Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - End Of Season Wrap-Up – Warriors Well Set Up? + Major Storylines

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to an eventful end to the NBA season including a wild finish with massive seeding implications between the Clippers & Warriors. The guys dive into an early look at the major storylines between the Clippers & Nuggets and the Wolves & Lakers. Plus, some interesting news from Philadelphia on the future of the 76ers. 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 Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday evening, joining me from the center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

where mercifully the 76ers season ended today is Timonteps. All you got to know about the Philadelphia 76er season, fellas, is exit interviews were being conducted up until tip, and they were completed within two hours of the final buzzer of the season. And the Sixers have moved on to the, Summer of 2025. As fast as possible. As fast as humanly possible.

The Bulls won that game and closed the season six and one. I think we should note that. The Bulls love to win meaningless games in March and April, baby. Playing in Warriors. All right, joining us from Memphis, Tennessee, where he was at the Grizzlies beating the Mavericks in a meaningless game. The Grizzlies will be the eighth seed. Is Ban McMahon.

Howdy? Can I tell you a secret? I left before the game started. Felt like my time would be better spent with old Clippers Warriors on the big screen. And I believe that was a solid decision on my part. I was very glad that the exit interviews went so fast that I could watch the final few minutes of regulation over time of Warriors Clippers, which is great. So I got to see the end too. There was not a serious examination of Gersa and Yabaselli's season by the 76ers media.

So the main event on Sunday, obviously, was Clippers Warriors, which Steph Curry said before the game was going to feel like a game seven. It went to overtime, high-intensity game, and the Clippers get the win. By the way, let me just say a standout performance from James Harden in this game. I haven't decided on my full All-MBA team yet. That'll be in the next 24-ish hours. James Harden is a serious contender for an all-NBA spot and talk about sending a message with his walkoff. 39 points, 10 assists was an absolute killer in the overtime of this game right out of the gates, hitting a three-pointer.

However, before we talk about that in the Western standing, I just have to say, I would love to know what went through Ben Simmons mind. Ben Simmons is sitting on the Clippers bench. There's less than 20 seconds left in overtime. It is a two-point game. And Draymond Green gets the ball alone under the basket. And we're doing this. I've got to fly to L.A. tonight, so we're doing this literally moments after the game ended.

I don't know what Dremond is going to say. I don't know what Steve Kerr is going to say. From my vantage point, could be proven wrong. Dremond threw his body towards Kauai Leonard. It was a very nice play. sure looked like a moment here at the center a few years ago. No. I'd tell you what Ben Simmons was thinking.

He was thinking, why didn't he pass out of that wide open lay-up? Well, if he passed out of it, he wouldn't have to sit there and listen with a mislap. It was a beautiful play. They stretched the – they stretched out the Clippers defense. The ball went to the middle, and James Harden was up to the position where he had to decide between guarding Jimmy Butler in the corner or Draymond under the basket. and he kind of froze and the ball went to Draymond. It's a beautiful play call and Dremont has a layup to tie the game and he threw his body at Kauai Leonard.

I assume trying to give a three-point play. Kauai did not foul him. I'm not sure whether Kauai processed in the moment what had happened or he got fortunate, but he didn't foul him. And Dremont biffed the layup. The clippers get the rebound, end up getting one more point. Buddy Healed got off a three at the buzzer. It was a play that Steve Kerr has run in the past was actually an old Brad Stevens play. where they throw across the side of the court.

Buddy Heald got a decent look at it but missed it. And now the Warriors, after all of that good work. And, I mean, we knew this was going to happen to somebody. We knew that somebody was going to, you know, sort of unfairly be in the play-in. Oh, unfair. Well, whatever. It's a 40. It's not unfair.

Okay. That's fine. By the way, just to emphasize the James Hardin thing. It wasn't done. I was just going to say, because just to back up Bryant's point, 12 of the 13 points. in overtime for the Clippers. I also had a block and a steel. Just unbelievable performance from Hardin.

