"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 cover the impact of Jimmy Butler's torn ACL on both his career and the future of the Warriors. They then move on to discuss the rising concerns for the New York Knicks, including the defensive struggles and overall dysfunction, before closing on the Detroit Pistons' season outlook and how the Toronto Raptors will approach the trade deadline.

Topics:

1:35: Butler tears ACL
2:15: What does this mean for Golden State's future?
16:12: Concern level rising for the Knicks
30:35: Detroit beats Boston
34:48: Time for the Pistons to go all in this season?
44:29: How will Toronto approach the trade deadline?
52:45: Strange observations from All-Star voting

Bontemps on Golden State's new outlook: "If you're looking at this as a Warriors fan and you're going, 'How are the Warriors going to be competitive right now?'

"I think the the likely scenario is you just have to wait until the summer, see where things land, and then hope that Jimmy Butler is back in the fall because I just don't know what the other path is right now for them."

MacMahon on Detroit going "all in" this season: "It's not just because of where their record is, but if they want to be aggressive they absolutely can. They have Tobias Harris, his expiring contract, which is a nice number. Jaden Ivey's the kind of guy who teams would be interested in as a young player flier. They've got some other guys like that. And they have their picks moving forward.

"If the Pistons want to be aggressive, they are well-positioned to do so. The messaging they've given out is that their mentality is not aggressiveness. Opportunistic, maybe not aggressiveness. I think that mentality is reasonable. But we are now at midseason and they're 31-10 and they've been so good that they've at least opened the door."

Bontemps on Toronto's trade deadline: "I do think the Raptors are an interesting team to watch between now and the deadline, because if they are interested in making moves, they have some incentive to make moves. And like we just talked about with Detroit, the East is wide open. So if you're Toronto and you can add an impact player between now and the deadline, who's to say the Raptors can't make a run in the East?"

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to look at the Ja Morant trade market, including Morant's recent comment that he wants to stay in Memphis. They then move on to why a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade is holding up the rest of the action ahead of the trade deadline. The guys close on the major injuries around the league, LeBron James' All-Star outlook and a crucial road trip ahead for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Topics:

1:49: Where does the Morant trade market stand?
28:45: Giannis trade potential holding up other markets?
42:39: Injury updates around the league
50:44: Lakers get crucial win over Raptors
52:16: Will LeBron find a spot in All-Star Game?
58:46: Hornets playing well of late
1:01:42: Lakers' upcoming road trip

Bontemps on Morant's trade market and his public desire to stay: "It makes it very, very difficult for Zach Kleiman to find a way to do a deal, if they ultimately decide to do one, that's not going to do anything but (a deal that) really upsets everybody in Memphis, whether it should or not. Because it's not like they're not getting a Desmond Bane package for Ja Morant if they make a trade. And that, coupled with (Morant's) popularity, coupled with him saying he wants to stay there, it is a very complicated situation to try to navigate."

MacMahon on potential Morant teams: "I think Zach Kleiman is having to work extremely hard to attempt to create any level of market for Ja Morant just because -- it's funny because when I was working on that deal where I'm asking people about Trae (Young) and about Ja , about LaMelo (Ball), and, all these guys could be available for the deadline a couple months ago.

"And you know, what's the level of interest? The answer essentially is not a whole lot. There were several people, not four or five people, with the other teams who said to me, 'You know, I think there's a chance Ja with the change of scenery is going to be fine.' Ja was the one of those three that I think there is the most belief that his second stop might work out.

"But then it was always followed by, 'But it won't be us. It won't be here. It wouldn't be a bad chance for somebody else to take.' It was kind of the gist of things."

Bontemps on Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee: "Milwaukee's obviously got incentive to make moves. The question is what are they going to do. And we'll see if Zach LaVine is an option there.

"We'll see if some other move is an option there. But I would I would imagine they'll try to improve the team. I don't think Giannis is going to get traded. I'm sure there's a world where they continue to be this bad for a couple of weeks that things change. I don't think that is going to happen.

"I expect this to go into the summer and then we'll see what happens."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Vince Goodwill and Bobby Marks to break down the likeliest resolution to the Jonathan Kuminga trade demand before discussing the New York Knicks' recent struggles and some chaotic, unheard NBA stories. They close the show on the Denver Nuggets' position in the Western Conference as Nikola Jokic eyes a return date.

