Greetings my peeps and welcome to the all things basketball podcast with your boy GD.
In this episode I'll talk about the MVP of the WNBA.
They have named someone and we'll talk about it.
Also Dame Lillard finally gets traded guys so we'll break that down and we'll talk about
the effects all the way around and also we'll talk about magic a comment he made about owning
the Knicks so we'll get into that as well so just sit back relax and enjoy the show.
Okay guys so we are back with all things basketball with GD podcast of course this is yours truly speaking
and we're going to I thought I was going to have a little hiatus there but have to address
a few issues here so let's get into it.
We're going to talk about the WNBA they had their MVP vote all the votes are in and the
award goes to Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty kind of like what I predicted but
I'll get into all that in a minute anyhow so she becomes the first Liberty player to
win the award and think about it New York Liberty one of the flagship franchises in
the WNBA never had an MVP up to now you had players there you had a Teresa Weverspoon
there you had a Cappy Pond Dexter who's a fine player for them Tina Charles Tina Charles
is a player who still to this day holds the all-time score points for the New York Liberty
so you had all these players here never an MVP until now so Breanna Stewart gets it I
gave you all the numbers you can go back and listen to my episodes for that I won't go
through all the numbers and so forth but here's what I will say it was a very close race in
fact the margin between the three front runners that I told you about Breanna Stewart, Asia
Wilson and Alyssa Thomas between those three ladies 13 points separated three 13 points
I'll get into the scoring as well here's how the scoring went the way they do it you get
certain amount of points for first place certain amount for second place third place fourth and
beyond so the way it shook out in terms of first place voting actually Alyssa Thomas got the most
first place votes among the three with 23 Breanna Stewart gets 20 Asia Wilson 17 then you have
second place in second place this time Asia Wilson gets most second place with 25 Breanna
Stewart with 23 and Alyssa Thomas 12 then you go to third place and in that Alyssa Thomas gets
the most third place votes with 25 and both Asia Wilson and Breanna Stewart gets 17 now the scoring
is first place 10 points second place seven points third place five points and then you have fourth
place and oddly enough through reasonings that's beyond me some voter put down Asia Wilson in the
fourth place with one fourth place vote which is and everybody's been railing about it I'll talk about
that which is insane to me let let us be clear anybody who watches Asia Wilson on a regular basis
can clearly tell you she is not the fourth best player in this league she's either one two or three
depending how you're judging and voting and so forth so fourth place is actually an insult to be
honest and I think that's where the scoring goes arrive for Asia Wilson because she gets that fourth
place vote which means if she doesn't get that fourth place vote so let's say she gets a third
place vote instead that'll give her 18 so the scoring would be a little closer but in the end
when you do all the mathematics and so forth Breanna gets the most points with four 46 followed
by Alyssa Thomas with four 39 and Asia Wilson with four 33 so that's how the scoring went
and then actually one person gave a third place vote to jewel Lloyd of the Seattle storm
so if you replace the fourth place vote with a third place vote which would put her a little
closer but in the end Breanna gets it so and I told you guys that in my prediction that voter
fatigue would be a factor and I think it really came to play I think it came to play just like it
came to play in the NBA with Joel and B getting it over Nikolai Yogan I think it was voter fatigue
and I think there's a second big reason that Breanna got it she came to a Liberty team pretty
much a moribund franchise who was teetering on mediocrity they were hovering around 500 there
were 500 team prior to all the players that came in John Quill Jones Breanna and Courtney
Manaslu so they were pretty much a 500 team before she arrived so with her arrival that
elevated the franchise to their best record ever number one and number two it put them second
behind the Las Vegas aces in terms of teams so I think that was probably the biggest reason a lot
of votes went to Breanna Stewart and I think couple with voter fatigue which actually Ryan
Ruko the voice of the WNBA he does the play-by-play for the major games on ESPN he was on NBA today
with Malika Andrews and he said voter fatigue may be a factor and he talked about Breanna not
winning it in 2020 in 2022 so it could be a case where the voters make up for that and so forth
so that was his reasoning but I do think voter fatigue was a factor I really do and because
think about it guys Aja Wilson this year she had better numbers than she had last year when she
got the MVP her scoring was up her field goal percentage was way up she was more efficient
this year than she was last year blocks were up she led the league and on top of that forget
the numbers her team was better her team had a better record than last year so where's the drop
off people say oh you know she's playing with all these players and so forth which is true you know
she plays with three other all-stars but Breanna Stewart she plays with two other all-stars and
