The Ghost Pepper Sauce Award: Where White Hoopers Get Their Flowers

Sunday it is different, and you know why it's different? Because it is a special time of year. It's award season here at FRpc, and I am here with serea I am your humble host, vince, and we have some awards to get to. But before we can jump off into the awards, there was a game that was key to the western conference and it's um and pretty much man. It's been an incredible year. We got a lot to get to, we're gonna have some awards, but we also threw some in ourselves, uh, being creative. So saraya and I and the team put some stuff together, we worked hard on it and we really hope that you guys are going to enjoy this particular podcast. So, without further ado, let's get into what happened at the chase center today, because it was a.

James harden in april 2025 is still cooking like it's april of 2028. The clippers just won, the warriors are wobbling and we need to talk about basketball chess sport. That's coming because the clippers and the nuggets aren't just two teams with top 10 offenses. There are two basketball teams with two different ideologies that are about to clash. You got yogic with the beautiful game, the genius that he is versus hardened one way control flops. We're looking for cold and slow things of that nature, and denver's randomized motion isn't just a series, it's a match-up lab. Let's break it down. James harden, helio reliance continues. I am flabbergasted that we are still here. Oh, by the way, I want to make a note. Right now we will be talking about the defensive player of the year and we will have the candidates and things. So that has gone on his podcast things of that nature and talked about how he is the defensive player of the year.

Now, this particular player was playing in this game today and I just want to ask a question to Draymond Green. So how does a James Harden, whose game resembles somebody who plays in a YMCA rec league, be able to get off 17 points in the fourth quarter and in overtime? You're the defensive player of the year, right? You are playing chess where everybody else is playing checkers. This is all I hear how brilliant you are. Everybody else is playing checkers. This is all I hear how brilliant you are. I think you tried the high school election yourself away. A great defensive player. No doubt we will give you your props in this program for show, but it was kind of interesting that James Harden looking like some dude that plays in a Long Beach rec league that I probably know is out here killing you, killing you in the fourth quarter in overtime.

Speaking of overtime, 12 points scored. So that's called dominance. That's what harden did. Didn't beat guys with quickness, he beat them with geometry angles and control off ball drag screens, ghost actions with kawwhi, early clock manipulation, because every time he moved towards the paint, golden State's defense reacted. These are Houston era playbook reimagined with Ty Lue's tweaks. He's one of the best conductors in the game when you talk about making adjustments inside a game, especially within side up.

Now we move on a freeze frame breakdown. Fourth quarter, overtime plays highlights. Harden manipulates the defenders. Let me you know he's just getting it, getting it at all levels. He made people bump into him. He made people, you know, he, just, he, just. His level of manipulation on a court is still fascinating to me, because he's not the fastest dude he doesn't jump out the gym but the fear that he absolutely want to see they're going to be playing yokich.

Speaking of kawaii 33 points, zero turnovers in 47 minutes. Now here's the other thing. With that, he just came off a game two nights ago where he played 41 minutes, so it is full kawaii regalia. He was an elite connector. Closer work, surgical post-ups versus mpj, high efficiency shot diet. High efficiency shot diet for sure. Second chance uh enforcer. I think he had like 16 verticality sorry about that, twisted up on the words, so we're gonna slow it down a little bit. So he had a lot of verticality in this game. James harden found him for I want to say, four lobs easy and he was rock solid versus emotion. Now he did get uh criticized by ty lue in a in the overtime because he or in the fourth quarter, actually late in the fourth quarter, he did not get out to draymond green before one of the corner threes.

Draymond did play an outstanding offensive game. He did knock down the corner threes. Now what's done was an absolute beast. He gave them is on the defensive end. He was four, four field goals. He had six assists. He was plus 11 and his box was minus. That's all well and good, but he was out there to guard steph and he did. He blanketed steph. Now steph got his, don't you worry. But it was a nice little clinic set up by our doc, chris dunn. A Couple keys to this game.

Second chance points for the Clippers 14. I know it gets you wide open opportunities. But this is going to be that second chance points because they're small. The Warriors in overtime were one of six field goals and also two turnovers. So obviously sloppy play, maybe a little bit tired. They also got an injury scare with Jimmy Butler. We don't have any news on that as of right now.