Close out what's been an awesome regular season. And the Clippers do incredible work down the stretch and were rock solid throughout this entire game. You know, Steph hit him with a huge fourth quarter. And they just survived every punch. And, you know. Okay. Back to the Warriors violin music that you were on. Yeah.

You know, it's a company man, McMahon. He's a company man. They had 48 wins. They tie with the Grizzlies. They have the tie broker over the Grizzlies. So they get, I'm laughing at your company man line. They get the seven seed. They will have to play Tuesday night against the Grizzlies.

They will host. Well, that ain't a tough to ask. The Grizzlies haven't been a Western Conference team with a winning record since freaking January. We'll be that as in May. The Warriors are running on fumes. Jimmy Butler was limping around at the end of the game. They got to play 48 hours later.

I don't Memphis says to travel, but we'll see if they can take care of business in that game. Well, listen, and there's that, oh, there's that little Grizzlies Warriors rivalry. Oh, yes, sir. There's the code, baby. Be on the lookout for some code violations Tuesday. They like to talk about that when these teams meet. Oh, John Moran, been launching grenades, not beating any good teams, but he's been launching grenades and putting up big numbers. I tell you what, though, man, I'm excited.

This is what I wanted to see because, you know what? I want to see Warriors Rockets. I want to see what Steph Curry's got for those rockets who just shut him down, smothered them after Emeoak was talking all that trash at halftime. That's a sweet series. Lakers Warriors, if that happens, that's a second round series. We don't need that in the first round. This is the way it was supposed to be.

Jimmy Butler, 48 minutes and almost certainly a quad contusion in this game. Steph Curry, 38 minutes. He had a whole bunch of turner, had a whole bunch of turnovers in this game. and he just got a thumb injury that he aggravated over the weekend. Maybe that affected the turnover's eight, but it didn't affect the shooting, seven, 12, and three. Well, he was dancing. I will say, he had a key to three to put the Warriors up four at one point.

He was dancing. I was like, Steph, don't dance, buddy. This one is not overwit because the clippers absorbed every one. Moses are on my, Brandon Pajemski, 43 minutes. You don't tell Steph. Yeah, go ahead. Don't tell Steph when the shimmy. I was going to say, he's the best damn shimmier in the league.

Don't tell him when to shimmy? I was going to say Steph will probably be on the Cajonis factor for the month of April just for doing the shimmy and putting them up with 18 in the fourth quarter as we have the ever-shifting rules on how it goes. Once again, you expose your lack of knowledge of Cajonis. You don't even know where to find them anatomically. Kauai had 33 in this game. He wasn't as much of a factor down the stretch. He missed a shot at the buzzer of regulation.

Dremont was on him for that. Yeah, so that's, you know, a lot goes into that. A lot pours into that. The Clippers totally, they played four of their starters over 40 minutes in this game. Kauai with 47. I'll wait for- With 48.

Well, when was the last time we think Kauai played 47 minutes? I mean, it's got to be able to. And Kauai has been playing great and playing heavy minutes since he came back. Not 47. What I'm just saying, though, he's been, I mean, the Clippers goal, I mean, look, we haven't even laid out. Should we lay out now what the series are? Yes, go ahead. So the Thunder will play, obviously, whoever winds up in the eight, the loser of Memphis, Golden State,

and then the winner of Dallas in Sacramento. Sacramento eventually pulled away and beat the zombie sons today to get the nine spot. So Dallas will go to Sacramento on Wednesday. Memphis will go to Golden State on Tuesday. We've then got, obviously, the Rockets are the second seed. As what Grant said, don't wait to see who gets the winner of that Memphis Golden State game. And then we have Lakers Wolves, I think it's a fascinating series after Minnesota, after Anthony Edwards got his 18th technical rescinded.

