Amen Thompson vs. Steph | Nuggets Fire Coach & GM Before Playoffs!

it's tuesday, you know what time it is. Front Frontrunner Podcast Collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince. We have an absolutely jam-packed podcast for you today, and it was all set last night. We were ready, was all set last night, we were ready, and then Shams dropped the scud missile on us today and you know that's where we're going to start. Right, we are going to start in the mile high city of Denver, colorado, because, if you haven't heard, there was a red wedding coup in denver nukes their title timeline before the playoffs. The nuggets basically committed front office homicide right before the playoffs.

We've been calling it for a year. A quick recap of all the things that we have discussed on this pod and unfortunately unfortunately for a lot of you people who are new we have a little situation with pod bean. We're on buzzsprout now and this is where you're getting the pods at. So if you have come with us, if you're my day ones, thank you For the new people who are joining us. We have been talking about the Denver Nuggets for a year. So Malone has been pro vet this whole time. He has been the players, the players that booth has gotten. He didn't want to play them whatsoever. You know he really made a concerted effort not to put these guys in positions to be helpful now and it's been an ongoing struggle for a year and a half or actually two years. It started with bruce brown jr after they won the title in 2023. Then, you remember, after the off season they lost contavia caldwell pope. He went to orlando. Now he didn't shoot it very well in Orlando this year, but he was part of that championship DNA. And now we are here.

Michael Malone according to ESPN's Sham Sharania, michael Malone, calvin Booth all gone we cleaned house in Denver. So the red wedding analogy is prolific. Jokic, who is a basketball monk, doesn't even want this politics. I can only imagine what Jokic is going through right now he's going to be like. So I have to answer questions about this. I don't even like answering questions about the game. I don't like answering questions about what I like to do off the off the court. I just want to go play with my horses. And now you fired my head coach, who I won a championship with, and also you fired the executive player personnel who put this team together a reluctant face of the franchise. I can't wait for his comments. I just can't wait. The nuggets are the fourth seat and now have no coach or GM. This is a red wedding NBA and we are only pod who saw this blade coming.

This was never a long-term marriage booth and Malone coexist-existed post-title but were never aligned. Booth shipped. Basically. He let Concavist Caldwell quote go. Bruce Brown was basically not something they could sign because of the fact that the way his bird rights were set up, they can only offer him so much because they were over the cap, unless they wanted to go a little extra, and that would have came from ownership.

Ownership had a mandate not to go over, supposedly or this is what calvin booth was saying and he preached for two years. We're gonna draft and we're going to supplement some of our veteran losses with our talent evaluation and we're going to go ahead and augment our team via the draft. So your christian browns, your peyton watsons, your Jerry Picketts, your Zeke Najis, all of these guys, your Julian Strothers, all of these guys were supposed to play roles and, yes, did they get scattered here throughout the season? A couple played more than others. Christian Brown has solidified himself and we'll get into him a little bit later, but Malone kept a very tight rotation and he did not want to augment that rotation because he felt that he could not trust the youth or whatever his motives were, because this was a two-year war. Make no mistake about this. This was a war. And if you don't think it was, why are they both gone today? Because they're gone ownership.

Whoever was saying hey? The ceo of this franchise said basically, you know what? I am putting an end to this whole thing. If you guys can't agree, it's like a divorce. If you guys can't agree, well, who gets the house or whatnot? Guess what? We'll just put it up for sale, we'll split the earnings and y'all can go both your separate, separate ways. And that's exactly what happened in Denver. I bet you they still wish they had Tim Conley Shouts out to our guy in Minnesota. So here we are. Here we are now. What 2023? They want a title, but they weren't building a sequel. Denver's trying to win now but planting seeds for 2027. It just doesn't work. We've seen the let's thread the needle in golden state in light years ahead, and we saw it. It doesn't work. James Wiseman ends up being a bust. Moody doesn't really get the playing time until like the last couple years, and the struggle that goes on with Jonathan Kaminga continues.

What did you expect to happen when you started slowly picking away the veterans? And Michael Malone has been telling you the whole time I trust these guys, I trust these guys. Did you see how adamant he was when? Now he was drunk as hell when they won the title, but he was confident. He was like oh yeah, we're going to re-sign Brucey B. You know, contevious Caldwell Polk is the heartbeat of the defense for our team. All of these things he said during the title run and after the title, his stance never changed, it never softened.

And even when the veterans were taken away, there were Russell Westbrook signings. There were other signings. Deandre Jordan still has a job in the league, for God's sakes, getting minutes over zignaji. So now what do we do about nicola yokich? Because yokich's entire vibe is I show up, I play a 40 elite minutes and then I go home. He's not leBron, he's not politicking, he's not recruiting.

So what happens when both leaders vanish before the playoff run? Star players don't have to demand change for it to happen. Sometimes silence gives a green light for it to go down, and you don't let this happen unless Jokic didn't say no. If Jokic was adamant like, we're keeping Malone, or we like Booth, or I like Booth, or whatever the case may be, trust me, these guys would still be there. You say Vince who is going to coach the team, and I tell you assistant coach Dave Adelman steps in. He is the interim.

Or was this the plan B panic move After all? I have no idea. This hit us like a ton of bricks. We're reacting to this in real time, just like you guys, and there's so much to get to, in real time, just like you guys, and there's so much to get to. But I do want to give some of the context that we have been following for literally over two years now and we've been making comments and we talked about player development and how, how it was going to work in denver, and booth was preaching this thing for such a long time and we just never saw it develop on the court. So here's the thing denver's defense has been god awful of late. And now what do you do? What kind of changes, what kind of implementations can you make on the fly this close to the playoffs? I said it before, I said it for memphis and I'll say it right now for the denver nuggets.

They were so sick of whatever the bs that was going on. They just decided that this is a definite way to torpedo your season. There's no question that whoever is now making the decision of who's going to run the team next year and who is going to be the head coach, if dave adleman stays or not, they must have been so sick, they must have been so just. They must have been so just, emotionally drained by these two men just bickering back and forth about the philosophy of the team. At some point, isn't it the GM's job to kind of bridge the gap and say, hey, we got to acquiesce to our coach a little bit and get a little veteran in here to make him feel good and make the team feel good, and just get the vibes back. Booth never relented. Malone never relented. So you know who blew it up? The ownership group. So that's the Cronkies.

