NBA In Season Tourney Preview and College Football Playoff Comparison

[00:00:00] Alright, who has his Monday, you know what time it is, it's FRPC and it's your host Vince. I'm on the air with you and we got a lot to cover and we got real short time to do it but

[00:00:17] There's a lot of stuff that we talk about here, we talk about the NBA, we talk about the draft, we want to talk about the front offices and we want to get more

[00:00:27] In-depth on those things but there's something that has come across my desk that definitely needs some sort of Of comment and it actually leads into the NBA so just give me a minute and let me kind of just rank for a second.

[00:00:46] The College Football Playoffs happened over the weekend and one of the things that we talk about with the NBA is how regular season games, you know, it's not a lot of juice and there's not a lot going on or whatever case may be

[00:01:03] But the one thing that we talk about in college football is that every game matters or should I say it should matter because we had a highest in college football over the weekend and by now everybody knows that Florida State who was 13 in zero

[00:01:25] One their conference championship game also the defending two time not one two time defending national champions the Georgia Bulldogs lost over the weekend as well now with all that being said It's really hard for me to sit here and go

[00:01:52] Alabama is deserving to get into this thing now I know college football fans will tell me You know, hey these are the breaks whatever case may be but I really don't think that's the case because it's always a moving target when we talk about college football.

[00:02:14] The great thing about the NBA is twofold one you win and I'll games you go on to the postseason. Hell, they even put in a a a playing end game for teams who were at the back end which I think is brilliant.

[00:02:31] I think there's too many teams I think we could do something where instead of.

[00:02:36] Now actually it's pretty good. I mean you think about it the last four teams, you know, maybe they have some injuries or whatever but you play to get in and it doesn't matter if you have injuries.

[00:02:50] It doesn't matter about oh we like this star over this particular basketball star it's you win and you're in. Well, in college football is a little bit different because we got people.

[00:03:06] And anytime you enter in to some sort of agreement with a person understand that everybody has flaws myself. I have flaws. I am not a perfect human being there was one. That wound is land that was perfect. He died for us in so with that being said.

[00:03:34] Let me give you my little thing on the college football playoffs. All this has to do with is the age old question. It's never about the most deserving. It's who are the it people that we can invite to the party.

[00:04:02] Florida State can be summed up and some pop culture references now. I'm going to age myself a little bit so when I when you hear these movies for the young people. You might have to google because these movies are like 34 to years old.

[00:04:21] It was in black and white but trust me it was actually in color. But Florida State reminds me of every character in a John Hughes film in the 80s.

[00:04:32] There's a movie called Pretty and Pink. In that movie there was a star by the name of what Molly Ringwalk who was the. She was the actual apple of what Florida State would be, which is John Chyre.

[00:04:49] And if you know two and a half men John Chyre is in that show. I think he's starting in the new show coming up in the next couple weeks or whatever but.

[00:04:59] John Chyre was in this movie called Pretty and Pink. And he was he went by the name of duckie. Now duckie is a did everything he was possible. So close to do he was a gentleman. He cared about this girl.

[00:05:16] And she just didn't see him in that light because she's trying to get to the popular kid. Right now the breakfast club. Also very old movie. And that there was a character by the name of Michael Anthony Hall.

[00:05:35] Now if you watch some Saturday night live back in the day, Michael Anthony Hall was on that. But he had a character on on the Griffiths Club called Brian Johnson. Kind of a dream. Not as popular.

[00:05:53] And one of the points in the movie he asked like after we get out of detention. And if you haven't seen the movie, it's based with them in detention. There's a bunch of people. Judd Nelson's in it. Ali Sheedy is in it.

[00:06:10] I'm trying to think of somebody else who was in it. Just a myriad of like 80 stars in whatever the case. And he asked a very important question. He's character Brian Johnson says a very important question after detention.

[00:06:26] Will it be cool for us to hang out to Molly Ringwall? And she said no. Because you have your friends I have mine. Now does this sound like Florida State? It does. You want more proof? I got another one for you. I got 16 candles.

[00:06:47] Molly Ringwall is in this one. But now she's the person that's on the outside looking in. Her character is Samantha Baker. And she is the one being forgotten about. Miss judged. Not as popular. And we'll have you.

[00:07:10] And I think one of the movies that I am really, really like tie to. There was a movie called some kind of wonderful. And it had a a a a plethora of stars in this. Eric Stoltz was in this.

[00:07:28] But there was a young lady by the late name of Mary Stewart. Master's it. Her character in the show was called Watts. And she was forgotten about and is in used incorrectly. And you know, she wasn't the most. She wasn't the prettiest girl in school.

