NBA Awards Picks! Where's The Compete Level In Cleveland?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective. I am your humble holds events and we are here

[00:00:18] to talk about hoops today. But before we do that, make sure that you are subscribed to

[00:00:24] the YouTube channel that's Front Runner Podcast Collective. Also make sure that you are following

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[00:00:40] to the podcast, follow us, send us comments. Also, rate us, review us. That helps any

[00:00:49] kind of chatter is good chatter and we are excited about that. Let's see if there's anything

[00:00:56] else we need to clean up. I think that's it. Let's get into the basketball of it all and

[00:01:02] basically how this is going to break down. We're going to have season ending awards

[00:01:08] that's going to be at the end of the show. We're going to have a couple thoughts on

[00:01:12] the end of the regular season, a couple things I want to get into real quick. And

[00:01:16] then we'll go ahead and yeah, finish it off with the awards and whatever. The other

[00:01:23] thing that I want to kind of tell you guys about is that we are trying to effort to

[00:01:28] do three days a week. My wife was ill yesterday. So that's why you're getting in on Tuesday.

[00:01:34] But we are trying to get to this Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. I think we're

[00:01:42] locking in on it. We're getting closer and closer, but bear with us as we continue to

[00:01:48] have some of these scheduling situations arise. Be patient. I guarantee you in the

[00:01:55] end it will pay off. So with that being said, let's get to all the basketball that

[00:02:00] we really need to talk about. We're going to start on last Friday. I know a lot

[00:02:05] of people have hit it. I know a lot of people have talked about how crazy the week

[00:02:12] really kind of started, the weekends kind of started with this game. And we're going

[00:02:17] to talk about that different nugget San Antonio game. And the reason why I want to

[00:02:22] revisit this is for two reasons and two reasons only one. I just think that

[00:02:28] honestly, you're looking at a situation where it's one of those deals where you go,

[00:02:38] hey, different needs this game. Everybody's playing and we got a glimpse of what Winby was.

[00:02:47] And the chain of events that started it led to OKC getting the number one seed which we are

[00:02:52] aware of everybody in America knows what the seeding is now. It was a compelling Sunday

[00:02:59] afternoon of basketball or on my case, in my case, it was Sunday morning. We loved it.

[00:03:07] You know, we started with Jalen Bronson getting super silly in the garden and we finished it

[00:03:13] off with LeBron embarrassing Zion again. So it was a great day in the Carter household.

[00:03:21] With that all being said, let's get to this specific game. And we're going to talk about

[00:03:27] Nikola Jokic a lot in this podcast and we're going to get to his accolades and things of

[00:03:35] that nature. But what I do want to get to is the win by Yama performance. Victor

[00:03:40] in this game showed exactly why he was the number one overall pick in the last season's

[00:03:47] draft. He was spectacular for that three minute stretch where he scored 17 points.

[00:03:54] Are you kidding me? 17 straight. And this is what his team needed. And this is something

[00:04:00] that we talked about in previous podcasts about Victor and the great ones do it. They know what

[00:04:06] their team needs. They know why they need to kind of put their foot on the gas pedal a

[00:04:11] little bit. They know when they need to go ahead and get everybody involved. They know

[00:04:16] when they can scow and say a couple things to a teammate. They know when to put your arm around

[00:04:24] them and be kind, gentle teammate. And when Yama seems to have all of this and he gave

[00:04:36] like I said, he gave us a glimpse of what was coming. 34 points, 12 rebounds, five assists

[00:04:42] and a 121, 120 thriller. And I mean, I don't know what to think of this

[00:04:49] at this point. There's so many things that I want to go ahead and say, but obviously I know through

[00:04:57] watching basketball over a period of time with, you know, multiple decades, it's really hard to

[00:05:03] sit here and go, okay, this is the best thing or the craziest thing I've ever seen or this

[00:05:07] is best thing I've ever seen or whatever. I just know this, I know that every day that dude is getting

[00:05:18] more coordinated every day. He's learning concepts and he's trying to attribute where he can kind of

[00:05:27] be special within the confines of those concepts. And there's a willingness to put in the time

[00:05:36] to be great. And LeBron says something a long time ago, he said, you know, you have to be selfish if

[00:05:45] you want to be great. You know, you have to put in the effort, you have to put in the time, you

[00:05:49] got to put in the hours, you know, you got to put in the reps to want to get to this level

[00:05:56] where a lot of these things are now natural, organic, you're just not even thinking about

[00:06:00] it. You're just doing it before what have you and your brain at that point becomes a super computer.

[00:06:07] And it just goes on from there. Obviously, he was granted just excellent gifts from God,

[00:06:17] you know, I mean being seven, five, this wingspan that's ridiculous. He can dunk the ball without

[00:06:24] you know, jumping. Even though he could jump because he's very coordinated.

[00:06:31] He's skilled juggler skill passer. I think that's a actual

[00:06:37] now I think it's kind of underrated his passing skills. And I think as the teammates get better

[00:06:43] and as their IQ goes up, I think you will see even more devastation with his with his actual

[00:06:50] offense initiation for others. So I'm what I can't this season was a complete success

[00:06:58] in the sense of we got to see the full array of what Victor Wimboyama is and glimpses of what he

[00:07:06] could be because remember, I don't think he's going to ever be super thick, but I think he'll

[00:07:13] be more dense, you know, as we get along. Remember, he's playing basketball at about 210 pounds, maybe

[00:07:23] 215. You know, they try to tell you to sing where he's 230. I yeah, okay. But we're at this point

[00:07:34] where we don't know what else to say because we've never seen it. And again, I will tell you

[00:07:40] that we just need to relish what we're seeing. Because what we're seeing is we're going to need

[00:07:46] to be able to articulate what we're seeing in real time because I think as he continues to grow and

[00:07:56] grow into his game and start to pick out the things that are unnecessary, and the things

[00:08:01] that he wants to enhance, what we're going to be seeing is something that is far greater than

[00:08:07] what we've ever seen in the NBA, barring no injury. You know, that's the only thing that can

[00:08:13] inhibit what Victor Wimboyama can become. So I'm really happy to see him in his season on such a

[00:08:20] crazy note. And then also, if you think about it, the young person ushered in the season of young.

