Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Lakers Capable Of Playoff Run? Giannis Injury Gives Bucks Options? + Knicks Step Up

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk a heroic sideline debut, Luka’s strong performance for the Lakers in Dallas and if LA can actually make a playoff run. Plus, are the Knicks back on track after two big wins or does the roster still have too many concerns? Then, we discuss if Embiid will be an All-Star before breaking down why Giannis’ injury could be a better long term result for the Bucks including a high pick in a deep draft. Finally, an update on Kuminga’s future with the Warriors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

So a little earlier than we normally would do, but, you know, might be nice to watch a little NFL. Joining us from New York City, where he's back, just beating the storm up from Philadelphia after watching the Knicks play The Sixers in an excellent game on Saturday afternoon. Timbottemps. Hello, everybody.

And Bontems, you were traveling back from Philly, but I was settled in watching the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Dallas Mavericks. And moments before TIPAA. I caught the game. The truth is, I went to dinner at like 5.30 because I'm an old person, and I watched it on tape delay. But let's just say that I turned on the Lakers Mavericks game. And Bontemps, right before tip-off, they don't always give the sideline reporter before tip-off. Sometimes they wait into the first quarter.

But, oh, no, right before tip-off. Who do I see doing sidelines, but our buddy banned McMahon on a Saturday night NBA showcase product, sideline man, ban McMahon. Howdy, partners, it did take Texas freezing over to make that happen. You know, little travel issues and there was concern the game was going to be canceled. So I believe Lisa Salters was rerouted to Chicago just in case. I know Mike Breen was. So a little emergency fill in. No, that's not exactly true.

Breen was on the plane and the flight was totally going. And then he got the text that said, hey, just so you know, Tim McMahon is going to do sideline. And he was like, oh, no. Oh, no. Canceled. Like I told J.Kid pregame, this is going to be like Isaiah Thomas's stint with the Dallas Mavericks. Emergency circumstances, convenience of location, one and done, but I'm going to get some shots up. So, you know, just like that great Isaiah Thomas where he literally played one game during the COVID crisis.

for the Mavericks. Well, there was a bunch of guys who played one game during COVID. This is true. Isaiah Thomas says, that's a good name. But honestly, the initial stand-up, I asked, you know, I asked for feedback afterwards, and I was told, you know, maybe tighten up on the time and a little bit long-winded. And I told him, I said, listen, you got to understand. I'm used to talking until Bontemps interrupts me, and it never happened.

I know. Richard Jefferson and Mark Jones were very respectful of you. You're not used to that sort of treatment. Way too respectful. You did a great job, though, buddy. I appreciate it, fellas. Just, you know, before we talked about the game, which the Lakers had to give up a huge run and almost lost it, then came back in one. But just the experience, you can pass along to our listeners of what it is to do, sidelines.

Yeah, so I've never done it before. You've done it on the radio side. It's something I had never. I did it for TV a few times, but, you know, never like a premium ABC, you know, Saturday night game. I would have liked maybe some Summer League reps before, to be honest with you. It was an interesting experience. It was very, it's a different perspective, you know, to have the broadcast in your ears, you know, to be like, communicate with the producers trying to, hey, you know, I've got this, I've got that. You know, there was a couple things I didn't get to update wise that I wanted to that just, you know, weren't able to fit in.

I'm honestly, I, it's completely foreign territory. This is very like inside baseball stuff like the formatics and stuff. I'm like, where do I stand? Like, how do I get in? How do I get out? All those kind of things. I was very, the most exciting thing to me was the access. Like, you know, there's the pregame coach conversations.

So I don't, the audience isn't going to know this. So when there's a national television game, before the game, both coaches sit with the crew, the broadcasters, the sideline reporters, and it's off the record. I mean, you know, you can use the information that they give you. Yeah, and they'll tell you, if there's something they don't want mention, they'll let you know. But yeah, it's a great, it's a great exchanging of information, a great, peeked behind the curtain. I have to assume that when JJ Reddick saw you first, he like, you know, well, well, I guess

RJ was in there. But, yeah, and JJ, you know, him and RJ, it was, it was comedy hour. It was like 10 minutes of hoops. I'd imagine the bigger issue was when J. Kidd walked in there and saw you sitting there. He was probably. No, he knew, you know, he caught when that I was doing it. He was messed with me even beforehand. And, you know, him and RJ, too, they played together in New Jersey, remember.

Sure. For a while. And so it was great working with Mark Jones and Richard Jefferson. Those guys were awesome. Phil Dean, the producer was awesome for, I mean, not only was I like, it's not even a 10-day call-up. This is like bringing somebody out of like, you know, AAA baseball and throwing them out to do an NBA court.

So, you know, they were awesome to work with. George Sedano, shout out to him. I gave him a call yesterday morning. It was basically, George, they got me doing sidelines tonight. Like, what the hell am I doing? And then when he picked the phone back up, he was like, okay, what can I do for you? And so a lot of what I was asking him about was like the protocol in timeouts. Like you're able to go to behind the huddle.

And he was like 45 degree angle, you know, try not to make direct eye contact with the coach. I'll be honestly, I was very excited about that access. It was so loud in there. I couldn't hear anything. You know, I could see him drawing stuff up. There was one time. Luca looked over. He's sitting on a legist bench.

He looked over. Can you imagine Luca? You know, he's, you know, it's a high stress game, button temps. You know, he's in Dallas, everything like that, and he looks back over his shoulder. And McMahon is in the freaking Lakers huddle. Can you imagine what Luca was throwing the game for a minute to make sure he'd have to do the walk off with the man at the end? I was like, there's no way he wants to see this guy in the court after the game. And those were to last.

I'll say this. Luca looked over, saw me standing about 10 feet away, you know, trying to lean in and did not greet me with a smile. But and then there was no threat of a Luca walkoff because he was doing inside the NBA on the headset. So that was not a concern. But honestly, it was a cool experience. I don't anticipate it becoming a regular thing or even a repeat thing. But it was definitely a unique experience. Well, last year, I did sidelines last year in Paris with the Pacers and the...

