Are LeBron James & Lakers ready for NBA Finals run after Hachimura trade? | 3 Points w_ Chris Man

Welcome back to three points, the show where we discuss the three biggest topics in the NBA. Joining me this week, the Washington Post, Ben Goliver, and from Sports Illustrated, Rohan Nedkarni. Fellas, let's jump right in. So we have a trade two weeks before the NBA's trade deadline. The Lakers have made a move, sending Kendrick Nunn and three second round picks to Washington for Rui Hashimura. Ben, does Hashimura move the needle in Los Angeles? I'm not willing to go that far, but this was a trade worth doing. Kendrick Nunn's one of the worst players in the NBA. You're not going to miss him. And three second round picks, I mean, that's kind of like a tax write-off. You're not going to care about that. It's worth taking a shot on Rui Hashimura, but here's the problem. He's got the size, he's got the frame, he's got those broad shoulders, but he hasn't really carved an identity for himself in the NBA through four years. He's not a playmaker for his teammates. He's not a super creative scorer. And so that says, well, maybe he should be a three and D wing, right? But he can't shoot the three and he can't play defense. So what is he? I think the hope is that LeBron can somehow unlock his offense a little bit and they can use his size defensively. You saw it on Tuesday night against the Clippers. They got Patrick Beverly guarding Kawhi Leonard. Good luck. I mean, they're so small, the rest of the Lakers, that they're really going to be able to use his help. But his size, it will really help. But to me, I don't see him as a major difference maker. The much bigger deal for them is getting Anthony Davis back healthy and hopefully keeping him healthy on the court for the rest of the season as they try to push into the play-in. Does Rui Hashimura move the needle by himself? Absolutely not. Can he help move the needle in the right direction going down the stretch of the season? Yes. This is a team that all the rotational help it can get. I think that's the biggest problem with the Lakers. They need warm bodies that can play NBA basketball. As Ben alluded to, Kendrick Nunn was not really helping them on either end of the floor. I'm a little nervous about Hashimura's fit. Ben outlined some of his problems. He also plays the same position as LeBron James. Is he going to play alongside James and Davis too much? I don't know. But this team needs help. As Ben mentioned, they had Pat Beverly guarding Kawhi. They need size. I think Hashimura obviously brings that. I think the better rotational players that get in there, the better chance they have to make the playoffs. This is the start of a move that can help move the needle, but Hashimura is not doing it by himself. I know two guys that are not buying Kendrick Nunn jerseys, and that's Ben Goliver and Ron Nadkarni. I agree with you. I think it is an upgrade. I think they didn't need any more help in the backcourt, not with Westbrook and Austin Reeves and Patrick Beverly and that collection of players finding a groove as far as rotations go. Hashimura will immediately give them some size at the small forward position, which they need in that frontcourt. The Lakers will be quick to tell you that while Hashimura's three-point numbers have cratered overall this season, he still is a 42% three-point shooter from the corners, where he's going to operate a lot from when LeBron's on the floor. He still is a low 40% three-point shooter in catch-and-shoot situations, which he will presumably have opportunities playing off of LeBron James as well. So the Lakers will tell you all of that. What I think is interesting about this deal, though, is I think that it does foreshadow at least one more move for the Lakers because right now they've got $34 million in cap space next summer. That assumes that they just let Hashimura walk. I don't think you trade three second-round picks if you're just going to let a guy walk away. I don't think you give up that kind of capital if you're just going to let a guy walk away. So if the Lakers are intent on resigning Hashimura, maybe that means they're a little bit more willing to attach Patrick Beverly and a conditional first-round pick, to attach Lonnie Walker and a conditional first-round pick in another deal, be it for Bojan Bogdanovic, maybe one of the guys in Utah, to try to get one more piece to this Lakers puzzle. All right, the Portland Trailblazers are in basketball purgatory as they approach the trade deadline. The Blazers are under 512 in the Western Conference standings. Reports this week have the Blazers operating as a buyer before the deadline, but it's unclear what, if any, move will push Portland deeper into the playoff field. Rohan, should the Blazers be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? They should be a little bit of both, Chris. The move I'm going to outline for Portland is they need to trade Jeremy Grants on an expiring contract. He's going to command a big extension. Do