Kyrie’s Return, Klay’s Future & Teams To Watch At Deadline | The Hoop Collective

Kyrie’s Return, Klay’s Future & Teams To Watch At Deadline | The Hoop Collective

Hello and welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we’re doing late on Tuesday evening joining me from the bar Clay Center where he’s gone for two nights in a row last night with Warriors Nets that was a interesting little post game interview

You had there Bon Temps and uh tonight Kyrie Irving’s return I believe one year to the day since he was traded uh to the Mavericks from the Nets where the Mavericks were victorious by 12 points Tim bontemps between Kevin Durant coming back last week Kyrie IR coming back

Today and the Warriors being here yesterday it’s been an eventful few days in Brooklyn not having to worry about the old Mavericks tonight and handing it off to bontemps and letting him deal with Kyrie Irving it’s ban McMahon from Dallas howdy Partners listen anytime I

Can give bonds my work it gets me in a good mood you know what else gets me in a good mood when I get a shipment with some free Gear Baby some free gear ah look at this look at this t-shirt ah it’s a good material tell the audio

Listeners where you where it came from pal I’m getting to it don’t you dare interrupt me the brussa Bearcats men’s basketball program niia program in Owensboro Kentucky my guy Jake Davis the alumni director hooked it up Sarah gayor the head coach coach listen this is a

Good one the first woman to be a men’s head coach in Nia history before that was in the Milwaukee Bucks uh basketball operations Department actually won a championship ring dude not only a t-shirt there’s really nice card handwritten notes listen part of the handwritten notes and fellas kind of

Got a little ver climp when I read this I looked that up to make sure I was using it correctly coach Gaylor says we are honorar Banning you from our gym the mo Center for basketball games I am honorar banned from prussia’s gym that’s a shame because t-shirt Owens bro Kentucky would

Be your kind of town I feel like um McMahon McMahon’s quest for free gear is we don’t need him getting more more reason to ask for people to send in more stuff don’t need it oh yes we do so anyway well I’m glad that you’re

All happy I I I wonder if Luca will give him a handwritten note if that’s GNA get him ver CLT Bon Temps maybe Luka can bury this hatch he might give him a note with his hand but probably not a handwritten note listen if Luca gets me banned it will not be honor

Earily right he’s working on that okay um Kyrie had 36 points in this return game tonight um and it was second night of a back toback he’s coming off an injury uh wasn’t 100% sure he was going to play but he did and he played well Luca had

35 um I saw some of your tweets about what was going on there tonight bontemps but uh I guess I have to ask what the atmosphere was when Kyrie was introduced there was no atmosphere it was it might as well have been a a regular Tuesday in November like it was

It it was sort of the opposite of his entire tenure here which was just full of insanity and noise on all sorts of levels he kind of referred to it obliquely in his comments saying you know essentially I made some mistakes which that is maybe the understatement

Of the century but uh you know it was jarring I mean as someone who covered this team back when it moved to Brooklyn 12 years ago it is jarring how much things have degraded at least how it feels anyway from an atmosphere standpoint here like it just doesn’t

Feel like there’s any fans really for the Nets at all at these games like you come every night and the visiting team is getting massive cheers compared to the home team and whenever Kyrie made a shot the cheers were a lot louder than the handful of booze he was getting from

The home fans I don’t think it’s because there was like a massive amount of Nets fans cheering for Kyrie I think there were a lot of Mavs fans here cheering for Kyrie and Luca and it’s just sort of what it’s been like on a nightly basis

Of late and it it made for kind of a weird atmosphere I mean perhaps the funniest part was you know last week when Kevin was here they did a you know welcome back video and a nice little tribute today they just do welcome back to Kyrie to Seth Curry who played like a

Year and a half here played like 80 games and Mark eth Morris who played 27 games here had them all like lumped in together welcome back guys hey D did Mr whammy have a sign I I was not I did not see Mr whammy I’m sure he had a sign he

Always does um but yeah it was a weird it was a weird night and Kyrie was in a good mood afterward and per usual said a lot of stuff some of it he tweeted after the game before he tweet after the game before I mean it was all fine I mean you

Know it was there was no there was no real drama or controversy for once right well he said thank you for everything God I got to stay poised through the chaos and hate the next generation is watching was there chaos and hate there tonight or was was he just referring to you know

I I don’t miscellaneous chaos and hate miscellaneous I think okay I mean the the he got Sage did any Sage I didn’t see any burn okay I mean this was really the quote of the day he got asked by Brian Mahoney from the AP was was there

Something that could have been done to have you not asked for a trade and he said I don’t want to get too deep into it because I love protecting the people that I’m in business with even if it doesn’t work out he does well that it’s amusing when you get into what he

Said next again I wish all those guys well but conversations that needed to be had weren’t had before the trade deadline and I don’t know if something need to be anything needed to be salvaged I just think it was time to get my own peace of mind and go somewhere

Where I was able to thrive and be in a situation where I didn’t have to worry about kind of behind the back talk or the media talk or not knowing how to handle real life circumstances that have nothing to do with the game of basketball it has everything to do with

How you handle someone as a person so that would seem to be having things to say about people you were working with I don’t know but by Kyrie standards that is a molehill and there wasn’t really anything else that happened and the Mavs are way better than the Nets

And if anything else the last week as a reminder of like the Nets had these two guys on the team and there was all this promise of what it could be and ultimately they won one playoff series and it ended with a whimper and now they’ve got this team that’s gone five

And 15 in their last 20 games and going into the trade deadline it’s kind of rudderless well and they won one playoff series and gave up all the draft capital and the Nets are right back in the place not geographically but metaphorically where they’ve been for most of the

Franchises history and that is NBA irrelevancy you know I mean it just is what it is they’re a lot more fun though they they now well that’s some like that was like their goal they were so you know they wanted a team that was like High character and fun to watch and

