NFL Free Agent Comps in the NBA

[00:00:00] It's Saturday, y'all know what time it is, FRPC, back on the Air Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[00:00:17] I'm your host, Vince and basically we are here to talk about who, so who, whether or not it's time to get at it.

[00:00:26] We had a really good show for you today. I'm really excited to put a little creativity into this, so look forward to sharing it with you.

[00:00:36] But before we hit that two pieces of information.

[00:00:41] One, kudos to the listeners, kudos to the subscribers on YouTube.

[00:00:51] We are so thankful to every last person who visits the page on YouTube which is Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[00:01:02] We are also very, very excited about the download numbers of our podcast which you can get on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio or wherever you like to consume your podcast.

[00:01:20] So, again, be a friend, tell a friend, also let them know that they can follow the podcast on X which is Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[00:01:31] It's actually Front Runner PC on X. And I'm actually trying to do a better job of just not just posting when we're doing the podcast or clips or whatever.

[00:01:44] I'm going to try to be better about just interacting and just kind of talking through things.

[00:01:50] But usually when I talk to things is stuff that ends up on the podcast, so I almost sometimes don't want to give it away but maybe I want to be more interactive on Twitter.

[00:02:03] So, look forward to that as we start to get this thing moving and get this thing going in the right direction.

[00:02:12] So, that's what I'm looking forward to.

[00:02:15] The second piece of news that I want to get to today is interesting because it's something that it touches me in a way.

[00:02:30] And I'll share it with you guys. Well, I got a DM I want to say about four days ago and it's in regards to my face.

[00:02:45] And they said, what's wrong with your face?

[00:02:51] And it struck me because I forget that this I have this going on because I live with it for so long.

[00:03:03] And I'll go over the story with it.

[00:03:07] I'm a child of parents that abuse alcohol, my dad also was a drug addict.

[00:03:18] And he had a really tough childhood.

[00:03:22] He saw some really horrific things around his teenage years that really stunted him and probably made him not really ready for fatherhood when the time came.

[00:03:38] So, my dad who was physically abusive to my mother was also very abusive to me.

[00:03:47] And we had a situation I think when I was around three or four, I want to say it was four where I must have said something that caught his attention.

[00:03:59] And at the time we had a really big telephone.

[00:04:04] I know today's day is kind of weird to kind of think about this but if you can go back into 1970s,

[00:04:12] telephones were huge and the base of the telephone was huge.

[00:04:18] And he hit me with it and it paralyzed some nerves in the face.

[00:04:24] And what the doctor said at the time, they couldn't do anything until I was like 25 or something when I was completely fully grown or whatever.

[00:04:34] And that's the story.

[00:04:38] I personally don't think about it a lot because it's a part of me.

[00:04:44] It's something that I've dealt with over and over and over and over and over and over again.

[00:04:53] For me it's just another day for the people who consumed the YouTube channel.

[00:05:07] If it was startling, I'm sorry but this is me.

[00:05:13] This is who I am and by the grace of God, I'm still here.

[00:05:20] And sober. We kind of poke a cycle.

[00:05:26] I can say that my wife doesn't, she does not fear me in a way of hitting her or anything like that.

[00:05:36] I mean, I don't drink and spend seven years and it's been a great seven year.

[00:05:43] So I owe all the praise and glory to God for that because without him, I would not be here today.

[00:05:50] So with all that being said, that story of my facial paralysis yet for some reason, you know,

[00:06:01] it's a complete issue or whatever. I'm so sorry but this is who I am.

[00:06:07] This is who I got and we're going to get into the show now.

[00:06:12] So the basis of this podcast today is in honor of the NFL free agency.

[00:06:22] What I wanted to do is take a guy from the NFL world who just got paid and apply it to an NBA star,

[00:06:32] either kind of going through the same thing or whatever the case may be.

[00:06:36] So what we're going to do is we're going to take a couple of the free NFL free agents

[00:06:40] when I get into their numbers or how much they got paid but you guys know it.

[00:06:45] If you are sports fan, you know, you are locked into NFL free agency right now.

[00:06:52] I do want to take this time to say farewell to one of the greatest to ever do it.

[00:07:02] Los Angeles Rams legend Aaron Donald announced his retirement yesterday.

[00:07:10] And I found out newly was coming Jordan Rodriguez of the athletic does a great job with news on the ramp.

[00:07:21] So we were kind of bracing ourselves for change and change to come but Aaron Donald was a beast

[00:07:30] and he played with his hair on fire the entire time that he was in the league.

[00:07:39] He left all the effort on the field so I can never have anything but admiration for what he did for the Rams

[00:07:49] and what he did in his career. So to Aaron Donald my man, I hope you enjoy retirement.

[00:07:56] I hope that retirement suits you. I hope you become like a Marvel superhero or something like that.

[00:08:05] This dude should be in Hollywood somewhere. I'm just saying it right now.

[00:08:10] And yeah, so there it is. So let's get into this this basketball situation.

[00:08:16] And I hope you guys enjoyed it. And here's the other thing if you have a basketball NFL comp in the sense of this free agency,

[00:08:28] hit me up on Twitter at frontrunner PC and I'll be looking forward to those as well.

[00:08:35] So our first award here.

[00:08:40] I'm so excited about this. So the first I'm going to give a shout out to Bill Simmons because he had this in his deal.

[00:08:48] So I want to give out the Kirk cousins award award.