[00:08:32] If you look at all of what has gone on this year, and the one thing that I know I've kind of

[00:08:38] done in this podcast and I go back and listen is that you can definitely see a changing of the guard

[00:08:47] younger. The more dynamic plays are coming from the younger players. Yes, Steph is still great.

[00:08:55] Yes, Antti to Kung Po is still awesome. Yes, LeBron is just doing ungodly things.

[00:09:03] And you know, we can go on and on. But look at what the top of the West looks like.

[00:09:10] Okay, see, Minnesota's up there. There's change of foot in the NBA

[00:09:18] kind of monolithic culture, who is going to be that top guy. And I think it's just interesting to see

[00:09:29] how all kind of fell out when the puts Yoke edge in the two slide and OKC

[00:09:36] ascends to the number one seed in the conference. That leads me to my next thing, which is isn't

[00:09:43] as a happy note. And then we'll go ahead and we'll get into awards and what have you and I'll give

[00:09:51] you my thoughts. We'll go from there. So first of all, Orlando magic, I just want to tell you

[00:09:59] right now, I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting. I was rooting for you before. You know that

[00:10:05] you might was where my lead past darling all year. I love Cole Anthony. I sun his praises on this

[00:10:12] podcast a lot. You know, my love Apollo Ben caro, Franz Wagner's had a down season, but I still got

[00:10:20] I still kept my stock on France. We clamored for guard, but I didn't want same thing with

[00:10:28] when we didn't want to get in the in the way of the runway of development with Franz and

[00:10:35] Apollo. And we thought at that point in time, they were gonerings, cohesion and things of that

[00:10:42] nature. Now I understand that yeah, with a point guard that could shoot, this would be a completely

[00:10:48] different situation. And we might be looking at them as some sort of dark horse, you know,

[00:10:53] Eastern Conference finals contender against Boston or something like that. We definitely

[00:10:58] should be offended because what the Cleveland Cavaliers did in Sunday's game was to me atrocious.

[00:11:08] Their fans were absolutely I rate they were just brewing because basically what happened

[00:11:17] was like in the third quarter as they started to see the game on for with Milwaukee and other

[00:11:25] folks as far as us concerned, Cleveland really, really wanted to play Orlando so much so that

[00:11:34] in the fourth quarter. This is the lineup they trotted out. Emani Bates two way player.

[00:11:43] We we debated him in our draft coverage last offseason. So

[00:11:51] there are some thoughts on there. Isaiah Moblew, which is the brother of Evan Mobley Pete Nance,

[00:11:57] who is the brother of Larry Nance Jr. And also obviously the son of Larry Nance.

[00:12:04] Tristan Thompson famously dated Kardashians and Damian Jones who ex Laker. So shout out to Damian

[00:12:13] Jones getting burned. But I will tell you that the fans were absolutely stupefied by what was

[00:12:21] going on and even Max Struzzi was hot. He was there like, you know, we really wanted to win

[00:12:27] that and it was just kind of taken away from us. So it's embarrassing to the league is embarrassing

[00:12:34] to the fans that paid their hard earned money to watch this team and be invested in this team.

[00:12:42] And I understand, you know, people now will go back and say, hey,

[00:12:47] their best opportunity is to go ahead, lose this game, play Orlando. For what now you're on the same

[00:12:58] side of the block it is the Boston Celtics who had a historic like net rating, like a historic

[00:13:07] net rating like we did there. They're like three, three teams ahead of them. And so you're

[00:13:15] going to go on that train track with that runaway train. Okay. Or were you just guaranteeing yourself

[00:13:22] one round victory? A certain, were you trying to angle for a certain round one victory?

[00:13:35] And to me that short sighted and it has nothing to do with what competitiveness in the NBA is all

[00:13:43] about. If you want to see what competitiveness is, we'll talk about a little bit later with the

[00:13:49] New York Knicks and how they conducted their business. But I will tell you that in that four

[00:13:56] or five Cleveland Cavalier Indiana Pacers series, sorry Cleveland fans, it's not you.

[00:14:04] It's your franchise. I will be rooting for Orlando in that series just for that,

[00:14:16] just for that it was literally embarrassing. And I will say this, you play Charlotte.

[00:14:25] Okay. You lost to them at 120 to 110. Now here's the best part about this.

[00:14:32] Aleski Pokushevsky played in this game. So Poku played in this game.

[00:14:39] My guy from UNC, Leaky Black got into this game and got like a lot of burn when it comes to this.

[00:14:48] Charlotte was trying to lose that game. They had interest in getting more ping pong balls or

[00:14:54] whatever the case may be. And for them to take this game was incredible. And you know, if for

[00:15:01] some reason you go out on your shield in the first round and then Donovan Mitchell ends up walking

[00:15:08] right after, right out the door right after this, then guess what? You reap what you sell.

[00:15:15] Just again, we're not going to hammer it home, but I can't wait to see this series actually.

[00:15:21] It'll be on NBA TV. So you know, a sicko like me will definitely be watching that.

[00:15:28] And by the way, if for some reason on the cat on the on the feed, you guys are seeing the notepad.

[00:15:35] Yep, I do. I do take notes. I take a lot of notes, which, you know, old school guy,

[00:15:46] I guess if you want to put it that way and gotta love it. Okay, we're going to get into some awards.

[00:15:54] How are we going to break this down is we're going to some of it will have like numbers in it.

[00:16:00] Some of it is just feel, you know me. I talk about the analytics here, but you know, I'm an eye guy.

[00:16:07] I'm an eye test guy mostly. And I try to use the analytics as

[00:16:12] to help me see what I think I'm seeing. And if it's not helping me see what I'm thinking,

[00:16:18] saying that I can go re go back and reevaluate what I'm looking at and then kind of go, okay,

[00:16:23] well, maybe my opinion might change or these numbers are telling me something different.

[00:16:28] I need to follow these numbers, but what we want to do is we want to go like

[00:16:36] we're going to go like coach of the year, exactly the year. Get those out the way.

