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WTLC Daily Loud Links: January 7, 2014

Here are your Tuesday loud links as we prepare for Thunder vs Jazz tonight!

Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The guaranteed contract deadline is coming up and NBA teams are scrambling around to make deals that can help out their cap situation. There were a couple of deals made Monday night and that were completed on Tuesday morning, including a deal made by Sam Presti and the Thunder.

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First let's start off with the weird. Dennis Rodman, who has not been shy about his love towards North Korea, took seven former NBA players to N. Korea for an exhibition game. Rodman has always been a weird guy, but now he's just taking his weirdness to new heights. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Now, let's check out the Daily Thunder and their player power rankings:

KD on Lamb: "I love everything about Jeremy. What he brings to the table for our team. He can do it all. He's athletic. He can pass, he can dribble, he can shoot. But I like his intensity, I like his focus, his hard work. With all of that, anything can be done on the court by him."

ESPN also got together and did their 5-on-5 roundtable and they discussed the early MVP: Kevin Durant or LeBron James? It was really close, but Durant got the nod three votes to two

Sunnergren: Kevin Durant. The 25-year-old has been, statistically, the best player in basketball in 2013-14 by the reckoning of all the publicly available advanced metrics, all while carrying his team to the best record in the West -- and just a half-game behind the Pacers for the top mark in the sport -- despite the absence of his No. 2. He's earned it.

Like I mentioned earlier, NBA teams are trying to get rid of some contracts at this point in the season, and the Thunder traded away Ryan Gomes to the Celtics for a couple of draft picks. Here is a full breakdown, by our very own website.

That wasn't the only deal made last night, as the Bulls and the Cavaliers got together right after the BCS National Championship game and made a pretty big deal. Chicago gets Andrew Bynum and a draft pick while the Cavaliers picked up Luol Deng.

Here is a nice piece on how Deng fits in with the Cavaliers by SB Nation's Fear The Sword.