Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - 10 Names That Will Define The NBA Season

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to Cooper Flagg’s NBA preseason debut before diving into the 10 biggest names who will define the upcoming NBA season including uncertain futures for LeBron & Giannis, some potential big leaps for star players, some fascinating drama around the league and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello and welcome to the Hoot Collector podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing after midnight, East Coast time on Tuesday morning. I've just come in from Europe.

Bond Temps has just come in from the West Coast. And McMahon was at a game tonight. All right, Tim Bond Tems just in from the West Coast, joining us from New York City. What's up? Hello, everybody. Walked in the house at about 1 a.m. There was a cockroach on the floor. Kay Bond was not happy.

Welcome home. That's the way my day is gone. Yes. Welcome home. Join us from Dallas, but not there all night. He was over in Fort Worth to watch the Mavericks play their first preseason game against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. And Van McMahon, it seems like the Thunder brought their A game, or A team for this one.

That's good. Didn't bring their A game or their A team. Top six or so guys, six seven stayed home in Oklahoma City for the probably, I'm going to say, the first Charleston Fort Worth back-to-back in NBA history. I would have felt pretty confident in saying that. Maybe not in an old D-League history. But yeah, hey, do want to give a quick shout-out. Five and O mean green, baby.

People that are watching on the YouTube, North Texas is McBan's alma mater, and he's wearing a North Texas sweatshirt. Hey, 5-0 for the first time since 59, have the ranked South Florida. Florida Bulls coming in Friday night. It'll be on the deuce, baby. My school is undefeated since 1954, so it is ahead.

It is ahead on the, on the rankings. Congrats. All right. How's what, Ohio State? Ken State. Oh, Ken State. Well, they lost 44 to nothing, Oklahoma over the weekend. Ohio State, I don't know if you heard, is doing pretty well.

Kent State somewhat had a better weekend than Penn State, so we got that. That's true. All right. So Cooper Flag played mostly in the first three quarters of this one. Only the first half. Only the first half. He had like a flurry there where he scored like 10 points in one setting. He hit a couple of threes.

Was handling the ball a little bit. Did not start a point guard though. Daniel Russell started a point guard. I was thoroughly amused him before the game. Our friend Mark D. Mark Dagnall coach the Thunder got asked about his thoughts on Cooper Flagg. and in very classic thunder fashion, basically said he had no idea who Cooper Flag was,

and it was going to be his first time watching him play, and he'd tell you later what he thought of, which I thought was very classic, classic Thunder language on one of the biggest prospects coming to the NBA in the last 20 years. We have no thoughts on what he could possibly be as a player at all. It was great. Good job, Mark.

McMahon, there was a possibility, I think, that Cooper Flag might have started at point guard, but at the end of the day, DeAngel Russell started. And what did you learn from Cooper Flagg's first NBA game today? I don't necessarily know that we learned a lot, but we saw, you know, the player that he's supposed to be,

and that's somebody who impacts the game in a lot of different ways. You know, we've talked about how he might make a bigger impact defensively than offensively as a rookie. And, like, I think his most spectacular play of the game is he's low, man, he comes swooping in when Isaiah Joe gets to the basket and just swats the thing off the

glass, starts a fast break, it ends with that. That's a lot. Isaiah Joe didn't know who he was either. You know, none of the thunder, you know, where this guy is like this elite shoplocking, you know, what is he, 610, 6.8? Yeah, they list him at 6.9. Okay. But, I mean, you know, he, this morning he said he just wants to focus on,

competing hard. He said playing hard, playing physically, playing in a good pace, and making the right reads. He certainly accomplished all those things. And honestly, so I knew he was only going to play the first half. And, you know, midway through the second quarter, he hadn't scored. And I'm just thinking like, I hope he at least gets a bucket, because frankly, selfishly, because I'm like, I don't want. Yeah, you don't need a story. Yeah, because it would have to do a story on that. Yeah, I didn't, I I didn't want, oh my gosh, Cooper Flags, scoreless in his preseason debut, you know, just like the silly. He was he a bust, blah, blah, all that crap. Because he played well.

He was defending well. He was rebounding. You know, he was passing the ball well. He just, you know, I think at that point he only had a couple of shots. One was a grenade three at the end of the shot clock. And I'm just thinking, if this guy goes scoreless, it's going to be a thing. It's going to be silly. And then comes off the pick and roll.

Oh, I'm sorry, grabbed a rebound, went coast to coast, finished in traffic. I'm like, all right, you got a bucket. Next possession, off the pick and roll, boom, hits a three. You know, a couple minutes later, a minute and a half later or so, drives, makes a nice spin move, gets foul, hits free throws. Another three off the pick and roll. And the threes off the pick and roll to me was pretty intriguing because that's something that he hadn't done a lot in his very young basketball life. It is something that he said. He really spent a lot of time working on this summer.

And I don't know if Cooper Flagg is ever going to be an offensive superstar. I'm not saying he can't be. I'm just saying I think he can be a superstar without being like a, you know, 25, 30 point per game score. But if he's going to become a 25, 30 point per game score, knocking down the three and operating off the pick and roll, he's going to be a huge part of that. Well, it's funny, that's how his first game went.

because I think if you talk to people who, you know, talk to you with the Mavs or you talk to people who have followed Cooper's career, I think there might be a lot of how his rookie year goes, right? Not that he's going to be scoreless for 18 minutes in a lot of games, but he's a guy that is going to play super hard. He's going to rebound. He's going to play defense. He's a terrific passer. He might be the best passer on the team. So, like, he's going to impact the game in a lot of ways. And that might take some pressure off the fact that he might not be a guy that's going to walk in and immediately score 16, 18, 18, 20.

points a game, particularly on a team on this Dallas team where, especially if DeAngelo Russell is starting, you've got Clay Thompson, DeAngelo Russell, Anthony Davis. There's a lot of mouse to feed on offense and a lot of guys who are going to shoot the ball. So he may have a lot of games where he has eight points, nine rebounds, seven assists, you know, couple steals and a block for something like that. And he does a lot of different stuff. It helps the team out. And I mean, look, we've talked a lot about the starting lineup. The question of, is Cooper going to be the starting point guard? Are they going to start DeAngel Russell? Are they going to start Clay Thompson? Are they going to start PJ Washington, especially until Kyrie Irvin gets back if he does? Like, who doesn't start

of that group? I thought it was at least an interesting way to start that PJ Washington, who I think is pretty pretty one of the Mavericks five best players, did not start this opening game of the preseason. Yeah. And obviously they went DeAngel Russell. at the guard. And it is, if they go with that super-sized starting lineup, then there's not a lot of shooting and there's less playmaking. So I understand going with Russell. But I 100% agree with you on the flag impact.

I don't think he's going to average a ton of points this year. I mean, I think I'll average 14 or 16. But, you know, he's not a guy who's going to, four shots that aren't good shots. And, you know, I think that is a good thing. But, like, his aggression as a score, especially this season, will be interesting to monitor. And we will monitor it.

I also want to point out that on Monday night, Victor Wembeyanama played his first game in many months. As he comes back from the blood clot for the Spurs, he had an incredibly productive 16 minutes the first half of that game. He had nine points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks in just 16 minutes. And six turnovers. So just looking at the box score. And six turnovers.

