Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - 10 Biggest Questions For The 2027 NBA Offseason

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Bobby Marks to break down the biggest questions of the 2027 offseason including why it could be a huge summer for the Nuggets & Nikola Jokic and Steph Curry & the Warriors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. Hello and welcome to the H-Cook Collective podcast. We talk about the NDA, which we are doing at a time.

I'm not going to reveal. How about that? Joining us from Naples, Florida, where it's football season, thank God, is our front office man, Bobby Marks. Gentlemen, it sure is. A little night practice three days, three or four days in, and a little steamy in the afternoon. And the 530 to 7, 5.30 and 9 o'clock at night for night practices down here. Love it. Joining us from someplace in the Western Hemisphere is Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners. I actually spent this afternoon just floating down the Truckee River, tough day, you know, and then went to the beach. You used sunscreen, I hope. I did, although I don't think I did it real well on the knees. I've got really red knees right now, so.

Did you actually go into the Truckee River, or did you stay successfully on the float? No, I hopped in there. I mean, you know, got in the water and, you know, ended up going to the beach and hopped in the lake. If you get in there, it's not bad. It's, you know, if you kind of halfway it, then it's pretty chilly. I see. Is that glacier-fed? I once went whitewater rafting on a glacier-fed river in British Columbia in the middle of summer. And you had to wear a wetsuit.

Oh, wow. They didn't tell me that when we signed up for it. They sort of sprung that on me. No wetsuit necessary. And I'll be honest with the, I couldn't tell you if it's glacier-fed or not. I just know the water is. I'm sure it's not. If it was, you'd know.

Let's put it that way. Okay. Anyway, well, I'm glad you're having a good time. Okay, so, Bobby, you have a piece out today. We're not quite at the, if there was like a status bar for the 2006 off season, 2020s off season, we would probably be in the 90% range, right, Bobby? I mean, there's some, we just got a couple free agents trickling out there, right? We're still waiting on aspiration.

I was going to say a couple of, you know, some of three agents, just a little investigation that's holding up a blockbuster trade. You know, just a little bit of unfinished business. For sure. All right. Well, Bobby, you have a – speaking of 2006 drawing to a close or sort of so we think, you have your annual piece that you have in August, which is a look at the next year. That's right. It's never too early to start planning for next Christmas. And so you have a piece out about looking at the 2027 offseason, the 10 biggest questions for 2027.

And right out of the gate, you give us an update on Capspace because that's always the big barometer. And why don't you do it for us here and now? You know, it's fun. A year ago, we wrote the same article. I think I wrote there was a third of a teams that were projected to have Capspace. And guess how many teams had Capspace? Three. We go through the process.

So fluid. Extensions like Portland could have been a team in an extended Camaro and Shaden Sharp. Utah and then the Wizards go and get Trey Young and AD and Jaron Jackson and stuff. But yeah, I mean, we're kind of in the same boat we were a year ago. There's still, there's nine to ten teams that are sitting in a position to have money to go out and spend. Brooklyn, of course, Chicago, teams that were in there already. I mean, there's some wild cars. The Hawks are one of those teams that have flexibility

and they don't have extendable guys. Basically, C.J. is on expiring. But of course, the big one is going to be Golden State. I mean, Golden State, when we're looking at marquee level, I know Lakers were this year, marquee-level teams to go out and have spending power, it's going to be Golden State out there. And a lot of it's going to be dependent on what happens with Curry.

You know, the Curry, hey, listen, if Curry extends for that number, which is a whopper. I think it's like two for 135, 135, 136, something like that. That's going to take away. Like, you know, they're not going to be, they're not going to have as much as they potentially could, even with Butler or Green coming off the book. So nine to ten teams right now,

but of course Golden State is going to be the team we're going to circle here. Well, I think it's instructive that this summer, you know, and I know it's not quite apples to apples, but this summer, you know, the Warriors came to Draymond Green and said, hey, why don't you opt out? Well, I don't know who came to who. Let me not say that. But at some point, there was an understanding

between Draymond Green and the Warriors. Hey, opt out of this contract just to give us some optionality, you know, with LeBron and whatever else. And, you know, they ended up not getting anybody and they reigned Raymond right into the contract that he was already in. I know it's not the same because, you know, one is being signed right away and one is a year from now. But, you know, if there's, you know,

Well, if Curry and the Warriors can't trust each other, who can trust anybody? So I do think, you know, look, Steph has earned the right, obviously, to ask for the 135 on August 29th. I think that's the day when he can extend. Yep. I think two years is the max he can extend because of his age. Yeah, the over 38 rule. Yeah. And over 38.

