SWAP? Should Dallas Mavericks TRADE Anthony Davis for Karl-Anthony Towns?

SWAP? Should Dallas Mavericks TRADE Anthony Davis for Karl-Anthony Towns?

If the New York Knicks called offering Carl Anthony Towns for Anthony Davis, what does Dallas do? Plus, what’s the cost of not tanking this year for the Dallas Mavericks on today’s Locked on Mavs? This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on M. I think that’s a good question. Morning. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast of the Locked Onet still your team everyday. I’m going to get a city like back. You are locked on the Dallas Mavericks. This is one of your host Isaac Harris covering the Mavs for the last 10 years alongside my good friend Nick Angstead. Thanks for making Locked on Mavs your first listen of the day and for making the Locked On podcast network the number one sports podcasting network. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com. Riding solo today, Nick is traveling back from family stuff over the holidays and uh just doing a solo episode before we got this Denver Nuggets game as the Mavs are in Denver. And uh yeah, coming coming out of that uh little LA stretch there. Went one and one. Let’s go. Beat the Clippers. Lost to the Lakers. Uh now they get Denver. Uh one of the better teams in the Western Conference uh coming up on Monday night. But um one of the things I’ve been wanting to talk about honestly over the past week and even after the Clippers game because uh got multiple comments uh about, you know, should Dallas now Dallas is going for it. Now we’ve seen the potential of Cooper. Now we’ve seen the Mavericks win. Um seen one comment is like the tank is dead. And you know, there’s still a faction of the fan base right now, even though the Mavericks are 6 and 15 that’s like, “Hey, you know, he’s just getting healthy. Uh Kyrie Irving has yet to play this season. He’s going to be coming back at some point. Cooper’s getting more comfortable out there on the floor. Uh they can make a run for it. I’ve seen people a lot of people throw out the playin.” Like they, man, the playin’s just so many games away. They can make the playin and still make this season happen. And I kind of want to talk about that of like what’s the cost of going for it of saying keeping that mindset and going for it and not selling off pieces but also what’s the cost of the other direction too of if they do tank what’s the cost of tanking this year and losing these games. But first I want to talk about Anthony Davis. And last week, Ian Begley, he’s covered uh the Knicks for gosh uh so long and uh New York sports, I should just say that. But um anytime he says anything about the Knicks, I’m always listening. He had different updates about Jason Kid over the off season. uh when Kid was entertaining uh Kid and the Knicks were flirting with each other and um but hey, Jason Kid said that he was never interested. He was he was always just he was committed to Dallas, never interested in taking a New York job again. So, um yeah, but Ian Begley tweeted out last week when talking about Anthony Davis. He said, “I’m sure the Knicks would at least check in with Dallas if and when Anthony Davis becomes available. You may scoff at the idea, but the Knicks Knicks want to win a title this season. If Dallas is offering Davis at a below market cost, I’m sure the Knicks will at least give the move some thought.” And that just sent a lot of people running with it of like, “All right, how could they pull off an Anthony Davis trade?” Pretty much the only feasible type of trade that you can pull off is an Anthony Davis or Caron Towns. And you know, I I kind of just threw out the Knicks a long time ago. Uh because in order to for the Knicks to make a um I threw them out as far as like a a possibility because in order for the Knicks to make a trade, they’re capped at that second apron, too. U so they can they can’t go over it and they’re really dang near close to being at it. And so so for for Dallas, which the same spot as Dallas. So for them to make a trade centered around Anthony Davis, then it’s got to be Towns, which Towns makes really similar of a contract to Anthony Davis. And you I mean they you got to be I mean down to like under a million dollars to make this work. And I think they could make it work. They could throw a minimum contract in there with Towns to send for AD where it basically just be an AD for town swap. And in theory, that could work. Some of you might, I don’t know, find some loophole in the CBA and scream at me and tell me why it’s not working. But I want to talk about just the idea of that swap just for a second because I’ve had some people throw that out towards me of DMs or this tweets like, “Hey, what do you think about swapping talents AD? Um, would you even do this?” And why would the Knicks do it? So when you look at him both as players, Anthony Davis is 32, about to turn 33 couple next couple months, I think. I should have that in front of me. Great homework, Isaac. U Towns is 30, so a couple years younger than AD. When you look at their contracts, AD uh is making 54 this year, 58, and then a player option a couple years from now at 63. You look at Towns, he makes 53 this year, 57 next year, 61 player option a few years later. So really, really similar contracts, and you’re like, “All right, well, why would the Knicks even entertain this?” I honestly don’t think the Knicks would. I I think that they would just probably hold um hold their ground with with Towns unless there was some weird like