And now here we are, a couple games away from the playoffs. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. I can't wait. This is just high soap opera drama in the mile high city, and yokich is in the middle of it and Jokic is in the middle of it. Um, again, we talked about how this is very, very close to the Taylor Jenkins situation in Memphis. Um now, where does this leave the nuggets? I mean, yokich is there, you don't have to worry. I mean we'll see now, I mean, but for right now all you know is that yokich is very happy in denver. And what have you now? Does this change? Do we hear words today or tonight that yokich is kind of not feeling what's going on? Maybe this changes the whole geometry of what goes on during the offseason, but for right now I've never heard that Jokic has been unhappy in Denver ever now.

Is this a start of a rebuild with a superstar Because of how absolutely talented Nikola Jokic is? Is ownership clearly one that reshaped the culture of the Denver Nuggets? I can give a resounding yes to that. I think addleman will get kind of like a on the job, like job interview, and see how the team responds to him and see how maybe subtle augmentations uh, and subtle philosophy shifts, see if that makes any kind of change towards their playoff uh future this year. But I mean again, we said it when memphis did this, they pulled the plug on the season because this is what these guys are gonna have to deal with for like the next, till the end of the season. They're not going to be preparing the way they normally would. Because you can't, because everything has just been thrown out the window. Now I will say this championship windows don't close quietly. Sometimes they explode from the inside.

Keep in mind, this was ongoing discussion on this podcast for more than two years, so it wasn't like the writing was on the wall. We're not super surprised. We're so. We're surprised by the timing. But again, I can't wait till you hear from the, the beat writers that are around the Nuggets, when they open up the notebooks and we find out that the, the disharmony with this team, has been going on for several months.

I can't wait for that to happen, because you know it is. Somebody is going to speak or somebody is going to speak Anonymously from the team. There might be something from the booth camp. They might be. You know there's going to be something From the Michael Malone camp, because Michael Malone Is about that smoke. So if he hears anything that is any way when he feels his shade, because michael malone is about that smoke. So if he hears anything that is any way where he feels his shade, he will be responding in kind.

I'm sad for the nugget, uh, the nuggets. I'm sad for yokeage. He's putting up another phenomenal year, even though you know we'll uh, we got a couple things we want to talk about awards and stuff like that later, but he's the best player on the planet and to see everything just fall apart around him, just like in Pompeii and the volcano just erupting and just just destroying everything in sight. This is exactly what has happened around yokich. So now yoki is the only grown up in the building. No shade to jamal murray. But, dog, you gotta show, you gotta come to work every day. Sometimes you don't I know you got knee injury now I'm talking about sometimes you play yourself in the shape of all this stuff. I'm shocked. I am shocked, but I'm also just saw it and I thought Denver was more solidified Apparently not, and that now we can move on to the rest of the show.

How's everybody doing Tuesday? Great, right, lots going on. We're about ready for the playoffs. We got Jalen Brunson back. We're going to talk about him in a second. We're also going to do a little player profile on OG Ananobi. We got a ton of stuff to get to. We got some also some spicy, spicy, uh thought uh exercises that we've done and I am pretty excited to bring those to you today.

But I do want to tell you two things. One I'm glad that the audience here welcome. If this is your first time. We do this twice a week tuesday and friday, so feel good, friday, we'll be doing this. Got some announcements about what's going on friday at the end of the show, so stay tuned for that. The other thing make sure that you're joining the conversation, make sure that you're getting with us on x. So it's at frontrunner pc on x for me and then for our. For our silent but deadly producer Serea. It's Rhea. Underscore Funch, f-u-n-c-h-f-r-p-c. Don't try to talk to me about the name right now. We're locked in on this, can't get off track. And then we also have Blue Sky For our people who are not getting down with twitter anymore, and that is for me. I keep it real simple at frontrunnerpcbskysocial. And for serea, because she's so damn fancy, it's frpc hyphen, raya dot b sky dot social. So join in the conversation.

Denver nuggets fans, how do you feel about your team now? How do you feel about who's the coach? David edelman. What do you think he's going to be able to do? Is he going to be able to steady the ship? Who is your candidate to come in and be the next player evaluator team executive for your nuggets? Is bob myers on your list? Are you trying to dip into the okc um stranglehold down there and get some of their brain trust away from okc? Is there because tim conley is going to be out of contract soon? Is there a play for tim conley to come back to the denver nuggets? Let us know your thoughts on that. I will be interested to hear you guys in the comments. So we're gonna move along to.

I'm gonna talk about the next a little bit and we're gonna talk about some of the things that we saw in the absence of jalen brunson, but also some of the things we've seen now that jalen brunson has returned, and this is where we can get a little nerdy. So we're going to talk about OG Ananobi and how he's the apex glue guy for the New York Knicks. So far this season he's averaging 15.6 points per game. He is shooting 59.7 true shooting percentage. He's shootinga absolutely nuclear 44.8% from three and that's on 4.2 attempts. By the way, now his usage is 19.6 which, as my anonymous talent evaluator says, is controlled but impactful. His box plus minus is just a little bit above zero. It is at a positive point nine modest overall. But context is key why this matters more than the stats suggest. Brunson missed 15 games and OG and NLV averaged 24.9 points per game.

On elite efficiency, with Towns and Brunson active, he becomes the third option, yet continues to duck at a career high rate and shoot above 42 percent from three over the past month. Defensively he he's the york best option to go against jason tatum and the yannis's of the world and the pascal siakams and things of that nature. He's a big, broad body guy. He moves his feet very well and we've been asking about where has mikhail bridges's defense gone this year anyway. So og has been quiet in a sense of his talking, but as far as his game is concerned, it has spoke volumes and has been loud all season. He's getting a real constant on that team and he deserves praise and we're I'm glad that we're giving it to him now.

Somebody we talked to in league said this og isn't the star, but he's a piece you need to win in the playoffs. His gravity, free scoring and his defensive value scale with usage, meaning he doesn't need 25 shots to change a game. Think peak sean marion with a jumper. It's a good comp. I like it. I like it and actually, uh, og kind of reminds me of a, a developing Pascal Siakam, like a little bit shorter, has a little more juice as far as on the wing defense than Pascal Siakam, but he does just a little bit of everything. He passes the ball well, he makes good decisions, they're timely. He shoots the ball very well, he plays with physicality and force, he can get into the paint, he can rebound. He can also be like a weak side help defender, you know, if it calls upon it. So he's so well rounded. I just love this game and again got a couple other things that he's doing well. He's actually providing just premium spacing for uh, for towns, when he does want to go in for those clumsy drives. And also you know that hart jalen brunson and our guy Miles McBride Deuce want to get into the paint and get some paint touches.

