Calibandar

Yes he will be bought out apparently. Same for Westbrook in Utah they say. I do think what teams could give up was very important for the Nets in a KD trade. I think thats obvious, and they got a big haul from the Suns. I am sure Durants input was taken into consideration. But your initial point was that Luka should be wondering why Dallas didnt make this trade and I explained to you that Dallas has a lot less to offer than Phoenix. I agree this new Laker team is better than Minnesota and Portland, they just need to get quite a few wins to pass some of these teams ahead of them, and wins in a super hard fought conference where many teams are equal, are hard to come by. Losing consecutively 2 games to OKC and the Bucks doesnt help.

The Lakers btw will have a lot of catching up to do. Even Golden State which has looked ever so poor in many games, is still 3 ahead.. The Clippers are 6 wins ahead, Dallas and Phoenix 5, New Orleans 4 and the Nuggets, Grizzlies and Kings are almost out of range.

Phoenix could offer more than Dallas it seems, Dallas for instance cannot give up many picks at all ( Phoenix gave 4 ) plus Bridges is a (slightly) more appealing player than anything Dallas could give. So I am not sure Dallas had any chance here. But it is interesting to consider if Kyrie would have gone to the Mavericks ( and not the Lakers ) if they knew Durant would really want to leave. But then again surely they considered that as a very real scenario after a Kyrie trade? All the Lakers moves here are wins. Getting rid of Westbrook, Beverly, some other ancillary pieces and you get Russell, Beasley, Vanderbilt and Bamba back. And all they gave up was that 2027 pick. Its not great. I wouldnt say terrible. He does have some decent players but you're looking at years of mediocrity. They will have a Dallas pick this year and those many Phoenix picks in the next few years , which dont project to be good picks at all. On another note, looks like Anunoby stays put.

Could be that this move boosts Paul's play though. Incredible trade for Phoenix. They give up so much but I would do it too. Now they are a real contender. TJ Warren a useful player they get as well. Durant and Booker is a sensational pairing and then you add Ayton and Paul to that. I am surprised how much the Lakers got for their 2027 pick and a bag of chips. Russell, Beasley and even Vanderbilt? Wow. I can see why the T-Wolves decided to let Russell's expiring go, he was not part of their plans, but Conley can at best be a stop gap.

In other news, Kyrie felt very disrespected by the Nets. He says he wants to be celebrated, not tolerated.

Talks ongoing between Durant and Nets management. Nets are insisting to teams they will not trade him and are trying to get a good player in to make up for the loss of Kyrie. Personally I hope they let Durant go now, so that he may have a title shot elsewhere. If he is not traded, this stuff is gonna get repeated again in the summer.

He has, will be out for a few more weeks. But not something that is expected to prevent them from the possibility of a strong post-season. It is however his second or even third injury this season.

Understanding that Kyrie is often a toxic presence, I still somewhat like this deal for the Mavs, given the options at hand. They want to do something. They feel they are on a limited timetable with the supertalent that is Luka. They know this current team simply isnt good enough. So you roll the dice on 4 months of Kyrie and if it works out, you can decide to give him a deal, of sorts, that he may or may not accept, but if it doesnt, at least you tried something else this season, and probably gave this team a better shot ( again, assuming Kyrie plays). It doesnt seem like another star or impact player was available, nothing is happening in the market. I agree that the Mavs winning the West was and still is a long shot, for me its not a top3 team, but since they have Luka, they are a danger team and potential upset team in any round they play. I dont agree though that the west is weak, in particular the Nuggets and Grizzlies look *very* good to me on the whole. Aside from those, I can still see potential strong finishes and post-seasons from the Warriors and Clippers, and perhaps even the Suns and Pelicans when Zion comes back. Its actually quite stacked. And...I'm gonna say it, I am not even sure the Lakers are completely down for the count ( but if they really dont make any deals, they probably are..)

I think its a lot to give up for the Mavericks considering Finney Smith has been a solid starter for several seasons and Dinwiddie has been good as well. This seems to create a gap at the small forward position but perhaps the idea is now to start Luka-Irving-Bullock and 2 others, of which Wood should be one. On the other hand you can see why the Mavs need to do this, they need to be able to give Luka a breather now and then and Kyrie can handle a lot of scoring and ballhandling and given his play this year, is still a notable upgrade over Dinwiddie at the position. ESPN is saying the Nets want to make more moves to strengthen their team around Durant this week , undoubtedly they are mighty fearful of another trade request coming. If it doesnt, I expect Durant just decided to play out the season and then try to leave again in the summer, I cannot see him staying there long term.

I am wondering if there has been any updates posted for her Patreon readers on how things have progressed and if the book is close?

Very, very excited about this Superman film. And the Swamp Thing film too. HBO doing Lanterns is very likely to be worth watching too.

Was a good tournament in Holland. Giri the winner, after many second places. Carlsen recovered from a slow start, Abdusattorov the revelation of the tournament.

I do think that sells short his performances. He certainly played Nadal throughout Nadal's entire prime, and a part of Federer's prime as well. He was overwhelmingly the best player at this Aussie Open. It was a guarantee he would win the quarter final, you never doubted he would beat Paul or Tsitsipas. When Alcaraz withdrew his main challenger was out. On top of that Korda, who looked so strong so far, got injured. When Medvedev lost I knew his last challenger was gone.

Seconding The Offer which was an amazing show that I watched a few weeks ago. I hope HBO will at some point release the much longer version of this episode, that would be tremendous to see. What a total kick ass episode this was. Bill was such a great character, really wish they hadnt killed him off.

Definitely very interesting. Korda had a superb run up to the tournament and very narrowly lost to Djokovic in the Adelaide final where he had the best play really. Now he has continued that and just ejected Medveded, and Hurkacz as well ( who unfortunately beat Shapo in 5, too solid I guess). De Minaur has been in great form, might make it hard on Djokovic. Ben Shelton vs JJ Wolf, 2 young Americans. Sinner just knocked out in 5 sets by Tsitsipas. Holger Rune, co-sensation of 2022 with Alcaraz, is still in the tournament. Forgot to mention Tommy Paul, very attractive style of play on him, have been watching his game the last 2 years.