Playoff Transformation: Detroit's Rise from 14 to 44 Wins

we gonna learn like a ton of stuff about these playoff teams that are going absolutely ape shit, and we will do that right now. But two days without smoking? No, no devices, no, no, no, what have you? We're just doing it on the strength of jesus. So god is live, everything is great, and we have a jam-packed podcast for you to get to today. So, without further ado, let's start off with the Detroit Pistons. The Detroit Pistons last year won a total of 14 games. Now, this podcast was really hard on them. Um, we've been talking about it all year in regards to monty williams and his exit, and now we have jv bergerstaff in the building and we also have a 44 win team who really, I know a lot of people want to sit here and talk about the knicks and them winning and what have you, but we're going to spend a little time on the team that lost. This is the reason why we're gonna do that again 14 wins, 14 wins, and now they've won 44, and they pushed the Knicks to six games. Now, I know we love a leap year and it felt like this was just impossible for it to happen. This seemed like it was created in a lab. As far as the growth is concerned. But here's the kicker they actually found their guy. Kade cunningham is him, but being him in the nba without a second creator, that's like having batman a grappling hook and then sending him to a fight with five jokers and no Alfred. You need support, you need spacing, you need somebody else to handle the wall again.

The Trajan Langdon front office had a very arduous task to begin with. Remember Monty Williams was given this job and within a year he was gone. Right. So we're here. They begged Monty Williams to take this job. He did not want this job, and now the Detroit Pistons are a year removed.

After that, there were some souring. People were souring on Cade. We didn't understand what Jaden Ivey was. We were looking for more out of Doran and we didn't understand the surplus of bigs that they had. In comes trajan langdon from new orleans, they get rid of their entire front office, start anew. He brings in jb bickerstaff from cle, from Cleveland, who got ousted for Kenny Atkinson. We also know the story there.

But now here we are. Here we are in the summertime and we start to see the, the assemblance of role players, right, the assemblance of the Malik Beasleys of the world, the Tobias Harris's of the world. Now. Tobias Harris, much maligned, much maligned in Philadelphia, but what he was able to provide for the Detroit Pistons Was a level of veteran leadership. Hey, man, we're going to have ups and downs Throughout this game. You, you gotta be able to handle the valleys as well as the highest heights. So let's go ahead and lock in and get our, get our minds right, having malik beasley on this team, and we're gonna get to what he did this year and how he did it and and how important it was.

As soon as Jaden Ivey was hurt A lot to get to with Detroit I told you we are going to celebrate the team that lost. We're going to celebrate that team, and the reason why is, again, do you understand the ramifications of coming up From 14 wins to 44 wins and yeah, I'll be it Humbling beginnings in the sense of you're looking at a first round exit. But did you have the Detroit Pistons actually making the playoffs, not the play-in, the playoffs? Did you have that on your bingo card? If you did, you a bad son of a, just like you know now, with that being said, you get kade's return. Jayden goes out. We talked about that. Uh, jaylen doran, I was so upset a couple years ago with just the influx of bigs and allowing his development to dwindle. Oh so just kind of, just unabashedly, just pissed off about this situation because he has so much talent, so much athletic ability and if you let him just violently rim run and rim protect, I think you would have a hell of a player. And credit to JB Bickerstaff and his staff and what have you. That's so, so funny, jb Bickerstaff and his staff I caught that at the end of it, but credit to them. You got a real season out of Doran. He looks like a building block that you can now go. Okay, that's one of the pieces of the puzzle. We can go ahead, lock that in now.

Asura thompson, the brother of ahman thompson in houston, who's getting a lot of pub or all the incredible things he has done. And, uh, you know our defensive player of the year, ahman thompson, and you know if I need to go over that again, I will. But at the end of the day, a sore coming off, the blood clot situation, being able to come in here and listen. The shooting still has so much work to do, but the actual defense and athleticism and the actual energy and the connectability that he has with his teammates. He is a asset through and through and he showed up in these playoffs all good. We also saw some of the highlights of what his warts are, but that is a piece that you can sit there and say. I can look to the future and say, hey, that's gonna be one of our guys, that's gonna be one of the dudes. That's gonna take us to what the, the next iteration of.

Did detroit get tired of being a punch line and started defending like it was personal, or was it just little marginal victories through and through. Credit to, uh, the owner, seeing that he had obviously made a monumental mistake in signing monty williams and troy reber or troy weaver had to go. He, they fired him. You know, you got to admit, did you have a problem? Before you can fix the issue, I'm saying like couple days ago I'm sitting up here, I've been hacking for like a month I Got to fix the issue and the issue was I could, I couldn't smoke anymore. No more smoking, got it, got it, gotta go.

You win 14 games. Your city is very upset because you got all this talent on the team right, because we see it now, and then you know you? Just, you lose like 33 games in a row. Last year. I mean it was dire. I mean the day dear of the. What the Pistons were, we reached it last year to see them get Simone fontekio last year, to see them then reinforce with Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley to create the space that they were sorely lacking, and then also to get rid of James Wiseman and to get rid of Marvin Bagley III, to take away the glut of big men that they had, I wouldn't say in front of, but stymie the development of Jalen Duren. You do those things, but stymieing the development of Jalen Duren. You do those things and your team automatically Just metamorphosize In front of your very eyes and win 44 games.

Now, here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective, we have a saying the playoffs. Here at front runner podcast collective, we have a saying the playoffs are the truth tellers, the playoffs is the bright light. The truth k cunningham 23 points a game, eight assists, tons of usage. Eight assists, tons of usage. So what we found out right is that they've had an incredible season. They had a. I mean, obviously we weren't sitting there thinking to ourselves they were going to triple their, their victory total from last year, but then to see K go into the playoffs and play this well, lead his team, have great games, keep his team in it throughout the whole series. I mean, these are just things that you cannot. These are just how can I put this? You're just banking money. You're banking playoff equity, playoff maturity. You're banking all these things and allowing k to have this experience and giving k this experience is only going to benefit him and also benefit the pistons when this time comes about next year.

