Playoff DNA: Who's Peaking When It Matters

what's up? Hoop world it's friday. It's your boy, vince, and it is world. It's friday, it's your boy, vince, and it is frpc, who's front runner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and today's show is filled with a bunch of playoff scenarios.

Playoff observations, because we are less than two weeks away from the playoffs. Observations, because we are less than two weeks away from the playoffs. We are seeing some incredible games. The west is still murky at this point. Every game means so much to every team in a loss here, a loss there, and you go from three, you go from the third seed to the seventh seed, all in one swoop. So we have a lot to get to today and we're going to go ahead and start real soon. But I want to start with this note that Soraya has to the audience. She says this week's episode is about the playoff DNA who's peaking, who is contending and which matchups would be. The would break the internet. So that is basically the tenor of today's show.

Uh, I want to get into the first part of it and you know what we start off with. We start off with the front running theory and today the front running theory is something that, um, maybe for a long period of time it's something that I thought. But I've been tracking the progression of this young man and what I want to tell you right now is I believe that austin reeves is no longer a role player, he's a certified star, and I'm going to try to prove this point with uh statistics and just observations that I've been able to see over the years. So let's start off with uh austin's last five games. Now.

In a loss to golden State he was at 31 points. You know he shot the ball well. He has been doing a lot of this. Now he had a worse. He had a really terrible result against the Houston Rockets, but length is going in, athleticism is going to give him an issue. He only had 12 points. He shot 45% from the field. That game Now, against Memphis, he scored 31 and he was absolutely clutch in that game.

He made big plays down the stretch, not just on offense but also on defense, and also in that Houston game, if I'm not mistaken, he made some critical like. He took a charge. He grabbed a good defensive rebound late in the game. So even when he doesn't score points, he is impacted, winning in a major way and it not might not necessarily like just jump out, leap out in the box score. The other thing is that when he plays chicago he had 30 on basically 60, field goal percentage 58.8. Uh, he did shoot it terribly from three, which is 33, which is not like him. But here's the thing that I want to tell you about 25.6 points per game on 66.4 true shooting over this stretch.

Reeves is shouldering primary offense in crunch time, with Luka deferring, as of right now, only 10 toner, 10 turnovers in his last five games, including no turnovers against the game that he just played against golden state, and we'll get into that game and what it means for playoff implications and people's legacies and all that sort of thing. I hope, I hope we don't know about these legacy situations yet. Man, we gotta get to the playoffs now. Let's look over the seasons about austin now. Last year, this year, all these numbers are like per 100, so keep this in mind as well. So this year he's at 28.1 points per gang per 100. Last year he was 23.5, so he's made a big jump and if you're not watching the lakers, every single single game and I understand why you know what Austin has done is found a way to be pretty useful to both stars.

When LeBron's on the court, he's the primary ball handler. When Luka's on the court, he's the primary cutter. He's the primary screener. So he has found himself to be very valuable and very critical to both Superstars and also what the Superstars like to do or want to do and what kind of actions they want to get in and what kind of actions they want to get in now. Also, the assists 8.3 this year per 100. Last year 8.1. So not a big difference. We'll get into some of all the other stuff in a second but in 2022, 2023 he was at 5.5 assists per 100. And in 2021-2022, he was at 3.7. So you can see the marked difference over the years.

Now the true shooting percentage has never gone under 60%. I want to say that again Austin Green's career his true shooting percentage has never been under 60 percent. Now he's increased his volume, he has season. His usage rate has gone up with his development and ball handling and what have you? And just the trust of the team. His usage rate in 2021-2022 was 12.4. Now, with Luka and LeBron on the court, austin Reeves has a usage percentage of 23.8. That is spectacular. So what are some of the reasons for this. So what are some of the reasons for this? He has increased his three-point attempts by almost two and a half a game 7.6 last year, 10.1 this year career high. The 25.4 assist rate, or assist percentage, is elite among combo guards, his uses of 23.8 while maintaining above 60 true shooting percentage, and his box plus minus, which is a positive 1.6. So he's emerging as a impact creator and not just a scorer.

Here are some of the things that we're seeing in him that's different from last year. Shot creation last year is pretty much secondary. Only this year he's had some primary flashes pick and roll, spot reads. This year full reads versus drop and blitz shooting gravity above average. This year, elite pull-up three-point threat passing vision. He was reactive 2023. From the take my watch, this year he seems to be proactive. Corner skips have emerged, so he's understanding the principles of the offense and where everybody is going to be on the chessboard. So that's what that's saying.

And then, as far as a defensive role, this is where he is as of today. Okay, um, now, because of what he is, he is the point of attack plus a helper. Now he's navigated ball screens better. This year he does get a hand up, he tries, he will never be a. I don't ever see austin ever being a uh, a net positive defender. I I just can't see it. But what I can't see is him just giving, being active in the passing lanes, allowing his basketball iq to take over, allowing him to recuse and then be able to get into passing lanes even better as he understands the offenses and the speed of the offenses as he continues to go on.

Now here's a comp that somebody gave me and I thought it was kind of. It was kind of cool. They said poor, a poor man, cj mccullum, with better court vision, better court mapping and a little bit taller. I like that Because if CJ McCollum was 6'5" man, what's up Now? Clutch production. I want to talk about this. Last two weeks Field goal percentage in the fourth quarter for austin reeds has been 63.8.

His three point percentages in the fourth quarter has been 58.6. That is absolutely ridiculous. This is a stone cold killer. So for all you people out there who want to give my guy a lot of heartache and whatever oh, he's slow, he's a product of the laker system, uh, he's only getting love because he's in the purple and gold, these numbers aren't lying to you. You can go to basketball reference or basketball index, just like I did, and be able to pull up these numbers. You can also go to synergy. Well, maybe some of you can, some of you can my my hoop sickos out there now. His usage in the last five minutes in closed games is 22.4, up from 17.9, and then again in the game against golden state he had 20 points. In the fourth quarter alone he had a plus seven swing in a solo stretch where he was just knocking down trade buckets, being in passing lanes and just being a just complete irritant to the golden state warriors in that, um, what I would call that faux comeback that the Lakers tried to pull last night.