Steph Curry's over 38. You know, like you say if the Warriors and Steph can't trust each other, who can't And, you know, Tremont's been there an awfully long time, too. Those are the two longest tenure players with their current teams. And Dremont obviously worked with them. They worked with each other to sort of kind of, after the fact, opt into the last year of his contract. You know, he declined it. Then basically opt in.

But interesting little tidbit from Slater where Dremont waived what would have been an implicit no trade clause because it was a one-year deal, you know, staying with the same team. but would receive a 15% trade kicker. So I guess Draymond's basically saying, hey, if you want to move me, that's fine. Give me the 15% kicker because for him, what's the use of holding up a trade if they're looking to get off him and he's going to be expiring anyway? Right. He could have gotten not even an implied trade, no trade. He could have gotten an actual no trade in there. The big one.

You know, how many no trades we have out there in the league right now? We got one, Dame. Yeah. Dame is the last man standing. Yeah, we had at one time we had Beal, we know how that went. And, you know, certainly they tried to get rid of, trade him in Phoenix. And that was hard. Beal, LeBron, Dame, yeah, Dame eventually.

But there's, they don't exist anymore. Teams don't give them, give those out. You know why, Chu, real quick, why you, they're not, because you can't have them in an extension. You can only have them in a real, and whom gets to free aid? anymore. So the rules for a no trade clause are you have to have at least eight years experience in the league and you have to have at least four with the team that you're signing with. They don't have to be consecutive.

So like when LeBron went back to the, actually, did he get a no trade when he went back to Cleveland? I can't remember if he did or not. I think he did. To your point, he could have gotten one if he went to Cleveland or Miami, but not going to Philly. That's right. And Dame, you know, signed with the Blazers, obviously had been gone for a couple of years, but because he had those two first two check marks, he was able to get it. Yeah, he did not get a no relocation clause, though, which he wishes he would have.

Yeah, well, that would be interesting. Brad Beale didn't get a no relocation clause either. He was relocated several times. All right, so let's take a look at, well, before I get into that, If Steph Curry is willing not to extend, Bobby, and if the Warriors don't do a new deal for Brandon Pajemski. And look, I'm not saying it either makes sense. I mean, if Steph wants to extend, you're going to give it to him and maybe you'd rather sign Pajemski now as opposed to next year. But if those two things happen, which are reasonable, and you've got Jimmy Butler on the last year of his contract, you'd have Steph on the last year of his contract.

Chris Haps Porzingis is only guaranteed 3 million next year of the 20 that he's signed for. He has a player option, but just 3 million guaranteed. Al Horford has a player option. I'm not sure how much of that's guaranteed. 7-1. The whole thing's guaranteed? Yeah.

Okay. Dramon last year, his deal. Right. Draman last year his deal. What are we talking about in possible cap space for the Warriors? Well, I mean, you've got 39 million in salary, caps at 174. you know, I mean, you got to, yeah, I mean, looking, it could be monster. It could be $100 million.

It could be a monster number. I mean, it really can be. Especially if you take Porzingis off, I mean, as you said. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously they might want to keep somebody to fill out their roster. Who are the other teams cap-wise that were Kew and I? So clips are going to be up there again. They've got a bunch of expiring, especially if they, even with Ingram, if that trade eventually comes through, you're looking at Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago, Golden State, Clips, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Sacramento, not really marquee teams out there, but Golden State is the clips would be interesting.

I think Clippers will be, you know, because that was always their big thing with the Clippers. That's why they structured some of those contracts where they were basically going to try to get two swings at it in 26 this summer, which they didn't because of the quiet thing is still in limbo. and then 27 when, I mean, we'll talk about a minute, like 27 free agent class. And a lot of it's based on who extends. 27 free agent class is like pretty loaded. Okay, let's do it right now. So it's only worth 100 million is only worth having unless you can use it on somebody. So let's look at the guys who as we're recording this can be free agents.

So we'll say Janus is one, but the likelihood is he extends in Miami, right? So we could probably take him off. Can't do that until the fall, but yes. Yep. So you got Curry, Yokic. Well, let me just go down your. list. So you have Janus likely extension in Miami. Kawhi Leonard, last year of a $50 million deal. The Raptors, if they get him, I believe, considering what they're giving up, multiple first-round picks plus Brandon Ingram, they intend to extend his contract.

