T-Wolves and Pacers Stun to Reach Conference Finals: What’s Next?

[00:00:00] It's Tuesday, you know what time it is. It's Front Runner Podcast Collective. I am your

[00:00:15] humble host Vince. Thank you for joining the show today and before we get into the game

[00:00:22] 7s and the kind of the start of recapping or starting to get into the matchups of the

[00:00:29] Eastern and Western Conference Finals, do us a favor and go ahead and subscribe

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[00:01:53] allowing us to do it and we can get into the show now and basically, let's start off right

[00:02:00] now with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets in that epic game 7 that we just

[00:02:08] were witness to on Sunday. And I know that this is coming out late on Tuesday or what have you.

[00:02:14] I was not feeling well yesterday. We had this whole thing planned, ready to go, but it just

[00:02:22] wasn't gonna happen. So anyways, the thoughts that I have on game 7 of this. I picked Denver

[00:02:31] to win this series. I preach continuity. I preach that you got MPJ, you got KCP,

[00:02:41] and you got Jamal Murray and Jokic and they played a long time together. Not so much KCP,

[00:02:49] but you know the gist of it. The Corps has played a lot together. And to see Minnesota,

[00:02:57] defensively wise, just wear them down in the third quarter. And that's what it came down

[00:03:08] to the third quarter. We can talk about all the other stuff, but that run in the third

[00:03:15] quarter where Nuggets go up by 20 and then just forgot how to score. It became a 28-9

[00:03:27] run and it was just... If you've ever had a long teeth cleaning or let's say you had a couple

[00:03:40] cavities or whatever and they were deeper than normal or whatever the case might be,

[00:03:44] that's what it looked like. It looked like Jokic was uncomfortable. The length bothered

[00:03:53] him tremendously throughout this series. I don't think we gave enough credit to the

[00:03:59] Minnesota Timberwolves and their length and just how they were able to utilize it.

[00:04:04] And let's give a lot of credit to Mike Onori and let's also give a lot of credit to Chris

[00:04:10] Finch. They did an incredible job putting that game plan together to defeat the Denver

[00:04:18] Nuggets, the defending champions. Now, the other thing that we want to get to,

[00:04:24] there are a couple things that were really interesting in this game. Like I said,

[00:04:31] our pre-continuity. Well, where was it? Michael Porter Jr. is darn near a $40 million

[00:04:39] a year player and to score seven points and also Aaron Gordon who's also part of this

[00:04:47] group, this collective that they have. He scored four. So if you got Jokic and Murray

[00:04:57] scoring 69 basically and you can't even get double digits from your starting wings,

[00:05:08] you're probably not going to win and that's exactly what Minnesota wanted to have happen.

[00:05:15] They said, listen, those guys are going to have to make a shot at some point. Yep,

[00:05:22] you're great and you're going to get your points but when they go to shoot,

[00:05:27] we'll see what it's all about. And they didn't show up and it really comes down

[00:05:35] to that. Now, the other situation that I want to talk about is the bench of the Denver

[00:05:42] Nuggets. We have mentioned on this podcast several times that Calvin Booth,

[00:05:47] the president of player personnel of Denver Nuggets made a bold choice. He made a bold

[00:05:54] choice in the off season. He doubled down on it and in the trade deadline part of the process

[00:06:01] of this year and he said that he was not going to rectify the bench issues. We have

[00:06:07] our players on the bench. We believe in developing our young talent and that's the Christian

[00:06:13] Browns of the world, that is the Peyton Watsons of the world, to a lesser extent,

[00:06:21] Jarrett Pickett, the guard out of Pittsburgh and also Zeek Naji. Zeek Naji didn't play

[00:06:32] in this series. So those guys weren't utilized and the guys that were utilized were completely

[00:06:40] ineffective so he made a calculated risk. It did not pay off but the other part of this

[00:06:46] math problem was that, okay, if they don't pay off, we still have Reggie Jackson,

[00:06:56] we still have Michael Porter Jr. and he's good for 14-15 points. We still got Aaron Gordon.

[00:07:04] What's his nadir? What is his actual point production nadir? You know, what, at the least

[00:07:12] amount, 9 to 11 points? Okay. And then we're going to get something from KCP as well. So they

[00:07:19] figured with the amount of talent they had up at the top with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray

[00:07:27] and the firepower between Michael Porter Jr., contiguous Karl Wilk Pope, Aaron Gordon,

[00:07:38] and Reggie Jackson that that would pull them through. Unfortunately, your guys didn't show

[00:07:47] up. You know, they didn't get it done and this is what happens. The other thing is we talked

[00:07:54] about Nikola Jokic being uncomfortable. I think the whole entire Denver offense was uncomfortable.

