Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Giannis’ Uncertain Future + Season Win Total Draft

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to the latest update on Giannis’ future in Milwaukee including if he could leave for the Knicks, what his timeline looks��like with the Bucks and what could impact his decisions in the near future. Then, the guys draft every team in the NBA based on who will win the most games in the NBA regular season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello, welcome to the Hoot Collection podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing on Thursday afternoon, joining us from New York City, Tim Bontas.

Hello, everybody. Joining us from Oklahoma City, back where last season ended, where I believe the Thunder are playing the Charlotte Hornets. Tonight is Ban McMan. Howdy, partners, I chat with Lou Dwart. After shoot around this morning, he's like, I feel like I just saw you a few weeks ago. Tell me about it.

They're still cleaning up from the parade in OKC. This big old convention center across the street got knocked over to the celebration apparently. Yeah, they thought that the celebration was kind of a little bit muted in OKC. You come back and they've torn down the arena. That's right. Yes, the old myriad, I believe I pronounceing it correctly. The myriad, the myriad, the old arena where there used to be some great college of basketball. ball played is being torn down across from the OKC arena to make way for the new

Thunder Arena, which is coming in like sort of the end of the decade. It's a slow process. I think 28's when it'll open up. 28. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Three years.

All right. All right. We're going to do one of our favorite preseason podcast today, which I think involves a snake draft. Can we agree to not do a snake draft? No. No. We can agree to put.

you in the middle. We have, we have, well, we have a way to solve that. No, I'll not solve it, but it'll be up to you to determine the order later when we get to that. Okay. Before we do, before we do that, we have some, some interesting developments in the Janus of Tenacumpo front, such as that is. Shams, Chirania earlier this week, reported that in August, it seems that Janus's direction, they can play around with who wants to point at whose finger at whom. But, it wasn't the buck's idea. Okay. So the Knicks and the Bucks held some discussions about Janus.

I don't know. This is breaking news here. The trade did not happen. Right now, Yonis is a buck and will be a buck for at least a foreseeable future. The way he put it was I'm totally committed to the Bucks. And if I change my mind in six or seven months, that's, you know, that's human. I did think six or seven months was interesting because that is post-trade deadline. So it's not a binding.

It's not a binding agreement. But it's postseason. Right. It's post season. Six months is April, seven months is May. That's right. So next off season. Yeah.

Will the bucks be still playing in May? If they are, well, if they are, Janus might feel a certain way. There don't. He might feel a certain way. Montemps, let me just say, you know, what our motto here on the pod is, actions over words. Yes, it is. As you know, the Bucks did some pretty crazy accounting this summer, waving and stretching

Dame Lillard for over $100 million and then immediately using that cap space to sign Miles turn it to $100 million contract. Probably the most shocking move of the summer. I don't know how impactful it will be. I think an NBA rank, which is certainly not the be-all-end-all of basketball evaluation, but it's what we have. An NBA rank, I think Miles Turner was 57. If you want to go toe to toe on whether Miles Turner is a top 50 player,

certainly go for that. But that player is replacing a guy who was not going to play in Dame Willard. So in terms of your team, getting a player of that level is a good upgrade, even though it's extraordinarily costly, long term. But Yannis saw all that. watched the Bucks conclude their offseason and apparently said, hey, New York would be nice. And so I'm going to take that action, Bontemps, as the Miles Turner trade didn't exactly change Janice's worldview or the future of the Bucs.

Yeah, I mean, look, all of the arrows for quite a while have been pointing towards this being the last year, Yonis will be with the Bucks. Now, he's extended a couple times before. Perhaps next summer, he will decide to extend by another however many years on his contract, and that will not be the case. But Janus's contract is up in two years. He did not extend this summer after the start of the season, another 10, 12 days. He can't extend until next summer. And so it's a very natural inflection point when the Bucks will go to Janus, I'm sure with every single possible contract permutation they can offer him and say,

Janice, would you like to sign one of these? And if the answer is, I don't really think so, I got to think about it. I don't know. Then he's going to get traded because they're not going to have the Janice Santa Coupa leave for nothing. And that to me feels like where this is headed. Because again, actions over words. You have Janice standing here and he's talking at Media Day and saying, oh yeah, I'm committed for now. I'm excited because I'm here now. I can change my mind in the future as you just laid out. It's all good. People should be allowed to do that. It's like it's all setting up for where this is. And look, full, full credit to the Bucks for doing whatever they can to keep the best player, you know, the second best player in the history of

the franchise overall and the best player in terms of Bucks career ever as long as they can. Because there's a very real chance there'll never be another player like Yannis on the Bucks. And they should keep them as long as they can. But this team, anybody who isn't, employed by the Bucks or a Bucks fan looking at this team where the third best player is Bobby Portis, A.J. Green, Kyle Kuzma, like, named the player, right? This is not a team that's good enough to be a top two team in the east, let alone a team that is realistically a title contender. No one can look at this and say that. It's not even within the realm of realistic possibility. And, And for the Bucks to go into the season and say, hey, this is the best we could do.

We think we're good enough to compete. Like, I understand why they're saying that. But I don't think any rational basketball person can look at this and say that, which is why in the GM survey, I think the Bucks were picked to finish sixth. In every projection model, they're projected to be somewhere between like four to two and 45 games. They're, you know, maybe going to be in the top six in the ease. Maybe they'll be in the playing, especially depending on if Janus is healthy. But, yeah, like, if Janus wants, as Janice has said, I want to be on teams that's competing for championships. Well, they lost in the playoffs, first round of the playoffs, three straight years.

And now they have a team that's objectively not good enough to be a home court advantage team in the East. And the East is the JV conference. So, yeah, like, we're all going to sit here and wait for this to happen. But I think even all of these comments, even Doc Rivers, when Doc Rivers says, well, when John horse makes a phone call, that's when you know this is different. Well, guess when John horse is going to start making phone calls next summer if Janus doesn't extend. So, you know, it is what it is. It's been this dance that's kind of been going on for really Janus has been participating in the dance for a few years now, right? Before that, it was a bunch of teams

trying to dance with him within the, you know, reasonable tampering protocols, I would say, not within the rules. But, you know, Janice has been participating in this dance for a few years now. No one's going to blame him when he eventually asks out of Milwaukee, okay? No one's going to blame him. By the way, by the way, I don't think he's ever going to ask out of Milwaukee. Okay, well, we can see. Donovan Mitchell never asked out of Utah. I can play that semantic game. I agree, but that's what I'm saying. Like, if he was going to ask out of Milwaukee, as Brian said on TV the other day,

the time to do that was two months ago or three months ago. Not in August, not in September. Why the Knicks did all their business this offseason, you know. If he asks out whether officially or just pushes it to a point where it's time to trade him, no one's going to blame him for that. He had a historic run of Milwaukee. They won a championship. No one can blame the bucks.

They successfully built a championship team around him and tried like hell. to do it again. Weren't able to get it done, but it's a really, you know, it's a tough business. Now, the Bucks have absolutely

done right by Yannis, his entire career, they don't have to comply if this was a one-team list. Just like the Utah Jazz did not have to send Donovan to the Knicks, where he,

everybody knew, that's where he wanted to go. Just like, by the way, way, way back in the day, the Bucks didn't have to send the Kareem to the Knicks. That's where he wanted to go. He ended up in L.A.

Well, well, Kareem was given the choice of going to the Nix or the Lakers. That's not 100% true. Do you know what Kareem's list was? I thought it was the NICS and Lakers. Good trivia question. Okay.