Just had to toss in the Paris part, McMahon, just to make sure he had a one-off. with the Pacers and the Spurs and, you know, our pregame meeting with Rick Carlisle, Rick Carlisle and I just made fun of you for five minutes. I believe that. But the most memorable sideline thing that I ever did was an unscheduled one, and it's not memorable necessarily in a good way, which was the night Paul George broke his leg. Oh, yeah. So I was in the stands and I had done some pre, it was in Vegas at Thomas and Max Center, at UNLV.

I was watching that in a bar in New York City when it happened. I remember you doing this. So it was in the second quarter, I believe, maybe the third quarter, well before the game was supposed to be over. And I saw the play happen. And I unfortunately had a, I really unfortunately had a good angle on the play.

And I saw what happened. I knew immediately what happened. And I just remember, like, I actually, you know, this is back when I would tweet during the games I was at, I was like, they can't, you just knew in five seconds. I was like,

they can't continue this game. And so they didn't. It was an exhibition. game, inter-squad game for Team USA. And it was extremely high-level game. In fact, it was, I believe it was on a Saturday night. And it was, I was like, wow, I thought this was going to be just a nothing game. It was ahead of the 2014 World Cup, which, and they, so they call the game.

And ESPN is not ready with programming. Sports Center needed, the Sports Center was going to come on, but Sports Center needed like 15 or 20 minutes to get ready to go. they were not in place ready to roll. So we had to vamp, as they say in the business. Oh, I don't know that term. They sure as heck weren't showing that replay. And so, like, they came to me and I was in a suit.

And they were like, can you come down and like, you know, come on the broadcast? And I was like, holy Moses, what the hell am I going to do? So I come down and, you know, it was Mark Jones like you had. And Fran Fraschilla was on the color. Fran, by the way, had literally like 10 days before, maybe less given the famous line when the Raptors drafted Bruno Cabocalo. Bruno Cabocco, two years away from being two years away. It was one of the greatest live drafts analysis in the history of ESPN, in my view.

He wasn't wrong. So anyway, and they're about to come to me, and I really had no idea what I was going to say. I really didn't. And I was looking, I was standing not too far from the basket where Paul George had just been stretched it off. And I'm looking at the basket. And I'm looking at how close the basket standard is to the baseline. And at UNLV at that time, the basket.

get standard. I mean, I don't remember. I measured it later that night. I think it was something like 18 inches. And if I'm wrong and it was two feet, I don't know. This is like an inception thing because I was sitting at a bar and the lower east side of New York City watching the game, freaked out when I saw the injury because you'd see it clear on the broadcast. I sat there and watched you talk about it later. Yeah. So they come on and I, I am looking. I'm like, boy, is that awfully close. And then I pulled up on my phone and actually saw where I could see the replay with a Paul injury. Unfortunately, I mean, I could see it. And he had, his foot had run into that basket standard. And so we were in break and we had to come back and we had to feel like eight minutes and they

were going to come to me. And like literally within seconds, I just said to the camera guy, I go, be prepared for me to show you this. And they came to me and I go, hey, I think this might have something to do with it. And you know, by the next day, everybody was covering their backsides on that. But I'll tell you one thing, they move the basket standard back at UNLV, both for UNLV games and for NBA games. When you go look, I mean, now it's been a decade, but when you go look, when they play summer league games there, the basket standard is pushed way back, if it used to be. Anyway, not to bring it down. I got a Rick Carlisle's story that's a little bit more chipper that, since you mentioned, I've got to get a prop. Hold on.

I found this. Oh, geez. Do do, do, do. As I was moving, I have, I've got to rediscover my. Wendy Bobblehead. It's in a box somewhere, but I did find the check. I'm going to cover the numbers of the bottom for $1.29 that Rick Cardell, misspelling my name, wrote to me. And you see the, it says in the memo, Kings of Anything, iTunes Download. So this was, there was a player that the Maverick suspended during preseason. And unfortunately, the guy is really falling on hard times

these days, but the player had well-known mental health issues. And, you know, I asked Rick, you know, hey, is this related to those issues? And Rick looks at me, this is in a scrum. He looks at me. He goes, do you have iTunes? I was like, yeah. And he went into this whole thing about one of his favorite, you know, Rick's a piano man. One of his favorite. He's doing misdirection here. He's totally misdirecting the question. He said one of his, one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Sarah Borellis, just reminds me of one of her songs. And I was like, huh? And he goes, you know, you should download it.

It's called King of Anything. And I look at him and he goes, it's a song about mine on your own business. And I go, how much is that cost? He goes, $1.29. You want me to loan it to you? I said, sure. And then they played a preseason game the next night. And I got the text from Rick.

You hear come to my office, which those texts would come every so off. And it was either he wanted to yell at you or he wanted to, you know, download some information. But even when he yelled at me, you'd get stuff out of it. And so it would always be, I'd always come in, you know, come in their office, sit down. And usually I'd be in there for like 20 or 30 minutes. On this case, he was standing in front of his office with the door closed and had an envelope in his hand. It said, team hack on it. And just in a bleep-beaten grin on his face.

He handed it to me and just walked out kind of chuckling to him. self, I open it up. And sure enough, it's this check, which... You can sell that to Darren Revell for 50 bucks. Well, I think I'm going to actually cash it because you can do it now where you just cash it on the phone. You don't have to actually lose the check. So, Rick, you're about to be $1.29, poor, buddy. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right. Anyway, to the court eventually, the Lakers won that game. Right now on this road trip,

You know, the Lakers had come into this game losing six of nine, I believe. It was game three of a nine game or eight game road trip. It was kind of like a split trip because they were home to play the Clippers. So like the bulk of it is the game one of six games on the road. But anyway, they'll take any when they can get right now. And that was a good comeback win. And, you know, another excellent night for Luke. I think he came up just short of a triple double.

But any game that the Lakers, quite frankly, can hold the opponent to 41% shooting, which they did in this game, even though I know the Mavericks aren't exactly the 2012 Mavericks. But, you know, you got to see the Lakers. 2012 weren't very good. 2011 won the championship. All right, 2011. Sorry, I forgot that. Anyway, you got to see the LAT.

