Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - How Kevin Durant Outshined Giannis Antetokounmpo at NBA Media Day; Kawhi Leonard Confronts Endorsement Scandal

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to take you around the league with the biggest stories of the new NBA season. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future remains in flux as he refutes the Bucks owner's claim about his commitment. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant shows Giannis how to move on from offseason speculation. Around the league, Jason Kidd wants everyone to know that Kyrie Irving is right on schedule in his recovery. Kawhi Leonard denies any wrongdoing amid the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers’ endorsement deal. LeBron James handles the spotlight like a true 22-year veteran. Nikola Jokic says he wants to stay in Denver forever. Plus, injury updates from the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, and Miami Heat. 1:22 Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future with the Milwaukee Bucs 9:34 Kyrie Irving right on schedule. Plus Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg updates.  16:59 The Houston Rockets and the Impact of Kevin Durant’s Arrival 29:30 Cleveland Cavaliers Updates: Darius Garland and Max Strus Expected to Miss Time 32:53 Kawhi Leonard Denies Wrongdoing Amid NBA Investigation Into Clippers 38:50 LeBron Handles Spotlight Like a 22-Year Veteran 43:05 Nikola Jokic says he wants to stay in Denver forever 44:22 Spurs' De'Aaron Fox says opener in doubt  47:32 Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro says he could be back in 8-12 weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Joining us from Cleveland, Ohio, where he was at Cavaliers Media Day today. It's Tim Bonteps. Hello, Brian. Were you aware that there's water in Cleveland? Yeah, you and your coastal elite buddy, Lonzo Ball. Why am I getting lumped in? I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie. Because you're a coastal elite.

Okay. Yeah. By the way, Lonzo just spent the last few years in Chicago where they have another great lake. Join us for Dallas, Texas where he was at Mavericks Media Day. Just up the road from me here in Houston is Bam McMahon. Howdy, partners? I would like to correct you, Wendy. Bond Timps is not an anything elite.

He's a coastal resident. He ain't elite. All right. All right. Well, we'll talk about those two spots as well as well as on here in Houston in a few minutes. I think, you know, on Media Day, we often hear about injuries that were previously not public and surgeries and things like that. Well, we got a surprise in Milwaukee today, but it was not sort of that serious, but sort of interesting. Yannes-Satinecumpo

was not there because he was in Greece because he has COVID. and he can't travel. Contracted COVID after Eurobasket, after he went back to Greece. Did speak to the media on Zoom and more, it seems like he's doing healthy, waiting for a negative test. It felt like it was throwback to 2021,

waiting for negative test. My God, that's another story for another day. But I think it was interesting. Not for game six of the finals, though. Not for game six of the finals. You slid that in. Somebody from Phoenix just spit glass of what you mentioned in that. Can I read a quote from Bucks Media Day that I think sums up the Yannis situation fairly perfectly beyond COVID? Yeah, so I was going to pivot to, but please pivot away.

So Wes Edens was the owner of the Bucks was in Milwaukee for Media Day. Had this to say about Janice's future with the team. Quote, I had a great conversation with Janice in June, and he made it clear that he is committed to Milwaukee, and he likes having his family here, end quote. That's a very nice sentiment, right? Yes, I like that. So an hour later, Janice said a coupo was asked about this meeting. Live from Greece. Quote.

Yes, I'm Zoom from Greece. Quote, I cannot recall that meeting. Oh. He seems problematic. given, you know, he is only the guy cutting the checks for the team. Feels like you'd probably remember if you had that conversation or if you want to something you hear when you're watching a congressional hearing, Senator, I do not recall.

Yes. And also further, our guy, Jamal Collier on the scene in Milwaukee today, talking to Giannis from Greece on Zoom. Yana said this to say about his belief in or his thoughts this summer on what his future may hold and how much he thought about what his future would be in Milwaukee going forward. This is part of the quote, but I think the important part. Quote, it's a disservice to basketball and just to the game to not want to compete in a high level and to want your season to end in April. It's pretty much the same.

It's not the first time. I had the same thoughts last year. I had the same thoughts two years ago. So I'm a Bucks fan. I'm not feeling super hot about this being the way that the season is kicking off with Janus in Milwaukee, with two years left to go in fairness. In fairness,

he also did praise the Miles Turner edition, said he was very excited about that. Listen, though, it has been, literally it's been like seven, years of Janus watch, right? And for a while, it was teams line. I'm serious. Again, I go back to when the Mavericks drafted Luca and Brunson and got Costas and Kupo with the last pick of that draft because they were trying to set themselves up as a potential Janus destination. So for the

first two or three years of it, it was teams lining up trying to put themselves in position to poach them. But Janus repeatedly over the last several years has not only left windows open, but he's opened him. He's kicking doors open. He's like making sure that there's plenty of ventilation here. And at this point, look, man, if you were going to ask- Definitely a lot of ventilation. Absolutely.

But at this point, it's Media Day, okay? Like, if you were going to ask out of Milwaukee this summer, nobody would have, I think, blame the guy. Like, we all agree, it's a very murky situation there. Like, I don't see a path for them to put a contender around. them, but you had all summer, if you wanted to ask out of Milwaukee, you had all summer to do that. It's media day. You didn't.