Yeah, the plan is for him to go to Toronto and be extended, but it might not be up to Kauai. We'll wait. We'll see. Yonis is off the board. Kawhi, we just generally don't know. I would suspect he eventually gets to Toronto. It eventually extends, but he hasn't yet. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get. Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you. SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core,

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Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-S-A to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. All right, Nikolai Yokic. Now, Bobby, this is a complicated one. explain what Yokic is doing. Yeah. So he's basically, this is the second summer in a row. He's done it. He was eligible last year for three years.

He decided not to do it. And he said he wanted to wait until the summer of 26 because he can get a fourth, he can get a fourth year, basically an extra $70, 80 million. We get to this summer now and he's saying, well, I'm going to wait until the summer of 27, because now I can do a five-year deal worth $360 million. So it's an extra $80 million. That's a big number. And listen, I trust when he talks and he says, this is where he wants to be.

But man, you go, this could be a rocky year in Denver just based on where they are right now. They didn't really do much in the offseason ad. Peyton Watson's kind of, you know, still, you know, out there and everything. But I would not, if I was in that ownership group, I would not want that over my head. Well, the concept here real quick. So he's going to be 31 this year. Okay. So the idea is that if he doesn't sign now, and he signs when he's 32,

that he can sign all the way out to his 37, right? Or 36, 37. And so the idea is, why not guarantee yourself whatever, 70, whatever million in age 36? Why not do that? And if you're a Nuggets fan, you're saying, sounds good. I'm going to go to sleep and sleep well. But if that's the case, he's got a player option for next year.

So why not just pick up the player option and sign at age 33 until you're 39 or 38 or whatever, whatever it is? I mean, like, if we're to believe, first off, do we honestly believe that the Nuggets wouldn't sign Yokic to a contract that he wanted, number one? Number two, if that's truly what he's doing, and he's waiting to make sure he gets paid

the maximum amount of money when he's in his late 30s, if that is the case. and he did that last summer and he's doing it again this summer. Ergo, what do you do it again next year? He's got a player option. I'm not expecting you guys to have the answer.

I'm just letting you. I'm just putting it out there. I'm impressed by the use of air go in a sentence. Look, it's not a coincidence that the nuggets are diving deep, deep, deeper than they ever have into the luxury tax right now. They basically just paid,

what was it, Bobby, like $38 million this year? $38 million to keep Spencer Jones. You know, $6 million. For now. For now. Yeah. For now. $6 million and all that tax,

they are at least bluffing that they're not going to be looking to dump Cam Johnson or Christian Brown, which the widespread belief was that they would in order to be positioned to keep Peyton Watson. And look, Nicola Okich, a no-brainer Hall of Famer if he never played another second. a basketball, a champion, you know, multi-time MVP. He's obviously earned a right to sign the largest contract in NBA history and not have anybody question it one bit. But he is doing the exact opposite of what Jaylon Brunson did and the opposite of what Victor Wimonyama did, not in the years, but at least in the money,

where those guys, Brunson signed his earlier, taken significantly less money because his max extension of the time wasn't nearly as much because his salary wasn't nearly as much. In order to give them the flexibility to build out the roster, Wemby just took the, you know, he reinvented in the Fun Max, Wendy. I know, right after I buried it. Yeah, he made the Fun Max come back

because he wants to make sure they've got the flexibility to build out that roster. And Joker's got a championship ring. He's not prioritizing flexibility and being able to build out the roster. And I'm not saying that to criticize. I'm just stating a plain fact. There's probably been no lower stress superstar in the modern era than Nico Yolkich.

And people in Denver saying to me, I know this guy as well as anybody, he ain't going anywhere. And I'm not saying he is. I'm just saying I don't know how you can sleep well. I would say the two lower stress superstars, we can debate modern era. but Tim Duncan and Dirk Novitsky, you know, both... No, they're modern era. 2,000. So they're lower stress.

Both no drama, one franchise, legends. Duncan was the foundation of a dynasty, Dirk, was part of the team, a franchise that won 50 straight or 50 games and 11 straight years and won a championship. And when they're at this point in their career where a Joker is, they were taking drastic hometown discounts. So that's a lot lower stress than a guy who's taking every penny he can get. And there's a whole lot of pennies. Fair point.