I didn't notice that. I'd like to examine how that went. By the way, Cooper flag, no turnovers. Okay. You know, like for a guy who had the ball in hands a lot as an 18-year-old. Absolutely. Oh, by the way, though, probably the best. Best player that Oklahoma City had in Fort Worth night in uniform was Kaysen Wallace.

And there were multiple times that Cooper Flagg brought the ball up to court while being hounded by Kays and Wallace and did not commit any turnovers. Well, that's terrific. That's actually probably one of the most interesting things I've heard about him early on here. By the way, the Thunder, did you guys see this Nicole Topich injury? This is a very upsetting injury. So, Nicola Topich is the Serbian guard, who, they drafted in the lottery in 2024.

He had torn his ACL. He was at one time regarded as a potential top five picks. Was he in the lottery, Bon Temps? Yeah, 12. Yeah, 12th. Yeah, 12th. Okay, 12th. He set out all the last year, came out in their first preseason game over the weekend

on Sunday and had a good game. Didn't he, Bon Temps? He put up good day. 10 points and 7 assists, 31 minutes. And then had a, to sticker procedure on Monday. and is out for four to six weeks. Hold on. He got hit and suffered a pretty bad injury.

Clearly. To the point where he had to have quasi-emergency surgery. Yeah. And I remember... Actually, I should say he's going to be re-evaluated in approximately four to six weeks, not out for four or six weeks. Well, I remember when this happened to Manu Genoobli about 10 years ago. Yeah.

Genobly got hit. I remember this, unfortunately, because Genoble got hit, obviously, in the groin. And then had to leave, was an incredible pain and had to leave the game. Like, you know, go to the locker and we didn't come back. And the media came into the locker room afterwards. And, you know, what happens when that happens? You know, it's obviously painful. And, you know, everybody else, you know, cringes.

And then they laugh about it. And I remember in that situation that, like, I remember Tony Parker, you know, the media wanted to like laugh about it. Oh, poor Genobly, huh? That really stinks. And Parker's like, I don't think it's a laughing matter. and that's because they knew that Manu was seriously injured. In this case, like the set of circumstances, that's crazy.

I mean, I haven't seen the play how it happened. I don't want to see it, quite frankly. But, yeah, he had to have pretty quick surgery. And so I hope he's okay. And Manu missed a month back. then and so I mean it's well it's done psych's gonna be a super long absence probably but still for a guy who missed all last year and had a chance to be a rotation player for them but you know it's a bummer on a friday levels for him going into what was what's this rookie season we had a chance to get some

playing time right away right so yes that that was a yeah the by the way Memphis grizzly's medical update I mean first freaking week Couldn't make the preseason opener. They're down three starters now, potentially from the season opener. Okay. So, so, Zach Heady, 100% out. Yeah, all right. So Zach Heady had surgery.

Jaron Jackson, Jr. had surgery. They're both out. And John Morant with a significant ankle to one of these, you know, they, I don't think they announced the grade, but they said it's week to week. So that sounds like, I don't know for sure, that sounds like a grade, too. And it sounds like his status for the season opener is in jeopardy. Jaron Jackson, Jr., they announced before training camp, would return to play in four to six weeks coming off turf toe surgery that he had in July.

That puts his status for the open in the first couple weeks of the season very much in jeopardy. And then at the same time, they had ankle. Yeah, they announced. He had ankle surgery, right? In June, and they announced, again, going into training camp, that he would return to play in six to nine weeks. which means he's going to miss at least the first couple weeks, if not the first month or so.

Yeah. God. If I was a Grizzlies fan, I don't even know what I would say. All right. So Wen Mianama, however, did have a very productive and turnover failed, apparently, but a very productive 16 minutes. Before we move on, I just want to shout out something happened in that game. The Spurs were hosted the Guangzhou Long Lions from the Chinese Basketball Association.

And they have a handful of Americans on the team, including Frank the Tank Kaminsky and Tim Frazier, who he played with the Nets. Yeah, he had a lot of places. Rockets, a lot of places. But anyway, Victor Oladipo, making a career comeback attempt, is on the Guangzhou Long Lions. Wow, really, I did not know that. And yes, you were busy at Fort Worth tonight. He came out and basically tried to put on a showcase of like, I can still play. He hasn't played in almost three years in the NBA.

Still not in the NBA. I know that he was working out all last year trying to hook on with a team. And I know that over the off season, he had at least one or two workouts. He had 20 points in 29 minutes in this game. He was one of eight on three, and eight of 19 overall. where number 52? How does he get number 52? I'm sure there's a story there.

But anyway, I think they are then playing maybe the Clippers in San Diego area later this week. So he has another opportunity to show. By the way, did you see from the Spurs Inter Squad scrimmage the clip that went viral of Wimby coming off the dribble. Was that Cornette who was guard him? Yes. Gave Cornett a bump or like knocked him back a few feet and then went up and just ripped the rim off basically.

Victor Wim and Yama showing major power off the dribble before going and do a dunk. It was like some combination of KD, Janus, and Shaq. What? Okay. Let's just ease off a little bit. Let's ease off a little bit. I will say when you look at when you look at Wembeiyama's shoulders, on arms and shoulders, and you compare him to where he was when he came into the league. I mean, he's not going to threaten Dwight Howard in terms of the size of his upper torso. But there's no doubt that his strength has really improved. Well, listen, look at Janus as a rookie and look at Janus now.

And I'm just going to tell you, Wimbunyama attacks the weight room like Janus does. That's all I'm going to say about that. Yeah. Well, I think Victor said, I remember the exact quote, but he basically said, I don't think anybody worked harder in the offseason than I did. So that was, you know, he certainly is putting the time in. There was a bunch of games on Monday night. The Rockets played their first game, but Kevin Durant did not play in that one.

So we'll wait a little while longer. The Bucks played their first game, but Janus Tenacumpo did not play in that one. Thanasis got five minutes, however, and did not score. Okay, so all that as a side, Bontemps, you had an interesting story post on Monday. your, I guess is this the second time you've done this? Rand Friday, but yes, it was the second year to row. I've been overseas. You'll have to excuse.

No, it's all good. He's hanging out with rich folks. Like, he doesn't have time to read your stuff. He's traveling to the Middle East. We're always hanging out with Rich. He's traveling to the Middle East. He's hanging out with our friend of the pod, Nick Nurse, over in Abu Dhabi, hanging out with his other friend of the pod, Mike Brown.

Seeing the Knicks, seeing the Sixers, doing his thing. In a worldwide window? What I was doing in Abu Dhabi will publish later this week, so I don't want to get too much ahead of it. But I did have a terrific experience, again, in Abu Dhabi, and had a crazy weekend where I went to the Nix 76ers game on Saturday night in Abu Dhabi and then took a flight through the middle of the night because there's flights all throughout the middle of the night out of the Middle East. because it's sort of in the center of the aviation world. So, you know, you can take a red eye east or west or south to Africa or north to Europe. So anywhere. Yes.

Well, anyway, the Dubai airport is bustling like crazy at midnight, which is unusual. Anyway, so I flew overnight to London. And then on Sunday afternoon, I went to the Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings game. What happened in the Browns Vikings game, McMahon? I mean, the Browns choked it up. Browns did what the Browns do. By the way, I thought that the Charleston Fort Worth back-to-back was rare and unique. And here Wendy is pulled Abu Dhabi London basketball football.

