T-Wolves Edwards Steps Game And Trash Talk!

[00:00:00] Welcome to Wednesday and it is Front Runner Podcast Collective. I am your humble host Vince and we are here today to talk about hoops, talk about NBA playoff, especially hoops.

[00:00:28] You know what I'm saying. A couple things, it looks like we might be back on regular schedule which is exciting for me personally.

[00:00:39] The other thing is that if you guys have not jumped onto the YouTube page, I hope you have. It's Front Runner Podcast Collective. Please subscribe, please like, please comment. I've answered all comments so far.

[00:00:58] So that's all I can tell you. I'm here for the people when they want me. And honestly to tell you the truth, this show is yours so how it grows is really kind of up to you guys as well.

[00:01:13] So I look forward to talking and conversing with people throughout the playoffs. Also shout out to the Dallas Maverick fans out there.

[00:01:24] It's humbling when you're starting something. It's humbling when you're in the midst of beginnings and to see something that you created and to see that somebody liked it and it kind of got a little groundswell.

[00:01:45] We did a clip on Luka which was from like I think it was two pods ago or what have you. And basically in that pod we talked about Luka being the MVP for us.

[00:01:59] And with that there was a really good response and if you haven't checked it out, it's on our YouTube page. Again that's at Front Runner Podcast Collective. Please subscribe, like, comment. Oh yeah and share it. Sharing is caring.

[00:02:18] The other thing is followers on Twitter or X and that is at Front Runner PC. And obviously if you're here on the podcast, you know where you are. You're on the mothership. You are on the ground central of where everything goes down and then it emanates out into the world in different forms.

[00:02:39] So when we put it on the social media, it's coming from here. If we're putting it on the YouTube, it's coming from here. So if you're listening to the entire podcast, God bless you. Thank you so much. But please be a friend, tell a friend.

[00:02:56] That's the only way we're going to grow. We have not put any advertising budget into this as of yet. And you know we're waiting to get to a certain level and then start turning the corner. So I have a number in mind but when we get there, I'll let you guys know and then we'll go from there.

[00:03:19] And I think we have a lot of exciting things that are coming up as well. Now with all that being said, let's get to the hoops because that's what you guys are here for. You guys aren't here to hear me rattle on about starting a podcast, starting a whole network and things of that nature.

[00:03:40] That's not what y'all here for. Y'all here for the hoops and I'm with you on that. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to quickly go back to Monday's games. We're going to look at Tuesday's games and then we're going to talk a little bit about the Wednesday games, right?

[00:03:56] So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on Cleveland or in Orlando because I'll tell you why. We talked about it in the last podcast, I believe. And the one thing that we're seeing is that we're seeing a really inexperienced team go up against a team that has had some guys go through it.

[00:04:19] Remember, Struz is a Miami Heat veteran. You know, you got George Nieng who's been in the wars, obviously Donovan Mitchell and then the other kids got the taste last year, right?

[00:04:32] So I think Orlando is gaining vital experience. I think all of this is very, very important to the development of Paulo Gancaro to Franz Wagner to Jalen Suggs. But it is absolutely apparent that there is a need in the back court to score and also settle down and get you into your actions.

[00:04:59] Paulo is doing way too much right now. He is struggling, but not struggling to the point of, you know, he's staying in the fight. That's what I'm trying to say. He's staying in the fight and he's doing a really good job with that.

[00:05:17] I've been really impressed with what he has done personally. The only problem is that the Magic just do not have enough weapons to hang around with Cleveland. So I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it, but I think it was something that we needed to touch on and be respectful of that series because there's some blood, sweat and tears going on in that series too.

[00:05:40] And I want to make sure that we do talk about it. The only other thing that we kind of need to talk about out of that series is we talked about it in the first game. We talked about, you know, Evan Mobley and his shooting and what have you.

[00:05:57] And, you know, it looks like there's some turning the corner with Evan Mobley. And if this is going to be something of part of his game now, I think this is the stuff that we were talking about when, you know, when he first came out and now we're here.

[00:06:16] And it's imperative that he utilizes that three point shot for two reasons. One, when Jared Allen is basically a, he's a rim running big. He can sit in the dunker squat. He has good hands. You can post him up a little bit, but he doesn't have the capability of stepping out.

[00:06:35] So it was imperative for Evan to have somebody like Jared Allen to be with him as he progressed into his body and matured into his body. But for all of it to work, Evan Mobley was going to have to show some Chris Bosh type of attributes.

[00:06:58] And that means stretching the floor. And he's doing it. It doesn't take a lot. You know, you don't have to take 12. But if you're consistently shooting four to five, they have to honor you.