Now Austin Reeves has shifted from high efficiency tertiary scorer to a viable second option with strong secondary playmaking abilities. His evolution resembles a Jalen Brunson-like arc, especially when handling the heavy touches, alongside a heliocentric star like Luka. If this growth holds true, through the postseason he will undeniably be completely underpaid. He is completely underpaid now. Let me just say that you know, when you talk to our scouts and you talk to the evaluators, that I do, and they say, hey, give me some notes on austin. These are some of the notes we get, but he's underpaid.

Now let me just put that now. Now I will tell you this what is he gonna? What is he gonna make in the next payday? Because some people were as throwing out numbers. I'm going to tell you right now do not be shocked if Austin Reeves is a person who is making $35 to $37 million on his next contract. Do not be shocked by that development whatsoever. Because let's look at some of these other things that's going down, with austin um just being so clutch for them. He's been absolutely nailed in the fourth quarter when luca himself has just um shown a lot of fatigue in these four quarters.

I think, personally, what you're seeing is a kind of changing of the guard, and the more and more that I see LeBron deferring to Austin Reeves as the primary ball handler when he's on the court, the more and more I'm starting to understand that jj reddick is saying, hey, that guy right there, we trust him with the ball, implicitly, implicitly. So if they're going to trust him with the wall and they're going see some nice foul baiting, we are going to see some. Just the floater the flow game is is tough. I like the flow game. I think sometimes his, his next level is that it's gonna sound almost demeaning to austin, but I don't mean this in a demeaning way. His next step in his development would be maybe, you know, getting stronger in the leg area, where sometimes he loses his lift on his floater and it's not as soft as it needs to be when it lands on the rim. So that would be the next thing in austin reeves development pathway that I would be able to see that allow that floater to be even more deadly than what it is right now, because there's some nice touch on it. It it just sometimes that dude looks super gassed because he's running around playing some defense not as athletic as probably the guy he's guarding and then all of a sudden you know he's breaking down the defense and getting into the paint.

So now the Lakers took it on the chin to the go state warriors last night and we need to break down some stuff and we're going to start with some of the tactical differences that happened in this game and we're going to give you kind of a glimpse of what we thought happened in this game. So the lakers shot 45 from the field. Go stay for shot 47. Now the big thing is that go stay shot a hell of a lot better from three, which was 19 to 42, but as far as the actual makes, the Lakers only miss or only made one less than the Warriors. So where was the difference at?

Well, first of all, the difference was in the bench scoring and also in who was doing the damage, because the Luca Reeves initiation looking hunting mismatches, that's what was going on pick and roll defense versus Steph Curry. They punished him all game in transition. Lebron was looking to leak out and get either great positioning or just a dunk or a layup. Their bench you know, you're looking at DFS Vincent Hayes played very, very sparingly Even though he started. He was kind of like a bench guy. Now the Warriors they played so well. Curry had a curry game but brandon posimski played out of his mind, scored 28 points. He was ridiculous the whole game.

Now there, the lakers switch head heavy lineup was vulnerable with Luka on the court. I will say this Now the Warriors defense was vulnerable against LeBron in that switch heavy, because they do a lot of switch heavy thing. Kaminga and Curry had early pushes. He was getting to the foul line. Kaminga was very aggressive getting to the foul line. He was comingo was very aggressive, getting going to the bucket, but he usually ended up with luca or austin reeves on him, so he was attacking those guys as soon as he could possibly do that, which is good recognition on jonathan cominga's part.

He's coming off the bench. He's going to be critical if they're going to do anything in these playoffs. It's all hands on deck for the Warriors, just like it is for the Lakers. If the Lakers get a poor shooting performance from one of their others or one of their bench guys, the Lakers are not going to be successful in the playoffs. Jj Redick has said this this they have to win in the margins. I believe that I had this team as a play-in team at the start of the year and they had proved me wrong. Now, yes, the acquisition of luca helps that situation, no doubt, but at the end of the day, this team has overachieved because they have won in the margins and they will have to continue to win in the margins to be successful in the playoffs.

That means Jackson Hayes can't have stupid fouls. That means that Jackson Hayes needs to be aggressive, rolling to the rim. That means that in the dunker spot he needs to be active, but also understand like, don't clog the lane for Luka and LeBron, but he needs to be impactful on the boards, whether boxing out and letting luca and lebron get the boys, because he's not a really big rebound person, um, and he needs to be really active with his length on the wings and in passing lanes. You know we can't have games from Rui Hachimura where you're out there floating and we'll get to Luka, no questions asked there, because his defensive lapses last night were. I mean, they were stark, you could see, it was evident. The blow-bys were often. He looked like a turnstile out there and this is going to be the problem with Luka. You know we have not Luka-proofed this team yet.

As far as, like, acquisition of players, it's going to take some time. Keep in mind. They tried to get Mark Williams. That trade had to be rescinded Because they did not like the physical. And now we're here. So margins, winning in the margins. They're definitely going to have to do that. It is a must for this team and it's also a must for the Golden State Warriors Because, let's be honest, the Warriors rolled out a team that didn't have anybody who was taller than 6'8 last night.

Now steph curry is one of the greatest shooters in the whole wide world. Jimmy butler is one of the best foul merchants on the planet and draymond Green as kind of a de facto pseudo point forward or point power forward. His ability to be able to see over the defense, his ability to make passes with a ton of attentionality and to get people open with those passes are extremely valuable, and he did it to a absolute t last night. And all the while jaymond green sitting there just talking about how he's the defensive player of the year, knowing damn well that crown belongs to victorimbayama and the only reason you will have a shot at winning it Is because Victor Doesn't have the necessary games to win. Defensive player of the year. Get well, big fella, we are thinking of you. Our prayers are with you. Victor Wimbayama Going through the deep vein thrombosis situation I'm sure we got the best doctors and everything on that, but I want to send my prayers and well wishes to victor wing by yama going through it.

