NBA Free Agency Frenzy Day 4: Key Signings, 2nd Apron Challenges, and LeBron's Lakers Dilemma

[00:00:12] It's Wednesday, you know what time it is. Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air. I am your humbleholds, Vince, and hold it down is around being the producer. I think she's going to be putting stats in and stuff like that into the little database here.

[00:00:33] We have a lot to get to. We have some signings to get to. We have some observations of what is going on in this free agency period and also with some of the trades that haven't happened and what might be holding those up.

[00:00:52] And then we're going to finish off with the Lakers because I have a lot of thoughts on what's going on there. But before we do all that, we're going to hit the socials.

[00:01:05] Join us on X or Twitter, have you like to call it at Front Runner PC and also at Raya Undef score, FRPC. Both of the good follows. Actually we're doing more. I've been coaxed into being more present on Twitter by like adding little pictures

[00:01:32] and things to that nature. And I'll try to be more engaged in that area. Excuse me, 50 year old here. But my slightly what is it? Young 30s or late 20s producers are telling me I need to be more visible on Twitter. So we're trying that out.

[00:01:58] Don't look at better with that. So join us there. There's a little cool little back and forth between the producers on what I do something or not or whatever. And then go to Front Runner Pock-Ask Collective on YouTube.

[00:02:16] Now we haven't put up a couple of videos up as late. It's just going to be a real crazy with the gathering information or trying to gather information and get these pods up. But as we start to dwindle down here, which should start as of tomorrow.

[00:02:38] Expect videos up. We promised that always they're going to be little nuggets in there that are not on the podcast. We always stick those in there during the actual clip of the YouTube. The YouTube clips. Sorry.

[00:02:57] And then the other thing is we are now in a new month. The challenge is out there. Can we be last month? Can we go back to back on the best months that we've ever had for this podcast? So the challenge is out there.

[00:03:21] Be a friend, tell a friend. I think also I have been a solution-based person. Well, you say events. I told my friends who should I tell? We talked about the Uber driver. We talked about the Uber East driver. We talked about your male person.

[00:03:42] You know what I'm saying? So can't say male man. Male person. Now you're dry cleaners. So to your dry cleaners every week pick up the skirts, the blouses, the shirts, the slacks. Right? Did he get the stain out? We don't know. We don't know.

[00:04:06] We're playing a rushing roulette every time we go to this place. But if you have a good dry cleaner, let them know about front and runner podcasts collective. We handle all your NVAD tier. We're probably going to be different our foot into some football in the fall.

[00:04:25] Now that's what I laid a date. We ain't gonna talk about that right now. So be a friend, tell a friend, a wild-to-procast. The numbers last month historic for us, which is modest, but we loved it. And we hope to continue to do better.

[00:04:42] So with that, let's start the pot. We're gonna get into some of these signings. The first one that I really want to get into was it wasn't a surprise that he got resigned. It was the surprise of what he got resigned for. Jonathan Isaac of the Orlando Magic.

[00:05:03] Now, I have friends who are Orlando Magic fans or I have people who I know are Orlando Magic fans. They are pumped for last year, right? They're pumped about what happened. And there's a love of Jonathan Isaac in Orlando.

[00:05:26] Now, we don't get to see him very often unless you are a sicko like me who watches a lot of Orlando Magic basketball. I was driving that cold Anthony train early in the year. So Jonathan Isaac has had just catastrophic knee injuries and things of that nature that

[00:05:47] have just played him his entire career. And last year, he finally put it together, even though it was still an injury crate play gear, they brought him along slowly. But they gave him a five year 84 million dollar contract. I am really confused about the dollar amount.

[00:06:15] Who was there somebody out there? Because I couldn't find anybody out there that was looking to give Jonathan Isaac that type of money. Now, people interested in the size, also the capable shooting ability from the outside.

[00:06:37] They were wondering if that's something that could be spammed more, if it could be reproduced at a higher level. And so there were people kicking in tires around, but I don't think anybody was looking for that price tag. I'm not saying against the signing at all.

[00:07:00] But to me this would mean that they expected Jonathan Isaac would have a bigger role. If you're giving him this kind of money, this means this is going to come with some sort of responsibility. So does this mean because I'm always a domino follower?