Number one was the Nix. He obviously is from New York. Yeah. Number two, Washington. Yeah, he, Koreen was thinking about it in terms of cities. Yes. Number three, L.A.

Well, the Wizards then were also, they also were, they had, I mean, they went out of it. They had a great run in the 70s. You know, there was this incredible story. There was this incredible story, one of the first TikToks. I don't know if that's true. But that's what they call stories that, like, go over. Not the social media app. I truly never knew this about Kareem that the bullets were on his list.

Yeah. So there was this great story in the L.A. Times in the 80s about the time when Kareem, I wish I could remember who wrote the story. But it was one of the first initial TikToks. It was like a decade before, unlike now, like Ramona writes. them from like two days before about like how I'll see if I can find who wrote the story. Oh, Thomas Bonk wrote the story, who was an all-time, excellent writer at the only time. Yeah.

So in 1970, in 1975, right? Yeah, but he, it was a year before he was actually traded. October 3rd, 1974. So the right on the eve of the 20, of the 74, 75. five season. They had just, I think, lost in the, they had won the championship, and I think they had lost in seven games the previous spring. And Kareem and his agent called Wayne Embry, who was the general manager of the Bucks at the time.

Wayne is still with us, a Hall of Famer. He's now working for the Raptors. He called Wayne, and they went to the Sheridan. They rented out a hotel suite. I guess this is what she did back then. He ran it out of a hotel suite, and they had this, glorious room service dinner of beef Wellington and assorted cheeses and, you know, various liqueurs.

I don't know. I made that up. There was Beef Wellington, though. That was in the story. And Karim said he wanted to be traded and he wanted to be traded to one of those three places. And by the way, it stayed quiet for the entire following season. Well, that was the thing I knew about the Wayne Embry meeting. And I knew that they didn't trade him until the following summer, that they did

somehow not have anybody find out about it for all. I mean, I guess because those three people knew about it, didn't say anything. But that in itself is amazing. I just did not remember. And I don't think I ever knew that it was the three teams. I always thought it was the Nix and the Lakers. And he went to obviously the Lakers. That's fascinating. He didn't go to the number one destination on his list. By the way, the guy who they just waved and stretched that was in Milwaukee is his co-starred the last couple years. Milwaukee wasn't on his list. The Bucs got to get the best deal when this eventually happens, not sitting in Yonis to a place where he wants to go.

Yeah. So anyway, I think the point, though, you mentioned Kareem, Bontem's. I've said this before. They traded Kareem in 1975. They did not return to the finals. The Bucks did not return to the finals until 2021. Yeah, they didn't get another town like that until Yonis. Right.

So you're looking at what the Bucks are doing, you know, you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul, robbing Paul to pay Sam, you know. That's what you do if you have a player like Janus until he's not on your team anymore. Because like you said, there's a very real chance they won't get a player like that ever again. So they should have just trade him. It also puts them in a position where, look, and maybe Janus doesn't ask out. Maybe he just doesn't extend and there's one year left on his deal and the bucks get to a point. We're like, we can't just let them walk in free agency.

We've got to get a return here. But they've got to get as much of a return as possible because in the process of doing everything they can to try to win another championship with him, they are really compromised as far as their future draft stuff. This year is probably their one swing with their own pick for a while because I'm assuming the swap with New Orleans. I'm going to go out on a lim and say the bucks have a better record than the Pelicans. By the way, that's an interesting little bet. Considering what we have heard from the Bucks and Yannis, where within the last week, Janice said,

I don't recall that, Senator, when West Seedons was like, oh, my God, we had this really great conversation. And Yonis was like, I don't even know what he's talking about. And then he said, hey, I'm a buck now, but in six or seven months, I could change my mind. Like, those two statements, let's let them say. sit and simmer.

I'm with the Hawks. I'm taking the Bucks hard in a Bucs' bellicons face off this year. Okay. I would have to get odds from you, but I'm just saying Zion looks good. Oh, stop it. And we now know that Janus was involved in trade talks in August. Are you sure he's got to have some Joe Dumas' appreciation from back in the, back in the Cavs Pistons, rock them, sock him, Sockham Robots' two thousand's showdowns days for the amount of latitude.

I was about... He's given the bells this summer. He's given the bells more latitude. The rest of the NBA combined this summer. I was about 12. When I was about 12, I saw Joe, what do you say? Nothing. Go on.

When I was about 12, I saw Joe Dumas score 40 points at the Richfield Coliseum. Joe Dumars was one hell of a player, man. He was awesome. Okay. I hate Jimars growing up because I love, you know, I was a bandwax. opera so I love Jordan so I hated those pissing steam. Of course you were. Of course you were a bandwagoner. Prepare me for this career. Yeah sure did. So so Atlanta gets the the more favorable of the two picks either box pick and the pelicans pick correct or the pelicans pick. I'm getting

odds obviously. Yon's place for the bucks right now. Atlanta gets the more favorable the bucks get the less favorable so the bucks probably will end up being able to keep their pick this year is what I'm tell you. I know, but I, and I, and I, tell you what, because Atlanta getting, are we 100% sure, knowing that Yannis could be traded? I mean, listen, I'm not going to say 100%, but what do you got? Let me ask you this. We're going to do the wins, Daniel Wins draft here. Are you going to pick the Pelicans before the bucks, buddy? No. I hope you do. That was good. That was good. Good job. You could be a lawyer. Good job. One of the things I'll point out, I don't want to break down Janus trade stuff right now. No, it's not the time for that. You know. But I'll just, but I'll just,

just say this, as I see people start talking about this, remember that the bucks do not control their draft for the next five years. Also, remember, if it's going to be talks with New York, boy, oh boy, they gave up a whole bunch of picks to get Macau Bridges. They are not, they at one point were loaded up on, on, you know, first round draft capital. That's no longer people say this. I've seen people say, but I'm going to tell you that the bucks, if they have to trade Janus are probably going to make a player trade. Okay. Hold on.

Here's what I'm going to say to that. Okay. Maybe the bucks will make a player trade. Or maybe the bucks will get offered 12 draft picks that don't include their draft picks and they won't make a player trade. Like the bucks have to get the best player and picks trade would be my case. Well, they might, but I'm just saying they have to make the best trade that's available to them. If that means they get great draft picks and they don't have their own picks,

that's fine. But they can't be... Look, if he waits till next summer and Janus has one year on his contract, Janus is going to pick his team. And if Janus picks his team, you're going to be limited in what you can get by a trial. What I would say is, in general, I would agree with you. I would also say that if a player like Janus is available, trade, as we saw when the Raptors traded for Kauai, you don't know how that negotiation play out. Yonis is worth for risk. Well, and also, if you get Yonis and you have the bird rights to pay him the most money

for the most years, that could end up mattering, particularly for a player who, I mean, let's all, let's all just look at it, right? So Yonis Senecoupo is what, 31 years old right now, right? I think you just turned 31. So you're talking about a guy who will turn 31 in December. So he'll be going into his age 32 season. He'll become a free agent going into his age 33 season. So if you sign Janus from age 33 through 37,

like the back half of that deal is going to be interesting. So, you know, like there's, all I'm saying in general is. You start 31 in December, just to be precise. Yes. Yes. Well, you're talking about the Kauai trade? Do you remember what the Raptors traded for Kauai? I do.

