These Teams Have NO Incentive to Win

All right, let's talk about another blockbuster deal that got done this week.

Uh, and that is the Utah Jazz and Jaren Jackson Jr .

uniting.

Uh, Memphis trading Jarren Jackson Jr.

for three first-round picks .

Uh, decent hall for the Grizzlies, uh, two of those picks, I think in 2027.

People aren't that enthusiastic about the draft, but they get another pick a little bit further down the line.

Jaren Jackson, uh, he is one of the first.

Proactive, you know, get a player, positive trades the Utah Jazz have made in recent history.

They've been rebuilding for multiple years, just like the Wizards, but they go out and get Jaren Jackson Junior.

Now, I like this trade.

I don't necessarily love this trade.

I'll tell you why I like it.

I like it because they're getting a guy who they never could have gotten a free agency.

Jaren Jackson.

Just about to begin the first year of a four-year contract.

He's under contract until at least 2029 player option on the back end of that.

Same situation with Larry Markinen, locked in until 2029.

So you've got two cornerstone all-star caliber players locked in.

Konte George is on a rookie contract.

They can extend him.

He's locked in.

So you got point guard, two forward spots locked in.

Um, I'm a little concerned about the fit.

I don't think that Jackson and, and Markinen are great offensive fits, uh, but neither one of them is a center.

And I'm not really here for the, let's put Larry Markinen back at small forward argument.

Like I think that's.

That's, I, I'm not seeing that as feasible.

The other thing is Walker Kessler.

Walker Kessler is gonna have a market this summer.

Like, even though he only played 5 games this year, the year before that, he was a double-double machine who led the NBA in offensive rebounds.

There are many teams out there that are gonna be kicking the tires.

a run at him.

Who made a big run at him?

Uh, was it Indiana before they did the Zubat deal.

Um, someone is going to put a big offer on the table if the Jazz don't.

Before, uh, free agencies.

You're probably gonna have to pay like Walker Kessler 20 to $25 million per year.

So now you're talking about a front court, which is all-star-ish, making 115 $120 million.

95 million dollars combined between Markin and, and Jack.

It's a lot of money.

And then Konte George is gonna be owed a lot of money.

So now, like, your books are getting tied up with some really good players.

But you still don't have that one great player.

Maybe it's Ace Bailey, he turns into that guy.

Maybe you keep that high draft pick, he turns into that guy, but I don't love the fit in that front court because Jackson we've seen cannot be a center.

Larry Martin, I don't believe can be a small forward.

So now you're going jumbo lineup with Walker Kessler in the middle.

I understand you can stagger.

All these guys, the coaching staff knows what they're doing.

But let's see the jumbo.

You wanna see the jumbo lineup.

I mean, we're trending back, we're trending back towards big, right?

It's double big now across the league, so hell, triple big.

Let's try it out.

I, I don't, I mean, I, I like the deal.

I would have done the deal if I was Utah.

I'm not overwhelmed by how the fit works.

I'm also not.

Uh, so sure about the timelines of all these guys because you've got Jackson at age 26, Markin at age 28, prime years right now.

Meanwhile, Kante George is 21, 22, Ace Bailey is 19, whoever they draft is gonna be 19 or 20.

Kessler's kind of in the middle at 24.

It's a little bit of a two-timeline thing going on, kind of, kinda.

When did team building get to this?

So many teams have passed champion, champion two timelines is 12 to 15 years apart, right?

Two timelines-ish.

A bunch of guys under 26, 27 is not two timelines.

We call that a young team.

It's a young team, but they are on different stages of their respective careers, these guys, of course you want that.

You want, you, you don't want as long as.

Sex at some point as long as it like it all comes you want guys who are more veteran and leaders, and by the way, I don't mean 32 or 34, I mean 26 or 27.

You want guys who are learning from them and are younger and have all the things younger guys have.

I don't, I don't see a two timeline problem at all.

I, I think the Jazz bought themselves some optionality.

Maybe they, maybe Walker Kessler does go somewhere else, right?

