Feel Good Friday NBA Pulse

NBA Cup Night And Eight Numbers

We have made it to NBA America's NBA Cup play, which starts tonight. Super excited about that. We got eight topics on this Feel Good Friday for you. And we're gonna start you off with eight numbers. You know how we do it. 44, 36, and 200. What do these represent? The knights of Steph Curry, Victor Wenbayama, and the God of Efficiency, Nikola Jokic. We also have 88 players on the injured list so far, and it's making a it's making a crazy um dent in our enjoyment of the NBA. And also, what does this mean for the races that are obviously early in the stages of the NBA season? And then we have the Heat who are now have won a game or two. We also have teams like Detroit and Philadelphia 4-1. The Knicks have finally started to wake up, they came from 19 down. Does that sound familiar to you? In the West, we have a couple teams out there that are 5-0 when we're gonna get to it. And this wouldn't be a podcast of Frontrunner Podcast Collective without some Lakers numbers for you. How do you give up 136 and then give up 87? We're gonna tell you here next on Frontrunner Podcast Collective. Let's go.

Welcome To FRPC Energy

What's good everybody? Welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective. This is where we talk like friends, argue like cousins, and still walk out a little bit smarter than when we came in. I am your host Vince, your occasional hoop therapist, and your absolute favorite bad influence when it comes to completely reckless NBA overreactions that low-key makes sense. We are setting the table. You know we were in the film room, you know we were watching games. We're gonna have grown conversations about the players, the coaches, the front offices that are actually moving in silence like real Gs do. We are gonna talk about the locker room rumors and the PR spin, but we also gonna do it with verify receipts. We are bringing the jokes, the advanced math, and the barbershop ammo that you need to take straight back to your group chats and completely nuke the argument. And if you're an NBA sicko like me, yeah, I watched that New Orleans Pelicans in Sacramento uh Kings game last night. Uh, you know you're not here for the highlight talk, you're here for the context, the numbers, and the point of view. So you have found your spot and let's go. Now we're

Wembanyama Takes Over In Overtime

gonna start off with a couple standout performers from this week. Uh, I want to get into it real quick. Steph Curry out here embarrassing Rudy Gobert, something crazy. I mean, he put him on the island so many times. I thought he was on Survivor. Wimby out here dominating the whole state of Utah, and Jokic got his 200th triple double of his career, absolutely incredible from a 6'11 dude who was drafted 44th overall during a Taco Bell commercial. The disrespect for our three-time MVP. What happens, right? You have this prolonged excellence that needs to be acknowledged of these great players, and this is just another night in the office for them. For us, we watch in awe and we yell at adulation about their play that they made, or lastly, the greatness that we just witnessed. We will start with Victor Winwayama. The Spurs beat a short-handed jazz team 117 to 111 in overtime. Our guy sent it, our guy in San Antonio ran off 12 straight points in the extra period. Utah went 2 or 7 from the floor in overtime. The Spurs have been placing Winwayama where his threes and his mid-ranges come uncontested, which is better than what it was before. A quote from Kelden Johnson went like this: he showed up big for us when we needed him, and he went for the tune of 36 points. And my man grabbed 12 rebounds. He also dimed up people, he had four assists. But Wimby needs to make sure that I understand that he can shoot the three. I understand that he's capable of doing that and knocking it down at a at a pretty good clip. But he needs to get his butt in the paint. Now I know that he doesn't want the con you know the continuous bump and grind of what it is to be down in that post area. Obviously, we're early in the season. We don't want another injury of one of our stars, and we'll get to that later. We got a lot to get to when it comes to that. But I think he needs to his his shot diet needs to change a little bit. Needs to get to a point where he's taking less threes, not selling for the threes, and finding that shot between 8 to 12 feet that he can knock down. This dude got the longest arms we've ever seen in our entire lives, and he needs to be able to utilize his size and his quickness in that 8 to 12 foot area. Now,

Steph Curry Hunts Gobert

let's get to our guy Curry. The Warrior staff ran high screens in the first half to pull Grudy Gobert out of the paint, and he they sure did. Curry went for 23 in the first half, 8 to 16 shooting. He had five threes, making Rudy Gobert look like some sort of mental patient. He had him out here on this island, and Grudy had no clue what to do. Zero point, zero clue. Um in the fourth quarter, he closed at a free throw line. Quote the rookie, Yaxel Lindenberg per ESPN. This guy is as good as hell. The rookie couldn't have said it better to himself. I'm glad to see the rookies taking notes because he's also having a absolute banger of a start of a season as well. Now, I'm gonna get to this when it comes to Steph a little bit later. Um, but I'm so happy to see Steph score 44 points. I'm so happy to see Steph get out here and just show us what it looked like back in the day when Golden State had a really good team. Seems like it was a long time ago, 2022, right, when they won the NBA finals. But here we are, where Curry is probably uh fighting for his life play up playing team. Sad. Sad to see it go down like this. But this is what happens when you have great teams, you know, you keep them together long enough. This is what this is what goes down. But

