JJ Redick and Trae Young Are In Unfamiliar Territory!

[00:00:01] Welcome who heads to Front Runner Podcast Collective. I'm your host Vince and today we're

[00:00:16] going to talk about coaching decisions, we're going to put Trey Young in the Front Runner

[00:00:23] focus. We're also going to get to the series and what have you. But before we get to

[00:00:28] all that, the first thing that I want to do is I want to thank you to our followers

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[00:02:18] him aboard and it's good to be able to bounce some ideas off people every once

[00:02:23] in a while and it's good to have some help right. So that's where we are with

[00:02:29] that. The other thing that we need to get to is get to a lot of these

[00:02:33] stories that are going on in the NBA. We're gonna start close to home, we're

[00:02:38] gonna start in Los Angeles, we're gonna start with the Los Angeles Lakers.

[00:02:41] Now briefly on the podcast last I made a kind of an off-remark about

[00:02:50] that the new head coach of the Lakers is sitting with LeBron doing a podcast.

[00:02:55] It is now the report that JJ Reddick, the former All-American at Duke

[00:03:01] University lottery pick, played for the Pelicans in Brooklyn and

[00:03:08] Philadelphia and Clippers and all sorts of teams. He was a NBA Vagabond

[00:03:14] but he was a professional shooter at the highest level and it looks

[00:03:20] like he is now the front runner to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

[00:03:26] Now the reason why I want to talk about this is two main reasons. All of

[00:03:33] the pieces are starting to come together. Another source you've probably

[00:03:38] seen it all over the athletic, you've probably seen it in at ESPN as well

[00:03:42] that former Duke coach Mike Szczeski, coach K is a consultant to the

[00:03:51] Lakers in this process and also to build the team right not to build the

[00:03:57] team but I guess help build JJ's coaching roster and what have you. So it

[00:04:05] looks like we will be getting JJ Reddick as the coach. It looks like

[00:04:11] that relationship with LeBron has been fruitful. It also looks like that there

[00:04:19] are some people who are not real thrilled with this. Miami Heat great

[00:04:23] Eudonnis Houselam was on ESPN and basically this is what he said talking

[00:04:29] about Chris Quinn who is the assistant for the Miami Heat. He said that he

[00:04:34] had a really good working relationship with LeBron James when he was with

[00:04:39] the Heat and he felt that Chris Quinn would have better credibility than JJ

[00:04:47] Reddick coming from the television booth and what have you. So he was

[00:04:55] caping up for his boy. Now I don't have a problem with that whatsoever.

[00:04:59] Now the other statement that he made and I want to go ahead and talk about

[00:05:05] this a little bit is that he thought that the locker room would be lost if

[00:05:16] JJ Reddick got the job. He said that he thought that Chris Quinn was more

[00:05:21] equipped to get this job and be able to handle LeBron James as far as

[00:05:29] concerned. I'm gonna give you his nickname in a second too, LeBron. But

[00:05:36] here's my thought to the whole thing about whether everybody's gonna give

[00:05:41] JJ the side eye if he becomes head coach. There's two things with this. One,

[00:05:50] we have a whole offseason to figure out who are the people who are

[00:05:57] gonna buck this system and be able to get them out of here. Because here's the

[00:06:04] thing, whether I and I will tell you at the end of this whether I think JJ is

[00:06:09] the right coach for this or not I will give you my answer but I will say

[00:06:14] this is that Udonis Haslam has been in this league a long time. He is

[00:06:18] right. There will be players who look at JJ and go oh this is because you

[00:06:25] have a relationship with LeBron James. Now the thing that I find very

[00:06:33] interesting is that this is really up to Rob Palenka. This is also apparently

[00:06:40] up to Coach K and that's their task and I think they will have some help

[00:06:46] from Clutch Sports which is the agency of LeBron. My whole point with

[00:06:51] this is that we really don't have time for the BS. Okay the crap must stop now.

[00:06:59] If you're going all in, if you're going all in with LeBron James you need

[00:07:07] to go all in and then everybody needs to be on board. So if JJ Reddick is

[00:07:14] the coach of the Lakers this is something that if AD, well I'm thinking

[00:07:20] AD goes with LeBron so you don't have that problem. So whoever else is on the

[00:07:26] roster at this present time that's not down with this situation they need to

[00:07:31] go ahead get them off and go ahead and chart a course north because obviously

[00:07:38] they have said that this is championship or bust we're not trying

[00:07:42] to slow rebuild and kind of stay relevant with LeBron. Note they're

[00:07:48] gonna push all their chips in the middle of the table this all season and

[00:07:53] we'll talk about that a little bit later. Actually we'll probably talk about

[00:07:57] it next couple, I got a couple more things to say about LeBron. But

[00:08:02] the whole situation is looking like this. They're doing

[00:08:11] this. They're putting all their chips in the middle of the table. I have a

[00:08:14] group chat that thinks that Trey Young is going to be the next Laker

[00:08:18] point guard. This is their agenda that they have been talking about for months

[00:08:24] and months and I'm here to tell you that I continue to think that's a big

[00:08:28] mistake and I don't and I have a reason for that and I have a whole

[00:08:35] Trey Young situation to tie into all of this at the end of the show so

[00:08:40] stay tuned for that as well. But at the end of the day if we're here and

[00:08:48] JJ Reddick is going to be the coach now is the time to go ahead and say we have

[00:08:58] identified these players as the players that will fit this system. These are

[00:09:04] the players that will be on board and understand the hierarchy within that

[00:09:08] team roster build and then JJ and Rob Palinka and Coach K and I guess

[00:09:15] Clutch Sports need to get together and craft a roster that best fits LeBron