So he was able to play in this game. eventually eaked out a win over Utah, game was a lot closer than it should have been for a while. Well, you know, he got it rescinded, right? The jazz lobbied for him to get it rescinded. Good one. And then we've got, I think, what's got a chance to be an absolutely epic series

between the Denver Nuggets again today and these clippers who have been rolling for weeks. Both of them, you know, had big weeks to close it out and lock in top six spots in the West. I found Kauai's last 45 plus minute game. It was in a 176-175 double overtime loss to the Kings in February of 2023. I haven't found 47 yet. Wow, that game was crazy.

Yeah, holy cow. That was an all-time game. Wow. What a pull. Nice job. Matt Williams, aka Band McMahon. So I got to say, so the Nuggets do win their last three games. under David Adelman.

The game on Saturday that they played, on Sunday, I should say they played in Houston. The Rockets were doing something that sort of made a lot of people scratched their heads. The Rockets sort of, I wouldn't say they tanked, but they rested guys the previous two games, including Friday night in L.A. And then they played their, basically their full team.

I think everybody, but Jayshan Tate was active for the game on Sunday. And we're like, wait a minute, are they going for smoke here? because if they had beaten the nuggets, they would have pushed the nuggets into potential seventh, which, you know, obviously they would have to win the play in, but they were almost saber-rabbling like, okay, we'll play y'all in the first round.

And so everybody was kind of like, really, what are they doing here? Nuggets led right from the start, and IMEA doka pulled the starters at half, which was probably the plan all along. But there was a little bit of drama once the active lists came out, and the injury report came out on Saturday, and the activist came out on Sunday. So Houston, how do you think Houston feels about potentially,

I mean, I don't want to take anything for granted. Maybe the Grizzlies go in there and win, but they got to be thinking. I'll take that for granted. The Grizzies can't beat a good Western Conference team. The Grizzies have won. They beat the remnants of the Mavericks today, and that's probably the last win.

Well, that's not true. They'll win the third playing game. They've got one more win. It'll be you can see either the Kings or the, or the MADS, and that's it for them this season. You know, you make assumptions in the play in tournament, your own peril there, buddy. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this.

There is a world for people who maybe don't believe in the Rockets, although they really impressed me coming down the stretch of this game, who could argue that Golden State not having to play Denver and instead getting potentially a less experienced rock, Rockets team. They were two and two. We have all talked a lot this season about how great the rocket season has been, how successful phase three has been.

Obviously, EMA's done an incredible job. The young guys have played better. It will obviously be a huge test if they get Golden State in this series. And look, I think it comes down to two things. One, let's see what Houston's offense looks like in the playoffs. We've talked about that as the question mark all season. How is that going to go? And the other thing I think is, how are these legs for the Warriors, this older team that's had to really push it down the stretch?

How are they going to look? Because we saw, I mean, the play you mentioned, people have probably seen it by now. Dwight Leonard drove in and hit Jimmy Butler in the leg with his knee late in overtime of this game. Jimmy was limping around. That's probably not going to feel great on Tuesday. I think this game on Tuesday could be slightly harder if the McMahon is laying it out. We'll see. But this is a team that felt like they needed a week off.

And instead, they're now going to have to play Tuesday. And if they win that game, they're then going to go into this first round series against this Rockets team that's got Amend Thompson and Dylan Brooks and all these big physical guys who are going to be making life difficult on them for five, six, seven games at a minimum. So if Golden State's healthy, I'm going to pick them to win the series, and I think if they're right, I do think Steph and those guys will be too much for the Rockets to handle. But the Rockets present some interesting challenges to them. And if they're not right, I think you can win the series. Now, back to what, okay, I'll give the Grizzies a puncher's chance or a grenade launcher's chance. But what we certainly anticipate will be a Warriors.

