Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - A Big Concern For LeBron & Lakers? + Flagg’s Improvement & Brooks’ Impact

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss their concern level with LeBron’s struggles, if LA’s stars make sense together on defense and the huge game from Dillon Brooks for the Suns. Then, the crew talks the continuing disaster for the Clippers and the mounting injuries in Denver before awarding the Cojones Factor Player of the Month and much 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, welcome to the HOOC collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Tuesday afternoon slash evening, joining us from New York City, where his infant son has just crawled for the first time,

thus delaying the start of the podcast, Timbont Temps. Hello, everybody. He'll be crawling all over the place. It won't be novel in about 36 hours. That's true. That's true. That's from Los Angeles, California, where he attended the Lakers versus Suns game on Monday, where the Sons broke the Lakers' seven game winning streak is Ban McMahon.

Howdy, partners, reunited with old Dylan the villain. Oh, yes. He definitely enjoyed his night at Crypto.com Arena. The only person happier than Dylan Brooks last night was McMahon, who saw the story coming during the game and knew he would just have to stand there and hold the recorder out for about five minutes. Just put it on the page. Yes, you know, you and Dylan have had your moments over the years.

In this fairy arena. Yes, was Polk the Bear in Staples? No, poke the bear was. but I ain't talking repeatedly sure was. And, you know, that's why, like, playing in that arena means a lot to Dylan Brooks because the worst moments of his professional career came in that arena when he made himself a story and he didn't back up his talking and he was pretty publicly humiliated. And, you know, he's public being number one in that arena to this day, you know, a couple of teams later.

But he backed up all his talk last night, did a lot of talk. and a lot of hooping. Is it fair, Brian, to call McMahon and Dylan Brooks, kindred spirits? Is that a fair comment? It's like how it is, kind of fair. I think we might be, I think we might be lifting both of them up a little bit with that one. But I would call them kind of spirits at least. Thank you for picking up what I was saying.

Well, the other day, you did lift McMahon up to the heights of like Walter Cronkite as a journalist. So I don't know. Maybe you are being serious and putting them on that level. I don't think McMahon's deft questioning was needed on this. night. No, no, no. I will say this. What was needed was to find the record

button. I have seen many impressive pieces of jewelry in NBA locker over the night time. But Dylan's gigantic DB necklace, which looked on television

like it was covered in real jewels. That was up there, McMahon. It was up there. You said that one for a minute. The biggest post-game surprise was that the

glasses he put on were not shades. They were just regular old glasses. I mean, you know, maybe he's still a standard move. Man, maybe he's growing older and wiser, but he used to always be a, you know, a shades guy post game for sure. But, you know, he had some bling. Yeah. So he had 33 points.

By the way, he is averaging. Now, he's, he is not shooting efficiently from three. He's never taken more threes and he's never been worse on his threes. But they seem to be okay with it in Phoenix because. of injuries elsewhere that they've had no Jalen Green. Grayson Allen has been out for huge chunks of the season. Now Devin Booker hurt his groin. We don't have an update on that,

but that doesn't seem like it's a good sign for Phoenix. He's averaging eight more points in game this year, McMahon, and hoisting. So he got 33, but more importantly, he was part of the defense that smothered the Lakers, you know, really Austin Reefs had one of his worst games of the year. LeBron extended his double scoring digit streak by the skin of his teeth. Luca had 38, but it was not a good game by Lucas standards. The Sons going from 27th in the league in defense to 13th, which is a huge move for them

and one that not everybody expected that Matt Ishbia did. But Dylan, you know, had his moment. You know, he won this battle. Well, and he's having a season so far. The guy's averaging 22.3 points. And no, he's not shooting the three well, but he's shooting the two at over 57%. He's become like this mid-range master. Now, we'll see if that sustains, but I guarantee you, you know what will sustain is this relentless energy.

And he's going to get in people's face. He's going to pressure people defensively. He's going to set a physical kind of snarling, play hard type of tone. And look, man, that series that, series that, series, we're talking about when the Grizzies got humiliated and it was his last moments in a Memphis uniform and for a variety of reasons things had run its course with Dylan and I wouldn't I thought it was insane the contract the Rockets gave him after that. I thought Dylan Brooks was a guy that you wouldn't want on your team. I've got to give this guy a ton of credit because let me tell

you, he was a huge part of creating the culture that they have in Houston. Him and Fred Van Blee, bringing those guys in, that toughness, and frankly, the work ethic. And he really held, and they would take him back in Houston in a heartbeat. They love him. He's actually their next game's in Houston. And I'm telling you, he's going to be showered love from the crowd. Four years, 86 million, by the way, that deal you're talking about. I didn't like the deal at the time either.

