Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for April 2nd, 2026. I'm Dave DuFour. Here with Zena Kata and Sam Amick. Coming up, we go deep with Sam on the MVP race, why Luka has had such a ridiculous month, and we talk about Steph Curry's impending comeback. Good morning, everybody. What is up, Zena? Sam, welcome.
Chapter 2: What are the current dynamics of the MVP race?
Been a minute. How you doing, buddy? What's up, friends? Good to see you. It has been a minute. Glad to be with you here. Yeah, we're almost to the playoffs, man. What's your travel schedule like? What's your travel schedule like the next couple of weeks? I know that you like to get out and check in with as many teams as possible right now.
It's funny, though, Dave, you would think that'd be the case. And it is true. But you end up downshifting a little bit. At least I do when I have the luxury of doing that ahead of the playoffs, knowing that it's a long haul first round. It's funny, as we speak, I am in a hotel room in San Francisco.
I will occasionally, even though I live a couple hours away near Sacramento, I'll occasionally camp out down here if there's back to backs. The Warriors have a back-to-back right now. So coming down to do a Warriors game, get to see the Spurs, get to see the Cavs tomorrow. But trying to recharge a little bit before the playoffs.
And the Warriors part is funny because selfishly, for the longest time throughout their dynasty, they made my logistical life a little easier because, you know, the most relevant team in the NBA was... right down the road. So this whole prospect of them bowing out early and, and me having to get on an airplane in the first round is, is a new one.
And so probably the Kings aren't helping you out there. I forgot about them.
Don't even worry about it, Sam. This, this at our morning shoot around, we were thinking about team names for Las Vegas. And I was like, you know, like they could, they can't take the aces. Maybe they could be the Kings and Eskos. There's already, I was like, Oh, Oh, snap.
Yes, indeed, indeed. Yeah, but I think a lot of Lakers in my future in the first round, most likely. But, you know, it's that time of year.
Well, we're recording this beforehand, but you're going to see Victor Weminyama against the Warriors tonight. The Spurs are in town. You mentioned last week in one of your pieces, you wrote about the Shea versus Wemby MVP debate. And what I think is actually fascinating about it is that you actually, you put it out there.
If the Spurs get to the one seed, it's the only way that you can really make the case for Wemby over Shea. You still feel that way a week later? Because, I mean, a lot has happened in the last week. And I think Wemby has done quite a bit to try to at least make his case for MVP.
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Chapter 3: How is Wemby challenging for the MVP title?
Excuse me. Yeah. All NBA defense. Yeah. He has been defending very, very well this year. Luca has been better than we have been used to. And especially here in this run lately, I think are the reason why the Lakers have been so good. And what we've been seeing in this run is because Luca's individual effort on defense has been better. Right. I want to talk about Luca.
Luca just had a ridiculous month. He scored 600 points in March. That is a that's a crazy number. Should we readdress the trade? And is there a way to give some kind of a negative letter to the Dallas Mavericks for what they got for Luka Doncic? I mean, he is a legit like he has a legit shot at MVP. I think there's no doubt that he is dragged down.
a sub subpar Lakers roster to the three seed with the way that he's played. And I do think he has a really, really compelling case. It's not just one that people are making because he plays for the Lakers, but he's in the mix for MVP to me.
No, I'm with you. I think he's third right now, which is insane to say when you look at Joker's numbers. So, by the way, it's a group of four that is. It's one, one A, one B, one C to some degree. But he's been incredible. I agree. It's not the Lakers hype. It's not the Lakers spotlight. If anything, you could argue it might be. the opposite at times.
He kind of takes that L, no pun intended, just because of the lack of respect for the Lakers as title contenders, even with all the winning. But he's been fantastic. And then you mentioned the trade, Dave. To have a backdrop...
this week where Mark Cuban decides to go on a podcast and apologies, I forget which platform he was on and talk about the trade again and to kind of out Jason Kidd in his discussion where he shares that Jason was an advocate for this trade, which we kind of knew, but it never been said out loud all the way.
You know, if you guys remember the night of the trade or the day after you had Nico Harrison and Jason sitting side by side and Nico saying that Jason didn't know about it. you know, presumably covering for him. And, and so, yeah, I mean, the optics of that trade look worse and worse over time.
And the guy's an incredible player and the Lakers, you know, I don't know when they're going to win a title. I don't know where they go from here, but, but they have that guy again, and they're going to keep trying to build around him. And I mean, you know, again, the scoring has been incredible. The playmaking has been incredible. I loved his game against Cleveland last night.
Not to like, you know, open an old wound, but it made me laugh because if you think back to when Bam had 83 and I took all this gruff because I didn't like the way that Bam scored his 83. Luca, what I did, these are the types of scoring moments I do enjoy. Luca is at 37, I think. 35 when he came out. Yeah, and the Lakers think they're going to be able to rest their guys. They give up the lead.
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