🔥 KD Meltdown, Jimmy Butler to the Warriors, & Trae Young’s Uncertain Future 🔥

[00:00:01] It's Friday, you know what time it is, Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air, I am your humble host Vince Ant Today we have an exciting podcast for you, we're going to talk about a lot of the teams mid-season grades We're going to get into some of the trades and what happened and who did what and what does it all mean

[00:00:31] But beforehand, and so we have a lot to get to today but um, let's kind of give you kind of my thoughts on how everything has been going on We had trades, we had almost trades, theoretical trades, we had trades that look like they might be future trades We have concept trades and then finally we had actual trades This is what I've been rocking on lately, today's menu is stacked

[00:00:59] Phoenix, is it going nuclear? Having dangled Kevin Durant out to Golden State Panic move, Jimmy Butler actually going to the Warriors And the Hawks are either retooling for the future With Trey Young or Are they making moves For a post Trey Young Team That's all going to be on the pod today I can't wait to get to it

[00:01:29] The first front running thought of the day One We are looking at right now Because of what has gone on Over the trade deadline Now we've let all the smoke clear And you go like Well Vince How are you going to attack this trade deadline When you didn't speak upon it When it was happening Well, here's the thing One We are all Mac Now This technology change is here That's the first and foremost thing It took me a while I'm old

[00:01:58] Give me a second We've come up With an entertaining And informative way Of looking at this trade deadline And we hope that you guys enjoy What we have for you And enjoy this Friday Vibe that we got going So let's get into it How we're doing this Is that Post Trade deadline There are four players That FRPC Believes that In the summer

[00:02:28] We will be talking about Extensively In rumors In Trade Scenarios And what have you And we want to give you The four And we also want to give you The why's And why not's And What could possibly In our Expansive Imagination Could happen The first player On this list Is No Surprise at all The used to be Oracle

[00:02:57] Of this podcast On the possibility Of Kevin Durant Getting traded You know We heard the rumors Of Phoenix Offering KD To the Warriors At the deadline But I have sources That tell me They have been Peddling KD out For a week Prior To the deadline Without KD's knowledge Or his Agent's knowledge If you're dangling KD out there It's a sign That the marriage Might be Over

[00:03:27] So to me Personally KD is 8.5 Out of 10 On the possibility Meter Of moving Here's why Despite his age Durant remains A top tier 29 point Per game Score He has Shoots 63% True shooting Percentage And he's Just an Offensive Anchor You can Drop him In any Situation It doesn't Matter whether You need him To be the Lead scorer The secondary Scorer

[00:03:57] KD fits Every team Also You can't Teach 7 feet In guard Skills I mean I know He says He's 6'10 I know That's what He's been Telling people Forever But we all Know That KD Is 7 feet Tall Stop tripping Now Can the Suns Fix this Well here's The problem The Suns Can't Surround him Properly Or Men fences So they're Going to Have to Flip him And

[00:04:27] Here's The problem That I see Going forward KD's 36 now He'll be 37 next Year Next year Will be The last Year of The contract What are You exactly Getting for KD So when You Put him On the Trade block A week Prior to The trade Deadline What was The calculations In that room Who was Pulling the Trigger on This situation Who said Okay well What happens If we Can't get

[00:04:56] What we Want Or You know The deal Is contingent On another Deal that The team Is doing And how Could this Backfire in Our face Down the Road Did anybody Account for That situation Because here Is what The picture That I Want to Paint For Phoenix Suns Fans We We We Little Rescuit It is Valentine's Day I hope you are with your lover today I hope you are spending time

[00:05:25] Getting the roses Getting the daffodils You know Getting the tulips Whatever it is that you get Your lady friend Or your male friend I don't know You know However the roles need to be Taken care of That's That's y'all business But Soon We will have the second half Of the year And I think we could all Relate to this Devin Booker Bradley Bill And Kevin Durant Are the leaders of that team

[00:05:54] Where they currently rank Right now They're in the plant It will be up to them Whether this team Makes a push Towards the Upper echelon Of the Western Conference Or not It's a stack west You're gonna have to play Not just your role You're gonna have to Expand your role To get your team To where it needs to be If you expect to do Anything of note In the playoffs

[00:06:22] So my question to Phoenix Suns fans Is do you see this happening Is this something that You can go ahead and say Hey We're here This is what we're doing Because If you can't If this is What it's gonna be This is gonna be A miserable existence For everyone involved By the way They Fired Frank Vogel After One season And That's a championship Winning coach

[00:06:52] You brought in Mike Budenhoser To Give this Offense Some sort of Upgrade And it's worse Than it was Last year And I'll leave you With this And this is where KD lost his Oracle privileges If you need to know But If my man Changes teams again KD changes addresses More than The traveling DJ does If you see the Suns Front office fumbling Best believe KD is checking Flight schedules

[00:07:22] Out of Phoenix Guaranteed They fumbled the bag My guy is good as gone So Whether he's a Miami Heat Whether he Clans up with Somebody else Does he go to Houston And Go to that Huge Well we'll get to it Right now Cause I got the Potential fits right here First and foremost Let's talk about This first thing John Krasinski Of The Athletic Is a Great writer Where he gives us Great insight Into the

[00:07:52] Timberwolves All the time On good authority John says that Minnesota put in A bid for KD But could you Imagine KD And Frontrunner Podcast Collective New Oracle Anthony Edwards That's right You hear it here First This is Exclusive Ant Edwards Is the new Spirit animal Of Frontrunner Podcast Collective Congratulations To Ant Edwards Congratulations

[00:08:22] To you player You are now The new Spirit animal Of this podcast We love you We love the quotes We love how real You keep it And we love The dunks That you Put on people All the time But could you Imagine A Timberwolves Team That had The slim Reaper And then Also had The competitiveness Of Anthony Edwards Who gonna tell KD All the time Like Ayo man Give me the ball Move out the way We gonna get this

[00:08:52] Dub I can't wait For this I want to see This If we can Make this happen This would be Incredible For me Just content You imagine KD And Ant Edwards Together You imagine The dual Press conferences When they're Sitting there On the podium And then The questions Come in You see KD Just chilling You know Barely wanting To answer Questions And then Ant's over there With the electric Smile that he has I hope this happens

[00:09:21] The Miami Heat Obviously We're in on this This is something That we tell you You know this Without Any question That Pat Riley Is always Big star hunting I don't think That Andrew Wiggins Fits the bill Of a big star So You best You can best Believe that If we're looking In the summertime And Pat Riley Is 83 years of age That's right I said that

[00:09:51] Pat Riley Is older Than former President Joe Biden So Wrap that around Your head A little bit And that's What's running The Miami Heat Right now Okay So that old man I'm gonna tell you Right now He is looking For a star He's looking For immediacy Upgrades On that offense And the One person That you can Bring into Your organization And bring Immediate upgrade To your offense

