Dallas At A Crossroads

What's good everybody? Welcome to Frontrunner Podcast Collective, where we talk like friends, argue like cousins, and somehow still leave smarter. I am your humble host, Vince, and I am your occasional therapist, your favorite bad influence. And here at FRPC, we unpack the wins, the mess, the middle ground with jokes, receipts, and maybe a hot take that ages very poorly. I am solo dolo today. I will be handling everything, but we got a really good pod for you today. We will be discussing the fallout of the Nico Harrison firing in Dallas, Texas, and what this means for the Mavericks as we go forward. We're also going to talk about, and excuse me if you've heard this before, we're going to talk about the historic run that the Oklahoma City Thunder are on. It is incredible. Some of the numbers are even scarier than last year, and we will get into that. Speaking of scary, uh that bad man in Denver is doing his thing once again. We will unpack the 55-point explosion by one Nicola Jokic all-inspiring. Now, because it's a feel-good Friday, and I want you you I want you to go into the weekend with nothing but laughs and a a warm heart or what have you. Some of these are gonna be some of your favorites from before, some are gonna be things that maybe have happened recently, but I will tell you this: it's gonna be awesome. It will be awesome. So I am looking forward to that part right there. And we are going to obviously start with the Dallas Mavericks, where Dallas finally has clarity on two things. Nico is gone, so can't beat up on Nico, can't say the fire Nico chant anymore, and that they need to build around Cooper Flag. And this golden boy that has uh touched our hearts, uh, it is going to be a monumental task, and the thing that is going to really push this is obviously the Luca trade, the Luca trade of Anthony Davis, and how he looks fragile, he looks expensive, and he's too late for the timeline. And people want to sit there and go, well, this is not what they were saying early in the year. Well, remember, you had a crazy man supposedly running your organization in Nico Harrison. I don't personally think that. I'm not saying that I like Nico as far as what his move was with the Luca Doncic's trade at all, because I think it really set the Mavericks back. But now that we're here, we gotta start making some real tough decisions on what's gonna go on with the Dallas Mavericks. And I said before the season started, and I think as the season was starting, when you go back and you listen to like the uh first pod, the prediction pod, I said this year, I don't care what the record is, it's all about the development and everything that has to do with Cooper Flag. So if you get off to a great start, fantastic. It's still about Cooper Flag's development. Nothing changes. Now that we are at a situation where the Mavs are 3-9, they're dead last in offense at 107.8 points per game, which is the worst offensive rating in the league. Where the one thing that actually makes sense is the long-term ability of Cooper Flag. It is your due diligence now to take care of Cooper Flag and his development. You could say, well, Anthony Davis is a good vet to have around. It is, but if Anthony Davis is getting the lion's share of opportunities of you know putting the ball in the basket, I don't think that is what you really want to have going on in your organization. What makes this super hard? Anthony Davis is making fifty-four million dollars this year, he is making fifty seven thousand fifty-seven million dollars next year, and then he has a player option after that, which I am almost positive due to his injury history, and due to you know, he'll be in his mid-30s at that point in time, he will obviously pick that up because I'm sure people are gonna try to want to get him on the cheap if he did opt out. You gotta make sure that in a second second apron box on a roster that still needs picks, wings, guards, actually be organized. Trading Anthony Davis, even at a discount, isn't giving up. It's admitting that Cooper Flag is the son and everything has to orbit around him. I don't know where anybody would have a problem with that. Now let's get into some of the particulars. We talked about his $54 million, his salary. What makes this so hard is that we can eliminate like seven teams right off the bat. Could you do a deal with Cleveland? You could not. Do a deal with the Boston Celtics who are in a kind of a rebuild, whatever the case may be. No, you can't. There are a lot of teams that you cannot do a deal with, like go because of the fact that the aprons work in a certain way, Dallas can't take any more money back in a in a trade. Okay, so the seven other teams that are in this situation, either in the second apron or in the first apron, the whole point of Anthony Davis being traded is getting things back for understand what the mindset is, understand what we're trying to do here. We are trying to retool on the fly, and we're trying to get younger around Cooper Flag. You can't move Kyrie right now because he's rehabbing the ACL and has almost no market right now. Now, obviously, when he comes back, there could be a situation where a team who needs a floor general who could love to have somebody of I re uh Kyrie's uh offensive prowess come into their organization. Really hard for somebody who is 33 years of age coming off of ACL tear and expecting him to be as nimble or as have the agility that he did when he left with the ACL tear. Dallas has his own pick this year, so for the 2026 NBA draft, they are set for their pick. It is when you get to the 2027 through 2031 situation where it becomes very murky because the Charlotte Hornets own the 2027 pick. Guess who owns the 2029 pick? We're gonna get to them in a little while. The Oklahoma City Thunder. Think about that. And we got some real scary news about the Oklahoma City Thunder, not only about what historic kind of run that they're on at this present time, but there's also more bad news coming out down the horizon if you are a fan of a NBA franchise other than Oklahoma City. Now, you live in Oklahoma City or you're a fan of the Thunder. Guess what? It is all roses, baby. It is fantastic for you, and I can't wait to get to that news and we will get there. But right now, let's get back to Dallas. We got a lot of things that we need to talk about. Right now, they're not bad to where they're in the first apron. Currently, we know their record is 3-9, they're 13 in the West. They have a negative net rating of minus 6.4, which is 24th in the league. Not great. Their offense is 30th in the league in points per game. Uh their offensive rating is also 30th, which is what? Dead last. Defense is somehow 4th in defensive rating. Their pace is fourth. They're playing at a fast pace, still, can't score worth a damn. That's because they don't have a point guard to run their offense. They tried to do this Cooper Flag thing to no avail. And now we got a pivot on the fly. Cooper Flag, for whatever you want to talk about, what he is, and none of this situation is his fault. You know, he just got drafted to this team. He's 18 years of age. He's clearly your next go-to archetype. He's not a complimentary piece, and we got to stop treating him like a complimentary piece. We are not in a situation where the Dallas Mavericks are built to win now. Now, contrary to what Nico Harrison told us and what kind of bill of goods he was trying to sell the fan base early on this season and what have you, and during the offseason, that is not the case. It is literally, hey, can we get some young pieces for our vets that are aging? That is what we're hoping to do. Is there a team out there that is looking to maybe kind of rearrange some deck chairs? That's the thing that we're looking for. And along the way, can we accumulate assets, whether young player or draft picks, to help ourselves out because we are in a draft pick deficient situation after this year. So any picks that the Dallas Mavericks can pick up for some of these trades that can go on, it's gonna be good news. The bad part about this whole thing is that the roster right now for the Dallas Mavericks is actually built for Luka Doncic. Remember, they have Derek Lively Jr., I know he's he's hurt a lot, Daniel Gafford, who is also a pick and roll type guy, rim runner, and also defensive specimen. But then you get to the other guys, the PJ Washingtons of the World. He is really good if he can just stand stationary in a corner and shoot threes. Now I'm not saying that PJ Washington doesn't have other things in his bag that he can't do. All I'm saying is that it is