Detroit Basketball Is Back, Strong Rockets & Panic For Clippers | The Hoop Collective

Detroit Basketball Is Back, Strong Rockets & Panic For Clippers | The Hoop Collective

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA which we’re doing on Sunday evening. Joining us from Philadelphia from I think it’s called Exfinity Mobile Arena now. That is correct and everyone calls it that. Yeah. where he just watched the Detroit Pistons come from behind and beat the uh Philadelphia 76ers in a quality another quality win for the Pistons, Tim Bunmps. Hello everybody. And joining us from Dallas, Texas, the Cowboys win today, Van McMahon. Howdy partners. Uh they were on a buy. Rough fantasy week for me. Getting old shop it looks like. Barring a Sorn Barkley miracle on Monday night, but uh you know we’re just going to keep on rolling right here. Well, the Mavericks got a win over the weekend. They qualifies as breaking news these days. Barely barely got a win, but they got one. Uh, they got one. They needed it really bad, too. Uh, okay. To the game that you were at tonight, Bontemps. Um, uh, this was a relatively classic performance by an NBA star player. Cade Cunningham had a bit of a sluggish start. The 76ers were play on the second night of a back-to-back. So that meant no Joel Embiid amongst some other players. But uh Cade was the best player on the court in the second half, which I watched um brought him home down the stretch. Two points on one for nine shooting in the first half and he had 24 points on 841 shooting in the second half and a bunch of assists and one gigantic dunk at the end of the game. Yeah, he uh Kelly Ubé kind of lost track of him and Andre Drummond went up with them and he halfway up he decided it was a bad idea. I mean it first of all it was a hell of a poster dunk and second of all you don’t see dunks like that happen in a one possession game with under two minutes to go. That was the most impressive part. Like he got a lane went to the rim and yammed it on Drummond in a huge spot. like it was one of the most important baskets of the whole game. Um but yeah, I mean it was an incredible performance from Cade. Pistons are eight and two. It’s the first time they’ve won at least eight games to start in their first 10 in 20 years since the 0506 season when they went 64 and 18. It was two years ago that Kate Cunningham and Jaylen Duran were on this Pistons team that was 14 and 68 and lost 29 games in a row after starting two and one uh right at this time of the year. They didn’t win a game from October 30th until December 30th, which is insane. Um, and you watch him now and like it was a professional performance from Kade in the second half and it was a professional performance from a young Pistons team to play pretty poorly in the first half, be down 13, not really be in the game. Tyrese Maxi continues to be great. looked like the Sixers had a chance to steal this game with no Joel Embiid playing the second night of a backto-back and then the Pistons like a very good NBA team typically does play great in the second half take over the game down the stretch led by their star player and you know they they look like a team that is not going anywhere from the top of the East this season and I would contend after watching Kade in this game I think Kade’s the second best player in the I would only put Giannis ahead of him. Like you could argue for Donovan Mitchell, you can argue for Jaylen Brunson, you could argue for the guy he played against tonight, Tyrese Maxi. Obviously Jason Tatum and Tyrese Albertton when healthy are in the mix for that discussion too. But as a 68 guy who has the command of the game that he does, who because he’s so big can help you at the defensive end too. It’s just always in control, always smooth. I I mean I don’t know. I wouldn’t take anybody else other than Yianis over him. And the fact that you could put him in that kind of conversation, I think means that you put Detroit right there with Cleveland and right there with the Knicks at the top of the East, maybe taking the place that we thought, say, Orlando was going to be in a month ago. McMahon, it’s so typical of Bontemps that he’s praising a player and he can’t do it without collateral damage. What’s the collateral damage? Donovan Mitchell’s stats are as follows. Donovan Mitchell is incredible. Nothing against Donovan Mitchell. 31 points per game, 53% shooting, 44% on three. Um, five assists, 1.6 steals. That’s Look, the guy the guy he played against tonight, I don’t know if Tyrese’s number is in front of me, but he’s about averaging 34 a game and on good efficiency and has been awesome, too. The Cavs will claim the highlight of the weekend. McMahon, did you see what happened to Oh no, poor Josh Guinea. It was a rough moment. Yeah, DeAndre Hunter crossed him into limping off the floor before they literally the Bulls had to call timeout because they thought there was a chance that Josh Giddy actually broke his ankle on Saturday night. And then after he he he sent Giddy to the floor, DeAndre Hunter dunked it on Patrick Williams head. It was a great play even when play. Yeah. See, we we try to give the Pistons some love and oh, Wendy’s got to drag it over to you can’t let you can’t let anybody talk about Detroit. He just bad Well, I’m prepared to keep talking about them, but he just batted Mitchell aside. I mean, again, I’ll take in that conversation, but he’s in the conversation for sure. The point I actually, as much as I hate to do it, I have to agree with Bontage right now. The only guy in the East who’s clearly making a bigger impact on a night-to-ight basis than Kade Cunningham is Giannis. We can, you know, we can debate some other people, but you know, Bon Tim, you said, incredible performance by K. Got 26 points, 11 assists. Also, kind of just another night at the office. That’s what he’s doing on a regular basis. And Jaylen Dur another monster double double in this game. 21 and 16. There is a very short list of bigs who have the combination of athleticism and power that that Jaylen Durn has. Let me also just remind you of something. Jaylen Dur doesn’t turn 22 until later this month. He’s never going to be the kind of, you know, he’s not going to be Joker or Embiid where you run offense through him, but we are watching Jaylen Duran morph into a star, you know, a complimentary type of star, but a perfect fit next to Kade Cunningham. And Cade lifts everything that he does well and he enhances all, you know, all of Kade’s game offensively. Those two as a duo are on the short list of the best duos in the East as well. Jaylen Duran this season, what did he have tonight? Uh Bontam’s tw and 16 and obviously there’s no Embiid and Philly’s kind of a small team, but watching him in this game, I was reminded of Steven Adams in that Duran is just Adams doesn’t score like that. No, but what I mean is