Panic Button in Philly, Magic in Orlando

yo, it's tuesday, you know what time it is. Front runner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today's pod we're going to talk about Joe Allen Beat, the rumors that have come out about his leg injury, and we'll get into it a little bit and we'll tell you where they go from here or where they can go from here, and also probably something that Philadelphia 76ers fans don't want to even talk about honestly. We will get into all of that. Also, we are going to talk about the Southeast Division and all the changes that have been made in the Southeast Division. So if your favorite team is in there, you know we're going to talk about them Orlando, atlanta, charlotte, miami, washington Wizards all on all on deck today. So we got a jam-packed show for you. The other thing that we're going to probably talk about is the, the state of the union with josh giddy and the chicago bulls. It's kind of crazy what's going on there, especially after his uh, his, I would say second half of the season last year. It seemed like everything kind of coalesced and they were humming along pretty well. So we're going to talk about all that.

Uh, now, before we get into that there's three things that we got to talk about uh, shots out to just europe as a whole. Shots out to the far east as a whole. Shots out to the united states of america as a whole. Um, be a friend. Tell a friend has worked. Uh, be a friend. And tell a friend needs to continue to work. I implore you to tell your friends who like basketball, who like hoops, who talk, who like the dialogue of the nba, come with us, get on this train with us, enjoy it. And also hit us up on ig, hit us up on twitter, hit us up on blue sky, whatever it is that you choose to hit us up on. Hit us up on those mediums because we want to talk to you. You know, saying we don't do this just for us. We do not, we do it for you and hopefully we are informing you. We're also entertaining you.

And just the numbers are incredible. I mean, they continue to go up. We lost a bunch of people when this whole pod bean thing happened. We move over the bus route. I'm like, damn, are we gonna gain our people back? What the hell's gonna happen? And you guys have shown up. You guys are starting to really build and we're not necessarily at the level that we were before, which at that point I thought that we might. We might be taken off into some real situations, but that time will come. You know, patience is a virtue. Um, anything I've ever wanted in life has come with. Patience has come with, probably, just me just really not even thinking about it and just kind of letting it happen organically, honestly.

So we want to build this frpc army, we want to build this, this collective of people that is like-minded, who love basketball. We want to move into other genres, we want to move into the nfl, we want to move into the college spaces and stuff like that. But it only happens through word of mouth, it only happens through be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast. So please continue to do that for us. Keep that energy up. We need it. I appreciate it, serea appreciate, appreciates it, and we will go forward from here. All right, let's get into it right now. We got so much to get into.

We're gonna start off in philadelphia where, unfortunately, the news isn't great. Uh, we got two teams, one roster and the 76ers are in a post-process pivot. It seems like, uh, philly just seems like they're in purgatory. They're not rebuilding, they're not contending, doesn't seem like they're progressing right now and, honestly, this might be a dangerous thing for this franchise. When you're talking about building two identities at once, you're really. You're really building neither. One night it's a throwback, post-ups within bead. The next night is maxi electrifying the um, what is? It's a wells fargo center in philadelphia for sure I am.

If you read the article by kevin pompey, if you have heard just some of the rumors going around Joel Embiid is talking about his knee is in constant pain. So this thing is going to be always monitored. You know, when he last spoke last season, he talked about I'm not playing back-to-backs, that's just a done deal. I've given too much to this city. There's some things that I wish he could have walked back honestly, because I think you know the man was probably in pain, a little depressed and just kind of bewildered about what has happened to him, and we'll delve a little bit into that real quickly. I believe it was in january of 2023. We heard that joel mb was going in for a meniscus tear and he was going to get that cleaned up and, whatever the case may be, I think at the time I said, hey, shut him down for the rest of the year. I don't care, whatever, you're not going anywhere.

You know this is in the, the throes of boston celtics being like a just a wagon. You know cleveland was coming. You had the miami heat, the zombie heat as bill simmons likes to call them. You know you have some teams. Then you know the knicks popped out of nowhere. They're here, they come. So you have all these teams and I was like, okay, you're gonna be a playing team anyway, let's just rest them, get them back for next season. You got all these, you have all this calf space. You have this, uh, draft pick situation coming. Let's just go ahead and pull the plug a little bit.

Right, lo and behold, here he is back in April Late April to be exact, right before the playoffs start and he's playing the last five games of the season To get himself ready for the playoffs. At that time it was a calculated risk. Everybody was like supposedly on board this dude, like three games into it, somebody hits him from behind Accidentally, like chop block style a little bit, but and then he's hurt again. And at the time I was like, why didn't he just sit? It wasn't like they were a two seed, wasn't like they were Battling for home Home court advantage Throughout the playoffs or anything like that. It was literally hey, well, how this dude, he'll keep us competitive. It is joel and b, one of the best players in the league, his former mvp, all these type of things. All those accolades are still there for joel and b.

But I did not understand rushing him back just to get ousted in the first round, and albeit that it was a thrilling first round, um, first round series with the Knicks, it still did not hold a candle to just having that dude sit for another extended like what we're talking. We're talking about april. If he comes back in april, let's say he doesn't come back in april, so he would have had february, march, april, may, june, july, august, september, shit, we talking, we talking. Eight months, yo, eight months. Now. Hopefully at that point in time he gonna ramped up with some on-court, you know, drills and things of that nature, not to put any stress on the knee. Obviously we're going to be very careful with him and now we're in this situation where the kevin parquet article talks about he's in constant pain. Uh, he doesn't know if he'll ever be the same.

And you know he was talking again. He was talking about not playing back-to-backs ever, and now you're kind of in this weird like holding pattern and here's the best part about this whole thing. Let's just say you don't get the philadelphia 76 fans hit me up on this. How many games do you believe like you would feel comfortable with with joel and b playing and he let's say he in all these games he was pretty effective, right? How many games do you need him to play for your team to have a real legitimate shot at making a real playoff run? Do you need to be a 1 seed, 2 seed, 3 seed? What do you need to be? How many games does Joel Embiid have to play for all this to work? Embiid have to play for all this to work.

I will be very interested to hear from 76ers fans about how they feel about this upcoming season and where Joel Embiid is. But here's the thing. Here's the thing that is right around the corner. I hate to be the guy that's doom and gloom, but here I am if, for some reason, he has any sort of setback and you have to rely on Maxie, who's an incredible player, incredible, great, great guard, and McCain, who only played in 27 games last year and a rookie in vj edge cone and the corpse that is paul george. How many wins do you think you're gonna have? That's another question. Because here's the other thing and I know that 76ers fans are aware of this but not maybe other fan bases are aware of You're just an overall basketball fan. You might not be aware of this In 2026, you know who owns the 76 pick, their draft pick, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Yeah, the reigning defending NBA champions going into this season, own the Philadelphia 76ers pick. Now you can tell me all kinds of things. You can say well, joel Embiid, we're not going to play him back-to-backs. He's going to play a solid 55 for us and we're going to keep it moving. Tyrese Maxey is awesome. You know we're're gonna get McCain back. He's gonna be awesome. And we're really excited about the upside of Vijay Edgecombe, which you should be, because he is awesome. He's an athletic freak. Um, I love him a lot, but at the end of the day, the receipts are this they went 24 and 58 last season. They were 13. They're 13th in the east and they were at the bottom five of just net rating and just both sides of the ball. It was terrible. That's not tanking, that was just what their identity was, and now just wins and losses aren't affecting them.

