Jalen Brown Trade Shockwave: NBA Free Agency

Free Agency Chaos Opens

What's up everybody? It's Front Runner Podcast Collective. We are talking about all the free agent happenings that are going on. We got a little bit of breaking news, and we'll talk about that in a moment, but let's get to the rundown. LeBron James told the Lakers he's out. He ended an eight-year marriage with a group text energy that is still has their three franchises pretending that they didn't see it. So now he left his son in Los Angeles, you know, so there's that. Kawhi Leonard is also on the move, but it's kind of a back to the future situation, and we'll get into that uh later. And then we just have basically a cornucopia of moves that have happened. But the one thing that we want to talk about, and we're gonna get into it momentarily, is the breaking news of Jalen Brown getting traded, and it was so interesting where he got traded to and what he got traded to for, so that will be the first topic that we go ahead and hit. But as far as free agency as a whole, we have some hits and some misses that we'll get to, and I can't wait to talk about them. And what do you do when your guard room, your lead ball handlers, you have too many of them, and we'll get to that story a little bit later. But before we do all that, here's the one thing about NBA free agency that nobody says out loud. It doesn't move like a river, it moves like a heart monitor. You get 48 hours of pure unadulterated just move after move, but it doesn't come out just like that. It comes out in a way where it's drips, drabs, and what have you, and then there's a deluge of information and moves that happen. Now, with that being said, what goes on from there is then you're left in the rubble of what has just happened, and that's what we'll get to momentarily. You are locked in with FRPC, let's get into it. What's good everybody, and welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective. This is where we talk like friends, we argue like cousins, and we still walk out smarter than we came in. I am Vince, your host, occasional hoop therapist, an absolute favorite bad influence when it comes to completely reckless NBA overreactions that low-key make perfect sense. We are setting the table, we get into the film room observations, we have grown conversations about players, coaches, front offices, and actually what is moving the needle in the NBA. We talk about the contracts, we talk about the locker room rumors, and also the PR spin from those lovely PR people in the front in the uh offices of these franchises. So, we also like to make sure that we get these jokes off along with the advanced math and the exact bombershop ammo that you need to take straight to your group chat and completely nuke the argument. If you are NBA sicko who wants more than a highlight talk, and you want context and numbers and a point of view, then this is your slot. This is FRPC, and let's go.

Jalen Brown To Philly Bombshell

I told you we had something big, we had something marinating, and we're gonna talk about it right now. Jalen Brown has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers of all places, and you ask, well, Vince, what did they get? And I know if you're sicko, you got your shams notifications on and what have you, but Paul George coming to the Celtics. And I'm gonna say this right now. This only makes sense if Boston decided that he was unmanageable, meaning Jalen Brown. Ten years, five all-star games, a finals MVP, also an Eastern Conference MVP, and also a year where you didn't have Jason Tatum. You know, that that's a very important situation. Uh, we went into last year thinking that the Celtics were going to suck. We thought this was a gap year. We thought maybe they would play themselves into the lottery. And Jalen Brown and Joe Mazzula was were not having this whatsoever. Jalen Brown played like an absolute man. He held that team together along with his teammates. You know, give credit to where credit is due. Peyton Pritchard had great games and they got great production from their bench and what have you. But Jalen Brown was the head of the snake, and he held that team together. So the Celtics in their front office, head by Brad Stevens, had decided that Jalen Brown's attitude going forward was probably going to be an issue, and they weren't willing to manage it, manage it anymore. And because of the pure roster construction, this trade doesn't even add up any other way. So here's the trade, and you tell me, this is what Boston receives. They receive Paul George, a 28, a 2028 first round pick, to convert to a Boston favorable swap, 2031 unprotected Philadelphia first round pick, a 2028 second round pick, most favorable of Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee, and a 2030 second-round pick, most favorable of Washington, Portland, and Phoenix. And what does Philadelphia receive? Jalen Brown. Coming off his best statistical season of his career and also Jalen Brown's personal favorite year that he has ever had, he felt that this was his most favorite season because of the fact that he can just go crazy with the ball. So Boston spent most of June trying to send Brown to Milwaukee, as we know, part of the Giannis Ante Tacumpo trade. When Giannis chose or and Milwaukee Brass chose to go to Miami and what they were giving back, Boston didn't scrap the plan of trading Jalen Brown. They just found a different taker. As a couple of the talent evaluators and scouts in the league have said, uh, you run this through a real evaluation, and the tension is exactly where it should be between an elite talent and character red flags, and that tension is the story. After Boston, the first round elimination, Brown vented on Twitch that the league had an agenda against him, and more than more tellingly, called this disappointing. The Tatumless season, um, his favorite year, which we know that's something that came out of that, and we had weeks on weeks of talking about it. I wish I was here for that. I wish I was present for that. I would have had jokes off on the regular on that. Now his uh Celtic career is over. Um and over the actual the thing that I loved about his statement, and this is where everybody came up, this is where everybody came together on. You're telling me you like this particular season, the one where Tatum wasn't there, over your actual championship season. And to me, I think that was the the the red flag that Brad Stevens could not choke down anymore. I think that was really the end, that was the beginning of the end, but I think that was the final nail in the coffin. So, does he have an issue with culture ability? Not really. Is it his talent? No, it doesn't cancel his production, but exactly the kind of signal that shows up in files right before the front office moves on from a player, it still values on the court. The Brown situation, he was being shopped in Giannis talks in June. It wasn't invisible to him. The player in Brown's caliber knows when he's being used as a base package in a star swap. That message Well, a trade will trade you for the right star, and once a locker room hears that, going back to business as usual is rarely clean, especially in the uh with the with the information that was out there that Jalen Brown had put out. The organization likely got its answer about going forward with the relationship well before the Philadelphia call came in. And with this being said, this is a real open question. He didn't escape the co-star situation, he walked into one that's arguably shakier than the one he left in Bede's health, right? And his unreliable years of service to the Philadelphia 76ers, the ascension of Tyrese Maxie, who's a ball-dominant league guard, who needs touches to be effective. If anything, Brown may have ended up playing the exact role he played in Boston. The guy who was who had to carry the operation when he with higher usage co-star is out, except now with a franchise that has a center whose health is even less certain than Tatum's recovery time turned out to be. And if Brown

