Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - VanVleet Injury To Ruin Finals Chances For Rockets? + Explosive NBA Offseason Survey Reaction

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to Fred VanVleet’s potentially season-ending injury including if it could derail the Rockets’ hopes of a deep playoff run. Then, the guys break down this year’s NBA Offseason Survey from the best player in the league right now to the best/worst moves of the offseason, some interesting questions on LeBron’s future and much more! Plus, some referee points of emphasis for the upcoming season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

I just want to say to everybody, remember the other day when McMahon was talking tough about his team and the league that we're both in? Oh, I just like to say that we're both in, again, going to the next week, and my team pretty heavily outscored is this week. The Guillotine League. Who was your leading point score? Mine was Caleb Williams.

That was a good guy to have this week. That was a good guy to have. They had a great week. I also picked up Mark Williams. Mark Williams is not playing football. Mark Andrews is having a great game tonight. McMahon's, who's McGowan's top guy? Bejohn Robinson and J.K. Dobbins were beat.

We're McMahon's top guys this week. We both advanced again. So another week of content. All right. Anyway, we talked about the NBA. I didn't get an official. Oh, that's right. Wait, who are you?

And joining us from Dallas, Texas. It's Band McMahon. Band from introductions. Howdy, partners, I would like to say bond temps outscore me this week for the first time in fancy football. Reminds me of an old Texas line. The sun shines on a dog's ass every once in a while. And let me tell you this. What I got to do in this league is not be last.

So far we've both not been last three weeks in a row. In this case, the sun's shining. was Caleb Williams. The dog's ass is the cowboy's defense. So good luck getting that out of Caleb Williams again. Hey, listen, I picked him up this week for a reason. By the way, so today I was at this event the NBA had. The referees were in town in New York.

If the reps were in town, you know, bond temps is there, smooch, smooch. Well, listen, they invited media. McMan would have been able to tape measure to get in the door. That would have been allowed in the building, which you would not have been. Several refs mentioned the pod to me. It was good to see people, but including our pals, Tyler Ford, and James Capers. But at this event today, I got an answer, at least a partial answer to a question we asked recently on the pod, which was when McBan had all of his information about the heaves. He wondered how many such instances may have happened in the past where players passed up the attempt to heave the bowl.

at the end of the clock. And Evan Wash, who Byron Spruell called our master of innovation, which I told him we should get on his business card. Bont Temps always assumes everybody knows everything. I was about to give his title, but you can give his title now. Byron Spruwell is like number three or four in the NBA league office, head of operations. He was the president of basketball operations. And Evan Wash is the head of innovation, apparently.

He was the guru during the COVID czar. Well, that isn't like the NBA Cup in large part his baby. And I mean, he's kind of like the chief nerd. Evan, yes, Evan Stratt. Evans, Evans title is head of NBA basketball strategy and analytics. Byron Spruill is from Cleveland. Evan Wash is from the Ivy League. Those are the two things I need to point out.

I need a new title as fancy like that. Go on. But they ran the numbers, his group. He had been trying, I think he said it was over a decade. His group had been studying this. There were over 500 instances where a player could have potentially put up a shot last season and did not. Wow. And as he said, roughly 3% of these heaves go in.

So it doesn't necessarily correlate. Well, right. Like in theory, 15 to 20 really cool and exciting plays a year were not happening that, you know, and like he said, well, we get. all 15 or 20 of those, we'll see. But even if you get some of them, that's a pretty big win. Even the close calls are exciting. One of the most exciting plays of last season was when Joker 0.3 seconds left and the other team's shooting a free throw. And he just kind of puts his hand up to Peyton Watson, showing him where he wants the inbounds pass. And it was like a half volleyball

spike, half punch thing. Well, it was like a water polo move. Isn't it? I mean. Yeah. it damn near went in. I know. And if it had gone in, he would have just shrugged his shoulders and lumbered to back. Exactly. So I thought that would be an interesting information to pass along. Can I, it's story time.

Okay. Then I got an idea. Go ahead with your idea first. Well, the idea is we're going to take the old head of innovation out and get him to cough up the biggest defenders on the heave no list. I'm sure they have that data. I'm sure they do. They're probably protecting them, but if we get a few drinks in them, we might be able to wheeze a lot of them. So without saying the name of the hotel,

Bontemps, describe the quality of the hotel that this was held out. Stars. I mean, I don't know. It was a standard. It was a full-service hotel that of the brand that all of us stay at a lot. I mean, I could just say the hotel. It's perfectly fine hotel. It's a Brooklyn Bridge Marriott in Brooklyn. I stayed there. It's nice. The perfectly fine hotel. You're going to just put them on blast where they're staying?

They all left today. They think it's gone. All right. Back when I'm going to do. What are they going to do to descend to get to descend on the Brooklyn Bridge Marriots, New York City? McMahon Mike. To get Tyler Ford's autograph to reach down with their pieces of paper and let them

reach up and grab and sign it? I was a kid in the NBA. They used to hold the refs. at this incredibly sad, and I won't say the name of it because it's still there. In fact, I stayed there earlier this year. I also attended a referee thing at that hotel, and let's just say this is a hell of a step up from that place. Exactly.

It was at an incredibly sad airport hotel in Newark. Oh, I've stayed there. And I actually did a podcast fair in July. I stayed there for just one night on my way out of the country. And you know, way to one of them fancy golf. It is not getting better. But like, here's the thing. You can, you can like look at the, the, the, the, the, where the NBA has, you know, felt the money come in in the last, like, 15 years.

A couple different places. Obviously, the player's salaries. No kidding. The size of the staffs, right? How big the staffs are, you know, now they've got to have risers behind the bench. There's so many staffs. The planes. the airplanes. When I first started covering the league, I was covering the calves,

the plane that the calves used couldn't make it from Cleveland to the west coast. If they were flying to L.A. or Seattle, RIP, they'd have to stop in like Oklahoma City or Fargo, North Dakota to get more gas. This was not 1987. This was like 2005. Now they fly planes that if they had regular passengers be able to put in 200 people on them. I'm not kidding. And the referees get to come into the boroughs and stay at a four-star hotel. I'll give it four stars, having stayed there before. It's a nice hotel. Not at a two-star hotel at an airport like they did. But I will say this. They weren't distracted by anything else. They could focus on the work back in those days. I mean, the other thing I can tell you from this thing today is that one of the points

emphasis here is going to be to crack down on players taking advantage of the high five rule and hitting free throw shooters, or jump shooters. Three point shooters, but jump shooters in general, pretty hard in the hands. So there will be, I think, an uptick in fouls on jump shooters early in the season as that rule goes into effect. Was there any discussion about my suggestion that after, a dunk, a player should be able to do whatever the hell he wants for three seconds as long as his pants stay on and to get rid of the taunting teas? No. Okay. Not exactly. You next year I got to go to this

thing. You are inept. We ought to have McMahon go to it and just bring a film crew. Is there any, like, how many times did you hear the word proximate foul? I had never heard the word proximate in my life until two years ago. And now I hear it 700 times. a year. Well, our friend Monty McCutcheon, who does a great job with these things. Was he all bow-tied up? No, he was in his usual attire. He was looking great.

He, I mean, it was a combination on and off the record stuff, but he walked through a whole bunch of different plays and, you know, explain a lot of different aspects of both how the rest do their jobs and also certain things to watch for in terms of the points emphasis for this year. but I would say for fans, the biggest one to pay attention to is going to be that these high five fouls and kind of excessive contact on them is going to be something. It's going to be called a lot. And so we're in the year, I think probably for the first month or two, you'll see more fouls on jump shooters, I would guess. Story time.

