What are they saying about the way the Nets are playing and specifically harden and doing it all right now without Durant, in my view, Harden is an MVP candidate.

He is having maybe some of his most measured, prudent and helpful and leadership basketball he's ever played.

And I don't want to dismiss what he did in Houston, but he has morphed his game.

He has found a way to exist with Kyrie Irving, which that bond is.

I'm not worried about Kevin Durant at all.

Kevin Durant has shown that he can play all different kinds of positions, all different kinds of roles.

He can play with stars.

I'm not worried about him.

I've always been worried about the bond between Cairo and Harden, and Harden has found a balance where he has let Kyrie flourish.

Sometimes, in my view, maybe even a little bit too much.

But he's going to air on that side.

He has stopped his hunting for fouls as he's looked to set up his teammates more.

He's just been spectacular.

I voted him in as a starter.

The All Star Game.

I know he didn't get voted.

I know he won't win M v p because of the surrounding politics from his demand, who trade from Houston.

And, you know, I don't think he handled that great either.

But I can take my hat off to the way he's playing.

And last night you saw another terrific performance from Bruce Brown, who is turning out to be one of the great transactions of the last six months.

Um, he's been terrific for them and Nick Claxton, who's just come back from a terrible injury.

He had 17 points last night as a big man off the bench.

They are, and they're going to get another player or to the Nets are a serious, serious threat to win the whole thing.

Wendy, let's go to another team in the Eastern Conference.

The Atlanta Hawks, down to a T.

L.

Loyd Pierce was only on the job for a couple of years.

Um, what do you make about that surprising coaching decision to let him go?

You know, it wasn't surprising and honest, Jason, and you know the thing about it is, uh, this team, when Lloyd was hired was a developmental team.

They were going to draft a bunch of high picks, which they did.

And then over the last year, they shifted into a team that we had expectations.

Right now, they spent a ton of money in free agency and the expectations were different.

And when they hired Nate McMillan, I mean, just to give you a recap.

Nate McMillan got fired from the Indiana Pacers, and he said out there for everybody to hear.

I'm going to take the next year off.

I'm gonna go back to North Carolina.

Then this job came open, and he recognized that it was an opportunity to potentially go into a place where the job might come open again.

I don't want to put words in his mouth, but that's you know, the way it worked out.

And Lloyd Pierce was aware of that.

Lloyd Pierce knew coming into the season he was on the hot seat.

And did he get a fair shake this year?

That's a different question, because the team has been banged up from the start.

Um, he hasn't had the practice time.

Uh, maybe it hasn't been fair, but really, what this was was the changing of circumstance.

This team was expected to start winning at a high level.

And whether you want to blame lawyer or not, they weren't.

And so a change was made and Nate McMillan was brought in.

And this is something that a high probability of happening you can see 34 months ago.

Uh, the question moving forward is who actually wants to be in Houston when the, uh, Shawn Watson is trying to get out.

James Harden got out, and we saw Victor Oladipo actually turned down that two year extension, uh, two year contract extension with the Rockets.

What's the reasoning behind that?

And the Rockets in trouble?

Long term here.

Sanchez.

Victor, Uh, you know, if you've watched P.

J.

Tucker for the last month again, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but he is playing like a guy who wants the heck out of there, and he may get his wish in the short term future.

Um, you know, they have experienced a massive talent drain in that organization over the last 6 to 9 months, and I'm talking starting right off with their front office, starting with coach Mike D'Antoni.

And then you lose Westbrook and Harden.

Um, you know, even even Robert Covington traded away.

You know, I the thing about it is I don't think they're trying.

They're trying to lose.

I mean, they could be incentivized to lose guys because they're pick gets swapped with the Oklahoma City thunder if it's outside the top four.

And so they're incentivized to be right at the bottom to give their lottery chances as high as possible so that they can keep their pick.

But yet here we have last night's game.

John well played over 40 minutes.

Victor Oladipo coming off a quad injury, which is a dangerous injury to reinjure.

He plays over 40 minutes against the Cavs.

They were trying to win that game, so I just think that they have had an incredible loss of talent.

Um, I know that the organization believes in itself, and when they were winning back in January, was beating their chest a little bit.

But you don't have talent like that.

Walk out the door without having major ramifications, and that's what we're seeing right now.

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