Playoff Pushes: Warriors on the Rise & Pistons' Secret Weapon

what's up, hoot world, welcome to front runner podcast collective. I am your humble host, vince. It is friday, march 21st, and we are officially three weeks out from the playoffs. I've got notes on playoff pushes, storylines, breakdowns of how the Warriors quietly become a free throw machine. Kay Cunningham is running the post like 2004. And some of the under the radar guys on your favorite team wishes they had off the bench. So we have a lot to get into.

But the first thing that I want to talk about is kind of what happened last night. So UCLA is playing the first tournament game and I have games on the multi view all screens. I got Golden State and the Raptors and they're doing their thing in the chase center. The big story from the game is the curry back injury and we'll get to that um a little bit later in the show. I have updated news on that as well. It was the. It was gross sounding when he, when steph, hit the floor. I mean it sounded so sick. The thud Was just oh and there was reports that Steph Was trying to get back into that game. There were reports that he was Looking to Enter the game, and it just tells you what this means.

Now you know, we are in that point of the year it's playoff time. We turn iron sharpens iron. We are trying to get there. So Now, what struck me About the Warriors Before that, as we have watched this Jimmy Butler infused Warriors team, is they. We quietly become violent, like they went from pass, pass, pass three to Jimmy Butler drawing contact like Shaq in a hoodie. We'll get into that, but we here's the thing. Golden state has a lot of things going on and we want to get into them and there's a lot of positive stuff going on with them. But I also want to get into the Cade Cunningham of it all. The Pistons might not get the home court advantage, but what they're doing this year, and Cade's post-up efficiency in particular, is literally off the charts. He's making plays on the block like he's LeBron with Tim Duncan's footwork. So I don't know what to say about this kid right now. It's all positive. It's all the things that we loved about him when he came out of Oklahoma State, and it's so great to see him playing meaningful basketball games at this time of the year. To see him playing meaningful basketball games at this time of the year, and we're going to see him in postseason play, which is also going to be very intriguing, and I'm going to be focusing in on those matchups and seeing where Detroit basketball goes from here. It's going to be a really cool playoff season, so we need to go ahead and get surgical about what we need to do out here. So, though, you know how we do it.

We got segments, so the first segment is front-running theory. Now this is where we're going to talk about the Warriors identity shift. Since the trading for Jimmy Butler, the Warriors are 16 and 3. That's not a typo. It's the best record in the NBA. Since the deadline. They've been top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and how they've been doing this is not by the three, not just by stuff magic. They've completely flipped into a free throw factory. Before butler arrived, golden state ranked 27th in fouls, drawing part possession since the trade their fourth. Since the trade their fourth, okay. So they went from 27th to fourth since the jimmy butler trade, cominga's back to drawing nearly nine free throws per 36 minutes off the bench. That's elite downhill pressure.

You know what we talk about here, all right, and if you're new to the program, welcome. Welcome to front runner podcast collective. We are so grateful that you are here, we are growing the audience, we are growing the community and we'll get into those things in one second. But what we talk about here is this purpose, purposeful, purposeful paint touches. Okay, you gotta go out and attack the paint, get fouls, create other offensive actions. We all know what the game is now. It's a bunch of driving kick. So when you're in this situation and you have a guy like this and then you bring in, you infuse Jonathan Kaminga into this situation, who was not there for what? 30 plus games now you have a downhill threat. It just brings more diversity to the offense. You know that's a phrase, that's a verbiage that we use here on the podcast.

But the thing that I want to continue to push is that you still have steph and he's run off 416 off ball screens since butler got there, more than anyone else in the league. The guy is turning defenses into anxiety machines because you know, as soon as Steph moves, the defense freaks out. Butler is seeing like open mid-range lanes, like quite often in his time with the Golden State Warriors, because of the fact that just the gravity that Steph causes in that situation. So I personally think that they both have benefited from each other obviously putting more pressure on the rim. And you have Steve yes, del Curry's still off ball screens. The activity, the running around. He still has the best cardio in the game. This is what Butler isolate and attack one-on-one without help sliding over.

Now check this out, jimmy. Jimmy Butler right now, in isolation, scoring is 121.7 points per per 100 possessions since joining the Warriors. That's historic. The warriors have flipped the script from lottery vibes in january to now being the hottest team in the league. And butler came in and changed the culture overnight.

I'm I was really skeptical, you know when it came, because you know how Jimmy left, but I was never skeptical on the guy. And you put a challenge in front of Jimmy Butler. You know what you're gonna get. You're gonna get somebody who's going to have a bunch of tenacity. We have seen it in the playoffs. It is unfurled right in front of us. Several, on several occasions. He's done it to the celtics, he's done it to the knicks, he's done it to teams that they definitely punch above their weight when he was in miami. Now he wanted to be compensated for that. Riley didn't want to compensate him for that because he felt that jimmy wasn't really being as attentive as he needed to be and he thought that maybe jimmy had lacked a little more motivation and he thought, by going into this year and having jimmy out there as a lame duck would bring out the best in jimmy, would bring out the best in jimmy. The problem is is that he clearly did not read the tea leaves of the person that he had under his uh, umbrella.

