Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Coaching Change Impact In Memphis, Brunson Return, Bucks' Struggles

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the impact of a major coaching change from Memphis late in the season and what that means for the future of Ja Morant with the Grizzlies. Then, the guys talk Jalen Brunson’s return timeline for the Knicks, injuries harming the Bucks, a wild scene in the Pistons-Wolves game and take a trip to Cavs Corner. Plus, a big surprise for MacMahon. 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 Hooke Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA. Joining us from New York City, where he was at the Trailblazers Knicks game today.

One big by the Knicks is Tim Bottops. Hello, everybody. And joining us from Dallas, Texas, where there was a little shindig last night for the release of the Wonderboy, Luca Donchich and The Curse of Greatness. I've got a life-size book now on the wall. The IT department called, you know, They were getting ready for the party. Lots of people were coming over,

some of North Texas's finest, most influential people. And the IT department called our man here, Ban McMahon, out to help her with something. And I'll be darned if me and Bottoms were standing in his foyer, surprising him coming in for his book party. How would it go, Ban McMahon, your big book party last night? Howdy, partners? I must be real honest with he.

not operating at full capability. If there was an individual group collective, I certainly would have been listed with flu-like symptoms this morning. Had a hell of a time last night, quite a pleasant surprise to see the celebrity, Brian Wendy Winters standing right there in my house, little old me and drag bomb temps along with him. What we've discovered here is,

like your wife, Wendy, the IT department's a heck of a recruiter. right, you know, able to get you guys to come on down. It was greatly appreciated. You know, I know I was able to unknowingly seal the deal with you when I defended you from that mean bully LeBron James. Bont Tim's honestly had no real motivation to make the trip. I think he's just a heck of a guy. It was a long flight from New York City for, you know, like 20 hours or whatever. Yeah, and crack a dawn this morning back on out. So, yeah, I feel like I, you know, you repaid my loyalty, Wendy. Thank you.

On Timps, I owe you. I've decided I will not take any cheap and unnecessary swipes at you for at least the first half of this podcast. That sounds about right. I need a ruling. It's truly appreciated, though, and we had a hell of a time last night. It was great to see it. We're very proud of you, buddy, so glad we could do it.

I need a ruling real quick before I move on to the NBA. So the family, now the final four has been set, which by the way we enjoyed watching we we definitely you know McMahon is known for his televisions i mean the man has an array of televisions and they're enormous he has a beautiful outdoor tv and we were enjoying in his backyard we were enjoying the uh the duke game last night and uh Texas tech uh Florida game and uh we caught the up with the lakers in Memphis um keeping an eye on that so now that the final four has been established the family pool is been has been adjudicated here, and I'll be darned if I'm not leading.

But we've got a problem. This is not a humble brag. We've got a problem. I need a real. So we're looking at it. And basically there's three of us there are vying. My father-in-law, my wife and myself. Okay.

My son, by the way, he's doing his first time, my seven-year-old, he's first time he's ever filled out of bracket. And he had Michigan State winning it all. And he was like in second place going into the weekend. And when he was, when he learned today that he was essentially eliminated, Oh no. He did not like that. Oh, no.

Just like when Bond Timps was beating him in that soccer video game. That's right. Well, given Dane's usual proclivities, I was a little surprised he'd just have the four number one seeds in the final four. You would have thought, but for some reason he was Michigan State. And to quote him, he said, Dad, this is suss. But here's the problem. Here's the problem. I filled out my final four.

I had Duke and this really begrudgingly had to admit that I picked Duke, which is not a hot take, I realize. And the others in the, and basically still in the running, they have Florida. Okay. But I didn't fill out the winners of the semifinals. I just neglected to do it. I made the final four and I just wrote Duke into the final. Now, here's the ruling. if Duke wins the semifinal,

should I not de facto get credit for the picking? Yeah, you get the Duke credit. Very confused. So you got to Duke in the championship game and then just didn't fill out the other side of the bracket. I got to the final four. I got to the final four. Okay.

And we wrote out the brackets because, you know, sure. You know, by seven-year-old fill out, I wanted to fill out of bracket like old school. And I just wrote Duke in the champion. I didn't pick. I had three of the final four. I had St. John's making it.

I had Auburn, Florida, and Duke. So you wrote Duke into the title game? I didn't write winner. I didn't write the championship. You get credit for Duke. You can't win the other one, but you get credit for Duke. Well, that's what I'm, but I'm trying to, but hold on. He didn't pick the semifinal game.

I didn't pick. I didn't do the line where it was the actual championship game. So you don't have any pick. So you have no picks after the final four? Well, I write national champion. I wrote Duke, so I picked them. But I didn't pick the semi-final games. Yeah.

Oh, so you had, okay. Why is he so slow on this? Usually he's... Well, because he was, there was tequila flowing and then some of that was going down his gut. Listen, there was some medellos flowing Bontem's way. I mean, I've seen Bontemps in his younger days when he was in his 20s, put away some beer. Now that he's no longer in his 20s or 30s, it's slowing down, but there were some medellos that were popped by Bontems.

That's accurate. I just was trying to figure out where you actually wrote Duke into. So you have Duke winning the tournament, but you didn't... but I don't have Duke winning the semifinal because I didn't fill out the winner. Well, I mean, if you have a win in the tournament, then you should get credit for the semifinal if they win and then the final, but they shouldn't get credit for the other side, no matter who wins. Well, definitely.