Culture Red Flags Versus Talent

wanted to be the guy, unambiguously, this isn't obviously that. Now, let's get into the numbers. This is what Philadelphia is getting, okay? And I think Philadelphia fans are going to be really excited. I think they know who they're getting in our guy, Jalen Brown, but let's give it to you straight. 28.7 points a game, damn near seven rebounds a game and five assists. He was all NBA second team. Some people would uh tell you that he should have been all NBA first team for the season that he put up, with Tatum not being there for most of the season and the Celtics winning 56 games. So, that is the Jalen Brown side of the leisure. Let's go to the Boston side of the leisure. Who are they getting? Well, they're getting Paul George. And if you want to base it on the 37 games that he played, 17.3 points a game, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists over a 37-game period. Now, was he limited by his knee surgery? Yes, he is. Did he have a 25-game suspension of uh testing positive for PEDs? He sure did. So why is this where we are? Put those two those two stat lines next to one another, and then you take into consideration Paul George's age. What doesn't add up? Why is this if he was if he was in a deal for Giannis, right? If Jalen Brown was in that deal, you're telling me that you couldn't extract more from Portland, who was also after him, where he probably would have ended up being the guy there. I love Denny Abdia. I love his ascension in Portland. I'm actually happy for Danny Abdia that he now doesn't have to go through this, but if you wanted to trade him to a place where maybe you can extract more compensation as in actual on-the-court talent and maybe a little l little more draft capital, maybe Portland was a uh a fine choice. Could you have traded him to Atlanta, where his hometown is? Now, Quinn Schneider and the crew run it down there. They have a guy by the name of Jalen Johnson who's also ascending to stardom. We saw what Nikhil Alexander Walker did down there last year. It was amazing. That guy has just come of age in the last couple years. I mean, I did not see this offensive production coming from Nikil Alexander Walker, but it has happened. Now, you could have could you have made a maybe a three-team trade where maybe Jalen Brown is going somewhere else, and then you get New Orleans involved and Trey Murphy III is moved. I don't know. Quite possibly you could have, but you didn't. At the end of the day, that is not what actually happened. And now we're here with this. And the Brown exodus only makes sense if you believe his makeup going forward had become genuinely unattainable to this front office, and that the one's lens through which any of this is defensible, but strip that away, and you look at only what is on the paper as far as the stats are concerned. Boston traded somebody who is five years younger, right? Who's coming off his best season that he has ever had. You could take it, you could take it for whatever it's worth. This is the one thing I will say. Jalen Brown was the first name on the whiteboard, right? We can all agree to that. That Jalen Brown, when he came into a city, or somebody came into his city, what they were trying to do was stop Jalen Brown. So, what did he do? Obviously, he scored 28 points a game. Now, again, you're trading him for somebody who is 35 years old, coming off knee surgery, which he's had multiple lower limb injuries uh previously, the PED manner, which is not a big deal. I don't even really care about that personally, but he did lose 25 games to that, and what the Celtics are left with is something that is suboptimal, period. This deal is not the best deal that they could have got, or is it? Or is it? I find it hard to believe that an NBA team that is trying to get to that next level. I um you couldn't involve like I mean I wouldn't have done it, I wouldn't have sent him to Indiana, but you couldn't have involved Indiana into this. Phoenix is always looking for talent grab upgrades. There wasn't like a Jalen Green type of situation, Dylan Brooks brings some grittiness to the Boston Celtics and some and some size. The Clippers are adding pieces, and we'll get to them later. Golden State is looking for talent influxes. Now they're also they're also on the hunt for LeBron James, and we'll get into that later. But I really believe that if and let's just talk about it, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, but Kawhi got traded to Toronto, and with all his the his gone on with him in the last six-seven years, to see him for the what the package he got, and we'll we will talk about that,

Why The Celtics Return Feels Light

it really absolutely astonishes me the lack of assets that the Celtics got in the Jalen Brown trade. This is a whiff. This is the first time I can sit here and say that I don't get what Brad Stevens has done. Now, we'll talk about some of his uh pickups that he has picked up in this uh free agency because he did pick up a a big man. So there is that. But we have so much news to get to. That is the top of the thing. I wanted to get that breaking news out to you. Let me know how you guys think. Do you think with me and say, hey, you know what? Vince might be on to something with this deal about you know there's no way he could have come back to Boston because that package is nasty. That's all you got for him. How do Celtics fans feel about this right now? Boston, I want to hear you. I want to hear you from Brockton, from Sharon, from Canton, from Rentham, to uh High Park, to you know, Dorchester, to the Back Bay, out in Chelsea, what's up, Cambridge? I want to feel you. Danvers, how y'all doing? You know what I'm saying? Let me know. Braintree, where y'all at? Brookline, you know, you know what's up. I want to hear from y'all. Let me know what you think about this trade. Did your front office, Dick Brad Stevens, leave some meat on the bone, according to you? Because to me, this smells of we got desperate. Portland felt like they maybe were, you know, you didn't have them on the on the vine, so to speak, as much as you might have thought of, and did just basically the music stock, and there were no chairs left, and you took the Philadelphia deal. Hit us up on X at Frontrunner PC, or you can hit uh the rest of the team up at socially underscore F R PC. I want to know your thoughts.