[00:10:20] Is Kevin Durant Now I know Phoenix You can sit there And say Well what's Happening right now That's a toxic Situation I know he says It's not I know he's Come out Publicly And says That it's not But You can look At the demeanor On the court And then you can Cause what you're Seeing right now From that team Is not Excellent basketball Is not A It's not Basketball That is together It seems like There's a bunch Of agendas On that team This is what

[00:10:49] We gotta look Forward to For two Three more Month Now A surprise Entrant To the Kevin Durant Sweepstakes I am almost Scared to say This team And the reason Why I'm scared To say this team Because we know That the propaganda For this team Is super real The New York Knicks Have interest In Kevin Durant KD flirted With New York City before The Knicks Actually have Picks They don't have A lot of picks But

[00:11:19] They might Have the Necessary Players To go Back For KD Not saying That you're Going to Lose Carl Anthony Towns Not saying That you're Going to Lose Let's say Mikael Bridges Or even Jalen Brunson Would you Be willing To give OG Ananobi Now Here's the Thing Both KD Ananobi Have a Marred History Of injury But If you Were going To say We're Fully

[00:11:48] Invested In Offense We got Carl Anthony Towns Somehow Tom Thibodeau Has seen The light And he's Just like We're just Going to Get buckets From here On out A 7 Foot Power Forward Who can Get a Bucket At any Point In time In the Shot clock Is Definitely Worth It's Weight In gold The team That we Can Definitely Extract Out of This Situation For sure Is the Golden State Warriors Why Two Reasons Why One

[00:12:18] They already Got Jimmy Butler Congratulations Jimmy Butler Is in The bay I want To know How much Time Jimmy Butler Spends In Oakland Somebody Needs To Get To Me And Get Me That Report How Much Time Does Jimmy Butler Spend In Oakland That Tell Me A lot About What Goes On But The Other Reason Is Because That Steph And Kevin Durant Had A Conversation Leading Up Right To The Trade Deadline And Basically

[00:12:47] They Came Away As An Impact That KD Didn't Feel Right Going Back To Golden State And Can We Necessarily Blame KD For Not Wanting To Go Back To Golden State Do We Not Remember The Draymond Green Kevin Durant Fight On The Sideline He Is Calling Kevin Durant All Kind Of Names Outside His Name And Stuff Like That What Are We Doing Right Now It's Crazy Can't Do This

[00:13:17] So Again I Think It's Highly Likely That Kevin Durant Is Out Of Phoenix Sorry To The Suns Fans Out There Now What Does Phoenix Want In Return I Think They Are Going To Want A Near Star Or Young Cornerstone Plus A Hall Of First Round Picks They Can't Just Rebuild They Still Have Booker But They Need Assets That They Lost In Trading For KD In The First Place And I Think The

[00:13:47] Last Piece Of This Is That Whatever The Return Is I Think You Gotta Have One Guy That You Believe Is A Blue Chipper You Know Saying You Whether It's That Year Or The Next Year You Believe That He Has The Talent Productivity Or The Potential Productivity To Get You There Now We Move On To Our Second Dude That Might Be Looking For A New Home And

[00:14:32] Because I Will Tell You This I Kind Of Really Have Enjoyed How Quinn Snyder Has Gone About This For Sure Because If You Think About It He Got There In The Middle Of The Season I Think It Was Right After The Trade Deadline Two And A Years Ago So Well Now What It's Three Now Three It's Now Three Jeez Time Flies When You Having Fun But So Quinn Snyder Gets There He Immediately Says Okay We Going To Play

[00:15:01] We Going To See We Going To Start Discerning What We Got Things Like This And One Of The Things That You See Towards The End Of And Then DeJounte Get Murray Gets Traded

[00:15:31] But Lo And Behold When Quinn Snyder Got There There Was A Guy On The Bench By The Name Of Jalen Johnson Now Jalen Johnson Is A Offensive Facilitator That Quinn Snyder Would Like To Spam Even More Because He's Six Foot Nine That's A Far Cry From Trey Young Who Is I Mean I Think We Can Be Generous When We Say That Trey Young Is Six

[00:16:01] Feet Right Like Is He Six Feet Y'all Hit Me Up On X At Frontrunner PC Or Hit Our Producer Up At Raya Underscore Funch FRPC And If You're Tired Of X Or Twitter We Got Blue Sky Baby Blue Sky Is Available We On That So At Frontrunner PC Now Our Producer She's So High Falutin She Wanted This

[00:16:31] She Has FRPC Hyphen Raya Dot BSky Dot Social So Hit Us Up Snyder Has Just Moved This Down The Road So Let's Get Into The Whole Trey Young Of It All First And Foremost The Writing On The Wall To Me Was The Hawks Trading DeAndre Hunter I Mean And Basically If

[00:17:13] The Fact That He Has Been Injured But We Don't Think Of Vagano Vagano Vagano Vagano Vagano Vagano He Gets You Into Good Offense Most Of The Time So This Is Somebody Who Is A Dependable Offensive Facilitator At The Trade Deadline Those Two Guys Are Now Gone So What Do You Have Left Well Jalen Johnson Got Hurt He's Out For The End Of The Year So You Thought That

[00:17:43] Maybe This Team Would Add They Subtracted So That's Part Of The Reason Why I Think That They May Be Retooling And Then The Other Part Is This Trae Young Still Leads The League In Assist But We Know That Snyder System Emphasizes Ball Movement And Shooting From Multiple Spots Will Trae Ball Dominance Fit Or Push Him Out I Mean This Is Where We Are This Has Been The Eternal

[00:18:13] Question Since The Day That Quinn Snyder Entered The Atlanta Hawks It Was Going To Be A Battle Of Wheels Who Was Going To Win Was It Going To Be Trey In His Connection To The Owner Son Or Was It Who Have A Completely Different Vision For This Team It Looks Like It Looks Like The Franchise Is Winning Out That's What It Looks

[00:18:42] Like Now Here's The Thing Trey Is Not Shocked About Feeling Underappreciated If The Hawks Keep Flipping Guys Like Hunter He Might Be On The Next Flight Out Of Hartsfield Jackson Okay My Guy Might Put On His Like Denim Jacket Cause He Might Be Singing Some Love Songs Like Some Breakup Songs To Atlanta Might Have To See Alright Let's Look At The Potential Fits

[00:19:12] Right These Aren't Like 100% But Let's Try Them Out Miami Miami Needs A star If They Don't Get Kevin Durant Here's A Guy Who Can This Is The One Thing You Can Say About Trey He's Not A Great Defender But He Is A Facilitator Of Offense He Can Get You Offense Now If You Had Bam Out Of Bio And All The Wings That They Have Currently Have Maybe There's Something That You Can Do

[00:19:42] There Cause I've Always Thought That If You Can Get Trey Off Ball Somewhat That His Offense Diet Was A Little More Balanced It Doesn't Have To Him As A Player Becomes More Effective And You As A Team Becomes More Successful So I Think The Heat And Their No Nonsense Attitude That

[00:20:12] They Have Might Be Not A Bucket And He's Not Scared Of The Moment Which Also Fits The Lifestyle Of Miami And I Kept Them South Which Is Great