more conducive for him to have an orchestrator such as a Luka Doncic to go ahead and distribute the ball to him and put him in a position where he can stand at a three behind the three-point line and go ahead and stroke that shot. What do you do from there? If you're a Mass fan, every possession feels like whose turn is it now instead of what's the plan? Defense belongs on a contender, the offense belongs in a uh league pass at three o'clock in February situation. You can't build around A D. And it's not because I don't like A D, it's because you have a duty to make sure you can put enough stuff around Cooper Flag. So what does this all mean? The great thing for the Dallas Mavericks is that they have a lot of pieces that there are a lot of organizations that would like, uh, such as a Daniel Gafford. He would be uh extremely attractive to other organizations who are making playoff runs for his physicality, for his rebounding, for his rim protection, and also his rim running prowess. This dude got a lot of bounce, this dude got a lot of energy. I don't know if he's necessarily your 30-minute center guy, a 20-minute guy, for sure. I would hope that you would want something like that on the squad. There are a lot of teams that will want that, plus, he's a great rebounder. Now, PJ Washington is from the Dallas area, so there's a good chance that he wants to stay even through this situation, and it wouldn't be bad to have PJ Washington, who is an established vet, who's kind of gone through the rebuilding process when he was in Charlotte, and now he's had a taste of some champ high-level basketball in the playoffs. So I like a guy like PJ staying around, and and here's the thing if he loves Dallas the way people have said around him that he loves Dallas, there are other pieces that we can talk about. How about Najee Marshall? Najee Marshall is a wing defender, a three-point shooter, somebody who surprisingly, when Kyrie got hurt last year, he was able to run the offense really good. I mean, it wasn't you know, it wasn't expert level, but it was like, okay, hold on. We're still decent with Najee running the offense, initiating the offense. With Kyrie, I think personally, what you're gonna have to do is it all depends on when you get Kyrie back. There's two uh schools of thought. One, there was this thing about Kyrie coming back in November. Obviously, that was a trash statement. We are in the middle of November, and we have not seen nor heard of Kyrie coming back. I think this was more Nico Harrison praying to the basketball gods, please let this man heal quicker so I don't lose my job. To no avail, Nico, to no avail, you lost your gig. Where do we go from here? Now you could do this since it's already bad. You could keep Kyrie out. Now, there's a drawback to that. If you keep Kyrie out, until let's say around the trade deadline, he gets him, you know, more strength than that leg, but he's been off of basketball for almost a year at that point, so the rush level and the ability to run the offense and not have uh familiarity with his teammates and where they like the ball, i.e. Cooper Flag, that's the most important part of this process, that would be detrimental to that part. But you're already losing, so do you want to help the losing process continue and make sure that you get yourself a high lottery pick going into next year? Because that's the goal right now. I don't think the goal is like we're gonna make this ferocious run towards the play-in. The goal now is can we go ahead and get Cooper Flag the reps that he needs, the opportunity that he needs, and see where his most comfortable spots are and go from there. That's where we are at this point. I don't think we need to worry about anything else but that. What else do we have to worry about? We talked about the offense, we talked about the defense and how it is. The big question is this who are gonna make these decisions? We talked about some of the pieces that you could move on from. We didn't even talk about moving Derek Lively, he's still too young and also injury prone. Let's get him a couple years of maybe not being injury prone to move on from him, but who's gonna make this decision? You got Messiah J gives you a proven star, discipline and with patience. He's not scared to say no to when now moves. That's very important. Also, he is available. Toronto let him go. I'll tell you a guy that I would be very interested in, and and I don't know why other people haven't thought about this. I'm looking at you, Phoenix. I'm looking dead at you. How come nobody's made a run at Jesse Gould? He is the long time guy at the Oklahoma City Thunder, he is their strategy and uh and analyst guy, he is a perfect long-term who can help build a really good team around Cooper Flag. Here's the thing Sam Chresty, he has a brain trust there. Somebody needs to start tapping into this bank brain trust and taking and plucking some of these people away from him because they are a wagon right now. And again, I have some scary news to give to you if you are an NBA fan, the Oklahoma City Thunder fans are gonna be like, oh my god, we are st we are so great and we are still so locked in forever. But Jesse Gould is one of those guys I would go ahead and tap as maybe the next uh player personnel guy for the Dallas Mavericks. Another guy that I would look into, another Oklahoma City guy, Will Dawkins. Will Dawkins is the scouting development mind of the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is a guy that would be ideal for asset accumulation, a young core builder, this is the type of guy that I would also go look at. If you do not want to pilfer from the Oklahoma City Thunder, which I would not understand why you would not want to do that, there's another guy who has done a really good job. I don't know about what the the culture is down there, but as far as picking guys and them hitting an eye for talent when it's like maybe second draft type of situation, and he might be tired about where he is right now. Do you make a phone call to Memphis and say, hey, is there any way we can get Zach Kleiman to give us the interview? The reason why I bring up Zach Kleiman's name is just you know what's going on in Memphis, you know about the John Morant situation, you know about just the tenuousness of what goes on right now in Memphis in FedEx Forum, and I wonder if Zach Kleiman would just like just a kind of a do-over, clean slate, come to Dallas, he got Cooper Flag, and then he can build around this guy, and you still got some young pieces, and you got some vets that you would be able to say, okay, we're gonna keep him, and we're gonna go ahead and move this guy along. He can also have conversations with clutch, he's been in the seat before, so they're not gonna just railroad him and say, hey, this is kind of what we want to do and we want to run your organization. Zach Kleiman is not that guy. So those are some of the people that I kind of like through out there now. If you are a Dallas Mavericks fan, if there is somebody else that I mean, I didn't even talk about Tim Conley because Tim Conley is not moving from Minnesota. Okay, Brad Stevens, you're not getting Brad Stevens from Boston. Okay, I think uh our guy, Bob Myers, just signed a deal with the Josh Harris, the owner of the Red of the Commanders, and the Philadelphia 76ers to be his like overall, kind of like in the stand casting mode back in the day for Atlanta for the Braves and the Atlanta Hawks. I want to give you guys that one, again, I think it would be a phenomenal idea to tap in to Oklahoma City Thunders, Brain Trust, and their people, because nobody's been taken from them whatsoever. The second thing is make a call to Memphis, make a call to see what Jazak Kleiman's appetite is to move from Memphis to Dallas. If you are a glass half full type of person, I can see you saying, Well, once we get Kyrie and we can get everybody healthy, A D included, we still have like the bones of a very good team. I understand that. It sounds ridiculous, but I do understand that. But my whole point, and I will continue to hammer this, it's not about how many games you can win this year, it is literally how many opportunities, whether it's good, bad, how ugly it might look, or whatever. We are trying to get as many reps for the 18-year-old Cooper Flag as we possibly can. Because we want to tap into that talent, we want to make sure that he is inundated with information, so then when he goes into his next season, he's working on specific things to make himself better, and the one thing with Cooper Flag that we all know is that that kid is an absolute dog