Giannis' Crossroads: Milwaukee's Dilemma

it's wednesday, you know what time it is. Frontrunner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today's podcast we talk about the Giannis situation, what to do? I know, milwaukee, you don't want to have this conversation, but unfortunately we pretty much have to. Then there is a bigger question what happened in the lottery? It wasn't just the Dallas situation, it was the top three situations that happened that were pretty peculiar. And then we need to move on to some games that happened and what it all means. We have Indiana In the Eastern Conference Finals. They're waiting the winner of the Knicks in Boston, which there was something terrible that happened in that series, and we'll get to all of that and what that means for the reigning defending NBA champions.

But before we get to all that, two things that we need to Establish for what the offseason Is going to look like. We are going to hit Every team in the offseason. We are probably going to break it down by divisions as long as we keep divisions, but we are going to break them down by divisions and then we're gonna go through their free agency, what they need, what their was. Some of the whiskers are out there saying about what they need and things of that nature, and maybe it'll give us breadcrumbs to what is actually going to happen for them. And then, when free agency actually hits, will there be a live pod? No, what will happen? We'll let the day go through, discuss. We will have a pre-pod, then we'll have have a post-prod after. As far as that's concerned, and no matter what day that falls on, we are going to discuss the day prior, the day of and then the day after, okay, so we will be on top of that. All through that. Plus, there's gonna be so much Giannis news and Kevin Durant news. We we don't even know what we're gonna be able to do. Sleep will be optional. I understand it is the price we pay. It's the sacrifice that we must make to be extraordinary and granted, that is what we're trying to do. So that is a little like clean up on summer. We will be here for the draft and we got some stuff to talk about with the draft it's coming up. So we're going to start in Milwaukee and we're just going to rip off the band-aid.

Okay, milwaukee Bucks fans, you know, I mean, I understand it's. It's not personal, it's not something I like doing, but it's something we got to do, gotta be grown-ups about this. So we're gonna talk about your boy, giannis, and the situation and what's going to happen. So in Milwaukee right about now, it feels like you're watching your friends stay in a relationship that everybody knows is over, but they just keep seeing where it goes. You know, I know it and I think Giannis knows it too. He hasn't left yet, but he's looking on Zillow where dreams come true. I'm telling you right now, with him, we're talking about loyalty, we're talking about legacy, but that guy wants to win multiple championships.

He went on his own brothers podcast. He talked about winning. One isn't enough. So this is coming from the man himself, who is we're gonna get to his age and what he's been doing and what you can get and how this should hopefully work and we'll see how it all goes. But we got a long way to go before we get there.

So if you're a milwaukee bucks fan, all of this conversation is gonna suck right because here's another, another coastal elitist telling you that, oh, it's time to go head and sell off your pride and joy. You know, and I understand. I understand where that kind of falls for you and in the pit of your stomach. You're kind of going they're gonna win again and, unfortunately, kind of way it goes, your guy is too good and the team, unfortunately, because of injury and just erosion and void of talent, you run into this. It is a financial pinch that you can't get yourself out of this. It is a financial pinch that you can't get yourself out of because there's no viable assets around him that you can just go ahead and pawn off, so you have to rip the band-aid off. You didn't come here for cliches, you came here for clarity. So I hope, as somebody who you know literally takes this seriously, I hope that we can do this with some care. So here we go, let's try to do this. And let's be clear, he has not asked for, he has not asked out yet, but the vibes are louder than basically all of the Dallas fans on a draft lottery night. So y'all know how that went. We'll get to that a little bit later now.

Here's the thing with Milwaukee they tried. They tried to keep the team cohesive. They tried to keep the team relevant. They thought they were doing the right thing in the dame, in the dame Damian Lillard trade, what have you? Then Dame becomes injured. That might have been the domino that solved this whole thing. That right there, when he down, that was your last piece, that was your last Get out of jail free card. And we don't even know how much actual Asset the NBA thought of Dame. How valuable was he? A dominion to guard who's in his mid 30's and this is prior to the injury who doesn't play a lot of defense, and now the scoring is more occasional than it is when it was, like four or five years ago. These are all things that are valid questions that were being said, and this is before the injury. Now you don't even have that piece. You don't even have that piece to play anymore. So where do you go and how do you get there?

The Bucks front office did not fumble this bag. They emptied the bag trying to keep yannis. They got drew. Then they flipped drew for dame. They swapped coaches like bad, like a bad dating phase. They've done everything yanna has asked and it still hasn't worked because of the fact that the ch Chris Middleton piece was the piece that you should have got off of before Drew. That was the fatal flaw Was, when you got off Drew, you could have got off Chris Middleton and you could have kept Drew and then this wouldn't have been as bad. But hindsight is always 2020, so can't go there anymore. Now, where are we, dame? 54 million dollars, torn Achilles, 34 years of age, a cap sheet that looks like a failed crypto wallet, no first round picks until the last of us.

Season five. Y'all know we in season two, right? Oh, and, by the way, john horse got signed to a four-year extension because he they knew he was going to be the one cleaning up this mess. The Glucks has over leveraged themselves trying to win two ships and instead they've caught one ring and three straight round. One exits because of injury, because of just missed time injury with, uh, giannis and with Middleton.

