"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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Jan. 7 | Jan. 5 | Jan. 2 | Dec. 31 | Dec. 29 | Dec. 26
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'The Hoop Collective' episodes
Jan. 7: Best spots for Trae Young
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."
Jan. 5: Are the Celtics and 76ers contenders?
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."
Jan. 2: Handing out the Best Player of the Year award
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."
Dec. 31: Impact of Jokic's injury and LeBron's All-Star odds
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 rematch
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.
Dec. 29: Big changes needed in Atlanta? What are the AD trade possibilities?
Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to break down the Atlanta Hawks' struggles since Trae Young's return, and discuss whether it is time to move on from the All-Star point guard. The guys then move on to cover the potential for an Anthony Davis trade this season and why Dallas could struggle to pull off a move in this trade climate. Then they talk through impressive play from the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz lately, as well as Victor Wembanyama's development this season, the LA Clippers' bounce-back and Giannis Antetokounmpo's late dunk in Chicago.
Topics:
0:25: OKC is getting back on track
2:54: Why the Hawks are struggling with Young on the court
8:13: Should the Hawks trade Young?
10:30: The challenges to trading Davis and Young
27:18: NBA trivia
30:36: The Nets' impressive play of late
38:44: Improvement from Utah and Brooklyn
40:26: Wemby's continued development
45:54: Clippers showing life
58:24: Giannis' drama-causing late dunk
Bontemps on the challenge for trading Young and Davis: "So the question is, is there a path to getting him elsewhere that can allow them to pivot in a direction where they can focus on the way they've been building this team? Which is in a vision of guys that frankly don't fit Trae's profile. I think that's one of the bigger questions to watch in the league between now and the trade deadline, because if you look around the league, for all the reasons we've been talking about these point guards, and you wrote that story with Bobby about it, there's not a lot of teams that need point guards, and there's not a lot of places where you go, 'Yeah, this team is anxious to go trade for a $45 million guy,' which is the same part of why Anthony Davis's trade market is impacted and all these other guys that are potentially on the market might not be going anywhere."
MacMahon on what it would take to get a Davis deal done: "When you're dealing with a guy like Anthony Davis or in the case of Kevin Durant last year, I think it's similar situations. They're going to have some say in the matter. You couldn't just trade Kevin Durant to Golden State if he didn't want to go. There is just not the reality of the way that the NBA works. You can't just trade Anthony Davis to a team that's not willing to give him an extension this summer."
Bontemps on Giannis Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee: "The actions of the Bucks the entire time Giannis has been there, especially the past several years with John Horst running the team, has been pedal to the floor. We're going to damn the torpedoes. We're going to trade everything we can to get better and try to improve and try to make a run with this guy on the team and try to keep them here. And that's still the case. And I think unless Giannis Antetokounmpo in the next five weeks says, 'Get me out of here, I don't want to be here anymore,' I think that's going to be what happens. And I think he's going to be on the team on Feb. 6, and I suspect the Bucks are going to improve their roster, and they're going to trade the remaining drafts stuff they have and salary. Go try to get better, because that's the only thing they've done year after year after year now for five, six, seven years."