NBA Playoffs 2nd Round Predictions - Where Does Behind The Scenes Maneuvering Get You?

[00:00:00] It's Saturday, Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air. I am your humble host,

[00:00:17] Vince. In today's podcast, we are going to break down the predictions of the second round.

[00:00:25] We're gonna get to a couple of news and notes that have come out in the last couple of days.

[00:00:30] And one of the reasons why we are a little late is because we were trying to gather information

[00:00:36] in regards to those stories. So we apologize about the day late, but we thought it was imperative

[00:00:42] to the podcast to get you all the information that you would possibly need. But before we get to it,

[00:00:51] let's talk about the socials. YouTube, the channel is Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[00:00:58] It is great. A lot of great information, very funny things on this channel. I am a frequent user

[00:01:07] of this channel and you should be too. The other thing is that we need to X at Front Runner PC.

[00:01:18] The reason why we are trying to garner more followers there is because of the fact that

[00:01:26] this is a great place to interact with you. This is a place where we can get into debates and poll

[00:01:33] questions and things of that nature. And that should give you a little tease to what might

[00:01:39] actually be on Twitter a little bit later in regards to this podcast. The other thing is,

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[00:02:16] are letting people know about the podcast. It is greatly appreciated. So we are going to get

[00:02:24] to what we need to talk about now. And the reason why we held off is because we had heard that the

[00:02:33] Darwin Ham rumors were going to be finalized yesterday. We wanted to wait. I also wanted

[00:02:43] to talk to a couple of people before I got into this situation. And now that it is done,

[00:02:51] I want to talk about what Ham did. I'm also going to tie it to another team as well.

[00:02:59] So let's get into it. The Lakers Darwin Ham was fired after two seasons at the helm

[00:03:08] and he compiled a 90 and 74 record. Now, he, how can I put it with Ham?

[00:03:20] There were inconsistent lineups. There are shaky rotations that didn't make sense in today's NBA.

[00:03:30] We all know that it's an offensive game. Now, obviously when the playoffs start,

[00:03:36] the defense ratchets it up to like levels that you don't get in the regular season.

[00:03:43] And the reason why I bring this up is because we talk all the time about

[00:03:50] regular season basketball is different than playoff basketball. But this is no different

[00:03:57] than it would be in the National Hockey League. In the National Hockey League,

[00:04:03] when they're doing the Stanley Cup playoffs, the defenseman will like lay down on the ice to

[00:04:11] block shots. Now in the regular season, unless it's like playoff positioning or things of that

[00:04:18] nature towards the end, you don't see those type of things happening. It's more like a standard

[00:04:24] type of plays like, okay, I only do that, you know, break glass in emergency type situations.

[00:04:30] That being said, today's basketball spacing is of the utmost importance. I cannot stress enough how

[00:04:43] important your ability to put stress on a defense by moving it side to side

[00:04:51] is absolutely imperative in a way basketball is played today. Now, we say all that to get you into

[00:05:02] the Darwin ham of it all. With Darwin ham being fired, it was rumored. I have sources that have told

[00:05:12] me some things that we're going to get into as we go along. But I can tell you one main reason

[00:05:20] why Darwin ham was fired and he was fired so quickly. This was a clear message to LeBron James

[00:05:28] that we are very, very interested in bringing you back. I was told that this was one of the

[00:05:39] conditions of LeBron coming back that he wants to come back for season 22. He is coming back to the

[00:05:50] Lakers for season 22. So he will be in the purple and gold next year. You can woge and all these

[00:06:00] other people can tell you all these things and you'll hear little statements here and there,

[00:06:06] but I'm here to tell you that LeBron James will be in a Laker uniform in season 22.

[00:06:14] The other guy that we need to talk about in this is Anthony Davis. Davis and James were

[00:06:21] dissatisfied with the rotations and the minute restrictions from early very early in the season.

