NBA Offseason In Full Vigor: Draft Analysis, Monty Williams Firing, Pascal Siakam’s Big Deal, and More!

[00:00:13] It's Wednesday, you know what time it is Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air I am your humble host Vince and today's Episode is going to reflect back on the NBA finals

[00:00:28] But we're gonna start with some drafts items and also a lot of news went down today so we're gonna get into the Monty Williams firing and Pascal Ciacom got the bag so we'll get into all of that

[00:00:44] But before we get into that we got to break down the socials two things one X front runner PC is For me and at the end of the show I Will have an announcement on our producers and what-have-you

[00:01:02] It's kind of exciting little situation that we got going on. So stay tuned for that They're both they decided as well now the other thing the YouTube channel doing well What we need is more subscribers. So front runner podcast collective YouTube channel

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[00:02:03] the last thing is The actual podcast now towards the end of this podcast we're gonna have the power rankings and Serea one of the producers on the show She said hey, we'll have like a North American power, you know Top five and we'll have a international

[00:02:28] Top five. I said that's a great idea. We will go ahead and do that and I will give you full credit for it. So We will do that towards the end of the podcast But be a friend tell a friend about the podcast. The numbers are astronomical I

[00:02:44] am so excited we we have eclipsed our Best marks in a month already and we're what this is June 19th And I want to dedicate this podcast to my mom who passed away last year Today's her birthday. So we're gonna honor her

[00:03:04] by, you know dedicating this podcast tour and hopefully, you know, she'll enjoy it you guys will enjoy it and It's time to get to it. But remember download the podcast Rate the podcast I'll talk about this at the end too. So make sure we're doing all that

[00:03:22] The call to arms still still is there be a friend tell a friend about the podcast front runner podcast collective Well with that being said let's get on to it we have a Really good podcast for you guys today

[00:03:40] we're gonna talk start with the draft and I told you that we would have more on this and I have some thoughts on some of these guys and I want to start at the top There's a big I guess I

[00:03:57] Don't know if you want to call that power struggle or a debate or whatever case may be But before I get into the guys that we're talking about, I want to kind of alert you to a couple things

[00:04:10] Something a scout told me and some somebody who was in a front office Previous told me if you look at this draft and you cut off the first nine picks of A regular draft and then you started with number 10 and

[00:04:31] Looked at these players as such. He said, okay Whoever you thought was gonna go one whether it was Reed Shepherd Zachary Roussache or Alex Sarr Whoever you thought was going number, you know number one just look at them as the tenth overall pick

[00:04:48] And then what your expectations of the tenth overall pick be and things of that nature and then that would give you a better kind Of understanding of what we're looking at in this particular draft. So I wanted to give that as a caveat

[00:05:03] To kind of give you some sort of level of expectation when these guys come into the draft Okay It's very important for us to understand especially with the development part of these guys

[00:05:17] Nine times out of ten the first three or four picks are gonna be like 19 to 20 year olds Okay They're gonna need some seasoning There's a couple guys that have some translatable skills right off the bat that will work well for them in the NBA

[00:05:33] But at the end of the day not one of these guys is Projected to come in and like dominate like Paulo Bencaro Victor Wimbayama Or whoever else you envision in your head as a number one overall pick so

[00:05:53] Try to keep that in your in the back of your head when we are going through this But I'm gonna break down some of these guys some of the things that I've heard and we'll go through it

[00:06:06] Then I've been able to crunch some tape. So I feel pretty confident in talking about these guys Confident in talking about these guys Now I will tell you my guy that I really like is Zachary Rissachet

[00:06:21] One of the French guys. The reason why I like him is twofold. He's 6'8. He's like 200 pounds He averaged 15.6 5.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists in a really competitive French League where He was asked to play a role Okay, so this kid is 18 years old

[00:06:43] He was asked to play a role In this French League where they were going into the playoffs went into the playoffs. He played spectacularly in the playoffs a lot of his defensive skills a lot of his his His past reckoned recognition play it really well in

[00:07:04] The French League playoffs so The kid Didn't be able to like Explore himself like a Victor Wimba Yama would or a Apollo Banquero would at Duke where it's kind of like okay, she'll show Go ahead and do what you will with it

[00:07:25] He actually had to play a specific role you are a 3 in D guy your offense of initiation that you will have will come from a closeout and That was it. That was primarily his role now the Scouts that I've talked to they said that

[00:07:46] He has a lot more in his back a lot more and I know this is something that I've already said but here's another thing that a NBA talent and value where it told me Rissa says

[00:07:58] Versatility on both ends of the floor is something every NBA team desires and remark that it is absolutely Translatable to the league. He doesn't see any situation where his mirroring of a Offensive player his length and his way that he can get into passing lanes

[00:08:20] Does not translate into the league and he 100% told me he believed in the shooting so if you got two skills right off the bat and Just what I think he's just over a tick of 19. I think he's actually still 18 really You're in a really good situation. I

[00:08:44] Personally like him as the to me. He's the number one overall prospect on my board Okay So as we go down the line here I'll explain why I have certain people in certain places and what have you and

[00:08:59] Then I want to talk about Reed Shepherd a little bit. I talked about him on the previous podcast so if you are new to the podcast, thank you very much and Whoever told you about our podcast Thank them for me, right?

