NBA Christmas Games Recap! Phoenix Star Kevin Durant Upset With Team's Direction

[00:00:00] It is Tuesday evening, it's 6th 13 Pacific Standard Time and it is its Vence FRPC is on the air I am your host today and we are going to be talking about the Christmas slate and we also have a couple

[00:00:30] trade rumors that Mark Stein has given us a day after Christmas to talk about. So, little bit of the couple things that we are going to get on so we're going to go through every single game

[00:00:48] and I'll give you a couple of observations from every game and then like I said we'll get into some of the juicy details of whatever trades and what not are coming out of the Orlando Showcase which that was a whole thing onto itself.

[00:01:08] We got a lot to get to and we are not going to waste a lot of time with Chit Chat and we'll have you. I hope everybody had a very joyous Christmas day with your loved ones.

[00:01:22] I hope you were able to watch some hoops because we're about to get into it and again, we're just excited to go ahead and do this so let's get into it.

[00:01:37] We're going to start with the first game, Jalen Branson continues his stellar play on Christmas, Branson, Portie and 38 points and led the New York Nix to a 129, 122 victory over the books, the Nix.

[00:01:57] Now, we have a movement and slashing to the basket and they now have an engaged Jewish Randall which is excellent because here's the thing. Mitchell Robinson last I think last podcast.

[00:02:15] We talked about him being out looks like he's going to be out for a significant amount of time so they are missing their center. It looked like this was all the makings for John as to go crazy and score 60 but again, Jalen Branson was a beast.

[00:02:39] The other thing that I kind of looked at with the Nix and it was like an observation. The project Barrett is might be the piece that needs to leave everybody has always talked about the Julius Randall piece and how does it fit and what have you.

[00:03:00] I'm not saying that Julius Randall is a perfect fit for that team, but he does something very necessary. He is a battering round to the rim, he gets the line, he does shoot the three at an acceptable rate and even he goes into a slump.

[00:03:18] He's not shy, he'll continue to fire away so at least the confidence will never wait when you talk about Julius Randall. When it comes to Barrett, the numbers are pretty steady and it's just doesn't seem like enough.

[00:03:41] He's being more selective now, he's shooting 4.9, 3.0 attempts this season compared to 5.3, 3.0 attempts last season which is a subtle difference but it's made him a more effective player but I just think they need a little more juice out of that position or some kind of re-imagined rotation.

[00:04:13] That's what I kind of got of it, but also this is an incomplete picture without Mitch Robinson and we know what that's going to look like for the foreseeable future. For the bucks, it was the same cast of characters everyone, the core players did their job.

[00:04:31] Shout out to Bill Belicek, the O'Kermudgeon, not tanking for the obvious quarterback upgrade. That's just a waiting down. It was literally do your job Christmas day for the bucks. Janus had 32 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists, Damian Lillard had 32 points, he had a rebound, he had 8 dimes,

[00:05:00] Middleton also took the only 24 to rebounds and 6 assists, low cast had his 14 points, 6 boards, 2 blocks, and Portis had 12 points, 9 rebounds and 4 personal fouls. And the reason why I put the 4 personal fouls in there is because he's the tone-sitter. The bucks just need another ball handling wing.

[00:05:35] They need somebody where if something breaks down, Janus has the straight line drive to the basket, Damian can be your outside killer. You need that guy with a little wiggle, like that in between guy and they just don't have that right now.

[00:05:56] Also, if we can kill the Malik Biesley minutes all together, that would be greatly appreciated because that guy is a train wreck on defense. All right, so that was the bucks and Nick's game. Like I said, I have a ton of notes today.

[00:06:20] What's have a ton of notes, right? All right, let's move on to the Golden State Warrior game. A couple of stats that stood out to me. Curry struggles on the Christmas stage is deliver wins 120 to 114. 18 is the number here that we want to kind of focus on.

[00:06:47] It's going to kind of leave its way into the podcast. So, key number, if you remember, sets me street or whatever, they would have like, letter the day. The number of the days 18.

[00:06:59] Now, the first part of this is that Yokeh shot 18 free throws in that Christmas day game. Now, before we get to the little controversy that go went on after the game and we'll get to Steve Kerr's comments. Perst out news, this is a really interesting step.

[00:07:25] Curry averages 15.3 points again on Christmas day while shooting 31.5% from the field. And 23% 23.1% on 3.10 on Christmas day. And this is before the Monday till. So, he went 7 for 21 which is right about that average, which was he shot 33% and he shot 3 of 13 from 3.5% which is a locking 20.