Og floats between roles of scorer without Brunson and killer corner shooter with him. Counts Towns who can is a stretch big, but he can get out the paint. He can then punish the little guy mismatches that they end up going ahead and doing the switches on and then you just have this guy that's a ticking time bomb standing in the short corner for the three ball and if he's going to shoot it at 45. Basically that is just a lethal combination, it's like. So we can watch carl anthony towns clumsily get himself into the lane on a six foot four guard or something, or we can try to blitz him and he just kicks it right out to the corner and og knocks it down almost at a 50 clip. Not bad if you can get it. That action actually makes them kind of match up proof as far as that's concerned. If carl anthony towns continues to make quick reads to the corner, and then even if you do have a real good uh defensive wing out there on og he, like I said, he has a presence of mind to slow the game down enough where he will then make the next right pass. And now you're in the blender and it's just swing. You're not going to catch up to the ball and they're going to get a really good shot. Now offensive low brunson can hold up against again across a full postage and carrying 29.5 usage with a 32 and a half percent assist, uh percentage.

But we talked about this when brunson went out. We talked about diversifying the offense. We thought it was going to come from Mikael Bridges. Actually, we thought that he would step up his game. He did, but OG has stood out. He's really brought it since Jalen Brunson's been out and I think that what he's able to provide for that team is just another layer where some teams have to think about that. If they continue to use this, they continue to cultivate it. Albeit we only got like four games, it's not like we're talking about this long period of time where this, this overriding trust, has been built.

But if you're seeing the drastic, cavernous difference between you which are the, which are the Knicks and I know my Knicks fans out there gonna, you know, puff out their chest on this, but if you're a Knicks fan, be honest, that team right now is way different than Boston and Cleveland. Unless you get a different look, unless you get something that they've not seen before, unless something clicks in for this team that kind of opens up the offense and allows this team to really hum and get it going, I think a little more usage of OG Ananobi. I'm not saying something like 26% usage rate, I'm talking about low 20s, 22, somewhere in there, just to allow Bronson a little respite, also to help Carl Anthony Towns, because you're going to need him on both ends, even though he sure doesn't like that defensive end as much. But a credit to him. He does rebound his ass off and that's all we can ask for. Their pace is still bottom five in Tempo. Late clock possessions have to be elite and they got the right guy to do it. Jalen Brunson is that guy.

So what do my Knicks fans have to look forward to when we get to the playoffs? Here's the deal. I'll let you know. Are the knicks the celtics not yet, with their defensive versatility, a link wing rotation, offensive diversity? If this og and anobi thing is real, they might be closer than people realize. They have multiple two-way players who can toggle roles depending on the opponent and the lineup. Their playoff ceiling comes down to one thing Can they find optimal balance between Brunson's heliocentrism and town-scoring versatility without dulling OG's and Bridges' edge that they've gained without Brunson in the lineup? Will Coach Tibbs allow this new wrinkle to continue to develop and flourish, to create a little more doubt in, maybe, the defensive coach? That who he's going have to deal with? Or like five, six, seven game series? We will find out next fans, we will find out, but let me know. Let me know what you guys think.

All right, we need to get to our around the arc segment. Everybody loves this segment. Everybody talked about it. They wanted it back and we have brought it back. But we told you we were going to bring it back to you differently. We are doing eastern conference today. Keep in mind, eastern conference will always be tuesday and then western conference will be always be friday. It will be a feel good Friday. You know how we do it.

So as we get into this, we're going to talk about the Boston Celtics. I understand the Cleveland Cavaliers have the best record In the East. We're going to talk about you in a second Hold on, but we get. We pay respects to the champ, you know they are the champ. We pay respects to the champ. You know they are the champ. We pay respects to them and we got some things that we need to talk about with the champs.

Boston isn't just dominating, they're dismembering teams with grown man possessions. Positive point positive 9.6 net rating, 32 and 7 on the road. They don't beat you with flash, they just break you with the systems. Jay brunson dropped 31 on phoenix tatum's clutch shot. Selection is still stuck in 2008 the midpost fadeaways with contest on the release. It's a kobe cosplay, but less efficient. It's in his shot diet. We can't get it out. We've asked to get it out and he still loves it. But here's the thing, boston, they play a certain system and in this certain system that they play, they feel that math wins in basketball. Coach Mazzulla wants them to get up 53s and they do it most of the time and they just overwhelm people because a lot of their shooters are close to 40 three-point shooters, so it's not like the efficiency is so drastically terrible. Now do they have bad shooting nights? Yeah, especially if this is what you're going to do. This is your choice, but we've seen it have success. They won the championship last year, so they're going to be more involved in to do it this year.

Basically, jalen brunson in the third quarter scoring run, run from phoenix game, three straight buckets, the crowd rising, announcer, pitch climbing, you know saying like it's, he's been doing big things. The other thing is that uh, tatum was people, he was giving people the blues, so they beat a dead team walking in Phoenix. It wasn't that impressive, but it was good to see the two Jays look good. As we get closer to the playoffs. We're just sharpening up the tool set. You know what I'm saying. We got a long playoff run ahead of us. You know we don't want to peak too early in boston. Everybody's getting ready for this championship run. Hashtag different here. All right. Now let's get to who's actually running the east, and that is the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Now Evan Mobley has been a favorite of this show since he was at USC. We loved his draft tape. We enjoyed doing his draft analysis and against Sacramento he dropped 16, and 4 blocks. But forget those numbers. He erased airspace. He changed tempo. He took the paint off the table for the Sacramento Kings. They couldn't get in. No, there was no room in the end for them. Cleland now owns the best defense in the league, but Garland going 4-13 versus SAC. You know, felt the offense tightened but it looks like they're driving a Tesla in chill mode. We getting real close to the playoffs, everybody trying to make sure they stand healthy, no tweaks, that sort of thing. Mitchellitchell wasn't even turbo boosting in this game. It was just, like I said, just chill mode.

Now this is what serea had to say about mogli. He says when we set the floor, mitchell sets the ceiling and cleveland's future depends on how often both of them get to the roof. Oh, that's a play on the Michael Jordan thing. Soraya, that's awesome. So Cleveland is in good shape. Even though they've been six and six in their last 12, I'm still just going like, hey, what are they? What are they going after? Really? The next? We just talked about them a little bit.

I do want to give love to carl anthony towns. 19 points, 13 rebounds, 32 points for og and anobi, plus nine in the uh, plus or minus zero turnovers. Even bridges had 22 points on elite efficiency. So slot cuts and secondary actions assassin. You know how he was doing it. I will say this about the knicks they're a fun team and I think they are. They have the pieces there.

