Impact of new All-NBA rules & battle at top of West 👀 | The Hoop Collective

Impact of new All-NBA rules & battle at top of West 👀 | The Hoop Collective

Hello welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we are doing on Tuesday afternoon joining us from New York City I believe he’s going to a 76 years Knicks game tonight is Tim bontemps hello fellas yes a 76 years Knicks game where I think we’re going to

See some players come back and actually play and tyus Maxi and OG and Obi so that’ll be fun yeah the Knicks have been waiting for that for a while and obviously the Sixers need all the help they can get joining us from Dallas Texas where sadly he witnessed the end of History Luca

Don’s 35 game triple double streak came to a tragic end on what was it Monday night or was it Sunday night I can’t remember mcmah Ben McMahon howdy Partners I witnessed it while sitting on my couch because that game was played in Chicago and I did not make the trip but

Boy oh boy I tell you it was look 35 game streak poof 30 game streak despite his best efforts Midway through the fourth quarter of a blowout poof the 20 game triple double streak though tying a record seven straight Luca Oscar Roberts and Michael Jordan that thing’s still alive and you

Might say most importantly depending on who you ask the Mavericks winning streak alive at three games well Jason kids said after the game that Luca would would never stat Chase and I’m sure that that is 100% I will say that I sent you guys a little snippet from the AP story

And I went back and I did watch the press conference there was a acknowledgement that the last couple of games in blowout wins there was a little bit of stat chasing such as grabbing the 10th rebound to Detroit with 314 remaining and then calling a timeout to

Exit the uh the game and obviously flinging up a few threes in the last couple minutes that he played in the blowout Midway through the fourth quarter Jak kid’s point was just that maybe Luca doesn’t prioritize the stats as much as I don’t know actually I

Don’t know what Jak kid’s point was he just admitted they’ve been stat Jason I think the greater point is the priority is winning and if you can hunt some historical stats in the process so be it got it well here’s here’s the thing like Jason kid in his role no matter what he

Thinks has to come out and say great job Luca because if he comes out and says anything else he’s you know it’s it’s smart yeah so yeah you know and also Jake kid is the coach and so ultimately if he says hey we got to watch your minutes we got to

Prioritize rest over hunting some stats and a blowout you’re G to come out and Jake kid said they reached a mutual decision Midway through the fourth quarter that quote enough was enough um but I would have liked to have heard those negotiations before the mutual decision was reached well listen he’d

Have gotten 30 if that ref would have called the foul that Luca wanted aha that’s that’s where we’re really at that’s where Luca’s position shs yeah um buty it is a hell of a run I don’t you know whatever you it’s awesome it’s awesome but um

Yeah it’s you know so you want to be legitimate streak you don’t want to be you know manufacturing it uh so all right um so we are here in the last quarter of the season and um this is the first year obviously that the 65 game

Rule is in effect for some uh of some of these Awards and it’s more than just Awards um it’s in some cases whether you may call NBA and of course while MVP Defensive Player of the Year and all that stuff is historic and it goes to Hall of Fame resumés and it’s

Something people talk about literally for decades the more tangible thing to teams in the short run is whether a guy makes all NBA and whether he’s going to get uh a bunch more money 30 40 50 70 million depending on the nature of the contract and that affects whether guys will

Resign it affects what teams can do what the luxury tax affects a lot of things and so that number is very important not just necessarily in who qualifies but if you get disqualified you then make space for somebody else the 15 best players in the

League are not going to be all NBA this year because we’ve already had several guys get disqualified and so with this last stretch of games most teams have between 16 and 19 is games left maybe it’s a little less than maybe like 15 to 18 games left I thought we’ just go over

Some of the guys who have things to play for and you keep an eye on coming down the stretch all right so real quick we know Joel embiid is ineligible he has missed too many games even though he’s hopefully coming back soon is there any feel by that on

Bontemps uh any feel on embiid at all if he’s getting anywh I mean he’s he’s been doing some work he’s worked out some he’s obviously made progress but there’s no indication at all of any sort of timeline for a return him returning to practice or anything as of Tuesday

Afternoon okay I would say optimism remains he’ll be back but unclear of when okay um the uh don Mitchell missed um the the game on Monday for the Cavs against the Suns he is now ineligible for all NBA so he won’t make it those are two all NBA guys who won’t make it

Um another guy who is become ineligible within the last week is uh Jamal Murray now I don’t know if Jamal Murray would have made all NBA he’s not quite ineligible yet I don’t believe I was just looking at this before I think he’s missed 16 games as of now I’m seeing

That the most he can play in is 64 well they’ve played 65 games and he’s got 49 games played so I’m not sure why I think I think there’s the thing where you got to play I forget the exact number x amount of minutes I think there was an early

Exit well maybe but still even if he plays in every game left it’s 66 so he’d still be over I am basing my on my on Bobby marks information and I do not think he’s gonna be eligible he’s pink on the Bobby marks chart I would yeah I

Would guess he is gonna end up short just because he’s not going to play him back to backs and stuff I just I was just going through the raw numbers well look I don’t know if he would have made all NBA but if he made all NBA he would

