NBA Playoff Landscape: Home Court Doesn't Matter

it's friday, you know what time it is. Frontrunner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today's podcast we are going to be discussing just all of the playoffs, every last bit of it, and then what we're going to hit you with is we're going to hit you with a bunch of NBA draft, because I feel that we have just been negligent on our duties as a podcast to get you enough information on what's going on in the draft. So we got some exciting news about our draft board and how that's going to work out next week and how it's going to tie into the Tuesday podcast. So keep it locked here. I will let you know as we get closer and closer to that segment. But we have to start off in two places. One I want to kind of give you a little peek behind the curtain, so to speak, in regards to the podcast. One reason, and one reason only Our job is to not just entertain you and to inform you is to not just entertain you and to inform you. The other part of our job, the other part of the thing that we love to do, is to hopefully give you a little bit piece of us right a little bit of piece of what what we got going on.

So it has been over a week now since I stopped smoking. I, as far as the actual want to smoke, don't have that, which is kind of cool, doesn't make me a cranky person, probably. Yeah, I, like you know, I will not sit here and and and disallow that as conjecture. It definitely has been. Um, my hope is that I haven't been as difficult as I possibly have could have been. I'm pretty difficult person to begin with and I'm a pretty difficult person to begin with, and so I don't need to be more difficult than what I have been. So, with that being said, what have I done to kind of like peruse the time and allow the time to go past? One we got a lot more writing done, a lot more writing done, writing done too. The other thing is that, uh, serea myself and the crew as we are starting to get a little bit bigger here and the voices in the room are more are multiple.

Uh, we have discussed what we're trying to do for the summertime and you say, well, what does that mean? Well, when there's no basketball going on, what are we going to talk about? And what we're going to talk about is two things. First, obviously, the draft. That's why this is important. That's why we need to keep get you guys ourselves familiar with some of the other names that are in this draft class, but we will be talking about cooper flag in this podcast, for sure. Now I have a couple other things that I need to talk about, and this kind of just leads to the open.

We're not going to even pretend that we know what's going on. I know we're supposed to sit here to be basketball minds, be the whole X's and O's crew. I know y'all tune in for some of the observations that we get from watching games and what have you and you want some of that front office insight that we can give you that. We have somebody on staff that helps us out with that. Shout out to vance. Thank you so much for what you do, sir, but let's keep it super real.

This league is in absolute flux right now. Okay, everything is upside down. Freaky friday, whatever you want to say. We got six seats, seven seats up, 2-0. We got just pandemonium people winning on home courts. Am going to say this and I'm going to say this one time shout out to Sam Darnold of the USC Trojans and also of now who the Seattle Seahawks. I feel like we're seeing ghosts right now. I feel like we're seeing ghosts and the entire nba looks like it's seeing ghosts as well.

Steph curry has a hamstring injury. There are people out here reporting that steph is going to be out. Verify outlets are reporting that he's going to be out a week. I don't know how many 37 year olds you know that run as much as steph does, but I think a week is being very optimistic in what his return will be. Now you can say oh well, vince, you're not a doctor. I am 100, not a doctor. You are correct now. I did stay at a holiday inn express last night, so my credentials as a physician are now cleared with that and what I'm telling you as somebody who has had hamstring injuries in the past and whatever, when I was in better shape, it does not take a week.

Now you can say well, it's just, you know, it's a slight strain, whatever. Anytime there is some sort of strain, there's a tear. You can say whatever you want, it's a tear. If there's a tear, that means there's inflammation, there's blood going into it, whatever that has to. The swelling has to come down all that has to do. Well, they have modern medicine, they have stem um machines and whatever to kind of help that along. 100 again.

Steph is 37 years old. This is not a 23 year old steph. This is not a 28 year old steph. This is not a 23-year-old Steph. This is not a 28-year-old Steph. This is a 37-year-old Steph with a bunch of miles on the odometer.

So I don't know what people are doing, but y'all need to stop lying. Y'all need to stop lying to people. It engagement dressed up as news. You can go ahead and do so. You think steve kerr is smiling post game if steph timeline is uncertain. You think steph is shooting around post practice if he has a great two tear strain, nah, what? You see little, a little limp, and immediately you grab the megaphone.

Okay, now meanwhile, uh, we will get to the boston in the cleveland of this now, at this point in time, because it is friday, and you say, well, vince, when are you doing this podcast? One will tell you right now. And this podcast, well, I'm gonna tell you right now. And the reason why I'm gonna tell you right now is because we will have give you a live update on what's going on in the games right now. Cleveland who is down? O2 is up 10 10995 right now in indianapolis.

I know pat mcafee must be losing his damn mind right now because he thought the boys were gonna go ahead and smash the cleveland cavaliers. But that is not the case. You know why that's not the case? Because garland is playing, evan mobley is playing and deandre hunter is also playing. They're all three playing and these are guys that were out in game two. That makes a significant difference in who is going to win in this series or what have you and I will just say this I don't like that you miss game two now. If you come back and you win game four and tie this series up, cool, cool and then we'll see where the chips fly with the last three games of the season. But there are going to be some people who are going to question what happened in game two.

Now. I understand that. You know we are in a different day and age and they're not wearing chuck taylor converses anymore that made out of canvas and you know very, very soft materials and things of that nature. They have a lot of things that help them. I understand all these things, but I will tell you missing a playoff game to me, unless you are absolutely about to die, cardinal sin.

Now you can call me old, you can call me not understanding what load management means and why do we have these people on staff? Well, here's the deal. Here's why I have pushback on that and you can say I'm old. You say whatever it is that you want to say about me. We got 16 games to win For glory. For glory. They can never take away from us.

That ring Is the thing we're playing for, the chip, right, that's what the kids call it. You know, and the one thing that we always talk about in these goat discussions is how many rings does somebody have, how many ring, how many successful seasons that this person have, and all this sort of thing. But guess what? If, for some reason, you're not playing, you don't even get the capability of being able to get that ring. So I understand new day and age, I understand the role of aau basketball. I understand that the mentality is different and you don't have to drag yourself out there because the money is so great and you are considered a valued asset and all those type of things.