Maybe, maybe the three bigs doesn't work and they, they trade him for someone.

I mean, maybe they turn him into something else.

Maybe there's, there's all kinds of options they have now.

They weren't going to get a Jaren Jackson Jr.

on the free agency market.

Now they have him.

They have him, as you point out, for the next 4 years.

Larry Markinen has been languishing on that team that has been trying to not win for years now.

It's been just so confusing.

That's why people keep saying, oh, it'd be a good fit here.

It'd be a good fit here because why are you keeping this guy who's so valuable?

When you're not trying to win.

And now it looks like just kind of like we're talking about the Wizards, they're ready to be competitive next year.

I'm thrilled for Larry Markinen, who gets to experience that with this team.

And let's, let's see what they get to do.

I, I, I think it was a good move for them.

It gives them more optionality going forward.

They are a team that cannot get guys on the open market the way some of these other teams can.

Let's see.

I think it's great.

And by the way, I'd like to talk about the Memphis of it all because Memphis decided clearly we're going full rebuild, right?

The Desmond Bain thing was a little bit of a hedge.

This was, here we go.

I think they got great return for Jaren Jackson, as they should have, by the way, but it was a smart deal.

They, they got what they needed.

It changes what they will give away or what they need for John Morant going into, and we'll get to that in a minute, but going into this trade season, we were talking about John Morant and Memphis looking for picks for him, right?

Looking for good return for him.

Nobody was interested.

Here's how you know no one was interested.

John Morant, not in another uniform.

Here's how you know no one was interested even once the return they needed shrank because after the Jarret Jackson deal, they didn't even need a pick haul.

They basically just needed someone to take him, right?

And still, John Morant is not in.

Another new uniform.

Uh, Brian Winhorst got on TV and said he's a negative trade asset that other teams were saying you've got to attach a pick to him.

You have said nobody wants him.

There's, there's plenty of other people out there saying, I believe a champs came out and said that no one made an, a serious offer.

No one made, as far as I know, any real offer.

Like, I, I, I agree with Windhurst.

I don't know if you needed to attach a draft pick, but you weren't getting anything more than a matching contract back in return.

And even Memphis, which I don't know, they kind of have a bit of an issue now with job because I know he's injured at the moment.

Do you consider him done for the season?

Do you revisit this at the end of the year?

I, I, I mean, they're kind of in a bit of a predicament, but there was nothing.

There was nothing out there for him, like no market whatsoever.

So if you were counting on John Morant for your rebuild, you were, it was a mistake.

And that's basically what they acknowledged here.

They were like, OK.

I guess Jaren Jackson Junior is what's gonna, gonna fuel our rebuild, and that's what they're doing.

What do you think of what is going to be?

A historic tanking stretch for the next couple of months because you've got the Washington Wizards who have no incentive to win.

The Utah Jazz have no incentive to win.

The Dallas Mavericks now have no incentive to win.

The Milwaukee Bucks, if Giannis is out, have no incentive to win.

In fact, these guys are incentivized, in the case of a couple of them, Washington, Utah, to lose.

Um, this is going to be something that is gonna be front and center, not for a couple of weeks, but for a couple of months.

We're in early February here.

This isn't a team or two teams tanking down the stretch to, you know, what Dallas did to get inside that top 10 the last couple of games.

This is going to be a biblically bad tanking season.

Like, what do you think the NBA's reaction to this is going to be?

You just said the right word though, incentivized.

They're incentivized to do this.

I don't think the NBA gets to complain about teams operating within the rules they have set up.

And I don't mean the front office.

I mean the owners, right?

The owners were the ones, you know, the ownership among the NBA while being progressive, and I really applaud that, has been so reactive ever since Kevin Durant signed with Golden State.

Kevin Durant signs with Golden State.

Let's make sure that never happens again.

We're gonna create a supermax.

That brought its own problems to teams who were on the suddenly on the hook for these gigantic contracts that didn't pay off.

Uh, this doesn't work.

Let's, let's, you know, try to create the, the most recent one.