Sabrina Nescu and Courtney Vannisloot and she playing with a former MVP but what the case for her
would be the fact that you had to bring all those elements together and make it work on the court
which happened and you got what you got them having their best record ever so I think that played
into it and there was a lot of social media social media went crazy over it you had people like Alex
English he had this tweet who is voting for the WNBA MVP must be the same people that voted for the
NBA's top 75 which is actually funny because of course he was left out of the NBA's top 75 which
to me to this day is still a crime how can you leave the man that led the league in scoring for
an entire decade how can you leave him off the top 75 list but that's an argument for another day
so that was his tweet then you had Dawn Staley now listen to this tweet congrats to Stewie for
WNBA player of the year P.O.Y hell of a season Alyssa congrats to you for just being your normal
beast mode self a you know I heart you well I love you your life and career are favored and
divinely ordered so your harvest time is coming to the fourth place voter your hate is real and on
display so that was her tweet there but I'm kind of from the school of Joe Madison where he tells
you to listen with a third air read with a third eye and if you read the beginning of this she says
congrats to Stewie for player of the year she doesn't say MVP I thought that was very telling so
maybe I'm reading too much into it but she says player of the year instead of MVP so I don't know
if that was a typo or that was a deliberate kind of yeah they gave you player of the year but you
weren't the MVP I don't know maybe I'm grasping at straws who knows but that's what she wrote and then
you had tamarin sprawl I guess she's one of the voters and she actually showed her ballot on Twitter
which had the players in this order she had five players listed she had Alyssa Thomas first
Asia Wilson second Rihanna Stewart third jewel Lloyd fourth Aliyah boston fifth and she pretty
much called out the person who gave the four plays vote to Asia she says transparency it's
important and so forth so you have that dynamic and that's a host of people expressing their
displeasure with what happened and then Asia herself after the game she talked about those
around her who was disappointed there's a quote of her saying it hurt like hell I hear her say that
personally I don't know she wrote it but but I heard her after game she said it is what it is and
you know the team has a bigger goal in mind of course that's winning another championship
so with that said let me say this I think these voters kicked over hornets nests by that I mean
you have now fueled that Las Vegas aces team to really try and get that back-to-back championship
and I think from what I see from that team I think there's going to be a concerted effort
because last year when they wanted actually it was Chelsea Gray who got finals MVP I think
there'll be a concentrated effort this year if they were to continue on the path that they're going
make it to the finals win it all I think the effort will be to get Asia Wilson finals MVP
I think that's the mission right now that's their mission so you voters out there those who kind
of snubbed her I think you kicked over a hornet's nest now because I think she is going to be more
focused more locked in to get that brass ring and win that back-to-back championship which
will say a lot about this team in the annals of WNBA history so I think you did that so with that
said one more thing I want to address Alyssa Thomas she was asked in a post game interview
about her not winning the award this is what she had to say I think I'm used to it I think I've been
snubbed so many times in my career that it's a normal thing for me so Alyssa Thomas disappointed
you could hear the disappointment but she's used to being counted out I still say her career defies
the odds and they talked about it in the booth how the ligaments in her shoulders and the fact
that she shoots the way she does is a byproduct of that so for her to master numbers that she does
is pretty much unbelievable let's just put it that way but nonetheless she's had a brilliant season
and I think if it wasn't for the fact that Breanna did what she did on one of the biggest stages
and that's here in New York I think if it weren't that I think Alyssa Thomas probably
squeezes out and gets it but again Breanna did it on the brightest lights in one of the biggest
cities so she gets the award so with all of that said congratulations to Breanna Stewart for getting
the award it wasn't given it was earned let's just say that it's not like she had a slouch season
she was second in scoring amongst the top three and rebounds amongst the top three and blocks
also she had the most 40 point games in the season and she scored the most points with 30 minutes
or less in a game when she dropped the 45 points in like three quarters so and what the team did
as a whole I think all of that played into her getting the award so definitely kudos to her for
getting the award let's see what the liberty do in these playoffs now we'll see what happens there so
that's that for the MVP race in the WNBA now later today the big bombshell in the NBA
Dame Lilik gets his wish and he's now traded only caveat is he wasn't traded to the place he desired
he goes to the Milwaukee Bucks and this is the trade guys reported by Adrian Wartianowski so
wojc of course ahead of the curve as always this is the trade Milwaukee gets Damian Lilik
Portland gets Drew Holiday DeAndre Aten so it's a three team deal Tamani camera