But the one time that it needs not to be that is the playoffs. I don't know how much clearer I need to put that and I really hope I don't get a bunch of pushback on that, because the whole point of the 82 game long ass season that people say we cannot change and we all get pissed off about, and we all sit here and have a bunch of consternation about the 16, the NBA playoffs, these games that are so hyper competitive, that are so close that they're allowing, they're allowing so much more physicality, physicality in these games that they did the entire season. These matter more. The league has told us this, the TV partners have told us this, the, the people who pay for the commercials, the ad money that comes in that tells us that these games are more important. So if that's the case, we're gonna need y'all to play. So it's good on evan mobley and good on deandre hunter and darius garland to play in game three, but if they end up losing this series, we will all go back to game two. We will all go back to that and we will be asking some hard-hitting questions on why was load management, even a thought process in a playoff series, food for thought?

Oh, and, by the way, phoenix is still doing phoenix things. You know, I know that they're not in the playoffs and we're kind of concentrating on the playoffs and draft, but when phoenix does something, we kind of need to go ahead and ask questions, and I think I will. Uh one who is brian gregory. He is now the new VP of player personnel for the Phoenix Suns and he will be in charge of making the Kevin Durant trade and obviously doing whatever song and dance he needs to do to appease one, devin Booker, to stay around in the Valley of the Sun. So good luck, brian, on your new gig as the Phoenix Suns VP of Player Personnel.

But also it brings me to another point I think we talked about on this podcast. I want to say a week ago we talked about James Jones and the job that he did before the matt ishbia of it all in phoenix and the team that he put together. You know, cam johnson, mikhail bridges, devin booker, chris uh, paul, uh, deandre Ayton obviously. And to see that team and now to see this team now it's such a far cry and we're starting to understand that. You know giving up picks and trying to put stars together with other stars and how expensive it is and how limiting and punitive the some of the restrictions are. I think we're gonna have a shift in how people ideal ology and philosophy in basketball. I think we're trying to figure out who are the superstar role players and maybe we can get two of those and a star, and hopefully with depth and the star and the two role players who are like balls to the wall, just concrete, foundational pieces. Maybe that's the new way of doing it.

Everybody is looking for a marginal victory somewhere. We got to win incrementally. I wonder if the new trend is get like the best superstar. You can possibly get a real game changer. You're gonna pay 70 million dollars for that dude, 70, I said seven, zero. Understand the new reality of basketball and then can we get two good, good role players and then depth around those people might be a different type of build, but we'll see. We'll see if, uh, we're trying to create like the 2004 detroit pistons or not.

All right, let's get on to the show today. We have a lot going on and I want to start off with, uh, a couple other things we need to get to, and it's more on what has gone on Over these first couple games Of the second round. The league's tempo has changed and now the power dynamic. We're in a parody era now. Home crowds are loud, but the scoreboard doesn't care. And the young squads? They're not just showing up, they're showing out.

Remember when home court used to mean something in the nba? Oh, you don't want to go to utah. Oh, you don't want to go to Portland. Remember the Cow Palace in Sacramento? That place was rocking. All the time people talk about how Oracle and they actually call it war. They used to call it Oracle because it used to war San Antonio back in the heyday when Tim Duncan was down there. And people have always talked about how magical Madison Square Garden is. It would be when a playoff series got there. And we will find out in the next couple days because we are about to witness the eruption from the, from manhattan, and we'll get to that story as we go on.

But now nowadays, what is going on? It's like you had a higher seat and you had the edge. It was guaranteed. That's all dead. Now these kids, these players, they don't care. This year's playoffs aren't about who's at home, they're about who can match the pace, stay poised and hit shots under pressure, regardless of the zip code. We're living in the NBA parody now. This is the new league. This is the new league order. The beats change, old favorites look shook and young squads are just dancing in your living room and drinking your beer and probably dancing with your girl. All that, the Celtics. I am probably never going back to Boston. Every the Celtics have home court and they basically lost both games there. They looked completely inept. They get leads and they just squander them. The Dix have won two games in Boston. Boston in the fourth quarter, have a net rating of minus 27.

I want you to understand that this is the defending, reigning champions of the nba. You have your squad, you have the two guys who are supposedly and we're going to get to the draft later and the depth of the wings in this draft is incredible. But people tell me that the most valuable piece, the most coveted piece in the nba is the wing. You know why? Because they have the ball, they can handle the rock and they're usually the ones who can get the most production. Because they can do inside actions, obviously, and they can shoot it from the outside. That's why the wings are so important.

Guards, obviously, when you think of a guard, you're a little bit smaller, a little bit more diminutive, they can't take the pounding. When you look at a prototypical wing right, let's throw jason tatum into the mix. This guy is six, nine at least. I think he's more like six, ten, six, eleven, but I'm not gonna get into all the semantics. He's six, nine, well built 235, at least right, he should be able to with his handle, with his expert handle, his size, string speed should be able to get into the lane, take some, absorb some punishment and make a shot or get fouled one of the two. How come I don't see nobody going to the hole? That's wearing a shamrock uniform? No one. You got Jalen Brunson out here At 511. Getting to wherever, wherever he wants to go in the paint. How is this even possible? Jalen Brown looks like a shell of himself and now they're down to zip.

Boston's system is glitching like bad wi-fi signal. They didn't even lose. They didn't even lose on their court. They got undressed on their court. They got undressed by a 5'11 smurf. Don't talk to me about the Villanova Knicks. Don't talk to me about all of this.

We questioned Mikael Bridges all season. We questioned Tom Thibodeau's offensive philosophy towards the end of the season. What was this going to look like? Guess what? We don't have to worry about that. There's no cares in the world there.

Og Ananobi is doing the things that we saw towards the end of the year when Jalen Brunson was out. He is offensive, creating. He is being aggressive, going to the hole. He is kicking it out to shooters when he doesn't have a shot. He's understanding time, space and his own aggression. And where that lies, mckell bridges, who we've been waiting on all season, struggled all season. The defense that we saw in Phoenix is back. The on-ball creation that we saw in Brooklyn, like the first year before the Cam Thomas takeover happened, is back and the Knicks look great.