All right. Sorry. Sorry. It's the offseason. It's actually not the off season officially is over by the time. You're right. I know. Media day.

I'll be it media day. That's right. Tuesday. with the 76ers? The 76ers are on Friday. I will be in Greenberg, New York for the Knickerbockers. Including friend of the pod, Mike Brown, speaking nice and early Tuesday morning. Boy, our Nick's press conferences going to have a different vibe.

All right. Love Tibbs, though. Hope you're doing good tips. We do love, we do love Tibbs. Tibbs is low-key, one of the funniest guys in the NBA. You just got to pay attention. All right. Monty McCutche.

Or talk to him away from a microphone. Monty McCutcheon, who's the head of NBA referees, former NBA referee. People know him for his bow ties, like Ernie Johnson. He wears bow ties. He wears very colorful suits and has for many years. But here's a story about Monty McCutcheon. When he was a referee, he would travel the entire season with a quilt that he quilted and made. over the course of the season

he would knit a quilt that he would give to his children and other people and I want to say it was like a king-sized quilt by the end of the season. Now, first of all, he did it like as a stress reliever, you know, and I have to believe that he's the only referee whoever had a traveling quilt.

And what I find unbelievable about this is that Monty would be the best dressed referee in the league, or at least one of them, he would wear things like ankle-length orange trench coats, okay, like as well. Best, I don't know, most creative, yes. Okay, fine. I'm not looking to start any fights.

And he would bring a quilt that would grow like a king-sized quilt that he would sew together over the course of the season. And I think he traveled with a carry-on. That's impressive. And there was some sort of sorcery that he did to do it. All right. Sorry. Thanks for hanging.

Also, also was part of the single best officiated game in the history of the league as we've talked about prior. Only bomb tips would have a ranking of the best officiating game. I mean, it's a list of one, including the guy just went in the Hall of Fame last month, Danny Crawford. Game 7, 2016. I was surprised if you didn't have Cuban handles induction, Danny Crawford. As I've said before, that was the most intense, as I've said before, Brian will probably agree.

Game 7 in 2016, Warriors Cavs is the most intense game I've ever attended. And Danny Crawford, my name McCutcheon and Duke Callahan, three very long-time veteran referees, all did that game. And there was not a single complaint about the officiating before, during, or after it. So it's all you need to know about the job they did. This is where you get all your ref stuff. I hear of the hoop collective. I just want you to know.

Okay. That's from Bond Timbs. Rockets had some very unfortunate news on Monday. Talk about a wretched way to begin the week to begin the season. Fred Van Vleet has torn his ACL in the offseason. Their franchise point guard who has been a pillar in their turnaround as an organization on the floor and through leadership and who they just signed to a, two-year $50 million deal this summer, the second year of it being a player option.

And contract ramifications of that are interesting, but that is not important today. So one, you feel terrible for Fred. Fred is a guy who is become synonymous with betting on himself, undrafted player who won himself, won himself a spot in the league and has repeatedly basically said, oh, you don't want to pay me? well, then I'm just going to play out my contract and I'm going to get taken care of and has done it repeatedly. And champion in Toronto. That's a guy who. Just named head of the union too.

Just named head of the union. And will be either in the league office running a team or coaching a team when his career is over. Or maybe if he wants to. He would actually be great with media. Fred is, Fred's an A triple plus dude. Yeah, I nominated him. I think he might end up as a finalist for the, the Magic Johnson Award.

Yeah, I did too. Great guy to deal with. Magic Johnson Award goes to the guy who's best with the media. Right. Yeah. And, you know,

you can't look at Fred's stats in Houston and feel his impact. You talk about like a pillar in their turnaround. His professionalism was desperately needed for that franchise. His leadership, his toughness, his nastiness,

his intelligence. I think more than running the offense, it's going to be his toughness and his intelligence and his leadership that they'll miss. Because, I mean, he absolutely is like the perfect on-floor extension of the Medadoca. He's just a winner. I mean, you go back to when he was at Wichita State. He was part of that incredible Wichita State team that got to the final four. You know, he had the great run in Toronto. know, like you said, McBan, he goes to the Rockets, immediately the franchise starts to turn around.

You know, it's, we've talked a lot about how young the Rockets are and how bright their future is. But to get a young team to move along, you need to have somebody to show them how to do it. And there's probably no better. It's why I thought it was such a big deal when Fred got named as the president of the union, because for a guy like that and came in as an undrafted free agent, became a max player, has been an all-star. there are very few guys in the league who you could say could relate to literally every player in the league. And Fred Van Vleet has been able to do that through the work he's put in. And you'll never find anybody to say a bad word about him.

And yeah, it was a huge bummer to see that news today, particularly with how excited we've been about where the rockets are at and the optimism there is around that franchise about what they've got ahead this season. Ben Taylor, the ref might say a few things about him. Fred's had a few things to say about Ben Taylor over the years. But anyways, we only say nice things, Bill. Also saw it also saw Ben Taylor today. He came over and said a low.

That's well, fella. Asked if you were going to be there. And I said, there's no way McBan would be. Yeah, he's about 5.11 and a half. By the way, like an incredible stretch of elite point guards in the league with these huge injuries. Yeah, it's been rough. From, you know, Halliburton to Kyrie Irving to Dame Lillard. you know, Darius Garland is going to miss a big part of the season.

I don't know if you want to qualify Tyler Hero as a point guard. He certainly plays point guard at times for the heat. He just has foot surgery. A lot of injury talk in September, which is never fun. I know. I mean, it's very, very upsetting. So, okay, here's the problem. The Rockets are a contender to win the Western Conference.

And the Rockets do not have another, quote-unquote, pure point guard on their roster. I would say they don't have another proven pure point guard. I do think that they're two high lottery picks on their rookie deals have pure point guard potential. And we will find that out one way or another this season. Well, describe those players. Well, Amin Thompson, you know, Bond Hips like we were talking about in the chat today, I think the best comp for him is early career Ben Simmons. By the way, DeJante Murray, does he count as a point guard? Sorry.

Yeah. Sorry. I'm in Tomp. Again, I think the best comp for him in Thompson, who hasn't played a lot of point guard yet, but when he was drafted, like was considered a big point guard, I think the best comp for him is early career Ben Simmons without the BS. and I'm not talking about as initials. You know, without the just, you know, issues and diva tendencies, I'll say. Or the jump shot.

Well, neither of them have jump shots. That's what I'm saying. Doesn't have the jump shot either. Well, yeah. I think McBain is totally right on Amin Thompson. And I'm actually going to say something beyond that, which is obviously it's really awful news for both Fred and the Rockets that Fred Van Ville had this injury

and is going to probably miss the season. I think this injury is going to have Amman Thompson make the all-star team. Possibly. Because he's going to have the ball in his hands all the time. I think I would be stunned, frankly, if they go into the season with anything other than we're handing the ball to a man Thompson and he's going to run the team. You would be stunned? Hold on.

I would be. Let's just go through the other option. Sure. The next option is reach up. Hold on a minute. I'm going to stop, stop, stop, stop. Okay. No, go ahead with Reed Shepherd first. Reed Shepherd, who, look, didn't play a whole lot last year when he went down to the G. League, put up huge numbers, didn't really crack the rocket's rotation.

