Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Flagg’s Rookie Of The Year Statement + NBA’s Biggest Final Week Drama To Watch

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to break down Cooper Flagg making a case for Rookie Of The Year with some historic statement performances. Then, we dive into the biggest final week storylines in both conferences including Giannis' drama with the Bucks, some epic playoff races to watch, the disastrous injuries to the Lakers 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 with the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Sunday evening, basically Monday morning. Joining us from New York City is Tim Bontemps.

Hello, everybody. Join us from Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks just beat the New Look Lakers. Is that putting an optimistic bent on it where Cooper Flag finished off a weekend where he scored, I believe, 96 points in two games, is Van McMahon. Howdy, partners, Cooper flag flipping the rookie of the year odds with one hell of a weekend. Folks around here fired up by the old Bontemps bonus straw poll, baby.

It's the last time Bontemps does a bonus poll. Did he flip, did he flip McMahon's fake vote? Yeah, actually, to be honest with you, yes, he did. Yeah, the Hornets did get a big win today. Concanip. Concanipa has actually just not played great for the last eight to ten days. some key games. I'm not sure that has anything to do with it, but I wasn't surprised that Khan was ahead. I was surprised at 80 to 20, but maybe in a strange way, that poll is going to help

Cooper because I think it may be accentuated that the race wasn't really that close and kind of fired everybody up about it and it, you know, whipped up the conversation and then put more focus on Cooper as he had these two amazing games. Do we want to hit on this now? do we want to get back to this later? Well, we'll get back to him later. I mean, I think we can talk about it, not get out of the way. I mean, the thing that's interesting about rookie the year compared to MVP, everybody's talking about MVP all year, right?

So there's like a pretty defined narrative of the race. I think the reality is nobody was really talking about this award at all, right? Like, Con's had this unbelievable season. We've talked about it some, but it's not a daily topic of discussion. Sure. We really haven't talked about the Mavs hardly at all for two months because they've been tanking. So they've been completely off the radar. Paul comes out.

Khan's got a very healthy lead. Then Cooper has these back-to-back unbelievable games, the last couple of games, and now the odds of Google will be flipped around. Does that mean the race has really flipped around that much? I don't know. I would still guess as of right at this moment, con probably wins.

But I do think there's a lot more of a certainty, a lot less of a certainty about this whole, race in general, just because I don't think people think about it nearly as much as do about MVP, which is basically a daily topic of discussion from, you know, January, December 1st till the end of the season. So going into the weekend, and this is, this was after the poll, but the poll, it was 81st place votes for con and 20 for Cooper. So going on in the weekend, Connipal was a minus 300 favorite, you know, favorite with minus 300 odds.

and Coupe, I had our folks look this up, was it plus 225. After Cooper goes for 51 with no turnovers and a loss to the magic and then goes 45, eight rebounds, nine assists, a couple steals in a block tonight and a win over the Lakers, both efficient shooting nights. Those things have flipped. Flags now at minus 250 and Cinnipple is plus 120. So not overwhelmingly so. Plus the Mavericks did a nice little, nice little.

little promo thing. They didn't, you know, ain't no pressures, the slogan, although they do seem to be putting pressure on. They put all kinds of stuff in this little promo box, bond tips, including, oh, ho, official receipts with all this big time performances leading up. Oh, let's see. I'll be honest with you, it's very small print. I'm getting old, but a whole bunch of receipts that got a little bit longer this weekend. These are just for you, USWB, just for you. I'll make sure you get one of these boxes. I didn't even vote in the poll. You voted for Carl. I was going to say, you're getting the blame. Hey, one of the only times in Dallas were another I've heard about the blame and I told the people in Dallas that they could, they should probably direct their attention to

people who voted. But in all seriousness. Like Big Band. In all seriousness, though. Oh, ooh. Oh no. People in Dallas might get mad of me. That'll be a first. Well, I mean, this is one where you don't have a vote so they don't even have to worry about it on this one. I can tell you put it in a vote for them.

I'm annoyed that, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'm annoyed at the sports book thinking that the media is so shallow that Cooper Flagg's entire body of work is rendered, you know, trite. And this weekend's like, oh, now he's the favorite. But hold on. Here's the thing. And Bon Timps, we discussed this. You made this point the other day.

The 80 votes, it's not like 80 people saying race is over, clear cut, no questions, con can't nipple. over. I can't, whatever happens for this season doesn't matter. It's a binary choice. 80 votes, how many of those were flippable?

I would say probably the majority of them, right? I mean, I don't, I also know if I would say that. I don't, I am really annoyed that, I mean, you know, fellas, but what we're talking about, and Kahn's case is like,

hey, the guy's having the best shooting season ever by a rookie, okay, and contributing to winning for the Charlotte of Horns. He's had a phenomenal rookie year. Yeah. Cooper Flag has had three Okay, first of all, I gave you the bird magic, Luca Cooper stat, 20 plus points, six plus rebounds, four plus assists, right? Those are the guys who have done that since the merger.

45 plus point performances, there have been four of those by teenagers in NBA history. Three of them are by flag, two of them this weekend. Rookies who have gone 45 plus three times in a season, he's one of six now. Hold on. This is not, hold on. This is not really the right. This is not the right conversation, though. I don't care.

You can have your conversation in a minute. How are you going to interrupt? Mid-sentence. He's one of six. The other five have been rookie of the years who've gone on to Hall of Fame careers. The company this kid is in is absolutely historic and hard to ignore. And this weekend added to that and reinforced that. The conversation we were having was about the odds flipping around in a day and a half.

and you're talking to somebody who Brian voted for Cooper, unlike you, in the poll. I might vote for Cooper with my actual vote. Brian has a vote. I'm guessing his vote is probably not going to change after this weekend. I don't think he's voted for Khan now after this weekend. The broader question is, I'm not sure how much, like how predictive this straw poll was. I think Khan is pretty far ahead coming into the weekend based off of the body of work of the season and the fact. that he's sort of just been entrenched as the guy who was going to win the award for months now.