Jokic Reaches 200 Triple Doubles

getting to our guy Jokic, it's incredible to me. He had in his last game, he had 21 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists. It's another whole home night for Nikola Jokic, right? Absolutely, because triple doubles are something in his vocabulary, and they are something regular in his vocabulary, to the tune of 200 of them for his entire career. And you might say, Well, Vince, we know this is not news that he gets triple doubles, but here's the thing let's not take something that has become commonplace and not understand his brilliance, right? He has 200 for his career. Like he's chasing down Russell Westbrook for the all-time lead in triple doubles. He's past people like Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, okay? Like he's left them in the dust. He's only chasing Russell Westbrook, which he has a good chance of catching Russell Westbrook this year. This man is 6'11, he's like 270 pounds, he doesn't run fast, he doesn't jump high, all he does is make pinpoint passes, he knows where everybody is on the court. He's physical enough to go ahead and bang with the big boys down low, get these rebounds on a on a hella level, and now my man is out here doing work getting these 200 triple doubles. I think it's crazy. I think that we should uh pay homage to our guy who has brought us so much joy in this game, and we should I understand we're gonna see a lot of these come this year. He's probably gonna have 14-15 more, and if that happens, he's gonna be the all-time leader in triple doubles, and he still got plenty in the tank. He got plenty more where that came from. So, not only is LeBron out here making history every single night when he comes on to the court, Jokic is not too far behind with these triple doubles in one second. Spoken numbers are rounded, and uh here's the thing that we want to get to. We talked to you about the the Wimby's 36 points, 14 rebounds. He had five assists, by the way. He made 14 to 25 shots, 67% true, you know, saying three steals, two blocks. 21 of his 36 came before halftime. We love it. That's the type of dominance that we need to see. We also need to see San Antonio go away from the four guard lineups that's hampering our boy. Can can they get somebody who's 6'9 to help him out 6'9 or higher to help him out? That would be great. Now we say they currently have 44 points, but you know that he had eight rebounds, six assists. He was 16 for 16 at the free throw line. My wife will love that. She loves people hitting free throws because they're free. His true shooting percentage on the night was about 65%. It was 64.7 if you want to be on the dot. The Warriors led by 24, and again, if you get a chance, I know I know the highlights are out there on X. I know the highlights are out there on TikTok. He made Rudy Gobert dance, boy. And I'm talking about like a real cracked out backup in sync dancer. That's what I'm talking about. He was out here breaking ankles and making people look foolish. And Rudy Gobert, unfortunately, because you are one of the greatest defensive players of all time in the NBA, you was out here no match for our guy, Chef Curry, putting it on you. The one thing that I want to talk about with this is not just the greatness of the performances, it's the greatness of the players, it's the greatness that they put in the work every single summer to thrill us with these performances. And it's one of those things where you sit there and you go, Is he gonna like I remember when Steph was starting to s you know, starting to happen? You know, it's starting to happen for Steph, and we you had people out here saying, Well, you can't win by knocking down jump shots. Steph Curry has changed the game. Now, if you don't shoot 43s in a game as a team, you're not doing it right. That's the Steph Curry effect. When by Yama has made it where it's in vogue to have two seven-footers legitimate on the court, obviously, if if it's not on the same at the same time, it's definitely having one and then having a backup big. So the center position, which we thought was dead like a decade ago, thanks to Steph Curry, because we were going to our small ball era. Winwayama has said, not so fast, my son. You need centers because I am super tall and I am going to be the greatest to ever do it in this game. And then our guy Jokic. Somebody who definitely does not like the spotlight, somebody who tries to downplay his achievements, but guess what? You can't do it. Because, again, when you think triple doubles and you think the people who have done it, yeah, you think of Russell Westbrook right off the bat. You think of like people like even LeBron. You know, Magic Johnson is somebody who comes to mind for me because that's the era I grew up in. But to have Jokic be second all time is is absolutely an astonishing achievement. The last thing that I want to say about this is one thing is that I want to see more petty Steph Curry this season. Nine times out of ten, the Warriors aren't a serious contender whatsoever. They're looking down the barrel of a clan situation. But on those nights where Steph has his legs underneath him, we are going to get to see the greatest shooter of all time get in his back. Like what he did to Rudy Gobert a couple nights ago. You know, Rudy was finished with one point, four rebounds in 20 minutes, and had no blocks. He was zero of nine. My guy was so winded, and he was so flummoxed from chasing down Steph Curry, he couldn't even provide any offense whatsoever. But I'm telling you right now, I need to see a lot more Steph Curry. I want to see him very petty. I want him out here breaking ankles. I want him just thrilling us like he no one can. I want him to shoot from the logo as many times as he wants. Not like Trey Young. You know what I'm saying? Trey Young is a little bit different because you're not hitting him at the clip that Steph Curry is hitting him at. But I got Steph. I want him to be able to have a good time this year and enjoy himself and um push his rookie along, Yaxel Lundberg. Because that kid is really good, and we're gonna see him tonight when he plays Luca. So, round two, Yaxel. You better strap him up, big boy. You was talking a lot of ish. Better strap him up. Speaking