But I'm gonna tell you right now rim protect, rim protection is the real problem without mitchell robertson closing games. I understand that josh hart does so much for that team. I understand you like dante di vincenzo and his moxie and you like the wings because they can provide havoc in defense and be disruptive in passing lanes. But carl anthony towns cannot protect the rim for you and you are not having og and anobie do things like that all the time. So, even though you have to play a little bit differently. Having mitchell robinson in a crunch time lineup could be helpful now, obviously, against certain teams you're not gonna need it, but there's some teams in the east that have some bigs. Boston Giannis likes to get downhill very, very often, so my whole thing is is that, where do the Knicks get rim protection from? Will tell me how far they go in this playoffs? Love the team, love Jalen Brunson, love the togetherness. Still have questions about who and what they are in crunch time.

As far as defense is concerned, now we need to get to indiana. Indiana is starting to surge. Their offensive rating still up there 116.9, seventh in the league. Their defensive rating is just right in the middle 15 114.6. They have a net rating of 2.3 positive, which is 11th. They have a top 10 pace. Their true shooting percentage this is what separates them as a team is 59.8, that's third in the league. The effective field goal percentage is 0.566, which is also third in the league, and they value the basketball. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a rick carlisle team and rick carlisle decides that we don't turn the ball over. And they are at a 11.8 turnover percentage, which is fifth lowest in the NBA. Let me geta swig of water because I don't want to get dry.

We have a lot to talk about, a lot going on all right back. So the system for indiana with halliburton and how they run off screens and how quickly they run off screens. The system generates high value shots via movement and spacing. Now the low turnover rate. You would think personally, would kind of be a little against how fast they move, but not with Tyrese Halliburton and, believe me, this is a Rick Carlisle staple. He loves doing this.

Now Tyrese Halliburton is at 9.3 assists. He is at a 38.8 assist percentage and his true shooting percentage is back to elite status, which is 61.4%. He is among top three creators in the league. And then he has dudes witha bunch of moxie right underneath him TJ McConnell, andrew Neal, hard, reliable secondary creators. Third in team assists per game at 29.5. They have five players that average three plus assists a game. So you know what that means. They spread out pressure and they share the sugar. You know what I'm saying. You know I love teams that share the sugar.

Now Siakam's integration to the team has been seamless. He's averaging just just a tad over 20 points a game 20.3. He has a 600 true shooting percentage, low usage finisher and carlisle's motion sets high synergy with halliburton and dhos and transition. They seem to find each other. It's great. And siasta siakam is the perfect number two for a guard-led system. He unlocks their versatility. Now a wild card is, uh, jairus walker. Now I don't know if he'll get playing time in the playoffs, but our guy is 40.4 percent from three. He also has a 10.6 total rebound percentage, 1.9 steel percentage and a 1.9 block percentage. For somebody who's 6'9 240 pounds, not bad. We really hope that next year is the year that our guy gets a run.

What stands out negatively about the Pacers this year so far? You know it's the defense. It's league average. They're too reliant on base coverages. They're 25th and operate in opponents two point percentage. They 55.6 percent weak rim deterrence, despite turner. I think turner has taken a step back. I think we talked about it a couple weeks ago on the pod. He's just not as bouncy as he was like the last couple years. Maybe he's dealing with something. Maybe one of our boom baby fam, our pacers out there, our fans out there who watch the pacers on a daily basis, can let us know if our guy is dealing with something that I'm not aware of. Now their 20th in defensive rebounding percentage consistently gives us second chance points.

Now this is a problem because Myles Turner has never been like the huge rebounder. Now Siakam has kind of helped with that and the guards are helpful when it comes to that as well, but they're going to need better output, especially in the playoffs. They're going to need to do something. Now where is the little issue with them?

A couple things benedict matherin and aaron neesmith. Now they're both excellent players. There's too many possessions with poor point of attack containment. When it comes to matherin, neesith gets in foul trouble a little bit, you know. So that's his thing. Now he's coming off the injury so maybe his, his defense will come back because he's been a top level type defender, kind of knocking on the door like uh, a player. But he doesn't play enough minutes to get into like that all defensive team type situation. And, by the way, we got news on that coming up later. So qb locked here because I have a absolutely nuclear, hot, hot thought discussion for you guys. Later, trust me, you're gonna want to stay for this one. Later, trust me, you're gonna want to stay for this one. Free throw rate almost 24 percent, 20th and league.

Despite fast pace, indiana doesn't live at the line because they are a jump shooting team. It's a finesse first. They don't lack a uh downhill, a downhill bully. Now, pascal Siakam gives them a little bit of that, but he doesn't provide it on a game-by-game basis and things of that nature. Like Giannis, you know that's what he's going to give you and we were hoping that Matherin would take that next step and kind of give them that. He has not.

So I think they're a team that could really show some spunk in the first round. They might even be able to get past the first round. But I do not expect the Pacers to relive 2023, 2024 season and get themselves to the eastern conference finals. They have some incredible uh shot makers on this team. They have some guys who play really good in tight situations, a la tj mcconnell, a la pascal siakam but I just think the top tier of the east, especially when you get into that second round, if you're playing cleveland, good luck. Good luck because cleveland's packing the defense. Trust and believe that. Good luck because Cleveland's packing the defense. Trust and believe that Now we're going to move along to the Milwaukee Bucks, who are in an absolute identity crisis right now.

But here's the thing Identity crisis or not, giannis Antetokounmpo is 31 points a game Okay, 31 points a game, 12.6 game, 12.6 rebounds, 6.3 assists on a true shooting percentage of 62.5 percent truly elite. He is a 9.1 positive box plus minus. You know where that's at minus. You know where that's at that's mvp level again. This dude is gonna end up third in the mvp again.

Now dame is still coming back from that uh, deep vein thrombosis. We still don't have an update of when his availability will come. They said that he's closer to returning than not. You're gonna need him. He's an offensive engine. When healthy he has 122 offensive rating, 24.9 points per game, 7.1 assists on 62, 62.1 true shooting percentage. This is a dude and you're gonna need dudes for the playoffs.

Kyle kuzma is not cutting it. He is no longer a dude. Sorry, kuz, we love you, but you're gonna have to go through some sort of like lose, lose transfusion. You're gonna have to take watch the lose. No offense wizards. I know you y'all tanking right now, but kuzma kuzma was there for too long. He got a bunch of lose on him and he gonna need to wash that off. You know I'm saying there used to be an old commercial. He's like I'm gonna wash that gray right out of my hair now. Kuz needs to go. I need to wash this lose right off my body. You can't bring that losing mentality to Milwaukee and you be dealing with Giannis Antetokounmpo every single day. Nah, nah, son, that's not gonna go down. Now.