Support and everything well unfortunately they’re not that fun to watch um there’s nothing fun about the Nets these days they’re not it’s just it’s not I’m not trying to be a hate or anything but it’s like they’re not a particularly fun team to watch they’re

Not a team that has a chance to do anything other than maybe sneak into the bottom of uh the play in you know I mean maybe they can scrap and become an eight seed um and there’s no benefit to being bad unless you’re with the Houston Rockets and then you’re you’re loving

The way things are working out in Brooklyn they listen and every franchise would have done the same thing they did if they had a chance to sign Katie and Kyrie you do that a 100 times out of a hundred it just ended up going about as poorly as it could and Kyrie needed

To get out of there it like it was chaos it was it was a you know and much of it self-inflicted you know I think we’ve talked a lot about Kyrie so far in Dallas very mixed results on the floor um you know it’s almost a full year now

The Mavericks are sub 500 over the course of that year now five games above 500 this year Luca and Kyrie have only played 40 games together now they are went and 11 together last year 14 and 10 now this year honestly I was surprised Luca played 40 some odd minutes tonight

Given that Kyrie was back I saw Luca said that it’s not near his tax when you have Kyrie with him but still and then you know like I said in the group chat Kyrie since he’s been in Dallas I think the citizenship has been outstanding bom temps you kind of scof

At that but like dude he’s been a good dude he’s been a good by comparison to what was going on in Brooklyn I think that’s fair yeah like he’s been great in the community honestly just from my own personal perspective he’s been very pleasant to deal with um his teammates

Love him so on and so forth and then his his attendance has been not great you know he gets hurt a lot and when he gets hurt it takes a while to come back and then you know he hadn’t but there’s been no kind of controversy and that’s

Certainly true you know Kyrie like night there are times when when interviewing Kyrie is kind of like defending him you better really be locked in if you want to stay in front of him and then sometimes you think you know where he’s going and you still get lost three or

Four times and kind of look around like I don’t know what the hell just happened you know some sometimes he he you know he’ll he’ll go back and forth and side to side and threw the legs on you and just leave you kind of really clueless and

He had a few tangents like that tonight that’s okay yeah well even those are more rare these days than they were in Brooklyn um uh they’re at least harmless they’re they’re harmless but you know a year in has it really made any impact in Dallas no it hasn’t I mean not and you

Know obviously they hope The Best Is Yet To Come um the Mavericks it’s not just Kyrie not just Luca but like Lively’s gotten banged up a lot he just had no surgery hopefully he’ll be back soon sounds like not before the uh not not before the end of this road

Trip certainly and we’ll see about before the All-Star break I actually had that same uh surgery my senior in high school when I was slap boxing somebody end up taking a right hook to the schneer and ended up on the wrong like under my right

Eye um I got out of like three weeks of practice but I was I was not exactly I don’t think anyone’s I don’t think if it’s quite called a schneer but why that’s that’s a dog that’s a dog whatever man a schnaz that thing this thing right in the middle of my

Face to roll it back roll it back a second he’s podcast gold he’s podcast gold okay that’s number one sometimes number two slap boxing well it was like fake Finance so I’ve actually broke in my nose three times first time bus stop in first grade I smarted off to my older

Brother and it was cold so I had like the hands inside the jacket from behind he did the foot in front of my legs push in the back I got my hands in the jacket I went right down face first on the ground that’s like right out of a

Christmas story hey I’m gonna tell you right now though I played my peeee football game that weekend um of course you did you’re a Texan and then Senior High School you know it was kind of like play maybe more Shadow Boxing than slap boxing but uh oh oh

Jose I believe last name was P if I can recall correctly he caught me with a a right hook it was in what happened to the dog and then so I got that thing the dog got hit in the story right Bon s the dog got hit

Dog yeah the dog got beaten oh my God so I got it straighten back out God was able to skip like three weeks of track practice which the only thing worse than track is field so I was actually ecstatic about that trust me I I know when what did you do

Shot no I weighed like a buck 85 no I didn’t do no damn shot put the 400 and high jump and a bunch of other crap I hate and then freshman year at col did you ever have any trouble going over those hurdles oh dude I they tried to

Get me the 300 hurdles and I was like you know my leg doesn’t do that like flip out thing and so I was like Super Mario brother and over there I did it once and they were like no this a’t I was like I tried telling you like I

You’re the one who told me to do it I tried telling you we gotta we gota we got to get we got to get off high school track stories we got to get back to to work what my freshman freshman 1211 it’s 12 a.m. 12 it’s 1211 a.m. we got to move

Fast track if I agree with you I agree with you but I have no idea what this guy’s gonna say so I just I mean I don’t either but this has turned into a Kye anyway der der Livy got his nose busted up his nose and had

Surgery but he does have track practice Oris snower that I know of look here I mean here’s the thing with the Mavs Mavs are 28-23 after this win they’re only four games ahead of the Warriors in 11th like I’m not saying they’re going to end up in 11th again but like for everything

That’s gone on you can look at it and say well Kyrie and uh Luca have played a combined 20 24 games together and they’re five games over 500 and they’re in seven so there’s upward Mobility you could also say they’re one LCA extended absence away from being maybe in the

Same spot they we were in last year so for a team that as we talked about going back to last summer after the disaster that was the end of last season how big this year was and where they finished and the momentum they had going one way

Or the other heading into some pretty critical times as far as trying to convince Luca this is a place to be long term it’s a pretty interesting couple of months left to see how this season winds up they are trying to do something here at the deadline um they have been as far

As I am told reasonably active in talks trying to get basically Talent I’ve heard several different concepts of constructions and I’m not going to go into names because I don’t want aggregation up the Yang here I get it enough already um the names that I’m hearing are not