[00:08:54] So Kirk cousins went to Atlanta if we, if you know anything about Kirk cousins,

[00:09:00] Kirk has gotten bags, stacks on stacks of money as far as his career earnings is concerned.

[00:09:08] And he's done it. And it's not like he's been terribly successful, but it's not like he's been terribly bad either.

[00:09:16] He's been good. He's been solid.

[00:09:21] And this award goes to our guy, Portland trailblazer Jeremy Grant.

[00:09:30] Now Jeremy Grant is one of these players who has gotten tremendous wags over the years.

[00:09:39] Okay, he started off, you know kind of bouncing around and then he took a chance on himself.

[00:09:48] He was in Denver. People, people might forget Jeremy Grant was in Denver went to Detroit because he wanted to get,

[00:09:56] he wanted to basically a shots with the Detroit got a contract.

[00:10:04] The first bag right then last year he signed a contract for five years, 160 million.

[00:10:14] So my man has 109.2 million career earnings and then he just got 160 million dollar deal.

[00:10:24] So shots out to Jeremy Grant doing that bag work, getting that bag as much as possible.

[00:10:33] I mean the thing with Jeremy too is this is that we talked,

[00:10:38] I think who signed the contract, we were like well in December or January he'll get traded and they never did.

[00:10:48] So I wonder what's going to happen in the Austin and he'll be a valuable commodity.

[00:10:55] You know you'll have for another four years and you know what you're going to get from Jeremy Grant is not,

[00:11:04] it's not terrible, but it's never going to be super super awesome.

[00:11:08] But he has a place in his league and I'm happy for him that he is managed to find these bag situations because I love an opportunist guy and that's what he was because the other thing with the Jeremy Grant situation that we need to kind of specify.

[00:11:31] Remember all of what was going around at that point in time.

[00:11:36] That was the Damien Lillard situation and before Damien Lillard got traded, Jeremy Grant got the bag because they didn't know if they were going to go ahead and trade them because they were so offended by the Miami Heat offer.

[00:11:55] So as it goes, he gets the bag because Jeremy and Damien Lillard have a really good chemistry, get some money.

[00:12:07] Damien gets traded and now Jamie is left there so we're seeing the offseason where Jeremy Grant ends up but he gets our Kirk Cousins award for the bag.

[00:12:24] Now let's move on to the Sequan Barclay award and that's going to go to our guy in Phoenix.

[00:12:41] I wanted to talk about the Sequan Barclay award.

[00:12:44] 2001, Sequan Barclay is the running bag who's with the New York Giants.

[00:12:51] He got a little bit more than what the tag was offering.

[00:12:55] Sequan has a good bag but really hasn't put it together.

[00:12:59] He's been dinged up but you know really talented.

[00:13:05] A lot of teams will want him.

[00:13:07] A lot of flexibility.

[00:13:09] Kind of like what Phoenix did with Bradley Bill.

[00:13:14] And Bradley Bill is our Sequan Barclay award winner and the reason for this is because

[00:13:26] he played in what 37 games this year of a possible 63.

[00:13:39] That was the kind of the situation on him going in to before he got traded.

[00:13:50] You know it was this guy who is often injured.

[00:13:54] Bradley Bill hasn't played like a four season since like the 2018-2019 season.

[00:14:01] You know just let that hit you for a second.

[00:14:05] He hasn't played more than 60 games since the 2018-2019 season.

[00:14:14] That is past a presidential term.

[00:14:19] And yet, five years, 251 million and he has three years left on that deal.

[00:14:29] So I'm not the one thing that we do know about Bradley Bill is that he is awesome in the place.

[00:14:37] There's been no doubt that the Phoenix signs look incredible when he plays.

[00:14:42] You can see the synergy between Durant, Deep Book and himself.

[00:14:47] And you can see how formidable they would look in a playoff atmosphere when you have those three guys on the court

[00:14:54] and also Grace and Allen shooting it at a historic level.

[00:14:59] And also the couple of the guys that they have on team, the Eric Gordon's of the World,

[00:15:03] the Royce O'Neill's of the World.

[00:15:06] So they've gotten some production from guys that when they got on, you didn't know what it was going to look like.

[00:15:13] But it has turned out to look out.

[00:15:15] It looked pretty good and Bradley Bill to me is our Sequion Barkley Award winner.

[00:15:23] So our next award which I'm really excited about, this is our Chris Jones Award.

[00:15:30] And this is for the guy who is highly paid, can show up in those crucial moments.

[00:15:38] But sometimes not particularly interested in the regular season.

[00:15:43] This describes Chris Jones to a tee.

[00:15:47] And I think for the first time in front runner podcast collective history.

[00:15:53] For the first annual NBA to NFL comp free agency podcast, we have a tie.

[00:16:04] So the Chris Jones Award, we are going to give to two athletes in two deserving athletes I must say.

[00:16:13] Remember what the title of the other award is.

[00:16:17] Somebody who was highly paid, who shows up in crucial moments, but is not particularly interested in the regular season.

[00:16:24] And this fits none other than La La's own both Los Angeles Clipper, Kawaii Leonard and also the bronze aims of the Los Angeles Lakers.

[00:16:39] Now, LeBron has perfect excuse.

[00:16:43] You know 21 years in a league.

[00:16:47] You know it's hard to get up every single game you can't ask that man who put these type of miles on those tires to get up for 82 game regular season.

[00:17:00] Now 83 because he does the the in season tournament.