He's definitely, he's definitely lived up to it. He was worth every penny of it. And the same way that he was able to help establish. that kind of tough, hardworking culture in Houston. He's doing the same thing for Phoenix. He has been, dude, this is a team that needed a cultural reset in the worst way. And I'm telling you, these guys, it's Devin Booker's franchise, right? We understand that. These guys are also following Dylan Brooks. Those are the two leaders of this team. And the scoring stuff is, I'm going to say it's even a bonus. Now, last night they needed it because unfortunately,

Kevin Booker had a groin strain in the first quarter and didn't play the rest of the game. But listen, Dylan Brooks talking trash after every shot going back and forth to fans. He's barking at celebrities. I don't even know if he knew who they were. I didn't. But and then doing all the, like, the histrionics, you know, mimicking the LeBronge shoulder shrug while staring him down after a dunk. I mean, it was, it was all. We showed the quote unquote highlight on NBA today.

where Jay Redick was trying to shout instructions to LeBron, and LeBron was over yapping with Dylan. Dylan was on the bench. LeBron was completely distracted yapping at him on the bench. Yeah. And he was so, Dylan took such delight in getting under LeBron's skin. And he said, you know, he likes people that bow down. I don't bow down. Dylan, he is, listen, he's entertaining as hell.

if he's on your team, you love him, except for Grizzlies' management certainly didn't at the end. If he's not on your team, you'd probably despise him. But if you're impartial, you're at least entertained by it. There's been sort of this class

of LeBron antagonist over the years, Deshawn Stevenson, Lance Stevenson, you know, Dylan Brooks is a better player than those two guys. But, you know, LeBron has seen these types of guys come and go who, you know,

take it, you know, he's, you know, uh, Joe Kim Noah, you know, that wasn't quite the same because, you know, Joe didn't guard LeBron, but Joe, um, uh, he, he had the same thing. There, there were moments where Joachim and, and LeBron would get into, into yapping matches at the foul line or when Joaquin was on the bench and LeBron was on the court, you know, like guys who've been, you know, retired for a decade plus, you know, have had these things with him. So it's a long, line, but look, like, it, sometimes it, it's very hard to beat LeBron head to head. And if you feel like occasionally you can get to him, you know, 5% of the time, maybe it's not the worst strategy. LeBron did not have a good night bond temps. For the first time, really, this season, I felt

like LeBron looked, looked his age, or maybe not his age, but he looked like an older NBA player as opposed to what we saw. I actually felt he's moved okay this season. This game, he had no rebounds, no steals, no blocks, which is the first time that's happened in his career. And you could, you know, 10 points in 31 minutes, he was not himself. No, I'm real quick on the Suns.

Colin Gillespie has been an unbelievable story. Villain Jr. Shooting 44% from three. He had eight threes in that. game last night. He has turned himself into a starting point guard. He's going to be an interesting guy to see how much money he gets as a free agent next summer. But he has been an unbelievable story. Excuse me, sir. Colin Gillespie is NBA champion. He is. Well, true. And he was in Denver and Denver didn't retain him. And he wound up in Phoenix. By the way, he certainly

would help the Rock, help the Nuggets. It is interesting that the Nuggets who could use guys exactly like that minimum level guys who can play rotation minutes. They drafted Jaden Pickett and I sort of wanted to give that role to him and Gillespie left. But Glewesby was on the roster for Denver's title team two years ago. The guy who asked about last night, Jay Hoff, I believe, was also at one point. He was definitely with the Lakers at one point. I believe he might have also been with Denver. But be that as it may, on the LeBron side of things,

last night was the first time I'd had a chance to sit and watch him play this season since he's come back. I'd seen little brief highlights before that. I was pretty taken aback at how old he looked on the court. And he didn't look like he ever ran at any point in the game. Look, he was mostly just jogging. And I thought the moment of the night, frankly, was Dylan Brooks goes up for a layup. LeBron loads up to come flying in and do his patented block off the backboard. And it looked like he had a parachute attached to the back of him.

And he just didn't get there in time. and Dillard Brooks laid it in. And the announcing team, Jackson's old Syracuse, pal Noah Eagle and those guys were like, oh, how did Dylan Brooks make this shot? And he made the shot because LeBron couldn't get there. And it was a pretty stark reminder of,

like, this guy is 41 years old in a couple of weeks, and he's dealing with a back problem. And he looked like somebody who's dealing with a back problem. Well, he looked like when he was running. Technically with a foot issue. Yeah. I mean,

He missed it because it was half of a back-to-back, and they wanted to have them ready. By the way, they had him ready for the second half of the back-to-back, and he looked like he played in the first half of the back-to-back. I mean, again, the box score says all you need to know. No rebounds, no steals, no blocks, was not really close to getting any of them. And we were texting about it, and man was at the game. That was a real effort to get to 10 points. He got 10 points and went and sat down.