I think Portland should be the team that lines up to give him that extension, with big money already committed to Damian Lillard, big money committed to Anthony Simons? No, I don't think they should be handing out deals, but I think they can still retool this team around Damian Lillard. The reality is they don't want to move him. He is the franchise, and you have a rare superstar who is committed to staying through thick and thin. I think they should ride that out for as long as possible. Does that mean they should go ahead with this current build? Not necessarily. I would certainly look into what Jeremy Grant could get you. I think he could get you a rotation player or two back that's maybe a better fit around Damian Lillard. I don't think that they should hesitate to look into a trade for Anthony Simons, just to see if, I know he just recently signed a big deal, but, and he's a young player, but see what he can bring back in a trade that could help Damian Lillard now. So I guess that makes them a little bit more of a buyer than a seller. At the same time, they should be looking to move some of the pieces they do have to see how they can make a roster that better fits around their superstar. Look, I think their best case scenario is just stumbling into the tank. I don't actually think they should be buyers or sellers. I think they should look at their recent losing stretch here as a blessing in disguise. When you're looking at the past eras of Blazer basketball, they really had success when they had multiple first round picks kind of clumped together, I'm thinking Brandon Roy, I'm thinking LaMarcus Aldridge, and then later, I'm thinking Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. When you look to the future of the Blazers, of course, Lillard looms large, but this is going to eventually be a guy like Shady Sharpe's team, or maybe him and Anthony Simons are that next core. I think they need a really good first round pick, and I can't think of a better way to wipe out the memories of Sam Bowie and Greg Oden than getting Victor Wembanyama, right? I mean, talk about just a full body cleanse for everybody up in the Pacific Northwest. So I would say if you're going to pay Jeremy Grant, that's a separate decision. I'd be okay with them doing that because I think his fit is pretty good with Lillard, but I would allow this thing to kind of sputter out. I don't think they're big enough, physical enough, good enough on defense, and reliable enough in terms of guys like Nurkic in the middle to really make a push into the playoffs. I would allow it to kind of peter out, and then if you need to sit Lillard for the last couple of weeks of the season and jockey for better lottery positioning, that's how I'd handle things. Don't go and blow assets right now. Just try to get yourself that big glittery asset in the draft lottery come May. Yeah, I kind of lean more towards you, Ben, on this one. I don't think there's a deal out there that makes them a contender this year, even in a conference that appears to be as wide open as the West is. Whatever you trade Jeremy Grant for is probably not going to get something of immediate value back in return. I wouldn't touch Anthony Simons. He's young, he's gotten better every single year, and I think he has real star potential. I wouldn't deal him for most anything at this point in the Blazers' rebuild. Look, I've said this before, I think they screwed up in giving Damian Lillard this contract. They should have had a conversation with him last year and said, look, you're 31 years old, we're not really going anywhere, let's work together to find a deal that works, and operated more like a team like Utah or Oklahoma City, and tried to reap the benefits of all the draft picks they would get back in return for Damian Lillard. Right now they feel kind of rudderless to me, like a team without much direction. They want to be competitive with Lillard still on the roster, but they really have no pathway to be. They're once again a team that ranks in the top 10 in offense and the bottom third in defense. We've seen that that song before. They're also a team that can't point to major injuries as being the problem. Look, I think it's six of the top seven guys have played 35 minutes, 35 games this year, six of the top seven minutes players have played 35 games this year. They've been largely healthy for the most part, so it's not like you can say an injury derailed us. They just kind of are what they are. I just think they're in a position right now where there's nothing that's really going to help them this season, and as Ben said, the most likely chance to compete at a high level is probably dropping all the way down the standings and giving yourself a chance to land a Victor Wembenyama. All right, all-star ballots are in. The media ballots were due last weekend for this year's all-star starters in Salt Lake City. There are some obvious choices out there. LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Donovan Mitchell, but there were