2025 NBA Draft Prospects Preview: Future Stars to Watch

[00:00:12] It's Friday, you know what time it is. Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air. I am your humble host Vince and thank you for joining us on this great Friday.

[00:00:24] We have a lot to get into because it is August. We did promise that we would start getting you ready for the 2025 NBA Draft.

[00:00:37] So we are going to be talking about Prospects. A little breakdown, not crazy or whatever. Just kind of a let's get familiar with some of these Prospects and the names that we're going to hear throughout this year either through the college scene, the international scene and some of these pro leagues that are out there still.

[00:01:00] So I can't wait to talk to you guys about that but before we get there. Let's break down the socials, right?

[00:01:08] X Twitter and that my Twitter handle is Front Runner PC. The producers of the show are Rhea and Phunch. They are on the ones and two today and their Twitter handle is at Rhea underscore Phunch.

[00:01:30] FRPC give them a follow that would be great. We would appreciate it all for the next thing.

[00:01:39] The YouTube channel we just put up a video in the clip a couple days ago in regards to the Levine Chicago Bull situation, which seems to have spilled out into the media and some of the things that we were talking to you well before.

[00:01:58] I have been kind of solidified and we go ahead and break that down for you. So check out that. We also have a clip on read shepherd up there.

[00:02:10] So some of the 2024 guys and giving you kind of what our thoughts are on him and what we might expect for him this year. So we actually expect big things from read shepherd this year from this podcast.

[00:02:25] So go take a look at those. Also subscribe to the channel. Like some things that would be great and also leave a comment because then I will comment back to you. And then the last thing we had we started new months so we started new challenge.

[00:02:46] We have surpassed our personal best the last three months. August is a special month because it's my birthday month. So August 25th is the date that I turned the ripe old age of what am I turning 52 right?

[00:03:05] 52 so super old which is great. The other thing is this is that we would love to be able to break our personal record by the 25th. That'll be a cool birthday present. So be a friend. Telefran is in full effect this month.

[00:03:23] Make sure to download. Make sure to tell your friends. Hey, when you now are now locked into front runner podcast collective you download too. That's like the pack that you make. Joining us. So with all that being said, we can now get to the podcast shall we?

[00:03:43] And we're going to I mean some of the names that you already know and we're going to talk about them too. So Cooper flag. And Dylan Harper.

[00:03:55] Nolan, uh, treori the kid from France VJ Edgecom somebody that we've already talked about in a scaling now I'm going to we're going to give you information on these guys don't don't trip.

[00:04:08] You're going to be set there but what I want to do is talk about some of the guys look at further down the list and get you familiarized with some of these people because as we know, starting this particular draft cycle.

[00:04:29] Just like we start with every draft cycle is a blank slate. Now the consensus top 20 or top 30 or whatever it is, you know, I haven't really taken like the closest look at every single person to say okay this is truly my top 30.

[00:04:48] But what we're doing is just kind of clearing our palate from the 2024 draft and introducing ourselves to the 2025 draft. So that's what we're kind of doing today, and I hope that you guys will enjoy it.

[00:05:04] Our staff has worked extremely hard gathering information for you. So let's get into it a little bit. The first guy that I really want to start off with is somebody that you will hear a lot about and that is the point guard from Spain Hugo Gonzalez.

[00:05:22] Now Hugo Gonzalez is a 66 kid. I think he's about 185 at this point slow-shring being. Now Gonzalez is a well-rounded player developing his game in Europe. He's going to decorate it, young player with MVP honors and multiple U tournaments.

[00:05:43] Now some of his strengths so far he's a complete player. He has a high compete level and an excellent shot maker. This is from one NBA scout that I talked to. He processes a game quickly, defensively and offensively and that's from San Ves city.

[00:06:01] So what we're looking at with this kid and let me give you a couple other couple notes on him. He needs to iron out the consistency of his jumper obviously when you're talking about a 18 year old 19 year old.

[00:06:16] He has 14.7 points again for 0.5 rebounds a game and 3.3 assists in the Spanish League of ACD league, which is one of the better leagues in Europe. Now his NBA comparison now I don't want to do this. I'm not going to do this actually.

[00:06:41] I want to look at the kid and then give you my first thoughts of him. If somebody that I'm trying to think, break Barry, if kind of a break Barry type of guy so far or what I'm seeing of him doesn't take a lot of crap.

