Bulls Rising: Chicago's Unlikely Future Takes Shape

it's tuesday, you know what time it is. Front runner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and today we have a just a jam-packed podcast where you are going to do a pretty deep dive into the chicago bulls. What is going on with them, their success lately, what's leading to that? We're also going to take a brief look into what is going on at the bottom of the eastern playoff or play-in tournament. We're going to look at miami heat. We're going to look at the pacers, we're going to look at everybody and we're going to kind of give you what you should be looking for. And then we're going to look at the pacers. We're going to look at everybody and we're going to kind of give you what you should be looking for. And then we're going to go around the arc where we're going to kind of bounce around the league, give you some of the stories and some of the things that are kind of intertwined together. We're going to give you some off the bounce and in that we have a couple interesting stats for you that I can't wait to get to. And then we also have some baseline buzz where we're going to talk about um, a team and, uh, what's going on with them and what storyline is about to happen with them that I don't think anybody really realizes. So we'll get to all of that. So that is what is on tap for today, but before I get to any of it, three things. One let's give a shout out to our producer, serea. She is awesome. Uh, you can find her on x, which is at rea underscore fudge frpc. You can also find myself at frontrunner pc on x. Please join the conversation, get involved with us on x. Also get involved with us on youtube. Join in and get into some of the um, the polls and things of that nature. It is a blast. We're gonna start putting more things up there, uh, soon and let's see.

The other thing that I want to get into before we get really into the pod is kind of like my processes last night. I'm sitting there and I'm watching the Laker game and it's awful. You know, it's just god awful basketball. You saw a team that was completely disconnected and then, you know, because I needed a palate cleanser, I ended up watching the Chicago Bulls game in the Denver Nuggets. Obviously, I have a lot of notes from that, that's. The other thing that goes into this process is that I physically write notes. I take notes, um, and then I transcribe them onto the computer and go from there. The thing that um also was funny was over the weekend I ended up watching some a duke game, and it wasn't my first duke game, you know.

I've seen a lot of tape on some of the prospects that we have been talking about maliak the kid, the seven foot two kid out of south sudan, uh con canipple, who I believe is going to be a future nba player, who's going to play in this league a long time cougar flag, obviously. But the one thing I did notice and I brought up to a scout friend of mine. I said is he going to be able to be a, a like a on ball primary initiator? And you know he was saying well, he, the work ethic is certainly there. And then I came to this point where he's giving me all this and I said hold on, hold on. You know, and I know in the NBA, if you are a 7 or a 7.5 in any kind of actual attribute, usually the NBA kind of shaves that off of your. You know, diet of what you do, your skills, your skill set. So skill set diet how we want to put it. And I said now he'll be kind of afforded some situations because of the fact that he'll be the number one overall pick. And he was like, yeah, see, that's the whole thing, and he's such a tireless worker that I don't think his, his dribble package would at this point translate into a situation where he could be a on-ball facilitator.

Right now, do I see him as a second side guy? Yes, do do I wonder if the shot will be ever good enough to be a first you know, first option guy on a team? I don't know, but do I think he will contribute to winning? Yes. Do I think he can be a number two option to a really good number one option? Yes. Do I think that he does so many things on the court that makes it easier on a number one option? Yes.

So all of the things that they say about cooper flag are true, but I do want to throw a couple things. There are some areas of growth that need to be like, at least talked about, and the one thing is right now, I know that he's the primary initiator for the duke blue devils. I understand that, but I'm telling you, in the nba people have talked about his efficiency with his dribble. I am telling you the reason for that efficiency is because it's not as developed as it needs to be to be a complete on ball. You know, I create offense for myself and others, so for me personally, that is the area that I am looking for more development, and I would love to see what that looks like in the summer league after he gets drafted.

And the one thing that I would say about this is that now I am rooting for um, like the teams that have very or they lack high-end talent. So the washington wizards come to mind and um, I'm trying to think of some other teams that come to mind that have, like, berklyn nets. That's a team that comes to mind. I know there's there's ghosts out there screaming you're not talking about my team and we're dead set in this lottery. Utah, I know you're out there and I know that's your dream. I know cooper flag, salt lake city. You're not fooling anybody. I know who you are. I know you are absolutely salivating on the chance of getting Cooper Flagg, but you got a really good coach. You got a couple dudes on your squad.

I would kind of want our guy, cooper Flagg, to go to a team that really was devoid of talent and because I want to see if he can develop the skill. I want to see if he can develop the dribble package that will allow him to be an on-ball offensive creator and be a driving force of winning in a total way, kind of a la lebron james, a la luca donchage, a la steph curry, ala LeBron James, ala Luka Doncic, ala Steph Curry. Um, I'm trying to think of other. Well, steph is not a real on-ball guy. Um, the the other dudes that I'm thinking of, like you know, the Shady Gilgis Alexanders of the world and things of that nature. Those are the guys that I'm talking about that really drive offenses, that really really push what the team's agenda is and I don't know at this point in time, does cooper flag skill set fit that particular thing?

This is just off what I'm watching, so we'll see as the tournament goes, we'll also see how this dude develops. There's still no doubt that he is the number one overall. Pick the work ethic, the shot, the defensive aptitude that he has, the initiation that he has on defense, the feel that he has on offense. Because here's the other thing he's a physical freak. He's not like this dude that just is there on a basketball court and he has a couple skills and whatever. No, this guy can jump off the building. He's really physical, he's really strong, quick, he makes decisive moves. It's gonna be a lot of great things going on with cooper flag, but I did want to bring up that one thing because before we crown him and what have you, I want to make sure that we treat him just like we treat all the other prospects is that there are things that he still needs to completely work on to really be the guy that people are going to want him to be as the number one overall pick.