[00:07:11] You know, so that's a good thing. He dropped 17 points in the game, the second game as well. We're going to move on to the Lakers in Denver. And I do have thoughts.

[00:07:23] And, you know, here's the thing with Denver and here's the thing with the Lakers. I think we talked about it in the previous pod where I want to know. I didn't talk about this in the previous part.

[00:07:39] That was the best game Lakers could play. That was it. Now you could say, hey, they could have got more from the bench. Bench hasn't really been there all year. You could say they could have got more from Ruey.

[00:07:54] I would agree with you. You know, more from Ruey would have been nice. You could say that the misutilization of Austin Reeves might be able to agree with you there.

[00:08:07] But here's the one thing that we can say without a doubt. Anthony Davis played as good as Anthony Davis could possibly play. LeBron played an excellent game, very leadership, went to the pick and roll heavy in the third quarter, which if you listen to the broadcast, they said that they were working on it at halftime.

[00:08:35] And they just they tried to wear it out and they wanted to wear out Jokic basically. And to see LeBron just kind of take over the game and create offense all on his own.

[00:08:48] You know, he's just a singular force. And I think we talk about LeBron in a lot of ways. But I think the one thing that I want to say here publicly that we need to talk about is not just how intelligent he is on the court, but how he can on the fly just change something.

[00:09:12] And whether it's through eye contact, knowing certain players just vibing with them, they kind of sink in as well. They're like, OK, well, LeBron says, OK, instead we're doing it from the left. We're going to do it from the right this time.

[00:09:29] And it seems to all kind of fall in line. And the just the exactness of where you need to be placed for this pick and roll to work and some of these pocket passes that he's throwing in really tight quarters.

[00:09:47] It's a tribute to him. It's a tribute to his his basketball acumen is a tribute to just painstaking work in the gym and trying things and having that expanded mind to say, hey, listen, you know, I don't know if I can't do this.

[00:10:11] You know, so I'm a try. So kudos to him. But it all fell apart again. The Lakers were up by 20. They looked like they were in control and Denver walked them down again.

[00:10:28] Now, Michael Porter Jr. had himself a ballgame. He was super efficient. He was eight of 13 from the field, six to 10 from the three point line.

[00:10:40] And he kept them in the game until Yolkage and Murray got the party started. Yolkage had eight. He had 27 points, 20 rebounds. OK, 27 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists.

[00:10:54] And he did this. Will Kareem and there was somebody else who did it. I think it was David Robinson. Those are the luminaries that he's hanging out with.

[00:11:04] Here's the problem with all of this. He's doing this and he's done it four times where those three gentlemen who have also done this done 25 points, 20 rebounds and 10 of something else, whether it is assists or or blocks or whatever.

[00:11:21] He's done it more. He's done it equally as them combined. I think Will has one. I think Kareem has two and David Robinson has one as well. And he has four.

[00:11:37] So Nicola Yolkage is that dude. I said one of the things that I talked about NBA Playoff Preview podcast, I said that LeBron had made a statement about Yolkage being one of the best players in the league.

[00:11:52] And I said in that preview that Yolkage was going to show LeBron that he is the very best player in the league and leave no doubt. And he's laying waste. And that's what he's doing.

[00:12:06] And again, we have just drove home the continuity of this team. And I think it is still something that we need to talk about because those five guys all of last year, all of this year.

[00:12:23] Right. And then if you take Caldwell-Poakle away, you got Gordon Murray, Yolkage and Michael Porter Jr. And they've all played like four plus years together.

[00:12:35] I know Murray was hurt for some of that, but all in all, they play like four plus years together. And I think there's something to be said for that.

[00:12:43] I think that Yolkage knows exactly where Murray is going to be and vice versa. I also think that when Michael Porter Jr. is engaged in cutting and moving without the ball, which we saw a lot of that in game too.

[00:12:58] He was very active and he was also active on the defensive side of the ball. He made himself not just available, but he made himself to be an obstacle for whoever he was guarding.

[00:13:11] He also boarded. He ended up with nine rebounds in that game and 22 points total. So even when your stars aren't playing like stars in the first half, there's enough firepower with the Denver Nuggets to get it done.

[00:13:28] And I think a lot of people disrespect their supporting cast. And I don't know why. Michael Porter Jr. least we forget.

[00:13:39] Yes, he was drafted low lottery because of the fact that he had the back injury. Without the back injury, this was a number one overall selection type of dude.

[00:13:53] This is high lottery quality of talent. Denver took the risk and look at how it has paid off.

[00:14:02] You got that. You got Aaron Gordon. And if you want to look at it this way, he was basically in a second in a second draft, right?