[00:08:01] Nine steals for the Minnesota Timberwolves. This is stuff that you guys already know. I'm

[00:08:07] not telling you something that's really anything different but there was one thing

[00:08:11] that I wanted to talk about. And yes, Minnesota had the length. They had the athleticism. But

[00:08:24] can we talk about Michael Porter Jr. for one second? Now it is an absolute triumph

[00:08:30] that he is able to play. We all know about the back injuries. We all know about the injuries

[00:08:38] as he has been in the league. But this year he was pretty healthy and in previous seasons he's

[00:08:45] you know dealt with some stuff. But the other thing about this whole run with Denver is that

[00:08:54] he has been basically a spot-out shooter and they've been imploring him to rebound more,

[00:09:01] which he has done over like the last couple years. The rebound numbers have increased.

[00:09:06] He's gotten better. What have you. Let's remember what Michael Porter Jr. was though. And what

[00:09:15] I mean by that is that before the back injuries like this was the number one prospect coming

[00:09:23] out of high school. And if he doesn't have the back injuries, you know he's probably

[00:09:30] not going to go 14 and Denver doesn't draft him. But this might be a long-winded way of saying

[00:09:37] there was more development to be done and I understand that you were in a window to win.

[00:09:45] But my man couldn't have hit in these games that were in the middle of the year. We couldn't

[00:09:54] and I allowed him to handle the ball a little bit more to have a little more self-creation.

[00:10:00] This is something that he asked for like two or three years ago. He did not get it. And

[00:10:07] now that could be because he can't do it. That could be the main reason. But in a series

[00:10:15] like this where you see Ant create and you see even though he didn't look great,

[00:10:28] you see Carl Anthony Towns create. And you see in a very small dosage Kyle Anderson to create.

[00:10:40] Having a bunch of creators on your team just makes you just irritatingly hard to guard.

[00:10:50] And that's the thing that a lot of people love about the Boston Celtics and I want to give

[00:10:57] them their flowers with this is that they have a lot of shot creation independent. So

[00:11:02] you have Jason Tatum, you have Jaylen Brown. Now Jaylen Brown has I wouldn't say fixed his

[00:11:09] left hand. It looks like it's gotten a little bit better. But if you look at the Denver

[00:11:14] Nuggets to drive this point home with them. Jokic can create. Now Murray can create but

[00:11:23] he's more effective to create along with Jokic. And maybe Michael Porter Jr. can't

[00:11:31] independently create but is there any way to get him more involved in those actions

[00:11:36] that when Jamal is off the court, could you maybe get MPJ involved in those? Or is he

[00:11:44] not physically capable? Because here's the problem. As you were missing shots and Minnesota

[00:11:56] was making shots and here's another stat that's out there too. Is that Minnesota

[00:12:01] was 26 of 30 from the free throw line. So 26 makes from the free throw line out of 30 attempts.

[00:12:09] The other thing is that the Denver Nuggets only has 16 attempts total so they got out

[00:12:16] scored at the free throw line by 12 but they actually got out scored and out shot from the

[00:12:27] free throw line by 10. So think about that. The Minnesota makes were 26. The total shots

[00:12:38] attempted at the free throw line for the Denver Nuggets were 16. So you don't have

[00:12:44] enough people going to the hole. That's the main point of this is that when you don't have

[00:12:50] people going through the hole that means that less paint touches meaning that people are not

[00:12:56] scrambling to get to corners or get to shooters or whatever the case may be. So your offense

[00:13:01] becomes stagnant and this is what happens. The other person that we got to give a lot of credit

[00:13:07] to and we've been questioning, questioning, questioning throughout the playoffs and even in

[00:13:14] a regular season is Carl Anthony Towns and I know I have been a big critic of Carl but

[00:13:27] he was instrumental in the first half because his scoring kept Minnesota close enough where

[00:13:37] they could go ahead and make this run in the third quarter. But without Cat because Ant shot

[00:13:44] terrible the whole game. He used a lot of his energy on the defensive end chasing Murray around

[00:13:53] and what have you and just being a complete menace but having Carl Anthony Towns be able

[00:13:59] to kind of hold it down in the first half and keep them within arms distance of the

[00:14:04] Nuggets because the Nuggets were in control of this game until like nine minutes ago in

[00:14:12] the third quarter and then the deluge happened. The wall breaks, the water comes down

[00:14:19] and it's a complete flood and Denver has no idea what the hell happened.