Why are you like making sure the window's open right now? Like either commit or don't, either ask out or don't. Well, I think because we have just seen what the year is going to look like in Milwaukee, right? We have we have talked about how this Milwaukee Bucks team outside of Yonestan Dekupo is pretty suspect. Yes, Miles Turner is good. The third best player on the team is Bobby Fortis, Kyle Kuzma. I hope it's not Kyle Kuzma. I mean, you know, Gary Trent, I mean, these are guys that are at best fit starters on teams.

They didn't replace Damian Lillard at point guard. Yonis is obviously going to have the ball in his hands all the time. He's probably going to put up giant numbers, assuming he could stay healthy under what's going to be a massive usage load this year. but this is not a team right now that you look at it and you think is one of the four best teams in the east. There's a world they're in the playing this year, even with Janus. So if that's what we're talking about with the team and the bucks are, I don't know, 20 and 25 in January, what's the chatter around Janus going to be like? It's not going to be.

Janus is fully committed to Milwaukee, and that's all going to go. back to this day, went to your appointment, McMahon. If he'd walked in and said, hey, you got Miles Turner, I feel good about where we're at. I'm going to put up numbers, leaving Doc Rivers, excited about where we're going. Let's give this season a go. Everybody was, all right, yeah, this is locked in for the season, and that's fine. And instead... Let me contrast it with what Kevin Durant said here today.

Not that we're going to talk about the rockets right now. I'm at the Toyota Center. Kevin Durant walked in. The first question was from Danielle Lerner of the Houston, Chronicle, she asked directly about his contract situation, and he gave an answer. Three seconds in, I definitely see myself signing a contract here, and he reset it again. He's not signed. There's negotiation to go on, but, you know, who knows what will happen until it's not signed, but Durant ended all speculation in five seconds, five seconds.

It was not going to give oxygen. He was not going to give any oxygen of that. We're all, Yonis is not just giving oxygen. He's like got a little gasoline, you know, spray bottle here. You know, come on, man. And Janus is savvy. He's been around a long time. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's been doing it for years.

And I'm just saying like, dude, either commit or ask out. No one's going to blame you. I don't know. Like if you're a Bucks fan, you could look at that a different way and say that he totally praised the offseason move, you know. That's fine. I don't recall the meeting with West Eden saying I'm committed to Milwaukee is that is that's all you got to say. Whatever else was said today on any level, that quote is all that matters. Like how many owners speak at Media Day?

Well, it's, I wouldn't say it's unheard of, but West Eden's, you know, he's New York based. So it's unusual to see West Eden's, you know, in Milwaukee on a non-dain. do that fair i feel like those guys have fairly regularly done that it isn't it isn't a normal thing either way but regardless whether he normally does it or not the owner says i talked to yonis of june he's locked in he's feeling good he's excited yonis i don't remember talking to the owner the owner comes in tells you all you need to know yeah his clear goal is let's quiet all this down Let's calm this down. We don't need this kind of speculation and drama swirling.

Let's cool it. And Yanna says, no, no, no. Let's crank that timidure up. Let's heat it up, baby. All right. Let's move on. We got a lot of stuff to go to its media day. Okay, let's go.

Speaking of cooling things down, let's go to Dallas, where you were today, McMahon, where Jason Kidd, among other things that happened today, wanted to cool things down on Kyrie Irving's, the expectations on his availability. Yeah, and look, Kyrie, there's been video clips on social media recently if Kyrie's shooting, taking jumpers, you know, standstill jump shots. And Jay Kidd took Umbridge with the specific phrasing that he's ahead of schedule. Now, I don't know if I've seen that in maybe this has been reported. I know I heard it somewhere. Oh, yeah, that's right. I heard it when Nico Harrison said it on a Summer League broadcast in July. We have another, we have another disavowing. It took me a while to remember

where I heard it to recall. I do recall. I recall now. We like recalling. But look, what Jay Kidd was doing and saying, we don't need there to be daily, weekly. Like when's Kyrie ready? What's time table what's a timetable that's sort of the thing um you know and then kairi comes in he was after jkid he came in he said let me just hit the jkid news uh and he's smiling he says i'm right on schedule guys you know there's consistency here i'm right on schedule and i asked him about you know a potential timetable does he ever target return date he doesn't want to he doesn't want to put that out there because he didn't know and i understand he didn't want to put himself in a situation where you know let's say the target data i'm pulling a date out just that you know would make sense

from a ACL recovery standpoint let's say it's early february you know 11 months removed from from when he tours acal well if he's not quite ready early february then it's like you know why aren't you ready what happened was there a setback and and he doesn't want all of that but you know it obviously the buzz about this franchise right now is about Cooper flag and the beginning of this potential generational talents, NBA careers, you know, this number one overall pick out of Duke in such a unique situation where, you know, there's three guaranteed future Hall of Famers on the roster. They think they can win now.

They expect to win now. But it took a little, you know, the other two, number one overall picks today, both had injury updates. And Kyrie's update is there's really no update. It's going to be a while. AD's update. Hold on. Okay.