The NBA Injury Epidemic Debate

of that, speaking of uh things being strapped up, sewn up, uh things just that are just in shambles. The NBA has some sort of epidemic going on. I don't know what we're doing, but I'm gonna tell you one of my favorite TV shows this season, the hottest TV show that I wanted to see, has been canceled. We lost the ant and mellow show. Okay, because of these injuries. Ant is gonna be on the sideline for at least two months with his knee surgery. Now, Minnesota, the front office says that we went ahead and did the surgery now so then he could get back as quickly as possible. We didn't want him to manage this situation, we wanted him to be able to get himself together, and I'm gonna tell you right now, these injuries, I have never been a pro low management person whatsoever, but all these damn injuries have me questioning my own stance. The MRI of Anthony Edwards comes back. It comes after he scored 47 points in an overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, showing the issue the team wants to be fixed quickly. It's an orthoscopic cleanup of his right knee. This is the knee that was bothering him last year. Surgery is scheduled for uh yesterday. We didn't want him to play through discomfort. This is what my guy Tim Connolly was saying, says that he expects a full recovery and that ant will be as good as new. We just didn't want him to play through the pain, which he would have played through the pain for sure. Now, everybody saw the tragic injury of Jalen Williams. You know, that was ugly. Uh, if you want to go see it, if you're like a sadist and you want to go see it, I'm sure you can find it on X or TikTok or whatever the case may be. But the Thunder are under siege. Case and Wallace left Labram, also needs surgery. His timeline is five to six months. Where does that put us? Okay, we're at the end of October, so I mean there's a chance he comes back for the playoffs, who knows? Tyrese Halliburton is out here with a strained hamstring. He's gonna be gone for a couple weeks. So, um, that's terrible news for Indiana. Terrible news. They just got him back. He had the Achilles tear last year, sat out the whole season, and now he has a hamstring pull. Kawhi Leonard out here with mystery injuries, say you have not ever heard that. And you be the one person that was living underneath a rock who did not know that Kawhi and Kawhi Leonard has phantom. I wouldn't say phantom, he has nebulous knee injuries that happen from time to time. And it looks like the Raptors have no idea how long my man's gonna be out. They say a month. Who knows? We'll see what that timeline looks like in Toronto. Thank God they're off to a good start. Thank God Scotty Barnes is balling out and everybody else. So it's basically back to what it was last year. A lot of Scotty Barnes, a lot of Emmanuel quickly. You know who's really playing well for Toronto is RJ Barrett. The one they did not give the contract to. The one they said, you know what, we're gonna let this play out to the end. And our guy, RJ Barrett, is balling out this year. Now on to more injury news. Jaron Jackson Jr. is also out, torn MCL, six to eight weeks in Utah. Boy, oh boy, Jaron Jackson would do anything. Listen, these are jokes, okay? So don't get your candies in a bunch if you're thinking like I'm being real serious right now. But our guy Jaron Jackson Jr. would do anything in his power not to play center. He's another Anthony Davis type. Like, nah, dude, I'm a power forward. Now he does shoot the three a little bit better than uh Anthony Davis, but somebody six. 11, somebody as big as our guy Jan Triple J should definitely want to play center, but he does not. His rebounds and his knee injury prove it for sure. As of Wednesday, the injury report listed 108 players. 84 of them carried in injury or illness. The injury report is like a walk it wounded of like epic proportions. It is crazy. And we got difference makers out. You know what I'm saying? We got people out. Like, who does not who's gonna miss Anthony Edwards? I'm sure all of you guys are putting your hands up at this point. We just got Tyrese Halliburton back. Gone. Jaron Jackson Jr. was a critical piece to Utah. In their pretty much all big lineup except for uh Keontae George. But here we are. Here we are. If you think about it from a front office lens, you you're sitting here trying to just, you know, stay the course. Stay the course. You got Anthony Edwards out. You got Casen Wallace out. You got Jalen Williams out for months. You got Jaron Jackson Jr., Tyrese Hallibarton, and Kawhi Leonard out for at least anywhere two weeks to four weeks. Homegren is dealing with something day-to-day. And the Clippers have half their team out. I mean, you got Brandon Ingram, Bradley Bill. They got a young cat. I don't want to screw his name up, but he's out. Who's a big that they could use right about now? So it changes the perspective of what we thought was going to happen in the top echelon of the conferences. I thought that Indiana would be a team, and they're still they still can. I mean, it's plenty of time. You know, but I thought this was a team that could contend. Utah looked like a team that was playing themselves either out of a play-in into like a regular seeded playoff team. Oklahoma City injuries completely changed what the West looked like. Kawhi Leonard is was the hope of Toronto where they were going to contend with like the big boys up at the top of the Eastern Conference. And then you got Ann Edwards who was off to a really good start with LaMelo Ball, and now that's gone as well. We still haven't seen Con Kanipple. Jalen Duran's out still. Chris Claxton hasn't played a game for the Chicago Bulls. Nor has Grant Williams. So it's bad out here. It's bad. And we can only hope that at this point that the rash of injuries that we've seen stops and we can go ahead and enjoy basketball and hope to get some of our stars back.