[00:07:49] Whatever kind of a. Tongue and everything like that. And she was overlooked. Now you want a more contemporary. Story towards this. I think about four or five years ago. There was a movie called The Duff. And it started May Whitman.

[00:08:11] May Whitman has been in a lot of things. She's been in Scott Pilgrim versus the world all constantly. Very, very talented actress. But in this movie she plays the. You know, bypass person. You know, not the most popular. But you know, what happened.

[00:08:31] And unfortunately all of these things add up to Florida state. And I'll get to the only one second. And then probably a movie that is like in between the 20 year olds and the 30 year olds.

[00:08:45] 20 year olds might not have seen this, but I'm sure the 30 year olds have seen it. There was a movie called Can't Heartly Wait. And in this movie Rachel Lee could plays a art student. Very missed. You know, just a cast out. Miss Fit type person. And becomes popular.

[00:09:16] Right. But for four years of our high school career. Overlook. Not popular. She takes off her glasses and pulls down her hair. And she comes the sexiest kid in school. But four years, nobody looked at her and she knew the value in herself.

[00:09:36] So she didn't she got me they go to a whole thing. But at the end of the day, she says, you know, I got to be true to myself. But all these things. Apply to the Florida state.

[00:09:49] And they're not being able to get into the college football playoffs. The other thing that might actually have a real argument to this is the two time defending national champions. The Georgia World Dogs. Now, yes, they lost the SEC championship game.

[00:10:12] What does that mean they go down four slots? You're telling me that Georgia, who's played great all year, lost one game, doesn't get there. I mean, if they lost three games, yes, they don't get the right to defend their national championship.

[00:10:30] But not a Florida state or Georgia in, which tells me a lot about the game of college football today. Because it's not about whether you're deserving. It's not about all of the hard work and effort that you put in.

[00:10:51] But who's the most popular? And that's what it's all about. So that's my rant on college football. Now we can get on to the whole business of basketball. I have a ton of notes here that we need to go over.

[00:11:07] A lot of us going to have to do is with the NC's internment. And we'll get there. But before we do that, I want to talk about a yokech of Denver,

[00:11:20] winning the player of the month award and no vanguard. I want to talk about Jason Tatum doing it for the East as well. Here's the thing that I want to say about Nicole Yelkitch. He's one, two MVP so far. He's one of finals MVP so far.

[00:11:38] But let me give you a couple numbers. He might be even better than he was over the last, during his MVP season. He might be better now. The reason why I say that is that right now,

[00:11:55] his assist percentage is 48% which is higher than it was in his previous MVP seasons. Power 100 possessions. He's African 41.8 points again. His offense of rating is 131 and his defense of rating is 109. His true shooting percentage is down, but keep in mind, his running mate, Jomal Murray,

[00:12:26] his injured, Ergord has been injured. They've been playing with a less of a crew than normal. So he's shooting percentage is true shooting percentages down. He was at 634 right now and last year he was shooting, he was at 7 to 7 to 8 point 1 last year. These things are,

[00:12:54] these numbers that he's putting up and not having the actual team that he normally has. I mean, he's looking at another MVP year. Now, what the other thing that's going on with this is that we have a situation where

[00:13:12] Jason Tatum is putting up basically a similar year to the last two or three years that he's put up. His free throw rate is down. Now that might have to do because of the system they running Boston. His free throw rate last year was almost 40% it was 39.9.

[00:13:33] This year is at 33.9. Now his true shooting percentage is up to 62.3, which is a plus 0.016 better than last season. So he's actually taking better shots than he was last year. But it looks a lot like it has looked over the last couple years.

[00:14:00] The one thing that I will say about Tatum is that he looks a lot bigger. And I think he pulled on extra weight muscle to handle the wickers as a season and also to have some reserves left in the tank for a long postseason run.

[00:14:17] And Boston is just awesome. They're just awesome right now and actually at least us into the in season tournament and let's talk about some of the particulars in the in season tournament, shall we?

[00:14:30] And I broke this down a little bit too. A lot of this is going to be fun. Give you a little bit of like inside of what I think of the teams and kind of how they're, you know, how they're looking as far as this concern.

[00:14:41] Boston Celtics right now to me are your quintessential Academy Award front runners. If you look at Boston, they play a really uptempo style basketball is very beautiful to watch share the ball that sort of thing, but they just have just incredible firepower, right?

[00:15:04] So when I look at this team, the director or the foreign office person, Brad Stevens, he would be the director of the year in the Academy Awards. You're leading actor will be Jason Tatum, of course we just talked about his numbers.