But they were planning on Reed Shepherd playing a significant role this season. That role obviously is now going to have to be more significant. I do think it's not out of the realm of possibility that Reed Shepherd will start. I don't know that. I think there's three possibilities there. I think what you're talking about, just let's play big and have a men Thompson be the point guard and surround him with shooting in size

and just some other teams defensively is an option. I think Reed Shepard filling in for Van Bly. And then I think kind of the safe, solid option would be going with Aaron Holiday and saying, hey, you know, just be a professional kind of table setting type of hard-defending, you know, poor man's Van Blyte type of guy. and let's not heap too much on the shoulders of these young guys, but the rocket ceiling,

obviously Durant gave them a championship ceiling. Their hope of being able to sniff that was always going to be on the shoulders of their young rising stars. Shungoon, Thompson, and they think Reed Shepard has rising star potential. Okay, let me just say something real quick. I don't dispute any of that. you know me

Eme Udoca Number one I don't see Emeudoka starting a player at point guard with this alignment who can't defend that's number one

number two if you are serious about and Bunn Thompson I'm not disputing what you see as the future for Alman Thompson okay but if you are

intending your team to compete to win the Western Conference you cannot have your point guard rotation be two inexperienced players

and particularly inexperienced at the position. I don't I don't really I think that's kind of a weird take. I think that's a weird take that's me being around 23 years.

I think, well listen amend Thompson is one of the I don't know five most gifted athletes maybe in the league and has immense potential and is a very good ball handler, is a very good passer. These are things that have been the case since he came in the league. And I think if you're talking about what is the path to the rockets having the highest ceiling this season,

it's giving amend Thompson the ball today and saying, hey, you're going to run the team for 32 minutes a night for the next six, eight months. And yeah, there could be some growing pains in November. But by not having Fred Van Vleet there to run the team and it having to be a men, Thompson, because by the way, the Rocks are so close to the apron, they can't go sign another veteran player. I saw all these Russell Westbrook memes. I mean, let's set that to the side for a bunch of reasons.

However, they literally cannot sign a veteran free agent. That's right. Because they're too close to the apron. Aaron Holliday is a fine backup guard. He's on a minimum one-year deal. If you're trying to win the West, which I still think the Rockets have a ceiling that they're going to be in the mix to do that. As good as Fred is, as big a loss as it is, I still think they could be in that mix.

And it's because of the potential in particular of a men Thompson. And if I'm the Rockets, I think Reed Shepard's got a high ceiling too. He barely played as a rookie. He struggled at Summer League. I think walking in and saying Reed Shepard's going to be our point guard to start the season is putting way too much pressure on him. Whereas, hey, if you're his backup, all right, you come and run the team 15 minutes a game. You see how it goes.

If he struggles, then you can plug Aaron Holiday in. But with the size the Rockets have across the board, you plug them in Thompson at the point, you have shooting around them. The Rockets might be the best defensive team in the league with the group they have with him doing that. And it gives, well, You're right, but they're in the mix, though. And it also, I think, creates an opportunity where you could see Amman Thompson explode into a star level player this season, that taking that pressure away from him to give it to Aaron Holiday or even to Reed Shepard, I just don't think that's a realistic outcome. I don't dispute anything you said there.

I'm just telling you, you don't win in the NBA with Young Guards. Well, I just don't. I would also say if Reed Shepherd is starting, the ball can still be in a men Thompson's hands. And if you're putting your best shooting lineup around him, then Reed Shepherd would be in the war. I mean, I would say that it would make a lot more sense for the Rockets to go, Amend Thompson, Dorian, Finney Smith, Jabari Smith, Jr., Kevin Durant, and Alparan, Shangoon, and be big and long and physical everywhere. Well, actions over words, right?

The Rockets must feel like those guys can do that because they didn't have. another point guard to their roster. Well, they didn't, they had planned on having Van Fleet play 30 plus minutes. Well, I know, but they, but they obviously clearly didn't, they felt that they had enough ball handling on this team. Yeah, because they do, they really like these young guys. They were planning on a little bit more on their plate. Okay.

And now they're going to have to put a whole lot more. But like in terms of going out and getting a vet now, forget like the fact that, financially they have handcuffs on and they can't do it to me that's something you evaluate thompson and shepherd i i'm not saying you make the trade tomorrow and and bring the guy into training camp i'm just telling you i'm not i can't predict what maybe i'm in thompson will be an all-star this year i'm just telling you i've been around and i've seen young guards especially guys who are playing point guard at that level for the first time where you're like okay you're going to be the starting point guard. Like, they get dinged up. And, you know, Amen Thompson turns the ball over.

The Thunder just won a title with a guard in his third year playing next to Shea, who's pretty damn good. That's all I'll say. I know the Thunder are a unique outlier. Are you trying to say that he's, you know, he is not their lead guard. Their league guard. No, but he's, but he, no, but he is one of the 15 best players in the league now and exploded in his third year in the league. And like, again, to me, if I'm looking at things, I think of Men Thompson's going to be the most improved player in the league this year because he's going to have his stats all jump a lot. He's going to have a ton of opportunity. And I know McMahon is very high in a men Thompson. Oh, yes.

Anybody who's watched Amen Thompson play. I don't know anybody who's not high on the team. Well, that's my point. I think this, like I said, I think if you're a Rockets fan or if you're the Rockets and you want to see a silver lining, you know, what is a very black cloud of a day, I think it's that this is going to force Houston to do the best long-term thing for the rockets, which is to give the ball to amend Thompson and let them loose. And I think the results from that are going to be pretty damn good. It's sink or swim for their young potential stars.

And what losing Fred Van Blyt does to Houston is it makes their floor a lot lower. Like, you know, things could go really wrong in Houston this year, and they just might not be able to get organized offensively, and they might just have a glaring lack of leadership, and they might not be nearly as connected on the defense van and all the kind of the little things that Van Bleak does are going to be so obvious in his absence. That's a possibility. but it's also a possibility that you know Thompson and or Shepard just make massive leaps and that the rockets are still a

realistic threat you know come April and May now listen nobody was going to be considered a favor over the thunder regardless I had the rockets is the biggest threat and I do think at this point you've got to reassess that but I don't think you can completely cross them off the list. Well, it's an unexpected thing they have to deal with. Sometimes you do see things like

this end up helping teams in the long run. Bontem's, you could prove to be right. And if this was a different team with a different set of expectations, and look, the Rockets window is open. Yeah. So it's not like, you know, but Kevin Durant is on a one-year contract. So to this point, You don't trade for Kevin Durant if you're planning on making a big chunk of the season development. That's Kevin Durant's, what would you, stage three or phase three? I think, yeah, I think you're twisting things around a little bit. I mean, Amman Thompson is not a, I mean, you're acting like Amend Thompson is a rookie. I mean, how many minutes does he have playing point guard in the NBA?

We played a decent number of minutes of point guard last year. I don't know the like firm number, but he handled the. the ball a good amount. And he should be handling the ball a ton. They do also have the luxury in terms of their half court offense of having the second best point center in the league. Well, that's true. I mean, that's part of their strategy that the ball will go to Alperin Schengun to operate

in the half court. And, you know, when you have that, you don't necessarily need as much of an initiator. And I suspect that they will try to start the season with what they've got. but they don't really have they don't really they don't really have a choice of course they have a choice I mean they can trade I think they can trade five players at the moment yeah well would you like to trade one of the one of these five would you like to trade one of the five players they can trade I mean that's like saying that's like saying you'll start a season with bomb tips and me on the podcast I mean I mean they they they like yes they like in theory

they could make a trade in in reality They can't really make a trade for a couple of months, even if they want to, until they have more of their roster available to people. Well, that's probably the best decision to see what you have on your roster. I think that's always the best idea for a team, especially at the start of the season, to see what you have on your roster. I'm just saying- Well, especially when you have one of the biggest upside players in the league that you can

hand the ball to. That's all fine. You can end up being right. I'm just saying, I've been around, and so is Imaudoka. And I think he tends to look at things old school. Listen, there's a reason right after hiring E. Meadocca, they went out and gave Fred Van Vleet a really good player, but, you know, one-time all-start. They had the guy max contract to come to Houston. Yeah.

