Lakers Lead But Nuggets Close!

[00:00:00] Hi, it's Monday. You know what time it is. It's Front Runner Podcast Collective. I am

[00:00:18] your humble host, Vince. Welcome to Playoff Basketball. That's what we're going to get

[00:00:24] into today. It's going to be a great show. I can't wait to get into it. But before

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[00:01:29] appreciated. With all that to be said, let's get to the basketball, shall we?

[00:01:35] There is a lot to get to. How we're going to open the show will get differently. Usually,

[00:01:41] we go right into the games. But today, how I want to do this is, you know, looking at

[00:01:51] the Lakers and now that they're gone and seeing how everything has now played out, I kind

[00:01:57] of want to walk us through a couple situations and how different it could just look over

[00:02:03] a period of time. I want to take you back to the start of the season. I want to take you

[00:02:09] in a sense to before the season started. I mean, the excitement was high. The Lakers

[00:02:19] had just made a Western Conference finals. Supposedly it was the most competitive

[00:02:26] sweet we've ever seen in our entire lives. They re-signed players, they picked up a couple

[00:02:36] free agents here and there. But the one thing that I try to look at this situation and just

[00:02:45] try to understand through Laker fans' eyes is this, as somebody who's been watching

[00:02:50] Lakers for a long period of time, the team was really similar to the team that got swept

[00:02:56] last year. Let's just be honest. Some of the main characters were there. There wasn't really

[00:03:03] a lot of change in that. There was some peripheral changes. You know, Gabe Vincent who didn't play

[00:03:10] really all season until late. Vandor wasn't even in this playoffs when he came to

[00:03:16] the Nuggets. So, you know, it really wasn't different than the team that played the Nuggets

[00:03:23] last year. During the same time, remember going back, during the same time there was

[00:03:33] franchise that was ready to show off their full array of weaponry. With the addition

[00:03:41] of the second pick overall in the 2022 draft, which will be Chet Holmgren. And also the great

[00:03:48] pickup that they had in case in Wallace out of Kentucky who plays with a maturity and a

[00:03:57] calm that belies his years is truly amazing. I like both of those guys. They fit the

[00:04:05] team like a glove. We got to see it on many occasions with both these players this year

[00:04:13] and they played their role to a tee. So as the season continues and SGA's brilliance

[00:04:23] starts to manifest itself and it catapults the Oklahoma City Thunder towards the top

[00:04:30] of a really competitive West, right? While the lack of trust and continuity in the starting

[00:04:38] lineup and playing rotation didn't crystallize until after the trade deadline, maybe even

[00:04:48] the all-star break for the Lakers. So you got two sides of the coin here. You got

[00:04:53] the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now you got coach of the year, Mark Dagnall. You have a MVP candidate

[00:05:02] in SGA. Now did we know that at the start of the season? I think we started to see

[00:05:08] what it was last year, right? Then just the expert drafting of the players by Sam

[00:05:16] Christy who does an incredible job of evaluating talent. Does he have his misses? Yes he does

[00:05:24] but he always makes sure that he is enough in the kitty to go ahead and continue to

[00:05:31] make picks to improve this team. So you look at, okay, see, let's look at the whole lineup. Right? You got a

[00:05:38] Jaylin Williams who is coming off a great rookie year, going into the second year, played

[00:05:46] extremely well up to his production. The defensive chops were there. He also showed some playmaking

[00:05:53] initiative which was great and then we get to check. So you got a lot of people

[00:05:59] who are there. He also showed some playmaking initiative which was great and then we get to

[00:06:08] check. Now, check was coming off the injury. We didn't know what to expect. He was still

[00:06:14] real thin. So we were looking at this situation like wow, we got two of these guys in the

[00:06:20] league. We had Victor Wimbayama of the San Antonio Spurs who we will get to probably

[00:06:26] in a podcast either later on this week or next week, pretty sure. Actually I think I might

[00:06:33] have some thoughts on San Antonio before this part is over but we digress. Then you get

[00:06:41] into the situation of check goes out and really has a well-defined role within the offense

[00:06:51] but also the capability to grow in that role. You started to see him use the ball on the perimeter.

[00:06:59] You started to see the dribble package going between the legs, getting past defenders. You

[00:07:04] saw it all. The array of moves. If he had a big guy on him, he would just out quick

[00:07:11] him to the hole. The great thing with that is is that Chet was basically a knockdown

[00:07:16] shooter from three. That helps, right? The Thunder could provide spacing with Durt who

[00:07:27] also was a plus 40% shooter from three. SGA improved his three point shooting and then

[00:07:35] Giddy who was kind of the issue you could take him out and put Isaiah Joe in or the

[00:07:42] aforementioned case and Wallace who also shot the ball well from three. So you could spread

[00:07:48] the floor if you needed to, no worries and that allowed Chet to cook. So you got to see a lot of

[00:07:55] development when it comes to Chet this year as well. All this within a competitiveness,

[00:08:03] a drive to win. Even in games that they were down, they were never out. They played their system.