[00:14:24] So I wanted to give some credit to Carl on his play. I still think there were some

[00:14:31] boneheaded plays in there. I just wonder if just his, I'm not trying to downgrade him by saying this

[00:14:40] whatever the anxiety level in his body that he feels the spastic nature that he has sometimes

[00:14:49] he gets into silly foul trouble for no apparent reason but when they needed him and the chips

[00:14:56] were down he was there and Carl Anthony Towns was a it was a critical critical piece of them winning.

[00:15:07] The other guy that we want to give credit to is Nas Reed and the reason why we want to do

[00:15:12] this is because I want everybody to hear this. Now I have been again I told you I'm going to

[00:15:21] credit Carl Anthony Towns and I'm not going to be unapologetic about that because I think sometimes

[00:15:27] some of his actions are a detriment to winning. Well what we saw in that for a quarter

[00:15:36] is that Carl Anthony Towns wasn't on the court for a good seven minute stretch. It was Nas

[00:15:42] Reed and Nas Reed was knocking down buckets and playing impactful defense as well so as

[00:15:49] the the season goes on and as we get closer and closer to the offseason the question still

[00:15:55] remains in Minnesota. Now it could be as easy as an ownership situation being squared away and

[00:16:04] we're not going to even talk about the drama that's going on between Glenn Taylor and

[00:16:12] the A-Rod group or whatever case may be that that we want to talk hoops right now but

[00:16:20] this is hoops and my question still stands. Now I know how Minnesota fans feel but I'm going

[00:16:27] to ask this question with Nas Reed being as good as he is are you able to maybe augment

[00:16:34] your team a little bit differently by using Carl Anthony Towns as an asset to maybe get

[00:16:40] a younger point guard to allow Mike Connelly Jr. to move to the bench?

[00:16:48] Could you turn Carl Anthony Towns into two pieces maybe a point guard and a wing?

[00:16:54] Just food for thought and obviously this is not the time or place to bring this up

[00:16:59] you know I'm not trying to create this debate as that but I'm just saying his play was so

[00:17:05] great it was he played like a starter. It's such a luxury to have somebody like that

[00:17:13] and with something that we were talking about with Denver last year they had Bruce Brown

[00:17:18] that came off the bench and Bruce is a guy who has enough years in the league knows his place

[00:17:26] plays his role to perfection can sometimes surprise you with scoring outbursts and what

[00:17:34] have you. So Nas Reed is that type of guy I loved him he was critical in this game

[00:17:41] he was critical in the 98 to 90 victory over the Denver Nuggets. I think the only other thing

[00:17:50] to talk about with Denver is this it's like what do you do now? Well I don't think you do

[00:17:57] too much of anything at this point as far as if you're talking about well are there going to be

[00:18:05] major changes the one thing that I have really come to realize over the like especially like

[00:18:14] the last three or four years we talk about these trades and we talk about how oh this

[00:18:20] will benefit this team if they do this and they should always be trying to tweak and

[00:18:24] duh duh duh duh. What I've noticed is that with a lot of these teams and a lot of these GMs it's like

[00:18:35] why bring unnecessary scrutiny onto myself if this is working to a you know to a certain

[00:18:43] level of success if I do this and put myself out on the limb then I'm opening myself up

[00:18:50] for a lot more scrutiny and I could just say hey ride this out and you know kind of

[00:19:01] tinker around the edges around the peripheral and see what we got and see if we can kind of luck

[00:19:07] up and get one. That's how a lot of these guys think honestly now obviously if you're in

[00:19:16] situation where you know the team hasn't performed in like three or four years

[00:19:23] your seat is probably hot anyway so wholesale changes probably seem uh very

[00:19:32] appeasing to you but usually if you're in a good situation I used to be so critical of Chicago

[00:19:40] and Toronto and why do you continue to stay in the middle and I still believe what I'm saying

[00:19:49] when I say that but I think now I have more information to go off of and what I mean by that

[00:19:55] is the reason why they stay in the middle the the what's the what's the uh alternative

[00:20:07] we we be terrible because the chances are of you identifying the right player

[00:20:18] in a trade that totally unlocks your system is very rare now the really good talent evaluators