And he took a pretty big pay cut this year. I mean, he kind of had to. He was a team option. He was supposed to earn over $40 million this year. He took a team option and took a big pay cut. And he obviously could have signed a longer-term deal, but he did a one-plus-one. I'm sure thinking that he would. opt out of the contract after another strong season.

He's going to turn 32 during the year. He is, you know, at the edge of his prime historically for a player, especially smaller guards, you know, again, historically, it doesn't mean everything. But I'm sure his thought process was, I'm going to have another great year. We're going to have a great year as a team. And then I'm going to get, you know, one significant, you know, last big deal. Now, I don't know what's going to happen there. You know, now you're looking at sort of a chyrie situation where you've got a guy who's going to be coming off an ACL where you've got to wonder what his market is.

And it's really about what the team wants to give him. So that's another discussion for another day. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. All right. Today, Bond Temps on Monday, you had one of your annual traditions come out where you survey the summer. A bunch of executives across the league. not as extensive as the Bontemps polls, but it's sort of another version of the Bontem's polls.

I'll let you set this up with the number of executives. It's a lot. It's a lot more work to do this than to ask people for five names. Yes. I talked to 20 coaches, scouts, and executives across the league, asked them a total of 16 questions. A few about this past summer and a bunch. Looking ahead to both this year

and the next few years in a couple cases to try to get a sense of both what people thought of how the offseason played out and then what it could mean in terms of how this upcoming season will play out. And again, in a couple of cases about what things could look like a few years from now. All right. Well, I want to go over a few of these. You should check this out on ESPN.com. I want to go over a few of these that I felt stuck out. If you feel like I missed any, Bon Temps? Sure. We're particularly interesting.

Speak up. Are you, McMahon? Sounds good. To the question of who is the best player in the league right now. I am not surprised that Nikola Yokic won. I am surprised at the vote total. Here are the votes from the Bon Temps offseason front office, well, offseason executive front office. This is a really tough acronym.

There's, you've got to come up some form. work as well. Nikoliyokic, 19 votes, Luca Donchich, one vote. That's the list for the votes for the best player in the league right now. I don't, I don't think this is that big of a surprise,

personally. I don't. Well, 19 MVP in finals MVP doesn't get a single vote. Again, if you had said, if you had said in 2016, okay, the spur,

no, 2015. 10 years ago right now. Who's the best player in the NBA? The reigning MVP, I know he didn't win finals MVP, even though he should have. That's another story. LeBron James probably would have been a unanimous pick. Maybe one person would have picked Steph Curry, right?

Jay Gilles-Ox-Zander is an amazing player. Everybody thinks he's awesome. When I asked later in the survey, I don't know if you're going to bring it up, who the best five players in the league are right now, everybody said four names immediately, Yokic, Shea, Janice, and Luca. So he's clearly seen as one of the best players in the league. However, if you ask pretty much anybody around the NBA or around the sport at the moment, who is the best player in basketball, they all pretty much say after a moment or less, yeah, Yokic is the best player.

That's not any disrespect to Shea. Shea's incredible. but Yolkich, I think, is pretty nearly universally seen as the best player. And so, yeah, I'm not shocked that, I mean, I was a little surprised if somebody said anybody, it was somebody but Shea. That's what surprised me, not 19 to 1, but that the one wasn't Shea given, like, dude, Shea just had a quadruple crown of a season. He just had arguably one of the greatest seasons in the modern era.

Scoring champ. MVP, conference finals MVP, finals MVP. And then like you punch his stats up there, I can give you him and Jordan. Well, you know, those defending champions, they always need something. I could see Sam Presti having this laminated

on a giant board to play. I mean, and the other guy, the other guy averaged 296, 127, 10.2, 57% shooting from the field and 41% from three. And, and remains this completely.

unstoppable force. So again, like, yeah, I'm, I wasn't that surprised. Like, like, okay, Wendy, if they, if you'd have been polled here, what would you, who would you have said? I would have said Yokic, but, um, I would have thought about it for a while probably and before, but I mean, I'm not, I think the better, I think the better gauge of it of, of this question is, again, when I asked people to name. they're five best players. Who are the five best players right now? Everybody instantly said four names.

Right. So the bigger gap, I know 19 to 1 looks big. I know Shea didn't have any votes. I get that. I don't think people see it as a cavernous gap. It's just a binary thing. You have to pick one name. You pick Yokic, right?

I think the much bigger gap is four to five. I think one to four. One to two, I think is pretty small. and I think one to four cumulatively is very small. And then there's a, at least as of this moment, a very big gap from four to the rest of the field. All right. To the question of which team had the best offseason,

there were seven different teams that got votes. It's the opposite of who's the best player. Seven teams get votes. I thought they had a very good offseason, but I'm a little bit surprised, is winning with seven votes, the Atlanta Hawks. Second place, Denver with four. Third place, Houston, with three.

Oklahoma City, who didn't add any one other than draft picks to their roster, but they re-sign their top three players, got two votes. The Orlando Magic with two votes. The Clippers and Lakers each get one vote. On Timps? Was the Clippers before the Pablo podcast? I mean, they were basically all before. I mean, a lot of, I shouldn't say a lot of them.

There are, some of them were before the Pablo Pot. Look, the Hawks, I think, get, first of all, it's a pretty quiet offseason, right? There were a couple trades long time ago. The Durant and Bain trades back in June, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet, right? And the Hawks arguably signed the best free agents to change teams and the K. Alexander Walker.

They, they get. No, free agency doesn't exist anymore. Even that wasn't a, a, a, uh, a, uh, a, technical free agent move. Well, sure. But they make the big trade for Chris Sasporzingis, which was a well-regarded move, right? And obviously they make the trade with the Pelicans for the draft pick.

And so when you put all those things together in a quiet off-season, not only did they have a good off-season, they shoot up the list in the east because of the fact the Celtics and the Pacers fall off the map. Right. And on top of that, when you look at the other competition, it's like, okay, Denver had a really good offseason because they got some bench players, which I'm not, I, I, I am lower on the off season than others. I understand, but I'm just saying like, if we're talking about it that way, it's like, yes, like they gave the best player in the world some extra help, but it's not like they had this incredible off season, but they got four votes. And I think it's fair to think of them that way because it might have got them back up in the same level with the thunder. And the Rockets got three votes largely because of one move, which is a really good move.

Right, one move that addressed the glaring hole on their roster by getting a Hall of Famer who's still scoring it and elite level is going to end up being top. I score all the time. Yeah, for sure. No, I was a great trade. Don't get me wrong. I think it's probably, you can make a really good argument. it's a single best move of the offseason given what they gave up and what they got back. I'm just saying I'm not surprised Atlanta got a decent amount of support because between the

combination of the way they sort of were lifted up artificially in the standings by other teams going down and them sort of having moves across the board that were good and stood out. Like in an off season where there wasn't a lot of interesting stuff that happened, they were in the middle of a lot of the most interesting stuff. So I wasn't stunned that they got a lot of support. All right. Boy, do these folks hate that Pelicans trade, the Derrick Queen trade. Boy, do they hate it.