like when when you watch the Pistons play, A Duran just hoovers up rebounds and B guys just bounce off him. Yes. Like he’s just an absolute cinder block of a guy on the low block and he just he can’t he gets he doesn’t get moved by almost anybody. And it it’s incredible like his his physical presence inside. It reminded me of watching Steven Adams, who is about as strong a dude as we’ve seen in the league in a generation probably. Duran has a 248 rebound game this year, a 213 rebound game, a 33 10 rebound game, a 22 rebound game, a 30 11 rebound game, and then tonight 21 and 16. He’s averaging 19 and 12. And the 19 is a big boost up. And again, it’s not just all off of a lot of it’s off of just pick and roll finishes and put backs, but he’s got a nice little touch around the basket, too. Like this guy, he bet on himself. I don’t know what the offer was that was on the table in extension season. He bet on himself and I think it was a pretty good bet. He was five of seven at the line tonight. Uh, Bontemps, which I think was second on the team after Cade. He’s averaging six free throws uh, a game so far. That’s twice as many he’s ever averaged, and he’s shooting 86% on them. So, that’s something he’s added to his game, too. And, and they and the Pistons really like they I was talking to Dur about it after the game, like they have the identity of the classic Pistons teams, right? They’re not an awesome offensive team. They do miss Malik Beasley’s shooting. You know, Duncan Robinson has been fine for them. Um, but Malik Beasley had a historic three-point shooting season last year. They’re I think they ranked 16th on offense after today’s game. But they’re third in defense. Dur immediately talked about the physicality they play with and the toughness and the grit they play with, which as we know, both those great Pistons teams from the last generation from the 2000s, 20 years ago, and obviously the Isaiah Thomas Bad Boys Pistons, those are what those teams were built on. very good depth across the roster and big physical we’re gonna maul you play and they’re fun to watch and like you just every time the game as the game got down towards the end tonight Kate never got sped up he got to his spot every time got one good look after another and I mean it was great to watch him and Maxi go back and forth Maxi’s had an incredible season but that size at 68 to be able to handle the ball the he does and do the things that he does. It’s just such a rare weapon and it it makes him awfully dangerous and it’s made the Pistons awfully dangerous a lot faster than I certainly thought they were going to be. and a big 68 like he’s not you know like LaMelo Ball is 68 LaMelo Ball’s skin whatever 67 6 Kade’s about three LaMelo balls of of right my point is he’s he’s like Luca in the sense of obviously great handle can score all over the floor you know he’s he’s not the passer that Luca is but a very very good passer and just they like they can physically bully almost any guard defender So yeah, um in the last play of the game, the Pistons were up by three and the uh 76ers ran a relatively elaborate final play. Um not maybe elaborate by NBA play standards, but certainly elaborate by last shot standards. They move the ball from side to side with the intent to get Maxi with the ball on the move. The Pistons defended it perfectly and put it through a double team at Maxi and for he got a reasonably good shot off, but it was only off of a scramble. They played excellent defense on the last possession uh to secure the win as well. So, um yeah, they’re doing really well and also Bontemp’s four- one on the road. Yeah. You know, this hasn’t like been a an unbalanced schedule in their favor. No. And and if you look at where they’re at, like you know, we’ve talked about the ups and downs the Knicks have had and some of the injury issues the Knicks have had. Um we’ve talked about Cavs Corner and the the injuries that Cavs Corner is dealing with. Obviously Daryus Garland is back. That’s been good to see, but they’ve needed some herculean performances from Donov to escape with some wins early. Um like is is there a world can we see a world where Detroit is the top seed in the east? Is that a is that a real thing? like kind of feels like it could be a real thing right now. Not saying they’re going to win the East necessarily, but I mean like you know like I mean the obviously they’re off to a great start that you know the Knicks the Knicks the Knicks I know they beat the the Nets on Sunday. I’m not going to you know celebrate that. I will say that the the Knicks put up 134 on Brooklyn and the Knicks have won four in a row and these are their last uh five games in scoring. Um 125, 128, 119, 137, 134. Yeah. So, the Knicks are powering up. Um and questions, though, they’ve played an unbalanced schedule. The Knicks are six and0 at home and 0 and3 on the road. So, well, to me, it’s just more by the Doug Mo standings, the the the are in good shape. To me, it’s just more about the the way the teams are set up. And look, I I think there’s a lot of work for Detroit still to do. We I I mentioned earlier, they’re still in the middle of the pack in offense. They are I know you guys talked about it on the pod on Friday with Zinn and Slater. I I think they are extremely interesting, maybe the most interesting team in the league from a trade acquisition standpoint between now and the deadline. like do they potentially go get another guy to get buckets next to Cade to go with Duran to go with Assar Thompson who I haven’t even talked about with Ron Holland their fifth pick last year who’s playing real minutes for them um to try to give them some more of a boost at that end but you look at all the injuries the Cavs have you’ve got Carl Town’s dealing with this quad thing Josh Hart’s dealing with this finger thing Mitchell Robinson’s status is always up in the air there’s just a lot of questions with those teams and the Pistons are young and got pretty good track records of health and they’ve got a clear identity that they’re leaning fully into. Well, very interesting. You know, we and a lot of other people thought that Atlanta and Orlando made leaps this off season and we thought that they were going to be top half of the East playoff picture. I think what we can say is right now as we speak, the Pistons are miles ahead of those two teams. miles ahead of those two teams. Well, in the in the in the in the leap, those teams like Orlando goes against Desmond Bane, right? Obviously, that has not worked. They had a very poor loss today to Boston. Um Atlanta has had a lot of injuries and you know, they’re figuring stuff out, but the the leap the Pistons have made has been internal, right? Dur has taken a massive leap. Thompson’s taken a leap. And Cade has built They had a bunch of cap space this summer that they didn’t I guess they used it on Duncan