a rookie with the Phoenix Suns they picked them in this year's draft they also get Milwaukee's
2029 first round pick and they get two pick swaps from Milwaukee in 2028 and 2030 and then
Phoenix gets Joseph Nerkic from the Portland Trailblazers they also get Grayson Allen from
the Milwaukee Bucks not see a little from the Portland Trailblazers and Keon Johnson I believe
also from the Blazers so that is your trade guys the pluses for this trade of course you're gonna
get more offense with a Dame Lilert and you're gonna get a closer something that you're honest
needs beside him you got a closer now in Dame minuses of course your defense is gonna take a hit
now because you just traded away you're pretty much starting backcourt and holiday and Grayson
Allen so so your defense will take a hit but I'm sure for Milwaukee listen we heard the Rumblings
actually I didn't report on it but I'll talk about it now Giannis kind of voice in his I will say
consternation about Milwaukee's future and saying look if we're not doing things to make these title
runs and be competitive I don't know if I signed the super max when my time comes so Milwaukee of
course hearing that being very nervous because they know how things were before Giannis arrived on
the scene they don't want to go back to that so they made a move they had to make this is them
putting all their chips to the middle of the table and when you think about it it's kind of high risk
because you had a champion point guard and drew holiday that you had to trade in order to make
this work Grayson Allen you know a young player he can knock it down from outside so I mean they
gave up what they had to give and of course these future picks as well which you know in a grand scheme
of things what does it mean if you're a perennial playoff team so so they rolled the dice and they
said let's do this deal now the Phoenix side you know Deandre Aitman the Sun's organization has had
this kind of tug and pull relationship so much so that last year when he was a restricted free agent
Indiana Pacers signed them to an offer sheet Suns felt they had to match it did that so he played
out the season and we know how the season ended they bowled out in the second round of course
the coach Monty Williams is out so you figure Aitman's kind of safe now but the fact of the
matter is and I was talking to my boy D about this Deandre Aitman is a former first overall
pick in the draft right now if he were to stay with the Phoenix Suns he would be fourth option at
best because you have Katie there you got Devin Booker there and you just acquired Bradley Beale
so he's fourth in the pecking order and I kind of understand where he's coming from you know he's
supposed to be a cornerstone player for that franchise but yet he's the fourth option in the
offense kind of can blame him to be honest with you but now he gets an opportunity with Portland
to be that guy now he will probably be I say he probably be second right now you have Anthony
Simons there you have Jeremy Grant there you got the rookie Scoot Henderson so you know it's a young
team that he can grow with and he can show what he can do there so Chauncey billips I trust Chauncey
billips to kind of get the most out of the kids so we'll see what happens there so he gets a brand
new opportunity in a smaller market than Phoenix so I'm actually expecting some good things from
him over there so I think all in all Portland did well and what they got back and now they have
an asset in Drew Holiday because I don't think he's in the Trailblazers future so the more than
likely to not flip him so we'll see where he goes yeah I'll talk about that in a minute and then
for Phoenix they get some debt which they needed and they get a starting center who really not
going to demand the ball he's going to crash the boards he's going to play defense inside block shot
so this is what you wanted from Aten but it seemed like his shot blocking dissipated as the years
went by over there in Phoenix so so now you're getting a center who's not going to demand the
ball as much so it looks good for Phoenix they now have added depth because you get a Grayson
Allen there who will be coming off your bench and I'll say a little Keon Johnson so you have a
little bit of depth there so on its face seemed like everybody made out okay here there's tremendous
pressure though tremendous pressure on Dane now he's in a winning situation so now he has to acquiesce
and blend in with that winning culture over there so pressures on him pressures on the Milwaukee
organization especially on Giannis himself now he has to coexist with a Dane Lillard who's a more
bold dominant point guard than Drew Holiday so you have that dynamic and plus a guard who's not
going to be the defender that holiday was and to top all that off you now have a rookie head coach
and Adrian Griffin there so you have that dynamic so a lot of pressure on that first year coach over
there so we'll see and there's pressure on Phoenix now that you shipped Aten out finally you now have
the center that you desire playing in the middle you have depth now you have Katie you got Booker
and Beale health is always the issue with any of those three guys especially Kevin Durant so
the pressure is on guys in terms of a fantasy basketball outlook because you know I play fantasy
basketball in terms of Dane I see his production his scoring going down going to Milwaukee will he
still be a 22 point a game scorer with Milwaukee it's possible that means other guys offense is
going to have to suffer I think Giannis will not take much of a hit I don't think Chris Middleton