So go with us on Tuesday, be with us on Tuesday for our regular programming, which is we're going to be breaking down all the playoff stuff. Now it's really the only series we're going to kind of get into today because of what? All right, this is the only uh, this is the only uh, this is the only playoff series that we're going to get into today. Uh, we're going to basically kind of ratchet it up. Tuesday went, tuesday and friday for the playoffs, get you set up. But we're going to give you a little teaser of what's what's to come.

So vocal yokage versus zoo bots, zubats hold without help. That's gonna be a big. That's gonna be a bubbles on weak side, corner traps maybe plus six side, big to kind of crash down against yokeage. You might see a lot of that. You might see a lot of that. Harden will hunt Jokic in picking roles, 100%. Denver has struggled with early help rotations. Kawhi will pick MPJ and Peyton Watson in the mid post. The Clippers can control tempo limit possessions, they can walk it up, while Denver thrives on pace and ran in the kinetic energy that Chris a couple hedges to that bet is the drop hedge of yoke edge. Now, since they have been going through this tailspin, his ability to get back after the hedge has been weak. So I wonder if that changes with the coaching change with David Adelman in there. We will see. Now they also have smash sniper in michael quarter, jr yokich at 6 11. And then he has a second side creator in jamal murray. Now, if he's healthy, this is great.

Now paul, dormant pal for the clippers, is going to be instrumental because of the fact that you got a play finisher. You got a guy who's willing to shoot the three. He shoots it at a really efficient clip, over 40 percent. Zoo watch is the revelation. Zoo watch this year has been nothing short of just brilliant at his position. Knowing what he needs to do, being in position, understanding what his physicality means to that team. He has done it all. So a credit to uh. And then you have a isolate. You have an isolation killer in kawaii leonard. So this is a pretty. I mean mean there's going to be chess moves made in this series. Now here's the thing Ty Lue is going up against David Adelman, or is it really Ty Lue going up against Nikola Jokic? That chess match will be absolutely fascinating.

I want to see who has the better answers to the question, just to watch. Will Denver start? But will he? Will he start on Harden? Where will he start now? Will the Clippers unlock Ben Simmons minutes as Yoko's, as a Yoko's disruptor? Now, he doesn't ever look at the basket. I don't know if they would just pick on him and just kind of do a hack of simmons and kind of play him off the court. All fear and love and war.

Because you know what we say about the playoffs and if you're new to the program, to frontrunner podcast, collective welcome. I'm the host. I'm vince. I come pretty much two times a week. By the way pause on that, I know how that sounded and the absolute truth measure of what you are as a team, what you are as a player, because these teams have a lot of time and they know your strengths, they know your weaknesses and they are going to spam the weaknesses. Now it is your job to counter. Do you have a counter for what they are about to put out for you? And then the chess game begins, because is there a counter to the counter? You know how it goes, but the playoffs really can show some true serum about some teams, about who they are and what they're really all about. We saw tom tibideau running that team into the goal to happen, because we want beautiful basketball, we want competitive, fiery basketball in the playoffs.

But last year Cleveland was still kind of soft, right, that was kind of what the wording was coming out. You know, here in the west we had a lot of things going on. You know what was going on in denver. Did they lose too much in their vets and their wings and their defense and stuff like that? Who was healthy, all those type of things. Okay, see, they were too young last year, right, or were they? A lot of people will have a lot of. It is really the band. You don't see a lot of like just random errors just being made just for the sake of them being made. So can't wait now.

As far as the forecast is concerned on this game, we predict here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective Clippers in six. If Zulas can hold his own and if Kawhi and Harden can stay healthy, they have more late game shot creators and tactical control. But if Aaron Gordon is hitting 43.8% from his from threes, that changes the whole geometry of the chessboard. So Rhea has in. Is this circa? Are the Nuggets vulnerable without Malone? And if yoga is going to get doubled, like all the time, immersively? Probably so. Who's there is bailout guy? Do we get playoff jamal murray? Send us all your playoff takes at front runner pcpc on twitter, also on bluesky at frontrunnerpcbskysocial. The producer of this show, soraya, is on x. She is pc and then, because she is so rare, dot b sky, dot social. Check us out, hit us up, let us know.

Now we are done talking about basketball. Let's get to some awards. You know this is what you're here for. We are here to give it to you. We are excited because, let me tell you something, watching charlotte games in february payoff. Watching portland trailblazer games payoff. Because you get a true picture of the league right and, I hope, basketball aficionados out there. I hope that we can just bring some discussion to the table.