[00:09:22] James or as I like to call him, Bron Blue James at age 40. We got an

[00:09:34] incredible season out of LeBron Blue James this year. Well he's old and

[00:09:42] injuries have been a prevalence over the last five years with him so to have

[00:09:49] this season was this the outlier season and the four or five seasons

[00:09:55] before this indicative of what he is now or is this LeBron getting the

[00:10:02] training regimen fine-tuning the situation just right and we're

[00:10:06] about to see another three-year historic run with a man whatever you want to do

[00:10:14] he's on he's in the top he's in the Mount Rushmore of great players let's

[00:10:19] just put it that way. So now that we know about JJ Reddick now that we know

[00:10:25] about that the rumors of LeBron leaving that I told you months ago you

[00:10:32] can disregard those you can now see he is plainly entrenched with the Los Angeles

[00:10:39] Lakers so let's now move on and I have three options for what the Lakers are

[00:10:44] gonna do. Now the first option is the one that everybody's heard of and that

[00:10:50] would be and this one will hurt the most is to go ahead and acquire

[00:10:55] Cleveland Cavalier Guard Donovan Mitchell who would finally be in a role

[00:11:02] that best suited was suited for him he would be a second-side initiator he

[00:11:08] would tap closeouts off the bounce we saw Mitchell have a ton of success

[00:11:14] with this in the middle of the season remember Evan Mowgli and Darius Garland

[00:11:20] in the middle of season got hurt were out for quite some time and the

[00:11:25] Cavaliers went on a 17-1 run in that time period and it was a barrage of

[00:11:35] Donovan Mitchell Jared Allen picking a role and then kicking it out to

[00:11:40] shooters so that role seemed to work very well for him now he was obviously

[00:11:50] the primary now the one thing that we have seen with Donovan over the years

[00:11:57] is in playoff situations he doesn't show up the kind of the way you want

[00:12:02] him to and you know some people are suited for maybe a 1b role or whatever

[00:12:11] the case may be I think Donovan Mitchell if he was to become a Laker

[00:12:17] knowing that LeBron James is on this team knowing that he has a lot of

[00:12:22] threat in Anthony Davis I just think I just think that it would be a

[00:12:28] tremendous fit for everyone involved and this is the home run acquisition

[00:12:35] right this is the this is the acquisition that kind of makes it

[00:12:43] right I think I talked about in a previous

[00:12:47] podcast now I wanted them to go bigger I wanted them to get a wing that could

[00:12:53] do this but Donovan Mitchell is the type of guy we did talk about an

[00:12:59] explosive scorer who could go off for 40 or 50 he has that capability he's

[00:13:06] shown it over his seven years in the league we don't have to worry about is

[00:13:12] he gonna be scared at the moment obviously there'll be some adjustment

[00:13:16] who's getting how many shots and where is it all going but I think that's a

[00:13:21] really good problem to have if you decide to go that route now the other

[00:13:26] thing is Anthony Davis Spider Mitchell pick and roll and have an AD role to

[00:13:32] the rim would be sublime okay I will love that personally that's something

[00:13:37] that I would absolutely get down for now the other thing is that LeBron

[00:13:42] to me at this point I would hope that he would be able to look at Anthony

[00:13:48] Davis and spider Mitchell and go hey I have two killers on my team now you

[00:13:54] know and when I say when Anthony Davis is a killer he showed us

[00:13:57] something this year I think that as as Laker fans and I will include

[00:14:03] myself in this I'll take my analyst cap off for a second but I think he

[00:14:09] showed a just a stick to it to miss that we haven't seen out of him in his

[00:14:17] tenure with the Lakers now I know some of the injuries were weird a couple

[00:14:22] years ago and he missed a lot of games and we were wondering out loud or

[00:14:28] were we ever gonna get like a full season from Anthony Davis and this

[00:14:32] year he did do that he played 70 games and he played great all year I mean

[00:14:40] what he provided for the Lakers this year was I personally couldn't ask for

[00:14:47] anything more so for me I was satisfied with his production going up

[00:14:55] against Yogi just never gonna be a good thing honestly never good and

[00:15:01] then you know my whole thing is getting spider Mitchell is kind of like if you

[00:15:10] were doing the Russell Westbrook trade over again but you're doing it right

[00:15:14] right you're getting a piece that fits this is somebody who can space the

[00:15:18] floor this is somebody who can be a he can be a primary initiator but if

[00:15:24] you have them on that second side or if you say hey here's the other thing

[00:15:30] that we need to talk about can LeBron James be a wing there could be a role

[00:15:39] reversal now obviously if Donovan Mitchell is coming in you know that

[00:15:47] LeBron Blue James is going to send Austin Reeves out I'm not saying

[00:15:54] necessarily that's the most painful part of it I'm always worried this is

[00:15:59] now me going back to looking at the league looking at roster construction and

[00:16:05] being put out there without a safety net for a lot of years because once

[00:16:11] you do this trade you're locked this is the last three these are the last

[00:16:19] three first rounders so you got to make it work you got to make it count

[00:16:25] and it has to be super impactful if you're going for the home run this is

[00:16:31] why I don't think that Trey Young could ever be a Laker because he

[00:16:35] doesn't fit what we're trying to do he will never be second to LeBron I'm

[00:16:41] sorry that would be a if you thought the Kyrie LeBron situation when Kyrie

[00:16:47] was younger and looking to go to his own team could you imagine Trey

[00:16:53] Young pulling up from like 33 feet with like 21 seconds or 20 seconds to go in

[00:17:00] the shot clock and then have LeBron James look at him oh my god I couldn't

[00:17:06] imagine the stories that would come out of crypto.com now we have a couple