I can't. No, it's going to come. I'm going to need the credit for the Duke win, is what I'm saying. I should get that credit. Yes. If you had them written down as winning the bracket, then yeah, yeah, they actually would have won the semifinal. Jackson? I don't know.

Jackson, I feel like would be a stickler on this. Now, Jackson's also, he refuses to talk on the podcast. because he's anti. Well, I know, but he has a way to, he has a way to, yes. Okay, all right. So, Jack, all right. So I got the three of you guys. Yes.

You guys are on my side. You know, I'm dealing with lawyers here. Well. I mean, the real answer is your wife is probably going to determine what the winner is. So whatever she says goes. Speaking of lawyers, the lawyers who run the Memphis Grizzlies. Oh, you like that? And speaking of Duke.

Oh, that's right. I forgot. Yeah. Zach Lyman, who's a lawyer and a Duke grad. fired Taylor Jenkins in a move on Friday that, let me just, let me just be clear because I've, I've seen some Grizzlies fans like sort of, or, you know, Grizzlies Memphis folk, like sort of push back on the idea that this was a surprise. Yes, we knew that last summer when the front office in Memphis instructed, you know, Taylor Jenkins to replace his entire coaching staff,

that he was in a measure of hot water and that he was on the, watch list. But no, it is not ridiculous to say that it was a shocking, stunning, shocking, whatever you want to say, that with nine games left in the regular season, that they would dismiss Taylor Jenkins as they did on Friday. Yeah, when they're tied for fourth in the Western Conference, listen, the anticipation was they'd get bounced in the first round and he'd be fired. That's been, honestly, that's been the anticipation since last summer, all season long. Like the odds of Taylor Jenkins coming back next year were very slim. But to be fired with nine games left in the season, a playoff team, like, yeah, that's, the timing was shocking.

And by the way, you know, sometimes when you see coaches fired during the season, the team will selectively pick out a spot where the new coach, even if he's just a not expected interim, not expected last interim, like they pick out a layoff. No, no. Thomas Azulow got, or Tumas Azulow got, oh, you're going to play the Lakers on Saturday in a vitally important game for seating. And by the way, here come the Celtics who've only won 13 out of 14. They come in on Monday. And by the way, and by the way, on Tuesday, you know, who's there Tuesday? I don't even know. The Warriors. Another massive game for seating. That's the first three, three games and four days, all at home, all very important games. At least John's hamstring healed.

That was suss. I was honestly, I mean, I will admit, I'm, I'm sort of on the side that it wasn't shocking to me that Taylor Jenkins got fired. If for no other reason, then everything you laid out about on March 20, on March 28, you didn't think that was a threat. Well, listen, if you put in the context of the team has really been struggling and they lost five as seven. And they have, they've been struggling since the All-Star break. They've been sliding down the standings. Went in records over, you know, whatever that time. There were, there were nine and 13 since February.

There were the comments from a couple weeks ago that raised my eyebrows when I don't remember the exact, this is paraphrasing. But after one of these games when Jod was dealing with his shoulder injury, Taylor Jenkins basically said he's okay. He's got to just play and play through it. And Jod then said, yeah, my shoulders messed up. That raised my eyebrows when that happened. But again, you're not expecting firing on March 29. No, I mean, listen. You expect it on April 29th.

Like that's what's right. Right. That's, so I was a little, I was certainly surprised that he got fired, but given the context of it, I could see it. I was more surprised when a few hours later, our guy on the pod here, along with Shams, reported that Noel LaRoche was let go, who was one of the guys that was brought in last summer, along with, uh, Tuolmas, who were the two big assistants that Zach Klyman brought in. And Noel LaRos was running their player development and hired was, had a direct hand in

hiring several assistant coaches. Well, and it was more his offense than his all his offense. That was even more surprising than the initial news to me. Yeah, so I agree, McMahon. I don't know if you can shed any more light on that, but what you reported there. Yeah, so look, what happened here was Tanner Jenkins, let's just call it like it is, essentially got cut off at the knees last summer when he was forced to fire his entire staff.

And was he involved in the hiring process? Yes. of the assistants, but these are Zach Clyman's hires, essentially. And the offense they were running with some sort of a mishmash between the finished dude, his name, I'm always going to botched.

I don't think you're saying it right either. I don't think I am. You're not. Anyways, you know, a guy who, he was at Paris basketball last year, considered one of the brightest minds in Europe, and Noah LaRoche, who is a player development guy who was consulting for the Spurs.

and both of those guys got seven-figure salaries as assistance, which, you know, that's a pretty big. It wasn't just that. They had to buy. Yeah, seven-figure buyout plus seven-figure salary. Out of his contract with Paris. And, you know, he was being all. He was also the Wizards were trying to hire him. So there was a bidding war for him.