worker. Okay, he is gonna work as hard as he possibly can to clean up any deficiencies that he has in his game. So, I personally want to go that route. If I was a Mavericks fan, if I was in that organization, that's the thing that I would be pulling for. You can also tell me we're not gonna get full value, we're gonna get 50, maybe 60 cents on the dollar for Anthony Davis. You are 100% right. There are some nasty rumors out there. There are some rumors that almost make you want to throw up, but you also have to understand that where you are and where he is and what you're actually trying to do. You are trying to trade somebody who is often injured, you are trying to trade somebody who is on the other side of 30, which is a death nail in the NBA. What you get back from him is you're hoping for a young asset back or a decent draft pick back. You would love to get both. By the way, you might have to take on some salary of an unsavory dude in his place. Hopefully, it's it's an expiring contract, so you don't have to hold on to this piece for too long. There are some things that I've heard out there. There's some rumblings of the Chicago Bulls. Do not under no circumstances take the Patrick Williams contract back. But if you could get Kobe White and a first and maybe some other contracts that aren't great, like Kevin Herter, something like that, Nikola Vucevic, which you could probably move on for something else, maybe a couple seconds for Vooch. There you go. You're cooking. But don't sit here and turn up your nose. Do not allow yourself to be caught in a situation where you're looking for great and you pass up on good. Because right now, you gotta understand who you are and where you are in your process. And again, you have your own pick this year, and you don't have any control of your picks from 27 to 31. This is the last thing we're gonna say on Dallas. This is a fork in the road moment. If you keep trying to squeeze one more run out of Anthony Davis in a uh roster that's built for Luca, that's been traded already, you're gonna fail. Or you can admit that Cooper Flag is obviously your franchise, and you gotta give him as many reps as you possibly can. The numbers don't lie. You're 30th, you're 30th in offense, you have a negative net rating, and you're a tax team with no real ceiling whatsoever. AD is still good enough to help a real contender, and that contender just is in Dallas right now. Treating him isn't disrespect, it's the clearest way to respect Flag's future. If you don't rebuild around an 18-year-old who's about to turn 19, and a $54 million injury risk, you pick the timeline that you need to live with. So the choice is yours. You know, it's like that old song. You can get with this or you can get with that. I think you get with this, because this is where it's at. We need to move on to something that is absolutely uh mind-boggling, and that is the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you say, Well, Vince, we know Oklahoma City is good, they the defended champions, bro. You're right. There's good defending champions, and then there's why does this feel like a glitch in the Matrix? And that's where we are with the Oklahoma City Thunder right now. They didn't stumble into a hangover, they sprinted out of their parade. They are 12 and 1 start and a margin of victory of 15 points per game. And if you want to get real analytical about it, they're at 15.54 points net rating right now. Last year they were 12.87, which was also historic. Last season they tied for the fourth most wins ever with 68, and they posted a best the best margin of victory in league history. That's that 12.87 we just talked about. Somehow, the title defense looks even meaner. This isn't a cute young core anymore. This is grown-up dominance with recedes everywhere. By the way, Shea Gills's Alexander said he was not real thrilled with the way the Thunder played last year in the playoffs. He thought that they played with their food a little bit, and that he needed to make sure that this year that mentality was stomped out. That's from your reigning defending regular season in NBA Finals MVP. They're doing this while missing Jalen Williams entirely, plus stretches without Lou Dort. Uh, they've had a couple games missed by Chet Homgren, Alex Caruso, three recent all defensive nods among them. Their defense is leveled up, it is the best in the league. To the point of six points per 100 possessions, better than second. Okay, so think about this. The Oklahoma City Thunder right now, their defensive rating is basically 103.0. The Denver Nuggets, who are in second place in this, they're at 109.4. We've seen dominant title defenses before. The 72-win bulls come into come into that thought process, the 69-win bulls come into that process, the streaking heat, the 73-win Warriors Club, but OKC's wire-to-wire profile is already bargaining into the conversation for sure. We saw it coming last year, right? We even talked about it two years ago on this podcast, but let's just talk about last year. Every time we talked about the Oklahoma City Thunder on this podcast last year, the one thing that we always brought up was the net rating, how crazy it was. They are three points better than they were last year. Well, almost. Two and some change. Right now it's fifteen point five four. Last year was twelve point eight seven. But you get the point. Last year's defensive rating, best in the NBA, and 2.5 clear of second place. This year, 103 coins defensive rating. Now 6.4 better than second place. These are early returns. We understand that they're not gonna be able to hold sustain some of these numbers. But that net rating, they might be able to hold up because we all saw it last year. They're first in effective field goal percentage allowed. They're first in points off turnovers, their top five in defensive rebounding again. If you're a Thunder fan, this feels less like a cute run and more like, oh, this might be an error. So think about this. This is a team that we beg for the NBA to put on national TV last year. Right? I remember I think it was one of the three wishes on we have a Christmas show that comes up and we're gonna be talking about it. Sooner rather than later here, but we have a Christmas show that we do, like on the twenty fourth of December, and we call it the three wishes. And usually what it is, is wishes to NBA fans to make the experience better and whatever the case may be. And I think one of the things that we put on there, if it wasn't just an honorable mention, was OKC getting more uh TV time, which obviously they are this year, because they are the defending reigning NBA champions. But yeah, this is not a cute run anymore. This is dominance, like this is dominance like steadily going up that hill. Just steadily going up, like we're coming, we're coming, we're coming, and then all of a sudden you sit there and you see it, it's just like, damn, this is what's going on. This is the craziness that's happening. The one thing that throws some cold water on this situation is that they got a lot of talent, and we haven't even started talking about some of the players yet and who's doing what and whatever case may be. The second apron, as a boogeyman, is circling this nearly flawless roster. But don't worry, I got some cool news for our OKC brethren out there. OKC is demolishing parody right before the punitive cap starts squeezing deep, squeezing a deep, talented young core. This level of dominance will multiply young contributors' screams, enjoy the surplus value window while it lasts. But are we in a situation where we need to hit the panic button? Because I would submit to you one AJ Mitchell. Could Lou Dort and Case and Wallace become too expensive as we move along? We have identified the core. Right? We've identified the guys that we're definitely keeping. Chet Hongren, it's hard to mimic or come within a close facsimile of what Chet Hongren is, who's a 7 foot-1, 7 foot 2 stretch big, who got handles and quicks, and can switch on to smaller players, and then when he's on the offensive side, he can punish. If for some reason there's a switch in a pick and roll, he can punish the little guy on the block or step out to the three-point line and hit threes on your big. So we know that he's gonna be there. Now, Jalen Williams is another guy that the we pretty much have handpicked as a guy that we're gonna keep. Now, here's the thing if injury continues to become an issue, do you move along from that really big contract that you just re-signed him for? So the Thunder isn't some sort of like second agrant theory for okay see it's the final boss of this