[00:20:41] Now A Couple Other Teams To Kind Of Think About And I Threw This Out To My Producer Soraya She Almost Flipped The Hell Out She Was So Mad And I Said The New Orleans Pelicans And Her Thought Immediately Is Like Why Are You New Pelicans Why Would You Do That To The Court Like What Are You Doing I Said Whoa Hear Me Out Hear Me

[00:21:11] Out You Put Trey In New Orleans What Is All Around Trey And What Actually Came From New Orleans That Even Made Me Think This Was Dyson Daniels Now I Understand That Zion Might Not Be The Prototypical Power Defensively Wise But He Is A Good Rim Protector Let's Not Get It Twisted We Can Work Some Sort Of Defense That Can Make Him More

[00:21:41] Viable But It's The Other Winks It's The Herb Jones Of

[00:22:31] Maybe he's never going to be a great defender at all. But if you can get him just to absolutely give a shit, it would be better. It would be better. Just saying. Now, people are just probably killing me right now. They're saying like, why are you so raw on our guy, Trae Young? Because I think for the first time, Trae Young is actually trying to play good basketball.

[00:22:59] And I like to see him in a position where he could play good basketball. That's why. So that's where I'm at with that. Now, likelihood of a summer Trae. I'm going to put it at a 7.5 out of 10 right now. The direction in Atlanta is very murky. Especially that you know that Jalen Johnson's out for the year.

[00:23:23] Now, Snyder's offense will clarify whether they keep building around him or pivot. I think you're starting to see the writing on the wall with that right now. And I'll tell you another thing. Let's say we get outside this All-Star break. One solid good losing streak away. And Trae Young might stop sub-tweeting the front office.

[00:23:52] What would Atlanta get or want for Trae Young? I would think picks would be one of the things that they would want to do. I think they would want to try to stay competitive. So they would want something. I don't believe that Atlanta wants to blow it up. I think it's perfectly content with being kind of like Chicago Bulls South.

[00:24:16] If it hasn't worked out for them and they just aren't getting the opportunities that they thought they were getting. You know on their rookie deal or something. If we can get into the play-in and get that extra revenue of a pseudo playoff game. Great. At least we're fun to watch. I haven't seen anything. Now I know that Landry Fields and Quinn Snyder are changing the narrative around there.

[00:24:40] But until we see Jalen Johnson completely healthy and Dyson Daniels with him in that mix. I gotta see it. By the way, shout out to Aneka Okongwu for finally getting that starting job. He's been awesome since he got that starting job. So we are super excited to see a old school Pac-12 dude doing well. Even though he went to the wrong school at USC.

[00:25:11] Speaking of USC or you know adjacent to it. This is a good segue. The next person on our list of people who might leave is Lomelo Ball. Yes, you heard me. Lomelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets. And why would I think this? I think that you got Brandon Miller. You drafted Tijon Saloon.

[00:25:41] You're gonna have another high draft pick this year. But if it's not Cooper Flagg. If for some reason you don't get Cooper Flagg. Are you getting Ace Bailey? Which is kind of duplicative of what Brandon Miller is. Or do you get a all-world offensive facilitator in Dylan Harper? These are questions that you gotta ask yourself. So this is probably the reason why he might be out. You know what I'm saying?

[00:26:10] Might be. Now here's the thing. He's a walking highlight. The red flag is the health. The numbers are great. Because what you get from him is you get 22 and 8. And he shoots 38% from 3. But the thing about it is. Is that he has just terrible ankles for some reason. And maybe he. I've been saying literally for two years now. Go talk to Steph Curry. Like go figure that out.

[00:26:38] Go figure your ankle situation out. Get that all squared away. Here's what I think of Lomelo. He's a flashy sports car with questionable reliability. You love to look at it. But you can't trust it to take it for a long drive. Man you can't take this. Like if you were going from Atlanta. Let's say to like Omaha Nebraska. You ain't taking. You ain't taking a Ferrari to do that. You're getting like an SUV. My boy is into the flash. Now.

[00:27:08] Who will want Lomelo Ball? Well a lot of people will want Lomelo Ball. Because he's still 23 years of age. And he's one of the best lob throwers in the game. He is. He's got crazy range. Crazy range. His shot selection is absolute crop. But you can fix that. Right? And you can't teach 6'8 ball handling skills. And the ability to look over the defense.

[00:27:38] You can't teach that. So. The Orlando Magic come to mind. Why would I say that? Because the Orlando Magic need a point guard. The Phoenix Suns come to mind. I'm not saying that. KD. Goes to Charlotte. Maybe there's a three team deal. Whatever the case may be. I'm just saying that Phoenix needs talent. And they probably need to just reset completely. And. We're going to talk a little bit about Devin Booker in a second. But.

[00:28:10] Because he's not. No, no, no. He's not getting traded. I don't have him on this list. So. Calm down. And then Chicago Bulls or the Brooklyn Nets. I mean. If you're looking for a star. And Chicago hasn't had anybody since Derrick Rose. And. They've been living off the fumes. So. Chicago Bulls and the Brooklyn Nets. Come to mind for LaMelo Ball. And. For this reason. And this reason only. If you think about it.

[00:28:40] Brooklyn takes swings. And Sean Marks is still there. And the talent might be too tantalizing. For him not to strike. And then with Chicago. You know. Derrick Rose. Was an unfortunate situation. Then. You know. Ryan's Doors has been living off the fumes of Michael Jordan for years. So. Bringing somebody like LaMelo into Chicago.

[00:29:08] Would be a good move for ticket sales. Or. Eyeballs on the franchise. And we definitely know. That our guy Ryan's Doors cares about ticket sales. Eyeballs on the franchise. I don't know if he cares about winning. Per se. But. He does care about those two things. Now. The likelihood. Of. LaMelo.

[00:29:38] Leaving Charlotte. This summer. I would probably put it at like a five out of ten. The asset is too. Too. Awesome. To let go for like a low. End. Like. Trade. You cannot. You cannot pull. What I would consider a Luka Doncic situation. If you're Charlotte. You got to get a bunch of picks back. Or. Good young talent back. Or whatever the case may be.

[00:30:08] Now. Here's why the. The teams. On the other end. Would be more cautious. Is because of the fact that you have the. The history of LaMelo's. Ankle and foot issues. Now. His star. Two. Is also a questionable situation. Can you beat out of him. You know. Can you break him down. Enough. Where. The shot selection gets better. And you hope. And pray for that. Because.

[00:30:38] If you can. Get him. His shot diet. If he's not taking 40 foot. Jump shots. LaMelo's. Percentages. Go way up. He just falls in love. With that 40 footer. With 19 seconds. On the shot clock. And I have no idea why. And then. Here's the last thing. He's definitely a big name. In a small market. So. He could push. For out. If he really wants to. You know. Make his name. Somewhere else. But.

[00:31:08] I think for right now. It's an asset management situation. I think it's kind of like a 50-50 situation. Whether. He leaves. Or. He doesn't leave. I think it's going to be to the discretion. Of the front office. And where they feel. After they. Know. What their lottery position will be. If that makes sense. I mean. I still think of him. As a top tier talent. I think that he. Could get you. Multiple firsts. In a young piece.