Jimmy butler is I've said it before on this podcast so go back and check the archive pods they're. There's things in there that you definitely want to check out, but Jimmy is a self-made superstar. I'll say it again. And this is another thing about development that I also want to bring up Is that we get these guys and we're saying, oh well, this is their shelf, this is what they're going to be, this is how it's going to be in all of these things and a lot of times it doesn't 100 come out to fruition. But you know, we can kind of teletype and whatever, but every once in a while somebody will break the mold. Jaylen brunson right, who saw that coming? Rick, and Jalen, that's who saw that coming. So shout out to the Knicks getting Jalen Brunson be just an absolute star and a certified G. So you get people like this from time to time.

Jimmy Butler was drafted 30th overall. Anybody who follows the NBA knows his story. But he started off basically as a defensive guy. He was long, he had activity, active hands, he garnered more minutes, he started to show ho okay, off the okay, a secondary creator, you know, next to d rose, and he kind of built on that. Then the unfortunate injury to derrick to derrick rose happens and they need somebody to fill in the 22 to 25 opportunities a night. But what they didn't know they were getting is like, hey, I can do this on 18 shots because I'm gonna get to the foul line 10 times. And that's the legend of jimmy butler.

And then we saw him go to minnesota and try to instill some toughness. Tibidell wanted to instill some toughness there. It kind of backfired because he looked at andrew wiggins, he looked at carl anthony towns. Now carl anthony towns is kind of you know, he's changed the narrative around him. I hate that word too, we're gonna get into that later but he changed basically the just the verbiage around him, as this dude, whatever K-Smink B aloof really makes stupid fouls and all that. But Andrew Wiggins really hasn't. He had that one glimpse in the NBA Finals and we really haven't seen it.

So Butler thought these dudes were soft. Let's just not even get it twisted. Butler thought these dudes were soft, let's just not even get it twisted. Butler thought these dudes were absolutely soft and he wasn't having it. He was like you're gonna pay these guys and you're not gonna pay me, and I'm what drives winning here. Was he wrong? No, how he went about it has always been the issue with jimmy. But you knew that going in, you had three stops along the way to know that jimmy butler was going to act out. When you didn't give him the contract, we said it over and over. But now he's in golden state, he has a carrot out in front of him and it's nobody believes in this team. And now butler has just wanted to feel a part of not not not saying not necessarily he didn't feel a part of in miami. I'm not going to sit here and uh sully what jimmy did in miami for the heat, the heat organization, the fans there. I'm sure that after all this stuff kind of blows over in a while jimmy will get his flowers in miami. There's no doubt about that, because he made chicken salad out of chicken shit a lot in miami, so he has a carrot in front of his face.

Golden state was in a. Basically they were teetering out of the plan when he got there. Now they might mess around and get the fifth seed, so he's made an incredible difference. We see the pep in the step with steph curry until the injury, and we'll talk about that right now. Okay, I have news from shams. Let me pull it up right here real quick.

Okay, this is a post from Sean Sharm Rania, espn MRI on warrior star of Stephen Curry pelvic area confirmed contusion no structural damage. Sources tell espn curry is expected to miss the start of golden state's sixth game road trip beginning saturday in atlanta as he receives treatment over the next few days. So no structural damage. Good for the game, good for steph curry. We're gonna see deep threes in the playoffs and we really are blessed to have that in our lives. So good news on that front, but incredible comeback. This team is going to be very dangerous in the playoffs because they have championship pedigree. They know how to get it done. There's nothing really they haven't seen. So we are in a situation where it's going to be very interesting, very interesting.

So, speaking of very interesting the lakers, luca, lebron do we care about sitting? Do we not care about sitting? I don't know. But let's just give you what we do know. Since mid-january, the lakers have been the third best record in the league and the second best defense. They've been quietly cooking people. They've been holding teams to under 100 points on the regular, like the last couple nights. No, but that is to be, um, that's to be expected. Coming off, six games in eight nights remember they had a couple makeup games from the uh, the fires that we had here and so that you had to schedule those games back in and, lo and behold, you have six games and eight nights. So my guys are getting a couple days rest. I hope they are just sleeping right now. So, but the team itself has played phenomenal defense for a long period of time.

Now. Lebron is still managing that groin strain, luca is. Luca has a back injury. Uh, they're bro. Prior prioritizing health. Now, this is the reason why luca was out for the milwaukee game and, honestly, I get it. They're confident that they can be anybody because, basically, when you've seen these two together, it has been magical, it has been breathtaking to watch.