timeline, and the reason why they're not really worried is because I told you I said that I had something that was truly remarkable. The Clippers who are currently three and eight, the Oklahoma City Thunder on their drive pick. Right now, I believe the Clippers would be seventh in the lottery. Could you imagine if OKC somehow, some way ended up in that like top three, where you're looking at either AJ DeBansta, Cam Boozer, or uh Darren Peterson. Not to say that they need this, but you could continue to reinvent your timeline. Cause anytime that you can get a high-level asset like such as these guys, and there might be a couple more from this draft class, you know, I've been starting to dig in on some of these guys, and the one thing that we do know, and something that we talked about with Dallas, is that Sam Chrestie is go is probably going to pick the right guy. Now, I'm not saying that not necessarily that all of his draft picks have hit. That's not true, but he's had such a good hit rate that it's hard to sit there, and every time, you know, OKC is on the clock, it's obviously Sam Prestey knows what he's doing. You know, we're definitely going to give Sam Preste the benefit of the doubt when it comes to drafting. Because again, I mean Chet Hongren was probably easiest one, right? But then Jalen Williams was 12th overall. Now, once we get past seven, we're kind of we're we're wishing on a hope and a prayer. You know, we also got contributors like Casey Wallace. We also have contributors like we just talked about, AJ Mitchell, who's averaging almost 17 points a game, and we didn't even know we didn't even know who this kid was. Now, also keep in mind, Nicola Topic hasn't played a game for them yet. Also, the center out of Georgetown, Thomas Sorber, is gonna be sitting out all year this year. And then you could have have actual reinforcements on the front line or wherever you feel that there's a deficit. We also know that Sam Chresty is gonna go for the the most upside, but he's looking for character dudes, he's looking for dudes that want to get it out the mud, he's looking for dudes that are really good people. And the only way to have a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder is that you have a or a group of guys that have a lot of want-to, but also care about the next man that's sitting next to them. And you see that with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now they're their calling card last year was defense, and now some somehow it's even nastier by the numbers this year. The version is doing this without Jalen Williams, is probably the most important piece right there. And also, I saw the Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely destroy my beloved Lakers without Jalen Williams and also Lou Dort. Lou Dort, who is their like main defensive stopper on your star type of dude person. They say, oh, it's okay. We don't need just it's okay if we don't have Lou Dort. We got Alex Caruso, and we got others, we got Caseon Wallace, who is a great point of attack defender. Chet Homegren, true shooting percentage right now is 718. He has a strong block rate and efficiency, amplifying that back line along with Isaiah Hartenstein. So if you're a Thunder fan and you're realizing they haven't even played their best two-way lineups consistently yet, that is a sobering thought. That's a sobering thought for the rest of us. Not for Oklahoma City. They're just gonna love it. They're gonna sip champagne, they're gonna have whatever it is that they like to drink out there. I don't know what's the preference of beer out in Oklahoma City. I don't know. Somebody hit me up on Twitter at frontrunner PC. Let me know what y'all drink. We'll go ahead, we'll toast one up to you. I don't drink anymore, but we'll toast one up to you anyway. Say here's to you. For the rest of the NBA loving part of this situation, think about how hopeless we felt when the year would start and Golden State would roll out there Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Young, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green, who hadn't lost his mind yet. Think about that. Think about how crazy that was. And now they got Shea, Gilges Alexander, Jalen Williams, like we said, has to play the game, but AJ Mitchell is doing his best, Shea Gilge's Alexander impersonation. We got Casey Wallace, who was sitting there just being an on-ball demon on the defensive end. Oh, and by the way, when you think you can take a deep breath, they bring in Alex Caruso. Who has the best individual net rating in all of the NBA? Yes, Alex Caruso, the dude who only scores like six, eight points a game, has the best individual net rating in basketball right now. They're just getting better. They haven't even got everybody. The Thunder took the summer to actually enjoy their championship. Um this was this was pressed upon by Sam Cresty, coming from that leadership group, then came back playing angrier, not softer. They did not rest on their loyals. This comes down to Shea Gilge's Alexander's observation of what they did in the playoffs last year, and he said, Man, there's room for improvement. We didn't play our best basketball. Think about that. The the best player on the team who won an MVP last year, right? The guy who also won the NBA Finals MVP is telling you that his team did not play their best basketball, and there's some a lot of things that they can clean up. SGA's insane box plus minus and usage alongside his efficiency screens quiet, ruthless superstar control of the offense is looking Jordan-esque. It might not be the same play style as Jordan, but the actual efficiency and just the way that he's getting after it. Shea Gilders Alexander is like is really doing some Jordan type of things, and if you go and put the defense along with it, because keep in mind, of the dudes that are out there, Shea Gilders Alexander might be the fifth best defender on the court at any particular time period where he's there. And he also averages like two steals a game. Shea Gilders Alexander is a pretty good damn defender. You know, he's not a slouch. I am a Lakers fan. Self-professed, all those type of things, whatever. I'm an analyst first, I believe. I keep my analyst hat on most of the time. But as a I'm a Lakers fan. I grew up a Lakers fan. I will always be a Lakers fan. I look at Luka Doncic and go, this is one of the best offensive players I've ever seen. But then when I look at him on the defensive side, I'm like, man, if you can just be competitive. We don't even need you to be good. Just just kind of be in the right situation most of the time. We're not even asking you to get like into some sort of like crazy defensive stand and slap the floor like you a dookie or anything like that. I'm just asking you to not be embarrassed. The Oklahoma City Thunder, the game against the Lakers a couple nights ago, their second unit that featured like Alex Caruso, that might have been a better defensive team than the the team that started. Because I believe, yeah, Casey Wallace came off the bench that night. So keep that in mind. We already talked about last year they're the best margin of victory ever in 68 wins, which was fourth in league history as far as the 68 wins are concerned. Now they're 12 and 1 with a 15.454 margin of victory. Those profile as the best net profile ever, and also they're on a pace right now, like they can win 70 games this year. Easy. And that's what it's like a little lull, you know, in the matrix. They could challenge for that 73. Historically, the Bulls 96-97 and the uh 73 Warriors team are the main modern comps for sustained dominance. If you're a Thunder fan, you're now scanning the stack pages like 90s kids with an almanac. You're casually quoting net ratings at brunch. The spreadsheet is screaming, this isn't normal, even by champion standards. The analytics put OKC in the same neighborhood as the scariest repeat champions we've ever seen. You follow the strength of schedule, the net rating, the double digit wins count versus those historic Bulls or Warriors teams. And eerily similar just numbers. If you look at those teams and you look at the OKC Thunder teams, and keep in mind, this is the Bulls with Jordan Pippen and Rodman. Okay? This is this is that team. This is MJ coming back from baseball after his hiatus. We won't get into that. We don't need to talk about that. We ain't gonna talk about MJ in no bad manners right now. But this is him coming back off of that and saying, hey, we're back. Let's go ahead and get another three-peat. We're gonna videotape the whole thing, and then you know, 20 some odd years later, we're