Have been super max eligible which is why he didn’t sign his extension with the Nuggets last summer yeah I I don’t think he would uh regardless he is playing at all-nba level since the All-Star Break by the way and he did during the playoff run last year but

This is a full season award I don’t think he’s going to be eligible I don’t think he’d have made it anyway right so that’s that’s relevant and so you know that’s Kyrie Irving he’s been all NBA a level for a couple of weeks at a time but M so Kyrie

Is not going to get qualified the max he can play is like in the high 50s yeah he’s way under Jimmy Butler way under so yeah Jimmy Butler is also not gonna make it um I don’t know about way under but Jimmy Butler has also been disqualified

So the point I’m trying to make here is there’s a number of of uh guard level players and I know it’s positionist and we’ll talk about that in a second um but that opens it up for some guards um and uh so specifically there’s some guards I

Want to talk about so Trey young is also by the way he’s he’s eligible at the moment but he’s gonna be out season so he was another guy who could have could have made all NBA I don’t again I don’t know if he was playing all

NBA level but we don’t know how he would have finished the season and some other guys are getting disqualified and so I don’t know um he would have gotten super max eligible by making the all NBA team uh and certainly would would have put the Hawks in an interesting position

Because this is one of those situations where I’m not sure that you want to give him the super max I’m not sure if he’s a $300 million player um you can debate that if you’re a Trey young fan you can sort of disagree with me I think it’s

Debatable at best um well and the flip side though is if he’s not supermax eligible it makes it a lot more logical for him if he decides maybe it’s time to look elsewhere to kind of look to turn that page well there’s a number of

Different ways to look at it so like if he had become super let’s say he made all NBA and he was super max eligible and he was you know among the league leaders and assists and he was playing pretty well sort of the middle part of

The Season he had he started off the season a shooting slump Atlanta was underperforming as a team they’re really super banged up as a team uh by the way um very dis dis uh unfortunate news for sadique Bay who tore his ACL um over the weekend not only because he has this

Injury that’s going to wipe out um a big par part of next season is that he was a restricted free agent or is going to be a restricted free agent this summer um negotiated with the Hawks last fall didn’t come to terms on an extension and

Now is heading you know we’ve seen this happen a number of times over the years um we’ll see what happens there but obviously it’s it’s disappointing but anyway if Trey young had qualified for all NBA and qualified for the supermax it kind of creates a stress point for the

Organization stress Max time if they don’t offer the super max then Trey Young’s like what are we doing here I’ve qualified for it how could you not give it to me if he if they give him the supermax then he’s locked in and there’s no question about his future but it

Creates this stress point now since he’s not going to be there it’s possible that you won’t have that he will get offered an extension or at least is in position to be offered an extension but it would make sense if he didn’t sign it because

He would say well I’m GNA try to make all NBA next year um so in a way this injury removes that potential stress point doesn’t necessarily mean that he will remain there because I do think that he or Jamal Murray or not Jamal Murray Deonte Murray I’m not sure

They’re going to stick together long term but but that is an interesting Dynamic so he is out of it as well so a lot of guards have fallen out who benefits um from that situation well well one guy who is going to be very close and if he can stay Health he can

Qualify and that’s Devin Booker Devon Booker’s already signed a supermax yeah Deon Booker allba sele de Booker another guy that could open up a spot he is right on the borderline of making it he’s basically got a play every game down the stretch he’s at 51

Games played if he plays every game left he’s at 68 he’s obviously had a series of injuries and certainly if he gets banged up again you would think Phoenix is going to be careful with him going into the playoff so and and to your point mcmah he’s already got the money

Locked up so what that more is about is does he end up with 63 games if he misses a few more does that create yet another spot CU he’s a guy who Trey young might have been an iffy case to be a third team MBA guy or would have been

An iffy case to be a third team MBA guy if Deon Booker plays 65 he will be on the squad also uh Carl towns I I don’t necessarily know if he would have um you know made it but he did make the All-Star team so right he would have

Been potentially in in play Julius Rand would have potentially in play he’s going to fall short on games um you know mentioned Donovan Mitchell earlier Donovan Mitchell would have been a guy who made it he’s lry marinin um he’s not gonna probably have enough games now the

Jazz we’ll talk about in a little bit the Jazz sort of withered away but these are all guys that were you know um eligible porzingis another guy who’s had a great year might have might have been a candidate he’s not gonna have enough games right but porzingis has already

Extended he wasn’t eligible anyway so you’re super max candidates then Wendy guys who you think could benefit financially from this yes so let’s there’s two guards right out of the gate uh Tyrese Halbert and Anthony Edwards now those guys might have made it on their own without getting this benefit

But the fact that these other guys had you know were going to compete with them both of them uh signed for five years 205 million if they make all NBA it triggers the supermax that they already had signed the rose uh provision it’s known after Derrick Rose who uh was the

First to do this um they get a $40 million bump it’s worth $40 million to them their there their their salary their contracts go from 205 to 245 and which is why Tyrese Alberton was limping around through games for a while earlier this year on a hamstring to make