Now, perhaps Cooper will have three more 40-point games this week. He'll have some unbelievable close and he'll be the rookie of the year. Maybe he is leading the rookie of the year race after this weekend because like I said at the beginning, I don't know how much people have been really paying attention to this at all. And they might come back to it at the end and say, you know what? Cooper Flagg is having a historic rookie season. He is a potentially generational player. we are going to give him the not yet.

I legitimately don't know. I also was just amused the odds completely did a 180 based off of a game and a half. I mean, that's happened every single time that a rookie's had 96 points in a weekend. Right. So I would just say that one curveball that exists now, for a majority of the history, at least of my voting,

they would send you the ballot a week early. and then five minutes after they sent you the ballot start to bother you to get it in. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Because for many years, they started giving the awards out within days of the end of the regular season. They had to do logistics. Then for a few years, they did the NBA awards, like at the end of June, which never worked because it's like, wait a minute, this guy didn't win the MVP, just let his team to a championship. Yeah, that's a bad idea.

It was just really bad optics to, like, have the guy, you know, a guy. who just let his team to the championship finish like eighth and MVP voting. That happened. But anyway, now the vote, you don't even get the ballot for a while, and now the vote is going to be potentially days after the season because. I would say, yeah, I would say almost certainly because of this Luca stuff. Luca, you know, so Luca, a lot's happened since our last podcast. Oh, boy, we probably should get to the Lakers pretty quickly here.

Yeah, well, we, yeah, well. Good pivot. The point is that Luca is going to file it. Well, Bontz, you wrote the story. Yeah, Bon Tips, you broke this one, so explain. Yeah, just to be really quick, Luca missed two games. Lucas, one game short of the 65 game rule. He's obviously not playing again this regular season.

We'll see if he plays again, period. He missed two games for the birth of his child in December. There is a clause in the 65 game rule that is an extraordinary circumstances clause that if you could have made, would have got to 65 games, but something extraordinary came up, you could say, hey, here's my argument why I would have played 65 games, having a kid missing a couple of games, it's a pretty decent argument. So we'll see what happens with that. But that grievance is going to be heard from Monday to Thursday of playing week,

and we're probably going to get the ballots that Friday. So rather than getting them on Monday or Tuesday like we typically do, you're not going to have a whole extra week to probably think about it. My point is- Why can't the grievance just be heard now? Like, he's not playing the rest of the season. Because what they do, Tim, it's a good question. I asked it.

They wait until the 65 game, the season is over. And then they just do it all at once. Like essentially it's like, okay, our other thing is going to come up. We would never get the ballots. We would always get the ballots on Tuesday now because they take Monday and make sure that everybody, there aren't any grievances. Everybody's all set on it. And then if everything's square, we get the ballots Tuesday night, midnight.

You have 24 hours to get them back. my point on all this is, is it for many years, it used to be that even though... We'd probably have them already, probably. Right. Even though, you know, you should probably, in my opinion, wait till the end, wait till the buzzer. Like, literally the league wanted them kind of before the end of the season. I think they used to be. I do.

I think if I remember right, Brian, I think they might have used to been due the night of the final game of the season or at most the day after. Right. Right. So the point is, is that. You can, just the mechanics of the voting, we're literally in flux. Like, this is like happening over the last couple of years. Everyone's going to have a beat to think about all this stuff in a way that they didn't always in the past. The ballots will be due after the first award used to be issued.

They used to hand out like most improved a rookie of the year within four or five days within the season. Now the ballots may not be due for four or five days until after the season. So what I'm saying is that this is more ripe for late season maneuvering than there was before is all I'm saying. Sure. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Okay. What we'd like to do here, and we'll get to more Lakers stuff, we'd like to take as a primer, primer, which is the better way to say it, I don't know. As we go into the last week of the season here, let's take a look at each conference, where the seeds are,

Who can move up, who can move down, who's locked in, and just sort of get you ready for where your team is and where your team might be. Or, you know, if you're a Wizards fan, I don't know, turn it off because... Wizards. My God. Do you think they will have a game where they give up 170 before the end of the week? It's not out of the realm of possibility, and I'm not kidding. All right. Let's start in the Eastern Conference.

In the last couple of days, the Pistons. have locked down the number one overall seed. They are now eight and two since Cade went down with the collapse lung. Very impressive run. Congrats to them. One of those losses was barely to the thunder, too. Yes, when they had five of their top six guys out. In fact, both losses were in overtime on that eight and two, if I'm not mistaken.

Congratulations to J.B. Bickerstaff on winning coach for the year. Some people think Joe Missoula should win, but we're not going to focus on that right now. All right. Second place, Boston, they got a win on Sunday. Jason Tatum had another good game. They beat the Raptors. We'll talk about the Raptors in a second. They are all but locked into the two seed.

They don't have it clinched yet, primarily because the Knicks have the tie break over them. They do play the Knicks on Thursday. The Celtics have to win one. the Celtics have to win basically one more game. I think they're magic numbers too. But yeah. I think the magic numbers too. Right.

But Jason Tatum, by the way, he's rebounding like a maniac. He's like averaging 11 rebounds a game. He had 13 more on Sunday. Okay. So the Knicks now are three games back, but they have the tiebreaker of the Celtics. The Knicks almost certainly are not getting the two seed. The question is whether they will get three or four. The Knicks this week, let's see who they have.

I got a tough schedule. They have. Yes, they do. The Knicks have Boston, Atlanta, Toronto, and the Hornets. All teams. They're in Atlanta Monday. They have the Knicks at home. Their final three games are at all.

So in Atlanta Monday, they have Boston at the Garden on Thursday. They have Toronto at the Garden on Friday. And then they have the Hornets at the Garden. on Sunday. All four of those games teams are incentivized to win the game. I guess it's possible the Celtics will not have to win the game. I guess it's possible the Celtics would not take it easy. But knowing them, I think they will go for it.

