like the deal more than people did. It looks great right now. It allowed them to do other things this summer, etc. But a lot of that was financial and I know that's not the favorite part of discussing things in the NBA landscape, but in a salary cap driven league, it all matters. The money stuff matters a lot. If they can add someone on a deal that they actually like, then I'm confident that Anie and company would be interested in that. But this is a process driven front office. They have to plan for the future. They have a lot of um balls in the air um so to speak. And I see stuff about turning KP into some players that would certainly help the Hawks right now, but a lot of those guys have like big long-term money. For example, I won't go down this rabbit hole too much, but like turning Porzingis into like Sabonis right now. Sabonis is a good player. He would help the Hawks. I don't think the Hawks want that long-term commitment of money to Sabonis. That would be my guess. I might be wrong on that. We'll see. I got a question from Ice Effect FGC on Twitter actually about some like available bigs on the market if the Hawks wanted to get off of Chris App's contract and the unfortunately the only answer is it depends on what they're trying to accomplish. If they think for instance that Info Dante can help them then the need behind a Congu is less. If they don't and they don't love what they see from Mo Gay as a center because I think Mo is still a power forward as is a new it could become a a priority to at least find a backup center type if they don't believe KP is going to help them or if they just want some more insurance. That was the whole idea of getting Dante in the first place was to have some insurance behind KP. But it's probably more of a margins kind of transaction rather than a bigger deal. The Hawks do view a Congo as a starting center and I agree with that view. He's been good this season. For me, he's like a top 20 center in the league. He's a good player. He's not an elite player, but he's a good player. And that lessens the urgency quite a bit, but they do need depth behind a Kong Woo. And that's not a huge secret. By the way, quickly, um, other like newsy stuff, we'll come back to some roster building stuff in a second, but Mark Stein in that same um kind of vein as the KP reporting has shared that the belief is that Jaylen Johnson is as untouchable from the Hawk side as the um Pelicans Bucks pick. I actually would add to that and say Jaylen is more untouchable in my reporting. Doesn't mean that I'm right, but I think that's probably I'd probably put Jaylen as the least likely thing to move on the whole roster even ahead of the Pelicans pick. But then Jake Fischer, my good friend, wrote that um today actually that the Hawks have zero intention, that's a direct quote, to making the Pelicans Bucks pick available. I've said this many times, I'll say it one more time. The only way I'd even think about it would be for Giannis. And I personally would lean to no even in Giannis discussions. So, there's that. Um, speaking of Jake and Giannis, Jake reported that Giannis is not asked out still and there's some reporting around Milwaukee actually that they actually might try to buy to surround Giannis again. They keep doing that over and over again. It's worked a few times to be fair to them. Also, on the Anthony Davis front, as I did a show last week on this topic, um Jake reported that there's not seem to be much of a market for AD right now. He did mention the Hawks as one of the teams along with the Raptors kind of in the mix that they want to be, but I've said this before, there's not really a clear path to AD. Like I think the most logical move would be like a Trey for AD swap, but Dallas doesn't need Trey. They have Kyrie Irving coming back. And also, if I was trading for AD, I'd want to keep Trey because Trey makes AD better and AD makes Trey better. So, I don't really see the logical way that happens. I'm not saying it's impossible. It's not impossible to make it happen, but maybe it would have to be in probably with Porzingis. And if you're Dallas and you're not trying to like necessarily pedal off, the appeal of KP would be to get off the money for AD, which they seem to not want to do at this point in time. So, more on that later on if it comes to um some heat. Um from the trade stuff to the newsy stuff, this actually got a lot of attention today and it was I get why it's just one of those weird things. Trey Young was assigned to College Park on Tuesday afternoon along with Infini Dante. Now, that's a good indicator for both guys. Obviously, you don't often see stars assigned to the G- League, although LeBron was assigned to the G- League this year for the same exact reason. It's procedural for Trey to practice basically on Tuesday. Um, so that's for me a good indication of Trey coming back. The Hawks, if you missed it over the weekend, said that Trey was going to start practicing this week. I've gotten a flood of questions in the last couple hours after Trey did appear in College Park, like, could he play Thursday? Uh, I wouldn't rule it out. I I don't know anything about that right now. nor will the Hawks uh be, I would say, eager to tell me. I would guess he does not come back as early as Thursday right now because you probably want to have him practice more than once. Um, but we'll