That's it's impressive. Worldwide, baby. Yeah. I enjoyed the experience of going to the NFL game in London. And Carson went through a touchdown pass with like 20, seconds left to win the game. But it was still a really good experience. Anyway, I would say that my takeaway, the Sixers were missing like six guys.

My takeaway from the Sixers is that Vijay Edgecom is going to create a ton of highlights. This guy is an absolutely electric athlete. And I know that if you study college basketball or you were a fan of Baylor, you would probably say, yeah, no, duh. You just now, but this is the first time I saw him play live. And he made a series of plays offensively and defensively. He had a driving dunk that was probably the highlight of both games altogether. He also had a block shot where he just exploded from behind the play and swatted it, like 30 feet.

So I think he is going to be just very, very interesting to just, just, just physically watch play. He reminds me of a young Victor Oladipo to bring up a cop from earlier in the pod. Like, I don't know if that's exactly what is. Maybe he's more of a Donovan Mitchell type or Victor. I mean, he's got a chance to be that kind of a dynamic athlete at the two-smobile. I think he's taller than both Victor and Donovan.

I think he's like six. He's, he's four. Again, and this is just reality for me. I don't watch college basketball. during the draft process were, you know, covering the playoffs. So I really do learn about these guys when I see them in the NBA. And so when I got to, I got to meet Vijay and, uh, and watch him up close. I was surprised at how big he is.

He's bigger than, uh, than I thought he was. I actually got, I saw him play more for Bahamas when they played in that Olympic qualifying tournament. I was watching that. I was very interested in that. And they didn't end up making them, but they got really close. And again, that was a team that had DeAndre Aidan, Buddy Healed, Eric Gordon. And there were a lot of times he was the best player on the floor for the Bahamas.

And when he was a lot of praise, you know, going to college, 18 years old. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. As for the Knicks, they were playing like 17 or 18 players, Mike Brown was. and they didn't play any of their starters in the second half of those games. So I didn't get as much of a look at them. But what I will say is obviously if you've even been loosely following them, they are determined to play more up-tempo as a team this year. And I will just tell you that the player that I can identify,

I would say my biggest takeaway from the Knicks is that McHale Bridges is going to benefit if they stick to this up-tempo offense, because Bridges is dedicating himself to get out ahead of the play. And in two halves, basically, that he played, he probably had four or five runouts where he got thrown ahead, where he either got an easy basket or got a foul. And you can understand it. You know, Bridges, his role is to work really hard on the defensive end

and then basically space the floor offensively. When he was in Brooklyn, he played more of a slasher role. it wasn't super effective. He would put up higher scoring nights, but that really isn't his game on a high level. And this is obviously introducing the where they're like, Mikhail, if you are willing to run the floor,

which he's in tremendous condition, you can get some easy baskets. He's embracing that, and Brunson's looking for him. You know, Brunson gets the ball and he's looking for him. So I would say, Bridges, I think it fits him. The other thing is Mitch Robinson,

who I would say is got an edge right now to be the next fifth starter, he was rebounding like a maniac. He didn't do that. He had 16 boards and 18 minutes. So anyway, that's my takeaways from the basketball in Abu Dhabi. A lot else was going on. Hey, we've all covered a lot of training camps pre-season. Either of you guys ever remember a coach saying, hey, we really want to slow down the pace this season.

That would be amazing, wouldn't him? It would be a first. Slow down. No, obviously, you know, that's the thing. And I, you know, I talk to Mike Brown about this. You know, he wants to play, this is a Greg Popovich thing. It's obviously something that's literally something that he did in Sacramento. But he wants to play 0.5 offense, which is when you get the ball, you decide in 0.5 seconds

whether you're going to pass or shoot. Or drive. Or drive. You do basically do something. Don't do something immediately. Don't hold the ball. I joked with him. I go, well, your point guard's a 20.5 player.

You know, Jalen Brunson led the league in dribbles last year. But, you know, for now, everybody's on the same page. Everybody wants to play 0.5 offense, so we'll see. And this is why Mike Brown was on my list of, to go back to, because we got distracted by worldwide window stories. But he's on my list of the 10. people who will define the upcoming season, which is the story that I wrote. Yes.

So you did this last year. Is this correct, Bontems? Yep. Did you go back and check your work and one of those 10 players last year? I can go back. I will tell you the list. I felt pretty good about it going back and looking at it. I mean, again, it's like some of this isn't, some of this isn't exactly, you know,

earth-shattering stuff. But, uh, don't sell yourself short. So last year's list was, uh, Embed, who obviously, I would say that. Yeah. Certainly the season was defined in part by him. Carl Towns just getting traded to the Knicks. Yeah, that just happened. Victor, put them on the list every year if you want.

Yeah. J.J. Reddick say it was pretty easy one. Rob Polinka thought so. He gave him an extension. It's true. Uh, Cooper Flagg. It's a stand-in for Cooper and also a pretty interesting draft class. Tanking went on. Barclay, part of the inside the NBA crew. Certainly it was a big storyline throughout last season.

Our new colleague. That's our new colleague. Wick Grusbeck, part of the Celtic sale, story. This is one of the bigger stories of the season. John Morant kind of fell off. But that was sort of the point. Like, is John going to actually be able to get back to being John Moran or not? And now he's heard again, as you said, McMahon,

They're already down three starters. Then the final two guys were Calvin Booth, GM at Denver, who went all in on this youth movement to build a championship contender with Yokic and had all these comments about how they could build a dynasty. And well, that didn't work out great and he got fired. And Mike Dunleavy, who was sitting on some draft capital and some players to potentially try to upgrade and the Warriors were in the mix for Jimmy Butler most of the years. You've done worse stories. Yeah, didn't hear the... It was a decent. It was a decent start. Didn't hear She killed the Taus Alexander.

Well, no, again, and as I said in the lead of this story, it is not a list of the 10 best players in the week. So, like, Nicole Yolkich is in the story. Yeah, I don't think Park is the top 10 player anymore. No, he's not. But Yokic isn't on the list. Shea isn't on the list. Luca isn't on the list. Certainly, they could all be on the list every year.

But the idea, they could see behind the. the list is to try to come up with the people that are going to shape sort of how the season plays out and the stories of the season in terms of like what are the interesting things that are happening around the league some of them on the court some of them off the court some of them reflecting things that are happening off the court player wise so that's what I try to capture all right so Mike brown is on the list you don't rank them you just sort of list them just did it enough about a quarter yeah no rank Mike brown is on the list as you said um and I'm going to tell you something, if you were a Knicks fan

and you watched how they played offense and you know that they're a good defensive team, you probably got excited. You had to get, you had to be looking sort of at odd times these games. The Knicks fans find ways to get excited when the team is bad, let alone when the team is good and the east is wide open. So the Nix fans are excited.

Excited and angry. They're New Yorkers. There's always an edge of anger all the time in New York. I can see it. Like you, if you watch them play you know, especially since they added some to their bench. Cass Corner, a little concern? Oh, we should be.

A little concerned in the playoffs last year. No concern? It was interesting because when I was in, when I went to the, there was a whole bunch of Browns fans that I attended. The Browns game went on Sunday. Wait a minute. Yeah.