Miami Heat Struggle With Giannis Fit

Now speaking of stars, Giannis Ante Tacunpo has had a really rocky road in Miami. So I'm not gonna sit here and play revisionist history. Okay, I'm not gonna do that. I don't want to insult your intelligence, and I'm not gonna waste my time. Anytime you got to you get to trade for a a generational player like Giannis Ante Takumpo, you do it. You do it 100% of the time. But my problem is that could you have kept one of the role players? Like, could you imagine Jaime Hawkes Jr. on this Miami team? I mean Khalil Ware provides some spacing. You probably weren't gonna be able to keep Hero, right? Because he's the one who made like the most money. So I get that part. But it damn sure would have been nice to have one other players, either Jaime Hawkes Jr. or Khalel Ware, um, back in the mix. Now our guy, Eric Sposter, who is absolutely a sorcerer when it comes to the coaching regimens and what have you. He's changed on the fly several times throughout his career, his 19-year coaching career with the Miami Heat. Think about that. But does he have any answers for what's going on in Miami? Now they did get their first win. Congratulations to them. But I wonder if there is a um a tweak to lineup that they can do. Does Pel Larson need to start? Is he the answer? Or is there another domino that needs to fall before the trade deadline? Heat fans, let me know. Hit me up on X at frontrunner PC. I'm here for you. You know what I'm saying? Heat culture. My guy Tony Schwartz down there. You know I love you, my boy. But y'all going through it. And this offense is looked ass. Let's just call it what it is. Here's the thing that I think a lot of people don't understand. And you know, for the true who kids out there, listen, I understand y'all get it. But we also trying to bring in the other audience as well. Bam and Giannis play the same position. They like to operate in the same hemispheres on the court. That may range. You know what I'm saying? Obviously getting into the paint, dunking on fools. They love it. Bam out of bio his being the one person who has suffered through the Giannis situation more than anybody else. They gotta figure that out. Now, I'm not saying that you trade Bam, but they are duplicative in what they have with both of those guys on the court. Just saying. The Heat rank defensively, check this out, 24th. That's crazy. Their offense is ranked 27th, and their net rating is 28th. Miami's offensive rating with Giannis on the floor is 99.6, and its defensive rating is 120.3. The the two big men duplicate of each other's defense and gives each other no spacing, and that's what makes this team kind of a play-in team. The writing's on the wall in Miami, and they need to do something and do something quick to make this work. And unfortunately, I don't see any way out unless it's going to be moving one of the big two that you got on the squad. And I know that Bam has been a tried and true heat culture guy, but he is still younger than Giannis, and he might have more trade value and get you the pieces that you need because of his salary, you may be able to get like two pieces back and draft compensation. You know the Miami Heat haven't started 0-4 since 2007-2008 season. Now they've had some wonky years in the middle of that, but they haven't started 0-4 since 2007-2008. And they they have Giannis and BAM. Y'all tell me. But you go out, you get a win over Atlanta, you know, that stops a little bit of the hurt. And they got fast breaks. They got bam some shots, got him going. He scored 24 points. He's 8 of 16. He had nine rebounds. He was a plus 22 for the game. Better. Better balance. Also, Giannis scored 24 points. He was 11 of 18 shooting. He also had 18 rebounds. He was minus six. The spacing situation on that game kind of went away. They were 11 of 29 from 3. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now, Bam and Giannis combined 0 for 3 when it comes to 3-point shooting. Because neither one of them is a really reliable 3-point shooter, and none of both of those guys don't shoot for any kind of volume when it comes to 3s as well. Clay Thompson is on, you know, he's long in the tooth. And not having that, you know, looking at Clay and thinking that this was going to be Vintage Clay, or that some somehow that Giannis and Bans Bam's gravity was going to kind of like turn the clock back for Klay. I I never saw that. And I was really my ears perked up when they said he was going to be a starter. I did not understand that situation at all. But who was I as a lowly podcaster to sit here and question the brilliance of Eric Spostra? But clearly so far it hasn't worked. And they're going to need to do something. And obviously, here's the thing. To be honest with you, they won't be able to do anything until at least December 15th, when some of these free agents that signed over the summer are now free to be moved or traded or whatever the case may be. So we got at least until the middle of December. And here's the thing: usually teams are still trying to figure out who they are, who they have, making, you know, on their on their boards and seeing who they want to keep, who they have interest in, and what have you. People usually aren't ready to trade around the December 15th, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes. We

Cade Cunningham Lifts Detroit’s Start

have talked about something that isn't working, but now we're going to switch to something that is working, and then I have some things that I need to talk about when it comes to K Cunningham. Cause he's going full Denzel Washington in man of fire type shit. Okay? The Pistons are four and one. It's clearly it's early and it's clear to me that Kay Cunningham looks to be shooting for that all NBA first team honors and taking a seat at the table in the MVP conversation. Even though we here at FRPC believe that January is a more realistic time point where we will start discussing MVP favorites and things of that nature. So this is not a case of us, you know, sh you know, pulling the trigger quick. But I do want to give some some some love to our guy, uh Kay Cunningham, who's absolutely playing like a complete G. Even though teams are low enough for Kay Cunningham at this point in time, his aggressiveness, his array of drives to the hoop in the shot making are keeping the pistons afloat until Doran returns from his injury. The thing that I want to get into is they're beating teams in different ways. Now, Charlotte has his injuries as well. But Detroit beat Charlotte 97-89 on Wednesday. Now, after a slow start in the first half, Kay Cunningham and the boys had a 32-point third quarter. Paul Reid in the place of Jalen Dorn had 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals. And Kay Cunningham had 30 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals. And the Pistons are in that spot that they are so familiar with. Number one in the Eastern Conference. Go figure. A team that we were screaming for help. I got on this pod talking about during the uh Central Division uh preview that K does not have a second option on his team. I still believe that. I still believe that Detroit doesn't have a legitimate second option to take pressure off of Cade Cunningham. And it will it will raise his ugly head during the playoffs. No doubt. If Detroit stays as is right now, they're gonna have the same issues that they've had the last two playoff seasons this year for sure. Now getting Jalen During back will be 100% welcome. The All-Star Center strained his right hamstring on October 23rd in a win against the Miami Heat and left early. He'll be reevaluated in two weeks, so we're like a week into this situation. We'll see how that goes. Now, Detroit has played without him since. Asar Thompson also sat against a against a Philadelphia 76er win a couple nights ago. Um Isaiah Joel has left game, but he played four minutes in one game. He was hurt. So these injuries are happening to everybody. Their one loss is to the Knicks. Detroit led 38-25 in the first quarter, and then was outscored by double digits in the second and third. So the Knicks are back to walking teams down. Scary thought. Now, revolving door about who's scoring next to him. But Paul Paul Reed getting 16, Dennis Jenkins getting 14, and Duncan Robinson. Duncan Robinson might be the closest thing they have to a second option at this point. But obviously, he's not um consistent enough to take on that reign of responsibility for the long haul. The Detroit Pistons, make no mistake about it, they're definitely gonna have to do something when it comes to taking some of the burden off of our guy Kay Cunningham for sure. Now Asar Thompson is out here doing Asar Thompson things. He's still not shooting the ball well enough for me. You know what I'm saying? Still not doing it. But we'll see. We will see. Now Detroit is two and one with the three games that Doran has missed so far. I will be very interested to see how that that relationship continues to grow. I just I wish I saw I wish there was something else. And here's the thing. This is where draft picks matter. And we've seen it here in Los Angeles. So I'm not this is not a critical situation just on Detroit. I'll use my own team as the example. Uh couple years ago, they got a guy by the name of Dalton Connect. Dalton Connect was supposed to be this laser-eye shooter that we could depend on to create spacing for uh at that time LeBron James and Austin Reeves and now Luca Doncic, right? And it turns out that for some reason he lost all confidence in himself. You can tell, you can say that the Lakers did not develop him as much. But the the thing that was said about Dalton Connect is that his basketball IQ was pretty low. So you had to tell him things over and over and over again. Now, as far as Jalen Hood Shafino, and you say who? Exactly, he was somebody that the Lakers drafted like two years before Dalton Connect. He also did not pan out. The Lakers were out here and they had to basically restructure their entire roster to facilitate getting like more athletic wings to put next to Luka Doncic. Could you imagine if Dalton Connect or Jalen Hood Shafino would have paid off? This is the same thing in Detroit. Jivey, who now is out of the league. Now, this other thing's going on with Jay Nivey that we hope that brother's getting help and we hope everything's cool with him. But that guy was supposed to be Cade's Robin. Hell, there was a time that they didn't know if Cade was going to be Batman. And now we're sitting here and Jay Nivey's out of the league. There was a high draft pick that did not pay off. And now we're in this situation where Detroit is looking for a reliable two. Now the next game is favorable for Detroit. They're playing Brooklyn. That's a win. You know what I'm saying? Unless something catastrophic happens. But they still need to figure that situation out. They need to continue to work the phones and figure out who they can get, what they have to give, to get that second score for our guy, Kay Cunningham. Because I I like this MVP trajectory he's on. I love it. I love the aggressiveness. I love the just the swatch buckling spirit he's putting on out there, putting up shots, doing his thing to keep his team at the winner's circle. But he's gonna need some help. He's gonna need some help.