he'll probably be one that may take a hit as far as production in that regard goes will Dane be more
of a facilitator now that he has players that can make buckets we'll see what happens so I think
his production probably in a 10 team league I say if you draft to him second third round is a steal
second round scenes about right for Dane I think again I think Giannis will take a hit I think
Middleton may take a hit out of anybody there I love it for Aten as far as fantasy goes wherever
he's being picked right now I think that'll shift where you could take him around earlier and feel
good about it I think right now he's probably like fifth or sixth round so if you went fourth round
on him rolled the dice and took him fourth round I think he could give you fourth round production
as far as nerc it go I don't think his value takes too much of a hit scoring wise definitely but I
think the rebound and will be there for him the block shots will be there for him so he'll get all
the minutes he can take but it's you had a healthy Aten for the most part and now you're getting a
guy with a injury riddles history so there's you have that dynamic so turns of fantasy yeah
nerc I don't think his value shifts that much if anything it goes down now like I was saying for
Drew does he stay in Portland or is he on the move and if he's on the move guys they're talking about
a number of teams that could be interested in him they talked about Miami because Miami was the big
loser in all of this guys they wanted to go to Miami course the GM of the Blazers Joe Cronin did
not want to deal that centered around Tyler hero he got the preferred package he won he got a franchise
center and Aten so he got what was best for his franchise which is always a good thing Philadelphia
could be a place where drew end up I think another team that's a loser in all of this because you
still have to figure out what to do with heart and remember guys what I said about heart and I
don't think anything happens with heart until dame gets traded dame was traded now so as far as
heart and goals I don't see any suitors at this moment and my boy he said this today I think he
has to come into camp be the good citizen maybe offer up a mea culpa for what he said about
Darrell morrie kind of public apology go in there be the good citizen like I said do all the things
he needs to do and then with that maybe he gets moved you know he plays a little bit he shows
himself to be somebody who's willing to toe the line then he'll get traded so we'll see what happens
with that and like I was saying Miami what does Miami do now this kind of speaks to what Brian
Windhorse actually talked about I think it was last week where he pretty much said that he's not
putting all their eggs in the dame lila basket they thought they could take their time wait this out
maybe get another team involved but I think they probably waited a wee bit too long and now he's on
the move to morie I thought once the cause previous to this there was talk of Toronto being
interested in dame and a lot of rumblings about that in fact just today they were talking about it on
first take and I guess Milwaukee said Toronto no no we need to get them so so they made the move
but in any event Miami now has to regroup and figure out what they're gonna do they'll be
competitive but right now the teams that are above them Milwaukee obviously with this trade
Boston of course with them choir in Christa porzinas apart from that next we'll see what the
next can do but right now Miami even at its current state is probably amongst the top six teams in
that conference so if everything bolts right they could be a top 16 there so we'll see what happens
with that but for sure they need to regroup and figure out things and then with dame going to
Milwaukee who now starts in the backcourt with him will it be Pat conaton probably more likely
than not you also have a Malik Beasley there so you have some options there so it'll be interesting
nonetheless and then what is the pecking order as far as who's your go-to guy who's the second
option third option over there for Milwaukee probably still be Yana's first followed by dame
then you have a chris middleton depending on the situation i think it'll be Yana's first and also
dame so i think that's how that shakes out and here's what dame lilert said on twitter x whatever
you want to call it these days here's what he said the cashals won't be addressed but the trail
blazer fans in city of portland that i truly love will be and they will be addressed truthfully
stay tuned and then he says excited for my next chapter and then he wrote at bucks so actually
steven a addressed this on his podcast today and he thought when he said the casuals he was talking
about portland's front office i don't know if i say that sure he doesn't make mention of the
front office you know the organization as a whole but i think it's probably those who question him
question the fact that he's wants to be traded and so forth so i think it's more of those people
than the front office i don't think this is a out and out attack on the front office i could be wrong
but i don't think that's what this says and then drew holiday he actually said this yesterday
before this trade happened i'm a buck for life and i mean that like deep in my heart i don't want
to play for any other team i think we have a chance to continue to do great things as the
bucks team and organization so i want to be in Milwaukee that sounds a lot like what happened
in boston where in the christoph porzingis deal where they had to scrap it and then you end up