[00:14:12] He goes to Orlando. He's missed cast as like the primary guy. He comes to Denver where you know, at least he's going to be the three, sometimes the four depending on how Michael Porter Jr. is going.

[00:14:29] And he's just falling into this role. He plays excellent defense. He plays with a physicality, not just on the inside, but he plays a physicality in that pick and roll game when you know the guards are trying to get to the rim and things of that nature.

[00:14:46] I love Aaron Gordon's game. So they win 101-99. And I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't think there's nothing Lakers can do.

[00:14:55] I said it in this podcast previous. I believe that this is going to be a sweep, if not a sweep, a gentleman sweep. This is going to be 401 or 401 of the two.

[00:15:09] And I think we saw the Lakers best shot in that last game. So the last game that I want to get to is the New York Knicks and the 76ers.

[00:15:21] What I want to talk about is two things. I have a clip on the YouTube page right now and it's talking about Joel Embiid and was it worth it to bring him back?

[00:15:38] Now you know how this podcast has felt since the injury. I said, okay, shut him down. We got Calfspace next year. We got picks. We own our pick next year or coming into this off season and let's go ahead and move forward.

[00:15:55] Get him completely healthy. Joel Embiid is our franchise guy. Let's just do it this way.

[00:16:03] Now, Darrell Maury, Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, and I'm sure a lot of fans out there did not want that. And now that he is now in these games, it is hard to watch.

[00:16:21] It's hard to watch. And it's hard to watch for a lot of reasons. I'm old school. I used to see guys play with torn ligaments in their finger and all of this thing.

[00:16:36] But I have to tell you watching Joel Embiid drag his leg up and down the court in spectacular fashion, I may add.

[00:16:47] I'll say this. I gave the MVP to Luca. What happens if Joel Embiid doesn't get hurt? Just like what happens with that?

[00:17:03] Because he was on another tear before he got hurt. He was averaging the advanced analytics. He was off the charts and he was touching like Wilt type numbers.

[00:17:18] So, with this dude out here putting up 34 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, taking the most shots in the game by a lot. 29 shots he took. Maxey had a hell of a game.

[00:17:36] Shots out to that kid. He's an absolute stud and a star, and he is here for the moment. Absolutely here for the moment.

[00:17:45] So I am impressed with what the Philadelphia 76ers are doing. But I had a question that I put up on the YouTube page in that clip.

[00:17:58] And I said, where are the others? And this is the problem with Tobias Harris. Now 10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists. If you weren't making like 37 million dollars, this would be okay.

[00:18:15] But with Tobias Harris making the kind of coin that he's making right now, that's completely unacceptable. It's called a no show.

[00:18:25] And unfortunately with your leader and your absolute son, the son of your universe, hampered, the others got to play.

[00:18:39] And here's the best part. You're playing with house money. Whatever it is that you do as far as you're playing hard and playing with reckless abandon or playing a smart brand of basketball, aggressive style of basketball.

[00:18:57] Because they needed your rebounding prowess. They needed it because Hart was hitting the boards, because he always does, because he's a sick man. He had 15 rebounds in that game.

[00:19:09] Here is a 6 foot 4, whatever you want to call him, guard, forward, wing, whatever, mini wing. He had 15 rebounds in that game.

[00:19:20] Bronson, who is all of maybe 6 feet, had 8 rebounds. Di Vincenzo was the softest. I'm just kidding, Dante. I'm just kidding. He had 4.

[00:19:32] Hardenstein had 8. So everybody rebounded for them, but Hart was like Charles Barkley. He just invoked Charles Barkley from back in the day and said, I'm going to just get all these rebounds.

[00:19:46] To me, that is inexcusable when it comes to bias Harris. There's no way that a 6 foot 4 guy should out hustle you to the wall.

[00:20:00] To just fit the sheer physics of the whole situation, you at 6'8", you at 230 pounds should be definitely blocking out somebody who is 6'4 and maybe 2'05 at best.

[00:20:15] I know my guy Josh Hart is in the weight room. I know you've been getting it, my dog. I know you'd be telling them I lift. I know you'd be doing that.

[00:20:26] Again, the New York Knicks are playing like the city. They're playing gritty hard and they're playing smart and they're playing not to lose.

[00:20:38] They're playing aggressive and like, hey, we're going to lay it all out on the line. This is this version of the Knicks is what we saw out of the heat last year.

[00:20:49] Or what we usually see out of them perennially. Usually it's the heat who are challenged offensively, who are undersized, who might be missing a guy or under man or whatever the case may be.

[00:21:09] Now the Knicks are deep, but to say they have a cavalcade of stars, I would be delusional saying that. It would be dishonest to my audience.