Gonna change the balance of power in the Western Conference but they’re definitely trying to bring some more talent in you know the challenge is is that they’re already kind of expensive I’m not sure how the new owners are spending and they’ve got one first round pick and

Two second round picks you know like I’m already hearing you know there’s GNA be some guys get get get traded this week I think for four and five second round picks like we saw last year um yeah certain to come the nor in recent years yeah and like um you know there there’s

There’s um five teams that have double digit and we always talk about first round draft picks and how that’s gotten sideways there’s five teams that have double digit second round picks the Thunder have 20s something the Thunder have 21 the Knicks have 11 the magic have 12 the Spurs have 16

And the Wizards have 15 and that in fact that’s one of the things um one of the players that I think could go for like a bunch of second round picks if he gets traded is tyus Jones because the Wizards have been trying to get a first round pick for him and I

Don’t think have gotten it or otherwise I think he would have been traded so the Wizards have 15 second round picks and they might get like another basket full if they move tus Jones so um uh so my point is though the Mavericks have two so you know if they’re trying to get

A player they can’t even do the here’s five second round picks move you know they’re just very they’re very limited and if they yeah they’re light on draft capital and they’re light on you know attractive uh trade Assets in in terms of players on their roster obviously

Luca is not getting traded Kyrie’s not getting traded you can forget about Derek Lively and then it gets pretty dicey after that you know there is interest in in Josh green um but he’s up and down and then he’s you know he signed the extension so there’s the

Poison pill complications and all that Jaden Hardy’s a guy who hasn’t had a great sophomore year his trade value is is taken a dip uh you know maybe there’s some teams who like Olivier Maxin Prosper but that’s based on I mean he’s not playing so yeah it’s based on pre-draft

Valuation it’s not based on anything you’ve seen this season um so listen they’re going to be they are being aggressive they definitely want to upgrade um I expect them to do something uh I I don’t know how much they can really move the needle given the circumstances yeah uh okay bonts

Before we move on to some other stuff I I do want to ask you about Monday night when the warriors were there the Warriors I think won by about 10 and um but that wasn’t the takeaway also the Warriors um won where only one player made a three-pointer Steph made four

That was it for the Warriors and it was the first time a team had won when only one player made threes since 2017 it’s happened a few times since then but where the team actually won um now the Warriors are still High three-point shooting volume team I think

They came into tonight fourth in the league in average makes per game but n none of that was the focus the focus was the interview that you did with Anthony Slater of the athletic with Klay Thompson which was very raw uh the footage was everywhere today and I

Wondered if he could take us through that a little bit yeah it was it was pretty jarring because I you know as everybody who’s listening probably knows I spent a couple years living in the bay being around that team every day you think they know that do you think they know

Bont’s history I would imagine if people are listening to the Pod for this long they would at least have some idea if they if they knew they forgot because no one gives a crap they grew up on a dairy farm ladies and gentlemen I was okay all right yeah

That’s that’s great let’s let’s just let’s just go back to recounting thec man’s track and field highlights the point is we have all spent a lot of time around the war you know Bon ran cross country in high school I did I was good at still runs which God I

Mean running voluntarily are you kidding me all right sorry Klay Thompson it was my fault I’m sorry it’s all it’s all good uh we just have this pod go till 2:30 in the morning it’ll be fine um we’ve all spent a lot of time around this Warriors team and all of us really

Have seen them sort of from beginning to end life cycle wise and we don’t really get a chance to see that anymore in the league without I mean we’re just talking about Kyrie Irving right like these Stars especially are just transient players a lot of times in the league

LeBron James has changed team several times Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving you know good on the list a lot of these guys have changed teams over and over again these Warriors guys have all been together for years and you watch now and Monday night like you mentioned Klay

Thompson for the second time in three games is not closing the game that’s notable it’s also notable because he’s not closing the game in favor of GE Santos who is a 55th overall pick in the 2022 draft who the Warriors signed this year in large part to keep their luxury

Tax bill down as a as a second round pick is salaries a lot lower he’d played 61 total minutes in the NBA this year over eight games before Monday night and then he’s playing the final six minutes of the game in a five-point game and Klay Thompson’s watching from the bench

And after the game as you know people probably saw in the video like clay to his credit answered every question but was clearly having a really hard time yeah and it was pretty hard to do frankly like because you weren’t sure if he was G to actually get emotional

Talking about you know he just got out of the shower so I don’t know but his eyes were red yeah I’m not saying he was about to cry but it wasn’t if he had cried it wasn’t far away he was trying to come up with the right words to say and I think

He deser frankly I think he deserves credit for how he handled it because he W like for people who haven’t really been around clay he always sounds kind of short so it might have sounded like he was mad but I think he was genuinely happy for the younger players on the team

Like he talked about how proud he was of a guy like G Santos who’s been playing in the G League comes up and helps them win a game but like he said you’re talking about a guy who was one of the best players in the league who I think

It’s sort of been lost because he’s come back and played pretty well missed two entire Seasons with an Achilles tear and then an or an ACL tear and then an Achilles tear has bounced back from that that back-to-back 20-point Seasons which is very impressive and even even this

Year he’s averaging 17 points a game and shooting 38% from three it’s not like he’s unplayable no if he was like on a different team and he was being made available at the trade deadline people be like oh he’s worth two first round picks right like that he’s still a good

He’s still a good player who can help teams win games but he’s not the player he was and on this Warriors team that has had truly a crazy season on every level on and off the court dealing with tragedy off the court having all these crazy games good and bad mostly bad on

The court a big storyline of the season has been clay not finishing games or whether he finishing games or not whether you know sometimes Steve C’s getting criticized from having him out there other times there’s questions about whether he should be and it seemed like a pretty clear line of demarcation

On Monday with him not playing Steve cerr pretty frankly talking about it’s hard as players get older to manage things play addressing it in the locker room Draymond in sort of the most classic Draymond fashion inserting himself into the story in a completely ridiculous way and frankly making an