[00:15:21] Best supporting actor will be Drew Holiday coming over from Milwaukee and adding that steady in presence. Now don't get me wrong, he is replacing the heart and soul of that team, which is what's my guy's name and Memphis now, Marka Smart.

[00:15:45] So he's replacing Marka Smart, but he's such a steady influence. He gives that team structure. He also plays incredible defense and also the most important. He does it turn the ball over nearly as much as Marka Smart, right? That's a major fact.

[00:16:05] And then I would say as far as cinematography, which would be like, you know, just being able to kind of paint the picture for you and that would be Dergwit. Dergwit has played awesome coin guard and I'll remind everyone when all of this was going on.

[00:16:24] It was wondering how Dergwit and Drew Holiday would handle the back court. I think they're handling the back court just fine right now, okay? So the boss of Celtics to me are as front runner as you can possibly get right now.

[00:16:43] They play great defense, they're long, they're athletic and they have a lot to offer anyone. So if you haven't really seen them so far this year, right? You know, because usually people don't get into the basketball until about this time right before the Christmas games or whatever, but we've had because of the disease internment, you know, we got locking and everything.

[00:17:13] This turns us to probably one of my favorite teams and one of my favorite guys to talk about. Let's talk about the Indian equestrian.

[00:17:23] All right, the Indian equestrian is our going to plan the boss of Celtics and it's so funny to me. They're their characteristics. You would think they would be like more of a New York team or LATM or whatever.

[00:17:40] When you think of Indiana, it's the heartland of America. You know, you have the Indianapolis 500 where the winner of the Indianapolis 500 actually drinks like a quarter milk on the winner's podium, all right?

[00:17:56] When you think of Indiana, you think of farms, you think of cows, you think of tractors, they get early in the morning, sort of the earth people, right? No one would immediately think style and flash when you think of Indianapolis.

[00:18:15] But if you look at the pace, it's play. It looks like a video game. It looks like you can't do K and you know, you got your favorite player and he's his hoist no shots.

[00:18:28] Tyree Shaliburton is absolutely phenomenal. He's leading the league with in the cis. He's scoring darn near a closer 30 again and he's just leading the pace or team to this really good early record. They look phenomenal.

[00:18:50] And I like their pace. Now they play not a lick of defense at all. Okay, to the point where you're going to see a bunch of 255 plus scoring between the two teams.

[00:19:07] But it's like a Michael Man film. You're going to have a bunch of explosions. You're going to see cool car chases. You're going to see a bunch of action and when you get done, you're not necessarily knowing that you maybe saw a good movie or bad movie.

[00:19:25] But you were entertained as hell. Right? You were just entertained. There's never a game that's not entertaining with the Indianapolis pace is right down. And again, let's hit on Tyree's. Tyree's how to burn is so unselfish.

[00:19:42] He is making it very easy to score for everybody else, mastering his take in the jump. Miles Turner started off slow. He's still doing miles turner things like he was last year.

[00:20:00] By the way, Loki's sneaky good signing last year. Sign Miles Turner to that contract where they gave him a balloon payment last year and now the salary is descending.

[00:20:15] So I really like what they did with that. And for my boom baby fans out there who are like saying, like, give our teams a love. I just wanted to make sure that we represent it the the Indianapolis is in such a good light.

[00:20:34] Now we move to the kings and the callicans. Kins and pelicans are really straight up. It's actually it's kind of what I want to do is I want to kind of spotlight two guys. And I want to spotlight two guys for specific reasons.

[00:20:56] I want to kind of put our focus on the modest awareness in Zion Williamson. Right. These are two stars that are complete contrast of one another. It just absolutely completely different sides of the spectrum for both of them.

[00:21:20] So bonus his home to skills over these years, you know who is dad is our Vetus.

[00:21:27] Vetus alone is play for the Portland Trailblazers back in like the 90s and the 2000s right. And our Vetus was such a skilled basketball player. We didn't get to see the best version of him.

[00:21:45] Because he played for the Russian national team and he just never got over here. By the time he got over here his knees were shot, he was slower, he wasn't as athletic but his mind and his skill were still there.

[00:21:59] And he's just basically put all that into his son. His son is amazing. He's completely skilled. There's intent with every pick that de Montes abonnet sets. Every DHL, grabbing a defensive rebound. All of it is done with intent and force.

[00:22:25] Okay, because he's not the biggest dude but he's one of the toughest strongest dudes in the NBA. Let's get that straight right now.