[00:08:04] 22% so he was indicative of his normal numbers on Christmas. So, if you can turn the NBA playoffs, if Golden State makes it into Christmas day, you will have a normal or a regular still curry.

[00:08:27] He will not be able to put on the Superman cape and save the Golden State Warriors. So, if somehow you can move Christmas to April, maybe exchange the Easter Bunny out and put a Santa in there. You might have a shot in April.

[00:08:47] That's if and that's a big if if Golden State gets there. All right, let's get to the controversy. Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warrior Head Coach. He was upset with the, the secrets are calls that Janice was getting. Which is funny. He observes stuff every night.

[00:09:12] Now, I'm not saying that stuff is a foul chaser. He is not to the hardened level or the trade young level of foul chasing because those guys are absolutely.

[00:09:24] If we had to put a rating on it, you know, if we, you know how you use movie ratings, they have like PG PG 13. Rated R and C 14 or whatever hardened and young would be triple X, right? Yokeage would be R.

[00:09:49] I would say that stuff falls in the PG 13 kind of bordering on R, but he gets his. But I just found it funny that it was the, the discrepancy was the issue that Kerr. That's a warrior's. We're currently just just out of playoff positioning all together.

[00:10:12] That was the thing that he thought that he thought he would need to focus on. Now, here's the thing. This could be some gaysmanship on Kerr. He might be setting up for the future.

[00:10:27] And the reason why I say that is because right now we still don't have any dream on green. He's probably not going to be around until at least the first week or second week of January.

[00:10:40] To provide it, he hits all his steps or whatever and goes to counseling and sits on the couch and talks to Oprah. Oh, whoever he needs to talk to and cry if I'm in the camera.

[00:10:57] So he might be actually doing something to kind of set up what needs to happen next, right? Maybe he's step gets couple more favor calls and things to that nature. Here's a bright side of what did happen on Christmas day, the youngins are contributing.

[00:11:16] Jonathan Caminga is now starting ahead of Wiggins, is showing the ferocity at the basket. He's rebounding which for some reason when Wiggins was in the starting rotation, he wasn't doing and now that he is a bench player, he is doing.

[00:11:34] So maybe the message has been sent and we can get back to Andrew Wiggins who was really if we want to get down to brass tax. Andrew Wiggins was the second best player on that Golden State Warrior championship team a couple years back.

[00:11:54] Pazinski has also got into the starting lineup. I don't know if that's going to be forever, but he has such a feel for the game. He has such a nice way of playing basketball that absolutely fits the Golden State Warriors. He's not shot heavy.

[00:12:12] He doesn't pass on shots. He's aggressive when he needs to be. He just has a real nice feel for the game. And I'm really enjoy watching Pazinski do his thing with the Golden State Warriors. Modi is steady.

[00:12:27] He's not exactly the guy I thought he was going to be the defensive stalwart that I thought he was going to be in and like this. Just absolute sharp shooter from outside. But he's a steady row player. He kind of reminds me little agarri Harris.

[00:12:49] You know, agarri Harris, just long time steady guy and lead. Hitches of shots, plays some defense and go from there. And then let's get to trace Jackson Davis.

[00:13:04] Now this is an athletic big that the Golden State Warriors absolutely need because the other thing that we're going to do is the other thing that we saw in this game is Kevin Looney looked really slow and it's kind of scary for somebody being 2728. Look, that slow.

[00:13:27] Now Looney has had hip surgeries and you know, a couple of knee operations. So obviously it might be just injuries catching up to him or it just could be a law. We don't know, but the sample size of Lee is that he does look like one step slower.

[00:13:49] But if trace Jackson Davis is going to be who he's going to be what an opportunity for it to happen. He's a switchable big. He's 69 and I have about 245 pounds so he's he's stout. He rebound. He's a excellent lot for Chris Paul in the second unit.

[00:14:13] So and also he is a he's a deterrent at the rim. So these are all positive things that Gold State can take away from that game even in loss. Now for the nuggets, I'm going to tell you right now. Nothing has changed for me with the nuggets.

[00:14:34] I know that Minnesota is now first in the West, shout out to the T-Wos. But the nuggets look bored. They are going through whatever championship team goes through. It's like when you reach that pinnacle of success, you know, you're just at a situation where

[00:14:58] What's going to happen is that not every regular season game you're going to be able to get out of for. And they're still taking around with the lineups and still trying to see which young guys are going to work.