moving the guy like marcus smart so i think it's kind of in the same vein there but nonetheless
you know hope all goes well for drew and he ends up somewhere where he can help a team amongst the
suitors for drew i mentioned miami i mentioned philadelphia toronto's another team being talked
about now that they missed out on the dain sweepstakes and la clippers which i don't really understand
because you already have russell westbrook there but what do i know i think a fifth team you need
to mention and for some reason nobody's talking about this chicago bulls could definitely use a
drew holiday without question right now you have a combination of coby white good player i think
he's more of a combo guard a guard that comes off your bench kind of in the same vein as a
man you'll quickly i think he's more in that kind of range and oil do some more you still have that
young point guard over there apart from that chicago could definitely use a drew holiday and
that would put them in the fast track amongst the top six teams in the east so i don't know why
chicago's not being talked about here so i would put them in the running as well as a team that
could use his services so i'm just putting it out there so anyhow so that's pretty much the dame news
and then there's one more item i want to get to magic johnson saying the only franchise he
considered owning would be the new york nix of course outside of being with his los angeles
lacus so he said it would be the nix he said this at a ymca speaking engagement here in new york
he passed up ownership with other teams teams like the gold state warriors he had a chance there
the lana hawks even in his hometown of detroit uh the detroit pistons he passed up on that as well
which i thought was pretty telling but he said the reason he would consider being the owner of the
nix the passionate fan base he said they're very knowledgeable they're loyal to the soil most of
them i digress but yeah and he gave that as the reasons so you know that caused nicknation to go
into a tizzy on social media so got them fantasizing about dolan selling the team and so forth
speaking of that he has not spoken to james dolan so this is just something that was asked of him
and he answered but he said if an opportunity ever arose he would be willing to listen to what the
offer would be and so on and so forth so hey magic knows that if you were to bring a winner to new
york it would go such a long way and imagine being the owner behind doing something like that
he got to see up close and personal how things transpired in la for jerry bus the late jerry bus
when he brought a championship to the city of la so he got a bird's eye view of that so he knows to
do that in a place like new york city man listen but nonetheless you know we can fantasize about
that so forth but this comes on the heels of james dolan actually being interviewed by the new
york times where he says he doesn't like owning sports teams he said the economics of it makes
him kind of sleepy which you never want to hear that from your owner that's for sure and then of
course we know about the checkered pass under his watch including banning charles oakley after
incident with security that's was on film and was an ugly incident and then he had another with
another situation similar with spike lee not to the point where you were ushering them out but
just a little misunderstanding as spike lee was coming into the building so forth so you had that
also you had sexual harassment lawsuit during the isiah thomas tenure and then to bring you up to
date now with the use of this facial recognition that he uses he does it to keep out lawyers who
have clients that are suing the garden or so forth and to keep maybe some fans who brought signs and
fired dolan and so forth so he uses facial recognition for that sort of stuff so i say all that to say
the fan base of course is getting lavered up about this here's what i will say for those wanting
dolan out as nicks owner your chance at that has come and gone i think the time where that could
have actually happened was during that sexual harassment lawsuit that was the time you nail him
even though it wasn't him personally it was under his watch i think that was the time where you could
have said look this is a black eye on the league you need to sell david stern shoulda because it was
david stern at the time i think that was the time to sell now him selling would be the equivalent of
jeff bezel selling amazon the man is making money hand over fist he's not going to sell the nicks
franchise he's not going to sell the ranger franchise it would have to be a forced situation
for james dolan to sell and i don't see that happening so i think like i said that window
has opened and shut and that will not happen so you know we can fantasize about having magic as
a owner but that's not coming into fruition anytime soon so so that's that so all right guys so that
is it for me next time you hear from me i still want to do fantasy basketball i still want to
dedicate an episode or two for that and then of course training camps opening up next week so
nba basketball we're getting closer guys and then of course the w nba playoffs we're in the midst of
that and then before you know it w nba finals will be here so a lot of basketball to cover guys and
i'm here for it so once again all things basketball with gd.com that's the website that sportsduegd
at gmail.com that's my email address hit me on all the podcast platforms social media i'm there
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