Because this is the thing that I always want to tell people about drafts, and we talked about it last year. Sometimes you have a draft that doesn't like scream out to you hey, they're like three or four dudes that are kind of difference makers, and when I think of difference makers, I'm talking your one, two or third option on a winning basketball team. Right, we didn't have a lot of those guys last year. Necessarily, what we had is we had a lot of like high-end role players that were going to contribute to winning and all those type of things. This year, we have guys that are capable of cracking that one, two or third option in a on a good team, on on an nba franchise Cougar flag to be just lock, stock and barrel, just hand-picked to be a number one option. I think right now we got to pump the brakes on that expectations through the roof. No doubt there's a lot that he can do. There's a lot more pluses than there are negatives and the work ethic tells you that he will get there at some point. But I will say this be prepared for him being off ball once he comes into the league. Just food for thought.

Now we can get on to the rest of the podcast and we're gonna start off with our front running theory. And we put the bulls, the chicago bulls, into the front running theory for a lot of reasons. One, they absolutely annihilated the lakers on saturday night, scoring 148 points, and I was like you know that caught my caught my eye a little bit. Um, I tried to pass it off with tired legs for the lakers and I think for the most part the lakers probably have had tired legs. But we are not going to disillusion everybody. They absolutely destroyed the lakers with just activity, energy and a lot of stuff that we're going to talk about today, so let's get into it.

The chicago bulls are accidentally kind of intriguing at this point. They're not tanking, they're not contending. They're just a team with josh giddy, passing like a 6-8 yoga instructor. Maris buzell is trying to dunk on everything in the league that has a driver's license, and this isn't about chaos or clarity. It's about teams just flirting with the future, or maybe not flirting with the future. It all depends on how you look at the chicago bulls at this present time. But hopefully by the end of this we'll have a better explanation of what the bulls are and what they're trying to do.

So let's proceed right now. Here's what's going on with the walls. They have been on fire of late. They won five out of six. They are currently locked into the ninth seat. There is no there's no chance for them to get knocked out of this. They would have to fall on super hard times for this to for them to fall out of this situation.

Situation now, as we have always talked about on this podcast, the Reinsdorf's are allergic to tanking. It was absolutely astonishing that they got off Zach Levine. There were reports that they tried to get off Nicola Butovic also during the NBA trade deadline over Over the In what? February? And there was here's the thing the Interest was there, but the price tag Really tempered. What the? The actual teams that were actually bidding for him, and they couldn't come to any kind of resolution, which was very discouraging because I thought when they made the zach levine move, this was the start of a new era where they were going to go ahead and kind of deconstruct the team, keep the young pieces, allow more high-end talent that you can get from the draft. Now they did get their pick back, so they have more control over that, which is great. The problem is is that they're in the ninth seed and probably going to play whoever loses the 7-8 matchup. They're probably going to play that team or, ultimately, who makes it in to the NBA playoffs on the eastern side of the bracket, only to get their head beat in by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I mean, we're going to talk glowingly about a lot of things in chicago upcoming, but I do want to say that let's not as much as we're about to throw flowers onto them for how hard they played and some of the adjustments that have been made. This team should have tanked. This team should have made some sort of effort to rid themselves of Vucevic, to lower their expectations of winning, to go ahead and dip their foot into a very talent-rich draft. But if you would have got up to the higher overall picks, you would have had a better shot of locking in a what I would consider a guy who is a no doubt going to fit into somewhere one, two or three as an option to play for your basketball team once you are good. So, with all that being said, let's talk about what else is going on with them. Are they going to win about 40 games? Just hover around 40 wins, probably. Is it going to result in championship rings? No. Is this going to help the rebuild in any way? No. Is this going to help the rebuild in any way? No, they're just in plain purgatory at this point. So I give you the bleak, let's give you the sun.

Josh giddy is playing his ass off one, okay, um, let's get serea some love here. She got me all of these stats and this is, uh, what we have for our guy in josh giddy. He's averaging 39 point, or 37.9 percent from three. On volume, he has a positive 2.6 box plus minus at this point in time he also has a assist percentage of 32.1 percent. He also has defensive rebounding percentage of 9.4. Now he does have a turnover spike in the clutch, okay, which is 23.7 percent.

Now he's not just tall and he's not just the hair, the flowing mane that people associate josh giddy with. No, no, he's quietly running this offense with the smoothness of silk pajamas. Telling you, he threw some passes last night that were just incredible. But there's a price to all the, the, the flowing mane, the cool accent from australia, flowing mane, the cool accent from australia, and the, I would say, luka donchage bravado of passing that he offers the chicago bulls fans. There's a price. And is that price to the chicago bulls? 30 million dollars? Is he worth it? And, more importantly, does Chicago even know how to build around this type of guy?

Now here's a note from Sarea, and this is where, hey, she stands on it. This is 10 toes down. Look, sarea says let's stop low low balling. If giddy is that dude, lock it down. He's calm, unbothered, productive and kind of dangerously cute. I didn't need that. I didn't need that. Serea with a soft floater, somebody's going to pay him. It better be the chicago bulls. So serea is co-signing a sign josh giddy to the bulls. What say you? Chicago bulls fans? What say you? Hashtag c red family, let us know, hit us up on x, hit us up on blue sky and I'll give you those handles in a little bit.

The other guy that I have been paying a lot of attention to is not just giddy, but booze ellis, and the reason why I've been kind of putting this all together is because, like, they might have a little kind of little mini nucleus that others might want to play around me, especially another year if it develops the continuity then I'm thinking about. So here's the notes that I got from anonymous scalp Gideon's clutch. Take his vision, his reaction. He needs stronger ball security and late game activities. That goes to the 23.7 percent on turnover rate in the fourth quarter in clutch possessions. Buzellis is hitting 31, hitting 31 on the Lakers playing with confidence. Oh, did you see that dunk that he had against the Lakers where he went baseline, put Luca in the blender, lost them in and dunked on him? That was sweet. I love that. I didn't love it for the Lakers but I loved it because I was like that dude, he plays with some sauce.