It has just been a calamity of Not errors, but Just bad luck. Ill, fated, timing and now here we are, and we got to be. We got to be honest about this whole situation. If you hold on to Giannis In the East, it is incredibly going to get More difficult. Hold on to Giannis and an East is incredibly going to get more difficult as we go along here. Well, maybe not, we'll talk about that soon and why that is but basically, right now, you're just sitting there and you're just watching. Just a bad relationship just fall apart. I mean, it's like watching someone max out their credit cards again for a last minute trip to Vegas, thinking this is the time it'll hit different Milwaukee. It's not, and you're up against it with the luxury tax. So it's time to go ahead and shed payroll, start getting picks and start rebuilding.

And if you're going to talk about, well, what does Giannis want? Giannis is a loyal dude, but he talks publicly about Winning championships. Giannis is a loyal dude, but he talks publicly about winning championships. He knows that Milwaukee is where he grew and he won his first one, but he still wants to have multiple champion by his name. He wants to be known as a multiple time champion and I don't know why that's so so prevalent on his mind, but it is. I don't know if he feels like, if he can just kind of bully his way towards Like the top 15 players of all time or whatever. I don't know what his mode of competition is, but there's something that is driving him and he pushed milwaukee to go all in, to go all in, to continue to go all in, and unfortunately he made some bad bets along the way and now you got one more chip to play and it's the chip that you don't want to get rid of, because you know everything changes when you get rid of that chip.

And here's the thing, and I understand why milwaukee feels this way two main reasons. We started it with, basically, what I has just said here is a coastal elitist telling you you have to get rid of, like your favorite, your favorite player, and it sucks. Well, what other way can you get out of this? Because here's the thing, here, here, here, here's, here's the real truth. Let's look at this 54.1 million, that's just dead money. Next year, that's Damian Lillard.

Let's say, you keep Giannis. Okay, 40, 48.8 million, that's money well spent, right. But if you look at between the two, where you at, that's 102, that's 102 million. It's a lot of money. Oh Kuz was 22. How much production did you get out of that? Portis is 13.5. How much production did you get out of that? Portis is 13.5.

Connaughton, who couldn't stay on the floor, that's 9.4. And your draft is not your own until 2031. I'll say that again your draft is not your own until 2031. They've got less flexibility than Trader Joe's freezer aisle. That's crazy, soria. I tell her to pop in every once in a while, and damn damn. If you haven't started on a high note with that. All right, even brooke lopez walks in free agency, they can't replace him. It's just not. It's not just a bad cap situation, they're stuck. They're stuck because they just don't have the money to be able to do this anymore.

And here's the thing about yannis. He was still elite. His box plus minus was a positive 9.8. His true shooting percentage was 64 percent. His on off uh box, or his on off um, when he was on the court off the court, was a positive 9 plus 9.4. That's Jokic level impact.

So if you're going to trade him, you're getting him at the highest value possible. You can ask for the moon, you can ask for everything players, picks, owners, girlfriends, sisters, cousins whatever you need you can probably get. Owners, girlfriends, sisters, cousins whatever you need you can probably get. For Giannis, you don't have to be Nico Harrison. You do not have to be Nico Harrison. You can sell him to the highest bidder and get a hefty return back. Boy, did nico end up in a good situation? I can't wait to tell that story.

Okay, so now you're looking at a situation with yannis, and where does he go? Well, huh, where does he go? Well, huh, where does he go? It's going to be up to Giannis, and the one thing that I think I know about Giannis is this he's going to want Milwaukee to get a pretty fair offer back, but he definitely wants to make sure that the team that he's going to is going to have the pieces, or the necessary pieces, that it's going to take to win a championship. So I would look at a team like houston I know that's not, I know that's very cliche, I'm gonna throw a couple more in there but houston, the reason why I throw houston in that mix is because they have a lot of young talent that they don't even play right now.

Ray shepherd one. Um. Cam whitmore gets very little playing time and there's still a lot of like duplicity in their lineups, in their roster, with the tari easons of the world, the jaguari smith juniors of the world um, how much, how much uh development can we get out of ahman thompson, you know, with the, the plethora of wings that we have, and we haven't even talked about dylan brooks and where he fits into this mix. So if you want to kind of remove a little bit of the clutter, clean up your payroll sheet a little bit, and here's the best part. It's not like you have to give them every draft pick or every player. You can say, hey, listen, we got three tiers. We got tier a, tier b, tier c. You can have a player from each one of these and you can have draft picks. But you're not gonna bleed this completely because they have so much.

Now, if this was a situation where it's another team, now who would benefit for having a Giannis Antetokounmpo at 30 years of age, who's such a hard worker? What have you? Hmm, oh, the san antonio spurs san antonio. Now there's a little bit of dilemma here. I don't know about dearon fox. When it comes to this situation, no shade on dearon. But san anton Antonio has the second overall pick. We'll get to that a little bit later. But if you could pair Wimby and Giannis together, I mean it would break synergy. You know I'm saying like I don't know. It would be just amazing type of situation. But San Antonio, to me, is another team that I would think would fit that whole deal.