I forgot a story that I needed to tell on the podcast. No, no, no. This is a story that happened at the game. You're not aware of this story, McMahon. Was this a, do Wendy say with the dog pal? Wendy was in. Kind of. So Brian had great seats for people on, I will follow him on IG.

So posted a picture, a couple rows off the field in the end zone. Oh, pretty great seats. He was with a mutual friend of Brian and mine who flew in for the game. And I was told McMahon that during the game, Brian got asked to take a picture with some Cleveland fans who graciously did so and when that when he took the picture, what happened, Brian?

They dumped beer all over me. It was actually it was actually worse than I don't believe it was an intentional thing. I think it was an accidental thing while they were taking a picture with it. It was actually worse than that. The NFL

who was, you know, potential partners with us here at ESPN. You know, we would never say anything bad about our company meant after all. They're their bosses. Very dedicated to the job. The NFL launched a new ticketing app for the London, I don't know, probably for all their games, but I had never used it before.

And the app crashed about 45 minutes before the game. And myself and several thousand other fans couldn't access their tickets. If you didn't put your tickets in your wallet, you couldn't get in. And so there was escalating drama outside the stadium. At the end of the day, I got in, other people got in. It was okay. But there was like a half hour there where there was like 5,000 people in line. And allegedly they were all going to have to get their tickets printed out, which was obviously not going to work.

And you fresh off an all night flight were probably very cold. Yes, I flew all night. And at that point, I wasn't sure I was getting in the game. The tough windy sleep update. And these Browns fans come up and ask for a photo and then just absolutely. absolutely douse me in beer. Just dump beer all over. I mean, what was their response to this dousing? They felt terrible, but that didn't make any, that didn't take the beer way. Because the beer was expensive or because they felt bad about getting you wet? Good question. They didn't clarify that.

I would guess what kind of beer was it? I don't know, probably one that you would have drank. They never went down that much. It was not Guinness. I can tell you that. I could tell you that. Anyway, I think that was a worthy diversion, McMahon. Yes, that did happen. I was told to bring that story up and I forgot. Yeah, well, it was like this is going to be great. We're not going to be, you know, we flew, you know, eight hours and we're going to, you know, all this stuff. And, you know, it's not easy to get to this stadium where they're having.

It's a beautiful stadium. Tottenham, Hotspur Stadium. It's an American stadium. It's a beautiful stadium, but it's not a British stadium. But that's not a proper football. football stadium. It's not. It's not a proper football stadium.

Also, I'm a Tottenham Hotspur fan, okay? And I'd never seen them, I'd never been to their stadium. I've seen them play in other stadiums. They won on Saturday, by the way, against Larry Nance's Leeds team. They won two to one. But anyway, it's sometimes hard to get Hotspur gear because of the London teams, they're like below Arsenal, below Chelsea, you know, in their fan base, below some of the other English powers like Man City.

And like I've even gone to like these big giant stores in London which sell, you know, proper football gear. And like, they'll be like racks and racks and racks of man you and man city gear. And then like one little corner of Spurs gear. And so as you can imagine, they have a team store at this new stadium. The stadium's like four years old. They have a team store that's the size of a warehouse.

okay i mean you know the capital of Tottenham merchandise on the planet door close completely replaced by NFL gear oh they literally wiped it all out

wow and I mean it's great merchandising I mean you can buy team gear from any of the 30 teams it's really smart but I go in there afterwards and it's like seriously the size of a of a small

battle ship, this team store. It's completely been rebranded and all that stuff. And I go up to one of the workers and I go, are you telling me there isn't a stitch of Tottenham gear in this entire store right now? And he goes, he starts laughing at me. He goes, nope. And I go, well, can you, can you just let me into the back? I mean, I go into the back and be happy by myself. I could have had a field day, but nope, we couldn't do that. But I don't want to complain. It was a lovely, it was a lovely day. Even though the Brown's lost, I had fun. If you didn't smell like such a drunk, you probably could have. They were skeptical of me.

They were like, we're not letting you in the storeroom. No, no, no. So anyway. Okay. The influential list. Yes. Mike Brown is on it. He is.

Calf's Corner was originally going to be on the list. Oh. And. Donovan Mitchell was going to be on the list because it's a huge year for Donovan Mitchell. Like the Knicks. The Browns fans who wanted to distract themselves from the Browns 1 and 4 record were all asking me about Evan Mowgli. Evan Mowgli didn't make the list either, McMahon.

Well, Donovan Mitchell was going to make it as the leading figure of the Cavs, as this is a massive opportunity for both the Knicks and the Cavs. But then, last week, Media Day happens. Yasser de Kupo zooms in from Athens with COVID. and declares he can't remember a conversation with the owner. To be clear, he appeared via Zoom from Athens. He didn't zoom in. Well, I think it's the same thing.

He has joined the team in, you know, he was, he joined the team in Miami. They were, they spent a long weekend in Miami because they were playing the heat there. So he is in the U.S. He is in the U.S. now. But he was added to the list after that because clearly the idea that the, the Yannis situation is settled and he is just going to be in Milwaukee and everything's

hunky dory and I'm not saying he's getting traded but yeah if we revisit this a year from now if we're a year from now it would be interesting to see you know if we do this in 2026 we look back and go boy you the point is the idea of

is this Janus's final season in Milwaukee oh yeah it's going to be coming up throughout the season, regardless of whether he gets traded in February or not. It's an annual tradition at this point, but Janus continues to make sure that flame is still flickering, and he gave it some oxygen when it would have been very easy to say, hey, you know, I pondered things this summer. I decided I want to stay in Milwaukee, looking forward to the season. Let's focus on hooping. That's not what he did. All right, so that will be interesting.

We talked about that last week, the West Eden's. Yes, we did. All right, you have an interesting name. A guy who you've had, I wouldn't say hot takes in the past about, but strong takes in the past about, Bontemps. And that's the brand new Max player from the Magic. They're paid him because they believe that this guy can be the best player on a contender. Because that's, that's, you know, he's not one overall pick.

The supermax eligible, Paula Bencaro. Yeah, that's true. He is supermax eligible. He could get a much bigger payday if he makes an all of the 18 this year. And he certainly is capable of doing that. And yeah, look, like, it's a similar story for Orlando like it is for the Knicks and the Cavs. Like the East is wide open. Orlando trades for Desmond Bain.

They, you know, we'll see what happens with Jayland's Suss. We haven't really talked about the magic a lot. This knee injury, this knee injury that he has where he still isn't practicing and he had surgery, I think, eight months ago. It's very concerning. It's like a knee joint. It's hard to even describe the injury. It's a really unique one.

So hopefully he's back soon because he's critically important to them. But Powell and Karen, to a lesser extent, Franz Wagner, are two terrific, big. wing players, the kind of players that every team is hoping to build their teams around. And both those guys have really struggled to shoot from the outside and have been very inefficient. And it's part of why Orlando's offense has really struggled. And this is a huge opportunity for those guys to take real steps forward as players and to lead this team to a top two or three seed in the Eastern Conference and potentially making a deep playoff run for the first time since Dwight Howard was there.