Awkward situation more so Steph trying to in like also sort of typical sta fashion try to as delicately handle a pretty difficult situation as possible but like Klay Thompson’s going to be a free agent this offseason those negotiations are going to be I think awfully interesting because he is still

A decent player but he’s clearly not the player he was and he’s certainly not a guy who’s worth a Max contract which he’s on now and for a Warriors team that’s had like I said before just so much stuff happened over the last decade it just it was just a fascinating day to

Be around them and you know we’ll see what happens over the next couple months but what seems clear is you’ve got Steph Curry who’s still really really good you’ve got Brandon psky and Jonathan kaminga as young players who are ascendant you’ve got Draymond Green who still is seen as a

Pretty integral piece there and then you’ve got Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson who were key parts of the title team a year and a half ago that have had vacillating roles there and as of now it looks like Clays in particular is receding well and and I would even

Put cavon Looney in that group too with well he’s just been receded completely yeah at this point but but look Clay’s the one who people really care about because he’s a Hall of Fame player he was a star I mean I don’t know Superstar might be a bit much but I mean we’re

Talking about one of the best Shooters of all time who has as he’s reminded people four rings and was a huge part of those four rings you know one of the most important games of this entire run yes had game six in 2016 which as someone side Courtside for that game in

Oklahoma City I can tell you I will never forget being in the locker room on Monday and I will never forget being at that game in big man can say whatever he wants I will never forget being at that game in Oklahoma City and the way clay turned that game around when the

Warriors were dead and their see their 73 and was going to end in Oklahoma City and Kevin Durant was going to the finals and Klay Thompson made sure it didn’t I was top of the lower bowl but I’ll never forget it either you were you were there barely doing any

Work like I said rich I was head of the pink parrot post game um I thought that that was one of the most raw postgame interviews I’d seen since I’ve been covering the league I said that on NBA today today and Austin Rivers and Richard Jefferson like

Freaked out they were like 20 years I was like one of I didn’t say it was the most but one of the most just raw because he’s dealing with his emotions in real time that everybody’s seeing and we all know him so well and like you said bontemps because these guys have

Been together so long we’ve all seen things and and it’s such a blow to the pride of a guy who for you know he for most of his career he’s one of the best players in the league you know’s he’s one of the best Shooters in league

History he’s one of the great Champions that’s ever come through and obviously the injuries are part of this but you know at 33 he probably feels especially when you see the 35y old guy who he’s been sharing a backourt with basically his whole career he probably feels like

Hey he should still be in the tail end of his Prime and he’s just he’s not washed he’s not washed up he’s not washed up so let’s you know like he’s a he’s a solid NBA player who whether he’s going to close a game or not at this

Point is a night bynight caseby casee basis and that is so far from what he’s accustomed to being I get it here’s the other thing though if Steve Kerr whether he’s right or wrong feels that GE Santos is a better choice to finish a game they gota he’s got to do it because

They can’t he’s got to do whatever he can to win every game he’s got oh just get the play yes that’s what I’m saying so like look if if that’s especially the way their season’s gone when they’ve lost every possible close game imaginable including the game before in

Atlanta when they had another eight or ninepoint lead with a minute and a half to go blew the game and lost it in overtime when Steph had 60 right yeah and and I didn’t sense any hint of Klay Thompson pouting but that doesn’t mean it’s an

Easy pill to swallow I I I I what I got was a guy who is really struggling with the reality that he’s not the guy he used to be and those days are gone and you know kind of recalibrating his own expectations I think um and like it’s also like the

Fact he’s going into free agency this summer is he back in Golden State that’s how could that not be on his mind I mean for you know the financial stuff like he’s not going to get close to Max and if he leaves he’s not going to get close to

Max I you know it’ll be closer to mid- level Max well look I I don’t have any idea what’s gonna what the world’s gonna look like in July the question will be is would clay leave the Warriors in a money decision yeah you know in other words like obviously there’s a certain number

But like you know if if the offers were all equal equal or you know it was just a little bit more would he leave because we’ve seen you know we’ve seen some guys stay with the Warriors for less money so that’s that’s the question hly those guys might be gone by the trade

Deadline well that’s true we’ll talk about that in a couple minutes um speaking of the west standings we had change at the top of the West on Tuesday night um the Clippers uh eak ahead of the uh Thunder the Thunder um lves and the Wolves the the Wolves and

The Thunder both lost the uh the Jazz um beat the Thunder in um in Salt Lake um back of a back-to-back wins for Will Hardy and Jazz by the way beat the beat the Bucks Sunday with a ridiculous comeback in the fourth quarter and then win the fourth quarter against the

Thunder tonight it’s a pretty couple wins the Jazz who the Warriors are chasing to try to get into the uh into the play but yeah the it’s essentially a four-way tie for first in the west but because the Clippers have played a couple fewer games they are percentage

Points uh ahead like gam games behind they’re all even Clippers 34 and 15 and then Thunder Wolves and the nuggets are all 35 and 16 I think I think if you’re three and six or three and seven start the season something like that yeah I think what they lose like the first five

After the Harden trade and I remember tyo their third game after the Harden trade they got smoked in Dallas and tyo after that game if it’s not a direct quote it’s really close he said you you know teams better get us now and he was basically saying like we’re going to be really

Really good I’m just telling you you better get us now while we’re figuring stuff out and he’s been absolutely right you know one of the things they figured out was Russ has gotta come off the bench or you know Russ figured that out but since since they made that uh that

Move like Harden has been exactly what they wanted kawh Leonard’s playing at eight at a first team all-nba type of level some people trying to put him in the MVP discussion I’m not quite ready for that the Paul George has been phenomenal the piece is fit tyo is a