Rocket Series. I'm excited for this one, fellas. Now, there will be a lot of long-time staffers, folks from ownership, front office on down, they're going to have some Warriors PTSD. Oh, they've seen Stefan Draymond in playoff series before. Now, that won't bother you may. That won't bother a single guy in that locker room because none of them were involved in those series. But I'm telling you, man, we won't bother the aforementioned Freddie Van Gogh, either who obviously will be playing in the series. There you go. A men Thompson guarding Steph Curry is for six, seven games is going to be awesome. When they play... I feel like we are really opening ourselves for being mocked if the Grizzlies win that game. I'm just telling you...

Look, de damn do. I think we're talking too much. I think we're, I think we should, I do think we should pause this because we can do it later in a week. We got two series that are set that are awesome. Let's talk about that. Nuggets Clippers. Pent-wheel. Where, you know, the new kinder, gentler, happier Denver Nuggets. Everyone's going to smile and have a good time. They're shibian. They're shimmy.

Yes. We're going to, we're going to, you know, even though we won a championship with, you know, the grind house led by Michael Malone, now we're going to laugh our way to get back. Look, they won three games under Adelman. They've gotten equally yokic. The thing about the Clippers is they've been extremely impressive the last 20 games of the season. I think there's something like 16 and 4, 17 and 3 coming in. But it's hard to trust the Clippers in the playoffs because, and I was talking to some Clippers, folks, I went to a game there last week, and they were all really happy with where they were,

but they all recognized that it's so fragile. So, Kauai has been great. He's been the rocket fuel, it's been poured on this. Ty Lou has a nine-man rotation that he really trusts. us. He's learned to lean on Chris Dunn to be a key defensive player. Norman Powell is, you know, they not, you mean, people talk about the Lakers three-headed monster. The Clippers' three-headed perimeter is a beast too. When you include Norm Powell, Kauai Leonard, James Hardin, that's a powerhouse trio, the way they've been playing on the perimeter. And Denver will have home court in that series,

but if I'm the Clippers, I'm feeling great about having gone up there to Golden State and pulled the win out of there. I'm feeling awesome about my chances, especially as I get to rest my 30-year-old guys coming down for the next week. I bet the Clippers locker room is in a really good place right now. And you know that Tailu specializes in excellent game planning. Well, everything's been tried on, everything's been tried on Yokic. There's nothing you can show Yokuch you haven't, she hasn't seen before. But a big thing in this series will obviously be how, what we know, where Jamal Murray is. Jamal Murray, his health, Kauai Leonard, his health, who gets, you know, who looks healthier between those two and that's in the series?

And who can maintain that help. That's the whole series. That's the whole series. If Jamal Murray looks great, then Denver probably is to me the favorite to win this series. And they're going to be a mess for the Thunder to deal with. If Jamal Murray looks like that kind of guy. He did come back on, put 25 minutes a day from his hamstring injury scored 16 points. Well, but he's going to have Chris Dunn.

all up in his grill. And, you know, that, and Dunn's going to be the, kind of the head of the snake, but, you know, they've got other guys that they can throw in him. I think this is going to be a tough series for Jamal Murray.

And, you know, we talked, uh, the last pot about this philosophy of try to make Joker one dimensional offensively and make, you know, the one dimension has got to be as a score. Try to make him score,

score, score, score, not let other guys get involved, not let other guys, getting a flow. Let me hold on. They played three times this year. He had one game he had a triple double with 11 assists. The other games, he had four assists. But here's the surprises, though.

The other two games against the clippers, he had four assists and two assists. So I think that kind of tells you what they think. And those are two of his, there's only five games this year where he had four or fewer assists. Two of them were against the clippers. Oh, look, and you've got to be you to do about you, They can throw on Yokic and Will in the games. And look, you go back to Friday, biggest game of the season for Denver. They're playing Memphis.

Games, Memphis is up with a few minutes to go in the game. And what do they do down the stretch? It's the Murray Yokic, new man action. They spammed it a thousand times. They kept getting wide open looks for Murray. He carried him home. They won the game. Like that, that's where they're at.