[00:15:11] The key component to that young crew are Julian Strother, the rookie out of Gonzaga. And Christian Brown, the kid out of Kansas 2, he's in the second year in Kate Watson, out of UCLA who's the athletic wing. Who's kind of like their deep defensive guy.

[00:15:33] Now here's something at some point if the diver nugget is decided to scrap this and get somebody they can say okay we trust you with 18 to 22 playoff minutes. Any of these guys are expendable and they have the picks to be able to go ahead and do it.

[00:15:54] But having booth is putting a lot of. He's going to a lot of sweat equity into these drafts and he believes these are the type of players they fit his team and what they want to do going forth not just this year but years to come.

[00:16:16] So not saying to look for a trade but if there was a trade to be made and malone thought that they needed one more guy. They still have a clever guy that. They will be able to keep in this mix as far as this concerns so.

[00:16:38] I'm not worried about them right all. I mean, I'm really not it's just like I said, they just look super bored. Now who showed out in a game? A Michael Porter Jr. in here in Gordon. They were excellent and they're numbers combined 35 points in 20 rebounds.

[00:16:57] And I will tell you one other thing, Jamal Murray loves the challenge and games like these where he can prove to everyone that his name. Should be mentioned when you talk about the top echelon guards in the league.

[00:17:16] You know, saying like he loves this type of stuff. He went off he had 28 points but it was the shot that he was making. It was like that vintage Jamal Murray. I can shoot this shot. Damn near horizontal.

[00:17:31] You know, he looked like piano reviews and like a John Wick movie. He was absolutely nuts. So that are those are my impressions of the Denver nuggets and the go say warriors. Now let's get to the legers.

[00:17:49] The legers found out how deep the Celtics were in their 126 to 115 loss to the long time. Better rivals, the Celtics. Every time the legers would surge, the Celtics would turn just. Just to turn every last one of them and I'll get to it in a second.

[00:18:11] They just to turn in stopping out the uprising. Okay, the Vandal Reddish minutes aren't potent enough. All be it both Reddish and Vanderbilt provide resistance on the defensive end. But they are coming up really short. It's like bringing soda to a jam party.

[00:18:36] I'm telling you, they just don't have the necessary weapons. That's line up they're going to put out. So they had Reddish Vanderbilt, Torrent Prince, LeBron James and AD. Now getting to AD, AD was awesome in this game. I don't know what you can more expect from that man.

[00:18:59] That man had 40 points. It's so funny, we did a podcast recently and I compared AD and Bradley Bill. And we'll get to Bradley in a second. But I compare AD and Bradley Bill to IDating IG models.

[00:19:20] I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to recant my statement. AD is playing possess right now. He's playing like I want to be the defensive player of the year. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.

[00:19:35] Now if his team, the others would do this and we'll get to what I'm talking about in one second. If they got to do this, the team would be in a little bit better situation.

[00:19:52] But I brought up his inconsistent play but that has changed over like the last 10 games. Now his last fire game, he's at 27 points. He's at 11 plus rebounds. Three plus assists. It's that if you extended out over the last 10 is even better.

[00:20:15] I mean like I said he's playing really, really good basketball. Here's the thing if you can upgrade the reddish and standard will spots. The linker's probably getting a better situation. We're also going to talk about another individual as well.

[00:20:34] But here's the thing, the trade market has not crest it yet. We're going to talk about later a couple names that are out there and a couple other things that I've heard in last couple days.

[00:20:44] But we're in a pattern where you just have to be patient and you have to wait until the market turns.

[00:20:52] So the reddish replacement and also I'm going to say it and I hate to say it like this and it sounds like I'm being a cramudge in because if you look at just the numbers, the Angela Russell looks like he's playing very well.

[00:21:13] There was a stretch at that third quarter where the lakers are down 83 to 79. And the Angela Russell comes in and it was turnover. Miss defensive assignment and it's third three that he hit. Then he gets back dored on a defensive assignment.

[00:21:40] Then he comes back and tries to make it up and shoots a three that's illivized because he's hot because he hit he hit one. And then he also just allows Sam Houser to blow right past him and score at the right.

[00:22:00] And then it's 95 82 and the lakers are down by 13 which they had already climbed out of a hole already. And this is the type with stuff that I'm talking about. All do we respect to the Angela Russell.

[00:22:17] He would have to be a six man and he'd have to lie in to that situation. But he doesn't respect possessions enough for me when I'm talking about playoff time.