Basically a hard cap at the second apron, and let's do this, and let's make this so restrictive that you'd have to do this to do this.

You are not giving teams enough avenues to get better.

You're just not.

Teams no longer have as many avenues to get better.

And especially teams in markets that aren't as strong appeal for free agents.

So if you're not giving them avenues to get better, if they really can't get better through free agency, this is it.

They are incentivized in your word to do this.

And until the NBA changes the incentives, until the NBA opens up more.

Paths for teams to get better.

This is what you're gonna get because teams want to get better.

Teams are under pressure to get better.

Owners want them to get better.

This is, this is a classic case.

This is where I say, if ownership at the NBA level wants to.

Get players to play games, especially major TV games, and, and stop resting.

You know how to do it.

Walk down the hall to your general manager and say, no one's resting anymore.

That's how they could do it, but they don't want to do that because they want their players to rest.

They want their guys to be fresh for the playoffs.

If you don't want teams to tank, don't create rules that require teams to tank to get better.

Yeah, I, I, I don't, I, I don't, the, the, the pearl clutching over this of, oh God, what are the next few months gonna be like historic tanking.

Oh, OK, then change, then, then take away some of these restrictive rules and the overreactions we've seen.

I think the most interesting team in this stretch, I think, is gonna be Utah.

Um, if you're Washington, AD is constantly hurt.

Trae Young is, has been hurt twice this year, fine.

Keeping Giannis out I might do it anyway just because two calf injuries would terrify me.

He must have played the All-Star game according to lots of reporting.

That is not a good idea, um, Utah.

I'm curious how creative they get.

Larry Markinen, uh, Thursday night against Atlanta played 23 minutes.

Hmm, 23 minutes in that game.

He was 6 for 12 from the floor, 3 for 5 from 3 .

This is after he played 27 minutes and they beat Indiana in a, nobody wants to win that game bowl.

Uh, Indiana team incentivized to, to lose.

Um.

They're, they're gonna be fascinating.

Like Jaren Jackson Junior is also, also I was gonna say he's that, that's more of the question for me.

Washington, I think, is gonna be fine because you've got, you've traded for guys with injuries.

You're playing that you've traded them for next year, clearly .

Um, I, I don't know how you say to Jaren Jackson Junior, Hi, healthy guy, healthy guy who's already got his contract, right, who's already got his contract.

So it's not like Larry Markinden where you can be like, we'll reward you.

Um, you know, these guys, this is some major parts of their career.

These are stats that they want to get.

These are, these are, they want to go out and play basketball.

That's why they're there.

Um, Giannis clearly wants to go out and play basketball.

I, I think that's gonna be the interesting part to watch, the fact that so many teams are going to be basically sanctioned tanking.

You don't like it.

Don't make this the only path to get better.

Yeah, uh, Bryce Sensibaugh played more minutes Thursday night than Larry Markinton.

I mean, Larry Markinton, 23 minutes, 18.

Everybody knows he's a better player was he in foul trouble?

No, no, it wasn't in foul trouble, just 2 fouls, 5 rebounds, 1 assist.

Did he have turnover problems?

No, just 1 turnover in that game.

That's.

Larry Markinen played the least minutes of anybody in what was an already uh Uh, reduced rotation.

Kyle Filippowski played 28.

Cody Williams, whoever that is, played 38.

Isaiah Collier, 48 minutes in this game, Ace Bailey, 40 minutes.

Uh, SV, I forgot how to pronounce his last name, he played 23 minutes.

Uh, they, they've got some guys, they're just playing, playing this.

This is gonna be something to watch down the stretch, like how you like, does Utah send out like, Larry Markinen for like token appearances.

Jaren Jackson token appearances, and then down the stretch they just bench these guys and see , see what happens.

It's a long season, man.

It's a long season.

We're just a little over halfway through.

There's, are we, I feel like, I feel like the All-Star game is always the 2/3.

We're 52 games through, I guess.

So about almost 2/3, I guess, in that range, but still a long way to go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean a big chunk of the season.

A third is a lot.

Third plus is a lot.

It's a lot.