The Joe Tsai of the lunchroom?

So, let's talk a little hoops with Nada the Scribe, Kanada Edwards, CBSSports.com. Alright, my friend, how are you? I'm good. I thought we were here to talk about lunch monitoring and everything, like the dos and don'ts. Well, the dos are just, just make sure they're quiet.

They don't need to do anything. So, they were supposed to be reading, but they were really playing online chess, which, frankly, I think is educational, so I'm good with it. So, I don't really care, as long as they were, you know, not causing a ruckus. I don't need to be the vice principal from Breakfast Club, but as long as they were not causing a ruckus, I was good with it.

So, basically, you were the Joe Tsai of the lunch room. That's what you're telling me. Well done to bring it back to Kyrie Irving. I've already talked to J.

Will, which we're going to present in about an hour about this. But I am curious, your thoughts, and let's start right in with Kyrie Irving, and then we'll get to LeBron James. To me, Kyrie always wanted to stay with Brooklyn, but Brooklyn didn't want Kyrie to stay with Brooklyn, and that's why Kyrie is with the Dallas Mavericks.

I agree with you. I just want to know how done they were, because they didn't have to trade him. They could have done the same thing they did with Kevin Durant and been like, yo, I know you think you're in charge, but you're not in charge. Because I think it was ESPN's Bobby Marks that pointed this out. He was like, yo, if Kyrie doesn't play 30 days, he basically has to stay another year.

This free agent year doesn't count. So, I would have called his bluff if this was really about contending and everything else like that. I think we're headed for a situation where they're probably going to ask Kevin Durant, yo, do you want out? Because we can maximize this.

We can maximize all the assets we're going to get back. We treat this like a fire sale, and we may have to send, I won't even call it pennies on the dollar for Ben Simmons at this point. It might be Canadian pennies on the dollar because of the lower exchange rate.

I'm not trying to offend our brothers and sisters from the north, but we got to be honest with ourselves on this. Well, he's from Down Under, so they'd be Australian dollars. But I think the exchange rate is better.

That's the only problem. That's the thing we're talking about. Essentially, this Brooklyn Nets team is one of the more fascinating teams because they can go any which way. And that's before we get into the fact that Dallas actually gave up something semi-real for Kyrie Irving, which I personally don't understand. That's the other part because you have Dorian Finney Smith, who might be a top 10 wing defender in the NBA. Then you have Spencer Dinwiddie, who is, I would call him the cryptocurrency version of Kyrie Irving. He's bankrupt? Well, again, remember, we're also talking about a guy who had his contract, like stated in his contract, he wanted to be paid in crypto.

Yes, that's Spencer Dinwiddie. So you got all that, plus you got an actual unprotected 2029 pick, all of this stuff. So you have all of the all of these things. And at the same time, Kevin Durant, if he decides to want to come back, is going to have guys that can defend. And then the problem is the workload on Kevin Durant when he gets back is going to be insane. And that's why if the Brooklyn Nets decide, yo, you know what, we want to add one more piece, they still can do that and be a factor in. So it gets me to this, like, did the Nets put themselves in position to get better? It's so hard to do that when you trade away the talent that Kyrie Irving is. But did they put themselves in a position to get better? You see what Cam Thomas has done the last couple of games. I mean, just 30 something in what, the third quarter, right?

He is just he's been amazing. Nick Claxton, they've got pieces there. If you flip that first unprotected 2029 first and maybe bring in another piece. I don't know if Ben Simmons comes back and gives you some defense off the bench or even as a starter.

I don't know. Maybe the Nets can slot in as the I mean, they're fifth in the east right now. Maybe they can kind of hang right there and just be a problem. And because you have Kevin Durant, you might be able to make some noise. But ultimately, they're not as good as Boston or probably even Philadelphia. I'm not you still believe in Philadelphia. Wow. I don't I don't think I could have just knee jerk, said Philadelphia. You know, there's certain.

I was about to say, how are you going to ignore Giannis when he's been doing what he's doing? Like the two best teams in here. Yeah, they are.

I would I would point this out, though. Brooklyn, if they do this right, is going to be the team you don't want to see in the second round because in a four or five matchup, I kind of like them. I like them against Miami, depending on the piece. I kind of like them against Philly, depending on the piece, because if we're going to talk about cryptocurrency and stuff, that may not actually be real. Philly might be it. So I do see Brooklyn being a problem. It's just can you get an OG and an OB?

Can you get something of value for the twenty twenty nine? And maybe you take maybe you give an extra pick to get rid of the Ben Simmons contract and go and make it go away. Fully appease Kevin Durant. But either way, the Brooklyn Nets have become the most interesting team in this deadline.

And that was before. And that's after we're not sure what Golden State the Golden State Warriors are going to do. And by the way, I'm just going to raise my hand and say I was right about Ben Simmons all along. I never wanted him. I never liked him. Ben Simmons is a waste.

All right. To to the Kyrie, not going to the Los Angeles Lakers. LeBron wanted to play with him. And it really speaks to just how good Kyrie's talent is. Does this Kyrie make the Mavericks a legit threat in the West? The West looks soft at the top.

How can you be soft at the top in a conference here? Here's my question for anyone that wants to believe in in the Dallas Mavericks. If Kyrie could not be on his best behavior with the Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant and James Harden at one point. Right.

What makes you think that Luka Doncic, Nico Harrison, who is the president of basketball, opts for the Dallas Mavericks and Jason Kidd, what makes you think this is going to work? Because he can't even behave for his own money. This dude had four straight weeks of good behavior.

And he thought that he earned himself a 200 million dollars max extension. Yeah. Come on, guys. I don't believe in them. I don't believe them.