So I think the Knicks have the hardest schedule other than Atlanta of any of the Eastern Conference playoff teams. I think Orlando's got a tough schedule too. But all right. In fourth, the Cavs beat the Pacers on Sunday. they have a bunch of guys out. Having said that the Cavs are really only in fourth place still because they've been beating tankers over the last two weeks

and all of their wins over the tankers have been unimpressive, including against the Pacers and they were trailing. I know they were trailing in the third quarter. They might have been trailing at the end of the third quarter. I can't remember. It was not an impressive win. Not only that, but Max Drews hurt his wrist, hopefully not seriously.

And Donovan Mitchell tweaked his ankle. I don't think it's serious, but it's possible he could miss some games. Having said that, they weren't trailing after three quarters. That is not good against the Pacers. By the way, shout out to Micah Potter, who, if you don't know who that is, he's starting for the Pacers right now, but I don't blame you. He is from Cleveland, and he did a cool thing on Sunday. I has a little side note here.

He wanted to do it. He was playing in Cleveland in front of a bunch of friends and family. He wanted to do a gender reveal. He and his wife were expecting. So he wore purple shoes to warm up. He had a bunch of friends and family there. He started the game. him shouts to Rick Carlisle started him.

And then while the lights were down, during the Cavs pregame introductions, he turned or he secretly put on blue shoes, he's having a boy. All right. So that's to Mike Carter. And then he hit a bunch of trees. Well, matches the face his uniform better, too. I'm sorry, I miss that one. Matches the uniform better too. That's true.

That's true. All right. But the Cavs magic number to clinch the four seed, actually not to clinch the fours. But to clinch home court ahead of the Hawks and 76ers is one. And they play in Memphis on Monday. Now I'm going to tell you, I don't know. They also finish up against the Wizards. I got a feeling they'll get one.

Yes. I don't know who's going to play in that game because like I said, they're holding a bunch of guys out with sort of quasi-injuries. And then a couple of their guys got dinged up on Sunday. But I would say the cabs. If they managed to lose to Memphis on Monday, that'd be awfully imprepresent, given the way Memphis has been losing games for a while. However, following that, they then play two games.

home and home with the Hawks. Let me ask you this. Who are, yes. Why would Cleveland be, let's assume they, they clinch home court against Memphis. Why would they be motivated to win those two games against the Hawks? Why would they rather be three than four? They are not, in fact. Okay.

They are heavily incentivized to not play to win those games, whereas Atlanta, who is currently two games ahead of Philly for the five seed would be incentivized. advised to win. They've won four games in a row, an eight of ten. And so the question becomes, and this is relevant to the 76ers who lost on Saturday, the 76ers are in a tie with the Raptors for the last non-play-in. Basically, the 76ers have the tie break, so they are in six. Seventy-sixers are highly motivated to win. If you are, if you are, it's a, it's, Atlanta, you would like to stay, I think, I don't know what you want to do if you're Atlanta, but you certainly don't want to mess around and fall back to six. You'd rather be on the opposite side of the bridge. You don't want to see the Celtics or the Knicks. Correct.

You'd rather see Cleveland and then be on the opposite side of the bracket from the Celtics, I would think. Right. And also if you're Cleveland, even though, you know, Atlanta is no pushover, I think you'd be incentivized to play the Hawks in the first round instead of the 76ers at full strength. and you don't necessarily want to come up into three. The Knicks we just talked about have a hard schedule. The Knicks could very easily go.

Nix could very easily go one and three. I don't know about, you know, maybe they go in four, but they could very easily go one and three. The Cavs could be very incentivized to lose those two games to the Hawks. By the way, the Cavs have lost the tiebreaker to the Knicks. So if the calves lose those games plus the tiebreaker, I think they would potentially lock themselves into fourth. and hold Philly back.

They could sort of pull the hawks tight to them, distance themselves from the Knicks, and force the Knicks into Philly. Now, it's possible Philly could lose. I'll talk about them in one second. But they would, you know, there's some strategy. And I just said the calves are banged up a little bit. So if the Cavs get the win on Monday,

make sure they're not going to mess around and not have home court, they're incentivized to shut her down, even potentially against the wizards. Or even just have like a little tune up against the wizards where you score 100 points to the first half. Do you think it's possible to lose to the Wizards right now? Do you think it's possible? It's possible to lose to Memphis. I think that's the better question.

I think they're going to try to beat Memphis. So Memphis at one point today had a two-way and four ten days on the court. Oh, my God. So, yeah. And by the way, a costly win for the Mavericks over the Lakers. They pulled into a win. There were now even a wins with the Pelicans and Grizzlies. Well, by the way, the other day, the Kings beat the Pelicans,

which has given the Pelicans and who obviously the Hawks have the Pelicans pick, it is given the Pelicans a potential chance from Atlanta's perspective of being in some sort of tie with, with Memphis and Dallas because they all play Utah between now in the end of the season. Probably none of them are going to be beating Utah. I promise you that because now the kings have put themselves in a position by beating the Pelicans,

where they're now tied with Utah in standings, which is insane. All right, let's get out of tank territory. My point is only... We haven't been covering the tankers, but I will just say that the kings have had a couple of devastating wins over the last. couple of weeks. And I mean devastating. And maybe

karma will be on their side and it won't matter. And maybe if they would have won one of those games, but they have had a couple of times where they've won. And you're like, my God, what are you doing? Maybe not, because the kings tend to screw up high lottery picks anyways, Marvin Bagg. I was going to tell you that the jazz is, the jazz is tanking has been exquisite. Like Memphis, I think, wins. Nobody's, nobody's done better than Memphis. Memphis, I think, wins because of who they're doing. But the Jazz are still playing guys that are playing, like, are like playing real players. And they're doing crazy things like benching Kyle Filipowski in the middle of the third quarter because he's dominating.