So is it a rebuild? No, is it a soft reboot. This is what chicago has always been trying to sell us and for the first time I actually see the semblance of what they trying to sell us. So let's get into the maddest muzele's numbers. His true shooting percentage is 0.552, his three point rate is 0.483 and his free throw rate is 85.5. Physicality is trending up at this point in time.

Now the film is showing that he's spacing the floor. Well, he's finding lanes, he's cutting to the basket with, in a sense, more confidence that he's going to get the ball, that he's more part of what the team is trying to do. Josh giddy is finding him, uh, and he makes smart, timely cuts and there seems to be a mind meld that goes on with giddy and buzellas and it might be something for me. I would love to see further uh coalesce. Personally, I would love to see these guys kind of grow together for the next couple years.

Now you are still concerned with both of their shots. They don't shoot a high percentage of three as of yet. Now giddy has shown more promise of late, but we have a couple years of giddy information that says, hey, this hasn't always been the case, but we are going to make a case for giddy a little bit later in this podcast. So don't you, don't you worry. Now here's the one thought. He's not la, he's not Lowry 2.0, he's modest 1.0 he's.

And he's not just got the lead, he got the cosign from marketing himself. You know saying so, marketing played against this guy, said yo, he brings it every night. He has a sense, he has a swag about him, he has a confidence about him that allows him to make plays. In a sense of you're looking at a situation where, okay, is that something that you would want him to do? Maybe not necessarily, but he's doing it, and that's development. Now it's easier to have somebody out there who's aggressive and then you can kind of rein them back in than it is you trying to coax it out of them.

We've been looking for jabari smith to have this same type of energy over the last couple years and it's never come to fruition. Modest buzellas has come into the league with it. He's like yo, when I come out here, it's my time to ball, I'm getting those shots, I'm gonna play defense, I'm gonna be in your face. You're not gonna like it, I'm gonna love it. It's gonna be a great time for me and my teammates, and that is matas buzellas in a nutshell, and he also talks some trash. He is not afraid to talk some trash, which is commendable on his part coming into the league, because I know he's probably talked trash to the wrong person. I need to get a story on that. If somebody has one, hit me up on X, hit me, I'm going to give you the email. Hit me up on our email and we'll. We'll definitely talk about that on air Now.

Got Giddy entering his payday. What's Chicago going to do? Got Bozellas blooming. Now the weird one is Patrick Williams got paid. Ok, he got four years, 90 million dollars. I will ask this question and I will continue to ask this question who was chicago actually bidding with at the time of when he became a free agent? Because this salary doesn't match the productivity that pat willie.

Pat williams has put on the court. He is 6 9 240. He's a athletic freak. He can put it on the deck, but he doesn't go to the rim. The three-point shot has really never developed past what it has been and he seems timid and albeit, he seems a little tobias-esque, if you know what I'm talking about. For the real ones, y'all know what I'm talking about, if you are put in any shade of Tobias Harris, you might be a cardio god. At least that's how the Philadelphia 76ers fans think of Tobias Harris.

Now, kobe White, he's also been balling. He's been balling on a serious, serious level. So you put all those three things together and that's why the chicago bulls are probably going to end up beating um who they play in that. Uh, losers, leave town game to get that ac. Uh, our guy, kobe white, has been leveling up and let's talk about it a little bit.

Chicago is third in pace since the trade of zach levine. This was basically the freeing of Kobe White, the freeing of Josh Giddey and the end of the tyranny of one Zach Levine over the Chicago Bulls, and it seems like a cloud has been lifted. Kobe White 24.6 points per game, 61.3 true shooting percentage oh, here's the best part as little as he is, as slight as he shoot 39.2 percent from three. So tell me what he's not doing. Oh, I got some more. I got more stats for you transition points up from 12.3 to 18.7 per 100 possessions.

So if this is the situation, if you're gonna have giddy orchestrating the offense, you're gonna have kobe white pushing the tempo every time they feel that you are lollygagging back on defense or god forbid. They get a defensive rebound and they're on the break. Kobe white is gone and he's like are you gonna run with me or not? Booze ellis has figured it out he's running with him. You saw, uh, jalen smith run with him last night. There were a couple uh connections there. There seems to be a um, a nice little connection with josh giddy. When josh giddy will bring up hill trail and walk right into a three. We saw a couple of those in denver last night. So these are the type of things that we're seeing out of kobe white at this present time, and I'm gonna tell you right now it's looking real, real nice. And then giddy, with the outlet passes are stupid. He I mean he's finding people on incredible lanes, levels and what have you? He's a equal opportunity dimer. Equal opportunity, dimer. Doesn't matter what shade, color, creed you are. Josh giddy will find you and if you got good hands, guess what? That is a bucket for you and an assist for him. A little bit more on kobe white, and the reason why we're doing this is because I have one last thing at the end of this.

Kobe white is now 24 years of age. He is 6 foot 5. He's 195 pounds, still slight, um. Obviously his strengths are tempo control. He draws free throws at a great level. He shot 10 last night off the catch. Shooting is so much better. Decision making has improved his weaknesses and he seemed to kind of fix this a little bit, but I'll get into it in a second. Finishing at the rim still problem. On ball defense still shaky.

Uh, his role is basically, you know, if you got a a big offensive initiator like Josh Giddey, you can pair him with Kobe White. If you've got some real room protectors behind them, right now they don't, and this is why they're where they are. This is exactly why Chicago is in purgatory of being in the plan or not necessarily making the playoffs or what have you. So what's his role? He is a primary ten quote engine plus second side creator. My comparison for kobe white, if you want, is a diet dearon fox plus jamal crawford handle, because I'm gonna tell you the handle is saucy. It is so saucy.