LeBron Leaves And Kawhi Returns

So let's get into the rest of what has gone on, and we'll start here in LA because two uh monumental um transformative wings are gone from Los Angeles, and we start here. LeBron James has uh told the Lakers that he is no longer wanting to be a Laker. Uh he is at this point, you know, this old news, but he is still unsigned, and his situation is that he is waiting for the teams to settle, and then somebody to make his best offer as far as that's concerned, and then he will go ahead and then make his decision from there. Now he left Los Angeles in a situation where the Lakers had to scramble a little bit, but we'll get to all of what they have done and maybe some thoughts behind what they've done a little bit later in this program. But it's not lost on me that LeBron left, and you know, now you got teams vying for his services. Doesn't it feel like it's deja vu all over again? And at 41 with LeBron turning 42 years of age, this dude still moves the needle like this. I mean, can you believe it? Can you believe like this dude is out here having teams clamor over him at this point in time in his in his career, his illustrious career? We will be checking all Twitter and we will refresh that damn thing until that dude is finally settled in a city. Now we move across town and Kawhi Leonard gets traded to the Toronto Raptors in the trade. The Clippers receive Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, two first round picks, two second round picks, and a title reunion narrative with the Toronto Raptors that basically made the trade mechanics behind this. And basically the headline writes itself. So back to the future we go. Kawhi Leonard goes back to Toronto. Drake can be happy yet again and create singles because Kawhi is back in the six. And we will see how that plays out. Now this has been a a off-season of real change. And obviously we saw we saw this coming, right? Paul George got traded last year. And now Kawhi Leonard is now gone. And the Clippers have moved into a real youth movement. Now, that's the first thing. The second thing is this. Is it a downgrade from Kawhi to Brandon Ingram? No shade on Ingram. But yeah, this is a downgrade. The one thing that Brandon Ingram will uh frustrate your fan base by doing is that he is reluctant to take a bunch of threes. And I'm not saying you gotta take eight threes or anything like that a game. But we need you to take five. You know, and this is something that you know other teams have asked of him. He couldn't they couldn't get him to do it in New Orleans, and they damn sure couldn't get him to do it in Toronto, and spacing was an issue. Now with Darius Butler, I mean, oh my god, I called him Darius Butler, Darius Garland, and Keaton Waggler, who's a rookie, and the rest of the crew with the Clippers. Do you have enough around Brandon Ingram to allow him to continue his mid-range mastery? Or is this dude gonna have to conform and hit some threes? You know what? The jury's still out on that. We will see. Trey Young resigns with the Wizards, he signs four years, $212 million, and we'll get into this later. The salary starts at $49.5 million, and it climbs up to $56.9 million with a player option in 2029 and 2030. Uh, we will see how that works out. He's not the only one getting big deals. Austin Reeves, he hasn't signed it yet, but he has agreed to re-sign with the Lakers, and in that he got a four-year $185 million contract, and we will talk about that later on. The only thing I will tell you is that Draymond Green told on his podcast, told Austin in no uncertain times, that type of money puts huge expectations on you. You are now in the spotlight, you're in the limelight, and you're gonna need to produce at a certain level and stay at a consistency level that you have never been asked to do. So, the I guess the challenge for Austin this year is hey man, can you average 24 points a game? Can you do that consistently? Can you also show up against some of the better opponents out there, which his his numbers come down a little bit when we are talking about some of the best teams out there? He had worse numbers against Oklahoma City, against San Antonio, you know, against Boston and people like that. So we are see we want to see real progress when it comes to Austin Reeves, and we will talk about his team a little bit later in this podcast. Now, Boston wasn't done with the with the trades and what have you, and making making their team reshaping their team. Mitchell Robinson signs a three-year $47 million contract with the Boston Celtics, leaving the New York Knicks, leaving uh Mr. Dolan, who said we are not going into the second acronym. So, a rival plucking a rotation piece off the reigning champions is an automatic headline to fuel on its own. The Knicks can't match it without blowing past the second acronym, which, like we said, James Dolan said we're not doing that. He's publicly come out and said that, and you don't ever say that before the parade, man. What are you doing? But that's James Dolan for you. He does what he wants to do. Boston gives one of the best rebounders, offensive rebounders in the league today. This dude is an absolute just glass eater when it comes to that. And he basically adds a little toughness to that front court that's been lacking that. Now, is he going to shoot? No. And Joe Mazzula is recordedly a fan of Robinson for years because you know, Joe Mazzula watches the town four times a week. He probably looks at Mitchell Robinson and goes, Yep, that dude fits my mode, a type of grit and toughness that I need. Now, here's the other thing with Mitchell Robinson that we all know. He does not shoot free throws. The hacker rod will be on and crack a lack in in Boston. Okay. So if you are a Boston Celtics fan right now, you lost Jalen Brown and you gain Mitchell Robinson, which uh you know, I mean it's good in one way, it's bad in another. And who's the guy who's going to step up beside Jason Tatum? Now you can tell me that you have expectations for Paul George, and that's cute. But really at 35 years of age with all the lower limb injuries, do you really believe that you can sit there and mandate that Paul George play like he did when he was in Indiana, Oklahoma City, or early years with the Clippers? Probably a big ask, especially now at 35.