[00:07:03] Can't stay in front of people defensively when he wants to. The skills of being able to pass and being able to see the defense and how it's trying to load up for him or load up for whomever he's trying to get the ball to.

[00:07:20] He seems to be really, really good at manipulating the defense with his eyes. So I am looking forward to seeing what his development looks like as we continue this process. Now another guy that I want to get into is ACNUAL.

[00:07:38] Now ACNUAL is a freshman going into Georgia. He is a power forward listed. He's six foot nine. Null does all the little things at a high level, particularly as a defender expected to be a one-ed done at Georgia.

[00:07:58] Outstanding shot blocker and room protector says one NBA scout he moves well on the perimeter in guards in space. That's San Francisco. Knees to develop offensive consistency. Now he's average 12 points again, 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and high school.

[00:08:20] Now he's a jumping jack. He she shovels his feet very well. He can mirror a offensive player on the perimeter for somebody his size. He has tremendous coordination.

[00:08:39] And he's able to kind of be on the front side of the hip of the offensive player if you know what I'm talking about. So when we talk about patron role offense, which we see a lot of it in the NBA, right?

[00:08:57] The principle that we're trying to get to with the defender is can you stay on the front hip of the offensive player? That's literally the goal. Now having you do that by going over the screen, going under the screen whatever the case would need to be.

[00:09:12] That is your parogative to do so. But at the end of the day, you are supposed to have you know hip, have hand on hip and hand in sky to either block the shot or contest the shot.

[00:09:27] That's what you're looking to do. Ace of Nules, one of these kids that can actually do that.

[00:09:34] And being 69, this is going to be a tremendous benefit to him. Now obviously the big bug of who with him is that there is a very, very raw offensive game so far. This is a lot guy. This is a dunk guy in you know in open space.

[00:09:53] This is not I spot up on the perimeter and shoot. This is not I take you off the dribble and do all these things.

[00:10:03] So there's a project here now. I wonder if we get towards the end of the season and Nule, you know puts his name in for the draft and then takes it out.

[00:10:17] You know, just trying to see if he can refine his skills or whatever because based just on athleticism has him at high in the in the consensus.

[00:10:29] Now, 2025 NBA draft. Now once we start to put eyes and put tape to this and he's going to be in better competition this year, we will see where Ace of Nules falls.

[00:10:45] Now the next guy that I want to get to because I want to kind of bounce around here. Here's a guy that I really want to talk about.

[00:10:56] It's a, Dink Pate and I could be saying that name wrong. So please, please if you can help me out with some of these canalizations as far as this concern.

[00:11:09] The Dink Pate is a shooting guard who we claim for the Mexico City Capitanis, which is a G league affiliate. He's six six he's 180 he's a big long guard.

[00:11:23] Series ball skills and capable in screen situations will play in Mexico City for the Coppitanis next season, which the great thing about that is that you are getting lower level NBA basketball. Now sometimes with that, it's kind of a hell hellish situation.

[00:11:44] And what I mean by that, if you look at the G league at night, there's too many players to develop. Now when you're talking about one, they're probably going to give him specific role, but we're going to get into some of his strengths and weaknesses in the second, but I think this is a better way of going.

[00:12:03] If you are a young player, you don't want to go to college and you're saying maybe I don't want to go abroad.

[00:12:13] Maybe I don't want to go to Europe. Maybe I don't want to go to Australia because I don't know if they're going to utilize my talents in the best way possible.

[00:12:22] This might be another way of going. Going to Mexico City and if you're one guy, you know it's not five like with the G league at night. You can go ahead and we're finding skills.

[00:12:39] Learn NBA situations. You're playing against NBA caliber, employers, people formerly in the leagues, people trying to get back and things of that nature.

[00:12:50] I think this might be the development path for somewhere our guys that are coming into the draft. I never did like the G league at night set up.

[00:13:04] Now it's easy to say that once it's gone, but I questioned it when he got here. One of the guys that was going to the G league at night was a day shot next.

[00:13:19] The shot next was a was going to go to UCLA, decided not to join the G league at night and where are we now.

[00:13:31] I haven't liked the developmental path of all the G league at night players. Look at how long it's taking Jonathan Kaminga to kind of get into form and really he's the most successful out of all of them so far.