I don't even get. Even if you get a Denver, which again, Denver is doing business and we're not really talking about them nearly enough. I don't even trust them against Memphis and Memphis is looking like Gen Z, Lob City at this point. Right.

Like at some point, I just don't trust them. And now that you've got nobody to defend and your best three players. Luka, Kyrie and Christian Wood are all one way guys. And none of those ways are defense is going to be a very, very quick, very, very painful lesson in how not to build around your superstar Kyrie Irving. I said this a few minutes ago. Kyrie Irving is a max contract talent, but a mid-level contract risk. How accurate is that?

I would call him the Leeds United of superstars. Wow. That is terrible. Does that mean the Jason Kidd's getting sacked? Shout out to Jesse Marsh, man.

I hope he's all right. Oh, Jesse Marsh will be coaching Team USA in like six months. We all know that's coming. Yeah. So there's that.

I agree. But more importantly, I don't think Jason Kidd gets fired yet. But would it really surprise you if Kyrie says it goes to the Mavericks and like, what about an extension and the most they ask for is like the most they give him is like, OK, we can do one in a possible one and one for good behavior. Right. That like in he gets that right before the playoffs and he says, nah, I'm out.

I'm going to go seek my max and call it a day. Like, would it surprise anybody if that happened? Because it wouldn't surprise me.

I don't trust them. And no one no one should honestly put anything anything close to any sort of money on them to go anywhere in the playoffs. Quite honestly, I wouldn't give him a max contract because he is unreliable. And that is the biggest thing about Kyrie. I think he's a top 10 all time talent in the NBA. But he is what he's been in the league 12 years.

This is year 12. So in his previous 11 seasons, he's played at least 70 games, just three times, at least 60 games, just five times, not even half the time. He's just not available. I can't max that guy out, even with, you know, allowing for load management, which we're talking a lot about that these days, but I just he's not available.

So I wouldn't I wouldn't max him out. LeBron's upset because he didn't get Kyrie. What would you do if you were the Lakers? I'd do what they did, because when you start seeing what the Nets were wanting, they were wanting Max Christie. They were wanting Austin Reeves. They were wanting 27, 20, 29, though, like Kyrie Irving is not solid enough of a risk, like from just a guarantee. He's not solid enough from a guarantee standpoint to basically say, you know what?

We're not going to draft for the rest of the decade. This is the smell of the leftover tuna fish sandwich you left in your lunchbox over the weekend in a wimpy trash bag. And this is the smell of that same sandwich in a hefty ultra strong trash bag.

Ah, smell the difference. Hefty ultra strong has arm and hammer with continuous odor control. So no matter what's inside your trash. Hmm. You can stay one step ahead of stinky.

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We don't control one of those until 2030. And I kind of don't blame the Laker management. Like I understand that this team needs help, that this team could be something if you had another guy. But the problem is they leverage themselves out so badly with the Anthony Davis trade. And you can make a case that, yo, that was the right thing to do.

They won a championship. But this is the other side of it. Now you've got to make stuff work in the margins. And that's where you can blame the Lakers.

They just don't know how to mind the margins well enough at all at any given point. Canada Edwards at not to describe CBS Sports dot com ion college basketball podcast. All right. So true or false, the the Lakers will sign Kyrie Irving as a free agent in the off season till like a three year thirty five ish million dollar annual deal. False because I don't think Kyrie's ego will allow him to take a mid-level deal. Well, I mean, what if nobody offers the max and I don't think anybody. Well, yeah, but I don't think it was offering the max. But I also think for what he's making thirty five annual and the thirty five per not thirty five total over three thirty five annual. Oh, although that might be a max. I have no idea what the max that's that's entirely close to close to one.

Yeah, then it won't be. I thought you I thought you were talking about three years at the mid level. That's where I might actually be accurate. That might actually be accurate.

That's the thing. Like, I think no one's going to trust him for more than two years. He's going to maybe do a whole bunch.

Like, I can see him doing a whole bunch of one and ones, which is one year in team option for the second. Sure. I can see that. Or player up. I can't.

Yeah, I don't. He ain't get he ain't get in control of his own career for luck for any point in the next five years. But a team will do it.

A team will do it for one year at at 12 million where they can basically make him pay for play for his his contract. I do that. I admit it.

I would. I'm not sure he will. I think there's a I think there's a ceiling to the one on ones, too. I think.

No, I'm sorry. Not a ceiling. I think there's a floor to the one on ones. I think he's got to make at least 20, 25 and even then start looking at the teams that have that kind of space. I'm not sure the Lakers even have that right now, because remember that Rui Hachimura trade basically nuked a decent portion of that cap space. And if you're going to nuke it for Rui Hachimura and send off a whole bunch of second round picks that you kind of really didn't have in the first place. I mean, it's one of those things like I think the die is cast. I think the die was cast at that Hachimura trade. And if you're LeBron, I understand being frustrated.

But at this point, he can't do anything about this until the summer where he may or may not ask for a trade. We shall see. Kenada Edwards at not to describe CBS Sports dot com. I am college basketball podcast. Tell Gary and Matt I said hi and I'll talk to you and maybe them.

I don't know. Haven't spoken to them in a while. I'll talk to you very soon.

We'll talk to you guys in March. This is the smell of the leftover tuna fish sandwich you left in your lunch box over the weekend in a wimpy trash bag. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. And this is the smell of that same sandwich in a hefty ultra strong trash bag. Smell the difference? Hefty ultra strong has arm and hammer with continuous odor control. So no matter what's inside your trash, you can stay one step ahead of stinky. And for bigger jobs, try the superior strength of hefty large black bags.