[00:16:43] Six man. You know, we'll do rookie and then we'll get into like the defensive players of the year

[00:16:52] and all NBA teams and all kind of MVP and I'll kind of tell you my thoughts on why I did these

[00:17:00] things and go from there. All right, first off, my coach of the year. And it was really hard because

[00:17:11] mostly in Orlando, I talked about it all year. I talked about that team.

[00:17:19] I talked about how he got them to buy into play defense. He got them to continue to put up

[00:17:29] incredible fights when the offense was not clicking and for them to be in a here's the thing,

[00:17:37] they physically made the playoffs. They are a 5C. They took the season seriously.

[00:17:44] I law Sacramento last year. No shade towards Sacramento. I'm just saying that this is

[00:17:49] what happens when your team, when your franchise takes every game seriously and you play hard

[00:17:55] and you got young guys learning on the job. Paulo Bencarro is better for this.

[00:18:02] Even though Franz Wagner had a very, very hard year, a year of struggle, he was better for this.

[00:18:10] We saw the emergence of Jalen Suggs. We saw Cole Anthony buy into a role. And then we also

[00:18:18] the reemergence of one Jonathan Isaac, who honestly to tell you the truth, I want it hard to put him

[00:18:27] on my defensive, all defensive team. But you just, you know, you play enough minutes and

[00:18:34] you know, the injury concern and you know, trying to balance that situation. But as far as

[00:18:41] playing like 15, 16 minutes a game, there was nobody more impactful on the defensive end

[00:18:46] than that guy. He was a complete maniac, but we might have saw something.

[00:18:53] Wendell Carter Jr is dealing with backspazms and in the last game we saw that Jonathan Isaac

[00:19:00] played 30 minutes. Now I don't know if this is something that he can only do in spot situations.

[00:19:07] This is something that you know, I'm trying to get some Orlando people out there to kind

[00:19:12] of give me some information on, but from all the games that I watched, he was really like in this

[00:19:20] minute restriction area and they kept him real tight all year. So it was good to see him play

[00:19:25] a lot more minutes and have his role expanded. And if for some reason this is what it's going to

[00:19:31] look like as we get into this situation of playoffs, that could be a complete difference

[00:19:38] maker in what that just the complexion of that series and what it's going to look like.

[00:19:44] Because that's a completely dynamic defender and he can make game changing plays

[00:19:51] not only from the big position, but he can also go out and switch onto guards and wings and

[00:19:57] guard them very, very effectively. So I'm looking forward to seeing that series. I told you I'm

[00:20:03] a complete Orlando magic nut. But I'm really interested to see how this call goes because

[00:20:11] Cleveland, here's the thing that I will absolutely tell you. I know that your owner came out and

[00:20:16] said some things about Donovan Mitchell reading the tea leaves talking to a couple of people that

[00:20:23] I am, you know, my sources, whatever you want to call them, people that live around that

[00:20:32] area. I am reading something different now. He's not come out and said he wants to leave.

[00:20:42] But I think behind the scenes there's more and more thought that Donovan Mitchell 2024,

[00:20:50] 2025 season won't be in a Cleveland Cavalier uniform. So this playoff run is very important

[00:20:58] to the Cleveland Cavaliers and we look forward to all of it. Now, with that being said, let's get

[00:21:04] to the coach of the year. We talked about Mosley from Orlando. Unfortunately, I just couldn't give

[00:21:10] it to him. My coach of the year is Mark Dagnall from the OKC Thunder. Obviously, they are the

[00:21:17] number one seed. They were in a highly, highly competitive Western conference. And for them to

[00:21:27] knock off the defending, reigning NBA champions and also a guy that is, you know, very close to an MVP

[00:21:38] in Nikola Jokic. No. OK, they said we're looking dead in the eye. And guess what? We're not scared

[00:21:45] of you at all. And we also have our own MVP candidate. And by the way, he got some youngins.

[00:21:52] He got some youngins behind him. Right? J. Dubb, Chet, Casey Wallace came on this year.

[00:22:02] I'm a big fan. Casey Wallace, Gidey bounced back and he never gave up on Gidey. That was the

[00:22:10] other thing that was a benching. You know, there were some like, hey, you got some stuff

[00:22:15] that you need to figure out off the court as well. But he stuck with his guy and towards

[00:22:22] the end of the season, we saw a different Gidey. So he played his cards right throughout this whole

[00:22:27] thing. They never blew up all their drought currency that they currently own at this present time.

[00:22:36] That's also a key factor in all of this. So there are the number one overall seed or

[00:22:42] number one seed in the West and they still have a lot of their currency left to utilize or to

[00:22:51] maybe in a sense consolidate and get a player. Because I think this playoff run will be very,

[00:23:01] I think this will be a lot of information gathering for the OKC Thunder. Now I know

[00:23:10] I have honed for the OKC Thunder all year in the sense that I've been really impressed with

[00:23:16] them and really impressed with their guys. I said they had a big three early on.

[00:23:22] I gave Shay Love for MVP early on. I was on that situation and we'll get to that in a second.

[00:23:32] But I will tell you that as well all that being said, Mark Dagnall was at the helm of this ship

[00:23:39] and with him being at the helm of this ship and seeing all of what has gone on.

[00:23:44] And it's not the easiest thing to get young guys who are still in that first contract situation

[00:23:54] to buy into Team Basketball and to see it happen on this level and to see how successful it was.

[00:24:02] Who else could be coach of the year? All right. So now let's get to our

[00:24:09] six man of the year. We got a bunch of great candidates. We had Norman Powell of the Clippers.

[00:24:15] We got Malik Monk of the Sacramento Kings. Hell, you could throw Russell Westbrook in there.

[00:24:25] Well, he missed a chunk of the season so it was real hard. You got Bobby Portis

[00:24:32] under Milwaukee Bucks in there. He was vital. Especially when Middleton wasn't playing well

[00:24:43] early on in the season. He gave them a lift so that was great. I'm trying to think of other guys

[00:24:49] that really did some heavy lifting here. I was going to be funny and say Clegg,

[00:24:59] but he played too many games as a starter. Anyways, there's a lot of guys out there. There's a lot

[00:25:05] a lot of guys who are absolutely deserving on this award. The one guy that I think deserves

[00:25:17] a little bit more than everybody else to me personally is I'm going to give it to my guy

[00:25:25] Norman Powell of the Los Angeles Clippers. This was a hard one for me because Malik Monk was in this.