I would say it was not one of DeAndre Aiton's best games. 416 and rode pine down the stretch. He rode pine down the stretch the other night against the Clippers, too. That's been a trend. The 416 has not been. he came in shooting 68% from the floor. That's got to be the worst shooting. I didn't see the stat.

That's got to be the worst shooting game of his career. There's no way he's missed 12 shots in a game before. He was smoking layups left and right. But, you know, the thing, the most notable thing about that Clippers loss was post-game. When, you know, a lot of people perceived it as JJ Reddick calling out Luca. And I'll just read the quote. He said, there's got to be a trust factor with all our guys just to trust the pass. That starts with Luca.

He's going to have the ball to most of everyone. He's got to trust the pass. He gets two on him and he's playing in the crowd. He's got to pass the ball. I think as much as we can talk about being connected on defense, he got to be connected on offense. And so the last part there is interesting because when J.J. Reddick is talking about Luca's got to trust the pass.

He's not worried about offensive strategy. Because guess what? Luca ball hogging is good offensive strategy. It's efficient offense. He's worried about if the ball's not, moving. If guys aren't involved, then it's going to, it does, like he, he will tell you, it does just completely sap their energy on defense. Lucas passing impacts their defense, not necessarily their offense. And, you know, Bon Tempts, you brought this up coming in

the season. They've got a ton of guys who are either have player options or in their last year of their contract. And JJ straight up, like, let's get it out in the open. He said, I think it just goes back to the human element of everything. Guys are worried about their futures, and that's what happens when you have a team full of free agents, player options. I think it's just natural you're going to worry about the offense. I've been there.

You can get in your head a little bit. I've played five minutes. I haven't got a shot yet. That's a human thing. It's not anybody's fault. So basically saying, Luca, you've got to make sure all these guys are motivated by involving them offensively

so we can be a somewhat decent and not dreadful defensive team. And it's funny because he said, JJ told us, like, the number of passes has no correlation to their offensive success statistically, but their highest passing games versus their lowest passing games,

they're four points better on their defensive efficiency on the higher passing games. Now they are 7 and 0. Good offense leads to good defense. Is that what he's saying? No, ball moving leads to, a good defense because good offense can just be Luca jacking up 35 shots if we're being real about it.

You know what I'm saying? But if Luke is jacking up 35 shots and scoring 52 points and everybody else is kind of picking their nose on offense and oh, sheesh, man, what am I? Then that's the way they're going to play defense. Shoulders slump and I ain't touching it. That sort of a thing. They are 7 and 0 when they have 30 assists. And after last night they had 26 assists, they are 21 and four when they have at least 25. So again, it's not, it's, that's interesting because, you know, when you talk to, we talk with the Lakers, I mean, we talk about the Lakers, I mean, Bon Temps and I are like broken records. We look at their defense and go, my God, their defense is just dreadful.

And what Luke, what JJ is saying there is that while that's true, uh, the key to that isn't necessarily digging down more, but it's being more democratic on offense. Yeah. And again, the, the ball hopping around is not necessarily about offenses strategy. It's about psychology. And, you know, look, that's an NBA fact of life. Like, how many times have you seen, hell, you know, Scotty Brooks used to run a post up for perk on the first play of every game? You think that's because he thought that was efficient. Yeah, I mean, that's an old thing.

You know, they did it for Ben Wallace back in Detroit. Like, you know, let your big man touch the ball early so he can, so he'll be motivated to do all the dirty work. And so, look, they have, their defensive issues are personnel based first and foremost. but if you have personnel problems and motivational issues, that's how you end up a bottom five defense in the league. Yeah, I mean, all that is fine. But at the end of the day, like, I was watching the fourth quarter of this game. And yeah, the Lakers came back in one against this tanking Mavs team.

And there was some tanktastic play, I would say, in the fourth quarter of this game from Dallas, letting a game. The Mavs have just won four straight. I know. And they clearly wanted to make sure that they didn't get another one. But at the end of the day, we talk about the Lakers all the time because they've got these two megastars on their team. And, you know, I saw after the game on inside, Shackos, these guys are legit championship contenders, right? So. They're not.

Right. That, that to me is the only thing that really matters. Like, is this team actually, does they actually have a chance to do anything? And the answer to that pretty clearly is no, as of today. As of this season, no. Well, and look, they have a lot of expiring contracts. They have things they could do with the roster. Perhaps they will make moves between now and next Thursday, about, you know, the next 10 days.

Perhaps they will do things to give themselves a higher floor defensively to have a chance to make a run in the playoffs. However, I'll go back to the Clipper game, which I think is a more relevant game here. Like, they got handled by the Clippers. who have been playing way better than them now for an extended period of time. And I don't know if you guys agree. I think if those two teams right now play a seven-game series, I would probably favor the Clippers to win. How many games does Kauai play?

Well, that's right. I mean, they have play questions too, and I don't think the Clippers are any kind of contender. But, like, at the end of the day, like, can they hang with Oklahoma City? Can they hang with even San Antonio or Houston or a healthy Denver? I, Minnesota. Like, so, you know, that to me, if we're going to talk about the Lakers and we're going to talk about these guys, like, yes, if they move the ball,

like everything JJ said is right. If everybody touches the ball, they're going to be more engaged on defense. They're going to try a little harder. But is that trying harder going to get them to a point where they can actually play against a really good team and win? I don't think so. Here's the deal. When you talk about guys in the last year of contracts with player options,

it's not just the DeAndre Aiton. and Marcus Smart's and, you know, Jared Vayner builds to the world. It's a fella named LeBron James who, frankly, knows that this is going to be it for him in a Lakers uniform. And Wendy, you've mentioned many times. No, I don't know about it. Okay, who is an intelligent, extremely intelligent guy, especially about the business of the NBA. Yeah, there's a chance this is going to be it. That's right.

understands it's extremely likely. But listen, for the Lakers to be able to have the kind of roster reconstruction around Luka that they need to have, LeBron's salary has got to be gone. That's just a simple fact. Well, maybe not all of it, but a lot of it. Well, and by the way, if Laker fans are sitting there listening to the pod or watching it and going, well, what about Austin Reed? Austin is going to be back soon.