And got out pretty much right away. Kept the street going. It was a labored effort to get there in the fourth quarter when the game was long over, which again is also not something we're used to seeing. Now again, LeBron is coming off a back issue. He's about to be 41. He didn't have a training camp. He hasn't really worked out in a couple of months.

Perhaps his body will round into form and in a month we'll be talking about LeBron back to having 25, 8, and 8 and looking like LeBron again. But we've looked around the league. and whether it's Chris Paul or Al Horford and Golden State or Brooke Lopez with the Clippers also, like some of these guys this year with the way the league is going and how fast and up and down the game is and how much youth and athleticism and speed is in the game. We've seen a lot of these guys look old very fast. And I think if you're the Lakers, you have to have some concern that LeBron looks this old and this slow, even though it's early on in the return.

Maybe he has not looking at this. I'm not saying it's permanently bad, but I think you have to be concerned. I just think that this game was the Lakers' third game in four nights, and they were playing a team that specializes in athleticism and speed. Their pressure in the ball full court. You know, I take nothing away from the suns, but the table was set for the Lakers to look a little bit off in this game. And, you know, there's another thing here.

This was a, like, Luca had 20 points in the first quarter, and he's done that a lot. I'm actually, I need to ask some of our stats gurus, what his record is when he scores 20 in the first quarter because this was a classic. I think Luke would probably ran out of gas. Nobody else got in a rhythm. And it's like Luke is going bonkers in the first quarter.

He took 11 shots in the first quarter and had only one assist. And so it's like, okay, go ahead, tie yourself out. None of your teammates are going to feel like they're in any kind of the flow of the game. And LeBron never gotten any sort of flow. That's what Muhammad Ali used to do again, just like Dylan Brax. Yeah, the Robino. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Well, the other thing, too, it's only five games.

And yes, obviously last night they got smacked by Phoenix. So the numbers are going to be a little twisted. But 91 minutes and five games, Luca Austin and LeBron, together, getting outscored by nine points per hundred possessions, defensive rating 120.6. That would rank 28th in the league ahead of only, Brooklyn and Washington. Now, I'm sure Laker fans are yelling, saying they're four and one in the games.

Those guys, LeBron's working his way back. Why are you harping on the number? Okay, fine. Last year, those three guys on the court had a defensive rating 117. Across the course of the season, that would rank 27th ahead of Brooklyn, Washington, and Utah, who obviously was not doing a lot of attempting to winning games last year. So if the Lakers now over a pretty good sample size with those three guys on the court together have not been able to guard anybody. And if you're trying to make the case that the Lakers are a championship contending team,

which I would not because I think there's one championship contending team. But set that aside, they have to be able to guard better with those three guys on the court. And if LeBron is looking anything like he did last night, I don't see how in any world this team is going to be able to guard like that. Particularly with the other defensive guys they have on the roster. Yeah, one thing you got to do to guard is to actually, like, cross half court on defensive possessions. You know, if you never get out of the back court, it's really tough to guard. And LeBron doesn't get out of the back court on a fair amount of possessions per game. We've talked about this.

The Lakers, you know, big picture advanced stats are not reflective of a team with a record this good. They're 18th in defense. And when you look at their net rating, which is sort of the mother stat, it shows relative to opponents, they're almost in the same spot as Atlanta, Phoenix, Cleveland, Boston. Those teams are all 13 and 9 or 11 and 9. The Lakers are 15 and 5. So on one hand, I think they've made the most out of their opportunities, and they've done a great job to go 15 and 5.

on the other hand, you do need, you know, some improvement defensively. And that those three, certainly those three guys to start being more efficient, which I think the sample size is too small to take anything away from it. But, you know, and also, Luca has the ability to overwhelm, you know, overwhelm those things with some of the things he can do. So he's not going to overwhelm on defense, though. Guys, if you had told me in early October, and, you know, I admit I was a little bit, It's a little bit anxious, a little bit excited about the start of the season.

If you'd have told me after 21 games and asked me what the Clippers record was, I would have said 16 and 5 was a lot more likely than 5 and 16. No question. Because they look good in the preseason. I don't know what, you know, you can say whatever you want. They look good in the preseason. I remember when Winhorse, who never makes predictions McMahon, came on the podcast and said, DeVita Zubach is going to be an All-B-A player and what's going on and on about the greatest of the clubbers.