[00:21:22] We know that J. Lane Brunson is big time. He's been super box office since the moment go. But everybody else on that team is a role player.

[00:21:36] You know, let's just be frank about what we're talking about. No disrespect to anybody. O.G. Ananova might make a truckload of cash when it comes to the off season.

[00:21:47] But when I look at O.G. Ananova, I don't go star. Josh Hart is not a star, nor is Dante DiVincenzo, Harden Stein and the rest of them.

[00:21:58] The one guy who has star power is J. Lane Brunson, and that guy is an absolute leader in a certified stud and doing it real big.

[00:22:07] And they beat the 76ers again 104 to 101. Yes you can talk to me about fouls. Yes you can talk to me about bad officiating.

[00:22:18] But you know what the Philadelphia 76ers need to talk to me about? When that ball gets inbounded, maybe it shouldn't have been Tyrese Maxey getting that ball.

[00:22:28] I'm not saying that he didn't deserve it because he plays very well, scores all points.

[00:22:34] But if you are not strong at the whole point of the ball, it's going to be very easy to knock it out.

[00:22:43] The other thing is this. In an environment such as Madison Square Garden with seconds to go, in the Knicks making some sort of all time run, scoring 8 points in the last 28 seconds to secure this victory.

[00:23:01] Of course you're not getting a call Philadelphia. Of course you're not.

[00:23:06] Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't scream to the high heavens that you should get a call. You should do that.

[00:23:14] But you should also know that where you're from and where New York is from, that don't fly.

[00:23:24] It's tough playoff, physical, basketball. You know it. I know it. The ref swallows the whistle. Pause on that because I know y'all out there tricking me.

[00:23:40] When you get the ball inbounds, if you didn't want to call the timeout, you wanted to continue to allow this frenzy to continue.

[00:23:49] Which I don't know why Nick Nurse would want to do that. But I think they should have called the timeout. A lot of other people thought they should have called the timeout.

[00:23:57] Okay, now you got the ball inbounds and you have the lead. Make them foul you.

[00:24:07] Like it shouldn't be this hard. Make them foul you. Super easy.

[00:24:12] Now you got to hit a line, knock the free throws down, go home 1-1. Nope.

[00:24:18] We got Tyree Maxey fall on the floor like a car hit him.

[00:24:23] Okay, that's the first thing. And then the second thing is that this is what the playoffs are Tyreece.

[00:24:31] And when you have stepped up to another level because last year you had Joel and James Harden to protect you.

[00:24:38] This year it's just Joel and he's hampered. So you're taking on a far larger role than maybe you would have had normally.

[00:24:49] But at the end of the day, you got to hold onto the ball player.

[00:24:53] And I know my Philly fans out there might be bummed that I'm saying that but I think deep down y'all know too.

[00:25:00] Y'all know that if y'all was in the playground, that probably wouldn't have got called either.

[00:25:06] It would have been a play on and let's go.

[00:25:09] We're going to switch to the games yesterday real quick.

[00:25:14] I think that Tyreece Halliburton is also dealing with stuff.

[00:25:24] Again, he took 10 shots which was third. Actually it was fourth.

[00:25:31] Fifth most on his team.

[00:25:35] That lets me know that he is severely hampered. This is not the same guy.

[00:25:39] He's not playing with the same energy. He's not playing with the same pace.

[00:25:43] He's not playing with the same cutting ability that he did prior to the injury.

[00:25:48] And now that I've seen two games of him take this amount of shots, I can only think that he is hampered.

[00:25:57] He is compromised in some way.

[00:25:59] Now the Pacers on the back of Pascal Siakam, on the backs of Miles Turner and Andrew Nehawar and the boys.

[00:26:12] They put it to the Milwaukee Bucks, 125-108.

[00:26:19] Another hot start for Lillard and then another cool down.

[00:26:23] That is not going to be something that they can be a recipe for success.

[00:26:30] They're going to have to get a full game from Davian Lillard.

[00:26:33] I don't know if he has to do the Lebron thing where you're moving in and out and going,

[00:26:40] Okay, I'm going to rest here and push it here.

[00:26:43] Okay, I'm going to ease off here and be aggressive here.

[00:26:48] But you can't disappear. You can't go MIA in the second half.

[00:26:55] Damn, I'm sorry. It has to be damn time all the time.

[00:27:00] Without Giannis, it's damn time all the time.

[00:27:06] Chris Middleton kind of came back down to earth in game two.

[00:27:10] He had 15 points. He didn't – I mean it was an okay game.

[00:27:13] It was 6-14. It just wasn't aggressive enough.

[00:27:17] And that's going to be the problem with Chris Middleton at this point.