Now people say, oh, you wouldn't trade them to a team in the East. That's just, that's crazy. No, I don't care about all that man, I'm trying to get the best deal possible. I don't care about who I'm trading them to and whatever. I'm trying to make sure my team is set for down the road. So who's a team on the East that you could go ahead and kind of see what's out there and whatever the case may be?

Huh, well, you know, brooklyn is always, you know, romanticizing about big stars and whatever, because they're trying to basically bite into the new york knicks market. I don't know why, because the new york knicks are just like awesome. So like, don't do that. Go back to jersey. I don't know why y'all went to brooklyn no offense to brooklyn but y'all like the Dicks too. So I don't know what we're doing now.

If you want to get real crazy, you want to get loco, so you want to get loco on the cabeza. Let's like send Giannis to Atlanta. Oh yeah, we can get the light skin. Like send Giannis to Atlanta, oh yeah, we can get the light-skinned R&B singer out of Atlanta. Okay, right, and we bring in Giannis. And now we got Giannis with Jalen Johnson and Emeka Kongu. And now I want to see people try to score on that no-fly zone. Right Now, your guard situation. You're going to have to figure that out, but between Dyson, daniels, giannis Antetokounmpo, jalen Johnson and Okongwu I don't think anybody really scoring on that team. So if Atlanta can get in the mix, let's go. And Okongu I don't think anybody really scoring on that team. So if Atlanta can get in the mix, let's go. Let's go Now. Yeah, dallas is out We'll talk about that in a second but at the end of the day, milwaukee is in a favorable position.

You're, you have a, you have a star who, honestly, I don't think we're going to see more development out of. What you see out of is probably the zenith of what he's going to be. It is great and, do not get me wrong, it is a physical specimen package to behold, most certainly. But at the end of the day, if you want to really be honest about this, how much longer can he do what he does at the level he does, with the physicality he has to take on every single night? Are you betting? Are you? I think you're getting on the on the wrong side of history if you think that he's going to be able to do this for like five more years at the, at the veracity that he does it at? Just my opinion now, if you're sitting there and saying I want everything to go right. I just this to me is no way out, and I think now, now we get need to get to what the most important thing is what's going on with this draft man? What is going on? You wanted fairness. You wanted the odds to matter.

This wasn't a draft lottery, this was its own storyline. And the heel turn was wrapped in ping pong balls. Vince mcmahon couldn't have booked this even better himself. Now, listen, vince got a lot of stuff in his closet, but that undertaker stuff that was, we believe, for a long period of time.

Utah sent home Empty handed, washington Exiled. Brooklyn Pushed down to irrelevance yet again and then, like a corporate champion Getting crowned, dallas, with a 1.8 chance, walks out with cooper flag. They get the number one overall pick. San antonio again is in the top two. San Antonio again is in the top two. And Philly, who fumbled their way into this particular pick because of oh, we don't let Joel and we come back off a surgery last year. Oh, we think it's okay for Joel and we to play in the Olympics. Oh, we think it's okay for Joel LB to eat big macs and whatever the case may be, and I really care about his health and all this sort of thing. Oh, he's injured. Oh man, that's surprising, is it? It's wild philly ends up.

Third, and the funny part about it is that the way it was explained by people that was in the room is how it works, is that they go from the top. So in the TV product they go from 14 to 1. And the actual draft room it's 1 to 14. So they know who's the number one overall, who has the number one overall, like right away, like all the entry that sucked out the room. So the funny part, if you look at how it felt, dallas goes one, which is improbable but it did happen. San San Antonio goes 2.

And then Sam Presti, who's in the room, who has no business being in the room, had a 36% chance to get a top 7 pick, or like a top or a lottery pick, because all Philly had to do was end up out of the top 6. Well, with the first two, with the first two ping-pong balls or whatever the case may be, the two entrances, it looked like Philly had fallen out of the top, the top six, because two teams had pushed their way up into the top of the draft. So Cresty's getting like okay, and like people in Philadelphia, people from Philadelphia that were in the room were just like, oh man, we're, we are so toast. And then they pop up with the third overall and like relief has set in, they're like, oh my god, thank you. They're just like, thank you, so much.

So it was a wild, wild situation and, and let's call it best for business, a golden boy for Dallas, a partner for Wendy and one more storyline to keep Philadelphia Phillies gaslight era alive. So let's, let's kind of get the chain of events set a little bit. Well, everybody knows what happened, but let's, they didn't pull, they didn't pull a quick, they pull a heist. Nico harrison doesn't even show up. They send rolando blackman uh, face like stone. He was just so cool under pressure. And then just the elation towards the end was crazy. I loved it.

And somehow Dallas post Luca lands the most marketable, malleable and white American ready prospects since larry bird flag is a ncaa leader. In box plus minus he shot 38.5 percent from the land of three. I hate this stat, but I'll let. I'll let it fly top per among non-centers in his only year of college, hollinger called john hollinger of the athletic, called cooper flag. Undeniable wasney then called him a Vi reset and Dallas, they're holding the remote man. They're just sitting there going like, yeah, we got it, we're back.