I mean. Because not only do they have the Hawks at the top here, I know it wasn't just about that draft night trade. It was about Porzingis and Alexander Walker. A lot of it was about that trade, though. Yeah. But when it came to which team had the worst off season, the Pelicans relatively ran away with it. They had five more votes than anybody else. There was like nine

teams that got votes. A lot of people really didn't like the Jordan Poole trade too. That came up multiple times. Several times, I should say. Both the Jordan Poole trade and obviously the draft night trade, which is universally panned. Right. Jordan Pool trade, Alton was C.J. McCollum

for Jordan Poole, there was some other things in there, but that was essentially the trade. Which team at the worst offseason? New Orleans Pelicans, quote unquote, wins. and which was the worst move of the offseason in a relative route. The Pelicans trading the pick, the unprotected pick to Atlanta for the 26th draft. 11 votes. I'll talk about both of those more in a second, but bond temps.

Venom. Venom for the Pelicans front office, 15 minutes onto the job for Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver. I mean, yeah, I mean, we talked about this the other. day when you tried to say that Derrick Queen being good could mitigate the trade some. Like the process on the trade was horrendous and they may not give up the number one. By the way, Derek Queen being good is essentially the bet of the whole trade. If Derek Queen is good, then... Again, this is what we talked about.

This is what we talked about the... This is what we talked about the other day. Derek Queen being good or not has nothing to do with the process of the trade. The process of the trade was terrible. Well, it's objectively terrible. It's like the Giddy for Caruso swap when the reaction to that deal was how many picks are the bulls getting or which pick or picks are the bulls getting and answers none. When the general reaction, not forget about like media fans, when the reaction from other

executives within the league is WTF, then that's a perfect comparison. Let's say Josh Giddy becomes a five-time all-star with the Bulls, okay? Like, that would be a great outcome for the Bulls, right? It still wouldn't change the fact that when the Bulls made the trade, they should have gotten draft picks in the trade and did not. Doesn't, the process of that was terrible. Wait, I hear some muffled cries. I hear some muffled cries coming from the Bay Area about Cruz,

should have been the Warriors for Kingi anyways, way before that. Go on. Well, in the process of this trade was bad, which is why from the moment it happened, people have said, how in the world could the Pelicans have done this trade? So we'll see what happens with Der Queen. Maybe it'll be a great player. And we'll see if the Hawks actually end up with a very high pick in next year's draft. All I'm going to say is I'd feel pretty good if I was betting on the Pelicans not being very good this season.

I just want to allow for the fact that what if Derrick Queen is very good. That doesn't change. I understand. I understand. I got it. Derek Queen might be very good. I'm not saying he won't be very good. It just doesn't change the trade.

Again, I've been around long enough to know that not everything happens in the season the way it looks in the summer. But that's again, it's not about how good Derek Queen is going to be. You keep making the same point, though. I need you making the same point. Let's move on. Because I have to keep explaining how trades work. Jordan Poole. Jordan Poole has $34 million after this year on his contract, whereas C.J. McCollum's contract was expiring.

Yeah. Obviously, Jordan Poole is a younger player, but the executives are voting on that one as well. Well, Jordan Poole is also a very popular player among other executives. He's not a very popular player amongst his teammates sometimes. They watch a lot of wizards. Yeah, right. They watch Wizards games. Yeah.

All right. Which team had the worst offseason after the Pelicans? This one is going to hit hard on the Sons who loved their offseason. Listen, the anti-expert offseason. Hey, is Steve Nash an expert? He must not be because he got a senior advisor role with the Sons. Well, Steve Nash was hired by the Sons. It was announced on Monday.

I talked to... I missed that. Yes, senior advisor. I talked to Matt Ishbia last Friday as the Sons announced an extension of their local media rights deal. He made a joke. The Sons were the first team. I don't want to get into media rights,

but the Sons were the first team that had to abandon their regional sports network because it was failing. It hadn't, it was soon to declare bankruptcy. It hadn't folded yet, but they basically just said, forget this. games over the air, left tens of millions of dollars theoretically guaranteed. I mean, if you go to bankruptcy court, they wouldn't have got it.

But it was a risk, and it ended up working out. Their ratings have extremely gone up, and now they've gotten a deal to stabilize their income. It's the good old days, but they've stabilized their income. And anyway, Matt said, well, I got that one right. Got about everything else wrong. So he made a joke about himself, but then he doubled down. the ratings if they were actually a decent team.

He doubled down to me. I didn't write about this, but we were talking, and he doubled down on how much he thinks that the pundits, well, in this case, not just the pundits, but the peers were not impressed with the sons. I think primarily Bontemps, based on what else you've got in here, they didn't like waving and stretching $100 million of Bradley Beale amongst other things. Yeah, I mean, again, I'd say the process on the Bradley Biel trade from start to finish was horrendous and that included the fact that they ended up having to wave and stretch

them because they made the original sin of taking them with the no trade clause. Yeah. You know, and it just, to me, there's a catastrophic decision from start to finish. Yeah. I would say the start was much more catastrophic than the finish. The finish. It was time. Like, they couldn't move forward, Bradley Beale.

They just couldn't do it. Well, I know. But that's the, but again, this is, this goes back to the same conversation we just had. Like at the time when they made the trade, it was all. They got them for nothing. These pick swaps, the second round picks. Braddick feels really good. You got them for the problem with the contract.

Well, and again, that's what we talked about. What we talked about in the pot at the time, that you take on this guy with this no trade clause. What happens if you want to try to trade them later? It's why teams weren't interested in Bradley Beale at the time. It's why the sons end up eating this money. And again, the sons save Matt Ishpia, 100. of millions of dollars. I'm not saying that was a bad thing for him to do. The team isn't going to be good. They shouldn't just lose money for the sake of losing money. As I've also said before,

it's all very reminiscent of my time covering the Brooklyn Nets when Mikhail Procroft came in talking tough about spending all this money and doing all this stuff. And then when the team was bad, side of you know, it's not very fun to have a horrendous team and a team that's also, or I shouldn't even say horrendous, not very good team and also be. obscenely expensive and cost me a gazillion dollars. So at least they can get out of doing one of them. Yeah, they're horrendously disappointing. They were the most disappointing team in the league because they were mediocre after making two massively splashy trades that they got pennies on the well, they paid full boat to let Beale go play for the clippers and got, I'll say,

nickels and dimes on the dollar for Kevin Duran. I mean, the rockets still have more picks over this, you know, window than more sons picks and the sons have their own. If that tells you anything. But so they went from being this massively disappointing, mediocre team to a much less expensive kind of pesky underdog type of team.

You know, at least they're free on TV, but there was some panning of the Mark Williams trade, too, which we'll see where that ultimately landed. So that trade, I don't necessarily, that trade. I understand that trade, but it's the fact that how did you get that pick that you gave up to get Mark Williams. It was part of the three late pick package that you got from the jazz to give up the, was it 2031? They traded one unprotected first round pick for three protected first round picks. Yeah, that were basically guaranteed to be late because they're like

Cleveland, Minnesota, those kind of picks. Right. So on the list of worst moves of the offseason, number one was the Pelicans trading that pick. Number two was a tie, Bradley Beale being waived, which the sentiment is expressed elsewhere. Tied for number two, the Trailblazers trading for Drew Holiday, which is a trade that, you know, the Celtics were sort of in salary reduction mode, and that happened around July 1st. There was a lot of, a lot of stuff. Oh, okay. Monday at draft week. The head. line of the off season for the Blazers was signing a player. Well, they bought out DeAndre Aiton, which was not expected. And then signing a player in Dame Lillard, which, you know, was the move that

made everybody, including Dame happy. Dame just gave an interview in the last week talking about happy is. But of course, he's going to miss this whole season, most likely. But, you know, it wasn't like it got 17 votes, but multiple people panned that trade. I would assume Bontem's was because Drew Holliday is a player. that you see as a finishing piece, especially at this age, and the fact that he has $104 million in three years left on his contract. I would say it kind of goes back to the same conversation we've had about a few of these things, and it was the process of the move.