So Taylor Jenkins essentially lost control of the offense, right? And then there's two guys that are on the staff that didn't, they came in at the same time, but they weren't like a packaged dealer. I don't know if they probably had never met before. And so there was this offensive philosophy tug of war, not like a contentious thing, but Noah LaRoche wanted the, you know, he has this kind of, it's a really interesting, you know, it's player movement. It's, it's, it's, they went completely away from the pick and roll where, you know,

you know, Paris basketball last year, had a pick and roll base, you know, it was kind of a creative interest. It was a hot, yeah, it was a very high tempo. I think I read it. I'm certainly not going to be able to, you know, analyze the French League. But they had the highest offensive rating in the history of the French League last year. And by the way, the Grizzlies right now are sixth in the NBA, but, uh, an offensive rating, but it was absolutely no La Roche's fingerprints that were all over the Grizzlies being. not just dead last in ball screen set in the league, but dead last by a lot.

And I believe I got to double check on some stats Williams stuff that he's sent over. But I believe they are the lowest since these things have been being tracked, which is 2013-14. Yeah, the fewest on-ball screens and handoffs per game in a season. Since 2013-14, the Grizzlies, 49.8, the next lowest, was the 2015-16 Knicks at 53.2. You know, before they were a kind of a middle of the pack team. So you've got this offensive philosophy tug of war where Taylor Jenkins is the head coach,

but it's the two assistants, these seven-figure assistants are kind of having the philosophical tug of war. And then, you know, you've got Jha, who has been very frustrated about a wide variety of things this year, you know, his health, refereeing. but this might be the one that's been most frustrating for him because, Jay, hey, what you mean? Player movement, ball, man, like, give me the ball, give me the keys to the offense. Let me cook. Let me run high pick and roll.

Let me spread out and ISO. All his numbers are down this year. Scoring, efficiency, you know, all the, like the touch numbers in terms of like dribbles per touch, time per touch, all that stuff. And they'd started kind of leaning back toward that over the last. you know, month or so. Yeah, I think trying to make everybody happy, I think is, yeah.

Yeah, and it's like you had and I think some of that was Taylor's trying to take control, get John board, but she had three cooks in the kitchen where who's in charge, like, who's offensive we're running? What are we doing?

You know, they don't really, here's the thing, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not going to try to say that I have a great, understanding what happens every single night in the Grizzlies game. There's no real plays in this office. Not a lot of.

I mean, like when a pick and roll happens, even if it doesn't always come from the bench, that's a signal from the bench. Like you have to say, I mean, some of it's a read and react, but a lot of times. For the point guard calling for it or whatever, but yeah. Right. The coach selects who they want to pick and roll because they're trying to get a matchup. So if the coach is calling from the sideline, line saying, you know, whatever they want to call, you know, whether it's the assistant of the head

coach calling for a pick and roll, who's ever calling for that pick and roll is going against the concept of the offense that doesn't have that, where the whole point is you sprint down and everybody runs into a flow as a, and it's read and react as opposed to. And it's a lot of cutting, again, it's a lot of movement, all those sort of things. It's kind of like, I mean, it's not exactly the same, but it's sort of the concept of the triangle. The concept of the triangle. It's very different than this, but was that you enter into the triangle and it was a philosophy. It wasn't necessarily like a plague. It was like a set that ran into a philosophy. This is a, this isn't, this is a philosophy that they're trying to get them to do.

Right. And again, it was Noah LaRosh's philosophy. Right. Who was a very, but the fact that there would be play called pick and rolls right off the bat is against the grain of the concept of philosophy. And it's also what Jall wants. do, though. And so this was a decision. And it had been what they were doing for the last month, as what Grant said before. Well, it's what, it's what Jha and Des Bain, who's, by the way, who's shooting number, who's shooting, who's shooting, who's shots and everything

is down as well. Yeah. And so, that's what made them $200 million players. And the team, like, the defense is falling apart. You know, you've heard, hey, Taylor Jenkins lost the locker room. And I'd say, yeah, that was destined to happen because the players aren't dumb. They'd know, like, okay,

the guy didn't really have any, juice anymore. So he lost the locker room is what, you know, people in Memphis are saying now. Primarily, I've been told the job was tuning him out. And then, so, you know, they decide, okay, we're going to fire this guy at the end the first round. Let's just do it now. See if we can get something going here.

And then no little. As a ditched at that offensive philosophy, they chose the offensive philosophy he tug of war is over and you know the finished dude's the winner they'll go away because he does he wants to do more stuff the job wants to do let's just be honest yeah well and to go back to the point about firing the guy now instead of in a month like the easy thing to do would have been to fire the guy after the first round right no one would have even bad to deny about it i give zach climate credit for doing this now if for no other reason then if you know you're going to do it in a month try it now and see if something works there's no point and like oh well we're just going to wait and

then do it in a month and then we'll figure it out then. It is actually a fascinating maneuver. It's a risk, but maybe Zach sees it as a risk to have kept going. Well, and one thing I wanted to McMahon's point about the general, the cooks in the kitchen thing, Zach gave a two and a half minute presser on Saturday. I wouldn't say he set a ton in. He is a lawyer, as you said, and he gave lawyerly answers. But I thought the second and last answer, I thought was pretty clarifying in terms of the overall situation when he got asked, what is the belief in Tumas leading this group forward? I'm looking forward to seeing what he's able to do with this group.

There's realistic expectations. There's not going to be a time to install a bunch of things at this time of year. This is, I thought, was the key line. My expectations are clarity of direction and we'll see what we can do and we'll see what we can execute. To me, clarity of direction is, as you said, there were three. people involved. Now there's one person involved. And this is the guy's thing we're going forward with, and we're going to see what he can do. Yeah. And Zach has taken some accountability

here. But the reason there wasn't clarity of direction is because he essentially kneecapped Taylor Jenkins and brought in two coaches that were going to have major influence on the offense that had very different offensive philosophies. So it was really a high-price staff that was destined not to work. And no La Roche's philosophy is very interesting, maybe for another team it works, but I was there at training camp and they're talking about all this stuff.