[00:22:34] And for our people who are like on the friends who don't who are coming in maybe for the in season tournament who probably don't watch a lot of basketball until maybe the playoffs or whatever.

[00:22:48] Catch a sacramental game and just watch how hard what the effort level is from De Montes abonets every single night because he never cheats the game. He never cheats it. He empties the tank every single time.

[00:23:07] And if you are a basketball purist kind of like myself, you can appreciate that. You can really appreciate that because he's getting everything out of his talent that he's maximizing everything.

[00:23:24] Dean Fox abonance skills the toughness and his real fitness and his regular style of play has the Kings looking at another player who appearance.

[00:23:37] They had literally not been to the playoffs for think about this. The last time they were in playoffs until last year right George W. Bush. Was in his first term. Right it was this first time. That's a long time. Now let's switch on to the other side.

[00:24:00] Zion Wilson has been part of our collective of psyche and in conscious for a while. He broke out on like YouTube clips and TikTok clips back in high school when he was posturizing for rociously these kids probably went on to be very good dentist.

[00:24:30] Future accountants. Regional managers at TGI Fridays. But that's how we got to know Zion Wilson. Now the other thing that captured our imaginations just a power and the explosiveness that he had in high school, but also he took it to Duke.

[00:24:55] To the point remember when we were sitting there and we were talking about.

[00:25:01] We were talking about whether Zion should come back and play when he when it's shoe blew out from that junk that he made he should blew out and he heard his knee came back to play and you know we all we are blessed for it because he's just amazing it's hard to

[00:25:24] quantify and be able to explain the people that that man is six six he's probably about three hundred and fifteen pounds. I know he's listed that to 80 I don't think he's anywhere close to that.

[00:25:39] But that man the ability to get up is high as he does, but here's the other thing it's not even that. It's when he misses a shot. His ability to hit the ground and spring right back up.

[00:25:54] Nobody in the league has that which also again. I'm having this point home every time I talk about Zion because I always think about what Charles Barclay said and people always are going like well he's old the old still know what they're talking about.

[00:26:10] There's no way that man should be out of the six rebounds again for as much force as he plays with as much athleticism that he plays with six rebounds again is way too low for him. I think that's just an effort play.

[00:26:29] Now here's the thing about Zion Zion looks like with the power and the explosion how big he is it looks like he should be playing for Nick Sabin, Roll tie or could we smart go dogs in college for a while.

[00:26:48] That's just one of my things with Zion but he is playing basketball and let's talk about some of the things we see out of Zion Zion.

[00:27:02] We're still waiting for a full season on Zion right let's just be real honest while we're talking about here the habits having been great.

[00:27:12] So once I we have a guy who's getting everything out of his ability and has now reached an all star level right and then on the other side we have this guy who's just oozing tripping with talent and we still have not seen him play more than half a season.

[00:27:31] Right he's actually played let what I think up until this year and with the games that he's already played.

[00:27:39] He was he's been like less than 50% of all the total games in his NBA career by the way we are in year five of Zion this morning and no time is gone by fast but we are in year five.

[00:27:58] And we're still waiting for the complete Zion season I'm not even looking for 82 games can you give me 70. I would even take six literally from you I would take 62 if I can get 62 to 66 games out of Zion and be great. Of course we are.

[00:28:21] We like the people like at the Vatican when they are you know they're looking at the steeple and they're looking for the white smoke to see who the next. Pope is going to be that's what we're looking for out of Zion.

[00:28:42] Wait playing a full season yeah and literally that's where waiting like bait it breath so hopefully Zion will bless us just this year with that but the.

[00:28:57] Glances in the blurred photos and even whispers you would think that we're discussing something like a mythical creature like the Yeti or the Loch Nassimoster. But in New Orleans for four seasons the pelicans fans have prayed they've gone to psychics.

[00:29:18] They've asked long pass ancestors to protect Zion will you send and none of it has helped none of it. The unfortunate part is that we're looking at a situation where he's just got to get it he's just got to he's got to play because.

[00:29:41] The pelicans are different when Zion is on the court. He gives them something they don't have and he gives them gravity when he goes to the whole everybody's going to the basket with him which means that they're a wide open shooter.

[00:30:01] And for the first time in a while New Orleans actually has shooters shots out to our boy we're going to get into the wiki's of the month a little bit later but shot out to my guy. Jordan Hawkins out of Yukon logged in the in the drought.

[00:30:21] He's just played style and he's doing it in New Orleans and he's just another shooter and trade Murphy the third is coming back. We got CJ McCollum working his way back so this team is about to be at full string for the first time in a while.