[00:06:28] Remember, Darwin ham had put a mandate on LeBron James playing like 30 to 32 minutes a game. I think

[00:06:37] that lasted all of one game. Okay, so you take that however you need to take that. Now I will tell

[00:06:48] you another thing that I've that the reason why held off on this podcast because I wanted to

[00:06:55] make sure that I had this information correct. This is the main reason for Darwin ham and the

[00:07:02] reason why he was let go in his entire staff was let go as well. Ham wanted more length in the line

[00:07:12] up and he installed can reddish into the starting lineup reddish who had previously been with the

[00:07:18] trailblazers the Knicks and he started his career with the Atlanta Hawks. All those stops were

[00:07:24] disappointing. The main situation with cam reddish is extremely talented player, very long, very athletic,

[00:07:33] couldn't shoot to save his life, still can't shoot to save his life and we are just in this

[00:07:39] situation now where you know he's in the starting lineup. Now we just talked about spacing and

[00:07:49] how important it is. Well, Anthony Davis is not a three point shooter. He doesn't hang out on the

[00:07:57] perimeter very often anymore. LeBron James who shot a career high over 40% this year. At the

[00:08:07] start of the year people still weren't respecting LeBron as a volume three point shooter. So the

[00:08:13] lane was clogged. But yet and still ham still use reddish really up until the halfway point of the

[00:08:24] season. This is where it gets very interesting. Darwin ham made the decision to insert reddish

[00:08:37] into the starting lineup. It was bewildering to all of us. It was frustrating to all of us,

[00:08:43] but it was a dig to the players who had some say in roster decisions. That is from a source.

[00:08:52] So you tell me a head coach of a professional basketball team thought, hey, you know what?

[00:09:02] Since you guys want to have like roster say or or thoughts on the roster.

[00:09:09] Here's one of the guys that you wanted on the roster. And we're going to misuse him and we're

[00:09:14] going to put him in the starting lineup and it's going to hinder our success. You think you should

[00:09:22] be fired for that? Probably. And this is the reason why we held out on the podcast yesterday.

[00:09:33] And this ties into some other things that we're going to talk about in a second as well.

[00:09:37] But I do want to finish up with that right now. Some of the candidates for the later job

[00:09:43] is JJ Redick, the former player, the former Brooklyn net Philadelphia 76er Clipper.

[00:09:54] I mean, New Orleans Pelican, he was everything that guy was a NBA nomad, but could shoot it

[00:10:01] could shoot the three ball. Mike Budonhozer, who was recently let go of the Milwaukee Bucks

[00:10:09] last year. Remember, this started that changing the events and we're going to get into that in

[00:10:15] one second. I'm tying something in here. Ty Lue of the Clippers. Now I now have on good authority

[00:10:22] that Ty Lue will not be going anywhere. Okay. My sources told me that they are having out a

[00:10:32] long term deal. It'll be very lucrative for Ty Lue. Something that he had had aspirations on

[00:10:39] ever since he saw the Detroit Pistons, hey, Monty Williams, $13 million for that

[00:10:49] abomination that was going on in Detroit. Sorry to my Detroit players out there. I know it's

[00:10:57] a struggle to watch old basketball team right now. I am I am absolutely with you with some

[00:11:06] of the head scratching decisions that have been made. But you are in the reality that Monty

[00:11:13] Williams is getting paid $13 million to coast that team. So Tyler was real happy about that.

[00:11:20] So you can scratch him off the Lakers list of people that they can try to go get to man the

[00:11:26] ship. Another name that will pop up is Mark Jackson. I think this is just as a courtesy. Mark Jackson

[00:11:36] will will not be the Lakers coach. There's just things that went on in Golden State

[00:11:46] that for some reason Mark Jackson hasn't been able to live down and even after years and years

[00:11:53] afterwards and he is wanted to coach. He has just never gotten a sniff after that Golden State situation.

[00:12:03] So the tie into this is because

[00:12:08] the other organization that I want to talk about is Milwaukee Bucks. And the reason why I want to

[00:12:13] bring up the Milwaukee Bucks even though they're not in the playoffs is for this reason. On

[00:12:21] this year is getting a pretty much a fiasco for the Milwaukee Bucks. We can say this

[00:12:27] with certainty now that they're out obviously started off in the first part of the year.