Oh, okay. That right eye, I didn't like it. Well, so, AD. This is AD. Sorry. Anthony Davis, yes. He had surgery to repair the retina of his right eye, which is something that he did late last season

after he came back from the inductor injury. It was actually, unfortunately, friendly fire from Daniel Gafford. I believe it was a game against the Hawks raid. He had a huge game and hit the game. winter. But doing his normal like post you know indices and uh medical evaluation, they said, hey, you need to get surgery on this. So got surgery was basically, you know, not able to do anything for a month or so. It was only recently been cleared for five on five. Um, but he's fully cleared for camp. He says his vision is is completely fine at this

point. There is serious redness in that eye. And he says that's, but it's caused by that eye drops that he has to use. Now, he did say that his doctor is mandating that he will wear protective glasses. You know, he called him Horace Grants or Carines, whether they're goggles or just whatever, like the newfangled protective glasses, not just now. That doesn't know as the bow outlaws. Yes. He will wear those for the rest of his career.

So, yeah, that was, I would say, relatively good news for AD. though fully cleared will be a full participant in camp good good it's not bad pretty red i didn't yeah yeah and and i just want to be clear like the the news on kairi it's not bad news it's just let's temper expectations let's yeah i actually put it on this guy that's going to be back january first or something yes i think he was being responsible with that um it's not like we haven't seen acl injuries yeah we know how long it takes to come back um in fact here in Houston today, you know, a little bit of talk about Fred Van Bleet, who just had ACL surgery a couple days ago, and I made Udoka said, you know, I tore my ACL twice.

So I know exactly what he's going through. And when you're a few days off of surgery, it's a hard mental thing. So he's like, I'm getting a space. You know, Kyrie is not torn an ACL before, but he pointed out this is the fourth time that he's had knee surgery. And obviously, you know, Kyrie, when he was in californ, there were very serious complications coming back from one of those knee surgeries. What matter of front were those all three of the surgeries were all related to the one issue anyways I don't know I just know that he had basically an infection that developed on the hardware I think

and you know he then later on went to Brooklyn and if you remember this bond emcee he had a shoulder that needed surgery that he kept putting off the surgery and putting off the surgery and he ended up having to have it but because like he was even though it was on a shoulder not a knee you know he had had this surgery and ended up causing him a whole bunch of problems so he was trying to avoid surgery so yeah i mean uh it seems it seems routine there's dozens of surgeries done on dozens of NBA players every summer um but it's for some people who've had bad experiences it's not so simple yeah and again it's just it's not bad news with Kyrie's just, hey, it's not like he's making some miraculous recovery where he's going to be back in nine months, right?

Like, let's not put that out there. And, you know, when it happened, talking to people around the Mavericks, they basically said, hey, if he's back around the All-Star Break and then can be back close to himself by the end of the season, we'd feel very good about that. Kyrie was very upbeat. You know, the contract negotiations were, that's a tough deal when he's thinking he's a 50 plus million a year player. There's the ACL. Now he's got to leave, you know, got to take a haircut to make room for Daniel Russell on the roster. But he's seen, you know, good middle space with all that, you know, excited about the possibilities once he gets back. But once he gets back is not for a while. Okay. Any Cooper flag discussion today?

You know, just, I mean, me happy to be here. Optimistic feels quote unquote. blessed to be in a situation where he's got all these vets to pick their brains to learn from. A lot of people raving about not just the talent, but how receptive he is to information, you know, to the wisdom of his veteran teammates. It's a very feel-good Cooper Flag story at this point in Dallas, and I think it'll stay that way for a while. All right. All right, down here in Houston, despite the Fred Van Bleet news,

which tempered everything. There's a lot of excitement around the Rockets. You know, they're beginning a season as a team in the spotlight for the first time in four years. Last year, you know, they were sort of, they thought they were gonna do well, but nobody thought they were gonna be the second scene. So there's a different vibe here.

There's been in a while. And obviously, KD comes, you know, there's a first bout Hall of Fame or walks in the building. There's a lot of that. Just about every single player who spoke today talked about the impact that's made. to work out with Kevin Durant. And so you certainly feel that here.

And as I said earlier, Durant coming in and really trying to embrace being a part of this team. Obviously, if it was as simple as offering of a max contract, Bontems, I mean, McMahon, it was the simplest saying, hey, you're ready to sign. Here's two years and $120 million. This is probably getting done. I did ask. It would have been done the day after it got traded.

Right. Rafael Stone with the media today. And I bit the bullet and was the bad guy and asked about the Durant contract. And he's like, I was like, hey, can I ask about Kevin's contract? And he's like, well, you can ask, but I ain't answering. And so he basically said no comment. Durant did comment, obviously. So there's going to be a negotiation there very clearly.

I've talked to the Durant's camp. And even beyond what Kevin said today, there's very, very good optimism that they're going to have a deal. But any of a deal too, it's a deal. There are things I would say about today is there's definitely been a bonding. I think they had a previous relationship, but there's definitely been a bonding between Jabari Smith, Jr. and Durant. They're definitely spending time working together. Durant was very complimentary of Jabari and his work in the offseason.

there's definitely been a connection there. And frankly, they're looking forward to playing together. And Bontemps, you brought this up on the pot, I think, within the last week or so, after Van Blede's injury. You talked about, did you think it was the tallest starting lineup, maybe an NBA history? I mean, I said that a man was going to be the starting point guard, and that if it is, they're going to have a huge team by default. But, I mean, they're going to be big. No question about that. Imeyudoka basically, I don't know if he said that.