[00:07:20] We talk about on this show, follow the money, follow where everything is going. And we also talk about what front offices are thinking and where can they, it's always the margins that these individuals talk about. It's never like, oh, we signed X and X star.

[00:07:40] It's we really made a shrewd, second round taxpayer shaving deal that is going to have ramifications two years down the road. That's what they care about. But if you have window Carter Jr., who is a really good center, also provides some outside shooting ability, albeit is not pure.

[00:08:08] But it's respectable enough where you have to honor it. Now Jonathan Isaac on the other hand, his shot doesn't look awesome. It does go in. It doesn't go in at such a higher rate over window Carter Jr. that you're going, yeah, we got how that on the court.

[00:08:31] But makes Jonathan Isaac so tantalizing. This is ability to guard one through five. He can guard point guard, shooting guard, small forward, powerful forward, or center. He is expertly good at these things and his wingspan being six eleven and having seven

[00:08:52] seven wingspan allows him to be in a lot of areas all at the same time. So he can guard the short corner three and also guard the pain at the same time. No issue whatsoever. He is guarding two people at once. So that's the reason for the swing.

[00:09:11] Now the injuries have not subsided. This has not changed. This is why my thought of interpretation for this particular situation. I love the player. I love the talent. I think he can be, I think he can unlock Orlando to a higher level than window Carter Jr.

[00:09:37] But the one thing that I want to see is availability. A availability is key because you can't install all these real creative defensive systems because of the fact that he's such an extraordinary talent on that end.

[00:09:55] He, he, coolers up a lot of mistakes that you think are going to be there just by his presence. If they're counting on him and this money says that they are, we got some interesting to talk about because what do you do with window Carter Jr.

[00:10:17] Are you turning him into something? And the reason why I bring these things up is that we're going to tie signings to what does this actually mean? Does this mean anything? Does this make a statement?

[00:10:33] Because believe it or not, every signing does make some sort of statement for either A, the player personnel person. If the player personnel person has a strong scouting department or player development situation going on, it's a, oh, it's a sounding board for them.

[00:10:55] Or if this is just an owner saying, this is a toy that is really shiny and I want to have it. Those happen in the NBA as well. But with this particular one, I think the key is, do we see anything down the line within

[00:11:16] the next week or so? And the reason why I say that the reason why I say that in the next week or so is because a lot of NBA players want their, whatever their situation is, whether it's a change

[00:11:33] in, roll within the team or changing teams or I'm going from a bench roll to a starter roll or whatever the case may be. They want everything finalized by the time the Olympic practices start.

[00:11:56] So America's best is going over a France this year to represent the country and a lot of dudes are saying, hey, whatever it is that we're going to have done, let's have it done by then.

[00:12:13] So there's another key to this because the NBA when it comes to your, I guess if you want to call it a hierarchy. So you have your big fish right? Then you have your little bit smaller but still big fish and then it goes down it down.

[00:12:36] The people who are looking for finalization on deals and trades and whatever by this certain date, the lesser players are saying, hey, we want this done too. So then we can go out and really get our party all because it's the all season.

[00:12:56] And we want to go to France and hang out with the other NBA players and all the Olympians and so again the events and the festivities and the wine and the champagne and all the France has to offer.

[00:13:15] So NBA players are like even your mid level guy, you're rookie, you're fourth year guy who's looking for the next contract. They're all looking to have all this stuff done within I would say Monday, done, still Monday.

[00:13:43] A lot of things might be happening in percolating within the next 48 hours. We shall see I'm not saying or reporting that I see anything here, I have not heard anything here. I'm just strictly following the money. So Jonathan Isaac, I love the player.

[00:14:04] I'm really, I'm really weary about the just the money aspect. We move along to Kyle Anderson, who warmly played for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Good role player and also we highlight Kyle Anderson. Why? Oh, why? Cause he's a UCLA growing. That's why. A clap all day for UCLA right.

[00:14:31] Now I'll go home for my guy. Kyle Anderson, good vet goes to the Warriors on a pretty. It's a sign of trade deal three years, 27 million. You get another cerebral player in the building and if you look at it this way, you get

[00:14:48] a bigger version of Chris Paul. You get a six nine version of Chris Paul. Imagine what you can do with that. That guy can actually get over a screen. That guy can get his jump shot off. That guy can provide better rebounding numbers.

