Luka's Farewell Gift: 45 Points and a Bittersweet Return to Dallas

it's friday, you know what time it is. It's front runner podcast collective. I am your humble host, vince, and, as always, the silent assassin, the person that we need the most with the stats, with the quotes. Saraya is handling the ones and twos on today's podcast. We have so much to get to. Today is the west. We do the east on tuesday, west on friday. We also have a programming note.

Due to so much going on with the west and how it's playing out, we needed to give basically all the attention to the west. We promise awards and we will deliver awards. It will have its own separate show. So we are doing a special podcast on sunday. Sunday, we'll have the awards, mvp, all that. We also came up with our own awards, which are amazing, and we'll explain them. Uh, as we get in. This podcast was so big and there was so what was going on with the entire western conference as far as the playoff is concerned, that we couldn't do the awards any justice whatsoever. So, with that being said, again, be on the lookout for a special podcast on Sunday for the awards for the end of the regular season in the NBA, and it'll go really great with the ending of the Masters.

Bill's pod will come on, probably like 1030. Ours will be way done you listen to ours, then you can go over, listen to bill and rossillo do that whole thing and then, uh, you know, have a great night. So I think that's what we're gonna. We ended up doing and, uh, it was a good call, watch the rare. And uh, let's go get into the rest of this pod, shall we? Because, again, the western conference standings resemble a snow globe. Give it a shake and the entire landscape shifts. Seeds four through eight, they're staying. They're staying playing musical chairs, playoff positioning and the music doesn't care who's left standing. Consider this the lakers have secured a playoff squad, but their seat, their seating, is still in flux. The nuggets and the clippers are neck and neck, while the warriors, grizzlies and timberwolves are entangled in a three-way tie, each holding a 47-33 record. It's a daily reshuffle, a new configuration every morning. This scenario brings to mind the Amazing Race, where teams navigate unpredictable challenges and single misstep can cost them the lead. Remember, the team misread the clue. It ended up miles off course. That's the western conference standing in a nutshell one wrong move and you're out of contention, or you're battling the team that you definitely don't want to face, like OKC.

In the midst of this chaos, individual performances shine. We had an outstanding performance from Anthony Edwards and John Morant and we'll get to those performances in this podcast. The Timberwolves to a franchise record 52 points, third quarter against the Grizzlies. Julius Randle adds 31, reinforcing Minnesota's surge like a team finding a fast forward in the amazing race, catapulting them ahead in the race. You know, they just took down they like oh, we are not dead yet. Memphis is kind of fluttering around. We got to make a move. Let's go ahead and do it. Anthony edwards smells blood. You see what happens. Meanwhile we turn our eyes to dallas and we're about to get there and go over all the pageantry. Do not worry. Luka returns to dallas dominates, we'll get into all of what he did.

So, as we grace for the final games in the regular season, the question isn't just who will make the playoffs, but who can navigate the snow globe of the conference without losing their footing. So, with the West spiraling like an episode of the Amazing Race in Koala Lumpar, let's hit the pit stops, the power to shifts and the performances that actually move the standings. And we start in Dallas. And we start in Dallas. I watched this game and you know as a Laker fan, you know and then also as an analyst. You got to kind of go through all of it and obviously we saw the emotion that Lucas shared. It was crazy because he wore his emotions on his sleeves, to his detriment sometimes. We knew that. But real reality hit that day and a lot of people around the league are saying that there's no way in hell that guy was not going to take the extension. Whoever is still believing that? There is no way you could believe that after what you saw in Dallas a couple nights ago. Now there are games that matter in basketball and there are nights where the person does, and april night was luca donchett's goodbye to the city, to the fans and to the dream. In a return, he gave dallas one last gift 45 points, seven threes and one unshakable reminder that not all titles or trophies, some are relationships. Pause and let that marinate. Luka didn't just light Dallas up, he carried the entire arena on his chest. The performance, it was a eulogy. Let's get into it.

Luka Doncic 45 points, 31 points. In the first half he had 14 points in the first quarter, 17 in the second. He couldn't be stopped. His, his usage was ridiculous. He was everywhere. He was an iso maestro, a pick and roll puppeteer, a post initiator. Luca ran every page of the playbook and he was more docile than normal. Usually, lucas, usually a lot of piss and vinegar, a lot of snarling at the refs. Maybe he has a back to you know, back and forth with a fan. You saw none of that this guy was. I mean, for Lucas standards he was pretty much genteel. Now the Lakers 58 points in the paint, size, spacing and optimization I want to get into that in one second 22 assists, 12 turnovers, so pretty much a clean basketball game. And they had efficient rotations. And we're getting to the point that I want to talk about. Lebron James finished the game.

So Luka came out like a house on fire first half, kind of steady, kind of kept the ship going in the third quarter and then LeBron, as just like a Mariano Rivera, like closer, came in and he scored 27 points. But he scored, did a lot of his damage in the fourth quarter and just basically, being the tactician that he is, role players Rory Hachimura three for seven. But what makes Rory so important to this game is how he handled Anthony Davis and also Daniel Gafford. He was physical with them. He was able to kind of present them to help side defense. He was able to kind of put them in predicaments where they would have to pass out and then kind of re-establish themselves and by that time, because of the fact that Dallas don't does not have the real ball handlers that they need to to handle this type of defense, they were throwing up like crazy shots. So it was what it was. Austin was basically a connector. He wasn't loud last night. He was just doing what he does providing rebounds, providing assists, providing floor spacing and just being there.