[00:08:11] Their system was run to perfection and low and behold we get towards the end of the season. On

[00:08:20] one side there's a young team with an ascending MVP potential candidate in Shay Gildes

[00:08:26] Alexander. The Thunder played with a joy and the young players who were pinpointed, who were

[00:08:34] pinpointed in their execution of their role on the team. And most importantly they understood

[00:08:41] their role in their shot distribution. Now I know for a lot of people this is real like

[00:08:48] inside basketball talk and things of that nature but they're not just a player. They're

[00:08:56] there is nothing more important to an NBA player than potential shots. Because if you looked at the

[00:09:06] shot distribution on the team that you follow or let's say there's a guy that you like in the league,

[00:09:12] I know there's a lot of young people out here who do not follow the laundry, they follow the player

[00:09:18] and I can understand that. I'm not downplaying that whatsoever but what I'm trying to say is

[00:09:23] that you get a rhythm to the season. You start to see where your guy kind of fits in the pecking

[00:09:31] order of things. Most nights you know that Shay Gildes Alexander is going to take the most

[00:09:38] shots. He's going to have the ball in his hands and do that. Now it was interesting that

[00:09:45] Jada early on the season kind of was a little passive but not like passive in a sense where he

[00:09:51] wasn't getting anything done because he was definitely defending, rebounding, playmaking

[00:09:57] and getting buckets. He was doing all those things but I thought it was kind of like okay let's let

[00:10:03] Chek Cook a little bit early on in the season. Let's see what the sauce is like. Let's see what the

[00:10:08] whole package is like. It gave Chek confidence. It allowed him to be part of the team. Again

[00:10:14] remember he missed the whole entire season prior because of a foot injury. So now he's

[00:10:21] back to a team who's starting to play well. Get to the all-star break, look up one of the

[00:10:29] best teams in the conference so now our goals are changed. The goalposts have changed, the

[00:10:35] goal line has changed. We got to start thinking playoffs. Lo and behold this team falls

[00:10:42] right into peace. Dort knows his role. He knows there's going to be nights where he

[00:10:48] gets six shots. He knows there's going to be nights where he gets ten shots. He knows

[00:10:54] there's going to be nights where he gets twelve shots but the one thing he's going to do is defend

[00:10:59] his ass off. That's the one thing he's going to do. Jalen Williams on the other hand he

[00:11:05] knows he's like a 17 shot dude. Chek also knows he's in that 15 to 17 range.

[00:11:13] Isaiah Joe is just a flamethrower. He just comes in off the bench and he's like listen

[00:11:18] you don't have to get ready if you stay ready. That is Isaiah Joe's whole mantra in life

[00:11:26] because that dude comes off the bench and he is ready to do a heat check right then

[00:11:32] because he's already hot. So all that to be said that this team is running on all

[00:11:37] cylinders as the season goes along and they become the number one seed in the conference.

[00:11:43] This is all stuff that you know about but the reason why I'm telling you all this is

[00:11:47] because we get back to the Lakers. Meanwhile in LA they couldn't find a rhythm nor a

[00:11:53] role definition was poor in planning. The other thing is that the players or if it

[00:12:01] wasn't that the role wasn't defined and it wasn't really kind of conveyed to the individual player

[00:12:11] they either didn't allow themselves with the role that they were given. That includes

[00:12:18] shots right? What did we see with the Lakers a lot? We saw a lot of rotation changes.

[00:12:24] We saw a lot of different starting lineups. You can say injury played a part in that.

[00:12:31] I would push back on that a little bit because LeBron played a lot of games this year.

[00:12:36] AD played 70 plus this year right? Austin played all 82.

[00:12:45] Rui was there for most of the year he had a little injury in there right but his role bounced

[00:12:51] around. He was in the starting lineup not in the starting lineup then back in the starting lineup.

[00:13:00] There was a affinity with Torian Prince in the lineup for a while. D'Angelo Russell went in and out of the lineup.

[00:13:08] So there was a lot of upheaval with the Lakers as the season continued and as everything went on

[00:13:18] and while Legend Light LeBron was putting up, putting periods on his career with the 40,000 points

[00:13:27] and AD played with a defiance towards his reputation in these internet streets of being saw by playing all these 70 plus games.

[00:13:39] Every other rotation player has some sort of question mark or some sort of issue throughout the season.

[00:13:52] You had the Austin Reeve thing where early on in the season he didn't start and then it was like,

[00:13:59] okay we put him back in the starting lineup. We talked about the D'Lo thing.

[00:14:04] People will say, well this all could have been fixed is Gabe Vinson would have played all year.

[00:14:11] So the Lakers success depended on a backup point guard from Miami.

[00:14:22] Okay, I mean whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night is what you need to do.

[00:14:29] Now we picked this up with the trade deadline.

[00:14:39] Now does anybody remember what the Lakers were like around the trade deadline?

[00:14:45] There was a lot of ridiculous faces. There were a lot of malcontent comments.

[00:14:52] Not in the sense of you have every right to be okay when you're in a situation where your whole life is about to be uplifted from you

[00:15:01] and you're not making any decision on it whatsoever.

[00:15:05] You don't know where your kid is going to be going to school at or whatever the case may be.

[00:15:11] It can be problematic especially for a guy like D'Lo.

[00:15:16] So it really affected his play. It really affected teams vibe.

[00:15:22] Everybody looked like they were walking the green mile just pending doom and intense scrutiny.

[00:15:31] So obviously the vibes were terrible.

[00:15:34] Towards the end of the year questions followed both teams, LA and OKC.

[00:15:40] The OKC question was pretty simple.

[00:15:43] Is the OKC system, is it the same system?

[00:15:46] Is the OKC system, is it playoff proof despite the size concerns?

[00:15:55] I think we got a resounding A plus in that right.

[00:15:59] New Orleans is huge.

[00:16:02] They provided no fight whatsoever towards OKC.

[00:16:09] And then I guess the question with the Lakers is long-winded.

[00:16:15] But basically you get great seasons out of LeBron and AD as far as not just production but also availability.

[00:16:24] You get that.

[00:16:27] You get five good months out of D'Lo, right?

[00:16:35] Through all this stuff that went on with D'Lo.

[00:16:37] He gave them five good months. He shot the ball incredibly well the whole entire year.