[00:17:12] other options for you here too let's say for some reason the Lakers get

[00:17:17] outbid now I know Laker fans hate to hear that they hate for me to throw

[00:17:23] cold water because they've already photoshopped Donovan Mitchell into a

[00:17:29] Laker uniform they've already welcomed him to the purple and gold I'm sure

[00:17:34] there were four or five well we'll get to that one second I'm sure there are

[00:17:39] people who are scouting out areas for him to live and where he should you

[00:17:45] know have his kid go to school and things of that nature I'm sure all

[00:17:48] that is going on right now but if for some reason the Lakers do not get

[00:17:53] Donovan Mitchell because here's the thing when you ask for something there's

[00:17:59] a 50-50 chance that somebody will say no right somebody might look at your

[00:18:06] trade proposal and go with their with their eye go doesn't not as

[00:18:14] attractive as let's say let's say I don't know let's say Brooklyn got

[00:18:19] involved somehow now I'm not saying that Donovan Mitchell is going to

[00:18:24] Brooklyn I'm not saying he's coming to Lakers what I am saying is that he's

[00:18:28] the leader in the clubhouse this is the desire of Rob Polinka I believe

[00:18:34] this is the desire of LeBron James and I think this is the honestly to

[00:18:40] tell you truth I believe this is the evolution of LeBron I think this is

[00:18:44] the year if Spider Mitchell comes in this is a year we see LeBron take a

[00:18:49] step back I'll play mate you know I'll rebound I'll play a little D I'm gonna

[00:18:56] rest my body I'm gonna let y'all get the you know the 30-point gains I have

[00:19:01] a bunch of assists you know he'll still make an all NBA team if he if he

[00:19:05] leaves the league in assists and has like like nine or ten rebounds LeBron

[00:19:10] James will still make it all NBA team because there's a LeBron James

[00:19:14] right so if for some reason Donovan Mitchell falls through second choice

[00:19:24] let's just get the band back together man right let's just get them all back

[00:19:30] I'm actually talking about one Kyle Kuzma and basically Kyle Kuzma was a

[00:19:38] smart lad during the trade deadline remember before the PJ Washington trade

[00:19:45] just from Charlotte to Dallas they had inquiries of making that Daniel Gaffer

[00:19:52] trade a lot larger and having Kyle Kuzma come down from Washington as

[00:19:58] well now he turned that down and I'm thinking maybe Kyle knew something that

[00:20:09] we didn't know um Kyle could be a Clayaker that's it that's a second

[00:20:17] option right there and really if you think about it Kuzma is untying a knot

[00:20:23] that Kalinka in the consulting firm of LeBron, Blue James and Clutch I mean hell

[00:20:31] if the money works out get everybody back go get Alex Caruso from Chicago as

[00:20:37] well you know I'm sure with Rui maybe going to Chicago and not to Washington

[00:20:43] maybe you know I don't know who else we got over here we got we got

[00:20:48] Prince we got some other pieces and some draft capital and I don't think

[00:20:53] it'll take three first-round picks to do all of this by the way that's the

[00:20:58] other thing with this so option one home run Donovan Mitchell I think that

[00:21:05] works option two get the band back together

[00:21:10] Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso untying the knot that you know a couple

[00:21:17] let's not even talk about what happened let's not even talk about it now third

[00:21:23] option and here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective this is where we like

[00:21:30] to entertain you right the third option boys and girls is the mystery

[00:21:36] box and what the mystery box is is what all podcasters in all TV execs in

[00:21:47] all radio producers and radio management people drew over and what

[00:21:55] this is called the disgruntled superstar that's looking for a new

[00:22:01] locale right now we haven't had one in a while now see the species is not

[00:22:08] rare it just kind of went dormant this season we did have some maybe

[00:22:15] sense of somebody coming out of high-grant nation in October and that

[00:22:21] was Giannis when he had made some overtures of well I just want to win a

[00:22:25] championship and and that's my goal and if I can't win one in Milwaukee

[00:22:30] well maybe I can win one somewhere else but my goal is to win a

[00:22:33] championship and lo and behold Milwaukee goes and gets Davian Lillard

[00:22:40] right now I didn't solve the problems I'm not saying like Giannis is asking

[00:22:45] out but I'm just saying that we did go a whole season without one star

[00:22:52] saying hey this coach's ass or this organization is not doing right by me

[00:23:03] or I feel I'm not being utilized in the right way we did not have one

[00:23:09] superstar throw his coach underneath the bus and ask for a trade in the

[00:23:16] regular season that trend cannot continue the level of discontent in

[00:23:23] this league does not allow for that so therefore I do expect a you know a

[00:23:30] cracker jocks price at the bottom of your cracker jock box so I think

[00:23:37] there will be a superstar that gets mad and says hey you know what I think I

[00:23:45] want to just you know try it somewhere else now the top two levels

[00:23:51] like the top levels of this right obviously we're gonna go in level of

[00:23:57] importance in the league so I would say that you still look for Devon

[00:24:03] Booker I know that there were talks or there were things that were said about

[00:24:10] Devon Booker staying but if Devon Booker wakes up and said like let's say

[00:24:15] he just wakes up in the morning and looks around and looks at his current

[00:24:18] franchise and says hey man I'm a car my agent and be like I need I need to

[00:24:26] change the scenery I need me out of here there's Devon Booker now the

[00:24:33] Lakers do not have enough to get Devon Booker okay I'm also talking to every

[00:24:39] other team in the league when I say the disgruntled superstar we just didn't

[00:24:44] have it you are the one is Giannis what happened is Giannis looks at this

[00:24:49] situation goes hmm I don't know now lower level stars that I do expect to

