Mark Deeks

Apologies to the unnamed podcast host in my dream. There was no need for our Jusuf Nurkic vs Lonny Baxter debate to get quite that heated.

Letting it be known that you'll cut him anyway and make him available as a free agent is certainly one way to build up trade leverage for your guy.

Anyway, it was a very good standalone movie and we should all be very grateful that they never made any sequels.

Just watched The Matrix for the first time since about 2006. Came real close to understanding it this time, too, shouldn't think it will take me any more than about another 20 watches.

RIP Bradley Beal's no-trade clause. You had a great run and will be missed.

Gonna add cryptic details to some of them, add further intrigue. "N. Chomsky - DO NOT CONTACT".

Saved a whole bunch of celebrity phone numbers into my address book to really confuse investigators if I die mysteriously.

But then that's the point, Huge offseason, Luka on board, LeBron with maybe one go around left in him, need to make a splash.....get someone a bit better than Jaxson Hayes.

All I'm saying is if you gave me the scoops, I'd give you all the PR, too.

For a short while there, a couple of years ago, it felt as though the Sacramento Kings had a plan.

Nope.

The Atlanta Hawks are Having the Best NBA Offseason Of Anyone With their signings, trades and draft picks, the Atlanta Hawks are not just playing the transaction game very well - they are leading it.

Calling it now. The Hawks are contenders. And even if they aren't, they now have the roster management skills - and excellent assets - to make sure they very soon will be.

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Luke Kennard's combination of $11 million expiring and excellent shooting + the 2026 pick that the Pelicans quite needlessly gave them at the draft = one hell of a tempting trade deadline package. The Atlanta Hawks got really good at asset management really quickly.

He speaks fondly of you too! (Probably. I just made that up.)

Celtics Pursuing EuroLeague's Scoring Leader Looking to reshape their roster, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla recently went on a scouting trip to Turkey to see up close a proven scorer.

Wrote about Nigel Hayes-Davis here. He has improved a lot since leaving the NBA and risen to the top of the EuroLeague.

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Hell of lot of money for Luke Kornet, $41 million over four years. That's more than I earn in TEN years.

Hawks sorely needed that S&T. With some depth they can get from retaining the MLE, they can put together a really, really good team.

Brook Lopez and Luke Kornet's careers are basically mirror-images of each other.

The Bulls have let the Nets incinerate their cap space, which greatly improves their chances of getting Josh Giddey to take a pay cut. Which will make it doubly annoying when they do not use this added leverage and overpay him anyway.

Every single person that I have spoken to, on both sides of the media/team divide, believes that Al Horford is going to the Warriors.

Just when you think you've gauged the price of a backup big at about $6-8 million or so, Luke Kornet comes in and gets double-figures through the age of 34. Good player and all after his mid-career reinvention but he's really going to need to hold up well.

Kevon Looney will somehow still only be 31 when that deal expires, even if his gait says 51.

Nuggets with the best hour since Eddie Murphy's Delirious

Nuggets can only send their 2032 first because they were just about under the second apron. Teams over it cannot send out draft picks seven years in advance. It is yet another reason to cut costs, and while it will hurt down the road, Denver just hugely rejuvenated themselves.

Don't think drafting the same player four times and getting Michael Porter Jr was quite what Nets fans had in mind for their offseason.

Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr about to combine for 64 points per game in a 29-53 season.

Rushing to be the first to break the news, only to be second and get it wrong anyway.

If we're not going to get much in the way of real news tonight, can we at least get some fakers to have some fun with it? Any Arye Abraham types out there willing to talk about the complex material shifts that the Brooklyn Nets are facing in their pursuit of the Honky-Tonk Man?

Rockets assembled a clutch of excellent young forwards and then....benched them.

FIRST 31 MINUTES OF NBA FREE AGENCY IN 2022: 31 deals announced.

FIRST 31 MINUTES OF NBA FREE AGENCY IN 2025: ...four. One of whom was Jeff Green.

Faced with the prospect of the $240 million Jaren Jackson Jr renegotiation or the $80 million Marvin Bagley extension, the Grizzlies opted to be spoilsports.