[00:16:47] The playoff performance shaky again and I'll get into that for a second.

[00:16:52] But here's a man who was in trade rumors in and out of line up.

[00:16:58] When we get to the end of the season and all I hear on ESPN and trust me,

[00:17:05] I don't even watch ESPN like that anymore.

[00:17:09] I really don't.

[00:17:11] But obviously they show up on social media and you have a really a choice but to sit here and watch these stupid clips.

[00:17:19] But all you hear heard from ESPN and the pundits out there was that could LeBron who is considered a good leader?

[00:17:27] Could LeBron find an answer to unlock the complete dominance?

[00:17:31] And let's be honest, the vendetta that Michael Malone has against the Lakers is bitter and he never forgets.

[00:17:42] Okay?

[00:17:44] But could LeBron find an answer to knock off the defending champs?

[00:17:49] And the answer to this was always no.

[00:17:52] And I get back to the O.K.C. Thunder and I'm going to wrap it up with the Lakers.

[00:17:57] You look at O.K.C. from the beginning of the year they knew exactly who they were.

[00:18:04] They knew who was on top, the coach had a system.

[00:18:10] Those players adhere to that system.

[00:18:13] Nobody buck that system.

[00:18:16] And yes, I do understand that in a 82 game regular season and you got 15 grown men.

[00:18:24] All have different aspirations in the NBA.

[00:18:28] All are on different life cycles in the NBA.

[00:18:32] There are going to be moments of malcontentness because I'm not getting enough shots.

[00:18:37] I'm not getting enough burn, whatever the case may be.

[00:18:40] They pay Mark Dagnall to handle that.

[00:18:43] He seemed to handle that very expertly.

[00:18:46] That team seem to be together all year.

[00:18:48] They're not seen to be too many issues.

[00:18:52] Even through the giddy situation that happened, they stuck together.

[00:18:58] It was among the word on that throughout the year when he came back and everything seemed to have died down

[00:19:06] and whatever legal situations seemed to be A-OK for him to play.

[00:19:11] He was in the lineup, played his role, did his thing and they kept it moving.

[00:19:18] Now for the Lakers.

[00:19:21] Again, let's go through all of the stuff.

[00:19:25] I'm not going to go through all of it but think about what I just talked about.

[00:19:31] Laker fans, despite all of what you heard, all of what you've seen throughout the year with Ron playing and everything like that.

[00:19:48] You were assassinated by a guy that the Denver Medical Staff did not clear to play.

[00:19:56] Jamal Murray absolutely assassinated the Lakers with two daggers in this series and they told Jamal not to play in that game.

[00:20:12] They told him, he did anyway.

[00:20:13] And the Lakers lost.

[00:20:15] Despite D'Angelo's excellent season that he put together, he is still played by inconsistent ball handling

[00:20:26] and he has these incredible rubber-yore head passes and shots that still are sprinkled in there

[00:20:34] even through the really exemplary play that he put out there this year.

[00:20:40] He put a lot of good tape out there this year.

[00:20:47] The Lakers most consistent ball handler is Austin Reeves, end of point.

[00:20:54] My hope is through the offseason via self-scouting and possible coaching change and we'll get to that in a second.

[00:21:03] That Reeves gets a real lion share of the ball handling duties or if that's not the case, if Reeves doesn't get it,

[00:21:18] I want LeBron to go full Steve Nash and Jason Kitt.

[00:21:24] That would mean that the Lakers would have to go out and get a killer at the wing position.

[00:21:31] Listen, I'm going to tell you right now, Rob Polinka, stop messing around with these mercurial guards.

[00:21:38] Stop playing around with D'Angelo, Russell of the World and Dennis Shroeder and things of this nature.

[00:21:46] Stop doing it because they want more shots than you're able to give them.

[00:21:50] You need to go find you a wing.

[00:21:55] You need to tell LeBron, hey dog, we need you to be Magic Johnson.

[00:22:01] You need to start doing the 13-14 assist situation.

[00:22:07] That's what you need to do.

[00:22:09] We need to start getting that together and then go from there because something has to change in this event.

[00:22:22] This is an equation.

[00:22:26] A D'Angelo and LeBron have been there for five, six years now.

[00:22:29] We got a championship right in 2020 that everybody clowns cause it the bubble championship.

[00:22:37] That's not me. I'm not all about that.

[00:22:40] But what we got a Western Conference final.

[00:22:44] We had a first round exit this year and a couple years ago against Phoenix.

[00:22:53] And then a couple misplay opportunities.

[00:22:57] What's the common denominator here?

[00:23:02] LeBron is the guy.

[00:23:05] And I'm not saying LeBron can't be on the team.

[00:23:09] What I'm saying is that the role has to be adjusted.

[00:23:12] And if Darwin Ham is not the coach to tell LeBron that his role needs to be adjusted and somebody else needs to be the one who takes the most shots.

[00:23:25] Then get somebody in there who will because this is the dirty secret that people didn't want to talk about for the last couple years, but I'm cool with this.

[00:23:36] LeBron is an incredible player.

[00:23:38] There's nothing to take away from his career. His time with the Lakers.

[00:23:44] What have you if there was any point in his career where you were going to have some fluctuation is going to be some up and down.

[00:23:53] This was going to be it from age 35 to age 39.

[00:23:59] Who would have thought that maybe you would have some diminished returns from a guy who has played.

[00:24:06] All these games, all these playoff games, all these championship games.

[00:24:13] He's been the best player on the court for what?

[00:24:18] This legitimately was 17 18 of the 21 17 years of the 21 that he was that he played in.

[00:24:30] It's okay for you to take a secondary role LeBron.

[00:24:36] It doesn't mean that you are not the leader of this team.