Now the knicks did what they were supposed to do. They blitzed them all series long nobody else could create. We'll get to that in a second. Our guy was a high iq guy. He was able to really manipulate the pace. He was able to speed up and slow down whenever he wanted. He was the deceleration on kate. Cunningham is an elite skill. It's also something that should be put in the smithsonian institute. Scientists should study it and, uh, I think that when ai really comes on board, this is gonna be probably like the genesis of how we get like the ai army and people start dying like human beings start dying. Right. K canningham was bad boy in this series.

We got to see the whole arsenal homie. We got to see the whole deal the jump shot getting into the paint. We got to see uh k, excuse me, the microphone and the chords are all tangled up so I excuse myself on that, sorry about that. We got to see everything with him. So the whole array of the package Getting into the paint, the passes, the ability to hit the three, the ability to get into the mid range, the floater, the little jump shot in the midi, the fall away All good and again, now you know you have confidence going into next year that you have a real guy.

How many times do we call? Do we see him call for a screen? Only one of the guys popping out tim hardaway jr. That's basketball sin. Where was all the other movement? If you're ron holland, the second, I understand that he definitely needs to work on his jump shot, but you can also bring activity with inside the motion. You don't need you. It would be very much appreciated and better for your team if you could shoot the three at a decent level.

But we also can see people continue to move. If you have connected energy, you're perpetually moving. It's something that distracts the defense and it possibly puts you in positions that are a lot more advantageous than what we saw the sputtering offense when Kay Cunningham wasn't literally creating nothing out of thin air, he was just creating all kinds of beautiful drop-off passes to the bigs. He was creating little like little, um, uh, shot, put passes to the three-point corner shooter. There were some Spain pick and rolls where he was able to then see a cutter off the baseline and and shoot it to him. These are all things that happen during this series, in this six game series that people need to go back and watch.

Now. Where do they go from here? 28.1 percent for three-point land in the playoffs. That's not getting it done. That's not going. That's not basketball in the 20 in 2025 season. All right, you know you gotta shoot the three ball at a decent rate. Only beasley demanded closeouts will get to. Why? Asur, doran Holland all either non-shooters or raw toolsy guys. Three-point attempts, a game 22nd in the league. So that is bottom eighth and is bottom quartile of the NBA.

The Knicks would garden, uh, garden half these dudes like the ymca uncles just chilling five feet back, hands on their hips like go ahead, go ahead, young blood, shoot that jump shot. Hey man, I stand here out here all day bro. I don't care, go ahead, shoot that. This is like when you get a fire beat drop coming, but the ox cut the. The ox cord cuts out. Kate was getting downhill kicking it out and there was clanking. It was, we were building brick houses, we were listening to the commodores, we were uh, doing brick and mortar, whatever you want to call it. There was a lot of mason masonry going on in detroit and also in new york city kind of fun. They could have put that in uh, new jersey and then called it brick city, and then it would have been aqua pop, a source elite motor.

These are the things that we can move forward with. A sewers elite motor defending three positions, all defense upside. Obviously he needs to continue to work on his corner. Three uh and decision making work so obviously, as when he has the ball on the second side, second side creation is leaves a little bit to be desired, to be honest. But we're also talking about what somebody 21 years of age. So I love his development this year. Both thompson twins were excellent and we are grateful for the productivity.

Now, speaking of somebody who has versatility and tools, ron holland, the second. He's got tools, but the game moves. The game moves too fast for him. He still seems in slow mo. Don't expect real value until, probably, if the light bulb goes off late next year we'll see.

Asura thompson is a dog. We love him. I ride with this guy in any playoff series, even though he shoots like a controller that is disconnected because it's not gonna happen, but anytime that you can put. 6'7" long arms incredible athleticism. And when I say incredible, his brother and himself are in the 99th percentile of athletes. Like, do not get this twisted, this is a high-level athlete, okay, this is a high level athlete, okay, and I think that A dog Like a Sir Thompson Is something to celebrate.

Now, what are they going to do next year? You ask this question. Hopefully I have some answers for you. You got Tobias Harris who Trying to contract with them, but he's on a reasonable deal. You also have Tim Hardaway jr.

Shooter. No versatility. The defense is I don't know, shooter to me. I love him. He's a misfit skill set next to K high usage and his three-point shot leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, he's still just a dog, though on defense, and here's the best part, if you keep shooter, he can go to the backup role. Help out marcus sasser. Jay nyby comes back. Now you got a four rotation guard situation. I like it. I think it should be something that they should think about. These are the guys you sign when you're trying to hit 38 wins, not when you're rebuilding a 50 win core.

Around 22 year olds now, beasley might be the real trade ship, one of the few. You start a package with him with filler and you might sniff around that next upgrade of what you need. Because here's the problem with malik he can get you buckets. He's going to shoot the volume of three ball 100. But can you get some off ball creation? Or I mean not off ball, can you get some on ball creation second side from him? Can he get teams into the blender? That's very important. Now we talk about that. Why keep floor raising guys hang 45 wins. This is what direction the Detroit Pistons are going. They are not ready to go all in. And who would they go in all in four? Um, I think the the stop gaps. People can say, hey, you know, you only is going to go as far as what tobias harris and malik beasley get you.

Well, again, they trickled their, their win total. Yes, all good. They were absolutely deplorable last year but they did go ahead and triple that win total and they pushed the knicks. The knicks had to play to beat this team. No doubt now do they need to find a second legitimate, you know initiator. Well, isn't that j? Is that, uh, ivy? I don't know what his situation will be next year. Hey, uh, uh, serea 27, 2702. I'm not here to tell you that kate cunningham is the next damian lillard or anything like that, uh, but I will tell you this we saw real, we saw real growth, we saw real development. We saw a team come together and we saw a superstar really find himself this year, and that's really the most special part about this journey with the pistons this year is the k cunningham ascendance.