Now we need to talk about the houston rockets because, even though they lost the lakers the other night, this team is still second Second in the West and we are going to go into our Around the Arc series, the Western Conference, where we bounce around and talk about teams and we come off the dome piece and give you our thoughts. So I said Houstonston. But we always start. We always start in the middle of the country, right. We start in the plains of oklahoma and we check in on the number one seed in the west, the best net rating historically of all time, your oklahoma city thunder. They're 64 and 12 in the west. It's not just elite, it's legitimately historically elite elite, um 13.26 adjusted net rating.

Shea gilgis, alexander is a 11.5 box plus minus. It just rarefied mvp air that he is breathing right now. Every game is a ho-hum 36, every game. Every game is I got 30. You imagine, you know, just put yourself in Shea's shoes. But also, just kind of, you know, lessen the age a little bit. You imagine Shea coming home from high school. Hey, sweetheart, how'd you do today? Mom asked him hey, how'd you do? He's out here. I put up 36 on the greatest players in all the world. Just real, relaxed, real, just national about the whole situation. Shea gillis is, alexander is, uh, right now. I think if I had to make a vote right now he would be my mvp.

And on that note, people get ready, because next friday. We are going to hit you with another feel good friday. But what we are going to do is we are going to bestow frontrunner podcast collective second annual NBA Awards. It's awards season, so everybody lock in, hit us up on X at FrontrunnerPC. Also, hit up my producer at Rhea. Underscore Funch, f-r-p-c. Be heard, be counted. You put on, put in my dome piece. Hey, did you think about this person for a defensive player of the year? What about all nba? Who's your mvp? Who's the most improved player of the year? Vince, you can get in my mentions, you can get in there and and and basically just prove your case about your guy. Now, you know I watch ball, so I will have questions, but you know I'm saying positive vibes, for your dude never hurts anyone. So next friday we will be giving out awards. I can't wait, serea, can't wait. We look forward to it.

Now back to okc. Here's the thing that I find the most terrifying about okc. It's not about their youth, it's not the multiple first round draft picks that they still have, and they have the ability to be flexible and be able to bring whoever they want in. The thing that absolutely frightens me about the OKC Thunder is that all season this podcast is questioned Whether they have a number two or not. Now we crown a big three In OKC. Last season I thought Chet was legit, I thought J-Dub was legit. I still think those things. I still think the trajectory is just going up and up and up, but I still have questions whether they can handle a playoff role, a playoff role, production-wise, in the playoffs, because they are so young and those questions still are in the back of my head.

But at this point the thunder are doing things that are absolutely just unheard of, and not just because of the fact of the, just a historical net rating. It's at the age that they're doing it at. It's the complete buy in when you watch them how all of them Play on a string Defensively. It is just the, it seems. It seems egoless, their offense. A lot of people eat, a lot of people touch the ball. Credit to Mark Dagnall, credit to Sam Presti and looks like credit to the runaway leader in the clubhouse for the MVP, shea Gilgis Alexanderander. A credit to him as well.

All right, so we need to go down to houston. Shout out to our guy, nico miatello, um, by the way, so um, you know, we ain't heard from him in a while. He needs some. You know he needs some good thoughts going and, hey, there's no better thought than the Houston Rockets are now a playoff team and they are currently number two in the west with 50 wins. They have a plus 5.27 net rating. Even adoka has them playing nasty. This team is imposing their will onto others. They are taking lunches for people. It is ridiculous. I am excited to watch them play. They turn every game into just a fist fight. Not like detroit. They keep it. You know basketball wise.

Now here's the one thing I will say. There's been a lot of um conjecture, there's been a lot of conversation about what kind of offense or what's going to be the most effective offense in the playoffs for the Houston Rockets, and I'm here to tell you. I understand that people Are still waiting on Jalen Green and I understand people who are very, very excited and you should be About Amen Thompson. But Alperin Shingun Is the axis of this team. His passing is surgical, his rebounding is so much better and the lineups with he, with uh shangoon and stephen adams go look at their, their net rating.

Now they haven't played a ton of minutes together. I think it's literally about 120 minutes to 150 minutes, if I'm not mistaken, but I think they outscored the opponent when they're on the court by 108. So that's just to tell you that houston likes to beat people up, and and it's great, it's great. Listen, if you can't shoot the ball, we are not going to allow you to shoot the ball. We can't shoot it, you can't shoot it. So I like that. Also, let's give a shout out to Amon Thompson and also Houston's development staff. Thompson uh, his, and also Houston's development staff uh, he has. He's become a real deal tempo controller and they're peaking at the right damn time right now. So I am looking forward to the havoc that the Houston Rockets are going to cause in the playoffs as we move along and get closer to it.

They're first in offensive boards. They're third in defense. They don't shoot the lights out, but they grind every possession I saw against the lakers. It was ridiculous. They just they. They took the lakers down into the mud and the lakers barely survived. They're long. They continue to come at you at waves with length and athleticism. They're just an absolute bear to deal with. All right.

With that being said, who else do we need to talk about? We talked about. You know who. You know who we need to talk about. We talked about you know who. You know who we need to talk about. Now we gotta talk about our favorite team in the whole wide world and the greatest player on the face of the planet right now.

Who is that? That is your den Denver Nuggets. Damn it, the Denver Nuggets. Are they going through it? The defense is struggling. Jokic is putting up 62 point or 61 point triple doubles and still losing to Anthony Edwards. That had to suck. I mean Russell Westbrook should have been put in a Denver police department for the last 10 seconds of that Minnesota Timberwolves game.

I know Russ plays hard, I know he gives maximum effort the whole time, but we have never called russ a heady player. We have never called him that at all. So I think at this point I don't know if russ is really about that playoff roster, uh, rotation life. He might be right outside that rotation, right outside. So I mean, um, this is one of those deals where you just kind of look and you just hope that they can find a way to pull it together.

