Kurt Helin, NBC Sports Lead NBA Writer

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So much to get into. I guess, let's get Joel Embiid out the way. I mean, if we want to say out the way. I ain't too optimistic on the Sixers the rest of the season. What are your thoughts? Is this man coming back? A knee flap? Meniscus flap?

What's the real deal? Probably not. Look, I'm not a doctor.

I'm not going to pretend to be one on the radio. But that type of injury, that type of flap thing, what I've been told by doctors is that usually means a repair and a repair would mean he's done for the season. Nobody knows without ever looking at it exactly, but it sounds like they're trying to be optimistic that maybe he could come back in time for the playoffs or something, but most likely that's not the case. And if he's out, well then the Sixers have, their trade deadline is different, everything is different because they're not going anywhere without him.

Well, Kurt, it looks like a failed process to me. I mean, as Joel Embiid gets older, it would take like a lightning strike to turn this around. I can't imagine him getting healthier as he gets older. And we already know Ben Simmons is out the door. Is this not catastrophic for the Sixers, not just in the present, but in the way down in the future? I'm talking two, three years from now, they're going to have to start again.

I don't know if they're quite there yet. Remember, this is a team that has set itself up to have max cap space next summer. They can basically rework the roster around Embiid and Maxey next year. I think they're going to have to take some, they're going to have to make some hard decisions and Embiid's going to have to make some hard decisions about possibly playing a little lighter. He's not heavy.

Would he be better off a little lighter? But also, this may ultimately be a Dwyane Wade, late in his career situation, where you're like, man, we're just not going to worry about the 65 games and the awards. We're going to have to say he plays 55, 60, whatever it is we need to do to get him healthy to the playoffs, and then hope that that works. And if they can get a third guy in this summer, maybe they can rebuild around it. People are right about this. At his age as a big man, their windows shrink.

There's not a long time to do this. They're going to have to do it in the next couple of years, and they're going to have to make some real bold moves this offseason. So, Dylan is here with us, covers the NBA lead writer for NBCSports.com.

You want to talk about Jolan Beat on the opposite end of the spectrum is obviously LeBron James, still balling out at 39 years old, certainly not the player he was a decade ago, but still one of the best in the game. You want to talk about him, his future, what the Lakers do on Thursday. What do you find to be most likely come trade deadline? Are the Lakers getting a small guard? Are they getting anything?

What say you? They will make some move. De'Jaunte Murray is not out of the question, and that's probably the biggest name that gets moved if he does around the deadline. I know we're kind of used to blockbusters at the deadline, and Kyrie Irving came up relatively last minute last year. I'll just say, talking to people around the league, that's not happening this year. Zach Lavine is off the table, which means De'Jaunte Murray is probably the best player who might get moved, and you're talking about a one-time All-Star four years ago. He's a good player, don't get me wrong, but we're not getting that blockbuster this year.

I don't know. I don't know that the Lakers might try to get him, but it's more likely they get Royce O'Neal or something and make some moves around the edges. They can rise up for a moment. You saw it in New York last night, you saw it with the end-season tournament, but do you really think they can sustain that for one full series of seven games, two full series? They'll probably get smacked out of the postseason.

That's what's most likely. Thinking about that, Kurt, this just leaves us with a giant question mark over the status of LeBron with the Lakers come July, no? Or do you think it's likely that he absolutely stays?

It's not absolute. He's going to want changes. He's just at the point in his life where he wants to compete at the highest level. I don't know, though, that that means he's not opting into the $51 million that he's not going to live in Southern California. I don't know if Ronnie's going pro.

I'm not going to pretend to answer that question, but Bryce, his younger son, is still here. I don't know that he's really willing to... That's it. I'm going to pack it up and go back to Miami or Cleveland or maybe your team where he lifts them up to contender status. I just don't know that he's willing to do that. I think what you're seeing the last week with the emoji tweet and the mixed towel and all this stuff is kind of classic, passive aggressive LeBron, right? Like trying to pressure the team without pressuring, you know, without, oh, man does whatever the front office does. I'm here for the guys in the locker room and he sends all sorts of subtle messages.

Just how he operates. Kurt Heelan is here with us. NBC Sports lead basketball writer. You mentioned Zach Levine. We know he's now out with a foot injury. How his career continues on is certainly not looking good for where he's at.

The Chicago Bulls, as they move forward, they've been a better team without him. They also have DeMar DeRozan on an expiring contract. Is there a possibility that DeMar moves on elsewhere? Are the Bills just going to hold on to him as this contract expires? That's a really good question.

It kind of looks like it. And I don't, you know, I don't get it. It seemed like it seemed like they were ready to start moving, breaking up the stuff like they're insistent on keeping from whatever they are really insistent unless you're going to bowl them over with some sort of Godfather offer of keeping Alex Caruso. Why? And nothing against Alex Caruso. Alex Caruso, though, a strong defensive guard who can give you 20 to 25 minutes a night.

His knees don't put up with much more than that. He's built for coming off the bench on a contender, right? Like if you there's pretty much every playoff team could plug Alex Caruso in and he helps. They're going to keep him because he's part of the future.

I just I don't really get what they're doing. I get that they can't trade Zach Lavine and they're going to have to be a little patient with that. His contract's huge.

Like you said, there's injury histories. They're just they're not going to be able to move him maybe in the offseason. But I don't know why you're keeping DeRozan. I don't know why you're not pivoting towards a rebuild right now.

You don't necessarily have to tear all the way down, but you've got to start pivoting. What are they, the eighth or ninth seed right now? I haven't looked at the standings this morning.

Number nine, going nowhere. Laying elimination, if that. Yeah, it's like, hey, if everything comes together for us, we can make the play in.