[00:17:05] Oh, and then the playing because that's exactly where LaBron is right now.

[00:17:11] So I'm not it's not like, oh we're mad at you.

[00:17:18] We completely understand LaBron why sometimes there are a couple games where it's little, you know.

[00:17:26] Let's get our wind, you know, let's keep our lay weeks moving.

[00:17:30] But we go on effort kind of wanes a little bit here and there I understand.

[00:17:37] Can't ask that man to go 82 games and go full bore and then expect it and they have anything left for the playoffs.

[00:17:45] And this is the conundrum that the Lakers are in.

[00:17:50] The first Kawaii winner we can go through this for quite some time.

[00:17:54] This is going back all the way to the San Antonio days.

[00:17:57] He believes that he was medically diagnosed incorrectly and ever since then, he's been very, very intune to his body and he's taken extra precautions when it comes to what he does.

[00:18:13] And so he too has been a person who's kind of pooped the regular season and Kawaii has made a lot of money.

[00:18:24] So obviously Kawaii just side an extension where it's going to pay him what is it?

[00:18:31] His career earnings are 276.5 million over his career and he signed for 45.6 this year and then he has a three-year extension which is basically long we pay him $50 million for the next three.

[00:18:49] Now, we all know about the LeBron situation.

[00:18:53] Okay, and we know that there's a really good chance that LeBron will be extending at the end of the season that he will probably opt out of that player option that he has this year.

[00:19:08] And signed a new extension with the Lakers.

[00:19:11] We reported that last week.

[00:19:13] Not we reported it but others and we'll have you what we gave them credit at that point in time.

[00:19:19] I think shams in world and we'll have you.

[00:19:23] LeBron has accumulated roughly 479.46 million dollars and that is his contractual obligations in the NBA that has nothing to do with his shoe money or other endorsements that is strictly salary.

[00:19:45] My man that's just straight cash.

[00:19:51] Here's the thing.

[00:19:54] LeBron James has been the worldiest bet on futures we have ever seen in the modern NBA because if you sign LeBron James,

[00:20:11] if you think about it ever since the decision that he did in that Connecticut Boys and Girls Club.

[00:20:22] When he said he was going to take his talents to the South Beach, it is guaranteed the franchise that he's gone to a chance in the postseason.

[00:20:34] And they have been successful with every franchise that he's gone to so he did it in Miami.

[00:20:42] He went back to Cleveland got Cleveland their title and then came to LA and got the Lakers a title as well wherever he goes.

[00:20:52] He has been the surest bet that when he shows up and he is contractually obligated to you your guarantee won't championship.

[00:21:04] So when we think of all this stuff and we think about all this money that goes to these players,

[00:21:12] he's been the surest bet in the 2000s.

[00:21:17] Nobody else.

[00:21:20] He's been there 10 times.

[00:21:24] So shout out to our guy LeBron.

[00:21:32] And we're not going to even talk about the economic, yeah, we are going to talk a little bit about it.

[00:21:39] We're going to talk a little bit about the economic stimulus that LeBron brings into your town when he comes there.

[00:21:48] But let's get into this at this point LeBron at 39 can carry team we talked about it in previous episodes go back to the archipods.

[00:21:58] And also please hit up the YouTube channel I know I talked about it in the beginning but the reason why I bring this up is that I just did a clip from our previous podcast on Nikola Yolkich.

[00:22:12] And we put in their box plus minus we put in there offensive rating and things of that nature.

[00:22:19] And we also gave a definition in the clip.

[00:22:24] And the reason why I'm telling you this is because of the fact that now this is a visual aid this helps you with some of the advanced analytics that people are using and will have you.

[00:22:34] So if you're not caught up wanting here's something that can help you as well.

[00:22:39] So when you look at the game and then you're applying the numbers to it there you go.

[00:22:45] Okay, so front-runner podcast collective for their YouTube channel.

[00:22:50] The other thing is this is that in previous iterations LeBron could carry a team on to himself.

[00:22:59] Now at 39 it's hard for him to do that.

[00:23:02] We've talked about his bot plus minus in the past and what that actually means.

[00:23:09] I don't want to really go too far down that rabbit hole anymore but LeBron at this point his career is not the difference maker that he used to be.

[00:23:19] And is no taken away from his brilliance as a basketball player or his career.

[00:23:26] It's just what he is at this present moment if I'm looking at it as somebody in the front office that guy who used to be able to get you to the finals in a sense by himself can't do that anymore.

[00:23:41] He needs help.

[00:23:45] Well LeBron needs is a three-point paint touch score and here's the thing with that.

[00:23:54] If LeBron wants that he's going to have to take a pay cut in a bond can understand who he is and where he is in his career.

[00:24:04] Maybe he will but we all know LeBron James and I'll just say it this way.

[00:24:10] LeBron James is the father of player empowerment taking shorter deals to put the applied pressure onto organizations is right out of the LeBron James playbook.

[00:24:23] He started that no one else.

[00:24:27] What you see Janice Antitakukuo doing now LeBron has been doing that for a decade player.

[00:24:35] He started all this what KD was able to do is because of LeBron.

[00:24:44] So he's been the father of the player empowerment movement and also taking shorter deals to apply pressure to organizations to maximize his chances of being competitive as far as being a contender for the finals.

[00:25:02] So LeBron has done it too far away.

[00:25:05] He's taken lesser deals which really in a sense is better for the team.