Like there's a huge opportunity in front of Palo and the magic. And like you said, McMahon, I mean, part of this is like if Palo is a huge year and makes all the A, he's going to get, I think, an extra $50 million in money. So like on a lot of levels for him, this is a massive year coming up. And I'm curious to see if he can really take a big step forward from an efficiency standpoint and really be a guy that you can be the hub of an efficient high level offense. Or is he going to continue to be a guy who's a high volume? low efficiency guy and their offense struggles.

And, you know, the magic remain a team that's somewhere in the boat in mid-40s and wins. And does it become a real factor at the top of the east? Like they seem like they have a chance to do this year. All right. Last year you had Cooper Flag on your list of, are you brand this most influential? Is that what you're branding it? The people, the defining people of the season. Defining people.

All right. this year you've got a BYU forward, AJ DeBanza, who is... Second-in-a-paid player on Ryan Smith's basketball payroll. That's right. Another window discovery. Oh.

Is that right? What, did you discover them? No. Windows definitely discovered. I mean, I've had a chance to... No, that's a joke. I met him in France last year, and I've gotten to know... It's not that far off, though.

Hey, Nerkich is on the payroll. That's true. I think he's technically sixth. Well, are you, are we sure that Ryan Smith is paying? It's a joke. It's a joke. Ryan, I just want to be clear. Right.

No. Yeah. AJ DeBance is getting, I believe, $7 million to play basketball at BYU this year. And Ryan Smith is a very notable BYU alone. That's all. Yeah, it's a joke. It's all we're saying. However, the point is, is that there's more people on the jazz making less than seven million than there are making.

That's correct. There are five players making over $7 million this year, including $8 million. So he's one of the top six highest paid basketball players in Utah. There you go. How about that? True. All that to lose to Alex Jensen's Utah Uts this year. So we're going to Uch here right now.

Uch. There isn't. Cooper Flagg was a pretty definitive number one pick a year ago right now. Yeah. I would say that's not necessarily the case. Definitely not this year. Although DeBanza has, and he played well in the, he played in FIBA, U19 and I believe won the MVP this year. I will say that I saw an interview that, and look, I'm going to, I'm very interested in Darren Peterson because he's from Northeast Ohio, the best Northeast Ohio prospects since LeBron James.

Is that true? I believe so. And so I have a special interest in him. But Bill Self, his coach at Kansas, Darren Peterson, said this week that he's the best freshman he's ever coached. And, you know, Self has had some players. He's probably right now the number one pick, though we'll see where this ultimately lands. DeBancor.

Darren Peterson. Okay. DeBances certainly could be the number one pick. Darren Peterson, probably right now would be the number one pick. Nate a Ment who is playing at Tennessee is a super interesting guy. He could potentially be up there. Cameron Boozer, son of Carlos Boozer, going to Duke. He's probably going to be in the mix.

Maybe not for the number one pick. But like those four guys are all big time prospects. Bichael Brown's another big time prospect. The top four, five, six picks in this draft are loaded. And it's going to be another year where, like last year with Cooper Flagg. And at the time, we thought Ace Bailey was going to be seen as a little bit of a higher player than he turned out to be the way his season at Rutgers went. But still, this year's draft had between VJ.

H.J. He's got to be one of the highest paid players in Utah. He is. He is one of the top five guys. So between Ace Bailey, VJ. Edgecombe, Dylan Harper, obviously Cooper flagged. The top of this year's draft was very strong. Next year's draft, probably even stronger overall between Peterson, DeBanza, Loser, Ament, some of these.

other guys to potentially jump up. And again, we're going to be looking at ping pong balls all year for several of these teams, Utah, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Washington, obviously. They're all going to be hoping to have better luck this year and jump up and get some of these guys. The tankathon had a rough ending for those teams last year, boy. Certainly did. Yeah, they had to keep a stiff upper lip, like the wizards and the jazz that keep a stiff upper lip. All about the nets.

Yeah. Oh, really. The worst tankers, none of them been. They all fell. That's right. Then income the Mazz 1.8%. There it is. All part of the plan, baby.

Fortune Favors. This is an interesting one. Your next guy on the list of all the guards in the NBA, I'm kind of surprised, but I'll let you explain why. Deerrin Fox, brand new Max player of the, well, he's not brand. a new player for them, but, you know, freshly off a max contract extension. We've talked about this before. Victor, I mean, McMahon said it before when he had him as a combination of four inner circle

Hall of Famers, right? Like he is a, what is your line, Brian? Don't put a ceiling of Victor Wimbayama. Is that the correct line? We don't. We don't put a ceiling. Okay. So he's obviously, he's back and he's obviously back healthy, which is great.

He's put on weight. certainly looks like he's going to have an amazing season, no reason to think otherwise, right? Are the spurs ready to come along with them? I think it's a very open question. We've talked about it a lot. Is the Aaron Fox the right fit with Victor Wemba Njama? Victor Wembenyama long term.

It's 2 o'clock in the morning. Is he a good fit with Dylan Harper and Stefan Castle? I would say no. I don't like that fit going forward. I don't really like a lot. of the fit of the roster around Victor Wenyama right now. And obviously Deeran Fox is the biggest name and obviously the highest paid name on the roster. So I think how this fit goes this year, obviously Deeran's out dealing with this hamstring injury.

Let's see how long it's going to be out. But if the spurs don't make the playoffs this year and struggle again, like, let's see where things start to go with Victor with the spurs, with where they're at in the West. And, you know, I mean, look, the way they're going, they'll end up with Darren Peterson or AJ DeBanza if they don't do that, and they'll jump up in the lottery again for the fourth year in a row. But that's why Darren's on the list,

is I think the story of, are the Spurs ready to make a jump? And is the Spurs supporting cast both the right fit and ready to start being a playoff caliber team around Victor Wemagnama? I think is going to be a story that people are talking about a lot, this season. Hey, McMahon, in this story, Bon Temps makes a case for a new nickname

for Victor de Yamma. The USWB just needs to worry about his own nickname. I'm good at nicknames, first of all. And second of all, I like the anomaly. I like it a lot better than calling an alien. I mean, leave the Bon Timbs to come up with some nerdy vocabulary word for nickname. Well, first of all, you know, who would like a nerdy vocabulary word, the guy who the nickname is for.

He's all about nerdy vocabulary words. I don't think Nike's going to swoop in and use that for their next marketing. I don't care about Mickey. I'm not calling the guy, I'm not calling the guy an alien. All right, I'm going to say this. I get... I'll call him Victor. Either way.

I get what you're saying about, like, it's time. His nickname is Wembe. Yes, it's time for the Spurs. Okay, enough nickname talk. It is time. for the Spurs to make a significantly leap forward. It's time for them to, at minimum, be a playing team to be on the right side of 500

and all those kind of things. In terms of like, if not, then what? I think that the real stuff there's were years down the road for that being like a real thing. Are we? Because I'm going to go ahead and go on a limb and say, you know what's going to happen next summer? Victor Wimonyi is going to sign a supermax extension of his rookie contract. I mean, that's a safe bet given no one has ever turned down a super max extension of a rookie contract. But if we're sitting here, but hold on, let's just play the game, right?