It's going to be on the strength of jamal murray. Aaron gordon is going to have to shoot the ball from deep very well in this game, in these playoffs. Michael Porter Jr can't have these two, three games where he's nowhere to be found. It is all hands on deck for the Nuggets. So that's kind of my spill on the Nuggets. The Lakers are easy is looking at a place, some defense, because that's gonna be the problem if. If we're gonna have blow-bys and we're gonna have just people get into wherever they want on the court. On luca, they just don't have the other horses to be able to legitimately help him as much as he will need that help, and then be able to get back to their own assignments. So luca is going to have to show a little more resistance, kind of hold up for a little bit longer, maybe, to be able to help his team out.

Now we need to talk about the grizzlies. We got a big thing on the grizzlies a little bit later. They did win against miami last night. Job was incredible. Uh, we need to get into what happened, though, and what the NBA is saying. But uh, yeah, there is that the clip. Oh, the the timber.

No, no, no, no. Who is next? Who is next on our agenda? The Warriors? Uh, steph is bending gravity per usual, but now the young guys are playing like they're they had. Now the young guys are playing like they've had lunch with Jimmy Weller, you know, saying like they just feel more aggressive and Jimmy is getting foul shots. He's doing what he's supposed to do. Is getting foul shots, he's doing what he's supposed to do.

So raya said this in a note. She says that jimmy is a force multiplier. Um, she says that his ability to handle the ball, be able to bend the defense and allow steph to be able to continue to do his thing, while he's able to do some second side initiation and be able to look for the open man and throw cross court passes to like people in the corners for his open three those things have been so useful to the uh, golden state warriors, golden State Warriors. Now the Grizzlies we talked about them a little bit. Let's talk about I just want to make sure I got everybody all right.

The Clippers are next. So Clippers Kawhi is playing great night. He looks really good. Norman Powell this year again. I want to just say this one more time it is so unusual for a player who's been in the league for as long as Norman Powell has been in the league. He comes out of UCLA he bounced around, goes to Toronto, becomes a champion on a Toronto team with Kawhi Leonard. He is really good in Toronto as like a sixth man. He's always consistent, 13, 14 points a game. All of these things you can never. He can never fail. But Paul George leaves in the offseason because the Clippers and Paul George cannot reconcile on a deal. They trade on the Philadelphia andadelphia and the first words out of norman powell's mouth was addiction by subtraction.

And then he came back on around on those comments, but basically what he was saying is more opportunities for him. And boy did that dude believe in himself, bet on himself. So force up to our guy norman powell. You know what we're talking about. Ucla legends still cold, still doing his thing. We see you out there shooting that thing. Boy norman powell, shout out to you my guy.

All right, I think now we're going to get into a couple other like little news and notes about these teams. The rockets and their net rating for like the last couple weeks, 3.1, positive net rating. The warriors are positive 2.7, peaking at the right time. Suns negative, 2.9. We'll talk about kevin durant later. Got more information on him. The sacramento kings are also going in the wrong direction negative 2.2. Kings are also going in the wrong direction Negative 2.2. On their net rating and the Pelicans have shut down.

Zion Feels like Zion. Netflix doc is waiting to happen At this present time. I cannot wait for that. What you know? What would they call it? Something, something Glust, what Danger on the Glust, what Danger on the bayou, or something. There's going to be something.

Now this is a note from Saraya. She says Chaos Is the brand right now. Every game from here Is out Seeding Roulette, enjoy it. So she is the brand right now. Every, every game from here is out seeding roulette, enjoy it. So she has this thing that she wanted us to do and wanted us to talk about. So she's very excited about this segment. I'm excited for her. So let's get into it. So the standings are cute, but we're not talking about what we likely will get. We're talking about what we want, what the basketball gods should give us for our loyalty to them this year. Doing pods, making sure that all the people's happy.

If you're joining front Runner Podcast Collective For the first time, welcome to the podcast. We do this twice a week, tuesday and Fridays. Feel good Friday today. Hope your Friday is feeling good. Mine is feeling excellent. I watched games. It was great. Put notes up. Everybody talks about it, bam. Now this is what we think we should get For the playoffs.

So Rockets versus Warriors and you will say, well, vince, why do you want that man? Old soul versus new school draymond trying to body jabari smith jr amin thompson versus steph off ball movement are you kidding me? And dylan brooks just starting fights with? This is pure playoff mischief. Shingun posting up Looney nine straight times, steve Kerr pulling out lineups from 2018. And no one's blinking. This is the hookers hipster series for sure. Rockets versus the Warriors has entertainment written all over it. It just absolutely I can. I would love this and here's the best part about it. If you got Rockets and Golden State, tiktok and Twitter would be ablaze. Could you imagine those fan bases on those two apps and how it will go down? It will be nothing but entertainment. There will be saltiness, for sure, but I would love to see it now.

The next series that we would love to see in the western conference oh, this is an old-fashioned grudge match. We love this. I would love to see the okc thunder against the clippers now. People would sit here and say, well, vince. You don't like okc. If you want them to play the clippers, hold on. You are looking at this way the wrong way. I'm looking at this storyline wise. I'm looking at this for the content wise. Okay, let me.

Let's keep with a buck sga versus the team that traded him, harton versus a switchy army of six foot six defenders and chet trying to stay vertical while Kawhi mid-ranges him into another dimension. Oh, by the way, harden x Oklahoma City Thunder trying to fight the good fight against the Thunder. You know Kawhi all those years in San Antonio. Sure, he played the Thunder a lot, got some good battles with them and this game has all the legacy vibes. If OKC wins, it's like a full circle moment. If the Clippers win, it's one of the. It's their one last gap before Capapocalypse, which they've avoided. That because they have just given in. They've given in. They said, nay, we will not go into the night, so so silently. Oh my god.

Serea said this in the in the chat. She says front office nerdery. Is this one? It's a chef kiss presti versus balmer money ball. Sign me up. That's what I'm talking about, serea. Way to support, way to support the podcast, way to chime, in way to continue to bring it. I caught it. Caught it, pat mcafee. You ain't the only one dog. I caught mine too. All right, next one up.