[00:15:10] Kyle Anderson is a really good fit for what Golden State is doing because here's the moment we'll talk about it. We talked about it on the previous podcast while Clay Thompson making a decision that decision was made and he went to Dallas. We talked about the numbers.

[00:15:31] We talked about that the Lakers offer more than Dallas and this was a fit situation and also did he feel comfortable with his last remaining years to be underneath the ZAR that is LeBron James or the perception of him being a ZAR or be in Dallas.

[00:15:58] He had a great relationship with Nico Harrison. I think that's also the key. A lot of people need to start paying attention to Nico Harrison. Nico Harrison was the Nike exec that came over. Remember everybody was like, what is this? Nike? What is Dallas doing?

[00:16:17] Now they get rid of people. Remember they had who was it? Who saw was it? It was Donnie Nelson. Johnny Nelson was the player personnel guy. Guy really had Nico Harrison comes in from Nike.

[00:16:35] So all of his Nike affiliations, all of his Nike contacts, all of the conversations that he has had with these players and all these relationships that he's built and the emotional equity as a lot of these players feel very comfortable around Nico Harrison.

[00:16:57] Clay Thompson is one of those. Not because he's a Nike guy, just because he's our great things about Nico Harrison. Jason, his there is an infrastructure there that he felt comfortable with. That he didn't necessarily feel comfortable with in Los Angeles and we will get to them

[00:17:21] at the end of the show, trust me. So he goes there, Kyle Anderson is okay. We got to make up for this right. And Kyle Anderson, yes, will not be the offensive player that Clay Thompson is or was.

[00:17:40] But as far as making the right play, being on the right spot in the defense on the defense side, being able to be a connector and make passes and see things at a high level and be able to play within that golden state of ecosystem.

[00:17:58] This is a really good deal, really good deal. We move along to LeBron James. Actually, no, we're going to hold the bronze. Because we're going to hold off all later talk until the end.

[00:18:16] I am going to move along to, oh yeah, Joe Engels got signed by the T-Walls vet minimum Thomas Bryant, Recyte with the Miami Heat. I'm sure Jimmy Butler is pretty excited about that, a non-rebounding big. So he will have to do more work.

[00:18:35] I'm sure Jimmy is really excited about that. Him and Hi-Kit, Hi-Mihai Kest Jr. Alex Burke signed with the heat as well. And Alex Burke remember, he was with Detroit. He got freed from Detroit and went to the next.

[00:18:54] And then he got immediately sent to the prison that is Tom Tibodell's bench. And then, once everybody got hurt, we got to parole. Alex Burke's. Alex Burke said a couple of big shots in the playoffs and now he is a member of the Miami Heat.

[00:19:19] Good fit, solid vet, knows his role. He will do what he is asked to do. And that is a good thing. They need more players that are just going to be able to handle their role and not try to do extra.

[00:19:41] Speaking of the Lakers, Turing and Prints, a lightning rod in this city for many reasons Turing Prints, if you don't know, if you're not a Laker fan, he was the, I want to say there were a lot of topics in Laker land last year.

[00:20:05] Darden hands rotations, why doesn't Darwin hand call timeouts? But one of the biggest things was Turing Prints being in the starting lineup and taking Austin Reeves out of the starting lineup and all these type of things.

[00:20:23] And let me tell you something, the Laker fans, Turing Prints had a pretty good year. He was solid stuff that we asked him to. He did. Unfortunately, Darwin Ham has such an affinity for him that he kept sticking him back

[00:20:41] in the starting lineup when it was like clearly this is a bench dude. But they reunite back in Milwaukee so the two Star Cross lovers find each other in Milwaukee. Darwin Ham, Turing and Prints, Janis Antitucumpo, Damian Liller, Cheese Cards, cows, it's going to

[00:21:13] be great in Milwaukee next year. This is going to be fantastic. But Turing Prints that Wayne grugged, he's going to give you some re-bounding, he's going to try to defend as much as possible we can. I think he lost the step.

[00:21:31] But he will be able to knock down a shot and if he can spell Chris Middleton, if you can, basically say hey look Chris, legitimately we're going to cut you down at 28 minutes.