[00:25:10] It's more advantageous because if LeBron gets hurt one of those years his value goes down right.

[00:25:18] But he bet on himself and as he continued to a bet on himself his salary obviously continued to accumulate and get higher.

[00:25:28] So this is the guy when it comes to pushing the envelope when it comes to the finances of the NBA.

[00:25:39] So the question is this with the all time leading scorer and also one of the best facilitators at the wing position that we've ever seen will LeBron take every single dollar from the Lakers.

[00:25:52] I'm going to tell you right now that the answer to that question is yes.

[00:25:57] Well LeBron shows up in your city wherever the arena is around the arena it is a $500 million boost to the economy.

[00:26:12] Okay, I'll say that again.

[00:26:15] LeBron shows up to your arena.

[00:26:19] It becomes $500 million for the surrounding economy of that arena.

[00:26:30] So you got bars, hotels, little nightclubs in that area whatever that is that's what he's doing.

[00:26:41] So if he onto himself is a civic financial stimulus package LeBron James LeBron Ramon James go get your paper player.

[00:26:58] I'm going to let you know your boy Vince has been hard on you this year no doubt but I'm going to tell you right now.

[00:27:09] Don't take a pay cut get every dime.

[00:27:15] They're not paying you what you're worth anyway.

[00:27:20] So if it's $55 million, $60 million whatever it is dog you get your money.

[00:27:27] All right, onto the more awards this is the Justin Fields award and there's goals to.

[00:27:37] Chris fellow Chicago and so if you don't know what's going on with Justin Fields now I haven't looked at my phone in last couple hours but.

[00:27:46] Just the fields was the quarterback of the Chicago Bears.

[00:27:50] The Chicago Bears made a trade last year and what has happened is they ended up with the first overall pick not because they were absolutely terrible.

[00:28:00] It was actually because the Carolina Panthers were bad this year and now Chicago has the number one overall pick which is now looking like it's going to be Caleb Williams out of Southern California.

[00:28:17] Justin Fields with the quarterback there last year I will say there was some improvement.

[00:28:24] There's been some shaky play here and there but the whole thing was was as soon as the season was over well Chicago has the number one overall quick.

[00:28:34] We believe that they will go ahead and trade Justin Fields get like a second or third or whatever and then move Caleb Williams into you know the starting lineup next year.

[00:28:49] Now free agency hits and we're seeing cats come off the board like Sam Donald.

[00:28:59] We're seeing Russell Lurston.

[00:29:03] Sneaking the piss bird.

[00:29:06] Kurt Cousins obviously went to Atlanta.

[00:29:11] Baker stayed in Tampa.

[00:29:15] Sam how got traded to the Seattle sea hawks.

[00:29:20] So there's been a lot of quarterback movement but our God Justin Fields in Chicago is still there.

[00:29:29] No trade now this is a 24 25 year old guy who is incredibly athletic wrong arm.

[00:29:40] Is he accurate maybe not as accurate you want him to be but there's still some development there where you're kind of going like man and we can get it all out of him this could be good.

[00:29:58] And it just shocks me that he's still there so the Justin Field Award goes to other Chicago resident Zach Levine.

[00:30:11] At the start of the year all we heard Zach Levine to the Lakers now also I'm going to report here okay so this is an actual report.

[00:30:23] I know on good authority.

[00:30:27] Good authority that LeBron James wanted Zach Levine in the building.

[00:30:36] Okay so I do what you will with that but LeBron James.

[00:30:42] So good authority.

[00:30:46] So good authority that Zach Levine in the building I have no idea what that means for the upcoming offseason but I just want you to have that in in the back of your head as we get there.

[00:31:00] As we get to the spring and into the summer you know that front runner podcast collective is going to be where you want to be for all the free agent and NBA draft news and I have some comments on the NBA draft towards the end of the show but I don't want to slow it down right now.

[00:31:21] Again so Justin Fields the award for the Justin Fields Award goes to Zach Levine and I'm going to tell you right now that phone is not ringing in shy towel.

[00:31:35] For Zach Levine at this present time and it goes to show if you look at how Chicago is played since Zach got hurt.

[00:31:48] I think there was a foot injury he's having a full surgery done.

[00:31:54] He is the Kobe White is going to revelation what they've gotten out of him and what he's turned into I'm so happy that it just didn't completely fall apart for Chicago because the Lonzo ball injury was tragic enough and then when Levine went down it just seemed like the whole mood of the team thought like oh man this is going to be terrible but that team

[00:32:23] was resilient and Kobe White is a big part of that so kudos to Kobe White and we command you on the year that you are having so Kobe White big ups to Kobe White.

[00:32:37] Alright let's move on to our next award alright our next award is the Derek Henry award and the reason why I love this award is because

[00:32:52] Derek Henry went to the Baltimore Ravens and shot out to my guy from the ringer Ben so like he said this he said are there two perfect individuals to be standing next to one another as Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson are together.

[00:33:17] And basically that's what we're talking about here so the Derek Henry award is for the dude that just fits now we could go way back in this but I got a very up to date candidate and winner and that winner is Christoph Porzingis of the Boston Celtics.

[00:33:42] Now Boston was good last year nobody's going to doubt how good they were but there was some chinks in the armor and they made some changes and the Christoph Porzingis trade people do people remember that those Celtics actually got a firt for a hundred pick out of that deal.

[00:34:07] That was the Marcus Smart ties Jones Christoph Porzingis trade and the Celtics ended up with the first round draft.