Doc Rivers has a shooting efficiency on point. Team field effective field goal percentage is 0.566, which is fourth in the league. Three point percentage is there is 0.384, which is fourth in the league. Three point percentage is, sir, is point three eight four, which is fifth in the league. Torian Prince is shooting the shit out of the ball this year. Forty four percent from three. Gary Trent Jr is still doing Gary Trent Jr thing, shooting 41 percent from three. But this team is only gonna to go as far as the Vets can take them. Are they getting Bobby Partridge back for the playoff run or is he done for the season? We need to check up on that. So they got a lot more questions than answers and until we get the questions answered, I'm going to leave Milwaukee as incomplete right now. You know what I'm saying. Got to do that we're going to move along to Detroit Michigan, because Detroit Michigan deserves some love.

Detroit, stand up for your basketball team. This is a Motor City manifesto, k's decision. Indeed, in Detroit's defensive blueprint, which sounds very familiar, doesn't it? Detroit P piston fans, all right, so kate has been killing it and beasley has been the fuel, so let's get into this. Detroit basketball is back. No, not, you know. We won three straight games in a way, not in a way. We're scrappy rebuild team. No, they are talking about a fundamental shift. This team has gone from a 14 win team to a team that has won plus 40 games. They have triple their win total. Jb bickerstaff deserves a whole hell of a lot of credit. Trajan langdon deserves a whole bunch of credit as well, and we're going to talk about one of the guys that they picked up off the scrap heap, who's doing damage for the pistons. But let's give k cutting him some love, because he was an all-star this year.

One. He doesn't yell, he doesn't throw no look passes into the fifth row, but against the kings, k dropped 35 points on elite efficiency and reminded everybody exactly who he is a tempo controller, a possession sculptor and detroit's clear franchise cornerstone. And this wasn't a highlight reel night, it was a confirmation night. This is what it looks like when the team has its engine, and k was back. Kay was back. So Kay played just under 33 minutes. He dropped 35 points. He shot 13 of 21 from the field. He was only 1 of 4 from 3. No biggie, you know, gotta get your legs back.

He hit 8 of 11 from free throw line and his true shooting percentage was 63.2%. That's elite efficiency, high usage guard who carried almost every half court set. He accounted for 23.5 percent of the team's field goals and 39 percent of their free throws. And he still had five time uh final time to rack up five assists, keep his throw looking real fresh. And also he provided two steals as well. His assist to turnover ratio for somebody who's a high usage player is uh 1.25, and the positive is not the best. He's still young man, he's like 23 man, but this dude gets it done.

Now, what impressed me wasn't just the line, it was how kade's game lived in the middle of the floor, the pull-up jumpers from 12 to 17 feet, the high release, the balanced footwork, the quiet confidence that he had. He had two different, uh mid-range jumpers in the first quarter. That made me say out loud yeah, those are, that's a franchise shot, you know saying give me franchise money shot. You know I'm saying he got back into the pick and roll game as well. One of the most underrated parts of kade's arsenal is his manipulation. Not the, not the past, the moment, before the past. The weak side, tag, hesitation, that the live dribble shoulder dip. That the live dribble shoulder dip. Then he goes into a grown man orchestration. He found durin twice in the short roll with eyes. Only manipulation, that's some luka type stuff right there. Okay, so I don't throw that around nearly with you know, nearly willy, like you know what I'm saying, know nilly willy, like you know I'm saying, but luca, that's luca type stuff.

And then there was a contract contact absorption that k did. He earned 11 free throws in the game, five of them in the fourth quarter. This wasn't just a hot hand game, this was deliberate. He was getting downhill and he was making an impact and he was like you're either gonna foul me or I'm going to the basket and I'm gonna dunk on you or have a sweet layup. Now the kings aren't the best defensively. So this is not big news that kate was going off, but it's big news because he had an injury.

He came back and it didn't take him a long time to get restarted. He understood the assignment, he understood what his team needed, he understood who he was to the team. Now it wasn't perfect. Two of k's turnovers came late in the clock and after a long and long isos there were spacing. That just didn't help him. He over dribbled, lost the handle, got blitzed by the help and that's that's what happens. That's the product of det Detroit's current limitations because unfortunately, without Jay Nivey, you don't have that other guy who's an on-ball juice type guy. So you have a lot of guys who will just stand around and take jump shots and they don't move as much as they should.

Still young team, still developing. Still young team, still developing. The bigger issue is that kate still has moments where he fades off the ball, when the ball leaves his hands. He's got to come, become more of a mover, relocate, keep the gravity engaged instead of he sometimes drifts, and that's development and focus. But let's be clear, that's a critique within the context of elite growth, because I expect a lot from kate.

Cunningham I did talk about, there were shades of luca, right, these are steps of a primary. Primary initiator has to go through. Okay, we're watching him now learn to be the guy who bends playoff defenses, take reps, and he's still getting him and we can't wait to see him in the playoffs this year and again. He's 23, just signed his his working max extension for 224 million over five years. He has a top 30 league wide trade value. He's the kind of player who only gives mood for another heliocentric star, or basically like five first round picks. You know his archetype is rare big guard, primary tempo initiator, elite mid-range creator, live dribble manipulator. His comps are a bigger version of darren williams with better feel, or a name that I love to use because, kids, it's time for you go back onto the youtube machine and I want you to punch in this name brandon roy. Brandon roy played for the portland trailblazers back in like the early 2000s and his game was sweet. He had bad knees but his game was sweet. You know saying and k just have a basically like a slower heartbeat than like brandon roy, but the skill and the cadence this guy is undeniable and we're just starting to see him take off now. The king gang was basically a confirmation of our guy is back and we are happy to see him.

Now the other guy I want to get to about the Detroit Pistons is Asar Thompson. This is a chaos agent, no doubt. 3.7 steal percentage, 2.8% block percentage this is elite activity. If Matisse Thibel and Andre Iguodala had a Gen Z cousin who was also a freak athlete, it would be Asar Thompson. You know what I'm saying.

He is just a point of attack defender. He gets in people, he's physical, he is able to recover. So if he comes down to kind of dig on a somebody going to the paint, he can recover out to the three-point line very easily. He's able to mirror the offensive player when they are attacking, trying to attack the paint. He takes charges. And also he is a dope I mean a absolute dope. Weak side rim protector. There's some mom I'm trying to think up, doesn't remind me of. It's like a wiry Scotty Pippen a little bit. Opponents affect the field goal percentage. Six best defenses in fluky. They don't play pretty, they just win games.