[00:21:48] And then you look at Turing Prints and say hey Turing it, you're going to get 20 minutes to play basketball because when this dude is out your coming in, it's simple that.

[00:22:01] And if everybody could get on the same page and see this is what Doc is real good at, especially talk to Vets about this. Okay, listen after they'll look at the analytics they'll say listen after minute 30, your

[00:22:14] production and your efficiency goes down and it goes down by 34 percent. And this is the reason why we're going to have you on a 28 minute basically let's use baseball terminology for a second. We're going to have you on a pitch count. 28 minutes that's where you most effective.

[00:22:37] Well, get you out the game. So I like the move for Turing Prints to Milwaukee. Now let's get on this this next topic because this is the pretty much the premise of the show. We talked about it all year and I don't think anybody really understood the ramifications

[00:22:59] or just the honor of the whole dilemma that was what it was going to be. But once it got here, I think we now all understand what it is and what I'm talking about is the second apron. It is real. It is punitive.

[00:23:19] And even our most titanic governors in the sport are scared of this boogie man. So we're going to go through it. We're going to look at it and then again how we do at Firm Run and podcast collective, you make your own choices, you make your own decisions.

[00:23:43] We just lay out what we see. But we're going to start with the Phoenix Suns. I always like to start with the Phoenix Suns because they are a fascinating case study of the second apron.

[00:23:59] And the reason why I say that is because we got a new owner about a year and a half ago, he was really excited to be an owner. James Jones, a veteran player personnel guy who had guided the Phoenix Suns not just the competency.

[00:24:24] Now they did have some luck, right Chris Paul fell into it and he was like the missing kind of Mr. Miyagi piece for a Devon Booker. Yes, karate kid references on the podcast because I'm old. But the team looked great. I ain't look really good.

[00:24:52] Again, there was some warts and there's some things to work out. But the team was relevant. They were in the mix. They were moving along and then the new owner came. And now the situation with the Phoenix Suns, I'm going to look at it like this.

[00:25:11] James Jones reminds me of a gamer who is real frustrated with his high speed Wi-Fi. It's not we're lagging, something's going on. We got sourdies that don't make any sense. We are second apron bound and again.

[00:25:35] If you haven't seen what you can't do on the second apron, take a look at it. I'm probably going to tweet it out after the show to drive home the point. But if you make a trade, it's dollar for dollar.

[00:25:59] So you can't take any salary back, not one penny. Let's take a great grace now in. Great $19 million dollars. You cannot actually, I think, grace now in the mix lesson. Let me not disc wear these James Jones because James Jones is a good player personnel

[00:26:27] guy which will bring me to another player personnel guy later, trust me. But you got grace now in the list of you that $15 million dollars of whatever. Let's say you want it to get a bigger wing for some reason.

[00:26:48] Let's say, David Lee, who they also signed during this free agent period, let's say he goes off. He found some shooting coach that just, he's just hitting everything and now grace and Alan becomes expendable. And you want to turn him into a wing.

[00:27:09] Now we also need to make $15 million dollars. He can't make $15, he can't make $15 one. Hell, he can't even make $15 million and one dollar. He can't. You can't get him. Now you can take less back.

[00:27:34] Now usually if you're taking less back and they're willing to trade it to you, that means that a they're not living up to the 12 million dollar salary. So why do you want him? So there's a lot of things they go along with it.

[00:27:53] So the second apron super real, they're $26.5 million dollars over. We're not even going to get into all the taxes that go along with it and everything. It gets messy. But it's just the punitive nature of it. Your draft pick. Now here's the other thing.

[00:28:13] Phoenix doesn't have a way out. Next year, if they end up in the same situation, which that's what it looks like because there's no trade out there for them. Guess what? Their first round picks, seven years later gets frozen at the back of the line. That's it.

[00:28:37] It's over. So this, oh, my out candidates. Now can do those. Mid level, excepting guys, Phoenix can't do those. It's either through the draft or you have to be so expert thread in the needle on trades to get this done.