All right. Speaking of the fun, Max, Carl Towns is a possible free agent next year as well. He has a player option, extension eligible this summer. Haven't heard a peep about that. There was just a very long Q&A in the New York Times slash athletic with Carl Towns. Covered many, many topics. The word contract was. I don't know, several thousand words.

I searched it. The word contract did not appear. Oh. So, you know, it's imperative for the Knicks to keep him, but the Knicks have apron issues, Bobby, and, you know, I don't know where this is going to land. I would bet the town's eventually signs, but he has not yet. I agree. I mean, I think it's a, and it's really the, so he's got another year with a player option

around 60. It's the year after. That's the one to circle because you've got Brunson. He ain't taking a discount. Hell no. I mean, he already did. It's time to cash it. So you got that.

You've got OG. You've got Bridges Hart. Josh Hart's extension is eligible to. He's got a team option next year. Yeah, I mean, that's the, as you said, Brian, it's like, you know, the hard thing is to win it. And then the hard part is to keep it together. And that's, that's it.

You know, you basically are going to have to have guys continually to take, to sacrifice here. but he's one of, you know, AD in Washington. You know, same thing. He's got player out. Yeah, so there's another one. So Anthony Davis. So Anthony Davis says two years and 120 million left, 58 this year, 62 and change next year, can opt out of next year. I don't know how likely it is he's opted out of 62.

I could see him opting out of 62 and getting a new deal that lowered that number. Question is, is that going to be in Washington or is that going to be elsewhere? So, I mean, the Wizards right now don't intend to trade. I'll tell you, all the Wizards moves are of a team that is very serious about trying to make the playoffs this year. In fact, Shams caused me to stutter a couple days ago when he reported that the Wizards were knocking on DeMard de Rosen's door just to check in there. I don't know how likely that is their roster is full, but, you know. I think AD's been knocking on to Mara Doroz's door, trying to... I mean, I just...

Again, how many guys do you want to have on your roster who need the ball in their hands? Well, I think the point... I'd like the number one overall pick to be able to touch it every once in a while. Well, that's fine. I mean, you can analyze that. I'm just saying it's more, you know, they went out and traded for DeAndre Aden. They went out and signed Chris Middleton paid, you know, significantly more than the minimum to get Chris Middleton. And I don't know how much he's going to control.

tribute, but they just want them there as an option. You know, want them there because he's a great presence around the young players on the rock. I agree. But, I mean, I'm just saying, like, Washington, you know, obviously re-signed Trey Young. I don't know if you heard. They are not, they are not easing into this, this AJ DeBanza area. So, okay, a couple of guys on this list, Jimmy Butler, he's eligible in February. We talked about the Warriors potentially wanting flexibility.

It's kind of hard to extend a guy coming off in ACLs in his mid-30s. But he's out there. A couple of situations in Phoenix. Miles Bridges was traded to Phoenix in the off-season. Has not extended. And it's my understanding that he's not going to extend immediately, that that may be something they look at over medium term. So we'll see.

And then Dylan Brooke. who was the, you know, he's been extension eligible for a while, right, Bobby? He was extension eligible, I believe, a year ago. And then he couldn't, once the season started, he couldn't. And he's been, yeah, since the season, since the finals ended, he's been eligible. Keep an eye on those two. I mean, they obviously, I think, had interest in keeping Bridges long term when they traded for him. And then, you know, Dylan had such a great year, a great influence on them last year.

I'm sure there's interest there. But the rest of the guys, you know, I guess, I guess, I guess also in this list would be Lou Dort. The Thunder, we're not going to extend them. I never say never. I think the Hawks are intending to play that one out a little bit. As Bobby mentioned, the Hawks are in position to be front of the line in terms of shoppers. And, you know, a lot of you can talk about Golden State, but I would say of the teams that you listed, tell me if you guys feel otherwise.

But I think the Hawks are the best positioned teams among the potential caps-based teams to put together a potential contender right away. They're in position. They're in position. One more interesting name, Tyler Hero, on the last year of a $33 million a year deal, or $33 million this year, going back home to Milwaukee.

Tyler's a good player who's been an All-Star. Not sure, you know, this is one of those situations where you may want to watch it play out a little bit. But he could extend into the season, right, Bobby? Yeah, he's got in a lot. He's eligible now, and he can go up to June 30th. Not making your list was Kyle Kuzma, also attention eligible in Milwaukee. Just point that out.