You know, Austin is going to make the team a lot better. Austin's a great player. He was having a fantastic year before he got hurt. Austin Reeves is not going to help the defense get better. And again, this goes back to the fundamental problem, the Lakers of had since the start of the year, if you have Luca and Austin and LeBron all in the court together, you have no chance to be a good enough defensive team

to beat the elite teams in the league. Which again goes back to, there are massive questions ahead for this team over the next 10 days and over the next six to seven months over, you've got Luca in the trade. He's now on the roster. You now have to try to construct a roster around him that's good enough to be a real threat

when you've got all these other ascended teams in the West and there is an awful lot of work to be done to get the Lakers to that kind of place. But there's also a roadmap. And it's another big time score or creator, check. Austin Reeves will be that guy moving forward. Now he's going to get a big raise, but he's got a cap hold this summer

that gives you flexibility because the other thing you need is length athleticism, shooting, and a legit defensive anchor lob threat, big man. That's a lot of stuff when you have none of it. It is, but you know what? They also have the fact that they are the Los Angeles Lakers, and I can just tell you, big men will do backflips to be able to be in that Lakers uniform paired with Luke. I was talking to an agent who's got a big man may or may not be on the move,

who would love to get his guy in L.A. And, like, you know, big men are going to want to play with Luca that much, I can assure you. Yeah, I think the Lakers heavy lifting will be done in the summer. And I think if they do anything at the deadline, I think there's one of two things that would happen. One, it would be some sort of, you know, something akin to what they did with DeAndre Aidan and Mark is smart where they get a guy on such a discount they can't say no where they trade expiring contracts for a guy they rent a player or whatever or they they make a move that's substantial where the guy is going to be there for you know years into the future um and i that's hard to do they would have done it

already um i don't think there's going to be sort of a middle path where they're going to like you know be able to you know do a deal it all of a sudden like is a that leaves them their flexibility this summer but also helps them immediately. I think accomplishing both of those are going to be next to impossible. Well, I also have a lot of money on the books this summer too. They do have a lot of free agent cap. They have a lot of salary cap space,

but they've also got between Jared Baderbilt, I would assume we think DeAndreggen picks up this option, Jake LaRavia, Marcus Smart, who you expect to pick up this option, I think, and Dalton Connect. That's $35 million in money on the books. Now, maybe they can use that $35 million in trade to do things with the couple first round picks they have. But, like, yes, they have Luca Dajic, and very likely will be keeping Austin Reeves.

Like, that is a good foundation to build from. But they're also trying to get the stuff, especially on the wings, that every single team in the league is looking to get. And it's not going to be as easy as just like, oh, yeah, let's go find three or four dynamite, three and D wing players who are combo forwards to slot in on the wings and like fill out this roster around Luca and Austin like again you'd rather start with Luca and Austin and figure it out but it's it's gonna be it's gonna be fascinating to see how they put this roster together because they have a lot of holes to fill and they

don't have the most tools to go about trying to fill them you know who'd look really good on that roster three and D wing shown some creation ability six 8, L.A. Native, Peyton, pay him Watson. Oh, slice of that salary cap space, more than the mid-level bond temps. I'll double down on that bet. That guy is getting paid. All right, that's for a discussion for a later day. Then he's a restricted free agent before anybody makes assumptions. More hoop collective podcast after this. All right. Oh, we can get into that, but go on. The game that you were at, bond temps, um, the Knicks were as low as they've been all season four or five days ago when they had their ninth loss in 11 games.

To the Tanktastic Mavericks. Correct. Who came into the garden and did that to them. They go to Philly, a team that has owned them in recent games and recent matchups. Go into Philly. Philly's been hot. Joel Embed has looked fantastic. He looks fantastic again in this game.

In the first half. It wore down a little bit in the second half, but it was coming off of time. No, no, listen, he played 46 minutes Thursday, and then in the first half he had 28 on, I believe 10 for 12 shooting. Like, he was great. You know, he looks a lot like Joel and Beat again, which if you're a Sixer fan, it's pretty excited. So, yeah, so Embed had 38 and 11,

but the Knicks really, I guess, was kind of a dominant third quarter of this game, you know, was it tied at the half, or was it the two-point game at the half or something like that? The Sixers were up four. they shot a gazillion percent in the first half from two, obviously led in part by and B playing great. And the story on the Knicks side, the Knicks outshot them a bunch from three, and they dominated in second chance points and on the boards. And in the third quarter, which has been a problem for Philly all season, the Knicks dominated the boards again.

They hit some threes. And frankly, Carl Towns, who was in foul trouble the whole game and was dealing with backspouses, to be fair, He left the game two minutes into the third quarter. Mitchell Robinson came in, and Mitchell Robinson absolutely took over the game and just dominated. And through energy and effort, the Knicks just ran Philly off the court. And that's what the Knicks have lacked is energy and effort. And after that debacle against the Mavericks in front of a national television audience and in front of James Dolan for one half, because he left at halftime, so not the second half. Bontemps, you called it.

You said, hey, this is a frot game against the Nets. And they, you know, Romano reported they had a player's only meeting called by Jalen Brunson. You know, some of the players, oh, it wasn't a players only meeting. We just talk, whatever it was. You know, whatever it was, there were some frank discussions had. And they responded, they responded by blowing the Nets. And the NICs are bad, but they've been losing the bad teams. They responded with a franchise record blowout against the Nets.

