Brian Windhorst and a team of ESPN's Insiders sort out life and the news from in and around the NBA world, including the Dallas Mavericks' Kyrie Irving experiment, the Denver Nuggets' win-now plans and what it's like to be in an NBA front office during the trade deadline.
There are little fires everywhere in the NBA at the moment. And there's a locomotive that's quietly gaining steam.
Last Thursday, the Milwaukee Bucks put on a performance that should've been labeled as a warning shot toward the rest of the league.
They put a vice grip on Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the recently hot LA Clippers in holding them scoreless for the last four minutes of a game they won by a point after being down by as many as 21. Leonard and George combined to miss all eight shot attempts down the stretch.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was at the peak of his powers that night, scoring 54 points with 19 rebounds.
Then Saturday, as the Bucks won their seventh consecutive game when Antetokounmpo assembled a triple-double, Khris Middleton looked like himself for the first time this injury-plagued season with 24 points.
Oh and by the way, guard Jrue Holiday was just voted in by the league's coaches as an All-Star. He and defensive ace Brook Lopez are arguably having their best seasons in Milwaukee.
The recent winning streak -- in which the Bucks are mowing through teams by outscoring them by a colossal 10 points per 100 possessions -- has moved Milwaukee to the heels of the Boston Celtics for the East's best record.
Antetokounmpo, a strong candidate to win his third MVP award, has increased his basket attacks. Nearly half of his attempts this season are coming within three feet of the rim, a nearly 10% jump from last year as he's settled for fewer jump shots.
He's averaging a career-high 13.3 free throws per game and the only recourse is to foul him because he's shooting a near career-worst 64% at the line. But he's made it clear, he has no intention of altering his strategy regardless of what his percentages might be. That is a rough strategy to combat.
"At the end of the day, I'd rather miss four in a row ... but at least I know I missed four in a row," Antetokounmpo said after going 10-of-15 against the Clippers. "I'm going to go the next day and try to work extremely hard at it and hope for the best the next time, but I try not to be scared of the moment. And I just trust my work and I hope most of the time, the outcome is going to be good."
After making deadline deals in recent years for players such as Serge Ibaka, Torrey Craig, Nikola Mirotic and P.J. Tucker, the Bucks are active again. They've been in talks trying to acquire Jae Crowder from the Phoenix Suns for months, among other targets.
But the Bucks don't need to make a deal. They are powerful enough when Middleton is healthy to beat any team in a seven-game series. And that message is being reinforced in a major way right now.
Covering the one team that just acquired a new point guard, NBA reporter Tim MacMahon has more on the Mavericks' latest move:
Dallas' risk in trading for Irving
Buckle up. The Mavericks are about to hit the gas on what might be the riskiest test drive in NBA history.
The Mavericks pushed most of their limited trade chips to the middle of the table when they traded for Irving, sending guard Spencer Dinwiddie, forward Dorian Finney-Smith, a (gulp) unprotected 2029 first-round pick and a couple of second-rounders to the Brooklyn Nets. The perennial All-Star guard who has produced offensive brilliance and chaos at his previous three NBA stops.
Luka Doncic had made it quite clear that he wanted a massive talent upgrade, sooner than later. The search for a co-star for the Mavs' MVP candidate had long been an organizational priority. So Dallas pounced when the opportunity presented itself after Irving, again and for the last time, requested a trade from the Nets, who managed to win one playoff series since Irving and superstar pal Kevin Durant decided to go to Brooklyn together in 2019 free agency.
The Mavs, for now, feature arguably the league's most lethal offensive duo.
How long will Irving make Dallas his home? That's to be determined, with no guarantee that it lasts longer than the rest of this season, as any extension talks are expected to wait until the summer.
That's a significant part of the risk the Mavs took with this trade. It's also a little bit of protection for them.
It'd be far from ideal, considering what the Mavs just gave up, but Dallas does have a fallback plan if Irving ends up being an expensive rental. The Mavs, with some financial maneuvering, could create a maximum-salary slot to use in free agency (Middleton? Fred VanVleet? James Harden?) or to add assets in the trade market. Irving's Bird rights could also have significant value if he opted to cooperate with Dallas in a sign-and-trade scenario.
Some of that financial maneuvering could happen before Thursday's trade deadline. The Mavs have been shopping shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who is owed $34 million over the two remaining years on his contract, since last season, sources told ESPN. That is expected to continue leading up to the deadline, as second-year general manager Nico Harrison hopes to upgrade a 24th-ranked defense that took a significant hit with Finney-Smith's departure.