[00:09:18] But on a previous podcast we talked about Reed Shepherd and Reed Shepherd is a guard out of Kentucky and What I watched on his film Was a guy that personally, I thought He was over generous with his passing. I think he could have shot more

[00:09:40] He was trying to get Edwards involved and other people involved as far as that's concerned But he just when he was open Catch and shoot it was going in his off the dribble numbers according to some of the analytics He is off the dribble 1.32 points per possession

[00:10:06] that's outstanding and He's a dead-eye shooter Again the problem with him this is where the draft comes into play and we talked about We're starting to drop that 10 instead of 1 right? He's 6 foot 1 and a half without shoes on now the guile and

[00:10:26] The athleticism now, I'm not gonna sit here and talk about this white kid and talk about he doesn't have athleticism He has a 42 and a half vertical on him. So before we get into He's a scrappy guy and he's a gym rat and all of these things

[00:10:47] No, this is an explosive guard. I Actually now the comp everybody be mad at me because they'll say oh, this is another white guy. No Go back Go back and watch early Kurt Heinrich of the Chicago Bulls because Kurt in his early days

[00:11:09] Could get up and punch on people and if you had to put a guard of This kind of time frame with him. I don't think he's necessarily as quick as far as speed is concerned But as far as getting to the rim with the explosion Think Tyrese maxi

[00:11:38] Okay, so that's what we're talking about when we talk about Reid Shepherd I Personally have him as my number two because here's the thing. He's a connector He will pass the ball. Like I said, I thought he overpassed at Kentucky

[00:11:53] I think he should have actually looked his shot diet should have been a little more robust personally but with that being said That's something that in the NBA is not gonna be a problem because we're not asking him to

[00:12:07] Be the number one nor the number two if he came in It was a number three or a solid four and you had a dynamic shooting guard a nice wing and a good big and

[00:12:23] This guy is kind of like the the ringmaster the ringmaster or the orchestrator of this offense Completely advantageous position for him to be in so Reid Shepherd to me is my number two Overall prospect in this upcoming NBA draft Now

[00:12:43] People like where's where's where's the other guys? Where's the other guys we get into them? Hold on the third that the third guy that I want to get to is I want to get to Rob Dillingham Rob Dillingham is another guard out of Kentucky. He's 6 foot 2 180 pounds

[00:12:59] I don't think he's 180 pounds personally He averaged 17.5 points a game 4.5 assists a game and he also averaged 1.8 steals a game Dillingham is a absolute blur He he finds crevices he's he's able to Navigate into the lane with his wiry frame and

[00:13:27] Still be able to get up shots and still be able to kick out passes to open shooters He is going to be a problem to stay in front of an Absolute issue the one thing that I would say about it is is that I don't believe the 180 pounds

[00:13:46] I'm gonna have to see it In summer league and see where that is but as far as him shooting Really good shooter. I don't think he is as good a shooter as Reed Shepherd

[00:14:00] But his ability to get wherever he wants to go on a court because of his his Literally, I want to say top tier speed Whatever you consider the fastest dude in the league Dillingham is going to

[00:14:17] He's going to measure up really well against that. He also looks for his teammates, which is a good thing he does have a Little bit of propensity for hero ball, but that's

[00:14:30] That's not a problem for a young kid. You know when things are not going right you got to figure out You know you want to go ahead and try to make it yours and try to make it

[00:14:40] You know you want to go ahead and try to make it yours and try to make it Make it work for you or whatever case and be I understand that so I can't I can't fall to him at all

[00:14:49] But here's one of here's what one of the scouts said about Dillingham his ability to create his own offense And facilitate for others mix him with top point guard prospect coming out in this year's draft he's highly sought-of because of the fact that it is hard to

[00:15:08] What is it is a hard to assimilate to his speed so Again here's somebody who's going to have a complete offense Advantage coming right into the league and also you have to respect the shot enough And he does put it up with enough volume

[00:15:28] To alert you to a point where you can't just go okay. I'm a sag off him And you know go ahead and kind of crowd the paint so Spacing big deal we talked about trends in the last podcast so I highly recommend

[00:15:45] Monday's podcast because we did talk about trends we talked about what we thought was going to happen in the NBA finals which we will get to a little bit later and You know we talked. I think we actually talked at nauseam about Reid Sheppard as well, so

[00:16:00] Go back and listen to that. It's great. I loved it You should love it and every parent in America and all over the world should love that podcast Now getting back to some of these prospects here

[00:16:14] I'm reluctant on this dude, but I'm gonna go ahead and put him in here Stefan Castle and Here's the thing he's an absolute physical freak specimen this dude 6 7 2 15 already He's like 19 years of age right he jumps out the building his crazy vertical He is a switch defender