I said, okay, how do you balance that with you have one of the best off-the-balance creators in the league? And lo and behold, that turned out to be an issue. Having said that at mid-season, they were in second place. Yeah, and Jaws missed a ton of game. No. And they have the fourth best net rating in the league, despite having a bunch of injuries

and guys being out of the lineup. Like they've been a fascinating team all season. They've been playing everybody limited minutes. They've lowered everybody's minutes. They've lowered everybody's minutes. They've made it more democratic. They've been able to weather the storm without Jha more because he's going to miss games. And the other thing, look, this decision to do it now and to move on from LaRoche and

to lean back into all the pick and roll stuff, this was a decision that was about optimizing John Moran. That was a primary motivator for this decision. And look, there has been noise about Jah being unhappy all season long. There has been noise about, hey, could Memphis look to move Jah this summer? Could Jha look to, more so could Jah look to get out of Memphis this summer? Could Jaya look to force a trade or at least request to trade?

And, you know, would Memphis shop him this summer? There's been a lot of that. I was, I was, uh, Zach shot that down hard at the trade deadline, not that. Right, but, but there was still telling the truth. And I was, I was talking with a, or texting with a GM after this happened. And he said, I would have told you, I thought they were definitely going to. Jai was out on them. They won games without them. They have to be sustainable. And he said, this is a move that goes in the face of that. Basically, this is a, this is a, hey, Jai, you're still our guy. Everything we do is going to be based on what's best for you, what optimizes you. They got away from that for a lot of this season,

and they're leaning back hard into it. Now, the other thing I will point out, John Moran obviously is a tremendous talent. And open court, John Morant, is one of the most dangerous offensive threats in the NBA. Half court pick and roll, Jha, has been a mediocre efficiency play throughout the course of his career.

And again, I go back to my guy Stats Williams. He says, Morant is at 0.99 points per direct pick as the ball handler in his career when using an on-ball screen. That ranks 39th among 56 players to run 5,000 plus on-ball screens as the ball handler since 1920. 39th out of 56. You know, it's not, this isn't Trey Young or Luca Donchich or Damien Liller where it's like, dude, I pick and roll with this guy is efficient. just like you're going to have an elite offense running high pick and roll after high pick and roll with this guy.

Their half court offense has been an issue throughout Jaws career. Now, their transition offense, who boy, but they're leaning back into something that had middling success. Well, they were 16 and 14 in the 30 games without him. So, you know, but that was,

they were better. And then this latest injury where he missed the hamstring, I think they were maybe two and five in the seven games he missed, something like that. that. Yeah. And again, this was a team that Franklin, they were kind of rolling over on on Taylor Jenkins. Obviously, that's what Zach felt. That's what your eyeballs thought too when you watch them play. Well, it's going to be, I mean, look, it's, it's going to be a fascinating

run-in for them. I mean, they've really, they really have struggled for a while. We've talked a ton about how bunched up this West playing mix is. Right now, Denver and Minnesota are in a pretty tight game. We'll see who wins. But if Minnesota pulls that game out, which they're currently winning, not Denver, Minnesota, Detroit, I meant. There will be four teams within two losses going into the next couple of days when one of those games is going to be Memphis and Golden State playing on Tuesday and the second night of a back-to-back for the Grizzlies with the Warriors being arrested after beating the Spurs by 40 today.

So, you know, they've got to try to pick up some Ws here or they could very well wind up into play-in, maybe not make the playoffs. Or if they do make the playoffs, they're playing maybe Oklahoma City in a 1-8 game where it wasn't long ago. We were talking about Memphis may be in the two-seed. So, you know, it's going to be a very interesting final couple of weeks on a lot of fronts. There is, by the way, it is possible for John Morant to sign an extension this summer. It's not a high, well, high demand thing because he has three years left on his contract.

It wouldn't be like a big, like even if everything was going great. I mean, he can add money to his deal, so, you know, I'm sure there's going to be some discussion about it. But I wouldn't necessarily say that if he doesn't, it's some sort of red flag. But it creates, and this is one of the things that has happened with as NBA teams have, as the NBA has put in rules to really try to hold their star players. It's like they have to make a decision every two years on the franchise. It used to be like, you know, even if a guy signed a short deal, you wouldn't, you know, hear about it for three years or so. It is going to be interesting whether he ends up in that contract extension because that is a vibe check more than anything else. And the vibes weren't good with J.

I haven't been good with Jock for, again, a variety of reasons, injuries. He's been frustrated with the officials the two times. He got hurt, you know, the hip where he got knocked out of midair and then a hard screen where he screwed his shoulder up. Again, he felt like it should have been foul. but the offense has been a consistent source of frustration as well. But the offense has just been better this year. I mean, last year their whole team was hurt, so it's hard to say year over year. I should say his fit in the offense.

The offensive scheme not being something that is about showcasing him has certainly been a source of frustration. And that's, you know, that offensive scheme is no longer being employed by the Memphis Grizzlies. They've just been a really confusing team on every level. It's just been a very... And Jared Jackson, Jr. has benefited. He's having a great year. Offensive season. Yeah.