He said one of the tall, maybe he said one of the tallest teams ever. So he openly said that they're going to play this way, which is a men Thompson, a point guard, not full time, but a men Thompson, a point guard, Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith as the wings. That's 6.11 and 16. I think Kevin Durant's 7 foot, so whatever, but 611 and 610. Alperin Shungoon, who is only slightly taller than a men, Tomp. But Amen Thompson's about six, seven. Amen, by the way, was a great attitude today. He is an extremely sunny personality.

A plus guy. Yeah. A plus guy. I would totally like spending time with Amman Thompson. I don't know his brother really at all, but Azur, I'm sure he's the same way. He's the same way too. Yep. So Alperin Shingoon as the four, I guess, in that scenario.

and Stephen Adams playing five. So that's a starting lineup. Not as a starting lineup. Okay. Not as a starting lineup. But the double big thing, you know, the double big thing is something they found midway through last city.

The first time they went to that was actually right here in Dallas. It was Anthony Davis's debut here in Dallas. Remember AD absolutely dominated the first half and the match were playing him at the four, you know, with the, I don't remember if Laithee was hurt. the time but you know at least with gafford and the mabs were bullying them and the rockets went to that in the third quarter maybe unfortunately got a hurt but then it was something that were the rockets tinkered with that a lot down the stretch of the season you know we've talked about just the absolutely insane offensive rebounding numbers with that lineup and then obviously um you know they made it a

series against the warriors in large part because stephen adams was so impactful alongside out be shingoon um yeah so they're gonna and then they then they added clinkapelo to make sure that they could do it even on nights where they're resting adams clint was here and again the the the story there too is it's just it's all about a men i mean he's one of the most important players now in the whole league this season and he's going to have all he can eat in terms of ability to try to grow as a player and you know third year guys with his kind of talent I mean, you mentioned it. I think we were on TV the other day, Brian, you were talking about it with Victor,

but we've seen a lot of guys in their third year break out and take off. And like I said last week, I think I think I'm in Thompson's going to be the most approved player in the league. I think he's got a real chance to be an all-star this year. And again, the Fred injury is going to mean by default, he's going to be given a ton of opportunity. And, you know, from everything we've seen from him over the first couple of years in the league, If he could stay healthy, I expect he's going to have a really big year. And Emie Adoka clearly believes in him and is going to give him every chance to maximize what he can be.

And I'm, I for one, although I'm super bummed about Fred, am very interested and excited to see what a man is going to look like when he's got the ball in his hands for 25 minutes a night. And to be clear, Eme said that it's going to be point guard by committee, that it will be Amen, that it will be Kevin Durant, that they will run offense through Shingoon, like we've all said. And the Reed Shepherd. Now, Reed Shepherd. Now, I'm not going to spend this whole podcast detailing all the players who came up to the podium today and declared that they had never been better because I heard about it a bunch here. I watched and read about it other places. You know, for example, Victor Wimbenyama. It's only a thing that everybody says today. Victor Wimbenyama had a very powerful soliloquy today about how he's like, no one has worked harder than me this offseason. And I'm not disputing any of that. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not going to, it's not going to, actions over words. But Reed Shepard was very confident meeting with the media today. He has been waiting a very long time for this. And, you know, Reed Shepard as a, you know, in his AAU career,

he was an off guard, you know, as a teenager. And he went to Kentucky and played more point card than people thought and was really good. So the thing about it is, is that in this system, what they're going to be sharing the ball, you need a guy who can both run the point guard and play off guard, and that's what he does. And frankly, they're going to need three-point shooting because, you know, they traded away a couple of, they traded away a couple of three-point shooters to get Durant. Now, Duran's obviously an all-time great three-point shooter, but. I mean, they trade away a couple of guys who shoot threes.

I don't know if I'd call him three-point shooters. Some days are better than that for Dylan Brooks. Well, yeah, exactly. And Jalen Green, as we saw in the playoffs. But the other thing about Reed Shepherd, too, and it obviously is a really big year for him, again, to a lesser extent to a men, he's going to need to take on a big role as the backup point guard.

He's going to have to play pretty heavy minutes. They're going to have to see what they can get out of him after he was basically a red shirt as a rookie. but while there's a lot of pressure on him this year in his second year in the league, I do think for people that don't quite know his story, it's worth pointing out that when he was a kid coming up in the high school ranks in Kentucky, his parents are both legendary players at Kentucky and his recruiting process and whether he was going to go to Kentucky and then what it was going to look like when he got to Kentucky

and how he did when he was at Kentucky was a constant storyline. and he as a high school kid, I'm not saying he was treated like LeBron or anything, but he's used to being in the fish bowl and being scrutinized pretty heavily and has been for quite some time. So if there is a guy who is equipped to step into a situation like this in his second year in the league and handle what's going to come with having to play an immediate role on a team that has really high expectations, this is a guy that has spent a lot of time having to deal with a lot of intention being paid to what he's doing on and off the court. And, you know, I think that

part of it, at least you can expect him to handle pretty well. And I think the questions with him are all on the defensive end. Like, don't worry about what his stats were in the NBA last year. He never had like a regular role. Trust me, he's going to be able to shoot it. They feel like he's got some real natural playmaking ability. Nobody in Houston has any concerns about Reed Shepard's ability to contribute offensively. You know, how well can he fare defensively for a coach that is as defensive-minded as any coach in the league? That's the question. Now, Wendy, they did add a little bit more three-point shooting and defense with Dorian Finney Smith this off-season. When we will see Dorian Finney-Smith on the floor is another question. Yeah, I asked both Raphael Stone and

DFS. He sends his regards, McMahon. He loves you. Love him too. He loves to be back in Texas. He's back in Texas. It's happy to be back in Texas. No timetables were offered. And so he's not playing basketball. I shouldn't say that.