[00:16:37] and like excels at being a switch defender, and he can he can literally guard four positions On the college level we'll see at the pro level. I don't know we'll find out but Even if he can guard three positions In the NBA we are cooking with gas

[00:17:00] He also is not a bad passer He is a guy who will give you all the energy on the in the world on the defensive side of the ball Now here's the thing. I don't know if he can shoot. I don't know yet

[00:17:18] Right I looked at some of the high school tape I Looked at the the Yukon tape and here's the other thing that we also need to talk about with Stefan Castle assist Here's representatives are going around telling people he is a point guard now. I have analytics that

[00:17:38] Show me that he had seven 73 Possessions where he was the on wall initiator 59 of those possessions What number did he call he called himself Okay, I don't know what kind of point guard

[00:17:58] Stefan Castle would be I think he would be really great as a attacker on the second side You know pump fake go to the rim and get real bouncy and Do some creative things around the rim

[00:18:14] One of the guys that he kind of reminds me of but I want to quell it a little bit because I was Super high on this guy last year is can't Whitmore and if you listen to this pod if you're one of my day ones

[00:18:27] You know how I feel about My guy who's in Houston now can't Whitmore to me You know how I feel about My guy who's in Houston now can't Whitmore to me is a modern-day

[00:18:42] Luttrell Spree well and kids if you don't know who Luttrell Spree well is please go on YouTube Get on the Google machines type in Luttrell Spree well Nick's Golden State it doesn't matter just Do yourself a favor and enjoy that for about 10 to 15 minutes of highlights I

[00:19:08] Think you will find them to be More more really enjoyable. I'm sorry. I'm gonna say much enjoyable that wouldn't have worked either So it's been really enjoyable to you, so go ahead and do yourself that favor, but Stefan Castle

[00:19:23] Defensively reminds me of can Whitmore offensively he does not Okay, so I want to make that clear distinction in the two now again defensive stalwart highly athletic Going to cause problems on the defensive end we got to see about the shot

[00:19:44] I'm not super impressed with it, but he's gonna rebound. He's going to get steals He's going to block shots and he's gonna be a pest now Here's a quote that I got is that they were talked about his defensive versatility and his size make him valuable

[00:20:02] Asset to a lot of rosters he said that he would be more valuable on a winning team then he would to a team that was Struggling he said that he'd hoped that he would be more of a late lottery pick

[00:20:17] But the athleticist and the size is too hard to pass up in the early picks Excuse me The early picks of this draft just because of the dearth of talent that we are already working At a disadvantage with so there is your

[00:20:38] Stefan Castle deal now. I know I have not talked about Alex. Sar and Ron Holland I will talk about Alex. Sar right now He would be My next prospect Alex. Sar is basically if you look at the consensus of all the NBA draft

[00:20:57] Mocks or whatever. He's the consensus number one overall pick He stands at seven foot one. He's 220 pounds at this point He averaged two point two points a game seven point four rebounds and blocked two point eight Shots a game in a league in Australia last year now

[00:21:21] Here's the thing with Alex. Sar Alex are believes he is not a sinner. He is going the ad route He is going to push this narrative that he is a power forward and I will help you on the weak side

[00:21:40] Please do not put my 220 pound body in the middle in the paint where the land of the Giants and the dinosaurs live Okay, so he's putting that out there already his people are putting out there already

[00:21:55] So now you have a guy who's reluctant to play the five at seven foot one I'll get 220 pounds You know who was also reluctant to play the five when he started? Victor Wimbayama. Do you know what he was doing by the end of December? playing the five

[00:22:18] Because Victor knew Where he was going to be best served now Some like Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers who is still lobbying lobbying behind the scenes for a

[00:22:36] Center so he can go out and play power forward which is crazy because he doesn't have a jump shot So that makes you have to go out and get a specific center to be able to facilitate

[00:22:50] Having both of them on the court Alex R also has a problem with the shooting. Okay Olivier his brother who's already in the league who plays for Oklahoma City actually he got the shooting gene he shoots it Alex right now is a is a rim roller

[00:23:11] The the pick-and-pop for Alex R is not there The numbers back it up he's like 28% from three he didn't shoot it at a high volume I don't know if he lost confidence in it during the year or did the team just tell him hey, bro

[00:23:28] We need you just roll to the rim and be super athletic and seven foot one and do all the things that you are Really really good at Because you can jump out the gym You know as

[00:23:42] You know as it relates to his 2.8 blocks a game, you know, so I mean he had just Incredible defensive acumen and also athleticism So even if he gets beat he can make it up with athleticism to get himself back into the plate

[00:23:58] So he he will make his chops on the defensive end most definitely The offense is a Developmental situation so if you're thinking if this dude is drafted number one overall and you're thinking He's gonna come in and set the world on fire and I was like, you know

[00:24:20] 16 18 points a game and all this no it's not gonna happen. All right, it's not gonna happen He's gonna play a role He's going to you know, hopefully play that role expertly