So let's take you to the next game of. You caught my eye and that clipper denver game was just awesome. You ever see a game where the best player on the court is also the calmest guy in the arena, like Bill Russell, reincarnated, but Eastern European, so obviously a lot lighter but more doughier, not as muscular, defined as Bill Russell, definitely doesn't speak like bill russell, um, throwing cross-court lasers and calming his team down. Wow, yokich, that was yokich last night. I mean, he was absolutely a dog, but the Clippers, they showed up and they showed up In a big way. Oh man, they. You know this was.

This wasn't as easy as people Wanted it to be. And now we've got a game seven Because the Clippers and Kawhi and Harden said hell, no, no, no, this is not going to happen, not on our watch. And the one thing that I want to say about the Clippers and I, as somebody who is an avvid Laker fan they played with a lot of heart this year. Shout out to my guy, ashton Ash, love you, my guy. My discord brethren, love that cat. The vibe was different. The tip-off, the Clippers looked ready to go. Harden's body language wasn't bored, he looked like he was actually motivated.

Last night Denver did start slow. Jokic was already coaching in the first quarter. That's never a good sign. When David Adelman hey, we're gonna have to have you on the second, on the second row, because Jokic is gonna be coaching the team. Uh, 25 points, eight assists, seven rebounds.

Obviously this is a quiet game from Jokic. Now I say that so, cavalier like this is, we should just be looking at this like it's an okay game for him. But when you expect Jokic to always get a triple double, when you expect Jokic to always put up high almost 30 points a game and like not just scraping by with the rebounds but going over the rebound double digits robustly, get into 14, 15, 16 rebounds. Sometimes when you see the eight assists and seven rebounds, you kind of go, huh, it was I. It was a high game for him. Anybody else on the planet we would say that's a great game.

But for Jokic, being the best player in the world we hold, we hold him to a higher standard. He pulled ground, he waved off murray uh, he literally was just play a coach. I mean, he was putting, putting bodies in, taking bodies out, putting them exactly where he wanted them on defense and on offense. It was incredible to watch now the james harden game that we did not expect 28 points, eight assists, three steals. He shot 50 from the field. He hit timely threes. He controlled the pace, slowed it when he needed to and ran it in spurts. He's not trying to win mvp, he's just trying to win possessions. That's the difference between the like 20.

What 2019 version of of harden and the? The version now is that you're getting a guy who is really bought into the team situation, the team dynamics, and he understands his role on team mark my words kawaii, leonard. Another incredible game 27 points, 10 rebounds plus 14 on the plus minus situation. Played in rhythm, let Harden do his thing and then kind of like a mini, miniature version of KD just kind of added in his little spices it's herbs and spices every once in a while. The irony of Kawhi Kawhi's last ball dominance now is that he's making more. It's making him more dangerous because you don't know where he is on the court. You gotta account for kawaii every second on the court because he will absolutely destroy you if he sees one go in now, we're gonna. Now we're gonna cut because we're gonna probe and we're gonna see and we're gonna get him more shots. After that he starts to feel good, wants to see one go in.

The Clippers won this game because it was a math war 12 three point makes to Denver's 11. Free throw disparity 13. Well, 13 makes to six makes. So they doubled up in makes. They also almost doubled up in attempts. It was 15 to 9 turnover battle denver's 14. Gave the clippers 23 points. You lose in threes. You lose in free throw battle, you lose in the turnover game, it's a wrap.

I don't care if you got yokage, I don't care. If you got jesus, I don't. I don't care who you got. Optimal, well, optimus, prime, freddy krueger, whoever, whoever you got, if you can't win the three point battle, the free throw battle, if you lose the three point battle, at least win the free throw battle by a significant margin so you can make up why you lost the three-point battle. And then, if you're gonna turn the ball over I mean this is a recipe for absolutely destruction. But they were still in this game because yokich norman powell is doing norman pow Powell things and when I say that I have to shake my head 24 points or a four from the free throw line and a late dagger three to kind of seal it up. He found his rhythm off ball and attacking, missed matches all night long. He's a guy you forgot about until he has 19. And then that's norman powell's game in a nutshell. Just you don't even see it coming might be the nba's most dangerous third option come now.

Now, how do we feel about a game seven in in the? Uh good old, what is it? Uh good old, maha, what? How do we feel? Can murray continue to give them 25 plus with efficiency? Can david addleman call the game without yelkich, or is yelkich gonna call timeouts and then bring in players and take out players? And can the clippers repeat their physicality that they had last night? Or was that a one-off? I don't think so. This has been an incredibly physical battle the whole way through. It's gonna be an interesting situation, man. Gonna be real interesting.

Now, what do we do on a feel good friday, folks? What did we promise you that we were gonna give you on a feel-good friday? Nba draft is coming. We will get you ready, I promise. We kind of did it last week. We did it in baseline buzz. We talked about the cooper flags of the world. We talked about the dylan harpers, I think we also talked about trey johnson a little bit bit and the Ace Bailey. I want to move on. We talked about the VJ Edgecombs. I don't know if we talked about Con Cunibor yeah, we did. Derek Queen, but I want to tell you what some of these guys are or what people are thinking about them right now.

So let's get into this real quick. He questions the rim. He's allergic to main range shots right now 19.4 a game. He attacks the paint like he owns it, like it owes him rent. He can't already read defenses like a seasoned vet. Weaknesses, pull up gang. What up under 30 percent on three on self-created shots? That's not good. That is not good.