So it's been a very confusing season for Memphis all the way around. And what they have left, we mentioned that they have Boston and Golden State coming up. But they also have a game with Denver left. And let's see, they have a game with Detroit left. And a game with Minnesota left. Boy, that Minnesota game. Ooh, could be a big one. after this.

All right. Bontimes, you were at the Garden today. Big game for Ogea and Nobe and Mikhail Bridges, who both have been scoring a lot since Jalen Brunson was out. And Jalen Brunson spoke for the first time since he sprained his ankle. When I read your story, boy, it's been 24 days.

Three and a half weeks. Since he's had that injury. And like, you know, that was the first game of that West Coast trip. It was in L.A. It was a hard sprain. What did he have to say? I mean, the short story is he's hoping to be back.

before the end of the regular season. He's focused on being healthy. And generally, there was a pretty positive update. He's been cleared for basketball activities. Wouldn't say if he's doing contact stuff as part of that. Jalen is always pretty circumspect with the media, to put it mildly. That's a good. I try.

But he was in pretty good spirits. He looked forward to get back on the court and, you know, said he was sprinting. He was doing some cutting. And, you know, generally it's been making progress. you know if you're a nick fan it'll be interesting to see if jalen brunson plays another four games or not to qualify for all-n-b-a that doesn't really mean anything other than he just would be eligible for MVP and all-n-b-a doesn't any by mean anything i just mean from like a he's already in his contract he already signed the contract he's not exactly not not from like a supermax or contract

standpoint but certainly he's deserving of all that stuff so we'll see if he's eligible for it um but if you're a Nick fan, your goal is for Jalen Brunson to be ready to go for the first day of the playoffs, which is likely to be on either April 19th or April 20th and almost certainly against the Milwaukee Bucks. And do you want... I don't know about that. I mean, the Milwaukee Bucks gave up 145 points of Atlanta Hawks tonight. I feel pretty confident that with Damon Miller and Siveland, they're going to be the 16th.

One game, I mean, the Pistons, if they lose to the Timberwolves tonight, they'll be That's fine. I'm going to bet that the Bucks are the 60. Okay. Well, we're not going to say almost certainly. Okay. I will say almost certainly. You can dispute it. That's fine. The point is, whoever they play, the whole thing for the Knicks is Janlon Brunson needs to be 100%. And I think coming out of today, even though he's missed three and a half weeks, I think if you're a Nick fan, you should feel optimistic that in three weeks, when they're starting the first round of the playoffs, he's going to be ready to go. And personally, this didn't get asked to Jaylin.

today, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world if he's healthy by the time the playoff start, that a guy who's played a ton of minutes and has a ton of pressure on him to produce late in every single game for the Knicks got a few weeks away from the court. I'm just saying as a silver lining from an injury standpoint, obviously it'd be better if he's playing all the way through. I mean, I hear what you're saying, but I think you have to be concerned that it's one thing if he's healthy enough to play. It's another thing if he's healthy, right? And that was a nasty ankle sprain. It turned it a really, like, it was almost like straight up and down turn. Right.

We are talking, though, we are talking though about a six-week span to get right from it. I hope he's legitimately healthy, but, you know, those kind of things, you come back and you and you gut it out and you play on it. But if, you know, if he's not able to move like he usually can, that's obviously concerns come up. That's obviously a much different story. Yeah, that's a much different story. If he's not 100% in the playoffs, and obviously it's a disaster for the Knicks.

But my point is simply that they haven't lost any position in the standings. They're going to be third either way. So if he's able to come back in the next two weeks, play a little bit before the end of the regular season, looks fine and is ready to go for the playoffs. I think from a silver lining standpoint, he should be as fresh as he's going to be going into the playoffs, even if it's not for the reason that the Knicks would have liked because they would be sure they would just much rather had him out there rocking and rolling for the past month.

Well, now let's take a look at the fact that they may indeed be playing the Bucks. The Bucks, as you mentioned, got blasted by the Hawks today. The Bucks have lost four in a row and also lost Dame Lillard. Now, they announced he had a blood clot in his calf. And as an aside, it happened a week ago, but we haven't really talked about it. As an aside, Dame is, from what I heard, I mean, maybe this is out there, but they were really very relieved that they caught this because Dame had had a calf issue before. And so when he felt the calf injury, they very easily could have just said, okay, it's a calf

injury, let's treat it. But they went out and they did, you know, imaging on it. And that's when they identified it. Now, the bucks have termed him out indefinitely, not a doctorate. but I am not aware of blood clot treatment that would enable him to return this season. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist? I'm not aware of it. And so, you know, that means what it means.

They were starting a streak or a run today, Bontems, where they were playing four or five straight games against teams of losing records. And they had a, you know, an easier schedule than the Pistons. But the Pistons have one of the hardest remaining schedules, actually. And, but now, you know, it's, it's hard to project. Although they are playing the Sixers this week and the Sixers are playing a key tank game tonight. It's going on right now with the Raptors. And I think all you know.

Top Sixth get their name right. That's right. Well, let me tell what the top Sixers did. First off, while we were, you know, all the people who were at the McMahon Book Party were, you know, very focused on, you know, the NCAA tournament, focused on what was happening in Memphis. You know, those of us who are professionals, you know, we were like, what's going on in that Wizards game, that Wizards Nets game? Because the Nets won that game and gave the top Sixers the fifth place.