chemistry stuff. Um I’ve never been the biggest Caranthony Towns fan. I don’t own a lot of stock on that island. um stock or property on that island. Um got to get my analogies right here. But you’re like, “Hey, why would the Knicks do it?” Uh because Towns is a really good scorer, so you’re not really doing it for scoring because Towns is a better shooter than AD. Uh you’ll be doing this primarily for defense. Towns does get targeted on defense. He is not good at all on the defensive side of the ball. I will point out too his shooting percentages although he’s only you know he’s just 18 games into the season for him. He’s only his shooting percentages are down so far. His three-point percentage is at like 33 which is uh really low for him. I think I think it’s under 45% from the field uh which is low for him. So um his shooting efficiency is down so far to start this season. So if you like combine that with like lack of defense, but the Knicks have a good record right now. like I don’t think the Knicks would really entertain it, but you never know. So, for them, it’d be taking a swing on, hey, we want to become we believe AD is going to be healthy. We want to become an elite defensive team and pair AD with OG and and Bridges and Hart, Mitchell Robinson and uh and he gets to play the four next to Mitchell Robinson still. So, that would be their case. if you’re Dallas. Um, Towns plays um out like he he doesn’t miss a lot of games for injuries and he’s a better shooter and he’s two years younger. So, you know, if you’re if you’re Dallas and you’re like, “Hey, he doesn’t accomplish one of those like three things that I’m going for.” You know, I’ve been saying this whole time, if you’re going to trade Anthony Davis, I think you’re looking at three different things. You’re looking at clearing up future cap space in the next few years. I think you’re looking for a draft pick, two draft picks. Hopefully, that would be awesome. Um, or you’re looking for a really good young player, some like young prospect. And if you could go into an Anthony Davis trade and say, “Hey, can we get two of these? Can we get two of the three of these things?” When it’s swap with Towns, you’re not really getting any of them, right? Towns already 30. Um, same same money as Anthony Davis. I you’re not clearing up any cap space. You’re not getting a draft pick out of it. Um he’s not a young prospect in that. So you’re like, what’s the reason of doing it? I think I would still probably do it, right? Because he’s actually going to play and you can’t suck next year, too. So this is like kind of a one one year thing of like, hey, if we’re going to be bad this year, then you’re going to be bad and then next year you’re kind of like in a little win now mode because you you don’t have your pick control of your pick for the next uh four or five years. So, I think I would do it just because of the injury history and uh and the shooting. I think the shooting too would be um it would space the floor a little bit more. He’s a better shooter than AD. So, I don’t think the Knicks do it. I think the Knicks probably hang up the phone considering AD’s injury history and recent injury, too. And um that’s that. So, we’ll see uh what the other market is for Anthony Davis moving forward. And like Isaac, why why are you talking about Anthony Davis trades? I think Anthony Davis, the future of Anthony Davis over the next month is the biggest story line for Dallas right now. I think it’s bigger than I put the rise of Cooper Flag. when you’re looking at uh storylines right now for Dallas, I think, you know, Cooper flag is an amazing storyline, but when you talk to people around the league, when you go to games right now, or when when I go to games, I go to home games and you talk amongst media and different people there, the number one thing that’s getting talked about the most is, well, what’s AD’s future? Well, is AD going to be here? Like, what are they going to do with AD? Uh, the other question is like, who’s calling the shots right now? Uh, how long is Dumont going to do this with Ricardi and Finley and and Cuban and, you know, Kid and these guys at the at the table now? This like little committee. Are the vets available for trade? It is it’s all about Anthony Davis right now for Dallas. That’s the number one storyline. What do they do with him? He’s probable going into this Nuggets game. So, he set out that second night of back-to-back uh against the Clippers. Now he’s um coming back to play uh in Denver which is uh which is awesome and and a lot of fun with that. So, um, yes, I want to talk in the next segment about what is the cost for going for it. For the people in the comments or the people, the Mavs fans who have been uh over the past 48 hours, I guess not even that, over the past 24 hours or even before that that was in the camp of like, I will do not want to tank. I do not want to lose games. I’m a season ticket holder. I want to go for as many wins as possible. I want to talk about the cost of going for it right now, right after the break. This podcast is brought to you by our good friends over at Prize Picks. This episode’s Ooh. Ooh. Sorry, read that one wrong. The holiday season is one of the best time for sports bowl games, big basketball matchups, playoff pushes, it’s all happening at once. And while we’re all making choices every day, one of the most fun places to make the right call is prize picks. Prize picks is the easiest way to get in on the daily fantasy. Just pick more or less on at least two player projections. Lock