see. Uh, I think it will be relatively soon given that he's returning to practice and hopefully he heats up in a positive way from the injury. I got a question actually on Trey from Andrew who says, "Do you think there's any way that they would trade Trey before the deadline?" Um, the short answer to that, and I could do this for the whole the whole show and I won't. Um, I think that there is a small chance that they could trade him. Like, it's not 0%. I think it's very likely that they don't. And the real question with Trey is and has always been this summer, much more than in season. I've been consistent on that the entire time. I think that there's always been a tiny chance that he gets traded. Maybe that'll heat up in some other way, but I think that the pivot point is really the summer much more than uh in season. That would be my short answer to that question. On the infall Dante front, he's coming back from from concussion protocol. I think the Hawks are going to need infall Dante and I don't want to go crazy about that, but they're the pro typical example of this was Friday night in Detroit where I think both Mo Gay and Asa Newell are power forwards first. They can both play some center. I think Mo in particular on defense could play some center. But I think that in Folly Dante, while he's been out of the mix and out of out of mind and was a guy the Hawks fans didn't know a lot about, his first game did not go particularly well. I get all that. And Dante is a professional center. Um, and he had he suffered a very bad concussion about a week and a half, maybe two weeks ago now in College Park. It's good he's coming back. Um, I'm not trying to overweight that, but I think he could be of use to the Hawks in a nonKP world. One more thing on this before we move on. Jacob Tophin was waved on Monday. Um, the Hawks about a week ago announced he's actually miss rest of the season with a torn labroom. I shared on the pod that day. I thought he might get waved because they just might might need the roster spot. The Hawks probably don't like to do that, but they probably think they just have to right now because the point is like the Hawks have just been short-handed for too long. The G-League showcase is later this week where the whole league kind of descends on one area to see a lot of the guys in the G-League. It's a very logical time for the Hawks to scout two ways. And again, two ways don't make a huge impact most of the time. I would keep your expectations low for the replacement for Jacob Tophen, but it's a guy that the Hawks maybe could add to help for the future. and for help for death purposes because look they've had too many games this year where they've had only 10 11 guys available and a lot of that's injuries Trey Porzingis Dante even Nicole Yurchic who really is more of a two-way guy you know he's not he's not a two-way but he's kind of that level of player has been hurt banged up but filling the two-way spot isn't going to be I would say a huge factor but it does bring them potentially a body to help with depth and that's a good idea so I'm not sure if they're going to sign somebody soon. Um, I got a question actually like is this does it does waving top mean that they have somebody lined up? No, it doesn't mean that they could, but because of the showcase being this week, that is like the time to evaluate guys who are available on two-ways because you can't just sign anybody to a two-way contract. You have to have a a very few years of service in the league, etc. Like, you can't I Someone asked me if they could sign Chris Paul to a two-way. I laughed about that. Um, no, they cannot. It has to be a young guy, basically. At least a relatively young in service time player. So, long story short, there's a lot going on with the roster. A lot of buzz right now. Nothing imminent, but Trey coming back, positive indicator. Dante to a lesser extent, positive indicator. And on the trade front, like yes, things should be getting a little bit looser now as of December 15th because a lot of lee can be traded, but nothing is uh super buzzy and imminent at this moment in time. 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That's 404400400 or by visiting johnfoy.com to get started. They don't just settle, they win. Get the strong arm. Call attorney John Foy and Associates today. As always, I appreciate you making lock on hash your first listen each and every day. You already live the your team everyday mindset now and go up a level if you want to and go ad free if you prefer by joining the everyday club today. You get ad free episodes, access to a members only discord and more $5 a month, $50 a year. Go to lots onhawks.supcast.com. Check the link in the show notes if you want to learn more. And the rest of the show will be your mailbag questions on some interesting topics. The first one comes from Julius who asks, "Did you think that the Hawks are still contenders in the East and how does the conference currently look to you?" Good question here. I think the Hawks are generally in a similar spot to where they were coming into the season. They were never favored to be a top two or three team in the East in my view, but it was a very possible outcome, I thought. And I, by the way, I still believe that's the case. I know I I've sen some pessimism from Hawks fans. I'm not sure if I'm just reading that