[00:24:33] Depending on what team he goes to and what kind of disciplines they have and what kind of culture they have we'll see But I am NOT looking for huge offensive explosions from Alex R

[00:24:45] If he has a 25 point game this year, we have won. Okay, we have won. I'm the last guy I want to talk about and The reason why I want to talk about him is I want to say shout out to my guy on WWE NXT Andre chase I

[00:25:06] Might have to break this clip out and send it to him but I want to send out a shout out to my guy because that dude's gimmick is awesome and It works, but he has the phrase that he uses in the broadcast

[00:25:21] He calls it a teachable moment and Ron Holland to me is our test case for this Now I know that on a lot of draft boards Ron Holland is anywhere between three and eight This is a kid that is Absolutely built like a basketball player

[00:25:45] And I'm gonna tell a story down the road But bear with me So Ron Holland played in the G League at night he played I mean it was kind of up and down But here's the thing. He's 6'9 2'10. I mean he has a NBA body right now

[00:26:10] Right now he averaged 14.3 points a game 6.8. Rewounds a game 2.4 assists a game Now the shooting Isn't there the playmaking shows up But there are a lot more turnovers

[00:26:30] Than there are like correct reads and things of that nature. So I don't know how on ball he needs to be Defensively, he's good but it's not like How can I put this? It's not that it's not instinctual to him. It just seems like there's oh

[00:26:51] You know what it is. There's a lot of Guessing and there's a lot of kind of like I'm going for this steal and It's gonna put my team in a in a in a rotation and a bad rotation

[00:27:06] But I think I can get this ball. He's extremely confident in getting into the passing lanes and Picking a ball off from there because that's a lot of his offense

[00:27:16] A lot of his offense comes off steals and then being able to take it down the court and yam on people So There's some things to work out there but the body is right and Tell me if you have not heard this before If the shooting comes along

[00:27:39] He will be a monster again, I tell you I've heard this at Nazium for more than a decade and I Bring up this one name and this one name only and people will probably go who the hell is Vince talking about?

[00:28:02] But there was a guy who played for Illinois's Okay now a friend of mine or Ex-friend of mine, whatever you want to call it new of this kid grew up in Chicago Whatever went to Illinois's and this kid was spectacular. This kid was doing things

[00:28:28] That were like nutty. He was doing all the LeBron stuff bringing the ball up shooting it whatever he was playing five positions in high school and Everything like that and he went to Illinois and I'm gonna tell you like dig

[00:28:43] By tail was on this kid and I'm gonna give you the name in a second, but just hold on Dig by towel was on this kid Sonny Vicar all the names that you can think of Oh Billis was on this kid and

[00:29:00] Man, I couldn't wait cuz this is like in my like hey day of like big Monday or super Tuesday and stuff like that So that's college basketball on ESPN was dope so His name was Marcus Liberty Marcus was a six foot eight and a half 220 pound

[00:29:22] Supreme looking athlete this guy could handle it. I mean the handle was okay wasn't it's not like what we see now Okay, so please understand the perspective Before the time he could handle it He had a shot Wasn't it wasn't

[00:29:43] A three-point, you know, you know killing people whatever what you know nice little 18 20 footer whatever and he could explode to the rim now he got to Illinois and We found out that Marcus basically relied on his athleticism

[00:30:03] As far as like putting like real time into his game or whatever the case may be but he was still talented enough to be drafted in the first round and I believe he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets

[00:30:15] And let me tell you something Marcus Liberty is a lot Like Ron Holland a lot like Ron Holland I've seen a lot of these guys a lot of these guys Josh Primo Anybody remember him?

[00:30:37] Remember we were we were about to get the second coming of Kevin Durant with Josh Primo. That didn't work out right We have a lot of these guys that just show up on the scene. They're six foot seven six for eight and

[00:30:52] You know extremely talented they could dunk the ball. They can dunk two balls They can you know, they can dunk the moon into a basket There's all these things that supposedly they can do supernatural stuff all kinds of things

[00:31:06] But if you can't shoot and space the floor in today's NBA guess what Your ass is sitting on the bench You got to be special special special on defense like Matisse Thiebaud

[00:31:21] Can't stay on a work can't stay in a rotation to save his life in Portland. Think about that Portland This ain't the most talented team But because he can't he can't shoot it at a respectable level people lag off of Matisse Thiebaud He's a

[00:31:45] Incredible defender and I told you that Ron Holland has his moments, but it's not it's not consistent enough for me to say hey Bet on this guy so I'll give you a buyer beware on Ron. Highland. I like the kid. I think I think the body is great

[00:32:04] I think the athleticism is great, but he has to find it For me to go all in all in on him He's gonna have to find it. So

[00:32:14] I'm glad that we kind of waited your whistle with some of the draft stuff. We will be doing more of this On Friday, we're gonna get to our second story, which is great I am kind of fired up about this one a little bit today

[00:32:30] Today it happened ladies and gentlemen. I Want to speak to the Detroit metro area right now And I want to give them the good news Monty Williams is no longer the coach and I know you guys know that

