Securing the Core: How OKC's Strategic Extensions Are Changing the NBA

it's friday, you know what time it is. Front runner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today pod we have a feel-good Friday. We're going to talk about Chet Holmgren getting the bag. We're going to talk about Jalen Williams getting the bag and how OKC has secured their core, going forward for the foreseeable future. We'll also get into some other things and why some of these restricted free agents aren't signed yet, and then we'll have a little summer league synopsis of the first day of Vegas Summer League, some of the popular circumstances that go on around it, and we will go ahead and discuss all this with you. So buckle up for a feel-good Friday. Yeah, soraya, on silent ones and tools, she'd be dropping in her notes as per usual, and then we will go from there, all right. So a couple other things that we need to get out the way. A little house cleaning. One thank you for the response.

Tuesday podcast People jumped on it. I didn't know you guys were going to come back. Honestly, we had COVID, like last week, in the middle of all the free agent frenzy and trades and what have you, and then to see the numbers this week, um man, it's speechless. And we are all across the world again Germany, germany, italy, spain, bolivia, chile, argentina, china, japan, australia is in the building, new Zealand is in the building. You know, laos For real, I couldn't even believe it. For real, I couldn't even believe it. There's just all these faraway places that are really just enjoying basketball and enjoying conversation about basketball, and we hope that we bring you informative, entertaining concepts and also the things that you need to know about what's going on in the NBA. So with that, let's get into it. There's so much we can get into and we will start right here. We got to start with the bags. Everybody got bags, okay, so Feel Good Friday. Front Runner Podcast Collective is here and we saw that Shea got the bag a couple weeks ago, or actually it seems like so long ago, but probably about 10 days ago. Then Jalen Williams gets his rookie extension and then Chet Holmgren got his rookie extension, his rookie extension, and then Chet Holmgren got his rookie extension. So OKC and Sam Presti have decided that this is the core. We've identified it, this is where we're going. And then the ancillary pieces around it. We have enough ammunition through draft, through young players, that we can trade, or whatever the case may be. You know what's going to happen there. So right now they are in a really good position. Supposedly, when it's going to start hurting them as far as the cap restrictions and what have you looks like it'd be in 2029 and 2030. Well, soon. How many titles we talking about by then? Hey, we got the first one. We got that out the way.

This year Little parade in Oklahoma City. A lot of people were excited. A lot of people were just it was great. Now we got everybody signed up.

Here's a note from Soraya. This is about Sam Presti's team building. This isn't just savvy roster construction. This is Presti playing 4D chess. He saw Chet's defensive potential coming off his foot surgery. He spotted Jalen Williams before the rest of the league knew how to spell Santa Clara. He locked him up before the prices got too spicier. I don't know about whether he locked him up before it got too spicier. This is just the money that you have to give to two quality young men. And here's the other thing that we always want to preface when we're talking about oklahoma city. Jaylen williams and chet hungary are 23 years of age. Okay, so let's lock that in real quick If you have Shea, who's the MVP of the league and also the finals MVP at 26,.

Then you have Chet, who's still growing into his body, still growing into his game Albeit, his game is really nice right now. We know there's so much more that he hasn't tapped into yet, so we're good there. And then Jalen Williams had a breakout season. In the finals he averaged 23.6 points a game, five rebounds, 3.7 assists. And then Chet Holmgren anchored the paint. While hitting shots from 26 feet, he did most of his damage inside on the defensive end, deterring shots, rim protection and just being that absolute anchor that you need on the back end. And then you got Shea, the MVP, obviously the complete difference maker, you know, really the spearhead of the best point differential in NBA history, which was 12.87.

And that's the thing. You can't even get caught up in the champagne, because the cap is not your friend when you are successful. But Presti has said okay, these are my guys, these are the ones that I am going to roll with, and then everybody else is okay, we got some hard decisions that we might have to make soon, but okay, say is in the best, best situation for this. And the reason why I say that is because if you look at lou dort. Right, lou dort is in. He's entering his prime now.

If he gets too expensive, what could you get back for him? I think they have a way to continue the bounty of picks that they have. Mind you, when we go into 2026 NBA draft, they got two first-rounders. You're sitting there going damn for real, rich, get richer, richer. Yeah for sure. Remember they were the team that ended up with thomas sober out of georgetown, the center. So if this kid develops in the next couple years, hardenstein's contract gets a little too bulky. You can go ahead and flip Hardenstein for more picks. You got a young cat waiting in the wings.

I love it. I think this is great. This is tremendous on so many levels. So I don't see this train slowing down anytime soon. I think it practically put them in a really good position with how they acquired a lot of these picks, how they've been able to manipulate the draft. It's like, okay, we currently don't have anybody that we're eyeing in this draft, let's go ahead and flip this pick for a future pick and keep it moving. He's done a phenomenal job with the constraints that the NBA puts on you and remember this was in the middle of their rebuild that you find out that, hey, the CBA is going to be completely different. People had to pivot quickly to see how these ramifications were going to stymie their development or stymie how they wanted to roster build. Now we're here and the one team that really has it going and has a championship underneath their belt is still one of the youngest teams in the league, youngest and successful. Such a deadly combination.

Let's talk about the cap. Reality check that first apron, that second apron, the Thunder about to hit both like a speed bump, and the math says you can't pay everyone. Ha, ha, we shall see. So what this is going to come down to, honestly and we kind of touched on it a little bit but we'll start breaking it down and we'll start talking about some of the players that might be affected by this. We did already talk about Hardenstein a little bit. He just signed. But can you pay three centers when you already have Chet? Lou Dort deal looks team-friendly until you realize he's the fifth highest paid guy. Now we'll see how those math when they start crunching the numbers.

How long can they hold on to Lou Dort? He's such a pivotal player to what they want to do. He's such a defensive um, he'd be like a defensive queen on a chessboard. You can move him around, he can play multiple positions, he can in the post. He can hold up against 6'8", 6'9" guys, guys, maybe with 20, 30 pounds on him. He seems not to have any issues with those guys.