And in general, I think people are just not quite sure what Portland is trying to accomplish. You know, the Celtics are sitting there with True Holiday on a not-so-great contract, and they are able to get off them for free and taking back Anthony Simons on an expiry, And you've got a Portland team that's invested all this draft capital in Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp. And you now have, you know, is Drew Holiday going to come off the bench behind Scoot Henderson? Is he going to start with Scud Henderson? You've got Denny Avdia, who they traded for last year, and who had a very nice year.

Are he and Jeremy Grant going to start on the wing? Are they going to start Shaden Sharp on the wing? They draft Donovan Klingin last year. Then they draft Jan Hansen this year. Are they going to play? Like I think Jan Hansen is more of a developmental piece. So I doubt it will play a ton this year. But I think it just sort of plays into what's been the general theme around Portland for a couple of years now,

which is the Blazers do have some talent on their roster. And they had a nice close to the season last year. I think they were 500 the second half of the year. But it's like, okay, you add Drew Holiday at his team. But where does he fit? and why are you doing this and why are you taking on all of this money to be again right up against the luxury tax when you have to you know start looking at paying these guys in the future and you've still got Jeremy Grant on your books for three years and it it was just a lot of

confusion about what they're trying to do they're sealing this year as a playing team like this this is not going to be a top six team in the west um it's certainly hard to see that barring some kind of crazy breakout for Scoot or something. Yeah, this is not going to be a team. It's a threat to do any kind of playoff damage. You know, the one thing that I will say is we started this podcast after you did a bunch of butt kiss into the referees discussing Fred Van Vleet's value to the Rockets, right? And Fred Van Blyke, Goeney, who's on a max contract.

And, man, he was worth every penny of that because of him helping to establish the culture. leadership and the toughness and the professionalism and all those kind of things. I got to think that's part of the vision and the hope with Drew Holiday in Portland. I will say as consummate of a pro as he is, I've never heard anything but great things about Drew Holley's character. One massive difference there would be Fred Van Vleet chose to go to Houston. if Drew Holiday had a trade list, I somehow doubt that Portland was very high on that. Fred Van Fleet chose to go to Houston, Houston chose to pay Fred Van Fleet.

His decision was influenced by that fact. But he chose that. Drew Holiday just woke up and was traded across the country to Portland. And again, this is a guy who he has been the finishing piece twice. He was a finishing piece from Milwaukee. He was the finishing piece in Boston. And this is a puzzle that's still very incomplete. More Hoop Collective podcast after this.

Okay, onto the best moves of the offseason, Kevin Durant trade by a good note, 11 of the 20 votes. Magic trading for Desmond Bain, number two. Yeah. A lot of people seem to like that trade, but it also might be a function of there weren't as many big giant trades. Those are the two, those are the two definitely. biggest, I would say, not just trades, but transactions.

I also told people they couldn't say both sides of the hawks trade. So you were not able to just say, yeah, the Hawks did the best and the Pelicans did the well, I just made it, it would have been kind of, I mean, if you, considering the Pelicans had the worst move handled pretty heavily, if I just gave people the option to pick it on both sides, it wouldn't have been worth asking the question. The Canadian trade, I think, is interesting. trust in because KD, obviously, we'll see if there's an extension or not, but that's probably a three-year window type of trade where they didn't sacrifice any runway, right? And the price was,

the price was not that high, where the Bain trade could potentially be a much longer term fit, obviously, because of his age, because he's just entering his prime. But the price that they paid for Bain was significantly higher. Like, that was four picks, including the Sun's unprotected pick in this next draft. That was a pretty steep price. And I'm still waiting to be convinced that the magic are going to be as heavy into the luxury tax as they are currently projected to be going forward with all four of those guys. That Desmond Bain, Jalen Suggs, and the two Max guys, Franz Vagner and Paolo Bancaro all on the roster. So it's going to be interesting to see, you know, Jeff Welmner this summer said they, you know, they want to be a team that's competing for

the East and going to the finals and doing that kind of stuff. And I mean, they've, they've got a chance to do that now. I really like the trade, but, you know, that's there. It's going to be interesting to see how they manage their finances after the amount of cash they're projected to pay. All right. This one from the Bontemps survey is particularly interesting. And I commend you for asking this question, Timothy.

Oh, thank you, Brian. Where will LeBron James be at the start of the 26, 27 season? What's your prediction, Wendy? I don't know. Oh, I don't know. It's not an option. That's controversial. It was not.

Six. Retired was an option. Okay. So six different answers. Lakers got the most, seven votes. If I had to choose one of these, I would have picked the Lakers. Okay. Obviously, it's a free agent after the season.

Second most votes retired. That's the one that would surprise me the most, but go on. Number three, Cleveland Cavs, four votes. Number four, Golden State Warriors, two votes. And then one vote each for the Dallas Mavericks. Oh, man. I would love for you to have the. deal with that on the way out the door.

Listen. And the Miami Heat. Hey, closing on a new house. We're going to have a guest room. Congratulations. Yeah, we're going to have a guest room. And just get it ready for old McMinneman. He can move right on in and let's put the mortgage 50-50.

Hey, is Luca keeping his mansion? He could just, you know, sublet it to LeBron. That's true. I don't know what Luke has done with that one. He did get the, who's the tennis player? He got the tennis player's mansion in Manhattan Beach. Do you remember when Tom Brady went to play for the Buccaneers and he like he

Got Jeter's right Derek Jeter's place? Yeah We've had we've had house swaps What was Josh Hart And who was that with Josh Hart? Oh Larry Nets

Turn to the pod Yeah Yeah That's right I think Storytime Oh another one A double story time episode

We're like four Yeah Carmello Anthony Gets midseason If you remember correctly, it was a long saga. First, the Nets wanted to trade him. And then he said, I didn't want to go to the Nets,

and then Mikhail Prokharov with a spectacular quote in the press conference. Bontas, remember that? Yeah. Meeting with Carmelo is hereby canceled. Yeah. And anyway, he gets traded to the Nix. Like a few days later, the Nix are playing the Heat. I'm covering the game sitting courtside.

And, horsy Wendy. That was back in the old days. And, you know, some of the, you know, the heat players,

you know, this is the first year of the heat, of the heatels. And, you know, coming up and telling him, you know, congratulations,

hey, you look great in Nick's uniform, blah, blah, blah. So Drina Silgouskis, the guy who I covered for eight years with the Cavs, comes up to Carmelo and tries to sell him

his townhouse in New York City. That's right. He's like five bedrooms. just redid it, you know, seven baths, you know, Upper West Side, I don't know where it was. He's like, it's awesome. He's like, hit me up. All right. Anyway, Bond Times, you had a good quote here from one of the executives, or that could have been a coach. He said, if I was taking the Lakers of the field, I take the field, but I take the Lakers over any specific team, especially given they're going with a clear path to pay him. People just, I would say just generally, people didn't really know,

I mean, not that it's a shock, but there wasn't a lot of strong opinions about it. It was, you know, like, as we've talked about, I would be interested in LeBron's answer to this. Well, I would, yeah, I think everybody would be interested in the bronze answer. But, you know, the Lakers are the one team that can definitively pay him next summer. I'm sure it'll be an NBA team if you're still playing. Ah, now we, now we, I've arrived. Not on this list. I was setting you up, Wendy.