Big Contracts And Quiet Winners

We move on because Oklahoma City obviously signed their dude, uh Hartenstein, to a three-year, $75 million contract. So his money moves down a little bit, saves them money up against that cap because you know they're coming close to that second apron. Um and some of these deals got done before the Eva Free Agency started. Um CJ McCollum is re-signing, Kobe White is re-signing with the Hornets, and he was part of obviously the bigger story with you know Lamelo Ball going to Minnesota, and now you got Kobe White, who's probably gonna man the league guard situation and get the ball to Con Knipple and also Brandon Miller in Charlotte. So I can't wait to see what that looks like. CJ McCollum had a great year in Atlanta. Once he got traded there, uh he showed up, he showed out, he had a couple great playoff performances before he got shut down by the Knicks, and they say, hey, we gotta stop this dude. Now, Miami, who is just basically trying to puzzle piece this thing together after the Giannis deal, they picked up Tim Hardaway Jr. He signs with the Heat for a one-year contract, six and a half million dollars. Our guy THJ shot 40.7% from three and was a sixth man of the year finalist last season in Miami. Got him basically uh nothing right, they got him for nothing after the Giannis trade, and he will help the spacing that is going to be the issue in South Beach. Our boy Julian Champagne got re-signed, he got re-signed for a three-year deal, a little bit $42 million, so that's about $14 million a year. Annual AAV, you know what I'm saying? Love that for him. And our guy, Jose Alvarado, gets to stay in New York. He will be donning the Puerto Rican parade for the next three years to come, because he's gonna be there. Bob Bogdanovich signed with the Rockets, which we thought was kind of interesting because he we thought Marcus Smart was gonna sign first. He did not. But then Marcus Smart signed a little bit later. Something that was a heartbreak to Lakers fans because of the fact that we'll talk about it a little bit later, but Kelly Ugray Jr. signs with the Pacers two-year $16.5 million guaranteed. Indiana GM Chad Buchanan named wing death as a priority before free agency even opened, then delivered exactly that a 6'7, 6'8 wing, who averages 14.1 points a game last season and gives Indiana instant bench scoring, real size on the perimeter, and the front office solving its own stated problem is rare enough to notice. The other big thing that came to San Antonio was Tobias Harris today. Tobias Harris signed a two-year deal worth $31 million. San Antonio needed a four. They needed a four who can stretch. They needed somebody who has sides without sacrificing versatility. Tobias Harris does that. He's coming off a year where he averaged 18.1 points a game, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists. Now in the playoff, Detroit, he was Detroit's number two option. He won't have to do that in San Antonio. He can go back down to like his like the fourth option in San Antonio. Cause you know, San Antonio got some dudes there. They are just loading up. And if we weren't scared of them last year, we damn sure are going to be scared of them this year. He fits exactly, um, meaning Harris, he fits exactly, and far less usage than he had with the Pistons. The timing is real, the value is real. This deal expires as right as Steven Castle's max extension and Dylan Harper's eventual one kicks in, giving San Antonio size at the four with zero long-term entanglement. Andrew Wiggins resigned with the Heat. That was a critical piece as far as that's concerned. Because he's going to also help with the spacing and also keeps them long. You know, Tim Hardaway Jr. 6'6, Andrew Wiggins, 6'7, long arms, and you know, he just fits that situation that you got going on in Miami. So defense is going to be definitely the priority in Miami. Stops is coming. So with all that being said, we got some more stuff to get to. Right? And what I want to start doing now.

WTF Moves Front Offices Made

Alright. So as a podcaster, you love these segments because this is the stuff that probably will get the group chats talking. And this is what in the hell were they thinking? What WTF? What were these front offices thinking? So, let's start with my favorite one. John Morant gets traded to the Trailblazers. Now, put the actual death part next to each other and listen to this. You got John Morant, you got Damian Lillard, you got Scoot Henderson, you got Drew Holliday, you got Shaden Sharp, you got Blake Wesley, you still got V Critchy, and you got two-way breakout star Caleb Love when everybody went down last year. These are all the names that are in Portland Trailblazers backcourt right now. That's not a backcourt. I mean, that's a cast of Love Island, if you tell if ask me. Everybody's coupled up with a title, and nobody actually know has a idea of what their role is. Portland won the trade. If you want to just say, hey, pure value, no picks, no expiring salary, and a former rookie of the year. But the building with this many bodies at one position only makes sense if there is a bridge to something else. And what I am thinking is this. Maybe so. Maybe that will happen. But now that Jalen Brown has been traded, what happens now? Scoot Henderson is more likely to be the odd man out. That's what you might say. The former number three overall pick. He's gonna get buried by the all the depth pieces as far as that's concerned. You don't trade for John Morant and then let Scoot start. Is Drew Holloway uh Drew Holiday out the door? Maybe so. But where do they go now that Boston has made this trade with Philadelphia? Who needs league guards? Cause again, Portland has way too many of them. I mean, you can tell me that Damian Lillard is gonna come off the bench now at his advanced age and also having the Achilles tear from last year. I get it. But Holiday was their most consistent player and he wants to stay. Plus Cortland's messaging says that he's not available, and we're taking a real skepticism and giving math doesn't work without someone leaving. So now, if I'm sitting here and I'm Cortland and I got all these guards, who's going? Someone's gotta go. And what are you getting back in return? Is this a play for Houston? Is there a Houston Cortland deal? I don't know. Does Milwaukee get involved? Do they have any I mean with the picks they got from Giannis, is there something that they can do? Can they kind of bank on a young guy? But they they put took uh they took Braden Burry's with the first round in the first round. Now, as far as a league guard is concerned, do you think Scoot is that guy? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure they're not gonna want a veteran like Drew Holliday, even though he would be returning to his uh likely spot where you know he served as a a guy who really helped that team win. So with all that being said, you don't want the music to stop, and then there's less chairs for all your guys because there's no way that Portland can go into the regular season with this many guards stockpiled. No way.