[00:30:38] And I'm hoping that New Orleans pelicans fans will really get to see what the full version of this team looks like because they definitely have not gotten it. And they're to the point now where I'm sure.

[00:30:52] I just think back to the scene when they got Zion when they got the when the draft lottery was done and they got the number one overall cake remember the scene in New Orleans. It was like Muddy Gra. They got Zion Williamson. It was a party scene.

[00:31:13] And now it's like it's just incredulous it's like what was he gonna play? Oh he's not gonna play this night. Oh no big deal.

[00:31:20] So your fan base is not even excited about you playing because you not played so much as kind of like well we hope he's here.

[00:31:33] But keep up the faith pelicans fans. Hopefully this is the year I think it's the year that Zion Williamson plays pretty much a full season. But there is a start difference between those two players and this matchup in the in season tournament.

[00:31:57] Now we're gonna move on to the bucks in the mix. I had a whole thing on the mix because I was reading something wrong but I did this one. I love it.

[00:32:13] If you're old as old as me the NFL used to celebrate the bone crushing hits by the defense. They used to call it jacked up. He was on ESPN as well 15 years ago every like demolishing hit they were like there we go. You just got jacked up right.

[00:32:35] Now with these two teams you probably gonna see a little bit of that. They even made like the African videos of these plays and involved just people just getting their head just you know what we were called dinged up back in the day or bell wrong or whatever.

[00:32:59] These were cute and not threatening descriptions. Now the young ones call it violent acts and unnecessary roughness you know that lead to CTE.

[00:33:12] But from my blood thirst to USC MMA fans this bucks nicks in season tournament game and I want to shout out my guy from the the mass man pod on the on the ringer. And he's like two meeting men.

[00:33:36] Bunking me we are going to see a bunch of car crashes in this game because Julius Randall getting down here. John is antitacrucco getting down hill and somebody trying to get in the way of one of those two guys. It's just going to be awesome.

[00:33:56] So I look forward to that real real physical matchup. And now we get to the lakers and sons. Now on this podcast I have been very very critical of the lakers and very critical of the team that I have enjoyed for 40 plus years.

[00:34:17] But this actual this actual in season tournament thing has me you know has me kind of sight.

[00:34:24] One we all know how diving booker gets down right D book is one of the best players in the game and I hope that this is a kind of a spotlight for him where he can kind of just put his mark that he should be considered one of the best players in the game.

[00:34:45] Because make no mistake about it people want to stay here and talk about Kevin Durant and they want to talk about Bradley Bill in Phoenix. Devin booker is the guy in Phoenix make no mistake about it Kevin Durant is awesome Bradley Bill is a talented score.

[00:35:06] But that team is going to go as far as Kevin Booker takes them.

[00:35:11] All right that is the I know a lot of people want to debate me on that they want to talk about how skill Kevin Durant is he's seven feet and he can get his shot anywhere and all that you know what.

[00:35:26] Devin booker is six five he still gets his shot that dude is any shot he wants. Check out the game winner last week.

[00:35:36] Go back on YouTube check out the game winner and then we'll have a ton of clips of Durant and LeBron right we'll have a ton of clips of that because they're the old vets.

[00:35:50] Dave scored a bunch of points both of them are in the top 10 in all time scoring obviously LeBron is the all time scoring leader but a Durant entered the top 10.

[00:36:04] What early last week so you're going to see a lot of history you're going to see probably some old old photos old footage of those two and now today.

[00:36:15] But the thing that I want to kind of focus in is on the two guys that are kind of like the back seat. I want to focus in on AD and Bradley Bill.

[00:36:33] Okay, so both of those guys this is how this is how I see both of those guys. Now you want to bear with me so this is a analogy young people this is a analogy I'm not calling them this I'm not calling them.

[00:36:48] You know anything this is an analogy. But they remind me of have you ever had a summertime fling. Like have you ever had a situation where you know you went somewhere maybe folks took you to I don't know Virginia Beach or they took you to.

[00:37:08] Charleston, South Carolina or anywhere you know for us less close people did you go to Vegas hang out a lot did you go to.

[00:37:19] You know the Santa Monica pier and hang out a lot whatever but these two dudes remind me of a summertime fling and let me kind of explain what I'm talking about. You you over.

[00:37:39] Real manicized that situation right if you think about it anybody that you might have hooked up with back in the day when you were younger or whatever and it was a short stand. You always pine over them or.

[00:37:54] Think about them a little bit too much or whatever case need be all wonder what they're doing but you knew it was for short time right you just knew. That it that it wasn't going to last. Maybe in actuality what a d and Bradley bill remind me of.