[00:12:34] But I think we have now a little more clarity on the situation. I think the season for the

[00:12:41] Milwaukee Bucks and for that fan base and little did they know what was going on.

[00:12:48] But to now find out that Adrian Griffin who was the coach early on in the season was brought in

[00:13:03] under the advisement of Doc Rivers. It's gonna sound that sounds weird right. Hold on it gets

[00:13:13] weirder. Now only did Doc advise the Bucks on this move. He even graciously said hey I will also

[00:13:26] be a consultant to the franchise and helping in this transition. So Doc Rivers was behind the

[00:13:37] scenes the whole entire year from his ABC ESPN color analyst duties. He was also moonlighting

[00:13:54] as a consultant for the Milwaukee Bucks in helping out Adrian Griffin. Now we fast forward to the

[00:14:03] point where is pass supposedly pass a point and no return with the Milwaukee Bucks.

[00:14:10] And the team is spiraling. Keep in mind when we say spiraling they were 30 and 13.

[00:14:21] Okay. Top two three seed in the East 30 and 13 but everything was dark in Milwaukee.

[00:14:32] And a change needed to be made. Why was that change so swift? Who made the call? Well

[00:14:45] we're starting to know that Doc Rivers was obviously consulting and saying hey this is

[00:14:53] beyond the point of no return. So he snaked his own guy to get the job. And the reason why I bring

[00:15:03] this all up is this. The best franchises out there are you know there's this cliche

[00:15:12] committed to winning, committed to winning. It's not about being committed to winning is

[00:15:19] can you get enough people to be agreeable on a plan that you have set and then

[00:15:30] apply said plan? That's the ingredient on being successful in any organization.

[00:15:40] You might not have 100% approval rating but if you can get a group of people and have like

[00:15:50] an 88% approval rating that's unheard of. But that's what you're looking for in the NBA.

[00:16:00] Remember I talk about it all the time. Everybody has a different agenda from the guy who is

[00:16:07] the 12th guy on the bench, the rookie, the hot shot rookie to the guy who's the second

[00:16:13] rounder who's just trying to make it to the second contract to the middling vet that's

[00:16:21] played real well. He's definitely part of the rotation but is he going to be priced

[00:16:28] out of his market? Then you got the coaches then you got the front office. It goes on and on.

[00:16:33] The whole thing about it is is that you have to be on the same page and you say well Vince how

[00:16:42] did you get that? You need to be straight up with people. You need to find out what their

[00:16:48] desires are, what their aspirations are and see if it's in the realm of what your vision is

[00:16:56] for the team. I can tell you this with a lot of just my heart goes out a little bit because I think

[00:17:09] right now what we're seeing is that the Lakers who have been a pillar franchise in the NBA for

[00:17:18] a long period of time we can finally say that they're mismanaged. Somebody needs to grab a hold

[00:17:30] of the root of the horse whatever you want to call it, whatever analogy you want to use,

[00:17:37] cliche you want to use somebody needs to grab the bull by the horns and basically go hey

[00:17:41] this is the philosophy. This is the development of this philosophy.

[00:17:50] This is the principles of this philosophy. This is how I would like to see this philosophy

[00:17:57] applied and then we set a course and go Denver, the New York Knicks. Do they have an identity?

[00:18:11] Yes they do and until the Lakers have a clear cut identity and it's not masked in a

[00:18:22] aging Hall of Famer, one of the greatest to ever do it. It's your own philosophy

[00:18:29] until that set the Lakers will continue to spin their wheels. They'll continue to have these

[00:18:37] issues of roster construction, roster development and also how to utilize said roster and then I move

[00:18:49] to the Milwaukee Bucks and I say this to you where do you go from here because right now

[00:18:59] there are no honor among thieves all the backstabbing all the behind the scenes maneuvering

[00:19:09] where did it get you a first round exit and to LeBron James your tweets the passive aggressive

[00:19:23] nature the overwhelming scrutiny that you apply to your your guys as you call them