Sure he stayed eligible for that and his minutes his minutes restriction was just above the just above 20 minutes to make sure he played enough minutes to to get it uh T Burton can miss four games and still get it um which he’s basically been at for six

Weeks and it’s not a coincidence over40 million a stake I say he I say short of there being a devastating injury I say he’s making that and yeah I to be clear I’m not saying that as a critical thing I mean he’s even talked about it pretty

Openly like it’s you know that was something that was sitting out there as a an issue and it’s certainly the the other side of this rule that you’re going to have guys in that situation saying look that’s you know you can say oh these guys make

A lot of money $8 million a year is a lot of money doesn’t matter how much money you have so that’s going to be in the back of people’s minds for sure well and look the Pacers it’s not like they’re just playing out the string I mean they’re sitting there in the seven

Seed right now only a game in a half out of the four seed so um you know he’s got a lot to play for team-wise and obviously financially to me halberton and Edwards they’re both all NBA guys we can throw everybody into the LG those guys have had all NBA Seasons I

Think an would have maybe been a guy who there was some debate about if everybody was healthy in the in the back end but certainly with the injuries that have happened I’m with you I I don’t really see any way he wouldn’t make it now

Halberton was I think going to be a top five he was going to be a first or second team guy I think for sure so he I think was making one way or the other and it probably was but he I think is the biggest beneficiary of this whole

Thing because he’s healthy I mean obviously We’ve joked about games he’s got he’s got a lot of wiggle room right We’ve joked about him repeatedly missing games with you know leaving games and coming back on the Pod but the fact that the fact that he is out there all the time

He is to me clearly the biggest beneficiary because he’s going to walk into an all NBA team and that money and if everybody was available he’s probably in that third team discussion and his one of the guys that we’re talking about as a borderline candidate all right well

You think he is the biggest beneficiary depends on what you think about tyres Maxi Maxi has not signed his contract yet but if he does make all NBA and he’s coming back from a concussion tonight at at the Garden on Tuesday night um I think he’s still got a buffer of like

Six or seven games he could miss vont temps yeah he’s at 50 he’s at 55 do we think Tyrese Maxi with all these guys out do we think has he done enough or you know has the fall off since embiid you know is because because

He hasn’t signed yet but if he does make all NBA he can then negotiate for up to the 245 with other other two guys got here’s what I’ll say about Tyrese Maxi he is the biggest beneficiary of the rule change because if you were just going six guards six forwards three

Centers I think it’s pretty hard to have him among the six best guards in the league for as well as he’s played and he’s been awesome yeah but if you’re just saying 15 best play players regardless of position and you start taking away you know like you take out

Jell embiid right in the past well that just means bam at a bio or some other Center bam another guy who is I believe would be uh would get the benefit of the extra money if he gets 65 games well bam is a very interesting case which we’ll

Talk about in a second but finisher Maxi and he might be a he might I would argue he might be the biggest uh he might in some ways be one of the bigger guys who takes the biggest hit from the rule change because if there’s just three

Centers you take him beat out of the picture it’s hard for me to see bam not getting one of those other two Center spots now if you’re going again cross positions doesn’t matter who’s being select or what position you are to be selected it makes it a little more

Difficult for a guy like him to make it I think it makes it easier for Tyrese Maxi to make it because rather than debating whether he’s better than Jaylen Brunson or Devin Booker it’s is he one of the 15 best players I would probably say no I really have not sat down and

Looked at it because it’s obviously so much different than it’s been in the past it’s going to be fascinating to figure out how to put these teams together and who to vote for and how it’s going to look but I think he’s got a better chance this year than he did

Otherwise because of the rule change so I would ultimately say the fact that Philly has struggled so much without Joel embiid now they’ve had a ton of other injuries to be fair I think that’s probably going to be a pretty significant Dent to Reese’s candidacy to

Get on that third all NBA because if they had managed to stay afloat and they were sitting in third in the East right now say you’d probably think he’s got a really good shot the fact that they might end up in the play in and they’ve really

Struggled I think that’s going to hurt him a lot yeah that’s what I was gonna say while while embiid not qualifying opens up a spot I think it really hurts Maxi’s case because if they are the two or three seed in the East and Maxi’s averaging 27 and six

And his efficiency would be better with embiid you know then he has a much stronger case than you know he’s averaging 27 and six his efficiencies dip some like Bon Tim said they’re they’re likely going to slip or could slip into the uh into the play situation

Um I I I think he’s going to be one of those receive votes but doesn’t make a one of the top three teams and he could be a guy to your point Brian where if we have several more guys falling short he could end up slipping on there but I

Think we’re probably going to need dein Booker and some of these other borderline guys to fall away for him to have a serious shot well let’s talk about out a bio for a second so I talked to Bam about this when I did a feature on him way back in

December um I also talked to him about it for the 65 game real story I did a couple months ago well what did he say then he basically said look I want to be eligible but I understand why they put in the rule and it is what it is which

If you’ve ever dealt with bam is not exactly a shocking answer from bam on that right but bam wants the money I mean yeah sure no he does but he he wasn’t crying poor about the rule he was like look I get what they’re trying to