[00:24:39] It doesn't mean that you are deficient in any way.

[00:24:44] What it means is that the Lakers need a guy that has that capability, that potential to go off for 50.

[00:24:54] They do not have that guy on the team as of right now.

[00:24:57] Anthony Davis is limited because who can get him the ball.

[00:25:04] Since the advent of post touches in the NBA and passes entry passes into to the post is such a dying art.

[00:25:16] We're not going to be able to sufficiently get AD enough shots like making him like the primary guy.

[00:25:24] So what you're going to have to do is he's going to get he's going to have to get some of it ugly on the boards.

[00:25:30] He's going to have to do some of the dirty work, but help him out.

[00:25:34] Get him a wing.

[00:25:36] That's like a rough and tumble do that shoots the three ball, you know, very well.

[00:25:42] That means LeBron don't have to sit there and like battle down low.

[00:25:46] You know, and if you're going to take these three first round picks and you're going to keep the LeBron era continue, you know, to continue it and keep it going and go with this AD deal.

[00:25:59] And hopefully utilize Austin Reeves in the way that he needs to be utilized and allow Max Christie to grow.

[00:26:08] Then okay, I definitely understand that.

[00:26:11] But at the end of the day, someone needs to sit down and talk to LeBron and say, Hey, thank you for all your contributions here with the Lakers.

[00:26:21] We have appreciated it.

[00:26:23] We also can want to continue to appreciate it.

[00:26:26] We want to continue to celebrate you, but we want to give you something that other teams couldn't give you.

[00:26:34] We want to continue to try to make this a championship team.

[00:26:42] But the only way that we can do that is that would you be ever interested in to take a more of a secondary role on this team?

[00:26:53] But, you know, when it comes to crunch time, you are God because the one thing that we do know about LeBron is that a fresh LeBron down the stretch where he can make good decisions because

[00:27:06] his body is not overtaxed.

[00:27:08] He's going to make the decision, the right decision nine times out of 10.

[00:27:14] I like those odds.

[00:27:16] I think he can get us into actions and I think he can make the offense work even at his advanced age.

[00:27:25] But stop playing around with these guards and go get you a wing that can fill it up.

[00:27:32] You know, go get you a dude that can explode for a bunch of points and do that.

[00:27:38] All right.

[00:27:40] So that is our little opening.

[00:27:43] Hope you guys enjoyed that.

[00:27:45] We change it up.

[00:27:47] That's how we're going to start doing it from here on out.

[00:27:49] Let's get to some news real quick and then we'll talk about the rest of the games and go forward.

[00:27:53] We got some games that are going on right now.

[00:27:56] It's late on a Monday evening.

[00:27:58] So first and foremost, the coaching carousel has already started.

[00:28:06] We're going to start close to home.

[00:28:09] It looks like through shams and it was funny as soon as the game ended.

[00:28:14] Shams had a report down popped up right up on the athletic that according to sources that.

[00:28:26] Don Ham's coaching prowess is some of his methods.

[00:28:33] Some of his philosophies were not welcomed in the Laker locker room.

[00:28:39] There were some players who were upset with their playing time and or role.

[00:28:46] Huh? All the stuff we just talked about.

[00:28:49] A lot of people upset about their role not understanding what the hell is going on.

[00:28:56] So good.

[00:28:58] Now it is human nature that if you do something wrong, you find someone else to blame.

[00:29:07] Now a lot of people won't admit to that.

[00:29:11] They won't cop to that, but human nature basically says that hey, if I did something wrong and it's there's a gray area where I can place blame on somebody else.

[00:29:25] Nine times out of ten, that human being is going to take that situation and put that blame on somebody else.

[00:29:31] But it's interesting to see what's going on and what the players are talking about.

[00:29:39] And that new book hasn't even been close to empty yet.

[00:29:43] Wait till next week and we get all the dirt out there about how this season went and what have you.

[00:29:51] The same thing is going on in Phoenix as soon as the Phoenix Suns were eliminated by the Eater of Worlds, which is Minnesota Timberwolves Guard.

[00:30:03] And now probably my new favorite player in the whole wide world, Anthony Edwards.

[00:30:09] Scoring 40 points and eliminating the Suns, you heard the same things about Frank Vogel.

[00:30:16] Now again, Frank Vogel is a championship coach.

[00:30:20] He's made teams better everywhere he's gone.

[00:30:25] And now KD was not excited while his action in the offense.

[00:30:35] Bradley Bill wasn't excited about the offense.

[00:30:38] Devin Booker wasn't excited about the offense.

[00:30:42] You guys are the offense.

[00:30:46] Y'all know that, right? Y'all know that you are the offense.

[00:30:49] Bradley Bill, by the way, we're going to get to this in a second.

[00:30:55] But you got Bradley Bill, Devin Booker and you got Kevin Durant.

[00:30:59] Now all of them make all the money.

[00:31:02] You had to sign a bunch of veteran minimum guys, right?

[00:31:07] So a wing and a prayer doesn't sound familiar.

[00:31:11] Laker fans is like we get a guy and it's like, oh my God, he's the greatest.

[00:31:16] He's going to be the best.

[00:31:18] And then we laugh at Phoenix because they're in the same predicament.

[00:31:22] No, it's the Spider-Man meme.

[00:31:24] You guys are pointing at one another.

[00:31:27] So Phoenix also goes about a veteran minimum guys.

[00:31:32] Hey, Grayson Allen played great.

[00:31:35] He wasn't a veteran minimum, but you know what I'm talking about.

[00:31:38] Aaron Gordon had an up and down season.

[00:31:41] There were some times where he was real solid and there were some times where I didn't even know he was in the game.