Robinson. They didn’t really not but not really. They basically just swapped out the money they were going to spend on Malik Beasley on him. I mean, they bet on their young guys taking on bigger roles and taking steps forward. And that’s, you know, those guys have all done that. And it’s, you know, that that’s what makes their start. It’s only 10 games. There’s a lot of work to do. You know, they I thought they had a pretty mature response to it after the game as a group, but it’s if you’re a Pistons fan, it’s been a long time since you could be this excited, but I think there’s a lot to be excited about in Detroit. I have yet to visit. What year did Little Caesars Arena open? I haven’t either, but I hear that the freaking uh pregame media spread is phenomenal. The food is great. I went to the very I went to the very first game there. I want to say it was the day after the Gordon Hayward injury because I think I drove I think I drove from Cleveland to Detroit for that game this the next night cuz then I think that’s right. Um Jackson can Jackson will probably correct the record on that but I I bet to the very first game at Little Caesars. I have been back since. It opened it opened in 2017. Yeah, it was the day after that game. That is the day it was. So, it’s it’s been eight years and I just haven’t It might be time. Might be time. The Pistons haven’t done anything to bring us in. Well, hold on. They did last year. They made a Well, they didn’t get out of the first round. Okay. But they made a historic leap last year. They had a nice They had a nice look, they the Pistons were a great story last year, but at no point were they seen as a team that was a real threat to do anything where this season this season it’s a much much different story from that standpoint. And I’m not I don’t want to sit here and tell you I’m predicting a Pistons championship in the next couple years. So when I compare them to the Thunder, just what I’m saying is they’re doing it with internal development. They’ve got a superstar they’ll they’re building around and I they don’t have a Jaylen Williams caliber player but they’ve got this young you know core of three guys and I’m talking about Kade Cunningham 24 years old now Jaylen Dur has not turned 22 yet and Assar Thompson at 22. Each of those guys is getting better and better and better. Um now we’ll see what they do. Yeah, I I think they’ve got to get another not not just score, but score creator, you know, to to go with Cade. But what the Thunder did was they made a major leap to respectability. Made another double figure leap. It’s called eat finishing their breakfast. Yeah. As they were finishing their breakfast, made a d another double figure leap becoming what meal bond temps. What meal are the Pistons on? Where are they? If you’re going on the prey scale, they’re eating breakfast still for sure. Okay. Okay. What about in the Little Caesars’s pregame media spread? Yeah, exactly. But my point is the the Thunder made three straight double figure leaps. Yep. Not saying you’ll see that for the Pistons, but they made this massive leap last year. A double figure win leaps. Not out of the realm of possibility this year, you know, to get them to at least contending in the East. You know, I I I think they’re on that kind of a path right now. And it is young drafted players. And by the way, it’s only again only 10 games into the season, but there’s only one team ahead of them in either conference in the standings. That would be the 10-1 Oklahoma City Thunder. All right, speaking of young teams with the Thompson Twin, um the Houston Rockets had a pretty impressive win on Sunday in Milwaukee. Um they uh were down double digits in this game and Giannis was powering up. Giannis is just attacking the rim with absolute unstoppable force. He’s averaging five dunks a game so far. He had 37 in this game. But you know, they’re just cruising along to a Sunday afternoon. And the Rockets coming off of a loss to San Antonio on Friday night, a game that put San Antonio ahead of them in the standings and was a was a key win for San Antonio. San Antonio was still trying to prove that it’s that it’s um that it belongs up in up in that echelon. And uh Dear Fox started played his first game on Saturday night, didn’t play on Friday against the Rockets. And they didn’t have Dylan Harper in that game. Stefan Castle was awesome. Victor was himself. They win that game and Udoka as he does called out his team afterwards. Lit him up. Yeah. Um which he does like in a with a low controlled way that is somehow more scary than if he would yell. Um and then they went up to Milwaukee and were getting were down by 10 points and then they dropped 72 in the second half of this game and down the stretch just wrestled the Bucks to the floor. Well, and totally impressive and also did it with skill. You know, KD by his standards went through a little mini slump there. Um couple games they won and then, you know, turned it over a ton of times against Spurs. you know, he’s back to being KD tonight or this afternoon. 31 points on 15 field goal attempts, only three turnovers. But dude, once again, the biggest buckets of the game down the stretch were Alpie Shingon. And you know, one KD gets gets uh they send a second defender at him out by half court. Boom. Okay, fine. He’ll give the ball to Alpie uh in the middle of the floor to go make something happen. out. He goes in there, bumps Giannis, and finishes right over him. And then the second one, Giannis was frustrated, I believe, because he kept breaking free throws in in crunch time. Yes. They didn’t they they couldn’t make a basket near the end of this game and Giannis was a part of the reason why. Yeah. And then he he tries to, you know, get up in Shingun’s stuff when Shingun’s got the ball, I don’t know, 30 35 ft from the hoop and he’s trying to just, you know, take his cookies. Shingoom blows by him and goes in for, you know, kind of the spin move, too. Yeah. Well, so earlier in like in the third quarter when uh when Milwaukee was was trying to hold off, um Giannis went as Shenun like two or three times in a row, like got several fouls on him at one point, knocked him over, got a three-point play, and like mean mugged into the camera. And they had to take Shenon out of the game, I think, because of foul trouble. And Giannis was, you know, doing his flexing, and frankly, rightly so, because he was owning it. But when it mattered, Shenun made the play. Shenun and Durant uh made the plays uh to win the game. Was a very It was a win that looked like a team that was um you know, I got to cover a lot of great LeBron teams. Um and they would have a lot of games like this where they would be a big game on the schedule. They would come in, the other team would hit them with a couple of uh, you know, stunning blows and then when it mattered, the better team