They traded Tahrirrtle and a first round pick that became the 29th or 30th pick in the draft. And I believe they also got Daly Anderson, I think. They got Danny Green in that deal, correct? That's right. Yeah. Do you know who, what the Lakers traded for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Not all the top. I often use on the Immaculate Green.

Brian Winters is correct. The late junior Bridgman, Brian Winters, Elmore Smith, and David Myers. I don't think when you trade a guy with one year on his contract that you always get the best. I would say things have changed a little bit since the mid-70s. I mean, again, I'm not saying they're going to get an incredible haul. I just, and I already think we've probably talked about this more than we should. I just think that in general, when you talk about a situation like this, the law of unintended consequences with a situation like this coming up, you just don't know where

the negotiations are going to go. You wouldn't have guessed Cleveland was traded for Donovan Mitchell. You wouldn't have guessed Toronto was trading for Kawhi Leonard. We have seen these things go in different directions. And again, I don't think it would be wise for Milwaukee to say, well, we don't have our picks. So we just got to get the best players we can get. And then that'll be fine. Like they have to get whatever the best package of assets is in general. Maybe it is two or three players. Maybe it is a bunch of picks. Maybe it is some combination of both.

But you shouldn't look at it if you're the bucks and say it's got to be one or it's got to be the other. In a vacuum, you are correct. I agree in a vacuum. I'm just saying that I see people going, well, the Knicks have can't trade for them. They traded all their picks. I just don't think that's necessarily true. It will be hard to get good value from the Knicks is what I would say. I would agree.

More hoop collective. After this. Okay. Every year we do this on our pod where we go through in a snake draft, which I always mess up and people think it's a bit. I don't like snake drafts. I don't do fantasy drafts. I really hope it's a bit. Into some weird fantasy league two days ago.

I don't know why I said, yes, I did. I made one pick and I stopped making picks. I don't even know who's on that team. You haven't made another pick yet. Is it my turn? No, it's not. But somebody's been on the clock for 11 hours. I won't call out which one of our colleagues it is.

By the way, quick update because I know people are interested. Bontem's got knocked out of the old guillotine fantasy football league a while. He was hoping you wouldn't mention that. No, I had a problem. I had a, I had a, a lucky week. I had a very unlucky week from an injury standpoint. This team's stunt is what happened. Well, it's, I mean, that's, I mean, that's.

Keep it moving. That's enough fantasy football talk. All right. Who is the choice? So we pick this in a snake draft. Go ahead. Hold on. So we've now done this three years.

Each of us has won it a different year. Oh, good. All of a win. You are. So you get to pick first. Wait, where are you? No, no, I don't want to pick first.

Wait, who won last year? Then I got to do the snake. No, Brian. Brian, Brian, you get to, I'm saying, you get to pick where you want to go first. You can pick, do you want to go first? Wait, what are you want to go first? What were last two standings? Brian was first, you were second, and I was third.

Oh, you were dead last? Damn. Dead last out of three. The year before I won't. The one was on the medal here, you were dead last. Okay, I didn't. Sure. Okay.

So you get to, Brian, do you want to go second then? Yeah, because I'll screw it up otherwise. Great. Okay, so then McMahon, do you want the first pick or the third and fourth pick? I'll take first. There you go. There's the order. So McBand can start.

We'll see who has two. I'll take this year. I'll take my, for the moment, hometown team sitting right here in, in O KC. I like the Thunder's odds of having the best record in the league again. So I'm going to take the little thunders. All right.

So Kevin Pelton, who every year plugs all the numbers into his computer and he's, he looks at ABPR metrics. All kinds of stuff. This is, a combination of his shoney stats-based projections and luck adjusted,

regularized adjusted plus minus, better known as RAPL as most folks for me. And it goes over like the last three seasons. He projects players missed with injury. And his shaney stats-based projections, by the way, he's named after some former Sonic named Shaney. I don't even know who is. Oh, I'm right for the mispronunciation.

I think that's what it is. Oh, I said, Shany. Shaney. Shaney, okay. Okay. Anyway, he has the Thunder with the best overall record in the league. Yeah. He has him projected at 59 wins.

He says no 60 win team this year. Yeah, 59.2. Now, he did note that this is the, oh, the line is the highest. Their ESPN bet line is 62 and a half, which is the highest since the Warriors coming off. They're second. But I'm not going to lie. I'd go over on 62 and a half, much less 59. They won 68 last year, and I think they'll be better this year.

And I think Chet will be healthier. Okay. All right. So who gets to go second? Who's on the clock? You. You picked going second. You literally picked going second.

I know, buddy, I'm aware. All right. You did ask. I will take. The Cavs. I was going to say, why is there even a, I mean, why is there even a debate? Havs Corner. Hashtag Calder.

I will say this. Pelton, he has the Cavs winning the most in the Eastern Conference. His numbers like that at, let's see, where he's he got him at? 50.1, yeah. 50.1. Yeah, which he thinks 14 fewer wins than last year. The thing you have to know about these wind projections is they compress towards the middle on both ends. So this year there's a couple, there's one particular outlier in the east in terms of how low it is.

But generally, the high end numbers are lower than like Kevin would say in a vacuum he would think they would be. And the low end numbers are higher in terms of wind totals than he would maybe think they're going to be. Well, it's called a regression system. It's called the Rampas. It's called the Rampa. How many math classes did you take at St. Bonaventures? Were you like not as many as the machine? Okay.

Not as many math classes I took in college, McMahon? None. I think I took one. I did not do well on it. There's a stunner. ESPN Bet says the Cavs over under is 56. and a half. Obviously, Garland and Struz will be start the season.

So they've got them win in like 56, 7 games? Listen, they're in the Eastern Conference. Their top of their roster is still excellent, even with their injuries. You know, if your first pick in this thing wins 50 games, and I like their chances of win in 50, unless they have some sort of catastrophic injury, I think it's pretty good. All right, Bontemps, I think you're out.

for a bit. I am up for two, and I'm going to take a couple of fairly safe picks. I'm going to take the Denver Nuggets, best player on the planet, Nicole Yokic should be pretty good. And I'll take the New York Knicks. Again, maybe they aren't quite as good as last year, but they have depth. They're in the east. They should be, to your point, a 50-win team. And, you know, at this point early at this early on the draft is not the time to be taken too many surprises so Nuggets uh... Elton's projection for the Nuggets is 52 and the ESPN bet over under is 53 and a half. Would you take the over under on the Nuggets there, McMahon?

I probably would take over. I do think they are improved from last season. Um, you know, and obviously you're banking on the health of Joker, but also Jamal Murray. That's where it gets the Murray part is where it gets concerning. By the way, the person who's going to win this is probably someone who picks a team late with us. Yeah, no, that's

how, yeah, it's a late surprising to this. The team that you think is going to win 22 and wins 37. That's right. Last year, Brian won picking the Pistons second to last with 44 wins. Portland winning 36. It was hardly incredible insight.

Well, so you got J.P. Pickerstaff run out of Cleveland benefited from his coach and way to go. Windy. The Knicks, by the way, in the Pelton projections, not number two behind the calves. The Knicks number three in the East will save who's number two. 47 wins is a projection.

The Knicks fans are not happy to hear that. ESPN bet with the Nick fans probably contributing to betting the over. 53 and a half. Bontems, do you like the Knicks over or under there? I guess you like the overs that you just picked them. That's a pretty good line. I'd probably guess they end up under it by a couple games, but still, like, they should be a team that's at least around 50 wins,

if not a little bit above or below. And the goal early on is to try not to blow it by picking somebody that falls off a cliff. Whose turn is it? It's yours. It's really simple. Here's the way to remember it. I have to make two picks. Then you make one.