[00:32:54] but you guys can go ahead and put your hand in the air and You can go ahead and put your head down solemnly and Thank the good Lord that Trajan Langdon came in there and cleaned house

[00:33:11] You can go ahead and give a good hallelujah to that. I have no problem with that Monty Williams came in we know the whole deal, right? Tom Gore is the owner of the Detroit Pistons literally had to talk this guy into taking the deal last year

[00:33:30] He said he didn't want to coach young people He wanted a team that was gonna contend Tom Gore's begged him and begged him and begged him and lo and behold Lo and behold We got a six-year

[00:33:48] Seventy eight point five million dollar contract which at the time was the highest contract ever to be given to a coach again a couple weeks ago on this podcast I congratulated money on Getting that bag and giving the coaches like Spoh and pop and others

[00:34:16] Tylou got his deal whatever so Big ups for our guy big homie Monty Williams getting that bag and Helgen coaches progress and get their own back, right? I'm so happy for that. But now here's the thing that I love With

[00:34:36] Trajan Landon who came over from New Orleans who is now the president of player personnel of the Detroit Pistons And within a week and a half this dude cleaned out his dudes sent Troy Weaver packing and then he sent Monty

[00:34:51] Williams ass packing and said hey bro with that with that you can take your 65 million dollars with you because that's the payout To Monty Williams to not coach this team We don't want you so much here

[00:35:10] 65 million dollars to get the hell out of Detroit and I know my Detroit players out there right now are so Grateful to change it change in Langdon So grateful and here's a couple reactions. This is changing Langdon. This is what he said

[00:35:30] He said we needed we need a new direction And a vision to achieve the excellence our fans deserve This is a quote from Trajan Langdon another quote from the owner Tom Gores

[00:35:43] I apologize to our fans. We are committed to making the necessary changes to improve our team's performance So last year that long losing streak Kate Cunningham we have no idea what he is now Jaden Ivy is still a project there wasn't enough people

[00:36:05] on this roster as far as talent wise to really help them and then and then they made the trade in the Trade deadline to kind of give them a little relief, but they still won 14 games. This was a terrible team

[00:36:21] And then they got the misfortune of getting the number five overall draft pick Because of a lot because the lottery so I'm gonna take a sip sip to the working man now With all that being said good days are coming, right? We got changing Langdon in the building

[00:36:46] We believe and this is what I've heard. I think Woege has reported this Jones has reported this that James Borrego is James Borrego is the guy that they want in Detroit and I'm gonna check my phone right now to see if there has been some news because

[00:37:10] Trajan ain't been playing around so he might have already done it. So let me take a real quick look, but I am really happy that Detroit is going ahead and really pulling off the band-aid and deciding to do this because

[00:37:24] You see a lot of teams with a lot of franchises who will go out there and They made a mistake and instead of just admitting that they made a mistake they just sit there and they decided to Go in a Different direction now also

[00:37:45] I'm gonna put out there another thing Trajan Langdon went to what school boys and girls That's right. He went to Duke University. Oh Wait a minute. Hold on The finals are over, right? Okay so Detroit just blew out their coach

[00:38:11] You know if the Lakers fumbled his bag on the JJ Reddick situation and Detroit gets him They will burn down this city. I tell you they will burn down this city, dude Burn this

[00:38:26] We're gonna not be walking into we're gonna not be walking in next year with Monty Williams, bro We're gonna not do that in Los Angeles If Jeannie thinks that if Jeannie Buzz believes right now that she has an image issue

[00:38:44] you walk into next October with Monty Williams as the head coach and JJ Reddick is sitting on the Pistons bench Okay so that's the news with the Detroit Pistons a Couple other things that we need to talk about we've been doing this segment called frontrunner

[00:39:10] Franchise focus where we've been taking kind of a look under the hood on some of these franchises and today We have the Utah Jazz in our focus. I want to start off by saying that Danny Ainge who Came from Boston to become the CEO and

[00:39:31] the alternate governor of the Utah Jazz Deserves a lot of credit to the championship that just happened in Boston He was the guy who took the chance on Jaylen Brown He saw something in Jaylen Brown that he was a guy who's he's the guy

[00:39:51] That if you look at it in this context, he's the guy who would have the belief to take Ron Holland and then He would he would show us that Ron Holland was awesome right But Jaylen Brown was a athletic guy Didn't have a jump shot

[00:40:09] Probably played pretty good defense handles Whatever, but he was a nice-sized wing and this is where the league was going and Then Danny Ainge Did something really awesome? He got the he got the number one overall pick somehow with you know with some

[00:40:30] Maneuvering with the Brooklyn Nets because remember how they got Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum That was the famous Kevin Garnett Paul Pierce to Brooklyn for future picks that turned out to be one year Jaylen Brown and then the next year Jason Tatum

[00:40:52] So before we get into the focus, I want to give Danny Ainge his flowers for Partial construction of that championship team now on to the Utah Jazz Danny Ainge is going to make it great moves left and right the