[00:24:55] either ask out or be traded Brandon Egram of the new on was pelicans I

[00:25:01] also think that now that we've gone through the season and even though he

[00:25:07] got paid I think Jeremy Grant will be looking for leave the the northwest

[00:25:13] right and the Pacific Northwest and go somewhere else because now he got his

[00:25:20] cash now it's time for climate change right a couple other guys that are

[00:25:26] delusional right got to have a couple of those in there so Jordan pool could

[00:25:31] you imagine could you imagine if Jordan pool asked out of Washington DC like

[00:25:39] whether you didn't play good enough to ask out go sit down on the bench okay

[00:25:44] and see if we don't drive your replacement all right you get out of

[00:25:50] here with that crazy kid now the other one that might be a little

[00:25:54] delusional and I think it's not delusional is more strategic but I can

[00:26:02] see a lot of people in the summer when the content kind of dwindles down a

[00:26:06] little bit and we're and we're fighting over little dust mites and

[00:26:10] stuff like that right CJ McCollum in New Orleans now you've had the Zion

[00:26:17] drama with the you know this year it looks like he towards the middle of

[00:26:23] the year he got really serious about what he was trying to do looks like

[00:26:28] he's turned the corner it looks like that BI is falling out of favor in New

[00:26:38] Orleans and CJ still makes a lot of money I think he makes like 34 million

[00:26:44] dollars a year and here's the thing if for some reason they asked CJ

[00:26:51] McCollum to take a lesser role on that team will he ask out just things

[00:26:59] to think about as we get closer and closer to the offseason and I wanted

[00:27:05] to go ahead and put those names out there for you I'm sure there's another

[00:27:09] couple of names the we're gonna get to Trey in a second we got to get to

[00:27:14] these playoff series and kind of give you observations what Trey is at

[00:27:18] the end you know you have Mikel Bridges what happened Mikel Bridges wakes up one

[00:27:25] day and goes Sean Marks I don't I don't trust you like I don't want to be

[00:27:32] here anymore what happens if Lamelo Ball sees the writing on the wall now

[00:27:41] I do not think any of this I don't think Lamelo will ask out at all I

[00:27:47] think he will finally be in a situation where he can be successful so I think

[00:27:52] that'll be good but you never know you never know with the precocious NBA

[00:27:59] superstar you never know what they're thinking and it always keeps us on our

[00:28:04] toes so we'll see how it goes so now what I want to do is I want to

[00:28:09] pivot to the series and I want to kind of give you my thoughts of

[00:28:12] what's going on I want to kind of you know kind of guide you to where this is

[00:28:19] going and do some me a copeless do some hey looks like I look like I scored on

[00:28:29] that when I knew what I was talking about but we're gonna get into the

[00:28:33] Pacers and Nick series now the last time we talked I talked about Nick's

[00:28:39] head coach Tom Thibodeau was he a double agent for the other teams in the league

[00:28:45] and I was half kidding but in the two games in Indiana you know they they

[00:28:52] lost the third game it was a really close game they had a lead and they

[00:28:57] blew it towards the end but I they just ran out of gas it's brand these

[00:29:03] dudes are just tired they just need a nap you know like what time is it's not

[00:29:09] 30 that's what time it is isn't now 30 time because your boy's tired the

[00:29:16] minutes like here's the thing everybody's talked about it you know we

[00:29:20] know about it but here's the other thing that we kind of really need to

[00:29:24] talk about what are the next to do they're down for actual rotation pieces

[00:29:33] okay so Randall has been gone since middle of January we know about

[00:29:39] Bogdanovich season ending surgery Mitchell Robinson is out and also OG

[00:29:45] right what are they supposed to do I mean I've heard people say well

[00:29:53] Alec Burke should have been playing more and you know pressure to tour should

[00:29:59] have been put in for you know six to eight minutes to take away from Mitchell

[00:30:04] Robinson Boyan Bogdanovich and OG Ananovi probably not probably not

[00:30:13] gonna happen so here we are this is it can't dunk can't burn here's the

[00:30:20] couple things that are going to we're gonna start talking about in this

[00:30:24] series you saw Rick Carlisle of the Indiana Pacers get his team to just

[00:30:32] continue to run just run he ripped open the wound he saw what was going

[00:30:40] on he seen Josh Hart play all these damn minutes he's seen Jalen Brunson

[00:30:46] with a foot injury play through the foot injury he's seen Dante Di Vincenzo

[00:30:51] average like 44 45 minutes and he's like we play eight or nine and we're

[00:30:59] gonna run and we're gonna continue to run and we're just gonna tire them

[00:31:04] out because I don't think they have enough bodies and so far the formula

[00:31:11] has worked first two games in New York yeah they got blue they got beat

[00:31:15] and got beat but as and as I said is the series goes long and Pacers take

[00:31:23] the Knicks out into deep water they will drown them and unfortunately you just

[00:31:31] don't have enough boats to keep everybody alive and get to the Easter

[00:31:38] Now here is my shot in the dark and I'll ask this can Madison Square Garden

[00:31:46] can the Nick fans and provide that atmosphere that is beyond Tyrese

[00:31:55] Halliburton's WWE booking imagination so here's what I'm thinking the

[00:32:04] Madison Square Garden fan base needs to be like if you are a WWE fan think

[00:32:11] Sami Zayn right you know elimination chamber or no no what was that yeah

[00:32:18] that was elimination chamber Montreal Montreal all right the other the

[00:32:26] other fan base that maybe you want to kind of invoked at this time too you

[00:32:32] know I did some research you know I looked up some crowds some hot crowds and

[00:32:36] stuff like that but the other crowd that I want to talk about that maybe