Listen, I'm not going to kill them too much. Because I flap my gums. I remember going on TV and saying that the Clippers were clearly the best basketball team in L.A. Me too. We all right. We all the Clippers were going to be pretty good. So, all right. So Monday night, they're playing in Miami.

They already are on a second East Coast trip in the last few weeks. And they give up 14 three-pointers in the first. half to the heat. Now the heat, a running hot offensively. Tyler here was come in, fit in seamlessly. Norm Powell with a, you know, get back game, had a great game. How'd they get him? Bam, had a bio, his five threes in that game. Most he's ever hit in his career. He's proven he can shoot from deep. It's all going well. So anyway, they had 14 out of 21 threes in the first half, okay? Tyloo goes into the halftime. I assume might say something to the clippers about their three-point defense. I don't know for sure what he said, but I assume he said something.

something. In the first 85 seconds of the third quarter, the heat hit three more, threes, three. Ty calls timeout at the 10 or 1030 mark and says, all you guys starting, you're on the bench. He pulls the starters all, okay? Sends in the second unit, first possession the heat have. Oh, no. Another three. That's a three. That's a three to two, Ron.

Yeah. Yes. He did bring some, the starters back with the exception of Hardin. Hardin never came back. And so, I mean, the Clippers were the number three defensive team in the league last year. It powered their season. They ended up going out in the first round in seven to the Nuggets, but could have gone either way. They are 27th McMahon in threes right now.

They're in defense. Right now. Probably there in threes too. But speaking of bad defense, the number 30th ranked offense in the league, McMahon's hometown Dallas Mavericks came riding in to the Mile High City on Monday. Fresh off of whooping the old clippers in Aspiration Arena. Uh-huh.

And how'd that number of? 30 ranked offense do in that game against the Nuggets. Put up a cool 139 points. Something like that. I might have this. Maybe it was 131. 130. And not Andrew.

I said Andrew Nemhardt. I just made a mistake too. Ryan Nemhart, younger brother of Andrew Nemhart. It just went for what? A cool 28, 10 and no turnovers? 28 and 10 on 12 of 14 shooting with zero turnovers. It's literally like, like, you know, if you want to get on stathead, you can punch accommodations. It's a pretty historic line. No rookie's gone for 25 and 10 with no turnover since

Stefan Marbury when I was a freshman in college, which was a long time ago. Pretty good player. And look, so there are some good things going on. AD had a big game in that one. You know, certainly they need AD to play well. I think if we're being real, to establish a market. Nimhard, though, has been starting at point guard for the last few games. And, you know, he's He's played well. I'm not going to say he's going to be the starter for the next 12 to 15 years, but I am going to tell you, I think he's got a chance to it. Why not?

12 to 15 years, why not? I'm going to tell you, I think he's got a chance to establish himself as a, you know, solid rotation player. He's got chance to be his brother, and that's a really good player. Yeah, he's a little bit smaller. But the Mavericks have got to hit on guys like that, an undrafted guy on a two-way contract, because we all know they've got this pick, and then they don't have their own pick again until 2031. And so. Well, him and Brandon Williams, it's a couple of nice, that's a couple of nice good young guards.

Like, again, Brandon Williams isn't going to be a world beater. But like, that guy's an NBA player. Ryan Nemhart's an NBA player. Like, that's some good stuff on the margins for them in a spot where they desperately need some guys to do, be able to do some stuff with the ball. And Cooper Flags playing really well. You know, I had 35, youngest guy to get 35 ever against the clippers. And they had another, you know, I think it was 24. against the um against the nuggets 11 assists against legger like cooper flag is that from jackson

ryan nemhart third maverick in history to go for 26 points 10 assists 80% field goal percentage in the game the other two are jason terry and steve nash yeah not bad pretty good um but look we just talked about how horrific the clipper's defense is and i can confirm after watching you know cooper flag without anthony davis light him up by the way clay tauts Thompson's starting to, I'm not saying he's the Clay of Old. Play it better. He's starting to knock down shots and, you know, he's, ever since he revealed that he named his boat the stallion. Yeah. Well, hey, that was a game. He was, he was ruled out in the first injury report of the day.

Then he went out on the stallion, took a ride on the stallion, jumped in the, no, seriously. He jumped in the ocean, you know, took a ride on the stallion, you know, got wet, jumped in, you know, and got out, tiled off and decided, you know what, man, hey, I feel good. As he says, you know, you touch the earth, it kind of gives you energy. Came out that night. That dude had 17 points in the fourth quarter. I'm not saying anything. The guy had 17 in the fourth quarter against the Clippers.

And, like, you know, I love, I'm happy for Clay. It's been a rough ride in Dallas, but it's so fun of a lot. He's like, I'm going to skip right on by everything. It just happened with McMahon in that, and you. All I'm going to say is, all I'm going to say is if you... I'm talking about Clay coming off the screens now. I'm not even looking at the rim and just letting that thing go.