Let's say we're sitting here a year from now. Say the spurs finish 10th or 11th in the West. Let's say Deer & Fox plays 50 games. at this hamstring issue, even 60 games maybe, and the fit still isn't great. Let's say he, Dylan Harper and Safon Castle, do not work well in the court, which I think we all agree is very possible

because of the shooting issues. Let's say Devin Vassell plays 50 games again and has more injuries. You can pay this scenario pretty good. I'm just saying, like you're like, hey, we can talk about this way down the road. That's fine. like Jeremy Sohan picked doesn't look great at the moment.

Yeah. Right? Like I really like Dylan Harper. I think he's got a chance to be a monster player. Like I don't think the spurs are cooked by any means, obviously. I also do think, though, we could be sitting here at a year if the spurs missed the plows for a third straight year with Victor. And especially if they don't make the play in, which I think in the West is plausible. And we're not really sure about any of his supporting cast as he approaches the end of his rookie deal.

that I think that would be a pretty significant concern. You could also look the other way, and Dylan Harper could be rookie the year. Carter Bryant could be awesome this year as a- Carter Bryant. I didn't mention him. He had a nice preseason first game. I didn't watch the game,

so I don't know if he did it against backup Chinese players, but I'm just saying. I think the other way, though, is like Deer and Fox Fitzwell, the Victor. Dylan Harper is right there with Cooper flag for rookie to year. those three guards do play well. Devin Visell is healthy and, like, you know, is out there making threes and making plays.

And they're in the playing and maybe they make the playoffs. Like, I don't think that's impossible either. But either way, we're now in Victor's third year. If he misses the playoffs again, if you go back and look at all the big time players, I'm pretty sure most of them made the playoffs by the third year in the league. So not a scientific thing. I could be very wrong on that. but I know LeBron did after missing the playoffs his first two years.

Yeah, if you, you see guys in their third year often take big leaps. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right. Next on the list, here's one that our editors liked that you had on there. LeBron James. Who? Assuming that he doesn't retire on Tuesday, I don't, I might be honest with you, maybe you all heard what the, uh, his, I don't know.

I don't I don't know for sure what this second decision thing is. I don't either. I assume it's not, I assume he's not retiring. Yeah, I hope he's retiring though, because it'd be pretty funny and we'll be back doing another pod Tuesday at about Well,

that's true. One o'clock. I hope he's not retired. I hope he's not retiring. His future is uncertain, though. That is true. Whether it's retiring, playing,

continue to play in L.A. or playing elsewhere. So I can certainly see why you have them on the list, Bontems. Yeah. Is he going to retire? Is it going to be a Laker? Is he going to play for another NBA team?

Is he going to go do something else, as we talked about last week? Is he going to continue to be an all-MBA talent in his 40s? I mean, that, right? And that's the second. That's almost the secondary part, right? Like the current season with the Lakers is almost secondary to all this talk about what is this the end. If it's not the end,

Where is it going? Oh, that stuff is interesting. By the way, watch the Lakers play against the Sons Friday night. Suns is another team talking about playing fast with a new coach. Jordan Ott, big surprise. But Lakers, they didn't have Marcus Mark and gave Vincent. I'll readily say that. LeBron didn't play.

Luca didn't play. Obviously, it wasn't their full complement of guys. But they had a decent amount of their rotation guys. and they look pretty slow from an athletic standpoint. And I do think something to monitor with them. I'm telling you. Luke will fix those transition defense issues. He definitely fixed the transition defense.

But perimeter defense in particular, I do think, is going to be a problem for the Lakers. And yes, like maybe Gabe Vincent and Marcus Smart will be able to rectify that. But the Marcus Smart question is a really big one. And Gabe Vincent's missed a bunch of time with injuries. So that, I think, is something to monitor from a Lakers standpoint going forward is how is their defense going to hold up. I mean, they got Jake Loravia that fixes everything. He was out there the other night. Well, again, I think the Lakers have eight expiring contracts.

They still are holding future first round pick that they can trade. I believe a pick and a swap. Whatever they gave up for Mark Williams, they haven't traded that stuff yet. They got it back. Yeah. So they are a team that in theory could upgrade, but one thing that they've clearly made apparent is that that upgrade is going to be to fit Luca's window,

not to fit LeBron, which is a no-brainer, but that's an important thing to do. They may not look at this season as the go-for-it season. They may still wait for opportunities. And I think that's a thing. but also if LeBron is playing great and Luca comes off this summer and he is playing great and the Lakers feel like they have a window, you know, they'll be incumbent to them to, just to, you know, say, listen, if we're going to have two, if you've got Luca playing MVP level

and you got LeBron playing at all NBA level and, you know, that is definitionally. I mean, and Austin Reeves continues to look good. Well, and Austin Reeves also continues to be a very attractive potential trade piece. You know? The standard for them to trade Austin Reeves, I think, is extraordinarily high. Right. But certainly not an untouchable. If we're talking about the kind of trade that really moves the needle, you know, that's going to be hard to do without Austin Rees being involved.

Right. The thing about Austin Reeves is that he's going to be a free agent and you're not going to be able to extend him off that contract. And I don't know if I'm going to want to pay him that contract either. Well, that's a whole other topic. I know. I'm saying he's both a good player and I think a very complicated trade piece on a variety of levels for the Lakers. All right. Next on your list is another legacy player with titles and finals MVP awards.

That's Kauai Leonard. I have a pretty good idea why you have him on here, Bontemps, but you can explain. Yeah, there's just this little thing going on about potential caps or convention and, you know, whether he's getting paid by other people. places and, you know, on top. It's definitely getting paid by their places. The question is whether it was property. Well, that's also true.

Despite the most efforts. Yeah, I mean, there's another guy related to this who's on the list later too, but yes, I mean, I could have put it to put Steve Ballmer here for the same reason. But obviously, I let the Clippers had a very good summer. I think they have a very good team. Like, they could really be a factor in the West. Kauai at the end of last year looked sort of like old Kauai. again was very good down the stretch.

Can he actually stay on the court? If he can, I think the Clippers have a chance to be a top 14 in the West this year. And then you've also got all of this chaos with this, you know, what's going to happen with this. Aspiration. I can't even remember the name of the company. Aspirations. It's not like Adam Silver. You never heard of it.

It is, it's been a long day. I will just say, we'll see what happens with that case. and if the clippers get nailed for that and what the punishments are if they do and all that. I will just say I know this is not what people want to hear. Oh. And I also know that it's, you know, especially people who are angry at them. Got a windy soapbox moment coming. They're going to let the, I know this, it sounds so lame.

I'm sorry that it sounds so lame. they're going to let the investigation play out. And I know that there is smoking, there's smoke around this all over. I know that, you know, there's a lot, because, you know, there is Adam Silver was at an event on Monday and he was quoted as saying that the, the All-Star game is not going to move from the Clippers into a dome.

And there were people who, you know, thought that that should be a penalty. They should get, strip them of that. Even if the league finds the worst salary cap circumvention in the history of American professional sports and wants to throw 11 books at them, they have to let the investigation play out

and the investigation is going to take them way too close to the All-Star game. Because I see so much, and I'm not even blaming people for the overreaction. It's the nature of our society in 2025. Oh, so box. The Pablo podcast come out and it's like, they're going to lose 35 draft picks.

they're going to put Kauai in jail. Steve Ballmer is going to be put out to see like, you know, the Clippers will have to play with three players for the rest of the season. Just chill. And the same thing, it's like, you know, everybody frees. Adam Silver says they're going

to play the All-Star game in L.A. and it's been, oh, they're sweeping it under the rug. They're not going to do anything with it. You know, okay, just I know it's boring. I know it involves lawyers and everything like that. You're just going to have to let the investigation go.