[00:22:28] The Angela Russell is a fine regular season player, but if you're talking about playoff possessions where every possession counts. I'm not sure or I'm not confident enough in that man's ability to take every possession and be locked in and be very serious about. What is the task ahead?

[00:22:54] I'm not saying he can't play basketball, I'm not saying he's not talented. I'm not saying he doesn't make miraculous passes. He does all of those things. But there is still some possessions where you're going, what are you doing? And I know LeBron is sitting there going.

[00:23:13] I'm counting down the days man. I'm just counting down the days till we can get something squared away. Okay. A couple of the things that we want to talk about is this is that game Vincent Panneesurgery. It sounds very familiar. Okay.

[00:23:34] I don't want to invoke this name, but LeBron Nation does this sound very Kendrick Nunn to you. Two years the LeBron is waiting for Kendrick Nunn. I remember these years it was just last year and the year previous.

[00:23:55] All I heard was, oh, when Kendrick Nunn gets back, all he'll sort the rotation. The rotation will be sorted once Kendrick Nunn gets back. I've been here in the same thing about Gabe Vincent and guess what?

[00:24:10] He has not played a game or he played one and then he got hurt. I'm not mad at listen, it's very unfortunate, but this feels very Kendrick Nunn to me.

[00:24:24] And that's not a good situation for the LeBron to be an especially if we're trying to in a sense take away the Angela Russell's impact. A Gabe Vincent and Rie does not help that. Okay, let's get to the Celtics.

[00:24:47] Everybody played a part, but here's the thing that I want to just kind of alert you to. Drew Holiday in that game, 7-10 from the field. Chris Dawgborzingas, 11-19 from the field. Derek White, either 13 from the field. They were 25 or 42 of those just those three guys.

[00:25:14] That's the supporting cast. Okay, that's the key point of this. You have Jason Tatum and Jailing Brown who are your two pillars, right? But this kind of production that you're getting supposedly from your rotation. Your rotation pieces. This is what they have everybody is starring in their role.

[00:25:44] Everyone. Oh, here's the other thing. Everybody in their starting five scored 18 points or more. There's a number again, 18. Lawson's starting five. Everybody scored more than 18. So if you want to talk about, oh, who do you leave open?

[00:26:09] You want to talk about who can we shade off of and put more emphasis on Jailing Brown's driving or Jason Tatum? Tell me who you're going to leave open on the Celtics right now. They're the best team in the league. That's what it is.

[00:26:33] All right, no in bead in heat win, 119 to 113. There's some key numbers to go over. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because I think you don't get a real gauge of what this team actually is with without in bead.

[00:26:51] Obviously he's planted at MVP level. He's averaging 35 points again and darn near 13 and rebound. So there's not a lot to get really geeked up about this game, but there are a couple numbers to go over. Uh, Maxi, four of 20 for the game. All right.

[00:27:15] It looks like Maxi shot like he had a hell of a Christmas Eve party in Miami. That's what it looked like. It looked like my man went out and enjoyed Miami to the fullest. Okay. Um, and again, it's real, it's real easy.

[00:27:41] He's the guy that everybody's going to key on and everything like that. So I don't look at this. It doesn't change my mind about Maxi. He's a star of this guy's plate. Well, we just talked about him in the last podcast. The points per game, production.

[00:27:58] Just the juice that he gives the team. I mean, there's nothing. This is a blip on the radar. But we do have to sing the praises of one guy. We had a Jimmy Butler impression in it was great. Okay. Um, we sang the praises in the Eastern Conference.

[00:28:21] Um, recap show quarter recap show also the hundreds. Podcasts extravaganza. So dip into the archive pods and get with us. But hiring high kids junior man, let me tell you something. 31 points, Terry Walsh, two steals on Christmas day. Okay. Now, all the eyes of the NBA on you.

[00:28:53] This is a time to show out do your thing. We just talked about AD. We just talked about how the Celtics are so deep and everybody is contributing. You get in 31 10 and two steals from your support role guy who is a rookie from UCLA.

[00:29:16] Now, if you want to talk about the epitome of heat culture and I think this is something that we said during the draft process about how me had cast junior. What a perfect fit he was for Miami.

[00:29:27] And how sick I was that this this actually happened because I was hoping that he'd be a Laker but they decided to go another route. You had to think that was going to get that in there, right? Okay.