This is a personal favorite of mine because I am a laker fan, but I want to look at this as an analyst wolves versus lakers. Why do I want this? Are you kidding me? Luka vs Ant, trash Talk vs Trash Talk, that's all I'm saying. Who takes the? Who takes the crown? Or did Anthony Edwards just snatch the trash talking crown from Luka? Or did Anthony Edwards just snatch the trash talking crown from Luca? Lebron trying to dunk on the Stifle Tower Sounds great. Also, trying to navigate, jaden McDaniels and his pterodactyl arms Sounds awesome, awesome.

I personally want this, because this is definitely one of those where you are going to see just high level efficiency from Luka. He is going to try to absolutely obliterate Rudy Gobert and he's going to pull him out onto uh switches and then he's going to put that man on an island and drop threes on that man's face. But anthony edwards is going to dunk on every laker because they have no rim protection whatsoever. So that's why I like the series. I want to see chaos. I want to see nothing but chaos. Damn it all right now.

Grizzlies and nuggets. To me this seems fair. Two teams who have been maligned all year. Now I know you know they have winning records and stuff, but this is kind of not how people wanted to see everything go right. This ain't the way you wanted to see it go. Denver's uh bench issues all year. Grizzlies we talked about in last podcast.

John morant, jaron jackson jr and desmond bain have played a now a total of 33 out of 75 games together. That sounds not like a lot, but these two teams, if you think about it, you got Jokic as a three-time MVP, you got Darren Jackson Jr, who has really upped his game this year, who's really played so well, and just how Jokic would put that dude in foul trouble in five seconds. Jaron Jackson Jr still foul a lot, bro. I know y'all was trying to pump him up as defensive player of the year, but he still foul a lot. I wonder what kind of sleep Jaron Jackson Jr would have if he was playing Nicola Jokic for a seven game series. My man gonna be. They might to give him a sleep aid to allow him.

Now the bench for the nuggets nasty work, not great. The production's low, uh, and memphis seems to find guys just laying, just laying on bill street. You know, just oh, you want to play some basketball. You got six foot four, right, okay, yeah, come on, play some basketball for us. And then that dude scores like 22 points and you're like what the hell's going on? Here's the thing. It's such a uh, a contrast of styles, and this is the note that serea gave me. She's like these two teams are best in transition teams when healthy. It's a 94 feet of chaos and mid-range warfare. I like it. I love it.

I know that yokish will want to slow them down now, as we continue to look at these standings and we blink our eyes and then they change and we refresh our twitter screen or we refresh our whatever screen you look at for the NBA standings. The Western Conference is just an evolving nebulous thing and really, until the music stops on the last day, I don't even worry about the seedings until we are there. Do we think the Lakers should want to be in the uh host a first round game? Yeah, absolutely, but they got a tough, they got a tough rope. You know, you know. I'm saying this is not gonna be easy. They playing tough teams. They got oklahoma city twice. They got houston in this, this. They just lost a golden state. So it's it's a wreck for everybody. Some teams have kind of a little bit better schedules than others. It is what it is. What are you gonna do? All right, all right, couple other things that we want to talk about. This is what we want to talk about with the uh playoff dna.

Now, as you start to look at these teams and you start looking at the rotations, keep a close mind and keep close lookout for crunch time lineups. How are they coming out of lineups like starting second quarters, third quarters, things of that nature. See who is defending who. Team identity is greater than seating. Every postseason. People chase the bracket, but the ones who last, they know who they are. You know what? 100, true, you can be a three seed with no backbone or six seed with scars and a system. The difference is whether you're built to adopt, to adapt, or be built to hope. And now the west is full of teams.

What, basically, looking at their own reflections and looking at some of these games in the early season, going like man, I love to have a couple of those games back. We say every year there's a couple games, in december. There's a couple games In December, there's a couple games in January that you go and I wish I could have those games back. But the NBA is well, no regrets, all gas, no breaks. So let's get to it. Let's talk about it the Thunder Draft built. Let's talk about it. The thunder draft built.

Two-way execution, best adjusted net rating in the league. Their, their games feel like masters classes of impatience. They executed their division so succinctly. Sam presti, you know, got a real blue chipper in sga and he just continued to just stack draft picks. He took on bad salaries and he finally got the right mix he was looking for. And then I really loved his patience last year because it was apparent that they were light last year. He said during the season we will reevaluate after the playoffs and then make our moves. They did. They went out and got Isaiah Hardenstein. They went out and got Alex Caruso. They made these adjustments and here they are they're 64 and 12 and again, historically, the best net rating we have ever seen in the nba.

The rockets are a rebounding defensive tempo control. Do not rely on shooting variance, just physicality and floor balance. That's the playoff formula for them. They're gonna have to be in rock fights. They don't have the offensive personnel to deal with anybody during crunch time. So what they're hoping is that during crunch time. So what they're hoping is that our dudes are super long and super athletic and you're gonna have a real difficult situation scoring on us as well.

The nuggets are. The Nuggets are basically a situation where they seem to be allergic to defense. Right now they have a thinning bench but Jokic is covering up. Basically, you know what this reminds me of this ring? Jokic reminds me of Cam Newton at Auburn. For my college football fans out there, cam Newton, when he was at the University of Auburn, he was Superman. I mean, he did everything for them. That team was not as talented as some of the other SEC teams. It definitely wasn't as talented as probably that Oregon team that it beat as far as that's concerned. But cam newton was that damn special and nicola yokich is that damn good. He is the best player on the planet for a reason. I know that we say that we slightly give the nod to sga for the mv MVP, but we're talking about two different things. Who the best player in the world is Jokic? Who the MVP is this year? Probably SGA. I got to run my numbers and run my model and we will have that for you next Friday. Next feel good Friday. You will have that.