They seated fifth worst record. They're now alone in fifth, the top Sixers. Which is huge. Pivotal moment. And to make sure they stay there in a vital game against the Raptors, the, you know, you've heard the fading, you know, the winning Raptors is terrible. that and they keep winning. The

Clamidus winning. So all you need to know is they already had the the 76ers already had eight guys out for tonight's game and then they declared Gerson Yabaselli out with a, I think, knee soreness.

Knee soreness, yeah. Maybe he did have knee soreness, okay, I'll give him that even though he played last night. And Quentin Grimes, like, it's been a tough load recently. So. You can get a lot of shots up. Even though that we have nine guys out, Quentin, we're going to rest you. We're going to rest you on the second night is back to back.

You scored too damn much. You ain't playing tonight. Right. By the way, by the way, something else, something else to monitor just coming forward. So the Pelicans in another double tank game today beat the Charlotte Hornets. All right. The Hornets pretty much, I would say, have locked up being one of the bottom three teams now, along with Utah. and giving themselves a equal chance of getting the number one pick. The interesting part about this, though, is that New Orleans is now in fourth two losses behind Philly. Now, New Orleans, over the next couple of weeks, they've got, they've got obviously

games with Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, but they've got a game with the Nets. They got a couple games at the end of the season against the Thunder who aren't going to be playing anybody against the heat and bucks. We'll see who's playing for them. It's going to be interesting to see if the pelicans are able to lose this thing out all the way and make sure they stay in fourth. Could be some further tank chicanery. I love double tank game.

There's been a lot of double tank games. Gosh, there's been too many. It's half the Eastern Conference schedule. It's a half the Eastern Conference schedule on an average night. So Milwaukee, they've just had, an incredibly unfortunate run of injuries in the end of the seasons over the last several years. And the book is not totally written, but it's in edit. It needs the final chapter, like the man's book.

The Wonderboy available wherever you can find books. Well, I mean, just to run people through it. So they win the title in 21. Which is amazing. They're down, they're down 02 and they win four straight. And by the way, Yon San Jaco looked like his leg snapped in half against the Hawks and then somehow was fine.

It's one of the crazier things I've ever seen in that conference finals when they won. 22, Chris Middleton misses the whole second round against the Celtics. Yonis is an unbelievable series. They end up losing Game 7. Grant Williams hits 10,000 threes. They end up losing in the playoffs.

Then each of the last two years, Janice de Kupo either is compromised to some degree in the first round or last year he didn't play at all. And by the end of that series against the Pacers, both Damon and Yonzovpopopo. Jonas were out. First week of April. Wasn't it maybe the first week of April?

Janice just takes an inbound pass and is, I don't even know if he's jogging. He's like barely going up the court and all of a sudden he crumples. Yeah. Because he hurt his calf and was out for the first round. It's just a reminder that no matter how good you are, so much of going into winning a title, certainly one, but especially more than one, just a lot of it just comes down to pure luck and a lot of its injury luck and just having guys be able to stay on the court and survive. the run. And you go back and look at the history of the playoffs pretty much every year, injuries play at least some part in it. And the Bucks have just had a really, like you said,

it's just been a really unfortunate run of badly timed, you know, late March, early April injuries that have, you know, maybe kept them from winning another one. By the way, one of the teams that's jockeying with them is the Detroit Pistons. There was, yeah, was that a, what, what's your terminology? for this one. Melee, I think this reached melee. Hoh. Moly stands. Maylay is going to be Bruehaha's are contained

to the courts. I apologize. There's going to be a lot of phone calls from Olympic Tower out to the Minnesota Detroit Area codes the next couple days. Old Isaiah Stewart's really trying to... Well, let's say what happened. I mean, maybe the listeners of viewers have seen it by now, but so Sunday night

the Pistons are playing the Wolves. Not a rivalry game. Okay, like, you know, these teams play twice a year. and I'm not sure what led up to it, but there was... Well, I can tell you, because I went back and watched it. Okay, go for it. So the two main instigators here are Nazreed from the wolves and Ron Holland, the rookie wing, from the Pistons. I don't know exactly what happened, but on the play before everything happened, Ron Holland drives on Nas Reid and scores and appeared to have said something.

They come down the other end, Nasree, and I didn't watch the rest of the game. I was at the Knicks game. So maybe there was stuff before this. Well, the games were going on, right? Right. Looks like the pistons are now down 20. Bulls are going to win. That's over now.

Very important win for the wolves in all seriousness. Like we talked about before in the- Every game is for them. Yeah. So they come, he shoots over Nasreed scores. Looks like he chirped a bit. Come down the other end. Nas Reid drives the lane.

Ron Holland does a very normal foul and it turns around. He just swipes down on his on his hands to prevent a three-point. Nothing crazy. And Nasreed instantly turns around and starts pointing at Ron Holland and yelling at. And this is where I say, where's beef stew? Let's give me just say, is beef stew on the court? Well, beef stew is on the court. He is on the court.