Because this was the luka doncha show. Let's not make any mistake about it. This wasn't just luka's return. It was a referendum on how hard it is to replace greatness in an infrastructure dallas construction, defense, switchability, off-ball versatility all logical on paper. But the harsher truth is this the team had 20 turnovers, dallas mavericks, eight from non-Luka ball handlers, or Kyrie handlers, however you want to put it. So you know Luka's not there.

They went to Najee Marshall, of all people. He actually had a pretty good game and we'll get into that in a second. They were 9-26 from three. So that's just a little bit above 33%. Right there Nico Harrison was. They said fire Nico several times throughout the broadcast to even the point where he was fired.

Who is as professional as they come as an announcer had to finally acknowledge the fans. Like at a wwe event, they were taking over. You know, it's like when the crowd wants to sing cody, cody rose, cody, cody, cody rose. They were going Fire Nico. It was nuts and he was just sitting in his Regular spot Having to listen to this and having to see Luka drop 45. On the Dallas Mavericks heads.

The emotional connection to the fans was real. It was visible in his interaction With Keug Cuban in the media after, after his pregame warm-ups, luca made the Lakers. Just the whole front office, the whole staff is just giddy about what they have Because they have fallen into good fortune, because this man said this before the game. So Dallas obviously rolls out the red carpet for Luka. There's a tribute video. Now how it works. The visiting team gets introduced first. Now they you know they Austin, okay, jackson Hayes. All right, who else? We got LeBron, we got Rui, and then a video comes on and I would say like seven seconds into the video, luca asked for a towel. He's looking at the video and you can see the emotion just starting to well up in his eyes.

Um, they were bloodshot red from the night before because, as jovan Buha of the Athletic reported, he didn't get a lot of sleep the night before and he muttered at that point, looked at JJ Redick and said I don't know how I'm going to be able to play in this game. Jj LeBron and Austin Reeves all said we got your back, don't worry, big boy, we will carry you through this game. You just do what you do and we'll follow your lead. If you can't hit, we'll start making shots. Don't worry about it, we'll pick you up, big brother.

He got the same sentimentality from like dorian finney, smith and others, to the point where, when he did check out of the game first of all classy move by jj, because dallas calls a timeout jj leaves luca in and then has luca intentionally flout so that the d Dallas crowd could give him his standing ovation and just their appreciation for six and a half incredible years that he had put out on the court for the Dallas Mavericks fans. Great gesture by JJ, understanding the moment, understanding who his player is and understanding how far that could go in just galvanizing that bond between those two. So when we talk about. Does jj understand? Like the psychology of coaching? You bet your ass he does handle your superstars with this type of respect and you know what you're gonna get.

Here's the other thing. The lakers look like a championship contender. They look like a team that is ready to get now to the patients and could into quick jazz. That was one of his seven assists. Here's the best part of what he did in this game his true shooting percentage. Now Luca has been completely inefficient since joining the Lakers. A lot of turnovers, a lot of bad shooting nights, whatever.

Laser locked in 67.5 percent true shooting percentage and then with 333 left in the fourth quarter, luca guarded by Max Christie. How, apropos an ex-Laker. He drives past Christie, which is inexplicable, but just height strength. He gets around Christie, he wedges himself underneath the basket and pj washington is there to provide rim protection and look, it kind of looks. Looks at pj kind of out the corner of his eye, goes underneath the rim and throws this like super english high off the glass. Prayer that just lands so softly in the net. And it was Luka magic all over again. They didn't have any answers for him. They got obliterated, they were held under a hundred points and that crowd went home happy kinda, and also kinda sad. Some players leave cities with rings Looking left with something harder to quantify Belief, heartbreak and a performance that will play in Dallas Highlight Reels longer than their playoff series. You don't always get the fairy tale, but if you're lucky you get one night like this and Luka had himself a hell of a night.

This takes us to the rest of the chaos that happened within the last couple days, because did anybody check out the absolute show that Minnesota and the Memphis Grizzlies put on? It was incredible. We need to get to it and there was so much to get to in this Bear with us. So Minnesota goes to FedEx Forum in Memphis. We all know what's going on in Memphis. We know about the coach change, the everything is just chaos down there. Tumas Ayasolo is the head coach as of right now and I think Minnesota smell blood Because you want to see a Western Conference team punk someone in their own building.

Minnesota dropped 52 in the third quarter. Ja got his bang shot 60% and it didn't matter Because Ant-Man's jumper ridiculous Randall was absolutely spectacular. It looked like 2021 and MSG let's get into it. Ant and Randall, it was the twin towers of pain. It was ridiculous. Ant stat line for this game 44 points. Check out the sufficiency 13 of 19 from the floor, 7 of 11 from 3, 11 of 13 from the from the free throw line.