wrong or whatever after the start, but they're 15 and 12. They're on pace for 46 wins. That's not exactly where they wanted to be, but certainly that's reasonable. And as a reminder, Trey Young has not played in six and a half weeks. It's going fine overall if you trying to look at context a little bit. They've also played a lot of road games, tough schedule. Porzingis has played half the games or less. Like, there's reason to be relatively optimistic about what's gone on so far. But I want to use this question to zoom out on the East a little bit as well. Um, number one, Detroit's 21 and five. Like, they're good. They've beaten the Hawks three times. That's important to point out on on Hawks podcast. I don't believe that they're going to be a 6-1 team. Um, maybe they are, but the underlying metrics don't really support that. They are good. They're playing very well, but they're a little bit over their head right now. I believe after that, the next eight teams in the standings in the East are separated by four and a half games total. And the Knicks are second if they come out of the mix as well. Number three through number nine in the East are separated by one and a half games as of Tuesday. That is insane. The entire East is wide, wide, wide open. And by the way, the projectors are telling the same story. The Knicks are projected to win the most games in the East by ESPN's BPI 56. Detroit's 54. After that, there are six teams, basically three through eight in the East are projected to win between 45 and 50 games. So basically, it's a giant jumble in the middle of the East. And there are pros and cons to that. On the pro side, it means that there's nobody that I'm particularly terrified of if I'm the Hawks. That's a good thing for upside purposes. Like December 16th, I'll say this out loud, the Hawks can make the finals. I'm not saying they're going to, but they can. In previous years, there was no way that was going to happen. Last year, no chance. Previous year, couple previous years, I thought there was no chance of that. As of right now, a third of the way through the season, the Hawks can make the finals. They really can. There's a and not like 1%. It's probably not like 30%, but they have a chance to make the finals for sure. On the flip side, it's jumbled. So, the Knicks right now are the betting favorites to win the East of FanDuel. And if I were to pick one team in the East to win the East, I pick the Knicks, but not with a lot of confidence. Like, I think they're good. I don't think they're they're a juggernaut. Um the Cavs, by the way, were the favorites coming into the season. They've been pretty messy and not inspiring confidence. Garland looks like he's still hurt. old friend Hunter struggling. Jared Allen's not playing all that well, etc., etc. Detroit I'm not terrified of. I know that they've beaten the Hawks three times. I'm not saying that they are not better than the Hawks right now because they are, but not by a huge huge huge margin. I'm a little bit lower on Orlando than everybody else seems to be. I don't really buy Miami as a real threat. Boston is playing well, but like roster-wise, they're not quite there yet. You get the idea. So, right now, the Hawks are sixth in a tie for sixth. Um, they're a half game away from being ninth, which is not great. So, that's the downside. I already gave you the upside case to the jumbled mess of the East. The downside is you could be in the plan pretty easily with how the East looks right now, which I think is not would not be where the Hawks want to be clearly and not where they hope to be and realistically projected to be. Um, but at the same time, they're a half game or maybe a game from being third in the East. So, I would not worry about the standings too much yet generally. But the Hawks have played a lot of road games. again, no Trey for a long time. Porzingis has been out. Everything's in front of them still. Jaylen's breaking out, already has broken out. Aquil's playing well. Dyson's looked really good in the last couple weeks. Um, obviously there's some some uncertainty with the rest of the roster, trade stuff, etc. But the Hawks are more likely to buy than sell at the deadline. They're still a team with with youth and talent. Trey, I know people are split on Trey. Trey is going to help the Hawks. How much is up for debate, I get it, but having him back helps. So I would feel okay over overall about the Hawks and uh everything is still in front of them with where the East is currently sitting as of mid December. Question from Roger. How soon could the Hawks make a trade? So I referenced this already but yesterday Monday was the official I say official unofficial start of trade season because 75 80 players in the league became trade eligible that signed this summer and that frees up a lot of possibilities. Basically, there's been nothing happening on the trade market for like three months. In fact, the most recent trade in the NBA was the Hawks trading Kobe Buffkin. That was three months ago. So, it's been truly dead as usual. Um, oh, by the way, on the um the Hawks can now trade officially if they wanted to. Alexander Walker, Canard, and Dante, who they signed this summer. Um, Nikil's not being traded obviously. Um, at least unless something crazy happens with Yiannis or something like that. I do think that Luke Canard is a potential