Uh, I had somebody who is close to me in my life, his father's certain. They said we'll see how you feel about luca after a while. And I was like, okay, you know, um, I understand where people are coming from. You know, if you're, you know, tired with the bad, you know, uh, I will tell you, as a long, long, long time laker fan, you know, I tell you all the time I'm old, I'm washed, I'm 52, but I've seen it all, seen magic. I saw kobe when he got drafted by charl, and then the trade of Vlade Divac. I saw him turn into a superstar, the Shaq acquisition, seen it all, all of it. But Luka being here, being the star that he is, they're looking at the playoffs and thinking, hey, we got LeBron, okay, we got Luke, we got myself Luka, we got Austin Reeves. I think we could do some damage in the playoffs and we have seen Luka do things in the playoffs that were completely amazing. Check the clipper series. Sorry, clipper fans, I know that's a hard one for you guys to swallow because y'all have the better team, but luca was undeniable. He was undeniable in that series and he's not scared of anything and he's just a daredevil and he has a daredevil mentality and he, he enjoys the theater, which is also important when it comes playoff time.

Jj reddick and his staff have been rolling out game plan at the game plan with defensive schemes that mimic playoff prep and, when they're healthy, they got the best duo in the league period. I'm saying it now and here's what I say about that. You can say, oh, this duo is a better scoring duo. You can say, this duo is a better defensive duo. There's a lot of things you can say about other duos. We can pick knits all we want, but this is what I will say. Are there any other two guys that you feel more comfortable with with the ball in their hands, with less than five minutes to go and the game is still in the balance, that they're gonna get you a good shot. They're gonna get you a really good look at the rim. Lebron is an absolute supercomputer and we see Luka has that same type of cognitive ability when he's on the court. So beware of what the lakers are bringing to you in this season. So there is that as well.

Now denver we got some red flags here. They're the team that I was worried about for the longest time, in the sense of we have to get through them. Somebody is going to have to beat them. For us, jokic is an issue. He's still an issue. There's nothing changed about Jokic, don't worry about that. There will be no Nikola Jokic slander on this podcast ever. I grant you that. But they are 79 against west playoff teams. They still got yokich he, who is still unreal. If you look at some of the advanced metrics on this dude right now he's having a better season than his mvp seasons. I understand that shea is going to win the mvp, but we still know who the baddest man on the planet is. When we talk about basketball, right, it's still that dude.

In denver now they match up great against houston. This is the nuggets. They match up great against golden state, but we'll see against the lakers or even the timberwolves, because those two, it looks like they might have their number. Now you can say hey, vince, I know you're a Laker fan. You're looking at it through purple and gold lenses. I might be, because I am back on my game now Lakers all day, but I still want to look through it with an analytical mind. I want to look at it as okay. Let's look at how these two teams are playing If they do match up against one another in the playoffs, how both of these teams playing at that time. I still think that the lack of depth on the bench for Denver is going to be a critical, critical situation in these playoffs. I also believe that, unfortunately.

I do love the Jokic-Murray duo, but here's my problem with it. When you stack it up against LeBron and Luka, it's a little bit different proposition than just stacking it up against lebron and luca. It's a little bit different proposition than just stacking it up against lebron and austin reeves. No slander to austin reeves because he's been cooking. He's been absolutely cooking. I love that kid.

So here's here's the main question. If you're a Denver Nuggets fan, the Nuggets have Jokic, but I don't think they have the juice, not right now. In the west they might be a first round problem. Now you get to the second round. Now you get to the second round. If you get to the second round and this is not, like I said, this is not a Jokic issue, it's what's around him. Where is the offensive diversity around Jokic? Can they give him a blow? Really, cause the on off numbers say no. So now, nuggets fans, mile high basketball you can hit me up on blue sky or on twitter. You can hit me up at frontrunnerpc on twitter. You can hit me up at frontrunnerpc on twitter. You can hit me up at frontrunnerpcbskysocial on blue sky, and just hey, tell me what you think, tell me what you're watching, you know on the court, because what I'm seeing is that that man is carrying them and, yes, he does have an injury that he's nursing, but I also think he just needed a blow. I think that he was just tired, and these two games off are super helpful to the load that Nicola Jokic is carrying.

We are going to move along, though, because we need to get to our second segment, the Baseline Buzz. You know, we need to come up with some music with this Soraya, write that down. We're going to need to come up with some music. Get a little change. Probably can't take any kendrick lamar stuff, right, okay, okay, all right, let's get to some buzz. We are a team that can't beat anyone and can be beaten by anyone. I'm gonna read that quote again we are a team that can beat anyone, but that can be beaten by anyone, and this is what chris finch of the minnesota timberwolves had to say about his team at this present time. It's a real statement. The Minnesota Timberwolves are basically our chaos team. This is the team that we have no idea. We're gonna drop them in the middle of the playoffs. We're gonna let Ant run around like um, what's my guy's name? What's the tasmanian devil's name? I forgot his name. You know I'm talking about looney tunes. Go look it up youtube. So you're gonna drop this team into the playoffs and they could be dominant when dialed in and then they can lose to a team like washington at home.

Shout out to alexar, who's been balling lately. I want to give credit where credit is due. There were questions a lot of them about alexar. Alexar is showing himself very well down the stretch, albeit, we do know the march april swoon situation and numbers sometimes get inflated. But it's good. It's good development to see alexar doing some of the things that he's able to do. The one thing is is that we're gonna have to see this kid put on some weight. Okay, we're gonna need to see this kid do something, because here's here's an incredible number.

