Boston's Corporate Coup:The Celtics Ownership Revolution and What It Means for the Lakers

it is tuesday, you know what time it is. Front runner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today's podcast we will be discussing the reshuffle of the upper management team of the Boston Celtics in great detail. Also, this gives us a little, a little look into the future, of what the Lakers might have in store for them due to this little comeuppance in Boston. We will also take a little drive down south to a place called Atlanta Georgia, and we will talk about what is going to go on in Atlanta, because it seems like they're going to have some choices to make and we'll get to that. And then we're going to top it off with some NBA draft prospects, 2026 style. Yes, we're already getting into it. We will be announcing something towards September that I'm excited about and go from there. So those are the things. Those are the items that are on the docket for today.

I want to say that I am joined by my silent assassin, saraya. She will be entering some probably incredible notes into the chat and then, uh, hopefully they'll be great you know they usually are and, uh, we'll go from there. But I do want to say two things before we get started one. We have been talking about the great responses of you know we've seen the podcast grow and, though that hasn't that has, that has continued to happen. We are blessed. We are blessed by people finding the podcast, people downloading the podcast as we've asked for, and listening to the podcast, and it seems like they've also done what we've asked about. Be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast. It is so important that you do that. It is incredibly. I'm grateful one. You are, in a sense, doing part of my job. For me, you're basically giving advertising and speaking credence into this podcast and let people know we talk hoops, man, we talk basketball Tuesdays and Fridays for your listening pleasure. And it's pretty much available on all of your favorite podcast platforms that you like to listen to Spotify, apple Pods, amazon Music, audible YouTube. Like to listen to spotify, apple pods, amazon music, audible youtube. Wherever you get your podcast, we are available on those streams.

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So, boston, they're not just reshuffling the roster. This has been a corporate coup from the beginning, with the parquet floors. Forget about friendly baton pass. Wick grosbeck will not be the celtics governor at all. Remember that story and we'll get into it as we go. But there was a agreed upon destination to date. I want to say it was in 2028. Where Witt Grossbeck would then relinquish his governatorial ship of the Celtics to one, will Chisholm. Nah, we're not waiting to 2028. Nah, we're not waiting to 2028.

We paid $6.1 billion, or $7.4 billion, depending on what you believe. I want to give you all the numbers, so you're going to have it all. Bill Chisholm said ha ha, no, we're not doing that player. That's not a lateral move, that's a position of elimination, with a farewell cake, maybe a commemorative jersey and a polite assurance that we value your institutional knowledge right before we lose your parking spot. But our guy, wick Grosbeck, who has piloted the boston celtics since 2002, is no longer part of the celtics whatsoever. I wonder if he's now reconsidering. Uh, giving this team to steve pagliuso, I wonder. So rail pops in with the mouth. She says yes, it was. Uh, it is 7.4 billion dollars. We were off by 1.3, so 7.4 billion is the total for the celtic cell.

Who drops that kind of coin and gives the keys back to someone to steer the wheel? I agree. Coin and gives the keys back to someone to steer the wheel? I agree. Right, nobody drops that gp, that gdp on a small island nation, on a franchise, and says, hey, you drive, I'll just sit here and watch. This isn't uber pool, it's chisholm express and my man is looking to take the celtics into the future. I'm here now. We really appreciate your contributions during this period of organizational realignment and we look forward to leveraging your leadership in involving the adversary capacity. Yeah for sure. 100%. These are all buzzwords they used off board. You translation, the chair stays warm. The steering wheel, you know, not yours anymore, gone, and this is like keeping your name on the office door but finding out that your key card now only works on the weekends.

So real, quite a lovely succession quote. You make your own reality and once you're done, done in enough, it becomes truth. My man, my man, bill chisholm, is on that life for boston. Chisholm's reality starts now. His reality is governor. It isn't a courtesy title, it's his job description and it was going to be his job description when they sold the, the franchise, back in May.

And let's be clear, this isn't any sale. This is the NBA equivalent of a hostile takeover that comes with season tickets. It's the Boston Celtics. It is the 18-time champions of the NBA. When we look back and you see that grainy black and white footage and things of that nature, it has a lot of celtics in it. They are basketball royalty. However you think about them, the leagues the league doesn't even let you be governor unless you own 15 plus percent. You be governor unless you own 15 plus percent. Which stake after the? The uh, the little delance that they had was below that, which means the nba says no and chisholm says great, I was planning on driving. Anyway. This is the big leagues big checks, big brands, big control shifts in boston, the city that prides itself on keeping things in the family. Just open up the door to a brand new head of the table. Throw your ones up, for roman reigns. You know saying throw your ones up, head of the table, roman reigns. Also head of the table, bill Chisholm for the Boston Celtics.

Now let's rewind the tape a little bit. Let's go back through some history. So Whit Grossback, led by his father, irv, buys the Celtics for roughly 360 million dollars. It's a number that at the time would felt very lofty. Fast forward to now. That seems like a parking space in downtown boston, in the financial district, doesn't it?

What did grosswick do while he had the team? First of all, he brought them glory back in 2008. Them glory back in 2008, then repeated that glory back in 2024. So he gave them two championships. He also gave them stability that other franchises dream of and a brand that still is one of the nba crown jewels. I agree with all of that. The celtics became the definition of best run team. That the celtics became the definition of best run team in the east, I would say for. So for a while. We're a place where coaches and players even front office execs plan their careers like well-trained 401k contributions in 2025. That game changed tiered sale. The first tranche gives Bill Chisholm and his investing group 51% control of the team at about $1.6 billion billion. By 2028, when the remaining minority shareholders are bought out, it would be a full valuation that hits 7.4 billion dollars.

It's not just business transaction. This is a reality set for the boston celtics. We are under new management, folks, and the new management has said be gone with the old. It is time to zoom into the future. And we're here. We zoom out to the West Coast because I love history. I'm a big history buff, I like reading about history, I like watching the history channel. I just I love documentaries on history. Some of the things that I like is like okay, where does this remind me of something that's going on today? And the one thing that we always talked about when the celtics were sold and we heard because I'm gonna say it just like this I am privy to some intimate knowledge about this situation, but it's, it's out there for everybody to know.