took care of business. Well, the Rockets haven’t been that type of team for like six years. Like, like they they look today in this game like a team that was totally under control and was never worried about it even when the other team was, you know, you know, flexing on their home court. And I’m going to say something else. There’s a lot of people, a lot of Rockets in this game that played well. Ah men played well, had some big plays. Of course, their their offense is being driven by him. Steven Adams was really good. Tar Een was really good. Kid eight rebounds. I like where you’re going with this. I think Mr. Reed Shepard, I don’t know if you guys have noticed, Reed Shepard came into this game shooting 45% on threes and then he went um I think four out of six. I don’t have the updated numbers. Um, yeah, by the way, in this game, 29 minutes off the bench, 16 points, six for 10 shooting, four for six from three, two assists, four steals, and a block. And again, Reed Shepard, the reason he was such a revolutionary analytical model player coming out of Kentucky was because he was getting a ton of defensive stats and was making defensive plays. Now, he’s not Alex Caruso on defense, but he has good hands. He’s smart. He knows how to play. And if we go back to the opener, we talked about it. It was basically his first real NBA game outside of cameos. And he’s playing in this crazy inferno in OKC. And he looked like a guy playing in his first game. But he had some huge shots in the second half of this game to help the the the Rockets make this comeback. And I’m glad you brought him up because I was going to bring him up when we talked about this game because it has been good to see him get into the flow and start making some plays. And you know, it’s a reminder that it’s a very long season and this is a guy who’s getting his first real chances to play and he’s making some improvements and doing some stuff. And like look, we talked on the pod about the the abilities of Amen Thompson going into the season and the potential for him to be most a brute player and the leaps he can make, but the the leap Shenon has made has been massive and he’s he has been awesome to watch and going back and forth with Giannis today was the latest example of it. Like today, sometimes Shenun is going to get taken care of on the defensive end. Sometimes he’s not going to be great. Sometimes Reed Shepard is going to look like a traffic cone on the defensive end because you put him in space, his quickness is, you know, can be taken advantage of, but he’s also going to take your cookies. He’s also going to, you know, hit the three. And so, like, if he if you’re not relying on him to be a transformational player, I know he was number three pick, but if you’re relying on him to be a high level role player, you might you might feel okay about him. And that’s what’s been happening. Well, here’s the thing. The Rockets firmly believe Reed Shepard has star potential on the offensive end. They, you know, even when early like he didn’t shoot well against OK, they’re not worried about his shooting. He’s going to knock down shots. They are there’s some concerns about his defense, but you’ve seen them play a lot of zone when he’s on the floor. And look, if he if he’s shooting the ball like this, making plays like this offensively, then it more than justifies having a scheme to protect him defensively, right? You’re not going to run the switch everything stuff a lot with Reed Shepard. Probably not going to happen. Uh, you know, because he’s just not good enough as an onball defender right now. Maybe he progresses to the point where he can. If you’re shooting it like this, you can mix it up the zone. You can do things to protect him and it makes plenty of sense. and he’s in a role where he can come off the bench and be that type of of uh kind of instant offense bucket getter. But I man, Shingune has made a big leap. A big leap. And all you need to know is KD is more than happy to let Shingune get the rock if if he’s got the matchup or if they want to throw two bodies at KD. More than happy to give Shingun the rock down the stretch. And now again against the Mavericks, KD went to the corner, Shingun had Gaffford up up high and basically was like cook and he did well and and it it’s worth pointing out that KD had 31 and seven on 11 for 15 shooting in this game. And it’s just a reminder that last season Jaylen Green would have been taking those shots and Jaylen Green’s why they lost the Warrior series. Like let’s just call it like it is. He was bad in that series. They shot under 30% in the series. why they lost he had one big time performance and then other than that he was awful. He had a really bad series which is okay like plenty of guys have had a bad series as a young player. We’ll see what happens in the future but they replaced him with Kevin Durant and when you have Kevin Durant as the guy with Shenon like down the stretch of this game it was Kevin Durant making shots and Shenoon making shots and like that’s a formula that is going to lead the Rockets to a lot of doubles. The way Jackson gives us this stat, going back to Giannis real quick, he’s the first player with 300 points and 100 rebounds in his first nine games since Luels Cinder 7071. Wow. He’s a pretty good player. He’s a pretty good player. Yeah. Yeah, he is. Uh you mentioned uh Jaylen Green a second ago. Not the greatest weekend for Jaylen Green. He missed the first eight games of the season for the Suns and comes back and looked like he pretty significantly reinjured his hamstring on Saturday night. So, while that was not good, uh after having a great game in his first game, had 29 points and I think 23 minutes in, uh and it was plus 30 and their win over their first of two wins over the Clippers. They didn’t do they didn’t I didn’t see an update on Sunday. I assume they’ll update him on sat on Monday and I’m not anticipating a good update there. Oh, it’s it’s However, I guarantee you this, it’s multiple weeks. I mean, when you come back after missing the first eight games and have to get helped off the floor. Yeah, it looked he and he was in a lot of discomfort. He Yeah, it was he couldn’t move the leg. Okay, having said that though, um the Suns have won four out of five. Uh and their next three games are against the Pelicans, the Mavericks, and the Pacers. It ain’t exactly murderers row. Um and um they just took a home and home with the Clippers who are having some issues. Um and I just like to point out so Devin Booker um he’s put together some really impressive games. He had 2110 and nine. um didn’t have the greatest shooting night, but um you know they uh they are better than we thought at this point. They’re five and five. I’m not sitting here saying let’s rewrite the uh predictions, but let’s acknowledge that they’ve won four out of five. Yeah. I mean