He put some moves on jamal, on jamal murray last night and I thought jamal murray was gonna have to go to the hospital. I I said to a lot of people I was like oh my god is jamal murray's mama. Don't even talk to him, because it was bad. He did something to westbrook that was criminal. Last night I thought that you could only do that in prison. That shot at the end of the quarter where he sits there and puts it between his legs, then puts it behind his back for a step back three in westbrook's face. I thought that was completely disrespectful to a future hall of famer and I didn't think that the good people of denver colorado, the good, fine citizens of denver colorado, should be witness to that kind of brutality on the court. Personally, just my thoughts.

Kobe white is not just hot, he is helping the bulls rebrand their identity. 31 fast break points versus Denver isn't a fluke. That was a signal flare to the league that if you don't get your ass down the court we are going to embarrass you, because we're young and we don't want to play half court offense anyway because we can't shoot, except for a couple people like Kobe White. Now what does this all mean? Right, vince, get to it. What does this all mean? Two things, first of all, chicago. Welcome to a more fun playing purgatory, I think I mean kobe white brings some excitement.

You got josh giddy, making incredible passes and buzellas, has a chance to be really good and I think that, uh, trying to build that continuity between those three is something that could. You can go from good to hey, we're a little bit better than good, and now we are a playoff team and you can build it. Like indiana, it can be done. Chicago, you can build from mediocrity. Don't let jerry's rise door tell you any different. I know he's trying to sell you a bill of goods that being 500 and making the plan is great and we are just waiting for the Messiah to come. Who is the next? Michael Jordan, so rare. We are at 33, 12. I gotta. Yeah, ow, that hurt so bad. It's going so well. Oh, oh, okay, thank you, you got me.

So again you're sitting there and you're looking at this situation and you're going like what's different? Well, it's gonna look a lot different. Take into what was it? Excuse me, does anybody remember the simpsons, where I think it was, uh, mark mcguire, where he says do you want to? Do you really want to know the deep down, dark truth, or do you just want to see me hit some dingers and maybe for Chicago fans, a more entertaining brand of basketball until they're able to get rid of some of these contracts that are albatrosses. I mean, you look at the situation where I'm sorry nicole abutavich did not offer any rim protection at all last night. You can see some of the deficiencies that the bulls have, but they're playing hard, they're playing with a lot of energy. You can see them trying and they're shit. They're entertaining as hell. So I don't really have a problem with it.

And I think the development of Kobe White Is where I want to end here and this is what I want to talk about. Here's a guy who came into the league from North Carolina A while ago and we thought for the longest period of time this is minch guy. If he turns into a microwave, squirrel off the bench, this might be the best he ends up being. Covey white continued to work. He continued to. He continued to add things to his repertoire on offense. He also either took to coaching or had some unbiased scout tell him hey, you need to, you need to take care of the basketball better, and he has. He's taking care of the basketball a lot better because he was wild with it the first couple years in the league, kind of toned it down a little bit last year, but it was still there, and this year he seems like a more complete, well-adjusted. I understand the speed of the game. I know when I can get my offense in. I know when I can get into the paint and then kick it out to my shooters. He seems like he's in more control of the chessboard than the chessboard was in control of him the first couple years, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

So what does this mean for the plan? Again, I told you earlier chicago bulls fans. Rejoice. You'll have a playing game at home. You know, at the united center. Michael jordan statue will be out there. He'll have his tongue out. He'll have the whole signature. You know dunk situation going on. The crowd will be absolutely raucous because you guys will love the energy and the passion that goes into your balls. Right, I get it. Ryan's door will be happy because the building is full again. Then you will probably beat mi because Miami is dead man walking right now, and then you'll go on to see what happens between the 7-8 team.

So is it good, kind of? Could it be better? Well, time will tell us. Right, we'll see how this story continues to coalesce into next year and what kind of pieces that chicago brings in to help what they have now. But I like what kobe white matters was zealous and josh giddy have formed and I think it's something to build on. So I want to leave chicago bulls fans with something positive. Like you, guys are playing well. I love the energy. And again to all nba teams out there, if you do not get back on defense, the chicago bulls have a mandate to embarrass all teams that are lazy. Getting back on defense okay, that is a billy donovan special. You are welcome. That's our public service announcement of the day. Now we're gonna get into something. That's a little funny but kind of weird too.

I don't know if anybody saw the little situation or the little dust up that happened with uh, coach spoh of the miami heat, his ex-wife and second year forward, jaime Jaquez Jr. Supposedly there was a rumor going around that the ex-wife of the coach of the Miami Heat, in some sort of revenge thing, got together, got some sort of intimate relationship with hami hawkish jr. All these rumors are alleged and they have been vehemently denied by all parties involved. So this might give you a little clarity into what the hell is going on in miami and why they have been struggling so, so hard. Now I don't know why this affects bam out of bio so much, because he was not the one implicated in these situations, but it seems to affect him more than anybody else.

Bam's playing like someone who got assigned a group project and had everyone drop out. He's trying to. He's trying to space, pass, score, anchor a defense, do taxes in the corner, I mean break down film. And now you don't have jimmy anymore. So your talent, your high level talent, is gone. So your margin for error has shrunk to almost absolutely nothing and there's no clear go-to offense. It feels like an awkward birthday party. So no music, no plan, just someone handing out warm capri suns to everyone. Not great in miami, not great at all. So there that one is. Let's move along to our around the arc segment where we kind of bounce around the nba. We're kind of going to stick to the theme of the plan and in the east let's go ahead and talk about Orlando. Uh, they also played the Lakers and everybody seems to be beating the Lakers nowadays.