Irv Grossbeck is 91 years of age and he was trying to get his finances together and what is coming next is that he's going to leave this earth and he wanted to make sure that his kids were set up in a sense of okay, this is plainly what's going on. He did not want to leave the Boston Celtics under Wick, not because he didn't trust Wick, it's just because of the fact that there's a lot of money tied up with the Boston Celtics. He wanted to see if he could recoup that money and then distribute it evenly amongst the kids. That was the whole goal of this. Now Wick, very upset, never wanted to sell whatsoever but honored his father, decided that okay, this is what we're doing, and he tried every way possible To stay involved with the Celtics. And now we come to today.

So what does this mean? How does this affect the Los Angeles Lakers? If you're new to the podcast, hello, I am a self-proclaimed 40-year veteran of fandom of the Los Angeles Lakers, as somebody who follows the league, where the Buss family is selling to Mark Walter, who is part of the Guggenheim Group, for a $10 billion baseline assessment, potentially climbing to $12 billion, which it probably will be, because we live in the la-la and everything is expensive in the la-la the Lakers story and and genie bus. Staying governor doesn't sound too dissimilar to what wick grossbeck was thinking he was going to be in keeping his keeping the family name above the door while walters capital powers the future. Huh boston story sounds familiar. Wick grossbeck thought that he was going to be this situation and now there's a polite-sounding exile from actual control.

In legacy houses, money rarely arrives without a blueprint. Walter got a blend with Buss Chisholm. He's taking the wheel. It's the difference between copilot in and flying solo. In any NBA the pilot files the fight, the flight plan, not the co-pilot. He does not file the flight plan, no, it's the pilot, the captain, el capitan.

Now in the rule book matters here. Nba bylaws say you can't governor, be governor unless you own at least 15 percent of the team. Wick's post sale stake was under that think it was around 11, if I'm not mistaken which means that the league hands him a polite but firm no. And chisholm's camp says they're already in the captain's chair. We're chilling. You know saying we're checking the weather for the next five seasons. You know we're doing things we. You know we're empowering brad stevens to do what he needs to do. It's really great. It's like HR telling you your title is now strategically strategic advisor, but your email has been deactivated. So again, just a reminder that sports is a business. Sentiment is nice, but bylaws don't care.

And in boston this isn't a tweak, it's a handover with the engine still running. Billionaire buyers don't pay for a title, they pay for control. This isn't a rigor-cutting exhibition, it's agenda setting. Everybody has their credos, everybody has their buzzwords, everybody has their. Okay, this is what the vision of the future looks like for when I take over this situation. You look at ownership landscape.

Legacy franchises like the Celtics and the lakers aren't just sports teams, their media empires, real estate plays, political assets and billion dollar brands that sit on cultural pedestals. And when you buy one, you're not buying court-sized seats, you're buying the steering wheel, the gas pedal and the right to rewrite the GPS. We're taking it in this direction. My guy, I know you had a plan, but your plan doesn't jive with what I want to do in this 7.4 billion dollars that I put up into this thing. Lets me do what I want to do.

Walters, lakers deal shows up and can't keep the legacy voice while inserting capital power if the contract scripts it. Boston script for a majority. Now total consolidation. Later Mark Walters Acquisition of the Lakers At $10 billion baseline and getting into that $12 billion range Is the largest In sports transaction In history.

And here's the nuance. Jeannie was Supposedly for right now. She now stays governor, not because Walter didn't want control, but because she still owns a significant chunk and walter's group sees strategic street, strategically, the value in keeping her as the public facing steward of a lager legacy, continuing the brand. The corporate equivalent of not rebranding coca-cola, even with a new board, takes over. You know saying we gotta keep that brand the same in crime, in contrast to what wick had going on in boston, where he drops under 15 ownership part of the nba bylaws, you lose ability to serve as governor. The reason why we continue to bring that up is because that's the massive difference. Walter could have pushed bus aside, but did chisholm strategically pushed wick aside and the government's framework is clear. And the government's framework is clear in this lane.

I can imagine right now what was going on, what was said in those boardrooms or behind, like maybe his office door. You know, I can just. I mean I'm telling you, when you're talking about people who deal in this type of rarefied air, it is very antisept air, it is very Aniseptic. It's very surgical. They are not worried about Anybody's feelings whatsoever. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, that you're bummed out, that you're no longer the governor Of the Celtics. Sorry to hear that. No, that's not what they're saying. How quickly can you get your items out of this office? I need to redecorate. This does not fit my vibe.

This is where the lakers precedent becomes a mirror and maybe a crystal ball bus's arrangement with walter works today. A crystal ball buses arrangement with Walter works today because the Lakers competitive window is open. Look at Dodgers, lebron James, even at 40 in a market that prints relevance, walter can sit back and enjoy co-governors, governorship optics and trust bus to run the basketball operations, while his capital ensures financial flexibility. Remember this dude owns the Dodgers. But what happens when that window closes? Because here's the thing all he has to do is drop another code. You know I'm saying Like you know it's about. I'll say anywhere between 700 million to 1.3 billion. And guess what? Genie's out, gone we out.

If Walter holds majority control and the roster slips into a rebuild, the argument for brand continuity gets weaker. Legacy stewardship is great in good times, but in down years majority owners when often default to majority voices. The bus walter. Co-governance could look a lot more like boston's current one. In what a season, maybe two seasons like right now she holds that title basically very politely, until this dude consolidates authority.

Sorry, asked me. So you're saying that boston is lakers possible future? You're damn right. You're damn right because, at the end of the day, what it comes down to to everybody out there is think about this way you buy a car, right, you buy a car and maybe you wanted to have have it custom done, right, and they give you a date. They say, hey, okay, sir or ma'am, this car will be done by august 12th, around august 9th, maybe even earlier than that, depending on how how just jacked up you are about this car. You're starting to maybe get a couple things for the car. You kind of like thinking about oh man, I'm gonna pick it up on the 12th. Man, I can't wait to stunt on these people. They never seen this color on this car before. Whatever it is that gets you, just get you going. You're gonna probably be thinking about that two to four days ahead of time, but on the 12th they tell you, oh, we're gonna need a little more time. How disappointed are you going to be. And also you're gonna say, hey, my check cleared right. You told me you promised me a date of august 12th. I hadn't heard from you to say, hey, it's gonna be delayed or something like that, so I want my car. That's how you're going to act.