He is on the court. He puts some beef and beef stew. I'll tell you that. So then Dante Divencenzhenzo takes exception to whatever is going on with Ron Holland. Yeah, Devin Chenzo like snaps. Like, you know, he, like, you would think when, if Nasreed and Dante Devenzo are involved and in some sort of back and forth, that it would be Nas that would take the lead?

No, no. Devencenzho steps to Holland. Then they get tussled up. They then go crashing into the stands. And then Marcus Sasser looks like he throws a punch in the stands. Isaiah Stewart's in there grabbing at people. Oh, Isaiah Stewart goes after Devinchenzo. Devencenzzo's, I think the fans were kind of trying to help.

I don't think they were trying to hurt Devin Chenzhenzo, but there were some fans that were like sort of pulling Devenzhenzo back. I couldn't tell if he was going to be on Dvincenzo. And Chandrafews going after Nas Reid, who was on the ground. I didn't see that A-Rod was in it. A-R-R-Well, he's not fighting, but like sitting there. A-Rodd's all of a sudden in the middle of it. And by the way, you got some dudes that I wouldn't have messed with in their playing career getting in.

Corliss, big nasty Williamson's down there. Vitali Potopico, who I remember when I was a kid. He was a kid. And you do not mess with him. That man, there was very few people in the league who, Alonzo Morning could not intimidate. Vitali Potopico was one of them. By the way, Arad was like the size of an NFL tight end.

He's a big dude. Like, I know he played baseball. People were like around him. He's like 6-4-230. He's a big guy too. And still in shape. Yes. Good to hand too.

He's in the mix. He's in the mix there. They finally break up the players. And then Pablo Prijioni, an assistant with the wolves, a long time. A very unlikely person of getting involved in a, you know, fight.

He's true. He's unlucky getting a fight, but I know, you know, Pablo's Argentinian, he's not afraid to run his mouth. Mix it up. He gets into a J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons coach, they both get ejected. Yeah, it was just brawling Bickerstaff the day.

Usually it's just... Oh, man. So, not the biggest brawl in Pistons history. No. But... But, no, when it spills it in the stands, there's going to be some games missed. Oh, it's going to be a lot of phone calls about that one.

Both of these teams are, these games are important. Detroit's remaining schedule, they got to play the Thunder, the Knicks, the Grizzlies, two with the Bucks, who, you know. Kings, Knicks, and then the final two games of season, home and home with the Bucks, could be massively important games. Those games will be important, obviously, but yeah, I'm just saying these next few games, because they might have some, you know, Nazareed or Beef Stew. Bobby Marks pointed out, you know,

like with Isaiah Stewart, he's been suspended for six games in his career and he came into the game with 12 technicals and six flagrant foul points. Yeah, no, there's, I mean, he is obviously a repeat offender. I mean, the guys. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be a lot of thing, the punching drew Eubanks in the, you know, in the back hallway. Yeah. I mean, like he's, you know, he's, he's carved out quite a, the assistant coach. Ron Holland came up bloodied, looked like either bloodied or hit in the nose too. Well, yeah, it looked like Devenzo had some scratches on his neck. Yeah. I mean, And there's going to be some real penalties from that. You would think of at least a couple games each.

And by the way, like, these are, especially, you're talking Nazare and Dante Divencenzzo, these are, like, massively important players of this Wolves team that's right in the thick of it. Like, that could be a huge problem for them. It could be really costly. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right, before we go, have a little Cavs Corner here. And it's now time for Cavs.

corner with Brian Winhorst. Notice, McMahon, the Cavs Corner had a little bit of a hiatus. The second they get a nice little victory over the clip. It was all the back. Calf's Corner. Going to dive in. Dive into the film of the big win. Next thing you know, the Wiz of the Quiz of the Quiz might come back and actually get to

work. Quality win for the, a good game today. Now, it was diminished a little bit because Kauai Leonard sat it out in Cleveland on Sunday. The Clippers had won 10 of 12 games. The Cavs had been struggling and got pounded by the Pistons actually on Friday night. Just crushed them. Pistons crushed them. The Cavs came in with a magic number of five to clinch the number one seed.

And like, you know, they've sort of been assumed to be the number one seed for a while here. But let me just tell you, first off, the Celtics had won 13 out of 14. And this is the Celtics remaining schedule. they play as we mentioned Memphis on Monday night then they play the they beat the spurs tonight so they so it's 13 out of 14

okay win San Antonio all right then they play the Grizzlies then they go home pretty much they only have two real games the rest of the year after grizzlies heat sons

wizards at home Knicks on the road which that's a potential second round matchup magic hornets hornets to finish so I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of losses in there. So the calves just got to make sure they lock

it down. And they have not been able to get a defensive rebound for two weeks. And so they were playing a bitsy of Zubach in this game. Obviously, Kauai didn't play, but Zubach did. And Zubach leads the league in offensive rebounds. So it was a interesting game. And the Clippers played it all the way to the buzzer. And the Cavs eked out a five-point win. They still are not shooting the three well. but Donovan Mitchell has looked much better. He's not shooting the three well either, still not. But Mitchell has looked much better over the last week. Coming off that, you know, the calves are starting to lose games.

That's whatever. But the bigger concern was Donovan Mitchell, his shooting had absolutely plummeted. His playmaking had plummeted. And people were wondering whether this groin injury that he had was something more serious. He's had a really good three or four games in a row. The calves have won four out of five now. Their magic number is now four. to clinch the number one seed.