And now here's what boston has said we have generated good looks and if you look at some of the advanced metrics, it says that the looks that they've gotten they got 45 good three point looks. That's 25. And I have hey, even on grading on the curve, 25 is horrible. I don't care how many of these things you shoot if you're only shooting 25. Go to the hole, go to the rim, get fouled. Stop this momentum, stop the run. I don't understand. Are you compromised? Okay, let's get to the part about christoph porzingis.

Christoph Porzingis is dealing with an injury or not an injury. He's dealing with an illness. I'm so sorry I misspoke when I said that he's dealing with an illness that currently nobody understands. Hmm, modern medicine. Now, this is a multi-million dollar player, player playing for a multi-billion dollar team, and nobody can figure out if he's got the flu, long covid, some sort of um variant of of bird flu or whatever. I don't know. No one knows what this man has. All we know is that he's super fatigued. He can't get enough sleep. It sounds like mono and they have ruled out mono.

Good luck, good luck to the celtics. They will need it because they're going into what I would perceive as a hornet's nest and they've never seen what they're about to see, because the new york area has been starving for the knicks to be good in basketball. We got a little taste of it last year and those crowds were electric. Can you imagine what those crowds are going to look like when they honestly believe that they have a shot to go to the Eastern Conference Finals and then also play in the NBA Finals finals and then also play in the nba finals? Do you understand what this is going to mean to new york city? It's going to be electric, it's going to be pandemonium and I cannot wait to see the venue, the people, just the vibe, the energy is going to be crazy. Can't wait to see it now.

The calves we talked about them a little bit, right yo? So, uh, I don't know kenny atkinson knows this but uh, we're, we're in the playoffs now and. But we're in the playoffs now and it's not an 82 game slog, it's a sprint to 16 victories with my guy. So you know, okay, first of all, the Pacers are averaging 19 points in fast break. We got a terrible. We got terribleness all over the place because everybody's not playing for cleveland and I don't care who you are, I don't care how much debt we've been talking about with cleveland you can't have three people out and expect to win basketball games, especially high level basketball games in the NBA playoffs.

I'm not going to even talk about Ty Jerome. I'm not going to talk about oh, strews could have stepped up. They're not supposed to be there, and I mean that by that is that, in the role that they were forced to be in right, they were forced into a role that is uncomfortable and unnatural to them. They are not the second option on anybody's team, but yet that was their, that was their job description for game two. So if you are missing three players and two of them are starters and then the, the third person is basically like your sixth man, this is literally three, six of your top six. This is half your team usually in the nba cloud if you're playing with eight. So we're talking about what? 40, some, uh, 44 of your squad missing.

Pretty big variant there tyrese halloward has been incredible. He is taking advantage of the situation and, uh, incredible, he is taking advantage of the situation and you can go ahead and continue to chant overrated, all you want, but he gonna continue to bust your ass. That's what he's done to Cleveland the whole time. Home court did not help Cleveland because Indy never slowed down a nut long enough for them to even hear the crowd. Now, our favorite series that we love is the OKC Denver series, and we're gonna get to that. It is now 1-1 in that series. Okc demolished.

They were the one team that was the high seed that said hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, one second. Are you trying to tell me that, all of a sudden, these six seeds and these five seeds and all this is going to start taking over? No, we can't let that happen. So Shea Gilchrist Alexander is still Shea Gilchrist Alexander and he is still basically chilling and he understands that he is going to win an mvp. And he led his team to victory and they blew out denver. They said, listen, you are not supposed to be on the court with us. And uh, that is exactly what happened. We had michael porter jr kind of go back, revert to what he was. Joker did his thing. Westbrook had a hell of a game in Game 2. Still was for naught.

Now the sad thing Bay Area. Oh, oh, you know what? I forgot to ask a real serious question before I. I mean, we talked about a lot of things, but I I am so sorry, I was so neglectful on this part.

Listen, if you're listening to my podcast, I am sure that you listen to other nba podcasts for my friends out there with twitter accounts and for my friends out there that have instagram and what have you. I need for you to send the well wishes to one bill simmons. Send the well wishes to one bill simmons. So once you listen to this podcast, I want you to send like hashtag get well soon, bill. Or hang in there bill hashtag. Hang in there, bs. That sounds good. I like that part. Um, maybe a little. Maybe maybe one of his close personal friends can do a wellness check. You know, because if the celtics are down zero, down to zero to the knicks, I have no idea what bill simmons mental capacity is right now. It probably is not great. We probably need to go ahead and do a wellness check on Bill's Demons right now. Shots out also to Pat McAfee's Boston Connor, who's also suffering right now through this incredible, painful series where the Boston Celtics are down 2-0 to the New York Knicks.

Now, a person who's doing very well, who's living life in the most comfortable way possible, is our guy Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller, who is a New York Knicks fan. Now, we know about Spike. Okay, we know about tracy morgan. You know I'm saying these are long-standing new york knicks fans. I'll never worry about those guys. You know I'm saying I'll never worry about spike, I don't worry about tracy, because they, they get it in, they get it in and they, whether the knicks lose or win, they're going to be all right. But Ben Stiller is living life right now 2-0.

Going back to Madison Square Garden, I am a listener to the hey, I'm a listener to the Bill Simmons podcast, I put my hand up, I listen. Sunday I will be listening because I want to hear what the hell he got to say about that team. Okay, now, the thing that I want to get to about steph and Golden State is that no matter what goes on, no matter how this goes, they come to the end. Okay, golden State, we can talk about veteran leadership. We can talk about moxie. We could talk about, uh, you know, um, just the playoff crucible and how they've been forced in the fire this whole time.

The thing that is absolutely true is that when they had steph, they were a decent offensive team. Without steph, their numbers plummet to a team that would be, if you like, if you took step out from the regular season, the golden state warriors offense would be towards the bottom of the league. And it'd be like not just towards the bottom, it'd be like with the real heavy, heavy lottery teams, like the teams that won 16 and 17 games the whole year. That's how important step is to the golden state warriors. And now we're talking about we don't have him, and everybody's like we just assumed that jimmy butler is going to be playoff jimmy. He is going to just put his. He's going to put the warriors on his back, along with draymond Green, which we will get to one moment, one moment.