Alex sar finishes at the rim at only 18 currently. So think about that 18. So 82 of his shots are three pointers or mid-range or deep mid-range. It's a guy who, right now is self-aware that he's not strong enough to go into the paint and handle the giants that are there. But also, you know, hey, man, we're gonna need you to go up in there and bang with the big boys, so to speak. Now here's a quote for you that you'll love.

Only 24 guys have over 100 post-ups plays this year. Cade is not just one in that group, he's leading in efficiency. So check this out With guys over 100 post-up plays this year, his efficiency per 100 is 126.8 points per 100. That's like Shaq levels man. He is putting Shaq level post-ups together. His his feet, his footwork is balletic and his his feet are sweet. Pause on that one. You know I'm saying I'm not trying to out nobody, or whatever case may be. Now he passes out of the post more than anyone at a 23 percent clip of those close-ups and in assists.

Detroit is turning him into a low block quarterback. Kate is throwing cross-court dimes and he bully while on six foot four guards on the block like he's watching some modern day andre miller with uh kd vision. Come on, man like this is. This is getting really scary, because I've seen this so many times when I watch detroit games. You'll get him on the left block. He will draw a double team. He will skip past it to the opposite corner and that dude will be wide open for three. And it's usually malik beasley Shouts out to Malik Beasley shooting at a torrid percent.

I mean, he is shooting a torrid three-point percent. I believe it's 46% on the year. So that's getting it done. High volume as well. Couple other things in the bus.

Demar DeRozan congratulations to Deebo. Shouts out to our guy, usc legend. Gotta give him his props, even though we are ucla a clap all day and we'll talk about that a little bit later at the close. But demar de rosen dropped 25 000 points this week. Clap it up, clap it up for our guy tomorrow. Say what you want about our mid-range assassin and those in the volume that he does in from that, from that particular range, because he is the absolute mid-range magician. That man is just a bucket getter. That's top 30th all time and he's not even done yet because he's still putting up plus 20 now.

Defense we listen, we staying in the positive. We celebrating damar derosen. Listen, we staying in the positive, we celebrating damar derosen. Damar shots out from front runner podcast collective man on 25 000 points. Two things. One. You put in incredible work to get that done. I know the diligence you have in your game, in your craft. My man and I appreciate all the buckets you have brought us in the nba and, by the way, I still remember a couple of those buckets you dropped when you were at usc and you dropped them on ucla. I wasn't too appreciative of those buckets, but all the buckets you got in the nba, we appreciate you and we salute you on going over 25 000 points. Now let's get you some. Let's get you some uh, some stuff. Okay, let's get you some, some, some thanks.

We'll go deeper next week, but eve misi's rise has real implications to the 2025 nba draft development. Curves like this box out iq physical adjustments are what front offices dream of. You talk about guys who learn fast. Misi has turned rawcy, has turned a raw tool set, because when he came in, there were three things I said complete project. When he came in the door, I was like he's going to have to get bigger Meaning, more stout, and I didn't think that he was going to be able. At Baylor, you saw the tools, you saw everything. I just thought it was going to take a second to click in. It didn't.

All the reports out of New Orleans is that as soon as you tell him to do something, he can then translate it onto the court immediately. He got it. It's not even a question. That's impeccable. I want to give him his props. I just want to say that he's made a real impact in less than three months. So New Orleans might have found their big for the future.

And, if you think about it, it's basically the right thing to put around zion. If you're keeping zion not saying you are just saying that if you were, this is the right guy to put around him. And I don't think it's necessarily easy to trade zion, not just because of what he has done as far as missed games. I just think it's so hard to walk away from that talent. It's just so incredibly difficult to walk away from somebody that you know who can put up high 20 points per game and, when motivated, can rebound and be a weak side rim protector if he can keep habits under control. So we'll see how it goes.

That moves us to our next segment, which is around the arc. This is where we kind of bounce around the league and see what's going on and kind of give you a little taste of everything. So here we go we are going to start off with. We got chaos in the west. Everybody knows about the chaos, but I just want to bring you in and kind of specifically focus in on a one little subsection of the west, and it's the warriors, clippers and wolves. They're all fighting for that sixth playoff spot, which means no playing because nobody wants to play in the playing. The Wolves, clippers and Warriors have been playing excellent basketball late. The Wolves, even though they keep losing to crazy teams, they have been playing very well. They've been getting good contributions from Julius Randle, and Dante DiVincenzo has come back from injury and he looks even squirrely. He looks like he's getting himself together as well. Together as well, do-do-do, okay.

So now the next thing that we need to get to is this Boston Celtics cell situation. As you know, bill chisholm, of what is it? Symphony, the symphony group, symphony technology group he bought the boston celtics for 6.1 billion with a b dollars. Now people are scratching their head about this situation and I'm gonna help you here. Why would somebody spend 6.1 billion on a team that doesn't own its own arena?

