The Opening Tip

• When he takes shots, Ben Simmons airballs them 
• Important Brian Windhorst content
• The Warriors are worth, uh, a lot

1. The post-hope Lakers

The Lakers are a unique triainwreck, in that everyone is to blame, no one is happy, and there are no good solutions. 

• Entering this season, LeBron wanted Russell Westbrook off the team. He is the one who initially pushed for the trade. 
• The front office, which allowed LeBron to overstep his position, doesn’t want to trade Westbook for future assets. 
• Westbrook, who at this point is an un-self-aware bricklayer making $47M, refuses to change, diminish his role, or come off the bench. 

Unsurprisingly, that three-way standoff has led to a disastrous 0-4 start, in which LA has looked lifeless with and without Westbrook.

LeBron is talking to himself on IG, Flea is mad, Magic is applying tweet-pressure, and Westbrook is using dubious injuries to leverage himself out of a bench role.

And now there are two options, both of which objectively suck: 

1. Play out the rest of the season, waste another prime-ish year of LeBron’s career, and get Westbrook off your books. The problem there is that they owe their 2023 first-round pick to New Orleans, so tanking would do nothing.
2. Attach Westbrook to unprotected 2027 and 2029 first-round picks for a package like Buddy Hield and Myles Turner from Indiana, which would (slightly) improve their non-contending team this season and kneecap their future. 

So … be terrible this year then forfeit your first-rounder to New Orleans, or be somewhat better this year and risk this same type of pick-less purgatory by the end of the decade. Dealer’s choice.

[READ: How long will the Lakers delay the inevitable?]

2. Daily GIF: Brooklyn vibe check

Ben Simmons, who threw up this airball last night, has scored 28 points on 27 shots in five games with the Brooklyn Nets, who own the worst defensive rating in the NBA and are 1-4, despite Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving averaging a combined 62.8 PPG.   

3. Trivia time

The last four MVP awards have gone to international players Nikola Jokic and Giannis. Who are the other three international players to win the award?

Hint: We’re not counting Tim Duncan, who was born in the U.S Virgin Islands. 

Answers at the bottom.

4. Brian Windhorst 😎

While clearing some space on my phone, I found this pic. I have no idea where it’s from, or how it got there, but it’s very important. 

-- SE

5. The 10 most valuable NBA franchises according to Forbes

First, Forbes’ yearly franchise evaluations are nothing more than educated guesses which are often way off. Example: Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers for $2B in 2014, when they were valued by Forbes in the same year at $575M.

Second, holy shit, the Warriors are worth $7B!

• Whatever they’d actually fetch on the open market, which could be more than $7B depending on which tech giant would get in the mix, the mind-blowing thing is that Joe Lacob and his group bought them for $450M in 2010. So they’ve roughly 15x’d their investment in 12 years. Don’t ever let owners tell you they can’t spend in free agency. 

[READ: What Is Steph Curry worth?]

6.  Quick Hits

• Clippers Update: They’re 2-3 and Kawhi is hurt already. 
• A Nets fan threw their cup at Luka Doncic last night. 
• Maybe it’s because Luka was doing things like this to the Nets. 
• Take a look at Kyrie’s most recent Twitter post. 
• If you want to know why the 76ers are 1-4, here’s a good microcosm. 
• Alex Caruso is the bald god of hustling.

7.  Reads + Podcasts

• The Sixers’ defense looks like hot junk [The Ringer]
• John Wall’s basketball exile ends with a genuine second chance [Washington Post]
• How the NBA unleashed the fastbreak [ESPN]
• Charles Barkley on 76ers, Zion, Ben Simmons [Bill Simmons Podcast]

Trivia answer: Dirk, Hakeem, Steve Nash.