If Chisholm Celtics era teaches us anything, it's that the majority state eventually translate to majority decisions, no matter how ceremonially you keep the old guard around. But staying power as governor today doesn't mean she'll be making final calls in the years to come. You know that could be at the end of 2025, that could be at the end of the season, of the 2025-2026 season. She might think that she's holding on to this until like 2029, or whatever the case may be. All chisholm has to do is get his executive assistant on the phone and say, hey, uh, we need to go ahead and, you know, consolidate some assets, put it forth towards the lakers and get this chick out of here. I'm not gonna be fictitious when I say I don't think you're serious enough to run the company.

Spoken like Logan on succession. Yes, sir, co may be accurate also maybe, but in this case, for aligned in governance shakeups, it's not about capability. It's about whose vision matches ownership's strategic horizon and keep in mind I keep on going back to this but Mark Walter owns the Dodgers with the Guggenheim Group. You know how that place is run. Dodgers with the guggenheim group, you know how that place is run. We got like literally six, seven, like former gms running around chavez ravine. Now andrew freeman is the head of all of it. You know I'm saying he's like the crime syndicate godfather of the dodgers. The brain power that's underneath andrew freeman is immense and for the longest time we've been told that palinka's job is safe. We've been told that palinka's uh, autonomy is safe.

What happens if Mark Walters wants to kind of model the Lakers like the Dodgers and he wants multiple very smart voices with inside that organization? What happens then? Cause Genie has given Rob Kalinka Like hey, we gave you this contract, we believe in you, we believe in some of the things, and they gave him this contract before the Luka deal, think about that. So as we were going on Last summer Talking about Rob has not done anything In Los Angeles, they gave him a contract four years and said, hey, man, this is still your show, go run it.

Mark Walter would be like I didn't agree to that and I, I own this team, so let's not get it twisted now for Boston, chisholm's vision is clear reset the balance sheet, survive, survive the Tatum injury this year and retool for a 2026-2027 championship sprint. Make no mistake about it the Celtics are positioning themselves for when Tatum comes back. That's not a sentimental wake model of steady culture building. Do whatever it takes to win. It's a private equity playbook Stabilize assets now, reinvest later when your core asset, tatum, is back to full strength. I agree with that. Why would you pay such a massive luxury tax bill when you don't believe that you have any chance of winning? And I'll get to why. I believe they thought they had no chance of winning In one second. But going back to la, where walter's current posture is more patient, because bus is still delivering on competitive relevance. But the governance mechanics are the same the one who controls the majority equity can control the direction at any time. Busses security is as strong as the Lakers' wind curve. So in sports as in corporate America, legacy faces last only as long as they are profitable or competitive or successful, and that's why boston's immediate pivot under chisholm is worth watching for the lakers fans.

Let me tell you if you are a laker fan right now. You don't have to look far. I know you don't like viewing the celtics as some sort of mirror into what you are because you believe you're better. You believe you're better, you believe you're the superior brand. Make no mistake about it. You are two of the pillars Of the NBA. You know what I'm saying. If you want to look at it like Games of Thrones or whatever, you know you got the king of the north and you had Westeros. Right, westeros thought it was alive. Yo, it was like, hey, man, we got it going on down here. We live in the better part of the country. You know I'm saying we got stuff, we got a bunch of weapons, we got a huge army. What's good, laker fans, it might just be a preview of how quickly the balance between heritage and new capital can tilt when valuations are in the billions and the windows are finite.

As soon as Mark Walter suggests something and he gets shot down by genie buss, whoa, he gonna be like uh-uh. You know how many times that dude has probably been told no within the last 10 years not many. And if somebody did tell him no, he had a lobbyist. He had somebody to say, oh, we're gonna need that person to say, yes, you want it further proof of what the celtics have been doing. Listen, I know people will be like oh well, we, we still got jaylen brown, we still got this piece. We still you do. You got a lot of pieces that are awesome and you're gonna be good in 2026 and 2027. I have no doubt in my mind. But this year is a gap year. This year is a holdover year.

As serea said, this is a structural year for boston and not one that just doesn't count. We're talking about a roster that has been trimmed, retooled and yes, politely off-boarded in the name of long-term flexibility. Here are the facts jason tatum torn achilles out for the entire 2025-2026 season. So your 25 to 27 point a night guy is a walking out option, and I'm just letting you know that. So what did Brad Stevens do? He traded, often injured Somebody. That was, I would say he was very Impactful for your Run up and to the finals.

Christoph Porzingis got shipped to Atlanta In a cap Trade trade chess move. That screams asset time more than basketball panic. More proof okay, drew holiday was traded back to portland in a swap for Anthony Simons, a younger, cheaper and, in theory, more aligned with the build around experimentation and usage bumps. More proof they traded George Liang for nothing. Okay, they just acquired him from Atlanta and then promptly sent him to Utah with picks for RJ Lewis jr, freeing up eight million dollars underneath the second apron, and then quickly signed Chris Boucher to get them some front court depth and somebody who can rim protect Because George DeAnne cannot provide rim protection. And add depth and I mean Breathing humans. You know who can play forward or center For more than 12 minutes Without falling out. That's what they got in Chris Boucher.

Soraya pops in with a chat. In HR terms, we're not firing veterans. We're eliminating overlapping functions. In cap terms, we're removing contracts that trigger attacks. Hand grenades yeah, absolutely. And in the athletics, jay king's breakdown is dead on stevens hat.

Stevens hasn't chosen short term incompetence. He solved financial dilemmas first. The talent drain is collateral damage and if you read between the lines, the quiet quit option the sixes approach in 2024, right. The spurs approach in 2024, right, the Spurs approach in 1997. The Warriors approach in 2020. It's right there in the desk drawer if things start to get ugly.

Well, winter has come. With Tatum out, you want to look for a bright side? Okay, jim Brown finally gets to prove it this season as the number one option, his offensive usage is going to spike. So will the scrutiny. The Celtics will have to find out fast if he's perceived around the league as capable of being that guy or comfortable being the guy. Those aren't the same thing, because you want to be the guy, not just a guy. And here's the thing this guy has won the eastern conference finals, mvp for his performance in 2024 in those playoffs. So he's a extremely talented man, still can put up points like nobody's business, but he was doing it under the umbrella. Umbrella under the tree that provided him shade, which was jason tatum. They were incredible one-two punch.