[00:31:38] Um. I do. Understand. That. You know. The other teams. Will take the. The injury. Considerations. Into it. And. Um. Maybe. Protect the picks. Or something. But you're not going to get out of it. Without multiple. First rounders. And a young player back. I don't think. Now. Our last guy. Is. The guy. That. I'm going to tell you right now. Once we say this name. Um. Aggregation.

[00:32:07] Is probably going. Go way up. But. Giannis. Is our last guy. Giannis Antetokounmpo. Of the Milwaukee Bucks. And. Here's the reason why. I think this. I have no. New. Intel. About the Bucks. Panicking. Um. I don't see. The front office. This. Making this decision. Um. Giannis has shown. Nothing but loyalty. To that team. Now. He's thrown some.

[00:32:37] Some statements. In there. In the last couple years. That. Give you. Pause. I would say. But here's the. Here's the thing. He's an MVP candidate. He's a two-way force. And. He's Milwaukee's. Entire strategy. Like. How are we going to win? Giannis. How are we going to. Rebound? Giannis. How are we going to. Push the ball. In the fast break? Giannis.

[00:33:07] Who's going to. Help us in the half court. Offense. Giannis. He's everything. For Milwaukee. So why would you get rid of him? Unless. Unless. It's like a perfect marriage. That we just hope. Doesn't come to an end. With an ugly divorce. And Chris Middleton. Is now gone. The reality. Is. Is that the deconstruction.

[00:33:36] Of their championship team. Is almost. Now. Complete. One of the biggest pieces. Of that team. Is now gone. And Giannis. Is looking around. And going like. I'm no. Closer. To the championship. Than I was. When I had that dude. So. What happens. This offseason. Well. Let's talk about some of the teams. That might. Check in. With old Milwaukee.

[00:34:07] Call John Horst up. Be like. Hey. Hey John. How's it going? Hey. How is summer. Going for you. Is the golf game. Good buddy. Well. You know why we're calling. Right. I think. The Houston Rockets. Will be one of the first people. To make that phone call. They got a ton. Of young talent. They got a pile of picks. And Giannis. Would immediately. Turn them into a.

[00:34:37] Complete freak show. And just somebody. Hard to deal with. And an actual contender. In the West. You can never. Count out. The Miami Heat. In this situation. And the only reason. I throw Miami out there. And I understand. That people say. How are they going to do it? Well. Just like the Lakers. They find a way. Now.

[00:35:07] Another team. That might look. To make some. Kind of move. Because. Let me tell you something. The PR situation. In Dallas. Is dire. Okay. Let me tell you something. Dallas. All the people. That work in the front office. Gotta have like. Extra security. Okay. All the people. Like what. Patrick Dumont. He's saying crazy stuff. Out here. In the.

[00:35:36] You know. In public. Like you don't say this stuff. In public dog. It's a PR nightmare. And. You know how you can fix. A PR nightmare. You get Giannis. Now. Do I think they can? I think there's going to be. A lot of teams. That would have. The capability. Of being able to. Acquire Giannis. Before. The Dallas Mavericks. Would be able to. But here's the thing. If Giannis. Looks.

[00:36:06] Gets to the end of this season. And. The way we look at this season. Right now. And we'll get to our power rankings. A little. In a. In a second. But. You look at this team. You look at all of what's going on. Is there a chance that Giannis. Like looks around and goes. You know what. I really don't. I don't know if I really want to do this. Now. I will tell you the likelihood of that. I'm going to go ahead and put it at a three right now.

[00:36:35] And the only reason I'm saying that is because. I've not seen the playoffs yet. I can't predict the future. If I could. Probably wouldn't be sitting where I'm sitting right now. I'll be sitting in like a condo. That overlooks the ocean. Probably millions of dollar view. Whatever. Whatever. But I can't predict the future. So. You know. Likelihood. Likelihood. Right. Now.

[00:37:05] Here's the thing. One of the reasons why the front office might even entertain the situation. Is that they would get a historically large haul. If they would move Giannis. Because they are not the Dallas Mavericks. And. Honestly. To tell you the truth. If it was me. I would be sitting there going like this. If I was the team. If I was John Horace. I would be like. Listen. I want all your picks. I want your best young player.

[00:37:32] And I possibly want your next born child. If that person is going to be like six foot six. Just saying. I'm going to ask for everything. I'm going to ask for all of it. If it's me. If I'm getting rid of. The franchise. The franchise. Guys. Milwaukee had won a title since. Kareem outdoed Jabbar. And then Giannis came around. And got them a title.

[00:38:02] So if I'm moving off of him. You giving me everything. Everything. You got. Everything that's not nailed down. I'm going to want all of that. All of it. Give it all to me. All right. Now. We're going to. We're going to wrap this up with. Our thoughts on. On these guys. And then we're going to get to the baseline buzz.

[00:38:31] Because we got some stuff to get to real quick. All right. So we think that Kevin Durant is pretty much out. We think Trey Young has a good possibility of being out. Lomelo is a 50-50 shot. And. Let's see where the winds blow. Towards the playoffs. And then we'll make our decision on Giannis. Because it's going to be interesting to see how he feels after the season.

[00:38:59] So let's get to some baseline buzz. Shall we? We have a lot to get to. Because we got the Toronto Raptors out here spending money like drunken sailors. Brandon Ingram signed a contract with the Toronto Raptors. An extension. Three years. $120 million. That also includes a player option. For 2027. To 2028.

[00:39:26] Toronto made this move just days after trading. As they want to try to fix their half court offense. Bobby Webster. The Raptors GM says he's young. He's entering his prime. And by no means. Is he a finished product. Well Bobby. You are the first one to say that. Because we all been waiting for. The real. Brandon Ingram to show up.

[00:39:56] We've been asking him to take more three point shots in his shot diet. That still has not happened. So you are right. He is not a finished product. My question to you is. Is. Is it just one of those home improvement. Situations that never get finished. It never gets finalized. Is it one of those things. When the contractor comes in. He says. Well. We should have this done in two months. And then you look up six months later.

[00:40:25] And it's still not done. Is it that situation. Because that's the kind of situation that. That New Orleans has been in. With Brandon Ingram. Since he's been there. Now. Here's the great part about Brandon Ingram. He is going to get you buckets when he is on the court. 22.2 points a game. 5.6 rebounds a game. 5.2 assists a game. He is a productive player.

[00:40:55] His injury history. Remains a concern. And the Raptors projected starting. Projected cap numbers for next year. Is 172 million dollar payroll next season. Are you kidding me right now? That's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. So you got Emmanuel Quickly. RJ Barrett. You got Scotty Barnes.

[00:41:23] Who supposedly the team was being built. Around. Remember Scotty Barnes. The high. First round pick. A couple years ago. We going to play through him. The offense. He's going to be the offensive facilitator. He's going to be kind of like. Magic Johnson. But 21st century. That he can dunk. And shoot threes. And all this. And we just scrapped that plan. Like we scrapping that all together.