Do would I be thrilled if I don’t make it no but well I get it do you consider damat sabonis a center he’s their starting center yes he’s a center but again CER doesn’t conversation I understand that but as far as the rule change I would argue the rule change gives

Bam a better shot because um you know sabonis if sabonis is going to get get it Center you know that’s that’s that that makes it hard because I think it’s you know I don’t think people are voting bam over sabonis so I mean they might they I mean bam made the

Allar team sabonis didn’t that’s East sabonis doesn’t what’ you say bam plays in the East sabonis doesn’t yeah so I mean I I I don’t know how that would go but again to me this is where with Joel ID out of the picture I think if you had

Three centers most likely it would have been joic and then those two guys H I think you’re underestimating the Anthony Davis I Anthony Davis I forgot about right so ad would ad would be your second team ad by the way is Mr three games he’s going to sail to to uh 65

Game qualification yeah then you know we’ll see the the wolves have slipped a little bit it looks unlikely that they’ll finish top in the west but you know gobear would have been a candidate as been a candidate but I it probably would have come down to sabonis and out

A bio for the other spot right so the heat don’t make they don’t do campaigns for awards um part of he baby they write paragraphs in the paint they ain’t campaigning TR to keep those salaries down well it’s a huge thing for them they’re dancing on on the the apron in

Apron Zone like like I’m I’m I’m sure that if he makes a supermax I can’t see them not giving it to him but bam ain’t leaving Miami I think that’s safe to say well yeah I know but I’m just saying like it’s a it’s a $70 million difference it’s $40

Million for the for the you know the younger guys on the fun Max for the stress Max it’s it’s it’s closer to 70 million well by the way this is why like we talked about recently this is why the rule was created to create these situations where teams would have

Certainty on whether these guys of this caliber who are making all NBA and getting the supermax would want to stay and if they say you know we haven’t had a guy yet say I’m not signing it maybe it will happen at some point but it also

Creates as you said with Trey young sort of the opposite situation where if a team is like I don’t know if we want to do this it then creates a pivot point in the other direction where what isn’t happening is what happened with Kevin Durant some of these other guys where

The team doesn’t really have a way to pay them more than the market until free ageny so they get to free agenc and they make their case and they lose an elite player for nothing and in all these circumstances that’s why we see so many of these guys get traded now because the

System is built to ensure that guys get traded rather than teams being left hold in the B right yeah so I don’t I I don’t think at this point it looks like we’re going to come down to the very last day on anybody but it

Could be uh Luca has has a buffer um he’s I think he could miss like six six or seven games right um I haven’t looked at the exact numbers but he’s been healthy for a while now let me yeah he’s a 57 games see unless he has some

Serious injury he’s going to be fine I mean the main one to watch really is Devin Booker I mean he’s right on the borderline and he’s a guy who is gonna be on an all NBA team if he makes it and if he isn’t if he F if he has

Another hamstring injury or something and falls short that’s a spot that opens up for one of these other guys who’s sort of a borderline candidate and that’s that’s really the thing to monitor I think you know Tyrese Barn injury is gonna play enough games he’ll be fine Anthony’s gonna be fine and it

Comes down to guys like Tyrese Maxi and Bam and some of these other guys who are on the fringes and do they sneak on because of all these other guys being heard or do they not by the way Leonard both have 10 I think nine game buffers like they’re you know hopefully avoid

Significant injury they’re going to both qualify and we’ll both be strong candidates for all NBA yeah there’s a lot of guys LeBron James another guy there’s a lot of guys in that eight the 10 Game Zone of games missed where if they have some injury it cost them a

Couple weeks over the next month because we still do have a month left yeah all of a sudden then it gets pretty close for a bunch of different guys yeah I think the Lakers only have three backto backs left um and so even if LeBron sits out those backs those back-to-backs with

That ankle maintain that ankle I mean I don’t know if he will I don’t know how it’s feeling because he’s he sat out some back-to-backs he’s played some back Tob backs I think it just depends he’d still have five games even after that yes he’s still got he’s still LeBron’s

Got a pretty fair buffer and he’s gonna make all NBA if he gets it um and and the vast majority of these guys like sitting out games it’s it’s not just about looking at the 65 game limit like these guys are scrapping for playoff position or play in position for sure um

It doesn’t by the way it doesn’t apply to all Awards it doesn’t apply to uh rookie of the year or most improved I don’t think I think it does for most improved actually I look the I will look up the list of awards it does not I know

It doesn’t apply to Rookie of the Year it does not apply to rookie of the year I I’m pretty certain Bond him double check me on this but I looked it up for obvious reasons because alaran shenon status for the rest of the season is in Jeopardy avoided a major injury there

Won’t be any surgery but a severely sprained ankle for a team that really doesn’t have any hopes of getting in the play We’re talk shenon is also an interesting situation because he’s played 63 games and if you are a game or two under 65 and you have a season

Ending injury there is wiggle room on that so I think he technically will be eligible regardless for know that I don’t know what his most improved player chances would be but you can make a case that he’s absolutely a legitimate candidate a guy who you know when you