[00:20:28] can do it but a lot of guys around Lee do not feel that way and they don't have the

[00:20:37] inclination to do that so that's why we don't see a lot of trades and or or we don't see a

[00:20:44] lot of uh action I think this year might be a little different because there's a lot of teams

[00:20:49] with a they seem very discontent on either their station in the NBA or they have been

[00:20:59] in a perpetual mode for a while and it's time to make a change so I think you got two you

[00:21:06] got two forces kind of banging up against each other this year that will cause more activity

[00:21:14] when it comes to the trades of concern all right I think we should then at this point move on

[00:21:21] to the other finals which um the first thing that I want to say about the Knicks and the

[00:21:29] Indiana Pacers is that I made a uh made a prediction early on uh before the series started

[00:21:38] and I said that the Pacers are gonna basically they're gonna drown the Knicks they're gonna

[00:21:44] take them out into deep water and they're gonna drown them um and it it held true and

[00:21:51] it's so unfortunate it's so unfortunate that the Knicks were

[00:21:58] handicapped to go into the series that uh you know Julius Rand- Randall they they put off his

[00:22:06] shoulder surgery until they couldn't put it off anymore right then you had the OG and

[00:22:13] Inobe injury and the you know the hamstring how long this was gonna take and you know he gets

[00:22:21] out there for five four five what five or six minutes and he clearly couldn't move he clearly

[00:22:28] was completely compromised he had no lateral movement whatsoever they thought maybe in little

[00:22:36] controlled spaces little eight foot bursts that maybe he could bring something

[00:22:43] it was not gonna happen um you know you had Mitchell Robinson already being hurt he's out

[00:22:49] Boyd Don by Donavich he's out he's having a season injury surgery and then finally

[00:22:57] the one injury you couldn't have right Jalen Brunson Jalen Brunson who is giving us

[00:23:04] tremendous uh highlights and tremendous just overwhelming feelings of joy throughout this

[00:23:14] playoff basketball season um you know he fractures his hand and the season's are done

[00:23:23] and um you know people have been talking about you know I made a couple jokes on Tiv's we have

[00:23:29] in regards to you know how he's running the players into the ground but I also made this

[00:23:34] comment what was coach Tom Thibodeau to do right and what I mean by that is people were like well

[00:23:43] Alec Birx should have played more and this person should have played more

[00:23:48] well when OG was healthy and Randall was healthy now I know they didn't play a lot

[00:23:53] together but you know then you have Mitchell Robinson you were trying to incorporate

[00:24:00] Boyan by Donavich from Detroit uh Alec Birx you know uh you also had the emergence of

[00:24:08] Deuce McBride you know here's another guy on the team that they're trying to work in so

[00:24:14] so by the time we get to the playoffs and all these people are injured

[00:24:24] coach Thibodeau is gonna go with the people he trusts okay it's the same thing with like

[00:24:31] Tom Brady and his wide receivers if he doesn't trust you that you're going to run the route

[00:24:38] the this most precise way that he's asking you to run the route he's probably not

[00:24:44] gonna throw you the football same thing here in New York City right Tom Thibodeau

[00:24:53] believes in defense he believes in effort he believes in deflections and and um

[00:25:00] going after every loose ball like uh you haven't eight and 12 weeks that's how he

[00:25:07] likes his players to play and if you're too cool for school you're probably not going to

[00:25:13] play for coach Tibbs until you have to right and that's what happened in this series now um

[00:25:22] Dante Di Vincenzo he played like Captain America in endgame my guy put up 39 points a

[00:25:29] valiant effort you know as as this game continued on and Indiana Pacers started to

[00:25:37] look like Thanos and and you can see the depletion of just all the people behind

[00:25:44] Dante Di Vincenzo he's just steadily just valiantly sitting here just chucking up threes and trying

[00:25:51] to keep a minute you know so um shouts out to Dante Di Vincenzo for playing his ass off

[00:26:00] you know even in a loss but uh you we're in this situation right they just they ran out of

[00:26:06] bodies man what do you want to say great playoff uh memories great playoff performances by J.