[00:25:32] Malik had tremendous games. The one thing that I loved about Norman Powell is like no matter what

[00:25:38] was going on, Norman was getting buckets for the Clippers. He was always productive. He was

[00:25:43] always in the mix. He was always playing pretty good defense. He was always rebounding

[00:25:48] basketball. So he was doing a lot for the Clippers and their points and times of the

[00:25:53] season where they needed him to step up his scoring. There were points and times of the season

[00:25:57] where he needed to come and throw out of the back and just be the flamethrower when Kawhi

[00:26:02] and PG weren't in and Kaiburi that second unit when Russ is in there where you don't know where

[00:26:09] the offense is necessarily going to come from. So, Norman Powell to me is my six man of the

[00:26:17] year award winner. Now, I will give an executive of the year award now early in this process

[00:26:30] it's funny how things change narratives change. I remember when the free agency was over

[00:26:39] everyone was talking about how the Lakers did so fantastic obviously Austin Reeves

[00:26:46] for the amount of money he signed for the resigning of the D'Angelo Russell

[00:26:54] could be trade bait. What a great deal. It was slotted perfectly for trade down the road

[00:27:03] then they got touring prints and I thought that was a really good deal and I thought it was

[00:27:06] really significant. I did not understand the Ken Reddish deal. I didn't understand the

[00:27:13] Christian Wood deal. I never I'm not a big fan of Christian Wood. I'm sorry. I just can't get a board

[00:27:19] on it but you know, I just remember everybody talking about oh my god, Rob Polinke did such a

[00:27:24] great job. He's done this. He's done that. He's done this. What have you? And that's all true.

[00:27:34] It's all true. He did do a tremendous job but sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss

[00:27:39] and sometimes you get free agents in there or you develop a guy and they start playing well for you

[00:27:47] and it looks completely different than maybe the year before. So with that being said, our executive

[00:27:54] of the year here at FRPC we're going to go ahead and we're going to give it to

[00:28:02] the group in the New York City area, the Knicks and the reason why we're giving it to the New

[00:28:10] York Knicks and their group Leon Rose and them as far as that's concerned is that they haven't wavered

[00:28:20] on their plan on what they're trying to do, what they did in like right before the trade

[00:28:26] deadline was over. They have been very consistent in what they're looking for.

[00:28:33] They are looking for a star, is a particular star, it's not oh we're just going to grab a guy.

[00:28:40] The moves they made at the deadline and before the OG and the Novi move which I was kind of

[00:28:48] questioning at the start of it. It's a home run. The dude is excellent if you can get him to

[00:28:54] play. Then they probably have more knowledge on the Julius Randall thing knowing that he was

[00:29:02] probably not going to come back. I didn't think he was going to come back and getting Boyan

[00:29:09] Bogdanovich from Detroit for a Snickers bar and like you know a Diet Coke. I mean that was

[00:29:15] excellent. Then you picked out Alec Berks with that and then the margin moves. It's the margin

[00:29:25] moves that you see here and you just look at it and you're just astonished. The Dante Divin

[00:29:29] Chinzum move, showing up or resigning Josh Hart bringing that whole Villanova connection

[00:29:40] together. I mean it's just a beautiful situation and I'm going to tell you right now kudos to the

[00:29:46] Knicks, kudos to all of what you're doing right now because you guys are hitting on all the cylinders

[00:29:53] and I can't wait to see who you guys face in the first round. All right now let's go ahead

[00:30:01] and get into some of the bigger things we're not doing clutch reward okay so I'm not doing that

[00:30:07] I'm not doing um oh by the way most improved player I'm gonna I'm gonna do a rant not a rant

[00:30:14] it's gonna be a quick one. I understand that you know Massey you know jumped up and scored

[00:30:19] I know a couple other guys jumped up and scoring because you know whatever opportunity or whatever

[00:30:24] to me personally my most improved player of the year is Kobe White and my reason

[00:30:32] my reasoning why is is that here's the guy that you know he signed three years for you know 13 million

[00:30:39] or 11 million yeah it was 11 so it was three years 33 million so it was 11 million a year

[00:30:45] he was a first round that draft pick about four years ago I think he was in that 2020 draft

[00:30:52] excuse me and then you know it didn't look like it was gonna hit it looked like there was

[00:30:58] gonna be some bench usage and that was about it now the whole situation happens with Zach Levine

[00:31:08] you know he gets more opportunity so obviously the point but if you were to tell me

[00:31:15] that guy would have been a starter and he would have really helped elevate that team to

[00:31:22] you know be where they are right now which is in the plan and and bring brought some excitement

[00:31:28] to that team because remember how

[00:31:32] dour everything was when Levine even before Levine got hurt and he was out for the year

[00:31:41] just the mood around the team the vibe you guys had like uh what was it team uh

[00:31:48] players only meetings like first day right off the bat like what's going on so Kudo

[00:31:54] so Kobe white most improved player of the year for FRPC now we're gonna get into some

[00:32:02] big boy awards we like I said and we're not doing clutch not doing that that's crazy whatever case

[00:32:08] it would be so we gotta do rookie of the year gotta do defensive player of the year

[00:32:15] and then we gotta do MVP and all NBA so that's where we are so we're gonna start off with

[00:32:22] rookie of the years no brainer right victor wing by yamba of the san antonio squares is our rookie

[00:32:29] of the year I will tell you that we made an argument about chat being the rookie of the year early on

[00:32:38] in our podcast we brought on some guests hashed it out we talked about it chat had a phenomenal

[00:32:45] year he was second on my list Brandon Miller who played absolutely fantastic basketball for the

[00:32:53] charlotte hornets really stepped up his game he was third hymen high cast junior was fourth

[00:33:00] shout out to UCLA and branding palzinski of the golden state warriors rounds it out so