Not on this list is other. Yeah. And we had the photo with LeBron and Maverick Carter and Mishko. Roslitovich. Roslitovich. Mishko Rasmatovich, who is one of the leading European agents, if not the most of your... That's known in America's Joker's agent, but the Nuggets. Yes.

And a lot of people jumped to conclusion that it was some... Because when Mishko posted it on his Instagram, he... I say he said something like, you know, talking about the future or something like that. Yeah. And people jumped the conclusions that it was about LeBron teaming up with Yokic. And to the point where Mishko had to come out and say that's not what they were talking about. It was in Santropay in July. I think it was in July.

It might have been in August. And he said, he went on a Serbian podcast and spoke on the record about it. I had to speak to a Serbian that I know to make sure that the translation was accurate. But what Mishko said about Maverick and LeBron. was, quote, this translation, they are planning a certain group of investors, a classic business to create a league that would somehow also compete with the NBA. They don't want it to be a U.S. league. They wanted to have a European flavor, so to speak. And when they started working on it, everyone told them to call me. And I believe he said he's had multiple meetings with Maverick about it.

Now, Adam Silver was asked about this within the last week at a conference in New York City. I think it was the front office sports conference. Yep. And he mentioned, Silver, I think, brought it up that he saw the pictures. I think you got asked about it. Okay. Anyway, he said he was aware of it, but he hasn't been following the league. And he said, competition is good.

It keeps everyone on their toes. So, other was not an option, nor would I necessarily vote for other. I didn't say other wasn't an option. If somebody had said he's going to go playing his own league, I would have said that. Well, I wouldn't say this was quite an element. fit in the room, but it's something that you know, Adam Silver sort of just, you know,

tried to sort of shrug his shoulders about, but it's not nothing. And you got, you know, Mishko on the record talking about it, albeit in Serbian. He also said that, you know, he can bring your Serbian translations. He found out, he found out

the day before that he was meeting with LeBron and he said that he went through a suitcase and found his most powerful looking shirt because he wanted to dominate the photo. Oh. So he obviously knew that there was going to be a photo that was probably going to get posted. So what's your most powerful looking shirt?

Good question. It's not this light blue Greg Norman shark shirt. I'll tell you what, man. I got some of these, I won't say the brand unless they want to sponsor us, but my birthday, Maria made sure I got some of these like really fancy, a fleaier type of T-shirts that are way more expensive. that I ever thought I'd pay for a t-shirt, but I didn't have to pay for them. Pretty nice, man.

I ain't a lie. Not wearing one. This shirt I got on now is from the old Cadillac Ranch in Southington, Connecticut. Bontips has had a few pops there, I believe. You're completely derailing this conversation. What a shock. I've never actually been to the Cadillac Ranch. I've never actually been to the Cadillac Ranch.

Yeah. Anyway, it was like a... Panic purple power shirt that Mishko is well. I'd have to analyze that. I think pinkish purple will be tough. Other is not on the board here, but, you know, he's going to be a free agent. So, and you know, right now, there's a number of older star players who are currently scheduled to be free agents next year. So I don't really have much more that I can say about it other than that.

I mean, not that I have information I'm not giving, but I'm just, it's something that exists. It's something that exists. Okay. The key was. the key question here, the bottom line, Bontems, who will win each conference in the NBA title? Western Conference pretty simple. Thunder 18 votes, Nuggets, two votes.

Not quite as lopsided as Yolkich. Well, interesting that this was pre-BAM fleet injury. The Rockets didn't get either of the two, the non-OKC votes, but. Also, NBA title, Thunder 18th, votes, nuggets, two votes. No regard for the Eastern Conference.

Naturally, the East has much more debate. Bond Temps, five different votes, five different teams get votes in the survey. Cavs with nine votes with the lead. Nix was seven votes.

And then the Hawks, Bucks, and Magic. All good votes. What was the sentiment that you collected there? I mean, I think it's pretty straightforward. The thunder or the heavy heavy heavy favorites to win the title uh i've i've found it sort of odd that there's been this reticence uh from people i think in like the at least in the media to act like you know well yeah i know there hasn't been you know all these because there hasn't been a repeat champion in a

while that it's wide open to some degree this year um It's not wide open. The Thunder think right where they should be, at least in my mind, which is the very heavy favorites to win. And if they don't win, it will be a moderate to massive disappointment barring insignificant injuries. And look, the teams that were in the NBA finals the past two years from the Eastern Conference had devastating injuries to their best players in the spring. And so there isn't a clear consensus on who should come out of the East. Sure, the Cavs of Knicks got the most votes, but everybody was like, I have no idea who to pick, and I'll settle on one of them. Or I'll pick somebody else because I don't believe in either of them.

And it's what's going to make this season so interesting, I think, in the East, because the calves, you mentioned earlier, Daris Garland is dealing with the turf toe surgery ad. Max Drews is out for who knows how long with this Jones fracture. We'll see what else happens with Cleveland during the year. The Knicks come into the season with gigantic pressure on them after making the conference finals, firing Tom Thibbido, hiring Mike Brown. Having an Eastern conference that's totally getable. The only acceptable outcome in New York will be if the Knicks make the finals. Anything short of that will be a massive disappointment for where things sit now for the news. I would say an opportunity for Jalen Brunson to achieve NICs immortality.

He already might be one of the five best Nicks ever after just like three or four years. And if he gets the next to the finals, he'll absolutely be on that list. And how many of those more thieves was Brunson guilty of? Let's get up and watch the phone. And then you've, yeah, so like it's the East is just going to be completely wide open. You got the Hawks and the magic young teams on the rise. We'll see what they can do. See what happens with, you know, Yannis having the ball in his hands.

Did the Hawks get a vote? They got a couple. Two votes. Okay. I got a couple. Orlando got a couple. Milwaukee got one with Yonis. One person voted for them was, basically, I'm just going to pick the best player

because I don't really trust anybody else. So, you know. How many votes is a six years? Last year. Do you remember? I can go look He doesn't keep I think Boston

I mean I'll have it in a spreadsheet I think My point is just this I think Boston got Boston got most of them Okay but the Sixers I bet you would finish second in last year In this particular question

Yeah probably My point is this Like the Sixers that are Completely forgotten about And were as big of a disaster as you can get last year but they've at least got a puncher's chance in this watered down Eastern Conference.

I mean, there's a whole lot of if some maybes, but. If the Sixers are healthy in the spring, they have an argument as being the most talented team in the East. Now, am I putting money on the Sixers being healthy? No. But if they are healthy, so last year, the Celtics got 13 votes to win the East, the Bucks and Nick's got two in the Sixers. sixers got one. Okay. I would have thought the Sixers got more.

One thing about the... The Celtics were coming off the title and we're very heavy things. My point stays the same, though. Like the Sixers, you at least have to consider... It's funny to say a sleeper after they were, you know, just so hyped after... I think... Did they have a championship banner for the summer of 24? They might have one up in whatever they're calling that arena these days.

Those rafters. But they're completely... to the radar now, but still have a whole bunch of ifs, but a whole bunch of talent. To the point that you've made Bontemps about the Thunder, I think we should point out that the thunder, they haven't been a taxpaying team. And I mean, they have paid the tax in the past, but they're not, if they were not a taxpayer last year, I believe they're not going to be. They will not be. They will not be.