Yes, relax. We know. The watches and listeners probably aren't thinking the same thing. I would say if you look at where the Mavericks are and with Clay playing better, with Anthony Davis back, with Cooper playing the way he is, I do think it is going to be very interesting

to see how they navigate. gate the next couple of months because if they do play all these guys, they're going to be in the playing. And they're not going to be down at the bottom. But they'll be, they won't be in the bottom five. The bar to clear to reach the playing in the West is on the ground. So it's, you don't have to be very good to get to 10. These teams in the West, especially the ones that, you know, don't control their. So first off, there's going to be some teams in the West.

They're just going to flat out tank. Yeah, correct. Okay. So these teams in the West that, you know, don't control their pick like the Clippers and even the Pelicans, it might be too late for the Pelicans. Now Zion's out for several weeks. Oh, my gosh. You know, when Zion go, I assume, you know, Oxner Health is their medical partner. I assume there's some Oxner MRI facility near the Pelicans facility where they go.

like wherever the Pelicans players go to get MRIs. Do you think when Zion comes into the building that he's like Norman cheers and like he's high-fiving the guy at the door, he's high-five on the nurses? Unfortunately, he probably knows everybody on first-day basis. Because he's back in for another MRI on Tuesday. He's declared out for at least three weeks with an inductor strain. Re-evaluated in three weeks. Oh, my God. So he's not back till 2026 sometime.

For sure. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Anyways, before I started talking about the stallion and jumping in the ocean and all that, I was going to say the Maver exploited an awful Clippers defense and then fellas, they exploited it ain't, it's in, Inver, Inver, ain't no D. It is the Inver Nuggets right now. Fellas. And look, it sucks that Christian Brown went down and then that especially Aaron Gordon got hurt.

And they're both going to be out for a while. Gordon is a grade two hammy that's re-evaluated in four to six weeks. In the five games, since Aaron Gordon suffered that hamstring strain, they are first in offense, the Denver Nuggets, and dead last in defense, 127.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. With Gordon on the floor this year, 105 is the defense rating. That would rank second in the league.

when he's not on the floor, 119.4. And they got to figure it out because he's not going to be on the floor for a while. Yeah, it's rough. And the first, well, here's the other thing. When they're, and you know, I've spent plenty of time praising the Joker this year, and rightly so. The first month of the season, they were number three in the league and defense. And I don't have their record up in front of me, but they had one of the best road records in the league. and that's because they defend it.

Well, they better. They don't want at home anymore. I would praise Joker up one side and down the other, but when you don't have good perimeter defense, he can't, he's not a basket defender. He's not a basket defender. He's not going to defend the rim.

And when you lose your good perimeter defense, you know, they're a little bit vulnerable. So they were the first 15 games of the year, they were the number three defensive team ever since they've been 30th. Yeah. That's, that's concerning. That's, that's tough. And Jamal Murray sprained his ankle last night and don't know.

Yeah, we don't have the update on that. Hopefully that's not bad news. He did come back in for a little while and then he left. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's a new month. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. What are we doing? That means a month just ended. Yeah. That means it's time. McMahon. Take the floor. It is time for the Cajonis.

factor player of the month and a half in this case because we do lump in October with November. Now, fellas, this was actually a big time buzzer-beater stretch. And we'll just start out. These are all going to be honorable mentions. There have been six game-winning buzzer-beater so far this season. Can you name them? No. This is our daily, this is our daily exercise, our monthly exercise of figuring out what the, what the criteria.

We always got to mention the buzzer beers, but six. factor. You guys can't name. I remember there was three in one night. I don't remember who made them. If you say them, I'll remember. Like Pascal Seaccom, was that a buzzer beater? Not a buzzer beater on the clock.

Did Cade make one? Not a buzzer beater. No. This is exciting for the audience. Just tell us. Super exciting. Give us the list. You're going to have a lot of people.

Uchevich. Andrew Wiggins. You remember the buzzer beating, it really was a spolster buzzer beater with the back with the backwood. Avs corner. Desmond Bain, Janus, with the one-legged fade away from like 16-17. Des, Des, this was crazy. Yeah, Desmond, and yeah, that kind of really helped get the magic rolling. The Clippers don't have many wins. You probably would remember that.