You love lawyers. And everything will still be on the table. But that's just what I'm going to say. And I know the league feels the same. And all of this is why Kauai is on the list. For sure. Also on the list next up, Adam Silver. Adam Silver on the list.

Obviously for this aspiration, Kauai case, where does this land? What punishment does he levy? How do people react to it? It's obviously going to be a huge. story. The NBA Europe story is a very big story within the league. It's going to be very interesting. I'm not, I see your face, McMahon. No, I just wonder, like, I get it. It's a big story in Europe. No, it's a big story for the NBA. Do NBA fans care? Probably not. I don't, I'm not, I'm not saying NBA fans should care, but the NBA cares and the NBA owners care.

and they're going to be getting a lot of money out of the creation of this lead, which also goes back to the other thing that he's in here for, which is domestic expansion, and wherever that goes over the course of the year, because I will go back to the press conference he gave here in New York City about a month ago when I asked him, it seems like European expansion is ahead of domestic expansion. Is that fair and why?

and he got his backup very quickly and said, no, it's not. They're on parallel tracks and they're both moving forward and we just don't have things to report right now on domestic expansion. Well, what's going to happen with a domestic expansion between now and the spring or next summer? And is it going to move at the same pace as Europe? Because all I keep seeing from Adam Silver and everybody else with the NBA is, oh, this is coming in a couple of years, 2027, probably going to be playing this league in Europe. That's all fine.

They're on parallel tracks. Does that mean we're going to be hearing about the expansion process getting underway in the NBA? If not, when's it going to get underway? All these things, I think, are very important things for where the league is headed over the next few years. And that is why Adam is awesome. It's going to say that in Abu Dhabi, be last week. Adam Silver and Mark Tatum were there.

And they may have talked to somebody. I had an opportunity to talk to them. Foreshadowing. Yeah. Three power brokers and one of the room. I had an opportunity to talk to them. That's right. See what happens.

Also, typically during the season, unless you're at the All-Star game or the finals, you don't see Mark and Adam together. I guess, you know, at the league office, you know, you can see them together. See him at the press conferences. That's usually it. And typically when you're far flung at far, corners of the world, you don't see them together. But they were in Abu Dhabi, and they were also in Paris last year during the Spurs visit

with Victor, because what they're doing is important. They also went on a separate trip to Europe together over the summer to talk to people. Which again, I agree with you, McMahon. I don't think fans should be living and dying with the creation of NBA Europe. But the NBA throwing its weight behind this thing the way they are, it's going to to be relevant for a variety of reasons. McMahon, you knew that this guy was going to be on Bon Temps list after he, I don't think it's a super hot take, but certainly a bold prediction.

Amen Thompson, who Bon Temps has predicted will be an all star this year. Amen Tompson on the list. He's the favorite to an most of group players, so I'm not going to get too much. Because of your influence. Yes, that's right. I have influence on one award. I move the lines. I move the lines on one. award. Yeah, this one is easy. The Rockets obviously hope to be a contending team. They lose Fred Van

Vleet. Sucks that he's out. But like we've talked about a bunch, Amand Thompson is going to step into the gap as if not the number one primary ball handle. He certainly had the ball in his hands a ton. He's going to be a huge part of what the Rockets are doing. He's an incredible defensive player. If he has growth on the offensive end, he's a lot of the offensive end, he's got a chance to be a really special player and a lot of their success this season could hinge on how much of a leap he can make again, same draft class as Victor Wemanniamma, that third year. We see a lot of guys in that third year really take off. A man showed a ton of flashes last year, took on a much bigger role.

Now he's going to clearly be a starter to a mainstay with the Rockets this season going forward. So one way or the other, I think he's going to have a big part to play in how the season shakes You know, and I'm just going to say growth on the offensive end does not necessarily need to mean an improved jump shot or, you know, knocking down more threes, taking more three. That's not, it would be nice, but it's not necessary for there to be growth on the offensive end for him. when I was down there in the spring, and I'm working on a story about, hey, do you got to go outside to find a superstar

to vault this thing in the contender status? The answer ended up being yes, obviously, and they went out and got KD, but in the course of those conversations, I was asked, and it was kind of a rhetorical question, what could Russell Westbrook do at his peak? that I'm in Thompson doesn't have a chance to be able to do. Probably in several inches bigger.

Yeah. In other words, like, dude, why can't this guy be a dude who has the ball in his hands a ton and is running the offense and just creating havoc and overpowering people and overwhelming people with his athleticism and spraying the ball out to shooters, you know, while playing a breakneck speed? And then, by the way, Russ was never a dominant defensive player, despite what he wants to tell people.

This guy... I always loved when Russ... Why am I not all the defensive team? Because you don't play good defense, dude. Well, I like when he... What did he say about Beverly? Like, he's like, he's just faking it. Oh, he's full.

Actually, I was in response to my question. That was a... Pat Bed be tricking, y'all, man. He just be running around out there. You know, I don't remember the exact... That'd be tricking, y'all. Speaking of the Rockets, though, very interesting starting lineup in this game Monday night. No Kevin Duran, as you said, Brian.

But the man Thompson, Alperin-Shangoon, Jabari Smith Jr., Tar Heeson, I would guess starting for Kevin Durant, and Reed Shepard starting also. By the way, I just want to point something out that a whole bunch of the players who played heavy minutes in Eurobasket, especially the teams who went deep, have natural, including Luca. have naturally taken some time off. Alpe Shingun was like, no,

no, I'm ready to play. And he played 17 minutes in this game, scored 19 points, had five rebounds and six assists, two blocks. Plus 18 and 17 minutes. He's very young,

but, you know, it's not like Lucas 35. I mean, they're, they're, you know, I'm just saying, Schengoon is like,

let's go, baby. To answer your question. Yeah. Yeah. So, I meant Thompson did hit a three. And he'll hit some, but he's not going to turn into a average three-point shooter this year, much less a good one. But he didn't need to become potentially an all-star and even a superstar.

All right. Last guy on the list, and this is a good name. He played in the game. Did he play in this game tonight? I believe so. Who that is? Yeah, he played. He played in this game tonight.

Eight assistant, 18 minutes. Yeah. Trey Young. Trey Young would be Atlanta Hawks. Trey Young on this for a couple reasons. One, obviously, we've talked a ton about Atlanta's summer, and they're going to be a very interesting team in a Eastern Conference this year. But really more than that, it's for the reason,

he's a stand-in for the thing we have talked about a lot over the past few months, which is sort of the new paradigm of contract negotiations in the NBA, and specifically for these guys going into their third contracts and sort of what is the new reality for these stars going into their third deals. We saw Brandon Ingram eventually get traded and sign a deal with the Raptors. We saw Julius Randall, you know, he ends up extending last year for a little over 30 million a year with the wolves after getting traded there from the Knicks. there's been talk about is Tyler Hero going to get extended? He's not going to get extended, but like what is the next contract for him? Just talked about Austin Reeves before.