By the way, ace bailey, we had talked about this before. We had talked about a guy who we were kind of worried about whether he was going to stay at his number three position or whatever it looks like. I don't know what the draft is going to end up being, but I think some teams are starting to question some of the validity of what he is, what he's put out there on tape. The dude is electric. There's no doubt about it. Dude can shoot his ass off. He's six foot ten. This is richard lewis. This is all the guys that you wanted to make it big back in the day. This is Robert Ori. This is Michael Porter Jr. Now it's that dude. Big, tall dude shoots threes. All of that. Can you put it on the deck? Can you not turn the ball over? Do you have another skill that may be on the defensive side? Are you a two-way player? Can you be somewhat of a two-way player? These are all questions that we have about our guy, ace bailey, and it looks like the nba personnel decision makers are starting to ask the same questions. The lads are asking the same questions in the high rooms, in the rooms that matter, in the rooms where decisions are made, where million dollar deals are just manifested and brought to life. Those guys are having questions about your boy, ace Bailey.

We move on to our. I want to say some guys that you kind of need to know about, and the first guy is carter bryant, out of arizona, the university. Go wildcast all of that. Keep y'all asses in the big 12. We didn't like you in the pack 12. You know this. Still ucla all day. Eight clap fours up. Let's get him what up, okay?

First of all, carter bryan is a stud. Six foot eight long arms, loves to rotate close out. Gives you good two-way energy for like 17 minutes a night. He didn't start much at arizona but made noise when they played them. The jumper serviceable at this point on ball defense legit, absolutely legit. It's almost like this too legit, too legit to quit. You know I'm talking about. You got that, you understand. If you don't understand that, reference youtube. Mc hammer, you're welcome, but the buzz is growing faster than the tape.

This is a guy that gets the, gets to the second round and suddenly everyone like how we missed that? Because again you see, okay, glimpses, glimpses, glimpses. There's not a lot like sustainability with the shot. There's not a lot like sustainability with the shot. There's not a lot of sustainability with the defense. And again, he was on a loaded Arizona team. It wasn't like he could play 32-34 minutes. You wouldn't want to play him 34 minutes, but maybe somewhere in the 28-30 range. But he was getting 17 minutes, 17, barely enough time to break a sweat. You know what I'm saying. But the upside is there. People are buzzing about carter bryant. I can't wait to see what he looks like in chicago. I will be excited about that situation all, all day. Can't wait to see him.

Now I want to get to one of the guys who, to me, is one of the most interesting men in the draft, and the reason why I say that is that he's out of South Carolina, colin Murray Boyles. He's a grown-ass man. At 19 years of age he plays like he was raised by the grit and grind team, like, literally Like he was in their cave and they raised him from like a pup and now he's out in the wild just doing damage. You know what I'm saying, this guy. He's physical, elite team defender, underrated passer. He can switch three through five, meaning that he can guard your swing, your big swing, and your and your uh and your and your big. All together. You can guard all three of those guys. And if you close your eyes, you can see ema adelka drawing a sideline out of bounds place just for him. You don't need him to be a star, just someone who elevates the second unit. You know, and just let's just go hog wild. You know what I'm saying? I like, I like colin murray boils. The thing about it is you gotta see what shot's gonna look like, uh, but brian's carter, bryan's defensive potential is real and murray boils, he just fits, he's a connector. Get him in the building. He plays grown-up basketball team basketball and he's already packed lunch because he's he's a hard head, he's a hard hat guy.

Everybody knows my love for Knipple Edgecombe is coming. Just letting you know, vijay Edgecom cone could be the number three overall pick, could could supplant number two low key, I said it. I wonder if queen is gonna end up being like the guy in this draft that we go damn like behind um cooper flag if we do a redraft four years from now. Is queen gonna be that guy that we go? We should have known. We should have known this dude was gonna be good. I wonder if that's he's gonna be the guy. He's solid as hell but fundamentally sound. But it's just, sometimes you just sit there and you go. He's got 28, he's got 13, he's got four, he's got like two steals. Like bro stacked stuff in the stat sheet. Gotta love it all. Right now.

Frpc fam. This is one. It's for the second string prong creams. This is the dudes who brought the snacks to the party but didn't get handy the ox cable. Let's get to the second round. Let's get to it, and you know who I'm about to talk about.

Give it up for walter clayton jr. He's a kid who went back for his senior year and took the world by storm. I mean just player of the year honors, just shoot the ball like a g. You know he had that bad game last game. Whatever case may be, but he did get it done at the end. Oh boy, walter Clayton Jr hit big shot after big shot after big shot in the tournament and they were high level shots. He kind of reminds me a lot of jamal murray. You wouldn't mind having jamal murray, like with the 22nd, 23rd overall pick. Right, you would take that value. He's got a good pull-up package, he's got some juice off the bounce, but he also might be the guy who's really fun for a two-week tournament and then turns back into a pumpkin. I understand the defense is questionable. Decision making to me I thought was a lot better than uh previously. I think this guy can shoot. I think he is a professional bucket getter and I can't wait to see him do his thing in the NBA and that's what show.

Next guy on this list is Cedric Howard. Now he's only played six games. He's still I'm still thinking about for them. He's a wing size with a seven foot one wingspan. So he's like six, six, six, seven, seven foot one wing span. Fluid mechanics, real and real balance. If you saw his work, his la workout chef kiss, movement, elevation, repeatable jumper. He checks all the boxes, the risk, limited sample size. Obviously I always get worried when we don't get a size. Obviously I always get worried when we don't get a, a big sample size that we can kind of dissect when you get a small one. Then I got questions. But this is the. This is a breakup after prom. This is we show up in tux anyway. You know I'm saying we don't care, you got some stuff that he needs to deal with. But we are honest now.