I don't know whether Bryce Sanzibah is going to win most improved next year. But Bryce Sanzibah is having like a wrecking ball through the league for the last month. And they're shutting him down left and right. And finally, today they played the Thunder. And Senzabal was allowed to play. Yeah, they didn't have to get cute for that one. And he played 43 minutes today because there's no way. And he scored 34. But they did put up a better fight against the Thunder than the Lakers did on Friday night. All right. We'll get to that. Okay. We're going to move out of the tanker zone. Philly. Philly is in a tie. Who they lose to on Saturday? I forget. They lost to Detroit. Detroit. Another impressive win for the Detroit.

All right. Indeed has had some weirdness with the front office on like being deactivated. I mean, this, look, this, this is a pretty simple set up for Philly. They have a back-to-back with San Antonio and Houston. Houston. That's tough. Or not a back-to-back. They have back-to-back. They have road games. San Antonio Monday, Houston, Thursday. They then are in Indiana on Friday. Certainly a game you'd expect the Sixers to win. Indiana's not to be trying to win. And then they have what could be the final game for New Hall of Fame or Doc Rivers. Congrats to him. Yes. With the Bucks at home on Sunday. Another game, you certainly would expect Philly to win.

That gets Philly to 45 wins. They're currently tied with Toronto. They have the tie break. Toronto is a pretty tough schedule. I think if Philly wins those tanker games, certainly if they beat Houston, I think they're definitely finished out of Toronto. They just win the two tank games, I think they're finishing ahead of Toronto. The other team to watch is Charlotte. Charlotte has Boston on Tuesday, who they've played pretty well. I'll be at that game. All right. Hold on. Let's get to Charlotte.

Hold on. Let's just get there real quick. Just hold on. Hold on for a second. Hold on. Philly is currently in sixth with a tie break. Tied with Toronto. Toronto had a devastating loss a couple of days ago to, I think, New Orleans. Sacramento. And,

Sacramento. Oh, my gosh. And, and, and listen, Toronto has not been playing well for a little while

now. Well, they've started to lose road games. They all, these sons of guns would always win on the road. Well, they started to lose

on the road. And they've lost six out of ten. Toronto's remaining schedule is thus. Oh, thus. They have two games

with the heat. They have one game with the Knicks. And they have one game against Brooklyn. It's a tanker. That's not necessarily three and one there,

guys. Yeah. That's... No. So, Philly, the way things are going, Philly probably feels okay, even though they've got that tough road trip. I don't know.

Well, but that's where the Charlotte thing is interesting. Okay. So Charlotte, all right. So the Sixers have the tiebreaker on Charlotte. So right now, they're all at 43 wins. So right now it's... I don't care about the wins. I care about the losses.

The Hornets have one more loss. Go ahead. Oh, okay. Well, the wins are where this is going to matter now. So Charlotte plays Boston. You can't control your losses. You can control your wins. Charlotte plays Boston on Tuesday in Boston.

The last time they played, Horn has played really well, won comfortably. Potential first round preview. Could be a first round preview. If Charlotte can win that game on Tuesday and get to 44 wins, their final two games are against the Pistons, who should have nothing to play for at that point. Correct. And against the Knicks on Sunday,

who almost certainly will have either, they'll have an active interest in not winning the game, or they'll just be playing out the string. So if Charlotte can win in Boston Tuesday, they've got a pretty good chance to get to 46 wins, which would then require Philly to avoid the play-in needing to win either Monday against the Spurs, which, given out the Spurs of been playing,

I'm not going to give them much of a chance in that one, or beating Houston on Thursday in Houston, which is not an easy game. So that game tomorrow is pretty huge for sharp. Yes. That game, two. Tuesday for Charlotte is pretty huge and I think could really dictate what the rest of the week looks like. Well, Charlotte had a very big game on Sunday to keep all of this stuff alive against Minnesota.

We will get to Minnesota when we go over the West. Yeah, Minnesota minus Anthony Edwards, which we'll discuss. Well, that was a very important development in that game. Lamello had 35 in a high efficiency performance, very well needed. arguably one of the most important games, performances of Lamello's career. I'm not joking. No, seriously. Especially because Connipal, who again has had some stinkers recently.

He was 414 overall. Miles Bridges also had a very good game. When we talked about how fun that Philly, we talked about how funny that are fun that Philly Charlotte game was last weekend in Charlotte. That game both gave Philly the tiebreaker in the season series and very well could wind up being the difference between which of those teams is in the plane. So, you know, that was fun. That was fun.

Not funny. Funny was watching bond temps just get eviscerated on Mavs Twitter all weekend. That was funny. I can't support that because it's low intelligence. He's performing a service. If you didn't support low intelligence, you wouldn't have bond temps on the podcast. All right. That's all well and good, but I don't want, I, I am annoyed that the Mavs fans can't do basic.

Of course it's dumb. It's still entertaining. Well, that... Usually I'm down with that. We don't need to spend any more time on that. All right. Okay, Miami is in 10th. They play Atlanta and the Raptors twice,

and then they have the lizards. I don't know what's going to happen there. They're hard team to predict. Did you skip it over the magic? Oh, geez, I did. I'm sorry. Dude, we're going to get a Florida State Championship game in the 9-10.

that's right so Orlando did win on Sunday they barely beat the pelicans they barely beat New Orleans look like they were going well the way things are going they'll take anyone they can get man yeah so Franz Wagner is back yeah he's played I think three games two or three he's not playing many minutes he has looked okay he just had an average game but you know

that's a significant development they have Orlando has Detroit, Boston, Wizards, and Bulls. It's kind of a tough time to be a Bulls fan. I'm not going to lie. I mean, it's been a tough time since the freaking Derek Rose's departure. I don't. How many wins are the Bulls at here? Let me check.

Because what was our 39? Oh, wow. The way. By the way, all roads should not lead to 39. Next week, Bonteckel. In the preseason, they ain't getting a 39. Next week, we need an update on the preseason wins pool that we were in. And give your own by the end of the podcast.

I don't know who's going to still have their jobs in Chicago by the end of next week, whether it's by their own decision or by other people's decision. All right, moving on from the tank zone. All right. That's the east. Okay. Orlando, did I say they play? Yeah, so you're saying the Florida State Championship

and the 9-10. And listen, the heat, the 83 years might exceed my expectations and be able to squeak one out against the magic. Well, I'm just going to tell you that I think that despite what I just said about the Bulls, Orlando has hired arguably the most disappointing season in the whole league. Oh, Orlando tragic?