My students last week, or two weeks ago at Sports Business Classroom told me that they believe, I don't want to cast judgments on people that the Kuzma, the memos he's been sending out, or AI generated. I don't want to say they all. The memos. Yeah. He's been, memos has a lot of different things. A lot of different things.

Cap related, of course, right? There's been some things out there. So he's not on my list. I question the eye part of it. A couple of the other guys who can be free agents next summer. I'm not including for right now the rookies who will likely extend or have a chance to extend. We'll just like, you know, the Amen and Asar Thompson's of the world, Brandon Miller.

Let's just wait on that a little bit. But some other names out there who have options to become free agents or contracts are up. Michael Porter Jr. Keeping an eye on that one in Brooklyn. Julius Randall has a player option. Fred Van Vleet, is it going to be a free agent? Rudy Gobert has a player option. RJ Barrett will be a free agent.

You forgot the former Brooklyn teammates. Kyrie and Durant. Those are big names. I missed that line. Yes. That would be fascinating. Kyrie Irving is just sort of like he's like this big giant unknown, like, you know, how that's all going to play out in Dallas.

He's been laying under the radar. And the Mavericks don't have any interest in trading him at this point. Kyrie does not have any interest in being traded at this point. You know, I just think that's a situation that teams will monitor as the season goes and kind of transaction cycle to transaction cycle. Yeah. So, all right, that's sort of the, the broad top landscape.

One of the things that you are tracking here, Bobby, is the players who can make all NBA or win MVP or defensive player of the year this upcoming year and become Super Max eligible. One of those guys that I thought was going to be on the list was Victor Rambayama, but he has passed on the Supermax. So Wimby will still care about the 65 game limit,

although there's no financial incentive, he'll still care about awards, I can promise you that. Well, Bobby, here's who are some of the guys who could have a big year this year and knock themselves into position to really get giant paydays? Tyrese Maxie. Ho-ho! What happens down in Philadelphia, right? A little bit different now with the LeBron and there you go, Tim,

and Jim Brown on that roster. he's certainly won four for 301 I believe would be the number for him yeah how about that I mean these numbers we are not far away from 100 million a year for somebody I mean the Yokish numbers you know if Yokish does that deal he'll be he'll make 730 million in his career yeah well yeah we're also not far away from the first billion dollar player like career well I just thought it was going to be Luca I thought it was going to be Luca. I did too.

And then I thought to be Webby. I just saw that Macklin Celebrini, who is Rick Celebrini, the long time,

I don't know what his exact title is, but he's the head medical guy for the Warriors. His son,

Macklin, just signed a deal with the San Jose Sharks that made him the highest paid player in the NHL.

And the average annual salary is 19 million a year. Wow. One of my, you know,

I always take on like summer homework. So I'm studying in the NHL CBA. So the crazy thing. So when they, so talk about something I'm not doing this summer. I'm not allowed to. When they say that the annual average is 19 million, that's important because that's how they calculated for cap purposes. So they don't take like, so they could pay this guy

and he's really good. I mean, they could pay him 30 million in the first year and you can pay him like seven million in the second year. But as long as with the averages, that's what counts against the cash. Wow. Yeah. Well, my point is is that, you know, The NBA guys, you know, are sniffing $80 million a year on some of the back end of some of these deals. And in the NHL, it's the highest annual AAV is 19. Who else, Bobby, besides Maxie? Aunt Edwards. He would have been eligible.

He would have been eligible this off season. Or he would have been eligible next year. He would have met the criteria to sign in next year because he would have earned all NBA back-to-back years. But he didn't hit that 65 game clause. and arbitration went, you know, haywire. Do the wolves want him to get that or not? Because this is specifically designed. They do because the move they made it go get lamella ball

was to kind of tell the vultures go somewhere else. But the vultures can you turn real quick. And they don't want vultures circling around Ann Edwards. And one way to prevent that is to be able to pay him significantly more than anybody else. So I see another one here. Tyrese Halliburton would require a pretty big bounce back year, but, you know, it could happen. It could.

I mean, we went through, this is the first summer we haven't had any. I think we went three years in a row. I think we went Jalen, Tatum, and then Shea, right? 23, 24, 25, right? Yeah, we had no, we had no supermaxes this year. Yeah, you know, I mean, Jane McDaniels, if somehow he earns all NBA, I mean, he's a defensive player the year somehow. I don't see that happening, but he will be on the list. Zion. How about Zion? Imagine that.