And then this one. So maybe whatever happened in the players meeting or non-player's meeting, whatever the hell happened there, the Knicks needed to have some real discussions basically about, hey, are we going to just be a complete embarrassment? Or are we going to have some pride here? And they've responded with some pride. No, they have for sure. And look, I do think, you know, Mr. Robinson has been super impactful for the Knicks when he's been able to play. obviously he's had a whole bunch of injuries and his availability can go up and down

but the game and again, to be fair to Carl, he did come into the game, dealing with back spasms. He looked like he was struggling moving around. So that's worth saying. But the Knicks were a lot better when he wasn't playing in this game

and with the energy and effort Mitch Robinson was playing with. Like there's been this kind of push and pull all year about Carl's role in the offense and his relationship. with Mike Brown and sort of all of this stuff going on. And like, as the season progresses, this is going to be a question that I think is going to linger at times as to whether the Knicks are going to have to try to play him and Mitchell

Robinson for extended minutes together and play Cat at the four. And then which of those forwards, probably Josh Hart, are you taken out of the starting lineup and how is that going to go? And some of this also might come down to opponent because if they're playing against the Sixers and Joel Embed, if they're playing against, the Pistons and Jayland Duren if they're playing against Toronto, which even though Yaka Pertil, by the way, Yacquipurto, who we've talked about some, he is now out again to an extended period where this back injury hasn't gone away. So while Toronto's got a bunch

of big wings, they don't have anybody really at size playing at center. An indefinite period. Right, indefinite period of time. But, you know, a lot, you know, it could come down to matchups too. But I think as we're looking at the Knicks going towards the playoffs and towards the trade deadline if they can do anything, like sort of that ongoing question of what alignment are the Knicks going to lean into more, having

all the wings with Carl and sort of leaning into offense or having Mitch out there more, potentially with him more and leaning more into defense. That's going to be an interesting discussion that's going to happen around the Knicks and for Mike Brown to have, and it's probably going to tell a bit of the tale

of what the next couple months of their season looks like. Yuca Pertil, by the way, has a non-impactful season due to the injury. He's only played 21 games. He's averaging his fewest points, I think, in about six or seven years after signing a $100 million contract extension in the offseason, just as a drive-by to that. Yeah, and it's too bad because... It's been a good year for the Raptors. They're in the top four in the east. And their rookie center, Colin Murray Boyles, who has gotten some Dremont comparisons

out of South Carolina, has been awfully good early on. But again, the reason he's getting Dremont comparisons is he's Dremont size, which is hard to have as your full-time center, especially if you're going up against Carl Towns and Mitchell Robinson and Jalen Duren and Joel Embed and even Nima Skada in the Celtics, he's a big seven-footer.

Bam out of bio. Bam out of bio. Jared Allen and Evan Mowbley, you know, Wendell Carter for the Magic. Like there's a lot of big centers in the east. That's going to be something to watch there. Anthony Davis for the Hawks. just kidding report colon no no no no no no no no no no no no ad hey he is working out hard uh with

with some kind of fancy protective glove on the pod the other day we had slater on and slater slater was uh the ad was in the background he he did it uh he did it as the media was allowed into the into the building the other day it was kind of like hey look and listen ad rich paul wants some traded AD doesn't want to get traded. So we'll see him. We'll see what happens. My, I still, I think most likely he's on the Mavericks roster February 6, but we shall see. He, by the way, Slater called the area where you, uh, do your stuff from in the arena,

your TV stuff. I guess you've done the pod there. I haven't done the pod from up there. I've done the pod from the hockey press box. Okay. Which is the only time I'm allowed to be associated with hockey. He, uh, he described it as McMahon. Lairn's layer.

I listen to the podcast even when I'm not on. Also, I listen to Warrior Stock Report with Bond Tempton Slater. So I hear the cheap shots Bon Tims takes at me there when Slater's coming to Dallas. And on howdy partners, I'm sure Bon Tamps hears your cheap shots that you throw at him. He just assumes they're there. Well, Mitch Robinson had a classic Mitch Robinson game on Saturday six offensive rebounds. He was plus 14 in his 27 minutes. and Talon's only played 16 minutes, fouled out, and was minus six.

Well, again, like I said, he was dealing with some stuff, but the difference was stark in that game. And to spin ahead a little bit to the summer, the Knicks right now, according to Bobby Marks' books, are $6 million over the luxury tax line with eight players under contract. And that those players do not include Mitchell Robinson. And that is going to be a fascinating thing to watch again. We're looking ahead to the summer because, like I said before,

yes, Mitchell Robinson has injury issues. He can't play all the time. You've got to be careful with his minutes. But he is a massively impactful role player and is particularly massively impactful for the Knicks. And that is going to be a really interesting thing to watch this summer if they can find a way to bring him back or if they choose to bring him back or not. because if they don't, and if he does go somewhere else,

it's going to be very difficult for the Knicks to find a way to replace him on the roster. And he has been a part, he was a huge part of the run last year. He's been a part of some of their best stretches this year. And they just look like a completely different team and have a completely different fastball when he is on the court when he's able to play. And that, you know, those are the kind of choices. The new system has designed, it's designed to do is to make teams that could spend a lot of money have to choose how to allocate it or if they want to go deep in

the second apron or not and that's going to be one question for the Knicks because right now again their least as is projected right now 17 million dollars below the second apron with eight guys on the roster so it can be hard. I would like to get your thoughts real quick on what we've seen from MB not just over these last couple games about Mitchell Robinson real quick. I was like, go ahead. Take your hands out to Willick, man. My bad.

So is any, have you seen Bon Tamps? Have you been on the streets of New York when Mitch has arrived or left a game? I needed his truck today driving home. I have seen Mitchell's truck. It looks like a mini monster truck. It's pretty wild. Is there, how many pickup trucks do you think right now are in Manhattan? Is it less than 10?

Could you imagine driving that thing on the streets of Manhattan? Dude. How do you park that thing? As someone who drove dump trucks when I was a kid on the farm, I really cannot imagine driving anything that size in Manhattan. It would not be fun. The thing about Mitch was that he was involved in a, some agents were involved in a lawsuit with him. And years ago, when he first came into the NBA,

he was a lottery pick, right? No, he was a second round pick. He was a second round pick? He was a big time, like, highly ranked high school guy, but not he slipped. Well, okay. Sorry. Anyway, the agent who lost him to the agent who got him, I remember filed a lawsuit or whatever,

and he alleged that the way that he got Mitch was by giving him a pickup truck. And I say, well, that agent who gave a pickup truck learned who Mitchell Robinson was. Yeah. You know, that was pretty good. I'm just thinking to talk about a new contract for Mitch. Like, you know. How many trucks is he going to buy? Well, I'm just saying, like, if I were the Knicks, I would, you know, make accommodations for his pickup truck.