[00:34:21] Okay Christoph Porzingis is played great the great thing with him is if you look at the picking roll numbers itself.

[00:34:31] Any one of his teammates it's like 1.3 to 1.37 and if you look at his post ups I think he's still at this point the league leader and I think it's something ridiculous like 1.47 per possession when he posts up.

[00:34:53] That's fantastic and he's just crunching little dudes so when they do a picking roll whether it's Drew holiday or Derek White so the action is to get Derek White's guy only to Christoph Porzingis obviously when you have Derek White usually you're putting up smaller guy now that smaller guy is on Christoph Porzingis and he is 15 feet away from the.

[00:35:22] He's also 7 foot 3 and he just shoots right over whoever is in front of him.

[00:35:29] This has been very successful for the Boston Celtics this year.

[00:35:34] This is a all we say at every single year now which the defense if you notice over the last 10 games since they come out the all start break Adam Silver is not playing no games.

[00:35:48] Okay Adam Silver is not playing any games anymore that's the ask go in the off star game cost some of these offensive numbers to kind of go by the wayside because we saw a game with the nicks and Philadelphia and in the 79 73 score it looks like physicalities back in the NBA.

[00:36:13] I know Dylan Brooks couldn't be happier shout out to Houston Rock is Dylan Brooks because I know he is a happy do he's like oh we can get physical on a basketball court.

[00:36:28] I'll cool with that let's go.

[00:36:31] All right um yeah so Christoph Porzingis Derek Henry award winner now our next award might be one of my favorite awards.

[00:36:46] This is the Russell Wilson award and the reason why it's called this is because Russell Wilson was let go by the Denver Broncos so he was released.

[00:37:08] It cost one of the biggest cap hits in NFL history something like 85 million dollars.

[00:37:18] So the Denver Broncos next year will be paying Russell Wilson 38 million dollars to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers I'll say this again.

[00:37:38] The Denver Broncos will be paying Russell Wilson 38 million dollars to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers so first of all congratulations to Russell Wilson continuing to get his back.

[00:37:55] Okay I don't care how you slice it at the other team got to pay you 85 million and this team got to pay your million.

[00:38:07] You know I'm saying that's great I love that now.

[00:38:13] For the reason why we call it the Russell Wilson award is this obviously Russell Wilson has known to be.

[00:38:22] We call him a controversial teammate no what we call him.

[00:38:30] For me maybe would we call him not authentic ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

[00:38:39] So when I think of Russell Wilson is are we super jazz that he's on the team that's what I think about when I think of Russell Wilson right and that award goes to none other than Ben Simmons.

[00:38:55] The reasons of the Brooklyn net says please I think six games all season.

[00:39:00] Now we all know the history we all know the whole thing in Philadelphia we all know when it went down we all know about the nod dunk on trade young in the playoffs series but Doc River said that it happened right before that.

[00:39:20] I guess it was a playoffs series right before that and it was a first round and they started to hack Ben Simmons and then Ben Simmons was really scared to hold on to the ball because.

[00:39:37] If you guys remember he wasn't the greatest shooter and then all of a sudden he just stopped shooting he just stopped.

[00:39:45] And now Ben Simmons doesn't even seem like he wants to play basketball anymore and he's just it's hard because.

[00:39:56] The one thing that I do know about athletes and talking to a few of them i've been blessed to kind of you know get a little insight the one thing is they don't want is the.

[00:40:08] The added distraction is like okay they understand that they got media you know responsibilities they know they have you know branding opportunities and responsibilities they know that you know they gotta get their workouts in you know sometimes there's corporate responsibilities with the teams and things of that nature the one thing that you don't want.

[00:40:30] Is to be answering questions about another dude on your team.

[00:40:38] And why he's not playing or what's going on with him or whatever it is but that's what has been going on with Ben Simmons ever since he left Philadelphia in the James Harden trade James Harden not even on Philadelphia anymore he's in Los Angeles and here Ben Simmons is still not putting.

[00:41:00] He's playing basketball wearing 14 thousand dollars sunglasses inside at night that's what we got we got a fashion plate we got a fashion model on the Brooklyn X we don't have a basketball player we have a fashion model okay so Ben Simmons gets our Russell grossing award as probably maybe.

[00:41:30] Low key not the most authentic guy on the face of the planet our next award is.

[00:41:41] The blinds burns or and it's what I call this is the way to long to trade and got almost nothing back in return now we can do a lot of teams like this.

[00:41:58] But I'm going to key in on one team so think about this the Carolina Panthers.

[00:42:08] Who years ago how to trade for Brian Burns the Los Angeles Rams the team that I absolutely enjoy this is my favorite football team.

[00:42:20] We have a general manager who had a philosophy and still does but it's been toned down a little bit but in our heyday it was often picks that was the philosophy.

[00:42:36] And he those are trade with Brian Burns involved where there were two first rounders going back to Carolina for Brian Burns to put opposite and Donald.

[00:42:50] Now we fast forward to now.

[00:42:53] Brian Burns was free to the New York Giants and he was traded for a second round pick so not two first rounders think about this a second round pick.

[00:43:06] And a fifth round pick.

[00:43:08] So Brian Burns were a ghost to the team or to the ghost to the team who waited too long to trade a player that had a bunch of value and then turned out to you get them for basically nothing.