gonna do the last dance. Okay? Who gets credit for all this? Well, there's a lot of credit to go around. Well, we're gonna start at the top with Sam Presty. You know how I feel about Sam Prestey. I've talked about Sam Preste and what he's been able to do with the Oklahoma City Thunder time and time again. But he is a stacked versatile versatile line of defenders and playmakers who can survive playoff hunting and not just regular season noise. The depth shows the advanced metrics, multiple rotation guys posit with posting positive win shares, um, also box plus minuses, strong true shooting percentage, uh true shooting percentages. Their abilities to survive injury, like Jalen Williams, Lou Dort, uh Homegrant Caruso without slipping speaks volumes to a roster that is designed to continue to roll. Again, if you're a Thunder fan, you just go out here and go like man, we trust in Sam Presley, we trust. And here's the best part he has structured these contracts, he structured these situations like he put Lou Dort was a dude who couldn't shoot the three ball, he was a good little defender at Arizona State. He was undrafted, comes to OKC, fits into the system, they say, Hey, we're gonna teach you how to shoot the three-ball, and you're gonna be awesome on the defensive end. Lou Dory was like, I'm bought in. Whatever, whatever. Now he's making some, you know, a good chunk of change, whatever case may be, and we keep it moving. See, it's those wins right there, too. It's not like, oh, we're gonna hit on all these lottery picks or anything like that. No, no, no, no, no. Nah. It's all the little moves that he's made, too. It's the taking chances when you are playing with house money, you know, the Uzma Jangs of the world, who we actually think if he got a regular role, he'd be really good. It's just he can't get all the burn that you think he would need because this tool this team is too talented. Now, the only thing to this is that the team that did give them the biggest, biggest struggle last year, the team that literally looked them in the face and said, We're not scared of you. The Nuggets are 9-2. And we're gonna talk about their dude in a second once we get off the Oklahoma City Thunder. But their uh their margin of victory is 13.36, so they're two points below Oklahoma City Thunder right now. Think about that. And they're off to a great start. So right now, the Thunder are the defending are defending the belt like they're offended that anyone else thought they had a chance at it. They following a 68-win, best ever margin of victory season by upping their own standard starting 12-1. And by the way, their one loss, they shouldn't have lost that game. They played with their food with Portland. Portland's a lot better team than they used to be. You can't go into the motor center thinking like, yo, this a this is an easy dub anymore. Those kids are playing hard. They're blown out teams by a uh margin of 15 a night. Think about that. Their double digit net rating is so ridiculous. That means they're literally like they're not playing competitive four quarters almost never. They're building their defensive profile that sits six points per 100 possessions clear of the next best team. They've done that again without Jalen Williams. So OKC isn't just winning, they're outpacing last year's historical dominant championship profile. Shea's advanced numbers screen eight pack superstar, not just nice story from a small market. Dominant title defenses are rare. Doing it in the parody era era that Adam Silver wanted that he craved forever is even crazier. Average points you beat teams by the Thunder are over 15 right now. Think about again. I want you to continue to think about that. It's hard to win in the NBA. By the way, we we talk about the Western Conference like it's some sort of boogeyman. The OKC Thunder are reacting like now this is for my older people. Now, my young people that I don't know what the equivalent would be. But we used to have uh we used to have a puzzle. It's called Ruby's Q, right? And in the Ruby's Cube, you know, you had to get all the colors, all the colors, solid colors on one on all the angles of the queue, right? Now, for us normal people, yeah, we could get it. You know, somebody mix it up, we can get it. You know, take us a while, but we can get it. But OKC is acting like those geniuses that would do it like in like 12 moves. They just look at the cube, alright, cool, too do do, do, do, do, do, then hand it back to you. Done. You got anything more challenging? That's what Oklahoma City Thunder is doing right now, to supposedly the most competitive western conference that we've ever seen. And again, I don't I don't think that this defensive rating will stand as it is right now. But being six points ahead of everybody else, and you're you're keeping people at 103 points is absurd. It's absolutely absurd. So there's not much more to say about that. Except that be scared of the rest of the NBA. Be very scared of what you're seeing. Because they can turn it on like a switch. And it's not they don't ever turn it off, usually. They just hype up the intensity of the defense. And they can come at you with waves, waves of players, waves of players that know their role, that understand it, that are rooting for you know, the superstars are rooting for the other guys, the other guys who are like regular rotation guys are are rooting for the guys who are getting chances to play. It is really the best AAU team that I've ever seen in my whole entire life, basically. Okay, there's two things that we want to talk about before we get to this Jokic thing, and I don't want to like go crazy about this, but uh did anybody see the Cam Whitmore dunk over Jalen Duran earlier this week? That was foul. Now Detroit is awesome. They are they are leading the East, they are holding it down like like Joe Frazier back in the like 70s. They just like, we will knock any fool out that come and try to test us. Cam Whipmore came to test. Okay, he came down that lane and said, I am here to exterminate life. And it just so happened that Jalen Doran was standing in the way and he got yanked on on a serious level. But not to be outdone. Kate Cunningsham's dunk on our guy Andre Drummond in Philadelphia was also ridiculous. This dude came screaming down the lane. Now, this is Kay Cunningham, okay? We don't look at Kay Cunningham and think, oh, he got incredible bounce, he got this, he got, you know, he got all this, you know, this levitation and all this other stuff. We do not think of Kay Cunningham that way. But I'm gonna tell you right then and there, I bet you Andre Drummond didn't think of Kay Cunningham that he was gonna gam on him so dis undisrespectfully, unceremoniously, just yam on you, look and make you look like you some sort of like refugee or prisoner. Nice dunks. But you know what was the commonality in that? Detroit. And you know what also the commonality in that they but they won both those games. They came back and beat Washington and then they uh they put it to Philadelphia as well. So, yes, no regards to human life whatsoever, both of them. But you know who also has no regard for human life? That is Nicola Jokic. And we need to get into this. So a couple nights ago, he played the Clippers. Um nights are box scores. This one was the thesis of defense. Denver walks into the intuitive, and the Clippers say, We'll live with Jokic scoring. We'll take away the passing, we'll take away his alternate routes, because you know Jokic likes to keep his uh field goal attempts to around 15 a game, right? So, if I told you that Nicola Jokic was 18 of 23, he was five of six from three, and then he was 14 out of 16 from the free throw line. My my wife will love that. She will love that part. He had 12 boards and six dimes, and he was disrespectful to the Clippers by quarter. He had 25 in the first, he had 19 in the demolition uh quarter number three, and the Nuggets dropped a 43 to 22 haymaker in that third period, and they beat the Clippers 130 to 116. Denver's second chance points in that game was uh 20 to 8. They had 54 paint points, and they also had 13 fast break points. Aaron Gordon was a plus 28 with 18 points, and we just talked about the Clippers and their record. Well, guess what? 3-8 is not what it where it's gonna be. By the way, you owe their pick to OKC. Nuggets are 9-2. Cute start, right? When you look at Oklahoma City being 12-1. So check out these numbers in the first quarter for Jokic. He was he had 25 points, right? But he shot, he was eight of eleven from all over the fi from all over the court. He was two of three from three-point land, and he was perfect at the line. He was seven to seven. LA's drop and stay home playing keeps shooters quiet while the hub catches on the move and walks into rhythm threes. 