Now the other guy that we need to talk about with the detroit pistons is malik beasley 41.6 percent from three. But it's not, it's not the percentage, it's the high volume. It's the perfect compliment to Cade, because Cade wants to get downhill. Okay, he check this out. So where is it. So yes, 41.3 on 9.3 per uh attempts per game. Actually, I think that's up. I think he's actually more in the 11 2 range per game. This dude is shooting over 10 threes a game okay, and whether he's two for 12 or five or 13, he's shooting that thing. He's not just chilling in the corner like a stationary outlet, he's flying off of pin downs, flares, staggers, relocation. His gravity bends the cord, especially when Kate is working on the strong side.

April 7 versus the Kings 14 points for a 14 from deep not great, but still force too hard closeouts that led to during dunks. April 5th against Memphis 11 points, 3 or 12 from deep again inefficient but still demanded constant attention. April 4th against toronto 21 points on 3 of 11 from 3, including a dagger in the fourth quarter. That sealed detroit's playoff clincher. No, detroit fans were happy about that. March 30th 27 points. That was the brawl game. He had 27 points, uh 6, 13 from deep, uh five or six from the line. He was just an absolute flamethrower and a menace and he was talking trash the whole game.

Beasley's three-point attempt rate is wild. It is 71.4 percent, meaning almost nearly three-quarters of his total shot diet is threes. This is a specialist with a specialist with a high volume level of threes. I mean just crazy amount. And again, he's not getting school fed threes either. He's not kyle corver and getting handoff.

Beasley creates space with change of speed, tight footwork and one man motion release. That doesn't need a perfect window. When he gets going, it's electric because he's gonna do the shimmy and he's gonna shoot it from like 28 feet with no conscience, and he's gonna make it. His effective field goal percentage sits at 57.6%. That's higher than a lot of all-star guards. Why? Because he made threes count. They count more than twos. His off-ball value to kade is just crazy. When k is the initiator and beasley is coming off pin downs and things of that nature coming off off screens, it is just creating havoc for the defense because they don't know what's going to happen.

Do we continue to concentrate on Cade and stop his impactful paint touches, or do we give some of our brain space to what malik beasley is doing? Because here's the thing malik beasley has no conscience. There is not a shot that he does not like and he will take it, and that's for sure. Now let's flip it. Let's talk asking. Beasley is only 28 years old and he's on a value contract. He's producing like a starter While functioning as a high end six man In a playoff setting. His movement shooting plug in for any contender.

I'm going to tell you right now Trajan Langdon has pieces to play with and shots out to picking up Malik Beasley, believing in him, jb Bickerstaff allowing him to shoot, understanding that he didn't have Jaden Ivey. And what was this team going to turn to? Well, they turned to Malik Beasley and he rewarded them with a 16.2 points a game, which is a career high three point, nine threes per game. And he's played over 2200 minutes. He's durable, steady and reliable. He's not just a heat check guy, he's a floor raiser. He's not just a heat check guy, he's a floor raiser. So I'm going to tell you right now I like all of what Detroit is doing. I like the physicality, I like they're not taking shit from people and this is the best part For the first time since 2019, the Detroit Pistons are back in in the playoffs.

They clinched the top six seed in the East. They're not a playing fluke, they're not a miracle run. This is a legit playoff spot and when the postseason arrives, everything's Titans. But here's the most important thing defense travels shot. Creation slows down. Role players get exposed or elevated, and this is where Kade comes in. His half-court mastery as a conductor is going to be very, very important to what Detroit does, and I can't wait to see how this shows out in the playoffs.

All right, we're gonna move along to a couple other teams before we go out here. We got still a lot to get to. Who is this thing move Orlando? So we're gonna kind of do the back end of the ease. This way, orlando is still hanging on to a playoff spot. They're in the plan.

You know the deal Jalen Suggs was like. Who knew that Jalen Suggs with this was this guy that just turned off all of the happy kingdom losing. Jalen Suggs basically Basically turned out all the magic that Orlando had. They'll be back next year, but they need to get some shooting On that team. Atlanta is kind of gone back To the Trey Just the ice Trey Phase, where. But here's the thing. Here's the thing I will tell you about Trey. Just the Ice Trey phase where. But here's the thing. Here's the thing I will tell you about Trey. Do you know? Trey has been in over 200 plus inverted pick and rolls, meaning that he's the screener. This year. He has more screens this year that he initiated than his entire career.

Trey young changing the way he plays basketball. I love it. What was that, uh quote from? Was it? Was it Rocky 3 or Rocky 4? When we fought the Russian Rocky 4? Okay, he's like, if I could change and he can change, we're all.

Trey young getting it done 200 initiated set picks by trey young. I'm I'm flabbergasted by that stat. I'm just. I don't know how anybody else feels, but as a super nerd when it comes to this type of stuff, this is what I always wanted for trey young. Hell, this is what travis slink, when he was the general manager, wanted for trey young. You want to be more like steph get off ball. You want to be more like steph. You might need to get into the middle of the paint and then shoot out and then receive the ball to shoot the ball. So shout out to Trey Young for you know, learning some new things.

The Chicago Bulls are just continuing to play outside their mind 7-3 in their last 10. Kobe White is just absolutely balling. We talked about him in the last a week ago. It's like 29 points since. Like February, the Miami Heat are holding on to the last playing spot, but the only reason they're doing that is because nobody else wants it. We talked about this last time. Oh, our guy Bam Adebayo is starting to play well, and I want to also give a shout-out to Tyler Hero.

Tyler Hero is not just a shooter anymore. He changed a lot about himself in this last year. He's done a lot of work. He seems to be coming off screens more aggressively. He seems to have taken his ball handling responsibilities more seriously. He's cut down on the turnovers. There seems to be less heat check type threes. It just seems like a more responsible brand of basketball that tyler hero is playing and I know there are going to be most improved uh player award this year and I know there's going to be a lot of people out there talking about um. You know these second year guys or these third year guys who were like lottery picks.