they so far they have beaten the Jazz, the Kings, the Spurs, great win over the Spurs, and then this Clipper team twice. And to me the bigger question is out of these games like Phoenix played well. They’ve had a nice start. They’re probably, like you said, they really should be eight and five. Like if they’re eight and five in a couple of days, then okay, like maybe they could surprise people. And Book has been awesome. It’s been good to see him back to playing like an all NBA player again when he wasn’t at that level really last year. Um the the question to me is like, are the Clippers in real trouble? Like yes, they look they look extraordinarily old. Here’s the thing. If you’re going to be if you’re gonna be old and slow, you better not be sloppy. They rank near the top of the league in turnovers committed. They give up more points off of turnovers than anybody. I mean, when they transition defense is still a problem despite the shirts. Exactly. When they turn it over, it’s it’s a it’s a gift because they can’t get back. They are creaky. And now Kawaii is out for you know well that’s the other thing. So Tailoo it’s an ankle sprain and he was asked by one of the media members is it a high ankle sprain? And he goes it’s an ankle sprain. I don’t like high ankle sprains on anybody much less Kawhi Leonard. And I don’t like non-timelines. And so that’s a thing. Well and Bradley Beal Bradley Beal has been rough. Chris Paul has been awful. Um it I mean I thought coming into the season I was high on them because I thought they had 11 12 guys who could play and they probably always have eight or nine of them available but they also were relying on a lot of old guys. Brook Lopez, Chris Paul, Nick Pat Batum Beals obviously played a lot of minutes hard and Kawawaii like it’s a very old team and there was at least a chance that they would sort of become a pumpkin overnight and it’s still early. We’ll see small sample size theater and all that but they look like a team that’s pretty old. Let me say two things about the Clippers. number one last year. They were the number three defensive team in the league. That team, every just about everybody they put on the floor defended. They defended as a team. They defended no matter who was healthy. Even James Harden, despite his limitations at times, you could tell he was trying to give it a college try on defense. They were successful because they defended. So far, small sample size, etc. They’re 27th. 3 to 27th is no good. I ain’t going to get it done. And now I’m going to give you stats. Name this player. Uh oh. Okay. 23.3 points. James Harden. 662 or uh 46% on threes on six a game. Oh, I know who this is. 94% at the line on a careerhigh seven a game. Pal. That would be one Norman Pal. That is Norman Pal. Yeah. And it’s not that John Collins is playing poorly. He’s doing okay. He’s not scoring, but again, that’s not really his role, but it’s that Bradley Beal’s playing poorly because Beal wasn’t part of the trade, but the trade’s made with the assumption that the trade the trade was the trade was it wasn’t an assumption. The trade was John Collins and Bradley Beal for Norman Powell. Now, it was he wasn’t technically in the trade, but they made the trade because they were getting Bradley Beal. They thought they could get 80 90% of Norman Pal’s production from Beal and then get Collins is a really nice piece off the bench. Collins has been a really nice piece off the bench. Beal ain’t holding freaking Pal’s jock with a wheelbarrow right now. Beal is averaging, he has played six games. He is averaging eight points on 37% shooting. He’s shooting 37% on threes as well. Eight points. Clippers are giving up the league’s uh almost 24 points a game off turnovers most in the league. Assuming that I can make it to Los Angeles on Monday. Um I’m going to go see the Clippers play Monday and Wednesday. Monday they play the Hawks. Wednesday they play the Nuggets. I saw them play the Thunder for a quarter. They look good. Well, I as you guys know, I was really excited about this team in the preseason. So was I. I was high on them. I thought they were going to be good. Um, you know, you had to you had to pencil in some Kawawaii missed games. Sure. But, um, the the the design of the team was that they were supposed to be a little bit more resilient primarily because they can defend. Well, and and James Harden has always been whatever else you want to say about James Harden, he’s always been a regular season innings eater and wins machine and he was last year and like the expectation was that was going to be the case again. And again, it’s a long season. It’s only nine games. There’s plenty of time, but it is definitely concerning to see a team with this many old players looking this old through the first three weeks. And and by the way, Zubots has not been bad. What at all? But can we revisit your allNBA prediction? Let’s not. Yeah, let’s let’s not. I I you know this is window decided to make a prediction and you know it had been a long barren off season and you know I saw an exhibition game that excited me for the first time and you were really fired up that was such an anti-Brian position to be over the moon about an exhibition game and making predictions I was happy about that game by the way the Nuggets it was against the Nuggets the Nuggets looked great which I didn’t make any outrageous predictions about the Nuggets but I felt really good about what the Nuggets looked By the way, can we can we put a can we can we just talk real quick about something? I want to read some Cam Thomas stats. Can I read some Cam or Cam not Cam Thomas? I’m sorry. Cam Thomas is out for Not not that. Not that. Another a former for another Cam who used to play on his team. Cam Johnson. Cam Johnson stats. No, they’re not good. Cam Johnson Cam Johnson threw nine games this season is averaging eight points per game. He is shooting 37% from the field. He is shooting 23% from three. I I again I expect Cam Johnson to start making some shots, but I think it’s pretty concerning that we’re this far into the season and he has been this much of a nonfactor for Denver given well the outlay they paid to get him. I would be much much more concerned if the Nuggets weren’t seven and two with a second best point differential. Can I read some Aaron G Aaron Gordon? Yes. I mean that’s that’s I mean Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray have been incredible and they’ve been off to a great start. So it’s sort of been it’s sort of flown under the radar, but it has been a rough start for him. Now again, if those guys are all healthy and playing great, it might not matter at all. But it’s just been interesting to see that Tim Hardaway Jr. has been one L of a vet minimum pickup. Yeah, he’s he’s making threes. So, Joic is tic is taking five fewer shots per game and he loves it. Shooting 64% 64% from the field. Now, he shot 63% a couple years ago, one of the MVP years, so he has touched this before, but last year, you know, there were times when he, you know, he struggled last year only shot 57%. Um, but he’s leading the league in rebounds and assists. He’s almost got a four He’s almost got a four assist to turnover ratio. 