[00:19:37] you need to be one of those guys now there need to be a more inclusive relationship

[00:19:46] instead of saying oh I can't work with this I can't work with this get this out and get something new

[00:19:53] cultivate what you have and make it better find some contentment in it I understand

[00:20:00] striving for greatness is a great thing but you know what also works continuity continuity

[00:20:07] works having the same team having the mind melt because you have been on the same team and

[00:20:16] played a lot of minutes and been on the court together that's another way to improve your

[00:20:22] team that's an that's another way to improve their basketball intelligence because you're

[00:20:28] one of the greatest ones in the history of the game when it comes to basketball intelligence

[00:20:38] stay out of roster decisions play your game which is still awe inspiring to this day

[00:20:52] the Lakers still do need a absolute weapon on the offensive end if they're gonna ever

[00:21:00] get to that level and and challenge the nuggets but I think there's a lot of time foolery going on

[00:21:08] I think there's a lot of things that are not on the court related going on people want to play

[00:21:15] with certain people certain certain agency groups get more favor with certain franchises and

[00:21:25] and it's not just the Lakers it happens in Brooklyn it happens with other ones as well

[00:21:29] the New York Knicks have a really long-standing relationship with CAA but CAA is not running

[00:21:38] the Lakers are not running the Knicks Leon Rose is running the Knicks with Tibbs because here's

[00:21:49] the other thing Leon Rose can get the player because remember I said talk to well count Reddish

[00:21:56] Leon Rose got can't readish Tom Tivito did not play can't readish

[00:22:06] you can get them but I don't have to play him because he doesn't fit our culture and philosophy

[00:22:14] and he stuck to his guns and it was proven right so sometimes you got to be bold as well

[00:22:22] so all I have to say is that the Lakers really need to look themselves in the mirror and do a lot of

[00:22:28] self-assessment at this present time because the one thing that you need to do is you need to have

[00:22:33] some sort of consensus and start rowing the boat in the same direction everybody is on the same

[00:22:41] page you got to have some buy-in and it starts at the top and then it works its way down

[00:22:51] you can't win with flash you can't win with just oh we're just going to get one of the best

[00:22:56] superstars and we're just going to win it doesn't work that way team building is an art it's a science

[00:23:05] and also it's a little bit of jazz it's a little bit of spontaneity it's a little bit of

[00:23:12] intuition these are all things you're going to need from the head coach that you are also

[00:23:17] now looking for so I'm going to go ahead get off my soapbox and we'll talk about other things but

[00:23:25] it's just a cautionary tale to franchises out there who are looking to get to that next level

[00:23:35] be careful about the youth of your superstar on your team yes should they have an opinion on

[00:23:43] what goes on in team yes should they be making decisions or close in proximity to making decisions

[00:23:54] no that should not go all right now let's get to some of these games uh from the last couple days

[00:24:06] and give you my thoughts on them and we'll go from there um I want to start with I want to start with

[00:24:19] the magic the magic and the Cavaliers and the reason why I want to do that is because

[00:24:24] I think on this podcast last time we talked about that every team had won at home and I

[00:24:30] thought that trend would continue and then we would get to the final game which that's

[00:24:38] where we are now Orlando ended up winning the game 103 to 96 uh basically the this is the best part

[00:24:46] the Cavaliers blew a 50 point effort by Donovan Mitchell Spido went crazy that game he was just

[00:24:53] nutty and they also threw away 71 point from their starting back court together

[00:25:00] to the Orlando magic now this series is hails serve the home team has won every game and we

[00:25:10] we on this podcast basically told you that situation was going to happen be careful Cleveland

[00:25:19] because now you're in a game seven you should win this you should you are the better team

[00:25:26] team no shade to Orlando they're young and the only game that has traveled to Cleveland

[00:25:34] or any kind of consistent basis has been the the guy that we love Paulo Bencarro

[00:25:43] shots out to our guy Paulo Bencarro you've been doing your thing dog you've been carrying that

[00:25:49] team it has been really nice to watch and I have dug the your development and skies the limit for you