[00:29:42] So, he's been a he means so so much sense that it wrote itself. And he's been putting up numbers all season. He started off at in a bench role and he is progressed now into a situation where he's part of the starting unit when Butler is not playing

[00:30:07] and Butler didn't play Christmas day. And like I said, I mean, I cast junior said no problem. I can go ahead and be Jimmy Butler for a day and also now Jimmy Butler and Jaime Hawkeh's junior are doing commercials together. So, it's all love in Miami.

[00:30:28] Oh, the other thing we need to talk about. Another whole home 26.15 rebound five assists. No big deal game from Bam out of bio. We talked about on the last podcast in Eastern conference, Recap quarter edition. His points per game the last five years have all gone up.

[00:30:53] He's averaging a season high career high 22 of the game this season. And then he just went out in score 26, grab 15 rebounds and have five assists on Christmas day. You know, no big deal.

[00:31:09] But again, this was out without in be so so it can't just can't leave that out, right? Just can't leave it out. All right. The last game. Look at the stories the sons putting 50 points on them in a 128 to 1114 game.

[00:31:38] We have a lot to get to in this game. Obviously we're going to talk about look at this, go meet some other stuff we need to talk about. First thing I want to highlight is that look ahead. If you have him on your fantasy team, 67 fantasy points.

[00:31:56] Nothing this needs that. Congratulations to all the look a dotchage. Fantasy owners out there. I want to say two things. One, he did this without Kyrie. Okay. Can we just Kyrie wasn't there? So it's look and the look at it's basically. All right. So 50 points of 128.

[00:32:36] So there is that. The other thing that we need to get to is this, he's been doing it all year long. It's 3298 as a average. So the counting numbers are fantastic.

[00:32:54] And if they continue to play at this level and they're in that top four, he might get some MVP consideration as well. It looks like the look a dotchage, Kevin Booker, rivalry has gotten a little spicier because you know when you drop 50 on somebody.

[00:33:14] And there's been some trash talking beforehand. It's just going to ramp up as the gear goes on. So airmark or circle on your calendar, the next Phoenix Suns Dallas Madrichs again. The other thing is that Luca, he is such a student of the game.

[00:33:35] There were the events ski shots in this game. There was Larry Birdtrox in this game. There were assists that were amazing. He looked like magic Johnson. It was just really, it was just, he just demolished that team. It was just ugly to see.

[00:34:00] The other thing is that anytime they put a small on Luca, he would just punish them in the pain. It was crazy. So the other thing that we need to talk about in the Dallas game is Derek Lively Jr came back. He scored 20 points.

[00:34:18] He's been probably fourth best rookie in the NBA. All right, we're going to get to this Phoenix is in some trouble. Mainly his injuries, you know, mainly it's, you know, they just haven't had their guys and we'll have me.

[00:34:37] There's some just really discerning size with the sons and we're going to kind of go over trading for Bill was a risky endeavor. In the Phoenix Brass knew this was a plausible scenario. Bradley Bill not playing except like one game or two games this whole season.

[00:34:59] Listen, I'm not being critical. I'm just saying when we, when the trade was broken, we talked about Bill missing games then. And like I said, you cannot script the ankle injury he had. You can't write, but it just seems like it follows him.

[00:35:27] And this was always going to be the risk. Another thing. KDs upset. He's frustrated and we're going to get to all of the KD stuff in a second. He's, here's one thing that we will say he's carrying a heavy load that he expected right you thought with

[00:35:48] Devying Booker Kevin Durant and Bradley Bill you could easily talk yourself into. 75 plus points between those three and then we'll figure out the other 40 to 45 will need. You could see that when you put this team together. But with him missing a lot of time booker.

[00:36:13] Durant has been the more healthy of the group, which is amazing because of his advanced age. And some of the injuries that he's had with the Achilles and what have you. You have some frustrating there.

[00:36:28] The other question that I have is that with him also being the person that is actually playing most of the games and having to do so much and carry some of the offensive front of this team.

[00:36:40] What is the cumulative effects by the time Phoenix gets to the playoffs? If they get to the playoffs. Now we're not saying that we don't think they will get to the playoffs.

[00:36:52] I'm just saying right now it doesn't look good and we're going to get into a little bit more of it. Like I did not, this team is flawed and they can look back on a couple things.

[00:37:04] They can look back on the patience of trading on the way there they're former number one over all pit deandry. Instead of waiting for a more credible deal to come by and get pieces that would be more additive to what they're trying to do.

[00:37:26] They did not do that. They said, no we got to get him out of here. We got to do this. Got to change. Got to get it. He's a cancer. This is that other. Now there are some options that they could have went down the road with.