[00:41:53] Some Toronto people need to let me know. What's up with that. I don't know. We do got some good news coming out of Minnesota though. We thought it was going to happen in November of 2024. It has been a long. Long road. But we are finally here. The Timberwolves have been. Now been owned by. Alex Rodriguez. And Mark Laurie.

[00:42:20] There seems to be a situation where. The Arbitur has ruled in favor of that group. Glenn Taylor. The long time Timberwolves owner is now out. But now let's get to the aftermath of this situation. Under. Glenn Taylor's leadership. We traded Carl Anthony Towns away. To the Knicks. In return. You got Julius Randle.

[00:42:49] Who's pouting. You got Dante DiVincenzo. Who's hurt right now. But gives you something when he is in the lineup. And you lost your superpower. Against Jokic. Which was the two tower. Lineup with Gobert. And Carl Anthony Towns. Because for some reason. Julius Randle. Is somehow keeping. Our guy.

[00:43:20] Nas Reed. At bay. Because I think their best lineup. Is when Nas Reed. Replaces Julius Randle. And he gives him that. Almost that dual. Big look again. But. Now we're here. Now we're here. And what does it mean. For. What does it mean. For our new Oracle. Anthony Edwards. Right now. You see a guy.

[00:43:50] You see a guy. Who doesn't blink. Even he clanking shots. All game. He's fearless. With the ball. In his hands. And when the clock is winding down. That swagger. Is a gift. But it can be a curse too. He's forcing a lot of tough looks. Right now. From what I've been watching. Now he's had some 40 point games. But he's turned in some woeful. Shooting performances. Against the Bucks. He shot four. Of 16 from three. Three. But.

[00:44:20] When you watch them. There's still. Zero hesitation. Because. The one thing with Cat. I mean. One thing with Anthony Edwards. Is that. He understood. That the lock. The lane would be clogged. Without. Without. Carl Anthony Towns there. So he said. I'm going to shoot a bunch of threes. You're not going to deter my man. And Edwards. From getting his shots up. If. I can't go dunk on somebody. I'll just shoot threes. I'll just get better at that.

[00:44:49] And then. We'll figure out. How it all goes. Now. If you look at the Ross energy. Data backs it up. Uh. He's a star level production. Because he just gets shots. Edwards now leads the league. In total three pointers. Made for this season. It's an incredible leap. From the skepticism. About his. Shooting pre-draft. Remember.

[00:45:19] All the scouts were like. Is he going. Is he going to shoot the ball. Well enough. To be able to do what he does. Yep. Because he's a tireless worker. Now. His clutch numbers. Are another story. The Wolves have been. A league leading. 19 clutch time losses. And his field goal percentage drops. Noticeably. In those final minutes. The reason why. Is because. Mike Conley Jr. Is now. Has aged out of.

[00:45:48] Crunch time minutes. You don't have Carl Anthony Towns. As a spacer. Rudy Gobert. Is somebody. Who needs to. Be. Spoon fed. Lobs. Or. Handed. Like literally. Two feet away from the basket. So he can lay it up. So he's not really. An offensive driver. Nas Reed is also. Really dependent on you. Getting him shots. And. We haven't really seen the growth. From McDaniels.

[00:46:18] From McDaniels. That we needed to see. So without. Dante DiVincenzo. They really slow played. Also. Rob Dillingham. As well. He's starting to get more looks. Now. He's starting to get more burn. On the court. Now. But. They really did not. Use him. Early on in the season. Which I thought they would. To see what he had. So he would be ready. For this situation now. But now. Because of necessity. He's being used. And yeah.

[00:46:48] There's days where it looks. Decent. And there's some days. Where it looks god awful. Welcome to the NBA. As a young guard. And also. Welcome to the NBA. As a young guard. And being like. Six foot one. And like. 150 pounds. That's a good. Deconomy with Ant. He's unbelievably gifted. Super confident. But his efficiency. Can dip. Under pressure. Because of the fact. That he doesn't have. The necessary help. That he once had. Last season.

[00:47:17] And this is all. Due to Glenn Taylor. This is due to his leadership. This is due to. What has he done. Since he's been. The owner of that team. Somebody tell me. He ruined KG's. Stint. In Minnesota. Basically. KD had to go. Or KG had to go. Get glory. In Boston. Right. So at this point.

[00:47:47] We look at this situation. And we go. Thank god. There's new leadership. In the twin cities. Thank god. There's somebody. Who is stewarded. This team. In the right direction. And by the way. As a little caveat. Tim Conley. Is more likely. To stay. On board. With the. Ownership. Lori. And A-Rod. Than he was. With Glenn Taylor. Because. He had. Restructured his contract. For his contract.

[00:48:17] To end. At the end. Of this season. Let's move along. To the Lakers. They signed. Alex Lynn. They waived. Christian Wood. This is a. Yawn. Best. For me. Okay. If you watch. The Lakers tape. It's obvious. They love. The small. Wild lineups. With LeBron. As a pseudo center. Or. If you want to call. Rui Hachimura. The pseudo center. You can do that.

[00:48:48] Jackson Hayes. Has shown flashes. As a rim runner. But he is still. Absolutely raw. He does not rebound. Well. At all. And his rim protection. Albeit. Spectacular. It's very inconsistent. So. Enter. Alex Lynn. And you say. Well. What is he going to give. Give us Vince. Well. Let me tell you. He's a. Serviceable big.

[00:49:17] And I say that. Gently. And generously. He averages. 6.7 points a game. 5.3 rebounds. And just. Under a block. A game. But no one is confusing him. With Pete. Dwight Howard. The data suggests that. The Lakers are. At their best. Defensively. When they. Have a true center. Anchoring them. At the rim. Now with. A.D. Gone. Out there. Gone. Just gone. He's.

[00:49:47] In Dallas. Loving Dallas. But. Her. The problem is. Is that. The team that. Looks good on the floor. Is the small ball lineup. Now. How much energy. Does LeBron and Luka. Have to. Extend out. For this lineup. To be. Um. As. Problematic. To the. Opponent. Than it needs to be. Well. That's going to be the. That's going to be the. The. The. 64 million dollar question. Right.

[00:50:17] How much. How much energy. Are those two. Going to have to expend. Or. Are they going to lean on the offense. And just say. To hell with the defense. We got two of the best. Offensive creators. Of all time. On our team. Let's just do that. They can do that. Now. All this happens. Because. The Mark Williams. To Los Angeles. For Dalton to connect. And the. 2031.

[00:50:46] First round pick. Unprotected. And the. 2030. First round pick. Swap. To Charlotte. Got rescinded. Because. Mark Williams. Comes here. Does the physical. People. Freak out. Like they saw the elephant man. In his x-ray. Like some real. Outlandish stuff. Or something. I don't know. But. From whatever. From whatever. People say.