I'm gonna say this one thing to Lakers fans and listen, I'm excited too. Do I have expectations? Maybe not to the level of all Laker fans. I didn't think this was going to be the year now do I think they could scare the hell out of teams 100%. I just don't think you have the necessary pieces around the guys that are going to run the offense to be able to get what you think can get done now. They do have Luka Doncchus, they do have lebron james. The problem is is that, do they have enough time together to build that continuity? We'll see cruisin the pudding, that sort of thing, but everybody's beating the hell out of the los angeles lakers and Orlando did it last night. Paulo Bancaro and Franz Wagner combined for 62 points and they mopped the floor with the Lakers.

The reason why I'm bringing this up, it's not because of the Lakers, which I know everybody's sitting here saying to themselves of course Vince was going to get in some Laker propaganda. I don't know if that's Laker propaganda. That just seemed like cold hard reality that the Lakers aren't playing well right now and they need to figure themselves out out in a real way, because you can go from three to six in the west very, very easily. All it takes is a six game slide and guess where the lakers are looking down the barrel of ah, play up, listen. Late season basketball playoff seating, playoff maneuvering is so fun because you see these teams trying to and then you, you see these things trying to maneuver to get to these spots like houston is doing everything in their power to get that number two spot and then some teams are like, well, let's rest, let's make sure we're good getting here, let's not have no nagging injuries just holding us back. Which leads us to Orlando and what it looks like Atlanta, and I will tell you that Orlando, who all get shot at?

Well, last night, that has not been the case since the calendar turned 2025. It's actually been the case the whole year. We talked about it in the offseason. Was this the time to strike? And people told us no time to strike? And people told us, no. I had orlando fans saying to me no, we want to see another year of this. We want to see our talent develop. We want to. Okay, now your offense looks absolutely putrid, but y'all can play the hell out of some defense, orlando.

Orlando plays like every possession is a sacred, sacred scripture. They're not out here in shootouts, they're out here. Snow, soul, sash soul, snatching defenses and 94 feet of silence. Please, they check this out, man. Their second and defensive rating, bursting points allowed. They are 96.3 pace. That's 27th in the league. That's the slowest in the East. They're 28th in half court efficiency, their 30th in points per game, their bottom five and three point uh rating. So obviously spacing is a major problem for them. No, jalen suggs, who's out for the year? Uh, so the point of attack defender that jalen Suggs basically the tip of the spear, for lack of a better term is gone, so you don't have that on-ball pressure that you had with Jalen Suggs.

Now Paulo and Franz have been less efficient than normal, but without the full complement of what is going on with this team, you can see why things are the way they are. But they've got two creators in paulo and franz and paulo, franz. Paulo is giving you 25.4 and and Franz is giving you 24.2. And when they are shooting it right, they're efficient, they're methodical and they're brutal inside the arc. But spacing is going to be a nightmare problem For the entire season Because you didn't go out and get Anthony Simons, or to go out and get maybe like a bargain basement version of that guy. So you're asking these guys to operate in phone booths, especially with lineups that feature wendell carter jr and uh, oh yeah, jonathan isaac, because I saw him shoot a three last night and that did not look pretty.

The offense struggles in late in the clock situations, but Orlando's bet is that if we can control the tempo, make it ugly and force teams like Atlanta into decisions, not instincts, they can win. So Jamal Mosley, who is somebody, is one of pretty much I want to say almost damn near kind of like the coach of front runner podcast collective, because I think we showered more praise on jamal mosley than any other coach before. We have given a lot of love to jb bickerstaff and and Kenny Atkinson this year, our poster boy, our Patriot Saint of coaching with Jamal Mosley last year, but he's still doing an incredible job because for as bad as this team has been offensively and it has been absolutely putrid, defense is effort and to have those guys still playing hard, with the season not going as well as it could, because this was a team that we thought could seriously well, definitely, make the playoffs. No doubt we didn't think any other situation that the Orlando Magic weren't going to make the playoffs, but the other thing was this is that we thought that, given Paolo, given Franz, now, I'll get a bunch of injuries this year. So this is not an indictment on Orlando. This is just what could happen next year. And now that you know that the shooting that you have is not capable of really doing anything to impact winning, you have a pretty good mandate to go out and get shooting, either through free agency, through draft trades, whatever. So we'll see how it all works.

Now, how will atlanta, uh, counteract this? Well, here's the problem their other real offense initiator is not going to be playing Jalen Johnson. It's a bummer, because the Atlanta Hawks before the Jalen Johnson injury was an Atlanta Hawks team that I could get behind because there was a diversity in offense. You didn't see Trey Young just standing there and just juggling the ball the whole time and then deciding to shoot or throw out some sort of pick and roll alley-oop to the rim running big. No, we had actual movement of ball, we had people moving around, we had people thinking that they were actually going to touch the basketball other than Trey. It was great. But now we're back to Trey ball and they have no choice. They really don't have another real on ball offensive creator. So they're struggling and they're going to struggle for the rest of the year until Jalen Johnson gives back. So that's how that's going to look. So we'll see which one of these styles kind of imposes its will on one another when we get into that actual play-in game.

But we wanted to highlight it for you. Let's give you some numbers on the Atlanta Hawks right now. They are 102.9, which is second in pace. They score 117.6 points per game, which is fifth in the NBA. Their three-point rate is 0.42, which is second most threes per game in the NBA. Their defensive rating is absolutely horrendous it is 115.3, which is bottom 10 in the nba. And without jalen johnson you lost not just rim protection, you lost a switchable wing that could pretty much guard 2 through 5 without help. And just to tell you how down bad they are without Jalen Johnson, their net rating without him is a negative 4.6. So he was impacting, winning in a strong, strong way.

And then they doubled down and they traded deandre hunter. So their other experience uh, big wing is no longer there. So they're doing this with zachary resa shea, which is good for him, because way to develop, got to develop, this kid. And uh, aneka Okongwu is finally getting time because Clint Capella has been hurt. And then it's been a lot of the Trey Young show.