[00:13:50] So what date, Pate, let's get back into it. So he's six six tremendous ball skills can use a screen. Exinside's combo guard with handles and passing instincts one executive said serious golf skills capability in screen situation.

[00:14:08] Sam to Cindy he needs to improve on shooting consistency. This is from our no ceilings analyst guy so shots out to no ceilings. We love them. We love the work that they do.

[00:14:22] We're trying to emulate. We're trying to not steal what I would say kind of come in deer a couple of the little nuances of the no ceilings guys, but they do excellent work and we are grateful for the work that they do.

[00:14:42] Now, some of his stats so far 12.9 points a game 4.2 rebounds again 3.6. His kit he has a chance to be someone in trying to think.

[00:15:00] I don't really have a comparison form yet, but he has a smoothness to his game. He has a control to his game. There's a voice to him that I love because the one thing that we we love to see is when the storm is

[00:15:19] going. You see a guy who's like you're not going to speak me up, you're not going to slow me down. I know exactly what I want to do and you can stop me from doing it.

[00:15:34] Or if you can, I have a counter to your impediment of what I'm trying to do and Dink Pate has that capability. So I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of him this year and getting paid and really getting my hands on him and trying to see what he's all about.

[00:15:57] Okay, here's a guy that definitely want to talk about. Honour Salas from Wake Forest. Now he's all over the draft boards now he could have came out last year.

[00:16:08] They said to him that they wanted him be a little more consistent on ball and he is that way for us. And I kind of really want to talk about him because I like this kid a lot.

[00:16:22] I think he's going to be one of those older guys that when we get towards the end of the year, we're going to be very excited about we're going to look at him and go.

[00:16:33] I wonder who of the smart teams are going to draft him. Well, Honour Salas is a hunter salus is six or five.

[00:16:44] He needs to add a little bit of weight in little scrawny. He had a breakout season last year in college and expected to do more at Wake Forest. He's an excellent off ball defender with size and we want NBA scout said his three point shooting has jumped way up.

[00:17:04] He needs to improve his shooting because if he's going to be a off-log guy that means he's going to have to shoot with movement. Now his spot up shooting is really nice. His pull up game is he showed a lot more last year there was some logo threes.

[00:17:23] There were some deep threes last year pull up style. Now the last little deal is can you just stand in the corner and shoot the three because here's the thing if you are not going to be the primary ball hell, I guess what that means you're not going to have the ball in your hands.

[00:17:46] So therefore he needs to work on that particular skill. He average 18 points of game last year for four rebounds solid and two and a half assists.

[00:18:00] I think Hunter's aim is to be a guy that at least is a rotational guy top eight. He could be a microwave score off the bench or he can be part of your top five rotation down the road.

[00:18:16] I think he has the smarts. He has the savvy and I think the defense is something that is underrated.

[00:18:25] What I mean by that, I'm not saying like he's going to be this lockdown stopper guy. I'm not saying that he couldn't be that guy but I don't believe him to be that guy.

[00:18:37] But what I do believe is that there's some headiness, there's some grit to his game and he had a knee injury when he was at Nebraska.

[00:18:48] And I think that changed him a little bit and some of the comments in regards to how not important basketball but losing it and how he gained a greater appreciation for the work.

[00:19:07] A greater appreciation for the grind and the little nuances of the game because that's all he had. So we will see what Hunter's aim is does this upcoming season.

[00:19:22] Another guy that is some way that people have heard of because everybody loves Yukon is Alex Caribbean. Alex Caribbean is a six foot a forward to 119 pounds with a seven foot wing span.

[00:19:36] Caribbean is going to be a consummate professional who helps his teams win return to Yukon for further development. He is an excellent off ball defender with size one in V. S. Scout told me shark anticipation cuts off angles that's from San Vasini his weaknesses are.

[00:20:00] Knees to show growth with the ball in his hands and that's one media scout who gave me that little tidbit of information now here's the other thing.

[00:20:10] You have his 10 points of game five rebound and two assists last year in college. But here's the thing the numbers don't mean a lot when it comes to Caribbean. Two reasons why stuff on castle Jordan Hawkins a couple years ago.