[00:51:16] About the situation. It. You never. It's. It always sounds dire. It's like. Hey. What did you hear about them? Oh. Yeah. Not. Yeah. Not good. Just. All that. So. Where do the Lakers go from here? Well. They're going to be fun. We're going to see what Luca. LeBron. And Austin can do. We are going to hope. That. Dorian Finney Smith. Is.

[00:51:46] Enjoying. Some time off. And getting well rested. Because. We will need his defense. defense. And we also hope. That the. Injury to. Jackson Hayes. When he left. In the. Last game. Of the. Before the all-star break. That that was not serious. And he'll be back. Because we need. Some sort of rim protection. Action. But let's be straight. Let's be real. Whatever Luca. And LeBron. Bless us with.

[00:52:15] In the postseason. We're all going to be not worthy. Of it. But we are going to enjoy. The absolute. Living hell. Out of it. Are we going to get a 40 plus point game. From Luca. In the playoffs. Probably. Are we going to have some kind of sick. Triple double. From LeBron. Probably. Are they going to get to the Western Conference Finals. I have no idea. Zero clue. But we'll find out.

[00:52:47] And. Last thing on baseline buzz. Before we get to around the arc. Is this. Is that. Herb Jones is likely out for the season. He's out with a. Shoulder injury. His. Three point shooter. Shooting had gone into the tank. And. It looked like. There was some sort of. AC joint. Damage that. They needed to go ahead. And. Get squared away. But. I will say this. And it's just terrible. New Orleans. Has. Just.

[00:53:17] Nothing but a dark cloud. Hanging over them. Their whole. Roster needs to be. On a spa retreat. Someone needs to. Pray to the basketball gods. That. Somebody. Else. Doesn't get hurt. Or. David Griffin. Needs to sign. The actual. Avengers. To. Field. A basketball team. So they won't get hurt. Because you're. Dealing with. Demigods. And. Superheroes. I don't know. Because.

[00:53:47] Between Zion's. Injuries. Ingram's. Relocation. To Toronto. Herb's. Injury. Injury. And all. The other. Numerous. Injuries. That happened. I haven't even talked about. The Dejounte Murray injury. You get an idea that. I'm going to tell you right now. David Griffin. Must be sitting back there. And going like. What did I do? What did I do? Earlier in my life. That. Gives me all this sorrow. Right now.

[00:54:17] That man must. Be going to all. Kinds of voodoo princesses. To get this curse off him. All kinds. Alright. Last. But not least. We're saving this one for last. We'll save the best for last. Let's have some fun. Alright. We. Have come up with. Our tiers. Of teams. And their chances. To do some damage. In the playoffs. We.

[00:54:46] Have paired them. With some of. The finest. TV. That we can possibly. Put. In this podcast. We have combined. Nothing but. Success. With more success. And collaborate. With them. Together. It's great. You're going to love it. Buckle up. It's going to be fantastic. So alright. For everybody out there. This is.

[00:55:16] The first time. That. Frontrunner Podcast Collective. Is doing tears. And you might say to yourself. Vince. You know we love tears. This is why I'm giving it to you. I'm giving it to you. But I got to do it my way. Not only are we going to give you tears. This. We are pairing up. Your NBA teams. With some of. Some of the most. Iconic TV. Over the last 15 years.

[00:55:46] So. We're giving you. Where they are in the tier. And also. Their comparison. To a TV show. So not only. We're giving you the best of both worlds. So. We got tier one. The championship contenders. I'm going to tell you right now. I only have three teams. In my. Tier one. The first one up. We go to the plains baby.

[00:56:15] We go to Oklahoma City. And that's where the Thunder. Preside. And what are the reasons why the Thunder. Are one of the teams that I consider. A championship contender. Contending team. Their defensive rating is. 104.2. Which is number one. In all of the NBA. Oh by the way. They lead the league. In deflections per game.

[00:56:43] It's like a bunch of wild dogs out there. I get everybody wants to talk about the Thunder. Like there's some cute underdog story. But there aren't. This team is scary as hell. Not on defense. Not just on defense. They have a top tier. MVP candidate. In SGA. Who's having. A absolutely. Incredible season.

[00:57:14] And there's nothing scrappy. About their lockdown defense. That they bring to the table. Every. Single. Night. Night. It is not a happy accident. Or a slow moving takeover. The Oklahoma City Thunder. Are here. But I will tell you. They remind me a lot of Ted Lasso. This team. A lot of. You. They do the. The whole. Like team.

[00:57:43] The group. At the end of the game. When they win. You know. The whole team comes together. So not only the dude. That is supposed to get it. He got all his boys with him. They running packs. It's like. You don't see. Like two of them together. You see six of them together. I don't know what. Man. I don't know what. Sam Christie is doing over there. But he must be running. Some sort of legal. Conzie scheme. With all these damn draft picks. That he continues to accumulate.

[00:58:14] This man. Over the next year. Six years. Has about. 27 percent. Of the draft. Over the next six years. Think about it. You got Chet. You got SGA. You got J-Dub. You got. Hartenstein. You got. Lou Dort. Cason Wallace.

[00:58:42] Aaron Wiggins is a revelation. You paying him next to nothing. Oh. And then you still got a. Plethora of first round picks. I'm telling you. Sam Christie is some sort of like. Evil. Genius. Dude. We gonna find out that. That dude is part of some sort of like. Cabal. Or something. Trying to tell you. All right. Next up. Cleveland Cavaliers. Let's give love to the Midwest.

[00:59:12] The Rust Belt. Is cooking. You know what I'm saying. 44 and 10. Offensive rating. 122.5. Number one. In threes made. And if you told me last summer. That the Cavs. Would have the best offense. In the league. I. You. You would have looked at me. And said. That the major sequels. Were underrated. And yet. Here we are. Mitchell. Garland. Mowgli.

[00:59:41] And the best shooting. The best shooting team. Outside of Boston. The defense. Is just good enough. Because Mowgli. Has stepped it up there. And this team. Is winning games. By work. Space team. Offensively. They are killing people. They are absolutely. Murdering people. When they play them. So. Basically. Their team to me. Reminds me. Of. Stranger Things.

[01:00:12] Because. Remember last year. We wanted. Evan Mobley. To shoot more threes. And now he shoots. More threes. So they remind me. Of the upside down. And Stranger Things. Just saying. Did you have. Cleveland Cavaliers. As the Eastern Conference. Final. Or the Eastern Conference. Number one team. Going into all-star break. Was that on your bingo card? Wasn't on mine. Because the next team.

[01:00:43] In the. Top tier. Contending group. Is the Boston Celtics. And the Boston Celtics. Are 39 and 16. They have a net rating. Of still positive. 9.1. Which is still. Elite. They also. They also. Uh. Both. Top five. Defense. And offensive ratings. So Boston. Is closest thing. We have to a functional empire. In the NBA. No drama.

[01:01:13] No dysfunction. Just ruthless. Methodical destruction. Tatum and Brown. Has looked. Very very bored. This season. This season. So far. And. Drew Holiday. And. Uh. Our guy. What's. Derek White. Derek White. They look a little worse. For the wear. You know what I'm saying. Because of the. Olympic situation. But I will say this. Drew Holiday. Reminds me of.