11.9 assists per game to 3.1 turnovers. 3.8 assist to turnover. Crazy. This is how Joker wants to play. He never he doesn’t want to have to feel like, dude, I got to get I got to get 30 points a chance. He want He wants to take 14 15 shots a game and have a dozen assists. He’s averaging 11.9 assists per game at his career high at 10.2. But this is, you know, we always talk about, hey, teams would prefer to make Joker a one-dimensional score because if he’s able to just spread it all around, then everybody’s eating with I guess the exception of Cam Johnson right now. But right now, Joker is a super efficient 25 point per game, 24, 25, whatever it is, and getting 12 assists. And his minutes, I think his minutes are actually down from last year. You know, part of that he’s only at 34. So I I I’m pretty sure he’s up at like 37 last year. Last year he was at almost Yeah. in a couple years he was Yeah. They’re down almost three a game. This is exactly the way that Joker wants to play. It gives him a chance to stay fresh all season, be fresh come playoff time. And and again, he doesn’t want to take 22 23 shots in a game. McMahon, guess the player. I’m going to read another stats. Guess the player. Okay. Okay. What do we got? 7.6 points a game. 31% um or actually 26% on threes on six a game. Come on, man. This is Klay Thompson. Damn, you’re you’re hot. Yeah. No, he’s cold and you’re hot, brother. And and he was sick in Washington uh one game after being scoreless in Memphis, which was his second game coming off the bench. And the decision to bring Clay off the bench has gotten buried by all the feces that’s flying around the Mavericks right now. But dude, it was like, dude, I’m just telling you, man, that was a big big thing. And um you know, he said the right things afterwards. I wasn’t at that game, but uh the Dallas Morning News talked to him. You know, he said all the right things. But we all know, everybody who knows Clay knows how much pride he has. And man, coming off the bench for Golden State, he was miserable and he was pissed. Now, he really they and the Mavericks recruited him to Dallas, which by the way, that contract, uh, he’s owed about 34 mil this year, next year, it’s looking rough. Um, but they recruited him to Dallas, got him, you know, they couldn’t offer him as much as the Lakers did with the promise that he would be coming off the bench. And in his defense, one of the major reason promised he’d be starting, I think. I’m sorry, my bad. Promised they Yeah, promised that he’d be starting. Promised that he would have a starting job. And he started the first 79 games he played for the Mavericks. 81 if you want to include the playing games. So, it was like I knew they were thinking about it, but it this was a big decision for JK to make because frankly, you risk just flat out losing Clay mentally. It’s going to be a challenge for him to stay mentally, but he was so bad. They had to make this move. Now, Daniel Russell uh serves, he was minus 18 in a win over the Washington Wizards. He’s had one good shooting game for the Mavericks, but just to get a point guard on the floor to take that burden off of Cooper Flag after what I saw in that game against New Orleans, I kind of support it. No, you had you had to take they had to take the burden off of Cooper Flag shoulders in terms of being the primary facilitator. Um Clay just the the production was so bad and honestly his best game this season was his first game off the bench, but that was a big big deal. Um, but man, there’s just like dude, there’s a whole lot of things that ain’t good with the Mavericks. And and hey, at this point, I believe it is a matter of when, not if, Nico Harrison will be fired. And I I there is a very very strong likelihood that will be mid-season. Maybe they can get things turned around. Maybe his heat can go from sizzling to, you know, a more normal temperature. But, you know, I always say like, dude, every time I think that they’ve hit rock bottom, they find a, you know, they they find a way to drill deeper. And they almost lost to Washington. They won. That would have been drilling. That would have been drilling all the way down to Hades. And that’s about how hot Nico seat is right now, fellas. Well, their two best players are out. Okay. Breaking news. They knew Kyrie was going to miss the first half the season or so and your your big move this summer was to go to get D’Angelo Russell to replace him on a temporary basis. Also, why do they have such a void for playmaking and and offense creation on this roster? I mean, come on now. It’s blown up in in his face. It’s blown up in Patrick Dumont’s face. After that Luca trade, Patrick Dumont, one of his infamous quotes was in Nico We Trust. I’m just telling you, the trust is disintegrated at this point. Anthony Davis wanted to play Saturday in Washington. He’d been gearing up to that practice Thursday. Doubtful then sat Friday in um in Memphis upgraded to questionable that you know that we all see that that’s the normal track to bringing a guy back from injury. There was internal disagreement about whether that was a good idea and there was a lot of opinions voiced in that. Ultimately they decided to hold him out in Washington. We’ll see if he plays Monday against the Bucks. He’s questionable. Again, one of the opinions that was I don’t know if it was a veto. I don’t know how heavily this opinion weighed in, but one of the opinions that was involved here was Patrick Dumont’s. Patrick Dumont went from blind faith in Nico to now weighing in on whether a star can come back from injury. That’s a pretty significant Well, it’s because last year he tried to play through the injury when he came back when he when he played to play his first game and it was borderline and he made it worse. I mean I mean I’m not saying I don’t know about the owner being involved. I’m just saying like I I might ask some questions too, right? And and so let me ask you this. Why do you think Anthony Davis rushed back last year to play in that home Rockets? Okay. Why would he rush back? right now. Well, pretty bad idea. I I see what you’re saying. Why would he do that? So, especially dude, we’re talking about a calf strain. You don’t definitely not with those things. And my understanding is that there were people with the Mavericks medical staff that were saying we cannot rush this guy back. that Dumont certainly agreed with that and that ultimately I was told by the end everybody was on the same page you know okay ultimately they decided to hold off at least