"The Hoop Collective" podcast, hosted by ESPN's Brian Windhorst, releases episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the NBA season. Windhorst and his guests break down what's happening on and off the court, evaluating the trends you need to know and examining the latest news from across the NBA.

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Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to review the state of tanking in the NBA and what measures teams are taking as well as what the league can do to fix the issues. They then move on to the trade market of Memphis point guard Ja Morant and discuss Jaylen Brown's fine request before closing on other key headlines around the league.

Topics:

1:12: More exciting endings across the NBA
3:44: Addressing tanking across the league
11:08: Is there any way to fix it?
31:53: What does the Morant trade market look like?
52:39: Brown's unique fine request
59:23: Other key headlines around the NBA

Bontemps on the Morant trade market: Look, at the end of the day, this is no different than the Trae (Young) situation. So, the question like the Trae situation, is there a team?

"I think I if you look at the fact that this story is out there, it means that Memphis is open to do a deal. And if Memphis is open to do a deal, like Atlanta was open to do a deal, like we spent the last few weeks walking through that situation, it comes back to is there somebody who will take Ja Morant? And I I would say the answer is very much I don't know. I think there's a couple possibilities maybe, but like we talked about with the Trae Young situation, there are very few teams that need a point guard. There are very few teams that could take on a $40 million salary and there are even fewer teams that can do both."

MacMahon on Morant's future: "It's not like this reporting is the first time people around the league thought that Ja was available. Whether this is the first time that there's been kind of the admission that he's being shopped ... but there's been the perception that Ja could be had in the trade market for over a year now."

Bontemps on why a deal will likely get done: "This is why it's like Trae Young. It's a situation that both sides need to move on from and they need to find the best path to doing that and it's probably one that's going to be pretty humbling. You would like to think it'd be humbling for Ja to see what the return will be and it's going to be humbling for Memphis."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Vincent Goodwill and Anthony Slater to discuss the recent Trae Young trade and the details for the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards. The guys then breakdown the current state of the Golden State Warriors and if this could be Steve Kerr's last season as the franchise's dynasty comes to an end. Finally, the trio talks about the Sacramento Kings plan going forward and potential ideas for the draft lottery.

Topics:

2:46: Analyzing the Young trade
19:18: Breaking down the state of the Warriors
32:04: What is the plan in Sacramento?
45:02: Ideas for fixing the NBA draft lottery
48:42: The chaotic world of the transfer portal
53:10: Challenge of competitive balance in sports

Windhorst on Young's potential role with Washington: "I don't think we're going to see Trae Young play that much ...

"But Trae Young was back from the knee injury. So I just think it'll be interesting to see how they handle that. But I don't I don't you know guys they it is absolutely unacceptable for the Wizards not to get their pick this year. And they very badly need as high of a pick as possible. And so they absolutely should continue tanking as much as they can't. Like that is the correct thing to do. I'm just interested to see how this plays out, and I'm really interested to see how much money they're going to give Trae when this contract will be negotiated."

Slater on Sacramento's interest level in Jonathan Kuminga: "We'll find out in the next month. They've liked him since the summer. [General manager] Scott Perry went out to Miami when he was a restricted free agent, built up a relationship with him.

"I think it's important to note Jonathan Kuminga 6-foot-7 wing, rangy Keegan Murray, 6-foot-9 shooter, wing, some of the guys in the top of the draft, big wings. They want to play fast paced. They want to become a defensive team. We will see long term if it's built in a correct way."

Goodwill on why the trade deadline might be quiet this season: "And I think even starting back to what you were saying before about the trade deadline, a lot of teams are trying to tell the owners, 'Hey, we're not there yet to go into second apron territory because we want to win a championship.'

"I think you're seeing a lot more prudence. ... I think to some degree, especially when I look at a team like the Knicks and James Dolan saying the things that he said, a lot of these owners have to be calmed down.

"And I think some of the mechanisms of the system are forcing them to be calmed down because you're like, 'Hey, we can't afford to go into this because this is really punitive for us,' and it's forcing these very hard and realistic conversation as opposed to, well, if (the owner) said, let's do this or we're going to do it, like sometimes you got to tell the guy, 'no.'"

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks' options as they work together on a potential trade, including the best landing spots for the All-Star. They then move on to breakdown the New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder's recent struggles, as well as owner James Dolan's recent comments on the Knicks. The crew closes with Kevin Durant's recent comments after his clutch shot and the latest round of All-Star voting.