Proven Championship coach and look if if you’re going to look into a crystal ball obviously you can’t you can’t predict injuries but I think it’s very likely that the Clippers and Nuggets in you know one order or the other are going to be one two coming out

Of the West I I think they’re clearly the two best teams in the Western Conference that’s no disrespect to the Thunder who are going to be good for a long long time that’s no disrespect to the Timberwolves um who you know the Timberwolves just the their struggles closing games and protecting big leads

Keep on fighting them it happened again on Tuesday I don’t know how big the lead that the Bulls overcame it was double digits six it was 23 in the SEC in the third quarter knows that much yeah they’ve they’ve had I think they they’ve blown four double digit

Leads in the fourth quarter in the last like two weeks or two and a half weeks BPI by the way has uh the season ending with the Clippers in first the thunder in second the wolves in third and the Denver Nuggets in fourth well that’s the

Way it is right now that’s great BPI work there by BPI 71% chance of the Clippers having the number one seed well I don’t know I watched the Denver Nuggets roll to a championship last year so you can give me nerdy numbers I’m going to trust my

Eyeballs on that one I thought winning the West that was seeds seeds I’m I think the I think the nuggets are gonna do pretty well down the stretch season I yeah I’m not I’m not arguing I’m not arguing with you on that but look when you talk about

No disrespect to the thunder in the in the Wolves I mean at the end of the day we’ve seen Kawhi Leonard two finals MVPs and like we talked about I think we talked about it the other day with regard to the Celtics game or I talked

About it I think on the Monday pod with home um when Kawhi Leonard’s going up against Jason Tatum or just about anybody else outside of maybe Nicole yic you’re taking Kawhi Leonard and who’s the best player if he’s healthy just about every time when you got that guy

On your team you you’ve got a puncher’s chance at minimum and that’s before you start looking at the rest of the Clippers you’re taking them over KD I mean that’s one where I think it depends on maybe the day or how they’re playing but I think if you ask me Peak

Kawhai P KD in the playoffs might take kawhai I have to think about that one are you taking him over Luca right now honestly I think I would in the playoffs I think I would in the playoffs yeah because kawai’s doing it at both ends and Luca’s

Not yeah that I have such high respect for KD but kawai’s kawai’s top end is pretty high I’m not we haven’t seen it he hasn’t got through the playoffs healthy literally in four years so since they lost in the bubble so like let’s see if he can get

To the end healthy but if healthy he’s right there with anybody and that’s before you look at Paul George before you look at the way hardens fit in you mention Russell Westbrook we’ve given him a lot of grief on this pod deservedly so he has bought into this

Bench rooll played really well they’ve got depth across the board they could maybe add another piece this week we’ll see what they end up doing like there hey ju just wait until the Russ for Sixth Man of the Year hype gets rolling you know well listen it it’ll be it

Won’t be deserved this year but it’ll be a lot more deser than it was last year has there ever been a guy who won MVP and won six man of the year that look like stats Williams to you I mean bill Bill Walton I remember off the top of my

Head boom in your face The Whiz of the quiz knows Brian did Brian Brian stay freeze or is he just is he just my mouth was frozen I was trying to think uh that’s a good one that’s good I mean Bill Walton definitely won both so

He did that’s there’s at least one I don’t know if anybody else did okay hard Jackson chimes in oh in the other order but yes in the other order Bill Walton in the order you’re thinking of but yes that’s right James Harden too good job Jackson this is this is from

Stats Williams on kawh Leonard over the last 30 Games 30 is a big number that’s a lot of games that’s big sample size theater right there and the Clippers are 25 and five in those games this is his last 30 games not the Clippers last 30 because he did

Miss some with the hip injury 26 points a game 57 per from the field and he’s taken a lot of jumpers okay he’s you know 51% from Three Holy mes 92 at the line so 50 5090 almost 60 5090 I tell you what man he is also

Springy like he is finishing Above the Rim through contact like he is looks great looking athletic as hell yeah let’s let’s um take you some more into the shooting numbers because stats Williams did a lot of work on this all right 75% from inside 5 feet okay that’s fifth best in the

League 54% from five to nine feet sixth best 53% from 10 to 14 feet 10th best 46% from 15 to 19 10th best which I actually thought he’d be better than that because that’s his bread and butter 49% from 20 to 24 feet 7th 52% from 25 to 29 feet best in the

League amongst people with at least 50 attempts so 50 attempts it’s not like he shot four of them out there and made so when you look at when you look at his shot chart it’s all just neon green neon green across the board um and then he stats Williams was doing this thing

Where he was showing us using the second Spectrum data like how Kawai is doing this with like the the flattest shot in the league he has it’s like a dart that’s always been the case yeah I know um so what what it means is you got to have

Really good lift for it to go in right cuz he can’t make up for poor lift um his uh his average Arc is about the same as sadique Bay who shoots 29% on jum gon say Arc similar percentage not uh and so basically sad Bay throwing line drives in there and making 29%

Which ranks last in the league uh for guys who have 150 jumpers Kawai goes in 51% of the time which is first in the league so like he is having a historically now I got the voodoo right on him he’ll go two of 17 tomorrow night or something um games on ESPN I

Think um anyway uh he’s playing great uh but you certainly you know if you as you try to project this out the Timberwolves and the Thunder who have very very little playoff experience on their roster they need the higher seeds more than the Clippers and Nuggets

If the Nuggets end up with the four seed it’ll be a minor inconvenience going to play well or not the one thing I push back on is home court when your home court is Mile High o 5,280 feet high with the video but the altitude like they lost one playoff game

At home last year like that is that’s true to Brian but to Brian’s point if if Denver is in a series with Minnesota or Oklahoma City where they don’t have home court they’re not going to be bothered they might not maybe they ultimately won’t win the

Series but they’re not going to go into it thinking oh man we’re going to be in trouble because we don’t have home court in the series maybe they get maybe they get beat but you know it’s more important for Minnesota yeah you know yeah for younger for younger teams it’s

