Justin Verrier

It's just like he's reborn.

And that's the whole thing.

Like it does feel like they've they managed to bring the best qualities of some of these players out of it.

But it doesn't matter because, you know, when when the rubber meets the road, Nurk's on the bench.

Well, another action on Saturday night, we got our first glimpse of James Harden in a Cavaliers jersey.

It was hilarious because I don't know if you guys saw the video of this where I guess Travis Scott was there with Vivek.

He was like a privileged fan where they were just hanging out courtside, which Vivek loves to do, just trot out celebrities.

So it seems like he's important.

When the Cavs won that game, Scott just completely left Vivek behind and just like hugged Harden, then just like followed him off the court to the other end.

He just didn't say goodbye to Rebecca.

But I did think it was funny also because if you looked at the lines from that game from the Cavs and there were a bunch of graphics being like, Jared Allen had this, Harden had this, and Mitchell had this, but then they almost got beat pretty handedly by the Kings at a certain point.

But Harden, I did feel like in the midst of all that, he's like just...

ease of playmaking and just the ability to just have the the muscle memory to get guys involved just like as if he just woke up from a nap it's just that easy to him I do wonder if that plays a pretty pivotal role down the stretch here because the one thing I am worried about in the east overall is that while the Pistons have a pretty decisive lead and they ultimately might end up with the best record in the league if the the Thunder can't turn things around without Shea

I do wonder if the door is open more than the Pistons would like it to be.

That's kind of like one of the bigger, like subtle takeaways I have from the deadline.

Rob is just like maybe the Pistons needed to do something because right now it seems like kind of an open field.

Yeah, I did think it was notable that when it got to winning time, when we're in crunch time, like things did just tilt back to Mitchell in the way that it always had.

And like the chemistry between the two of them seems quite good immediately.

And it sounds like based on the reporting that like Mitchell wanted Harden out there.

And so on the one hand, I think to myself, this is very much part of the James Harden new situation flow chart where it's like things are looking great.