Next year, so this year, their salaries right now are about 186 million. Next year when I say next year, I'm talking about the 26-27 season. That's when the maxes that J. Dub and Chad Holmgren signed this summer hit the books. Their payroll is going to increase by $60 million. It's going to be $245 million as we sit here today. And they've got some players with some team options. Isaiah Hartinstein and Lou Dort primarily. You know, they have draft picks.

They're going to develop whatever. You know, they certainly, you know, I think Sam Presti has talked about this, that they've planned it all out for their finances. But this will be the last year of the cheap funder. Yeah. So they're, this roster. And like I said, they may replace some of these guys very cleanly, but they are young and they are cheap.

It is quite possible that this season where they are, they've all got their championship, you know, bona fides. They've gone through game sevens and everything like that. They've got full confidence. They're super young. They're healthy. And they're cheap. Like this may be the hardest year to get them of what could be this window. Maybe not.

Maybe they draft somebody. Maybe somebody steps forward. maybe Jalen Williams takes another step forward and he becomes a first team all NBA type player alongside Shay, I don't know, whatever. Maybe they get the number one overall pick in one of these upcoming drafts. This is a decision. They have so many fair points and so many that aren't protected. I agree.

I'm just saying, you know, and there's plenty of times where talk in September looks foolish by December, much less June. But you could make the argument that the thought. under in this season are as going to be as formidable as they as they will be in this in this maybe next three or four years so um because they have this flexibility and they can keep all of these dudes together so and you know what though when when we're talking about the the financial decisions they have to make down the road i do just want to throw in there i believe that the uh 28 will be their new arena which when you get a new arena revenue goes up and they are paying less for that

arena and then they're paying shay. I think their mortgage is going to be less than years. Listen, don't give them started on that, especially. Did I miss anything on this survey, Bontemps, that you were particularly passionate about? There's a bunch of more categories. I don't want to do that. I think the one thing we should talk about that we didn't is the American players'

questions. Okay. Who is the best American player right now? Three votes. Three players got votes. Well, just to put a pin in this really quick, the reason I asked this question is because of the Jason Tatum injury in particular, because I think before Jason Tatum got hurt, he was pretty obviously the choice. He's made four straight first team all

NBAs. He's coming off winning a championship last year. It's a fantastic player. There was really no doubt that he was the answer to the question until he tore his Achilles in May. Right. The key is right now. That's right. And Tyrese Halliburton might have been the second choice, and then he tore as a kid. So, yeah. I mean, I think Ann's going to be, Anne would have been a

Well, let me give the votes. Steph Curry won with 11 votes, which, you know, it's not a great commentary in the state of American basketball. That is, that is the point. And I would have picked Steph personally.

And it's a damn good at the end with the Olympics at least. Aunt Edwards, second with eight votes. And the only other guy who got to vote, Donovan Mitchell, one vote at third.

Yeah, I mean, the fact that a 37-year-old guy is getting that honor, I think, both speaks positively towards Steph longevity and also to, you know, this next cohort of guys has not really caught up yet. Well, a 40-year-old guy is pretty high on that list still. I mean, there were, there were, there were, he didn't get a vote, but there were, he definitely, it's like, well, I mean, probably got to pick Stefan LeBron over anybody else still. and I mean, Steph's a little younger and coming off a great season. And a few, what, a few years ago, people thought John Moran was ascending to the top of this list. And that obviously has not happened for a variety of reasons. It'll be interesting if you do this question a year from now, what this list looks like. But you also asked who will be the best American player in five years?

Right. Okay. Five guys got votes here. Aunt Edwards, number one with 11 votes. strong number. Cooper flag comes in second. Five votes. That's your Dallas guy there, McMahon.

Jason Tadden with two. Palo Bancaro and J-dub Jalen Williams from the Thunder. A number with one vote. And again, I mentioned, Ah, Zion's another guy. If you'd have done this five years ago, Zion's going to be off the Iron Atlas. That's fizzled out.

No, no question. He has had nice things to say about him on NBA today this afternoon. I mean, no question about both those guys falling off the map. There were several people who said that they think Cooper easily could be that guy, but they didn't want to say that before he played an NBA game, which is reasonable, I think. And then there's also, like, I could see a world where Jane Williams continues to ascend and is in that conversation.

The guy we talked about a lot earlier on the podcast, Amend Thompson is the kind of guy that five years from now, I think there's a world where he's in that conversation, especially if he ascends the way he potentially could. You know, there's a bunch of big time talents in this upcoming draft. Maybe some of those guys bust out. But, you know, I mean, we're on a stretch where it's been, what, six or seven years in a row that an international player has won MVP. And there's a certain French fella who is potentially on the way to start doing that too.

I don't think Riesau-Shais that good. So it will be, it's interesting to think about, especially looking ahead to 2028 and what's going to be a pretty massive Olympics in L.A. for Team USA. You know, like Kevin Durant the other day said he would love to be part of Team USA if he's still playing. I'm not ruling it out. I'm not ruling it out either. I mean, he can play until he's 60 if he wants. I know LeBron said he's done. I'm not ruling out LeBron. I wouldn't, well, that's a long way from now. LeBron loves the spotlight.

What better way to exit than with an Olympic mold in LA. Until Steph, until Steph LeBron and KD are off the board, I'm not taking them off the board myself. That's all I'll say. The guy that Grand Hill needs to be working on recruitment is Chet Holmgren. We need, we as the Americans, we need size. And Chad Holmgren is a, you know, prototypical international player, floor-stretching guy who can get up and down the floor, can get out to defend a three-point shot, shot blocker, like. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting few years ahead for the American program. And we'll leave it at this because it's a long podcast already.

But the thing about it is that's challenging is, you know, because the 2028 Olympics has been brought up a little bit in the last week or something. So, you know, just a topic to talk about in his dead spot. The Americans have a challenge that they haven't had before, or at least not in a long time. They don't have to qualify. That sounds like an inverse challenge. We figure, well, you don't have to qualify because, you know, qualifying for the Olympics is hard. But if you're the host country, you don't have to qualify. And so that means that the Americans do not have a super duper incentive to have a strong team for the World Cup for 27.

That means guys playing in the 28 Olympics saying it would be. playing the next few soles. Well, unless Grand Hill says if you want to play in 28, you got to play in 27. But the problem with that is, is you've got a whole bunch of guys with equity. And it's hard to say, you know, Devin Booker, you know, or somebody who's got multiple golds to do that. That was Jerry Colangelo did it coming off of a loss. Right. It's of won five straight gold. There's a whole bunch of guys who have won gold medals. And the 27 World Cup is in, is in Qatar. And it's in like August or September. And it's just not a place that people want to go.

You know, they're not lining up. Who's covered that for us? Good question. I nominate Bon Temps. Are they going to be Bon Temps? What was your, what was the Americans record in the Olympics on your watch? They lost one game, the two Olympics I covered. Okay.

So all goals. Now, the American's record on the World Cups, I covered three and the ain't one yet. I said. I covered a sixth place team and a seventh place team and a third place team. The three world comes. Six seven and six seven. It's a meme for the youngsters. Doha is gorgeous, Bontemps, in late August.

It's gorgeous. Sounds delightful. All right. Thank you very much to Jackson for stitching this all together. Thank you very much to Bontemson McMahon. Thank you for watching, listening to The Hoot Collect. We'll talk to you next week. Maybe.

For now, I'll just say audio. My friends.