And then how could you forget Austin Reeves in Minnesota, fresh off of 51 and 41. Then he hits that buzzer-beater. Luca hadn't been playing. And this, that was kind of like Austin Reeves announced to the world, hey, I'm one of these dudes. So we're going to give all those guys an honorable mention. So none of them make Gajonis factor. They're all off to the side. No, but you're at least,

just asking. Austin Reeves is a primary honorable mention. Now, can we get the 10? The brass balls, baby, the brass balls, okay? It's because we go brass silver gold here. The brass. And look, I know the Mazz have a rough record. I know they've lost a lot of clutch games,

but I'm just going to tell you, Flags got that Cahones Foward. Who would have thought? Homer would have gone Homer. Homer Dick. You can hold her. The kid has 48 points shooting 56% from the floor, leads a league with 20 clutch rebounds,

and it gets better. One possession game, last three minutes, we call it, nut cutting time. 31 points and 34 minutes, 10 rebounds. And dude, when an 18-year-old kid, they didn't win that game against Milwaukee, and nobody remembers this because it was all about the fire Nico chance

and Nico getting the old heave-ho the next morning. But when he goes right at Janus and finishes over him in a one-possession game with 30 seconds left at 18, the mustache and goatee don't even for neck. This guy has gone so soft. He's talking about losses a month ago. He's defending it with this. He's defending it with this.

I'm just telling you, the eyeballs and the numbers tell you, Cooper Flags got the Khoones Factor, and you got to win more to get the higher up, but we'll give him the brass. He's already getting on the list and he hasn't won anything. Oh, he's won there. He's won some clutch games. He has. Now, the silver. Now, you guys are going to knock me on this one, too.

He also, if you want to go to the Homer angle, this is a North Texas native. Teeth. Well, well. I'm pretty sure. who it's going to be. At least say it should be. Who you got? It should be Philadelphia 76's star Tyrese Maxie. I considered him. We'll also put him in honorable mention. He's second. Oh, wow. Okay. Now we're up to 10. Yes. He's second in the league. He's second in the league and clutch

scoring. I'll tell you that. But no, I'm going with Cade Cunningham. Or the Dallas guy. Yeah, 44 clutch minutes. He's got a triple double. He's been awesome. There's, this is sure. This is very defensive. Listen to these numbers in 44 clutch minutes. 59 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. A plus 23, and the pistons are 9 and 3 in those games. Now. Bontents, how do we classify the two missed free throws that he have? Well, that's the problem.

There's one, there's really two blemishes. I was waiting for this. There's two blemishes, and this is why I can't put him as a counter MVP. He can't get the gold balls because he missed clutch free throws in the final seconds against the Celtics and the magic recently. that's the blemish. But it's just a blemish. Not enough of a blemish should not be second, though.

Well, listen, man, you know, if you're driving a sweet ride and, you know, somebody gives you a little door ding, it's still a sweet ride. Am I wrong? No, I just, you know, there's a lot of, honorable mention. There's a lot of honorable mentions that you could have gone with. We're going to have 27 people for a three-person list, allegedly. And the fine, the Cajonis Factor MVP, this guy's. in northern North Texas, also known as, anybody? Anybody? Oklahoma?

I mean, this one, this one is the reigning MVP. We could skip. Yeah, basically, listen, here's the deal. If you're going to have any kind of MVP award, it just goes to Shay these days, right? If it's regular season MVP, if it's conference finals MVP, if it's finals MVP, if it's, you know, Cahoney's Factor MVP. But he doesn't, they don't play a lot of clutch games, but when they do, he absolutely dominates. he's got he leads a league with 80 clutch points in 50 minutes and and the thunder are plus 57 in those minutes. Wow.

Is that all? Yeah. And basically it's like, hey, you know what? Good job, guys. You made me play into the fourth quarter, which happens less than half the time with him, by the way. Thanks for giving us a challenge. Pat's the other team on the head and says, let me just knock down a few mid-range jumpers here and, you know, we can shake hands because you guys are going home losers. So Sheigel de Slexander

Gotta make some more space for that trophy case, baby All right Strong Strong work I think Well, Bobtems keeps on A robot's list of Double digit names

Double digit names You're gonna, I'm gonna call out the buzzer beaders Usually there's not six of the month Soon we're gonna have half the league nominated for the For the Cajonis Factor Players of the month One person who never will be is you I can assure you that

You should just make it a team Cohones Factor team of the month And then you can have first second and 13 and then you can get to like 25 people, get some honorable mentions in there. That sound you hear is Shea shoving all those trophies farther down the shelf to make room. I'm telling you. For the gold balls that he was just award. I think I don't I haven't seen a Western Conference player of the month. Actually, that would be interesting.

That's probably coming out soon here. You know what, though? Get this. This is a funny thing in a scary way. So Casein Walls, who is not one of these several Oklahoma City players who have been on the all defensive team, is the Western Conference defense player of the month. Right. Deservedly so, by the way. And Mark Dagonal is just named Western Conference Coach of the Month.