Now let's talk about the Clippers for a second. They are a veteran latent team system feels still. The system still feels like it's put together with duct tape because we are always on Kawhi injury alert. Harden keeps the offense organized and then Kawhi hits shots. And also Norman Powell has been absolutely amazing. Basically, we know the deal and Clipper fans, go ahead and close your ears. You've heard this too much. Go ahead, put the earmuffs on. If Kawhi stays healthy, the the clipper run will be long in the playoffs. If he doesn't stay healthy, this team doesn't have a shot. Pretty much it all right. So the suns right now. Uh, kd's hurt ankle injury. We don't know how long he's gonna be.

Devin booker is basically reminding me of like those dudes that were playing like instruments on the titanic. You know, just just playing music as people are just trying to get into lifeboats and you know they've been hit by an iceberg. Our guy d book. I'm gonna tell you this right now. I know everybody. We talked about it in previous podcasts, but there are the rumors and the whiskers are getting louder about whether Devin Booker will be a Phoenix Sun come next year. I've heard the rhetoric by Matt Ishbia, the Sun's governor. We've even heard from Devin Booker who has said that it's important for him to be with one team, kind of like his uh guy kobe bryant. But man, if it continues to continue to go sideways, what is this man supposed to do at 28 years of age in in the prime of his career? Wait for you to build it up in three years or whatever. No, I don't think so, and we shall see. I don't think so and we shall see.

The Kings are. They're a mess. Sabonis is still A DHO spam. No defensive identity, inconsistent shot diet. They're a playing team Wearing last year's clothes, basically Like to game for that Pretty much. I mean Zach Levine and DeMar DeRozan.

So y'all just created like Chicago West. That was your plan. How in the hell? Two, three years ago y'all had Tyrese Halliburton and De'Aaron Fox and now y'all got Zach Levine and DeMar DeRozan. No shade to those guys, but longer in the tooth, not as talented the other guy. Well, yeah, the other guys still haven't reached their zenith on their talent. So I don't even know where we are with that one.

This is bad, bad roster construction, and I understand that it was under desperate means and and what have you? What damn can we just do better in sacramento for those fans? So ray says sacramento, sacramento needs a stylist and a wing defender, but mostly a stylus. You don't like the, you don't. You don't like the, like the beam people. That's kind of cold, so rare. Oh uh, okay, let's ship um mavericks, mavericks, whew. Okay. So AD is back. Right, kyrie, knee injury, we'll see, we'll see. They're the Tennessee. Can they hold on? Can they hold on? Can AD and his band of seven-footers, them dudes, is playing like a ton of seven-ers, because that's all they have. So playmaking, uh, jayden hardy and naji marshall a little bit, and spencer denouity, and we'll see. Right, that's pretty much how it's gonna go.

Then you got the pelicans, who shut everybody down. Known the man, cj mccullough, zion williamson, trey, murphy the third, I think they shut down um the saints, uh, pre-season practices, I think they shut down lsu screen game. I think they shut down everybody. Pelicans just shut down everybody and they're just, they're awaiting the result of their tank. And then Utah is getting so cold with their tank. I mean they haven't been Washington cold, but they've been cold with their tank. Danny Age is somewhere pulling levers like a bond villain. That war chest is real, that's for sure. Spurs they shut everybody down so they are in full tank mode.

Uh, obviously, with wimby being out, dearon fox is having uh surgery for a tendon in his finger, so they're going pretty much uh g league and a couple guys you know. And then the grizzlies are looking at their new coach, tumas isolo, and looking at him going man, um, this is real tough playing basketball in the NBA. You got any ideas that are better than Taylor Jenkins? And Tumas is saying we need to practice and Jai is saying, bump, that I need to go play some whoop that trick out in my ride. Okay, we ain't practicing. Your boy is tired, it's been a long season. They won't let me shoot my guns. We'll get to that in a second. We'll get that in a second. So they are hanging in there.

They won last night against Miami. Obviously, ja had an incredible game, but also got in trouble and again, like I said, we will talk about it. We will talk about it, all right, so we need to. Now. There's a couple other things that we need to get to. Is this it? Where's the jaw stuff? Okay, okay, we're getting to the job stuff.

Now, I knew it was coming, so I just want looking at my thing. All right, um, we're going to give out some west only awards right now, so let's hit it this. We call this some april superlatives most dangerous team. No one wants to face. Who do you think that would be? There's only one right answer to this the OKC Thunder. Nobody wants to see OKC in the West.

I love these questions that Soraya set up the team that could go out in five and deserves it. Oh well, if they make it, it'll be phoenix. Phoenix would be my choice. My next choice will be the memphis grizzlies. No shade towards the memphis fans. This is strictly towards your team, strictly towards your team. All right, uh, my player build of the year. Oh yeah, amen thompson for show. Uh, bench pace, secondary creation.

He is the best athlete in the in the nba. I want to put that out there right now. This dude is the best athlete in the NBA. He does stuff that I've never seen before. He floats in the air, makes decisions. You're not supposed to jump in the air and then make a decision. You're supposed to have made that decision before you leave your feet and then do what you do. That's not what he does. Basically, he's like playing with a downloaded Dwayne Wade With just a ridiculous Finishing package. Amon Thompson obviously is one of the reasons why we do film studies, because he's ridiculous. He does stuff that you just sit there and you just go. What the reasons why we do film studies? Because he's ridiculous. He does stuff that you just sit there and you just go.

What the hell is going on with this Most watchable ugly team in the West? Oh yeah, that goes to the Portland Trailblazers. Shots out to the Trailblazers. Rip City. What's up? School henderson, our school henderson theory is alive and well. He is starting to thrive. There are, there's the signs of life in portland. I'm so excited. And shayden sharp is that dude. I love Shaden Sharp. He dunks on everybody and he got a nice stroke. Love that dude. And here's where I land in the playoffs.

Only two things really matter Gravity and trust. Gravity means you can bend the floor without the ball. Trust you can trust your role. Players stay confident under pressure. The rockets have to do both. So do the thunder. That's why they scare me. The nuggets have nicola yokich but and jamal murray and and some vets that have been through it. But that bench scares me as well. So who do I, who do I trust? I still gotta trust OKC so far. I like the Lakers, I like the super computers they have with Luka and LeBron, but they turn the ball over and their defense sometimes it just kind of it lacks. Basically, just the little spinny wheel shows up and it's just sitting there now. Uh, we got a couple more things to get to.