Topics:

1:46: Hawks and Young working on trade
6:46: Could Wizards be a destination?
23:56: Hoop Collective jinx?
25:44: Knicks hitting a rough patch
28:48: Dolan sees Knicks as Finals contenders
37:42: Thunder hit first major speed bump
46:20: Clutch KD's pointed comments
51:32: Second round of All-Star voting results

MacMahon on Young's ties to Washington: "They've got to get out of the batter's box. Next year's the time for them to start showing tangible progress in the in the standings with the win-loss record. And, you know, Trae's obviously a flawed player, but you're going to have a competent offensive when Trae Young's the starting point guard.

"They do also have Travis Schlenk in a high-ranking front office position. He is the former Hawks GM who made the trade for Trae Young, who now went to the conference finals with Trae Young. And the price for Trae, if they can get incentivized to do it, if they can get a pick along with them, great. But even if they don't, the price for Trae is so (low), they're not giving up assets that that they value for the future to get a guy like this in the building. If this is the deal, it ends up happening"

Windhorst on the issues facing a potential Young deal: "He's got this $49 million player option for next year. And yes, it's possible he could turn that option down and either become an outright free agent or negotiate a new contract with whatever team he's on. But that's $50 million, it's 30% of the cap. And this is what we talked about a couple podcasts ago, 30% of the cap for for a player like Trae in the apron era is not a palatable number. And so it's this gray area. It's this nuance. It's not that Trae's a bad player, but his contract, relative to his production, relative to how it impacts teams' aprons, it's not all aligned.

"His contract is viewed as an overpay right now. If you're the Wizards, you have CJ McCollum, whose contract is probably an overpay as well, but it comes off the books this year. To take on that extra $50 million beyond this year, and get him off the books, in addition to getting him off the roster where they've been a more productive team without him, that's going to cost something."

Bontemps on the benefits for Washington doing a deal: "But you get yourself some latitude if you get out All-Star for free. And at the end of the day, if there's no picks in this trade and it's CJ McCollum and whatever the various salary fillers you could have, to get to the number to get Trae Young there. If it's, 'Hey, we get an All-Star point guard for an expiring contract we were probably just going to have a roll off our books and that's it and it doesn't impact our money next year.' That's a pretty easy win to sell.

"Now, it doesn't mean Michael Winger and Will Dawkins aren't going to negotiate over compensation. And maybe both teams have complicated swaps. Maybe they swap those. Maybe the Wizards get a first. Maybe they get a bunch of seconds. Maybe they get a swap down the road, who knows what they get. Maybe they don't get anything, but coming out of this with Trae Young for an expiring contract would make Washington look pretty good and would give them some optionality next year."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss the Phoenix Suns exceeding expectations this season, including their latest win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night. The crew then debates if the the Thunder's chance to reach 70 wins is actually plausible this season after their recent losses before they talk about the Boston Celtics as a threat in the East and if the Philadelphia 76ers should be getting more recognition this season. Finally, MacMahon closes on his Clutch Player of the Month award.

Topics:

1:14: Booker's clutch shot against Thunder
4:42: 70 wins still on the table for Oklahoma City?
8:38: Suns exceeding expectations this season
18:31: Celtics continuing to impress
32:57: Are the 76ers a real threat in the East?
44:01: Clutch Player of the Month Award

MacMahon on the Phoenix moves that made them competitive: "What they have actually done well as a front office is they've got some wins on the margins. You mentioned Collin Gillespie. That's a guy Denver had on a two way. They let him go. Phoenix sign him on a two way. He earned a standard contract. You know he's putting himself in position to earn a really nice contract this summer.

"Ryan Dunn that's a guy they traded into the tail end of the first round to get Ryan Dunn. Jordan Goodwin, he's bounced around the league. He's a you know scrappy pick up. And then Dillon Brooks is has helped them establish the identity that they want. That's a hard playing tough identity. And they made that trade."

Bontemps on the Celtics' outlook in this East: "If they win a home game against the Bulls on Monday, they will either be in second place in the East by themselves if the Pistons beat the Knicks in Detroit, or if the Knicks win, they'll be two games out of first place in the Eastern Conference standings. With Jayson Tatum again TBD on whether he's going to return or what he's going to look like ... and I will continue to say Jayson Tatum can come back and be some facsimile of what he was before he got hurt this season, which is a lot of ifs.

"We'll see what happens with that. The Celtics are a real threat in the East, because all these other teams have very serious flaws, and the Celtics have been there and done it. And with Derrick White and Payton Pritchard and these other guys, and with Jaylen Brown playing like this, they're going to be a team that's going to be really hard to beat in the playoffs."