[00:38:14] Maybe it's more like. You dating an IG model right who just broke up with our jerk boyfriend. You know. And you were the safe guy. You treated her great you opened up doors. You center a couple of bottle text.

[00:38:37] You know through the week just 11 know that you were thinking about her but you were you know also we in jail and keep you this as you plan you doing all the things right did you're supposed to do. And to her friends.

[00:38:50] I'll she told you she told them oh he's such a good guy he's so sweet you know you just what I needed to build up my confidence. But then it ends right because there's another exciting mysterious ab boy. He enters the picture. And then your heart.

[00:39:15] Is eventually broken because she breaks up with you. This is a d and this is Bradley bill. Okay. I'm sorry. I know that my man a d is playing a lot of games this year.

[00:39:31] And I'm not sitting here going to tell you oh he's going to get injured. Not going to talk about that anymore. But his play every other game we're seeing it like you see the talent everybody sees it. Everybody knows that is there.

[00:39:46] And I understand that we can get 32 points and 16 rebounds and four blocks every single game. But AD is 31 years old he's in the prime. We can't have the bronze James out here at 38 39 years old. Leave the team you got to lead the team bro it's yours.

[00:40:09] You got to take that mantle he's been reluctant to do so. Bradley bill has. Last listen last three years that dude hasn't played either. Okay. So again it's like a summer fling or it's like that IG model that you had that brief moment in time with right.

[00:40:31] But you know he inevitably. It's going to end. And as the same thing with these dudes, he's got to early with Brad Bail because he started the season on injured reserve and then with 80s play it's been up and down all year.

[00:40:48] And they kind of needed him to be very consistent this year. Because the lakeers need a little more juice they need something. Now I've heard people talk about Zach Levine and this that other. And I don't know exactly what the right player is. Right now.

[00:41:15] I thought about this. I kind of looked and tried to see who I thought might fit that. You know whatever it is that they kind of need they need another score another guy who's younger. Who when if they're in the half court offense.

[00:41:33] They can just give the ball to that guy and he's like, I can get you a bucket right now also reads my growing to that. DeAngelo Russell might put a string try to put a string go hold on that,

[00:41:46] but if we're depending on the angel Russell to be that third guy to be that guy we can lean on on for scoring or whatever. I don't know if consistently he can do that. But that is my my take on. We discuss windy on this pod a lot.

[00:42:09] And for good reason it's incredible what he's doing it's incredible to see his skill level for such a young age. But I don't think we give chat his flowers as much as we should. And so we're going to do that right now.

[00:42:28] I just think that he's having himself an exceptional year. Whether it's controversial or not he deserves to be in the rookie of the year conversation. Doing what home to is doing on a winning team with high expectations because he just a thing.

[00:42:50] Yes, well we went into the year do we expect the okay see thunder to be like a legitimate playoff to eat? But now that they're here and they're not going anywhere. We have to basically reevaluate what our expectations are there.

[00:43:09] I mean right now they look like a high level playoff team. And if this guy who is in his second year but his first year because he was out last year injured. It's playing so remarkably well.

[00:43:27] And not only is he playing well he's one of the big benefit he's literally one of the leading people that is getting them to wins. It's not like he's just getting points and that's it. No, their defenses got better their realm projections got better.

[00:43:50] Just because the specter of this 7 foot 1 being poll that is in okay see. Okay, Chae Hongri has played absolutely phenomenal all year. The last rookie who had this much influence or winning we got to go all the way back to 1979, 1980.

[00:44:25] This is how historic this is with the go to 7980 and I'll show you know the name. Irvin magic Johnson, this is the last time we seen this. You can talk about the bar and what he did when he came in with that team one like 17 games that year.

[00:44:49] Again, I'm talking about they had players. This guy had to come in and fit a role. This guy had to come in and say, oh, I'm not the number one option and I'm not going to be able to to you know.

[00:45:05] To develop all these skills, I got to play this role and he did and he's done it. So has off to Chae Hongri and what he's doing with the okay see Thunder I wanted to show him some love.

[00:45:17] I wanted to give okay see Thunder some love and oh yeah by the way, let's give our guy case and Wallace some love too as well right. That's our guy out of Kentucky. We were high on him.

[00:45:34] Up until the Portland video and a couple other videos the okay see Thunder case and Wallace video was our number one. You two clip up until the last couple days because when by Yamaha has just absolutely devastated the numbers for us. So we appreciate everybody okay see.