What did he not do? What did he not do? He controlled the pace with effortless shot making. I mean he was just basically launching projectiles from everywhere on the court, it didn't matter who they had on them. They tried Bane, they tried Aldama, they tried others. It was like he looked at Ja at one point, like not happening for you his poise, as when they were down he didn't trip. He was like the storm is coming, just wait. Multiple coverages there was a, there were drops, there were switches, there were blitzes on him. It didn't make a difference because when you blitzed him, he went over to julius randall, who was probably on a guard a la john morant. He bullied him to the underneath the hole and then just put it up in there.

Julius randall had 31 points to support anthony edwards 13 or 22 shooting, 5 of 10 from three-point land. He was absolutely hot. He emphasized rim pressure and rebounding, just being an absolute bully in the game. He did all the things that he was doing in new york but he did it in a more um. He's taking out the shot diet, the mid-range less it's. It's slowly coming out and I'm starting to like it. So he's having more attempts at the rim and also more attempts beyond the arc. So I think he's making some adjustments so he can kind of be able to be optimized in this offense that he is in with chris finch at this point in time. He had five assists. Julius randall play making his ass off using short roll to punish traps on ant. You give ant a shooter's bounce and julius randall a green light and that's cardio for your funeral. Literally now the grizzlies. They didn't sit there and just you know, turtle.

John morant was typical john morant. He had 36 points, 13, 27. He did hit five threes but he had five turnovers, his scoring versus people like Gobert and Giannis as paint deterrents. He got a technical foul in the fourth quarter and his frustration showed that he was not being able to get to the paint like he wanted. His frustration showed that he was not being able to get to the paint like he wanted. Now desmond bain, who is a absolute frpc like he's not a friend of the program, but we love desmond bain. We loved him since he came out of school.

He came, he came ready to play 28 points, six of ten from deep elite, spacing elite movement. But there was no defensive answer for randall. Because that was the key if you were gonna blitz and randall needed to be active and he was. He was absolutely active, he was absolutely impactful. They felt him. Jaron jackson jr still putting together a pretty good season. But you know that decent defensive player of the year stuff has gone away because as memphis has started to go down in the standings, their defense has gone along with it. He was in foul trouble early during Jackson Jr and then he got a technical foul in the first quarter as well. So he was not happy pretty much the whole game.

Now here is the thing the Grizzlies were up in this game and then in the third quarter you got outscored by 27 points, 52 to 25. Minnesota shot 55 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from three and 89.3 percent from the charity strike ridiculous. And then you mix in grizzlies not valuing the basketball 15 total turnovers. What are we doing? And, by the way, those were live balls, so those were run out dunks and corner threes all night long for the minnesota timberwolves. So when you think how did they win this game and how, how did it get? How did the? The game flip like that. That's how it flipped. Here's having a, here's having a good game, without really like stuffing this the stat sheet, grudigo Bear was a plus 13 and plus minus in 36 minutes and really he didn't really score a lot of points whatsoever. So now memphis and minnesota are both 47 and 33, tied in tie record, but the wolves take the seating edge with this win.

The raised questions that we need. Did we see going to be deployed as we go into postseason? Because if this is the Randall that we're getting, if this is the guy that can provide Listen, is he going to score 31 points every single game? No, but what I'm saying is, can he give this effort? Can he be this impactful? Because if he can, minnesota is going to be absolutely dangerous because ant edwards is the absolute killer.

The grizzlies got cooked defensively. They are absolutely dreadful. In the second part of the year on defense. This looks like a, basically something that they're gonna have to retool during the summer. I don't think there's anything that isolo can do at this point to really get there's, because without brandon clark. There's really not something that's turnkey that you can stick in that lineup that can help them. Now you can tell me gg jackson they haven't tried this. Listen, if you're depending on 20 year old, damn near gg jackson for like defensive chops, we're in a grave state of emergency.

In this situation, all right now, where, where does this take us? Because there's so much going on, this takes us straight to the trash talk, because that's the one thing that we have not talked about yet. We had Ja Morant and we had Anthony Edwards and we had Dante DiVincenzo, julius Randle, jaron Jackson Jr. All on the same court. So trash talk. So so who won that right? We know that minnesota won the game. Who won the trash talk talk? Let's get into it.

Third quarter ants hit his third pull-up three over a lazy switch. He backpedals eyes, jaw and mouth. You're gonna need two more. Like you, you're gonna need two more. Go get two more of them. Two more grizzlies to stop me, because that's how hot I am right now.

Moran avoided switches onto edwards for most of the game. Mem Memphis had to had to stunt with Aldama and trap late. It didn't matter, because we told you, julius Randall had himself a game. It wasn't the scoring. He knew he had the edge and he said it with his chest, damn it. And was it trash talking? He was doing customer service. He was letting john know what the return policy was on that defense. No refunds, no stops, no chance.

Now julius randall talking to jaron jackson jr talking some hot mess to jaron jackson jr. It was crazy. So second quarter, randall bodies triple j, scores with a bump and talks right at him, walking back triple j is joined to the ref and he gets a tech. 30 seconds later julius hits him with this. You looking at the ref or you guarding me? What's up? That's what I'm saying. Randall went five or seven against his isolated matchup against jaron jackson jr and with post touches. So pretty good. The? T was in frustration at the call. It was an ego bruise from being called on the court, called out on the court and being then exposed as a fraudulent defensive player of the year candidate.