I'm not going to disrespect that team and I'm not going to disrespect Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown can get buckets. Okay. Jalen Brown provides a level of defense when he is right and when he is motivated to do so, which is most of the time. This dude is real Big time Basketball player. But it's different when you are the 1B and now you're elevated to the 1A position for an extended period of time. It's a different situation.

Now another guy who gets a shot. Now his shot might be a little quailed because of Anthony Simons, we'll see how that goes. But Peyton Pritchard? He graduates from Spark Plug, bench Guy, maybe, depending on how they want to use Anthony Simons, but I think he's going to get a ton of minutes Because, remember, drew Holiday is gone. He's going to be the pace governor. Expect him to run the floor faster, take more threes than ever and occasionally go full heat check mode because there's no Tatum.

And what does this say about Anthony Simons? Did you go to the right team? Or what Slots in to the secondary shot creator? His pull up gravity with Hauser spacing Could win them games that they have no business winning, because remember the mandate In Boston we get up 44 plus threes a game and if we don't, it's a failure. I don't care if we win this game, lose this game, whatever it is. We don't put up 44 plus three point attempts. We did not do our job. Now the front court is absolutely decimated.

Now they did bring in Chrisris boucher from toronto, which will help, but we got to see something out of xavier tillman. Luca garza has never played defense, uh, since he when he was in iowa, since he's been in the nba. We will see how that works out. And Nemeus Keita is really your big. He's the only one other than Boucher that can really give you any kind of rim protection whatsoever. But that's your. That's your rotation of bigs. Are you winning any paint war every night? If you're boston, remember the days al horford and luke cornet that was last year, by the way, they're gonna miss those guys.

And you're not replacing tatum's production. I know what I said about anthony simons, but it's not as impactful as what tatum can provide you, because he gets purposeful paint, touches every single game and it kicks it out to your three-point shooters who then look for the best available three-point shot. So you go right into the blender. Now jalen brown can do a lovely facsimile of what Jason Tatum does, but not having that other guy where it's like okay, if Jason Tatum, yeah, if Jason Tatum is going into the lane, where the hell is Jalen Brown? We gotta worry about him. That's why people had to stay in their positions, because of the fact that you were like, okay, we're really worried about what Jalen Brown is going to do. You take away Jason Tatum and now Jalen Brown handles the ball. We all know that he has struggles with that, so people are trying to rip him.

One thing, one thing If he makes the right play, you're not as worried about your rotations as you would be If you have both the guys on the court, tatum and Brown. I mean no disrespect to Anthony Simon. He does not put the fear In defenses, like Tatum and Brown would put the fear. Brown and Anthony Simons does not put the fear into defenses. You can't make a Tomlet without breaking some Gregs. That's such a good line, thank you. And you can't build a contender in 2026, 2027 without breaking up some lineups in 2025 or 2026 because we are, or a podcast that loves fan bases.

I just want to give the boston celtics kind of a tonality of how this all went down. So I want you to think of the largest buildings in boston right now and on the top of that building is a helicopter pad and on that helicopter pad is bill chisholm and his like right hand man, his left hand man, maybe his executive assistant. And they asked him a question bill, what we doing with this, this weak gross carrier character, right, what are we doing with him now? Picture bill in a navy cashmere coat over a beast bespoke suit, standing on a helipad of a downtown Boston, high rise. Around him, again three trusted advisors, the kind who speak fluent, just money. You know exactly how many points you shaved in your last acquisition deal. Now the chopper is island. In five minutes It'll whisk them off to some private dinner in Nantucket the chakra he's looking down at the TD garden a few blocks away, lit up in green. Bill Chisholm says I spent seven point four billion dollars and Wick really thought he was going to leave him in the captain's chair. That's adorable.

One of the advisors said the NBA Board of Governor meets next month. No resistance expected? Of course not. I'm majority owner now by law. I'm the voice, I'm the vote. The second advisor says you know, bus kept her title with Walter. Optics were clean. No culture shock.

Chisholm says Walter bought a brand and let the mascot keep the megaphone. I bought the control. We don't need no damn mascot. Here's the thing. He's not wrong. We talked about the Rylas in Nauseam and we talked about Wig's post-sale slice. Here's the thing. This is what Chisholm might be thinking In two decades. Our compass points that's nice, but our compasses are for the explorers. I am a choreographer, I draw up maps. I set the roots in the five years when Tatum has been back for a while and the payroll is clean. This team will be my magnum opus.

He believes that the public narrative is stability. Keep him as an alternate CEO through 2028. It calms the seasoned ticket holders. Haha, screw that. Let them keep their title. People like titles doesn't mean you have to keep the keys to the building, and that's the whole thing.

He needed to put a basically chalk off the heads. He needed to go red wedding style. Now I'm like mixing, going from succession to game of thrones but he had to kill everybody, like yo, I don't care, I want everybody out, I want our vision to be pushed. Now this is what happens. Money changes a lot of stuff.

Man, let's be honest, with gross bag, wanting to stay as a governor was like a man dangling from the edge of a skyscraper, fingertips clinging to the cold steel. You can only hang on like that for so long. Before gravity or, in this case, the NBA bylaws win. And from the moment Chisholm Group hit that 51% majority stake, the clock was ticking. The governor of the team was always going to be Chisholm. I know, think about what they did in Dallas. Oh yeah, mark Cuban was talking that rhetoric too. All right, don't worry, I'm still in control, don't worry. And then what happened? Luka got traded and then he was like nobody told me, because you didn't have no power, you were done, you were out, bro. And same thing with wick you were gone.

The reason why I say this? Because it is obviously something that is going on in the NBA, but this gives us credence to what could happen in Los Angeles, all of what goes on in Los Angeles with Jeannie bus. She kept the big chair for now. She still meets the threshold for now. Physics bylaw, tomato, tomato. Either way, your grip gives out eventually. Genie buss has run the lakers since her dad died, the great late dr jerry buss, and we've had our issues with genie. We talked about how mom and pop has been, so don't let sentiment stand in the way of progress. When mark walter wants to take the big boy chair, he's going to take the big boy chair. The thing is rooftop ledges, is this? No matter how strong your fingers are, the guy above you with the firm footing decides how long you get to stay there. In a chism case, that day came. In mark walters case, that day is coming. So let's get to what we think this is going to look like in 2025 and 2026.