What's Flag? What's his comp? Well, it's gonna be a lot of moxie, a lot of headiness, but he got a lot of stuff to him too. Got a lot of moxie, a lot of headiness, but he got a lot of. He got a lot of stuff to him too. Got a lot attitude. So, oh man, there's such a weird cop. If shane badier could be more of a like a shane badier, blake griffin like, like melded together. If you put Blake Griffin with Shane Battier, cooper flag, right, that's what I think about when I think of Cooper flag. I will put this.

I'll put it this way it wasn't just that Dallas got their pick, because it was amazing. You go from the worst odds, the worst odds, to the penthouse. So either there was some good karma going on or somebody was told something. There was something I don't know. I mean I think LeBron said it best when he was on the Pat McAfee show. He was like so the year I come out, I'm like 30 minutes away from Cleveland. I grew up in Akron.

Lo and behold, cleveland gets the first overall pick. I kind of knew the assignment. I'm not saying, listen, y'all do whatever y'all want with that. I don't know, I don't have any real tangible evidence to give you on that, but I'm also a big believer. There wasn't one shooter in the in the john f kennedy assassination either. So you take it for whatever you, whatever it was worth.

So at the end of the day, not only does dallas get the number one overall pick, san antonio is sitting here just building just like this incredible roster. So two years ago they get victor win by yama. So you get like a generational talent. Keep in mind, this is the same team, the same franchise that got tim duncan and then got like, hey, got david robertson in the past, right, right. So they get Victor Wiyama. Alright.

So very next year they get Stephon Castle, who the last time we had watched him play basketball he was winning the national championship for the UConn Huskies, being just disruptive and this connecting piece on offense. Then he turned out to be like that and more when we saw him towards the end of this season in the NBA. So now they get another pick. They got the second overall pick, and then again we talk about Philadelphia and Philadelphia sitting there. And if you were worried about the talent level and will Embiid ever play again, or this, that and the other, whatever you was feeling. I mean this is a pretty damn good consolation prize To sit there and go. Okay, we got Tyrese and Maxie, we saw enough out of McCain last year and now we get the third overall pick this year. Pretty hey, worked out for you guys. Worked out.

Sounds like an Ocean's type um screen play, but I don't know how they pulled this off. I don't know how the nba pulled this off and they're gonna tell us that this was all just by the book. Okay, um, whoo. I'm not gonna say it's rigged, but uh, I mean is, are we putting like cooper flag on on landman anytime soon? What does he already have? A, a guest or a guest appearance on land man? Man, I'm gonna tell you right now the white American marketing revival. The league didn't know it needed and maybe it did. Washington land brave will be preaching from the high heavens.

Jokic Holmgren, and now Flagg. It's about to be perception and the league sees value in flipping the script on who gets celebrated. It's gonna be great, man. Oh, here's the other thing. We got Cooper Flagg in Dallas and and we got Victor Wing Bayama in San Antonio, whoo, and then you know, listen, we don't need to not throw, listen. Houston deserves love. They deserve love. You deserve love. Houston, you were the second seed in the West. You still got a lot of picks. You still got a lot of stuff going on, a lot of talent that's not playing right now. You can do something big too, so you might be closer to the top than all the rest of them.

This isn't a deep draft. Holland jerks called it a donut draft. Tasty up top, hollow inside. And dallas, you just did. You just won the number one overall pick because you're gonna get the iq of the iq of a, just a ninja with flag in transition. He has elbow hub passing capabilities. He can defend two through five easily. You don't build a system around this guy. You let him slide into any system and you just let him work and adjust. Dallas isn't rebuilding, they're just rebranding.

We love all of what has happened here, the drama or the non drama of this whole situation. What else do we know? We know some. We know some some other stuff going on. Okay, um, that was a horrible injury that happened to jason tatum, ruptured achilles. Um out for, obviously the playoffs, but he's out for the whole entire year next year and you know we'll get into later what this actually means for the team and where they go from here. But we wanted to acknowledge that. Yeah, man shouts out to Jason Tatum man, we just wish you a squeaky recovery, my guy. And what a tough right. And just they're going, they're going for, they're going for a second, a repeat. Now Nix will tell you there's some other stuff that was about to happen, but we will see some real sliding doors stuff happening this over this last three or four days. You know real sliding door actions In the NBA, things that evolved around this podcast, all kinds of stuff.

I know that right now Adam Silver is loving what he is seeing. He is absolutely loving it. You got Flagg and Wimby going up against each other for years to come. Who knows what Philly is going to do with that pick and how they are going to use it to kind of kickstart whatever they got going on. So it should be interesting and speaking of interesting a team, a team that won 64 games home court advantage all throughout the playoffs and yet cleveland season ends in five games. Why? Because when the lights go up. Why? Because when the lights go up, the backcourt blueprint falls apart. Garland disappears, mitchell goes solo and no one closes the gap. Meanwhile, tyrese Halliburton just ran a clinic in rhythm, vision and shot selection.