Um, I wanted to talk about our off the bounce segment and this is where we're going to kind of just stick in some stats and some things to for you to kind of watch as you go down the rest of the rest of the nba season. Uh, jaron jackson jr. Did anybody see what this dude did the other night? Five fouls, five turnovers, two blocks. Jaron jackson jr is the human embodiment of my group project doing something. You know I'm saying just what are we doing right here solid shooting from three, three or five, whatever. But the decision making was terrible. Stop asking him to be the hub, stop asking him. Just ask him to be your second best scorer or your third best scorer, and let's keep it moving.

Dezen Bane Brick by brick construction company 6 of 23. And 1 of nine From three. Oh, by the way, zero free throw attempts. That is not a slump, that's a conservation Efficiency nosedive For the efficiency champ In Desert Bay. You know what I'm saying. For the efficiency champ in desert bay, you know saying oh, no shot, diet changes. So far, no shot, result changes. Basically, soraya said this is when your my career build is shot creator, but your badge progression is still at 12. That's bad. That's bad in 2k series. Let's give some love to scotty pippen jr. 17 points, seven assists, two rebounds on six and nine shooting most efficient than his dad in the chicago huddle you know what I'm talking about when he didn't want to come into play.

Elite backup profile. This dude is Tyus Jones. I told you that, I told y'all, and even our anonymous talent evaluator said that he looks like Tyus Jones a lot too, with more hops, not hopes Hops. Zach Eady is super tall, he's so tall, he looks so big. 8 points, 13 rebounds, 2 blocks, 3 of 3 shooting. Played 27 minutes and I'm not sure he moved laterally once. Does he need the ball? Nope, doesn't foul, doesn't blink, doesn't show emotion. I think he's a cyborg. I'm not sure we're. We got our top scientists on this. Right now, frpc is sending people out. It's kind of like our version of the. It's our version of the cdc. Right, it's the nba's version of the cdc. We're gonna have our top guys on it. We think he's a cyborg. We will have further information in the pod next week.

That dude looks like an ogre, but he be getting it done. He be getting it done. Yo, let's give some love to Kalel Ware. We shot him out a couple months ago from Miamiami. He, he put up this deadline, which was crazy 13, 15, three steals, three blocks, zero turnovers. What we doing, how you doing, how you doing. That's your modern five prototype, ladies and gentlemen. And let's let me tell you this man, rebounding floor station, zero mistakes. What we doing right here, this dude, like I am me, I am him. Oh, by the way, denny abdia is dream, my dream, without a podcast 26 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks. That's an RPG boss fight stat line, if I haven't heard one.

And while he did it, while running point for a team with no adults on the squad whatsoever, denny Avdia was in purgatory in washington. He comes to portland. They give him the ball. He's starting to handle it. Do all the things and you're starting to see magic. You're starting to see the stuff that we thought that we were going to see when he came out of israel. And now my man is doing it denny abdia.

Shout out to denny doing his thing on ball decision making, plus two-way versatility. Sign me up pascal with screen assist, jay ma with good posture, basically, and he, he's not a mouth breather either. You know I'm saying so. Shots out to denny for not being a mouth breather. Shots out for to denny for not, um, kicking people in the groin or stomping people in the groin. You know what I'm saying. All right, couple of things.

Tyler hero dropped 35 points, but the tran, the transition d, said well, we will, we'll get back eventually. Bam is defending, like the only adult in a daycare, fast break points allowed 21. That's not heat culture, that's heat. What is that? What would that be? Apathetic, he, apathetic. Well, it's been a long year for them. And last but not least, when you win A game and this is the only time I will even talk about this, but when you win a game, and this is the only time I will even talk about this but when you win a game and you have 25 turnovers, you either have future stars or the other team. Just you know they just want to go out for grunge. And that's what happened To the Portland Trailblazers, who won a game Turning the ball over over 25 times.

Sharp and the Adia were absolutely elite in that game. The rest of the team felt like a bunch of interns. I mean, it's terrible, is terrible, but this is the mark. This is what, like last couple of weeks, uh, basketball looks like for the teams that like the at the far end of the basketball where we're not paying a lot of attention. But it caught my eye, I saw it. I watched that game. It hurt my feelings watching that game. It hurt my damn feelings watching that. The blazers turnover chart looked like a horror movie heartbeat monitor. That's from saraya, she put that in. I love that.

All right, we need to get to this last story before we cut up out here and send you on to your feel-good friday. But what I wanted to do in the baseline buzz is I wanted to get off some thoughts on some things. Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves is scoring on and off the court. Let me get into this. Anthony Edwards is him on the court, no question, but off the court. That man is putting up different kind of stat line and it's messy.

The internet has been full, full meltdown mode over ants baby mama drama. It's not just casual gospel gossip, it's legal web involving paternity suits, jurisdiction battles and now a judge ruling that puts a spotlight squarely on the timberwolves star for the wrong reasons. So here's quick. Here's a quick breakdown. S23 uh, aisha howard is 38. They have a four-month-old daughter together and howard initially filed paternity suit in california. Edwards clapped back no visitation, no custody and filed to get the case heard in georgia. Arguing, howard moved to los ang Angeles for a bigger child support payout. This week in California, judge agreed, said the state lacks jurisdiction. That's not all. This is reportedly Ant's fourth child with his fourth woman since 2023.

Four different baby mamas and when text messages surface, alleged allegedly from him, telling howard to get an abortion, brah. That's when the internet fully lost it. One viral post summed it up anthony edwards is self-aware, is a self-aware deadbeat, and his baby mamas are using kids as a get rich scheme. Another, imagine being that baby growing up knowing your famous dad fought not to see you. The internet and twitter can be harsh, not saying there's no truths in those situations. I'm not gonna say that. But, um, not a good look, not a good look, listen, and not being asked to be out here to be the face of the league tomorrow.