He's not cleared for basketball activities. He's definitely playing basketball, but he is running. But he's not ready to play right now. Well, and didn't Rafael tell you he's on schedule? And it's like, okay. Yes, that's what he said. He's right on schedule. I said, what's the timetable?

He's right on schedule. He's not ahead of schedule. He's on schedule. This is, I think the important, a couple important things to note here. One, this is not like, we weren't aware of this until very recently, but this is not a surprise to the Rockets. They understood that Finney Smith, who played hurt all last year, like, could not jump at all because of that ankle. They understood that coming off of that surgery, he wasn't going to be ready for training camp. There is, I don't want to put an exact timetable on it because I don't know that for certain,

but there's certainly an anticipation that he will miss some games to start the regular season. Before I move off, the Rockets, Stephen Adams, who's one of my favorite interviewers ever, described his fishing trip with Kevin Durant on the Bahamas. It was positive of their camp and other Van Bleet got hurt there, but they went on a fishing trip. And he said he, 10 years ago, he went fishing at Clay Bennett's hot. Well, he said the Thunder owner. He didn't say Clay Bennett.

So I don't, there's a couple owners. But he said he went fishing at one of the Thunder owner's houses. And he said these, he says, they got a fish out back. They got a pond out back and they fill the pond. It's like easily. He's like, back then, Katie was catching little fish like this big. You know, like, you know, holding his hand like seven or eight inches apart. He goes, he brought in a about a.

a seven i think he said seven pounds say seven pound i don't know he brought in some uh yellow fin tuna oh no he said it took him seven minutes to reel it in and um you're gonna say yellow fit to tuna ain't seven pounds yeah i don't don't give me right i don't know i don't have exactly in front of me anyway he said the durrance of those cleveland lakes that lanzel ball is just figuring out not not the he said he said durant hooked this thing and he was reeling in reel it in reel it in he had to call in Stephen Adams to hit to sub out for a while. Adam's holding for a while. They needed the closer, huh?

Yeah. And then he came back and brought it in. He goes, because I was so excited. I don't think KD understood how great of an accomplishment was to catch a fish like that. He's like, I was celebrating with like it was a championship. And KD was like, yeah, it's whatever. Anyway, all right. Font, you were in Cleveland today where there was unfortunately guys talking about coming off

of surgeries themselves. Yeah, I think there's a lot more interesting things to get to. So I'll run through the Cavs Corner section real quick. You knew Darius Garland and Max Drews were going to miss the start of the season. Max Drews had surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his left foot. He suffered earlier this offseason. I asked somebody, he said he went to jump and a workout and just hurt a crack, which obviously is a huge bummer for him. But he was walking around without any kind of a walking boot.

that he's five weeks out of surgery. He was not moving very fast, but he was walking around, which was good. He'll have a better sense of the timeline potentially after next week when he has a six-week checkup. He did say that it will be only acceptable if the calves are playing in June this year, which I think is a accurate and correct statement from him in terms of where the calves sit in the east. And then Darius Garland, who we've talked about since you and Schaams broke the news back in June that he was going to have surgery on this left big toe injury, this turf toe injury, suffered during the, I think late in the regular season and hampered him certainly during the Kaz's run in the playoffs. He told me he got back on the court a month ago and has been working out.

He said he's doing everything, which I took to include contact when he repeated it when he got asked if he's doing contact. work on the court. I still think, you know, we're still a good ways away from him being out there in games. But again, he was walking around without a limp and, you know, is back doing basketball activities. So I think that's at least a positive development. And one thing I think to watch for early in the season is Evan Mobley handling the ball more. We just talked about where the, what the Rockets are going to be doing, sharing the ball around the team. And Evan, He was pretty excited about having a chance to have the ball in his hands a little bit more. And with two starters out, obviously they're going to need Donna of the Mitchell to pick up some slack with those guys out.

But Evan Mobley sounds like he's going to be a guy who's going to have the ball in his hands more regularly. And he has in the past. That's a pretty intriguing development, I think, for both he and the Cavs, if that turns into a successful thing. And that was probably the extent of all the updates here from the land. Besides, a lot of the ball learning that Lake Ere exists. Beautiful. real estate in Cleveland. Nobody gives her credit.

I should also say, I should also mention it really quick on another positive thing with the calves. I just thought of mentioning. Lonzo said he's had zero setbacks all summer. You obviously missed the end of the season with the wrist issue and stuff. He said he's not playing back-to-backs, at least early on. I would guess he's never going to play it back-to-back in his career. I would agree. He's been working out fully.