[01:01:43] Tom Walgans. Of. Succession. Awkward. Elite. And always. At the right place. At the right time. This team. Is built. For a deep. Playoff run. I'm telling you right now. I know a lot of people. Are sitting there. Scratching their heads. Going like. What the hell happened. Why are they not. Taking these games seriously. Well. They played a hundred games. Last year. Number one. Everybody named Mama.

[01:02:13] Went to the Olympics. Number two. And number three. They didn't have. Any real. Like additive pieces. To the team. So. You're. You're. Burning your whole team back. Yeah. You're going to get a little bored. In the middle of the season. I understand. It's cool. Now. Our next tier. Is tier two. And this is.

[01:02:43] If things break right. They could be scary. And the first team. In this group. And this team. Might be controversial. To a lot of people. Is the Denver Nuggets. Now. The Denver Nuggets. Usually. Is in that. Top tier. They're in that. Contender. Championship. Status. Status. But this year. It's been a little shaky. Now. They're riding a seven game winning streak. I will say that. They didn't have any trades.

[01:03:13] They didn't have any drama. Is there any panic? Well. Michael Malone. Is probably panicked. Because. He's been. Like. Crying for veterans. Forever. You know. I'm saying. But. Jokic is still doing. MVP things. Our guy. Jamal Murray. Had a 55 point game. He finally looks. Completely. In shape. And ready to go. Michael Porter Jr. Low key. Has had a great year.

[01:03:43] So it looks like. The offense is starting. To come around. And it also looks like. Jokic. Has dialed back. The production. A little bit. Less shots. More efficiency. Being able to pick. And choose his moments. This is going. To be scary. You know. Who the Denver Nuggets. Remind me of. The Good Place. Quirky little comedy. You know. A lot of pieces. That you think. That shouldn't fit together.

[01:04:13] But do. Why is Ted Danson. And Christian Bale. On the same damn show. I don't know. But it worked. It was funny. I enjoyed it. The Denver Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets. Remind me. Of. The Good Place. Now. The next team. On our. They are. Scary enough. To. Challenge. The. The contenders. Ultimately. Might need. A little something. Something.

[01:04:43] Is. The Memphis Grizzlies. Now. The Memphis Grizzlies. Are 7th. In defensive rating. At 110.8. They dumped. Marcus Smart's. Money. And added. Flexibility. And I will say this. Memphis doesn't. Operate like. Other contenders. They aren't throwing away picks. At big names. They're grinding through. The margins. Like a team trying to outlast. A cartel.

[01:05:13] You know what I'm saying. That's what they're doing. This front office makes small smart moves. And somehow they still. Stay. A top three team in the west. They just got rid. Of a bunch of playoff know-how. In Marcus Smart. They also let Jake LaRavia go too. But. They got Gigi Jackson. The kid Wells. Is playing phenomenal. Zach Eady.

[01:05:43] Is still 7 foot 4. And still a problem. When you try to go to the rim. Now. The key. To. The Grizzlies. Is Ja. And the in and out. The in and out stuff. This is why. The Memphis Grizzlies. Remind me. Of Ozark. Ozark. First of all. Big. Big. Jason Bateman fan. Number one. Highly. Highly. Underrated actor.

[01:06:14] Has had an incredible career. Ozark. Ozark. Was one of those real. Gritty shows. A lot of like. Should I. Or shouldn't I. A lot of. What would you do. In this situation. And we've seen. Ja. When. He's been left. To his own devices. What do you do. In this situation. Well. Sometimes those decisions. Haven't been great. Sometimes they've been great. Sometimes they've been spectacular.

[01:06:43] But we've also seen injuries. And we've seen a lot of other stuff. So. Here's the other thing too. This team. Operates like. They have. They're hiding money. In offshore accounts. They always got something cooking. Like. Who saw the Marcus Smart trade. Like. And for the reason. You would think. You would want to keep. The veteran leadership. On the team. And yet. They said. No. Jalen Wells is playing. Very well.

[01:07:12] We like him a lot. And we want to go ahead. Develop him. And we're going to move. Marcus Smart. Right on out of here. And it was done with precision. And it was done with coldness. And this is what you got to be. In the NBA. So our guy. Zach Kleinman. Doing big things. In Memphis. Shouts out to our guy. Tayshaun Prince. Also in Memphis. That front office. Gets it done. Every year. And. One of these years. They're going to break through. I swear to God.

[01:07:42] But I think so. Now. We get to the Knicks. And I know. They're my Knicks fans out there. I know you guys are mad. You're saying. Hold on Vince. You're telling me. That the mighty. New York Knickerbockers. Are a team. That is. Like on the cusp. But. They're going to be scary. But not get it done. I'm telling you that. And this is the reason why. I'll tell you exactly why. Your offensive rating.

[01:08:12] Is 119.6. Which is second in the NBA. That is absolutely stellar. That is magnificent. On every level. Your defensive rating. On the other hand. Is 113.7. And that is 17th. In the NBA. And we all know the rule. If you are not top 10. Defense. And offense. You don't win no championship. So.

[01:08:42] I don't care. How. Carl Thomas. Is shooting threes. The Knicks can blow the doors. Off. Any opponent. Offensively. But can they lock down enough. On defense. When it matters. Bronson. Is clutch as hell. But. Do we still have questions. About Carl Anthony Towns. And their rim protection. Enter. Mitchell. Robinson. Still waiting. We're still waiting. By the way.

[01:09:10] January is when he was supposed to come back. Huh. Hold on. By my calculation. We are getting. We're in the middle of February. Right. Happy Valentine's Day. To everybody out there. Now. For them to be an actual. Actual contender. We're going to need to see. Mitchell Robinson. On the court. We're going to need to see. Them. Be able to solve this. Defensive mystery.

[01:09:40] Which is called. Rim protection. Um. Um. I would say this. About them. Is that. Their offense is going to look. Incredible. There are going to be so many. Dynamic nights out there. But I think there's going to be some. Some games. Where they're going to have to win. At 125. To 120. Now. This leads us to our third tier. And. And. I have never been. Somebody. Placates.

[01:10:10] To. Fan bases. So. I can't wait for. The response to this. Three. Uh. Tier three. We are on to something here. First team. On tier three. Is. Your. Los Angeles. Lakers. The Lakers. Enter. The all-star break. At. 32. And 20. They are. 12. In three. In their last 15 games.

[01:10:40] Luka Doncic. Is a Laker. LeBron James. Is still a Laker. With his old ass. And. JJ Reddick. Seems to be a really good coach. But. This is. Classic Lakers. Right. The biggest stars. The biggest trades. And somehow. It always works. The Luka and LeBron duo. Already looks good. I mean. When you get. When you get. 37 points in the first quarter. In your first game. With those two.