[00:20:30] Donovan Clingan the last couple years. It wasn't Caribbean was always been a developmental guy but there's been all little sorts of really added a little nooks and crannies to his games and he's been able to kind of mold into whatever Yukon has needed of him in the prior years this year.

[00:20:57] There is some more standout talent coming Yukon but he's going to get a bigger role this year because of the fact that he's up a classroom and so they want to see him he went into the drought combine.

[00:21:12] The scout told him what he needed to work on and now we're going to see if he can do the on ball thing.

[00:21:22] He might turn out to be just a 3 and D guy but he's going to get the opportunity Dan Hurley is going to give him that opportunity. And because of the fact that he is so reliable with the basketball he makes great reads.

[00:21:38] He since he plays defensive such a high level he's never not going to be on the court.

[00:21:46] You know unless he tired so it's one of those things that we get to see a guy who got some feedback from the NBA people and let's see what he does with it. Now a real proponent of this situation two guys.

[00:22:10] Terran Shannon Jr. who went to Minnesota and also our guy Jaime Hawkeye Jr. also get this so a couple years ago Jaime Hawkeye Jr. went into the draft they say hey work on these couple things

[00:22:30] and we saw him as just right outside the lottery and he had an excellent work a year last year.

[00:22:38] Now Terran Shannon Jr. follows in the same footsteps as Jaime Hawkeye Jr. and we'll see what he does this year and then also Alex Carrigan has gotten his marching orders and we'll see what happens.

[00:22:52] But you can it's going to be must watch again because Dan Hurley has it rolling over there so I'm really excited to see how this is going to play out. Now the next idea that I want to talk about and not hope I do not butcher this name.

[00:23:11] The one thing is as we get to know these guys will get better clarification on how pronunciation works but for this point McKinsey.

[00:24:25] The second idea is that he has a lot of confidence in consistency. Well you know defense doesn't get your pay. Not until you get to the NBA but we'll see how it all works out for him but he's a big strong physical kid.

[00:24:41] He has the body to be able to play defense. He has the movement skills to be able to play defense athleticism to play defense. So I think it's something that Mike Woodson will get for him.

[00:24:56] Maybe that's the reason why you need it the second year because Mike Woodson said, you don't play defense. So we don't need you. 14.7 points, 4.2 rebounds 33% from 3 in college. That's going to have to get better. That will have to get better.

[00:25:20] So he's a guy that a lot of people are intrigued by because he once got told me that they saw some quite Leonard in him now. When he said it, he says listen. Don't freak out. I said I won't. And he said there are essence.

[00:25:46] There are little nuances that remind me of quite when I look at him. Just saying so we're not putting the quiet moniker on him. We're just saying that there are little traits that if all of it hits, we'll see what happens.

[00:26:08] And guy that I want to get into that makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. And this is that prototypical guy that we always talk about is KJ Evans of Oregon. KJ Evans is 6 foot 8 as well.

[00:26:29] Evans is one of the is is is one of college basketball's best defensive playmakers expected to make a significant impact at Oregon. He's a serious defender. The super athletic moves his feet well knows how to mirror offensive player. He has series upside with block and still number potential.

[00:26:55] He's an effective finisher around the rim. This is Ron Holland 2.0. He needs to improve his 3.0 shooting obviously. He's going to have to get better. But the traits, the athleticism, the his his jumping ability, his wingspan, all of these things because he is a 7 foot wingspan for somebody 6-8.

[00:27:31] So if you can put this all together, you know, and now again the reason why I bring up KJ Evans is because what did I say about Ron Holland? I said I'm out. I'm out on just the super Uber athletic guy.

[00:27:46] Now we're going to see a lot of sports center moments from KJ Evans and I do hope he does put it all together. What he's going to have to shoot it better, he's going to have to put it on the deck better.

[00:27:58] Yes, he doesn't create his own shot. So if you're going to be a 3 in D guy, you got to shoot the 3.

[00:28:06] You've got to stand in that corner and shoot a 1,000, 3s or 2,000, 3s a day to get this better because the defense part of KJ Evans is 100% translatable to the NBA. No question about it. We move on to, I want to get to somewhere or better guys now.