[00:32:39] the New York Knicks could take some corners from is the Leon France J Uso

[00:32:51] backlash moment that moment was credible that moment was crazy it was

[00:32:59] super loud and that is the environment that the Indiana Pacers must walk into

[00:33:06] they must walk into an environment that is so out of control but they just

[00:33:13] get very discombobulated and forget whatever the game plan is to and you

[00:33:18] give the energy to the Knicks I think that's the only way to go at this

[00:33:22] point really all right we're gonna move on to the series that has been

[00:33:27] just as good in a sense of just back and forth action the Minnesota Timberwolves

[00:33:34] and the Nuggets are tied 2-2 predicted before the series started the

[00:33:40] Nuggets will win now I will tell you I'm not gonna lie to you I picked

[00:33:46] Denver the first two games made me think my pick was wrong I viewed the

[00:33:53] last two games and after the last two victories I was left thinking that

[00:34:00] Ant Edwards is the NBA's new version of Freddy Krueger and Ant Edwards was 16 to

[00:34:07] 25 from the field and he was 5 of 8 from 3 scoring 44 points in that loss

[00:34:15] to the Nuggets. Well at this point what can you say about Anthony Edwards I

[00:34:26] believe that he has definitely crowned himself as the next American top

[00:34:32] superstar in the NBA so everybody who was looking at Jah and everybody who

[00:34:41] was looking at Zion don't worry Anthony Edwards is here now the cat issue

[00:34:49] almost didn't matter that's the best part now cash struggle okay town's had

[00:34:55] cat had the only night he could have that would have the world's lose game

[00:35:04] for because that's what kind of heater and Edwards was on and Edwards

[00:35:12] was really doing big things in that game I felt that when he pressed the

[00:35:17] issue it was the right time to press the issue when they said okay you

[00:35:21] scored a little bit let's double team you let's double team you and blitz

[00:35:27] you then the whole situation they will he just get the ball out of his

[00:35:32] hands that's great that's what you want now the classes became a little

[00:35:37] harder in game three game four you know the degree of difficulty because the

[00:35:43] defense became a little more aware around him and kind of tried to see

[00:35:48] because and is looking for the easiest paths that he had made now

[00:35:53] he's not proficient in going okay I can see you know two moves like two

[00:35:58] three moves ahead like Jokic he's not at that level but he is willing

[00:36:03] to get the ball out his hands reposition and then get the ball back

[00:36:08] and he will continue to do that this is all a maturation process and we're

[00:36:14] seeing it in real time which is it's the dopest thing to see honestly to

[00:36:20] see this do really elevate his game in real time and see like I knew going

[00:36:28] into the series I was like this dude is not scared of Jokic he's not scared of

[00:36:33] them winning a title last year he wants all the smoke all of it so Anthony

[00:36:43] Edwards is gonna treat to watch you and now here's the thing they had an

[00:36:50] awful cat performance and it seemed like everybody on that team was a

[00:36:57] little you know off but cat as a number two has to be better he just

[00:37:05] has to be and you got to be able to support your number one guy now

[00:37:10] here's the other thing that was great about this game is that Aaron Gordon

[00:37:15] made made himself a lot of money and what I mean by this is that Aaron

[00:37:22] Gordon is gonna be all over the championship DVD and he'll have like a

[00:37:30] solo sit-down in it they'll have some cutaways to his dunks and his three

[00:37:36] point shooting you might have some outtakes you know on there if the

[00:37:41] Nuggets win the championship that dude is gonna have a real primary well I

[00:37:46] mean I know you know Yoki's gonna do it and Michael Malone gonna do it

[00:37:50] but Aaron Gordon gonna have a big piece in that championship DVD based on

[00:37:57] this performance 11 for 12 shooting he had seven boys he has six dimes he

[00:38:02] had two blocks and a steal he basically played the MPJ role and they

[00:38:10] dared him to shoot he shot it he got hot and it just kept going from there

[00:38:16] and then the ball just started rolling downhill and think about that and they

[00:38:22] were only down they only lost by eight now you lose you lose that's what it is

[00:38:27] but cast performance was god-awful even though he did provide energy he did

[00:38:33] grab 12 rebounds he tried to defend it wasn't like he was complete zero

[00:38:38] it was just yet you had to you had a chance to really put away the

[00:38:44] champs and you didn't and it might come back to that five at 18 that Carl

[00:38:52] Anthony Towns put up in game four and it's unfortunate the one other thing

[00:38:59] that I do want to talk about is joke each and aunt are both just putting

[00:39:04] their imprint on this series they did it in game four I think the only

[00:39:10] difference between the two teams is the continuity and the championship pedigree

[00:39:15] of the Denver Nuggets and unfortunately with any team that is young you've

[00:39:23] got to gain scars you got to do it and I know we've heard I've heard

[00:39:28] people on other podcasts say well maybe you know Golden State did it

[00:39:34] Golden State you know did it well they had a couple years right before that

[00:39:40] you know and they were on the come up so it wasn't like they were ready and

[00:39:44] think about what we thought of Minnesota before we went into the

[00:39:49] playoffs did we think for one second that at the start of play out this

[00:39:54] was a team that could really challenge for a championship we thought

[00:39:58] they can get to a Western Conference finals maybe maybe and it was we were

[00:40:05] looking at the bracket we were trying to see where they felt and then we saw

[00:40:09] the Denver situation we're like oh that's tough draw you got the

[00:40:16] defending champs probably not gonna work out for you but here they are and

[00:40:22] now it goes to a pivotal game five and we'll see how it goes I picked

[00:40:26] Denver to start off the series again it's funny if the Nuggets win the