[00:27:21] I said in our previous pod and I'll re-energize this pod.

[00:27:26] I think that Chris Middleton is a guy that is suited for a tertiary role at this present time or this present moment in his NBA career.

[00:27:38] It takes nothing away from what he did when the Milwaukee Bucks won the championship, mind you.

[00:27:45] But we're talking about a couple more years and a significant injury.

[00:27:50] And maybe he's just lost a little bit of step, right?

[00:27:55] He could still be completely effective.

[00:27:57] But when you're asking him to step up a level, you're asking a lot right now.

[00:28:03] And this is where we might run into an issue.

[00:28:06] But it was good that Milwaukee got that first game.

[00:28:11] Now they can see if they can get Giannis back.

[00:28:14] And I'm going to just tell you from what I'm hearing.

[00:28:17] Now, I have said in the past that I am not a reporter.

[00:28:24] I have said in the past that I'm here to just kind of paint you a picture and hopefully give you some insight over what have you.

[00:28:33] The calf injury that Giannis Antetokoukou had, I am not a doctor.

[00:28:38] But from what I know of calf strains, from me having them and I am not a superior athlete whatsoever like Giannis and others in my family who have had them, it is a terrible injury.

[00:28:54] It hurts a lot.

[00:28:56] It's very painful.

[00:28:57] It doesn't allow you to cut until it's ready for you to cut.

[00:29:03] His agility is completely compromised at this present time.

[00:29:08] And for those who are begging to see him in game three and possible game four, I would tell you that you have a better chance of seeing him in game five maybe.

[00:29:23] Okay, so this is without this is no reporting.

[00:29:29] This is not me saying, hey, I'm you know, I got a good on good authority that I know for sure he's not going to play.

[00:29:38] But I'm just telling you from my familiar familiarity with the injury.

[00:29:43] I don't think this is going to be something that you see him come back in game three or game four.

[00:29:49] Game four, which then leads me to what is going to happen.

[00:29:54] Who is going to do what?

[00:29:56] Because we have a tie series now.

[00:29:58] I think that now the Pacers are have their footing.

[00:30:01] I think it's extremely important that they got Pascal Siakam who has been in big series before and can kind of guide the ship through.

[00:30:11] I don't know if Milwaukee has enough firepower to stay with the Pacers because here's the other thing.

[00:30:19] What happens is Tyrese feels better at any point in this series.

[00:30:24] What happened?

[00:30:27] We get gradual progression from type one Tyrese Halliburton.

[00:30:33] I don't know what to say about that, but it's going to be an interesting series.

[00:30:40] I still think the Pacers are going to win this.

[00:30:45] I don't think Giannis is coming back.

[00:30:47] So that's my call on that.

[00:30:49] And we talked about it before now.

[00:30:52] Game two, we went on a rant about Kawhi not playing and he's always in my eye and all this sort of thing.

[00:31:00] And lo and behold, he played.

[00:31:03] And you know who else played?

[00:31:06] Luka Donschitz.

[00:31:08] Luka who started off slow came on, did Luka things.

[00:31:17] 32 points, six rebounds, nine assists.

[00:31:21] He played 46 minutes, had a steal on the block.

[00:31:26] His counterpart, Kyrie Irwin, 23 points, six rebounds, three assists.

[00:31:33] He also played 42 minutes.

[00:31:35] They actually had a good game from PJ Washington, which is great.

[00:31:39] They needed it.

[00:31:40] They needed some help.

[00:31:42] We're still not getting a lot from Daniel Gafford.

[00:31:45] And the one thing that I want to say about this is I think we should ease off Daniel Gafford right now.

[00:31:54] He's going through something real tough.

[00:31:57] Going through, he lost somebody real close to him.

[00:32:01] If you guys aren't familiar with the story, he lost his mom not that long ago.

[00:32:06] So our condolences go out to Daniel Gafford and the entire Gafford family and his relatives in their time at this moment.

[00:32:16] My prayers are with them.

[00:32:19] My prayers are with just all the memories and all the wisdom that Daniel Gafford's mom bestowed upon him.

[00:32:29] I hope that on his dark days right now that that's what he's leaning on is just the words that she left him.

[00:32:39] So as he continued to play through this just heavy, heavy heart, having PJ Washington step up and score 18 points

[00:32:49] and really providing that extra layer of defense that you need was critical to this game.

[00:32:57] Because there's no way in hell that Luka Donson and them could go back to Dallas down two-zip.

[00:33:05] Not to the Clippers.

[00:33:07] Couldn't happen.

[00:33:08] Now, the Clippers get Kawhi Leonard back.