And then you have Cason Wallace. Now Cason Wallace came off his second year Another sneaky good on-ball defender, still on his rookie deal. So there's nothing to really worry about right now. But that is going to be a question for you next year. And if you can push it off two years, great. And then Alex Caruso. Here's a guy that we saw. We saw the intangibles and the tangibles work together in concert. And now he's on an expiring deal coming into next year. So there's decisions to be made there.

You're Presti for the day. Who do you move to make the numbers work? Drop your trade pitch and then hashtag Thunder Crunch Time. Hit me up on Twitter. Hit my producer up on Twitter. Let me give you those handles real quick. My producer is Raya underscore punch FRPC. For myself, it is at FrontRunnerPC. Let us know who you think might be the first cap casualty in this new era of the CVA and the first and second acorns, and how does one? To me, as far as front office organizations, sam Presti is the best. It's not because he he won the championship this year. We were saying that Sam Presti was best last year To see all this full circle and to be in this situation right now, knowing that these decisions are coming, and have gone through the Durant-Westbrook-Hardin situation before.

What did you learn from that? Can you now be better prepared for what you're about to run into? Because the thing about the aprons and the CBA they are there to not keep these teams together for long. You've got to start looking at these windows now. Okc has a long runway ahead of them, but a long runway now is four years. Now. Can you extend it by hitting on a draft picker or whatever occasion may be, or somehow kind of game in the market and getting somebody who is completely undervalued and you just see something in him and he fits a specific need for your team. Cresty's very good at that.

I talked about Lou Dort. Right, here's a guy who was not very highly thought of, was not very highly thought of. Cresty signed him to like these weird, like multi-year deals that weren't a lot of money and then you started to see Lou Dort's value grow. Now. It all culminated when Lou Dort started to shoot about 38% from three. But that defensive mentality that he has, that he brought to this team, was absolutely imperative to their success that they had this year. So hit me up and again, put the hashtag Thunder Crunch Time and then the best comments will end up on Tuesday's pod. That's how it works. You know what I'm saying. We are here to celebrate you guys, to make sure that people are getting heard, acknowledged and what have you. We've got a couple of things coming up a little bit later from Tuesday's podcast into this podcast. So look out for that and you can see how it works when people bring in their stuff.

Now the other thing that is going to be the question is Hardenstein versus Chet. Do you really need both? Well, preston already answered that question when he drafted Thomas Sorber from Georgetown. You knew right then. Here we are. Hardenstein's replacement is here Now Chet. That's a different story. We paid that guy. He's a unicorn. He shoot threesrees. He's 7-1, 7-2, probably more 7-2 than he is 7-1. Doing AT&T commercials with Shea Gildress, alexander J-Dub getting in right. Everybody's seen the commercial during the finals and before the finals. Through the finals.

There was a lot of chat. I don't think there's anything to worry about Now. The thing where you will go. Okay, what do you do? Is he a trade for picks? Or is he a trade for picks? Or is he a trade for a specific need that you find that throughout playing? Oh, you know what we? We need a, a veteran wing that can guard six, six to six, nine dudes. You know, maybe for some reason, people figured out Lou Dort, who are a little bit bigger. Now, you know, things change quickly in the NBA, so you don't know where the weakness might come from. But at this point, okc is set up.

Now. Lou Dort is a tone center, no doubt, but can you justify $17 million a year for a guy who's 6'3 and shooting 33% from three, especially when you have Jalen Williams and Shea Gilgis-Alexander doing the heavy lifting? That contract is very movable and some contenders will want him. No, every contender will want him. Okay, let's get that straight. Lou Dort is a Swiss Army knife on defense, army knife on defense. He shoots it well enough and he's not scared to shoot it to allow you to continue to play it. But $17 million, what's the net contract look like? Is it too rich for Sam Presti's blood. Is there another alternative? You started to see the emergence of Cason Wallace, who we'll get to in one second. But you start to see that and you start to think to yourself like there might be an expiration date on Lou Dort.

Now I know the Thunder fans out there are sitting there like damn, are you tearing our team apart? It's not about tearing them apart, it's just the reality of the salary cap era that we live in, how restrictive these patrons are and what have you? And just our belief in Sam Presti and his ability to say, okay, we got to pivot off this guy. To say, okay, we got to pivot off this guy. This was always the alternative to who we're getting rid of. Remember, they used Josh Giddey, who was an on-ball facilitator, to get them a certain type of piece, which turned out to be Alex Caruso Absolutely brilliant. Can't get better than what we just talked about right there.

So now, if you're talking about Lou Dort and you're talking about 33% from the field as far as three-point shooting is concerned, enter Cason Wallace, who is an on-ball ninja as far as point-of-attack defense is concerned. Wallace is the guy you want on your playoff roster. He has that same type of body type, a little bit smaller, but same type of body type as Lou Dort Switchable, young, tough, but if he doesn't get real playoff burn, which he did this year, he started to when the rotations got a little bit tighter. You saw some of his minutes dissipate a little bit. But speaking of mine, this is still a 20-year-old kid. I don't think he turns 21 until the season. And also here's the other thing this is still a 20-year-old kid. I don't think he turns 21 until the season. And also here's the other thing Do you use Kaysen Wallace and his contract situation as a movable piece for more picks?

Or whatever the case may be? There's so many ways that the Oklahoma City can pick and choose where they want to go with this roster. This is why I love what Sam Presti has done. And getting back to Caruso, caruso is now at that age where it's kind of like okay, he solved the need last year. For sure.

I have no questions about Caruso's ability to make winning plays into his 30s. He eats videotape. He's always making calculated risks on the defensive end. He's very smart with his fouls. He's very smart and heady when it comes to the way he sets up his opponent on the defensive end of the ball. But when he becomes a little too pricey, what do you do? You already have somebody there. Some people might say they do, but you know that I think personally Caruso value, who might be high right now. He's your championship glue, no doubt, he's your championship glue, no doubt. But Presti might have to choose Caruso in a new deal or flip him for another asset and keep the machine rolling. Hard dilemmas, no doubt. But again in Presti we trust. Now let's not forget the real win Rusty's vision. He didn't tank for the sake of ping pong balls. He built culture, he developed players and now he has three under 27 stars under control for the next five years. That is elite front office work.