But let me finish this out with Jimmy. Jimmy has said on many occasions recently and throughout his said with buddy hill talk about he's batman and actually jimmy butler is alfred, all this other stuff, but at the end of the day I give this analogy steph curry is, is a, not just a star, he's a son of a solar system, right, and then the planets revolve around him. If you don't have the Sun in your solar system, you don't have a solar system, okay. There's no Earth without a sun. Okay, there's no moon. We don't have Mars. We ain't got no Venus. Uranus sorry, saturn, which are rings, whatevs? Pluto you're not even a planet anymore. So who cares about you? Supposedly, I don't know. I thought you were always a planet. No, but if Steph is out, this is over, this is a wrap and he's out. So we can start talking about offseason moves with the Golden State Warriors. We can start talking about what they have is draft capital. We can talk about the future of Jonathan Kaminga, because he ain't gonna be with the. He is not going to be with the Golden State Warriors.

Much longer now I've been wrong about some things. I thought Boston was gonna take care of business against the, the knicks. I was wrong. I thought cleveland had learned his lessons over the last couple years, and I was wrong about that. Okay, see, you're still making me look good, which is great. I thought the Minnesota Timberwolves go state thing was a toss-up, no matter what. But now that stuff is out, this is a wrap.

All right, let's get into a couple of things before we get get up. While here we want to talk about some some of these games like fully, fully, fully. Let's get into the jason tatum, uh, jalen brown situation. Tatum and brown are both under 40 percent from the field. They're under 30 percent from three in both games they are 12 of 48 from deep. This is absolutely just baffling to me. I have no idea what's going on with those two. And now you're in a situation where you got to go back to mass and square garden. Now you're in a situation where you got to go back to Madison Square Garden. This isn't just cold shooting. This is a collapse in shot creation.

Boston's offense has been built on clean looks, but what happens when the playoff defense erases those clean looks? Here's the thing they haven't erased them. They haven't erased them. We told you earlier in this podcast they got 45 clean looks at the basket beyond the three-point line. They just didn't hit them.

And you can say whatever it is that you want to say about that situation. You can say, well, shot variance. You can say, oh, and I'm not even saying they got tight and that the moment's too big. That's not what I'm saying. They just did not execute and I don't understand why. I wish I had better analysis for you. But sometimes we just don't know what goes on internally. Sometimes we just don't know what's inside a man's heart. And I am not saying that boston is soft, shots out to my guy, kazim, on the ringer wrestling podcast on the master man show, because he did call boston, he called him out and he he didn't call him just soft. He went wrestling heel, he went. They are s? A, w, f? T soft. That is what kazim had to say. Now I'm telling you that, hey, you're looking at a situation where Jason Tatum played in the Olympics. He came right out of that, went into, and you say, well, he didn't play that much in the Olympics. I got you.

But whatever, christoph Porzingis is not there. We have an illness that we can't even fix, and OG Ananobi and Mikael Bridges are the guys that we thought they were going to be. I remember at the start of the season, when this whole thing got put together, we kept on asking about Mitchell Robinson when is Mitchell Robinson coming back? And then it got to January. Mitchell Robinson was not back. Well, mitchell robertson is back now and this defense is not just stifling them, it is putting them in straight jackets. I think boston is talking to themselves now. The voices are loud. It is. It is going nuts.

Check this out offensive rating without christoph barzingas 92.1 three point shooting. Without christoph barzingas 24.7 rim attempts are down by 41 percent from season average and just like that, the spacing collapse. So you wonder why, right, you wonder why boston is having these problems. Well, if you don't drive and kick, you got to drive, you got to hit the paint. I'm gonna say it go ahead, get your alcohol ready. We talk about purposeful paint.

Touches in on this podcast a lot. Can you get to the paint and have intentionality when you get there? Can you suck the defense in pause? I know you guys are out there making ha ha ha. He said suck. If you can have the, if you can have the defense collapse on you, and then you can kick it out to your shooters.

This is the ideal way of what Boston wants to play, but they're not doing it and they have to get back to being a little more aggressive. So Jason Tatum is gonna have to put on his cape and be the Superman that we look for. Last year, remember, we were giving him a hard time, even when they were winning, like a dog. So you're not gonna win like eastern conference finals, mvp. You're not gonna win finals mvp. You talk about you a kobe disciple and all this other stuff and you're not gonna win. You're not gonna take control of these, these victories and stuff like that. And he was like nah, we play within the confines of the, you know, of the offense.

In whatever case may be, hey, bro, time is of the essence now. They don't have, they don't have many, you don't have many more time. You're down 2-0. You need to get in the paint score, get foul, kick it out to your shooters, let them see the ball go in the bucket and then yo, let's, let's roll, because if you don't, you might get swept. Bro, and I'm gonna tell you right now that is not gonna be a good look. That will not be a good look for Jason Tatum and it damn sure won't be a good look for Jalen Brown and somebody. I'm not saying one of those two, but somebody is going to leave the Celtics If they go out 4-0. Somebody significant is going to leave the Celtics If they get swept. Do not win a championship and get swept in the second round, because the clown will be.

So on from la, where I reside, los angeles, we like to hate. Uh, did you not see 2024? Did you not see kendrick lamar and a lot of his statements that were going on? So, boston, I'm letting you know that right now I have a lot of love for you. I lived in that city for 15 years. If you don't want to hear the noise, don't get swept by New York, because you're going to hear it.

Jalen Brown's quote hit different. He said we're too reliant on the three ball. You don't say but this isn't new. That's year three of the postseason frustration no mid post touches, no second side back, no second side back cuts, no plan b whatsoever and it's like we're gonna continue to shoot threes. Remember what we talked about earlier in the season we talked about.

Joe mozilla turned this into a math equation. He wants them. He says the whole time we are getting good looks, the process, the processes are working, so they're getting what they wanted. I just think that you should diversify your situation when it's not going well. No time out late in game two, collapse. No, there was a ton of mismatch, hunting I'm. I'm at a loss of words.