[00:26:00] and we also need to give a little love to Franz Wagner because we didn't trash him but we said he

[00:26:06] was struggling and we said as the further and further this series goes on would Franz Wagner

[00:26:15] show up what the real Franz Wagner showed up and there was a Jamal Mosley made a change

[00:26:23] in the middle of this series and they put Franz on the ball more and it gave him more

[00:26:29] offensive responsibility which also empowered him to shoot it a little bit more and become

[00:26:36] more aggressive so I want to give a little shout out to Jamal Mosley the Orlando magic head coach

[00:26:43] making that adjustment in series because for a young coach and a young team to make that type of

[00:26:50] adjustment to take the ball away from Paulo who was getting it done he was carrying the mail for

[00:26:57] Orlando and to put it in Franz who has been struggling that's a bold move to do what it

[00:27:05] has turned out and it has worked out so kudos to Jamal Mosley for making that

[00:27:10] but I will say that the key to this game was the rebounding by Orlando which again Cleveland we

[00:27:21] have talked about the toughness and we've talked about why for some reason this does not work

[00:27:28] this should work right 48 to 38 was the total rebounding between the two teams

[00:27:36] and then it was a 15 to 7 offensive rebounding edge to the Orlando magic they just pounded the boards

[00:27:47] they're long they just said hey we missed the shot we're just gonna get the rebound anyway so it's great

[00:27:54] and that was the key to the game and we'll always continue to ask the question about

[00:28:00] the Cleveland Cavaliers whether they win this game seven or not are you tough enough and it's so

[00:28:10] it's so hard to say those things because man any guy who is going out there laying their body out

[00:28:17] on the line in a playoff basketball game it's hard to sit there and you say you question in their

[00:28:23] toughness maybe it's not tough maybe the right the the right wording would be do you want it

[00:28:34] are you willing to go get it because that might be the question I'm not going to question your

[00:28:41] toughness I wonder if you really want it so this game seven is coming up so we'll see how

[00:28:48] that goes um we can then move on to all the second round deals right because the second round deals

[00:28:58] are going to be amazing but we're going to talk about the maps and then we're going to lead into

[00:29:06] their series because they're going to be playing okay see so the maps closed out the clippers

[00:29:13] last night 114 to 101 Kyrie stepped up knowing that uh Luca was kind of bothered by knee injury he's

[00:29:21] been suffering for like the last two or three games with that they combined for 58 points 13 rebounds

[00:29:29] and 17 assists where Hardin and Paul George struggled they were 11 of 34 from the field

[00:29:37] and the closeout game shout out to our guy you say UCLA alum Norm Powell he led the clippers in

[00:29:45] scoring with 20 points it's not good when your third guy is the guy leading you in the closeout game

[00:29:53] right um Paul George had 18 points 11 rebounds and five assists I mean it sounds like a

[00:30:01] good stat line um it sounds like something that in a normal game this would be okay

[00:30:08] unfortunately we're in a game where you're about to go home and it wasn't okay uh Kawhi missed this

[00:30:16] game again um knee injury we are still efforting to find out which we'll probably never find out

[00:30:24] because Kawhi and Uncle Dennis are very secretive about what they do with their medicos so what does

[00:30:33] this all mean for the clippers what does this all mean for the cast well the first thing

[00:30:39] so the Mavericks with closing out the clippers they get okay see now on one end

[00:30:46] and the Mavericks are sitting there going like cool we don't get Denver

[00:30:54] and I would be excited about that too now you're playing the team that doesn't have a ton of

[00:31:03] playoff experience you're playing a team that um we've talked about their lack of size and what

[00:31:11] have you here's the one thing about okay see they are going to make you play defense and

[00:31:22] if Luca is diminished because of the knee and we know Luca is not really playing defense like that

[00:31:30] anyway um this might be a really hard series for the Mavericks and I'm gonna tell you right now

[00:31:41] I believe that okay see the Oklahoma City Thunder are gonna get to the Western Conference finals