My team that I follow the most is the Lakers. I have to deal with Rob Palenka. I have to deal with the clown show that this dude you know comes into. I don't care what you want to say about the Lucas thing. Yo, you fell into that. My guy and people will say, well, you got to give him credit for that because he was able to keep it mum. Well, if I was getting a generational talent and knowing what I was going to have to give up to get him. I think I would have been able to keep my damn mouth shut too. Personally, oh, you're going to give me $8 million and all I have to do is not say anything. Say less of my guy. I think I can handle that. So, thunderfence, I will ask you this question If you can only keep two of these four, who would you keep? Dort, alex Caruso, isaiah Hardenstein, taysom Wallace who stays Vote, and it'll end up on a poll that Soraya will do for us on her Twitter. So follow her at Raya.

Underscore punch FRPC. Okc has such an embarrassment of riches it's a good problem to have. You just want to chip. You had your first parade. You kept your core together. Now you have to fine-tune. That's the work of the front office. Split Vision.

Sam Presti didn't just build this team, he built a blueprint for everyone to follow. But nobody's going to be able to do it, because you've got to have foresight, you've got to be proactive. Things that I talk to Soraya about. Because you got to have foresight, you got to be proactive. Things that I talk to Soraya about. I talk to my wife about all the times being proactive instead of reactive. Are you pushing the pace, or is somebody else pushing the pace and you're just going along for the ride? I personally like to be in Presti's position. Personally, that's where I would like to be.

So we're going to celebrate OKC. We're going to celebrate the front office and just the incredible job they've done, because, remember, when they blew all this up, this started with Russell Westbrook and Paul George and then the churn started to happen, but it wasn't long. It wasn't long before we got to a point where Shea was there and now you've got all these young pieces that we can also thank the Clippers for helping OKC build this monstrosity of a team that's going to be super hard to beat for the foreseeable future. So shouts out to Presti, shouts out to the OKC Thunder, shouts out to the fans and hopefully, you guys get 25 games on national TV next year. I hope that the NBA Illuminati will sit there and go all right, they did win the championship.

It is the heartland of America. Their guys aren't the most flamboyant dudes on the face of the planet. They're kind of boring when it comes to like interviews and things of that nature. They don't cause a lot of drama. They play damn good basketball. That's what we should care about. We should care about the basketball. Are you executing? Are you finding the open man? Are you turning good shots into great shots? How intensive or intentional are you on the defensive end? Are you following your cues? Do you understand the philosophy of what Mark Dagnall is putting out there? That's what they care about, that's what they're getting their mindset for, and it's beautiful to watch, and I'm glad that they got their championship and now we can move forward, because we got some soap opera type stuff going on in the NBA and I think we should get to it. We're going to pivot to that right now.

So, when we talk about greatness in the front office, we talked about okay, see, we celebrated Sam Preston, what he does. We also talked about how they have not just a system, they have a belief in what type of player they want. They literally look for this certain type of guy to bring into their organization. Now, with these three next names that we're about to talk about, their organizations are still looking for all this, so we'll see how this turns out, but we have three restrictive free agents right now that have no idea. Are they playing for the team that they're currently on or will they be taking a residence somewhere else. And those three guys are Golden State's Jonathan Kamita, chicago Bulls' Josh Giddey and the shooter who loves to shoot more than shooting himself, berkman's Cam Thomas. All restricted free agents, all wildly different cases and all making front office sweat.

So let's get into Jonathan Kaminga and what's going on with him right now. Okay, jonathan Kaminga has been in the thorn to the side of Steve Kerr for the longest period of time. Now, it's not his fault. He's a young guy, precocious, coming into the league, got a lot of talent, and he was not really able to have those couple years where it's like I'm going to make a bunch of mistakes, I'm going to make a ton of highlights and I really can hone in my skills. He didn't get that luxury. What happened to kaminga is he came into a team that was still had a championship mindset. You have steph curry on the team now he's not there anymore but you had clay thompson on the team, obviously draymond and the crew. So Jonathan Kaminga had to get in where you fit in. You know what I mean.

And with that his development to me was kind of truncated. And when you have that, there becomes a growing frustration on the player's part who wants to show more of what he can do, sharpen his skills. But how do you do that when you're still trying to chase those rings? Steph Curry is an all-time talent and I understand Golden State trying to maximize the years you have left with Curry because he's still a difference maker on the court. This was always going to be the problem with that two timeline bullshit that they tried to sell us. It doesn't work. You can't have. We're gonna develop these kids. How do you develop kids? You get a reps. That's how you develop.

And we've talked extensively about the James Wiseman debacle and what have you. But Jonathan Kaminga, to me, is even worse case because they never pull the plug on him. So he's been in the shadows. He's made comments to the press Remember that a couple years ago Like I'm not getting developed, steve Kerr doesn't believe in me, I don't know. And then you have Lakeup who is saying hey, these draft picks are the key to the future and we need to go ahead and develop them. Steve Kerr was not having any of that. He basically said to Jonathan Kaminga or to the press when the press talked to him about Kaminga's comments about being developed, he said well, if he rebounds the basketball and understands our offensive concepts, he'll be on the court.

Jonathan Kaminga is an independent contractor when it comes to scoring the basketball, and what I mean by that is that he has self-creation. Obviously not on the level of, let's say, a Kevin Durant right, kevin Durant is an offense onto himself, but in a minuscule. I guess you can if you squint your eyes hard enough. That's kind of what Jonathan Kaminga is. Obviously it's not as honed, it's not as refined, it's not as sophisticated as it needs to be, but he can get you a bucket. He gets the hole because he got quicks, he's got strength, he's got vertical leaping ability, um, he has the capability of handling the ball, shaking people, people getting to his area. Now he turns the ball over way too much and that's one of the problems that Steve Kerr had with Jonathan Kaminga.