Indiana has an identity in Cleveland. Well, they have a number sheet, so we'll see who is built for me and who is built for memes. Let's get into it. Indiana's identity is real. It's pace, purpose and poise. Halliburton had 31 points. He had 8 assists. He had 6 rebounds. He shot 66% shooting. He shot 60% from the land of 3. He had elite live dribbling decision-making. Siakam was absolutely killing people on the backside reads from the elbow mismatches and also rim rotation triggers. Our guy Nimhar was a low-usage guard doing high leverage work.

This team was disconnected and credit to Rick Carlisle who didn't allow this team to get too big for his britches and go ahead and put the hammer down, because they could have very easily walked into cleveland and said, okay, if we lose this, we go back home, win it and then it's all over. But no, they put their foot down and just said no, we, we ended right here on your home court and you have to watch us celebrate. Now I'll put it. I'll do it this way. I know Pacers fans believe, but us, us in the media or the digital media we didn't give the Pacers enough love or enough credit for what they did last year. Right, everybody saw the little thing On ESPNn, all of their analysts, and what have you picked? Cleveland in some variation. I think it was 11-0 cleveland. Nobody picked indiana to win at all. I mean, at the end of the day, indiana just going and just thumping. Cleveland shows two things one, we underestimated what indiana was and two, and I think we'll get to this going down, were we right, were we right, let's get to it now.

So Mitchell and Garland Are an incredible dynamic backcourt in the regular season. Let's look at this Offensive rating 121.7. That's first Net rating, positive 9.5. Now let's get to garland game 5, 4 of 16. He has zero free throw attempts. Donovan mitchell 35 points, one assist and four turnovers. Oh, max Strews zero for nine field goals, no rebounds, point of attack, defense collapse. Staggered actions can't work if defenders go under every screen. Mobley was good but can't erase constant dribble connotation. Somebody has to help him. He didn't get any of that. And this is what happens when your best creator is 6'1" and your wings don't bend defenses.

Cleveland has been trying to skip the hard part, but building the actual identity now in the east has passed them by. Who goes first, garland or Mitchell? Yep, it was cute last year, it was damn cute last year. And you would say, oh Vince, you're being reactionary. Well, here's the thing if you react now, you might be able to course correct and figure out who you need to keep and keep yourself viable for like contention of actually winning the championship in the next two or three years. But if you keep this same formulas Together and you keep on trying the same thing Over and over again and like making little little changes Around the margin, like this is going to help, like it's not going to make Donovan Mitchell Larger than six foot two and it's not going to make Darius Garland Bigger than six foot one, it's not gonna make Darius Garland bigger than six foot one. That is the issue.

We got Aaron Neesmith out here putting up 17 points, 13 rebounds. Now he had five fouls, but he was 100% hustle. He just he disrupted Mitchell a lot on the glass and cut off baseline drives constantly. He didn't need the ball to swing the game at all. This man outplayed Max Struess by simply existing because he didn't stand, still kept moving, kept moving and the way he attacked the defense through his movement was impressive. To watch people to watch him do that and watch how the defensive, the defensive rotations react to that situation.

Where do we go from here? Cleveland, like where do we go? You could tell me that you want to get rid of one of the bigs too. You could do that as well. But I still think you know, and I know, we need to upgrade that guard position Somehow, someway. One of these guards need to either grow to 6'5" real quick, or you go out and get somebody who is 6'5". You know what I'm saying. 6'6 would be even more optimal and it's hard to lose a Donovan Mitchell. But we'll see how it all goes.

And we should shout out Indiana again, because the story this week is one team found its rhythm and one team lost its core. Like always in May, it wasn't the square sheet that told the truth, it was the pace, the poise and the people. And if you looked at Tyrese Halliburton, pascal Siakam, aaron Neesmith, the TJ McConnell situation, miles Turner played with so much passion and pride. This team was together. It was just galvanized by all it went through last year and all it went through earlier in the season. And when they caught their stride they were ready to go. Keep in mind what was it Cleveland was 35 and 15. Last 50, indiana was 34 and 16, not that big of a difference.

Now to a number one seed that is out here trying to show us the way systems fail. First, nine stars okay, see, didn't out talent denver. In game five they outstructured them. Sga was calm, hartenstein was loud in the paint. Yokich did everything, did everything he could. He dropped 44 and still got nothing. That's about the heart of it. That's the broken infrastructure. The rebellion isn't coming, it's already in the room.

Let's get into what went down. Gang 5, okc Denver. Let's talk to what went down Game 5. Okc Denver let's talk to you about it. Let's go through some of the big players in this game right now. Sga 31 points, 7 assists Lived in the mid-range. Of course he did Killer drop step. Never panic, always look like yo dude. We got these fools right where we want them. Okc closed the fourth quarter 34-19. Jaylen williams chipped in with 18 points, nine rebounds and four assisters. He was very charitable, so, showing that wing initiation, he was more decisive, decisive than the denver guards, hardenstein and check combined for 29 points, 15 rebounds, two blocks. Caruso's 13 points and three of six from three-point land is ridiculous. And also team mind deflections, because that's what Caruso does.