another couple of days but again the fact that Patrick Deont is involved in that sort of decision-m is a major major development let me ask you this asking a lot of questions no I’m just asking since they went to the finals which personnel moves moves that the Mavericks have made have worked. God, what feels longer ago? I’m asking the Mavs. No, hold on. I’m going to ask a question cuz you said that. What feels longer ago? The Mavs making the finals or the Pistons losing 29 in a row? I’m not sure which feels farther away right now. Seriously, but like you know, we just mentioned Cooper Flag with the number one pick. That was I would say I would say the plan of getting Cooper Flag in the lottery worked out great. I would say that’s good. He favors the bold. you’re starting to see. I would say uh I would say Brandon Williams. Nice pickup. Okay. I would say uh trying to think of what what are my other options since the finals? Uh Klay Thompson. That didn’t I don’t like that. Um the Luca trade. Well, I mean, you sure the worst history of the league. I don’t like that. trading trading Quinton Grimes for Cayla Martin who I don’t like that who physical you still went through with the trade and then you couldn’t as your team’s falling apart sign guys even do a 10day because you got so bumped up to the apron I don’t like that move you know I guess the Naji Marshall one’s been okay but that’s a good move I like Naji Marshall that’s good my point is there’s been some pretty epic disasters here by the way Caleb Martin’s averaging like but they lost Derrick Jones when they got Naji Yeah, I I like I like that Naji Marshall deal. I thought that was okay. I I think that’s a good move. I’ll give him that. There’s been some massive Brandon Williams and Naji Marshall good. Luca Donic bad and some other ones. Yes. And some other ones. Um now, who’s going to run the Mavericks trade deadline? Well, listen. Wait. We got three months until the trade deadline. Let’s not start doing that. What is the Maverick’s trade assets? Here’s here’s one. Anthony Davis. They should trade Anthony Davis tomorrow. Well, and and listen, what are you what are you shaking your head about? What are you shaking your head about? You’re still going to argue this point now? I’ve heard No, I’ve heard your rationale vacuum. Hold on. Hold on. Nico would never ever Nico would never ever do that. But they are in year two of in his own definition a three to fouryear contending window. God, that was one of the most that that that press conference that press conference in Cleveland, that was one of the craziest things of all time. This is year two. Yeah, we have a three to four year window. So, year two light this thing on fire, right? And bro, you lucked into getting Cooper Flag. At some point, I would say pronto, the focus of the franchise has got to be pivoting around Cooper Flag. Let me just remind you in successfully building a finals team around fivetime first team allNBA before entering his prime face of the franchise Luca Donuch. You gave up control of your draft your first round draft picks 27 28 29 and 30. You’ve got this year’s and then you don’t have your own again. First of all, they have this year and I look forward to this year the Mavericks getting AJ Deansa, Cooper Flag, Cameron Boozer, somebody at the top of the draft because that’s going to happen and the internet’s going to break and then it’s going to be Cooper and another star. I don’t want to be a defense attorney here in this case. I just want to point out in fairness that when he did the press conference in Cleveland, he didn’t know Kyrie was tearing his ACL within days. It doesn’t matter. You traded a guy, again, we don’t need to reitigate the whole thing, but they traded a guy who’s 25 and announced that they had a three-year window. That That’s my point as the rationale for the trade. When they go on and tell us about that was a championship caliber team on the court for those two quarters. I’m not going to do anything. I just need to point it out. I have another matter. My point is this though. Do you want a GM whose job security is very tenuous and new because of that has a very short-term view plus his windows three to four years. Do you want him making long-term decisions for a franchise that just has an eight just lucked into an 18-year-old potential superstar? I think we know I think we know what the focus of the Mavericks franchise is right now and it’s on Cooper Flag and I would be very surprised if this season trades are made that go against the timeline of Cooper Flag. That would be my guess. They can’t be they cannot be approved. Well, I I understand that. That’s my point. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know who’s going to run the team in terms of the trade room or who’s going to be in charge or whatever, but I would bet based off of the way things have gone over the past several months that the Cooper flag timeline is the one that Dallas would be looking at. And again, I look forward to the internet breaking next May when Dallas after a very bad season jumps up in the lottery and gets a guy to go with Cooper. And whoever’s running the team can say it was also part of the plan. Just like jumping up to get Cooper in the first place. All part of the plan. Yes. It’s all part of the plan. I have another player for you to pick out for stats. Okay. Averaging 19.1 points a game. Mhm. 35% from the field. John Mor. And today after going two of seven on threes increased his three-point percentage from 12% to 15%. John, more importantly, I believe he was 0 for9 on mid-range shots in that game today. John, we discovered something like Jackson McMahon is just just slamming it out of the park. I need the NBA. These are under the radar players. Plus, these are like guys following the Grizzlies mess very closely. I’m following the Maverick’s mess very closely. I forgot the other one that I got, but I’ll I’ll If McMahon had been given all the answers to the test beforehand, he would not have needed the eight years to get through his collegiate tenure. Listen, let’s put it that way. Listen, I am My GPA was 2.3. That’s I would have guessed that. That’s more attempts than John Morant had in the restricted area tonight out of 18 field goals. Okay, brothers. I’m just telling you, I went back. Jackson, I’m going to read him AJ Mitchell stats next. Wait a minute. Did I forget to mute? J has ah crap I wish I had these numbers up right now. It he has right around 30% of his field goal team. I’m sorry. You know like you look on the NBA shot chart is the restricted area plus a little bit. It’s that it’s that little circle they that they have around the hoop. He’s got about uh about 60 I’m sorry less than 30% of his attempts coming from there. in his heyday when he, you know, two all-star seasons, it was like 53%. And I sent you guys these these quotes from