He put Zion on there. Hey, listen, what do I know? Maybe Zion will have a great year, but even if he does, I can't see them giving him the Supermax. Well, especially considering next year's non-guaranteed. Okay. You never know. All right. So you also have on here the list of first round picks and what's moved around. Yeah. This has got to be the most. confusing batch of picks ever. I just want to read.

Wait till we like really decipher it down the road and stuff like that. I want to read you, McMahon. I have no hope of understanding this. I'm just going to read the words as Bobby has them written. This is for Utah. This is Utah's first. I've never seen anything more complicated. Okay.

Just so we see this, there's potentially two or three first here, Bobby. I can't even tell. I think it's just, they have the second most favorite. No, no, no, let me read it. No, let me read it. I'm just going to read the words as Bobby has them written. Okay. Utah has the second most favorable of their own Cleveland or Minnesota,

semicolon, most favorable to Memphis and least favorable to Phoenix. Okay. You follow that, McMahon? And that most favorable one can't be in the top five because they finish because of the new lottery rules. That's why Memphis, that's why Memphis voted no against the rules. My God. So, honestly, you know, there's capologists. We're at the point.

We need swapologists. Oh, my God. You're not kidding. Some of these swaps are like, we read them. And I just, I'm like, oh, my gosh, somebody please put this on a chart and like have the arrows explaining things to me. Just tell me the draft order after the lottery. And the dynamics of the swap that's filling negotiated with Boston as part of the... Yeah, that's a whopper. That's next year.

I mean, that is a whopper in itself. These front offices are getting more and more and more creative with the language on the traded picks or, you know, that one is it just a traded pick? Is it a swap that depends on where it falls? Yeah, well, let me read you Oklahoma City because you know Oklahoma City's got multiple firsts. Oh, my goodness. Oklahoma City has the two most favorable. Do you hear that? The two most favorable of their own.

Denver's, but only if it falls outside the top five, and the clippers. Semicolon. I'm not on my fifth finger. And San Antonio's if it falls between 17 and 30. Did you hear all that? Pretty good bet it will now. And by the way, just touching back on the nuggets, the Thunder have the nuggets pick next year.

and assuming it conveys again in 29. So, I mean, jeesh. One other thing, we know that Atlanta made that deal with New Orleans, and they ended up getting the eighth pick in this year's draft, which they drafted Kingston Fleming's. So they have another interesting, they owe their pick to San Antonio, but they have another interesting situation in this draft. Okay.

They have the least favorable of Milwaukee and New Orleans. Orleans. I mean, that's still got a chance to be a pretty juicy pick. But only if it's 5 to 30. Oh. So if they're both top five, the Hawks get hosed, huh? Or top four. Yeah. Top four. Yeah. So basically they protected it a little bit on. That's from the Dejante Murray Trade. This is also interesting. After offloading their, if you remember a couple of years ago, Brooklyn made the move to reacquire control of their pick, both in 25 and 26. And now, Houston had control of those two years,

and Houston pushed it back. So Houston now has the Nets and a Vice going forward. So they have swap rights with the Nets this year. And that was the big. Bomb Tims would always defend the Nets. I always said it was crazy to me. that the Nets gave up what they did. They gave up Dallas is 29 in that,

and the sons, was it three picks, Bobby? I think it was a swap and two picks. It's almost like he took out like a home equity loan, Brooklyn did. Like they basically like Houston loaned them the money and now it's time to pay up based on, you know, the conditions of that trade would have been reached met already. But it's, yeah, the swap and this upcoming year. And then there's two other futures.

Like there's a Dallas one. There's a Phoenix one. There's like some other things. I think there might be two phoenixes left. But regardless, basically what they did was they gave the Nets permission to bottom out for two years, permission to do, logical permission, to do the Bridges trade where they got the hall of first round picks. But the Nets didn't, you know, the ping pong balls didn't bounce their way in those drafts. They didn't get like, you know, they didn't.

get a Jay DeBanza or the, you know, or Cooper Flag or, you know, one of those type of players in these last couple of years. And now they're sitting there staring at a season when it's going to be tough for them to be real competitive and they're going to have to swap picks with the rockets. As far as the 2027 draft itself, the players, Jeremy Wu gave a little assessment for us. Several of the big names in this draft are big names in college. you know, new players to college in 27, 26, 27, are guys who have to play two years because of the age limit, guys who, we talked about this a few weeks ago.