The rest of the draft. That's it. Okay. So you pick after each of us, Every time. It's not hard. Wait, me, I pick after each of you. I thought I picked after you. I make two picks. You pick once. Tim makes two picks. You pick once. The rest of the draft. It's not hard.

Okay, good, good, good, good. All right. I'm taking the Orlando Magic, who Pelton has 49.9 wins number two in the east, ahead of the Knickerbockers. It's a risky pick. ESPN bet 51 and a half. Bontz, what do you think about Peltin having the magic ahead of the Knickerbockers? I'm a little surprised you picked Orlando 5th. I think the magic could have a really good team, but there's a lot of risk here from an injury standpoint. You got Jalen Suggs still out with this weird knee injury that he had surgery on back in January. He still hasn't fully practiced yet. Not clear he's going to be ready for the start of the season.

We all really like the Desmond Bain trade, but he has missed time over the last couple of years with injuries. Let's see if he's healthy. Franz Wagner and Paolo Banerraero both had oblique injuries last year. Jonathan Isaac has missed a bunch of time. Mo Wagner is still out with a torn ACL. These guys should have a better offense. They haven't had a top 20 offense in the league since Dwight Howard was on the team.

Incredibly. What a stat. They should have a good offense this year. They should have a great defense again. They could rack up a ton of. of wins in the east, but I do wonder if they end up having some health questions, drag them down a little bit. By the way, that does remind me just a little note here.

It's my turning away, but from OKC, and I hope to have a little bit more clarity and maybe some info later on, but J. Dub, J. William, Williams, coming off of the wrist surgery, is not fully cleared yet. I don't know exactly when he will be, but he was getting some post-shooterant work when the media was allowed in there this morning. And every jump shot or free throw that I saw him take was left-handed. Now, he was handling the ball with his right hand.

You know, he, you know, working against some staffers. He was whipping passes to the corner with his right hand. I saw some layups, but every free throw or jump shot that I saw him take was left-handed. So, you know, there's still some work to be done in time for him to get fully recovered from that list. And yet he still took them number one. They've got some players. 29 injections is what J. Dubb had in his wrist during the playoffs last year to get through the playoffs. It's a lot.

And scored 40 in the most important game of the season. Just had a couple of huge road games. He had a big road game in Minnesota, too. in the conference finals. I think McMahon's is up. I am. I'm going to take the Rockets, despite Fred Van Vleet's injury.

We've talked a lot about how much we like the young talent that remains on that roster, especially Almond Thompson. And then Kevin Durant just being, I think, a phenomenal fit for the glaring void they had for a go-to score. And then, you know, I'm not going to lie.

I was influenced by our favorite nerd on this one. The machine, his little calculators are high, high, high on the Golden State Warriors. Now, I'll note the machine is a mathematician, not a chemist. I've got some concerns about the chemistry there. But I'm going to take Steph Curry, Jonathan Kaminga for now, and the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors, in fact, ranked second in the West behind the thunder on Kelly. Evan Pelton's projection formula, 56 wins, way above everybody in the East. ESPN Bet is less excited by 10, saying 46 and a half.

You could have made a steal here. Meanwhile, the rockets, Bontemps, Pelton has the rockets at fifth in the West, which he said really was, you know, he already had them. So they're over under, the ESPN bet over under is 53 and a half. Pelton said his projection system still had him under before Fred Van Bleet went out. I will tell you, I watched a little bit of the Rockets play against the jazz on Wednesday night. And they put up 140. I realize it was the jazz.

But offensive they look great. Shengoon, Alperin Shangoon, looked really, really good. I think as much as we talk about Amman Thompson taking a leap, I think Shingoon's going to take another leap after being a first time All-Star last season. He has 19 assists in the first two preseason games, I believe. It's nice when you can pass the ball to Kevin Durant, by the way, that helps you get that. That's true.

He was 7 to 10 shooting. Bontems, what do you think of these picks? Yeah, I mean, I was kind of hope, I was more than kind. I was hoping Golden State would get to the next draft because I was going to them there if they were. I do think the Warriors are going to be very good, again, assuming they're able to stay healthy. And the Rockets are, I mean, we've talked about the Rockets a ton lately for good reason. They're going to be really fascinating this year. I think if McMahon feels good about this pick in May, it's because Alperin Changoon continues to improve as he has, as you just said,

and especially Amin Thompson does the stuff we think he's capable of with the ball in the hands a lot because, you know, it's been interesting seeing Reed Shepard get some starting minutes in the preseason. They need a lot from him and they need a man to take a huge step forward without Fred Van Vleet. Like, it, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how the Rockets manage that. But, you know, there's probably, there's only one or two teams I may be more excited about, if any, to watch this year than Houston because there's just a lot going on there and it's going to be very fun to see what it looks like. Well, and preseason lineups obviously aren't written in stone, but it was interesting to

see Reed Shepherd starting alongside Thompson. And, you know, again, I said it before. If you're going to maximize kind of the spacing via shooting and have some playmaking on the floor, that's probably the way to go. It's also probably the best way to protect Reed Shepherd on the defense bin. All right. I'm going to take.

Didn't he have to ask if it was his pick? They didn't have to ask. What a thing. He doesn't know who he's taken until I didn't have to ask. I'm going to take the Detroit Pistons. Wow. They won it for you last year and now here you come. I am taking pretty much Eastern Conference teams at the top here because that is my strategy

because I realize that they do have to play the West teams, but they get to play half of them at home and they get to play all the East teams. And really I'm choosing here between the Pistons. and the Hawks. Now, Pelton does not like the Pistons that much. He's got them way down at 8th in the east of 42.6 wins. ESPN bet has them better, 45 and a half. The Pistons, I wish I 100% knew exactly how they were going to bounce back after having that really successful year last year. This is really a wager on Cade Cunningham and on.

in the east. They're obviously, you know, they're hopefully going to get a bounce back from better health. A little uncertain if Malik Beasley is going to play in the NBA this year or if he's going to play for the Pistons. But, yeah, that's what I'm going with. I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't get my hands on the Knicks, too, and get all the top Eastern teams.

But I'm going to go with the Pistons. That's a bold pick. It's going to be interesting to see how they do. I mean, obviously, they basically are. back with the same team as last year, betting on internal improvement. It'll be very interesting to see what that looks like. It's not the same team because Beasley was a big part of that team.

Also, Jade Nivey barely played last year. True. And, hey, Duncan Robinson, obviously they're hoping can provide the volume shooting that opens the floor up for for Kate in particular to work. And then they're hoping that some of these, you know, Assar Thompson, as much as we talk about as brother. I mean, same DNA, same ridiculous athleticism. And as, you know, missed a lot of times with the blood clot stuff, you know, maybe he takes

the leap or, you know, one of their other, whether it's Ivy or Ron Hall, you know, one of these young kind of high lottery picks. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I was not expecting the Pistons to go there. So the two teams I was looking at, I will take with my next two picks, which are the Hawks and the L.A. Clippers. I'm making the same bet with both of them, which is that they both have enough depth to overcome any injury issues and therefore try to limit my downside a little bit. Obviously, we'll see what happens with all the aspiration stuff with Kauai and whether there's any penalties. But like we've talked about, I don't anticipate that impact into Clippers on the court this year. And we saw last year with Jeff Van Gundy on the bench, Cooper's had a great defense.