I love jaron jackson jr. I think he is a really great player. He is pretty much the. There's a lot of things around him, but you can't have. You can't have jul Randle. Punk you at FedEx Forum. Can't do it now for the most odd trash talk of the game. Nas Reed John at Zach Eadie had to be the funniest thing I have ever seen in my whole entire life. So Nas gets an offensive board in the third quarter, goes right back up through Edie and lets him know, just lets him know, he's like, he's like. Oh so a tree can fall in the forest and it don't make a sound man. Yo yo, it's getting spicy out here in these streets, dog. I'm letting you know, I'm letting you know it's getting crazy out here and we're getting closer and closer to the playoffs and we're gonna have more of this.

So, with that being said, let's talk about a team that is being really not talked about a lot. They're being slept on a little bit. They might feel a little disrespected. They're in the same city as another team that gets all the pub, all the highlights, all the endorsements, or, as my, as my dog, kua gooden jr said in uh, jerry Maguire, the Kwan, the Kwan, I want the Kwan, right. So the team that we're talking about is the Los Angeles Clippers. Now, you know me as a Laker fan, so you know I cannot stand the Clippers, but as analyst, I got to give them a ton of respect, because what they're doing right now is not just incredible, it's kind of scary and it's starting to look sustainable and it looks like we're going to go and have hell to deal with when we get to the playoffs. So let's get into this real quick.

Okay, we need to talk about Zu zoo. Lots, and what he's doing is crazy 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, is he? Is he now so bonus like a bigger sub bonus, jumbo size sub bonus, deliveries like al horford, deliveries like Al Horford. You know what's my man doing? He's out here doing big, big things. I'm just saying that for a guy they're going to give like the most improved player to like Cade Cunningham or somebody like that, it's going to be something.

We know that Cade is awesome and I don't want to take anything away from Cade, but when you see that Ivica Zubats has just completely changed the game. He's become more physical, he's become more confident and aggressive in asking for the ball, he's made major leaves, he's a major cog in what the clippers are doing and there and he is a complete engine to their success and to see him not be recognized is to me a little fraudulent, a little criminal. But we also know that this team, that the nba runs on stars, but that's why you got us here at front runner podcast collective, because we grind the tape, we'll let you know who are like the most improved players, and we think that avisa zubats is deserving to have consideration of that. Award Him, and also another star, or another player in this city, which is Austin Reeves, who's done an incredible job this year, basically finding his way and finding his way to be useful to two separate superstars in two, two different, entirely different fashions. You know Now, avicii Zubac does get a lot of help from Harden With the lobs and throws the offensive reading. He provides the physicality that he gives. These are all things they needed.

Keep in mind, kawhi hasn't been healthy the whole year. They lost Paul George. We didn't know that Norm Powell was going to do this, but Visa Zubach has been consistent every single game. Oh and, by the way, he plays a lot, which is great, which is great. Now, another guy we need to talk about Is our guy, another white American, but he's been buried. He's been buried on the bench all year. It has been a cold winter For our guy, reed Shepard.

We thought this was going to be the great american hero, but we've seen glimpses, and a couple days ago we saw another glimpse. So six threes isn't the story. The types of shots are corner lifts, ghost cuts, relocations and after driving kickouts, feet always loaded, quick trigger sniper, bane light with a self-curry. If he could actually defend he's a rookie. He had four turnovers. So you know the processing speed, you know, leads a little bit to be desired, but the handle is great.

Now you know E-May's edict In Houston If you don't play defense, you can't play for me. You know what I'm saying. Ah, man, jalen Fred Van Vliet, what I'm saying. Ahmed Jalen Fred VanVleet, what I'm going to tell you right now. Be on the lookout if you're looking to kind of repurpose Reed and trying to get yourself some offense. I'm actually wondering if he will give kind of like their X factor in the playoffs, because Houston has a really hard time scoring. Jalen green is very inconsistent with what he can do. There's a lot of talent there, but sometimes I just I don't know if he knows the timing and the rhythm of when he's supposed to use it. To me, their most consistent base of offense is running through Alper and Shingun, allowing Fred VanVleet to kind of do a bargain basement version of Jamal Murray around Shingun and then, on the second side, allow Jalen Green and his athleticism, tari Eason, eamon Thompson, people like that to go ahead and do what they need to do. But I don't run that team so I can't. You know, e-may runs that team and that dude should be in consideration for coach of the year. We love E-May, we love what he does there. Good job on you player.

Now the Rockets aren't just lab coats, they got dogs. They got dogs Tori, tori Eason, ken Whitmore if for some reason, you know, you just need some offense. They got the experience of Aaron Holiday and Jeff Green. They they're just going to be a real Just a. We got to play them. It's just going to be so hard. So if you don't come with the proper mentality, houston will wear you down Because they'll just bring bodies and bring more bodies and continue to bring them. Because they're all young, they're all pretty much healthy. Because they're young, they sprinkle in a little experience here and there. You got dylan brooks, like I said, you know. They got aaron holiday as well. You know he provides a little leadership.