Philly Runs Through Tyrese Maxey

Speaking of teams that are trying to knock off the first seed, let's talk about the Philadelphia 76ers, shall we? In a team full of storylines. Right? We got LeBron out here in his 24th year, still doing it. We got Joel and B. Can he be the guy? He's definitely never going to get back to the MVP level. But when you think of Philadelphia 76ers, you think of Joel and B. They traded for Jalen Brown from the Celtics of all people. And the drama that's going on between Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum is absolute cinema. Absolute cinema. I'll talk about that a little bit. But you know what the best story is? Coming out of Philadelphia? Tyrese Maxie. Tyrese Maxie being the lead dog is the most surprising story coming out of South Philly, and we're gonna get to it. This is the best stat that I can possibly think of because I was so worried about what kind of team the 76ers were going to be. Do you know they're fourth in pace? They're 103.7 in pace, which ranks them fourth. To me, that's the most significant metric, and it lends itself to the fear I had before the season started, which was Are LeBron and MB going to slow the tempo down to a crawl? Or was Nick Nurse going to allow the Stallions to run? And with Maxley clearly now being the centerpiece of the Philadelphia 76ers, the offensive philosophy is leaning into Maxie's strengths, and they have been proven right. Philadelphia beat Indiana 114 to 109 Wednesday. They were trailing by 13 entering the fourth quarter. Tyrese Maxie scored a game high 27. He included two threes in the final minute and a half to go ahead and get that dub. He had 17 of his 27 in the fourth quarter on a 24-6 run. So I'm going to say that again. He scored 17 points in the fourth quarter. And 17 of those points came on a 24-6 run. So he had a bunch of those. You know what I'm saying? And the run started on an Anthony Simons 3. The Pacers were without Tyrese Halliburton. So that had a lot to do with it. Now, balance is the key here. Four Sixers scored 20 points or more. Joel MB with 21. Jalen Brown had 20. Our guy Anthony Simons coming off the bench with 20. And LeBron James out here scoring 13 points and 10 assists. He's doing his best. JKid impersonation now. Did you know LeBron James had no turnovers in that game? None. LeBron has settled into this role like I'm the poor guard of this team. Tyrese Maxie is like the two. And then VJ Edgecombe is a wing. There's nothing that man can't do. It is incredible to me. I had him I had him here in Los Angeles for eight years, and I know all the drama, all the passive, aggressive social media posts. I understand it all. But you know what he also brought? He brought a level of brilliance to his performance. And here's the thing. Up until a couple years ago, my man was averaging more than 25 points a game. It was like three years ago, he was averaging 27, almost damn near 28 a game. And this is in his late 30s. He's going to be 42 at the end of December. And he's just like, you know what? We got enough scoring. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna revert back to what I was when I came into the league, which is I am a facilitator. I'm going to be the most super duper best connective piece of a winning basketball team that y'all ever seen. And why is this important? Because Tyrese Maxie gets to be who their loss, their only loss, is to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday. And that was without Joel Embiid and VJ Edge Comb. So they started with no conventional center. LeBron had to do it, and they got their ass kicked on the boards. Now, as far as Maxie is concerned, he was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, no doubt, averaging 28.8 points a game in his first four games. The whole situation with Maxie is this is that when you're getting 27 points on 18 shots, you're going eight of nine from the free throw line, so you knocking down money, free money when you get it, and you got four players scoring twenty. Nick Nurse has done it. Nick Nurse has built balance. He's let everybody know what their role is. It's not Joel M.B.'s team anymore. And to maybe his chagrin, it's not Jalen Brown's team. And for the first time probably in his whole entire life, it's not LeBron James' team either. This is Tyrese Maxie's team. And that's who it should be. It should be Tyrese Maxie's team. And we are here for it. And I'm glad to see it. And I think being 4-1 again, albeit very early in the season, we have a very small sample size of what we're looking at. But at the end of the day, when you have players like LeBron James, uh, who are willing to sacrifice their game, you got four players scoring in their 20s. Um the Yeah, the center spot is a is an exposure, it's it's a weakness that they gotta clear up. But if you got the one of the quickest guards in the league getting off and doing his thing, you're gonna be good. You're gonna be good. And again, this is no shade on Embiid, but we're gonna have these lapses where Embiid is going to miss games due to low management, and they're gonna baby him along to get him as healthy as he could possibly be, fingers crossed, that nobody runs into the back of his D and causes him to have another knee surgery, but they're gonna baby him along all the way to the postseason, so they can get the very best out of Joel and B. But with guys like Jalen Brown, LeBron James, VJ Edgecomb, Anthony Simons, and the leader of the Sixers, Tyrese Maxie, they're in good shape. Now,