My favorite guy in the draft I have been real ripped like listen, cougar flag is the dude. But I'm gonna tell you right now, y'all sleeping on y'all were sleeping on rashir fleming for my uh draft prognosticators out there. This dude is. They got him like in the mid-20s and I don't understand. I mean, like, okay, explain to me just off. Six foot nine and a seven foot four wingspan. I'm not even talking about the 39 to 40 from three. I'm not even talking about that. I'm not even talking about the rim side, the uh weak side rim rim protection that he weak side rim rim protection that he provides. I'm not talking about those things, I'm just talking about six, nine, seven foot four wingspan and he's the 26th overall prospect. Like, are we serious about this? Guy averaged 15 points a game, eight rebounds and shot nearly 40 from deep. I still don't know what you want.

Now I will say this there is, if you want to call it this, and I think there's a way to get rid of this. His processing might be a little tick, slow, easy fix. You are a second side offensive creator. You got. You got three options. If the defender got three options. If the defender closes out to you, hard, a hard close out, take the ball to the rim and try to dunk the ball and whoever else gets in your way. Two, make the open pass to the cutter. If the cutter is open, boom, simple. And three, just kick it out to the perimeter above the break if you are in the corner or whatever the case may be. If you give him three simple rules, just three, I think it'll solve all this. I think sometimes we make it more complicated.

Also, take this too, in college, a little bit different. Right, you're playing also for, like, the love of the team love or the school, all that, and think about it this way yeah, you might have all campus department or whatever case may be, but you're still around the college students, right, you're still around them. So if you're around them, you might feel some of the pressures, whatever case may be, when you get to the pros, not around them, right, you got other stuff going on. I gotta get these promotional situations going on. I can't get my shoe deal. I gotta get things crack-a-lacking. I think this guy is one of those guys that's going to be a steal when we get down to like 24, 25. If he makes it there, I still think once they get him in the workouts and they start really seeing what he's able to do.

The processing thing was new to me, you know. Just so, you know, pull like pull the curtain back a little bit. It was the first time that I heard a scout bring up his processing speed and I was like I was like really I only saw him make like pretty you know, like pretty romanial reads. It wasn't like he was looking like skip passes to the, to the corner on the opposite side, he was doing just romanuminio stuff. But the thing about it is a lot of people want to sit there and like really kind of just shit on the ruminio. I'm not doing that. Listen, bro, if you don't turn the ball over, that's a win, win. He didn't do that. Yeah, you can say the processing wasn't as crisp as you want it to be, one of the reasons why he wouldn't be a actual lottery pick.

But six foot nine, seven foot four, athletic as hell gonna shoot darn near 40 percent from three. This sounds seems like a dream come true. Where do I sign up for this? I want this in my building. Another guy that I'm gonna uh cape up for is liam mcneely. And the reason why I'm gonna cape up for liam mcneely at the yukon is that they put him in a really bad spot. Dan hurley, his his point guard, goes out early. Liam McNeely basically becomes a de facto point guard. That's not his role, that's not what he likes to do. So you sit there and you go. Oh well, the shooting was poor. He was known as a shooter. I'm telling you right now, if you get him in the building, he's gonna shoot, he gonna shoot. If you tell him like, oh, you are a stand in the corner, shoot the three guy, he will shoot the three. Maybe to maybe he will shoot you in. He'll shoot you out of games, but he will shoot that ball if he's not the primary playmaker.

If you saw him this year, he was the primary playmaker for the bulk of the season. He did not have the greatest collegiate season and people were even thinking about well, was he thinking about coming back? No, because he was there for a season. He was there for a reason, but he ain't there forever, that's for sure. And our guy said hey, listen, I'm gonna go ahead and run this. You know I'm gonna run this uh point guard situation. But no, this is not how I got it going on whole year they played him out of position.

He struggled to separate. He did. He hit 13 of his pull-up threes, but off ball he. He parks beautifully in the corners. He's like a well-built tesla that doesn't want to merge onto highway. But I think if you get him off ball, coming off screens, whatever case may be, you'll get the guy that you're looking for.

So the next guy on our list is a kind of a late. He's a late riser. His name is jaune bernger. He's from france, he is tall, he is bouncy, he has hands like magnets. He's a rim running big man that you can throw lobs to by january. The downside to him he's still super raw, not much more offensive skill than beyond the dunker spot figuring out the defensive timing at this present time. But he needs to be paired with a great, a great playmaker, somebody who sees him and then wants to weaponize him. Well, you're going like. Well, vince, you're talking about Luka, right? No, halliburton is in that group, gideon's in that group. You know I'm saying I think those type of guys would do well to have Elk Baringer. We would like him too as a Laker, but you know we got like one pick, unless we mine like the highest second round pick or whatever We'll see, might do that.

Lebron is talking about sticking around. He's talking about getting super paid next year. So that means that we don't have no money. All right, now we need to get to the off the bounce segment. The off the bounce segment is scheduled to talk about all the things that's going around in nba. We got a lot of stuff going on, and where do we start? I'll tell you exactly where to start. You win 50 games and you pull off the heist of the decade with the doncha straight and you finish with home court and you lose at five in the first round to the min Timberwolves. There's no, there's no shade. There's no shame in losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves. There is shade in losing to the Timberwolves in five games. There's that. You got to give me that right. So were the Lakers out man? Yes, for god's sakes.

We talked about the Luka thing like it was magical, like it was some sort of like magic power that was gonna raise everybody up, like in the video games like a plus five. You get like an armband or something and because it has playmaking ability, everybody goes up five and plus five and two k overall. This ain't no damn video game, but one, two. I was the one who said you got two super computers, and then austin reese as a third guy who has some of those same abilities 100. Believe in that if you were able to be with the team, that was maybe a little bit smaller, maybe not, as I wouldn't say I don't care about the athleticism because you can get around that, but let's say you had a person that was a little less on the ball, so to speak. You have a better chance of doing stuff because you're going to have the advantage intellectually. Lebron james and luka Doncic are incredible when it comes to the cerebral part of the game. Austin Reeves is also credited to be a guy who is pretty headsy. When you talk about, you know, thinking the game, thinking the game through, thinking the game two steps ahead. Those guys get those kind of you know accolades and earmarks and things of that nature. But again, yo, yo, what we doing athleticism like they held them the whole game. All good.