Feels good. Full-off season working out on the court, which is really good news for a guy who's had a ton of injury issues. So certainly that's one very positive development, I think, for the calves. And if Lomso is ready to go at the start of the year, that would be a nice boost for them, especially with these other two guys out. Who's Cavs Corner sponsored by these days? Got to get one. Oh.

I'm working on. All right. Let's go to the West Coast. So the Clippers in Kauai. Bontemps, I believe you were, Kauai was speaking. right as we were coming on. Do you have the exact quotes? I was. I've got a couple of quotes. I got a couple quotes pulled up here. So let's start with Lawrence Frank. I like this one.

Lawrence Frank gave a long statement, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I love Lawrence, but we're going to skip past the statement. Our pal, Ramona, Romona Shelburne, who is at Media Day for us. I'm going to read her tweets. I asked Lawrence Frank whether Dennis Robertson, Kawhi Leonard's uncle, has ever asked the team for any extra benefits that would not be permissible under the NBA's rules. I'm going to pause for one second because if you guys remember, and if our listeners remember, Ramona interviewed Steve Balmer a few weeks ago, Steve Balmer was asked this question by Ramona. And his answer was, everybody knows the rules. It was not, no, it was we all know the rules, everybody.

So to go back to the answer, when she asked Lawrence this today, What did Lawrence say? Quote, Dennis knows the rules. Kauai knows the rules. Mitch Frankel, Kauai's agent, knows the rules, and we know the rules. Well, that's not saying they didn't ask for a pretty much. I was going to say, do you know how many times I got grounded because I got busted doing something? If I didn't know and I could just say, I know the rules and it would have been like, never mind if you violate it or not. No crap. You know them. Did you violate them?

The best part. Well, in fairness, the question was, did he ask for benefits, which he did not answer? Not that they gave him benefits. So even if he, you know. Hold on. Hold on. To Ramona's credit, she then follows up without and says the following. Is that a yes or no?

To which Lawrence said, quote, yes, we all know the rules. Yes, Senator, we all know the rules. Yes, I'm answering the question you did there. ask. Yes. So then Kauai later, that was obviously at the beginning, usually the executive and the coach, if they talk today, talk first. So Lawrence gives this answer. So Kauai later, again, I'm greeting this off the internet, who was asked by Ramona, you know, what is your take on this situation? Quote, this is a partial quote. I don't have the entire thing in front of me, but I think it sums things up. Quote, I understand the full contracted services I had to do. I don't deal.

with conspiracies or the clickbait analyst or journalism that's going up. He then later added, I don't think it's accurate, in a quote, that no services were performed and that he didn't receive the money that he was owed in the contract. Okay, what services were performed? He also, nobody knew about this endorsement deal. How is it an endorsement deal? Nobody knows that there's a deal. He also said, we invite the investigation. As did Lawrence, to be fair. Lawrence said the same thing. The truth will come out.

We'll invite the investigation. We'll be fine. Everything will be good. Look, at the bottom line of this thing is, there's no doubt there was a bunch of money coming from the Clippers organization and Steve Balmer and Dennis Wong that there was money going from them to this company. There's no doubt that there was money going back to the Clippers. there's no doubt that there was money promised to i don't know how much he got going to kawai so there's

a bunch of money going around Pablo tori is uh reported on all that he has documents to back that up nobody has denied that there is not money that's going around the terms and an understanding of what happened with that money as it was moving around that's what this is all about Well, it's going to be a while before we can figure it out. Yes. There's no doubt that it stinks. It's like, hey, will the MBA find or the MBA's investigators find evidence that puts Adam Silver, not exactly a commissioner known to be tough on crime, that puts him in a position where he's comfortable issuing severe punishment?

It stinks. but is there the evidence that makes a soft on crime commissioner comfortable taking action? That's very well said. That is very well said. Okay. Cross town over in El Segundo from, it's not really that far across town, from Englewood to El Segundo. The Lakers had availability today of me today. What?

I just said it's a bit of a hall to get there in traffic. Yeah, Uber ride, what are we talking about? $48. Okay, so. Maybe. Depends on who's filling out the expense account. Tim McMahon, do you, did you falsify this Uber receipt? I am aware of the rules of filling out there. He knows the rules. We all know the rules. I am aware of the Disney Corporation's rules on expense reporting. Okay. 7499. Here it is. Actually, I was thinking about Plymouth. Playa Vista where their old place was. It's pretty close now, right?

That's what I was just saying. I was a little surprise you were taking while. I was saying it's only that that's... Yeah, I was thinking about... I was thinking about Plya Vista, which was way over on the other side. About a $72 Uber by my account. Stop by and stop by the water in Manhattan Beach. Okay.

So they've got water in L.A. Alonzo. They have water in L.A. That is for certain. The Lanzos all over there. Yeah. And so I thought this is LeBron's 23rd Media Day. and he handled today's media session like somebody who's done 22 prior.

Completely came in and acted like there was no drama this summer. And just shoot away everything else. Excited about the Lakers, you know, the comments that Rich Paul made to Shams, water off a duck's back, thinks that they can content. Are you going to retire? Maybe. You know, you're going to wait for Bryce to come to the league? He's on his own timeline.