[00:43:25] And we're going to give this to the Detroit pistons and the reason why we're going to do this is and I hate to do this to Detroit fans because it really isn't your fault.

[00:43:39] None of this is your fault. This is true. This is for a wee was fault.

[00:43:44] Okay.

[00:43:47] Boy young back down the pitch they got in a deal with Utah I believe and at the time it was or no it was free agent deal free agent deal sorry and at the time you look or let's say try and what have we trade anyway they got them they acquired them okay.

[00:44:06] And at the time everybody was kind of like well that'll be a good trade deadline move they'll get like a first rounder or something for it and you know what a what a good use of cap space in whatever the case would be this was allotted not this last off season but the prior to last off season.

[00:44:36] And then the trade deadline came about and we kept on hearing all Detroit want to first round picks or two first round picks in a second round pick and they want this and they want that for for young by done bitch.

[00:44:52] Long story short they don't trade them.

[00:44:55] They don't trade them in the off season last year and then it gets to this trade deadline and then he gets moved to New York for like a second round pick.

[00:45:06] And I'm kind of going like okay you missed the boat.

[00:45:13] You missed completely on this really if you think about it you did the right thing at first by getting the asset and then held on to the asset too long.

[00:45:29] It's one of the trickiest things to do in the NBA we saw it do it during the trade deadline this year we've seen okay see do it time and time and time again over the last three years smart teams will take a person who is you know pretty good athlete you know pretty good asset whatever hope.

[00:45:59] Hold them hold them for a second and then in a sense release them into the wild you know the next trade general route.

[00:46:11] So kudos to the Detroit pistons for completely botching the boy young by done bitch situation you definitely should have got a lot more out of that such deal you did not and I don't understand why you waited.

[00:46:27] I just I can't fathom why this situation didn't work all right the next award we're calling this the Baker Mayfield award and the rule going on we're calling it this is that Baker mayfield was a Cleveland Brown quarter back he could have some decent years and then he hurt his shoulder kind of fell out of favor bounced around.

[00:46:57] He was actually in Carolina then actually came to the rounds and then last season it's a Tampa where we kind of just felt like okay Tampa is going to kind of in a sense tank to get like one of the quarterbacks that's coming out this year long behold Baker may feel becomes a absolute pretty serviceable quarterback and so we get the Baker may feel award because he just signed a new contract with the

[00:47:27] Buckenner for resigning with them. So this is what we're calling this is he is not trash and we can make this work and I'm going to tell you the person the exact fit for this is none other than Minnesota timber wool Rudy go there because I want to take you back to last year this time last year.

[00:47:53] This was the worst trade in NBA history everybody was honest everybody was like this is terrible how do you how do you commit this amount of money to the center position.

[00:48:06] I believe it was wrong because I still believe in the ideal of that you cannot commit the amount of dollars they think that the Minnesota timber walls have committed to the center position.

[00:48:30] I still believe that because if you look at it call Anthony tells.

[00:48:36] And Rudy go there combine to make almost like a hundred million.

[00:48:42] Okay the the cat is like a hundred and seventy eight so you do the math on that but what I will say about it is everybody was killing this.

[00:48:58] So I was like this including myself we were killing this deal.

[00:49:05] Now I didn't go as far as saying like he was washed I did hear that though I hear I heard people say that Rudy go there was cropped out while Utah system and he is no longer this guy anymore.

[00:49:23] So Rudy go there is exactly what we think he is. He is a defensive he looks like he's going to be all defensive NBA center.

[00:49:36] He looks like he could be a defensive player of the year I want to talk about that on Mondays podcast Monday or two days podcast will get to that little bit later.

[00:49:47] But in his teammates seem to have rallied around here remember last year it seemed doom and gloom in Minnesota but as soon as they got my college junior on that team it all changed the vibes were different.

[00:50:05] And there seem to be more of a respect level for what Rudy does let's not look at the negative let's look at the positive let's look at what he does in Minnesota has benefited from this they are one of the best defensive teams and the league.

[00:50:23] And it is no surprise why that is Rudy go there is one of those type of centers he's a generational talent when it comes to the defensive end of the ball.

[00:50:33] Is he a great offensive player? No there's some limitations with him on the offensive end but if you have a point guard who can do pick roll action you can get him some easy buckets he will cut back the ball into the basket he is a good rebounder.

[00:50:50] He can get you 17 but what he does on the defensive end of the court is something that you cannot just get this just not available out there.

[00:51:06] Maybe Anthony Davis when he feels ready to do this.

[00:51:12] But Rudy go there cares about defense and he cares about defense in a maniacal way so kudos to our guy Rudy go there for the Baker may feel award we get a couple more in here and then we get out of here now.

[00:51:28] I wanted to call this the Calvin Ridley award but what we should call it is the David Muligatta award and the reason why say that is David Muligatta Muligatta is the agent of Calvin Ridley and I know if you are a bleacher report guy or Twitter guy and you got some NFL Twitter when you saw the Calvin Ridley deal.

[00:51:58] I am absolutely sure that you were sitting there going damn that's a lot of money because I said that I was like that's a lot of money for Calvin Ridley.

[00:52:14] But David Muligatta played this situation correct because there was a little kind of five print situation in there if you aren't here to all the football stuff because this is a basketball show I know we are talking a little inside football situation here but here's a little interesting detail.