But can we give some consideration to three guys? Three guys. I want to give consideration to three of them. One is Tyler Hero of the Miami Heat, because he has kept that team afloat when they have no business keeping them afloat right now. The other guy that I want to give credit to is Avisa Zubats of the Los Angeles Clippers. Now, zubats has been in the league for a while, but this year he's averaging more points, points. Now that's thanks to James Harden. I'm not going to sit here and say like it's him, but the defense that he provides, the physicality he provides, the rebounding he provides, the rim protection that he provides for a clipper team who, let paul george go kawaii has been in and out of the lineup, but the most consistent clipper this year has been zubats and I think he deserves some recognition for most improved player. Now another guy that also deserves some consideration is our guy, austin reeves of the los angeles lakers, and the reason why I say that is because he's gone from a guy just making the team to a guy who was a role player, to a guy who was miscast as a sixth man because he should have been starting for two years but the coaching staffs were in flux, couldn't even figure out what was going on. Darvin Ham these these were the Darvin Ham days. These were dark days for me. Dark days, I tell you. But I say this to say that Austin Rees has turned himself into a star. I think he deserves credit for that. So I know that we're going to have these most improved awards coming up and probably going to pick somebody super awesome and whatever, but I think those three guys deserve recognition for what they've done this year.

Now Toronto is tanking big time, brooklyn is doing good tanks, philadelphia is doing great tanks, charlotte is doing great tanks and the Wizards are doing the tank of all tanks, and that is the East. Now off the bounce. We got a couple things that we want to deep dive into. A real quick. These are like quick hitters, but these are like stats or things that you should kind of be looking forward to and it's apropos, apropos that we bring this up. Apropos that we bring this up. We talked to you a lot about how we watch game and we watch film and things of that nature, but I'm gonna bring you some actions that happen in a game. So this is real tape that tells you cut gang. Jokic has six cut assists, three of them to Christian Brown.

Indy's defense got lost. Like they were trying to find parking in downtown Los Angeles. Boy, they didn't know where Christian Brown was at all. And Jokic is out here just throwing dimes Like boom, boom, what's up? Boom, dime, dime here, dime there, you get a dime. It was like Oprah's favorite thing there, you get a dime. It was like okra's favorite thing you get a dime, you get one. Hey, you want one up there, I'll give you one. It's cool. Now, perimeter d. This might be one of the reasons why. Uh, mike michael malone got fired.

Denver gave up 21 unguarded threes. Obi Toppin was out there looking like shooting a mixtape in an open gym. My man was just out there alone, just all by his lonesome Reading books, catching up on the going zone of the day. He was out there and then in transition. Michael Porter Jr misses. Indy sprints Westbrook bricks. Indy leaks out. Braun slips. Halliburton dimes up Jarius Walker like he's prime Nash. John slips Halliburton dimes up Jarius Walker like he's Prime Nash Westbrook Westbrook.

That's the guy who helped Denver lose when Nikola Jokic had a 60-point triple-double Russell Westbrook Denver looks like they're in transition like the Fast and Furious franchise no breaks and too many people going solo. Mm-hmm. Can Jamal Murray get back anytime soon? Jamal, come back to the nuggets please. All right, man, oh man, oh man. This dude is so I can't believe they're fired their coach and they're can't believe Denver fired their coach and their. Oh, and you see why and you see why. There's no cohesion with that team. Cohesion top it starts at the top, and if you don't have it at the top and the vision is not has some sort of accord to it. Not everybody's going to be on the same page, but, damn it, your coach and GM somehow some way need to find a way to coexist.

Now I have one more thing to get off my chest today and I want to thank everybody for listening. Thank you so much, but this is the one that everybody came for. I told you I have something for everyone now. We watch a lot of basketball here at front runner podcast collective. We consider ourselves people who are, um, free thinkers, forward-thinking people, people that look at analytics but also pair that with video, so watching games, listening to people who we trust and also then just being able to realize that we're just seeing things that are just special.

And that brings me to my last thought of the day, and this is off the balance, and this is about Amon Thompson of the Houston Rockets, and I believe that Amon Thompson is the best perimeter defender in the NBA today. Let me say this clearly I don't care about your defensive player of the year narratives, rookie sophomore qualifiers or whether someone's been in the league long enough To get the respect. Amen Thompson right now Is doing things on a basketball court that most, all NBA defenders couldn't even dream Of doing at this age in their careers. And if you watch what he did to Steph Curry after the heater that Steph Curry was on, by the way Three games and 130 something points, or whatever 125 points he shut Steph down. He put him on shutdown notice and said not today, players's not going down. I'm sorry we had to turn that faucet off, guy. You were hemorrhaging points and we needed to shut that down.

Let's get into the numbers real quick now. Defensive box plus minus 2.7 positive, that's elite. That's andre igodala in the finals mvp territory. 3.6 percent block rate at the wing position that's more than a ton of rim protectors. And if you want to combine the two stocks per gang, 4.7. That's the activity level you usually only get from centers playing free safety. And this is coming from somebody six foot". Here's the craziest stat of them all. The Rockets allow 6.4 fewer points per 100 possession when Amon Thompson is on the court. That's what defensive anchors do. That's what Prime Draymond did. That's what Ben Wallace didmond did. That's what ben wallace did, just to let you know, by the way, this dude is 21 years old, 21 and he just literally he did a basically a solar eclipse to steph at the chase center the other night. Let's get into that game, shall we?

Steph had been on a heater coming off three straight games where he scored 30 plus and was cooking with off-ball movement. Hesitation threes. Enter amin thompson. He face guarded curry, baseline to baseline. He chased through every screen. He never died on contact. He forced step into bad shots and rushed decisions. He even beat him to spots on cuts. The Rockets sent zero doubles to help Amon Thompson. That's how much they trusted Amen.

At the point of attack on Steph Curry. This is Steph Curry, this is not some dude who gets high every once in a while and whatever, this is steph curry. This is the greatest shooter we have ever seen in amish. Thompson is shutting him down. And then at one point it was like 17 seconds of hell. He switched on to steph. He cut the drive, recovered on on the step back and then forced a shot clock violation. That's elite defense. It's demoralizing. He shut that man down, he sent, he sent Steph to tribal council and then Jeff Crowes out his uh torch and said you've been kicked off the island, my guy, by amin thompson. So you asked me why he is defensive player of the year. Because that's where I'm going with this. Amin thompson is the defensive player of the year. Because that's where I'm going with this. Amy thompson is the defensive player of the year.

I understand that everybody wants to talk about draymond green and how he is politicking for it, but what was you doing when steph was just being absolutely blanketed? My guy, right Somewhere Between Amon Thompson locking up Steph and Draymond drinking blood on the floor, hardwood, like it was Wrestlemania. I realized that this wasn't a regular season game anymore. It was NBA Survivor, western Conference style. Let's get to it, because there was so much on the line in this game. You know what was on the line. Have you seen the traffic jam that is four through eight in the West, my goodness. So again we talked about Curry scoring 125 points over 3 games and Amos shutting him down right. Check this out one main field goal, three turnovers, zero free throws and that's at halftime. And this is what ema adoka told his guys. If they are crying about fouls, that means we're winning. Bro, that's cold. That's giving, like real housewives of the western conference energies. Somebody's gonna have a drink thrown in their face soon. I'm just just saying so.