Look at the uh Rockets Improvement he’s been a huge part of that a guy who proved that he can be a a franchise Cornerstone and held up you know the question with him was always can he hold up on the defensive end held up well on the defensive end for a team that

Drastically improved in that area and then you know his his scoring average increased from like 14 point something uh 21 and change yeah he’s been awesome now just so we have it for clarification sake I looked up uh a story with Bobby from back in or Bobby story I should say

From back in October MVP all NBA Defensive Player of the Year all defensive teams most improved player those are the important so everything but the rookie stuff yep okay all right well it we’re happy that shenon didn’t suffer some sort of um major injury that need

Surgery uh I do think it’s a pretty bad ankle sprain and I’d be surprised if he comes back but it’s not impossible I guess now I do want to talk to you about Houston for a second here McMahon as we stand right now Houston is in position if the season ended right

Now they would have they would be tied with Atlanta for the 10th pick their pick is top four protected correct um to Oklahoma City relic of the Russell Westbrook trade um the difference they are five games out of the playin I don’t think that’s happening they are yes they are

Um what let me see here quite a few games out of being top four uh yeah I mean there’s there’s a0 percent chance they can get top four well that’s not true I mean no I’m talking about in odds now they could land with a top four pick

I’m talking about in terms of odds right now right they would have an 11.7% chance of being top four and keeping their pick right um you know we’ll see how things play out with Atlanta I I think it’s going to be difficult for the Rockets to move up in

The lottery odds because Utah’s not exactly got foot on gas at this point well we’ll talk about that the second not exactly and then and then you know Brooklyn’s just bad and there’s a big gap by the way Brooklyn being bad is a great thing for the Rockets I was gonna

Say the Rockets have two chances two chances to get a top four pick because they’ve got the Nets pick and by the way you’re talking about where the Rockets are in the standings the Nets right now are eighth in the lottery odds and it’s

Going to be hard for them to move a lot higher up the list unless they get pass basically by Houston and maybe Utah well here I’m here’s what I’m just saying like right now as you said exactly they have about 12% chance if the season ended

Today they’d have a 12% chance of their pick going to the top four and not conveying it correct but if they move up a few spots like they are within sight of the eighth spot which is 26% if they’ve got nothing to play for and their arguably their best player is

Out for the year would you not make moves to increase your chances by 15% 15% is a lot of percent well here’s the thing I think it’s going to be difficult it’s going to be difficult for them to do that on a couple of levels

One you still have a lot of young guys there that you want to play Jabar Smith who’s played really well this year you’re gonna want him to play they’re getting a men Thompson out there more you’re gonna want him to play I don’t I mean you could find a way to just shut

Down Fred vanle for some reason but you’re probably not GNA do that jayen green has actually been playing well lately cam whitmore’s as a rookie has has had some really good moments so you have a lot of young guys who you’re trying to play and get minutes and see

What they look like the other thing is you can’t really get farther than Brooklyn anyway realistically so and you already have that pick so you sort of have two of these three spots and then as you mentioned we’ve also got the Jazz here well the other thing is you’ve also got

Jazz jazz right the Jazz are going the other way put the Jazz discussion to the side for a second talk about but but it’s relevant here because it’s also talk about Toronto torono right now is in seventh and their pick is top but there’s a there’s a

Seven loss gap between the Raptors and the rockets well and the Raptor best player of the SE best player is out for the season I understand I’m just saying that Toronto also is incentivized to lose because their pick is top six protected to San Antonio right but

Here for all the talk about how weak this draft is aside from Houston which owes its picked Oklahoma City top four protected maybe they will see some tank of paloa down the stretch maybe not and certainly won’t see it from the Nets because theirs is totally unprotected

They just stink there’s still a lot of tanking going on in the bottom 10 I understand that and all I’m just saying is Houston has 35 losses Utah has 36 losses Brooklyn has 39 losses Brooklyn is not trying to tank Brooklyn is trying to win it’s a 15% roughly difference

Between being an 11th and being an eighth and I would say that if you’re in the Rockets organization you have to have this discussion I don’t know what’s going to happen but you have to have this discussion at this point yeah I’m sure they’re having discussion on some

I’m sure they’re having a discussion on some level I just think if you’re looking at it logically I think the lowest they’re realistically going to get to is ninth I think what they can do is bring Dylan Brooks in and say Dylan neon green light the rest of the

Season baby want to see well you want to get 25 shots up go for it look it can be done uh if they make it a priority I think they can be done but what I mean again what can what are you saying can they get to eight I’m talking

About 15% a 15% chance of keeping your pick is a significant thing these guys are billionaires who operate on margins trust me Tilman fertita operates at restaurants 15% is a really important margin he knows how to get the 15% he knows how it is okay again you can just

Announce that that’s the case they’re a significantly better team you cannot announce it because when you not announce it that’s when you get fined there’s a discussion be had here about the size of beers at one of his restaurants but we’re not going to do that you’re my my point is you can

Announce well yes they should just do whatever they can to get to eighth I think if you unless they are going to sit every one of their young players and Fred and Dylan Brooks for the next month I think they have an infimal chance of passing the Jazz infimal that is a the