100%. Now the Clickers did surge in the second quarter to a 10-point lead behind Harden's free throws and Bogdanovich threes, but Denver answers with AG's plug back and two above the break Jokic bombs by halftime, and they are 68-63. Now, this is where the ambulance this is where the avalanche happens. The Nuggets, 15 to 21 in the third quarter. They were 9 of 12 from the free throw line. They score 43 points. Jokic goes 7 of 7. Okay? I will say that again. He was also perfect at the three-point line. Oh, he was he was actually mortal. He was 4 of 5 from free throw line. He had five boards in the third quarter. He had four assists, and they absolutely demolished the Clippers while Jokic was doing all this. We told you what he did, right? The Clippers had one more field goal than Jokic did in the third quarter. So he went 7-7. The Clippers went eight of 22. They had six turnovers and they scored 22 points. And that was ball game. It was over from there. Diver wins the offensive boards 11-2. And keep in mind, this is with Ivica Zubach on the other side, and also uh Brooke Lopez. So you got two non-slouches at the center position, two guys who usually rebound their position very well, and they could not hold a candle to what Nicole Jokic and Aaron Gordon was doing. This turns into 20 second chance points. Still wins in transition 13-4 on a May shot night. You know what I'm saying? It was great. It was structured, it wasn't vibes. You want to talk, you want to talk about Jokic postgame? Check this out. We play our brand of basketball. We don't hunt a winner. Okay? We look for the best shot available. Bleeds into Aaron Gordon, Christian Brown, our guy Jamal Murray. It's the next action mentality. When we lead, when we lead when we when the let when the late when the lead flipped, when they went from clippers up by five to us up by 20. That's how it goes down. Yoki's efficiency, he is uh 78.3 uh second field goal percentage on jumpers. Again, he was five or six from three-point land. They also went to the free throw line 35 times as a team, and they were 29 of 35. They were plus nine on the offensive glass by itself. Now the Clippers, they shot 94.7% from the free throw line, but they didn't live there. Because here's the free throw disparity. When the Nuggets have 35 attempts at the free throw line, and the Clippers have 19, that lets you know what you need. That's that lets you know everything you have to know. We were aggressive in the paint. We got Aaron Gordon, we got Jamal Murray, we got Christian Brown. Yo, we're gonna get into this. Paint and we're gonna make things difficult for you. Denver's optionality and roster design, enough shooters to keep you honest, enough athletes like Aaron Gordon and also Christian Brown and Peyton Watson to punish switches enough big depth in our guy Jonas Valentunas minutes. And that's the difference between the Nuggets this year and the Nuggets last year. So Michael Malone's uh screams of poverty of a bench last year that led to his own undoing is basically the rallying cry for the Denver Nuggets this year. They got a bench this year. You got Peyton Watson coming off that bench. You got uh Bruce Brown, Bruce B as my uh guy Michael Malone calls him. I love Michael Malone. He's doing good work for ESPN's fantastic situation. He lost his job because of this. Uh Jonas Valentinous as well. You know what I'm saying? Also, Tim Hardaway Jr. being there is fantastic, doing big things. I love it. I love all of what they're doing. The coverage won the zoo drop plus top lock. Diver ruins a pin down to pop. Jokic catches above the break with a square base, no closeout, can contest a 5-6 from three night. Late doubles, too late on reverse pivots. He's already at the dotted line. Automatic foul or soft hook. 14-16 from the line, 54 paint points. And then you try to put a small on him, switching everything. That's an immediate deep seal, foul economy. You know what's going down. He's an absolute computer. He's a supercomputer that is in a pudgy uh Pillsbury dog body. No, it's not. He's in good shape this year. But you know I'm talking about, and he's not like body beautiful, but he's in good enough shape to run up and down that court. This is uh Continental Cuisine cooked by NBA Heat. You told a seven footer who grew up reading side top pick and rolls to shoot the ball. He said bet and gave you five threes. The feather floater, the duck in, the trail nuke at five fifty five forty-six in the third quarter. That third was Madrid spacing in a Colorado body. Y'all didn't take away the passing lanes. You hear from the rotations, the glass printed receipts, 20 second chance points, and your stay home wings stayed home on a loss. For sure. Congrats to congrats on holding Denver to only 13 made threes. Oh my god. You decided to to allow Nikola Jokic to get shots. That was your plan? Your plan was to make him be more aggressive. Okay. That was cool last year. When he didn't have a lot of help off the bench. You can't do that this year. This man is getting he was playing 42 minutes a game last year. He's playing, what, 34 right now? Like this is a holiday for him. And he's not on the bench stressing out like, oh my god, we had an 18-point lead when I went to the bench. I just took my first sip of Gatorade, and we're up by six. How is this even possible? That's what his what his life was last year. Guess what his life is this year? It is peaches and cream. Okay? He's getting it in. He got backups. These dudes off the bench are getting it done. There's a lot of productivity. By the way, by the way, the Calvin Booth experiment of Zeke Nashi is over. We never hear that dude's name anymore. Those minutes are being replaced with Giannis Valentunis, not Dario Sarich. No, no shade to Dario Sarich, but Yonas Valentunas is a good backup big when you're saying, hey, bro, we need 12 to 14 solid minutes from you every single night. We don't need 25. We don't need 22. We need 15 minutes tops. Tops. Four, you know, maybe six minutes in the second quarter. Six minutes in the third quarter. You know what I'm saying? Maybe even less. Like we might go three, six, three, three. You know what I'm saying? We we don't need a lot from you. We just need a little bit. And when we give when we get a little bit from you, it's gotta be productive a little bit. And he's like, Bet. When Jamal Murray can only score 15 points and they dominate, you know it's a problem. This is the problem with slogan schemes. Make him score. It isn't a plan, it's a prayer, especially when he's gonna have help. He doesn't need perfect spacing. He just needs a clean catch. Give that, give him that in that third quarter, right. The next opponent trying to the no-kick out doctrine. Chart the five or six three-point shots that this man made. You know what I'm saying? Like, don't don't trip no more. I want to get into something that it's a feel-good Friday. I want people to to go away with some laughs and some humor and what have you. So we're gonna get to this. Um, it's a 10 top 10. What are you thinking quotes in the last 10 years? So, some quotes don't just age badly, they curdle in real time. Sports, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, same disease. We've seen this build the be the future of TV. Pitches that vanish in six months, culture defining festivals, promises of turn into cheese sandwiches, and feminists, and the soda empire swearing that the new recipe would be forever. Hot mics, write checks, the receipts collect interest. So tonight, it's not just Ja, I'm fine with the West or Kyrie, we don't need head coaches or whatever case may be. It's a museum tour of confident microphones and unforgiving outcomes. Ja swagger became OKC's bulletin board. Kyrie's coach optional philosophy was foreshadowed by the Nets era, never even coming to fruition. Um, you know, Jimmy's legendary practice rant. We I can't wait to get into all this. So, what I want to do is I want to give you a couple what we call honorable mentions. Uh, I I spent a lot of time on this, so just bear with me. So, again, these are the y'all what what just happened? Alright, so let's start with our guy James Harden. When he made the meme basically happen, I am the system. Y'all remember that a couple years ago? When he sat there and said he was like, Oh, I'm not part of a system, I am the system. My man was laying down like I am a point guard of the highest order. And where did that get them? That was an exit to the