Jeff green is like um, saying well, kind of like what occurs? He's there for vibes and to buy, like you know old school leadership. I love it. So now are the clippers for real. So now are the Clippers for real. Let's just ask this question Are they for real?

Well, even though we will not do the same old dance, what we do with the Clippers, kawhi has been very impressive. He's looked great. He's putting up like 30. He's rebounding. He's shooting the ball very, very well. He seems to be guarding better, moving around the court a little bit better. It's all the things that you wanted to see in the clippers. Uh, we just talked about zubats and what kind of energy he has brought. He's like the glue for tempo. Again, batum um, I mean Bogdanovich was an absolute steal for them. It's just another guy who can move the ball correctly and he makes decisive, quick decisions. There's a thing in this league that like, if you can process really good, if you're a quick processor, even though you might not have the greatest shooting night, you're still you're still impacted winning because the ball moves faster than people. It's still the oldest saying in the book, but it's 100 true.

Do you want to play the clippers in the playoffs? Well, we'll get to that a little bit later. We'll get to, we'll. We'll get to that, we will. We do need to get to golden state because everybody was celebrating this team the last time harrison barnes had a shot that mattered, it was game 7 of 2016. He missed it and the dynasty still breathed Tonight over Jimmy Butler. He did not miss that shot. I'm going to tell you right now we've been celebrating the warriors, but losing this game to san antonio. I will say before I go forward, this could be one that they look back on and go oh, that's why we didn't go to the western conference finals. Okay, we get. We get it now. And it's the second time in two years that this has happened. San Antonio, victor Wimbach-Yama. Last year he had a really great game last game of the season and knocked Denver out of the number one seed. So they just killing playoff contenders left and right on their way to the lottery.

Golden State comes out with a fuck with fire 13 point lead. In the first half, the ball is zipping around, curry is running drag screens with butler. Draymond is creating down, creating downhill. It looked like a playoff team for 12 minutes. The second quarter, the spurs run 19 to 6 stretch with castle and champagne. They collapse. The pain gun start gun. Warriors start settling for threes kerr goes to a santos healed kaminga and the offense grinds to a halt. It was like watching a remix of a song you love, except the DJ spilled coffee on the controller and nothing hit right. Curry checks out, checks out. I'm sorry. Curry checks out up 10, then checks back in down 3. It's a full-blown bench hemorrhage. Cominga was supposed to be that guy. Can you feel when the team doesn't trust its second unit? You can see it in their stairs at the scores table.

Let's talk about deep rotation. On Barnes he gets an isolation three With Jimmy Shaden middle. Where is the top side stunt? Where is it at? I just want to know when is the peel switch. I want to know who was supposed to help out. Might need Zapruder film On this situation.

It't that just that one play. It was a system breakdown. The spurs space. Golden stayed out. Castle handled the pick and roll pressure. They got draymond moving laterally, not vertically. That's the key casting castle in april.

Caston Castle in April. Looking very young, drew Holiday-ish, with IG confidence. You know what I'm saying. He flourishing on the ground. Now Buddy Hill went 4-13. He couldn't stay in front of anyone before. He couldn't stay in front of anybody. He was a complete turnstile. Kirk kept him out there. If this is your playoff rotation, just go small permanently. The only scarier than curry led team without floor spacing is that those spacers keep shooting like they are trying to exit the group. Chat buddy hill was brought in for shooting and he is not providing that shooting. And draymond's energy was wild. One moment he's quarterbacking, the next he's throwing outlet passes to ghosts. Hey, but keep on. Keep on going ahead promoting that you are the defensive player of the year. He's winning this. He's winning this popularity contest. He is fooling y'all.

Amen thompson is the defensive player of the year. Stop period, that's. It is story. He's doing things on the defensive end from a perimeter player that we have not seen. Tell me the last person that d step up one-on-one and just shut his ass down. Tell me somebody six foot six, six percent seven and literally providing rim protection on a on a frequent basis. Tell me somebody who can stand in the middle of the court and then get out to the corner three. So he's literally guarding damn near three positions. That's what A-Man Thompson is doing.

So when you talk to me About defensive player of the year, no disrespect to Draymond. He has been great. He has been great In the second half of the year. No disrespect to Draymond, he has been great. He has been great in the second half of the year. He was, he went great. Since. He's been energized because Jimmy Butler got there and they can now win.

But Amon Thompson has had success all throughout the season and his game has just grown and grown. So for me, looking at the metrics, looking at what he does, look how impactful his defense is, especially when you are looking at a team that does not have a star player on that team no, no shade to Shingun, but you know what I'm talking about A real legitimate dude. But we got Amon Thompson out here Just locking people up, putting them in prison, and he can't get defensive player of the year Because he doesn't have a podcast. Well, amon Thompson defensive player of the year because he doesn't have a podcast. Well, airman Thompson, just know that I will be your flamethrower. Just know I will be your orator. Just know I'll be your Oracle. I'll be your. What a master of ceremonies. Whatever the hell you need to win this defensive player of the year award.

Every coach has a tipping point. Kerr hits his. You can see it. His posture during the fourth quarter Timeout. Pure disbelief here's what I'm told.