[00:28:36] Let's talk about, let's talk about our guy, right? Let's talk about Cooper Flag. Let's get to it. Cooper Flag has gone into the Olympic basketball scene. He was in those workouts with the LeBron's or the world and what have you showed himself very well, the scouts are,

[00:29:03] I talked to like, five people and everybody's like, the student is great. This is two, it is all of what they say he is. But will we have a nitpick as we go for work because we always do. We always find reasons.

[00:29:23] Right? So right now Cooper Flag is the consensus number one overall pick. He's going to do, he's at an excellent summer so far. He has showed himself well and the Olympic trials. He's showed himself well in any sort of summer situation he's been in and here's the deal.

[00:29:47] Six, nine, two hundred and five pounds. Flag is to be one of the best two wave players at the high school level in a long time. Largely due to his processing ability. Okay?

[00:30:05] At Duke he will give you the foho point on both ends of the floor. Here's some of the strengths of Cooper Flag. Flag is a dominant defender defense player with a massive impact on the game, even without scoring.

[00:30:19] This is what one NBA scout said. So this is somebody who is in the building during the Olympic situation. He's a complete offensive player who can dribble past an issue. Key John Hollinger flag is a ultimate winner and competitor.

[00:30:38] And exact and is the exact kind of player I want to join my organization. And that's when Sam Vesini. So what are the weaknesses, right? Outside shot needs work obviously with shows promise. 18.5 points again, 9.2 rebounds and 3.5 blocks the game in high school.

[00:31:03] I'm going to stay away from the comparisons. What I know about the kid right now is this. Not just hard work. Okay? There's a difference when you can work hard. You grind it. Here's the thing that I love.

[00:31:22] He was able to pick up tips and tricks right away at Olympic basketball, the workouts and what have you. There were a couple moments where he was pulled aside by either a player or a coach in that setting. They showed them like for 45 seconds what to do.

[00:31:48] I have a scout tell me this. They showed them, hey, when the guy is coming across your face this way what you want to do is you want to kind of, you know,

[00:31:56] you want to kind of, you know, low but, you know, kind of give him a little elbow on the way through.

[00:32:01] Also, you want to, you want to, you know, face guard this guy this way and from what the scout told me is that he was able to take that information in, be able to apply it right away. So, not just coachable, quickly coachable. That's ridiculous.

[00:32:25] I am, um, I'm big on this guy, you know, we got some white dudes in league now man. Let's go. Let's go. Right? Brother still going want to duck on him.

[00:32:41] So, it's going to be great. I know there are dudes lining up to dunk on Reeves Shepherd. They like, man, I can't wait to line that do that. But, uh, Cooper Flag is going to be musty at Duke. I can't wait.

[00:32:54] I can't wait to see him and the red talent that Duke has there. So, we get to see our consensus number one overall pick. Get busy this year and we can't wait to see it. Now on his heels, on his heels.

[00:33:16] I want to talk about this kid Nolan, Traiori. He's farm France. He is six foot four, 184 pounds with a six foot eight wing scramb. Now we have no idea if these numbers are 100% correct.

[00:33:37] Okay. France, Europe, we think they have a greater grasp of height, weight, wing span than we do here in the states. But, we'll see. Let me give you a little background information on him.

[00:33:52] Traiori is a big guard out of France who will play for St. Quentin in the French professional league next season. He's impressed during the Nike hoop summit and will cement his shadows in the 2025 NBA draft.

[00:34:10] He's an elite point guard who excels at passing, pushing the pace and shooting threes. This is one executive NBA executive. He's confident and poised in ball screens and difficult to stay in front of San Vicini. A couple of weaknesses needs to develop consistent on consistency on defense.

[00:34:33] And this is from our no-sealing's analyst. Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate that little tip in on the defense of the end. Basically what it is on the defense of the end I talked to Tyler about this. It's a concentration issue. He's young too. So there's that.

[00:34:56] He's also playing in a professional league. So, you know, the lapses of concentration look really stark in a professionally where if you're in high school, if you weren't college, you know, it's like, alright, well, that athlete may be not too terribly. I don't have to worry about that.

[00:35:17] Well, you know, in the year of leagues and the French league, you know, you got like a 27 year old guy who's trying to feed his family. So he, if he sees you kind of check out for a second, he's going back to on you real quick.

[00:35:34] So young kid, I think that'll get better. He listened to these numbers, man. 16.3 points again. 7.8 assists again. 2.1 steals again in the French pro league is the A league, so this is their top league. Here's the one thing that I know.