Portland Guard Logjam After Morant

Now let's go on to the Washington Wizards. Now, Washington has had a pretty awesome offseason in one way, you know. You get AJ DeBanster, the fan base is very excited, you know. You pair him with all the other young talent you got, which is, you know, you're talking about Alex Sarr, you're talking about our guy Balal Kulok Bale, you're talking about also some of the young wings they had over there last year, and there's a lot to be uh invested in in the uh district, right? But can somebody explain to me the Trey Young money? Can somebody give that to me and make me understand what's going on with this situation? 220 twelve million dollars mass money who was gonna give that to him? What which other franchise said we we we would do this? I want somebody put their hand up and figure that one out for me. Listen, Trey Young is gonna be able to throw lives to A D if he stays, if Alex Sar's foot injury is you know something where it's not too uh dil uh debilitating, and he's able to throw lives to him, you know, obviously the AJ DeBanster situation is gonna be on. We can't wait to see that. But Trey Young being a ball-dominant guard in the district might have some problems. And now with the contract like that, I will never say, never say that a contract can't be traded. But that's gonna be a difficult one to swallow if you got to. And we should have known something. I knew something right then and there. When Yusuf Nurkic signed a two-year, 22 million dollar contract, I was like, mm-hmm. I did the win I did the wind horse fingers and went why would Utah do this? Why? Right? And they did this because of the fact that you know they lost somebody, and we'll get to that a little bit later. He came to the la la and we'll explain that. Now, with that, Nurkic, I don't know if he's gonna start, but we shall see. Now, let me ask this question. With BJ Edgecomb there, Tyrese Maxie, does Jalen ground, does Jalen Brown go to the three? And is Dean Wade, who they picked up for four years, $39 million, gonna be playing the four? A 36.7% career three-point shooter who's never played more than 63 games in a season is locked in for four years. That's a lot of term and decent amount of money for a replacement level defensive person who is also a streaky shooter. I ain't gonna lie to you. I ain't gonna hold you. I like Dean Wade. I don't know if I would have given him that kind of money. That's like almost $10 million. So questionable. That's why we call this the what what what TF? Keon Ellis signs with the Nets for two years, $18 million. Now, listen, I think my guy Keon Ellis got a bad break in Cleveland. He was not even playable during the playoffs, and I was, you know, not saddened by it, but I was like, man. Because when they made the trade to get him, I was like, oh, this is cool, because they, you know, now they can diversify, they can hide, harden a little bit on the defensive side, because you got this guy, you got a couple other dudes, or whatever. Kenya Ellis just I don't know where his shooting went, but it went just in the toilet, and he was unplayable in the play in the playoffs. And you know, they start playing other people, and I'm not talking about Sam Morrell or my guy, Max Struuss. No, no, no. I'm talking about other guards, Jalen Tant Tyson got run. You know what I'm saying? They got a lot of dudes over there. And Keon Ellis is trying to revitalize his career. He's going to try to do it in Brooklyn. And God bless you, my brother. Cause I don't know what your market is. And maybe this is the dollar amount, the most maximum dollar amount you could have got. But man. Yo, you got to go chilling. Brooklyn. Now, in context, he's a 3nd D piece. He's heading to a rebuilding team. So he can provide some of that veteran leadership that maybe you know you're probably not getting with Julius Randle. If Julius Randle gets into his feelings. Right? When things don't go right for Julius, he has a tendency to pout. Okay, so keep that in mind. Brooklyn Nets fans, how many of them are out there? Now I want to talk about the Kelly Ubre deal, not because it's a it's a WTF situation, because I think that's a good pickup. My question is this is now Jarrus Walker and Ben Shepard, are they just lost causes now? Are we done with them in Indiana? Because I don't know what real roles they have there. They're both restricted free agents next summer. Walker's salary is $8.5 million, which is movable. Um, if he wants to stay in Indiana, you know, under the tax, is it worth tracking as a what does this mean for the kids' storyline? You know, my favorite phrase of all time is developmental pathway. How much runway are these kids getting to be able to enhance and show their skills? What I'm gonna tell you right

Indiana Minutes And Other Odd Fits

now, you got a vote of non-confidence when you sign Kelly Ugray Jr. to what he signed because he's getting minutes. He's getting minutes, and he's gonna provide uh uh a place in that rotation, he's gonna solidify his role, and we are going to see a different type of team for Indiana come next year. Now, you know, guys, this I have been a uh a person that has kind of killed Rob Polinka over the years, and uh when we got to this situation a little bit earlier today, I have to tell you, before everything started breaking loose, I I've been on Twitter, the tweets are there, the receipts are there. I said Rob Polinka cannot have a whiff type of summer. He can't whiff this summer. Now, you guys are gonna have to be the judge on what Rob has done in his uh balance of work that he's