Raya says that amon thompson looks like mikhail baryshnikov and terrell owens of like san francisco 49ers fame had a baby. And this is what kind of athleticism comes out, man, you're dropping jewels. You continue to drop jewels on this podcast, like every week. These little notes that you're throwing in here are awesome, just so you know. He's 6'7", he's twitchy, he has zero fear and he handles screens like Luka handles social media hate. Oh, and get this. He asked to guard Steph. He wanted the matchup Because he grew up in Oakland as a LeBron fan and as a warrior antagonist. Are you telling me my man is just the perfect villain arc? Okay, so these are the actual numbers curry versus amen. Again in the game. He he went, oh for three. So he only took three field goals against amen thompson and, like aiming guarding him a lot, amen had three deflections, two steals and one block off of curry. He had zero fouls. And this is all in 26 minutes. 26 minutes of stifling, just unapologetic, primal defensive aggression against one of the most genteel white collar looking dudes in the whole wide world, which is Steph Curry.

Y'all remember when Nick Nurse went boxing one on Steph in the 2019 finals. Udoka remixed it. Dylan, dylan brooks pressed van veek, uh, van vliet, blitz, jabari smith, deny wing entries like a bouncer on at poppy felt like Mr B said drop $500,000 bounty for whoever could get a stop on stuff. And Houston said say less, my boy, I got that. You can go ahead and give me that money right now. You can Venmo me that cash because I got Amon Thompson and he going to shut him down.

And then the game turned into monday night raw. There were flagrants, there were bleeding, there were elbows. Prayer van bleak pulled up his squad aside in the locker room like og and said hey, don't play draymond's game. He's's undefeated at that. That's that same energy as he's trying to use. You know he's trying to be getting people Like just to go down To his level.

So what happened? Draymond hit Alcarin Shingun With like a forearm they called a tech Right. Then the next time down the court I swear to god dream on goes up for a layup. And it looked clean, it looked. He looked like he went straight up for a layup. It just so happens that african goons face accidentally hit draymond's elbow and like Draymond and like Shingun is like laid out or whatever they call a flagrant foul on Draymond, of course now did he deserve it? No, but was it the 20 minutes of bullshit before just berating the refs like he was doing?

Probably also the Kerr-Kaminga war continues. Kerr only played Kaminga 19 minutes. Despite him, despite him cooking Houston earlier this season with 33 points. Oh, another stat to boost my Amon Thompson defensive player of the year, curry on in the game against Houston 88.4 offensive rating when he was on the court. When he was off the court he was off the court. It was 117.2. That's a 30 point difference. By the way, yes, they were better without Steph on the floor. That's not slander, that's fatigue. That's a 36 year old being like hey, carry the team like in 2017 and curry just looking at them going like you see this dude on me? Do you see him? This is the best athlete we got in the league. Can somebody get him off of me? It just did not happen. Unfortunately, it was statement winning for the Rockets. The Rockets have solidified the number two uh, overall seed in the west.

Basically, with a couple like four games left to go and they're gonna be hell to pay, like a lot of people said they were trying to like get to them or get to their side of the bracket. I don't know if you want to do that. Have you seen this team? They can't score worth a damn. But Tari Eason Jr, jabari Smith Jr, alcren Shingun is not a turnstile defense anymore. Oh, stephen Adams, the double big situation works. They have, I want to say, about 144 minutes of actual court time together, alcron Shingun and Stephen Adams. I think they're a plus 118. I don't even know what you do with that, so we'll see how it goes. So I don't think I need to drop any more stats on you.

About Amy Thompson, this is what I will say One of the one things that this would be Victor Wing by Yamas award. We know that big Vic would have won this award if not for the injury. But the one thing that Eamon Thompson is giving me Vic vibes about, he's doing stuff on the court, defensively wise, that we don't see a lot of wings do, and not for the period of time that he does it for. Yeah, you can shut off the water for like 3 or 4 minutes, but to keep up that intensity, to keep up that intentionality for 26 minutes against Steph Curry, who's a constant. He's perpetual motion. That's all Curry does, and this kid followed him all around the court. When Curry went to the bathroom, av Thompson went to the bathroom. Amen thompson went to the bathroom too. Just saying so. That leads us to this. We are here now.

It is the last week of the nba season, and may the odds forever be in your favor. And may the odds forever be in your favor. The Clippers, the Golden State Warriors, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Denver Nuggets, even though they don't have a coach. All these teams have 32 losses. Denver is the only team with 47 wins, though, so they are half a game up on the other four teams that I just talked about.

So who's gonna get the four seed? Who's gonna get the last seed that can host a home court? Get host a game seven in a home court in the first round? Who will it be? Will it be the Denver Nuggets, who just fired basically everybody? Will it be the Memphis Grizzlies, who fired everybody, like a week and a half ago? Is Ant going to get this spot?

Are the Golden State Warriors strength in numbers really coming back for 2020, circa 2025? Or are we going to fall for the trap again. Scary boogeyman, this Kawhi, who beat Cleveland, who put the fear of God into OKC. Are we going to take the Clippers at the 4 seed? Now I will say this I think the Clippers have been excellent this year. I think they far outkicked their coverage. But give me the Minnesota Timberwolves, give me Ant, give me the Star. I think they'll go ahead and rack up that fourth seed. And let me tell you something that second round series between Ant and SGA. Sign my ass up for that. Okay, sign me up. We want that. We want that for real. So we got one week left, five teams tied. No margin for egos, rotations or nostalgia, only dubs here. Little note from serea that's not a schedule, that's an elimination bracket. I'll score out, defend outlast. It is truly survivor. Here we go with the jewels again. This is fantastic, but the tribal council has spoken and so, with that being said, we can get up on out of here.

I want to thank everybody, uh, for joining the podcast today. I want to thank saraya for doing just such an excellent job, and the many from behind the scenes that give us what we do. Be sure to check us out. Also, be sure to follow us on your podcast platform of choice. Make sure you turn on the notification bell, make sure that you are telling a friend, because you're being a friend by telling a friend about the podcast. So, with that being said, surround yourself with people who lift you up, push you forward and remind you who you are. If you got folks like that, celebrate them, text them, hug them, let them know that they matter, because growth hits differently when surrounded by love, support and real ones. And if, if you're in the building that of circle, start with us. You got a seat here always with front runner podcast collective. So with for serea myself, vince, we bid you a fond to do and we will see you back on this feed on friday deuce.