And you would say, well, hold on, steph Curry gets a little loose with the basketball too. I would agree with you. The problem is, steve Kerr is going to give Steve is going to give Steph Curry A bunch of leeway. He is not giving Jonathan Kaminga Any leeway 0.0. So now Soraya has this question Would you pay 20, 28 million a year To a player who Can't shoot threes consistently, has below average playmaking and doesn't ban defenses with the ball, but might become a two-way beast if it all clicks. And that's the point. And that's the point.

What is the ROI on Jonathan Kaminga? When it comes to the Golden State Warriors, I'll tell you exactly what the ROI is. So they have had this very, very public. You know, one side is spy versus spy type stuff. The Kaminga side is like you're not developing enough. Golden State side, well, not really Golden State side, it's more like Kerr's side. Kerr's saying like yo, and then we need you to do these certain things for us to be successful. And Jonathan Kaminga saying those things don't get me paid, those things aren't putting bread in my pocket. So Kaminga is the most physically gifted of the trio Strong defender, rim finisher, but that jumper still not there, still waiting, and that's the hold up to come into a contract extension.

A lot of things that you see, you know, published, publicized, is that they're kind of waiting for a sign trade situation to go down. Well, they don't know what his value is and with the rising cap and what have you? You know this is Kaminga's looking for 30 mil. That's what he's looking for. Golden State is definitely not going to coast on that. They don't think he's a 30 mil a year. Dude. Why am I gonna give you 30 mil aav when I believe that you're more like a 22 mil aav? Let's be real. The jumper is shaky, pull-up numbers are f? Tier, spot up is mid, but this guy defends one through four, plays in every action and finishes through contact. It's like betting on Aaron Gordon's younger, less polished cousin. So if you want a little comp there, this is what we're talking about.

So, dumb Nation, I have a question for you. What would you pay Jonathan Kaminga? Do you want to keep him? Do you want to trade him? You saw the. We got to get to the offers because there was a situation that was not similar to this. But there was a situation that was not similar to this. But there was a situation in this free agency. That might give you a clue to what Jonathan Kaminga's value actually is, and we'll get to it momentarily. But I'd be very interested to hear what Golden State Warriors fans think of their guy and what they would pay him. Do they want to keep him? Is he like absolute sign, the trade bait? Let us know. Front we're at, also at Rhea underscore Funch FRPC.

Now we get to the curious case of Josh Giddey. Giddey's polarizing play when he was with OKC and also some of the off the court struggles that have seemed to go away, really put him behind the eight ball. So okc last offseason braids josh giddy for alex caruso and history has already told us that. Notice that hey, caruso gets helps OKC get a title. You know, chicago gets a young Josh Gideon. Let's see what happens now. The things that he does. Well, he's tall, his floor of vision is top-notch, his floater is butter. But he gets roasted on defense and he's allergic to contact and playoff teams will target him.

Soraya puts this in the chat. She says how much do you pay? A less physical, contact-averse version of Hidu Turkoglu with a shaky jumper and no isolation defense whatsoever? These are good questions. This is why we have Soraya on the payroll. She's awesome. Diddy's passing is elite. He's in the 94th percentile. His three-point shooting shot creation gets a D minus grade. Finishing efficiency is in the 23rd percentile and this goes back to what we were talking about.

Here's a guy that is 6'8", about 222 pounds. Good physical stature, good shoulders will have you. When he goes to the rim he is avoiding contact at all costs. He is not like, okay, I'm gonna lower my shoulder, bump you off me. The things that um, non-okc thunder fans have, just nba fans have in general with, say, gilgameshilders Alexander, where he uses that forearm as a weapon to get people off of him so he can go ahead and hit that midi we don't have that with Josh Giddey. Josh Giddey is, again he's physicality averse. He's looking to slither, maneuver, get past you to then get to the hole and do what he wants to do, and again it shows in the 23 percentile that we're talking about. He's a feel-over-physicality type of player.

Chicago definitely needs his playmaking, though, but how do you structure a deal around that and can you build a team that will help him with his deficiencies? Do you trust the Chicago front office brain trust to do this, the Chicago front office brain trust to do this? Do they have the vision and the forethought to get the pieces around Giddy to make all of his special abilities even more pronounced? So I have not seen it. We've been waiting for Chicago to be good for a long period of time and they'll tell you well, we have some bad luck with Derrick Rose. How long ago was that? Like we talking over a decade.

Now let's get real serious. This is a perennial playing team and I said on this podcast and I said to friends and I've talked to people around the league and the sentiment is pretty much kind of all agreed upon is that the Reindorffs anything for that extra game? Now we've been saying for a couple years now hey, go ahead and tank, strip it down a little bit and then you can build it in the ways of how teams are doing team building. Now they refuse to do that in Chicago and it's rinse and repeat. We break our ass to get to the plan, we win our first game and then we get knocked out by the Miami Heat in the second playing game.

I don't know, I know how Chicago fans feel a little bit. They've been frustrated with this process for a long period of time now and it's crazy to me that, with the legacy that is in Chicago, michael Jordan to some of us is the greatest of all time To some of us. Y'all say he played in the 80s and 90s where mailmen and accountants played. I don't agree with that. But that's a debate for the youngins. We don't need to get into all that.

This is a DM we got from Colleen Criteria. It says Giddy is a starter on a playoff team. Is a glorified backup initiator Like that one we're talking about? As far as money is concerned, I talked to a couple people in the league and they said, realistically he's looking for around $27 million a year AAV. The executives around the league are more thinking like in the range of four years, $82 million with incentives on three-point percentages and defensive ratings.

The Bulls right now have some options. I personally think they have. Kobe White, if you wanted to maybe move Giddy and get something that replaces what Patrick Williams was supposed to be, that would be awesome. Is there a way we can attach Patrick Williams to Giddy, maybe not get as much back in return, but we get a set of draft picks. Or take your choice If you want a bunch of draft picks, you're not going to get an underdeveloped, maybe diamond in the rough type of player. Or do you take the diamond in the rough type of player and less draft picks, less draft compensation? These are all good questions and all things will play out on the watch probably in the next week or so, but I'll be very curious to see what the number is that Giddy signs for. But I'll be very curious to see what the number is that Giddy signs for, and it'll tell me what we need to know about where Chicago is headed.