[01:11:10] You knew something was. Gonna be different. Now. They still have to figure out. The defensive void. Left by. Anthony Davis. But right now. They can steamroll. The opponents. That they need to beat. Like they're coming out of break. And they're playing Charlotte. They should beat the. Crap out of Charlotte. But. We will see. What this team looks like. Against the better teams. In the NBA. Right. We want to see them. Against the Denver's. We want to see them. Against the OKC's.

[01:11:40] And what have you. And. When we get towards. The end. Of February. Is when. The hard part. Of the schedule. Kicks in. They're going to be playing. Teams that are. Inside. The playoff. As of right now. So. Can't wait towards. The end of February. To see what this team. Looks like. Plus. Also. Hopefully. By that time. You know. Luka. You know. He hasn't. He's played in a couple games. He's off for like.

[01:12:09] Six weeks. He's going to need. To get his air. He's going to need. To get. His lungs back. And. It takes time. So. Can't wait to see. What it all looks like. I'm not. Stressing on. Whether it's. Playoff or bust. Or whatever the case may be. Now. I will say this. If you want to ask me. What team. What. The Lakers. What they compare as. They compare it. To the House of Dragons. And I'll tell you why.

[01:12:39] Because. There was a king. And his name was. King James. And then. Along came. Another guy. And his name is. Luka Doncic. And within. 24 hours. Luka asked for. A rim running big. That he could throw. Lobs to. Now. I know the trade. Was called off. But. The Lakers. The Lakers got. Luka. A rim running big. That he could throw. Lobs to. Man.

[01:13:08] Look how the communication. How easy it was. Right there. There are some people. In the LeBron camp. That are monitoring. That situation. So. Never a dumb moment. Here in LA. Never. Never. Never. Never. All right. We move along. To the Minnesota Timberwolves. And. One of my favorite players. In the league. Anthony Edwards. Who has hit. 227.

[01:13:39] Threes. First in the NBA. And Edwards. Is now. Undoubtedly. The face. Of Minnesota. Basketball. No doubt. He's fully embraced the chaos. Some nights. They look like a top. Five team in the league. Some other nights. They look like they forgot. How to play basketball. All together. Their defense.

[01:14:08] Is still strong. But the offense. Fluctuates. Because of the fact. That they don't have. The space. And they once did. Mike Conley. Has taken a step back. And it's a lot. On Anthony Edwards. Minnesota. Timberwolves. Remind me. Of the bear. So. That show. The bear. The cooking show. There y'all. Y'all know that. So. Ant. Is basically. Too talented. For these problems. You know what I'm saying. That he. The dude. There was. His name.

[01:14:38] Carmy. You know what I'm saying. He's like. I'm too talented. For these problems. Y'all figure out. Y'all cap. Y'all figure out. While y'all trading people. That helped me. I'm going to be over here. Getting buckets. I'm going to be over here. Dunking on people. I'm going to be over here. Talking trash to people. Telling them. How much better. I am than them. When y'all get it together. We'll start winning again. Another team.

[01:15:08] In this list. Is the Houston Rockets. Ace town. Represent. Defensive rating. 109.3. Fourth of the league. I'm going to tell you right now. Y'emay and Doka. Super excited about that. Y'emay has these guys fighting. Like their lives depend on it. Every single night. They're stacking assets. Developing young stars. And playing top tier defense. Along the way. They aren't the title favorites. But yes. They're building something.

[01:15:38] Terrifyingly. Terrifyingly. Sustainable. Because you know what? Defense travels. And they got like. Eight dudes. That like to play defense. And it's crazy. I'm sure this is the team. That Ime Doka. Always envisioned in Boston. That he never got to coach. But now he has it. They still need an offensive guy. I don't think they have. Real sustainable offense. On their team right now.

[01:16:07] If you are giving the ball. To Jalen Green. In crunch time. You are asking for issues. You are asking for problems. Van Vliet has been hurt. Lately. So hopefully. Once he comes back. He can kind of just settle down. The team. And get them into just. Respectable offense. But. They are going to look to. Probably make some changes. To this team. In the offseason. I would think. I think we will start to see.

[01:16:37] We'll start to flesh out. What this team is going to look like. In the next iteration of when. Houston becomes a real. Contender. So. There is that. And. I am going to leave you. On this note. Because we don't talk about this team. When the. The Detroit Pistons. And the reason why. I want to talk about the Detroit Pistons. Is because. Of the fact that. Nobody saw this coming. The Pistons.

[01:17:07] Were a walking disaster. Last year. Now they are above 500. And they are looking like. A real playoff team. Cade Cunningham. Is a stabilizing. Force. For everything. That the Detroit Pistons. Want to do. Jalen Doran. Finally looks like. He actually. Didn't play basketball again. Which was great. Because early in the season. He struggled. Mightily. It was terrible. Now here is the other thing.

[01:17:36] Here is the one thing. That I want to tell. This is the reason why. We are talking about. Detroit Pistons today. And this is why. I want to leave you. On a good note. On a feel good Friday. Because ladies and gentlemen. Jesus is alive. You know why. Jesus is alive. Because. For the first time. Since 2008. I'll say it again. The first time. Since 2008. The Detroit Pistons. Are over 500. At the all-star break.

[01:18:06] We got kids. That have gone through school. Like all levels. Of school. Except college. And not seeing the Detroit Pistons. At the all-star break. Be over 500. How is that even possible? But that's what we're seeing. That is what we're seeing. So. When you talk to me. About the Detroit Pistons. And what kind of team they are. And what kind of comp. A TV show they are. Of course. Of course. The Detroit Pistons.

[01:18:36] Are euphoria. Of course. The Detroit Pistons. Was the hottest. Teenage show. Ever. To be on TV. I know. The old people. Tell you. Dawson's Creek. And all this other stuff. But. The euphoria. The. The. Just the scope of that show. How many stars it created. And everything like that. And. Just a buzz. That it created around it. Right. The pure chaos around it.

[01:19:06] And now you got Kay Cunningham. Out here. Doing incredible things. He's being like a. Basically. Uh. What would be. The best terminology for this. He is. A Coles brand. Luca. I don't want to disrespect Kay Cunningham. And call him. Costco. Because that's disrespectful. To my guy Kay. So if. Luca. Is.

[01:19:36] Bloomingdale's. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Cade is like. Nordstrom's. Nordstrom's rack. He's Nordstrom's rack Luca. 25.7 rebounds. 7 assists. He's an all star. He also lost Jaden Daniels. I mean Jaden Ivey. To a horrific injury. But. Credit to Trajan Langdon. Their player personnel guy. And also. Credit.

[01:20:06] JV Birkenstaff. Who left. Cleveland. Because. He couldn't get them. Over the hump. But he's got this Detroit. Piston team. Playing competitive. Basketball. And looking. Like an actual. Playoff team. So kudos to the Detroit Pistons. Kudos to them being over 500. During the all star break. So. With that being said. We talked about a lot of great things today. We talked about. TV shows.

[01:20:36] We talked about trades. We talked about technology changes. We talked about. Luca. Being a Laker. Which I will never ever ever. Forget. You on this feed. On Monday. Deuce.