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Brian Windhorst: 'I don't know what's going to happen in that investigation. I will tell you that it is a frequent conversation as I talk with people around the league. 'Do you hear anything on the Gary Trent investigation?' 'Do you hear anything on the Gary Trent investigation?' It is being done by a different law firm than did the Clippers' investigation. An executive said to me that they think, and I want to be clear, I want to be cautious, but an executive say to me if this is proven to be true, then this is actually more egregious than the Clippers' deal.'
Alan Hahn to Brian Windhorst: "You were one of the few that texted me a congratulatory, I know Woj said something as well, and it was always I knew it was the newspaper guys who got it, who cared that it was a newspaper guy who got it. It was a tweet. That was the problem. The Newsday wanted me to wait, write the story, and we'll post the story. I said, hell no. If I'm hearing it and somebody else is going to hear it, I'm tweeting this thing."
Although he might also become one of the most exciting stories to watch mid-season as he could emerge as one of the most sought-after trade candidates this season. "I would just say that one player to watch this year just in general is Michael Porter Jr.," NBA insider Brian Windhorst reported on The Hoop Collective podcast. "There's been a lot of attention paid to whether Karl-Anthony Towns got a contract extension which naturally why wouldn't there be, the man's a champion. Porter has not gotten a contract extension, he's in the last year of his contract and he had a pretty good year last year after getting traded there by Denver and you know if a guy's not in the contract extension you think about you see a possible trade candidate."
Brian Windhorst: We’ve gotten really good response from live events in the U.S. and, to be honest with you, a few months ago, Pat McAfee was on an all-hands call and encouraged people to find ways to take their shows on the road because it’s been a great boon for his show. There’s so many positives with it and especially if you can get partnerships and I was already thinking of doing this but you know, there’s, McAfee, who has had a lot of success and so I definitely took his encouragement under advisement and we got this deal done.
Brian Windhorst on Anthony Edwards: He's excited about the team now. When he needs to be excited is a year from now when he signs the extension. And listen, if the extension was now, maybe he would sign it. Maybe he would be excited about this enough to sign it, and maybe he thinks LaMelo is going to be a perfect fit and maybe he will be a perfect fit. I’m not trying to be a jerk. I'm just trying to be honest. The time where Ant has to feel really good about the Wolves is a year from now.
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Heat Central: Brian Windhorst says Pat Riley knows how to bring players back after sour exits when discussing LeBron returning to Miami: “Pat Riley over the decades has been able to have 2nd acts with all these great players. Alonzo Mourning left under a dark cloud and came back… Shaq after leaving with animist ended up returning to the franchise and got his number retired. Dwyane Wade obviously left in FA in a disagreement, came back now there’s a statue outside. Pat Riley knows how to bring guys back. While there was disappointment when he left in 2014, there’s never been the animist that existed in other places LeBron left. Miami has a pathway. Especially with LeBron saying he’s looking at multiple years. Multiple years have been the formula for him. He’s won a chip in the 2nd year everywhere he’s went. I think Miami would be at their best a year from now and LeBron can be apart of that.”
Heat Central: Brian Windhorst says the teams going after LeBron, believe Miami is the BEST basketball fit “If you look at Cleveland, the team the Cavs have is reminiscent of the Lakers team he’s leaving…. The Sixers have a number of ball handlers. The ball handling role is wide open in Miami. The history is there in Miami. The star power is there in Miami… As I’ve had conversations over the last few weeks, Miami continues to make more and more sense to me… The more you talk about this with NBA teams, even the teams that are recruiting LeBron, the team they see is the basketball fit, it’s Miami.”
Brian Windhorst: "Victor Wembanyama agreed to five years and 250 million. It is a great contract, but it does not have the escalator in it, what we call the Rose provision, which means if he had won the MVP award, won the Defensive Player of the Year again, or made the All-NBA team in this upcoming season, he would have gotten the bump from 25% of the cap to 30% of the cap. That is going to be worth potentially 53 million dollars, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 plus million dollars a year."
Heat Central: Brian Windhorst says LeBron James has been reaching out to the players of the interested teams: “Bunch of the owners are there and chatting. Some of the owners who are trying to get LeBron were talking to each other and were like ‘have you heard anything? Nope. Have you heard anything? Nope.’ LeBron is reaching out and talking to players on some of these teams and they report back to their Gm or coach ‘hey, LeBron called.’”
At 41 years old, LeBron James is still the NBA’s free agent of the summer. However, any teams involved in the highly-touted sweepstakes for James have reportedly been kept “in the dark” and haven’t heard from the superstar or his camp, according to ESPN insider Brian Windhorst.
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Brian Windhorst: "I have a confession. I have been thinking for nine months about LeBron playing for the Denver Nuggets. I refused to talk about it during the season, but I just thought as soon as they didn't extend LeBron last year and they extended Luka, I kind of knew it was probably going to come to an end. I thought about the Denver Nuggets because him alongside Jokic is an incredibly perfect fit. They are so intelligent, the way they see the game. And here is the thing, it was all predicated on him taking less money. I was never ever going to allow myself to think about him going to a team whether it was Cleveland or Golden State for less money until I heard specifically from the LeBron operation that he was willing to take less money. So now that he has done that, I will open the window and I think Denver absolutely should get in front of him or get in front of Rich Paul and make their pitch."
Brian Windhorst: The Warriors still have the ability to re-sign Draymond Green to a reasonable contract number and to try to add LeBron James, but it's really, really narrow and they would really need to make some other moves to build up their team. Right now, I'm taking the Anthony Davis thing off the front burner. I do not have data that says that that's likely to happen.
Brian Windhorst: I like actions over words. The actions were that Draymond Green opted out of his contract. That gives the Warriors flexibility, but I don't think the Warriors think they're getting Anthony Davis. Do you want to know why I think they will? Because they signed Kristaps Porzingis. And this contract and Porzingis did not play a lot of games last year for anybody, much less for the Warriors. But you've got to have big men to compete in the Western Conference. They had to handle this business.
Heat Central: The Heat are out looking for other teams to get involved to complete a Giannis trade, per “I want to point out, Giannis still could remain with the Bucks… but there is a belief he’s going to get moved by next weeks draft. The Miami Heat have been trying to get Giannis for months. They have been making offer to the Bucks for months. We have no deal. What we can take is the Bucks do not love what the Heat are offering and they are out looking for other options. They have been looking for other options. The Celtics ‘could’ get in there. We’ll see how that plays out.” -- Brian Windhorst