The Lakers were 50, 50 and 32 they did on the third seed. They went out 4 to 1. I mean, this is Denver all over again. There was not an injury, excuse, all get. Luca was banged up. They said LeBron has a tear in his MCL that he'll be fully recovered by and you know spring training and stuff like that. But we'll see how it goes.

Wasn't like this was a fluke series. It was a blueprint that was exposed. Because here's the deal jackson hayes, who is basically their own legitimate seven footer, I understand they got alex lynn. Alex lynn can't play no offense to Alex Lin older, slower, not as mobile as everybody else on the team. Well, why did we not play? Uh, what's our guys name that came over in two day or ten day. Just, you got cleaver, you got a lot of bags, bro.

Now LeBron is gonna pick up his option and so if he's picking up his option and that's 52 to 54 million dollars next year, I can tell you exactly why he did this. You can say you sit here and go. Oh well, lebron's now getting a team player, all this other stuff. He gave that money back last year. It didn't work out. I don't know if he says let's go to the well again or he just said nah, let's not, because also keep in mind the power dynamic in los angeles. Los angeles is now run by exclusively luca donchage. Now the ron people will debate me on that. Okay, let me see if I can help you out. Uh, lebron brought a title to los angeles. Okay, one so far.

Well, lebron has given us so many tremendous play playoff moments. I don't know a couple, but not as many as you think. So, if that's the case, that's what's going on here and it's just like you know preference over whatever case may be, gotta do what you gotta do, but at the end of the day, this team is flawed flawed, I tell you. So, yeah, I think you are looking at a situation where, if you can extend him out, great, but if he does here's the thing he's gonna want his money. Lebron is definitely gonna want his money. He's told you. He's told you, and I'll tell you why. He saw the power dynamic shift. He saw that luke is now in charge. He saw it took them only one day to try to go out and get a rim running big. He saw that.

So what did lebron do? Okay, so last year I gave you a little sweetener. You didn't really live up to your end of the bargain. Now you coming back for it again and I'm gonna slap your hand and say no, not giving that to you. You know why I'm not giving it to you? Two reasons. One if I do it, I'm giving money up. I scored 25 points a game this year. I was doing damage in the playoffs. Yeah, we didn't win, but I I held up my quarter bargain. You need to go talk to that other dude. That's what lebron's gonna say, not saying it's right, but he, that's what LeBron's gonna say, not saying it's right, but he, that's what he's gonna say. And you can come back to LeBron and say hey, bro, we 4-1. Like this seems to be like a pattern for you. Like we keep losing 4-1. Homie, what are we doing?

And then lakers didn't have a bench. Uh, austin reeves and luca donchage, or your primary scorers, dfs, which was our box plus minus king during the regular season, just couldn't hit the broad side of the barn. Uh, who else was out there? Our guy, um, what's the guy thing? Guy, we got from gay vincent. Gay vincent also struggled, struggle bus series for him. Vando, we still, we know he can't shoot, it is what it is, but he didn't give us really a lot.

They pulled him early, so where do the lakers go from here early? So where do the lakers go from here? That it seems like a reddit problem or, uh, a palinka issue. Because here's the best part laker fans, you can get mad all you want. I understand mad, great gotcha. Here is my problem. I thought they were a playing team before the trade, like they were showing me something, they were surprising me in.

Whatever the case may be, then they make the trade and I'm kind of going like well, we don't have bigs, whatever it's like, we'll get to the playoffs but we'll see what happens. But y'all saying, like he, what he? I am at the position now with him, with LeBron Jamesames at 40 years of age, which he'll be 41 next year, for for the most, for the majority of the season. It sucks, yes, but this is what they're gonna do. We're gonna cater to the superstars. He's gonna get his money. No doubt he's not going to give a home, hometown discount or anything like that. He's gonna opt into his 52, 53 million dollar contract and then lakers are going to have to manipulate the salary cap. They're going to have to make shrew moves. He is going to make palinka do his job, no doubt.

Love our guy palinka, love the heist of the century, love that we got luca. Understand that this was a hard kick in the nuts Losing this series, no doubt. But we need to be humble and we need to understand that we didn't have Biggs and we didn't have any kind of offensive creation off the bench. We need a laser off the bench. We need a dude who can shoot it, who can also maybe defend a little bit. Just, please, don't be the turnstile that dalton connect is. Praise jesus and praise the lord.

Now we all know the story about mark williams trade getting rescinded. We also know that right after the lakers lost our guy, as petty as he could possibly be, mark williams sent out like a happy face emoji, like good to you, thank you for losing, thank you for sucking. Here's the thing mark, you're on the lottery team dog. Hey, mark williams, I understand that. You. Seven foot two, big, scary dude, all that kind of stuff.

I'm a little humble man from from long beach, california, you know, I'm just a. I'm just a humble cog in the NBA media, that's all. I am humble cog, right, humble cog of this machine. But I'm gonna tell you something, my man. You got some big ass britches on you coming out here on social media and throwing shade. You play for a team that is perennially in the lottery. You can't be throwing off world tickets. You can't be throwing this shade. This is not, listen. Stay in your lane, my guy. Yes, they didn't want you, you're right, because the medicals didn't look great. But for you to throw shade like, oh, oh yeah, yeah, I'm happy they lost. Okay, I get it, I get it.

You keep that to yourself because you know what you just done. You are just giving yourself a one-way ticket to the luca donchess experience next year, because if you don't think there's going to be some well-meaning media member in the los angeles like beat writers situation who does not bring this up to luca donchess, that they don't tell him about what you did at the end of his season last year and we know how petty and how vindictive luca is bro you just put yourself on america's most wanted with the best, the best hitman on the planet. Good luck to you next year. Thank God you're in the East. Thank God you only played the Lakers twice, so you're only going to get embarrassed twice. So there you go.