[00:26:16] Link Brunson great theater great drama but in the end you just ran out of horses

[00:26:25] and that's what it came down to now on to the Pacers a little bit um they did take

[00:26:36] full advantage of the Knicks misery right now I will say one thing um our guy Tyrese Halliburton

[00:26:47] now Tyrese is a is a guy that we have long kind of give love to on this show we we liked him

[00:26:55] as a prospect when he came who was coming off the draft and everything like that in our uh I

[00:27:01] guess our our pre-front runner podcast collective self you know um but he was talking big shit

[00:27:12] you know as this gang was going on and also he wore the uh Reggie Miller's hoodie with him

[00:27:21] with Reggie Miller holding his hands over his neck or whatever case may be it's out there on

[00:27:26] the internet y'all seen it but um it was good for him to show up Mr Halliburton because we had

[00:27:34] talked about earlier how there were just times where he was not taking shots he seemed reluctant

[00:27:41] to take shots and I've seen theories and and um I've seen people comment on this and I think

[00:27:49] I have a theory myself and I'll bring it to you in a second but um you know he uh he was 10 to

[00:27:55] 17 he was 6 to 12 from 3 he had six assists you know in this big 130 to 109 victory

[00:28:03] over a really depleted New York Knicks roster and I will continue to say that not because

[00:28:09] I'm throwing shade on Indiana it is what it is you be the team that was it was the team

[00:28:16] that you had to beat but it was a team that was completely depleted um but yeah he you know

[00:28:26] there were times where Halliburton did show up but now here we are and we'll see how it all

[00:28:32] it will see how it all goes you know because now you have Boston in Indiana in

[00:28:38] the Eastern Conference Finals and it's funny because we've been waiting to see Boston play

[00:28:44] a completely or mostly complete team because their two representatives their opponents that

[00:28:52] they played you know were hampered by injuries and and whatnot and then you can actually say

[00:28:59] the same thing about the Indiana Pacers so we get to see who you finally are too

[00:29:05] because you're going to play a pretty you know full team now there are questions

[00:29:11] Kristoff Porzingis is out um we are still dealing with the calf strain

[00:29:18] they say first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals I'm here to tell you

[00:29:24] I know I sound like wet blanket Vince I get it but I'm not the first one to bring it up

[00:29:34] when you're dealing with these calves injuries when you're dealing with all this type of stuff

[00:29:40] I think it's better to be on the side of caution personally um I just think of KD

[00:29:49] and he had the calf strain and then the Achilles tour you know um I just I don't know

[00:29:59] if the juice is worth the squeeze basically and just I don't know and here's the thing that

[00:30:06] really Boston has enough talent they should have enough talent to get by

[00:30:11] Indiana they should but I'll tell you what we're going to be looking at Jason Tatum in a different

[00:30:19] light if my man don't get past Indiana all right we are definitely but I think both these

[00:30:27] teams are or are the Spider-Man meme where they're looking at each other and pointing at one

[00:30:32] another because of just how they had to go through this you know these playoffs and I

[00:30:39] think Indiana style is promoting a way for Boston to get out of the rut that they're in

[00:30:48] which is the Jason Tatum pound the basketball and then take an off-balance three point shot

[00:30:56] towards the end of shot clock I think with their movement their defense the way they want

[00:31:02] to get up and down the court I think this is going to be tremendous for

[00:31:08] Boston and it will be tremendous for one Peyton Pritchard because he has a guy on the other side

[00:31:16] and TJ McConnell who is just as big a pest as he is so we look forward to that matchup

[00:31:23] I will say that obviously I'm picking Boston I still think Boston will give up a game or two

[00:31:31] here and what I mean by that is I think they're supremely more talented than Indiana

[00:31:39] no disrespect to Indy I just think that if you're my whole thing is if you look at the top two

[00:31:45] okay you got Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown and then you got Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal

[00:31:51] Siakam now you can tell me like you can put an argument together to say hey these guys are

[00:31:57] really close to these two guys but when I go down a little bit further okay when I get to Derek

[00:32:04] White and I get to Drew Holliday you can't talk to me about Andrew Nimhart okay you can't do

[00:32:12] that all right you're not going to talk to me about Miles Turner okay those two guys are

[00:32:20] different than the other two guys I just talked about and that's where I think the talent

[00:32:26] difference is I think that's where the versatility lies and I think that's going

[00:32:32] to be the difference in the series so I think that Indiana is going to give Boston all they

[00:32:39] want honestly I think this could be a really six game series type of deal I think because

[00:32:46] one Boston will take their foot off the accelerator for one game and get caught up

[00:32:53] and then I think there will be a game where Indiana will just take it out of pure desperation

[00:32:59] or whatever the case might be they'll just take that game right and I think in the end