[00:33:07] homie high cast junior the heat brandon Miller charlotte hornets chat home green of the okc thunder

[00:33:15] and victor wing by yama of the san antonio spurs is our rookie of the year you know we can get

[00:33:21] into all the numbers you know and all that the first thing that we have to talk about is the

[00:33:28] thing that we that we started the year talking about was the point guard situation and when

[00:33:33] you have a situation where the point guard is a point guard or we're going to use sohan as a point

[00:33:39] guard I understood it I understood they were trying to give a lot of runway of development for wimby

[00:33:48] we ultimately knew you know early on that wasn't gonna work it long gated for a little

[00:33:55] bit longer than maybe most of us wanted it to but when they did put a serviceable point

[00:34:01] guard in tray jones you know it took off he found points on the floor where he could be a lot more

[00:34:09] effective the points went up the field goal percentage went up their three point shooting went

[00:34:14] up but the one thing that also went up was his also knowing when I need to turn it on

[00:34:22] it's been really rare to see a rookie completely understand that situation that's one of the reasons

[00:34:31] why I'm so high on paulo boncaro as well I know the efficiency numbers aren't there I understand it

[00:34:38] but at the end of the day he's been incredible and so has victor wing by yama in the four

[00:34:44] quarter alone there's been games where he's like okay we're down by six I'm going to

[00:34:52] really force the issue here and I'm gonna try to get my team back and it's not just on the

[00:34:59] offense aside it's on the defensive side and one of the darkest things that I saw all year

[00:35:08] and this lose me into not my next award is seeing wimby have high level high level guards

[00:35:19] and wings just completely vacate the area because he was in the vicinity you know that there were a

[00:35:29] couple times with yoke it's where yoke it yeah yoke scored a lot points but there are a couple

[00:35:36] times where yoke didn't know what to do with him and I don't think about that think about how

[00:35:44] many times you could say that throughout a 82 game season and let's say yoke is played 75 right

[00:35:53] how many times do you feel that in the season maybe once twice he's going to play victor like at

[00:36:01] least three four times a year so that's gonna be excellent for all of us now

[00:36:09] so with that being said um I'm also going to name my oh you know my name my all defensive team

[00:36:19] and I'm gonna start with the second team so my second team all defensive team I forgot about this

[00:36:27] so I have bam out of bio of the Miami Heat I also have Isaiah Hartenstein of the New York

[00:36:33] Knicks I think he was absolutely instrumental in what Tibbs wants to do and by manning that

[00:36:41] position when Mitchell Robinson was out and uh you know the New York Knicks not missing a beat

[00:36:47] he he deserves recognition uh Alice Caruso of the Chicago Bulls my man I miss you here in

[00:36:54] Los Angeles I'll never never forget your contributions here to our championship my

[00:37:01] brother but congratulations second team all defense Giannis I gave it to him and I'll talk

[00:37:08] I'll talk to you why he probably wasn't on first team but also I want to give love to

[00:37:15] Herb Jones Herb Jones really should be on first team but I'll tell you why he's not on first

[00:37:22] team in a second um now let's get to the first team Jalen sucks Jalen sucks is on my all defensive

[00:37:32] team notice I'm trying to have guards you know forwards things I'm a little bit of a traditional

[00:37:41] list when it comes to this so I understand maybe the frustration on the ballot then I had uh uh

[00:37:48] Shay Gildes Alexander I think when you lead the league in steals that's also a good situation

[00:37:56] that goes well for other things down the road for you then I had Anthony Davis uh I think uh if

[00:38:05] Anthony Davis wasn't on the Lakers we've seen it when he doesn't play the Lakers defense is

[00:38:13] absolutely trash nobody knows what the hell they're doing but Anthony Davis cleans up a lot of mess

[00:38:22] a lot of mess and I love that about ad so also he played like 75 games 25 points 13 rebounds

[00:38:31] two and a half blocks uh I think it was like about a steal the game as well and uh man we

[00:38:38] couldn't ask for anything more out of Anthony Davis this year as a Laker fan so congratulations to

[00:38:45] Anthony Davis on a uh on a great year you can also make him first team all defense as far as where

[00:38:51] it comes from me then the the next two guys are this is that uh it's uh it's uh really go where

[00:39:01] of the Minnesota two world's obviously look at the incredible season they had look at the injuries

[00:39:09] they had and aunt and Rudy just kept plugging along and that dude cares about defense

[00:39:21] and how it's supposed to be played and what position to be in and what to look for and uh

[00:39:31] Rudy go there is a absolute monster and uh well deserved all NBA first team

[00:39:39] um defense and then Victor win by Yama I know this will be controversial to people

[00:39:45] Victor win by Yama played on a team that won 21 22 games this year I understand that this doesn't

[00:39:52] seem to be you you know a usual situation but when you are a a guy that comes into the league and

[00:40:03] again I want to reiterate this dude was like 210 pounds he had double digit rebounds this year

[00:40:16] 210 pounds he was going to get pushed around right uh he wouldn't be able to hold up

[00:40:23] double digit rebounds that shows you what kind of dog he is early on then we're going to get to

[00:40:32] all the crazy stuff he did but I just want to throw this out there he average 3.5 blocks in

[00:40:39] game he also averaged 1.3 steals a game so there's a they they combine that in the NBA for the analytics

[00:40:50] and they call it stocks so it's steals and blocks put together so he himself is responsible for

[00:41:01] basically five turnovers again because with the block usually the way Winby does it is that he

[00:41:08] keeps the ball in bounds most of the time um some of your greatest shot blockers would spike the ball

[00:41:17] you know Dwight Howard kill but one thing that I saw Karim do also I saw we saw uh Hakeem Alajuan

[00:41:27] do it a lot is that they want to block the ball but block it to a point where they're

[00:41:31] kept it in bounds and now they can get a fast break going the other way and Winby knowing

[00:41:37] that his team was really deficient on the offensive end he did a great job with this there was a lot

[00:41:43] of balls that he deflected his deflections by the way um were double what Rudy Goveres were

[00:41:53] um it just it was amazing he was responsible like I say he was responsible for five five turnovers

[00:42:02] again all through himself so you know no matter what you think about that that's how I feel about it