Denver Stars trying to hit home runs and okay, see role players just just hitting counters? Okay, okay, sees assist. The pass ratio was fourth, eight to one. That's trust basketball. Every pass led to something because they kept moving and they trust everybody. They kind of just give their guys this, um, this empowerment, which is incredible. It's just, it's literally the exact opposite stuff that went on in Denver and we'll get to that right now.

So Jokic was 44 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists. He shot the ball 25 times. He was 17-25. So damn efficient. The bench scoring they were 4-12. Or 4 20 field goals. So they shot the ball at a 20% clip. Michael Porter Jr 2 points, 1 of 7 field goals. Jamal Murray showed up. You know what I'm saying. Like, listen, I don't care how many field goal attempts you have to shoot, it's like yo, I am not gonna allow us to lose. He scored 28 points. He did shoot a lot 27 field goal attempts. He was 3 of 13 from, uh, the land of three with two air balls. No lineup with brown, watson or westbrook had a positive box plus minus since game three.

Yokish looked tired, he looked alone and he looked desolate, and mpj looked like he had got dial up wi-fi. When they needed fiber optic spacing, you provided nothing like nothing no rebounding, no physicality, just you just standing out there shooting threes dog. It's not working. It's not working. That's gonna be the situation. And can they even upgrade that situation? That's gonna be crazy. This team never addressed change. They're addicted to cohesion and not adoption. And that was from. That was from Soraya. You know, the jewel from Soraya.

I think now we can talk about Ant. We gotta talk about the Celtics a little bit, we gotta talk about Caruso, and then what else? We gotta talk about couple more things. But got to talk about Couple more, couple more things. But I want to talk about something that was like really weird in this, in this uh little stretch of games that we watched, and this is the thing that I just could not understand. Michael Porter Jr makes like $43 million, right, he has a back injury. We all know Limitations. What have you had some surgery in Denver. We didn't know.

He comes back heroically, plays well, he showed some physicality when they won the championship he comes back heroically, plays well, he shows some physicality when they won the championship because he was rebounding at a high level. But that guy has seemed to disappear. I don't know where that guy is. He just broke out. I would like to see him back next year. We will see Sherea put it in the chat year.

We will see. Sure, a I put in chat. She was like it's Chet secretly better than a, better, big than Evan Mobley, a little bit better right now than Chet. But hey, if Chet continues to have the run that he's having, maybe not, maybe not. Well, here's the thing. You know, if you win game five, the chances of you winning the actual series is oh, you know, pretty much is a lock. And they just look like they have more answers to To Denver's questions. They just have multiple answers Like oh yeah, I think your multiple choice Like this can be all the above. We got all these answers, so we will see.

I still love Jokic. I love the way he plays. I think in a game 6. With his back up against the wall he might be able to will them To another victory. But I think in a game six, with his back up against the wall. He might be able to will them to another victory, but I think in game seven, okc would end up winning that. So, but they still got to play the games right Because, we don't know, might be one injury away. Hate to say that, but we just saw it with Boston. Just saw it and it sucked. Some games aren't just losses, they're closing statements.

In game four. Game four felt like a eulogy no stuff, no structure, no symmetry. Golden state didn't just fall off rhythm, they forgot how to cook. And Minnesota. Minnesota didn't blink. Not this version, not the Wolves who showed up last night. It wasn't even about the score, it was about the feel. Golden State felt like leftovers and Minnesota looked like they were the chefs.

This is what Soraya had to say. Wolves aren't, aren't chaos anymore. Their choreography, their prep, they rotate, they play and that's it. That's the headline. In the third quarter the Wolves were plus 22. That's not a run, that's a message.

The Warriors shot were 29% from three. They had 11 assists from their starters. That's a team that was stuck in the walk-in freezer with no flame. You know the warrior system curls, cuts motion without stuff. It was just kaminga just staring in the space and draymond just pump faking at ghosts minnesota. They just didn't just execute, they showed patience. They shot 47% from three. That's at a deliberate pace. This was a playoff composed, not your regular season flair.

This one's brutal in the best way. You can't run a system when no one believes in the ingredients. Ooh, golden State offense looked like they had forgotten the recipe cards and Kamingo was out there trying to be a chef. But the kitchen was missing everything, all the ingredients, and it's easy to say that Steph makes it all work. Well, last night, a team that didn't just miss Steph, they depended on him like a crutch in Minnesota. They just passed him flat out.

I seen Minnesota play exciting ball before, but this was different. This was clean, not loud, not desperate. They didn't force, they trusted the system. Like they knew dinner was coming and they just had to finish prep. So shout out to Soraya. She called this one before tip. She said this is the night the wolves stopped being fun and started being real. And damn, if it didn't just happen in front of everybody's eyes. That wasn't just a game for blout, it was a transition record scratch moment for the warriors. Look cooked wolves, look complete.