[00:31:48] I think they're gonna beat the Dallas Mavericks not because I believe I do believe in talent

[00:31:56] but I think that the series with the clippers took something out of them

[00:32:01] um and I want to see what okay see does with that movement offense everybody cutting five out

[00:32:14] and Shay just having the floor just completely open to him so it will be a very good battle

[00:32:23] if Luca is close to a hundred percent um which nobody's a hundred percent right now at all

[00:32:34] so you don't have to worry about that but if he gets closer to healthy I definitely give Dallas a

[00:32:41] real shot in this series I just don't think that with the time the short time turn around

[00:32:48] now that the Mavericks and Kyrie has been excellent this whole entire year I just don't see them getting

[00:32:58] past Oklahoma City all right um couple last thoughts on the Knicks and 76ers before we

[00:33:06] say goodbye to them and then get into the Knicks and Pacers and tell you who

[00:33:11] we're gonna select in that one uh Brunson I don't know we touched on this but he had another 40-point

[00:33:20] game you know it's just remarkable he he gets it out the mud too wasn't like it was a pretty

[00:33:28] 40-point game he he was like 13 or 27 um just quick gutty just gutty performance

[00:33:38] heart show his heart with another 14 rebound performance I think that was like his

[00:33:47] fifth double double uh double digit rebound game in the series and then here's the thing that I

[00:33:58] want to get to actually let me talk about maxi real quick um Philadelphia is uh Tyrese Maxi

[00:34:07] in the last close in the closeout game he scored 17 points and what I want to say is that

[00:34:12] you know stardom the funny thing about it is that sometimes it's not as easy as it looks

[00:34:26] it's it's one of those things where you just sit there you go hey this guy was just electric the

[00:34:31] the couple nights before in the garden allowing this game to to go to a game six and it really

[00:34:37] was on him that they got to this game and it he just you know he fell flat and it happens to young

[00:34:47] guys it just happens um the other thing that I want to get to is twofold what is on criticism

[00:34:59] now I've heard through a lot of the twitter debates I've heard even a lot of like national

[00:35:06] media and they're coming down on joel in b I'm gonna say this for the very last time

[00:35:17] yes is it fair to question joel in beads career in his totality

[00:35:27] yes but this year specifically you can't anybody who is trashing joel in b this year

[00:35:36] really needs to put the cocaine down y'all need to just let that go it's a miracle that he played

[00:35:49] do you remember the golden state game and then the subsequent sacramental game

[00:35:58] and how terrifying it looked when he crumpled to the floor people thought he was going to be out

[00:36:08] for the rest of season at that point there's a tear in the meniscus they call it procedure I call it

[00:36:17] a surgery tomato tomato however you want to do that part but at the end of the day a giant man

[00:36:28] without any way to condition himself because his knee was recrugrating got on to the floor

[00:36:38] and average 30 points a game and he was the first guy on the whiteboard you want to get on his career

[00:36:46] you want to talk about maybe you know this is the lack of discipline as he was early on in his career

[00:36:53] fine fine and dandy you want to do that but I will take umbridge to this particular series

[00:37:00] in this particular iteration to joel in b anybody that is throwing around darts at joel

[00:37:07] in b at this point in time it's low hanging fruit you're just now getting caught up with the

[00:37:15] mob mentality because there are some 76ers fans out there who are really frustrated and yet

[00:37:23] it's easy to target the star but there is a chance that you didn't even have this star for the playoffs

[00:37:33] so I will continue to remind you of that so when we talk about criticism let's share the

[00:37:41] let's go ahead and look at maybe somebody who actually deserves a little criticism

[00:37:48] we gave this guy praise on the last podcast and right now rubbing my head I know this is not a

[00:37:56] video medium per se it'll probably end up on YouTube but Tobias Harris in a closeout game

[00:38:07] a gentleman that is making 38 million dollars a year and the reason why I bring that up is because

[00:38:13] it's not about the amount of money and what he should be making and all that well the reason why

[00:38:18] I bring it up is because there was a point when he got that contract that that contract said that we