[00:41:12] Kind of steal of lorry marketing is just one of those things He has made true trades. He was you know, he's cleaned out his roster a lot and he's also Gotten really good value on some of these trades one of them the Rudy go bear trade now

[00:41:29] A lot of people will sit there now is revision this history. Oh, yeah, we don't care about the picks I Harking you to a year ago I Harking you to a year ago when the vibe in Minnesota wasn't so great and

[00:41:46] There were people in Minnesota struggling going like we gave us seven first round draft picks for this dude Seven Now all well All good, right? But there was There was a couple moments of trepidation there. I would say the least in that but

[00:42:08] Danny does get good value on trades He has found a way to maximize and Dig out these these nuggets of gold from time to time and he made no mistake with lorry marketing who To me is like the cornerstone of the team or

[00:42:27] Could be a possible trade ship. But basically his role on team right now is Basically scored a wall 24.2 points a game. He's been an all-star 8.5 rebounds a game 1.3 blocks he comes off pick and rolls beautifully. He wanted the highest scorers or leaders in

[00:42:48] points per possession coming off to pick and roll and Then last year they drafted a couple guys a couple guys that I'm very high on Keonte George out of Baylor go to the archive pods. We talked about Keonte George

[00:43:03] Immensely on this podcast before the draft so I hope to be doing that a lot in these next eight Days our producers have decided that we are going to be doing a lot of that

[00:43:15] So stay tuned you're gonna get a lot of draft coverage over the next week and a half so we'll be all over it, but Keonte George was excellent last year He I reached 15 point three points a game

[00:43:30] 4.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds now. I loved him coming out of Baylor and the reason why I loved him is because he had a Control to his game you weren't speeding him up Until he wanted to be sped up He had a nice little mid-range game that I really liked

[00:43:53] He was able to kind of play and poke and and kind of prod his way into the paint in such a way where It was artistic the dribble package is great. I love it and then he could shoot it He can shoot it. So

[00:44:10] He's one of our guys those Keonte George Was one of my one of my dudes and then Taylor Hendricks. I pounded the table for this guy in the in the draft process process last year

[00:44:26] Taylor Hendricks was a six foot eight six foot nine forward coming out of Central, Florida He didn't get a lot of playing time. I don't know if it was because of the fact that he was just too small as far as his frame was concerned or

[00:44:41] if it was just Lack of minutes because you know, he didn't understand the defensive rotations But I'm gonna give you quotes that I got from people in regards to the Taylor Hendricks

[00:44:54] They said that he wants to guard like the best dudes every night. He wants to be that dude So he's working hard to go ahead and do do those type of things

[00:45:05] One of the things that I love about Taylor Hendricks coming out of the draft there was this one play that I saw Where there was an obvious pick and roll? where the guard is Blowing past his assignment and now he's getting to the rim now Taylor

[00:45:25] Tracks the ball handler all the way into the rim, right? but also leaving enough space where his guard could get back into the play and Also help defend then the guy goes up with a shot Taylor Hendricks obviously blocks the shot and it showed

[00:45:43] Tracking ability it shows spatial awareness that a lot of young kids don't have and I thought that would translate into the league earlier It didn't my bad, but Keonte George did and What was said about him? This actually comes from Danny age himself

[00:46:01] George's potential is sky-high and he is ready to show he is already showing signs of his future star And that's the comment from Danny ain't so Danny ain't she's already kind of pencil-discarded as one of his guys so if He feels he has one of the three

[00:46:20] you know when you need to go ahead and Be able to compete if he already feels he has one of three and then you also throw in lorry marketing Depending on how they feel about the timeline now lorry marketing is

[00:46:36] 27 it's not old right. It's not old at all, but if Keonte George is 20 What timeline are you worried about more because at some point lorry marketing is gonna want to win correct I mean he's almost out of your 25 points a game and

[00:46:57] If for some reason they're still in this process of trying to rebuild which they should be I'm not trying to Put down what Danny does because I think Danny's

[00:47:08] Incredibly smart and one of the shrewdest traders that we have in the league now now that Jerry West is a past And we have a tribute video up on YouTube that we highly recommend people to go watch

[00:47:24] It's 22 minutes. I know it seems long, but I swear to God it goes by quick Great pictures of him young great pictures of Just some of the lives that he's touched and a personal story of mine in there as well, but

[00:47:40] Danny Ainge right now is that is our old guard. He's with Riley as far as like shrewd trades maneuvering of cap relief and things of that nature And he's doing it again with the Utah Jazz

[00:47:54] Now the other guy that I want to get to is this is Will Hardy now Will Hardy also has a Boston tie now Let's go back again two years ago Missoula who is now a NBA champion head coach Was in the second row of coaches

[00:48:16] Three years ago when Emea doka was the head coach Will Hardy was on that staff and he was one of Emea's right-hand man, he was really offensively Strategically gifted and he took all of that to Utah and remember not this year