You have the malaise that can come over a locker room. Tensions can start to build because you don't know what direction your team is going into. Some days you'll have Joel Embiid, some days you won't. Some days you'll have Paul George, some days you won't. How's that going to be? Some days you won't. Some days you'll have paul george, some days you won't. How's that gonna work now? Our fans gonna be as passionate as they usually are in philadelphia, probably because they don't know how, any other way to be. What happens if fans get apathetic? What happens? They start talking about matchups and they start talking about vibes, drama and what else, because there's a lot of what ifs that come with this story.

Also, the big elephant in the room. We're not talking about joe long b, but we are talking about his contract. Oh my god. Three years, 187.6 million dollars, fully guaranteed, guaranteed. And here's the kicker there's no player opt-outs and in 2028 2029 season, you will be paying that man 67 million dollars 67.2 to be exact, as serea just said. That's not a number, that's a hard ceiling. No exit ramp, no roster mobility, unless you find a miracle trade to get a full medical retirement approval and bead is staying and and here's the thing you, you want to do the wave and stretch now. Here's the problem with that. Here's the big problem with that. What was Bill making like 52, we talking about 60s. That's a different ball game. So you're talking about spreading that over five years. So what? 20, 25 million is caught up in the cap. That don't sound great.

So what do the philadelphia 76ers do? Let's run through the core of the team. We got paul george at 34 years of age. He only played 41 games last year. Looks great on paper, but he's just not as reliable. He's just as unreliable as Joel Embiid. Meanwhile, tyrese Maxey Stud Certified G, 26 points per game, doing it real big Ascending. He's 24 years of age.

Now I'm going to say something to Philadelphia 76ers fans that they do not want to hear. This is your get out of jail free card. By the way, tyrese Maxey is the Philadelphia 76ers get out of jail free card. Nobody wants to hear that in Philadelphia. Nobody wants to hear the words let's trade Maxie to regain our pick capital, get our draft assets. But I'm going to give you a scenario where you can work around the Joe LNB injury and I know a lot of people will sit here and be like I don't want to hear this shit. Vince, you've already ruined my day. I was just about to have a Philly cheese steak and you you messed it all up. Whether you were getting it from Pat's or whatever the case may be, I don't know. But I'm not trying to ruin your appetite, but I just want you to hear me out real quick, with Maxie being 24, and if you can grasp a plethora of draft assets still having McCain and Edgecombe on board, no one in Philly wants to hear it at all. Like I said, I know and I completely understand why they would not want to hear it all. Like I said, I know and I am completely. I completely understand why they would not want to hear this, but we were right when we said not to bring mb back in 2023 and I believe we're right right now.

Here's the writing on the wall jo, joel Embiid is never going to be completely healthy, ever again. Whether through you can talk about who's the blame game, who gets the blame pie, the biggest slice of blame pie, or whatever the case may be, you can talk about his refusal to get in better shape. Um, in better shape. You can talk about the philadelphia franchise putting more I wouldn't say pressure, but just like reliance on him and him feeling certain sort of certain sort of way about his loyalty to the franchise, who's basically been with him since the beginning. You know they were the team that, like he had the foot surgery, we're gonna sit you out the whole year and then we're gonna be uber careful with you the second year, which we knew he could have came back and played.

But we're trying to trying to stack draft picks here. We're trying to stack them up. You know, a couple more bites at the apple won't hurt us. Okay, I understood a little bit about the process. This is what gets Hinky fired and brings in Daryl Morty. But cool, I'm on board. I'm on board, but now With the results of 2023.

Now, in the real view, and we're looking at this reality. This isn't complicated. One player is climbing, two are declining. Philly needs to stop hoping for health miracles and start investing in momentum. Maxi is the timeline or he is the piece that you can trade. It is all about asset management at this point. That is what this is about. This is not about tearing down the team. This is not about whatever. But if you need a get out of free jail card, tyrese Maxey is the dude. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing. You already got vj edgecombe and jared mccain with plenty of upside. You don't know what these guys could be yet. I'm not saying they're going to turn into what tyrese maxey turned into, but there's a track record with daryl moore. He usually picks the right guy.

I'm sure a lot, lot of people thought that Ace Bailey was going to the Philadelphia 76ers, probably back in February or March, when it got clearer that that's where they were probably. Well, nobody knew where they were going to end up. But when you got to the draft lottery you know what I'm saying you probably sat there and said, okay, third overall ace bailey, because that's what we've been told ace bailey is the third guy, we're gonna get him. But more he went a different way. He went with somebody who he felt that as far as the traits were concerned, as far as the upside was concerned, this is a guy that we need to roll with. And also, vj edgecomb is six foot five, pretty much that position, that that ideal height for the two guard position.

You want to talk about what the team looks like right now. We can do that. That rotation whip flash makes it impossible to coach right because you're dealing with two timelines. There's going to be times where joel and bead is on the court, so you got to play a slow, plotting, methodical way, because he's not going to be able to run it up and down the court. That is not going to be his thing. Also, your rim protection defense is not going to be able to run it up and down the court. That is not going to be his thing. Also, your rim protection defense Is probably going to be hampered A lot now that his knees are completely compromised. Yeah, I know I feel bad about being the bearer of bad news. I do.

There's hope Edgecombe I don't know what he's going to be this year, but he's going to get a lot of opportunity for sure. Mccain was a revelation. The, the, the shooting, the spacing that he provided. Uh, when mb is in, it's going to be great. He will need that. He will need that spacing because he's not going to be as quick as he once was. Vijay Edgecombe's best attribute is rim attacks and open floor are wasted in the half court offense around Embiid. So he's going to like it when Embiid is not there, bede, so he's gonna like it when Embiid is not there. Mccain shooting and playmaking shines in a spread floor but next to a high uses post up, big Wonder how that works.

And then there is where Maxie's trade makes sense for development of these young players. If you trade Maxie, you can get reps for both Edgecombe and Jared McCain easily Without trade. No, somebody is probably coming off the bench, it's a three guard rotation. Whatever the case may be, and keep in mind, if you trade Maxie, either A could you get a young center back Maybe not, obviously, it's not going to be Joel Embiid, but could you get somebody exciting back or, with the picks that you get back, are you able to then draft somebody who will fulfill what inevitably is going to look like the exit of Joel Embiid, who's eating $67 million a year for a big and decline. That's not realism, that's a fantasy catology. Unless Embiid walks away voluntarily for health reasons, which nobody expects him to do until may of 2028, you know saying I'm getting all my dollars, bro, getting all my money, you're stuck. So this is where reality creeps in.

For the 76ers fan, the blueprint is real simple you auction Tyrese Maxey off. You try to get as many picks as you can. You try to get as many young, uh, bigs that you can. You know if a team has like a couple bigs or whatever and they're they're trying to pick between the two, you say, hey, we're giving you Tyrese Maxey. This dude is 26, he's a bucket. He walks in the door being a bucket.

Don't sleep on the perception angle, don't, don't worry about that. I understand Philadelphia will be mad. They'll get over it. Because here's the other thing that goes along with this teams aren't waiting for Philly to rise, they're waiting for Philly to sell and now that Embiid is no longer the the blue chip stock that he once was, and then it turns to maxi. Now again, by by trading maxi, you are now opening up the floor for jared mccain and vj edgecombe. So I'm just reiterating that fact.