This is what I think boston should look like in game three tatum. Get him to the elbow, give him some touches at the elbow, delay sets, empty side pick and rolls brown. He should be basically a guy who, when tatum's out, he should be like a primary guy that should get the ball. He should be somebody who should be coming off dhos and things of that nature. Use horford, use somebody. But we need to give him a two dribble situation and get him aggressive, going downhill off ball creation. Ghost screens, hammer actions and back screens. This is the peyton pritchards of the world. This is the drew holidays of the world. This is derrick whites of the world. That's what we kind of need to be seeing. Tight rotations, let's. Let's go with the guys who run us.

I know that we had depth all year in celtic land. I know we played a lot of people, but it's time to shorten up. It's time to shorten up, I need to say a lot of holiday, a lot of white, a lot of j White, a lot of Jalen Brown, a lot of Jason Tatum, and if Christoph Porzingis is not going to be there, we're going to need to see Horford. No more. Luke Cornett no more. I don't need to see Luke Cornett. Peyton Pritchard okay, no more Luke Cornett.

The other thing that we need to hit is this anybody know what's going on with Draymond, like anybody did. Anybody see that. So Draymond in game 2 if you didn't see it, every social clip on the face of the planet has it. And then he said something after and I'll address that in a second. So Draymond has Nas Reed on him on the block. Now Nas Reed is playing aggressive defense like he has been all throughout the playoffs, and he grabs draymond by the opposite shoulder. Now there's the, the arm that is closest to nazri draymond kind of foe goes up for a shot and flails his arms and in the flail he pops. I mean he pops naz reed with basically his forearm, the elbow, and naz reeds go to the ground. There's a tech, there's a technical foul no, flagrant, which is weird, right. And then draymond proceeds to go off I mean just go, absolutely crazy. And um, then he, you know no remorse on that situation.

Then after the game he makes the comment of uh, the league is trying to portray me as an angry black man. I'm not an angry black man. Um, I come from a good family. I raised my family, you know. You know I have good kids. What have you? I was a good kid, I'm smart. Da, da, da da. All these things I'm paraphrasing here. You want to read the whole quote. Go, go do it. On the athletic, our guy, anthony slater, does a tremendous job with the golden state warriors. I highly recommend him and all the work that he does. So that is my uh shout out to journalism and the people who are doing the good work daily. Doing the good work daily, doing the good work daily.

I don't understand I've said this so many times In my own personal life I don't understand People who don't take Responsibility for their actions. I just don't get it. I don't get it, I will never get it. And maybe that makes me the asshole. Maybe that does. I don't get it, I will never get it, and maybe that makes me the asshole, maybe that does, I don't know. But I've gone through a change in my life, you know. So I'm going to break it down like that and listen, we're all different, we're all different, we're cut from different cloths, whatever case may be, but at the end of the day, my whole thing is this is that if you do something wrong, you gotta make an amends for it. Now that amends could be of like a physical amends, like you really are out here doing something. It could be like a, a delayed amends, like hey, I can't really help that person, but now I know that that is that is really destructive and I don't want to do that or inflict that type of situation onto somebody else. But at the you have to own up for the things that you do, and if you're not doing that and then it becomes an excuse based situation, you and then when something really actually goes wrong, that might really not have anything to do with you you're not gonna get the benefit of the doubt as much as you would if you had handled these situations prior to this a little more judiciously.

Draymond has kicked people in the balls. He's punched people in the balls. He's choked people out. And I understand he is. He's six foot five. He's playing against seven foot one. He's giving up seven foot one dudes. He's giving up 60 pounds in weight. I understand he has to be way more aggressive than your normal center. I get all of that, but you live on a razor's edge, my guy. But it seems like you go over that edge, like you go over that edge consistently. And that's the problem. When steph is coming off the bench and he's hurt and he's coming to get, you say, hey, man, calm down.

I had somebody in my life back in the day when I was newly sober. Say to me, vince, you have impulsivity issues. And I was like what the hell are you talking about Whatever? And I now know what that means. I used to just say stuff, just say it Whatever, to get attention, to do this, to do that Whatever. Now I pray every day To have better communication skills. I pray every day To be able to convey messages better. I pray every day for the opportunity To communicate on a higher level. I can go hours without talking to a soul. It doesn't make a difference to me, but there used to be a time where I couldn't help myself. I could. I had to break the silence. I had to because the silence was death to me. I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin, and this is because of the fact that I was. I didn't feel like enough, and that was the secret that was in my head the whole time was that I didn't feel like I was enough until my breakthrough, until I was delivered, until I turned my life over to Jesus Christ. Now I don't drink. Certain other things doesn't happen anymore. It's great. All these things are great. Right, took a long time for these things to kick in.

It a it's a work in progress too, and there's a diligence to it. There's a. There's a daily self-scouting that goes on some days, though, that self scout, if I'll put it this way, if you have never been in a room, if you haven't played any kind of like organized sports, give me a little bit behind the scenes. They don't talk to everybody just like hey, you know what good, try out there. You know everything's great in nfl locker rooms or in nfl uh meeting rooms, uh on on mondays and tuesdays, depending on when they meet, after the games or whatever. There's a breakdown, and in that breakdown there is things that you need to clean up. There are things that you need to fix. There are things that you did wrong and your position coach will sit there and, whatever your name is, we'll say player x, player x. What the f? Were you doing out there? Jesus christ, I've never seen worse tackling in my life. We could have had a tackling dummy out there better than you. I would have put my damn dog out there. These are the type of things that are said in locker rooms. These are the type of things that are said.

Reason why I say all these to be said, or whatever case may be, is this be accountable for what the hell you do if you're out here punching people in the face or whatever. Don't sit there and talk about how you are people trying to portray you to be like an angry black man. Don't do that, because it makes you look stupid. It makes you you're not even. Because it makes you look stupid. It makes you You're not even Looking at the point of what is going on. You're just diverting Lots of diverting. Don't divert. Hey, I'm aggressive. You can say things like hey, I'm aggressive, I'm sorry, my elbow got high. You know I'm kind of spastic out there. You know my energy level is super high. You know I get riled up. You know anything.