Are they making another mistake and putting their rebuild process, three years later, down the line? Because, remember, we just went through the Zach Levine era in Chicago. How'd that work out? They held on to him too long. His values just continued to dissipate. And then you trade him for almost nothing to Sacramento and you're still stuck Because you didn't get a bunch of picks or young players to replenish what you have with him. Same thing with DeRozan. Derozan walked for free, nothing. So these are, these are the type of problems that Chicago continues to run into, and it's again.

Are you proactive? Are you looking three years ahead to okay, this is where we kind of need to be, this is what we kind of need to do, and how can we get there? What pieces are we willing to give up on to then flip it? In a lesser way? This reminds me of the Zion Williamson thing that's going on in New Orleans. I've heard from people down there said that they're so scared to trade him because of what Anthony Davis did once he left and so on, that if they trade him. He turns out to be a monster. He turns out to be the Zion Williamson that we all thought he was going to be. You know how does that look. How does that look for them, how does it look for the whole organization? My whole thing is that he hasn't been productive for you.

Now, giddy is a different situation. We were talking about Levine. Giddy is different. We were talking about Levine, giddey's different. But my whole thing with Giddey is is that can you have you communicated enough with him and his agency that it's like hey, we love the second half that you put up, but we need to see you more? Is there any way we can sign like the deal that Jalen Green set up for when he signed that two-year deal with the third year? Is there any way that Chicago can kind of mimic that situation and do the same thing with Giddy? That would be something that I would be like okay, chicago is really forward-thinking now, but if you're not going to do that and you're just going to sign him to a four-year, like, let's say, 110 million dollar deal, then guess what we're going to be in the same situation when it comes to Jack Levine. So, buckle up. At least the Bears look like they're getting their act together, though let's talk scores now.

So Cam Thomas lives for buckets and he is another restricted free agent that we kind of need to break down. So one of the things that I talked about with Cam Thomas, especially in the last couple of years, was we knew that the Brooklyn Nets were going into full tank mode and what have you. And it's like Cam Thomas is going to get a bunch of shots To the point of. The running joke in our production meetings is, especially when the season's going on, is how many assists do you think Cam Tomlinson's gonna have tonight? Like over or under two? Like is he gonna have an assist by accident? And here's another guy who it's about time to get paid. Like we said, he's a bucket getter. The defense he's a turnstile and his shot selection is somewhere between reckless and evil. Wild genius.

Soraya, just put this in the notes. Do you overpay a 6'3 guard who doesn't play defense, doesn't pass and takes the toughest shots in the league, but he's just enough to stay relevant. He is a tough shot maker, that's for damn sure. Event, he is a tough shot maker, that's for damn sure. He's lou, will clone with even less conscience. Pull up threes, 98 percentile. Shot quality first percentile, dead last. I will say that again Pull up threes, 98 percentile. So this guy is absolute demon when it comes to pull up threes. So you're talking about taking your man, coming to a dead stop, getting your shoulder square and launching the shot. It's one of the hardest things to do in the league. It's where you can make your bread and butter. But again, shot quality, first percentile, meaning tough shots all the time. But he puts up 24 a game and he warps defensive schemes. Again. This is Lou Will all over.

Would you rather pay Cam Thomas $28 million? Yeah, or Jordan Clarkson? What was it? 10? He made 10 in the free agency period. I'm just saying Now the Mets can match any offer.

Some of the people that we talked to in the league they thought that he would get somewhere or they thought where they would feel comfortable with him would be like three years, 60 million, because they really do believe. The thought of Raleigh is that Cam Thomas is a microwave scorer off the bench, so we don't have him playing like 35 minutes dealing with you know, starting and what have you, but him cooking your second unit defense. That sounds like a very nice role for our guy Cam Thomas. But if he's talking about $28 million you know $30 million this is where you start getting into the Bradley Beal range. And I'm not talking about Bradley Beal now, I'm talking about the days in Washington when they were talking about him as their primary player. You know, he was there when John Wall got hurt, the whole deal and they treated him very well. They said, oh, you're going to stick with us, got loyalty, and they kept on, in a sense, maxing him out to the point where they had to pivot, get off of him. They didn't really get anything back for him, but they were so relieved they could get off the contract.

Enter Phoenix, enter the chat, and now look at what Phoenix is going through with Bradleyville. The problem is that this is the guy that's on your team Now. They made some moves, so maybe those moves, if you look at it from a distance, that's the precursor to allowing Cam Thomas to walk, because, remember, they just traded Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets. But whatever you think of Michael Porter Jr, michael Porter Jr is 6'11 and can get buckets and he's going to get them a hell of a lot easier than what Cam Thomas does. So I don't know if this was kind of like hey, so if you're trying to extort us for like some $30 million a year AAV, nah, we're not doing that. We already got one guy on the team making a boatload of money. We don't need two of y'all because your talents are duplicative. So we're not going to have a ton of redundancy and especially if we got a 6'11 version of you, we're going to take the 6'11 version of you anytime over the 6'3 version of you. So, cam Thomas, fred Lightly, my guy and I wish you well in all your endeavors into this free agency period.

The reason why we brought these guys up not just because of the restricted free agent and some of the nuances that are going on with them is that there hasn't been a lot of movement. There hasn't been a lot of like okay, what's going on here? Um, you would think by now we would know where jonathan cominga was going to end up. There's so many good chance. I mean it's a better than 50-50 shot. I would say it's more like 80-20. Kaminga's leaving, going to stay. I do think Josh Giddey will stay with the Chicago Bulls, but I'm very, very interested in what that number is going to be, and Cam Thomas is Cam Thomas. He could be there. He could not be there. Wherever Cam Thomas go, he still hasn't seen a shot that he doesn't like. Cam Thomas loves to shoot the basketball.