Golden State front office was already bracing for playing contingency. This loss validates every fear they are still. They're still not out of the woods. They could still make the sixth seed. Everybody's still scared of them. This doesn't change anything. But they knew that this was a Razor thin situation. They knew they had to be damn near perfect To get into the regular playoffs Without playing in the plan. So they knew they were going up against it and they redlined it as far as they could.

I'll say it if kirk can't trust anyone but steph dray and butler in a close game, meaning like if we can't get anything from jonathan cominga, this is a wrap. We don't have to do this anymore. We don't have to play these games anymore. We don't have to do any of this. Jonathan comingo wants it, wants whatever the rookie max contract is or whatever. Guess what playboy. You're gonna have to play. You're gonna have to give us 18. You're gonna have to provide rebounding. You're gonna have to defend. You can't get lost in the sauce anymore, my guy. It's time to prove it. It's time to show and prove who and what you are. Get it going. Get it going. No depth. No problem, you know I'm saying they're still, like I said, 40, 47 and 33. Destiny's is not in their hands. But you know, if you take care of business somebody's going to be favorable to you. You just take care of what you need to take care of.

Larger questions curve built this beautiful system motion, re-react, space, iso and defense. It is not elegant but it's effective. The bigger question is the final year and Draymond and Kerr. When is that gonna happen? Is this the reason they pushed in for Jimmy Butler? Is these two, three years the final straw, whatever it should be? Are we still nations of trying to hold on to young talent and just not try to build the best team around steph, jimmy and dreamer because kaminga, I love him, I can ride for him.

But playoff minutes you have to come with consistency, not just vibes. You can't get a tip-back dunk flex and then I don't see you play a lick of defense for 12 minutes while you're out there. I'm sorry, harrison Barnes hitting the dagger. Steph dropped 30, the bench disappeared and now the Warriors are out of cushion, out of time and maybe, just maybe, out of chances. Now we get to Jokic, we get to another team going through some, going through some shit. So obviously they fired the coach with, uh, three, three games left. They played a game. We'll talk about that in a second. Uh, some new new revelations have come out, you know, and we'll get into that.

So I thought that we would take our time and discuss a little Nuggets basketball. Denver didn't just fire their head coach, they blew up the command structure and only the fingerprints are left on this team, nikola Jokic. The cold war between Calvin Booth and michael malone is over. The cronkies didn't choose a side, they torched the battlefield and they handed the ashes to yokich. Now again, um, this is not a a victory lap or anything. What this is is just saying that. You know, we've been watching this thing. We've kind of talked about this over the last two years of this pod and I always wondered how this was going to play out, because I kept on saying booth wants the kids, malone wants vets. Malone wins because he's coaching the team. How does this play out? Well, we find out now.

Malone's old school trust guys, culture, clash with booze, scalable upside vision. For years, booth wanted pickett jared pickett, peyton watson, julian strother to get reps. This year, malone couldn't quit russ or sarich, or our guy, dj deandre jordan, still getting minutes, and yokich the yokich equation and Jokic the Jokic equation, albeit he's having a MVP calendar, uh, caliber year. There's no question about that. You don't risk alienating a savant like him just to win a bench argument in January. You just don't do it. And that's what Michael Malone did. He kept on putting Jokic out. Michael Malone did. He kept on putting Jokic out there for 40 minutes. He kept on putting Jokic out there for 42 minutes because he didn't trust his bench.

Now the 23 title team didn't hide their problems. It froze them in amber, a perfect run mass by a perfect marriage booth booth, calvin booth, who was the, the vice president of player operations, um, for the denver nuggets. He kept on always talking about well, we got these draft picks and we're gonna. We believe in the type of player we want to bring in and we think that they could implement and also extend our run with this. But this one-on-one talent which is Jokic, and if we can bring these kids along and kind of implement them into the system, jokic can kind of do some of the lifting as the kids kind of rise right. That was the whole plan.

Michael malone was not hearing that picking wasn't just a pick, he was a philosophical declaration. You think yoki wants loyalty over leverage. Nah, he just wants to flow, play basketball and go chill with his horses. When your culture mucks up the cleanest offensive genius, it's time to clean house. Enter dave adleman. Dave adleman was on the staff when all this came to be. He's a player, trusted technician, calm, quiet, real hooper, energy, no panic, no pacing weirdness, just system forward hoops.

Now here's the thing. If you saw the game, you saw some differences. They were subtle but they were differences. Braun looked amazing. Brown looked great. He looked like all the things that Calvin Booth wanted out of him the defense, the shooting, the energy, the deflections, all of that. Then we got Jarek Pickett and Jarek Pickett closed the game, outread Utah's traps. Mpj was a play finisher 21 points, no ball, stopping all rhythm with his shots. Peyton watson was a plus athlete energy spikes needed better floor sense because you know he gets lost on defense. But it's one of those things where you saw the future of what Calvin Booth was looking for in the beginning. And also, jokic didn't have score a ton of points and we'll get to that momentarily.

Westbrook was benched in crunch time. Bad decisions, two of 11 from the field. The ball died in his hands. He was not worthy of play in crunch time. Sorry. And zeke naji do not, uh, did not participate. Coach's decision um strother and tyson julian strother got a little run a little. You know a little bit, but we'll see how that all works out. You know it's a new era when the play when the player boost bet on Outlast, boost himself. Let the yokich power era begins.