Lakers Rebuild Fast Around Luka

done. So we are going to get into the Lakers rebuilt their roster in 18 hours, but did they just trade away all their defense? So let's start in Los Angeles, let's go to crypto.com basically, let's kind of get in the headspace as Lakers fans, as people who follow the Lakers. Because here's the one thing I'm I try to be more of a balanced analyst when it comes to this now, but I still have my fandom. LeBron James walking out the door was supposed to be the headline. Instead, it's the starting gun. In the span of a single free agency window, Rob Palenka traded for a starting center and signed three rotation pieces and watched three rotation players walk out the door, including the one guy on the roster who actually guarded the ball. Now, and spent almost every first round asset that the franchise had left. The Lakers didn't rebuild around Luka Donchis and Austin Reeves, they sprinted. The question now is whether they sprinted in the right direction, or because of all the size and shooting at it, nobody on this roster is a proven point of a tag defender. And here's the full breakdown of what the Lakers have done. Let's talk about the new arrival, shall we? Walker Kessler, who is kind of the shiny object of this whole situation, the Lakers put a full court press on Utah. They've been on Walker Kessler for a they've been wanting Walker Kessler for like two years. And he was sent to the Lakers via a signing trade from Utah. He also picked up four years, $130 million. One of the best rim protectors of I would say of the young guys that are out there. Now, his 2024-2025 season alone, he produced 12.2 reruns. He had an elite block rate of 21.9 total rerun percentage. Okay. He's a live threat who can catch anything that Luca throws up there. The flip side is that he had shoulder surgery last year, which basically completely wiped out his 2025-2026 season. Now, there were reports that he probably could have came back last year, but obviously Utah was in that take mode, and they ended up with Darren Peterson. I do not blame them. They had to do what they had to do because they had been on the top five outside looking in for a while, and they finally got a top three pick. And what do you know? The year that you had to get into the top three or four to get one of them money dudes, one of them maybe generational talents, Utah, the Jazz, it did it. Now, um, is he going to rerun at a high level? Probably. This is a bet on his all-rookie team season ceiling and not the injury history. One thing I will say about Walker Kessler is this is that we are going to play a lot of drop coverage. This is a drop big. This is not a big that is going to be chasing wings, you know, on the perimeter or anything like that. Okay? This is a drop big, so we're going to have to play drop big concepts. So get that one in your head. As we start to look at some of these other players that they brought in. So Quentin Grimes was the was another person they brought in. Uh they signed him basically to the mid-level exception. He signed a four-year $60 million contract, which is a $15 million AAV. Good chase defender. We don't know personally is he if he's a point of attack defender. He really never had to do it. He's a capable shooter. I wouldn't say he's a great shooter, he's a capable shooter, which he shoots anywhere between 33 to 38% from three across his stops in the NBA. Already has chemistry with Luka Doncic from their time together in Dallas.

Walker Kessler Price And Scheme

He can scale up or down as a starter or a six man. He is not, however, a true point of attack stopper on the wing. That's very important. Very important right there. We'll get back to this a little bit later. Let's get into the other guys they picked up. The Lakers also signed Sandro Mamu Killisvili, X-rafter. They signed him to a four-year $52 million contract, which is $13 million AAV. Now, what you're getting with him is a stretch big 11.2 points a game last season, 52% shooting, and 38.9% from three as a stretch four or five, if you whatever you want to do. Now, is he a consummate pick and pop space uh space the floor next to Luca and Reeves so they can get into the paint and probe the paint? Absolutely. That is what he is. Now, is he a defensive answer? No, he is not. No, he's not. Is he okay on defense? I don't know. I want to say he is average. He might be a little bit below average when it comes to that. He doesn't have a lot of foot speed, doesn't have a lot of agility when it comes to being able to chase people off that uh three-point line. So we will see how this works out. But as far as a floor spacer, he can do that. And then they also pick up Colin Sexton of the Hornets and Bulls. He he came into the room exception part of the money. Okay? Two years, 19 million. Instant offense off the bench, 15.4 points a game, 3.3 assists. He's a microwave scorer, but he has minimal defensive upside. This is not your point of attack defender. But this is what you got because here's the thing. This is the part where you should make should make you sit up. The Lakers entered the offseason with about let's say five, well, really truly two picks they can trade and what have you. But I'll get how it all worked. In the Utah deal. They have unprotected first of 2030 what? 2031 and 2033. They have pick swaps in 2028 and 2030. I I am I'm lost for words how many how many uh picks they gave up. Polinka went all in and the way Danny and Eric Ainge do their deals, they had to win. And Danny always does. Refusing to lose a trade on paper, paying a premium in the years and nobody thinking about it yet. But the practical effect is that Los Angeles has almost no draft capital left to fix anything else, and this front office discovers what is broken. So who walked out the door? Because this makes a huge deal about if something is amiss, how they're gonna fix it. Luke Kennard signed a two-year deal for $13 million. Think about that. Two years, $13 million. Alright? Colin Sexton got two years, $19 million. He led the league in three-point percentage this past season at $47.8. Uh he was 44.8 after arriving in Los Angeles at the trade deadline as a complete floor spacer weapon, as there is in the league. Here's the one thing I will say about Luke Connard. I think that 47.8 three-point percentage is a little, you can you gotta dive into the numbers a little bit. Because the one thing that we know about Luke Connard is this, is that he's a selective three-point shooter, and I don't know whether he is uh afraid to let it fly a little bit more for the sake of his field goal, his three-point field goal percentage, but I will tell you that he was maddening here in Los Angeles. Shoot the three more. I'm sure JJ Reddick was asking this dude, can you please be a little more aggressive with shooting a three? And he did not. He's a dude that averages like three and a half threes a game, which is crazy for the type of range and the type of accuracy that he has. It was absolutely um just out it was just astonishing sometimes when he would not just let it fly. He was not the only one. Rui Hachamora looks like he's not coming back as of right now. There were reports that he was going to the Spurs. I don't know if he's going to the Squares because now they got Twilight Harris. Um, maybe the Nets, or maybe he comes back. I don't know how they're gonna come back because we got no money left. Zero. No money left, and