[00:45:58] Keeping up for us because we capable of for y'all all right. And let's turn the page and let's get to high me hockey as a junior and the reason why I want to get to high me hockey as junior twofold reason. What? Let's talk about it.

[00:46:15] Hongri Hongri has a junior you know my law for you see a lot. It is it is unquestioned how much I love you see a lot. But the numbers go out here's the thing.

[00:46:29] The Miami heat rookie is doing everything I saw him do at you see a lot okay that's the first one thing you need to know. He's just a hard nose competitor.

[00:46:42] To throw another football references I know that we've gone a little football heavy with the references today but he's a damn Campbell type of guy. Neacat biter type of dude right. He is gritty he is tough. He's going to play defense.

[00:47:06] And here's the other thing he has a bunch of new hours to his game. So if you need him to be a tough minded defender, Jaime has got you. Oh you want some offense? I can drop 20 points. I can do that for you.

[00:47:24] His true shooting percentage on the season so far is 61% that's incredible. Okay he's a wing and he's not even a big wing. He's 66. He's not 69. He's not tremendously athletic but his footwork is absolutely impeccable. Watch his footwork in Miami.

[00:47:50] Go back watch to take that UCLA you will see a guy who has worked on the fundamentals to an exhausted level. Does that sound like a Miami heat person to you? No stone on turn. That's plat Riley. Okay so Jaime Hike is built for Miami.

[00:48:12] He's also shooting 39.3% from 3. He's got 22 steals in 20 games. Low key he's a very good distributor. He has 51 assists. 51 dimes in 20 games as well. I just think, Mike Cronin should be a pipeline to the Miami heat. Mike Cronin literally should be the minded league affiliate to the Miami heat.

[00:48:48] Maybe they UCLA should adapt the Miami heat colors. And put heat culture in polypivolion because Mike Cronin basically is like a junior like Spolester. Let's see let's see let's see is there anything else that we need to get to?

[00:49:14] The fourth thing that I want to talk about, we already talked about what I would just want to re-enarrate this. Fundamentally sound you know you're going to get that way. This junior. Gritty defender and rebounder. He will get them.

[00:49:28] He will get rebounds. He sticks his nose in there every single time. He does not allow ego to get in the way. Jaime Hike has junior play from McCronin. When I tell you that McCronin yelled at that man for four straight years,

[00:49:50] that's exactly the type of guy that Miami heat won. Somebody who was not scared to get coached hard. And then he's a tireless worker. So these are all Miami heat qualifications. Like I think you have to take a test to become a Miami heat.

[00:50:08] Kind of like a driver's license test. Are you gritty? Will you play defense? Will you stay in shape? Like, two a ridiculous level of look like a superhero. You know Miami you can't have more than like 5% body fat. Right?

[00:50:30] But these are all things that Jaime Hike has is doing and we are so proud of here at FRPC because you know that I home for UCLA go bronze eight clap all day. All of those sort of things.

[00:50:44] I'm going to try to find my high cash junior a tip of the count to you. And okay, I have a couple more little Ted Bist that I want to hate here because I do want to give some love to another guy who's playing exceptionally well

[00:51:00] on a really garbage team. Okay? And I want to parse this out correctly. The reason why I want to say it like this is this. Detroit Pistons right now. Now, I have a friend of mine who's a staunch Detroit Pistons fan shot out to my guy, Don.

[00:51:28] And he had dreams of 36 wins this year. Now, I thought that was pretty industrious. I didn't see it. And I think it's coming to fruition this year. Money will use as a new coach. They want to play a different way.

[00:51:48] Cated is coming off an injury play season where he only played like a handful of games last year and they still don't have enough shooting. But the guy that I want to give love to is off sore Thompson.

[00:52:04] Now, when he was coming through the draft, it was the Thompson Twins. It was Amin Thompson and a sore Thompson. They get drafted right behind one another. Amin goes to the Houston Rockets and also goes to the Detroit Pistons. Their games are a little bit different.

[00:52:26] Amin's more the playmaker guy. A surrace more of a defender slash a guy. Let me ask this question. Did the Rockets take the correct Thompson Twins? Now, this sounds very, very like first take or whatever show is on F.S.1 or whatever.

[00:52:54] But I'm not saying it for the clickbait factor. What I'm saying is this, is that there's not an overreaction to the start of your own Thompson. Because here's the thing, I think Amin's going to be a very special player.

[00:53:14] Amin Thompson is going to be box office before it's all over with. I don't know if he'll be with the Rockets. I'm not saying he's getting traded so don't aggregate me. But he's just on the team that he can't really showcase all of what he can do.