in your lineup and you’re and you’re in the game. It’s simple, fast, available in 45 states, including California, Texas, Florida, Georgia. And here’s the thing, creating a lineup takes less than a minute. I know your busy schedules out there. You’re like, “Hey, what can I do like super fast?” The app makes the whole process smooth and intuitive. Um, download the prize picks app today. Use the code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All right. Thanks for making Mavs. Lockdown Mavs, your first uh listen of the day for making the Lockdown Sports Podcast Network the number one sports podcasting network out there. Uh got an update here. Got an update on the snoring dog. So um if you listen to yesterday’s episode, did a um solo pod post game yesterday and a couple of you in the comments, I just want to read some of the comments. Someone said, “Is it just me or do you all or do you all hear some breathing in the background? It ain’t Isaac, and it’s tripping me out.” This person replied back, “I hear it, too. I bet he has a dog sleeping peacefully by his side as he records the pod.” Another person dropped a comment said, “I swear I can hear a snoring dog in the background. Awesome game for Coupe.” Update. That was my wife. So, um I my dog typically does lay right here a lot of times when I’m recording. Uh and she’s awesome. But listen, I have I’m not even going to explain our setup in which um my little podcast studio uh is set up, but uh it is in our our uh our bedroom. So, uh uh in or an extension of it. So, uh, my wife, my 32- week pregnant wife with our third kid, um, is, uh, she, it was a late night, you know, after an LA game and she went to sleep and I kid her about it be when I, uh, went to bed after the pod. I was like, “Hey, I could kind of hear you. I don’t know if they will.” And then she was getting a kick today out of the comment. So, she was dying, like mortified. So, um, thanks for the people who called her called her a snoring dog. Um, all right. Let’s keep going with that. Not with that, but let’s keep going. Uh, yeah. So, I want to talk about what’s the cost of going for it. Like, if you’re in the camp of, hey, I just watched a great game from uh Cooper Flag. Um, Kyrie hasn’t played yet. Anthony Davis is coming back. He’s getting more healthy. Can we just go for it? Like, we’re not that far out. Then we could go to the play in. Who knows? And I think my thing is like if you are in that camp then you got to really go for it, right? Like if you’re going to decide to go for it and give up one of those top draft picks this year, then don’t you have to like fully commit to like making even more win now trades because you’re not going to have another shot? Like I mean you’re you you are going to like forfeit your your draft pick next year. you’re going to uh not have control of this pick for the next four or five years. So, don’t you feel like you just got to really go for it? Like, because if you’re going to like go for it and not tank and not um sell off players, what’s the purpose of just kind of like, hey, we’re not going to sell we’re not going to be a seller and we’re not going to lose games on purpose and just see where we land. Okay. And then you’re going to get the 13th pick in the draft. And so like I so I feel like if you’re in the camp of going for it, then you got to be like really really going for it. And then what’s your ceiling? I think that’s the question that I ask back of like what’s the ceiling? Do you think that they have enough shooting right now to compete with people in the Western Conference? Do you think they have enough playmaking on the team? Because when I look at it and say, “Hey, they’re six and 15. Can you know what’s the ceiling for it standing wise?” I don’t think that they’re getting anywhere close. If they just said right now, we’re committing and without like truth serum, all right, and they’re saying we’re committing to winning as many games as possible. Kyrie’s going to come back, all the things, call me a pessimist, but I don’t think you’re getting anywhere close to the top six, which is OKC, the Lakers, Houston, Denver, San Antonio, and Minnesota. I just don’t think you’re that you’re that type of team. I think you are struggling that much with playmaking and shooting on your roster and of course injury history for you to be confident right now to climbing out of a hole of being six and 15 right now. So then that puts your ceiling at hey can you make a playin spot and I’ve seen people throw out the throw out that they’re like hey they’re only two and a half games back from the 10th spot. Congrats. Like is that what you want to do you want to land at the 10th spot? These are the teams in the playin right now. Phoenix, Golden State, Portland, Memphis. Am I convinced that all four of those teams are that much better than Dallas? No, I’m I’m not. Are you saying that Dallas could catch Memphis in that 10th spot or Portland could fall back? They’re only three games up on Dallas. Sure. I mean, Golden State’s a little bit more. I mean, they’re what, five games up on Dallas at that point. Um, so could you like could you have a really good season, finish ninth, maybe eighth in the Western Conference and and make the play? Yeah, you could you could do that. Um, so then like what like just play it out through your head at that point. What’s the what’s the what’s the pro of that? Is is all of is giving up that draft pick and not selling off some of the vets to get other assets on your team? Is that um is it worth giving that