You know, it was great. I thought that was a fairly interesting answer, essentially saying no, I'm not going to. I think the most interesting thing he said, and if you guys disagree with me, you say so, was that he's not going to base his future on the fact that Luca Donchich is now on his team. That he's going to base his future on

where he and his family are about his career. And I don't think that's controversial. I think it's honest, but I think it's relevant. I don't know how you felt about it. I would say it goes back to what you just said, that it leaves open all doors, right? It doesn't, you know, again, LeBron has always been as good at dealing with questions

as he has been as a player, and he's one of the best players, if not the best player ever. And he's just as good at dealing with the media and dealing with questions. And I think he did do a nice job, as you said, of dismissing a lot of the speculation, or deflecting it, I should say, rather than dismissing it about his future. But in saying that, like, yeah, I think that's very clearly leaving open the possibility

for doing whatever he wants to do in a year. Because, like, if you were just looking at it, like, yeah, like, I know he's tight with Anthony Davis, obviously, but the Lakers are in a better situation now than they were a year ago because they traded Anthony Davis for Luca Dachich. And so they are a more attractive team moving forward because they have Luca Dachach on their team. So it would be very easy to say, yeah, man, I'm psyched to finish out my career playing with Luca Dantritch. As long as I want to play, I can't wait to play next door. He didn't say that. He said, I'm not going to have an impact it, which means maybe I'll stay. Maybe I won't. But either way, it's not going to be because of

which I think, you know, again, it goes back to what you said. He did a nice job of talking around a lot of things today without really putting himself in any sort of firm situation in terms of either backing up or dismissing any possibilities for the future. But the future being a year from now, right? And LeBron is, if LeBron wants to turn the temperature up in a room, the man knows how to work a thermostat. that and he clearly had no interest in that today.

You know, like Janus clearly had interest in turning the temperature up today. LeBron, complete opposite. And there's like, okay, hey, a year from now, retirement, who knows, you know, playing else where, okay, all that stuff's on the table. But after this season, LeBron is at Lakers Media Day. He's in Lakers training camp. He will be on the Lakers this year. He's committed to, you know, this Lakers team, this.

season. And so that, you know, he did take all the oxygen out of what would have been a daily saga if he goes in there and says, look, you know, I'm not sure that this team is, I'm not sure this is a championship contender team. I'm not sure this is the right fit for me right now. Like, he could have made it a real soap opera. And he did the opposite of that today. He made sure that that was not going to be this lingering black cloud over this franchise this year. Yeah, so for today, LeBron turned down the heat. Other days, he may do the opposite, but we'll see. Yeah, let's see where they are in January.

Get it at 69 degrees. Nice and comfortable. A couple of other things going on around the league. Nikola Yokic out in Denver today, he was asked about, you know, he bypassed the opportunity to sign a contract extension this offseason, which was not a surprise because he can get something like $80 million more guaranteed overall if he were to wait till next summer. And he had an interesting quote.

He said, my plan is to be a nugget forever. Well, that was to a direct question by Bennett Durandall from the post of, will you sign a contract extension with Denver next summer? So my plan is to be with the Nuggets forever. Now, I saw a lot of fans at Bennett's replies, very excited that Yokic said that. I'm not saying they shouldn't be excited because I think we all expect to call Yokic to be in Denver. However, he didn't say yes. So let's wait and see how it goes. Because Yeah, again, I like the McMahon situation. Did he throw any gas on that or did he turn down,

turn it down? He turned it right down. You know, he didn't, you know, pull out a knife and cut his finger and sign something in blood, which you know, they probably do in Serbia sometimes. you know, he toned it down. All right, in San Antonio today, we had mentioned earlier Victor talking about how his summer went. He also talked about just how sobering it was to go through the stuff with the blood clot and all the doctors and hospitals that he'd never been through like that before. But by the temps, I think something interesting was that Deerrin Fox said that he expects to be out for all of training camp and even missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury, another point guard,

another star-level point guard facing an injury to start the season. Yeah, a guy Michael Wright, Michael Corleone Wright, down to San Antonio, got this quote from Deerran Fox. I definitely won't be playing in the preseason, that's for sure. I don't think I'll be ready for opening night. We're going to play it by ear. I feel like I could play right now, but I don't have that medical expertise. I'm not going to lie to you. I was running 15 miles an hour already on a treadmill.

I think that's probably faster than most of you guys of the guys that are here. So when I say I think I'm ready, I for real think I'm ready. That is all well and good, but he ain't ready enough to play. And he says he doesn't think he'll be playing in a month, which is when the season's going to start. So as we talked about the other day, it's going to be a very interesting year for the Spurs. A lot of pressure on them, Victor Wembeiyama's third season. A lot of different pieces to try to make fit, including the little. Harper. The check is rookie the year, Sapan Castle, Dearon Fox. Those three guys are an awkward

fit. And now you're talking about not getting any time in the preseason for those guys to play together at minimum, let alone however long after that, the Aaron's going to be out with a hamstring injury, which as we all know is a tricky injury, particularly for a guy like De Aaron, who is one of the fastest players in the league. So that's not an ideal start for the spurs, and it's going to be very interesting to see how that one develops over time. Yeah, there's so many, there's so many questions about how do these three guards fit together. Dylan Harper already had the thumb. He's maybe going to be back by the season opener.