[00:40:34] series which you know we call here I don't think I'll feel good about it

[00:40:40] because the way Ant has just elevated his game and he's never shied away

[00:40:48] from the moment in this series his play has been stellar it's been

[00:40:54] stellar in the series all right we're gonna move along to the Boston series

[00:40:59] there's really not a lot to talk about Boston's up 3-1 I think the most

[00:41:07] important thing is that Mitchell misses game four with a calf injury and the

[00:41:12] the real estate offices of LeBron Blue James was at the game to talk about

[00:41:20] the LA real estate market and where he should probably put his kids when he

[00:41:26] moves to LA when the trade happens LeBron was at the game Donovan Mitchell

[00:41:33] missed game four and Boston did what they should do this is one of the

[00:41:39] best net ratings that we've ever seen I think they're top five

[00:41:43] historically and they just have too much length they have too many they have

[00:41:50] too many problems that the Cavaliers can't solve and it gets really simple

[00:41:57] like that and they're up 3-1 and now the duo of Jalen Brown and in our guy

[00:42:05] Jason Tatum who in some quarters people have said that I ripped and if

[00:42:12] you don't know what I'm talking about go to the YouTube page the the latest

[00:42:17] video that we did on Jason Tatum we did a analytical breakdown of you know

[00:42:24] him being a Kogi disciple and how clutch is he and I think you'd be

[00:42:30] surprised by what the numbers tell you and that's on frontrunner

[00:42:35] podcast collective YouTube channel all right now Tatum Brown could buy 60

[00:42:40] points 19 rebounds 10 assists they were 6 of 16 from 3-point land and they had

[00:42:46] five steals so it was a tour de force effort by a completely superior team

[00:42:55] no shade to Cleveland you just know what you're going up against and you

[00:43:01] know we'll see if game five shows any any sort of different results but I

[00:43:08] don't think so I think this is the end of the road for Cleveland and then we

[00:43:12] can get us into all the offseason stuff with Cleveland which is great now

[00:43:16] let's get into the OKC Dallas game 100 to 96 this series is tied and it's

[00:43:28] a complete war it's the same thing that's going on well not injury wise

[00:43:34] but there's a little injury history in there yeah actually it's very

[00:43:38] similar to the New York Pacers series and really it's really the same type of

[00:43:43] styles if you think about it right you got okay see who was young fast moving

[00:43:52] all the time SGA is amazing you know you Tyree Silbert type of guy does in

[00:43:58] a different way but you know what I'm getting at and then you got the

[00:44:02] gritty mavericks who are you know Lucas dealing with an injury they lost Maxi

[00:44:09] Kleba you know they got rookies playing real rotation minutes you know

[00:44:16] Daniel Gafford who was just chilling in Washington DC comes over and the

[00:44:21] revelation Josh Green who they dusted him off the the closet start using

[00:44:31] him so shout-out to Jason Kidd and the magical coaching job that he's doing at

[00:44:39] this present time I mean honestly he's doing an incredible job that he

[00:44:44] was playing great defense and it was shown in game four they did not let

[00:44:52] anybody get into that paint nobody was allowed in a lot of shade stuff

[00:44:59] was outside the paint area it was like 16 17 feet instead of 13 feet and I

[00:45:07] think this is the first time that SGA really has had some issues with a

[00:45:17] defense but SGA's lore grew out of game four with Dallas just basically

[00:45:26] packing the paint and PJ Washington is just hounding SGA at wherever he went so

[00:45:30] you talking about somebody who is what like three inches taller than SGA

[00:45:36] probably has like 40 pounds on SGA and he's just sticking with him the whole

[00:45:41] time but I will tell you his teammates the lights seemed a little

[00:45:49] bright for them so this might be something to look at as we get

[00:45:55] further into the series. J-dub and Chet for them to be successful now I think

[00:46:05] they need to be less and I don't mean shoot less or whatever but all the

[00:46:12] bag work that you were doing in the regular season all of your offense

[00:46:20] initiation that needs to come to a halt bag work dev is at a standstill allow

[00:46:31] your superstar to feed you allow your superstar to get you in the right

[00:46:35] positions and then just shoot your shot that's it shoot that thing and

[00:46:40] you'll be okay I picked okay see in this series I am worried that as we

[00:46:47] get further and further in are the are they gonna tighten are they gonna

[00:46:53] tighten up because they play loose all year they look like Orlando West

[00:47:01] basically and now without the freedom to be able to get into their bag and

[00:47:09] the pressure is being being ratcheted up a lot

[00:47:15] J-dub is not having the best handle series at all every time he gets in

[00:47:21] line he's getting the ball deflected picked you know it's just not smooth

[00:47:26] and the same thing with Chet and I just think less is more at this point

[00:47:31] less is more you're still good still be aggressive on defense but all the

[00:47:36] offense initiated let it go do is there anything else oh I have a question

[00:47:45] for people is PJ Washington now just a 20 point per game playoff guy because

[00:47:55] the last three games he's been plus 20 and I wish somebody would sent me that

[00:47:59] memo that was the one thing I did not see coming now you were telling

[00:48:06] me Kyrie was gonna be special and all that actually PJ Washington having

[00:48:11] these three games leads me to my next question is it just a size is it

[00:48:19] fatigue or is it injury does bother Kyrie Irving because he said two

[00:48:27] nine-point outputs in this series and for Dallas to really have a chance to

[00:48:35] put okay see away we're gonna have to have really good performances from

[00:48:41] Kyrie so it makes me wonder if something's wrong because he's been

[00:48:46] spectacular pretty much all season and to see him struggle like this is it

[00:48:54] the length is it really the size has given him all this trouble because I