He hasn't made a lot of money, but like what number is Austin Reeves going to get to? And Trey Young is sort of in that same group of player. A really good player has had a great career in Atlanta. So a tremendous point guard setting up guys. Lead to the league and assists last year. Can still do a lot of things to help a team win. in, but as a smaller guard coming off a year where he had to kill these issues most of the year, is he going to, you know, I'm sure he's going to want something at or close to the max,

which is going to be up around $50 million a year, maybe higher. If I'm Atlanta, I don't want to pay Tray Young a max. I don't think they have a real way to build a team that can be a contending team if they're paying Trey Young at the max. But if they could pay him, say, 35 a year. over a few years. Then with Jalen Johnson and, you know, see what happens with Dice and Daniels on an extension. And maybe they bring Chris S. Porzingis back.

And they've got Zachary Riesh-Shay last year's number one pick. They've got potentially a super high pick in next year's draft coming from this Pelicans trade that they made this summer. Walker. Just signed to Cal Alexander Walker. By the way, in his first game, I believe was his first game. Yeah, first game as a hawk tonight. 13 points in 11 minutes hit 3-3. He's become a really, really good 3&D plus guy.

And the plus is because he can put the ball on the floor. He can facilitate. He's not just a 3-and-D guy. But he's like a really, really good role player. But look, I hear you putting Trey Young in the same sentence as those guys. I'm just going to point out from a production and accomplishment standpoint standpoint, point he's a cut above all of those guys. Like he just is. Now, is he a perfect

player? No, he's not a perfect player. I don't know. I wouldn't say he's a cut above all those guys. Of those guys, you mentioned, who's he not a cut above? I think the perfect analog for him, honestly, is Julius Randall. I think he and Julius Randall are very similar players. They're both, they both made deep playoff runs. Julius

I've submitted to the conference finals this year. Trey drove the deep playoff run. There's a big difference. Yeah, one, one time. That's true. He did four years ago. That's true. And Trey has made one all-emba team.

I think Julius has made two. And they're both players that are very good, but have to have a very certain kind of ecosystem around them to be at their best. And it's unclear if that is a formula that can lead you to be a team that can get really deep in the playoffs. I know the Wolves just got to the conference finals, but like, it's, listen, it's an awkward fit. Trey Young offensively is absolutely good enough to make deep playoff. His average double figure assists the last three years.

He's a tremendous offensive point guard who's a huge liability on defense. Right. And so that's the question. And I'm not saying the guy should, like, he's not a no-brainer max in this world. It is an interesting thing, though, where they find themselves in this. the situation where, you know, the decision's going to be made over the next year. Do they move forward with Trey Young or not? That's basically where we're heading here, right? Well, I mean, I think it's, I don't even know if it's that simple because, like, if you look around the NBA, and this kind of

what happened with Julius, right? Julius had another really good season this year. And I know there wasn't a lot of cap space out there. But, like, where are the obvious fits for Julius Randall to go? Yeah. It's not an obvious fit a lot of places, right? If you look around the league, who needs a point guard? Like, there's not a lot of teams where you just go, hey, they're going to go pay $50 million to sign Trey Young, even if you have cap space. Right. Like, it's just not, and that's not a knock on Trey. I think Trey's awesome. He's a really, really good player. Put the mellow ball in for Trey. Like, it's the same thing. Like, there's not like. Or John Moran. I mean, it's if you want to like try to construct a John Morant trade, again, set aside anything else other than like, who's going to give a bunch of stuff for a point guard?

The one team everybody sort of always talked about, well, they could use a point guard with San Antonio. They just traded for. Now they got three. Right. But like they made their trade. They traded for D.R. Fox. But my point is, the Hawks have constructed a roster that protects Trey Young on the defense, in extremely well from getting Dyson Daniels to, you know, the length and athleticism in the

Jacksoner Walker. Yeah. Yeah. So they've got these big on ball defenders. They've got lengthen athleticism and rim protection in the front court. So, you know, and they've been doing so. They've positioned themselves where they are a threat and a water down Eastern Conference. like it won't shock anybody if the Hawks won the East this year.

And he's never been like... I see Brian making that face, but they got votes to win the East in the... Yeah, I mean... It would shock you. It would shock you? I don't know. I don't want to... It's almost three in the morning Eastern.

I'm not going to... There are consensus. They're seen as a consensus. They're seen as a consensus top four team in the East going into the season. Sure. That's all you see. And the year they went to the Eastern Conference Finals was an upset run. He's never been in a position since he's been in an NBA where he was on a team that had legitimate expectations like this entering a season.

This is the best roster is bad. Yeah. That's true. So all why he's going to be super interesting. If they were comfortable, given him the max, he would have it. Oh, yeah. no question about that. And if he was comfortable taking less, he'd have taken it probably.

Well, look, the reason Bontemps has them on this list is not just for what the Hawks do this year and where they end up and whether they can contend for the East or whatever. But what happens, you know, if they can't come to an agreement on a contract, what happens? These conversations, I think, are just going to be more and more prevalent around the league. There's going to be a lot more conversation. There should be at least a lot more conversations like this. Nobody ever got 85% of the max. If you were anywhere close,

because teams... It's kind of like the supermax. Rudy's the only guy who's taken less than the entire supermax on any of these deals, any of these guys have been eligible for. Right. Well, he got, he went above his a lot of percentage, but not all the way to the line,

basically is what Rudy. Well, no, he didn't get the full supermax. He got like most of it. He got above what he could have gotten. without qualifying. Yes. It's almost like, in golf terms,

it's almost like, you know, having a very generous partner who gives you a five-footer. Within five feet, they knock it back and say, here's your max. Now they're making,

now they're just making you put everything out. So that's just, that's just the way that it goes. You get the five-footers? It depends. Who hit the put? Um, all right.

Thank you. sticking with us. Very long day for some of us. For all of us, because McMahon had a tool double duty. Yes. Also, McMahon with a very aggressive hike. Dude.

Yeah, okay, listen. I was, my training camp, I was in the air conditioning the whole time. I would clarify something. Okay.

I, on my little IG, I posted a thing of the gondola right on the way down. I'm getting a lot of, like, DM inquiries. Yeah, I hiked up, Grouse Mountain. All right? I did. Now, was I huffing and puffing? Was I huffing and puffing? Oh, yeah.

Was there are? Yeah. But I hiked up that bleep-pity bleep. And then took a little stroll and saw a couple grizzlies. Big country and Sharif, I named them. He did. He did set us a picture, Big Country and Sharif on the old group chat. He did see it. They're leaned up right now. Wait about 775 and 850. It didn't look too leaned up to me, bro. Yeah, no, better they get to like a well. That didn't look, it also didn't look like a very big fence. I was looking at the fence.

It was like a little bit of a barbed wire fence. It was sturdy. I don't know about this. It was sturdy. But yeah, I'm glad. I hiked up. And according to my little, you know, the thing with a bobber on your phone, it was 234 flights of stairs. So, yeah. It's a lot of flights. Yeah. I love it.

Now, Christian Clark with the athletic. He hiked up with me. I ain't a lie. I held him back. I took about four or five rests. Well, he's younger than you significantly. He is a young fellow. All right.

Well, thank you very much to Jackson for staying up late early in the season. Thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective. Thank you to make the man in the podcast. And we will talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.