It's not like all is lost in the backcourt. Your backcourt is terrible. Obviously, we know what we have in maxi, but unfortunately, since he is a known commodity, his value is where you can get all the picks and some young players back in return. This is what separates smart organizations from stubborn ones. Okay, knowing that you are stuck number ones. Okay, knowing that you are stuck, knowing that you are in this situation and not doing anything about it, just kind of twiddling your thumbs. This is where teams go to die and then you're back to being like a 22 win team.

Don't be the was Wizards, which we will talk about later. Don't be them. Be more like OKC. If they don't trade them, obviously, I'm going to tell you right now. The reality is that Maxie probably will leave after 2028. Maybe the kids don't develop the way they should because of the fact that they don't have the time on the court and the necessary reps to get better should, because of the fact that they don't have the time on the court and the necessary reps to get better. And then the two teams, one roster situation is all. The prophecy has fulfilled it to be.

So. 76ers fans, I am dying to hear from you. So hit me up on Twitter, at FrontRunnerPC, or hit our producer up at Raya, underscore Funch, frpc and tell us what you think. Tell us what you think about. Are we going still all in on NB, trying to squeeze the last bit of juice out of that body, or are we gonna rip off the band-aid and trade Maxie? It will be a daring. Um, it'll be a daring way to go. It's definitely picking a peril, a perilous path, but I think it's the best way for the 76ers to fix what ails them.

And again, I'm really sorry that I gotta be the bearer of bad news. Another team dealing with a bunch of uncertainty, self-deflicted. Of course, let's head to chicago, shall we? Where the bulls are caught in a high-stakes stare down, contract tension, buyout rumors, another offseason where the question isn't who's just playing, it's what direction are we headed in? This man? This is rinse and repeat. I know everybody in chicago shots out to our guy jared goff, who does, uh, some stuff on the ringer longtime voice in chicago. Love that dude. Hey man, I'm sorry you gotta go through this, but at least you have football and maybe caleb williams is gonna be dope this year. So look out for that.

But the giddy drama, the vucevic dilemma and the bulls directional crisis is hit its access point and let's get into it. What's going to start with josh giddy? The bulls traded caruso for him last year. Clearly they saw a part of their future in him. But now all of a sudden, they're eight to ten million dollars apart. On the extension classic restricted free agent standoff. Giddy wants 20 plus, which is more like 25. The wolves want to keep him around 13 to 15, more like 15 to 17. And there's your eight million dollar note from serea. This isn't about dollars, it's about leverage.

Um, giddy's camp sees the sees. It sees the uh big point guard as a creative lead guard who just helped, helped, uh, a team give so much better in the second half of the season. Remember the Bulls looked crazy good in the second half. Our guy, kobe White, was looking awesome. You know Montez Buzelis was starting to play. It was great.

And now hedging the Reinsdorf are hedging again starter money, not star money, and both sides are daring the other to fold. Could Giddy take the qualifying offer and walk in 2026? Well, he could. I don't think he should, but he could. And that's the gamble that the bulls don't want to overpay for. Giddy doesn't want to be underpaid, not understand where he's coming from. He had one of his best years last year. You know that team at the end of the season.

Yes, it led to another you know playing situation and another loss to the heat, or whatever case may be. It was terrible, but at the end of the day, this is what the rangers love. They got another extra gate for no apparent reason. You know, there was some optimism towards the end of the year. Oh well, maybe we can do something. But now summertime is here and it's time to pay up and they're like nah, we're not doing any of that.

Typical, typical chicago bulls. It's crazy for me. I just I don't understand it. One of my best friends, um, in high school and early on in my 20s is a huge Chicago Bulls fan. Came from the area. What have you? And I can just imagine watching this stuff from afar and just dealing with this on a day-to-day basis. This must be heartbreaking for him.

Now we need to pivot to what's going on with vucevic. His name keeps popping up in buyout rumors, which makes no sense to me. He has 21.5 million on the books and he's a free agent. Next year he can just fall off the books. Here's the tale. That here's the tale, vick.

A vucevic buyout only makes sense if Chicago is finally ready to embrace the rebuild and not just the vibes move. This is a clarity move. Go out, and you know, go out in the plan or just hit the reset button. You know I'm saying'm saying Like this is what this is. It's a fork in the road moment. So they haven't done it as of yet Because the Bulls have been in no man's land for years and this is kind of where they like to operate anyway.

And I don't understand it at all. I do not understand just the rumor of it. What are you thinking to do now if you come out and say, hey, we're going to rebuild, we're going to now pull off the band-aid and do this situation okay? Now I get where you're coming from. You know there's zach collins, who's not. You know whatever you want to say about zach collins. They also have jalen smith. Um, they also have the rookie noah asengway, and then, uh, obviously, boozellis and whatever you can get out of patrick williams, who knows who the hell knows?

But this roster is deep but fuzzy. Kobe white is out here balling out. You got ayo de sumo, you got, uh, isaac okoro. Uh, herder, even kind of revitalized last year a little bit, and you know, if you keep giddy you're gonna have a real fun run, run and gun type of team. It's not gonna equate to a bunch of wins, but at least you're gonna be entertaining as you wait for your draft pick to come around, and hopefully it's a good one right. Hopefully you tank wisely and this is a good year to tank, supposedly. Um, now there's an extreme difference between the top four and then the rest of the field. We got to really dive further into it.

We did a quick little run through of like 10 players in our last podcast on friday. So I urge everybody to go back to the archive pods. You don't have to go back for. Our last pod on friday discusses some of the 2026 uh draft prospects. We talk about, like the elephants in the room which are the top three or four guys, which are aj de bansta, cam boozer, our guy darren peterson, um and uh, nate ament. We talked about all four of those dudes. We also talked about dyson Daniels' brother Dash. His name is Dash. That's awesome. I love it.

But if this is what Chicago is thinking about doing, I think that the fans who have seen the Bulls running back for years and hoping for 41 wins and a good playing seed, that to me is not culture. It is basically just telling you like we care about Gates revenue or you could reset, win maybe 28 games and get a high leverage pick. Now here's the problem with this. You got teams like Brooklyn. You got teams like Washington. You got teams like Charlotte, indiana because of the Halliburton injury and Toronto who are also like kind of spinning their wheels. The Rice-Dorffs family may get another season of playing money just because of how bad the East is.

But if you go ahead and do this with Vucevic and you do this now, you got a better shot than not to not make the playoffs. And I'm not saying that I'm not encouraging taking. What I'm encouraging is pick a direction. That's what I'm encouraging is pick a. Pick a direction. That's what I'm encouraging and I hope, I hope for chicago fans that this is the way that they choose to go now. As far as giddy is concerned, he's a connector. He can run the offense. He fits with athletic forwards court, uh, forward, uh. Core. Booze ellis is another guy who came on late in the year. If you do buy out vucevich and commit early to this let's call it tank you can use these minutes for booze ellis to maybe even play some small ball five. You can get minutes for noah asingway now easier. So to me personally this is like again, pick a direction, see where you want to go. I personally think also, you know, depending on what you get giddy to sign, for you can kick that can down the road as well. So personally, I am on board for chicago, blowing it up and doing what they need to do, just because the stagnation has been just awful. To watch for a great franchise in a great sports town, chicago is awesome. I have been in chicago. I haven't been there in a while, but I've been to Chicago. It's beautiful, great, great sports town, great sports town. Just looking forward to going back fairly soon.