[00:31:46] They did meet an expert trade with Royce O'Neill.

[00:31:52] I thought that was a really good pickup.

[00:31:55] Key essential to the future.

[00:31:58] But the rest of the guys they got, they got little to nothing from not zero little.

[00:32:05] I'm trying to think of the other guy who was in that trade.

[00:32:08] I know Nurtage was in it, but there was another guy in that trade.

[00:32:12] U-Banks, whatever.

[00:32:14] So here's the deal with the Phoenix Suns.

[00:32:20] They're going to change coaches.

[00:32:22] It looked like the Lakers are going to change coaches, but I'm going to ask this question of the leadership on that team.

[00:32:29] What happens next year when the injury bug hits again?

[00:32:35] Because we are still waiting in this green seven, eight years since Bradleyville plays 60 games.

[00:32:45] Still waiting on that.

[00:32:47] How long does it take for Devin Booker to be frustrated?

[00:32:55] I know what he said coming out of the exit interviews is committed to Phoenix and all of that.

[00:33:02] I'm not saying he's looking to change teams now, so please don't aggregate me.

[00:33:07] I don't want to be a part of it.

[00:33:11] There's just a lot of questions in Phoenix.

[00:33:14] And here's the thing.

[00:33:16] If you're a coach like a real established dude, like a real dude, do you want that?

[00:33:24] Is that the job you want?

[00:33:26] Is that the type of gig you want to get yourself into?

[00:33:30] I understand that talent wins.

[00:33:32] It overrides everything.

[00:33:35] But you've been around talent.

[00:33:37] You've got to have the foundation of the house.

[00:33:42] There's no chance unless they got another guy who can chip in with 12.

[00:33:50] There's no chance if there's not a guy who wants to just absolutely eat rebounds for his dietary consumption.

[00:34:00] There's not a chance for Phoenix to get better if they don't get an on-ball defensive tip of the spear.

[00:34:11] And oh, by the way, there's no chance if you don't get like really at least one to one and a half proven binge dudes that you can sit here and say, listen, I know at the very least,

[00:34:30] I'm going to get 20 points tonight.

[00:34:35] Lot of work to do in Phoenix.

[00:34:38] Oh, which also follows up with this Matt Ishquia, the governor of the Phoenix Sun says he will not blow up this team.

[00:34:47] He will not do it.

[00:34:49] My brother, you already blew it up when you got Bradley Bill and this is the part where we do get into Bradley Bill.

[00:34:56] You blew the team up as soon as you did that.

[00:35:01] You were really impatient in regards to the Deandre Aitton situation.

[00:35:11] I understand that there was a point of no return with Deandre Aitton.

[00:35:18] It had really soured there.

[00:35:20] There it was real animus between Deandre Aitton, Monty Williams, some of the leadership on that team.

[00:35:28] They think he quit on the squad.

[00:35:31] I understand that.

[00:35:33] At the end of the day, that dude was a number one overall draft pick.

[00:35:39] And if anything has to touch anything, Darryl Moray sat on Ben Simmons, who we all can universally agree has been insignificant for what?

[00:35:59] Three years now? Completely insignificant for three years.

[00:36:06] That dude sat on him.

[00:36:09] He didn't play a game.

[00:36:12] He acted a fool in the preseason, all of that.

[00:36:18] But Darryl Moray sat.

[00:36:20] He sat until he got a deal that was worthy of what Ben Simmons could theoretically beat.

[00:36:33] And that's the whole thing.

[00:36:35] If Deandre Aitton was just sitting at home playing Call of Duty or whatever it is that he does in his off time,

[00:36:43] would have been better than rushing into this trade and ended up with Narkich,

[00:36:50] ended up with Nazir Liddle, and the other guy who escapes me right now.

[00:36:57] I know there was another dude in that trade, but that trade sucked.

[00:37:03] And the bill thing, even though it was free, it didn't help you because Bill Bradley Beale unfortunately,

[00:37:15] can't stay healthy.

[00:37:18] I don't know if it's, I don't think it's him.

[00:37:22] I just think it's just terrible luck.

[00:37:25] Really unfortunate situations.

[00:37:28] But yet and still here we are.

[00:37:31] And you're in this just hamster wheel of mediocrity that you can't get yourself out of.

[00:37:38] So that's my point on Phoenix.

[00:37:41] But shout out to our guy Anthony Edwards, who we're going to be doing one on what?

[00:37:52] We're going to be doing a pod on Friday.

[00:37:58] And I think we're going to talk about the nuggets and we're going to be talking about the Minnesota Timberwolves.

[00:38:04] I have some thoughts on that.

[00:38:06] I think we saw Anthony Edwards become a star.

[00:38:09] I mean, I know he's a star, but you know what I'm talking about?

[00:38:13] What are the real dudes in the league?

[00:38:16] You know what I'm saying? When we talk about Godness and we talk about Embiid and we talk about Yelkidge and Luca and Steph and all that.

[00:38:25] You're going to start throwing the name Anthony Edwards in that group because that would be super disrespectful if you didn't.

[00:38:31] Okay, since we going there.

[00:38:35] Get on to the rest of this news and we'll get to the rest of the games.

[00:38:40] No, Kauai for game five that game right now because it is late night here in Los Angeles.

[00:38:48] It is 5949 Mavericks.

[00:38:53] They paid him.

[00:38:55] They paid Kauai.

[00:38:56] J.J. Redick, former Duke Blue Devil, former Clipper, former New Orleans Pelicans, former Brooklyn net, former Philadelphia 76er and all kinds of other stuff is a real possible coaching candidate for the Charlotte Hornets.