Do we, am I missing something? somebody that I guess maybe. I mean, Dallas certainly would have to be a contender for that. I mean, Memphis, Memphis has had a pretty disastrous season. I wonder if we're going to get a jaw update. I mean, Milwaukee. But yeah, the Clippers had a pretty disastrous season. I know they bounced back.

Yeah, but none of those teams traded four first round picks. That's true. That's true. That's fair. That's fair. They're in the conversation, no doubt. I will say the Bucks did wave and stretch dame and commence. a whole lot of money to Miles Turner.

Well, but certainly the minimum, they're the content. They're in the conversation. Real quick on the bucks. I don't need to go down the Janus track all over again, but just to point out what's going on right now, Janus on the record says he wants to play. The bucks are not playing him. There's an investigation. The union has made a statement about it saying that they think it's wrong.

And then an NBA spokesman. said that they did an investigation into the Janus's complaint. And the, quote, the investigation has found that the Bucks scheduled Yonis to work out in three-on-three scrimmages as is part of his return-to-play process, but he declined to participate. So we have the Bucks and Janus in a genuine cross-purposes going to battle against one another, using third parties, the league office and the union,

and absolutely in a mess with each other. This is because they're irrelevant and he hasn't played in weeks, it's kind of a little bit below the surface. Well, there's also just Janus fatigue because this has been dragging out for honestly, not just months, but years. I was saying up, I was adding up the wins. I have a solution. I have updated.

Wendy, can I offer a solution to the bucks? Yeah, trade him a year ago. Well, that too. But just to get him to play three-on-three. Janus says he really wants to play with his younger brother Alex. He has not had that opportunity. What if the three-on-three competition is the Antenacoup Bros. As one threesome against, you know, pick out three other players, whatever.

That way, Janus could, I mean, it's like checking all the boxes, getting closer to playing in an actual game, getting to play with his little brother Alex as well as his older brother with the You know what? In all seriousness, they're there are now two losses back of the Bulls. They're pretty much locked into 10th in the lottery. They're not playing them though because they're going to risk injury. Well, I understand that. But if you could trot them out there in some glorified scrimmage this week. I mean, they're, I mean, they've been playing out the string anyway. If it really becomes a thing, they're, they can't change their lottery position now anyway, is my point. Like, it really at this point. It really at this. point doesn't matter. They play two games with the nets. There's got to be a window. Well, that's what I'm saying.

They run them out there with the brothers and they could play for 15 minutes and have a big old farewell ceremony. Sure, sure. Like, they're past the point. I mean, it remains incredible. The one thing about the bucks is incredible is they had to stretch after the Ulster break without Yana, so they went eight and one. If they had just not had that stretch, they would have been right in the middle of this,

this pack of teams in the mid-lottery, and they could have. thing. How to could have really locked themselves into guaranteeing themselves a high pick. And instead there. When is the best time to start a rebuild? The year before. Last year. Wendy.

Yeah, before you wave and stretch dame. Hey, yes. As Janice does this media tour, have you checked in with him? Maybe we could get him on the podcast. He's looking for microphones. I have booked a guest on the podcast. for next week. Oh?

Yes. Is he a Euro? He is. Oh. Wee, we? And you guys are not going to be on because when I brought up to you that I wanted to book this guy, you guys mocked me. So you guys can just take that section of that podcast off and this gentleman and I will have the discussion that I want to have as I want to widen his, the people who know about him. That's what we try to do here on the podcast.

I hope you have Max and enjoy the listeners. He's at a nice season. I don't want to say who it is because I don't want to fall apart. It could fall apart, but it's softly booked. He's had a very nice season. All right. All right. Are we done with the East now?

Western Conference. Number one, Oklahoma City Thunder, with the Spurs losing on Saturday, which we're going to talk about right now. Their magic number to clinch the number one seat, I believe, is one. They put up 150 on the jazz today. They are incentivized to beat the latest. on Tuesday here in L.A. They got it. They got it win two.

Yeah, they got a one, too, because OKC's, I'm sorry, the same turn has got the tiebreaker. That's correct. I want to take that back. Yeah, they've got a back to back in L.A. that I'll actually be attending. You can attend with me, I believe. Yes, I can't attend on Wednesday because it's the final NBA count done of the year. But on Tuesday, I will be going.

And I'm just telling you, as we'll get to the Lakers in just one second, the Thunder are incentivized to hammer the Lakers in that game, both. to ensure that they get the number one seed and secondly to push the Lakers closer to the fourth seed to get them on the same. I don't know that I am 100% sure the Lakers are going to advance past the first round.

However, the Thunder are incentivized to win on Tuesday. They just beat them by 43, I think it was. Granted, that was a night when they had a great shooting night. Might have been 403. Well, it was a bad night for the Lakers.

So that's the Thunder. That's as big an understanding as you can make. We'll get there in one second. The Thunder anyway are won five in a row, nine of ten, and have a lock on the number one seat is. More nine and ten. I think it's like 17 of 18 now since she's been back. I mean, it's something like that.

More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Okay. In second place of San Antonio, they're like 99% to be locked in there. 17 and 2. I think she missed one of those games. Oh, yeah, right. Okay, that game on Saturday evening between the Spurs and Nuggets was theater. Fellas, I needed a cigarette after that game.

Cheers to you. Give it on the road too long. Oh, I'm home, baby. All right. Incredible Yokic Victor game. Yokic hit a shot in overtime. The Sambor Shuffle, baby. Sambor Shuffle over Vick.

A clutch saw more shuffle with maybe the best defense player we've ever seen draped all over him. Victor was genuinely stunned that that shot went in. Joker had 40 points, 13 assists, and no turnovers. And he had to earn it all. Eight rebounds and three blocks. It was incredible. And when I saw Yolkich. He was awesome.