New Signings Add Shooting Not Stops

we'll talk about that a little bit later. Um Rui, the one thing about Rui is that I loved his clutchness in the playoffs, loved it. The problem is that Rui gets lost on defense. Now, did he play out of position with the Lakers more times than not? Yes, he did. With LeBron James, uh man in the four position, with Luca Doncha's best probably position is the four, and you can high him on the worst, you know, offensive threat. Rory was out here chasing like real wings, like KD. You know what I'm saying? Like he's out here chasing Kawhi Leonard. He's out here chasing Dylan Brooks or uh Devin Booker. Can't have that man doing that. Can't have that man doing that. That is not his bag, but that's what he was tasked to do. And also re for somebody as big as Rui is, he doesn't rebound as well as you might think. But I hate to see that dude gone. I hate to see it. Now here's the piece that we couldn't lose. Marcus Smart declined his 5.4 player option and signed a two-year deal with the Houston Rockets for $13 million. Now he's playing in Houston, he's reunited with Ime Adoka. This is one of those actual breaks, the roster type of situations. Smart was the Lakers' only real point of attack defender. He is a former defensive player of the year. And how many charges did that dude take as a Laker? A lot. Now you can talk about his antics and hearing that whatever you want. But the one thing that dude did provide was grittiness on defense. He did not just he fought over screens. He was on his dude as much as he possibly could, and they stretched that dude as far as they could in a Laker uniform. He was the captain really of the defense. He would basically point out where you needed to be in your defensive position, in your sets, and then if you did not understand the principles of the defense that was being run at that particular time, he would tell you about it. He would coach you up. This dude was one of the best glue guys that the Lakers have had in a while. I would say since Alex Caruso. That's just my opinion. But you can say whatever you want. That dude walking out the door, and the numbers, here's the thing. We could he took 55 charges. Okay? 15 ahead of the second place person. Now, the the numbers and the shooting and all

Losing Marcus Smart Breaks Defense

that and everything, I'll grant you. You want to talk about did we get better on offense? 100%. He scored only uh 9.3 points a game. He had 2.8 rebounds and on three assists. He shot 39.5% shooting. It undersells his value as a player. Because he wasn't there for his offense. He was there to guard the best perimeter scorer that the other team had to offer. And now that job is vacant. I saw this dude mashed up with KD. I saw this dude mashed up with a bunch of people, and he held it down. Where is the point of attack defender coming from? Well, if you want to talk about maybe the on-the-roster guy, well, you got Grimes is gonna help, but he's a chase defender, not the point of attack stopper that we need. Smart has left the building. Kernard was never going to be that guy, right? Even though he's in Phoenix, he was never going to be that guy because he was not brought here for his defense. Rui, I told you, he was lost on the perimeter. So as much as I would love to have Rui back on defense, he was not going to be able to help us. So, who do we have that might be able to take over this role? Now, these are long shots to be said always right now. Okay, this is long shots. We are talking Trevor Lane, Rainbow, Pine of Sky, put your purple and gold tinted lenses on when I say this. But a dude Theero, who was last year's second round rookie, played only six minutes a game across 25 appearances as a rookie. He's still developing. Now in the G League, and take these numbers with a grain of salt, 16 half 16 and a half points a game, almost six rebounds, and 1.5 assists. He's a real two-way upside guy, but he's proven zero on the NBA level as far as defensive reps are concerned. We have not seen it. It is not because of the fact that, you know, he just didn't get a lot of opportunities to do it. Let's just put it there. Now, the next guy who could possibly fill that role is our number one overall selection in our draft. He was the 24th pick overall. He was our first round pick, and that's Cameron Carr. Now, Cameron Carr, 3 and D dude, if you want to call him that, he's gonna have to grow into that. Now, here's the first thing that we do know. His three-point percentage shouldn't be a problem as far as keeping himself on the floor. He shot at 30 37.5% basically. Uh he profiles as a 3 and D wing on paper, but obviously, until we see it in functionality, we cannot say that. He understands that the defensive part of the game is his priority. He has to learn how they want to play defense, where they're gonna set him up, what the principles are, and all of those things. We will see how that works. The other option is either keeping Vanderbilt and let him wreak havoc on tinier guards, he seems to be able to guard down. Now he's lost some of his uh off his explosion pop in the last couple years because of foot injuries and things of that nature. So if you wanted to, you could stretch and waive Jared Vanderbilt, and that'll give you like seven million dollars to play with because they are up against the cap right now. If they wanted to ask somebody, and if you wanted to get somebody for maybe about Five or six million, maybe you can do that. The other thing that you could