Okay, there's two plausible reasons for this, and these are really the two reasons. One, grossbecks, irv the father, who's 90. Let's keep this in, let's bring some context into this. Irv, who's 90, he wanted to get his estate into, you know, arranged before time runs out. Now wick did not want to sell the celtics but his dad was like yo, we gotta sell them because there's other kids other than you and I want all my affairs taken care of before this, before I check out. I mean, this plot is logical. Point I understand. Well, all we've heard this year is wick has been brokenhearted about not being the primary owner of the celtics. Now he has followed his father's wishes. He's been the point man on this cell.

Bill chisholm came in um, we'll get to uh pagleola in a second. But bill chisholm comes in, brings his group in. Who? He's still formulating that group. There will be a boston uh wing syndicate that will be part of that group. It looks like wick grossbeck might actually still be part of the group. If you look at the contract, if you look at some of the fine print. It says that wick stays on for three years. It says that he still is a front-facing um member of the organization. So you'll see him. You know front court, you know, I mean, you know, on the court, front row seats, all that sort of thing, and probably just schooling bill chisholm to the game that is the NBA. So it seems like a pretty good deal for everybody.

Here's the second reason the NBA itself wanted the Boston Celtics to get to that price range, and the reason why is because we can start really actually saying the words expansion. We gonna have two teams seattle is one, vegas is the other. They wanted that price tag at 6.1. So then the new franchise is coming in. We're gonna hit that number as well. We're gonna need six billion for you to become a member of the nba. So it's only big boy money. You can't get money from your, your cushions and your couch unless you're warren buffett. If you're warren buffett, you can probably go in your couch cushions and get the money to own an expansion team, but nobody else can do that. Right, bezos, all right, there's a couple people, but you know I'm saying not us, we can't do that.

But the price tag of the Celtics was super important to get to six because they wanted to make sure that the expansion teams Vegas and Seattle hit those prices. So then the 30 owners, which Bill Chisholm is now one of the new owners. So the 6.1 billion dollar price tag really isn't 6.1 when you think about it. See, this is when you think really, this is when you think wealth. Okay, bill chisholm knows, okay, if I buy in now, I'm gonna be part of this deal when they do the expansion. So when they get the expansion fees, which will total about $12 billion, the NBA franchises themselves will split one-third of $12 billion and that approximately comes out to $400 million per team, comes out to 400 million dollars per team. So chisholm is looking at this like yo. I got this at five seven because I'm about, I'm about to recoup this money pretty soon because I will believe that, if not this postseason, maybe the start of the regular season, we'll start hearing about expansion like from the actual, from adam silver.

So a couple other things to get to here on around the art and I want to thank the audience again. Thank you for tuning in, thank you for downloading, thank you for following. If you are not following us, please follow us. Remember to give us a five star rating and you can get front on Audible. You can get us on any podcast platform of your liking. So please follow us, please tell friends and make sure that you turn on that notification so that you know when we download a podcast for you. You know helpful hints here and there. See, the next thing that we need to get to is that.

Uh, I want to talk about the pistons a little bit and I want to talk about the the shooting that's going on there. You got tobias harris shooting. Well, I know a lot of people were down on tobias about how he left philadelphia and how it didn't seem like he was impactful. You know to what his contract was. Where he is contractually slotted right now is kind of where he needs to be and he's paying off big dividends in detroit. The k explosion this year is because they have competency around k when you have people like tobias harris, who are professional basketball players who come and do their job every single day.

Yes, in Philadelphia they had a different standard because he was making 43 million dollars. He's not making 43 million dollars anymore and he's not considered really one of the top three dudes on the team. So if he's giving you 14, he's giving you 16. It's what it should be and he's doing it efficiently. He's grabbing rebounds. He's being six foot eight. He's being big. He's doing all the things that he's supposed to do. So I want to shout out malik beasley also, who's shooting it incredibly well.

I also want to shout out jalen doran, because he had a terrible start to the season and I was starting to wonder did the whole james wiseman, all these extra bigs for no apparent reason? Remember, detroit had marvin bagley third as well, so I thought they really shocked his uh, jalen doran's development for a little while, and we all know about the monty thing last year. We don't need to get into it anymore, but I am so glad to see his bounce back, his glow up, if you want to call it that. I am so glad to see his bounce back, his glow up, if you want to call it that, I am so glad to see it. And it's coming at the most opportune time, which we're heading into the playoffs, and what Detroit needs is a bouncy, rim-protecting, uber-athletic, uber-energeticber, energetic, physical, big. Oh, just what jalen dorn is. So shouts out to jalen dorn as well.

So we just talked about jalen dorn getting his situation together. These guys are changing the game without changing the narrative role. Players may be valuable, maybe, value plays definitely, but this is part of pie where we show love to the glue guys, the bench killers, the ones who win playoff series in may. So I want to talk about some guys who are under the radar. We talked about one of them in the last segment and this is the. This is the segment before the closes show and it's the new segment and we like to call this segment off the bounce. So these are like little quick hitters, things that maybe you need to pay more attention to, and we want to just basically shed light to them.