Really? That's what you're going for? You're Chicago, man.

You should be better than that. He knows here with us, NBC Sports dot com, lead NBA writer. When you think about the teams that are actually will have an actual legit shot to win a championship, we know Boston sits at the top in the east and Milwaukee is still trying to get it together defensively. On the west, you have some young teams at the top there. No strong indicator that they're going to be the same when we get to play off basketball.

What do you see happening or most likely to happen with the east and west as we kind of draw it towards the finals? Look, Boston's the team to beat, but they are a flawed team. Anybody who watches them knows, and I'm not the only person saying this, for a team with that much talent, they rely way too much on the three ball.

They don't work it inside out. They don't get their three pointers cleanly sometimes. They degenerate into isolation at the end of games. Because of how they get their threes, when they don't hit the threes, it's like that game against the Bucks where they completely fall apart. Shooting variance is such a big factor in their games, and it shouldn't be. They should be better than that, and I think that gives the Bucks hope because maybe they can get their defense together, but it should also give the Knicks and the Cavaliers, by the way, I think with all the hype around the Knicks in New York, people have been sleeping. The Cavaliers have been playing pretty much just as good as them for a month now and have really great talent as well. One of those teams could be in the Eastern Conference Finals. One of those teams could really threaten Boston. Celtics are still kind of the team to beat, but the door is open in the East, and in the West, the bar is Denver.

You know Denver is going to be good in the playoffs. They've got Jokic. They've got the best player on the planet. Their starting five is as good and balanced as it gets. I think the Clippers are a legit threat to them with all the caveats that come with the Clippers. They've got to be healthy. James Harden has got to rise up.

He's got to be the third best player on this team, but he's got to be there in the playoffs for them. That said, you watch them play. I'm out here in L.A. I see them a lot. I've got the scars from picking them too many times, but man, it feels like they could be in that mix. They strike me as the team that's the biggest threat to Denver in the playoffs. You didn't mention the Phoenix Suns.

We certainly know it's, I don't want to say surprising. Bradley Beal is playing with Devin Booker, with Kevin Durant. Do you think that they can be right there in that mix, or is there still some depth that needs to get worked out, which we might see on Thursday?

We could. They're looking for depth. They're looking for defense. The problem is that, like a few teams like the Bucks, they just so, they wasted, they used so much draft capital to get their stars.

They just don't have that much to trade. They're very good. I think they can win a series. I'm not sure they can win two. I'm not sure that their defense depth is just going to be good enough when really put to the test. And that said, there are times you watch them and think, man, that offense. Who's going to stop them when they're really rolling? And their numbers when they're big three are on the floor are fantastic.

I just, I'm not sure that they get there. When you get to that second round, it's a higher level. You're down to the eight best teams, the four in each conference.

That's a really high level of basketball. And that's where that defense, I just, I've got a feeling it comes back to bite them. I'm just not sold that they can, that the offense can power them through that.

No, I'll tell you this, Kurt. It's nice to watch a league right now. And an injury is unfortunately always a factor, but there is so much parity. It's very difficult to take a look at one team and just say, hey, they are the favorites above and beyond to go ahead and win a championship.

I think it's good for basketball. I think it's good for the fans. So we got to wait to see who comes out on top.

Exactly. I don't, there is no, there's no 2017-2018 warriors out there, are there? Like this is, there's, there's, there's a few teams. I mean, like I said, Denver's the bar. Whoever wins, even if you're talking about Boston, like Denver's the bar. You got to be better than Denver in the playoffs. But how many teams do we think could really actually, I think there's a number of teams that could do that.

Yeah, well, we'll, we'll see. We're going to get past this trade deadline. We're going to get through Indianapolis. We're going to finish up with March Madness and then be on our way to the postseason.

Hey, Kurt, I want to thank you for taking the time to hop on, man. You looking forward to Indianapolis? You know, it's not a place I've spent a lot of time, so I think it'll be fun. It's a fun venue and, man, you know what?

Is it just me? Like I enjoy All-Star Saturday way more than Sunday. So like the three-point contest and the ANSQ Curry shootout and the dunk contest, that's more fun to me than the game itself. Like, man, that's what I'm looking forward to. Tell them to shoot from the same three-point line, okay, between UNESCO and— I know she wants to. Somebody told me she wants to. I know originally she wasn't going to, but I don't know if that's James.

Oh, we're going to find out. It's going to be an interesting spectacle. I heard that Victor Winbenyama is going to participate in skills, so— Yeah, he's supposed to be out there, yeah. Yeah, we'll see what happens. And maybe, I don't know, maybe we'll get an interesting dunk contest, but I've stopped holding my breath on that for about, I don't know, almost 20 years now.

Two years in a row it feels like I'm asking too much, but let's hope. Look, I mean, hey, if we're bringing in guys from the G League, then they can bring in one of these sprite dunkers, you know, just bring the guy in from the sprite— You know what? I've been saying for years that there's no reason this should be the exclusive domain of NBA guys. I know there's reports tonight that Jalen Brown might want to do it.

I think McClung's doing it again. But why not, man? Like, I want to be entertained. If that means you bring in some professional dunkers, let's see what they're doing. Yeah, well, we know the NBA wants to highlight its own stars.

Hey, Kirk, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Where can people follow you and your work with NBC Sports? Yeah, if you head to NBCSports.com and we've got a trade deadline tracker up, all the latest news, rumors, and, you know, once we get some trades, they'll be up there too with quick breakdowns.

So, one-stop shopping for all your trade deadline news, man. Love it, love it, love it. Mr.

Pro Basketball Talk himself. Hey, Kirk, enjoy yourself out in Indianapolis. Look forward to talking to you down the line, okay?

Looking forward to it, man. A Peanut Butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns— That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

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