Ayton Trades And No Flexibility

do, which is now harder to do because I want to talk about this right now, is that you could trade DeAndre Ayton. But before we talk about that, Jackson Hayes signed a two-year deal with the Utah Jazz per ESPN's Tim McM McMahon. Obviously, Hayes has been here since the since 2023. He is a guy who really connected with Luca, caught the lobs, did the dunks, he did guard on the perimeter, which was cool. He was also a weak side rim protector, but a true on-ball rim protector, he was not. Because he was too light in the ass to do that. And now he's gone to Utah. So he is not even an option when you're talking about maybe trading DeAndre Aiton's $8.1 million contract, which also is an expiring contract, which makes it even more appetizing for a team. And we have a lot of teams out here that are starved for a center that can give this type of production maybe off the bench. Ayton averaged 12.5 points a game, eight rebounds, and one blocks. He played in a career high 72 games last year, and he would be one of the most movable value contracts that the Lakers have. And we are in a center star market right now. And people say, well, who's the team that doesn't have the pick? Right? And I'll give you that. Are we really sure that Yusuf Nurkic and Jackson Hayes are the answer in Utah? Because you can tell me that Jaron Jackson Jr. is going to play center. And I will tell you, just like Anthony Davis didn't want to play center here, Jaron Jackson Jr. doesn't want to have anything to do with playing center in the NBA, not for a long period of time, not for long stretches. Now, the Brooklyn Nets say that DeRon Sharp is their center. Okay. He's been the bench dude. Nick Claxton has moved on to Chicago. You can tell me that situation. Okay. I think DeAndre Ayton might be a little bit better than DeRon Sharp, but not, you know. Mitchell Robinson is now gone. In New York. $8.1 million option to back up. Call Anthony Towns and give them a little bit different type of situation than they had there. And you say, hey man, come off the bench. We'll give you some, you know, we'll let you get get busy in that mid-range. You throw that little floater up there, whatever the case may be, all we're gonna actually do is play harder. Right? Um You could tell me that Charlotte could use some help, even though they picked up a couple pieces. Is you know, now that Miami has who they have, they're good. You don't have to worry about them anymore. Where do we stand in New Orleans? I mean, I know Derrick Queen is out there doing his thing, but he's more of a four, not a five. Now, his defense might tell you he has to play the five, because there really hasn't he didn't show that last year. But maybe bringing a veteran in might be able to help that team. So there are a lot of options out there. I heard somebody to say that there weren't a lot of uh places that needed centers, and I thought that was kind of you know BS a little bit. You know who needs one? And they don't really trade with one another? The Clippers. You know who's who's who's man in their middle at this point in time? So with that being said, DeAndre Aiden is the guy who we would be able to trade. But now, here's the thing we can't, because we don't have we wouldn't have a center. So our one piece of tradable asset that we had, we can't trade. Now, unless you expand the trade, unless you sit there and say, okay, we'll also throw in Dalton Connect, who's a you know, you taking a flyer on a little bit, you know, can you get him back to his early part of his rookie season where he was dropping 30 on fools and stuff like that? Maybe. Maybe, but it's not guaranteed, damn it. It's not guaranteed at all. So we are stuck, and this is where I want to leave you. What does this mean for Kalinka Legron and the Lakers itself? The Kel the Kessler Kessler, I'm gonna repeat that. The Kessler price tag is a story here as much as the player himself. Kalinka solved the five squat and in the same move spent the currency he need he need to solve anything else. That's either supreme conviction that this specific core, Luca, Reeves, and Kessler, are worth mortgaging into the 2030s for? Or is it a front office that won this individual trade on a paper while leaving at least two roster needs the Lakers still haven't addressed?

LeBron Exit As A Trust Verdict

Both can be true at once. And that's and that's the exact tension LeBron saw coming. And this is why his exit reads less like a basketball decision and more like a verdict on trust that had been eroding for years. LeBron being done with the Lakers and moving on signals a quiet but loud protest from a couple summers ago. Let me take you back. He gave Kalinkin an out. I think you guys all remember this. LeBron was willing to forego the highest end of his compensation to add more talent to the roster. He has specific names that he named up. James Harden was one of them, Klay Thompson was another, and Jonas Valentunis was another. It was a clear line in the sand. And the verdict, what LeBron thought of Paulinka's skills as a personnel evaluator and his history hasn't been kind to that verdict either. But LeBron also has to own the fact that both he and Anthony Davis pushed Rob towards the Russell Westbrook swing that which no Lakers fan wants to revisit ever. They never want to talk about that. It was a poor fit from day one. Both Megastar and the front office have had their personnel judgment questioned by an unrelenting fan base. And here's the other thing that I will say about that. It took years of patience, it took years of uh discipline for the Lakers to drag themselves out of that Russell Westbrook situation. You can call it whatever you want to call it, but when they got the when they traded Russ and they got D'Angelo Russell and Jared Vanderbilt and a couple other uh people as far as that's concerned, it really got them out of jail because it was an awful situation. The pieces weren't fitting together, Russ was unsatisfied, as well as LeBron and AD, and I'm sure it wasn't a good time in that locker room. So here's a question that I have for my Lakers fans out there. Do I believe LeBron should have closed his career with the Lakers? Yes. Do I understand why Polinka needed to retrofit the roster around Luca? Also, yes. Now, all of Perko and Gold waits for the next deal to drop. So let me know what you guys think. Hit us up at Frontrunner PC at frontrunner PC on X. Also at socially underscore FRPC on X. We'll also put up something on YouTube community page, and you can find us there at FRPC events. Go to the community page. I'll put something up in the next day or so. Probably a question about what you think of Kalinka's moves, what you think of LeBron leaving, and you know, y'all can go ham on that. Um obviously, if something else breaks that is just jaw-dropping, you know, we will give you in an emergency pod. We will call it uh, you know, urgent pod or something. We'll call

Final Thoughts And Listener Callouts

it we'll call it something. That's what we'll do. But with that being said, FRPC is your spot. Do us a favor, share this episode with a person in your group chat or your friend group that needs to hear it most because we want to touch all the basketball fans out there. Pull up on us on X and Instagram and subscribe wherever you're you get your pods. And let's keep building this uh this thing together. Remember that handle on X is at Frontrunner PC. That's also the handle on Instagram, and remember also the YouTube page is FRPC events, and that'll get you our YouTube page. Now, before I get out of here, I want to say this: the best part of you is still you, not your win-loss record, not your timeline, not your algorithm, just you. Surround yourself with people who actually give you light and the ones that bring that insight to you, the joy, and real accountability. That's your max deal. Appreciate those out loud and don't wait till later that anybody has not promised you. We're a hoop family, we're going to get loud, we're going to be wrong sometimes, but we're going to come back and own it. We will always respect your brain because anybody can yell a take. Few can actually defend a thought. And until the next episode, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight. Protect your peace like cap space. Never waste it on bad basketball or bad energy. I'm Vince. This is FRPC, and we out. Deuces,