There's so many things you can say to own up to this situation and be half-hearted or whatever it is, but for you to sit there and basically deny and then to come back and basically shine a light on somebody else and say, oh, they're portraying me as an angry black man. Well, you just hit somebody in the face and it's not your first time. We got a laundry list of things you have done. You've been suspended so many times. You missed finals games because of this. And now here we are. So you want to talk about, uh, why people are the way they are.

We will never know what Draymond is doing. We will never know. I know that he's a brilliant defender. He's one of the best defenders that I've ever seen. I do know that he's one of the smart players as far as IQ, being able to be an offensive initiator for his size and what he does not, being a real shooter or anything like that. It is incredible what he has made himself out to be, and I do understand that you have to play with an edge, but I still need you to acknowledge that you play with the edge, my guy, that you ain't out here like some kind of Tinkerbell. Oh, I'm just. You know I'm having fun and you know boys are weak boys. No, dog, this is crazy.

Now people will ask me, vince, you said that we were going to talk about some draft. You said that we were going to talk about some of these cats that are coming in next year. Did I have I it's a pod over? No, it's not. So guess what? Here we go. Let's talk about some draft people. Let's talk about some of these prospects that we are about to get into.

And the reason why I want to talk about some of the prospects is because of the fact that next week I want to say by next Friday we will have our first mock draft. Next Friday we will have our first mock draft. We will have like profiles, what these kids have done, what they're working on. Hopefully, we'll have some decently in-depth information. There might be some comparisons. I got some people working on this. They're working diligently and I want to tell you that the mock will be out by friday. It might be out earlier, but I'm not going to I'm the won't guarantee that, but I know we are working feverishly on it, though I do know we're working feverishly on it. With that being said, let's get into. Drop us is replaced baseline buzz, because it is draft time and we need to know about these kids, because these kids might be playing on our favorite NBA teams.

And the first person that I want to talk about is this all right, jeremiah fears. Let's talk about the guard you swear is going to be your summer league mvp in july, and the same guy who might be back in the g league by November. You say well, what are you talking about Vince with? Isn't he like a? Like a top? Yeah, he's small, though first thing that jumped out the screen with fears is his ability to handle the ball figures plays like he's doing dribble tutorial. Doing dribble tutorials in game. I'm talking snatch back, double skips paw. Has he dragged to a mid-range leaner? His deceleration? And I want to get to into this a second. His deceleration is awesome. Get to in this a second. His deceleration is awesome. He's a tempo guy, but he can't put no pressure on the rim whatsoever.

Fierce is an elite tempo manipulator, if we're going to be honest. He moves like an old man with three ankles taped. Then suddenly he bursts that deceleration. He hits off the ball screen. That's league ready. That's that trey young type stuff. So what he does is kind of like austin reese and trey young. So he'll come flying off a dhl right and then you have the guy who's in trail lock position. As soon as he knows that he's got the wall and he has that guy on his back, he is going to decelerate and stop midstream and that dude is going to run right into him. It happened so many times as I watched this tape. Now he has that unique ability which is good for him.

But when you look under the hood, bro doesn't get to the rim enough. He doesn't love contact. His shot diet is like 60 flavor, 40 nutrition and in today's league that ain't enough. Unless your name is Steph Curry is your name Steph Curry? You shooting the three ball like Steph Jeremiah Pierce? I think not. All right. Pick and roll ball handler. Points off pick and roll 0.92. That that's top 20 in his class. Rim attempts per 40 minutes 3.8. That is low for a lead guard and that's the reason why I am throwing this out to you. Free throw rate 20 20.%.

Borderline concerning it looks like a suit up campaign. Basically Right, that's what it looks like A more suit up campaign. Or, if you want to go old school, it's like Nate Robinson. If Nate tried to run a modern offense and watch 40 hours of Tyus Jones tape, the bag is real. The processing speed needs improvement. What does the tape say? If you're a coach, here's what you're going to make. What's going to make you both love and lose.

Sleep over jeremiah fierce. The good possessions are incredible. He's a one-man offense. We talked about the deceleration off tails. The floaters look great. He uses screens, he rejects the hedge, he gets downhill, draws the second defender and he kicks out to his wing. Chef. Kiss, boom, next trip, step back. Three, 17 seconds on the clock. Uh, no raw movement. You blink and he's walking back on defense and like he didn't do anything to kill the rhythm.

I am going to say that I don't know what he's going to be. As far as you know, could you again? We're still talking about like 19 and 20 year old kids here. So the worst of it is is that I don't think he's going to be a floor general. I think he's going to be like a off the bench type of player. Uh, he could turn into a microwave scorer or a second unit initiator. If, if the playmaking skills come around and he can get into the paint and get some sort of nice layup package where he uses the rim as like a helper to get it shot off, that might be something that he needs to work on. Now let's get to another guy that I kind of need to talk about, and that person is LeBaron Phylon.

Motor over metrics, dog mentality in HD. Let's get to it, the tape you love. He shows no fear, no fear whatsoever. His defensive disruption rating is one is a top three percent nationally. Um screen navigation. He gets an A on that. Off-ball stop frequency 3.3 per 36 shot diet 48% at the round 22% mid-range, 30% deep. Okay, might want to change a couple of those numbers around, but okay, his shot is fine, it's not broken, but it's not elite. But again, that is not the point. He is not going to carry your offense, he is going to intimidate your opposing point guard into three or twelve shooting. That is what he is going to do.

And those dudes gives minutes in the nba. You know why? C jose alvarado, c devion mitchell, c javon carter, those guys get minutes. You know why? Because they play like dogs. And if you play some defense like a dog. If you say the ball is yours at all time mentality, you get. You get minutes on the court offense. He has a lot to a work to do, okay, uh, if you watch the grammar tape, there were where he fought through five screens in one possession. Five, five of them. You just love it. He just ran through people. It's great now, offensive wise. I mean we're asking a lot if we're asking him to be a lead guard, but I do think he can be a really good bench player for you. He's 6'4", which gives me some pause that he could break into your first unit as far as that's concerned. But his offense is not what's going to get him on the court. It is going to be his defense that gets him on the court is not what's gonna get him on the court. It is going to be his defense that gets him on the court. And my guy plays defense like yo. He is hungry and it is dinner time right Now.

