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The omnipresent trade deadline hovers ever closer.

And John and I are back here.

This is one where we're really going to concentrate on some of John's

insider knowledge in his seven years with the Memphis Grizzlies. I've never actually had a

chance to talk to him about all this stuff in this level of detail. I've never had a chance to

talk to any executive in this level of detail. So he is going to answer all of my stupid questions about what happens at the trade deadline

and how trades come together and what the timeline is, how you initiate conversations,

what you do when somebody calls you, every single aspect of what is actually going on in a front office

during the traderead deadline.

John, can you live up to that pressure?

To that buildup?

Yeah, I will do my best.

You're going to impart literally every single thing that happens in the trade deadline?

Yeah, I think I have a lot to draw on here.

We'll see how much we can fit into one hour or so.

Okay, so here's where I wanted to start. And at a later episode, I think we're going to try and do a truncated version of this work for some of the contenders.

But just tell me what work has been done up until now as we sit here about two and a half weeks before the trade deadline.

Sure. I think there's a few different things. Obviously, by this point, we'd have all sat down as a staff and talked about where we stand as a team internally. What are we trying to do? Are we trying to win or

are we trying to not win most obviously? But what are our needs? What is our cap and tax situation?

What are we trying to do in the off season or the next year that we can potentially do now,

all of those things. And you're having informal conversations along those lines all through

...