[00:37:41] One, if he was going to be so bad and he was going to be such a such a. Downer on the season you could have shipped him home and said we'll wait until we get the trade. I'll die or more when Ben Simmons was acting.

[00:37:58] The way he was acting. The other thing that you could do. Vogel is a really good big man coach. He had Roy Hibber in Indiana. What he did for Dwight Howard when he was with the Lakers.

[00:38:17] Imagine in Vogel gets his hands on Deandry Aiden and I believe in the in the in the off season he was talking in that vein. He never got his chance to get his hands on the inigman that's Deandry Aiden.

[00:38:30] And to tell you truth, I wonder what this team would look like if that was the case.

[00:38:36] Now I said we had some more on Deandry and we do and we'll get there now because we have a couple more things to get to but I want to get on this Durant thing right now.

[00:38:49] So Katie it was recorded by Adrian Wardenowski, ESPN that Katie was frustrated with the sons and the direction the team was going in. Wait what? Katie wanted out of Golden State right Kevin Durant asked out of Golden State.

[00:39:08] At that time we were like oh he wants his own team okay everybody stood by that we would tend to those down on that situation right. He then hitches his wagon to Kyrie then by extension hitches his wagon to James Harden.

[00:39:26] Kyrie goes full Kyrie everybody knows the story James Harden who's a front runner six sanctuary in Philly and then Katie asked out a Brooklyn. Katie could have went to the next at that time he could have done lots of things but he chose Brooklyn. He chose them.

[00:39:51] He chose Kyrie as his running mate and then we saw the debacle go down. Now that we get through all that and we listen we can even at that point that Katie at that point right we're like oh man all these things happen around him.

[00:40:07] He didn't have you know this wasn't what he envisioned he just went play basketball hook and he wanted to do all these things right now here's the other thing.

[00:40:17] Katie then asked out of Brooklyn and here's the thing he wants out of Brooklyn and he only wants to go to Phoenix. He's only.

[00:40:30] His reasoning behind that was he didn't want to be spectacle he wanted it to be low key but he gave them a list of one okay so now Katie his hand picked his next team which is the Phoenix son.

[00:40:46] Fixed his basketball Nirvana or whatever he is looking for and now he's not happy. Well bro I mean listen we went on your side we were we were on your side with the Westburg deal we said okay understand you can't call this what they do.

[00:41:07] You go to go and state and it's nothing but championships is nothing but dominance is nothing but just beautiful basketball. And then yes we were on your side dream on crazy whatever you want to leave I get it.

[00:41:25] We were still kind of like scratching our head about it though we were like this is the best situation you want to leave this.

[00:41:33] Because even his big headache is dream on his let him act a fool and get his self pushed out of whatever the case may be but do stay in gold state and keep on winning chips with step right keep on doing that now.

[00:41:50] You push your way out you go to Brooklyn that blows up and now you push your way out you go to Phoenix and now you don't like the direction of the team man you made your bed and you got all your bread you got all of it.

[00:42:07] So now at this point man if you ask out again I never thought I'd say this the next disgruntled superstar to ask out it could be KD don't aggregate me understand that this was real familiar and we got a lot of history to back it up but man it would be such a bad look for our guy.

[00:42:33] KD if that was the situation so I hope that's not the situation.

[00:42:38] We're looking at right now it's just frustration because they're losing you know what's bill gets back and they get rolling maybe it looks a lot better in his disposition will be better but right now when I heard that I was like wow dude this such a bad look for you.

[00:42:59] All right two more things and then we can get up out of here we're going to talk about.

[00:43:04] John a little bit we're also going to talk about a couple we talked about some of the things that Mark Stein was talking about and I got a couple draft picks.

[00:43:15] For you guys to kind of look at go through the YouTube work, wormhole or whatever the case may be all right so Memphis we back. We back now. Three in a distance jog on back. Obviously job was suspended for disciplinary actions. off the court now.

[00:43:44] Marant has been relentless in his attack of the paint upon his return which is he's created more space for design band to just launch threes and create dump out opportunities for a gerons Jackson junior.

[00:44:00] I mean honestly you know I think Chris Vernon said it best he said listen they're good team without without their superstar. And now their superstar is back and he expected them to go on a run so shout out to our guy from the mismatch Chris Vernon.

[00:44:21] All right a couple things here from Mark Stein. Per him, Per Mark Stein Kelly O'Linnick. Is a target of the Boston Celtics there seems to be some interest there. The jazz might be having a mini fire cell but it doesn't include Lori marketing.