trade piece because he's on expiring contract. He's the, you know, Porzingis is expiring, but it's it's a lot of money. Luke is a mid-tier expiring, which are very, very useful in trades. Um, anyway, that's for a later for a later date. I think the Hawks could, to answer the question, the Hawks could make a lower level deal pretty soon. Could not will, could because of what I said earlier about the roster needs, like they do need a backup center if they don't think that Dante's gonna be that guy. So, maybe that's that's the potential avenue. Backup point guard is still kind of a question, less so when Trey comes back. Um, but generally speaking, the bigger stuff tends to wait until January or closer to the deadline because that's just the way that the league operates. Deadlines spur action is the old uh the old idiom and it kind of makes sense. Um, that can change if Giannis like requests a trade, which he hasn't done yet, but most business in the trade market happens in the final month before the deadline and even then the final couple weeks before the deadline unless something crazy happens, which always is possible. Luk got traded last year in the middle of the season. So nothing is off the table ever in the current landscape of the NBA. All right, in a second I'll have more questions, including one on Asa Newell as well as the awards landscape for the Hawks. We get into all that and more in just one moment. When Skim announced they make underwear for men, reaction was honestly making perfect sense. People have been talking about Skim comfort for years and why wouldn't it apply to guys as well? However, most guys stick to web actually been buying since college. It seems like the same fits, the same waistbands that roll on you and a whole lot of settling in that particular area. 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First, that's a good description, I would say, of my reaction on draft night six months ago or so. I went back and looked at my notes from that podcast recording, which was episode 2008. So, that's 117 shows ago. And I had written down in bold that the pick was completely reasonable. And I felt that way at the time. I wasn't doing a dance. I wasn't mad about it. It was a totally fine good pick. But to answer the question generally, I do feel better now about ASA than I did in June. I think some people are a little bit overboard excited, which is fine. I get it. Rookies excitement projections. Like I think he's not playing more because there are guys who are better than him right now. Like I've seen people that calling for him to play like 25 minutes a game right now. I I don't see that pathway really on the current roster without more injuries. He's also played 158 minutes in the NBA total and there's a reason for that. Like he's a young guy on a team that's trying to win. But I do love what I see on offense in particular. Like he's not shooting well he's not going to shoot 50% from three, but he is right now. But the jumper was a big swing factor in AC's projection which I talked about even back to the draft. I think long term to play the four a lot which I think he's going to have to do. he's gonna have to shoot. And there are a lot of great signs there. The mechanics look good. He's been shooting without hesitation at all and making them. And I love that development for him. That's a huge, huge factor. Also, he plays hard. His motor runs hot. Everybody likes the guy. Everybody likes the kid. He's he's just he's he's enthusiastic. He has 17 offensive rebounds in those minutes. Like basically offensive rebound every every nine minutes, which is really good. Uh it's less clear on the defensive glass how good he's going to be, but the skill level, the size, athleticism, etc. It's all translating on offense, which is very, very encouraging. And look, the defense is rough right now. Um, from a long-term viewpoint, that is totally understandable and fine. He just turned 20. Playing NBA defense as a big is very hard. He makes mistakes like rookies tend to do. That's not a indictment of him. That's just the reality of situation for a guy doing this stuff for the first time. I'm not worried about it, which is important. It's a reminder though that his defense is a question mark rather than something that's proven or you can bank on. I think he's going to be able to defend. I do. Like if you ask me three years from now if Asa is a totally fine big defender, I think the answer is going to be yes to that. I'm just not sure if that makes sense. So I like it. There's be some stuff to figure out and that was always going to be the case. Um it's a very very very rare thing when a young big is good defensively right away. even the guys who are defense versus prospects, like for example, Alex Sar last year, I loved Alex Sar's defensive film, um, coming into the draft, he was very bad as a rookie and he's already starting to look good again as a sophomore. Like that's that's very natural. Most young guys in particular one and done one and done who are AC's age, 19, 20 years old, are going to be bad more often than not. So last thing, like I like the pick even more now, and there are at least a handful of guys who went ahead of him in the draft that I would rather have ASA than right now, which is usually a good sign, too. So overall, I do feel better. Uh I still felt fine then, but I have I've