When I saw Yokitch get him on his hip for that, I was like he's going to go to the shuffle. And I was sure it was going in. Just because I feel like every time I've ever watched him shoot it. I always think it's going to go in. And it was, it's, it's just unbelievable to see the pictures and the video of it and to see how high Victor's hand was and how high he had to arc the shot. And that was one of the. Victor's, Victor's heads spinning around after he seeing it go in, he like, he looked around expecting it like to airball, I think. And then when it went in, he like spun back around and looked at it.

I'm like, how'd you do that? Dude, that was very cool. The best games all of the entire regular season. And I'm watching that going, man, these teams meeting the second round, please sign me up for seven games of that. Speaking of that, speaking of that, they've played three times this year. Now, Wimby's played. One of the games. No, he missed two.

He missed two. This is the first one he's played? That was the first time they played. First time he played them. And last year, last year they played a back-to-back where they both had just absolutely bonkers lines in both games and split them. I mean, and they're two, like, Wimby and, and Joker, we're talking about two of the most dominant and unique forces in the game today. I mean, if we can get seven games of that,

Aaron Gordon's, you know, Garden Wimby down the stretch was spectacular. Jamal Murray, you know, just having a great year. You know, what's Dan Fox going to do? Stefan Castle has emerged. It's just like blossoming star himself. Like, my goodness. And I think it's likely. Couple of things.

One, all three games they've played against each other this year again. Now you're saying Wembe didn't play in two. I think Yolich must have missed at least one of them. I didn't look. I just checked Wemby. Anyway, they've played three times in all three games. Both teams have scored over 130. Did you hear what I just said?

Yeah. They're playing again. It's like an ode to their ABA days. That's right. I believe they play again the last day of the season. I don't know if it's going to mean anything. Now, the Nuggets play the Thunder. right before that.

And I would say especially if the Thunder hand on their business in LA, I think they might actually be playing the OKC Blue in that one. Well, that's the thing. The Thunder are

incentivized to hammer the Lakers on Tuesday and then they're going to be incentivized to lay down against the Nuggets. Hammer the Lakers, hammer the clippers. Because they want the Nuggets

in the three. They want the nuggets and spurs to wallop each other. I don't think it's going to matter. I don't think it's going to matter. Because, I mean, well, it depends on whether

the Lakers can get a win. I don't know if they can't. The Lakers have a game against the Jazz, but I thought tonight was a guaranteed win and they didn't go that way. I was going to say, Tim, Tim is in a town where the Babs have been doing their damnedest to lose for months. And even with Cooper put out to a 22 point lead. That's right. And even the other night when Cooper had 51, they still lost by what, 15 to Orlando. I love them. They were down 20-something on that game. It was a, that was a perfect night for the Mavs. Cooper had 51. they lost. Well, in my point is Orlando, Orlando has been able to beat anybody, and Cooper had

51, and they didn't win that game. So the fact that they dominated this game from start to finish against the Lakers, it's a pretty clear sign to me of what this week is going to look like for the Lakers just yet. A couple of things. Oh, we, let's get to the Lakers. Hold on. A couple of things. One, Castle and Deerron Fox couldn't hit a three in that game. And that is going to be where the rubber meets the road in some instances because they're going to throw everything at Wemby, and he's going to need those guys to hit shots. Secondly, Castle, especially people are going to leave him very old. Right.

I'd be careful. I'd be, just look at his second half shooting numbers. I'd be careful that. I know he's gotten better, but again, to Brian's point, he's going to have to prove he could step up and hit shots in the playoffs before people go. And I'm sure he will hit some when we know Deere and Fox would hit some, but they're going to challenge him. Secondly, Castle ended up on Yokic a lot in the second half of this game. That was the strategy that Denver was using.

I assume it was out of switches. I can't really remember. I just saw him, I know his sixth foul was against the... Well, Peyton Watson's got his hamstring messed up again. I mean, Denver's... And so to Spencer Jones, which, by the way, Spencer Jones is a rotation wing for them. And so, all right, but still, Denver's won eight in a row. Now, the other thing I want to point out, Aaron Gordon was on Wimbunyama.

Aaron Gordon played 41 minutes his hamstring held up. He was on Wembenyama, and Wembenyama had issues at times. not only did when Binyama look winded. He played 41 minutes. We're 42 minutes. He played 36 in regulation. Victor looked winded several times. I believe there was at least once, maybe twice,

that Mitch Johnson called time out, at least in part to give Victor a rest. That's something else. Secondly, there were times where he got the ball, I soed with Aaron Gordon, couldn't get into any movement or anything action, and just gave it up. Well, there was also, like, he took a couple really tough shots when he was isodon gordon, including at the regulation buzzer, which he almost made it.

But it was like falling toward the baseline, shot at like behind the basket runner when he was coming from the, you know, like the free throw line. And look, man, like, I think it is going to be a challenge for him to finish strong with heavier minutes because he's not used to playing those. And that's going to be especially true if he's having to deal with Nicole Yokic in the. that mile high atmosphere, which if they play the Nuggets is going to be three games of that. All right. Sure. So Denver's remaining schedule. I got Portland and Memphis, and then they've got the Thunder and the Spurs.

Okay. That Thunder game, again, we don't know what they're going to play. Memphis, I think Denver's going to win. They lost in Memphis last time. I think this was his last win. Spurs' remaining schedule is not really relevant, but they play the 76ers, Blazers and Mavericks, they're going to get a win. They're going to end up in the two at least almost certainly.

Okay. By the way, just out this weekend, Joe Kim Noah, who came on our pod a few months ago, his episode of Basketball Nomad where he went to Cleveland to make amends with the city of Cleveland came out this weekend. And when he talked to me about doing this, I said to him, yes, you should do it. two, you should go there in the winter, and ideally you should go there during a snowstorm. And I'll be, gosh, darn, the son of a bit did it. So he did.

And so that episode is out. How are you going to gosh, darn, but then I agree. I'll follow that one up with that. Weird move on Easter Sunday. All the way around. It's well past Easter Sunday from most of the country. I will just say that you should check it out.