Luca's had a great month, but he missed some games with injury. So I don't see how Shea's not winning Western Conference player the month. Did you see the Yokic? Did you see the rookie of the month? Oh, Yokich. Yeah, well, it's kind of hard. They gave it to Yokich. Oh, they did just give it.

Well, I can't complain with that. Yokich has been jaw dropping. Yokich and Kade were the two selections. Well, I don't have a, I don't, no complaints. No complaints. Yeah. By the way, real quick on, real quick on, he'll have to accept that. Real quick thing on Case at Wallace, I'm very curious to what happens with

Casid Wallace over the next 18 months from a contractual standpoint. Because with all these guys that the Thunder have coming up, the one thing they have to figure out that's sort of a negative if you're the thunder is how to keep all these guys. And you look at Dyson Daniels and Christian Brown and a lot of these guys that got paid this summer at that position. Case and while also going to be aligned to make a lot of money. And I just, I think that's a situation that bears watching on a variety of levels. I will say this. How much money did they just save with Jalen Williams being in eligible?

Also, how much money did they save by the city of Oklahoma or by Oklahoma City based to saying, hey. Yeah, but this is not so much. much a dollar figure is it's a second a name they've shown in the past they're willing to pay an astronomical amount of money I mean that Paul George Russell Westbrook Carmel and Anthony team was extraordinarily expensive you know they're planning ahead for it but

they're also going to have to make some choices and he that's going to be an interesting choice like of all those wing players are not to be able to keep them all right so Lou Doort has a team option and Kaysson Wallace is extension eligible after this season. Is he Hartstein as a team option also for a lot of money? So you question

Hardenstein, Lou Dort, Alex Caruso, and Kaysen Wallace. Are they keeping all four of those guys? McCruse already got his extension. It seems very... It seems unlikely they could afford to keep all of them. It's a great problem to have. It sure they could have three lottery picks.

Yeah, the league is flying. By the way, they could have... They could have right now, as of today, they would have two top ten picks plus... Which, by the way, those contracts are kind of expensive. Kind of big contracts. Yeah. Yeah.

Good problems to have for sure. Okay, last week, McMahon, Bon Tems went down to Miami. We had no idea why he went down to Miami. I'm sure he enjoyed it. But it turns out he was down there to do more than just go to a heat game. And a story ran today. The Mavs were hoping.

I was just taking over on the Mavs being. Yeah, I know. They've been hot ever since they got blessed by Bontems. That's true. McMahon, he went. down there to write about a vacero. Oh. Can you tell us the story that you published today with an announcement in it, Bontems?

Yeah, I went down to Miami to talk to Nidilogallinari, who retired at the end of a very good 16-year NBA career today. And a one-year Puerto Rican career. And a one-year Puerto Rican career. We went down to play for Carlos Arroyo's Puerto Rican team. The Vecados? One, one that, one, Barracos de Baimon, the best team in the, in the history of the Puerto Rican league, which there's a lot of NBA guys playing in that league, guys who have been in the league at least. Emmanuel Moudier, who was Gallo's rookie when he was in Denver, was the league's regular season MVP. Mavs, Mavs icon Theo Pinson, currently playing in the league.

Former Mavs icon Javelle McGee was on Danila Gowanari's team. and we talked about it over the summer in the video of DeMarcus Cousins going crazy with the fans that everybody watched a million times this summer. I looked at it. I was like, wait a second, is that Gallo in the background? And Danila Gallanoi was five feet away from just standing there. And I was like, what the hell is Gallo doing

playing in the Puerto Rican League? And what happened was he's playing in a Sunday morning pickup run at the University of Miami. It sounded like McMahon. I was sitting at his house talking to him. Probably a little higher level run than I play him. Slightly higher level with Carlos Arroyo and some high level college players,

but former college players. But he's playing in a Sunday 8 a.m. pickup run and working out, seeing if he can get back in the NBA for one final year, trying to be ready to play for the Italian national team in Eurobasket, which was what he was thinking would be the end of his career. And Arroyo goes, hey, why don't you come play in Puerto Rico?

So he goes and plays in Puerto Rico, plays 35 minutes a game. They end up having a great season. they win the first championship he's ever won as a pro. And he said it was the perfect way to end his career. And I thought it was ironic that he was able to play 35 minutes a game and play the whole season healthy and never wanted a day off, a row told me, because this is a guy who so much of his career is defined by injuries.