Yokich was consulted. Please flirt, please. So much better. Yokich was consulted pre-firing. There's big news. He's now the sun around which everything rotates. Do not rule out tim conley returning. Keep in mind I told you, I told you three or four pods ago that tim conley had reworked his contract and he has an out clause this year if he doesn't like what's going on now. He was brought in by a rod, he was brought in by lori, so just of his staying are probably very, very good, but tim collie did come from denver, so we throw that on the back burner. You know, smart, quiet be the long-term internal answer. Who knows? You just don't rebuild a franchise around you.

Align it, and it's the first time since 2023. Dimmerly finally is. And then they, they went out and they, they firmly hunted the kings. I had a triple-double yoke. Itch Sabonis smugly the space needed for versus verticality, cuz Aaron Gorin was all over him. Impact as a mover, then Sabonis did as a fulcrum. So that tells you all you need to know about that.

All right, now we need to get to development. Let's get into a little bit. Let's get into shading sharp. Let's see what's going down. I need to talk about the portland trailblazers. Shots out to the pacific, northwest, all my peoples chilling out in rip city. How you doing if you're a blazers friend right now? Forget the scoreboard. This wasn't about utah. This is about auditioning your future. No school, no simons, no grant, full green light.

Archetype, archetype testing game felt like a lab scales who survives? Let's get into it. Shading sharp. He looked like a helio adjacent scorer 37 points, handled doubles, curled into actions, clinging, dropped, big Vertical defense, no fouls, plus paint presence. Smart, late reads, love that.

Ryan Ruppert, who was a draft pick a couple years ago, was supposed to be kind of like a Matisse style type of dude. The shot still hasn't come around. So, ruppert, switchable wing, the shot still is not there. Of seven from threes. He stayed aggressive and disruptive, but you gotta be able to shoot the three to stay on the court, my man, you gotta shoot the three, make the three and then you can defend till your heart's content. Clinging played like a future anchor, anchor um. In sharp he looks like a guy that is ready to go ahead and take a bigger role in the offense next year, and I wonder what that means for our guy anthony simons.

So what is this all god dog being? I'll tell you exactly what this means for the nuggets. This wasn't just a coaching change, it was a cultural reboot. We just basically did a software upgrade on the nuggets. Completely. We got one of the cronkies running the team right now. They will do a gm or or a president of player personnel. Um, they'll do that in the summertime, but for right now it's the cap guy, cronky and a couple trusted uh, front office people. But everybody else cleaned house, gone. You get a pink slip. You get a pink slip. Everybody gets a pink slip, except for you two. Y'all cool, rest of y'all, fuck you. Basically, um, portland loses his different.

This one gave the blades this clarity on their blueprint. If clinging and sharp keep scaling, they've got some outlines of something sustainable. Now I want to go to our off the bounce segment. The reason why I want to go here is because usually in here we're going to put some stats and some things that we kind of need you to focus on, whatever something that might kind of tantalize your friends, and you'll be like I know ball, I know ball. Y'all y'all think y'all trying to play me like I don't know ball, I know ball, and this is a good place to start. We're gonna start in atlanta. The a the atl.

Zachary Richerche gave the Nets 38 piece on 75% shooting. That's a real surprise. No, vic Crecci played, looked like a functional creator in the connector and lead. So in the recent situation we talked about it 38 points on 15 of 20 shooting 15 to 20. He went 6 at 11 from three point line. He was a plus 28 in, uh, box plus minus. I mean uh, yeah, box plus minus, yeah, 100.

Now, um, first eight points came in the in the first three minutes trailer, three, fast break, dunk, reverse layup, trail. Three came at the 10, 48 mark of the first quarter. So so he basically walks in two or three. The dunk came off a steal At 924 in the first quarter and then the reverse layup Came off a curl action. You know what I'm saying. At the 329 mark.

He's not creating space, he is teleporting into it. Defensive rotations can't catch him because he's reading the space before it exists. This ain't a rookie, this is a this. This is this is not a rookie. This is what a heater at night. This is spacing algorithm in sneakers. That is serea's note. Yeah, serea's getting uh real jiggy with the notes. I like it.

Big critchy got got some burn. He scored three. Uh, listen, perfect night. Come on, dog, you had a perfect night. Three for three from the field. One for one three point land. Two for two free throws. Hey, man, listen, I don't care, let's get it done like. I'll tell everybody. I had a perfect night. It was pretty cool. So he had a baseline relocation, extra pass to nearing three. A ghost screen popped out.

His history transition fake to a trailer skip corner for a hockey assist. He was. He was very connector-y. I liked it. It wasn't flashy, but he creates order, he flows. It's like watching water droplets. A walk, a water drop. Droplets. You know I'm saying it's just relaxing, just makes you just want to chill. Put on some jazz.

Okay, trey young, our guy. He's kind of changed over this year and I want to give him some credit. Scored 24 to turnovers and he was three of eight from three point line. He had six free throw attempts in the third quarter alone. He was plus 20 and 31 minutes alone. He was plus 20 in 31 minutes.