Obviously a huge advantage to to have those games at home and look for as great like we’ve talked a ton about Shay and ant and as great as those guys are and as bright a Futures as those guys have look Shay’s got a chance to maybe

Win MVP as soon as this year right the way he’s playing and the way thunder plan but Nicole yic has gone on to win Finals MVP kawai’s done it twice like let’s see those guys do it in the I think we need to see them have playoff

Runs and do it in the playoffs and win Series in the playoffs before we’re going to put them ahead of Denver and the Clippers based off of the history that those elite players on those teams have yeah um so four-way Dead Heat basically in the West 50 games into the

Season so that’s certainly fascinating and by the way we got a three-way Dead Heat for second in the East right well the bus after the Bucks lost again today yeah the Bucks uh just lost a few minutes ago to the Suns the Bucks and the Knicks are both um two games back in

The Lost column to the Cavs right now who are in second uh listen Doc Rivers second win as the Bucs head coach might not be until the All-Star Game God half game back in the standings of the Cavs right not quite a dead heat to your point but but they’re all Bunch

Right up in the standings yeah um by the way we had some injuries in the NBA on Tuesday night and this is gonna um you know we’ll have to see how this all works out Jaylen Brunson rolled his ankle pretty good I don’t think it’s like you know I just checked withan

Begley who was at the game our former colleague he he tweeted he walked out without a limp no boot okay or anything okay Dante de venzo declared the Jaylen Brunson was good said he told him he was good when he asked him so everything was fine so we will see what happened he

Rolled it pretty good it would not surprise me if he if it was a little bit oh yeah no I know I’m just I’m just saying what I’m just saying what was reported to mind one of my favorite quotes about LeBron which was during a playoff series I think early in his

Career where he rolled his ankle similarly in a playoff Ser in the you know key game and um LeBron wasn’t available to the media so we asked his teammates you know like and it was Larry Hughes and uh said Larry what do you think of this LeBron rolling his ankle

Do you think he’ll be okay and he goes have you seen his ankles and he like put his hand up and like you know indicated like the size of a bicep and LeBron did play the next game so hopefully brunson’s okay also uh Chris Middleton um the Bucks just can’t the Bucks are

Are in some struggles struggleville right now um at least they didn’t let the uh the uh Suns put up 140 tonight that they they didn’t have Brook Lopez who’s missed the last few games for person reasons they didn’t have Damian Lillard I believe that was an ankle for him

Brain ankle yeah and then Middleton left that game early with with an ankle spray in the first quarter not not ideal but not an ideal stretch now one and four with uh Doc Rivers at the hill right so hopefully these injuries aren’t serious um but just reinforces it you know like

You you know Milwaukee John Horst has been Ultra aggressive every year at the trade deadline they don’t have a ton of assets they got a they got Portland second I believe this year which is a pretty interesting second they don’t have a lot of salaries they can move

Really but whatever they can come up with I’m sure Milwaukee will do because John has always been super aggressive at the deadline adding pieces and I suspect they’ll find some way to add something yeah between now and Thursday we’ll just see what it is but he’s trying to turn

Three packs of ramen noodles into a into a meal sounds like you during the pandemic I’m not I’m not to be clear I’m not saying they’re going to wind up with some star I just suspect they’re going to find a way to come up with something

But we’re also looking at a trade market where you got a lot of teams trying to come up with something and it just as of as of this moment we’ll see if it changes but with like I guess what 36 hours or so till the trade deadline

There’s not a lot of optimism there’s that there’s going to be a lot of excitement yeah and so we’ll talk about the trade deadline right now and it just tells you we’re this far in into the Pod before we’re really talking a lot about trades which is an indication our feel

Talking to folks in the league is that it ain’t buzzing with activity now we’re gonna see deals we’re GNA see a a number of players get moved around whether or not it’s going to really change the balance of power I don’t know now Milwaukee is definitely

Trying I was talking to a team just last night where um he’s been talking with Milwaukee and they were like they must have dozens of trade scenarios that they’ve been pitching trying three-way deals trying all kinds of stuff to basically to get anybody in there who can defend a little bit uh particularly

On the perimeter um they have two second round picks that they’re allowed to trade no firsts uh one of them is Portland’s pick this year um they can try to repack at some swaps like Phoenix did too if they want to really try to get creative to to try to manufacture

Something too but that’s you know you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re swapping already SWA picks yeah that’s right well and you are correct bon samas John horse has done a deal in four the last five deadlines so um you know we didn’t really think they

Had much that they could do last year and he came up with Jay Crowder Crowder traed four traded five seconds for Crowder traded four seconds for niik metic like they’ve they’ve consistently gone out and gotten players right at the deadline and I’m I’m sure he’ll be like you said their history indicates they’re

Going to try everything they can to do something and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to look at their team and say they need to find some people who can guard people and we’ll see if they can so what we’re watching in the league right now um

Brooklyn has been involved in a lot of different conversations and they’ve been in conversations where they’re selling pieces and there’s been in conversations where they’re buying pieces um Spencer Den witty is the most available piece there if they’re buying they maybe attach something to him and bring it in

If they’re selling the question is do they sell Royce O’Neal and Dori Andor Dorian finy Smith um their asking price for both I think has been pretty high but those are some role players that could be interesting um they’re 10 games under 500 now so um five and 15 since

The infamous tank game against Milwaukee which joh tried to like say oh you know people have criticized us for guys in the past regard to all the guys they have out injured right now but I mean you can say whatever you want they were 500 going into that game and their

Season’s been an object as as or since so I don’t know if it’s cause and effect because let’s be honest like they weren’t they’re not it’s not a good Rost I would I would say it’s 100% cause and effect because they were a decent team that was literally sitting at 500 and