Knicks Wake Up And Pay KAT

from one league guard to another league guard that's leading his squad back to the mountaintop, the New York Knicks, come in focus. Now, our guy, Jalen Brunson, may be the calm in the center of the chaos that is New York City. But we need to give some some love to our guy, Carl Anthony Towns, and his contributions must be recognized. Cas numbers so far this year are great, considering he's playing with this contract extension, lack of negotiation, uh, fiasco that's going on in New York. I do not blame Leon Rose for this. I do not blame him. The defending champions lost to Philadelphia, Boston, and Orlando. They opened up 0-3, but they are defending champions nonetheless. And Jalen Brunson is gonna be that guy who weathers the storm and gets all their shit together. Orlando comes to town, and guess what happens? Well, we gotta score some points, gotta do something. Mike Brown said in the first half the defensive rating was about 101, which would lead the league. In the second half, it was 117, which is 25th. It's terrible. He's also experimenting with how he staggers Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns at this point in time. But now they got two wins. They beat Detroit, which you can't, hey, that's a good team. So if you wanted to sit there and poo-poo and go, oh well, they haven't beaten anybody, nope. They beat Detroit. And they handled them 111 to 97. So it was their first win. Then they came back and beat Chicago. They erased a 19-point deficit for a 133 to 127 win. Tell me that doesn't sound familiar to you when they were walking teams down last year. Brunson scored 14 of his 38 in the final 6 minutes and 51 seconds of the game. And I'm gonna tell you right now, Mike Brown out here doing good coach job. He put he had a Brunson, Jordan, Clarkson, Landy, uh, Landaree, Shaman, OG Ananomi, and Towns lineup. Josh Hart, nowhere to be found. Mikhail Bridges, nowhere to be found. Matter of fact, Mikhail Bridges played 13 minutes and sat the entire fourth quarter. And what Mike Brown said, he said, we just found combinations that we went with because they were working. Now, the Knicks on October 9th, they said they would pause extension talks with a guard called Anthony Towns. And uh there was a report that there was a $200 million offer. Now the maximum that Carl Anthony Towns could get is $276 million, and they want him to take a discount. Okay, that's great. So now you got that as a backdrop, and you wonder why the Knicks maybe got off to kind of a slow start. Well, it wasn't because of our guy, Carl Anthony Towns. Let me explain to you what's going on right now. Okay, first of all, when his last performance, he's he's averaging about 22 points, 14 rebounds in 31 minutes. He's shooting 58% from the field, 41% from three. He's also averaging uh a block as well. And here's the the deal. We seen the most how can I put this? I wouldn't say just mature, but we seen less of the quirk, the quirky call anthony towns that was synonymous with him in Minnesota. You know, he was one of the the truly more talented players that we were going, mmm, I don't know, I don't know, big dog. We don't know if I can trust you in a postseason. And what we know cat now is Mr. Clutch postseason. Mr. I can get you buckets, I can get you rebounds, I can get you whatever you need, type of dude. So kudos to him, kudos to Carl Anthony Towns, uh making sure that his performance on the court keeps the pressure up on the front office to give that man his extension. Because the nick where the Knicks want to go, you they're gonna need Carl Anthony Towns. No doubt, in my mind. He is their number two. We just got off a situation talking about Detroit needing a number two, somebody to do that can take some of the burden off Cade Cunningham. Jalen Brunson is the leader, he is the guy who is going to have the most production normally when it comes to the Knicks. We all know this, but you need that steady number two, and Carl Anthony Towns is providing that situation. I don't know what they're gonna do when it comes to this contract situation, and I don't know if they're gonna reopen it like during all-star break or whatever, but Carl Anthony Towns is handling his business, and he's handling his business well, so our guy hats off to him.