[00:53:32] Not at this moment. Maybe there's some trades. He finds his way into the rotation and gets that. But if our surr was there, I sure would get on the court immediately because the defensive mindset of EMA adoka is right up the alley for our surr Thompson.

[00:54:03] Is this absolutely where he should be? He's long, he's athletic, he's an absolute terror in the pass of the lanes. And on the boards. He's not the playmaker, again, that Amin is. But he is a, he's going to be very, very good as a second side initiator.

[00:54:27] I believe that. He's out here in 2.6 again and is limited because Kate has a ball in his hands. A lot, also with J. Nive and Marcus Sasser and Killing Hayes. Still trying to figure out why Killing Hayes is still playing basketball.

[00:54:43] But, another, nonetheless, I saw this having a great year and I wanted to give him a shout out because 11.7 points of game, 8.8 rebounds of game for a 19 year old man. Okay? This young man is 19. He's almost at nine rebounds of game.

[00:55:03] By the way, on limited minutes, it's not like he's playing 36. He's not playing 36 minutes. He's doing this only 22. All right? 1.3 blocks a game and 1.2 steals the game. So I wanted to show him some love but also wanted to ask the question,

[00:55:25] do we think the rockets would be better if they had our sewer Thompson instead of A and M Thompson? Just a question. Just needed to ask it. The other thing that I want to end the podcast with is this, is that we say we can try to

[00:55:43] get our format to a certain level. Right? The format is Loo Talk about the new stories. We're going to give you a little fantasy and we're going to give you maybe a little batting or whatever.

[00:55:57] This is still all coming down the line. We're still going to do it. We're going to do it. We're going to 2 pods a week starting now. Right? So this is the first pod of the week. We should have a second one by Thursday.

[00:56:11] It will either be recorded on Wednesday and drop Thursday or we recorded on Thursday and drop Thursday, but you will have a pod. Guarantee. We are going back to 2 pods a week. Now, Dane Blackburn Australian correspondent is coming.

[00:56:33] Trust me, he started a new job. We're trying to get them. We're efforting to get them. It will happen. Do not worry yourself with that. And he goes also in the fall. We're doing a couple of like kind of test runs with the both of them coming up

[00:56:51] in the next couple weeks. And then they'll be hitting the ground running. I believe that we should have some sort of another voice on this podcast. Hopefully hopefully. In the next couple weeks, if not, it'll be January. It's just real hard right down with my schedule.

[00:57:15] The Christmas games come up now. This is an internment. We're also looking at drop prospects. All these saves, lot going on. Plus also, keep in mind what we're going to talk about this upcoming week. December 15th is coming. Everybody knows who is a true who care

[00:57:39] that that means a lot of the free ages who sign in the offseason are now eligible to be treated. So, lot less movement. Up until that date. Then when that date hits, I think we'll start to hear more room or more chatter. More

[00:58:05] insinuation of who's going where and why they're going there. I'm keeping my ear to the ground. So we stay on top of these things. And we want to present these stories to you. As hungry and bring so much fun to us.

[00:58:23] So that's where we're looking at right now. I just wanted to give you a little different scheduling update, win-neeko, and Dane should be appearing. That's kind of where we are right now. It still influx. I thought we would have it more nail down right now.

[00:58:43] We'll be able to do a little insight inside the studio type of deal. But sure enough, sure enough and soon enough we will have both these guys on the pod. Maybe a little bit together but I think what's going to end

[00:58:59] of our happening is they're going to be doing stuff with myself and then on special pods will be all together. We will collect all the Avengers, get all the infinity stones, and become the greatest podcast that has ever lived. That is the goal. So with that being said,

[00:59:25] a couple of things I want to leave you with. One, thank you guys for hanging in. Two, the other thing, if any of this you disagree with, you can hit me on X. I'm now hard to find. Front runner PC at front runner PC.

[00:59:46] If you are a little shy, and you don't want to send the message to me, you can hit Neko at at-neeko F-R PC. And do not forget about the YouTube channel front runner podcast collective. We put a new clips every week.

[01:00:08] There will be clips coming from this pod. Hopefully we will put enough uh, gifs and funnyness and hopefully a little with all little information in there. We'll sprinkle a little information in there for you as well. So those are the things that I wanted to promote.

[01:00:30] So we are pretty much good on that. You guys have a great rest of your week. Enjoy some of the in-season tournament. And by the time we talk next, we'll be talking about championship games, baby. You know I say it?

[01:00:48] We will know who is in the in-season tournament championship. Can't wait to hear it. Can't wait to sit. And as always, y'all stay easy and I'll see you down the road. Down the road.