Marcus Jr. and the Serbian kid who's going to UCLA. Yeah, I think there's three of them. Boomshay, boomcha, boomcha. Boomshay, yes. Going to Duke, I believe. Love Boomjee, boomie. Wu has Tehran Stokes, who's at Kansas is his projected number one overall pick.

But, and, you know, it's fool's gold to try to project the draft way out. But it's just not quite the same excitement as the class of 26. So, and then the lottery is going to be all wonky. I have no idea how that's going to go. It's going to be live right in front of everyone. I don't know how Malika is going to do it because it's already hard. I know. Well, Malika goes through, like, well, let's just make this story time presented by,

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Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you. SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core, working across every system. And it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow, AI Cloud ERP for any size business. I was at the lottery this year, and it's the first time I'd actually physically been the lottery in 20 years. And I was there in the afternoon. And Malika was running through practices. Like she was, you know, she was basically in the, I mean, there was a few, there was a dozen people or so in the room, but she was running through the lottery over and over

and over so that she could, you know, there are certain things that happened so she could practice them. So if this happened, that happened. And, you know, she did a great job with it. But yeah, maybe she should just hand that one off. Isn't there some tennis event that she needs to be? French? When is the French? We don't have the French. Oh, we don't.

That's right. We have the other three. We have the other three out of the other four, right? Yeah. I don't do. We cover all 10 of your questions, Bobby. I can't, I don't know. Well, the apron, you know, listen, the apron's going to be, you know, the apron's coming back.

Thank God. That thing ain't going anywhere. That thing ain't going away. Let me ask this, Bobby. How much do you think? The apron impacts the possibility of using restricted free agency to poach players. Yeah. Because I think, for example, I think there's a team like Memphis that is a Capspace team.

You know, maybe not ever going to be a primary free agency destination. I mean, they did manage to pull off sign and Chandler Parsons to a max deal. But if a team's in a bind and they can throw significantly more money, then a team wants to or can't feel like they can afford to pay to keep a player, I think it's going to be an interesting strategy that we see emerging over the next few years. I mean, it's like what happens like if Oklahoma City and Kaysen Wallast don't get a deal done, right? Like, would you just go in there and plop down and, you know, something on him? You know, the Thompson twins in Detroit and Houston.

I mean, both those teams are pretty decent shape financially. we'll see what happens with Jan Dern. But yeah, I mean, I think that's going to be a strategy. It's almost like a bigger version of what, which is funny, because OKC was a second apron team, then they got under, and then they go basically do the Spencer Jones offer sheet, right? Like say, hey, you know, it was a smaller number, but hey, you know, hey, if you're going to do,

if you're going to match it, you're going to go right into the, and pay a penalty. It's clear. I know Sam Presti's gone on the record with the, The Oklahomaan and said the moves they made now are made to create the financial flexibility to keep this roster intact. But if they're giving Case & Wallace a big raise, if they're giving A.J. Mitchell a big raise. You know, who might be available from their roster? I mean, they traded three quality role players this summer.

Could there be more opportunities like that for teams? We will be talking about it. at great length over the next 10 months. I like the story that our colleague, Zach Kramm, came out with a couple of days ago, taking a look at what players may be improving their position to be on the 28 Olympic team in L.A. This is an interesting time because typically the U.S. would have to go through the qualifying cycle in the 27 World Cup, which, and that's sort of like the stick and carrot, you tell some young players who maybe haven't had a chance to make the big team yet,

come play in the World Cup, you play well enough, you end up qualifying. This is what happened with Ann Edwards, for example. He played in 2023 in the World Cup. What's the best part of the team? He's on the 24 Olympic team, same with Tyrese Halliburton. And so, Cram's looking at that. But the U.S. does not have to qualify for the World Cup in 27. because the U.S. is hosting.

The World Cup in 27 is actually supposed to take place in Doha. You know, the NBA was planning on having games in Doha this fall. I believe the Wizards and Nets were planning on going there and possibly even the calves and the calves and the calves and heat were looking at going to Abu Dhabi, and then I think going to Doha. But the Wizards and Nets were going to Doha. Those were, they never were announced.