So let's start. We're gonna start with our first award, and this award is the defensive player of the year and what I call this is game seven defense. Who do you actually trust when it's chaos? He does, this guy. He doesn't chase blocks, he erases windows. He doesn't bark, he locks in. And if your playoff hopes depend on one defender, who would you choose? The loudest name? Serea had a note seven. I told vince if you would text this dude with 90 seconds left and a one point lead, who you got? Defensive player of the year? Here's your distraction.

So draymond on his podcast right now campaigning. We just talked to you about what happened against the clippers. Again, pretty bad performance from a defensive player of the year. As far as that's concerned, candidate, when you got james harden playing like old man rec league basketball and just killing you, absolutely playoff scalable impact and no mics needed, just stops delivered. So we have our people. All right, let's give you a couple um honorable mentions. As far as that's concerned, I want to throw derrick white out there real quick. Um, sorea has a note about derrick white. Derrick doesn't defend, he calculates. You can't go screen on him, he's already in your route. Key defensive stacks for Derek White are this 3.3 defensive win shares guard Iso, brunson, halliburton, mitchell, solo. He's the system, quietly, consistently, like Apple made a defender.

Another guy that I want to give some props to is Josh Hart. Josh Hart plays with a lot of heart. I know the pun is super bad, but I had to get it out there. A note from Soraya about Josh Hart he plays defense like it's a love language 40 minutes, full tilt, full trust. That's true, she dropping jewels again, but here's where we back it up with the stats. We back it up as a wing. At six foot four leads the nba in minutes, 2897 minutes, and it has a defensive box plus minus of 1.8. He doesn't block shots, he blocks wins. If you got the lead and heart is guarding your best guy, you better pray.

Some other guys who missed the cut jaron jackson jr. Yo man, I can't. I love you, dog, but you still, you still foul a lot. Dyson Daniels I want to give him some love because you are leading the league in steals. My man, you are doing it big. I think you have got this on alert. This might not be the only time. This might not be the only time Now. Chris Dunn also, I want to show him love because he likes to blanket people for show.

And now let's get to our guys, let's get to them, let's get to the four that we really need to talk about. So we're not going to do this in any sort of order or whatever, but I'm going to go ahead and start off with OKC and OKC. You might think I'm talking about lou dort. I am not. I am not talking about lou dort at all. I'm talking about isaiah hartenstein. Watching hartenstein is like watching a chess master and drop coverage and clean contests. All right, she got stuff. Okay, this is a collaborative effort today.

Key stats on our guy hartenstein 103.7 defensive rating, a 3.9 block percentage, top five rim deterrence, 2.6 d defensive box plus minus and also a 3.6 defensive win share. My man got it done. He just plays good positional basketball. He's been the physicality that the okc thunder has needed. You see the historical net rating. They're that for you up. They have played 66 total crunch time minutes. Think about that. There's 82 games in a season. We're talking about the last five minutes of a ball game, right, so extrapolate that out. There's more than 400 minutes, whatever the case may be. Okay, right, so extrapolate that out. It's more than 400 minutes, whatever the case may be. It made my wife choke that stat. It made her choke Because Oklahoma City is blowing people out. They're not keeping these games competitive.

I know everybody likes Lou Burt as far as that's concerned, but you got bigs. You got bigs, bro, you got. Oh, here's a stat about chet that I heard shout out to our guys at the athletic who do the slamming jam andrew schlack, I love you, my guy, you are my dude. Here is a great stat about chet hungren. Do you know that man is only giving up 54 field goal percentage when it's in the reach, at the rim's, only 50% to win by Yama. He didn't play the whole year. He was at 62%. You say, okay, well, what about? Like Rudy Gobert, 61%, okay, well, how about somebody else? How about Evan Mobley? 63%, okay, you starting to get the picture here. You know I'm saying isaiah hardenstein is at 58 actually. So chet hongren, who does not, cannot apply for this award because he didn't play enough games. I'm telling you right, I expect the job. Rest him up, god, heal him up, god, take care of our, our alien victor win by yama. You know, I'm saying because we need the big boy back next year.