So the first situation off this is jared allen of the cleveland cavaliers. Jared allen's true shooting percentage is 72.3. His box plus minus is a positive 3.2. He's a top 10 center in impact, but because he's not scoring 20 points a night, no one talks about this cat. We talk about his afro. Okay, every once in a while he'll get dunked on.

You might see that on sports center or on your social feeds or whatever the case may be, but allen's not flashy, he's just a guy who makes a whole, your whole team work better. He'd be a monster in like boston. He'd be a monster. Oh, in new york. Could you imagine jared allen in new york right now? You think? You think the knicks wouldn't mind a jared allen. The lakers would love a jared allen a lot threat who could catch, who brings this kind of defensive, just verve, because his ability to move, his ability to kind of clean up messes, because Donovan Mitchell still has not grown, darius Garland, to my knowledge, still has not grown. Darius Garland is 6'1", donovan Mitchell is 6'2". Donovan Mitchell has long, long arms, but he's still 6'2". So having a guy like Jarrett Allen is so important to this team, whether they're running a single big set or a two big set, a single big set or a two big set.

I also want to throw in some kudos to Kobe Altman for picking up DeAndre Hunter at the trade deadline. It was a sneaky good move. For this reason, in this reason only, that was a Boston Celtic move that had nothing to do with anything else but the boston celtics, because they want to be able to take one of the bigs off the court and have a big size forward on that front line to go with strews, to go with the, the other smaller wings that they have, the swings that they have as far as that's concerned, and still be able to rebound and still be able to defend at a high rate. So I want to go ahead and shout out kobe altman on that pickup. My salute to you, my guy. But bringing it back to to jared allen, jared allen is super productive, he's super efficient and he doesn't complain about lack of touches and how he does, just does all the dirty work. And I just want to give him love.

Now another guy on his team and this guy made his national presence known on the Ryan Rosillo podcast recently and I want to show him some love because he also has a teammate that this podcast ruled for and that's Sam Merrill. Sam Merrill is on the Cleveland Cavaliers and we love Sam Merrill here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective. Sam, if this gets to you, we love to have you on the show. We think that you are nice, we love that you shoot it, we love that you have no fear. You're like our guy in the WWE Penta. You know Seattle, you know I'm saying no fear, love that, love that, all that.

But the guy who I really want to talk about right now is ty jerome. Ty jerome has a assist percentage of 23.8. That's crazy quietly stabilizing cleveland's second unit think sean liveston, but with a jumper right. And we're talking about sean liveston at golden state, we're not talking about uber athletic sean liveston with the clippers before the terrible knee injury. Ty Jerome is just a stud. He plays a cerebral brand of basketball. He is fearless about his shot. You can tell that this dude is in the gym a lot. You know I don't want to go with like the same cliche bullcrap that you hear all the time. Oh well, he's a gym rat and you know he's a coach's son. And well, listen, ty jerome is nice. Okay, ty jerome got a back. I love his hesitation, dribble, the snatchbacks, being able to get into his step back three package. It's all good. So shout out to our guy Todd Jerome, who's shooting threes and playing a big role in Cleveland.

Now the next guy we just talked about him Jalen Duren of your Detroit basketball distance, detroit basketball distance. His win share per 48 is .218. He's not developing, he's dominating. He's like 21. Can he drink? Do we know? Don't drink, dude. Eight years sober here, 30 years of alcoholic, just you know. Drink responsibly. That's what I'll tell you. You got to give jordan a lot of credit. We talked about it earlier, about, uh, how he struggled early on this season and actually again I want to bring up the point that we talked about this

all. Last year I did understand, even through what was it? 2023 Summer League? When I saw other bigs out there on the court, I was like why is Jalen Doran not on the court? Why is he not getting all these minutes? Why is he not Allowed to just get the system? And little did we know At that time. There wasn't a system, because Monty Williams was coming in. There was no system. Or, as James Harden would say I am the system, shouts out to the beard. The beard is having a year, he is having a. I want to call it a renaissance, so to speak. You know, he out here, he out here, man, that's all I'm going to say. You know, real G's moving silence. So we're gonna leave, we're gonna keep it

pushing. The next guy I want to get show some love to is a team that we've been kind of harsh on, but um keon ellis of the sacramento kings. His steal rate is crazy. He has a defensive box plus minus a positive 1.7. He gives off herb jones vibes, but on the guard side he's a defensive swing and he brings instant playoff value to any team that he's on, and I'm not trying to take him off sacramento. So kings fans like to be. Don't, don't get at me. Okay, we good, we

