Ian Begley Explains the Truth About Giannis and the Knicks’ Deadline Reality

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trade deadline eve gets spicy fast after a new report out of The Athletic delivers the money quote from Giannis: “I want to be here, but I want to win.” Evan and Tiki translate what that really means for Milwaukee, why the Giannis uncertainty froze the market, and why so many teams made their moves early. Then Ian Begley joins the show to lay out the hard truth for Knicks fans: New York is on the outside looking in on Giannis right now, not because they “love their roster,” but because they simply do not have the assets to win that bidding war. Begley explains what the Knicks could still do before 3:00 PM, including potential targets like Jose Alvarado and a backup big, plus how Deuce McBride’s status factors in. Finally, the conversation widens to the East shifting under everyone’s feet, from Cleveland’s aggressive swing to Boston’s moves, and why the real Giannis sweepstakes might be headed for the offseason.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NBA trade deadline is tomorrow at 3 o'clock. This just came out from The Athletic, a bucks reporter who covers the Milwaukee Bucks for the Athletic. His name is Eric NEM of the athletic. Hopefully I'm pronouncing it right. Just secured an exclusive interview with Janus Antonacumbo. And here's the money quote about Janus heading into the trade deadline. Quote, I want to be here, but I want to win, not fighting for my life to make the playoffs.
0:28.6	So, I mean.
0:30.1	Yeah.
0:30.9	That means he doesn't want to be there.
0:32.6	Yeah.
0:33.3	This is the honest thing.
0:35.0	It is a nice way of saying, I'm done. Yeah.
0:38.3	We'll get to Janus, his future, the Knicks scenario, not just the Nixon, Janus, but other scenarios going into tomorrow's trade deadline.
0:45.4	But the guy that we trust the most does a great job covering the NBA for SNY. Ian Begley, Ian Begley, Ian Good Talk to you. Happy Trade deadline, Eve to you, sir.
0:54.9	Is it happy?
0:56.2	I mean, I hope it's happy for you guys.
0:59.9	Well, it's just interesting.
1:00.8	Interesting, even if not happy.
1:03.0	Yeah.
1:03.3	Why have we seen so much action on Tuesday instead of the leading instead of Thursday?
1:08.1	You know, I think a lot of it was teams, going back to last week, just wondering about
1:13.6	the Yonah situation kind of holding, yonest situation was holding things up.
1:18.1	And I think it's more of a realization that the Yonest thing is unlikely to happen.
1:24.0	And if you're a team who maybe thought you were going to get in and realize
1:27.8	it's impossible, then you go ahead and make your other moves and move on with your deadline plans.
1:33.8	Obviously, the honest thing is still up in the air, but I think the number of teams that thought
1:38.5	they could be involved either directly or as a third team had dwindled down. And that's
	...

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