One team out there was playing to survive. The other was played in courses and saying check, please. The one thing that you did see is that if cominga is gonna score 30 points, that's gonna be a situation where maybe he will create some asset. All I can say is that the wolves they did so well. They didn't overextend, they rotated smart, they kept bodies in front of everybody and every single one of their perimeter guys, from mcdaniels to edwards, treated the ball like it was a stone plate, like, hey, get your hands off that man, that's not yours, that's mine. That's how you win. That's how you win. That's how you get it done. It's not with flair, it's with clarity. You let the other team spiral while you just keep, just keep doing what you're doing.

Minnesota understood the moment. Golden state was trying to find the flavor, the wolves already reducing their sauce, and the scary part is the wolves didn't even just respond, they just dictated we can out, physical you anytime we want, we can expect the energy and then we can absorb it and then be able to give it back to you. Oh, you matches with Jonathan Kaminga with a pop Ram pressure, two early buckets and then even Draymond chirping like it's 2017 again, but after a minute seven, it was like someone hit, hit the deep freeze. Huh, it was just. Oh, it's quiet over there. Here's what happened Warriors one assist in the final five minutes of the first quarter. Zero pain touches in the final three minutes that's not fatigue, that's a lockdown.

Minnesota put the clamps on early off ball. They were surgical. Mcdaniels took away lift and space conley sniffed out every second side skip. And here's the number that should scare all the teams 82% of the Warriors jumper in the first quarter were contested. That's not hand-in-the-face stuff, that's like chest on hip discipline. We talking about real defense. Now. Golden state felt them all night.

Julius randall, who was much maligned early in the season, took over for a three minute stretch that flipped the entire zone. It wasn't hero ball, not post phase reads, elbow catches, short rolls, purposeful decoys. It was the kind of play that we hadn't seen out of him in trust about years. I'll say it like this this was the first time randall looked like a system player and not a system breaker. He was in sync with all of it. Minnesota takes a commanding 3-1 lead. We go back for game 5 and we will see how this goes down. It should go down pretty interesting.

You know how I am with this situation. I love Steph, know I don't. You know how I am with this situation. I love steph, but I don't think there's anything at this point he could do to make this right. You know, I think we're at this point where gonsei has shown a heart of a champion, but they just don't have enough. They don't have enough players To answer what Ant and what Julius Randle and the rest of the cats Can bring to them at this present time. So it's unfortunate, but it's kind of where we are At this point. So Now the one last thing I do want to talk. Talk about.

I want to talk about the knicks real quick now. We kind of got on the jason tatum situation with the ruptured achilles. It sucks. We will talk about his money situation in one second, but let's not, let's not overshadow what the Knicks were doing before Tatum got injured. You scored 39 in the first quarter and you're thinking blowout right, but Boston offense fell off a cliff for the next 24 minutes. Why? Because the Knicks didn't panic, they tightened the screws 24 minutes. Why? Because the Knicks didn't panic, they tightened the screws. So the second and third quarter they had 51 points combined. The second half Knicks 70 points plus 19 in the margin, so they were 70-51. Brunson scored 39 points at 12 assists. Og Bridges and Cat total control of their game. It was surgical what they did to them, and this is literally before the Tatum injury. Now we get to the Tatum injury. Now we get to the tatum injury. It sucks for boston. We can go here and we can talk about well, they could do this, they could do this, they could do this.

There's a couple things I want to talk about right now. Unfortunately, we live in an era where the salary cap that was put in place was put in place by the owners, and the reason why they put them there is because they didn't trust themselves. They didn't trust that they could be efficient enough to say, hey, this is the discipline, this is what we think this player is worth, this is our you know model. We're gonna stay true to our model. And they, they can't do it. They just can't do it. So what they've done is they basically put a hard cap on themselves. Now you they'll tell you it's not a hard cap, but basically that's what it is. Now, how it works is this you have a situation right now that Brad Stevens is about to be in. Okay, because if we go into next year and everything stays the same? Now we understand that Jason Tatum is hurt. We understand that he is going to be out for the entire season. That doesn't mean that his salary goes away. It's a guaranteed salary.

So with the, the luxury tax, with the apron penalties, and you know bonus, you know the, the, what is it? The? Uh, when it go retroactive and now it shoots up more or whatever, you're looking at a 500 plus million dollar payroll payroll. Now let's get real. The celtics are in cap hill, tatum's out ruptured achilles and that is 12 to 14 months rehab. Meanwhile their payroll next year is well to cost a half a billion dollars when you include all the tax penalties. So, tatum, $59 million kicks in next year. Jalen is making $54 million. Holiday Porzingis, white and Horford add up to $90 million.

Second apron penalties plus tax $500 plus million. And the second apron isn't just the luxury tax, it's a strategic lockbox. No mid level, no salary trade knows. Oh, no salary trades. No buyout. Boston's are frozen. So basically, what this is is telling you what they are in. So they, they get no mid-level taxpayer exception when you are at the second apron, also no salary trade.