So Golden State right now is boxed in through the dilemma of what Jonathan Kaminga wants to be and what he has to be for the Golden State Warriors. Here's the other thing with Jonathan Kaminga, especially in Golden State you got Steph Curry, you got Jimmy Butler now. Now he could have argued when Andrew Wiggins was there that hey, I deserve more touches. You can't necessarily argue that when you got Jimmy Butler on the roster and you're never going to supersede the magistrate that is Steph Curry. That is Steph Curry. Okay, this is literally. If you want to talk about superstars, megastars, whatever, this is the best star franchise relationship in the NBA. Now Shea is getting there, but he just hasn't done it for as long as Steph. But what kind of partner Steph is? The way he keeps his discontent out of the media, the way he's a mom on free agents and things of of that nature, and he says I allow the front office to do what they do and I do what I do, which is shoot the ball incredibly well. I'm the best shooter of all time. No doubt that's the kind of partnership you want.

Jonathan Kaminga has to wait his turn and everybody's waiting on Bradleyville. Everybody's waiting on that situation and until that gets squared away, we're in an impasse with what Jonathan Kaminga wants, what's he going to get and what the dollar amount is going to be. Actually, let's look up news right now. Just you know, you never know Stuff might happen. You might be like what the hell? No news is good news. Still no Bradley Bill buyout yet in Phoenix. Keep in mind, if that happens, that's when the floodgates will open. That's when you'll see all these moves or these things that we're talking about right now that have not had movement and we've been really curious why they haven't been. It's all related to bradleyville and his buyout, where he ends up and then that kind of unlocks the the dam a little bit and then we, the water will start rushing in and some of these deals will get done.

Getting to giddy. Pure connector defensive liability risk. Is the second half shooting? Was that a mirage? Or was that him as a young player and also feeling more comfortable in his environment? Was he starting to take another leap? Who knows, do you believe in it or do you not believe in it? And how much does it work to you?

Chicago, will you overpay Josh Giddey or will you do a sign-and-trade to mitigate the mistake that you made with Patrick Williams? Because that four-year $90 million sitting on their damn books right now, I'm going to tell you right now hey, listen, I was a big Patrick Williams fan coming out and I think in the last couple years I've even said in my draft coverage, I've even said in my draft coverage he is the prototype of why I am not big on, I was not big on Ron Holland. You know the super uber athletic six foot eight dude that we say, well, he'll figure out the shot once he gets into the league and then all these other things will unlock for him. This is the template, patrick Williams. So you can use Giddy to get yourself off of Patrick Williams. That would be a win. Now, if you're keeping Giddy, now Giddy can help Patrick Williams because the dimes are going to be so buttery, they are going to be so necessary for Patrick Williams. But I am very curious of where this number is going to come in at Plus. It's the Ryan stores and they're cheap. Now, cam Thomas. Let's get to our guy Walking bucket defensive sieve. No doubt We'll see where it all goes. Know this, we'll see where it all goes. Know this wherever Cam Thomas ends up, he will be waving off your number one option saying I got this. That is the essence of Cam Thomas.

So we talked about the three restricted free agents. We talked about all the money that OKC gave out. Let's talk about some actual games and let's talk about one in particular that stood out to me. Did anybody see Baron J debut in the Vegas Summer League? My God.

Okay, first of all, let's take you back a little bit. There was a point where I guess scouts were there and there were like five front office guys in a really humid gym and there was this skinny 18-year-old French kid with four years of basketball under his belt and he missed two dunks. But everybody was so impressed by it. We'll get to why in a second. That's not your usual draft night war room tale, but for the Minnesota Timberwolves it became the story. This is so front runner podcast collective, I can't even. It's the essence of us. Somebody saw the vision in this kid because he took off on the free throw line and tried these dunks in front of NBA talent evaluators. He missed them, whatever the case may be, but the gall, the nerve that it took for him to do this. A legend was born out that day. Legend was born that day. So Yon Baron J gets to Summer League and put on a show.

We'll talk about it momentarily, but let's set the scene. This is Fenway High School, oak Park, illinois, gym's older than air thick, and somewhere between the bleachers and old Gatorade cooler, the Timberwolves are scrambling to get a last minute. Look at a kid that already is out of reach Yon Berenger Bernadette. Sorry, my French took four or five days of French and I was like this is above me. My French took four or five days of French and I was like, oh, this is above me, let me go down to Spanish, I can handle that. So Yon Berenje was a soccer player until he turned 14 years of age. Then his feet upgrew his cleats. He had to pivot to basketball because they couldn't find cleats to fit him.

Four years later, the Timberwolves get tipped off by their international scouting partners in Slovenia. Berenger has flash potential, but they needed to see him up close. So they came to Chicago, not for a polished showcase, but in the Athletics article. They described it as a hot old gym and a raw workout. Joe Conley ran the drills, alonzo G tested his strength and Tim Conley watched everything. Ben J missed two free throw line dunks twice and then the third time he hammered it home. So I want you to think about that. He's at the free throw line, he took off, he missed the dunk twice and then he nailed it the third time.

Threads, no cameras, no entourage, just sweat. This wasn't a tryout, this was an interrogation. No cameras, no entourage, just sweat. This wasn't a tryout, this was an interrogation, probably like some third world interrogation. And Bearjay didn't even blink, which leads us to what we see normally right. So much of the modern draft is sanitized. You see players in groups, workouts, they have five handlers, branded towels, three-point contests.

But the wolves wanted something different, and the reason why they wanted something different is because of what they already have, and we'll get into that momentarily. They've've been tracking Baron Jay. They've had him high on their board, but Atlanta showed interest. Orlando looked like his floor, then Memphis made a surprise trade where Portland reached and just like that, the board cracked open and Baron Jay was there for the taking, still there at 17,. They didn't hesitate. I remember when I saw this on draft I was like what are they doing? And then, when you started to put the pieces together, it all made sense.