It's on YouTube, Basketball Nomad. And actually, I don't think I know if I got that correct. I want to make sure, I'll make sure I got that right. Are we ever going to get to the freaking Lakers? No. A fairly noteworthy weekend. We're going to get to it in a minute. In a few more minutes.

All right. Finally, got it. We're going to go to the Lakers. Got it. It's a genuine disaster. Listen. The word disaster is thrown around a lot. Okay.

This time, it's really truly. I mean, Friday night in Bricktown, like, fortunately, these are injuries that Thursday, right? Wasn't that Thursday? Thursday? Thursday, my bad. Fortunately, these are injuries that aren't like extended to the next season type of injuries, but that's the

only thing you can say that is reasonably good news. Lucas' slim to none MVP hopes were extinguished by midway through the first quarter. They were already at none. But by midway through the first quarter, it was like, there's levels and the Lakers are a completely different level than the Thunder. The Thunder forced

eight turnovers in the first quarter and we're just over and even any I'm gonna I'm gonna push that aside because one game it doesn't matter well it's not like if Luca had scored 50 in that game I'll put it to like this Ospreys gave the exact same quote the last the previous time they went to okay C yeah yeah and it was something on the lines that they kicked the bleed out of us I'm just gonna say this the Lakers lost many things in this game Lucas MVP can't see was not like that. My point is. The levels were very clear in the first quarter.

Agree. By the second quarter, Lucas tugging in his hamstring. And Austin Reeves is grabbing it. Both like his ribs slash back. In the first quarter, both of them were grabbing it things. Okay. Yeah, man. They are down 30-some odd at the half.

I think it was 35 at halftime. I think it was 31-13. Might have a little less. It would have 30-something. Either way. A lot. Okay. They have a discussion at halftime. These, this discussion is JJ Reddick, the medical staff, the training staff.

You know, I'm sure Luca has, you know, he has his own body team. I'm sure they were involved in it. And they basically decided, hey, we're going to place our guys the first six minutes in the third quarter, see if they can make a charge to give us reason to plan more. If not, we'll pull them. Well, Luca, about four minutes and change in the third quarter, grabs his hammie mid-drive and goes down in a heap. Austin Reeves, I'll be honest, I didn't finish the game.

So I don't know how late he played. Well, yeah. But he was being bothered before that. So MRI the next day, somehow there was like confusion on which body part Austin Reeves was getting MRIed on in Dallas. But whatever. As a side note, they traveled from Oklahoma City to Dallas and did the MRIs in Dallas. Luca got his MRI and they announced his injury.

Mm-hmm. Austin Reeves got his MRI, and according to JJ Reddick, the MRI was done on the wrong part of his abdomen. And they didn't get the results they needed it. And they had to go for another MRI the next day. And it was when the second MRI came back in grade two oblique strain, four to six weeks. Right. So that's four to six weeks. Luca is a grade two left hamstring strain.

That's typically a four to six week injury. Now, Shams and Mack 10 reported tonight that Luca's. en route to Europe for some, you know, specialized treatment to try to expedite this? Is it just so that when the season ends, he can just be over it and stay over in Europe? Because I don't think that there's a treatment on the planet that can bring a grade two strain. If that was the case, first of all, why don't they bring that treatment to America or why doesn't every guy who gets a hand-string strain go to Europe? But anyway. Jeff Stott's, you know, invaluable.

He's got this incredible injury database. when you comes to hamstrings, because there's so many different tissues involved, you can't necessarily say one is equal to the other. However, there's wisdom of the crowd. And he said that the average lost time for a grade two strain is 35 days. And this is the second time he's strained that left hammie this year. Remember this time going into the All-Star Break 3? So let's say it's above average.

Let's say there's some miracle Slovian. Inevenient injection he can get. It's, what is it, 20 days? Like, that's your miracle. I mean, call it, yeah. That's still, that's still, they're still cooked at that. Well, 20 days is, like, at the best case scenario, he somehow is able to come back during the first round.

I just can tell you, the Lakers are bracing to have to try to win a round in the playoffs without either one of these guys. Neither guys should be back and they have no. I mean, on Jeff Stutz on Austin Reeves, on the grade. oblique strain. The average loss time is 16.7 days

for nondescript oblique strains. High-grade oblique tears have an average loss time of nine weeks. So he's saying based on his research, it's probably three

to nine weeks. Or somewhere in between. So maybe three to five. But either way, even if it's a a good oblique strain. It's weeks. So here's J.J.

Reddick's quote pregame tonight. Both those guys are going to try to come back. So it's our job to extend the season so that they can come back. Basically, we got to get out of the first round to have, I hope these guys can get back is what he's saying. Or at least have a long first round series. All right. So here's what they've got.

Again, they play this, the, the, uh, they play the Thunder Run Tuesday. Then they play, then they have games against the jazz, sons, and warriors. How many stuff end up with tonight in his return from? 29 and 26 minutes. Welcome back, Steph.

And the Warriors have instead of, and more importantly for this discussion, the thund or the rockets escaped with a one point win in that game. Yeah. So, you know, that was a game. That was a bit of a toss-up game.

for the rocket. So as we sit here right now, the Lakers and Nuggets have the same record. The Lakers are ahead of them by virtue of the tiebreaker, which they got when Austin Reeves purposely missed that free throw and then hit that, got them to overtime, that incredible game. Yeah, Luke, it's the game winner. But I would be stunned if they're able to stay ahead of Denver. Well, and listen, they gave up 134 points to the Mavericks tonight. They scored 128. It's not like they missed, you know, in this particular game. It's not like it was, well, geez.

You know what they really missed? Luca Donchich was a defensive player of the month nominee last month. That was a crazy thing. They missed his defense. They sat DeAndre Aten for the last quarter and a half of this game. And I will just say, I don't think the game actually ever entered clutch time because I think of the closest the Lakers got it was six. I don't think it actually entered clutch time.