[00:29:03] That's the co-harsher reality of the finance part of it. Now let's look at the team a little bit. Now here's the question that I have. I'm Bootenhoser and his band of Mary 50 plus million dollar triumphant of Bradley Bill Devin Booker and Kevin DeWrand. Can they play together?

[00:29:29] One, right? We need to play games together. Two, can they and their talents lier up to the lofty expectations that everybody put on them last year because Phoenix was held as a team that we had to look out for.

[00:29:52] I wonder because they didn't, yes, I'm going to talk about some of the things they did do but I want to talk about the owner before I get to the other thing. This is a cautionary tale.

[00:30:11] This is a cautionary tale because I can say here in child tell you Bootenhoser, his offense, his defense of principles, it will bring some structure to the team that maybe they couldn't get down with last year.

[00:30:25] But I think this is more the truth is that we see it in time and time again. We get an over-exuberant owner and he is so held on making a deal that he puts your team in such an economic, dire straits that you just locked.

[00:30:54] I like to call this particular melody, EGS. We're big on like letters and that mean things now. We got short and things out for people, L-O-L and it's a lot of people short and that up when things are that nature. So EGS stands for exuberant governor, central now.

[00:31:25] It's science. So it's well documented. If you go to the Princeton, like school of medicine or if you go to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, they will have documentation on this. Seriously, the other thing is this, Brooklyn.

[00:31:51] So here we got two documented cases and they came out of the same area. So they thought they had isolated the melody in Brooklyn. But it actually seemed to become airborne and go to Phoenix. So Matt is be a, is like every other owner.

[00:32:15] He got a new toy or if you want to break it down like this, I'm sure there are some people out there that will completely understand what I'm about to say. For 16, 17 years old, you just got a car. You might have a job.

[00:32:37] You might be doing some stuff. You might be nowadays your influence and that's what I do, your influence. Whatever. You want to install a like, nice stereo system. You want to put some rooms on your car and you want to put like the big, the big speakers

[00:33:03] in there right. But you don't put the security system in the car. And then what happens? All of y'all stuff is gone. That's what's going on with Phoenix. They had a lot of depth. They traded away when they got Kevin Durant. They doubled down, got Bradley Bill.

[00:33:36] They became the most inflexible team in all of basketball and now they're paying for it. Because the second apron doesn't give you away out. You can't spend your way out of it. So it is a lesson.

[00:33:58] Now some of their pickups, Mason Plumley, I like him, but Minimum knows his role. Good big, provides defense, size, a lob threat. Damien Lee we talked about. Now Monti Moris might be a good pickup for them.

[00:34:14] If he can regain some of the juice that he had three years ago, again, we're asking a lot, right? The three years ago. He might be able to provide something because here's the thing. We're asking you to shoot now, Monti.

[00:34:32] We're not asking you to go to the whole 15 times a game or anything like that. We're asking you to be cognizant with the ball. Don't turn it over. Shoot when open. When you're not open, move the ball along. That's it. And then the rookie Ryan Dunn.

[00:34:54] We talked about him in the last spot. I think this is a good fit. Great defensive player. I want to see it translate to the pros, obviously, but he loves it and if he loves

[00:35:09] it in college, she's going to love it in the pros and he's probably going to be really good at it. There's that. Now, the second team that I wanted to bring to your attention and we talked them about earlier, the Golden State Warriors.

[00:35:23] Now the Golden State Warriors are also a casualty of this second apron. The reason why I say that is because Clay Thompson, who is a sure fire, Hall of Famer, he is a four-time NBA champion for the Golden State Warriors.

[00:35:49] He is part of an iconic duo with Steph Curry called The Splash Brothers. I'm sure you guys have heard of them. He's put up some of the most memorable moments in Warriors history and he even has

[00:36:07] a nickname of Game Six Clay, because he's turned it on in multiple game sixes. Now he's no longer a Golden State Warriors. I would love for him to get a Laker, even though I didn't like the fit.

[00:36:28] But I think this is one of those where you can look at the cap or the second apron or whatever it is. You can maybe look at some of the things that might have happened before that might have caused Clay to leave because make no mistake about it.

[00:36:52] It was a respect issue. Clay Thompson watched Jordan Pool and Andrew Wiggins get extensions. Then he watched Dray Ma Green, excuse me, so sorry, it took up because I'm about to say something awful.