And like, it was a fun story for me to write because when I came in in New York, Gallo was coming in with the Knicks right around the same time, gets drafted, sixth old. overall. I'd actually forgot about it, but he misses almost his entire rookie year with a back injury. He gets traded in the Carmelo trade. That Denver Nuggets team, that first full year after the trade was one of my favorite scenes to watch in the last while. They had like 10, 11 guys are flying up and down. Gallo is their best player. They went 57 games. He blows his knee out the last week of the regular season. They end up losing to the Warriors in the first round of the

playoffs. Don Andre Godal goes to the Warriors that summer in free agency. Things could have been a lot different. Denver wins that series. Maybe it goes on a deep playoff run. Who knows? And then Gallo comes to Boston 10 years later, plays on the, right after Boston makes the finals, maybe a chance to win a title late in his career. He blows his knee out playing, I think, for the Italian national team that summer, never even plays for the Celtics at all. So it was just, it was fun to catch up with them and talk to them. I won't get into too much else that's in the story. I think it's a fun story for people.

Well, how about the fact that that whole brawl that cousins got booted from the league for, Gallo admitted. He fessed up that he started by poking the guy in the eye a couple of times. Yes, he did do that. I was trying to say other people reading this story. How about the fact that his wife while in Puerto Rico got bit by a shark? Well, yeah, the ocean has healing powers unless you get bit by a shark. That happened to. But the thing I didn't get in the story that I thought was pretty crazy and talking to him was

Gallo is obviously a 6-10 sweet shooting, really skilled offensive big guy, right? His dad played with Mike Dantone. Their roommates in Italy obviously comes from a long line of basketball from a family standpoint. What he told me, though, that was amazing, was when he was a kid,

he played baseball left-handed, he wrote left-handed, he was fully left-handed, but when he would watch basketball games on TV, all he saw were people playing right-handed. So he said to his dad, he's like, dad. Never saw him on you. I feel weird playing left-handed when all these guys play right-handed. So he was a left-handed person who taught himself to play right-handed.

And now when he goes and plays in these pickup games, he only plays left-handed. And he actually debated getting ready to play for, especially if he went back to Puerto Rico, but even initially considered playing left-handed in this Puerto Rican league. Like shooting three's left-handed? Yes, yes. Dude, I'm telling you, Mike Conley is the same way. I'm not sure what hand Conley writes with, but there's a reason Conley's floater with his right hand is so good because he's,

I think he's right-handed. He just shoots his jumpers lefty. It was crazy. Our buddy Jay King texted me this afternoon. He said, you know, when I was a kid as a Celtics ball boy, I was watching Gallo earlier in his career shoot a bunch of threes left-handed. He had perfect form and he made a ball. I said, well, a funny story about that.

It's the reason he could do that. So he was just a really fun and interesting player, good guy, long career. We've all spent time around them over the years. And it is, you know, he probably could have had a much higher level career in terms of star power if he hadn't gotten hurt. But still played 14 full seasons and had a lot of success. And it's had a great career. $200 million. That's not a bad.

A million dollars, too. Yes, not bad at all. And went out with the championship. What else could you ask for? Yeah. Boy, be in. Hey, tune in tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern across the ESPN networks and platforms. for a special opportunity to see Jim Valvano's don't ever give up speech.

His message is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. And if you can support Jimmy V's goal of achieving victory over cancer by visiting v.org slash donate, 100% of your donations go directly to cancer research. Always a tremendous thing to see. Yeah, cancer has been on my mind a lot. The last few weeks of one of my mentors at the New York Post, Larry Brooks, passed away. probably pretty widely considered one of the best

of not the best hockey writers maybe ever certainly here in New York and I would say among the best at least in the United States and he was a guy who gave me a huge boost at the start of my career specifically pushed for me

to back him up on the Rangers beat was a huge mentor and a real person who bat me a lot and a lot of other people at the post over the years and was never afraid to go at people and share his opinion about stuff.

People see the videos of, if you've heard Larry's name, it's probably because you saw the videos of him going back and forth of John Tortorella, pretty famously in press conferences. But he was a, he gave Henrik Lundquist the nickname, King Henrik in New York. He was a tremendous writer, you know, great reporter. His notebooks every week were always full of league breaking news. Had no problem going at people if he thought, you know,

the league was doing stuff they shouldn't do players or vice versa. He's just a giant at the post, giant in New York City and a very important person to me. So obviously the Jimmy V. Foundation's done a ton of incredible work in the cancer field over the years. I mean, every year Dick Vitale raises money and raises just an unfathomable amount of money for cancer. So hopefully people can help out and support the cost. All right. Thank you for that, Mr. Bontems. Salute to you, Mr. Brooks.

I guess a salute to you, Mr. McMahon. Thank you to Jackson, our producer. Thank you for watching and listening to The Hoop Collective. We'll be talking to you later this week. Adios amigos.