So that was statewide. But I got to tell you, I have been impressed with the Clippers. I remain impressed with the Clippers. Norm Powell was awesome in this game. He had a 20-point quarter at one point. The Clippers are in a dog fight, but if you watch this game, other than the Cavs, you know, getting a key win, you walk away, continuing to be impressed

what the Clippers are doing. The Cavs, however, did take care of the defense. of glass, something that had been a big problem. So that was a Cavs Corner filibuster. Sorry, I watched the whole game. He got, he had a good moment to talk about the Cavs. He had to get it all in. Well, listen, like, I, considering the Celtic schedule, which is like the second

easiest schedule coming in and considering the Cavs had lost more games in the last 10 days and they lost in like 10 weeks, you know, I'm not. They were only going to be three losses up in the loss column with a, if, they had lost today. So that, that was, it was a significant, was a significant win for sure. And by the way, Wednesday, Cavs, Knicks. They still got a couple left with the Knicks and a couple left with the Pacers. I mean, you know, they're, it's going to, they're going to have to play for a little bit here probably. They did win their 60th game in this one. I'll admit, I didn't watch much of it. I was in desperate need of an extended afternoon nap. He had his face in a

bucket of ice. Speaking of, speaking of the Knicks, I was going to to bring this up the other day. It's not quite a whiz of the quiz, but it was a, it was a stat from the game that was a truly unbelievable stat. So Josh Hart and Carl Towns both had triple doubles the other day in the same game. You guys

may have saw that. So on Press Row, we were curious how many times that had happened. So we started looking it up. So before that game, there were 19 times in NBA history, the two teammates that had triple doubles in a game. This is a whiz of the quiz.

Well, it's not a whiz of the quiz, but you'll see why in a second. The prior four times before this Nick game involved either Nicole Yocachan Russell Westbrook or Nicole Yocach or Russell Westbrook. Not exactly a shock, right? The last time two teammates had triple doubles in the same game was on March 3rd, without one of them in it. Was March 3rd, 2021. I could give you guys 10 million guesses, and you would never guess either of these players.

Was this like a late season? No, March 3rd. I mean, kind of late, but not like, not shenanigan zone. I guess my nap wasn't long enough, my bad. Well, you know, 2021, the season was wonky. It was the COVID season. So it might have even been more midseason than even late season. It was kind of midseason.

Okay, so we're sniffing this out, McMahon. Give us a hand. Give us a hand. Some of those teams had seven, eight guys in protocols. I'm going to give you a hint. There were guys, they were signing off the street. They were seven, ten day guys. Is Alfred Payton one of them?

No. One of it was a point guard. One of it was a point guard that's in the Wonderboy. Well, there's hundreds of names in that volume. Oh, no. No, not Rondo. Was he done by 20-21? No.

He won the title in 20. It wasn't Brunson. Wasn't Brunson. It was a Raptors Pistons game. Oh, Raptors. Damn, I'm not about. I'm just back. That's what I'm saying.

I can give you guys a million. I can't speak confidently on the Pistons roster in 2021. Who the hell knows. Well, that's what I mean. Smith, Jr. I'm distracted because I've got, I've got Rocket Suns on. Is Smith. No, Tim was right.

I gave you, I brought this up because Dennis Smith Jr. was one of the pictures cycling through from the book on there. So Dennis Smith Jr. is one of the players. You guys would have never guessed him, obviously. I wouldn't even remember he played in the game. The other guy who did it. So it's Dennis Smith, Jr. and Mason Plumley.

Mason Plumley. Those are the two guys together that had a triple-touple in a game. By the way, the rest of this list, the guys that did this, it's Larry Bird and Robert Parrish, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin. Yeah, I figured Jordan. Peter and Jason Kitton, Paul Georgia Russell Westbrook, Bam out of Bio and Jimmy Butler a couple times. You know, it's like Bob Coozy and Tom Heitzen were the first teammates to do it. Like all these, like multi-time All-Stars, Hall of Famers, great players, and then one random game with Dennis Pitt Jr. you'd bam out of five. Hey, Dennis Smith, Jr. had a triple double in his last game with the Mavericks.

And Rick Carlisle said, see, this shows that I think this, something along the lines of, I think Luca and DSJ can be a long-term, you know, fit together. No one damn well he was getting shipped to the Knicks later, later, I guess, the next day. Oh, man. Well, you know, remember when DSJ was a rookie, like he was, you know, people were. were calling him untouchable. And they were like, oh, my God, this guy's the future. I was not one of those people.

Yeah. But anyway, that was just one of the crazier, that was one of the crazier stats. You said Bam, Atabai, you meant Mason Plumley. Not only said Bam out of by did it. Oh, I was saying all the other guys that had done it, all the other games were, like Bam and Jimmy get it a couple times. Right. But you see, I'm sorry, you just.

All right. We're all loopy here. All right. We all need the long rest. we all need a long rest all right congratulations McMahon on a terrific book long week

if you haven't checked out the wonder boy Luca Donchich and the curse of greatness what are you waiting for also the audio book is read by someone with an English accent which I regret I regret that I didn't have someone with an English accent and read my book

no comment we'll leave it there all right thank you to Jackson, thank you to McMahon and Bontem. Thank you for watching, listening to The Hood Collective. We'll talk to you in a couple days. Adios, amiguel.