[00:42:09] now all defense player of the year let's do it is real big bam number five Yannis number four

[00:42:20] Anthony Davis number three Rudy Goveres number two and Victor Winby Yama is my defensive player

[00:42:27] of the year and again let's talk about all the crazy plays let's talk about three point shooters

[00:42:36] getting blocked but not getting blocked traditionally where a dude is right up on them but they're

[00:42:40] getting blocked from six feet away because what Victor is doing is oh I'm not going to be able

[00:42:48] to get out to you so what I'm going to do is let you shoot the ball I'm going to jump as high

[00:42:55] as I can and I'm going to reach the ball at his zenith and I'm gonna get a block off of that

[00:43:05] those are the type of things he did this year right those are the type of things that we saw

[00:43:10] how about some of the blocks where he was almost falling into it where he gets moved around

[00:43:19] on a screen on a pick and roll right and the guard gets loose he's headed towards the basket

[00:43:28] now I seen Victor take like a step back like backwards okay so he's backing up from the key

[00:43:37] so he's facing the goal here comes the here comes the offensive player he's going towards

[00:43:42] the basket and I've seen Victor back up and then throw his hand up and because the reach

[00:43:50] and because of the wingspan he would block the shot or get a deflection I've seen him do it down

[00:43:56] and I've seen him doing it up and it's incredible to watch it's just and then he gets on these

[00:44:04] heaters where it's like 10 blocks 9 blocks 7 blocks multiple double digit rebounds it's it's

[00:44:15] it's been super fun to watch and he is my defensive player of the year I'll take all the shade that

[00:44:23] you want to throw at me you can say it's a homework choice or whatever you're just

[00:44:29] you know you gassing up Vic or you know you you know whatever occasion be

[00:44:34] again I will say it again what Rudy go where it does is very excellent but tell me how many people

[00:44:44] fear Rudy go there like I don't think

[00:44:50] Terri's Halliburton coming down lane is going to be scared of Rudy go there

[00:44:55] but I do know who he is kind of tentative around Victor Wing by Yama people do not want to be embarrassed

[00:45:05] we saw people who make 20 plus million dollars make individual business decisions inside a

[00:45:16] NBA regular season game I just want you to understand the bravado the confidence that it

[00:45:23] takes to play this game every single night those guys think not only they are the best of the best of

[00:45:30] the best they think they're teflon mostly and for them to look at Vic and like no no I'm not doing that

[00:45:42] I'm not gonna end up on sports center not me you can have that that's that's all you but I'm

[00:45:48] not doing that so Victor Wing by Yama is my defensive player of the year and also the rookie of the year

[00:45:57] then now that just basically leads you know the all NBA teams and the MVP so let's do all NBA

[00:46:08] you know I'm saying let's do that let's knock this out real quick

[00:46:13] actually you know what how do I want to do this you know what I'm gonna do MVP first

[00:46:18] and I have a little something on all of them so give me a second a lot of this stuff was

[00:46:23] being off the dome today but I wrote some stuff down for the MVP candidates and I want to give

[00:46:31] them their flowers and I want to talk about them in a real way so um I apologize you know

[00:46:37] most of it off the dome but I wrote some things down I want to make sure I hit them

[00:46:43] okay my fifth person on the ballot is none other than New York Nick Jalen Brunson

[00:46:54] again you can call me whatever you want but I'll tell you this while Jalen Brunson to me

[00:47:02] not only did he carry the Knicks and carry the Knicks in a way where it was

[00:47:07] I mean super crazy you gotta understand what we're talking about what January since

[00:47:13] Julius Randall's been gone so his number two has been gone for all this time

[00:47:22] they ended up with the number two slot in the Eastern Conference you know so you talk about your

[00:47:31] your Cleveland Cavaliers you can talk about your Milwaukee Bucks you know all the you know

[00:47:36] Philly obviously had injuries so it's a little bit different but the New York Knicks ended up

[00:47:42] second and it was really on the back of this guy who for all purposes this dude is barely six feet

[00:47:51] Jalen Brunson has done this on on Gile he's done this on Whirl he's done this on tremendous skill work

[00:48:04] he's done this on just absolute seeking perfection perfection and that dude just wants it more than

[00:48:13] anybody else and uh I want to give it to him so he's not only carrying the Knicks he's carrying

[00:48:19] the franchise and he's also carrying he's carrying the city son you know saying he's carrying

[00:48:27] the whole island of New York on his back and that's my argument you know I know there are other guys

[00:48:37] Jason Tatum you know he did not make this list and I'll just say it like this

[00:48:42] yes we should reward winning 100 but we also have to understand there's levels of winning right

[00:48:51] Jalen Jason Tatum played on a historically good team that had he it had Jason Tatum

[00:49:00] Jalen Brown healthy for most of the season

[00:49:03] Christiana Pozengas which turned out to be kind of like a mini version of Kevin Durant

[00:49:13] a little bit like this is like Kevin Durant Durant light as far as what he's done to elevate that team

[00:49:23] then you have Derek White who was flirting with All-Star appearances remember when that was a big

[00:49:30] debate during the All-Star weekend is did Derek White get snub and then you have Drew Holiday who

[00:49:37] was one of the most consummate professionals in all of NBA who they stole for a song so again for

[00:49:48] the people who will sit there and say that I am shitting on Jason Tatum I respect Jason Tatum

[00:49:56] this was a hard situation for me as far as number five was concerned but I think with what Jalen Brunson

[00:50:05] did for his team and what his collective talent was around him instead of what it was around Jason

[00:50:17] Tatum that's the reason why Jalen Brunson is my fifth guy in MVP balloting so 50 doves from my guy

[00:50:30] he gives a lot of love he scored 40 points in that game against the Chicago Bulls he also

[00:50:39] threw up 30 shots he was 11 for 12 from the free throw line eight rebounds seven assists

[00:50:45] he shot 40 percent from three this year even though everybody knew he was going to be taking

[00:50:51] the bulk of the shots it's incredible for him to do that and yeah man I just I loved I loved

[00:50:59] this game I loved everything about him this year and yeah kudos to Jalen Brunson you definitely are