[00:39:16] And also as a side note, has anybody seen the car? The Lamello ball tattoo.

[00:39:24] It takes up its whole back.

[00:39:31] He's one of one.

[00:39:33] He's calling himself an alien.

[00:39:36] I need you to stay on the floor my guy.

[00:39:40] Okay.

[00:39:42] If you want to one, which I know the skills are skills.

[00:39:45] Those are sweet dog.

[00:39:47] Don't.

[00:39:49] I'm not disrespecting skills, but I need you available player.

[00:39:54] Like I need you available.

[00:39:57] If you're going to get a tattoo like that, my man, you need to back it up with being on the court.

[00:40:02] So I hope with that tattoo it provided some superpower that allows you to heal quicker.

[00:40:09] Right?

[00:40:10] Like, what's my guy Deadpool?

[00:40:13] Like my God, Deadpool who heals.

[00:40:16] Right?

[00:40:18] I hope that happens for you.

[00:40:20] Oh, and the last thing that we'll say in the new section, and I want this is a San Antonio deal.

[00:40:27] To the San Antonio Scourge franchise.

[00:40:31] That that taking sound that you hear.

[00:40:33] That is the clock to relevance that has started to countdown.

[00:40:42] Victor Wing by Yama is really, really good.

[00:40:46] And we need to make sure that next year you guys take a very nice leap forward and get some competent dudes around him.

[00:40:57] So that's my news for today.

[00:41:00] Let's get on to the rest of these games.

[00:41:02] Shall we?

[00:41:04] We'll close it out.

[00:41:08] Now the Celtics closed out the Miami Heat tonight as well.

[00:41:14] They won tonight 118 to 84.

[00:41:19] And there's two things with this.

[00:41:25] We're going to talk about this game a little bit and we're going to talk about the previous game because the previous game to me is the more important game because that was the game that they lost Christoph Porzingis.

[00:41:36] Christoph Porzingis is currently dealing with the calf injury.

[00:41:41] Now I noticed, I want to say maybe like a couple of minutes before that it looked like he hurt his ankle.

[00:41:48] And then like a minute and a half later there was a non contact injury and there Porzingis was.

[00:41:56] To me that's the biggest news even though Miami unfortunately is now out of the playoffs and Boston moves on to the second round.

[00:42:10] They're going to need all this time because they'll be clean Cleveland or Orlando.

[00:42:17] My pick is still Cleveland.

[00:42:19] Sorry Orlando, I know you have a game six coming up and we'll get to your team in a second but yeah they closed them out.

[00:42:26] The loss of Porzingis and that calf injury to me is significant.

[00:42:32] Now the team and Porzingis is are saying that there's nothing to see here to the Boston Celtics franchise and to Christoph Porzingis.

[00:42:46] My God you were in a walking boot.

[00:42:49] Okay so to tell me that the cheat code of the Boston Celtics, the guy that really changes the whole geometry of the team.

[00:42:59] The thing that really makes that engine go no disrespect to anybody else on that squad.

[00:43:06] Jason Tatum is awesome.

[00:43:08] Jalen Brown is a stud.

[00:43:10] You know how I feel about Derrick White.

[00:43:12] Derrick White is one of the best glue guys I've ever seen.

[00:43:15] Drew Holiday is a glue guy Hall of Famer.

[00:43:20] But this doesn't work.

[00:43:22] Not nearly as well without Christoph Porzingis.

[00:43:28] And when you're telling me there's nothing to see here and you're going to be out the entire second round.

[00:43:39] I'm sorry that's very significant to me.

[00:43:42] So excuse me for hitting the panic button when I see you in a walking boot which lets me know that this is a little more than just whatever.

[00:43:56] Alright don't fake the funk on a nasty dump.

[00:44:00] Not what the old do.

[00:44:02] You know what I'm saying?

[00:44:04] So yeah the Celtics thrashed Miami.

[00:44:08] They got them out of there quick and in a hurry Derrick White who was spectacular in game four.

[00:44:17] He was spectacular in game five.

[00:44:19] He scored 25 points tonight.

[00:44:22] Jalen Brown also chipped in with 25.

[00:44:25] You know it was a whole team effort.

[00:44:27] Everybody was doing their thing.

[00:44:29] Even Sam Houser got busy tonight scoring 17.

[00:44:31] But our guy Derrick White all out game four 38 points 8 of 15 from three point land.

[00:44:45] And tonight he was 5 of 10.

[00:44:49] So he okay so he was 13.

[00:44:56] It was 13 to 25 over the last two games.

[00:44:59] So he shot over 50% from three.

[00:45:01] So you know what we say about that.

[00:45:04] He was pulled out.

[00:45:07] Alright also special shout out to Bam Adebayo who also pulled out the last couple of games.

[00:45:16] His last couple of games total up to 48 points.

[00:45:19] He also had 22 rebounds in those two games.

[00:45:24] He just didn't have enough weapons.

[00:45:27] You know Butler being out.

[00:45:28] Rogier being out.

[00:45:30] This is just not going to happen.

[00:45:33] But he went out like a warrior.

[00:45:36] He went out fighting and that's all you can say about this.

[00:45:39] We can now close the book on the Miami Heat.

[00:45:45] They are done ding dong the witch is dead until next year because they'll come back scarier and and more vengeful than this year.

[00:45:55] So we have that to look forward to and Miami fans being absolutely crazed about their squad.

[00:46:05] Now the recently mentioned OKC Thunder which we talked about in our opening.

[00:46:11] They swept the Pelicans right out of the playoffs 97 to 89.

[00:46:17] And this is now the one thing that I love about the playoffs is the playoffs tells you no lies.

[00:46:23] And I really mean that is the purest form for me to figure out who can play.