[00:33:11] And it was rough.

[00:33:15] 35 minutes, 15 points.

[00:33:18] He only shot 7 of 17 from the field.

[00:33:22] He was 0 for 5 from 3-point land.

[00:33:27] And here's the thing, the rest obviously he hasn't had any time to practice with his guys or anything like that.

[00:33:34] He just came in like out from wherever he was.

[00:33:38] You know, I don't think anybody knows when he's going to play and when he's not going to play.

[00:33:45] And I think that's a maddening situation to be in if you are in that Clipper organization.

[00:33:53] And when I say that, I know people are saying, well, you're just saying that.

[00:33:58] You don't, you know, it's not like that for sure.

[00:34:02] No, it is.

[00:34:04] It is.

[00:34:06] It is like that for sure.

[00:34:08] He...

[00:34:12] The team had no idea until they did know.

[00:34:18] Like they didn't know three days ago this was happening.

[00:34:22] I promise you.

[00:34:24] I promise you that they did not know.

[00:34:28] Alright, so Dallas ties that series up.

[00:34:31] I still think Dallas is going to win this series even with Kawhi being back.

[00:34:36] If he's compromised like this...

[00:34:40] Now, I'm not saying that they can't win the Clippers, but I just don't think they will.

[00:34:46] It's just...

[00:34:48] It's too hard for me to see them pull...

[00:34:52] Excuse me.

[00:34:54] Pulling all this together in this short time and get it in.

[00:34:59] Now, the game that I want to get to is the Phoenix Suns and the Minnesota Timberwolves game.

[00:35:07] And the reason why I want to get to this game is because our guy...

[00:35:13] I know you're going to think Kevin Durant, but if you listen to the pod, my love for Anthony Edwards is straw.

[00:35:23] Okay?

[00:35:25] That's our guy. We love him.

[00:35:27] We think he's going to be an absolute superstar in this league.

[00:35:32] And the one thing that we do know about Anthony Edwards is that he has a superstar trash talk game.

[00:35:42] He was following Kevin Durant all over the court and he was telling Kevin Durant that he was too old to be doing this.

[00:35:51] That he needed to step his game up.

[00:35:54] You need to update your skills.

[00:35:57] And he's just talking straight, cash, shit to Kevin Durant.

[00:36:03] And Kevin Durant after a while just is...

[00:36:05] You would think he just gets super tired of it.

[00:36:07] It's Kevin Durant.

[00:36:09] This dude's beneath me.

[00:36:11] Whatever.

[00:36:12] And then Kevin Durant...

[00:36:13] Only Kevin Durant bashing gives like a little wry smile and goes like, alright, dog.

[00:36:19] Y'all giving it to us.

[00:36:21] We can't do nothing with y'all right now.

[00:36:23] Gave him a little respect and whatever the case may be.

[00:36:27] And you know, he said he was nice.

[00:36:30] Which, you know, Kevin Durant is a true Hooper.

[00:36:34] You know how I feel about Kevin Durant.

[00:36:37] He's our Oracle here at FRPC.

[00:36:41] He shows up on YouTube clips when he has something to say.

[00:36:46] You know, he speaks for all of us.

[00:36:48] You know, he speaks for the entire basketball universe.

[00:36:52] This is our guy.

[00:36:53] So Phoenix is in trouble.

[00:36:56] Okay?

[00:36:57] And they're not just in trouble now, today, down to old.

[00:37:04] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:37:08] It can't be that easy for them.

[00:37:12] They're in trouble because it's not working.

[00:37:16] Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, been shut down by Jaylen McDaniels for the most part.

[00:37:25] Bradley Bill has not been.

[00:37:28] The scoring impact needed to be better from Bradley Bill.

[00:37:36] He definitely needed to be a lot more efficient.

[00:37:39] 6-17 is not great.

[00:37:41] And here's the other thing.

[00:37:43] And this was a problem with the last iteration of the Phoenix Suns.

[00:37:48] And people will say, hey, they won the championship.

[00:37:51] You can't talk about them.

[00:37:53] No, they didn't win the championship.

[00:37:54] They went to the NBA finals.

[00:37:56] You can't be talking about them.

[00:37:58] Here's the thing.

[00:38:00] Kevin Durant likes to operate in the mid-range.

[00:38:05] Devin Booker likes to operate in the mid-range.

[00:38:11] Hell, a couple years ago you had DeAndre Ayton and Chris Paul who also liked to operate in the mid-range.

[00:38:24] So the Phoenix Suns continued to do this to themselves.

[00:38:30] They got too much duplicity throughout their roster for it to work.

[00:38:38] Oh, and here's the other thing that needs to be said.