James Harden is a regular season, wins machine even still. And by adding Brooke Lopez and John Collins and Bradley Beal and Chris Paul to the scene, they've got a ton of depth. I think they're going to win a lot of regular season games. They should be better than last year, and they were a 51 team last year. Now is with Kauai barely playing. If he can play 50 games, that would probably a chance to be even better than that. And for all the same reasons you said about the East, Brian,

the hawks adding Chris I was trying to decide between the hawks and uh yeah i mean adding ike Alexander Walker adding chrisisporzingis um you know the the depth they have getting jalen johnson back um i i think you know i think they're going to be very good and deep and uh you know i'm excited to watch them this year so i will take the hawks and the clippers and send it back to you pelton system likes the clippers has them fourth in the west at 49 and a half 49 point seven wins ESPN over under 47 and a half not so high on the hawks have the hawks down i think it's seventh in the east um 44 wins under pelton 46 and a half the over under ESPN bet mcm i mean both those teams have aspirations to get home court advantage in the first round nice nicely done

thanks i was proud of that one whose aspiration is higher i know who's Pesperation Paycheck was highest. I am going to go with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ooh, an anti-Pelton pick, but I can't. Yes, Pelton does not like the wolves. I don't know if anybody knows, but the wolves were in the conference finals the last two years. Yeah, and by the way, the face of their franchise is still ascending. Anthony Edwards was a better player last year than the year before.

I think he really made big strides late in last season in terms of late game decision making. I was surprised. And look, they lost Alexander Walker. And I'm not going to minimize that. But I was surprised that Belton's machine was this low on the wolves. I'm going to bust in with some breaking news. Breaking news, Claxton from our guy, Sham Sharania. Lakers star LeBron James is sidelined for at least three to four weeks due to sciatica on his right side.

He is out for the start of the season. And that's actually straight from the Lakers. They announced that. Yeah, three to four weeks is, what are we looking at? Comes an hour after JJ Redick, I believe, according to our guy, Dave McBenamon, said that LeBron was quote on his own timeline after practice time. Well, if it's four weeks, that's the first almost two weeks of the season. Actually, it is the first two weeks of the season.

I don't know. Not super encouraging for the oldest. Zyta is something you hear from dads. Well, he is. Yeah. Oh, yeah, they said it was a glute issue, so I guess that's a thing. And by the way, by the way. The wording here is important.

It is he will be re-evaluated in three to four weeks. So that is not. Yeah, he's not going to be ready to start to season. It's essentially what the league is. Well, no, but yeah, but that's what that doesn't mean, that means that he is checked out again. Right. In three to four weeks, not returning in three to four weeks.

So you would think he's out for six to eight weeks, probably. Well, let's not start doing doctor math here. Well, but if you're not getting, listen, if you're getting reevalued in three to four weeks, you probably have to tack two weeks onto that minimum. So you're talking at least five to six weeks. Like that's, you're talking close to December. the odds of LeBron being all-in-BA again are awfully long because 65 games seems to be a high, high number for him. Yeah, well, you know, I'm not a doctor. I'm not an expert. I do know that oftentimes Syalka is related to a disc issue in your back. And I don't know if that's the case with LeBron, but he's had over the course of his career occasional problems with the discs in his lower back.

So I believe when he was in Cleveland, he a couple of times had to get like numbing injections that cost him to miss a couple of weeks at a time. So I don't know if that's an option here, but certainly is going to be something that could affect early in the season. None of us have taken the Lakers yet. Well, I actually, that's where I was thinking. And I'm. Well, hold on. Just so you know, the Timberwolves are projected. Was that we're on the wolves, right?

Timberwolves projected 43 and a half wins by Pelton all the way back to eighth in the west. ESPN over-under has a much higher, 49 and a half. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right. Here we go. I'm up. I'm going to go ahead and take the led by Janus for the moment. Milwaukee Bucks here.

All right. And. I'll still take the Lakers despite the uncertainty surrounding the brawn. Okay. I believe in Skinny Luca. It'll be motivated in a victim, too, because Luca's always trying to help me out. This isn't a bad spot to take the Bucks, this late in the draft, by the way. The Bucks, 44 and a half is Peltin's projection sixth in the east.

And basically, Pelton's, like, the numbers with Janus are really good. And if Yonis is healthy and can play, they're going to get. at wins is what he's saying and I don't necessarily disagree with that. ESPN over under is smaller, 42 and a half. In this case, Pelton, one of the rare times, maybe the first time that he's got, his system has them for more wins than the over under has. And the Lakers, well, you know, this is not baked in with LeBron potentially missing a good chunk early in the season.

Peltin system had them sixth in the west at 45.8 and the ESPN over under. And, you know, you just can't take a Laker bet over under seriously because their fans going to push it out. But the Laker over under is 48 and a half. So if you, you know, the Laker over under is higher than the Warriors over under, higher than the Pistons, the Hawks, the Clippers, a whole bunch of teams we've selected so far, Bontems. Yeah. I mean, I'm still processing this LeBron thing. Yeah, obviously the Laker number has always been influenced by Vegas. It's a little bit less influenced by Vegas now just because there's so much more national

betting than it used to just be everybody going to Vegas and betting. But yeah, when you've got Luca Donchich and LeBron Jameson. There's a few Lakers. There's a few Laker fans in the nation, though. Well, of course, of course, yes. But when you have Luca and LeBron and you're the Lakers, it's obviously there's going to be a ton of attention on your team. And yeah, look, I mean, it's going to be really interesting to see how they handle things right out the gate. I wonder who they're going to start.

Well, and the one thing, the Lakers are top-heavy. There are a lot of teams in the West that have incredible depth. I would not say the Lakers are one of them. This might get your guy in the Arabia, the pale pit bull in the starting lineup, though. Yeah, I don't think this is very complicated. I would say they're going to start, they're going to start Luca and Reeves, and then they're going to start Rue Hachamura, and they're going to start DeAndre Aiton. And then they're either going to start La Ravia or Jared Vanderbilt. And I would guess they're going to start Jared Vanderbilt.

Marcus Marcos Marcia's a candidate, although he's having his own. That's true. That's true. I forgot about Marcus. He's not even, I was looking at the box score from last night. Yeah, I mean, they could start Marcus. It could start Jared Vanderbilt. They could start Gabe Vincent, whoever they.

they decide to be in that fifth spot until LeBron is back. But yeah, this team, I was watching the Lakers Warriors game, the first half when the Warriors guys were playing earlier today. And I just, I don't know. I'm not sold on, like you said, McMahon, the Lakers were a team relying on Luca being great, and then LeBron being LeBron, and then some of these other guys finding ways to fill in.

you start having Luke on LeBron miss games and I don't know it's going to be it's going to be interesting in the start of a season when they play Minnesota twice right away they play golden state right away it doesn't matter and if you're in the west it's all it's all going to be tough look there was already going to be it obviously there's not the pressure if luca hadn't signed but they're you know how it is around the lakers everything is heightened anyway and if they get off to a slow start with LeBron sidelined. Like, you know, it's going to get, the temperature is going to get hot quickly there. What I would say is Luca is healthy.