Maybe not. You know, we'll see how he progresses. He's recovering well. I think there's some optimism there on Dylan Harper, but, you know. Okay, but he's going to miss some time. Darren Fox, as you just said, is going to miss all of preseason, probably some of the regular season. And, you know, Dearing Fox has played five games. with Wimby. So it's not only about

like being able to figure out the guard rotation with those two in Stefan Castle, but like Deering Fox has had next to no time to create any kind of chemistry with the guy who's the face of the franchise. And you know, it's not like a

you know, a disastrous situation but a damn sure ain't ideal. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, that was one of the things that LeBron talked about today was the opportunity to play alongside Luca throughout the whole start of the season. He also said, LeBron, this is, that he, knowing he was not going to have the ball in his hand as much, worked on in the off season on, you know, catch and shoot threes, for example,

knowing that he's going to maybe do a little bit more of that. So that's one of those things. Down in Miami, Tyler Hero met with the media. And while he said everything is going great with his recovery from foot surgery, he put out a timeline of eight to 12 weeks. That was longer than initially thought, but he's confident it will be on the short end. But he also said that the injury that he had in his foot was as a result of a extra bone that doctors found in his foot. An extra bone. So that was interesting in Miami. Did I forget anything, Bontemps McMahon that should be covered? I would just say, I would just say also, I would go. Bill Nye showed up at Celtics Media Day and nobody asked about the Celtics.

They also asked about Bill Nye. Bill Nye was at Celtics Media Day to talk about his new friend, Jalen Brown. I guess they're going to be on Twitch together doing science experiments today. Jayland was at Bill Nye's Hollywood Walk of Fame star unveiling last week. I think that sort of sums up the state of the Celtics and how they are going to be a afterthought in the East after many years of being one of the most important teams in the league. one of the reasons why I'm going there on Tuesday and not for Media Day. And I would also say, Brian, you tweet out.

When Bond Tim shows up, you know you're a big deal. Well, I just, I'm with the team that's favored to win the East this year, not the one that's favored to finish eight. I just want to say something. I know what you're going to say, Bon Temson, I'll get out of your way. Two years ago, Media Day, I was in Boston. Oh, boy. I was also in Boston end the season.

Last year, Media Day, Oklahoma's, city i was in no cloma city when they had to go places for media day the king i'm just i just let the i let the rockets know i've come to houston yeah after discovering lebron and wimby among others go on yeah i just got now that we've gotten brian's psa out of the way i i would ask everybody to go look up ire oindermans twitter feed ira has covered the heat since the day they came in the league and i would go ask everybody to look up Anthony Chang's Twitter feed. Anthony does a really good job covering the Heat for the Herald.

And read a couple stories about Andy Ellsberg, the GM of the Heat. We all know Andy. Brian and I have known Andy for a long time. Tim got to know him a bit last year. Andy's gone through some health stuff this summer. Brian tweeted last night that he is the number one on the list of people that are universally liked and respected in the NBA. That is unequivocally true.

I've gotten to know Andy really well the last few years. I got to know him actually in the bubble. People that don't know him, he's a very big guy and like, probably six, eight, and looks like he could have played college basketball. And I was always, frankly, fairly intimidated to go up to him because he was a legendary figure as an executive, and he's a big intimidating guy. And we spent about 75 days in the bubble together

because he was in the secondary level of the bubble. And so by default, I started talking to him and came to find out he was about the nicest human being you'll ever come across. And everybody. One of the smartest. And the smartest. Like, just an awesome guy who's gone through a lot of stuff this summer. He regularly listens to the pod and will call me after and explain where we said things that we should have said. Correct us, correct the record.

Not to be clear about the heat. He's always fine if we're critical. I think his reputation of handling his business as well, as well established. Yes, but no, I just mean he'll, he's, he's always good about that stuff too, but he's a wonderful guy. We all know really well. He's gone through some health stuff this summer. He's doing a lot better now. I know he's going to listen to the pod.

He's at training camp, which he's very happy about. And just people should go read what he's been through and know that we're all thinking of him because he's an A plus human being. And I know everybody in the league who knows him is thinking the same way. I agree with all of that. And I'm just going to say, like, if he can get through 75 days with you, he can get through anything. Andy's had to deal with a lot worse people than me over the years. I'm not saying I'm all that's great. Hey, let's not talk about Jimmy Butler last year.

This is just a perfect podcast to start this season. The beginning, McMahon's talking about how Bond Temps is not elite. And at the end, he's comparing going through the bubble with him to a major health situation. It's just everything. everything is going great. All right. Thank you so much to Rafa who produced our podcast while Jackson is

away right now. Thank you very much for getting through the summer with us. The leisurely days are over. We're back at work. What are we back to three times a week? People keep asking me. I got asked several times today.

When is the Monday pod coming back? Jackson's out Octoberfest. And I mean, those Steins that he was swigging on were some large, I mean, they were some double XL, so. I haven't gotten to get back. Jackson's 20 years younger than you, McMahon. Could you drink him under the table with beer?

Nope. I'm exercised in moderation. The old IT department listens to this. Let me just tell you. I've grown up a lot over the summer. Yes, yes, Senator. I know the rules for a drinking game. And thank you for telling me them.

I cannot recall all right. All right. You cannot recall many things. All right. Thank you again. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.