[00:38:44] Shout out to my guy Peter Rosenberg who just took his podcast.

[00:38:49] Cheap Pete, independent, leaving the ringer.

[00:38:54] So shout out to the maverick Peter Rosenberg.

[00:38:58] But I'm going to say what needs to be said.

[00:39:02] Phoenix is too small.

[00:39:04] They don't have a point guard.

[00:39:06] They don't have a point guard and they are terribly outgunned.

[00:39:13] And this is a team in Minnesota that struggles with offense.

[00:39:19] I said that so I'm going to say this again.

[00:39:22] Phoenix is outgunned and Minnesota struggles with offense.

[00:39:30] Should tell you something.

[00:39:32] Again, this series is probably over.

[00:39:35] Minnesota is going to win this series and then the questions will start.

[00:39:40] I don't know what you're going to do.

[00:39:43] I mean I don't know what they're going to do but there's got to be something.

[00:39:47] There's got to be an answer to this.

[00:39:50] It can't be this disappointing this soon.

[00:39:55] You know what I'm talking about?

[00:39:57] It just can't be.

[00:39:59] With that being said, let's talk about the games tonight real quick.

[00:40:04] And they're going on as we speak.

[00:40:06] So I'm going to kind of lay off a little bit.

[00:40:10] But I want to talk a little bit about them because when we get to Friday,

[00:40:15] I don't want you to be like, oh you didn't tell us anything about Wednesday's games and what to look for events.

[00:40:22] No, I want to make sure y'all got that.

[00:40:24] So we got the Heat and we got the Celtics.

[00:40:28] I'm going to tell you right now, I proclaim that series over.

[00:40:33] The Heat have a warrior's heart.

[00:40:37] They have no quit in their DNA, in their mindset.

[00:40:43] But you've got to have weapons.

[00:40:47] When you're going up against the Death Star, that is the Boston Celtics,

[00:40:51] you've got to have weapons.

[00:40:54] You know, you've got to have the Force.

[00:40:56] You've got to have Luke.

[00:40:58] You've got to have Han Solo.

[00:41:00] You've got to have Chewbacca.

[00:41:02] You've got to have Billy Dee Williams playing Lando Kyrizian.

[00:41:07] You know what I'm saying?

[00:41:09] We got that chunky dude with the mustache that got blew out the sky.

[00:41:14] Hey man, listen, you dying in that movie allowed Luke Skywalker to shoot the photon laser down the little chute and blow up the Death Star.

[00:41:26] So we thank you for your efforts.

[00:41:30] But the Heat right now, or I don't know if Hero can do it.

[00:41:38] But the man is going to give you his points.

[00:41:40] What man can't shoot gets you like 50.

[00:41:44] You know, you don't have that dude that can just, I'm going to tonight, tonight you're going to get it.

[00:41:50] You're just going to get this work.

[00:41:54] And Jaime Haquez is going to do his thing.

[00:41:57] And Yeovich is going to do his thing.

[00:41:59] And it's going to be working and like.

[00:42:01] But at the end of the day, the Boston Celtics are a far superior team.

[00:42:05] And this is about to be real ugly, real quick.

[00:42:10] Now the other game is the Thunder and the Pelicans.

[00:42:14] Now we saw something in that series.

[00:42:17] The first game we saw the Pelicans being super big, which we knew that going in.

[00:42:23] They out rebounded the OKC Thunder, but it was really close.

[00:42:28] It was 50 to 44.

[00:42:30] So it wasn't this huge chasm between the two teams.

[00:42:34] And if the OKC Thunder are going to continue at this rate and everybody is going to contribute on the boards,

[00:42:45] I think they're going to continue to win games now.

[00:42:50] When does Zion return?

[00:42:54] Now from all of the reports that we have been seeing is that they are positive.

[00:43:04] That they believe that they're going to get Zion back fairly shortly.

[00:43:12] Now I don't know if this is going to be a game three, game four.

[00:43:19] Hamstrings are tricky.

[00:43:21] Hamstrings on Zion Williamson even more tricky because he's such a quick twitch athlete.

[00:43:29] And when you're a quick twitch athlete like that, you need those things healed up.

[00:43:35] And the problem with a hamstring is that the only thing to fix it is, you know,

[00:43:42] obviously physical therapy, electronic STEM, whatever, but rest.

[00:43:47] You know, you can't force it to be better than what it is that specific day.

[00:43:54] So if he's a fast healer, he might be back for game three.

[00:43:58] If he's not, this could be a situation like with the Milwaukee Bucks, I'll say earlier.

[00:44:04] I don't think you should expect Giannis in game three or game four.