Now, why am I highlighting trey young? And you say, well, everybody knows trey young is good vince. Well, I'm gonna highlight some things that normally people don't. He had a draft back three from 27 feet. He now drift into a job to a live opportunity. Now, here's the thing he's getting off ball more. I think I said this in the last pod. Here's the thing he's getting off ball more. I think I said this in the last spot. Trey Young has over 200, in a sense, inverted pick and rolls. Where he is the pick, he's the picker, right, he's the guy setting the pick. Now, that's not an incredible, impressive total onto itself, but this year he has as many pick and roll as a pick guy than he did his entire career. So we will always recognize change when change is coming with a growth spurt for the person as an individual.

Now, lisa shea I don't know if he's gonna be the rookie of the year. We got to do those on sunday and that special reminder, sunday pod. Normally we don't have them. Tuesday and fridays are our five days, but this pod was so robust, there was so much going on. We wanted to give the awards its own time, its own energy, its own section, and we wanted to respect all the hoopers out there that provided the moments that we're going to create for you on Sunday. So Keep in mind Special Sunday podcast, frpc, front Runner Podcast Collective, the NBA Awards plus our own awards that we will be doling out Right. So y'all keep it locked here.

Now A little more About our guy, reese's shay as far as the rookie of the year situation. Um, good time to have a 38 point game. By the way, he has the most 30 point gains of all way. He has the most 30-point gains of all rookies. He has four. Castle is out there just doing his thing, doing great things, but our guy is really playing well and he's providing real, legitimate, impactful plays for a team that hey, they're in the plan. So we could talk about all of this all we want. And listen, holland I mean not Holland Castle has played well. Now. His efficiency is not great, not great, and this is where research a has them, because we say is also, you know, he's reliant on other people getting involved, even though we've seen more self-creation late than we had normally, so that's great.

Now the thing with this whole thing is is that we we talked about it in the last, uh, when we were doing the draft, basically preview we knew that this was going to be a draft that wasn't like full of just like high, high, high end talent. We knew that this was going to be some guys who might turn out to be, you know, best case scenario the fourth guy in the starting lineup, maybe the third, maybe a six man, go big, maybe a backup wing, maybe, uh, you know, somebody who starts and plays like 25 minutes a game, whatever. But this was not the draft that was going to give you just an explosion of talent. But I think Zachary Richichet, for what he has been and what he's done all year and show development throughout the pace of the year and sometimes some of his minutes have been fluctuated, now losing Jalen Johnson gave him the opportunity to go ahead and do his thing and he is so improved. So I understand that Castle might get the love because of the fact that, yeah, he might end up on SportsCenter with the dunks and some of the things that he does, but as far as the actual play and what he's done for his team this year, zachary Richerche might not be flashy, but he might just be the correct choice for rookie of the year. So Now you would say, vince, it is an hour into this pod and you cannot do that to you. We are trying not to do that to you. So what I want to say is this we wrap with the west daily reshuffle, a playoff picture that feels more like the amazing race, with teams grasping uh, grasping for fast forwards one night and missing flight connections the next. From yokich quiet dominance to randall's loud rebrand. This episode dives into who is built for the chaos and who's about to drown in it. So we hope that we painted you a pretty good picture of what's going on in basketball. Keep it locked here because, remember again, we will have a sunday pod. That sunday pod would have all the nba awards on there and we also have created some of our own awards. So I can't wait for you and I to discuss those.

Also, be a friend and tell a friend about the podcast if you are on spotify or apple or amazon music or whatever platform you use, make sure that you are following us, make sure that you're following the podcast. Also, make sure that you hit that notification bell so when a new pod comes up, or like on sunday, there will be a basically a special podcast, you will know right off the bat hey, we got a new pod, let's get into it. You know, vince is trying to drop some jewels, serea's got the note. It's gonna be great, so do that for us also. Be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast. The other thing is are you joining us on social media? Are you joining the conversation? I've not seen a lot of it. I've seen more um things in my email than I've seen on my social, so I hope that we can make these changes. Keep in mind this is pretty much a brand new podcast.

We laid out a couple different branding situations, but we've. This is the one that we've landed on and this is the one that we hope that will provide entertainment and information about the nba as a whole, draft front office moves and things of that nature. The most important part of this whole situation is you, the audience. We cater to you. So if you want some sort of implementation or if you have a suggestion that we can strongly consider because it's good, the only way we will know about it is you give it to us. So, with that being said, x at front runner, pc.

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The other thing we have promised videos and we have not delivered, and it is my fault. And we have not delivered, and it is my fault, but we do Provide blogs and we will provide video. I will get some, I promise. We are working on a whole new Deal to get that whole thing together. We're trying to get it all, you know, trying to get it all put together, trying to make it happen. You know, coordinate, coordinate everything, coordinate, coordinate, trying to coordinate everything, trying to get it together for you. That's all I'm trying to say.

So how we close out every show, surround yourself with people who lift you up, push you forward and remind you who you are. If you got folks like this in your life, celebrate them, text them, hug them, let them know they matter because in real ones. And if you're building that circle start with us. Front runner podcast collective. You got a seat here with us always and, with that being said, we'll see you back on this live podcast. Merry, go round. We'll see you back on this feed on sunday. You guys stay easy, doos. Thanks for watching.