[00:33:05] six games and Boston wins and then go on to the finals now as I hit my head and drop my pen

[00:33:17] um let's get on to the Western Conference finals and the matchup is intriguing you got Luca

[00:33:29] you got Ant you got the brilliance of Kyrie you got the defense intensity of one Rudy Gobert

[00:33:42] you got the the x-factor and call Anthony Towns you got the wing du jour of whatever is coming out

[00:33:54] of Dallas and what I mean by that is that you don't know if it's going to be a Derry Jones

[00:34:01] you don't know if it's going to be Tim Hardaway Jr. there's a report that Maxie

[00:34:06] Cleaver might come back in this series that changes some you know some mathematics in it

[00:34:14] but I think there's a lot of people who think that Luca has a chance of winning this series

[00:34:19] and I think there is a chance but if that defense that beat Denver shows up in the

[00:34:29] Western Conference finals Luca who is walking around here injured okay let's call it square

[00:34:39] display walking around here injured Kyrie is a smaller guard there's a lot of length that

[00:34:46] can bother him I wonder about who is going to check Ant honestly and I think that Minnesota

[00:34:57] will find their self in the NBA Championship I think it'll be a long series I think it'll

[00:35:06] be a competitive series I this could definitely go seven games I you know I see I can see where

[00:35:14] there'll be times where the Minnesota Timberwolves offense bogs down and I can see

[00:35:20] there'll be times in this series where

[00:35:25] Luca and Kyrie will be looking for answers or their support group doesn't show up

[00:35:32] either by Minnesota's defense taking them out of it whatever the case might be I think this

[00:35:39] series will have a lot of ebb and flow into it but I think in the end give me Ant

[00:35:47] and give me their defense against Luca's brilliance but I think Luca is is compromised

[00:35:56] if Luca was completely healthy this this would be really a hard decision and I might actually

[00:36:02] shave myself towards Dallas if that was the case but with Luca not being 100% it really

[00:36:08] is hard for me to go go against Minnesota so I got Boston in Minnesota in the finals

[00:36:14] obviously we've been doing it round by round we are not getting into the whole like oh they're

[00:36:21] gonna win the finals and this this this I think a lot of things change I think your

[00:36:26] opinion changes as you go along I think you start to see things you start to see patterns

[00:36:32] you start to see maybe little adjustments that you know a coach is making quicker than maybe

[00:36:38] the other side is making and that's the reason why we do it round by round if you want like

[00:36:45] prognostication way out I'm not your guy you want somebody else for that right so those are

[00:36:53] my picks we do have a couple of news and notes that we want to get to um funny funny

[00:37:01] funny stuff about I heard somebody talking about Dallas and you know they put a really

[00:37:11] good argument on them being able to win and all of that sort of stuff but uh

[00:37:17] I think in the end we got we got our answer I think it's Minnesota all right couple notes

[00:37:23] and then we'll get up out of here and then we'll kind of tell you what the schedule is

[00:37:26] gonna be all right um first and foremost the Orlando Magic they're looking at

[00:37:34] four well I don't know he's still he's still Laker guard D'Angelo Russell they're looking

[00:37:40] at him being a possible upgrade to their backcourt and what D'Angelo offers is he

[00:37:49] shoots 46 from the field he shoots uh 41 point he shoots 41 and a half percent from three

[00:37:58] and also he gives you you know some really good ball handling um capability now what comes

[00:38:04] the role what comes along with that is his defensive acumen that leaves something to be

[00:38:13] desired now the one thing that we did see with Orlando this year is that Cole Anthony who has

[00:38:20] been really not somebody who gave any sort of real effort on the defensive end seemed to do

[00:38:29] that more in the last couple years especially with Jamal Mosley being at the helm so I don't

[00:38:36] know if that makes any more difference I think here's the one thing that we've said

[00:38:41] time and time again on this show is usually when you hit like 27 especially if you're coming into

[00:38:47] the league like at 19 you're probably who you are right you're not gonna chase too much from

[00:38:55] that point right um but D'Angelo will give Orlando something he will give them outside

[00:39:02] shooting he will give them outside shooting presence he can shoot the ball at a high volume

[00:39:07] if you gave him nine to eleven shots from three point land uh every single night you know he's

[00:39:14] gonna shoot it at a pretty decent clip and also with Paulo Bencaro there and Franz Wagner

[00:39:20] there I think you have a real good uh nucleus I think D'Angelo Russell fits well in Orlando