Now we got a couple interesting stats for you that should help you make a decision on who you think can win this. So we'll say we're gonna call this the tempo tug award. And serea actually got these numbers, so I wanna I wanna shout her out. Thank you, serea. So high court per game 0.96 for the atlanta hawks.

Now, defensively, orlando is at 0.89 on the defensive end. So the edge goes to orlando. They just lock people up in half court offense. All right, transition offense, transition offense this is where Atlanta sinks. They score 1.21 per possessions. Okay. So now how does Orlando counteract that? Their defense is only at 1.08, the edge goes to atlanta there. So if atlanta can turn it intoa track meet, that means taking the ball out of the bucket and really pressing orlando to get back on defense.

Spot up threes who does this? Who does this advantage? Go to check this out. Squad of threes. Atlanta 1.14 points per possessions. Orlando allows 0.88 points per possession. Orlando allows and this is where trey young is going to make his bread and butter. This is his signature deal is pick, pick and roll offense. He's a pick and roll maestro. Orlando allows 0.083, actually 0.83. So Orlando gets the edge there. I think that Orlando could win this uh game and sneak themselves in to a date with destiny with the cleveland cavaliers for the a slot, and I'm really interested to see what the research a franz matchup looks like. It's going to be a grind fest and I would think that orlando could pull this out. If they keep it under 100 and if atlanta can get it into the 110s, it'll be like 114 to like 100 104. So that's my thoughts on that.

Now we got some other stuff to get to around the arc. These are a little more quick hitters golden state reloaded with jimmy butler. He's a bay area menace right now. Let's roll up on the warriors. They traded for jimmy butler. They traded their soul for him. It's the best thing that we've done since tyron steve kerr. They love it. They are 15 to 2 when steph and jimmy share the floor. Ah, when it was wiggins they were only 17 and 20.

Man, just one guy makes up all that difference isn't that great. It's no coincidence that they've had this identity shift too. They went from vibes to violence in the fourth quarter trauma. Jimmy is like a guy in the action movie who pulls up halfway through and just starts breaking people's arms and just having just just violence, just for the sake of violence in the movie. It's like we really didn't need this scene, but you know what? It'll make uh jason, uh statham look cool, or to make jackie look cool, or whoever your action star du jour is. Some of us like Van Damme, some of us like Rambo, some of us, you know whoever. All I know is that Golden State has been playing really well with Jimmy Butler. He has made all the difference in the world. Jimmy butler, he has made all the difference in the world. And, yes, sometimes, joseph lake up.

It is okay to trade pieces that helped you win championships. It doesn't make you a non-loyal owner, it makes you a smart owner. And if you can get off jonathan kaminga in the summertime, you should. And this nonsense about how we drafted them and we want to cultivate them and they need to be warriors for life and they're part of dub nation. Let me tell you something jonathan kaminga to what jimmy butler is is duplicative and it's a lesser version of what jimmy butler is. So if he has value of any kind, trade him during the summer. Get pieces back that will help your team, like some size, some actual centers, and you'll be better off. That's my little tip to Mike Dunleavy jr and his little buddy, the younger Laker, in the front office there.

Alright, so, um, we will say this about wigs a couple nights ago he did go off for 42, so let's give him some love. I, I didn't even know he still had it in him. And now that we're getting into like stats and points, let's get into our new segment called off the bounce. Now we're gonna start off the bounce with none other than the greek freak, yannis antetokounmpo 32.17 boards and 22 of those came in the third quarter alone of his points. You know I'm saying that's a fire code violation. Levels of hot. I know the fire marshal came and fined Fiserv Arena a lot of money for how hot Giannis Antetokounmpo was in that third quarter.

20 points, what? Giannis catches this inside the arc. Okay, now, this is something that I saw in the game yannis catches it inside the arc. So bonus is sagging. Like it's 2018 and yannis still can't hit a shot.

He did a one dribble, spinning back and boom, euro, step into a dunk. It was so violent I swear at the rim. The rim looked at him and said please don't do this to me, don't hurt me, giannis. Now, two plays later, he pushes transition. This is Giannis. He pushes in transition head down, throws a left to right cross at a full speed, finish it off the glass with his body facing the bench and he was uh, he wasn't hoping he was baptizing people, he was helping defenders. See the lord, he was like you need to be blessed in the dunks of yannis antetokounmpo. Yannis still attacks the rim like I swear to god. He attacks the rim like a dude that sees another dude that slept with his girl. So think about that, think about that type of aggression. And then how Giannis looks at the rim, it's similar. See how similar that's.

Yeah, see, soraya got some more stats for us check this out. Giannis is averaging 28, 11 and 6 since march 1st. Bucks are plus 15. In the third quarter versus the kings, he went off that game. In the third quarter versus the Kings, he went off that game, used five possessions of delay into the elbow iso against the Kings and the Kings never adjusted. He just kept running the same play over and over again. It wasn't bully ball, this was structured.

So our guy, doc rivers, is out here tacticianing up the milwaukee bucks for a run in the playoffs. So fear the deer fans. Milwaukee bucks fans, do you like what you're seeing in your team? How far do you think they can go? Do you think that the greatness of yannis and dame can take you to the eastern conference finals, or do you feel like your talent is just not good enough to go up against the cleveland cavaliers or the boston celtics? Let us know.

We want to hear from you now a couple other things that we want to get to, and this is uh, wiggins. We need to talk about our guy and his 42 point explosion that he had the other night. Here are some of my notes that I wrote down watching this. Yes, I was watching this game, so wiggins was the one was. We thought he was gone right, we thought this was it. We talked about it, I think, last in in a pod a couple months ago and basically we were talking about the nba finals.