"I'm just trying to stay positive, stay in the moment as much as I can, do whatever I can to help the team that I'm on right now -- and hopefully moving forward," Hardaway told ESPN after Monday's shootaround in Utah.
And that fallback plan isn't exactly a sign that the Mavs are taking extension negotiations with high-scoring center/power forward Christian Wood too seriously. Sources said Wood, who is on an expiring contract, is also being shopped in the trade market.
Wood, who returned Monday night after missing eight games with a fractured left thumb, said he's trying to stay off social media, focus and communicate with coach Jason Kidd and Harrison as much as possible. Wood had envisioned himself as Doncic's co-star after arriving in a summer trade with the Houston Rockets.
So what is Wood hearing now from his head coach and GM?
"Uh, nothing," Wood said. "I hope I'm not traded."
NBA reporter Kendra Andrews on the latest from the Mile High City prior to Thursday's trade deadline:
Win-now Nuggets open to moving Hyland
The Denver Nuggets are open to trading 2021 first-round pick Bones Hyland before Thursday's trade deadline, sources told ESPN.
Hyland, who was selected as an NBA Rising Star at All-Star Weekend for the second consecutive season, is averaging 12.1 points on 39.9%shooting, three assists and two rebounds.
The Nuggets are in win-now mode and are looking for a player they feel could contribute immediately by optimizing their conference standings in what could be Nikola Jokic's third consecutive MVP season as well as pushing for a deep playoff run.
In particular, the Nuggets want someone to help bolster their defense, sources told ESPN, an area that has been streaky for Hyland. The Nuggets currently have the 14th-ranked defense in the NBA, while their offense is No. 1.
Denver feels a player such as Christian Braun, who the Nuggets selected with the No. 21 pick of the 2022 draft, is more ready to be a postseason contributor than Hyland as his three seasons at Kansas have molded him into an experienced player.
The Nuggets aren't aggressively searching for this trade, sources told ESPN, and would be fine if Hyland remained on the team following the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
Hyland is open to the idea of a trade, sources told ESPN, as he likes the idea of having a larger role on a team. With the return of Jamal Murray and Bruce Brown earning the role as a main guard reserve, Hyland has spent time out of coach Michael Malone's rotation with DNPs in the Nuggets' past three games.
Taking you inside the inner workings of how a trade goes down on deadline day is NBA front-office insider Bobby Marks:
Trade time! Every minute counts and here's why
To get you prepared for the Feb. 9 trade deadline, we are going to give you an inside look at the step-by-step process of a trade call, using a hypothetical example of a trade involving Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet.
In our example, at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, Toronto and the LA Clippers reach an agreement on a VanVleet trade.
What happens next?
First, teams are required to share all health and insurance information on potential trade candidates. The NBA uses an electronic medical records system (EMR) that stores the information for every player in the league. However, a team like the Clippers would not have access to review VanVleet's health and insurance information until permission is given by Toronto.
The most important part of the trade process, but not a mandatory part, is to call the league office to see if the trade works -- though this is not the actual trade call.
It might seem silly but, unlike the offseason when there is no deadline, teams are operating on a limited timeline and cannot afford a last-minute snafu after the terms are agreed upon. In this case, they're also operating in different time zones, so the NBA has a point person to synchronize clocks. If the Raptors and Clippers were to agree to a framework of a deal that sent VanVleet to LA for Terance Mann and Robert Covington, the league would inform them the trade does not work and will tell the Clippers that they must include at least $3.4 million in more salary.
Keep in mind that the NBA rubber stamping a trade is not confirmation that the terms of the deal have been agreed upon by each team.
By 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Raptors and Clippers would be required to get on a conference call with the NBA legal department to confirm the agreed upon terms -- though this is still not the actual trade call.
At this stage, the two teams would confirm that the Raptors are trading VanVleet and Dalano Banton to the Clippers for Mann, Covington, John Wall and a 2028 unprotected first-round pick. Once the terms are agreed upon, they cannot be amended when the actual trade call takes place.
The NBA will then schedule the actual trade call for later in the day (it can take place after 3 p.m. ET), and that call represents a legal binding agreement between the parties involved.
One extra step that is required before 3 p.m. ET involves situations where a player needs to consent to the trade or amend a trade bonus. For the trade to proceed, the NBA would need to receive the amended contract reflecting the trade bonus or also written consent if a player has to approve the trade in writing. If either document arrives past the deadline, the trade is not valid.
This nearly happened when I was working in the Brooklyn Nets' front office in 2015. Kevin Garnett was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Thaddeus Young, but had to consent to the trade because he had a no-trade clause in his contract. The letter was received via fax at 2:50 p.m. ET, 10 minutes before the deadline.