Paulo Alves

That's if Tariq's coming off the bench, but you know what I mean.

It's rough.

I think he may... I mean, I think he may try Dorian Finney-Smith first, and if it doesn't work, I think he'd be quick to pull the plug and get Josh Okogie in there.

Fair enough.

For the record, I think Josh... I'll start with Dorian.

I think his value is baked in.

I think at this point, they're going to have to take him into next season, and hopefully he bounces back with a few more months to let the ankle heal.

And if he doesn't, then you can use him during the season as an expiring, as neutral salary filler.

I think even in the offseason, on the books for $13 million next season, he'd be something of a negative asset.

Maybe there's a mega trade that you have no choice but to use him for.

But realistically, I think you carry him into the season.

There's some upside if he returns to form, and if he doesn't,

then at next year's trade deadline, regardless of how he plays, when that contract is expiring and more than half of it is already paid off, at that point he'll be worst-case neutral that you can use to upgrade the team somewhere else.

So I just don't think anything that happens down the stretch is going to change much when it comes to his value this offseason unless he just goes off in the playoffs and all of a sudden reverts back to who he was a year ago with the Lakers, which, you know, it's not impossible, but we are definitely running out of time.

And then what I'll say with Josh Jacoby, I know the numbers say overall that he's been a positive difference maker this year, and I'm certainly not blaming any of the recent downturn on Josh, but I would just urge people to keep in mind that so many of...

the metrics that Josh has accumulated came from that 13 and four start when he was starting.

And no, they were not 13 and four simply because of Josh Akogi.

There were a million things that were different about this team in the first six weeks of the season.

So again,

That's just meant to provide some useful context.