Denver Nuggets. You ain't going nowhere. Get you get out of here, get out of town with that. Does anybody remember the Patrick Beverly there they were scared to guard me in the playing parade when he was with the uh Minnesota Timberwolves? Patrick Beverly be saying some wild stuff, boy. Wild stuff. God bless you, Patrick Beverly. God bless you and a in a live microphone, my guy. Now, Kevin Durant hit us with the You know who I am. That was an iconic win cash ammo when it isn't. Listen, let me tell you something. Kevin Durant is one of the most efficient score uh score killers of this era. Okay, he is one of the greatest uh forwards of all time. No doubt. Can get a shot whenever he wants it. I will say this though. When you say you know who I am, and you can't get Phoenix to, you know, yeah, you can't get him to do anything, bro. Gotta keep, you know, keep that gun in your holster a little bit. Oh, Joseph Laker, with we're light years ahead. It's good while you're winning, but you gotta understand that as soon as you said that, every team in the NBA was coming to get you. I mean, every team in the NBA was just like, yo, did you hear what this fool said? I don't care how good that team is, we're gonna find a way to beat them. And guess what? They did. They beat you with a salary cap. So, our number 10, what were you thinking moment is called Anthony Towns. When I retire, people will say I changed the game in 2023. Huge talent, time and cosplay. Let the decade write your plaque. Okay. This is a Hall of Fame speeches that go after Corey's not instead of one. Vision boards don't hang banners. You can't have prophecy without proof is poetry. Beautiful but light, stack years, stack rounds, then talk different. And as far as stretch bigs are concerned, context matters more. Change the game by beating the game. Have deep runs in the playoff, all NBA situations. Scars that mean something. Like my man out here talking cash shit. Call Anthony Towns. Dope. Dope on the microphone. Uh this hey. I bring dominance. My name is Dominatin. First of all, you nicknamed yourself. Okay, you nicknamed yourself. And you are making 35 million dollars, bro. Nickname yourself is crazy. Remember, you were getting bullied by a 5 foot eleven coin guard in Phoenix. To get you to play harder. Yo, brand before resume invites open season for sure. The merch drop before the mixtape. That's how you get booed at your own release party. Dominance is a stat line, not a slogan. Whew, uh listen. And the thing about it is that you gotta want to back this up. You know what I'm saying? You gotta have an alpha equity, you know, earn usage. You gotta want the ball, you gotta have two-way persistence. Then you can workshop nicknames in May. Like in playoff time, bro. Like what let other people give you the nickname. What are we doing? It's crazy. Oh. Yes. This is a this is a Odie but a goodie. We love it. And it comes from the Sacramento uh Kings owner, Vivek Randad. Buddy Hill is has Steph Curry potential. Come on, man. What? Now Buddy Hill. He played with the Golden State Warriors. He's still not Steph Curry. That comp was became year-long bit. How can you compare yourself? You're a Camry to a spaceship. Just change the oil on time, set the clock five minutes fast, and you know, we'll see. I mean you can sit here and you know and hope. Hope is cheat. Timelines are expensive. You fed the fans dessert before you fed them dinner, and then wonder why they wanted cake every night. And I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't care how hard you squint, there's no way in hell you see Steph Curry when you look at Buddy Hill. No chance in hell. Love that by V V8 Rhonda D V. That's why his team still sucks right now. Oh, this is great. I love this one. Number seven. Michael Porter Jr. In 2020. Podium plea for more touches. He said while sharing oxygen with Jokic, think about that. The Vets heard him line line jump. How is it that Michael Porter Jr. This is when I thought for sure after they won that championship, I thought for sure this dude was gonna be like, this should be my team. We we won a championship because of me. No damn well Jokic is the man. We just talked about Jokic a minute ago and his efficient 55 on 23 shots. That man put up 55 points on 23 shots, and you out here talking about I want more touches. That is why you are in Brooklyn. Cam Johnson ain't even shooting good. He's not we ain't worried about Cam Johnson. Cause Jokic is awesome. You talking about tone death. You talking about somebody who obviously needed some some perspective on life. We still don't know if our guy, Michael Porter Jr. has a lot of perspective on life. Oh, number six, Dylan Brooks, when he was with the Memphis Grizzlies. I poke Bears. I don't respect nobody until they give me 40. Man, did that backfire? My guy. Woo! It this activated a whole movement. And I remember when this happened when he said this, and then the series was over, and they were talking about that dude like have fun in China. That rent dude talk bronze didn't just drop 40. He dropped the keys to your apartment and told security to let him in. Yeah, you can be the villain all you want, but you better be be the be the one winning. Don't give the best era narrative ammo. Your brand feeds off noise. His is legacy. It feeds off outcomes. Get which diet wins most often. You literally wanted to poke the bear and the bear was LeBron James. Are you kidding me, dog? Like what come on man? I mean this was wrestling energy with NBA consequences, no doubt. There was no art to provocation, the measure, the equity you're staking. You went all in on theatrics without hedging your protection. Oh, Kevin Durant from 2017 to 2019, Burner Gate, OKC, and the Knicks aren't cool. A cool thing. This dude went to Brooklyn because he said the Knicks aren't cool. Okay. Brooklyn will never matter in New York City. Let's let's get that straight. They should have stayed in New Jersey. I understand they got the the beautiful Barclays Center, and Barclays is beautiful. And yes, they you know, but you could play in New You could say you're New Jersey and play in Barclays. We got two teams out here talking about they're the New York Giants and the New York Jets, and they play at East Rutherford, New Jersey. So why can't the Nets say we're New Jersey Nets and still play in Barclays? I don't know. We could still do that. This is an FYI. Remember when this dude had a secret like secret account and he was out here with burners and stuff like that? Just who this is star. You don't need to do this, man. Don't you have like underlings that can do this for you? Number four is Jimmy Butler. You fucking need me. You can't win without me. 2018. This is Minnesota Timberwolves Jimmy Butler. Okay? My man went scorched earth the building. This was awesome. This is the time where he took like third team scrubs and had a scrimmage against Carl Anthony Towns and who else was there at the time? I think Zach Levine and them. My man said, hey, that chunk change got a contract before I got a contract. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you right now. My man went in there, clocked in with a lunch pale, and some block works, and uh it wasn't no tech talk. That was a garage fire with morals. It was disrespectful until the scoreboard agreed. And then he sent he sat there with Rachel Nichols and had an autobiography conversation. He had like a uh fireside conversation with Rachel Nichols after he literally went scorched earth during a practice. I think that Jimmy Butler would have been a great marine drill instructor. I'm trying to think of other things that Jimmy Butler would have been good at. Oh, he would have been a great foreign dictator. Cause I know that dude cold, bro. He cold. Let's see, who else? Who else gonna get this? Oh, number three, 2019, Paul George on Damian Lillard. That's a bad shot. Season ender. Series ender. Man, think about that. That was what 37, 38 feet away. My guy hits the shot, just turns around, cold, stare, stoic. PG, the ball disagreed with you. The wave would notarized it. Outcome always over opinion. The net is a peer rear view for show. You told uh uh a maid bucket it was imaginary. That's like arguing with a stop sign after a ticket. It went in, baby. The shot got a pass course stamp, and your quote became luggage tag material. You know how sometimes um when you like when you did uh calculus or trigger or whatever, there was no answer to the to the actual question. I bet you that's what Paul George was hoping for. He was like, I don't understand how that went in, because you ain't never won anything. That's why you never