upped my uh projection a little bit, which is uh what you want to see obviously 6 months after a pick is made. Um last question I think on today's show is going to come from John. Can the Hawks go backtoback on most improved player? To me, Alexander Walker and Johnson should be candidates. Uh I agree with that premise. Um and can they go back to back? Yes, they can. Will they? Obviously, that's hard to say in December, but I think both Nquille and Jaylen are real candidates. Currently, Nquille has the biggest scoring jump of any player in the league who was actually playing real minutes last year. He averaged nine and a half points a game last year and it's 20 and a half right now. That's crazy. I think Ryan Rollins is about the same jump, but he's playing like double the minutes. The kill's playing more than he was in Minnesota, but not by that much. So he is his case is very explan like self-explanatory. Um I don't I don't think that Nikquil is gonna average 12 wins a game this year on the whole. Maybe he will but I don't think it's going to happen. Once Trey comes back he'll pull off a little bit but he is a very natural case. Uh former first round pick different role this year but like he's playing super duper well and should be a candidate. Jaylen was very good last year, but look, more often than not in recent years, most improve has been a guy taking like a star leap. I know Dyson was not that last year. He was more of the outlier. Before that, it was Tyresese Maxi averaging 26 points a game. Before that, it was Lorie Markin averaging 27 points a game. Before that, it was John Morant becoming a star. Before that, Julius Randle averaged 24-10 with the Knicks and won. So that's four guys in a row that averaged 24 plus points per game in the year that they won most improved player before Dyson. So Jaylen putting up 23 10 and eight right now and making the All-Star team and challenging for all NBA is a path to him winning the award. Like I think last year he's actually oddly helped by the fact that he got hurt last year. So he wasn't like in the mix for awards, all that stuff. Even though he kind of was getting fringe all-star buzz before he got hurt last year, all that went away. So he's kind of going from a lower place than he probably should be going to in the perception if that makes sense. A most most improved player. So he's a real candidate. And currently by the way Jaylen's number two in FanDuel odds behind Denny Aia. Jaylen's plus 400. Nquille is 40 to1 which by the way is too high. I don't think Nquille is probably going to win but he certainly can and that's that's good odds I think for him. I think Denny probably has the clearer case right now, which is why he's the favorite because he averaged way more modest numbers last year. And by the way, is putting up 267 and six for the Blazers this year as their best player. Um, that's a surprising jump for him. Jaylen, as I said before, got some real buzz last year and did put up like what 19, 10, and five. So, winning it after doing that is going to take Jaylen being like an allNBA level guy this year, but that's very possible. So overall, last thing just to answer the question very plainly, they're both candidates. Jaylen and Aquil are real candidates for MIP. Can they win? Absolutely. Will they win? We don't know. It's a long way to go from here. But it would be fun if the Hawks won a leaguewide award two years in a row. I also think that um speaking for both those guys, they don't really care that much about that. Would it be nice to win? Sure. Um Jaylen making all making the Allar team an NBA would be probably more important to him than winning most improved player. Nquille would be like a very cool thing for a guy who was a role player for a long time and is now like playing at a higher level than that. So, I'll stop rambling now, but uh yes, they absolutely can win at this point. All right, everybody. That's all I have on this rare Tuesday afternoon into the evening. I am still traveling. I'll be covering the NBA Cup tonight in person, the final, which is why I'm posting this podcast before that game is happening on Tuesday. And then I'll be traveling tomorrow. So, the next show, barring something crazy, will be after the game on Thursday. The Hawks have a back-to-back Thursday in Charlotte and then home for the Spurs on Friday. So, I'll have full coverage of that as I always would. If you want more day-to-day writing stuff, extra audio, etc., patreon.com/bt rolland. And please follow the show on Twitterx on Hawks. Follow me there, BT Roland. Follow me on Blue Sky as well, BT Roland. And please, please, please subscribe to Loton Hawks anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Tell your friends, leave comments, leave ratings and reviews. I appreciate you listening. As I always would say, and I sincerely mean it, thank you for the support as always, and we'll see you all next time.

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland) hosts Episode 2125 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. Topics include the latest trade buzz around the Atlanta Hawks, the latest on Kristaps Porzingis, Trae Young’s return to practice, Jacob Toppin being waived, the state of the Eastern Conference, Asa Newell’s development, the Most Improved Player race, and much more.

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