They're managing his workload just because he played in your old basket, you know, whatever. But he's healthy. He's in maybe the best shape of his career. And he's certainly as motivated as he's ever been. So this is a bet on an MVP candidate. And so is the Milwaukee picture. obviously. This is a bet on two of the top four players in the league being able to carry their teams to pretty good records. Yeah. Okay. My turn? Yep. I'm going to go with the Boston

Celtics. Pelton likes them to win more games than the sports books. He's projecting them at 45.6. That's 45.6. That could sniff home court in East, although I'm betting on a lot of these these teams winning more games than that, if I'm going to have any hope in this. But the over-under has them as a losing team, 40.5. All I'm going to say is, as we sit here today on October 9th and do this, Jason Tatum dunked in practice. But, you know, really you're betting on, you're betting on Jaylon Brown and Derek White and their ability to be a difference maker. And I will say this, Joe Missoula is running through a hard training camp. He knows that they need to start out, get off to a great start as much as they can.

And obviously they lost three really important players. Four, you know, you can count Al Horford, four really important players. But, you know, I'm going to bet on those two guys to pick up some wins. I think they'll be a winning team. Yeah, Jamal Carr and I did a story today on the gap year teams, the Celtics and the Pacers, both of whom are not looking at this is a gap year. And yeah, I think, you know, look, the Celtics. don't really have any proven center.

They've obviously got the Tatum hole on the wing. You know, this is, you know, they're betting on Joe Missoula finding a way to create some wins and pull them along, which I think is certainly possible in the east, especially if Tatum does decide to come back at play at some point. I'm still skeptical. That will ultimately happen. Me too. But, hey, the fact that he's out there moving around, he looks great.

Like, that's all very positive. And, yeah, like Boston certainly is not entering the season, posturing that they're going to be doing a San Antonio Spurs, David Robinson injury to go try to get Tim Duncan in the draft. Like, I don't anticipate the season looking like that. They're entering the year trying to win every game possible. And Joe Missoula is very excited about the challenge of trying to win as many games as they can with this group. And so is Derek White.

And so is Jalen Brown. I think as long as those guys are healthy, they're going to be pretty good. I'm always going to attempt to be as good as it can be. We're at an interesting point of the draft. We're halfway through, and I don't really like anybody that's available. I thought you're going to say I don't like my team. The first four picks, well, there's a lot of, I mean, we're halfway through, right? So it's not shocking, but there's just a lot of question marks for everybody.

in here. Usually we get like to the fourth pick and bond. It's like all these teams stanch. Well, I, I'm going with the Miami Heat. I like the Heat to be pretty good this season. I think they're going to go over their win total. I think their projections around 37 and a half in terms of their over under. It might be slightly higher now. One of my favorite stats, one of my favorite stats to high sight from last season is the Heat were 14 and 28 in Clutch games last. last year. I don't think that were repeat itself. They also were like second, I think, to the wizards in terms of net rating, second to last ahead of only the wizards, I believe, in net rating in the fourth quarter. They just were horrendous latent games for, it clearly became a mental thing as the season went along. They even talked about it. Obviously, the Tyler Hero injury is

concerning, but they get Norman Powell back. I think they're going to be better this year. Bamato Bio had a very uncharacteristically poor offensive season. So I think he'll be better. So I'll take Miami and then I really don't have a great sense of this bike. But I'm also going to double up on the east, I think, and I'm going to go with the Toronto Raptors. Whoa. Listen, Pontiffs have been singing those Raptors praise. He likes to say, Brandon Ingram, baby, bring me home. Well, do I think the Raptor, do I love the Raptors from a ceiling standpoint?

No. but I do think the Raptors are one of the best bets on the board to go over because I think they've got a lot of depth and they're going to be trying to win this year and like I think they're going to be a team that because of their depth with Brandon Ingramman, Scotty Barnes, I think they're going to get somewhere into the 40s and wins and at this point I'm just trying to not have a 20 on the board.

Here's what I want you to understand, McMahon, that Pelton has the Raptors ahead of the heat and one of the reasons is because his model likes the addition of Sandro Mammishkfili. Okay, listen. Oh, my habit. That's in the story. I mean, she could end up playing a decent role for them. Okay, that's enough.

Like, okay. I think probably Brandon Ingram. By the way, projected wins by Pelton for the Raptors, 40.7. ESPN bet over under 38 and a half. That's kind of a higher overrunner. That indicates to me that the money. is coming in on the record. That over under a few weeks ago, I believe, was 32. Hey, what is it? 33 and 31 minutes in the preseason game, whatever night was last night.

Wednesday? I will say this, unlike a lot of the teams that are in the East that are still left on the board, they're going to be trying to win. Yes. I mean, there's something to be said for that. That's awesome that that is a unique characteristic. Well, what do you want? Well, they're pretty deep and they're healthy going into the season and they're going to be competing. So, you know, like I said, I'm just trying to avoid a bottom falling out team at this point. All right. I am going to take the McMan's, the Dallas, the super deep Cooper flag injected Dallas Mavericks. I was thinking about Dallas, too.

I was going to take them as the official mouthpiece of the France. Yeah, I got the calves. you have to take the mavs. Pelton says Pelton likes some. Pelton says 43.6. ESPN bet says they're a losing team, 40.5.

Look, I don't know when Kyrie's coming back, but I like Cooper Flagg. I'll tell you what, I watched some of the replays of that first game the other night. And look, caveats, caveats, caveats. Yeah, the thunder left.

He has a great feel for the game. He has a great feel for the game, McMahon. Well, and listen, he's NBA ready. He was NBA ready when he was 17 and was playing for Team USA's select squad and a scrimmage of Bontim sat there and watched where he was not only looked like he belonged, but hooping against a bunch of first ballot Hall of Famers. He's going to be very good. You know, we didn't need to see him scored 10 points in 14 minutes against the.

the okaycb team to know that. Although, you know, his values that he does a lot of things. He might have been a C team, buddy. Yeah, he does a lot of things very well. But the one thing I'll say about Kyrie, obviously, Jake. By the way, real quick, not to get you in trouble on the home front. Oh. Are you making a preseason visit to the, to the Tiki while you're in town?

No, Big Rich is in Mexico. So your scholarship is there to send it? No, trust my scholarship. He doesn't need to be present. Oh, I see. He doesn't need to be present. But no, I am not. No, I am not.

This is an in and out trip, and I've got a morning flight, so we're going to be responsible. Plus, that's your official position. So Jackson turn off the... No, no. The IT department has her 20-year high school reunion this weekend. I can't make the Saturday. My wife also had a high school reunion last week. I will not, out of respect to my wife, I will not say what year it was.

The 20 year is a humble brag for all. gray-haired me. But, so I've got an escort horror or two, like a little pre-party Friday night. I can't make the actual reunion. The pre-party is going to be the more intense one. That's my experience. Yeah, I can't make the actual reunion

on Saturday because I've got a big, I've got Cooper Flags first appearance in a preseason game at the AACs. He's done the Dickees Arena. But I did want to just, you mentioned Kyrie, there being, Kyrie does not want to set a timetable.

He's been very clear about that. Jake has been very strong about pushing back against the ahead of schedule discussion. What I can tell you is, you know, he's not just doing standstill shooting. Like in the post-practice work, he's working on his ISO game.

I mean, it's really interesting to watch because a lot of times he's, he's got Cooper flagged there, and they're taking turns, and Kyrie will go. and, you know, he's like showing him moves and stuff. But like he's doing not just like no dribble stuff and pivot stuff, but like one dribble, two dribble.

Now, I'm not sitting here telling you that he's going to be back in the 2025 portion of the season because I would be very, very surprised by that. But I'm saying there is clear progress, encouraging progress as he's returning from the tour in ACL. All right. All right. I have no idea who's up. Me. McMahon.