I would, I would, you know, put in like a, you know, like a ramp for him to come up at the facility up in Westchester, all that stuff. Not a bad idea. All right. Sorry, you were saying about. No, so indeed, like, listen, man, we've talked a lot about, you know, just how tough the contract looks and his decline, the lack of. availability. Month of January, he's played all but two games. There's seven and four when he's been on the floor with him being plus 81 in those 11 minutes, averaging 28 points a game on 55 percent shooting, eight and a half rebounds, four plus assists, and playing, like I said,

almost every night and averaging 34 minutes a night. I am not going to lie. The minutes police sirens went off in my head when he played 46 in that O.T. win over the rockets. The minutes police We're gathering at the scores table on that one. But in his last four games, he's had 30 plus points in each game. Like, Bon Temps, are we starting to think that, you know, the process has returned to form? I mean, look, here's what I would say. After the game on Thursday, even more than the minutes, even more than the points. I wrote about this after the game.

He had a 32-point triple double in that game, played 46 minutes, most minutes in three and a half years since he won. year he won MVP. They win the game in overtime. And Jowell was cracking jokes about the fact that it was two years to the day that he scored 70 in a game. So maybe he tried to have a kid the next year on that date. And he started asking me after. You know, you're driving past that, but he basically said that he was going to start counting on the calendar with his wife. But yes, wife you might have to make a road trip. To conceive. That is correct. To allow for another child to be born on whatever. January 22nd, I think it was. And then after the scrum, he was asking me whether I had him in my All-Star column,

knowing he was not in it. I thought he was going to go straw-pole. No, not straw-pole. However, he, I got to say, we're probably going to talk about Yadison and a minute, Joel has some vacation plans for All-Star weekend. I'm just going to say right now, an international player in the East is going out, and Joel Embed is averaging 25 and 8, and with the way he's been playing,

pretty hard not to argue that if he doesn't get selected by the coaches, he shouldn't be the honest replacement in the All-Star game, which again... Interesting. I hadn't even thought about that. I hadn't thought about it either. Do you think they're non-refundable, those plans? Oh, I think you can afford it. Well, you know, the argument against it,

the argument against it gets us in a jackass territory because it is games play. Yeah, he's already not going to be all-MBA eligible. He'll be short of that. He'll be short of that. He has just 19 of their 44 games. That's the argument against it, but I don't want to, you know, draw Wendy's eye. Listen, you're talking to the guy who voted for Embed for rookie of the year when he played 31 games that I don't regret it.

I don't know. And what I would say, what I would say in general is... Malcolm Brogman's mad at you. That's okay. The Sixers have not been able to be incredibly consistent. They've had a lot of guys in and out of the lineup. Obviously, Joel has not been playing back to backs. Paul George has been missing back to backs.

They've struggled some at home. Like in this recent stretch, have had some good opponents at home. They've dropped a few of these games. Obviously, lost a couple games last week to Cleveland at home. They lost this game to the Knicks at home the other day. But they, if their guys are healthy on April 15th, they might be the most talented team in the east.

And they, I think they are feeling like that Joelle is starting to get back to where he was before. and I think they see a path in a wide open east to be able to make some noise and make a run. And I am the first to say that, as we've said before, am I going to put the house down on the Sixers being healthy for two months in the spring? No, of course not.

We've seen this script before. But they finally have Kelly Ubrey back. He missed a bunch of time. They've got all their guys out there and playing. They're starting to get some chemistry. They're starting to get some rhythm. in this game on Saturday and B caught the ball at the three point line, took two steps,

jumped for basically the free throw line and dunked it. I didn't think I was going to see that again. Oh, I forgot. I forgot to mention in this like, like he's got a recent flurry of dunks after not having one for the first couple months of the season. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty crazy how much better he looks than he did a couple months

ago. And with how open the east is, you have to at least look at these guys as having a chance and being in the mix. Hey, from top sixers to six in the east as we speak with The arrow pointing up, I better be careful pointing arrows. The camera might go crazy. Anyways, hey, indeed in the sixers at least have my attention.

All right. Before we move on, this hasn't been announced yet as we're recording this, but the expectation from what I am told is that Janice, Atenacumpo was correct when he self-diagnosed himself on Friday night as having a calf injury that was going to be out four to six weeks. weeks. I am told that that's the realm that's going to be in. His second calf injury this season, his fourth in the last year and a half plus. Time to trade them. By Nico time, time, time to trade them, four calf strains, he's out. I mean, I will say this, like, independent of the trade situation,

let's just say that the trade situation wasn't a thing at all. The four calf strains in a year and a half is it's not a good development. And not only that, but these calf strains are to both calves. And I think this one is his right one. And they're happening when he's just sort of doing, they're happening in games, but they're happening, you know, he's not like leaping or anything like that. He's just sort of jogging or walking or jogging. And that's, and a couple of times he's given the look back, like, where did that come from? So independent of everything else, that's not ideal. line, he's going to be out through the trade deadline, and he is not going to give a 65 games, so he's not going to be eligible to win awards. I have no idea what's going to happen to the

bucks. You know, in the NBA, right when you think you've got everything assessed, things go sideways, but the bucks are 50. You have an idea, but go on. Well, they play tonight, but they're 15 and 15 when he plays, and they're three and 11 when he does. So the idea that they're going to just be a okay is you would be in the minority on that. As we sit here right now, Milwaukee has the eighth worst record in the league at 18 and 26. Again, we'll see what happens tonight. But Bontemps, even if everything goes as the way Yannis and the Bucks have said publicly, and there's no trade, forget about that. Should the, and he's going to miss four to six, should the bucks just sit him down and say see ya next year and worry about the draft pick?

Yes. Yonis said Koupo shouldn't play again this season. Like, let's just call it like it is. At least? I mean, yes, for the bucks. He shouldn't, he should not be traded, I would say. And they should shut him down. Like, he's had all the recurring calf issues. And those are, as we've seen, those are scary. And here's the deal. For all we've talked about with the bucks and all the problems that they have, they obviously do not have a good enough roster. They have stunk when Yonis hasn't played this season. I believe they're, three and 11 in games he hasn't played. That is unlikely to be any better without him going forward. They've struggled with him, frankly. They haven't looked good lately. Maybe that's because of the trade stuff. Maybe that's because they're just,

they don't have a very good roster, whatever. But over the course of the year, they've been a mediocre to bad team with or without it. And without them, they've been really bad. And at this point, right now, if you take a hard look at the Bucks roster, Ryan Rollins is a good young player at a good contract, Miles Turner is at least an average starting center, maybe slightly above, but probably average on an okay contract.