[00:36:05] Think of like, John Moran with the basketball in the sense of, I'm not saying he's that type of athlete, what I'm saying is that the way he enhances handles the ball and the way he's able to handle the ball, speeding down the court.

[00:36:27] His body control to get into the lane and be able to get up really tough leaps. So I like listen, go to you to put my guy in, no intro,

[00:36:42] tray ory and I'm going to tell you, you are going to come back to me and say thank you. And I will say you are welcome because he's a treat to watch because he's savvy. He seems to have an NBA mind that is like 26 27 years old at 18.

[00:37:07] So I love the kid. I can't wait to get more tape on him and any information that I get off of this kid. I'm just kind of eating it up.

[00:37:19] Another name that we kind of need to talk about is a VJ edge comb you heard me mention the name as we were leading up to our prospect or NBA drop kind of preview.

[00:37:32] VJ edge comb is from the Bahamas he's six foot four six foot six wing spin hundred and eighty eight pounds edge comb is a supremely athletic combo guard. He has flashes of high level point guard play and he's expected to really just dominate at Baylor next year.

[00:37:56] Strength and lead shooting guard talent with physical tools and tangibles. This is what one NBA scout told me one of the most functional explosive teenage basketball players I have seen San Fesany.

[00:38:10] Weakness is needs to develop more consistent outside shot who doesn't, who doesn't know need to develop more consistent outside shot. Average is he average almost 20 points again high school six point eight rebound and high school and three point two assists again in high school.

[00:38:32] This is a smaller version of on me and Thompson with a better shot. He's that type of athlete. I'm trying it. Okay. All right. Think of Dennis Smith Jr. with a more consistent jump shot. Right. Dennis Smith Jr. athlete. More consistent J and that's VJ etk comb.

[00:39:12] So we are the top of the drought is stacked. It is stacked. We haven't even got to ace Bailey and I want to save him and do some real real research on him soon.

[00:39:26] But what I'm trying to say is that this draft is super stacked and where we're blessed that we went through the 2024 draft we knew it was going to be tough. And we kept on telling you, hey the 2025 draft is going to be the draft.

[00:39:44] And we haven't got to Ian Jackson. We haven't talked about Jaleal but they are from Miami. We haven't talked about Liam McNeely yet from Yukon. I told you we didn't even get to ace Bailey yet.

[00:39:59] There's a plethora of guys that we have not even discussed yet that I'm really excited about talking about, but you can see that there's a lot of strength in this draft. There's a lot of different type of players in this draft as well.

[00:40:13] You're going to have some bigs. You're going to have some more defensively minded players. You're going to have some supremely talented offensive players who can create their own shot, which that is what this draft that just passed lacked. They didn't have enough offensive creators on their own.

[00:40:36] And I think when we talked about it, and I want to say the last month when we were talking about the draft, going into the draft and after talking about some of the guys who got drafted, can you drill a little past the shoot?

[00:40:55] That's what the NBA Scout wants to know now. Can you drill a little past and shoot? Is it translatable to the NBA level? We can teach you all the other stuff, bro. Can you drill a past and shoot? And there's a difference between when you say that,

[00:41:20] there's a certain level of drill a past and shoot that we're talking about too. You can't be like, oh, I can't do these things. And you do it like as just above average. No, you have to be pretty damn good at two or three of these things

[00:41:41] to be a credit it to be towards the top of the draft this year. You're going to need three translatable skills to be at the top of the draft this year. Keep in mind who is everybody tanking for? Capture the flag.

[00:42:00] That dude, people are trying to figure out where the holes in his game. Let alone saying, oh, weaknesses, weaknesses, off the bat, weaknesses, weaknesses. So if you are in this draft, you can't come with like, oh, I got one translatable skill to the NBA.

[00:42:20] No, not in this draft. In this draft, you've got to be a Swiss Army knife. Multiple translatable skills. A couple other things that we want to get to before we get up out of here. I want to quote the person, I want to quote, it was Bobby Marx.

[00:42:45] He was talking to a Eastern conference executive and they were taught here. Here it is. The money available to re-sign your own players is so great. What the apron rules are so prohibitive from one Eastern conference executive.