I'll keep it. McMahon is up. Well, I was really fired up because I was going to be all theatrical and I was going to do the old Texas two step here. I was going to go to Dallas and right down down. What highway, Wendy? 35. High 35 to San Antonio. So I'm going to start off.

Wait a minute. Time out. Jackson, stop the clock. Stop the clock. We have arrived at the San Antonio Spurs over under section of the podcast. You know I love it over on the Spurs, baby. Hey, Wendy's going to stay healthy this year. Okay.

And look, I just, I just picked Janus, Luca, Wimby. I mean, come on. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm just, there's, of the five. You picked Janus, Luca, Wemby, and a younger woman. There you go. I got a lot of talent, baby. Oh, Lord. Of the five, what I would say, bona fide MVP candidates, I've got four of the five.

So I'll take that. The other one being Joker who the USWB got, even though he badmoused the bench additions to the Nuggets all the time. So I am going to go with the San Antonio Spurs here. And then, man, this is certainly. And by the way, Pelton would disagree with me there. Pelton will probably chastise me for that pick, but that's okay. Um, jeesh. I'll tell you what, to make it up to Pelton, I'm going to, uh, I'm going to let him make this

pick. I'm going to go with my old pal Rick Carlisle, Indiana Pacer. Oh, wow. Okay. Well, hold on. Bonteps, the over under for the spurs is 44.5. Do you have a position that you'd like to take on the spurs over under this year? I mean, I'm taking the under on 44 and a half.

Yes, of course he is. McMahon. That's a little bit rich for me. That's a bit rich now. Hey, listen, if we can get it to the Pelton number, I'll go. If we can get to the Pelton number, if Bonn... The negotiation begins. Pelton has been 40.1.

It started. He thinks... If Bonnett took the under on the machine over under, then I'll go with it. What do you say, Bonn? To make it fun, I will say that I will take... under 41 and a half. So you take them going, being over 500 and I'll take them 500 or lower.

I think that's a fair compromise. There you go. Wow. Be a fun little staff for the city. What Oklahoma City restaurant will this, well, yeah, I got it,

I got them in kitchen three. The last one never got a lot. Yeah, that's true. I did. What did go about? I forgot about lunch. It was a lunch.

It was a nice lunch. I actually had lunch there. I walked on down there today and how I had love. It's a good restaurant. Jackson has recorded this for posterity. Oh, it's fine. Everyone is going to remember.

I think he gave you a good deal, McMan. I think you got a good deal. I was going to say, that's fine. I did it for, I did it for goofs. It's all right. It'll be a fun little thing. I'm going to tell you this right now. If the spurs aren't above 500,

I'm going to be calling for the firing of their associate head coach, Sean Swing. I will hold him the possible. All right. The Pacers by Pelton's projections are fourth in the east at 45.9, 46 wins. Yeah. Over under 38 and a half. We had some news on the Pacers today Thursday. Not good news.

Not good. C.J. McConnell, significant hamstring strain out a month. Yeah. Obviously, Halliburton out. There's a lot on Nimhard, who is a playoff. monster who needs to step it up in the regular season. I think really a chance for him to showcase what he can do. And look, losing Miles Turner wasn't a great thing either.

You know, Pelton loves him some Jay Huff. Pelton loves like the random, like 6-11, you know, seven-footer type of dues. Like your casual fan won't know about it. There's a Jay Huff reference in here. But look, man, Rick Carlisle is a hell of a coach. and I've seen him take teams that weren't very good. You know, I remember he took a Mavericks team that was trash and went 41 and 41 with it.

That's the year when they were under 500 for most of the season. All the guys grew their beards out, and they weren't going to shave until they got to 500. It was like the last week of the regular season. And, you know, look, there was also some Mavericks teams that finished far under, but there were some Mavericks teams that went into old tank-a-thon mode. the Pacers aren't going in a tankathon mode. This is a tough one here.

All right. Come on. Taking Philly. I was going to take them after you. Snifed them. It's an outside play. I mean, it's the right time. I mean, listen, the Sixers could easily win 25 games again and have injury hell.

But if they're remotely healthy, they're going to be a good pick here. And even kind of healthy. No, but I'm not saying Joel and Bede playing 70 games. I mean, like, if the rest of their team. How about Paul Borg playing 50? Well, I'm just saying. If Paul and Paul George have five on five at some point. If Joel and Bid and Paul George play 41 games, they're a very good pick here.

Like, this is the right area to take them because there's no downside, really. You're down to the bottom 10 teams in the league. And their upside is being fourth or fifth in the east probably. Kevin Pelton win projection contains the following. statement. Paul George no longer rates as an elite player after last season's performance. What performance? I mean, yeah, I mean, Paul had a rough season last year. The Sixers also, on top of the injuries last year, the Sixers also had an insane season from a shooting luck perspective where they just couldn't make anything all season. I think it's a good pick, value-wise.

Thanks, man. There's upside here. Pelton hasn't projected at 38.4 11th in the east. ESPN bet over under 42 and a half. So I will just say Vichay Edgecom is going to win over some fans this year because this guy has... He's good. This guy is going to be electrifying. Yeah. So...

I would agree with that. He's got some good. I think Bon Temps is up. Yeah. So I was trying to decide between three teams. here. I thought Philly was going to slip by, Brian, so I was going to take Philly in one of these teams. But I'll take the Sacramento Kings for sort of the same reason as Toronto.

They're just, I think they're going to be trying to be competitive in the regular season. And between Zach Levine and Dart, De Mardi Rosen, and Domata Sabonis, I think they're probably going to be a pretty low ceiling, fairly high floor team. And then with my other pick, trying to. decide what to do. I'm ultimately going to take the Memphis Grizzlies. I was debating going with another team instead. I do like the team Memphis has, but there's a lot of injuries already.

You like that team? I don't like them to win 50 games. Like, I think they're, like, if they were healthy right now, I would have probably taken them several picks earlier. because I do think they've got a chance to be decent. They've got pretty good depth around John Jaron, and I think they'll fit together pretty well. But obviously, John Moran's already banged up,

and Jaron Jackson Jr. is on track to be ready around the start of the season. But I'll bet on the infrastructure of the Grizzlies to rack up a decent number of wins. Zach Ety also miss at least a couple weeks, if not multiple weeks to start the season. Yeah. Well, there's two things that agree with Bonteps. One is Peltin's projection system, who likes the Kings at 43 and a half wins. In fact, they're over under is 34 and a half. And it's about a big of a spread as we have here, almost as big of the spread as we have

in Peltin liking that pick. Also, guess who else McMahon agrees with Tim Bontemps? that's LeBron Ramon James He said in his podcast That he thinks that Dennis Shruder Following the lead of Tim Bontas Yes yes Ratifying Timbant's worldview

Yes Buttracing Tim Bontem's basketball knowledge and savvy Burtrissing Bonn He sees it on plane with his Yeah Saying that Dennis Schrooter is headed to the Hall of Fame Not because of anything things doing with the Sacramento Kings just to be clear.

Well, I'm just, you know, the Kings are up here. Grizzlies, actually, LeBron's quote on it was kind of lukewarm. He's like, I've seen a lot of stats and a lot of accomplishments this summer after Eurobasket. If he's elected, I wouldn't be like, oh, my God, I'm so proud, but he's put the work in, man. I don't know if I was Schroeder, I would put, make LeBron my presenter with that guy. endorsement. But it was an endorsement. Let the record show.