tonight. Okay, these are these are from Deco Cole with the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Josh said he’s getting shots he wants. No concern. Quote, that’s why I don’t get too frustrated because I’d be in this arena. I’d be in the practice gym doing the same thing. Right now, it’s just continuing to shoot. continue to shoot with confidence and wait for it to translate over. Dude, the the the opposing defense wants you taking jump shots. Breaking news. Now they ask him like, “Hey, what about getting the rim? Like all your your rim numbers are plummeting, plummeting. Like they’ve been cut in half basically from when he was a 26 27 point per game scorer. I’m getting no foul calls. Y’all had a whole spiel about running in there careless and getting hurt. So what now? That’s what y’all want me to go back doing? Let’s end that combo right here. If John Morant, who, you know, four or five years ago led the league in paint scoring and right now ranks 40th in the league in paint scoring. If John Morant isn’t like league best level, is an elite at attack in the rim. Do you know what jaw means? Just average. Like waiting for that one. He had that one lined up, folks. He had that one lined up for days, folks. He was ready. Get that one in there. He is not an awesome paint attacker. He’s just a guy. Well, again, this goes back to the conversation we had the other day. He’s not one of the test 10 best point guards in the league. And when you factor in all the other stuff that comes Well, but again, well, this is what he’s been playing like. And to factor in all the other stuff that comes with him, he’s just not worth it. Which again goes back to the situation that Memphis is in. By the way, to I have the stats here. J is taking 71% of his shots roughly from inside the three-point line. And he’s taking 15% of his shots, 15 and a half to be precise, from inside three feet. And that basketball reference, right? Yes. and he’s taking 30% of his shots, right? That’s before today’s game. He’s taking 29% of his shots, just under 30% from 3 to 10 ft and another 17% from the mid-range, which by the way went up today because again, he was 0 for9 on mid-range jumpers in today’s game. And and you look you look earlier in his career when he was playing at an AllNBA level and those zero to three-foot numbers were in the 30s. They’ve been sliced in half. Yeah. By care by year of his career. 0 to 3 ft. Percentage of shots 39.6% 33.5% 33% 28.9% 28.8% 23.3% 15.5%. That is not just a descending order. That is by year they have gone down every year. That was an order from rookie year to now. Well, they played the Thunder today. They were up by 19. The Thunder went 10 of 43 on threes on the road, which in the NBA, if you shoot 10 of 43 on the road and you’re down by 19, that’s curtain time and the Thunder won by 14. And Jaw’s body language just progressively got glumber. Is glumber a word? I think it is. More glum. Whatever. More glum, I think. Whatever that word is. Shay was a cool 35 on plus 28 in the game too. Shay just scores Shay’s Shay scores 35. It’s not news. Yeah, it’s funny. I was reminded today um 357 and six and one turnover. Not bad. Some of our buddies in OKC, one of them’s Big Rich, I won’t mention the other guy. years ago when Jaw was at his AllNBA heyday, they were telling me, “I’d rather build around Shay.” And I would always say like, “You guys are such homers.” Like, that is such a ridiculous take. In hindsight, it’s hilarious that I was so convinced that Jaw was drastically a a better long-term. It’s it’s it wasn’t it wasn’t that long ago. I mean, it’s just a reminder of how fast things can change in the league. And you know, for a guy, especially a guy like Jah whose game is built on athleticism. Like I we were talking about it the other day. It reminds me a ton of Derrick Rose, it’s a very similar career arc to Dererick Rose. And after Dererick, Dererick’s injury, it just was never quite the same. He was a good player. He had moments where he was very effective, but it never really got back to the first couple years he had in the league again. and they’re ended up like the end of his tenure in Chicago feels a lot like where things are at right now in Memphis. And I just don’t see a way that’s going to change until he is elsewhere. And Jaw has not had obviously the devastating knee injury like his season ending injury was a shoulder deal that that’s not sapping his athleticism. I’m really not so much sure that he’s his athleticism is diminished as much as his fearlessness that kind of defined him is gone. And just listen to him, man. The rest don’t be giving me no calls. You know, he doesn’t want to go in there and take the contact. And he has had some scary falls. He has like especially last year when he came down and he screwed his hip up uh pretty good and didn’t I mean that was a play he absolutely should have gotten the call. He didn’t. But again, if Jod is not attacking the rim with like ruthlessness, he’s just a guy. He’s a He’s a pretty good point guard. I mean, he ain’t going to 35% is ridiculous. But if if he’s a primarily a jump shooter, he sure ain’t going to be the engine of an elite offense ever again. Jackson, the Syracuse grad says that uh Webster dictionary says glumber is a good it’s a word. Usually it’s us teaching you words. Now McMahon McVan McVan’s all over the Webster uh dictionary. You you two are kind of like glum and glumber at certain times of the year. That’s true. Um all right. Well, I think that’s all the potting we’ve got for tonight. A very uplifting final 20 minutes or so. Welcome to my test to get back up 95. Um, all right. I’m headed out to California. Please, my flight. Hopefully, everybody’s paid and uh, everybody’s working and they can direct the plane in. Maps have four home games this week. I know the city of Dallas is fired up. Can’t wait for that report. Can’t wait for that. Thank you to Jackson. Thank you to Bontson McMahon. Thank you for listening and watching at Hoop Collective. We’ll uh by the way, we’re on uh TVs on ESPN on uh on our Wednesday pods on the TVs. Check it out uh on depending on your provider. Uh thank you for watching listening to Hoop Collective. We’ll talk to you next week. Adios, amigos.

Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the Pistons looking poised for another big leap forward this season, the Rockets winning games how good teams do, the Suns outperforming expectations, if it’s time to panic about the Clippers, Jokic’s dominance, the drama in Dallas and more.
0:00 Intro
0:58 Pistons ready for big leap forward?
18:39 Rockets doing what good teams do
28:31 Suns outperforming expectations
29:54 Time to worry about the Clippers?
35:31 Jokic & Denver are rolling
38:40 Issues for Dallas continue to increase
50:27 Struggles in Memphis rising each week

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