up? Is that the cost for you to get Cooper flag one playin atmosphere? Like I would almost argue that playing in the um NCAA uh tournament uh in the final four in Elite 8 is just as big of a stage as a playing game. So, I don’t know if like that’s worth the cost to quote unquote like go for it and then end up with like the 14th pick. I’m sorry. And let’s say everything does go right and you get to the playin and you land at nine or 10 and you win two games to get to the to the NBA playoffs and then you get to face OKC and then you’re probably playing four to five games and then it’s a wrap. So, you got to say here and convince me that those four to five games of getting mopped by OKC probably um is worth it for the development of Cooper to give up a top draft pick u to give up future assets that you could get from some of these vets right now. It feels weird taking this stance uh because I have historically been in the camp of yeah, I just don’t think we should like tank. I don’t like the like I don’t know. It’s just you call me the old the old part of my soul of like I just you can’t sit here and convince me like just to lose games and all this stuff. It’s just kind of how the NBA is like works now is it’s kind of it’s the best option for them. So is it is it worth it? Because I think that’s the go I think the going for it, going allin, not tanking, not losing. I think that is the ceiling. If everything goes right for them is for them to make the play in, play one or two games and if you’re if you’re lucky, you get in to face OKC and then you’re getting swept or maybe in five games. I think that’s the ceiling for this team right now. And that’s if you go for it and things go right. There’s also the scenario in which you go for it and you continue going all in for it and you’re like you commit to trying not to lose games and then you don’t make any selling type of moves and then you miss the play in altogether. Shout out the Clippers. The Pelicans. Uh these two teams are two of the worst teams in the Western Conference. They don’t even have their picks. All right. Pelicans is a pick swap with Atlanta or Brooklyn and uh or Atlanta or Milwaukee. Clippers pick goes to OKC. Do you want to be in that spot to where you kind of like go for it and they don’t make the play in and now you’re at like pick 10 or 11. You’re like what was this for? Because you had a little bit more competitive games in March. So that’s what that’s what I’m saying. Like I just don’t think I think the cost weighs much more I is is much more than like trying to go for it or like a a playing game experience for a Cooper flag or um you know if everything goes right to get swept in the first round by OKC. I think and all of that considered plus this is your one chance to get a draft pick for the next four or five years to go with Cooper Flag. I think that right there tells you the path that they have to go down. And if you’re still not convinced, come back for the third segment because I’m about to walk through some other similar situations of teams that have had young stars on their like they draft the young stars and what they do to build around them and what they haven’t done in some situations. Coming up right after the break. This podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Has this FanDuel thing been up the entire second segment? I think so at this point uh with FanDuel, man, I already said it, but earlier uh the Denver the the the Denver series here or the Denver game on Monday night, they are a 10 and a half 10 and a half favorite over Dallas. So, if you’re confident in the Anthony Davis coming back against Joic uh playing another game, you’re confident in Cooper Flag right now, then uh Dallas is the place to go. If NBA is not your thing, then NFL is your way to go there. Uh, it’s one play. Suddenly, everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re just now watching the game. You’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets at the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum, swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot, defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel let you jump into the moment. Live spreads and money lines adjust instantly. player props update as guys heat up. Guys, this is let’s Okay, let’s go. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Shut it down. All right, let’s talk about some situations of some teams that have drafted some young players. You’re like, Isaac, you’re so all in on tanking this year and going for that top draft pick. You say it’s so important. Do we have any uh examples of that? I want you to look at what’s happening in Detroit right now. So, you look at Kade Cunningham in Detroit. They take him um super high in his draft and then you know Detroit’s one of the best teams in the in the league right now. And uh I just want you to look at you get a guy like Kate Cunningham, you get him first overall and you’re like, “All right, we’re going to build around this playmaker. We’re going to build around this stuff.” Like he is a top draft pick. We want to build around this guy. You know what you get after that? You’re they were so bad after that that they get the following players. Jaden Ivy, Assar Thompson, they make a trade for Jaylen Duran and Ron Holland. They get four lottery picks after drafting Kade Cunningham to go around Kade Cunningham. And h I mean, how much of these players right now would you say is responsible for how good Detroit is right now? Sar Thompson, Jaylen Duran, Ron Holland. I