Oh, who was the presenter. There was somebody, there was somebody who was a presenter this year that I'm like, oh, no. Who was Billy Donovan's coach, his college coach at Providence. Petino, yes, right. Patino got up there just telling a story about how fat Billy Donovan was when he was in a freaking Providence. Like, geez, man. Meanwhile, Billy Donovan probably. wearing about the same size as he did when he was in Providence. I think smaller, according to that story. The Memphis pick also is liked by Peltin there,

Bon Tempts, 44.6, Memphis 7th. I took the Timberwolves like a half hour ago, and Memphis is ranked ahead of them by Pelton's numbers. ESPN bet over under 40.5. Over the machine is right. All right. All right, I'm going to go with another team that I think is going to try to win, probably against their better, against what it should be.

And look, if we're drafting this far late in the draft and you can pick up somebody who's going to try their backside off to win 38 games, ladies, ladies and gentlemen, I know who you're taking. I would like to present you my selection very proudly. I'm going all east all day, baby. Chicago Bulls. You know, I got to say trying to win 38 games. You know exactly what you're talking about.

about. Hey, the bears are the monsters of the Midway, the Bulls are the monsters of mediocrity, baby. Hey, what do you think the highly refined data savvy AI-aided

pelted machine predicts for the Chicago Bulls wins? I know. I read too. 38.38.0. Not 38.1, not all these other numbers. 38 flat. To me, the best looking bet on this whole board is the over under a 31 and a half. Ladies and gentlemen,

have you seen the Bulls for the last decade? Also, they get to play all. 39 or 40 games every year and they get into play. So why would you expect anything different? Yeah. I think it's a good value pick for I'd like to congratulate myself. Yeah.

We will participate in congratulations. Good job. all right it's my time to shine I was actually going to pick Bulls there that's pretty steep cliff we can speed up these picks here for Jackson all right we're going to go Portland and

oh boy oh boy this is Portland's the other team I was debating about Jaden Sharp who's up for an extension the next couple weeks was awfully awfully good Wednesday night against the warriors. Interesting, extension candidate over the next couple weeks.

All right, we're going to go Portland and then we're going to go in the you don't benefit from being bad department. The experts are out of the way. Here come the Phoenix Suns, baby.

Oh, okay. I actually, yeah, that's not a bad pick. Pelton says that Pelton is one of the stupid media who don't believe in the Suns. No, I have a lot more in the overrun.

The projection is 34.7, the over under 31 and a half. Yeah. I'll take 34.7 here, baby. And then the Blazers, he's over on the Blazers, too. Over under 33 and a half. Project a wins 35.8. Hey, Shaden Sharp was lightened it on fire the other night. That's what I just said.

Listen, man, I am going to be keeping an eye on the Blazers this year for Yang Han son. Well, don't keep an eye on three seasons last night. Not forward to that one. All right. Back to you. I'd like to keep taking these teams, but I think I've reached the point where I have to stop.

I think I've reached a point where I have to stop. Listen, I think you've got to give an old friend to call here. Let's see if you do. Listen, I have a team that's motivated to win here, baby, because They ain't got control of their pick. Pelton doesn't like him. The O'Rinder doesn't like them, but I think the New Orleans Pelicans are motivated to get into that play-in.

Pelton says 32.6 wins over under 30.5, but that's disregarding New Svelte Zion. The pelts are ugly than that little baby you pull out of the kingcakes. That baby is like. Just by the way, the concept of the king cake. I don't mean to culturally insult them, but I mean, it's a tough, it's a tough thing. There's a hard piece of plastic in the middle of the cake. I'm telling you.

It's a lot of go, especially like, you know, a lot of people that are eating those cakes are fairly inebriated. Oh, man. I'm thinking about how many teeth are cracked on the king, on the baby every year. Yeah. That's right. But, hey, you got Joe Dupor's, he's going to, he's going to deliver you a one. winter baby. Derek Queen, once he gets back from his little injuries. All-Rookie campaign, here you come. Maybe. All right, Bon Temps. All right, Bon Temps. He's frozen. I think we should

pick for him. He says he's taking the Jats and the, he texts it in. He is taking the jazz. He's, oh, I like that. He's taking the Jazz and the Hornets. I'm taking the Nets. I'm taking the Nets. and does that leave you or is that is that it? That it leaves me Washington. Thanks a lot. Okay. Let it be written. Let it be said.

By the way, Will Hardy mentioned to our guy Michael Corleone right that he'd like to come back on the pod. All right, Will. We'll have you on. You're Pelton with a complete insult to Will Hardy's jazz. Oh, no. With 20.2 with the projected wins.

I think that's not a worst in the West. Not a complete insult. That is better than their 18.5 over under. Ace Bailey time, baby. Yeah, and then what else? We've got to scroll down to the east. The Hornets are projected wins, 28 and a half by Pelton, 26 and a half over under.

My seven-year-old son came back from basketball practice doing that six-seven thing, six-seven. I squeeze one in earlier in the pot that you missed. Brandon Miller, you guys hear me now? My back? Yeah. Somehow my microphone just muted itself. I don't know how.

McMahon must be here. We would like to express our gratitude to your microphone. Yeah. And I'm sure. Pelton projects the Wizards to 14 wins, Bontemps. 14.2, give them full credit. Listen, do you think the Wizards are this weird thing where they don't want to win, but they don't want to be like historically bad?

here's the thing. They'd like to lose a lot of games and maximize their lottery odds again, but they don't want to lose by 30. They want to at least have their young players in competitive situations where you have a chance to learn and develop. And I would say the jazz are in the same boat. Listen, Cam, if you have, I'm going to give you free advice. If you have fantasy, get Cam Thomas.

That dude might try to average 35 this year. I'm actually not sure I would say that. I don't know. I'm not sure how much, Cam. Well, they've drafted like, they've drafted like 19 perimeter players this year. And Cam Thomas is clearly not in their long-term plans. He's going to shoot a lot when he's on the court.

I just, I don't know what kind of role he's going to have all season. Well, I didn't say take him with the number and overall pick. True. Here, and this is, will be our sign-off because we've had enough. allow me in the sign-off. I hopefully get to MSG by tip-off tonight through Walls Nix. All right.

I am going to read Kevin Peltin's paragraph on the Wizards, being projected to win 14.2 games. Given how my model tends to compress the expected standings to avoid bad misses, this is a shockingly low projection. In fact, it's the worst I've calculated for a team since adopting this model. model in 2010. Pelton and I talked about this. After trading away veterans at the deadline, and again this past summer, Washington doesn't

have a single player who rates in the league's top 1.30. They've got poor C.J. McCollum and Chris Middleton. I mean, listen, the first and the 15th of every month are going to be good for those guys. Either than that, they're not, they'll be okay. Yeah. They're still paying Marcus Smart, I think, money to do that. They are a lot. All right.

It was enjoyable. We will remember who we drafted at the very end of the season when Bon Temes tells us who won. Thank you to Jackson for putting this together. Thank you to Bon Temes. Thank you to McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you. Oh, by the way.

Podcast note. Uh-oh. We're going back to three, baby. Are we Bon Temes? Oh, Bon Tem. So I'm totally I'm telling you. All right.

So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, starting next week. Yeah. Should be interesting. I got a doublehead. We got, I'm going to be in L.A. on Sunday for a doublehead. All right. Talk to you later. Adios amigos.