And then they've got Janus. And that's basically it. Bobby Portis is an okay third big. So if you want to construct a path to the Bucks being able to convince Janus that this is a place he can win long term, here's what it is. He basically is out the rest of the season. They are already, as you said, eighth in the lottery standings. they can fall pretty quick, pretty far in those lottery standings with the roster they have. They have a real shot, I think, to be in or around the top five in the draft.

Now, yes, they don't have full control of their pick, but as we've talked about, they get the lesser of their pick and New Orleans pick. There's a real chance. That's the second pick in the draft. Yeah, this could be a good pick. The third pick in the draft, the fourth pick in the draft. But let's say they get super lucky. Let's say it's the second pick.

let's say the Hawks get one and they get two, which is not out of the realm of possibility, especially with the new rules. We've seen all sorts of teams from anywhere from 1 to 10 get the number 1 or number 2 back. So if they come out of the draft with the second or third or fourth pick

and they get a Caleb Wilson or a J. DeBanza, unless in this scenario, say DeBanza. And you have Janice. Well, you have AJ DeBanza. You have Ryan Rawlins. I mean, I don't think that's, I don't think they're getting AJ DeBancza because the number one pick. and if they have to swap,

they're not going to have the number one pick. But okay, let's just say it's a good player. Well, as of right now, I would say AJ DeBanza will not be the number one pick. It'll probably be the second or third pick. But either way, whether it's Cambos or Darren Peterson or AJ DeVanza. I think he's going to be the number one pick. Well, yes, this is a historically great draft.

The point is, yes, you discovered Agent DeBanza, we're aware. The point is, whoever of those guys they get, they all have chances to be generational players. This has got a chance to be an unbelievable draft. If you get one of those guys, you put them with Turner, Rollins, and Janus. They then have draft picks and salaries to go trade for another impact player, preferably a perimeter player, to balance out the roster. That is at least a path where you could sit down with Janus this summer and say,

hey, look, we've got a young stud who's going to be with you now for a long time. We've got a really good at minimum 3-and-D guard, maybe better than that. We've got Miles Turner to space the floor for you, and we're going to get this other impact player, whoever that player is as the other perimeter score to go with them, we think with you healthy, this team could be a real force in the east going forward. Do you want to stay and see if he wants to extend or not? But because of this injury, may also point out that as of right now, the Bucks have one first round pick that they're allowed to trade,

either 20131 or 2032, after July 1st. And like, look, I'm not, I'm not advising that. that they trade and do more mortgaging, but these guys, you know, Dan Gilbert and Matt Ishpia are looking at this team going, whoa, I've never seen mortgages like this. In theory, I will just say that today, as we sit here today, the bucks have one first they can trade. On July 1st, they can trade three.

They could, in theory, they could trade this year's pick, and they could trade 31 and 33. Look, again, I'm not saying they could do this, but I'm just saying, just to buttress what you're saying, Bontems. Well, in this scenario, they wouldn't trade this year, but they'd have the two future ones to trade. Why not? I mean, if you're going to mortgage it, you could mortgage it. Well, because if in this scenario, you're walking out of it with one of the eighth pick, they're not going to get A.J. DeBanette.

When they did the dame stretch and wave, the mile turn, what did you compare that to financially, Wendy? You had a good comp. I said it was mortgaging your mortgage to buy a sports car. Yes. So they've done enough of that. The point is the roster right now has no chance of being competitive in the Eastern Conference. But the way this has broken, if they do take a gap year, which is essentially what it could be, and they get a Tim Duncan to go with David Robinson type scenario, which with the top of this draft this year, if they get one of the top two or three picks, it's got a chance to be that kind of player.

Like Cameron Boozer has better numbers than Cooper Flagg did last year. I'm not sure he's going to be that good of a player. Let's say, okay, that's a little bit out. But they could get the seventh or eighth pick. They could get the second pick. Like, it's, I know, but these are all perfectly within the realm. I'm just saying they could go to,

they could if they wanted to go to market this summer with what would be Kyle Kuzma's $20 million expiring contract as the base of a trade and up to three first, including the pick that they get in a lot of the years. Sure. I'm just saying they could have $35 million in expiring money plus one of the top three. Like, it's very real. If he doesn't play the rest of the year, they're going to have a very real chance of doing just what Philly did last year. Even if he does play and instead of shutting,

and they shut him down for the full six weeks, and then they shut him down a little early like in April. Like I said, they're an eighth right now. You're not going to need magic dust to get in six, seven. We just got done talking about Philadelphia. Last year, Philadelphia had the completely disastrous season, and that was a good line. And they got VGAG come out of the draft.

And that, coupled with their guys getting healthy, has flipped their franchise around. There is a path to the bucks falling into the exact same scenario that the Sixers did, where they get the second or third pick in the draft. They get Camboozer or DeBasor or Darren Peterson. Can I just stop you? And then they can also make a trade.

And then you can go to Yonis and say, what do you want to do? I know. They have to go, they have to swap their pick. So you're assuming that both they and New Orleans jump up. I mean, I would need Pelham to run the match here. New Orleans might not have to jump up. They might have to get a top four pick to do that.

Well, the Pelicans are going to be one of the worst teams in the league. And the Bucs are going to be one of the worst teams in the league. I agree. It's not impossible. They need some loss. I like to just slow your role on them having the third pick. Can I just simplify things real quick? There's no benefit in Yonnas playing for the Bucks again this reason.