Now let's get on to the purpose of our little podcast. Here. We're going to talk about the Southeast Division and we're going to go through each team. We're going to talk about what they're doing, what are their core right now, what the rookies are going to look like and things of that nature, and then we're going to kind of give you our thoughts on where they are in their processes and hopefully get you some vital information that maybe others aren't talking about right this second. So we are going to start in our nation's capital.

You know I'm saying, you know how I like to do it. I love the nation's capital, I love the wizards, because they've been terrible forever and this year the wizards are finally, finally, finally, are gonna have a bunch of kids on the court where we can start going okay, this is the the start of Of like rebuild, and I know they've had a couple years when they've gotten talent, whatever kids can be. But I think now they have enough of the dudes out here when you can kind of go okay, alright, I see what they're trying to do and hopefully they allow these kids To get enough minutes To make mistakes, but I love what they've done and we're kids to get enough minutes to make mistakes, but I love what they've done and we're about to get into it. So the Wizards are the NBA's youngest squad and it's wild mile. We're talking nine, maybe ten first rounders from the last three drafts. This is next level when it comes to the tank job that's about to go down. So now you have alex r, who we don't know what kind of unicorn if he is a unicorn but we do know that he's seven feet tall. He handles his basketball. He's very, very slight right now, so he's more of a off-ball rim protector than like point of attack rim defect detector as far as that's concerned. So you're all. You're always looking to see what it's going to be now.

Year one you saw later in the. You saw later in the um in the year he started to come along a little bit, the numbers got really got better. Then you got balakulabale, who's six foot seven, six foot eight, and then, with a crazy wingspan of a condor, he's already locking down wings in his second year. Bo Carrington, when he was able to play lead guard because they had Jordan Poole. He's fearless, still learning the NBA speed, but you saw flashes.

Now let's talk about who they got Trey Johnson, the rookie sniper from texas. They drafted him six overall. He can shoot the lights out on any night. As far as that's concerned, he has some, also some handles on him a little bit. I love this kid I was really kind of stoked with, even though they were got him six overall. And yes, you would have loved for the Wizards to really kick off the rebuild by getting like Cougar Flag. But no, no, no. The great white American cannot be in the nation's capital, not with Donald Trump there, not right now. No, no, no, that right now. That would have been. Oh, man, could you imagine what the Make America Great commercials would have been like, man? Could you imagine what the america make america great commercials would have been like? On this man. Come on, come on now. Y'all know. Y'all know what this would have been like. Propaganda would have been off the chain.

Now will riley, fresh off illinois, scoring wing with size. He's slight though. This dude needs to get some burgers, get some milkshakes in him. He can shoot the ball, but I don't know if he can go into the paint at all right now, and I'm not saying that because not a skill level, just because he will be so easily knocked off his line because of how slight he is.

Now the other thing that the front office has done is they brought in some veteran leadership. Last year, during the trade deadline, they traded Kyle Kuzma and got Chris Middleton. Then they brought in CJ McCollum, and these guys are going to be steadiers for the roster. These are the guys who are going to teach the young guys how to be professionals, how to take care of their body, what to put in their body, how much rest to get, figure out a regimen that works for them and go forward. You couldn't have two better veterans in the locker room than cj mccullum and chris middleton. I am pro this situation. I understand that chris middleton, as far as health is concerned, might not be exactly where he needs to be To be a real, you know, a real Official Type contributor on his squad. And CJ has been through a lot of battles. He also paired up With Damian Lillard in Portland. So as far as him seeing greatness and understanding greatness and having a longevity in his career, I think that he can speak into some of these young guys and be able to help them kind of move through what the nba rigors are going to be.

So let's spotlight our guy, trey johnson, real quick. So we're going to talk about him. Like I said, they grabbed him with the sixth overall position. He scored 18.4 points a game last year. He shot 41% from three and 86% from the line and that release is NBA ready. Folks, it's a quick release, yo, it's quick.

But he's not just a shooter. He can relocate off ball like clay, and I'm listen when I say that take that with a grain of salt. Okay, he's not clay thompson, but he has a capability of you know, oh, I got off ball, I'm gonna go relocate. You know, come find me, boom, give me the ball, I'll shoot it. He also isn't afraid to take the big shot. He like I belong here. Swagger just emanates from his brother. The challenge is that he needs to put on some muscle muscle, okay, uh, he has to finish better at the rim and every night he'll face defenders who are just as hungry. So my man is young. He is very, very talented. It will be put on weight to get stronger when you go to the rim. If you're the Wizards brass, you're hoping that he's more Devin Cooker than he is Quentin Grimes. But you got to live with the rookie mistakes and let him go out there.

I personally believe that now let's get into the other rookie, which is Will Riley, out of Illinois. He's another intriguing piece that to add to the, to the collection of young pieces that the Wizards have. He has great length. He shall flashes at Illinois. He has some wild nights, including a 31 point debut. That's how you get out there and let your name be heard. I'm gonna go out here, give you a 30 piece.

What stands out about him? He knows how to move without the basketball, he has a basketball IQ that keeps the offensive flowing. And also, he needs he has to get more shots, he needs to add muscle and he needs to pick up the speed of the game. Okay, so what I mean by that is that, as a second side initiator, right, right, if he's on the weak side, they get him the ball and there's a pretty aggressive closeout on him. He needs to be able put that ball on the deck immediately and either go to the hole or draw the defense in and kick out to a shooter that has relocated. Okay, those are the things that I'm talking about when I'm saying, hey, he needs to be quicker with the decisiveness of the decisions. Okay, muscle, that comes with just getting in the weight room, but the actual quickness of the game speed Sometimes can fluster even some of our better prospects. So Will Riley is going to have to work on that.

They also brought in Cam Whitmore out of a trade and I thought, man, what they gave up for Cam Whitmore and getting Cam Whitmore in there. Everybody knows my affinity for Cam Whitmore. What do I call Cam? I call him baby Sprewell. Okay, I love this dude. I think he can be real box office. This is a young wing and he's going to you swinging for the fences on this guy and he's going to you swinging for the fences on this guy. He's a prototypical NBA wing explosive leaper and he can get to the rim at will. Houston never gave him consistent minutes, but he's going to have all of the minutes he can handle. In Washington. He's dangerous, uh, when he's hot. If he improves his decision making and defense, he could be a absolute steal for the wizards.

This is one of those moves that you, that you do, that you just you serendipitously fall into and it could work out like gangbusters for you, or he'll be another spark off the bench, one of the two, but I was. I believe in the talent. We can with more. I just think that he was not going to get the opportunities in houston that are now readily available to him in the nation's capital. So where do we go from here? What's? What's the situation? What are we looking for? We're looking for CJ McCollum and Chris Middleton to provide like veteran leadership, 100% now as far as the rotation is concerned, and battles and growth curves and stuff like that.