[00:39:30] I will say this about the Lakers situation Lakers do not want this uh they would like

[00:39:36] to be able to utilize that contract to be able to uh spin that off into something else

[00:39:44] and if his contract is not available available to do that with now they're reaching into

[00:39:50] contracts that they probably don't want to touch so D'Angelo Russell's decision

[00:39:57] makes a huge difference on what the Lakers and how they're going to utilize their assets

[00:40:03] are so that's the reason why we stuck that in there and also in the everybody drink award

[00:40:11] the Houston Rockets are interested in um one Spider Mitchell now

[00:40:19] Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers has come out and he said on the record that

[00:40:24] he is happy in Cleveland he is looking to stay he's looking to see if there's some type of

[00:40:29] long-term uh actually case he he stopped short of saying that he's looking for some sort of

[00:40:35] long-term uh outcome with them he did stop short in saying that but he did say he was happy in

[00:40:43] Cleveland but I'm here to tell you that you know there are still teams looking at Donovan

[00:40:49] Mitchell the Lakers being one of them Houston obviously being another I've heard Brooklyn

[00:40:55] has thrown their hat into the ring so there's going to be a lot of suitors for Donovan

[00:41:01] Mitchell and then the point of all this matter is this if you're the Cleveland Cavaliers

[00:41:10] do you trust that you can go ahead because here's here's what you have to kind of

[00:41:15] uh here's what you have to wrestle with it's either a we get rid of Garland and Jared Allen

[00:41:28] or we pivot and we get rid of Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen because Jared Allen is already

[00:41:38] on the block all right this is something that is not news worthy here I'm not telling

[00:41:45] Cavaliers fans something they have not already heard Jared Allen is already on the block

[00:41:53] now my question is to Cavaliers fans into NBA fans in general and we can actually make this

[00:42:01] kind of something where you guys can hit me up on x well so that uh our x account is

[00:42:08] frontrunner.pc but if you're a Cavaliers fan or just somebody who's seeing being an

[00:42:18] observationalist from a distance think about this are you really comfortable with jettisoning

[00:42:26] Garland and Jared Allen and knowing that Donovan Mitchell yeah you could sign him to

[00:42:32] a contract are you comfortable that he's he is he really giving you

[00:42:39] that that feeling the feels as we like to call it or as the kids like to call it the feels

[00:42:45] that he's really wants to make home in Cleveland because that's a real big risk

[00:42:54] for the Cavaliers and their front office I do not I think uh Altman is Kobe Altman

[00:43:00] has done a great job there I think this is a inflection point in the Cavaliers trajectory

[00:43:10] of where they're going to go next so it's all speculative we're gonna get to it as this

[00:43:17] offseason goes along I want to thank any well everybody from uh listening to the podcast be

[00:43:24] a friend tell a friend about the podcast okay if you are listening to us on Spotify great if

[00:43:30] you're listening to us on Apple fantastic but what you need to do is also let people know

[00:43:37] about the podcast so we can grow our numbers also let people know about the YouTube channel

[00:43:45] we gotta grow those numbers as well and we can only do this as a unit you know what I'm

[00:43:51] saying um but I appreciate everybody who has downloaded the podcast so thank you so much

[00:43:58] and with that being said we're up out of here um now that we are doing this on Tuesday we're

[00:44:04] gonna hit you Friday again we are trying to get on this three times a week schedule

[00:44:11] I promise you that at some point we're gonna get here but I was just not feeling well

[00:44:17] yesterday unfortunately that's my bad so I will take it on the chin for that one

[00:44:23] and um yeah that's it so with that being said hit us up on Twitter at frontrunnerpc

[00:44:30] and at BFunchFRPC remember to check out our YouTube page frontrunnerpodcastcollective

[00:44:38] and as always the coolest part of you is you right we appreciate you as a listener as

[00:44:47] an audience but we also appreciate you as a person do not let anybody extinguish your light

[00:44:55] and also go out there and try to do some good in the world and we'll see you back on this

[00:44:59] feed on Friday Friday so Wednesday is gonna go off without a hitch Thursday's gonna go

[00:45:06] off without hitch and then Friday we're gonna hit you with a pot and in that pot obviously

[00:45:11] we're gonna talk about the first games of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals

[00:45:16] in that pot so Friday will be that one and thank you guys again for joining me

[00:45:23] I appreciate you and you guys enjoyed the the basketball that we're about to see

[00:45:28] in the next couple days peace