That's right. There's only downside. There is upside in that you continue. you to slide or rise, as you want to say, in the lottery standings. And the Bucks pick situation is very similar to the Mavs pick situation in the sense that this is the only year between now and 2031 that you can benefit from being bad. And it's a good year to be bad because how loaded this draft is at the top. Now, you're talking about, you guys are talking about, okay, hey, how can you use that to rapidly reconstruct and try to put together a contender around Janus,

which, look, that's obviously been the goal of this franchise year after year after year after year after year. The other thing, though, is you look at it and say, hey, if Janus finally says, fellas, can I get out of here, which he keeps hinting at and passive aggressively doing all this crap, if that finally happens, having this pick puts you in a position where it's still going to be tough, you know, with the picks you don't have moving forward for the next four years, but you at least have a piece to build around kind of like the Mavericks. They're in a very similar situation of the Mavericks, except for the Mavericks already traded the face of their franchise,

and the Bucks, you know, are trying desperately not to reach that point. Well, it goes without saying that that obviously is another path the Bucks can take, but a big part of why in talking to people around the league, they thought the Bucks needed to do a deal now. for Janus was because it was likely the best asset they would get back in the trade was their pick this year and their pick this year being high. So by Janus being hurt and not available, now that he's going to be short of all the awards and they're not going to be a playoff team, there's really no incentive to have him play when he has a series of his leg-ins.

You still might have to trade, Janus, but this adds a pretty satisfactory option. which is... Yeah, it gives you the benefit of having that pick without trading him and it gives you the ability to go to him this summer with the possibility of either moving on from him and getting a ton back in a trade or being able to construct a roster that you could realistically say

is good enough to be a factor and maybe it's enough to get him to extend. I would tell Janice, Janice, there's a jet at General Milwaukee Airport with a full tank. You can go to Athens. Go home. Yeah.

Be with your family. Take finasses if you want. Go home. Be with your family. We'll send a therapist out there to make sure your calf is okay. When the snow melts and the lottery is near, we'll send for you. Just don't worry about it. That's not the craziest thing that you could do.

And you know what else this does? This should save the bucks from doing something stupid before the trade deadline. Oh, let's make a move to win now when you're the 11th place team in the Eastern Conference. And you've already got all the picks out the door until 2031. If Yannis is out for six weeks, we're already into mid-March. Yeah, this injury is, okay, it's distressing. Because again, it's the fourth time here. Sure it is Kaff.

And whether Yonis is a buck or whether Yonis is Team X, that's a concern. However, this injury happening now deals the, the bucks a few more cards. That's the point we're trying to make here. So just keep an eye on that situation and we'll see what happens. I would say that just the teams out there, they were interested in Janus being traded. Some people saw the injury and said, well, that's it. He's never going to play for them again.

And I was like, well, maybe. I've thought that too many times to keep thinking it. I know. All right. What these injuries overall, do you see? seem to indicate is that, and again, these are famous last words, and I always caveat everything that we didn't see Luca getting traded. But with AD hurt, with Janus hurt, with Jimmy Butler hurt, you're seeing a lot of teams all of a sudden between Golden State

having less incentive to really go all in on a trade, and it's seemingly unlikely Yonis will be traded, seemingly unlikely AD will be traded. You're pretty quickly running out of a lot of spice happening over the next 10 days. Now, again, famous last words on that. But this is, at least from the conversations I'd had with people over the last couple of days, it is shaping up to be a fairly quiet deadline where we've only had one trade all season so far. Ooh, we got breaking news here. And I know Wendy can't wait to get to this.

Oh, Wendy, do you want to read it? Jonathan Caminga injury update, fresh from the Golden State Warriors presses. Golden State Warriors for Jonathan Caminger, who exited Thursday's game at Dallas with 352 remaining in the second quarter due to a sore left knee underwent an MRI on Friday. The MRI confirmed that Cominga has a bone bruise as a result of the hyper-extension injury. His progress will be monitored and a reevaluation date will be determined in the coming days. Uh-oh, emergency pod? We need to go another hour?

Wait, hold on. Let me find out where Slater is. We're going to take with Slater. He's in the backyard. It ain't snowing sad. Actually, he's in Minnesota. In all seriousness,

when Jimmy Butler got hurt, it was an opportunity for, and frankly a need for Jonathan Cominga to play a real role for the Warriors without him because they don't have a lot of guys. 30 minutes. Right. And without him, the Warriors are going to have a hard time

winning any games for a while with the lack of shot creation they've got outside of Steph. Utah, Move down. Milwaukee, move down. I'm not saying that, but I will say. The pool, the tanking pool needs another seat. Well, I will say that as of today, I think the Warriors are the 10th best team in the West.

I don't think they're as good as the Clippers and I don't think they're as good as Portland. The Thunder who, you know, we're not going to cry for them. That's true, they did. Pacer's finally got a win in Oklahoma City that they needed. The Thunder are like, my God, the Clippers were. I want that series. were D-OA. The Clippers were D-O-A, and now the pick that we're getting up from the Clippers is going to be out of the lottery because all these teams are rushing back and the Clippers are zooming past. I want so badly that Thunder Clippers series.

How many storylines do you have there? Well, I don't think there's that many storylines. I think the Thunder would win. But the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, there's. So. It. And. You. You know. You see. You see. . You see. Three straight triple doubles, sir. That's like 30 years worth for that franchise. Yeah, well, that's why the Mavericks are glad that their flight got canceled,

are not glad that their flight got canceled because they could have just easily rolled out a G-League team today to lose in Milwaukee. I'm not sure that would have been the Texas Legends versus the Milwaukee herd for sure. Now that they're doing another date. The Bucks just lost the bottom half of the Nuggets roster. So it's no guarantee they would have lost to the mass today. Well, so I'm saying, like the, you know, the Dallas was, you had the perfect excuse to literally have Jason Kidd go out there and play 13 minutes. But that another game just got postponed.

All right, we're going to go watch football. Thank you to Jackson and Mark our producers. Thank you to McMahon for filling in on sideline duty. I'm sure there'll be a big bonus in your check for that. I look for it just as big as I get for this. Yeah, that's right. Thank you to Bontemps for braving the snow. How much do you have at your house right now?

There's probably close to a foot. Okay. Wow. We've got a Texas foot's worth, which we've got like a solid, I don't know, a few inches around here. Everybody stay safe. Everybody enjoy the football games. We'll be over by the time you hear this. And we'll talk to you next week.

Adios amigos.