won anything, Paul. That's why you don't that's why you didn't become a Laker. You your trifling ass went to go play for the Clippers. Now they don't even want you in Philadelphia. Number two, this was a beauty, Kyrie Urban, like back in his like real heyday. Okay, I don't really see us having a head coach. This is Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Urban, obviously the more mature Kyrie Urban of 2024 and 2025. He would never say that, but in 2020, Kyrie was on that shit. He was on that shit. He said I got Hardin and Kevin Durant. I don't know why we would need a head coach. And then decided to not play because I'm not taking any shots. I'm not taking any vaccinations whatsoever. Committees don't call timeouts, baby. Committees send emails when the plane hits the turbulence. You don't want a round table, you want a pilot. That line told the locker room, figure it out, and the locker room said, Who me? Telling that stacks like skyscrapers' leadership is a foundation. You can't share a vision, but you can blur a voice. A team without a central decision maker becomes a book club. Great discussion, bad execution, and when the clock shrinks, what happens? By the way, yeah, uh, our guy Steve Nash, who I respect a lot as a player. Uh, I don't know if he'll ever get another chance to coach in the NBA again. And I don't know if he wants it, especially after that experience with um Durant and Kyrie and James Harden and them. But if he does, man, I'm gonna tell you right now, he's gonna go in there and the first thing he's gonna do is he's gonna flip over a table. He's gonna flip over a table. He's gonna be like, you know what? I'm in charge. I want one of y'all to go out and say some real stupid shit against me. We don't need no coach. We good, we good, dog. We don't need no coach. We just, you know what we need? We need people who can get us Gatorade bottles. You know what I'm saying? Every once in a while, y'all, hey, give me one of them um give me one of them boards with the you know the dry erase board where I can draw out some plays, you know, especially for me. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna I'm gonna take care of that for myself. I'm gonna get all the touches. And number one, and actually he shares it, is that he got one and one A. Okay, or what he got one A and one B. John Morant. We are good in the West. I'm fine in the West. And then what he said about the Oklahoma City Thunder. I've got the Thunder figured out. Man, John Morant. There's a lack of self-awareness with John Morant that really scares me. And I don't know if this is because of how he's been handled in Memphis, which almost belies the amount of real talent that's in that building as far as decision making uh on draft picks and things of that nature. They've hit on more draft picks than they missed out on for sure. Uh, I respect Zach Kleiman and his crew. Uh Tayshawn Prince is part of that crew. I love Tayshawn Prince. I think he was a hell of a basketball player, but also I think he's a good front office person, and uh I can't imagine that uh some of the antics and some of the things that John Moran has said over the years has set well with that front office. But here it is, John Moran saying shit. Just saying stuff out here, just out here, just doing the Lord's work. You know what I'm saying? If you keep your mouth shut, they can speculate whether you're a fool or not. But if you open your mouth, you leave no doubt. Uh little girl, you printed answers on the board before the teacher walked in. That's not confidence. That's a coupon for every defender to go at your neck. The West is that uncle who still lifts the couch by himself. He's not impressed by your captions and saying you figured out okay. See, that's like announcing that you saw math while algebra is still adding chapters. Now, I know John Morant's being brash is what got him to the league. I love when he was younger. We loved brash. I love the kid who wants all the smoke. That was John, that's John Morant. But the West Don't do affirmation affirmations. It does receipts. The second you say you got okay, see, so you're buying stock in humiliation because those kids live in the gym and they treat quotes like push-ups. Swaggers cool, scouting ports are cooler. And by the way, if you think about it, when's the last time you heard a quote from say Gilders Alexander that made you go, ooh, oh, I wish he hadn't said that. Has Chet Holmgren ever said anything anything inflammatory? The most, I don't even know if you want to call it, the most ridiculous thing that they do is they have fun with the with the sideline reporter after the games during their interviews after they blew out another team by 20 points, or whatever the case may be, and they're putting towels on top of the of the uh sideline reporter's head or whatever the case may be. That that's that's what they do. And then guess what they do? They go back to the locker room. They are asking their you know assistant coaches for the iPads with the next team's like tendencies and whatever the case may be. They're asking the analytics department, is there anything that we need to look for against this new team? And it's rinse and repeat, and we just continue to win. Remember, we are only like three, four years ago when John Morant in the Memphis Grizzlies was that like darling of a team where we were sitting there going, like, man, if this dude, John Morant, is the real deal like we think he is, and trust me, I believe the hype too. You weren't the only one that was sitting there watching John Morant, cockback dunks, and thinking to yourself, man, this is Alan Iverson in reincarnate. Okay? You weren't the only one. I was there too. I was there with you. I was like, oh, Jeremy Jackson Jr. 6'11, shoot threes. This is crazy. But here we are. Here we are. We are sitting here and we're looking at a Memphis team that is probably lottery bound. John Morant is shooting under 40% field goal percentage. I still think he is still under sweet 16 for three-point percentage, and it's a debacle on Bill Street. So I'm glad that you got the quotes. I'm glad you number one in this situation. You need to do less talking and more getting in the lab. You need to go ahead and get into that regimen of a thousand shots a day. Because here's the one thing that we also know about you, Ja. You're slight. And I don't mean that in a bad way, guy. You know what? Sometimes you have to augment your game. Sometimes to allow your speed to continue to be an ally of yours, you need to go ahead and get that jump shot squared away where it's a weapon for you. So now you have the defender on you. You know, they're up close on you. Now you can go ahead and do the blow by and do all the things you want to do. But you can't do that if they're six feet off of you and saying, Go ahead, take the shot. We don't think you can knock it down. Go ahead and take it. We'll go ahead and get this rebound and we'll be going back the other way. You are special because you are an athletic freak, and it looks some it looks like some of that athleticism has gone away due to some of the injuries that you may have uh had over the years. So if you don't augment your game and get your three-point shot up and get your get you a patented like runner in the lane, floater in the lane type of situation, you are going to be an afterthought, and we are going to say things like Do you remember that like three or four year span of John Moran when he was awesome? And that's what you're gonna end up being. This Friday. I hope you guys like that. It took us a while to put that together. Um, we're gonna be trying to do more things like that for you. Keep in mind, we love the participation. We love it. Hit us up on Twitter at FrontrunnerPC. Also, if you don't want to hit us up there, hit us up at at FRPC Vince at gmail.com. I'll be more than happy to answer your emails. Think of topics like this that we put together. You know what I'm saying? We'll go ahead and do something different for you down the road. I know on Tuesday we're gonna do some draft stuff. I got some draft stuff that did not even make it into this podcast. It's just gonna end up on the next podcast. So, with that being said, the best part of you is you surround yourself with people who give you light, insight, joy, and accountability. And if you have people like that in your life, appreciate them out loud. That's your real wealth. And if you're still finding your tribe, know this, you got one here with us at FRPC. Until next time, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight. I'm Vince Duke. See y'all next Tuesday.