[00:48:59] seen him get past dudes before and really not have this issue but it's

[00:49:07] something to monitor as we go into game five I will say I still have the

[00:49:12] Thunder even though I'm gonna say well all my original picks I go down with

[00:49:17] the ship you know saying but they're gonna have to play their offense and

[00:49:24] what I mean by that is that I notice with Denver in their series and I said

[00:49:29] it yeah yeah Denver is utilizing their offense to the to the fullest extent

[00:49:36] everybody is moving the pick and roll action that allows Murray to get

[00:49:40] downhill and then look at the options that are going on whether Yoke is

[00:49:45] gonna pop out for the three or roll to the basket which then creates an

[00:49:50] action on the other side what KCP is gonna do is he gonna shoot out to the

[00:49:55] corner or is he gonna dive in so there's a lot of things that are going

[00:49:59] on and what you're seeing is that the different nuggets are running a lot

[00:50:03] of their stuff with a lot of attentionality it's purposeful it's at

[00:50:08] this pace its pace its pace is paces let's get it let's get it there

[00:50:13] let's go let's go and I think that what that is exactly what okay see is

[00:50:18] doing they've held up on the boards surprisingly and shot out to Chet and

[00:50:24] the crew they're doing that because it's been a gang rebounding mentality

[00:50:29] and we talked about it all series long and shots out to Mark Dagnall

[00:50:34] because he's the one doing that he's the one causing that to happen now um

[00:50:42] oh we have haha yes we gotta talk about Trey Young I knew we're gonna get here

[00:50:51] we're gonna get to Trey and we are here okay I want to start back because

[00:51:07] I had a whole bunch of notes on Trey I was gonna I start I was gonna start

[00:51:11] on Trey but the JJ Reddick thing came up when we needed to get that

[00:51:15] out of the way Trey Young was going to be like the centerpiece of this

[00:51:21] podcast but things change on a dime and we got to be nimble to meet the

[00:51:27] expectations of our audience and we have to be nimble enough to also

[00:51:32] bring you nothing but quality quality entertainment so now we are set to go

[00:51:39] with the Trey Young situation all right it is no secret that I don't enjoy

[00:51:51] watching Trey Young play basketball and people go like oh Vince you got a

[00:51:57] tremendous bag and I get it he's extremely talented that is 100% true I

[00:52:07] don't think there's any joy in playing with Trey Young I've heard from players

[00:52:15] who played with him I've heard on podcasts people who who get in

[00:52:22] situations like this and they all say man it's really hard to defend at a

[00:52:30] certain level or make cuts at a like we just talked about making cuts with

[00:52:38] intentionality right just talked about Atlanta is sitting there and it's like

[00:52:45] this four out five out style Trey yo-yo on up and down at the three point

[00:52:52] line and then deciding with like five seconds to go to go do some sort of

[00:52:58] pick and roll and a lot of times is very successful he'll get a lot he's one

[00:53:03] of the best lock throwers that we have here in the league there's no question

[00:53:08] about that but the shooting I mean he shoots it deep but it does definitely

[00:53:16] he doesn't shoot it at the rate that Steph does and some of the other

[00:53:20] better guards out there there's a lot of reputation with Trey Young and a

[00:53:25] lot of substance right now so my question is this is that I think that

[00:53:32] Trey is on the trade block I believe that he will get moved in the

[00:53:37] offseason now Trey can really change his career in a couple ways here and

[00:53:44] it's real simple real simple Trey Young get off the ball stop pounding

[00:53:57] the ball for 21 22 seconds and then throwing up some 33 footer that has

[00:54:05] almost no chance of going in well it has some chance because if you you're

[00:54:11] good I get that but um I mean for efficiency sake it would be better for

[00:54:20] him from a stamina point of view I think it would be better for him I

[00:54:26] think if he was moving without the ball he would be he'd be taxed more in a sense

[00:54:33] of his endurance but he'd be taxed less in the sense of his body if he

[00:54:40] was running around and having people throw picks for him but he chooses not

[00:54:46] to get off the ball now the choice might be made for him because I won't

[00:54:52] tell you right now the only team that he could go to where it would still be

[00:55:00] his team would be Brooklyn now Brooklyn is in New York City but

[00:55:11] Brooklyn is not Madison Square Garden it is not the Knicks even when they

[00:55:21] had Durant and Kyrie there wasn't this huge like net swell of fandom that

[00:55:27] happened in New York City that's a Knicks town it will always be a Knicks

[00:55:33] town so I don't know if Trey Young would want to go to Brooklyn and

[00:55:39] then just be the bad guy that tries to beat the Knicks who knows the

[00:55:48] other thing the other reason get off the ball is the it will bring

[00:55:52] unpredictability to the offense you've been playing around here for five six

[00:55:57] years and all we know is you in this heliocentric offense that you like to

[00:56:03] run but at the end of the day getting off the ball being more

[00:56:09] unpredictable in the offense is going to do wonders for you do wonders for

[00:56:15] the team success everything the third thing Trey's height limitations

[00:56:28] inhibit him from being a really good defensive player if Trey got off the

[00:56:34] ball more and allow his other teammates to handle hit he would have

[00:56:40] more I would say the rotations would be quicker when he needed help you know

[00:56:49] talking well it's human nature right if you're treated well you're gonna

[00:56:54] have a sense of urgency to do something for that other person right

[00:57:00] it's like you feel good somebody makes you feel this like oh man I feel

[00:57:05] like I need to do something for that person now you know not in a bad way

[00:57:11] it's not tip-for-tap it's just like you know I feel like I have a joyous

[00:57:15] obligation right and I think if Trey Young got off the ball he would see