[00:37:15] He watched Dray Ma Green punch, Jordan Pool in the face and then saw Dray Ma Green get an extension. When it's time for Clay to get the extension, now we don't know where I wallet is. Oh man, I get paid next Tuesday.

[00:37:40] Let me get you back next month. Hey man, I got a gift card. I can give you. Now you can't do this to him. And when you put them off and you put them off and you put them off, this is what was going to happen.

[00:37:56] And notice he stayed in the same conference. Notice he decided to go through the Western Conference Finals champions. The Dallas Mavericks, join forces with Luca, join forces with Kai Rhee, join forces with Bay Area legend, Jason Kitt.

[00:38:21] And now we'll play Golden State at least three times a year probably four. And I guarantee you every last game will be nationally televised. It'll be on ESPN, it'll be on TNT, it'll be on ABC. It will not be on NBA TV at all. This will be musty.

[00:38:47] Everybody will want to see it drama field can't wait. So now getting back to all the stuff that's going on with them. So they lose him for that. But here's the best part for the first time under Joe Slake during this championship run.

[00:39:09] The Golden State Warriors are underneath the cap. Even they missed a light year's ahead, they have to come to the second apron and the cap. And then here's the other thing. Golden State is just a victim where their own creation.

[00:39:32] Curves offense and it's futuristic look in 2015 if you think about it. We're decade in now. So what has happened? Everybody has spanned the offense. Everybody is playing a five out or trying to their bigger, their more skilled and their multiple willing shooters.

[00:40:06] Now it's not all we have to look at Boston in the final. Boston has four shooters on the court. And only reason they have four is because Chris to aquazinga's will turn. The Chris to aquazinga's is healthy. He's definitely going to, he's definitely going to provide some spacing.

[00:40:33] They're a victim of their own creation. Everybody looked at it and said, how can we make this better? You know what we can do? Really? All right. People found out was this, is that we can't match the talent of stepcaring and clay Thompson.

[00:40:52] These are two of the greatest shooters we've ever seen in basketball history, right? But what we can do is we can closely, facsimile what they do. And now you have this situation where everybody's doing what they're doing and they're bigger and they're more skilled.

[00:41:19] And this is what happens. And now you have a team that is less talented because of just the erosion of age and also being high salary for so long that now you're hoping on Andrew Wiggins bounce back here. Which could happen.

[00:41:39] Dancing, you melt, now I want to talk about him. He was the other signing. I like this kid 26 years old. Good defensive player pretty good outside shooter. I'll can drive it to the basket. Can give you some second side creation ability.

[00:41:55] I love the pickup for what it was. Obviously it's not clay top. Moody gets a shot to, Moses Moody gets a shot at getting some raps. But he got to look at the Anthony Mellon because we didn't waiting for Moody to show more.

[00:42:16] Caminga did last year but we didn't get that from Moody and we'll see how it all goes. Now we'll say this, the other interesting thing is who's going to get the second most shot on this team? Is it wagons or Caminga? Really do.

[00:42:36] The bounce back by wagons is imperative. It's absolutely imperative. If they think they have any shot at contention which we're going to pump the brakes on the contention talk, okay, we don't pump the brakes.

[00:42:54] I promise you at the end of this I'm going to land a plane because all this is all connected to one another. Again, you have another team that's going to affect it by the cap that was extraordinarily overpriced for a long period of time.

[00:43:09] And now it's all come home to roost. The next thing that we're going to get into is the last thing that we're going to get into which is the Los Angeles Lakers. Now reports here in Los Angeles where that up until today, the bronze James was willing

[00:43:32] to take a pick up. If only Raukulinka would be able to find necessary upgrades to the team and it created a full mid-level exception. Now we're in day four, obviously when we last talk, we were talking about names coming

[00:43:55] off the board and what's going to happen with the Lakers. Here now in, and guess what? Still say still in this situation. And let's see. He said that he would take a pick up for a youngness of balance units, value tune is

[00:44:24] sign for $10 million, which is not even the mid-level exception. That's the first one. The second one in the third one didn't have a snowball chance in hell. He said I will take a mid-level exception for James Harden.