This dude, in his first summer league game, had two blocks in the opening possession. By minute seven he had six, six foot eleven, 235 pounds, moving like a guard, feet under him, no panic, just poised. He reminded me very much so of the georgetown era, alonzo morning so active, so fluid, impeccable timing. The great thing about you saw with bernie is that when somebody would try to go up, or pump fake to go up, he would stay on his feet. If you didn't leave the ground, he didn't leave the ground. He's so trusted in athleticism and trusted in his eyes. I think this has a lot to do with his soccer background. And he's doing all this with just four years of hooping underneath his belt. So let that sink in for you Four years. He has this type of impeccable timing of blocking shots four years into the game. And remember, one of the greatest defensive centers of all time is on this team.

You can say what you want about Rudy Gobert. You can talk about how you don't like him, how he's aloof, how you don't think he's really a winner or whatever it is. The one thing that he does do is he protects the rim at all costs. Rudy Gobert is a rim protector par excellence. He is one of the best to ever do it. This kid, baron J, wasn't even dreaming about the NBA until his feet forced him out of soccer. He didn't grow into basketball, he absorbed it. He's like oh, I guess I got to do this. Now His instincts again. I'm going to credit this to his soccer background. Another person who had great anticipation and great defensive feel was one Hakeem the dream.

Olajuwon. Houston, everybody, yo youngins. If you don't know about Hakeem Olajuwon, go look it up. Go get you some YouTube, google that and hit that up and then hit me up and tell me what y'all think. I know some of the footage might be grainy for you. It's not going to be an AK. You know HD. Whatever case may be, but I'm going to tell you right now Hakeem Olajuwon, you know HD. Whatever the case may be, but I'm going to tell you right now, hakeem Olajuwon was an absolute menace. That's Shaq he know all about. He made Shaq cry. Baron J's instincts are already NBA level and the Wolves know it when you have a front line that consists of Rudy Gobert, julius Randle and also our guy Nas Reed. Baron J doesn't need to start now. Obviously he's 18, still young, still trying to learn, whatever the case may be. But when the time comes and that contract of Rudy Gobert expires, they already got their next one, another Frenchman that can block a bunch of shots and real run on a ridiculous level.

And this goes back to a gym with no air conditioning, and a team found its future. The Wolves. Tim Conley is one. Let me tell you something. That's the dude that built Denver. He had the foresight to see what Jokic could be Right. He was the dude that took the chance on Michael Porter Jr with the 14th overall pick in his draft. He took a kid out of Canada by by the name of Jamal Murray, who went to Kentucky, didn't put up the stats that you normally would see, but they were like yo. This dude is a bucket getter and we put him around the right pieces. This will work. So Tim Conley Knows what he is doing and when the world exec Let Fair Fairwood High, they didn't just like Berenjay, they loved him. The kind of love that makes you work the phones on draft night, the kind of conviction that sticks.

This was a grit scouting, gut scouting, very messy, mostly last minute, but they got the pick exactly right. So when we talk about front offices and we talk about player development and what people are looking for and whatever, whatever, this is what we're talking about. This is why we celebrate these stories right here, because this was not one of those like, oh, cutting, this wasn't cooper flag. Oh, okay, we see it. Okay, brian scalabrini, who's one of the uh color guys from the celtics, whatever gets whatever gets a tip on this kid and now he's touring this kid through and taking him through the places he ends up at Duke. It's a great story the whole thing. No, this is a get it out the mud pick. That's what this is. This is tree scouting pick. That's what this is. This is tree scouting. This is not leaving stones unturned. This is what we love. This is the type of stuff that really gets my juices going and I'm so happy that we can talk about it.

And again, johan Baron J is 18 years of age, doesn't turn 19 until season starts. Four years of hoop experience under his belt. This dude was playing in a in a grown ass league last year. He's still raw, but he's a rare talent with elite defensive field. Minnesota got another good one man.

Hats off to Tim Conley, hats off to his scouting department, his international scouting Way to create great what am I trying to say? Relationships across the pond. You don't get these tips unless somebody, you talk to somebody and broke bread with somebody or what have you to say? Hey, we should call up tim conley and let them know that. Hey, we found this dude who's 18, and the only reason he ain't playing soccer anymore is because the damn cleats didn't fit him. Imagine all this talent just sitting there. So Yohan Berengi is listen, I know it was one game in the summer league, but I don't think those instincts and his ability to do what he did, I don't think those are going away. So knock on wood. Hopefully this dude stays healthy. But I love the draft story of this kid, I love the development story and I can't wait to watch it just grow and flourish in the years to come.

Speaking of flourishing and this is where we're going to end up the primetime ESPN coverage of Cooper Flagg, the 17,500 fans that were in attendance to see the kid, the 18-year-old kid from Maine, do his thing and hold all the American basketball, white American basketball lineage on his shoulders. Man, the first quarter did not disappoint him. Now, after that, it was all bad, but the first quarter, let us know we got something. It's going to happen. No doubt the hype train has begun, you can see it. But it wasn't just hype, it wasn't just spotlights, the defending, the playmaking, which I think is still shaky, the flashes on ball control. It's not just projection, these are real tools that are showing up. Now did he shoot it great? No 0 of 5 from deep.

I think Tim Legler said during the broadcast that there's something in his release where he's kind of turning his wrist at the last moment. He's getting a lot of pinky on the basketball. So that's something that he's going to have to fix. And, man, what a good pickup by Tim Legler to let us know that little piece of nugget on his development and what to look for. So shout-out to Tim Lager on that.

Now he struggled from the field, cooper Flagg, 5-21 total. He said it was the worst game he ever played, the worst game. But they have him on ball. They had him basically as a de facto point guard and he handled it well. He only had one turnover and the turnover that he had was because there was obviously like a wet spot on the floor. He slipped it turned into a travel. That's not really his fault. So he values the basketball. This is something that you don't see with young kids.