If they get in the final five minutes and those two guys are healthy and feeling good, and it's a tie game, they're going to feel like they can beat anybody in the league. And that's where it comes down to it. He feels good. And again, on the other side, over and over again, we've gotten to this point with Kauai Leonard and then something has happened. Right. So I'm knocking on wood. I'm in Philly. It's probably not good wood to knock on. But I'm going to hope get out of that. Kauai Llander can stay healthy for the next few weeks and let's see what he can do because this Clippers team has been awesome to watch. They've done a tremendous job. And, you know, let's see if they can have a healthy run because I think it's got a chance to be a seven-game classic series. I will say the Clippers getting the five seed is amazing work. You know, they- amazing. A week ago, they had won 14 out of 17 games and they had gone from eighth to eighth.

They moved up not at all. And then the events of this last week and some tiebreakers fall in their way, all of a sudden they are in the 50. And, of course, they had a day to do it with this incredible victory that they earned on Sunday. Let me just, it's this small sample size, but I just want to talk about the difference with Yokic the last three games. His three previous games, and granted, Jamal Murray was not in these games. His three previous, his last three games of the Malone time, 61 points, 33 points, 41 points.

scoring way up, reduction on the wind column way down. Like that's the way you want to make Yokic play. The last three games, 20 points, 26 points, 18, today didn't play the full game. And assists 11, 13, and 7. But his scoring comes down, Nuggets winning goes up. So that, I mean, it's not like that's the first time we've known this. This is the way the Nuggets have endeavored to play along all along. Yokic was averaging a 30-point triple double when my.

Michael Malone was fired. The triple double part was great. The assists and rebounds were great. The 30 was not a great sign. And they were in seventh place. They rescue themselves to four. All things considered, the nuggets have to be thrilled. They can't be happy with potentially having to see. No, they're happy in general. You know, breath of fresh air. And like you said, they're shimmying. They're smiling. Hey, they do want those guys, my understanding is those guys in the locker room would love for David Adelman to get that job. They do like them. They respect them. They're round around them. I think if they win a playoff series, there's a high, high degree of likelihood that he will be the permanent head coach. But it ain't going to be easy because, man, hey, David Adelman, you've been a head coach for three games now.

And here you are in the first round, matched up with Ty Lou and Jeff Van Gundy. Huh, that ain't easy. And, by the way, you're talking about Kauai? Last two months of, I'm sorry, last month of the season for Kauai here. So a 14 game span with him sitting out two or three. Dude's averaging 26 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3 and a half assists, a couple steals. Shooting splits here of 54-49, effective field goal percentage over 61. And the average plus minus in that span per game, 12.8.

Kauai has been cooking. No kidding. He's been awesome. He's been awesome. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. So the other series we have established Lakers, wolves, split the season series 2-2, haven't played since the last day of February. Yeah, and those games are all meaningless because three of them came before the trade

and the one in February came with Gobert not playing. Right. So it's hard to take anything away from any of them. Well, I can take this away. Luca loves playing the Timberwolves. He does. I'm just going to tell you that right now. What did Luca get a motion?

What really got in his fields when he's watching the tribute video? That was a great answer. Shut over, and Gobel where I ripped his soul out and amassed him up and down for the world to see. That was a great answer. I don't think he quite sounded like that. I don't think it quite sounded like that, I'm guessing. What McMahon is referring to is in the post game from the return game to Dallas the other night,

it was asked, Luca asked, you know, what got him crying? and he said it was the shot over Gobert, the just crowned four-time defensive player of the year. Yeah, what moment really hit him is that moment? And his point was it just symbolized like we were right there, we believe, blah, blah, blah, blah. But also he loves, loves playing the wolves. And for whatever reason, he loves playing my pedicure partner. Oh, Rudy Gobert, I've seen him light him up on multiple continents.