But the other guy that we got to check on is Chet. Evan Mobley made the jump this year. Chet makes the jump next year. That dude is going to show out and I believe that he might make an all-NBA team next year for sure, I am sure. All right, another guy that we need to talk about. So we need to talk about evan mobley. Evan mobley has had himself a damn good season. The blueprint for the rim protection 2.0. Sorea's note on evan mobley mobley's not loud, he's surgical. Every rotation feels like it is drawn the night before and he's never late. Key stats on our guy mobley 4.7 block percentage percentage. He also has a 24.1 defensive rebounding chair and he's top three, the gamble he anchors. If winby is the future, mobley might be the formula. So I want to give mobley some love there.

Now let's talk about draymond green, because draymond green has had a excellent what I would call a excellent second half. Um, but let's give him his shine. Okay, now look at donchish. This is in a game back November 12th in 2024. Luka Doncic is setting up a classic strong side pick and roll with Daniel Side guard, najee Marshall, a non-shooter at the magic, hits Draymond, leaves Marshall, baits Luka into a cross court pass and then jumps the route Full sprint, closes out, out, blocks the three one man rotation system. So Draymond's back was to Luka, luka's back was to the shooter and Draymond still read it. That's not instincts, that's just surveillance.

Draymond's out here playing NBA connect for a while. Most defenders are still trying to figure out Sudoku Draymond from. He's on Draymond green and also he's real connected in the bay area, the yay area, yay, yay. Now this is a quote from Draymond. He said most defenders when they see as an open player run towards that open man with their hands up. That slows the defender down. When I see a ball pass, I take offs and sprint and then at the last second I get, get my hands up. You hear that Sprint first, pray later. That's the whole sermon.

Now I want to talk about how Jimmy Butler got to the squad. Can we do that real quick? Post-jimmy Butler splits Warriors defensive rating pre-trade 114.7. Pre-trade 114.7. Post-trade 107.3. Draymond's defensive on-off there's a plus 5.3 difference since Jimmy Butler has shown up Opponents field goal isolation 30.2%. Top five percentile defy defensive box plus minus since february 8th.

Butler covering wings dray. When dray is freelancing it's a horror movie for your offensive coordinator. It's kind of like having uh the honey badger out there, but bigger and mouth open, probably yelling at you like some kind of profane stuff. Now we talked about a lot of people. Uh, I want to talk about amon thompson real quick.

Um, I think I said on the show on podcast on Friday that I thought aiming Thompson might be the defensive player of the year. Let me give you his stats and then we, the connector, the defender, gave this. No, nobody's giving aiming Thompson the mic, but the more the Rockets gave him closing minutes and baby, that's louder than any campaign shouts out to short serea. Now key stats to back it up 2.6 defensive box plus minus. He has a 3.9 defensive win share. He has a 3.6 block percentage, a 2.1 steal percentage. He guards one through four and in the last five games his plus minus is 16.2 in his last five games.

Also, keep in mind, he is the guy that blanketed steph curry just said I'm just gonna deny you the whole game. I'm just gonna give energy wherever you. That blanketed Steph Curry Just said I'm just going to deny you the whole game. I'm just going to give energy Wherever you go, I go. I'm just going to be a disruptive force. I'm not going to allow you to get open. No, you can't Love me to sleep. No, I am completely locked in on you and for you know, for the time when Amon Thompson was on you and for you know, for the time when Amon Thompson was on here.

Curry was not scoring, thompson wasn't on the court. He got some points off, but not against Amon Thompson, and Amon, to me, is one of those guys that obviously we know that wimby would have won this award if he would have stayed healthy, if he wouldn't have the deep vein trombosis. But one thing that we always talked about wimby is that he did stuff that we've never seen before and amen thompson kind of fits that bill for me and for me. I understand that this is usually a big man award. I understand that this usually goes to the front court guy because rim protection is the most important. But I will have to say that when we're talking about Amon Thompson, I think we need to talk about this is a different type of cat. Thompson, I think we need to talk about this is a different type of cat. He really relishes the defensive um assignments he gets and he takes it as a personal affront and for that fact I think that Eamon Thompson is FR. So congratulations to Eamon Thompson. Congratulations to amon thompson, congratulations to his brother, because I'm sure he's gonna be like a first uh all nba dude pretty soon and it's gonna be lovely, so I'm all for it. Shouts out to all the other candidates you know we try to show y'all love, try to give y'all off something. So I know this.