good. But keon ellis kind of stepped into the role when kevin herder. He was hurt. There were injuries, but also kevin herder lost his way in Sacramento. Now we've started to see, I guess, some of those diminishing returns in Atlanta. I wanted to believe that. You know, he just wasn't getting the ball in Atlanta. Personally that's what I thought. But as time moved on you could see that Herder was actually hurting the team. Now I'm glad that he has a fresh start somewhere else and I hope that he can get his career back on track because kevin herder can shoot the ball. But keon ellis absolutely took advantage of opportunity when it presented itself. He got a stranglehold of that starting position when herder inevitably went out with a season-ending injury. But the defense, the ball pressure that he's able to apply, the, the shooting which is, you know, it's coming along. So it's all the things that you just want to sit there and just allow to marinate. But I'm going to tell you right now every playoff team is going to wish they had had Keon Ellis as their 8th man in round 1. You know what I'm saying. Everybody's going to want him because he's going to be out there cooking your dude and giving your dude the blues if they make it into the

playoffs. Now the Boston Celtics have a guy on this list, and Peyton Pritchard, of these guys, has gotten a lot of love nationally. We are going to bring some attention to his three-point uh average rate, which is 74 percent. Peyton pritchard is doing it. That dude has no conscience when he comes into the game. 74 is outrageous, though, and here's the best part man, how many of your bench players can score a box plus minus overall of positive 2.7? So think of that. This is not tatum. This is not Brown. This is not KP. This is not Derek White or Drew Holiday. This is Peyton

Pritchard. Peyton Pritchard who had to fight to become the sixth man, peyton Pritchard, who had to fight to get minutes. Now he's spot starting, scoring 37, hitting eight threes a game. He's doing it all, and this is the stuff that we saw when he was in Oregon. He's just one of those guys that really not just works at his craft, but his confidence in himself, in his ability and what he's able to do. I believe he. I believe that peyton pritchard believes that he is a starting point guard in this league and he has that mentality and he's like I'm going to shove it down your throat every time you give me an opportunity. I am just going to just be as close to steph curry as I possibly can be. I'm not saying he's steph, okay, calm down. I'm just saying he's going in with that mindset. He's a pro. He's a matchup problem for second

units. The amount of depth that the Boston Celtics has right now is just filthy and I wonder, as the new ownership takes over, it won't be the big guys that I'm worried about, it won't be the Jalen Browns or the Jason Tatum's. But I wonder and stick this in, stick this in the back of your, your head space for the summertime, sam Houser makes 10 million dollars, which is it's a pretty modest salary in the nba, right? I mean, he's making good money for what he does. I'm sure sam is sitting there. Hey, I'm in boston, I'm coming off the bench, I shoot threes people love me, I'm great. But what that actual money is costing b is something upwards of like $77 million because of the luxury tax, because of the aprons, because of the apron

penalties. So the guy that I want you to remember, because he had a big game last week is Baylor Shireman. Now you remember Baylor Shireman because March Madness is going on. He went off, for Creighton went off. Baylor Shireman is is a shooter, he's an absolute laser and he gonna get it done. But he is going to be a inexpensive option when they move on from sam hauser in the summer. So I'm just letting you know, little friendly tip from vince it won't be the big pieces, but slowly and surely they are going to look for less expensive options to take over certain positions. Now a big one if it does

happen. Now I'm not saying this is going to happen, not saying this is going to happen. But here's another one to look for the growth of peyton pritchard, who just talked about. Does that lead to the exodus of one, drew Holiday? Could you replace Drew Holiday with Peyton Pritchard? It'll be different, right? Obviously he's not the defensive player that Drew Holiday

is. We're not going to sit here and try to tell you that he is that he is, but I can definitely see that if they're starting to think a little more financially. Fiscal responsibility no, no fan base ever wants to hear that, by the way. No, not one fan base wants to hear about you being financial, financially responsible. We want you to be financially irrational. Sure, I want to pay my six man 18 to 22 million dollars because you know why he gives me buckets. That's why. That's why I want him. He gives me 20 points. When I ask him, hey, six man, can you get me 20 points? He goes like this show enough, I got your 20 points. Do you need six mo on top of that? This is what fans

want. It's gonna be a game of accounting in Boston over the next couple years, but I think the first casualty look to see is Sam Houser, who is the absolute fan favorite in Boston and Boston fans. I know y'all gonna hate me. I live there for 15 years. I get it. I know, listen, I'm not your favorite son. I know I'm not your favorite son. I left, I came home, I came back to the la la, where it's beautiful every single day. But sam hauser might be the first casualty of what the new ownership is looking for the new ownership is looking

for. That leads us to a guy that we talked about earlier in the podcast and that's Yves Misi. Yves Misi before January 26th he missed in box outs. He missed box outs 22% of the time. Now he's down to just 7.1 percent. That's second best in the entire league. So think about this. Here's a guy who's 19 years of age. Right, hold on, let me grab a little water. Your boy's a little thirsty and you don't need to hear bad quality audio, no, no, you're a good audience, so I want you to hear good audio, alright. So before January 26, yves Messi missed box out at a 22% clip. Now he's doing it only 7.1% of the

time. He looks like a lockdown, like Jalen Dorn. Already he's out there just creating boards for people you know what I'm saying like people getting rebounds. Even Zion is starting to rebound, which is awesome, and I'm going to give credit. I don't know what his situation is. I don't know what they're going to do at the end of the year just because of how the year