Rockets And Grizzlies Start 5-0

Now we need to get over to this Western Conference because the two teams that are undefeated in the entire NBA reside in the Western Conference. So we're gonna get to it right now. The Rockets have leaned into the Shingoon as an offensive hub, and the Memphis Grizzlies new era has begun with boozers showing maturity that was on display in high school and college. So let's get to this. The guard play for both teams has been incredible, but the other surge for the Houston Rockets is that Shangun's improvements on the offensive side, which we'll get to in a second, have been stark. And then Boozer's maturity at such a young age has steadied the waters in Memphis, and they can easily move away from the John Morant era or the grit and grind 2.0 era, whatever they want to call it, and they are comfortably in the boozer era in Memphis. The two unbeaten teams are out here, they're both 5-0. The Rockets are 5-0 for the first time since 2014-2015 season. They put an ass whooping on the Milwaukee Bucks, which a lot of people will this year. They scored 132 points, it was 132 to 100. Alcar Shangoon had low back, had low back soreness, missed the game, but he's played in four games, and we're gonna get to his numbers in a second. Now, Van Vlee is back, and he scored 25 points or 24 points, 15, 15 of them in a row in the third quarter. Coming back from that ACL, that torn ACL, I'm gonna tell you right now. I made fun of the Houston Rockets last year. I was like, literally, you're gonna tell me everything falls apart with Fred Van Vliet. Hey, I'm wrong. This team looked completely different, and all it's taking is a little Umba Lunka point guard who they list at 6'1. I don't know if Freya Van Vliet is six foot one at all, but Houston is playing remarkably well just by having that guy back in the lineup. Now, the Grizzlies are also 5-0, which is also very shocking. And the last time they did this was also the 2014-2015 season, when they finished 55-20 season, uh 55-27. Last season they won 25 games total. And Vegas had their uh win total this year at 28.5. In the last 30 years, only two teams that have started 5-0 have missed the playoffs. Think about that. Think about that. And where is it coming from? Yeah, we can listen. Ty Jerome is is doing big things in Memphis. He out here looking like prime uh Jeremy Lynn back in New York, back in the day. But the other guy that I want to talk about is the 19-year-old rookie who last night had 18 points. He had 12 rebounds, he had 12 assists. Cam Boozer became the second youngest player in NBA history with a triple double behind Josh Giddy by 19 days. Now, Cam Boozer has had his struggles or what have you. Uh he was 5 of 20 at Sacramento, 4 of 12 against Utah before this game. Coach Tumas Ayasola reaction, it took him long enough. Talking about his performance last night. We're trying to figure out who can play and who can't at this point. We we are not in any position to sit listen, do not let the 5-0 fool you. The Memphis Grizzlies, um, now maybe because some of the injuries in the West, maybe they are a playing team, but this getting off to a great start is not what we expected. Now I know Memphis fans are going, oh, well, you're shitting on our team, blah, blah, blah. Listen, did y'all expect to be this good this soon? No, no, you didn't. But Memphis led Portland by as many as 24 points uh and outscored it uh twenty uh 33 to 25 in the third quarter and 33 to 20 in the fourth quarter. John Morant couldn't finish the game because he pulled a hamstring, his left hamstring, and left. But Boozer's performance was beautiful. I mean, he scored when he needed to. He hit three-point daggers in the third and fourth quarter to kind of put that game away. He dimed up people on long passes, looking like Kevin Love, just complete basketball player. Getting back to the Rockets, their five wins, they have outscored their opponent by a combined 71 points. They came for people's butt, man, for sure. Durant out here taking less shots, which is crazy. But our guy Shangoon is averaging 24 points in his four games that he's played in, up from about 20 last season. He's shooting 58% from the field, which is up from 52% last season. He's getting to the line six and a half times a game, which is up from five last last season as well. Now, he averaged four turnovers a game, up from three last year, but here's the thing. That ball of energy that you saw the last couple years with Alcar and Shengun has seemed to subsided. When he gets in the lane, he's still yeah, he's still twirling around and whatever, but there seems to be a game plan at the end of it. There's a certain calm when he enters the paint and people are jumping up to block his shot. The pump fakes seem to be more deliberate, they seem to be more crisp, and then he's able to get to the shot that he wants to get to, or he will pump fake, lean into the defender as they're coming down, he'll go up, try to get the uh and one, or get the two free throws, which he's knocking down at almost damn near 80%, which is a far cry from his 71% the last couple seasons. So we're seeing uh a real maturity to um Alcran Shenguons game, and I love to see it. Yeah, we would want the turnovers to be less, but I think that will work itself out. His usage is up as well, and I like that. So you're getting to see Houston really find an identity in their offense when you have Van Vliet back, he can get you when all the chaos is going on. The one thing that Van Vliet can do is he can get you into good offense, and then if you lean into Shangun and his offensive hub at that nail position, you're always gonna be better off, which is great. It's great. So, where does this leave us? This leaves us with this both those guys are kicking ass. We love it, we love to see it. The teams are off to great starts, which is great. You know, we love to see that.