This award gets louder every year. Work, amen is rising, white is locked, hartenstein is elite in silence. Heart is the heartbeat and mogli, he's the whisper that ruins playoff schemes. Who you got in the game seven as a game center, as a game seven defender. Drop us a line on x at frontrunner pc. Also, hit up our producer at rea. Underscore punch frpc. All right, we're gonna do the executive and coach of the year right now. Sometimes the best moves don't trend, they shift home, they turn chaos into culture, and they did in houston. And that is what sam christie has been doing in oklahoma city for years now.

I called it early. Udoka didn't build a team, he built trust and presti. He's not running a rebuild, he's staging a reveal because they're about to show what okc's all about. Historical net net rating man. They've been blowing teams out. He put together a monster. These are our FRPC coach and executives of the year picks, not just because they won, but because they made us watch differently. You know what I'm saying. They just made us do things. And so my man finished out the year 52 and 30, right, you know no white plan, who care whatever? Who preseason expectations playing at best.

I thought maybe the kids take a leap reality, top three defense, fourth quarter, and let me say it plain, this is the same core. Everyone called untouchable 12 months ago and now they're switch, switch out, emotionally synced and playoff nasty. That's culture and that's Udoka. So Eddie Atkinson and he he deserves a lot of praise for what he did. Evan Mobley is a different player we're going to talk a lot about, like Don Mitchell, ty Jerome, all these people, whatever the case may be, the team's a juggernaut. They win a ton of games. They're on a historic run too.

But when you take Jalen Green and make him viable, alcorn Shangoon is a hug with your offense and also he's not a absolute complete zero on defensive end. And all the while you've entrusted a barely 21 year old amen thompson to be the defensive spearhead of your team. I think that takes incredible, like just kind of knowing your personnel and trying to understand what you're to the NBA. Hey, you are not going to push us over. This is not going to be a walk in the park for you. So Houston is killing the awards.

Congratulations to email doka, our coach of the year here at FRPC. He built an identity without a star. Keep that in mind. They are the number two seed in the west. And do they have a top 15 player? Absolutely not. Eme is a playoff going to be able to use in different situations. They got vets to buy in with zero ego, fred VanVleet being one of them. Dylan Brooks like I said, I'm not saying it's all gone, but it's quelled a little bit In the top 10 deals.

I think this is a really good situation. This is tips to the knicks uh 2021. Energy meets. Uh. Atkinson to the nets in 2019 pure buy-in, real results. A credit to rafael stone and the entire crew. Uh. A credit to uh for tita is I will.

I will be the first to say I clowned this. When he said there was a phase one, phase two, I was like, oh, we're in phase two now. What the hell is gonna happen? And when he pulled out what phase two was, I was not super impressed, but I did not realize that on the horizon was ema doka and email doka make everything is sweet in houston because email doka makes it right.

Another guy who makes it right is sam prestey. Now this award cannot go to rob palenka. He got another award coming. He got another award coming. But sam prestey, he does his work in the offseason. He told you what he and he has done it to the tune of a 68 win season for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Okay, strength of schedule 12 point plus 12.77. Oh my god, sarray, assess Presti's not rebuilding he's, he's reminding and remixing the league and the drop is coming. This is why cresty wins this situation.

Isaiah hartenstein basically solved their issue as far as uh, having another big the trade for caruso, which is a one through three stopper and a playoff lock. Preserve max cap flexibility. Built a team with no ego, just execution. Prestige playing 4D roster chess. He's building systems that scale. Think about all their dudes. They all handle the ball. They all can create, they all can see open men. They all can pass the ball in Oklahoma City. The planes are alive folks. This is a historic team to have. I questioned their youth 100%. Am I scared as hell of the Oklahoma City thunder, 100% 18 to be trifling with. So congratulations to Ema Adoka of the Houston Rockets for being our coach of the year FRPC, and the executive of the year for FRPC belongs to Sam Presti of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Now we get to one of our awards. We wanted to mix it up. We wanted to be like the Oscars. You know I'm saying we want to be like the oscars. You know I'm saying we want to be like the academy awards. So we gave you a couple major awards and now we're gonna, we're gonna dial it back and we're gonna give you some technical awards, and these are frpc specific awards.