[00:51:06] mom in my fifth slot for my MVP number four is Janice and to Tukumpo the Milwaukee Brux and basically

[00:51:18] they had an incredible season with all of what was going on you think about it they had two

[00:51:23] different coaches they fired the basically the offensive coordinator before the season started

[00:51:29] it people forget that Terry Stott that was this year you know that was this season right October big

[00:51:40] old hullabaloo couple nights before the the season opener Terry Stott's like I'm out of here I'm out

[00:51:49] then like right before the all-star break you know like few games before the all-star break

[00:51:59] we got Doc Rivers coming in who was a consultant for the Milwaukee Brux to check on uh agent Griffin

[00:52:08] and then the thing with Janice is this is that without them they look terrible

[00:52:15] you know I mean there's there's no question about what they look like without them so that

[00:52:19] that makes them valuable on that point alone but here's the other thing that we kind of really

[00:52:24] need to talk about with Janice he averaged 30 points and he also shot 61.1% from the field

[00:52:37] nobody nobody in NBA history has ever done that

[00:52:40] he scored 31 30.4 points again and shot 61.1% from the field

[00:52:55] now you'll say hey Vince he takes a lot of his shots at the rim but you know what he has to get

[00:52:59] to the rim and then people are building walls for him not to get to the rim and he's still getting

[00:53:06] to the rim at a 60 60 over plus 60 plus percent rate so whether he has skill or not is not the

[00:53:19] question he just he just better he just better than all of us you know that's how it is to it

[00:53:27] so he's up he's my number three guy just for that um for the season he had in in these uh

[00:53:33] in this tough situation and again they were literally because of his calf strain and there's

[00:53:40] moves that with the calf strain Adrian Wajronowski reported that it's he's gonna miss a big portion

[00:53:49] of this series so they say the first half of the series what happens if there is I think a

[00:53:58] lot of people are thinking well oh that's the first two games no when they say the first

[00:54:01] half of the series they're saying like possibly game three not just game three but possibly game four

[00:54:10] so kind of read the tea leaves a little bit you're not not just going to have Janus or

[00:54:17] the two games in Milwaukee there's a good chance that you're not gonna have

[00:54:21] Janus for the two games in Indiana either so you don't have to get on that right all right

[00:54:28] so my third guy is

[00:54:33] man I I caped up for this guy all year and I know people don't hate on me when I say this

[00:54:39] my third guy MVP balloting is is Nikola Yelkic and Nikola Yelkic had a great year again

[00:54:51] and I almost say this right now I'm gonna say this right now I don't want to look dead into the camera

[00:54:58] when I say this Nikola Yelkic is the best player in the NBA bar none there is no better player

[00:55:06] in the NBA his skill level is second to none at this point what he's able to do for his team is

[00:55:12] awe-inspiring and you know there's no there's no doubt about who the best player in the league is

[00:55:19] but there are times this year where Yelkic got bored there are times where he took his foot off the

[00:55:24] gas pedal there are times this year where you know and listen I'm not asking him you don't have nothing

[00:55:31] to prove my guy you have nothing to prove you are certified my man don't worry this is not hate

[00:55:40] towards you at all but what I am saying is that I understand you've got something else that you

[00:55:46] need to worry about and that's trying to defend this championship so there were games where he was

[00:55:52] trying stuff it's like can we get eight lives to Aaron Gordon with only uh left hand passes

[00:56:02] there are games where he only shot the ball four or five times nugget fans y'all know what I'm

[00:56:08] talking about y'all know there was games where my man was just like oh I'm so bored so bored

[00:56:16] but when you're that great when you're that great you can do that and here's the other thing um

[00:56:25] this was so hard for me because these numbers mean a lot to me I talk about box plus minus all the

[00:56:31] time um he was 13.2 in box plus minus which means that makes him the box plus minus

[00:56:41] champ of the regular season he was also the fourth champ 10.6 he was also offensively wins

[00:56:53] win share champ 12 okay so these are all numbers that will tell you these are all numbers that

[00:57:03] to make his candidacy or the MVP so I'm giving you all of these but you have to give me this

[00:57:12] given given what we know given what he has to go through which how physical told us is

[00:57:22] he did take his foot off the accelerator a little bit this year right and with that being said

[00:57:28] to me he is number three no disrespect to my guy but I got two guys that I think are more deserving

[00:57:39] and my third guy he or my second guy you say is she will just Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder

[00:57:52] he uh he led his team to the number one overall seat you know I love winning winning is good

[00:58:00] it was in a crate it was in a crazy competitive west he had 75 games he scored

[00:58:07] uh 30 plus points again he had five and a half rebounds 6.2 assists again I tell you

[00:58:16] he was the steals leader at two flat he also made 567 free throws so I'm gonna say that again

[00:58:27] at six foot six and what just a little bit over 200 pounds shea right he had more free throws

[00:58:36] in anybody in league with 567 um they wrote that one on the on the Mavericks who didn't have

[00:58:46] anything to play for in the last game 135 to 86 and here's the last stat for me that kind of

[00:58:56] this is why I have him over Yolkage too 51 games where he scored 30 plus points

[00:59:09] all right um he had an incredible year incredibly consistent

[00:59:16] um helped lead a young team to the number one overall seat in a very competitive west

[00:59:24] and hats off to Shay Gilgis Alexander for the phenomenal season that he had

[00:59:30] and uh that moves me to my MVP it goes to Luca Donchich and other Dallas Mavericks

[00:59:39] and um the reason why this is is you know as somebody who's a historian of the game

[00:59:47] or somebody who who knows like oh yeah I saw Gwinnard King score like 56 to win a scoring title

[00:59:54] back in like you know 84 whatever it was going to be what Luca did this year was amazing

[01:00:02] and then if you think about it he also did it with two different teams

[01:00:07] right it was the team with Grant Williams and everybody else beforehand

[01:00:13] remember all the injuries they had because Dante Exxon was playing good early and then he

[01:00:17] disappeared Maxi Cleaver was getting off and on out there were stints with Kyrie not being there