[00:44:47] We were talking about maybe Lori marketing being traded on this pod I think in the western conference recap. And you know there were possibilities and who should be going to get them. Someone said to me, Lori is happy here and his family is happy here.

[00:45:08] And here's the thing. If Lori marketing is happening Utah and this is a dude that's all star and you know how hard it is for Utah to get free agents. I can see why he's not part of that group.

[00:45:26] But it looks like Colin Sexton and Wing Jordan Clarkson are part of that group. And it looks like the jazz have interest in moving from both of those guys as well. It looks like Atlanta might be planning a roster shake up also per Mark Stein.

[00:45:51] Guard de Jante Murray looks like being a guy that might be on the chopping block and be traded. Also, this is no secret. Digging trying to trade him since the Aussies and Clint Capella.

[00:46:04] But the Murray thing is interesting on a lot of levels when the makers have interest. Now here's the thing. I think the leg is do not have enough to get de Jante Murray.

[00:46:19] And I'm sure that the Angela Russell will be part of the package going back and I don't know if that's something that Atlanta. Atlanta we want to get involved with.

[00:46:30] So it would have to be reeds and I know that the makers do not want to call him on reeds. So I don't see De Jante Murray coming to the makers, but we shall see also looks next look like they are interested in well. So there's that.

[00:46:48] And here's the thing that has been said multiple times and I think we said it on this podcast. At least three pods back. Zach Levine his trade interest is waning and I think there's two things one. There is a spot for Zach Levine.

[00:47:12] I don't know necessarily I can't put my finger on it, but there's a spot for him. The thing about it is that it's the contract and what he does. If he was a galvanizer of people, I think this would be a lot easier.

[00:47:32] If he was a guy who doesn't put up 50 points and no assists. And like he was like Luca who puts up 50 points and has 15 assists. See that's the thing look at put up 50 points, but he also have 15 assists. When Levine put up 50 points, he has zero.

[00:47:56] You tell me who you want on your team. All right. Let's get to a couple of the draft prospects. A couple things to keep your eyes out on first little news note, which is kind of a bummer. Donovan Cleaman.

[00:48:22] Clean in the Yukon big man is out for three to four weeks. He has a right foot tendon issue. Let me tell you anytime we talk about seven photos and draft prospects. Let's start talking about feet issues before they even get drafted.

[00:48:39] I'm immediately very skittish about that guy. That's just me. Now, meco is very big on clean in. So I wonder what he is on Nico's job worth with this new information, but that should be coming out in early January. We should have something out.

[00:49:06] Talk to in draft prospects. It might be even more expanded. Blurbs on people, but we're just trying to get names out to you now so you can start doing your own draft prep, right? The other thing is this is that I'm going to ask this question.

[00:49:26] How many times will lottery prospect? That is, but Zellis get compared to Orlando Magic's Wayne Franz Wagner. Now, what Zellis is a hate. He's in the G league and night. He's six for eight. He's about 210 pounds. He's good size. He has great instincts. Good feel for the game.

[00:49:52] He's really good at flu-wildy-d, which is, you know, I'm not going to be here and be surprised why this. You know, like these dudes train all the time. And he's a modern Wayne. He has a face-up game. He has good shooting ability. He can pass a ball.

[00:50:10] So, you know, right now he's one of the top three prospects out there. What you will see in this prospect group when I think I said it before. I don't think you'll see a guy that there's not a guy that will reach anywhere close to when we status.

[00:50:30] Or any of the guys and maybe the last three or four drafts. This is a good, like, vocational piece draft. Not a hate. We got a superstar on our hands draft. The next guy I want to get to is Cody Williams out of Colorado.

[00:50:47] He's a big Wayne freshman, 19 years of age, six, eight on the slender side. But Williams looks like he'll fill out nicely big shoulders. Here's the one thing that I love about Williams. He's a, I don't need the ball guy.

[00:51:07] He just finds ways to be impactful, whether it's a drive after the ball is swamped to him, to his side. Or using his body to gain advantages on scoring opportunities or making regular threes. He's just a solid, rotational contributor. And I love, I love his game.

[00:51:31] So he does a lot of things right and I think he's going to be one of the top prospects and the upcoming draft. Now, the only reason that Nicola Toppitch isn't the number one over our prospect is because Scouts want more explosion.