Let's get into it. What you want to see really is you want to see Saar put on some muscle and you want him to be a little bit more aggressive, going to the hole. You still want him to work on his shot, which he started to shoot, the outside shot, the three point shot in the second half of the season and you saw the numbers just grow and soar. Now he's going to need to do more of that as far as that's concerned. But hey, what are you going to do? You know, this is the time where you are going to have a lot of games where you go oh I didn't like that player, I didn't like that decision. But you gotta let these kids make the mistakes. That's the only way they're going to learn.

Development isn't linear, but what's really stymies development is not getting an opportunity to play. They got to get the opportunity to play basketball. So sar has to be in the rotation, kulebale, just because the defense alone, he's probably going to be in the rotation as well. Can you put enough shooting around them to allow them to be on the court? Well, you have cj mccullum and you got minutes from Chris Middleton and also Cam Whitmore, and also Corey Kisker Is on this team still, right? Kisker is on this team, right? So then, yeah, you got enough dudes out here To get this, to get this crack-a-lacking. Um. Decision making by the young players Is going to be key. Now, how that works works and how you choose to discipline how they get the.

The message across is really on their head coach keith, who seems more like a player's coach, basically allowing the guys to make a mistake. I think sometimes you can put their hammer down and say hey, man, you've had like three bad possessions a row. Why don't you come over and take a breath, sit by me on this bench real quick and watch the game from here, and then maybe two minutes we'll bring you back in and you calm yourself down. I think that is a incredible way of doing things. I personally would love to see people do it that way, but I am not a coach of a basketball team, but I do believe in you can't just let them be jalen green and no shade to jalen green, I'm just saying that they just gave him the basketball and go like here, go do what you do, and he was like shit, all right, cool.

And then all the turnovers, all the bad shot selection. You can't let them do that. You can't. That's not teaching them, that's that's um, that's basically just giving in to just their, their desires. I'm getting all the shots and I'm an NBA player. I'm about to get paid, bro. Look at Giddy. Look at what Giddy's going through right now. Look at what Quentin Grimes is going through right now. Now, jonathan Kaminga different story, because they you know, jonathan Kaminga going through it, my guy is going through it, but we'll see how that all plays out.

Now, looking down the line, it's patience versus pressure. Fans want a star. I understand they are thirsty for a star in the nation's capital. You got one in Jaden Daniels. Okay, In your football team. Don't worry about the basketball team right now. Don't worry about the NBA. Concentrate on your football team. Concentrate on the president of the United States Threatening If y'all don't change y'all name back To what it was prior. And I'm not talking about the Washington football team. I'm talking about the one before that. You know, are you going team? I'm talking about the one before that. You know, are you gonna get the stadium because of of the president? Focus your energy on that. Allow the young guys to cook, allow them to go ahead and go through their developmental warts that they're gonna go through, but at the end of the day, they any time.

This is not a overnight changeover, overnight success type story. This is going to be a lot of sweat equity. This is going to be a lot of nights where it's just like damn, this is some ugly, ugly basketball and what you're hoping for is that you can find maybe two or three positive things and then you kind of grow from there. That is what you're looking for in every single wizards game this upcoming season. Can I find two or three things that make me happy? Oh well, sar made great rotations, you know. Cam whitmore really does seem with the opportunities to be, you know, making some headway and being that like maybe number two option behind whatever the number one option hasn't manifested itself to be yet. You know, I don't know, but those are the type of things you're looking for. So, with that being said, uh, when march comes around, you're still probably about 30 games under 500, and whatever the case may be, but you're gonna keep it moving and get another draft pick and another, get another bite of the apple when it comes to the lottery. So keep it going.

Another team that's bewildering to me. But If people are healthy this year, there might be some buzz around this team and the pun is absolutely intended. So let's get to the Charlotte Hornets, let's get to the high, don't play shy. This team has many questions, as it does guards. And is this finally the year that someone claims the franchise cornerstone title? Who do you think it's going to be? Is it going to be the precocious LaMelo Ball with all the talent in the world, or is it going to be the precision of brandon miller? We will talk about it, we will break it down.

Let's be honest about the hornets right now, deep into a teardown stack with some talent, the mode of operation is still unclear a little bit, but when you look around the league, some of the peers, and you have a guy by like lamella ball, it's hard to go. Are they in the worst type of squad? No, they're not. Got one guy that we we really know who this is. Now I got some interesting questions and want to know about some interesting pieces, but right now you got lamello, the offense, in a box, a highlight waiting to happen.

Brandon miller is a wing with star flashes. If he adds strength and a little edge, who knows? And then you got con canupa, who they took fourth. Con canupa is a shooter with iq for days. And then liam mcneely.

He's a wing that played out of position last year at the university of yukon. They had him in a point guard role or offense initiator role, and he was not suited for that. He is suited for being like a weak side initiator, more of a secondary initiator, not a first, not a primary initiator. No, no, no, let's not do that. But I'm just going to say this the rotation is unbalanced right now.

There's a bunch of guards on this team, uh, and they have no proven bigs whatsoever. Mark williams is gone, nick richards is gone, everybody gone. If you are seven feet tall, 6, 11, you got adios. They're starting to new. Is this a year of developing or is this this a year sorting? Who actually fits next to lamello? Who steps up? If he's, if he goes down, and will anybody play defense for at some, at most of the time of the 48 minutes, inquiring minds would like to know. Quick run of the offense they drafted Knipple, who is an absolute shooter and a floor spacer. That is great things. Liam McNeely A lot of people are down on him Because of the season he had at UConn.

I am still high on this kid. I think taking the pressure, getting the ball out of his hands as much as it was, is going to absolutely help him. And then you add Colin Sexton for free. Basically Pat Connickin as well. That's your locker room vets. You lost Mark Williams, but did you really lose Mark Williams when he wasn't playing, and Yusuf Nurkic, you lost to him as well. I don't know if that's a loss either. So people are saying, well, you lost to rim protection. Did you have rim protection to begin with? I know that sounds bad, but Mark Williams was never there and he was never healthy.

Now LaMelo Ball is still the straw that stirs the drink. Career 38.2 assist rate that's elite. 18.9 points per night. Deep range Pushes the pace a lot. Always looking to make a play. He rebounds really well for his position. His improvising is off the chain and, let's face it, sometimes he does try way too much. He does, he. We got a lot going on with him. But here's the risk factor with lamello 47 games last year, another ankle problem. Sometimes he lacks concentration and he becomes turnover prone. He's a little too casual with the basketball, always looking to make the spectacular pass instead of just the common you know, common denominator pass.

If charlie is going to climb up the standing, he needs to play 65 games. There is no doubt about that. He has to play the prerequisite. What's gonna get you into the, the award ceremonies. He needs set the tone. He also needs to work on his shot diet. He he needs to pass up On some of these 40 footers that he likes to shoot.

Now, brandon Miller might be the exact opposite 6 foot 9. With a jumper, another guy that you can build Around. Is he a number 2? Is he a number 3? I don't know.

We were going Into his second season last year and we were that's where we thought, thought we would find out what he was going to be. But his season was abrupted. 27 games into it he was done. 18.3 assist rate, pretty damn good. His true shooting percentage is 54. He flashes star upside, especially if he bulks up and the stats finishing through contact go up.