For the celtics. This year is proving ground and tatum's absence removes any illusion of championship aspirations, which means this becomes a data collection season. Does jalen brown get his alpha cards? Does he keep it? Does Anthony Simons test his fit in a motion-heavy offense? And does Peyton Pritchard either cement himself as a starting caliber guard or prove that he's best as a high-energy six-man? Now for the frontcourt, it's being held together by duct tape and hustle. Chris Boucher is not going to scare a lot of people. Xavier Tillman is also likely not to scare a lot of people and in this center by committee approach will not dominate matchups, but they will force Boston into pace and space style. That could surprise some teams who are expecting to play traditional basketball. When Tatum's around, they like to bring the ball up slower. Now Tatum's not around. Jamie Brown is an athletic freak, even at 28 years old and playing in the league as long as he had. The want to get up and down could be meaningful and the celtics could sneak up on some people because, remember, the bottom of the east is bad. It is terrible if you are looking at.

If I don't have a lot to look forward to in 2027 or 2025 and 2026, what does 2026 and 2027 look like? This is where the real fun starts. Tatum comes back with a year of recovery, fully restricted payroll around him. Chiseled moves year one were cost-cutting, the role of experimentation where it was a robust success, maybe set the table for cap environment where boston can add high value pieces via free agency and or trade it. Brown proves that he can carry an offense.

The celtics suddenly have not just a dual alpha but what they got is anytime there's an injury, anytime somebody's leaving, you know for, let's say, five to seven games, oh you're gonna have jaylen brown out here thinking like more shots for me, dog, more shots for me. And what about Simons? Again, he's coming to a team that wants to put up 44 plus threes a game. If this dude can play any defense whatsoever, which he has not shown in his entire career, we still think that he's going to be a trade piece that's going to even further their getting under the first apron. I think personally We'll see, but I think the real target is 2028. You know what I'm saying.

I think when we start seeing some of these free agents come around, you know who becomes free agents. I think this is when you'll see the celtics lurking in the background, just kind of sitting there going like yo, we about to pounce on somebody real nice and they've had a hard time getting free agents in there so they might have to trade somebody in. But once they get in there and check the vibes out and know it's all about winning and the fans love you while you're going out there trying to win for them, oh yeah, it becomes intoxicating. The best part of the part that makes boston next five years must watch is not the Celtics fans but, for Laker fans, watching Walter slow play the takeover in LA, because if Boston turns this governor's shift into an accelerated rebuild, it's proof that decisive control changes. Even if it stings just a little, it can set up dynasties faster than committee-led transitions.

I am looking forward to this, but I think it does provide some clarity to what is going to go on in los angeles. So we're going to move along to the cam thomas uh story that broke yesterday, where he has decided that it's now. He hasn't done it yet, but he might take the qualifying offer from brooklyn and then becomes a full-fledged free agent next year. And if he takes the qualifying offer, guess what? He has a no trade clause. So brooklyn is going to get nothing for this guy unless they come up with some ducats to make sure he's whole and then he can get either sent out of town or be a part of what is about to happen in brooklyn.

Now I'm not. I'm gonna spare you some of the numbers, I'm gonna put it in our blog. As far as that's concerned, I want to kind of get to some of the nitty-gritty and what some people kind of told us about him and go from there. So let's get to it momentarily. This is what the market is talking about the median suggested contract, fray cash from the athletic. His poll that he put out lands Cam Thomas squarely in the $15 to $20 million AAV zone. The higher figures of $25 to $30 million AAV were outliers. Often one tie, one year, heavily partial guaranteed structure design for flexibility, not long term commitment. So if he was getting like 30 million dollar offers, it was really like for one year and then there was like a team option. So there weren't like these big like multiple year deals out there where he was getting, let's say, three years, 82 million. That wasn't out there.

Executive executive clearly see the same issue we flagged paying beyond that range for one-way scorers, risk surplus and value loss. The archetype of depletion is real. The Clarkson, sexton, hardaway, trent Powell examples in this article proved that scoring first low defensive guard cases are going large term long-term contracts guarantee in this current market no, let's not do that. This supports keeping the ceiling both on AAV and years. He's also coming off a injury shortened season where he played 25 games. While his pick and roll in passing improved, his defense and shot diet still create volatility in his value. Paying well above 20 million dollar AAV locks you into a variance with low floor outcomes. This is all from like the article and from some of the people I've talked to about what cam's about.

Cam thomas value is if you're taking asset, is playing, is, is playing to the goal match only if it's around 20 million dollar aav with two years with a team option with a partial guarantee on year two if an outlier overpay appears pivot to a signing trade to extract picks and youth, this is sound value. Bottom line is this guy is worth anywhere between 15 to 20 million dollars. He is a off the bench spark plug microwave guy who, if he gets hot, fantastic, we in a good situation. If not, yo, we're not paying this dude $25 million where he got to start. No. Now let's talk about some other possible ramifications when it comes to cap and when it comes to decisions next year.

To cap and when it comes to decisions next year, the atlanta hawks are walking into the 2025-2026 nba season like a kitchen 10 minutes before the dinner rush. Orders are piling up, pans are clinging, ticket machines are spitting out non-stop and the head chef is starting at the line wondering which dish makes the menu. You got Trey Young, the franchise signature plate since 2018. And then you got Dyson Daniels, who is the sous chef who keeps the kitchen from burning down. Both are heading into their final year of their deals. I will say it like this if you want to look at this like the bear that show on FX, let's set the table then. This year's payroll is about a hundred and eighty two point three, eight million dollars. That's 17th in the league, and it's just under the luxury tax line, barely keeping the stove from setting off the smoke alarm.

Next season, though, to a very different kitchen, they're just at $140.8 million committed, 23rd in the league, with $60 million dollars of potential space before hitting the luxury tax. If you got bird rights on both trey and dyson, which means you can re-sign both of them and go over the cap. But here is the thing with the new cba aprons aren't just guidelines. It's like the health inspector walking in mid-service once you hit those marks, the lead starts taking tools out of your kitchen. No mid-level exception, no aggregation in trades. What that means is you can't stop, you can't stack contracts on on each other. So that means if, let's say, you wanted to do for 32 million dollars and you had a 19 million dollar dude and a 13 million dollar dude, if you're above the aprons, nah, you can't do that. They won't allow you. So the stakes are set for the hawks. They have a rare window Of flexibility next summer, but to get there, they have to decide on who's worth the investment Before burnout Through it. We will find out.