Jazz the Jazz are already way outperforming their point differential as it is and that was before they traded several useful players and before Lowry Markin in has Miss time and he’s got a thigh contusion that’s going to take a while to recover I think I thought it

Was a yeah a quad contusion I think is technically what they’re calling it but it it they’re they’re going to uh I think it’s going to be very difficult for them to pass them well okay so just keep an eye on Houston and see what they do all right

Uh now Utah as we mentioned Utah’s pick is top 10 protected to Oklahoma City they have made it an unquestioned priority over the last month to keep that pick and as you said McMahon for a draft where we’re not seeing a lot of excitement we got some tanking going on

There could be some more yeah and I think this is an interesting case because it’s top 10 and by the way this is this is from the Derek favor salary dump which is like man Sam presty has pulled some moves in the last few years

This is a classic case of last few last few decades bro yeah this is a classic case of using cap space’s rebuilding team to benefit you down the road like J Kur Thomas into a lottery pick back it’s top 10 protected this year if it doesn’t convey it’s top 10 protected again next

Next year before going top eight and so I think this is an interesting discussion and obviously the Jazz ran all kinds of numbers and discussed all kinds of scenarios but if if this draft is what everybody says it is and one of the weaker drafts in a while there’s

Good players in every draft last time there was a weak draft there’s Giannis at 15 goar at 27 so on and so forth but you could argue it would be you’d be better off giving up 11 or 12 in this draft and then just moving on where

You’ve got your pick moving forward uh as opposed to keeping you know we’ll see where they land in the lottery maybe maybe they get lucky and win the thing we’ll see um but how much better can the Jazz realistically be especially with the West as loaded as it is and you’re going

To have Memphis who’s going to be very likely good again next year I just think it’s going to be tough for the Jazz to be a whole lot better off next year when supposedly it’s a much stronger draft I mean what do we does this what

Do we think and you studied them a lot obviously McMahon the fact that they’re doing this this year to me it signals one of two things right it would either say that a they think they’re going to try to take a significant jump next year and try to get significantly better

Right so then you’re giving up a pick that’s let’s just say 18 and in 11 right or do we think there’s a chance and this is just me asking a question for the aggregators I not saying anything is happening along these lines do we think there’s some chance that they’re looking

At this situation and going well we can renegotiate and extend L Market in this summer but do we want to pay him $45 million a year or treat him like a max player or do we want to maybe cash him in trade him for a bunch of stuff and to

Your point when you at the west and where Utah is maybe they’re going to be one of the five worst teams in the league the next two years when the drafts are incredibly strong with the boo with Cameron Boozer being in the draft in two years with Cooper flag and

These other guys being in the draft next year and they say well we’re gonna have a top 10 and a top eight pick the next two years and it’s not going to matter because we’re going to be bad anyway and so let’s keep our pick all three years

Do we think one of those pass is more likely you know the the one thing that Danny a Justin zanic Ryan Smith have been consistent about is they’re trying to figure out a way to build a contender as quickly as possible and clearly they’re nowhere near that level so then

You get into the discussion of what’s a what’s a more realistic path to a contender and certainly you can make a strong argument that especially in a market like Sal Salt Lake City where free agency is just not going to be part of the equation that bottoming out is in

Your best interest I I don’t know exactly which route they’re going to take I’m not sure that they know exactly which route they’re going to take you know there was a lot of media talk about them listening Larry marketing offers there there certainly wasn’t a whole lot of action that I’m

Aware of on that front right um so you know we’ll see how things progress um you they they picked number nine overall Taylor Hendricks spent most of the year in the G league so you kind of hoping to get a foundation piece there that’s still very much to be determined they

Got keontay George uh just outside the lottery he’s the closest thing they have to a a young they just signed Kenneth Lofton Jr pancakes well I mean look I mean last year they signed Chris Dunn at this point in the season and he’s become very useful player I’m not saying anything

About s a three-year deal I’m just I’m commenting yeah and Darius Bisley as well you know another guy is a decent swing for a team in their position if one of those guys could become a rotation kind of guy next year like where they’re at it makes sense I just

Think it’s interesting the the position they’ve taken by ensuring they keep this pick it to me signals they could go in a couple of different directions yeah where if you if they were 12th this year and they gave up their pick to me that

Would be sort of a sign of all right now we have control over pick for sure going forward if we’re going to like obviously they would be protected either way but it would be a sign that all right we have everything set up this way you

Still because it’s top 10 and top eight protected they’ve still got pretty good flexibility I think to either push forward if they want or go the other way and make sure they keep their pick because if they do really want to keep their pick the next couple years I don’t

Think it’ll be that hard also look they’ve drafted pretty well they have gone out there and looked at the and watched all these players and actions over words their actions say there must be some reason they like trying to get in the top 10 on this draft who what do

You mean they’ve drafted pretty well I think keontay George is a pretty good draft pick okay and Taylor Hendricks who’s a number nine Pi judging that I mean I think Mah’s point is this front office does not have a very long track record of drafting I mean zanic is an

Extension of the of the previous regime game so it’s kind of like well Danny Ang has drafted pretty well in his career I think he’s fair to say that I would say he’s had some pretty severe ups and downs well he’s been for 30 years I