[00:44:08] And to tell you the truth with Zion, if for some reason we don't get a report like

[00:44:15] after this game that Zion is definitely playing game three,

[00:44:20] then I will start to question whether we're going to see him in this series or not.

[00:44:24] So it's a fascinating series.

[00:44:28] I got OKC in this series.

[00:44:30] I love SGA.

[00:44:32] I love the just the consistency of him.

[00:44:35] Just the mere mention of SGA makes me think of 30 plus points.

[00:44:41] It just makes me think, SGA, what am I going to get?

[00:44:46] You know what I'm going to get?

[00:44:47] I'm going to get 30 plus points.

[00:44:50] That makes me feel good inside.

[00:44:53] And if I was an Oklahoma City Thunder fan, I would be feeling good inside too.

[00:44:58] I mean, 30 plus points every single game.

[00:45:01] And also here's the best part.

[00:45:03] He doesn't force it.

[00:45:05] He didn't force it in the first game.

[00:45:07] He played with inside that offense.

[00:45:09] Again, it's a credit to Mark Dagnall, who's coach of the year.

[00:45:13] They did get a struggle from the Pelicans.

[00:45:16] And it's going to be the reoccurring narrative about the Thunder all year or all postseason.

[00:45:26] Are you big enough to handle the physicality that this team A, team B, team C is going to throw at you?

[00:45:35] And until they do not answer that question in the affirmative, we don't have really any reason to doubt them.

[00:45:44] This team was super good all year.

[00:45:47] I'm not saying that I don't think I'm picking them to get to the NBA finals.

[00:45:54] I'm not.

[00:45:55] But I do think there's a level of toughness and there's a level of like, you know,

[00:46:01] You know, we've been kind of getting our our ass beat for a couple years now.

[00:46:06] And now it's time to dole out some of these ass whoopings back to people.

[00:46:11] And, you know, you see it.

[00:46:13] They have that little white chip on their shoulder.

[00:46:16] And we'll see how this game plays out if for some reason look for the rebound disparity.

[00:46:23] If the rebound disparity gets into that, like I say, if it gets into that mid teens area,

[00:46:30] I think OKC might have a problem.

[00:46:33] Now, also, CJ McCullum and Brandon Ingram are going to have to play lights out again or they're going to have to get another Trey Murphy,

[00:46:42] the third exquisite game like he did the other night.

[00:46:47] So with all of that being said, that's it for the pot.

[00:46:52] Now we are going to be back on this team Friday.

[00:46:56] I know I've said it in the past.

[00:46:58] You say, Vince, don't okadoke me.

[00:47:01] Don't conflict me, Vince.

[00:47:03] Don't do that.

[00:47:04] And I'm here to tell you that we're not.

[00:47:07] We should be back on Friday with a pod and I will disperse hopefully knowledge,

[00:47:15] hopefully information, hopefully entertainment and hopefully a couple of smiles here and there as well.

[00:47:23] So it is an absolute honor to do this podcast for you guys every single week.

[00:47:30] I enjoy it.

[00:47:31] I hope you guys are enjoying it and our guy Anthony Edwards,

[00:47:36] we want to give you a shout out my guy for talking trash to Kevin Durant to our Oracle here at front runner podcast collective.

[00:47:45] This is putting you on the path.

[00:47:48] We don't know what to call you.

[00:47:50] We might need to call you something.

[00:47:52] Maybe you're like the Padawan of Kevin Durant, but we want to shout you out my man.

[00:47:58] Um, again, I want to thank the Dallas, the Dallas Mavic fans out there.

[00:48:05] You guys are incredible.

[00:48:07] I want to say two of my top five clips of all times have to do with Luka Donchich or the Dallas Mavericks.

[00:48:18] So thank you again, Dallas.

[00:48:20] OKC.

[00:48:22] Are you kidding me?

[00:48:23] Dallas took your title as the number one like affiliate to the podcast.

[00:48:29] I didn't think this could ever happen, but it has happened.

[00:48:34] So hopefully OKC rises up.

[00:48:38] It says no Dallas, you cannot take our our number one spot as the greatest affiliate of front runner podcast collective.

[00:48:48] Only time can tell.

[00:48:51] With that being said, the best part of you is you let no one diminish your shine.

[00:49:00] And allow yourself to be as unique as possible.

[00:49:05] As long as you're not hurting people, as long as you're not hurting yourself.

[00:49:10] You know, you want to dance in the rain?

[00:49:13] Do that.

[00:49:14] Do what you need to do.

[00:49:16] But we love you guys.

[00:49:20] We're out and enjoy the games and we'll see you back on this feed on Friday.

[00:49:25] Peace.

[00:49:30] OKC.