22 wiggins we had never seen him again, but yet hold on. He dropped 42, 6, 16 of 21 shooting and six of eight from three. This man hit the 305 and turned into Dwayne Wade with a jump shot. I'm not saying South Beach changed him, but he's moving like he got some ocean clarity in his system. This man feel revitalized. He came off a double drag from the right wing. He caught in a clean, no dribble, rose up and buried at three over over um one of the defenders against charlotte I think it was um miles bridges, if I'm not mistaken. Then the next trip, egg screen into a fade another three, same spot. I'm trying to tell you that the heat used he tyler hero as a decoy to bend the defense.

Wiggins worked from the second side action 67 percent of the time against mr masters. So they kept on getting him to a situation where he had one of the guards on him and he just took him to school. 11 of his 16 shots that were made came from the first nine seconds of the shot clock. So he was getting them up, he was feeling confident and he was letting it go. He was in the zone. Wiggins found himself in the second quarter and by that time charlotte realized that he was that guy.

Again, 2022 nba finals. Andrew wiggins had rose from the dead like the undertaker. It was great. Now we gotta move along. We gotta talk about something that is great, especially at this time of year, because our guy in Oklahoma City is cooking and it's none other than Mark Dagnall, the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is doing it again. Not because Oklahoma City is killing it in the record, not because they're number one in the west, which is the better conference between the two conferences. It's none of those things.

You know what it is for me, the thunder have chet hongren and isaiah hartenstein. Yeah, you heard that right. They quietly become the most dominant defensive front court nobody's talking about. They're 92 when they start together. Their net rating is positive 14.2 in 204 minutes. Now I will tell you this. That is a small sample size. We know that we they had significant injuries early in the season. Hartenstein was hurt, didn't play with chet. Then chet got hurt, did something to his hip, whatever case may be. He was out for a long period of time. Now they're back and the wonder twins have activated okay, form of water, whatever the hell you else you want to call it. But that positive 14.2 in 204 minutes, I'll get a small sample size. We're just going to see that number continue to grow and shout out to serea for getting that.

Nuggets for us. It's not just vibes. It's not just vibes, it's we. We back up stats. We get it for you. We all watching these games, so it's great. So listen, it's not 2004, you know. It's not like we're just throwing double bigs out here and it's atlanta hawks. You know kevin willis with tree rollins all over again.

Now for my young people who don't know about kevin willis and tree wallens when they had dominique wilkins oh and, by the way, doc rivers was actually a point guard on that team, so go to your youtubes and figure that out. But they are acting like undertaker and kane in the paint chip floats, hartenstein bangs. They cover each other's flaws like peanut butter and jelly and if this holds, okc has a caught a final ceiling. I'm serious, this team is not just top heavy, they are super deep and they are now. They have now fixed the problem that they had last year. They weren't big enough. Last year. I said it before the playoffs started. It proved out right.

They went in and, to Sam Presti's credit, he said we are going to take last year's playoffs, evaluate, see what our needs are and then fill those needs in the offseason check and check. Alex caruso, come on down. Isaiah hartenstein, come on down. Pair with chet, make a dynamic defensive duo. We got shea gilchrist, alexander, who is an mvp waiting to happen, able to score 40 points in his sleep. And now okc looks like they cannot be beat. They are the odds-on favorite in the west and I'm gonna tell you right now I love the lakers, I think denver is formidable, but looking at okay, see, you can talk about how young they are, and they are young and we will find out in the crucible that is the playoffs because there is no bigger truth teller than the nba playoffs about your game, jalen williams, we will find out if he is a true number two, or we will find out that chet has overtaken him. We will find out if the isaiah joes of the world who shoot so free and easy with their three-point shots in the regular season, how do those shots look in the playoffs? We'll find out, but they've given us no any indications that there's any cracks within this dam whatsoever. This looks like a finely toned machine, and Mark Dagnall has got these guys Not just playing well, executing well, playing on a string together, and now if they're going to have double bigs as well, it's a wrap. If this is what it's going to be, and we can't leave jalen williams open, or we can't leave isaiah joe open, because maybe the moment is just still a little too big for them. This is a wrap. Okay, see, we'll go to the finals.

All right, let's hit the Celtics real quick, because I know a lot of people. They get a little mad about the Celtics. You know they selling teams and all kinds of stuff and whatever. But here's the deal. Fifteen is six when they're all healthy, 15 to 6. When they're all healthy, they have a negative 13 point differential. When KP is not there, porzingis is like a luxury sports car. It's beautiful, but if you don't know how to drive it, he stalls out on offense. I'm trying to tell you they need him. Tatum needs to go ahead and continue to be the dude that he's doing right now. He needs to just continue to do that. Allow Brown to fall into that number two role, and then you have smart players like Drew and Derek White.

I'm still a big fan. Well, I take that back. I'm never a fan of the celtics, never. But I appreciate the talent, I appreciate how they go about their business and I just, even as good as cleveland is, I'm still worried and I don't think you can take that worry away. We can talk about numbers. We can talk about who played who and who was in those actual matchups and things of this nature. But the one thing that I will 100 say until I see donovan mitchell and I see darius garland handled jaylen brown and jason tatum Donovan Mitchell and I see Darius Garland handle Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum I'm going to always have cause for concerns. Do I think that Cleveland is not talented enough to win and go to the finals? No, I do believe they are playing the best basketball. And what have you? I just need to see it in the playoffs.

A couple quick hitters and then we can get a while here. Cj McCollum scored 40. So, as much as we ragged on CJ in the last podcast shooting one for 15, let's celebrate our guy scoring 40 points. Having sevenounds, five or six. Now I'll get in a loss to detroit. Uh, no, zion, obviously. Uh, we traded brandon ingram, so cj was the was the last survivor. You know I'm saying he's the designated survivor. So he scored 40. So he scored 40.

