Jovan Buha, an NBA journalist, gives the Lakers a 65% chance of making a trade this season. I read it on BasketNews, my folder open on the kitchen table.
My scoresheet has six columns. Points, fouls, time-outs, free throws, the rest. None of them takes a percentage of something that hasn’t happened. At our place, a fact happens, I note it. Before that, it’s just talk.
He’s methodical, I’ll give him that. Nothing immediate, he says: December 15 is the date from which many players who signed over the summer can be traded. Then a window, late December to early February. “Realistically, I would say probably closer to the deadline [Feb. 11]”, he said, and the deadline, the source adds, is February 11. That’s a date. A date, I know where to write.
The rest is in the game. Six wins, two defeats. Luka Doncic averaging 38.3 points in seven appearances, first in the league in scoring. Buha says that doing nothing to improve the roster would be “malpractice”, and he worries about the backup centre spot, with no reliable option behind Walker Kessler in his view.
I showed the article to a colleague.
Sixty-five percent, for us, is the chance the minibus starts in January. And it does start, mind you.
I’m not against probabilities. I’m asking who signs the sheet at 65%. Note in the margin, red biro: February 11, nothing entered before.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