Okay, so the team collaborated. We had just picked the dude and say, oh, caught into this. So our first award, frpc casper ghost pepper sauce award. The award criteria is a white, white american hooper, underrated, bounce, unexpected sauce. Michael wade moments. You know I'm talking about. This is the kind of guys we looking at. We talking about those dudes that be like, oh, oh, he got some to his game. That's what we talking about. Okay, this one is for the hoopers who surprised you, not just because they could play, but because they got bags, they got bounce. You're not allowed to win this award unless you have made an entire section of the crowd go say wait, he did that. Or, mmm, have you done that? Are you especially saucy? This is the FRPC Casper ghost pepper sauce award, where soul hoopopers get they flowers. Not stereotypes, no jokes, just cold clips and hot moments.

So let's get to our nominees, shall we all right? No specific order. We got Christian Brown of the Nuggets. We got Christian Brown of the Nuggets out here balling in the Mile High City. He just dunks. Aw, son, he's a silent rim wrecker. Stats say back it up True shooting percentage .665. Windshare 7.9. Roll elite cutter cutter, low usage

Defender. Christian Brown is your favorite Hooper's anxiety. You forget that he's there and then he's dunking on you and you're a poster and it's just bad why he's here? Momentum killer, because he gets into the passing lane and then he gonna be out there on some bouncy jum jamal, jamal evans type, nxt type stuff going. Your boy is bouncy, being a little nice with his his. All right, the next guy up for this award is no

doubt. Okay, you knew this was coming right. You knew that Peyton Pritchard of the Celtics was coming. No, you. But I respect gang player. Okay, I respect gang. Smallest dude on the floor. Biggest fight in the building. Let's get to it. Payton pritchard is sick. True shooting percentage 0.633. So 63.3 true shooting percentage. His three-point attempt rate is uh, 73 percent. You didn't meet point. Uh, positive 3.4. Oh, under nine

percent. Pritchard plays like his bag, lives in a drop box, efficient, backed up and updated every week. He's TJ McConnell, with a startup confidence and military precision. Why he's like this? He led second units with speed and Clarity. He had surprise bounce. He shot the out of the ball. Let's just be real. This dude was a real weapon like. They. Let him loose and be like dog, go shoot, just go shoot. And as soon as you know it, he didn't put up like, because as soon as he's open, he pulling 27 feet, 30 feet low, go what you want, dog. Oh, by the game's house or whatever. He taking those and making those. So he got a lot in his bag. His carry-on is very heavy. You know I what I'm saying Now, another guy who fits this bill is Austin Reeves of the

Lakers. Austin Reeves, he's the heir to the Caruso throne. It's kind of like Westeros in Game of Thrones. You know what I'm talking about. All cooked with confidence. You know what I'm talking about All cooked with confidence. You know what I'm saying. Chef Reeves has showed out His true shooting percentage is 61.6%. His usage rate Is 23.7%. His assist percentage Is 24.8%. Situations percent are you kidding me? That's a clutch time assassin. He's just killing people in the mid-range, just making people look stupid. This is what serea had to say about our

Reeves. Reeves is what happens when you give a pickup guy NBA resources. He'll run, spank, pick and roll with LeBron and then sidestep a 6 plus 6 wing like he invented to move. He took on a real creation load. Lebron trusts him, luka trusts him. He took on a real creation load. Lebron trust him, luca trust him. And then lebron and luca made like two years it's been longer than that, but I'm talking about like legit. We've been like we don't care what anybody

say. Austin we thought austin was certified play like a scorer, pass like a point guard, finish like a vet. That's our guy, austin reeds, and this is why you are the winner of the first annual ghost pepper sauce award. Congratulations to our man, austin Reeves. Now we want to give a special kind of light, like a trailer to a movie. Right, you know I'm saying winter is coming. Okay, the ice king is coming. The white walker with vibes is coming with vibes is coming. Cooper Flagg is

coming. Now he might be the perennial winner of this award going forward, but we wanted to give him some special, some special acknowledgement. And this is what Soraya had to say about Cooper Flagg if Austin is Jon Snow, snow, cooper flag is the knight king already better 2026 ghost pepper. He's not just in the bag, he's writing in the margins. I'm telling you, man the vibe around, this kid is crazy. You're gonna love cooper flag, just like we do. He is certified frpc. You know how we do here on

frpc. Now what I want to say is that we are hit like the 51 minute mark. We're gonna hit a couple more of these awards. We got a lot more to get to and what we might have to do is we might have to split this up into two actual podcasts. So if, for some reason, we get to a war and you say, just hit it, oh my god, oh my god, what's what's gonna happen? It's gonna be