[00:43:04] There has to be a balance on how a team can remain competitive, but also reward a player financially. One of the things that we talked about as we were going through last year and as we got into the Aussies and we said it time to time again.

[00:43:28] The apron rules are there to make sure we do not have Dynasties. They are trying to be D NFL at this point. Those rules are so punitive and so restrictive that if you somehow,

[00:43:50] like okay see really has done it right and we don't even know if it actually works yet. We don't know. We have a good clue but we don't know. But here's the other thing. The way the league is set up now slowly, slowly, but surely attrition happens.

[00:44:12] You can't afford that guy. You can't afford to hold on to Isaiah Joe because somebody is going to pay him like $19 million to come off the bench. You can't afford that. He's gone right?

[00:44:31] And what the executives are saying there has to be something where we should be able to retain our players. I always have believed that you should get some sort of like after the third contract

[00:44:46] like even when you get into the third contract, there should be some sort of cap relief for a player that you have drafted, developed, kept, you know, reside multiple times and now he's going to part of your team for seven eight years.

[00:45:14] I think there should be some sort of little bonus to the teams that are able to homegrown their talent and then are trying to retain it. I think it's something that they can open up the CVA and look at.

[00:45:30] I think it's something that if you what you heard all of all season, people will scare to this thing is the boogie man. And now it's coming the roots because again, Brooklyn has players they need to trade.

[00:45:48] I think one of the reasons the marketing thing hasn't moved yet is because, you know, Danny wants to know where he's going to what he's going to be looking at at the cap situation come three years from now. There's a lot of players out there.

[00:46:06] Trey Young didn't move this year. So there are a lot of guys out here who didn't move. Because no one wants to be in that second apron. No one. Everybody's afraid of it. So that is where we are with that, I hope that your Friday goes well.

[00:46:35] And with that being said, a couple other things before we get out here. I hope that you enjoyed our preview of some of these NBA prospects. We're excited to bring it to you and I'll tell you why. This podcast has been wanting to be consistent.

[00:46:59] And we are now here because we are now able to deliver to you on our promises, very consistently now. And I want to thank my producers. I want to thank Bryson Fudge and Serea Gerard.

[00:47:19] I want to thank both of them for their work on this project and others. And that leads us to the unveiling of what the producers are going to call their little blog. So the producers have decided that is going to be producers corner threes.

[00:47:50] So they're going to take three things that we talked about in pre-production. And they're going to put it up on the website. So it's going to be corner threes with the producers. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

[00:48:05] They're psyched by a donut and they said as a birthday present to me that they would unveil it on August 25th. And I thought that was cool. So thank you to my producers for putting an extensive work on this. A lot of the scout information was them.

[00:48:27] Obviously, somebody was me but they get a lot of credit for this. And we're glad that we can bring it to you. So with that being said, two things, we got to give you if you exhausted your friend group, who do you talk to, right?

[00:48:43] Because remember, we're in August now. We've had three months of record downloads. We want it, make it the fourth and we love to do it by August 25th. That's the birthday. So keep that date locked.

[00:49:01] The other thing is this, who can we ask outside of our friend group, right? Who can we ask? Well, we put a lot of thought into this. And I think we've talked about talking to some of the fans on Twitter who keep you locked down with information

[00:49:25] on your specific team and things that nature 100%. But so, times we just want to get down at personal, right? Sometimes we just want to interact. Sometimes we just want to let our hair down. You know what we can do that at?

[00:49:45] We can do that at a bar, right? When you're out and about, now obviously Olympic games are on, shout out to LeBron, AD doing their thing, shout out to Jalen Brown for keeping the pressure on Olympic, US, Mins basketball and Grant Hill and they're back in fourth.

[00:50:07] And we'll get into that next week. Trust me. But yeah, talk to some of your bar patrons and say, hey man, front runner podcast collective, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, MBA, draft prospects, news, notes, rumors, false trades, reckless trades speculation. They do it all, right? Exactly.

[00:50:33] So that's what we want to leave you with and again. We thank you for three months in a row personal best on the download. We can't do it without you. Thank you for growing our podcasts. We are very appreciative. The best part of you is you.

[00:50:52] Make sure that you surround yourself with people who are just going to accentuate your light. Anyone around you that's trying to dim your light? Be gone, be gone. Got to get out. Go do good in this world and we'll see you back on this feed on Monday. Peace.