But how you carry yourself on and off the court does matter. We just saw a whole situation with lebron james on the pat mcafee con uh show talking about how he understood the assignment. He's gonna leave 22 years and you have seen very, very little salacious controversy when it comes to LeBron James name. The most messy thing he got going on is the Stephen A Smith stuff. You know, hey, what are you going to say now? Here's the deal. When it comes to him, to Anthony Edwards, how you carry yourself off the court, how you carry yourself on the court, especially as your stardom rises, especially as your starting stardom rises, jaw got dragged for similar reasons. Sponsor care, fans care and the league definitely cares.

Aunt, aunt, you got the charisma, you got the game. You got the just, that ability to make our mouths just open wide when you do stuff. You got the my skills. I even defend you here. I I tell people, let aunt be aunt with those extracurricular activities. Hey, bro, I'm not telling you. You're not young and you can't do your thing. I'm just telling you, bro, four kids with four different women, dude, and you 23. Come on, player, my man out here, like big pun. He like I'm not a player, I just crush a lot. You know what I'm saying? He out here, not great, though. Not great especially about like fighting not to see your kid. That that's not gonna be a good look. That's gonna come back to bite you, my dog, just as a fyi. It's the kind of baggage that can haunt a player's rep, no matter how many poster he, how many posters he makes out of people.

Now this also goes along with the john morant situation. And here it is. John morant was fined seventy five thousand dollars. Why? Why, you ask? Well, john has a new little celebration that he likes to do and he's been doing it for a little while, because I caught it during the laker game and basically he's been kind of like shotgun in his arm if he hits a three, like pulling the little pump action back and shooting the three at the opposing bench, and I was now I understand, I'll say I'll say this again. I said it last, I think it was last week.

You can criticize lebron james for some things. You might think he's corny, you might think that you know the, the swag or the personality might not be as authentic as you want it to be. But the one thing you cannot say oh, that guy didn't get all he could out of his talent because he did not allow distractions to set in. And if you're telling me, keeping it real means I gotta have four baby mamas and I gotta, you know, shoot guns and stuff like that. Bro, I'm gonna tell you right now, you made too much money to be living this street life. The street life is gone, bro, you a ceo of you, a CEO of yourself, when you get into Nine figure Salary situations, when you talking about annual salaries and you talking about nine figures, my G, all this like yo, yo, I got to keep it real, son, I got to. You know I got to keep it. I got to keep with hood, with my people and all of that. Hey, man, you're gonna miss me with all that.

Okay, and this is a kid coming from crenshaw, south of adams. You know I'm talking about south of jefferson. You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. You know round 60th. You know round 60th, you know. I know about lemur park. I know about baldwin hills mall. You know what I'm saying. I know about center going on a saturday morning looking at the females. I know about all that.

But there comes a day and age when you want something different. You want to have the type of life for your kids, even though you're going to support them and, I guess, not see them. I'm not sure, maybe you will, I don't know. Maybe you'll have to change your heart and I don't know. But you can't act the way you did when you was in the hood, not if you want to continue to make Sprite commercials. You know what I'm saying. Like, sean Kemp did not have no shoe deal when he had 13 kids. So, anthony Edwards, stop. Hey, we used to talk about all the time rap songs back in the 90s and whatever you talk about gym hats, yo hashtag gym hats, pro gym hats all day long.

Front runner. Podcast. Collective is pro, pro prophylactics. Okay, we are pro prophylactics because your pullout game is not good and let's just call it what it is, and I guess, on that note, I can't believe we're. This is how we're doing it.

On that note, tune in tuesday, because we will have a lot more to talk about. There'll be more playoff conjecture, more things going on. So frpc doesn't miss april. Every shift, every chaotic, chaotic stat, every film breakdown, every game we will be watching. You can count on us for the real hoopers. The stat heads out there in the timeline screamers we will see you on tuesday.

So, with that being said, that's our show front to back, top to bottom. We broke everything down in the west. Like you owe this money. We sorted out tears, we imagined dream matchups, we gave the sons respectful funeral and we hyped up amen thompson, amen Thompson. Now we want you to continue to ride with us Front Runner Podcast Collective. How you can do that? You can follow us on whatever podcast platform you are hearing this pod on right now. Okay, the other way you can ride with us x at frontrunner pc. X at raya. Underscore fudge frpc. We have blue blue sky accounts. Blue sky I'm boring, so it's the same thing at frontrunnerpcbskysocial. And for serea, because she is fancy, it is frpc-reabskysocial.

Make sure you are following the youtube page, which is frpc nba lounge, and also go to the website. Go to frpcpodcastpageio and you get everything there. You get the, you get the podcast, you get the blogs. There will be a blog with this particular podcast. So go get you some. Homie. It's friday, go get you some now. Also, if you are writing with us, hit us up at also frpcvince at gmailcom for questions about the pod, your answers to questions about who is the defensive player of the year, all NBA teams. Hit us up on Twitter with those type of situations. Hit us up on Blue Sky with those type of situations. Now also, follow us on the podcast platform and also do the thing where you hit the little bell for you so you can get the notification as well.

Because you're gonna want these podcasts. You're gonna want them. Like a thirsty man in the desert. You're gonna want these damn things, I'm telling you Podcasts. You're going to want them Like a thirsty man in the desert. You're going to want these damn things, I'm telling you.

So, with that being said, happy Friday to everyone out there, and again To the new audience. Welcome To the old audience. Be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast, join this revolution, join this merry band of nba, who loving fools that we are. And, with that being said, the best part of you is you, and here at frpc we see that and we feel that. So surround yourself with people who lift you up, push you forward and remind you who you are. And if you got folks like this in your life, celebrate them, text them, hug them, let them know that they matter, because growth is different when you're surrounded by love, support and real ones. And if you're building that circle, start with us. You got to see here always at Front Runner Podcast Collective. Y'all keep it real, real glamorous for your weekend. Have a great one. We will be back on this feed on Tuesday. And for serea and for the rest of the crew, I am Vince and we are out deuce, bye.