[00:48:38] But last year they got to such an incredible start and they were playing so cohesively And it was just basically Will Hardy doing what Will Hardy does Another year Where they overachieved this year, they weren't supposed to be this good last year or this year

[00:49:02] And they still are Absolutely being able to do it. So kudos to Will Hardy. I think Utah has a really good Foundation with their front office their head coach

[00:49:13] I like every I like all the moves that you're doing so far and really I still think they need to stay in The patient stage, but I definitely do understand why people move on and try to start making the move

[00:49:26] Especially if you have already marketing so I'll be very interested if there's any Murmurings around lorry marketing as we get closer and closer to the drought So stay with us on that and then the other thing is this remember they got three picks in this first round

[00:49:44] so they're gonna be able to go ahead and either a pull those picks together to move up or Be able to Auction those picks off for later picks down the road I don't know what they're gonna end up doing. They do have a really really young core now

[00:50:03] I can see them augmenting it with maybe the first pick or if they decided to take Their three picks and kind of pony up and try to get into the top five that might be something to do if you can

[00:50:17] If you can identify somebody who can really kind of Level up your development. I definitely think that you would take these three picks and go ahead and do so All right. We have a couple more things to do. I think nope here it is. So

[00:50:35] We are gonna talk about our top five power rankings Basically domestically so North America and then we will talk about our international Situation as well. So with that being said, I want to give a shout out to Long Beach, California

[00:50:56] That's the city that I live in that's the city I rep Shots out to Long Beach, California doing it real big Now this also shouldn't surprise people but Los Angeles is a close second. So I Know Long Beach is actually Technically in Los Angeles

[00:51:17] Los Angeles County, I understand what y'all trying to say whatever but if you from here You already know you already know what's up Long Beach is not LA and LA ain't Long Beach, right? There's different parts but Los Angeles comes in at number two a city that I

[00:51:39] Absolutely loved showed a lot of love on the show to Oklahoma City Oklahoma City has been great to the show. Thank you for doing it real real big The fourth is kind of a shock To me personally, I'm shocked But New York City is number four not because

[00:52:08] I'm sure that they're not higher. I'm actually shocked that New York City is getting down with us Now we've given New York City a lot of love don't get me wrong But I don't think they like that. I put

[00:52:23] Jalen Brunson just on first team all NBA and I made Luca my NBA MVP, I don't know but Shots out to the Big Apple They love a basketball and they download the podcast. So thank you NYC

[00:52:41] We love your passion. We love how you get down with us and the number five overall city and this is a real surprise a real shock to me and The only reason I say this is because I would have thought there would have been another city in here

[00:53:01] honestly But heat culture Miami gets down They like sunshine They like sunshine they like hoops talk and my Miami gets down with frontrunner podcast collective So I just want to give them their flowers on the situation because

[00:53:25] You know those are tough. I would have thought that Boston would have been in there personally I would have thought that Boston definitely would have been in there, but they were not they were a top ten, but Boston you got a little ways to go

[00:53:40] Now our international cities are really interesting. I want to give a shout out our first international city is Accra, Ghana Okay, so I told you that internationally and if you really want to get down with it They're actually number two overall

[00:54:01] We just broke this up in a sense where we gave domestic and then international but Ghana Has a real strong presence in this podcast and I want to just thank them give them a cool shout out

[00:54:16] So thank you to the nation of Ghana and thank you to Accra for Getting down with the podcast now We're not done Hong Kong number two on the power rankings international I was

[00:54:35] Very excited to hear of our Asian brothers and sisters understanding about the value of the podcast So thank you Hong Kong for listening. We appreciate you now As we go down here, we got Singapore up in this Singapore loves basketball Singapore gets down with the Los Angeles Lakers

[00:55:02] Singapore is Just a place that just really really gets down with hoops and I'm glad that they are Amongst the the people that have enjoyed the show. So thank you to the people Singapore now This this was really exciting to me Y'all man

[00:55:25] Are you kidding me? We're big in Brussels We're big in Belgium Come on dog Like we're big in Belgium That seems crazy to me. That seems nutty But and then the next city on our list We go back

[00:55:48] We go we go so far back. We go into the motherland again and we got to go to Nigeria Nigeria has made the list and Again those that are power rankings and the only reason I'm giving them out is because like I said we had such a like

[00:56:10] The numbers again, I we I don't think we talked about it At the start of podcast, but we brought records. We this is the most downloaded month we've ever had This is thanks to you guys we

[00:56:25] We can't do it without you really can't because again, I tell you all the time it's an independent podcast we do not use Any monies for advertising? So we don't try to push up our podcast on Google or on YouTube or whatever

[00:56:46] So the downloads that are coming are literally coming from you guys. You guys are really Following the mantra which is be a friend and tell a friend and I salute you guys again for that And I can't tell you how much we as a group

[00:57:05] Because the the other announcement is this We have been talking about a bunch of fun as a producer on this podcast for a little while now now We're gonna give you a little Behind scenes inside baseball type of situation here. Oh