[01:00:27] because of injury because Kyrie has been an awesome awesome player this year and he's been a great

[01:00:34] citizen for the Dallas Mavericks cause no trouble whatsoever so this was strictly on just

[01:00:42] injury situations but through all of that through the trades through the injuries through getting

[01:00:47] the players back and then trying to get everybody re-acclimated to this point to be the five seat

[01:00:54] team to know that you are the first name on the white board every single night

[01:01:02] and to have games where you score 73 points and when you average 34 points a game I understand

[01:01:10] 33.9 34 points a game 9.2 rebounds a game and basically 10 assists a game

[01:01:21] by the way here's the here's one of the I love this stat this is this is so awesome this is why

[01:01:28] Luca Donchich is my MVP he had 12 12 triple doubles from after the all-star game he had 12 triple

[01:01:44] doubles after not just the whole season he had 12 after the all-star game so that's why he's my MVP

[01:01:58] shots out to the Dallas Mavericks shots out to Luca Donchich shots out to Shay SGA

[01:02:05] shots out to Jokic Joker Antita Koonpo thank you gentlemen Brunson thank you guys for all the memories

[01:02:15] of this year and it's been an incredible snapshot so let's get to the all-NBA let's get to it let's

[01:02:22] get to it let's get to it play play all NBA obviously on the top five in the MVP are gonna

[01:02:33] be on gonna be on the first team all NBA I don't play I don't play around when it comes to that so

[01:02:39] I have Jokic, Donis Brunson, Luca SGA on the first team I think it's pretty self-explanatory

[01:02:50] of why that is now Jason Tatum is on is on the second team and I understand there'll be a lot

[01:02:58] of Boston Celtics who will be mad how is how are how is Jason Tatum not on first all NBA

[01:03:06] with all this I told you guys that's my story I'm sticking to it now Kawhi Leonard had an incredible

[01:03:14] year he also made it Kevin Durant also made it on the second team all NBA um Donovan Mitchell

[01:03:24] made it for me on the second team all NBA and I'll tell you why in a second and Anthony Davis also

[01:03:32] made it for me on the second team all NBA um the reason why Donovan Mitchell did it is because

[01:03:39] that that stretch where Darryl Garland and Evan Mogley was out and they won 17 and 1 now I know

[01:03:47] they played some tomato cans in that little situation but there were some other games that could

[01:03:53] have you know we saw a lot of teams this year where it's like oh we don't have our guys

[01:03:59] so we're not gonna play hard or we're just gonna go out there and get cardio

[01:04:06] doesn't know what this team did no they got into it um so Donovan Mitchell it makes the

[01:04:14] second team all NBA now 13 all NBA this was hard um but

[01:04:24] you know what all right so

[01:04:29] Jaylen Brown makes my all NBA team I think the selfish should have two guys on third

[01:04:36] on all NBA teams so he's gonna make the 13

[01:04:44] my two guards are Steph Curry and Anthony Edwards I think what Anthony did Anthony Edwards did

[01:04:51] with Alcat was great and I think he deserves to be in this situation even though I know

[01:05:01] that Devin Booker might be more efficient and Tyrese Halliburton had an incredible

[01:05:06] first half of the year but you know we understand that injuries and everything held him back and

[01:05:12] you know these were tough cuts but Anthony Edwards to me deserves that situation and obviously

[01:05:19] Steph is Steph and then I had LeBron James make it um sorry he's great you might think I'm a

[01:05:31] homer I don't care I mean look at the numbers he shot over 40 percent from three like what are

[01:05:41] we doing like it still was like 26 8 and 7 well like what are we doing I know you could tell me

[01:05:53] about Paul George you could tell me about these other people whatever but LeBron is in there

[01:05:59] that's my guy he's in there and then Victor Wynne by Yama makes the third team all NBA

[01:06:06] and I know that's going to be super controversial I know people I'm like oh this that could have

[01:06:12] been the Booker squad that could have been um Tyrese Halliburton's squad and and here's the thing

[01:06:20] again I will tell you if I say that Wynne by Yama's first half of the year wasn't that great

[01:06:28] and then the second half of the year and then you can tell me about team's tanking and

[01:06:34] you know roster reconstruction and and and this is the softer part of the schedule I understand all of that

[01:06:44] he was the number one person on the whiteboard because they had nothing else

[01:06:51] and he still got it done and do

[01:06:55] over 20 points a game over 10 rebounds a game the assist numbers the block numbers

[01:07:04] you know this dude was incredible and he was everything that was advertised

[01:07:11] and more so if you can fly out when we tell you hey this dude gonna be rookie of the year

[01:07:21] and there was yeah okay yeah chat was there for a second whatever case it'd be but even in

[01:07:27] those games even in the in the early part of the year Wynne by Yama was still putting up numbers

[01:07:33] there are games where he was just going off there are games where he was you know whatever

[01:07:39] and I think that um also the reason why I gave it to Wynne is again I have never seen

[01:07:47] NBA players uh star level NBA players make real time business decisions

[01:07:58] in the midst of a NBA game until this year so there it is so that is it um we are going to try to

[01:08:08] effort to see what's going on tomorrow I have thoughts on what's about to happen with this

[01:08:13] Lager game that's coming on in like seven minutes so I'm looking forward to that

[01:08:18] this should be out later on tonight I'm gonna try to get this up before uh you know 12 tonight

[01:08:24] and then if for some reason we do not pot tomorrow Friday we will pot and that will be

[01:08:32] where we can set up all the playoff machinations and go through the series and make our picks

[01:08:40] and let it and let them know you know we're gonna do it round by round you know what I'm saying

[01:08:46] and and and go from there so without being said thank you guys for listening I appreciate

[01:08:51] you remember follow us on X frontrunner pc remember to subscribe to youtube at frontrunner podcast

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[01:09:10] podcast collective right because this is where you get the NBA heat this is where we gonna bring

[01:09:15] it to you and hopefully we can bring a smile to your face so as always the best part of you

[01:09:23] is you remember that don't let anybody kill your spirit don't let anyone diminish your light

[01:09:30] and we will see you back on this specific feed within the next couple days y'all be easy doce

[01:09:45] okay