James Harden on the Move Again, Giannis’s Bidding War, and the Trade Deadline Outlook

The Mismatch

The Ringer

Sports

4.7 • 5.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Verno and Jacoby return ahead of the trade deadline to discuss the latest news and rumors around the league, beginning with the latest report that James Harden and the Clippers are working on a trade to send him out of Los Angeles. They then go through the latest surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo and debate which of the reported teams is most likely to acquire him. Next, the guys ask six questions ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(00:46) James Harden and the Clippers are reportedly working on a trade before the deadline(13:54) Giannis trade talks are heating up(24:10) What would you tell Jon Horst (Bucks GM) to prioritize in any Giannis trade?(33:11) Ja Morant's trade outlook(51:00) LeBron James, Lakers reportedly ready to move on from one another(46:23) Players with expiring contracts who could possibly be traded(53:35) Which player do you not want to see traded?(55:59) Which player do you want to see traded the most?(58:08) Which team that has no chance of contending needs a win-now move?(1:01:43) Best move to make for a team to contend next year(1:07:15) Realistic but hilarious trades that could happen(1:08:32) What non-NBA trade would you make? Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! (323) 389-5091 Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez, Stefan Anderson, and Jeff ShearinSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan.
0:19.1	To join me see us every week from the wringer.com is Dave Jacoby.
0:22.0	Jacobi.
0:23.4	So, Bruno, it's a trade deadline week.
0:25.3	And there's been a lot of discussion about a lot of things,
0:27.4	mainly the honest with the coupon, whether or not he's going to go somewhere or where or win.
0:30.8	And then last night, you got some news.
0:35.9	Shams Sharania reports right when I am trying to settle down for the night.
0:41.9	Ding, phone goes off.
0:43.8	I was like, hey, I hope nothing's wrong.
0:46.5	The Los Angeles Clippers and 11-time All-Star James Hardin are working through whether the
0:52.0	sides can find a deal by Thursday's NBA trade deadline,
0:56.2	according to ESPN.
0:57.3	Both sides are aligned in conversations together with interested teams.
1:02.5	Okay.
1:03.0	So this one came out of nowhere because the Clippers had gone on this run after starting the season so dismally.
1:12.2	They had won, what, 17 out of 21 games.
1:16.2	Things were going well.
1:18.4	And so this one was a shock to me.
1:20.7	But then when you read the following stories, and as we record this on Tuesday morning,
1:26.9	this came out late Monday night. And so
1:30.0	hopefully nothing has happened by the time you are listening to us. But just to suss it out,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.