Let's talk Trey Real quick. They drafted him. Well, they didn't draft him in 2018. They kind of traded for him. So he was Dallas's draft pick and then they traded for him. So he was Dallas' draft pick and then they traded for him. So that was a Luka deal, another crazy Luka deal. Now he's been the headliner Ever since he got there. He's the guy whose name is on the menu, the face on the poster outside the restaurant.

But it's been a turbulent run for our guy. Three front offices cleaned out, started new four coaches and not all of those relationships were smooth. Reports of maturity issues have followed him being late to practices, skipping treatments, disagreement with coaches about style of play. Put it bluntly, trey's game is like a chef who won't let anyone else play. Genius when it works, exhausting when it doesn't, and you can't say anything more true than that. And yet when it does work, it is absolutely spectacular. This dude led the NBA in assists last year.

Trey's pick and roll game with Clint Capella, john Collins and Anika Kongu. It was like watching a master chef deconstruct a classic recipe Tight dribbles, perfect timing, timing, pocket passes, also lobs and just enough spice to have the whole atl bopping. You know I'm saying just bopping and vibing, just doing what we do, but here's the flip side. There are nights, but here's the flip side. There are nights where he dribbles the air out of the ball, possessions die in his hands and teammates are basically waiters holding empty trays.

Now here comes Quinn Snyder's arrival as head coach. It has helped. He's gotten Trey to give up the ball more, to let actions develop away from him, but he's still working progress. When it comes to movement off the basketball, scaring the defense, bending the defense, he'll go stand like outside, like in the, you know, like 33 feet away, and just kind of allow the play to develop or whatever. And if he can kind of sneak in, get open and then spot up for a three, he'll do that. And this is where the long-term questions come in. Is trey willing to share the kitchen when the heat is on? We still don't know. Then there's dyson daniels.

Last season was a breakout year for our guy. The moment the league took notice. He finished second in defensive player of the year voting. He averaged three steals a game and he led the league in deflections per 36 minutes. So Ray's description cracked me up.

Dyson was a like a line cook who catches everything, every mistake, before it leaves the pass. And he's only 22. He's also he's 6'8. He guards one through four without blinking. He brings calm, precise energy and that's what makes the whole lineup work. Offensively, he took a step forward as well. He averaged 14 points a game, 6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and he shot 34% from deep. That's not elite shooting, but it's enough to keep defenses honest.

And the Hawks front office. They're openly high on jalen johnson. He's the. He's basically the seasonal ingredient that might base the whole menu on. If that's true, daniels is the perfect fit as versatile defense piece next to him. For sure. It's not about keeping up, it's about setting the pace, and with Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson you can definitely set the pace.

Now here's the thing. The roster is built to cover Trey's defensive flaws. There's a bunch of length and switchability everywhere on this roster. Daniel is a huge. Dyson Daniels is a huge part of that design. Without him, you're asking someone else to do the dirty work. You can run jalen, jalen, johnson, daniels as your defensive core, but without trey's creation that's like plating a garnish with no protein. Can't that? You can slow teams down, but in the playoffs Someone has to cook the entree. Daniels isn't there yet and also Jalen Johnson isn't there yet, and they don't really have anybody on the roster that really can fulfill that promise Other than Trey.

The money side is straight forward. Trey will want a max deal and that'll be 50 plus million dollars annually under the new cap rules. Daniels, he's in that 25 to 30 range per year. Elite defenders and secondary playmakers get, but if you keep both, you're living in apron territory every year and that means it's hard to roster decisions. You have less flexibility and you have fewer tools to add talent. You don't burn your 2026 dinner service just because you panic during lunch. We can sit here and be stupid and say, trey tre, no, you're not going to do that. You set the whole team up for him Now, as the season goes along, and maybe he gets more frustrated with the contract not getting the contract done or whatever the case may be, maybe you revisit that situation.

But for now, that dude is about his paper, so I don't think he's going go out. Really blow his opportunity. I think you're gonna get the best trade, young, you ever seen, and that just lets daniels do his thing as well now. Could this mean a massive signing trade at the end of the season? Maybe, but again, you would have to. You have to be able to answer the question of who is going to take the shots when it gets tight. Is Jalen Johnson that guy? Will we find out this year? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.

And, like Soraya said, you're either in the weeds or you're plating. Pick one now. I've already heard Trace. Trace, the star. Daniels, just a role player. My receipts. Daniels defense is harder to replace than Trace. Often in today's guard heavy NBA.

Daniel can't run an offense. He is a secondary creator. That's why you get the 4.4 assists. You know what I'm saying. Offense gets the Instagram photo. Defense keeps the doors open. You know that's how it works.

Now what I think should happen is this is that you go through the season. You just go through it. The hawks extend daniel's trade goes through the season. Watch the snyder trade relationship like a hawk, no pun intended. If there's buy-in that is real, then you sign them both and you live with the tax implications and trade becomes. You know this hero now. If he acts crazy, trade becomes blockbuster trade.

Peace in 2026. Snyder is the expediter. If you can keep the kitchen flowing, they'll serve both. Let it rip and just make sure it's tight.

So to my ATL fans out there in 2026, do you see Trey Young still dishing, still hitting 35 foot three point shots, still doing the it's? It's cold in here because I'm so damn cold because I'm ice tray. Or do you see your boy signing trade and you got you somebody else? Maybe you got two or three pieces and you're kind of waiting for something else to arrive? I don't know. Is the thought true about jalen johnson? Is he the one that was promised? There's so many things to answer.

But here's the thing that I love about this team even though you have all of these questions, this team is ready to roll. This team is going to be highly competitive in that east. They are looking at a top four finish, no doubt, and if the wind blows correctly and trey keeps his mind right, this team might go really far in the playoffs and atl excited about postseason basketball. It's kind of atl I need to see. So I hope you guys enjoy an incredible season. I hope trey goes off this year. I hope dyson daniels, through it, steals more than three uh, gives more than three steals a game. I hope for all of that.