[00:46:30] Who can't play.

[00:46:32] And what I mean by that is not like oh they cannot play in the NBA.

[00:46:36] I'm just saying like there's a specific type of human being that plays really well in the playoffs.

[00:46:43] And what we're finding out and what Dave Griffin is finding out is that he's going to have to choose a lane.

[00:46:56] I know Zion was hurt 100 percent.

[00:46:59] You definitely get a mulligan for this season or the playoffs in this season or whatever because of Zion's injury which was really misfortune was really misfortune.

[00:47:10] Turn of events when it happened.

[00:47:15] But you had enough talent with Brandy Ingram with CJ McCullum who has been through some wars as far as that's concerned.

[00:47:23] You had enough people to get this done.

[00:47:27] And then we can talk about the size advantage and all of those things that go along with the Pelicans with Valetunas.

[00:47:37] Trey Murphy the third.

[00:47:40] Herb Jones is real real long.

[00:47:42] And for some reason the OKC Thunder and their system and their superstar guy their MVP candidate Shay Gildes Alexander just kept whooping y'all butt just working y'all up.

[00:47:56] Y'all didn't show no fight whatsoever.

[00:47:59] The only one out there was throwing punches with CJ McCullum.

[00:48:01] CJ ended the closing game with 20 points.

[00:48:07] Brandon Ingram went bird out with a eight point contribution to the Pelicans to a 14 from the field.

[00:48:18] Hey my man Brandon Ingram drink a milkshake and then start going to the hole.

[00:48:26] Those mid those those mid range fadeaways that you're doing aren't going to get you fouled.

[00:48:33] Going and putting your shoulder into somebody and creating contact and then throwing a ball at the rim.

[00:48:41] That's going to get you to the free throw line.

[00:48:44] You as big as you are as skilled as you are as talented as you are should have never ended a playoff game with eight points.

[00:48:54] I'm sorry you way too talented for that Brandon Ingram and you know it.

[00:48:59] So I mean honestly David David Griffin he is he has a lot to do in New Orleans.

[00:49:07] And I mean a couple of the questions that I have with New Orleans really is this are we not only not only are we looking at the Ingram situation.

[00:49:21] We might need to look at an overall.

[00:49:23] I think that Trey Murphy the third is somebody who should be in that rotation starting rotation honestly.

[00:49:30] I think he showed himself very well in these playoffs he didn't get it.

[00:49:35] The lights didn't seem too bright for him so I was impressed by Trey Murphy the third.

[00:49:40] All right Milwaukee Bucks Middleton says not here not in Milwaukee.

[00:49:49] So the Milwaukee Bucks they stayed off elimination in yesterday's game.

[00:49:57] Yesterday's game.

[00:50:01] Month 15 to 92 Middleton was he was a beast.

[00:50:08] Well head coach Doc Rivers got all the two pace out of that too.

[00:50:13] He got Middleton with 29 points brought reporters also to chip in with 29 and that's him repain Doc Rivers for getting kicked out.

[00:50:22] My man put up 29 points he's like I'm sorry I made a mistake.

[00:50:27] I need to own up for it.

[00:50:29] I'm gonna go out here and get you a dub Doc Rivers no problem whatsoever.

[00:50:35] The Milwaukee Bucks collectively shot 52% as a team and then the Indiana Pacers they can't allow this this free throw disparity that they had.

[00:50:45] I think it was plus eight for Milwaukee as far as attempts are concerned and I talked this game up to a young team going into a hostile environment with a veteran later leading group in the Bucks who are fighting for their playoffs lives.

[00:51:01] And honestly desperate teams will throw anything up against the wall to see if it will work when when the time calls upon it so honestly I think Indiana still wouldn't this series they'll get it.

[00:51:15] They'll go back to Indie they'll go back and close this game out in Indianapolis and we'll see how it all goes from there.

[00:51:24] Let's go to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magics real quick.

[00:51:31] This is really what I want to talk about with this is funny how series work.

[00:51:37] There's a completely different identity with both these teams when they leave their perspective home courts.

[00:51:47] And what I mean by that is that the cast freaked out a 104 to 103 win and they take a 3-2 series lead against the Orlando Magic.

[00:51:58] Now this is going back to Orlando for game six so it's funny and it's also very interesting that the only game that traveled to Cleveland was Paulo Ben-Kelz game where he had 39 points.

[00:52:15] Now on the other hand the back court of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell went missing in Orlando.

[00:52:29] I thought about putting out an Amber Alert for both of them but long behold they materialized like you know how on Star Trek they would beam you down from the U.S. Enterprise to the planet.

[00:52:44] They reappeared in the Quicken Loan Center and they combined for 51 points to go ahead and get that dub.

[00:52:53] So again they're going to go to Orlando.

[00:52:56] That crowd will be nice, it will be lit, it will be ready to go and I believe that Cleveland will struggle.

[00:53:07] Orlando will probably win and then we will see a game seven in Cleveland and I think then Cleveland will win but you never want to get to a game seven.

[00:53:21] This is why we think that Cleveland is not a serious playoff team because you plan around with fire.

[00:53:29] Those young cats believe they can beat you and if you don't put them down they're going to end up beating you and then what?

[00:53:42] See that's the question in Cleveland that you guys have not wanted to answer all year.

[00:53:48] Then what?

[00:53:51] Because last year's performance in the playoffs the Whiskers were you were soft.

[00:54:00] They won't be Whiskers anymore if you blow this lead to the Orlando Magic.

[00:54:10] If you somehow get beat in a seven game series to the Orlando Magic who literally don't have a bunch of offense, you know Donovan Mitchell is gone and then my question is who else?