[00:38:27] are going to depend on you remember they chose to bias Harris over Jimmy Butler keep that in mind

[00:38:41] you score zero points in a closeout game Joellen be walking around with one way

[00:38:52] Tyrese maxi is over there like 165 pounds soaking wet getting beat up by OG Ananobe

[00:39:00] Josh Hart and Dante DiVincenzo and you couldn't muster

[00:39:07] like even points zero so I asked my fellow podcast people in the in the industry I asked

[00:39:23] the people on ESPN I asked the people on Fox I asked the people in Philadelphia

[00:39:29] what do you think the criticism should lie what do you think the criticism should lie

[00:39:35] that's a 6 8 226 pound man who is at 30 years of age it's not like he hasn't seen stuff in the NBA

[00:39:45] it's not it's not like he should be star struck or anything like that you you've been through it all

[00:39:51] you've seen it all and that needed to be a lot better effort by the way he's going into his

[00:40:01] free agency so it's going to be absolutely I'm going to be very curious to see what to buy his

[00:40:08] hair is gets in his free agent period now let's get to the next and get to the paces I will say

[00:40:18] this is that it looks like Tyrese Halliburton is getting a little bit back but the problem is

[00:40:25] is that now he has a back injury so I wonder if it's just all compounding on one another at this point

[00:40:33] you know he had the hamstring injury early in the season now he has a back injury back spasms

[00:40:42] I've dealt with those they suck so prayers out to you Tyrese hope everything goes well

[00:40:51] Pascal Siakum has been absolutely what this team needed he is definitely kind of put a little

[00:40:59] turbo boost into this offense and as Tyrese has kind of worked him so into the playoffs

[00:41:07] he's been a stout foundational piece to the offense that they can really rely on so we've

[00:41:14] been real happy to see the way he is playing with this team reminder again he was a trade

[00:41:21] deadline or right before the trade deadline pickup okay usually when you bring in that

[00:41:29] integral appease it takes a long time to get that worked in usually you don't have a good

[00:41:35] successful playoff run until like maybe the next year after right now we've had a

[00:41:43] you know we had the three months together played some playoffs kind of got our butt kick

[00:41:52] now we know what how where you like the ball at I know the certain spots you like the ball at

[00:41:59] what else can we do when they take this away from us can we counter it these are all things that

[00:42:06] Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakum will work on in the off season and get better at

[00:42:11] and we'll see a difference in the offense next year but I think it's been impressive to see what

[00:42:16] they've done this year for him to come in and just kind of seamlessly fit in and still be very very

[00:42:24] productive when needed to be productive I think that's great this holds well for the future for

[00:42:32] that organization so shots out to uh uh Pritchard and the guys out in Indiana you guys are

[00:42:39] doing excellent work I really enjoyed this pick up it really fit your team very well so kudos on

[00:42:45] your pro scouting and knowing exactly who you are but with all that being said man we got a war

[00:42:55] again and we're going old school with this war nixie pacers they had a few way back right this

[00:43:03] is reggie miller days okay so I think this is going to be an excellent series is it's two different

[00:43:11] styles and it's funny the team in Indiana is should their personality is more I'm just talking about

[00:43:23] style of play right their style of play is more fitting to new york sleek fast you know pretty

[00:43:34] passes lots of movement you know whatever and new york is just pretty hard and I'm not listen

[00:43:46] new york I'm not trying to you know I know y'all tough I'm listening to you know what I'm talking about

[00:43:52] when you think of two cities and you think which one is a flash or a city which one is a

[00:43:57] city you would want to spend a ton of time in right new york got a lot of stuff to do a lot

[00:44:04] of shiny stuff a lot of pomp circumstance right and that's the way indiana pacers played basketball

[00:44:11] new york on the other hand blue collar take your lunch pill to work with you get on the floor

[00:44:20] get extra possessions houndry on defense do all the little things farm middle america

[00:44:28] the you know dary queen is like a night out you know saying like

[00:44:37] their two different styles is going to be great to see how it all plays out I think the nicks have