Bontemps on the 76ers getting healthy: "Joel was switching on Jalen Brunson in this game. He was moving better defensively than he had been earlier in the year. The Knicks have absolutely no way to stop Tyrese Maxey. They frankly don't have any way to stop VJ Edgecombe either. He was getting wherever he wanted in this game. He had a crazy sequence in the fourth quarter when the Knicks started to get back in it, where he blocked a Mikael Bridges corner 3, went end to end with the ball and dunked it. Forced a timeout by Mike Brown. They're a very tough matchup for the Knicks.

"They have a lot of talent. Paul George and Joel Embiid are rounding into form. It's again going back to what we talked about with Boston. Because these teams at the top of the East have so many flaws, Cavs corner is obviously in shambles after today's loss to Detroit and the Knicks have lost three in a row. The Pistons now have injuries to Jalen Duren. It's why I say they're off for a while. They've been slumping lately ... But like Philly, you could make a case for Philly right now that they they should be up there with those teams."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to hand out their annual best player of the year award, the Baller d'Or. They then talk about some trade possibilities, including the potential for a slow deadline, why Giannis Antetokounmpo is the biggest trade domino and the difficulties of trading for a max contract player in the modern NBA. They close out the episode by announcing the podcast player of the year.

Topics:

0:57: 2025 Baller d'Or Award Show
2:26: Bontemps' first nomination
3:50: MacMahon's first nomination
8:02: Windhorst's first nomination
14:27: Windhorst's second nomination
20:29: MacMahon's second nomination
28:10: Bontemps' second nomination
30:45: Honorable mentions
32:50: Trade deadline discussion
37:41: Official winner of the 2025 Baller d'Or

Bontemps on the difficulties facing teams trying to move players: "I am feeling (a slow deadline) right now. I think with how compacted the league is from both a draft capital standpoint and a money standpoint, I think it's going to be very difficult for a lot of stuff to happen."

Bontemps on the potential for a slow trade season: "But unless you see the Anthony Davis, Trae Young, Zach Lavine kinds of contracts being cycled around somehow for each other, it's just really hard, as we've talked about many times, for these $40-45-50 million players to be traded. And as we talked about on Monday, unless Giannis says 'I want out of Milwaukee,' I don't think Giannis is getting traded. And if Giannis doesn't get traded, you're going to have a lot of teams going, 'Well, maybe Giannis will get traded this summer, so let's not trade a bunch of stuff now, and maybe we could trade for Giannis later.'"

MacMahon on the Milwaukee Bucks' options at the deadline: "Everybody was shocked by the Luka (Doncic)-AD deal. You've talked to agents recently who said I 'I can't remember a time where people were more shocked by a transaction than that leaguewide.' And then the other major trades that happened, like De'Aaron Fox, Jimmy Butler, Zach LaVine was part of the Fox deal, those were cases of max guys that essentially forced their way out of situations, and if Giannis wants to finally do it, then OK. But if not, the Bucks obviously aren't going to trade Giannis unless they feel like they don't have a choice."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss Nikola Jokic's recent injury and how it will impact the MVP race this season. They then move on to potential rule changes when it comes to regular season awards and the recent first round of All-Star voting, including LeBron James' chances to make the All-Star team this season. The group ends on a preview of the upcoming New York Knicks-San Antonio Spurs game, a rematch of the NBA Cup final.

Topics:

1:20: What does Jokic's injury mean for Denver?
10:37: How will the injury impact the MVP race?
14:54: Could we see a voting rule change with players missing time?
19:31: First round of NBA All-Star voting
22:19: Explaining LeBron's All-Star chances
31:15: Eastern Conference All-Star voting
34:00: Knicks-Spurs rema
36:42: New York's depth
44:28: Why are the Spurs' stumbling?
48:35: Happy New Year from the Hoop Collective

Bontemps on the possibility of a rule change in awards voting: "If we get to the end of the season and Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama are all ineligible for awards, there's going to be a whole lot of hollering about the 65-game rule. And potentially Luka (Doncic) and Steph (Curry) have missed eight or nine games. There could be a lot of people that are ineligible for awards. If that happens, we will see if the rule is changed going forward because there were will be some sort of critical mass of people that aren't eligible."

MacMahon on James' All-Star chances: "I'm not going to lose sleep over this because even if LeBron isn't selected through the normal process, Adam Silver is going to put him in because this might be his last year."

Bontemps on the Knicks' season outlook: "They have a coach who has gotten to the Finals who's been on the staff of a championship-winning team. They are set up to get there. So they're building all the right habits. They're doing all the right stuff. Mike Brown's following through on what he said. All that is 100% true, but it's going to only matter if these guys are playing against Oklahoma City or San Antonio, whoever in the first week of June in the finals.