From that moment on they’ve been a disaster bontemps has been annoyed with that since the moment it happened well I’ll just look at their games I mean they’ve been terrible since then know I I want to say something about causation and correlation but I’m not sure I know what either one of those

Words means you pronounced them right yeah that’s good yes that’s good I think they went over that real you’re making real sub you’re making real strides from a vocabulary standpoint yeah I think they went over that in your third sophomore year of college and I say that with love my guy

I say that with love listen I’m eight years in college I’m twice as smart as either of you guys clearly not in position to listen I’m not messing with you you can hit me right in the schneer you’re the one getting all the free swag pal you’re doing something

Right well done I am definitely not Shadow or slap boxing with anybody much less McMahon he’s got the reach you know McMahon believes that no no boxer under six foot has any chance no slap boxer um Philly so that’s right probably the most interesting thing that’s happened

This week so far is that Joel embiid um had had a surgery that did not rule him out for the season now I think there’s there’s some Nuance in here had they gone into that surgery uh on Tuesday and procedure they have not called it a

Surgery being Vegas I I you know he tore his meniscus and he needed surgery okay um coming out of that event that happened in an operating room um if they had had to repair it I think they would have said he’s out for the season seon so the fact that it is re-evaluating

Four weeks indicates that it was a meniscus sectomy which means they removed some of the meniscus which means that it t it typically enables you to come back in the four to eight week range now they may get to four weeks and decide with where their team is and decide with

Where his recovery is that they’re not going to do it so I don’t want to make it sound like I have any idea I don’t think they know either but they are now operating in talks like he’s going to come back and hopefully before the playoffs so I would expect Philly to

Make one to three trades before Thursday afternoon um and I would also expect them to try I’m not saying they’re going to accomplish this I would expect them to try to acquire players that either have expiring contracts or that have next year salaries that are not fully guaranteed or that could easily be

Offloaded I think they want to hedge their bets not just with embiid’s injury but hedge their bets on what happens with this season so that if they need to go back and open up the 50 million in cap room that they’re currently kind of holding they can so it would not

Surprise me so you know they have a whole bunch of guys with expiring contracts the most likely guys to go are Marcus Morris Robert Covington fan corkman maybe Daniel house if you get down the list um and I expect them to try to get guys back who are on so you

Talking about targeting a guy like Bruce Brown team option targeting a guy like uh buan bogdanovich Team option they’re gonna try to get a maybe a backup center who can sort of play center minutes so you’re talking about potentially a guy like Kelly lenck who’s in the last year

Of his deal Andre Drummond who’s in the last year of his deal they have three tradable firsts and I think Andre Drummond had a big- Time showcase game against the Wolves Big Time showcase game he had uh double he played really really well this season yeah and Philly

Has uh couple twoo Smalls on goar mock goar at your own risk man that’s what I say I don’t mock him not Dr did not you sir not you I know Philly has three tradeable first six tradeable second so we’ll see they have to attach

Anything to any of that um I do also if if I’m looking at another team that I really expect to do something I think Washington um I don’t think based on my conversations that it’s going to be Kyle kozma he’s the probably the most interesting player I think it’s more

Likely uh tus Jones there’s been a number of teams are interested in him we mentioned earlier um Denny Avia a I can’t pronounce his last name AIA AIA um has been in some talks but I kind of be surprised if they moved him they signed him to an extension before the year um

But he has been dangled out there um Daniel Gafford is another Center who could be a starter or be a high level backup um uh I think Orlando has been active looking to try to bolster their uh guard ranks um and so I think you know they’re

They’re a team that I think is uh potentially going to be uh reasonably aggressive the Clippers um are shopping and trying to find a way to get somebody be to be interested in taking PJ Tucker who’s not who’s out of their rotation he has 11 million player option for next

Year that I think is highly likely he picks up and that limits his trade market um but uh I do you know and he would like to get traded so I think that he told he is actively trying to get traded yes he did so anyway um if that team’s really

Good and they’re able to now they have four tradable seconds and one tradeable first I would be very surprised if they traded that first but I guess it’s possible um but you know they are a team that you know if they can add a nice another little role player um I’ve heard

Some of the players that they’ve been targeting I don’t know if they’re going to get it done but you know it would potentially be a nice addition uh for them uh Golden State um I don’t know what they’re going to do I don’t think that they’re going to trade Chris Paul

Um for various reasons um the real question is would they trade Wiggins and if they have a Wiggins trade um is it a deal that actually can make them better they would be probably selling pretty low on Wiggins if they traded him right now and the one player

That I think is super interesting to talk about the player especially is Miles Bridges but a 41-point game talk about a showcase game 41-point game against the Lakers and a loss on Monday for the Hornets um it looks like there’s a good chance that um that the Hornets

Are going to move miles Bridges I don’t know for sure but it’s there’s a lot of different interest in him and bridges as we talked about before has a um veto power in his it’s not a no trade clause it’s more of a veto that he can enforce

And the reason he’s got that is that he’s on a qualifying offer so he’s on a one-year contract if he gets traded um he loses his bird rights and the team that acquires him cannot sign him for more than the average player salary next year

Um and it doesn’t it kind of you know doesn’t behoove him he got to be real careful giving up his bird rights so he will be presented with options and he will get to pick one if that if it comes to that and you know he’s a guy who

Because he’s on a qualifying offer doesn’t make that much money and it’s kind of a way to do to acquire a player who is probably underpaid for his production and it’s kind of like doing free agency before free agency um he obviously has offc court challenges and

Off court issues and that is a factor um and the whole reason he’s on a qualifying offer and probably probably part of reason why the Hornets are seriously considering letting him walk and I would not want to be in the miles Bridges business I’ll just put it that

Way yeah I just listen he’s a very talented player but honestly the fact that he’s playing this year given the accusations that happened this fall is pretty alarming I I somebody will take a chance on him and it’s it’s a I I would side with Bonds on that

