Justin Verrier

And he's right.

The door seems more open than it did before.

It seems like the Nuggets are dealing with injuries practically every week.

A new one, Cam Johnson, just came back, but I assume there's going to be a trade-off because that's just how it's worked for them this year.

The Thunder, once they get Shea back, seem like the ultimate trump card.

And I would assume if that one's not going to linger past March, then everything should be fine.

Other than that, I'm just seeing open doors in a way that I hadn't before.

Even the Rockets seem like they're taking a half step back every couple of days.

We talked about Cam Thomas possibly going to here or there.

I almost feel like they need that if only for a shot in the arm or just some sort of distraction from the malaise of their offense than anything else.

I don't know how I got here, but I've ultimately, because of what we've been talking about, kind of like what the Lakers did, not only because it did seem like they understood that their whole future lies ahead with Luca and this new front office where they're apparently going to hire 150 people and just be the new look Dodgers basically.

Um, but I do like getting in a shooter to almost enhance your best asset, which is that their offense, when all those three guys are there, when Reeves and Luca and LeBron are playing together could be pretty blistering.

I don't think much about them in terms of like their playoff future.

If they get passed around, I would still be surprised, but it does feel like the door is ajar just a little bit.

little bit so that they could really just slug someone in the mouth that like perhaps has these injuries or is like the Rockets where they're just a little bit more sluggish than they should be going into this matchup.

And they just drop like 125 a night.

And it's just like, you got to keep up with that.

That's at the very least feels like a nice little swing here when it does feel like these marginal things might matter more in matchups and matchups matter more in the West playoffs.

I think the fact that they lowered the stakes by not swinging for something so big almost opens the door for something fun to happen, which you wouldn't expect considering a team with LeBron James toward the end of his career and Luka looking to win now as much as possible would be in that position.

Now they feel like the fun wild card on the table in the West.