mean, come on. Like Jay Ivy hasn’t even played yet and they might use him to trade off to get even better piece. So my point of with that is you start looking at the up and cominging, you know, teams in the league and you’re like, all right, what’s what’s a common denominator with a lot of these young teams? Now, there are some outliers, right? There are some outliers, but look at some of these young teams and how they get to the status in which they’re at with the young player that they have. And Detroit is one of those thing, one of those situations of you get Cade and then look at the lottery picks that they got after him. One of the things that used to always um get me was when early on in Trey and Luca’s careers, which shout out to when that was a debate. That was funny uh debate for some people. It was never a debate, but when people used to comp Luca and Trey and they used to bring up some of Trey’s playoff success and they get to that conference finals that one time and it’s like, well, yeah, look at look at the the draft picks that is around Trey Trey Young right now. Luca was so good early on. The thing that Dallas had to miss out on, but man, it would have changed so much is when they traded up a few spots to get Luca Donuch. They traded that next year pick, that 2019 pick, first round pick, and they said they put like a top 10, I think, protection on it. Um, wasn’t top five. I don’t think it was top five. Anyway, it was one of those and they put that protection on basically giving them next year’s pick to move up to get Luca. You get you do that any day of the week to get Luca Donuch 100%. But you they gave up their one chance, right? Because you get one bad year. Luca gets one bad year his rookie year and then he’s so good. You you don’t get these opportunities anymore. So for all of the first part there of Luca’s earlier in his career, we’re like crap, they were so good early on. They, you know, they didn’t have the other like lottery picks to build around him. In theory, it should have been a Dennis Smith Jr., but Dennis Dennis just wasn’t good enough. Didn’t fit next to next to Luca. So, that’s the that’s the thing with some of these young young stars is they’re so good so early when really you you need these other these young these other young players to build around them with. So, with Trey, he had all these other first round picks uh these lottery picks with him. I was like, man, that’s kind of like not fair. They get they get other building blocks. Uh let’s keep going. So you have Kade in the league right now. You look at another team. You’re like, “Hey, what’s another upand cominging team that everybody’s like super high on right now?” Oh, ding ding ding. San Antonio. They they got Wimi. Like this is awesome. Wimbeyama. Well, yes. Guess who else they have around him? Devin Vel, another lottery pick. Uh you get right after him. You get Stefon Castle. You get Sohan. You get um Dylan Harper. They move up from eight uh to number two in this last Cooper flag draft. Now you’re surrounding Wimby with these guys that are impacting winning and is making this team being one of those up and cominging teams. It’s not just Wimi. They are good and one of the top six teams in the league because they have a Stfan Castle because they have a Devin Vel. When you have these other young players on cheaper contracts that are already really good, it allows you to go get a DM Fox. Another example of that, you get the Houston Rockets, you get they draft Jaylen Green at second overall. What happens? They get to ship him off for Kevin Durant because they have other draft picks, high draft picks in the lottery of um Amen Thompson, you get Tari E, Jabari Smith, Reed Shepard, who’s playing well. they make the trade for Shingun from OKC, which was just crazy to think about that OKC literally had the Shingun pick and was like, “Hey, we kind of just don’t need like a body right now. We’ll trade we’ll trade the, you know, the rights to Shingun to you guys if you just give us a future first round pick.” Now he’s awesome. All these players they they acquired on draft night or drafted. They’re a good team right now. So, I mean, should I keep going? You look at uh you look at Orlando, you look at Fron, you look at Jaylen Suggs, you look at Paulo, you look at Anthony Black, like multiple I mean, we can continue going a young team, a young upand cominging team that everybody is like super high on right now, even though they’ve struggled. You can even go back a little bit further back to Klay’s best friend, John Morant. And it’s like they get they get Jiren Jackson Jr. one year, they turn back, they turn around the next year, they get one more chance at it, and they get John Morant. They pair those two together and then they have some success, right? Not a ton, but they’re a good basketball team because it wasn’t just Jiren Jackson Jr., they got the other prospect in John Morant. And you’re like, Isaac, why are you going through all of this? And I say that because if you have a young stud in a Cooper flag, you have to take advantage of that and go get another young stud to go with him if you can, and you have one opportunity to do that. one chance. You don’t have your draft pick or control of your draft pick. You don’t have your draft pick next year and then you swap it with the best team in the league then the year after that and then you don’t have your draft pick and then you make another swap after like you you don’t have another chance at this. This is why it is the the right move to make. And you’re