And a few days ago, the NBA decided to just move on from that, obviously, because of the situation in the Middle East. I hope that we're not at war any longer a year from now. But if the World Cup is still in Qatar, I don't know how attractive it's going to be for players to go. try to play there when the U.S. doesn't have to qualify. But he named some players to keep an eye on. And a couple of them I thought were very interesting. One, Scotty Barnes, McMahon, absolutely. Two-way player, great size, can hit the outside shot,

defends. Definitely a guy, I think, will get invited to the World Cup team. I agree with everything you said except for the outside shot part, but he can play one through five. Phenomenal athlete. And, you know, a playmaker, a finisher, an elite defensive player. Yeah, he would make a lot of sense. Another guy, Jaden McDaniels.

Now, the big problem and not, I'm not, again, I don't care so much about the World Cup in 27. I mean, it's a good event that you learn a lot at. I care. I've covered three World Cups. Trust me, I care. But like, I don't care so much about the U.S.'s performance. But when you're looking at the 28 Olympics, you're looking at the French who have played the U.S. and the final last two Olympics. And you're looking at Victor. And you're wondering about Victor and how you're going to handle that. Well, Jaden McDaniels had some moments against Victor in the playoffs this year. Cram mentions him, and I think he's a candidate too, Bobby. Well, and I think he's a candidate too, because I think he's going to be spotlighted probably more this year with no Julius and no Nas Reed in Minnesota.

I think you saw offensively he could, you know, carry a little bit there in that Denver series, certainly when they had all those injuries. Close out. Hey, my goodness. Oh, yeah. I mean, and they're going to probably plan him at the four, right? I think he's something.

I don't think they have a choice. Yeah. I don't think they have a choice. But no, he's an interesting guy. You know, you see him and maybe next summer and Billy didn't maybe try to get one of those final spots. And you also, you have to have guys who are capable, willing, and proven role players, you know, like you can't have everybody who thinks they're going to score 28 points a game. That's why Derek White, you know, there was a lot of, you know, there's, you know, there was, obviously people had things that they thought about. Derek Wright was one of the last guys' pick.

Well, Derek White has no problem being a role player. Right. And that was part of the reason why he was on that roster in Paris. Cram has con Cohn Cineppel on here. And obviously a guy who can shoot like that is valuable in any league in the world. He has Cimple under the stock falling. Yeah. He doesn't have Cooper Flagg, who absolutely.

Absolutely, I think, will be, he was tremendous on the select team. They have a team that goes to camp that started to play against the senior team. Flagg was headed into his freshman year at Duke, his only year at Duke, and he was one of the best players on the court. Everybody walked away, just blown away impressed. Not that they didn't know already, but that was like the highest level competition to ever see him play against. In this story, he's got a handful of guys whose stock has rise and a handful of guys whose stock is falling. It's not necessarily a roster projection. Right, right.

I think everybody would be pretty shocked if Cooper Flags not on the 28 Olympic roster for Team USA. He has Jalen Brunson on here as well as the stock rising. And of course, Jalen Brunson played on the 2023 World Cup team and was not particularly effective. Players that are undersized and defensively challenged are not something Team USA typically looks to. Having said that, he's undersized and defensively challenged in the NBA and just won the finals MVP. I have you scored 45 in the World Cup game. I seem to remember that performance of him managing Victor quite well in that situation. But also, you know, Chris Paul was that way too, and Chris Paul won multiple gold medals.

So it's not an ironclad rule. I would agree if Jalen Brunson wants to play, that that'll be the case. So obviously there's some legacy guys. If LeBron wants to play, he'll get a roster spot. Now, that one's interesting because LeBron has said, you know, he's got the quote in here. LeBron has said in November on his podcast, don't even ask, I'll be watching it from Cabo. But he just made it very clear. He plans to play at least two years for Philly.

And if he's going to have his career end with the 27-28 NBA season, why not go out with the fifth Olympics? He's got a place in L.A. He doesn't even have to stay in a hotel, you know? It's quite a place in L.A. I've heard. Durant is not on Zach's list here, but if Durant wants,

Durant is the greatest U.S. Olympian in basketball ever. I would think Durant, if he wants to play in the next Olympics, would have a chance to be the flag bearer, quite frankly. Yeah. Unless it's LeBron. LeBron's already done it. In the driving rain on the Sen. in Paris. So anyway, check out Zach's article. It's got a lot of good stuff in it.

Thank you so much to our producers. Thank you to Jackson for limping through some technical difficulties on this one. Thank you to Bobby and McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you in the next couple days. Adios amigos.