Would agree with that but I mean in his later stages in Boston I think he had some pretty significant misses in the middle part of the lottery that that’s what I would say now now look you had some huge I think most of the guy you know the core of that

Team is Danny Danny draft pick so I I mean I thought that would well yes they drafted they they they hit on obviously t and brown were phenomenal players like yes I’m I’m saying those were also top three picks Choice there was some work that

Had to be done there I know I’m not Danny AG is really good at his job I just I think the jury’s out a little bit on him in terms of picking players if he’s picking players in the middle of the first round which by the way is the

Case for a lot of people it’s a grab bag in the middle of the first round well not saying it’s not and there’s just like on this roster there’s not very many has draft picks I mean you know you you you go down the roster there there

Are the three from this year keonte George has had he might be a a second Team all rookie selection he’s had a very encouraging rookie year hendrickx who’s a project who they hope can become like a supercharge version of a Robert Covington um since saah hasn’t played a

Whole lot at the at the NBA level and that’s and that’s it that’s the Jazz draft picks I mean Walker Kessler was a Timberwolves draft pick right who they got in the trade everybody else’s trades good evaluation by them to trade for him for sure yeah I mean they’re they got a

Really good front office but they were gonna I mean we’re not gonna go down the list of jazz draft picks it’s I’m not gonna give them too much credit for Walker Kessler because guess what whoever the whoever the Wolves picked at number 22 they were taken along with

Four other first round picks and SW you’re right right okay they they got o abaji too who they’ve already ret traded so that’s a fair point okay so um bontemps you mentioned that Kurt Thomas trade I just want to I because you mentioned it I just

Want to go back real quick and talk about it real quick because it really is sort of a benchmark trade in NBA history and it was done in Sam prey’s first year as GM when he was still the Seattle Sonics do you remember the Dynamics of

That trade yes the Phoenix Suns owned by a very cheap person who no longer owns the team I systematically made a series of moves to make their team worse by saving money and one of them them was to trade two future first round picks to the Seattle SuperSonics along with Kurt

Thomas to save a lot of money and those picks became uh I don’t remember these specific players but they both became uh if I remember correctly impact players in the league believe one of Saka I think it was even worse than that because they retr Kurt Thomas a few

Sometime later to San Antonio for another first round pick and Kurt Thomas was making $8 million he was not making $27 million and that was back when the tax was dollar for dollar so you know they saved some money but they they they turned taking on $8

Million salary they turned it into three first round picks yes that’s all we don’t need to go and do it more than that I’m just saying it’s a different time not everybody was uh totally an asset I believe in different moves the Suns traded the picks that became Lu Al

Dang raan Rondo and serge Baka I believe yeah and and I think in the case of Rondo I think they just didn’t they they sold I believe so yes they just here $3 million here and I think it was like the 15th pick or something like that the

Lottery but what’s that Matt ISB would never well nobody I don’t think the league would allow it uh anymore um anyway all right so real quick we we talked about the top of the West the other day but I just as we um as we get down here I just wanted to

Take a look at uh spend a couple minutes here taking a look at the Western Conference race for first place and um where every where some of the tiebreakers and stuff come out so I know that you’ve paid close attention to OKC McMahon they are as we do this our half

Game ahead of Denver with the tiebreaker i i i attended the one time this year that OKC lost to the nuggets and it was by a whole bunch of points but they won that Series 3 to one including an SGA buzzer beater uh in Denver so OKC has a slight Edge in the

Standings and the tiebreaker there okay and Denver and Minnesota who are two3 in addition to Minnesota dealing with Carl Town’s injury they play three more times Minnesota is up 1 in that but but they play three more times and it’s going to be without towns and and by the

Way Denver’s already projected to have two more wins in Minnesota as it is and Minnesota’s going to be weakened down the stretch here yeah I think it’s going to be very very very very tough for the Timberwolves to finish above third it’s just reality the real question is you

Know we talked about New Orleans the other day where people in New Orleans got very mad for me saying that they haven’t been talked about on the national radar since the inseason tournament uh when we spent half the Pod talking about them somehow that turned into us not talking about them but be

That as it may uh think is thin skin oh I just thought it was funny it just this this one clip in a half an hour pod got pulled out as uh the US not talking about New Orleans at all and the podcast was literally headlined about the

Pelicans being the hottest team in the league but I think there’s there might be a better chance frankly of Minnesota finishing fifth behind New Orleans than finishing first or second because they’re not going to have towns down the street here there’s currently a four- win Gap in the projections that

Doesn’t include towns being out and you know if you look at you know if you look at how this is going to shake out I mean I I don’t I think it’s much more likely that Minnesota slides some than it is they go on some crazy Rampage here and finish first or

Second I don’t know what you guys think yeah I think that’d be a I don’t know that they’re going to slide that much but I guess stranger things have happened hopefully only four it’s only four losses it’s not that much hopefully our Pal goar doesn’t get uh teed up in

Critical situations in the final minutes of games and then double down afterwards well and by the way like these two games they just lost over the weekend like the Cavs were very banged up I know they were missing towns but still second half back toback but still you lose that game