crazy. The next award is the j cole is the j cole in my feelings award. Now, if you know nba basketball now, since luca got traded, it seems like the sun. The sun has shined brighter, there's more rainbows and flowers blooming and all this kind of stuff. But we do got a lot of dudes in the league that are morose. We got a lot of dudes in the league that are morose. We got a lot of dudes in the league that walk around here like some Edgar Allen Poe energy. You know what I'm saying? Real dark. You know what I'm saying? Just all stuff Like the award criteria for the J Cole Award in my

feelings. The player, team or coach that lived in their emotional bag crying at pressers, sending out posted cryptic captions, soft launching their sadness like a pick and roll strategy. This award is not about slander. It's about real Hooper's heartbreak. It's not about slander. It's about real Hooper's heartbreak, with a little dramatic irony sprinkled in League wide Emotional mosaic. The vibes were fragile. Soft sadness. It ends in a trophy. Sometimes it ends in soft unfollow. Sometimes your big three turns into press like a press conference and a therapy

meme. This is the league award for the emotional turbulence, so let's get into it. Get into it. So. We got the diva nuggets out here. We got the devil nuggets out here, acting like rugrats. I'm not touching you, I'm not. He's not one of my guys. I'm not playing him because he's not one of my

guys. This is section all for booth guys. Only, that's the kind of stuff that was going on in Denver this whole this whole two years, whole two years, like some spy versus spy type nonsense. These is grown-ass men. You got Nikola Jokic, the greatest player on the planet today, and y'all out here going, oh he's not playing my guy or I'm not playing his guy, because what are you doing? Like Craig and Friday, oh my God. Uh Soraya says this. This wasn't a firing, this was a ghosting. They broke up mids. They broke up uh, with three games to go, no explanation whatsoever. Jokic is sitting in the corner like an ex who just wants one clean goodbye. I bet you he doesn't want to answer any questions at a press conference. I bet you he don't want to do

that. Another team that remember them. At the start of the season we were like it's no way it's going to be that bad this year. They got an actual point guard. They got tyus jones. He'll run the offense. You know what? Maybe, maybe budenhoser can turn uh nurkic into something. Maybe bobo because he can shoot through threes, will be out there more. Maybe they'll they'll somehow coalesce a defense. Hey, this ryan dunn kid looks good, uh, uh, no, no, no,

no. Now, if you are young, if you're a, ask your mom and dad about Melrose Place. Okay, now it's on YouTube so you'll be able to find it. But I'm gonna tell you right now. The phoenix suns remind me of melrose place, legit, like like season ending type. Melrose place, high drama, all types of

stuff. Let's get into it. First of all, you got kd, you got Devin Booker. These are guys who make all NBA teams on a regular basis. They are still fantastic in every way. And guess what? They're not making the

playoffs. Remember he had traded his 2031 future pick and he said you know what? We're going to be so busy being Charlie Sheen winning, just winning at life, that we don't care about our 2031 pick, you can? He scoffed at it. He said, ha, we'll take these three picks and we will get Jimmy Butler and our team will be great again. And now we fast forward. I'm so excited about this whole situation, but we go back in time around the back to the golden state warriors before jimmy butler got there, reunite with dre and steph for the kumbaya moment of the year and in tip, super sad, key sweat type energy. Nah, dog, I can't go

back. It just wouldn't be right that kevin durant was shot too. Now I know this was super erroneous, but I know there was a reason. They threw it out there. Minnesota got their name out there and said yeah, yeah, man, we heard, we heard we heard from phoenix. We heard we, we put our name in a hopper for kevin durant. Who wouldn't aunt love kevin durant? We should definitely do this, knowing now kevin durant shows his emotion on his sleeve and he is now he's at the opposite end of the court, like in the corner, almost like at a high school dance, looking like the shy wallflower type of dude, just just being super, just just sad, just emo, sad like a 15 year old

child. Then you got mike bootenhoser, who I don't know what happened, I think like what, two weeks into the year, two weeks into the year, I think my guy mike bootenhoser was like listen, I know how this worked. If I get fired, I'm still getting paid. So you know what y'all want. Bradley bills here. He's not serious and I'm not dealing with this,