But the verdict is still out. He's still raw, not not a top tier creator, yet fits perfectly next to a dynamic point guard which he has in lamella ball when he needs to grow into something that resembles our number two guy. And so far he's not there. And defensively he has a lot of length and intensification, but he can't. He can't. He needs to take on the jason tatum's of the world, the well j gym, well, jimmy Butler is not in his conference anymore, but you know what I'm talking about.

The Hornets as far as they're, as far as what we are Speculating what they're gonna be. If you're betting on a breakout season, keep your eye on Miller, keep your eye on canuple, but don't be shocked if he's just a glue guy that moves a needle and Charlotte real win might be be building the league's deepest young wing pull that we've ever seen. I love what they've done. You know we didn't talk about to John john salon and things of that nature, which we'll talk about in a second. Nick smith jr, combo guard, microwave scorer, can light it up fast, but he needs to be more efficient. To john salon is a rugged, switchable forward, brings energy, rebounding, versatile defense, but the shot needs to come along well. We're a year two, gotta see what's going on. And ryan colgrunner might be the guy that gets a lot of reps just because this dude is kind of just fell into this position. It's kind of like I'm gonna play because nobody else is left. Like highlander. There can only be one and that's where we are right now. The rest of the numbers that are out here.

What we're looking for with the, with these Charlotte Hornets, is can the turnovers go down? Can the rebounding go up? Can they turn the ball over when they're on the defensive side With all the length that they have, they should be able to get a bunch of deflections. Personally, they have a ton winged up at this point. You think about Brandon Miller, conn Knipple we haven't even talked about Williams. They got Liam McNeely and they got John Saloon. I personally think they're looking real good. When it comes to hey, we got a ton of wing depth. I don't know what we're going to do. They also still have what Miles Bridges as well. That's crazy. Miles Bridges is still on this team.

Leadership that has to come from uh lamella. He needs to set the tone. There's enough uh veteran presence with uh connor tinn, den witty and grant williams Dinwiddie and Grant Williams to steady the ship. But the Hornets need to locate an identity. This has to be the year for this.

I love Conn Knipple. I love the way he's going to be able to space the floor. I think he has a little more shit to his game than just hey. I'm a shooter. Spot up. Whatever case may be, I think he could take it off the deck, you know, get some bounce with it and do some incredible things. I love the pick of Conn Cunifil.

Now, as far as what Brandon Miller is going to be, well, tell me how much weight he's put on during the summer, because that will tell me what he's capable of this upcoming season. If he put on like 8 to 10 pounds of muscle, or whatever the case may be, he might be looking at something. If he's basically the same due to not being able to work out in the offseason to you know, okay, I'm starting this season anew. These are things I need to work on. If he can't do that just because of what happened to him in the season, that's gonna be a hard pill to swallow and basically the.

The last thing I'm gonna say about the Charlotte Hornets is that Lomelo needs to start taking the game seriously. He needs to start saying, hey, okay, I know I can hit a logo shot, but that shouldn't be the first shot that I think of. Let's get into the offense, let's see what we can do. I'm a 6'8 point guard. I have crazy vision. I should be able to pick a team apart and make them feel just dejected. If he comes in with that type of mentality and charlotte hornets are golden if he comes in with the opportunity, with the thought process and the the opportunity space to go ahead, and I'm looking for the highlight every single time down the court, then we're still in a holding pattern for what Charlotte needs, and they're kind of in the same predicament as Memphis is with John Morant.

John Morant is an electrifying player. He does a lot of great things, but can he lead his team to victories is the question, and I know a lot of people sit here and say, well, of course he can't. Blah, blah, blah. They were number two overall seeds. You know, a couple years back, um, you know, they were beating golden state on the regular. All these things are true. But due to his off the court situation on the court situation, getting the injuries and everything like that, it's just again. It's a terrible way to go through and hopefully, hopefully, lamelo can kind of, in a sense, grow up a little bit. Hopefully. This is the time.

Speaking of the time, time is of the essence down in South Beach and as we start to look at this team that basically wants to stay relevant by getting whoever the superstar that might be the most disgruntled, you seem to be losing people like this. Now, miami, it seems like the tables have turned. Jimmy Butler gone. He was gone at the last year's trade deadline. It it might be ushering in begrudgingly a new era in Miami, heat basketball, chasing identity as much as wins. So the question is is Is Miami's culture still a weapon or is it just a hashtag? And I know a lot of people down in Miami are going.

Well, why is he saying this? You know these are hurtful things to say, but if you're a team like Miami and you're like, okay, we tried to get Damian Lillard, we are always big game hunting, whatever the case may be. Sometimes, sometimes and now the league has changed you have to change up the way you think about how we go about this new era in the NBA with the salary cap, how it works, whatever case may be, because if you think disgrernal Superstar A or Discernal Superstar B is just going to fall into your laps, it's probably not going to happen. You try to get Kevin Durant Nope, that didn't work. You try to get Damian Lillard Nope, that didn't work. You're saving up cap space for Giannis Antetokounmpo a couple years back Nope, that didn't work and it still doesn't work If this era is over. You know what they have right now. They do have some kind of interesting pieces.

What is Andrew Wiggins' second year with the? He looks like the addition of Norman Powell, who they got for an absolute steal. I love that kid. Go UCLA, ucla all day. A-club fours up, let's do it. But with the new CBA and the tougher cap rules and no blockbuster deals on the horizon, miami's got to adapt. Heroes now, the all-star Bam is just tied LeBron For most playoff double doubles In team history, but that's. Is that enough to keep Miami relevant In the east? Well, it's a down year. We'll see. They don't have like a guy who's young, who is really Like surprising people. Now Casper is Yaka Chunis Might be that guy, and we'll talk about him a little bit later. Kahlil Ware we love Kahlil Ware. We thought that was a great pickup for Miami and it was the exact right spot for him to go to.

The resurgence of Norman Powell was awe inspiring. He scored 21 points a game last year, which is crazy because I think his highest point total was like 14.2 in his entire career, and now he's like this. Oh no, I start and I ball, I get buckets and I start. But casper yankatunis is 18 years of age and this is a guy that they're putting a lot of their eggs in the basket with. He's played 33 games at the University of Illinois. He averaged 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and shot 84% from the line. His strengths are that he's a real, real playmaking flashes plus plus size and a willingness to get dirty on the boards like super dirty, like christina aguilera. Dirty weaknesses are shaky from three light. High turnover rate and he needs to prove that he can defend at the nba level against these guards. We will, we shall see.

Because of some of the globe eyes and his tape was, was crazy. Like oh, here you go, you want to get to the basket? Sure, do it. Right now. Everything's good with him, nothing's elite with Yakan Chinas classic Miami, hide me, high cast. I want to get intos with him, but I will say this he kind of has some tragic in him a little bit. If everything works out and just pat riley, abstain from the superstar hunter and just go with the development guru. Uh, route kind of like all out boston, denver, minnesota, those type of teams that done that. Minifigs throw them in the mix. Uh, though, obviously okc in the mix when it comes to actually building out depth by these random second round picks that they somehow hit on or whatever. Case is crazy.

Fans love heat culture, but the blue, the new blueprint, is draft, develop and consolidate, because superstar trades market is drying up, that is for sure. So what do miami heat fans think? Do you, do you want a new move? Do you want somebody pressing to go ahead and get that superstar? Or are you cool with the youth movement? Let us know in the comments. Also, let us know why. Go into our twitter, which is at frontrunnerpc and then at rea underscore punch, frpc. You know where we need to go going to the atl. The hawks doing it for sure. Now you can say their. Their window to compete is kind of crazy because of the injury to Tatum and Halliburton, both out with Achilles injuries.