But I will say this paying a dominio to guard is bad for business. There's only been one and that is isaiah thomas of the detroit pistons. Tell me the last other dominio to guard. That has really wrecked shop. And if you say Steph Curry, steph Curry, close to 6'4" dog, he a little bit bigger than y'all think. He might be slight, but he bigger than y'all think we're going to quickly pivot to the draft, alright, and what I mean by that Is that we're going to kind of go over a couple guys and we're going to talk about some guys that are kind of lower down in the ranks, but I think With big seasons they can move quickly up the ranks.

Now the 2026. Nba draft Is not just this top heavy thing. Yes, you're going to hear names like Cameron Boozer. You're going to hear names like AJ DeBansta. They'll dominate the headlines. But it's the likes of the Isaiah Evans, the JoJo Tugglers of the world, the Nick Caminas of the world and the Isaiah Hartwells of the world that are going to make this draft one of the better ones that we've seen in a while. All right, this is a stacked draft stacked and I think we're gonna get some real players out of it.

Carlos Boozer, for me, is probably the kid that if you're a dude and you got a daughter, do you want Cameron Boozer to probably marry your daughter? This dude, even though he's he's a Carlos Boozer son. He kind of reminds me of a more scoring Shane Battier. You know saying like his footwork is ridiculous in the post. He has improved his perimeter handle. He's a reliable catch and shoot guy at the three and he has elite rebounding instincts His NBA fit. He's multi-positional forward, he can contribute immediately on both ends and he's expanding his pull upup shooting to unlock that all-star level upside. I like this kid a lot. I think he is going to be really good at duke. I think we will be very mad at duke yet again because they seem to get all these dudes and they're all clean cut and they say yes, sir, no, ma'am, and they say the right things in the interview process and you're going to hear Just polish. Also, his dad is Carlos Boozer, so he's been around this forever. None of the bright lights Are going to scare this kid off and he's going to have his brother Right alongside of him, so it's going to be a good time. None of the bright lights are gonna scare this kid off and he gonna have his brother right alongside of him, so it's gonna be a good time for the boozer family.

In cameron indoor arena now, aj devansta is a millionaire. Okay, my dude got like 10 million dollars to go to brigham young university and I'm gonna tell you right now. You'll sit here and be like why they give him 10 million dollars to go to Brigham Young University and I'm gonna tell you right now. You'll sit here and be like why they give him 10 million dollars. I'll tell you exactly why. Did you see the international under 19 when he was playing against all the countries and giving them work?

There are a few players in this class that match aj, devance the ceiling. It's a mismatch nightmare with size, speed, scoring, touch and he he projects as a kind of primary creator. Nba teams covet his strength. He got mid-range game scoring at will, isolation creation. Folks show switch ability on defense potential. If his mind is correct, his NBA fit apex scoring wing in the mode of the modern offense engines. Now his developmental key consistent engagement, especially on the defensive end, improve three point uh shooting and volume. My, my man need to take more threes. Here's the thing. He will go as far as he wants to go. If he gets caught up in the hype, that defense is not going to improve and he becomes ace bailey of this, this upcoming draft cycle.

Not saying he is um immature, that is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that aj debancer loves him, some him. Okay, he loved aj, loves some aj. And he likes to be in the news and he likes to be featured on SportsCenter and my dude likes the limelight. My thing is stay your ass in that gym, get up shots, improve on your craft on your craft. And that's hard to do or hard to tell a 19 year old that got all these skills and dominated international play like he did. This dude was getting to the line. Now. You know in international basketball they do not call fouls like they do in the nba. This dude was getting to the line like 11 times a game in international play. You know how aggressive you gotta be to get to the foul line 11 times in a international game. Oh, by the way, it's 40 minutes long, not 48. I'm just saying now names that you are going to hear, names that are going to make noise in this draft cycle. You're going to hear names like isaiah evans and jojo tugler.

Evans is the kind of shooter that you can build entire offense offensive actions around. He's 6'6". He's not just knocking down open looks, he's sprinting off screens, squaring up mid-strike and burying threes at a 41% clip on serious volume. Defensive player of the year Candidate, disruptive defender In the entire college game. He's 6'7, with crazy mobility. He switches, he blitzes and he rotates. And guess what he likes doing it? The things that we want AJ the Basta to do. This guy does it. It's all high level too. He averaged nearly two blocks a game In 22 minutes and his timing was elite. The next step for him is finding that offensive niche that keeps him on the floor in crunch time.

Let's give you a little bit more on our guy evans and a little bit more on our guy tugler. We talked about the three. So evan shot 41.4 percent from three on high volume. His quick, his release, is lightning quick. He's a constant floor spacer and brings gravity to wherever he goes. He is not a guy that you can just leave and say, oh okay, if you forget about him, then you blew an assignment and your coach is going to pull you out the game for him to be a plug and play shooting specialist in a spacing hungry offenses in the nba.

Strength and physicality to hold up defensively is what he's gonna have to work on. He's not super, super strong. He's kind of like the opposite of tugler, right, but the willingness, the timing, the want to move his feet he has all that. It's just can you be physical enough on defense to dissuade your offensive competitor? And then JoJo Tuggler is the exact opposite Defensive player of the year in the Big 12.

You know what I'm saying. That's a big time conference we talked about. He's elite in defensive rotation. Oh, rim protection, 1.9 blocks, a game homie. Now can he be that real, real defensive specialist? The only thing that is going to stop him from doing that is that your jumper needs to be more reliable. Get your jumper reliable. Be in the gym, shoot a thousand jump shots, my guy, you know. Go around chairs a couple times, get to your spots, relocate. You know, if you got a dude on you, get off the ball, relocate. Spot up for that three again. That's what you need to work on to get to that next level, to get to that nba level where you can play. You know I'm saying not just sit on the bench looking at your fingernails going, damn dog, I wish I was playing. If you want to play, you want to get minutes early in the league. You got to start knocking down that three with consistency. That's what we're hoping to see this year out of JoJo Tugler.

Now there's another Isaiah out there, hartwell, and Nick Camina is another guy out there too, and we're gonna get to them. Now camina is another dude at duke. They got another 6-8 wing. Guess what high iq dribble, pass and shoot wing. Oh, my god, you you got Cameron Boozer and this dude. He thrives in connective roles that help winning teams function at a high level.