[00:52:36] Calvin Ridley was traded from the Atlanta Falcons to the Jacksonville Jaguars now he got into a little trouble in Atlanta there was some sort of draft kings betting thing or whatever so he just traded to Jacksonville now the stipulation was the pick that Atlanta gets back if Calvin Ridley hits free agency.

[00:53:06] Calvin Ridley as far as compensation for Calvin Ridley they would get a third round pick instead of a second round pick so from all reports the Jacksonville Jaguars and Calvin Ridley and his agent were in lockstep listen we are going to let this contract expire we are going to get to the new league year and then we are going to assign a new contract

[00:53:33] and then so now Jacksonville doesn't owe the second round pick they owe the third round pick but Jacksonville did not take into account that a team would come in and swoop in at the last second and start some shenanigans and jack up the price on one Calvin Ridley which that is exactly what happened.

[00:54:02] The Tennessee Titans came in and gave Calvin Ridley a 23 million dollar offer a year.

[00:54:12] Okay and I think Jacksonville was looking at 17 so our Calvin Ridley slash David Mulageta award goes to Milwaukee bucks are on brick low pass

[00:54:30] and the reason why we give it to Brooke Lopez is because he got the bag in the off season and let me take you back for a second.

[00:54:41] Now it's in the middle of summer we are chilling right we all we draft always done all let's get into this free agency and all we hurt all we hurt

[00:54:57] Brooke Lopez to the Houston Rockets brook is leaving Milwaukee for the Houston Rockets this is everywhere like Adrian Wojdrenowski is is recording this Jake Fisher bleacher for it and now of the athletic he's on this was it my guys my shadow of who type he was on this.

[00:55:26] Oh Brooke it's a done deal he's going to Houston but no wait hold on hold on not so fast player.

[00:55:37] Brooke Lopez in the last second switcher rule goes back to Milwaukee because Milwaukee ups their offer.

[00:55:48] So Brooke in his agent used Houston to bulk up the price so they're Milwaukee would have to give him the bag so shots out to our guy brook Lopez for give that bag we are proud of you and we are proud of your resourcefulness on ascertaining or obtaining that back.

[00:56:12] Can he pick it award now.

[00:56:18] It just so happens that can you pick it got traded and this actually you is even more funny now so the can you pick it award can you pick it Pittsburgh stealer quarterback.

[00:56:31] We thought that maybe he stayed there because he's a Pittsburgh kid went to the university Pittsburgh.

[00:56:38] All right so can you pick it you could straight it out of the way you know now why because not only did it get worse the worst they also got Justin feels we were just talking about him so can you pick it below in

[00:56:51] this were fell out of favor and fell on a favor quickly right because it was what this is this was a year to right one last year the can you pick it award goes to my man.

[00:57:05] New Charlotte Hornet grant Williams and the reason why I gave it to grant is because okay grant Williams has a personality tight right and grant sometimes can well people the wrong way sort of speak or whatever he seems to speak his mind some coaches love that because it's kind of like let's keep the star.

[00:57:34] So I think grant ran his mouth to Luca one day and Dallas because that's what he was traded from remember grant Williams signed a free agent contract this last off season it wasn't that logger out.

[00:57:52] And it's been a just unemigrated failure from the beginning so they ended up trading him to Charlotte to get PJ Washington and you know it's all seem to work out actual Daniel Gapard has seemed to be actually working on better than anybody of the moves that they may but getting back to grant.

[00:58:12] He was talking trash to Luca I guess in a practice session and Luca was not happy about it wasn't so grant Williams got shipped off to Charlotte just like any pick it got shipped off because they were like yo we need better core wax in here and we don't care if you're from Pittsburgh we don't care if you make still itself we.

[00:58:40] We don't care what you do but you got to get up out here and so grant Williams was basically given the same fate in Dallas and now he is a Charlotte Hornet so that right there we got one more.

[00:59:01] One more and then we can get up out of here.

[00:59:05] We are going to call this the Carolina Panther Robert Hunt award and the reason why we're doing this is because the Carolina Panthers last year got a quarterback who is dominative in size he is short he is typing

[00:59:28] and I called it at the time the greatest scientific experiment the NFL has ever created because this dude is small by showing his quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

[00:59:42] And the Panthers just did not have a really good offensive line last year so this for agency they gave Robert Hunt who was in Miami who's an offensive guard they gave him the back I mean they gave him obscene money for a offensive guard in the NFL.

[01:00:09] So I parking you back to the Aussies and again.

[01:00:13] And we go back to the Aussies and and there was speculation around the Sacramento Kings at the time what were they going to do where they going to make a trade there were rumors about Jeremy Grant may be coming in there were rumors about Grant Williams.

[01:00:29] Williams they were just spoke up in Dallas who signed with Dallas he was he was running within Sacramento there are a couple things that were kind of there was even a little dance with a dream on green for a second the Golden State Warrior great.

[01:00:48] And then nothing seemed to happen and then we started to get extension talks now demotivates upon us who is an incredible player who absolutely owns Anthony Davis and as a Laker fan I can say that he absolutely owns.

[01:01:06] Anthony Davis.

[01:01:09] Incredible player he's had 23 triple doubles through this year just a physical beast just he gets rebound scores points he prize hard every single game and they signed him in the Aussies into an extension now.

[01:01:31] Any other time you go well yeah okay you know it sounds good.

[01:01:36] Keep in mind he had another year on that deal they have to they have to do that could have just played it out and then you know but when they did that it locked up while they're capped and now if you look at the team it's pretty much the same team as it was.