A controversial pick or a controversial prospect in this draft is Thomas Sorber or Georgetown. Thomas Sorber is a six foot 11 like traditional big. This is like old school bigs. This is borderline, like we, what we doing here, the last of a dying breed. Sorb is a throwback in the best way. He's 6 foot, 10, 255 pounds of defensive positioning, vertical discipline and low maintenance productivity. You're not getting a switchable five or anything like that. You're not getting trailer threes, a grown ass man who protects the rim, sets legal screens and never beats himself. He's like greg mcroe downloaded al horford basketball grain post defense, solid, verticality, excellent fouling, minimal. The guy just understands his job and he does it to the best of his ability. And here's the best part dude's just 20 just turned. So he's young. Rim field goal percentage 44.1 percent. That's some old school georgetown center type stuff right there. Okay, when you see under 50 at the rim, that's like elite, elite black hole type stuff. His blocking steal rate 7.8 percent fouls per 40 because they played the college game right. 2.1, 2.1 per 40 minutes is what he's averaging. So he's a smart defender.

This is the anti draymond green. By the way, we ain't just giving up silly. Oh, this is anti-Jaron Jackson Jr. You know my troubles with Jaron Jackson Jr. I just foul, I just foul all the time. I love to foul, ridiculous, all right.

And now the pick and roll coverage is the other thing that we kind of need to talk about too. 0.83 point per possession elite. So why is he not? Because he's not. That. He's not what you want now. You want somebody who's a switchable big. You want like, you want this like guy who's gonna be. He's a drop coverage big. He knows his way, his lot in life, he understands it. So you, there's only certain systems that he's gonna fit in. He doesn't have scheme versatility.

This is one of the reasons why you can see him possibly falling like out of the lottery and one of these real smart teams back in the 20s is going to find this kid. And if they have a need for a drop coverage center, don't let bud get a job and then see this kid somewhere, because if they do he, I'm telling you right now somebody gonna get a real good one. We love thomas over here. We loved him early in the season when he was getting buzzed like top 10. Some reasons kind of falling off. They wanted him to be like more of a like an evan mobley type of person and he's not. And that's okay because there's so many things that he does do and there's so many things that he does do.

Well for me to sit here and say, I believe this kid is going to have a 10 year career at least in the nba, barring injury, and he's going to be productive for you and I think personally I think he's going to be a starter. I think within two years the kid will be a starter, depending on what team he goes with. I just have this feeling about this kid. You can put him behind another offensive center and he's perfect as a bench big. But if you start him, you need shooting at every position around him Because his game isn't going to space the floor at all. He's going to balance it, so he's going to provide your like.

Now I know they got multiple picks. I'll tell you a team that I like for him. I like San Antonio. You imagine what Wimby and Thomas Orber would look like if you had those two dudes. I'm trying to think another team that I like him for. Now Lakers don't have the pick, but he would be a good center for Luka um. Trying to think you talk at youth him for sure, for sure, for sure. And now we're going to get into a big man that's completely different than our guy Tom Silver, and that's Asa Newell. And people will sit there and say, well, asa Newell is kind of more of a forward than he is a big guy, and I would agree with you on that.

The most balanced modern big in this class is Asa Newell. He's at least the one they talk about the most. He's not the highest jumper, he's not blocking six shots a night, but he moves like a wing guards for position and he makes everything look easier for his teammates. Asa is one of those guys where if you don't watch film, you don't get it. You need context, you need nuance and you need to understand how valuable, not flashy, the defense is. Here's the secret of he doesn't chase blocks, he prevents actions. There's a difference between a defender who reacts and one who anticipates.

Asa is the second type. He he drops when he's supposed to. He switches out without panic and when you run a floppy or horn set to get a mismatch on him, he doesn't give up, he doesn't give in, and that's rare, especially coming from somebody who's 19 years of age. Switch coverage success top 15 among all fours. Foul rate just 2.3 per 40. That's still elite. Contest frequency 6.7 a game rim. Defensive field goal percentage 47.8.

By the way, he's got two less inches than sword was 6'11", this dude is 6'9". His frame is NBA ready. He's 6'9". He has a 7' wingspan. He's approximately about 215 pounds. I think he's about 220 now. But it's not just the tools, it's how he uses them. His closeouts are under control, his hips are fluid. He can guard your bigs in the pose and still get out and put a hand up on a pull-up too. And he's never looks rushed at all, even when he is playing plays breakdown asa floats to the right spot. He just has an instinct. He has a knack for finding where he's supposed to be. He's not explosive but he's precise.

Think jaden mcdaniel's light with a calmer motor and more switch comfort. He's a low usage guy. You're not gonna have to like just feed him. As far as that's concerned. I love that about him. He's okay with being the guy. He doesn't need post touches, he doesn't need the ball to prove a point. He runs, he screens, he rotates, he just fits. He's a connecting piece. Catch and shoot. Three corners 31.2 percent. Mechanics are clean, short roll decision efficiency. Top 30 percent turnover rate 10.4 percent low for big and his pick and roll screens. He sets decent screens. I'll give him like a B plus on that. There's not. There's not a lot that he can't do. If you put ace on a team with guards who control to blow, he thrives. If you put him in a motion heavy Help recover system, he becomes a plus defender day one. Cover system he becomes a plus defender day one. Man, orlando, another big. I like it for him. I like him a lot.

We're not gonna spend a lot of time on Carter Bryant. I want to, um, give him more love. I need to really look at his tape, but I've been looking at him and I've done like a little mock-up on him. So this is what I gotta say well, my guy, carter Brian, is somebody that I was really looking at Arizona, you know, trying to check it out, trying to understand what it was. He floats into pockets on offense, he closes space fast on defense and he understands where the next pass is going before the ball gets there. He's not just feel. That's discipline, that's repetition, that's NBA-ready IQ. Deflections per 36, 3.2. Contest rate on closeout 85.3. That is excellent. Okay, synergy is great. I love it.

Defense activity without fouling 10 among wings he's not flashy, he's functional and you need one carter bryant on every playoff roster. This is the same thing that that uh bill simmons talks about. Hey, can this dude give me 10 to 12 minutes of like productive play on the court while my star is resting? Carter bryant can do that and he has enough on a shot. His jumper looks mechanically sound. It's not there yet, but it looks mechanically sound. But he is not lost on defense, which will get him on the court, which will buy him more time for the jumper to come around, and then there's all the connective pieces that he does.