Is he not the perfect dookie? Off ball cutter, floor spacing, advanced passing reads, sound defensive rotations this sounds like every mother's dream right now. He's right now nba fit. He's a glue guy wing who fits seamlessly along stars. It's like I'm gonna be your compliment dog. I'm gonna be out here when you need me to hit a three. I'm gonna hit that three for you and I'm gonna be in the passing lanes and I'm also gonna hit my defensive rotations and I can handle the ball. I also can get, I also pass expertly to the people who are hungry, which are my stars. You know I'm saying like this is what he's about now.

His developmental key is the same thing as our guy um isaiah evans. He is going to need to be able to handle physicality. Now the other thing that will make him go to the next level to get him into like lottery range level to get him into like lottery range can he create his own shot? Can he create his own shot? Second side um, play initiation 100. He can do that, but can you get your own shot. You know what the nba is about when it comes to the playoffs. The dudes who can independently get their shots off, those are the. Those are the guys who are making 40, 50 and now 60 million dollars. Those are the anthony edwards of the world. Okay, so nick camilla is going to need to look at that and get that going and get that crack-a-lacking.

Now the last guy on this list is going to the University of Houston Isaiah Hartwell. Hartwell is a combination of strength, skill, defensive commitment that makes him one of the class's most reliable two-way wings. He's efficient with the three ball, he's efficient with the mid-range and he will dunk on your face. He accepts contact. Now he needs to improve his range. He's tough on ball defender for show and that.

Hey, if you're gonna work with uh, kelvin samp, you got to play defense and he brings his hard hat every single day to practice and in that game he's going to be up in your jersey and you are going to be feeling the blues. If you are an offensive player and you got the task is, isaiah Harwell has drawn your assignment. You're going to be like, damn, did I get enough sleep last night, man, because this is going to be a long night for me Now. He's a secondary scoring option with the defensive versatility. He's not your typical. I'm going to get up 18, 19 shots.

He's your guy who is cool with like 10 shots. You know he doesn't need the ball to be committed on the defensive side. What you want is that he needs to expand that creation package off the dribble. That's if he's going to the next level now. Now he might be cool where he is Because he loves defense that much. He cares about the defensive side of the ball. He's committed to the defense. And if you can find a guy who's committed to the defense and is reliable enough to knock down the three ball at a 40% clip and provide a little you know On ball initiation, just be like if you get, if you get blitzed in the corner, you know where the pass is going to, you're not rattled. You can just get it off quickly to the, to the next guy and then get the defense in a blender situation, meaning they're they're all trying to make their reads and get to the open guys. If he can do that and still play defense at this level, he's gonna be going.

He's got a long career now if he wants to get to like an all-star level, he wants to be in the rotation where he's a starter like, and not just a starter like. I'm a starter this year, next year I'm coming off the bench, then maybe, if there's an injury, I'm a starter again, or whatever. No, if you want to be a full-time dude on the court, we're gonna need you to expand the creation package off the dribble right now. If you can stick, put him in the corner. He'll shoot a three. If he's open now, when he needs to dribble the ball, that's when. That's when some of the mistakes happen. Let's just put it that way. All right, but he's 19 and he plays at the university of houston, so we're gonna see him play a lot of really high leverage basketball games. We're gonna see him play in march madness, because kelvin sampson don't know any different but to play in march madness and we're gonna see a long march madness run. We're not gonna see this dude in a situation where he's just playing like the first weekend. No, they are going to the sweet 16 and they're probably going to the final four. That's what houston does now. That's just a thing that they do. So our guy, isaiah harwell, can't wait to see him on the court, can't wait to see how he is just locking up fools on On the defensive end and giving everybody the blues. But we got to see more On the offensive side of the ball. You can't be satisfied With 7 or 8 points, your 7 or 8 rebounds and your 3 steals. We got to get you into that 14. 15 point range this year, or stay back, play another year of college year college ball ain't nothing wrong with that. You know you're getting that nil money now, so it doesn't really matter. But if he's really trying to make that next step because his in his defense is nba ready now, it's ready, it's ready to go the only thing that's gonna hold him back is his offensive game. That's what we look for improvement with isaiah harwell at the university of houston. Six, five wing, really, really. Um gets after it on the defensive end. All right, we're about to lock this up.

I want to thank producer serea for her excellent, excellent comments in today's podcast. I would also like to thank the audience. I want to thank the international audience. I want to thank Germany, I want to thank China, I want to thank Japan, I want to thank Laos, I want to thank New Zealand. You know I'm saying Espana, what's up? Our people also in jolly old England, good day to you, sir and madam.

I'm saying our, our peoples down south in South America, what up what it do. Brazil, costa Rica, I see you, we love y'all. Thank y'all for tuning in to the podcast. And to our people in the United States of America, la, I know you get down, I know you get down, but you know who we need to get down with us. We need to get the yay area Down with us. So if you get the gay area down with us, so if you got some cousins up in the bay, you know what I'm saying. They chilling in Oakland, you know what I'm saying. They chilling in Fremont, you know what I'm saying. They chilling in Richmond.

Go talk to them and say hey, there's a podcast Frontrunner, podcast Collective. I know Super long name, he's annoying with. Go talk to them and say, hey, there's a podcast front runner, podcast collective. I know super long name, he's annoying with that. But the nba coverage, the basketball hoop coverage, is dope and we need you to get to listen to it, download it, get the vibe and you and spread it amongst your friends in the Ye area. Okay, we need Oakland on board with this podcast. Like I need Oakland. I ain't going to worry about San Diego right now. I need Oakland. That's the city I need. That's the city I need. If you're in Southern California and you are LA and you got a couple cousins up in the area, I need you to break off a phone call or text. Alright, I will appreciate that.

Now, with that being said, the best part of you is you. Make sure that you have people that surround you, that are supportive, that uplift you in your time of need. You know I'm saying make sure that the people who are surrounding you giving you that support is nothing but positive towards you and if you have people like that in your life, make sure that you appreciate them, acknowledge them, let them know that they matter to you because they give you the energy to carry on, to do the things that you're trying to do, to be special, to be great. You know what I'm saying and you are doing that letting your people know how much they mean to you and vice versa. Then we always got a seat at the table for you here, my boy or my girl here at front runner podcast collective. We love y'all. We love the support y'all keep doing what y'all doing and we're gonna keep doing what we're doing and we'll see you on friday late. Deuces Leg Doses.