went. But David Griffin, as far as a drafter is concerned, now, has all the people reached their potential? No, but as far as a talent evaluator a person who can look at talent and go that will translate to our team and these are translatable skills that I see that will go ahead and be able to help us. He did that with Yves Misi. There was no way in hell. I thought Yves Misi was going to get off the bench this year and he's playing a significant role on that team Now, albeit, a lot of injuries happen. They're not very good, they're going to be in the lottery, but this dude is the shining jewel of their player development and their staff deserves a lot of credit for that, because he has come a long way in a really short period of time and there's a lot of hours behind the scenes that we don't necessarily get to

see. So shouts out to those anonymous player development guys that are doing it in New Orleans. Shouts out to you we salute you, you here at Front Runner Podcast Collective, for putting in work. We love it. So is Meecy a steal 100%, because he's impacting the game In ways that Bam did in his early days Clean screens, box out, vertical contests, lobs. He also is. He moves his feet, he gets out to the corner threes very well, he's a long wingspan and he has some couple offensive moves that I saw early in the season. And also, I also want to send out a shout out because joel myers, who is the voice of the new orleans pelicans, is one of my favorite announcers, because joel myers used to be the voice of the ucla bruins, because Joe Myers used to be the voice of the UCLA

Bruins. And UCLA won their first game in the tournament last night, absolutely annihilating the Utah State Aggies. We beat the crap out of the Aggies, took them out. We just like an assassin. Okay, oh, adai Mara might. I hope the ankle's okay, but that dude look, next year is going to be sick in Westwood. Adai Mara, seven foot three, maher, 7'3", with offensive facilitating skills, also knows what to do, has fancy footwork around the basket. I love him and I hope he is okay. I hope his ankle's okay, but shots out to the Bruins. Eight clap to the Bruins for putting it down on Utah State last. Last night it made my night, it made it better and it also it made this podcast better. Today my mood is directly affected by what ucla did last night. So we are all welcome. Thank you, ucla, love you, mccronin. You my guy, you, you militant, you militant, but you my guy, all

right. So what we're gonna be doing this weekend? A lot. We're gonna be doing a lot this weekend a lot of gang prep, a lot of watching games. There's gonna be some uh, laker games this weekend that we're gonna need to get ourselves a hold of um going to be staying on top of the warriors. But you know, we need to continue to look at the pistons. We need to continue to look at these teams that are in that playing range. We need to see what minnesota is going to do. Like their coach said, we can beat anybody in the league and then we can be beaten by anyone in the

league. Don't have your weekend go like that. You know saying don't have your weekend be like I can be a champion or I can end up in last place. Don't do that. You know saying don't do that, do not do that to yourself. But yeah, we're going to be watching a lot of march of madness, right, because we got to stay on top of the

prospects. Also, coming next week on frpcpodcastpageio, we will be having 60, 60 prospects. We have 45 now we'll be. We're going through the updates. Uh, as we speak right now, the updates are being done. I have a person doing that um, and we're just putting our mind melds together and coming up with this very, very complete. And I will tell you I'm not blowing smoke right now. This is I'm giving you a tip. I believe that we have one of the most comprehensive draft evaluations on the web today and it will be up to 60 sometime early next week, and I'll tell you when we get back on this pod next

tuesday. So, with that being said, the best part of you is you. You're phenomenal, you're great. So surround yourself with greatness. Surround yourself with people who are supportive, surround yourself with people who are uplifting. Now, when you have people like that in your life, make sure that you appreciate them, make sure you acknowledge them. Now, if you're doing all of that and you're that complete of a person god you're still working on me. Please continue to work on me. But if you are that complete of a person, go out and do some good in this world and we will see you back on this feed tuesday and we will have a lot to talk

about. I'm sure there's going to be amazing plays. I'm sure there's gonna be amazing plays. I'm sure there's gonna be fantastic dunks. There's gonna be outstanding performances. There might be a couple duds in there that we might have to roast a couple

people. Shots out to our guys. Cj mccullum hey, tuesday was love. Dude, it was love. Shoot or shoot. 1 of 15. We ain't gonna kill you anymore. Shoot or shoot, just keep shooting. It's all good, all right. So, for my producer and producer extraordinaire saraya, for all the help behind the scenes, and also for the audience, and let's talk about this before we go social media, if there's anything that we talked about the lakers situation, we talked about golden

state. Do you agree with some of the comments that I made here today? Hit us up on twitter. Hit us up on Twitter. Hit us up on Blue Sky. We also have a YouTube page FRPC NBA Lounge. Go there, vote on the polls. There's going to be new videos coming up this weekend, no doubt, because I'll be putting them up. And also, make sure that you go to the website, and that is FRPCcastpageio. We have blogs. We have all kinds of information about the podcast itself. We have youtube videos up there. We have archive podcasts up there. It's a great website. I endorse it immensely. Go ahead and check that out. And remember, the scariest teams this time of year Aren't the ones chasing matchups. They're the ones who already know who they are. Something to marinate on. We'll see you back on this feed on Tuesday, dos.