some tougher calls. Ben, what was the toughest call for you on the all-star ballot? Well, I think a lot of people would look at that East front court where you had four awesome candidates, Kevin Durant, Joel Labide, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jason Tatum, and say, hey, how do you even pick three from that group? They're like the leading scorers on the four best teams in the Eastern Conference, right? To me, I actually thought it was the West backcourt because you had an interesting choice between Steph Curry, Jon Moran, and Luka Doncic. And with my votes this year, because in the Western Conference, it's been such a mess. I mean, murky standings, everybody's right around 500. I really wanted to prioritize winning this year. And so I actually, I think most people would go Steph and Luka. I think that's really where the fans went, but I wanted to make sure to save a starting spot for Jon Moran. That guy's the heart and soul of the Grizzlies team. They've been one of the very few consistent winners in the conference. Obviously, their recent 11-game winning streak kind of underscored that. They're young, they're hungry. I feel like they're the Generation Z team that everybody loves to hate. Even Shannon Sharp lately is getting on their back. To me, it all revolves around Jon. He's an unbelievable scorer, playmaker. He's got defensive highlights every once in a while. But more than anything, he's created an awesome culture there in small market Memphis. I contrast that a little bit with Luka, where it's got to be all about him. He's got the incredible accumulation of stats, but there's a lot of pouting, whining to the officials, not a lot of defensive effort, and their team defense has been terrible. I think Luka bears some responsibility for the Mavericks weaknesses, and that's why I wound up having him not in my starting lineup, even though he's arguably got the best stats in the entire league. Wow. I was going to swerve here and talk about that east frontcourt, but now that Ben has mentioned not having Luka as one of his all-star starters, I have to echo, because he hasn't even brought up somebody who I think has also made a starting case, and that's Shea Gilgis-Alexander. To me, it was a competition between Joss, Steph Curry, and Shea as to who's going to start next to Luka Doncic. I think in any other non-Yokic season, Luka would probably be running away with MVP, despite kind of the iffy team success. He's been fantastic. I think he's a lock. I don't know how Ben kept him out. If you look at Steph and Curry's stats, I know the team has not been as great this season. Steph is very close to putting up similar numbers to his unanimous MVP season. If you look at those seasons side by side, I don't know how you keep him out of the all-star game. I did my picks for Sports Illustrated, and I had Luka and Steph in there. But Shea, I mean, he's averaging nearly 31 points a night. He's probably going to win most improved player. He's been fantastic. Ben mentioned Joss, still one of the most dominant paint players in the NBA, even though he's a tiny human being, relatively. I'm just truly floored right now that Luka Doncic is not in Ben's starting five, but it does speak to just how crowded the West Backcourt is and how difficult it is. I mean, we haven't talked about guys like Devin Booker. Obviously, he's missed a lot of games. I once heard the best ability is availability, so I don't know if that keeps Booker out, but there are a ton of guys deserving for the West Backcourt, and just to not have Luka, it shows how insane that field is. Toughest call for me was in the Western Conference, but it was in the Western Conference frontcourt. The two obvious choices are LeBron and Jokic. They'll make it going away, but that third spot, that was up for debate in my mind. I mean, if Zion Williamson had been able to stay healthy for the entirety of the first half of the season, he would have been a lock, putting up outstanding numbers. The Pelicans at one point were atop the Western Conference standings, but he has missed just enough time for me to believe it matters, and because of that, I put DeMonta Sabonis in that starting lineup. Now, Sabonis is only averaging like 18, 19 points per game, but his assist numbers are terrific, and at some point, don't we have to reward somebody from the Sacramento Kings? The Sacramento Kings right now are the third best team in the Western Conference. Yes, their defense is still mediocre at best, but their offense is great. De'Aaron Fox has been great. All the shooters that that front office put around these guys have been great, and yes, DeMonta Sabonis has been great. People killed the Kings for making that deal involving Tyrese Halliburton. It's worked out great for Indiana, don't get me wrong, but it has worked out just as well for Sacramento, because Sabonis has been the head of the snake. He's been rebounding well. He's been operating as a facilitator from the elbow. That guy deserves that third all-star spot.