Do the Lakers need a vertical lob threat? 100%. Kalinka even said it. I am tired of hearing the names of Kessler, claxton, lope lopez is so old, we do not need him. We do not need clint capella he is so old.

Let's try to look at guys who are in the younger range. Let's try to look for guys who are what I would consider distressed assets. Let's see if we can get a younger guy who can play multiple years and then we can sign on to multiple contracts and everything like that. Let's try to do that. It's kind of what I want to do. Reeves is a certified G. He had a breakout year this year. I'm so excited for him. And here's the thing we can talk about jj reddick all we want. We can talk about what kind of rookie year he had we could talk about. He got the job off the strength of his podcasting. We can talk about all that.

At the end of the day, the lakers did something this year and you would only notice if you watch them every single game. They responded to JJ. Where Darvin Ham got tuned out, where Frank Vogel got tuned out seriously easy. The one thing about it is is when JJ says something up at that podium or in a in a practice setting with a media scrum, the lakers ears perk up and you see them kind of coalesce around, whatever the idea that jj is talking about. Right, this is something that we've seen over and over this year. Now ask yourself, as a laker fan or as a fan of the nba, did you see that type of situation when darvin ham was here? I saw a lot of like going through the motions. There's a lot of players on this team that call jj a and they say that respectfully, because he demands like yo, you're gonna play hard, bro, and if you're not gonna play with effort, get off my court. Love that about my guy.

What's the future for the Lakers? Lucas 26. Reeves 26. Vaughn is father time Himself. No cap space, no picks, really Limited flexibility. Where do we go from here? Well, you would hope that you got a really good uh scouting staff. You would hope that your scouting staff, your pro scouting staff and maybe your uh draft scouting, your college, collegiate international scouting, is real, real good because you need to get a rim running big. That's 6 11. Now, as far as your wings and whatever, maybe because you got the 611s, you know, rim running big. Maybe that allows Rui to become more of a defensive like perimeter dude, which I don't think that's going to happen. You know, dorian Finney-Smith is a little bit older. You're gonna have to kind of help him out with another guy and Dalton Connect is gonna have to learn how to play defense in the offseason. So we got to see what's going on there.

I hate to end feel good Friday on this note, but I think it's out of respect. I want to show my respect. Frontrunner Podcast Collective as a whole, as a whole entity, wants to show it's respect to San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich, who in November suffered stroke. We understand that there was another complication. There seemed to be had like a second stroke. We knew this day was coming and it has hit the basketball world differently. It it hit me differently.

Say what you want about Pop. Say what you want to say about Greg Popovich's demeanor towards media reporters. Whatever the case may be the one thing you know about the man because you hear it from the players. I trust the players implicitly in this matter. You don't usually hear them talk glowingly about coaches. The way they talk about greg popovich not just his mind for basketball, but the thing that's more important to them is how he benefited me as a man, how he helped me grow as a man, how he shaped me as a man. Gray popovich has a military background. He is a disciplined man, he is a demanding coach. But the one thing that he also was under that exterior that you saw when he was talking to NBA media or sideline reporters and I understand people were really exhausted by that shtick. The one thing that I will say his players adore him because they know that he doesn't just give a shit about them on the court, he cares about them personally and that type of person is going to be missed in our game of basketball.

Are there more out there? Yes, will we highlight them? Will we celebrate them? Absolutely, but we are going to take this minute to talk about a 29 year coaching run without drama. Five titles, folks. Five NBA titles. So he's getting one every six years. One thousand four hundred and twenty two wins, 18 straight, 50 win seasons.

Was there a press conference? No. Was there an IG farewell? No. That man retired without fanfare. Was it about ego? We asked earlier in the season was this the time for him to step away and listen? Sometimes you like being right. You relish that whole situation. I'm not going to sit here and try to glaze y'all up and try to gas y'all up and say we don't care about being right Because we do. We care about being right, but this time I wish I was wrong. For Victor Wimbayama, for Stephon Castle, for whoever they're about to draft in the 2025 draft. I understand that he's still going to be part of the organization we're about to draft in the 2025 draft. I understand that he's still going to be part of the organization we're going to get to that.

Mitch johnson is the new coach, by the way. What a what a great job he did as a uh interim coach. What a great job he did steering that franchise in a really difficult time period, not knowing whether great popovich was gonna come back. You always had this shadow. He kept the team together. Victor went by. Yama gets the deep thing. Thrombosis ends the season. These dudes are still playing hard. They're the. They're the team that put gold State into the plan.

So say what you want about the san antonio spurs, I think they might be in good hands with mitch johnson. Uh, he did take over for pop. After the stroke. They did finish with a 34 and 48 record. We did talk about the wimmy thing since march on um, he is a pop disciple. He was on that staff for a long period of time. He was already leading internal systems. Players respect him for his clarity in his communication.

Now what is pop going to do? President of basketball ops, he will continue to advise mitch johnson and be kind of a advisory mentor to that young man. So coach isn't dead, he's just turning into a, a ghost gm. Not bad right, not bad gig if you can get it. But we want to respect the hell out of pop. We salute you, sir. Thank you for your service. Thank you also for your dedication to the crowd for 29 years. My man appreciate you. Keep this in mind when you talk about great popovich and his influence, right? Steve kerr how many championships does steve kerr have? That's four. Mike brunhoser has a championship. Uh, there is borrego, who is now coach, and brooklyn and he. They had to continue to in the influx G League players into his team because he kept winning. He screwed up their whole tank job in Brooklyn because he was such a good coach. Becky Hammond has won championships for the Las Vegas Aces as well. And now Mitch Johnson's story begins. And now Mitch Johnson's story begins.