The NBA limping around through another summer and what have you? The focus is Trae Young, the most entertaining, confounding, polarizing star in the NBA and this year he leads. The most entertaining, confounding, polarizing star in the NBA and this year he leads, or this is the year he gets shown the door, and we're going to break that down for you. Every analytic model says this the Hawks have surrounded Trey Young with the deepest shooting and most defensive length ever. You know the pickups of Alexander Walker, port Zingas, and then you also mix in Dyson Daniel last year, the second year guy out of France, risa Shea and finally, the Hawks have the wings to hide Trey's flaws, at least on paper.

Atlanta has been living on hope and highlight reels, but vibes aren't alone, aren't enough, not in 2025. Trey has had the longest leash in basketball Step back from 35. Feet out, pounding the rock For 22 seconds and then shooting a pass to somebody and saying, oh, go ahead and knock that shot down. With .6 seconds on the clock, zero defense and nobody on the roster or nobody in the front office or whatever could check him. But quinn snyder has entered the chat. Okay, and quinn snyder has put his stamp on his

team. It's been two and a half years, but it's all been about structure and trey has to start playing the game the right way, or he's the next one to be in trey room or carousel for sure. And look, I can appreciate the creativity that trey shows. There's nobody like trey as a passer, and his floater in this game that we call basketball is elite. But there comes a point where losing ugly gets old. Losing because you're out here, taking, like you know, ill it by shots, gets old. The hawks defense ranked in the bottom 10 last season, but the new additions, along with Dyson Daniels, who had an incredible season last year. Best in deflections, he had the most steals of anybody in the league. He was

awesome. If Atlanta can't beat at least league average in defensively this year, it's not a personnel problem, it's an effort problem. And the effort all eyes are gonna be on Trey Young. Are you fighting to get through the screens? Are you fighting to? You know, at least be in the right position at the right time. Those are things he's gonna have to

do. Let's talk about the kid who might change everything and that is Jalen Johnson. If you haven't watched film on this dude in transition, you're missing out. Elite run jump athlete grabs 26 percent of all defensive boards and when he's out there he can be. He can guard almost anybody on the floor. His passing is sneaky. He has a 20% assist rate, which is cool for 24, somebody who's 6 foot 9. You know saying love that he's been injured. He's been injury prone so far, but he's a modern two-way player. He's a great number two for trey, if trey is going to kind of adhere to what the team wants him to do. And when you look at jalen johnson you see like you see similarities to aaron gordon and kyle kuzma and kyle kuzma we're talking about, like los angeles lakers, kyle kuzma, that dude that was giving you like buckets and stuff like that. We are not talking about Washington Wizards, kyle Kuzma or that abomination that ended up in Milwaukee. That is not what we're talking

about. Now some of the additions here Nikhil Alexander Walker shot 38% from deep. You know what I'm saying. He looked fantastic. Porzingis Is a rim protector that they need. I don't know if he's going to be your stretch for or whatever with kongu there, but when healthy he can drag defenders out to the art and knock it down where people are super

uncomfortable. The team is built to play five out or move the ball, switch everything and push the tempo. But as legs always says and that's tim laverley, our guy you can have all the shooting in the world, but if you don't, if your star doesn't buy in, the offensive stalls out. So that means it falls on Trey Young. Atlanta's ceiling is high, higher than ever. If the ball moves around, assist rates should rise, turnovers could drop and lineups with Dyson, daniel, nikhil Alexander Walker and Reese Acheye will make them, in transition, a

nightmare. I agree with all of that. What really changes if trey stops hunting hero shots, it starts running the offense like a real point guard. Pick and roll volume goes up, especially with porzingis as the role man or popping out for a three. Spacing gets a lot better, everyone gets easier looks Because you've upgraded talent everywhere and everybody's knocking down threes and the defense finally has to guard all five guys For sure. But if Trey reverts back To his long iso quick three, lazy close outs, it's just more of the same. And with this much investment in the defense and shooting, patience in Atlanta is running thin. Atlanta's offense has the tools to be a top ten offense, but the defense and the rebounding hinge on Porzingis and on a Kongu and Jalen Johnson being able to stay on the

floor. Bench volatility is, especially with so many young players. Snyder has to find the right mix of people. It's not about potential anymore. There's no excuses for this roster. You got shooters, you got defenders and a coach who run real sets. If Trey buys in, atlanta could be a playoff team, but a playoff team that is hosting the first round In the playoffs. They could be a top four seed

Easy. If he doesn't, then the Hawks need to move Before the trade market gets cold on him. It's that simple. There's a world where trey young is the m? Is the story of the nba? An assist champ, a true leader, shutting down things in conflict in in arenas that are super volatile? He don't care, he like I'm here for the all smoke. Yeah, you, he's been an all-star and all that sort of thing. But man, remember when the players came out with like who's the best players and who's this and who's that, and how salty they were on trey young. Now, hawks, fans are you? Are you still running rolling with your boy? Are you still rolling with trey? Do you feel like he's misunderstood? Do you feel like now that they have this team around him, he'll understand better what he's supposed to be doing and he will just adhere to what the offense is and also give some effort on the defensive level? If you do believe this, hit us up at frontrunnerpc or at rea underscore fudge frpc. You know saying we got to make sure we get y'all in here and get y'all crack-a-lacking on the talks. Now we say the best for last. The orlando magic shout out to steve cerruti having a second baby. He's on paternity leave, on the ringer. That's what my dude. I hope that this brings him plenty of joy. And our guy, kevin clark, who is now with espn a formerly with the ringer. But yet we are talking to the orlando Magic fans let's go, let's go, let's call. It is what it is in

Orlando. Orlando whole rep last year was defensive energy and a prayer from the three-point line. It was ugly. The offense was nasty looking. There was no spacing whatsoever. Paulo bancaro, when he got to the lane, got to the paint, because you know how we talk about purposeful paint touches and how important they are. He was faced with three, four dudes in the lane because nobody was worried about their outside shooting

whatsoever. But then this happens. The guy, the aqua of our eye, frpc, is basically their our first draft pick, where we said we're gonna put a stamp on this, this is our dude. Desmond bain moves over from the memphis grizzlies, a killer shooter, walks in and instantly becomes the magic's number one gravity threat and you're gonna have all eyes on him like tupac. It's to be great. They also brought in veteran point guard Tyus Jones. No drama, all control, never the loudest, always the steadiest. That's our guy. And then rookie Jace Richardson. So they went to the legacy well again. So they had Jet Howard. Jet Howard is supposed to be the shooter that helped the offense open up. They said, well, this shit didn't work. You know what we're going to do. We're going to go to the well

again. Jace Richardson is the son of Jason Richardson, who played in Golden State and for a lot of other teams or whatever, but won a slam dunk contest. Jay Rich was a real dude and you use them in 2K. You know what I'm talking about, dude. And if you used him in 2K, you know what I'm talking about. This is when I used to play 2K. You know what I'm saying. That was a long time ago. Now his son plays in the league. That lets you know how old I am. He's a 6 foot 1 guard. He's a wild card. But the magic love his upside. We'll see how it all goes Now side. We'll see how it all goes