[00:54:31] Because a major overhaul will be needed in the land.

[00:54:36] Yeah, it was weird to see that weird weird weird.

[00:54:43] The last game that we want to get to obviously the mix and 76ers are just putting on a hell of a series.

[00:54:53] When you said it time and time again, game five didn't disappoint.

[00:54:58] Not only did it not disappoint there was such a crazy finish in this game.

[00:55:03] Obviously you guys who are on social media.

[00:55:07] I mean, you guys knew about it immediately.

[00:55:12] The Knicks are up six with 28.9 to go.

[00:55:17] Maxi hits a three he's fouled it turns into a four point play.

[00:55:23] Then there were free throws missed by the Knicks.

[00:55:27] Maxi puts his Reggie Miller cape on.

[00:55:34] He turns himself into Reggie Miller and from my younger audience, if you don't know who Reggie Miller is Google, YouTube, Reggie Miller, Knicks, crushing them just put Reggie Miller and Knicks and like choke and it all come up.

[00:55:57] You'll know what I'm talking about.

[00:55:59] There was a great documentary done 30 for 30 done.

[00:56:06] So check that out.

[00:56:07] I think it's on Netflix and also on their streaming platform as well.

[00:56:11] But so Maxi gets the 76ers to overtime.

[00:56:17] He scores 46 points in this game and we have another star that is born.

[00:56:24] And what I mean by that is that it's great to see a guy step up to that next level.

[00:56:31] And I think that Maxi has made himself a real dude.

[00:56:35] He showed himself all year to be this dude with this production, but when his team needed him most in a gotta have the game when Joey L&B is not playing that well and for the Philadelphia fans.

[00:56:53] Again, I'll say it to the cows come home.

[00:56:55] You might hate me.

[00:56:56] You might be sick of me saying it, but you have to expect inconsistencies with your all world center when he is playing on one way.

[00:57:11] The facts are the facts.

[00:57:14] But Maxi saved them.

[00:57:16] They won 112 to 106.

[00:57:19] We have a game six coming up and where Philadelphia.

[00:57:26] So can't wait for that.

[00:57:28] A couple of the notes from this game that we really need to get to one, the intensity level and just everybody's performance in this game or in this series.

[00:57:44] Both teams really want it.

[00:57:46] They just this is going to just two teams that are like, yo, we're gonna go out here and scrap.

[00:57:54] And then at the end of the day, we're going to see what's what and that's what's going on in this series.

[00:57:59] This is real old school glass wall.

[00:58:02] And I love it.

[00:58:03] Oh, by the way, Tobias Harris scored 19 points.

[00:58:07] We need to celebrate that every time this dude is in double digits.

[00:58:10] We are absolutely going to applaud those efforts.

[00:58:15] Good job to buy his Harris contributing in the right way.

[00:58:21] Oh, and then there was a whole home 40 burger by Jalen Brunson.

[00:58:27] And again, I had him on my first team or NBA.

[00:58:33] He was fifth in my MVP balloting.

[00:58:37] And I will tell you this, I'm thinking I might have him too low.

[00:58:43] I might have him too low at least one spot because I think I had them in the fifth spot.

[00:58:49] I might if I had to do it all over again, I might put a fourth.

[00:58:54] I still think I have Luca.

[00:58:56] I still think I have SGA.

[00:58:58] I still think I've had Yolkage number three or guy from Denver.

[00:59:03] But I think number four would have been Jalen Brunson now as I look back on it.

[00:59:09] And obviously the playoffs have something to do with it this time of year.

[00:59:14] It gives me amped up because I love it because I think it really shows you who the real players are because we know that teams now are just concentrated on you.

[00:59:30] They're concentrating, concentrated on your tendencies, what you like to do,

[00:59:34] what actions you like to get your shot off in.

[00:59:39] We know the rhythm of your shot.

[00:59:43] We know the couple of spaces on the court that you really like to use your floater on.

[00:59:49] And for Jalen Brunson at six feet tall, just cook the Philadelphia 76ers every single time he gets a chance.

[01:00:01] It is absolutely a virtuoso performance.

[01:00:07] So our hats off to Jalen Brunson even in the losing effort.

[01:00:12] My guy, you are a killer.

[01:00:15] We love you and salute to my guy.

[01:00:18] All right.

[01:00:20] So without being sad, we are out of here.

[01:00:22] We're done.

[01:00:24] This has been great again.

[01:00:26] Follow the pod.

[01:00:27] So if this is the first time you're getting it, just hit the follow button.

[01:00:32] Just don't even hesitate.

[01:00:34] Just hit it.

[01:00:36] Also remember to get us on YouTube at Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[01:00:40] We put up videos every week.

[01:00:42] We try to make them funny, informative and whatever is on this podcast will definitely be on that video.

[01:00:49] But usually there's a little added extra stuff in there as well to punch it up a little bit.

[01:00:54] And also acts again front at Front Runner PC.

[01:01:01] Remember that.

[01:01:03] And as always, we like to leave you with this.

[01:01:06] The best part of you is you.

[01:01:09] So make sure that no one is diminishing your shine.

[01:01:13] Make sure you stay as unique as possible.

[01:01:16] Make sure you take care of your fellow man and we're up out of here and we'll see you on this podcast.

[01:01:24] On Friday, right?

[01:01:27] Because today what is today?

[01:01:29] Today Monday I have no idea what today is.

[01:01:33] I'm so lost on my days.

[01:01:35] What's today?

[01:01:37] It's Wednesday.

[01:01:39] So we'll see you on this podcast on Friday.

[01:01:42] Such an idiot.

[01:01:44] Alright guys.

[01:01:46] See you later.