[00:44:44] Now James Harden, the last couple of years, has taken substantial pickups and James Harden is a while his cash, so he was definitely going to get his bag which he did two years, $70 million. Congratulations to the bear for getting your money and then it was Clay Thompson.

[00:45:10] And as much vitriol is in Clay's heart, he damn sure we're going to take that mid-level exception. He was not going to play for $12.8 million. Clay Thompson is a hall of fameer. Yes, he didn't get $30 million but he definitely wasn't going to play for the mid-level exception.

[00:45:38] But where does this lead to the Lakers? LeBron James is back in the fall. We signed a two-year deal with a player option on the second year of course, $444 million which is a little less which keeps the Lakers flexible so they can still make trades even

[00:46:07] right now even though they are right now really close to the second acre. So they're going to have to do something and they're going to have to do something by the sixth times the wasting. But LeBron James basically wager $20 million that Rob Plinka couldn't do his job.

[00:46:33] And guess what? He was right or was he? I know a lot of you are frustrated, I've seen it, I felt the vitriol. I felt the anger. Why is our guide being negligent? He's dead being dead elective duty. He's just lazy, he's not doing anything. Pause.

[00:47:02] First and foremost, the Angela Russell, we can get Rob a lot of a lot of grief for giving the Angela Russell down there $40 million last year. We can be mad about that because one of the reasons why the Lakers needed to get off salary.

[00:47:27] They needed to get off salary so they were like, oh you can just trade D-glow and then we'll give trade, we'll give clay just the D-glow contract. Don't say it was they underestimated the fear of the apron. Do you know what I'm talking about?

[00:47:47] They did not understand the climate of league. Who's fault of that? All right, now the other thing, right? So he's on his contract. There's no there's not a free agent coming in so far. Where are we?

[00:48:08] What could we have done in this timeframe to be productive while waiting for safe reagents and make of his mind because we remembered this? The murder rose in the still out there. Now, there were reports that he was going to be a Miami heat.

[00:48:25] I am here to tell you right now. I've heard from two people. There's a good chance that Dmodu Rosen is either going to be a Sacramento king or he is going to be of all things, a San Antonio Square.

[00:48:46] So I'm going to tell you right now, Laker fans, if you were pissed before, wait till you hear about the content kid born in Rays and Compton was at the Kendrick Lamar concert. He got a San Antonio. You plan to, you plan to dangerous game.

[00:49:07] My guy, he plan to real dangerous game because I don't know if you really know about these streets out here. Like you would save guard for a long period of time because you would be a co-week Brian's agent.

[00:49:23] But now what all this people out here mad, man, keep your head on the swivel and my guy, keep your head on swivel and let you know. It's not all doom and gloom because here's the thing, they do have some outs. They do have D'Angelo Rosen's contract.

[00:49:46] They win dangling out there since the start of re-agency. I do not expect D'Angelo Russell to be with the team at the start of training camp. I just think when there's so much smoke, there has to be fire.

[00:50:01] I am not sold even though that Donovan Manichole's sound he signed his three year extension for a $150 million. I'm still not so that Cleveland won't at least break off a chunk of that team. You got Lori Markin' it out there now. Legger fans, I'm gonna let you know.

[00:50:27] If you think you're getting Lori Markin' in here in Los Angeles, either Rockwellink has some pictures that are unflattering to Danny H or he knows something like real sinister of while Danny. Because your two firsts aren't gonna cut it.

[00:50:50] Now I'm not saying you have to give up five firsts like the next day for McHill bridges, but two is not enough. Three and a swap might be talking. Now you can float the idea of Jalen Hood Chafino as kind of a pseudo-first round pick,

[00:51:18] a modaclay that you can mold into whatever you want or whatever. You can sell that to a team which you're not gonna sell that to Danny H. But they're still the Brooklyn wings that are out there.

[00:51:36] So there are things that must be ironed out before we are calling it over as far as NBA free agent, francy. A lot of work to be done but at the end of the day with Rockwellink and not doing anything as far as the trades go.

[00:52:03] It's a tough road to hold, but here's the thing. He said at the press conference with JJ this very important thing. He said it's hard for me to trade and it's been all over LA radio, every podcast, everything like that.