Lakers Offense Rolling Defense Lagging

And now we can move on to the Lakers. Now Lakers are off to a good start. They're 4-1. But is it fools go? You can't win scoring 129 points against Cortland. I cannot in good conscience claim the Lakers are a contender worthy team with their defense being so chorous so far this season. It's not fair to sit here and go, okay, well, I'm a Lakers fan, and I I look at this and go, they're a team that can challenge some of the big boys in the West. When you getting beat by Portland and allowing them to score 136 points. Yes, Portland had one had the number one offense in the NBA up until last night. I haven't checked the numbers to see where they are at this point, but Portland was number one after they beat the Lakers on two on uh on Tuesday. Now here's the thing that's crazy. It wasn't that the Lakers led 73 to 68 and they blew this lead. That's not that's not what I care about. What I care about is is that you have to score 70 some odd points and a half to be competitive with these teams. And here's the thing no shade on Portland, no shade on the other teams the Lakers have played, which have been Sacramento, Golden State, and the Clippers. But these are not the best teams in the West. These are like the dregs of the West. Calling it like I see it. Luca Doncha scores 41 points after scoring 52 a couple nights before that. And you can't get a W. Now the Lakers bounced back on Wednesday, which is after a back-to-back. Luca didn't play, and the Lakers beat the Clippers 103 to 87. So, second night of the back-to-back without Luca, back tightness. Also without Zaire Williams, left foot soreness. Quentin Grimes started, scored 23 points. Colin Sexton looked like a crazed animal. Frothing at the mouth. He uh added a season high 21 points off the bench. The Lakers were up 56 to 38 a half. Now get keep in mind. Keep in mind the loss against Portland, they gave up 68 points in the first half. Against the Clippers, a team, again, struggling with injury, struggling with, you know, just lack of players. They gave up 38 points. The the backstorn is with nothing to worry about. He's gonna play tonight against the Warriors. So we are looking forward to the Yaxel versus Luca uh grudge match that carried on from uh the game opening night. Can't wait to see it. We're gonna see some shit talking between those guys, no doubt. And I'm gonna tell you right now, Yaxel, stop playing with that boy because he he might get on a heater last two games. 52 points, 41 points. Just saying. Don't play. Don't play with fire. Don't do it. It's bad. Now, the last five games, listen, yeah, you can sit here and say the Lakers held the Clippers to 87 points, but they've given up as many as 136. Their average right now is that they allow about 114 points, and Lakers score 123. We're one of the best offenses in in the league, no doubt. Their offenses ranked third um in the NBA. The defense at this point in time ranks 20th. Okay. Um not great at any point. The Lakers rank first in field goal percentage, which is about 53%. They rank first in two-point buckets, which is at 64%. So I'm gonna tell you right now, their offense, nothing, you don't have to worry about anything. As long as Luca and Austin are on the court, you're gonna get good looks at the basket. No doubt whatsoever. And if they can get uh Walker Kessler to finish better at the rim, this this number might even go up further. But what I'm worried about is the defense and the turnovers. Opponents turned it over around 19 times a game, which is third in the league. Portland shot 59% and made 18 of 36 threes against the Lakers. You didn't get out to the corners, my boy. You did not get out to the corners. And if you're gonna live on turnovers, as far as that's concerned, like they did against the Clippers, which they get, you know, 20 24 turnovers. I mean you could do that, but you know what? Teams who take care of the ball, you're not gonna be able to beat because you can't stop 'em. The Lakers still need something on that in their lineup that they currently don't have. And that is somebody who plays is a plus defender. They still don't have that. Is Grimes a upgrade? Yes. Is IR Williams a great? Yes. But I don't know what they're plus defenders. I do not know. Now their combined wins are against teams that are four and ten collectively. So it's not like you we have this proof of concept with this particular team. And you can only beat the teams that are on your schedule. But what I'm saying to the Lakers fans right now, do not sit here and be astonished when you start playing better competition and the losses start piling up. The Lakers need to play defense, they need to stay in front of their man, they need to understand their defensive concepts, they need to go ahead and get a little more aggressive on ball and allow some of that physicality to flourish and get better. And also, you gotta expect more from Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves when you are talking about the defense. Okay, you just got to, and this is not saying they have to turn into plus defenders. What this is merely saying is that don't get blown by every single time, handle your assignment to the best of your ability, understanding that you got help on the back side. Move them in a direction that is on their offhand, if you can. You know, it's just things like that. If you know that this dude goes right all the damn time, shade him over to the right. Don't let him get back to the right. Make him use his left. Just think little things, little, little tiny things can just make the difference between this team being a defensive team that's like top 12 or whatever the case may be. Or if you continue on the way you're going, you're like 22nd, 23rd in the league in defensive raking and defensive raking. You just don't want that. Now the next three teams that they're playing, again, the Lakers should kind of eat up a little bit. You got Gold State, which is tonight. You got Toronto, who's gonna be missing Kawhi, but they got some dogs out there. Okay, Scotty Barnes is no joke. Emmanuel quickly is no joke. RJ RJ Barrett is balling, which we talked about earlier. And then they're gonna play the Miami Heat, who are desperate. Now, you should be able to beat the Miami Heat because I'm not scared of Klay Thompson and Davion Mitchell. I'm sorry. I wish I was, but I'm not. But that doesn't mean that their defense isn't good and they can't clamp you down. So we'll see how it all goes from that point. But the Lakers right now have a lot of work to do. Thank God. They got some injuries that they are uh going to be able to get some dudes back. Like Zaire Williams, I think that was like more of a low management situation with Luca. We'll see if he's able to play. But if they can get a do Fiero back or Cameron Carr back in the mix, it's gonna lengthen the lineup a little bit. It's also gonna give the Lakers a little more like uh defensive versatility that they do not have at this point. And I hope that we can get a do Fiero back quicker rather than later because I love that guy's athleticism and his physicality. He plays with his hair on fire, and I love that about him. He seemed like he got a little nasty to him as well. So we'll see how it all goes. But those are the next three games for the Lakers. I can't wait, you know. I can't I can't wait till tonight. I want to see the Yaxo Lindbergh and Luca Doncic's just war that is about to happen. But we out of ammo. We done.

Share The Show And Final Message

So here's the thing. If FRPC is your spot, do us a favor, share this episode with one person in that group chat who needs to hear it. Pull up on us on X at FrontrunnerPC or at socially underscore FRPC. You know the vibes on Instagram, okay? It is at frontrunner PC. Also, make sure to go to the YouTube channel, okay? We're putting up shorts on there and everything like that. So FRPC Vince will get you the YouTube channel, or just put in frontrunner podcast collective four words, and it'll get you the site as far as that's concerned. Usually there's a poll questions up there that I would like you to answer and what have you. So we got all that out the way. Also, TikTok. Remember TikTok. FRP FRPC Vents will get you the TikTok, and you know that the TikToks are live. So cool. We always leave you with this, but it's a feel-good Friday, so I still want to leave you with this. The best part of you is still you. Not your win-loss record, not your timeline, not your algorithm. Just you. You are enough all by yourself. Now, when you're doing that, surround yourself with people who actually give you light. Don't have those people in your life who just trying to tear you down all the time, or have you, saying that you can't do it, whatever. We don't need the negativity. There's enough negativity in this world, we don't need it. So those who are providing the insight, the joy, and real accountability, that's your max deal. And you need to appreciate those people out loud and don't wait till later that nobody promised you. Get to them immediately. If somebody does something good for you, try to hit them up immediately and say, hey man, I really appreciate you. Go ahead and do that. Now here at FRPC, we might be your who family. We get loud sometimes. We're going to be wrong sometimes, but we're always gonna come back and own it. We will respect your brain because anybody can yell at tape, but very few can actually defend a thought. Until next episode, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight. Protect your peace like cap space and never waste it on bad basketball or bad energy. I'll Vince, this is FRPC, and we're out. Deuce.