Big time trades, top basketball movies for when there's no basketball, and what the Mavs should do to help Luka.
In today's episode, Michael and Rohan break down the Lauri Markkanen three-team trade before they open up the mailbag to rank their all-time favorite basketball-related movies, explain why the Mavericks should (or shouldn't?) be urgent building around Luka Doncic, and so much more! Send your questions in to OpenFloorMail@gmail.com.
The following transcript is an excerpt from the Open Floor podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Michael Pina: Yeah. OK, so let's move on and talk about Larry Nance Jr. for a second, because as you said, I think that Portland is the most relevant basketball team in this trade and potentially the best team. And they have the Damian Lillard situation—the conundrum there. And they needed to upgrade on the defensive end particularly, Larry Nance Jr. is a very good defender. They've always needed someone like Draymond Green, I thought there who would have always just been a tremendous fit. Larry Nance Jr. is not as good as Draymond Green is, but he's just a very similar type of player. He can move the ball from side to side, he can shoot a little bit, he can defend multiple positions. He has bounce and athleticism that Draymond has never had frankly. So like, does this move the needle in Portland at all for you? Like, I know we're very excited about Larry Nance Jr., but does it matter?
Rohan Nadkarni: No, and this is nothing about Larry Nance Jr., who as you outlined, is a very good player and I think is flown largely under the radar in Cleveland. How impactful he can be. I think he is in a much better role. I think this is a much better role for him. Having said all that, this kind of reminds me of the trades the Cavs would make during LeBron's second stint. You know, David Griffin makes some big move every year and it would be like, oh, they just acquired the perfect type of player. This is exactly what they needed. And it was always just they're going to go as far as LeBron. So it doesn't matter so much what kind of moves they make on the margins. Ultimately, I just think the Blazers, a Larry Nance trade is not going to solve the Damian Lillard issue for them. I think they needed a bigger roster overall than what they underwent this summer. Again, it's a lot easier said than done. It's like there were a ton of moves out there. It's not like they had a ton of space, etc etc. I just don't think this is the move that's going to convince Dame to stay or dramatically change the seam ceiling so much that now he's more inclined to stay.
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