I mean, I've seen him light up France. seeing them light up the jazz and I've seen them light up the timbrewool. I don't know if the jazz is on a different continent, but it feels that way when you go to South Lake City. Well, it's a, it's a fascinating matchup on so many fronts. Obviously, the Luca Rudy history is a big part of that. But it's also like, what have we been talking about with the Lakers from the moment they made the trade? They have no interior size, right? Now they're playing this Wolves team that lives in the paint. Not only do you have Rudy. They're playing some combination of him and Julius Rand's Randall and Nas Reid all the time, all big physical guys.

I know Nas and Julius shoots the threes, but like this is a team that's built on size inside and size on the wings and size all over the place. And obviously that is awfully interesting going up against this Laker team that is essentially living with a bunch of six, seven guys running around all the time. And, you know, how that battle inside plays out, I mean, it's safe to say to me is going to determine how this series is going to go from start to finish. And like you said, if you're the Lakers and you're Luca, you're going to feel pretty good about your history against Rudy

and that winning out in the end. Well, look, the Bulls were in the conference finals last year. They are a team that has proven that they can get it done to playoffs and is a difference-making player. If you're the Lakers, you've got to feel okay about your draw. You are obviously on the opposite side is the Thunder. you are getting a Wolves team that has been good down the stretch, but certainly not a team you look at and say, boy, that's a mountain to scale.

The Lakers, I haven't seen any numbers yet. They'll probably be firm favorites, although that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter with the Lakers. Lakers are the favorite of the eight seed. When you say good down to stretch for the Tim Wolves, you mean of the season. You don't mean of games because this is a team that struggles mildly to close games, specifically to protect leads, as we saw when Milwaukee came back from 24 down against them the other day. If it's a close game down the stretch, the Lakers have a massive advantage,

especially with like two of the most brilliant basketball minds of all time that have the ball in their hands for them. They did win nine of 11 games coming down the stretch. The one the one loss that they had last week was to the Bucks where they got outscored 40 to 13 in the fourth quarter and blew a 24-point lead. They were, they are very fortunate that that loss did not cost them a, have cost them into the playoff or into the play. It was not the hardest scheduled down the stretch. They had two games with the nets in the last 10 days of the season. No, they had the, they had a super easy run and it took advantage of it. But yeah, look, I mean, they're they're there, they're a I vary its team in every way.

They can look really good at times. They also have games where they, I mean, they've lost to Utah this year. Like they're all over the place. But like you said, going into the playoffs last year, not exactly a perfect comparison because I think this Lakers team is clearly better than that Sun's team was.

But going in that series with Phoenix, another team didn't have a ton of pop inside, another team with a couple big time perimeter scores. A lot of people thought Phoenix was going to win that series. Some thought comfortably. and the wolves went in and smacked them. Now, I do not think the wolves are going to do that to the Lakers at all. I think there's going to be a long series.

But, you know, Minnesota has, like you said, that run last year still they're capable of stepping up in a big spot. And it's just going to be an immediate, fascinating test of the obvious hole in the Laker roster we've talked about going back to the rescinded Mark Williams trade. And even before that, when they made the Luka trade, that they didn't have size inside, not. they're going up against one of the biggest teams in the West. And the loss to Utah, by the way, was when Ant was suspended for 16 Ts. And then that's why Utah lobbied for him not to be suspended again for this one. Just to be clear, and this is important for both the wolves with Ant and for the Lakers with Luke. Oh, Luke will get a T here and there.

Sometimes they'll get rescinded. Usually if it's going to be a suspension, they always do. But the technical fouls thing resets. seven, but it's zero, you get seven in the playoffs. I think they can both get through this series without being suspended. We'll talk more about some of the playoff matchups during the week. Full disclosure, I got to get to the airport. Second, the Masters is about going to a playoff. Before we go, Bontems, you had some news out of Philly today. Darryl spoke and delivered a verdict. I mean, I wasn't saying surprised. There was mystery. What was going to happen in Portland,

but ended up happening was Joe Cronin and Chauncee Billups got extensions. The Blazers played basically 500 basketball over the last two and a half months of the season. You could argue whether that was an intelligent thing to do based on their desire for a high draft pick. On the less, that apparently gives them momentum that kept Joe Cronin and Chauncey Bultz in place. So check mark on that. Philadelphia was another place.