[00:44:45] a little bit more and I wish tyrese hallow Burton was completely healthy because I think

[00:44:51] the the guard played between hallow Burton and brunson are going to be critical to this series

[00:44:58] I give the edge to brunson because of the injury to hallow Burton and I think that the new york

[00:45:04] nicks will take this series the boston series they're going up against um blah blah blah who

[00:45:15] we got in boston they got who I can't remember hold on let me find out hold on they got four

[00:45:28] oh they got the winner of calves and that's why I don't know because they got the winner of calves

[00:45:33] and uh orlando so we don't know yet we'll find out soon so that games heaven hasn't been taken

[00:45:40] care of but we do know this whoever they get whoever go boston gets in this series um again

[00:45:46] porzinga's being out with the calf injury worries me uh I think they would have a harder time with

[00:45:53] orlando personally I think they'll have an easier time with Cleveland just because the guards are

[00:45:59] small and I think they they have a perfect roster even without porzinga's to go ahead and give

[00:46:07] donovan menschel and derries garland a lot of issue you would have to have a real herculean

[00:46:13] effort from evan mogley and max truce and uh jared allen to really make that a series and there's no

[00:46:22] indication from those guys and from that team that they have that type of fight in them so

[00:46:29] I'll be interested to see how the actual seven the game seven game turns out honestly because I

[00:46:36] think that Cleveland is walking a very very thin tightrope and all it would take is a loss

[00:46:48] in a game seven to the orlando magic to make it all combust so there is that all right so we got

[00:46:58] tonight we got the nuggets and we got the minnesotel the temple worlds let's talk about it

[00:47:05] because here we are this is the matchup yelkage michael porter jr jamal murray dealing with a knee

[00:47:14] injury erin gorton against gobert carl anthony towns jade mcdaniels and our guy anthony ellwards

[00:47:26] I have been looking at this series very very closely I'm very excited about this series and

[00:47:37] my revelation is this is that if jamal murray is hampered what yelkage likes to do with jamal murray

[00:47:49] that's their superpower unfortunately if he's not going to be you know 88 percent or whatever

[00:47:57] case may be I just think that we're about to see anthony ellwards ascend and I think it's going

[00:48:07] to be a special series I I want to pit minsel is so bad in this series I do you know what give me

[00:48:26] Denver I'm still taking the defending champs and I'll tell you why michael malone the pettiest coach

[00:48:34] in the NBA he will light a fire he will jamal murray played through injury okay the doctors told him

[00:48:42] not to he played through on that dude's a stud there's no way that dude is now going to play in

[00:48:48] this series so unless he gets re-injured and it's worse he's gonna play he worries me a lot

[00:48:54] he's the x factor but I got to give it to experience and continuity to allow the defending

[00:49:02] champions to move on I do think it'll be a tough series I think it'll go six seven games easy

[00:49:08] and I think we will see anthony ellwards do everything in his power to show yelkage

[00:49:16] that he is coming he is coming for his head so the king will will take a lot of arrows okay

[00:49:27] yelkage is going to take a lot of arrows from ant ant is going to try to lay waste to the Denver

[00:49:35] nuggets and I think that might actually work against him in the end his competitive his

[00:49:43] competitiveness which I love his undeniable belief in himself I love I think towards the end

[00:49:56] he might try to go complete like Luke Skywalker and try to take out everybody and I think

[00:50:07] he got involved the dudes so you know this is his first time in you know in this atmosphere

[00:50:13] he's 22 what can we expect but that precocious 22 year old is going to give us some indelible

[00:50:21] moments in this playoffs mark my words so that's our that's that who do we do we got anything

[00:50:29] else that we need to worry about we got the clippers their plan or the mouse they're playing

[00:50:34] okay see we talked about that we are pretty much done here so I just wanted to make sure we did

[00:50:40] get everything in again thank you guys remember to follow us on x at frontrunner pc the youtube

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[00:51:14] the coolest part about you is you stay unique okay don't let anybody diminish your shine

[00:51:21] and you guys have a pleasant rest of the weekend and we're out of here peace