I I wouldn’t want it to be my team uh one more I would also keep an eye on New York um eight tradable firsts 11 tradable seconds I think they’re going to be careful with giving up any of those firsts but um they have some expiring salary and they could use some

Size right now well forget size they need bodies they have Josh Hart hurt his knee today it’s unclear I mean again he left without a limp or crutches or anything but he was dealing with a knee injury Jaylen Brunson hurt his ankle they’re down Mitchell Robinson oan and

Obi hasn’t played in six games I think now with this elbow issue Julius rand’s out for a while Quinton Grimes who’s wanted to be traded has got a knee sprain not sure when he’s going to play so they’re down several rotation players Mitchell Robinson you didn’t even

Mention him he’s been out for a while right there was one positive update is Tom tibo said after the trade deadline or not after TR deadline after the allstar break he’s supposed to be back on the court again so perhaps he will be back sometime in March I mean that um

That’s not me that’s me speculating based off what tib said but there’s at least a chance he’ll be back in the relatively near future but certainly not in the next month so with Evan fornier on a potential expiring contract like we’ve talked about a bunch of times on

The Pod with that team option for next year and with depending on what they do with Grimes like they have the ability to go add at least one player to play in their rotation with all the injuries they have I’ll be stunned if they don’t add somebody in

The next 36 hours to give them some more bodies because they’re they’re down a whole bunch of people at the moment you guys have any other commentary on that that sort of not exciting list of stuff that I just detailed I would just say I would just

Reemphasize sort of how you laid it out which is there’s just you know we’ll see you always have to sort of qualify these things right because like we didn’t know Kevin Durant was going to be traded at this stage literally of last year but

With 36 hours to go you look back at the way The Season’s played out with damee being traded then Drew holiday and then James Harden and then oan and Obi then Pascal cakam if you said this week those five guys got traded be like holy cow this is the biggest trade deadline ever

Right but instead because that happened over the course of the season is sort of a slow moving steady trickle of Trades we now gotten to the point where especially if Deon Murray doesn’t get traded this week probably not anybody of real consequence you know high level All-Star

Caliber player is getting moved and like you said there’ll be trades there’s always trades but they’re probably going to be more fill in gap type kind of guys as opposed to you know breaking news you know xname big player is traded for something to a contender yeah um I think the Lakers

Hawks talks are have been you know I don’t have up the up to second thing but I think they’ve been pretty cold does not mean they cannot restart quickly but uh um I don’t think that that was something that was at least as of the

Last 24 48 hours that I heard much about so um we’ll see what happens there he LeBron says he’s good with the guys that are there these are the guys that are there so there’s nothing more to talk about yeah LeBron said a lot of words

But he didn’t say yes he never said the word yes LeBron didn’t say did he say they were good with the guys that were there or did he just say these are the guys that are here I thought it was just these are the guys these are the guys

That are here so there’s nothing more to talk about yes it reminded quite an endorsement it reminded me of a quote when you know he and David blat were cross with each other and uh he was asked about whether you know David blat was the right coach and he goes he’s the

Coach that we have and he’s with the same level of enthusiasm as he said about the players on his team yes yeah I also like when LeBron’s asked about the trade deadline stuff oh he did say he said it’s not a question for me yes it is LeBron and he said I love

Who we have in the locker room and that’s all I worry about yeah so enjoy enjoy LeBron we’re going to miss him when he’s gone we’re going to miss him when he’s gone for so many different reasons and I am thoroughly because it because I’ve got no skin in the game I

Don’t have to be in the locker room with them I don’t have to face him and say hey LeBron we didn’t actually get a trade done whatever I thoroughly enjoy when LeBron’s on the passive aggressive kick it makes me laugh I love 20 years in you still love the soap opera I mean

Because I had to be on the front line of the soap opera and deal with so much of it that now I can just be like you know yeah I know I I’ve seen I’ve been there and done all that you know I don’t have

To I don’t have to be like McManaman and like um Sai and then trudge back to my computer and fire off a news story within 11 minutes because the newss is like give me a give us a story on the most recent LeBron thing so I can just

Sit back and laugh and talk about it on TV and podcast so yes it is entertaining yeah entertaining and we’ve got unfortunately the Lakers don’t play again until Thursday night you know to to speed up MCM on Deadline I got an idea he should have an

Hourglass but but but like a maybe like a 15 minute glass instead of an hourglass and then when it’s time to write that news or you should just start that start those Sands filtering on through you you should have said that off the year we could have gotten we

Could have you know I’m going to be at the game on Thursday I could have brought in an hour you still can there’s nothing stopping you there’s nothing stopping you oh my God it’s going to be great I’d get LeBron to sign it what would that

What would that piece of merch be worth oh my God uh all right thanks for listening to hoop Collective podcast thank you to Jackson for staying up late yet again thank you to McMahon and bontemps thank you for your support of the hoop Collective which is now seen on ESPN 2

On Tuesdays I’m sure all of you watched it today so thank you again and we will talk to you uh Thursday actually we’ll record Thursday I’ll post on Friday after the trade deadline adios amigos looking forward to it

Kyrie’s Return, Klay’s Future & Teams To Watch At Deadline | The Hoop Collective
Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk Kyrie’s return to Brooklyn, what the Dallas Mavericks need to improve the team, the Warriors going away from Klay in crunch time & what that means for Golden State’s future, the battle for seeding at the top of the Western Conference and teams we are watching to be the players at the trade deadline.
#thehoopcollective #nba

0:00 Intro
2:55 Kyrie Returns To Brooklyn & Mavs’ Future
18:21 Klay’s Uncertain Future With Warriors
30:28 Top Of Western Conference Positioning
42:54 2 East Teams Battling Injury
45:52 Teams To Watch At The Trade Deadline

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