But needless to say, and I'm not taking shots here, it's a little different when you've got Luke Kinnard, who had a triple double in this game. You've got Luke Kinnard and Jake LaRadya out there in your clutch time lineup instead of Reeves and Luca. They've got Utah in the last game of the season. All right. I like their odds. They're going to win that game.

The question is, can they get any of these other games? I got, I'm not, they're not beating the Thunder on Tuesday. Not the Thunder have to, obviously we talked about the Thunders need to win that game. So they have a back-to-back Thursday and Friday, Thursday against Golden State, Friday against Phoenix. To me, that Golden State game is the one that's going to very largely determine whether they're four or five. Because if they can get two wins, they can steal that Warriors game and then beat the Jazz. That gets them to 52 wins. The Rockets could win out, but they have a difficult schedule.

they're probably going to drop at least one game, and the Lakers, that's a tiebreaker. If they can only get the Jazz game, I think that they're going to fall to five. The Lakers can do no worse than five. The Timberwolves loss on Sunday means that the Timberwolves cannot get up there so that the Lakers are either going to be three, four, or five.

I cannot see them staying at three, probably four or five, as Bontemp's just said. They do have the tiebreaker. So right now they have a one-game lead in the lost column over the Rockets, plus the tiebreaker. So they have a two game, a de facto two game lead over Houston.

Houston's remaining schedule is as follows. At Phoenix Tuesday, home for Philly Thursday, home for Minnesota Friday, home for Memphis Sunday. Yeah, and we'll see Minnesota, I don't know,

Ann, we'll see if Ant plays again in the regular season. This knee, and he's dealing with the same, he's dealing with the same thing that Steph dismissed 20 whatever games with. Now, Ant's knee's not quite as old as Steph's knee, but it would make sense, given that the wolves are not moving up,

it wouldn't make sense for them to prioritize, given a hand as much time off as possible. The wolves are pretty much sixth. Yeah. There are three games behind Houston and three games ahead of Phoenix. The wolves are going to be sixth. It's just a matter who they're going to play. And they've also got Jane McDaniels out right now.

They've really got some health issues. Yeah. So I would just say if you're a Wolves fan, you should root for the Lakers to somehow. when enough came to stay in three, but I don't think it's going to happen. I think you're getting the nuggets. All right.

So the Rockets are, you know, incentivized to really get to five because that could be the Lakers matchup. To four? Well, they could get to four or five. As long as they get to play the Lakers, the Rockets can sort of, they've won five in a row.

They, you know, I didn't see this game tonight at all. We were doing the pod during it. They squeaked out of one point Win against the Warriors. Well, I don't know how they played that game. Do they potentially, the only question is do they potentially catch Denver? Denver.

And I, and my suspicion is they probably will stay in. I mean, yeah, I would suspect they'll probably wind up staying in the four or five either way. All right. So Phoenix is right now in seven. They've got a three game lead. They beat Chicago on Sunday. They've got a three game lead over the Clippers, who also won on Sunday. I think Phoenix is

Minnesota and Phoenix are going to be six, seven. I don't think we need to Yeah. Too much too much time there. I mean, the only thing I will say is with the ant injury, I mean, they have Indiana, Orlando, Houston, New Orleans. They should get two wins there. However, if they only get one win,

Phoenix does have the tiebreaker, in part because the wolves gave up that seven point lead with 47 seconds left. in Phoenix earlier this year. Oof. Now, they have Houston on Tuesday, and then the sons have the Mavs Wednesday, the Lakers Friday,

and the Thunder who had nothing to play for on Sunday. So again, Phoenix, if they can beat the rockets on Tuesday, which is not a crazy thing at all, they could very easily run the table, which would require Minnesota to have to win a couple games. Now, I think Minnesota will probably,

win a couple games, but they might have to play it out a little bit to make sure they stay out of the plane. They do have some work left to do. Okay. Golden State's going to be in 10th. They're hoping this stuff is good enough that they can somehow win two playing games. They played better in this game on Sunday, even though they lost. There's some drama between eight and nine. And obviously, the difference between eight and nine is enormous. If you're ninth, you have to win two games. If you're eighth, you have to win two games. If you're eighth, you have to potentially win one. And if you lose, you get to play at home.

The Clippers and Blazers are tied. The Blazers had what many around the team called their biggest game in like three or four years earlier this week when they played against the Clippers in L.A. They won that game by 10 points, Denia Avia and Drew Holiday, like, carried them in that game. They, however, have a very difficult schedule as they play. Monday they play in Denver Wednesday they play in San Antonio Ouch and then they get to play the Clippers again on

Friday but it is in Portland the Clippers have the lead in the tie break to the one right now if the Clippers win that game on Friday I think that clinches it but there is a little bit of drama in that West playing

so I don't know much of say Kauai is continuing to play well. He has, his streak is really long at 20 games. And I think that's as much as I want to say about the Western play. And do we miss anything? I don't think so. Okay.

Are we an interesting week? Yes, it will be an interesting week. I will see McMahon here in L.A. Fontems, where are you going this week? Going to Boston Tuesday. See Charlotte. And then the Raptors and Celtics are coming to town. Thursday. Celtics are here Thursday.

Raptors here Friday. So some interesting games in the corridor. We didn't, by the week, say anything about it last week when it came out. But a big congrass door guy, Kevin Pelt, machine. Oh, yeah. That's right. We left us to go work for. There will be no large sample size theater this year because the machine actually has been.

Has been reprogramed. Yeah, he's been reprogramed. Houston Comet. Our back machine is going to be helping put that right. He's a comet. He was a storm, then he was a pacer, and now he's a comet. I mean, then he was an ESPNer, and now he's a comet. That's true.

All true facts. But he's always been a nerd, our favorite nerd. That's right. He was our favorite nerd. And now he's on the other side. Now he's an executive. Now he's a league executive. All right.

Thank you very much to Jake producing tonight alongside Jackson. Thank you to McMahon and Bon Temps. Man's got to get up in about 20 minutes. for get up. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching listening, listening and watching to the collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.