[01:02:00] Last year it's not really too many differences.

[01:02:04] The real difference is that the league got better right the NBA got better so you know last year Minnesota wasn't there.

[01:02:14] Last year Oklahoma City wasn't there you know Denver was there you know teams you know teams or you know Phoenix was you know around.

[01:02:26] But the West got better so Sacramento basically has kind of slid down a little bit but they're still having a pretty good year in when you have not gotten to the playoffs.

[01:02:39] In so many years and then getting there last year even though you were.

[01:02:44] You know just unsurprisingly kicked out of the playoffs by the gold state warriors which man that was tough but.

[01:02:57] It's okay to be good you know it's one of the hardest things to do to go from good to great.

[01:03:03] You know when you go from good to great is really hard because it's hard to get whatever that piece is to make you great.

[01:03:14] But I did not like the demonstra subonus extension at the time not because I don't like subonus as a player I think I've even done breakout videos on subonus on the YouTube channel talk about his effort and how hard he plays in place with a lot of passion.

[01:03:33] And he plays with a lot of intentionality that's what I want to use.

[01:03:39] Demantis of grown as players with a ton of intentionality he's not out there playing around he's not out there you know B.S.ing he is there to take care of some serious business and he takes the game as such.

[01:03:55] No doubt that paying him in a sense of was it a good investment I'm not shooting that down what I am asking is could we have done this this year and then you some of that money.

[01:04:12] And paid some got another piece in to add to the talent that you already have.

[01:04:19] That was my only question and it's like what they're here to Caroline Panther is gave Robert Hunt like I said almost 20 million dollars to be a guard in the NFL.

[01:04:30] And if you know anything about NFL economics given a guard a raw tarot and also big money tied in and think about some of your premium positions like quarterback left tackle.

[01:04:48] Number one why receiver call back at your shirt those type of things.

[01:04:54] To allocate that kind of money to a guard a lot of people say that's probably not good business but the award goes to.

[01:05:04] I would say a little bit I would say it goes to money McNair more than he goes to Demantis bonus but as far as getting the bag is so one has got the bag a Robert Hunt got the back and.

[01:05:18] In this deal I guess the Carol out of panthers would be Monte McNair the exact for the Sacramento King so.

[01:05:26] That is the end of our first annual NBA.

[01:05:33] Or NFL free agency comp to the NBA I hope you guys enjoyed it I think I want to do this again next year i'm going to put it on my calendar and kind of say hmm I think this is something that we could do.

[01:05:46] Every single year I hope you guys enjoyed it and again to the person who hit me up on the DM about my face or whatever i'm not mad I don't look upon it as whatever I hope you I hope it didn't start on you again.

[01:06:05] Maybe I should have brought it up before and I didn't but we brought it up.

[01:06:13] At the first part of the show so.

[01:06:16] Thank you guys for allowing me to take the time talk about that remember be a friend telephrent the only way this podcast get successful is through your endeavors so if you're enjoying what you're getting on this podcast tell somebody about it tell them that you need.

[01:06:35] It all Spotify Apple Amazon music I heart radio all that or wherever they want to listen to podcasts however they want to do it also tell them about the YouTube page for runner podcast collective we put out clips at least two or three week.

[01:06:56] And it's usually something from the podcast but.

[01:07:00] Is either a note or something that I just added in so you're always getting something different you're not getting really.

[01:07:07] You know the same exact thing so I want to go ahead and get that ended right there again I want to thank the Oklahoma City Thunder fans.

[01:07:20] You guys are really helping us out on the YouTube page I want to thank the different nugget fans shout out to hashtag mile high basketball.

[01:07:32] I want to thank you guys for loving the new video that I put up about Nicole Yoke if you have not seen it go check that out and I want to thank my wife and I want to thank.

[01:07:46] All my friends and I want to thank.

[01:07:51] I want to thank somebody who is really close to me who I lost not going to mention by name right now because of his family won't want me to so.

[01:08:06] I was struck with death in the last couple years real hard you know my sister being one couple years ago like five years ago now then my mom last year and then kind of mentor mine.

[01:08:23] Pass away suddenly in last week and actually a week today.

[01:08:30] And it's funny we have conversations about this doing this and he's just being real good to me and I just keep it his family in my prayers you guys you know who you are.

[01:08:49] I love you I am available you guys need me and I'm going to get off this mic before I start crying so.

[01:09:00] Thank you to everybody out there keep.

[01:09:05] I'm pushing the podcast out there keep telling people that we're getting better keep telling people that we got more on the horizon.

[01:09:15] I do want to make one apology to you guys there was supposed to be an NBA draft of.

[01:09:24] Or actually power or like listing on the website it's not there and that is my fault.

[01:09:32] And we are not going to promise you things again that we cannot give you anymore that's going to be my solemn word.

[01:09:46] Is that when we say we're going to give something to you we're going to give it to you so my apologies on that what I'm going to do is I can tell you right now that I would say by mid April.

[01:10:04] You will have a really robust.

[01:10:09] Scouting piece up there it might be just word for him and not it might not have every breakdown of every player but it'll be my notes that I've gathered on some of the prospects or most of the prospects pretty much at that point in time so my apologies I dropped the wall on that and.

[01:10:33] Be patient with me and I will I will reward you come out say no later than April twenty twenty first.

[01:10:46] All right so with that being said i'm going to go ahead close up shop you guys have a great weekend thank you so much for.

[01:11:03] you