I like carter. I like carter bryant. I think he's going to be a really good player. Now you could tell me that he is the fourth guy on a playoff contending team. You can tell me that he is the seventh guy in a rotation. You can tell me a lot of things about Carter Bryant, and I would believe them. But the one thing that you cannot tell me about Carter Bryant is this he's going to be in league three or four years and then we're never going to hear from him again. That is something that you cannot tell me. This is one of those good old old school Pac-12 dudes that just stay in league for 10 to 12 years and you just go. He still got a job A la Kyle Anderson.

Listen way more athletic way, you know whatever, but the thing they have in common is the cerebralness of their game, their basketball IQ and their ability to anticipate where the ball is going before it even gets there. Both of them have it. Both of them play with an edge of tenacity, and I'm talking about not like uh over the edge. It's kind of like, hey man, I am not to be trifled with, okay, like, this is not going to be an easy day for you. I'm not going to be intimidated by who you are and what, how many instagram followers you got and all this other bullcrap. I am here to play basketball, I am here to guard your face and if you don't like it, well, you and I can have that discussion now or we have it later in the game. Whatever it is that you need to do my my way, but I will be here the duration of the time that I'm on the court. So there is that. We love carter bryant. We think he's going to be a real, real solid pro. Those are some of the guys that we kind of looked at. We will be, uh, doing more and more of this as we get closer to the draft and again I tell you this we will have a draft board by friday. We are working diligently on this and it will happen, so Keep it locked here for that and On a feel good Friday.

The last note that I want to leave you guys with Is this Phoenix. We talked about the ownership. We talked about Also the Dallas Mavericks this year. Those have been kind of like my two punching bags, I guess, for the season. Right. The one thing that I do want to say is this is that James Jones deserves better.

Uh, in Phoenix and I'm not saying that Matt Ishpia can't hire whoever he wants to hire I just I wonder, I wonder out loud and maybe it might be disrespectful to my espia, I'm, I'm not sure, I'm not certain, but I am wondering out loud what was so wrong with the team that you had before you got there? Like I understand, kevin durant is awesome, and I'm not no shade on kevin, you get him whatever you can. My question, though, is is that then you double down with the bradley bill situation, and you know you continue to double down. You continue to double down and then you traded a highly, highly, highly wanted 2031 pick for three really insignificant picks that are going to be late round late first round picks. I just don't understand the plan, matt. I just don't understand the plan. And now you're telling me that ryan gregory understands the plan again. Just be able to illustrate to me what the north star is and then let's go. Then I can at least try to follow you here on that situation. But james jones, follow you here on that situation.

But James Jones is a veteran NBA man. For many a year he toiled playing in you know off the bench and whatever the case, and be carried a lot of respect around the league for his professionalism and how he helped out the young cats as he was coming, getting to the end of his career and stuff like that, and then went into the role of you know, player evaluator and thing and went into that. The thing that I find interesting with james jones is that he worked his way up through Through the whole situation and, again, brian Gregory Might be able to do an excellent job. I don't know, I don't. I got to do more research on this guy, but you tell me what James Jones Didn't do for you or what you Asked him to do that he didn't Pull off for you, or what you asked him to do that he didn't pull off for you and then you tell me why he is no longer the VP of player personnel. Because I am sure that. Because does anybody remember how the the KD trade went down? This is a piece that I want people to remember.

James Jones was running point on that situation. They asked for at first it was Mikael gris and all your picks, right? Matt Ishbia was the one who came in and said, oh no, it was actually Cam Johnson and all your picks, and they wanted Mikael Grigis. And James Jones was hesitant. He was like I don't know about that. One like that just seemed like a bridge too far right, matt Ishbia. He was like I don't know about that, one like that just seemed like a bridge too far. Right, matt ishby comes in and goes. He goes full. Less need those picks, mikhail bridges, I don't care what we got to get rid of. Kevin durant is going to be a phoenix son. Kevin Durant is going to be a Phoenix Sun. I get that, but you had nothing left in the cupboard and this had to work, and now it doesn't. And now we're blaming James Jones for this. My God, you need to look in the mirror, because I don't think James Jones has a lot to do with this situation. I think Matt Ishpia has a lot to do with this situation. I think matt ishpia has a lot to do with this situation, and that is all we got for feel good friday.

I want to thank my producer, saraya. I like to thank vance hey, good looking playboy. Appreciate you. Uh. I want to uh go ahead also and tell you guys that we will be back on tuesday. We got a good pie for you then. Uh, we will be continuing to monitor these playoff situations. We will continue to look at some of the outstanding basketball that will be going on this weekend. We love the games, we love the players, we love the moments, we love the dunks, we love the blocks and the steals, and we love when coaches go absolutely crazy on the sideline, when they have no idea what their team is doing, and we will be watching all of it this weekend or you, you, the audience and we will see you on Tuesday.

But before we get out of here, we leave you with this Surround yourself with people who lift you up, push you forward and remind you of who you are. If you have people like that in your life, celebrate them, text them, facetime them if you're in their general vicinity, give them a hug. The most important thing is let them know that they matter. That's the most important thing right there now, because if you do all those things, growth is different when you're surrounded by love, support and real ones. And let me tell you something if you go on the roster like that, yo, we got a place for you here at front runner podcast collective. We'll keep a seat open for you, as always.

I would like to thank again my producer. I would like to thank again the audience for hanging with us and, by the way, to the audience, thank you. Our little podcast has hit every continent on this planet. That's not lost on me. So if you're enjoying this podcast, thank you so much. We do it for you and we love doing it. And if you love it, hopefully you will find other people who will love it. So be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast, because if you are a friend and you're being a friend and telling something about the podcast, it might change their life out to crap. Mcafee, we stealing all the stuff from you, dog, not all of it, because we keep it super real on some other stuff. You know I'm saying y'all love the football, we love the basketball, we do our thing, you do your thing. And guess what? We'll see you back on this feed on tuesday deuces you.