I do think we're going to see some changes in maybe some with some teams. I'm not going to speculate tomorrow on Monday, maybe even tonight. but Philly was another place we weren't sure what was going to happen. We got resolution on that today with use there. What went down? Yeah, I mean, Daryl just came into his presser

and as part of a very long opening statement going through all of the various things that went very badly for the sixes of the season, of which there were many. Very long. He said that both he and Nick Nurse would be back next season, not a shock, as you said,

but interesting that he said it. I also thought it was pretty interesting that he, on several occasions, said that they would have a young, younger and more dynamic roster next season, said on multiple occasions, he failed in having a roster that was too veteran-laden this season, and that played into their availability issues. Also said at one point that they were a little too focused on what the playoffs would look like. I think we knew that going back to when everyone very openly told me in October that

they were on a plan that was focused only on getting ready for the playoffs at the time. And so we will see what happens with the Sixers this summer. Obviously, they have secured the fifth spot in the draft lottery. We will see where they land with that pick. Obviously, it will be one thing if it gets into the top four and it'll be another thing, if it drops a couple spots to seven and goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder instead. But that was the main takeaway from today in Philadelphia, where Paul, Paul George and Tyrese MacC and a bunch of other guys spoke as well.

And Joelle and B did not because he just had surgery on his knee a couple days ago. All right. Well, we will talk more about Philly in June. If Darrell Morris says he's safe, it's just like, that's that. Well, that's a good point. I assume that he, maybe. I believe it's coming into today that neither of them were having their jobs, we're being removed from their jobs.

So I would not take it as a surprise that this was set. I know. And I'm sure, like, I would assume that he got the okay to declare that. But typically, the guy whose job might be in jeopardy isn't the guy who gets to say, don't worry, I'm good. Well, it won't be interesting to see. But I do not, I do not think that that will change from today's stance. You know, I just want to point out on February, on February 4th, which is right before the trade deadline,

The Sixers won a game to go to 20 and 29. Okay. You can go back farther than that. They were 19 and 27. Right. They finished the season 5 and 31. Yes. So and the reverse standings, looky here.

Fifth one. By the way, speaking of the reverse. Sixers, baby. Success. The most dramatic moment the entire day today was not in San Francisco. It was not in Denver. it was in the Heat Wizards game. Where Buck Tarrington, who was drafted with the pick, traded for Denny Obia to Portland,

hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer for the Wizards. Now, you're saying, why do the Wizards matter? Well, the people in Utah are pumping their fists because the two teams came into Sunday, tied in the win column for the number one spot in the draft order. Well, obviously the top three picks all have the same odds now. If you don't, both teams don't get picked, it means one of them picks fifth as opposed to sixth. Utah now gets the number one slot in the lottery because of this Bubb Carrington shot at the buzzer. Big dramatic moment.

Well, they still have the same percentage chances, but the pick, you know. It's the floor. It's the floor. He's right. Also, Philly, by finishing fifth, now is a 65% chance of really. retaining their pick. That's right. And obviously, I think it's...

64% to be specific, only because it came up multiple times today. Okay, 64%. Essentially a two-thirds chance of keeping it. So they've gone from the top sixers to the 64s. All right, here we go. And more importantly, 42% chance of getting into the top four, whatever that's worth to you. All right. I've got to go to the airport.

We'll be talking to you guys all week from Los Angeles. McMahon. I look forward to hearing what your playoff assignment is. Well, I just can't wait to go out to sack and then back to Memphis. I'm going to chilling, fellas. We'll be chilling watching games at home. It's going to be great. Take you to Jackson.

Thank you to Bon Tems and McMahon. Thank you for watching, listen to the collective. We'll talk to you very eventfully later this week. Yes, amigos.