I don't know if he's going to be a complete primary offense initiator or is he going to be more of a second side guy that can definitely be a connective piece. There's three things that I do know. He has a intentionality when he plays basketball on the offensive end and the defensive end. Now what he's going to have to do on the offensive end is come up with counters for the counter, because he was doing stuff that he did at Duke that was not going to work in the NBA, even against the summer league dudes. So you can imagine what it's going to look like against the real dudes in October. So that is something that's going to have to be worked on Now. Also, I will say this Cougar Flag was playing with maybe two or three guys that will actually make the Dallas Mavericks. The rest of these guys are going to end up in the G League. Overseas. Australia may be working for. Ups may be working for. Amazon may be coming to a 7-Eleven near you, I don't know, but I will say this he wasn't shy, he got the shots off, he was confident in taking these shots, even with people paying $3,000, $4,000 a ticket.

Bronny James on the other side, which again y'all could have just left it with Cooper Flagg. Y'all didn't have to promote Bronny James on the other side, which again y'all could have just left it with Cooper Flagg. Y'all didn't have to promote Bronny in this. This is Bronny James with the 55th overall selection in the 2024 NBA draft. I will say this one last time. I will say this one last time Nikola Jelkic was drafted in the second round, I think the 41st overall pick, and he was picked during a Taco Bell commercial. So if there wasn't a bunch of hype for him, I don't think we need to be hyping Ronnie James. No shade to the kid. I just want him to develop in the shadows, you know, and then come in and surprise us and hopefully there's a lot of NBA talent there in, whatever the case may be. But this whole like Bronny James versus Cougar flag nonsense okay, we can stop that, we can let that go right. I did not get that Now.

We got dudes coming next year. There's going to be dudes by the name of Darren Peterson. There's going to be dudes by the name of AJ DeBasta, cameron Boozer, which you know his dad played in the league, carlos. But Dallas has their guy. I believe that Kugelflag is going to really show out this year. I think he has a Andre Korolenko timing. He has a pinch of Ben Simmons.

Minus the hesitation with the shot, he's a new GM4. You can call him a wing, some even whisper point forward. I got to see it more, but the tools are there and I think that we are seeing the birth of an absolute superstar. Seeing the birth of an absolute superstar. And you'll be hearing him with names like victor wing by yama. Now, obviously it was, it's still potential that never got realized. But you remember how excited we were when zion williamson came into the league. And then you know lebron james.

There's a lot, there's a lot of hype on this kid. There's going to be a lot of games. There's going to be some growing pains. But I'm going to tell you right now once he gets NBA spacing like when he goes and plays with the actual Mavericks and he's got Klay Thompson on one side, got D'Angelo Russell on another side, you know, and got AD and the other bigs. I think he'll be fine, I think he'll get comfortable and he'll find, oh, like, wow, this is a lot of space and they have this in summer league. Yes, these are the joys of actually playing with professional basketball players. You will love that. So I'm co-signing that this dude is going to be really good.

I know that the the uh, the first game may be left a lot of people with a bunch to more. They wanted more, bunch to more. They wanted more out of cooper. To me, I saw what I didn't see. He was not hesitant to take the shot whatsoever. He knew he had to take the bulk of the shots. He got into his actions even when they tried to stymie him to get out of his actions. He found a way. He didn't four shots up. Personally, I don't think, and actually he even said these are more shots than I would ever like to take. I want to set up my guys and stuff like that. So personally, I loved it. I loved him, I loved his debut.

His debut will not go on the highlight reel whatsoever, but the takeaway is clear. This kid got gravity, presence and, most importantly I will say it again. We said it about Yohan Berenguer Cougar Flag will not turn 19 years of age until the season starts. So I don't want to hear oh, he was 5 of 21,. Bust, get the hell out of town, dog. I don't want to hear that. I want to hear Cooper Flagg going to be just fine. We love Coop's flag going to be just fine. We love Coop, we love his whole deal and we can't wait.

A couple of quick notes before we bounce out of here. Nikola Tokic, for OKC, looked awesome in summer league. We waited a year to see what this kid was all about, but damn, that was impressive. He has complete command of the offense. He knows exactly what he's trying to do. His vision, his core vision, is excellent. He also has a great anticipation on the defensive side of the ball that I did not know was in his bag. That was not something that was in the scouting report, so I'm super excited to see the rest of Nikola Topic and think about this. This is another cap that OKC has. So when we're talking about oh, what are they going to do with Alex Caruso? What are they going to do with Lou Dort? I don't know. We got this 19-year-old kid by the name of Nicola Tokas, who didn't play last year, and he's 6'6", 200 pounds and look like yeah, I'm good, I understand what I'm doing here, so the future is bright.

I can't wait to watch even more basketball tonight and over the weekend, but for us at Frontrunner Podcast Collective, we can go ahead and sign off now. I want to thank Soraya for her contributions today. I want to thank the rest of the staff. Thank you so much and also we want to thank the audience again. It's so much. And also we want to thank the audience Again. It's so impressive to me that you guys stayed locked in with us through our COVID scare and all my little not having a voice and all these type of things. I really appreciate you guys coming back. We are so thrilled to be able to do this entertain you, inform you, let you know what's going on in the league, what's coming down the pipe, down the road, with some of these kids that's coming up, like AJ DeBansta, darren Peterson and Cameron Boozer. It's going to be crazy and we're going to handle all of it.

So, from my staff, my fam, to your fam, I hope you have a great weekend. We'll see you on Tuesday and we'll leave you with this. The best part of you is you Make sure that the people that are surrounding you are supportive. They are giving you those words of encouragement, words of wisdom. Make sure that, if they're exhibiting these habits, acknowledge them, appreciate those who are appreciating you. Make sure that you call them. Make sure that you call them, make sure that you verbally let them know how much you appreciate them and how much they are very important and integral to what you do, because without my support staff, I'm just a dumbass person talking nonsense about basketball. I'm just a dumbass person talking nonsense about basketball. They make me sound smart and hopefully we've entertained you enough. So you'll come back next week, because we'll be back on Tuesday. So, with that being said, you guys, have a great weekend. We'll see you on Tuesday Out. Thank you.