like, “All right, well, who are you gonna target if you sacrifice this one year because of where you’re at now?” Like you could honestly kind of make this case before the season even started, but I’m not going to go that far. But it’s it’s where you are right now, 6 and 15. You the cost of a Darren Peterson pairing with Cooper Flag or a Mike Brown or AJ Dansa or a Caleb. Like the cost of giving that up is not a cost um that I’m willing to to give to give. Like I think that would that would help propel your team moving forward of you get a point guard to pair alongside Cooper Flag for the next decade or you get to form your own version of what Boston you know did in Boston of all right who’s our Jaylen Brown or who who’s our other young wing to go alongside Cooper like can you imagine Cooper flag and AJ Debons on the same team holy crap so it’s like all right what’s the alternative What’s the cost of tanking? Like Isaac, you sold me on on that. What’s the cost of it? Well, you’re going to lose some games. What? You’re going to lose some fans? I think right now you’re trying to instill hope in fans to bring fans back. I literally just talked to a buddy of mine today that haven’t talked about the Mavs for a long time. And I went up to him, I was like, “Dude, what about that Cooper flag game last night?” His first response to me, he goes, “Dude, I don’t follow the BS anymore.” Like, I don’t blame you. like I I don’t blame you. I’m still excited about Cooper. He’s like, “I’m happy for you, but I just don’t follow him anymore. That killed all my fandom.” There’s so many people like that out there. And I mean, I I I get it. I I respect it. The Mavs are the I think the number one thing right now is instilling this hope that we’re going to get back to uh the Mavs that you fell in love with. And I think the number one thing that instills the most hope right now is the the idea of another young prospect to form this duo with Cooper Flag going forward into the future. So if you go the tanking route, you sell off some pieces. Oh, what what are you going to do? You’re going to like Cooper gets the ball more and is more aggressive uh like the Clippers game. Sign me up for that. Like even if they’re losing games for the rest of the year. So, I think when you look at the other contenders, I know I’m running long on time. You look at other people in the league that are tanking right now. That’s another thing of like I think I would become a seller earlier than later. I think I would go for it earlier than later because, you know, you look at the the Pelicans and Clippers at the bottom, but I already talked about that like they don’t have control of their picks this year. So, they’re going to be trying to probably move up even though it’s not really helping them right now. The Jazz are have their their first round pick is top eight protected. So, they’re going to want to lose lose games to make sure they’re in the top eight. The Kings are the Kings. Who knows what they’re going to do? The Grizz and Blazers right now are kind of just like that middle of the pack stuff. Your biggest competition, I think, is in the East as far as tankings. Washington, Brooklyn, Indiana, Charlotte. So, I think right now I don’t even think it’s a debate. I think you sell and you lose games and it sucks to say that but I think it is the only smart logical move there is and I feel like you just got to do it for the future of the franchise for where you got a guy like Cooper and the fact that you have this one chance this one year. It’s not like hey we’re just going to keep on losing for years and years and years to get more draft picks which that’s what a lot of these teams have have been doing. It is it is a one-year sale to Cooper, to Kyrie, to your fan base of like, hey, this is one year. And you can’t say it out loud. I get that. But this is a one-year thing of like we’re going to bring in another top pick into this into this system to pair with Cooper moving forward and then we’re going to start building this thing up. Anyway, there you go. probably got a little too passionate about that, but I really don’t see the other argument right now of like air quote going for it. Watch the Mavericks go win a title and then this gets clipped and shared into oblivion uh for the next three decades. There you go. We’ll be back for a postgame pod uh coming up after the Nuggets game. It will for sure be Nick and then we’ll see on the status of Slightly myself. Peace out. Boom. No snoring dog tonight.

Karl-Anthony Towns for Anthony Davis? The Dallas Mavericks face a pivotal decision as trade rumors swirl around Anthony Davis, the future of Cooper Flagg shines, and questions arise about whether the Mavs should tank or go all-in this NBA season. Explore the impact of Kyrie Irving’s injury, the potential cost of not tanking, and how these choices could shape the future of the Dallas Mavericks franchise.

Isaac Harris breaks down the latest on the Dallas Mavericks, including trade possibilities involving Anthony Davis, what Cooper Flagg’s development means for the Mavs, and the impact of Kyrie Irving’s return. Hear analysis on Jason Kidd, Nico Harrison, Mark Cuban, Patrick Dumont, and how teams like the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, and Minnesota Timberwolves factor into Dallas’s season. Other players and teams in this episode: Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Mitchell Robinson, Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, and more.

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