Topics:

2:14: Kuminga demands trade away from Warriors
15:33: Explaining issues plaguing the Knicks
20:04: Chaotic NBA stories
23:28: Dennis Schroder and Luka Doncic altercation details
29:00: Bonus chaotic NBA stories
33:28: Concern for the Knicks moving forward?
36:44: Denver in great spot despite Jokic injury

Marks on the Kuminga trade demand: "I think if you're Mike Dunleavy Jr., their GM, you do want to trade Jonathan Kuminga. But what are the offers that are coming in, where you don't have to take back money or where the goal is to get frontcourt help? Whether it be Sacramento or some of the other teams, they all have guards. I don't know how many more guards this Golden State team needs but we have three weeks roughly to the trade deadline here.

"It's not something that all of a sudden Mike Dunleavy wakes up to this morning like, 'Oh my god, we have to trade (Kuminga).' They've been lining up scenarios probably since the start of the season or even when he signed that contract."

Windhorst on potential teams for Kuminga: "I would just say the team that really wanted him was the Sacramento Kings. They wanted him in the summer. And, according to this Slater and Sham's reporting, they still want him now. And the Warriors had a standard that they wanted for the deal and they wouldn't do the deal. There may be another team or two that has interest, but ... what is it to say that people (were not) beating down the doors for this guy when he was a restricted free agent?"

Goodwill on the Western Conference: "And I think we have generally viewed the Western Conference as the Oklahoma City Invitational for the foreseeable future. And when I look at Denver and I look at Minnesota, I look at teams that have championship profiles.

"Maybe we don't look at Minnesota as being a championship-profile team because they've lost handily in the Western Conference finals the past couple years. It' s an accomplishment to get there, but they weren't really super competitive.

"Now I look at both teams. And I think they're both legitimate threats even as much as San Antonio, even more than San Antonio, who we focus a lot on because of their success against Oklahoma City."

Brian is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon and the trio discusses the Oklahoma City Thunder finally getting a win over the San Antonio Spurs this season and reestablishing their control of the Western Conference. Then, following the recent Anthony Davis injury news, the crew explores how it might impact his trade value. To close the podcast, the guys go over who is deserving of the starting spots in the All-Star game and what to make of Giannis Antetokounmpo's future in Milwaukee.

Topics:

1:34: Thunder respond against Spurs
13:42: Latest updates on AD injury
16:39: Will the Mavs trade AD before the deadline?
31:42: All-Star voting ballot selections
46:04: Giannis' future becoming less clear?

MacMahon on Dallas' Davis trade outlook: "(The Mavericks) do not feel like they have to trade Anthony Davis. They are telling me and anybody who will listen that they're not trading AD just to make a deal. They don't feel like they have to unload. ... They are insistent that they will only make a deal that makes sense for them.

"What the threshold is? There's not clarity on that. But it's some combination of draft compensation, promising young talent and financial relief. And in the form of expiring salaries. 'Rich Paul is not going to bully us.' That is a direct quote from a member of the Mavericks organization. Another member of the Mavericks organization, referring to Patrick Dumont, the governor, 'Patrick's not going to sign off on a deal just to do a deal.'

"Ownership doesn't feel any pressure to do an AD deal. A third source, 'Patrick, has no problem going into next year with a healthy Kyrie (Irving),a healthy AD alongside Cooper Flagg and seen what it looks like.'"

Windhorst on why a Davis trade is difficult: "Anthony Davis' trade value is just not good right now. It's not good because he's owed $120 million over the next two years. It's not good because of his injury. It's not good because teams in the aprons are wary about having a guy who's weighing down their books, who's underperforming because of injury or age. It's not good because there's only so many teams that can assemble a trade for a player that makes over $50 million. It's not good because of the uncertainty of his injury this year. There's a hundred reasons why trading at Davis now doesn't make a ton of sense."

Bontemps on what the struggling Bucks could do ahead of the trade deadline: "I know they're going to try like hell to do so, because that's been the M.O. of (general manager) John Horst. He's been extraordinarily aggressive year after year. He has made moves to improve the team, try to get talent and move things around.

"But there's only so many moves they can make. And, like they trade for Zach LaVine or Ja Morant or one of these guys. I do not see the overall issues really changing all that much from where they are right now."

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.'"