You lose to the Lakers we’ll see what happens tonight with this Clippers game like those are tough games to lose if you’re in the situation they’re in and you’re trying to maintain your standing you can’t be giving away games against anybody that you quote unquote should be

Beating because it’s just going to make your life that much there’s a reason why Denver is projected to to be in better shape Denver has the easiest schedule left amongst all these teams they have three games left against the Spurs they have two games left against the

Grizzlies they get to play the Jazz and the and the Blazers um they really the you know they have one game left against the Clippers that’s the only team outside Minnesota that you know they’re they’re completed with everybody else so I don’t I can totally see why Den you

Know you don’t have to have the the computations to figure out why Denver is up there by the way they’ unlike last March when they sort of took their foot off the gas and got into cruise control we spent several weeks talking about you know how good are the nuggets and are

They going to be able to make a run in the playoffs this year feels like the inverse where they’ve gotten to this point they saw top seed in sight and we’re said we better put our foot down and let’s go get it and make sure we

Have it even if they won’t admit it and you know like we talked about the other day if you’re sitting there as a team like the Lakers and you’re I mean this this is a pretty massive thing where it’s like well maybe we could get the

Thunder who we match up really well with in a one eight matchup if we actually can get to the playoffs which is a whole other question or we could get Denver who we match up horribly with and and has now won eight straight games against

Us and you know if you’re the Lakers and you play Denver in the first round I don’t I’m sure there’ll be discussions about can the Lakers win the series they’re not winning the series maybe there should be discussions about can they win a game well sure but my point

Is my point is just if until we see them win a playoff game against these nuggets let’s that that’s where the discussions on this podcast a good place obviously but the point my point is just that this for a onew situation which is looks like

This is going to come down to it’s got a lot higher Stakes than it even normally would because you’re G to see like there’s some certain matchups there that could really be beneficial to some of these lower seated teams and it could be either really good or really bad

Depending on who’s sitting there well and look if Oklahoma City is the number one seed if they’re able to to earn that um again they do have the tiebreaker and the nuggets are number two you could I’m sure you could find statistical nerdy models that would say

Hey 78 game you’d be better off losing that game as as far as the probabilities to get out of the first round now there’s no way you would take that risk I just cannot imagine because you don’t want to put yourself in a win or go home

Situation but again all due respect to Oklahoma City if I’m buying stock for five years that’s probably the first place that I’m going but nobody in their right mind would rather see uh the nuggets and the thunder in the well the well the Thunder have the hard of these

Teams the Thunder have the hardest schedule left theyve got they play Boston they have two games with Milwaukee um got at least one with New Orleans they have New Orleans they have Phoenix um so it’s not Denver’s got the easiest and the Thunder have the toughest and they’re half game separated we’ll call

It a full game because of the tie break it doesn’t have to be any kind of collapse for Oklahoma City to not get the one seat like it could Denver could flat out wi it out right just because of the strength of schedule situation um but you know it is

Interesting if you’re you know because at ESPN everything’s got a Laker angle um you know that that you would be quote unquote rewarded potentially by being in the 910 as opposed to being in the 78 um assuming that you’re assuming that play play in victories which you know

You shouldn’t assume but well by the way on these on the lines of the the seaing uh just because there’s literally just an update that came over um Stephen Curry had a good evaluation and is going to be re-evaluated after Friday’s practice so he’s going to miss Wednesday’s game against

Dallas and there’s at least a chance then uh because their next game is I believe on Saturday which I’m checking Saturday against the Lakers which a pretty massive game for both teams I would guess there’s at least a chance that he will be back for that game on

Saturday so yeah you know as we continue to talk about how close all these matchups are and how these in particular these head-to-head games matter in terms of swinging things that obviously would be a massive swing for the Warriors if they can get Steph back on the court for that game

Against LA on Saturday yeah the warrior statement certainly indicates a little bit of optimism that he can come back Saturday says he’s been clear to resume onc Court workouts in the Bay Area and is expected to join the team for practice in LA on Friday then he’ll be

Reevaluated so not seems like he’ll be back Saturday barring setbacks seems like a reasonable hope yeah and you uh is the the first game is tonight in Dallas Wednesday well tonight depending on tonight for the podcast podcast yes yes right our tonight look at you look at you zooming in in the future

All right all right well sus concludes another spectacular podcast with mcmah and bonds thank you to Jackson for producing it all thank you to bonts for being salty and thank you to McMahon for being McMahon and thank you for listening we’ll talk to you guys very soon adios amigos

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk how the new minimum game rule & eliminating of positions for All-NBA will impact the league, a difficult stretch for the Rockets, the future of the Jazz and who can hang on to the top of the Western Conference.

0:00 Luka Doncic’s record streak
3:20 Impact of NBA Awards with the 65-game rule
27:11 State of the Rockets
33:36 Worth it for the Jazz to commit to a rebuild?
43:54 How will the No. 1 seed in the West play out?

#espn #nba #hoopcollective

☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/​​​​​
📱Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn​​​​​
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og​​​​​
☑️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE​​​​​
☑️Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV​​