okay. So, reyes note on phoenix phoenix felt like a super team on vibes, but it was, was all we needed, what needed to talk about energy from day one kd post without ammo. Oh, by the way, bradley bill, you know how they have those commercials now where somebody's doing something, they go to the mattress commercial. I'm not going to give the mattress commercial love on the podcast, love on the podcast, because I'm not getting paid for it. But what I will say is bradley bill was that dude in that commercial? He was like I sleep all night long, all night, because I got a no trade clause. You can't trade me dollars, you can't trade me. You can't trade me because I got no trade clause. I'm gonna get paid no matter what. And matt ispia still talking that propaganda. He's still saying like we and like we still going for it, we still going for it, we still going for it, going for it, we still going for it, we still going for it. You don't need to go for it, player, you need to blow it up, rip the scab off, trade devin booker and go all

right. Another team on this list? Actually, no, I'm a rant. Let me tell you something. Player man okay. So you on this list actually. No, john Morant, let me tell you something. Player man okay. So you on this list. I'm gonna tell you exactly why you on this

list. Okay, now some people will say, vince, you're being real hard on Ja. No, no, no, no, hold on, hold on, hold on. Ja is a great talent. Ja is one of the most exciting players in the league and up until like two and a half years ago, until stupid mess happened, this dude was about to be box office one of the best shoes on the planet. On. Brings some of his flavor to it, because he would be an unapologetically you is. That follows

you. I say this from experience, dude. Okay, I'm not saying this because, oh, I'm trying to get clicks or whatever. John moran, if you are, they told you not to do the gun uh celebration, right, they told you not to do that. And then the next night you do the gun celebration. Then you follow that up once you got. Fine, know what I'll do. I know what I'll do. I'm gonna throw my words and then I'm gonna cover my ears. I'm gonna throw my words because I'm gonna block out the haters bro, we all know that's a grenade celebration and because you have had issues with firearms. That's why the league is coming down on you. It's not, they are picking on the black man. It is not they picking on you. It's not they picking on the dude with the dreads. It's not they picking on the dude from south carolina, it's

not. This is you, and I'm talking from experience, from somebody who used to be a. I'm a recovering alcoholic. Eight years. I have a friendship that I can never get back, never get back. My friend will never trust me again. That is the consequences of your actions. Consequences of your actions. I now have to

go. Okay, from here on out. Everyone gets treated in a certain way. Everyone gets acknowledged for the things that they do because I showing him, but I want to know that I learned something from that situation. So what did you learn from the $75,000 fine? What did you learn from the 75 000 fine? What did you learn from that? I'm gonna throw a grenade celebration. That's what I'm gonna do. They won't. They won't get that. So we got suspension. We got team instability because yo ass is hurt, coach Taylor Jenkins is fired with nine games to go and y'all in the plan and you are playing Steph Curry and the Golden State. Cisco, I hope you get to eat. Have a. They have a ton of lovely restaurants out there now. You will not be going to the playoffs from that point. You will probably have to play in the other play-in game and then we'll see who you face and then we'll see if you actually get

in. So our winner oh, I forgot the last one. This is low-key, though this is kind of low-key chicago bulls the post levine goes more than it hurts levine leaves and suddenly the bull white is showing all-star energy. Kobe white Eastern Conference Player of the Month. Giddy plus Boozellas elevate team play. Those guys have been sick with the wall. Their opportunities, the way the ball moves around the court, has been excellent. This wasn't a basketball shift. This was given freshly divorced and glowing energy. They were starting to play like they got out of a toxic group chat. I think our winner for the j cole award is that. You get that. My player, you. You get it all right. So what we're gonna do here because this is ours, and then finish up with the rest of the podcast and get all the other awards

out. I want to shout out serea, I want to shout out the frpc crew and I want to shout out the audience, because I noticed something in my downloads when I looked at my statistics, when I looked at my advanced analytics, I saw percent of your downloads are coming from the great country of germany. So I like sausage. I know y'all like sauerkraut and all that. I want to give big ups to my people in Germany Listening to the podcast, enjoying it. Big ups to you. And again, you know what the FRPC Army needs to do Be a friend, the podcast that we got going on and all this incredible energy that we got going on with it. So, with that being said, we will check on out of here part one, part two and get it cracker lacking and get the rest of the wars going. So stay tuned for part two. We will be back and then y'all be easy and I'll see you. And also remember tuesday.