[00:57:20] his teammates rally around him more which we know that is not the case in

[00:57:25] Atlanta we know that there are a lot of teammates that don't get down with Trey

[00:57:29] Young one being DeJante Murray by the way Trey Young also switched agents out

[00:57:38] he is now no longer a clutch client he's a CAA client Leon Rose but there's

[00:57:46] no way he's going to the Knicks don't worry about it okay couple other

[00:57:51] things about the reason why we think that Trey Young should get off the ball

[00:57:58] see that the yeah we all talked about this passing oh by the way here's the

[00:58:05] thing the last thing I'll say about this and we'll it'll get into what I

[00:58:09] want to talk about where I think the possible like perfect landing spot

[00:58:14] for Trey Young is a while ago Travis Slink was the player personnel guy of

[00:58:24] Atlanta and he had came over from Golden State and what he was trying to

[00:58:28] build was basically Gold State East and Trey Young was the center part the

[00:58:34] centerpiece around that the problem is is that you know when you don't

[00:58:39] get off the ball and you don't create these havoc type situations like Steph

[00:58:44] does and they constantly tried to tell him if you could implement a little

[00:58:52] bit of more Steph Curry's game getting off the ball it'll help you

[00:58:57] it'll help your shot all of this well okay if for some reason he didn't

[00:59:03] want to listen then how about this and here's proof of concept as well Chris

[00:59:11] Finch told Anthony Edwards to get off the ball more especially in the

[00:59:16] playoffs because the amount of attention that you are going to receive

[00:59:21] is going to basically force you to give up the ball anyway so start

[00:59:26] initiating passes early so you don't get blitzed how much success has

[00:59:33] Anthony Edwards had in this playoffs how glowingly has this podcast talked

[00:59:39] about Anthony Edwards the national attention or the national sentiment of

[00:59:46] Anthony Edwards right at this moment is what and yes Trey Young we ask you to

[00:59:56] get off the ball okay now to the perfect team the

[01:00:01] perfect team to Anthony Edwards to solve all the issues to solve you know

[01:00:07] we don't cure cancer we might be able to land another man on the moon with

[01:00:18] the with this particular situation I'm trying to I'm trying to get dogs and

[01:00:30] cats to live together with this experiment but we'll see no okay my

[01:00:37] perfect team for Trey Young if he is going to get traded now I don't know

[01:00:44] if this can be done but I just want you to hear me out the perfect

[01:00:49] situation for him is like really right in front of our faces we're

[01:00:54] watching it right now and that's the Minnesota Timberwolves now hear me out

[01:01:01] right we just talked about cat we talked about his struggles we also have

[01:01:07] seen in this series in in previous series that cat sometimes makes fouls

[01:01:13] that they are nonsensical fouls that's what they are I'm trying to

[01:01:22] find the words but I'm also trying to be very nice right now but there

[01:01:26] is sometimes that he makes fouls that you just sit there and you go that was

[01:01:30] so irrational for you to do why or why would you do that

[01:01:35] Carl Anthony Townes sometimes when I watch him play he reminds me of my mom

[01:01:45] or my dad when they would get mad at me right and they couldn't get the

[01:01:50] words out because they were so angry you know they were just like I can't

[01:01:55] even talk straight because I'm so mad at you and sometimes when Carl Anthony

[01:02:02] Townes plays now thank God I am NOT a fan of the Minnesota Timberwolves no

[01:02:08] shade Timberwolves fans I just I lived in LA all my life so you know I got a lot of love for y'all but Carl Anthony

[01:02:20] Townes would make just I would be so mad like I'll probably be mad a lot just

[01:02:28] like why are you doing this but if you were if you think about it and you say

[01:02:34] okay we got to get an upgrade here and kind of need somebody to fill this

[01:02:38] role yeah you can get another big or whatever but with the when you have

[01:02:46] when you have you got Rudy you got Nasri you got Kyle Anderson and you

[01:02:59] got Jayden McDaniels and let's not forget up-and-coming Leonard Miller and

[01:03:04] Jaylen Clark we haven't seen those guys yet you have enough length to

[01:03:11] high Trey Young in the exclusivity to your offense and what he could do for go

[01:03:17] bear and Nas Reid and Jaylen McDaniels for that to for that matter

[01:03:23] will be it would be awesome it wouldn't make this team so fun to watch

[01:03:28] they're fun now but how it bogs down in the fourth quarter as far as the

[01:03:33] office concerned Trey Young would be able to help that so I do think that

[01:03:39] a Trey Young to Minnesota would be a excellent idea I don't think it'll

[01:03:44] happen but that's the perfect team to me all right and again Trey get

[01:03:55] your ass off the ball just get off the ball man damn all right with that

[01:04:04] being said we are out of here I know we were supposed to pod yesterday I will

[01:04:11] tell you that is my fault it is my bad it's on nobody but me so the

[01:04:18] schedule is going to get back on track in this sense we're gonna go to

[01:04:23] Friday now because this Tuesday late Tuesday it's gonna be Friday and then

[01:04:28] next week we're gonna get back to Monday Wednesday Friday okay so we're

[01:04:33] gonna be back in the mix it's gonna be great and again I will tell you be a

[01:04:39] friend tell a friend tell everyone you know about frontrunner podcast

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[01:05:29] then find my producer be fun at F as our at be fun FRPC with that being said

[01:05:40] we can go ahead and close out the show and how we always like to end the

[01:05:44] show is this specific way do not let anybody turn off your light you are

[01:05:55] unique individual God made you this way all right go out there attack the day

[01:06:02] with reckless abandon and do some good and we'll see you back on this feed

[01:06:08] on Friday