[00:57:24] You know what? I forgot to talk about one thing before we do this. I'm so sorry guys Pascal Siakam, how could I forget about I feel so disrespectful Hashtag boom, baby Indiana Pacers. I am so sorry guys Pascal Siakam got the bag today Okay

[00:57:47] $189 million from the Indiana Pacers he's locked up. He's going to be there for a long time I like the move. This is how you get players in places like, Indiana You don't you don't wait around for free agency in cap space and all that

[00:58:07] I've had too many executives tell me and too many people who are ex people who worked in the league tell me Caps face is something we tell the fans but Like we don't really believe that we can do a ton with cap space

[00:58:25] So just so you know fans out there So when your team is pumping up that they got like 36 million dollars in cap space That's like coal for man. We really hope we can trade we could trade for somebody into this cap space That's what that means

[00:58:43] But Indiana you got Tyrese Halliburton I mean Andrew Nimhart played his ass off in the last couple games of that series against Boston So shout out to our guy and remember Ben Mather in didn't even play in the playoffs. So You're getting Ben Mather in back

[00:59:02] There's a lot to be excited about in Indiana I'm looking forward to seeing what they're able to do next year and this is a good start with Pascal Siakam And then the last thing that I want to leave wait because and then we'll get back into

[00:59:17] Our announcement because now I feel bad about the announcement because I feel like I cut it up, but hopefully people will Be graceful to me But the Celtics won their championship banner 18. It hurts my heart and I know Celtics fan Oh you waited till now

[00:59:35] You waited till now to talk about us Yes But hold on Did I not tell you who the finals MVP was gonna be? Yes, I did. I told you Jalen Brown was going that and I told you that Boston was gonna go ahead and get banner

[00:59:52] 18 so congratulations to the Boston Celtics. I want to send out a shout out to Wic Groesbeck Wic Groesbeck is the governor of The Boston Celtics and I know as a Laker fan this must feel really weird for Wic but Wic is

[01:00:13] On the team for quite some time a lot of the people that are in that organization Have been in that organization since he got the team right The other thing is this is that Wic has always cared about the team he's always cared about winning

[01:00:35] He's always paid what it needed to be paid to win he was smart enough to Allow his front office people to make bold moves Even though you know When you step out like that you are open to criticism Never wavered and

[01:01:00] Now they stand on top of the mountain So I wanted to give flowers to Wic Groesbeck as a governor what great leadership he has shown over the years Thank you for being patient with your two dudes

[01:01:12] You know Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum when a lot of people were telling you to break them up You did not sir. So kudos to Wic Groesbeck kudos to the Boston Celtics kudos to Brad Stevens For leaving the bench going up to the front office

[01:01:29] Making these trades like Christoph Porzingis and before that remember how they got Drew Holliday the Malcolm the Malcolm Brogdon deal Basically got them drew Holliday So Brad Stevens has been in his bag for a minute so When you win a championship

[01:01:51] I've been talking about it with the Lakers and you know that is a good run Franchise though, you know, I know my people in LA don't want want to hear me say that about the Boston Celtics, but

[01:02:05] Check it out man. We don't tell no lies on this podcast They're really good run organization We can probably learn some things from them Just saying Now getting back to our big announcement we have

[01:02:25] Bunch of punch who is a producer on this show. He has helped me out tremendously on this show A lot of the tightness of the show today is not one of those days. He's gonna get mad at me about that but

[01:02:40] The tightness of the show the structure of the show I can give all the credit in the world to a punch and Also this next person that I'm gonna talk about who will be on the podcast starting Monday and also, they will now Co-pilot their Twitter. I

[01:03:00] Think that change is gonna happen tomorrow or something like that This well told That Saraya is now Going to be on the podcast She will be manning the podcast as we go Monday Wednesday and Friday, so we look forward to her stewardship of the podcast

[01:03:28] as we do it and record it and then we are still just so enthused about a bunch and his dedication to the podcast pre and post production, so that Twitter is about to get spicy because

[01:03:45] Saraya is a hurricane that's waiting to happen. So we'll see how that goes Next week with that being said I think we are pretty much done here Remember to subscribe and rate and review our podcast on Spotify on

[01:04:05] Apple podcasts on wherever else you listen to your podcast Amazon music and other places like that Also remember to go ahead and share and like and Subscribe to the YouTube channel again YouTube front runner podcast collective And I will tell you this Friday more draft more more draft

[01:04:31] It will be draft wall-to-all on Friday guaranteed and We'll have more guys that will talk about more projects That we will break down and I look forward to that whole process So with that being said I want to leave you with this

[01:04:48] The best part of you is you Surround your keep surround yourself with people who are going to brighten your light Don't let anyone Extinguish your light because God puts you on this planet for a reason All right

[01:05:09] Go out there and do good in the world and we will see you back On this feed on Monday or Friday what today is what man? Wednesday, okay We'll see you back on this read on Friday. I don't know what day it is

[01:05:25] I haven't had enough coffee, but we'll see you on Friday. Peace