now. If you got Desmond Baines, somebody had to leave KCP. The experiment is over. That shit did not work last year. It did not. It did not work. Our guy looked slow. The shooting was never, ever good. They also got off of Cole Anthony, which I was like surprised they did that, but I understand when you see. They got Titus Jones. I understand surprised they did that, but I understand when you see they got Tyus Jones. I understand why they did that, and also Gary Harris, which was always rumored to go like for the last five years in Orlando. He is finally not there anymore, which is crazy. Here's the

real. The Magic were tired of having to grind out every single game. I'm sure they were. Jamal Mosley was probably sitting there with no hair. He had no hair to pull out. Inside the building, execs kept saying we can't ask paulo to play superman. Surround, surround him by non-shooters and by adding

bane. It wasn't just about the numbers, it was about flipping the magic's whole energy. Think of it like this as a statement we're done hoping. It's time to build homie, time to get after it. And you know how we're gonna build it. We're gonna get paulo our best player, a floor spacer, and not just any floor spacer, one of the better ones in the league, a relocator, quick shot, um, quick trigger on a shot, uh, three point accuracy, complete sniper. Now, defensively, if jalens is returned to health, top two rating best in the league. Keegan's score is low. It's going to be a problem. It's going to be a problem because they're still defensively minded, but they should show some signs of upgrading offensively, especially with

Bane. And if you get anything out of Jace Richardson or does Jet Howard look at jace richardson as a competitive situation and he comes around, he comes along. Now you got a couple shooters on the deck. Pretty good works out, love it. The last time to magic look this potent offense is probably when they had heedy turkalu and rachad lewis. Check it

out. Paulo's numbers 33.6 usage, 55.1 true shooting percentage star touches, but the efficiency needs to jump. But problem is those numbers are based on the lack of spacing that he's had. I think he's made more chicken salad out of chicken shit than anybody in the league. Personally and I'm just letting you know that college and staff says that paulo's vision is his secret sauce, not just a bull in the lane. He's threading passes that nobody else sees. I agree with all of that for sure. Also, you're gonna have to know where bane is, because if paulo's looking for france is a good uh signal caller when it comes out to you know getting the ball to the right spot. I think his gravity will help the orlando magic. And if you're telling me that jalen sucks is back, then you got two guys who are shooting the ball at a pretty high clip. So that really does open up the offense. I love

it. Franz is the guy you need if you're going anywhere in the East. 26.6 assist rate for a 6'10 wing is absolutely wild. It's wild. They got ball handlers galore. You don't need a traditional point guard. Jalen Suggs don't have to be my guy, ross Strickland, he don't have to even be Kenny Anderson. You know what I'm saying? I went old school on you like that. You can go ahead and look those names up. Ross Strickland was a dude, he was a

dude. Okay word is that Franz wants the smoke. Kamok staff says no more shot stuff. If you're open, let it fly. If he hits threes, this offense absolutely unlocks. He's got to hit them though. He's got to hit

them. But Franz, earlier last year, when Paulo Banqueiro was out with the oblique injury, then Franz actually got the oblique injury that. Then franz actually got an oblique injury. He was holding it down, he was doing his thing. He looked like a force of nature. It was like damn, we got two alphas in orlando, the happiest place on earth got two alphas. Crazy, crazy work. But the team absolutely fell apart. It wasn't when paulo went down, it wasn't when franz went down, it was when jalen sugs went down. Think about

that. Sugs is the guard that you trust in a street fight. Elite defender, high. He has decent usage, but that shot needs to improve. But it it was in a respectable state when he left last year and I hope that he regained that situation. I'm telling you right now his defense, his willingness to get over screens, his willingness to lock up whoever their best offensive player is on the other side, suggs is a

weapon. And if you're telling me we're going to have a full season of Jalen Suggs, paulo Ganquero, franz Wagner and also Desmond Bain, this is one of the favorites in the East. Orlando is one. You heard it here. First, let's be clear. Bane's shooting changes the map. The defense can't help. Off of him, makes everyone's job easier. And if you're telling me that everybody's job is easier, that means Carl Ogan Carroll's job is easier. And if his job is easier, guess what happens? We're going to see a lot of winning In Orlando. Okay, and then Tyus Jones Is going to come off the bench and just be steady. You know what I'm saying. Get everybody involved, do what he do. It's going to be

great. The one thing that you gain with Tyus Jones and lose with Cole Anthony Is you don't have the day to day volatility, and I love Cole Anthony. There was parts of Cole Anthony games that I really love. The problem is that there was some Just I don't know what you want to call it. There's just variance, like high rates of variance, and you just can't have that. You just can't. It's terrible

situation. I'm gonna say some real crazy stuff right now about Paulo Grancarlo's like build. As far as that's concerned, what I'm talking about is what he can end up being. So people buckle up. Could he be denver nuggets version of carmelo that gets buckets rebounds and he's an offensive death star for his franchise. That's the median level. The ceiling level is Jason Tatum, a two-way killer, top ten player in the league. Think about that. I don't think he'll ever hit a floor. I think it's either medium or ceiling. That's the choices on the docket for today. The comp matters. If Paulo's winning you playoff games, that's elite. He's already a better passer than most. If he locks in on D, it's a

wrap. I agree 100%. This is what Soraya said. I agree with Soraya. Thank you for that note, soraya. Awesome note. Every team wants a star to be tatum, but follow story is still being

written. I believe all that. I think that this kid's upside is absolutely just through the roof and I think if franz can be who he was when paulo gancaro was out and they can have that two-prong attack. I don't give shit what they have at center, I don't care. I think with desmond gang and my guy, jalen suggs, franz wagner and paulo van carroll, this team is poised to make major waves in the east, like when I say this, I am looking like at cleveland going oh, remember the water boy. And then the field goal kicker was looking across to the, the team that he was trying to kick it to for the, for the uh offside kick or whatever, and he said there's my bitch. That's what I'm trying to tell you like. Orlando has enough swag and enough dogs to get it done and again, jalen sucks as a combo guard and if the shooting gets near for gets near, like 38 percent on seven attempts from behind the arc, we are killing this

game. Orlando, to me, is one of the most intriguing teams and I can't wait to see them early in the season and see if they can pull this all together. But I'm gonna tell you right now dess and bane, the pickup and then the return to health to Suggs Boncaro and Franz Wagner are absolutely key. They can stay healthy and do their thing. Our guy, jamal Mosley, can finally win the coach of the year, which I've been pounding the table for for the last two years, because I was like how in the hell did he get this team, who was so damn damn young, to play such excellent defense? This dude deserves Coach of the year Credibility. He deserves coach of the year Notoriety. He deserves the damn trophy. So that's how I'm putting it

down. Alright, so this pod is over. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks to saraya, thanks to maya, thanks to all the others who are really helping us out. Again. We are man, china is killing it. Okay, germany said oh, not so fast, china don't't worry. Then England got involved. They was like wait, hold on. So Germany and China are killing it, downloading the podcast. No, no, no, no. We can't be third Across the pond, we need to be number one. So thank you to all Of the Countries overseas, thank you for buying in To what Front Runner Podcast Collective is, because it's a vibe, it's a mission, it's a statement, it's a

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