One thing I do want to say about Mitch Johnson from what I saw, his demeanor on the sideline I wouldn't say it wasn't pop-like. It was very cerebral, it was very calm. He seemed to have a real kind of like oh, I kind of know what's going on here and there was just a poise about him that I really enjoyed enjoyed personally. Now we'll get to see if he can coach, but when you got stefan castle, deere and fox and victor wing by yama, you're off to a pretty damn good start with those three guys. Just to say, when you don't have greg popovich in the room anymore.

Now I understand that he's the you know ghost shadow GM Brian Wright still doing his thing down there. Shouts out to Brian Wright. Love you player. Stephon Castle is the truth. You did a good job on that pick In a draft that was iffy last year. You found a gem. Speaks to your scouting department, speaks to your your instincts on evaluating talent and I just want to give you your flowers. So shots out to Brian Wright. Spurs have classic cap flexibility. No doubt they still own multiple picks and they're not pressured to win 55 games next year, so sky's the limit of where they can go in the draft or if they want to make a move, or whatever the case may be. I think we're still in the developmental stage. Let's go ahead and get the pick this year and then let's see where we end up.

Right, the squires didn't just lose a coach, they promoted a philosophy. Keep in mind the stoicism of Pop, the stoicism of Tim Duncan. You had Tony Parker there, you had Manu Ginobili there before them, you had David Robinson, you had Sean Elliott and you had Bruce Brown. You have a ton of people. All those people were affected by Greg Popovich. All those champions I just talked about were Greg Popovich guys. Steven Jackson, captain Jack our guy from All the Smoke, by the way love that podcast Shouts out to our guys Matt Barnes and Steven Jackson. Love the podcast, enjoy the content. Can't do it myself, but love it. He helped Steven Jackson for a long period of time. You know these are guys that went through that organization, real ones.

You know Roger Bell talks about wanting to play for the San Antonio Spurs and it was towards the end of his career. He couldn't do it because, you know, he needed to get that last decent little payday, but it wasn't because there was a lack of want. It was because circumstances there was a lack of want. It was because circumstances. Now, I wonder, does the ghost of popovich's system, does the ghost of the popovich influence, continue to permeate through the spurs and they're able to grasp those guys that are under the radar? And whatever the case may be, this is the question of the day. Is mitch johnson the dude? We gonna find out. We are really about to find out what's what in san antonio. But I'm excited for their journey, I'm excited for their development. I'm excited for mitch johnson getting this opportunity. And then again, I'm a little saddened that I will not be listening to pop parade.

Uh, sideline reporters, you can say whatever you want about that, how mean spirit it is and stuff like that. I think everybody got the joke. I think everybody understood the joke. This man is trying to coach a basketball team and you bringing him out of a damn uh huddle to ask him like two questions. I understand, yeah, there's a little bit of you think there's a little bit of disrespect there. Whatever case, I understand that, I understand.

But let me ask you something. When you're busy doing something at work or busy doing something or whatever, and somebody just comes in and gives you just ask a nine question about whatever it is that you're doing. What's your response to that? It's easy for us to point fingers at other people and then like, when it's on us, like it's on us, we like, oh, oh, I do that. I'm not even aware. I do that. No, you were aware. You know what's up, you know what's up.

So again, I want to uh celebrate greg popovich for having such an outstanding uh career. Uh, I wish it did not end under these circumstances personally, but uh, there it is, there we are, and that might be a good place to for us to end. You know, now the Spurs are like in this like new phase of their life and I'm also in the new phase of my life, right, with no smoke in the whole situation. So here's the thing we're just going to enjoy the journey. We're going to see a lot of ups and downs with both myself, probably, and the spurs, but the one thing that we do know is that victor wimbayama is already working out. We know that, we know that part right there, and if he's working out that bosewell for early in the season and seeing Victor play, so it looks like the deep vein thrombosis is not a huge dilemma in his life and we are all benefiting from that because we are going to see that 7 foot 5, absolutely, basketball, pterodactyl, basketball, pterodactyl run rough shot over the league for many years to come. So this excites me in so many ways.

So, with that being said, enjoy your Friday also. Enjoy your weekend also. I will enjoy my weekend. What are you guys getting into? Let us know. At frontrunnerpc Also, I will enjoy my weekend. What are you guys getting into? Let us know At FrontRunnerPC. At Rhea underscore Funch, frpc let's go over to Blue Sky, of course. At FrontRunnerPCBSky Social, because Sarea is super fancy, it's frpc hyphen rea dot b sky dot social.

And y'all getting to youtube, because not only is the podcast going up, did you notice? There are clips. Clips are coming back. What up? You know how we do it. We're doing it big. And also keep in mind, as always, when we drop a pod, we drop a blog, we drop a second screen experience for you. And where do you get that at? You can only get it at one place, one place only, and that is frpcpodcastpageio. That's where you get the blog, that is where you get the podcast, that is where you get the blog. That is where you get the podcast. That is where you get all of the All of the social medias, all of the social media links. You get them there. You hang with us. You hang with Front Runner Podcast Collective Because we are the best.

We are the best at what we do. I can say that confidently Because I want to give you information, entertainment and fun all the way through. And if I can do that, I'm a blessed man. I feel good. I want you guys to feel good. So go out, enjoy your weekend, and I'm gonna leave you with this surround yourself with people who are going to lift you up, push you forward and remind you just who you are.

If you got folks like that in your life, celebrate them, text them, facetime them, hug them and let them know that they really matter to you, because with growth, it hits different when you're surrounded by love, support and real ones. And if you are building a circle like that, if you're building a circle of trust like that, you come here to front runner podcast collective, because that's what we do here. Start with us. We always got a seat for you and with that, for serea, for the entire frpc crew. Vance, I see you out there, my god. Thank you very much. Salute you, I am Vince. Y'all have a good weekend. We will see you back on this podcast, on this feed, on Tuesday Deuces.