[00:51:53] And the jump shot is still a work in progress. But even with that, the lack of explosion at athleticism, toppitch, can get into a variety of crafty shots. He has an innate moveset that it's really crazy to watch.

[00:52:14] He can get to the basket and it doesn't look like he plays a his speed. It's like, here's the thing. I don't want us to compare him to look at Donchets.

[00:52:27] What I'm saying is that when he plays his, whatever his speed is, you can't get him out of his speed. You can't speed him up. You can't slow him down. He's just going to get there. And he finds a way to get to the basket.

[00:52:47] He's an absolute sorcerer level passer. But this is what one Scout did say to me. If the shot was more consistent, there would be a no brainer.

[00:53:01] But because of the shot, will Tockish be able to get past NBA level defense defenders on a consistent amount of bases to allow the other excellent skills that Tockigs possesses to be a factor.

[00:53:19] It is an interesting question and we have up until June of 2024 to figure it out. But these are the things that we've been said to me. So now you have them and we are all better for it, right?

[00:53:36] A couple of the guys I want to hit on real quick. I'm still high on Alexander Star, the seven footer playing in Perth. I think that Star might be the one guy that has like the star potential.

[00:53:52] I don't know if he'll necessarily be the no one overall pick. You can make, you can make his game as well. But I see kind of a gerant Jackson junior type of player in there. But we haven't done all the work on him.

[00:54:14] But he might be the guy to me. That might be the guy that pops. If there is a guy in the draft. Jacob, Jacobi Walter, out of bailer, I want to talk about him for one second. He's a really interesting prospect in this regard.

[00:54:31] There's not a ton, there's not a ton of self creation with him. He's 65, he's 195, so he's a smaller wing guard, whatever you want to call him. But he's a spotter shooter. He makes quick decisive drives. He provides length and most important.

[00:55:01] He has one or two on the defense decided to ball. So we don't worry about his defense. He's not slight where he's going to get just shrugged off of screens and things that That nature seems to fight over those very well. He has enough length to his game.

[00:55:20] And want to be a pretty good defender when it all comes down to it. But it's really hard to have a guy like this be drafted like fifth overall or sixth overall like top 10.

[00:55:35] If you don't have a bunch of unexpected offensive creators in other parts of your offense, right? Like I look at okay see they have a bunch of creators. He'd be good there. The clippers have a bunch of creators. He'd be good there.

[00:55:53] The Celtics have a good amount of creators. He would be good there. Golden State would be a good team for him as well. He'd be good there. The teams that like I would stay away from like Indiana, like Indiana has Halloween and that's about it right?

[00:56:12] Brooklyn does have not nearly enough shot creation for others and Memphis because John runs the show there. You need multiple people to be able to do it. So you're looking for a team if you're drafting Jacobi Walter, you're looking for a team that like you know,

[00:56:38] Paulo carries Gisbal, Frods, Gisbal, you know, others like you know on the lake or if you got LeBron, you got Austin, you got some other people that can handle ball. Golden State obviously got Dre and Mon, you got Steph, you know, you got others to do it.

[00:56:56] So that's the type of team that you I would think that you would need when it came, when it comes to you know, drafting kid like this. Now he had a breakout game against Duke. So if you're looking for your YouTube clip of the day,

[00:57:12] brought to you by YouTube, I use YouTube and the reason why I'm telling you about it is because I want you to go to my YouTube channel, front runner podcast collective and I want you to check out all the breakout clips that we have there

[00:57:27] and I'm going to tell you right now, go ahead and subscribe, go ahead and turn on that notification bill and be a part of the process of this growing community. That's what I'm trying to tell you is be a part of it.

[00:57:41] Also as we close out the show, get on with us on X or formerly known as Twitter at front runner, PC and you can hit my guy, Nico at Nico F.R. PC. Okay, so that is going to do it for the show today.

[00:58:05] I am extremely happy that we could go ahead and do this for you. Look for a podcast at the end of the week. So Friday, I'm not going to give you a date because I want to make sure we give them

[00:58:19] another basketball and some other news in to make sure that we have a full robust show for you. So if it's Thursday, it's Thursday, if it's Friday, it's Friday, but you're going to get another show before the end of the week.

[00:58:34] So that's going to do it for me. I hope you guys enjoyed the Christmas day games. I hope you enjoyed some of the perspectives, the points of view I had today. I hope it gives you some interesting conversations with your friends, or your colleagues out there.

[00:58:53] And if you're just a who can't like me, I hope this sparks a ton of debate. So what that being said, y'all be easy and we are out of here.