So what that means is that if you take somebody off your books for $30 million, you need to get somebody back for $30 million. You need to get somebody back for 30 million dollars. Um, the other thing is is that you can't um aggregate salaries, meaning you can't stack salaries on top of one another. You can't take like four or five dudes and say, okay, these guys are worth 20 million dollars and give us your 20 million dollar guy, or vice versa. So if somebody wanted to give you, you wanted to take Jalen Brown off your team, take that $54 million. They couldn't bring you four players back that were worth $54 million. No, it had to be one for one, or whatever the case may be. So it all depends on where that other team is and where you are, but boston has no flexibility whatsoever, so keep this in mind now.

With that being said, let's go on. What do you do? You got jalen as a lead scorer. Can you lean on a holiday and porzingis and white and ride out the tatum injury? A lot of people will sit here and be like, oh you're, you're nuts and whatever. Okay, if jalen brown is 54 million dollars, right, and depending on what the other team is as far as their salary cap situation? Could you put yourself in a position where you kind of get like a reboot, taking off Jalen Brown's salary and maybe getting like, I don't know, 30 cents on the dollar 40, 45 cents on the dollar 40, 45 cents on the dollar, whatever?

There's a reason for this, because I'm not stopping there because people want to sit there and go like, hey, what's, what's what? What could we like really do? Well, if jason is, jason tatum isn't there, like drew holidays effectiveness and derrick white effectiveness is not as great as it would be, um, you know, without jason tatum. So if you're already thinking about jalen brown leaving, you may as well think of drew holiday and derrick white and you go. Well, vince, that's basically the team and there's a point for this. You got your own pick in 2026 and AJ DeVasta is sitting out there, there's also a guard and also one of the Boozer twins is a top five dude as well. So we know that next year's draft is pretty stacked as well as far as talent.

Is this a way where you can kind of have, like, jason Tano come back and then have this crazy superior athlete type dude depending on who you end up getting. And listen, you don't have to fully, fully tank because you're real good and missoula is a really, really good coach, but if we took some of the weapons away from him, how good would he be? And if we can kind of reset the whole, if we can kind of reset the whole salary cap situation, get ourselves financially solvent again. And listen, I know that the billionaires who own the Celtics now have a ton of money. That's not the question. The question is that you want the flexibility, you want the franchise flexibility, you want the asset flexibility that you currently do not have and you cannot get Because of your tax implications and things of that nature. So you know, I understand that it would hurt, but is there a possibility for kind of a?

Okay, we really like Peyton Pritchard. Is there any way that we can see if he's a lead guard type situation? Do you make a judgment call between Derek White and Drew Holiday? Do you trade Drew Holiday because he's the older one? Call between Derek White and Drew Holiday. Do you trade Drew Holiday because he's the older one and keep Derek White and say, okay, I'm gonna have a backcourt of Peyton Pritchard and Derek White as we go through this transition and we end up getting rid of Jalen Brown and maybe Drew Holiday and Sam Houser. Is that the way you go? You know you keep some of the old leadership.

As far as the Al Horford's and you know Porzingis, you know, even if he never really gets right, I think what we into, what last year? Next year is his walk year, so you could literally walk out of 2026 2027 without porzingis, without horford, and, depending on where the ping pong balls fall, you can end up with one of the top five draft picks, as we saw this year. It was super nuts, head scratcher, to be sure, and if you feel like you might be one of those team that might end up in that situation and you can find yourself out of that situation with a couple shrewd moves, maybe this is where Brad Stevens Shows his Danny Ainge-ness and creates the next iteration Of the Celtics dynasty. It is Wishful thinking On the part of this podcaster, for sure. Especially, that's a very Pretty positive outlook For the Boston Celtics.

For somebody who Absolutely cannot stand the Boston Celtics, but I am sad for what has gone on. I'm sad for all Celtics fans out there, because this is this is not how you want it to end. This is definitely the way you know. You want your team to go out like, hey, we gotta, we have a chance, we have a puncher's chance and let's see what happens. But when your main guy goes down, and he is here.

Here's what I'll say about jason tatum. I never looked at him as like a top five dude, but the one thing I will say is that there's nothing wrong with like top eight, like there's nothing wrong with that, and he's such a good dude like there. He never gets in trouble, he's always on. You don't hear any nonsense coming about jason tatum. Everything's good, and it sucks to hear that this guy, with the professionalism that he shows every single day and that's the standard that he sets for that team to see him go out like this was really hard to see. So my condolences to all Celtics fans, fans out there. Speedy recovery, jason tatum.

And, with that being said, the best part of you is you. Now, hopefully, you have the support of others that will uplift you. Give you the strength that you need throughout the week and, uh, give you that affirmation that that you so long to look for. Now, if you got people like that in your life, you need to acknowledge them. You need to celebrate them. You know, if you can reach out and touch them, hug them, text them, facetime them, do whatever you need to do, but show them that you are appreciating them. And if you are this kind of well grounded individual and you are trying to find a squad, look no further than Frontrunner Podcast Collective. We will always have a seat open for you, because you seem like a very open-minded hoop. You know a hoop head, hoop analogist person. We love you. We want to make sure that we give you the best podcast we could possibly give you. Shouts out to Soraya and all that she does. Shouts out to my boy, vance. Thank you, player, appreciate you and we will see you on this feed on Friday. Dos.