[00:52:23] The other thing he did say is that we are doubling down on development. Now we're gonna win on the margins and I have been talking on this podcast for months that Polinka has been rebuilding the Lakers underneath LeBron James Knows.

[00:52:44] He didn't realize it and I think we're here. I think LeBron knows. He really understands what the hell is going on right now. And I think he's fine with it. His son is on the team. He's 40 years, he's gonna be 40 years old.

[00:53:09] He signed a two year but it's a player option. Are we really going to surprise the LeBron James might hang it up after next year? Because he has to do something. Bryce James said something funny a week ago because somebody asked him a question,

[00:53:34] hey, what would it be like for you to play with your dad? His answer was just like, it was so incredulous. He was just like, what? What do you, I do be like 42? Like he couldn't even imagine two years into the future. Like he couldn't even imagine it.

[00:53:59] He doesn't know where he's playing with me. Like with confidence, he said that. I think Bryce James knows a little bit more about what's going on in the house than maybe we would just say it.

[00:54:19] So we might be coming out of the tyranny of LeBron James a little bit earlier than we may think. But pump the brakes on all of it because if Polinka makes some move within the next

[00:54:33] 48 hours, we'll all be jumping on the bad wagon and talking about championships and probably it would probably won't make any sense whatsoever, but we'll see how it all goes. Because we love the Lakers, the Lakers are squat.

[00:54:49] And this brings me to the end of this because the second apron is real. Steve Bomber of all people has succumbed to the second apron. Paul George is no longer a clipper. There isn't an infinite amount of money out there.

[00:55:16] And even if there was the world's say that money don't mean a damn thing. So the only way for you to be a team that can be comfortably in the second apron, you both start looking at the Boston Celtics model or the okay C Thunder model.

[00:55:39] So we're starting to look at this. We're starting to look at the people who are in charge. You guys are looking at their scouting and their development departments and seeing that there's any real geniuses in there and start picking them off one by one

[00:55:59] because they have shown you the blueprint of what it looks like when you are when you plan around with the second apron. So that is what we're doing for today. What I wanted to tell you is this is that obviously as long as we have branding

[00:56:20] anger them out there as long as we have whatever's going to go on with Lori, marketing and the kids in Brooklyn. We will be vigilant here. We are scheduled to do a podcast on Friday. It might get pushed back to Saturday just

[00:56:41] just depending on what goes on tomorrow and on Friday. What here's the thing. If there's something that breaks tomorrow on July 4th, we will pot. Okay. If he's a branding ing room tray, we're going to pot so don't worry about it.

[00:57:03] Keep it locked here at frontrunner. Pot has collected for that. Before I get out here two other things to clean up. One. We're going to start doing something next week. We're going to start breaking these teams down more like more succinctly.

[00:57:26] We're going to focus in on what we're going to do. We're going to try to bring on guests and we're going to be like 10 focus centric for that particular situation. So as we start to

[00:57:42] put together a guest list and get people in here to talk with us and break down the teams, I will on Twitter and with the producers help. Let y'all know which team we're going to focus on.

[00:57:58] But keep in mind even with that being said, I'll be like 30 minutes of a pot. There's a whole of 30 minutes in that pot so that'll be where if something pops up, something arises,

[00:58:11] that's where all that will be. Don't worry about it. We're going to stay on the news. We're going to stay on all the rumors. We're going to stay on all trades. We don't stay on all of it.

[00:58:21] Okay? All right. With that being said, I want to give everybody just a heart fell. Thank you again. Another great month for frontrunner. Pot has collected. If down loads again, be a friend, tell

[00:58:37] a friend, let people know about the podcast. We are independent. We do not have any advertising as of yet and we're working to get that. We're getting closer and closer. I'll thank you guys for that. But you're following the podcast, helps that situation along.

[00:59:01] And it's the dream of mine to hire more people and do more different types of podcast and get out into the model universe and Star Wars and food in music and culture and all kinds of

[00:59:19] things. Hopefully you guys will help me make that dream come true. We give it up to God and we put our faith in you. So with that being said, let's quite a huge you. Do not let

[00:59:38] anyone extinguish a like keep positive people around you that only brighten your light and I'll go out there and do good in the world and we'll see you back on this feed. You know what? We're going to see you back on this feed on Friday. Peace.