And here's the thing about cj that I love is that, even though I, you know, I capped on him not even till I see, you said you know it's all just, it's all jokes. No, you know, it's all love, but he's not gonna go viral. He's not yelling, he's not carving teams up, he just hoops. He just gets to his spots. He's able to contribute. He now? Is he overpaid for what he does? Yes, but that's not his fault. Cj's third 40 point game since 2022. He shot five and nine from three and he was 13 of 18 in the mid-range area. His usage jumped up to 31.2 percent. That's what happens when you don't have zion williamson. You know saying so. Shots out to our guy cj mccollum, putting up 40. I all get in a losing effort, but he was undermanned and he was like I'm going down with the ship. I'm going to continue to keep on shooting the rock and I'm going to continue to get to the mid range and dance on these fools and get buckets.

Now Jamal Murray has found himself. Ladies and gentlemen, jamal Murray, he looks spry, he looks lighter and he's starting to score. Murray gave you 39.7 assists in a must win over the Houston Rockets and when Jokic sat for four minutes, he didn't blink. You know what I'm saying. He's just like yo, I'm gonna hit these threes. Pick a row bottom. Next trip. Same action defender flights over murray snakes. Two foot plant floater boom. He's like I got this, don't worry, and you can see he can smell blood. Denver was plus 11 in nine yoke. It's minutes. Murray shot six or seven in the fourth quarter. Houston drop coverage got Torch for 1.42 points per possession when Murray initiated the action. I will say that again Houston drop coverage gave a 1.42 points per possession when Murray initiated the action. Now, quick timeout.

If you are enjoying the show, hit the subscribe button. If you are enjoying the show, hit the follow button. Turn on notification. Also, drop us that smooth, that great, that five star rating, because you know where you need to get all the nba stuff from. Is frontrunner podcast collective. We are on spotify, we are on apple, we are on youtube. We are everywhere. We're everywhere, man, we're everywhere, all right.

Last thing cleveland. What the hell is going on with cleveland right now? We lost four in a row. After winning sick on a 16 game heater, you gonna lose four in a row. Got some questions. Now defense is slipping, spacing, getting messy. D andre hunter hasn't stabilized, not a damn thing, but he has looked good. He still he's. Look good. Offensive rating still number one. Look good, offensive rating still number one.

The big, the big, big, big big change is this donovan mitchell is shooting 39 from the field, he's shooting 28 from three and that is what is going on. Oh, by the way, our guy darius garland not as, not as good as well, it's like 40, 44 from the field and 30, 34, 32 from three. Yes, so those numbers from your two guards who primarily drive offense. Now evan mowgli has stepped up in a big way. He's part of that big three, but he still needs you to get him the ball, to be able to get offense and to get be able to get productive offense for you.

So my question is we know that donovan mitchell has like a groin injury or what have you. We know, you know it's the dog days of march and we're getting into april and they had a big lead and they're not gonna give up that lead to the boston celtics. So, yes, I understand you can throttle down a little bit, but four straight consecutive losses and it looked like your guards did not adjust to physicality well, all four of those teams put physicality on Darius Garland, on Donovan Mitchell, and they didn't seem to enjoy it a lot. So I wonder if this is the play towards the cleveland cavaliers to effectively push yourself into a competitive series and, in finality, winning the series. So I personally think that cleveland is. I don't think nothing is really happening.

The one thing that does leave some sort of concern is is Mitchell going to be healthy? Are the guards going to be able to figure out? Can they play over physicality and length? Is this a new trend or is this just? Hey, we took our foot off the gas pedal. When the playoffs start, we'll be sharp, we'll be ready to go. That's the question in cleveland.

So let them know, fam. Let me know what's going on with you. Let me know in the comments hey, our team is good. We just are allowing our guys to kind of get a little rest as we get into the playoffs and we're just looking to get healthy and get everybody together. I just want to know. I want to know where the Cleveland Cavaliers fans feel about their team right now, at this moment, with the four losses. Because I'm going to tell you right now, at this moment, with the four losses, because I'm gonna tell you right now, you can be the number one seed, but you can be a second round exit if you continue to play like this. No doubt.

So, with that being said, I want to thank the producer of this show, saraya. She provided all of the great statistics that we got. She also came in and told us that josh giddy is cute. That's something that I did not need or thought I would ever hear on front runner podcast collective, but there it is now we know, um. The other thing is this is that we are now two times a week, and that is now tuesday and friday.

I want to make sure that you guys know that, and we are so grateful to our audience. Um, please make yourself known. Come and join us on twitter. Come and join us on blue sky. My blue sky handle is at frontrunner pc. Also, serea is at frpc hyphen producer producer producer dot b sky dot social because she's highfalutin. So frpc hyphen producer dot b sky dot social gets you sirea. Also, you can hit frpc social dot b sky dot social. That's the social team. You know we got one of those now, which is pretty cool. Don't start lighting that bad boy up pretty soon.

And make sure that you go to the website, um, to frpcpodcastpageio. Uh, that is where you get everything that you get the pods. So the pods, our archive pods, are there. Our blogs are there. Please go check those out, tell us what you think, communicate with us. We want that from you, we want open dialogue with our audience and we want to know how we can get better and how we can serve you better. So let us know.

And, with that being said, how we want to get out of here is hopefully we can leave you in a better place than when we found you. Hopefully this was a good time for you, as it was for us, that we were able to, you know, chop it up for a good 80 to 90 minutes about this game that we absolutely love and that we lose our minds for, and that is nba basketball. So for my producer serea, I'm vince and we want to leave you with this the best part of you is you make sure that you are surrounded by people who are supportive and people that are bringing positivity to you. Now, when they're doing that for you, please acknowledge those who are exhibiting those type of behavior, appreciate those who are providing that sort of support that you need, and if you're that well-rounded of a person, go out and do some good in this world and we'll see you back on this feed on friday deuces.